-- Head Hunter --

Head Hunter

Head Hunters are small, gremlin-like creatures born from vengeful spirits that merged with the plant-life of the forest. Their bodies are made of vines, while their heads house their soul. Their name comes from their fondness of stealing human heads right off of the person's shoulders with their razor-like claws. They then skin the head down to the skull, clean it out, and fashion themselves a helmet to protect their soul from damage. Hunters are rarely taller than four feet, with very thin limbs, long arms, and a 'cloak' of vines that helps hide their strange body and lets them blend in.

Strengths:
- Their bodies regenerate rather quickly, and it does not seem like they feel pain.
- Hunters can go into a 'stealth mode' that makes their bodies fall inanimately to the ground and their eye temporarily stop glowing. This makes them look like nothing more than a pile of vines with a skull on top, but they are still aware of their surroundings. This is normally used to help them disappear if the person they are stalking starts to suspect something. It takes them a few minutes to recover and rebuild their bodies, so this is not a good method of escaping or dodging.
- With a skull helmet, their only weak-point, the head, is protected. The skull must be broken through before they can be killed.
- A Hunter may spend several minutes stalking their targets and trying to scare them so that they will be on edge and less able to defend themselves when the Hunter finally strikes. This could include purposely snapping twigs or branches, or just barely allowing themselves to be seen, and other harmless tricks.

Weaknesses:
- While they are good at blending in with the forest, their one eye always has a green, glowing flame, which can give them away. It is not very bright, so it won't show up against trees or objects unless they are close to it, but it is still easy to spot once the person knows what to look for.
- Destroying their head will damage the spirit, causing them to flee and abandon the vine-body. They cannot return to the body until the spirit recovers, which can take several days.
- Once the spirit flees the body, should the person have the ability to harm ethereal beings, the spirit can also be destroyed permanently.
- Their only method of attack are their claws. If they are cut off, they will take a minute to regenerate, leaving the Hunter open to attack unless it retreats.
- Their vine cloak, unlike their body, is always inanimate. It cannot be used to attack or defend.

Appearance:


Extra:
- You may come across piles of skulls hidden in the hollows of trees or within small caves when you get deeper into the forest. Each of these are a Hunter's secret collection, where they store extra skulls in case one is damaged, or their old body is destroyed.

Image finished. Well, colored. Might shade it later.