Also known as "fading horrors" by the unlucky people who have seen this reality-defying monstrosity, Parakhrons are named after their supposed provenience from a different era of Athas, when the Sea of Silt and other depressions were large oceans full of life.
LORE
Arcana DC 30: Maybe a ghost of one of the most fearsome creatures of the ancient sea-dominated era, or a supernatural amalgamation of more than one different creatures of the deep, parakhrons are incomprehensible in their drives and purposes. They tend to wait indefinitely in a particular spot near the Sea of Silt, being often mistaken for the common mirages that cause small vermin to appear as deformed and gigantic images on the sky due to a lens effect caused by high temperatures. Their true nature is revealed when they approach the creatures invading their territory with erratic aerial movements, luring them towards their enormous pincers with strange, high-pitched alien sounds. Parakhrons tend to attack and kidnap arcanists first. They tend to concentrate on one or two enemies only, often knocking them unconscious with a mentally-induced drowning state. It is said they focus on arcanists because they are conscious that it's because of arcane magic that the world has lost its seas. However, they tend to kidnap their preys without killing them, and by forcing them into their ghostly state, they can transport them unharmed inside rock cliffs and through the Sea of Silt, probably towards secluded caves. There are no tales of anyone so brave to try and save those that were kidnapped in this fashion by this mind-boggling monster, and nobody even tried to figure out what does the creature do to the captured humanoids.
ENCOUNTERS
For unknown reasons, Parakhron are often found in company of cloud rays, although the fact that the two are near each other is not always apparent. Cloud rays are probably able to find sustenance from the very psychic enery that surrounds every parakhron, and sometimes one or more cloud rays actually fly in circles around the ghost, who doesn't seem to care at all, even if this could mean giving other creatures a way to get close to the levitating horror, by riding a flying cloud ray.
Floating Mantles are the only other creatures that can be found near the Parakhron, because they share the same environment or maybe because of another unknown relationship between the two alien creatures.
PARAKHRON
Covered by a hard bluish carapace and boasting multiple eyes that can see all, this crustacean-looking monster levitates as if weightless over the Sea of Silt or near its shores, passing from being insubstantial to very solid when it attacks.
PARAKHRONS IN COMBAT
When the beast manages to grab one or two of its newly found preys with its claws, it induces them Another World Visions, until they nearly drown out of mental shock. Afterwards, the parakhron uses its Fadeing To The Blue ability, and in its ghostly state they and their prey reach completely secluded places, often caves inside cliffs that they reach flying directly inside the rock. They usually don't kill the ones they kidnap, but leave them badly wounded and mentally damaged, so if not saved soon enough, they could die anyway.
Sometimes a parakhron is not interested in kidnapping, but is seemingly guarding a place at all costs. In this case, it distributes its attacks so that nobody manages to escape the clutches of its Blue Vortex until it is killed or until its enemies desist, usually because they are too weak and incapable of healing because they suffered too many Another World Visions.
Original post with first version of the monster
Yes, I wanted to create an original Dark Sun monster, went on deviantART, searched "desert monster" and looked up what striked me as more suited and wicked.
I envisioned this "Phantom Of The Blue" exactly as what its name implies: a ghost from the blue age, an aquatic creature that now haunts the Sea of Silt, acting as a reminder that a true and very alive sea was there, eons before.
It is based on a type of Chuul, but it has different tactics. It basically tries to kill one or two grabbed enemy as fast as possible (although I'll have to specify that the minor action attack is only once per creature) and then fades back to insubstantial and phasing along with its prey, and basically disappears under the sea of silt or (if the DM is not so wicked) behind a cliff, towards dome kind of lair, where the rest of the party is supposed to go to save the unlucky companions.
Here it is:
Yes, I wanted to create an original Dark Sun monster, went on deviantART, searched "desert monster" and looked up what striked me as more suited and wicked.
I envisioned this "Phantom Of The Blue" exactly as what its name implies: a ghost from the blue age, an aquatic creature that now haunts the Sea of Silt, acting as a reminder that a true and very alive sea was there, eons before.
It is based on a type of Chuul, but it has different tactics. It basically tries to kill one or two grabbed enemy as fast as possible (although I'll have to specify that the minor action attack is only once per creature) and then fades back to insubstantial and phasing along with its prey, and basically disappears under the sea of silt or (if the DM is not so wicked) behind a cliff, towards dome kind of lair, where the rest of the party is supposed to go to save the unlucky companions.
Here it is:
I like this idea, though. Here's some name ideas:
Silt Leviathan
Fading Horror
Ghost Leviathan
Silt Phantom
Ok, I'm stopping before I embarrass myself further. I'd steer away from naming conventions involving the Blue, though, unless the Blue is a big part of your campaign. People on athas would be unlikely to know what the Blue is, and so I think they'd call it by a name based on what they know about it.