Call of the Vigilant
Felux
The felux looks like a lion, but with eyes almost the size of a human’s hand. A night hunter, the felux uses its eyes to catch its prey. The felux is one of the few cases in which a change induced by magic helped a creature to survive instead of destroying it.
The felux stalks its prey in deadly silence, then throws a beam of light brighter than a thousand moons from its eyes. The glare blinds the unfortunate victim; the felux gives a quick flick of its sharp claws and its erstwhile quarry becomes a tasty dinner. If necessary, the felux can also attack by causing its eyelight to flicker at an amazing speed. Those who gaze at the flashing light fall to the ground, racked with spasms, which do not cease until the eyelight stops flickering. More than a few people find this method of crippling an enemy extremely useful, and several magicians have been known to develop spells that duplicate this effect.
A felux can also be trained, though they do not feel the same loyalty or warmth toward their masters as a dog or a house cat. They can be managed only if caught as kittens and trained from their earliest weeks. Catching a kitten is nearly impossible, unless the guarding mother has been killed. There are rumors of mercenaries who use trained feluxes for night work and ambushes. Once their targets enter a certain area, they command the feluxes to use their flickering eyelight. Anything within the light falls to the ground in an uncontrollable fit.
The guards of Stoneforge Keep use feluxes as guard animals and walk around the walls of the castle with them. On command, each felux gazes out across the surrounding lands. Anything anywhere near the Keep might as well try to hide in broad daylight; the felux will certainly see it and flash its eyelight to incapacitate would-be intruders. For an unknown reason, the felux’s eyelight terrifies the Horrors, and some accounts tell of a few adventuring bands which have used these creatures to explore forgotten kaers.