Howlers are a species that is designed to detect trespassers and alert their presence to appropriate martial bioforms via “howling”. Howlers do not require sustenance, nor do they naturally reproduce or respirate. These creatures are not related to any known Ja’luhhor’Alotha warrior or labor caste, and instead appear to an entirely different species, or more accurately construct.

Description

A Howler is quite strange in its appearance, being a tangled mass of wires or cables ending in either cameras, microphones, or sirens. All apparatuses attached to a Howler are designed to locate, detect, and alert. Howlers locomote by slithering or undulation. Their small size allows them to lurk in small spaces, and they will often hide in vents where their presence is not suspected. With the exception of the primary camera, all cameras on its body are by default deactivated.

Howlers have a long, thick set of twisting cables that connect the largest camera on their body to the rest of the mass. This large camera acts as the head, and the primary one. Disabling it may blind the Howler until it activates the rest of the cameras on its body. The Howler does not have a primary microphone or siren, and uses all noises apparatuses on its body to create the sonic blast.

Howlers may also serve a purpose on the battlefield, dazing enemies or acting analogous to cannon fodder.

Behavior

When a Howler detects an organism that is not part of the Ja’luhhor’Alotha caste system, or is not recognized by the creature’s identification system, it will release an extremely loud burst of sonically charged energy. This energy blast physically resembles a rapidly expanding blue or white bubble. The blast will dissipate in a short span of time, and any non-Ja’luhhor’Alothian organisms caught in the blast will be dazed or even killed.

The blast also attracts any nearby warrior organisms, who will patrol the area to find the trespassers with assistance from the Howler, who will also patrol the area. If a Howler finds either the trespasser originally caught in the blast, or a new one entirely, it will attempt to end them via constriction and release more shrieks to attract the warrior castes.