Lustramorph

Raised in lightless hives beneath Lustria’s oldest streets, Lustramorphs are chitin-clad shapeshifters who slip into a victim’s skin with a blink, whisper venom through needle fangs, then vanish in a hiss of black dust. City folk swap gutter prayers against “the mirror in the alley,” yet the hive-born hunt on—part nightmare, part urban legend murmured after tavern doors are barred.

“Trust not the echo that greets you in a lonely tunnel; it may only be your fear—wearing your smile.”
—sewer-watch saying in Drakeport

Birth in the Blind Hive
Below the catacombs of Lustara yawns the Mirrored Chasm, a fault where alchemists once poured failed elixirs of flesh. In that brew of runes, rot, and moonless water, the first clutch hatched under Queen Mirar-An, whose name became Lustramorph: lustre for reflected light, morph for the shift of flesh. The brood learned to fold chitin like wax, drink memories from corpses, and carve song-paths through stone.

Anatomy of a Doppel-Killer
At rest, a Lustramorph stands six feet of black plates and jointed limbs. When prey nears, the outer shell flows like tar, smoothing into flawless skin, matching iris, scar, even heartbeat cadence. Inside, twin lungs pump a numbing vapor; a second stomach stores gold shavings and silk trophies—proofs of skill to impress the hive.

Hive Life
Hives cling to dry wells and forgotten aqueducts, marking safe tunnels with glowing resin. Rank is measured in Faces Taken: each memory kept, each skill learned, each kill struck clean. High-rank duels are fought without weapons—two rivals swap borrowed faces in mid-strike until one forgets the sound of its own click-name.

“If you meet yourself in the dark, bow. One of you will not walk out, and manners cost nothing.”
—Hive Elder Vresh

Myths & Fears
Children drop stones into drains; if the pebble is gone by dawn, the home owes the hive a dream.

Priests say Lustramorph souls molt forever, layer by layer, never reaching final dawn.

Whispered legend names Grith-the-Hollow—a morph who wears the king’s face by day and feeds secrets to the hive by night.

Adventurers
Exiles surface when a hive fractures or a lone morph hungers for new song-patterns. Companions seldom see the same face twice, yet learn that a faint blue glow in a morph’s eyes means honest laughter—a rarity worth guarding.

Soul-Borrow

Trigger. When you reduce a creature to 0 HP with an attack or spell, you may capture a flicker of its essence (no action required).

• Stolen trait. Choose one of the target’s features whose power is no greater than your Lustramorph character level (examples: Darkvision 60 ft, a single skill or weapon proficiency, swim speed 30 ft, resistance to fire damage, Pack Tactics, etc.). Class-defining features such as Extra Attack, spellcasting, or legendary actions can’t be taken.
• Duration & limit. You keep the borrowed trait for 24 hours or until you harvest again, after which it fades. You can hold only one borrowed trait at a time; taking a new one ends the old.
• Echo mark. While a trait is borrowed, faint chitin runes shimmer on your skin in the victim’s outline—a tell-tale sign to keen-eyed hunters and diviners.

Twin-Echo Collector

You can maintain up to two borrowed traits simultaneously.

Triad Memory Vault

You can maintain up to three borrowed traits at once.

Quadral Archive

You can maintain up to four borrowed traits at once.