Let's Read the Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Anakore
I have no idea if anakores appeared before. This is the first time I’ve read about them.
The Lore
Little is known about the origins of these creatures. Ancient tales speak of a terror from beyond the sky that touched their humanoid ancestors, causing them to recoil from the sun and seek shelter underground. Over time, these ancestors became today’s anakores.
Anakores live in small hunter-gatherer bands led by their most accomplished tracker. They burrow beneath the desert sands during the day, and from there they can feel the vibrations of prey passing overhead, and smell blood spilled on the ground. When anakores detect prey, they can follow it all day by tunneling through the sands, waiting until nightfall to spring their ambush from below. Then they will fight with their powerful digging claws and their paralytic bites.
While on the move, the creatures subsist on plant roots, including certain poisonous species that help the formation of their venom. Rootless vegetation spread around an area is a possible signt of anakore presence, though they’re smart enough to clean this up if they intend to stay in place for a while.
Different band members specialize in different parts of an attack - some lead the ambush, others strike to hurt and incapacitate victims, and yet others drag those victims underground.
I guess a lot of the time they prey on the local fauna, but anakores don’t mind attacking sapient travellers, and judging from what the book says seem to prefer it. They don’t have any visible sexual dimorphism, and rumor has it that they reproduce by dragging some of their sapient victims to weird cocoons under the sands. There, the victims are transformed into more anakores. No one knows what criteria they use to select new candidates.
The Numbers
Anakores are Medium Aberrant Humanoids, which means they’re sapient. They have low-light vision and Tremorsense 5, plus a ground speed of 5 with Earth Walk and a burrow speed of 6 on loose earth only. They communicate in Deep Speech.
Their signature traits are Dune Diver, which lets them charge while burrowing, and Sensitive to Light, which gives them a -2 penalty to attacks for a turn when they’re exposed to direct sunlight or take radiant damage.
Their poison is a rider on a different attack on every stat block, but the effect is always the same: the target is slowed on a hit (save ends), worsening to immobilized (save ends) after the first failed save.
Anakore Hunter
These are the ones who drag people under. They’re Level 5 Lurkers with 48 HP. Their basic claw attacks grab the target on a hit, and on their next turn they can choose to either bite the victim or drag them under.
The bite targets a grabbed creature and deals a bit less damage than the claws, but applies the poison described above. Drag Under (melee 1 vs. Fortitude) can target either immobilized or grabbed creatures. It deals more damage than the claw, inflicts 5 ongoing damage and removes the target from play (save ends both). When the effect ends the target reappears at its previous position or on the closest unoccupied square. And even them they’re still immobilized (save ends), so the hunter can try to drag them under again right away instead of having to bite.
Presumably, victims who drop to 0 HP by this attack would be dragged further down and not come back up. Don’t let that happen!
Anakore Render
This is the one that hurts the prey and makes it more vulnerable to the others. Renders are Level 7 Brutes with 96 HP and a ground speed of 7 instead of the usual 5.
Their claws do heavy damage on a hit, pushing the target 2 squares and knocking it prone. Their blood frenzy ablity (recharge 5+) lets them perform two of these attacks in one action.
As a move action, they can use Blood Hunger to shift 3 squares closer to a bloodied creature. As a minor action, they can use a rending bite against a prone or bloodied creature, which does light physical damage and applies anakore venom.
Anakore Dune King
Often the leaders of a pack, Dune Kings signal the start of an attack by bursting up from the ground in the middle of their targets and distracting them so their fellows can attack the victims more safely. They’re Level 9 Skirmishers with 94 HP and the Leader tag.
Their claws damage and apply anakore poison on a hit, but the real threat here is the Sand Eruption ability (recharge 5+). The dune king must be underground to start this, and the action lets him move 4 squares to a square that’s not underground. The first time they enter such a square, they can perform a Close Burst 2 attack that targets enemies and deals very heavy physical damage on a hit, sliding the targets 2 squares. Additionally, each anakore in the burst can shift 3 squares as a free action, and the area of the burst becomes difficult terrain until the end of the encounter.
Finally, Dune Kings can shift 1 square as a minor action using Sand Slide, which makes them as slippery as kobolds despite their size.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Anakore bands only hunt in places where they can burrow, which means the terrain on the map will mostly be soft earth, sand, or silt. An anakore-only encounter is the most common one, I think, but they can also appear with other burrowing predators that they either trained, or which happen to be opportunistically hanging around.
They can also work with other sapients that pay them in food and trinkets for doing what they were already going to do anyway, and you might also find them in bizarre aberrant ruins on or under the surface, drawn there by strange dreams and performing unspeakable rituals.
Anakores are smart enough to recognize when they’re in a poor situation, and when they should negotiate instead of fighting. But if they think they should fight, their underground ambushes can be pretty terrifying, as all of their powers synergize very well and make the tactics described in the lore section very effective.
Their burrow speed lets them go back underground at will, meaning each Dune King might be able to perform more than one Sand Eruption in a fight, and the Hunters can move with relative impunity among the party to harass and grab the PCs. Renders stay up top once they emerge, and all of them are immune to the difficult terrain created by the Kings due to Earth Walk.