Skulker

General
Skulkers are creatures walking in four legs, like dogs or wolves, that are found to accompany the Dredge in the second part of The Banner Saga.


 * For a larger version, see also: Vile Skulker

Passive Ability: Chase
Skulkers can move through allies (and Dredge), thus considerably extending their reach.
 * Chase passive ability is identical to the Landsman's Light Step.

Active Ability: Skulk
The Skulker becomes invisible and stalks a target, taking another move of 5 tiles.

Notes:
 * After Skulk is initiated, the movement along the first 2-3 tiles can be distinguished before the Skulker completely vanishes from sight.
 * Walking into a tile occupied by an invisible Skulker will terminate a Hero's movement, potentially leaving him unable to attack. This is especially harmful to bulky Varl and melee-attack Heroes.
 * An invisible Skulker taking damage will immediately re-appear. Some AoE abilities, like Bear Rage or Slag and Burn, are especially useful for uncovering Skulking Skulkers. It is not uncommon to reveal Skulkers unexpectedly by other abilities like: Heavy Impact, Arc Lightning or Splinter.

Active Ability: Howl
The Skulker reappears and howls, signalling its pack mates to attack a target, before doing so itself. Any Skulkers on the board, invisible or not, that are within regular (non-Exerted) reach of the Howl target will move in and attack.
 * Howl can only be used when the Skulker is invisible.

Bugs & Issues

 * Chase passive ability often leads to Skulkers, especially Vile ones, occupying the same tile(s) with an ally unit. This does not crash the game, but it can make targeting difficult: In this case, it is advisable to use the turn-queue portraits (instead of the unit sprites) to target an attack or ability.
 * Skulkers act as hosts for the Strength-damaging "Infected/Diseased" debuff from Dredge Stonesingers and Eyeless: They can carry and transmit the debuff to Heroes, without it harming them!