The Demented One
2008-12-22, 08:36 PM
Marrusya
Small Fey
Hit Dice: 20d6+80 (150 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 24 (+1 size, +8 Dex, +5 natural), touch 19, flatfooted 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+4
Attack: Bite +19 melee (1d6-2)
Full Attack: Bite +19 melee (1d6-2) and 6 Tentacles +14 melee (1d10-2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles)
Special Attacks: Etheric presence, nightmare manse, otherworld minions, spells, unseelie dread
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 20/cold iron, immunity to acid and cold, low-light vision, nightwalker, profane mien, resistance to electricity 20 and fire 20,
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +20, Will +19
Abilities: Str 6, Dex 26, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 24, Cha 40
Skills: Concentration +27, Hide +35, Intimidate +38, Listen +30, Move Silently +32, Perform (Storytelling) +38, Spellcraft +26, Spot +30, Tumble +32
Feats: Weapon FinesseB, Dodge, Mobility, Extend Spell, Spell Focus (Illusion and Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus (Illusion and Necromancy)
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary plus otherworld minions
Challenge Rating: 16
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always Any Evil
Advancement: By class level (favored class: Sorcerer)
Level Adjustment: –
Stories, as every bard and sage knows, have power, a life distinct from their teller. A story, once told, spreads, changing and evolving. They can evoke hope, inspire passion...or call up dread. Stories of horror can birth nightmares, spreading through the shadows of society, poisoning the minds of young and old alike. With every heart they darken, their potency grows. The oldest and most frightful of horrors can take on form, becoming a dread fey called a Marrusya. Marrusya transform the world around them into a horror story, reshaping reality to fit their sadistic whims. Marrusya create dungeons called nightmare manses around themselves like a protective shell, drawing sustenance from the fear of any being foolish enough to come inside. A Marrusya, though a powerful shapeshifter, has a true form much like that of a human child, pale and wan. However, their face is horribly mutilated, scarred and bandaged, and their arms are bloody stumps, wrapped in tentacle-like rags or bandages. Though intelligent, a Marrusya will rarely speak except to cow its prey.
Etheric Presence (Su)
A Marrusya can cause unnatural phenomena to occur anywhere within its nightmare manse as a swift action. The phenomena can take any form–blood flowing down from the walls, cancerous eyes sprouting all over a character’s flesh, undead philosophers springing from the ground and assaulting a character’s ethics–but they are purely illusionary. An etheric presence occupies a 100-ft. radius burst, and all creatures within its area must make a DC 35 Will save or become panicked for one minute. The save is Charisma-based. Once a Marrusya has used etheric presence, it must wait one minute before it can use it again. Successfully saving against etheric presence does not grant any immunity to it.
Nightmare Manse (Su)
A Marrusya can shape reality, causing it to conform to its story. By meditating for an hour in complete isolation, a Marrusya can transform an area into its nightmare manse. The nightmare manse can have an area of up to ten square miles, but it must have clearly defined borders. A Marrusya could turn a forest, an asylum, or an underground cave into a nightmare manse, but not an open stretch of plains or the sea. Once the nightmare manse has been created, it can only be destroyed by killing the Marrusya who created it, or by the wish or miracle spells, and similar effects.
All creatures within the nightmare manse lose the benefits of any bonuses to saves against fear or immunity from fear, including that from a general immunity to mind-affecting abilities. In addition, all creatures within the manse are shaken, with no save, for as long as they remain within the manse. Any spell or ability that grants a morale bonus, such as a bard’s song or the good hope spell, or any spell such as see invisibility or true seeing that can overcome illusions, fails to function within a nightmare manse as if it were an antimagic zone.
As long as a Marrusya is within its nightmare manse, it can use its etheric presence, nightwalker, otherworld minions, and unseelie dread abilities. A Marrusya can only have one nightmare manse at a time. If a Marrusya leaves the borders of its nightmare manse for longer than 24 hours, the manse collapses and dissipates.
Otherworld Minions (Su)
As a full round action,a Marrusya can create unnatural monsters that serve it loyally. The monster appears anywhere within the area of the nightmare manse, obeys the Marrusya as if dominated, and must have a CR of 10 or less. The Marrusya can only create animals, fey, plants, and undead creatures. All otherworld minions, except for undead ones, have the fiendish template applied to them, which counts towards their maximum CR. A Marrusya can never have otherworld minions whose HD exceed four times its own. Once a Marrusya has created an otherworld minion, it must wait one minute before it can create another.
Spells
A Marrusya casts arcane spells as a 14th-level sorcerer. A Marrusya’s spells have a DC of 30 + spell level, DC 32 + spell level for illusion and necromancy spells.
Typical Sorcerer Spells Known (6/6/6/6/6/6/5/3)
0th–acid splash, dancing lights, detect poison, detect magic, ghost sound, message, prestidigitation, read magic, resistance. 1st–chill touch, color spray, disguise self, hypnotism, ventriloquism. 2nd–blindness/deafness, detect thoughts, false life, hideous laughter, mirror image. 3rd–arcane sight, dispel magic, rage, vampiric touch. 4th–bestow curse, fear, greater invisibility, hallucinatory terrain. 5th–hold monster, persistent image, shadow evocation. 6th–eyebite, symbol of fear. 7th–power word blind.
Unseelie Dread
A Marrusya can feast on the fear of those trapped inside its nightmare manse. As a standard action, a Marrusya can invoke unseelie dread in any panicked creature within 100 ft. of it. A DC 35 Will save negates the effect. It chooses one of the following effects:
Feast of Fear: The Marrusya is healed as the greater restoration and heal spells.
Mind Rape: The target takes 2d6 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma drain, and is panicked for the duration of the encounter.
Nightmare Thrall: The Marrusya draws out the target’s worst fears, manifesting them in a creature that appears adjacent to the target. The creature can be any creature, so long as its CR does not exceed the target’s character level minus two. Its HD do not count towards the limit of otherworld minions the Marrusya can control. The nightmare thrall gains the benefits of the Marrusya’s nightwalker and profane mien abilities. A Marrusya can only have one nightmare thrall at a time.
A Marrusya can only use unseelie dread on a creature once per encounter, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails its save.
Nightwalker (Su)
As long as a Marrusya is unobserved by any enemy, it may teleport to any point within its nightmare manse as a standard action.
Profane Mien (Su)
A Marrusya is surrounded by unholy shadows, granting it a 20% miss chance. In addition, as a swift action, it may become invisible for one round.
Small Fey
Hit Dice: 20d6+80 (150 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 24 (+1 size, +8 Dex, +5 natural), touch 19, flatfooted 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+4
Attack: Bite +19 melee (1d6-2)
Full Attack: Bite +19 melee (1d6-2) and 6 Tentacles +14 melee (1d10-2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles)
Special Attacks: Etheric presence, nightmare manse, otherworld minions, spells, unseelie dread
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 20/cold iron, immunity to acid and cold, low-light vision, nightwalker, profane mien, resistance to electricity 20 and fire 20,
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +20, Will +19
Abilities: Str 6, Dex 26, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 24, Cha 40
Skills: Concentration +27, Hide +35, Intimidate +38, Listen +30, Move Silently +32, Perform (Storytelling) +38, Spellcraft +26, Spot +30, Tumble +32
Feats: Weapon FinesseB, Dodge, Mobility, Extend Spell, Spell Focus (Illusion and Necromancy), Greater Spell Focus (Illusion and Necromancy)
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary plus otherworld minions
Challenge Rating: 16
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always Any Evil
Advancement: By class level (favored class: Sorcerer)
Level Adjustment: –
Stories, as every bard and sage knows, have power, a life distinct from their teller. A story, once told, spreads, changing and evolving. They can evoke hope, inspire passion...or call up dread. Stories of horror can birth nightmares, spreading through the shadows of society, poisoning the minds of young and old alike. With every heart they darken, their potency grows. The oldest and most frightful of horrors can take on form, becoming a dread fey called a Marrusya. Marrusya transform the world around them into a horror story, reshaping reality to fit their sadistic whims. Marrusya create dungeons called nightmare manses around themselves like a protective shell, drawing sustenance from the fear of any being foolish enough to come inside. A Marrusya, though a powerful shapeshifter, has a true form much like that of a human child, pale and wan. However, their face is horribly mutilated, scarred and bandaged, and their arms are bloody stumps, wrapped in tentacle-like rags or bandages. Though intelligent, a Marrusya will rarely speak except to cow its prey.
Etheric Presence (Su)
A Marrusya can cause unnatural phenomena to occur anywhere within its nightmare manse as a swift action. The phenomena can take any form–blood flowing down from the walls, cancerous eyes sprouting all over a character’s flesh, undead philosophers springing from the ground and assaulting a character’s ethics–but they are purely illusionary. An etheric presence occupies a 100-ft. radius burst, and all creatures within its area must make a DC 35 Will save or become panicked for one minute. The save is Charisma-based. Once a Marrusya has used etheric presence, it must wait one minute before it can use it again. Successfully saving against etheric presence does not grant any immunity to it.
Nightmare Manse (Su)
A Marrusya can shape reality, causing it to conform to its story. By meditating for an hour in complete isolation, a Marrusya can transform an area into its nightmare manse. The nightmare manse can have an area of up to ten square miles, but it must have clearly defined borders. A Marrusya could turn a forest, an asylum, or an underground cave into a nightmare manse, but not an open stretch of plains or the sea. Once the nightmare manse has been created, it can only be destroyed by killing the Marrusya who created it, or by the wish or miracle spells, and similar effects.
All creatures within the nightmare manse lose the benefits of any bonuses to saves against fear or immunity from fear, including that from a general immunity to mind-affecting abilities. In addition, all creatures within the manse are shaken, with no save, for as long as they remain within the manse. Any spell or ability that grants a morale bonus, such as a bard’s song or the good hope spell, or any spell such as see invisibility or true seeing that can overcome illusions, fails to function within a nightmare manse as if it were an antimagic zone.
As long as a Marrusya is within its nightmare manse, it can use its etheric presence, nightwalker, otherworld minions, and unseelie dread abilities. A Marrusya can only have one nightmare manse at a time. If a Marrusya leaves the borders of its nightmare manse for longer than 24 hours, the manse collapses and dissipates.
Otherworld Minions (Su)
As a full round action,a Marrusya can create unnatural monsters that serve it loyally. The monster appears anywhere within the area of the nightmare manse, obeys the Marrusya as if dominated, and must have a CR of 10 or less. The Marrusya can only create animals, fey, plants, and undead creatures. All otherworld minions, except for undead ones, have the fiendish template applied to them, which counts towards their maximum CR. A Marrusya can never have otherworld minions whose HD exceed four times its own. Once a Marrusya has created an otherworld minion, it must wait one minute before it can create another.
Spells
A Marrusya casts arcane spells as a 14th-level sorcerer. A Marrusya’s spells have a DC of 30 + spell level, DC 32 + spell level for illusion and necromancy spells.
Typical Sorcerer Spells Known (6/6/6/6/6/6/5/3)
0th–acid splash, dancing lights, detect poison, detect magic, ghost sound, message, prestidigitation, read magic, resistance. 1st–chill touch, color spray, disguise self, hypnotism, ventriloquism. 2nd–blindness/deafness, detect thoughts, false life, hideous laughter, mirror image. 3rd–arcane sight, dispel magic, rage, vampiric touch. 4th–bestow curse, fear, greater invisibility, hallucinatory terrain. 5th–hold monster, persistent image, shadow evocation. 6th–eyebite, symbol of fear. 7th–power word blind.
Unseelie Dread
A Marrusya can feast on the fear of those trapped inside its nightmare manse. As a standard action, a Marrusya can invoke unseelie dread in any panicked creature within 100 ft. of it. A DC 35 Will save negates the effect. It chooses one of the following effects:
Feast of Fear: The Marrusya is healed as the greater restoration and heal spells.
Mind Rape: The target takes 2d6 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma drain, and is panicked for the duration of the encounter.
Nightmare Thrall: The Marrusya draws out the target’s worst fears, manifesting them in a creature that appears adjacent to the target. The creature can be any creature, so long as its CR does not exceed the target’s character level minus two. Its HD do not count towards the limit of otherworld minions the Marrusya can control. The nightmare thrall gains the benefits of the Marrusya’s nightwalker and profane mien abilities. A Marrusya can only have one nightmare thrall at a time.
A Marrusya can only use unseelie dread on a creature once per encounter, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails its save.
Nightwalker (Su)
As long as a Marrusya is unobserved by any enemy, it may teleport to any point within its nightmare manse as a standard action.
Profane Mien (Su)
A Marrusya is surrounded by unholy shadows, granting it a 20% miss chance. In addition, as a swift action, it may become invisible for one round.