Help With A Villain's MO (Non-Fatal Heart-Theft)

[Weirdlet]

Hey all, I'm looking for some help translating a flash of inspiration I had into something that fits into 3.5 without too much mangling. I'm not sure if there is anything like this in the system or how much would have to be made up from whole cloth and/or DM fiat, so I'm turning to you guys.

The idea was that a fae villain (on the order of Pratchett's psycho!elves who live on glamour and viciousness) has a habit of seducing women and stealing their hearts, leaving them alive but with little will or drive and a tendency to fade and die in short order. If a healer checks their pulse, they will find that the victim's blood is moving in their veins, but they have no heartbeat.

Given that the victims frequently die afterward, would this be on the order of a curse?

[Quiddle]

Sounds like a disease to me. Repeating cha and con dmg?

[Weirdlet]

That- makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of that. Thank you! That helps.

[Psyren]

Note that a supernatural disease and a curse are nearly indistinguishable (see also Mummy Rot.) Just copy-paste some text from there, change the visuals and you'll be fine.

[Red Fel]

Kali ma, Kali ma Shakti!

Seriously, though, I think refluffed disease/curse pretty much covers it. As an aside, that's an awesome little slice of evil you've got there.

Aren't there also stats someplace for an Incubus demon that comes to women in their dreams, seduces them, and then kills them in some particular idiom? You might check the mechanics of that, see if it applies.

[Psyren]

The coolest part about mummy rot (that can be easily applied here) is that it detects as a disease, but disease removal doesn't affect it. Because of that diagnosis, a lot of NPC healers and players will stop there and simply think "plot sickness" instead of going on to check for curses. This trick will fool your players exactly once, but it can be pretty funny to have them trek halfway around the world for a cure when they had remove curse the entire time.

[Weirdlet]

Yup. I'm thinking it'll be a new supernatural ability added on to a nymph chassis, Infection DC Charisma-based, incubation 1 night. Victim must make initial Will save against it, and after that must make respective Will and Fort saves each day against 1d4 Cha and Con damage. Break Enchantment and/or Remove Curse to cure, and you really need to retrieve the heart first before it'll work.

This is not a nice fellow.

[Quiddle]

So the elves are just gonna have a bunch of hearts in jars? What happens if a heart(object) is broken?

[Weirdlet]

This particular elf, at least. And it happens, especially when you hang out with a bunch of barbarian satyrs. But it doesn't much matter, because most of them go dull and dead after a while, when their mortal bearer dies of pining. Just a pretty little bit of cracked stone, then, and what need has he to hoard jewels?

That frost giantess's, though- that one's stayed pretty, lit up from the inside in slow, glacial pulses. Centuries, it must be- and it serves as a very nice collector's piece in the hollow of his favorite tree.

Meanwhile, in the mortal world, if you follow the 'blood fall' of red ice that's appeared at the edge of that big glacier, you'll eventually find a deserted castle full of the dead bodies of frost giants, and a princess frozen in her own ice. The trail leads to a wound she clawed in her own chest.

[Quiddle]

Cold ice pun intended

[Psyren]

This particular elf, at least. And it happens, especially when you hang out with a bunch of barbarian satyrs. But it doesn't much matter, because most of them go dull and dead after a while, when their mortal bearer dies of pining. Just a pretty little bit of cracked stone, then, and what need has he to hoard jewels?

That frost giantess's, though- that one's stayed pretty, lit up from the inside in slow, glacial pulses. Centuries, it must be- and it serves as a very nice collector's piece in the hollow of his favorite tree.

Meanwhile, in the mortal world, if you follow the 'blood fall' of red ice that's appeared at the edge of that big glacier, you'll eventually find a deserted castle full of the dead bodies of frost giants, and a princess frozen in her own ice. The trail leads to a wound she clawed in her own chest.

This is pretty cool. (Ah crap I'm doing it too)

[Weirdlet]

And this is why in my world the Ancient Sorcerous Empire(tm) got such a big start- because people were willing to do and embrace just about anything to get out from under the yoke of the old elfin 'gods'. When they were good, they could be very, very good- but when they were bad, they were nightmares.

I'm glad you guys like :)