Monster: Stygian Chorus

Stygian Chorus

A swarm of heads, mummified, rotting, and bare skulls flies around murmuring obscenities and forbidden lore in a mixture of fiendish tongues.

CR 6; XP 2,400
NE Tiny Undead (swarm)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +20
Aura stygian song (30 ft.)

Defense
AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural, +2 size)
hp 66 (12d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +9
Defensive Abilities swarm traits; Immune undead traits
Weakness swayed by song

Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Melee swarm (3d6)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 16), fiendish chatter, stygian command

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 18, Con —, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 11
Base Atk +8; CMB —; CMD —
Feats Alertness, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perform [sing]), Toughness
Skills Fly +31, Knowledge (arcana) +16, Knowledge (religion) +16, Perception +20, Perform (sing) +18, Sense Motive +5
Languages Understand Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal, speak (and sing) a maddening mixture of all of those

Ecology
Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or choir (3–6)
Treasure incidental

Special Abilities

Fiendish Chatter (Su) Stygian chorus swarm attack is composed of baleful utterances in fiendish languages. Half of its damage is sonic and half is inflicted by raw unholy power.

Stygian Command (Su) Stygian chorus can take a standard action to command a single corpse within 30 feet to rise and perform one claw or slam attack as if was a skeleton or a zombie. Corpses that could not be animated as undead cannot be affected by this ability. This is a sonic necromancy effect.

Stygian Song (Su) Stygian chorus constantly sings a blasphemous verses in its many voices bestowing +1 profane bonus to caster level of spells and spell-like abilities with evil descriptor, +1 profane bonus to saving throws against effects with good descriptor or created by creatures with good subtype, –1 penalty to caster level of spell and spell-like abilities with good descriptor, and a –1 penalty to saving throws against effects with evil descriptor or created by creatures with evil subtype, doubled for sonic and language-dependent effects. This is a sonic effect.

Swayed By Song Stygian chorus has weak spot for songs. When a stygian chorus hears someone sing, it joins the song with a choir of ghastly, unnerving voices spending its standard action to sing and acting as fascinated. Any hostile action breaks the effects and renders the stygian chorus immune to the effects of song until the end of the encounter.

Stygian chorus is a swarm of skulls and severed heads of people who were versed in dark arts. The forbidden lore once bound in their brains now animates the shells that contained it, forcing them to recite and sing blasphemous praises to unholy powers. Stygian choruses arise particularly often when a cult or a band of scholars that dabbled in the forbidden lore but held little actual power gets slaughtered, either by champions of good, or by evil they unwittingly unleashed.

Planar NPC: Merekh Ren

Merekh Ren

This blurred man is translucent grey, with pale outline, clearly a ghost of some sort.

CR 5; XP 1,600
Ghost male human expert 5
CG Medium Undead (extraplanar)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +20

Defense
AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 deflection)
hp 47 (5d8+25)
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +8
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, incorporeal, rejuvenation; Immune undead traits

Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Melee corrupting touch +5 (5d6, Fort half, DC 16)
Special Attacks possession (DC 16)

Statistics
Str —, Dex 14, Con —, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 20
Feats Alertness, Dodge, Iron Will, Toughness
Skills Bluff +12, Diplomacy +12, Fly +18, Heal +10, Knowledge (local) +11, Perception +20, Sense Motive +12, Sleight Of Hand +10, Stealth +18, Use Magic Device +12
Language Common, Abyssal, Celestial, Ignan

Ecology
Environment any
Organization unique
Treasure none

Special Abilities

Possession (Su) Merekh can posses an adjacent creature as a standard action as if using possession spell with duration of up to 12 hours. When the possession ends or is prevented by a successful saving throw, Merekh can't attempt to possess the same target for the next 24 hours. While using this ability, Merekh's incorporeal body remains within the subject's physical body. Saving throw DC is Charisma-based. Merekh avoids using this ability on unwilling innocent subjects, though he will use this ability if he thinks that innocent lives are at stake. He has much less compunctions about possessing wrong-doers, though he finds the experience straining.

Rejuvenation (Su) Even when destroyed, Merekh reforms in 2d4 days, back in his office.

Merekh Ren was a mortal man living in a marvelous interdimensional city at the junction of the planar routes. Now, he is a spirit lingering where he lived. When alive, he was a private investigator, a thief-taker, a denouncer, and occasionally a snitch. His unexpected death hadn't made him quit. In fact, returning as a ghost created new opportunities, though it made being paid quite hard. At least he does not have to earn living wage, though he still needs to pay for his office (a small room in obscure tenement house). After meeting his diminished financial needs, his favored payment is living: being allowed to possess the customer's body (or convincing another person to agree to being possessed for a limited amount of time) and experiencing the simple joys of life.

When alive, Merekh was restraining himself to simple and boring investigations, tracking unfaithful spouses, finding debtors, searching for missing relatives, undermining wills, and similar down to earth cases. After his death, which was honest accident involving panicked horses unprepared for streets of planar metropolis, Merekh stayed behind, feeling unfulfilled, seeking to do more good and become better investigator than he was.

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Planar NPC: Six Broken Seals

Six Broken Seals

This perfectly shaped man's body has a burning pentacle made of blue flame with eye in its center instead of head. Two pairs of feather wings grow from his back, one reddish-black and one bluish-white.

CR 10; XP 9,600
N Medium Outsider (archon, chaotic, demon, extraplanar, lawful)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +20
Aura aura of menace (DC 19)

Defense
AC 24, touch 21, flat-footed 18 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +5 Wis, +2 deflection vs. good or evil)
hp 126 (12d10+60)
Fort +9, Ref +13, Will +13; +2 resistance vs. good or evil
Defensive Abilities AC bonus; DR 10/chaotic or lawful; Immune electricity, petrification, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 26 vs spells and spell-like abilities with evil or good descriptors

Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee +1 keen katana +20/+15/+10 (1d8+10, 15–20/x2)
Special Attacks seal-breaching strike
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +15)
Constant—protection from evil, protection from good
2/day—plane shift (to Abyss or Heaven only, or back to Material Plane from which he traveled to either)

Statistics
Str 22, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 13, Wis 21, Cha 17
Base Atk +12; CMB +18; CMD 38
Feats Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Focus (katana), Whirlwind Attack
Skills Acrobatics +20, Fly +20, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (planes) +16, Knowledge (religion) +16, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20
Language Understands Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; understands all spoken languages as per truespeech, though he cannot speak; telepathy 100 ft.

Ecology
Environment any
Organization unique
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

AC Bonus (Ex) When unarmored and unencumbered, Six Broken Seals adds his Wisdom bonus to his AC and CMD. These bonuses applies against touch attacks or when Six Broken Seals is flat-footed. He loses  those these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.

Seal-Breaching Strike (Su) Six Broken Seals can make a single special strike as a standard action, or as a part of charge, Spring Attack or Whirlwind Attack actions. Seal-Breaching Strike inflicts normal damage and acts as dispel evil and dispel good. It also acts like a dispel magic but only against protective spells and spell-like abilities, summoned creatures, and illusions (shadow).

Six Broken Seals was sired in a shocking affair between a demonic lady and heavenly envoy during their meeting on the neutral ground in the City Of Brass. The abyssal lady swayed the celestial lord with a sensual dance during an official ball after he attracted her attention with his impeccable manners—as they danced she told him seven forbidden verses of lust and in return he whispered into her eager ears five words of creation.

Six Broken Seals is at once an archon and a demon, a living embodiment of opposing ideals of law and chaos, though for some incomprehensible reason good and evil natures of his parents not only canceled each other but also gave him power to break and repel both. Born of contradiction, he seeks enlightenment and internal harmony uniting thought and action, free of compassion or selfishness of either of his heritages.

Planar NPC: Dembomor

Dembomor

This is a man-sized tree stump with a pair of arms and a pair of legs. It has two dark holes that appear to be eyes, and a warped crack were a mouth should be.

CR 8; XP 4,800
CE Medium Plant (extraplanar)
Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +17

Defense
AC 21, touch 11, flat-footed 20 (+1 Dex, +10 natural)
hp 105 (10d8+60)
Fort +13, Ref +6, Will +7
DR 10/—; Immune plant traits; Resist cold 10, fire 10

Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 slams +15 (2d6+7)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +14)
At will—commune with nature, entangle (centered on self, DC 15), speak with plants, vomit swarm
3/day—quickened entangle, transport via plants

Statistics
Str 24, Dex 12, Con 22, Int 13, Wis 19, Cha 11
Base Atk +7; CMB +14; CMD 25
Feats Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (entangle), Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Bluff +13, Perception +17, Stealth +14
Language Common, Sylvan; speak with plants
SQ freeze, hidden heart, nature magic

Ecology
Environment any
Organization unique
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Freeze (Ex) Dembomor can pretend to be immobile tree stump in fitting environment taking 20 on a Stealth check.

Hidden Heart (Ex) Dembomor gains +20 bonus to Bluff checks made to hide his feelings toward others. Being an animated tree with no face expression and wooden voice helps hide emotions well.

Nature Magic (Sp) Dembomor uses Wisdom bonus to determine concentration checks and saving throw DC of his spell-like abilities.

Dembomor heart is rotting with hatred he feels toward the mortal (and some immortal) races. He secretly detests humanoids, and much less secretly, abhors monstrous humanoids and dragons, he wishes for their total eradication and hopes to use their remains as fertilizer. He is no fool, though, and he hides his feelings well—he only directly attacks humanoids when they can't escape and expose his homicidal hatred. When the odds are not in his favor, he tries to subtly lead humanoids into danger—providing them with inaccurate directions, sending them into lethal dungeons, hiring them to fight dragons or other humanoids...