Monster: Ashen Fox

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Ashen Fox
A fox with elongated snout, long ear, and bushy tail. Its black fur is marked with streaks of grey and white, and its eyes shine with supernatural intelligence.

CR 1; XP 400
N Small Fey
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, scent, smell spirits; Perception +7

Defense
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 size)
hp 13 (3d6+3)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +4
DR 2/cold iron; Immune death, disease, energy drain, fear

Offense
Speed 50 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Melee bite +4 (1d4–1 plus ghost-nibbler)
Special Attacks ghost-nibbler

Statistics
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 13
Base Atk +1; CMB –1; CMD 11 (15 vs trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +8 (+16 leaping), Climb +5, Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +7 (+17 to notice undead and haunts), Sense Motive +7, Stealth +12 (+22 against undead), Swim +5; Racial Modifiers +10 Perception to notice undead and haunts, +10 Stealth against undead
Languages Sylvan (doesn't speak)

Ecology
Environment haunted forests, ruins
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard

Ghost-Nibbler (Su) Ashen foxes feed on ethereal residues and spiritual vestiges. Their bite is treated as magical, cold iron, and silver, with ghost touch property and deals additional 2d4 points of damage to undead. Ashen foxes can and will attack haunts as if their bite was a positive energy. Whenever an ashen fox bite drops a haunt or a rejuvenating undead to 0 or less hit points, the destroyed target takes twice as long to reset or reform.

Smell Spirits (Su) Ashen foxes can detect haunts and incorporeal creatures with their scent. They can also discern undead creatures from living by smell, though they have 50% chance of mistaking living creatures with negative energy affinity for undead. If an ashen fox smells a haunt or incorporeal before rolling for initiative, it can take a move action and a standard action on its turn in the surprise round.


Ashen foxes are cute, cunning, curious, and gluttonous scavengers of the dead, particularly  the restless ones, finding spiritual vestiges to be particular delicacy, always scrounging their surroundings for haunts and lesser incorporeal entities. Occasionally, they follow adventurers going after more powerful spirits, hoping to get a chance to get a bite or two when such entity goes down.

Some ashen foxes serve more powerful entities of the Otherworlds as gatherers of lingering souls, their emotions and memories. Others feed on the physical and spiritual remains of those who failed prey to more monstrous Fey.

An ashen fox can become an improved familiar of a 5th level caster.