Fantasy NPC: Lord Quaysall and Lady Dorvenor, Spectral Heads

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Lord Quaysall and Lady Dorvenor, Spectral Heads

A pair of glowing blue-grey heads floats around, both attractive despite their clearly spectral nature. Both wear intricate hairstyles and courtly hats a few decades old.

CR 5 (as a pair); 1,600 XP

CE and LE Tiny Undead (incorporeal)

Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8

Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+2 deflection, +1 Dex, +2 size)

hp 26 (4d8+8)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +5

Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, incorporeal, rejuvenation; Immune undead traits

Offense
Speed fly 20 ft. (perfect)

Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks vile utterance

Statistics
Str —, Dex 13, Con —, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 15

Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 14 (can't be knocked prone)
Feats Hover, Improved Initiative

Skills Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Fly +13, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8, Stealth +9

Language Common, Duc, Infernal

SQ courtly bearing

Courtly Bearing (Ex and Su) Being executed courtiers, both Lord Quaysall and Lady Dorvenor treat Bluff, Diplomacy, and Knowledge (nobility) as class skills.

Rejuvenation (Su) Lord Quaysall and Lady Dorvenor are bound to haunt the royal palace until both of them are destroyed at exactly the same time, otherwise they will both recover within 1d4 days.

Vile Utterance (Su) Both Lord Quaysall and Lady Dorvenor can utter deplorable words from beyond the veil of death that stops heartbeat, wither plants, and scares animals. Using this ability is a standard action that targets either one or all beings within 20 feet that can hear them. A successful Will saving throw (DC 14) negates all effects. Affected living targets suffer 3d6 points of damage. Creatures of animal intelligence also panic for 1d4+1 rounds. Mindless undead are dazed for 1d4+1 rounds. Evil creatures suffer –2 penalty to their saving throw against this effect. Creatures that are sleeping, unconscious, unable to hear, or fascinated by something else can't be affected by this ability. This is a sonic necromantic effect. The saving throw DC is Charisma-based.

Both of those spectral heads were courtiers of little prominence and much overinflated egos and sense of self-importance. When their kingdom faced a period of unrest, they tried to fan the flames of riots and start a revolution, hoping to turn it against the royal family and take over themselves. They were far from the master intriguers they viewed themselves to be, though, with their blatant meddling attracting scorn of the protesters and ire of the crown alike. For their actions, they were executed, and to make thing worse, made scapegoats for both the riots and their handling, allowing the court to appease the people and pardon the real culprits.

Now they haunt the capital and the royal palace, fiercely bickering or weaving complex but futile intrigues in turn. Sometimes, they approach lesser nobles, courtiers, and politicians trying to coax them into attempt the most convoluted, self-serving, and inane schemes. At other times, they try to suck up to royal family and greater nobles, or pester and disturb palace servants and guards.

Fantasy Monster: Voracious Turf

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Voracious Turf

This patch of lawn looks weirdly suspicious... Wait... Why is it moving?! Why is it moving so faaaaassttt?!! Get it off of me!

CR 12; XP 19,200
N Colossal Plant

Init +1; Senses blind and deaf, lifesense 120 ft., tremorsense 120 ft.; Perception +25

Defense
AC 27, touch 3, flat-footed 26 (+1 Dex, +24 natural, –8 size)
hp 170 (20d8+80)
Fort +16; Ref +7; Will +11

Defensive Abilities always suffer half damage from effects that allow a Reflex saving throw for half; DR 10/slashing; Immune plant traits; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10

Offense
Speed 30 ft.

Melee none

Space 30 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attack crushing trample (10d8, DC 21)

Statistics
Str 30, Dex 13, Con 18, Int –, Wis 19, Cha 1
Base Atk +15; CMB +33; CMD 44 (can't be tripped or forcibly moved)

Skills Perception +25, Stealth +21; Racial Modifiers +20 Perception, +20 Stealth

SQ too big to notice

Ecology
Environment cold and warm plains and forest glades
Organization solitary, pair, meadow (3—9)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Crushing Trample (Ex) A voracious turf can move over any number of Large or smaller creatures and obstacles as a full-round action (a staggered voracious turf can move attempt crushing trample moving up to half of its speed as a standard action). Any creature that is within the area over which voracious turf moves may either make an attack of opportunity against the turf or attempt a Reflex saving throw (DC 21) to avoid being run over and crushed. Creatures that succeed their saving throw are pushed to the sides or front of moving voracious turf. Creatures that failed their Reflex saving throw or never attempted it, are crushed for 10d8 points of bludgeoning damage, immobilized prone underneath the voracious turf, and forced to hold their breath. On their turn they can attempt to escape as a full-round action by making a successful Escape Artist or grapple check against the voracious turf's CMD, or a Reflex saving throw against DC of 21. Alternatively, they can attempt to attack the turf with light weapons held, cast spells or use other abilities if they make a concentration check (treating crushing damage of this ability as continuous effect), or do nothing to save their breath. On its turn, voracious turf can deal crushing damage to all creatures already underneath it instead of taking any actions (even especially if it would be unable of taking any actions for some reason). The saving throw DC is Dexterity-based.

Too Big To Notice (Ex) A voracious turf is exceptionally flat for a colossal creature, ignoring size penalty to Stealth checks. It cannot move over Large obstacles, though, nor can it move through the space occupied by other specimens of its kind.

Voracious turf is a colony of motile grass, taking the form of a big moving patch of turf, with the grass roots intertwined with soil and clay, and extensive muscle-like fibers carrying it around like thousands of legs.

Voracious turfs often migrate in search of better quality soils—which they tend to degrade quite fast. Crushing other living creatures, animal and plant alike, into pulpy mush helps fertilize the soil for a time, delaying turf migrations.

Fantasy Monster: Strawman

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Strawman

A silhouette of a man made of tightly bound straw.

CR 1; XP 400
N Medium Construct

Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0

Defense
AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 12 (+2 natural)
hp 15 (1d10+10)
Fort +0; Ref +0; Will +0

DR 5/slashing; Immune construct traits

Weakness vulnerable to fire

Offense
Speed 30 ft.

Melee 2 slams +2 (1d4+1)

Statistics
Str 12, Dex 10, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 12

Feats Blind-Fight

Skills Craft (baskets) +4, Profession (farmer) +4

Language understand Common

SQ create strawman, farmer, fragile, semblance of life

Ecology
Environment rural
Organization solitary, pair, or village (3+)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Create Strawman (Su) Strawmen make more of their kind whenever they can, weaving new strawmen bodies out of available straw, cord, and pieces of old rags. It takes six, twelve hour workdays to create a new strawman, and up to three strawmen can work together on a single new strawman.

Farmer (Ex) Strawmen treat Craft (weaving) and Profession (farmer) as class skills.

Fragile Strawmen are much less sturdy than other Constructs of comparable size, and receive only half the regular bonus hit points for their size category.

Semblance Of Life (Su) When the creation process includes significant amount of personal clothing, the resulting strawman has a semblance of a somewhat bland (usually) humanoid being fitting the local population, gaining +20 bonus to Disguise checks made to pass as one of local denizens, and is capable of actual speech, knowing the dominant local language. If strand of hair, a handful of bodily fluids, or a piece of humanoid bone is used in the creation process, the newly created strawmen looks (and sounds) like a copy of an individual whose bodily matter was used and gains +20 bonus to Disguise checks to pass as that individual. Such strawman also inherits +4 bonus in four skills that the original individual had (those count as one skill rank in each, making it trained skills, with all four skills counting as class skills).

Strawmen are constructs made from straw, hay, and rags that obsessively build more of their kind once they find supplies of those materials. While they are not aggressive, they are stubborn and quite unwilling to stop until the available supply is converted to more of their kind.

Occasionally a small group of strawmen can settle in abandoned farms or even depopulated villages, where they create more of their kind, and some might even deliberately cultivate and harvest grasses and even grain just to have more straw.

When not having supplies to make more, strawmen are usually mimicking lives of simple farmers, going through the motions of farming—which is occasionally used by actual farmers who "hire" them as farmhands, though they need some supervision to avoid harvesting growing plants for straw before the grain is ripe.

Some people are worried by the strawmen tendency to create more and more human-like strawmen, causing suspicions there is a much more sinister secret behind their spread.

Fantasy Monster: Scorchblin

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Scorchblin

A burning goblin runs around screaming.

CR 1; XP 400
CE Small Undead (goblinoid)

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0

Aura running conflagration (10 ft.)

Defense
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +1 size)
hp 16 (3d8+3)
Fort +2; Ref +2; Will +3

Defensive Abilities erratic stride; Resist cold 10, fire 10

Offense
Speed 30 ft.

Melee none

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 13, Con —, Int 5, Wis 11, Cha 13
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 11

Feats Nimble Moves, Run

Skills Acrobatics +2, Climb +4, Profession (demolitionist) +1

Languages blabbers in a mixture of Common and Goblin

Ecology
Environment urban, ruins, underground
Organization solitary or conflagration (2–16)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Erratic Stride (Ex) A scorchblin moves around in unpredictable and wobbly motion. All attacks of opportunity against scorchblin are made with –4 penalty.

Running Conflagration (Su) A scorchblin constantly burns producing waves of flames and heat. Anyone exposed to a scorchblin's aura suffers fire damage at the end of their turn on a failed Reflex saving throw (DC 12, or the highest DC among multiple triggering scorchblins)—they suffer 1d4 points of fire damage, added together, for each of the following circumstances: they started their turn within a scorchblin's aura, they struck a scorchblin with one or more non-reach melee attack since the end of their last turn, they end their turn within a scorchblin's aura. Flammable objects within the aura suffer 2d4 points of fire damage. A scorchblin also gives illumination comparable to a sunrod (30 ft. of bright light, increase illumination level by one step within another 30 feet). The saving throw DC is Charisma-based. Note that the aura inflicts damage at the end of the turn, even if the scorchblin emitting it is already destroyed.

When some goblins die in fire or explosion, they don't stop moving. Instead, they keep going on, spreading the lovely-lovely destructive fire around. While they operate mostly on destructive insanity, their retain enough of mental clarity to recognize potential flammables and explosives... And then they rush them and doing whatever they can to ignite them.

Fantasy Monster: Dire Dog

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Dog, Dire

A massive shaggy dog, large enough to be ridden by a human.

CR 7; XP 3,200
N Large Animal

Init +9; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +15

Defense
AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+5 Dex, +6 natural, –1 size)
hp 85 (10d8+40)
Fort +10; Ref +12; Will +7

Offense
Speed 50 ft.

Melee bite +13 (2d8+10)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks warning growl

Statistics
Str 24, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 13
Base Atk +7; CMB +4; CMD 16 (20 vs. trip)

Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Toughness, Vital Strike

Skills Intimidate +11, Perception +15, Survival +6; Racial Modifiers +4 Survival while tracking by scent

Ecology
Environment urban, rural
Organization solitary, pair or pack (3–6)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Warning Growl (Ex) A dire dog gains bonus to Intimidate checks equal to its HD. It can demoralize a single foe within 30 feet that can hear it as a move action. A dire dog can select Dazzling Display feat without meeting its prerequisites.

These dogs were breed over generations, by carefully picking the largest and fiercest pups and  crossing them multiple times with dire wolves—the rumors claiming they were also hybridized with bears are definitely outlandish. What isn't outlandish, are the stories of those dogs being used to hunt actual bears, or even more powerful beasts, nor their occasional use as mounts by certain groups and cultures.

They are generally friendly toward humanoids and loyal toward those who raise and keep them, showing surprising amount of gentleness and prudence when dealing with pups and children—threaten their masters, their friends, or their wards, and they quickly turn into vicious guardians, though.

New Feats

Here are two new feats dealing with dogs in general and dire dogs specifically.

Dire Dog Companion

You keep a dire dog as your companion or even a mount.

Prerequisite: Animal companion or equivalent feature.

Benefit: You can have a dire dog as an animal companion or a mount. It uses dog animal companion statistics but is one size category larger (Medium at level 1-3, Large after level 4th advancement), adjusting its statistics in the following way: +4 Strength, –2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, increase natural armor bonus by 2, and its bite damage die size by one step (to 1d8 for Medium and 2d6 for Large). Your dire dog companion can select Dazzling Display feat by growling at the enemies.

Dog-Whisperer

You have a knack for dealing with canines.

Benefit: You can affect canines as if you had wild empathy feature with level equal to one-half your character level, or gain +4 bonus to existing wild empathy checks when using it on canids. You also gain +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks made on canids, and you can make Handle Animal checks to teach, rear, and train canids untrained.