Fantasy NPC: Grandmother Disappointment

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Grandmother Disappointment

A ghostly, ghastly, and gangly visage of an ancient woman, shriveled and wrapped in moth-eaten furs, floats in air just above the ground, faintly luminescent and translucent.

CR 5; 1,600 XP

CN Medium Undead (incorporeal)

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., sense kin; Perception +11

Defense
AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+3 deflection, +4 Dex)

hp 57 (6d12+18)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +4

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

Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)

Melee corrupting touch +10 (5d6, Fort. DC 16 partial)

Special Attacks inspire bloodrage

Statistics
Str —, Dex 18, Con —, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 17

Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 23
Feats Combat Reflexes, Hover, Improved Initiative

Skills Fly +12, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (nature) +8, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Perception +11, Spellcraft +11, Survival +11

Language Common, Giant, Orc

Corrupting Touch (Su) Grandmother Disappointment's corrupting touch inflicts nonlethal damage against her descendants.

Inspire Bloodrage (Su) Grandmother Disappointment can inspire bloodrage in one of her willing descendants within 60 feet for as long as she concentrates plus 1 round, granting them +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, +1 morale bonus to Will saving throws, and –2 penalty to AC. While she can use this ability whenever she wants, the same descendant can only benefit from its effects once per day, except when dying, when they not only benefit from its effects even if they were affected already this day, but also can remain conscious and able to take actions. The descendants with rage or bloodrage abilities use their own bonuses and benefits while under effects of this ability. This is an emotion compulsion effect.

Rejuvenation (Su) When successfully exorcised, fulfilled by heroic acts of her descendant, or when a descendant she followed dies, Grandmother Disappointment reforms 1d10 days later somewhere near another descendant of hers. If she is reduced to 0 hit points, she reforms near the same descendant or group of descendants and continues to pester them until she gets really bored (which might take months or even years) or her attention is somehow diverted toward someone else.

Sense Kin (Su) Grandmother Disappointment recognizes those who are her direct descendants, and can recalls random details of their lives, though unreliably—occasionally mixing up generations, and reinterpreting their actions and behavior through the lenses of her own expectations ("you used to be such a courageous boy, constantly fighting off those wolves!" "those were dog puppies and we were playing!").

Grandmother Disappointment was a chieftainess of a nomadic people from beyond the mountains and wastelands. Not long after her death, her daughters and granddaughters were forced by drought and famine into the new lands, coming to the Duchies. After the initial struggle and conflict, they finally managed to forge treaties of peace and find their own place among the local people, with her descendants intermarrying with the hereditary nobility (a concept foreign to the nomads themselves).

While she is glad that here people survived and her blood continues, she is not so keen on their settled lifestyle, and she is definitely perplexed at their tame, bland, and overly comfortable lives. Theirs is the blood of heroes of old, of warriors, berserkers, shamans, and hunters who faced the adversity and showed valor fighting against hordes of enemies and monsters alike! They should be more like their ancestors, and she is adamant at making them know it—and if she can help it, she will make heroes of them, even if it might kill them. Thankfully (for her descendants), she has rather limited options, beyond showing up unasked and prodding them to act more valiantly, go adventuring, seek adversities to overcome an monsters to slay, or at least show some backbone and take bloody vengeance over real and imagined slights, maybe start a generational feud with neighbors, or something.

Recently, she came to conclusion that the issue is the lack of truly great foes for heroes to defeat, and started complaining to others that their villainy is substandard and not what it used to be. She even occasionally goes as far as to give unsolicited advice to those she perceives as potential adversaries to her descendants, hoping it will rouse her kin out of comfortable complacency and mediocrity of mundane civilized life.

She does appreciate certain amenities and conveniences, though, particularly indoor plumbing and running water—which she isn't shy of admitting, especially when disturbing their use, for she seems to have no concept of privacy whatsoever. She is also rather raunchy when it comes to her descendants bed life, both truly romantic and more casual encounters. She doesn't particularly care about such weird notions as monogamy, and legitimate descent, though maybe she is just hoping that ignoring those norms will lead to crimes of passion, vendettas, and generational drama.