Fantasy NPC: Eternal Tenants, A Ghost of A Struggling Artist

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The Eternal Tenants, A Ghost Of A Struggling Artist

A translucent shape of pastel colors woven into an image of a young, somewhat scrawny man in worn cloths that used to be popular among artists a generation or two ago.

CR 5; 1,600 XP

CN Medium Undead (incorporeal)

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +18

Defense
AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 13 (+4 deflection, +4 Dex)

hp 59 (7d8+28)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +7

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

Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)

Melee blinding touch +20 (5d6 plus blindness, Fortitude DC 17 partial)

Special Attacks conditional possession (DC 17)

Statistics
Str –, Dex 18, Con –, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 19

Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 23
Feats Ability Focus (Possession), Flyby Attack, Hover, Iron Will

Skills Fly +12, Knowledge (history) +11, Knowledge (local) +11, Perception +18, Profession (painter) +10, Sense Motive +10, Stealth +12

Language Common

Blinding Touch (Su) This attack deals 5d6 points of damage and blinds the touched target for 1d4+1 rounds. A successful Fortitude saving throw (DC 17) halves the damage and renders the target dazzled for 1 round instead. Creatures blinded by this ability see the surrounding world as an incomprehensible collage of colors and shapes, as if looking at an unfinished painting. The saving throw DC is Charisma-based.

Possession (Su) While within the boundaries of his lodging house, the Ghost Of Struggling Artist can attempt to posses a tenant or a lodger who is late with their rent as a standard action. A successful Will saving throw (DC 19) negates the attempt and makes the target immune to further attempts for the next 24 hours. The possession lasts until the next sunrise when the Ghost snaps back to his attic room, and the Ghost often uses the opportunity to leave the house and seek places to paint (and is often disrupted by sunrise when he tries to paint rising sun). The saving throw DC is Charisma-based.

Having a ghost in a lodging house is usually a problem. They are unruly, unresponsive to requests from the landlord and the tenants alike, they scare potential lodgers, and they don't pay for the space they haunt.

This expired lodger is all of that, and yet, his presence is not as unwelcome as it could be imagined, for his landlords found a use for him – always struggling, he died of sickness when he could not afford care and food because he paid his dues on time, and now he can possess those who are late with their rent – which is an excellent way of scaring the tenants into paying on time.

Well, aside of some enterprising art students, who deliberately get late with their rent to pass the paintings the Ghost makes in their bodies as their own at the academy...

Fantasy Monster: Cheese Gremlin

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Gremlin, Cheese

This creature looks like pale, slender, hairless monkey with a tail that splits into horny hooks.

CR 2; XP 600
CE Tiny Fey
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +10

Defense
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 size)
hp 21 (6d6)
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +6
DR 5/cold iron; Immune scent-based conditions; Resist fire 5

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee hooked tail +7 (2d4+2, 19–20/×3))

Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft. (10 ft. with hooked tail)

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 13
Base Atk +3; CMB +3 (+7 dirty tricks and steal maneuvers); CMD 16
Feats Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training, Improved Initiative
Skills Acrobatics +8, Climb +6, Perception +10, Sleight Of Hand +11, Stealth +19

Languages Sylvan

SQ hooked tail

Ecology
Environment urban, rural, or underground
Organization solitary, pair or commune (3–10)
Treasure standard

Hooked Tail (Ex) Cheese gremlins have a long, prehensile tail that splits into sharp hooks at the end. It can be used to perform dirty trick or steal maneuvers with +4 circumstance bonus without provoking attacks of opportunity, uses Dexterity instead of Strength when calculating attack rolls, damage rolls, and CMB, and Climb checks, and also acts as an equivalent of a masterwork grappling hook with 10 feet rope, granting +4 circumstance bonus to Climb checks.

Sometimes you come home with your groceries, ready to sink your teeth into tasty (if occasionally smelly) piece of ripe, pungent cheese that you just bought – only to discover it's missing with no trace of it ever being in your possession, not even slightest shred...

You might have fallen victim to the predation of the cruelest gremlins of them all which stalk kitchens, pantries, ladders, cellars, and warehouses, taking any piece of cheese they can find, unattended or not. They show peculiar cunning and boldness when stealing their bounty, sometimes even going so far as to snatch pieces of cheese from a chefs hands or pull it from a boiling pot before it melts into fondue.

They almost always devour whatever cheese they can get their dirty little hands on as soon as possible, occasionally rendering themselves too gorged to move away from the scene of their perfidy. They love scorching or melting cheese on an flame, and they are very careless while doing it, often spiling melted cheese all over the place, sometimes even starting accidental fires.

A kitchen visited by both cheese and kitchen gremlins can easily turn into a nightmare for any chef and kitchen staff.

Fantasy NPC: The Eternal Tenants, A Ghost of A Peasant

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The Eternal Tenants, A Ghost Of A Peasant

A spectral silhouette in plain work clothes of a serf, carrying a hoe.

CR 10; 9,600 XP

LN Medium Undead (incorporeal)

Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9

Defense
AC 19, touch 19, flat-footed 13 (+3 deflection, +5 Dex, +1 dodge)

hp 150 (20d8+60)
Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +15

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

Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)

Melee corrupting touch +20 (10d6 plus wild growth, Reflex DC 23 partial)

Special Attacks wild growth

Statistics
Str –, Dex 20, Con –, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17

Base Atk +15; CMB +15; CMD 38
Feats Defensive Combat Training, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Hover, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lunge, Mobility, Skill Focus (Handle Animals), Skill Focus (Profession [farmer])

Skills Fly +13, Handle Animals +26, Knowledge (nature) +21, Perception +9, Profession (farmer) +30, Stealth +13

Language Common

SQ dead man herding

Dead Man Herding (Su) Dead herd animals tended to be the Ghost Of A Peasant every day remains animate as zombies or skeletons. The Ghost Of A Peasant can tend up to 40 HD of dead animals at any one time.

Wild Growth (Su) When the Ghost of A Peasant touches someone, thorny vines and other plants sprout immediately from the ground, dealing 10d6 points of damage and entangle the victim for 1d4+1 rounds. A successful Reflex saving throw halves the damage and prevents becoming entangled. Where the Ghost passes over the soil (fertile or not), light vegetation sprouts, withering into dried remnants after 1d4+1 rounds.

It is a well known fact that landlords want their tenants to dutifully work their land and pay their rents without complaint... Usually.

Not this time, though. This tenant overstayed their tenancy by lifetime or two, dying while working the fields assigned to them, only to show up on the very next day to continue going through the motions of tending to the crops and the animals on the farm.

The first replacement tenant fled in terror, another stayed for some time before vanishing quietly without trace, another probably interfered with the Ghost's work and was found dead and strangled by the withered vines. The local priest tried to put the Ghost to the rest, unsuccessfully, a hired magician failed to destroy it either.

The lands passed between the owners and yet, the Eternal Tenant stays, tending the soil and the animals forever on unfazed by the changing world around.

Fantasy Monster: Blasphemouse

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Blasphemouse

A coal-black mouse with tiny golden horns and burning red eyes.

CR 2; XP 600
NE Diminutive Magical Beast
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, smell holiness; Perception +5

Aura profane (5 ft. square)

Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +4 size)
hp 19 (3d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4

DR 5/cold iron or silver; Resist fire 5

Offense
Speed 30 ft., climb 15 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d2–3)

Ranged belch flame +8 touch (2d6 fire)

Space 1 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Statistics
Str 5, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 13
Base Atk +3; CMB +0; CMD 7
Feats Iron Will, Run
Skills Climb +5, Knowledge (religion) +1, Perception +5, Stealth +17

Languages Understands Abyssal and Infernal

Ecology
Environment temples, monasteries, ruins, desecrated tombs
Organization solitary, pair, or infestation (3–hundreds)
Treasure standard

Belch Flame (Su) A blasphemouse main way of defending itself is belching orbs of unholy fire which are treated as thrown weapon with range increment of 10 ft., and deal 2d6 points of fire damage on a successful ranged touch attack.

Profane Aura (Su) A blasphemouse is a focal point of a miniature zone of desecration that moves with it. Any nest occupied by blasphemice for at least 24 hours becomes desecrated zone as well, though this effects fades if blasphemice leave the nest unattended for more than 24 hours.

Smell Holiness (Su) A blasphemouse's scent can discern magical auras of divine nature, attracting them to things that are holy or unholy, sacred and profane. They usually seem to avoid objects and places that are druidical or shamanic in nature, though.

Most of the time, when a stray mouse finds and nibbles on holy relics, the durability of those items is more than a match for the little pest's jaws. Occasionally, though, the little beast is stubborn enough to gnaw and gnaw, and gnaw, and the item might be already worn out by time or malice, that the mouse somehow manages to damage, or even more rarely destroy the sacred item. Such blasphemy is what turns regular mice into blasphemice.

Blasphemice infest temples, monasteries, tombs and ruins, where they love to nibble on and slowly destroy consecrated objects, holy tomes, play with the remains of peaceful dead, and make nests of pieces of sacred texts. Some monks even claim that blasphemice sing perverted holy hymns while hiding in walls, but that is certainly exaggeration of disturbed old folks.

Individually, a single blasphemous doesn't do much damage, but can live for a very long time, nibble sacred texts and holy relics here and there, with the damage accumulating over the years. It is uncertain if blashemice breed true among themselves, though some monks suspect that their progeny needs to be feed shreds of holy items to grow into a proper blasphemice themselves.

Some monasteries retain monastic cats to keep blasphemice away, but there are stories of particularly cunning monastic cats taming a blasphemouse or two. There is even a tale, surely fictional, of a monastery where monastic cats and blasphemice living along side each other...

A blasphemouse can be taken as an Improved Familiar (caster level 7th).