Vote Up Another Villain! [Villain Complete!] (3.5)

[Shadow_Elf]

I also vote for Amusement. The Fey are just toying with us, and don't really care how what they do affects the material plane.

[Zeta Kai]

I was intrigued by the idea of Punch-Clock Villainy from the last VUAV thread, & it seems a bit more apt here, so that's what I shall vote for.

[afroakuma]

Guru, it is possible to vote for pure malice: malevolence. Think Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.

Those of you who voted Amusement - it wasn't actually on the chart. I felt the nearest similar option was Apathetic malice - the drive to do mischief out of boredom or without commitment. If anyone would like to debate that point, feel free.

[Drakefall]

Hmm.. well my first choice would be boredom. It's the epitome of chaotic neutral motivation to me. But since it's not a choice I'll go for Apathetic Malice for that luke warm "close enough" feel.

I must admit that I was really tempted to vote for hunger simply because the image of a humanoid Fey hexblade charging about the place and cursing everything he sees in a desperate search for a bacon sandwich almost made me fall over.

[Lyndworm]

I'll vote for Curiosity. I've had my eye on it all session.

Zack

[MattR]

Punch-Clock Villainy

[Thane of Fife]

How about Order? No? Alright then, Hunger.

[Athaniar]

I'll also go with Curiosity, but not just because everyone else is doing it, but because it fits so well with the growing concept. Which, come to think of it, is probably why everyone else is doing it.

[afroakuma]

Well, this one's gone off in a completely different direction than what I had been planning. /offrailed

The published villain likely won't see light until tomorrow, as I have company coming tonight.

[Juhn]

Also, if we're going with Fey, is there any way to vote "Incomprehensible" or "Alien Morality" for motivation? The Fair Folk don't tend to think the way we do.

Of course, if this is not an option I'll have to figure out what is closest to this.

[afroakuma]

So, what you're looking to do is give it no inherent behavioral determination? I believe I had earlier suggested that if it had an alien morality, it should still be aware of its own reason for taking such actions, which would be the way you would vote. However, if you wish to abstain from that, I would reccommend either "logic" or "insanity."

[afroakuma]

Alright, that's the vote! The villain will be motivated by Curiosity!

The published villain, the Caillteanas, should be posted sometime Saturday.

[Lord_Gareth]

Weee! FAERIES!

[afroakuma]

In progress. Just working out the class stuff at the moment; I'd never looked at a hexblade until making this villain. Should be reasonably satisfactory.

[afroakuma]

The Caillteanas
Medium Fey
Level 12 Hexblade
HD 2d6+12d10+28 (101 hp)
Speed 40 ft. (8 squares)
Init: +7
AC 31; touch 26; flat-footed 21 (+10 Dex, +6 deflection, +3 +2 padded armor, +2 natural)
BAB +13; Grp +15
Attack +1 freezing shocking longsword +16 melee (1d8+3 +1d6 cold +1d6 electric, 17-20/x2) or +1 bewitched quarterstaff +15 melee (1d6+3 + 1d4) or +1 unseelie composite longbow (+2 Str bonus) +24 ranged (1d8+3, x3)
Full Attack +1 freezing shocking longsword +16/+11/+6 melee (1d8+3 +1d6 cold +1d6 electric, 17-20/x2) or +1 bewitched quarterstaff +13/+13/+8/+5 melee (1d6+3 + 1d4) or +1 unseelie composite longbow (+2 Str bonus) +24/+19/+14 ranged (1d8+3, x3)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Hexblade's curse, bestow curse, spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities Arcane resistance, mettle, aura of unluck, changeling pact, fey step, DR 10/cold iron, SR 20, fast healing 5, unseelie myth
Saves Fort +7 Ref +18 Will +18
Abilities Str 14, Dex 30, Con 14, Int 25, Wis 23, Cha 31
Skills Bluff +23, Craft (woodcarving) +20, Diplomacy +23, Disguise +23, Hide +23, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (local) +14, Listen +18, Move Silently +23, Sense Motive +13, Spellcraft +20, Spot +18, Tumble +22, Use Magic Device +23
Feats Ability Focus (Hexblade's Curse), Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (longsword), Spell Focus (enchantment) (B), Spell Focus (necromancy) (B), Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Challenge Rating 14
Alignment Chaotic neutral

The Caillteanas is a destructive fey creature that brings woe to mortals.

The Caillteanas is a fey spirit whose natural form is that of a young elf male. His hair is red but graying at the fringes, and his eyes are those of an owl. His ears are much longer than an elf's, and he ports a small goatee. He also enjoys taking the form of an older human, usually with a long beard and carrying a bewitched quarterstaff. He also employs a host of magical items crafted or stolen over the centuries.

Combat
The Caillteanas unleashes its curses on the highest-risk foes very quickly, going invisible until it can get to a better position. It strikes hard and fast, aiming to kill.

Hexblade's Curse (Su) Three times per day, as a free action, the Caillteanas can unleash a terrible curse upon a foe. The target must be visible to the Caillteanas and within 60 ft. The target of this curse takes a -4 penalty on attacks, saves, ability checks, skill checks and weapon damage rolls for one hour thereafter. A successful Will save (DC 28) negates the effect.

Bestow Curse (Su) Once per day the Caillteanas may bestow a more potent curse on a single creature. He must be within 30 ft. of the victim and have a line of sight to them. This effect mimics a bestow curse spell cast at 20th level. A successful Will save (DC 27) blocks the curse and causes the Caillteanas to flee the area. It may keep such a person under watch for up to one month thereafter.

Spells Hexblade Spells Known (4/4/3; save DC 20 + spell level): 1st - charm person, expeditious retreat, Tasha's hideous laughter, undetectable alignment. 2nd - blindness/deafness, glitterdust, mirror image, suggestion. 3rd - confusion, slow, vampiric touch. Caster level 6th, save DCs Charisma-based.

Arcane Resistance (Su) The Caillteanas adds his Charisma bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.

Mettle (Ex) If the Caillteanas makes a successful Fortitude or Will save against an attack that normally would have a partial effect on a successful save, he instead completely negates the effect. This ability does not function while the Caillteanas is asleep or unconscious.

Aura of Unluck (Su) Once per day, as a free action, the Caillteanas may wreath itself in chaotic unseelie forces. This eldritch power causes any melee or ranged attack against the Caillteanas to have a 20% chance of missing him entirely. The aura of unluck lasts for 13 rounds.

Fey Step (Su) As an immediate action, the Caillteanas can move himself 5 feet away from his current position. This motion is instantaneous and does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The Caillteanas can attempt to use this ability in response to an attack or effect that he was unaware of, but there is a 50% chance that it will fail in such a circumstance.

Changeling Pact (Su) After successfully bestowing a curse on a mortal, the Caillteanas returns to a secluded part of the woods or a cavern, where he keeps his scrying pool. From midair he draws forth an earthen pot, and from his scrying pool he draws up the remnants of the curse victim's fleeing power and luck. These fill the clay vessel as clearest water. The Caillteanas then chooses a household with an infant, and leaves the clay pot on the doorstep, a windowsill or at the foot of a bed in the dark of night. If the water is spilled or used to wash in, even by accident, the Pact is made. The Caillteanas will know immediately, and will return to claim the infant child. He will then depart, gifting the child to the first fey he meets. Within one week, the infant will become a changeling, a fey creature identical to the young of the fey parent it was left with. The only way to refuse the Pact is to bring the pot off of one's property without spilling the water, and set it down upon dirt.

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp) At will - alter self, create water, darkness, inflict serious wounds, invisibility, levitate, scrying. 1/day - greater scrying, polymorph (animal forms only), summon swarm, touch of idiocy. Caster level 8th, save DCs Wisdom-based.

Unseelie Myth (Ex) The Caillteanas is among the high court of the unseelie; as such, no form of divination magic will reveal him, including see invisibility and true seeing, and no form of divination will garner any information on him, including contact other plane. Only a legend lore spell can supply information regarding the Caillteanas.

Equipment The Caillteanas keeps a +1 freezing shocking longsword and a +1 bewitched quarterstaff among his weapons, alongside his pride and joy, the +1 unseelie composite longbow (+2 Str bonus), issued to him long ago in the heart of the Unseelie Court. H wears +2 padded armor and keeps a wand of web and a wand of magic missile (9th level) stashed on his person at all times. He wears a cloak of charisma +6 and gloves of dexterity +6 from the unseelie world as well. It is known that he carries powerful dust of illusions with him in as small purse, and he is theorized to own a bag of holding containing, according to the tales, a deck of illusions, a harp of charming and many other bizarre and beneficial items, some of which he may capriciously donate to mortals.

The Caillteanas

Said by some to be a servant to the Queen of Air and Darkness, by others an emissary of demonic powers, the Caillteanas is a bedtime story used to scare young children who chase fairies. Most unfortunately, he is also real, a living legend whose truth has been obscured in the telling.

The Caillteanas is an elder fey from the timelost era when fairy and mortal shared the world openly. He has always had an intense curiosity regarding mortal behavior. Unable to comprehend perseverance, ambition, love and toil, he has a keen interest in the doings of humans, dwarves and other races.

The Caillteanas spent two centuries traveling the worlds of men, learning of martial combat, of spellcraft, of superstition and fate. He spent another two centuries dabbling in these arts, without coming to the answers he expected. Currently, he travels the lands, seeking to visit mortal villages and discover the answer to his unspoken question.

The Villainous Turn

As a member of the Unseelie Court, the Caillteanas has another purpose as well: to slow the progress of mankind, to disrupt their lives, and to bring them woe. With the power to deliver terrible misfortune with the merest glance, the Caillteanas is an adversarial agent of a supernatural menace. Of course, it expolits these powers to indulge several facets of its curiosity.

The Caillteanas curses mortals by depriving them of the thing they most adore, whether it be their strength, their courage, their wits or their health. He studies the effects of these misfortunes both on the victim individually and on the society as a whole, usually from the safety of a secluded scrying pool. Sometimes he will remain among the mortals, to better observe the results of his actions. If discovered, he becomes hostile and attempts to slay those who reveal him. He has also expressed an interest in wounding and killing as new experiments.

More sinister is what the Caillteanas does with the luck and power of those he curses. The elder fey presents the distilled essence of this fortune as a "gift," leaving it on the doorstep in the night. Woe to the family who overturns the pot or washes in the water! Though it will bring them great luck (+2 to all skill checks, saving throws and ability checks for one year), the spilling of the pot is a contract between the fey and the mortals. The Caillteanas becomes instantly aware of the spilling of the water, and will come immediately to collect the family's infant child, who will be stolen away to become a changeling. The Caillteanas defends the enforcement of this contract with violence, if needed.

The Caillteanas has left a path of woe in over ten thousand homes and in hundreds of villages. Nearly untraceable, only certain extreme encounters have provided any information to counter the lies told in legend.

Encounters

The Caillteanas will usually come to a village disguised as a human, integrating itself into society very rapidly. Those who antagonize the "newcomer" often find themselves the victim of terrible misfortunes. He is friendly and outgoing, keenly curious, and well-liked by most who meet him.

Eventually, a promising youth is stricken by infirmity; or the town's best hunter, who boasted of himself a better shot than the newcomer, is slaughtered by a bear. As calamity spreads, superstitious folk may blame the newcomer, or themselves, or their gods. One discernable fact, however, is that the newcomer is most definetely in the eye of the storm - he is the only one untouched by the terrible events. The theft of one or more infants is usually the final nail in the coffin for many small villages, which break down with their young population in decline.

The Caillteanas spends a fair amount of time among people in disguise, and enjoys lingering to appreciate the chaos he has caused, discerning through conversation and observation just how the chain of events proceeded. If interrupted while engaging in an "experiment," the Caillteanas will usually curse, scare off or attack those who have caught him. He is known to hold grudges for decades, twisting his curiosity to the question of "how long can these mortals survive before I destroy their lives completely?"

Plot Hooks

•A young superstitious woman has recently given birth to her first child while her husband is out of town. A mysterious earthen pot left on her doorstep has caused her to become paranoid, neglecting herself and her child in her refusal to leave the house.

•Three towns in a prosperous farming valley have been stricken with a wasting illness that claims their young, driving them to bed with weakness. The theft of babies from one town has the inhabitants up in arms, believing that one of the other towns is stealing children to repopulate itself.

•Someone from the city claims that she has seen a vampire, a red-haired man who transforms into a bat at night to fly back to his cave. Her lover led a band of drunken louts after the bat one night in a fit of booze-induced bravado, and has not returned.

•The mayor has been making foolish decisions recently, and has become more and more brusque and less sociable over the past week. The new magistrate states that the law is clear: the mayor cannot be impeached without determination of illness, which the village elders have been unable to do.

•A wandering minstrel is being warned against throughout the province, after having stolen away several small children. Witnesses say he bore a sword of ice and claimed the children as part of a "contract."

•A city is suffering under plagues of weevils, mosquitoes and bats, night after night. Leading citizens are no longer able to calm the populace, and religious leaders, after consulting with the lord's new councillor, are being slain before they can establish order. A local wizard has discovered the answer, but now fears for his life.

---

Bewitched Weapon ability: Deals an additional 1d4 damage on each attack, striking harder of its own volition. Grants a +8 bonus against Sunder and Disarm attempts. Moderate transmutation; Caster level 11th; Craft Magic Arms & Armor, animate objects; price +1 bonus.

Unseelie Weapon ability: On a hit, wielder can elect to transfer some or all of the damage into a penalty to the target's next save against a spell, spell-like or supernatural ability from an unfriendly fey. Moderate transmutation; Caster level 10th; Craft Magic Arms & Armor, bestow curse; price +2 bonus.

[vegetalss4]

Cool
this is very well done afro

[Lord_Gareth]

YAY! I like it, even if he straddles the line between CN and CE on occasion :D

We should run a game sometime with Afro as a DM...

[puppyavenger]

the Monsters Great!

[Zeta Kai]

Wow, this is amazing, Afro. You've really outdone yourself with this one. I, like many others, have been disappointed by how D&D has "normalized" fey creatures, stripping them of the mysterious & potentially-dangerous qualities that made them a staple of fantasy in the first place. In a world filled with magic, the fey shouldn't be boring. This villain is a big step in the right direction, restoring much-needed capriciousness & curses to the fey. Kudos unto thee, O AfroAkuma.

BTW, is there a Balance check required to avoid spilling a drop of water from the Pact pot? If so, what's the DC?

[afroakuma]

Thank you, all.

BTW, is there a Balance check required to avoid spilling a drop of water from the Pact pot? If so, what's the DC?

That should be left up to the DM. The trick here is that, more than likely, the housewife waking up in the morning will accidentally knock over the pot when she steps outside, or step into one left by her bed, or knock it off the windowsill when opening the windows. In other words, it's a loaded contract from the get-go. As far as removing it from your property, it shouldn't be more difficult than taking a half-filled bucket and carrying it a few hundred feet. But again, DM's discretion could make this a deadly challenge all on its own, as if even one drop leaves the pot, the bargain is sealed.

[puppyavenger]

Thank you, all.



That should be left up to the DM. The trick here is that, more than likely, the housewife waking up in the morning will accidentally knock over the pot when she steps outside, or step into one left by her bed, or knock it off the windowsill when opening the windows. In other words, it's a loaded contract from the get-go. As far as removing it from your property, it shouldn't be more difficult than taking a half-filled bucket and carrying it a few hundred feet. But again, DM's discretion could make this a deadly challenge all on its own, as if even one drop leaves the pot, the bargain is sealed.

you'd think he'd make it filled to the very tip of the rim.

[Zeta Kai]

you'd think he'd make it filled to the very tip of the rim.

That's what I thought, too, hence the question of a Balance check. I'd say a DC15 check would be rather fair, for most people (NPCs). It could be DC20 for an added challenge to PCs.

[afroakuma]

If he's cursed enough people to fill it to the brim, then I'd say DC 15 is legit. If he's monkeying with PC's, he'd probably fill it to bursting, necessitating DC 20.

[Shadow_Elf]

Wow, this is amazing, Afro. You've really outdone yourself with this one. I, like many others, have been disappointed by how D&D has "normalized" fey creatures, stripping them of the mysterious & potentially-dangerous qualities that made them a staple of fantasy in the first place. In a world filled with magic, the fey shouldn't be boring. This villain is a big step in the right direction, restoring much-needed capriciousness & curses to the fey. Kudos unto thee, O AfroAkuma.

I would like to point out that 4e DND has brought back the fey in all their eerie creepy malicious glory. None of them are nice anymore. Even Dryads beat on things on sight now!

Great job Afro. If only I knew what half these things meant...

Fluff is awesome though.

[afroakuma]

Great job Afro. If only I knew what half these things meant...

What things? Pick 'em, I'll explain 'em.

[streakster]

What things? Pick 'em, I'll explain 'em.

Pretty sure that Shadow Elf is commenting on the fact that he doesn't play 3.XE.

EDIT: Oh, and this guy is fantastic, Afro! Very legendish, if that's a word.

[Shadow_Elf]

What things? Pick 'em, I'll explain 'em.

Its just an issue of me not getting 3.5. I understand "cold damage" and "cursed target" etc. I just cant quite imagine mechanically how everything turns out. No worries though, I get the gist of it all.

EDIT: Damn, this ninja repellent is useless! What a waste of money!

[afroakuma]

Shadow: You'd be amazed. Most of it actually just reads as statistic alteration.

Streakster: thanks a lot!

[Lyndworm]

Pure excellence, Afro. You've once again proven your awesome-itude.

Zack

[Pronounceable]

I'm not disappointed. It's great, very "fae"ry. Kudos be upon Afro.

It's quite clearly CE to me, but that's all right.