|
 Perhaps you need to add to your stable of psionic creatures so that you can keep your players on their toes? If so, take a look at the entries for new creatures below, or print them out and take them to your gaming table. You never know when an intriguing adventure idea will pop into your head simply by looking at a new monster!
Usunag
A swelling cloud of greenish vapor hovers above the fetid water, with two points of light glittering like stars in its upper billows. A strong smell of mold and decay fills the air.
Usunag CR 8
Usually CN Huge fey (psionic)
Init +8; Senses low-light vision, scent; Listen +16, Spot +16
Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan; telepathy 120 ft.
AC 20, touch 20, flat-footed 12; Dodge, Mobility
(-2 size, +8 Dex, +4 deflection)
hp 75 (10 HD); DR 10/cold iron
Immune mind-affecting, paralysis, petrification, poison, polymorph, sleep, sonic, stunning
Resist acid 10
Fort +9, Ref +15, Will +10
Weakness vulnerability to sunlight
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect) (6 squares)
Melee slam +11 (1d8+1)
Space 15 ft; Reach 15 ft.
Base Atk +5; Grp +14
Psi-Like Abilities (ML 7th):
At will--aura sight, aversion (9 hours, DC 20*), crisis of breath (animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, DC 20*), detect psionics, psionic suggestion (3 targets, DC 18)
3/day -- death urge (DC 20)
* Includes augmentation for the usunag's manifester level
Abilities Str 12, Dex 26, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 17, Cha 23
SQ choking vapor, fey traits, gas mantle, gaseous
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Mobility, Weapon Finesse
Skills Concentration +17, Diplomacy +8, Hide +21, Listen +16, Move Silently +29, Search +14, Sense Motive +16, Spot +16
Advancement 11-20 HD (Huge)
Choking Vapor (Ex) Creatures within a usunag's space must make a DC 19 Fortitude saving throw or be nauseated for 1d3 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures with the scent ability take a -2 penalty on their saving throws against this effect.
Gas Mantle (Ex) A usunag applies its Constitution bonus as a deflection bonus to Armor Class.
Gaseous (Ex) A usunag is not subject to critical hits or flanking. It is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, polymorph, petrification, and stunning effects. It can pass through small holes or narrow openings, even mere cracks, and can move over difficult terrain without impediment. A usunag can occupy the same space as a creature of any size. It can move through a foe's space without impediment, but provokes attacks of opportunity if it does so. A usunag cannot be tripped, grappled, or bull rushed, unless it chooses to be affected. A usunag is treated as one size smaller for special size modifiers to an opposed check, and two sizes smaller when determining the effects of wind.
Sunlight Vulnerability (Ex) Direct sunlight suppresses a usunag's psionics. It cannot use psi-like abilities while in natural sunlight, or target opponents in sunlight with these effects.
Skills A usunag gains a +8 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
A usunag is a foglike swamp-dweller that controls the minds of invading creatures with its psychic manipulation. It abides natural creatures and fey, but bears an unwelcoming hostility to other creatures. Those who encounter this strange fey during the night are likely to be left mired in some trackless bog or never found.
Strategies and Tactics
Usunags are solitary creatures that resent the presence of most living things in their demesne. They initially respond by mentally compelling intruders to leave, but resort to more deadly measures if the target is particularly annoying or persistent. The usunag prefers to remain concealed, using psionic powers to dispatch its opponents, but it is not shy about continuing the attack if spotted. When fighting in daylight or melee, it smothers opponents with its choking vapor.
Sample Encounters
Creatures that rest near a usunag's swamp or attempt to pass through it after dusk are certain to draw its attention. Settlers building too near will be harassed on a nightly basis as the usunag attempts to get rid of them, and woe betide those who attempt to make it move instead.
Individual (EL 8): A usunag has recently made its home next to one of the few safe paths through the marshland. Any travelers who stop nearby are scattered into the waterways by the disgruntled usunag.
Marshland Scourge (EL 11): Irritated by the continual forays of hunters into its domain, a usunag has begun a crusade to wipe out the villages on the edge of the marsh. It has cultivated four shambling mounds, which it leads on its nighttime attacks.
Ecology
|
Usunag Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (psionics) can learn more about usunags. When the character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
Knowledge (nature)
DC Result
20 This creature is a usunag, a misty fey that lives in swamplands. This result reveals all fey traits.
25 Usunags loathe intruders and can suffocate them with the choking vapor of their bodies. They are usually seen when they roam the swamps at night.
30 Usunags can toy with a creature's mind, but they lose this power in the light of the sun.
Knowledge (psionics)
DC Result
20 This creature is a usunag, a psionic fey that lives in swamplands. Its body is little more than fog.
25 Usunags can use their psionic powers to twist the minds of those that oppose them, and they can even steal a creature's breath or make it take its own life.
30 A usunag loses its psionic powers in daylight.
|
An extremely temperamental inhabitant of the swamplands, the usunag lives on the stench given off by decaying plant matter and similar scents. This dependence on odors makes the usunag uncomfortable whenever the natural smell of its surroundings changes, and it attempts to remove the offending scent. When no odors annoy it, the usunag drifts gently over the marsh, moving slowly from one source of pleasant swamp fragrance to another.
Usunags are born when the stars of a moonless night shine on heavy mists, and lost travelers wander through the damp darkness. They fold together from mist and starlight, and feelings of quiet solitude, mixed in the heavy reek of mud. Those that persist grow stronger throughout their lives.
Environment: Usunags dwell in marshes of all sorts, but they vary slightly in nature depending on their habitat. Those that live in warmer swamps are more violent and temperamental, while those in cold swamps are calmer but more sinister.
Typical Physical Characteristics: A usunag's body is made of nothing more than a dense mist, which is faintly luminous and tinged with green. Two sparkling points of light serve as the creature's eyes, but it lacks any other distinguishing features. Depending on how fast it is moving, a usunag's body is 10 to 20 feet in length. It is light enough to float on the breeze.
Alignment: Usunags are usually chaotic neutral, bearing no particular ill-will when not disturbed, but easily roused by minor infractions. Usunags in cold marshes tend toward neutral and evil, tormenting and destroying creatures foolish enough to tread in their territory.
Society
While usunags have no absolute need for other fey, they enjoy their company and occasionally appear at nighttime revels or come to their aid. These are also the only time two are likely to be found together, since usunags in close proximity are in constant competition for the most delectable scents.
When not otherwise occupied, usunags cultivate plants and plant creatures to enrich their fetid homes, sink stray bodies in the mud, or chase insect swarms through the air. Evil usunags amuse themselves by abducting humanoids.
Typical Treasure
Usunags have standard treasure for their Challenge Rating: about 3,400 gp. This treasure consists mostly of precious metals and other materials that do not succumb to common rust or rot. The usunag dumps these trinkets in a nearby mud wallow, along with any unpleasant-smelling bodies.
|
 |
