Devouring Muse
Fiend · Crown of Lust
T4d10Sovereign
An androgynous winged figure of terrible beauty carved from rose quartz veined with gold, its wings made of pages from books never written. Its eyes show you what you could become if you were willing to sacrifice everything, and it speaks in the voice of your own ambition.
Tier 4 · Role Sovereign · Pool Vigor 9 / Vitality 26 · AC 14 · ATK +7 · Save DC 17 · Dmg d10
| Stat | Score | Mod | Die |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body | 8 | -1 | -d3 |
| Mind | 22 | +6 | d12 |
| Sense | 20 | +5 | d10 |
| Heart | 20 | +5 | d10 |
| Cunning | 20 | +5 | d10 |
| Fate | 18 | +4 | d8 |
Passives
Spellcasting (muse-rapture)
The Devouring Muse spins ambition into psychic sorcery, painting visions of glory and ruin in the mind of anyone who beholds it.
Creative Proximity
Regains 1 Vigor at the start of its turn while within 30 ft of someone actively creating (art, magic, crafting); starve it of creation and it withers. Flies 30 ft and cannot be knocked prone.
Maneuvers
Confusion
Its gaze scrambles a mind toward the canvas. One creature within 60 ft makes a Heart save (DC 17) or is dazed for 1 round, its hands itching to create instead of fight.
Declarations
Declared in the enemy tactical window and resolved at the start of its next turn. Any Vitality it loses first forces the disruption roll: on a 1 the telegraph is lost.
Phantasmal Slayer
Every creature within 30 ft beholds the masterwork it will never achieve, hideously real. Each makes a Heart save (DC 17): on a failure it takes 4 damage and is frightened for 1 round, on a success it takes 1 Vigor damage.
Reactions
Inspired Deflection
When hit by a spellcaster, bard, or artisan, it drinks the attack as raw inspiration: the hit deals no damage and the muse regains 1 Vigor.
Tactics
GM tactics
Opens with Confusion on the party's most creative or ambitious member, whose hands start itching for a brush instead of a blade. Uses Phantasmal Slayer against groups, showing each of them the masterwork they will never finish. Stays airborne and near anyone still working, since creation is what feeds it. Inspired Deflection makes the party's own artists and casters the worst possible answer to it.
Running it
Rules
- Shield of Tier + Heart mod over a Vitality pool of 10 + 4 x Tier. Full Vigor at combat start; at the start of its turn it rolls 4 exploding d4s and regains 1 Vigor per 4. Dead at 0 Vigor and 0 Vitality.
- A hit rolls d10. A crit rolls two: 2d10.
- Crits on a natural 15+ (Cunning 20).
- Two or three attacks in a normal turn: multiattack is the threat scaler, and one swing a round makes it a mook.
- Sovereign: 2 Sovereign Actions a round, spent after other combatants' turns, on top of its attacks.
- Any Vitality lost while a telegraph is pending forces its disruption roll; on a 1 the telegraph is lost.
- Never checks morale: it fights to 0 Vitality or to the exit written into its lowest phase.
- NPCs never take wounds.