NightripperTwin talons attached to grotesque back-appendages drip blood from this hideously emaciated, jackal-legged albino demon.Nightripper CR 24Source Inner Sea Bestiary pg. 34
XP 1,228,800
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect law, true seeing; Perception +36
Aura unholy aura (DC 25)DefenseAC 42, touch 25, flat-footed 31 (+4 deflection, +11 Dex, +17 natural)
hp 526 (27d10+378); regeneration 15 (good weapons or spells)
Fort +27, Ref +30, Will +25
DR 15/cold iron and good; Immune charm and compulsion effects, death effects, electricity, poison; Resist acid 30, cold 30, fire 30; SR 35OffenseSpeed 60 ft.
Melee +5 vorpal bastard sword +43/+38/+33/+28 (1d10+18/17–20), claw +31 (2d6+4/19–20 plus 2d6 bleed), 2 talons +31 (1d6+4/19–20 plus 2d6 bleed)
Space 5 ft., Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with talons)
Special Attacks curse of living death, slowing gaze, sneak attack +3d6, swift cuts, sword mastery
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +27)
Constant—airwalk, detect good, detect law, freedom of movement, true seeing, unholy aura (DC 25)
At will—greater dispel magic, greater teleport, phantasmal killer (DC 21), spiked pitAPG (DC 20), telekinesis (DC 22)
3/day—acid pitAPG (DC 21), quickened blade barrier (DC 23), harm (DC 23), hungry pitAPG (DC 22)
1/day—reverse gravity, summon (level 9, any demon or combination of demons whose total combined CR is 20 or lower 100%), time stop, weird (DC 26)StatisticsStr 29, Dex 32, Con 39, Int 18, Wis 23, Cha 24
Base Atk +27; CMB +36; CMD 61
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Deadly Stroke, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword)B, Greater Feint, Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword)B, Greater Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)B, Improved Critical (bastard sword, claw, talon), Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Quicken Spell- Like Ability (blade barrier), Shatter Defenses, Weapon Focus (bastard sword)B, Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)B
Skills Acrobatics +41, Intimidate +37, Knowledge (history, local, religion) +31, Knowledge (nobility) +34, Perception +36, Sense Motive +36, Stealth +41, Use Magic Device +37
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic; telepathy 300 ft.
SQ nascent demon lord traitsEcologyEnvironment any (Kurnugia)
Organization solitary
Treasure triple (+5 keen vorpal bastard sword, other treasure)Special AbilitiesCurse of Living Death (Su) Once per round, as a free action as he kills a living creature, Nightripper can choose to afflict that target with the curse of living death. The target can resist this curse with a successful DC 30 Will save right before it dies, allowing the victim to die normally. If the victim fails its save, it enters a sort of half-living state; it becomes completely helpless, unable to take any actions whatsoever, but remains conscious and aware of the world, and of the pain in its body. It cannot be resurrected or otherwise restored to life until the curse is lifted. While the curse remains in effect, the victim takes 1d4 points of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma drain every day as any lingering shreds of sanity are blasted away. When each ability score is drained to zero, the DC of the curse increases by +4. A character suffering the curse of living death can remain in this state forever, but as long as any one of her mental ability scores is at zero, she is capable only of enduring pain and cannot observe the world around her. Even if the character’s body is destroyed, the cursed victim’s consciousness remains as a disembodied and invisible presence at the site of this destruction, and cannot be resurrected or released to the afterlife. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Nascent Demon Lord Traits A nascent demon lord is a powerful demon that has not yet made the full transition from unique demon to full demon lord of an Abyssal realm. They have several traits, as summarized here. - Immunity to charm and compulsion effects, death effects, electricity, and poison.
- Resistance to acid 30, cold 30, and fire 30.
- Summon (Sp) Once per day, Nightripper can summon any demon or combination of demons whose total combined CR is 20 or lower. This ability always works, and is equivalent to a 9th-level spell.
- Telepathy 300 feet.
- Nightripper’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon he wields, are treated as chaotic, epic, and evil for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
- Nightripper can grant spells to his worshipers. He grants access to the domains of Chaos, Darkness, Evil, and Strength. His favored weapon is the bastard sword.
Slowing Gaze (Su) Slowed (as the slow spell) for 1 round, 30 feet, Will DC 30 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Swift Cuts (Ex) As long as he is attacking with a sword, Nightripper treats foes who are staggered, nauseated, or under the effects of a slow spell (or similar effects, such as his gaze) as if they were flat-footed.
Sword Mastery (Ex) Nightripper possesses several sword-related bonus feats normally restricted to fighters.DescriptionEven today, centuries after his 13th and final execution, memories of Riktus Scroon continue to haunt the nightmares of those who live along the northern coastlines of the Inner Sea. During his reign of horror, the man who would come to be known as the Nightripper used his position in the now disbanded Graven Guard of Taldor to move along the shipping lanes with ease. His position among the mercenary company afforded him time in countless settlements from Golisfar to Corentyn, and in these unsuspecting towns he hunted. Scroon preferred young victims, that their vanishing would cause the most distress possible—his favorites were young adults freshly in love, although he seemed to have had no preference between man or woman. He abducted his victims with astonishing skill, tormenting them for hours with his blades before leaving them broken and bleeding to death at the bottom of a specially prepared pit far outside of town. The mass murderer was finally captured by Cesandra Dayne, an obsessed priest of Sarenrae who had lost her fiancee and her father to Scroon. Only by forsaking the teachings of her church was she able to trap the murderer in the slums of Almas, and although the resulting fight saw the death of a dozen innocent bystanders, in the end Cesandra had her man alive.
After Scroon was turned over to the law in his hometown of Oppara, the authorities thought to prosecute him for the deaths of no fewer than 46 known victims. When Scroon gleefully bragged of having murdered nearly a thousand men, women, and children, the authorities were eager to write off his ravings, yet after Scroon provided exacting details to the sites of 953 victims, and one after the other his directions led to actual graves, the killer’s sentencing was hastened—death by hanging. Yet Scroon survived. One after the other, attempts to execute the Nightripper failed—headsmen died of fright as they lifted the axe, guillotines malfunctioned, magic failed. Each botched execution left Scroon more disfigured, but his legend grew. The 13th and final execution put the man down once and for all—or so it was hoped.
Scroon’s soul went to the Boneyard, where something amazing happened—he passed through to the Abyss with his mind and memories intact. So remarkable was his retention of his identity that it drew the attention of Lamashtu herself, who pulled the killer’s soul from the shuddersome bosom of the Abyss and made him her personal assassin, raising him from a broken shell of a soul to a nascent demon lord with greater power than he’d ever hoped for in life. His form had changed, transforming into a shape more befitting one of his horrific nature, yet his mind remained sharp and clear. Nightripper harbors a strong desire for revenge, but for now he serves dutifully as Lamashtu’s favored torturer and assassin and as the lord of the dungeons below her palace in the Abyssal realm of Kurnugia. But it is said that someday, when he has repaid his debt to the Mother of Demons for his ascension and rescue from the dregs of the Abyss, the Nightripper will return to his old haunts. Only this time, it will not be individuals he breaks and bleeds and buries in his pits—it will be entire cities.
|