Monster Monday – Skyborn Muse CR 7

Welcome to Monster Mondays, today we present the Skyborn Muse, a creature of inspiration and stolen voices that leads people to the stars.

Skyborn Muse CR 7

This gorgeous woman looks out of place in her surroundings, dazzling eyes always searching the skies.

XP 3,200
NE Medium fey
Init +8; Senses low-light vision; Perception +14
Aura lullaby (30 ft., DC 10 Will, DC 22 Fort)

DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 21, flat-footed 16 (+6 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 80 (12d6+36);
Fort +13, Ref +18, Will +13
Defensive Abilities DR 10/cold iron

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. (average)
Melee bite +10 (1d8+1), 2 claws +10 (1d6+1)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +18)

At willdetect thoughts (DC 17), enthrall (DC 18)
3/day—antimatter ray (DC 19), gravity bolt (DC 19), suggestion (DC 18), voidflight
1/daycharm monster (DC 20), interplanetary teleport, lesser (self-only)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 8, Cha 23
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 21
Feats Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Technologist, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +21, Diplomacy +21, Disguise +21, Fly +19, Knowledge (geography) +17, Knowledge (nature) +21, Perception +14, Sense Motive +14
Languages Aklo, Common, Lagrange Sign, Sylvan
SQ unearthly grace

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Lagrange Sign (Su

The skyborn muse can communicate in a special sign language. Those who are not fluent in Lagrange Sign can understand her with a DC 10 Linguistics check, or a DC 15 Sense Motive check. Each time a creature successfully understands Lagrange Sign they must make a Will save DC 22, or permanently gain it as a known language.

Every year that a creature knows Lagrange Sign, they must make a Will save DC 17, or permanently be incapable of speaking one of their other known languages. Once a creature is unable to speak in any language they become permanently mute, any spells that normally have verbal components now have emotional components instead.

Before a creature becomes permanently mute, lagrange sign can be cured with remove curse. Cured creatures can regain the ability to speak at the rate of one language a week. Creatures that become permanently mute can only be cured with limited wish, wish, or miracle.  Any creature that gains lagrange sign can potentially spread the language to others, the saving throw to resist learning lagrange sign is 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha modifier.

Lagrange sign is a mind-affecting, language based curse. The skyborn muse is immune to the muting effects of lagrange sign.

Lullaby Aura (Su

Creatures in a 30-foot radius of the skyborn muse must succeed on a DC 10 will save or fall asleep. Sleeping creatures are helpless. Slapping or wounding awakens an affected creature, but normal noise does not. Awakening a creature is a standard action.

All creatures in the lullaby aura that are not asleep must succeed at a DC 22 Fortitude save or take a -1 penalty to all attack rolls, saves, and skill checks. Each round a creature fails its Fortitude save, this penalty accumulates up to a total of -8. This is a curse effect. Sleeping for at least one round removes the curse. Creatures that are immune to sleep are still vulnerable to the curse. The skyborn muse can activate or deactivate the lullaby aura as a free action.

Obsession (Su

A muse can choose an intelligent creature to inspire and serve as a muse by kissing a willing creature. As long as the muse retains her favor for this creature and as long as the curse isn’t broken, the creature gains a +4 insight bonus on all Craft checks and Knowledge checks. Additionally, the chosen creature counts as having the feats Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Technological Item and Technologist, for the purposes of creating vehicles. The creature takes an additional -4 penalty on Will saving throws, concentration checks, and all other skill checks.

As long as the obsession persists, the muse can communicate telepathically with the target across any distance (and may use her suggestion spell-like ability through it.) Obsession is removed by remove curse. The muse can remove it as well as a free action. A skyborn muse can only obsess about one creature at a time in this manner.

Stolen Voices (Su

The skyborn muse can use any of the voices stolen by lagrange sign. When disguised as an individual whose voice has been stolen, she is able to replicate the voice perfectly. Observers do not get a perception bonus from familiarity to see through the skyborn muse’s disguise and bluff checks.

Unearthly Grace (Su

A muse adds her Charisma modifier as a racial bonus on all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class.

ECOLOGY

Environment terrestrial cities
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

The desire for space travel did not begin when the technology was available, but far earlier, when people could first see and become captivated by the stars. For many who saw the stars and planets and satellites moving across the night sky, the distant skies would be forever out of reach, lacking the technology and knowledge to leave the atmosphere.

Sometimes they are sent an invitation. Skyborn muses scour the planets looking for dreamers who wish to explore and deliver to them the inspiration and knowledge they need to start building their own spaceships. While the muses could just give the technology directly, they usually prefer to lead their victims into discovering it themselves, giving hints both direct and supernatural to drive them towards their goals.

Their inspiration is costly, often driving their victims mad, rendering them incapable of sleeping or concentrating on anything else beyond their new obsession. Many of those the muses inspire get burnt up or kill themselves in industrial accidents well before they ever finish their spaceships, but for every hundred would be inventors who become consumed, one succeeds, and develops a basic spaceflight vehicle.

Whether these early vehicles are capable of only transporting their inventor or massive colonies, the skyborn muse sticks around long enough to see the vessel launch, often helpfully providing helpful navigational coordinates and a list of destinations to go to. Few of these ships return from their maiden voyages.



About Kevin Bryan

Kevin Bryan is a monster writer for the Open Gaming Network, and is looking forward to bringing all sorts of strange and bizarre creatures to life. His personal website is Kevinswriting.com.

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