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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 5668858" data-attributes="member: 20323">The StrighaThis is a long story of what I did with "the strigha", a homebrew monster. It was a level 8 solo against a party of six level 5 PCs. I stole the concept wholesale from The Witcher video game.*    *     * Setup Returning to the king's castle after an adventure, the PCs find ominous signs reading "beware the strigha", protective fetishes hanging at the crossroads, and as the sun sinks everyone rushes indoors. The fear is palpable.The PCs are contracted to investigate a series of murders, often of clergy, always of people whose deaths were especially convenient for a wicked prince jockeying for the throne. As part of the back story they learned Princess Merisende had once suffered a curse which nearly killed her and several others, but that the Abbess, a woman of great faith, was able to help the princess control the curse. In time, it was all but forgotten. Afraid her daughter may have succumbed to the curse, the Queen asks the PCs to investigate.... but not to kill the creature unless they are certain it is not the princess transformed.<img src="http://theplayisthething.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/old-vizima.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />*     *     * Legends & Lore "What the hell is a strigha?" Cue the knowledge checks... Arcana DC 25: A strigha is a shapeshifting monster created by a powerful curse. Its abilities are a distorted shadow of its human form and history, though it is always fiercely strong. History DC 20: Several years ago, the region was haunted by a series of murders, purportedly by a strigha. A knight named Dame Aleera killed it. Religion DC 20: The strigha is a rare form of female shapeshifting vampire that masquerades as human during the day and becomes a monster at night. Whether it is aware of its state is ambiguous. Religion DC 25: She exists between life and death, usually the result of a tragic accident. Her human form appears to die before she transforms into a nocturnal monster. Holy texts tell of strigha emerging from graves, having been buried by their families who thought them dead. *     *     * The Investigation Investigating the most recent attack on the former royal jailer, they find that the creature didn't enter through the front door (above which hung unicorn root, a fertility/fortune herb). It paced around and finally scampered up the side of the house through a window. They find a lock of red hair - the same color as the princess and the queen. The jailer's widow reports that he went into a catatonic state just before death, his eyes filming over with cataracts and he began saying strange things. A PC notices the strigha went out of its way to destroy a saint's icon - St. Lysander, patron of crusaders, lawyers and justices. There are no mirrors in the house. The widow reveals what happened to a mirror, and why she removed them. An blurry image of a ghostly red-haired woman flickers in the cracked mirror, pointing to a secret door in the room. The players get freaked out by this (IRL a window slammed right then and everybody jumped). Behind the secret panel they find a letter which suggests who the next target might be - a local justice. *     *     *Waiting for the Strigha Heading over to the local justice that blustery evening, the PCs try to figure out why the strigha might go after him. They expect the attack at midnight like the last attack. Guards with lanterns are posted around the manor and the justice and his family hide upstairs. The PCs split themselves, half upstairs, half downstairs. Finding some weak floorboards upstairs, the rogue sets up a "pit trap" covered with a carpet. They barricade the front door. There's a tense period of waiting, with cedar trees scraping against the side of the manor, eerie shadows cast under the light of the nearly new moon, and several false alarms. The justice's children begin to cry. Then comes the shout from a running guard that the horses have been brutally killed. Out of the night, a blurred monster tackles the guard and drags him away screaming. The PCs decide not to go outside and wait for the strigha to attack. <img src="http://www.gamebanshee.com/thewitcher/bestiary/images/striga.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> *     *     * The Attack, part 1 The strigha suddenly breaks through a 2nd floor window and grabs one of the PCs, choking them against the wall. I show them a picture of it and describe its hideous form. At this point the players are nervous cause this creature is a big unknown, there's been a big "creepy" factor to their investigation, they're not supposed to use lethal force, and they need to protect this terrified family. Fortunately, the quick thinking invoker blasts the strigha through the window it entered from with a lance of radiance from his rod. They hear a loud crash, thump! Looking out the window they see the strigha scamper around the side of the manor. They're not quite so scared, but they're wondering where would it attack from next? The justice begins to panic and makes plans to get his family out of there, asking his guards to go through the front door. Adamantly opposed, the PCs intimidate the guards to stand down. Right then, the strigha attacks again, leaping through through the hearth! In a shower of soot and shattered brick, she grabs the justice's leg and bounds toward a window with him, slamming the swordmage and a guard into the wall as she goes by. Thinking quick the swordmage teleported in front of the strigha, barring her escape route. The PCs unleashed a ton of hurt on the creature, freeing the justice and sending his family downstairs as the rest of the PCs came up the stairs to join the fray. Surrounded, the strigha unleashes a blood-curdling roar and, scrambling across the walls, she attacks the lanterns in the room, plunging the PCs into darkness momentarily. When they get light back, they don't see the strigha though a trail of her blood leads to a window. They think they've driven her off, but the invoker invoker warns everyone to stay vigilant and the bard goes downstairs to guard the family. Just then the bard sees the last two guards panic and unbolt the front door to flee. The strigha leaps down on the guards and bites one's face off. With a quick spell the bard slams and bars the door. The screams of the second guard fill the night as his body is slammed against the door from the outside. Gathering downstairs - save for the rogue who peered out the upstairs window to keep a lookout - the PCs nurse their wounds and set up quick defenses to protect the family. *     *     * The Attack, part 2 The breeze picks up outside and clouds pass over the faint crescent of the moon, and several lanterns outside the manor go out, save for one which a guard outside dropped, leaving a small fire near the front of the house. That's when the rogue notices the mauled dead guard upstairs convulses and his eyes begin to film over, and a gasy voice says one word "betrayal." The strigha creeps through the 2nd floor window, unnoticed by the rogue, grabbing her and throwing her into a statue across the room; bounding after her, the strigha lunges for her face, knocking her back... and they both hit the rogue's trap. In a last ditch attempt, the rogue grabs the edge of the splintered floorboards, but the strigha plummets to the first floor with a shriek. Springing to action, the PCs  set up a series of killer combos which bloody the strigha. Then the rogue leaps down on the strigha's back and backstabs for a ton of damage. Raging, the strigha hurls the rogue off her back. As the creature staggers backward, the PCs notice the black blood on their blades turns red. In a mirror for a moment the bard glimpses an image of the princess reflected from the strigha. The strigha lets out a plaintive cry at the cowering justice. A moment of hesitation costs the merciful bard as the strigha lunges for his throat, dropping him to 0 HP, grabbing him and scrambling out a side entrance, blowing the door off its hinges. Chasing after their dying ally, the PCs manage to get her to drop the bard and stabilize him, but the strigha escapes into the night. They were much more confident about facing the strigha again, but they were pretty shaken by the suspense and horror of the whole situation. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> </blockquote>

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