Suffragan

Bladed whips and spiked chains sprout from the stumps of this humanoid torso’s amputated limbs. Elongated saw blades loll out of its distended mouth.

Suffragan CR 5

XP 1,600
LE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar, kyton, lawful)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural)
hp 51 (6d10+18); regeneration 2 (good weapons and spells, silver weapons)
Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +8
DR 5/good or silver; Immune cold; SR 16

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 4 bladed limbs +8 (1d6+1 plus trip)

STATISTICS

Str 13, Dex 16, Con 17, Int 11, Wis 16, Cha 14
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 21 (25 vs. trip)
Feats Dodge, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bladed limb)
Skills Acrobatics +12, Climb +9, Heal +12, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (planes) +6, Perception +12, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +12
Languages Common, Infernal
SQ configuration of chains, slow fall

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Bladed Limbs (Ex)

The chains and bladed whips extruding from a suffragan’s stumps can deal piercing or slashing damage, as chosen by the suffragan with each attack.

Configuration of Chains (Ex)

As a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, a suffragan can choose the configuration of the blades and chains sprouting from its amputated limbs. The suffragan’s configuration of chains affects its number of attacks, its reach, its base speed, and its climb speed, in addition to affecting other statistics or granting additional abilities, depending on the configuration. The configurations available to the suffragan are described below, and the suffragan retains the selected configuration until it spends a swift action to change it. Most suffragans frequently use the old form configuration, which is reflected in the statistics above.

  • Midnight’s Blessing Configuration: The suffragan rolls onto its back and extends all of its chains and whips to their full lengths. The kyton can make up to eight bladed limb attacks each round and has a reach of 10 feet. Its base speed and climb speed are 5 feet.
  • Old Form Configuration: The suffragan uses the chains and whips sprouting from the stumps of its amputated legs to walk. The kyton can make up to four bladed limb attacks each round and gains the trip special ability with its bladed limb attacks. Its base speed and climb speed are both 30 feet, and it gains a +4 bonus to its CMD against trip combat maneuvers.
  • Prowler Configuration: The suffragan uses most of its chains and whips for locomotion while hunched low to the ground like a beetle. The kyton can make up to two bladed limb attacks each round. Its base speed and climb speed are both 50 feet, and it gains the pounce ability as well as a +8 bonus to its CMD against bull rush, reposition, or trip combat maneuvers.

Slow Fall (Ex)

A suffragan in any configuration can use its bladed whips and chains to slow its fall. When within reach of a wall, a suffragan can slow its descent and fall any distance without harm.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Plane of Shadow)
Organization solitary, pair, or tangle (3-6)
Treasure standard

Born from the twisted souls of the Joyful Things-suffragans appear as humanoid torsos with chains or barbed whips sprouting from the stumps of their amputated arms and legs. Suffragans display an uncanny ability to reconfigure their barbed limbs to suit any task at hand. When desperate or when fighting a cornered foe, most suffragans roll onto their backs to strike with a tempest of chains and whips. Albeit uncommon, other suffragan configurations include wings or fins made of interlocked limbs. A suffragan’s face is as much a horrific fusion of metal and flesh as its body. Barbed blades droop from its mouth, its tongue replaced with jagged metal that undulates eerily. Like all kytons, suffragans delight in inflicting terror and suffering, particularly upon the pure and weak. They enjoy giving captives small, overlapping, painful lashes with their barbs and blades. Suffragans often refer to their torturous work as blessings they are bestowing on their cruel god’s behalf, though their words are garbled around their mouth blades.

A suffragan kyton stands about 5 feet tall and weighs 160 pounds.

Suffragan kytons are born from the souls of Joyful Things who were so warped and depraved in their post-ritual transformations that they became true servants: kytons. Newly created suffragans lack appendages, but they quickly and eagerly embrace the kyton desire to improve their flesh. For suffragans, this means affixing chains and whips to their stumps. As the creatures had long ago shed their attachment to typical human forms, suffragans learn how to reconfigure their limbs as needed to suit the task at hand. Suffragans take pride in the bladed metal drooping from their mouths, replacing those components frequently with longer, sharper, or more brightly colored pieces of metal. They understand that their distinctive facial features evoke revulsion or even fascination in others, but they typically misinterpret this attention as adoration rather than horror.

Suffragans serve loyally as functionaries and majordomos to eremites in the massive sanctuaries on the Plane of Shadow. The suffragans skitter about these echoing structures, carrying about their various tasks with fervent devotion. Suffragans have no need to eat or drink, and they are often so long out of the habit-having been fed through feeding tubes or magic while they were mortal-that they seem to have entirely forgotten how to. Suffragans understand that other creatures must eat, and they take delight in preparing what they believe to be elaborate meals for their mortal victims. Unfortunately, a suffragan’s ideas of food range from the unusual (such as a bowl of moth wings) to the gruesome (such as lumps of flesh cut from the suffragan’s torso).

Habitat & Society

Even among the inscrutable kytons, suffragans have a particularly alien mind-set. Suffragans don’t feel at all bound by the humanoid shape; they switch between climbing, crawling, and walking without much thought. When suffragans deign to take on humanoid forms, they seem to have forgotten how to move in that form, walking with painfully twisted torsos or in a disturbing crouch. Other kytons often find suffragans’ zealous dedication off-putting and prefer to assign them to minor tasks or other busywork to keep them occupied and out of the way. Suffragans tend to take great pride in these tasks, no matter how menial, believing they are loyally serving more powerful or devout kytons.

Suffragans often serve as torturers or jailers and take a particular, sadistic glee in the pain they inflict upon mortal victims. Generally, kytons utilize torture now as an end to itself, but rather as a gateway to a perverse form of enlightenment or as a debasing method of dominance. Suffragans blur this line, however. They are among the cruelest pain inflictors and the most zealous servants among their kind. They believe that their own bodily transformations-as well as the excruciating pain they have endured and continue to suffer-are the purest and most powerful method of worshiping the Midnight Lord. Thus, they seek to perpetuate this evil obeisance through inflicting what they refer to as blessings upon any who fall into their grasp.

As suffragans switch easily and naturally between their configurations, they are often quite comfortable with other creatures that have malleable forms. Suffragans particularly like oozes, keeping them as pampered pets when possible and feeding them cast-off bits of flesh or the remains of their victims. Suffragans find doppelgangers and faceless stalkers intriguing, and such captives might earn an opportunity to escape by promising an entertaining display of shape-shifting.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Nidal, Land of Shadows © 2018, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Liane Merciel, with Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, and Mark Moreland.

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