Sceazir

This winged, six-legged creature seems to be constructed of dark crystal. Its mouth is disproportionately large for its wolfish head, gaping open to display rows of jagged teeth, and its spiky, many-jointed legs bend in unsettling ways.

Sceazir CR 9

XP 6,400
NE Large outsider (extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 120 ft., lifesense, low-light vision; Perception +9

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 14, flat-footed 17 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +8 natural, –1 size)
hp 114 (12d10+48)
Fort +8, Ref +12, Will +10
Defensive Abilities negative energy affinity; DR 10/adamantine or good; Immune cold, death effects, disease, energy drain, poison; Resist acid 10, electricity 10, sonic 10

OFFENSE

Speed 60 ft., fly 120 ft. (good)
Melee bite +16 (1d8+5), 4 claws +17 (1d6+5/19–20)
Special Attacks entropic ruin, pounce, voidfury

STATISTICS

Str 21, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +18; CMD 33 (41 vs. trip)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Acrobatics +8, Fly +18, Perception +9, Stealth +16, Survival +8; Racial Modifiers +4 Fly, +8 Stealth
SQ bond of the void

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Bond of the Void (Su)

Sceazirs have an innate connection with sceaduinars and can intuitively understand their commands. A sceazir with a sceaduinar rider forms a telepathic connection with the rider, allowing the sceaduinar to control its sceazir mount as a free action.

A sceazir follows the commands of a sceaduinar rider to the best of its ability, but it almost never allows any other creature to use it as a mount.

Entropic Ruin (Ex)

When a sceazir is slain, its body explodes in a burst of negative energy. All creatures within a 20-foot burst take 8d6 points of negative energy damage and become fatigued. A creature can halve this damage and negate the fatigue with a successful DC 20 Reflex save. If a creature was already fatigued when it fails this save, it becomes exhausted instead. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Voidfury (Ex)

Sceazirs have an instinctive loathing for positive energy. When targeted with positive energy (such as a cure spell or channeled energy), a sceazir immediately flies into a fury, as the rage spell, for 2d6 rounds.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Negative Energy Plane)
Organization solitary, voidpair (1 plus 1 sceaduinar) or howling (4–8)
Treasure none

Vicious and brutal predators, sceazirs are born from the substance of the Negative Energy Plane in much the same way as the plane’s more intelligent inhabitants, sceaduinars. Though they possess only an animalistic intelligence, sceazirs loathe all forms of life and unlife and are quick to hunt down anything they detect in their territory that is not native to the Negative Energy Plane.

They are unnaturally fast, moving with equal ease on the ground or through the air. Due to sceazirs’ speed and skill at tracking, sceaduinars often use them as mounts or beasts of burden. Sceazirs can understand the commands of a sceaduinar rider through a telepathic bond and carry out such commands obediently, but they almost never accept non-sceaduinar riders.

A sceazir is typically 11 feet long, stands 6 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighs about 900 pounds.

Scholars are unsure of the exact catalysts that cause the “births” of the Negative Energy Plane’s strange entropic creatures, and due to the plane’s hostile environment, attempts to study the subject are difficult and limited. Like sceaduinars, sceazirs are born from crystalline formations made of the Negative Energy Plane’s hypersaturation of negative energy, hatching fully grown from egg-like cocoons. Academics speculate that the similarities in this creation process are what form the connection that allows sceaduinars to telepathically command sceazirs.

Sceazirs’ bodies are formed of dark purple crystal, and their heads are somewhat wolflike, though with mouths far wider than those of any mortal canines. Their six manyjointed, insectile legs, terminating in jagged claws, give them an unnerving, skittering appearance when moving across the ground. In flight, their wings vibrate at a speed not easily discernible by the mortal eye, so they appear to be completely still even as they swoop down on victims.

Their speed, stealth, and ability to sense living creatures make them highly efficient predators.

It is rumored that even larger and more powerful sceazirs inhabit the dark reaches of the Negative Energy Plane, though if such creatures do exist, none who have encountered them survived to verify these rumors.

Habitat and Society

As bestial creatures driven primarily by instinctual hatred, sceazirs do not have anything that could properly be called a society of their own. They are often influenced more by sceaduinars than their own inclinations. Though the egg formations containing sceazirs arise spontaneously, sceaduinars residing in the area typically tend them to ensure the eggs hatch safely. This process also ensures that the newly birthed sceazirs bond to the attending sceaduinars, providing a ready source of mounts when needed. A sceazir is loyal to its sceaduinar rider, although the bond is not necessarily exclusive; sceazirs take commands from any sceaduinar, provided they do not conflict with the commands of a sceaduinar that is already commanding them. It is unusual to see more than a single sceazir and sceaduinar together, however, and the presence of multiple pairs always indicates they are joining together against something they consider to be a significant threat.

Sceazirs birthed into the harsh wilds of the Negative Energy Plane are left to their own devices unless found by a sceaduinar with a need for their service. These sceazirs roam the plane hunting for prey, often forming packs.

Packs have a loose hierarchy, with the strongest sceazir in the group acting as the leader, without other defined roles.

Although they have no real need to eat, they enjoy seeking out both living and undead creatures to devour, gleefully tearing their prey to pieces. The relative rarity of intruders to the Negative Energy Plane means that sceazirs eagerly track down any new arrivals they detect in their territory. They especially loathe those capable of using positive energy and target such foes with particular ferocity.

Whether they are solitary or part of a pack, sceazirs mark their territory by digging nests out of the entropic substance that forms the Negative Energy Plane’s environs. Sceazir nests generally take the form of caves or deep pits, and they can be identified by the swirled, geometrical patterns of claw marks across the ground and exterior. These patterns are unique to each sceazir or pack, and they cause a disturbing sense of vertigo to living creatures who look into them for too long.

Curiously, sceazirs seem to have an inborn terror of the Negative Energy Plane’s other inhabitants, nightshades. This aversion goes far beyond that of sceaduinars, who despise nightshades and avoid them unless they have sufficient power or numbers to ensure success in the ensuing conflict. Sceazirs will not approach a nightshade or its territory under any circumstances, even if directly commanded to do so by a sceaduinar rider. Speculations regarding the reason for this vary. Some scholars believe it is a simple matter of practicality, as the majority of sceazirs are not powerful enough to survive a conflict with a nightshade. Others, however, suspect the phobia may have a deeper cause, with suggestions ranging from an energy given off by nightshades that sceazirs cannot tolerate to an ancient war ending in the sceazirs’ defeat and devolution to the bestial creatures they are now.

Some have even suggested that nightshades are capable of commanding sceazirs just as sceaduinars are, but use that ability to keep sceazirs away rather than work with them.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Adventure Path #141: Last Watch © 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Larry Wilhelm, with Alexander Augunas, Mike Headley, Isabelle Lee, Meagan Maricle, Patchen Mortimer, Kendra Leigh Speedling, and Greg A. Vaughan.

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