In the PCs’ adventures this month, they find themselves needing to travel more than 130 miles across Ustalav (see page 45 for details). How the PCs journey is largely up to them, but if the GM has the Carrion Crown Poster Map Folio, he might present the map of Ustalav and allow the PCs to chart their own course. Along the way, there are three settlements they might pass through. These communities are summarized here, along with stat blocks (explained in the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide). More details can be found in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rule of Fear.
Berus: This community boasts strange abundance,
enjoying year-round bounty. The residents pay thanks to their newly “rediscovered” local goddess, Mother Sighle, for their prosperity, but are becoming increasing insular.
Chastel: Although the largest settlement in the county of
Lozeri, Chastel retains much of the feel of a frontier trading post, boasting a sizable market, stockyards, and lumber mills run and frequented by the town’s rough residents.
Morcei: The simple folk of Morcei lived quiet lives until
they felled the ancient tree called “Daemon Hand.” The gigantic bats that flew forth now inhabit the community’s church house at the will of some terrible winged lord.
Berus N small town
Corruption +2; Crime –2; Economy +0; Law +2; Lore +2; Society –2 Qualities insular, pious (Mother Sighle)
Danger +0
DEMographiCS
government overlord
population 414 (398 humans, 9 halflings, 7 other)
MarkEtpLaCE
Base Value 1,000 gp; purchase Limit 5,000 gp; Spellcasting 5th Minor items 3d4; Medium items 1d6
Chastel NE large town
Corruption +1; Crime –4; Economy +2; Law +2; Lore –1; Society +6 Qualities prosperous, strategic location, superstitious Danger +5
DEMographiCS
government council
population 2,385 (2,298 humans, 68 halflings, 19 other)
MarkEtpLaCE
Base Value 2,800 gp; purchase Limit 15,000 gp; Spellcasting 3rd Minor items 3d4; Medium items 2d4; Major items 1d4
e
nCountersin thes
hudderwoodd% roll result avg. Cr Source
1–8 1d4 grizzly bears 6 Bestiary 31 9–20 1d6 hunters 6 GMG 257 21–23 1 will-o’-wisp 6 Bestiary 277 24–33 1d8 werewolves 6 Bestiary 198 34–47 1d6 dire wolves 6 Bestiary 278 48–55 2d6 Varisian wanderers 7 GMG 290 56–59 1d6 werebats 7 see page 88 60–67 2d6 ettercaps 8 Bestiary 129 68 –71 1 giant tarantula 8 Bestiary 2 256 72–74 3 green hags 8 Bestiary 167 75–81 1 quickwood 8 Bestiary 2 228 82–83 1 weaverworm 8 see page 86 84–96 2d8 werewolves 8 Bestiary 198 97–100 1 witchfire 9 Bestiary 2 284
e
nCounters inA
rdeAld% roll result avg. Cr Source
1–3 1 spring-heeled jack 3 Pathfinder #43 88 4–18 2d6 farmers 4 GMG 309 19–21 1 nightmare 5 Bestiary 216 22–23 1 mothman 6 Bestiary 2 194 24–36 2d6 Varisian wanderers 7 GMG 290 37–42 2d6 ankhegs 8 Bestiary 15 43–46 2d6 chupacabras 8 Bestiary 2 57 47–49 2d6 derros 8 Bestiary 70 50–53 1d6 Large animate objects 8 Pathfinder #43 80 54–61 1d8 mandragoras 8 Bestiary 2 185 62–71 1d8 scarecrows 8 Bestiary 2 238 72–79 2d8 werewolves 8 Bestiary 198 80–84 2d10 apocalypse zombies 9 see page 90 85–89 1d4 hangman trees 9 Bestiary 2 152 90–95 2d10 giant bumble bees 9 Bestiary 2 43 96–100 1d4 gorgons 10 Bestiary 165
VilkACis
Within a swirling mass of frigid air manifests the form of a bestial specter. Claws the size of daggers lash menacingly before its half-bestial, half-humanoid form, and its narrow eyes glow with a smoldering malevolence.
Vilkacis Cr 7
Xp 9,600
CE Medium undead (incorporeal)
init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent;
Perception +15 DEfEnSE
aC 19, touch 19, flat-footed 13 (+3 deflection, +6 Dex) hp 85 (10d8+4)
fort +6, ref +11, Will +9
Defensive abilities channel resistance +2, incorporeal,
rejuvenation; Dr 10/silver; immune cold, undead traits
Weaknesses vulnerability to silver
offEnSE
Speed fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Melee 2 incorporeal touches +15 (1d8 plus 2d6 cold)
Special attacks bestial possession, curse of lycanthropy (DC 18)
StatiStiCS
Str —, Dex 23, Con —, int 8, Wis 14, Cha 17 Base atk +7; CMB +13; CMD 26 (30 vs. trip)
feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative,
Lightning Reflexes, Toughness
Skills Fly +14, Intimidate +16, Perception +15, Stealth +19 Languages Common
SQ lycanthropic empathy
ECoLogy
Environment any land organization solitary treasure none
SpECiaL aBiLitiES
Bestial possession (Su) A vilkacis is a spirit of savagery and
can take control of other beings, afflicting them with its savage nature. Once per round, the vilkacis can merge its body with a creature on the Material Plane. This ability is similar to a magic jar spell (caster level 10th), except it does not require a receptacle and lasts for up to 3 hours (or a number of hours equal to the vilkacis’s Charisma modifier, whichever is greater). To use this ability, the vilkacis must be adjacent to the target. The target can resist the attack with a successful DC 18 Will save. A creature that successfully saves is immune to that same vilkacis’s bestial possession for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Upon being possessed by a vilkacis, the target takes on a number of bestial features, most notably growing claws and vicious fangs, and flies into a savage rage. The victim gains two claws and a bite natural attack appropriate to its size (1d4 and 1d6 for Medium creatures; see Table 3–1 on page
302 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary), and gains a barbarian’s greater rage class ability (see page 31 of the Core Rulebook). This rage lasts for as long as the victim is being possessed by the vilkacis. After the possession ends, the victim is fatigued for a period of time equal to double the duration of the possession. The victim also gains low-light vision and scent. The possessed creature loses all of these natural attacks and abilities immediately when the vilkacis leaves its body.
Curse of Lycanthropy (Su) Any humanoid who is bitten by
a creature possessed by a vilkacis must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or be infected with lycanthropy as if bitten by a werewolf. If the victim’s size is not within one size category of the possessed creature’s, this ability has no effect. The save DC uses the vilkacis’s ability scores and is Charisma-based.
Lycanthropic Empathy (Ex) A vilkacis or creature possessed
by a vilkacis can communicate and empathize with wolves and dire wolves. It can use its Diplomacy to alter such an animal’s attitude, and when so doing gains a +4 racial bonus on the check.
rejuvenation (Su) A vilkacis that is destroyed in combat restores
itself after 2d4 days. The only way to permanently do away with a vilkacis is to locate its canopic stone, the occult artifact that binds it to the Material Plane, and then destroy the artifact in the presence of the vilkacis’s mortal remains. Once the canopic stone is destroyed, the vilkacis can no longer rejuvenate and can be destroyed as normal.
Vulnerability to Silver (Su) Vilkacis are particularly susceptible
to silver. A vilkacis struck with a silver weapon takes an additional 2d6 points of damage. If a creature under the effects of a vilkacis’s bestial possession is damaged by a silver weapon, it also takes this extra damage and receives another saving throw to resist the bestial possession. If successful, the possession ends, and the vilkacis is driven into an adjacent square and cannot use its bestial possession ability again until the following day.
Beings of pure malevolence and destruction, vilkacis arise from the souls of the most desperate and brutal werewolves as spirits burning with the need for bloodshed and vengeance. Specters of savagery escaped from remains tainted by lycanthropy, vilkacis desire to wear mortal f lesh and again revel in the vicious ecstasy of hunting and killing. Some see these beings as malign manifestations of the lycanthropic curse—the spirits of the infamous aff liction itself—while others know them as the deathly continuance of lives consumed by lycanthropy. In either case, these ravenous spirit-beasts seek only to garb themselves in the skins of deadly hunters and revel in bloodshed once more.
Vilkacis typically look like more savage versions of the werewolves they were in life, appearing in their hybrid forms with exaggerated fangs and claws.
eCology
Although a vilkacis exists only in a spectral form, its canopic stone permanently binds the spirit to the Material Plane. So long as the stone exists, the creature remains stuck between life and death, its spirit strangling on its own rage.
When a vilkacis seizes possession of a victim, the host takes on an altered appearance reflective of the beast within its body. The victim undergoes severe physical dysmorphia. Musculature enlarges, posture becomes stooped, and hands curl into gashing claws. The face takes on a bestial appearance. The victim’s jaws extend and grow into jagged, wolfish fangs, while the brow thickens and the pupils widen to black pools that radiate a mad, feral stare. In this state, the vilkacis-possessed creature froths with the curse of lycanthropy and can pass the curse on as though it were a werewolf. Although such a possessed creature might pass on the infamous disease, its own transformation typically lasts only a matter of hours. A vilkacis is ever searching for stronger and more vicious hunters to use as tools in slaking its eternal bloodlust; if it finds a particularly promising host, it might visit and possess the favored body again and again for its rampages.