Ankou

Ankou Creature14

LE Large Fey

Senses Perception +25; lifesense 120 feet, low-light vision

Languages Aklo, Common, Sylvan (can’t speak any language); telepathy 100 feet

Skills Acrobatics +28, Bluff +25, Intimidation +27, Nature +22, Stealth +28

Str +7, Dex +8, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +5

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AC 36; Fort +23, Ref +28, Will +24

HP 280; Weaknesses cold iron 10

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Speed fly 75 feet

Melee [one-action] claw +29 (agile, cold iron), Damage 3d6+15 slashing

Melee [one-action] wing +29 (cold iron, reach 10 feet), Damage 2d6+15 piercing plus 2d6 persistent bleed

Primal Innate Spells DC 34, attack +26; 8th discern location; 7th prismatic spray, teleport; 6th true seeing; 4th darkness (at will), dimensional anchor; 2nd silence; 1st ray of enfeeblement

Shadow Doubles [one-action] to [three-actions] (illusion, occult, shadow) Frequency once per day; Effect For each action spent to use this ability, the ankou creates one shadowy duplicate of themself anywhere within 60 feet of themself. Shadow doubles have the same statistics as an ankou, but they have the summoned trait, have 84 Hit Points, can’t use Shadow Doubles or innate spells, and have an attack bonus of +25 for their Strikes. A shadow double that attempts a saving throw against a light effect can’t get a result better than failure. Each double remains for 1 round, until it’s reduced to 0 Hit Points, or until it moves further than 120 feet from the ankou, whichever comes first. Each round thereafter, the ankou can spend a single action that has the concentrate trait to extend the duration of surviving duplicates by 1 round, to a maximum duration of 1 minute. The ankou can see through the eyes of all of the shadow doubles at once. A character who Seeks can identify an ankou as real or a shadow double with a successful DC 39 Perception check.

Sneak Attack An ankou’s Strikes deal an additional 2d6 precision damage to flat-footed creatures.

About

Ankous are shadowy killers who serve powerful fey creatures, or even the Eldest- the demigods of the world of the fey. Amid the courts of the Eldest or of powerful fey rulers, these sinister assassins lurk overhead as they await the call to action-implied threats akin to deadly weapons hung as decor in a royal hall. Ankous never speak aloud; when they feel the need to communicate at all, they do so in a telepathic whisper directly into a victim’s mind. While an ankou’s body is made of strange, fleshy material, their claws and the cruel hooks on their wings are made of razor- sharp cold iron, a quality that makes them much feared among other fey. A typical ankou is 10 feet tall and has an 8-foot wingspan but weighs less than 80 pounds.

While most ankous serve powerful masters, some of these murderous fey are left to their own devices and serve none but their own capricious, cruel whims. In some cases, their master may have been slain, while in others the ankou may have been released from service for any number of reasons. An ankou left to indulge their own whims unrestrained is often the most dangerous ankou of them all!

The most dangerous ankous are those who have rebelled against their masters. Ankous of this nature are more powerful, gathering others to form deadly “guilds” of assassins that pursue common goals in the most dangerous parts of the world of the fey.