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Bone Croupier

Bone Croupier Creature5

NE Medium Undead

Perception +11; darkvision

Languages Common

Skills Acrobatics +14, Deception +14, Diplomacy +14, Gambling lore +12, Stealth +14, Thievery +14

Str +2, Dex +5, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +2, Cha +5

AC 22; Fort +9, Ref +14, Will +14

HP 50, negative healing; Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconscious

Resistances cold 5, piercing 5, slashing 5

Speed 25 feet

Melee [one-action] claw +14 (agile, finesse), Damage 2d8+5 slashing

Occult Innate Spells DC 22; 4th discern lies; 3rd mind reading; 1st illusory disguise; Cantrips (4th) prestidigitation

Change of Luck [free-action] (divination, misfortune, occult) Frequency once per day; Trigger A creature within 30 feet of the bone croupier attempts a check that uses a d20, but hasn’t rolled yet; Effect The bone croupier pulls on the threads of luck that bind all things. Instead of rolling its check, the target automatically gets a failure.

Roll the Bones [two-actions] (death, occult) The bone croupier targets an adjacent creature that is dying. That creature can either increase its dying value by 1 or roll a d4. On a 4, the creature is no longer dying and is unconscious at 0 HP. On a 1, 2, or 3, however, the creature increases its dying value by that amount. Regardless, the creature is temporarily immune for the next 24 hours.

About

For many, gambling is just fun and games, but for some, it can become a bad habit or even a life-consuming addiction. Bone croupiers take the meaning of “life-consuming” to its literal extreme. Undead gamblers whose lust for cards and dice couldn’t be sated in life, they haunt the shadowy corners of gambling halls and continue their search for that next hit of adrenaline.

In undeath, gaming takes on a different flavor; with nothing left to lose, bone croupiers turn their attentions toward others, cajoling and palavering normally casual gamers into committing themselves to ever higher stakes.

Before they know it, these unsuspecting victims have called in decades-old favors and put liens on their homes in the hope of winning back just a fraction of the pot. But by then the bone croupier has already claimed its prize-for to this undead chiseler, any earnings are incidental, and the real prize is encouraging others to lose their own.

Bone croupiers often enshroud themselves in thick layers of cigar smoke or voluminous robes to mask their undead nature, but they almost always wear wicked grins at the table. This smile is no ruse or part of its poker face, however-the truth is that bone croupiers truly delight in games, regardless of whether they are winning or losing, and despite their incredible skills of deception and trickery, most simply can’t disguise their unbridled mirth.

Bone croupiers rely on than their charm to manipulate their victims.

Rather, these undying gamers pride themselves on using good old-fashioned guile and persuasion to drive others to destitution and doom.

To these bone croupiers, magical compulsion is the laziest form of influence. This corrupt form of honor, of course, doesn’t extend toward using magic to cheat or swindle in games of chance-a bone croupier is all too glad to use its divinatory powers to change the outcomes of its dread bargains.

It is a strange irony that abrikandilus despise all works of artistry, yet without the objects of their jealousy they would have nothing to rage at but themselves.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Adventure Path #151: The Show Must Go On © 2020, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Jason Tondro, with Andrew Mullen, Patrick Renie, David N. Ross, and Michael Sayre.

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