Stygira

Stygira Creature7

LE Medium Earth Fey

Senses Perception +17; gemsight

Languages Aklo, Cyclops, Jotun, Terran

Skills Athletics +15, Deception +15, Gem Lore +17, Nature +17, Occultism +17

Str +4, Dex +4, Con +5, Int +4, Wis +6, Cha +2

Items gemstone (worth 25 gp)

Gemsight As long as the stygira holds a gemstone, they can see through the gem with darkvision and the effects of true seeing. The stygira is blind when they are not holding a gem in a hand.

---

AC 26; Fort +15, Ref +13, Will +19; +1 status to all saves vs. magic

HP 80; Immunities paralyzed, petrified, visual; Weaknesses cold iron 5; Resistances physical 10 (except adamantine)

Light Sickness A stygira in an area of bright light is sickened 1.

---

Speed 25 feet

Melee [one-action] claw +17 (agile); Damage 2d6+10 slashing plus stone curse

Occult Innate Spells DC 25; 4th clairvoyance, read omens, shape stone; 3rd clairaudience, earthbind; 2nd augury, undetectable alignment; Cantrips (4th) know direction, read aura

Gem Gaze [one-action] (emotion, fear, mental, primal) The stygira holds aloft a gem and gazes into the mind of a creature within 30 feet, infusing the creature’s thoughts with visions of the creature’s own dead body slowly petrifying. The creature must succeed at a DC 25 Will save or become frightened 1 (frightened 2 on a critical failure).

Stone Curse (curse, primal, transmutation) Wounds dealt by the stygira’s claws leave the flesh bleached of color and turn the blood that runs from them dark gray. Each time a creature is damaged by the stygira’s claw Strike, it must succeed at a DC 25 Fortitude save or become permanently slowed 1 (slowed 2 on a critical failure) as its flesh stiffens like stone. If a creature is reduced to 0 Hit Points from the stygira’s claw Strike and fails the saving throw against stone curse, it is petrified. A creature that spends 8 hours in direct sunlight can attempt a new saving throw to remove the effects of stone curse, even if it has been petrified.

About

Withered hermits wrapped in tattered rags, these scarred, eyeless creatures command strange secrets of the earth and interpret the fateful energies of the subterranean depths. In some regions, stygiras are worshiped as seers or even gods, although they lack the ability to grant spells to clerics and are often not aware of their worshipers at all. In other areas, they have strange ties to the ancient empires of the cyclopes, often dwelling in the oversized ruins those creatures left behind long ago. To many stygiras, gemstones harvested from ancient cyclopean mosaics have even greater magical properties than other crystals.

Although technically blind, stygiras do have vestigial eyes hidden beneath the stony, scarred flesh of their faces. Capable of sensing bright lights even through their scars, stygiras are sickened and distracted by these flashing glimpses, so they keep to their caves during the day and wander into the world above only after nightfall. Far from benevolent, they seek out unwary travelers or explorers to capture and reduce them down to the base chemicals and supernatural humors the stygiras require to infuse gemstones with the capacity to give them sight and magical power.

The gem a stygira carries does not need to be particularly valuable, but some stygiras prefer to use more expensive gems as an affectation. More powerful stygiras have developed methods of using particularly expensive gems to enhance their gem gaze ability, allowing some to charm those they gaze upon, light them on fire, or even afflict them with crippling poison.

People in some regions claim to have seen creatures that are just like tatzlwyrms in most respects-a long body, two arms, and a head-except that they have traits that are not of reptilian origin. Travelers on a savanna should beware a furry, lion-headed tatzlwyrm protecting its cubs, while those in the mountains might be attacked by a feathered (but wingless) variant with the head of an eagle.