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Articles › #3 - Shyrssanna Vilestrike (Medusa Psion/Escrimeur)
| #3 - Shyrssanna Vilestrike (Medusa Psion/Escrimeur) (Article #9 Page 1) |
Hi all, here’s the next installment of Blackdirge’s Psionic Menagerie. This time, I present Shyrssanna Vilestrike, a medusa warrior with an eclectic array of abilities and powers. She’s pretty tough, and can give your high-level PCs a unique challenge they won’t soon forget. =]
Shyrssanna was created using elements from Blackdirge Publishing’s
Master at Arms: Escrimeur and The Mind Unvelied: Mind Blade Feats from Dreamscarred Press. If you follow the links below, you can purchase both of these products at a discount through RPGNOW.
The Mind Unvelied: Mind Blade Feats - $2.00
Master at Arms: Escrimeur – $1.50
As always, you don’t actually need any additional products to use any monster presented in Blackdirge’s Psionic Bestiary in your game.
Shyrssanna Vilestrike (CR 17)
A lithe, female figure steps from the darkness into the wan light of your torches. She glides sinuously over the stony floor of the cavern, every curve of her voluptuous body carefully displayed by a form-fitting silk bodysuit. The woman’s face is covered by a porcelain mask, gaudily painted in a harlot’s visage, and her hair, bound with a lace cord, trails in a long shadow down her narrow back.
As the woman draws nearer, you notice something strange; her hair seems to be moving of its own accord, writhing slowly against her back. A soft, steady hissing becomes audible as the woman closes within a few paces of your group, and realization slams into you like a battering ram. Before you can shout a warning to your companions, a long, thin sword, its blade a translucent sliver of blazing fire, appears in the strange woman’s hands. Her cruel laughter echoes through the cavern as she plucks the mask from her face, and the world descends into madness.
Medusa Psion (Egoist) 6/Fighter 3/Escrimeur 5
LE Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +1, Spot +8
Languages Common, Draconic, Infernal, Undercommon
AC 36, touch 21, flatfooted 30
(+8 armor, +6 Dex, +7 natural, +5 ring)
hp 146 (20 HD)
Fort +14, Ref +18, Will +13
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee +3 flaming estoc mind blade +27/+22/+17/+12 (1d8+13 plus 1d6 fire/18-20) and snakes +18 (1d4+1 plus poison) or
Melee +3 flaming estoc mind blade +25/+25/+20/+15/+10 (1d8+13 plus 1d6 fire/18-20) and snakes +15 (1d4+1 plus poison)
Ranged +2 composite shortbow [+1 Str] +25/+20/+15/+10 (1d6+3/x3)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +17; Grapple +20
Atk Options Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, deadly finesse, grappling thrust, lunging thrust, penetrating thrust, rapid thrust, sudden riposte
Special Actions petrifying gaze, poison
Combat Gear potion of cure serious wounds (3), oil of darkness (4)
Psion Powers Known (ML 6th, 44 PP)
3rd – body adjustment, forced share pain (DC 16), hustle, touchsight
2nd – animal affinity, biofeedback, orced sense link (DC 15), inflict pain (DC 15)
1st – empty mind, force screen, offensive precognition, skate
Abilities Str 17, Dex 22, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 13
SQ fencing style (single sword), fencing style expertise (single sword), fencing style mastery (single sword)
Feats Blindfight, Combat Expertise*, Combat Reflexes, Energy Blade, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (estoc), Form Mind Blade, Improved Shape Mind Blade*, Shape Mind Blade, Soulblade Warrior, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (estoc)*, Weapon Specialization (estoc)*
Skills Balance +20, Climb +8, Bluff +14, Concentration +18, Diplomacy +13, Disguise +8 (+10 acting), Intimidate +11, Jump +16, Knowledge (psionics) +12, Psicraft +10, Move Silently +14, Sense Motive +8, Spot +8, Tumble +14
Possessions bracers of armor +8, amulet of natural armor +4, +2 composite shortbow [+1 Str], 20 masterwork arrows, belt of giant’s strength +4, ring of protection +5, ring of freedom of movement.
Deadly Finesse (Ex): When wielding a rapier, saber, or estoc, Shyrssanna adds one half her Dexterity bonus (+3) to the damage roll on a successful melee attack.
Grappling Thrust (Ex): Shyrssanna can initiate a special type of grapple that leaves her weapon lodged in her opponent. To initiate a grappling thrust, Shyrssanna must successfully strike her opponent in melee with a rapier, saber, or estoc. If the attack is successful, she deals normal damage and can attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If Shyrssanna wins the grapple check, she has established a hold, and has lodged her weapon in her opponent’s body. She can then inflict full weapon damage each round she maintains the hold (she doesn’t need to establish a pin) with a successful grapple check. If the opponent breaks the hold, the grapple ends, and Shyrssanna‘s weapon is forced from her target’s body.
Lunging Thrust (Ex): As a standard action, Shyrssanna may perform a lunging thrust with a rapier, saber, or estoc. She can target an opponent up to 10 feet away with lunging thrust (although she does not actually threaten creatures beyond her normal reach), and if she successfully strikes the target, she deals double damage. However, the lunging thrust is a fairly reckless attack, and Shyrssanna suffers a –4 penalty to AC until the start of her next turn.
Penetrating Thrust (Ex): Shyrssanna is adept at finding chinks in her opponents’ armor. When using a rapier, saber, or estoc, she may ignore up to 3 points of armor or natural armor on any opponent.
Petrifying Gaze (Su): Turn to stone permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 21 negates.
Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 23, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 2d6 Str.
Rapid Thrust (Ex): Shyrssanna can make a single extra attack with a rapier, saber, or estoc when using the full attack action. This extra attack is at her full attack bonus; however, when using rapid thrust she suffers a –2 penalty to all attacks in the round.
Sudden Riposte (Ex): Once per round, as an immediate action, Shyrssanna can make a single melee attack against an opponent that misses her with a melee attack, provided she can reach the opponent. Sudden riposte can only be used with a weapon that works with the Weapon Finesse feat.
Background
Medusas are not common in the Underdark, preferring the wide-open world of the surface to the lightless caverns of the great deep. However, circumstances and fate control the lives of monsters just as they manipulate the lives of men, and occasionally, one of the snake-tressed fiends will be forced to eke out a living among the other nefarious races that inhabit the world beneath the world.
Shyrssanna Vilestrike is one such medusa, and the road that led to her current position as the most feared gladiator in the duergar city of Habashar is far from ordinary. Shyrssanna began her life as one of two children born to the infamous medusa matron, Adrethine Vilestrike. Adrethine had long terrorized the Iron Marsh, a vast, yet richly abundant swampland in the heart of the Duchy of Umberland. From her lair in the deep swamp, Adrethine orchestrated raids on the small fishing villages that lined the outskirts of the Iron Marsh, employing a band of vicious lizardfolk that worshipped she and her children as gods in the flesh.
Since the Duchy of Umberland had very little farmland in with to raise crops, fishing the marsh provided the Duke and his people with their primary source of both income and sustenance. Adrethine’s predations kept the fisherman out of the swamp and home to guard their possessions and loved ones, and Duke Hadram Umberland was left with little choice but to root out the evil in his realm, no matter what the cost, or see his people starve and his coffers empty.
As the ruler of a small and relatively impoverished land, Duke Umberland had neither knights nor men at arms to challenge Adrethine and her lizardfolk. So, he did what a man of some means does when faced with a dire situation he is ill equipped to face – he hired mercenaries. The mercenary band that Duke Umberland finally settled on was as infamous as it was effective; a small group of hardened adventurers called Baggard’s Beasts that cared little about the moral implications of any task they were set upon, as long as there was gold in abundance.
Baggard’s Beasts were named after their leader, the crazed half-orc barbarian Baggard Brokenaxe, and the rather uncivilized and bloodthirsty way they approached nearly every situation. After extracting an astronomical sum from Duke Umberland, Baggard led his group into the Iron Marsh and quickly tracked Adrethine to her lair. Although the medusa matron and her lizardfolk fought viciously, they were simply no match for the brute force and veteran skill of Baggard and his band of killers. When the dust settled, and the flies were allowed to have their way with the corpses, it was clear that Baggard had executed his contract to the letter. The only living thing left in Adrethine’s lair was her youngest daughter, Shyrssanna, who had hidden under a pile of corpses to escape her mother’s killers.
Baggard himself discovered the medusa child, and quickly subdued her, tying a canvas sack around Shyrssanna’s head to negate her petrifying gaze. Then, with all the booty they could carry, including one bound and blindfolded 10-year-old medusa child, Baggard’s Beasts left the Iron Marsh to look for employment in one of the most violent and dangerous places known to man or beast – the lightless caverns and gulfs of the Underdark.
The first stop for Baggard’s Beasts in the Underdark was the duergar metropolis of Habashar. There the mercenaries quickly sold off the loot they had acquired from Adrethine and her lizardfolk, including Shyrssanna, who was sold to an enterprising gray dwarf by the name of Jarkor Grumblegut.
Jarkor owned one of the finest fighting pits in all of Habashar, and when he saw a young medusa on the block at the slavers auction, he saw a vast potential for profit and prestige. Jarkor purchased Shyrssanna without even bothering to haggle, a very un-duergar thing to do, and rushed his prize back to the gladiatorial training compound he owned just outside the city. However, before he left Habashar, Jarkor made one stop, and procured a charm against petrification from a local mage he trusted.
When Jarkor arrived at the gladiatorial compound, he had Shyrssanna bathed and dressed, giving strict orders to his staff not to remove the young medusa’s bonds or blindfold. He then had her placed in the finest cell in his compound; the cell reserved for his most prized gladiator, a minotaur, who had recently been killed in a match.
Jarkor removed Shyrssanna’s bonds and blindfold, trusting in the charm worn around his neck to protect him from his guest’s fearsome gaze. He then quite calmly laid out his terms to the orphan medusa. He told her she would be treated like a queen; all manner of luxuries lavished upon her daily, all worries and cares a thing of the past, as long as she would agree to his terms. Jarkor wanted a new and unique champion, a gladiator so rare and wondrous she would bring in spectators by the droves; and Shyrssanna was to be that champion. She would be trained by his own hand, not only in the martial arts, but also in the powers of the mind, of which he was an undisputed master. She would combine her natural talents with his tutelage to become the most fearsome killer in Habashar, and when he had fleeced the duergar city for enough gold to fill a king’s palace, Shyrssanna would be set free.
Shyrssanna readily agreed to Jarkor’s terms, knowing full well what fate awaited her if she refused him. For the next eight years, Shyrssanna trained, honing her body and mind into a peerless killing machine. Since use of her petrifying gaze was considered un-sportsmanlike in the arena, the young medusa learned to fight blindfolded, first using her other senses to perceive a world without sight, and then her burgeoning psionic powers. Finally, after many years of hard training, Shyrssanna could form a blade of pure mental energy, fight without the aid of sight or hearing, and bring low any opponent with a skill at arms that was simply unmatched in the entire city of Habashar.
Shyrssanna entered the gladiatorial arena for the first time at the age of eighteen. Her first opponent was a drow fencer, quite renowned for his skill with a rapier. She killed him in under a minute; blindfolded, and with minimal effort. The crowd was enchanted by the novelty of Shyrssanna’s fighting style, and she quickly became a fan favorite.
Over the next ten years, Shyrssanna fought and killed dozens of challengers, eventually earning the title of supreme arena champion and making Jarkor more money that even a greedy duergar could hope for. True to his word, Jarkor freed Shyrssanna after amassing his fortune; however, instead of leaving Habashar to make her fortune elsewhere, the potent medusa warrior remained. She continued to work for Jarkor, this time as a trusted employee rather than a pampered slave, and began training other fighters in her unique style; a style she calls the Way of the Ethereal Serpent.
Currently, Shyrssanna still resides in Habashar, and has recently purchased Jarkor’s gladiatorial compound. She trains fighters for the pit on a daily basis, and now has only rare opportunities to enter the arena herself. However, she still keeps her skills sharp with a ruthless training regimen, and occasionally pits her prowess against monsters and wayward adventurers roving the tunnels outside of Habashar.
Appearance
Shyrssanna is tall for a medusa, topping six feet in height. Her body is athletic, yet sill lush and generously proportioned. Like all medusas, Shyrssanna has green, scaly skin and a rather horrific visage. She hides both with a white-silk bodysuit and a porcelain mask that blocks her deadly gaze.
A nimble creature, Shyrssanna disdains armor and does not encumber herself in battle. Typically, she wears only her silk bodysuit, her mask, a pair of mithral bracers, and a studded leather girdle. Beyond this, she wears only a few rings and the odd amulet or headband.
Personality
Shyrssanna is quite shy, and does not often seek the company of others. She can be stern, manipulative, and even seductive when the need arises, but these things do not come as naturally to her as they do to other medusa. She is most at home in the arena or training students in her obscure martial techniques, finding the ordered perfection of combat to be both soothing and therapeutic. The slaughter of Shyrssanna’s mother and sister worked a profound transformation on the young medusa, and because she was powerless to stop their killers, she has devoted every waking moment to ensuring she is never powerless again.
Although somewhat subdued in her wickedness, Shyrssanna is no less evil than any other medusa. Her tutelage under a duergar psion has made her more introspective, and she is less prone to emotional outbursts or petty cruelty than others of her kind. However, on the field of battle or in the gladiatorial arena, Shyrssanna is a ruthless killer, without mercy or compassion.
Tactics
Shyrssanna has learned to fight under conditions that would render most warriors incapable of even moving, let alone fighting. She attempts to recreate these conditions whenever possible, attempting to blind sighted opponents to bring her unique skills into play.
Unlike most medusas, Shyrssanna does not rely on her petrifying gaze in battle; in fact, she considers it dishonorable in the extreme to dispatch an opponent in this manner. Only rarely does she resort to petrifying a victim, usually when she considers a foe to be so lacking in martial skill that he or she would offer no challenge whatsoever. However, she is fond of petrifying partulciarily worthy opponents after she has bested them, keeping their inert forms as souvenirs of past glories.
Use the following round by round tactics for Shyrssanna.
Prior to Combat: Before combat, if given sufficient time, Shyrssanna forms her mind blade and shapes it into an estoc (both swift actions). She then activates animal affinity (+4 Dex) (3 pp) and touchsight (5 pp).
Round 1
Swift Action: Activate offensive precognition (6 pp).
Move Action: Retrieve oil of darkness.
Standard Action: Apply oil of darkness.
Round 2
Move Action: Reposition so that area of darkness covers as many foes as possible.
Standard Action: Target most potent melee opponent in range with inflict pain (3 pp).
Round 3
Move Action: Move within 10 feet of opponent targeted with inflict pain in previous round.
Standard Action: Use lunging thrust on foe.
Round 4
Full-Round Action: Full attack on nearest enemy. Utilize rapid thrust to gain 5 attacks with estoc.
Round 5
Full-Round Action: Continue full attack on nearest enemy with rapid thrust. If the enemy was killed in the previous round, use lunging thrust on the next closest enemy.
Round 6 and Beyond: Shyrssanna continues to melee until all foes are slain. She activates force screen (1 pp) if her opponent seem to be hitting her too often. She uses body adjustment (5 pp) or healing potions as needed to heal her wounds during combat. If her opponents are truly getting the best of her, Shyrssanna removes her mask and attempts to petrify as many victims as possible.
If forced to flee, Shyrssanna activates skate (1 pp) and then uses hustle (5 pp) every round for as long as she has enough power points to do so.
Lair
Shyrssanna lives in a large, walled compound on the outskirts of the duergar city of Habashar. There, she trains gladiators and keeps her private residence. She employs a large number of hired guards to keep intruders out and to keep her stock of gladiator slaves in line.
Treasure
Shyrssanna has equipment appropriate for a 20th-level NPC (about 222,000 gp). However, her career as both a gladiator, and now a renowned trainer of gladiators, has made her fabulously wealthy. She can muster nearly twice the value of her equipment in gold pieces in relatively short order, and could easily double even that amount if she liquidated some of her property and assets.
Aeryn "Blackdirge" Rudel is a freelance writer, game designer, and editor, and the owner of Blackdirge Publishing.
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| Author | Blackdirge |
| Date & Time | 13-03-2008 00:00 |
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