Rended Souls
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Before the entity was formed, the souls of those who gazed into the mirror, the slave-like work force that powered the world, were torn apart and their undesirable traits discarded. These rended souls were thrown into the mirror and forgotten. What wasn't known was that they were still sentient. Eventually some merged together and formed the entity, but there were thousands, perhaps millions, inside. The entity didn't merge with them all, and some still roam the void in varying states of sentience and intelligence. The more capable ones sometimes lead groups of them, but they are generally hateful and violent, often attacking anything they see, real or imagined, living or not.

Since rended souls were formed from a mirror that had angels and sea creatures on its frame, some memory of the mirror sometimes makes its way into their appearance . All rended souls have the ability to feed on the minds of people, turning their victims into blubbering idiots. Technically, this is not a lethal attack, but once a character’s mind is gone, that character is as good as dead. Rended souls almost never drain the minds of their victims completely, deliberately allowing their victims to escape after they have fed sufficiently to satiate themselves. This allows their victims to eventually recover, thus ensuring a constant food supply.

Rended souls can communicate with each other telepathically. They cannot speak the way those of the civilized races do because their mouths hang open as if to signify their perpetual state of hunger. Although they can conceivably communicate telepathically with other creatures, few care to do so, but if they did, their messages would be a string of garbled phrases, words, and syllables that only those of their kind can decipher. There is only one rended soul capable of communicating with those of the civilized races — Mister Grin.

Merging of Rended Souls

Sometimes, when rended souls come into physical contact with each other, they merge into a different creature with its own set of abilities. The most powerful of these is the entity, although other forms exist and are much more common. The Seekers often try to capture lone rended souls and help this process along, to experiment on them and learn more, or even to use them as servants.

Below is a list of the known forms of rended souls aside from the entity itself. This is by no means an exhaustive list, although these creatures have been observed often enough for the Seekers to classify them.

Phantomime

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This creature has a permanent but small Silence AOE around it, nasty against spellcasters. Phantomimes try to attack while hidden, although they cannot hide in plain sight.

Bloodhowl

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This is a dog-like creature that emits a piercing shriek in a conical AOE. Those who fail their Will check are dazed, making it easy for rended souls to feed in peace. Deaf people are not affected by this AOE. Note that other rended souls, including bloodhowls, are not immune to this effect unless deafened somehow.

Jagerknight

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When two phantomimes merge, they form into a single jagerknight. This creature looks like a large, armored humanoid. The jagerknight can stomp its foot on the ground, setting off a tiny but powerful earthquake that knocks down all other creatures in its radius of effect unless they succeed in a Strength check. Most other rended souls – including other jagerknights – are not immune to this earthquake, so if they find themselves within the area of effect, there is a chance that they may be knocked down.

Knightmare

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When a jagerknight and a bloodhowl merge (say by barreling into each other), they turn into a Knightmare. This looks like an armored 4-legged beast. It moves as fast as a destrier and can attack by emitting a piercing shriek in a conical AOE. Those who fail their Will check are stunned, making it easy for rended souls to feed in peace. Deaf people are not affected by this AOE. Note that other rended souls, including bloodhowls, are not immune to this effect unless deafened somehow.

Seraphopod

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When a jagerknight and a knightmare merge, they turn into a Seraphopod. This looks like a hideous, towering angel with wing-like tentacles. Seraphopods hover above the ground, which makes them immune to the jagerknights’ special attack as well as ground-based spells such as Grease or Earthquake. They are not immune to characters’ knockdown attempts nor any of Bigby’s spells, however.

Seraphopods attack by clawing at their enemies. Their most fearsome ability, however, is to bolster the morale of all other rended souls in their aura of effect, increasing their hit chance and saving throws. A seraphopod is not affected by its own aura, but it can benefit from the aura of other seraphopods.

Goals

  • Though most are too deranged to have any long term goals, those few who retain enough intelligence and sanity wish to destroy the entity.
  • If they cannot destroy the entity, they wish to escape it and leave the mirror while it is sealed inside.
  • Those with no long term goals are happy trying to destroy all they come across.

Discussion

  1. If the PC wishes to parley with other rended souls, the party should probably have some kind of protection from them and must find a way to convince the rended souls that they should talk instead of fight. The PC may bargain with them in exchange for information and/or power. For instance, the PC may offer a way for the rended souls to get easier access to food. The PC might even mean it. The whole objective of this parley is to try to get information from the rended souls that no other faction has.
  2. Possible mechanics: A dimension door like ability; they become transparent and can move through objects with 100% concealment unlimited times per day, on a cooldown timer
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