Character Spotlight: Harrowing Ordeal · 7:29pm Sep 29th, 2019
Spoiler alert for chapter 396 - Harrowing Ordeal through chapter 398 - Dark Illumination.
Every character that appears in Lateral Movement has a character sheet listing their statistics and abilities under the d20 System game rules. This helps me to keep their abilities firmly grounded both in relation to other characters they interact with as well as the world (and other worlds) at large. But while I've often talked up using Eclipse: The Codex Persona to build characters such as Lex and Sonata, that isn't the case for everyone. Minor characters, who don't have anything particularly distinguishing about them, can be built with the standard d20 rules. Such is the case for a certain servitor of the Night Mare that Lex recently summoned:
Harrowing Ordeal, nightmare nightmare of the Night Mare
Like all deities, the Night Mare is served by numerous denizens. Populating her divine realm when they're not out performing tasks in her name, these creatures range from the souls of those who devoted themselves to her in life to various planar entities who have pledged to serve her. Best known among them are the malevolent planar equines known as nightmares, whom on Everglow are said to take their name from the goddess (though sages on other worlds speculate that it's the other way around, with some saying that the goddess was originally one of those creatures). Harrowing Ordeal is one such creature, and like many of the Night Mare's servants, also possesses the nightmare creature template.
Despite being a fearsome creature, Harrowing Ordeal remains one of the least of the Night Mare's adherents. Although well-versed in the tenets of the Night Mare's religion, his appreciation for them is shallow, exalting in the parts that glorify strength and dominance while paying little mind to the rest. Having no respect for honor or loyalty, Harrowing Ordeal is little more than a bully, presenting (what he thinks is) a charming facade to others only until he can determine their weaknesses. Once he does, he seeks to exploit them for as much as he can, though always prioritizing minimal risk to himself; despite knowing that his regeneration, damage reduction, and feign death abilities make him difficult to kill, along with his planar shadow walk and plane shift powers making it easy to escape from most enemies, he remains terrified of the prospect of permanent death. As such, when confronted with a superior force that he can neither defeat nor run from, he's quick to surrender, offering whatever he has in exchange for his life. If allowed to live, he'll go out of his way to avoid the wrath of whomever frightened him, serving them obsequiously...at least until a particularly irresistible chance to gain power at their expense comes along.
This large equine's entire body is covered with disgusting white scabs, showing not a patch of unmarked skin. Spotting you, his hooves strike sparks with every step as he trots forward, smoke billowing from his nostrils. Coming to a halt right in front of you, his eyes – which are pure orange, having neither irises nor pupils – look over your group as he smiles, causing the scabs around his mouth to splinter and flake off only to regrow a second later. "Greetings," he calls, his voice filled with delight. "My name is Harrowing Ordeal, and I can't tell you how pleased I am to meet you."
HARROWING ORDEAL CR 6
Nightmare nightmare
XP 2,400
NE Large outsider (evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 120 ft.; Perception +12
Aura fear (60 ft., DC 16), frightful presence (30 ft., DC 16)
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DEFENSE
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AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+4 Dex, +8 natural, –1 size)
hp 51 (6d10+18); regeneration 5 (good spells and weapons, silver)
Fort +8, Ref +9, Will +3
Defensive Abilities illusion resistance; DR 5/good or silver
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OFFENSE
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Speed 40 ft., fly 90 ft. (good)
Melee bite +9 (1d4+4), 2 hooves +4 (1d6+2 plus 1d4 fire)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks night terrors (DC 16), smoke (DC 16)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th)
Constant—protection from good
3/day—detect thoughts (DC 15), dream, nightmare (DC 18), suggestion (DC 16)
1/day—plane shift (self plus 1 rider only), shadow walk (DC 19)
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STATISTICS
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Str 18, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +11; CMD 23 (27 vs. trip)
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Run
Skills Fly +17, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (planes) +11, Knowledge (religion) +11, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +13, Survival +10
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal
SQ feign death (DC 16)
Fear Aura (Su) All creatures within a 60-foot radius that see or hear Harrowing Ordeal must succeed at a Will save (DC 16) or be shaken for as long as they are within the aura. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by Harrowing Ordeal’s fear aura for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting fear affect.
Feign Death (Ex) Whenever Harrowing Ordeal is unconscious, he appears dead. If conscious, Harrowing Ordeal can also make itself appear dead as an immediate action. Any creature that physically interacts with Harrowing Ordeal while he’s feigning death must succeed at a Heal check or Will saving throw (DC 16) to recognize it is actually alive. The save DC is Charisma-based (Harrowing Ordeal may use his Intelligence modifier instead if it exceeds his Charisma).
Frightful Presence (Su) This ability activates when Harrowing Ordeal charges, attacks during a surprise round, or succeeds at a DC 15 Intimidate or Perform check. His frightful presence has a range of 30 feet.
Illusion Resistance (Ex) Harrowing Ordeal automatically disbelieves illusions (no saving throw required) and has a +4 bonus on saving throws to resist illusion effects.
Night Terrors (Su) Once Harrowing Ordeal enters a target's mind with his dream or nightmare spell-like ability, he can attempt to control the target's dream. If the target fails a Will saving throw, they remain asleep and trapped in the dream world with Harrowing Ordeal. Thereafter, Harrowing Ordeal controls all aspects of the dream. Each hour that passes, the target can attempt another saving throw to try to awaken (they automatically awaken after 8 hours or if Harrowing Ordeal releases them). The target takes 1d4 points of Charisma damage each hour they’re trapped in the dream; if they takes any Charisma damage, they are fatigued and unable to regain arcane spells for the next 24 hours. The target dies if their Charisma damage equals or exceeds their actual Charisma score.
Smoke (Su) Harrowing Ordeal can exhale smoke that chokes and blinds his foes, filling a 15-foot cone each round as a free action. Anyone in the cone must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or become sickened until 1d6 minutes after leaving the area. This smoke acts as obscuring mist for the purposes of concealment. The smoke persists for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Further Development
Should he overcome his weakness of character, Harrowing Ordeal would likely start to gain advanced natural Hit Dice. Should he manage to rise to 10 HD, he'd become a nightmare lord, and if he could advance to 14 HD then he'd become a cauchemar as well. At that point, he'd be in a position to distinguish himself among the Night Mare's servitors, and might even be able to gain some distinctive abilities of his own (i.e. he'd gain 6 CP per Hit Die to spend on abilities from Eclipse: The Codex Persona as per the "Quick NPC Conversions" section on page 191). Should he advance that far, Harrowing Ordeal would be a true terror to behold, one that would likely give his foes more than a few nightmares of their own.
Ah, thanks for the explanation!
The scabs threw me completely, that and I assumed it had to be lawful evil, so I was just going through devils, kytons and asuras and coming up with bupkis.
5130659 I've been wanting to make the "nightmare nightmare of the Night Mare" joke for a little while now, so it was nice to finally get that out there.
The scabs weren't meant to be a red herring. Rather, they were meant to be visually differentiating, since — like the normal ettercap and the nightmare ettercap — a creature with the nightmare creature template is supposed to look more twisted and horrifying than their standard counterpart. That, and since the nightmare creature template was very clearly inspired by (or perhaps an homage to) Freddy Krueger, making Harrowing Ordeal's skin be damaged seemed appropriate (albeit with scabs rather than burns).
I was initially bothered about him being a Neutral Evil servitor of a Lawful Evil goddess, but that ultimately turned out to be an advantage. Harrowing Ordeal doesn't really represent the goddess's ideals, and the alignment discrepancy helps explain why; he serves the goddess, and knows a lot about her, but he doesn't really do a good job of living by her beliefs. And besides, if divine spellcasters can be one step away from their deity's alignment, why can't planar servitors?
5130688 I think I've seen planar servitors one step away in alignment.
I was also thinking of the way that Solar was an alicorn, so I figured "ok, in this world Harrowing Ordeal has been ponified like everyone else, so what would his normal form be?"
So that was a bit of hiding in plane sight. In retrospect, you did provide a big clue I missed. The belial devil's name was a proper devil name you would read in any pathfinder campaign setting. Harrowing Ordeal is a ponified version of an evil outsider's name.
5130715 I gave Harrowing Ordeal a pony-style name because, as a servant of a goddess of Everglow (since the pony gods of that world also have names like that), it seemed appropriate. But I figured that was less of a hint than the hooves that lit up with flames whenever he took a step, or breathing smoke. I suppose the whole "what is he if he's not an equine normally" bit proved to be a bit more misdirection than I'd intended!