STRENGTH: 17
DEXTERITY: 10
CONSTITUTION: 16
INTELLIGENCE: 15
WISDOM: 9
CHARISMA: 4
AC: 0
THAC0: 13
HIT POINTS: 53
ALIGNMENT: NE
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Poisonous bite (2d6 dmg and save vs. poison or contract disease)
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Struck only by +3 or better weapons; immune to charm, sleep, fear, and fire- and cold-based attacks.
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 65%
SIZE: M (5_’ tall)

Weapon Proficiencies: None.

Nonweapong Proficiencies: Ancient Languages (15), Black-smithing (17), Blind-fighting (n/a), Forgery (9), Spellcraft (13).

Spell-like Powers: (usable once per round at will, unless otherwise noted) know alignment, magic missile (four missiles, 5/day), polymorph self, ray of enfeeblement (3/day), and sleep.

Appearance: Ravel Puzzlewell is even more hideous than most hags. Her dark-purple skin is dotted with scabs, warts, and hairy moles. Her body is stick-thin from near starvation, though her sagging pot belly refuses to deflate. A few long wisps of black hair hang from her spotted head, framing a pair of bloodshot eyes that glower beneath a single furry brow. Ravel usually stands hunched; when she moves, she skitters as if in pain. She wears a tattered dress of white, gummy cobwebs.

Background: Long ago, Ravel Puzzlewell made her lair in the Gray Waste, where she herded and sold larvae to fiends hungry for meals and slaves. She played the Blood War for profit, striking deals with both the baatezu and the tanar’ri as needed. Eventually, she convinced a baatezu regiment to help her take over Sigil. Ravel wanted to sacrifice the populace in a dark ritual, while the fiends wanted control of the city’s portals. Once the battle for Sigil was underway, the baatezu betrayed the hag, hastening her defeat at the hands of the city’s ruler, the Lady of Pain. As punishment, the Lady cast Ravel into an endless maze of thorns. The baatezu were ultimately driven from Sigil and, despite their betrayal of Ravel, blame the hag for their failure to take the city. The tanar’ri, too, seek revenge on Ravel for choosing to ally with the baatezu over them. Both races occasionally dispatch fiendish assassins into Ravel’s maze to kill the hag. While she may be imprisoned, she’s far from defenseless.

Equipment/Magical Items: In preparation for her attack on Sigil, Ravel swallowed a number of small magical items to ensure they’d stay with her. Now in her maze, she can regurgitate an item whenever she needs it, then ingest it again for safekeeping afterward. There’s no telling what she might have in use at any particular time, but her prizes include a ring of human influence, a cube of force, and a charm of blackness that cures diseases. What’s more, she’s digested several items and their powers, so she can cast their effects from her fingertips at will.

Roleplaying Notes: Visitors to Ravel’s maze find her a crotchety, complaining old woman who dislikes intruders. Though she still wields awesome power, she gripes about the various pains associated with her ripe old age. Her mind has deteriorated as well, leaving her confused and time-addled—she often mixes up the past, present, and future. For example, she can show a visitor the hidden portal that leads out of her maze and back to Sigil, but if asked why she doesn’t use the gateway herself, she say’s it’ll be a few more years before she discovers it.

Despite her quirks, Ravel can prove useful to an adventuring party. First, explorers must find a way to her maze (by locating a cleverly hidden portal in Sigil or by journeying deep into the Ethereal Plane, where all of the Lady’s mazes exist). Then they must survive the maze itself. It’s a floor of tightly interlaced roots and towering, shifting walls of razorvine sharp enough to slice a careless traveler to shreds, all under a liquid green skystream that rushes overhead. Ravel’s likely to stalk the visitors until she’s ready to reveal herself, at which point they might be able to draw on her vast knowledge of the baatezu, the tanar’ri, the Blood War, the Lower Planes in general, and numerous other dark subjects.

STRENGTH: 8
DEXTERITY: 12
CONSTITUTION: 12
INTELLIGENCE: 16
WISDOM: 16
CHARISMA: 18
AC: 0
THAC0: 15 (13 with hornblade)
HIT POINTS: 43
ALIGNMENT: LN
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Kiss drains one level of life energy
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Struck only by +2 or better weapons; immune to fire, electricity, and poison; half damage from cold and gas; never surprised; fly (only in succubus form).
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 30%
SIZE: M (6’ tall)

Weapon Proficiencies: Scimitar.

Nonweapong Proficiencies: Etiquette (18), Herbalism (14), Planar Sense—Baator (15), Planar Sense—Baator (14), Singing (18), Ventriloquism (14).

Spell-like Powers: (usable once per round at will, unless otherwise noted) charm person, clairaudience, darkness 15’ radius, ESP, become ethereal, gate (one balor once per day, 40% chance of success), infravision, plane shift, shapechange, suggestion, and teleport without error.

Appearance: Disdainful of her bloodline, Fall-From-Grace remains in humanoid form whenever possible. In this guise, she appears as an achingly beautiful, long-limbed young woman with flawless, milk-white skin. Strands of gold and copper run through her silky crimson hair, and her luminous, leaf-green eyes tilt slightly upward at the outside corners. Her delicate ears come to a fine point, and her rosebud lips are likely to curve into a smile. She likes to wear a laced corset of blue velvet and a pair of black leather pants, accenting her outfit with a green silk sash tied around her small waist. When seriously provoked or endangered, Grace reverts to her true form, in which her eyes burn red with fiendish fire and sharp wings spread out from her back.

Background: Fall-From-Grace is the daughter of Red Shroud, the succubus ruler of Broken Reach, a town on the first layer of the Abyss. The balor who sired Grace tried to use the child as a tool to insinuate himself into the town’s power structure, but Red Shroud headed off that challenge by selling her daughter into slavery instead. The young succubus wound up in the hands of the baatezu, serving them for millennia until she won her freedom in a contest of improvisation with one of her cornugon masters. She made her way to Sigil and joined the Society of Sensation, devoting herself to the exploration of things she could see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. As the head of one of the faction’s sensoriums, where customers can sample memories recorded in magical stones, Grace oversees the accumulation of an endless variety of experiences and offers them to a public ever hungry for new sensations. Unlike other succubi, Grace has never known physical love and has no desire for it—a determination shaped by her scorn for those of her race.

Equipment/Magical Items: Fall-From-Grace carries a scimitar-sized hornblade +2, though she prefers to rely on her natural powers in combat. Her ring of mind shielding never leaves her finger, and she wears a pair of thin, green crystal eyes of seeing that function as the gem of the same name.

Roleplaying Notes: Grace has long since shed the malice and chaos that usually defines her kind. The time she spent with the baatezu made her see the benefits of an orderly existence, and her history with both races of fiends made her aware of the futility of evil. Indeed, she’s friendly and welcoming to most visitors to her sensorium, eager to interview them to see it they might have unique experiences they’d be willing to record for others to relive. And she’s just as pleased to provide her guests with specific memories already in her collection—say, what it’s like to fight a slaadi, or the proper method of distilling a particular potion, of the calm of lolling in a meadow on the gentle plane of Elysium. On occasion, Grace even hires adventurers to obtain a specific memory or sensation that she’d like to have in her inventory.

STRENGTH: 12
DEXTERITY: 17
CONSTITUTION: 13
INTELLIGENCE: 15
WISDOM: 18
CHARISMA: 17
AC: 7
THAC0: 13
HIT POINTS: 62
ALIGNMENT: N
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear aura, control undead.
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Magic resistance, regeneration, shadow walk.
SIZE: M (6’)

Weapon Proficiencies: Knife.

Nonweapong Proficiencies: Cobbling (19), Leatherworking (17).

Appearance: The Cobbler is a tall figure in finely tailored clothes of a uniform, pale hue that is not a color so much as the ashen remnants after all color has been leeched away. His face and form are often obscured by a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. When he first appears to an individual, the Cobbler often wears a full-face mask of padded cloth with a large hooked nose. The nose is hollowed and filled with roses. (Sithicans think this filter plague from the air.) A fine spattering of blood faintly stains the mask and all the Cobbler’s clothes.

Beneath the mask, the Cobbler is a handsome young man with deep-set eyes and short, blond-white hair. His facial structure suggests a partial elven heritage. Some say that the Cobbler’s visage appears smooth and featureless if glimpsed in the instant when the mask is first removed.

Magical Items/Abilities: The Cobbler carries a small leather case containing his shoemaker’s tools. The tacks, snips, small hammer, and even the needles and thread are wrought of pure silver. Like his clothes and pale case, these tools are flecked with gore. All the items in the case are magical. The three leather-cutting blades are knives +2.

The Cobbler can shadow walk at will to any point in Sithicus, though he cannot use the ability to enter the Demiplane of Shadow or any other plane. He can generate fear within a 5’-radius at will. These spells function at the 12th level of ability. The Cobbler has magical resistance of 50% and, if wounded, regenerates 4 hit points per round until healed.

The Cobbler can exert complete control over skeletons and zombies in Sithicus, and he can control undead creatures up to 6 HD as if a 5th-level Evil Priest. At will, he can cause any dead person to rise from the ground as a zombie completely under his control. These abilities are limited to a 40’-radius area.

Background: The Bloody Cobbler is a legend in Sithicus, a phantom who stalks through camp tales and bad dreams. He metes out rough justice to those who betray their calling. If the stories are to be believed, men and women who repeatedly refuse to walk their intended paths in life can expect a fatal midnight visit. With his silver shoemaker’s tools, the Cobbler slices the soles from his victim’s feet, killing them. He then uses the flesh to shod those who need only be prompted back onto a road they truly wish to follow.

Until around the year 740, many assumed the stories of the Cobbler to be merely legend. Since that time, corpses have been discovered with the bottoms of their feet missing. No one can confirm the Cobbler’s existence, but the discovery of any corpses with damage to its feet fuels talk of the Cobbler, as will a local’s sudden change of career. Sithicans do not discuss the Cobbler or the Whispering Beast with outsiders.

Roleplaying Notes: Since the Cobbler’s garb is flamboyant but not truly unusual for a Sithicans merchant, there is nothing about him to draw suspicion. Indeed, he commonly introduces himself as "a tradesman hereabouts." Though the blood spattering his clothes is a certain tip-off, the gore is noticeable only by those in close proximity, and the Cobbler allows only those he wants to know his identity to come to close.

The Cobbler’s motives are obscure, but he is not above small acts of kindness to those he has visited in the night, or the families of those he has slain. He always presents himself as a cultured man of the world, dashing and sophisticated. His voice is soothing, a stark contrast to the fear his name engenders.

STRENGTH: 18/99
DEXTERITY: 15
CONSTITUTION: 17
INTELLIGENCE: 18
WISDOM: 10
CHARISMA: 5
AC: 6
THAC0: 11
HIT POINTS: 62
ALIGNMENT: LN
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spells, disease.
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Magic resistance, regeneration, shadow walk.
SIZE: M (6’)

Weapon Proficiencies: Mace, Sword.

Nonweapong Proficiencies: Modern Languages (19), Singing (9).

Appearance: Rumors describe the Whispering Beast as tall and starvation thin. Stringy hair covers his entire body, gray-white but matted with dirt and excrement. His arms hang down past his knees, ending in hands with slender fingers that constantly twitch and trace vulgar patterns in the air. Those agile digits hint at the most horrible thing about the Beast: the faint remnants of a beauty so profound it cannot be hidden by any amount of grime. His face, too, holds vestiges of magnificence. His simian skull, all but fleshless at the crown, has the high cheekbones of a noble-born elf. The Beast stinks of decay. He wears no clothes and carries no obvious weapons, only a grotesque necklace of thirteen human ears looped around his neck on a chain of fire-blackened steel.

Magical Items/Abilities: The grim necklace worn by the Beast is a powerful magical item. Through any of the ears, he can speak to any person labeled an Oathbreaker—that is, anyone who has sworn an oath in public, broken it, then been publicly accused of having done so. Any command the Beast whispers though the necklace of ears acts as a geas upon an Oathbreaker. The ears can also be used to speak to madmen other than Oathbreakers. These lunatics fully understand what the Beast says but are not compelled to obey.

The Beast can shadow walk at will to any point in Sithicus and can generate fear within a 5’-radius area on command. He can cast ESP and know alignment at will at the 12th level of ability. The Beast has magic resistance of 50% and, if wounded, regenerates 4 hit points per round until healed.

Background: Like the Bloody Cobbler, the Whispering Beast is a thing of legend and rumor. Oathbreakers can hear the Beast’s voice, which repeats their every lie, every broken promise, and every dark deed. Day and night the accusations continue, until the Oathbreakers’ minds unravel. Eventually, the Beast summons Oathbreakers to his lair for more direct torment. The location of this lair remains a mystery.

The fact that the Beast doesn’t stalk every liar makes some dismiss the "whispering madness" as the ravings of guilt-wracked consciences. Some who have never been caught at their deception are driven mad by fearful anticipation, wondering when the whispering will start.

Roleplaying Notes: The Whispering Beast revels in his own disgusting appearance. At the same time, he is smug about his moral superiority. He is even more elusive than the Bloody Cobbler and is unlikely to present himself to anyone but an Oathbreaker. Should characters stumble across his lair or come in contact with the Beast, they find the creature rude and provoking. The Beast assumes that all people are Oathbreakers waiting to be caught, and he uses his ESP ability to glean characters’ fears and play upon them with taunting comments.

If threatened, the Beast commands his madmen to subdue his attackers or forestall any threat until he can escape through the shadows. He does not specifically endanger the madmen in his "care," as he believes their fate to be worse than death. In combat, the Beast has three attacks. His hand causes 1-4 points of damage each, while his bite inflicts 1-8 points of damage. A bite from the Whispering Beast is likely to infect a character with a debilitating (90%) or a fatal (10%) disease.

STRENGTH: 20
DEXTERITY: 18
CONSTITUTION: 18
INTELLIGENCE: 18
WISDOM: 19
CHARISMA: 18
AC: -1
THAC0: 13
HIT POINTS: 64
ALIGNMENT: LG
SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below, Fly 30 (B).
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below, Fly 30 (B).
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 40% SIZE: M (6’)

Weapon Proficiencies: Longsword, longbow (specialist).

Nonweapong Proficiencies: Ancient History (17), Blind-fighting, Charioteering (20), Etiquette (18), Healing (17), Herbalism (16), Languages—Ancient (18), Local History (18), Musical Instrument—harp (17), Reading/Writing (19), Religion (19), Singing (18), Spellcraft (16), Weather Sense (18).

Special Attacks: As a movanic deva (see "Aasimon" in the first PLANESCAPE MONSTROUS COMPEDIUM appendix), the Sannyasi can use celestial reverence to emit a blinding flash of light that causes all mortals within sight to save vs. paralyzation. Characters of evil or neutral alignment who fail either flee in terror (fewer than 8 HD) or are to frightened to attack. Characters of good alignment who fail are struck by a strong protective love of the Sannyasi.

When threatened, the Sannyasi can send out a distress call, summoning 2d4 ki-rin and 1d6 metallic dragons to his aid. If forced into combat, the Sannyasi can instantly summon a two-handed sword +1, flame tongue to his hand and attack twice per round. By forfeiting an attack, he can automatically parry any single attack (even magical assaults that always hit) up to twice a round.

Special Defense: The Sannyasi is immune to damage from non-magical weapons and magical weapons of less than +2. He suffers half damage from dragon and magical fire, and no damage from cold, electrical, normal fire, gas, magic missile, petrification, and poison. (He suffers full damage from acid-based attacks.) He can automatically detect evil within 100 feet of himself, identifying its source, direction, strength, and general nature. The Sannyasi’s aura of serenity acts as a double strength protection from evil. In the unlikely event that he does suffer an injury, the Sannyasi regenerates 2 hit points per round.

Spells: The Sannyasi can use the following spell-like powers at will: aid, anti-magic shell, augury, change self, comprehend languages, detect magic, infravision (always active), invisibility 10‘ radius, know alignment, light, polymorph self, protection from evil, protection from normal missiles, spell turning, remove curse, remove fear, read magic, teleport without error, and tongues. He can also cure disease and cure serious wounds three times per day; cure light wounds, detect lie, detect snares and pits, and dispel magic seven times per day; and cast heal or use any spell from the Invocation/Evocation school once per day.

Appearance: The Sannyasi has the appearance of a slender, milky skinned man with cascading silver hair, piercing silver eyes, and a pair of huge white wings rising up behind his shoulders. He seldom wears more than a simple cotton sarong, and he speaks in a dulcet voice as pleasant as a lyre.

Background: When the Serene Abhirati, Mother of Peace and Beauty, departed Langdarma to journey through the heavens, she left the Sannyasi to watch over her home and its inhabitants, so that all would be the same when she returned as it was the day she left. For a hundred centuries now, the Sannyasi has done his duty well, using the powers she granted him to imbue a few worthy humans with the ability to call upon the magic of her lingering aura to cast spells of peace and harmony.

Equipment: The Sannyasi carries no equipment.

Magical Items: The Sannyasi can summon a two-handed sword +1 flame tongue to his hand at will.

Roleplaying Notes: Shortly after their presence becomes known, all strangers entering the hidden valley of Langdarma receive a visit from the Sannyasi. He demands to know how they entered the valley, what they want, and when they intend to leave. As long as the strangers intend no harm and are truthful in their answers (he uses his powers to check), they are welcome to stay for a short period—usually no longer than it takes to recuperate from the journey. All others are healed, resupplied, and immediately returned to far side of their entryway, which is then closed behind them. Should the Sannyasi be assaulted, he responds as peacefully as possible, using his powers to disarm his opponents and deflect their attacks, while at the same time gently but forcefully insisting that they stop attacking and leave Langdarma. He resorts to violence only to protect himself or Langdarma.