S O U L - E A T E RSoul-eaters are devious creatures that feed upon the souls of their victims. When a night hag gives birth, if the infant they consumed beforehand contained potent demonic blood such as a low generation tiefling, instead of a daughter being born, the hag spawns a terrible and deadly son. When this happens, the child that spews forth is a sullen and silent creature, given to torturing animals and committing acts of cruelty until he finally turns thirteen. Precisely thirteen years after its birth, the boy morphs into something different from a full-fledged hag - the child instead becomes a soul-eater. This transformation ages the child, turning him into a terrifying monster with evil and cruel desires.

Soul-eaters are powerful offspring, in many ways even deadlier than their parents. They are completely invisible except for their hands which appear as claw-like. These claws are charged with a small bit of magical electricity that they use to shock and torment their victims with. Apart from their hands, a soul-eater's actual appearance resembles a human dressed with a long black cloak, a distorted face and two black pits where their eyes should be. Instead of remaining with their mothers, a soul-eater goes out into the world to feast upon souls.

Soul Eaters. A soul-eater craves nothing more than to feast on as many souls as it can. It will find a community it feels it can hide within and begin to consume souls once it feels it can feed with impunity. They naturally gravitate towards a single family, latching onto ones at first that are especially ostracized, slowly bringing about the death of each member so that it can consume their souls. While a soul-eater is dangerous, its nature is to remain hidden as long as possible to allow it to feast on soul after soul before moving on to the next family and then, the next community. A soul-eater needs to feast on at least one soul each month or it rapidly begins to wither away and die.

Nests. Soul-eaters have the ability to create extradimensional ‘nests’ where they withdraw into when not actively feeding or scouting for new victims. The nests are small pocket planes that resemble a small room that exist outside time and space. These rooms resemble something out of a nightmare - dank and unclean stone walls caked in blood and gore and furnished with all manner of torture devices. Inside these nests, a soul-eater becomes completely visible and here they enjoy unleashing their souls into quasi-physical form, allowing them to inflict cruel and horrible pain on it for as long as it pleases.

S O U L - E A T E R ' S L A I RA soul-eaters pocket dimension is a place it has near complete control over. It is a dismal and horrific hovel, resembling a tortore chamber filled with instruments of pain and terror.

L A I R A C T I O N SOn initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the soul-eater takes a lair action to cause one of the of the following magical effects:

• The soul-eater feasts on one of the trapped souls within its body, regaining 24 hit points.

• The soul-eater causes one of the trapped souls within its body to manifest in a ghostly form resembling its mortal self. The soul-eater targets an unoccupied space it can see where the soul-form manifests itself. Creatures adjacent to the soul-form when it manifests must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or else they are restrained in place and unable to take reactions until the start of the soul-eaters next turn. While restrained by the soul-form, the target is unable to regain hit points. The soul-form is incorporeal and has no hit points and can not otherwise attack or be attacked. The soul-form remains in place until the soul-eater dismisses it as a bonus action. The soul-eater can only manifest 1 soul-form at a time.

• The soul-eater causes a set of torture chains attached to the walls of its lair to magically attack a creature it can see. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or else take 7 (2d6) slashing damage.

• The soul-eater casts the spell darkness, The soul-eater can see through the magical darkness created by the spell.

A soul-eater encountered in its lair has a challenge rating of 8.

R E G I O N A L E F F E C T SThe house a soul-eater takes up residence becomes its region. While living within its walls, the soul-eater's malevolent presence is enough to cause malignant magical effects to happen, including the following: • The soul-eater can cause 5 foot areas within the home

to become hotter or colder by 20 degrees at will. • Creatures within the house have vulnerability to

lightning damage. • Creatures within the house find it impossible to sleep

or rest for more than 6 hours at a time and do not gain the benefits of a long rest while on the premises.

When the soul-eater dies, all of these regional effects fade immediately.

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C R I M E S : M U R D E R

SOUL -EATERSOUL -EATERMedium fey, neutral evil

Armor Class 13Hit Points 102 (12d8 + 48)Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA15 (+2) 16 (+3) 18 (+4) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 14 (+2)

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +9 Damage Immunities lightning; bludgeoning, piercing and

slashing from nonmagical attacksDamage Resistances cold, fireSenses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14Languages Abyssal, CommonChallenge Rating 7 (2,900 XP)

Death’s Release. When a soul-eater dies, all the souls within it are instantly set free as long as it is outside of its pocket dimension. If a soul-eater dies within its pocket dimension, any soul trapped within is destroyed and nothing, not even a wish spell, can bring it back into existence.

Innate Spellcasting. The soul-eater’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will minor illusion, telekinesis, thaumaturgy3/day cause fear1/day demiplane (always the same demiplane)

Innately Invisible. Outside of its pocket dimension, a soul-eater is invisible, except for its claws.

Soul Extract. If the soul eater reduces a target to 0 hit points, the soul eater can devour that creature’s soul as a bonus action. The victim must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. Success means the target is dead but can be restored to life by normal means. Failure means the target’s soul is consumed by the soul eater and trapped within its body and can’t be restored to life by any means, including a wish spell.

ACTIONS ++++++ ++++++

Multiattack. The soul-eater makes two attacks with its claws.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 5 (2d4) lightning damage.

Body Possession. (Recharge 6). The soul-eater targets one humanoid corpse whose soul it has consumed and makes a DC 13 Charisma saving throw. On a success, the soul-eater disappears, and the target is reanimated as a zombie. The soul-eater now controls the zombie, and can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead. It retains its Alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma and can use its Innate Shadow Step, Spellcasting and Soul Extract abilities, but otherwise uses the statistics of a zombie. The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, the soul-eater ends it as a bonus action, or the soul-eater is turned or forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell. When the possession ends, the soul-eater reappears in an unoccupied space within 5 ft. of the corpse. If the zombie is reduced to 0 hit points while the soul-eater possesses it, the soul-eater is incapable of using its Body Possession on the corpse again.

Shadow Step. The soul-eater magically teleports, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space of dim light or darkness that it can see.

Steal Breath (1/Day). The soul-eater magically inhales the breath of a sleeping humanoid. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by 11 (2d10). If this effect reduces the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target dies. The reduction to the target’s hit point maximum lasts until removed by the greater restoration spell or similar magic.

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[SOUL -EATER][SOUL -EATER]

WANTED

M O T I V E SA soul-eater has only one motive - to consume souls.

It will try to remain hidden as long as possible once it has found a family or community to its liking, preferably one with a sizable population of elderly or children: they offer the least resistance and are the most unlikely to be believed if they start telling stories about 'ghost hands'. Once its killed a victim and consumed its soul, a soul-eater enjoys hoping into their body for several hours or days afterwards, luring new victims into its web of lies and deceit. Bodies animated by a soul-eater have their eyes turned a milky white. They will even dress the corpse and douse it with perfumes and other materials to make it appear alive, or in case of the elderly or the child-minded, choose to exaggerate its corpse-like appearance, softening up new victims and driving them into ready states of terror before it consumes their souls as well.

M O D U S O P E R A N D IA community is in mouring after the loss of a final

member of an ill-fated family. For several months, a rather private family had slowly been dying off mysteriously, one-by-one. Many began to whisper that a curse was upon them, and their entire brood took on a sallow, unhealthy appearance as if gripped of some terrible illness. Doctors and clerics visited the family, but none were able to discern any particuar malady, but that did not stop the rumors from circulating. All told, six members of the poor family persished over the last six months, beginning first with the elder, a local merchant who founded a struggling business, followed by the grandchildren, three in all and finally, the wife and then husband. Now, the husbands brother has returned home after leaving the community many years ago. He has taken it upon himself to solve the unfortunate mystery of his brother's demise.

INVESTIGATIVE CLUES

DC 12 Investigation. A player at the family's house notices odd patches of exceptionally cold and exceptionally hot areas of the home.

DC 12 Persuasion. A player who inquires of the brother, notes that he complains of not being able to get a good nights rest since he moved in. He fears the home may be haunted by his brother, but that would not explain his death beforehand.

DC 10 Persuasion A player who asks around the community, learns that another family, on the opposite side of town has a member who seems to be increasingly ill, displaying the same sallowness that the merchant and his family suffered during the course of their demise.

DC 12 Investigation. A player who inquires of neighbors of the family are able to question a child who reveals in somewhat creeping terror that he saw floating hands one night moving about the families home, glimpsed through a window.

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