ELZEBEL, SOUL REAPER CHERUB
Character Description and History
Elzebel was once a lesser angel in service to the Raven Queen. While in the Raven Queen’s service, Elzebel was essentially a meek and lowly servant dedicated to performing menial tasks. However, Elzebel’s primary occupation, under the Raven Queen was to ferry the spirits of children into the realm of the Raven Queen. These tasks dedicated to Elzebel, and other lowly Angels like Elzebel, were essentially the most easily performed and deemed unworthy for more powerful beings to which these tasks would normally be given to.
At one point, Elzebel was mistakenly tasked with recovering the spirit of a young girl unknowingly cursed by a group of death cultists. This curse corrupted Elzebel and caused it to question its identity and its need to continue in service to the Raven Queen. It began to take on the identity of this young girl, which had been twisted by wicked rituals. This curse was also enough to mark Elzebel to a group worshipping Orcus. They summoned Elzebel to the material realm, but made a horrible mistake in the summoning and were unable to bind Elzebel to them. Elzebel was freed into the world and was without a master.
Elzebel began to develop an Identity of its own and began take on much more wicked characteristics. Elzebel began thinking of itself as a young girl. However, Elzebel realized her own weakness; she would not be able to contend with the many powerful entities throughout the world. Hoping to gain more power, Elzebel made a demon pact with Orcus, who was more than happy to accept a former Angel in service to the Raven Queen as a new follower; he also recognized the unique power that Elzebel possessed, an ability to wield the souls which she once was bound to guide. Orcus considered her a unique opportunity to exploit.
STAT BLOCK FOR ELZEBEL, SOUL REAPER CHERUB
Elzebel, Soul Reaper Cherub Level 3 Elite Controller
Small immortal humanoid (angel, shapechanger) XP 300
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +7; dark vision
HP 120; Bloodied 60
AC 20; Fortitude 15, Reflex 17, Will 20
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6 Fly 1
Action Points 1
Traits
Change Shape
Elzebel can change its physical form to take on the shape of any small child of any race. It can even take on the form of specific individuals. When Elzebel changes its shape, it leaves behind a pair of small wings on its back, which it usually conceals under its clothing, but a character can attempt an insight against Elzebel’s bluff check with a +20 bonus to its bluff check.
Death’s Pull Aura * 10
Allies within the aura gain a +1 bonus to all defenses. Enemies within the aura have a -1 penalty to all defenses.
Encounter Powrers
Summon Reaped Spirits * Free action
The first time Elzebel acts on its turn, it summons 8 Reaped Spirits (+1 additional Reaped Spirit for every level Elzebel has gained beyond 3rd) into the spaces around it. If the Reaped Spirit cannot occupy one of these squares, it fills the closest feasible square. Each of these spirits grants XP as normal minions do and should be accounted for when building any encounter involving Elzebel.
Standard Actions
Soul Spite
Range 10; +8 vs. AC, 1d10+3 damage; any living character damaged by this is weakened (save ends).
Soul Touch
+7 vs. Will, 1d10+3 damage; any living character damaged by this attack is weakened (save ends).
Soul Bind (Charm) Recharge 5 6
Can only target weakened characters.
Ranged 10;+8 vs. Will; the target is stunned (save ends). Elzebel can only use this effect on one target at a time. A new Reaped Soul appears in a space adjacent to that character that appears identical to that character in every way. This Reaped Soul acts under Elzebel’s control during her turn. If the target ends the stun effect, this Reaped Soul disappears. If this Reaped Soul is destroyed before the character saves vs. the stun effect, he or she immediately drops to 0 HP and falls unconscious and must save vs. death on his or her turn.
Triggered Effects
Soul Discharge * Free Action
A Reaped Spirit dies.
Range 10; +7 vs. Will, 4 damage
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Abyssal, Supernal
Skills Religion +10, Bluff +12, Insight+10, Diplomacy+11
Str 14 (+3) Dex 15 (+3) Wis 18 (+5)
Con 14 (+3) Int 16 (+4) Cha 20 (+6)
RELEASED SPIRIT STAT BLOCK
Reaped Spirit Level 1 Minion
Medium natural animate (undead) XP 25
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +1; dark vision
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion
AC 16; Fortitude 14, Reflex 15, Will 14
Immune disease, poison, resist necrotic 5
Speed 6 Fly 6
Traits
Reaped Chains
The Reaped Spirit can never move more than 10 squares away from the Elzebel. No effect can cause a Reaped Spirit to move more than 10 squares away from Elzebel. If Elzebel moves so that a Reaped Spirit would be more than 10 squares away, it immediately is pulled so that it is within 10 squares of Elzebel. When Elzebel dies, the Reaped Spirit disappears.
Soul Flitter
A Reaped Spirit is not affected by any type of area affect attack including blasts and bursts.
Standard Actions
Harass * At-will
+5 vs. Fortitude; 4 damage
Soul Ray * At-will
Range 10; +5 vs. AC; 3 damage
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Str 14 (+2) Dex 13 (+1) Wis 15 (+2)
Con 14 (+2) Int 13 (+1) Cha 14 (+2)
Elzebel’s Motivation
Orcus granted Elzebel several boons. The first of these boons was the ability to change her shape in order to fit in among the diverse populations of the world, but this ability was limited in its scope, restricting her to taking the forms of only children; however, in order to maintain this boon, Orcus required that she continuously seek to pull others into darkness and evil. This boon became Elzebel’s purpose for being.
After many years of being very successful in her quest to convert good people to evil, Elzebel once again caught Orcus’s eye. His experiment had been working out beautifully. He granted Elzebel another boon which would allow her to expand her power even further; every time Elzebel could subvert and tempt an individual into not only turning away from the path of good, but also convince them to kill an innocent or a friend, Elzebel would be gifted with the soul of the deceased. Every soul bound to Elzebel in this way would allow Elzebel to quickly grow in Strength.
After being granted with this, the latest boon of Orcus, Elzebel became a very small, but influential player in the turn to extinguish any existing points of light throughout the world. Elzebel became wholly motivated to turning good people against not only innocents, but also close friends. This began Elzebel’s pursuit of power.
Elzebel’s Appearance
Elzebel always appears before others as a young waif or an orphan of an appropriate race in the region to which she inhabits. She most often takes the form of a small human girl. The form she uses frequently appears to be no older than five years old; she has short brown ragged hair, sometimes wound in ponytails. She has freckled cheeks and is missing her two front teeth. Although this form is her usual modus operandi, she is quickly able to interpret what form would appear cutest to any particular target. She wears mostly rags and attempts to cover the two small black wings on her back; when asked about it, she insists that she was whipped or otherwise abused and that she cannot remove them.
If Elzebel is forced to engage in combat, she attempts to maintain her chosen form as long as possible, but when all those involved in the encounter have seen through her disguise, she reveals her true form. Elzebel looks like a small sexless toddler. It has curly black hair and its face is hardly discernable. It has two little glowing black orb-like eyes and its mouth looks as though it has been sewn shut. Elzebel’s fingers and toes can bend backwards and forwards a full 90 degrees in each direction. The more powerful Elzebel has become through its pact with Orcus, the more it appears gruesome and undead. Each level that Elzebel gains wilts Elzebel’s skin and turns it dry. Elzebel speaks in a very whiny, shrill voice when in this form.
Elzebel’s Personality
Elzebel is extremely cunning and wily. She is, in many ways a leech. She clings onto powerful good characters, appearing helpless and in need of protection. She delights greatest in finding dimwitted clerics and paladins, worshippers of good deities who simply are incapable of seeing through her disguise. She attempts to appear cute and childlike at every possible opportunity, often posing temptations to players in very childlike ways. In her favorite form, she talks with a lisp, caused by lack of her two front teeth.
Temptation Encounters with Elzebel
Covert Temptations
Elzebel seeks to tempt characters in one of two ways. Her favorite and most productive approach is to work her way into a group of good individuals. Her appearance, personality, and speech all allow her to quickly infiltrate a group of players. Once she has joined a group and put under their protection, she begins her temptations slowly.
Elzebel tries to maintain her childish appearance through her temptation. She begins by tempting the players with things that appeal to basic human nature, or through things that she could actually accomplish. She might start out by offering the players favors such as menial services, like cleaning or cooking in return for them hurting someone that she hates, but never claiming overtly that the individual in question has wronged her in any way (unless of course that claim would be true). She may also attempt to tempt the players with pleasure; she might try to convince the players to take a very cold stance against slights, suggesting that hurting an individual who has committed even the smallest slight against the player “would make you feel good, wouldn’t it?” She very cautiously encourages infighting by attempting to convince the character that she has formed the closes bond with that another player in that group has been doing things that are “unusual” or “weird”; she may also claim that the person is scary or that she thinks the individual might try to hurt her; she tries to convince players to seek vengeance for these kind of actions, by killing the player involved.
Overt Temptations
On some occasions, Elzebel acts overtly to subvert characters and push them towards evil. She does this very rarely, but when feeling secure, or influencing characters well below her level in power (i.e. she feels secure that if things came to blows she could easily defeat the players involved), she will openly admit to being a “Servant of a Death Lord”. She explains the time she spent in service of the Raven Queen. She gives great details about that experience and all the souls she has ferried into the kingdom of the Raven Queen throughout this occupation; however, she never admits to being an acolyte or servant of Orcus. She makes very certain to choose her words carefully in order to convince the characters that anything done upon her Request would be in service of “one who holds power over death” or that the players have been “chosen” to fulfill this purpose; she reassures the characters that “she will take very good care of the soul of the departed” and that the soul will “find its rightful place through her care.” When tempting characters in this way, Elzebel has several very potent offers to the players.
She may offer the players a very overt favor in return for killing a weak innocent. She gains even greater pleasure in killing children and will offer and actually follow through on any favor within her power of granting. Elzebel also has offer to a good deal of wealth (equal to the gold that would be granted by slaying). She may offer to give a character gold or even a powerful item in return for killing a weak individual (always of at least the level of the player to whom she is making the offer).
Using Elzebel in a game
Increasing Elzebel’s Level
Elzebel is a character that quickly grows in power throughout the game. The second of the boons granted to her by Orcus allows her to level up very quickly. Every time she subverts an individual, turning them towards evil and convinces a player character or NPC to kill an innocent individual, or a friend, Elzebel gains an additional level. The monster statistic block above represents Elzebel when she gained her second boon by Orcus and marks the beginning of its exponential growth in power.
When Elzebel gains a level through the use of this special power, she increases all her defenses by 1, her attacks by 1, and the damage of her powers by 1 point, she also increases her hit points by 16. Adjust her XP as an Elite creature of her level. She gains an additional stat point in charisma every three levels. Her skills are adjusted as such.
In addition, Elzebel’s Reaped Spirits also level up. They each increase their defenses and attacks by 1 every level, and increase their damage by 1 every two levels. They remain minions regardless of their level. Adjust the XP granted for each of these creatures as minions of that level.
Killing Another Player
If Elzebel is ever able to convince a player to kill another player character (something she is always actively attempting to bring about), she absorbs the soul of the player that is killed. A player’s soul which has been bound to Elzebel in this way cannot be resurrected through normal means. This soul must be forcibly removed from Elzebel through a powerful magic ritual; even if Elzebel is killed, the souls remain bound to her immortal essence. The Ritual is found below –
Unbind Soul
You call out to the ether and try to wrench the soul of your companion from the wicked entity that has bound it.
Level: 5 Component Cost: 100 gp
Category: Binding Market Cost: 500 gp
Time: 4 Hours Key Skill: Religion
Duration: Instantaneous
When performing this ritual, you must burn candles in a circle around a part of the individual’s corpse. Afterwards, you must sprinkle diamond dust on the character equal to the component cost of the spell. The component cost of this spell changes based on the level of the entity the soul is being wrenched from; an entity of Paragon tier requires 1000 gp, and an entity of Epic tier requires 10,000 gp.
Once the ritual has been conducted, the soul is immediately wrenched from Elzebel; this ritual only serves to unbind that soul from Elzebel; the player must still be resurrected as per a Raise Dead spell in order to be put that individual’s soul back into its body. In addition, Elzebel loses one level when the Unbind Soul ritual is successful, but she immediately becomes aware of the location and the caster of the spell and makes every attempt to take vengeance out on this individual. The time frame for Raise Dead begins as soon as the Unbind Soul ritual is successful.
Battle Encounters
Elzebel is very rarely in the company of Evil beings. She sees no point in keeping such company as being in the presence of already Evil beings can grant Elzebel no benefit. Most likely, a combat encounter with Elzebel happens when either she has been discovered as a wicked and mutated Angel in service of Orcus, or, she has corrupted the people in her following to the point where she can no longer gain any benefit from corrupting them further and killing those individuals would grant her some form of advantage.
Although Elzebel is an Elite Creature, she is always capable of summoning to her at least 8 Reaped Spirits, and even more every level beyond 3rd. Elzebel is almost always played as a solo encounter. The minions she summons are significantly more powerful than others as they cannot be damaged by area effects. Under rare circumstances, Elzebel may attempt to pit two groups of good aligned characters against each other. She may wield her Reaped Spirits in such an encounter to push it in a particular direction.
Optional Elements Used
Motivations
Debasement: Elzebel desires to push good aligned characters toward evil in order to maintain its ability to shape change and in order to continue to receive boons from Orcus.
Infighting: Elzelbel covertly tries to turn party members against each other. She uses her powerful charismatic abilities and her excellent ability to lie in order to convince incredibly good, but slightly witless characters, that some other member of the group poses some threat to her or if true, has harmed her in some way, she may say “that person being here hurts me” a vague expression which insinuates that physical harm has come to pass. She whispers urges to that player to seek vengeance on that player.
Warmongering: Elzebel uses similar tactics to turn players against unwitting NPCs and other innocents. She uses her cunning to subvert player morales, slowly at first, and more blatantly when she believes she has pushed them very close to the edge or when she believes she is much more powerful than the players.
Temptations
Deception: Elzebel makes claims that are always in part the truth. She convinces players that it might feel good to hurt someone else. She urges them to hurt individuals whom she hates, leading the players to believe that the targeted individual is someone who may have abused or harmed her, which may sometimes be true. If she overtly tempts the characters, admitting to be more than she seems, she always enforces that she serves “a lord of death”, providing a true history of her exploits with the Raven Queen, and any action done by Elzebel’s request would “be done at the will of the one she serves.” She may use language that insinuates that the players have been “chosen” to commit this deed.
Favor: Elzebel offers very basic favors when she is acting covertly to debase and encourage warmongering. She may offer powerful favors when dealing overtly with players.
Pleasure: Elzebel tries to convince the players that the deed that they commit will actually bring them pleasure and will feel good.
Wealth: Elzebel tempts playesr overtly with wealth, offering them gold and riches in return for harming innocent weaklings.
Aftermaths
Promotion: Elzebel always tries to get players to prey on those weaker them themselves. Elzebel does not urge players to defeat powerful enemies, but rather attempts to convince them to harm the weak, especially commoners and defenseless innocents. Whenever she is successful, she gains a level. Because her targets are always weaker than her, when she grows stronger, she is always stronger than the individual targeted.
Sacrifice: If a player character is killed as part of her temptations, that player character’s soul is bound to Elzebel and a powerful ritual must be used to wrench that soul from her immortal essence even after she has been destroyed.
