Buy me a coffeeDullahan, Gan Ceann
The Gan Ceann is no mere headless rider, but a lord amongst dullahans: the Unseelie Court’s high executioner, sent when lesser hunters fail, when mortal rulers grow insolent, or when a whole people must learn that death still serves older powers than kings.
The Gan Ceann stands above lesser dullahans as a noble terror of the Unseelie Court, a headless lord entrusted with punishments too grave, too ceremonial, or too absolute for common death-riders. Where an ordinary dullahan may ride to claim a single doomed mortal, the Gan Ceann is dispatched when quarry has escaped its appointed death, when a lesser hunter has failed in its office, or when some ruler, city, bloodline, or people has given insult to the powers of the Otherworld. It is not merely an omen of death. It is death armed with rank, authority, and malice.
It resembles the common dullahan only in the way a crowned executioner resembles a brigand. Its body is that of a headless rider or dark noble warrior, but its bearing is far more composed, imperious, and dreadful. The severed head it carries is not merely grisly. It is vividly animate, lit by a crazed intelligence and a grim, merciless smile that makes the lesser dullahan’s fixed grin seem almost crude by comparison. Everything about it suggests office rather than accident, sentence rather than slaughter.
Most feared of all is the manner of its coming. The Gan Ceann is often seen not on a lone horse, but driving its dreadful coach-a-bower, drawn by six black horses raving mad with terror. This is no ordinary vehicle, nor even a hearse in any mortal sense, but a moving chamber of doom: a black coach of silence, confinement, and erasure, in which mortal protections fail and the authority of the Unseelie Court rides openly into the human world. Villages do not speak of it as one speaks of a roadside haunting. They speak of it as a visitation.
Unlike common undead riders, the Gan Ceann is unmistakably fey. It is a being of old privilege, courtly cruelty, and supernatural jurisdiction, tied not to a grave or battlefield alone, but to the ancient and punitive order of the Unseelie Court. It does not kill because it is restless, ravenous, or forgotten. It kills because something has been judged, and the sentence has been sent.
Appearance
The Gan Ceann is roughly the size of a mortal human, often a little shorter than average, yet so intense in presence that it seems greater than its height should allow. Its frame is lean and controlled rather than hulking, with the poise of a duellist, noble rider, or executioner accustomed to obedience. It weighs no more than a normal human, but nothing in its movement feels mortal. It rides, turns, and gestures with an unnerving economy, as though no effort is ever wasted.
Its body is clothed in sombre splendour: black riding leathers, grave-dark mail, lacquered armour, court finery, or ancient martial dress worn with chilling composure. The neck ends in a ragged stump, yet the horror lies less in gore than in ease. The creature is wholly at home in its headlessness. In one hand it carries its severed head, and the head remains fully awake, its grin grimmer than that of lesser dullahans, its eyes bright with lunatic purpose, aristocratic disdain, and predatory delight.
Its signature weapon is a whip fashioned from a human spine, a grotesque badge of office as much as an implement of pain. In the hands of the Gan Ceann it is not merely a weapon, but a symbol of sentence, scourging, and humiliation. Other arms may appear in tale or vision, but the spinal whip defines it best: this is not a berserker or butcher, but a punisher.
The coach-a-bower completes its image. Fashioned of exquisite black wood, polished like noble craftsmanship yet hideous in detail, its lighter knots and whorls seem almost to form screaming faces to any mind imaginative enough to see them. Within lie choking dust and rust, the remains of things brought too near the rider’s full authority. Even shut, it radiates wrongness. Even at a distance, it feels like a door between jurisdictions.
Behaviour
The Gan Ceann is ceremonial, imperious, and utterly deliberate. It does not roam in hunger or rage. It arrives on business.
Everything it does carries the air of mandate. It has not come to hunt in uncertainty, but to enforce something already decided. A fugitive has escaped death once too often. A lesser dullahan has failed its charge. A king has mocked the powers beneath the hill. A town has broken an old duty owed to the Unseelie Court. A bloodline has forgotten the terms under which it prospered. When the Gan Ceann appears, the sense is not that danger has wandered near, but that judgment has crossed over.
Unlike many lesser death-riders, the Gan Ceann speaks, and speaks Sylvan, the tongue of the elder fey powers. It does not chatter. It pronounces. It names. It condemns. Its speech should feel like a ruling issued from an older and crueler court than any human kingdom can boast.
Its cruelty is intelligent and exact. It understands fear as theatre, punishment as demonstration, and death as a social fact as much as a physical one. It can shame rulers before their households, break the nerve of a town without yet killing it, or turn a single death into a lesson none present will ever forget. This is part of what makes it so much worse than a simple killer: the Gan Ceann does not merely want the victim dead. It wants everyone else to understand why resistance was foolish.
Habitat
The Gan Ceann belongs first to the Unseelie Court, and only secondarily to the mortal world. It does not truly dwell among humankind so much as intrude upon it by night when called to its work. Its presence on the Material Plane should always feel like an incursion by higher and older powers.
When it manifests in mortal lands, it is found on roads, before gates, at palace steps, outside manor houses, at crossroads, near gallows grounds, on old burial ways, and in the approaches to settlements under sentence. Lesser dullahans may become attached to a particular road or boundary. The Gan Ceann feels less local than official. It has not risen from this ditch or that mound. It has come from elsewhere, and with sanction.
In a real-world mythic campaign, it is especially at home in lands where fairy belief, ancestral obligations, noble arrogance, and the danger of the Otherworld still cling to the landscape: above all in Ireland, but equally in neighbouring regions where old roads, death-customs, and supernatural boundaries remain potent. It does not require a separate fantasy realm to feel right. It belongs naturally to a world in which the old powers are real and insults to them still carry consequence.
Modus Operandi
The Gan Ceann acts as a supernatural executioner and punitive enforcer. It comes for a target, a debt, an insult, or a sentence. It does not kill randomly. Its terror comes from purpose.
If a lesser dullahan has failed to claim its quarry, the Gan Ceann may be sent to complete the task. That alone marks the situation as grave. The first rider was warning enough; this one is final measure. Once the Gan Ceann has been dispatched, mercy is already in retreat.
Its powers reinforce inevitability. Barriers do not hold it. Locks yield before it. Animals collapse into terror. Darkness shelters it. Sunlight does not destroy it, but casts it back beyond the mortal world. It sees through deception, senses the nearness of death, blinds with its gaze, and passes through the protections on which ordinary men rely. Walls, rank, escorts, gates, and shuttered windows are no comfort against something sent from a court that does not recognise mortal jurisdiction.
The coach-a-bower magnifies this horror. It allows the Gan Ceann not merely to reach a victim, but to seize, silence, and remove them. The coach is prison, execution chamber, supernatural threshold, and act of abduction all at once. To be forced into it is not simply to be captured, but to be taken out of the ordinary world and subjected to a deeper and older authority. The silence around it, the anti-magical nature of its interior, the dust that accumulates within, and the disappearance of those claimed by it all make the same point in different ways: the coach does not transport prisoners to judgment. It is itself part of the judgment.
When the Gan Ceann comes against a whole settlement or household, the passage alone may become punishment. Its maddened horses tear forward in a fever of supernatural terror, and the speed of the coach becomes destructive in its own right. Panic, flame, trampling, silence, and the spectacle of unstoppable arrival all serve the same purpose. The Gan Ceann is not only there to kill. It is there to break certainty.
Motivation
The Gan Ceann is driven by office, service, malice, and enforcement. It is a servant of the Unseelie Court, but not an unwilling one. Its role grants expression to its own cruelty. It does not merely obey judgment; it relishes its execution.
Its motives commonly include completing an unfinished death-warrant, punishing a mortal lord or settlement that insulted the Unseelie Court, reclaiming one who escaped an appointed death, enforcing forgotten bargains, or making an example of those who have grown arrogant beneath the protection of walls, titles, and churches. It may also be sent where an entire populace has offended the Court, turning private doom into public chastisement.
This makes the Gan Ceann more than a powerful monster. It is an instrument of supernatural politics. To face it may mean not only resisting a death-being, but confronting the punitive reach of the Unseelie order itself.
Gan Ceann 5.5
Gan Ceann, Pathfinder
Gan Ceann 3.5
Dullahan, Gan Ceann
Medium fey (extraplanar), neutral evil
Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 199 (21d8 + 105)
Speed 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 (+4) | 18 (+4) | 20 (+5) | 18 (+4) | 16 (+3) | 22 (+6) |
Saving Throws Dex +10, Con +11, Wis +9, Cha +12
Skills Insight +9, Intimidation +12, Perception +9, Stealth +10
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities necrotic
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
Senses darkvision 120 ft., truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +5
Traits
Dark of Night. If the gan ceann is exposed to direct sunlight, it is instantly banished to the Unseelie Court unless an effect prevents planar travel. If it cannot be banished this way, it is blinded while in direct sunlight and remains blinded for 1d4 minutes after the exposure ends.
Deathwatch. The gan ceann always knows which creatures within 300 feet of it are healthy, wounded, dying, or at 0 hit points.
Fear Aura. A hostile creature that starts its turn within 20 feet of the gan ceann must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on this save is immune to this gan ceann’s Fear Aura for 24 hours.
If a beast fails this save by 5 or more, it is frightened for 1 minute instead. While frightened in this way, it is also charmed by the gan ceann, obeys its verbal commands, and can be ordered to take obviously harmful actions. The beast repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending both effects on a success.
Headless Sovereign. The gan ceann is immune to any effect that would kill it by removing its head. It carries its living severed head in one hand.
A creature that first touches or seizes the head must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or drop to 0 hit points. On a success, that creature is immune to this effect for as long as it continues holding the head.
If the head is separated from the gan ceann, the gan ceann can still see and hear through it while both are on the same plane. The head has AC 17, 30 hit points, and immunity to psychic and poison damage.
If the head is destroyed, the gan ceann loses its truesight and Deathwatch traits until the next sunset, when the head reforms, provided the gan ceann still lives. If the gan ceann is destroyed but its head remains intact, it reforms at the next sunset with all its hit points in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of its head.
Know No Barriers. Nonmagical doors, gates, locks, shutters, and barred entrances within 20 feet of the gan ceann unlock and open at its will. Magical locks and magical sealing effects of 5th level or lower are suppressed while the gan ceann is within 20 feet of them.
Magic Resistance. The gan ceann has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Executioner’s Precision (1/Turn). The gan ceann deals an extra 21 (6d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of a creature hostile to it that isn’t incapacitated and the gan ceann doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
True Seeing. The gan ceann sees in normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, automatically detects visual illusions, and perceives the true form of shapechangers and transformed creatures within 120 feet.
Innate Spellcasting. The gan ceann casts spells innately, requiring no material components. Charisma is its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks).
3/day each: bestow curse, deeper darkness, finger of death
Actions
Multiattack. The gan ceann makes three Spine Whip attacks.
Spine Whip. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or begin bleeding. A bleeding target takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns. The bleeding ends if the target receives magical healing or if a creature within 5 feet of it uses an action to succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check. A creature can suffer up to three separate bleeding effects from this attack at once.
Evil Eye. The gan ceann fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or become blinded. On a successful save, the target is immune to this gan ceann’s Evil Eye for 24 hours. On a failed save, the blindness lasts until ended by greater restoration, heal, similar magic, or a successful save made at the end of each long rest.
Water into Blood. The gan ceann transforms up to 80 gallons of water it can see within 60 feet into foul blood for 24 hours. A creature that drinks this blood must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour. Water in a consecrated area, or holy water, is unaffected.
Bonus Actions
Deathwatch Focus. The gan ceann focuses on one creature it can see within 300 feet until the start of its next turn. While focused in this way, it knows whether that creature is above half its hit points, at or below half its hit points, or at or below one-quarter of its hit points.
Mark the Failing. The gan ceann chooses one creature it can see within 60 feet that is frightened, blinded, or bleeding. Until the start of the gan ceann’s next turn, the first Spine Whip attack it makes against that creature has advantage.
Reactions
Snatch Back the Head. When a creature within 5 feet would take or disarm the gan ceann’s head, the gan ceann makes a Dexterity check contested by that creature’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). On a success, the head remains in the gan ceann’s grasp. If the creature would otherwise gain hold of the head, the gan ceann can make one Spine Whip attack against that creature.
Legendary Actions
The gan ceann can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The gan ceann regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Move. The gan ceann moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Whip Crack. The gan ceann makes one Spine Whip attack.
Name the Doomed (Costs 2 Actions). One creature the gan ceann can see within 60 feet that is frightened by it must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed until the end of its next turn.
Pass the Threshold (Costs 2 Actions). The gan ceann opens one door, gate, portcullis, shutter, or similar barrier it can see within 60 feet. If the barrier is held shut by a magical effect of 5th level or lower, that effect is suppressed until the end of the gan ceann’s next turn.
Coach-a-Bower
The Coach-a-Bower is the Gan Ceann’s own black coach, drawn by six terror-maddened black steeds. It is a supernatural vehicle of silence, abduction, punishment, and death, and it moves only at its master’s command. The coach acts on the gan ceann’s initiative.
Vehicle Size Huge
Armor Class 18
Hit Points 170
Damage Threshold 10
Speed 80 ft.
Crew 1 driver (the gan ceann)
Passengers 12 Medium creatures
Fashioned from uncanny black wood and bound with iron-dark fittings, the coach gleams like noble workmanship while its knots and whorls seem almost to hold the shapes of screaming faces. Its doors are supernaturally sealed and open freely only for the gan ceann unless forced.
Vehicle Traits
Aura of Silence. The area within 60 feet of the coach is under the effect of silence. The gan ceann, its steeds, and any creatures it chooses are unaffected.
Black Interior. The inside of the coach is a supernatural prison larger than its exterior suggests. When a non-fey creature inside the coach casts a spell, it must first succeed on a DC 20 spellcasting ability check or the spell fails and the action is wasted.
Dust of the Taken. A creature that dies inside the coach crumbles to rust-coloured dust within 24 hours, along with all nonmagical objects it carried.
Phantasmal Doom. Once on each of the gan ceann’s turns, it can force one creature inside the coach to make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 22 (4d10) psychic damage and is frightened until the end of its next turn. If the save fails by 5 or more, the creature instead takes 44 (8d10) psychic damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this effect dies of terror.
Arcane-Sealed Doors. A creature can force open a coach door with a successful DC 24 Strength (Athletics) check. The gan ceann ignores this seal.
Burning Passage. If the coach moves at least 40 feet on its turn, each creature and unattended flammable object within 10 feet of its path must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or catch fire. A burning creature takes 7 (2d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns until it or another creature uses an action to extinguish the flames.
Master’s Vehicle. While the gan ceann is aboard the coach or within 60 feet of it, the coach cannot be frightened, charmed, or magically compelled to halt, and it ignores difficult terrain.
Destroyed Coach. When the coach is reduced to 0 hit points, it collapses into black splinters, rust, and choking dust. Each creature within 15 feet of it must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn. Any creature inside the coach is expelled into the nearest unoccupied spaces.
Terror-Maddened Black Steeds
Large fey, neutral evil
Armor Class 16
Hit Points 76 each (9d10 + 27)
Speed 60 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 (+5) | 16 (+3) | 16 (+3) | 6 (-2) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +5
Skills Perception +5
Damage Resistances cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities frightened
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages understands Sylvan but can’t speak
Traits
Terror-Harnessed. While harnessed to the Coach-a-Bower, a steed ignores exhaustion from forced movement, prolonged travel, and repeated dashing.
Driven Beyond Reason. While harnessed to the coach, a steed has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, restrained, or magically slowed.
Panic-Laden Presence. A creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of one or more harnessed steeds must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on opportunity attacks until the start of its next turn.
Actions
Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Trampling Surge. If the steed moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with Hooves on the same turn, the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Team Rules
The Coach-a-Bower begins with six terror-maddened black steeds harnessed to it.
- With 6 steeds, the coach’s speed is 80 ft.
- With 4–5 steeds, the coach’s speed is 60 ft.
- With 2–3 steeds, the coach’s speed is 40 ft.
- With 1 steed, the coach’s speed is 20 ft.
- With 0 steeds, the coach’s speed is 0 ft.
While at least one steed remains harnessed, attacks can target either the coach or an individual steed. If all six steeds are slain or removed, the coach becomes immobile until the gan ceann provides a new team or leaves it behind.
Dullahan, Gan Ceann
CR 14
XP 38,400
NE Medium fey (extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, true seeing, deathwatch; Perception +24
Defense
AC 28, touch 18, flat-footed 20 (+4 Dex, +10 natural, +4 deflection)
hp 161 (19d6+95)
Fort +11, Ref +19, Will +16
DR 10/cold iron or silver
Immune fear, decapitation effects
Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10
SR 25
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee spine whip +20/+15/+10 (1d6+4 plus bleed and executioner’s precision)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks evil eye, executioner’s precision +6d6, fear aura, headless, spell-like abilities, water into blood
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +18)
3/day—bestow curse (DC 19), deeper darkness, finger of death (DC 23)
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 22
Base Atk +9; CMB +13; CMD 31
Feats Ability Focus (evil eye), Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Improved Critical (whip), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (whip), Step Up
Skills Acrobatics +18, Bluff +28, Intimidate +28, Knowledge (local) +18, Knowledge (nobility) +18, Perception +24, Ride +18, Sense Motive +24, Stealth +26, Survival +18
Languages Common, Sylvan
Ecology
Environment the Unseelie Court or lonely mortal roads by night
Organization solitary, usually with coach-a-bower and six terror-maddened black steeds
Treasure standard, plus coach-a-bower
Special Abilities
Dark of Night (Su) A gan ceann cannot endure the mortal sun. If exposed to direct sunlight, it is instantly forced back to the Unseelie Court unless an effect prevents extradimensional travel. If trapped on the Material Plane, it is blinded while in direct sunlight and remains blinded for 1d4 minutes after the exposure ends.
Deathwatch (Su) A gan ceann continuously senses the condition of living creatures within 300 feet, as deathwatch. As a swift action, it can focus this awareness on one creature within range that it can see; until the start of its next turn, it knows whether that creature is above half its full normal hit points, at or below half its full normal hit points, or at or below one-quarter its full normal hit points.
Evil Eye (Su) Any creature within 60 feet that meets the gan ceann’s gaze must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or be permanently blinded. A creature that succeeds at this save is immune to that gan ceann’s evil eye for 24 hours. This is a gaze effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Executioner’s Precision (Ex) Once per round, a gan ceann deals an extra 6d6 points of damage with a successful spine whip attack against a target denied its Dexterity bonus to AC or against a flanked target. This otherwise functions as the rogue’s sneak attack ability.
Fear Aura (Su) As a free action, a gan ceann can radiate an aura of supernatural terror to a radius of 20 feet. Creatures in the area must succeed at a DC 24 Will save or be frightened for 1 round. A creature that succeeds at this save is immune to that gan ceann’s fear aura for 24 hours.
Animals that fail this save by 5 or more instead cower for 1 round, and if the gan ceann wishes, remain under its command for 1 minute thereafter as though affected by dominate animal. It can command such animals to perform even self-destructive acts. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Headless (Su) A gan ceann is immune to decapitation, including vorpal effects and similar abilities. It carries its living severed head in one hand. Any creature that first touches or seizes the head must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or be reduced to –1 hit point and begin dying. A creature that succeeds is immune to this effect for as long as it continues holding the head. This is a death effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
If separated from the body, the gan ceann can still see and hear through the head while both are on the same plane. The head has hardness 7 and 30 hit points.
If the head is destroyed, the gan ceann loses the benefits of its true seeing and deathwatch abilities until the next sunset, when the head reforms if the gan ceann still lives. If the gan ceann is slain but its head remains intact, it reforms at the next sunset in an adjacent square with full hit points.
Know No Barriers (Su) All nonmagical doors, locks, shutters, gates, and barred portals within 20 feet of the gan ceann unlatch and open at its will. Magical locks and sealing effects, including arcane lock, are automatically suppressed if their caster level is lower than the gan ceann’s Hit Dice.
Spine Whip (Su) A gan ceann’s whip appears to be fashioned from a human spine. It functions as a +2 wounding whip that deals lethal damage and can harm creatures regardless of armor bonus. A creature struck by the spine whip takes 1 point of bleed damage plus an additional 1d6 points of bleed damage each round until the wound is healed by magic or bound with a successful DC 15 Heal check. Multiple bleed effects from the spine whip stack, to a maximum of three times.
True Seeing (Su) A gan ceann continuously benefits from true seeing, as the spell (CL 19th).
Water into Blood (Ex) As a standard action, a gan ceann can transform up to 80 gallons of water within 60 feet into foul blood for 24 hours. A creature that drinks this blood must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1 hour. Holy water and water in a consecrated area are unaffected. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Coach-a-Bower
N Huge vehicle
Init +0
Defense
AC 6; hardness 10
hp 170
Break DC 24
Offense
Speed 80 ft. (drawn by six harnessed steeds)
Statistics
Space 15 ft. by 10 ft.; Crew 1 (the gan ceann)
Passengers 12 Medium creatures, though its interior is far larger than it appears
Special Abilities
Arcane-Sealed Doors (Su) The coach’s doors open freely only for the gan ceann. Other creatures must force them with the listed Break DC.
Aura of Silence (Su) The area within 60 feet of the coach is under a constant silence effect. The gan ceann, its steeds, and any creatures it chooses are unaffected.
Black Interior (Su) The inside of the coach is a supernatural prison. A non-fey creature inside it must succeed at a DC 20 caster level check to cast a spell. On a failure, the spell is lost.
Burning Passage (Su) If the coach moves at least 40 feet in a round, creatures and unattended flammable objects within 10 feet of its path must succeed at a DC 18 Reflex save or catch fire, taking 2d6 points of fire damage each round until the flames are extinguished.
Destroyed Coach (Su) When reduced to 0 hit points, the coach collapses into black splinters, rust, and choking dust. Creatures within 15 feet must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save or be blinded for 1 round. Creatures inside are expelled into the nearest open spaces.
Dust of the Taken (Su) Any creature that dies inside the coach crumbles to rust-colored dust within 24 hours, along with its nonmagical gear.
Master’s Vehicle (Su) While the gan ceann is aboard the coach or within 60 feet of it, the coach cannot be compelled to halt by magic and ignores difficult terrain.
Phantasmal Doom (Su) Once per round on its turn, the gan ceann may force one creature inside the coach to attempt a DC 20 Will save. On a failure, the creature takes 4d10 points of damage and is shaken for 1 round. If it fails by 5 or more, it instead takes 8d10 points of damage and is frightened for 1 round. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this effect dies of terror. This is a fear and mind-affecting effect.
Terror-Maddened Black Steed
CR 6
NE Large fey
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12
Defense
AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+3 Dex, +7 natural, –1 size)
hp 85 (10d10+30)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +7
DR 5/cold iron
Immune fear
Resist cold 10, fire 10
Offense
Speed 60 ft.
Melee 2 hooves +15 (1d8+7)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Statistics
Str 24, Dex 16, Con 17, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 12
Base Atk +10; CMB +18; CMD 31 (35 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Natural Attack (hoof), Lightning Reflexes, Run
Skills Perception +12, Stealth +8, Survival +9
Languages understands Sylvan but cannot speak
Special Abilities
Driven Beyond Reason (Ex) While harnessed to the coach-a-bower, a terror-maddened black steed gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against charm effects, paralysis, entanglement, and slow effects.
Panic-Laden Presence (Su) Creatures that begin their turn within 10 feet of one or more harnessed steeds must succeed at a DC 16 Will save or take a –2 penalty on attacks of opportunity until the start of their next turn. This is a fear effect.
Terror-Harnessed (Ex) While harnessed to the coach-a-bower, a steed ignores the effects of forced march, hustling, and repeated run actions.
Trampling Surge (Ex) If the steed moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and hits it with a hoof attack in the same round, the target must succeed at a DC 21 Reflex save or be knocked prone.
Team Rules
A complete coach-a-bower team begins with six terror-maddened black steeds harnessed to the coach.
- With 6 steeds, the coach’s speed is 80 ft.
- With 4–5 steeds, the coach’s speed is 60 ft.
- With 2–3 steeds, the coach’s speed is 40 ft.
- With 1 steed, the coach’s speed is 20 ft.
- With 0 steeds, the coach’s speed is 0 ft.
While at least one steed remains harnessed, attackers may target either the coach or an individual steed. If all six steeds are slain or removed, the coach becomes immobile until the gan ceann provides a new team or abandons it.
Gan Ceann
A gan ceann is a lord amongst dullahan’s, a great and terrible master of death and the bane of mortal kind. He is called to do his work when a lesser dullahan is somehow unable to kill his quarry or when an entire populace or its leader has insulted the Unseelie Court.
The gan ceann appear much as a normal dullahan, though its grin is grimmer and its eyes more crazed if possible. They tend to be seen driving a coach pulled by six black horses raving mad with terror.
A gan ceann dullahan speaks sylvan. They weigh the same as a standard human, though tend to be a head shorter than average.
| Dullahan, Gan Ceann | |
| Medium fey (Extraplanar) | |
| Hit Dice | 19d6+76 (142 hp) |
| Initiative | +3 |
| Speed | 40 ft. (8 squares) |
| Armor Class | 25 (+4 Dexterity, +11 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 21 |
| Base Attack/Grapple | +9/+11 |
| Attack | Whip +16 melee (1d4+4/19-20×2 plus 1 Constitution damage) |
| Full Attack | Whip +16/+ melee (1d4+4/19-20×2 plus 1 Constitution damage) |
| Space/Reach | 5 ft./5 ft. |
| Special Attacks | Evil eye, fear aura, headless, sneak attack +6d6, spell-like abilities, water into blood |
| Special Qualities | Damage reduction 10/gold or silver, dark of night, Darkvision 120 ft., death watch, know no barriers, immunity to fear, Low-Light Vision, true seeing |
| Saves | Fort +10, Ref +18, Will +14 |
| Abilities | Strength 15, Dexterity 18, Constitution 19, Intelligence 18, Wisdom 14, Charisma 21 |
| Skills | Balance +26, Bluff +27, Climb +24, Hide +26, Intimidate +27, Listen +24, Move Silently +26, Ride (Dexterity)+26, Search +26, Spot +24 |
| Feats | Ability Focus (headless), Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Improved Critical (Whip)(B), Improved Feint, , Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse(B), Weapon Focus (Whip) |
| Environment | Unseelie Court |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Challenge Rating | 14 |
| Treasure | Standard |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| Advancement | By character class |
| Level Adjustment | – |
Combat
A gan ceann dullahan’s weapon appears to be made from a human spine. It acts as a +2 wounding Whip that deals lethal damage and can deal damage even to those with armor. Those hit continue to bleed for 1d6 points of damage per round unless a DC 15 Heal check is made or are targeted by magical healing. Bleeding damage from multiple unhealed wounds stack.
Dark of Night (Su): A dullahan fades away upon exposure to the mortal’s sun, instantly returning to the Unseelie Court. It may transport back to the Material Plane anytime during the night and cannot transport again until the next night. If kept from transporting, such as by an anti-magic field, the sunlight renders it blind for as long as it is exposed and for 1d4 minutes after.
Deathwatch (Su): A gan ceann dullahan continuously senses how close a creature is to death as the Deathwatch spell. This ability extends out in a thousand foot cone plus 100 feet for ever round it concentrates with no set limit.
Evil Eye (Su): If it wishes, anyone who meets a gan ceann dullahan’s gaze within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 23 fortitude save or go permanently blind. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Fear Aura (Su): As a free action a gan ceann can cause all those within 20 feet to panic unless they succeed on a DC 23 will save. Those with 7 HD or less are shaken even if they make their save.
If it wishes, a gan ceann who successfully affects an animal with its aura can cause it to cower and become subservient out of sheer terror. This acts as the dominate animal spell except a gan ceann can command it to do suicidal or self-destructive acts. While dominated by the gan ceann the animal is immune to intimidation and fear-affects from other sources.
This is a mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Headless (Su): A dullahan is immune to decapitation such as from a vorpal weapon. The head cannot be focused for a sunder attempt while held, and anyone who touches it, such as snatching away the head with a disarm attempt, must succeed on a DC 25 will save or be struck instantly dead. Those who survive initial contact are immune to the deathly repercussions for as long as they hold it. If it is set down and then touched again they must make another save. This is a death affect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
A gan ceann may attempt to snatch back the head with inhuman quickness if it is knocked out of its grasp with a weapon, making a free reflex save against the disarm attack. If the disarm attempt would have it end up in the opponent’s grasp the gan ceann may make a disarm attempt itself as if it had the Improved Disarm feat. It may use these abilities even if it is not it’s turn.
If the head is destroyed the dullahan is not killed, but it can only hear and see and use its death watch ability wherever the head is located. The head has 25 hit points and a hardness of 7.
The dullahan must always have one hand free to hold its head. When a dullahan fades back at sun up the head fades as well and reunites with the body.
Unless a dullahan’s head is destroyed after the main body is killed the creature rises back to life the next night.
Know No Barriers (Su): All non-magical doors and locks a dullahan wishes to pass through unlock and open automatically whenever he approaches within 20 feet. Magical doors and locks are also affected and effects such as Arcane Lock are dispelled if the caster level is less than the gan ceann’s HD.
Sneak Attack (Ex): 6d6 damage as Rogue’s ability.
Spell-like Abilities: Caster level 12th. Save DC’s are Charisma-based.
3/day – bestow curse (DC 19), deeper darkness, finger of death (DC 23)
True seeing (Su): Gan ceann have a continuous true seeing ability, as the spell (caster level 19th).
Water Into Blood (Ex): As a standard action a gan ceann dullahan can convert 10 cubic feet, or eighty gallons, of water into blood.
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Coach-A-Bower
The coach of the gan ceann is a thing of utter evil. It is made of some exquisite black wood whoes knots and whirls are a slightly lighter shade and to the imaginative mind appear much as screaming spirits. The inside is filled with mounds of chocking dust and rust. The door has a break DC of 35 and has an Arcane Lock enchantment upon it. It continuously produces complete silence out to 60 feet.
Any creature forced into the coach is affected as by the phantasmal killer spell if the gan ceann wishes. The remains and items of those who die within are reduced to dust within a day. The coach has room to seat any number of creatures despite its normal seeming size from without. Otherwise the enterior acts as an anti-magic field to mortal creature’s magic.
All spells are as cast by a 19th level caster. The save DC’s are Charisma-based with the coach having the equivalent of a Charisma of 18.
Beasts of burden can only be hitched to the coach-a-bower if they are mad with the terror produced by a gan ceann’s fear aura and must be Medium or Large sized. Such beasts can move at a base speed of 200 feet and do not take any negative affects from prolonged running as long as they pull the coach. They still take damage from spurring.
When a gan ceann spurs his mounts to greater speeds all creatures and objects within 10 feet of where it passes must succeed on a DC 20 reflex save or catch on fire. The flame burns for 1d4 rounds, dealing 1d6 fire damage per round. A burning creature can take a move action to put out the flame.
Using the Gan Ceann in a Campaign
The Gan Ceann should not be introduced as an ordinary wandering threat. It works best as escalation, sentence, and arrival.
Something has already worsened before it appears. A lesser dullahan has failed. A fairy mound has been desecrated. A ruler has refused an old due. A bloodline has escaped a fate long owed. A town has mocked powers it barely understands. Then the black coach is seen on the road.
That structure gives it proper weight. The Gan Ceann is not the beginning of a haunting. It is what comes when a haunting was not enough.
It is especially effective in campaigns involving fairy courts, doomed dynasties, ancestral crimes, broken rites, supernatural law, and struggles between mortal sovereignty and older inhuman powers. The party may need to fight it, delay it, outwit it, bargain against it, discover the insult that provoked it, restore the forgotten custom that restrained it, or decide whether the one marked for death deserves saving at all. Stories around the Gan Ceann become strongest when they centre on guilt, obligation, jurisdiction, fear, and the terrible possibility that the thing pursuing the victim is not entirely wrong.
Adventure Hooks
- The Second Rider Never Fails: A noble escaped a lesser dullahan by sacrilege, sorcery, or cowardice. Now the Gan Ceann has been sent to finish the work, and the punishment may consume the entire estate.
- The King Who Mocked the Hill: A ruler ordered an ancient fairy mound opened, plundered, or fortified. Three nights later the Gan Ceann’s coach is seen upon the old road, and every horse in the royal stables goes mad with terror.
- The Village Under Sentence: A desperate settlement destroyed or drove off a lesser dullahan. The Gan Ceann now comes to punish not a single soul, but the whole community for its insolence.
- Dust in the Black Coach: Several missing travellers are thought taken by brigands, yet all ever found of them is rust-coloured dust and oddly emptied possessions. The old people say the coach-a-bower has begun to ride again.
- The Final Officer of the Court: The party shelters a fugitive who insists the death sent for him was unjust. A lesser dullahan failed to claim him. Now the Gan Ceann has crossed over, and the true question is no longer whether death is coming, but whether its warrant was lawful in the eyes of powers older than mankind.