Buy me a coffeeChaneques: Sinister Fey Stalkers of the Ancient Forests
“Terrifying Forest Creatures That Rip Out Souls Using Cursed Fairy Skulls—Meet the Deadly Chaneques!”
Chaneques are small, twisted fey creatures standing around 3 feet tall, with charred, rubbery skin stretched tight over sinewy limbs. Their bodies resemble a grotesque mix between a pixie and a bat, with wide, webbed flaps of skin connecting their arms and legs, allowing them to glide silently between trees. Their faces are twisted mockeries of faerie beauty, with long, ridged ears resembling those of a bat, glowing eyes that burn with malice, and mouths filled with needle-like teeth. Dangled around their waists are grisly trophies — tiny skulls of slain fairies, bleached and enchanted with malevolent magic. These trophies are ritually prepared to become deadly weapons, capable of stealing the very souls of their victims.
Behavior:
Chaneques are creatures of malice and deception, embodying both the cunning of a hunter and the malevolence of a dark trickster. They thrive on fear and despair, delighting in tormenting their prey both physically and psychologically. Despite their small size, Chaneques are bold and relentless. They stalk their targets for days, studying their routines, habits, and weaknesses, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They prefer ambush tactics, using surprise to disorient and terrify their prey before swooping down from the canopy to hurl their cursed skulls. When not actively hunting, Chaneques revel in causing confusion, leading travelers astray, and crafting elaborate traps with the aim of breaking the wills of those who wander into their domain.
Habitat:
Chaneques inhabit the deepest, oldest parts of ancient forests, where the canopy is thick and the ground is shrouded in perpetual twilight. They prefer regions untouched by human hands — shadowed groves, primeval woodlands, and tangled thickets overgrown with centuries of plant life. By day, Chaneques burrow into hollowed-out tree trunks or cling like grotesque shadows in high branches, avoiding sunlight and remaining almost invisible to passersby. They thrive in places infused with wild, chaotic magic, where the boundaries between the material world and the fey realms are thin and treacherous.
Modus Operandi:
Chaneques use a combination of stealth, ambush, and soul manipulation to dominate their prey. They usually stalk their targets silently from above, gliding between trees using their bat-like wings. When the time is right, they leap out to startle and disorient their victims. With chilling precision, they pelt their quarry with the enchanted skulls of fallen fairies.
If the skull strikes true, the victim’s soul is ripped from their body and bound within the skull, rendering the victim a lifeless shell, helpless to resist the Chaneque’s dark commands. They often force their victims into fruitless quests or have them wander aimlessly through the woods in a desperate attempt to reclaim their souls — a quest that can never be completed as long as the skull remains hidden.
Motivation:
Chaneques are driven by a twisted sense of duty and vengeance. Unlike many fey, who revel in the joy of nature and mischief, they see themselves as the enforcers of an ancient, brutal order — punishers of those who trespass upon their sacred domains and hunters of other fey whom they view as weak or impure. Their cruelty knows no bounds, and they take a sadistic pleasure in collecting the skulls of their victims, both mortal and fey alike. Each skull represents a conquest and a trophy of their dominance. To the Chaneques, the ensnared souls within these skulls are a testament to their power, symbols of their mastery over life and death within the haunted woods they call home.
Chaneque 5e
Chaneque Pathfinder
Chaneque
Small fey, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 58 (13d6 + 13)
Speed: 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (glide)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 (-2) | 18 (+4) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 10 (+0) |
- Saving Throws: Dex +7, Wis +6
- Skills: Acrobatics +7, Perception +9, Stealth +10, Survival +6
- Damage Resistances: Cold, Necrotic
- Damage Immunities: Psychic
- Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened
- Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 19
- Languages: Common, Sylvan, Abyssal
- Challenge: 5 (1,800 XP)
- Proficiency Bonus: +3
Traits
- Forest Camouflage: It has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in wooded or overgrown areas.
- Magic Resistance: The Chaneque has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
- Soul Stealer: Any creature slain by the Chaneque’s Steal Soul ability has its spirit bound to a fey skull worn by the Chaneque. These spirits cannot be resurrected until the skull is destroyed.
Actions
- Multiattack: The Chaneque makes two Claw attacks or one Claw attack and one Throw Skull attack.
- Claw: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage.
- Throw Skull: Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become Frightened for 1 minute. If the target is already frightened, they are instead Paralyzed for the duration.
- Steal Soul (Recharge 5-6): The Chaneque hurls a cursed skull charged with dark magic at a creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or have its soul ripped from its body. The target falls Unconscious and its soul is trapped within the skull. While the soul is trapped, the Chaneque can cast Dominate Person on the creature (no concentration required), and it obeys the Chaneque’s commands for up to 1 hour. The creature’s soul is released if the skull is destroyed (AC 13; HP 5; immunity to poison and psychic damage).
Reactions
- Soul Shield: When targeted by an attack, the Chaneque can expend one stolen soul to gain resistance to all damage until the start of its next turn.
Tactics
Chaneques are malicious ambush predators, using hit-and-run tactics and psychological warfare to unnerve their foes before moving in for the kill.
- Ambush: They use their Forest Camouflage to remain hidden, observing prey before striking. They target isolated enemies first, aiming to use Steal Soul to gain control over a creature early in the fight.
- Hit-and-Run: After a successful Steal Soul, the Chaneque commands the dominated creature to sow confusion among its allies while it continues attacking from a distance using its Throw Skull. It avoids direct combat until the group is sufficiently weakened.
- Soul Manipulation: When under pressure, the Chaneque uses the Soul Shield reaction to mitigate damage, using the stolen souls like expendable pawns to protect itself.
Chaneques are terrifying not only for their combat abilities but for the psychological damage they inflict — knowing that if slain by one, a creature’s very soul may become a plaything of this malicious fey.
Chaneque
This creature appears to be a cross between a pixie and a bat with charred flesh. Around its waist dangle tiny fairy skull trophies.
Source Bestiary 4 pg. 28
Originally posted in Archives of Nethys
These insidiously malicious fey lurk in the untainted depths of primeval forests. As nocturnal creatures, chaneques spend their days burrowed into the highest hollows of rotten trees. When night falls, they unfurl themselves from their resting places to hunt the forests for fairy heads and mortal souls.
Chaneques are ambush predators, preferring to stalk their prey to study its habits before attacking. Despite being a clumsy flyer, the batlike chaneque maneuvers well in the forest canopy, leaping about and using its winglike skin folds to glide from tree to tree, just waiting for an opportune moment to strike. When a chaneque attacks, it pops out without warning, attempting to startle victims before pelting them with tiny skulls capable of stealing their souls.
Driven by malice, chaneques see themselves as dutiful punishers of the fey. They hunt heads of brownies, pixies, sprites, and nearly any other fey they encounter. They collect these creatures’ skulls and through dark rituals transform them into powerful, soul-stealing weapons. The chaneques then hurl the skulls at any creatures that dare transgress upon their territories. Anyone struck by a skull risks having his soul ripped from his mortal body and imprisoned within the fey skull.
These skulls are created in a special ritual that involves nearly all of the chaneques in the colony. But first, the skulls must steep in a special stew prepared from mashed fairy brains, a rare variety of black mushroom, and a magically potent nectar that chaneques secrete and collect over time.
Once a chaneque uses the skull as a weapon, it then collects the foul instrument and uses it to control the victim of its attack. Chaneques typically enjoy sending the victim off on some false and fruitless quest to recover his soul in a far-off location, while in reality the chaneque simply buries the skull in some unknown region of the forest. Those who fall prey to a chaneques attack are doomed to walk aimlessly about the woods, vacant and driven only by the purpose set out by the chaneque, until they starve to death or fall prey to wild beasts.
A typical chaneque stands about 3 feet tall, with blackish-red, rubbery flesh. It has long, filthy claws it uses to cling to trees. Between the creature’s legs and arms hang wide, webbed flaps it uses for gliding. A chaneque also has long, ridged, batlike ears and needlelike teeth.
| Mythic Chaneque CR 1/MR 1 |
| XP 400 NE Small fey (mythic) Init +3; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +8 Aura fear aura (30 ft., DC 13) |
| DEFENSE |
| AC 15, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dexterity, +1 natural, +1 size) hp 19 (3d6+9) Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +5 |
| OFFENSE |
| Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (clumsy) Melee claw +5 (1d3+3) Ranged thrown skull +5 (1d4+3 plus steal soul) Special Attacks mythic power (1/day, surge +1d6), steal soul Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +4) 3/day – fear(DC 13) |
| STATISTICS |
| Strength 6, Dexterity 17, Constitution 10, Intelligence 13, Wisdom 14, Charisma 9 Base Atk +1; CMB 2; CMD 11 Feats Toughness, Weapon FinesseM Skills Acrobatics +9, Bluff +5, Climb +12, Fly +3, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8, Stealth +13 (+17 while in trees); Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth while in trees Languages Abyssal, Common, Sylvan |
| SPECIAL ABILITIES |
| Steal Soul (Su) As a ranged attack, a chaneque can pelt an opponent with a ritually prepared, soul-stealing fey skull. If the skull strikes its target, she must succeed at a DC 14 Will saving throw to prevent it from ripping her soul from her body. If the victim fails the saving throw, the skull temporarily devours her soul, leaving her vulnerable to the commands of whoever holds the skull. Thereafter, the skull’s possessor can use it to command the victim, as the dominate person spell. The soul remains stolen until the possessor chooses to release the victim or the skull is destroyed. While a chaneque can carry multiple skulls on its belt, it can only manipulate single soul at one time. The save DC is Wisdom-based. |
| ECOLOGY |
| Environment any forests Organization solitary or gang (2-6) Treasure standard |