Buy me a coffeeAttic Whisperer
The thing in the corner of the attic resembles an emaciated child. It is a gray, forgotten remnant with cobwebs and dust covering the leering, fox skull that serves as its head. In tiny, claw-like hands it grasps a stuffed child’s toy – a ratty dolly with pins in its eyes. Worse are the voices, the calling whispers that haunt the air, filling it with nursery rhymes, sobbing, and laughing at the same time, as if the air around the creature were alive with lost invisible children.
| Attic Whisperer CR 4 |
| NE Small undead Init +8 ; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +12, Spot +9 Aura aura of sobs |
| DEFENSE |
| AC 18, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dexterity, +3 natural, +1 size) hp 39 (6d12) Fort +2 , Ref +6 , Will +8 Immune undead traits |
| OFFENSE |
| Speed 20 ft. Melee bite +8 (1d4-1 plus steal breath) and touch +3 (steal voice) Space 5 ft. , Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks steal breath, steal voice Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th) 3/day – ghost sound (DC 13), invisibility (DC 16), minor image (DC 15) |
| STATISTICS |
| Strength 9 , Dexterity 19 , Constitution -, Intelligence 14 , Wisdom 16 , Charisma 17 Base Atk +3 ; Grapple -2 Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse (bite) Skills Bluff +12, Climb +5, Hide +17, Knowledge (local) +8, Listen +12, Move Silently +13, Spot +9 Languages Common |
| ECOLOGY |
| Environment any urban or ruins Organization solitary, pair (2), generation (3-9) Treasure no coins, 10% goods, no items Advancement 7-18 HD (Small) |
| SPECIAL ABILITIES |
| Aura of Sobs (Su) All the voices an attic whisperer steals linger around it in an invisible but audible aura of unnerving ” often child-like ” whimpers, limericks, songs, and sobs. This aura surrounds an attic whisper in a 10-foot radius. Any sentient living creature that enters this area loses the benefit of any bardic music ability and takes a -1 penalty on all attack rolls, damage rolls, and Will saving throws. An attic whisperer can suppress or reactive its aura as a free action. Steal Breath (Su) A creature damaged by an attic whisperer’s bite attack must make a DC 16 Will save or become fatigued for 1 hour. A fatigued creature affected by this attack becomes exhausted for 1 hour, while an exhausted creature falls unconscious for 1 hour. This sleep is magically induced, and a sleeper can only be roused by a targeted dispel magic (dispel check DC 17), remove curse, or the attic whisperer’s destruction. The save DC is Charisma-based. Steal Voice (Su) Any creature hit by this touch attack must make a DC 16 Will save or lose its ability to speak for 1 hour. During that time, the creature cannot talk, cast spells with verbal components, use bardic music, turn undead, or use any other skill or ability that requires speech. This ability has no effect on creatures incapable of speech. The save DC is Charisma-based. Once an attic whisperer has stolen a creature’s voice it can perfectly mimic that voice (or any other it has previously stolen) at any time, even after its victim’s voice has returned. While mimicking a voice, the attic whisper can speak in any language the voice’s owner knew, regardless of its prior knowledge of the language. Those familiar with an individual’s voice can make a Sense Motive check opposed by the attic whisperer’s Bluff check to realize a mimicked voice is inauthentic. |
Children seem to experience emotions more intensely than adults. Quicker to laugh and swifter to love, certainly,but also more vulnerable to sorrow and faster to wither when abandoned. It is such desertion, the desperation and hopeless freezing of an innocent’s dreams, that gives rise to the tragic abominations called attic whisperers.
Attic whisperers haunt shadowy, forgotten places like old buildings and dilapidated institutions, places that were once homes to both young children and subtle evils. Hiding in drafty attics and moldy basements, these creatures might lie dormant for decades while the quick go about their lives – often a scant floor away. The coming of a child, though, rekindles some hope in these creatures, their animating spirits motivated by lonesomeness, ever-seeking comfort and companionship. Once they find a potential playmate, an attic whisperer does all it can to assure it will never be lonely again.
With the ability to steal one’s voice, along with the air from living lungs, these undead torment and terrify by circumstance alone, misunderstanding fear for further rejection and their own murderousness for love. And ever surrounding these creatures murmur the lost whispers of others they sought comfort from, voices of the long departed, oftentimes dead at the hands of these broken-hearted undead.