The Danse Macabre manifests as a swirling procession of spectral skeletons, decayed nobles, plague-ridden peasants, and ancient kings—each corpse locked in an eternal, grotesque waltz. Glowing eyes flicker in empty sockets, and tattered funeral garb flutters unnaturally, caught in a wind only the dead can feel. At the center of the dance is Death Incarnate, a skeletal figure wielding a violin of bone strung with hair from the dead, playing a haunting melody that animates the rest.
Behaviour: The Danse Macabre is not a single entity, but a collective undead consciousness bound by rhythm and ritual. It moves through graveyards, ruined ballrooms, or battlefield memorials, seeking new dancers—living or dead. Those who hear its music must save or begin to dance uncontrollably, joining the cursed procession. It does not speak, but its rhythm communicates a cold, irresistible invitation.
Habitat: Most commonly found in abandoned graveyards, ancient crypts, plague-pit sites, or places where large numbers of people have died suddenly or unjustly. During certain celestial alignments (especially Blood Moons or eclipses), the Danse may spill into the mortal realm, haunting towns or castles for a single night.
Modus Operandi: The Danse begins with an eerie violin tune carried on the wind. The undead then rise in sync, drawing the living into their ranks through enchantment or fear. Victims are compelled to dance until exhaustion, dying of heart failure, dehydration, or pure terror, after which they rise as new members of the macabre troupe. Magical silence or counter-charm can disrupt the music temporarily, but never for long.
Motivation: The Danse Macabre is not malevolent in the traditional sense—it is a supernatural force born of humanity’s fear of death and obsession with ceremony. Its dance is a ritual, a reminder, and sometimes a punishment. In rare cases, it may spare those who acknowledge death’s inevitability and bow respectfully.
Languages Understands all languages it knew in life but doesn’t speak
Proficiency Bonus +4
Traits
Swarm of the Dead.
The Danse Macabre is a mass of spectral undead moving in concert. It can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa. It can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing and is immune to being grappled or restrained.
Aura of Dreadful Harmony(30-foot aura)
The Danse Macabre emanates an ethereal melody. Any creature that starts its turn within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the start of its next turn. While charmed in this way, the creature must use its movement to dance in place and takes 2d10 necrotic damage at the start of its turn. A creature that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to this aura for 24 hours.
Incorporeal Movement.
The Danse Macabre can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Legendary Musician (Spellcasting).
The Danse Macabre is a 15th-level innate spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). It requires no material components.
At will:Dissonant Whispers, Thaumaturgy, Minor Illusion
The Danse Macabre makes two Spectral Waltz attacks or uses Grave Invitation and makes one Spectral Waltz attack.
Spectral Waltz.Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature.
Hit: 21 (4d8 + 3) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be slowed until the end of its next turn (as if affected by the slow spell, but without the spellcasting penalty).
Grave Invitation(Recharge 5–6).
The Danse Macabre targets one creature it can see within 60 feet. The creature must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or become possessed by a ghostly dancer for 1 minute. While possessed, the creature is incapacitated and compelled to dance uncontrollably, taking 2d10 necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Bone-Rattling Crescendo(1/day).
The Danse Macabre unleashes a dissonant violin shriek that calls forth the dead. Each creature of the Danse’s choice within 60 feet must make a DC 18 Charisma saving throw. On a failure, ghostly dancers swirl around the creature for 1 minute:
Its speed is halved.
It has disadvantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Undead have advantage on attack rolls against it.
A creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Legendary Actions
The Danse Macabre can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time, and only at the end of another creature’s turn. It regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Discordant Note.The Danse targets one creature that can hear it. That creature takes 9 (2d8) psychic damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on its next saving throw.
Step of the Departed.The Danse teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see, leaving behind a whispering burst of ghostly laughter audible up to 60 feet.
Resonant Dirge (Costs 2 Actions).The Danse Macabre recharges Grave Invitation if it has been expended.
Tactics
Opening Moves: Begins combat with Greater Invisibility and casts Fear on clustered foes, using Aura of Dreadful Harmony for battlefield control.
Mid-Combat: Uses Grave Invitation on martial threats, positioning itself among casters or support characters while teleporting to stay mobile.
Final Gambit: When cornered or outnumbered, unleashes Bone-Rattling Crescendo to tip the fight in its favor and summon undead allies, if applicable.
Lair Effects (Optional)
If the Danse Macabre is encountered in a lair—such as a cursed ballroom, plague crypt, or battlefield monument—the following effects may be present:
Music echoes endlessly. Creatures that fail Wisdom saves against fear or charm in the lair are also restrained until the end of their next turn.
The spirits of long-dead dancers animate as spectral minions (use Specter or Wight stat blocks) once per round at initiative 0.
Magic that suppresses sound or music (such as silence) temporarily disables the Danse’s aura, but causes psychic backlash (3d6 psychic damage) to those maintaining it.
EL FIN DEL MUNDO Jose Gutierrez Solana 1932
Dozens of ghostly figures swirl and cavort, floating through the air as they follow the steps of an ancient, rhythmic dance—seemingly keeping time with the ebb and flow of life itself. Amid this eerie crowd of dancing specters looms a dark cloaked figure wielding a scythe, an ominous wraith with the dreaded countenance of Death itself.
Danse Macabre CR 14
XP 38,400 NE Large undead (incorporeal) Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft, lifesense 60 ft; Perception +24; Aura dance of death (40 ft, DC 25)
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 22, flat-footed 14 (+5 deflection, +7 Dex, +1 dodge, -1 size) hp 168 (16d8+96) Fort +10, Ref +14, Will +13 Defensive Abilities deathless, incorporeal; Immune cold, undead traits; Resist +4 channel resistance; SR 30
OFFENSE
Speed fly 40 ft. (perfect) Melee incorporeal scythe +18/+13 (2d6/x4 plus 1d4 Constitution drain) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks constitution drain, dance of death
TACTICS
When a danse macabre senses living creatures, it begins its dance of death in hopes of entrapping them in its embrace. It attacks those who resist its dance of death with its incorporeal scythe and pursues escaping victims until it can no longer sense them. However, if some individuals succumb to its dance of death, it will not move so far away as to free other victims from its aura.
The danse macabre does not use its incorporeal touch attacks against creatures that have succumbed to the memento mori effect of its dance of death. Creatures that pretend to join the dance of death can stave off its incorporeal touch attacks by making Bluff checks opposed by its Sense Motive every round, thus escaping the danse macabre’s notice. A danse macabre continues to fight until destroyed.
STATISTICS
Str —, Dex 24, Con —, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 20 Base Atk +12; CMB +20; CMD 30 Feats Ability Focus (dance of death), Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Toughness Skills Fly +23, Perception +19, Sense Motive +19
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Constitution Drain (Su)
Living creatures hit by a danse macabre’s incorporeal scythe attack must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or take 1d4 points of Constitution drain. The save DC is Charisma-based. On each such successful attack, the danse macabre gains 5 temporary hit points.
Dance of Death (Su)
A danse macabre is constantly surrounded by a 40-foot aura known as the dance of death, an endless gala of dancing spectral figures. Any living creature that enters the area of the dance of death must make a DC 25 Will save. On a failed Will save, the victim joins the ghostly dancers, takes 1d4 points of Constitution drain, and is affected as if by the spell irresistible dance. These effects persist for as long as the victim remains within the aura.
As victims cannot willingly move from the square they dance in, the dance’s effects end only when the danse macabre moves to a point where the victim is no longer within its aura, is destroyed, or if the victim is physically removed from the area. The save DC is Charisma-based. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect, and neither blindness nor deafness provide resistance. A victim who makes a successful save is immune to the dance of death of the same dance macabre for 24 hours.
The spectral images surrounding a dance macabre are entirely insubstantial and harmless. At the same time, a ghostly music can be faintly heard in the area, as if a violin-led orchestra kept time to this ghostly dancing. The dancers and music cannot be interacted with but visibly and audibly mark the boundaries of the danse macabre’s dance of death aura.
Deathless (Su)
As a manifestation of Death incarnate, a danse macabre is not itself subject to permanent destruction. If reduced to 0 hit points, it disappears but rejuvenates at full hit points in 1d4 days. Only by destroying the creature and then using the spell hallow to consecrate the site it manifested upon prevents the phantom’s reappearance.
Lifesense (Su)
A danse macabre notices and locates living creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability. It also senses the strength of life forces automatically, as per the spell deathwatch.
ECOLOGY
Environment any Organization solitary Treasure none
Danse macabres embody the inevitability of death. They represent the ultimate equalizer of station, revealing in their dance of death the futility of all life. In the end all mortal beings must face the fateful piper and dance to its tune.
Incorporeal and ominous, danse macabres typically manifest as looming, black-cloaked skeletons, although they might appear in other sinister forms depending on personifications of death unique to the cultures near where they manifest, typically a fiery pillar, a pale child, or a man in a white mask. The crowd of dancing souls that surround these 10-foot-tall specters typically do little to dispel their ominous aura.
Ecology
As undead creatures, danse macabres require nothing from their environments and contribute nothing in return. Their very presence typically suggests the murder of large numbers of creatures and, upon their horrifying manifestations, the deaths of others that happen too near.
Habitat & Society
A danse macabre is a solitary creature that seeks only to call others to join its eternal celebration of the inevitable. They only manifest in locations tainted by untimely deaths—the sites of countless violent executions, estates overrun by deadly plagues, or on battlefields where mass slaughters took place. The common thread is that at all of these locations hundreds, if not thousands, of victims met their fate, often in rapid succession.
None claim to know what terrible death count or measurement of psychic trauma is required to spawn a danse macabre, and indeed, some of the most gore-soaked sites in Golarion have never led to one of these beings’ manifestations. An element of grim irony or communal revenge tends to inspire such hauntings, making it impossible to predict what catastrophe or massacre might cause one to appear.
Some scholars of the undead suggest that danse macabre harbor no hate for the living, merely a natural drive to bring them to their final state on an accelerated schedule. Witnesses of danse macabres, however, tend to disagree, and the manifestation of a danse macabre can quickly depopulate a location through both its depredations and the flight of any survivors. Fortunately, though, these morbid shades rarely move far from the site of their initial manifestation, leading to numerous tales of haunted halls where the dead endlessly dance in their eternal revel.Section 15: Copyright Notice
Pathfinder 11: Skeletons of Scarwall. Copyright 2008, Paizo Publishing LLC. Author: Greg A. Vaughan
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