Category:Ennui
The murmuring water relaxed the Falkovnian and wore away his wariness. Sleep crept over him. He was snatched up into a dream. In it he saw himself from the outside. He was desperate to wake himself but could not. His perspective widened. He was being hunted by the methodical and astute captain of the Vistin militia, the thread of his very thoughts being tracked where there were no prints to follow. Then he was seized violently out of his sleep, pinned face down to the ground, silenced with a razor blade pulling at his mouth like a bridle, and bound at the wrists. Next he was dragged to his feet, held from behind, menaced with a second razor blade, and asked softly, "Do you wish to confess your sins?" When he gave no sign the voice whispered, "Let us begin."
- Gustov Petroff, hawkmaster and horse smuggler, wanted for desertion from the Falkovnian army, recalling the nightmare that would preoccupy his final hours
Descriptive text contributed by cure to John W. Mangrum's Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror project (posted on the Fraternity of Shadows message board).
Ennui
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This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
An Ennui is a type of dreamspawn, native to the Nightmare Lands.
Mangrum's Ennui Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (the planes) can learn more about pale morphs. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
DC Result
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (the planes) can learn more about ennui. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
DC Result
18 This eerily indistinct, winged figure is an ennui, the most powerful form of dream spawn. This result reveals all elemental traits and the dream subtype.
23 Ennui are the masters of the dreamscapes in which they are found, directing the actions of lesser dreamspawn. Ennui speak Oneiros, but they also understand all languages known to the dreamer. An ennui can take nearly any form, and literally feeds on fear. An ennui is resistant to magic.
28 Hearing Oneiros lulls mortals to sleep. Dream spawn can absorb memories with a touch, gaining access to much of a dreamer’s knowledge and weakening the victim’s intellect. An ennui’s quicksilver body is nearly impervious to harm, but magic weapons can pierce its supernatural defenses.
33 An ennui can turn itself invisible at will. Natural sunlight renders an ennui powerless and slowly boils it away. It an ennui latches onto a foe with all four arms, it can rend the victim’s flesh for extra damage.
38 An ennui can use a dreamer as a portal to pull itself between a dreamscape and the waking world. However, they rarely do so, simply because dream spawn are far more powerful within dreamscapes.
Combat[1]
Dream spawn can assume nearly any form and usually adopt the attacks of those borrowed shapes. If a dream spawn cannot use a desired ability of its assumed form, it typically uses dream powers to mimic the ability’s effects.
When encountered in its true form, a dream spawn usually attacks with its spidery claws. A dream spawn’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are considered magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Dream spawn work in teams to turn a dream seed’s pleasant slumber into mind-shattering nightmares. The most powerful individual dream spawn in a given dreamscape (typically an ennui or shadow morph) acts as the overseer of all other dream spawn present. The effectiveness of some dream spawn attacks are determined by the power of the dreamscape’s overseer rather than the actual dream spawn making the attack. For example, a dreamer who “dies” in a dreamscape must make a Madness save upon waking (DC 10 + 1/2 overseer’s HD + overseer’s Cha modifier).
If dream spawn defeat a dreamer once and inflict a madness effect, they usually return to plague that dreamer every night until they are driven off, destroyed, or drag their victim into a nightmare-filled coma.
Dream spawn are native to the Region of Dreams, and are considered on their home plane whenever encountered in dreamscapes. A dream spawn gains the extraplanar subtype when it enters the waking world.
If a dream spawn is truly killed in a dreamscape (these creatures often feign death in the course of acting out nightmares), a swarm of dreamweavers emerges from seemingly nowhere 1d4 rounds later and unravels its remains, leaving nothing behind.
Absorb Memories (Su): Dream spawn can access the memories of other creatures, assuming forms pulled from the deepest recesses of their minds.
In the Waking World: To use this ability, a dream spawn must make a successful touch attack (using same attack bonus as a claw attack), dealing 1d4 points of Intelligence damage. Until the victim recovers all lost Intelligence, the dream spawn can freely access the victim’s memories; it can communicate in any language the victim knows and can use its shapechange ability to mimic creatures from the victim’s subconscious.
In Dreamscapes: A dream spawn can access the memories of all dreamers within the dreamscape simultaneously as free action on its turn, regardless of distance. When a dream spawn uses this ability, each dreamer in the dreamscape is entitled to a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 spawn’s HD + spawn’s Cha modifier) to resist the intrusion. However, a dream spawn can repeat the attempt once each round and is likely to eventually prevail. This form of memory absorption does not inflict Intelligence damage.
A dream spawn can deal Intelligence damage in a dreamscape, but this requires a touch attack, just as if it were making the attack in the waking world. This Intelligence damage carries over into the waking world when the dreamer wakes.
Detect Thoughts (Su): A dream spawn can continuously use detect thoughts as the spell (caster level 18th). A spawn can suppress or resume this ability as a free action.
In the Waking World: This ability has a range of 30 feet. Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 spawn’s HD + spawn’s Cha modifier) negates.
In Dreamscapes: This ability has no maximum range and dreamers receive no saving throw.
Lullaby (Ex): Oneiros is the language of dreams. Although few non-dream creatures can understand it, the tone and cadence of its words inherently instill sensations of peace and security in listeners’ minds, often reminding them of the lullabies that lulled them to sleep as children. A dream spawn can murmur softly in Oneiros as a free action.
Creatures with the dream subtype are immune to Oneiros’s effects. Bards can attempt to counter the lullaby with their countersong class feature. This is a sonic, mind-affecting sleep effect.
In the Waking World: All creatures that can hear the murmurs (Listen check DC 10 + modifiers for distance and barriers) must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 spawn’s HD + spawn’s Cha modifier) or be fatigued. A listener that is already fatigued becomes exhausted; an exhausted listener falls asleep. These effects last for as long as the listener can hear the murmuring and for 1d4 rounds thereafter. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by that spawn’s lullaby for 24 hours.
In Dreamscapes: Although they are already asleep, creatures in dreamscapes can also be affected by the lullaby. If a dreamer fails its Will save against the lullaby, its dream-self becomes fatigued (or exhausted if already fatigued) within the dreamscape. Exhausted dreamers who fail their Will save do not fall asleep within the dreamscape, but in the waking world, they cannot be woken until the lullaby’s effect ends.
Shapechange (Sp): At will, a dream spawn can use shapechange (caster level equals Hit Dice) to assume virtually any form. A dream spawn can assume the form of a creature of any type, including mimicking specific individuals, but all forms must be drawn from the thoughts of mortal victims (by absorbing their memories; see above).
Dream spawn can also take the form of objects; treat this as taking the form of an animated object of the appropriate size.
A dream spawn can remain in its new form until it chooses to assume a new one. A spawn can return to its true form as a free action. If killed, a dream spawn reverts to its true form before fading away.
Fear Eater (Ex): Dream spawn are immune to all fear, horror, and madness effects. If targeted by a spell or ability that would normally cause a specific fear, horror, or madness effect, a dream spawn heals points of damage equal to the effect’s spell level. If a dream spawn is targeted by an ability that imposes nonspecific fear, horror, or madness effects, or if another creature fails a Fear, Horror, or Madness save within 30 feet of the dream spawn (or at any distance within a dreamscape), then the spawn heals 2 points of damage for a minor effect, 5 points for a moderate effect, and 10 points for a major effect. If this amount of healing would cause a dream spawn to exceed its full normal hit point total, it gains any excess as temporary hit points. These temporary hit points last for up to 1 hour.
Skills: Dream spawn gain a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks and a +4 racial bonus on Bluff checks and Move Silently checks. Dream spawn gain an additional +10 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks when using their shapechange ability. Within dreamscapes or when interacting with creatures whose memories they have absorbed, dream spawn gain a +8 insight bonus on Sense Motive checks.
References
Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue
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The Nightmare Lands |
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The Nightmare Lands:Monstrous Supplement - p4 | |
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The Nightmare Lands:Monstrous Supplement - p4 | |
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Dreamspawn, Greater - Ennui |
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