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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

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Abilities | Monsters | NPCs

Matron Uldrula, Desperate Repository Manager

For eons, Uldrula served as would any shoki in Pharasma's court, escorting wayward souls to the Boneyard for judgment. Though she used logic and emotional arguments whenever possible, she relied upon her staff and powerful magic to forcefully capture souls when words failed. Uldrula would've remained on this path if not for her devotion to Narakaas, the Cleansing Sentence.

In time, Uldrula entered Narakaas's service, working as an archivist and later manager at a small soul repository located on the borders of Narakaas's realm: Reprieve. While there, Uldrula cataloged not only the souls in Reprieve's care but also the reason for their arrival. The endeavor sparked a change in the old shoki. After eons as a dispassionate arbiter of fate, Uldrula allowed feelings to interfere with her work. She adopted the mantle “Matron,” and the souls became “her wards.” And, the predators that harmed souls became her enemies.

For millennia, Matron Uldrula lobbied her superior, Arbiter Alcrazaal, to dispatch psychopomp assassins to destroy the most heinous soul predators, but her arguments were regularly written off as rash, emotional, and illogical.

Sensing her time at Reprieve is nearing its end and desperate to spare countless souls any unnecessary harm, Matron Uldrula has resorted to considering drastic measures to see her enemies destroyed once and for all. During her darkest moments, she has considered traveling the planes to dispatch as many soul predators as she can before Arbiter Alcrazaal catches her and ends her life.

Matron Uldrula is a hunchbacked shoki with a pearlescent snail-like shell on her back, frazzled gray hair, and the countenance of a wise old woman. Wrinkles and worry line her face, her gap-toothed smile is cunning but kindly, and she has expressive gold eyes—though such affectations are typically feigned among shokis, Matron Uldrula's are genuine. Her gray skin is webbed with scars, which appear as tiny gold lines in irregular patterns like cracks in broken pottery. She leans heavily on an adamantine staff from which dangles a lantern containing a blue-white wisp of light.

Though she hides it well, Matron Uldrula is weary.

Campaign Role

Although Matron Uldrula is opposed to the PCs' presence in her soul repository, she has spent eons bargaining with desperate souls and is intrigued enough to allow the PCs to speak in their defense before she reaps their souls.

If the PCs are honest with Matron Uldrula, Matron Uldrula becomes an ally of the PCs, giving them Balji's soul in exchange for the death of Kemnebi and providing them information on Arbiter Alcrazaal, who she knows will stand against them.

If the PCs are dishonest, Matron Uldrula becomes a terrifying foe, willing to die in defense of her wards and trusting reinforcements are on the way.

Recall Knowledge - Monitor (Religion): DC 49
Unspecific Lore: DC 47
Specific Lore: DC 44

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Matron UldrulaCreature 19

Legacy Content

Unique N Medium Monitor Psychopomp 
Source Pathfinder #186: Ghost King's Rage pg. 90
Female shoki psychopomp
Perception +38; darkvision, lifesense 120 feet
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal, Requian; tongues
Skills Acrobatics +31, Boneyard Lore +37, Deception +35, Diplomacy +35, Intimidation +35, Legal Lore +33, Occultism +33, Religion +37, Society +33, Stealth +31
Str +6, Dex +5, Con +6, Int +7, Wis +10, Cha +8
Items religious symbols, staff
AC 40; Fort +31, Ref +30, Will +35
HP 275; Immunities death effects, disease; Resistances negative 20, poison 20
Soul Shards (divine, transmutation) When Matron Uldrula is wounded, tiny fragments of her break away, littering the floor with glass-like shards. In their place, glimmering gold cracks crisscross Matron Uldrula's form, each hard as steel. When Matron Uldrula is reduced to 150 Hit Points or fewer, she gains resistance 10 to all physical damage, as her body becomes more gold than flesh.Shard Shield [reaction] Trigger A creature targets Matron Uldrula with an attack; Requirements Matron Uldrula has been reduced to 150 Hit Points or fewer; Effect The fragments of Matron Uldrula, sheared off from her form during this encounter, fly through the air, interposing themselves between Matron Uldrula and harm. Matron Uldrula gains a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
Speed 25 feet, fly 40 feet
Melee [one-action] staff +34 [+29/+24] (two-hand d8), Damage 3d4+12 bludgeoning plus spirit touchDivine Spontaneous Spells DC 46, attack +38; 9th synesthesia, unfathomable song, weird (3 slots); 8th confusion, phantasmal calamity, phantasmal killer (4 slots); 7th phantom pain, spirit blast, spiritual guardian (4 slots); 6th false life, slow, wall of force (4 slots); 5th anathematic reprisal, banishment, see invisibility (4 slots); 4th discern lies, globe of invulnerability, talking corpse (4 slots); 3rd bind undead, mind reading, zone of truth (4 slots); 2nd death knell, mirror image, reaper's lantern (4 slots); 1st charm, illusory disguise, true strike (4 slots); Cantrips (9th) daze, ghost sound, guidance, prestidigitation, sigil
Divine Innate Spells DC 46, attack +38; 7th plane shift (self and locked soul only; to the Boneyard only); 6th spirit blast; 5th heal (×3), mind probe; 4th read omens, searing light (×3); 2nd calm emotions, detect alignment, invisibility (at will; self only); Cantrips (9th) chill touch, detect magic, disrupt undead, read aura, stabilize; Constant (5th) tongues
Focus Spells DC 46, 2 Focus Points; 9th lament, overflowing sorrow
Rituals DC 46; 5th call spirit (doesn't require secondary casters)
Infuse Weapon (divine, evocation) Matron Uldrula's staff is her symbol of office and gains a measure of her personal power. This staff becomes a +2 greater striking staff and is treated as if it were adamantine while Matron Uldrula wields it. Matron Uldrula's staff has Hardness 17 and HP 68 (BT 34) while possessed by her, or Hardness 5 and HP 20 (BT 10) while out of her possession. If her staff is taken or destroyed, Matron Uldrula can infuse a new one with an hour of work.Soul Lock [two-actions] (divine, incapacitation, necromancy) Requirements Matron Uldrula doesn't have a soul locked within her staff; Effect Matron Uldrula attempts to capture the soul of a creature on the brink of death, either an undead creature or a creature with the dying condition. The target must attempt a DC 46 Will save with the following results.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and becomes temporarily immune to Soul Lock.
Success Matron Uldrula's staff tugs at the creature's soul but doesn't trap it. If the creature is living, it becomes doomed 1 (or increases its doomed condition by 1). If the creature is a corporeal undead, it becomes enfeebled 2. If the creature is an incorporeal undead, it becomes stupefied 2. The creature then becomes temporarily immune to soul lock for 24 hours.
Failure Matron Uldrula locks the creature's soul in her staff. If the creature is living, it dies. If the creature is a corporeal undead, its body becomes an inanimate corpse. If the creature is an incorporeal undead, it becomes bodily trapped within the staff. While the soul is locked in the staff, the target can't be returned to life or undeath, or rejuvenated through any means, save powerful magic, such as miracle or wish, or through divine intervention. If Matron Uldrula's staff is destroyed or she wills it, the soul is released. Matron Uldrula's staff can only hold one soul at a time.Spirit Touch Matron Uldrula's Strikes affect incorporeal creatures with the effects of a ghost touch property rune and deal 4d6 negative damage to living creatures and 4d6 positive damage to undead.