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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Abilities | Monsters | NPCs

Skarja

Skarja has been collecting souls on the Isle of Kortos for many years. Recently, the night hag set her sights on corrupting and culling the soul of the Swardlands' most prominent citizen, Opper Vandy.

Skarja arrived in Absalom long ago as a captive on an ancient Azlanti ether ship called the King Xeros. She was inadvertently released from her captivity by Pathfinder Society agents and found herself free to roam among the abundance of souls just waiting to be harvested in the City at the Center of the World. However, she didn't want to attract the Pathfinders' attention, so she elected to haunt the city's outskirts.

Night hags value souls, which they hoard as keepsakes or trade in extraplanar markets. Over the years, Skarja has found collecting souls of already-corrupt mortals too easy to be truly satisfying. She instead prefers to slowly corrupt honorable mortals herself; there are secret soul-markets where only souls of corrupted mortals are traded, and the debased souls of once-virtuous mortals command the highest prices. By trading in this market, Skarja has unlocked secrets that most other night hags don't know, such as the ability to maintain her heartstone at a distance. Yet for all her care, Skarja has had to operate further and further from Absalom. She recently came to the Swardlands and found a land rife with opportunity.

Opper Vandy is Skarja's current target because he is not only virtuous, but beloved by his community. She learned of Vandy's arrangement with Rogor Swinten while claiming the soul of a wicked farmer named Currew, and the hag saw this crack in Vandy's integrity as a valuable opportunity. The thought of corrupting a pillar of the community delights her, and Skarja is in no hurry to see this delectable corruption completed. She torments Vandy with foreknowledge of deaths in the Swardlands, and thereafter reaps a chaotic or evil soul she's carefully primed just for that purpose. While Vandy's guilt and shame grow, Skarja's collection of souls grows as well. Soon, she hopes, Vandy will perform some great, desperate act of wickedness, and the upright mortician's soul will be hers at last.

Like all hags, Skarja appears as a twisted crone with curving horns and sharp fangs, though Skarja also has blue-black skin covered with sharp, thorny protrusions and thick legs that end with elephantine feet.

Campaign Role

Skarja has survived this long because she is careful and cautious. She learns about the heroes' arrival early on, and she is canny enough to realize that they might pose a threat. She plans to keep entirely out of the heroes' sight, hoping they never discover her existence. Skarja doesn't appear to Vandy while the heroes are in Kerrick, but to keep close to Vandy, both spiritually and physically, Skarja keeps her heartstone hidden on his property. She doesn't consider it dangerous to leave it there, as she knows the mortician's habits well enough to know he won't discover it.

Skarja isn't aware of how many clues she left while collecting souls throughout the Swardlands. The heroes might pick up on these clues and put the pieces together when they recover Ginjana's notes. If the heroes collect enough evidence to convince Vandy to confide in them, he suggests they search his home. Skarja isn't expecting the heroes to discover her hidden heartstone, either. If they claim it, she has no choice to but to eliminate them, lest all her hard work to claim Vandy's soul go to waste.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 41
Recall Knowledge - Humanoid (Society): DC 41
Unspecific Lore: DC 39
Specific Lore: DC 36

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

SkarjaCreature 13

Legacy Content

Unique NE Medium Fiend Hag Humanoid 
Source Pathfinder #153: Life's Long Shadows pg. 88
Female night hag corruptor
Perception +25; darkvision
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common, Infernal
Skills Arcana +23, Deception +26, Diplomacy +24, Intimidation +24, Occultism +25, Religion +25
Str +7, Dex +5, Con +6, Int +4, Wis +6, Cha +5
Coven Skarja adds dominate, nightmare, scrying, and spellwrack to her coven's spells.
Nightmare Rider When Skarja rides a nightmare, the nightmare also gains her status bonus to saves against magic, and both the hag and rider benefit when Skarja uses her heartstone's ethereal jaunt innate spell.
Items Skarja's heartstone
AC 34; Fort +23, Ref +22, Will +23
HP 260; Immunities sleep; Resistances mental 15; Weaknesses cold iron 15
Speed 25 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +26 [+21/+16] (magical), Damage 3d8+9 piercing plus 1d10 evil and Abyssal plagueMelee [one-action] claw +26 [+22/+18] (agile, magical), Damage 3d10+9 slashing plus 1d10 evilOccult Innate Spells DC 33, attack +25; 9th bind soul (at will; from heartstone), ethereal jaunt (at will; from heartstone); 8th dream council; 6th shadow blast (×2; from heartstone), spirit blast (from heartstone); 5th nightmare; 4th dream message (at will), magic missile (at will); 2nd invisibility (at will); 1st ray of enfeeblement (at will), sleep (at will); Constant (3rd) detect magic; (2nd) detect alignment (all alignments simultaneously)
Abyssal Plague (disease) A creature can't recover from the drained condition until Abyssal plague is cured; Saving Throw DC 33 Fortitude; Stage 1 drained 1 (1 day); Stage 2 drained increases by 2 (1 day)Change Shape [one-action] (concentrate, occult, polymorph, transmutation) Skarja can take on the appearance of any Medium female humanoid. This doesn't change her Speed or her attack or damage bonuses with her Strikes, but might change the damage type her Strikes deal (typically to bludgeoning).Dream Haunting (enchantment, occult, mental) If Skarja is ethereal and hovering over a sleeping chaotic or evil creature, she can ride the victim's back until dawn. The creature endures tormenting dreams as Skarja casts nightmare on it, and is exposed to Abyssal plague. Any drained condition caused by dream haunting is cumulative. Only an ethereal being can confront the night hag and stop her dream haunting.Spell Ambush A creature flat-footed to the night hag takes a –2 circumstance penalty to checks and DCs to defend against her spells.