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PFS StandardSacristan

Sacristans are failures among the velstracs, creatures whose bodies and minds have been utterly broken by the velstracs' torments. These unfortunates are assembled from scrap metal, nerveless flesh, and bits of darkness into loyal agents who take ecstatic pleasure in serving other velstracs. Sacristans are empowered by a miniature gateway to the Shadow Plane deep in their mouths. By distending their jaws, they can howl with the shrieks and windstorms of that plane. Sacristans vary in appearance but are the size of maimed humans. Their features are redundant or absent and they are wrapped in barbed and rusted chains.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 27
Unspecific Lore: DC 25
Specific Lore: DC 22

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

SacristanCreature 10

Legacy Content

LE Medium Fiend Velstrac 
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 283 2.0
Perception +19; greater darkvision, painsight
Languages Common, Infernal, Shadowtongue
Skills Acrobatics +19, Athletics +22, Intimidation +18, Stealth +21, Torture Lore +16
Str +6, Dex +5, Con +6, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +2
Painsight (divination, divine) A velstrac automatically knows whether a creature it sees has any of the doomed, dying, and wounded conditions, as well as the value of those conditions
AC 30; Fort +22, Ref +19, Will +17; +1 status to all saves vs. magic
HP 175, regeneration 10 (deactivated by good or silver); Immunities cold; Weaknesses good 10, silver 10
Staggering Servitude (aura, divine, enchantment, fear, mental, visual) 30 feet. When a creature ends its turn in the aura, it sees a vision of the sacristan groveling in pitiable servitude. The creature must succeed at a DC 27 Will save or become stunned 1.Attack of Opportunity [reaction]
Speed 25 feet
Melee [one-action] barbed chain +22 [+17/+12] (evil, magical, reach 10 feet, trip, versatile S), Damage 2d8+9 piercing plus 1d6 evil and 2d6 persistent bleedDivine Innate Spells DC 29; 5th chilling darkness; 3rd fear
Focus Gaze [one-action] (concentrate, divine, enchantment, fear, mental, visual) The sacristan stares at a creature they can see within 30 feet. The creature must immediately attempt a Will save against Staggering Servitude. In addition, if the creature was already stunned, on a failed save its revulsion toward the sacristan's presence causes it to be stupefied 2 for 1 minute. After attempting this save, the creature is then temporarily immune until the start of the sacristan's next turn.Shadow Scream [three-actions] (aura, concentrate, darkness, divine, evocation, mental, sonic) Frequency once per hour; Effect The sacristan opens their mouth to unloose the wailing howls and mind-twisting darkness of the Shadow Plane. This creates a 30-foot emanation of darkness and wailing sounds around the sacristan. Creatures with darkvision can't see through this darkness. The sacristan can Sustain Shadow Scream for up to 1 minute. Non-velstrac creatures in the area when the ability is used, as well as those who enter or start their turn in the area, must attempt a DC 28 Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is then temporarily immune for 24 hours.
Success The creature is deafened for 1 round.
Failure The creature is confused and deafened for 1 round.
Critical Failure The creature takes 20 mental damage, and is confused and deafened for 1 round.

All Monsters in "Velstrac"

NameLevel
Augur1
Ephialtes16
Eremite20
Evangelist6
Interlocutor12
Ostiarius5
Precentor16
Sacristan10
Vincuvicar18

Velstrac

Source Pathfinder #147: Tomorrow Must Burn pg. 82
Velstracs are horrific, shadow-dwelling fiends who seek ultimate sensation through self-mutilation. They transcend their stoic detachment only when inflicting pain and terror upon their victims, practicing new forms of debasement and torture before then turning their knives on themselves. Although velstracs consider themselves beyond such limitations as morality or mortal taboos, their victims know them as emotionless tormentors who inflict debased, sadistic suffering. They claim to seek perfection in thought, form, and action, although they don’t recognize any refinement that doesn’t require the painful excision of the flesh or spirit.

Velstracs manifest from the souls of masochistic or sadistic mortals that are diverted into the Shadow Plane and then forged into forms that suit their vile predilections, ranging from the low-ranking augurs to the aesthetics-obsessed interlocutors.

Some mortals refer to velstracs as “kytons,” a misattribution that the velstracs tolerate with cold amusement. The term “kyton” denotes a master or virtuoso among their kind, and these fiends enjoy being labeled masters of their horrid paths to perfection through agony.

Sidebar - Additional Lore A Mortal Name

Some mortals refer to velstracs as “kytons,” a misattribution that the velstracs tolerate with cold amusement. The term “kyton” denotes a master or virtuoso among their kind, and these fiends enjoy being labeled as masters of their horrid paths of perfection through agony.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Despicable Origins

Velstracs originated with the first debased thoughts of mortals, which divine beings found so deplorable that they locked all velstracs away in Hell. It wasn't long, however, before the newly formed beings escaped their infernal prison to the Shadow Plane.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Other Velstracs

Scholars grimly joke that there are as many different kinds of velstracs as there are ways to skin a cat. The relatively diminutive cantor velstrac poisons the minds of its victims so that they believe they are being clawed from the inside out. The mighty eremites, on the other hand, seek out the most powerful beings to subsume into their own form and lord over all other velstracs save the demagogues.

Sidebar - Related Creatures The Shadow Forge

Many velstracs forge their own chains, but others outsource the task to unique velstracs known as almoners. These blind, deaf, and mute velstracs resemble six-armed halflings severed at the waist that toil away endlessly at a great burning foundry called the Shadow Forge. Almoners operate under mysterious strictures, and are just as likely to turn a velstrac away empty-handed as they are to hand one a finely crafted chain before the request has even been uttered.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Velstrac Divinities

The most powerful velstracs are unique divinities known collectively as demagogues—powerful creatures often worshipped by mortals who seek to experience agonizing new revelations and gain power by enhancing the body through pain.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Velstracs on Golarion

Velstracs are most often encountered in the shadowy realm of Nidal, where the state worship of Zon-Kuthon is rigidly enforced. Indeed, many velstracs are created from the souls of Joyful Things, devotees of Zon-Kuthon who have had their limbs amputated to focus their minds on the veneration of pain, sacrifice, and torment.