Dark Voyeur (Dread Codex Monster)

This material is published under the OGL

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The reflection in the mirror before you is not your own. A pale face stares back with brilliant golden eyes, the pupils of which form dark spinning vortices. The humanoid wears unkempt antiquated finery and seems to reach a soft hand toward you through the mirror itself.

A dark voyeur is the spirit of someone who died in its reflection. The slain individual must have had some familiarity with the mirror; which can be as simple as it being in his home or possession for more than five years. The spirit of the slain is unwilling to leave this life and retreats to the mirror in order to watch life as it happens after his death. Since wealthy folk are normally those who own expensive mirrors of great proportion, the dark voyeur's appearance matches this, albeit with an undead twist.

The negative power which gives the voyeur unlife is not strong enough to give it a body, which is why the soul must remain in or near to a mirror. This same weakness also explains the vulnerability to light of any kind. Sages believe that, while the voyeur's will to remain in the world is strong, if the undead sees its new form in the mirror, it will be so ashamed that it perishes. Dark voyeurs can speak any languages they knew in life. When they do speak, every uttered sound is immediately repeated as a shadowy echo from the closest mirror.

Combat

Dark voyeurs are ultimately cowards and retreat from all confrontation. Only in darkness do they actively fight, but rarely to a fatal outcome, preferring to watch their opponents' fear of the unknown overtake them.

Corrupting Touch (Su): A dark voyeur that hits a living target with its incorporeal touch attack deals 1d4 points of damage. Against ethereal opponents, it adds its Strength modifier to attack and damage rolls. Against nonethereal opponents, it adds its Dexterity modifier to attack rolls only.

Fear Aura (Su): Dark voyeurs constantly emanate an aura of fear, affecting all that come within a 5-foot radius. This ability operates exactly as the spell fear as cast by a 6th-level sorcerer, and requires a Will save (DC 13) to negate. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Light Vulnerability (Ex): Dark voyeurs are disoriented when exposed to any form of light. They can take only a single move action or attack action and are destroyed utterly in the three rounds if they cannot escape.

Mirror Bound (Su): A dark voyeur's affinity for mirrors is caused primarily by its link to one special mirror. This "home" mirror commonly reflected the voyeur when he was alive, and trapped part of the parting soul within its glass. The mirror is always a glass of the inhabiting voyeur's size category or larger with a hardness of 1 and 5 hit points. All damage inflicted upon a dark voyeur's mirror is also inflicted upon the undead creature itself. Due to the dark voyeur's vulnerability to light, this mirror is always kept in a dark area so the creature might rest in it during the day.

If its mirror is shattered, the voyeur instantly returns to the broken glass, its body transforming 1d6 shards into exact copies of itself, but of Diminutive size and with only 1 hit point. These copies must all be destroyed to kill the dark voyeur, otherwise they each flee to anther mirror of their home mirror's original size or larger and reappear at full size and with normal hit points in 1d4 days. A mirror bound to a dark voyeur has the properties of a ghost touch item and may be manipulated by ethereal and incorporeal creatures. Such an item retains its properties even if its inhabitant is destroyed.

Mirror Travel (Su): Dark voyeurs may travel between any two mirrors known to them much like the spell tree stride allows druids and rangers to walk between trees. This is cast as if by a 10th-level sorcerer. The mirrors traveled through can be no more than one size category smaller than the voyeur, lest they be too small to travel through, and dark voyeurs have a transport range of 1 mile. Dark voyeurs may emerge and travel without the use of mirrors, but avoid doing so due to their vulnerability to sunlight.

Skills: Dark voyeurs have a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Intimidate checks.

Treasure

None — As an incorporeal viewer of the world, the dark voyeur has no need for treasure of any kind.

In Your Campaign

As an adventure idea, the dark voyeur may give up its mirror haunting if it can participate in life once more in a meaningful way. While not a real asset in combat, the voyeur can be called on as a terrific distraction in a crucial fight in the undead's former home. Or perhaps its former home is in danger and the voyeur decides to haunt the place to the best of its ability. When the PCs speak with the undead, can they blame it for wanting to protect its home?

The longer a dark voyeur stays inside a particular mirror, it may pick up the quality of disrupting magic cast on it. Alternately, you might apply the following quality to all mirrors inhabited by a dark voyeur no matter how long it spends inside it —

Energy Dispersal (Sp): This spell-like quality of a dark voyeur's mirror disrupts any spell cast on it, reflecting its energies outward in a brilliant display of black electricity. A successful Concentration check (DC 16) by the caster negates this reaction. If he fails, the resulting electricity erupts in a 5-foot radius for every two levels of the caster. The damage inflicted on creatures in that area around the mirror is 1d6 points of electrical damage per spell level cast on it (Reflex save DC 14 halves). For example, an 8th-level wizard casts scry on a dark voyeur's mirror. He fails the Concentration check and everyone within 20 feet of the mirror takes 4d6 points of electrical damage.

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