Akilep, Lady of Stone

CR: 13 XP: 25,600

N Gargantuan magical beast

Init: +3 Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision Perception: +30

AC: 28, touch 5, flat-footed 28 (–1 Dex, +23 natural, –4 size)

HP: 207 (18d10+108)

Fort: +17 Ref: +10 Will: +13

DR: 10/magic

Speed: 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)

Melee: 2 claws +26 (4d6+12/19–20 plus grab)

Space: 20 ft. Reach: 20 ft.

Special Attacks: pounce, rake (4d6+12), trample (4d6+18, DC 31)

Spell-Like Abilities: (CL 18th; concentration +23) Constant—comprehend languages, detect magic, read magic, see invisibility At will—clairaudience/clairvoyance, statue 1/day—commune, contact other plane, dispel magic, legend lore, locate object, remove curse 1/week—Any three of the following: symbol of fear (DC 21), symbol of pain (DC 20), symbol of persuasion (DC 21), symbol of sleep (DC 20), symbol of stunning (DC 22), all symbols last for 1 week maximum

Str: 34 Dex: 8 Con: 22 Int: 27 Wis: 21 Cha: 21

Base Atk: +18 CMB: +34 (+38 grapple) CMD: 43 (47 vs. trip)

Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Combat Casting, Flyby Attack, Hover, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack

Skills: Diplomacy +23, Fly +10, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +26, Knowledge (engineering) +17, Knowledge (history) +26, Knowledge (local) +26, Knowledge (religion) +15, Linguistics +10, Perception +30, Sense Motive +16, Spellcraft +26, Use Magic Device +14

Languages: Aklo, Ancient Osiriani, Celestial, Common, Cyclops, Draconic, Elven, Infernal, Osiriani, Kelish, Polyglot, Sphinx

Gear: chime of opening (7 uses left), goggles of minute seeing, marvelous pigments, 2, 000 gp in assorted gems. Obsessed with the unearthing information about Aucturn—the mysterious thirteenth planet in Golarion’s solar system, whose very existence may be the greatest riddle of them all—the elder gynosphinx known as Akilep, Lady of Stone, was legendary even among the sphinxes. And then one day, more than 300 years ago, Akilep came across a hidden tomb in the stony wastes of southeastern Thuvia. Markings on the tomb’s surface suggested that she had just stumbled upon the final resting place of a heretofore unknown pharaoh from the height of Ancient Osirion, and furthermore that this pharaoh was believed to have made contact with beings from the stars. At last, Akilep had found the mother lode—and yet the tomb was warded with magic more powerful than anything at her disposal, the lock an inhumanly complex affair of twisted levers and strange, sealed cylinders that even her chime of opening couldn’t budge. For decades, Akilep worked studiously at the mechanism, quietly seeking out those who might be able to assist her. At last, with no other recourse, Akilep settled down in front of the tomb to await a time when circumstances might change, sleeping away the years as a statue. Of late, however, rumors of the tomb’s existence have surfaced in caravan waystations across the desert, and it may be that Akilep’s centuries of solitude are drawing to a close. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Mythical Monsters Revisited Wendigo FERGUS WAS THE FIRST TO NOTICE THE ODOR CARRIED ON THE NIGHT WINDS, AND THEN WE HEARD THE HOWLING ECHOES FROM THE MIDNIGHT SKY. THE NEXT THREE DAYS WERE A CAT-AND-MOUSE HUNT AS WE DASHED BETWEEN POSITIONS OF COVER TO ESCAPE THESE BLASTED PEAKS. EACH NIGHT OUR PARTY—ALWAYS SHORT A FEW MEMBERS GONE MISSING DURING THE DAY—HUDDLED TOGETHER, EYES OUTWARD TO WATCH AGAINST THE HIDDEN ENEMY IN THE DARKNESS. IT WAS ONLY WHEN WE SAW THE BLOOD DRIPPING FROM FERGUS’S TEETH THAT WE REALIZED OUR ENEMY WAS AMONG US ALL ALONG. —HUNTER’S JOURNAL DISCOVERED IN THE TUSK MOUNTAINS Wendigo T he warmth of a campfire and shelter from the cutting wind are little protection against some of the things that lurk in the dark, isolated places of the world, where sustenance is scarce and hospitality nonexistent. High passes, forlorn tundra, trackless primeval woodlands—it is within these desolate places that one is most likely to encounter a wendigo, an evil spirit that preys on explorers and hunters when resources are running low and true desperation is setting in. While the flesh-eating beasts of nature might simply assault unwary victims head-on, the wendigo is a horror that turns the hunter into the hunted, plaguing its prey with bone-chilling nightmares at night and hazy visions of cannibalism during the day. The horrid images brought on by a wendigo’s curse cause the victim to slowly lose its grasp on what is right and wrong, ultimately inspiring the cursed individual to succumb to its terrible hunger pangs and feast upon its own allies in a gory act of shameful cannibalism. Wendigos are little known outside the myths of certain indigenous tribes of particularly isolated regions, far from the security and hospitality of cities. The lands of the wendigo are where folk struggle to survive on a daily basis with already meager supplies stretched thin, where a single turn of bad luck can mean the difference between survival and starvation. It is under these circumstances, when fortune has turned against a lone hunter, isolated homestead, or lost wagon train, that wendigo psychosis— the insanity-inducing curse that forces innocents to indulge in the basest acts in order to survive—most often rears its vile head and draws otherwise normal people into acts of horrific desperation in which they must feed upon their own kind in order to survive. The cannibalistic act brought on by wendigo psychosis is the last stage of the curse, at which point the victim flees straight into the sky at an unearthly speed—its legs burning away into jagged stubs—and becomes fully inhabited by a wendigo spirit, the body now only a shell for the hungry beast. A wendigo’s curse is not the only means of this transformation, however, as in some cases individuals who dwell in highly civilized lands but still partake in eating their own kind’s flesh also find themselves making the metamorphosis into wendigos. In societies where cannibalism is not seen as a taboo, individuals rarely if ever become wendigos, and these cultures generally have no history of encounters with such monsters. Scholars speculate that wendigo spirits require the perpetrators of the cannibalistic acts to be as shocked and shamed by their own actions as their victims are.