Sangoi

Dressed in tattered finery, this small, bald humanoid has a gaunt and haggard face with sallow skin drawn tight against its delicate bones. Its fingers and nails are unnaturally long and spidery, its teeth needle-sharp, and its body so thin it seems it could almost disappear if it turned sideways.

Sangoi (CR 7)

Small Fey
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Initiative: +9
Senses: hear heartbeat, Low-Light Vision; Perception +15

Speed: 30 feet
Space: 5 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 20, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +1 size)
Hit Points: 71 (11d6+33)
Saving Throws: Fort +6, Ref +12, Will +8
Damage Reduction: 5/silver

Offense

Melee: dagger +11 (1d3+1/19-20), bite +11 (1d4+1 plus 1d4 bleed) or bite +11 (1d4+1 plus 1d4 bleed), 2 claws +11 (1d3+1 plus 1d4 bleed)
Reach: 5 feet
Ranged: dagger +11 (1d3+1/19-20)

Special Attacks: Blood Rage, Curse of misery, horrific critical, sneak attack +2d6

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; Concentration +15):

• Constant- Hide from Animals (self only), Hide from Undead (DC 15; self only)
  
  
• At Will- Detect Thoughts (DC 16), Tongues
  
  
• 3/day- Animal Trance (DC 16), Invisibility (self only), Snare (DC 17)
  
  
• 1/day- Control Weather, Dominate Animal (DC 17), Speak with Dead (DC 17)

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
13 (+1)	21 (+5)	16 (+3)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	19 (+4)

Base Attack Bonus: +5
CMB +5
CMD 21

Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse

Skills: Acrobatics +19, Bluff +18, Craft (traps) +10, Diplomacy +10, Disguise +18, Escape Artist +10, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Perception +15, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +23

Languages: Aklo, Common, Sylvan; tongues

Special Qualities: Change Shape (Medium or Small land animal or humanoid), sideways glance, sunlight transparency

Special Abilities

Curse of Misery (Su)

As a full-round action, a sangoi can deliver its curse to an adjacent humanoid as a melee touch attack. If the target fails its saving throw, the sangoi gains the benefit of aid (caster level equal to the target's Hit Dice). In addition, a sangoi gains a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, and opposed skill checks against any creature affected by its curse of misery. A creature that successfully saves can not be affected by the same sangoi's curse for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based. Curse of Misery: Touch-contact; save Will DC 19; frequency 1 day; effect permanent crushing despair.

Hear Heartbeat (Ex)

A sangoi can hear the beating hearts of living creatures nearby, granting it blindsense 30 feet and blindsight 5 feet; it can locate all creatures taking bleed damage within 30 feet as if it had blindsight. This ability does not reveal the location of creatures without hearts, including elementals, oozes, plants, undead, and incorporeal creatures.

Horrific Critical (Ex)

When a sangoi enters a blood rage, its claws and teeth elongate and sharpen, threatening a critical hit on a roll of 18-20 (in addition to the other benefits of blood rage). If a sangoi reduces a humanoid to -1 or fewer hit points with a critical hit from one of its natural weapons, it can tear out the target's heart and consume it as a free action (Fortitude DC 19 negates), killing it instantly. If successful, the sangoi gains 1d8 temporary hit points and a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. Any humanoid within 30 feet who witnesses this attack must succeed at a DC 19 Will save or become shaken and sickened for 1d4 rounds (this is a mind-affecting fear effect). The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Sideways Glance (Su)

Sangois fade from view when in a creature's peripheral vision. They automatically gain concealment against creatures that they flank with another creature (another sangoi or otherwise). They can also attempt a Bluff check to feint in combat as a swift action, but only against a foe that can clearly see them.

Sunlight Transparency (Ex)

Direct sunlight causes a sangoi to partially fade from view. Their bodies become almost transparent (20% miss chance), and they become fatigued and take a -10 penalty on Disguise checks as long as they remain in direct sunlight.

Ecology

Environment: Any Cold or Temperate Land
Organization: solitary or pair
Treasure: standard (dagger)


Sangois are malevolent nocturnal fey that haunt small towns and graveyards. Because of their taste for blood and their similar habits, they are sometimes mistaken for vampires. Sangoi appear as short, emaciated humanoids seldom over 4 feet tall and weighing 35 to 40 pounds.

Ecology

Sangois thirst for the blood of the living, preferring humanoid blood, but settling for animal blood when humanoids are in short supply or when they are operating in disguise and do not wish to reveal their presence with an open attack. Though it is much harder to acquire, they are especially fond of the blood of good-aligned magical beasts, unicorns in particular. While blood provides physical nourishment for them, they also draw psychic sustenance from inflicting anguish and despair. Sangois are expert trappers, catching large and small animals with magic or mundane snares. Trapped beasts might be mutilated for a sangoi's pleasure, though the wicked fey more likely dominates them and uses them to commit murder and mischief.

Habitat & Society

Sangois are natives of the fey realms of the First World, but they spend little time there. Most of their time is spent roaming the Material Plane, lurking in shadows and places where death and sorrow linger, such as graveyards and ruins. They are wanderers, moving from village to village in search of their next victims. When a target is located, a sangoi (or, rarely, a pair of sangois working together) seeks to isolate the victim in order to murder it and take its form. The sangoi poses as its victim, while draining the emotional, mental, and physical energy out of those that give them succor with its curse of misery.

Sangoi consider themselves hunters of a sort, seeking children born with certain unique characteristics or deformities, such as those born covered with a caul, or who bear a particular birthmark or hair or eye color. Sangois fear those with such marks, whatever they might be, believing they render them powerless against such creatures and that if those with the marks are able to grow to maturity, they will bring ruin to the sangoi. Each individual sangoi has its own particular mark it grows to fear.

Children so marked are spirited away from their mortal parents and slain, sold as slaves to an evil fey master, or simply imprisoned in the depths of a sangoi's lair, all to quell whatever threat the sangois believe they pose. When such a child is found, a sangoi begins lurking about the home in the guise of an animal and might even take the form of a pet to attract the child's affection. Its curse falls upon the household with this infiltration, though sangois credit their chosen targets with immunity to their powers, or even the ability to block their powers from affecting others. Sangois attempt to abduct their targets at birth when possible, but often they do not discover them until a target is older. In such cases, sangois try to kill or kidnap their targets using dominated wild animals or traps set up to look like natural accidents.

Once a victim has been taken, a sangoi changes its shape to assume the victim's form, usually spending several days reading the victim's thoughts or speaking with its corpse to learn about it so it might better impersonate him. The sangoi then returns to the victim's home and assumes its life, going about his daily business while keeping out of direct sunlight when possible, often feigning illness or injury.

Once the sangoi enters its victim's home, its curse of misery begins to take hold, sapping the life and spirit from the family and friends of its victim. The sangoi amuses itself with the abuse and murder of domestic animals through traps and magical compulsion, and calls foul weather to cast a pall upon the house while it waits for the family of its victim to slip into ennui. Once those in the house fall into utter despair, the sangoi plans elaborate murders in which it renders its targets helpless, often with traps using common household objects and implements, and then carves out and greedily devours the hearts of its helpless victims, savoring the sour tang of fear that lingers in broken hearts even after death.