Deceitful Mask. As a bonus action, the wraith can mask its appearance and appear to be any kind of ghost, specter or wraith. In addition, the wraith changes the way it appears to spells and magical effects that detect creature types, such as a paladin’s Divine Sense. It chooses a creature type and other spells and magical effects treat it as if it were a creature of that type or of that alignment. This magical illusion lasts until it ends it as a bonus action. The effect also ends if the wraith drops to 50 hit points or fewer, or if dispel magic is cast on it.
Incorporeal Movement. The wraith can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Regeneration. The wraith regains 20 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point. If the wraith takes radiant damage this trait doesn't function at the start of the wraith's next turn.
Supernatural Plague. The wraith contains all diseases that ever existed, aggravated by its nature. All are magical diseases and affect creatures immune to nonmagical disease. A lesser restoration spell or similar magic casted on a creature affected with a disease of the wraith can remove it only if the caster succeeds on a DC 15 ability check using its spellcasting ability.
Plague Caress. The wraith targets one creature it can see within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the target fails the saving throw, its hit point maximum is reduced for 1 hour by an amount equal to the necrotic damage it took. Any effect that removes a disease allows a creature’s hit point maximum to return to normal before that time passes.
Pestilential Breath (Recharge 5-6). The wraith exhales a 60-foot cone of flies and noxious gas. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or take 56 (16d6) poison damage and be infected with a disease. This plague ravages an infected creature's body, killing the creature in a number of hours equal to 1d12 + the creature's Constitution score, unless the disease is removed. On a successful save, a creature takes half the poison damage and isn't diseased.
The wraith can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The wraith regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Affliction. The wraith targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it that is infected with a disease. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or take 18 (4d8) necrotic damage. A humanoid slain by this attack rises as an undead at the start of its next turn. If the victim had 2 or fewer Hit Dice, it becomes a zombie. If it had 3 Hit Dice or more, it becomes a rotfiend.
Flare-Up Disease. The wraith targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it that is infected with a disease. The target has disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the end of its next turn.
Vermin Cloud (Costs 2 Actions). The wraith releases a cloud of insects that fills a 15-foot·radius sphere centered on itself. The cloud lingers until the end of the wraith's next turn. The cloud is opaque. Any creature in the cloud when it appears, or that enters it later, must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 24 hours.
Description
Pesta
When plague ravages a region, a spirit will sometimes walk its lands, a ghost resembling an ill person whose flesh rots off its bones and in whose wake crawls a cavalcade of rats and vermines. No one knows whether this spirit brings the pox with it or is merely drawn to it like a moth to a light. Yet it is certain that it delights in dealing pain and suffering, in hearing the howling and moaning of men.
Subtle Influence. Many have called into question the very existence of pestae. Only two confirmed sightings of such a creature have ever been recorded, both during times of raging epidemic. The truth is that the work of a pesta can most of the time be attributed to natural causes. It's very difficult to assert with certainty the presence of the creature and only the most knowledgeable of scholars, wraith-hunters and apothecaries can detect its work.
Deceitful Spirit. Some suggest that pestae can pass for other type of ghost or wraith, hiding their presence and true identity on purpose. As the name “pesta” suggests, these wraiths take the appearance of plague victims, dressed in a tattered shroud crawling with vermin and surrounded by a cloud of flies. Most scholar speculate they, like other such wraiths, arise from the powerful emotional charge associated with certain circumstances of death, such as death preceded by a long and particularly painful illness. To the difference of many other spirits, pestae are not bound to a location and can travel great distances, they go were epidemics spread or move to new regions to start them, which of the two is uncertain.
Patient Work. Pestae are certainly among the most vicious of wraith, intentionally hiding their presence and laying the foundation of their grand work with care. Most seek a believable source of natural or magical epidemic, such as an apothecary working in the hospital of a crowded districts or a wizard studying magical diseases. Once it found its chosen one, it influences him or her with suggestive visions and whispered advices, guiding them toward the discovery or creation of a new affliction. Following these revelations these individuals often become the head of a plague-cult, furthering the epidemy ’spread. Pestae are also known to consort with other undead, such as garkains, rotfiends and other monsters thriving on diseases.
Feverish Worship. Those afflicted by the supernatural disease of a pesta will sometime experience fever induced visions, showing them a figure floating over them. In some regions raging with epidemics, plague cults have spread, actively exposing members to the disease to receive the "feverish blessing". In some rare cases some of these individuals are living in an inexplicable state of harmony with a devouring cancer, wrapping their body with scabs and boils but somehow keeping them alive, sometime long after their life expectancy
Optional: Wraith Rejunevation
Often, simply destroying the physical form of a wraith isn't enough to get rid of it permanently. Most wraith haunt a specific location and sending them to their final death will require some extra work. If destroyed, a wraith will regain all its hit points in 24 hours, unless prevented to in the following ways:
Pesta. Reforms somewhere in the region unless it was destroyed in the area of effect of a hallow spell specifically casted for this purpose.
Lair and Lair Actions
Regional Effects
The region containing a pesta suffers of the creature's insidious presence, creating the following magical effects:
- Using natural and magical healing is a difficult thing in the region. All Wisdom (Medicine) checks are made with disadvantage. A lesser restoration spell or similar magic casted on a creature affected with a disease can remove it only if the caster succeeds on a DC 15 ability check using its spellcasting ability. On a failure the spell has no effect and the spell slot used is wasted.
- Epidemics start to spread quickly in the region. Saving throws made against diseases in the region have disadvantage and incubation time is reduced by half
- Vermins, especially rats and flies, start to converge toward the region and show signs of unusual swarm behavior and increased aggressiveness. These swarms are always carrying diseases.
When the pesta is destroyed, all of these regional effects fade over 10 days.
Comments