Carrionettes are living, animated puppets or marionettes.
They are essentially wooden dolls, painted and clothed, that
have come to life. All of their limbs are jointed and have
small eye-holes for a puppeteer’s strings. Carrionettes vary
in size from 6 inches to 2 feet. They can look like anythingfrom
clowns, to knights, to farm animals. Most look like
people. The voice of a carrionette is hollow and shrill
Straight Razor. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4+1) slashing damage.
Silver Needle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 15/60 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage. When the thrown needle hits a living creature, the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or the targeted limb is paralyzed. A paralyzed arm cannot be used and a paralyzed leg reduces the creatures speed by half. When all four limbs are paralyzed the creature is incapacitated. Removing a needle is an action and the limb ceases to be paralyzed after 1d4 rounds.
Possession. The carrionette can drive its silver needle into the neck of an incapacitated creature, swapping minds with the target. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 14 Charisma saving throw or have their mind moved into the body of a puppet. On a success, the target resist the carrionette, and they can't try again for 24 hours. When the carrionette possesses a body, the carrionette and the target exchange game statistics but retains their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. After the exchange, the carrionette's old body is incapacitated for 1 hour. If the carionette's body is destroyed, its soul is also killed, as is any soul inhabiting the body. The exchange is permanent. However, if the carrionette's body drives a silver needle into its host body, the souls automatically switch back.
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Description
Combat: A carrionette must have a miniature, sharp
weapon to attack with and cause damage; they cannot use
blunt weapons. They can only do 1 point of damage per
attack. The nature of this weapon does not affect how much
damage the carrionette does. Typical weapons for
carrionettes are large sewing needles, small kitchen knives,
razor blades, etc.
Each carrionette carries a small quiver of ten silver
needles. They can throw these needles like spears, aiming at
a leg or an arm. The needle has a maximum range of 15 feet
and trails a magical silver cord attached to the carrionette’s
hand. It does no damage; however, the character must make
a saving throw vs. paralyzation. If the roll fails, that limb
becomes paralyzed and the silver cord becomes invisible. A
character who has a single paralyzed leg moves at half
speed. The needle itself is not magical. The magical energy
cord is created by the carrionette itself. If the character can
remove the needle, he regains use of that limb in ld4
rounds.
An immobilized character, whether paralyzed, asleep, or
unconscious, is particularly vulnerable to the carrionette.
The evil puppet can drive a needle into the base of the
character’s neck, which has the effect of transferring the
essence of the carrionette into the person and vice versa.
The person inhabiting the doll’s body is inanimate for a full
hour after the transferral. The carrionette in the person’s
body is unconscious for only a round, after which it can
remove all the needles.
The carrionette has two other special abilities. It can climb
walls like a thief, with an 85% chance of success (with string
or thread, 95%). Secondly, the carrionette is able to do
ventriloquism at will, like the spell. It is immune to poison,
cold, electricity, and all mind-affecting spells. A warp wood
spell permanently destroys it.
The person in the carrionette’s body can recover his
normal body. The carrionette cannot destroy the doll body,
for that would kill its own essence as well as the life force of
the person. Therefore, the carrionette tends to lock up its
former body or send it far away. To return things to normal,
a silver needle must be driven into the live body (it does no
damage). The doll body must hold either the needle or a
silver wire no more than 15 feet long attached to the needle.
The doll’s essence is returned to its body, which remains
inert for an hour. The person’s essence is returned to his
body and is active again in a round.
Lair and Lair Actions
Habitat/Society: Carrionettes are parasites that live off
humans and human society. They tend to hide in plain
sight, such as in children’s toy rooms, toy shops, theaters, or
other places where toys and marionettes are not unusual.
They can remain inanimate for extremely long periods of
time, until they find a reason to exert their free will.
The carrionette is driven by a single desire: to get a host.
They desperately want to have a living body. Usually they
operate in packs to drag down the bodies of the living, but
they are known to operate alone. Carrionettes have no
social structure. They do not interact with each other except
when in a pack. Once the carrionette has a human body, it
ignores other carrionettes, though it is capable of detecting
their presence.
Ecology: A carrionette can be made of any material. Typical
materials include wood, straw, ceramic, cloth, and tin. For
game purposes they are all treated the same. It takes a
month to craft the carrionette body. Only a dedicated
craftsman can do it right. In Ravenloft, Guiseppe is the only
dollmaker that can animate carrionettes. His craftsmanship
and love of his work are so great that the creation is infused
with life. Other people must follow the normal rules set
down for creating golems.
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