Stygian Memory

Stygian Memory

After 4 weeks in Pandemonium, our wizard Naphis went barmy and dove into the Styx to clean his memory of the chaos and horror we had so far encountered. He knew he’d come out of the dirty water with the smarts of a little kid, but he didn’t care. He just couldn’t take it. After seeing 6 of your best friends dismembered and eaten, he had to forget it somehow. He did, but the memory remains… elsewhere.”

— Winking John, Master Thief and Explorer

When a cutter that’s witnessed such horror and sadness willingly jumps in the Styx to clean his brain, then the conditions for a Stygian Memory form…. a magical being of pure sound, the same sounds of horror and evil that drove the sod to take a dip in the black waters. The memory then flies about the lower planes, and swims through the Styx, looking for a new head to inhabit… and a new mind to torture.

COMBAT: The Memory enters combat whenever it finds a mind it thinks it can inhabit… preferably that of someone who shares the profession of it’s original owner. It attacks by creating a sonic blast of some sound contained in itself, usually that of crying or screaming, dealing 1d10 points of damage to everything in a 30′ radius. When making such an attack, all non-magical armour and bonuses to AC due to high dexterity are ignored. Note that this sound is directly implanted into the mind, and deafness doesn’t protect from it. They cause Silence 15′ radius at will, and for combat purposes are considered under the influence of an Invisibility spell at all times.

A memory can also try to inhabit someone’s mind. To do so, it needs only make a successful sound attack, directed at a particular target. The target then makes a saving throw versus death, a failure indicates the Memory has gotten inside their head. From inside, it wraps itself into the poor sod’s subconscious, and causes constant nightmares of it’s contained memories during sleep. This causes it’s host to lose sleep and awareness. Healing through rest only works at half speed. Saving throws suffer a -1 penalty. Melee attack rolls suffer a -1 penalty to hit, missile attacks a -2 penalty to hit. Spells have a 20% chance to fizzle. The only way to rid oneself of a Stygian Memory is a Wish, Limited Wish, a psionic Psychic Surgery, or the same way it’s original owner got it out: A bath in the Styx.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: Stygian Memories are completely independent of one another, and aren’t even aware of any other Memory’s existence. They live mostly on the banks and in the waters of the Styx… searching constantly for the odd adventuring band or the group riding by on a marraenoloth’s skiff.

ECOLOGY: Winking John, on the nature of the Stygian Memory:

“When poor Naphis dove in the water, his memory rose up and came for me. After fighting the thing off, I did a little research on them, as I’ve never seen… rather, heard, quite a thing in me life. Turns out, they don’t reproduce, and are only created when someone that has a lot of magic in them takes a willing dive in the Styx, so there’s probably only a limited number in existence right now. Also, they seem to never attack ‘loths, but I’ve read of instances where abishai have got their brains possessed… I figure they’d have no effect on a tanar’ri, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Anyway, I talked to some Guvner sod a little ways back. He claims that the things don’t mean no harm, but have to inhabit a mind to survive. He claims they can’t live outside of a body for more than a few months. He also claims that they can leave at will, in hopes of entering a better mind, but I think that’s a bunch a screed. What Guvner who knows what he’s talking about talks for free? Anyway, I don’t know… trust him if you like, he might’ve knowed what he was babbling about.”

Source: Tom Bubul