Chapter Ten: Creatures
Environment: Any land and underground Organization: Solitary or squad (3d6) Challenge Rating: 2 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: None Level Adjustment: — This creature looks like a rough and unfinished angel. Its face is completely blank, its wings are little more than a few large feathers, and its hands have fewer than the normal number of fingers. Ephemerae are the hypostatized thoughts of a god: a god’s thoughts made into a material thing by the act of thinking it. They expire after their chosen task is completed. Ephemerae are constructs rather than true angels. They act more like machines created to fulfill a certain function than intelligent beings. They die once the function for which they were created has been performed, or after one day has passed, whichever comes first. An ephemerite looks like a generic humanoid winged angel, except that its form is lacking in fine details. An ephemerite is normally equipped with a sword, though those created for a divine task other than combat might never draw their weapons. Though they are technically mindless and have a neutral alignment, ephemerae are angels and cannot be created or summoned by deities or beings who cannot create or summon good angels. They may be summoned with summon monster III or called with appropriate calling spells, but such ephemerae are actually created at that instant rather than summoned or called, drawn from the subconscious mind of some deity and given form by the caster’s spell. Ephemerae cannot speak. They can read and understand Celestial, but unless they were created to serve a creature, they normally ignore the speech and command of others. Unlike true angels, ephemerae cannot communicate using a supernatural tongues ability.
Combat Ephemerae enter combat only if that is their task or the only way to accomplish their task. They use straightforward tactics, relying on their immunities and special abilities to make up for any lack in technique. Heavenborn Traits: Immunity to electricity and petrification, low-light vision, darkvision 60 feet Divine Specificity (Ex): An ephemerite gains one of the following boons related to its divine task set by its creator deity at the time of its creation. Combat: +4 circumstance bonus to attack rolls Miscellaneous: The use of one class ability available to a character of up to 4th level (such as the two rages per day of a 4th-level barbarian, the +2d6 sneak attack of a 4th-level rogue, and so on). The ephemerite is limited to the number of uses that a 4th-level character of the appropriate class would have, if appropriate. This ability cannot grant spellcasting (see “Spellcasting,” below). Ephemerae cannot use class abilities that require the user to vocalize (such as bardic music). Skill: 6 ranks in one skill Spellcasting: One spell of up to 2nd level, which it may use as a spell-like ability three times.
Instant Mortality (Ex): An ephemerite is created for one specific divine task, such as destroying a fiend, retrieving a sacred item from a thief, healing a fallen servitor of its creator, and so on. Once that task ends, an ephemerite vanishes in a harmless burst of light, leaving no trace behind. It also vanishes in this manner if it is destroyed in combat or when 24 hours have passed since its creation. Quasi-Outsider: Ephemerae have the base saving throw values of an outsider of their Hit Dice. Effects that specifically affect outsiders affect ephemerae as if they were outsiders instead of constructs. Specific Intelligence (Ex): Though unintelligent, when dealing with problems related to their task, ephemerim have an effective Intelligence of 12. For example, if sent to catch a human thief hiding in a warehouse, an ephemerite would know that the thief could not hide in a Small crate or under a piece of paper, would be able to open doors, would gain a +1 to Search checks, and so on, but would not be able to appraise the value of an object (since Appraise is an Intelligence-based skill) or perform other tasks requiring Intelligence that were not directly tied to catching the thief. Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will—clarity of the faith†, create water, light, mending
Nephilite The doom of the grigori angels is that their offspring are born or eventually turn into monsters called nephilim (meaning “untimely birth, abortion, or miscarriage”). This was not immediately evident to the grigori, as their first children were tall and strong: the gibborim, giants among the mortals, who lived lives of great heroes. But soon enough the grigori had monstrous young, and some of the gibborim fell into madness and evil. Now the grigori forswear breeding with mortals, but some still fall into love and folly. Though many of the original nephilim were destroyed long ago, some still wander the planes and the mortal realm. The three corrupt types of nephilim are the emim, raphaim, and avvim. They are born with their full powers and often turn on their parents before escaping to the wilderness where they can mature. Like the gibborim, the corrupt nephilim tend to attract like-minded followers, which may be normal versions of the creatures they resemble or small tribes of humanoids. (Some of which have been known to worship nephilim as gods.)
Avvite Avvim are the greatest of the three kinds of corrupt nephilim. Their name means “the devastators,” and they are capable of great destruction. Most avvim were born into their current form, but some are gibborim who succumbed to their race’s doom. Avvim (singular “avvite”) look like black- and red-scaled reptilian versions of animals or monsters, with or without gangly arms and legs. Some resemble snakes, others lizardfolk, and still others look like more bizarre creatures. Their teeth (and claws, if any) cause horrible bleeding wounds, and their bite can destroy any creature instantly.
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