Kyton, Apostle KytonClad in black leather, this woman has pale skin and bloody holes where her eyes used to be.Apostle Kyton CR 12Source Horror Adventures pg. 240
XP 19,200
Female human apostle kyton slayer 11 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 53)
LE Medium outsider (augmented humanoid, kyton, native)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +17DefenseAC 27, touch 18, flat-footed 20 (+5 armor, +1 deflection, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural)
hp 142 (11d10+77); regeneration 5 (good weapons, good spells, silver weapons)
Fort +15, Ref +17, Will +11
Defensive Abilities evasion; Immune cold; SR 23OffenseSpeed 30 ft.
Melee +1 cold iron sickle +18/+13/+8 (1d6+5 plus 1d6 bleed), +1 cold iron sickle +18/+13/+8 (1d6+5 plus 1d6 bleed)
Special Attacks agonizing prayer (11d6, DC 20), bleeding touch (1d6), seductive oration (2d6 Wisdom or 6 sanity, DC 20), sneak attack +3d6, studied target +3 (3rd, swift action), unnerving gaze (30 ft.; DC 20)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +16)
1/day—shadow walkStatisticsStr 18, Dex 24, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 20
Base Atk +11; CMB +15; CMD 33
Feats Dodge, Double Slice, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Iron Will, Toughness, Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Rend, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (sickle)
Skills Bluff +23, Heal +21, Intimidate +23, Perception +17, Sense Motive +17, Stealth +21, Survival +17 (+22 when tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Bluff, +4 Heal, +4 Intimidate
Languages Common, Infernal
SQ shadow traveler, slayer talents (evasionUC, finesse rogue, ranger combat style [3]), stalker, swift tracker, track +5EcologyEnvironment any land
Organization solitary or cabal (1 plus 4 ostiarius kytonsB4)
Treasure NPC gear (+1 mithral chain shirt, +1 cold iron sickle [2], ring of protection +1, belt of incredible dexterity +2, cloak of resistance +3, other treasure)DescriptionNot all victims of a kyton’s torturous transformations perish from their captors’ exacting ministrations. Some creatures are transfigured into hybrids of their past selves and the dark malevolence of the kytons. These apostle kytons vary from being degenerate and submissive entities wholly subservient to the will of the kytons that massacred their sense of self, to utterly abominable creatures that take glee in their transformation, rising into leadership positions within kyton hierarchy. Creatures that lose themselves completely to the shadowbound corruption (see page 34) also sometimes become apostle kytons, as their souls are twisted to match the kytons’ amoral sensibilities. Those who willingly become apostle kytons tend to share a similar niche with ostiarius kytons (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 176), and the two sorts of kytons often collude together in cabals. Other apostles assist interlocutors (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 174) in their ministrations or even serve the mighty eremites (Bestiary 3 172) directly as seekers of “perfect parts.” Creating an Apostle Kyton“Apostle kyton” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature of the humanoid or monstrous humanoid type (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Most apostle kytons were once humanoids. An apostle kyton uses the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here.
Challenge Rating: Base creature’s CR + 2.
Alignment: Lawful evil.
Type: The apostle kyton’s type changes to outsider (kyton, native). Do not recalculate Hit Dice, BAB, or saves. It gains the augmented subtype.
Senses: An apostle kyton gains darkvision 60 feet.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus increases by 4.
Defensive Abilities: An apostle kyton gains immunity to cold, spell resistance equal to 11 + its total CR, and regeneration equal to 1/2 its Hit Dice that is negated by good weapons, good spells, and silver weapons.
Special Attacks: An apostle kyton gains the following special attacks.
Agonizing Prayer (Su): As a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, an apostle kyton can orate a prayer so profane that it causes any non-kyton listening to erupt in bleeding wounds. Any non-kyton listener must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the apostle kyton’s Hit Dice + its Charisma modifier) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per Hit Die of the apostle kyton, take bleed damage as if struck by the apostle kyton’s bleeding touch, and become staggered for 1 round. Creatures that succeed on this save halve the nonlethal damage and negate the staggered effect, but they still take the bleed damage. A creature that has taken nonlethal damage greater than or equal to its current hit points is not normally rendered unconscious by this ability, but such a creature is still helpless, rendering it susceptible to the apostle kyton’s seductive oration ability. This is a sonic painUM effect.
Bleeding Touch (Su): An apostle kyton that touches a creature deals 1 point of damage plus 1d6 points of bleed damage for every 10 Hit Dice of the kyton. If an apostle kyton attacks with natural or manufactured weapons, its weapons also deal this bleed damage.
Seductive Oration (Su): An apostle kyton has a unique perspective due to her transition into her current form. As a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, an apostle kyton can speak to the pleasures and wonders it experienced during its transformation. Any creature that listens to this speech for 1 continuous minute must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the apostle kyton’s Hit Dice + the apostle kyton’s Charisma modifier) or take 1d6 points of Wisdom damage. This Wisdom damage increases by 1d6 for every 8 Hit Dice of the apostle kyton. A creature that succeeds at its save can’t be affected by that apostle kyton’s seductive oration ability for 24 hours.
After failing the save to resist the apostle kyton’s seductive oration, the target begins to question the definitions of morality, physicality, and life. Once per week, as long as the affected creature remains in communication with the apostle kyton, it must attempt a saving throw against seductive oration again or have its alignment shift one step toward lawful evil and take 1d6 additional points of Wisdom damage. The save DC increases by 1 per consecutive week of contact with the apostle kyton. A successful save prevents the alignment shift. A creature can’t take Wisdom damage from seductive oration more than once per week, even if it encounters multiple apostle kytons.
When the target’s alignment completely shifts to lawful evil (or if the target is lawful evil when first seduced), the target must immediately succeed at a Will save (with the same DC as seductive oration, including any increases from extended contact) or gain a greater madness (see page 182). If your campaign uses the sanity system (see page 12), then instead of dealing Wisdom damage, seductive oration deals sanity damage equal to 1/2 the apostle kyton’s CR. If the target is turned lawful evil, the greater madness it gains is in addition to any madness it might gain from the sanity damage itself.
Creatures that are driven insane by an apostle kyton often eventually become broken souls (Bestiary 4 24), but some rare individuals gain the shadowbound corruption (see page 34) or even transform into apostle kytons themselves.
Unnerving Gaze (Su): An apostle kyton’s unnerving gaze (see the kyton subtype) causes those who fail their saving throws to be fascinated by the apostle kyton. The apostle kyton’s seductive oration doesn’t break this fascination effect, but other attacks break the effect as normal.
Spell-Like Abilities: An apostle kyton of 11 Hit Dice or higher can cast shadow walk once per day, with a caster level equal to her Hit Dice. An apostle kyton of 20 Hit Dice or higher can use shadow walk at will.
Special Qualities: An apostle kyton gains the following.
Shadow Traveler (Su): When an apostle kyton uses shadow walk, she moves at 100 miles per hour.
Ability Scores: Strength +6, Dexterity +4, Constitution +6, Intelligence +2, Wisdom +6, Charisma +6.
Skills: An apostle kyton gains a +4 racial bonus on Bluff, Heal, and Intimidate checks.
Languages: An apostle kyton learns Infernal as a bonus language.Creatures in "Kyton" CategorySource Bestiary 3 pg. 170
Despicably cruel and equally horrible to gaze upon, kytons are evil fiends who feed on the fear and suffering of mortals through painful supernatural means. Their monstrous appearances vary, but their stoic and amoral dispositions are universal, for no kyton cares anything for the plights typical of the creatures they prey upon. They are beings wholly dedicated to metamorphosis achieved through horrific trials of self-mutilation and the mystical power provided them by their sapping of mortal anguish.
Despite being often categorized by mortals as shadow-dwelling devils, kytons calmly refute such claims, seeing themselves as above the principles of Hell's denizens. Instead, kytons seek ecstasy through pain in the form of deliberate and violent self-transformation, adhering to the belief that by altering the physical and spiritual matter that makes up their form, they can reach a state of perfect being. Removing aspects of themselves and replacing them with more desirable or powerful pieces one at a time, kytons believe that experiences of heightened emotion and sensation (typically in the forms of terror and pain) lead to greater states of awareness and existence. The dedication with which they practice this belief places them on the level of zealots, their fanatical commitment made all the more disturbing by their eerie composedness and unnaturally cool dispositions.
The original kytons were born of the first truly selfish and depraved thoughts conceived by mortals. These creatures surprised and horrified the early gods with their power and hideous nature, and so the gods chained them in a remote part of Hell. The kytons embraced their chains and, seeking to fulfill their unnatural hunger for pain, escaped to the Plane of Shadow, which lay much closer to their mortal prey. Now, kytons are born of mortal souls that were spiritually and physically tortured in life, victims of their own masochism, sacrifices to gods of suffering, or those promised to the fiends either by their own will or by sadistic cultists. Obscure rituals force the sacrificed souls to bypass the normal judgments of the afterlife and instead become mired in the Plane of Shadow. Over an excruciating and lengthy span of time, these souls are warped and twisted until they emerge as frail new kytons. A kyton's first willing act must be to cut away part of its own flesh, proving it is worthy of its kyton nature—the first step in an immortal lifetime of replacing its own substance with the stronger parts of other creatures. By drawing strength from its new grafts, a kyton grows and becomes both stronger and more terrible to behold. Thus, weaker kytons resemble the mortal creatures they once were, whereas older ones are horrifying patchworks of transplanted material that rarely look like their original forms. Many kytons still proudly wear the chains that bound them (either to Hell or to the torture devices that created them), trophies of their power to defy the gods or mortal fate.
Kytons' need to replace parts of themselves with those of stronger mortals puts them in perpetual danger of attacking creatures that are too powerful for them to kill. For this reason, kytons are pragmatic and ruthless in their battles, scrutinizing all potential outcomes of a situation before taking action. Seeing strength in numbers, kytons often attack or trap a mortal victim as a team, hauling the unfortunate soul to the Plane of Shadow, converting their prey into a new kyton or dividing its body and soul among them for grafting and nourishment.
The kytons of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary are a specific type of kyton (other kytons call them “evangelists”); they have all the traits listed in the kyton subtype (see page 306). The kytons listed here are but a few of the other known types—many more exist on the Plane of Shadow. Kyton Demagogues The powerful kyton rulers called demagogues possess strength hardly fathomable by mortals. They exist within a power structure similar to that of archdevils. Lesser kytons view these overseers as horrid sovereigns among their kind, and though there are many outlying areas on the Plane of Shadow not controlled by demagogues, kytons who find themselves wandering through a demagogue's territory know to show respect for these lords of suffering.
Demagogues are so advanced in their metamorphosis of self-mutilation and augmentation that no two look alike. Some are strangely beautiful, some are horrors beyond sane description. A demagogue's powers are vaster than even many of their kyton brethren dare consider—they construct enormous cities out of the countless bodies of their victims, weaving entire networks of veins and spiritual energy to create breathing, pulsating metropolises. Demagogues seek to control as much of the realm around their organic superstructures as they can, a feat that proves forever challenging in the dark, shifting corners of the Plane of Shadow. Though one rarely finds reason to leave the confines of its home plane, a demagogue's influence is far-reaching, and kytons who value their lives do as they are commanded, lest they incite the awful and calculating rage of a mighty overlord. The following are some of the most powerful kyton demagogues that reside in the Plane of Shadow, watching over their pulsating kingdoms in massive, gory towers. - Barravoclair, Lady of the Final Gasp
- Fharaas, the Seer in Skin
- Inkariax, the White Death
- Morrobahn, the Parasite Seed
- Raetorgash, the Skull-Hoarder
- Sugroz, the Voice in Screams
- Vevelor of the Broken Dream
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