ChronogeistThis translucent, orange-tinged creature looks like it was once a living person, though its face is a twisted mask of confusion and terror and its vestments surround Chronogeist CR 14Source Pathfinder #137: The City Outside of Time pg. 82
XP 38,400
CE Medium undead (incorporeal)
Init +15; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense; Perception +31DefenseAC 29, touch 29, flat-footed 17 (+7 deflection, +11 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 207 (18d8+126)
Fort +13, Ref +17, Will +17
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, incorporeal; Immune undead traitsOffenseSpeed fly 60 ft. (perfect)
Melee 2 incorporeal touches +24 touch (8d6 negative energy/19–20)
Special Attacks disrupt time, temporal screechStatisticsStr —, Dex 33, Con —, Int 10, Wis 19, Cha 25
Base Atk +13; CMB +24; CMD 42
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Critical (incorporeal touch), Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Mobility, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Fly +40, Intimidate +28, Perception +31, Sense Motive +25
Languages ThassilonianEcologyEnvironment Crystilan (Xin-Edasseril)
Organization solitary, pair, or keening (3-5)
Treasure incidentalSpecial AbilitiesDisrupt Time (Su) A chronogeist’s incorporeal body is warped by the ravages of unstable time. As a swift action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity, a chronogeist can oscillate its essence rapidly between the current temporal landscape and an infinite number of others, passing through the bodies of all corporeal creatures within a 30-foot radius. Affected creatures take 6d6 points of damage (this damage occurs from rapid aging and cell death and doesn’t have a damage type). A successful DC 26 Will save negates this damage. Any creature who fails the save is also nauseated for 1 round as a result of the disorienting attack. The chronogeist can use this ability three times per day, but not more often than once every 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Temporal Screech (Su) As a standard action three times per day, a chronogeist can unleash an ear-splitting screech that causes the flow of time around it to stutter. Creatures within 30 feet that can hear the screech must attempt a DC 26 Will saving throw. Those that succeed are unaffected, but those that fail superficially age, their muscles and joints locking up and their movement slowing. For the next 3 rounds, affected creatures can move at only half speed, and take a –8 penalty on Strength- and Dexterity-based checks and abilities, including AC, ranged and melee attack and damage rolls, and skill checks. A creature affected by a chronogeist’s temporal screech (whether or not its saving throw was successful) can’t be affected by it again for the next 24 hours. This is a sonic effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Time Rejuvenation (Su) Whenever a chronogeist is within 60 feet of a creature that begins to cast a transmutation or necromancy spell that affects the passage of time (including, but not limited to haste, sands of time, slow, temporal stasis, threefold aspect, or time stop), the chronogeist immediately absorbs a portion of the spell’s energy. The spell still functions as normal, but the chronogeist gains a number of temporary hit points equal to 10 times the spell’s level. These temporary hit points are lost first when the chronogeist takes damage and can stack with each other.DescriptionFor thousands of years after it became trapped in Crystilan, Xin-Edasseril existed apart from planar space and time. While the city remained safe from intrusion, its residents were unaware that they were trapped within a temporal prison, replaying the same week-long period over and over. The city’s inhabitants never aged, but the souls of those who died couldn’t escape to the Boneyard. Instead, these trapped souls festered within the demiplane, and over the course of centuries transformed into terrifying, incorporeal undead creatures called chronogeists.
With each week’s reset, the citizens of Crystilan who had perished in the previous incarnation of the city simply vanished from the memories of those who survived, their passage from life to death wiped clean due to the nature of time within the demiplane being constantly reset. Yet sometimes, people would vaguely recall those who had perished in the form of half-remembered dreams, and as the presence of chronogeists slowly grew, theories as to their nature began to spread through the city’s scholars. Some correctly suspected they were tied to a distortion in time, but most believed they were manifestations of dreams or forgotten memories that sought vengeance upon those who had misremembered them. Of course, at the end of every week, with the resetting of time, these theories would all be forgotten.
Over the years, the number of citizens in Xin-Edasseril slowly decreased while chronogeists continued to manifest. Fortunately for the city’s inhabitants, once a chronogeist was slain, it didn’t return to life with the next week’s reset—instead, this trapped spiritual energy simply got absorbed into the shell surrounding Crystilan.
This growing spiritual pressure on the demiplane’s borders is yet another factor that led to its recent destabilization when the Sihedron Heroes harvested energy from the demiplane’s shell using the Timeglass.
Now that time once again flows forward normally, newly dead souls in Crystilan don’t become trapped and are free to enter the Boneyard normally. Yet for the hundreds of souls still trapped in a strange limbo as a chronogeist, only the destruction of Crystilan itself can allow their escape to the afterlife.
Chronogeists are incorporeal, and their forms typically resemble far more wicked and angry versions of their appearance before undeath. Unhealthy, pale yellow, or orange lights typically permeate chronogeists, though they flash a gamut of bright colors when they harness the unstable time within them to attack those who disturb them. Chronogeists typically wear ghostly vestments of the clothes they wore when they died or clothing that was heavily associated with them in life, such as a priest’s robes or a soldier’s uniform.EcologyWhen chronogeists arise, they typically haunt the general area of their death, confused and distraught about why they persist. They lose most memories they held in life and become enraged, aggressive threats to any who happen upon their territory, screeching and flying through victims’ bodies in an attempt to right the temporal snags and instability that led to their undeath. This doesn’t mean that chronogeists are unintelligent, however. Rather, chronogeists exist in a pure state of emotion and denial; they don’t understand that a snag in time has prevented their souls’ journeys, but are enraged that they’re stuck on the Material Plane or elsewhere, so they continue to unleash the temporal dangers within them in fruitless attempts to understand their own natures.Habitat and SocietyChronogeists have no sense of companionship or interpersonal relations. They barely recognize that they’re no longer their former mortal selves, and in death have become near-mindless evil creatures. Chronogeists whose progenitor creatures held particularly strong convictions, however, sometimes retain a sliver of an important memory—such as whether they once vowed to protect someone or something with their lives. These chronogeists still typically haunt the relevant areas, and might even still make efforts to fulfill an important vow they made in life, even if they don’t recognize why or how they’re doing so. These actions typically manifest in tragically ironic forms, such as a chronogeist forgetting entirely why it’s protecting an area even while the subject of its previous concern, such as a precious artifact, lies forgotten in the dust.
In most cases, it’s rare for more than one chronogeist to haunt an area, since the creatures are territorial and are usually tightly tied to the place where they died. In places where temporal events are common or where the fabric of time is unstable, however, many chronogeists might arise spontaneously in a single location. When this happens, these chronogeists tend to move together, roving their territory for intruders or blindly trying to fulfill some mission they held dearly in life. Like when they operate alone, these chronogeists barely realize that they’re working with others of their kind or to what end. They simply continue to rage against any living creatures that intrude upon their haunts, desperately seeking to understand their complex and tragic fate.
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