Courage HeartThis woman with vaguely half-elven features wears a wooden breastplate and wields a wooden morningstar in one hand. In her other hand she holds a thorny red rose; blood from that hand trickles down her arm.Courage Heart CR 15Source Pathfinder #68: The Shackled Hut pg. 84
XP 51,200
CG Medium outsider (chaotic, extraplanar, good)
Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +27
Aura rebellious aura (60 ft.)DefenseAC 30, touch 13, flat-footed 27 (+10 armor, +3 Dex, +7 natural)
hp 195 (17d10+102); fast healing 10
Fort +18, Ref +18, Will +14
DR 10/lawful; Immune fear; Resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20, fire 20OffenseSpeed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee +3 anarchic morningstar +29/+24/+19/+14 (1d8+11)
Ranged +1 anarchic dart +26/+21/+16/+11 (1d4+9)
Special Attacks bloody rose, favored enemy (evil outsiders +6, humans +2, lawful outsiders +8, undead +4)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 17th; concentration +24)
At will—aid, chaos hammer, remove fear, holy smite
3/day—cure moderate wounds, darkvision, dimension door, dispel law, magic vestment, magic weapon, neutralize poison, peasant armaments (page 69), protection from arrows, shield other, status
1/day—martyr’s last blessing (page 69), mass invisibility, telepathic bondStatisticsStr 23, Dex 23, Con 22, Int 22, Wis 21, Cha 24
Base Atk +17; CMB +23; CMD 39
Feats Blind-Fight, Dazzling Display, Deflect ArrowsB, Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, LookoutB, OutflankB, Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Swap PlacesB, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (morningstar)
Skills Bluff +19, Climb +23, Handle Animal +29, Heal +20, Intimidate +29, Knowledge (local) +25, Perception +27, Perform (oratory) +19, Ride +13, Sense Motive +27, Spellcraft +25, Stealth +26, Survival +27, Swim +23
Languages Celestial, Common, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ change shape (owl or mouse), martyr’s blood, tacticianEcologyEnvironment any land (Elysium)
Organization solitary
Treasure standard (+4 darkwood breastplate, other treasure)Special AbilitiesBloody Rose (Su) At will as a free action, the herald can create a thorny red rose. She may use this rose as a +1 anarchic dart as if she had the Quick Draw feat. The rose loses all its powers 1 round after it leaves the herald’s hand.
Darkwood Breastplate The herald’s +4 darkwood breastplate has all the normal properties of darkwood but is as hard and strong as steel (similar to wood created with an ironwood spell).
Favored Enemy (Ex) The herald has the favored enemy ability of a 17th-level ranger.
Imbue with Power (Su) The herald can imbue an ally with a portion of her power. This ability functions like imbue with spell ability, except she may transfer uses of the following spell-like abilities as if they were cleric spells: cure moderate wounds, magic weapon, peasant armaments, protection from arrows, shield other, and status. Using this ability reduces the number of times per day she can use that spell-like ability until she dismisses the transfer or the recipient expends it (for example, if she imbues a target with cure moderate wounds, thereafter she can only use that spell-like ability twice per day).
Martyr’s Blood (Su) By marking an ally with her blood, the herald can transfer part of her fast healing ability to that ally. The herald’s fast healing decreases by 1 (minimum 0), and the ally gains fast healing 1 for 1 hour. This ability has no effect if the target already has fast healing.
Rebellious Aura (Su) The herald’s aura grants allies within 60 feet the effects of good hope and a paladin’s aura of courage. The effects of this ability are included in the herald’s stat block.
Tactician (Ex) The herald has the tactician ability of a 17th-level cavalier (4/day, one teamwork feat, all allies within 30 feet, 11 rounds). She may use this ability with any of her teamwork feats (Lookout, Outflank, Swap Places).DescriptionCourage Heart is a weapon against tyranny and a mighty spark that kindles the fires of hope in mortal hearts. Once a mortal ranger in the service of Milani, she was an early champion of Galt’s Red Revolution when its purpose was to depose evil Chelish nobles, but when that movement become more about chaos and vengeance, she fought against it instead. Eventually branded a Chelish sympathizer by the Revolutionary Council, she allowed herself to be captured in order to allow her allies to escape. She was executed with a final blade, which trapped her soul within it.
Milani, having spent a century communicating directly with her followers, saw the merits of having a divine champion like other deities, and plucked the woman’s soul from the artifact and made her a herald. Now the martyred hero keeps her original name secret so her living relatives in Galt do not become targets by association, and calls herself Courage Heart. Her mission is twofold: to attack the powerful enemies of the church (especially immortal undead who would subjugate the common folk and conjured outsiders used to strike fear into mortal hearts), and to inspire hope among mortals so they can find the strength to turn against tyrants.
As Courage Heart opposes slavery and unjust imprisonment, she has made it her personal crusade to steal all the final blades and free the souls within them. Milani must look at the bigger picture, so the herald has to make progress toward this goal when she can. Courage Heart has been trying to get Pharasma’s herald, the Steward of the Skein, to join her cause, as preventing souls from reaching the Boneyard is of interest to the Lady of Graves, but that herald’s strange nature and the recent creation of the final blades (relative to the history of civilization) means she has made little headway in establishing that alliance to date.EcologyAs she has only been immortal for a few decades, Courage Heart still acts and feels like a mortal woman. She loves her homeland, cares deeply for her mortal relatives (most of whom have some elven blood and were alive when she was murdered), and enjoys worldly delights such as music and stories. Though she has an instinctive knowledge of the people and places near her, she has perfect recall of such things in Galt and feels great sorrow when she discovers that a building or person she knew in life has been destroyed or has died. She collects remnants of Galt’s history, such as travel journals about its settlements, songs about its people, and sketches of its locations and inhabitants.
Having died for her beliefs holding no expectation of ever returning, Courage Heart considers it an honor to die again and again in her goddess’ service, especially if doing so advances the cause or saves mortal lives. The only thing she fears is torture, but she knows her immortal flesh is resistant to punishment and she has magic at her disposal to help her escape almost any confinement.
Though she does not need to eat or drink, she still feels the urge to do so, and favors traditional Galtan food. A priest who calls her and has a Galtan meal ready for her is much more likely to get help than one who offers no such courtesy and expects immediate compliance.Habitat & SocietyThough the herald tries hard to not play favorites, she loves Galt and her extended family, and often checks up on her friends and relatives by lurking in mouse or owl form. Milani’s small following and the herald’s recent elevation to immortal status means they both are inclined to push the boundaries of what the divine laws allow for direct intervention on Golarion. To bypass these restrictions and watch over her revolution-corrupted homeland, Courage Heart often asks Milani to incarnate her as a mortal ranger (usually of 4th to 7th level) so she can lend a hand where she is needed. In these incarnations she may be male or female and of nearly any human ethnicity or features, but she generally prefers light armor and wields a morningstar. In this mortal shell, she is more careful with her life—not out of any sense of self-preservation, but because she doesn’t want her death to upset anyone she befriends. She prefers to show up in a settlement, deal with a problem, then leave before there are too many questions.
Among the other celestial servitors of Milani, Courage Heart is beloved as a comrade and leader. She often gathers teams of like-minded celestials to ambush and slay devils, undead, and minions of Zon-Kuthon, then retires with these comrades to Milani’s realm in Elysium to tell stories of each other’s bravery and virtue.
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