Kyton, LampadariusRagged wounds on one side of this leather-clad humanoid’s face and body mark the transition between flesh and shifting shadowstuff.Lampadarius CR 4Source Inner Sea Gods pg. 315
XP 1,200
LE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar, kyton, lawful)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +8DefenseAC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural)
hp 37 (5d10+10); regeneration 2 (good weapons and spells, silver weapons)
Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +6
Defensive Abilities semi-incorporeal; DR 5/good or silver; Immune cold; SR 15OffenseSpeed 30 ft.
Melee slam +5 (1d6), incorporeal touch +5 (1d6 Strength damage)
Special Attacks unnerving gaze (30 ft., DC 13)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +6)
Constant—blur
At will—bleed (DC 11), dancing lights, detect magic
3/day—darkness, invisibility (self only), levitate (self only)
1/day—deeper darkness, shadowstepUMStatisticsStr 11, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 12
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will
Skills Heal +8, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (planes) +8, Perception +8, Stealth +14; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Common, Infernal, ShadowtongueEcologyEnvironment any (Shadow Plane)
Organization solitary, pair, or choir (3–5)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesSemi-Incorporeal (Su) Some of a lampadarius’s body is composed of incorporeal shadow. As a result, it has a 25% chance of taking no damage from any nonmagical attack. It takes only 75% of the damage from magic weapons, spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects. However, it takes full damage from incorporeal creatures and effects, force effects, and ghost touch weapons.
Strength Damage (Su) A lampadarius’s touch deals 1d6 points of Strength damage to a living creature. This is a negative energy effect. If the kyton deals Strength damage that equals or exceeds the target’s Strength score, the kyton gains the benefits of death knell for 1 hour.
Unnerving Gaze (Su) Shaken, range 30 ft., Will DC 13 negates. A lampadarius can make an opponent feel like its own shadow is attempting to claw its face. Those who fail their saves are shaken for 1d3 rounds. This ability has no effect if there is no light present to create shadows. In dim illumination, the DC increases by 2. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.DescriptionA kyton lampadarius is a servitor of the Midnight Lord who, instead of continually replacing parts of its body with those of other creatures, embraced the will of Zon-Kuthon by cutting away its flesh and replacing the lost parts with burning darkness from the Shadow Plane. Walking a fine line between outsider and undead, a lampadarius balances the freezing pain of its new body parts with the burning pleasures of its remaining flesh, continually indulging both as it gains power. It yearns to attain a perfect body of true shadows, yet pines for it missing flesh and the potential for sensation lost.
A lampadarius resembles a common evangelist kyton (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 185) with many old and new wounds, but instead of it being wrapped in chains, entire limbs and half of its face are nothing more than shifting shadow. Individuals have vastly varied appearances—some have a shadowy right arm, others a shadowy left, some replace both limbs on the same side, others alternate which limbs are replaced—but all have some portion of the face removed. All are very close to being half-shadow, as a lesser amount is insufficient to grant them power, and too much converts them to some other kind of shadow-creature.
Lampadariuses stand just under 6 feet tall and weigh about 80 pounds.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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