Agathion, MuldnalThis diminutive, small-eyed creature is covered in dense, charcoal-gray fur and wears a dirt-stained smock; its pink nose twitches ceaselessly.Muldnal CR 3Source Pathfinder #117: Assault on Longshadow pg. 80
XP 800
NG Small outsider (agathion, extraplanar, good)
Init –1; Senses darkvision 120 ft., detect snares and pits, low-light vision, tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +12DefenseAC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14 (–1 Dex, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 38 (4d10+16)
Fort +8, Ref +3, Will +6; +4 vs. poison
DR 5/evil or silver; Immune electricity, paralysis, petrification; Resist acid 10, cold 10, sonic 10; SR 14
Weaknesses light sensitivity, revulsionOffenseSpeed 20 ft., burrow 40 ft.
Melee mwk quarterstaff +6 (1d4) or bite +5 (1d8 plus paralysis), 2 claws +5 (1d3)
Special Attacks paralysis (1 round, DC 16)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +5)
Constant—detect snares and pits
3/day—create pit (DC 13)
1/day—move earth, summon (level 4, 1 silvanshee 35%)
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +9)
2nd—control vermin (DC 17), soften earth and stone, summon swarm
1st—call animal, cure light wounds, expeditious excavation, shillelagh, thunderstomp
0—detect poison, know direction, purify food and drink (DC 15), stabilizeStatisticsStr 11, Dex 9, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 20, Cha 12
Base Atk +4; CMB +3; CMD 12
Feats Bludgeoner, Vermin Heart
Skills Craft (traps) +11, Knowledge (engineering) +11, Knowledge (nature) +7, Perception +12, Stealth +10 (+14 underground), Survival +12; Racial Modifiers +4 Craft (traps), +4 Knowledge (engineering), +4 Stealth underground
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; speak with animals, truespeech
SQ dust child, hold breath, lay on hands (2d6, 3/day), wild empathy +1EcologyEnvironment any underground (Nirvana)
Organization solitary, pair, or labor (3–10)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesDust Child (Ex) Muldnals are innately attuned to the structure of the earth and stone around them. They gain a +4 racial bonus on Craft (traps) and Knowledge (engineering) checks.
Revulsion (Ex) A muldnal is repelled by the presence of freshly spilled blood. When within 30 feet of a creature that is taking bleed damage, or if a muldnal is taking bleed damage itself, the muldnal must succeed at a DC 17 Will saving throw each round or become shaken until the start of the next round or until the bleeding creature is healed. In addition, a muldnal can’t use its burrow or earth glide abilities while under the effects of revulsion. A muldnal that successfully saves against revulsion can’t be affected by the same source of blood for 24 hours.
Spells A muldnal prepares spells as per a druid of a level equal to its Hit Dice, with a focus on animal-, earth-, and vermin-related spells.DescriptionMuldnals’ appearance does not immediately command respect. They stand roughly 3 feet in height, and their wide, dirt-encrusted, clawed hands and equally filthy smocks of undyed linen belie their true extraplanar nature. Dense fur of black, brown, and gray coats their muscular bodies, while a pink nose and whiskers twitch as they sense their surrounding environment, their small black eyes lost in the fur and dirt on their bodies.
While the ferocious leonal agathions guard the portals to Nirvana, the overlooked muldnals tend to the innumerable underground passages of that plane. When found on the Material Plane, a muldnal tends to sites of magical power associated with agriculture and nature. Many people have been fooled by their friendly and furred countenances; when provoked, a muldnal uses both a paralytic bite and command over the earth to drive off its enemies.EcologyFormed from the souls of farmers and miners, muldnals continue the agrarian traditions they had in their mortal lives. These souls discovered peace in the ebb and flow of the passage of the seasons, the pace and planning of crops, or discovering the natural wealth beneath the earth, and their skills and talents found their home among the eternal tranquility of Nirvana.
As with other agathions, muldnals appear fully formed in Nirvana, their purpose clear in their minds as they begin their work to correct unduly chaotic or orderly influences in the deep caverns of the plane. With no need to eat or sleep, muldnals tirelessly rearrange passageways to be safer or enhance their natural beauty, improve the fertility of the soil in grasslands, and decompose fallen leaves in Nirvana’s primal forests to promote the plane’s health.
Pacifists at heart, muldnals prefer to avoid fighting, as the sight and smell of spilled blood repels them. That does not mean they are incapable of defending themselves, though, and they wield clubs, cudgels, quarterstaves, and saps with aplomb. A single muldnal’s efforts may be only an annoyance as it harasses intruders, but an entire labor of muldnals can collapse tunnels or pen in foes while they summon the aid of more powerful allies (often silvanshees or vulpinals). Should a muldnal fall to violence, it collapses into a pile of dirt and crawling insects or worms—returning to the dust that formed its existence and purpose.Habitat and SocietyFor the most part, muldnals lead solitary lives, content to repair passageways, enrich soil for farmers, and cast out evil where they find it. Self-appointed as Nirvana’s gardeners and caretakers, they also make excellent guides—if they can be found in the first place. Compared to other agathions, muldnals are loners, preferring the company of fey or kami when journeying on the Material Plane.
Muldnals do not feel beholden to any one particular deity or empyreal lord, and unlike other agathions, they don’t actually have a representative empyreal lord. Theories abound as to why this might be, but the reclusive nature of the muldnals, as well as their avoidance of bloody conflict, may be reasons why none of them have attained the power of an empyreal lord. They can be found serving followers of Erastil in rural fields, assisting dwarven miners on behalf of Torag, seeking hidden wonders for Benorus, tending gardens and orchards sacred to Halcamora, or aiding monadic devas on the Plane of Earth.
Muldnals can spend their entire existence never seeing another of their kind, but when they do meet, it is a cause for celebration, and perhaps for an extraordinary engineering project. Numerous legendary underground grottos, such as the Cave of a Thousand Stars in Vudra and the Emerald Veldt in Molthune, are the works of muldnal moots. In these locations, the barrier between the Material Plane and Nirvana is much thinner—these are places where enlightenment and perfection can be touched, and therefore, they are sought after by monks and scholars alike.
Muldnals embrace a mentor-apprentice relationship in their society. Experienced muldnals are expected to teach younger muldnals everything they know, and pass it along verbally as they travel and work together. A muldnal traveling by itself leaves knowledge in the stone, constructing cairns of different types of rock, perfectly round corridors, or other earthen works of wonder.
Recently, more muldnals claim to hear Nirvana’s earth “call” to them, beckoning them down to a place they do not know. A massive earthen hill, called the Mouldywarp, mars one of the verdant grasslands of Nirvana, and it could be that the muldnals are claiming a spot of their own in the idyllic perfection of that plane.Elder MuldnalsLike other outsiders, muldnals are ageless and live immortal lives on the Outer Planes, ceaselessly carrying out their designated task without complaint. Rarely do they evolve without fully transforming into more powerful variants of agathions, but those who live eons in the dark caverns of Nirvana may grow in both size and prowess, and present an even larger threat to forces that would threaten the subterranean regions of the plane. These elder muldnals often lead small enclaves of other muldnals and take on saintlike qualities in many of their followers’ eyes.
Elder (+2 CR): A muldnal elder commands tremendous respect among its kind. It gains the advanced and giant creature simple templates, gains blindsight instead of tremorsense, and can cast spiked pit as a spell-like ability once per day.Creatures in "Agathion" CategorySource Bestiary 2 pg. 15
Agathions are a race of beast-aspect outsiders native to the plane of Nirvana, a realm of pure good unconcerned with the dogma of law (represented by Heaven) or chaos (represented by Elysium). Though Nirvana is a place of rest where blessed souls seek enlightenment, agathions are aggressive and interventionist in the mortal world when it comes to dealing with evil. Created from the souls of good mortals who have managed to achieve the enlightenment they sought in life (or in some cases, after death), agathions embody the principles of a peaceable kingdom while marshaling their strength to defend that kingdom from any who would despoil it. Because they strike an ethical balance between the chaotic, fey-like azatas and the lawful, rigid process of the archons, agathions are often liaisons between the celestial races, soothing hot tempers and working toward mutual goals of vanquishing evil and protecting good.
All agathions have an animal-like aspect. Some are more humanoid in appearance, while others spend their entire existence in a form nearly identical to that of a true animal. Each type of agathion serves a particular role in Nirvana, and their duties on other planes echo these responsibilities: leonals watch over Nirvana's portals and have a guardian-like aspect in other worlds, draconals carry the wisdom of the ages and observe and guide exceptional mortals, vulpinals are bards and messengers and bear important news to celestial generals and mortal heroes, and so on. Agathions are proud of their feral aspects and don't take kindly to the suggestion that they are cursed folk like lycanthropes or nothing more than magical talking beasts. Every agathion was once a mortal who aspired to goodness and was rewarded in the afterlife with a form suiting her talents and personality; suggesting that an agathion's form is a kind of punishment is a terrible insult.
The following pages describe only a few of the best-known kinds of agathions, but other types exist, corresponding to other conventional animals (bears, dinosaurs, fish, wolves, and so on), with a few having shapes that resemble insects (particularly beetles, butterflies, and mantises); a handful resemble stranger creatures (such as basilisks and owlbears) or unique “animals” native to extreme environments on distant worlds. Certain animals, particularly those associated with scavenging activities (such as hyenas, buzzards, or jackals) or parasitism (like lampreys or ticks) specifically do not have agathions associated with them—these animals are not intrinsically evil, but their habits and ecological niches are far from the noble and proud traditions that most of the souls who seek enlightenment upon Nirvana would associate with themselves.
Individual agathions may be male or female, but they do not reproduce among their own kind—every agathion is a unique individual made from the soul of a good mortal. This does not prevent them from falling in love or having affairs with mortals, and a few aasimar and celestial sorcerer bloodlines derive from past contact with agathions, particularly among communities not averse to anthropomorphic humanoids. Indeed, many mythologies tie numerous races of this kind to the inevitable result of human tribes forming strong emotional attachments to visiting agathions.
Agathions speak Celestial, Draconic, and Infernal, though they can communicate with any intelligent creature because of their truespeech ability. They can also communicate with animals using a similar, silent ability. Even the weakest agathion is able to heal itself or others using a power similar to a paladin's ability to lay on hands. All agathions have a number of similar traits, as detailed in Appendix 3 of this book.
Agathions serving a particular deity or empyreal lord may have additional abilities depending on the role their deity assigns them. For example, a cetaceal serving a goddess of volcanic islands may be able to change shape into a more human-like form to walk on land, and may be immune to fire to tolerate and tend to the life-rich thermal vents at the ocean floor.
Agathion Leaders
Though agathions lack an organized hierarchy, each type of agathion has a few individuals invested with power by the gods of Nirvana or the plane itself. Common agathions look to these exceptional examples for leadership, wisdom, and inspiration; these enlightened folk do not openly claim any responsibilities or rank over their fellows, but welcome the obligations this added power places upon them and do not deny their status or shirk their duties. Part of a category of powerful outsiders known collectively as empyreal lords, these leaders are often significantly larger than common agathions (up to double the normal size, in some cases), and have unusual coloration (such as iron-gray fur) or unique sensory manifestations associated with their presence (such as illusory birds, a constant melody, the scent of oranges, or a calming aura). No agathion fails to recognize their presence when not disguised. Agathion leaders can serve as heralds for deities, although they tend not to encourage religions based on their teachings. The following is but a selection of notable agathion leaders.
Chavod Broken-Spear (cetaceal)
Kelumarion the King Over the Mountain (leonal)
Korada of the Dream Lotus (avoral)
Lady Taramyth the Singing Flame (vulpinal)
Sixlife the Violet Fury (silvanshee)
Walks with Golden Stars (draconal)
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