The Sithid

Though our ears were plugged we were not immune. The howling of the wind was piercing my brain. One of my comrades had already gone barmy; we left him behind hoping that some predator would put him out of his misery. We trudged slowly onward, pushed one step back for each two steps forward by the bone chilling wind. From time to time Renard stopped to tie the rope to a stalagmite, how he'd be unshaken by the infernal wind I'd never know. We were making good time though, in an hour we'd have reached the gate-town of bedlam and be free of this eternal plane. It's funny how a place you hate can look good when you’re someplace worse, and how optimism can creep into the mind of a doomed man. For you see that is the day I met a sithid. It's an experience I'd never want to repeat. You see we reached a fork in the tunnels, the tunnel down the right went around a corner, and from the corner we saw a glow. The tunnel to the left just wound down into darkness. We discussed this unexpected twist, after all we remembered the gate as right, but the glow of the portal was to the left. We figured that being disoriented by the wind and on a chaos plane and all that right was the correct way to go. But after rounding the corner I saw a horrific sight.

Flying skulls, glowing and swirling like an astral color pool and screaming along with the pandemonic winds. They slowly surrounded us and began chanting softly A chant that dug into our flesh and infused our bones with cutting pain. But the chant wasn't for us. Instead the Uliu were doing something worse, they were calling their master. As we looked fearfully my attention was diverted by a scream. Long black liqueous tentacles tipped with glowing red runes shot out from a crevice in the cavern wall and grabbed Renard. Cresson and me fought to set him free but our blades wouldn't sever them. DAMN CARCERIC STEEL! I just knew I'd be too far away when I needed a weapon that can cut a tough planar creature.

Cresson died terribly that day. The Uliu flew threw him shredding him between two planes, their biplanar nature made them dangerous in an unexpected way. They circled me, diving at me, I parried with my blade and it was shredded by contact with these horrors. I raised my hands, dropping the weapons handle and shouting out a surrender. The tentacles left Renard leaving behind only red runes burned into his flesh. The sithid placed one tentacle on my forehead leaving a rune mark there, then he let us leave.

Now I sleep uneasy in Sigil. My night is filled with the terror of liquidous tentacles wrapping around me, flowing into my flesh, through my veins, and after my heart stops they flow into every cell in my body then I realize I'm not feeling with myself anymore but with the tentacles. As I fling myself awake at night my waking mind is filled with one thought, one not my own but of the sithid. "You are a part of me now, I own you, and when you die you will serve me as one of my Uliu”.

Know that and feel fear. Renard is worse off than I in a way am. His personality has changed completely. He hangs out with revolutionaries, unsavory types, criminals, and fiends. He has no friends; he looks down on all he knew and all he now knows. I heard him whispering too, insulting the petty mortals and muttering about how in the end he would be in control, and not these inferior types. Even worse, when I pass his house at night I hear him scream at things that are not their, and cry out in fear "GET IT OUT OF MY MIND!!!!!!" But, when daybreak comes again what is left of his original personality dies again.

The sithid, here is a creature I wanted to put on the mimir but I was unsure what it's statistics would be. Here is a more in depth look at the creature itself. The sithid is a creature found in pandemonium (mostly in the top layer because its servants need astral contact) that feels it's superior to all life and secretly plots to overthrow the multiversal oppressors that keep it from gaining control. Bigotry and paranoia combined with its intelligence and powers make the sithid a creature that can never be tangled with. Though they hate all life, (the oppressors) even hating their own species, they know they must use it to accomplish their goal. Thus a sithid has developed the dangerous power of runic branding.

Each one of a sithids tentacle is tipped with glowing red runes. The effect of each rune is shown below.Hallucination rune: this rune gives a sithid the power to make the afflicted see things that are not there.Subservience rune: Anyone branded by this rune must obey the commands of the sithid.Soul brand: This rune gives the sithid a connection to the victims spirit, willing it to pandemonium when he dies so the soul can be shaped into an Uliu. Life link rune: Rumor has it that sithids can use runes to tap into the life force of their victims.Insanity rune: Though they prefer to make their victims insane in other ways sometimes a rune is needed to achieve this effect.Emotion rune: Hate, fear, and other similar runes exist.

Anyone branded by a sithid has a telepathic link established which the sithid uses to communicate with its victim. Rumor has it the sithid can sense through its victim’s eyes and ears as well; it may require a separate rune.

Sithids also have the power to squeeze their tentacle forms (which may be stretched from 5-20 feet depending upon age) into extremely small crevices where they wait for victims.

UliuUliu are the souls a sithid owns from its victims. They are shaped into glowing "color pools" that bend the reality of pandemonium and the astral to form a reality shredding universal rend. Besides tearing apart what they contact these near mindless eyes and ears of the sithid can chant. This chant alerts the sithid (if it's dormant, if not it can sense through the uliu) and stuns the victims if they fail a save vs. spell. Uliu are tortured souls, though near mindless they can feel they were once something more so they scream along with the howling winds, mourning the loss they cannot comprehend.