Hasnamuss

Hasnamuss
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 7 (Immune to Divine Magics)
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1
Damage: (by weapon or by 'Naloo-osnian Impulses')
Save: F4
Morale: 9

Terrestrial nullities, the Hasnamusses are former sorcerers, defrocked clerics, and others who have achieved a foul and inverted form of annulment, a dread anti-illumination in which their souls have shriveled, shattered  and collapsed into wicked, broken shards that have become lodged within their randomly rotting bodies that are slowly crystallizing from the inside out. No longer fully alive nor dead, but some wretched antithesis of both, the Hasnamuss persists in their material continuance only to facilitate the destruction and despair of others. They cast as many as seven or nine shadows at a time, none of them complete. They literally only exist to cause trouble, harm and to instill Naloo-osnian Impulses within any unfortunate enough to encounter them in their pointless, random wanderings.

Some Hasnamusses wield wickedly barbed spears or toxic staves of coldly luminous iron, but most rely entirely upon their ability to inflict Naloo-osnian Impulses upon their victims. A typical Hasnamuss can extend the area of their wicked influence outwards by 10' plus another 1' per Hit Die. Every ten  minutes spent within the area of a Hasnamusses' influence inflicts a cumulative -1 penalty to all Saves. It is most unwise to linger overlong in their putrescent presence. Those who fail their initial Save and fall under the terrible influence of a Hasnamuss suffer 1d4 damage every ten minutes that they spend in the thing's company. They do get another Save (at the appropriate penalty) after each ten minute period. The damage caused by the Hasnamuss is the sort that leaves marks, scars, even going so far as to horribly disfigure or maim any who actually survive their exposure to one of these terrible creatures.

There are Seven Naloo-osnian Impulses:

1. Depravity. Victim is filled with unreasonable desires and a lust for committing disgusting, demeaning acts that corrupts their soul and harms others in the most loathsome ways imaginable. Those caught-up in this effect lose their sense of morality, forget their vows or duties and succumb to the need to indulge in blasphemous, contradictory, destructive acts that go against every principle or tenet of belief that they held prior to falling under the influence of a Hasnamuss.
2. Ruination. An intoxicating sense of self-satisfaction suffuses the target. This sensation is hyper-addictive and can only be felt again once they have led someone else astray through lying, deceit, betrayal and subterfuge. Every time they speak honestly or act nobly, they must Save or suffer wracking pain that effectively immobilizes them for 1d4 minutes.
3. Murderous. All those exposed to the baleful influences of a Hasnamuss soon acquire a terrible bloodthirstiness that compels them to extinguish the light of life. Not only does the Hasnamuss seek to destroy life, they foment, aid and abet murder. Anyone under the effect of this particular impulse gains a +2 on all attack and damage rolls for the duration of the effect.
4. Unnaturality. The twisted and corrupt influence of the Hasnamuss inspires a degenerating kind of transformation in all those who spend time in their presence. This influence causes weird growths, random lesions, debilitating deformities and even outright mutational defects, if a victim lives that long.
5. Artificiality. Despising whatever they decide is now a defect, the Hasnamuss demands those under the influence of this impulse to cut away whatever it is that gives offense, so that it can be replaced by something more appropriate--a vile and cobbled-together simulacrum of the limb, organ or whatever that only remains functional while still within the area of the Hasnamusses' influence.
6. Appropriation. Hasnamusses do not respect anything, least of all anyone else's rights to anything they want. Beyond simple thievery, this impulse drives the victim to deny others the use of their rightful property. This is not about gaining, it is all about removing it from others, and then wasting it, wrecking it, destroying it; directly in front of them, if possible.
7. Not-ness. A Hasnamuss cannot abide anyone remaining true to themselves on any level. Those caught-up in this particular impulse will do everything in their power to become 'other' than they truly are, up to and including casting transformational spells upon themselves, resorting to impromptu field surgery to self-modify their bodies, and worse...the more gruesome and graphic, the more the Hasnamuss prefers it. 

The Seven Naloo-osnian Impulses can be treated as a sort of combination Charm and Curse that is meant to be explicitly evil, warped, nasty and destructive. The Hasnamuss can pick and choose, or the DM/GM can randomly roll to determine which particular impulse is in effect. The effect can change every ten minutes.

These are consummately evil beings, literally beyond redemption. They only exist to destroy others. They will seek to delay, deter and destroy anyone and everyone whom they can snare within their area of influence.

Should a Hasnamuss be reduced down to 0 hit points, they will explode in a a cloud of toxic crystalline shards that will inflict 4d4 damage on everyone in their area of influence. There will be one shard lodged in the wound of a victim for every point of damage they sustain. Removing these shards will inflict another 1 point of damage for every shard embedded in the victim's body. Each shard must be cut-out and discarded within the next 12 hours or else the wound will fester, the victim will become feverish and they will begin to transform into a Hasnamuss unless all the fragments are completely removed. Once the fever starts, the transition takes approximately 12 hours. Bless spells can delay it for 24 hours. Oddly enough, anyone out-right killed by the explosion remains dead.

Inspiration: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, by G. I. Gurdjieff, with a nod to Alice Bailey who never did quite get out from under Mrs. Blavatsky's shadow, so to speak. Gurdjieff coined a lot of interesting terms and neologisms/jargon unique to his works, some of it quite suitable for use in a Role-Playing context, which would no doubt not meet with his approval, unless he got to be the GM...