Tataka

Twelve feet tall, animal-jawed, and blue-skinned, the tataka rakshasa looks like a religious idol come to life—appropriate, since one of its main goals is the corruption of the devout and spreading blasphemy in holy places.  Tatakas lure victims into apostasy through subterfuge, seduction, and well-placed healing magic…and those they cannot lead astray end up being on the receiving end of their devastating martial arts blows.

Pradil, Tempter of the Lost, is a tataka that lives in the abandoned temple complex at Purna.  Her main ally and servant is a bhuta who was unjustly tried and executed as a heretic by covetous rivals from his order.  The bhuta puts the animals of the jungle to work spying on nearby travelers. Those that look like they would make good slaves, sparring partners, or converts are met by the tataka; any clerics or inquisitors are left to the undead’s not-so-tender mercies.

The Terror in Lapis appears to be a murti, one of the many statues in the great mandir at the mouth of the Geer River.  In reality, it is a tataka bound in place there by the blue-stoned mandala that surrounds it.  Fortunately, it can only be freed if the mandala is broken and the ruby of binding torn from its brow…but that is just what some gem-hunting adventurers have been hired to do, not knowing what they disturb…

In the green-roofed temple of Whitewall, custom dictates that the lama or his champion must answer any challenge involving unarmed combat.  This year, a tataka demands to fight.  She scoffs at protests that the lama is too old—and interestingly, claims to have known him in a different life, when he was a thief.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 3 230