I knew nothing about
the aoandon before I sat down to research it. Now I’m so deep down the Wiki wormhole I might never crawl out.
The essentials, as
the Bestiary 4 notes, are that the
aoandon is “an incorporeal outsider formed from the spirit of a woman who died
pursuing some ill-fated relationship [who] waits for her chance to seek revenge
on those who wronged her in her mortal life.” Awesome!
(Side note: Specifically
female spirits often walk that line between “woman as the alien Other”—or even woman
as the vengeful bitch—and “woman representing uniquely female concerns.” So I think it’s the GM’s or the
adventure writer’s job to make sure the latter facet gets more screen
time. Plus, in a magical medieval
society a women might find agency in death that life denied her…manifesting as
an aoandon might provide a very valuable, if bloody, counterpoint to male
disregard and abuse or her overbearing family’s shame. Or you can say screw it and toss
aoandons’ gender out the window—men can certainly pursue life-ending ill-fated
relationships as well.)
Not just awesome, in
fact, but terrifying…because a 10d6 touch attack from an incorporeal creature
should have most PCs soiling their kimonos, even before fear effects are
applied and special abilities are applied.
And there’s so much more thematic juice you can find in the
aoandon. For instance, a lot of
the aoandon’s ire seems to be directed toward her own family—note how the
presence of family members aids in the summoning process. And speaking of that summoning, notice
how the aoandon is not under control of the summoner. So if a particular aoandon defies a party’s efforts to
dispatch it, their best bet might be to summon the creature…but if they can’t
contain it, any fallout from the ensuing chaos will rest squarely on their
heads. And (to get back where I
started, with the Wiki wormhole), aoandons are also associated with nights of
scary storytelling (with the risk of summoning the outsider being part of the
thrill), game playing, and mirrors.
So one might arise during a bard’s performance or haunting the next
magic lantern or mirror the party hauls out of the dungeon.
So the next time your group’s bard rolls a 1 on her Perform
check…make it a night no one in the immediate vicinity will ever forget.
A woman commits
suicide by strangling herself with a necklace—the only piece of jewelry she
has left after her lover steals from her to decorate his new betrothed. When she returns as an aoandon, she
haunts the families of everyone involved and leaves jewelers dead all over the
city. Eventually the remaining
family members and the Jewelers’ Guild attempt a ritual to summon the vengeful spirit,
but she breaks loose almost immediately…
A performance of a
traditional shadow play turns into chaos when the stage lanterns flicker
blue and an aoandon is summoned. As pandemonium ensues, adventurers must not
only contain or destroy the outsider, but also find the wayang sorcerer
responsible, who apparently has made a habit of this in cities up and down the
Granite Road.
Born a man, Devon Highfield
lived as a woman—first onstage as an actor, then in her private life. After retiring from the stage she
married and settled down. But her
husband lost his business after one of his rivals spied upon her in the
bathhouse, and he committed suicide.
Devon tried to follow him into death, but was reborn as an aoandon. Adventurers become involved after being
hired to tell stories and read fortunes at the rival’s manor. Just as the last
tale is told, the lanterns flare blue and Devon’s outraged spirit returns.
No comments:
Post a Comment