Soul Rot Basin | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

This simple magical hazard spreads Soul Rot through close contact with its vapor. An affected creature loses 5 points of Sapience each day. A 3rd-rank or higher witchcraft remedy can cure the affliction; absent a system-specific Sapience track, the GM should represent the loss as a progressively worsening impairment of memory, judgment, and personality rather than reducing another ability score.

Complexity: Simple
Magical
Curse
Void

Stealth: (trained); the basin appears inert until approached
Trigger: A living creature enters within 10 feet of the uncovered basin or touches it.
Disable: A creature can Disable the basin with two successful Occultism checks, each requiring 2 actions, by tracing and breaking the void sigils without touching the glass. On a critical success, it is disabled immediately; on a critical failure, the basin triggers against that creature. A 3rd-rank or higher witchcraft effect that removes curses or restores the mind disables it automatically.
Initiative: The hazard acts on initiative count 10 when triggered.
Routine: On its initiative, the basin releases a thin wave of gray vapor in a 10-foot emanation. Each creature in the area must attempt a Fortitude save. On a critical success, it is unaffected. On a success, it is unaffected but is temporarily immune to this basin for 24 hours. On a failure, it contracts Soul Rot. On a critical failure, it contracts Soul Rot and is stupefied 1 for 1 day.
Reset: The basin resets automatically after 1 minute if uncovered. Creatures already afflicted are not affected again.

Damage

Immunities

Critical hits, Object immunities

Resistances

Void 10

Weaknesses

Cold iron 5

Effects

1

Soul Rot
A creature that fails its save is afflicted with Soul Rot. Each day, its Sapience decreases by 5. The GM should portray this through increasing lapses in memory, empathy, and coherent decision-making. The affliction ends when cured by witchcraft of 3rd rank or higher. Sapience lost to Soul Rot returns at 5 points per day after a cure, unless the campaign uses a different recovery convention.

Special rules

Close-Contact Curse.Soul Rot can spread only through close contact with the emitted vapor. A creature must be within 10 feet of the basin when it releases vapor to be exposed; barriers that fully seal the room or basin block exposure.

Sapience in Generic Fantasy.Sapience is not a standard Pathfinder 2E statistic. If the campaign has no Sapience score, each 5-point daily loss should be expressed as worsening roleplay and appropriate narrative or skill penalties set by the GM. Do not reduce Intelligence, Wisdom, or another ability score unless the campaign explicitly adopts that rule.

Spotting it

Discovery

The basin is detectable with a Perception check.

Perception

Stop it

Signs of dangerReflections move a heartbeat after their owners. · Gray residue gathers on the inside of sealed jars nearby. · An old caretaker's notes describe forgetting a sibling's face one day at a time.

Countermeasures

Keep creatures at least 10 feet from the basin and seal the room against its vapor.
A creature with a free hand can cover the basin with an airtight, opaque container or heavy cloth from reach without touching the glass, using an Interact action.
DC 25A successful Occultism check to identify and disrupt the void sigils suppresses the hazard for 1 hour.
A 3rd-rank or higher witchcraft effect that removes curses or restores the mind cures Soul Rot in one creature and disables the basin if cast upon it.
Reduce the basin to 0 HP to destroy it. Its curse ends immediately, though existing Soul Rot requires treatment.

In short

Avoid touching the basin or its vapor.

Its story

What it looks like

A black glass basin rests beneath a ceiling of tarnished mirrors.

Why it is here

To infect intruders with a curse that gradually erodes their sapience.

Who made it

An unknown coven of void-ritualists

Lore

Void-ritualists used Soul Rot to erase witnesses without killing them.

Where it is found

Abandoned shrines, sealed ritual chambers, and the private sanctums of void cults

Variants

The basin is a cracked hand mirror; its vapor spreads only when someone looks into it.

A funerary version affects only creatures who speak the name of the dead above it.

A dormant basin stores the memories it strips away, which can be recovered by destroying it in a 3rd-rank witchcraft rite.

Plot hooks

A respected archivist has begun forgetting names and needs a cure before a crucial testimony is lost.

The basin contains the last memories of a missing cultist, preserved in its mirror-black surface.

A local witch offers a cure, but asks the party to recover a page from the void ritual that created the basin.

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