Void Echoes | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

Void Echoes are fey hauntings that feed on the distinction between memory and perception. They begin as small errors in reflection, then turn familiar places into hostile stage sets. Those exposed suffer a rapid loss of intellect and sapience, as the haunting steals the inner voice that lets them reason and recognize themselves. Its false images can inflict real wounds, though the wounds vanish when the victim escapes the echo's reach.

complex
haunting
illusion
magical
mental
fey

Stealth: (legendary); the echo is undetected until a creature notices a reflection behaving independently
Trigger: The environmental version rolls initiative when a creature knowingly enters the haunted area or begins its turn there. The spellcast version rolls initiative when its trigger phrase is spoken within 60 feet, or when a creature approaches within 30 feet of its focus if no phrase was set.
Disable: Three successful checks are required to disable the haunting. Each check takes 2 actions and can use Occultism to unravel its fey logic, Nature to coax the echo back into its reflection, or Thievery to dismantle the physical anchor. A creature must be adjacent to the anchor or able to reach the reflective surface. A critical success counts as 2 successes; a critical failure causes the acting creature to become a target of the next hallucination. The hazard is disabled after 3 successes, or permanently ended if its anchor is removed as described under Countermeasures.
Initiative: +42
Routine: On its initiative, the haunting performs three beats. First, it distorts the scene, forcing exposed creatures to attempt the Borrowed Inner Voice save. Second, it conjures a hostile false image and resolves Pain in the Looking Glass against each creature that can perceive it. Third, it shifts its anchor to another reflective surface within 60 feet; if there is none, it repeats the first beat. A creature can be targeted by each effect no more than once per round.
Reset: The hazard resets automatically at the start of each round while its anchor remains intact. If disabled by checks, it reforms after 1 hour unless the anchor is removed or destroyed.

Damage

Immunities

critical hits, object immunities, precision damage, mental effects

Resistances

physical 15 (except cold iron)

Weaknesses

cold iron 15
A true name spoken aloud by someone who remembers the victim grants that victim a +2 circumstance bonus to saves against the haunting until the start of the speaker's next turn.

Effects

2

The Borrowed Inner Voice
DC 48
Each exposed creature attempts a Will save. Critical Success: unaffected and immune to this effect for 24 hours. Success: loses Intellect and Sapience. Failure: loses of each. Critical Failure: loses of each and is stupefied 3 for 1 round. Intellect and Sapience each have a minimum of 0; at 0, the creature is unconscious and cannot act. These losses are ability deterioration, not damage, and persist after leaving the area until treated by a 10th-rank restoration effect or equivalent powerful magic. The same creature can be affected only once per round.
Pain in the Looking Glass
DC 48
Each creature that can perceive the echo attempts a Will save. Critical Success: sees through the illusion and is immune to Void Echo hallucinations for 1 round. Success: the illusion is vivid but harmless. Failure: the creature is struck by an apparent fey attacker, taking mental damage and slashing damage, with a basic Reflex save against to avoid the slashing damage. Critical Failure: as failure, and the creature is immobilized by the vision until the end of its next turn. These injuries are real; the apparent attacker vanishes immediately after striking.

Special rules

Environmental Echo.The environmental version is an ambient haunting tied to a site, usually a pool, mirror, or other reflective anchor. It cannot be carried away as a whole, and its anchor can shift among reflections in the area. A creature entering the haunted area or beginning its turn there is exposed to the routine.

Spellcast Echo.A spellcaster can create a spellcast version by binding a Void Echo into a reflective focus with a 10th-rank ritual or equivalent campaign-level magic. The focus becomes the anchor, and the effect travels with it. Its creator can choose a trigger phrase; hearing the phrase within 60 feet starts the hazard's routine. The spellcast version otherwise uses the same statistics and can be ended by removing or destroying the focus.

Deterioration and Recovery.At the GM's discretion, a victim whose Intellect or Sapience reaches 0 remains alive but is unconscious and unable to perceive or communicate. Restoring the lost scores does not erase memories or consequences accumulated during the exposure.

Spotting it

Discovery

A creature that studies a reflective surface in the area can attempt a Perception check to notice that its reflection is delayed and subtly wrong.

Perception

Stop it

Signs of dangerReflections blink or turn their heads when their owners do not. · A familiar voice speaks from a dry well, a polished blade, or a dark window. · Moths and small fey creatures avoid the area, while flowers grow with their faces turned toward reflective surfaces.

Countermeasures

A creature that closes its eyes or otherwise avoids seeing the echo has concealment against the hallucinations and gains a +2 circumstance bonus to saves against them, but is off-guard to hazards and creatures it cannot see.
DC 52A successful Occultism or Nature check as a 2-action activity identifies the current anchor and suppresses the next routine. On a critical success, the haunting is suppressed for 1 round.
Casting a 9th-rank or higher spell that protects against mental effects over the pool suppresses its routine while the protection remains, but does not end the hazard.
Removing the anchor from the affected area and keeping it beyond 100 feet for 1 minute ends the haunting. Destroying it also ends the hazard, though the anchor may be unusually durable.

In short

Break its anchor, interrupt its three-beat routine, or protect the mind with a ward against mental effects.

Its story

What it looks like

A still pool of black water reflects a moonless sky even beneath a bright roof.

Why it is here

To consume identity, preserve a fey memory, or punish those who violate a bargain tied to the site

Who made it

A nameless fey court, or the mortal spellcaster who tried to imitate one

Lore

Fey lore says a Void Echo is not a ghost, but the empty space left when a person bargains away their capacity for wonder.

Where it is found

Ruined fey crossings, abandoned theaters, moonlit pools, mirror-lined halls, and places where a fey bargain was broken.

Variants

The Kindly Masque shows victims as beautiful versions of themselves; its hallucinations deal mental damage instead of slashing damage, but successful saves against the hallucination still reveal a painful personal truth.

The Orchard of Unnames uses silver leaves as anchors. Each round it can shift its anchor to a tree within 60 feet, and cold iron weapons deal double damage to its anchor.

The Court's Encore repeats the final moments of a forgotten tragedy. Its first routine each encounter targets only creatures who speak, sing, or make a loud noise, but it can affect all exposed creatures on later rounds.

Plot hooks

A fey ambassador claims the echo contains the stolen memories of a missing heir, and demands the party retrieve them without destroying the anchor.

The haunting has begun appearing in polished armor across a besieged city, spreading as soldiers carry reflective trophies between camps.

A spellcaster deliberately created a controlled Void Echo to erase a dangerous secret, but the echo has started rewriting the caster's own memories.

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