Hollowveil Seer
- Npc
- undead
- CR 4
- Forest
- Swamp
- Urban
Appears in: Undead, Forest, Cults and Rituals, Urban Intrigue, Social and Negotiation
Hollowveil Seer
AC 13 / HP 45 (10d8) / CR 4
- STR
- 8
- DEX
- 14
- CON
- 10
- INT
- 18
- WIS
- 16
- CHA
- 15
Read Intent. The seer knows when a creature within 30 feet is lying. Deception checks made against the seer automatically fail.
Shadow Step. As a reaction when targeted by a melee attack, the seer teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space in dim light or darkness it can see. The attack misses.
Incorporeal Passage. The seer can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Cold Grasp. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) necrotic damage.
Memory Tax. The seer targets one creature within 30 feet that it can see. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or take 11 (2d10) psychic damage and forget one specific detail of the GM's choice (a name, a route, a recent conversation). The memory returns after a long rest unless the target broke a promise to the seer, in which case the loss is permanent until removed by a remove curse spell or similar magic.
Oracle's Bargain. The seer offers a truthful answer to one question in exchange for a meaningful memory. A willing creature that accepts takes 5 (1d10) psychic damage and permanently forgets one significant personal memory. The answer is always true and specific. A creature cannot be forced to accept this bargain.
How to run Hollowveil Seer
Hollowveil Seer is a cr 4 undead for Dungeons & Dragons. Drop it into any forest scene; the statblock above is free to add to your compendium in the app, and the one-shot below gives you somewhere to run it.
Where it begins
- 1
A merchant stumbled into town unable to remember his own name, clutching a scrap of parchment with a date three days from now and nothing else.
- 2
A noblewoman's mirror shows her a hooded figure standing behind her each night, but no one else can see it.
- 3
Travelers at a crossroads shrine report finding answers to questions they never asked, scratched into the stone in their own handwriting.
The Price of Knowing
The party seeks a prophetic oracle at a crossroads shrine, but the seer's truths come at a steep cost. They must negotiate what they are willing to forget in exchange for the answer they need.
The Crossroads Shrine
The path splits at a cairn of black stone. Candle stubs and small offerings litter the base, some fresh, some years old. A figure sits cross-legged behind the cairn, hooded and still. The skin of its face is cracked like old plaster, and one pale eye watches you from the shadow of its cowl.
The Hollowveil Seer does not speak first. It waits for someone to ask a question or make an offering. If the party approaches with hostility, the seer does not fight; it simply fades into the cairn's shadow and reappears behind them. Locals know the seer and leave it alone. A nearby woodcutter can explain the rules: ask one question, offer one memory, and never lie about what you give.
