Tying Into Modern Mythology: Siren Head for Shadowfinder/Starfinder (Patreon)

I moved!

Moving suck. It sucks more in August heat, while recovering from chemoradiation. There are boxes to unpack, missing things to replace, and the other hundred minor inconvenineces of relocation and home ownership. But the hard part's done, and I want to return to producing more regular content here.

So, let's get back to my growing bestiary of creatures for Starfinder and Shadowfinder, each with some design or conceptualization notes.

For these articles I created a type of twisted fey I have named the dislimned, which you can use in any Starfinder game, but I am specifically envisioning as foes in my Shadowfinder play mode for those game rules. The lower CR entries were built off a theme (messed-up fey forced to adapt to a poisoned urban landscape, and have done so in a disturbing and violent way), but that theme goes farther than just a few early-game threats. I want to tie my Signal Head and Light Head (all the dislimned, really) to modern urban mythology. Specifically, the Creepypasta Siren Head.

Now this isn't always a good idea. For one thing, you want to make sure you aren't belittling, stereotyping, or otherwise harming cultural touchstones by gamifying them and tying them to things you just made up in your head. (Or, at least, if you aren't an asshole you want to do that. Especially for cultures and life experiences outside of your own.) For another, when you tie anything of yours into something pre-existing, you risk creating a version your audience doesn't feel is "right." An easy example of this is people who feel vampires should be destroyed by sunlight. But that idea is nowhere to be found in Dracula novel, for example, where daylight fixes Dracula into a single form and seems to weaken or negate his powers, but does no actual harm to him.

I also have to note, when looking at modern mythology, you need to consider legal rights. Copyright is a thing, and fair use is not well understood by many creators. Among those who do understand it, it's lack of absolutes can be extremely worrisome if you have money and product tied up into it.

In the case of Siren Head, I'm not worried about people rejecting a specific version of it, because it's already presented lots of different ways. I've considered the rights issue, and am satisfied that I am doing my own take that is legally safe enough. (Others might disagree -- welcome to playing with anything not in public domain.)

The benefits to tying a monster or series of creatures into a broader mythology is a sense of connection to things your customer base is familiar with, and may enjoy interacting with or exploring the expansion of. If someone is a huge fan of zombie apocalypse stories, you may both get to use some shorthand to show your worldbuilding by using something close to those specific monsters, and grab their attention by letting them play in such a setting rather than just read or watch it as passive entertainment.

So, I specifically want to link the dislimned to Siren Head, making that Creepypasta concept a crucial link in a whole set of weird fey I'm largely designing for a modern urban fantasy setting (though with an eye on being able to use them in any Starfinder game).

(Art by Jacob Blackmon)

Siren Head

CR 9

XP 6,400

CE Gargantuan fey (chaotic)

Init +0; Senses blindsense (hearing) 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +17

Aura dislimning (DC 17)

DEFENSE

HP 145

EAC 21; KAC 25

Fort +11; Ref +11; Will +12

Defensive abilities immunity (deafness, fear, shaken); SR 20

OFFENSE

Speed 60 ft.

Melee slam +20 (2d10+15 B; critical knockdown)

Ranged siren's blast +17 (3d6+9 So; 60 ft. blast; critical deafen, demoralize)

Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.

Offensive abilities trample (DC 18, 2d10+15), siren wail

STATISTICS

Str +6; Dex +0; Con +2; Int +2; Wis +3; Cha +4

Skills Athletics +17, Intimidate +22

Languages Aklo

Special Abilities

Dislimning (Su): As the dislimned subtype power.

Siren’s Wail (Ex): Once a round as a free action a siren head can issue an undulating, otherworldly wail from its sirens. This allows it to make an Intimidate check to demoralize all creatures able to hear the loud siren (generally a range of 300 feet under normal conditions, generally half that for those with typical hard cover between themselves and the siren head). A siren head cannot use its siren’s wail and siren’s blast attack on the same round.

Description

Siren heads are among the most powerful and dangerous of the dislimned. They often control a territory of urban decay or true ruins, though some have been found in abandoned campgrounds and similar liminal woodland recreation areas. Lesser dislimned instinctive seek out and obey sire heads, and often work to the benefit of a siren head even if it means the weaker dislimned's destruction.

Sire heads are the oldest of all dislimned, and come into existence at times when air raid sirens are much more common than more advanced urban structures. It's been suggested on Earth that the first siren heads came into existence in Russia towards the end of the first world war, possibly shortly after the Shadoblast first encroached on Earth's Material Plane.

Siren heads generally show signs of significant wear, with both biological bones and rot mixing with chipped wood and peeling paint. Most siren heads seek a place far from active settlements, and slowly grow in power as more and more dislimned join them. Inevitably, however, eventually something sets of a siren head to go to war. This may be new urban settlements or repairs moving too close to its territory, or an astrological sign, or something as simple as a group of kids on bicycles coming near to it and there mere existence angering it.

The early stages of a siren head's war often involve sending lesser dislimned to destabilize a nearby settlement. Rather than outright attacks they use sabotage, kidnapping, and terror to make the settlement frightened and paranoid. If the settlement flees, the siren head, emboldened, claims a larger territory and sends its minions to work against settlements larger and farther away.

Usually, a siren head ends up attracting so much attention (though sometimes only after decades of haunting a given region) that it's minions are hunted down and destroyed by the champions of civilization, and the siren head itself is directly threatened. Once this happens, it goes on a violent rampage, smashing and shaking apart every sign of habitation it can until it is destroyed, or it finds itself the lone sapient entity on some isolated locations (such as an island, or an asteroid).

Support

I'm fighting cancer. It's expensive. Huge thanks to Tineke Bolleman, Michael Bramnik, Sasha Laranoa Harving, Jacob W. Michaels, Elizabeth V Nold, David Schwartz, Kendra Leigh Speedling, and Ruvaid Virk for donating their time and brilliance to create The Traveler's Guides to the Eye of Abendego, and donating its proceeds to help.

You can check it out here: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/492273/The-Travelers-Guides-to-the-Eye-of-Abendego

(Presented by Alphonse Lord Tabbington)