Poisoned Shadows - Bestiary

Villain

TN: 30
Brawn: 2
Finesse: 6
Resolve: 3
Wits: 2
Panache: 2
Attack Roll: 10k4 Knife
Damage: 3k2 Knife (plus bonuses from Feadail school)
Knacks: Ambush 4, Attack (Knife) 4, Dancing 5, Exploit Weakness (Feadail) 5, Leaping 4, Lunge (Knife) 5, Riposte (Knife) 5, Rolling 5, Singing 4

Description: Muryan are small Unseelie Sidhe, seldom more than three feet in height, though they have the proportions of regular men, with the finely muscled limbs of an athlete. They tend to go bare chested (whether favoring the male or female form), clad only in kilts and capes in an unknown black and grey tartan. Their hair is invariably long and wild, coiling about their heads almost like serpents.

Violent and aggressive, muryan are known both for the bloodthirsty, berserk rages that overtake them in battle, and the smooth grace of their movements, both in and out of combat. Most muryan carry a single dagger tucked into their kilts, but a few carry two, and wield them both in combat. These blades whistle through the air as a muryan whirls through combat, relying on complex dance steps to keep him out of his opponent’s reach, and continuously whistling or chanting in macabre harmony to his shrieking blades.

It is not unheard of for a band of muryan to join the Unseelie Host for an occasional hunt. When this happens, the muryan generally run alongside the hellhounds that lead the Host’s grim charge.

Special Abilities: All muryan are Masters of the Feadail fighting style, and make full use of its techniques in combat, courtesy of their small size. Their stature also gives them a Free Raise to Stealth and Shadowing rolls. When not in human form, muryan enjoy taking the shape of colonial insects like ants, or occasionally bees. They can do this at will, though they genuinely seem to prefer their humanoid form.

In addition to the formidable abilities of the Feadail style, muryan seem to grow stronger as combats drag onward, even as their opponents suffer from weary limbs and sapped wills. Whenever a muryan inflicts more than one Dramatic Wound with a single attack, he reduces the opponent’s Panache by one until the end of the Scene. Whenever a muryan does this, he gains a Rank of Panache for the rest of the Scene. An opponent’s Panache can never be reduced below 1, nor can any muryan raise his above 6. Enemies of the muryan have dubbed this the “dance of despair.”