Crying Owl (3.5e Monster)

''The young woman was pale as snow with long white hair that spilled over most of her face, seeming to melt into a long white furneral gown. A single bloodshot red eye peers through the hair staring hateful daggers into your soul.''

The assassin known as Crying Owl is a unique outsider whose origins are shrouded in mystery. Some claim she was once a mortal assassin whose effectiveness and heartlessness was so complete that in death she formed an avatar of murder itself. Others place blame on her weapon, saying the cursed artifact transformed whoever she used to be in her current form. And a few claim she is a nightmare made flesh, that she isn't real if not for the collective fears of humanity manifesting. Whatever the case, Crying Owl is certainly deadly. She appears as a albino humanoid with long white hair and a white furneral gown. The only bit of color comes from her eyes, which are often bloodshot or actively leaking blood, and from her blackened knife Sever. She is incorporeal and clearly resembles some kind of ghost or undead, but isn't. She uses the resemblence to confuse and sow fear in her enemies, and the haunting behavior is amplified given her control over reality nearby herself.

Crying Owl seems to have some manner of spiritual connection to owls. Her callsign for her murders often leave white owl feathers in the area, and her targets are often hunted down by strangely behaving owls.

Crying Owl speaks Abyssal, Auran, Elven, Gnome, Infernal, Sylven, and Undercommon. She speaks in a voice which sounds like a raspy whisper, no matter the distance.

Combat
Crying Owl does not typically fight directly, stalking her enemies for a long time and setting up traps and ambush points, wearing them down with encounters, and other tactics to soften up her targets, or torment them. If given the opportunity, she stretches out the suffering of her victims with mechanical efficiency yet does not appear to gain any particular pleasure from it. It is instead a single focused mania without explaination.

In battle she ambushes from the shadows and typically has at least one flanking buddy or other means to gain sneak attack. She aims to disable healing first so her weeping wound damage builds up. If she cannot hit their AC, she employs her wither touch. She often uses her appearance to confuse others into thinking she is undead.

Aura of Deadly Fear :  A terrifying aura surrounds Crying Owl when she fights or becomes aggressive. Any hostile creature within a 20 foot radius of Crying Owl must succeed on a DC 28 Will save or become frightened for 1 minute, and shaken for 1 hour afterward. A successful save merely renders the target shaken for 1 round instead, and renders them immune to Crying Owl's aura for 24 hours. Frightened creatures with 8 HD or less inside the aura must make a Fortitude save or die from fright. The save DC is Charisma based and is a mind-effecting fear effect (and death effect for the latter half).

Corruption Miasma :  Crying Owl's presence warps the terrain around her into a terrifying hellscape often with the appearances of bleeding flesh and rusted metal and blades. Everything within 1000 ft takes on a disturbing appearance and acts as difficult terrain littered with caltrops, and all creatures take a -2 penalty on saves against fear. This terrain does not inhibit Crying Owl herself. She can suppress or alter how far this aura spreads as a free action on her turn.

Death Attack : Crying Owl has the death attack of an assassin, but the saving throw is 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier (DC 28).

Death Curse :  If Crying Owl dies, she can cast greater bestow curse as a free action to all creatures within 60 ft, DC 28 Will save negates. The save DC is Charisma based.

Hide in Plain Sight : Crying Owl can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, she can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.

Hinder : Crying Owl takes half damage from piercing and slashing weapons.

Immunities : Crying Owl is immune to ability damage, ability drain, death effects, disease, energy drain, mind-affecting effects, sickened, nauseated, petrification, poison, polymorph, and stunning. She is also immune to cold damage.

Improved Evasion : Crying Owl takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save.

Owl Bond :  Crying Owls has a special connection with owls. All owls within 1 mile are under Crying Owl's direct control (as dominate animal) with no save. Familiars, unusual creatures, and owl-like magical beasts (such as the giant owl) get a DC 20 Will save to resist, save negates and renders them immune for 24 hours. Crying Owl can focus her attentions on any owl under her control as a move action and gain complete sensory knowledge from it. She often does this as spies to observe a target she is hunting.

Return Pain :  Crying Owl is able to reflect some of her wounds back onto others through empathic projections. Once a round as a free action, she can deal half the damage she took from one attack back on her attacker. The damage is untyped, but is a mind-effecting affect with unlimited range.

Selectively Incorporeal :  Crying Owl is incorporeal, but is able to interact with the world. In effect all weapons and armor she uses is automatically ghost touch. As a result, she also has a grapple score. For any purposes which require Strength. she instead uses Charisma.

Like an incorporeal being, she gains her Charisma modifier as a deflection bonus to her AC.

Shuddering :  Crying Owl is never quite within normal reality, flickering in and out inconsistantly. As a result she seems to teleport or "shudder" around when moving. She never provokes attacks of opportunity for movement.

Spell-Like Abilities :  At will-false life, invisibility (self only), true seeing (self only), shadow walk, speak with animals (birds only), speak with dead; 3/day-ethereal jaunt, fear, vampiric touch; 1/day- fabricate, greater dispel magic, nightmare. The saving throws are Charisma based.

Summon :  Once per day Crying Owl can attempt to summon 1d4+1 allips, 1d4+1 greater shadows, 1d4+1 invisible stalkers, or 1d4+1 kytons (chain devils) with a 50% chance of success. The creatures serve her for 1 hour. This ability is the equivalent of a 8th level spell.

Weeping Wounds :  Any attacks Crying Owl makes with a slashing or piercing weapon leaves horrible gaping wounds which bleed constantly. She deals 1 bleed damage every time she hits, taken at the beginning of the creature's turn. Bleed damage is cumilative and never heals naturally. A Heal check as a standard action (DC 30) or the application of a heal spell or greater is needed to stop the bleeding. Bleed damage is multiplied on a critical hit.

Wither Touch :  Crying Owl has an incorporeal touch attack she can make as an attack action, dealing damage (plus Dex modifier due to Improved Weapon Finesse). This is untyped damage, not negative energy, resulting from the target rapidly decaying, corroding, or wearing away as if from age.

Vampiric Drain :  Half the damage Crying Owl deals is recovered as healing.

Vital Sight :  Crying Owl can see the life signs of any creature with a Con score, even through walls and doors. She can see their vital signs up to 30 feet of material and through darkness or fogs. It is difficult for most creatures to hide if she is within 30 feet.

Sever
Crying Owl possesses an ebony black blade named Sever, an unusually large dagger by any means bordering on short sword, and one often caked in blood. Mechanically it is a +5 coup de grace adamantine kukri which is piercing or slashing. On a critical hit, the damage it deals is vile damage. Sever is a cursed major artifact connected with the existance of Crying Owl herself (or vice versa). If Crying Owl dies, she will respawn in a random location in 1d10 days as long as Sever exists (Sever vanishes and teleports to the new location when she respawns). There are two ways to prevent her respawning. If a creature uses Sever to kill their own mother, and leaves the weapon inside the body, Crying Owl will not respawn. Otherwise, the weapon is rumored to be able to be destroyed by a lesser deity or higher of murder. Naturally most murder deities have no interest in doing so.

Called by Gate
Crying Owl can be summoned by the gate spell, though she is a unique being and so the caster has no control over her other than by bartering. When called, she will accept any job which involves the murder of the caster's family members for free. Otherwise, she charges 25,000 gp for every target the caster wants dead, or the sacrifice of a family member as payment in place of gold. She ignores requests which do not involve either torture, killing, or stalking of a target. There is one exception; she will not accept the targeted killing of a daughter and asking such usually drives her to slay her summoner instead.