#nucklavee

Nucklavee

It loathes all tastes but two: spells and flesh.

Nucklavee

It loathes all tastes but two: spells and flesh.

Drawing inspiration from (And even being used by the pathfinder incarnation of) the titular character of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann”, today we look at the mute musician!

A mute musician is a victim of a traumatic experience, having glimpsed beyond the veil of reality and reason to witness the truly alien. Though scarred physically and mentally, they came back with something, knowledge of the alien melodies of those strange places, which they can now replicate through their instruments.

These musical works are full of the strange alien power of those places, defying classification and physics, giving them uncanny power over the unknown, but also imposing their own limitations.

 Either due to physical injury or a psychosomatic one (possibly self-inflicted), all of these bards are mute, unable to communicate except with writing, sign language, or direct mental telepathy if they acquire it. As such, this leaves them limited in how they can use certain language-dependant spells, and they are limited to instrument-based performances. To compensate, they learn to do without inexpensive material components since their hands are occupied by their instruments.

The first new performance they learn dampens all other sounds, making the language and sonic spells of their foes all the weaker due to its interference.

With another, they can warp the minds of foes, making them behave erratically.

Just like Erich Zann in the climax of the story not even death can stop them from playing as long as they have performance left in them, the music seeming to possess their bodies. This allows their magical music to continue when they would otherwise be incapable of doing so, regardless of whether it is death or merely a negative condition. Only severe damage or the utter destruction of their body can prevent such a performance as long as they have reserves left.

The most powerful among them can learn a performance to bring about a cosmic conjunction, opening a gate to another location on the same plane, though it can be anywhere, even the void of space light years away, or a distant planet.

In addition to this, these bards also learn many other secrets of distorting space, learning plenty of summoning, calling, and teleportation spells normally beyond their craft.

The trauma of their experiences has hurt these musicians, but also numbed them to the horrors of the beyond, making them less likely to succumb to mental effects.

Not even the limitation of audibility can keep a determined mute musician from making their performance heard. With a little extra effort, they can imbue their performance with an unnatural quality, blurring the line between sound, light, and purely mental transmission, their performance piercing solid matter, magical silence, and even empty voids.

If you’re interested in a conjuring bard whose eerie performances are guaranteed to keep going despite their foes efforts to silence them by various means, this archetype might be what you’re looking for. Keep in mind that they’re mostly locked out of a lot of bardic staples due to their inability to speak, however. I recommend a support build that adds a bunch of summoning spells to their arsenal for additional support, and maybe even makes bargains with eldritch beings for more allies and power.

 Being mute, it can often be hard to articulate with other characters unless special considerations being made, such as a character deliberately learning sign language, casting comprehend languages, or finding some other way to communicate. Then again, the difficulty can be part of the fun. Additionally, it goes without saying that these characters may not be fully stable, prone eerie or erratic behavior because of their trauma. Just remember to portray mental illness tactfully and respectfully.

 The haunted principality of Mordev is ruled by the vampire king Giervan, whom holds court with his many vampiric children, including one dhampir son. Giervan Jr. spends most of his time alone, never speaking, but his flute plays such haunting melodies, taught to him by the strange whispers from the towers he frequents.

 A grim parody of the real Wild Hunt, a band of nucklavee periodically raid the nearby mortal lands from their portal to an otherworldly fey holding. Stopping the raids means unlocking and entering the portal, and the only way to do so is with the aid of the maddening music of that realm, which wreaks havoc on mortal minds to learn.

Topi’s Daily Card #1193:  Nucklavee