Chaneque

Chaneque

(Creature)

Type

Fey
(mythic)

CR

1 / MR 1

Environment

Any forests

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 4, pg(s). 28

Chaneques are a kind of powerful fey that can harvest the heads of other fey creature to create skull bombs capable of stealing a mortal soul.

Appearance

Chaneques look like a cross between a pixie and a bat, with a bat-like face filled with a toothy maw. They also possess oversized claws with flesh-rending talons. Between their bodies and their arms stretch a sort of vestigial wing that allows them to glide between trees, though it is not large enough to allow true flight. Chaneques normally stand around three feet in height and have blackish red fur atop their rubbery skin.

Habitat and ecology

Chaneques dwell in the depths of primeval forests. As nocturnal creatures, they most often live in the highest reaches of dead, rotten trees, where they hide during the day. They emerge at night to hunt their favoured prey, either mortals whose souls they can steal or other small fey like brownies, pixies, and sprites. Despite not being able to fly, chaneques glide through the night canopy with ease. As ambush predators, they delight in stalking their prey unseen waiting for the perfect moment to strike, startling their victims before moving in for the kill. After they kill fey victims, a group of chaneques, called a gang, strip the flesh from their victims' skulls and use these skulls in a unique magical ritual. These skulls are stewed in a mix of fairy brains, a special type of black mushroom, and a unique nectar the chaneques gradually secrete, to create their potent soul-stealing skull bombs. These bombs can steal the soul of those they hit, temporarily wrench the soul from the body, and make the body that remains highly susceptible to being controlled by the chaneque. Chaneques often leave the victims of their soul stealing to wander their forest homes as vacant shells until they are either devoured by predators or their body starves to death.

On Golarion

Chaneques live in the depths of some of the oldest forests within the Arcadian nation of Xopatl.