In this month of spooks and black cats, I though I’d craft an homage to a little known character from the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. The wicked cat lady-queen of Gondor herself, Queen Berúthiel.
“She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor,… setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.” Her eventual fate was to be set adrift in a boat with her cats: “The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.” It is also told that “her name was erased from the Book of the Kings (‘but the memory of men is not wholly shut in books, and the cats of Queen Beruthiel never passed wholly out of men’s speech’).”
—[Unfinished Tales, pp 401-402]
Halloween 2022- 3/4
Angry Queen’s Crown
Descriptors: Compulsion, Divination, Evil, Variant
Class: Eclipse, Lunar, Radiant, Vizier
Slot: Chest, Head, Headband
Save: Will (see text)
It is known that a certain queen loathed cats with an abiding hatred. Curiously, through this hate cats were drawn to her. Nine black and one white cat would become her thralls. With the white cat being her spymaster and lieutenant.
This veil is a variant of the Black Hat of the Witch veil and cannot be shaped alongside it. Shaping this veil grants you an black and silver crown that allows you to summon a white cat under your control. When shaped to your Chest slot this veil’s manifestation grows to include a black and silver robe.
This white cat functions as a cat familiar, using your veilweaving level as your effective wizard level when determining its abilities. Unlike a normal cat familiar, this white cat gains Darkvision 60 feet and it grants you a +1 insight bonus to Perception instead of its normal granted bonus to Stealth. The familiar created by this veil always has the animal exemplar familiar archetype, and you can not give it other familiar archetypes. Summoning the white cat takes a standard action and causes it to appear in your space, and dismissing it requires a standard action and for the cat to be within your reach.
While the white cat is dismissed it regains hit points at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes. You only gain the benefits of the familiar while it is conjured. If the white cat familiar is slain, it disappears into the veil. After 1 hour it is restored to life at 1 hit point and can be summoned again.
The white cat can be dispelled as if it were this veil, suppressing or unshaping the veil if the one who attempted to dispel it is successful (as per the normal rules for dispelling a veil). If the white cat enters an antimagic field or similar effect, it is immediately dismissed and cannot be resummoned for 1d4 rounds. If this veil is suppressed or unshaped, the white cat is also dismissed.
Essence: Essence invested in this veil is bound to it. As long as at least 1 point of essence is bound to this veil any cat or feline creature(lions, tigers, sea cats, ect) at the GMs discretion with an Intelligence score of 3 or less, that sees you must make a Will saving throw or be being to follow you as if it was under the effects of reckless infatuation until you unshape this veil or an affected cat makes a successful subsequent save against the effect. A cat can only be affected by this effect once per day.
For each point of essence bound to this veil after the first, you gain +1 insight bonus to Perception checks while adjacent to your white cat familiar, and it gains a +1 insight bonus to its Stealth and Handle Animal checks.
Chakra Bind (Head) Binding this veil to your Head chakra grants your cat familiar the ability to dominate the will of another cat, binding them to your own desires. As a standard action, your white cat can make a ranged touch attack against a cat it can see within close range (25 ft. + 5 ft. per veilweaver level) to ensorcel it to your will. A targeted cat must succeed on a Will saving throw or it’s fur will turn jet black and it is treated as if your familiar had cast dominate animal on it. Cats under this effect are immune to this veil’s reckless infatuation effect, can understand, but not speak any languages known to you. This effect lasts until this veil is unshaped.
For each point of essence bound to this veil your white can familiar can dominate the will of an additional cat.
Chakra Bind (Headband) In addition to the effects of your Head chakra, binding this veil to your Headband chakra enhances the ability of your cats to gain information. Your white cat familiar, and cats that have been ensorcelled and blacked by it, gain the ability to cast detect mind probe as an at-will spell like ability, with a range of 10 ft.
Chakra Bind (Chest) Binding this veil to your Chest chakra grants the effects of binding this veil to your Headband chakra and while your white cat familiar is adjacent you can conjure a ship to transport you. You can spend 1 hour to cause a ship to appear in a body of water you can see that is large enough to support it. This ship has the statistics of a junk and has a mast head carved and painted into the form of a white cat. Unlike most veil effects, this ship remains in existence permanently, even if this veil is sundered, suppressed, or otherwise unshaped, until you spend 1 hour returning the ship to the veil; this action can only be taken while this veil is shaped. You cannot have more than one such ship manifested at a time.
As long as this veil is shaped and the ship is manifested, the ship is treated as being crewed as if by the effects of the spell unseen crew using your veilweaving modifier and veilweaver level to determine the HP and Profession (Sailor) bonus of the unseen crew. However, instead of being invisible and formless the unseen crew take the form of house cats, this does not otherwise alter their statistics. Additionally, while aboard your ship your white cat familiar is treated as having a bonus to Profession (Sailor) equal to your veilweaving modifier + your veilweaver level + 1 for each point of essence bound to this veil. It can make Profession (Sailor) checks to sail/drive your ship and does so via supernatural means. If your ship is ever destroyed before it can be recovered into your veil, you take 10 points of Constitution drain; this drain cannot be cured in any way until you manifest a new ship and spend at least 1 hour aboard it, at which point the drain is cured.
James Ray 