Putrid vermin scampered through the ruins, their forms deteriorated as the long-abandoned homes they streamed through. Exposed ribs, pus-leaking gaps where eyes once resided, and worse injuries were suffered by the horde of rats, but they still crawled and capered to the tune of the haunting melody leaking through the city. The source of the dour, piping song was a haggard man who sat upon a wall that had been reduced to rubble, his captive audience squeaking and swaying in time. The favored members of the congregation crawled into and through his vacant guts, nestling among filthy rags and rotted organs. As the last of the crowd filtered in, the piper paused his masterful playing and thin lips pulled into a cruel smile as he regarded his legion of plague bearers.
I have been sitting on this concept for almost two years (I think I first discussed it with somebody back in August of 2020 or so), waiting until I had art for it. Thankfully, Sethmonster provided a magnificent piece to accompany the plague piper and I can finally post it! Obviously, this creature was inspired by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, but with an undead twist. In the initial conceptualization of this monster, it was able to summon a swarm of undead, disease-ridden rats but doing would've required building a new stat block or the modification of an existing one. It seemed a lot of work without much payoff, and I ended up skipping the idea and instead transferred the concept into its plague swarm aura. As somebody that prefers to stay at range, the plague swarm is meant to discourage players from getting up close but can be suppressed by area damage, which seems appropriate given that it's a swarm.
A spellcaster-type creature, I wanted a focus of bard and music-based spells in concert with spells that had more of a undead, fear-based theme. Among those, I sprinkled a buffing spell that it's main means of buffing its allies is through its bardic performance, which thanks to its undead performer quality is able to affect its typically undead coterie. While these abilities make it a capable and buffer and battlefield manipulator alongside other undead companions, its main ability is its infectious melody. Probably the most unique part of its kit, this is the plague piper's bread and butter, especially when emplaced with other virulent foes. Effects that allies wouldn't otherwise have to fear are suddenly much more prevalent as he plays his tune, forcing the heroes to make a choice between ending these disease-inflicting foes or take out the piper before he can further affect them.
Pathfinder 1e:
Specifically for this version of the creature, I was actually able to test it in the Battlegrounds! It . . . didn't fare well. I placed it with a gang of disease-carrying creatures to test out how it would normally be ran, and it would be wiped out within 2-4 rounds. It was a pretty faithful translation of the 1e version at the time, but after some testing I made several changes. Feed on Pestilence offers the plague piper some increased survivability after its health was halved by a single spell while Plagued Procession was added to give its allies a chance to get into position to defend the piper. Aside from body blocking, it works well with zombies who are otherwise slowed 1 and need that help to get in the thick of it. Another big change was adding a penalty on saves against diseases for creatures within its Plague Swarm to further discourage characters from mixing it up in melee with the monstrous musician. I specifically set it as a status penalty so that it doesn't stack with the status penalty inflected by a critical failure against its Infectious Melody. I added a few spells, which stuck with the same themes while being modified for 2e, but the final change I made was giving it a way to inflict Zombie Rot with its jaws Strike.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Pestilent Pipes: After a great travesty has swept through the land, a necromancer uses the influx of corpses to amass an undead army to march on the still recovering people. He has summoned plague pipers to serve as fife and drum corps for his legions, coordinating their movements. As the heroes are called upon to route the threat, they must disable communication between the undead forces by taking out the pipers leading their various squads. Fighting head-on will swiftly result in them being overrun due to the armies, requiring them to eliminate their foes and then retreat before they are swarmed.
Still Just a Rat in a Ribcage: When a musical ratcatcher solves the problem a town is suffering from but they refuse to pay, he responds by using his magical music to steal the town's children until they pay up. The town reaches out to altruistic, or simply cheaper, heroes to sic on the piper who is nearly killed by the party. Managing to slink away but too weak to defend himself, he is attacked by rats that feast upon him. The circumstances of his death cause him to return as a plague piper who returns to the town with an army of pestilent pests that he uses to try to remove the town. He lurks beneath the surface of the town, skulking through sewers while manipulating his horde to infect the populace who once more turn to heroes for help dealing with the undead rat menace.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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