Bruja

A bruja looks like a miserable old crone: long, matted black hair, a knotted face, and skin from chalk white to ash gray with the hard texture of a shelf fungus. Warts and sores pock her flesh, rotten yellow teeth fill her mouth, and her milky, dull eyes seem blind. She wears a plain, undecorated peasant dress. Frail as she appears, she is very strong and quick. For all their frightening looks, bruja are sorrowful, kindly beings who do small good works against the evil that spreads through the misty dread realm.

Bruja have no language of their own but have picked up those of the peoples around them, and they speak freely with any wild animal living near their homes.

Every bruja has 18/00 Strength and innate magic resistance, and she can alter her appearance with change self whenever she likes, a power she uses to gather news and help travelers without revealing herself. She has 60-foot infravision and senses too keen to be surprised, and in forests her stealth gives opponents -3 on surprise rolls. As a tracker she is uncanny: 100% sure to find a trail up to 24 hours old, with the chance dropping 10% for each hour beyond that.

She prefers spells to brawling, but her talonlike nails deal 1d6 damage, with +3 to hit and +6 to damage from her Strength. Her at-will powers are know alignment, speak with animals, invisibility, invisibility to undead, pass without trace, bless, and change self. Each day she may also call on heal, sunray, remove curse, protection from evil, 10' radius, and dispel evil, once apiece.

Little is known of them. One tale says there are just three, who once made up a dark hag coven and were punished for prying into forbidden futures with a vision of their own horrible deaths. The curse split them up and slowly filled them with a mournful pity for mortal things. No one can confirm it.

Bruja live in small, isolated houses far from towns, kept company by 1d8 woodland and domestic animals totaling no more than 20 Hit Dice. Forest animals serve as spies, reporting who comes and goes in the area. A bruja tries to hide her nature, but she shares the arrogance of all hags and is used to animals that obey without question. Long contact with people tends to provoke a rash show of power that gives her away.

Bruja eat ravenously and messily. They relish raw meat, a leftover from their corrupt pasts, but have learned to enjoy forest nuts and berries. Occasionally they dine on intelligent creatures, though only those who have wronged them.