Deceiver Genie [Tasked]

Deceiver genies are djinn warped into lives of trickery, serving noble djinn and the mightiest jann, sworn to hide the world's true face. Their real shape is hard to pin down; reports describe lanky, gaunt figures with spindly limbs, oversized heads, hands and feet, long fingers, blond hair, mottled gray skin and one brown eye and one blue.

Cowards at heart, they are always displaced, so the first attack against one automatically misses; anyone who sees through it faces their true AC 4. At will they use misdirection, tongues, whispering wind, undetectable lie, false vision, delude and change self. Twice daily: spectral force, shadow magic, massmorph and distance distortion. Once daily: sundazzle, solipsism, projected image and disbelief. Weekly: veil, a programmed or permanent illusion, or a mass suggestion affecting creatures totaling 24 HD or levels. Their illusions count as 24th level for dispel magic, duration and area, but they save at -1 against illusion/phantasm magic, caught in their own game.

They love sending victims onto illusory bridges or after mirage oases, setting people arguing over trifles and unnerving guards with eerie messages, and they will skip food, sleep and treasure for a truly cruel prank. They dislike impersonation, since lingering close to anyone for long makes them uneasy, and do it only when a bigger scheme demands. Cornered, they fight with hysterical strength: a natural 20 tears out an eye with steel nails, or both eyes if 20 is exactly 1 more than needed, and the victim must make a system shock roll or faint for 1d6 turns. One eye lost means -2 to attack, both means -4 with blind-fighting rules. Usually they summon spectral minions, reinforced with real ones of the same type for maximum confusion.

Most serve other genies, but some build hidden villages together in remote places. They almost never tell the truth, even when charmed. Left idle, they spin lies that push their masters toward disaster, since they see the world as a toy for their amusement. Wealth bores them, but they adore the arts as an elegant form of lying and never harm storytellers or artist genies, though they may confuse them. A binder must watch their effect on retainers and loved ones, because a deceiver's code of loyalty covers the master alone, not his household.

Like humans, deceivers need food, drink and sleep.