Hebi-No-Onna

A hebi-no-onna, or snake woman, has the body of a strikingly beautiful woman with the dark hair, refined eyes and delicate bones typical of eastern lands, but writhing serpents in place of arms. She usually wears an exquisite kimono whose deep sleeves conceal those arms, and she covers herself in jewelry, especially pieces set with fine gems. She speaks the common tongues of several eastern realms and every reptilian language.

She prefers to soften foes with spells and her hypnotic gaze before closing in. She casts as a 14th-level enchanter, with that specialist's modified saves and bonus spells, needing no material components but requiring free speech and gestures. Her favorites, roughly from weakest to strongest, are friends, charm person, hold person, ray of enfeeblement, suggestion, confusion, charm monster, minor globe of invulnerability, domination, chaos, hold monster, feeblemind, geas, teleport without error and globe of invulnerability. Typically she wraps herself in protective magic, then paralyzes or dominates enemies, hoping to take prisoners she can later make into servants or slaves.

Her gaze duplicates hypnotism, the 1st-level wizard spell, but wary or hostile targets gain no save bonus. When she uses it her eyes become yellow, slit-pupiled snake eyes, and she cannot cast or fight that round. Those who know of the power have a 50% chance to avoid her eyes; others cannot.

Her own bite does 1 point and carries nightmare wine, as the wandering fortune-tellers call it: a save vs. poison or 1d10+2 rounds of vivid, horrifying hallucinations, during which the victim can do nothing but scream and thrash as his worst fears play out. After three bites the venom is spent for 24 hours, though the bite still does damage. Both snake arms can strike each round. To build them, roll 1d8 four times on the snake-arm table to set the snake type, bite damage, poison type and poison potency; the potency result adjusts the target's save vs. poison.

She is immune to all poisons and venoms, to the gaze attacks of reptiles (other snake women included) and to the ESP of dark nagas. Every normal and giant snake that can hear her spoken commands obeys her without magic, even unto death, so 5d8 snakes, many venomous, always occupy her lair.

She never lets anyone outside her control get close. Foes must hack past her guards while she works spells or gazes from within her globe of invulnerability. If truly threatened she uses teleport without error to escape, though pride usually keeps her in the fight until she is badly hurt.

Snake women live in great cavern systems, deserted temples, crumbling ruins or private compounds behind high walls, and they love building secret cults around themselves. Cultists treat her as a goddess and do evil in her name: robbing to fund the temple, stealing fine clothes and jewels for her, kidnapping sacrifices, and defiling shrines of good gods. Anyone who uncovers the cult must join or die.

Most of her spells go to dominating her strongest servants, who are posted to best effect as guards; 2d10 dominated human and demihuman slaves usually serve in the lair and fight until slain or until she dies. Fanatical cultists, usually 0-level and sometimes higher-level adventurers, round out her forces. Many are brainwashed into thinking she is divine; others are simply wicked people glad to serve her. She sometimes allies with dark or spirit nagas and keeps feathered serpents as favored servants. Partnerships with nagas always become power struggles that end with one side leaving or dying, though until then they may jointly rule whole villages. Nagas and feathered serpents both love building traps, so a trap-filled lair hints that one or the other is present.

Snake women are vain and hungry for beauty. They demand the finest art, jewelry and kimonos, and minions serve as body servants who dress and bathe them and see to their hair, makeup and perfume. Even a cavern lair has sumptuous private rooms and several mirrors. They favor faceted rubies, diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, plus fine jade and colored pearls, set in gold or platinum, and sometimes take to lovely ivory or coral work. Money as such bores them; coins, trade goods and ugly treasures go to fund the cult. Utterly selfish, they believe their strength and intellect give them the right to rule, refuse to serve anyone, and would rather die than be captured.

There are no males. To breed, a snake woman takes a human, elven or half-elven mate, choosing for intelligence, will, health and looks. Such a man usually resists, so she captures him and breaks him over several weeks; when he has served his purpose he is sacrificed at a grand cult ceremony. Because suitable mates are scarce, she often lures adventurers into her cult's traps, takes the most promising man as her mate, and conditions the rest into guards or slaves.

Her child is always another hebi-no-onna, as helpless as a human infant until maturity at about 12, although its snake arms bite for 1-4 and can cause severe nausea (save at +3 to avoid). Once grown, it gains its powers and is urged to find a lair far from its mother; only rarely, when the mother's health is failing, does a daughter stay to take her place.

Their spellbooks hold versions of normal spells that need no material components. A caster who spends one month per spell level studying one can then cast it without components.