Midnight Cat

At a glance a midnight cat is just a handsome house cat with soft, inky fur. The eyes give it away: luminous yellow-green, pupilless, and shining from within even in the blackest cellar. It knows a crude version of the common tongue but speaks it mostly to pronounce curses, and it can chat freely with ordinary cats, though it cannot command them.

It sees clearly in anything short of total darkness like that of the darkness spell. Foes suffer -3 on surprise rolls against it, and it is surprised only on a 1 on 1d10. It moves silently 99% of the time, hides in shadows 85%, climbs at half its movement rate with no roll, jumps 10 feet from a standstill, and 20 feet with a run. Both forepaws strike for 1d2; if both hit, the hind claws rake automatically for 1d2 each.

Curses are its real weapon, and it is touchy. A minor slight earns an embarrassing or frustrating curse, a real annoyance a troublesome one. Dangerous or deadly curses come only when the cat is in grave danger, below 5 hit points. It can lift embarrassing, frustrating, or troublesome curses at will, but rarely without payment, usually some evil deed done for it.

It feeds on spirits, which works only on a sleeper and so seldom matters in a fight. It settles on the sleeper's chest, mouth close to the lips, and draws a quick breath. On a failed save vs. breath weapon, a thread of vapor drifts from the sleeper into the cat. Until the victim dies or the cat is killed, the victim cannot heal old or new wounds by any means, cannot be cured of disease, and cannot cast spells or turn undead.

These brooding, pampered cats are usually found with evil spellcasters. People seek them to remove curses and fear them for laying the same. A midnight cat hunts only when forced, preferring a 'master' to wait on it, nearly always a caster. It can sense a find familiar spell being cast and slip itself in as the answer.

The breed was first recorded in a fey-haunted border domain of the misty dread realm and is thought to be a dark offshoot of the elven cat.