Kuannei is intended to be a villain (recurring or otherwise) in a campaign or story arc that ends with either her purification and salvation, or her destruction and assured repetition of the cycle. As one of the “Scourges” of Eden, a campaign or story arc with Kuannei begins with a Catalyst, then a series of Omens, before reaching an Apotheosis and then a Finale. The PCs can prevent the appearance of a Scourge by stopping its Apotheosis moment (if the DM even allows them to), but this will merely ensure that the cycle is repeated sometime in the future. In order to truly defeat a Scourge, certain things must be accomplished that will be mentioned.

•A Scourge is inexorably tied to Eden, and thus, a greater spirit power cannot damage or otherwise incapacitate, delay or stop a Scourge. No creature of deific power can deal with a Scourge – only mortals or minor spirits can.

•A Scourge cannot be damaged, incapacitated or stopped by a creature above or below its tier of play. Only powerful, specific fates can bring an end to a Scourge, and those too weak or that have destinies beyond it can only watch those who are destined.

•All Scourges have two means of defeating them. A straight combat that brings the Scourge’s HP to 0, or stopping its Apotheosis, will defeat the Scourge, but not forever. If the PCs uncover a means to truly defeat the scourge, they gain the Scourge Advantage against their enemy. If they truly defeat it, the Scourge will be gone for good.

Catalysts

These are some ideas of events that could trigger Kuannei’s splitting from the cycle, and a return of her body and mind to her. What these have in common is that they are adventures that appear at first unrelated to Kuannei. The PCs will challenge a villain who, if he fails, subtly and unwittingly triggers the appearance of the Scourge.

•A cleric of Kaehma attempts a ritual to induce eternal sloth upon a large city. The ritual is interrupted by the PCs and backfires terribly. When the PCs have defeated the cleric, little do they know the events set into motion…

•A group of mind flayers discover an aberrant artifact weapon in a great temple, that may be used to damage the Sun and empower the Voids. Instead, it tears an ancient spirit apart from the cycle she began untold centuries ago…

•A mage captures a Hoitoki spirit and coerces it into granting a deadly wish – giving the mage control of the sky, so that he may hold the entire world ransom, giving rain or sun when he wishes, so that all may pay tribute to him. But Hoitoki’s wishes are rarely perfect, and when the evil mage falls, something must rise to take his place in the runaway wish…

•A lesser spirit power, jealous of the greater spirits, attempts to gain worship through ascendance to a higher power. It collects ignorant worshippers from all over the world in an attempt to have them fuel a mass chant that would help it ascend. Unfortunately, such ancient rites rarely produce the proper result, and this spirit is destroyed to give rise to a true power…

Omens

Once the Scourge has reappeared, the PCs will not be aware of this immediately. They will think they have succeeded in their previous quest, and in a way, they have. However, the Omens let them know that something is wrong, something they are not informed about is happening. The Omens can appear either specifically in quick succession to warn the PCs, or they might simply be random events that happen after unrelated adventures.

•Otherwise healthy people begin to develop Moon Frenzy without contact with a Werewolf.

•The smallest child of each family in a large area die in their sleep one night, without warning.

•Clerics and Paladins of Ravindra begin to have nightmares of a beautiful, pale woman with dark hair and crow’s wings, constantly weeping and singing a crushingly depressing song about the night which they must hear in its entirety, but can never accurately reproduce while awake.

•Nights become pitch black, with the natural light of the Moon gone completely.

•Nights stretch on longer and longer – it may dawn at midday, for example.

•A false red and black, swirling moon appears in place of the normal moon in the sky every night, and staring directly at it causes the effect of a Sleep spell (+10 per tier of play vs Will)

Apotheosis

Eventually, somebody deciphers the Omens – somebody who, either for spiritual or material reasons, decides to return the scourge to life. This person might be somebody who was helping the PCs to decipher the Omens, but then decided to go enact the final rite needed or to seek out the scourge. Or it may be somebody they do not know personally, but will certainly hear of now. This “emissary” will have to be stopped by the PCs, or it will bring the Scourge to full ressurrection and enact the Finale scenario. However, if the PCs do succeed in stopping the endgame, the Scourge will merely be returned to dormancy, until such a time as it can arise anew. Though you may choose to present this as a victory nonetheless, in the grand scheme of things, the PCs have failed.

•The means to invoke Kuannei requires the creation of the false moon in the sky (see the Omen above). As this false moon becomes larger and larger, and takes up more of the sky, Kuannei will appear before the Emissary and beg him or her to create the Eternal Night that she so wishes for. By this point, it is too late – the PCs must stop the moon from growing twice as large as the real moon, which means stopping the ritual partway through. The ritual takes 12 hours to complete and requires 7 casters. By the 7th hour, it is too late to stop the endgame.

Finale

The Scourge has been invoked fully, and its goals are underway. The PCs have a choice.

They must confront the being directly at some point, and the sooner, the less damage will be done. But to simply kill a Scourge, is to invite it to appear again. It may not be within the PCs lifespans, but they have Epic Destinies to fullfill – at some point, through the wiles of fate, reincarnation or immortality will have them facing the same monstrosity again. And this time, it is possible the PCs may fail.

Instead, they can delve into the most ancient, mysterious and dangerous places of the world, searching for something – a spirit, an artifact, some glimmer of hope that the creature can be laid to rest for eternity, for good, and never threaten the world again.

•The PCs must seek out the greater spirit power Ravindra, who is powerless to watch Kuannei’s madness unravel. As the false moon takes over the entirety of the sky, people begin to fall asleep without being able to wake up, unless they were insomniacs beforehand, or the very limited quantity of elves remaining in Eden. Some people will die of sheer exhaustion as they try to fight the eternal sleep, and some will even die to the nightmares and soul-crushing despair within them if they do fall to the sleep.

Ravindra will offer the fey story of Kuannei, if the PCs have not already uncovered it by some other means (which should probably be what leads them to Ravindra in the first place). He will also offer the means to defeat her – her twisted wish came about from the natural disdain that living beings have for the night. If Kuannei is offered a gift for her hard work, if she is appreciated, then she will calm. The only gift she desires is to be able to rest. She has worked thanklessly for so long, that all she wants is to be able to stop working. Ravindra will direct them to a Hoitoki, who can offer Kuannei a wish to be able to rest. The Hoitoki, when found, will accompany the PCs to the final battle.

Thus prepared, the PCs can confront Kuannei the proper way. Though she is incoherent, weeping and laughing insanely as she showers them in red and black shadows, if the PCs offer her the wish, they will have the Scourge Advantage against her in combat. If they win, Kuannei, utterly exhausted, will dispel the false moon and accept the wish, falling asleep. Her body will remain behind – if the PCs actually take it with them (they will notice it is alive), Kuannei will wake up at some point, but as a mostly harmless spirit with a heavy amnesia. Her mind and soul have finally been cleansed. The true Kuannei can rest forever. The new, liberated spirit will serve as a testament to what the PCs have accomplished and may remain by their side.

Scourge Advantage

•All tiers: +1 bonus to attack rolls and defenses against the Scourge

•Heroic and higher: Darkvision 5 squares, or +5 squares of Darkvision

•Paragon and higher: Resistance 5 to Necrotic and Radiant damage or +5 to existing Resistance

•Epic and higher: Can spend their epic destiny utility powers to be able to bypass 10 of Kuannei’s resistance with all of their attacks for the duration of the encounter.

Kuannei

Appearance: Kuannei’s physical form is that of a woman of average height (about 5’6″ or 5’7″) with long, slightly disheveled dark hair. She has a stark pale but beautiful face, with gold eyes and pale lips. She has dark bags under her eyes and is constantly weeping, as she cannot close them. Her stare is blank and dull. She has crow’s wings growing out of her back. She appears to have no arms, as her dress, a flowing, uninterrupted pleated garment that exposes her shoulders and some of her back, has no sleeves or arm holes. She has arms, but rarely uses them. She prefers to extend some of the long tendrils, black, inky red and black tentacles, that attach to her hips instead. They can stretch out from under her dress and give her reach much like her own arms.

Personality: Distorted by a hundred mortal lifespan’s worth of thankless work and abuse, Kuannei is thoroughly insane. She will sing incoherent songs or quote strange haikus, give small, dry laughs mid-sentence at times, and blubber nonsense mutterings to herself. When hurt, she may behave like a scared child, attacking the first thing she lays eyes on.

Running The Encounter: Kuannei prefers to stay near the ground, or to perch somewhere and not move much, being so exhausted. If pushed, she might become more mobile, bombarding the PCs from above. Many of her powers create zones, and she loves dotting the ground with them. The zones from her Night of the Long Knives spell do not ever vanish, so she may slide around the PCs and use them to create more zones. However, her zones, including her aura, can be dispelled.

She often targets the last creature to have attacked her, but many of her powers have large areas, so she may still hit numerous PCs. She saves her Forbidden Panacea magic for effects that would render her unable to keep attacking, such as stun. She may endure Daze if the situation is such that she can just shoot off another blast or slam somebody with her tendrils, and does not need to move. She will not tolerate remaining stunned, however.

If you are playing with a grid that’s easy to mark, or you have a pre-prepared grid for this purpose, you can use an alternate pattern that is less harsh and more fun for the PCs. The checkerboard pattern should make for an interesting combat, whereas the normal effect is just a massive world of pain for the PCs.

If you feel you need added difficulty, you might have Kuannei recover two or even all of her Ancient Magic rather than just one when bloodied. You might also have her At-Will powers leave behind zones like her Night of the Long Knives power does.

Most of Kuannei’s powers involve her manipulation of the shadows caused by the eternal night coming to fruition around her. She can create shadowy blades and spines, fire masses of shadowy projectiles to bombard an area, and create red and black blasts of light and darkness to attack her foes.

Minions Or Cohorts: If you need encounters to use before the PCs fight Kuannei, in order to have them spend resources and make the fight at the end more challenging, consider cultist or divine enemies. Liches or Lich Vestiges, Mind Flayers, or a reflavored Doresain or Deathpriest of Orcus (now in the garb of a cultist of the night or perhaps even of a Spirit Power that would benefit from an eternal night, such as Kaehma) can make for fitting combats.