Lillend (Muse Azata)

When we camp too long on celestials, non-evil outsiders, and planar creatures, I tend to get... sort of bored with them? You may find, as I do, that it's harder to use a creature that's inherently good-aligned for something interesting. I can't think of the last time I used a statblock for a good-aligned creature when it hadn't been summoned by a PC. That's entirely on me, I need to get more creative. Thankfully, my good friends here at Beastfinder push me to do so.

When we talk about the lillend, we finally have an example of a creature that uses music for good, rather than using it to debilitate your party. A lillend has a lot of great spells for aiding allies, so it's probably not the best to deploy as a solitary creature. A lillend supporting a large number of other planar creatures serving as the "bard" of an encounter alongside its kin is probably the ideal way to use it. Additionally, as previously mentioned, it makes a good candidate for a summon given its access to the bard's inspire competence and inspire courage.

The lillend definitely has potential! If one were to be following your party for an extended period of time, helping them out in a pinch, you've just given a story reason to use some GM fiat now and again. Give it a try! While you may not use them against the party—unless you run for evil-aligned PCs, in which case, godspeed—they do make for good narrative creatures, not to mention that having a lillend ally would turn any battle a bit more in the players' favor.

- TJ

Hook 1 (Nemanja) - Virtue Vandal

In the city of Virtue, known for the Church's firm hold on the culture, there's a new breed of vandal. For several weeks now, at the grandest and most frequented of social gatherings, people's clothes have begun disappearing right off their backs and buttocks, leaving them stark naked.

Indeed, a Lilend with a peculiar definition of art has recently made the city their home—one who considers bodies a work of art, thereby making clothes offensive.

The Church's elders fume and froth at their mouths, offering obscene amounts of money if this vandal is caught, though more anarchistically inclined individuals might also be able to use the scandals to shake up the city's power structures...

Hook 2 (TJ) - The Harmonics of the Soul

The Planar Armistice over the souls of the Tharodrosi people causes all manners of strife for the aligned creatures. The lillends in particular have voiced their displeasure at the inability to visit and record the chronicles of those on the Impure Plane. Other than the stagnation of their existing tales, the lillends argue that their influence could change the public opinion of bards and troubadors, which is largely untrusting.

As it stands, the two major groups that provide inspiration for the lyricists and balladeers that call Tharodros home are the sirens and the harpies. The ability for music and magic to merge and influence the harmonics of the soul, one's own natural resonance, is viewed with suspicion, even without the influence of these monsters. The manipulation of the natural harmonics of the soul can be more beautiful, the lillends argue, if only the Tharodrosi peoples could be shown. The sirens and harpies are a perversion of what it means for music to be captivating. The lillends are chafing at the restrictions of the armistice. Given their aptitude to remain hidden, they may begin breaking the terms of the armistice. That is, of course, if they haven't already.

Hook 3 - I Hate Moondays

"The circumstances that brought you here are quite strange. You must understand that." This was the start of Poli's second week in the Mirrorguard. Last week, the docks were bombarded. She thought the cleanup from that mess was the worst it could get, but this! This was somehow both more confusing and more frustrating!

"I do." The woman—if that was indeed what she could be called, as she was definitely not human—was coiled about the stool she had been given to "sit" on. The half-woman-half-snake laughed quite heartily when Poli had asked for something to make her comfortable, only for one of the new recruits to bring a stool.

"And you know why you're in there." Poli gestured broadly at the cell in which the woman, who called herself Yaranaya, was resting.

"Of course."

"So," Poli began, hoping she could get something more from her obstinant "prisoner", if she could even be called that. "You came here because you lost your cat, a being of pure, distilled chaos."

"Dram is technically a Dweomercat, but yes, that is correct."

Poli sighed, it had been a long first week. "That doesn't explain why you attempted to destroy the market in the eastern district."

"I didn't destroy anything—" Poli attempted to interrupt, but Yaranaya was having none of it. "I played Dram's favorite song. It just so happens that that song... Enflames the passions of mortal kind."

"You started at least four brawls, at least fifteen citizens began to bathe in the drinking water, and we arrested twenty-five others for..." Poli blushed and cleared her throat, "Acts of public indecency."

"It's not my fault you all are so pent up with your feelings." Yaranaya smiled and winked at Poli, whose blush continued to deepen.

Before she could properly respond, one of the other guards opened the door to the holding room with a panicked look on his face. Outside there was a terrible racket; people screaming and what sounded like carts crashing into one another.

"Problem," said Stool Guy.

The idiot could've brought literally anything else. Poli scowled. "What?"

Just then, a purple blur rushed by the door outside the guardhouse. The food cart down the street smashed into the shop opposite of the door. One of the cart wheels smashed against the doorframe. Something was yowling outside.

Poli put her face into her hands and proceeded to groan. Loudly. It was going to be another long week.