Xerill

> "*Cursed be this realm for in blood will it drown*"
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Among the Xal-Nuie, none can challenge the magical might of Xerill. As the Lady of Witchcraft, her most feared powers include strange otherwordly abilities and devastating blood magic. Daemonic cults formed in her name often know her as the Bloodless Crone; it is said that Xerill sacrificed all of her blood and vitality in order to obtain her great powers and to spread her dominion within the Realm of Mortals. This in turn has made her physically weak, which forces her to demand for far greater blood sacrifices than most other daemonic beings. Her rituals are thought to be the most vile and grand out of all the Xal-Nuie. Aside from these rituals, she relies on daemonic minions and various arcane creations to provide the blood that she needs to fuel her magic. Xerill is also quite frequently associated with vampirism which may be closely linked with her blood magic. Many of her followers believe that a single drop of blood from Xerill is enough to birth a great witch or a sorcerer, and she is seen as the source of many evil magic-users and bloodlines that plague the land. To some her blood has been a gift, to most it has proven to be a curse.

## Relations

> "*I wield powers you cannot even grasp*"
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>

Xerill has a strange spot within the Realm of Hell; nearly all children of Angmar are characterized by their monstrous physical strength and presence. For her to appear old and frail, she would seem to be the very opposite of that image. However, one might come to understand that her physical strength was merely transformed into magical strength, allowing her to greatly surpass other daemons in that category. She can certainly hold her own against rival Xal-Nuie, and would sometimes even ally herself with Kyil'Zhal, for his illusionary magic intrigues Xerill. As for the mortals, her most hated enemies are wizards that are set on saving the world. She sees them as direct competitors to the witches and sorcerers that she has wrought, and they are a danger to her own existence. Xerill is also dedicated to achieving complete control over magic in order to implode all of reality with it. Through the use of her blood, she has given rise to an amalgamation of black-blooded sorcerers that, when combined with her witches, may one day bring destruction upon even the greatest civilizations on Énelya.

## Obedience

If you worship Xerill and have the *Fiendish Obedience* feat, you can perform the following daily obedience in order to gain its bonuses.

**Obedience:** You must inflict bleed 1 on yourself by cutting the palms of your hands with a ritual knife. You must then form Xerill's symbol, the Sign of the Witch, with your hands and let your blood seep. The bleeding stops automatically after you have taken bleed damage equal to your character level, and you must take that amount of damage for the obedience to be effective. Performing this obedience takes 10 minutes. You gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against one school of magic, chosen by you.

**Boons:**

* **12 HD. Witch's Arsenal (Sp):** *Blood Money* 3/day, *Blood Transcription* 2/day, or *Bestow Curse* 1/day (The save DCs are Intelligence-based)
* **16 HD. Cursed Touch (Sp):** Once per day, you can use *Greater Bestow Curse* as a spell-like ability. The save DC is Intelligence-based.
* **20 HD. Blood of the Crone (Ex):** You gain a +2 profane bonus to your Intelligence and a +2 profane bonus on saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities. Whenever you take bleed damage, the next spell that you cast is cast at +1 caster level and gains a +2 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance.

In addition, once per day as a swift action, you can utter the name of Xerill and point at one creature that you can see. They take a -2 penalty on saving throws for 1 round. You also immediately take 1 damage and this damage counts as bleed damage for the purposes of Blood of the Crone.
## Religion traits

* **Shadow Caster:** You gain a +4 trait bonus on concentration checks when casting spells with the darkness, pain, or shadow descriptor.
* **Voice of Monsters:** Once per day, you can use *Speak with Animals* as a spell-like ability. When you cast this spell, it can affect animals (as normal) as well as aberrations and magical beasts with an Intelligence of 2 or lower.

## Cleric alignments

* Chaotic Neutral
* Lawful Evil
* Neutral Evil
* Chaotic Evil