Turhroa

Appearance:

The Turhroa looks like a normal pile of clothing, no fewer than three pieces and no more than ten, of varying materials, cut, fashion, etc. They can be the finest fashion and appear very valuable, or they can literally be a pile of torn rags. They do appear to be magical in some nature, generally offering a small protective bonus when worn.

Sample Turhroa:

A pile consisting of a tattered washing woman's gown, an old pair of stout stockings, a dirty bonnet, a large towel

A fine tunic befitting a bard, two pair of leggings, a crumpled hat

A lady in waiting's dress, head veil, assorted undergarments

A knight tunic, undercap, a mismatched pair of stockings, a single glove

A fine merchants doublet, torn leggings, a mismatched pair of fine gloves

Basic Abilities

Mage Armor +1/+3 - offering basic magical protection, most can be worn under some sort of armor, and while it might be silly and dirty, it can be cleaned, and mended, and the armor protection can increase by a point if cared for.

Suggestion - the claimant of a turhroa is compelled to keep all the garment pieces together, and possibly do the previously mentioned cleaning and mending.

Suggestion II - the claimant of a turhroa will be compelled to put the garments on, regardless of being mismatched. The weaker the will of the claimant, the quicker this compulsion takes effect.

Domination - once a weak willed victim dons the pieces of a turhroa, they must make a wisdom/willpower check that if they fail, they fall under the control of the turhroa, and will do its bidding. The victim can occasionally make attempts to escape domination, but this involves taking 50% of their health in damage, doing something violently against their nature, or being exposed to flame or being set on fire.

Origin

The Turhroa is a sentient magical being that is created by relatively modest magical means. A pile of clothing can be invested with an unseen servant and charm person spell. The mage who creates the turhroa is its master, and the creature will serve the will and wishes of its creator.

History

Turhroas are the tools of chaotic aligned mages, and evil aligned mages. Choatic neutral and chaotic good magi have been known to create turhroa that appeal to more barbaric and violent demihuman races, where the magic clothing creatures cause havoc and mayhem far from human lands, or turn unwitting villager level orcs, trolls, and barbarians into informants and thieves who betray their own to the benefit of human civilization. A tribal band that has had regular harassment from turhroas can often be noted for their embrace of minimalist clothing, outright nudity, and even going into body painting and mud-pasting rather than end up wearing a pair of human underwear on their head and setting the chief's tent on fire or pouring all the beer out, again. Lawful evil humans will create turhroa for similar purpose, but rather than mischief these dark turhroa drown infants, poison supplies, and stab leaders in the neck while they sleep. Other uses of evil aligned turhroas involve turning random people of a city or town into thieves, murderers, unwitting assistants in larger Xanatos style gambits, or creating large magical projects without being super obvious.

While it is possible to create a magically bound force of slaves, turhroa arent automatically cheap to make, and the host still requires regular care, and the more unhappy the host is, the greater their chance of breaking free is. A turhroa can hold a man and make him kill prostitutes and steal from his neighbors for a day or two, and it can force him into hard manual labor for several days, but then either the turhroa will lose interest, or focus, and the host will break free. This doesnt mean that the turhroa cant be used to make their hosts basically allow themselves to be shackled and made into actual slaves, just that the creature is a temporary shackle itself.

Weaknesses

The turhroa is still ultimately a thing made of cloth, and can burn quite readily. Turhroas are unsettled by proximity to fire, and especially large fires. They will avoid fireplaces, even when empty, cook fires, and so forth. The common practice of using pitch torches is often enough to keep turhroas from trying to dominate a human adventurer host. They most prefer villagers, commoners, and peasants with low willpower and low wisdom. They can also be destroyed by magics that remove enchantment, and if struck by a magic weapon or spell, the turhroa has to make its own saving throw or take a portion of the damage inflicted on their host. Being clothing, their health is very low and they are easily killed this way. Heroes cannot make called shots against a turhroa, the host is always going to take a portion of the damage from an attack.

Usage and Inspiration

The raggamoffyn from D&D is a pile of magic rags that flies around and mind controls humanoids that it can wrap itself around, and is fairly ridiculous. The Turhroa draws from this inspiration and is more of a trap that is a non-ambulatory creature that becomes a parasite that dominates its host to do its bidding. So one is a tornado of clothing and the other is a lure for the poor and the gullible.

A band of starting level heroes might be quite elated to find a mishmash pile of fashionable clothing and rags that offer +2 Armor. Likewise henchmen, peasants, and underlings who find a little bit of a nice thing in the loot pile might figure stealing what looks like a pile of rags is less obvious than trying to palm some gold objects or a modest level magic sword.

Praxingdrell's Turhroa

The witches of Praxingdrell have created quite a number of turhroa to serve them and their interests. These are a little different from the typical creation process and appearance. Rather than being random piles, these creatures are made from garments that themselves were specifically made for this purpose. These greater turhroa are made from imperial style formal dresses, parade dress royal uniforms, and the sort of finery that lords, nobles, and the wealthy and powerful would dress themselves in. They offer a greater magical protection, often up to +5, and maybe even specific resistances to cold, fatigue, poison, and could even have the ability to transfer health to their host to protect them.

These are then sent as gifts, and the turhroa might lie dormant for years, until the witch who created it to call upon it to act. By then, the dress or formal attire might be a favorite garment, and have been worn many times, so a mild compulsion to put it on could be easily slipped in and then the witches have a willing pawn in a place of power. When the desired task is done, the turhroa would release the person of power, and they would be fully aware of their complicity in whatever machinations the witches of the north have in motion.

Kazani Turhroa

Kazani turhroa are substantially more difficult to create, and replace clothing with armor pieces. These have the same general powers, but are made from hide and leather armor components that offer the same mage armor abilities and suggestive powers. It is not vulnerable to fire, and has an additional suggestive power before dominate, embolden. This creature eggs its wearer on to get into fights and solve problems with blades and fists, and to not be a coward.

Its goal is more often to simply get its host killed in some public place, where it will be looted and taken somewhere else. When it finds a suitable host, it will begin its given purpose, which tend to be more martial in nature than the more common turhroas. Kazani turhroas are hero killers and mage assassins.

Calamity Turhroa

The worst type of Turhroa is the one created by magical mishap. To create a calamity turhroa, a suitably strong willed person has to be killed by magical means while wearing some sort of magical garment. So long as they are a bystander or collateral damage in a magic spell or event gone awry, there is a chance a fragment of their will, their memory will be blasted into their magic clothing, creating a shadow of the wearer in the now damaged magic item. When it is recovered, the new owner will be compelled to repair the object, and to wear it. They will then have fragmentary dreams from the victim who wore it when it was turned, and their urges and unfinished business will bleed over into the new wearer. These turhoa can be the most dangerous because their magical vestment its going to be limited to minor protection, it will retain whatever enchantments it had before, and then additional mage armor, and sometimes the turhroa can provide the new wearer with partial abilities it had in life, such as special feats, specific information, or ability to use a specific weapon for a short amount of time.

A washing woman might come into possession of a Mantle of Assassins worn by an evil man intent on killing the cleric and heroes who slaughtered his evil cultist wife and family, and then while sitting in the tavern, the heroes are suddenly neck stabbed by a scullery maid with twin dagger fighting proficiency and a hatred for them.