Monster Monday: Melusine, the Two-Tailed Shapeshifting Mermaid

Today's Monster Monday entry is the melusine, a fey creature with twin fish-tails and shimmering golden wings who takes the form of a beautiful woman in order to marry a mortal man and live the sweet life on his dime.

source

(And before I start, yes I know I said I would try to update every Monday, and then failed to deliver the next Monday.  But hey, you got a Halloween update instead!)
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.

Melusine                   CR 4

XP 1,200

N Medium fey (aquatic, shapechanger)

Init +8; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12

Aura beguiling aura

 DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 19, flat-footed 17 (+4 Dex, +2 natural, +5 deflection)

hp 52 (8d6+24)

Fort +10, Ref +15, Will +13

 OFFENSE

Speed 5 ft., swim 50 ft., fly 50 ft (average)

Melee mwk dagger +9 (1d4/19-20)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8^th)

   At will— create water, suggestion (DC 18; only against creatures that are currently fascinated by her beguiling aura)

   3/day – obscuring mist

   1/day – summon nature’s ally IV

 STATISTICS

Str 10, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 20

Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 18 (can't be tripped)

Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Acrobatic, Improved initiative

Skills Acrobatics+12, Bluff +13, Diplomacy +13, Disguise +14, Escape Artist +10, Fly +17, Knowledge (nature) +6, Perception +12, Perform (vocal) +16, Sense Motive +9, Swim +11

Languages Aquan, Sylvan, Common

SQ alternate form, amphibious, unearthly grace

 SPECIAL ABILITIES

Beguiling Aura (Su)

 Any creature sexually attracted to women runs the risk of being beguiled by a melusine if it looks upon her beauty from a distance of 30 feet or less. If the creature fails a DC 19 Will save, it is immediately fascinated. A melusine may use her suggestion spell-like ability at will against creatures that are fascinated by her beguiling aura.

   This ability only functions while the melusine is in her alternate form.  As soon as she reverts to her true form, the effects of the beguiling aura end and anyone who is both under the effect of her suggestion and capable of seeing her true form is entitled to a new save made with a +4 bonus.   This aura can be suppressed as a free action.  This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Alternate Form (Su)

 A melusine can assume an alternate form as a standard action at will, appearing as a beautiful fey-like woman.  A melusine’s alternate form does not change.   In her alternate form, her tail turns into legs and her wings disappear.  She loses her swim speed and fly speed, and her land speed becomes 30 feet.  In this form, the melusine is able to be tripped normally. 

 A melusine must spend at least one hour each week in the water in her true form.  Other than that, the duration of her shape-changing ability is unrestricted. 

Unearthly Grace (Su)

A melusine adds her Charisma modifier as a racial bonus on all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class.

 ECOLOGY

Environment temperate lake, river, or ocean, urban

Organization solitary, pair, or triad

Treasure standard (mwk dagger, jewelry, other treasure)

   Melusine are mermaid-like nymphs with shimmering golden wings and singing voices to match.  They are known to take human mates, relying on their shapeshifting abilities and deceptive skills to hide their true nature from their husbands, and fleeing back to the water in embarrassment if they are ever found out. 

   Some say that melusine are the offspring of fey and succubi, though this remains but a rumor.  In any case, melusine do not feed off of the life-force of men as succubi do; they seek out mortal husbands out of desire for riches and a lavish lifestyle.  If their husbands should run out of money or - even worse - encounter the melusine as she bathes in her true form, the melusine will abandon him, never to be seen again.  

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Even if you've never heard the story of Melusine, the idea may be familiar to you

Melusine featured in a number of different stories - or variations on the same story - all having to do with her marrying a man on the condition that he never look upon her as she bathed.  They would live happily until her husband inevitably broke his promise, walking in on his wife with the tail of a serpent or a fish.  It seems the fish tail was a later version than the serpent tail.  The idea of twin tails likely developed from illustrations of Melusine or conflations with earlier artistic traditions rather than the Melusine stories themselves.  In some versions of the story, once she is discovered she turns into a dragon and flees.  In others, she just flees normally or flies away.  I have omitted the dragon bit from this stat block, for obvious game-balance reasons.  

                                             That "just found out my wife is a winged mer-beast" look says it all.                    (Source: Wikipedia)

In game, a melusine is more likely to be a plot element than an adversary in combat, for - as is often the case with beautiful fey creatures - they prefer to use their beguiling charms rather than actually fighting.

Some possible plot-hooks for including a melusine in your campaign:

• The local prince has a beautiful new wife and no one seems sure where she came from, but rumor has it that neither her maidservants nor her husband are permitted to look upon her during her baths.
• An old sea captain is maintaining a very public feud with the mayor because the beautiful woman he rescued from a treacherous shoal ran off with the mayor once the captain had spent his last red cent on her.
• Pilgrims and merchants are going missing from a coastal trade road - it turns out they (and their riches) have all been lured into the service of a powerful melusine sorcerer.  And yes, she can transform into a dragon.  

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-your bifurcated d20 despot