Mythic Monsters-Fetch

This is part of the A-Z Blog Challenge. Herein I will be presenting a new monster that hopefully has not been seen before in any RPG game. These will be drawn from stories and mythologies found in a variety of real-world cultures.


Fetch

There was a warning. A single light, very much like a candle, hovered in the air on the path ahead. As the group moved cautiously toward the light, the wraith coalesced around the flame. They all instinctively knew it was a ghostly form of the fighter. A chill ran through the fighter as he knew he was looking at his own death. There had been a warning.

A part of Irish lore, the Fetch is the wraith-like form of a living being. It is in a ghostlike image of a specific person and often presages the death of the person it is a copy of. This warning usually happens right before the death of the person, but there are stories of those who were able to avoid this fate.

Particularly gifted necromancers or witches can summon a specific person’s Fetch. This requires some type of personal effect of the target’s, something they have been in contact with for an extended period of time or a part of their person, such as a lock of hair. This form of Fetch will then seek out the person it is a copy of in an attempt to kill that person.

Abilities
-Image: While the Fetch can be affected by everyone during a combat it takes reduced damage from all other beings, except for the person he is an image of.
-Lesser Fetch: The Fetch is able to make copies of other members of the party as well. These lesser forms die easily but they can only be affected by those they are a copy of.
-Candle: The fetch-light is sent against someone, disallowing the target to use any sort of stealth.

Adventures
-The characters are approached by a person who is being hunted by his Fetch. He has been able to elude the Fetch thus far, but his time is running out. Can the characters kill the Fetch before it kills him? In reality he stole from a necromancer and this is recompense, something the necromancer will make clear to the party. Will the party still aid the target of the Fetch after they gain this knowledge?

-There have been a series of Fetch sightings within the city. Thus far the targets have been able to kill their Fetch leaving the copy behind, though there is much cause for concern. In reality, a group of doppelgangers has arrived in the city and while taking the form of their target they also embellish it with wraith-like trappings so any suspicions are placed upon the Fetch. So far they have been able to kill and replace 4 prominent people after they “defeated the Fetch”.

-For four nights running one member of the party has seen his Fetch. Rumors say reaching seven sightings spells instant death. Rumors also state that this type of Fetch is tied to a particular location and it is possible to avoid this death. In reality, this encounter occurs while the party is pursuing another adventure. This is all an elaborate plan to try and get the party to leave town.