Weekly Beasties: Fool's Sphinx (d20)
The Fool's Sphinx is a Weekly Beastie developed by Gorgon Breath Games! You can support additional monsters through a pay-what-you-want donation¸ or backing our Patreon. Check out our home page for more details!
The gods created Sphinxes to guard their sacred places¸ treasures¸ and knowledge. Varied in form and function¸ they serve as a reminder of the power of deities over the world. In remote swamps and badlands dwell a failed creation of some forgotten pantheon of gods - where most Sphinxes are noble and powerful creatures with a sacred mission¸ these craven creatures serve only themselves and rarely guard anything of consequence. Scholars call them Fool's Sphinxes¸ but they call themselves the Parosphinx.
A grossly oversized human face¸ lolling tongue¸ and bedraggled fur cover the creatures¸ who have the legs of a hoofed beast like a goat and a flowing tail and mane like a horse. Comically undersized bat wings hang limply from their shoulders¸ allowing limited flight despite their seeming uselessness.
The Parosphinx's most dangerous trait is their seeming unawareness of their own absurdity. Believing themselves chosen by the gods for glorious purpose¸ they impose themselves upon everything around them¸ using a magically augmented facility for speech to back up their requests for petty luxuries at the expense of others: Fresh-baked breads¸ pastries¸ fruit juices¸ alcohols¸ plush pillows¸ tapestries¸ and finely crafted furnishings.
In spite of their piteousness¸ Parosphinxes are actually powerful diviners capable of contacting the primal forces of the universe: Their connection to the divine is real. Someone who fulfills one of their absurd requests can force the creature to use its divinatory powers on their behalf¸ receiving an answer direct from the cosmos. A Parosphinx often sets itself up as a petty oracle to backwater and unsophisticated peoples - remote humans¸ goblins¸ hill giants¸ and ogres often form cults surrounding a Parosphinx.
Lizardfolk often live in the same swampy regions as Parosphinxes and so know them well for what they are. Lizardfolk kill the creatures on sight¸ never allowing them to speak. A Parosphinx will often use its Piteous Complaint ability to conscript adventurers as diplomats to make peace with locals they've previously wronged¸ like Lizardfolk.