Betobeto-san
Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at aonprd.org here
[Commissioned by @razzelmire. Betobeto-san is a relatively famous yokai, but like many such creatures, it’s not a monster to be fought so much as a physical embodiment of a spooky occurrence. That didn’t stop Paizo from making statistics for a regional variation, the bisha ga tsuku in Pathfinder 1e, and Betobeto-san himself in 2e. The 2e version has mechanics I don’t particularly like–it’s incorporeal, but they clearly walk, not fly, and wear physical sandals. The flavor text is also somewhat confused about whether they intentionally cause fear for nutrition purposes, or if their fear effects are an unintended side effect. I suspect another editing pass would have cleared this up.]
Betobeto-San
CR 12 N Outsider
(extraplanar)
This creature looks like a blob of
shadow, with strong arms, skinny legs and a wide toothy grin splitting it along
the midsection. Incongruously, it wears a pair of wooden sandals.
Despite their monstrous appearances, the creatures known as betobeto-san are simply aimless travelers with a strong sense of politeness. They seek company, and walk behind people on the road at night. As they are invisible, and their footsteps laden with supernatural fear, this usually results in the person panicking and running at top speed away—the betobeto-san may then run to catch up, to escalating hysterical results. If a person is calm, they can get the betobeto-san to leave them alone as simply as by allowing them to pass; the creature keeps going, thankful for the courtesy.
A betobeto-san will not engage in combat unless it is attacked first, which happens relatively often, due to their frightening effects. They are intangible, but their teeth and claws are well and truly solid. Many betobeto-sans don’t know their own strength, and they can theoretically kill a mundane person in a single bite, as much from mental trauma as the physical wound. If they do so, they are intensely apologetic, but will continue to defend themselves. They prefer to retreat from combat without killing opponents if possible, using their mislead ability to back off to a safe distance, and then shadow walking away, grumbling all the while.
The betobeto-san are the results of strong emotions leaving an impact
on the Shadow Plane, similar to a phantom in the Ethereal Plane. They are
spirits created by the ripples of shadow
walk spells when mortals rush through the Shadow Plane to reach the side of
a distant loved one. As the Shadow Plane itself has little room for sentiment,
the betobeto-san are created as a grim inversion of these journeys—someone
heard coming but never seen, whose presence drives creatures away and has no
friends or family. A creature that can conquer its fear and engage a
betobeto-san in conversation is seen as a boon companion by the monster, and it
may accompany them for some time. Betobeto-sans know many things about the
regions in which they travel, and can be a source of information. They rarely
carry treasure, but may know rumors of the location of interesting items.