Will-o'-wisp

Will-o'-wisps are malevolent, wispy balls of light that haunt lonely places and battlefields, bound by dark fate or dark magic to feed on fear and despair.

Hope and Doom. Will-o'-wisps look like bobbing lantern lights in the distance, although they can choose to alter their colors, or wink out completely. When they activate their lights, will-o'-wisps offer hope, hinting of safety to creatures that follow them.

Will-o'-wisps lure unwary creatures into quicksand pits, monster lairs, and other dangerous places so that they can feed on the suffering of their prey and revel in their death screams. An evil being that falls prey to a will-o'-wisp might become a wisp itself, its woeful spirit coalescing above its lifeless corpse like a flickering flame.

Consumed by Despair. Will-o'-wisps a re the souls of evil beings that perished in anguish or misery as they andered forsaken lands permeated with powerful magic. They thrive in swampy bogs and bone-strewn battlefields where the oppressive weight of sorrow stoops even heavier than the low-hanging mist and fog. Trapped in these desolate places of lost hope and memory, will-o'-wisps lure other creatures toward dismal fates and feed on their misery.

Agents of Evil. Will-o'-wisps rarely speak, but when they do, their voices sound like faint or distant whispers. In the miserable domains they haunt, will-o'-wisps sometimes form symbiotic relationships with their wicked neighbors. Hags, oni, black dragons, and evil cultists work with will-o'-wisps to draw creatures into ambush. As their evil a llies surround and slaughter creatures, the wisps hover above them, drinking the agony of a last breath and avoring the sensation as the light of life goes out in a creature's eyes.

Undead Nature. A will-o'-wisp doesn't require air, drink, or sleep.