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I'm a huge fan of this.

First it's a useful creature. A lot of people try to go over the top and make things that are awesome, but frankly you're not going to get a lot of fun out of. This, well, I could run an amazing game session with just these. This is in part due to the Brachiator special ability. Nothing's more fun then having a party realize the bad guys have cover, are not going to be easily engaged in melee, and are surrounded by things that fireballs would ignite, much like the party. Forest fires make for great entertainment. Though I tend to picture these in larger numbers, hurling barrage after barrage of sticks at the party as they scamper through the tree tops.

As the others have mentioned it comes from a mythical creature and, like many gamers, I enjoy that aspect of it. The name is unique, but recalls something vaguely familiar, which I think adds to the atmosphere.

I admit this is weaker than your other entries, but hey, it's still a great idea and I for one really want to see what else you can come up with.

I highly recommend this to advance.

Micman- thanks for the clarification. Though I'm a bit disappointed that there's no way to combine Wizard and Rogue levels for purposes of spellcasting.

Kradlum raises a great point - the objective of the encounter is to save two of the NPCs, which adds significant difficultly to any situation. The PCs know the NPCs are in the area, which should have limited their ability to use things like lightning bolts, for fear of causing what happened - blasting one of the vital NPCs.

One question to Micman- How does a Rogue 6/Wizard 1 cast lighting bolt? I'm more of a 3.5 guy than a Pathfinder- is there something I'm missing that allows this? It seems a bit overpowered.

I really enjoy having something I have to do other than "kill bad guys," which is one of the things I love so much about this encounter- it's brilliant on several levels and has a lot of depth, and could be expanded in several ways.

Anthony- Love Map Fu.

Burying the bones doesn't have to occur in the middle of the fight- there's always something you have to do with haunts to make them go away forever, but you can neutralize them for a while in the usual way. It's not an immediate combat threat, it's more of a week later the PCs go "Hey, why are the lights back on in the villa? I thought we got rid of the ghosts..."

Alright. I've read through all the entries and many of the comments and I find it interesting that the judges seem to be generally leaving negative feedback, with only a couple recommending entries forward and the expected differences of opinion. My group got together and played through several of the encounters, yours included, and I'm basing my comments on what we experienced.

I'm a huge fan of everything you've done thus far and really think you deserve to win. While this entry wasn't your best (the twisted-fae is my favorite), it's still well thought out and capably executed. I've seen enough experienced professionals produce crap to say that if this is the worst you're going to do, you're Gary reborn.

1st- The visual element. While not as ornate as many battle maps I've seen, I do appreciate the clear-cut, understandable layout. The use of numbers, the map key, and everything are extremely well done and my group had no problem understanding everything once the encounter was over and it was revealed. My DM, the god of battle maps himself, is used to more ornate maps, but appreciated the ease of use and accessibility your map offers - not every DM is experienced enough to handle some of the more complex maps presented by others.

2nd- The set up- I LOVE revolutions/insurgencies and the plot- the PCs working with the rebellion- immediately had my attention. It's great, adds some confusion to the fight and honestly you had my support on the spot. It's a variations from the standard "Go here, collect this, kill these, return" hack-and-slash dungeon crawl that requires a great deal of intelligence and role-playing and I'm impressed by your utilizing this. It may not appeal to everyone, but to history/warfare buffs/professionals, its a big draw.

3rd- The bad guys- I really enjoy your monsters and the unique twist you seem to bring to the table, and the Baron in this is another example of such. I play a well-dressed wizard who is of minor noble blood and was targeted by the Baron, which confused me as the larger threat was arguably our Cleric. Afterwards the reason for this was made clear, but to experienced gamers throwing a twist like that keeps the game interesting (come'on, who hasn't slaughtered at least 50 ghosts on here? If you don't make them unique, they're boring), and for new gamers it keeps the game full of wonder and excitement (remember way back before we all had memorized the Monster Manual?). So, major points on that. The confusion caused- the two ladies arrive, ruffians in pursuit of them, the PCs in pursuit of ruffians, ghosts already there and generally hating everyone- was genius. In our play-through we were confused, I was for pulling back, others for destroying everything and the paranoid cleric who thought our friends were witches who summoned the ghosts and demanded we burn them immediately. Cue Monty Python Witch scene. The deliberate confusion to the PCs played out brilliantly, making what could have been a much easier encounter and making it more difficult by far. Our DM had no problems running the bad guys and keeping track of everything. So, props there as well.

4th- How it played out. Most importantly we, the PCs, won. That's always a plus. What makes it better is that it wasn't an easy victory, and we were still paranoid and frightened at the end, searching the grounds for more monsters, jumping at anything, etc. The fight was exciting and one of the best I've played through in a long time.

5th- Criticisms- The map could have been larger, though I'm assuming out buildings were totally burned down in the fire it would have been good to leave the foundations of them around, and expand the main buildings a bit. Still, I don't have as many issues with the size as some of the others.

There were editing problems, though as someone who has played through Gary's "Hall of Many Panes," I'm used to far worse from the creator himself, so it's not a huge deal.

The variant Ghost should have probably been a higher CR, though since it engages the ruffians as well the sheer opposition to it makes it easier than if it had been a standard ghost fighting a standard party, and as this variant is significantly weaker than a standard ghost, I can see lowering the CR to a 3 or 4.

6th- Summary- While there were some slight issues with this encounter, I believe that when its actually played through those problems are completely redeemed by the talent you've continued to exhibit throughout this contest. The twists, ingenuity, design and overall conception make this one of my favorite entries. When considered with the other amazing ideas you've brought to the table which have kept you consistently in the top (according to comments at least), I can tell you have a tremendous amount to offer Paizo and it would be a shame if you were not hired.

I strongly recommend this entry.

I agree with Raza- the versatility you've consistently brought with every entry is impressive and leaves the GM with a wide range of options. Of all the entries, this is by far my favorite.

I'm a much bigger fan of giving GM's general guide lines and the tools to do things on their own, with a lot of room to adapt, than I am the very story/plot/situation-driven monsters many others have presented. This could be a plot driving element, or it could be just something that the party hears about when they stop in a random village one night, and they might decide to do something or they might not, either having a possible plot impact.

The creature itself is unique and, as many have pointed out, lends a creepy aspect to the game that's not normally present. It also explains why all the villages in old horror movies are ugly- this thing drained their charisma.

On that note, Kirth brings up a really good point- too often in Pathfinder/D&D is charisma treated as a dump stat by most classes. The importance of charisma is directly linked to good role-playing- if you lose charisma, you're losing your looks, your social skills, your patience, and to some degree your will power/presence. The added rping after the fight when the once charming rogue is now at a severe penalty makes this worth voting for by itself!

As for the grammar debate on the use of "them" instead of "he/she," well, if that's the worst thing people can say about this entry, than let's all just vote for it.

In practical application, or rather, in game, most organizations are plot devices, so I find that criticism to be along the lines of "It's not like everything else so we don't like it."

Personally, as a long time gamer who enjoys both strategic campaigns full of political intrigue and hack-n-slash, I think this group offers a huge amount. First and foremost, the PCs could be unknowing dupes helping out of a desire to do good, finding out the truth and coming to terms with it, or they could know and try to fight against it- now imagine trying to do that, a group of hardened adventurers attacking a beautiful young singer and her choir claiming they're demons. How is general populace going to react? Torch-wielding peasant mob. Now the PCs are on the run and hunted. The possibilities of this kind of organization are endless, and I applaud the creator for coming up with something unique.

Another clever aspect is that the idea, while sturdy and able to stand on its own, leaves enough open that any DM worth their dice can expand upon it. Is it just the lust the choir inspires that they're after? What about that universal motivator- cash from donations? Perhaps the primary goal is corrupting Clerics & Paladins? Monsters on Maple Street, anyone?

Overall I'm a huge fan of the seemingly good organizations being well and truly evil and using the purity facade to dupe the masses. I think its a universal theme that everyone can relate to.

So, this needs to be voted onward and upward!