Divoynik

A close-knit settlement is rocked to its core when a beloved pillar of the community is accused of a heinous crime. The accused protest their innocence, but overwhelming evidence leaves no room for doubt. As justice is served, the community is irreversibly changed, its neighborly atmosphere giving way to lingering paranoia—the favored fare of the divoynik.

Divoyniks are malevolent shapeshifters, capable not only of mimicking the physical appearance of other creatures but also of plucking thoughts and memories from their victims' minds. A divoynik retains their most recently assumed guise even after death. Spells like ring of truth help see through a divoynik, and truesight reveals its shapeshifted nature, making clear otherwise imperceptible markings similar to an animal's stripes on a divoynik's body. Beyond magic, people who encounter a divoynik can always rely on one other method of identification. Although identical to their mimicked form in all other respects, a divoynik's body contains neither blood nor a heart.