Dead Desperados
Welcome again to Masters and Minions, where I strive to give you interesting NPCs and encounters that can be placed easily into your game. As you should all know by now, this week is Bandit Week, so I thought I would make a duo of undead desperados to throw at your PCs.
In life, Arcem and Kalem were notorious dark stalker thieves that terrorized the subterranean world. The continued their lives as thieves until they robbed a powerful necromancer who raised them as zombie slaves. Since the necromancer’s death, they have regained their free will and have begun to terrorize the surface, just as they once terrorized the subterranean world.
Arcem and Kalem usually strike at dusk and tend to ambush their targets. They have set up their former master’s tower as their base of operations. The grounds around the tower still contain many zombies in varying levels of decay and damage.
Arcem is the pair’s muscle while Kalem serves as the brains of the group.
Kalem’s twin scimitars are made up of celestial steel, a special material that can be found in Into the Armory (available for free download).
Tactics
Arcem rushes headlong into battle while Kalem sneaks up behind their enemies in order to gain flanking. If Arcem is slain, then Kalem will use one of his scrolls of invisibility to flee. If Kalem is slain, Arcem flies into a rage and will continue to fight until either he is slain or he kills all his opponents.
Death Throes (Su)
When a dark stalker is slain, its body combusts in a flash of white-hot flame. This acts like a fireball that deals 6d6 points of fire damage to all creatures within a 20-foot-radius burst. A DC 20 Reflex save halves this damage. A dark stalker's gear and treasure are unaffected by this explosion. This save is Charisma-based.
Poison Use (Ex)
Dark stalkers are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves. Like their diminutive kin, the dark creepers, dark stalkers use black poison on their weapons and generally carry six doses on them.
Black Smear—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save. The poison DC is Constitution-based.
See in Darkness (Su)
A dark stalker can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, including that created by deeper darkness.
Death Throes (Su)
When a dark stalker is slain, its body combusts in a flash of white-hot flame. This acts like a fireball that deals 6d6 points of fire damage to all creatures within a 20-foot-radius burst. A DC 20 Reflex save halves this damage. A dark stalker's gear and treasure are unaffected by this explosion. This save is Charisma-based.
Poison Use (Ex)
Dark stalkers are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves. Like their diminutive kin, the dark creepers, dark stalkers use black poison on their weapons and generally carry six doses on them.
Black Smear—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save. The poison DC is Constitution-based.
See in Darkness (Su)
A dark stalker can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, including that created by deeper darkness.