Lich, Mordulant

Description

The ultimate goal of a priest of Tybboch is to gain favor in the eyes of his deity such that Tybboch grants him the ability to become a mordulant. Twisted and slain by the plagues and diseases encountered throughout the priest's unholy life, only the most powerful and fearsome of Tybboch's clergy become mordulants.

A mordulant typically stands between five and six feet tall, its frame often knotted and twisted from whatever diseases sickened the being in life. Its skin ranges from a pale green to a sickly black, often stretched taut over its mangy bones. Mordulants stink of decay and rot, and they are often detectable (75%) by this stench alone at a distance of thirty feet or less.

Combat

A mordulant will seldom engage in melee with its foes, often having a number of undead retainers at hand to take care of such petty annoyances. Any characters who do manage to tangle with a mordulant seldom survive to tell of the experience.

The touch of a mordulant inflicts 1d10 points of damage and opens a festering wound that will not heal naturally. If this wound is not tended to with magical healing within 1d6 days, it will become gangrenous and the body part the wound is on becomes thereafter unusable. If this condition remains untreated, the gangrene will spread to the rest of the victim's body; he or she must make a Constitution check with a cumulative –1 penalty each day or die as vital organs become infected and unusable. A cure disease spell cast on the wound before gangrene sets in will protect the infected character from the effects of the wound; however, once the gangrene begins to spread to the rest of the body, only a heal spell will eradicate the infection.

The stench of decay which surrounds a mordulant is so powerful that any creature of 5th-level or lower or of 5 hit dice or less that comes within 10' of the mordulant must make a successful saving throw vs. poison or be stricken for 1d8+1 rounds, retching and displaying other ill effects. Stricken characters defend themselves with a +3 armor class penalty, and they cannot initiate an attack.

Mordulants can themselves be hit only by weapons of at least +1, by magical spells, or by creatures with 4+1 or more Hit Dice and/or magical properties. The magical nature of the mordulant and its undead state make it immune to charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, and cold, electricity, insanity, and death spells. Mordulants can be turned as liches.

Tybboch continues to grant spells to his undead lich-priests; most mordulants have the spellcasting abilities of a priest of 13th-18th (12+1d6) level.

When a mordulant is reduced to zero hit points, it explodes in a cloud of poisonous dust, causing all within 20' to suffer 10d6 points of damage, with a successful save vs. poison halving this amount.

Habitat/Society

Mordulants generally avoid human society, as life itself has become repugnant to them. When they must deal with humans, such dealings are almost always with priests of Tybboch. Mordulants are solitary creatures, seldom associating with other mordulants. They often surround themselves with hordes of twisted, warped undead creations. Their lust for power is unquenchable, and sages report legends of ages past in which mordulants sat upon the thrones of some of the more evil-aligned kingdoms.

Mordulants have been known to amass huge armies consisting primarily of undead creatures, such as mordites, to invade and corrupt nations of the living. Conquest is not necessarily the goal of such aggressors; rather, these are opportunities for the mordulant to spread disease through the living community and gain favor with its deity. Mordulants' Intelligence and spell abilities make them excellent strategists.

While not as powerful as a true lich, the mordulant is a foe to be feared in its own right. These beings are never content to live out their undeath in reclusion and have often been seen at the heads of massive armies of Tybboch's filthy undead hordes.

Ecology

Mordulants have no place in the natural environment, but they do serve to further the aims of Tybboch in the Prime Material Plane.