3.8 KiB
| title | description | date_pub | section | content_type | short_code | status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demilich | The demilich creature for OSR gaming. | 2025-01-05T22:25:19.000-04:00 | bestiary | feature | bdm1 | hidden |
| Hit Dice | ??? (50hp) |
| Armor Class | 25 |
| Attacks | Ghostly shape OR devour soul |
| Movement | None |
| Save | 8 (Wizard 14) |
| Morale | 10 |
| Alignment | Any |
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Cannot be removed from Lair
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Can only be harmed as follows:
- Each Dispel Evil spell inflicts 5 hp of damage;
- Each Shatter spell inflicts 10 hp of damage;
- Each Holy Word pronounced against it inflicts 20 hp of damage;
- Weapons of sharpness, vorpal weapons, and weapons with +4 enchantments or better inflict their standard damage; and
- Expensive gems may be used as weapons, dealing 1 hp per 10,000 gp value.
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Can only be destroyed by:
- A Kill (Word of Power) spell cast from an astral or ethereal spell caster, or
- Total annihilation of the jeweled skull itself.
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If the skull is destroyed, each soul in a gem must Save vs Magic or be revealed as having been devoured.
- On a successful save, the gem contains a faint light, and looking at it with True Sight will reveal a tiny figure representing the soul within.
- If gem with a soul inside is crushed, the soul will be set free.
- Unless there's a suitable body within 10' of the gem, the soul escapes.
- ex: clone, automaton, an otherwise soulless body
Ghostly Shape
Can use its own bone dust to create a ghostly shape.
- Shape will advance and threaten, but cannot cause harm.
- If struck, shape will waver and fall back as if suffering damage.
- Dissipates in 3 rounds if not engaged with.
- Any attack will give it energy
- 1 point for a physical attack
- 1 point per spell level for spell attacks
- If shape gains 50 energy, will form into a ghost controlled by the demilich, which attacks immediately.
Swallow Soul
Skull rises into the air, scans for potential victims within sight, and picks one, which it swallows into an empty gem.
- Takes an entire round to occur
- Starts on their initiative, soul is taken at the very end of the next round.
The soul of the strongest will be drawn instantly from his or her body and trapped within the right eye jewel, and the gem-eye will gleam with wickedly evil lights as the character‘s body collapses in a mass of corruption and moulders in a single round - totally gone.
- Can hold 8 souls total at any one time.
- 2x 50k gp ruby (one in each eye socket), and
- 5x 5k gp diamond (located along jaw as teeth).
- Picks most powerful party member and attacks them first.
- Spellcaster over fighter, over cleric, over thief.
- After swallowing a soul, the skull sinks down.
- Attack can be stopped by casting either a "Forget" spell or an "Exorcise" spell.
- This causes the skull to sink down without consuming a soul.
- If there are no empty soul-gems left:
[i]t will pronounce a curse upon the remaining characters which will teleport them randomly in a 100-600 mile radius, each cursed to some fate similar to a) always be hit by any opponent attacking or b) never making a saving throw or c) always losing all treasure without gaining any experience from it.
The latter part of the curse can be removed by a remove curse spell, but the charisma of the character so treated will drop 2 points immediately thereafter and remain there permanently (unless some magical means of increasing it is found).