Mordecai, the Deathless Hunger's page

About Mordecai, the Deathless Hunger

WHISPERING WAY PATRON: Mordecai, the Hunger That Never Dies
XP 2000
Ghoul cleric (of Urgathoa) 5
NE Medium undead (human)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft, Perception +4
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 11, flat-footed 22; (+1 Dex, +2 natural, +7 +1 breastplate, +3 +1 darkwood shield)
hp 58 (2d8+8 +5d8+20 +7)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +11
Immune all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, phantasms), death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, stunning, nonlethal damage, ability drain, energy drain, ability damage to physical scores (Str, Dex, Con), exhaustion, fatigue, any effect that requires a Fort save that doesn’t also affect objects or is harmless, need to eat, breathe or sleep
Defensive Abilities +2 turn resistance
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d6+3 +disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +6 (1d6+2 +paralysis), mw morning star +6 (1d8+2b/p)
Ranged heavy crossbow +4 (1d10 if cold iron, 1d10-1 if alchemical silver)
Special Attacks Channel negative energy (3d6, Will DC 16) 7/day, bleeding touch 1d6 for 2 rounds 7/day, hand of the acolyte +4 to hit (1d8+2), 7/day, paralysis 1d4+1 rounds (Fort DC 15 to resist, elves are immune), ghoul fever bite – injury, save Fort DC 14; onset 1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d3 Dex and 1d3 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves
Spells Prepared (CL 5th, Concentration +9, 4/3+1,2+1,1+1)
3rd – bestow curse, summon monster III, dispel magicD
2nd – gentle repose, hold person (Will DC 16), silence, death knellD
1st – command (Will DC 15), cure light wounds (1d8+5, Will DC 15), magic weapon, obscuring mist, cause fear (Will DC 15)D
0 (at will) – detect magic, guidance, purify food & drink, stabilize
Domains Death, Magic
STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 13, Con -, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 18,
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 17
Feats Blind-Fight (B), Toughness, Selective Channeling, Command Undead, Craft Wondrous Item
Skills Appraise 0 (+3), Climb 1 (+6), Craft (alchemy) 4 (+10), Diplomacy 7 (+14), Disguise 3 (+10), Heal 3 (+10), Intimidate 1 (+8), Knowledge (arcana) 2 (+8), Knowledge (history) 3 (+9), Knowledge (nobility) 0 (-), Knowledge (the planes) 1 (+7), Knowledge (religion) 1 (+7), Linguistics 1 (+6, Undercommon), Perception 3 (+10), Profession (embalmer/mortician) 1 (+8), Profession (cook) 1 (+8), Sense Motive 1 (+8), Spellcraft 2 (+8), Stealth 6 (+10), Use Magic Device (CC) 6 (+10); Armor Check Penalty -3
Languages Osirioni, Common (Taldan), Goblin, Undercommon, Thassilonian
SQ undead traits
Combat Gear +1 breastplate, mw morningstar, +1 darkwood shield, heavy crossbow w/10 silvered bolts and 10 cold iron bolts, 2 daggers, wand of cure light wounds (CL 1, 5 charges, 75 gp), wand of inflict light wounds (CL 1, 5 charges, 75 gp), talisman of the fanged master*, blood conduit**; Other gear silver holy symbol of Urgathoa, spare cold iron holy symbol of Urgathoa concealed within stomach cavity, continual flame cast amulet around neck, whetstone, healer’s kit
(2400 gp)

*TALISMAN OF THE FANGED MASTER
Aura faint conjuration; CL 5th
Slot head; Price750 gp; Weight 1 lb
DESCRIPTION
This circlet is composed almost entirely of fangs, sharp canines from bats, rats and wolves, along with a set of prominent vampire fangs, spiking off in all directions, and inflicts 1d4 points of damage when first donned, as sharp teeth dig into the scalp of the wearer. This only happens once for any single wearer, and the circlet is then attuned to that wearer until it is attuned to another throughthe same process.
While worn, any summon monster, summon nature’s ally or summon swarm spells or spell-like abilities that are used to conjure bats, rats or wolves (mundane, dire and / or fiendish, but not celestial) last an additional number of rounds equal to the wearer’s Charisma modifier (if positive, minimum +1).
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, summon swarm and either summon monster III or summon nature’s ally III; Cost 375 gp.

**BLOOD CONDUIT
Aura faint necromancy; CL 5th
Slot neck; Price1500 gp; Weight 1 lb
DESCRIPTION
While you wear this ruddy iron choker, you can invoke it’s power up to three times per day, activating when you channel negative energy or cast an inflict wounds spell to harm the living. So long as at least one living creature takes damage, you receive healing equal to the largest amount of damage inflicted. Once you are fully healed, any excess hit points become temporary hit points and remain for one hour, although this effect does not stack with itself, and you only receive the largest possible number of temporary hit points if the ability is used multiple times in succession.
Example: You channel negative energy and roll to inflict 17 points of damage. One target takes full damage and two others take half damage, so you would heal 17 points of damage. If all had saved, you would only heal 8 points of damage, and if a target dies before taking the full damage, you only receive healing equal to the actual number of hit points that he lost.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, vampiric touch or death knell; Cost 750 gp.

SATIATION

School transmutation; Level adept 1, cleric 1, druid 1, paladin 1, ranger 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration 2 hours / level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

With a touch, you can eliminate all sensations of hunger or thirst, including the fatigued condition resultant from nonlethal damage suffered as a result of hunger or thirst. While the spell is in effect, nonlethal damage suffered from hunger or thirst can be cured normally. If the recipient has still not consumed any food or drink when the spell expires, a new Con check must be made immediately to avoid a new instance of nonlethal damage and the resumption of a fatigued condition (although the Con checks are made at DC 10, even if you had progressed to a much more advanced stage of starvation / dehydration before the spell was cast).

Items crafted with this spell are extremely popular in Geb, among the Ghoulish and Vampiric nobility, as freedom from their incessant and distracting cravings for flesh and blood allow them to devote more of their attentions to scholarly matters, courtly affairs and the business of rulership. Vampires in particular are somewhat prickly regarding their dependence on such items, and usually attempt to have them fashioned in such a way as to be easily concealed, particularly when in the presence of fellow undead nobles who suffer no such mortal failings, such as liches. Ghouls have no such qualms, and wear their hunger-negating tokens openly, although those bending knee to Urgathoa are forbidden to deny their hunger in this manner, as the state of hunger and the act of gluttony are holy things to the Pallid Princess.

Born to a status between slave and cattle in Geb, Mordecai was selected from the slave pens for his robust health and pleasing appearance to serve as the ‘vessel’ of a member of the vampire aristocracy, surviving to become, for a short time, her favored vessel, accompanying her at all times and bending his throat to her hungers. Tastes change, and soon he was discarded like last years ‘favored vessel,’ only surviving his ‘retirement’ through subterfuge and the grace of Urgathoa, who blessed him with a sickness so noisome that the aristocrat would not drain his blood completely, in the custom of ‘retirement,’ but instead had him dumped barely alive with the other human refuse of her appetites.

Taking his inspiration from the Pallid Princess’ gift of continued life, he set forth from Geb, eager to avoid becoming prey before he could attain for himself the gift of an unbeating heart and ageless wisdom.

He washed up in Riddleport, after diverse wanderings, and fell in with an unsavory group of pain fetishists, slavers, would-be diabolists and mixed-blood ne’er-do-wells, only to meet his end on some insignificant island infested with creatures more unnatural than even his studies had prepared him to face, pouring forth his hate in waves of negative energy, but still falling to their sheer numbers.

And yet, Urgathoa was still not done with him. He rose seven nights later, but as a ghoul, not some stranger thing, and has returned to warrens beneath Riddleport to build a dark temple to the Lady that has twice now saved him from a merely mortal death. Lurking below the community, he seeks to amass power and knowledge for himself, so much power that he can abandon the cravings of the ghoul and restore himself to human life, for one fleeting moment, before taking the final step into lichdom. His researches have already begun, and he has learned the crafting of arcane items, knowing that someday he must be able to construct his own phylactery, and that until then, his lesser creations will serve as valuable practice against that day. Time is precious, in it’s own way, as he must use gentle repose regularly to hold back the clock, and knows that he is already nine days dead, for the purposes of the raise dead spell, despite his best efforts. He uses a combination of alchemical preservatives, disguise and his own skills from life as a mortician and embalmer to keep his body supple and well-preserved, although the privations of his time as a ‘vessel’ had left him gaunt and pale, even before his transition into undeath.

He uses a combination of diplomacy, intimidation, disguise and spellcraft to work his craft below the notice of most in the city, and has a smattering of townsfolk in his thrall through various sinister means, his favorite being the use of bestow curse to inflict some ailment upon another, one that only he can easily diagnose and remove from these poor souls, unable to afford the services of the temples. His sole human acolyte is a familiar sight to the fishermen of the docks, purifying food in exchange for the parts of the catch that are inedible, which go to feed the ever-empty gullet of the only other ghoul that serves in his hidden temple, while a retinue of skeletons keep the place secure from the wanderings of the many rogue-ish sorts who might stumble upon this place.

As a member of the Whispering Way, Mordecai is all-too-aware that he is a small fish, and so has chosen to remain in Riddleport, by the standards of the Way, entrenched in such necropolitan areas as Geb and Osirion and Ustalav, a very ‘small pond,’ in which he is less likely to encounter competition, who would likely find it trivially easy to obliterate his small operation. He is a gifted diplomat, having survived his early mortal years through flattering a vampiress to whom the term ‘psychotic’ would be an understatement, and turns his charms to his own survival, when encountering a master of the Way. He has no wish at all to see if Urgathoa will give him a third chance…

Mordecai has needs. He has uncovered magics that allow him to stave off his hungers, but finds that Urgathoa frowns upon such matters, and that she turns her face from his prayers if he relies on magic to ignore the holy gnawing in his belly. And so, an endless supply of meat, of any quality at all, is needed to sate his hungers, most of which he aquires from butchers scraps, the occasional body found in the streets, and those squirming things plucked from fishermen’s nets that could not be sold to any living customer. He also seeks lore into lichcraft, although he knows that he is many years from attaining the level of power necessary to make that transition, and other lore of the Whispering Way, which may be traded for the lore more useful to his specific goals.

Boons While Mordecai himself is forbidden to slake his hungers with the magics he has discovered, he can, for a great price, show a fellow ghoul or vampire (or living, for that matter) spellcaster how to use magic to negate hunger and the need for sustenance for a day, or even how to craft a magical item that enacts this effect.

For other forms of undead, his skills in embalming and disguise, and ability to cast gentle repose may be of great value, affording a corporeal undead a fair chance of passing as a living person, depending on the particular circumstances of that undead’s nature. (Skeletons, not so much.)

He has also learned a Whispering Way technique that allows him to animate skeletons anointed in the blood of another to place them under that individual’s control, instead of his own, although the process is less effective if the beneficiary is not a spellcaster, and has it’s drawbacks and quirks, such as certain requirements that should be followed to prevent the skeletons from turning on their master…

A final boon is a technique to use a flask of unholy water as a power component when casting any inflict wounds spells, causing the spellcaster to receive hit points of healing equal to the level of the inflict spell whenever he harms a living creature with such a spell.