Ok, here you go WizarDru. I have to admit I'm kinda proud of this one, in a rat bastardly kind of way.
Kepnekarak is a fully advanced roper with both the monster of legend template and the psionic creature template from the psioncs handbook. I took a look at the lich queen adventure and at the cavern where she keeps her phylactery. You should have a real hoot with Kepnekarak's hiding ability and should be able to surprise the living hell out of your players. He's also got a couple of epic feats that should give your PCs fits as well. Heh.
Enjoy.
Dirge
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Kepnekarak
Advanced Psionic Roper of Legend
Huge Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 30d10+360 (557 hp)
Initiative: +13 (+5 Dex, +8 Superior Initiative)
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares)
AC: 35 (-2 size, +5 Dex, +22 natural), touch 21, flatfooted 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +30/+54
Attack: Strand +33 ranged touch (drag) or bite +45 melee (4d8+24 plus poison/19-20 x2)
Full Attack: 6 strands +33 ranged touch (drag) or bite +45 melee (4d8+24 plus poison/19-20 x2)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. (75 ft. with strands)
Special Attacks: Drag, poison, psionics, strands, weakness
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., enhanced attributes, greater damage, immunity to electricity, low-light vision, resistance to cold 10, spell resistance 30, telepathy, vulnerability to fire
Saves: Fort +32, Ref +25, Will +17
Abilities: Str 42, Dex 20, Con 34, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 15
Skills: Bluff +18, Climb +49, Hide +30*, Listen +40, Sense Motive +21, Spot +40
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Devastating Critical, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Multiattack, Overwhelming Critical, Power Attack, Superior Initiative, Weapon Focus (bite),
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 23
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Drag (Ex): If Kepnekarak hits with a strand attack, the strand latches onto the opponent’s body. This deals no damage but drags the stuck opponent 10 feet closer each subsequent round (provoking no attack of opportunity) unless that creature breaks free, which requires a DC 49 Escape Artist check or a DC 45 Strength check. Kepnekarak can draw in a creature within 15 feet of itself and bite with a +4 attack bonus in the same round. A strand has 20 hit points and can be attacked by making a successful sunder attempt. However, attacking Kepnekarak’s strand does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If the strand is currently attached to a target, Kepnekarak takes a –4 penalty on its opposed attack roll to resist the sunder attempt. Severing a strand deals no damage to Kepnekarak.
Poison (Ex): Injury (bite), Fortitude DC 41, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 1d6 Str.
Psionics (Sp): At will—biofeedback (DC 27), brainlock (DC 14), chameleon (DC 28), displacement (DC 29), detonation (DC 35), disintegrate (DC 28), dissolving touch (DC 30), energy barrier (DC 31), hear light (DC 27), improved biofeedback (DC 29), inertial barrier (DC 30), iron body (DC 30), true concussion (DC 29),
Attack/Defense Modes (Sp): At will—all/all.
Strands (Ex): Most encounters with Kepnekarak begin when it fires strong, sticky strands. The creature can have up to six strands at once, and they can strike up to 75 feet away (no range increment). If a strand is severed, Kepnekarak can extrude a new one on its next turn as a free action.
Weakness (Ex): Kepnekarak’s strands can sap an opponent’s strength. Anyone grabbed by a strand must succeed on a DC 41 Fortitude save or take 2d8 points of Strength damage.
Vlaakith, the legendary Lich Queen of the githyanki has survived for millennia due in large part to her ruthless ambition and near limitless personal power. In addition Vlaakith has a keen eye for choosing her servants, and using them to the best of their abilities. Such is the case with Kepnekarak, a roper who has grown to collassal size and power after centuries of haunting the desolate tunnels of the underdark and preying upon its denizens.
Vlaakith discovered Kepnekarak shortly after she ascended to absolute ruler of the githyanki after disposing of the former “Lich Queen”. As a lich Vlaakith suffered from one very real weakness as all liches do, her phylactery, the very soul of her power and immortality, required constant guarding. Vlaakith had hidden her phylactery very well and had placed many powerful wards and enchantments upon it, but still she feared that it might be found and destroyed despite her formidable arcane precautions. She needed a guardian.
Vlaakith searched the planes for the perfect creature to guard her phylactery, it could not be one of her own people, for she had ensured that none of them would attain the power to perform such a task. For nearly a decade she searched, finding countless powerful creatures but none suited her purpose in from or function. Ironically the perfect candidate found her, or more rightly found her servants, and gained her attention.
A powerful Githyanki raiding party had been sent to retrieve a silver sword that had been stolen by drow noble upon the prime material world of Toril. The githyanki hunting party consisted of Vlaakith’s finest warriors and mages, all veterans of dozens of similar raids and all near the pinnacle of githyanki power. Only one returned, and he was empty handed save for a harrowing tale that the dreaded lich queen could scarcely believe.
The only surviving Githyanki told his mistress that he and his comrades had plane shifted to the prime material deep beneath the surface of Toril, arriving in the labyrinthine tunnels of the underdark. A strange magical flux in the area had caused their plane shift spell to go awry, and the hunting party found itself miles from their intended location. The Githyanki had appeared in a large cavern that contained little more than a small subterranean lake from which jutted a huge stone monolith. Puzzled by their unfamiliar surroundings the githyanki had proceeded to explore the cavern and in doing so stumbled upon their doom.
The surviving githyanki warrior told his queen that the stone monolith had “come alive” and devoured the rest of his brothers in arms. The raiding party had fought valiantly but had been unable to damage the strange “monolith monster” with either spell or sword. Doubting her servant’s wild tale Vlaakith probed his mind with the full brunt of her formidable arcane ability, and found, to her surprise, that the githyanki warrior had told the exact truth.
Vlaakith was intrigued, she had never encountered or even heard of such a beast, and if it could defeat the best her people had to offer then perhaps her search for a perfect guardian was over. Vlaakith discerned the location of the monolith creature from the mind of the surviving githyanki and then with a recklessness that she has long since outgrown, teleported instantly to the cavern in which it lived.
The cavern was just as the githyanki warrior had described it, roughly two hundred feet to a side with a single tunnel exiting to the south. In the center of the cavern was a large pool of still water, some one hundred feet across from which arose a massive column or gray stone. Vlaakith instantly recognized the pillar of stone for what it was, a living creature. The monolith beast was completely motionless, obviously secure in the fact that she perceived it as nothing more than a strange rock formation. Vlaakith was in no mood for chicanery and subterfuge and simply thrust forward one skeletal hand and released a burst of magical flame with single guttural utterance. The line of fire streaked towards the monolith and as the lich queen expected it suddenly animated and twisted to the side in a most bizarre display of dexterous avoidance.
A single orb of vermilion rage suddenly flared to life in the center of the towering pillar of stone and below it a jagged-toothed gash yawned impossibly wide. A writhing mass of whip-like strands burst from a number of small nozzles space equidistantly around the circumference of the beast, each one lashing forward to snatch at Vlaakith who stood just beyond their reach.
“Well, beast. It seems I have gained your attention.” The lich queen said haughtily.
The creatures maddened writhing suddenly ceased, and the long sticky strands were withdrawn back into its body. Vlaakith could see that this was no simple beast; a vast and devious intellect lurked within the depths of that single burning eye.
“What do you wish of me, old one?” The creatures voice filled the cavern with the low rumbling of stone scraping against stone, suspicion ringing in its gravelly tones.
Vlaakith regarded the beast with a cool appraising eye, noting how it had instantly reckoned her as a being that was no easy prey.
Good. She thought. It had no wish to risk its own skin needlessly, a worthy trait in a servitor.
“I have come to claim retribution for the lives of my warriors, beast. You have cost me much and I will have justice…in one way or another.”
“Hah!” The creature’s snort of derisive laughter boomed of the cavern walls.
“Your warriors violated the sanctity of my lair, I defended it and myself justly. Besides, I allowed one to live and return to you.”
Vlaakith smiled, stretching the rotting shreds of her cheeks in a rictus grin. The bidding had begun.
“No, that will not do.” Vlaakith shook her head and clucked like a scolding mother. “That will not do at all.” The lich queen’s arms suddenly shot wide and her voice burst forth in a ringing cacophony of arcane power. A ball of flame belched forth and streaked towards the monolith beast. This time it was not quick enough to avoid the earth shaking explosion and roaring conflagration that ensued. The beast bellowed in agony as its flesh was seared by the hellish flames of Vlaakith’s spell. When the flames cleared the beast was only lightly wounded but Vlaakith had made her point, or so she thought.
The beast’s single eye pulsed once and the ground at Vlaakith’s feet erupted in a blast of concussive force that hurled the stunned lich queen from her feet to sprawl ignoble and battered on the ground nearly ten paces away.
“Enough!!” The creature bellowed.
“What do you want!?”
Vlaakith rose from the ground and dusted herself off nonchalantly. Although she didn’t show it the beast had surprised her. She had expected a complete physical assault, a tactic she was well prepared to defend. Instead, the creature had targeted her with a psionic attack, one she had only witnessed in the arsenal of a powerful ilithid she had slain centuries ago.
Wonderful. She thought. This creature was turning out to be a truly fortuitous find.
“Compensation, beast. Compensation.” Vlaakith said simply in answer to the creature’s question. “You have taken something from me and I shall not leave until I have taken something from you. That does not necessarily have to bee your life…”The lich queen’s last remark was pointed and unsubtle.
“Compensation?” The creature asked quizzically.
“I have little that would interest one such as you.”
“Ahh, now that’s where you are wrong.” Vlaakith moved closer to the pool her hands upon her shriveled hips. “You have much to offer.”
“Speak on, old one.” The beast’s eye narrowed suspiciously.
“I have need of one such as you, a fearsome guardian for something very precious. Agree to serve me and I will spare your life. In addition, if you serve me well, I have the recourses to reward you in ways you cannot begin to imagine.”
“Your fret for your phylactery, eh lich.” The beast chuckled thickly, obviously pleased that it had divined Vlaakith’s need.
“Yes, just so.” Vlaakith answered, unshaken by the beast’s intuitive guess. “Guard my phylactery and you shall live.”
“An intriguing offer, and in truth I have grown bored with these caverns and would enjoy a change of scenery. But, why should you trust me with something so precious to you? I could easily betray you.”
“Because you will accept a gaes spell before we leave this place, or you shall die.” Vlaakith answered, her tone brooking no refusal.
“Very well. I accept. I Kepnekarak shall serve you. I have grown attached to this mortal shell and have no desire to leave it just yet. Cast your spells lich.”
Over the next few hours Vlaakith placed her shackles of invisible enchantment upon Kepnekarak, ensuring that his loyalty would remain unswerving whether he wished it or not. Then, when she was satisfied, she teleported them both to the location of her phylactery and tasked her new guardian with his life’s work.
Appearance & Tactics
Kepnekarak may be the largest and oldest roper in existence and, as the ultimate pinnacle of his race is a truly frightening opponent. In appearance Kepnekarak resembles his lesser brethren, a living pillar of stone with a single gleaming eye and a gaping mouth filled with jagged crystalline teeth. He is of course much larger than a standard roper, towering over twenty feet in height.
The huge roper will often start a combat much like other ropers by remaining completely motionless and posing as a large pillar of un-worked stone. He will then fire his sticky strands at any opponent that comes within reach, usually gaining complete and total surprise. He typically targets spellcasters first as he fears possible fire magic and counts on their weaker fortitude to succumb quickly to his weakening ability. When he has pulled a foe within striking distance he will simply bite it, counting on his devastating critical ability to destroy his opponent with a single chomp. Kepnekarak can also call upon a multitude of psionic powers, which he uses to strike his foes at a distance especially those he deems too powerful for a direct physical assault.
