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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 8243351" data-attributes="member: 2209"><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112798/The-Black-Monastery-SW?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">The Black Monastery (S&W)</a>Swords & WizardryCimota: These undead creatures are the images of evil still imprinted on the place, acting out the roles and deeds of the long-dead monks. Cimota are the physical manifestations of evil thoughts and actions. They manifest in the Prime Material as cloaked figures. Their existence is always tied to a specific area or artifact that is imbued with ancient and highly malevolent evil. A cimota is able to manifest itself anywhere within an accursed locale that has given it life, or within 300 feet of an evil artifact to which it is attached. Cimota are bound to repeat the evil thoughts and actions that created them. When they manifest they will endlessly repeat the deeds that spawned them. So, for instance, a group of cimota may haunt a ruined temple, re-enacting evil rituals. Cimota may guard an unholy site such as a city, forest or building. They will fight to the death to defend these places. Cimota who are bound to an artifact may act out the intentions of that artifact. These undead creatures are the images of evil still imprinted on the place, acting out the roles and deeds of the long-dead monks. The acts of human sacrifice and other evil deeds associated with the oracle stone are what have given the cimota power within the Black Monastery. They are echoes and reflections of the Black Brotherhood and the vile deeds they committed here. As long as the oracle stone exists, the Black Monastery will return and the cimota will continue their dark existence.Ghost Strangling: Anyone strangled by a strangling ghost will rise as a strangling ghost within 1d6 days.The ghosts of intruders who have died in the Black Monastery are trapped here, held prisoner in death.Mohrg: Mohrgs are the animated corpses of mass murderers or similar villains who died without atoning for their crimes. Buried six feet below the garden’s surface are the bodies of seven former members of the Black Brotherhood, condemned by their brethren for betraying the order. Digging in the garden has the potential of disturbing these corpses, which will rise as morhgs. Black Skeleton: The Black Brotherhood created these undead warriors as the special guardians of their monastery and the dungeons below. Black skeletons are the remnants of living creatures slain in an area where the ground is soaked through with evil. The bodies of fallen heroes are contaminated and polluted by such evil and within days after their death, the slain creatures rise as black skeletons, leaving their former lives and bodies behind. Soul Knight: A soul knight is a suit of armor animated by the lingering soul of an evil knight, cursed to undeath as punishment for having committed betrayal, murder or other crimes. The evil spirit continues to inhabit its old armor, repeating the deeds that brought about the living knight’s ruin. The Black Monastery: The twisted thoughts and evil deeds of the Black Brotherhood are long ended. There is no need to fully recite them here. Suffice to say that their actions included necromancy, pacts with evil outsiders and the human sacrifices those evil outsiders demand. The Black Monastery was the scene of dark sorcery and magical research that left behind many deadly traces. What manifests atop the Hill of Mornay from decade to decade is a lethal ghost of those repugnant deeds.Ghost Relatively Weak: ?Leader Cimota: ?High Cimota: If the cloak of the high cimota is worn for a full 24 hours, the wearer will begin to fade out of existence, becoming the new high cimota. Nothing short of a wish spell can reverse this terrible fate. Gareth the Reaper, Soul Knight: One of these soul knights was Gareth the Reaper, an adventurer who turned upon his comrades while adventuring in the Black Monastery out of greed and spite. Gareth himself was slain before he could escape the monastery’s halls and has remained to haunt this room ever since. Undead: An appearance of the Black Monastery also carries curses for the local countryside. In an area of 20 miles around the monastery there is usually an outbreak of magical diseases announcing the return of the Black Brotherhood. Cases of fevers that cause the dead to rise as undead occur among local people without any known source of infection. Banshee: ?Ghoul: The four cots are all occupied by human commoners, including three women and a man. These are local peasants who have been infected with ghoul fever. In their growing madness, they have been drawn to the Black Monastery and have laid down on the cots. These sufferers are victims of the curses that always accompany Black Monastery’s evil presence. Although they are in the last stages of the disease, they are not beyond saving. A cure disease, or similar magical intervention, will revive them and allow these innocent people to return to their homes. If the party does not heal them within 24 hours, all four victims will be gone from this room. They will be transformed into full ghouls and off to run through the monastery halls in search of food. Doctor Brutus, Ghoul: When the Black Monastery fell, Doctor Brutus was destroyed along with the other black monks, but it was not his fate to stay dead. Some of the potions Doctor Brutus tested on himself took hold and raised him to undeath as a powerful and abnormal ghoul. It is now his curse to live in undead twilight, bound to the Black Monastery. Sacavious, Lich: Inside the room is a clay vessel studded with gems and bound with gold bands. The vessel has a value of at least 8,000gp. It is the jar that the lich Sacavious used to hold most of desiccated internal organs as part of the necromantic rituals that were intended to turn him into a lich. At the time of the Black Monastery’s fall, Sacavious was coming to the end of his mortal life. His potions and experiments were no longer able to sustain his failing body, so he had completed the research, potions and incantations to transform himself into a lich. Sacavious had put off his final transformation for more than a decade when the monastery was besieged. His plan had included a betrayal of his brothers, whom he had intended to make his undead minions. The Black Brotherhood’s violent end frustrated Sacavious’ plans and forced him to undergo his transformation only moments before the Black Monastery was immolated and disappeared in arcane fire. With his spells exhausted, and the monastery gates about to be breached, Sacavious rushed to his tower and drank down the final potion. He expected to become an immortal being of ultimate power. The result was something quite different.The immolation of the Black Monastery unleashed forces unknown to Sacavious. Instead of falling to the floor and rising up as a free-willed wraith, ready to dominate his enemies, Sacavious’ mind was badly damaged by the arcane powers unleashed around him. The pieces of his conscious mind were scattered as wisps, blowing between the planes. Only fragments of these wisps returned to his animated corpse, trapping him forever in a dead shell, re-living his final moments as a mortal. What is left of Sacavious may be found in the large chamber at the top of his tower, waiting to destroy anyone who dares intrude on his eldritch domain.Lich: The floor of this large chamber is covered with scrawled magical symbols and diagrams. These are various necromantic spells, spells a necromancer must gather and cast in order to become a lich. There are rags, pieces of candles, feathers, and patches of glittering dust scattered everywhere on the floor.Sacavious, Lich Fully Armed and Operational Sacavious: In this variation, the Referee assumes that Sacavious completed his transformation into a lich and has been able to recuperate all of his spells. Sacavious, Lich Depleted Sacavious: The necromancer has completed his botched transformation into a lich, but his spells have been seriously depleted by the final siege of the Black Monastery. This version of Sacavious is still a deadly threat, but has already exhausted most of his spells in the final battle. This broken remnant of the Black Brotherhood’s pet necromancer has been lying face down on his spell book ever since. Sacavious, Lich Deranged and Crawling Sacavious: The necromancer’s failed transformation has left him almost completely broken. The Referee should assume that Sacavious has no spells, or possibly just a few left. At the Referee’s discretion, Sacavious should have his hit points and armor class reduced to reflect the fact that he has not cast spells in preparation for the party’s arrival. After he turns toward the party from his workbench, the lich emits a ragged gasp and either staggers toward the adventurers or falls to the floor. Sacavious is still capable of harming the party with his innate lich and necromancer powers, but is only a shell of what he might have been. Mummy: When they drank the potions that Sacavious said would make them powerful and immortal, all four assistants were transformed into the equivalent of mummies. The transformation was agonizing and maddening. Whenever these particular mummies move or fight a fine dust fills the air around them. This dust also covers the bodies on the floor. Anyone who suffers a wound from these mummies, or any other type of wound in this room, will be afflicted with a special type of mummy rot. Once a victim has succumbed to the disease, the corpse will rise as a mummy (although not wrapped) and shamble across any distance to return to this room. There, the victim will take his place as a new guardian of the dungeons beneath the Black Monastery.Shadow: There is a bowl on top of a table in the middle of the room. The bowl is filled with water and inscribed with runes on its exterior. A Magic-User reading the incriptions will be able to identify that the inscriptions on the bowl are used as part of a necromantic ritual. If the Magic-User has an Intelligence score over 15, he will also discern that the bowl is specifically used in a ritual to create shadows.These are the shades of 13 brothers who took the most pleasure in the displays put on here. Their doom, in death, has been to haunt the place where they did so many evil acts while they were living. The Shadow of Kran the Dungeon Master is akin to a normal shadow, but much more powerful. If it drains a character’s strength to 0, the character will die and within 1d3 rounds the character’s spirit will rise as a normal shadow in Kran’s service.Kran the Dungeon Master, Powerful Shadow: What remains of Kran the Dungeon Master is standing in this room. Kran’s body was destroyed in battle but his evil soul survived, cursed to haunt his tower forever as a powerful shadow. Troll Skeleton: ?Skeleton: ?Undead Menagerie Human Skeleton: These animals were given experimental draughts of the various potions that Sacavious intended to use to transform himself into a lich. Undead Critter: These animals were given experimental draughts of the various potions that Sacavious intended to use to transform himself into a lich. Undead Menagerie Human Skeleton: ?Undead Menagerie Wolf Skeleton: ?Undead Menagerie Dried Dwarf Corpse: ?Undead Menagerie Dried Elf Corpse: ?Manticore Skeleton: ?Spectre: ?Vampire: ?Samuel Knock, Wight: His former comrades locked him in this room weeks ago when he fell under the influence of a cursed amulet that changed him into a wight. The amulet is still around Samuel’s neck. It is a silver skull, marked with the teardrop and pentagram symbol of the Black Brotherhood. The amulet can be removed by a remove curse spell, if it is cast within two hours of the moment the victim put it around his neck. It comes off easily if the wearer is slain. Anyone who puts on Samuel’s amulet will immediately begin to scream gibberish and tear at his face and clothing. The transformation will be complete 12 hours later. Party members may only save their companion from a hideous fate by acting quickly to remove the amulet, or the new victim will suffer Samuel’s fate.Wight: This unfortunate person was a member of an adventuring party that was trapped by the iron doors. The horror of his situation transformed him into a wight. Wraith: ?Zombie: Any character killed by mohrg will rise after 1d4 days as a zombie under the morhg’s control. Two gold bracelets with a teardrop and pentagram engraved on each of them are suspended five feet off the ground, floating in mid-air. This is a pair of bracelets of undeath. If both bracelets are placed on both arms, the wearer gains certain traits of the undead: immunity to sleep, charm and hold spells. Cold-based attacks also have no effect on the wearer, who is also immune to all poisons.Choosing to wear the bracers of undeath may be a fateful decision for a player character. For each week the bracers are worn the wearer must succeed on saving throw or fall under the bracers’ control, permanently changing the character’s alignment to Chaotic. A second failed saving throw means that the character will begin to lose 1d4 constitution points per day until death, or until a remove curse spell is cast on the character. Anyone who dies from this effect will immediately rise as a zombie. The newly risen zombie will have the overwhelming urge to return the bracelets of undeath to their place in this room of the Black Monastery.Sir Ralph Halifax, Zombie: ?Zombie Sea Cat: ?</blockquote>

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