Variant on a wraith (death knight)

[HuManBing]

By wraith, I refer to a more Tolkienesque version - a heavily armed and armored undead warrior with a phylactery-like object (or a powerful magical enchantment) keeping it mobile.

General Vescorian, Scourge of the Dead

Vescorian was a human general in the Darkonian army under Darcalus, Azalin's predecessor (of sorts). Nobody is entirely sure what Vescorian did, but it was ugly enough for him to come back as an enslaved servitor undead. Some folktales tell of his bloodthirsty resolve on the battlefield, culling allies and foemen alike in his campaigns against the living and unliving enemies of the state. Vescorian had an almost irrational hatred of the undead, and his leadership against them would have been a welcome thing for Darkon's harried citizens... if only he didn't have an almost equally low opinion of the value of living soldiers. In the end, he died but some secret process converted him into a wraith - a being of martial prowess kept animate only through powerful magicks and its own perverse motivations. Most of Vescorian's powers appear to be attuned to fighting undead, which is odd given his own undead nature. Some theories hold that Vescorian was an anointed member of a militarist religion in life.

Darcalus bound Vescorian to him, and mistreated him significantly (playing on Vescorian's hatred for undead and his own undead condition). When Azalin took over, Vescorian's enchantments merely transferred loyalties directly to the new ruler. Azalin saw Vescorian as a powerful servitor, but with very limited applications and unpredictable fits of rage. Azalin placed him as the guardian of a faraway vault in the remote backwaters of Darkon.

Years later, the Kargat police had grown to a significant size. An early defection by an undead mid-ranking Kargat (Urik Von Kharkov) made Azalin suddenly aware that his secret police - established to keep the living populace under control - had no effective way of policing high-ranking undead.

He retrieved Vescorian from the vault and gave him training and equipment. Vescorian is now used as his party whip within the Kargat's ranks. Before the Grand Conjuction and Requiem, Vescorian rooted out traitors in the Kargat ranks, dispatching them with a martial efficiency. After the Requiem, Azalin's profound mind-changing powers meant Vescorian's missions within Darkon were limited. Instead, the wraith was sent abroad into other nations to track down a variety of enemy undead. This list included a considerable number of turncoat Kargat agents, as well as rival liches whose research Azalin coveted.

Vescorian is essentially a combat-heavy build. He can turn insubstantial at will, but this costs fatigue and so he uses it only when he is setting up an ambush or to bypass physical obstacles. Damaging him at all is very difficult, given his magical armor, and his sword leeches energy from foes (both living and unliving) to rejuvenate him. Vescorian can create a SpiritMire field, which stuns undead caught in it if they fail an opposed Will roll against him. This even affects insubstantial undead, making him a dangerous foe.

Vescorian can only be seriously harmed by spells and enchanted weapons - all other damage heals so quickly he barely notices. Vescorian also cannot be destroyed in combat unless his soul jar is destroyed - this is the form of a hollow dagger in his heart cavity. Azalin keeps his full phylactery safely and can reforge another soul jar if needed.

Vescorian will not use any other weapons and never removes his armor. Because Azalin's reputation as a normal living mage is extremely sensitive, Vescorian is rarely deployed inside Darkon. On the rare occasions when he is, Azalin often possesses the wraith's body by undead control, for greater martial prowess. Vescorian also generally avoids engage living humans unless it is an unavoidable obstacle to the undead quarry.

Azalin sent him against Strahd once. This venture ended poorly and Azalin has not attempted it again.

[alhoon]

By wraith, I refer to a more Tolkienesque version - a heavily armed and armored undead warrior with a phylactery-like object (or a powerful magical enchantment) keeping it mobile.

Interesting. Why didn't you name it "Wight" or something instead of wraith to be more on par with VRGtWD? By the description, General Vescorian IMO should be classified as obedient dead with a bit of restless dead in.
What keeps this guy bound any way?

Anyway, interesting idea but I would suggest he's bound to someone else than Azalin. After all, Azalin has the power to impose his will on undead instantly. Hazlik on the other hand is not a necromancer so he could find such a bound servant very useful.

[HuManBing]

Interesting. Why didn't you name it "Wight" or something instead of wraith to be more on par with VRGtWD? By the description, General Vescorian IMO should be classified as obedient dead with a bit of restless dead in.

Bear in mind it's been years since I last used any DnD mechanics whatsoever. (I switched to GURPS in 2008.) That's the reason why my posts will be relatively light on mechanics and heavier on descriptive text. If you are able to express them in terms comprehensible to d20 rules, then by all means please do so. They work just fine in GURPS and quite frankly that's the limit of my mission these days.

What keeps this guy bound any way?

In GURPS terms, there are several mechanical ways of doing this. Dependency (mana, constant), and Slave Mentality. This probably does not answer your question in the sense that you intend, so if you are familiar with d20 rules and can express them there, then more power to you. If not, then perhaps you'll understand why I switched to GURPS - because it does work in GURPS mechanics.

Anyway, interesting idea but I would suggest he's bound to someone else than Azalin. After all, Azalin has the power to impose his will on undead instantly. Hazlik on the other hand is not a necromancer so he could find such a bound servant very useful.

If that works for you, that's fine. In fact, somebody like Hazlik may actually have far fewer mighty warriors at his disposal, so something like this wraith would be a lot of help... provided he can avoid its wrath.

The one thing that's worth pointing out is that this wraith is completely loyal to Azalin and it is a relatively autonomous highly powerful undead being. That gives Azalin some autonomous projection power, either to chase down undead outside Darkon, or to quash restive Kargat traitors. If you play using Necropolis as an undead Il Aluk, then the Wraith would be a useful character to use in the struggle against Death.

[herkles]

What about this servant being bound to Strahd or Vlad Drakov?

[DocBeard]

Strahd is pretty into the whole 'capture the soul of a warrior to enslave him for a while.' deal, sure.

Drakov, less so. The dude seems much more comfortable with human(oid) evils, though those wacky guys in his ministry of the arcane could be up to all sorts of nonsense.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Also, all of HuManBing's ideas relate to Azalin in some way.

Just kidding, Bing, my friend. You know I love old Firan too...

Anyway, nice NPC, I like it!

[HuManBing]

Also, all of HuManBing's ideas relate to Azalin in some way.

Just kidding, Bing, my friend.

No, you had it right the first time! I'm an Azalin fan. He exemplifies the fear of losing your academic abilities, and for any Asian who's ever been through high school and college, that's frankly terrifying.

[Chaot]

Pardon the necromancy here, but I'm totally yoinking Vescorian. Part of my current game involves the PCs being secret agents of Azalin to keep his Kargat in check. I see a nice niche for this Vescorian fellow there.

[Dark Angel]

By wraith, I refer to a more Tolkienesque version - a heavily armed and armored undead warrior with a phylactery-like object (or a powerful magical enchantment) keeping it mobile.

By staying true to Mr. J. R. R. (but was Dr. wasn't it?), the wraiths from Lord of the Rings were known as Ringwraiths in full title. Homage alone, I would do the same.

[Chaot]

Ringwraith is pretty setting specific and comes with a lot of baggage that's not helpful for Ravenloft. If you did want to follow Tolkien's naming pattern, looking at Barrow Wight and Ring Wraith you could identify an aspect of whatever Vescorian is. Dagger Wraith or Wraith Knight or something.

I'm fine answering "what is he?" with "someone you probably don't want to spend a whole lot of time around."

[HuManBing]

I had completely forgotten about this character and in fact I'm not even sure where the NPC stats got to. The first thing I thought upon reading this thread was "I'm gong to have to steal Vescorian for my campaign..."

Thanks for reminding me! Thread necromancy is perfectly fine in a thread about Azalin...

[Zilfer]

I like the last line. xD

Reminds me a bit of a Graveknight in pathfinder.

Check it out Here

Pretty close.... Anyways