Amechra
2012-04-16, 09:27 PM
The room we entered... well, it was the most horrible thing we had ever seen; nothing lived in there. Not even flies, as you would expect with all of those corpses lying around...
Nothing.
In the center of the room, there hangs a man from a meathook; it turned to look at us, and we felt fear, like we never had in our lives.
Then, at the corner of our eyes, the corpses started moving...
No-one knows where the Corpse-Hook arose, or how the horrid ritual that expands its influence works; given their general hatred and dismissal for positive energy based life, it is not surprising that interviews tend to not last very long.
Visually, a Corpse-Hook is not very imposing, at least not at first; all it looks like is a simple meat-hook, made from some sort of bone. There is no aura to warn of its power, and, since it has no intellect of its own, it is almost impossible to detect in its latent form.
When a lone humanoid encounters one that has not been activated, that humanoid must make a DC 25 Will save, or immediately pick up the meat-hook, find a suitable place, and then fasten the hook to the ceiling (the means are unknown; it seems to use similar magic to an Immovable Rod, but the bond can take an almost unlimited amount of weight. No upper limit has been found, and since testing is so dangerous, it is unlikely one will ever be found), then finally driving it through their lower jaw straight into the middle of their head, killing them instantly.
A suitable location is defined as a public area that is out of the way, yet where people tend to visit often; examples include store-rooms, bathrooms, and side hallways. No one notices a few missing servants, after all.
The soul of the poor humanoid is prevented from moving on by the hook, and is fashioned into a semblance of a new soul for the hook itself to use. The Hook inherits the Hit Dice and the mental ability scores of the "host"; it uses the Hit Dice of the host as the beginning of its "reclamation army."
A Corpse-Hook may create Undead in a rather unique manner; it simply materializes them from its reservoirs of Hit Dice; luckily for most intelligent races, it only begins with the ability to create Zombies, Skeletons, and Necropolitans of the same race as the poor soul that picked it up. Unluckily, the Corpse-Hook is filled with a need to improve itself and all of its "children." It can do this through a two step process; it must first harvest Hit Dice from living creatures (a fact that sorely offends the Hook, if it could be called capable of being offended), which it does through its Room-Aura (see below); it can then perform research or modification upon itself.
A Corpse-Hook can modify itself with ease, being able to spend Hit-Dice to increase its mental ability scores much like adding points to a point-buy generated score; it can also "research" new undead by spending one week and hit dice per hit dice of the resultant creature. It already begins with the ability, if it so chooses, to replace the mindlessness of an unintelligent undead that it creates with an Intelligence score equal to the Hook's Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), and can also affect undead that it creates as with a permanent, non-magical Disguise Undead spell. It has total control over every undead creature it creates; though any intelligent undead it crafts are not mind-slaved to the hook, they still worship it as a god and obey its plans to the letter.
Strategically, a Corpse-Hook will create a Necropolitan of its Host, which then will lure its former friends and family into the room where the Hook resides, allowing the Room Aura to claim them, effectively allowing the Corpse-Hook to take control of an entire household, which will then attempt to perform the Ritual of Putrifaction, and who will in turn lure unsuspecting innocents into the lair of the Hook.
Once it has established itself, a Hook will show off a terrifying new ability; it can synthesize any disease that it pleases out of the Hit Dice that it has harvested, allowing it to weaken any living attackers that may show up. It requires one day for every 2 points above 10 that the save DC for the Disease may have to create it, and may spend one Hit Die to attempt to infect a creature within its Room Aura with the disease; a disease created in this manner is treated as Supernatural disease.
Room-Aura
A Corpse-Hook has a sinister presence, that extends far past the natural into the obscene; the room or hallway in which the Corpse-Hook is hung is treated as if it were affected by the Room-Aura of the Corpse-Hook.
Within the Room-Aura, Turning and Rebuking Undead ceases to function; in addition, the Detect Undead spell registers an Overwhelming Aura of Undeath, preventing the spell from giving any useful information at all.
The Corpse-Hook is aware of any living creature within its Room-Aura, and there is one, final, horrifying affect of the Room-Aura; the Corpse-Hook has a "Gaze Attack" that inflicts a Negative level, with a DC 25 Reflex save to avoid looking at the Hook, and thus avoid the gristly fate that is in store for you. Because every single negative level inflicted by this "Gaze" grants the Corpse-Hook one more Hit Die for it to play with. The range of the Gaze is unlimited; however, it is blocked by anything that would block Line of Sight, and does not affect creatures outside of its Room-Aura.
Finally, living creatures within the Corpse-Hook's Room-Aura are treated as if they were affected by the Attraction power, with a DC 25 Will Save to avoid it; the object they are drawn to is the Corpse-Hook itself.
Ritual of Putrifaction
The Ritual of Putrifaction is disgusting rite performed by the undead created by the Corpse-Hook; in it, they smear refuse, faeces, and other sundry filth upon the walls adjacent to a room affected by their master's Room-Aura, allowing the Room-Aura to fill that room or hallway as well, while the refuse and filth slowly spreads to coat all the surfaces of the room. This ritual cannot be used to expand a Room-Aura outdoors; however, given that undead are tireless and obedient, a Room-Aura can be extended through underground tunnels dug to adjacent homes, allowing entire villages to be rapidly subsumed into the Corpse-Hook's forces.
The Ritual of Putrifaction can be reversed; all that is necessary is that the walls are completely washed off with pure water (such as what is created by the Create Water cantrip); this process only works on the outermost layer of walls, as any internal rooms purified in this manner simply get re-coated within a minute. However, a room can be permanently cleaned off by washing the walls in holy water, thus allowing intrepid adventurers a chance to have a breather.
Defeating a Corpse-Hook is simple; all you must do is remove the corpse acting as its host from the Hook (a simple DC 15 Strength check), or destroy that corpse; if this is done, the Hook drops from the ceiling, all Intelligence fades from it, every Undead it made is destroyed, and every disease it spread simply cures itself.
The Hook itself? Why, it can be destroyed by merely sprinkling it with holy water mixed with the ashes of a saint, and then snapping it in half.
Nothing.
In the center of the room, there hangs a man from a meathook; it turned to look at us, and we felt fear, like we never had in our lives.
Then, at the corner of our eyes, the corpses started moving...
No-one knows where the Corpse-Hook arose, or how the horrid ritual that expands its influence works; given their general hatred and dismissal for positive energy based life, it is not surprising that interviews tend to not last very long.
Visually, a Corpse-Hook is not very imposing, at least not at first; all it looks like is a simple meat-hook, made from some sort of bone. There is no aura to warn of its power, and, since it has no intellect of its own, it is almost impossible to detect in its latent form.
When a lone humanoid encounters one that has not been activated, that humanoid must make a DC 25 Will save, or immediately pick up the meat-hook, find a suitable place, and then fasten the hook to the ceiling (the means are unknown; it seems to use similar magic to an Immovable Rod, but the bond can take an almost unlimited amount of weight. No upper limit has been found, and since testing is so dangerous, it is unlikely one will ever be found), then finally driving it through their lower jaw straight into the middle of their head, killing them instantly.
A suitable location is defined as a public area that is out of the way, yet where people tend to visit often; examples include store-rooms, bathrooms, and side hallways. No one notices a few missing servants, after all.
The soul of the poor humanoid is prevented from moving on by the hook, and is fashioned into a semblance of a new soul for the hook itself to use. The Hook inherits the Hit Dice and the mental ability scores of the "host"; it uses the Hit Dice of the host as the beginning of its "reclamation army."
A Corpse-Hook may create Undead in a rather unique manner; it simply materializes them from its reservoirs of Hit Dice; luckily for most intelligent races, it only begins with the ability to create Zombies, Skeletons, and Necropolitans of the same race as the poor soul that picked it up. Unluckily, the Corpse-Hook is filled with a need to improve itself and all of its "children." It can do this through a two step process; it must first harvest Hit Dice from living creatures (a fact that sorely offends the Hook, if it could be called capable of being offended), which it does through its Room-Aura (see below); it can then perform research or modification upon itself.
A Corpse-Hook can modify itself with ease, being able to spend Hit-Dice to increase its mental ability scores much like adding points to a point-buy generated score; it can also "research" new undead by spending one week and hit dice per hit dice of the resultant creature. It already begins with the ability, if it so chooses, to replace the mindlessness of an unintelligent undead that it creates with an Intelligence score equal to the Hook's Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), and can also affect undead that it creates as with a permanent, non-magical Disguise Undead spell. It has total control over every undead creature it creates; though any intelligent undead it crafts are not mind-slaved to the hook, they still worship it as a god and obey its plans to the letter.
Strategically, a Corpse-Hook will create a Necropolitan of its Host, which then will lure its former friends and family into the room where the Hook resides, allowing the Room Aura to claim them, effectively allowing the Corpse-Hook to take control of an entire household, which will then attempt to perform the Ritual of Putrifaction, and who will in turn lure unsuspecting innocents into the lair of the Hook.
Once it has established itself, a Hook will show off a terrifying new ability; it can synthesize any disease that it pleases out of the Hit Dice that it has harvested, allowing it to weaken any living attackers that may show up. It requires one day for every 2 points above 10 that the save DC for the Disease may have to create it, and may spend one Hit Die to attempt to infect a creature within its Room Aura with the disease; a disease created in this manner is treated as Supernatural disease.
Room-Aura
A Corpse-Hook has a sinister presence, that extends far past the natural into the obscene; the room or hallway in which the Corpse-Hook is hung is treated as if it were affected by the Room-Aura of the Corpse-Hook.
Within the Room-Aura, Turning and Rebuking Undead ceases to function; in addition, the Detect Undead spell registers an Overwhelming Aura of Undeath, preventing the spell from giving any useful information at all.
The Corpse-Hook is aware of any living creature within its Room-Aura, and there is one, final, horrifying affect of the Room-Aura; the Corpse-Hook has a "Gaze Attack" that inflicts a Negative level, with a DC 25 Reflex save to avoid looking at the Hook, and thus avoid the gristly fate that is in store for you. Because every single negative level inflicted by this "Gaze" grants the Corpse-Hook one more Hit Die for it to play with. The range of the Gaze is unlimited; however, it is blocked by anything that would block Line of Sight, and does not affect creatures outside of its Room-Aura.
Finally, living creatures within the Corpse-Hook's Room-Aura are treated as if they were affected by the Attraction power, with a DC 25 Will Save to avoid it; the object they are drawn to is the Corpse-Hook itself.
Ritual of Putrifaction
The Ritual of Putrifaction is disgusting rite performed by the undead created by the Corpse-Hook; in it, they smear refuse, faeces, and other sundry filth upon the walls adjacent to a room affected by their master's Room-Aura, allowing the Room-Aura to fill that room or hallway as well, while the refuse and filth slowly spreads to coat all the surfaces of the room. This ritual cannot be used to expand a Room-Aura outdoors; however, given that undead are tireless and obedient, a Room-Aura can be extended through underground tunnels dug to adjacent homes, allowing entire villages to be rapidly subsumed into the Corpse-Hook's forces.
The Ritual of Putrifaction can be reversed; all that is necessary is that the walls are completely washed off with pure water (such as what is created by the Create Water cantrip); this process only works on the outermost layer of walls, as any internal rooms purified in this manner simply get re-coated within a minute. However, a room can be permanently cleaned off by washing the walls in holy water, thus allowing intrepid adventurers a chance to have a breather.
Defeating a Corpse-Hook is simple; all you must do is remove the corpse acting as its host from the Hook (a simple DC 15 Strength check), or destroy that corpse; if this is done, the Hook drops from the ceiling, all Intelligence fades from it, every Undead it made is destroyed, and every disease it spread simply cures itself.
The Hook itself? Why, it can be destroyed by merely sprinkling it with holy water mixed with the ashes of a saint, and then snapping it in half.