Non, Male Human, Wiz(Nec)9/CrL3

 

  SZ Medium Humanoid (5 ft., 4 inches tall); HD 12d4+22 (46 hp); Init +2 (Dex), Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 (+2 Dex, +4 Bone Armor); Atk +6/+1 (1d4+1 dagger); SA Rebuke Undead; AL NE; Saves Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +10; Str 12, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 12.

  Skills: Alchemy +8, Concentration +15, Knowledge: Planes +12, Knowledge: Arcana +12, Knowledge: Undead +14, Spellcraft +14

  Feats: Scribe Scroll, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Undead, Spell Focus (Necromancy), Extra Turning, Craft Wand, Prolong Spell (adds +0 levels to spell, Metamagic, causes damage to be inflicted at only 1d / round for all affected), +2

  Possessions: Bone Armor, Wand of Slow, Wand of Prolonged Dragon's Breath (causes damage to holder, 1 hp / die of effect, 5th level), Gauntlet of Scale (Elemental Resistance 5 vs Cold, Fire, Acid, Electricity and Sonic attacks), Gauntlet of Bone (linked to five bone rings, each able to allow control of a single undead creature of up to 5 HD)

 

  Spells per day: Wizard 4/4/4/4/3/3/2 (+1 spell / level from Necromancy list)

                  Forbidden School: Divination

 

Appearance:  A short (5 ft, 4 inches) man with a balding head and short ratty looking beard, and wispy mustache.  When he and Ari arrived in Glivid-Autel, they rode a fairly worn, but still clearly expensive palanquin of gold chased cherrywood, with large (and relatively cheap) gems of green and red hue and silk curtains.  The palanquin was held aloft by a dozen robed figures that were revealed to be standard Skeletons, although both armed and armored with traditional Calastian infantry attire.  He traditionally wore fine and elaborate (if often somewhat tattered) robes of silk with cloth-of-gold embroidery, in shades of brilliant blue, bright red or dark green.

 

Non believed that the secret to eternal life lay in the elemental planes, and that the Divine powers had sealed them off from mortal access for this very reason, to deny humanity the secrets of immortality.

 

His methodology involved finding ways of infusing the energies of death with an elemental aspect, and his success on this front led to the creation of many new forms of undead.

 

He began his research by exploring the elemental aspects of death, burning and drowning and suffocating and burying many subjects beneath great stones.  He managed to develop a technique to bind malevolent elemental entities, perhaps some relation to Mephits, into the bodies of those slain by elemental forces.  It was a simple enough matter to burn men alive, and to use this enchantment to bind fiery spirits into their bodies, causing them to animate as smoldering scorched zombies with a fiery touch, and he soon moved on to drowning and burying men alive, infusing them with malicious spirits of sea and stone that had paused overlong, attracted by the dying agonies of those slain by their elemental medium, long enough for Non to bind them at the very instant of human death and cause the body to again function, but animated by these bound elemental spirits instead of traditional Necromantic forces.

 

After much research in this area, he failed to find a method to infuse a living body with these elemental forces.  No matter how many people he burned alive, all became little more than mindless raging Ashen Zombies, he could not *before the moment of death* force the spirits of fire to encompass and animate the dying tissue.  Annoyed by this lack of success, he decided to move on and finish the line of research before declaring it a dead end, moving on to more and more sadistic means of infusing other elemental and para-elemental forces into dying tissue, from such expediments as packing a man in salt and dehydrating him to death, to suffocation in a smoke-filled room, to drowning in a pool of acidic muck.

 

Some might argue that he lost any pretense of caring about his supposed lofty goals, but fell into an obsession with killing as many subjects as he could in as bizarre and unique methods possible, simply to assuage his bitterness.  But not to his face, as he was ever short on living subjects and he had a list of torturous death techniques he was eager to test on any 'volunteers.'

 

With the shortage of 'research supplies,' Non took to going further and further afield to search for fresh recruits for his studies, and took as well to memorizing fearsome Evokation magics (as well as his signature binding spells), allowing him to recreate such 'experiments' in the field.  Traditional Evokation magics were 'too fast' to allow him to bind spirits into the subjects at the moment of death, so he found himself developing techniques to slowly burn subjects alive, or animate a body of water to drown them, rather than kill them 'too quickly.'

 

His downfall was the discovery that larger and more powerful spirits (or perhaps greater numbers of smaller spirits?) could be bound into larger and stronger creatures, causing him to begin to hunt Ogres and Giants, slowly immolating them to infuse them into Large and Huge Ashen Zombies.  Unfortunately, his slow killing spells were often not as effective on larger creatures, and these 'subjects' could inflict deadly amounts of damage before they burned to death.  His burned battered corpse was found surrounded by a few surviving Ashen Zombies, and the scorched corpses of a half-dozen Ogres (whom his undead servants and slow burning spells finished off, but only after his death)...

 

Use Zombie stats, but not limited to partial actions and add the appropriate Elemental template from Manual of the Planes;

 

Fire - reduce HD to d8's.  Add Fire subtype, Fire immunity, Double damage from Cold, except on a successful save.  Burn (Ex): Those struck by natural weapons must make a Reflex save (DC 7+ the creatures HD) or catch fire for 1d4 rounds (see Catching on Fire, chapter 3 of the DMG).  HD 1-3 no other addition, HD 4-7 +1d4 Fire damage added to natural weapon attacks, HD 8-11 +1d6 Fire damage added to natural weapon attacks, Damage Reduction 5/+1, HD 12+ +2d6 Fire damage added to natural weapon attacks, Damage Reduction 10/+1.  Intelligence is 4, can speak and understand a few words of Ignan.

 

Earth - reduce HD to d8's.  +2 Str, -2 Dex.  +3 Natural Armor.  Gains Burrow speed of 20 ft, or the creatures base move, whichever is less.  Earth Mastery (Ex): +1 bonus to hit and damage rolls if both it and the target are standing on the ground.  If the target is instead airborne or waterborne, it suffers a -4 penalty on attack and damage rolls.  Burrow (Ex): Can glide through dirt, earth or stone (but not metals) effortlessly, as a fish through water.  Tremorsense (Ex): Can automatically sense the location of anything within 60 ft that is in contact with the ground.  1-7 HD no special effects, 8-11 HD Damage Reduction 5/+1, 12+ HD Damage Reduction 10/+1.  Intelligence is 4, can speak and understand a few words of Terran.

 

Water - reduce HD to d8's.  Gains a Swim speed of 90 ft.  Water Mastery (Ex): Gains a +1 to attack and damage rolls if both it and target touch water, if either are landbound, it instead has a -4 penalty to attack and damage rolls.  Drench (Ex): Touch puts out campfires, lanterns or other exposed non-magical flames up to size Large.  Its touch can dispel magical fire as a dispel magic cast by a sorcerer whose level equals its HD.  1-7 HD no special effects, 8-11 HD Damage Reduction 5/+1, 12+ HD Damage Reduction 10/+1.  Intelligence is 4, can speak and understand a few words of Aquan.

 

Cold - reduce HD to d8's.  +3 Natural Armor.  Cold subtype (Ex): Cold immunity, double damage from fire attacks on a failed save.  Icewalking (Ex): Works as spider climb, but only on icy surfaces.  HD 1-3 no other addition, HD 4-7 +1d4 Cold damage added to natural weapon attacks, HD 8-11 +1d6 Cold damage added to natural weapon attacks, Damage Reduction 5/+1, HD 12+ +1d8 Cold damage added to natural weapon attacks, Damage Reduction 10/+1.  Intelligence is 4, can speak and understand a few words of Aquan or Auran.