Acererak the Devourer
by Jim BobbAcererak (The Devourer, Fiend-Mage, The Lich-lord)
Initiate 1st Immortal of Entropy
Portfolio: Negative Energy, Undeath, Spellcasting Undead, Rot and Decay
Superior: Thanatos
Allies: Orcus
Enemies: Chardastes, Petra and Zirchev
Symbol: A ruby demon skull
Church: Clerics, Dedicated Clerics and Avengers
Colours: Blood red and bone white
History and Description
Acererak was a half-fiend, born to a human woman, but sired by a mountain fiend. His innate grasp of magic allowed him to excel in the spellcasting art, but the distrust over his obvious non-human side eventually incited a mob to raze his mother's farm to the ground, killing her as she ushered him to safety. Acererak razed the entire village to the ground, using his fiendish powers and his magical abilities, then began to intensely study the dark art of necromancy.
Over the decades, Acererak grew powerful in his knowledge and his command of magic. He created and furthered the knowledge of many spells, mostly involving death and the dead. After roaming the world for almost 3 centuries, he decided that he knew all there was to life, it was time to learn of it's reverse - unlife. He constructed the ultimate Tomb from which he would transform himself into a lich, in order to continue his studies of life and death. The Tomb itself was a masterwork of magic and engineering and adventurers soon flocked to it in order to be the first to penetrate its secrets and plunder the wealth and magic of Acererak the Fiend-mage.
Centuries passed and Acererak's knowledge over life and death grew greater than that of most Immortals. Thanatos saw him as a great asset to the Entropy sphere and revealed a way to ascend to Immortality to him. Acererak readily undertook his quest and trial for his sponsor and collected enough living soul energy to vest himself with the life and death energies to make good his ascension.
Acererak cares for nothing but his expanding knowledge and the creation of more undead creatures. Unknown to even Thanatos, Acererak has been studying ways to usurp the ability and power of other Immortals permanently and transfer them to himself. So far his experiments have yielded small but impressive successes against Mortal and Exalted creatures and people, but Immortals have been immune to his attempts thus far.
Mortal Form (Magic-user Lich 36)
Acererak most often appears as a huge ruby red skull with bejewelled eyes and teeth and the same abilities as a 36th level Lich. Occasionally he will appear as a full lich, but always with a ruby red skull and bejewelled eyes and teeth, a scimitar covered in constantly oozing blood on his side. The scimitar is an artifact +5 scimitar of draining (2 levels per successful hit, unlimited number of total levels). Any creature struck and drained below 1st level is immediately drawn into the blade and is forever dead, barring intervention by an Ultimate Level Immortal. As an Initiate level Immortal, Acererak has the ability to speak with any creature (living or dead), can grant up to 7th level spells to his clerics, dedicated clerics and avengers, has 50% anti-magic, possesses eternal youth, and is immune to +3 or less mortal enchanted weapons. Acererak's aura attack is double the strength of a normal lich's and is saved against at -4. When showing his favour, Acererak usually bestows a weapon with the ability to energy drain 1d4+1 levels, at 1 level or hit dice per hit. Other times he will Bestow a permanent Protection from Good, Bless or special immunity possessed by undead.
For those that displease the Acererak, and endless plague of undead and visions of their souls being eaten by the Devourer.
When responding to simple prayers for guidance over courses of action or research, a blood red moon indicates favour over the selected course, while a pale white one indicates disfavour.
Dedicated Cleric Requirements and Special Abilities Dedicated Clerics of Acererak are known as Mouths of the Devourer and must possess a 13 wisdom. They can never cast any spell that restores or grants levels. Dedicated Clerics of Acererak may cast magic-user spells that cause instant death (death spell, finger of death, etc) as if they were clerical spells of the same level. In addition, Acererak grants his dedicated clerics an additional spell of his own devising after he attained Immortality - Animate Lesser Dead. Acererak's Avengers, Clerics and Dedicated Clerics can command undead as if they were an undead liege of the same hit dice as their level. Dedicated Clerics and Avengers of Acererak typically use scimitars (same statistics as swords) in addition to blunt weapons and wear any armour, though they prefer armours constructed of once-living materials (leather, bone, giant scorpion shell, dragon hide, etc).
Animate Lesser Dead
Level 2 Cleric Spell
Range: 10'
Duration: Permanent
Effect: Animates small dead creatures.
This is a simpler version of the Animate Dead spell, creating skeletons and zombies from creatures of less than one hit dice and small size. These undead possess 1/2 hit dice (skeletons) or 1 hit dice (zombies) and the caster can control up to 1 hit dice of undead per 2 levels. See Animate Dead for particulars.