Planar Bestiary
Alterwrath are undead spirits that exist in perpetual misery, joined together and forced to cooperate to achieve their ends despite an undying hatred for each other. But doing anything else would soon lead to the extinction of both. They are now a single entity comprised of two painfully fused, mismatched animate humanoid corpses. Reanimated in a Lower Plane, the creature "wears" a hovering crown of shadow, the negative light of a solar corona. Able to bend and jerk their body without the need to worry about living joints or the weakness of flesh, what would be clumsy and downright impossible for another creature is a nightmarishly agile and quick movement for the alterwrath.
A region of Hades called Pluton trapped the souls of an unending stream of creatures from Material Plane worlds, imprisoning them in lightless vaults where their desperation and fear grew without surcease, forever. Most of these vaults still lie undiscovered, buried on a plane that most gods and monsters alike prefer to forget. But alterwrath are two souls that, working together, forged an unbreakable alliance until the bitter end.
As an undead being, an alterwrath doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Alterwrath are sometimes associated with the Tomb of Winter (page 135).
Necrotic damage is damage that accelerates rot and decay, withers living flesh, and is sometimes associated with the energy that animates undead beings.
Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: Hades, anywhere else in the multiverse undead are found
Health: 20
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: Short
Modifications: Deceives, perceives, and resists effects that influence or control undead as level 7
Combat: An alterwrath attacks twice each round with their fists.
Once every few rounds, an alterwrath targets a creature within short range with a life-draining necrotic ray, dealing 5 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) on a failed Might defense task. In addition, the target is sickened until the end of their next turn, hindering all tasks. On a successful defense task, the target still takes 2 points of Speed damage, but isn't sickened.
An alterwrath is immune to poison and necrotic attacks.
If an alterwrath is in mortal peril, they undergo "plutonic estrangement," separating into two beings standing next to each other. The resultant burst of necrotic energy inflicts 5 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) on all creatures within short range that fail a Might defense task, or 2 points even with a successful task. The resulting two singles have the same stats as the fused version, except each has 10 points of health. If they survive the conflict, they still perish because they turn on each other once other enemies are eliminated, or after one day.
Interaction: An alterwrath is driven by a hunger to feed on the living like many undead; however, they might be willing to briefly negotiate with those who offer a way to separate without leading to both singles' deaths.
Use: An alterwrath serves as the door ward to a necromancer's tomb.
Loot: A defeated alterwrath's hovering crown of shadow solidifies into a coal-colored circlet that can be used as a darksight cypher.
GM Intrusion: One of the fused parts of the alterwrath begs a foe for mercy, even as the combined being continues to attack.