Kelemvor

(Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire)

Greater Power of Hades, LN

PORTFOLIO: Death, the dead
ALIASES: None
DOMAIN NAME: Oinos/Crystal Spire
SUPERIOR: None
ALLIES: Mystra, Jergal
FOES: Cyric, Talona, Velsharoon
SYMBOL: An upright, bone-colored skeletal arm holding the golden scales of justice balanced evenly in its fist against a steel-gray field
WOR. ALIGN.: Any

Kelemvor (KELL-ehm-vor), a former associate of Midnight, Cyric, and Adon during the events of the Godswar, inherited the portfolio of the god of the dead when Cyric lost those responsibilities following the Cyrinishad debacle. The first official act of the newly created god of the dead was to turn Cyric's Bone Castle into a gleaming tower of crystal, a symbol that this particular god of the dead would hide nothing from his subjects. He intends to impart justice among the dead in an even-handed and fair manner.

Kelemvor is kind, just, forthright, and earnest, though stern at times. He is not terribly clever for a power and tends to try to solve what he perceives as his immediate problems with direct action. Though he means well, he does not always see the difficulties down the road caused by short-term solutions.

Kelemvor has an unexpected ally, at least in terms of traditional godly alliances. He and Mystra, formerly the human Midnight, remain close. They were in love during their mortal lives, but whether this romance has kindled during their godly tenure is a matter they have thus far kept private.

Cyric, who lost his death portfolio to Kelemvor, is Kelemvor's bitter enemy. Cyric views Kelemvor as someone who pointedly and maliciously set out to steal a part of Cyric's rightful power. One traditional foe of the Faerûnian god of the dead, Lathander, has not declared against Kelemvor, but is waiting to see if his actions live up to his promises.

Kelemvor's Avatar (Fighter 33, Cleric 25, Mage 18)

Kelemvor walks Faerûn quietly and unassumingly when he comes to it. Since Kelemvor was until recently a mortal human warrior, he appears much as he did in life, as a square-jawed fighter with piercing green eyes in a dark, tanned face. He has a wild mane of black hair with a few streaks of gray in it and is clad in chain mail and dark leather. He always wears a wide belt bearing a large, cabochon-cut cat's-eye jewel at its front, but it appears to have no magical powers. He can draw from any sphere or school for his spells, but casts necromantic sphere spells and necromancy school spells at triple effect in all respects and with a -3 penalty to any applicable saving throws by the victims of such spells. Kelemvor will not create any sentient undead creatures, though he has no compunctions about using such sent to his own ends before dispatching them to a final judgment.

AC -6; MV 15; HP 223; THAC0 -10; #AT 5/2
Dmg 2d4+17 (bastard sword +3, +12 STR, +2 spec. bonus in bastard sword)
MR 80%; SZ L (10 feet)
STR 24, DEX 17, CON 22, INT 13, WIS 13, CHA 18
Spells P: 10/9/9/9/9/8/4, W: 5/5/5/5/5/3/3/2/1
Saves PPDM 2, RSW 5, PP 4, BW 4, Sp 6

Special Att/Def: Kelemvor wraps himself in a cloak of shadows when he wishes to hide from mortal eyes and observe. This cloak bestows upon him a 90% probability of being invisible while he moves or stands within a shadowy or dark place; it also works similar to a cloak of displacement in that any melee or missile attack aimed at Kelemvor automatically misses the first time. He is armed with both a bastard sword +3 and a rod of bone that projects death to mortals with one end and emits death sleep from the other end. He uses his bastard sword +3 only when brute force would prove the only remaining answer to a situation.

Kelemvor can make one attack with the rod of bone per round. The death end of the rod of bone causes any living creature to die instantly unless it makes a successful saving throw vs. death magic. This death effect can attack one being per round within Kelemvor's sight and causes dead victims to levitate a few inches upward and float in unbreakable stasis for 2 turns when they die. The death sleep end has a range of 150 yards and effects up to 8d10 creatures within a 120-foot cubic area. Kelemvor may select beings within the area of effect to not affect. Death sleep does not bring true death to anyone, but merely a coma-like collapse and suspension of all bodily functions lasting for an entire day. Beings in death sleep do not breathe, but suffer no harm from lack of air to internal organs and the like; their bodies simply cease to function. Such beings cannot be awakened, even with rough handling. Removal of death sleep before a complete day passes requires the application of both dispel magic and remove curse. The nature of this magic is such that a being casting one of the needed spells is made aware of the necessity of the other.

Kelemvor is immune to all necromancy and necromantic spells, spell-like effects, and abilities. He commands all nonintelligent undead he can see at will and destroys them at will. He destroys all sentient undead he touches unless they make a successful saving throw vs. death magic at a -6 penalty. He can see in any sort of darkness as with normal sight; this power is not disrupted by light or heat as infravision is.

Other Manifestations

Kelemvor prefers to send a translucent image of a floating skull enfolded by a hood and surrounded by the flapping tarters of the rest of a diaphanous gray robe. This image is accompanied by the mournful whistle of winds. If necessary, a real wind can accompany this image, and a tangible skeletal arm possesses a Strength of 24 and can chill touch as the 1st-level wizard spell, as if cast by an 18th-level mage. The image can speak with the voice of the god, though Kelemvor prefers not to speak aloud, or it can speak directly into the minds of beings who are present. This shrouded skull can drift about at MV Fl 21 (A), dispel (permanently disrupt with no saving throw) all undead within 90 feet, or animate dead all corpses within the same range to command them or turn their control over to a mortal, usually one of his priests. Commands given by Kelemvor to the animated dead cannot be broken by any mortal.

Kelemvor also indicates his favor or disfavor or sends aid through the presence or actions of the demipower Jergal, pers, a few einheriar (whom he transforms into minor deaths when his senior specialty priests summon them) and watchghosts, but never any evil or corporeal undead.

The Church

CLERGY: Clerics, specialty priests
CLERGY'S ALIGN.: LG, NG, LN, N, LE, NE (LE and NE only allowed provisionally in the case of converted Myrkulytes, who must change to a neutral alignment within three years in the church or leave for another faith)
TURN UNDEAD: C: Yes, SP: Yes
CMND. UNDEAD: C: Yes, SP: Yes

All clerics and specialty priests of Kelemvor receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.

Those who see death as a necessary part of the cycle of life, not something grisly and abhorrent in itself, are the favored followers of Kelemvor. They tend to be humans who derive personal comfort in seeing that disorder does not attend death and to be both sensitive and practical. Gravediggers, mourners, embalmers, monument carvers and stonecarvers who work in graveyards all give their respects to Kelemvor, along with the relatives of the recently deceased and Kelemvor's clergy. In addition, the majority of the temples of Cyric that used to be temples of Myrkul have now switched their ways and allegiance to Kelemvor and are learning to follow him with as much fervor as they did Myrkul and Cyruk (their name for Cyric) in turn. These old-line converts tend to be more evil in nature, but are drifting close to neutrality as the years pass or leaving Kelemvor and finding other deities more suited to their natures.

The bulk of the death clergy are clerics who comfort the dying, administer last rites, assist in funerals, burials, and the just and orderly setting right of affairs that follow, place warning marks of plague and other diseases, and ensure that the will or expressed desires of a deceased are followed. The remainder of the death clergy are the specialty priests, who Kelemvor has blessed with unique foresight and applied wisdom that enables them to anticipate where death will occur and so direct the other clergy. Most specialty priests are also charged with maintaining discipline within the clergy (quelling clerical attempts to prolong life due to sentimentality) and with fundraising to support the clergy. Most donations to the church are bequests in the form of possessions or lands that must be sold, rented out, or—in the case of profitable farms—worked by the clergy.

Specialty priests of Kelemvor are known as doomguides. The church has not been in existence long enough to develop even an informal consensus about the usage of titles.

Dogma: Kelemvor is interested in having followers who recognize that death is but a part of life. It is not an end but a beginning, not a punishment but a necessity. There is no deceit in death, nothing concealed, nothing chaotic. Death is an orderly process.

The followers of Kelemvor are not out to spread death and destruction in the Realms. Rather, they seek to help others to die with dignity at their appointed time and no sooner. Just as they do not seek to rush death, they also speak out against those who seek to artificially prolong their lives beyond their natural limits, including such magical creations as liches.

The charge of Kelemvor to his novitiates is this: "Death is but part of life: fear it not, evade it not, and view it not as evil. To fear death delivers you into the hands of those who can bring death down upon you. Die with dignity, neither raging nor seeking to embrace undeath. Do honor to the dead, for their strivings in life brought Faerûn to where it is now, and to forget them is to forget also where we are now—and why."

The church of Kelemvor believes that seeking out those who are near death is their great duty, for it is the will of Kelemvor that no human (and if possible, no sentient being) die a natural death in all Faerûn without one of his priests at their side. Kelemvor assigns the essences of the dead their proper place in the ongoing cycle of existence, and it must be emphasized to all that he is the Great Guide, leading all folk into their next life. Death is not a final ending, but the next step in a wondrous, ongoing journey. Let no one die not knowing that Kelemvor awaits them and that he is not to be feared, for he believes in justice and wields mercy.

Day-to-Day Activities: Priests of Kelemvor comfort the dying and provide burials for those who die alone. They administer last rites to the dying and help the living left behind to better understand the natural and inevitable process of death and dying. When people die alone without a will, known heirs, or business partners, their goods are taken by the church to fund its ongoing ministry to the dying. This does not, by any means, mean that death clergy would ever take goods from a grave for their own benefit.

When plagues, hordes, or great monsters run amok, they must be fought by the death clergy, for it is not right that many die before their due time. When marauding dragons or other monstrous predators become problems, the death clergy should try to interest adventuring bands in slaying the problems—failing that, they must deal with the problems themselves. In cases of great pain, ravaging disease, or mutilation where death would be a mercy, it is the office of the priests of Kelemvor—and only the priests of Kelemvor—to bring death, as swiftly and painlessly as possible.

Undeath is an affront to Kelemvor. Undead creatures are to be dstroyed or given true death whenever they are met with, and even sought out and hunted down for that holy purpose. Priests of Kelemvor are free to hire or take as companions folk of other faiths to assist them in this purpose, for the great sin of undeath must be stamped out by whatever means possible. Though members of the clergy can command the undead, these commands usually can be boiled down to "Go back to your graves and sleep there forever" except in times of dire need. Kelemvor has made no official statement to single out good-aligned undead creatures as an exception to his policy, though specific temples and individuals often take only lenient action against or ignore such creatures in the field, preferring to concentrate their efforts on those creatures of obvious malevolent intent or who are likely to quickly multiply.

All priests of Kelemvor may be called to a holy mission by their god or their senior clergy and pursue a more active and adventurous life. Such priests defend death clergy members and holdings when need be and bring death to others when it is necessary. For example, a Kelemvorite specialty priest assigned to a holy mission may be sent to lead an adventuring party to stop the spread of disease or kill beings seeking to disrupt natural cycles—such as mages who seek to create huge armies of undead or develop necromantic spells that can slay others and transform them inescapably into undead creatures under their control. Death clergy sent to slay predators or to go into dangerous country to comfort the dying are often issued scrolls of offensive spells or magical items of battle power gleaned from the goods of those who died alone.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: Most folk experience the rituals of the death clergy in a personal way: As someone dies, a priest or priests of Kelemvor performs the Passing, a simple ceremony of last rites that is a chant of comfort calling on Kelemvor to be alert for the coming essence of this person, who has enriched life in Faerûn in his or her own way and earned this salute. The Lament for the Fallen is a larger ceremony of this sort sung over a battlefield, ruined village or fortress, or other site where many folk have recently died.

Clergy of the god also lead a daily morning ceremony over graves, the Remembrance, and a ritual that begins after nightfall, the Daeum. The Remembrance is a dignified rite of songs and prayer usually attended by relatives of the dead. The Daeum, or Thanks to the Guide (Kelemvor), is a celebration of the strength and purpose of the Great Guide and his church and is attended only by faithful followers of the god. It is at the close of this ceremony that the goods of the dead are distributed to the assembled faithful and any favors of the god or holy missions are dispensed through manifestations or the orders of senior clergy.

The two great calendar-related holy days of the Church of Kelemvor are Shieldmeet and the Feast of the Moon. During both of these days, priests of the Lord of the Dead tell tales of the Deeds of the Dead so that the greatness and importance of the ancestors of those alive today will never be forgotten. They also call back from the dead heroes who are needed in the land again (in the opinion of mortal supplicants whom Kelemvor agrees with). During both of these solemn high holy days, any priest of Kelemvor who casts speak with dead can talk freely with the departed for as long as desired and hold conversations, not merely put questions to them for which the answer will be a bare "yes" or "no."

Major Centers of Worship: The only major center of Kelemvorite worship thus far is the Tower of Skulls in Ormath, an abbey built as a ziggurat whose walls are carved with a stone facing in the shape of staring human skulls. Its spiral ways are roamed by mysterious guardian creatures that resemble will o' wisps. The resident clergy, commanded by the High Lord Doom Bezurgathan Indraeyan, can muster a capable army of battle-hardened clerics wielding magical items to defend the abbey. Vast cellars reaching down to an underground river for water and into caverns in which edible fungi are grown underlie the Tower. The priests make potent amber wine and various perfumes, unguents, and potions for sale from the fungi they raise.

Affiliated Orders: Thus far the church of Kelemvor has no affiliated military or knightly orders. All gravediggers, embalmers, and other cemetery workers and crafters who work for the church of Kelemvor and are not themselves clergy belong to the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud, a society whose rolls are kept by the church and whose members know each other as true members of the order by certain secret signs. They report any signs of undead activity or desecration in graveyards tended by Kelemvorites immediately to the church. The Kelemvorite church is seriously considering sponsoring a holy order of crusaders and paladins to target undead creatures of fearsome prowess who tax the resources of the clergy of the nascent church. The tentative name of this group would be the Knights of Eternal Order, but church scholars are discussing other names that would be more indicative of the order's duties.

Priestly Vestments: Clerics of Kelemvor usually wear smoky gray robes and cowled cloaks. Specialty priests can readily be identified by their silver headbands, which are normally never removed, and by the symbol of Kelemvor displayed prominently in a badge on the chests of their somber, elegant robes. Their robes are always of a single hue without trim or ostentation and of dark, muted hues of green, blue, or gray, in ascending order of rank; they can be worn over armor if need be. The scales in the badge of Kelemvor worn by a priest also denote rank: They are iron-colored for lower clergy, silver for full priests, and gold for higher-ranking priests.

Adventuring Garb: Adventuring clergy members are often given enchanted gray domino masks entrusted to their use by the church that enable them to detect undead (as the 1st-level wizard spell) and see with infravision up to 60 feet in darkness. Adventuring priests dress functionally, wearing whatever armor and clothing is practical. They are required to display the symbol of their deity prominently. Often it is worn on the left breast over the heart or is woven into a cloak.

Specialty Priests (Doomguides)

REQUIREMENTS: Constitution 12, Wisdom 14
PRIME REQ.: Constitution, Wisdom
ALIGNMENT: LN, NE (NE only allowed provisionally in the cast of converted Myrkulytes, who must change to LN within three years in the church or leave for another faith)
WEAPONS: All bludgeoning and piercing weapons (Type B, Type P, and Type P/B), sickles, and scythes, but no swords or other slashing weapons
ARMOR: All armor types up to and including chain mail; no shields
MAJOR SPHERES: All, astral, charm, combat, healing, law, necromantic, summoning, time, wards
MINOR SPHERES: Creation, divination, elemental, guardian, travelers
MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics
REQ. PROFS: None
BONUS PROFS: Modern languages (pick two)

Kelemvorite Spells

2nd Level

Chilling Scythe (Evocation, Necromancy)

Sphere: Combat, Necromantic
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 round/level
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: One scythe
Saving Throw: None

This spell creates an oversized but weightless scythe that can be wielded by any living creature either as a tool or as a weapon. The scythe appears in the hands of the spellcaster, but may be given to another to be wielded. The scythe is a two-handed, 7-foot-long device that is as a +2 enchanted weapon, dealing 2d4+2 points of piercing and slashing (Type P/S) physical damage (1d8+2 vs. L-sized or larger creatures) plus chilling for a further 1d4 points of damage (no saving throw). This chilling damage is caused by draining of life force, not by cold; however, the damage is not permanent as most types of life-force drain are, and it can be healed as normal. A chilling scythe has a speed factor of 5. Its dweomer enables its wielder to use it with no nonproficiency penalties.

If a chilling scythe even touches an undead creature it deals the undead being 4d6 points of damage and hurls it helplessly 20 feet away from the scythe. The undead creature cannot advance again until the next round even if this repulsion is brought up short by the creature impacting a barrier before the full distance is traversed.

The material component for this spell is a fragment of bone.

4th Level

Dead March (Alteration, Necromancy)

Sphere: Necromantic
Range: 5 yards/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 hour/level
Casting Time: 7
Area of Effect: 10 corpses or body parts
Saving Throw: None

This spell animates multiple corpses or body parts without making them undead. Up to 10 once-living objects per level of the caster can be raised up from 1 to 14 feet above the ground and sent in a single direction so that they drift along in a straight line on the indicated route at MV Fl 10 (E). The caster can redirect them at any time by concentrating, so as to allow them to follow a winding road or simply to change direction. The spell is not ended, nor contact lost, if the caster engages in other spellcasting. The spell works underwater, so that the animated army of the dead can march down into a river, across its bed, and up the far bank. The magic is not broken by long falls; an animated band that marches over a cliff continues on its way at the bottom.

The animated corpses can be dressed in uniforms to deceive observers or be used as light transport by strapping pouches or weapons to them, but the spell cannot keep single items that weigh even a trifle over 200 lbs. aloft, so pack trains of the animated dead are impractical. The spell can be ended before it expires if the caster so wills. At the spell's end the dead fall abruptly to the ground or sink gently down, as the caster desires. The animated dead have no sentience or hostile intent and cannot be affected by magic intended to affect or control undead, neither can they be turned.

The material components for this pell are a miniature or full-size drum stick or a chicken leg bone and a thread.

5th Level

Deny Death (Alteration, Necromancy)

Sphere: Necromantic
Range: 30 yards
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour/level
Casting Time: 8
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None

This spell places willing or senseless beings who have suffered injury within the previous turn into a sort of suspended animation. It does not work on hostile beings who are still conscious or who are under the effects of a magical or psionic charm or sleep effect. This suspended sleep prevents further loss of blood, vital fluids, and hit points and prevents foreign substances and poisons that are propelled through the body by the natural actions of breathing, blood pumping, or digestion from dispersing any further in the body. It can therefore serve to keep poisoned or sorely wounded beings alive for the spell duration.

Deny death also protects its recipient against additional damage from nonmagical attacks or handling. This allows, for example, the caster to drag a sorely injured companion over rough ground without causing further harm. The caster can end the effect instantly at will regardless of how much distance separates him or her from the affected being. Recipients of deny death cannot rouse themselves, nor are they awakened by attacks upon them.