Appearance: Spores of the plague take an altered form in the body of some of its victims. The Leperic, once a man, is a creature that has contracted the plague, but also a creature that cannot die from its effects. This creature appears as a normal man might, save for the small black or purple blotches, the swollen lymphatic glands, as well as the boils that mar his body, some being as small as almonds, others as large as oranges. Good portions of Leperics also display the signs of leprosy, with dead, decaying flesh. They are marked by their putrid stench, which exudes from their bodies by way of sweat, excrement, spittle, and breath, each so fetid as to be overpowering. They can be seen coughing up blood on a regular basis, spreading their contagion through the air. Their clothes are often soaked with urine, which has turned turbid, thick, and black, or sometimes red with blood. Expressions borne on the faces of the Leperic is one of great despair and self-loathing, their sorrowful eyes able to diminish the resolve of those who view the pitiable creature.

Combat: The Leperic attacks not so much out of the intent to cause harm, but as a need to acquire sustenance for its unholy existence. This the Leperic does by way of attacking a victim with its own bare skin, with which it will attempt to infect its target with the plague. Any contact made by the creature upon bare skin, and likewise any barehanded attacks that land upon the Leperic, has a chance to cause contagion in the non-infected. This chance is equal to a save vs. Death. Merely being the presence of the Leperic can also be enough to contract contagion, as the mere breath and foul air that surrounds them carrying the spores of the plague. Any target within five feet of the Leperic can, once per encounter, save vs. Death, with a plus two modifier, to avoid infection. Infected victims will immediately feel the sensation of the pallor of death within their beings, and can feel their bodies slowly begin to decompose even as they live. Those infected must make a save each day until they are successful, with each passing day incurring a minus two penalty to the roll, and with each failure indicating a loss of three points of Constitution. Those who are not successful in ridding themselves of the disease will die when their Constitution reaches zero. Cure Disease has limited effect on the disease, as it will only serve to curb the loss of constitution an additional day.

Habitat / Society: The existence of the Leperic is one of utter solitude and misery, as the creature no doubt has watched those around it die from symptoms that he himself carries within him, and just as surely enough has been the cause of more than a few of their infections. Members of the plague-ridden society do not take long to deduce that the Leperic is something unnatural, that they are able to carryout an abnormal life span. This causes great fear toward the creature, where even those infected will avoid the Leperic. The accursed wanders the home it once held dear, searching for other victims of the plague until there are none to be found. He will often conduct the behaviors for which he was known, in a feeble attempt to forget the situation that is befalling him. The extreme rarity of these creatures renders them unbeknownst as to what they are, and are thus unable to perceive the identical infliction in another being.

Ecology: The truly horrid aspect of the Leperic, is that upon contracting the disease, the Leperic has become overwhelmed by the urges to consume the flesh of the dead that have been infected with the plague. He will find that he cannot go longer than a week without feeding upon at least one infected adult body, else he himself will die an agonizingly painful and slow death of the plague. The Leperic is a cursed being, if ever there were one.

Necromantic

Range: Touch     Casting Time: 10 trns

Components: V, S, M   AofE: 1 Human

Duration: Permanent   Save: None

This long forgotten, and accursed spell, enables the caster to call into being the very essence of rot and decay, in order to bring about the creation of the doomed Leperic. This spell is to be cast with the town or city within which the Leperic is deemed to reside. The spell requires the caster to place both hands upon the chest of the victim, at which time the caster will impart a year from his lifetime into the victim, a year of life that is the power that will spawn the disease of plague within the unwilling. For whatever reason, the spell will only take affect within the body of a human man; some scholars reason that this is because the body of the human male is the strongest, while others proclaim that it is merely because man is one step closer to decadence than any other being. The victim of this spell must fail either a system shock roll, or a save vs. death.

That which is created by use of this spell is doomed to a life of plague ridden illness, and will seek to no end the feeding upon corpses that have fallen from the plague brought about by its own hand. By these means the Leperic will decimate a large portion of the populace, and will spread his contagion to others, who in turn will disperse the plague to other communities to which the Leperic cannot travel.

A common use of this spell by the clergy of Melipyr is to cast it upon those among his clergy that have lost faith, or other suitable by death treasons.

The material components of this spell include the human male to be turned, as well as the dust of a mummy, mold spore, and the bone of a victim of the plague, all of which are consumed during casting.

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