Full Description
In the hidden Valley of the Last Sleep, and in a few other areas where Royal Tombs can be found, are the Few. Few by name, and few in number. In the Old Times, back when even the Dragons and the oldest Elves were eggs and unborn babies, the Kings and Queens were buried with all manner of treasure, even people. Servants and soldiers were sacraficed in those distant days to serve their rulers in the afterlife for eternity.

Most who suffered such a fate were dragged screaming or bound and gagged into the tomb, but if the ruler had been popular, one or more people would voluntarily choose to sacrafice themselves, taking poison and lying down beside the ruler’s body of their own free will, and it was they who became the Few.

Often grave robbers would attempt to rob the tomb within a matter of a few years or decades, but in breaking the seals they summoned the Few from their heavenly afterlives to defend their ruler in death as they had done in life.

One of the Few appears as a glowing spirit of what he or she looked like in life. Unlike the majority of Undead they are not shambling rotting bodies encrusted with maggots, or clattering skelitons. They glow red with anger at being called to fight, and they wear the antique armour and carry the swords and spears of the old times.

A blow landed on one of them by all but a powerful enchanted weapon will pass straight through unless it hits one of the blades, which it will parry. The phantom blades, on the other hand, are solid and able to do some very real damage. Enchanted weapons, if powerful enough, may wound or even kill the Few, in which case they vanish, weapons and all.

Magic cast on them will normally fail and may well bounce back three times harder on the spellcaster.

Should the PC’s retreat from the tomb, the Few will not pursue them beyond the entrance and will vanish back to where they came from.

Additional Information

Should the blades be smashed beyond using, perhaps by a Notcher or by someone with a heavy Warhammer and the strength and skill to use it, the Few will be helpless and unable to do more then swear in their long-lost tongue at the intruders.

If the intruders are not robbers and have disturbed the tomb by mistake, and one of them can speak in the tongue of the Few, he or she may have a chance of persuading them to stop their attack. The color will turn from red to a deep blue, and the spirit or spirits may be spoken to, and will be interested up to a point in what has happened in the world outside. Whilst the no longer angry spirit or spirits will let the intruders leave, they will offer no help beyond advice. The exception to that is that if a weapon is given to an unarmed Few, he or she will bless the person who did it. (What the blessing does should be up to the GM.)Under no circumstances will the Few leave their tombs.

There have been a few necromancers and deeply vile rulers who have attempted to create new Few, but not only do they need the right spells and rituals, they need somebody who is truely willing to die.So far all their attempts have therefore failed.

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