Guardian Templar

But their behavior in pursuing these goals was so violent and cruel, and so clearly piloted by endless thirst for gold and power, that the order itself was blamed for heresy and disbanded, and eventually many templars were burned on the pyre or directly slaughtered into their temples; the latter were quickly closed and deconsecrated.

Today these abandoned ruins are cursed places that inspire fear even at day and that nobody, except for rare inconsiderate adventurers, dares to get near. In some of them still lay the tombs of the knights and also the crowd-graves of those last who fell, the victims of justice; in their surroundings, birds sing and fly only at night, as if they were witness of something horrible.

And in fact, the corpses of those most evil templars, is particular circumstances can turn into an undead form called the Guardians.

Guardians look as horrid, parchment-like rotten bodies, equipped with rusty chain mail, helm and sword, in brownie dress, cloak and cowl all in rags and that once were white.

They are dumb, slow and awkward. This cause them to always lose initiative and to suffer a -2 penalty to hit; but they have also a +6 bonus to inflicted damage, due to their strength and to their cursed blades (sword +4, but into living hands this turns into -4).

If a Guardian's body portion directly touches a living being, this causes the touched creature to lose an energy level; but it is a rarely used attack form, for slowness and awkwardness causes the undead a -6 penalty to hit.

Guardians receive but half damage from silver and magical weapons, while normal ones cause no effect. They are immune to mind-affecting spells (hold, charm, etc.), to cold-based spells, as well to poison, paralysis and metamorphosis. Guardians receive full damage from fire and holy water, and can be turned by clerics as if they were specters.

They can use at 7th level strength the following spells (ignore verbal and material components) once a day: cause fear, curse (reverse of bless), find traps, hold person, protection from good, silence 15' radius, cause disease, cause paralysis, cause serious wounds, ESP and dimension door. Moreover Guardians can locate once a day all persons who entered their tomb in the last 24 hours, if these still are within a few miles.

Guardians can act at sunlight, but at the cost of further awkwardness and -2 to hit and to saving throws. When they have to move away from their tomb location, they ride ghost horses; these are slow as well, only 16" speed, and can be treated as zombies.

The very first temple profanation (graves opening, altar moving, etc.) causes the corpses turning into Guardians and awakening in a few hours; but once this had happened, then just entering the temple can awake them, and in shorter a time.

If the responsible creatures are not out of range, then Guardians locate them thanks to their power and hunt them to the death. To achieve their purpose, they wait for the most favorable time, usually when victims are sleeping and defenseless. The undead knights encircle them in silence, with some of them guarding any possible escape ways; then suddenly they attack. To enter buildings they prefer to knock out doors, reserving the dimension-door spell for eventual retreat or decisive tactical factor.

If facing a defeat, they break, retire to the temple to heal and reorganize, and then they try again later.

Once awakened for the first time, Guardians are forever undead. They need for long rests -usually inside their own graves- and for continue energy to stop body deterioration; this latter comes only by draining that of virgin girls. To purchase these girls, they force neighbor populations, under the threat of massacring all of their children, to deliver them one at every full moon. She is then merciless killed in the temple.

Taken from the horror movie La Notte dei Gabbiani.

By Gianluca Meluzzi, 1983, 1999.

glmeluzzi@libero.it

For AD&D 1st Edition, TSR Games.