Cuprilach [Rilmani]

Cuprilachs look like lean, wiry humans with an elf's lithe grace. Only their copper-sheened skin and blank, ruby-red eyes betray them. They are famously cocky, but it comes from pride in being among the finest assassins on the planes.

They are killers, not duelists, and use any trick to silence a target fast. In melee a cuprilach wields a pair of copper-hued short swords +2; its speed lets it act first every round, and it has 18/76 Strength despite its slim frame. It also hurls returning throwing stars +1 to 50 feet. Even unarmed it is a skilled wrestler and martial artist striking twice a round for 1d8.

It has the abilities of a 12th-level thief, backstab included, plus wraithform, poison, improved invisibility, forget, fog cloud, ESP, enervation (2 levels), detect invisibility, delude and charm person. Once a day it sprays acid in a 20-by-10-foot fan for 5d4+5 to anyone failing a save vs. spell. Only +2 or better weapons hurt it, and once a day it has a 40% chance to gate in 1d3 of its kin.

Where argenachs advise and ferrumachs hold the field, cuprilachs spy and kill from the shadows. They hold that the balance will be safe only once powerful beings of extreme alignment are removed, which makes them the most dangerous rilmani, quickest to decide that someone must die. At home they are open about their trade, but abroad they are masters of disguise, using polymorph self freely and stooping to any ruse. Legend says none has ever been spotted before striking, probably an exaggeration.

In the spire's pecking order they sit beneath the argenachs but over ferrumachs and abiorachs, though their tempers run hot and they chafe at authority. Still, they never turn down an assignment from an aurumach. Off duty they train mercilessly or celebrate wildly, and other rilmani steer clear when cuprilachs 'relax.'