Denizen

Each denizen was once a mortal, usually a wicked and cunning priest of the god of the dead, remade after death as a tormentor of souls. Many kinds exist; the best known are knights and dukes, both seen in a great coastal city during the cataclysm that cast the gods down to walk the world. Paired statistics give the knight's value first, then the duke's.

A knight has a lumpy, barrel-like trunk, crooked arms that drag on the ground and stubby but nimble legs. Its head is human except for yellowed fangs and burning red eyes, and it speaks in a deep growl. A duke is a bloated, feathered body on great leathery wings (maneuverability class C). Its face blends vampire fangs, compound insect eyes and a flat pig snout, with hair and quills sprouting behind two little horns.

Denizens attack with sadistic glee, picking off the weakest first. All regenerate 1 hit point a round, have 60-foot infravision and uncanny smell and taste. None can turn invisible or leave their home plane without the god's help.

On that plane, or near an open portal to it, they can be hurt only by +1 or better weapons, resist magic, carry a natural protection from good and share the immunities of undead. Stranded with no open gate home within 100 miles, they keep only their keen senses, regenerate just 1 hit point a day and can be harmed by any attack except fire or heat; a duke's flight drops to class D. Use the first XP value for a denizen so weakened and the one in parentheses for one at full power.

They dwell only in the death god's domain within the gray wasteland of despair, flying out over the plain where new souls wait to collect the false and the faithless. Their ranks mimic mortal nobility, from knights up to dukes and princes, and all obey their god without question. Whether one can rise in rank by choice is unknown.

They need no food but love the taste of living flesh.