Ermordenung

Ermordenung look like flawless human beings. The men are tall, rarely under six feet, with smooth muscle and classical features that seem lit from within; the women stand barely shorter and have the kind of perfect faces painters chase all their lives. Both share raven-black hair and dark, nearly hypnotic eyes, set against skin far paler than that of their countrymen. They speak the local tongue with a cultured, aristocratic accent and carry themselves like nobility, so that only the ruling family seems their equal.

An ermordenung's weapon is contact. In a fight it simply tries to touch bare skin: any successful attack means the target must save vs. poison at +4 or die on the spot, and even a successful save costs 10 points of damage. A natural 20 means the killer has a solid grip, and the save is then unmodified, with death on a failure and 20 damage on a success. The victim faces that same save every round until he pulls free or dies.

Outside battle they prefer seduction. Their beauty and charisma draw in victims of the opposite sex, who are pulled into an embrace and kissed. The kiss forces a save vs. poison at -4: failure kills outright, while success still inflicts 30 damage. A survivor who cannot tear loose is kissed again the next round.

Escaping their hold is hard, since males count as Strength 18/90 and females as 18/50. A weaker victim must save vs. paralyzation at -4 to break away, one of equal Strength saves normally, and a stronger one saves at +4.

Ermordenung shrug off almost every toxin. The single exception is the touch of another ermordenung, which kills them as easily as it kills anyone else.

They form an elite caste within a poison-steeped domain of the misty dread realm, serving its ruler, Ilsabet Voranne, as her personal agents. They keep apart from ordinary folk except on her business, and now and then she sends them abroad.

Their curse is loneliness. A lover's caress, a friend's embrace, a child's hug: all are forever denied them, since any touch withers and kills. Their mistress has deliberately turned that grief into cruelty, and they obey her without question.

Every ermordenung began as an ordinary human. At their ruler's command, they undergo a secret and savage transformation that only the hardiest survive. Because she is a passionate woman herself, she chooses only the most beautiful of her subjects for this so-called honor.