Ilvessa [Unique Ghost]

Ilvessa looks exactly as she did the night she was betrayed: a long white gown soaked with blood from the gash across her throat, both stain and wound looking freshly made.

When her lifeblood splashed across the rebuilt corpse of a lich, Ilvessa bent all her will on revenge. Her loathing for the lich and for her brother, who conspired in her murder, was so fierce that she forged herself into a ghost of unusual power. She can make chosen limbs solid on demand, letting her lift objects, fight and use touch powers, then slip back to incorporeal form to glide through walls or vanish from sight.

Her presence has soaked her family's castle ever since, but she can only take shape when the lich and her brother are both inside at once for about an hour, long enough for her to coalesce. No such overlap has ever occurred before the heroes come. Once formed, she stays manifest until her murder is avenged, by her hand or anyone's, after which she may leave or rest at last. She will not turn on the heroes unless they anger her or get in her way, but if they do, they earn a dangerous enemy.

Her Armor Class shifts with circumstance. Ethereal and facing foes who are not, she is AC -2 and only +2 or better weapons touch her. Solid, or fighting an ethereal foe, she is AC 4 and +1 weapons suffice.

Her chilling touch ages a victim 1d4 x 15 years on a failed save vs. spell. Priests of 9th level or higher save automatically, and other characters of 11th level or more save at +2. A plain blow from her fist deals only 1d2.

Twice per day she can unleash a horrific, otherworldly keening that feebleminds, as the spell, every creature within 30 feet that fails a save vs. spell. Her focused hatred lets it work even on the lich.

She turns invisible at will and can reshape objects and surroundings simply by thinking of the change, a mix of polymorph object and illusion that needs no components and lasts as long as she remains. Spells that affect living bodies have no effect on her. She can mend her wounds instantly, but must then rest 20 minutes before using any power except returning to incorporeal form.

Holy water burns her for 1d6 per vial, requiring an attack roll that is always made against AC 4. Priests can turn her at -1 to the turning roll, and with other undead around, the follow-up roll for Hit Dice affected also takes -1. Holy symbols do nothing.

The knife that killed her, Redthirst, still lies in a ceremonial chamber of the lich's lair beneath the castle's old dungeon. It lacks its hilt-stone, a twelve-sided blood-red ruby, and while it does she cannot approach within 10 feet. Once the ruby is restored, she can wield the blade herself. It remains deadly to her, but it is also her strongest weapon against the lich and her brother.