Crypt Keeper (Raventide)

Crypt keepers are selfish, evil and intelligent; highly protective undead that have taken it upon themselves to lay claim to a specific tomb, burial ground or crypt, defending the location against the trespasses of the living. A crypt keeper is deathly territorial and once provoked will stop at nothing to add the corpse of its offender to the dead it claims. Crypt keepers can sometimes attract other undead; corpse-hungry creatures such as ghouls and ghasts (although crypt keepers seem to despise the attention of carrion eaters). Occasionally, an item or text in the keeper’s possession may earn the attention of more a powerful undead; a vampire or even a lich may find themselves contending with the nuisance of a jealous and possessive keeper.

Undead Nature. The crypt keeper does not require air, food, drink, or sleep.

Tomb Hoarders. Crypt keepers are devilishly possessive and do not often share their dwellings with other creatures they think may threaten their claim to the treasures in their home. As a result, most keepers choose to live in solitary tombs or crypts; only accompanied by subservient undead, such as the wights under its command (if any). Crypt keepers have no reservations about destroying troublesome undead that take up residence within their homes, leaving what remains of their destroyed corpses to warn others of their ilk. Crypt keepers never work together, unless extreme circumstances require it, even then, any true alliance between them is tenuous at best. Crypt keepers are cruel by nature, and they retain the cunning and intelligence they possessed in life, these qualities can occasionally turn them into villainous dungeon overlords, filling their crypts and tombs with the collected treasures of the adventurous dead. Crypt keepers are almost always preoccupied with securing their dwelling against trespassers, and are unlikely to leave their lair unless doing so is required to reclaim a stolen item of great value from its crypt.

Cursed by Greed. Crypt keepers come into being when sure hearted, honorable knights and paladins succumb to greed while exploring the resting places of the dead; and then subsequently perish within the tomb whilst the object of their greed is still carried on their person. The chance of this occurring increases dramatically when the knight or paladin is felled by a powerful intelligent undead, such as a deathlock mastermind, a vampire, or a lich. Compelled to lay claim to everything; dead, or alive, within the darkened crypt or sanctum it now calls its home, a crypt keeper is cursed to an eternal existence of material greed, never finding satisfaction with the treasures it collects, it forever seeks to add more wealth to its hoard.

Object of Desire. Most crypt keepers carry the object of their initial desire on them at all times; be it a valuable bobble, a secret article of text, or even a magic item. Sometimes however, a crypt keeper has no such treasure, instead, they desire power, knowledge, or something else intangible. In that case, the crypt keeper may collect the corpses of those that mirror those qualities, or worse, it may turn them into wights in a sort of sadistic puppet & master game, pitting its prized collection of adventurers against those that wish to invade its home.