Three Wicked Souls (3.5e Monster)

Skills
Skills: A three wicked souls gains a +4 bonus on Balance checks for being a quadruped. It gains a +2 racial bonus on Move Silently and Survival skill checks. The creature presented here has 5 skill ranks in Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Survival. These skills are its class skills.

Strategies, Tactics & Behavior
Three wicked souls are foremost servants. Their masters send them out on tasks of reconnaissance, retrieval or plots of assassination. Occasionally, they even serve as mounts, flying silently and invisibly.

When out on a mission, it takes to the air, invisible. When matters of time and speed are important, it will often clamber along surfaces as to run faster than it can fly. When making attacks, it judges its prey from a distance first before closing in. It often strikes first and falls back, becoming invisible, attempting to wear out living prey. However, duty comes first and it will often sacrifice itself with bold combat decisions.

If tasked with retrieving creatures, it is plenty capable of subduing targets and carrying them away in a pair of arms.

A three wicked souls understands Common, but cannot speak.

Ecology
Environment: Three wicked souls are most often encountered inside tombs, crypts or other ancient haunts where they've been locked away as ageless guardians.

Typical Physical Characteristics: A three wicked souls is a pale, gaunt, malevolent creature. From its central disk-like body, six elongated arms extend from the sides. Each arm ends in an elongated bony clawed hand. A long neck protrudes from the front of the creature's body, with a head composed of an amalgamation of three oversized, somewhat humanoid skulls. Wide, brilliant yellow eyes peer out of sunken sockets. These eyes appear to glow slightly just as it turns visible, though they shed no light. A tattered funeral shroud cloaks the creature's body, often hanging and waving about as it floats about. It reeks of death.

Upon death, it collapses into dust.

Construction: To construct a three wicked souls, a few rare materials, spells and time are required. This method supersedes the method for creating undead listed under create undead.

First, each of the specific souls must be acquired. These souls are most often bound within black sapphires and are available in certain evil markets for 2,530 gp a piece. Each 1,000 gp black sapphire required is reusable.

Alternately, each soul may be called into the ritual with a casting of Resurrection or true resurrection, provided that the requirements of those spells are met. The material costs for these spells when used in this ritual are reduced to a fifth of their normal costs (2,000 gp for resurrection and 5,000 gp for true resurrection).

The specific souls required are:


 * The wicked soul of a soldier who died by his enemy's blade in battle.
 * The wicked soul of a hanged criminal or a wicked soul who fell to his death by purposeful suicide.
 * The wicked soul of a spellcaster who froze to death alone and unseen.

Second, the gems must be placed on an altar around a pot containing 300 pounds of necrotic slurry (A mixture of powdered bones, powdered black onyx, ground flesh, ectoplasm and several alchemical reagents), each pound of which costs 1 silver piece. This pot must then be covered with the burial shroud of a murderer. This shroud wraps itself around the three wicked souls upon completion.

Finally, a spellcaster must cast create undead on the pot of necrotic slurry. The material components listed here replace those listed under the spell. Upon completion of the spell, the three trapped souls enter the slurry, binding and unifying, forming the three wicked souls.

Three Wicked Queens: While the typical three wicked souls is genderless, there exists the special case of the three wicked queens. The souls used for its creation must be those of female royalty. A three wicked queens is much more stubborn and less subservient than their lesser counterparts. It can also speak. It otherwise shares the same statistics as those of its brethren.

Resurrection
Having a soul (formed from a fusion of three souls), Resurrection and true resurrection can affect a three wicked souls. Such spells or abilities transform them into living outsiders.

As an outsider, recalculate its base saves, attack bonus and hit dice. It loses its undead immunities and traits in this form and gains a Constitution score equal to its Charisma.

Typical Treasure
Three wicked souls typically don't carry treasure. Though, those that advance by class levels may have gear and equipment.