Mahepshut was raised from birth to be a Speaker to the Dead. He fiercely protects the balance, but unlike other neutrals who try to balance good and evil, he and the others of his cult balance the living and the dead. His cult believes death is just another form of life and has no more compunction about manipulating the forces of death than a Mishikal priestess manipulating the forces of life.
Not everyone sees death in this fashion and many that are ignorant brand Mahepshut's cult and his people as evil.
One such group chose to act on their ignorance, and in the silence of night, crept up on Mahepshut's village in great number and attacked without warning. Only the walled compound of the House of the Dead withstood the initial onslaught, but the number of attackers and unavailability of help from the village assured the inevitable destruction of the temple.
Knowing that the temple was doomed, and concerned about the survival of the cult, the Speaker set in motion a desperate gamble: summoning Mahepshut and the other acolytes into the temple's sanctuary, set each of the acolytes into their pre-prepared sarcophagus (for one of the duties of an acolyte is to prepare himself for the afterlife) along with their personal belongings and a trusted servant or familiar. Then, wielding powerful rituals, he bound them into the Sleep That Is Not Death, setting the spell to expire at a time of safety, such that the acolytes could emerge and re-establish the worship of Wee Jas according to the temple's dogma and beliefs. He then summoned wave after wave of desert sand, filling the sanctuary and thereby shielding it from the marauding non-believers.
Mahepshut meditated in his personal darkness for a time that cannot be known, expecting at any moment for the lid of his sarcophagus to open and propel him into his new duties. The solitude and darkness weighed on him, and perhaps would have driven him mad were it not for the companionship of his familiar Xelbas.
In time, the sarcophagus did indeed lever open and light spilled in, reinvigorating Mahepshut and Xelba. But somehow, something must have gone wrong for he was not in his village, nor in his desert land, but instead in a gray and dreary place full of doom and dread. And Xelbas had changed too, the once thoughtful and wise companion driven all but insane by the long confinement.
He is still trying to figure out where he is and how to return to his homeland, but to no avail. Nor has he found any aid for Xelbas' condition, and worse, in the course of his journey he unintentionally angered the lord of this dark Land, Azalin. Now Mahepshut contemplates the nature of life and death from a jail cell as Xelbas gibbers away next to him and together they await whatever fate may bring | Mahepshut has an angular but compelling face with a sallow glare. He blackens his eyes with kohl and binds his beard to give him a particularly menacing mien. To honor the dead, he always wears deep yellow marked with midnight blue.
 Familiar: Xelbas (pygmy vervet monkey)
10" long w/o tail, weight 2.5 lbs
HD:7 HP:14 AC:14 Fort:4 Ref:4 Will:7 Speed:30, climb 30
Str:3 Dex:15 Con:10 Int:6 Wis:12 Cha:5
Skills: Balance10 Climb13 Hide13 Listen4 Spot4
Feats: Alertness, Improved Evasion, Weapon Finesse (bite)
Attack: Bite (base 6 damage 1 or 2)
Abilities given to Mahepshut: +1AC, Alertness, share spells, deliver touch spells
Special: use magic device 5 | Arcane school: Necromancy (extra spell per day, +2 Necromancy spellcraft checks)
Prohibited schools: Illusion
Arcane spells per day - must be known and prepared
(extra spell must be Necromancy)
0 - 4+1
1 - 4+1
2 - 3+1
Cleric spells per day (must be prepared)
0 - 5
1 - 4
2 - 3
+ 1 domain spell
Ring of the Ram charges: 50
Rebuke undead times per day: 4
Rebuke undead remaining: 3 |
