Vizidammar (3.5e NPC)

Vizidammar

CR 6

	Male human rogue 6
	NE Medium Humanoid (human)
Init/Senses	+3/Listen +10, Spot +10
Languages	Maridian, Khabarat, Vulici
AC	18, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+3 Dex, +5 armor)
hp	27 (6 HD)
Fort/Ref/Will	+3/+8/+3
Speed	30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee	scalpel of shock +8 (1d3+2 plus 1d6 electricity/18–20)
Ranged	masterwork hand crossbow +8 (1d4/19–20)
Base Atk/Grp	+4/+6
Atk Options	sneak attack +3d6
Abilities	Str 14, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 12
SQ	trapfinding, evasion, trap sense +2, uncanny dodge
Feats	Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Feint, Weapon Finesse
Skills	Appraise +12, Bluff +10, Craft (alchemy) +12, Diplomacy +10, Forgery +12, Heal +5, Hide +10, Knowledge (biology) +7, Listen +10, Move Silently +10, Profession (mortician) +10, Sense Motive +10, Spot +10, Tumble +12
Possessions	scalpel of shock, +1 chain shirt, masterwork hand crossbow, 3 flasks of acid
Sneak Attack (Ex)	Vizidammar can make a sneak attack, dealing an extra 3d6 points of damage, whenever a foe is denied his or her Dexterity bonus, or when he is flanking.
Evasion (Ex)	Vizidammar can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. He does not gain the benefit of evasion if he is helpless.
Trap Sense +2 (Ex)	Vizidammar gains an intuitive sense that alerts him to danger from traps, giving him a +2 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex)	Vizidammar can react to danger before his senses would normally allow him to do so. He retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.

NOTE: Vizidammar is an NPC in the Years of Gold setting, and the entry reflects that. He should be easy enough to adapt to games and campaigns in other settings, but in a setting where magic is more common, giving him levels in a spellcaster class or outright replacing his six levels of rogue with six levels of duskblade or similar class might be a good idea.

History

Vizidammar comes from lowly origins: he was born a son to a slave woman, the father being the owner of the slave, a merchant from Eros. Usually, slaves pregnant with a slaveowner's bastard children are killed early on, but the merchant had an exceptional liking for Vizidammar's mother, so the child was born and raised by the slaveowner's family - not a true family member, but not quite a slave either.

The concept of death is approached differently in the east, more positively and with less stigma. A mortician is a respected professional in the twin cities of Irid and Eros, and at his own request Vizidammar was trained in the alchemical practices of embalming and preservation. It was during his training that he discovered a dead body could be made to move by shocking its brain with a charged amber rod, a discovery that eventually led to Vizidammar's morbid career.

Not able to shake the idea of bringing the dead back to a semblance of life through alchemy alone, Vizidammar escaped Eros soon after he was made an official mortician, and traveled to the western kingdoms. There, he had learned from the sailors of Eros, the skies rained all through the year, bringing with them the thunderstorms he felt could further his alchemical practices.

Vizidammar eventually settled into Redford, where the money he had made through nefarious means shut all inquiring mouths. He began stealing fresh corpses from the graveyard, and established a great laboratory in the basement of his mortician practice. Those with prying eyes began to go missing, more often than not appearing on Vizidammar's operating table.

Appearance and personality

The doctor is in.

At forty-three years old, Vizidammar has lived a rough, eventful life, but this hardly shows in his appearance. His long hair, kept in a tight ponytail, is as black as it was when he was fifteen, and except for tiny wrinkles around his eyes his handsome, soft face shows no signs of aging. Standing at 5' 11'' and weighing 175 lbs., Vizidammar doesn't stand out in any particular way - unless one witnesses him moving when he thinks no one's looking. Then, his movements become sharp, swift, decisive - a skilled thief's movements.

When he has to move in the open, Vizidammar wears simple, unassuming clothing, usually black or deep brown in color. In his laboratory, however, he dresses in an eye-achingly white leather apron, invariably stained by blood or by fouler fluids still. A cautious man, he always wears a chain shirt under his clothing, and always keeps his scalpel hidden on his person.

Outwardly Vizidammar appears to be a kindly, if somewhat timid man; perhaps a little too into his profession, but nothing to be alarmed about. But inside he's rotten: he believes those beneath one's status should mean nothing to a person, and since he considers himself above everyone, considers everyone nothing but tools to use and discard. Perhaps he picked it up from his merchant father, a petty man with a high opinion of himself and low opinions of everyone else.

Vizidammar speaks in a low voice which is sometimes hard to hear, and nearly always smells remotely of formaldehyde. When he smiles, the smile doesn't reach his brown eyes, and he very rarely lets anyone see his emotions. The few villainous types in Redford who've worked with him or for him shudder when they think of him, claiming he resembles the corpses he animates: a cold shell, moved by some spark within.

Followers and allies

Vizidammar is not one to trust people, considering them below his level and more than likely to rat him out. Nonetheless, operating a laboratory the size his is demands a staff, and his zombies can't do everything. Thus, he has an apprentice of sorts working under him: Laurel, an emotionless street rogue and killer with a sorcerous gift (1st-level rogue/3rd-level sorcerer). Laurel is more in it for a chance to murder and hurt than any scholarly interest, but is trustworthy because he really enjoys his job.

Vizidammar also employs any number of thugs and strongmen (1st- or 2nd-level barbarian, fighter, or rogue) to run errands, recover more corpses, assassinate those who could threaten him and so on. He makes sure they never know exactly who they work for, employing them through Laurel or each other in a complex web of lies that leaves him invisible in the Redford criminal element.

An alchemist and artificer of genius level, Vizidammar also has a number of zombies and constructs working for him in his laboratory. At any given time, he has six to twelve alchemical zombies working in his laboratory, along with two to four needlekin lab assistants and occasionally a construct of stronger design, although these he quickly sells to fund his research.

Recent activity and plans

Up until now, Vizidammar has been content to operate on and resurrect zombies from bodies that have died from natural causes (or as natural as causes get in Redford) and has disposed of the animated corpses. Now, perhaps in the interest of seeing just what his creations are capable of, Vizidammar has begun to stockpile his animated dead, as well as improved versions of these monsters.

Vizidammar also believes that the capabilities of an alchemical zombie are dependent on the corpse that was used to make it, and has begun murdering (either himself or through his underlings) specific people he believes will further his research. He claims, to those few he speaks of such things, that a breakthrough is approaching.

Combat

Years of living an outlaw life in the western kingdoms has left Vizidammar a capable rogue, and his skill with the magical scalpel he wields is terrifying to behold. Vizidammar seeks to maximize the effectiveness of his sneak attack, either by feinting his opponents or by using his zombies and underlings to flank them.

Vizidammar also has genius-level intellect, which shows in his fighting. He's rarely caught in a situation that's not advantageous to him, and his ability to plan ahead is incredible. There are many security systems and traps in use in his laboratory, so fighting him there can prove to be a real challenge. He uses the tools at his disposal effectively, slipping in and out of close combat when beneficial to him, and lobs flasks of acid at his enemies.

The alchemical zombies that Vizidammar has under his rule are operated by electricity, which Vizidammar uses to his benefit: the tiniest touch from his magical, amber-adorned scalpel (a move action) causes 1d6 electricity damage, thus activating that zombie's electric charge special quality. Vizidammar usually does this to a few zombies at the beginning of a fight.

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