Description

A wizard who tries to become a lich but fails might become a boneclaw instead. These hideous, cackling monsters share a few of liches’ attributes, but while liches are immortal masters of the arcane, boneclaws are thralls to evil, hatred, and pain.

The most important part of the transformation ritual occurs when the soul of the aspiring lich migrates to a prepared phylactery. If the wizard is too physically or magically weak to compel the soul into its new home, the soul instead seeks out a master—a person within a few miles who has a hate-filled heart. The soul bonds to that person and becomes enslaved to its new master’s wishes. The boneclaw forms near its master, sometimes appearing before that individual to receive orders and other times simply seeking to fulfill its master’s desires.

A boneclaw can serve only an evil creature. If its master finds redemption or sincerely turns away from the path of evil, the boneclaw is destroyed. Otherwise, a boneclaw can’t be destroyed while its master lives. No matter what happens to the boneclaw’s body, it re-forms within hours.

In service to its master, a boneclaw delights in causing horrific pain. It lurks like a spider in shadowy recesses, waiting for victims to approach within reach of its long, bony limbs. Once speared, a creature is pulled into the darkness to be sliced apart.