Bone Delver

This rotting humanoid wears tattered rags that hang loosely about its twisted and hunched form. Its face is twisted into a visage of pain and rage, and its clawed hands clutch the tools of its trade-a shovel and a lantern that glows with an eerie red hue.

Bone Delver (CR 2)

Medium Undead
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Initiative: +3
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet; Perception +6
Aura: grave light (10 feet)

Speed: 30 feet
Space: 5 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 Dex, +3 natural)
Hit Points: 13 (2d8+4) Fast Healing 2
Saving Throws: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +4
Immunity: undead traits

Offense

Melee: shovel +4 (1d6+1 plus disease) or 2 claws +4 (1d4+1 plus disease)
Reach: 5 feet

Special Attacks: grave light, scream of agony

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
13 (+1)	16 (+3)	-	10 (+0)	13 (+1)	14 (+2)

Base Attack Bonus: +1
CMB +2
CMD 15

Feats: Weapon Finesse

Skills: Disable Device +9, Knowledge (local) +2, Perception +6, Stealth +10

• Racial Modifiers: +4 Disable Device, +2 Stealth

Languages: Common

Special Qualities: shovel

Special Abilities

Disease (Ex)

Filth Fever: claws or shovel-injury; save DC 13 Fort; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/ day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Grave Light (Su)

A bone delver's lantern sheds light in a 10-foot radius. Living creatures within the area take 1 point of damage each round. Additionally, a bone delver's fast healing only works when it is within 10 feet of its lantern. The lantern can be extinguished with a bless spell (it relights after 1 hour) or attacked and destroyed (hardness 5, hp 10). This lantern functions only for the bone delver to which it belongs. In the hands of living creatures it functions differently (see below).

Scream of Agony (Su)

A bone delver can unleash a bone-chilling shriek that affects all who hear it within 30 feet. An affected creature must make a DC 13 Will save or be shaken for 1d4+2 rounds. Creatures with more than 4 HD are unaffected by this attack. Creatures that successfully save are immune to the scream of agony of that bone delver for one day. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Shovel

A bone delver suffers no penalties on attack rolls when wielding a shovel as a weapon.

Ecology

Environment: Any Land
Organization: solitary or crew (2-5)
Treasure: standard (shovel, bone delver's lantern, thieves' tools, other treasure)


Cemeteries and graveyards are well known for their concentration of negative energy and it is this, rather than the mere presence of the buried dead, that can cause all manner of creatures to rise from their graves to haunt the living. A few braves souls make their gruesome livelyhood by preying on graves, digging up the treasures and riches sometimes laid to rest with their owners. Thes graverobbers are detested by most civilized societies for their callous nature, and all too often would be graverobbers fall foul to the unliving denizens of the graveyard.

Bone delvers were in life graverobbers that died whilst performing their nefarious tasks. Some may have inadvertently awoken undead creatures in their graves, others were outwitted by cunning traps placed in well protected mausoleums. Bone delvers usually appear as hunched, shambling humanoids with faces twisted into a visage of pain and rage. They visibly carry the wounds that caused their demise.

Bone delvers forever carry the tools of their trade—a lantern and a shovel, though lockpicks are also commonly found on their walking corpses. The lantern still burns, though with an unnatural and eerie red glowing light. A bone delver initiatiate its attack by uttering a chilling scream of terribly agony, rage, and frustration that transcensds death itself. Those not affected by the scream are made targets of melee attacks with the creature's shovel or filthy claws.