The Deathless

The Deathless are like the phantom limb of Lilith's horde of horrors. The ghostly echoes of cultist monks, they haunt the monastery ruins near Harbaburesti, the abandoned village in the forest and the old ruins in the mountains.

Six centuries ago, these men were granted - or cursed with - immortality by Lilith, who sought to use them in her schemes to control the valley. Intended as a counter to the Templar presence in the region, the cultists within the monastery and village were eventually discovered and wiped out by Vlad III Dracula.

Yet, along with perpetual existence, their worship of Lilith had imbued them with great magical powers that transcended the destruction of their bodies. Their spells were born of vile magic from the darkest pits of the deepest parts of the world. As the undead spirits of the cultists rose again, they retained the power to roam the valley and spread corruption.

Unable to undo their immortality, and knowing that destruction of their mortal bodies wouldn't abolish their evil presence, the owl-woman Cucuvea laid a curse to bind their souls to the places they had been killed. Strictly confined like this, they could do much less damage, and eventually their strength would weaken.

For centuries, their haunting had diminished until they mostly faded away. Their physical prisons dwindled to mouldy overgrowth filled with eerie whispers, while their history was preserved in only a few local stories.

But now, as evil stirs in Transylvania again, the shadows of the twisted monks take form once more.

The Deathless - barely corporeal - are hidden beneath sackcloth robes, either blackened or bleached as if by a great heat. With their heads down and their hands folded in unholy prayer, they walk their endless patrol hoping that, one day, Lilith will favour them once more.

Two different variations of the Deathless are found in Bacas County.

The silent are the remains of the cultists who were massacred and burned on pyres after the monastery's fall. Beneath the sackcloth, their forms are like furnace-hot steam; what little is left of their once-human bodies is now fused into their slashed and bleached robes. A fine blood-mist surrounds them, while steady blots of blood drip from their robes. As a constant reminder of their fate, when the silent Deathless are vanquished, they burst into flames and fade into ashes. From these remains, they rise again, and again, ever renewing their accursed existence.

The chanting Deathless escaped the sack of the monastery and village. They were driven from the valley up to a patch of old ruins in the Custurii Mountains, only to die of exposure or fall to animals. Lilith's curse drew their spirits dutifully back, and now their frostbitten remains perform endless re-enactments of worship. Insane, yet pragmatic and focused, they long for the day their adored mistress will return with their promised rewards.

By gathering around shrines, relics and sacrosanct chambers, and by performing their dark rituals, the Deathless unleash the spiritual power of artifacts long veiled from the eyes of men.

As long as they are still constrained by Cucuvea's curse, the damage the Deathless can do is limited; however, the power of the spell is waning. With the concentrated presence of evil ravishing the remote valley, the monks seem reinspired.

The Deathless are empowered by a refurbished zeal; after six centuries, this phantom limb is slowly growing back. Lilith's forgotten horde, now shaking off its invisible shackles, is eager to extend the bounds of haunting.