Telthor Creature
Telthors are spirit animals or people native to Rashemen, particularly those who died defending the land. Incorporeal and ghostly, they are still formidable opponents.
Many places in Rashemen have guardian spirits, and some trees, rocks, and rivers have them as well. These spirits are the telthors, and they take a form appropriate to what they are guarding. For example, a mountain may have a telthor dire bear guardian, a forest might have a telthor dire wolf guardian, and a spring might have a telthor hawk guardian. Large places or very Important sites might have multiple telthors, each responsible for a part of the site but working together against a foe that threatens them all.
Each berserker lodge of the Rashemi barbarians has a spirit totem, and usually the lodge itself is watched over by a telthor of that kind.
Rashemen is rich in untapped spirit magic, and sometimes in places where people have died defending the land, an echo in the sleeping spiritual energy grants a person a semblance of life as a telthor. Normally these people are warriors, fighters, or barbarians, but sometimes a spellcaster can become a telthor. These spirits watch over the battlegrounds where they died, alert for other invaders or those who would despoil their resting places and those of their slain allies. If a creature who became a telthor is brought back from the dead, the telthor vanishes and the newly raised person has no memories of that spirit existence.
Creating a Telthor
"Telthor" is a template that can be applied to any animal or humanoid (referred to hereafter as the "base creature"). The creature's type changes to "fey," and it gains the incorporeal subtype. It uses all of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Telthors can speak and understand Rashemi in addition to any languages the base creature knew.
Speed: A telthor gains a fly speed equal to its normal speed (poor maneuverability), unless its previous fly speed was better, in which case the base creature's fly speed and maneuverability is retained.
AC: The telthor loses any natural armor bonus but gains a deflection bonus equal to the value of its natural armor bonus. If the creature already has a deflection bonus to AC, use the greater value. This change does not apply to natural armor or deflection bonuses granted from spells or magic items.
Attacks: The base creature's melee attacks become incorporeal touch attacks. A creature that used weapons retains the ability to attack with its melee weapons as melee touch attacks but loses all ranged.attacks. As incorporeal creatures, telthors apply their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier to melee attacks.
Special Qualities: A telthor retains all the base creature's special qualities, and also gains those special qualities listed below.
Bound to the Land (Su): A telthor is tied to the place it guards and is weakened if it moves more than 1 mile from] that place. Outside of this area, it takes 1 point of damage every minute. This damage ends immediately if it enters its home area again. Telthors can sense the boundaries of their territory and normally do not leave them except to warn others of danger. Rashemen legends tell of telthors that traveled miles to warn the hathrans of an invasion and then died from the pain of separation before they could be healed.
Native Animal Empathy (Ex): Telthors can communicate and empathize with animals of their kind. This gives them a +4 bonus on checks to influence the animal's attitude and allows the communication of simple concepts and (if the animal is friendly) commands, such as "friend," "enemy," "flee," and "attack." A humanoid telthor chooses one kind of animal for its empathic bond and gains this ability for that kind of animal only.
Telthor Telepathy (Su): Telthors can communicate with one another telepathically, regardless of language, at a range of 100 feet.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3. As incorporeal creatures, telthors have no Strength score.
Climate/Terrain: Cold forest and hills.
Organization: Solitary or band (2-5).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2.
Treasure: None.
Alignment: Usually neutral.
Sample Telthor: Telthor Wolf.