Burglestar This vile thing resembles an
elongated humanoid with an eyeless face and spindly arms. Its torso fades away
and its lower body is instead a roiling cloud of mist. Bright lights glow from
within it, like miniature stars.
In a
world of witchcraft and wizardry, magical items make for tempting targets for
thieves. If a master thief is killed in pursuit of a magical item, it may rise
as a burglestar, an undead horror that can sense arcane auras and life force
and seeks to steal both. Burglestars are as skilled in burglary and robbery as
they were in life, and collect vast fortunes of magic and mundane items in a
never-ending cycle of greed.
In
combat, a burglestar prefers to fight against opponents warded by magical effects,
the better to steal them and empower itself. It hopes to strike with multiple
attacks in a round, which allows it to steal the essence of a creature and
reduce it to a pitiful husk of itself. When it does so, a flare of light erupts
in its body—these are the stars for which it is named. Although burglestars are
made of flesh and ectoplasm, they can assume an incorporeal form if they
choose—they use this in infiltrating the most protected vaults and to escape a
powerful opponent.
Burglestars are almost always formed from followers of Seshket. The transformation is said to only occur in those that are favored by the god for their boldness, and is accordingly viewed as a mark of honor. More of them arise in the Schools of Soaring Skies and Sunken Stone than anywhere else in Gladia, but even here they are mercifully rare.
Shores of Swords 