Fantasy NPC: Lady GweHuaNi, The Royal Ministress Of Salt

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Lady GweHuaNi

A tall woman whose skin is parched and dried, almost like an old hide, her sparse hair is thin and colorless, and her once-resplendant exotic clothing is falling apart.

CR 5; 1,600 XP

LN Medium Undead

Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15

Defense
AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+2 deflection, +2 Dex, +4 natural)

hp 59 (7d8+28)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +10

Defensive Abilities salt path; DR 10/—; Immune undead traits

Offense
Speed 30 ft.

Melee 2 slams +9 (1d6+4)

Special Attacks salt burst (10-ft. burst, 5d6, Reflex DC 17 for half)

Statistics
Str 18, Dex 14, Con –, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 19

Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 23
Feats Alertness, Skill Focus (Appraise), Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Skill Focus (Profession [salt production])

Skills Appraise +15, Climb +11, Diplomacy +17, Knowledge (engineering) +, Perception +15, Profession (salt production) +13, Sense Motive +15

Language a long-forgotten language of her kingdom, Aquan, Sylvan, Terran

Notable Gear a seal-ring of her office (grants +2 deflection bonus to AC and +2 resistance bonus to saving throws to anyone duly appointed to the office of the Royal Minister Of Salt)

Salt Burst (Su) As a standard action, lady GweHuaNi can detonate a deposit of salt within 60 feet, be it naturally occurring salt rocks, a large pile of processed salt, or one of the squares of her salt path. The deposit explodes dealing 5d6 points of bludgeoning and piercing damage in a 10-ft. burst, with a successful Reflex saving throw halving the damage. Corporeal creatures that fail their saving throw are embedded with salt shards that makes them sickened with intense pain for 1d4 rounds (unless they are immune to pain effects). About half the salt of the affected deposit, up to approximately 700 pounds is lost, while the rest is spread over much larger area as dust, unsuitable for further targeting with this ability. The saving throw DC of this earth effect is Charisma-based.

Salt Path (Su) When lady GweHuaNi is angry, stressed, or in combat, whenever she moves, she leaves a path of salt crystals in the squares she moved over, which act like spike stones, dealing damage and potentially causing leg injuries (DC 17) to anyone moving through.

When the workers started to excavate an ancient and long abandoned salt mine, they were not prepared for what they were going to find. Lady GweHuaNi was an officer of an ancient kingdom, the original owners of the salt mine. She was responsible for overseeing the harvest of salt—immensely important strategic resource, and one of the main sources of the realms wealth—and took her duties seriously, personally inspecting facilities, negotiating deals with salt misers, and making sure that the workers are treated fairly. Her career came to a premature end when the salt mine she was visiting was suddenly flooded and partially collapsed.

The brine in which the lady GweHuaNi drowned, preserved her body for centuries if not millennia, long after any traces of her civilization faded from memories. The land itself changed, the people moved, and new kingdoms arose, with her only vaguely aware of passage of time, until the new machines pumped the salty waters out of the mine, and workers belonging to nations she never saw before started breaking the salt crystals again.

Lady GweHuaNi, once a distant relation to the royal family, holding a key administrative position of the realm has yet to find her way in a new world of strange people, strange customs, strange laws, strange politics, and even stranger mining technologies supplementing the well known miners with picks. Even if those picks are now made of different metal that was reserved for royalty in her time.

Despite of the time abyss between her times and now, she is unused to not being in position of power, and while her undying body has little need for aristocratic comforts, she still expects them because of her long gone position.