ConquerorThe Mask of Malruk
Behind Malruk's courtly smile, the hands bend the wrong way
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Backward Joints. Malruk's hands rotate freely at the wrists. He has advantage on Dexterity checks to escape bonds or a grapple and suffers no disadvantage when attacking while grappled.
Demonic Hide. Malruk has resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage from nonmagical weapons.
Magic Resistance. Malruk has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Multiattack. Malruk makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
Claw. Attack roll +11, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8+6 slashing damage.
Bite. Attack roll +11, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d10+6 piercing damage. The target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 16) or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Tiger Pounce (Recharge 5-6). Malruk leaps up to 30 ft. toward a target and attacks with both claws; on a hit, the target takes an extra 3d8 slashing damage and must make a Strength saving throw (DC 16) or be knocked prone.
The Story
King Devanir's court is a web of smiles, and at its heart stands Grand Vizier Malruk, the man everyone trusts. The king drinks his counsel like wine, the generals sharpen their swords on his word, and along the border armies mass for a war nobody wants. You have been summoned as neutral mediators, the last voice of reason at a court balanced on a knife's edge.
What no one sees: Malruk is no man. He is Malruk, the Tiger-Demon, an old and cunning spirit who feeds on intrigue and betrayal, and who has been hollowing out this kingdom from within for months. His only tell is physical: when he extends a hand, the fingers bend the wrong way, palm turned upward. Ordinary steel glances off his skin like rain off glass. Only cunning, faith, and blessed metal can bite through his magic.
You must read the court like a chessboard: which nobles have been bought, which are merely frightened, who carries the lies from ear to ear. You expose forged letters, catch the demon in a single slip of the tongue, and hunt for the blessed relics that can wound him, all while Malruk works to win over or break your party one by one with flattery, blackmail, and threatening little accidents.
The turn comes when you discover the king himself is already half in the demon's claws, enchanted into a puppet. On the eve of the declaration of war, the mask falls: in the throne room, amid the fleeing courtiers, Malruk unfurls his true shape, a tiger rising onto two legs. You fight not only for your lives, but for the soul of a king and the fate of a land dancing at the very edge of the abyss.
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