==== Withering cloud ====
Withering clouds are clouds of noxious black smoke, inducing a magic syndrome that causes the Blood blood of all living creatures breathing it to degenerate and wither away, effectively causing inflicting them with an effect similar to bleeding but without open wounds.
* Engulfs an entire Side of the battlespace, affecting every creature inside.
The necromancer is the most powerful of all undead creatures, and the creature after which the magical domain of ''necromancy'' is named after. They can be formed in one of two ways. The first way is when a [[lich]] serving a necromancer grows old and powerful, it becomes more and more difficult for its master necromancer to keep trying to control it, so in thanks for its service, it is given more power and set free, allowed to venture the world and raise the dead by itself. The second way is when a necromancer is destroyed; if it has any remaining lich servitors, the oldest of them is "promoted" to necromancer.
In essence, a necromancer is simply an old and powerful lich, however they are different in two, very important ways. One is sapience; necromancers gain the ability to speak understandable intelligible [[languages]], in hissed tones of unrecognizable gender, and they can talk and even reason with other sapientssapient species. The other is their signature ability to ''summon undead''. They can raise the dead on command, causing [[zombie|dead]] [[ghoul|bodies]] and [[skeleton|skeletons]] to rise and follow the necromancer's every order, as long as there are no other active undead creatures in the vicinity.
Necromancers generally consider one another to be rivals, and dislike to be in one another's presence, as they cancel each other's ability to raise undead creatures. A sort of unwritten code, the ''Gentlebone's Agreement'', dictates that necromancers should avoid each other as much as possible, never meet unless under extreme circumstances (and then, only for as long as necessary), and to never do battle directly. If disagreements must be solved through conflict, necromancers must send their armies of undead against each other, until one side has been completely eliminated. It is considered to be the height of dishonor for a necromancer to continue being defiant even after defeat; such behavior constitutes a breach of the ''Agreement'' that warrants direct combat, or even contracting sapients to destroy the rogue necromancer for them.
Because they can speak, discussions between sapients and necromancers sometimes occur, and outside the fact they are talking with a skeleton with a strange, hissy voice, they can be quite pleasant and affable, if only they weren't directly interested in causing death around themselves. On occasion, a sufficiently crafty adventurer can slip by a necromancer by talking their way out of a fight. Extremely rarely, living sapients can be found working for a necromancer.
If you meet a necromancer, fleeing is highly recommended, as they tend to cast ''Summon undead'' the second they are no longer alone in the room. If you must fight one, remember that even though they are ancient and powerful [[skeleton|skeletons]], they are still skeletons, and all of the same weaknesses apply. Prioritize weapons that can cause fractures, and destroy the head (skull), upper body (ribcage and spine) or lower body (pelvic bone) to lay a necromancer to eternal rest. It is recommended to always kill the necromancer first, and deal with any of its servitors next, butt but watch out if there are any liches nearby - if one of them works for the necromancer that was just destroyed, they might may be promoted to replace their master.
[[Category:Creatures]]
[[Category:Sapient creatures]]