Whitherralk: Sentient Staff of Sorcery
Whitherralk was once a lich of great power who lived in the forgotten realms. He spent ages gaining power and creating an army of undead to overwhelm the entire world. He created enough undead to begin his invasion but was stopped by a great paladin who cut him down. Whitherralk’s plan failed and some curse has prevented him from leaving his phylactery and has severely limited his powers while he is stuck in it. His phylactery is a large staff, covered with emeralds and made of black iron. It functions as a plus two mace when used in combat. It has the extraordinary abilities to cast “Create Undead” once per a day and “Fireball” three times per a day. It has the lesser abilities to constantly “detect magic”, once per a day “maximize” any one offensive, arcane spell and grants the wielder the ability to recall one spell per a day as if he had not cast it. However, any undead created by the staff serves it, not the wielder and the staff controls any recalled spells. Whitherralk has the purpose of creating as many undead as he can in an attempt to create an empire. It will always suggest using that spell and if the wielder refuses it will try to take control. It pretends that the wielder controls the undead for as long as possible, having them obey the wielder’s commands. Whitherralk prefers to be held by spell casters as it allows him more control over the world around him. For this reason he is only carried by his undead when he needs to be. It speaks telepathically with its wielder and at first pretends to be useful. Whitherralk’s personal goal is to find a way to separate from his phylactery and inhabit a new corpse, however through twenty years of research he has found nothing to help him, so he is willing to delay that goal for a while.
LE Int: 16 Cha: 20 Wis: 14 Ego: 24