Siff Duthar

Siff Dufar was a necromancer who lived during the Age of Arcanum. He experimented with binding undead souls to the physical remains of bodies, eventually performing the process on himself when he became an allip.

Description
The lower half of his body tapered off into nothingness, as the mass of his head and body were centralized in a horrible whipping swirl of localized wind, shadow energy, and tendrils of cloth from the four to five layers of shredded robes and the tattered cloak he wore. His ghastly visage was of dark grey flesh stretched against the skull that shifted along with its spectral shadowy form.

History
Having attempted to destroy his works, some of Siff's writings were salvaged when one of his notebooks, although heavily burned in one of its corners, was spared destruction when it fell out its brazier to come to rest underneath one of the tables. Written in Draconic, this book contained the disjointed scribbling of his thoughts, experiments, and fears.

The ramblings within this book spoke of a coming war. He described foolish pawns who followed their gods to annihilation. He spoke of the armies of Ghor Dranas washing over the land and paupers and kings alike not finding salvation, but instead being placed on pikes and held like banners into battle regardless of who they are. The book spoke of the weakness of flesh and the need to endure beyond the paltry life shell that one was given. It talked about his experiments on refugees, and his search to see if the soul could be bound to flesh of any form, be it ice or ash. It spoke of an obsession with avoiding the eternal hunger of The Crawling King, he who tunnels beneath the world and would find him.

It spoke of a bounty hunter, who had infiltrated his sanctum in search of him, and although his battle with his cost him his legs, the hunter was burned in the flames of erasure, and his greatsword was taken as a trophy and mounted above the back bookcase of the research chamber.

Becoming more manic as the journal went on, he spoke of the coming of the Betrayer Gods, and how the earth shook around the surrounding hills and how the skies had grown dark. He wrote that the power of man must remain, and how his arcane gifts must bypass their punishment, to show them that they are not above their creations.

In the final notes of this book, before it became charred beyond recognition, he grew even more paranoid and worried that his secrets and research would fall into the hands of Ghor Dranas, and to prevent that all of his work must be destroyed.

That’s the final page before the rest of the book is charred beyond recognition. Binding his soul within a large urn, located behind the back bookcase, Siff was able to return and appeared to the Mighty Nein, in his spectral form when they investigated his research chamber. After being first defeated by the party, he returned again, but was finally, with an almost sad expression on his face, destroyed by Molly who managed to break his urn, thus banishing him from the Material Plane.

Abilities
Siff could become ethereal and shift through walls.

Whispering out to those in range around him, Siff could fill the minds of those who failed to resist his power, with images of ancient warfare as their grasp of reality slipped. The effect being that these individuals would reflexively in momentary disorientation attack the individual closest to them thinking them to be an enemy.

"The whispers begin to slowly spill out of its face, voices spreading out...the secrets begin to penetrate your ears. You close off your consciousness and put your hands up to close the space. They don't seem to penetrate your mind. Beau, however, these words start shooting into your brain. You feel for a moment your grasp on reality begins to slip. Suddenly, the world begins to spin. You feel yourself assaulted from all angles. You see flashes of ancient warfare, of giant columns of fire crashing from the cosmos. You spin your staff around reactively. I need you to make an attack against Yasha, please."

Quotes

 * "Now secrets are yours"
 * "A secret for trade"