ECOLOGY

Environment temperate or warm deserts
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure none

The deathless guardians of tombs are primarily the restless spirits of pharaohs, their loyal honor guards, and sometimes even mummified beasts.

Ancient emperors occasionally demanded to be buried next to particularly favored pets, which were carefully sacrificed and embalmed. Perhaps no beasts were trusted into the afterlife so much as felines, however, who were almost without exception buried alongside deceased pharaohs or at the very least inscribed into their burial chamber walls. Those cats that rose from the dead— either because of the foul magical energies of a pharaoh's crypt or thanks to the necromantic magic of a restless undead pharaoh herself—were known as grave lynxes.

Grave lynxes were prized for being stealthy, agile, and preternaturally perceptive sentries that made for effective spies and watch guards for the tombs of the ancient god-kings. Emperors often filled their crypts with the bodies of strangled and mutilated cats before they themselves were entombed, believing that a feline's suffering in life would translate to strength and anger in undeath.

Whether or not such theories were true is up for debate, but those that did rise from death with their masters were indeed beasts to be reckoned with, and a sizeable pack of the mummified things could very well spell the end for would-be tomb raiders. Ranging from tiny housecats to desert-roaming mountain lions, the feline enshrined with a deceased pharaoh varied in type depending on the predilections of its master, but all were known to be significantly more powerful than their living iterations.