Hollowcrown Lich
- Adversary
- Bruiser
- Tier 4
Appears in: Undead, Boss Fights, Wilderness and Survival, Underground and Caverns
Hollowcrown Lich
- HP
- 9
- Stress
- 6
- Difficulty
- 20
- Attack
- +4
Deathfire Bolt: 3d10+4 mag
Grave Cold. The air around the lich is killing cold. Creatures that end their turn within Close range must mark a Stress unless they clear away from the lich, and they roll with disadvantage on Reaction Rolls to resist the lich's necrotic effects.
Raise the Fallen. Spend a Fear to call two Risen Skeleton minions out of the ground within Very Close range. They act immediately on the lich's turn and crumble to dust if they end a turn at Far range from the lich.
Soul Drain. Mark a Stress and target one creature within Far range. The target makes a Knowledge Reaction Roll (20). On a failure they take 3d8 magic damage and become Vulnerable until they clear a Stress, and the lich clears a Stress as it feeds.
Withering Word. When a creature within Far range rolls with Fear, the lich may spend a Fear to speak a word of unmaking. That creature takes 2d8 magic damage and loses a Hope.
Bound to the Orb. When the lich would be defeated, its body collapses into green mist and reforms at full HP at the start of its next turn within Close range of its soul orb. If the soul orb has been destroyed, this feature does nothing and the lich is defeated normally.
How to run Hollowcrown Lich
Hollowcrown Lich is a tier 4 bruiser for Daggerheart. Drop it into any fitting scene; the statblock above is free to add to your compendium in the app, and the one-shot below gives you somewhere to run it.
Where it begins
- 1
Every grave in the valley cemetery was dug open from the inside in a single night.
- 2
A returning patrol found their fallen comrades standing in formation with green fire in their eye sockets, blocking the mountain pass.
- 3
A scholar who copied an old funerary inscription aged forty years overnight and now whispers the same two words in her sleep.
Crown of the Dead
The dead are rising along the old road, marching toward a ruined keep where a hooded sorcerer sits enthroned. The party must cut through the lich's risen ranks, find the soul orb that keeps it from dying, and end the thing wearing the crown of bone.
The Marching Dead
The road ahead is packed with corpses that walk, hundreds of them, shuffling toward a black keep on the ridge. Green light pulses behind its broken windows in time with a low droning hum. The nearest bodies turn their burning eyes toward you as one.
The party cannot fight every corpse, so frame this as a problem of routing and timing. They can slip through gaps in the procession, draw the dead off with noise or fire, or follow the column straight to its source. Survivors hiding in roadside farms can describe when the marching started and which direction the green light first appeared, pointing the party toward the keep.
