Keepsake Warden

Large giant, neutral

Armor Class 15 (patchwork armor)
Hit Points 168 (16d10 + 80)
Speed 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
23 (+6)	12 (+1)	20 (+5)	14 (+2)	17 (+3)	15 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Con +9, Wis +7
Skills Intimidation +6, Religion +6, Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Giant
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +4

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Innate Spellcasting. The warden’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 15). The warden can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
  • 2/day each: clairvoyance (on keepsake item only), locate object, speak with dead
• Rock Catching. If a rock or similar object is hurled at the giant, the giant can, with a successful DC 10 Dexterity saving throw, catch the missile and take no bludgeoning damage from it.
• Tethered Immortality. Keepsake wardens are enamored of and draw power from valuable grave goods. The keepsake warden can attune to up to 3 nonmagical items, designating them as keepsake items. The supernatural connection between the keepsake warden and its keepsake items is severed only when a keepsake item is broken or destroyed. Scrying and similar spells cast on the keepsake warden allow the caster to also simultaneously spy on the warden’s keepsake items; spells that highlight or illuminate the warden, like faerie fire, cause keepsake items within 120 feet to glow. While the keepsake warden is within 120 feet of at least one of its keepsake items, the warden regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn, provided it has at least 1 hit point.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The warden makes two war pick attacks.
• War Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) piercing damage.
• Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

REACTIONS

• Token Casting. The warden knows when a keepsake item within 120 feet of it is destroyed and can use its Innate Spellcasting trait to cast its choice of mirror image, protection from energy, or see invisibility.

ABOUT

Keepsake wardens are solitary watchers over Purgatory, cemeteries, and anywhere they can rob the graves of the forgotten to harness their strange necromantic powers. Although they commonly dwell among undead such as ghouls, skeletons, and zombies, keepsake wardens are themselves mortal-a fact which they feverishly deny and try to hide from would-be giant slayers.

Skulking between tombstones on moonlit nights, keepsake wardens do an excellent job of blending into their dour surroundings. To further the impression that they dwell in the twilit space between life and death, they outfit themselves in the trappings of the dead-jewels, hides, tokens, and bones-and seem always to bear the sweet, pungent odors of incense and decay. Their flesh ranges from deep burgundy to ashen gray, and their hair is typically a black or brown color. A keepsake warden always keeps a tool for excavation close at hand-preferably something that can double as a deadly weapon in combat.

A typical keepsake warden stands about 15 feet tall and weighs approximately 2,700 pounds.

A keepsake warden that has settled on a particular cemetery tends to keep one of its precious keepsake items on its person but spread its other treasures across the graveyard’s grounds. This grants the giant some measure of safety as it wanders its lonely territory. However, should adventurers or grave robbers abscond with a keepsake item, knowingly or unknowingly, the keepsake warden is quick to fly into a rage until it reclaims its lost trinket.