The Road Necromancer

Stub-class article · First seen: s20 · Last seen: s20
The Road Necromancer
Road Necromancer (Session 20) · The lone necromancer · the lone human controller
Portrait of The Road Necromancer.
Character
StatusAlive
First seens20
Last seens20

The Road Necromancer is the unnamed lone human who stood watching the session 20 road ambush from the tree line while five ghouls and two ogre zombies attacked Laura Bennett’s caravan, and who slipped into the forest when the undead broke [12][3]. The party took him for the undead’s controller, but he never acted on-screen and no one made out his features; the DM’s only description is “a cloaked figure in the treeline” in his session 21 recap [9]. The DM has not tied him to Aurelia or to the sky-flash earlier that night.

Overview

The Road Necromancer is an unnamed antagonist who appeared only as a silhouette during the session 20 ambush on the Umbrafall road: a lone human, standing back at the tree line, who never took part in the fight [1][2]. The party took him for the one who controlled the undead [6]. Because no one rolled to make out his features, almost nothing is known of his appearance; the DM’s recap at the start of session 21 adds only that he was cloaked [9]. His name, affiliation and purpose are open questions.

Appearance and demeanour

“A lone human”, about fifty feet back in the forest line, “definitely with the bad guys” [1][2]. Cloaked, by the DM’s recap [9]. Father Thomas’s passive Perception of 16 and 100 feet of darkvision gave no detail, and nobody rolled to look closer [8]. He is watchful: he stood back through the fight and left only when the surviving ogre zombie fled [3].

Abilities as played

None shown. He rolled no initiative, cast nothing and attacked no one. The five ghouls and two ogre zombies fought without any visible order from him [11][3]. Afterwards the DM described the black veining left by the ghouls’ wounds as “just Necromancy magic” [4], which is the party’s only evidence of necromancy at work on the road.

Relationships

  • Laura Bennett: the merchant the party were guarding. She framed the ambush as the common road robbery she had hired guards against and offered no lead [7].
  • Caelumn: read the attack as targeted and asked Laura who might want her cargo [6].
  • Aurelia: necromancy is banned there, and necrotechs cluster around Umbrafall for cheap supplies and plentiful corpses, “not much worse than bandits” [5]. The DM has not said he belongs to that trade.

Notable quotes

“you see a lone human that stands beneath the trees watching everyone roll initiative.” — Nick (DM), [1]

“As you see the ogre run away, you notice that the person standing in the forest line disappears into the forest.” — Nick (DM), [3]

History in the campaign

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

On the road to Umbrafall with Laura Bennett’s wagons, five ghouls burst from a ditch and two ogre zombies lumbered after them, and the DM added “a lone human that stands beneath the trees watching everyone roll initiative” [12]. Asked how far he was, the DM put him fifty feet off and “definitely with the bad guys” [13]. He took no visible action. When the surviving ogre zombie fled from Father Thomas, he disappeared into the forest [3]. Afterwards the DM called the black veins of the ghoul wounds “just Necromancy magic” [14]. Caelumn called the attack targeted, Laura offered no lead, and nobody had made out the figure’s features [15][8].

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Main article: Session 21

The necromancer does not appear. In his opening recap the DM described the ambush as five ghouls and two zombie ogres driven off “rather easily”, with “a cloaked figure in the treeline that didn’t really engage in said brawl” [9]. At the inn in Greysmere, Father Thomas asked whether the innkeeper’s missing son looked like “that humanoid figure that was with those undead that buggered off”; he did not [16]. The DM has not tied the necromancer to anything at Greysmere.

Status

As of session 21. Alive and at large; last seen fleeing into the forest in session 20 [3]. The DM has said that his identity, motives and connections are for play, and that the attack alone does not prove the party was targeted (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 20, line 1309: A lone human stands beneath the trees watching everyone roll initiative.
  2. ^ Session 20, line 1427-1429: Positioned roughly 50 feet back in the forest line, "definitely with the bad guys".
  3. ^ Session 20, line 1613: Disappears into the forest as the surviving ogre zombie breaks away.
  4. ^ Session 20, line 1712: The spreading black wound-veins are confirmed to be necromancy magic.
  5. ^ Session 20, line 1714: Necromancy is banned in Aurelia; necrotechs cluster around Umbrafall for cheap materials and abundant corpses.
  6. ^ Session 20, line 1736: Caelumn reads the ambush as a targeted attack and calls the figure a necromancer.
  7. ^ Session 20, line 1737: Laura frames the ambush as ordinary road robbery, no lead offered.
  8. ^ Session 20, line 1751-1752: No features made out; passive perception was not enough and no one rolled to look.
  9. ^ Session 21, line 44: The DM's recap descriptor: "a cloaked figure in the treeline that didn't really engage in said brawl".
  10. ^ Session 21, line 194-195: The Greysmere innkeeper's missing son looks nothing like "that humanoid figure that was with those undead".
  11. ^ Session 20, line 1305-1307: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 20, line 1305-1309: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 20, line 1426-1429: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 20, line 1712-1714: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 20, line 1736-1737: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 21, line 194-197: Inline citation.
This article is a stub. You can help Nickipedia by expanding it.