Inquisitor (creature)

Inquisitors were undead horrors that excelled in the art of torture.

Description
Inquisitors looked like emaciated and rotted humanoids and were often mistaken for zombies. A putrid mucus oozed from its eyes and mouth. It was often encountered wearing clothes, usually a black, hooded cloak and torn pants.

Abilities
Inquisitors had a natural immunity to any effect or spell that affected the mind. If a living creature made eye contact with an inquisitor, there was a significant chance they would become temporarily paralyzed.

Combat
The sole purpose and driving need for an inquisitor was to torture living creatures. Its torture sessions were so brutal that most victims were left physically disfigured and insane. If forced into melee combat, an inquisitor used its sharp nails to scratch and impale a target. It also wielded a special whip. Any living creature struck with this whip contracted a terrible wasting disease called wasting inquisition that was fatal unless treated with a cure disease spell.

Habitat
An inquisitor's lair was its torture chamber, which could be found anywhere, from a cave deep in the wilderness to a central location in a dense urban area. An inquisitor spent most of its time in its lair, leaving only to secure new torture victims. Some inquisitors never left their lairs, instead employing others to secure victims for them. Most inquisitors in the Realms were found in Thay and Sembia, often in the service of liches, though a few had been noted near the ruins of cities in what once were Eaerlann and Illefarn.

Ecology
Inquisitors were created long ago by evil wizards. Part of their curse was extreme longevity, cursed to torture for eternity. Their longevity was only maintained by the act of torturing living creatures, requiring them to torture a victim at least once per year.

Notable Inquisitors
When Errilam Krimmevol fell to his (presumed) death while trying to escape the Cloister of St. Ramedar, he returned to plague the reformatory as an inquisitor. The goddess Loviatar, the Patroness of Torturers, gave him a boon of protection from detection so he was essentially invisible to the living, fading into view as his victims came closer to death.