High Priestess Althea 18th-level Priestess

AC -6 (plate mail +4, cloak of displacement, boots of striding and springing, shield not used MV 12; hp 80; THACO 10; #AT 1; Dmg ld6+4 or better (+3 blackstaff Str 16, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 14, AL CE. Spells (priest): 10 1st-level, 10 2nd-level, 9 3rd-level, 9 4th-level, 6 5th-level, 4 6th-level.

Althea is one of Iuz's most trusted servants. She and Halga have, between the two of them, filled the role of the destroyed High Priest Patch. Althea is 37, 5' 6", black-haired and green-eyed, and always wears simple black robes. She is an arrogant, cold, controlled woman, who treats her juniors with an air of menace and condescension. When she is angered, she reacts with a cold, Icy calm, her words full of menace and threat. She may be chaotic, but she is a disciplined priestess, not prone to making foolhardy or over-hasty decisions. Althea is the ruler of Molag, but divides her time between Dorakaa and that city. This allows her to keep tabs on Halga and blame Marynnek for anything which goes wrong in Molag and the Horned Lands in general. Althea and Halga are very wary of, speak rarely to, and avoid each other. Each would like to supplant the other and establish themselves as the number one priestess. Iuz knows this and such discord is not unpleasing to him. Althea especially hates Eclavdra of the Drow and constantly makes comments subtly belittling her to Iuz.

Althea's chambers in the Boneheart Citadel are stuffed full of art objects, treasures, and similar decorations taken from the looting of the Shield Lands and elsewhere. Althea is self-indulgent, but her control never slips. Twenty richly-dressed alu-fiends serve as her "handmaidens," and Althea particularly enjoys watching chained human males being energy drained to death by slow succubus bites. The resultant juju zombies are then used as bodyguards around her chambers.

Althea has many magical items, including a fully charged blackstaff and bonewand, and she is one of only three owners of an ebon skull. She wears rings of free action and spell storing (bonechain, cause critical wounds, harm, screaming skull), and proudly bears her phylactery of faithfulness, She has a figurine of wondrous power, a variant of the goat of terror which animates as a goat-headed nalfeshnee, has 35% magic resistance, is usable once per week, and does not become nonmagical with usage. Finally, Althea has a pair of candles of invocation which are kept for dire emergency. Either can be burned to gate a nalfeshnee of monstrous size (77 hp) which will fight to the death for her if so commanded. At the DM's option, this gate may even summon an Abyssal Lord, such as Graz'zt, Pazrael or another, if the campaign is of very high level.