Grim Clown: Hunchback (Type I)

Grim Clown: Hunchback (Type I)
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (Climb/Rooftop), 30' level ground
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1 (weapon), possible Cause Revulsion, possible spells
Damage: 1d4 or weapon
Save: F3
Morale: 8

1 in 4 Grim Clowns are so terribly deformed or have been horribly scarred so as to cause revulsion in anyone who looks upon their mangled and disordered visage. (Make a save versus spells or be affected by Cause Fear for 2 turns as though it were a gaze attack.) The rest make-do with smearing lampblack, grease and ashes into their faces so as to make themselves appear more menacing, but often wind-up looking like strange, dark clowns. Clowns who never smile. Never laugh. Sinister clowns who carry grapnels, longshoremen's hooks, and lots of rope. Evil clowns that watch the comings and goings of other people from atop the sagging roofs of abandoned buildings and from behind decrepit chimneys.

Wretched, misshapen creatures, hunchbacks may be of any race, though most are rumored to be hybrids, half-breeds and the unwanted byblows of liaisons with lesser demons or some of the more repugnant humanoids that lurk within the darker sections of the cities within which they dwell. Whatever the truth, dire rumors and foul gossip surround all Hunchbacks who are social pariahs and outcasts who are forced to remain outside of all parades, public events, civic celebrations and the like. Indeed, the presence of a Hunchback at such an ocassion is seen as a negative omen as they are unlucky prodigies alleged to bring bad luck to those who would show them any mercy or kindness. (This might just be a superstition, or maybe it's something more sinister; we leave that up to DM whim or preference.)

Urban creatures, Hunchbacks never get lost in their city. They can carry twice the normal weight before becoming encumbered and they gain a +4 bonus on all Climbing or Rope-Swinging related ability checks.

Certain Grim Clown hunchbacks have served as minions, henchmen or followers to various cultists, defrocked priests, convicted sorcerers, and debauched rakes or worse. Some may well have served as familiars while they were still young and virginal, if still hideous and uncouth, which may be where some of them gained their alleged magical abilities. Some hunchbacks have learned 1d4 spells of first or second level. Others have been taught to read from out of charity and they have begun to use this newfound ability to decipher scrolls and spell-books that they have stolen or discovered within the disused attic libraries of dead mages, witches and wizards.

There have also been reports of Hunchbacks who seem to have an uncanny mesmeric effect over vermin, bats or crows that they have somehow charmed or hypnotized to serve them as fanatically loyal slaves. Others have been known to consort with and even lair amongst gargoyles. Some may even be half-gargoyles, if the tales of drunken rat-catchers and roof-runners are to be believed...