FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: See below
MOVE: 12"
HIT DICE: See below
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: See below
DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regeneration --see below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 100%
INTELLIGENCE: Genius
ALIGNMENT: See below
SIZE: M
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: See below

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An aleax is the physical manifestation of the vengeance of certain gods.
There is but one aleax for each such god, sent to punish and redeem
those who stray from alignment, fail to sacrifice enough treasure or
otherwise anger their god. An aleax will never be met by chance.

An aleax appears in human form and will closely resemble his intended victim. To
that victim, the aleax will appear bathed in
shimmering light which varies in colour according to the god's alignment
-- golden for lawful good, deep purple for lawful evil, everchanging rose-and-blue hues for chaotic good,
and so forth. On
appearance, the aleax will attack his intended victim -- he cannot be detected in any way by others,
nor will physical or magical attakcs touch the aleax except those from his victim. To an observer, the
victim appears to be in conflict with a totally invisible, totally invulnerable being.

To the victim, the aleax will be in all respects (except as indicated
elsewhere) his own exact duplicate. It will have the same characteristics,
HP, armour, weapons, and so on. There are but two
differences in combat:

a) the aleax regenerates after being first wounded; the round after
the wound is taken, it regenerates 1 HP, the next round 2 HP,
then 4 HP, then 8 HP and so on until it is
killed (reduced to <0> HP or below) or all hits are restored.
If it is then hit again, the progression starts again at 1 HP;

b) any hit scored against an aleax on an unmodified roll of 19 does
double damage, and any hit on an unmodified 20 does quadruple
damaage.. (Note that damage inflicted by the aleax on its victim is
normal, whatever the 'to hit' roll).

A victim killed by an aleax loses all treasure (even if cached -- gods
are near-omniscient!) and <1/2> his XP. The character is then
automatically raised and may then begin life again at the
appropriate experience level. All the victims magical items lose
their magical properties, scrolls become blank, potions become inert and
so on. No resurrection is necessary and the character will not receive
a further visitation from an aleax providing he remains true to his
god thereafter.

If an intended victim kills an aleax, that person is taken to Heaven (or
Olympus, Hell, Valhalla as appropriate) to serve his god personally for
a year and a day. On return, the character will regain all former possessions
(which in this case retain their properties and powers,
though they are not available for USE by another character during the
owner's absence) and the deity will almost certainly (95% chance)
add an extra reward (e.g. a powerful magical item, promotion to the next
highest experience level etc. -- at the referee's discretion).

As it appears, an aleax will, in the victim's alignment language, utter a
few brief words to indicate that the victim is to be punished by his god.
Otherwise an aleax will never converse, no matter what the duress.
 

    by Alessandro Martelli
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