A tembo, who looks like a giant scaled rat with sabertooth fangs.

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The Lore

If our previous entry was kind of vague about whether tareks were a product of the genocidal “Cleansing Wars” in Athas’ distant past, this one is pretty categorical. Tembos are bioengineered terror weapons, created using magic most foul for the purposes of facilitating genocide.

The “Champions” of that time (which unknown to most are the sorcerer-kings of today) created them to sneak upon the homes of their opponents, and take from them those they loved most. In addition to their stealthy forms and sharp fangs, they received a limited ability to blend with shadows, the power to bite someone in the soul, and a sophisticated intellect that is entirely devoted to finding new ways of fulfilling their purpose in crueler ways.

They have survived as a species to this day, roaming mainly through the western wastelands of the Tyr region, but they have been sighted elsewhere too. There’s no one to give them specific targets any more, so they choose their victims themselves, for food and fun.

Confirmation that a tembo is targetting a settlement is one of the only things that will immediately end any infighting and other disagreements and make its whole population unite against the threat. Everyone hates these things more than they hate each other, which is saying something in Athas.

How exactly these attacks happen vary with the creature’s whims, as well as with what it judges to be the most effective tactic for a given situation. Sometimes they stay hidden and let their deadly magical aura slowly kill the population, and sometimes they tear people apart in broad daylight.

The Numbers

Tembos are Medium Aberrant Magical Beasts and Level 6 Solo Skirmishers with 280 HP. Their Killing Presence acts as an aura (2) that deals 5 necrotic damage to anyone who starts their turn inside. When the tembo is bloodied, its second aura kicks in. Tainted Wounds (aura 5) halves any HP recovery from healing effects for those inside.

As a solo, the tembo has Double Actions, meaning it rolls initiative twice and takes full turns in both counts. And finally, it’s Immovable, being completely immune to any kind of forced movement, and getting a free save against being knocked prone.

The monster’s main attack is a Bite that damages, inflicts a -2 attack penalty for a turn, and serves as a carrier for the Unspeakable Violation secondary attack. This targets Fortitude, and on a hit eats a healing surge and doubles the damage from Killing Presence against that target for a turn. Fortunately, it has Recharge 6+, so it doesn’t happen with every bite.

Its attack it’s likely to use the most is a Raking Assault, which deals the same damage as the bite then lets the Tembo shift 4 squares and use the bite. So that’s two or three attacks for the price of one, with the creature being able to do this two times per round.

Its camouflage powers take two forms: Blending (encounter) is a move action that makes the tembo invisible for a turn or until its next attack. And Shadow Evasion (recharge when first bloodied) is a reaction that triggers when it’s hit by a melee or ranged attack, letting it shift 4 squares and become insubstantial for a turn.

Having two full turns per round can actually make Blending last even less, so it’s not something a tembo will use to lie in wait for a long time. It will instead rely on mundane stealth for this. Then it will charge in, use as many Raking Assault flurries as it can, and combine Shadow Evasion with Blending to escape from sight, only coming back to attack when its enemies’ guards are down. Its ability to delete healing surges makes such long-term harassment tactics even more effective, since it will obviously attack you in your sleep and stop you from taking a long rest. Fighting the creature to the finish in a single encounter will require preventing its escape somehow.

Encounters and Final Impressions

What a horrible, horrible monster.

Tembos are almost always found alone. As mentioned above, everyone hates these things. They will sometimes join together in small packs, but these end up breaking apart pretty soon because they suck at organizing themselves.