Spirit, Undead - Spirit (Mystara)

Spirits are powerful undead beings which inhabit the bodies, or body parts, of others. Creatures or parts of creatures animated by a spirit have a pale, decayed appearance and often emit a sickly green, blue, or purple glow. Though solitary, a druj or odic may be found in the company of 1d6 of its victims.

Druj appear as body parts – a hand, an eye, or a skull – floating or crawling around in a horrible way.

Odics are formless creatures that take possession of normal plants, usually shrubs or small trees.

Combat: Being undead, spirits are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells. They cannot be paralysed or poisoned, nor are they harmed by cold-based attacks.

All spirits are poisonous; a melee hit from a spirit causes the target to make a successful saving throw vs. poison or die immediately. Furthermore, a spirit’s poisonous aura causes all consumable items within a 30-foot radius to instantly become spoiled and useless: all food (including iron rations), water, beverages, holy water, and magical potions, salves, and oils become spoiled. There is no saving throw against this power, though items within a closed extradimensional space, such as a bag of holding, are immune. If the container is opened even for a moment while within range, however, the consumable items inside become spoiled. Suppies that are spoiled by this power do not become poisonous, but thev lose all magical properties and acquire a fdul taste. Spoiled food and drink, if consumed, provide no benefits whatsoever. Normal items can be made wholesome again with a purify food and drink spell, though they never quite lose their foul taste. Magical items and holy water can be restored only by a wish or limited wish.

Living plants and normal insects within the poison radius become immediately paralyzed and die if the spirit remains in the area for more than an hour. This effect negates all forms of plant control (including entangle spells) and all insect plagues and swarms, both normal and magical.

Spirits continually use a form of detect invisibility, and they can use any of the following spell-like abilities once a round, at will, as a 16th-level priest: darkness, silence 15’ radius, cause disease, animate dead, and finger of death.

Spirits frequently use their animate dead ability to turn victims they have slain into zombies, which the spirit uses to defend itself and to harass enemies. Both the spirit itself and the zombies under its control can be turned by priests and paladins as special creatures.

All spirits are powerless during daylight, although they can move up to 24 miles between sunrise and sunset.

Druj Combat

Once a night, a druj can split its essence, creating four identical forms. Each of these forms is poisonous, and each can attack separately; however, only one retains the druj’s spell-like powers. Opponents often can identify which is the spellcasting form, as it tends to hover in the background while the other three close to attack. Should the spell-casting form be destroyed, one of the surviving forms immediately gains all the druj’s spell-like abilities. Only destroying all four forms will defeat the creature.

The first time each night that a druj is successfully turned by a priest or paladin, the spirit’s forms are forced to reunite into one creature and remain that way for 1d4+1 rounds, after which the druj can split again. Similarly, if the druj is turned before it can split, it cannot then do so until 1d4+1 rounds have passed. In either case, further successful turns during the same night are handled normally – that is, they force the entire creature to retreat.

Druj have additional powers, depending on their basic forms.

Eye: An eye druj darts about, trying to touch its opponents. The touch inflicts no damage, other than poisoning. An eye druj can make a special gaze attack against one target each round in addition to its physical attacks. The victim must make a successful saving throw vs. paralysis or be paralyzed for 1d4 turns. This attack has a range of 30 feet, and the victim need not meet the druj’s gaze to be affected. An eye druj can automatically touch a paralyzed victim.

Hand: A hand druj inflicts 1d4 points of damage when it strikes a creature; it holds on thereafter, causing additional damage each round. The damage inflicted by the hold is 1d4 points plus the victim’s Armor Chss (shield and Dexterity adjustments do not apply). Even if the character’s base Armor Class is 0 or less, he or she still suffers 1d4 points of damage per round. The victim must roll a saving throw vs. poison only when initially struck by the hand.

Skull: A skull druj floats toward its victims, attempting to bite; each bite inflicts 2d4 points of damage and causes the victim to make a successful saving throw vs. poison or die. When first attacked, a victim must make a successful saving throw vs. spell or be frozen with fright for one round. The druj can automatically bite a frozen victim.

Odic Combat

This spirit possesses a new plant each night. The plant sheds a purplish or bluish light in a 20-foot radius; this light is visible up to 300 yards away. Living creatures entering the light must make a successful saving throw vs. spell or they lose one level or Hit Die, as though struck by a wight. Each potential victim must make an additional saving throw each round he or she remains in the light.

Once it has settled in for the night, an odic cannot move from the spot until daybreak. The host plant is killed immediately. The odic can animate parts of the plant, however, and use them to deliver its attacks.

The odic uses the plant’s longest branch to reach out up to 30 feet and deliver a blow that inflicts 1d12 points of damage; anyone struck must also make a saving throw vs. poison or perish.

The odic uses other portions of the host to seek out victims. The odic can animate up to six leaves at one time. These animated leaves float away at a movement rate of 3; the odic can control them at any range up to one mile. The animated leaves have a THAC0 of 16 and an Armor Class of 8; because they are barely noticeable, they impose a 4 penalty on their opponenents’ surprise rolls. They have one hit point each. They inflict no damage, but any victim touched by one must make a successful saving throw vs. spell or be charmed and drawn toward the odic. Charmed victims who enter the odic’s light suffer a -4 penalty to saving throws against the energy drain and will not voluntarily leave the radius.

If the host plant has no leaves, the odic can animate the nearest equivalent – needles, flowers, tendrils, etc. During a single night, an odic can animate any number of leaves the host plant has available; however, the odic can never animate more than six at once. Animated leaves cannot use the odic’s spell-like powers or poison touch.

Animated leaves can be turned as special undead. If successfully turned, their link with the controlling odic is broken and the leaves fall to the ground, inert. The odic cannot reanimate a leaf once it has been turned, but it can continue to animate other leaves from the host plant.

If the odic itself is turned, it is forced out of the host plant and becomes helpless until the next sunset, when it can possess a new plant.

Habitat/Society: Spirits are solitary wanderers. They usually cany no treasure but occasionally serve as guardians for special items or hoards. Also, a spirit’s previous victims, if present, might carry type H treasure.

Druj are always encountered singly unless commanded by powerful lich, evil priest, or similar evil power. In such cases, two druj eyes might rest within a druj skull, accompanied by two druj hands. No more that these five druj can ever be found in one place, and smaller groups (a druj skull with one druj eye, for example) are much more likely.

Odics are always encountered singly. Occasionally, odics inhabit the bodies of plantlike monsters. The monster is allowed a saving throw vs. spell, and if it succeeds the odic cannot attempt to possess the monster again that night. However, the odic can still settle into a nearby plant and attack the monster using its normal abilities.

Possession by an odic kills a plantlike monster, just as it kills normal plants. If the possessed creature is mobile, the odic can then move at the creature’s normal movement rate. The odic can also use all of the monster’s powers in addition to its own.

Ecology: Like most undead, these spirits hate life and ruthlessly seek to destroy it whenever possible. It may be that spirits gain sustenance from the life forces of the creatures they slay, but hunger clearly is not their only motivation. As destructive as they are, spirits usually move on before they can cause any great local impact. Should one decide to settle down, however, the effects are disastrous, as a spirit tends to kill everything in its vicinity.