The Dragon's Bestiary               from DRAGON(R) issue #162

Two hauntingly good (but definitely bad) undead

by Spike Y. Jones

(C)1990 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

<Spiritus Anime>

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: [Anywhere dead bodies can be found]
FREQUENCY: [Very rare]
ORGANIZATION: [Solitary]
ACTIVITY CYCLE: [Any]
DIET: [Nil]
INTELLIGENCE: [Semi- (2-4)]
TREASURE TYPE: [See below]
ALIGNMENT: [Neutral evil]
NO. APPEARING: [1]
ARMOR CLASS: [7 (skeleton)/8 (zombie)/6 (spiritus)]
MOVEMENT: [12 (skeleton)/6 (zombie)/24 (spiritus)]
HIT DICE: [3]
THAC0: [17 (in all forms)]
NO. OF ATTACKS: [1 (as skeleton or zombie)/Nil (as spiritus
anime)]
DAMAGE/ATTACK: [1-6 (skeleton)/1-8 (zombie)]
SPECIAL ATTACKS: [Nil]
SPECIAL DEFENSES: [See below]
MAGIC RESISTANCE: [Nil]
SIZE: [M (as skeleton or zombie), or T (1' diameter cloud
as spiritus)]
MORALE: [Elite (13)]
XP VALUE: [270 +5 per animated body]

    The spiritus anime is an undead creature, in the shape of a
formless vapor, capable of animating the bodies of dead creatures
in its vicinity. Its appearance is that of a glimmering cloud of
dust with a tenuous thread of dust motes attaching it to the body
the spiritus wore in life (its "home body," which is almost
invariably buried). This cloud is normally [invisible], but a
[detect invisibility] or [true seeing] spell reveals it as a
glowing nimbus around the bodies it animates, or as a cloud if
found without bodies. In addition, if someone actively tries to
see this monster without magical aid, the attempt will succeed if
a save vs. spells is successfully made. The viewer must be within
10' of the spiritus anime in order to have a chance of seeing it.
    <Combat>: In its natural, cloudlike form, the
spiritus anime makes no attacks; to fight, it possesses and
animates a corpse or skeleton within 100 yards of its original
home body. When in one of these bodies, it fights as if it were a
normal animated undead, either a skeleton or a zombie, with the
animated body having all appropriate statistics (the body's hit
dice and hit points are separate from the spiritus anime's own).
Damage done to the animated body is not taken by the spiritus
anime; when a body that the spiritus anime inhabits is "slain,"
the monster merely animates another corpse on the following round
and once more rises to the attack (having a +4 penalty added to
its initiative roll on the first round of a new body's use).
"Slain" undead cannot be animated again by the same spiritus
anime, though zombies that are "slain" can be reused as skeletons
months later, once the flesh has rotted from their bones. Only
the remains of human, demihuman, or humanoid beings can be so
animated.
    There are four ways to halt a spiritus anime's attack. The
easiest is to retreat more than 100 yards from the spiritus' home
body, the distance beyond which it cannot move an animated host
body. (Theoretically, a spiritus anime could use an animated body
to carry its home body to a distant site, in order to find a
larger supply of corpses to animate or to follow a particular
enemy to which it has developed some special attachment, but such
an intelligent plan would surely be beyond it.)
    The second method is to destroy the supply of dead bodies
that it can animate as weapons, a time-consuming process that can
be counterproductive if some of the attacking party dies in the
melee, allowing their bodies to be animated as zombies by the
spiritus anime (in preference to the weaker skeletons).
    The third way is to destroy the spiritus anime's home body,
instead of merely dispatching its host bodies. If attackers
manage to identify and dig up its home body, they can "slay" this
body and, in so doing, kill its spiritus anime. The home body has
the statistics of either a skeleton or zombie, though if not
animated it will not attack. When an attack on the home body is
begun, the spiritus will concentrate its efforts on protecting
its home body either by using animated bodies or by animating its
home body and attempting to flee with it. Normal weapons are
effective against a spiritus anime's home body, and holy water
does 1-4 hp damage per vial both to the body and to the spiritus
anime itself.
    The final method of killing a spiritus anime is through
magic. If any [cure wounds] spell is used on a body the spiritus
anime is animating, the spiritus anime permanently loses a number
of hit points from its own hit-point total (not from the
hit-point total of the animated body) equalling the number of hit
points that the spell would have cured. [Bless] causes 1-4 hp
damage to the spiritus anime if it fails a saving throw vs.
spells, and [exorcise, dispel evil, spiritwrack, raise dead, ]and
[resurrection] will all kill it without a saving throw.
    A spiritus anime can be turned by a cleric as if it was a
ghoul. A "D" result destroys the body the spiritus anime is
animating but does not harm the spiritus anime itself. If a
spiritus anime is turned, it can leave the body it is animating
and resume its attacks in the next round by entering a new body,
just as if the first body had been destroyed. A [bless ]spell
cast upon a body that has not been animated will permanently
protect that body from animation by a spiritus anime.  If the
spell is cast on the spiritus anime's home-body, the spiritus
anime takes the usual 1-4 hp damage, no matter where it is or
what it is doing.
    Once in a while (10%), a particular spiritus anime will have
developed a special and deceptive battle tactic. It will abandon
a wounded host body before the body is completely destroyed, only
to return to it later. As those fighting against the undead will
have assumed that they slew the first body, having it rise a
second time will make them believe that the undead bodies are
impossible to slay--a frightening prospect indeed. Up to three
bodies may be so manipulated.
    <Habitat/Society>: A spiritus anime is a type of
undead created only when a human, demi-human or humanoid creature
is buried alive, either intentionally (as a torture or sacrifice)
or by accident (such as a landslide or the result of a tragedy
involving a disease, a [feign death] spell, etc.). Many (40%) of
those so buried become spiritus animes, desperate to escape
burial and return to the surface.
    Because such circumstances are usually uncommon, only
solitary spiritus anime are typically encountered. If more than
one of them haunts a single site, the only sign that they
acknowledge each other's existence is that they usually refrain
from animating each other's home bodies unless there are no other
bodies available to them. If this does occur, and one of these
home bodies is slain, this automatically slays the spiritus anime
to which the body belongs, without materially affecting the
spiritus that had been animating the body. Thus, "killing" a
zombie on one side of a graveyard could actually slay a spiritus
anime on the other side of the field, causing two undead bodies
to fall, in different locations, when only one was struck (though
a third body might soon arise!).
    Although both skeletons and zombies can be created from the
bodies of any dead monster, a spiritus anime animates only bodies
that are similar to the one it wore in life, for it feels
comfortable in that shape alone. If the body animated is of the
same species as the spiritus once was, then the animation is
handled with ease. If there is a minor difference in size (such
as that caused by a once-human spiritus anime using a dwarven
skeleton), the animated body fights at -1 to hit; if there is a
major difference between the bodies (such as the size difference
between a halfling and an ogre, or the presence of extra body
parts such as the tail of a troglodyte or the four arms of some
sahuagin), the body fights at -4 to hit.
    <Ecology>: Spiritus anime are not natural creatures
and do not participate in any way in the food chain, except to
create carrion in their immediate vicinities that attracts
scavengers, insects, etc. As these creatures are usually found in
areas shunned by civilization, they are set very much apart from
the world's everyday functioning. They exist only to procure
additional host bodies to preserve their "lives" aboveground
until they are finally laid to rest.
    Spiritus animes do not collect treasure, but sometimes they
will have incidental treasure. If in a proper graveyard, each of
the bodies they animate, plus their home bodies, will have only
the normal burial goods of that region, ranging from a burial
shroud to the riches of a major tomb. If the bodies used are the
result of an accidental burial, then the treasure will consist of
the normal goods carried by the creatures when alive.


<Ankou>

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: [Any inhabited area]
FREQUENCY: [Very rare (Rare)]
ORGANIZATION: [Solitary]
ACTIVITY CYCLE: [Night]
DIET: [Nil]
INTELLIGENCE: [Low (5-7)]
TREASURE TYPE: [Nil]
ALIGNMENT: [Neutral evil]
NO. APPEARING: [1]
ARMOR CLASS: [6]
MOVE: [6]
HIT DICE: [8]
THAC0: [13]
NO. OF ATTACKS: [1]
DAMAGE/ATTACK: [By weapon type (doubled)]
SPECIAL ATTACKS: [Nil]
SPECIAL DEFENSES: [Never surprised; detects hidden or
invisible beings within 60']
MAGIC RESISTANCE: [Nil]
SIZE: [M]
MORALE: [Champion (15-16)]
XP VALUE: [1,400]

    The ankou is an undead creature who was a miserly farmer or
peasant in life, a person so debased as to have murdered his own
family out of greed or to have allowed his family to perish
rather than share his hoard of food with them. When death claims
such a person, his soul sometimes returns as an ankou, roaming
the countryside in search of other victims to collect.
    An ankou appears quite ordinary at a distance, seeming to be
a poor farmer on the road late at night, perhaps returning from a
market town. It wears typical rural clothing: ragged shoes or
boots; worn, patched and dusty work clothes; and sometimes a
broad-brimmed work hat set to cover its eyes. Closer inspection
reveals it as an emaciated old man, with parched lips and with
skin pulled tightly across the face and body.
    Three things upset this picture. First, an ankou is usually
armed with a farmer's scythe (50%), a long sword that it carries
without a scabbard (20%), or a large club (20%); it is unarmed
10% of the time. Second, as an ankou takes its slow, stiff, and
deliberate steps forward, its head never ceases to turn from side
to side, its glowing, flame-red eyes scanning the land to either
side looking for prey. Third, the ankou is always followed by an
apparently sourceless, wooden, creaking sound. This is a product
of an [invisible] cart pulled by an equally [invisible
]ox or horse that is even more emaciated than the ankou. The
purpose of the cart (a gift of some netherworld god of evil) is
to carry away the bodies of the ankou's victims, leaving behind
nothing to mark its victims' last struggles. Sometimes the sound
of the cart can be heard minutes before the ankou appears,
apparently stepping out of the lengthening shadows of dusk or
merely approaching along a darkened road.
    <Combat>: The ankou is not particular about whom it
kills, but it is more likely to be encountered by solitary
travelers than by groups (treat the ankou as if it were only
"rare" on such occasions). It has excellent senses of hearing and
sight, so it can detect anyone in hiding and cannot be surprised.
Even with this ability, it will still attack only those who are
accessible. The ankou cannot cross open water or flame, though
rough ground slows neither itself nor its beast-drawn cart.
    In combat the ankou usually fights with a weapon, doing
double damage on all hits (2-16 hp damage with a sword, club, or
scythe) because of its great strength and carefully aimed
attacks. As it is as slow as a zombie at attacking, it gets only
one attack per round and always strikes last.
    If unarmed, an ankou attacks by grabbing at its opponent and
attempting to wrap its thin arms around the victim's chest to
crush him. The ankou needs to make a single to-hit roll; if it
succeeds, the ankou has caught the victim in a bear hug of
fantastic strength, its fingers locking together with startling
power. Every round thereafter, the ankou does damage equal to the
victim's armor class (armor type and magical bonuses apply, but
shield and dexterity bonuses do not, for the purposes of this
calculation). Victims with armor classes of 1 or less take no
damage. The hugged victim may attack the ankou with a one-handed
melee weapon at -2 to hit; he may instead elect to attempt to
break the ankou's hold, which can be done if he makes a
successful bend bars/lift gates strength roll (one attempt per
round allowed with no limit to the number of attempts).
    Being undead, the ankou is unaffected by spells involving
[sleep, hold, charm], or cold of any sort, and its
excellent senses negate the effects of many illusions (giving it
a bonus of +3 on saving throws vs. illusions). It can be turned
by good clerics (or caused to ignore evil ones) as if it were a
spectre. The touch of holy water instantly causes it and its cart
to return to the nether realms of Tartarus without the
possibility of a saving throw.
    The [invisible] cart and beast of burden can be
directly attacked only by casting a [dispel evil] or [exorcise]
spell upon them, which will instantly destroy them (though they
will re-form on the following night if the ankou still exists).
Weapons blows and magical effects are ineffective against them.
    <Habitat/Society>: The ankou is a very slow and
patient creature with the ceaseless endurance of the undead. If
an ankou's victim escapes alive, it will follow him at its slow,
plodding pace for the rest of the night, until it either catches
and dispassionately kills him, or until the first light of dawn
intrudes, banishing the ankou back to Tartarus until the next
dusk. It has no memory to speak of and so will not resume its
pursuit the next night out of any spite. But if the ankou
encounters the same traveler on some subsequent night, it may
attack him normally, as if the first encounter had never
occurred.
    <Ecology>: The ankou is probably the undead that
contributes the least to the ecology of a world. As with others
of its ilk, it neither eats nor can be safely eaten by Prime
Material plane dwellers. But unlike other undead, it does not
leave even the lifeless bodies of its victims behind to be eaten
or picked through for treasures. All that remains after an
ankou's attack are a line of the victim's footprints that end at
the point where the victim was waylaid by the driver of an ox- or
horse-pulled cart, and the wheel ruts that continue down the
road, eventually fading to nothingness.

END FILE
