Rigor Mortems


Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Uncommon
Organization: Pack
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Dexterity
Intelligence: Low (5-7)
Treasure: B,T
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

No. Appearing: 2d4
Armor Class: 6
Movement: 9
Hit Dice: 3
Thac0: 18
# of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1d4
Special Attacks: Cripple, DEX drain
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: M (5'-6')
Morale: Fanatical (17-18)
XP Value: 975
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Appearance: Rigor Mortems are a horrifying form of undead, appearing as humans (or humanoids) with hideously deformed, crippled bodies. They howl in pain from their deformities and attack any living thing with fanatical zeal in an attempt to ease their pain (see below).

Combat: Rigor Mortems attack with clawed hands, doing 1d4 damage per attack. On a successful hit they drain 1 point of DEX from their victim. This drain is the result of the rigor mortem siphoning off life force from the victim's body, causing a deterioration in the joints and bones of the victim. This draining of life force temporarily alleviates the constant pain felt by the rigor mortem, hence their fanaticism in combat. They will do anything to escape their eternal torment. The victim has a cumulative 10% chance per strike of being crippled to the point of being unable to wield a weapon or cast spells. Hence, a character who is struck 4 times by a rigor mortem has a 40% chance of being crippled badly enough to prevent spellcasting or wielding a weapon. This effect can only be negated by a heal spell or a regeneration spell.

Any character drained by a rigor mortem to zero DEX dies and rises as a rigor mortem in 1d12 hours. The only way to prevent this is to cast a remove curse spell on the body prior to the transformation into a rigor mortem. Characters killed in this manner also cannot be raised until a remove curse spell is cast on the body, although the use of a resurrection spell will successfully resurrect the character without the need for a remove curse spell.

Rigor mortems are motivated by the sheer and unrelenting torment they feel and will attack fanatically until their opponents are dead, manage to escape, or ultimately destroy the rigor mortem. They are relatively slow moving due to their deformities.

Habitat/Society: Rigor mortems travel in small packs, killing anything living thing they encounter without hesitation. However, only by draining humanoids of their DEX do rigor mortems gain the alleviation of pain they so badly desire. When created (see below), they will tend to hunt down groups of travelers along lonely paths in the woods and have even been known to enter busy cities in search of victims to relieve them of their pain.

Ecology: Rigor Mortems do not contribute to the ecology of the world, being undead. Rigor mortems are created by evil necromancers via a special curse that inflicts a slow acting but ultimately fatal disease in the victim, similar to arthritis. The joints and bones slowly fuse, swell, and deform, causing the victim to die an extremely painful death. The curse also causes them to rise in their misshapen, undead state and suffer their torment for all eternity. This horrifying death and agony is what drives the rigor mortem to seek out and drain humanoids, as this is the only thing (besides utter destruction) that can alleviate their suffering.

Variants: None.



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