Gillamoor Plague Zombie

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Description

Relentless brain-eating plague human zombie

Before Combat: Gillamoor plague zombies shamble about like normal zombies, only using their full speed if attacked or if they are in charge range of an opponent.

During Combat: A Gillamoor plague zombie focuses all of its attacks on a single opponent, attempting to bite and grab the victim to feed upon its brain. It pursues its chosen quarry until either the prey or the zombie is dead.

Morale: Gillamoor plague zombies fight until destroyed.

Brain-eating (Ex) After killing a target, the zombie uses its next turn to eat it’s victim’s brain. This prevents raising the body from the dead by any method that requires an intact corpse.

Create Spawn (Su): Anyone killed after being bitten by a Gillamoor zombie rises as a Gillamoor zombie 2d6 hours later unless the corpse is blessed or similar measures are taken.

Death Burst (Ex) When the zombie dies, it explodes in a burst of decay. All creatures adjacent to the zombie are exposed to its disease as if struck by a slam attack and must make a Fortitude save or contract zombie rot.

Disease (Su) The zombie’s natural attacks carry the zombie rot disease. Zombie rot: slam­—injury; save Fort DC 12; onset 1d4 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d2 Con, this damage cannot be healed while the creature is infected; cure 2 consecutive saves. Anyone who dies while infected rises as a Gillamoor zombie in 2d6 hours.

Quick Strikes (Ex) Whenever the zombie takes a full-round attack action, it can make one additional slam attack at its highest base attack bonus.

Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Horrors Revisited “Look up in the sky at the moon, full and swollen like a gravid bitch. Can you feel its pull? Can you feel the blood pounding in your veins, full of life, full of power? It won’t be long now. Don’t fight it. You can’t win. You are the beast now. Take a deep breath. Taste the wind. Smell that? It’s the scent of fresh meat, the sweet reek of fear. Fear of you. There’s only two kinds of creature in this world for you now, boy, predator and prey. You’re the predator, everything else is prey. Soon, you’ll feel their hot lifeblood gushing between your teeth, their flesh ripping beneath your claws. Go, now. Hunt. Revel in the savagery. Slake the blood-thirst for tonight. And tomorrow night, you’ll do it all over again.”

—Brogai Navratil, Arthfell werewolf, to one of his new “pups” Chapter Ten Werewolf Werewolf M en who can turn into beasts, werewolves prowl the dark fringes of civilization, culling the weak and unwary from the larger human herd. These ravenous creatures are victims of the curse of lycanthropy, consumed by a rage not unlike that of some barbarian warriors, but with a maleficent twist. The bestial desires of a rabid wolf course through their veins, driving them to acts of barbaric cruelty and animalistic fury. Most of these individuals embrace their savage hungers, becoming evil monsters that stalk the night. An unfortunate few vainly struggle to fight the curse, but these are inevitably consumed by the beast within, giving in to the thirst for blood and slaughter.

Werewolves come in two varieties, natural lycanthropes (those born with the condition) and afflicted lycanthropes (those who contract lycanthropy as a curse or disease from another werewolf). Natural werewolves have complete knowledge of their state and perfect control over their abilities. Afflicted werewolves, on the other hand, often change form involuntarily, an event usually triggered by the full moon. While in animal form, they frequently lose their identities and retain no memories of their actions.

All werewolves can change into three different shapes: a normal humanoid, a wolf form, and a terrifying hybrid humanoid-wolf shape. A werewolf in humanoid form blends easily into civilized society, and the simple peasants of frontier villages know that any stranger’s face could hide the predator in their midst. In wolf or hybrid form, a werewolf becomes highly resistant to damage—only magic and weapons crafted of silver can harm them with any degree of success—but its humanoid shape possesses no such immunity. Regardless of its current shape, a werewolf reverts to its human form when slain. In contrast to other lycanthropes, werewolves take a much more direct interest in their victims. A wereboar might keep to its forest, attacking trespassers out of aggression rather than maliciousness, or a wererat may lurk in the sewers, only occasionally murdering an innocent when the opportunity presents itself, but werewolves stalk their prey with the chilling patience of a careful, intelligent hunter. They delight in terrorizing their victims, prowling around their villages and homes, or even better, hounding them to the point of exhaustion, howling dreadfully to the moon to instill debilitating horror before closing in for the kill.

For all their prowess at hunting, however, werewolves are also savagery and violence personified. When their urges overtake them, the quiet hunter becomes a mindless beast, reveling in wanton destruction. Like a rabid wolf who preys upon a flock of sheep, slaughtering far more than it can eat for the sheer pleasure of it, a werewolf doesn’t need an external reason for its rampage—the hunt is the reason, and anything unable to defend itself from the werewolf’s depredations is prey. A rough woodsman, a simple peasant girl, or an innocent child are all fair game for the werewolf’s bloody sport.

Source: Classic Horrors Revisited, p. 58