Drekavac

Dressed in graveyard rags, this pitiful creature cries out like a sick child. An oversized, bestial head perches atop its spindly, child-sized body, and its eyes are nothing but sunken pools of shadow with no trace of life in them. A cloying mist wreathes its frail form, accompanied by the stench of death and disease.

Drekavac (CR 3)

Small Undead
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Initiative: +1
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet; Perception +8
Aura: unnatural aura (30 feet)

Speed: 20 feet
Space: 5 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 15, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +3 natural, +1 size)
Hit Points: 30 (4d8+12)
Saving Throws: Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +7
Damage Reduction: 5/silver
Immunity: undead traits
Weaknesses: sunlight aversion, vulnerability to magic, vulnerability to salt

Offense

Melee: chilling grasp +5 touch (1d6 cold plus disease) or shadow +5 touch (disease)
Reach: 5 feet

Special Attacks: create spawn, disease, diseased shadow

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; Concentration +8):

• At Will- Gaseous Form

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
10 (+0)	12 (+1)	-	9 (-1)	12 (+1)	17 (+3)

Base Attack Bonus: +3
CMB +2
CMD 13

Feats: Iron Will, Weapon Finesse

Skills: Intimidate +10, Perception +8, Stealth +12

Languages: Common

Special Abilities

Create Spawn (Su)

A child slain by a drekavac's disease has a 1-in- 6 chance of rising as another drekavac 3 days after death. The new drekavac is not in any way controlled by its maker, and is immediately capable of exercising its full powers, including creating spawn of its own. It does not possess any of the abilities it had in life.

Disease (Su)

Drekavacs are spirits of disease and contagion. While most drekavacs carry bubonic plague, drekavacs who died from other afflictions may carry those diseases instead. Any illness caused by a drekavac must be potentially fatal. Other diseases commonly carried include demon fever, filth fever, and slimy doom. If a drekavac is reduced to 0 hit points (from weapons or other sources, including channeled energy), all of the diseases it caused are cured, although the victims must recover from any effects normally, and slain victims are not restored. Bubonic plague: Touch-injury; save Fort DC 15; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Con damage, 1 Cha damage, victim is fatigued; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Diseased Shadow (Su)

Any creature touched by a drekavac's shadow is also affected by the creature's disease ability. If there is a question about which way the drekavac's shadow falls, roll 1d8 to determine a random square around the creature. A character with a light source cannot be touched by the drekavac's shadow, but the light causes the shadow to fall directly opposite the character (unless there is another light source there as well). A drekavac can deliberately touch a creature with its shadow as a standard action by making a successful touch attack. A target missed by the drekavac's chilling grasp attack must make a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid being touched by the creature's shadow as well. This save DC is Charisma-based.

Sunlight Aversion (Ex)

Drekavacs hate natural sunlight and immediately flee from it. A drekavac caught in natural sunlight is staggered.

Unnatural Aura (Su)

Animals, wild or domesticated, can sense the unnatural presence of a drekavac at a distance of 30 feet. They do not willingly approach nearer than that and panic if forced to do so unless a master succeeds at a DC 25 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy check. Panicked animals remain so as long as they are within 30 feet of the drekavac.

Vulnerability to Magic (Ex)

A remove curse or remove disease spell cast directly upon a drekavac (DC equal to the drekavac's disease ability) immediately destroys the creature, allowing the afflicted soul to move on. Destroying a drekavac with remove curse or remove disease does not cure any of the creature's diseases.

Vulnerability to Salt (Ex)

Drekavacs are vulnerable to salt that has been consecrated in the same fashion as holy water, and cannot cross an unbroken line of blessed salt. A handful of blessed salt thrown at a drekavac inflicts the same damage as a flask of holy water (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 160).

Ecology

Environment: Any
Organization: solitary or pack (2-5)
Treasure: none


Drekavacs are the undead remains of children who perished from disease, particularly in plague-ridden areas where many such deaths occurred in a short period of time. Able to become as insubstantial as the mist rising from a graveyard on a cold, dark night, drekavacs are carriers of disease, seeking to infect the living with the afflictions that slew them. According to some stories, drekavacs only result from young plague victims who remain unburied or died bereft of the proper funeral rites; performing those rites may allow their spirits to rest and no longer haunt the world of the living.

Ecology Drekavacs typically haunt desolate places, from windswept plains and mountains to dark forests and abandoned homes or villages. They may move among inhabited areas in gaseous form, but are typically warded off by bright lights and the sounds and sights of life. They are always encountered indoors or at night, preferring dark, cloudy or foggy nights, ideally during the waning moon. Drekavacs are usually encountered during the gloomy, cold winter months rather than in the spring or summer.

Rural clerics and adepts must sometimes deal with one or more drekavacs seeking to spread disease in their communities. Their favored targets are children, some of whom can also become drekavacs 3 days after death unless their bodies are burned and the ashes scattered.

The work of drekavacs in a community can sometimes lead to hysterical accusations by grief-stricken parents and families, stirring up resentment and violence toward outsiders or anyone suspected of involvement with unnatural forces. It is customary in some rural areas to surround a child's crib with a ring of blessed salt to keep evil influences at bay, including drekavacs, who cannot cross an unbroken line of salt. However, drekavacs can convince others to break the line of salt for them.

Habitat & Society Drekavacs are lonesome, bitter, and pitiful creatures, often crying when they appear, mourning their lost lives. Some folk mistake them for living children, lost or starving, although the creatures are not very effective liars. Still, a dim night and a half-seen form huddled and sobbing pitifully are often enough to trick someone into approaching close enough to become victim of the drekavac's chilling grasp.

Once they have inflicted their plagues upon victims, drekavacs quickly lose interest and move on, although they may follow a victim, begging for aid and attention, behaving as if they were still living victims of disease rather than its agents. They rarely kill victims outright, preferring instead to inflict long and lingering deaths through disease. Drekavacs threatened with salt, magic, or silver weapons become vicious, attacking opponents like snarling dogs until they are dead or the creatures are driven off.

Drekavacs sometimes band together in small packs, particularly in places where epidemics or plagues have swept through a population, either recently or long ago, but they have no real organization beyond seeking out new victims to infect. Drekavacs are intelligent and aware, able to converse in Common, or whatever languages they knew in life. This means some drekavacs are only able to communicate in largely dead or forgotten languages. They are childlike in their understanding and largely incapable of being reasoned with, but deft use of Bluff or Diplomacy and a playful or parental tone may keep a drekavac at bay, at least temporarily.