Animal Ghost

Animal ghosts keep the general shape of the bear, boar, horse, lion, stag, wolf, or other creature they were, but may show open wounds, look starved, shine with a cold glow, or seem faint and see-through. They still growl, bark, or hiss as before, though every sound now carries an unearthly echo.

These spirits are incorporeal. Usually only ethereal beings meet them, but enough of them shows through to terrify material onlookers, who must make an immediate fear check. Failing it costs a point of Strength temporarily on top of the check's usual results. Neither 5th-level priests nor 8th-level paladins are affected, and anyone else of 7th level or higher gains +2 on the check.

Those who do not withdraw quickly are likely to be attacked. The ghost takes a round to become semicorporeal, then fights as it did in life, except its teeth and claws cannot wound the living. Instead its touch ages a victim 5d4 years. Semicorporeal, it is AC 0, vulnerable only to silver or enchanted weapons, and affected normally by spells. Priests turn it as a spectre, and each vial of holy water deals it 2d4 points of damage.

Fully ethereal, it has AC 8 and can be fought only from the Ethereal Plane, and spells reach it only from an ethereal caster. Any living creature it kills has its life essence drained away, and normal magic cannot revive it. Only a wish restores such a victim.

These are the ghosts of woodland beasts that died strangely. A pet may have fallen while defending its master; a wild animal may have perished in panic or another state of high emotion. Each is bound to the spot where it died, its old lair, or its killer's home, and occasionally to its whole former territory. There it haunts its slayer or tries to finish some unfinished task. It hates all life and hungers to drink the essence of the living.

Most seek revenge on those who killed or tormented them, and they are deadly because they rarely tell the guilty party from a passing stranger.

Their terror does not come from their looks or from being dead; it, like their aging touch, is an expression of supernatural might, and courage alone offers no defense. Any treasure near an animal ghost belonged to earlier victims, since the creature has no use for it.