Bowlyn

Sailors call it the sailor's demise. Like a poltergeist it is usually invisible, but unlike one it can show itself at will. Seen, it is a gaunt, skeletal seaman whose face is warped by the violence of its death, yet still recognizable to old shipmates. Anyone who knew the dead sailor may make a Wisdom check to identify him; success forces an immediate horror check, and the DM may call for a fear check as well. Bowlyn never communicate with the living, though they moan and wail without end as they hunt those they blame.

A bowlyn seldom fights directly. When it does, its touch deals 1d6 and the victim must save vs. paralysis or be gripped by nausea, suffering -4 to attack rolls, saves (fear and horror checks included) and proficiency checks. Any healing magic at all, even goodberry or cure light wounds, ends the sickness.

Its preferred weapon is the ship itself. It causes one accident each night, starting small, such as a line slipping loose or a minor navigation tool breaking, and escalating to disasters like a crow's nest falling with a lookout inside or every chart being destroyed. Late in a haunting, men are usually flung overboard to drown. Where it can, the bowlyn echoes its own death or its old duties, so a former navigator might start a fire in the chart room. To spread panic it lets crew near each accident catch glimpses of it, and on the last night it tries to sink, cripple or wreck the vessel.

Only magical weapons or spells harm it. It has the usual undead immunities, ignoring charm, sleep, hold and similar magic, and spells that bind a body, such as web, have no hold on it. Holy water does nothing, but priests can turn it as a ghast. Because it is bound to the sea, a captain who runs his ship aground while it is aboard destroys it instantly and ends the accidents; a bowlyn that learns of such a plan will try to stop it.

Every bowlyn was once a sailor on an ocean-going ship who died in an accident at sea. Cruel or selfish in life, it blames its crewmates for its death and rises from the deep to drag them down too. It takes 1-10 years to come back. Its first appearance always falls on the date it died, and the haunting then runs 1-6 weeks.

Existing only to punish those it holds responsible, the bowlyn has no natural role. Its accidents often hurt strangers, but its real targets are always the men it once sailed with.