Dhaot

Dhaots are incorporeal undead that are sometimes created when people die far away from their homes. The spirits of the deceased feel an overwhelming compulsion to return to their homes they had in life. Dhaots often wander, lost in the wastelands, since their senses are limited without their bodies. They cannot rest until their remains have been returned to their homes.

Dhaots appear much as they did in life, except they look as though they have been wandering for weeks, if not longer, surviving as best they could. They are incorporeal, but still leave footprints in the sand. They have the power to become invisible at will and while invisible they leave no footprints, making them virtually impossible to track. They always have sad expressions etched across their dusty and sweaty faces. They usually appear to characters in the distance and approach only single travelers or small groups. Many dhaots are halflings who died outside their forests.

Most dhaots speak the same languages they spoke in life. Halfling dhaots can speak halfling, but few can speak common. Most other humans and demihumans speak common.

Combat: Dhaots are incorporeal and can only be harmed by magical weapons, which appear to pass through them but still cause them damage. Dhaots can become invisible at will and can cast at will spectral forces, hallucinatory terrain, dream, and nightmare, just the the wizard spells. They usually use these powers to communicate their tragedy and the location of their home to those who are willing to help them. They also use the powers to harass those who refuse to aid them.

Dhaots seldom attack groups greater in power than themselves and prefer to use their illusions to cause victims to fall into natural traps (for example, covering a chasm with the illusion of solid ground).

Habitat/Society: Dhaots are solitary spirits. They occasionally approach the living, hoping to convince them to help the creatures return home. Often they ask travelers to follow them to their remains so the travelers can collect them and return them home. They usually promise the living the secrets they have learned while wandering the wastelands, such as the locations of burled treasure or ruins, or the secret weaknesses of many desert-dwelling creatures. Aiding dhaots is sometimes risky because their remains could be located in a place where monsters dwell.

While dhaots are solitary by nature, in rare and unexplainable cases, groups of dhaots have been spotted. They are possibly the remnants of entire caravans, halfling clans, or other groups of travelers who met their fates together.

Ecology: Dhaots never rest and they wander the wastelands both day and night. However, they prefer to appear to travelers when they are least likely to frighten them.

Dhaots can provide valuable information to those willing to aid them, but they always place their own interests first and never reveal anything without actual assistance. They usually wait until their remains are returned home before providing the information.