Death Sheep

At a distance they are just scruffy wild sheep on a green hillside; up close, their wide mouths bristle with long black fangs dripping foul ichor. Their origin is unknown, though a wizard's rabies experiments are the usual suspect.

Death sheep go after any living thing they find, know no fear and fight until slain. Their sheer fury gives them +2 to hit and to damage. Anyone bitten must save vs. poison, with a +2 bonus, or succumb to the same madness within 1-10 days. Over that time the victim's teeth darken and sharpen to points until insanity takes over completely, and the victim attacks every living thing it notices using nothing but its teeth.

A cure requires all three of neutralize poison, cure disease and remove curse cast on the victim before half the 1-10 day course has elapsed. Any one of those spells alone merely delays the disease by a day. Birds, reptiles and every other non-mammal are immune to the bite.

The maddened cannot be tamed or controlled, only penned or bound and released later. One general carted boxed death sheep to battle and loosed them at the enemy, which worked until one sheep turned around.

Every maddened victim other than a sheep lives only as many days as it has hit points, which is why only death sheep are ever encountered. They roam in flocks, which is bad news for any wolf nearby, never attack one another and eat meat, fresh or rotten. Rumor says the flocks follow an especially ambitious ram called Old Barnaby (9 hp).