Ekimmu

An ekimmu is born from a human who perishes in some distant place without receiving proper funeral rites. Consumed by spite for the living, it takes the form of a phantom minotaur, a bull-headed figure close to 10 feet in height. Often, though, it is invisible before it strikes, betrayed only by a cold gust reeking of the charnel house and a heavy sense of brooding malice.

The ekimmu never attacks directly. It tries to possess a character, who resists with a save vs. spell. Success protects that character from that ekimmu for the rest of the encounter, though the spirit may move on to someone else. Failure hands it the body, which it drives into a frenzy against every other intelligent creature nearby, fighting exactly as that character would but with no regard for the host's safety. Being only semi-intelligent and blinded by rage, it is unlikely to cast a host's prepared spells and relies on physical attacks. If the host dies, it simply jumps to another.

Unhoused, it has no physical attacks, but its vaporous form gives it an unnaturally good Armor Class. While possessing someone it uses the host's AC and takes 1 point for every 2 the host suffers. At 0 hit points it is driven out and dissipates, and a surviving host returns to normal. It keeps going until everyone is dead, everyone has saved, or it is expelled or dissipated.

A possessed host shares the spirit's immunity to poison, paralysis, cold-based spells, and sleep, charm and hold magic, but a vial of holy water deals 2d5 damage to spirit and host alike. Protection from evil blocks possession. Dispel evil drives it from a host and makes that person immune as if they had saved. Holy word instantly casts out every ekimmu in its area and ends the encounter. Outside a host, an ekimmu is turned as a vampire. Proper burial of its remains dissipates it at once, freeing any host.

A group of ekimmu is especially lethal, since each can try to possess every character in turn. Plan such encounters with great care.

Ekimmu haunt wild places where their remains lie undiscovered, most often ruins and lonely caves. They usually stay near where they died but are not tied there, and many roam freely, returning every few days to their unburied bones, a sight that reignites their fury. Most are solitary, but those who perished together sometimes band together to spread their hatred.

An ekimmu seeks to destroy every intelligent being it meets. Until its body is buried, a dissipated ekimmu will re-form after some days or weeks.