Gaki

Gaki, or nin-chu-jugaki, are lesser spirits of the wicked, sent back to the Prime Material Plane as monsters in punishment. The sins of the former life decide which of four forms one takes. All suffer endless hunger and thirst that normal food cannot ease, and all understand the tongues they knew in life plus those of the area they haunt.

Every gaki can turn invisible at will, become an insect at will (flying at its normal speed), and use passwall three times a day. Charm, hold, sleep and drowsy insect spells fail against them, but as spirits they are vulnerable to magic that affects spirit creatures. None keeps a permanent lair.

The most common gaki is a gaunt, flaky-skinned shuffler in filthy robes, with yellow fangs, claws and sunken bloodshot eyes, that flies without wings and mostly grunts and moans. These are misers, usurers and greedy merchants. Most roam alone, though partners in some cruel scheme may haunt together.

It regenerates 1 hit point per turn and kills fast with claws and fangs, hauling bodies into the wild to eat. It prefers night ambushes, but hunger drives it at almost anyone. It eats all night, digging up graves when the living are scarce, though a gold coin on a corpse's forehead keeps it off. Look for them on lonely roads and near cemeteries.

About 5% also eat color or scent, invisibly, from up to 20 feet. Over 1-4 rounds a color-eater fades the victim's clothes to gray and skin to white, while a scent-eater strips away every odor and perfume. Destroying the gaki restores the loss in 24 hours. If it escapes, a color victim stays pale and permanently loses 2 Charisma; a scent victim loses 1 Charisma and can no longer be found by scent. Then there is a 50% chance it appears and attacks; otherwise it leaves, sated.

The deadliest, cleverest gaki have greasy dark skin and shorter claws, and speak normally. They are heretic priests, found alone near ruined temples, old shrines or graveyards. A successful bite latches on, and drinks 1-10 hit points automatically each round until the victim or the gaki dies. Each round it regenerates 1 hit point; it needs +3 or better weapons to hit and is immune to fire and cold.

About 15% carry a four-stringed, lute-like biwa carved from coffin wood that only its owner can play. Invisible, it plays harsh metallic notes; all within 20 feet save vs. paralyzation or stand transfixed for 1-4 rounds. Each round it tightens a string until it snaps, dealing 1-4 to every transfixed listener, up to 16 total. Then the gaki appears, though its victims remain frozen until something attacks them.

These are skeletal, with pitted gray skin and rotten blunt teeth. They regenerate 2 hit points per turn, need +1 weapons to hit, and are immune to poison and disease. Each claw hit forces a save vs. poison; on a failure, sickness strikes in 2-12 turns. The delirious victim shivers and burns, loses 1 hit point per hour, can only shuffle at half speed, cannot fight, cast or think clearly, and gains no natural or magical healing until cure disease or similar magic ends it, 1d4+1 days pass, or he dies.

Most were careless healers or negligent servants, but 15% were mushroom nature spirits that took to eating songbirds and butterflies, ignored the celestial court of heaven's warnings, and were remade. By day these sleep as big, snoring mushrooms in dark caves, helpless and open to anything that harms gaki; dousing one with a ladle of salt water or hot soup destroys it. Shikki-gaki dwell alone in damp forests and caves.

The weakest gaki is a speechless floating fireball, usually red but sometimes blue, white or yellow, with one dark eye-spot. At night on lonely roads and in woods, its glow lures the curious; then it rings them in flames and lashes them with 5-foot fiery tendrils for 1-10 each. It regenerates 3 hit points per turn, needs +2 weapons to hit and is immune to fire, but saves at -2 against water attacks, which deal +1 per die. Any wicked soul may become one, though cowardly or traitorous soldiers often do. Most are solitary, but small groups have been met.