Gohei P'oh

Gohei p'oh, or paper ghosts, are spirits that serve evil eastern sorcerers as guards and servants. At rest one looks like a blank sheet of parchment the size of a book page. It is always blank: ink vanishes the instant it touches the surface. It cannot speak but understands simple phrases in the local language.

A paper ghost obeys any simple order from the sorcerer who made it, most often to attack anyone entering a room or to kill whoever touches a particular desk or book, and it fights to the death to carry out that order. It has no sense organs, yet it senses every living creature within a 20-foot diameter, including spirits and invisible intruders, and can never be surprised.

It can refold itself into several shapes, any number of times, even while hovering. Each change takes a full round during which it stays still and does nothing else. Every form has its own movement and abilities, and all take double damage from fire, whether normal or magical.

Page: its natural form flaps along at Fl 9 (C) and lunges for a victim's head. A hit plasters it across the face, dealing 1-4 at once and draining 1-4 more each round as it steals the victim's breath. A Strength check lets the victim tear it away, and two allies with a combined Strength of 20 or more pull it off automatically. Being so vulnerable in this form, it seldom uses it unless facing a lone victim.

Dove: a folded paper bird flying at Fl 24 (A) that slices with razor wing edges for 1-4.

Pinwheel: flying at Fl 12 (C) and able to hover indefinitely, it blasts a jet of air at anyone within 10 feet. A hit deals 1-4, and the target must make a Dexterity check or be knocked down or into something for 1-2 more.

Box: the deadliest form, a small box or satchel moving at Fl 3 (C). When it gets within 3 feet of someone, a successful attack sucks him inside and sends him to a random spot in the Ethereal Plane, where he must find his own way home. It can swallow only one victim per day. Instead, it may turn itself inside out to swallow itself and flee to the Ethereal Plane, where it must stay a full day before returning the same way.

To create paper ghosts, an evil sorcerer takes any book of evil lore and puts several of its pages through a series of corrupting rites. The writing fades month by month, and at the end of six months the blank pages have become spirits. Usually four are made at once.

A gohei p'oh can erase print from any book within 1 foot of it. It often slips in page form between the leaves of a thick tome and eats the words at roughly one page a day.