Kamigoroshi [Lesser Spirit]

Its name means 'spirit-killer,' and commoners know only that this lesser spirit devours kami of every kind. Starved, it is almost laughable: a skinny, bald, ruby-skinned man under a foot tall. It is rarely seen that way. Usually it is tall, heavily muscled and menacing, its size set by its Hit Dice.

Then its red skin seethes like a boiling pot, each bubble a devoured spirit that bursts with a tiny scream before sinking again. It can silence them to hunt, but when relaxed or distracted, as in battle, they wail in chorus. More meals mean busier bubbles; at its smallest there are none.

Its voice ranges from squeak to roar with size, and it uses it to mock foes into dishonor.

It rakes with two long clawed hands. A hit does no physical harm and may even seem a miss, but the spirit withdraws its hand and messily gulps down 1-6 personal honor points it tore from the victim.

It starts with 1 Hit Die and 10 hit points. Every 10 honor or single kami point swallowed grants 10 hit points, 1 Hit Die, a foot of height and +1 movement (to a maximum of 18); one with 52 hit points over its base stands 6 feet tall and reaches 7 feet with 8 more. Damage reverses this at the same rate: every 10 points of cumulative damage strips 1 Hit Die, 1 movement and 1 foot. Honor a character forfeits mid-fight (a samurai fleeing, a sword-master forced onto a ninja's weapon) is added straight to its hit points, so keeping one's code is vital.

If someone carries items holding more kami-energy than they themselves have (one kami point being worth ten honor), the creature goes for the items instead. Against a nonweapon item it rolls against the bearer's Armor Class, counting only shields among armor, and on a hit drains 1-6 kami points unless the item saves vs. disintegration; a weapon it simply lets strike it, taking normal damage, for the same chance. Normal and magical weapons both hurt it, but kami-imbued weapons used on it suffer terribly.

It goes first for the richest honor or kami in reach. Characters with none are immune and ignored, and if one attacks, the spirit flees for its life without even grabbing a weapon. Spells that work on other lesser spirits work on it. Restore spirit cannot target it, but cast on a person, weapon or shrine it has drained, the spell returns the stolen points if the kamigoroshi fails a save vs. spell.

Experience equals that of a monster with half its peak Hit Dice plus one, so a 10-HD peak counts as 6 HD and a 20-HD peak as 11 HD.

Kamigoroshi always travel alone; two that meet fight to the death, the winner absorbing everything the loser had stored. They wander endlessly in search of food. The heavenly emperor occasionally sends one to punish a village that neglects its duty to ancestral kami, but most arise from people who died after treason, betrayals that cost the traitor 30 personal honor and his relatives at least 6 family honor.

A kamigoroshi lives on the kami of honor. Most often it eats the personal honor of humans and other intelligent beings, but it prefers honor held in spirit-filled weapons and sacred places, which is ten times as concentrated. Now and then it attacks benevolent guardian spirits or evil gaki and their like, since their hit points count as honor for its purposes.

Swallowed kami suffer inside it and eventually fade away, one kami point per week, and with each loss it sheds the hit points, Hit Dice and height that spirit gave. Merely holding steady demands a weekly meal of one kami point or ten honor. It can never starve to death, though; its own single Hit Die carries it through lean times.