Kani Doll

Primitive tribes make kani dolls as simple good-luck charms, crude figures of people and animals built from wood, cloth, grass, feathers and other cheap materials. The shape names the blessing: a rabbit is meant to quicken its owner's legs, a raccoon to make the hands nimble. The detail can be remarkable, with bird dolls covered in hundreds of tiny hand-sewn feathers and rabbit dolls wearing real rabbit fur. A skilled maker needs about a month to finish one.

Almost all are mere superstitious totems with no life or power. A handful of wizards in the most isolated tribes know rituals that truly grant the promised charm, with strength tied to the artistry of the doll. Some tribal mages instead fill a doll with evil, and these perverted dolls are the ones that animate.

An evil doll attacks the very thing it was made to bless: a rabbit gnaws at hamstrings, a raccoon mangles hands. Each is set to wake at a particular time, perhaps seven nights after being given as a gift or only under a full moon. Some are ordered to guard an area, others to attack the first creature they see and hunt it down if necessary.

It strikes with mouth or beak for 1d4, then keeps chewing for 1 point per round until destroyed or its purpose is done. Mindless and fearless, it never checks morale. Its movement and Armor Class depend on materials and workmanship: a fine rabbit doll may run at 12, a feathered hawk fly at 6 (B), and a turtle crawl at 2 with AC 9.

Kani dolls turn up in primitive villages all over the world. When tribesfolk discover an evil one they burn it, bury it or throw it into the sea, but buried or sunken dolls stay active, waiting for whoever stumbles across them.

Besides serving as charms, the dolls are given to children as toys in some cultures and buried with the dead as protection in the afterlife. Wealthy collectors sometimes pay huge sums for a particular doll to complete a set.