Lichling

A young lichling is a black cockroach about 6 inches long, with thin human arms and legs, tattered see-through wings; its head is a grinning human skull, its mouth lined with hooked fangs sharp as razors. Its shell is greasy and smells faintly of spoiled meat. It is silent until it attacks, when it clacks its teeth and hisses like a snake.

It goes after any living thing, flying straight at the softest target it can find, such as the throat or other bare skin. A hit sinks its fangs in for 1d6, and it keeps chewing for an automatic 1d6 each round until it releases or dies; its jaws could gnaw through a tree trunk. Even dead it stays attached, and the deep wounds and the fangs' anticoagulant keep costing the victim 1 point per round.

Fire and prodding will not loosen a corpse. Yanking it off is easy but rips the wound for 2 damage. Easing it free takes a Dexterity check by whoever does it: success removes it harmlessly, failure costs the victim 1 point.

Only +1 or better weapons hurt lichlings, and they are immune to death, insanity, fear, electricity, cold, polymorph, enfeeblement, sleep and charm spells.

Certain demiliches use intricate rituals to turn their old bodies into huge incubating husks. Lichling larvae grow from the brain cells, fed by fluids the husk produces, and lie dormant for 1d4 decades before waking. Active ones keep no lair and sometimes roam in loose swarms of up to 100. They are utterly loyal to the demilich that spawned them, though if it is destroyed some other evil power, often a wizard, may take command of them.

They eat nothing organic. Instead, by some unknown process they absorb their victims' fear and the anguish of physical pain and turn it into energy. They need not cause it themselves; swarms sometimes hover near battlefields to soak up the terror and suffering soldiers inflict on one another.

After 100-1,000 years a lichling matures into a giant version of itself, listed as 80 feet long, whose hands bear long claws that join its bite in attacks. Every other round it can spray razor bone shards at one target up to 100 feet away, using a normal attack roll, for 6d6 damage. It feeds and defends itself just as the young do.