Salt Zombie

Instead of rotting, a salt zombie is a thin, dried-out husk, nearly mummified but unwrapped. Its eyes are shrunken, its limbs spindly, its belly shriveled, and its lips cracked but bloodless. It is stronger and a bit smarter than zombies raised by spells.

Craving the water in living bodies, a salt zombie senses victims up to 5 miles off. It fights until it draws blood, then lunges to fasten its mouth on the wound. That takes a hit roll, but afterward it automatically drains 1-6 points per round, usually crippling its prey at once, and keeps drinking until the victim is bled dry and dead.

A latched victim can strike back only with size S weapons, since anything longer is too clumsy at that range. Allies attack normally but hit their friend on a roll of 1 or a roll that misses the required number by 10 or more.

It keeps its living AC with an extra -2 for its dried state, so an unarmored one is AC 8 and one in scale mail AC 4. It never uses shields or weapons. Normal weapons harm it, but only for half damage, while fire deals double. It is immune to poison, death magic, cold-based spells, hold, charm and sleep. Holy water deals 2-8, and create water instantly sates it, leaving it torpid for 1-6 days.

Salt zombies have no real society and are driven by thirst rather than thought. They form packs for survival, but once a fight starts each looks out only for itself.

Certain stretches of a vast salt flat raise humans and demihumans who die of thirst there, possibly through hatred or lingering old magic; nobody knows. Anyone dying of thirst on the flat has a 5% chance of rising, apparently through sheer refusal to die. Death from hit point loss does not count.