Spirit [Mystara]

These spirits have no bodies of their own. They move into flesh or foliage and wear it, leaving it pallid and rotten looking, often lit by a sick green, blue or violet glow. The druj takes over one piece of a corpse, a skull, a hand or an eye, which crawls or drifts about in a sickening way. The shapeless odic settles into an ordinary bush or small tree. Either may have up to 1d6 of its victims trailing along with it.

Any melee hit from a spirit forces a save vs. poison or instant death. Its 30-foot aura also ruins every consumable inside it, no save: food (iron rations too), water and drink, holy water, potions, oils and salves turn foul, magicless and worthless as nourishment, though not toxic. A closed bag of holding protects its contents, but opening it within range dooms them. Purify food and drink fixes mundane supplies, though the bad taste never fully fades; holy water and magic need a wish or limited wish. Plants and normal insects in the aura are paralyzed and die if the spirit lingers over an hour, and all plant control (entangle included) and insect swarms or plagues, natural or magical, are cancelled.

Spirits are immune to sleep, charm, hold, poison, paralysis and cold, and constantly detect invisibility. Once per round, at will, they can call on finger of death, animate dead, cause disease, darkness or silence 15' radius, each as a 16th-level priest, and they like to raise their kills as zombie guards. Priests and paladins turn the spirit and its zombies as special creatures. Spirits are powerless by day, yet can still travel 24 miles between dawn and dusk.

Once a night a druj can split into four poisonous copies that attack separately. Only one keeps the spell-like powers, and it tends to hover at the back, which often betrays it; if it falls, a survivor inherits them. All four must die to end the druj. The first successful turning each night forces the copies to merge for 1d4+1 rounds (or bars splitting that long if it had not yet split); further turnings that night drive it off normally. An eye druj's touch only poisons, but each round it can also paralyze one target within 30 feet for 1d4 turns (save vs. paralysis), no eye contact needed, and then touches that victim automatically. A hand druj hits for 1d4 and clings, dealing 1d4 plus the victim's base AC each round (no shield or Dexterity bonus, and never less than 1d4); the poison save applies only to the first hit. A skull druj bites for 2d4 plus the lethal poison save, and anyone it first attacks must save vs. spell or stand frozen for a round, bitten automatically.

An odic seizes a new plant each night, killing it, and is rooted there until dawn. The host sheds purple or blue light for 20 feet, visible 300 yards away; each round in it, a living creature must save vs. spell or lose a level or Hit Die as from a wight. The odic's longest branch reaches 30 feet for 1d12 plus the save vs. poison or death. It can also send out up to six leaves (or needles, petals, tendrils) at movement 3, steering them up to a mile. Each has 1 hp, AC 8 and THAC0 16, imposes -4 on surprise, and deals no damage, but its touch charms (save vs. spell) and draws the victim to the odic. Charmed victims save at -4 against the drain and stay in the light. Leaves carry neither poison nor spells and may be replaced all night, six at most at once. Turned as special undead, a leaf drops lifeless for good. Turning the odic itself ejects it, helpless until the next sunset.

Spirits wander alone and rarely keep treasure, though some guard a special hoard and dead followers may carry type H. Only a lich, evil priest or similar master can gather druj, never more than five (perhaps a skull holding two eyes, with two hands), and smaller groups are likelier. An odic may try to possess a plantlike monster, which saves vs. spell; success protects it for the night, though the odic can still attack from a nearby plant. Possession kills the monster but grants the odic its movement and powers.

Spirits hate life and destroy it whenever possible, perhaps feeding on the life force of their kills, though hunger is not all that drives them. Most move on before scarring a region, but one that stays will leave nothing alive near it.