Thrax

A thrax is a clever, relentless creature that lives by drawing the water out of other beings. It looks humanoid, with reddish skin, dark hair and pointed ears, though no one would take it for an elf. Its face is lean and sharp-boned, its eyes a deep pool blue. Its body is muscular, its arms long and lean, each finger capped with a tiny sucker. A thrax still speaks every language it knew before its transformation.

It likes lone prey: a solitary traveler or a single sentry guarding a sleeping camp. Using shadow form, it creeps close and solidifies behind its target. If the victim is heavily armored, it first uses its power to rot the armor, and once the armor crumbles away it seizes him with its strong arms and starts to drain.

Against an unarmored victim, a hit deals 2d6 and forces a save vs. petrification; failure means the finger suckers have locked on and draining begins. Against someone still armored, the chance of reaching bare skin is 10% per point of Armor Class (so 80% against AC 8).

Emptying a man-sized body takes a full turn, about a round for every 20 pounds the victim weighs. The pain is excruciating: every round the victim must save vs. death magic or faint, with a cumulative -2 penalty for each round of draining, and that same penalty applies to his attacks, damage and every other action. The agony also makes spellcasting and psionics impossible. Once more than 75% of his water is gone, he collapses from dehydration regardless.

Someone drained dry becomes a shriveled corpse, not a thrax. A human who survives the attack, however, faces an unmodified save vs. death magic; failure means he will turn into a thrax. This is a magical curse, not a disease. For the d3+1 weeks the change takes, the victim suffers a terrible thirst, and only remove curse cast before the change completes can save him. Nonhumans are immune.

Its psionic powers all come from psychometabolism: the sciences shadow form and energy containment, plus the devotions double pain, displacement, cause decay and aging.

A thrax can appear anywhere, but its desiccated victims are so distinctive that none stays long in a town or village; new thraxes flee as soon as they realize what they are, or are hunted down. In the wilds they live alone and in torment. A thrax remembers its old self but cannot stop itself, driven by the need to survive. A newly changed one may keep its former alignment for a while, perhaps vowing to feed only on animals, but within a few months the curse leaves nothing but hunger, along with a growing hatred of anyone not cursed, humans and demihumans above all.

A thrax must feed at least once a day. It can drink water normally, but plain water gives it none of the nourishment it needs.