Topi

A topi is a zombie-like corpse shrunk to just 2 feet tall before being raised. The process leaves its skin dark, leathery and wrinkled, its eyes huge and bulging, and its lips usually drawn back into a frozen, toothy leer, though some have their mouths sewn closed. It wears the rags it died in, but the shrinking preserves the flesh, so it lacks a zombie's reek. It cannot talk but snarls, hisses, grunts and grinds its teeth as it fights.

Topis are far quicker than zombies and roll initiative normally. They can jump 6 feet straight up or across, and being intelligent they follow fairly complex orders and fight cleverly, springing onto roofs or overhanging limbs to encircle a group, then dropping behind their targets.

Each claw carries venom. A victim who fails a save vs. poison feels a creeping unease as his metabolism slows, starting the next round and lasting 1d2 turns. It mimics slow: movement and attacks at half rate, Armor Class worsened by 4, -4 to hit, initiative +2 and no Dexterity bonuses in combat. It is not magical, so a ring of free action does nothing. Slow poison delays it for the spell's duration if cast the round of the wound or the round symptoms begin; any later casting fails. Neutralize poison, heal or restorative ointment ends it.

Sleep, charm, hold, death magic, poison and cold do nothing to them, as with most undead. They are turned as wights, and holy water deals 2d4 per vial. Blunt weapons do only half damage, but a hit from a size M or larger wielder knocks the topi off balance, costing it any remaining attacks and actions that round and imposing a +5 initiative penalty next round. Once sent into battle a topi never checks morale, fighting until destroyed or called back by its creator.

They serve their animator alone, but their wits and evil nature make them spiteful, so trusting them with anything delicate or complicated is foolish. Most guard temples or tribal burial grounds, and some shamans and witch doctors keep them as bodyguards, scouts or servants.

Topis fill no natural role beyond what they are ordered to do, such as foraging or hunting small game. Left alone, a topi happily maims and kills whatever it can catch. It needs no food or water and kills only for fun or on command.

Any humanoid corpse can become one, but only a handful of tribal casters know the shrinking method. The rare outsiders who have watched and escaped say the body is boiled for days in water, herbs and animal organs, dried in the sun and then raised, probably with a variant of animate dead.