Upir Lichy

It looks like a starved, savage man or woman, paler than any living thing, with long fangs and talons. Coarse hair grows on its scalp, shoulders, back and forearms, and rotted rags cling to it. Its eyes are clever and pitiless.

Undeath grants it 18/91 Strength (already in its statistics), and each claw rakes for 1d3+5. Anyone clawed must save vs. paralyzation or lose a life level, which returns at one per day of full rest. Three times daily its 15-foot gaze causes paralyzing fear for 1d4 rounds (save vs. paralyzation negates), though the victim can still defend himself at a 4-point Armor Class penalty and without Dexterity bonuses. Burrowing (MV 9), it senses footsteps above and strikes from below at -2, giving foes +2 to surprise and forcing a Fear check. Only silver, iron fresh from the forge or magic weapons hurt it; an icicle through it immobilizes it. It is immune to charm, sleep, hold, all spells that affect mind or life, and all cold. Fire and heat deal +1 per die and transfix it for 2d4 rounds or the spell's duration, if shorter. It regenerates 3 hp per round, none of sunlight damage and only half of fire damage. Each round in direct sun costs it 1 Hit Die; at zero it becomes a mist that seeps into the snow and needs a week in its lair to rise again. Holy symbols of good or neutral faiths and holy water deal 1d6 on contact, while unholy ones heal 1d6. Ordinary mirrors fail, but silver or ice ones hold it off for 2d4 rounds. Any natural animal lures it into a chase it will never risk its existence on. It can become a winter wolf (MV 15, bite 4d8, size L) or a chill mist (MV 12, AC 3, no attacks, size M) (a one-minute change that acts as fear on onlookers and grants attackers +4). It goes to mist at 0 hp or to travel home; the mist is harmless, but any injury to it destroys the creature permanently, and within 100 feet of its lair it can sink through frozen ground. It can summon 2d4 winter wolves within a mile, arriving in 1d10 rounds and obeying for 2d4 rounds within fifty yards before fleeing in fear.

Victims begin Protected. A first lost level makes them Unprotected, with 1d6 cold damage at once and 1d6 cumulative every six hours (to 3d6) until they are warm indoors. A second makes them Exposed, with another 1d6 and 2d6 cumulative per six hours (to 6d6). Any further drain brings Frostbite: 1d3 cold damage per hour after the first hour, 25% less movement, and -2 to attacks and Armor Class. Each hour the victim saves vs. breath weapon or the hourly damage grows by 1d3 and the penalties worsen by 25% and 1. Healing magic restores only 1 hp per die against this; rest recovers 1 point per hour of exposure or per eight hours of frostbite. Twelve unbroken hours somewhere warm cures both, and meanwhile trims six-hourly exposure damage by 1d6, but leaving early restarts the clock.

Upir lichies exist only in the frozen north, an island domain in perpetual winter. Shunning towns, they roam the wilds hungry for warmth, preferring deer, wolves and other large prey, and lair in snow-buried caves or behind old avalanches. The notorious Lantern-Eye, named for its one glowing eye, is stronger than its kin, drains in any form, flees from frozen meat, and is said to lair a few days from a frozen market town. They sometimes team with another heat-draining undead of the domain against strong prey; from the second round of combat, each round brings a cumulative 10% chance the allies turn on each other.

A humanoid that dies of cold or level loss to one has just a 15% chance of rising as one, so only a few dozen are known, active or dormant. Each must drain one level or Hit Die daily or lose 1d4 hp that will not return until it feeds, with the loss growing by 1 each day until it feeds or is destroyed at zero. Each has quirks of its own, such as paralysis from a pine stake or fear of a victim's skull.