Wang Chi

Old Chinese tales name this doppelganger hound a demon, but it is really a supernatural beast of the Far East. Once it simply stalked travelers and farmers near villages across India, China and Russia, no more wicked than a crocodile. When a creeping supernatural evil reached the East, the creatures grew greedy for power and slipped into society through its criminal underworld, until wise men learned to counter them and hunted the race nearly to extinction. The survivors hid in deep forests and became legend. Modern disbelief has let them recover a little, and one has stowed away on a cargo ship to the Chinatown of a great American port, killed the wealthy collector who hoped it would teach him long life, and now hunts for a mate.

Its true form is a big black dog that looks woven from living darkness, though it is wholly solid and no mere shadow. Diseased blue froth drips from its jaws and its eyes burn orange. It can talk only in human shape.

Its bite deals 2d4 and spreads disease: the victim saves vs. poison or loses 1 Strength per day until cured, dying at 0; creatures without Strength scores take a cumulative -1 to attack and damage per day instead, and bites stack. Twice a day it can raise a 10-foot radius of magical silence for three turns, dispellable normally, with at least a turn between uses. It hides in shadows 90% (50% in light brighter than a torch or light spell), is immune to sleep and charm, saves as an 8th-level soldier, and in any form is hit only by gold or magical weapons.

In one round it can take the near-flawless likeness of any human or dog it killed within thirty days and hold it for up to thirty more, shifting even while moving at half speed, though it cannot attack mid-change. Eating a victim's head within an hour of death gives it his memories and manners, but no proficiencies, rogue skills or spells, so it favors people whose main skill is giving orders. Those memories fray, making the impostor forgetful, then babbling, until they vanish after thirty days; each switch between human shapes costs an extra day, while animal or true-form changes cost nothing. Dog shapes give no memories and are a last resort. In one to three months of listening it can master as many as three human tongues.

It typically wears the face of someone wealthy, so heroes must get past guards, kin and servants first. If attacked in disguise it calls up silence, grabs any weapon, and avoids changing in public. At 0 hp while disguised it reverts to true form and heals 2d4 x 10% of the damage taken, once per day. Seeing the change prompts a fear check, and a horror or even madness check for anyone who knew the stolen face.

It can be destroyed only in true form, by impaling or beheading with a +1 or better or pure gold weapon; struck down that way in disguise, it reforms and must change shape at once. Direct sunlight burns its true form for 1d6 per round and, direct or clearly reflected, stops it from changing shape (except at 0 hp) or raising silence, though both work by day out of the sun. Speaking its true name in its presence forces it into true form for an hour, so it guards that name jealously; investigation, psionics or magic can reveal it. A dying Wang Chi allowed one uninterrupted round can curse whoever lands the killing blow (save vs. spell), with type and severity set by the DM, usually snarled in an Eastern tongue. Continuous attacks until it dies prevent this.

Wang Chi are solitary and territorial, and one may help heroes destroy a rival to claim its ground. Arrogance is their weakness: one never risks its master plan, but worthy foes may tempt it to leave clues just to show off. It favors society's fringes, replacing guild bosses or black marketeers whose disappearances raise few questions, and suits nearly any city: the Chinatown of a gaslight-era Earth, an eastern island domain of the misty dread realm, any coastal domain reached by trade, or another world with eastern cultures.

These carnivores prize humanoid flesh, above all heads and brains, and see dogs as poor fare. A Wang Chi lives 100-400 years and breeds once a decade, only with a human woman, who must be held captive through six agonizing months. The pup is born at night in hound form, eating its way out and killing her, then usually devours her. It bites for 1d4, its saliva turns diseased within a year, and shapechanging and silence come at maturity after three. Its first kill already grants a flicker of memory, often its father as the mother saw him. The father may loosely tend it but drives it off once it can change shape, and if they meet again they meet as rivals.