Sluagh

The sluagh (also known as "the host") are undead spirits who roam the night in packs, warring with each other and preying on the living. A member of the sluagh looks much like a black sprite, with a dark shadowy body and gauzy iridescent wings. Seen at a distance at twilight, a group of sluagh looks like a roiling thundercloud.

Combat: The sluagh fire tiny bows with poisonous arrows, having a maximum range of 75 yards. A victim hit by an arrow must save vs. poison or die in 2-5 rounds (unless the poison is slowed or neutralized). The save need be made but once only; any character who survives such a poison attack is thereafter immune to sluagh poison. The sluagh can also fight with tiny swords that do damage equal to daggers

The sluagh can cast the spells animate dead and fly, one spell per round, as often s they wish. Any character slain by the luagh is turned into a zombie and is then aken along when the sluagh fly away. The luagh are usually accompanied by 3-24 ombies already under their control.

The sluagh need not make normal morale checks. At the DM’s discretion, any time the sluagh turn a victim into a zombie they may choose to fly away. The sluagh exist in a state of barely controlled rage. When not tormenting the living, they are likely to fight among themselves. Tales are told of great aerial battles fought between divisions of the sluagh host. Characters can often turn this animosity to their advantage, as large numbers of the sluagh are easily tricked into fighting each other and leaving the characters alone.

The sluagh are not affected by sleep, charm, hold; or cold-based spells, nor by poison or paralyzation. They take 2-8 hp each per vial of holy water and are destroyed by raise dead or resurrection spells.

A cleric has the same chance to turn the sluagh as he has to turn ghouls. In the same round, allow the cleric a chance to turn the zombie accompanying the sluagh.

Habitat/Society: Sluagh always travel in large war bands, being the undead forms of warlike elves who turned on their fellow elves and were slain in battle. They appear only in the wilderness, never in dungeon settings. The sluagh never appear during the day and always flee sunlight. Their preferred habitat is any terrain similar to the Scottish Highlands.

The sluagh are sometimes led by other types of undead. For every 20 sluagh there is one wraith lieutenant. For every 40 sluagh there is an additional vampire captain. If 80 or more sluagh are encoun tered, their commander will be a lich. Note that special undead leaders make an encounter with the sluagh more deadly and should be used only if the characters are of an appropriately high level (with at least some chance of a cleric of their level turning the leader).

Greek mythology is not the only traditional source for a horde of ghosts cursed to eternal wandering. Gaelic (Scottish Highlands) mythology has tales of the sluagh (pronounced "slooa"), who are known as "the host of the unforgiven dead" or, more simply "the host." Descriptions of the sluagh vary, but most correspond closely to that given by Alexander Carmichael in the Carmina Gadelica (volume II, page 357). He noted that the "hosts" are the spirits of dead mortals. One informant told Carmichal that these spirits fly about in great clouds like starlings and return to the scenes of their earthly transgressions. On bad nights, say others, the hosts shelter themselves under russet docken stems and yellow ragwort stalks (two types of plants found in the Highlands). They fight aerial battles as men do on the earth, and may be heard and seen on clear frosty nights, advancing and retreating. After a battle, their crimson blood may be seen upon the rocks and stones. These spirits use poisonous darts to kill cats, dogs, sheep, and cattle. They can command men to follow them, and men obey, having no alternative. Such human victims slay and maim at the bidding of their spirit-masters, who in return treat them badly and without pity.

The picture of the sluagh that emerges is certainly full of horror. On a chill frosty night, one might see the host advance in the bright moonlight. Like fast-moving, low-lying storm clouds, boiling with iridescent blues and greens and reds as if the aurora borealis was trapped within, the host would wash across the night sky. Sometimes the rolling clouds would clash together and, when they did, bloody crimson rain would fall to stain the earth.

As the sluagh got closer, it could be seen that the "clouds" were actually masses of malignant bird-sized spirits. Each creature would look much like the negative photographic image of a sprite, with a dark shadowy body and iridescent wings. Each would be armed with a tiny bow with an equally tiny broad sword strapped to its waist. Trapped deep within the cloudlike host would be numerous zombies, magically born aloft and forced to obey every whim of the sluagh host.