Upir Lichy

The upir lichy is a feral, despicable looking man or woman with long talons and fangs. Wild hair sprouts from its head, back, shoulders and forearms and wrapped in ancient remains of clothing. Its eyes show intelligence, but no remorse or pity as it drains the life from its hapless victims. These corpses are left drained of all their body heat in the icy wastes of Vorostokov, a land caught in an eternal winter. Upir lichies are physically lean, malnourished and pale beyond that of any living thing.

Combat: The wicked claws of the upir lichy are terrible even without the enhanced strength bestowed upon the beast by its close link to the Negative Energy plane. It attacks with these claws each round, inflicting 1d3+5 damage with each blow. Despite its weakness in life, undeath grants the upir lichy strength of 18/91. This modifies its attack rolls as well as damage, and has been factored into the beast's statistics. In addition to the damage inflicted by its claws, a saving throw vs. paralyzation must be made or the victim suffers the loss a level of life energy. This draining is temporary, lost levels returning at the rate of one per day of complete rest. The drain also leaves the victim more exposed to the harsh climate, moving them up one category along the exposure and frostbite rules outlined in the Ravenloft module Dark of the Moon (see below).

The upir lichy is also able to perform a gaze attack with a range of 15' up to three times each day, though this gaze does not charm, like that of a vampire. Instead, it causes paralyzing fear. A saving throw vs. paralyzation avoids this effect. Failure results in 1d4 rounds of paralysis. Luckily for its victims, the paralyzation inflicted by the upir lichy is not complete. The victim is still able to defend himself, albeit with a +4 penalty to his Armour Class and the loss of any bonus from a high Dexterity.

If the upir lichy is burrowing (movement rate of 9), it may detect the movements of those above the surface, allowing it to attack from underground with a -2 penalty. This inflicts a +2 penalty to its opponents' surprise rolls, and is cause for a Fear check. The upir lichy has many of the defenses possessed by vampires. It can be struck by silver, weapons forged from freshly heated iron, or weapons that are magically enchanted. If an upir lichy is impaled with an icicle, it is immobilized. Upir lichies are immune to all charm, sleep, hold, and all other mind- and life-affecting spells. They are also immune to all cold, ice, and frost related attacks.

Flame and heat spells captivate them for 2d4 rounds or for the duration of the spell, whichever is shorter, and inflict +1 damage per die. Upir lichies regenerate three hit points of damage per round unless the damage is inflicted by sunlight. Only half the damage they sustain from heat or fire may be regenerated.

Direct sunlight drains a Hit Die from upir lichies for each round they remain within it. If their Hit Dice are reduced to zero, they disintegrate into a chill mist that sinks into the snow. An upir lichy must then spend a week regenerating within its lair before rising once more. Holy symbols of any good or neutral faith will inflict 1d6 damage to a upir lichy upon contact, as do holy water and other holy vestments. This derives from the creatures' incisive hatred for life and all that dwell within its warm embrace. Unholy water and symbols have an opposite effect, curing an upir lichy of 1d6 points of damage.

Standard mirrors will not hold an upir lichy at bay, but those composed of silver or ice will do so for 2d4 rounds. Also, any natural animal will distract an upir lichy, forcing it to give chase, though the creature will never risk its existence by doing so.

In addition to its primary, humanoid form, the upir lichy is able to take on other form of a winter wolf and frigid cloud of mist. The transformation has the effects of a fear spell upon those who witness it, and takes one minute to complete. During the transformation, all attacks against the upir lichy are made with a +4 bonus. The upir lichy's additional forms have the same statistics as its humanoid form, except where noted below:

Winter Wolf: MV 15; #AT 1,Dmg 4d8, SZ L.

Chill Mist: AC 3, MV 12, #AT Nil, Dmg Nil, SZ M.

The upir lichy may assume its mist form if it is reduced to zero hit points or less, or needs to return to its buried lair. Though the mist feels cold, it is harmless to creatures that pass through it. If it is injured while in mist form, the upir lichy is destroyed forever. In mist form, the creature' s primary goal is to escape to its lair. If the lair is underground and within 100 feet, the upir lichy's mist form can seep through the snow and into its lair. Unlike vampires, no small cracks and spaces are required for the mist to pass through the earth, so long as the area is frozen.

An upir lichy may summon 2d4 winter wolves to come to its aid, which arrive in 1d10 rounds so long as any are within one mile. The wolves remain under the upir lichy's control for 2d4 rounds as long as they remain within fifty yards. After this period is over, they flee in terror from the upir lichy, frightened by its unnatural aura.

Habitat/Society: The upir lichy is encountered only in the island domain of Vorostokov. The creature wanders the chill wastes and forests, consumed with the thirst for warmth. This thirst may only be quenched if the upir lichy drains the body heat from living creatures, preferably deer, wolves, and other large prey.

These unusual vampires dwell in caves, buried deep in the snow or behind ancient avalanches, though more accessible lairs are not unheard of. Upir lichies are not social creatures; they never enter human settlements if they can help it, preferring the deep wilderness.

Ecology: The upir lichy is created when one of its humanoid victims is drained of its experience levels or dies from a loss of body heat. Even in these cases, however, the creature rises as an upir lichy only 15% of the time. Given this factor, the upir lichy remains a relatively rare strain of vampire. Only several dozen of these creatures are known to be currently active or hibernating. How many others remain dormant and undiscovered is unknown. Unlike other vampires that feed on blood or other physical parts of a victim 's body, the upir lichy feeds on heat, requiring one experience level or Hit Die each day. If it is unable to obtain this energy, the upir lichy suffers a loss of 1d4 hit points, which cannot be recovered until the creature feeds again. This loss escalates by one hit point each consecutive day, until the upir lichy feeds or until its hit points reach zero, at which point it is forever destroyed.

Each upir lichy has unique weaknesses and allergens in addition to those already mentioned. One, for instance, may be paralyzed if impaled on a pine stake, while another may flee from the skull of one of its victims. A curious weakness has been described in an upir lichy known as Red Eye, named for its single, balefully glowing eye. The creature seems unable to remain in the presence of frozen animal meat. Though tracked on several occasions, its lair has yet to be found, but is said to be within days travel of Torgov. Red Eye is also said to be more powerful than its common kin, and is able to use its drain attack in any form.

The upir lichy shares a delicate relationship with another heat-draining breed of undead that dwells in Vorostokov, the dreaded arayashka. Though these creatures hold little or no respect for one another, they are known to band together on rare occasions to hunt prey that could be to powerful to face independently. These pacts are fragile at best and easy dissolve once a battle begins. An allied upir lichy and arayashka have a cumulative 10% chance of turning on one another each round of combat, beginning on the second round. Once a pact does dissolve, the undead will begin to attack each other, ignoring their true quarry as their greedy natures overtake them.

Exposure and Frostbite: Any creature struck by an upir lichy may suffer more than a simple wound and loss of life energy. These creatures drain the body heat of their victims to feed. Any creature encountering an upir lichy, starts with an exposure of Protected, as described in the adventure “Dark of the Moon”. When a creature loses an experience level to the upir lichy's drain, they move up a category to Unprotected and suffer an additional 1d6 points of cold damage. Unprotected creatures suffers 1d6 cumulative points of cold damage every six hours until they get indoors and warm, to a maximum of 3d6 damage every six hours. If another experience level is lost, the victim becomes Exposed and suffers another 1d6 cold damage and 2d6 cumulative cold damage every six hours, to a maximum of 6d6.

Creatures that lose additional experience levels after they become Exposed begin to suffer from Frostbite immediately. Frostbite inflicts 1d3 hit points of cold damage each hour, beginning at the end of the first hour of the affliction. Furthermore, Frostbitten creatures suffer a loss of 25% of their movement rate and a -2 penalty to their attack rolls and Armor Class.

At the end of each hour, the victim must make saving throw vs. breath weapon, or the damage they suffer each hour increases by 1d3 and the penalties by another 25% and -1 respectively.

Damage from exposure and frostbite may be healed through rest, but magical healing only restores one hit point per die in the case of effects inflicted by an upir lichy. All damage inflicted by exposure and frostbite may only be healed through rest at a rate of one point per hour for exposure and one point for every eight hours with frostbite. Twelve hours of rest in a warm environment, such as a building with a roaring hearth, will remove the effects of exposure or frostbite. Such an environment will also reduce the damage inflicted every six hours by exposure by 1d6. However, if a creature leaves such an environment before the effects of exposure or frostbite are removed, the effects return until the creature spends another twelve consecutive hours in a warm environment.

by Eddy Brennan