Remnant, Aquatic

Remnants are the spirits of humans and humanoids whose former bodies have been thrown into an unconsecrated, watery grave after they have died of acute stress and exhaustion. The callous way in which they have been disposed of after a torturous and miserable life leaves them in a state of such sorrow that they cannot completely leave the material world behind, and they lurk in the pools and rivers where their bodies were abandoned.

Aquatic remnants appear as melancholy faces with eyeless sockets and pale floating hands. Their bodies seem to fade away into the depths, leaving no sight of their legs.

Without the aid of magic it is impossible to communicate with these tragic spirits.

Combat: Remnants are related to ghosts and, as such, are ethereal monsters that can be seen by non-ethereal creatures.

At will, their cold, wet touch chills a corporeal being to the bone, inflicting no damage, but draining 1 point of Dexterity per successful attack. Any creature whose Dexterity reaches 0 succumbs to acute hypothermia and dies. Lost Dexterity points return at the rate of 1 per hour. Victims of remnants do not become remnants themselves.

In order to attack a corporeal creature, remnants' hands must become semimaterialized, during which time their Armor Class drops to 8. Semimaterialized remnants can be hit only by silver weapons, which inflict half damage, or magical weapons. While fully ethereal, they can only be attacked by others in a similar state.

Remnants are turned as ghosts and can be damaged by holy water while in their semimaterial form. Each vial of the precious liquid that strikes them does 1d6 points of damage.

Habitat/Society: Remnants are confined to bodies of water connected to their graves. If a living creature looks into the water where a remnant resides, it has a 10% chance to spot the creature. Knowing of the remnant's presence raises this chance to 80%. Remnants are flickering, elusive creatures, who prefer to stay out of sight until they can approach creatures in the water.

Remnants are not always hostile, and they may even help those who fight the creatures that mistreated them in life. Remnants can even convey what amounts to water breathing upon corporeal creatures by grasping their hands, pulling them under the water, and briefly performing “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation”. (Actually, the remnant is drawing the living creature partly into the Border Ethereal.) Thereafter, so long as the corporeal creature holds the semimaterial hand of the remnant, it will not drown.

Ecology: Remnants remain trapped in the Border Ethereal until ritual burial services are performed over their remains. They do not hate material life as their ghostly cousins do, but they will not hesitate to attack any member of the race that caused their condition.