Ghast

Ghast

Species	undead
No. Appearing	1–6
Behaviour	resentful
Range	ruin, subterranean
Size	4 to 6 ft. tall
Weight	135 lbs.
Intelligence	2
Armour Class	4
Hit Dice	4
Action Points	5
Max. Stride	4
THAC0	18
Hp/Die	d6
Attack Forms	3: two claws; fangs
Damage	claw (1–4); fangs (1–8)
Special Attacks	carrion stench, immune to sleep, charm, and protection from malevolence, paralysation

Ghasts are undead creatures arising through unlikely conditions, having to do with deceased persons of especially contemptible nature and the manner of their burial. With those who have practiced malevolence and evil their whole lives depart, the soul resists departing the prime material plane ... knowing the fate destined to befall it in the lower planes. Therefore, careful effort must be taken to ensure the body is interred properly in consecrated ground.

If the dead of this nature is, instead, buried on ground that's become desecrated, such as a graveyard that ceases to be properly tended, the lands of a property that have been subjected to vile, unholy practices, then the grip of virtue will be weak upon the person's soul, enabling the return to animation as a ghast.

One ghast is then free to create other ghasts — for any creature done to death by a ghast will, in turn, also rise as a ghast. Thus, an infection of evil can spread, potentially damning scores of innocent good souls to an unhappy, fiendish existence.

Ghasts appear much like ghouls. Viewed through the power of detect malevolence, however, they glow weirdly along the seams of the body, as the disease rents it apart ... particularly in the eyes.

Advantages

The chief difference by which a ghast can be recognized is from its stench, an ungodly putrid odour that strikes the perceiver as the rotting of a being's soul. Approaching within 3 hexes of a ghast demands a saving throw vs. poison; a failure causes the character to heave and retch due to nausea.

Ghasts attack with claws and fangs; a hit with either requires a save vs. paralysation. Failing this second save causes the victim to collapse, dropping any held objects before immediately becoming rigid and helpless for 2-8 rounds. Once the paralysation has passed, it requires a round for the character to acquire his or her senses before taking any action; during this period, the character's armour class is restored.

See Bestiary