Ghost, Frozen Invented by Hogan
CLIMATE/TERRAIN Any Arctic
FREQUENCY Very Rare
ORGANIZATION Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE Night
DIET Nil.
INTELLIGENCE High (13-15)
TREASURE D, T
ALIGNMENT Chaotic Evil
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NO. APPEARING 1 (1-6)
ARMOR CLASS 0
MOVEMENT 9
HIT DICE 10
THAC0 11
NO. OF ATTACKS 1
DAMAGE/ATTACKS 2d10 of cold damage
SPECIAL ATTACKS Slow
SPECIAL DEFENSES Immunity to cold & lightning
MAGIC RESISTANCE Nil.
SIZE M (5'-6')
MORALE Elite (13-14)
XP VALUE 6500
A Frozen Ghost is the undead remains of an evil humanoid that froze to death and arose again as a vengeful spirit. It's shape is much as it was in real life, but semi-translucent and with what seems to be an ethereal layer of ice surrounding it. Whenever a Frozen Ghost comes within a 5 yards range, an immediate drop in temperature can be felt.
COMBAT
Unlike a standard Ghost, the touch of a Frozen Ghost doesn't cause the recipient to age, but the victim will take 2d10 in cold damage and will be Slowed (like the spell) down for 8 rounds due to the unearthly cold. However, the mere sight of a Frozen Ghost's semi-translucent shape is enough to age a viewer 1d8 years, unless a saving throw vs. spells is made. Priests above 8th level are allowed a +2 bonus, and Priest of deities of Cold and/or winter is considered immune to the effect when above 9th level. A Frozen Ghost is turned as a standard Ghost.
The Ghost can only be hit by magical weapons, and are immune to spells and effects based on Cold and Lightning. Fire-based attacks, however, is +1 pr. die of damage.
A Frozen Ghost is able to step freely into any surface of ice, be it horizontal or vertical, to reappear from another surface within 20 yards. The Ghost is also able to attack from inside such a sheet of ice, by reaching out through the surface. While inside the ice, the Ghost is considered to be invisible, unless reaching out to attack, which caused its outline to be seen. While inside the ice, the Ghost only suffers half damage from area of effect spells, and its AC is bettered by a factor of 2.
If a living creature is in contact with a sheet of ice with more then 50% of its body, the Ghost can reach through the ice and take over the creature unless a Saving Throw vs. petrification is made. The creature will immediately be covered in ice as a sure sign of the takeover. Only when the host is about to be slain, will the Ghost leave, and then only if the creature is in contact with ice. If this isn't the fact, the Ghost is destroyed with the dead of the body.
HABITAT/SOCIETY
As the Frozen Ghost hasn't been properly buried. It's haunting is tied to the place where it's frozen carcass is left, and it is unable to move more than 200 yards away from it.
Most times, only a single Frozen Ghost is encountered, but sometimes a whole group of evil men found a freezing death in the arctic tundra together, causing them to haunt the area of their death as a group.
The loneliness and despair the slow cold death brings to a living being, is what causes a dead spirit to come back to haunt the frozen wastes. Even humanoids who where of a neutral or good alignment, are also known to have arisen as Frozen Ghosts, as their last living thoughts were filled with such despair and hate against the living and their life-giving warmth.
The only way to truly destroy a Frozen Ghost is to find, thaw up and bury the original corpse, else it will reform when a year has passed since its destruction.
ECOLOGY
As an undead spectral creature, a Frozen Ghost hasn't a specific place in the environment. Its greatest impact is, that some remote arctic areas are shunned by intelligent life. Such places are described as "Places of the evil cold" by barbarian tribes, who give it a wide birth.