Publication:Dread Codex/Monsters/Spirit of Hate

''Softly illuminated with white radiance, this humanoid is at once beautiful and terrifying. The creature's face is hazy and indistinct but its piercing eyes are a defined blue.''

Creatures that are slain just before a pleasingly anticipated event return to this plane within 1d4 days as a spirit of hate. Hatred for all living beings is customary but a special hatred is reserved for those creatures that are obviously happy. There are just as many females as there are males that become spirits of hate although a victim cannot tell which sex he might be facing because a spirit's features are hidden within the fuzzy radiance of its energy. The spirit knows all languages it knew while living but rarely speaks. When it does speak, its voice is always accompanied by a high-pitched whine.

In elven mythology, spirits of hate (or "pec'zaah" in the Elven tongue) originated in the time just after the split between surface and dark elves. After centuries of discontent, those elves who would become the black-skinned menaces of today finally broke tradition with their surface cousins in an organized protest (the specifics are not known to non-elves). When it seemed these elves were lost to the darkness, a few dozen of their number returned to the forest as part of a ruse. When their surface brothers emerged from their protected community to welcome them home, the dark elves turned on them in a bloody massacre.

The deaths of so many elves filled with glad tidings of their fellows' return supposedly gave birth to the first sprits of hate. There may indeed be some truth to this legend because drow elves are documented as attacking these spirits on sight.

Combat
A spirit of hate often chooses a particular individual or a couple to be the object of its malicious attention. It then shadows its targets, waiting for the best moment to strike. When possible, it traps the lovers together, using its hateful gaze to drive them to destroy one another. Alternatively, the spirit of hate may employ its gaze against only one of the couple, perhaps even retreating from its victim to fool it into believing that the spirit has been defeated. The victim then "escapes" and returns to the lover—whom he or she now sees as a deadly enemy. The spirit of hate then uses its deadly incorporeal touch attack to finish the heartbroken victim.

 (Su): Living creatures hit by a spirit of hate's incorporeal touch attack must succeed a DC 18 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Charisma damage. The save DC is Charisma-based. Those reduced to Charisma 0 by a spirit of hate's touch have become so loathsome and repulsive to themselves that they retreat into a comatose state and are no longer aware of themselves or their environment. In this state, the creature loses 2d10 hit points per day until it perishes.

 (Su): Gaze, 30 feet, Will DC 18 negates (caster level 9th). The save DC is Charisma-based. A character that fails her save against the spirit of hate's hateful gaze believes that her closest friend or lover is a hated enemy. She seeks at once to kill the "enemy," using the most efficacious means at her disposal. The effect lasts 2d6 hours, or until the spirit of hate is destroyed. The effect of the hateful gaze can be removed with a successful dispel magic or remove curse.

Treasure
None — Robbing creatures of their happiness is the only treasure a spirit of hate is interested in.

In Your Campaign
The spirit of hate can spontaneously emerge from a person who was wrongly slain in sight of her would-be rescuers. The energy of an anticipated rescue becomes the force for undying revenge as the spirit of hate then shadows the failed rescuers until their deaths. When a villain of the PCs just cannot seem to slay them, he might set up a situation where a person is killed at the moment before the party rescues him. The resulting spirit of hate might just be able to succeed where the villain failed and he will have lost nothing in the attempt.