Shapechanger. If the penanggalan is attached to its body, it can use its action to polymorph into any female humanoid it chooses, or back to its true form. Other than its size, its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Rejuvenation. If its body is still intact, a destroyed penanggalan regenerates in its body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again.
Dripping Entrails. Whenever a creature within 5 feet of the penanggalan hits it with a melee attack, it must succeed on a DC14 Dexterity saving throw or be covered in contaminated blood and take 2 (1d4) necrotic damage. The creature must then succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or contract the Wilting Blood disease. Until the disease is cured, the target is covered with open sores and can’t regain hit points except by magical means, and the target’s hit point maximum decreases by the amount of necrotic damage it has taken.
Multiattack. The penanggalan makes three attacks, only one of which can be a bite attack. If the target is grappled, the penanggalan can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target, or a creature that is grappled by the penanggalan, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) necrotic damage. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the penanggalan regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Tongue Lashing. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Entrails. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the penanggalan can't use its entrails on another target.
Description
Content Warning: Physical Abuse, Body Horror, Murder, Dismemberment
Bawan scholars have long debated the origins of the penanggalan. According to most traditional folklore, it invariably features either a jealous woman or a woman who made a pact with dark forces. In recent times however, a more plausible and accepted origin was theorized.
A long time ago, there was a woman in a village who fell in love with a rich noble. They were in love and they spend a lot of their time together whenever his duties brought him to the village. Eventually she fell pregnant and bore his child. When the noble next visited the village, he was infuriated as any news of illegitimate children would be scandalous and devastating to his political career. The woman was abused, and she eventually lost the child. The noble never visited the village again.
Consumed by grief and rage she went on to murder the noble’s family and pregnant wife before returning home. Appalled by her crime and fearing reprisal from the nobility, the villagers decide to punish her for her heinous crimes first. They hung her head from a tall tree and tied her legs to a bull. When the bull charged, her body was torn away, and her severed head was left dangling from the tree with all the internal organs still intact. While the villages celebrated their triumph over evil, that feeling turned to dread when they discovered that the severed head had gone missing sometime during the night.
Night Haunters. By the light of day, the penanggalan is indistinguishable from any normal female humanoid. At night, however, it detaches its head and flies around of its own accord. As it flies, its internal organs dangle below it and are said to twinkle like fireflies as it glides through the moonlit night.
Death and Restoration. When a penanggalan’s disembodied head is damaged or destroyed, it will regenerate over the course of several days in her body. Because the destruction of her body means eternal death, the penanggalan usually keeps it hidden in a well-guarded location. In addition, to preserve her body, it is usually soaked in vinegar. The only way to permanently destroy the penanggalan is to sanctify the body and then destroying it by cremation.
Undead Nature. A penanggalan doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Previous Versions
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10/27/2020 12:43:09 AM
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1.0
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10/27/2020 12:44:38 AM
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13
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1.1
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Coming Soon
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