Blood Ripper

Buried deep and long forgotten, the Ripper Demon is a rare and ancient species of aberration. Ripper Demons are parasites that are fueled by hatred for all things living.

Though froglike in posture with their powerful hind legs, Rippers vaguely resemble humanoids covered in long, putrid bandages that cover them from head to toe, revealing only several blood red eyes, and long metallic claws on their hands and feet.

Ugly Parasite. Rippers At their core, Rippers are simply animated corpses controlled by accursed bandages, which are often scattered around their lairs and may lie dormant for years until they find a host. 

If a creature touches an afflicted bandage, it will immediately latch and begin feeding on the new host. The bandage gains half the current hit points of its new host. Each day the bandage grows across its host, dealing 1d4 points of necrotic damage, and gaining an equal amount of hit points of its own. If the hosts hit points are reduced to zero, the bandages consume the host, which becomes a full-fledged Ripper.

The bandage cannot be simply removed. If the bandage is attached to a limb, amputation of said limb will also remove the bandage during the early stages of infection (recommended first 1-3 days, depending on host hp), however the limb can only be restored through a healing spell of 5th level or higher.

While the bandage is latched, the host cannot gain hit points through magical or non-magical means. The host and the bandage will take the full amount of any damage dealt to either of them, with the exclusion of radiant damage, of which the host will only take half the damage that the bandage takes. If the bandages hit points are reduced to zero it becomes a normal piece of dirty bandaging which can be removed with no problems.

Holy water acts as both a counteracting and enraging agent on the parasite. Drinking a dose of Holy water will provide 1d4 healing against the damage of the parasite, but also increases the damage dealt to 1d6.

Shadow Dweller. Rippers have been buried for a long time, and are usually found by unfortunate miners that dig too far. After infecting a new host and slaughtering everyone else, a Ripper demon will usually inhabit a mine that is filled with its unnatural darkness, which is heavy enough to reduce the effectiveness of any light source by half its distance. The Ripper will only venture outside at night or during heavy storms.

Agent of Fear. There are few things more inherently terrifying than a Ripper, and nature will bend to avoid one. The area around a Ripper's lair is avoided by animals, and any food left there will spoil since no creature will come close enough to eat it. If a lair persists for longer than a month or two, the land around it will become barren in a radius of up to half a league.

Ripper demons will inhabit the tunnels and mines in which they are found, converting these into their primary lair.

Regional Effects

The region containing a Ripper’s lair is shrouded with darkness and fear, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• All light sources are reduced in brightness and range by half.
• No living creature will willingly go near the Ripper's lair. Anyone wishing to enter the Ripper Lair must succeed a DC 10 WIS save or become frightened.
• The longer the lair is present, the more desolate the land around it will become, starting with dying grass and trees, and eventually becoming entirely barren.

If the Ripper Demon dies, these effects fade over the course of 2d20 days.