Hestdrikker: statted & detailed, comments/suggestion welcome

[cure]

Hestdrikkers are briefly mentioned on page 19 of Gaz V and Hestskæreres are briefly mentioned page 20 of Gaz V.

Author of the Nova Vaasa section, Andrew Cermack, has this to say about the former in the subsequently released author's notes concerning things that were omitted: "Sidebar revealing the hestdrikker to be a strain of diseased, outcast jermlaine, driven feral and blood-thirsty by the sickness in their veins. Worse yet, the sickness can be transferred to the horses the jermlaine feed from, making them mad and dangerous."

Below is my attempt to offer a complete statting and description of the hestdrikker and its relation with hestskæreres.

Comments and suggestions would be very welcome.

Hestdrikker (“horse-drinker”)
Tiny Fey
Hit Dice: ½ d6-1 (1 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+2 size, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/–11
Attack: Bite -1 melee (1d4–3) or spear -1 melee (1d4–3) or dart +5 ranged (1d2-3)
Full Attack: Bite -1 melee (1d4–3) or spear -1 melee (1d4–3) or +5 dart (1d2-3)
Space/Reach: 2-1/2 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Disease
Special Qualities: Diseased, lowlight vision, speak with rats, wild empathy
Saves: Fort -1, Ref +5, Will +1
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 17, Con 8, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 5
Skills: Craft (trap making) +2, Hide +16, Intimidate +1, Listen +4, Move Silently +9, Spot +4
Outcast Rating: 3 (–1 size +3 appearance +1 evil reputation)
Feats: Alertness, Deformity (Teeth)B
Environment: Temperate Plains of Nova Vaasa
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: 10% coins, 10% items
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: 1–2 HD (Tiny)
Level Adjustment: 0

A hestdrikker is a feral jermlaine that has been twisted in mind and body by disease and cast out by its kin. Hestdrikkers, like jermlaines, are humanoid in outline, roughly 1 foot in height, with tiny, beady eyes, sparse hair, and baggy, wrinkled, filthy skin. A hestdrikker differs from a jermlaine psychologically in being far less mischievous and far more murderous and physiologically in the powerful development of its jaw muscles and in the exposure by its receding gums of long, sharp teeth. As protection against the elements, the creature typically sports atrociously tailored and thoroughly blood-stained clothing cut from rabbit hide or made of very coarsely-woven horse hair. A hestdrikker will make every effort to keep itself armed with several darts and a spear. One that has managed to usurp a rabbit warren or join up with a colony of rats or giant rats is likely to build a rudimentary trap or two to make its situation more secure. Otherwise, it makes use of whatever temporary shelter it can find and does little or nothing to improve it. The creature is nocturnal and dwells uniquely in Nova Vaasa where it principally stalks the tall grasses of the Elendighedmark (Plain of Misery), the Tordenmark (Thundering Plain), and the Pommel.

Hestdrikkers are driven by disease to consume a great deal of blood. To adequately slake their thirst, they prey on wild horses, targeting, when possible, those in visibly poor health. While a hestdrikker will not refuse the blood of any fresh corpse that it should happen upon and will not hesitate to attack a less sizeable creature which is manifestly vulnerable, it is neither a scavenger nor a hunter of small prey.

Hestdrikkers speak the language of jermlaines, which sounds much like the chittering of rats. A few hestdrikkers may additionally speak one or (very rarely) more of the following languages: Vaasan, Halfling, Gnome, Goblin or Mongrelfolk.

A hestdrikker typically cares for nothing beyond feeding and survival. It shuns the company of its own kind and that of jermlaine. The one thing that is capable of piquing its interest, as well as raising its suspicion, is the offer of appropriate weaponry, clothing, or trap parts. Hestdrikkers fail to realise that they are victims of a disease and consequently are not interested in being ‘cured.’ Were one to be magically restored to full health despite itself, it might ultimately prove grateful.

A hestdrikker can be conjured in Nova Vaasa using the spell Summon Monster I.

COMBAT
A hestdrikker does not stand and fight. Rather it strikes from, and disappears back into, the concealment afforded by high grass. Typically, the creature will only attack a horse that is not in the midst of a tightly packed herd and that has lain down to sleep. It will attempt to deliver a coup de grace with either its teeth or a spear. If successful, it will wait until it may safely drink blood from the corpse. If not, it will wait for the opportunity to make a subsequent attempt against the same animal or another. To discourage dogged pursuit by a foe that it can neither outrun nor shake, a hestdrikker may resort to sniping with its darts. Any rat or dire rat allies may serve as scouts or as (unwitting) decoys, but hestdrikkers usually lack the requisite force of personality to cajole its allies into combat.

Speak with Rats (Sp): At will, a hestdrikker can produce an effect like that of a speak with animals spell (caster level 3rd), except that it enables communication only with rats and dire rats.

Wild Empathy (Ex): This power works exactly like the druid's wild empathy class feature.

Blood burn (Ex): Disease – bite, Fortitude DC 9, incubation period 1d2 weeks, damage 1 point of Wisdom. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Blood burn is a disease that can affect animals, fey, magical beasts, giants, humanoids and monstrous humanoids. A creature failing its initial save against the disease cannot recover from it by making subsequent saving throws. Rather a remove disease spell is required to be freed of this sickness. Fortunately, blood burn is spread only by the bite of hestdrikkers, that is to say, jermlaines that have fully succumbed to its effects.

The disease inflicts 1 point of Wisdom damage per day after its incubation period of 1d2 weeks. A creature accumulating 2 points of disease-inflicted Wisdom damage develops a taste for blood if it did not already have one, or a craving for blood, if it previously only had a taste for it. A creature accumulating 4 points of disease-inflicted Wisdom damage develops a need to drink l/16 of its body weight in blood every day, failing which it is fatigued until it has done so. A creature accumulating 6 points of disease-inflicted Wisdom damage gains a +1 racial bonus to its Strength, its teeth appear longer and sharper as its gum line recedes, its jaw muscles become pronounced, and its Outcast Rating increases by 1. Lastly, a creature accumulating 8 points of disease-inflicted Wisdom damage takes no additional damage from the sickness, requires 1/8 of its body weight in blood every day, has its racial bonus to Strength increase to +2, and acquires as a bonus feat either Deformity (teeth), granting it a bite attack if it did not previously have one, or Improved Natural Attack, improving its existing bite attack. The bite attack remains a secondary attack for non-combatant herbivores. A creature whose wisdom score is reduced to 0 by the disease falls into unconsciousness, takes no additional wisdom damage, and the disease progresses no further. A creature cured of blood burn progressively recovers from its symptoms as its accumulated Wisdom damage heals. For example, upon recovering from 8 to 7 points of accumulated Wisdom damage, a creature would require only 1/16 of its body weight in blood every day, would have its racial bonus to Strength reduced to +1, and lose the bite-related bonus feat.

As the disease progresses, an afflicted creature will take ever more aggressive action to slack its thirst for blood. In creatures that do not habitually hunt or kill to survive, this aggression will very probably appear to be most unusual. Horses afflicted with blood burn are mistakenly believed by Nova Vaasans to have fallen prey to hestskæreres, which are believed to be goblin-like creatures that slit open the bellies of sleeping horses and climb inside, driving the poor animals mad and spurring them to attack man and beast alike.

Skills: Craft (trap making), Hide, Listen, Move Silently and Spot are class skills for hestdrikkers.

HESTDRIKKER LORE
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nature) can learn more about hestdrikkers. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: This tiny, feral, humanoid-shaped creature is a hestdrikker. This result reveals all fey traits.

DC 15: This elusive and otherwise solitary fey has an affinity for rats. Its language sounds like the chittering of rats, and it can in fact communicate readily with them.

DC 20: Hestdrikkers and jermaline in fact share a common language. Indeed a hestdrikker appears very much like a feral version of a jermlaine. A hestdrikker lives by ambushing wild horses as they sleep, drinking the blood of any that it succeeds in killing. It flees any situation that is not to its manifest advantage. Any permanent lair that a hestdrikker occupies is likely to be protected by a trap or two.

DC 25: A hestdrikker is in fact a jermlaine that has fully succumbed to disease and become an outcast. The bite of hestdrikkers spreads this disease, which can only be cured with a remove disease spell. Horses that survive being bitten by hestdrikkers and that become afflicted with this disease gradually become mad and dangerous. Their condition is mistakenly blamed upon hestskæreres.

DC 30: In addition to jermlaines and horses, other animals and fey, as well as magical beasts, giants, humanoids and monstrous humanoids, may be afflicted by the disease spread by the bite of hestdrikkers. The bite of no other creatures afflicted by the disease may spread it however.

[Mischief]

Develops a need to drink 1/16 of its body weight in blood every day, ... requires 1/8 of its body weight in blood every day

Moly Holy. I don't blame you because the canon Ravenloft monsters were designed by people who clearly don't have the best grasp on population dynamics, but there are about 5 Liters of blood in a male human, so about 5 kg. You need about 70kg of mammal to make that much blood. If we run those feeding req numbers as a diseased human attacking human victims, that works out to killing one person every day, and then two people every day. That's a lot of killing. If we are talking human murders, one person would be murdering more people per year as there are homicides in New York State annually (CDC data).

Google tells me a leopard makes only about 20 kills a year totaling 400kg meat, with the rest being scavenge or feeding off of others' kills. A 50kg human woman at max disease is going to kill about as much as 80 leopards to slack the bloodthirst.

Or maybe I'm wrong and everyone in Ravenloft is a Doom-like blood piñata.

(I ballparked 5e's Barovia, and found out that it could only fit 10 vampires if they feed on one person once a week and 20% or fewer victims die, and everyone can be bit, and that was being generous with birthrates and lack of disease. No other human predators like hags or werewolves could fit. Not even one fledgling vampire a la Van Richten's Guide to Vampire could fit in Barovia - it would drive humans to extinction. I'd be happy to post the doc if anyone is interested.)

[cure]

The idea is that catching the disease results in behaviour that, unless you can find a niche, is very likely to get you noticed and slain. Hestdrikkers have found such a niche and so are not all wiped out in short order. In other terms, why do hestdrinkers bother feeding on horses, which are three size categories larger than themselves, when they could instead hunt rabbits? Rabbits don't have enough blood ....

[ewancummins]

Remember that episode with the pool of elfin blood?

FOREVERMORE
SANCIANADOS