Penanggalan in Ravenloft?

[Hell_Born]

This is something that recently struck me, and which I decided to come here to ask. I know that there have been attempts at converting a number of variants of the Manananggal to Ravenloft, which are to be found in certain netbooks hosted on this very site, but can anyone confirm or disprove the existence of a Ravenloft conversion of the Penanggalan? It's just that I swear I've seen an RPG translation of this critter, and I'm pretty sure it was in a 2e or D20 supplement.

[EO]

I think that the last adventure of COTN:Vampires is centered around one.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

There's mention of it somewhere, but stats-wise there really isn't any that I could find.

And speaking of strange Southeast Asian creatures, I've always wanted to errata the aswang and penanggalan. Turns out they really aren't undead after all, as I wrote in the Kargatane netbooks.

I could suggest this; quick and dirty, but I guess it may work:

Penanggalan
Medium natural humanoid
Level 15 brute
XP 1,200

Initiative +12
Agitating Aura aura 2; any enemy that begins its turn within the aura takes a -2 penalty to all attacks and defenses.
Senses Perception +15, darkvision
HP 178; Bloodied 89
AC 27; Fortitude 26, Reflex 27, Will 27
Speed 6, fly 6
Immune disease; Vulnerable 10 radiant

(m) - Claw (standard, at-will)
+18 vs. AC; 2d8 + 6 necrotic damage, and the target is dazed and gets a -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends)

R - Tongue Slash (standard, recharge 5, 6)
Range 2; +15 vs. Reflex; 2d8 + 6 necrotic damage, and the target is dazed and immobilized (save ends)

M - Blood Drain (standard, recharge 5, 6)
Targets immobilized creature; target is dazed until the end of its next turn, and the penanggalan gets 10 temporary hit points.

Skills Nature 12, Streetwise +15
Str 16 (+10) Dex 20 (+12) Wis 18 (+11)
Con 18 (+11) Int 15 (+9) Cha 19 (+11)

[A G Thing]

Hellborn wrote:

or D20 supplement.

The D20 Varient I have seen is in the Oriental Adventures D20 book in the monsters section... If that helps!!!

[Sareau]

The pennangalan first appeared in the Fiend Folio,. with stats not dissimilar to a vampire's.

My suggestion would be to use the vampire template with all the Ravenloft enhancements, but change the powers-one size smaller in detached form, immune to sunlight when attached, etc.

Hope this helps, since I haven't seen a pennangalan since the Fiend Folio appearance.

[Hell_Born]

A thousand thanks, Sareau! It was indeed the AD&D Fiend Folio by TSR that I was thinking of.

[jamieraleigh]

There was one in there. I cannot remember her name, but she had a hate-on for lovers.

[Hogan Van Monsterband]

The D20 adaptation of the Deadlands monster book had rules for them. That's actually a really good monster book, if you can find it.

[Sareau]

Oriental Adventures also has a d20 template of the pennanngalan.

[Joël of the FoS]

I agree for Deadlands, fun flavor book.

For the record, the 2e Fiend Folio had it spelled Penanggalan while in d20 it became Pennaggolan. If anybody know why, I'd be curious to know. It's still a disgusting critter

From the A-Z project and knowledge monster files by JWM:

Pennaggolan [Oriental Adventures] Template undead, CR +2, lawful evil. A kind of vampire that seems human by day, but at night its head and internal organs pull themselves free to fly along and drain victims' blood. Generally found in the Scattered Lotus Archipelago.

(Explicitly classifying pennaggolans as an exotic variety of vampire is technically a Ravenloft-specific thing, but I doubt anyone will see it as a stretch.)

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (religion) can learn more about a creature’s pennaggolan nature. Characters need to make a separate Knowledge check to learn about the base creature. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC Result
17 This grotesque floating head trailing a mass of bloody internal organs is a pennaggolan, a vampiric undead creature that feeds on the blood of the living. This result reveals all undead traits. Pennaggolans speak the languages they knew in life.

22 Pennaggolans attack by wrapping their glistening entrails around a victim’s throat. The pennaggolan drains blood with its bite as it strangles its victim. Victims who die from a pennaggolan’s blood drain and are allowed to remain unburied for three days rise as new pennaggolans themselves.

27 A pennaggolan can dominate the weak-minded simply by looking into their eyes. Pennaggolans are tough and quickly recover from most wounds, but magic weapons can pierce their supernatural defenses. A pennaggolan can pose as the mortal it was in life by stuffing its entrails back into its body. While so disguised, a pennaggolan cannot be turned and its malignant spirit is hidden from magical scrying.

32 A pennaggolan is resistant to cold, electricity, and turning. Pennaggolans typically pose as mortals by day, but when the sun sets, their heads and entrails tear free to feed upon the living. The creature’s entrails bloat once exposed to the open air, so a pennaggolan must soak its entrails in vinegar to fit them back into its body. While a bodiless pennaggolan roams free, its hollow, unattended body lies helpless. Unlike other vampires, a pennaggolan is mystically bound to its body rather than to a grave. If a pennaggolan’s body is destroyed while its head roams, the pennaggolan wastes away and is permanently destroyed within a few days.

37 Many different strains of vampirism exist — this is simply one of the most hideous.

[Sareau]

Pennangalan/pennangolan is so hard to spell-wish the guy who introduced the creature had gone with kra-sue-much easier to spell. Anyway, the thing is a type of vampire-most often explanation in the folklore being a woman who died in childbirth, sentanced to unlife for it's natural span of years. It's other habits include eating the *ahem* leavings in the outhouse and wiping it's lips on laundry left hanging overnight.

It's always been classified as a vampire type-just read Seabury Quinn's The Malay Horror.