Category:Penanggalan

John W. Mangrum's Penanggalan Lore^[1]

This section contains Potential-canon info, revealed by the creators from never-published sources

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (religion) can learn more about a creature’s penanggalan 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 penanggalan, a vampiric undead creature that feeds on the blood of the living. This result reveals all undead traits. Penanggalans speak the languages they knew in life.

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

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

32 A penanggalan is resistant to cold, electricity, and turning. Penanggalans 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 penanggalan must soak its entrails in vinegar to fit them back into its body. While a bodiless penanggalan roams free, its hollow, unattended body lies helpless. Unlike other vampires, a penanggalan is mystically bound to its body rather than to a grave. If a penanggalan’s body is destroyed while its head roams, the penanggalan 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.

References

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Children of the Night: Vampires
		Children of the Night: Vampires - pp91,94
		Children of the Night: Vampires - p95
		Children of the Night: Vampires - pp95-96