“It shambled out of the swamp, muck dripping from its sole article of clothing, a loincloth held up by a fraying rope,” the old man began. “The stilted gate told me it wasn’t alive, then I looked at its face. The eyes were shut tight!” Thus began the tale of what we came to call the dormayvoo, a variety of zombie known for its sleepwalking appearance. Always, the eyes were shut, and while the arms moved with some uncertainty, we recognized a primitive intelligence driving it towards the closest living being. When victims were within reach, deadly blows rained down, swiftly sending even a stout fellow off into eternal night.
The vital statics of the dormayvoo are as follows.
- Armor Class: 12
- Hit Dice: 2
- Number of Attacks: 1 punch doing 1d8 points of damage plus magical sleep effect
- Movement: 20′ every 10 seconds
- Resists magic as 2nd level fighter
- Fanatical attitude, never losing morale
The dormayvoo appears as a humanoid zombie with no signs of decay. In poor light, it may be mistaken for a living being, but its face is slack and the eyes remain closed. It dreams a nightmare version of reality around it, allowing unfailing movement towards the living on which it will direct tireless blows from its fists. Being undead, it is immune to effects such as sleep or fear. With eyes always shut, it cannot be blinded, and it never sees holy symbols from which to be turned by a cleric. It can be destroyed by a high level cleric.
Whenever the dormayvoo lands a blow of its fist, the victim must save versus a magical sleep. Heroes of all levels may be affected by this magic, except that those of elvish blood are immune. Those unlucky enough to fall under the effect fall down as if dead. In fact, the victims appear indistinguishable from the dead. 1d4 rounds later, they rise up as dormayvoos themselves. Strong fighters wearing armor can be especially hard on their former companions. But these victims are not lost forever. The spell is a curse that may be removed by a wizard or cleric, after which the unfortunate victim is restored to their former life.
I offer this monster description under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.