FREQUENCY: Rare

FREQUENCY: Rare ([Dungeon Level VI])

FREQUENCY: Rare ([Cold Civilized Forest], [Cold Civilized Swamp])
FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Cold Civilized Mountains], [Cold Civilized Hills], [Cold Civilized Plains], [Cold Civilized Desert])

FREQUENCY: Rare ([Temperate Civilized Forest], [Temperate Civilized Swamp], [Temperate Civilized Plains])
FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Temperate Civilized Mountains], [Temperate Civilized Hills], [Temperate Civilized Desert])

FREQUENCY: Rare ([Tropical Civilized Forest], [Tropical Civilized Swamp], [Tropical Civilized Plains])
FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Tropical Civilized Mountains], [Tropical Civilized Hills], [Tropical Civilized Desert])

NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: Normal 10; head and gut when detached 8
MOVE: As normal woman; head and gut when detached 12"
HIT DICE: Body variable; head and gut when detached 4
% IN LAIR: See below
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6 or by weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Blood drain
SPECIAL DEFENSES: [SB]
MAGIC RESISTANCE: [SB]
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil (<Vile>)
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil <(Lost at undeath?, or an error?)>
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: Variable, but at minimum V | 290 + 5

A female vampire-type undead of fearsome power and nauseating appearance, <1> <2> <3>
this vile creature appears during the day as an attractive human female who may be of any character class.
This is the female <random table, or use henchman table?> human which the penanggalan was before death.
She will fight with the same combat abilities as she had when alive, will have spell-use if formerly a spell-caster, thieving abilities if formerly a thief and so on.
She will USE the weapon (or at least the weapon-type) favoured by her <weapon-type is a little confusing> in life.
Her body will take the same amount of damage as it could before death (when fully rested) and will fight as though of that experience level.
The head, however, will take 4HD of damage and a
separate account of hits needs to be kept in case the head itself is
struck in this form.

Exception: if the penanggalan was a cleric before death, of whatever
alignment, she will be unable to use her 'good' spells in her new form and
must restrict her spells to those of baneful effect.

A know alignment spell cast on the creature in this form will reveal
the alignment the penanggalan pursued while alive; as undead, however,
the creature will act in accordance with the lawful evil alignment.

In this form the penanggalan is impervious to holy/unholy word symbols and <disambiguate, and link>
and cannot be turned || dispelled. It is also immune (in either form)
to all spells which attempt to control the mind or body, like other undead. <note this at REF5>

In such a guise, the penanggalan will seek to befriend any unwary <Perception?>
party of travellers and attempt to join with them. It will prove extremely
useful -- over its years of undeath it will have acquired an
extensive knowledge of the dungeon in which it now roams; it will be
able to guide parties to treasure and to warn them of possible <l: treasure>
dangers. Naturally, it will find some plausible reason for this
knowledge and may sometimes make 'deliberate mistakes' or feign
ignorance of areas of which it has knowledge, in order not to arouse
the suspicion of the party (whose members would naturally become
suspicious if their new companion displayed near-omniscience).
Having joined a party of adventurers, the penanggalan will remain
with that party, even to accompanying them out of the dungeon. It
will never, however, ENCAMP for the night with the party in the dungeon,
nor will it accompany them to spend the night in the
supposed safety of the upper world, making some excuse for being
elsewhere.

At night, the penanggalan assumes its real undead form. Its head and
internal organs detach themselves from the body, rising vertically
from the abdomen, and fly in SEARCH of human prey, to feast on their
living blood. For this reason, it will always return to one of its secret
lairs before nightfall (a single penanggalan may have as many as six
identical lairs hidden in various parts of the dungeon). It is particularly
fond of the blood of young children or of pregnant females, but
lacking such a victim it will select the party member who appears to
be most susceptible to hipgnosis, preferring a female to a male. <cf. Len's Charisma article>
It will always attack humans and will ignore even near-humans.

Any unfortunate witness of the scene when the penanggalan head and
gut detach from the body must make his saving throw against magic
or die immediately. If he makes the saving throw, he is treated as if
the feeblemind spell had been cast on him.

The head and gut will 'fly' in SEARCH of a victim and, when one is discovered <cf. Astral searches article>
the head will attempt to hypnotise the victim who must save
against magic at -3 or fall completely under the control of the
creature for as long as it takes to feed. It will make two small lacerations
in the victim's throat and feast on the blood throughout the night.
For each night's feeding, the victim will lose 1-6 hit points and
1 point each of strength and constitution. The penanggalan
will select the same same victim each night, if possible,
and will continue to visit and feed night after night until the victim is dead.

If the victim survives the night, he will remember none of the events
except in snatches, as if from a faintly-remembered dream. If for
some reason he avoids the subsequent attentions of the penanggalan,
he will continue to lose hit points at the rate of 1 hit point per night
either until dead or until [dispel evil] is CAST on him. Note that hit points drained
by the penanggalan cannot be restored by magical
means such as cure wounds spells -- in effect, the victim's maximum
hits are being drained. Such spells will only take effect in respect of
the lost points after dispel evil has been CAST, and even powerful spells such as
[restoration] will have no effect. Similarly the victim's lost
strength and constitution points cannot be recovered until after
[dispel evil] has been cast. Once dispel evil has been cast, however, the
hit points are restored at the rate of 1 point per day and the
strength and constitution points at the rate of 1 point of each per week. <maybe not a bad default, for cases where Str and Con loss are not specified>

If the victim succumbs on the first occasion to the penanggalan, the
creature must again hypnotise him the next night before feeding is
possible. However  the victim's saving throw is progressively more
difficult; the throw is made at -4 on the second occasion, -5 on the
third and so on. A break in the sequence of one or more nights will
halt this progression; the saving throw will again be at -3 if a renewed
attempt is made by a penanggalan after a break of one or more nights.

If an intended victim makes his save against the creature's attempt at
hypnosis, the penanggalan  will be able to exert no further influence
over him and will FLEE from him in [fear] before searching for another
prey. Furthermore, that person will be immune to further attempts by
that penanggalan and will be able recognise one -- any one -- for
what it is, no matter in what guise it appears. He will still, however, be
losing hit points at the rate of 1 point per night, as described above,
if the creature has fed at least once on his blood.

Note that the victim is 'asleep' throughout the visitations of the
penanggalan. He will never actually see the creature, even if he makes
his saving throw against hypnosis. The creature will never attack a
victim who is awake. If any person happens to see the head and gut
when detached from the body (for example if the intended victim
awakens before the creature has had time to commence hypnosis) <how long?>
he must save against [fear] or FLEE in abject terror. When in this form, however
the creature can be turned or dispelled by a cleric; treat as a
wraith on the cleric/undead matrix. If the head and gut are thus turned,
they must return to the lair and not venture forth again that night;
if they are dispelled (a D result on the matrix) they are destroyed and
the body will decay (see below). The head and gut will recoil before a
strongly-presented holy symbol though it will not be harmed.

Should a penanggalan kill a male victim, he remains lifeless, and if
an attemp is made to raise him, his chances of surviving the system shock
 will be half normal. If the attempt fails, no further attempts
can possibly succeed. If it kills a female victim, she will rise from the
grave after three days as a penanggalan (not under the control of the
original creature). If an attempt to raise her during that three-
day period, her chances of surviving the system shock are half normal,
and failure of that attempt means that no further attempt can
possibly succeed -- the process by which she becomes a penanggalan
is then inexorable.

If an attempt to raise any victim succeeds, however, the victim will
return to normal (all hit points restored, strength and constitution
back to normal) after <2> months of REST and recuperation;
furthermore that victim will be immune to further attacks by a penanggalan
and will recognise one for what it is.

After the penanggalan head and gut have left the body in the lair, the
internal organs swell up, whether feeding takes place or not, and
cannot return to the abdomen until they have been soaked in vinegar
for an hour, during which time they return to normal size. For this
reason, the creature will always keep a large vessel filled with vinegar <define container>
concealed in each of its lairs, and a penanggalan lair may often be <DSG smell rules>
detected by the distinctive odor of vinegar which permeates it.

If a ray of sunlight strikes the creature's head and gut when they are
detached from the body, the head will be paralysed and will fall helpless
to the ground until nightfall. Thus, the creature will always
attempt to reunite head and body before cock-crow. In any event, if <WSG hours of daylight>
the head and body are not reunited within <7> hours after initial
separation, both will start to decay and the evil life-force which
animates the creature will be forced to return to Hell. Thus, to
destroy the body or the head is a sure way of destroying the creature
itself.

When separated from the body, the head takes 4HD of damage.

In either form, the creature takes normal damage from all weapons. IF
it is weaponless and in human form, it can bite for 1-6 points of
damage, but it will try to avoid using this mode of attack for fear of
revealing its true nature.

When detached from the body, the internal organs constantly drip a
highly volatile and foul mixture of blood and digestive juices which
cause 1-4 hit points of damage on bare flesh (which breaks out in
sores and boils in a painful eruption). This horrid liquid evaporates
after one round in contact with air.

For purposes of aerial combat, the penanggalan is manoeuvrability class D.
 

    by Stephan Hellman

<1: morale check adj?>
<2: Come>
<3: save adj. vs stinking cloud?>