Whale, Ghost

Description

Ghost whales are the undead spirits of whales that died when the oceans receded so rapidly, stranding them on land. Most whales died in agony in a few hours, but others lived on for a few weeks or even months in increasingly small and salty bodies of water, crowding together pitifully in their schools or pods to keep their skin moist. In the end, the whales that were over the great continent when the seas fell died, leaving vast graveyards of bones. Today entire valleys may be found with these bones, marking where a great school fell or another perished in some feeble sea remnant. Farmers in some areas have used the bones for fertilizer, while in many areas they have built houses out of them, 'bone huts", as there are no trees with which to use.

One some nights generally on the new moon these pods swim their vanished seas once again, appearing in great spectral shoals across the black sky. Quite impressive, they can appear as huge ghostly clouds scudding across the stars, dipping down into valleys and over mountains. Causing great fear when they do so, they are mostly harmless, appearing to act as if they were alive.

Harmless to all those but wizards. If a wizard, including specialist types such as illusionists, pass within ten miles of such a pod, there is a 75% chance that the pod will attack that wizard. Swooping down out of the night sky, these nearly transparent spirits will attempt to swallow the hapless wizard in their great gaping maws that once held baleen. If the wizard makes a saving throw versus breath weapon the attack only does 2-20 points of damage, but if unsuccessful he or she is sucked into a spirit demiplane of sorts, existing in the Deep Ethereal. Little is known about this place, but apparently many of the creatures that perished when the world sea vanished have their sprits reside there, going on as if they were still alive and in the ocean. So far as it known only ghost whales are able to leave the spirit demiplane, which some term the Ghost Sea or Phantom Ocean, perhaps created by the death cries of so many aquatic life forms.

In any event, those wizards that journey to this spirit plane, however unwilling, often don't come back. Unwilling there until dawn, they have a 50% chance of dying there or remaining there and later dying thanks the incredible hostility of the inhabitants (while on the demiplane the wizard will be unable to defend himself or herself). Further, even upon return the wizard may be insane; 25% chance, save versus spell, with a one bonus for every point in intelligence above and including 16.

They will generally ignore non-wizards in the group, and often times go to some lengths to avoid hitting them. They are also careful of animals, and will often seek to knock a wizard off of his mount before attempting to kill him or her. However, those who do get in the way will be dealt with if the ghost whales have no other option.

It is thought that the ghost whales were developing intelligence in all those thousands of years the continents were beneath the sea, but were destroyed when the water levels precipitously fell. They perhaps seek retribution upon those responsible; wizards.

Supposedly there are cults who seek to understand and control the ghost whales, perhaps using them for their own ends, to punish wizards in some sort of holy war, or to further their ends to return the mighty world ocean. Such individuals such be handled with care.