The crimson death appears as a roughly humanoid creature of translucent vapor. Its lower torso fades into a misty tail-like end below the knees. The crimson death moves by hovering above the ground.

   After killing an opponent, the crimson death will drag the victim’s body to its lair (usually a hollowed-out place under a windfall or undercut bank), to conceal its presence. The crimson death collects its victim’s treasure to use as a lure for its next victim.

COMBAT

A crimson death attacks by enveloping a creature with its body and draining the victim of all of its body fluids. Once it has drained a victim of all its fluids, the death will flush crimson (hence the name).

    Engulf (Ex): A crimson death can attempt to wrap a Medium-size or smaller creature in its body as a standard action. The crimson death attempts a grapple that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If it gets a hold, it deals 1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage for each round it maintains the hold. A creature drained to Constitution 0 dies, as the crimson death devours the last of the victim’s body fluids.

   Susceptibility: After draining a victim to Constitution 0, the crimson death, satiated from its feeding, moves at one-half speed, loses its racial bonus to Hide checks (because it flushes crimson, hence the name), and suffers a –4 penalty to its AC. These effects last for 1 hour.

   Skills: *Due to the crimson death’s pale and vaporous form, it receives a +8 racial bonus to all Hide checks when in mist or fog.

The Crimson Death first appeared in the 1e MM II (Gary Gygax, 1983).