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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 5273904" data-attributes="member: 57383">The dancing vampiresA kind of vampire spirit from Highland folklore is the baobhan sith (pronounced baavan shee). Since Gaelic can be difficult to pronounce, an alternative spelling of the monster’s name could be “bavanshee.” The word itself is a dialectic variation of banshee, but the creature is completely different from the usual banshee. The following tale about a baobhan sith is retold from C.M. Robertson’s Folklore from the West of Ross-shire.Four young men were on a hunting trip and spent the night in an empty shieling, a hut built to give shelter for the sheep in the grazing season. They began to dance, one supplying mouth-music. One of the dancers wished that they had partners. Almost at once, four women came in. Three danced, the fourth stood by the music-maker. But as he hummed, he saw drops of blood falling from the dancers. He fled out of the shieling, pursued by his demon partner, and took refuge among the horses. The woman could not get to him, probably because of the iron with which the horses were shod. Nonetheless, she circled round him all night, and only disappeared when the sun rose. He went back into the shieling and found the bloodless bodies of the dancers lying there. Their partners had drained them white.BAOBHAN SITH (Bavanshee)FREQUENCY: Very RareNO. APPEARING: 1-8ARMOR CLASS: 5MOVEMENT: 12”HIT DICE: 5% IN LAIR: 10%TREASURE: ANO. OF ATTACKS: 1DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spells and blood drainSPECIAL DEFENSES: NilMAGIC RESISTANCE: StandardINTELLIGENCE: HighALIGNMENT: Chaotic EvilSIZE: MPSIONIC ABILITY: NilBaobhan sith are evil spirits that roam at night seeking victims. As minor demons, they are in the “special” category for clerics who seek to turn them. The baobhan sith look like beautiful young women. Using spells, they try to trick their victims into letting them drain all the blood from the victims’ bodies. Baobhan sith have the magic-user spells charm person, clairaudience, suggestion, phantasmal force, and teleport.If a baobhan sith grasps a victim (who usually allows the touch because of charm person or suggestion) and makes a successful “to hit” roll for vampiric contact, the creature automatically drains blood for 3-18 hp damage in one round. The charm or suggestion is then broken, and the victim can fight back normally — but the baobhan sith will not release the victim unless the victim makes a strength roll as if to open doors (e.g., a victim with a strength of 15 can throw off an attacker on a 1-2 on 1d6). The baobhan sith drains 3-18 hp with each further round if not removed. Any victim drained below zero hit points is dead. The baobhan sith has a physical attack (a strike with a clawed hand) which does 1-6 hp damage, but the attack is rarely used since they prefer spells and blood draining.An iron weapon automatically does double damage to a baobhan sith (and gets a +3 bonus to hit). Since they are especially vulnerable to iron, the baobhan sith will always try to avoid contact with it (they can sense it within a 60’ radius). Oddly enough, silvered weapons have only normal effects against them. Holy water does 1-6 hp damage per vial to them.Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #126 (“Hearts of Darkness” by Tom Moldvay, October 1987).</blockquote>

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