Buy me a coffeeBleeding Spirit: A Haunting Manifestation of Injustice
“This vengeful ghost bleeds for eternity—and it’s coming for the secrets you thought were buried!”
A Bleeding Spirit is a pale, translucent figure with ethereal, blood-soaked features that shift between sorrow and fury. Crimson streaks trail from their hollow eyes and down their cheeks, dripping from their spectral form to pool unnaturally on surfaces below. Their hands are perpetually slick with phantom blood, and faint echoes of their final cries can be heard in their presence. Their movement is eerily smooth, as if gliding, with an unsettling stillness that breaks only when they lash out with jagged, claw-like fingers. Reflections in nearby mirrors distort to show them as they appeared in death: mutilated and terrified.
Behavior
Bleeding Spirits are vindictive and cunning. They thrive on psychological torment, preferring to sow fear and guilt before striking. They whisper dark truths and forbidden knowledge to victims, their voices warped and dripping with malice. They enjoy manipulating individuals into despair or betrayal, twisting lives much like their own was unjustly ruined. However, their rage can erupt into sudden violence, making them unpredictable and terrifying adversaries.
When not actively hunting prey, they linger in the places of their deaths, observing and gathering knowledge. They are deeply tied to their communities, able to divine secrets and weaknesses with unsettling accuracy. They harbor a special loathing for mirrors, which they use as gateways to stalk and surprise their victims.
Habitat
Bleeding Spirits haunt the location of their death or any nearby reflective surfaces, like mirrors, pools of water, or polished metal. These objects act as portals for them, allowing movement across distances to pursue prey. They are most often found in abandoned homes, decrepit buildings, or ruined districts of towns steeped in tragedy and crime. Their presence corrupts these places, manifesting as unsettling cold spots, the stench of blood, and shadowy figures in mirrors.
Modus Operandi
- Psychological Torment: The Bleeding Spirit starts by revealing intimate, painful secrets about its victims or their ancestors, breaking their resolve.
- Isolation and Paranoia: It uses its ability to appear in mirrors to stalk prey, creating a sense of constant surveillance and dread.
- Bleeding Strike: When the victim is weakened by fear, it strikes with spectral claws, inflicting necrotic damage and a persistent, supernatural bleed effect.
- Escape and Return: If faced with determined resistance, it retreats through mirrors, only to return when the victims least expect it.
Motivation
The Bleeding Spirit seeks vengeance for its wrongful death, targeting those directly or indirectly tied to its demise. Over time, this vendetta broadens to include entire communities, as it blames all who stood by in silence. Even centuries later, its grudge festers, driving it to enact pain and suffering on the descendants of those responsible. Yet, a desperate part of the spirit craves acknowledgment of its innocence, making it susceptible to manipulation by those offering recognition or revenge in exchange for its oracular gifts.
Bleeding Spirit 5e
Bleeding Spirit Pathfinder
Bleeding Spirit 5e Stat Bock
Medium undead (incorporeal), lawful evil
Armor Class 15 Hit Points 32 (5d8+10) Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (perfect)
| STR – | DEX 16 (+3) | CON – | INT 13 (+1) | WIS 15 (+2) | CHA 15 (+2) |
|---|
Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 Languages understands all languages it knew in life but can’t speak
Special Traits
- Incorporeal Movement. The bleeding spirit can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
- Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the bleeding spirit to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the bleeding spirit drops to 1 hit point instead.
Actions
- Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) necrotic damage, and the target takes 1d4 bleed damage.
- Bleed. At the start of each of the it’s turns, each creature that is taking bleed damage from it takes an additional 1d4 bleed damage.
- Spellcasting. The bleeding spirit is a 5th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). The bleeding spirit has the following spells prepared:
- At will: mirror image
- 3/day each: clairvoyance, detect thoughts
- 1/day each: divination, dream
Reactions
- Parry. The bleeding spirit adds 2 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so, the bleeding spirit must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.
Bleeding Spirit
A pale transparent woman appears, blood staining her hands and running down her cheeks.
Taken from the Creature Codex
Bleeding spirits are the undead shades of the victims of unjust violence. A bleeding spirit is created when a person is killed in response to a crime they didn’t commit, and the death is a particularly gruesome and tortuous one.
Stripped of pity and compassion by their horrible transformation, bleeding spirits seek revenge on the communities that allowed their deaths to occur, extending their vendettas far beyond the lifespans of those responsible.
They rarely leave the community of their deaths, gathering much knowledge about their homes over the centuries. This information is bolstered by their weird divinatory abilities, granting bleeding spirits much ammunition for their campaigns of revenge. They like to bully and torment their prey before killing them, sharing horrible secrets and attempting to coerce them into serving as instruments of vengeance. Bleeding spirits have an affinity for mirrors, jumping between them in order to strike at new victims or escape from determined exorcists. The desperate and the foolhardy sometimes call on bleeding spirits for access to their knowledge and oracular gifts, but the price for said information is always blood.
Bleeding Spirit CR 4 Pathfinder Stat Bock
XP 1,200
LE Medium undead (incorporeal)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +12
Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 13 (+3 Dex, +2 deflection)
hp 32 (5d8+10)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +6
Defensive Abilities incorporeal, undead traits
Offense
Speed fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Melee 2 claws +7 touch (1d6 plus bleed)
Special Attacks bleed (1d4)Spell-like Abilities CL 5th, concentration +7
At Will—mirrorstride
3/day—clairaudience/clairvoyance
1/day—divination
Statistics
Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 13, Wis15, Cha 15
Base Attack +3; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Fly +11, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (local) +10, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12; Racial Modifiers +4 Knowledge (history), +4 Knowledge (local)
Languages Common
Ecology
Environment any land or underground (urban)
Organization solitary or cabal (2-5)
Treasure none
Special Abilities
- Bleed (Su) The bleed dealt by a bleeding spirit, unlike bleed from other sources, stacks with itself.
- Mirrorstride (Sp) This ability functions as the spell tree stride, except that the bleeding spirit uses mirrors or other reflective surfaces rather than trees for transportation. All mirrors have a range of 3,000 feet, whereas other reflective surfaces (such as polished metal or basins of water) only have a range of 500 feet. This is the equivalent of a 5th level spell.