This animated corpse is bone dry, its flesh so desiccated that it appears nearly skeletal. The air around it wavers with a dry, sucking heat, as if the corpse brings with it the soul of the waterless desert.
Ashen husks lost their lives to unquenchable thirst. The evidence of their dry death is obvious as a supernatural deliquescent aura.
Ashen husks stand just shy of 6 feet tall, but in their dehydrated state, weigh only about 140 pounds.
Many ashen husks died of exposure in the open desert when they became lost without water. Sometimes entire caravans go lost, and many of these unfortunate creatures might be seen years later as stumbling corpses with a thirst born in hellish heat.
Combat
Ashen husks slam their foes with bone-hard limbs, but they expose their real threat against living creatures caught in their dehydrating aura.
Ashen husk
Medium undead
Init −1; Senses darkvision; Perception +0
Aura dehydrating aura (10 ft.)
Defense
AC 11, touch 9, flat-footed 11 (−1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 22 (3d8+9)
DR 5/slashing
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +3
Offense
Speed 30 ft. (can’t run)
Melee slam +7 (1d6+6)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 8, Con — (+3), Int —, Wis 10, Cha 15
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 16
Morale fearless (n/a)
Special Qualities create spawn
Ecology
Environment any warm
Organization single, pair, or caravan (3d6)
Special Abilities
Dehydrating Aura (Su)
An ashen husk gives off a 10-foot-radius emanation of dehydrating heat, a deadly threat for creatures that must drink to survive. A living creature within 10 feet of the ashen husk takes 1d4 points of nonlethal damage from heat each round unless it has at least heat protection level 1 (see page 14), and must make a DC 13 Fortitude save or be dehydrated.
A creature that makes its save gains immunity to that ashen husk’s dehydrating aura ability for 24 hours, although it might still take the nonlethal damage from other sources of heat. The nonlethal damage from heat becomes lethal damage for a creature that is dehydrated. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Create Spawn (Su)
Creatures that are killed by an ashen husk while they are suffering from the effects of the monster’s dehydrating aura rise after 1d4 days as free-roaming ashen husks. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.