Gurgist

Gurgist

(Creature)

Type

Humanoid
(human, mortic)

CR

6

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

Gurgist

Source: Eulogy for Roslar's Coffer, pg(s). 86

Gurgists are a species of human mortic with a keen mind and a body that constantly decays, a process that can only be reversed by eating raw meat.

Appearance

Gurgists are the same size as humans, and a recently fed one can mostly pass for a pale and sickly human. If they do not eat, their body first grows pale, then develops purple-red splotches as their blood stagnates, then the flesh turns grey, waxy, and begins to rot, and hideous sores open. As outsiders and gurgists themselves alike view this decay as disgusting, they often wear colourful clothing, with a particular emphasis on masks. These masks tend to reflect their wearer's role in the community and are constantly worn, sometimes even sewn to the wearer's half-rotten flesh. Many gurgists view their masks to be their true faces.

Ecology

One of the most common mortics, a gurgist is created when a human is infected by a little too much negative energy, causing their body to think itself dead and rotting. The only way to reverse this process is by eating meat, preferably raw meat or offal, which allows their body to repair itself. If a gurgist goes too long without feeding, their body will liquefy. Gurgists who deal with the living have to maintain a daily diet.

Gurgists constantly feel a gnawing hunger for raw meat in the back of their mind, which can be a massive distraction. However, they have little preference for human flesh, so most of them eat pork, beef, or game meat.

Habitat

Due to their decay and dietary needs, gurgists have difficulty fitting within human society. Instead, most of them live in small communities in frontier regions, where they can go unmolested. Gurgist villages are usually insular but not hostile, and are sometimes accepted by nearby humans as neighbours and allies against monsters in wild areas like the Mwangi Expanse and the Crown of the World.

Society

Gurgists devote great effort to dealing with rot and hunger. Many of them become herders and hunters, ensuring that meat is always plentiful. Due to their hardiness, they can afford to tame dangerous creatures that others would avoid like chimeras or ankhravs. Weaker undead are also seen as more trainable beasts, except zombies, whose similarities to gurgists are too close.

In order to deal with hunger, each individual gurgist focuses their entire drive on a single hobby, until it can overwhelm their hunger and keep them sane. In some cases, all gurgists in a village choose the same focus, treating it as some kind of religion, but most of the time they pursue different activities.