Huecuva

In most fantasy worlds, the gods aren’t exactly remote.  So heresy is an act of singular arrogance or cowardice, and huecuvas are the appropriately high price.  Fortunately, the transformation shatters a huecuva’s intellect (leaving it a dismal 4); otherwise its ability to walk largely undetected in the day would make it quite the threat.  Of course, some huecuvas are just poor priests in the thrall of some necromancer; in any case, putting them out of their misery is always a good thing.

Huecuvas are particularly deadly to pilgrims.  Disguised as a mendicant priest, a huecuva can move among the pilgrims by day and pick them off one by one at night.  The various vows (particularly of silence), customs, and superstitions that accompany such journeys easily mask the huecuva’s low intelligence and rank odor.  Plus, far from their homes, the other pilgrims are more likely to blame each other than a humble friar when victims start disappearing.

An advanced huecuva lives among the lepers of Bastion’s Plague Ward.  Intelligent enough to function in society, he’s learned that living among the infirm excuses his odor and the high mortality rate of his associates.  Recently, though, a gang of ghouls has begun to hunt in his territory.  This terrifies him, as they are much more cunning than he and risk drawing more attention to the stews than he desires.

A paladin hopes to recover the body of Padre Antoin, now a huecuva created by a death priest of the Godeater Heresy.  Inquisitors are already on the death priest’s trail, however, and they regard the paladin’s concern for one abomination as close to heresy as well.

—Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary XXX & Pathfinder Bestiary 3 150

My first exposure to huecuvas was in the pages of Dungeon.  An amazing adventure by Randy Maxwell called “Ex Libris” featured a pull-out-and-cut-out map of a library whose rooms slid around like a puzzle game, with long-dead monks as the primary antagonists.

Also, this is not cool.  I try not to make the blog a political space, but you cannot speak for the party that touts itself as pro-business if you are going to copy, use without permission, or steal.  Creative products are just that: products, i.e., someone's livelihood.  This needs to stop happening.