Gurgist Mauler
CREATURE 6Humans that become mortics are known as gurgists. They retain their personalities and intelligence, but their bodies rot with every beat of their heart. Gurgists ceaselessly crave raw meat; consuming large quantities can slow, or even reverse, their body's putrefaction for a short time. A gurgist that refuses to consume raw meat rots to death.
Unlike other mortics, gurgists are capable of sating their hunger without resorting to depravity, making them more likely to be nonevil compared to other mortics. Most gurgists hunt and raise livestock for food-including animals many consider too dangerous to tame. To battle their constant hunger, many take up a single craft, hobby, or performing art to obsess over until the drive to create overcomes the urge to consume. Many study magic or medicine, researching methods to reverse their condition or suspend their putrescence. Others cling to religion, uttering prayers despite the pain and begging the gods to cleanse them of evil.
Nearly all gurgists are disgusted by their clumsy, rotting bodies. They shroud themselves in fine clothes and cover their faces with elaborate masks. Most consider their mask their true face.
Mortics are humanoids overwhelmed by void energy who still cling to life, surviving as twisted amalgams of living and undead. Though they feel unnatural cravings and resemble corpses, mortics live, breathe, eat, sleep, and procreate. However, a mortic can suspend their living functions simply by holding their breath, becoming more like a true undead.
Mortics are largely new to Golarion, with most created in droves when the Whispering Tyrant destroyed entire cities with his Radiant Fire, a magical explosion fueled by the collision of void and vitality energy. From among the corpses of these tragedies rose mortics, living survivors mistaken for corpses and left behind as a result. They found themselves in a twilight state-neither fully alive or undead. The necrotic pollutants of the Gravelands and the Isle of Terror continue to create mortics, seeping into neighboring lands through the air, earth, and water to infect the populace. Though most of the living in these lands fear becoming transformed, some believe becoming a mortic is their best chance of survival in the face of the encroaching hordes of the dead.
A mortic's powers differ by ancestry, though they do have a few commonalities. Reading or hearing scripture induces headaches, and they experience great discomfort when treading upon sacred ground. For those who were religious in life, these new changes can be devastating.
The gurgist spends 1 hour consuming 1 Bulk of raw meat to reverse their body's putrescence. For 1 hour, the gurgist appears to be a pale, bloated human. They have an automatic result of 32 on Deception checks and DCs to pass as a non-mortic human.
While under the effects of Nourishing Feast, Rotting Flesh ceases to function.
A gurgist in a place of worship dedicated to a non-evil deity or on sacred ground, such as an area blessed by Anointed Ground, is Slowed 1.
Any creature that hits the gurgist with an unarmed attack, tries to Grapple them, or otherwise touches the gurgist is covered with rotten flesh and putrid fluids.
The creature must succeed at a DC 22 Fortitude save or become Sickened 1 (Sickened 2 on a critical failure).
A creature with void healing draws health from void energy rather than vitality energy. It is damaged by vitality damage and is not healed by vitality healing effects. It does not take void damage, and it is healed by void effects that heal undead.
The gurgist draws in a deep breath and holds it, temporarily suspending their biological processes and becoming undead.
The gurgist gains the undead trait and becomes immune to bleed, death effects, disease, Paralyzed, poison, and sleep. Any such effects the gurgist is currently suffering from are suspended, but take effect again once they take a breath.
Death Gasp lasts as long as the gurgist holds their breath (up to 9 rounds).
Effect: Death Gasp