Monster Monday: Calaca, the Lively Dead

Today's Monster Monday is the calaca - or calavera - a skeletal undead creature that eschews the traditional shambling and menacing of its undead brethren in favor of just, like, living its unlife. A calaca retains most of the personality it had in life and - unlike other undead - doesn't turn evil!

Calacas come from cultures that have a more positive outlook on death, where death is just an excuse to celebrate a life well-lived. These unique undead creatures reside most of the year in the Boneyard - the purgatorial realm of the psychopomps who usher dead souls to their eternal rests. Calacas are sustained by the memories of their living friends and relatives, and as time goes on they become more exaggerated representations of their living selves, sometimes verging on parody. Calacas can be summoned to the material plane at places to which they had strong attachments in life, or by remembrance rituals performed by the living.

© Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Calacas/calaveras are strongly associated with the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos in Mexico, Día de los Muertos in the US), a holiday which blends Catholicism with native Mexican traditions regarding the dead. They have deep roots going back to the gods and ceremonies of pre-conquest Mesoamerica, but the modern calavera can be traced back to José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican engraver whose satirical pictures of skeletons acting like the living poked fun at contemporary Mexican society and politics. His most famous calavera - La Calavera Catrina - was a laughing skeleton dressed in the finery of an upper class Mexican woman, a caricature that Posada used to criticize Mexican women who rejected their indigenous roots by adopting European fashions and whitening their skin. Through subsequent decades of folk art, Catrina evolved and became closely associated with Día de Muertos, but always remained at her core a way for the dead to poke fun at the living.

Calavera de la Catrina - José Guadalupe Posada (c. 1910), via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.
This skeletal musician dances and plays energetically. It wears garish clothes and its bones are brightly painted.

Calaca           CR 2

XP 600

Human calaca Bard 1

CN Medium undead (calaca)

Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., spiritsense 60 ft.; Perception +6

Aura psychopompic aura (30 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)

hp 28 (3d8+15)

Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +2; +4 channel resistance

DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, calaca traits

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee rapier +7 (1d6/18-20) or 2 claws +7 (1d4)

Ranged shortbow +7 (1d6/x3) 60ft.

Special Attacks bardic performance 9 round/day (countersong, distraction, fascinate, inspire courage +1)

Spells Prepared (CL 1^st)

1^st (3/day) – grease, hideous laughter (DC 16)

0^th (at will) – dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 14), message, prestidigitation

STATISTICS

Str 10, Dex 15, Con --, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 21

Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 14

Feats Improved Initiative^B, Skill Focus (Perform [string]), Weapon Finesse

Skills Bluff +10, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +9, Perception +6, Perform (string) +16, Sense Motive +3, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +5, Use Magic Device +9

Languages Common, Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal

SQ bardic knowledge +1, consume essence

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Consume Essence (Su)

Although a calaca does not need to eat or drink to survive, they enjoy the tastes that they had in life. Calacas can absorb the essence of food and drink; this consumes the nutrients of the meal as though it had been eaten, rendering the food useless to others. Calacas can consume potions and other ingested materials in the same fashion; when consuming potions in this way, they are affected as if they were living creatures and not undead (cure wounds potions restore health to the calaca, etc.). A calaca cannot become poisoned in this way.

Psychopompic Aura (Su)

All creatures within 30 feet who can see or hear the calaca gain a +2 morale bonus to Will saves against fear, but suffer a -1 penalty to saves against Death effects.

Spirit Touch (Ex)

A calaca’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, are treated as though they had the ghost touch weapon special ability.

Spiritsense (Su)

A calaca notices, locates, and can distinguish between living and undead creatures within 60 feet, just as if it had the blindsight ability. This sense does not allow it to detect objects, but it does allow it to notice living things that are not creatures.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Boneyard or Material Plane)

Organization solitary

Treasure standard (masterwork mandolin, rapier, shortbow with 20 arrows, other treasure)

A calaca, or calavera, is a skeletal undead creature that retains much of its character in death. Calacas often paint their bones with vibrant colors and designs and tend to wear fine, bright clothing. They are sustained by the memories of their surviving relatives, and thus their mannerisms often become more exaggerated than in life, even bordering on self-parody. In some cases, it seems the calaca does not even know they are deceased. Those who no longer have family to remember them become increasingly detached from their self until they seem to go mad. Calacas reside with the psychopomps in the great dead plane of the Boneyard, but they can be summoned to the Material Plane by remembrance rituals performed by their family and descendants involving offerings of food and drink that the calaca enjoyed in life.

Creating a Calaca:

Calaca is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system and a Charisma score of at least 6 (referred to hereafter as the base creature).  A calaca retains all of the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. 

   CR: A calaca’s CR is +1 higher than a normal skeleton of the same HD.

   Type: The creature’s type becomes undead. It keeps subtypes except for subtypes that indicate kind, and it gains the calaca subtype.

   Alignment: Unique among the ranks of undead, calacas retain the alignment they had in life.

   Armor Class: Natural armor as per skeleton.

   Hit Dice: Change all the creature’s racial HD to d8s, then add 2 racial Hit Dice to this total (creatures without racial HD gain 2). HD from class levels are unchanged.

   Saves: Base save bonuses for racial Hit Dice are Fort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +1/2 HD + 2.

   Defensive Abilities: A calaca gains DR 5/bludgeoning, channel resistance +4, and immunity to cold. It also gains all of the standard undead traits except immunity to mind-affecting effects.

   Speed: As a standard skeleton.

   Attacks: As a standard skeleton.

   Special Attacks: A calaca retains any special attacks that would function without flesh. In addition, it gains the Spirit Touch special attack.

Spirit Touch (Ex): A calaca’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, are treated as though they had the ghost touch weapon special ability.

   Abilities: Dex +2, Cha +4. As undead, it has no Constitution score.

   BAB: Its BAB for racial HD equals ¾ of its HD.

   Skills: Gains skill ranks per racial Hit Die equal to 4 + its Int modifier. Class skills for racial HD are Climb, Diplomacy, Disguise, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Perform (any), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Stealth. Skills gained from class levels remain unchanged.

   Feats: A calaca gains Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.

   Special Qualities: Calacas gain the following special qualities:

Psychopompic Aura (Su): All creatures within 30 feet who can see or hear the calaca gain a +2 morale bonus to Will saves against fear, but suffer a -1 penalty to saves against Death effects.

Spiritsense (Su): A calaca notices, locates, and can distinguish between living and undead creatures within 60 feet, just as if it had the blindsight ability. This sense does not allow it to detect objects, but it does allow it to notice living things that are not creatures.

Consume Essence (Su): Although a calaca does not need to eat or drink to survive, they enjoy the tastes that they had in life. Calacas can absorb the essence of food and drink; this consumes the nutrients of the meal as though it had been eaten, rendering the food useless to others. Calacas can consume potions and other ingested materials in the same fashion; when consuming potions in this way, they are affected as if they were living creatures and not undead (cure wounds potions restore health to the calaca, etc.).

   Languages: Calacas speak the languages they spoke in life, plus Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal.

   Environment: Any (Boneyard or Material Plane)

Calaca Subtype: Unusual amongst the undead, Calacas retain their memories, character, and alignment in death. Residing in the Boneyard with the psychopomps, they can be summoned to the Prime Material plane by remembrance rituals performed by their surviving family members. Calacas have the normal undead traits except as outlined below:

• Calacas retain the alignment they had in life.
• Calacas are not immune to mind-affecting effects.
• Spirit Touch (Ex): A calaca’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, are treated as though they had the ghost touch weapon special ability.
• Spiritsense (Su): A calaca notices, locates, and can distinguish between living and undead creatures within 60 feet, just as if it had the blindsight ability. This sense does not allow it to detect objects, but it does allow it to notice living things that are not creatures.
• Diplomacy and Perform (any) are class skills for calacas, along with the normal class skills for undead.
• Calacas speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal.

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• On the night of a remembrance ceremony for the dead, the party is approached by a brightly painted skeleton who asks for help in solving his own murder.
• The lord of the town is fed up with a calaca bard who is known for doing rude impressions of the lord.
• A community of calacas has lived their unlife for centuries in a village built around a magical standing stone. But now the magic of the stone is failing, and the calacas are being sucked one by one into the realm of the dead. Can the adventurers restore the magic of the village in time to save its dead inhabitants from oblivion?
• [The plot of the movie Coco]

-your calvus d20 despot