Wendigo

When somone thinks of a monster they think strong, with massive regeneration, near invincibility, man-eating, massive, malicious, horrifying to behold. A Wendigo fits the definition to the umpteenth-degree.

Culture

Few necromancers are powerful enough to successfully summon a wendigo, even fewer still actually have one but those few that have one are some of the most feared in the world. to have a wendigo is to have death on a leash at your beck and call

wendigos are the perfect servant loyal due to the summoning process making it have to obey you, intelligent enough to seek out revenge on those that tried to kill it and use tactics to surprise or trap opponents, strong enough to to give weaker demigods a hard time, dexterous enough to dodge arrows mid-flight, and fast enough to outrun a cheetah in its prime

in addition to the above it can:

mimic the voices of intelligent beings

see in pitch darkness as if it were daylight

track prey for miles finding joy in stealthily stalking them and inducing paranoia and terror

hear well enough to hear their prey's very heartbeat

track by scent

their roar requires a save vrs fear or be paralyzed temporarily

can hide amongst the outdoors or in darkness with ease

wendigoes arent perfect however. unlike most undead it requires alot of upkeep in the form of sleep and food. the wendigo's diet consists exclusively of intelligent creatures it will reject anything else should it not get a regular supply of fresh food it will frenzy charging to the nearest living intelligent creature and feeding off it, that creature may be its own creator if he isnt a lich or somthing. then theres sleep. it needs to sleep about as much as a human per day should it be denied such sleep it will drop onto the ground and start hibernating on its own after 2-3 days for about 2-3 months until it awakens, starving.

it is also advised that should the master of a wendigo be alive he/she should keep the creature from staring at them for too long. at some point its craving for flesh may overwhelm its binding to loyalty

damaging a wendigo is far easier then killing it only requiring +2 magical item, normal fire, acid, or spell damage. should you somhow incapacitate it you will then have to go though the horrible process of actually killing it...

Killing a Wendigo is no simple feat, but in order to do so you must:

1. cut out its invincible crystal heart and put it to the side, you'll need it later
2. burn the body in a holy ceremony overseen by a cleric and the ashes blessed
3. if step 2 was done properly the heart is now slightly less invulnerable allowing for a heavily blessed stake, preferably made of a substance that can take a beating, to be repeatedly pounded onto the heart until it shatters
4. the pieces must then be gathered and painstakingly melted into normal water by a cleric blessing the process

History

The creation process of a wendigo is as follows

first collect the ingredients:

1. mature male deer skull or similar skull that can pass as one
2. fresh male human corpse or similar that can pass as one*
3. vial of water
4. captured soul(if a wandering spirit is nearby then you can skip this step)
5. an absolute fuck-ton of magic

*minotaurs and trolls are too monstrous, dwarves; gnomes; halflings; and goblins are too short, etc.

next you must prepare for the ritual

1. corpse must have upper part of head cut off starting just below the nose and moving in a upward diagonal direction be careful to not interfere with the throat section or the corpse will be unusable
2. expose the corpses heart
3. place skull onto the area of the head you had cut off in the appropriate direction
4. start ritual
5. as you start pour the water onto the heart if you are doing the ritual correctly the water will turn into a crystal around the heart and the soul you brought will be dragged into the crystal
6. as you continue the body will start to grow larger, the arms will elongate, the feet will become more claw like, the fingers will turn into long daggers, the chest will close then sink in making the corpse look emaciated
7. the body will rise and the ritual will be complete

You know the ritual is a failure if, at any point:

1. the skull shatters or a horn falls off
2. the body starts to rip, melt, or disintegrate
3. the water does not crystallize
4. you run out of magic