Tuesday, April 7, 2015

A to Z of Vampires, Farkaskoldus

Today we travel to Hungary and enter a part of the world over run with vampires, vampire legends and stories.  It is my pleasure to introduce the Farkaskoldus ("Far-kiss-ole-dis").

This creature is a revenant type vampire. Which means it was dead and now it rises from it's grave. As opposed to spiritual, psychic or astral vampires.  It is also something of a cross between a werewolf and vampire.  I have read some material that suggests it is what happens to a werewolf when they die and come back as a vampire.

In death they still resemble werewolves. They can shift to a wolf-like form.

They are equipped with deadly claws and a bite, but their preferred prey is a baby.  Human babies typically only have 2-3 points of Constitution and the Farkaskoldus drains 1 per night.   If there are number of unexplained deaths among babies then the hunt for Farkaskoldus must begin.

They can be found in their coffins (which they must return too by daylight) with their abdomens distended and full of blood. They will also show no signs of decay.



Farkaskoldus
Armor Class: 1 [19]
Hit Dice: 8d8+8** (48 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws, 1 bite
Damage: 1d6+2 / 1d8+1
Special: Blood drain, shapeshift
Movement: 45'
No. Appearing: 1-3
Saves As: Fighter 10
Morale: 9
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil)*
XP: 2,075

The Farkaskoldus is a viscous vampiric monster.  It survives solely on the blood of newborns and babies younger than 6 months.  It must drain at least 3 Con points per each full moon or be forever destroyed.
Farkaskoldus are affected by all the same things that affect vampires; holy symbols, garlic, holy water.  Additionally silver coated weapons also do +1 of damage.
To destroy one of these creatures one must find it in it's grave, cut off the head and burn the body to ashes.

Links
http://tashasthinkings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/atoz2014f.html
https://mariwells.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/farkaskoldus/

14 comments:

Sophie Duncan said...

What a horrible creature, a true baby killer.
Sophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
FB3X
Wittegen Press

Tasha Duncan-Drake said...

Funny how a vampire seems even more monstrous when it goes after children.
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

Anonymous said...

why are vampires from Hungary? Cant they be from someplace like oh I dunno, Sarajevo? What has Hungary ever done to deserve such disreputable creatures?

Stephen Tremp said...

A shape shifting vampire? Now that's one bad @$$ vampire!

cleemckenzie said...

Up until today I didn't know this Farkaskoldus was in the pantheon of vamps. Shudder.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Blending the two together like in Underworld. (Only Michael wasn't dead.) Do they like babies on spikes? (Eddie Izzard joke.)

Crackerberries said...

Thank you for the pronunciation of Farkaskoldus…still can’t seem to get it right. They are very interesting creatures…definitely would not want to read about them at night. Or, maybe I would ...

Chrys Fey said...

I would never have been able to pronounce that if you didn't provide some help. :P This sounds like one fierce vampire. And it shifts? Jeez! I wouldn't want to come across this dude.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a baby person, but that's a horrible creature. =(

~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

Melissa Ann said...

What a horrible sounding creature. :(
I love the theme though, so fantastic.

JEN Garrett said...

Thanks for commenting on my blog. I wanted to return the favor, even though I'm not into vampires. But I was pleasantly surprised when reading your post. Very fascinating.
JEN Garrett

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

Oh look, a Hungarian connection... :D Farkaskoldus (Fahr-kash-kohl-doosh) literally means "wolf beggar" and people usually believed it was a shepherd or some other kind of poor person who could turn into a wolf and back (or in some cases was cursed into being a wolf by a witch). Just a side note: Hungarian folklore doesn't actually have vampires. The surrounding countries do, so there was some cross-fertilization, but we are more of the witches-and-wizards kinda people. ;)

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

Elise Fallson said...

I've never heard of a Farkaskoldus before, but then again, it wasn't long ago I found out about vampire/mermaid hybrids! :P What a horrible and dreadful theme you've got for A-Z. I like it!

Dee said...

Whoa, what a scary creature!