Berbalang

Berbalang are like flies to feces: drawn to the material realm by the stench of death leaking into the Astral Veil. These tiny imps haunt the liminal boundaries between planes, constantly seeking psychic energy to feed upon. They have leathery skin stretched taut over an angular frame, cloudy white eyes, and insect-like wings that buzz annoyingly in the dark. When a Berbalang projects itself into the material, it seeks fresh corpses to feed upon, siphoning the residual psychic energy of the dead into its own mental hoard. The creatures abhor confrontation, preferring to scout for graveyards via their projections, while they hang upside-down in hidden grottos within the Veil, dreaming. Berbalang are intelligent scavengers that communicate telepathically. Most often they serve a more powerful master who has coerced them into obedience via terror or the promise of an unlimited food supply. 

Berbalang function as phantom threats whose real bodies are rarely ever seen. The creatures seek out places that contain fresh corpses, like graveyards or battlefields, with the intent to sup upon the bodies’ lingering spiritual energy before they are consecrated or interred. This allows them to devour the memories and identity of the dead before they are able to pass on to the next life. Berbalang are known to trade in these ephemeral goods, either to dark patrons who feed on souls or eldritch beings who traffic in spiritual essence. A Berbalang (and its projection) has command over a handful of spells, and prefers to outwit its opponents rather than fight in close quarters with its claws and teeth. Once a supply of corpses is discovered, hives of Berbalang travel to the material in the flesh to feed. This mnemophagic ability empowers their material form rather than their astral projection, and does not physically mar the corpse they feed upon. If its physical body is ever discovered, it withdraws the instant it’s threatened, and resorts to pleading or bargaining to survive. Remote villages located on ley lines or near liminal boundaries are often plagued by these creatures; a ripe adventure hook for a party of mediums, clerics, or spellcasters.