Hungry Dead
Hungry Dead are the souls of the departed. Unfortunately, because hell is full and paradise is sealed, the souls of the dead are unable to go where they should and thus must wander the forest. After about a day or so, however, the soul undergoes a transformation and becomes a ravening spirit of hunger, agression, and often times vengeance.
Hungry Dead will often resemble that which they were in life. They will be spectral and, for lack of a better term, ghost white. Because of their nature, they are mostly insubstantial. Weapons will often pass right through them, though they can be harmed by mundane weaponry. Many forms of spells are also ineffective, such as those which affect the mind. Hungry Dead are accursed creatures, however, and thus can be affected by spells which specifically target the accursed. Hungry dead generally do not have fear, though there is one thing which, almost universally, they are mortally afraid of: a Sin Eater. If anyone sees hungry dead fleeing or talking about needing to run, warn the town immediately!
-Sir Talon
When someone dies within the Forest, their spirit is not able to enter into the afterlife and, thus, is forced to wander the Forest. In the best of circumstances, the individual will be resurrected using one of the tablets. Unfortunately, there is a very slim window of opportunity for this. If a deceased spirit is not resurrected shortly after their death, a transformation begins to take place and they become a Hungry Dead.
The Hungry Dead are spirits who have been driven mad by some force that permeates the Forest and affects the spirits of the dead. The spirit begins to hunger for the flesh of the living and, in many cases, seeks to avenge its own death on those it sees as having killed it … which, often times to these spirits, is anything that is living. Apparently those of strong will are able to stave off this transformation longer than others, but usually the transition from spirit to Hungry Dead takes no longer than a day.
These are accursed creatures, quasi-incorporeal and resistant to most damage, but are still able to be fended off with physical, non-enchanted weapons. Though regrettable, often times we have had to fight against and seemingly destroy the hungry dead in order to preserve the living. What happens to one of these hungry dead once defeated is still unknown to me. There is no known way at the moment to keep a spirit of the deceased from becoming one of the Hungry Dead aside from returning the individual to life before it occurs, and so far no way has been found to reverse the transformation into a hungry dead. The existance of such beings seems to be one of torment and suffering, and many of us consider consigning them to oblivion to be a much more merciful fate than to have them continue in such a state.
-Sir Talon
After Speaking to the Gate Keeper I (Taryn) have learned that the Hungry are the souls of those who are either exiled from Hell and forced to walk the forest or are unable to enter Hell for one or more of various reasons (such as unrelenting anger, fear, evilness) Those who are turned away from hell bewcome the hungry and over time lose their sentience as their hunger takes control. If they are able to consume the flesh of the sentient races, they seem to have a small part of their awareness restored and it is in these times that their whispers and mutterings seem to actually mean something.
The Hungry are involuntarily drawn into the dark forest where Sin Eaters reside and so within the dark forest itself there is no safe place for them and those who find themselves here have mostly lost all semblance of rationality or will. It has been observed, that an individual capable of appearing as one of them through either the use of a death fetish or the Dark Lord’s Fetters is able to direct and organize them with some success though they seem to become less manipulative the further away from the dark forest you travel with them. Still, a charismatic individual or one with great skill in speaking and interacting with the accursed may find a currently untapped source of labor or martial strength.
Finally, It was told to me (Taryn) by the gatekeeper that if the hungry are slain what is left of their free essence or soul is sent to the peace of oblivion. They neither reform nor go to the gatekeeper. The exception to this may be the hungry that are bound to Sin Eaters, entities also know as the Sin Eater’s “hounds”