It came out of the trees alongside the road, floating just a foot over the asphalt ahead of us. The headlights of our car illuminated a human figured, cocooned in dirty-white linens. It wiggled and struggled against its prison of bindings. A decaying face, eyes bulging and grin wide from rot, peered from the shroud. Suddenly, the driver unleashed a gout of blood-tinged vomit and passed against as the steering wheel.
Alternative names: Hantu Bungkus, Kain Kafan, Shroud Ghost
Pocong are a rare form of ghost. Most are created when the soul of the deceased becomes trapped within its own decaying corpse by tight bindings placed on the body after death, such as funerary shrouds, plastic sheeting, or body bags. The desperate spirit reanimates its body. They wail and writhe against their bindings, floating a foot from the ground as they seek help. The pocong are most frequent in Southeast Asia, though they can be found anywhere.
Undoing the bindings will release the spirit. Denying a pocong release from its bindings may result in a wasting curse that kills in a matter of days. Many have been driven insane by their imprisonment, turning on anyone trying to help them. Others no longer care about being freed, lashing out at everyone they encounter, delighting in the terror they cause.
Spells and oaths to create pocong exist. Intense hatred and tragedy can also bring back the deceased as a pocong. These pocong are called pocong merah or Red Pocong. The malevolence of these pocong is so all-consuming that it stains their bindings red, hence the name. Red Pocong command powerful magics and lead colonies of other pocong. In one such colony along a river on Java, a pocong merah rules thousands of pocong.
Curse: a pocong can place a curse on a person it can see, causing the victim to sicken and die. This requires the pocong to spend 5 Magic Points and make a contested POW roll against the victim. If successful, the victim immediately loses 1D6 CON and is wracked with fever, chills, a debilitating headache, and powerful nausea. They will lose an additional 1 point of CON every hour as they waste away. At 0 CON, the victim dies. No treatment, medical or magical, can halt or reverse the sickness. The only remedy is vanquishing the pocong.
Eerie Aura: nature and sanity flee at the presence of a pocong. Within a 100-foot radius of the creature, wind stops blowing, bugs stop calling, birds and animals flee. Water and rain flow backward. The smell of rot fills the air. Hair stands up on the arms and nape of people. A slight but relentless pressure weighs down on their minds. Investigators lose 1 Sanity for every half-hour they remain near the pocong.
Insubstantial: a pocong may move through walls and solid objects.
Teleport: by spending 1 magic point, a pocong can teleport to any point within a 50-foot radius.
Pocong, the bound
| char. | roll | average |
| STR | 2D6 x 5 | 35 |
| CON | 3D6 x 5 | 50 |
| SIZ | (2D6+4) x 5 | 55 |
| DEX | 2D6 x 5 | 35 |
| INT | 3D6 x 5 | 35 |
| POW | 3D6 x 5* | 50 |
Average Hit Points: 10
Average Damage Bonus: 0
Average Build: 0
Average Magic Points: 14
Move: 2
*For Red Pacong use 3D6+8 when determining POW (average POW 90, average Magic Points 18).
ATTACKS
Attacks per round: None
A pocong is incapable of direct attacks against opponents. It relies on its intimidating presence, spells, Eerie Aura ability to dissuade anyone from attacking it. Faced with opponents it cannot cow, a pocong will flee using its Teleport ability.
| Dodge | 25% (12/5) |
Skills
Intimidate 60%
Armor: None, but all non-magical attacks against a pocong pass through it without causing harm.
Spells: Only red pocong know spells. Each one knows 1D6+2 spells.
Sanity Loss: 1/1D4 to encounter a pocong.
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
