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Corpse Rot is the name of a specific type of faintly luminescent fungus that grows on organic material, breaking it down into compost. Unlike the vast majority of fungus, slimes, vermin, etc. the corpse rot fungus thrives on the cold flesh and bones of creatures that have been animated by negative energy and become undead.
Corpse Rot, due to its affinity for negative energy-charged flesh, withers and dies in the presence of positive energy, and, unlike most infections, is highly susceptible to sunlight, allowing even a simple villager to rid himself of the fungal growths by exposing skin and contaminated clothing to direct sunlight for eight hours or more.
Ghouls, Wights, Vampires and Liches find that this fungus seems drawn to their negatively-charged bodies, no matter how clean they attempt to keep their surroundings (although sealed crypts are obviously safe), as the spores drift in on breezes and are tracked in on the clothing of visitors, to take root in their dead flesh. With the obvious exception of vampires, most corporeal undead can purge the infection with exposure to sunlight. The infection is very obvious, causing reddish discolorations blossoming across infected skin, as well as cracking and discomfort that renders affected flesh tender and sensitive to further damage, and even weakens and corrodes bone, in the case of skeletal undead, as the fungus leaches vital minerals from the dead tissue. Vampires, Ghouls and Liches with this affliction tend to be pariahs among their own kind, while infected, and generally remove themselves from the presence of their peers until they have purged it. Vampires, in particular, are unforgiving of this affliction showing on their peers, as they lack the recourse of exposing themselves to sunlight to purge the condition. Skeletons and Zombies afflicted with Corpse Rot crumble and decay into nothingness within a matter of days, unless tended to by another (or given instructions to deal with the situation, such as to spend a day standing exposed to sunlight).
Corpse Rot
(affecting corporeal undead or unliving organic matter)
Type disease, contact; Save None
Onset 1d3 days; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d4 hit points damage (which ignores the hardness of unliving organic material), -1 natural armor (or hardness), if applicable (minimum zero); Cure remove disease, exposure to positive energy of at least cure light wounds, a flask of holy water or 1d6 channel energy strength (which will also damage the undead hosting the fungal infection), or exposure to sunlight (eight hours of full exposure to body and contaminated clothing will cleanse the infection)
Corpse Rot
(affecting living flesh)
Type disease, contact; Save Fortitude DC 13
Onset 1d3 days; Frequency 1/day
Effect 1d3 Str damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves (any exposure to positive energy from a channel energy, flask of holy water, cure light wounds or stronger effect will allow another immediate save) or exposure to sunlight (eight hours of full exposure to body and contaminated clothing will cleanse the infection)
Awesome. Simply awesome. Paizo really should hire you!
I don't have PFRPG Bestiary yet so this may have changed but I don't expect it has:
In 3.5e, vampires have Fast Healing 5, so the main penalty they suffer from this corpse rot would be the penalty to their natural armor and the pariah status with other undead.
Might explain why a vampire or other undead would keep cure light wounds potions/oils around their lair though.
"Ah, my accursed black heart. I've got the corpse rot again! Minion, fetch the oil of cure light wounds!" The minion comes back with a 1 ounce vial, which the vampire uncorks and pours over the infected area. "Ah, that burns like the hatred I have for all life!" The vampire watches as the oil of cure light wounds burns both its flesh and the corpse rot. Less than 1 round after the burning ceases, the vampire's skin is once again unblemished. "Minion! Find where that arcane trickster lairs! He'll rue the day he sprinkled corpse rot spores across my threshold!"
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In 3.5e, vampires have Fast Healing 5, so the main penalty they suffer from this corpse rot would be the penalty to their natural armor and the pariah status with other undead.
Ooh, good point. I'd originally wanted to make it do 1d3 Str damage, representing the deterioration of the undead creature's body, but I really didn't want to deal with how ability damage would affect undead (and, more importantly, how it would be healed, since undead don't really have any ability-score-restoring mechanisms in the game, normally being immune to that sort of thing).
The 'disease' ended up being a hazard as well, as it can rot unliving organic material, such as backpacks or leather armor or a bow, like a fast-acting mundane fungal rot.
I've always liked the ideas of fairly mundane creatures that have adapted to the magical surroundings of fantasy settings, and the 3.X rules (under the Handle Animal training rules) indicate that animals normally won't attack undead willingly, which suggests what I've always thought, that bacteria and maggots and the like would avoid colonizing undead flesh (either repelled, or even killed by the negative energy, or simply unable to derive nourishment from due to it's antithetical-to-life nature). A fungus that evolved to be able to thrive despite the presence of negative energy would have an entire 'necrosystem' that no other life-form could compete against it to devour. As with most creatures that have evolved to thrive in the presence of negative energy, the presence of positive energy would be its logical bane.
It's also fun to introduce something that's just plain annoying for necromancers and undead societies (such as Geb). :)