Pox-Ridden Rabble

Saves: Toughness +4

Do Not Touch. Any creature that hits the rabble with a melee attack while within 5 feet, or is hit by the rabble, makes a Toughness Save DC 11 or takes 1d4 toxic damage. On a critical failure it also contracts the walking pox.

Shambling Mass. The crowd spreads to fill corridors and doorways. Its entire space is difficult terrain for enemies, and it blocks movement through any chokepoint it occupies.

Mass Attrition. The rabble takes double damage from area effects, flame, and blast weapons; the crowd cannot disperse. As its Vitality falls, the GM should describe the crowd visibly thinning.

Grasping Press. Melee Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 bludgeoning damage, and the target makes an Agility Save DC 11 or is Grappled amid the infection (escape DC 11).

Wet Cough. Each creature within 10 feet of the rabble makes a Toughness Save DC 11 or takes 1d4 toxic damage. On a critical failure it also contracts the walking pox.

Morale: Does not flee. It drifts toward warmth, light, and the healthy with terrible patience.

Tactics: Use it as living terrain that closes exits and eats time. The party's clean options — distance, fire, barricades — all cost something: ammunition, routes, or conscience. A preacher or bell-bearer nearby can aim the crowd, which is when it becomes a weapon.

Loot / Evidence / Hooks: Nothing worth touching, but the civic ident-tags in the press name a district the quarantine maps still list as clean.

Pox-Ridden Rabble are a coughing, smiling crowd of the infected — some devoted, some merely dying, all contagious. They should not be touched, and they know it.

Use this enemy as a horde-scale contamination hazard — a crowd the party must route around, hold back, or burn.

Horde durability, negligible attacks, severe contact contagion, movement denial, moral discomfort — many were victims first.

Do Not Touch. Any melee contact with the rabble, given or received, risks disease exposure.

Shambling Mass. Slow, but spreads to fill corridors and doorways; the crowd is the obstacle.

Grasping Press. The crowd clutches at anyone in reach; failed saves mean being held amid the infection.

Wet Cough. Close-range spray; targets save against disease exposure.

Morale: Does not flee; drifts toward warmth, light, and the healthy with terrible patience.

Tactics: Use it as living terrain that closes exits and eats time. The party's clean options — distance, fire, barricades — all cost something: ammunition, routes, or conscience. A preacher or bell-bearer nearby can aim the crowd, which is when it becomes a weapon.

Full Stat Block Priority: Low