Game Glimmer: Gingerdead Men (for 5e, Pathfinder, Fantasy AGE, and more) (Patreon)

Game Glimmers aren't fully developed ideas, but just hints of concepts a GM could flesh out for their own use. Appropriate for re-flavoring creatures in 5e, Pathfinder 1e or 2e, Fantasy AGE, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Starfinder 1e or 2e, or a range of other ttRPGs.

Gingerdead Men

No one trusted the Volvavulf clan when they moved into a broken-down dwelling at the edge of town, a generation ago. Their matriarch, old Mother Volvavulf cackled a lot, cooked a lot, and had blind, milky eyes yet could still spot a child trying to sneak past her. Her apparent son. Vulfur Volvavulf, was a skilled brick-maker and brick layer, but rarely spoke. And their two dozen younglings were too quiet and obedient by half.

Old Mother Volvavulf tried to win the town over by baking gingerbread cookies for all of them, making each gift look like the person it was given to. The town elders forbade anyone to eat the presumably cursed or poisoned cookies, declaring it to be an effort by the Old Mother to lure children to her home. So, when a Townsfolk child went missing the same day Mother Volvavulf made a pork stew, the townsfolk decided the Volvavulf Clan were murderous cannibals. They shoved Old Mother into her own oven, pinned Vulfur under a pile of his own bricks, trapped all the young ones in the basement with the uneaten gift gingerbread cookies, and set fire to the entire compound.

When the missing Townsfolk boy showed up a few hours later, having spend hours stuffing himself on the honey of a dead beehive in the woods, the town panicked. All records of the Volvawulf Clan were hastily erased. All mention of the boy being missing were expunged. And all the Townsfolk swore to never speak of it or go to the compound again.

Of course, good, quality brick is too valuable to just leave lying around, and within a year one of the Townsfolk had taken some of the abandoned bricks Vulfur had been buried under, and used them to make a new oven. And the first time that oven was used to bake cookies of any kind... Gingerdead Men came boiling out instead. Each looked like one person in town, and they ran amuck, causing damage and chaos and eventually seeking to kill their lookalike. One was burned, one was crushed, one was thrust into a barrel of water and drowned, and the townsfolk thought the issue settled.

(Gingerdead Man. Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rick Hershey / Publisher's Choice Stock Art" https://patreon.com/StockArt)

A few years later, some Townfolk took old dry lumber to feed their fire during a long, harsh winter. More Gingerdead Men came forth. The townsfolk thought they were ready, knowing how the previous lot was killed, but this time the only things that DIDN'T damage the Gingerdead Men were the feats of burning with fire, drowning in water, and crushing. The tiny terrors were dissolved in vinegar, torn apart by guard dogs, and beheaded with a pair of scissors.

Try as they might, the townsfolk don't seem to be able to get rid of every vestige of the Volvavulf Clan's possessions. When grave robbers stole some of Old Mother's jewelry, it was worn by an unknown Townsfolk wife while she baked, unleashing Gingerdead Men. When baking cookies was outlawed in town, a festival was attacked by a dozen Gingerdead Men baked one town over. When someone tried to plow under the old Clan home, their plow carried dirt from there to the man's own wheat fields, and cookies from that wheat became Gingerdead Men. Despite every effort, every 10-15 years there's an outbreak. And the Gingerdead Men now cannot be hurt by crushing stabbing, slicing, smashing, burning with fire, caustic lye, acid, or heated metal, drowning in water, milk, honey, or ale, being torn apart by cats, dogs, hogs, squirrels, ravens, or a hive of ants, being eaten by men, women, or children, being ground up in a mortar and pestle, grain grinding stone, or the gears of a machine, being strangled with rope, ribbon, string, or twine.

In fact, the town has begun holding festivals to show off new weapons and methods of execution, and tend to buy one of each...