Penanggalan

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The Penanggalan is a vampire-like monster from the mythology of Southeast Asia, and is similar in many ways to the Aswang. These cursed women look like normal people during the day, but at night their head detaches and flies off, dragging its lungs, heart, stomach and intestines beneath it as it flies around in search of blood to drink, with a particular fondness for feeding on pregnant women and young children (another Aswang-like trait). They can be detected during the day by a persistent odor of vinegar, as the head needs to soak its organs in vinegar to shrivel them up sufficiently in order to reinsert them back into its body. Because they must reunite with their body before sunrise, as sunlight will kill them if it touches them in their true state, traditional methods of warding them away involve creating barriers of thorns or broken glass, as the Penanggalan will not approach these for fear of getting tangled up in them. Destroying the body, or filling it with thorns and/or broken glass, is the best way to ensure they will die at sunrise.

Penanggalan have appeared as monsters in various tabletop games, including Dungeons & Dragons, the New World of Darkness, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten.