Undead Origins

[Voadam]

Occult Bestiary
Pathfinder 1e
Animus Shade: Every intelligent mind exists as a war of aspects—primitive survival urges and base wants opposing intellectual reason and high-minded goals. Some of these aspects dominate the mind, defining a creature’s personality, while others are shackled away. Sometimes, psychic injuries can loosen these shackles, revealing aspects of a creature they normally control and hide away. When a creature dies from a psychic injury, its conscious mind may shear away, leaving only those subconscious aspects—their animus—behind. Called animus shades, these spectral undead are gripped with feral rage and lash out at the living. Individuals who engage in psychic combat are particularly prone to succumbing to this form of undeath, and their shades sometimes seek out their former opponents, not content until their one-time adversaries are slain.
Animus shades always bear a superficial resemblance to their former, living selves, but manifest in death as wild brutes, made powerful by their anger and feral by their long suffering. Animus shades’ forms appear hunched and contorted after a lifetime of being crushed beneath the weight of the dominant psyches. They sport wicked claws, overlong limbs, cracked flesh, and other nightmarish deformities reflecting the fears their living selves harbored about the dark corners of their own minds. Any gear or items they possessed appear rotted, cracked, and torn in spectral form, though they may carry ghostly versions of the weapons they used in life, deadly implements still capable of harming the living.
Most often, animus shades linger near the sites of their deaths or wander without any specific purpose. As many psychic contests occur in mindscapes or on far-flung esoteric planes, animus shades are frequently found roaming such realms, endlessly raging over the sometimes centuries-old defeats that resulted in their demises. Even when not consumed by such losses, animus shades commonly target those they happen across who remind them of the dominant selves that repressed them in life—whether because of similarities in physical appearance, personality, or activity. However, some rare animus shades possess greater clarity of focus and are gripped with the need to undo the accomplishments of their living selves, taking pleasure in destroying everything that they once loved or took pride in.
As animus shades result from psychic violence, they most commonly appear among intelligent races and beings known for mastering occult forces. Even among such races, these undead prove far more common within cultures and groups that cultivate psychic prowess— they’re well known to the people of Vudra, for instance, and have long been documented by Iroran priests. However, for the majority of the Inner Sea region’s people, they’re easy to mistake for ghosts or other undead—often to tragic ends. Fortunately, in lands that value strength over mental prowess, or in strictly martial cultures, animus shades are almost unknown. Members of races such as hobgoblins, kobolds, and orcs, which rarely give rise to psychically talented individuals, almost never rise as animus shades.
Because of the psychic violence that spawned them, animus shades rarely, if ever, cooperate. In death, even animus shades created from former allies slain by the same foe viciously strike out at each other. The mental trauma that fills them and holds them to the world scars these undead deeply, but ultimately makes them most resentful of themselves—as they know their own weakness or distraction resulted in their deaths. Much of their rage is thus pointed inward, and they take particular satisfaction in viciously unleashing their hatred on those who resemble themselves, especially if such conflicts remind them of the battles in which they died.
“Animus shade” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature that has a Charisma score of at least 6 and an Intelligence score of at least 8.
Medusa Animus Shade: ?
Combusted: Even scholars of the strange consider most tales of spontaneous combustion to be nothing more than urban legend. But those with deep knowledge of the occult know it is indeed possible for a person to feel a sudden fever come on, only to find the heat within her body rising to incredible levels until she bursts into flames and perishes, leaving behind only a charred corpse. The sudden and violent deaths of such individuals make it easier for dark powers to reanimate their bodies, and sometimes for the victims to return from the dead on their own.
Whatever the method of their return, these undead creatures—known as combusted—all suffer the telltale signs of their demise: their corpses continuously burn and their desiccated flesh is never fully consumed by the flames.
Potentially appearing at any location known to be a hot spot for undead, these shambling horrors frequently wander into nearby bodies of water in a futile attempt to extinguish the flames that took their lives.
The combusted of the Inner Sea region are rare and largely solitary. One notable exception is in the legendarily haunted lands surrounding the ruined city of Shadun in Qadira, between the volatile Zhonar and Zhobl volcanoes. Few dare travel there, and even fewer return, yet several of those who have visited that ash-cloaked land and escaped tell of ember-eyed creatures lurking in the night. More than once, while telling such tales, an explorer has burst into flames and quickly resurrected as a violent combusted. No one knows what links Shadun and this terrible end, but the phenomenon has happened enough times that many in southern Qadira know it as the Curse of Last Ash.
Combusted With the Cold Subtype: Far from the Inner Sea region, in distant Minkai, those exposed to the black flames that consumed the Shojinawa manor—as well as their descendants—found themselves vulnerable to an odd form of spontaneous combustion that leads to combusted with the cold subtype instead of the fire subtype and that deal cold damage instead of fire damage.
Echohusk: Echohusks are the walking corpses of creatures slain by powerful psychic attacks and animated by the mental energies that caused their deaths. The mind and soul of an echohusk are erased from its being, leaving nothing but the psychic echo of the creature that scoured its mind.
Echohusks are common in and around Geb, where death from the powerful mental attacks of psychic spellcasters—even liches—is an all too common occurrence. In such areas, echohusks are found in groups, obeying the commands of their dark masters. In the deep reaches of the underworld, where lost travelers or wayward patrols might encounter psychic horrors like neothelids, masterless echohusks are more common; the ancient and terrible creatures that happen to spawn them typically have little use for mindless servants.
Many psychic creatures have attempted to perfect the technique of creating echohusks, but only the attacks of the incorporeal undead known as psychic stalkers (see page 45) can create echohusks without fail. The horrific nature of psychic stalkers is likely the reason for this phenomenon.
“Echohusk” is an acquired template that can be added to any living, intelligent corporeal creature, referred to hereafter as the base creature.
Bubear Echohusk: ?
Dread Echohusk: A dread echohusk possesses the psychic residue of the overwhelming fear it felt when it lost its life.
Psychic Lich, Relentless Psychic Lich: Most psychic liches are humans, or come from other races renowned for their psychic abilities.
To become a psychic lich, one must create and infuse a memoir, which serves a similar function to an ordinary lich’s phylactery. This memoir projects the lich’s personal legend into the Astral Plane, which is tethered through the planes to a physical object, typically a magically strengthened book or scroll (10 hit points, hardness 1, break DC 15).
Each psychic lich must create its own memoir by using the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast psychic spells at a caster level of 11th or higher. The memoir costs 120,000 gp to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.
“Psychic lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature), provided it can create the required astral memoir. A psychic lich retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Human Psychic Lich Psychic 11: ?
Psychic Stalker: Psychic stalkers are the undead minds of psychic spellcasters who died unexpectedly—and likely violently. Such minds are sometimes powerful enough to persist even after their bodies’ destruction, transforming into incorporeal creatures composed entirely of thought. Despite their will to endure, the forms in which psychic stalkers survive bear little continuity with their former, living bodies. At the moment of death, psychic stalkers are traumatically torn from their corporeal forms and the lives they once had. As such, they retain no memories or abilities from their former existence. Knowing only that they are missing a vital part of their being, psychic stalkers are dominated by the desire to take control of new bodies.
Psychic Vampire, Vetalarana, Thought-Sapping Psychic Vampire: A psychic vampire is usually born when a creature with psychic potential dies in a state of denial, stubbornly clinging to the material world through sheer willpower. As it dies, the creature attempts to draw on its own psychic energy and that of any living beings around it in order to cling to its mortal existence. It inevitably fails, but if its will is strong enough, it rises again. No longer able to sustain itself using its own mental energy, it hungers for the energy of others. Psychic vampires can’t create spawn, and thus their numbers remain relatively small.
“Psychic vampire” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature with 5 or more Hit Dice (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Most psychic vampires were once humanoids, fey, or monstrous humanoids.
Human Psychic Vampire Slayer 7: ?
Animus Shade, Spectral Undead, Mind-Bending Foe: ?
Medusa Animus Shade, Spectral Medusa: ?
Combusted, Shambling Horror: ?
Echohusk, Walking Corpse of a Creature Slain By a Powerful Psychic Attack and Animated By the Mental Energies That Caused Their Death: ?
Echohusk, Mindless Servant: ?
Bubear Echohusk, Hulking Humanoid: ?
Dread Echohusk, Echohusk Variant: ?
Psychic Lich, Mind-Bending Foe: ?
Human Psychic Lich Psychic 11, Gaunt Ghoulish Figure: ?
Psychic Stalker, Disturbing Presence, Undead Mind of a Psychic Spellcaster Who Died Unexpectedly, Incorporeal Creature Composed Entirely of Thought, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Psychic Vampire, Undead Abomination, Mind-Bending Foe: ?
Human Psychic Vampire Slayer 7, Fearfully Thin Man: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Undead That Gorge on Life Energy: ?
Undead Spirit: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead Ally: ?
Ghost, Normal Ghost, Typical Ghost: ?
Ghost, Nightmarish Creature of Dark Emotion, Twisted Tormented Creature, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Haunt, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Lich, Ordinary Lich: Scholars of such lore can only speculate as to what causes a neothelid to begin the transformation into an overlord. The change could be a natural process of age and development, though nothing about neothelids can truly be called natural. It may be that by delving into forbidden lore, they discover potent secrets, just as other rituals grant mortals the hideous power of lichdom.
Lich, Psychic Spellcaster: ?
Vampire: ?
Nosferatu: ?
Vetala Vampire: ?
Wraith: ?
Allip: ?

 

[Voadam]

Horror Adventures
Pathfinder 1e
Ghoulish Creature: Ghoulish creatures have succumbed to ghoul fever and transformed into cannibalistic undead versions of their previous selves.
Ghoul corruption stage 3.
Ghoulish Horse: ?
Lich Creature: While it might not have followed the traditional path to lichdom, which requires a strong aptitude for magic, a lich creature’s connection to an object allows it to survive as an undead indefinitely, returning each time its foes destroy it unless they can destroy the lich creature’s phylactery.
Being brought back after lich corruption Stage 3.
Vampiric Creature, Blood-Drinking Vampire: Vampiric creatures have been transformed into vampires, and they don’t have to be humanoids. At your discretion, a vampiric creature might have the create spawn ability and could create spawn of its own creature type in addition to humanoid spawn.
Vampirism corruption stage 3.
Non-Humanoid Vampiric Creature: ?
Familial Lich: A familial lich does not have a physical body or standard phylactery. Instead, it possesses its own kin.
Undead Phantom, Horrible Undead Phantom, Malevolent Undead Phantom: ?

Undead, Undead Creature: Many wizards study necromancy to create undead, but some study the same arts to purge the stain of undeath.
The domain morphs into a dark and twisted reflection of its lord, with dangerous landmarks and supernatural hazards mirroring the master’s temperament and personality infesting the landscape. Forests might become darker and more foreboding, full of misleading paths or gnarled oaks that grasp and tear at trespassers. Seemingly sentient fogs drift across the crags and crevices of the land, animating undead in their wakes, while bat colonies infest the domain’s caves and ruins. These hazards can shift and change over time as the land reacts to the moods and whims of the dread lord.
Gruesome Undead: ?
Corporeal Undead: Lich corruption also works for becoming another sort of corporeal undead (except ghouls and vampires, which have their own corruptions).
Corporeal Non-Skeletal Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead Creature, Intelligent Undead, Sentient Undead, Undead With an Intelligence Score: ?
Incorporeal Undead, Incorporeal Undead Creature: Dread Fog: This cloying mist often encapsulates the boundaries of cursed domains, raised by terrible powers to prevent entry into, or escape from, the cursed lands they protect. Like normal fog, these pervasive banks of thick mists obscure all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet, granting concealment to all creatures at least 5 feet away (20% miss chance). Navigation and orientation within the mists is treacherous, and creatures usually find themselves easily separated from their companions unless extraordinary means are taken to prevent separation, which can include shackling or binding adjacent creatures to one another with rope. Those within the fog have little hope of navigating the mists and risk becoming hopelessly lost. A creature must succeed at a DC 20 Intelligence check each hour after entering the mist. Creatures that fail continue to wander in the fog until they succeed. Creatures that succeed exit the fog 1d10 × 100 feet from the location where they first entered the miasma. Spells and abilities that move a creature within a plane, such as teleport and dimension door, don’t help a creature escape this fog, although a plane shift spell allows the creature to exit at the location it originally entered the fog. Penetrating the fog to actually enter or exit the realm it protects is subject to the GM’s discretion. Navigating through might require difficult Knowledge (planes) checks, random happenstance, complicated arcane rituals beseeching favor, or simply the desire of the mysterious entities responsible for the cursed realm’s creation to see the torture of their prisoner ended or increased with the intrusion of the adventurers.
The fog’s hopelessness is pervasive, and creatures take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per hour they are within the fog. The wraiths and geists of those who have perished in the mists might also materialize to drain the life from travelers. Those who lose their lives within this miasma are forever lost, incapable of being restored to life by any means short of direct divine intervention. They often turn into incorporeal undead themselves, their souls feeding the strange boundary’s continued existence.
Undead Spawn: ?
Incorporeal Undead Creature With the Rejuvenation Special Ability: ?
Unintelligent Undead, Mindless Undead, Mindless Undead Creature: ?
Creature Closely Associated With Curses: ?
Horrific Creature: ?
Undead Abomination: ?
Haunt: Haunted Lands: Cursed lords are plagued with the spectres of the acts that led to the creation of the domain, which materialize as haunts. The realm of a brutal dictator might be tormented with the haunts of those he tortured to death, reflecting the various violent means by which they were killed. The domain of a lich cursed for sacrificing her entire family to fuel her transformation into undeath may contain the spirits of those she betrayed, who wander the halls of a ruined manse at the core of the land. The cursed lord has no control over these spectral trespassers, placed to remind him of his former misdeeds. When a cursed realm is created, the domain manifests a number of haunts with a total CR value (that is, the CR of a hypothetical encounter with all of the hazards at once) of up to double the cursed lord’s Hit Dice, with no single haunt having a CR that exceeds the cursed lord’s Hit Dice. These haunts are chained (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 229) to the cursed lord and can’t be completely destroyed while the cursed lord still exists. Other haunts not chained to the cursed lord might manifest within the domain of evil, but such haunts don’t count against the CR limit.
Haunts are the echoes of tormented spirits that linger in locations keyed to their suffering.
Sacramental Seal spell.
Extricate Haunt Haunt Collector power.
Haunt, Invisible Incorporeal Spectral Force: ?
Haunt, Echo of Tormented Spirits That Linger in Locations Keyed to Their Suffering: ?
Free-Roaming Haunt: Extricate Haunt Haunt Collector power 12th level.
Elusive Haunt: ?
Latent Haunt: ?
Tenacious Haunt: ?
Unyielding Haunt: ?
Haunt Bloody Handprints: A murder or other violent death lingers as bloody marks that harm any creature touching the surface on which they appear.
Haunt Scratching Behind the Walls: A lord with a terrible secret caught a servant snooping through his papers. He knocked the servant over the head and threw her into a disused dumbwaiter, which he jammed between floors. The servant awoke the following day, and her desperate attempts to escape infuse the walls that contained her.
Haunt Cold Spot: Cold spots are echoes of spirits too weak to manifest as ghosts. They can occur alone or cluster around significant areas.
Haunt Spectral Screams: Some spirits take joy in terrifying the living. Spectral screams are collections of lesser spirits who have banded together to increase the amount of terror they can spread.
Persistent Haunt Foreboding Mist: Foreboding mists lurk in ill-kept graveyards, drawing their substance from the unrest of all who are buried below.
Persistent Haunt Buried Alive: The spirits of those unfortunate souls who are buried alive sometimes clamber to force others to share their fate.
Chained Haunt Belated Arrival: The regret of those who arrived too late to spare others a terrible fate can manifest as a haunt. A belated arrival haunt often arises near another haunt or undead, representing the fate that these regretful spirits were not fast enough to stop.
Latent Persistent Possessing Haunt Unsolved Murder: After a merchant was murdered at a party being held to celebrate his latest venture, his spirit was obsessed with finding his killer and exacting vengeance. It has clung to his body for years, hoping for a hapless grave robber to inadvertently become the pawn of his unfinished business.
Persistent Haunt Betrayal: When the sting of betrayal lingers beyond the grave, it can manifest as a disjointed mass of confused and paranoid spiritual energy that can turn even the closest of allies against one another.
Chained Free-Roaming Persistent Haunt Watery Grave: ?
Persistent Haunt Devouring Maws: A pack of ravenous ghouls descended upon a once-peaceful town, killing or transforming all of its denizens who were not fast enough to flee. The ghouls’ unending hunger blended with the townsfolk’s horrifying memories of death to produce the devouring maws haunt.
Persistent Haunt Living Decay: Among the most frightening diseases are those that cause their victims’ bodies to rot away. A living decay haunt arises when an epidemic of such a disease devastates a population.
Chained Fast Free-Roaming Persistent Spiteful Tenacious Haunt Eternal Pyre: An eternal pyre is formed from the spirits of people who were burned alive during an overzealous witch trial.
Fast Persistent Haunt Dissolving Vat: A sadistic alchemist conducted experiments on test subjects within his remote laboratory. When he was finished with his subjects, he threw them into a vat of harsh chemicals to dissolve. His victims’ spirits have permeated the vat, and they reach out with their oozing spectral forms toward any who come near.
Fast Persistent Haunt Heart Explosion: The spirits responsible for this haunt were scared to death, and in their attempt to force mortals to understand their fear, they cause their victims’ hearts to race faster and faster until they explode.
Persistent Haunt Crushing Terror: Tales of a legendary linnorm have drawn many daring adventurers who wish to prove themselves by slaying the dragon. The linnorm, for its part, appreciates the sport of hunting those who seek it, and is particularly fond of crushing its victims to death with its powerful tail. The spirits of these unfortunates linger on in the form of a crushing terror haunt.
Belligerent Chained Fast Persistent Tenacious Vaporous Haunt Final Soldier: The ancient antipaladin general responsible for this haunt ruled through fear, and forbade his soldiers from accepting surrender or showing mercy. His favorite way to end a battle was to order his soldiers to kill everyone but the opposing army’s commander, then offer a rich reward to whichever of his soldiers could produce the opposing commander’s head.
Fast Increased Area Persistent Unyielding Haunt Fallen From the Sky: A thriving metropolis on the top of a cliff customarily executed criminals by throwing them off the precipice, until the spirits of the condemned hurled the city’s head magistrate over the edge as well.
Belligerent Elusive Free-Roaming Increased Area Persistent Tenacious Haunt Haunted Dungeon: When enough haunts gather in a single dungeon, they can combine into a gestalt haunt that infuses the entire structure with a single, malevolent will.
Belligerent Persistent Unyielding Haunt Flayed Suicide: A flayed suicide haunt arises from the spirits of people tortured beyond insanity, until no remnants of their former essence remain. Only kytons are capable of the depths of depravity required to produce this powerful, disturbing vestige of suffering.
Belligerent Fast Persistent Unyielding Haunt Soul Vortex: The soul vortex is a gaping wound in the fabric of reality connected to the Negative Energy Plane. One may form at the site of a massive tragedy that claims hundreds of thousands of lives.
Belligerent Free-Roaming Unyielding Haunt Twisted Wish: A twisted wish haunt can only arise in the most extraordinary circumstances, when a genie noble of considerable power dies with vengeance in its heart.
Ghost: ?
Malevolent Ghost: Paired Suffering ritual.
Ghost Dryad: ?
Restless Ghost: ?
Ghost, Spirit: ?
Ghost That Wants Something: ?
Vengeful Ghost: ?
Ghost of a Golem-Crafter: ?
Violent Mute Ghost: ?
Ghost of a Defeated Villain: ?
Ghost of a Fallen Ally: ?
Ghostly Governess: ?
Ghoul: A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight.
A creature that dies while at th[e terminal] stage of the [ghoul distemper] disease rises as a ghoul (or ghast, if it had 5 or more Hit Dice) after 24 hours.
The corpse of everyone who dies returns as a ghoul within 1 day, forcing the PCs to investigate why souls are not passing on to the afterlife.
Ghoul corruption stage 3.
Ravenous Ghoul: ?
Ghoul, Ravenous Corpse, Corporeal Undead: ?
Ghast: A creature that dies while at th[e terminal] stage of the [ghoul distemper] disease rises as a ghoul (or ghast, if it had 5 or more Hit Dice) after 24 hours.
Lich: The domain of a lich cursed for sacrificing her entire family to fuel her transformation into undeath may contain the spirits of those she betrayed, who wander the halls of a ruined manse at the core of the land.
While it might not have followed the traditional path to lichdom, which requires a strong aptitude for magic, a lich creature’s connection to an object allows it to survive as an undead indefinitely, returning each time its foes destroy it unless they can destroy the lich creature’s phylactery.
Evil Lich: Lich Corruption Stage 3.
Lich, Spirit of Power Over Death and the Undead: ?
Lich, Fallen Undead Tyrant: ?
Mummy: ?
Mummy, Undead That Features a Fear Effect, Creature That Spreads Disease: ?
Shadow: ?
Greater Shadow: ?
Skeleton: Domains of evil are dark pockets of supernatural activity embedded in a plane (often the Material Plane) like boils on pockmarked flesh. Most domains are hostile and uninviting at best, full of twisted forests, rough and intractable terrain, and putrid rivers that reek of rot and pollution. Wildlife could be similarly tainted, in which case even the occasional hare or ground squirrel is bony, cancerous, and infested with vermin. Packs of mangy coyotes, pustule-plagued wolves, and murders of molting crows might constantly harass travelers, nipping at their heels, ripping the flanks of their mounts, or snatching at the fingers of careless campers.
Supernatural creatures might also plague the unwary, as moaning zombies wander wind-blown mountain passes and spectral dead seek to drain the life from the living at every turn. Packs of ghouls roam the lowlands, devouring entire villages, and the gnawed skeletons they leave in their wake animate and attack travelers.
Field of Bone hazard.
Skeletal Champion: ?
Spectre: ?
Vampire: ?
Vampire, Corporeal Undead, Creature Capable of Turning Into a Wolf With the Change Shape Ability: ?
Powerful Vampire: ?
Progenitor Vampire: ?
Brooding Vampire: ?
Ancient Vampire Baroness: ?
Wight: ?
Wraith: [If] killed during this time [while spirit and body are disconnected from lich corruption], you rise 24 hours later as a wraith.
The wraiths and geists of those who have perished in the [dread fog's] mists might also materialize to drain the life from travelers.
Zombie: Flesh Puppet spell.
Flesh Puppet Horde spell.
Seeded Doom ritual.
Animating Fog hazard.
Apocalypse Fog hazard.
Shuffling Zombie: ?
Human Zombie: Flesh Wall spell.
Zombie Ogre: Consider a battle with ogres within an animating fog, such that each ogre that dies rises again as a zombie.
Zombie Plague: Animating Fog hazard.
Moaning Zombie: ?
Melting Zombie: A breed of oozes infests a community’s sewers, changing those they touch into melting zombies.
Attic Whisperer: ?
Banshee: ?
Skaveling: ?
Bodak: ?
Crawling Hand: ?
Crypt Thing: ?
Draugr: ?
Dullahan: ?
Nightshade: ?
Poltergeist: ?
Revenant: ?
Witchfire: An eternal pyre is formed from the spirits of people who were burned alive during an overzealous witch trial. It hates all living beings, but it has a strong bond of kinship with the witchfire who arose from the most powerful of those spirits.
Juju Zombie: Sour Ground hazard.
Allip: The allip, an undead creature created when a soul is lost to madness, features several madness-themed abilities.
The destruction of a local asylum releases years of pent-up mental trauma as an allip or caller in darkness.
Allip, Undead Creature Created When a Soul is Lost to Madness: ?
Demilich: ?
Dybbuk: ?
Ecorche: ?
Graveknight: ?
Graveknight Antipaladin: ?
Manananggal: ?
Penanggalen: ?
Vampire Jiang Shi: ?
Yuki-Onna: ?
Zuvembe: ?
Behaded: ?
Festering Spirit: ?
Gashadokuro: Necromancers use the corpses of a plague-scoured village to create a gashadokuro.
Geist: The wraiths and geists of those who have perished in the [dread fog's] mists might also materialize to drain the life from travelers.
Geist, Spectral being: ?
Mummified Creature: ?
Necrocraft: ?
Phantom Armor: ?
Pickled Punk: ?
Sayona: ?
Nosferatu: ?
Nosferatu Lord: ?
Zombie Lord: ?
Caller in Darkness: The destruction of a local asylum releases years of pent-up mental trauma as an allip or caller in darkness.
Death Coach: ?
Duppy: ?
Leng Ghoul: ?
Gravebound: ?
Grim Reaper: ?
Mummy Lord: ?
Mummy Swamp: ?
Plagued Beast: ?
Polong: ?
Tiyanak: ?
Vukodlak: ?

FLESH PUPPET
School necromancy [evil]; Level antipaladin 2, cleric 3, occultist 3, shaman 3, sorcerer/wizard 4, spiritualist 3, witch 4
Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, M (an onyx worth 25 gp and a silken string)
Range touch
Target one corpse touched
Duration permanent (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You animate one corpse that has been dead no more than 48 hours. It rises as a zombie (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 288) that is magically tethered to you and obeys your commands. As noted in animate dead, you can’t control more than 4 HD per caster level worth of undead in total, nor can a single casting create more than 2 HD per caster level.
This spell disguises the zombie’s appearance and allows you to control it. The zombie’s outward appearance, movement, and voice appear the same as if it were still alive. The zombie’s normal staggered condition doesn’t apply (though it can still be staggered by other means). Successfully detecting the flesh puppet as a zombie without magic requires an opposed Perception check against your Disguise check, and you add your caster level as a bonus on this Disguise check.
An ephemeral string connects you to the zombie. Through this string, you have a mental link to the zombie and can command it as a swift action. The zombie uses its own actions to complete your commands. The zombie can speak up to 25 words in 1 round, but you must mentally impart what you intend it to say as a swift action. It is incapable of articulating speech on its own. The zombie can be ordered to perform very simple tasks it knew in life but can’t make attacks, cast spells, or perform complex or difficult tasks requiring constant concentration.
The string connecting you and the zombie is nearly invisible. A DC 30 Perception check is required to detect it. It has hardness 0 and 1 hp. The length of string you can create is 100 feet + 10 feet per caster level you have. The string snaps if you and the zombie move farther apart than this length, though the zombie won’t move out of range unless forced to do so or unless you command it to do so. If the string to the zombie is severed, the spell immediately ends. The ephemeral string can pass through physical barriers, but not barriers of magical force, and it can be damaged as though it were a physical object.
When this spell ends, the zombie immediately reverts back to a normal corpse. The spell ends automatically if you cast flesh puppet or flesh puppet horde on a new corpse.

FLESH PUPPET HORDE
School necromancy [evil]; Level antipaladin 3, cleric 4, occultist 4, shaman 4, sorcerer/wizard 5, spiritualist 4, witch 5
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S, M (an onyx worth 50 gp for each zombie and a silken string)
Range touch
Target one or more corpses touched
This spell functions as flesh puppet, but can animate multiple zombies. As noted in animate dead, you can’t control more than 4 HD per caster level worth of undead in total, nor can a single casting create more than 2 HD per caster level. A separate string attaches to each zombie in your horde. Severing a zombie’s string reverts that zombie to a corpse, but doesn’t end the spell for other zombies. Because commanding a flesh puppet requires a swift action, you can issue commands to only one zombie per round, though zombies you previously commanded continue to follow their orders. Likewise, you can command only one zombie to speak per round.
Unlike with flesh puppet, you can command a zombie to attack. If you do, all your zombies immediately gain the staggered quality and no longer appear to be alive.
This spell ends automatically if you cast flesh puppet or flesh puppet horde on a new corpse.

FLESH WALL
School necromancy [evil]; Level cleric 6, shaman 6, sorcerer/ wizard 6, spiritualist 5, summoner 5, witch 6
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (one corpse for every 5-ft. square of the wall), DF
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect a wall of corpses with an area of up to one 5-ft. square/ level (S)
Duration concentration + 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You animate corpses, forming them into a wall of joined flesh and limbs. The wall inserts itself into any surrounding nonliving material if its area is sufficient to do so. The wall can’t be created so that it occupies the same space as a creature or another object. The wall must be vertical, but can be shaped as you see fit.
The wall is considered to be undead. It uses your Will saving throw to resist channel energy.
A flesh wall is 2 feet thick. Each 5-foot square of the wall has 12 hit points and DR 5/slashing. A section of wall whose hit points drop to 0 is breached. As a move action, you can cause the fleshwall to constrict, shrinking it by a 5-foot square to fill the hole. Additionally, as a standard action, you can cause a 5-foot square of
the wall to permanently detach, forming a human zombie (Bestiary 288) under your verbal control (this zombie doesn’t count against your normal limit of commanded undead). The zombie reverts back into a normal corpse when the spell’s effect ends. Each 5-foot square of the wall makes a single slam attack against an adjacent enemy on your turn, as a human zombie. The squares of the wall threaten their adjacent squares and can even provide flanking.
Creatures can force their way slowly through the wall by making a Strength check as a full-round action. The DC to move through the wall is equal to 15 + your caster level. A creature that fails the check is trapped in the wall, takes 3d6 points of crushing damage, and is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC against the wall’s slam attack. The creature can make an attempt to escape the wall on its next turn.
You can use zombies already under your control as the material components for a flesh wall. However, they and any other corpses in the wall revert back to inanimate corpses when the spell ends.

SACRAMENTAL SEAL
School necromancy; Level cleric 8
Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, F (an object worth at least 2,000 gp)
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
You trap the target in an object decorated with the holy symbols of your god or faith. While trapped in the object, the creature can’t take any actions and is immune to spells and spell-like abilities. The creature remains permanently trapped in the object as long the object remains in your possession. Only a freedom, miracle, or wish spell can dispel the enchantment, though destroying the object frees the creature.
If you relinquish your stewardship of the object (such as giving it away or leaving it in a remote location or extradimensional space), the trapped creature begins to gain control over the object. It immediately gains the ability to communicate telepathically with any creature now in possession of the object. It still can’t take any actions besides communicating but can use feats and skills related to speaking (such as Bluff and Diplomacy).
After 1 week of the object being out of your presence, the creature can create a number of haunts with a total CR (that is, the CR of the encounter with all of the haunts at once) equaling 1/4 the creature’s Hit Dice. These haunts are centered on the object. The creature can also communicate telepathically up to a range of 100 feet at this point.
After 1 month of the object being out of your presence, the CR total of the haunts the trapped creature can create increases to 1/2 its Hit Dice. In addition to telepathy, it can also impart mental images of its choosing into the mind of any creature holding or carrying the object.
After 1 year of being out of your presence, in addition to the above abilities, the creature can attempt to possess any living creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher that touches the object, as per possessionOA. However, the creature can’t personally destroy the object, even while possessing another creature.
Because the binding magic irrevocably weakens the longer you’re away from the item, returning it to your ownership doesn’t reverse any of the effects. You must free the creature and impose another sacramental seal if you want to restrict its abilities again.
If the object is placed in the stewardship of creatures or a location belonging to your faith, it still counts as being out of your presence but it takes ten times longer for the creature to manifest the above abilities (it would take 10 weeks for it to manifest the ability to create haunts, for example).

PAIRED SUFFERING
School necromancy; Level 6
Casting Time 6 hours
Components V, S, F (an ornate ceremonial dagger worth at least 1,000 gp)
Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 30, 4 successes
Range touch; see text
Target two creatures; see text
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; SR no
Backlash The primary caster is staggered for the next 24 hours.
Failure The primary caster is affected by slay living (using the ritual’s save DC and caster level).
EFFECT
The caster prepares a ritual site no more than 100 feet long by 100 feet wide by 20 feet high, including sigils that prevent souls from escaping the perimeter. At the culmination of the ritual, the caster forces two spiritually close humanoid creatures experiencing a transitional state of their lives into ritual combat to the death. Among most humanoids, only teenage twins (fraternal or identical) young enough that they haven’t gained a level in a PC class can be targets of this ritual; other pairings work only at the GM’s discretion. One of the targets must slay the other with the ceremonial dagger focus for the ritual to succeed; even if all the checks succeed, if either target leaves the area while the other lives, or if someone else slays one of the targets, the ritual counts as a failure, and the primary caster suffers the failure effects.
If the ritual succeeds, the soul of the creature slain by the ritual dagger is trapped within the ritual site. The surviving target has a choice either to allow the soul into her body, or to bar it from doing so. If the surviving target allows the soul inside her, she becomes a spiritualist, with the slain target as her phantom. If the surviving target chooses not to allow the spirit entry, it instead becomes an unfettered phantomB5 and eventually a malevolent ghost, haunting the ritual site. This ghost cannot directly attack the surviving target, but in order to overcome its rejuvenation, someone must provide proof of the surviving target’s death (false evidence is not sufficient; that target must actually be dead).

SEEDED DOOM
School transmutation [evil]; Level 8
Casting Time 8 hours
Components V, S, M (internal organs of an aberration), F (the crystallized brain of an aberration worth at least 7,500 gp and a book, painting, or section of sheet music), SC (up to 12)
Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana or history) DC 37, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 37, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 37, 4 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 character levels of the primary caster)
Target one object
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw see text; SR see text
Backlash The primary caster is reduced to –1 hit point and is exhausted, and all secondary casters are exhausted.
Failure The ritual fails to affect the object, and all casters are afflicted by the seed’s effect with no saving throw.
EFFECT
The casters grind the organs into paste and use it to paint their lips and tongue. Anointed by madness, they chant profane blasphemies into the focus brain, causing it to throb and glow. The primary caster releases this energy as a foul sludge, which trickles onto the other focus before seeping into the paper or paint. A successful ritual corrupts the targeted piece of art, planting a metaphysical seed into it, which propagates itself into any copies of the work later created based on the corrupted original; this includes book copies or matched painting duplicates, but not art, literature, or music that is merely derivative. A living creature subjected to the seeded piece of art, typically by hearing or seeing it, must succeed at a Will save or be afflicted by the seed (SR applies).
By default, the seed causes insanity or a madness (see page 182), but numerous types of seeds exist, from different variants on this ritual with slightly different components, foci, and ritual DC. A few examples include becoming blind or deaf, contracting a disease, or rising as a zombie after death.

GHOUL DISTEMPER
This rare, tropical disease causes living creatures to turn into feral, ghoul-like entities, and when fatal, often causes the affected creature to rise as a ghoul. The creature’s metabolism rises at an incredible rate, forcing it to devour untenable amounts of food. Eating only further fuels the disease, and all victims of this affliction quickly develop an emaciated, corpselike appearance.
Type disease, ingested, inhaled, or injury; Save Fortitude DC 18, see text
Frequency 1/day
Effect –2 penalty on Fortitude and Will saves for 1 day; Cure 2 consecutive saves
STAGES
Carrier The affected creature becomes voraciously hungry, and must consume double the normal amount of food each day it remains at this stage or risk starvation.
Early The affected creature’s skin turns a deep shade of yellow, while the creature’s temperature begins to rise. Additionally, the affected creature’s ravenous appetite worsens. As long as it remains at this stage of the disease or worse, it treats each hour as though it were a full day for the purposes of the frequency and amount of food it must eat in order to avoid starvation (including time spent sleeping). Finally, it develops a strong craving for raw meat, and must consume at least 4 ounces of uncooked meat per hour or become sickened until it does so.
Moderate The affected creature’s body begins to quickly waste away, as muscle and fat are consumed to feed its growing hunger. Further, its body begins to constantly exude a stench of rotting meat, which cannot be removed with any amount of bathing. The affected creature is constantly sickened. Additionally, whenever the creature takes nonlethal damage from starvation, it takes 3d6 points of damage, rather than 1d6. Finally, whenever it comes within 10 feet of any amount of meat, including the bodies of slain creatures, it must succeed at a Will save against the disease’s DC or be compelled to spend 1 minute gorging itself on the meat.
Severe The affected creature’s teeth begin to grow and twist painfully, fusing together to form four massive fangs. The creature gains a primary bite natural attack that deals 1d6 points of damage (1d4 if Small). Further, its hunger-addled mind drives it to favor this attack over all others. It can no longer cast spells or use other activated special abilities, nor can it use manufactured weapons; it is able to make only full attacks with its bite and other natural attacks. Finally, whenever the affected creature takes nonlethal damage from starvation, it takes 6d6 points of damage, rather than 1d6.
Terminal The affected creature completely loses control. It is compelled to attack any living creature it encounters in an attempt to devour its victim’s flesh, preferably while still alive. Player characters who reach this stage are under the GM’s control until they are cured. Additionally, whenever the affected creature takes nonlethal damage from starvation, it also takes 2 points of Constitution damage. If it fails a saving throw against the disease’s progress at this stage, it dies. A creature that dies while at this stage of the disease rises as a ghoul (or ghast, if it had 5 or more Hit Dice) after 24 hours.


Extricate Haunt (Su): The haunt collector can temporarily exorcise his haunted implements’ possessing entities to spontaneously create phenomena similar to haunts and imbue them with spells the occultist knows. As a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, the haunt collector expends 1 point of mental focus to extricate an implement’s spirit and infuse an adjacent square with its ghostly presence while granting it the power to deliver a spell from the implement’s associated school (whose range is touch or greater) on the haunt collector’s behalf. This action consumes the spell just as if it had been cast, but the energy is held in check by the created haunt until triggered by conditions set forth by the haunt collector. The conditions needed to trigger the haunt’s spell effect must be clear, although they can be general, using the guidelines of the magic mouth spell. The haunt is stationary, and once the conditions for the trigger are met, the spell is discharged normally, though it now originates from the haunt’s square.
The haunt itself is an invisible, incorporeal, spectral force, similar to a stationary unseen servant with an undead aura for the purposes of spells such as detect undead. It has a number of hit points equal to the double the level of the spell used to create it + the occultist’s Intelligence modifier. If triggered during the same combat it is created, the haunt acts at initiative count 10; otherwise, when the trigger occurs, the haunt initiates combat and acts at initiative count 10 on the surprise round. Other creatures must succeed at a Perception check (DC = 10 + the haunt collector’s occultist level) to act in the surprise round. The haunt can be damaged by positive energy and anything else that can harm haunts, and if destroyed before it is triggered, it dissipates harmlessly. If the haunt is destroyed, it does not reform in its haunted implement until the occultist next invests his implements with mental focus. If the haunt doesn’t trigger before the occultist next invests his implements with mental focus, the haunt dissolves at that point and reforms in its haunted implement.
The haunt collector can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + his Intelligence modifier. While a haunting presence is extricated from its implement, the haunt collector does not receive the benefit of the implement’s seance boon, nor can he call upon the implement’s spirit bonus or use its focus powers, though he can still cast spells associated with the implement without penalty. If the spell is discharged successfully (rather than the haunt being destroyed), the spirit’s presence returns to the haunt collector’s implement the following round, and the seance boon and spirit bonus abilities are again available to the haunt collector.
At 12th level, the haunt collector can create a free-roaming haunt by expending an additional point of mental focus, granting it a fly speed of 10 feet with good maneuverability, which allows it to change locations or seek targets, under the restrictions for trigger conditions as outlined above. If the haunt wanders beyond medium range (measured from the haunt collector’s current position), it is instantly destroyed.
At 16th level, the haunt collector can extricate an implement’s spirit as a standard action.

Animating Fog (CR 6): Arising from polluted cemeteries and other recesses of stagnated evil, these areas of heavy, corpse-gray fog reek of rot, and seem to have a strange and malevolent sentience. These fog banks act as normal fog (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 439), but usually have a radius of 1d4 × 50 feet and creep along with the wind at a rate of 10 feet per round. When the fog comes into contact with a mostly intact corpse, that corpse is immediately animated as a zombie and attacks nearby living creatures, as if under the effect of animate dead. This animation is temporary, ending 1d4 rounds after the zombie leaves the fog. Corpse fogs can animate up to 30 Hit Dice of corpses in this manner at any one time, and they have no limit on the total number of Hit Dice of zombies they can animate over time.
Some particularly foul and virulent variations of this fog (CR 7 instead of CR 6) produce plague zombies instead of normal zombies. Creatures slain by the plague zombies’ zombie rot who rise as zombies don’t count against the fog’s limit on the number of Hit Dice it can animate, and they remain zombies after the mist passes. Diseased animating fog also exposes every living creature within the fog bank to zombie rot each round as an inhaled disease (Fortitude DC 15 negates).

Apocalypse Fog (CR 12): An apocalypse fog is an augmented and highly dangerous form of animating fog often called into being by some foul deity. Its radius is 20 times wider than that of an animating fog and has the same ability to animate the mostly intact corpses within itself, but the apocalypse fog can move 10 feet in a direction of its own malign choice, rather than being subject to the whims of the wind. The dread energies that birth the mists bolster the undead within, granting the zombies the benefit of an aligned desecrate spell: a +2 profane bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws, and +2 hit points per Hit Die. Apocalypse fog can animate up to 100 Hit Dice worth of corpses at any one time.

Field of Bone (CR 6): This supernatural hazard usually plagues those who trespass on old battlefields still littered with the bones of soldiers who have never been laid to proper rest. These 30-foot-radius patches of strewn bones are considered difficult terrain, and they spring to a foul mockery of life 1 round after a living creature enters the area, causing 1d6 skeletons (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 250) to animate and attack, as if subject to an animate dead spell. A field of bone can animate up to 24 skeletons in this manner from any single instance of trespassing (regardless of how many living creatures trespass into the area at once), at a rate of 1d6 skeletons per round. The skeletons continue to animate until all are destroyed, all living creatures leave the area, or the field of bone reaches its animation limit, whichever of these conditions comes first.

Sour Ground (CR varies): These corrupted holy sites usually feature long-toppled standing stones and spiraling rock paths carefully arranged by a forgotten culture to invoke powerful divine magic. On these grounds, divine casters restored life to those who died before their time and buried those whose time indeed was up. However, time, overuse, and trespassers caused the ground’s life-giving properties to sour, corrupting the corpses of those whose loved ones are foolhardy enough to lay them to rest within the necropolis’s boundaries. Any mostly intact corpse of a creature buried within these ancient cemeteries animates 24 hours later as a juju zombie (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 291) and seeks its revenge on those who condemned its corpse to this vile existence. These terrible creatures still retain a semblance of their former personalities and are often barely distinguishable from the living with the exception of cold flesh, slightly sunken features, distracted behavior, and an increasingly foul smell. They lure in mourning loved ones with comforting embraces before engaging in a murderous rampage, perhaps burying the resulting corpses in the same sour ground to increase their numbers and extract more revenge on the living. The CR and the XP reward of sour ground are based on the number of juju zombies that arise.

Ghoul
A hunger for the flesh of the living grows more every day, until every sentient creature seems no more than a meal.
CATALYST
Ghoul corruption commonly stems from desperate cannibalism, such as surviving a near-death experience by eating friends who perished. You might contract ghoul corruption after recovering from ghoul fever (Bestiary 146), especially if you died from the disease but were raised from the dead before rising as a ghoul.
Progression
Each week, you need to consume one portion of flesh from a sentient creature. A creature one size category smaller than you counts as one portion, a creature of your size category counts as four portions, and a creature one size larger counts as 16 portions. The extra meat from Huge or larger creatures spoils quickly enough that it can’t all be consumed within a week. After a week, if you haven’t consumed enough flesh, you must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC = 15 + your manifestation level) each day until you’ve eaten enough. If you fail the save, the next time you rest your corruption takes over and you unconsciously hunt and feed, devouring a living sentient creature completely. In this state, you can’t differentiate between creatures and might consume an innocent; if you do so, your corruption progresses to the next stage.
If circumstances make it impossible to feed (such as if you are tied down or in a locale with nothing to feed upon), you start to starve as if you had not eaten in 3 days, and you continue to hunger for flesh and struggle to escape and feed until you have received five times the amount of flesh from sentient creatures you normally require. If your allies are able to restrain and feed you flesh from sentient creatures, your corruption doesn’t progress. However, the DC of the Will save against your corruption progressing increases by 2. These increases stack each time this occurs, and they last until your corruption reaches the next corruption stage.
In addition to starvation, close brushes with death also increase your craving for flesh. Whenever you are dropped below 0 hit points, you must attempt a single saving throw as if you hadn’t eaten enough flesh that week.
Corruption Stage 1: Once you feed on an innocent sentient creature—either willingly or because you failed a saving throw—your alignment shifts one step toward evil and spells that detect undead sense you, though the peculiar result they return informs the caster that you’re still a living creature. Other spells and effects don’t treat you as undead.
Corruption Stage 2: The second time, your alignment shifts another step toward evil and you are affected by spells and abilities as if your creature type were undead (including effects like bane and the favored enemy class feature). This doesn’t grant you any of the immunities of being undead, nor does it make you immune to effects that target living creatures or change how negative and positive energy affect you.
Corruption Stage 3: The third time, you become an NPC ghoul under the GM’s control.
Removing the Corruption
Getting rid of the ghoul corruption typically requires fasting, isolation from creatures that could incite your hunger, and atoning (as per atonement) for the acts that led to the corruption.

Lich
Your attempt to transition into unlife has gone horribly awry and your soul is trapped. Lich corruption also works for becoming another sort of corporeal undead (except ghouls and vampires, which have their own corruptions).
CATALYST
This corruption originates from an unsuccessful attempt at lichdom. You might have lacked sufficient power or used a flawed phylactery. If you’re not a spellcaster, you could have been an innocent bystander or become corrupted upon destroying a particularly powerful lich’s phylactery.
Progression
Lich corruptions are rarely stable, and cause incredible mental and physical strain. Whenever you fail a saving throw against a necromancy effect, learn how to cast a new spell or spells, or are exposed to 25 points of negative energy damage or more from a single source (whether it heals or harms you), you must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 15 + your manifestation level) or become spiritually disjoined. You also need to make a saving throw whenever anyone successfully casts the death ward spell on you. After a failed save, your spirit and body disconnect, leaving your corporeal form helpless and your mind trapped within the Negative Energy Plane. This state lasts for 1 hour per manifestation level; if you are killed during this time, you rise 24 hours later as a wraith under the GM’s control.
Corruption Stage 1: The first time you recover from this disconnected state, you return diminished, taking a permanent –2 penalty to your Charisma score, and your alignment shifts one step toward evil.
Corruption Stage 2: The second time this happens, your alignment shifts another step toward evil and you take an additional –2 penalty to your Charisma score.
Corruption Stage 3: The third time this happens, you die and your soul is consumed by the Negative Energy Plane. You can’t be raised or resurrected except by powerful magic such as miracle or wish. Even if you do get brought back, you are an evil lich NPC under the GM’s control.
Removing the Corruption
Curing lich corruption requires great acts of purification, such as being exorcised by a powerful cleric, bathing in sacred springs, or creating a phylactery of your own into which to expel the lich corruption.

Vampirism
You salivate when blood is spilled, and struggle against the urge to sink your teeth into the necks of friends and innocents.
CATALYST
Being drained—but not killed—at least six times by a vampire within a month or less causes this corruption. Powerful vampires or curses can cause this corruption more rapidly.
Progression
Vampirism progresses when you feed off and kill a sentient creature. Each week, you need to drink the blood of sentient creatures one size category smaller than you or larger until you drain enough to deal Constitution damage equal to your manifestation level. If you don’t have the fangs manifestation, you must feed on a helpless or willing creature. If you haven’t drunk enough blood after a week, you must succeed at a Will save (DC = 15 + your manifestation level) each day until you have. If you fail, the next time you rest, your corruption takes over and you unconsciously hunt and feed, drinking a sentient creature dry. If circumstances make it impossible to feed (such as if you are tied down or in a locale with nothing to feed upon) you start to starve as if you had not eaten in 3 days (Core Rulebook 445), and you continue to thirst for blood and struggle to escape and feed until you have received five times the amount of blood from sentient creatures you normally require. If your allies are able to restrain and feed you, your corruption doesn’t progress. However, the DC of the Will save against your corruption progressing increases by 2. These increases stack, and last until your corruption reaches the next stage. Whenever you drop below 0 hit points, you must attempt a save as if you hadn’t drunk enough blood that week.
Corruption Stage 1: Once you feed on an innocent sentient creature, your alignment shifts one step toward evil and spells that detect undead sense you, though the peculiar result they return informs the caster that you’re still a living creature. Other spells and effects don’t treat you as undead.
Corruption Stage 2: The second time this happens, your alignment shifts another step toward evil and you are affected by spells and abilities as if your creature type were undead (including bane and the favored enemy class feature). This doesn’t grant you any of the immunities of being undead, nor does it make you immune to effects that target living creatures or change how negative and positive energy affect you.
Corruption Stage 3: The third time this occurs, you become an NPC vampire under the GM’s control.
Removing the Corruption
Ending the corruption requires eliminating the source, such as by slaying your progenitor vampire or ending your curse.

 

[Voadam]

Undead Slayer’s Handbook
Pathfinder 1e
Undead, Undead Creature, Undead Monster, Undying Monster: But the most horrific fate of all can be found on Golarion itself in the form of an unpredictable and malignant curse—a blight for which a horrifying death is just the beginning. Souls that succumb to the foul influence of this curse risk spending eternity as the most repulsive of unnatural creatures: the undead.
Unbeknown to most, undead are not just the evil spirits of the dead come back to haunt the living. Undead creatures are composed of an unusual blend of native and extraplanar forces. The shell of an undead creature is usually that of a mortal corpse on the Material Plane, but the malign energies that reanimate this frame stem from an entirely separate realm: the Negative Energy Plane, also known as the Void. If the Positive Energy Plane is the birthplace of all mortal souls, the Negative Energy Plane is a dark and terrible mirror of that shining plane. Just as the Positive Energy Plane (also called the Furnace and Creation’s Forge) creates life and cradles the Material Plane like a swaddled babe, the Void creates undeath in twisted mockery and harbors the Shadow Plane like a malign fraternal twin.
Despite the origin of their power, few undead come directly from the Negative Energy Plane or the Shadow Plane. In fact, creatures native to those planes are rarely found on Golarion. While the occasional nightshade or devourer may find its way to Golarion, the majority of undead arise on the Material Plane from corpses reanimated by a mere touch of the Void’s terrible powers.
The tendency of undeath to spread, whether through necromantic machinations, unholy spawning, or even bad luck, makes it necessary for the inhabitants of Golarion to stay ever wary of the undead.
Most undead were once living.
Undead are invariably evil, as are the means to create such beings.
While many undead are reanimated unwillingly by body-thieving arcanists, gruesome diseases, or even other undead, the consummate undead arrive at this condition willingly.
Consummate Undead: Thankfully among the rarest of undead-kind, consummate undead are those beings that willingly seek undeath as a means of prolonging their time on the Material Plane or avoiding true death.
While many undead are reanimated unwillingly by body-thieving arcanists, gruesome diseases, or even other undead, the consummate undead arrive at this condition willingly. Most achieve their eternal state through foul necromantic rituals that end in their deaths and subsequent reanimation. Such a process is the culmination of much study and labor, and as the ability to retain one’s consciousness after death is no mean feat, the consummate undead are among the most well-versed spellcasters in the world.
Most consummate undead were once men and women of accomplishment who approached their undeaths with ample forethought.
Consummate Undead, Rarest of Undead Kind, Fiend: ?
Consummate Undead, Instigator and Mastermind of Dark Plots: ?
Consummate Undead, Leader: ?
Consummate Undead, Willfully Immortal Corpse: ?
Hungry Undead: Mohrgs and ghouls rank among the hungry undead—mortals whose evil existences or twisted means of death shunted them back onto the Material Plane instead of affording them passage to their proper place in the afterlife.
“The trial was short and sweet—not even Elania could explain the clumps of hair and bone under her husband’s workshop. Once all the missing children were accounted for, Vellman was stoned to death in Moslar’s field and thrown down an abandoned mine shaft.
“Afterward, the relief in town was palpable. We’d been living in fear for over a year, and now life could finally return to normal. Our high spirits lasted about three days. That’s how long it took that thing to find its way back. Now we feel worse off than ever, and no one here is safe.”
In other cases, however, hungry undead drain the life force from creatures, often creating more of their own kind in the process.
Hungry undead display a wide variety of necrologies. In most instances, they are created from malevolent living creatures. Mohrgs, wights, and ghouls all fit this description. In many cases, the living incarnations of these creatures were serial killers, war criminals, cannibals, or other antisocial beings.
Other hungry undead are created through the fell influence of dark, otherworldly energies. Just as the deity Dou-Bral returned from the Dark Tapestry as the corrupt Zon-Kuthon, dark alien energies at the edges of the cosmos may warp evil mortals or fiends, transforming them into devourers or worse.
Still other hungry undead are created through the direct influence of the Void or the Shadow Plane.
Hungry Undead, Ultimate Expression of Senseless Misery, Terrible Being: ?
Hungry Undead, Wretched Being: ?
Hungry Extraplanar Undead: ?
Hungry Extraplanar Undead, Servitor: ?
Hungry Undead Native to the Material Plane: ?
Incorporeal Undead: The incorporeal undead are those souls whose very cores have been warped by the Negative Energy Plane, and who now rove the Material Plane as cruel, disembodied spirit beings—ghosts, wights, and spectres being those more often encountered.
To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
Incorporeality is especially common among undead whose sinister means of death meant their material remains were heinously mutilated or disposed of improperly. Desecrated heaths, weather-beaten bogs, stretches of lonely road, and long-abandoned necropolises full of mass graves are common sites for these grim manifestations.
Incorporeal Undead, Cruel Disembodied Spirit Being, Spirit, Unnaturally Resilient Horror, Malignant Spirit, Undead Spirit: ?
Incorporeal Undead, Incorporeal Foe: ?
Incorporeal Creature: ?
Mindless Undead, Undead Drone, Unintelligent Undead, Unintelligent Undead Creature: Unlike other types of undead creatures, mindless undead consist of skeletons, zombies, and other drones whose souls have long passed on but whose broken remains have been reanimated via corruptive negative energy.
Animated by resonant tragedies, dread energies, or malicious spellcasters, mindless undead are one of the most common threats on Golarion.
Unlike other types of undying monsters, the mindless undead are void of the souls that once inhabited their mortal frames; instead, their primary animating force typically consists of high concentrations of negative energy poured into an unwitting host body. The relative simplicity of their reanimation means that numerous paths may lead to the rise of a mindless undead, so it can be quite difficult to predict where these beings will stir up trouble next.
Most mindless undead arise because of the influences of foul spellcasters. Even the most novice wizard can hope to raise an unwitting corpse as a walking skeleton or shambling zombie given enough time and the right tools, so simple is their construction.
Some mindless undead instead come about as a result of external forces. Powerful, unresolved emotions can be sufficient to rally a corpse; the mindless horrors resulting from these circumstances are all but physical manifestations of tragedy and pain. Similarly, some parts of Golarion are simply so saturated with negative energy that nearby dead reanimate of their own accord. Some rare artifacts and cursed items are also said to have the power of necromancy all by themselves—both unholy shrines to deities of undeath and magical relics infused with negative energy are capable of creating undead, and thus are highly sought after by necromancers.
Undead drones have been known to pop up anywhere tragedy has struck, including the famous Bloodsworn Vale in Varisia and the wasted plains of Virlych in Ustalav.
Mindless Undead, Drone, Most Common Threat on Golarion, Lowliest of the Walking Dead, Fell Foes, Walking Dead, Twisted Remains, Familiar-Yet-Alien Being, Mindless Horror, Horror, Walking Corpse-Chattel: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead, Intelligent Undead Creature: ?
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Most Common Undead Creature: ?
Most Repulsive of Unnatural Creature: ?
Undead Threat: ?
Undead Straggler, Malignant Force: ?
Undead Quarry: ?
Undead Opponent: ?
Hostile Undead: ?
Undead Capable of Inflicting Ability Drain: ?
Undead Capable of Inflicting Negative Levels: ?
Lesser Undead: ?
Extraplanar Undead: ?
Undead Horror: ?
Hateful Undead: ?
Undead Spirit: ?
Undead That Inhabit the Bodies of Living Creatures: ?
Unholy Abomination: ?
Pliable Undead: ?
Vile Monster: ?
Foe, Dangerous Hazard: ?
Undead Predator: ?
Minion-Level Undead: ?
Advanced Undead: ?
Foul Monstrosity: ?
Dread Monster: ?
Banshee: Spirit of a betrayed elven woman.
To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
These spirits most commonly manifest as banshees, ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, or wraiths.
Banshee, Incorporeal Undead, Spirit of a Betrayed Elven Woman, Spirit, Undead Spirit: ?
Beheaded Mindless Undead, Floating Skull Sentinel,, Unusual Specimen: ?
Bodak: Extraplanar mortal warped by dark energies.
Bodak, Hungry Undead, Extraplanar Mortal Warped by Dark Energies: ?
Crawling Hand: Animated limb serving as an undead minion.
Crawling Hand, Mindless Undead, Animated Limb, Undead Minion: ?
Devourer: Fiend transformed by dark corners of the multiverse.
Other hungry undead are created through the fell influence of dark, otherworldly energies. Just as the deity Dou-Bral returned from the Dark Tapestry as the corrupt Zon-Kuthon, dark alien energies at the edges of the cosmos may warp evil mortals or fiends, transforming them into devourers or worse.
Devourer, Hungry Undead, Fiend Transformed by Dark Corners of the Multiverse, Terrible Being: ?
Ghost: Restless soul longing to resolve a great injustice.
The incorporeal undead are those souls whose very cores have been warped by the Negative Energy Plane, and who now rove the Material Plane as cruel, disembodied spirit beings—ghosts, w[raith]s, and spectres being those more often encountered.
To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
These spirits most commonly manifest as banshees, ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, or wraiths.
Ghost, Incorporeal Undead, Restless Soul, Cruel Disembodied Spirit Being, Spirit, Horror: ?
Tormented Ghost: ?
Ghostly Dryad, Strange Creature With a Negative Energy Affinity: ?
Geb, Ghost-King: ?
Ghoul: Unsated cannibal given to undeath.
Mohrgs and ghouls rank among the hungry undead—mortals whose evil existences or twisted means of death shunted them back onto the Material Plane instead of affording them passage to their proper place in the afterlife.
Hungry undead display a wide variety of necrologies. In most instances, they are created from malevolent living creatures. Mohrgs, wights, and ghouls all fit this description. In many cases, the living incarnations of these creatures were serial killers, war criminals, cannibals, or other antisocial beings.
Malevolent ex-humanoids like mohrgs, wights, and ghouls can often be found lurking around the same hunting grounds they stalked in life.
Many Osirians have a reasonable fear of ghouls, particularly in the city of Wati, where such undead still sometimes rise among the dead interred in that settlement’s vast necropolis.
Ghoul, Hungry Undead, Terrible Being, Malevolent Ex-Humanoid, Vile Creature: ?
Lich: Mortal soul encapsulated in a phylactery.
Thankfully among the rarest of undead-kind, consummate undead are those beings that willingly seek undeath as a means of prolonging their time on the Material Plane or avoiding true death. Liches, vampires, and mummies are some of the more common examples of consummate undead.
“Your assessment is only partially correct. It’s true that both zombies and liches are reanimated using extraplanar energy. However, the all-important difference is that liches choose reanimation. Unlike zombies, they are the culmination of a conscious process that arises thanks to the machinations of necromancers or external forces.
“Remember, students, there is more to incarnation than simple corporeality. One must also consider the question of consciousness. For a lich, reanimation is the consummation of a life’s work. Comparing a zombie to a lich because they’re both posthumously animated is like comparing a gecko to an ancient dragon because they’re both reptiles.”
Lich, Consummate Undead, Mortal Soul Encapsulated in a Phylactery, Powerful Villain, Advanced Undead: ?
Scheming Lich: ?
Diabolical Lich: ?
Tar-Baphon, Whispering Tyrant, Foul Lich: ?
Arazni, Lich-Queen: ?
Mohrg: Risen corpse of a publicly executed sociopath.
Mohrgs and ghouls rank among the hungry undead—mortals whose evil existences or twisted means of death shunted them back onto the Material Plane instead of affording them passage to their proper place in the afterlife.
Hungry undead display a wide variety of necrologies. In most instances, they are created from malevolent living creatures. Mohrgs, wights, and ghouls all fit this description. In many cases, the living incarnations of these creatures were serial killers, war criminals, cannibals, or other antisocial beings.
Malevolent ex-humanoids like mohrgs, wights, and ghouls can often be found lurking around the same hunting grounds they stalked in life.
Mohrg, Hungry Undead, Risen Corpse of a Publicly Executed Sociopath, Terrible Being, Malevolent Ex-Humanoid: ?
Mummy: Thankfully among the rarest of undead-kind, consummate undead are those beings that willingly seek undeath as a means of prolonging their time on the Material Plane or avoiding true death. Liches, vampires, and mummies are some of the more common examples of consummate undead.
Mummy, Consummate Undead, Tomb Guardian of the Honored Dead, Powerful Villain: ?
Covetous Mummy Pharaoh: ?
Nightshade: Still other hungry undead are created through the direct influence of the Void or the Shadow Plane. The mightiest of these wretched beings are nightshades, which view life as a blight upon the multiverse and seek to exterminate all living creatures.
Nightshade, Consummate Undead, Massive Extraplanar Harbinger of Darkness and Death, Dread Power, Terrible Being, Wretched Being, Advanced Undead: ?
Shadow, Incorporeal Undead, Tenebrous Spreader of Undeath: ?
Skeleton, Clattering Skeleton, Walking Skeleton, Mindless Skeleton: Unlike other types of undead creatures, mindless undead consist of skeletons, zombies, and other drones whose souls have long passed on but whose broken remains have been reanimated via corruptive negative energy.
If a creature is killed by a boneshard bomb or the resulting bleed effect, its corpse immediately reanimates as an undead creature with the skeleton template.
Skeleton, Mindless Undead, Shambling Fleshless Minion, Creature That Does Not Have Eyes, Minion-Level Undead: ?
Skeletal Minion: ?
Skeletal Champion: ?
Spectre, Corruptive Spectre, Spirit, Undead Spirit: The incorporeal undead are those souls whose very cores have been warped by the Negative Energy Plane, and who now rove the Material Plane as cruel, disembodied spirit beings—ghosts, w[raith]s, and spectres being those more often encountered.
To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
These spirits most commonly manifest as banshees, ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, or wraiths.
Spectre, Incorporeal Undead, Cruel-Disembodied Spirit Being, Undead Spirit: ?
Vampire: Thankfully among the rarest of undead-kind, consummate undead are those beings that willingly seek undeath as a means of prolonging their time on the Material Plane or avoiding true death. Liches, vampires, and mummies are some of the more common examples of consummate undead.
Vampire, Consummative Undead, Immortal Blood-Drinking Patrician, Foul Creature That Feeds on the Blood of the Living, Dread Power, Powerful Villain: ?
Vampire Lord: ?
Thirsty Vampire: ?
Wight: Hungry undead display a wide variety of necrologies. In most instances, they are created from malevolent living creatures. Mohrgs, wights, and ghouls all fit this description. In many cases, the living incarnations of these creatures were serial killers, war criminals, cannibals, or other antisocial beings.
Malevolent ex-humanoids like mohrgs, wights, and ghouls can often be found lurking around the same hunting grounds they stalked in life.
Wight, Hungry Undead, Terrible Being, Malevolent Ex-Humanoid, advanced Undead: ?
Wraith: Hateful spirit born of evil and darkness.
The incorporeal undead are those souls whose very cores have been warped by the Negative Energy Plane, and who now rove the Material Plane as cruel, disembodied spirit beings—ghosts, w[raith]s, and spectres being those more often encountered.
To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
These spirits most commonly manifest as banshees, ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, or wraiths.
Wraith, Incorporeal Undead, Hateful Spirit Born of Evil and Darkness, Cruel Disembodied Spirit Being, Spirit, Hateful Undead, Undead Spirit: ?
Zombie, Shambling Zombie, Mindless Zombie: Minion risen from the recently deceased.
Unlike other types of undead creatures, mindless undead consist of skeletons, zombies, and other drones whose souls have long passed on but whose broken remains have been reanimated via corruptive negative energy.
“Your assessment is only partially correct. It’s true that both zombies and liches are reanimated using extraplanar energy. However, the all-important difference is that liches choose reanimation. Unlike zombies, they are the culmination of a conscious process that arises thanks to the machinations of necromancers or external forces.”
Zombie, Mindless Undead, Minion, Minion-Level Undead: ?
Zombie Lord: ?
Formiddable Cyclops Zombie: ?
Zuvembie, Lurking Zombie-Like Terror, Consummate Undead, Powerful Villain: ?
Haunt: The spirits of the dead make themselves known in many ways, including by manifesting as haunts.
Haunt, Dread Force, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Haunt, Beguiling Spirits Caught in an Eerie Dance: ?
Haunt, Animated Tomes Pouring From the Shelves: ?
Haunt, Hungry Shadows Pooling From the Earth: ?
Poltergeist: To the living, death is a frightening but inevitable reality. When most mortals greet death, their final reward is to at last learn what fate awaits them in the Great Beyond. This spiritual migration from the living body to the afterlife is ideally a natural and uneventful transition. But when something goes wrong or wicked forces are at play, some spirits refuse to heed death’s call. Stuck between worlds, such discontented spirits shed their physical bodies, instead taking on a corrupted, tentative connection to the life they once knew.
These spirits most commonly manifest as banshees, ghosts, poltergeists, spectres, or wraiths.
Poltergeist, Spirit: ?
Spirit: ?
Malign Spirit: ?
Spirit of a Murderous Ex-Prisoner: ?
Malignant Spirit: ?
Rejuvenating Spirit: ?
Evil Spirit of the Dead: ?
Ectoplasmic Creature, Mindless Undead, Unusual Specimen: ?
Walking Dead: ?

 

[Voadam]

TBA