October is for horror

[Shade]

With Halloween fast approaching, these parts are no place for unicorns, pixies, or even angels to tread.

This is the time for the true "monsters", those that inspire terror through their actions or their mere existence.

This is a time for undead. Lots and lots of undead.

Throughout October, the conversions and CC updates will focus on the dark and the dread.

If you have any requests, post 'em here or in the Current Conversions Requests thread.

[freyar]

Hmm, unless there's an undead ooze, we should find a way to hold off finishing the goop ghoul for a couple days.

[Shade]

Fear not! The next ooze up is just as vile.

The real-world animals and vermin and prehistoric animals will have to settle for "creepy-crawly" or "frighteningly strong", though.

[Big Mac]

Has anyone done the Beholder Zombie from SJA1 Wildspace?

Someone over at The Piazza told me it wasn't on Echohawk's list, and I couldn't find it. It doesn't have a proper monster entry. Instead we just get this text on page 44:

Beholder zombie: AC 7; MV FI 3 (B); HD 4; hp 20; #AT 1; Dmg 2-12 (chilling
touch); AL N; THACO 17. A beholder zombie pursues for 2-12 rounds, after which time it gives up and settles back into the ash (although its eyes are no longer functional, the beholder zombie can sense the presence of the PCs). If the PCs repair its cracked shell (this takes 2-20 rounds), it also settles down.

If the PCs attack it, it attempts to bump into them; an active zombie beholder
can activate its chilling touch at will, with each touch inflicting 2-12 hp of damage (the victim may save vs. spells for half damage). An attacking zombie beholder continues to attack until it is destroyed or until its victims
have fled at least 100 feet. At that point, the zombie beholder becomes inactive again.

If the PCs examine a beholder corpse whose shell isn’t cracked, the corpse remains inactive. However, if they damage the shell in any way, it becomes a zombie beholder and attacks as described.

Maybe the fact that this is only half a monster means that people have overlooked converting it.

This should be fairly easy to do as it seems to be a wimpy beholder with no eye weapons and a touch attack.

I'm not sure where the "ash" comes from. It must be earlier in the module. But I won't go looking for it if you are not going to use this (or if it has already been done).

[Shade]

Interesting. When you mentioned it in the other thread, I immediately thought "death tyrant under a different name". But this seems a bit different.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Shade

Interesting. When you mentioned it in the other thread, I immediately thought "death tyrant under a different name". But this seems a bit different.

This seems to suggest, that beholders turn into dormant zombies instead of dying and going on to an afterlife. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be something limited to beholders in SJA1 Wildspace, or something that is supposed to be universal to all beholders and beholderkin.

But core Spelljammer did invent beholder mutations as a concept, so this could easily be taken to work either way. I'll try to find some other useful quotes in SJA1.

EDIT: Hmm. These zombie beholders seem to be from the (now extinct) Sazaur beholder clan. This clan seems to date back to a long ago era, so some of the stuff from this adventure has the same sort of feel as Forgotten Realm's Arcane Age.

Originally Posted by SJA1 Wildspace page 42

Room 11 was used as a cemetery for the beholders who died of natural causes back when the Hive was under construction. This room's Incarnation, Xuu, is the caretaker, a job he takes seriously.

As part of their funeral customs, the beholders smooth a special blood-red salve over the bodies of their deceased comrades. The salve hardens into a tough, leathery shell that supposedly keeps the dead beholder's spirit contained and protected. (These beholders have no concept of an afterlife:
instead, they believe their spirits remain asleep in their bodies, dreaming
pleasant dreams for all eternity.)

This room is filled with the corpses of beholders encased in these bloodred shells. The corpses of commoners and workers are set out on Face 3, while the corpses of the beholder aristocracy reside in a special mausoleum on Face 6 (see the Encounters section below).

Within the last century, Xuu has noticed that some of the corpses' shells have begun to crack and chip. Xuu has dutifully patched them: there's plenty of red salve in the room for this purpose. But Xuu considers this to be menial work, beneath his dignity: after all, he's a supervisor, not a mere worker. He's ordered some of the undead that roam this room to take care of the 'repairs, but they do a sloppy job and Xuu invariably has to finish the job. Xuu longs for an intelligent creature to join him in the room and take charge of making the repairs.

Hmm. So it seems that the stuff they paint over dead beholders contains their souls and stops them coming back to life as undead. But then again, the same stuff, may have prevented the clan from going onto the afterlife.

The main thing, I read from this is that these guys are undead Sazaur beholders, coated with a special salve when they died. So I wouldn't expect other beholder clans to turn into zombies.

[Shade]

Great find, Big Mac. I'll add these to the queue.