Dragon 336
Dragon 336:
3.5
Favored Spawn of Kyuss: Favored spawn of Kyuss cannot be created with create undead spell or with create greater undead; the secrets of their creation reside only with Kyuss and his most trusted minions.
“Favored Spawn of Kyuss” (known simply as the “favored” to cultists of Kyuss) is an inherited template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature.
By pressing its face against a helpless victim, the favored spawn of Kyuss can infest the victim with a rain of 2d6 worms. This ability is treated the same as its create spawn ability, but a victim slain by the resulting infestation rises as a favored spawn of Kyuss rather than a normal zombie.
Allip: The allip is the spirit of someone driven to suicide by madness.
Suicide need not be the individual’s conscious goal, so long as it can be directly attributed to the insanity.
For instance, someone who jumps from a tower out of depression qualifies, but so does a madman who perishes after gouging out his own eyes in order to escape his hallucinations. Further, someone found shortly after death and offered a respectful burial is not likely to become an allip; only those who lie unfound for days or longer seem to linger as undead.
Bodak: Bodaks are “the undead remnants of humanoids who have been destroyed by the touch of absolute evil.” Typically this means that bodaks are created by other bodaks through their death gaze, but other methods exist as well.
A bodak might rise when an outsider with the evil subtype slays a humanoid creature with negative energy, a necromantic spell, or a death effect.
Bone Naga: Dark nagas know of a ritual to create a bone naga using animate dead. The ritual requires numerous components, including the ocular fluids of a divine caster and a sentient reptile. These can come from the same creature, if appropriate. Only taught to dark nagas, this rite contains a number of special somatic components that humanoids cannot emulate.
It is rumored that some free-willed bone nagas also possess the ability to perform the creation ritual and actively seek out their living brethren, enslaving them in undeath.
Boneclaw: Created as an immortal weapon, only the most abominable rituals birth boneclaws. The rite calls for the skeletons of Large, magic-using, humanoid-shaped creatures (such as ogre magi and certain types of hags). It infuses them with negative energy, strips them of most of their remaining flesh, and grafts additional bones to their body—mostly around the fingers. These additional bones must be cut from the flesh of living victims.
This rite requires the spells create undead (caster level 15+) and greater magic fang.
Charnel Hound: The first charnel hound formed from the corpses of one particular cemetery, located behind a secret shrine to Nerull the Reaper.
No longer the province of deities alone, mortal spellcasters have unlocked the secrets to charnel hound creation.
The ritual requires 200 corpses, the spell create greater undead (caster level 20+), and unholy unguents worth 15,000 gp (in addition to the standard components of the spell).
On occasion, charnel hounds arise without a mortal creator, spawned by the vile will of a deity even as the first such horror was created by Nerull.
Crawling Head: The first crawling head was created deliberately years ago, constructed from the severed head of a hill giant by a necromancer later slain by his own creation.
The rite requires create undead and the sacrifice of a giant who just fed on at least three sentient beings.
Crimson Death: Legends tell that a crimson death is born from the destruction of a strong-willed vampire. This is not, in fact, the case. Crimson deaths might form from anyone who dies via exsanguination and whose body is then consumed or destroyed. A traveler in a marsh sucked dry by leeches and then consumed by other swamp creatures might rise as a crimson death. Similarly, a vampire who drains a victim and then cremates the body to prevent it from rising as another vampire might provoke the manifestation of a crimson death. The same hatred and iron will required to create ghosts or wraiths is necessary for the formation of a crimson death.
Death Knight: the demon prince Demogorgon is credited with creating the first such horror. Some warriors seek out the undead existence of the death knight, but a mortal cannot perform the ritual without assistance. The transformation requires the active assistance of a powerful fiend. On rare occasions, death knights occur spontaneously upon the death of a favored servant of an archfiend or evil deity. Finally, and even less frequently, death knights might arise as the result of a curse. If an innocent dies due to a fallen paladin’s actions, that individual might pronounce a dying curse that results in eternal unlife for the former champion of light.
Drowned: Clearly, not all who drown become undead. Drowned appear when people perish beneath the waves specifically due to the actions (or negligence) of others. A ship that sinks due to storm damage does not transform those onboard into drowned, but one that sinks because of sabotage or pirates might. The earliest drowned formed when an entire island sank because of the foolish efforts of a powerful mage to enslave the sea god, and it is his curse that continues to form these undead today.
Effigy: Like so many undead, effigies form from the hate and rage of a dying individual. Such people must die under circumstances wherein they believe they have been deprived of their rightful due by the actions of others. For example, someone murdered on the verge of completing a major ambition or gaining a windfall might become an effigy. In addition, an effigy can only form if the individual died by fire, such as a fireball or flame strike spell, or a dragon’s breath.
Famine Spirit: Not everyone who dies of hunger becomes a famine spirit. Specifically, someone must spend much of his life hungry or otherwise wanting for basic necessities.
Potential sources include people living in poverty or who dwell in famine-prone areas. The individual must, near the end of his life, have had the opportunity to raise himself from his current state, perhaps to acquire riches or move to more fertile lands. This chance must be snatched away by the actions of another person or sentient being, thus causing the individual to perish not only of starvation but also of frustration and cruelly shattered hopes. Only when all these conditions are met, a truly strong-willed individual becomes a famine spirit.
Ghast: The best-known methods for creating a ghast are through create undead and by contracting ghoul fever. A third method exists, however. If someone who might spontaneously become a ghoul at death dies while actually in the process of consuming humanoid flesh, he instead rises as a ghast.
Ghost: Held to the Material Plane through raw emotion, ghosts possess a burning need to complete some task or remain near some person or place. Love and determination are often the driving motivations behind a ghost’s existence.
All ghosts believe they died violently or of unnatural causes. A woman who dies of old age probably doesn’t become a ghost, unless she believes she was poisoned. Similarly, those who die of illness rarely rise as ghosts unless they believe the plague was deliberately spread. The truth of the matter is unimportant; only the individual’s strongly held belief matters.
In a few rare instances, the ignorant or innocent might remain as ghosts without even realizing they are dead.
Ghoul: Ghouls most often result from an infection of ghoul fever or the create undead spell. In some instances, however, individuals who spent their lives feeding on others spontaneously rise as ghouls. This “feeding” can be literal, such as habitual cannibalism, or figurative, such as a tax-collector who takes more than the law requires so he might feed his avarices. Only those who commit these acts personally risk becoming a ghoul. A distant lord who commands his soldiers to rob the peasants blind is not at risk, but a greedy landlord who charges poor families every copper they own and then cheerfully evicts them certainly is. Some see the transformation into a ghoul as a curse from the deities, punishment for a life of greed and sin.
Huecuva: Legend tells that a huecuva results from a curse levied on fallen clerics, druids, monks, and paladins. As punishment for their heresies, their patron deities condemn them to a state of eternal undeath.
In truth, this is only partially correct. Most deities who count paladins and druids among their servants are unlikely to inflict such an undead horror upon the world. Indeed these fallen souls are cursed by their patron—but that curse is simply the complete abandonment of the former servant’s soul, leaving him open to whatever evils might lurk in the depths of his spirit. Eventually, these evils consume him, leaving little but resentment and loathing for the deity that once favored him. Only then, when such powerful hate mingles with lingering divine energy does the fallen faithful become a huecuva.
Lich: As the quintessential “self-made” undead, a lich is a spellcaster who becomes undead through a complex ritual that takes years of research and careful experimentation. This involves the creation of a phylactery, a vessel to contain the lich’s essence.
The process requires Craft Wondrous Item, 120,000 gp, and 4,800 XP. Discovering the proper formulas and incantations to create a phylactery requires a DC 35 Knowledge (arcane) or Knowledge (religion) check. This check requires 1d4 full months of research. Note that this check represents starting from scratch and can be bypassed entirely if the knowledge is available (such as through a tome or tutor).
Perhaps the most common form of the accompanying ritual for arcane liches—although not the only one—involves the spells create undead, magic jar, and permanency.
The comparable rite for clerical liches involves create undead, harm, and unhallow.
Mohrg: Mohrgs are mass murderers or similar villains, but not all dead murderers become mohrgs. To become a mohrg, a killer must not only fail to atone for his crimes, he must intend to kill again. In other words, only murderers whose sprees are interrupted by death rise as mohrgs. A hanged killer possesses a better chance of rising as a mohrg than one slain through any other means. Even the wisest sages maintain no real idea why this should be, although some speculate it is because hanging is often considered the most dishonorable means of execution.
Only the spell create undead can form a mohrg from a corpse that is not a murderer.
Mummy: Normally formed via ancient burial rites, the process to create a mummy involves complex spells, chants, and designs. The mummification ritual entails the removal of internal organs and the slow drying and desiccation of the corpse.
On very rare occasions, an individual might spontaneously rise as a mummy. If a person dies in a state of anger and hatred and if his body is naturally mummified or preserved, due perhaps to exposure to great heat and dryness, the individual might reanimate and seek to destroy the object of his rage.
Nightshade: Nightshades were entities of pure evil even before they became undead. They result when outsiders with the evil subtype are continually subjected to negative energies long after death. The type of nightshade the fiend becomes is determined by adding up its Hit Dice and its Charisma modifier. If the total is 10 or less, the creature cannot become a nightshade. From 11 to 18, the creature might rise as a nightwing; 19 to 26, as a nightwalker; and 27 or more, as a nightcrawler.
Shadow: In ancient times, before the development of create greater undead, the first shadow arose. Shadows spontaneously manifest when someone dies due, at least in part, to her own physical weakness. A warrior slain after rendered helpless by a ray of enfeeblement spell, an old woman murdered because she lacked the strength to fight back or scream for help, or a rogue slowly eaten by rats after incapacitation by poison might become a shadow.
Spectre: When not created by spells or the touch of another spectre, they manifest in a similar fashion to ghosts. They rise from the violent death of someone who lacks the requisite strength of purpose to become a true ghost, yet who possesses sufficient will and fury that they cannot move on.
Spectres are born from sudden acts of violence.
Sword Wraith: Like a ghost, a sword wraith is driven by a single-minded ambition that lingers after death—in this case, the desire to continue battle, to shed more blood. Unlike the ghost, however, the sword wraith’s purpose might not actually be his own. The bloodlust and dark desires of his fellow soldiers often mixes with the sword wraith’s own. Thus, the purpose that drives a sword wraith might belong to any one of the soldiers lying dead on the field, or might even be an entire platoon’s combined discipline and love of carnage. This can sometimes create sword wraiths from the noblest commanders and the lowliest scouts.
Vampire: Almost everyone knows that vampires spawn other vampires, but myth and legend present many other possible origins for these infamous undead. In cultures that believe suicide is a sin, anyone who takes his own life might rise from his coffin as a vampire.
Those who make deals with entities of evil and gods of death, seeking power or immortality, often become vampires, their desires granted in a most twisted fashion. Also, someone who might otherwise spontaneously rise as a ghoul, slain specifically through negative energy or the result of a curse, might instead rise as a vampire, a drinker of blood rather than an eater of flesh.
Wight: Wights, unless created by other wights, are animated almost entirely by their desire to do violence. Just as ghouls arise from those who feed off others, wights result from the deaths of individuals whose sole purpose in life was to maim, torture, or kill. Simply coming from a profession that requires one to kill, such as a soldier or gladiator, is not sufficient; the individual must harbor a true love of carnage and take intense pleasure in ending life. Wights arise only when the person died frustrated, unable to complete a murder he had already begun, or unable to find a chosen victim.
Wraith: Like spectres, wraiths are the spirits of those who died under horrific circumstances, but who lack the strength of purpose to return as ghosts. Whereas spectres are born from sudden acts of violence, wraiths result from slow, lingering deaths. Someone bricked up inside a wall and allowed to starve, or slowly poisoned, is more likely to return as a wraith than a spectre. Those wraiths who do not arise spontaneously result from the touch of other wraiths or from the create greater undead spell.
Spawn of Kyuss: The spawn began with Kyuss, an ancient priest of a forgotten deity who ruled an empire before the advent of modern civilization.
Any evil cleric can create a spawn of Kyuss by casting create undead as long as he is at least 15th level. The material component for creating a spawn of Kyuss, however, is slightly different than normal. This version of the spell must be cast over the grave of a killer who was buried without a coffin in unhallowed ground (a DC 25 Knowledge [local] check can usually determine if such a body lies near a specific settlement). If the caster has a preserved or live Kyuss worm he may substitute that for the 250 gp black onyx gem that is otherwise required to animate the body. As the spell is cast, the grave blooms with worms and maggots as the newly created spawn of Kyuss rises from within.
A Small, Medium, or Large creature slain by a worm from a favored spawn of Kyuss rises as a new spawn of Kyuss (not a favored spawn) 1d6+4 rounds later.
The nigh-indestructible sons of Kyuss were created by the then priest Kyuss for his own dark purposes.
Zombie: Magic that removes curses or diseases directed at a spawn of Kyuss can transform all but the most powerful into normal zombies.
a Huge or larger creature slain by a worm from a favored spawn of Kyuss becomes a normal zombie of the appropriate size.
