Voadam
Legend
Open Grave Secrets of the Undead
Open Grave Secrets of the Undead
4e
Vampire: And once a vampire has drained the life of a victim, it exhibits the most horrifying ability of all: The shell of its victim animates, turning into another of the walking dead.
Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead, made the first vampires in the image of blood fiends, who are themselves made in the image of Haemnathuun.
Undead: Theories abound regarding the origin and creation of undead, from the hushed tales told by simple peasants to the exotic research performed by sages and wizards. None agree, and only one fact is certain: Undead exist in the world and have since time immemorial.
The origin of undead can be traced back to a time eons ago, when the primordials thrived before the first foundations of the world were even a rumor. Immortal in the sense that they knew no age and withstood any hurt, these were beings of manifest entropy.
In these earliest days, souls shorn of their bodies simply departed the cosmos, taken to a place beyond all reckoning. When the primordials first crafted the world, they had little regard for the fate of souls. But some among them recognized soul power as a potent force, and they hungered for it. These entities stopped up the passage of souls. With nowhere to go, many souls were either consumed by primordials that had a taste for such spiritual fare, or, finding no further road or final purpose, sputtered out and dissipated, gone forever. Others persisted, becoming undead.
Sentient living creatures have a body and a soul, the latter of which is the consciousness that exists in and departs from the body when it perishes. A body’s “life force” that drives a creature’s muscles and emotions is called the animus. The animus provides vitality and mobility for a creature, and like the soul, it fades from the body after death. Unlike the soul, it fades from the body as the body rots.
If “revived” in the proper fashion, the animus can rouse the body in the absence of a soul. (This phenomenon is what makes it possible for creatures that were never alive, such as constructs, to become undead.) In some cases, the animus can even exist apart from the body as a cruel memory of life. Such impetus can come from necromantic magic, a corrupting supernatural influence at the place of death or interment, or a locale’s connection to the Shadowfell. Strong desires, beliefs, or emotions on the part of the deceased can also tap into the magic of the world to give the animus power.
Most undead, even those that seem intelligent, are this sort of creature—driven to inhuman behavior by lack of governance of a soul and a hunger for life that can’t be sated. Nearly mindless undead have been infused with just enough impetus to give the remains mobility but little else. Sentient undead have a stronger animus that might even have access to the memories of the deceased, but such monstrosities have few or none of the sympathies they had in life. A wight has a body and a feral awareness granted by the animus, but no soul. Even the dreaded wraith is simply a soulless animus, deeply corrupted and infused with strong necromantic energy.
The Shadowfell most often serves as the source of this impetus. In the Shadowfell, bodiless spirits are common, as are undead. Something within this echo-plane’s dreary nature nurtures undead. This shadowstuff can “leak” into a dying creature as that being passes away. It can be introduced by necromantic powers or rituals. Or it can be siphoned into areas strongly associated with death, pooling there.
Some undead retain their souls after the death of the body. Rituals allow this sort of transformation. A potent destiny or vigorous enough strength of will sometimes enables (or forces) a creature to transcend death.
When most living creatures think about how undead come into being, they connect the origin of undead with the animation of a dead body. That said, undead are actually “born” in a variety of ways.
Powerfully evil acts resonate with such force that they can ripple across dimensions and open cracks in reality, permitting malevolent entities to escape into the mortal world. These entities seek out corporeal flesh, in particular the recently vacated vessels of the damned. Once inside the host, these spirits corrupt the animus, granting the corpse a semblance of life.
An evil, perverse, and intelligent creature can be reborn into undeath when the influence of the animus revives the memories of the vessel’s previous host, although the soul of the creature is not present—these sorts of undead are just particularly wily animus-driven undead.
At other times, atrocious deeds call dark spirits into the cadaver of the newly deceased, leaving the original soul intact. Sometimes, good souls can be trapped within their bodies, to be slowly turned to evil as the depraved spirits corrupt the soul.
Sites where evil creatures lair or where evil artifacts are stored can act as strong catalysts in the creation of undead. Undead so created are usually mindless animate corpses. Sometimes they are more powerful, soul-bearing undead whose spirits were corrupted while they lived in an area of tainted ground, and thus the creatures fell directly into undeath when their bodies succumbed.
Though some believe that some kind of fell power energizes animate creatures, it is more accurate to say that the animus or spirit resident in a walking corpse provides an undead creature with the requisite motive force for movement, and perhaps enough additional force to talk and even reason, and—most important—enough animation to prey on other creatures.
Dark deeds conducted by others can serve as a trigger for unlife, especially if such deeds accrue over months or years in one particular location. Such an area, more than any other, is worthy of the term “tainted by evil,” though the religious-minded sometimes call such areas unsanctified ground.
When a living creature is drained to death by evil agencies, the husk of the body becomes a shell that is particularly susceptible to the influence of unlife. When an undead creature is responsible for draining the life force from a living creature, the creation of a new undead from the dead flesh is not assured, but the door is certainly open for unclean spirits to move into the recently evacuated house of the body.
A few particularly abhorrent undead carry a powerful contagion that, when transferred to mortals, causes them to weaken and die at an alarming rate, rising as undead in a matter of hours unless a cure is rapidly administered. Once a creature is infected in this manner, little can be done to save him or her from becoming undead.
Some obsessed knowledge-seekers pursue the spark of life too far, and thereby discover the dark fruits of undeath. They seek death’s secrets because of their fear of death, thinking that if they can come to understand mortality, their fear will be extinguished and their survival assured. Those who tread this road to its conclusion sometimes embrace death completely, and do not become so much immortal as simply enduring.
Sometimes undead are created when corpse parts are sewn together to form a great amalgam of death. Then, when the composite corpse is touched with lightning and the proper reanimation ritual performed, an undead creature rises, its mind rotted but its flesh strong with the animus of several beings. Such creatures share some external visual similarities to flesh golems, but are different in ability and origin.
All undead were once living beings, in that they had a soul. Soulless constructs do not and cannot become undead.
Some necromancers use the arcane power source to fuel their magic, while others call upon the power of shadow to effect their dim miracles. Still others animate undead by the power of the divine, calling on fell gods to raise legions of bound wraiths to their will.
Some undead are born as a result of sheer force of will. These rare individuals staved off the afterlife by harnessing the great power of their soul (or ki). Rarer still, other undead abominations call upon the great psionic powers of the mind to cheat death.
Several varieties of undead can create new unliving progeny. Taking a broader view, undead self-propagation might be regarded as an infectious disease: It is nasty, it is easily spread, and it kills its hosts.
Unless they seek to animate the bodies of the dead, living beings should know better than to bury bodies in the Shadowfell. Though rituals exist to keep a corpse temporarily free of unlife, it’s better not to chance such things. Even when such rituals are used, corpses (whether buried or left behind untended) are likely to rise in the Shadowfell as shambling dead. Evil individuals are certain to rise as particularly nasty soulless monsters. In the world, only the most horrific and ruthless murderers return as specters, but in the Shadowfell, any death might spawn such a wicked undead.
Because all souls pass through this dim realm upon the death of their bodies, Shadow’s taint can corrupt these soul vestiges before they find their way to the Court of the Raven Queen in Letherna, forging sad spirits into ghosts and other insubstantial undead.
A decade ago, evil humans inhabited the valley where the cemetery of Kravenghast Necropolis now stands. Obsessed with death, the people performed living sacrifices on the tops of the mountains that frame both ends of the valley. They buried the mangled remains of the sacrifices in unhallowed graves in a central cemetery. Over time, the sacrifice victims rose as undead, though they were confined to the place of their burial.
When the Tower of Zoramadria was moved across the Feywild through a ritual, the life force of many of its inhabitants was drained off to power that ritual. Many of Zoramadria’s students that escaped permanent destruction did so only by embracing undeath.
The preservation fluid within a brain’s jar is a valuable alchemical material, especially useful for crafting undead.
Most undead animate spontaneously or arise through profane rituals. A few mortals willingly become undead, though, viewing the condition as a form of immortality.
Vecna: Vecna, the god of magic, necromancy, and secrets, pursued undeath as part of his rise to godhood.
Wight: A wight has a body and a feral awareness granted by the animus, but no soul.
Wraith: Even the dreaded wraith is simply a soulless animus, deeply corrupted and infused with strong necromantic energy.
Wraiths have a similar thirst for mortal souls, using the resulting energy to spawn their dreadful progeny.
Areas tainted by necromantic seepage in the Shadowfell spawn wraiths.
Any humanoid killed by a wraith rises as a free-willed wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Most wraiths spawn more of their kind when they murder a humanoid.
Ghost: Sentient ghosts are the most common of the undead that retain their souls without resorting to necromantic rituals. They have a purpose that fetters them to the world, even if it’s only to spread misery or wreak vengeance.
Because all souls pass through this dim realm upon the death of their bodies, Shadow’s taint can corrupt these soul vestiges before they find their way to the Court of the Raven Queen in Letherna, forging sad spirits into ghosts and other insubstantial undead.
Death Knight: Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Death knights are warriors that accepted undeath as a way to circumvent mortality.
Lich: Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Some obsessed knowledge-seekers pursue the spark of life too far, and thereby discover the dark fruits of undeath. They seek death’s secrets because of their fear of death, thinking that if they can come to understand mortality, their fear will be extinguished and their survival assured. Those who tread this road to its conclusion sometimes embrace death completely, and do not become so much immortal as simply enduring. Spellcasters who adopt this existence are commonly known as liches.
MANY CREATURES HOPE TO ESCAPE DEATH. When such creatures are powerful and corrupt, they sometimes turn to rituals that can transform them into liches. However, immortality comes with a price, and these creatures lose the remaining shreds of their humanity in process.
Most undead animate spontaneously or arise through profane rituals. A few mortals willingly become undead, though, viewing the condition as a form of immortality. These liches gain resilience from the transformation.
Vampire Lord: The vampire lord template is one example of an undead created by life drain.
Infected Zombie: A few particularly abhorrent undead carry a powerful contagion that, when transferred to mortals, causes them to weaken and die at an alarming rate, rising as undead in a matter of hours unless a cure is rapidly administered. Once a creature is infected in this manner, little can be done to save him or her from becoming undead. The infected zombie template can be used to create undead that spread such contagion.
High Preceptor: ?
Sceptenar Vasabhkati: Sceptenar Vasabhakti, daughter of the late ruler of Khatiroon, rules the southern province of Hantumah. Once a kind and benevolent princess, Vasabhakti was possessed and corrupted by the undead forces that overtook her homeland.
Specter: In the world, only the most horrific and ruthless murderers return as specters, but in the Shadowfell, any death might spawn such a wicked undead.
Specters that arise from slain mortals twisted by insanity often produce auras that outwardly manifest the fragmented condition of their minds.
Skeleton: The carved skull buried in one of the old crypts has pulsed back to unlife. Its wakening will attract undead miles away from Col Fen. Unless the skull is destroyed, it will become a magnet for undead from distant places, while at the same time animating skeletons and zombies from the graveyard of Col Fen.
Zombie: The carved skull buried in one of the old crypts has pulsed back to unlife. Its wakening will attract undead miles away from Col Fen. Unless the skull is destroyed, it will become a magnet for undead from distant places, while at the same time animating skeletons and zombies from the graveyard of Col Fen.
When a corpse vampire kills a living humanoid by a means other than blood drain, that humanoid rises as a zombie of its level at sunset the next day.
Cemetery Rot disease.
Pale Reaver: ?
Decrepit Skeleton: ?
Zombie Rotter: ?
Ghoul: ?
Skulk Zombie: ?
Gravehound: ?
Corruption Corpse: A living humanoid killed by a deathdog rises as a free-willed corruption corpse at the end of its creator’s next turn.
Deathdogs are creatures of the Shadowfell that transform their prey into corruption corpses.
Chillborn Zombie: The thousands of deaths that took place on the Downs transformed this battlefield into a place where the walls between the world and the Shadowfell are weak. People who die here reanimate as undead. This is what happened to Tirian Forkbeard.
Humanoid creatures in the Downs (the entire area shown on the full-page map) who are reduced to 5 or fewer hit points take on a pale, waxy complexion. Their veins darken and become visible through their increasingly translucent flesh. An opaque glaze dulls their eyes, and their eyes remain open even while they are unconscious.
Humanoid creatures who die transform into chillborn zombies.
If any PCs die here, you can delay their transformation until after surviving PCs have defeated their current enemies or fled the field if things are going poorly for them. Otherwise, a dead comrade rises 1 round after death. It turns on living PCs, acting last in initiative order. It has full hit points as a chillborn zombie.
Victims of zombie transformation can, after being reduced to 0 hit points, be restored to life by a Raise Dead ritual. A player whose character became a zombie can choose to roleplay the character as haunted by hazy memories of the undead state or to shrug off the incident entirely.
Creature powers that raise slain enemies as undead (such as spawn wraith) supersede the zombie breeding ground effect.
Gibbering Head: This head is all that remains of one of the leaders of the long-ago battle, impaled here as a trophy of sorts and a warning to other enemies. Long exposure to the taint of this area has infused it with malefic abilities.
Zombie Hulk: ?
Mad Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a mad wraith rises as a free-willed mad wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Dread Zombie: ?
Skeleton Soldier: ?
Chillborn Zombie: ?
Rotwing Zombie: ?
Carcass Eater: ?
Skull Lord: ?
Putrescent Zombie: ?
Boneclaw: Boneclaws are vicious undead created by dark powers to hunt the foes of their creators. The ritual to create boneclaws is jealously guarded by the few casters that know it.
Ssra-Tauroch: As Ssra-Tauroch’s reign extended into decades and the rigors of time weakened his once mighty frame, he requested a great boon from Zehir: the gift of immortality. Ssra-Tauroch, the empire, and its yuan-ti citizenry were devout followers of the god of poison and serpents. The monarch’s lifetime of service to the serpent lord had not gone unnoticed. Zehir sent a dark angel to the aging monarch who taught him the secret knowledge of mummification.
Upon completing the ritual, Ssra-Tauroch retreated to his inner sanctum.
Yuan-Ti Abomination Mummy Lord: ?
Bone Naga: ?
Wrath Spirit: ?
Corrupted Yuan-Ti Malison Incanters: ?
Slaughter Wight: ?
Sword Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a sword wraith rises as a free-willed sword wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Any humanoid killed by Kravenghast rises as a free-willed sword wraith at the start of Kravenghast’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Kravenghast: ?
Mauthereign, Human Lich: ?
Undead Vecna Cultist: ?
Pavan, Aboleth Overseer Lich: ?
Abyssal Ghoul Myrmidons: ?
Parthal Archlich: ?
Dread Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a dread wraith rises as a free-willed dread wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Oreiax: Doresain the Ghoul King found hints of Syvexrae’s plans in her deteriorating mind as he fed upon her mind daily. After millennia of collating clues from her mind, Doresain discovered the location of the massive egg in the mortal world. Doresain infused the egg with demonic ichor and necromantic vitality. The child in the egg tore out of the shell ages before his time, emerging as a stunted sliver of the enormous entity he should have been. Doresain named the child Oreiax, from the Abyssal words for “always hungry.”
Rot Slinger Captain: ?
Larva Mage: ?
Harrowzau the Unborn: ?
Harrowzau the God Swallower: ?
Abomination: AGELESS THOUGH THEY ARE, IMMORTALS CAN DIE, and when they do, some return as twisted remnants of what they once were. Most abominations were created as weapons in the war between the gods and the primordials, but a scarce few have arisen spontaneously out of the chaotic forces of the universe.
Abomination Rotvine Defiler: A profane vestige of a powerful immortal devoted to fertility, the rotvine defiler seeks to destroy that which it has lost—life.
A rotvine defiler is the profane remnant of an immortal devoted to nature or agriculture. The corrupted immortals were slain and sealed under the ground, where the seeds of evil caused them to return to life and outwardly manifest their malevolence.
A rotvine defiler arises when a creature makes a sacrifice over the monster’s earthly tomb, breaking the seals containing it. The creature usually retains none of its original intelligence or memories
Abomination Discord Incarnate: AT THE DAWN OF CREATION, mighty couatls—winged serpents of purity and virtue—strove to bind evil elementals and fiends. The titanic spiritual struggle sometimes resulted in the death of both entities and brought about a terrible fusion of body and spirit. From these morbid unions arose discord incarnates—perverse abominations bent on wanton destruction.
Discord incarnates arose during the cosmic war between the gods and the primordials.
Scholars speculate that a discord incarnate spontaneously arises from the clash of two powerful, opposing forces—a powerful demon and a couatl. Some experts suggest that the profane union is the work of a now-forgotten god or primordial that saw benefit in the creation of the twisted monstrosities.
Beholder Undead: BEHOLDERS ARE AMONG THE MOST FEARED and deadly monsters to prowl the world. Yet even beholders succumb to death, and when they do, necromancers sometimes find use in their vile remains.
Beholder Undead Bloodkiss Beholder: The necrotic forces that reanimate a bloodkiss beholder warp and change the creature’s flesh, making the monster barely akin to its living counterpart.
Beholder Undead Beholder Death Tyrant: A death tyrant beholder is an animated corpse of an eye tyrant.
Horde Ghoul: Beholder Undead Beholder Death Tyrant Reanimating Ray power.
Blaspheme: CRAFTED FROM PIECES OF CORPSES and given life through alchemy and magic, blasphemes are intelligent, cunning undead.
Blasphemes are created from pieces of multiple corpses. Through carefully guarded rituals, these crafted forms are given life or, in a few cases, infused with the creator’s intelligence.
Blaspheme Unohly Slayer: ?
Blaspheme Grave Chill Blaspheme: ?
Blaspheme Entomber: ?
Blaspheme Disciple: ?
Blaspheme Imperfect: ?
Blaspheme Knight: ?
Blaspheme Soul Vessel: ?
Bone Yard: A BONE YARD IS A MASS OF ANIMATED BONES that rises up due to a tragedy, massacre, or desecration.
Bone Yard Charnel Cinderhouse: Charnel cinderhouses arise when a conflagration consumes a building and kills the inhabitants.
Bone Yard Pit of the Abandoned Regiment: BORN OF THE ROTTING, SKELETAL REMAINS of soldiers left to die after battle, the pit of the abandoned regiment is a force driven by hatred and revenge.
This creature is the amalgamated remains of a regiment of soldiers that was left to die after a battle.
Bone Yard Desecration: A DESECRATION IS THE ANIMATED REMAINS of a desecrated cemetery.
This creature arises when a cemetery is desecrated by the community that created it.
Brain in a Jar: A BRAIN IN A JAR IS THE PRESERVED BRAIN of a sinister being who sought to escape death. Through ritual magic and complicated alchemical processes, the brain is kept alive, retaining all the memories and mental faculties of its former host.
Different kinds of brains in jars exist, though each is created using the same principles.
Brain in a Jar Brain in a Broken Jar: A brain in a broken jar is created through incomplete rituals, spoiling fluids, or damaged containers.
Brain in a Jar Brain in an Armored Jar: ?
Brain in a Jar Exalted Brain in a Jar: This is a brain taken from a powerful creature by devotees to preserve the subject’s knowledge and wisdom.
Crawling Claw: THIS SEVERED HAND OR PAW has been animated by foul magic.
Crawling claws are severed hands, feet, or paws that have been animated by necromantic rituals or by spontaneous necrotic energy.
The most basic crawling claw is crafted from any hand or paw.
Crawling Claw Crawling Gauntlet: Crawling gauntlets are severed hands enchanted or trained to serve as minions.
Crawling Claw Swarm: Crawling claw swarms are the result of numerous severed limbs lost in a horrible battle. Sometimes the limbs animate on their own; other times, necromancers sweep a battlefield for useful pieces.
Crawling Claw Lich Claw: Liches that want to humiliate and dominate their rivals seek out other liches to acquire pieces to make lich claws. Many lich claws occur spontaneously, due to the saturation of necrotic energy in the chambers of defeated liches.
Crawling Claw Dragonclaw Swarm: Dragonclaw swarms are the result of necromantic experiments with dragon bones.
Deathtritus: THE PRESENCE OF NECROTIC ENERGY can animate flesh, but it can also give unlife to refuse and residue, forming a deathtritus.
Deathtritus Tomb Mote: Tomb motes are made up of the animated bone, dust, hair, and flesh particles that accumulate in tombs. They are usually found in areas filled with necrotic energy.
Deathtritus Offalian: Composed of the butchered flesh, rotting organs, and pungent fluids of humanoids and livestock, these snakelike creatures crave the taste of fresh meat.
Offalians are undead serpents that form when people or animals are senselessly butchered and left to rot. They are composed of the organs and bodily fluids of the slain creatures.
Deathtritus Osteopede: CREATED FROM DIRT, DUST, AND CRUSHED BONE, the osteopede is a centipedelike creature that skitters rapidly across the ground. The creature is infused with necrotic energy, which it releases with each bite and each slash of its jagged legs.
Osteopedes are undead centipedes that form from dirt and bone in places of death. They also sometimes arise from pastures where bone fragments were used as fertilizer.
Deathtritus Dragonscale Slough: THIS SLITHERING PILE OF MOLTED SCALES often forms where a dragon has died or has spent a considerable amount of time.
A dragonscale slough is made of the animated flesh and scales that fall from dragons.
Forsaken Shell: A FORSAKEN SHELL IS SKIN RIPPED from a creature’s body and then animated purposefully or spontaneously by foul magic.
When a forsaken shell kills a Medium living humanoid creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed forsaken shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Forsaken shells arise when skin is ripped from the flesh of a living target. The flesh is then animated either through the actions of a necromancer or through spontaneous necrotic energy.
Forsaken shells propagate their kind by ripping the skin off their victims, assimilating it, and then exuding it as a new monster. In this way, one forsaken shell can spawn thousands of its kind, creating an army of animate skin.
Numerous kinds of forsaken shells exist. Each kind of creature victimized by a forsaken shell has the potential to become a new kind of shell. Humans, giants, and dragons are the most common targets of forsaken shells.
Forsaken Shell Dragon Shell: When the forsaken shell kills a living dragon creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed dragon shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Forsaken Shell Titan Shell: When a titan shell kills a Large living humanoid creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed titan shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Ghost Poltergeist: ?
Ghost Servile Ghost: A servile ghost arises when a servant or lackey dies an ignoble death as a consequence of its master’s actions. Such deaths are often a result of betrayal or carelessness on the master’s part.
Ghost Drowned Ghost: Drowned ghosts are the spirits of those who died watery deaths.
Ghost Malicious Ghost: Malicious ghosts arise from children who die frightened or alone. Enraged that no one saved its life, the ghost of the child becomes a creature of unquenchable malice.
Ghost Watchful Ghost: Watchful ghosts are the spirits of guards killed in the line of duty while failing to protect their charges.
The apparition is the restless spirit of Ammaradon, a member of the old king’s guard who failed to prevent the king’s assassination. Tormented by this unforgivable lapse, he now guards the king’s sarcophagus.
Ghost Wrath Spirit: A wrath spirit arises when a violent individual dies while enraged.
Ghost Caller in Darkness: A caller in darkness is created from the spirits of dozens of victims who died together in terror.
Ghost Famine Spirit: Famine spirits are spectral remnants of people who shortened their lives through gluttony, who hoarded food while others starved, or who died of starvation.
Ghoul Sodden Ghoul: A sodden ghoul arises when an aquatic humanoid that engages in cannibalism dies. Sodden ghouls are also created through deliberate rituals by evil aquatic creatures, such as bog hags, kuo-toas, sahuagin, and aboleths.
Ghoul Sodden Ghoul Wailer: ?
Ghoul Stench Ghoul: A stench ghoul is the result of a cannibalistic humanoid who dies after consuming the rancid flesh of another humanoid.
Ghoul Wretched Stench Ghoul: ?
Ghoul Darkpact Ghoul: Darkpact ghouls are the product of corrupt individuals who are cursed to return in undeath. They lose all sanity in the transformation, replacing it with predatory cunning. A few darkpact ghouls are dead warlocks who made pacts with sinister forces to extend their lives without realizing the form they would take upon death.
Hound Death: SOME TYPES OF HOUNDS ARE ANIMATED canine corpses, and a few are creatures of shadow that have canine forms. The association these creatures have with death has gained them the name death hounds.
Hound Death Rot Hound: These creatures are the result of dogs that dig up and eat rotting corpses. The dogs grow sick and slowly rot from the inside out, eventually dying and reanimating due to necromantic energy in an area.
Hound Death Famine Hound: Famine hounds arise when dogs are abandoned by their masters and left to starve.
Hound Death Charnel Hound: Charnel hounds are the unholy result of necromantic experiments. Evil ritualists fuse corpses together to create this vicious, predatory dog.
Larva Undead: Individuals who have relentlessly pursued evil might return as larva undead.
Larva Undead Larva Assassin: A larva assassin is a conscienceless killer that arises when a humanoid dies after spending his or her life murdering without pity. When the individual’s body begins to decay, a swarm of hornets and centipedes gathers to devour the corpse. Necrotic energy merges the vermin with the consciousness of the former humanoid, creating a larva assassin.
Larva Undead Larva Sniper: Larva snipers are the result of dead humanoids who took sadistic delight in their ability to slay foes from afar. Upon such a creature’s death, masses of yellow, segmented wasps and hornets gather and give the creature’s consciousness a physical form.
Larva Undead Larva War Master: Larva war masters are the undead progeny of powerful warriors who become unhinged by bloodlust, commit strings of atrocities, and then die. Upon the subject’s death, its body is consumed by devouring beetles that strip flesh from bone and then form a new body.
The ancient undead entity Kyuss rewarded his most faithful and remorseless warriors with eternal existence as larva war masters.
Lich Baelnorn Lich: Eladrin become baelnorn liches for a variety of reasons. Many choose this path so they can act as guardians of ancestral vaults and tombs. Unlike most liches, baelnorns are not necessarily evil. The creatures are less power-hungry and covetous than other liches, and they often keep their phylacteries in close proximity to the places they guard. A few baelnorn have no phylacteries at all; rather, their prolonged existence is achieved through a powerful ritual or the blessing of a deity.
Lich Thicket Dryad Lich: Sometimes a dryad’s desire to protect its woodland twists into dark obsession. In rare instances, one of these fey creatures crosses the threshold into undeath and becomes a thicket dryad lich. The dryad transforms a favorite tree into a phylactery. The corruption in the dryad’s soul then causes the tree to become warped and rotted.
Lich Void Lich: A void lich is an antediluvian horror from the Far Realm that seizes control of the body and phylactery of someone performing a lich transformation ritual. Lured into the world by the eldritch power unleashed during the ritual, this aberrant entity shunts the ritual performer’s soul off to the Far Realm and possesses the host body as its own.
Lich Alhoon Lich: Alhoons are magic-using outcasts from mind flayer societies who have defied the ruling elder brains.
Lich Demilich: Particularly powerful liches that learn the secret of fashioning soul gems often shed their bodies and evolve into demiliches.
Mummy: In general, any creature can become a mummy as long as its purpose is to guard an important location.
Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Powerful members of cults and secret organizations are responsible for their creation.
Mummy Deranged Champion: Deranged champions are foulspawn hulks that were turned into mummies by cultists who worship beings from the Far Realm.
Mummy Dark Pharaoh: The dark pharaoh is an eidolon infused with the souls of lords and kings and then animated through a divine ritual. This intelligent construct might have once existed to guard great treasures or secrets, but when the divine spark becomes corrupted, it twists the souls within the creature, turning the undead construct against mortals. The souls become a singular consciousness that believes itself to be a deity of death and tyranny, and so the creature searches the world for worshipers, killing all who refuse to follow it.
Mummy Scourge of Baphomet: A select few members of the minotaur cult of Baphomet are chosen to undergo the process that transforms a minotaur into this formidable kind of mummy. As a symbol of its dedication, the mummy’s horns and weapon are etched with runes of devotion to Baphomet.
Mummy Necrosphinx:
Mummy Champion: The Dungeon Master’s Guide indicates that mummy champions and mummy lords should be humanoids, but not every mummy has to follow this guideline. Certain nonhumanoid creatures make excellent mummies.
Mummy Lord: The Dungeon Master’s Guide indicates that mummy champions and mummy lords should be humanoids, but not every mummy has to follow this guideline. Certain nonhumanoid creatures make excellent mummies.
Mummy Darkflame Taskmaster: Darkflame taskmasters are the undead leaders of rogue groups of azers that worship Asmodeus.
Mummy Forsaken Heierophant: Forsaken hierophants are mummies of priests that were so depraved that the subject’s fellow death cultists killed and embalmed the priest. Rather than let the priest’s power be wasted, though, the other cultists instead transformed the subject into a guardian to watch over their most valuable stores of treasure and knowledge.
Nighthaunt: MALICIOUS, SINISTER CREATURES OF DARKNESS, nighthaunts are the cursed souls of those who have consumed food infused with necrotic energy.
The commonly held belief is that nighthaunts are bodiless souls whose progress across the Shadowfell was interrupted. Instead of dissipating, these itinerant spirits cloaked themselves in bodies of shadow.
The truth of nighthaunts’ creation lies in the history of the Black Tower of Vumerion, a former den of necromancy. Before Vumerion was destroyed, it produced many horrors, including an addictive black weed called corpse grass. When consumed, the weed infuses the eater with strength and joy. However, foul nightmares always follow the consumption of the grass.
Corpse grass has spread throughout the Shadowfell and into the world, and many have become addicted to its properties. Those who eat even a little of the grass—no matter what they achieved in life—become nighthaunts in death. The curse of the corpse grass fills these creatures with a raging hunger in death, a hunger that can be sated only through sucking the life out of living creatures.
The name “corpse grass” is a bit of a misnomer now, for since the initial creation of nighthaunts, the curse of the corpse grass has spread into other vegetation. When a nighthaunt has ingested enough life force, it finds a twilight-lit meadow or field and releases its energies into the grass, weeds, grains, nuts, and other vegetation. The vegetation continues to grow, gaining the properties of corpse grass and perpetuating the nighthaunt cycle.
Nighthaunt Slip: ?
Nighthaunt Whisperer: ?
Nighthaunt Shrine: ?
Oni Souleater: Oni souleaters are oni that have traded the warmth of life for longevity in death.
Oni Howling Spirit: Howling spirits are the souls of depraved oni that become trapped in the Shadowfell.
Ooze Undead: INFUSED WITH NECROTIC ENERGY, undead oozes are the congealed, slimy effluvia of living creatures that died horrible deaths.
Ooze Bloodrot: BLOODROT OOZES ARE UNDEAD JELLIES that form when humanoids are melted by acid.
Ooze Blood Amniote: BLOOD AMNIOTES ARE COMPOSED OF the congealed blood of hundreds of creatures that died in close proximity.
Scholars debate whether the blood amniote arises spontaneously or is crafted intentionally through necromantic rites and mass sacrifices.
Legend has it that priests of Orcus once unleashed a storm that rained burning blood on two opposing armies. The storm slew the soldiers, and from the blood-soaked ground arose blood amniotes.
Ooze Spirit Ooze: Spirit oozes are ravenous, incorporeal creatures that are created when wisps of matter from insubstantial undead congeal into a single amorphous entity.
Ooze Bone Collector: ?
Pale Reaver: Pale reavers are the undead spirits of humanoids that were killed because they betrayed a person or organization who trusted or relied upon them.
Pale Reaver Creeper: ?
Pale Reaver Lord: ?
Reaper: Common folk regard reapers as embodiments of death that escort souls to the Shadowfell, but their true nature is more sinister. Reapers are servants of Vecna, and they are sent out by the god and his followers to collect souls for profane rituals.
Reapers are failed undead imitations of the Raven Queen’s sorrowsworn. Although Vecna did not succeed in copying the powerful servants, he has nonetheless found use for reapers.
Reaper Entropic Reaper: ?
Reaper Abhorrent Reaper: ?
Skeleton: ALL SKELETONS ARISE FROM THE BONES of once-living creatures. That basic truth says little about the details of a particular skeleton, however. The character of the living creature, the manner of its death, the requirements of a necromancer, and the deceased’s former relationships—all these factors affect the nature and purpose of a skeleton.
Skeleton Skinwalker Skeleton: Skinwalker skeletons are produced when a necromancer grafts skin to animated bones.
Skeleton Skeletal Archer: Over a period of several weeks, skeletons can be trained in the use of bows to produce skeletal archers.
Skeleton Bonewretch Skeleton: ?
Skeleton Stonespawned Skeleton: Stonespawned skeletons are created when humanoids are crushed under tons of rock and left entombed in stone.
Skeleton Shattergloom Skeleton: Shattergloom skeletons are created in dark chambers where natural light cannot reach.
Skeleton Death Kin Skeleton: Death kin skeletons are siblings, kin, or lovers who died in a suicide pact or similar circumstance.
Skeleton Giant Skeletal Bat: Giant skeletal bats are the remains of riding bats that were abandoned by their masters in battle.
Skeleton Skeletal Hauler: Skeletal haulers are the remains of humanoid slaves and physical laborers.
Skeleton Spine Creek: Spine creep skeletons are the result of unjustly beheaded humanoids or those torn to pieces by an angry mob.
Skeleton Marrowshriek: Marrowshriek skeletons arise from victims of malnutrition and neglect, and they crave the marrow of the living.
Undead Aviary: Although some creatures of the undead aviary animate naturally, most are produced by necromancers.
Undead Aviary Skin Kite: Skin kites consist of skin flayed from torture victims that is spontaneously or intentionally animated.
Undead Aviary Accipitridae: Accipitridae are the corrupt product of vultures that feed on undead flesh. The undead flesh poisons and kills the vultures, and they reanimate as these cruel, avian monsters.
Undead Aviary Paralyth: MADE SENTIENT THROUGH FOUL MAGIC, a paralyth is the animated spine and brain of a humanoid.
Paralyths are created when necromancers extract the brains and spines from recent victims.
Undead Aviary Fear Moth: A fear moth is composed of thousands of living and dead moths that all died simultaneously from some cataclysm.
Undead Aviary Couatl Mockery: Couatl mockeries are masses of animated scales and feathers collected from slain couatls.
Abomination Discord Incarnate Create Couatl Mockery power.
Unrisen: RITUALS GO AWRY, AND WHEN the ritual is Raise Dead or a similar form of magic, the results can be grim. The ritual might appear to be a complete failure, yet the residual energy can sometimes raise the creature days after the initial attempt. When this happens, the subject emerges with its soul fragmented and corrupted. A pet comes back from the dead, but it is no longer the adorable feline the family once knew. A child returns, but it is vile and depraved, caring nothing for the people it once loved. No matter what form the creature took in its past life, it returns as a vile, twisted thing—it returns as an unrisen.
An unrisen is the corrupt result of a failed attempt to resurrect a beast or a humanoid. After the failed ritual, a short time passes after the creature is buried before it rises up to take revenge on nearby living creatures, which it views as responsible for its death.
The most common types of unrisen are children, pets, mounts, and figures of prominence in a community, such as mayors or priests. These figures are sorely missed upon their deaths, so companions of the people or creatures often go to great lengths to attempt to resurrect them.
Unrisen Vile Pet: ?
Unrisen Corrupted Offspring: ?
Unrisen Tainted Priest: ?
Unrisen Darkhoof: ?
Vampire Corpse Vampire: A living humanoid killed by the blood drain of a corpse vampire or a spirit vampire rises as a similar vampire at sunset on the following day. The new vampire has the level it had in life. Burning the slain creature’s body, decapitating that body, or reviving the slain creature can prevent this transformation.
A corpse vampire is the result when a humanoid cadaver is buried improperly, robbed of its burial possessions, or left in a place polluted by evil energy.
Vampire Spirit Vampire: A living humanoid killed by the blood drain of a corpse vampire or a spirit vampire rises as a similar vampire at sunset on the following day. The new vampire has the level it had in life. Burning the slain creature’s body, decapitating that body, or reviving the slain creature can prevent this transformation.
When a spirit vampire or a corpse vampire reduces a living humanoid to 0 hit points or fewer without killing it, the humanoid enters a deep coma. If treated with the Remove Affliction ritual, the humanoid can be healed normally. Otherwise, he or she dies at sunset the next day and becomes a spirit vampire.
Vampire Muse: ?
Wraith Wisp Wraith: wisp wraith is the result of a wraith that failed to form correctly when another wraith used spawn wraith.
Wraith Moon Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a moon wraith rises as a free-willed moon wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Moon wraiths are floating, crescent-shaped apparition that are created when a lycanthrope dies during its transformation.
Wraith Vortex Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a vortex wraith rises as a free-willed vortex wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
A vortex wraith rises when a person dies in a tornado or storm and the victim’s body is never found.
Wraith Oblivion Wraith: Any humanoid killed by an oblivion wraith rises as a free-willed oblivion wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
It is created when a person dies violently during an important life event, such as a wedding or a coronation.
Wrath of Nature: MOST PEOPLE LIVING IN CITIES MEAN WELL, but a certain amount of pollution is inevitable. Livestock overgraze, communities log and burn forests, and cities dump waste and alchemical byproducts into the streams. The land is forgiving, but sometimes when an area is so wrought with pollution and death, nature’s rage gives rise to a wrath of nature, a mindless embodiment of death.
Wrath of Nature Calvary Creekrotter: Calvary creekrotters arise as a result of extreme pollution in a river, lake, or part of the ocean. When the land dies away, nature rebels, animating the dead animals and vegetation to visit wrath upon civilization.
Some evil creatures, including corrupt druids, purposefully defile bodies of water in an attempt to create these monstrosities. They dump vile substances and waste into streams and rivers, killing life and upsetting the natural order.
Wrath of Nature Cindergrove Spirit: Cindergrove spirits arise at the edge of communities in which the verdant landscape was burned to make way for civilization.
Some corrupt creatures purposefully burn natural environments rich with life and beauty in an attempt to create these monstrosities.
Zombie Drowned One: Drowned ones are zombies that have been underwater for some time; their bloated and discolored flesh drips with foul water. Drowned ones are usually the animated corpses of humanoids who died at sea.
Zombie Carcass Eater: It is the result of a rodent that gorges on the rotting, necrotic flesh of a canine.
Zombie Putrescent Zombie: Putrescent zombies are created when necrotic energy mixes with abandoned or lost corpses. Also, a necromancer can use a dedicated ritual to create putrescent zombies.
Zombie Skulk Zombie: They are rumored to be animated by the will of Vecna, which gives them an abiding hatred for the living.
Zombie Corpse Rat Swarm: A corpse rat swarm is created when vast quantities of rats die together and are then infused with necrotic energy.
Zombie Dread Zombie: Dread zombies are created by powerful necromancers for war.
Zombie Dread Zombie Myrmidon: ?
Zombie Strahd's Dread Zombie: ?
Zombie Blood Sea Zombie: Blood sea zombies are believed to have been a creation of the demon prince, Demogorgon.
Zombie Wrathborn: A wrathborn is a decaying and ravaged victim of homicide. Wrathborn are undead avengers, returned from the grave to track down and kill their murderers.
Zombie Throng: The throng consists of the body parts and whole bodies of people killed en masse, often as a result of a disease outbreak.
Acererak Construct: Acererak’s skull, which dwells in the mithral vault of the Tomb of Horrors, is a construct created by the demilich.
Acererak: ?
Ctenmiir Human Vampire: Ctenmiir was a paladin who chose to become a vampire in the pursuit of longevity
Kas the Betrayer: ?
Blackstar Knight: BLACKSTAR KNIGHTS ARE UNDEAD SPIRITS housed in vessels of animate black stone.
These blank-faced stone warriors house souls bound to their rocky forms. The ritual for creating them remains a deeply guarded secret, and possibly one that Kas no longer controls.
Kyuss: Kyuss began as a mortal and attained such power and stature that he has become a legendary being. He leveraged his way to a corrupt apotheosis through powerful rituals and a series of deadly betrayals.
Kyuss was born a mortal in a city where evil walked freely, and where sacrifices were made nightly to honor dark gods. The boundaries between life and death were blurred in this place, and the living and unliving mingled freely. As the seventh of seven children, Kyuss was despised and brutalized by his family. They called him “the worm,” and Kyuss fed on their contempt, turning it into dark resolve.
Gradually and imperceptibly, Kyuss drove the members of his family to self-destruction. When all were dead, he took on the identity of a cleric serving the Raven Queen. Aided by alliances with undead ecclesiasts and an instinct for betrayal, he rose through the temple hierarchy, eventually becoming a high priest who attracted followers from far and wide. When his congregation was bloated with followers, Kyuss performed a great ritual that he promised would bring power over neighboring realms. Instead, the ritual slew them all, rotting the flesh from their bones. Kyuss, too, was consumed, but days later, as the maggots and insects fed on the rotting bodies, they came together to form a writhing larva mage—Kyuss’s new form.
Wormspawn Praetorian: PONDEROUS WARRIORS CRAFTED from the cast-off maggots and vermin of Kyuss and similar large larva creatures, wormspawn praetorians fight with unflinching devotion to their creator.
A humanoid killed by Kyuss rises as a wormspawn praetorian at the start of Kyuss’s next turn.
Osterneth the Bronze Lich: Osterneth had a surprise for the invaders, though. In her quest for eldritch might, the queen had tracked down and slain the leader of the cult that had captured her. From the fallen cultist she claimed the Heart of Vecna, a powerful relic that granted everlasting life. Through a secret ritual, she placed the heart inside her chest cavity, and, with its power, became a powerful lich in the service of Vecna.
Count Strahd von Zarovich: Filled with despair, jealousy, and a growing hatred for his younger brother Sergei, Strahd sought magical means to restore his youth in the hope of earning the love of Tatyana, his brother’s betrothed. In a moment of desperate frustration, he performed a powerful necromantic ritual that exchanged his mortality for enduring youth in a state of undeath: Strahd became a vampire.
Aspect of Vecna: CONJURED BY MEANS OF A RITUAL known only to devotees of Vecna, an aspect of Vecna heeds its summoner and resembles the Whispered One in cunning and intelligence.
Cult of Vecna Undead Vecna Cultist: Cultists of Vecna often undergo profane rites that transform them into undead. These cultists are the most dedicated followers of Vecna.
Infected Zombie: When a virulent plague rips though the land, sometimes the plague’s victims rise up from death. These creatures become agents of the plague, spreading infection through their diseased bite.
“Infected zombie” is a template you can apply to any zombie. The template represents a specialized kind of zombie that spreads sickness and disease.
Prerequisites: Zombie
Shadow Spirit: In the bleak, desolate corners of the Shadowfell, and in parts of the world where the Shadowfell bleeds over, sometimes death doesn’t represent the end of a creature’s existence. When a creature dies in one of these places, its soul is trapped, transforming the creature into a shadow spirit.
“Shadow spirit” is a template you can apply to any living beast, humanoid or magical beast.
Prerequisites: Living beast, living humanoid, or living magical beast
Spawn of Kyuss: A spawn of Kyuss is created when an infection from a particular species of necrotic burrowing worms kills its host and transforms the creature into an undead monstrosity.
Akin to larva undead, spawns of Kyuss were the Bonemaster’s first experiments in the creation of larva- and worm-infused creatures. These larval zombies typically lack the subtlety and power of larva undead, but the strength and virulence of their attacks makes them nonetheless formidable.
“Spawn of Kyuss” is a template you can apply to any beast, humanoid, or magical beast. Although the template is most often applied to living creatures, this is not a prerequisite. The infection can afflict virtually any kind of creature, but it typically infects strong subjects that can best spread the disease.
Prerequisites: Level 11, and beast, humanoid, or magical beast.
Spirit Possessed: Some spirits can inhabit and control living creatures. These creatures hide among the living, aping the actions of the host. Under this guise, a spirit works covertly toward its malicious goals.
“Spirit possessed” is a template you can apply to a living creature to represent a subject whose body is possessed by an undead spirit.
Prerequisites: Living creature, level 11, Charisma 13
Vampire Thrall: Vampire spawn are useful servants, but sometimes a vampire requires servants that are more hardy and subtle. By feeding on a subject’s blood over an extended period of time, a vampire can condition a creature to be a strong yet obedient servant.
“Vampire thrall” is a template you can apply to any living humanoid to represent that creature’s service to a vampire lord.
Prerequisites: Living humanoid
Bodak: Nightwalkers create bodaks and use them as assassins.
Create Couatl Mockeries (minor; recharge ⚄ ⚅)
Four couatl mockeries appear within 10 squares of the discord incarnate and act as it wishes. They take their turns directly after the discord incarnate in the initiative order.
Reanimating Ray (Necrotic): Ranged 10; +19 vs. Fortitude; 2d10 + 5 necrotic damage. If the target is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, the target rises as a horde ghoul under the beholder death tyrant’s control at the end of the death tyrant’s next turn.
Cemetery Rot Level 11 Disease
A disease carried by the rotting, corrupted remains of small pets and animals, cemetery rot withers away the body, leaving a empty, mindless husk that hungers for flesh.
Attack: +14 vs. Fortitude
Endurance improve 22, maintain DC 17, worsen DC 16 or lower
The target is cured.
! Initial Effect: The target cannot regain hit points from powers that have the healing keyword.
!" The target’s Fortitude is reduced by 2 until the target is cured. Each time the target fails to improve from this step, the target’s Fortitude drops another 2.
" Final State: When the target’s Fortitude reaches 0, it dies and rises as a zombie.
Worms of Kyuss Level 11+ Disease
Delivered by the infectious touch of a spawn of Kyuss, this disease transforms its victim into a malicious undead, larval creature.
The target is cured.
! Initial Effect: The target regains only half the normal hit points from healing effects.
" Final State: The target regains only half the normal hit points from healing effects. In addition, each time the afflicted creature fails to improve, it takes 5 necrotic damage that cannot be cured until the disease is removed. If the afflicted creature dies, it immediately rises as a level-equivalent spawn of Kyuss.
ONYX SKULL
The onyx skull is carved in the shape of a human skull of about half normal size. It is icy cold to the touch. A successful DC 20 Arcana check reveals that the carved skull was originally part of a larger item, perhaps serving as the headpiece of a staff or rod. In its current state, the skull has only a fraction of its former power. It is fragile and subject to easy destruction. Destroying the skull breaks it into several fragments. The fragments are free from any evil taint, and the largest piece of onyx retains some value as a gem (90 gp).
A successful DC 20 Religion check reveals that despite its incomplete state, the skull emanates a necromantic influence that reaches outward in subtle waves. The influence causes nearby corpses to spontaneously animate and calls already animated undead to it.
If the skull remains intact at the conclusion of the “Underground Crypt” encounter, the details of how it works (how many undead it animates, and how often) are left up to you.
As an item of arcane interest to mages and collectors, the unbroken skull has monetary value (250 gp), not to mention the worth it might represent to evil creatures and necromancers. However, anyone who transports the skull risks being visited by a large collection of undead.
Open Grave Secrets of the Undead
4e
Vampire: And once a vampire has drained the life of a victim, it exhibits the most horrifying ability of all: The shell of its victim animates, turning into another of the walking dead.
Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead, made the first vampires in the image of blood fiends, who are themselves made in the image of Haemnathuun.
Undead: Theories abound regarding the origin and creation of undead, from the hushed tales told by simple peasants to the exotic research performed by sages and wizards. None agree, and only one fact is certain: Undead exist in the world and have since time immemorial.
The origin of undead can be traced back to a time eons ago, when the primordials thrived before the first foundations of the world were even a rumor. Immortal in the sense that they knew no age and withstood any hurt, these were beings of manifest entropy.
In these earliest days, souls shorn of their bodies simply departed the cosmos, taken to a place beyond all reckoning. When the primordials first crafted the world, they had little regard for the fate of souls. But some among them recognized soul power as a potent force, and they hungered for it. These entities stopped up the passage of souls. With nowhere to go, many souls were either consumed by primordials that had a taste for such spiritual fare, or, finding no further road or final purpose, sputtered out and dissipated, gone forever. Others persisted, becoming undead.
Sentient living creatures have a body and a soul, the latter of which is the consciousness that exists in and departs from the body when it perishes. A body’s “life force” that drives a creature’s muscles and emotions is called the animus. The animus provides vitality and mobility for a creature, and like the soul, it fades from the body after death. Unlike the soul, it fades from the body as the body rots.
If “revived” in the proper fashion, the animus can rouse the body in the absence of a soul. (This phenomenon is what makes it possible for creatures that were never alive, such as constructs, to become undead.) In some cases, the animus can even exist apart from the body as a cruel memory of life. Such impetus can come from necromantic magic, a corrupting supernatural influence at the place of death or interment, or a locale’s connection to the Shadowfell. Strong desires, beliefs, or emotions on the part of the deceased can also tap into the magic of the world to give the animus power.
Most undead, even those that seem intelligent, are this sort of creature—driven to inhuman behavior by lack of governance of a soul and a hunger for life that can’t be sated. Nearly mindless undead have been infused with just enough impetus to give the remains mobility but little else. Sentient undead have a stronger animus that might even have access to the memories of the deceased, but such monstrosities have few or none of the sympathies they had in life. A wight has a body and a feral awareness granted by the animus, but no soul. Even the dreaded wraith is simply a soulless animus, deeply corrupted and infused with strong necromantic energy.
The Shadowfell most often serves as the source of this impetus. In the Shadowfell, bodiless spirits are common, as are undead. Something within this echo-plane’s dreary nature nurtures undead. This shadowstuff can “leak” into a dying creature as that being passes away. It can be introduced by necromantic powers or rituals. Or it can be siphoned into areas strongly associated with death, pooling there.
Some undead retain their souls after the death of the body. Rituals allow this sort of transformation. A potent destiny or vigorous enough strength of will sometimes enables (or forces) a creature to transcend death.
When most living creatures think about how undead come into being, they connect the origin of undead with the animation of a dead body. That said, undead are actually “born” in a variety of ways.
Powerfully evil acts resonate with such force that they can ripple across dimensions and open cracks in reality, permitting malevolent entities to escape into the mortal world. These entities seek out corporeal flesh, in particular the recently vacated vessels of the damned. Once inside the host, these spirits corrupt the animus, granting the corpse a semblance of life.
An evil, perverse, and intelligent creature can be reborn into undeath when the influence of the animus revives the memories of the vessel’s previous host, although the soul of the creature is not present—these sorts of undead are just particularly wily animus-driven undead.
At other times, atrocious deeds call dark spirits into the cadaver of the newly deceased, leaving the original soul intact. Sometimes, good souls can be trapped within their bodies, to be slowly turned to evil as the depraved spirits corrupt the soul.
Sites where evil creatures lair or where evil artifacts are stored can act as strong catalysts in the creation of undead. Undead so created are usually mindless animate corpses. Sometimes they are more powerful, soul-bearing undead whose spirits were corrupted while they lived in an area of tainted ground, and thus the creatures fell directly into undeath when their bodies succumbed.
Though some believe that some kind of fell power energizes animate creatures, it is more accurate to say that the animus or spirit resident in a walking corpse provides an undead creature with the requisite motive force for movement, and perhaps enough additional force to talk and even reason, and—most important—enough animation to prey on other creatures.
Dark deeds conducted by others can serve as a trigger for unlife, especially if such deeds accrue over months or years in one particular location. Such an area, more than any other, is worthy of the term “tainted by evil,” though the religious-minded sometimes call such areas unsanctified ground.
When a living creature is drained to death by evil agencies, the husk of the body becomes a shell that is particularly susceptible to the influence of unlife. When an undead creature is responsible for draining the life force from a living creature, the creation of a new undead from the dead flesh is not assured, but the door is certainly open for unclean spirits to move into the recently evacuated house of the body.
A few particularly abhorrent undead carry a powerful contagion that, when transferred to mortals, causes them to weaken and die at an alarming rate, rising as undead in a matter of hours unless a cure is rapidly administered. Once a creature is infected in this manner, little can be done to save him or her from becoming undead.
Some obsessed knowledge-seekers pursue the spark of life too far, and thereby discover the dark fruits of undeath. They seek death’s secrets because of their fear of death, thinking that if they can come to understand mortality, their fear will be extinguished and their survival assured. Those who tread this road to its conclusion sometimes embrace death completely, and do not become so much immortal as simply enduring.
Sometimes undead are created when corpse parts are sewn together to form a great amalgam of death. Then, when the composite corpse is touched with lightning and the proper reanimation ritual performed, an undead creature rises, its mind rotted but its flesh strong with the animus of several beings. Such creatures share some external visual similarities to flesh golems, but are different in ability and origin.
All undead were once living beings, in that they had a soul. Soulless constructs do not and cannot become undead.
Some necromancers use the arcane power source to fuel their magic, while others call upon the power of shadow to effect their dim miracles. Still others animate undead by the power of the divine, calling on fell gods to raise legions of bound wraiths to their will.
Some undead are born as a result of sheer force of will. These rare individuals staved off the afterlife by harnessing the great power of their soul (or ki). Rarer still, other undead abominations call upon the great psionic powers of the mind to cheat death.
Several varieties of undead can create new unliving progeny. Taking a broader view, undead self-propagation might be regarded as an infectious disease: It is nasty, it is easily spread, and it kills its hosts.
Unless they seek to animate the bodies of the dead, living beings should know better than to bury bodies in the Shadowfell. Though rituals exist to keep a corpse temporarily free of unlife, it’s better not to chance such things. Even when such rituals are used, corpses (whether buried or left behind untended) are likely to rise in the Shadowfell as shambling dead. Evil individuals are certain to rise as particularly nasty soulless monsters. In the world, only the most horrific and ruthless murderers return as specters, but in the Shadowfell, any death might spawn such a wicked undead.
Because all souls pass through this dim realm upon the death of their bodies, Shadow’s taint can corrupt these soul vestiges before they find their way to the Court of the Raven Queen in Letherna, forging sad spirits into ghosts and other insubstantial undead.
A decade ago, evil humans inhabited the valley where the cemetery of Kravenghast Necropolis now stands. Obsessed with death, the people performed living sacrifices on the tops of the mountains that frame both ends of the valley. They buried the mangled remains of the sacrifices in unhallowed graves in a central cemetery. Over time, the sacrifice victims rose as undead, though they were confined to the place of their burial.
When the Tower of Zoramadria was moved across the Feywild through a ritual, the life force of many of its inhabitants was drained off to power that ritual. Many of Zoramadria’s students that escaped permanent destruction did so only by embracing undeath.
The preservation fluid within a brain’s jar is a valuable alchemical material, especially useful for crafting undead.
Most undead animate spontaneously or arise through profane rituals. A few mortals willingly become undead, though, viewing the condition as a form of immortality.
Vecna: Vecna, the god of magic, necromancy, and secrets, pursued undeath as part of his rise to godhood.
Wight: A wight has a body and a feral awareness granted by the animus, but no soul.
Wraith: Even the dreaded wraith is simply a soulless animus, deeply corrupted and infused with strong necromantic energy.
Wraiths have a similar thirst for mortal souls, using the resulting energy to spawn their dreadful progeny.
Areas tainted by necromantic seepage in the Shadowfell spawn wraiths.
Any humanoid killed by a wraith rises as a free-willed wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Most wraiths spawn more of their kind when they murder a humanoid.
Ghost: Sentient ghosts are the most common of the undead that retain their souls without resorting to necromantic rituals. They have a purpose that fetters them to the world, even if it’s only to spread misery or wreak vengeance.
Because all souls pass through this dim realm upon the death of their bodies, Shadow’s taint can corrupt these soul vestiges before they find their way to the Court of the Raven Queen in Letherna, forging sad spirits into ghosts and other insubstantial undead.
Death Knight: Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Death knights are warriors that accepted undeath as a way to circumvent mortality.
Lich: Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Some obsessed knowledge-seekers pursue the spark of life too far, and thereby discover the dark fruits of undeath. They seek death’s secrets because of their fear of death, thinking that if they can come to understand mortality, their fear will be extinguished and their survival assured. Those who tread this road to its conclusion sometimes embrace death completely, and do not become so much immortal as simply enduring. Spellcasters who adopt this existence are commonly known as liches.
MANY CREATURES HOPE TO ESCAPE DEATH. When such creatures are powerful and corrupt, they sometimes turn to rituals that can transform them into liches. However, immortality comes with a price, and these creatures lose the remaining shreds of their humanity in process.
Most undead animate spontaneously or arise through profane rituals. A few mortals willingly become undead, though, viewing the condition as a form of immortality. These liches gain resilience from the transformation.
Vampire Lord: The vampire lord template is one example of an undead created by life drain.
Infected Zombie: A few particularly abhorrent undead carry a powerful contagion that, when transferred to mortals, causes them to weaken and die at an alarming rate, rising as undead in a matter of hours unless a cure is rapidly administered. Once a creature is infected in this manner, little can be done to save him or her from becoming undead. The infected zombie template can be used to create undead that spread such contagion.
High Preceptor: ?
Sceptenar Vasabhkati: Sceptenar Vasabhakti, daughter of the late ruler of Khatiroon, rules the southern province of Hantumah. Once a kind and benevolent princess, Vasabhakti was possessed and corrupted by the undead forces that overtook her homeland.
Specter: In the world, only the most horrific and ruthless murderers return as specters, but in the Shadowfell, any death might spawn such a wicked undead.
Specters that arise from slain mortals twisted by insanity often produce auras that outwardly manifest the fragmented condition of their minds.
Skeleton: The carved skull buried in one of the old crypts has pulsed back to unlife. Its wakening will attract undead miles away from Col Fen. Unless the skull is destroyed, it will become a magnet for undead from distant places, while at the same time animating skeletons and zombies from the graveyard of Col Fen.
Zombie: The carved skull buried in one of the old crypts has pulsed back to unlife. Its wakening will attract undead miles away from Col Fen. Unless the skull is destroyed, it will become a magnet for undead from distant places, while at the same time animating skeletons and zombies from the graveyard of Col Fen.
When a corpse vampire kills a living humanoid by a means other than blood drain, that humanoid rises as a zombie of its level at sunset the next day.
Cemetery Rot disease.
Pale Reaver: ?
Decrepit Skeleton: ?
Zombie Rotter: ?
Ghoul: ?
Skulk Zombie: ?
Gravehound: ?
Corruption Corpse: A living humanoid killed by a deathdog rises as a free-willed corruption corpse at the end of its creator’s next turn.
Deathdogs are creatures of the Shadowfell that transform their prey into corruption corpses.
Chillborn Zombie: The thousands of deaths that took place on the Downs transformed this battlefield into a place where the walls between the world and the Shadowfell are weak. People who die here reanimate as undead. This is what happened to Tirian Forkbeard.
Humanoid creatures in the Downs (the entire area shown on the full-page map) who are reduced to 5 or fewer hit points take on a pale, waxy complexion. Their veins darken and become visible through their increasingly translucent flesh. An opaque glaze dulls their eyes, and their eyes remain open even while they are unconscious.
Humanoid creatures who die transform into chillborn zombies.
If any PCs die here, you can delay their transformation until after surviving PCs have defeated their current enemies or fled the field if things are going poorly for them. Otherwise, a dead comrade rises 1 round after death. It turns on living PCs, acting last in initiative order. It has full hit points as a chillborn zombie.
Victims of zombie transformation can, after being reduced to 0 hit points, be restored to life by a Raise Dead ritual. A player whose character became a zombie can choose to roleplay the character as haunted by hazy memories of the undead state or to shrug off the incident entirely.
Creature powers that raise slain enemies as undead (such as spawn wraith) supersede the zombie breeding ground effect.
Gibbering Head: This head is all that remains of one of the leaders of the long-ago battle, impaled here as a trophy of sorts and a warning to other enemies. Long exposure to the taint of this area has infused it with malefic abilities.
Zombie Hulk: ?
Mad Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a mad wraith rises as a free-willed mad wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Dread Zombie: ?
Skeleton Soldier: ?
Chillborn Zombie: ?
Rotwing Zombie: ?
Carcass Eater: ?
Skull Lord: ?
Putrescent Zombie: ?
Boneclaw: Boneclaws are vicious undead created by dark powers to hunt the foes of their creators. The ritual to create boneclaws is jealously guarded by the few casters that know it.
Ssra-Tauroch: As Ssra-Tauroch’s reign extended into decades and the rigors of time weakened his once mighty frame, he requested a great boon from Zehir: the gift of immortality. Ssra-Tauroch, the empire, and its yuan-ti citizenry were devout followers of the god of poison and serpents. The monarch’s lifetime of service to the serpent lord had not gone unnoticed. Zehir sent a dark angel to the aging monarch who taught him the secret knowledge of mummification.
Upon completing the ritual, Ssra-Tauroch retreated to his inner sanctum.
Yuan-Ti Abomination Mummy Lord: ?
Bone Naga: ?
Wrath Spirit: ?
Corrupted Yuan-Ti Malison Incanters: ?
Slaughter Wight: ?
Sword Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a sword wraith rises as a free-willed sword wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Any humanoid killed by Kravenghast rises as a free-willed sword wraith at the start of Kravenghast’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Kravenghast: ?
Mauthereign, Human Lich: ?
Undead Vecna Cultist: ?
Pavan, Aboleth Overseer Lich: ?
Abyssal Ghoul Myrmidons: ?
Parthal Archlich: ?
Dread Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a dread wraith rises as a free-willed dread wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Oreiax: Doresain the Ghoul King found hints of Syvexrae’s plans in her deteriorating mind as he fed upon her mind daily. After millennia of collating clues from her mind, Doresain discovered the location of the massive egg in the mortal world. Doresain infused the egg with demonic ichor and necromantic vitality. The child in the egg tore out of the shell ages before his time, emerging as a stunted sliver of the enormous entity he should have been. Doresain named the child Oreiax, from the Abyssal words for “always hungry.”
Rot Slinger Captain: ?
Larva Mage: ?
Harrowzau the Unborn: ?
Harrowzau the God Swallower: ?
Abomination: AGELESS THOUGH THEY ARE, IMMORTALS CAN DIE, and when they do, some return as twisted remnants of what they once were. Most abominations were created as weapons in the war between the gods and the primordials, but a scarce few have arisen spontaneously out of the chaotic forces of the universe.
Abomination Rotvine Defiler: A profane vestige of a powerful immortal devoted to fertility, the rotvine defiler seeks to destroy that which it has lost—life.
A rotvine defiler is the profane remnant of an immortal devoted to nature or agriculture. The corrupted immortals were slain and sealed under the ground, where the seeds of evil caused them to return to life and outwardly manifest their malevolence.
A rotvine defiler arises when a creature makes a sacrifice over the monster’s earthly tomb, breaking the seals containing it. The creature usually retains none of its original intelligence or memories
Abomination Discord Incarnate: AT THE DAWN OF CREATION, mighty couatls—winged serpents of purity and virtue—strove to bind evil elementals and fiends. The titanic spiritual struggle sometimes resulted in the death of both entities and brought about a terrible fusion of body and spirit. From these morbid unions arose discord incarnates—perverse abominations bent on wanton destruction.
Discord incarnates arose during the cosmic war between the gods and the primordials.
Scholars speculate that a discord incarnate spontaneously arises from the clash of two powerful, opposing forces—a powerful demon and a couatl. Some experts suggest that the profane union is the work of a now-forgotten god or primordial that saw benefit in the creation of the twisted monstrosities.
Beholder Undead: BEHOLDERS ARE AMONG THE MOST FEARED and deadly monsters to prowl the world. Yet even beholders succumb to death, and when they do, necromancers sometimes find use in their vile remains.
Beholder Undead Bloodkiss Beholder: The necrotic forces that reanimate a bloodkiss beholder warp and change the creature’s flesh, making the monster barely akin to its living counterpart.
Beholder Undead Beholder Death Tyrant: A death tyrant beholder is an animated corpse of an eye tyrant.
Horde Ghoul: Beholder Undead Beholder Death Tyrant Reanimating Ray power.
Blaspheme: CRAFTED FROM PIECES OF CORPSES and given life through alchemy and magic, blasphemes are intelligent, cunning undead.
Blasphemes are created from pieces of multiple corpses. Through carefully guarded rituals, these crafted forms are given life or, in a few cases, infused with the creator’s intelligence.
Blaspheme Unohly Slayer: ?
Blaspheme Grave Chill Blaspheme: ?
Blaspheme Entomber: ?
Blaspheme Disciple: ?
Blaspheme Imperfect: ?
Blaspheme Knight: ?
Blaspheme Soul Vessel: ?
Bone Yard: A BONE YARD IS A MASS OF ANIMATED BONES that rises up due to a tragedy, massacre, or desecration.
Bone Yard Charnel Cinderhouse: Charnel cinderhouses arise when a conflagration consumes a building and kills the inhabitants.
Bone Yard Pit of the Abandoned Regiment: BORN OF THE ROTTING, SKELETAL REMAINS of soldiers left to die after battle, the pit of the abandoned regiment is a force driven by hatred and revenge.
This creature is the amalgamated remains of a regiment of soldiers that was left to die after a battle.
Bone Yard Desecration: A DESECRATION IS THE ANIMATED REMAINS of a desecrated cemetery.
This creature arises when a cemetery is desecrated by the community that created it.
Brain in a Jar: A BRAIN IN A JAR IS THE PRESERVED BRAIN of a sinister being who sought to escape death. Through ritual magic and complicated alchemical processes, the brain is kept alive, retaining all the memories and mental faculties of its former host.
Different kinds of brains in jars exist, though each is created using the same principles.
Brain in a Jar Brain in a Broken Jar: A brain in a broken jar is created through incomplete rituals, spoiling fluids, or damaged containers.
Brain in a Jar Brain in an Armored Jar: ?
Brain in a Jar Exalted Brain in a Jar: This is a brain taken from a powerful creature by devotees to preserve the subject’s knowledge and wisdom.
Crawling Claw: THIS SEVERED HAND OR PAW has been animated by foul magic.
Crawling claws are severed hands, feet, or paws that have been animated by necromantic rituals or by spontaneous necrotic energy.
The most basic crawling claw is crafted from any hand or paw.
Crawling Claw Crawling Gauntlet: Crawling gauntlets are severed hands enchanted or trained to serve as minions.
Crawling Claw Swarm: Crawling claw swarms are the result of numerous severed limbs lost in a horrible battle. Sometimes the limbs animate on their own; other times, necromancers sweep a battlefield for useful pieces.
Crawling Claw Lich Claw: Liches that want to humiliate and dominate their rivals seek out other liches to acquire pieces to make lich claws. Many lich claws occur spontaneously, due to the saturation of necrotic energy in the chambers of defeated liches.
Crawling Claw Dragonclaw Swarm: Dragonclaw swarms are the result of necromantic experiments with dragon bones.
Deathtritus: THE PRESENCE OF NECROTIC ENERGY can animate flesh, but it can also give unlife to refuse and residue, forming a deathtritus.
Deathtritus Tomb Mote: Tomb motes are made up of the animated bone, dust, hair, and flesh particles that accumulate in tombs. They are usually found in areas filled with necrotic energy.
Deathtritus Offalian: Composed of the butchered flesh, rotting organs, and pungent fluids of humanoids and livestock, these snakelike creatures crave the taste of fresh meat.
Offalians are undead serpents that form when people or animals are senselessly butchered and left to rot. They are composed of the organs and bodily fluids of the slain creatures.
Deathtritus Osteopede: CREATED FROM DIRT, DUST, AND CRUSHED BONE, the osteopede is a centipedelike creature that skitters rapidly across the ground. The creature is infused with necrotic energy, which it releases with each bite and each slash of its jagged legs.
Osteopedes are undead centipedes that form from dirt and bone in places of death. They also sometimes arise from pastures where bone fragments were used as fertilizer.
Deathtritus Dragonscale Slough: THIS SLITHERING PILE OF MOLTED SCALES often forms where a dragon has died or has spent a considerable amount of time.
A dragonscale slough is made of the animated flesh and scales that fall from dragons.
Forsaken Shell: A FORSAKEN SHELL IS SKIN RIPPED from a creature’s body and then animated purposefully or spontaneously by foul magic.
When a forsaken shell kills a Medium living humanoid creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed forsaken shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Forsaken shells arise when skin is ripped from the flesh of a living target. The flesh is then animated either through the actions of a necromancer or through spontaneous necrotic energy.
Forsaken shells propagate their kind by ripping the skin off their victims, assimilating it, and then exuding it as a new monster. In this way, one forsaken shell can spawn thousands of its kind, creating an army of animate skin.
Numerous kinds of forsaken shells exist. Each kind of creature victimized by a forsaken shell has the potential to become a new kind of shell. Humans, giants, and dragons are the most common targets of forsaken shells.
Forsaken Shell Dragon Shell: When the forsaken shell kills a living dragon creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed dragon shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Forsaken Shell Titan Shell: When a titan shell kills a Large living humanoid creature, the slain creature rises as a free-willed titan shell at the start of its creator’s next turn.
Ghost Poltergeist: ?
Ghost Servile Ghost: A servile ghost arises when a servant or lackey dies an ignoble death as a consequence of its master’s actions. Such deaths are often a result of betrayal or carelessness on the master’s part.
Ghost Drowned Ghost: Drowned ghosts are the spirits of those who died watery deaths.
Ghost Malicious Ghost: Malicious ghosts arise from children who die frightened or alone. Enraged that no one saved its life, the ghost of the child becomes a creature of unquenchable malice.
Ghost Watchful Ghost: Watchful ghosts are the spirits of guards killed in the line of duty while failing to protect their charges.
The apparition is the restless spirit of Ammaradon, a member of the old king’s guard who failed to prevent the king’s assassination. Tormented by this unforgivable lapse, he now guards the king’s sarcophagus.
Ghost Wrath Spirit: A wrath spirit arises when a violent individual dies while enraged.
Ghost Caller in Darkness: A caller in darkness is created from the spirits of dozens of victims who died together in terror.
Ghost Famine Spirit: Famine spirits are spectral remnants of people who shortened their lives through gluttony, who hoarded food while others starved, or who died of starvation.
Ghoul Sodden Ghoul: A sodden ghoul arises when an aquatic humanoid that engages in cannibalism dies. Sodden ghouls are also created through deliberate rituals by evil aquatic creatures, such as bog hags, kuo-toas, sahuagin, and aboleths.
Ghoul Sodden Ghoul Wailer: ?
Ghoul Stench Ghoul: A stench ghoul is the result of a cannibalistic humanoid who dies after consuming the rancid flesh of another humanoid.
Ghoul Wretched Stench Ghoul: ?
Ghoul Darkpact Ghoul: Darkpact ghouls are the product of corrupt individuals who are cursed to return in undeath. They lose all sanity in the transformation, replacing it with predatory cunning. A few darkpact ghouls are dead warlocks who made pacts with sinister forces to extend their lives without realizing the form they would take upon death.
Hound Death: SOME TYPES OF HOUNDS ARE ANIMATED canine corpses, and a few are creatures of shadow that have canine forms. The association these creatures have with death has gained them the name death hounds.
Hound Death Rot Hound: These creatures are the result of dogs that dig up and eat rotting corpses. The dogs grow sick and slowly rot from the inside out, eventually dying and reanimating due to necromantic energy in an area.
Hound Death Famine Hound: Famine hounds arise when dogs are abandoned by their masters and left to starve.
Hound Death Charnel Hound: Charnel hounds are the unholy result of necromantic experiments. Evil ritualists fuse corpses together to create this vicious, predatory dog.
Larva Undead: Individuals who have relentlessly pursued evil might return as larva undead.
Larva Undead Larva Assassin: A larva assassin is a conscienceless killer that arises when a humanoid dies after spending his or her life murdering without pity. When the individual’s body begins to decay, a swarm of hornets and centipedes gathers to devour the corpse. Necrotic energy merges the vermin with the consciousness of the former humanoid, creating a larva assassin.
Larva Undead Larva Sniper: Larva snipers are the result of dead humanoids who took sadistic delight in their ability to slay foes from afar. Upon such a creature’s death, masses of yellow, segmented wasps and hornets gather and give the creature’s consciousness a physical form.
Larva Undead Larva War Master: Larva war masters are the undead progeny of powerful warriors who become unhinged by bloodlust, commit strings of atrocities, and then die. Upon the subject’s death, its body is consumed by devouring beetles that strip flesh from bone and then form a new body.
The ancient undead entity Kyuss rewarded his most faithful and remorseless warriors with eternal existence as larva war masters.
Lich Baelnorn Lich: Eladrin become baelnorn liches for a variety of reasons. Many choose this path so they can act as guardians of ancestral vaults and tombs. Unlike most liches, baelnorns are not necessarily evil. The creatures are less power-hungry and covetous than other liches, and they often keep their phylacteries in close proximity to the places they guard. A few baelnorn have no phylacteries at all; rather, their prolonged existence is achieved through a powerful ritual or the blessing of a deity.
Lich Thicket Dryad Lich: Sometimes a dryad’s desire to protect its woodland twists into dark obsession. In rare instances, one of these fey creatures crosses the threshold into undeath and becomes a thicket dryad lich. The dryad transforms a favorite tree into a phylactery. The corruption in the dryad’s soul then causes the tree to become warped and rotted.
Lich Void Lich: A void lich is an antediluvian horror from the Far Realm that seizes control of the body and phylactery of someone performing a lich transformation ritual. Lured into the world by the eldritch power unleashed during the ritual, this aberrant entity shunts the ritual performer’s soul off to the Far Realm and possesses the host body as its own.
Lich Alhoon Lich: Alhoons are magic-using outcasts from mind flayer societies who have defied the ruling elder brains.
Lich Demilich: Particularly powerful liches that learn the secret of fashioning soul gems often shed their bodies and evolve into demiliches.
Mummy: In general, any creature can become a mummy as long as its purpose is to guard an important location.
Death knights, liches, mummies, and vampires are created by rituals or processes that tie the soul to an unliving form. Similar creatures could be created in different circumstances. Such diversity among undead reflects the fact that death touches every part of existence.
Powerful members of cults and secret organizations are responsible for their creation.
Mummy Deranged Champion: Deranged champions are foulspawn hulks that were turned into mummies by cultists who worship beings from the Far Realm.
Mummy Dark Pharaoh: The dark pharaoh is an eidolon infused with the souls of lords and kings and then animated through a divine ritual. This intelligent construct might have once existed to guard great treasures or secrets, but when the divine spark becomes corrupted, it twists the souls within the creature, turning the undead construct against mortals. The souls become a singular consciousness that believes itself to be a deity of death and tyranny, and so the creature searches the world for worshipers, killing all who refuse to follow it.
Mummy Scourge of Baphomet: A select few members of the minotaur cult of Baphomet are chosen to undergo the process that transforms a minotaur into this formidable kind of mummy. As a symbol of its dedication, the mummy’s horns and weapon are etched with runes of devotion to Baphomet.
Mummy Necrosphinx:
Mummy Champion: The Dungeon Master’s Guide indicates that mummy champions and mummy lords should be humanoids, but not every mummy has to follow this guideline. Certain nonhumanoid creatures make excellent mummies.
Mummy Lord: The Dungeon Master’s Guide indicates that mummy champions and mummy lords should be humanoids, but not every mummy has to follow this guideline. Certain nonhumanoid creatures make excellent mummies.
Mummy Darkflame Taskmaster: Darkflame taskmasters are the undead leaders of rogue groups of azers that worship Asmodeus.
Mummy Forsaken Heierophant: Forsaken hierophants are mummies of priests that were so depraved that the subject’s fellow death cultists killed and embalmed the priest. Rather than let the priest’s power be wasted, though, the other cultists instead transformed the subject into a guardian to watch over their most valuable stores of treasure and knowledge.
Nighthaunt: MALICIOUS, SINISTER CREATURES OF DARKNESS, nighthaunts are the cursed souls of those who have consumed food infused with necrotic energy.
The commonly held belief is that nighthaunts are bodiless souls whose progress across the Shadowfell was interrupted. Instead of dissipating, these itinerant spirits cloaked themselves in bodies of shadow.
The truth of nighthaunts’ creation lies in the history of the Black Tower of Vumerion, a former den of necromancy. Before Vumerion was destroyed, it produced many horrors, including an addictive black weed called corpse grass. When consumed, the weed infuses the eater with strength and joy. However, foul nightmares always follow the consumption of the grass.
Corpse grass has spread throughout the Shadowfell and into the world, and many have become addicted to its properties. Those who eat even a little of the grass—no matter what they achieved in life—become nighthaunts in death. The curse of the corpse grass fills these creatures with a raging hunger in death, a hunger that can be sated only through sucking the life out of living creatures.
The name “corpse grass” is a bit of a misnomer now, for since the initial creation of nighthaunts, the curse of the corpse grass has spread into other vegetation. When a nighthaunt has ingested enough life force, it finds a twilight-lit meadow or field and releases its energies into the grass, weeds, grains, nuts, and other vegetation. The vegetation continues to grow, gaining the properties of corpse grass and perpetuating the nighthaunt cycle.
Nighthaunt Slip: ?
Nighthaunt Whisperer: ?
Nighthaunt Shrine: ?
Oni Souleater: Oni souleaters are oni that have traded the warmth of life for longevity in death.
Oni Howling Spirit: Howling spirits are the souls of depraved oni that become trapped in the Shadowfell.
Ooze Undead: INFUSED WITH NECROTIC ENERGY, undead oozes are the congealed, slimy effluvia of living creatures that died horrible deaths.
Ooze Bloodrot: BLOODROT OOZES ARE UNDEAD JELLIES that form when humanoids are melted by acid.
Ooze Blood Amniote: BLOOD AMNIOTES ARE COMPOSED OF the congealed blood of hundreds of creatures that died in close proximity.
Scholars debate whether the blood amniote arises spontaneously or is crafted intentionally through necromantic rites and mass sacrifices.
Legend has it that priests of Orcus once unleashed a storm that rained burning blood on two opposing armies. The storm slew the soldiers, and from the blood-soaked ground arose blood amniotes.
Ooze Spirit Ooze: Spirit oozes are ravenous, incorporeal creatures that are created when wisps of matter from insubstantial undead congeal into a single amorphous entity.
Ooze Bone Collector: ?
Pale Reaver: Pale reavers are the undead spirits of humanoids that were killed because they betrayed a person or organization who trusted or relied upon them.
Pale Reaver Creeper: ?
Pale Reaver Lord: ?
Reaper: Common folk regard reapers as embodiments of death that escort souls to the Shadowfell, but their true nature is more sinister. Reapers are servants of Vecna, and they are sent out by the god and his followers to collect souls for profane rituals.
Reapers are failed undead imitations of the Raven Queen’s sorrowsworn. Although Vecna did not succeed in copying the powerful servants, he has nonetheless found use for reapers.
Reaper Entropic Reaper: ?
Reaper Abhorrent Reaper: ?
Skeleton: ALL SKELETONS ARISE FROM THE BONES of once-living creatures. That basic truth says little about the details of a particular skeleton, however. The character of the living creature, the manner of its death, the requirements of a necromancer, and the deceased’s former relationships—all these factors affect the nature and purpose of a skeleton.
Skeleton Skinwalker Skeleton: Skinwalker skeletons are produced when a necromancer grafts skin to animated bones.
Skeleton Skeletal Archer: Over a period of several weeks, skeletons can be trained in the use of bows to produce skeletal archers.
Skeleton Bonewretch Skeleton: ?
Skeleton Stonespawned Skeleton: Stonespawned skeletons are created when humanoids are crushed under tons of rock and left entombed in stone.
Skeleton Shattergloom Skeleton: Shattergloom skeletons are created in dark chambers where natural light cannot reach.
Skeleton Death Kin Skeleton: Death kin skeletons are siblings, kin, or lovers who died in a suicide pact or similar circumstance.
Skeleton Giant Skeletal Bat: Giant skeletal bats are the remains of riding bats that were abandoned by their masters in battle.
Skeleton Skeletal Hauler: Skeletal haulers are the remains of humanoid slaves and physical laborers.
Skeleton Spine Creek: Spine creep skeletons are the result of unjustly beheaded humanoids or those torn to pieces by an angry mob.
Skeleton Marrowshriek: Marrowshriek skeletons arise from victims of malnutrition and neglect, and they crave the marrow of the living.
Undead Aviary: Although some creatures of the undead aviary animate naturally, most are produced by necromancers.
Undead Aviary Skin Kite: Skin kites consist of skin flayed from torture victims that is spontaneously or intentionally animated.
Undead Aviary Accipitridae: Accipitridae are the corrupt product of vultures that feed on undead flesh. The undead flesh poisons and kills the vultures, and they reanimate as these cruel, avian monsters.
Undead Aviary Paralyth: MADE SENTIENT THROUGH FOUL MAGIC, a paralyth is the animated spine and brain of a humanoid.
Paralyths are created when necromancers extract the brains and spines from recent victims.
Undead Aviary Fear Moth: A fear moth is composed of thousands of living and dead moths that all died simultaneously from some cataclysm.
Undead Aviary Couatl Mockery: Couatl mockeries are masses of animated scales and feathers collected from slain couatls.
Abomination Discord Incarnate Create Couatl Mockery power.
Unrisen: RITUALS GO AWRY, AND WHEN the ritual is Raise Dead or a similar form of magic, the results can be grim. The ritual might appear to be a complete failure, yet the residual energy can sometimes raise the creature days after the initial attempt. When this happens, the subject emerges with its soul fragmented and corrupted. A pet comes back from the dead, but it is no longer the adorable feline the family once knew. A child returns, but it is vile and depraved, caring nothing for the people it once loved. No matter what form the creature took in its past life, it returns as a vile, twisted thing—it returns as an unrisen.
An unrisen is the corrupt result of a failed attempt to resurrect a beast or a humanoid. After the failed ritual, a short time passes after the creature is buried before it rises up to take revenge on nearby living creatures, which it views as responsible for its death.
The most common types of unrisen are children, pets, mounts, and figures of prominence in a community, such as mayors or priests. These figures are sorely missed upon their deaths, so companions of the people or creatures often go to great lengths to attempt to resurrect them.
Unrisen Vile Pet: ?
Unrisen Corrupted Offspring: ?
Unrisen Tainted Priest: ?
Unrisen Darkhoof: ?
Vampire Corpse Vampire: A living humanoid killed by the blood drain of a corpse vampire or a spirit vampire rises as a similar vampire at sunset on the following day. The new vampire has the level it had in life. Burning the slain creature’s body, decapitating that body, or reviving the slain creature can prevent this transformation.
A corpse vampire is the result when a humanoid cadaver is buried improperly, robbed of its burial possessions, or left in a place polluted by evil energy.
Vampire Spirit Vampire: A living humanoid killed by the blood drain of a corpse vampire or a spirit vampire rises as a similar vampire at sunset on the following day. The new vampire has the level it had in life. Burning the slain creature’s body, decapitating that body, or reviving the slain creature can prevent this transformation.
When a spirit vampire or a corpse vampire reduces a living humanoid to 0 hit points or fewer without killing it, the humanoid enters a deep coma. If treated with the Remove Affliction ritual, the humanoid can be healed normally. Otherwise, he or she dies at sunset the next day and becomes a spirit vampire.
Vampire Muse: ?
Wraith Wisp Wraith: wisp wraith is the result of a wraith that failed to form correctly when another wraith used spawn wraith.
Wraith Moon Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a moon wraith rises as a free-willed moon wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Moon wraiths are floating, crescent-shaped apparition that are created when a lycanthrope dies during its transformation.
Wraith Vortex Wraith: Any humanoid killed by a vortex wraith rises as a free-willed vortex wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
A vortex wraith rises when a person dies in a tornado or storm and the victim’s body is never found.
Wraith Oblivion Wraith: Any humanoid killed by an oblivion wraith rises as a free-willed oblivion wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
It is created when a person dies violently during an important life event, such as a wedding or a coronation.
Wrath of Nature: MOST PEOPLE LIVING IN CITIES MEAN WELL, but a certain amount of pollution is inevitable. Livestock overgraze, communities log and burn forests, and cities dump waste and alchemical byproducts into the streams. The land is forgiving, but sometimes when an area is so wrought with pollution and death, nature’s rage gives rise to a wrath of nature, a mindless embodiment of death.
Wrath of Nature Calvary Creekrotter: Calvary creekrotters arise as a result of extreme pollution in a river, lake, or part of the ocean. When the land dies away, nature rebels, animating the dead animals and vegetation to visit wrath upon civilization.
Some evil creatures, including corrupt druids, purposefully defile bodies of water in an attempt to create these monstrosities. They dump vile substances and waste into streams and rivers, killing life and upsetting the natural order.
Wrath of Nature Cindergrove Spirit: Cindergrove spirits arise at the edge of communities in which the verdant landscape was burned to make way for civilization.
Some corrupt creatures purposefully burn natural environments rich with life and beauty in an attempt to create these monstrosities.
Zombie Drowned One: Drowned ones are zombies that have been underwater for some time; their bloated and discolored flesh drips with foul water. Drowned ones are usually the animated corpses of humanoids who died at sea.
Zombie Carcass Eater: It is the result of a rodent that gorges on the rotting, necrotic flesh of a canine.
Zombie Putrescent Zombie: Putrescent zombies are created when necrotic energy mixes with abandoned or lost corpses. Also, a necromancer can use a dedicated ritual to create putrescent zombies.
Zombie Skulk Zombie: They are rumored to be animated by the will of Vecna, which gives them an abiding hatred for the living.
Zombie Corpse Rat Swarm: A corpse rat swarm is created when vast quantities of rats die together and are then infused with necrotic energy.
Zombie Dread Zombie: Dread zombies are created by powerful necromancers for war.
Zombie Dread Zombie Myrmidon: ?
Zombie Strahd's Dread Zombie: ?
Zombie Blood Sea Zombie: Blood sea zombies are believed to have been a creation of the demon prince, Demogorgon.
Zombie Wrathborn: A wrathborn is a decaying and ravaged victim of homicide. Wrathborn are undead avengers, returned from the grave to track down and kill their murderers.
Zombie Throng: The throng consists of the body parts and whole bodies of people killed en masse, often as a result of a disease outbreak.
Acererak Construct: Acererak’s skull, which dwells in the mithral vault of the Tomb of Horrors, is a construct created by the demilich.
Acererak: ?
Ctenmiir Human Vampire: Ctenmiir was a paladin who chose to become a vampire in the pursuit of longevity
Kas the Betrayer: ?
Blackstar Knight: BLACKSTAR KNIGHTS ARE UNDEAD SPIRITS housed in vessels of animate black stone.
These blank-faced stone warriors house souls bound to their rocky forms. The ritual for creating them remains a deeply guarded secret, and possibly one that Kas no longer controls.
Kyuss: Kyuss began as a mortal and attained such power and stature that he has become a legendary being. He leveraged his way to a corrupt apotheosis through powerful rituals and a series of deadly betrayals.
Kyuss was born a mortal in a city where evil walked freely, and where sacrifices were made nightly to honor dark gods. The boundaries between life and death were blurred in this place, and the living and unliving mingled freely. As the seventh of seven children, Kyuss was despised and brutalized by his family. They called him “the worm,” and Kyuss fed on their contempt, turning it into dark resolve.
Gradually and imperceptibly, Kyuss drove the members of his family to self-destruction. When all were dead, he took on the identity of a cleric serving the Raven Queen. Aided by alliances with undead ecclesiasts and an instinct for betrayal, he rose through the temple hierarchy, eventually becoming a high priest who attracted followers from far and wide. When his congregation was bloated with followers, Kyuss performed a great ritual that he promised would bring power over neighboring realms. Instead, the ritual slew them all, rotting the flesh from their bones. Kyuss, too, was consumed, but days later, as the maggots and insects fed on the rotting bodies, they came together to form a writhing larva mage—Kyuss’s new form.
Wormspawn Praetorian: PONDEROUS WARRIORS CRAFTED from the cast-off maggots and vermin of Kyuss and similar large larva creatures, wormspawn praetorians fight with unflinching devotion to their creator.
A humanoid killed by Kyuss rises as a wormspawn praetorian at the start of Kyuss’s next turn.
Osterneth the Bronze Lich: Osterneth had a surprise for the invaders, though. In her quest for eldritch might, the queen had tracked down and slain the leader of the cult that had captured her. From the fallen cultist she claimed the Heart of Vecna, a powerful relic that granted everlasting life. Through a secret ritual, she placed the heart inside her chest cavity, and, with its power, became a powerful lich in the service of Vecna.
Count Strahd von Zarovich: Filled with despair, jealousy, and a growing hatred for his younger brother Sergei, Strahd sought magical means to restore his youth in the hope of earning the love of Tatyana, his brother’s betrothed. In a moment of desperate frustration, he performed a powerful necromantic ritual that exchanged his mortality for enduring youth in a state of undeath: Strahd became a vampire.
Aspect of Vecna: CONJURED BY MEANS OF A RITUAL known only to devotees of Vecna, an aspect of Vecna heeds its summoner and resembles the Whispered One in cunning and intelligence.
Cult of Vecna Undead Vecna Cultist: Cultists of Vecna often undergo profane rites that transform them into undead. These cultists are the most dedicated followers of Vecna.
Infected Zombie: When a virulent plague rips though the land, sometimes the plague’s victims rise up from death. These creatures become agents of the plague, spreading infection through their diseased bite.
“Infected zombie” is a template you can apply to any zombie. The template represents a specialized kind of zombie that spreads sickness and disease.
Prerequisites: Zombie
Shadow Spirit: In the bleak, desolate corners of the Shadowfell, and in parts of the world where the Shadowfell bleeds over, sometimes death doesn’t represent the end of a creature’s existence. When a creature dies in one of these places, its soul is trapped, transforming the creature into a shadow spirit.
“Shadow spirit” is a template you can apply to any living beast, humanoid or magical beast.
Prerequisites: Living beast, living humanoid, or living magical beast
Spawn of Kyuss: A spawn of Kyuss is created when an infection from a particular species of necrotic burrowing worms kills its host and transforms the creature into an undead monstrosity.
Akin to larva undead, spawns of Kyuss were the Bonemaster’s first experiments in the creation of larva- and worm-infused creatures. These larval zombies typically lack the subtlety and power of larva undead, but the strength and virulence of their attacks makes them nonetheless formidable.
“Spawn of Kyuss” is a template you can apply to any beast, humanoid, or magical beast. Although the template is most often applied to living creatures, this is not a prerequisite. The infection can afflict virtually any kind of creature, but it typically infects strong subjects that can best spread the disease.
Prerequisites: Level 11, and beast, humanoid, or magical beast.
Spirit Possessed: Some spirits can inhabit and control living creatures. These creatures hide among the living, aping the actions of the host. Under this guise, a spirit works covertly toward its malicious goals.
“Spirit possessed” is a template you can apply to a living creature to represent a subject whose body is possessed by an undead spirit.
Prerequisites: Living creature, level 11, Charisma 13
Vampire Thrall: Vampire spawn are useful servants, but sometimes a vampire requires servants that are more hardy and subtle. By feeding on a subject’s blood over an extended period of time, a vampire can condition a creature to be a strong yet obedient servant.
“Vampire thrall” is a template you can apply to any living humanoid to represent that creature’s service to a vampire lord.
Prerequisites: Living humanoid
Bodak: Nightwalkers create bodaks and use them as assassins.
Create Couatl Mockeries (minor; recharge ⚄ ⚅)
Four couatl mockeries appear within 10 squares of the discord incarnate and act as it wishes. They take their turns directly after the discord incarnate in the initiative order.
Reanimating Ray (Necrotic): Ranged 10; +19 vs. Fortitude; 2d10 + 5 necrotic damage. If the target is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, the target rises as a horde ghoul under the beholder death tyrant’s control at the end of the death tyrant’s next turn.
Cemetery Rot Level 11 Disease
A disease carried by the rotting, corrupted remains of small pets and animals, cemetery rot withers away the body, leaving a empty, mindless husk that hungers for flesh.
Attack: +14 vs. Fortitude
Endurance improve 22, maintain DC 17, worsen DC 16 or lower
The target is cured.
! Initial Effect: The target cannot regain hit points from powers that have the healing keyword.
!" The target’s Fortitude is reduced by 2 until the target is cured. Each time the target fails to improve from this step, the target’s Fortitude drops another 2.
" Final State: When the target’s Fortitude reaches 0, it dies and rises as a zombie.
Worms of Kyuss Level 11+ Disease
Delivered by the infectious touch of a spawn of Kyuss, this disease transforms its victim into a malicious undead, larval creature.
The target is cured.
! Initial Effect: The target regains only half the normal hit points from healing effects.
" Final State: The target regains only half the normal hit points from healing effects. In addition, each time the afflicted creature fails to improve, it takes 5 necrotic damage that cannot be cured until the disease is removed. If the afflicted creature dies, it immediately rises as a level-equivalent spawn of Kyuss.
ONYX SKULL
The onyx skull is carved in the shape of a human skull of about half normal size. It is icy cold to the touch. A successful DC 20 Arcana check reveals that the carved skull was originally part of a larger item, perhaps serving as the headpiece of a staff or rod. In its current state, the skull has only a fraction of its former power. It is fragile and subject to easy destruction. Destroying the skull breaks it into several fragments. The fragments are free from any evil taint, and the largest piece of onyx retains some value as a gem (90 gp).
A successful DC 20 Religion check reveals that despite its incomplete state, the skull emanates a necromantic influence that reaches outward in subtle waves. The influence causes nearby corpses to spontaneously animate and calls already animated undead to it.
If the skull remains intact at the conclusion of the “Underground Crypt” encounter, the details of how it works (how many undead it animates, and how often) are left up to you.
As an item of arcane interest to mages and collectors, the unbroken skull has monetary value (250 gp), not to mention the worth it might represent to evil creatures and necromancers. However, anyone who transports the skull risks being visited by a large collection of undead.
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