Undead Origins

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Dragon 343

Dragon 343
3.5
Living Wall: Some living walls are deliberate creations by evil and cruel necromancers using rare spells, but some (particularly in Ravenloft) arise spontaneously when a person is entombed alive within a wall. This only happens when the terrified victim curses his slayer, his screams rising loud enough to be heard beyond the walls of his prison. When the victim dies, the curse soils his life energy, which becomes trapped in the wall. Eventually, madness overtakes the spirit and turns it chaotic evil, at which point all dead creatures within 300 feet of the wall rise, shamble to the wall, and join it, fusing together into a thing that seems like stone made from fused and transformed flesh.
“Living wall” is an acquired template that can be added to any Small, Medium, or Large corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, outsider, or vermin creature with at least 4 Hit Dice.

 

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Dragon 344

Dragon 344
3.5
Dracolich: Many sages and magical practitioners—“experts” in the realm of dragons—claim that Falazure the Night Dragon created the first dracoliches. There might be some truth to this, considering that “night dragon” is a commonly accepted term when referring to a dracolich. As wholly unnatural, created beings, however, a common heritage is hard to trace. The origins of dracoliches are as varied as the locales in which they appear, whether they come about through the machinations of madmen and demented cults or by dragons instigating the unnatural process through their own arrogance and naked ambition.
The earliest known dracolich, the infamous Dragotha, was created from the body of one of Tiamat’s favored consorts. The god of undeath, Kyuss, granted him unlife in exchange for his eternal servitude. Since then, mortal adepts have developed dim echoes of Kyuss’ magics in the form of a powerful ritual accompanied by the consumption of a foul magical concoction—part poison to slay the imbiber and part elixir to bring about the cold existence of undeath—called The Damnable Libation, or more simply, dracolich brew.
One other commonality in the origins of dracoliches is their absolute reliance on a magical phylactery in which to store their souls.
Dracoliches are formed when a dragon drinks a foul concoction called dracolich brew and then partakes in a vile ritual of reanimation. The complex ritual requires the cooperation of clerics and wizards in addition to the dragon.
In Faerûn, the first known dracoliches appeared nearly 500 years ago through themachinations of Sammaster First-Speaker—mad archmage, former Chosen of Mystra, and founder of the Cult of the Dragon. While studying an ancient work of the seer Maglas, Sammaster mistranslated a key passage that led him to believe he alone had uncovered the destiny of Faerûn—to be ruled by undead dragons. As a result of this and the influence of one Algashon Nathaire, Sammaster devised the means to create dracoliches.
Some historians claim to have found evidence implying that some dragons allied themselves with the forces of Khyber during the Age of Demons, the cost of their allegiance being a dark gift of immortality—the secrets of creating dracoliches.
Although the dracolich brew and accompanying ritual is by far the most common method of becoming a dracolich (if such a thing can be considered common), there are other, even less-known, paths to this form of immortality.
Dragons who drink directly from the Well of Dragons are
stricken down and die immediately. Those with exceptionally powerful personalities (Charisma of 25 or greater) sometimes manage to retain their minds, awaking in 1d4 days as dracoliches, the skulls of nearby lesser dragons spontaneously becoming their phylacteries.
On very rare occasions, when the circumstances are just right, a dragon skeleton that has been necromantically charged and kept in long proximity with a receptacle holding the essence of some powerful evil being—such as an entrapped fiend or bound soul—can spontaneously arise as a dracolich.

Dragon Zombie: Most dragons who drink directly from the Well of Dragons are stricken down and die immediately, animating as mindless zombie dragons in 1d4 days.

 

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Complete Guide to Liches

Complete Guide to Liches
3.5
Dracolich: Like a lich, a dracolich must possess a phylactery for its soul to survive the transition to undeath. Though the dragon itself need not craft its own phylactery, the fiercely magical nature of dragons requires that the dragon must possess some spellcasting ability for its soul to endure in a phylactery, putting a certain age limit on which dragons can become dracoliches. Either the dragon must have spellcaster class levels, or it must be of a sufficient age to naturally have a caster level.
A dracolich’s phylactery costs a minimum of 190,000 gp and 7,700 XP to create, and possesses a caster level equal to the caster level of the spellcaster who created it.
Should the dragon so desire, a more elaborate and expensive phylactery can be created; as with a standard lich, this extra expense in creating a phylactery aids in the process of successfully creating a dracolich.
Drowlich : The creation
process for a drowlich is no different than that of a standard lich; however, the drow’s affinity for evil and its long years of existence in the underdark somehow serve to enhance the necromantic power that gives the drowlich its undead existence.
Novalich: A spellcaster cannot turn another creature into a novalich, so all novaliches are necessarily spellcasters themselves. Otherwise, novalich phylacteries are identical to those of normal liches.
Philolich: When a lich desires to keep cherished family or servants with him through eternity, he creates a philolich, a lesser lich whose spirit is bound to his own.
Philoliches can only be created by another lich; the philolich cannot be created by a living spellcaster.
The only requirements to become a philolich are to be willing, and to have a lich capable and willing to transform the character. Because much of the essence of the philolich’s soul is bound to the original lich’s phylactery, a philolich’s phylactery is easier to make, costing a minimum of 2,000 gp and 80 XP. It has a caster level equal to that of the lich that created it.
Failed rituals to create a philolich instead create a semi-lich.
Semi-Lich: The result of a failed attempt to become a lich.
Sometimes the process of lichdom is not successful, and with such complicated spells and rituals involved, it is almost surprising there are so few tales of lichdom gone awry. For example, most drinkers of the potion of undead life let themselves die, but if the subject resists the poison after letting his soul be bonded to the phylactery, the subject may rise as a creature known as a semi-lich.
If a creature dies while its soul is partially in a phylactery due to the join the soul spell, it rises as a semilich within 1d10 days unless the victim is brought back from the dead before that.
Failed rituals to create aphilolich instead create a semi-lich.
It is a creature that attempted to become a lich and was mostly unsuccessful. This failure stems from its phylactery. While the physical form of the creature became imbued with necromantic force in order to animate it in an undead state, the semi-lich’s original life force – its soul – was never successfully captured and bonded to the prepared phylactery. Without the phylactery, the creature’s original life force dissipated into nothingness, leaving behind only a ghastly undead monster inhabiting the creature’s original body.
Warlich: Spellcasters cannot turn themselves into warliches; they can only change others into this undead monster. The spellcaster turning a warrior into a warlich can either be living or undead.
Lichling: Imbued with the essence of a lich.
Lichlings are undead servitors that are created by their lich masters. Mortal wizards are unable to create lichlings; only those who have crafted a phylactery and stored their soul in it understand the magic necessary to create lichlings. Lichlings are skeletal undead created from piles of bones that are infused with a fragment of a soul.
Animate Lichling spell.
Lichwarg: Lichwargs are undead hunters created by liches to track down living prey for their masters. The lich who creates a lichwarg binds a bit of his soul to it, allowing him to see through its eyes and direct it from a distance.
Any lich can create a lichwarg with create undead or create greater undead.
Demi-Lich: The second possibility is that the lich’s body breaks apart and shatters, turning it into little more than fine powder and a skull. In this state, the skull still houses the remaining fragments of the lich’s still-living mind. With only its demented mind left intact, the lich finally reaches its ultimate state of purest evil – the demi-lich.

Lich: To become one, an evil spellcaster must knowingly consume a potion that will end his life only to resurrect him as an unliving vessel of pure evil.
Liches are powerful undead creatures – mortal wizards, warriors, and other beings of might who use the dark necromantic arts to make their spirits immortal.
No one knows for certain how the first liches came to be.
Sages say that the necromantic arts of lichdom came from failed sorcerous attempts to find immortality, or even godhood.
The creation of a lich requires a willing, living subject.
The process of becoming a lich is a dark and arduous one. The secrets and spells that must be learned in order to create a lich are numerous and difficult – it can take a lifetime alone just to learn all that is required.
In order to create a lich or a lich variant, two simple elements are essential above all others: a skilled spellcaster to create the lich, and a willing subject to become the lich.
The spellcaster can be any high-level spellcaster, including epic-level paladins and rangers.
Spellcasting: Caster level 11
Feats: Craft Wondrous Item
The subject must be a willing subject. Should the subject not truly desire to become a lich, or understand and object to the fact that becoming a lich involves actually dying and being reborn as an undead creature, the subject will never become a lich or lich variant. Suggestion, charm, or any other sorts of magic spells and psionics used to convince a subject that becoming a lich is a good idea are not enough, nor is misleading the subject about what the lich creation process entails. Only a subject that chooses to be a lich of his own free will can ever successfully become a lich.
Once both the spellcaster and the subject are ready and willing, a phylactery must be created to begin the process of lichdom.
Creating the phylactery requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. This phylactery costs a minimum of 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create, and possesses a caster level equal to that of its creator when it is made.
With the phylactery (and, optionally, the vessel) in place, a ritual is required to bind the soul to the phylactery. Different cultures and magical traditions have developed slightly different rituals for spellcasters who wish to become liches.
The Potion of Undead Life: A potion of undead life slays the drinker unless he succeeds a Fortitude save (DC 20). A creature so slain cannot be brought back from the dead by anything short of a wish or miracle. If a creature has undergone the necessary ritual to bind its soul to a phylactery (and optionally, its mind to a vessel), the potion of undead life does not immediately slay the drinker; instead, it causes the creature’s physical body to rapidly decompose, turning into little more than dust and ash in less than two days. This is often to the horror of the lich, who cannot be certain the ritual was effective. But 1d10 days after the subject’s body drops dead from drinking a potion of undead life, he returns as a lich, looking very similar to the way he did in life.
Binding the Twin Winds: For this ritual, the prospective lich must find a windy cave, which acts as his phylactery. A ritual binds his soul to the cave, but to make the bonding permanent, he must die amid the cries of both mourning friends
and victorious foes – the twin winds of the ritual. After the prospective lich takes its last living breath, his body is suffused with a black miasma of negative energy that slowly dissolves his body. Only once there are no breathing creatures within a hundred feet will the lich be reanimated. Though a difficult ritual to perform, the benefit is that the lich’s phylactery is nearly impossible to steal or destroy. Though the cave only has hardness 8, it has tens of thousands of hit points.
The Sultan’s Curse: A thousand years ago, the sultan of a desert nation was blessed by a djinni to be able to invoke a curse of his choice once during his reign. That curse was lain upon a foreigner who defiled the holiest city of the land, and he was struck down by a bolt from the heavens. But the foreigner’s magic allowed him to steal a bit of the divine essence of the lightning bolt, bonding his soul with the twisted glass created when the lightning seared the desert sands. His body reformed from the sands of where he died, and he lives to this day seeking revenge. Similarly, if a mage prepares the proper ritual, and if he is slain by a spell channeling positive energy, he can corrupt that energy and use it to propel himself into the undeath of lichdom.
The Diary of Riddles: Many loremasters, feeling their pursuit of knowledge is yet incomplete, craft textual phylacteries, recording in extreme detail the events of their lives, typically in a well-bound tome. The mage seeking to become immortal must include at least one mystery he seeks to solve in his undeath, though additional mysteries may later be added to the book. He then writes an account of his own death into the tome, at which point he dies, his soul binding with the pages.
Skeleton: Dragons who undergo a failed ritual of lichdom do not become semi-liches, instead tending to rise as wights or skeletal dragons.
Puppets of Death spell.
Wight: Dragons who undergo a failed ritual of lichdom do not become semi-liches, instead tending to rise as wights or skeletal dragons.
Zombie: Puppets of Death spell.

Animate Lichling
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: 1 or more pile of bones touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This spell functions as animate dead, except that you create a type of undead known as a lichling. The limit for the total hit dice of undead you can control applies to lichlings as well as normal zombies and skeletons created with animate dead.
Animate lichling can only be cast by a spellcaster who has successfully created a phylactery.
Material Components: A diamond worth 100 gp and a withered goat’s heart for each lichling you create, both of which must be placed in a pile of bones. The bones become the lichling, and the components are consumed in the casting.

Join the Soul
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Brd 4, Clr 6, Drd 6, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 30 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Personal or creature touched, and
prepared phylactery
Duration: Instantaneous then 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
This spell is used in many rituals of lichdom to bind the life essence of the caster or another creature into a prepared phylactery. Willing creatures voluntarily fail their save to resist. If cast upon an unwilling target, the spell traps the life essence of that target in the phylactery for 1 round per caster level. The target suffers a penalty to all his ability scores equal to 2d4 for the spell’s duration, although this cannot reduce an ability below 1. If the creature dies while its soul is partially in the phylactery, it rises as a semilich within 1d10 days unless the victim is brought back from the dead before that.
A successful Will save by an unwilling target only means that the target feels slightly nauseous, but otherwise is able to function normally.
If, after receiving this spell, the ritual to become a lich is not completed within 1 hour, the subject’s body dies, and the subject’s life essence is trapped within the phylactery for the rest of eternity.

Puppets of Death
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Clr 6, Death 6, Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 50 ft.
Area: 50 ft. radius emanation, centered on the caster
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This spell functions like animate dead, except that the skeletons or zombies animated this way only remain animated until the end of the spell’s duration, and that the spell animates all dead bodies in the area of effect. The caster may control up to 2 Hit Dice of undead per caster level with this spell, in addition to the normal limit of animate dead spells. Material Components: Powder from a crushed skull.

 

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Complete Guide to Vampires

Complete Guide to Vampires
3.5
Inferno Vampire: The first inferno vampire was created unintentionally. A terrible curse was cast upon a vampire, turning all of him – except his blood – into stone before he was hurled into a lava flow. Somehow he survived, becoming the first inferno vampire. That first inferno vampire was able to create more of his kind, and a new and violent type of vampire appeared.
Must drink the blood of a dragon, preferably red, while already a vampire or just prior to being turned into a vampire by another inferno vampire who has the create spawn ability. Creatures with the cold subtype cannot become inferno vampires (attempts are fatal).
If a humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by an inferno vampire’s energy drain was a sorcerer, or had ever consumed dragon’s blood, he rises from his ashes as an inferno vampire after 1d4 days.
Lymphatic Vampire: About one in a thousand vampires that drinks blood can become a lymphatic vampire. Of these, most continue to drink blood, but those that switch to lymphatic fluids only transform into lymphatic vampires.
The character must be turned into a vampire by another lymphatic vampire who has the create spawn ability, or be one of the few naturally occurring mutations.
A lymphatic vampire’s spawn are also lymphatic vampires.
Magebane Vampire: Magebane vampires come into existence when powerful magic users become vampires.
The character must be turned into a vampire by another magebane vampire who has the create spawn ability.
If a magebane vampire drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid of all spell slots or psionic power points, the victim’s Intelligence immediately drops to 0. He returns as a magebane vampire with 0 race levels after 1d4 days. (A creature without spellcasting or psionic ability cannot become a magebane vampire.)
Moglet Vampire: Like lymphatic vampires, moglets are created when a standard vampire or moglet uses the create spawn ability on someone who meets the requirements.
A moglet vampire who has the create spawn ability must slay the character. Before death the character must have experienced some extreme emotional trauma that has left them emotionally damaged.
If a moglet drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid’s Charisma to 0 or lower, and slays the victim, he returns as a moglet vampire with 0 race levels after 1d4 days.
Sukko Vampire: The character must be turned into a vampire by another sukko vampire who has the create spawn ability. Creatures with the fire subtype cannot become sukko vampires (attempts are fatal).
If a sukko vampire drains a humanoid or monstrous humanoid’s Strength to 0 or lower, and then slays them by freezing them in ice, the victim returns as an sukko vampire with 0 race levels after 1d4 days.

Vampire: The vampire is a powerful undead monster that spawns its own followers from living humans.
Veldrane mold vampires spawn others of their kind, but a small fraction of their spawn are mutants: They are standard vampires.
When a creature that breathed in a Veldrane vampire's spores is slain by a Veldrane mold vampire, it will rise in 6 days as a new Veldrane mold vampire. There is a 1% chance that it will rise as a standard vampire instead of a Veldrane mold vampire.

 

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Blackdirge's Dungeon Denizens

Blackdirge's Dungeon Denizens
3.5
Ash Guardian: The ash guardian is a creature of dust, earth and ash created when soil is fouled with the remains of innocent victims burned en masse; their angry spirits infest the earth itself with an unimaginable thirst for revenge. Ultimately the wrath of these spirits congeals into a single entity capable only of hate and evil. The ash guardian is usually found in the “special” earth belonging to a vampire.
Bone Swarm: A creature reduced to 0 levels by a bone swarm’s energy drain attack is slain and rapidly decays, all flesh rotting away in a manner of seconds. The resulting skeleton then spontaneously disassembles, each individual bone separating from the whole to form a new bone swarm.
Flayed Horror: The process of creating a flayed horror requires a living humanoid victim, who is slowly and torturously flayed alive. The terrible pain and horror suffered by the victim, as well as no small amount of necromantic energy, is combined to provide the spark of undeath necessary to animate the flayed horror.
Lichling: Lichlings are undead servitors that are created by their lich masters. Mortal wizards are unable to create lichlings; only those who have crafted a phylactery and stored their soul in it understand the magic necessary to create lichlings. Lichlings are skeletal undead created from piles of bones that are infused with a fragment of a soul.
Lichwarg: Lichwargs are undead hunters created by liches to trackdown living prey for their masters. The lich who creates a lichwarg binds a bit of his soul to it.
Any lich can create a lichwarg with create undead or create greater undead.
Possessed Object: Possessed objects are mundane items given unnatural locomotion through the controlling presence of ghostly remnants. Largely indistinguishable from mundane items, possessed objects most commonly arise when beings die in particularly traumatic manners, yet do not possess the force of will to manifest as ghosts. Usually these items were closely related to or meaningful in the lives of the presences that animate them (like a warrior’s weapon or a cleric’s robes), although proximity to or involvement in a creature’s death seems just as likely causes for possession. In such cases, weapons, statues, large pieces of furniture, and even constructs prove attractive choices for possession.
Possessed objects most commonly appear in civilized areas where some murder or accident took place, and many minor hauntings and urban legends arise due to random attacks from these lesser ghosts. Evidence also suggests mass tragedies generating a single possessed object animated by numerous souls. For example, a lone carriage might roll through the burnt-out husk of an orphanage, possessed by the souls of dozens of orphans, forever seeking a mother. While mass deaths might create a possessed object of gigantic size, this is no more likely than a single soul infusing a large object.
“Possessed object” is an acquired template that can be added to any construct without an Intelligence score.
Scourging Corpse: A scourge corpse is an undead creature forced to endure eternal torment, a constant state of unrelenting physical and mental pain. The creature is placed in this horrible condition either by a vengeful deity, or by a powerful artifact created by beings of immense power. This process is long and dangerous, requiring intricate rituals and the combined casting of many powerful spells (blasphemy, destruction, geas/quest, resurrection, soul bind) that may take days to complete.
“Scourge corpse” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid.
Shambling Skullpiles: A shambling skullpile is an undead monstrosity formed from the many skulls of ritually sacrificed creatures. The horror and torment of these sacrificed victims form a maelstrom of psychic energies, which take a physical form by animating and possessing skulls into a rough humanoid form.
Doomtwitch Zombie: Doomtwitch zombies are a rare form of undead, supernaturally quickened by an obscure necromantic process.
“Doomtwitch Zombie” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal humanoid, giant, or monstrous humanoid.

 

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Dangerous Denizens The Monsters of Tellene

Dangerous Denizens The Monsters of Tellene
3.5
Eaten One: created from fallen heroes who have been partially consumed by oozes or other hideous creatures.
Hound of Ill-Omen: ?
Mummy Blood Hijarjany: The blood mummy (known as the “hijarjany”) results from mummification that excluded the removal of the organs (usually common folk).
Mummy Heretic Ghoskinjany: These beings were horridly tortured and then mummified alive, a process that granted them great power and a terrible hatred for anything living.
Mummy Noble Shojarijany: The Shojarijany, or “noble mummy,” resulted from the best mummification process available during the Middle Period.
Mummy Rattlebon Thinchejany: ?
Mummy Royal Shijarinjany: ?
Mummy Servitor Jhurijany: Jhurijany, or “servitor mummies,” were created from commoners as servants to the kings, priests and to the undead masters.
Poltergeist: ?
Reliqus: The reliquae of Tellene are rumored to be the creation of Queen Simura, a former ruler of Pekal who turned to the dark arts of necromancy late in her reign.
Rusalka: Rusalka are the undead spirits of women who have met an untimely end through drowning, whether by murder or suicide.
Some Kalamaran scholars say that the ancient origins of the rusalka lie in the Ep’Sarab Swampland, where three witches lay buried in three separate, but adjoining mounds. In the year 458 IR, river pirates led by the famous brigand Caran Bluetooth plundered the mounds. When they did so they roused the souls of the three witches. These evil incarnations rose from the dead in raging madness, hounding the greater part of the crew to death. Only a few escaped, fleeing south down the Badato River. One of these, Caran’s brother Malaran, is thought to have escaped with a powerful magic ring. He fled into the swamps and for a great while wandered listlessly, without home or any kind of shelter. The witches, not satisfied with destroying the pirates, lay a curse on the water and all the water that earned the pirates their livelihood.
The curse had greater impact than the witches ever dared hope and soon the spirits of women tormented in life rose from the surrounding bogs and rivers; the rusalka had come to Kalamar.
Sheet Phantom: Sheet phantoms are the maligned spirits of those betrayed byfriends and family members. They return for revenge by inhabiting a piece of fabric related to their betrayal and death.
No one knows for certain where the sheet phantom originates, for the first documented case of the sheet phantom has been corrupted by urban legend. Coincidentally (or not), this sheet phantom was the spirit of an expert Mendarn tailor, Blesdar Forband. Blesdar was said to make the most magnificent clothing known throughout the region. But one customer, a noble by the name of Granden, refused payment until he saw perfection. Blesdar locked himself in his shop and worked. Completing his fifth attempt, the tailor proudly presented his
work to the noble. Granden turned down his efforts yet again. Finishing his sixth attempt with an unexpected speed, Blesdar presented himself at the noble’s home to show off his latest creation. It was there that he realized the truth – Granden had cruelly kept Blesdar working so that he could spend time with the tailor’s wife. Collapsing from exhaustion and shock, Blesdar died. He was mourned only by those that knew and appreciated his work.
The following week, Granden took the tailor’s last creation from his wardrobe, intending to wear the exquisite ensemble at his next ball. There, he was the talk of the party. When asked where he had commissioned such wonderful clothing, Granden claimed that his wife had made them for him. Moments later, Granden fell to the floor dead. The noble’s chest had been crushed in.
Supposedly, since that event, sheet phantoms have appeared across the lands of Tellene. Some say Blesdar’s fabric had been resold and his vengeful spirit curses any who uses it. Others say that the story is no more than myth and some type of unseen demon stalks the land. The Brandobians call this creature a “blesdar,” with no other understanding of what it may be.
Sheet Ghoul: If a person dies because of a sheet phantom’s constricting ability, or as a result of damage caused by another source while wearing the sheet phantom, the victim rises as a sheet ghoul in 1d4 days.
Swordwraith Skarrnid: Swordwraiths are the evil spirits of defeated soldiers, come back from the darkness to wreak vengeance on any living creature that in some way resembles their former opponents.
Treant Undead: The undead treant is a once-benevolent servant of nature now corrupted and twisted into a shell of its former self.
Although opposing forces have combated undead treants in the past, they are still no closer to understanding where these undead treants come from. The undead treants certainly do not multiply like natural creatures, nor do certain spells (those that normally create undead) work on dead trees.
Amongst the druids and rangers, theories of the undead treant abound, though none of them have been proven. One theory states that trees the monster animates become undead themselves. Another speculates that the undead treant’s touch passes on the undead curse to others of its kind. One more blames evil druids and their blighting magic, creating such creatures to serve out their bidding. And yet one more assumes that when an undead treant kills a living treant, it passes on its curse much like a vampire.

Skeleton: A remove curse or remove disease spell, or a more powerful version of either, transforms an eaten one into a normal skeleton that can crawl with a speed of 10 feet. Neither spell restores any missing portions of the eaten one’s body.

 

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Book of Fiends

Book of Fiends
3.5
Skulldugger: Only two demon princes know the secret of skulldugger creation: Gamigin and Orcus. Both of these princes are masters of necromancy and lords of undeath.
Skullduggers are created in blasphemous rituals enacted personally by the demon princes. They use souls to animate these undead, rather than negative energy as is usually the case. In theory the ritual can be performed on several different types of skeletons. However, both demon princes favor the remains of an extinct breed of qlippoth. They have found its winged form of great utility, so other forms of skullduggers are almost never seen.
Vessel of Orcus: Orcus constructs these vessels from the stitched together faces of sinners. Even though they lack mobility, these faces retain some sense of their former lives and their current fate. The skins form a sort of bladder, of which Orcus then fills near to bursting with maggots. He ties off sections with hard leather straps to give the creature form—legs and arms, and a pillow-like head. Vessels of Orcus are very rare and never made by necromancers; they are a product of Orcus’ depraved invention alone.
Necro-Ripper: In the eternal war, Ulasta, the Exarch of Envy creates her own soldiers. Cobbled together in great lifeless factories at the heart of the Circle of Envy, these constructs are made of undead parts, pieced together by daemons that yearn to join the battle but are forced instead to toil.
Exiled: Not all residents of Hell remain there for eternity. Some gods and powers sentence spirits who did mostly good deeds in life but experienced a moral failing somewhere close to his death, preventing immediate entry into the proper plane he deserves.
“Exiled” is an acquired template that can be added to any dead humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature, provided it is of good alignment and violated the tenets of its faith, code of conduct or alignment just prior to death and died before repenting.
Jalie Squarefoot The Lich Fiend: Millennia ago, Jalie was a pit fiend whose promotion to the nobility came at the expense of a vicious rival, another pit fiend named Belphagon. The vengeful fiend and his coterie, jealous of Jalie’s meteoric rise, concocted a number of plans for his assassination. After he had escaped dozens of attempts, one finally left Jalie barely alive, mere inches from humiliating demotion. He needed a new weapon—and he found one.
Jalie discovered the secrets of lichdom, but he also learned that a mortal body was a prerequisite. Leaving a polymorphed double at court, he hid away to prepare the lich’s phylactery, then took mortal form long enough to ritually destroy his body and pass through the horrid change to unlife.

 

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Spiros Blaak

Spiros Blaak
3.5
Diswosnia Entrhaller: Tragically, some plain and homely women are victims of violence. Whether denounced as witches, butchered by loveless husbands lusting after young maidens, or abandoned to starvation or exposure because they grow old, the result is the same. In some cases, the horror and cause of their deaths force the victims to return as dizwosinas: deranged undead who seek vengeance for the injustices done to them.
Necrozen: Following the failure of his Witch Lords to help him conquer the burgeoning Wildlands, Sallous Yar set about developing alternative agents of his depravity. One of the reasons for the failure of the Witch Lords, the dread god believed, was that he had allowed himself to put his faith in mortals, a mistake he would not repeat. Instead, he would create the Necrozen, his Death Bringers, to do his bidding.
Instilled with the dark light of undeath, the Necrozen are selected from those mortal warriors who fervently pursued Sallous Yar’s goals in life and sought nothing but the cold waiting beyond the grave as their reward.
“Necrozen” is a template that can be added to any giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid with an Intelligence score of 10 or more.

 

[Voadam]

Creatures of Freeport

Creatures of Freeport
3.5
Deadwood Tree: Before the fall of the serpent people, the great trees of Valossa’s jungles were inhabited by spirit lizards. When the cataclysm struck, the trees were killed along with most other living things. However, a few spirit lizards were trapped inside their dead and dying trees, and fused with them by the warping influence of the Unspeakable One. These became the first of the deadwood trees.
As mentioned previously, the deadwood trees were created during the great cataclysm that destroyed Valossa; many spirit lizards were fused to their home trees by the dark power that washed over the remains of the continent, becoming the first of the terrible deadwood trees.
Spirit lizards were the predominant fey species of Valossa, but when the summoning of the Unspeakable One destroyed the continent, many of them suffered a terrible fate. As the essence of the Unspeakable One permeated the living things of the continent, many spirit lizards became trapped in their home trees and warped by the chaotic forces unleashed upon the land. Twisted and evil, these became the first of the deadwood trees.
It is claim’d by some Authorities as Facte that the Natures of the Deville Lizarde, the Spiritte Lizarde, and the Deadewoode Tree are intertwined, all three Creatures sharing a Common Originne. The Isles of the Serpente’s Teethe, according to this Theory, were, in far distant Antiquity, the topmoste Peakes of a Greate Continente, that some have named Valossa. This Valossa, it is saide, was riven in Fragmentes and caste into the Sea by the Unspeakable One, which was at that Time a most potente Power of Chaosse; and the Magickal Humours that were bred by this Catastrophe shot through certaine of the Spiritte Lizardes, which had until that Time served the same Office in Valossa as Dryaddes do in other Landes. Some Few escaped the Corruption; but those caught in their Trees by the Unnaturale Blaste were fused with the Woode and became the Evil Deadewoodes, while those that were Outside suffered the Destruction of their Trees and were scour’d by the magickal Windes of the Disaster, shaping them into the Deville Lizardes. This, it is claim’d, is why the Deville Lizardes show such Fury towarde the Deadewoodes, who were once their Kin but now embrace Evil; while equally they are Abash’d to show Themselves before the Spiritte Lizardes, who suffer’d neither their Losse nor their Shame. So the Story goes; whether it be Facte or Fancy remaines to be proven.
There are, in Freeporte and elsewhere, certaine Manuscripts that suggest that the Islandes of the Serpente’s Teethe were at one time high Mountains set upon a Vaste Continent knowne as Valossa; which Lande was sunder’d and throwne into the Sea by a Greate Disaster in Ancient Times. The Force behinde this Cataclysm is thought to be a powerful Being of Chaosse knowne as the Unspeakable One. The Chaotick Energies that were released afflict’d the remaining Lande most cruelly, binding some of these Fey Reptiles into their Trees, which became the awful Deadewoodes; while others, caught without their Arboreal Homes, were Blast’d by Chaosse and Warp’d into the Creatures presently knowne as Deville Lizardes.
Hazarel Boneroot, Deadwood Tree: ?
Death Crab Swarm: It is said that death crabs are a solid manifestation of the spirits of long-dead pirates.
Thanatos: Some do contende that the Creature is Undeade in its Nature, having once been a Greate Living Fishe that was alter’d by Magick, or by feasting upon the Corpses of the Deade.

Zombie: Living creatures killed by a deadwood tree will rise in 1d6 rounds as zombies.
Living creatures killed by a thanatos's energy drain will rise in 1d4 rounds as zombies.

 

[Voadam]

Epic Monsters

Epic Monsters
Atropol Abomination: Not every divine pregnancy ends in a successful birth. As with the non-divine races some children fail to reach term, when this occurs in the divine realm the child is sometimes animated by the Negative Energy Plane and is reborn as an atropal.
Demilich: A demilich is the next evolutionary step in the life of an evil wizard. Through the creation of soul gems a lich may shed they body and travel the multiverse as an astral entity.
‘Demilich’ is a template that can be added to any lich. A demilich’s form is concentrated into a single portion of its original body, usually its skull. Part of the process of becoming a demilich includes the incorporation of costly gems into the retained body part; see Creating Soul Gems, below.
The process of becoming a demilich can be undertaken only by a lich acting of its own free will.
Each demilich must make its own soul gems, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The lich must be a sorcerer, wizard or cleric of at least 21st level. Each soul gem costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation. Soul gems appear as egg-shaped gems of wondrous quality. They are always incorporated directly into the concentrated form of the demilich.
Hunefer: Hunefers once strode across the planes as demigods. Slain by adventurers their godly power was stripped from them, but their followers did not abandon them. The body of the hunefer was recovered inscribed with symbols important to them and carefully wrapped for their eventual return to life and ascension to godhood. Now awakened, the hunefer are on a undying quest to recover their lost divinity.
Lavawight: The lavawight is the end result of foolish adventurers who attack a shape of fire.
Those that succumb to a shape of fire's blazefire embrace are converted to lavawights.
Any humanoid slain by a shape of fire becomes a lavawight in 1d4 rounds.
Nightswimmer Nightshade: ?
Shadow of the Void: A shadow of the void is cold vengeance personified.
Shape of Fire: A shape of fire is white-hot rage personified.
Winterwight: The winterwight is the end result of adventurers foolish enough to attack shadow of the void.
Those that succumb to a shadow of the void's blightfire embrace are converted to winterwights.
Any humanoid slain by a shadow of the void becomes a winterwight in 1d4 rounds.
Sebastian the Shadow Souled: Although no one else remembers his history, Sebastian still feels the driving fear of death that led him to sacrifice his kingdom, his people and his own newborn son to the powers of darkness in return for eternal life.
Bodiless Ao: ?

Undead: Orcus is the Prince of the Undead, and it is said that he alone created the first undead that walked the worlds.
Mummy: A creature afflicted with hunefer rot that dies shrivels away into sand unless both remove disease and raise dead (or better) are cast on the remains within 2 rounds. If the remains are not so treated, on the third round the dust swirls and forms an 18 HD mummy with the dead foe’s equipment under the hunefer’s command.