Undead Origins

[Voadam]

Dungeon 203

Dungeon 203
4e
Ghost Kraken, Thalarkis: Rukos and his crew set out to save the locals from the waterborne menace. After a few days of hunting, they spotted the kraken and harpooned it, then used winches to haul it to the surface. With cutlass, bow, and spell, they laid into the beast. The battle was long, and sailor after sailor fell until only Captain Rukos remained to face Thalarkis.
With his trusty cutlass Everdare firmly in hand, the Red Rake squared off with the gravely injured kraken. In the end, Rukos stabbed the beast through the eye as Thalarkis strangled the life out of the brave captain. Rukos fell to the deck, dead. The great beast shuddered and slumped into the sea, taking the Zephyr, its crew, and its captain to the depths below.
The spirits of Thalarkis and Rukos linger still, bound to the wreckage of the Zephyr. The ghost of Rukos stands at the ship’s wheel, doomed to haunt the deck alone. Thalarkis’s spirit is trapped in the wreckage of the ship.
Rukos: Rukos and his crew set out to save the locals from the waterborne menace. After a few days of hunting, they spotted the kraken and harpooned it, then used winches to haul it to the surface. With cutlass, bow, and spell, they laid into the beast. The battle was long, and sailor after sailor fell until only Captain Rukos remained to face Thalarkis.
With his trusty cutlass Everdare firmly in hand, the Red Rake squared off with the gravely injured kraken. In the end, Rukos stabbed the beast through the eye as Thalarkis strangled the life out of the brave captain. Rukos fell to the deck, dead. The great beast shuddered and slumped into the sea, taking the Zephyr, its crew, and its captain to the depths below.
The spirits of Thalarkis and Rukos linger still, bound to the wreckage of the Zephyr. The ghost of Rukos stands at the ship’s wheel, doomed to haunt the deck alone. Thalarkis’s spirit is trapped in the wreckage of the ship.
Torgath, Half-Orc Revenant: The Zephyr’s boatswain, a half-orc named Torgath, attempted to gather support to overthrow the captain and save the crew members from what he believed to be certain doom. Captain Rukos’s behavior had grown erratic and dangerous in the months preceding the kraken hunt. Torgath believed the sword Everdare compelled Rukos to put his ship and crew in unnecessary jeopardy.
The captain ferreted out the conspiracy before Torgath could gain the full support of the crew. He confined the half-orc to the brig, and Torgath drowned alone in his cell when the ship was pulled under.
Torgath still inhabits his cell beneath the waves. The Raven Queen reanimated him as a revenant so that he might bring true death to the kraken and the captain, both of whom now haunt the wreckage of the Zephyr as restless spirits.
Atropal Deathscreamer: The birth of a deity is a rare event, and a delicate matter that requires the precise balance of stupendous forces. If anything goes awry, the result is a monstrosity: an undead husk animated by residual divine energy, thirsting for the power it never attained.

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 206

Dungeon 206
4e
Zanifer Karisa: Zanifer Karissa served as a captain in the Last War, conducting reconnaissance behind enemy lines in Breland. Before the King’s Dark Lanterns could catch up to her, she returned to Karrnath with critical military intelligence and earned herself a medal and an audience with Regent Moranna ir’Wynarn. Suspecting that the Dark Lanterns might have coerced Zanifer, Moranna turned the captain into a vampire and used her hold over the new spawn to discover the truth: Zanifer was not a double agent after all, but always had been a loyal Karrnathi soldier.
Sharn Vampire Spawn: Zanifer isn’t fond of her employer, but she remains a patriot. Her family died in the Last War, and all she has left is her loyalty to the Karrnathi crown. She obeys Torr’s orders without question, and she has turned some of Sharn’s dregs into vampire thralls under her command.
Flameskull, Eldreth Zanderraum: ?
Death Husk Stirges: ?

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 207

Dungeon 207
4e
Abyssal Ghoul: Vaden created the ghouls from the corpses of former members entombed in the catacombs.
The ghouls were created by Vaden from preserved human corpses in the catacombs.
Darzaan, Ghost Beholder: ?
Count Strahd von Zarovich: On the day of Sergei and Tatyana’s wedding, Strahd murdered his brother and pursued the grieving bride until she flung herself from the walls of Castle Ravenloft. Strahd was slain by the castle guards but rose as a vampire, cursed by the dark powers of Ravenloft for his hand in the deaths of Sergei and Tatyana.
Leo Dilysnia, Vampire: Leo attempted to overthrow Strahd on the day of Sergei and Tatyana’s wedding, and his henchmen were responsible for many deaths that night. Leo fled and went into hiding for half a century, but Strahd eventually discovered his whereabouts and exacted his vengeance. He turned Leo into a vampire and had him buried inside a tomb, so he would starve for eternity.
Years later, with the help of a loyal subject named Lorvinia Wachter, Strahd found Leo, overpowered him, turned him into a vampire, and had him sealed inside a mausoleum on the Wachter estate, to starve for eternity.
Halfling Ghast: The Tser Pool is haunted by the remnants of a drowned halfling woman. This is Yera, the beloved of Falstan Mitrache, who fell out of a boat and failed time and again to catch herself before going over the Tser Falls. She lingers on as a ghast.
Ghoul: The Tser Pool is haunted by the remnants of a drowned halfling woman. This is Yera, the beloved of Falstan Mitrache, who fell out of a boat and failed time and again to catch herself before going over the Tser Falls. She lingers on as a ghast. She has been attacking smugglers that have been conducting shady dealings near the Tser Pool, and several of her victims became ghouls.
Patrina Kelikovna: Patrina sacrificed animals to the powers of shadow and ended up attracting the attention of Strahd von Zarovich. The count sought to make her his vampiric bride, and Patrina gladly submitted to his advances. When Patrina tried to feed upon an elf child to seal her transformation into a vampire, Kasimir and the other elves stoned her to death. They surrendered her body to Strahd, who interred her in Castle Ravenloft’s crypts, and Patrina soon arose as a banshee.
Dread Archer: Strahd temporarily released Patrina Kelikovna from her crypt so she could exact her revenge upon her kin, using Lysaga Hill’s evil to turn the elves into her undead servitors.
Dread Marauder: Strahd temporarily released Patrina Kelikovna from her crypt so she could exact her revenge upon her kin, using Lysaga Hill’s evil to turn the elves into her undead servitors.
Zombie Shambler: ?
Vampire: Any humanoid Leo slays with his bite becomes a vampire or a vampire spawn.
Vampire Spawn: Any humanoid Leo slays with his bite becomes a vampire or a vampire spawn.
Elder Vampire Spawn: Leo Dilysnia has turned a handful of White Sun monks into vampire spawn.
The four chanting figures are vampire spawn created by Leo.
Forsaken Shell: The four corpses lying in the middle of the chapel are undead horrors created by Leo.
Death Kin Skeleton: The skeletons are the reanimated remains of Ba’al Verzi assassins whom Leo dug up and brought to the monastery with him.
Vampiric Mist: ?
Zombie Strangler: ?
Zombie Strangler Hand: ?

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 208

Dungeon 208
4e
Grasping Zombie: In the long-forgotten calamity that befell this mine, the passages to this section collapsed. Many miners were trapped here and live on in undead misery.
Trapped Zombie Foreman: In the long-forgotten calamity that befell this mine, the passages to this section collapsed. Many miners were trapped here and live on in undead misery.
Brackenbite, Haures: Brackenbite, a haures, was touched by Lolth.

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 209

Dungeon 209
4e
Death Mold Zombie: A Small or Medium target reduced to 0 hit points or fewer from a death mold attack dies and immediately becomes a death mold zombie.
Mummified Cyclops: ?
Mummified Crocodile: ?
Tloques-Popolocas, Vampire: ?
Olman Zombie: ?
Ayocuan, Wight: ?
Daughter of Chitza-Atla, Mummy: ?

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 210

Dungeon 210
4e
Wraith: ?
Wraith Figment: When the wraith kills a humanoid, that humanoid becomes a wraith figment at the start of this wraith’s next turn. The new wraith appears in the space where the humanoid died or in the nearest unoccupied square, and it rolls a new initiative check.
Blazing Skeleton: ?

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 211

Dungeon 211
4e
Wraith: When the wraith kills a humanoid, that humanoid becomes a wraith figment at the start of this wraith’s next turn. The new wraith appears in the space where the humanoid died or in the nearest unoccupied square, and it rolls a new initiative check.
Wisp Wraith: ?
Fin, Ghost: As the characters search the cemetery for clues, they sense the presence of an invisible ghost—the vestige of a young boy named Fin who was trampled to death by a horse three years ago.
But communing with Fin’s spirit reveals that someone has plundered his remains, and indeed, characters who dig up the graves discover that most of them are empty.
Why are you not at rest? “My bones! Gone!”
Four years ago, a local farmer named Holgar Razlek found the boy stumbling through a field in the dead of winter, half frozen to death. Brigands had killed his parents and older sister, forcing the boy to flee his distant homestead. Holgar took the boy in, even though his wife and sons weren’t thrilled with the idea.
Fin lived with the Razleks for less than a year. One fateful evening, a horse trampled him to death while he was crossing the road in front of the family’s cottage. The horse was pulling an ale wagon, and the dwarf merchant at the reins wasn’t local. The merchant swore that he didn’t see Fin dart in front of his horse and wagon until it was too late.
Karla was relieved when Fin died, because he was deeply troubled and required her undivided attention. She and Holgar also confess that Fin suffered from constant nightmares about the brigand attack that killed his family. His screams woke the household and frightened the other boys, and other members of the household would occasionally hear voices and sounds of the brigand attack as though it were happening in their home, suggesting that Fin had the power to project his psyche.
Undead: Talther Yorn instructed Grygori to steal bones from the Baron’s Hill cemetery on moonless nights over the course of several months. The necromancer has been grinding the bones to a fine powder, which he combines with other ingredients to create a necrotic admixture that transforms living creatures into undead horrors. He has been testing this foul concoction on assorted animals, a few wayward travelers, and a mob of goblin underlings.
Hound of Ill Omen: ?
Ghast: Talther Yorn hired Grygori Dilvia to plunder ancient barrows and battlefields for bones, and Grygori enjoyed the mindless work. The spirits of the dishonored dead cursed Grygori and slowly transformed him into a ghast.
Goblin Zombie: The book on the lectern contains Talther Yorn’s meticulous notes (written in Common) about his various alchemical experiments, most of which focus on the reanimation of dead tissue and the creation of zombies by alchemical means. The pages to which the book lies open list the ingredients and instructions for creating a necromantic fluid that Yorn unimaginatively refers to as bone juice. According to the book, this substance can turn a living creature into an obedient zombie without the need for an animation ritual. A quick read of Yorn’s tome provides the following information:
F Creating or using bone juice is an inherently evil act.
F When bone juice is injected into a living subject, death comes quickly. Within an hour, the corpse reanimates as a weak-willed zombie under its creator’s control.
F The bone juice admixture must be perfect. Many of Talther Yorn’s early bone juice concoctions killed his subjects without reanimating them.
F The key ingredient in bone juice is powdered bone. Talther recently discovered that the more diseased the bone, the greater the chance that the “end result” (in other words, the zombie) will go berserk. Thus, the bones of the elderly are less desirable than the bones of the young.
F Talther’s last entry reveals that he recently injected bone juice made from the remains of a child named Fin into a “willing” goblin subject, and the experiment was successful. The goblin is unnamed, but Talther remarks in passing that the creature has only one eye.
If the characters goad him into talking about what he did with Fin’s bones, he gloats that he ground the bones to powder, mixed the powder with some other ingredients, and injected the concoction into a goblin to turn it into a zombie
Small creature killed by bone juice injection.
The necromancer ground the young boy’s bones into powder and used the powder as an ingredient in the bone juice that transformed a helpless one-eyed goblin into a goblin zombie.
The necromancer lured a gang of goblins to his stronghold and has been using them as test subjects. He has turned several of them into zombies and tricked the others into thinking this transformation makes them more powerful.
Goblin Zombie Bugsack: ?
Skeleton: ?
Phantom Warrior: ?
Flesh Tapestry: Talther Yorn stitched and animated this undead creature, which tears itself free of the iron rod and flops across the floor in pursuit of prey.
Skeletal Cats: The three skeletal cats were once Talther Yorn’s living pets. They do not attack unless either the characters attack them first, or their master commands them to do so. Left to their own devices, they follow the characters wherever they go, occasionally getting underfoot while remaining aloof. The cats lack the ability to purr, yowl, or make other vocal sounds, but their bones and claws click eerily when they move. If a character makes any effort to befriend the skeletal cats, they might exhibit behavior that seems friendly, such as attacking a goblin zombie, fetching a thrown object, or leaping into the character’s arms. This behavior hides their true loyalty to their longtime master and creator, Talther Yorn.
Zombie Shambler: Non-small creature killed by bone juice injection.
Hulking Zombie: ?
Vampire Necromancer, Talther Yorn: Hoping to erase an old injury, the necromancer became a vampire, and he has continued to conduct his evil experiments within his secure underground sanctuary to this day.
The necromancer recently transformed himself into a vampire.
Talther Yorn recently performed a necromantic ritual that transformed him into a vampire
Ghoul: Before he found Severine, Talther Yorn employed a trio of bandits to do grunt work. They started to demand too much money for their labors, so Yorn had them killed and then brought them back as subservient ghouls.
The ghouls are the remains of three human bandits who used to perform odd jobs for Talther Yorn until they demanded a little too much money for their services.
Echo Spirit: Life-giving magic from the fey crossing preserved the spiritual remains of those who have died here over the ages, but Soryth’s recent corruption of the area has awakened one of these remnants as an angry undead creature.
Spirit Echo: Echo Spirit's Spiritual Echoes power.

Bone Juice Syringe
Standard Action M Syringe (necrotic, weapon) F Recharge if the attack misses
Attack: Melee 1 (one dazed, restrained, stunned, or unconscious creature); +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d4 + 15 necrotic damage. If the damage reduces the target to 0 hit points or fewer, the target dies and rises as a zombie shambler (Monster Vault™, page 295) at the start of its next turn. (A Small creature uses the goblin zombie statistics instead.) A new zombie has a 50 percent chance to be free-willed. Otherwise, it obeys its creator.

Minor Actions
m Spiritual Echoes F Recharge when the spirit uses psychic reverberation
Effect: Three spirit echoes appear within 10 squares of the spirit. These creatures act just after the spirit in the initiative order.

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 212

Dungeon 212
4e
Hyena Spirits: ?
Witherlings: The bone pit is safe, at least until the fang of Yeenoghu in area 3 is killed. As soon as he dies, the bones come to life, spurred into action by Yeenoghu himself.
Zombie: ?
Zombie Rotter: ?
Ghoul: ?

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 213

Dungeon 213
D&D Next
Enlarged Skeleton: ?
Glorified Zombie: ?
Mummy: ?
Apparition: ?
Acererak the Demi-Lich: Ages past, a human wizard/cleric of surpassing evil took the steps necessary to preserve his life force beyond the centuries he had already lived, and this creature became the lich Acererak. Over the scores of years that followed, the lich dwelled with hordes of ghastly servants in the gloomy stone halls of the very hill where the tomb resides. Eventually even the undead life force of Acererak began to wane, so for the next eight decades, the lich’s servants labored to create the Tomb of Horrors. Then Acererak destroyed all of his slaves and servitors, magically hid the entrance to his halls, and went to his final haunt, while his soul roamed strange planes unknown to even the wisest of sages. Joining the halves of the FIRST KEY calls his soul back to the Material Plane, and use of the SECOND KEY alerts the now demilich that he must prepare to do battle to survive yet more centuries.
All that remains of Acererak are the dust of his bones and a skull with two 50,000 gp rubies set into its eye sockets. The skull also has six pointed (marquis cut) diamonds set as teeth in its jaw (each diamond is worth 5,000 gp). If any character is foolish enough to touch or strike the skull, a terrible thing occurs.
The skull rises into the air, its ruby eyes flickering with malevolence, its diamond teeth agleam with ancient hunger for the souls of the damned.
The skull is all that remains of Acererak’s body, but it’s all the demi-lich needs to show the heroes the folly of their endeavors.

 

[Voadam]

Dungeon 214

Dungeon 214
4e
Shambling Mummy: ?
Skeletal Tomb Guardian: ?
Wraith Figment: When the sovereign wraith kills a humanoid, that humanoid becomes a wraith figment at the start of this wraith’s next turn. The new wraith appears in the space where the humanoid died or in the nearest unoccupied square, and it rolls a new initiative check.
Sovereign Wraith: ?
Vampire Night Witch: ?
Dread Guardian: ?
Karrnathi Skeleton: Kassia’s mind shattered at the loss of her family, and she cloistered herself in her home for months. She pored over texts that her family had accumulated over several generations. In time, she discovered a tome written by a priest of the Blood of Vol and recited a ritual from its pages to raise the remains of her family and restore her happiness.
The remains of Kassia’s husband, sons, and daughter rose as Karrnathi skeletons.