Planet Apocalypse for 5E
5e
Apocalypse Undead: Undead created by an Underhell invasion are horribly twisted by the energies of the Underhell.
The Underhell roils with vile energies unlike anything found in the mortal realms. These wicked energies are something beyond the unnatural, and even the likes of devils and demons find them unnerving. One of the most revolting effects of an Underhell invasion is the unleashing of these energies upon unsuspecting mortals.
As the fiends move throughout the world, these energies swirl about them, coalescing into an invisible miasma that clings to the dead bodies of mortals left behind by the fiends’ rampaging throughout the world. It is in the Underhell’s nature to use all that it destroys in some way or another: as a result, contaminated corpses soon rise again, the power of the Underhell animating them once more. These undead are mockeries of the precious lives lost at the hands of the fiends of the Underhell, who are all too happy to allow the undead to consume and destroy as they wish.
Ashen Angel: While the rank and file fiends of the Underhell contentedly left the undead that rose in their wake to their own devices, the lords of the Underhell sought a way to turn this rampant power to a greater purpose. Initial attempts at harnessing these energies proved fruitless, however, leading most lords to abandon this goal for the time being. Only when the gods sent their angels to fight against the Underhell did the fiends find the opportunity they had been waiting for.
The first angels to arrive faced the forces of the Underhell shortly after the invasion began. These angels, recognizing an enemy unlike any other, fought valiantly and sacrificed their physical forms to slow down the Underhell. The angels fell quickly to the might of the fiends, but their souls returned to the good-aligned planes as normal after destruction on the Material Plane. One of these angels met its demise in an area saturated with the vile energies of the Underhell, but its soul did not cleanly escape the physical realm. A shell of the angel soon rose again: hollow, not truly solid, and without its full faculties. Only the scarred core of the angel’s soul had escaped, leaving a withered and translucent echo behind. This development intrigued the fiend lords of the Underhell and shook the rest of the planes to their core. Never before had it been possible to raise an angel as an undead, for their bodies and souls are one, yet the unliving blasphemy was apparent.
The lords and their minions took the time to study these energies and eventually discovered a difficult and arduous way to replicate this effect. Even with these limitations, the Underhell has created several undead from the corpses of fallen celestials, beings they call “ashen angels” due to the pallid skin caused by the reanimation.
The ashen angel is an animated planetar whose healing powers the vile power of the Underhell has twisted into necrotic energies capable of restoring its fellow undead. Planetars make up the known ranks of the ashen angels and it is unclear if the lords of the Underhell can reanimate and command other types of angels. If so, the Underhell has chosen to wait to unleash these angels until some future time. Some fallen clerics claim their gods have abandoned their worlds and their people to prevent losing more angels to the ranks of the Underhell.
Crawling Horde: Entire towns meet their demise at the hands of the fiends of the Underhell, and any survivors have the unfortunate task of handling the burial of these dead. As the fiends of the Underhell slaughter countless mortals, finding enough graves to bury these dead frequently proves all but impossible, leading to most victims ending up in enormous, mass graves. Through the power of the Underhell’s fell energies, many of these mass graves become the site of large, undead uprisings. In rare cases, these corpses rise in the same instant, creating a sort of hive-mind or shared consciousness. These corpses move in unison as large masses of undead known as “crawling hordes.”
The excessive energies required to animate a crawling horde grant it a formidable resistance to magical effects.
The player characters must infiltrate the city where the Underhell invasion began and reach the palace. The Authority recommended either entering by the city gates or sneaking through the sewers. The first option requires confronting or bypassing a vigilant group of three flesheater underfiends at the city gate. The second option seems safer, but the corpses dumped into the sump at the sewer entrance have congealed and animated into two crawling hordes.
Leaping Skin: In extremely rare circumstances, the energies of the Underhell can animate only a portion of a corpse, such as a skeleton that erupts forth from the flesh. Other times, however, the corpse’s skin will animate, tearing itself from the muscle of the corpse.
Restless: Even with the terrors brought about by the fiends of the Underhell, many mortals attempt to retain some sense of civility and respect when disposing of their dead, especially when the number of dead has not yet overwhelmed their abilities to dispose of the corpses. Unfortunately, even proper burial rites, blessings, and other traditions do not always defend from the energies of the Underhell. When fiendish energies seep into carefully tended bodies, the foul energies cause the corpses to grow strange protrusions of writhing flesh like small tendrils that grasp nearby creatures and interfere with enemy attacks. Due to how quickly these dead sometimes animate after their burial, many have come to refer to them as “the restless.”
Corpse Mother's Spawn Undead power.
Shambling Fragments, Shambler: The fiends of the Underhell, in their endless depravity, find great enjoyment in tearing mortals limb from limb or severely mutilating their bodies, before or after death. Although these remnants are not complete corpses, the energies of the Underhell can still animate extremely damaged corpses, partial torsos, individual limbs, and other body parts to seek out others to tear apart as well, seemingly guided by some unnatural force. These remnants given undeath are known as “shambling fragments,” after the discordant movement of their incomplete bodies.
Dozens of shambling fragments can rise from a single corpse, even if left intact.
A shambler is suffused with the energies of the Underhell, constantly radiating these same energies. Anyone struck by a shambler risks some of this energy entering their own body, increasing the risk of rising as undead themselves if killed, either under the assault of the shambler or even at a later date.
Corpse Mother's Spawn Undead power.
Damned Soul Swarm: Many Archlords believe that a spark of hope ultimately engenders greater suffering, so they carefully allow word to spread in the deepest pits of the Underhell. Some damned souls do indeed disappear but not to freedom—instead, they are secretly collected, combined, and unleashed as a throng of wailing, clutching souls called a “damned soul swarm.”
The Archlords or lesser lords stitch and weave the damned together, binding individual identities to create a single-minded aggregation of souls.
Not all damned soul swarms are carefully collected by Archlords into a mewling, clutching swarm. Some fiend-inflicted tragedies that create a sudden and traumatic loss of life can cause damned soul swarms to arise spontaneously; this is particularly likely to occur during the world-shaking upheavals of Underhell invasions.
When the fiends can’t rouse particular prisoners to consciousness for more tortures, they throw them into this horrid pit, where they expect them to die. Occasionally, souls that expire here find release, but the nearby Spider Engine normally captures them to create damned soul swarms.
A mechanical marvel invented by a deranged halfling necromancer, this building contains machines that imprison the souls of the recently slain. The halfling offered this machine to a summoned fiend of the Underhell, who took the machine and made the halfling its first victim. Called the Spider Engine for its resemblance to a massive metal arachnid, the structure was brought from the Underhell to aid in the invasion.
The cages collect, separate, and recombine souls for formation into damned soul swarms. All of them churn with faint, spectral spirits.
Damned soul swarms are undead souls bound into a horrific, incorporeal amalgam.
Hazy Damned Soul Swarm, Least Cohesive Least Threatening of the Damned Soul Swarms: The least cohesive and least threatening of the damned soul swarms are those formed of few souls, or whose soul-stuff has been so damaged in previous engagements that it is merely a wispy, fog-like apparition.
Livid Damned Soul Swarm: The spirits in a damned soul swarm are bodiless, but that doesn’t assuage their hunger for their lost mortality. Some damned soul swarms draw blood from wounded enemies, causing ribbons of blood to pour out from wounds. The spirits howl in frustration as they derive no real sustenance from this process, meaning they never even partly sate their hunger for their lost vitality. These damned soul swarms are a livid purple in color, like an angry bruise. This coloration fades if the swarm hasn’t feasted on blood within the past several days.
Roiling Damned Soul Swarm: Damned soul swarms that have fed on the vitality of many mortals, or whose constituent souls retain a strong sense of self, become large and cunning predators.
Shell of an Angel: ?
Withered and Translucent Echo: ?
Animated Planetar: ?
Large Mass of Undead: ?
Monstrosity: ?
Creature: ?
Terror: ?
Enormous Mass of Corpses: ?
Animated Skin: ?
Unique Restless: ?
Corpse: ?
Remnants: ?
Mutilated Corpse: ?
Roiling Damned Soul Swarm of the Cocytus Legion: ?
Livid Damned Soul Swarm of the Cocytus Legion: A mechanical marvel invented by a deranged halfling necromancer, this building contains machines that imprison the souls of the recently slain. The halfling offered this machine to a summoned fiend of the Underhell, who took the machine and made the halfling its first victim. Called the Spider Engine for its resemblance to a massive metal arachnid, the structure was brought from the Underhell to aid in the invasion.
The cages collect, separate, and recombine souls for formation into damned soul swarms. All of them churn with faint, spectral spirits.
Pathetic Creature: ?
Minion: ?
Horrific Incorporeal Amalgam: ?
Throng of Clutching Wailing Souls: ?
Single-Minded Aggregation of Souls: ?
Rogue Unplanned Damned Soul Swarm, Rogue Damned Soul Swarm: ?
Damned Soul Swarm That Has Fed on the Vitality of Many Mortals: ?
Damned Soul Swarm Whose Constituent Souls Retain a Strong Sense of Self: ?
Large Cunning Predator: ?
Horror: ?
Large Cloud of Ghostly Claws and Screaming Faces: ?
Farlisk Grimhammer, Lawful Neutral Ghost, Dwarf Ghost, Angry Ghost: ?
Ghost: ?
Mummy: ?
Shadow: ?
Specter: ?
Faint Spectral Spirit: ?
Vampire: ?
Vampire Lord: ?
Vampire Spawn: ?
Wight: ?
Will-o'-Wisp: ?
Wraith: ?
Somewhat Intelligent Zombie: ?
Medium Zombie: ?
Zombie: ?
Human Zombie: Corpse Mother's Spawn Undead power.
Spawn Undead. The corpse mother produces its choice of one restless or three human zombies or six shambling fragments in unoccupied locations within 15 feet of the corpse mother.
