Undead Origins


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Voadam

Legend
Victorious Phantasmagoria
Castles & Crusades
Banshea, Fiona Fitzgerald: She decided to run away to the big city of Dublin, not only to free her family of the burden of her presence but also find a better life for herself. None of this worked, and she found herself freezing to death in a filthy alley one dark winter night. She slept, hoping to find heaven when she awoke once again.
She woke, but not to the gates of St. Peter. Instead, she seemed a ghost, or at least appeared as one.
 

Voadam

Legend
Castles & Crusades: Dread Crypt of Srihoz
Castles & Crusades
Vampire Aboleth: ?
The Champion, Ghost Fighter 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.
Spectre: ?
Skeletal Human Guard: ?
Srihoz, Heironeous Uliran Theophal, Vampire Human Wizard 11: ?
Vampire Spawn: Create Vampire Spawn spell.
Vampire: The vampire aboleth can choose to raise one of its slain victims as a vampire under its control.
Create Vampire spell.

CREATE VAMPIRE SPAWN Sanguiomancy
LEVEL: Wiz 5 COMPONENTS: V, S
CASTING TIME: 1 RANGE: 50 feet
TARGET: Any valid sanguiomantic target
DURATION: 1 round/level (D)
SAVING THROW: Charisma
SPELL RESISTANCE: Yes
The target becomes a vampire spawn for the duration of the spell. If the target fails the Charisma save, it is under the control of the caster, as dominate person. The following changes take place to the character, regardless of the success or failure of the Charisma save:
• Alignment is now evil.
• No constitution score, +4 Str, +2 Dex.
• Type is undead.
• Gain special attacks: blood drain, domination, energy drain as
a vampire.
• Gain special qualities: gaseous form, spider climb.
Because the character is technically dead for the duration of the spell, any defense against death magic applies to this spell.
Dispel magic, wish and remove curse spells will remove the effects of this spell prematurely.

CREATE VAMPIRE Sanguiomancy
LEVEL: Wiz 6 COMPONENTS: V, S
CASTING TIME: 1 RANGE: 50 feet
TARGET: Any valid sanguiomantic target
DURATION: 1 min./level (D)
SAVING THROW: Charisma
SPELL RESISTANCE: Yes
The target becomes a vampire for the duration of the spell. If the target fails the Charisma save, it is under the control of the caster, as dominate person. The following changes take place to the character regardless of the success or failure of the Charisma save.
• Alignment is now evil.
• No constitution score, +6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +4 Cha.
• Type is undead.
• Gain special attacks: blood drain, domination, and energy drain.
• Gain special qualities: alternate form, requires +2 or better weapons to be hit, gaseous form, half damage from electricity, spider climb.
Because the character is technically dead for the duration of the spell, any defense against death magic applies to this spell.
 


Voadam

Legend
Castles & Crusades: The Mysterious Tower
Castles & Crusades
Ghost: The wizard went insane trying to devise a way out of the tower, but he failed over and over and over again. He finally died of old age. But even in death he found no release, for a force wall blocks ethereal creatures. His soul remained trapped within the force wall and eventually turned into a ghost filled with rage and frustration.
Skeleton: ?
Glorian, Wight: This wight is all that is left of Glorian. When his deity left the known planes many centuries ago, the souls of his followers were expelled from Meelkor’s realms. The weakest perished or found respite elsewhere in the planes, but the most powerful (such as Glorian) seethed with anger at what they felt was a grand betrayal. After years of servitude to Meelkor, they expected more than to be unceremoniously evicted from their afterlife! Of course, to Meelkor, expectations of reward were counter to his beliefs anyway, but even the most pious human cleric secretly expects compensation for his years of mortal restraint once he reaches the magnificent afterlife. The righteous anger coursing through Glorian and a few other high-level followers was so great that their souls forcibly returned to their bodies and they reanimated as undead.
 

Voadam

Legend
Castles & Crusades: The Secret of Smuggler's Cove
Castles & Crusades
Llewellyn, Allip: The creature is an allip, the undead remains of Llewellyn, the lighthouse keeper. In a vain attempt to escape the smugglers, Llewellyn tried to climb the steps to reach the beacon room. Instead, he slipped and fell to his death. The smugglers tossed his body over the cliff, but his soul can not rest and he has returned as an allip.
Spectre: This room was the living quarters of a high priest dedicated to Lord Gregor's foul devil. The high priest met his end while trying to summon a devil. Lord Gregor refused to pay the required fees for the outsider's assistance, so it attacked. It ripped out Lord Gregor's throat in one swipe and mortally wounded the high priest, who fled here. Due to the evil acts it performed in life, its soul cannot rest, and it has become a spectre.
 

Voadam

Legend
Castles & Crusades: The Slithering Overlord
Castles & Crusades
Grimlock Zombie: Sirthim created the 4 zombies that seem to be the only guardians of this chamber. Using several scrolls of animate dead he had managed to bring from the drow city, the drider returned fallen grimlock warriors to a semblance of life.
Gray Dwarf Wight: Used to all kinds of atrocious smells and keeping their hygiene to a minimum, the troglodytes dumped all dead bodies, of friends and foes alike, into this room. After Pserkipis had come to be the leader of the trog tribe, he quickly abolished this ghastly practice and taught his minions to embalm their dead with the herbs from the Underground Paradise. The terrible smell disappeared, giving way to a strange side effect. Strangely enough (and maybe due to the overwhelming evil associated with The Slithering Overlord), this new burial rite caused Pserkipis’ fallen enemies to rise as particularly strong wights, utterly loyal to their killers.
Wight: Anyone killed by a wight can rise as a wight under the control of the slayer.
 

Voadam

Legend
Dark Dungeons X
Dark Dungeons
Undead: ?
Floating Undead Horror: It is not known how floating horrors become undead, but they can do so – and the result is even more horrific.
Ghast: ?
Ghoul: Creatures slain by a giant vampire bat must make a saving throw vs. spells or return as an undead 24 hours later. The type of undead should be determined by rolling 1d6 and consulting the following list:
1–3 = zombie
4–5 = ghoul
6 = wight
Haunt Banshee: ?
Haunt Ghost: ?
Haunt Poltergeist: A poltergeist is the undead spirit of a dead child.
Lich: A lich is a human magic-user or cleric who has used a forbidden arcane ritual to turn themselves into an undead creature.
Mummy: Mummies are re-animated corpses that have been specially prepared and wrapped so that they will become undead.
Nightshade: ?
Nightshade Nightcrawler: ?
Nightshade Nightwalker: ?
Nightshade Nightwing: ?
Phantom: ?
Phantom Apparition: Any human or demi-human killed by an apparition will fade away and become one in a week (even if raised) unless a Dispel Evil is cast on them.
Phantom Shade: ?
Phantom Vision: A vision is a composite undead creature, consisting of the transparent forms of 2d4 creatures.
Skeleton: Animate Dead spell.
Skeleton Dragon: ?
Spectre: Anyone slain by a spectre will rise the following night as another spectre unless raised.
Firstly, any undead that creates creatures similar to itself by draining the life from victims (e.g. a spectre or a vampire) can automatically take control of those new undead as soon as they rise, even though they have more than half the number of hit dice that the liege has.
Undead really weren’t her thing and she’d actually died fighting those awful spectres. Luckily, Elfstar had been able to revive her before she turned into one herself; but she still had nightmares where she could feel their icy touch and feel her life being sucked from her.
Spirit: ?
Spirit Druj: ?
Spirit Druj Eye: ?
Spirit Druj Hand: ?
Spirit Druj Skull: ?
Spirit Odic: ?
Spirit Revenant: ?
Vampire: Any human or demi-human killed by a vampire will rise in three days’ time as a vampire themselves, unless they have a Dispel Evil cast on them or they are raised.
Firstly, any undead that creates creatures similar to itself by draining the life from victims (e.g. a spectre or a vampire) can automatically take control of those new undead as soon as they rise, even though they have more than half the number of hit dice that the liege has.
Wight: The touch of a wight does an Energy Drain to the victim, draining a single level. Any humanoid killed by a wight in this manner will become a wight themselves in 1d4 days unless a Dispel Evil is cast on them or they are raised.
Creatures slain by a giant vampire bat must make a saving throw vs. spells or return as an undead 24 hours later. The type of undead should be determined by rolling 1d6 and consulting the following list:
1–3 = zombie
4–5 = ghoul
6 = wight
Wraith: Anyone killed by a wraith will rise as a wraith themselves the following night unless a Dispel Evil or Raise Dead is cast on them.
Zombie: Zombies are mindless undead created by an Animate Dead spell.
Creatures slain by a giant vampire bat must make a saving throw vs. spells or return as an undead 24 hours later. The type of undead should be determined by rolling 1d6 and consulting the following list:
1–3 = zombie
4–5 = ghoul
6 = wight
Animate Dead spell.
Intelligent Undead: ?

Animate Dead
Energy, Inertia
Cleric 4, Druid 4, Magic-User 5, Elf 5, Sorcerer 5
Target: one or more corpses
Range: 60’
Duration: permanent
When this spell is cast, a number of dead bodies or skeletons within range will be animated and will become zombies or skeletons respectively.
A created skeleton will have the same number of hit dice as the race of the original creature had (not including extra hit dice gained from class levels). A created zombie will have one more hit dice than the original creature had (not including extra hit dice gained from class levels).
Therefore, a human or demi-human skeleton will always have 1 hit die, and a human or demi-human zombie will always have 2 hit dice.
Each casting of the spell will create a total number of hit dice of undead equal to the caster’s level, starting with those nearest the caster.
See Chapter 18 – Monsters for more details about skeletons and zombies.
The animated undead will mindlessly obey the commands of the caster, and there is no limit to the total number of undead that the caster can create and control using multiple castings of this spell. The zombies and skeletons created by this spell can be turned or destroyed normally. Unless the caster of this spell is an immortal, they are also vulnerable the Dispel Magic spell.
 
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Voadam

Legend
Angels, Daemons & Beings Between Volume 2: Elfland Edition
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Elf Wraith: ?
Reidmar: Long ago, Reidmar was a member of the Seelie Court. An aristocratic lord of his own faerie mound, Talla Aghmhor, or Happy Hall, indeed Reidmar’s personality was reflected in the name of his dwelling -- he was joyous, happy, and kind.
Legend claims that during one evening of feasting, Talla Aghmhor was called upon by a wandering troubadour. The faerie minstral must have had darkness in his heart to sing a melancholy tale of fey lovers killed by internecine rivalry. Reidmar was furious that such an unhappy tale was told in his Joyous Court. Courtiers openly wept and the psychic shock took a deep hold on Reidmar as well.
At that moment, the unending joy was somehow sundered in famed Talla Aghmhor. Some placed blame the undoing of Talla Aghmhor at the minstrel’s feet, suggesting that the act was malicious and planned by archrivals in the Unseelie Court. Others suggested that the happiness of the place flowed from its faerie king, Reidmar. Once his joyous reverie was broken, so too was Talla Aghmhor.
The next evening all of Talla Aghmhor attempted to continue on as before. Reidmar feigned happiness but in secret was tortured by the death of the faerie lovers in the minstrel’s tale. In private, he began consulting spirits and sages to discover what happens to faeries when they die. Conventional wisdom indicated that faeries join the Unseelie Court upon death. Other tales were far worse, only suggesting that the fey’s soul dissolves and everyone forgets that the departed ever existed.
This knowledge was too much for Reidmar. The possibility of turning to something so diametrically opposed to his own way of life gnawed at Reidmar’s fey soul. Unseelie faeries are cruel, evil and hateful. The alternate fate seemed even more excruciating - to be gone from all memory.
Later a sorcerer of no mean skill was a guest at Talla Aghmhor. Deep in his cups and having consumed faerie wine, the sorcerer lost all propriety and told of magic that would stave off death forever. Reidmar wrung the secrets from the sorcerer with wine and promises, and later on, threats and torture.
Armed with the arcane formulae, Reidmar set about to manifest its dark magicks at whatever the cost. It was all a success, but obtained at great cost. Reidmar has become everything he feared -- a withered skeletal faerie with rotting wings, glowing bones, clawed hands and black pits lit with evil energy where eyes used to be. He is now neither Seelie nor Unseelie. He exists as something altogether separate, his soul hidden away in a small iron chest. The absence of his soul renders him immune to the laws and traditions of the Faerie Courts. Death will not take him and the Faerie Courts fear him.
Lich: ?
Vampire: ?
Mummy: ?
Ghost: ?
 

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