Undead Origins

[Voadam]

For Coin & Blood
Swords & Wizardry
Undead: ?
Skeleton: Animate Dead spell.
Zombie: Animate Dead spell.
Wight: ?
Wraith: ?
Mummy: ?
Spectre: ?
Vampire: ?
Lich: ?

Animate Dead
Spell Level: M5 Range: Narrator’s discretion Duration: Permanent
This spell animates skeletons or zombies from dead bodies. 1d6 undead are animated (per level of the caster above 8th). The corpses remain animated until destroyed or dispelled.

 

[Voadam]

Grimmsgate
Swords & Wizardry
Tomb Guardian: ?
Guardian Skeleton: The sarcophagi in this room all contain normal (not animated) skeletons. If the characters attempt to loot this tomb, under the very eyes of the Tomb Guardian, the guardian will raise its arms and each of the skeletons in the sarcophagi will rise as extremely powerful undead beings.

Skeleton: ?

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 1 Valley of the Hawks Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Zombie: ?
Rusalka: Over 200 years ago, a wise woman of the elves drowned in the river here, killed by a prince whose affections she spurned. Her spirit became a rusalka, a undead being that seeks vengeance on the living.
Shadow: ?
Wraith: ?
Countess Jordelia, Vampire: ?
Vampire: ?
Mummy: Mummified Snake Men.
Count Kardofo, Vampire: ?
Haimonna, Vampire: Kardofo has taken residence in the root cellar behind the home of the village mayor, Tamosirus, and has already turned the mayor’s wife, Haimonna, into his willing bride.
Vampire Thug: Ten other villagers have been turned, and now patrol the village at night wielding long, bronze daggers and enforcing their master’s new order.

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 2 The Winter Woods - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Undead High Priest: ?
Undead War Horse: ?
Undead Priest: ?
Maiden of the Maze: ?
Ghoul Aquatic: ?
King Ottin, Shadow Fighter 8: King Ottin and his people were cursed in ancient times to never again see the sun or feel its warmth.
Shadow Knight: King Ottin and his people were cursed in ancient times to never again see the sun or feel its warmth.
Dweomer Wraith: ?

Ghoul: ?
Lich: ?
Mummy: ?
Shadow: King Ottin and his people were cursed in ancient times to never again see the sun or feel its warmth.
Skeleton: ?
Vampire: ?
Zombie: Zombies are humanoids who have died at sea or galley slaves from the black arks that have somehow fallen overboard.

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 3 Beyond Black Water - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Veporth, Mummy Priest: ?
Ghostly Scribe: The souls claimed by Gohl [one of the Petty Deaths].
Ghostly Philosopher: The souls claimed by Gohl [one of the Petty Deaths].
Palocar, The Palocar: ?
Ghostly Slave: ?
Skeletal Elephant: ?
Spectral Lady: ?
Noble Wraith: ?
Imperial Crypt Thing: ?
Ghostly Servant: ?
Sea Vampire: ?
Adrimiret, Lich: ?
Shade: Atoda is the petty death who takes charge of those who die from old age or unfortunate accidents.
Ghostly Doppelganger: ?
Ghostly Rat: ?
Zombie Giant: ?
Alu, Lich: ?

Zombie: The Land Beyond the Black Water is both of the mortal world and beyond the mortal world, a nexus of the lands of life and death. The country is always shrouded in twilight, with a moon that rises and sets in the manner of the sun in the land of the living. The souls of the dead wash up on the land’s rocky shores as spirits made corporeal and trapped in lifeless bodies. Some float up the river, for the Sluggish River flows from the sea to the mountains, rather than the reverse. Some souls animate their fleshy prisons in the form of zombies, others escape as ghostly shadows and many are extracted and traded as commodities by the weird citizens of this terrible country.
Shadow: The Land Beyond the Black Water is both of the mortal world and beyond the mortal world, a nexus of the lands of life and death. The country is always shrouded in twilight, with a moon that rises and sets in the manner of the sun in the land of the living. The souls of the dead wash up on the land’s rocky shores as spirits made corporeal and trapped in lifeless bodies. Some float up the river, for the Sluggish River flows from the sea to the mountains, rather than the reverse. Some souls animate their fleshy prisons in the form of zombies, others escape as ghostly shadows and many are extracted and traded as commodities by the weird citizens of this terrible country.
Ghoul: ?
Wight: ?
Ghast: ?
Wraith: ?
Mummy: The mummies of the embalmers should not be confused with those of the ancient Egyptians or Incas. In the embalmer culture, a corpse is initially prepared in a way similar to the Egyptians, using a fragrant oils and a conglomeration of herbs in a secret formula. After steeping in this formula, the skin of the mummy peels away. Its organs are then removed and placed in funerary urns. The corpse is them methodically dipped in beeswax, the color of the wax depending on its rank and position in life, with a deep purple-crimson wax being used for kings and a saffron wax for philosophers. A jet imbroglio depicting the corpse as it looked in life is placed under the tongue, it is dressed in flowing robes of black, a gold, conical hat is placed on its head and the ritual to animate the corpse then takes place. The corpse is animated in its closet to keep it from spreading mummy rot to the priests.
Lacedon, Aquatic Ghoul: ?
Allip: ?
Skeleton: ?
Cinder Ghoul: The guests of the lord, stuffing their faces with sweets and savories while the old woman went hungry, were burnt to a cinder in the meteoric conflagration and rose as three cinder ghouls who rise like smoke from the floor if the meteor is touched.
Poltergeist: ?

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 4 The Shattered Empire - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Gavos, Spectre: ?
Reptilian Mummy: ?

Zombie: That night their sentries were attacked by a pack of 30 zombies raised by the inhabitants of the craggy hill.
Skeleton: ?
Wight: ?
Shadow Rat: ?

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 5 The Pirate Coast - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Oblivion Wraith: ?
Humladil, Lich: ?
Infre, Phantom: The child was called Infre, and was the issue of a magic-user of questionable sanity and a demon. After poisoning several playmates, Infre was chased to the river and killed by an arrow in the back from a local hunter. Infre’s body shriveled unnaturally and his bones were placed within the stonework of the bridge, was then under construction.
Giant Skeleton: ?
Cumont, Lich: ?
Shade: These battlements are haunted by warrior shades, sailors who lost their lives in the dangerous straits and found their souls bound to the island.

Ghoul: ?
Zombie: ?
Phantom: Phantoms are translucent spirits of creatures that died a particularly violent death.
Fire Phantom: At the bottom of the spiral there is a large, empty throne room where once sat Florius the Kobold King before he angered those spirits that lurk beyond the veil. Florius is now a great mass of wriggling flesh that shifts and mutates before one’s eyes. Five handmaidens surround the thing that was Florius. They wear green robes and alternately fan the creature with palm fronds and whip it with leather straps. The whipping is concentrated on pustules that appear on the skin. As these pustules burst, thoqqua fall onto the floor and rush to the walls, burrowing into and cocooning themselves – a month later, they emerge as fire phantoms.

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 6 The Troll Hills - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Headless Ghost: ?

Wight: ?
Exploding Bones: ?
Spectral Troll: ?
Bodak: ?
Ghoul: ?
Zombie: ?

 

[Voadam]

Hex Crawl Chronicles 7 The Golden Meadows - Swords and Wizardry Edition
Swords & Wizardry
Infant Vampire: An undead variant, infant vampires hatch from blood soaked eggs rather than being created from living humanoids. These creatures are quite rare, created under unusual circumstances. Generally, a spell casting vampire will encase a stillborn child in a caul-like substance that he or she creates, which then hardens as it preserves the body. Left near a source of negative energy, they infant vampires gradually incubates, waiting for the necessary blood to hatch.
Varghoul: ?
Giant Beetle Exoskeleton: ?
Vazgar, Lich: ?
Mishka, Vampire: ?
Icthyosaur Skeleton: The petrified skeleton of an ichthyosaur lurks beneath the sands here. Animated long ago by a necromancer, it guards the hex from intruders, for hidden deeper beneath the sands there is a large bunker complex that the necromancer used as his base of operations.
Dancing Spirit: ?

Shadow: These chalk caves capture the shadows of creatures that enter and spend more than 10 minutes within, assuming they have a light source with which to cast those shadows.
Ghoul: ?
Skeleton: ?
Lich: ?
Undead: ?
Spectre: The miners lost in the cave-in still dwell in these tunnels as three specters.
Vampire: A valley here in the deep mountains is well watered by springs and filled with willow-like trees with coppery bark and dark green leaves. The branches are heavy with bunches of berries that look like white grapes. These berries are red on the inside and their flesh tastes of blood. Strange, gaunt squirrels inhabit these trees and favor these berries. When they are stolen, these creatures become quite irate and attack the invaders, revealing that they are also fond of humanoid blood. The only other inhabitants of the valley are a band of haggard-looking vampires. The vampires were once human adventurers who sampled the berries – each berry that is eaten carries with it a 5% chance of infecting the eater with a blood disease that slowly transforms them into vampires over the course of 30 days.

 

[Voadam]

Midgard Swords & Wizardry Guidebook
Swords & Wizardry
Darakhul: Like ordinary ghouls, the darakhul ghoul rises from the infected corpses of other races.
Darakhul Fever disease.
Darakhul Warrior: ?
Darakhul Necromage: ?
Firegeist: When a fire elemental meets its destruction in a particularly humiliating fashion, what returns is a firegeist.
Gray Thirster: ?
Lich Hound: ?
Risen Reaver: The risen reaver is an undead creature born from a warrior fallen on the battlefield. Its body becomes an avatar of combat, with four legs and a pair of long, heavy arms. In the process, it sheds its skin, becoming entirely undead muscle, bone, and sinew. When risen reavers take form, they absorb all weapons around them. Some of these weapons pierce their bodies, and others become part of the risen reaver’s armament. Their four legs are tipped with blades on which they walk like metallic spiders. Their arms are covered in weaponry infused into their flesh, which they use to crush and flay any living creatures they encounter.
Sarcophogus Slime: A sarcophogus slime can target one foe within 30ft every 1d4 rounds with its corrupting gaze. The target must make a saving throw or take 2d4 points of damage. A creature killed by this gaze becomes a sarcophagus slime within 24 hours.
Black King Lucas, Vampire Lord: ?
Otmar the Sallow, Vampire Lord: ?
Vaettir: ?

Wraith: ?
Ghoul: Darakhul Fever disease.
Ghast: Darakhul Fever disease.
Ghost: ?

Darakhul Fever
Spread mainly through bite wounds, this rare disease makes itself known within 24 hours by debilitating the infected. A creature so afflicted must make a saving throw or take 2d6 points of damage every hour until cured. A creature that dies from darakhul fever has a chance to rise as an undead. Roll 1d20 on the following table:
1d20
Result
1–9
None; victim is simply dead
10–15
Ghoul
16–19
Ghast
20
Darakhul