Legendary Planet Adventure Path (5E)
5e
Atoth: When a ceroptor dies within its host body during extra-dimensional travel, the material essence associated with the corporeal body tears free and jettisons into the void. The essence of the material form then reforms creating the atoth. Lacking souls and therefore devoid of true consciousness, they cannot fully merge with the outer realms.
The creature is an atoth, an incorporeal undead formed from the decapitated and horrifically deformed remains of those unfortunate individuals whose tortured flesh died after acquiring a ceroptor host.
Breathless One: When humanoid creatures suffocate, the horror of slowly dying from lack of air drives them mad and they sometimes return as breathless ones.
Void Zombie: Void zombies are formed by the infestation of akata larvae bringing on a plague called the void death. The victims of this dread affliction are slowly eaten from the inside out by wriggling larvae, though their ragged flesh is strung together by sticky filaments and scabrous tumors created by the larvae as they mature, giving the creature a hideous strength and savagery.
The void death disease is actually an infestation of larval akata. A humanoid that dies of the infection becomes host to the most dominant larva infesting its body. The larva grows rapidly over the course of an hour, feeding on the host’s bodily fluids. After that time, the creature animates as a void zombie under the control of the larva, and the larval akata attaches to the creature’s lower jaw, in place of its tongue.
A humanoid that dies as a result of void death rises as a void zombie 1 hour later.
Klaven Void Zombie: While klaven are normally resistant to disease, they’re not fully immune, and a pair of them sustained significant enough injuries that they eventually succumbed to the onset of void death just an hour or so later, reducing their hit points until they perished and rose as void zombies.
Two klaven currently rampage through this room, only recently transformed into void zombies. As they began to succumb to the void death inflicted by the akata, they followed their last instincts and forced their way into this chamber blindly in search of anything which might cure them among Lomrick’s personal belongings. Unfortunately, they passed away and rose as void zombies before they complete[d] their search.
Four klaven footsoldiers still defend this position, securing access to the gate room at area A27. They once had stronger numbers, but the akata already killed and transformed two of them into void zombies.
A humanoid that dies as a result of void death rises as a void zombie 1 hour later.
Murderous Atoth: ?
Ghastly Atoth:
Sovereign Atoth: ?
Lord Bertram Arvarenhode, Shredskin: On the night Lord Bertram was abducted, the portal in the eastern alcove temporarily allowed two-way access and an interdimensional horror crossed over from Leng to visit ruin upon the entire manor. Eventually, it skinned its conjurer alive before dragging him back through the portal. The otherworldly energies which flooded the chamber then combined with a fragment of Bertram’s tortured soul, animating his skin, and transforming it into an undead creature known as a shredskin.
Tear-Warped Wretch, Undead Festrog: Three former syaandi benefitted from the resurrection effect of tear shards found elsewhere in the Barony of Merebec and had their spirits drawn to this shrine’s fractured Tear when they died. Sealed within the buried ruins and unable to escape, their new bodies eventually perished from the radiation, and the Tear subsequently resurrected them again and again, eventually causing them to mutate into undead festrogs.
The partial destruction of the Tear results from the corruption inflicted by the Principalities when they assaulted Rythes millennia ago. The damage has caused the ancient artifact to leak a strange form of radiation within the entire chamber. The most immediate effect induces a severe headache, forcing any living creature occupying the room to make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. This effect lasts for 2d6 hours even upon leaving the immediate area. The radiation also has a secondary and more insidious effect. Each hour of exposure in this chamber causes lesions to appear, dealing 10 (3d6) necrotic damage to those who fail a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, and reducing their maximum hit points by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken until they finish a long rest outside the radiation. If the radiation reduces a character’s hit point maximum to 0, the victim dies, and then returns as another tear-warped wretch 8 hours later.
False St. Albat, Totenmaske, Undead Shapeshifter, Undead Mockery: When St. Albat died, his successor created a false tomb for his master to mislead grave robbers. He then used magic to seal St. Albat’s true tomb to the south. Originally, the monks left this passage open for petitioners to visit but added the wall a few years later. The body resting on the bier belonged to another priest who violated the order’s now-defunct vows of celibacy. The monk who built the chamber assumed he might receive atonement by acting as St. Albat’s proxy.
The monk posing as St. Albat died with no regret for breaking his vows and eventually returned to life as a totenmaske, an undead shapeshifter.
Spectre Thirsty One: One of the first exiles to explore this area couldn’t make his way back up the pit. After drinking salt-tainted water, he died of thirst, sealing his doom and causing him to rise once again as a spectre. His merciless anger and frustration have caused him to slay anyone venturing here, and he immediately attacks those stepping into the chamber, futilely hoping to slake his unquenchable thirst. Bound to the chamber, he cannot follow anyone retreating to F11 or gaining the ledge to access the passage to F13.
Rotting Wind: Long ago, several engineers perished in the upper reaches of the Patron complex when the Tear of Eternity collapsed. Undeath followed death on apocalyptic gusts of energy, and two rotting winds formed from their fused souls, becoming trapped above the central core when the force field generation activated to contain the backlash of energy.
Mohrg: The Great Cataclysm buried and trapped several workers in this former weather station. Two of them went mad with hunger and murdered their coworkers, feasting on their flesh, but they too eventually perished. Both returned as mohrgs, now whiling away each day talking to the bones of their former companions.
Baykok, Skeletal Baykok: ?
Duonkhal: ?
Chamberlain Gannath, Lesser Devourer: Chamberlain Gannath was once one of Zefora’s closest advisers and a powerful sorcerer but the occult ritual to transform him into an undead went horribly wrong and his body was cast through a rift into a planar void. However, after many years he returned in the monstrously twisted form of a lesser devourer.
Nyshi, Witchfire, Spirit: The elegant court musician Nyshi perished in the cataclysm, but she died with a secret. Nyshi was part of a clandestine witches’ coven and when she returned to unlife, her form burst into unholy flames transfiguring her into a witchfire.
Princess Naychema, Scheming Undead 'Daughter': Princess Naychema’s body was irrecoverably lost when she died. Naychema’s lover was one of those who disobeyed the empress’s decree to become undead, murdering Naychema and burning her body to ash before committing suicide. However, the empress used blasphemous rituals to summon Naychema’s spirit back to the material plane and bind it to west wing of the palace.
Princess Rajshni, Scheming Undead 'Daughter': ?
Princess Seshana, Scheming Undead 'Daughter': ?
Fext: ?
The Last Bardezite, Undead Remnant of an Entire World, Unquiet Spirit, Undead Singularity: When Vareen’s sister planet Bardez was flung against Vareen, the scattered creatures on Bardez were exposed to explosive force, the vacuum of space, and atmospheric re-entry. While none survived, their ashes and the grains of their broken world fell into deep water, floating to the bottom of Vareen’s planet-spanning ocean. The collective shock of Bardez’s dead population animated and attracted the entirety of Bardez’s remains over time, pulling miniscule bits of dirt, ice, and flesh to form one aggregate creature. Originally mindless, the Last Bardezite’s hate ignited one day when enough of its world’s remains gathered in one place and united with the faint vestiges of thousands of lost souls.
The undead remnant of an entire world is composed of ice, silt, and organic detritus. Since obtaining its aggregate consciousness a few hundred years ago, it uses its unique nature to destroy all life it encounters.
Otakma, The Spirit of Awakening, Ancestor Ghost, Powerful Ancestral Spirit: ?
Waenu, The Spirit of Change, The Spirit of Fertility and Transformation, Ancestor Ghost, Powerful Ancestral Spirit: ?
Sotumna, The Spirit of Rites, Ancestor Ghost, Powerful Ancestral Spirit: ?
Natoma, The Spirit of Passing, Ancestor Ghost, Powerful Ancestral Spirit: ?
Nightshade: ?
Lurking Nightshade: ?
Nightshade Lieutenant: ?
Summoned Nightwing: ?
Arasaim, The Darkness, Nightwalker: Creatures devoted to the nihilistic application of death generally care little for leadership roles or other conventions of the living. Over the early decades, however, the amount of death that took place in and around the Titan’s Maw spawned uniquely powerful beings and invested them with incredible power. Most notable among these is Arasaim, a rare albino nightwalker directly imbued with divine might by the negative energy plane.
Broln, Blackstar Nightwave: Broln arose from the psychic energy of nightmare cults across many worlds, though it hears none of the prayers of its would-be supplicants praying for world-ending tidal waves.
Burning Billow Haunt: The following haunts are tied to the nebula, owing to the actions of the Principalities or the Ultari Hegemony. These haunts are supernatural dimensional instabilities, and are the cosmic equivalent of environmental hazards like extreme weather or green slime.
Death Screams Haunt: The following haunts are tied to the nebula, owing to the actions of the Principalities or the Ultari Hegemony. These haunts are supernatural dimensional instabilities, and are the cosmic equivalent of environmental hazards like extreme weather or green slime.
Prismatic Peril Haunt: The following haunts are tied to the nebula, owing to the actions of the Principalities or the Ultari Hegemony. These haunts are supernatural dimensional instabilities, and are the cosmic equivalent of environmental hazards like extreme weather or green slime.
Spectral Dragon: The necromantic radiations of the Lacuna and Faa Dlan’s sunspots have spawned spectral undead variants of the solar dragons native to the star’s heart, and rarely these ghostly monstrosities venture beyond their solonecrotic homes into the space between.
In addition, if the Bordirrin is reduced below 100 hit points, it sends out a mental call to a second spectral dragon (use the same statistics as Bordirrin except the creature does not have the Block Attack reaction nor any legendary actions) it created when it slew one of the dragons posted here (the second dragon was out on patrol and will not return to the tower for another 2d6 hours).
The Bordirrin, The Taker of Life, Spectral Solar Dragon: ?
Ultari Ur-Acolytes, Undead Ultari Ur-Acolytes, Zombie Ur-Acolytes: If these acolytes are slain, they rise from the dead 1 round later as ultari ur-acolytes through the terrifying necromantic power of Enokk in the Nave.
On the west side of the Fane is a troop of ultari acolytes, each contributing their thought-chant to the time of worship and observing to ensure the proper forms are being observed. Those on the west are ultari acolytes, while those on the east are already risen from death as ultari ur-acolytes. If the latter are destroyed, they are truly slain, but the living acolytes rise again into undeath if destroyed through the power of Enokk in the Nave.
Xeas Yahanum, The Elder Voice, Zombie Servant: ?
Utun the Monitor, Undead Monitor: ?
Undead: As a result, Kylorn’s remaining population soon faced planet-wide extinction. Unable to subsist on the limited ecosystems of the vaults, they argued among themselves on how to survive and still keep their commitment to protect the Patron archives. Some chose to transfer their consciousness into artificial bodies, joining with other constructs created by the Patrons to form a sterile society no longer dependent on food and water—becoming known as the Servitors. Others followed the dread command of their ruling Empress Zefora by sacrificing themselves in necromantic rituals to become undead—a vain, desperate act which formed a mostly evil faction now called the Undying.
In ancient times the palace was once the principal seat of rulership for the entire planet. Empress Zefora, the elali monarch at that time was one of those who managed to survive the End of Time by retreating into a series of underground vaults. Facing extinction as Kylorn became uninhabitable in the aftermath of the cataclysm, she and most of her followers chose to sustain themselves and preserve their civilization by enacting a series of necromantic rituals to become undead.
Many of the dark necromantic rituals to transform Zefora’s subjects into undead were performed here in this courtyard and the psychic remnants of these foul rituals lingers even after all this time.
Qarn is a mysterious, genderless being embodying both positive and negative energy, as well as the fine line in between. Its faith arose on a harsh world where a group of colonists were left to starve. Some embraced undeath, acting as guardians, laborers, and mentors so the others could breed and survive. Over generations, this culture created a stable dynamic where people live, die, and become undead to continue contributing to their community.
In the dark times following the End of Time, Kylorn’s population faced extinction. The devastated planet could not support them, and their food stores were almost gone. Kylorn’s Empress issued a dread edict, she and her subjects would not quietly surrender to death – they would hold on to their world no matter the cost. The Empress’s horrific order was to enact a massive series of necromantic rituals to transform the remaining population into the undead. Some chose to defy their ruler but many obeyed and became the evil faction known as the Undying.
Corporeal Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead Guardian: ?
Rotting Undead: Many of the dark necromantic rituals to transform Zefora’s subjects into undead were performed here in this courtyard and the psychic remnants of these foul rituals lingers even after all this time. This trap triggers when a living creature reaches the center of the courtyard. The shadows of the statues seem to come to life to attack the living.
Dark Sacrifices magical trap.
Undead Subject: ?
Powerful Undead: ?
Undead Dragon: ?
Medium Undead: ?
Undead Ultari Devotee: ?
Night-Dependent Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?
Mindless Undead: ?
Harmless Undead: ?
Free-Willed Undead: Qarn shows divine favor by turning aside fatal attacks, making hostile enemies lethargic and indifferent, or even spontaneously raising a slain person as a free-willed undead in order to complete one last task.
Undead Abomination: Seeking the means to extend their lives until the planet recovered, some chose to transfer their minds into artificial bodies, becoming a society known as the Servitors. Many others followed their Empress, sacrificing themselves in necromantic rituals to become undead abominations known collectively as the Undying.
Blasphemous Undead: Not willing to let their playthings escape to feed the cycle they once served, sahkils delight in nothing more than tearing mortal souls apart or giving rise to blasphemous undead.
Ravenous Undead: ?
Aggressive Undead: ?
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Hideous Undead Parasite: ?
Vengeful Undead: ?
Uniquely Powerful Being: Over the early decades, however, the amount of death that took place in and around the Titan’s Maw spawned uniquely powerful beings and invested them with incredible power.
Frustrated Creature: ?
Wretched Creature: ?
Unnatural Force Incompatible With Life: ?
Dread Power: ?
Aggregate Creature: ?
Terrifying Inhabitant: ?
Formidable Terror: ?
Ghast: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghostly Alien: ?
Ghostly Noise: ?
Commander Dotan Roth, Ghost: Roth’s high level and powerful spells make him a potentially deadly enemy, particularly if the PCs cannot tear control of his angels from him. Memorable villains deserve memorable endings. His recent mythicness makes him biologically unstable, his flesh unable to contain the forces within. If he is slain, this instability causes Roth to literally melt before the PCs eyes.
You could turn this the other way of course: does Roth truly die? He would make a fine villain to pursue the PCs over the final parts of the Legendary Planets Adventure Path—a ghost whose spirit is imbued with the essence of the Machine itself—perhaps an avenging dark angel that is partly mechanical, partly flesh which follows the PCs, greedy and jealous of their mythic power and hungering to be like them.
Ghost Dragon: ?
Ghostly Monstrosity: ?
Ghostly Jagladine: ?
Sarcastic Ghost: ?
Empress Zefora, Undying Empress, Lich, Lich Empress, Powerful Undead Lich, Undead Ruler: Using potent dark magic, Zefora transformed herself into a lich, becoming the Undying Empress who still rules the palace today.
Truly Deadly Lich: ?
Lich Lord: ?
Lich: ?
Korlas Ashko, Lich: ?
Shadow, Undead Shadow: A humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this damage [from Ingulnexia's Shadow Breath attack] dies, and an undead shadow rises from its corpse and acts immediately after the dragon in the initiative count.
If a non-evil humanoid dies from this [shadow creature strength drain] attack, a new shadow rises from the corpse 1d4 hours later.
Summoned Greater Shadow: ?
Greater Shadow: ?
Shadow Minion: ?
Surrat Loyalist Shadow: If reduced below 20 hp, the agents drink their potions but fight on until slain or knocked unconscious. Either outcome enacts a terrible curse laid upon them by the Surrat leadership as their shadows supernaturally detach themselves within 1d4 rounds. This immediately and irrevocably kills the shadow’s host but introduces an entirely new adversary.
Shadow Creature, Advanced Shadow: ?
Conjured Shadow: ?
Treningar, Burning Skeleton: A proud man who took his duties as a healer very seriously, Treningar often aided Sheriff Onessa Jerreth—or those in her custody—helping them recover from their injuries. In the early days of the assimilation madness, Treningar also sought his god’s favor to treat the infected, but his efforts failed to stem the outbreak. Unaccustomed to such letdowns, when the flames closed on him and his doomed followers, the experience shook the very core of his faith. As the fire consumed Treningar and two of his acolytes, they cursed their patron god for abandoning them and the town in its time of need. In their final moments, this blasphemy damned the priests to an undead existence as burning skeletons with blackened, smoldering bones and empty eye sockets trailing thick, black smoke.
Burning Skeleton: A proud man who took his duties as a healer very seriously, Treningar often aided Sheriff Onessa Jerreth—or those in her custody—helping them recover from their injuries. In the early days of the assimilation madness, Treningar also sought his god’s favor to treat the infected, but his efforts failed to stem the outbreak. Unaccustomed to such letdowns, when the flames closed on him and his doomed followers, the experience shook the very core of his faith. As the fire consumed Treningar and two of his acolytes, they cursed their patron god for abandoning them and the town in its time of need. In their final moments, this blasphemy damned the priests to an undead existence as burning skeletons with blackened, smoldering bones and empty eye sockets trailing thick, black smoke.
Human Skeleton: ?
Arsinotherium Skeleton: Zefora animated the bones of six ancient creatures in case she or any guest ever wishes to ride.
Skeletal Beast: ?
Jagladine Specter: If PCs hide inside the control room of the tube platform, the presence of their life energy has a 50% chance per round to awaken the restless souls of the jagladine tech team slaughtered here by a spectral dragon and now enslaved to its will.
When these specters are awakened, so too is the Bordirrin, a spectral solar dragon that created them.
Specter, Normal Specter: Bordirrin's Create Specter power.
Spectral Undead Variant: ?
Vampire: ?
Vampire Cultist: ?
Wight: Breathless One's Create Breathless Spawn power.
Wraith: Humanoids slain by an atoth become wraiths in 1d4 rounds.
Plague Zombie: Standing guard among the sarcophagi are three plague zombies—all recent experiments which the xoraphond Vuelib created by transforming captives from Holver’s Ferry in the interests of providing an alternative means for spreading the assimilation virus.
This alien laboratory belongs to the xoraphond, Vuelib, who works tirelessly here to tailor the assimilation strain’s effects on the region’s local inhabitants, all while relying on the alien apparatus in the center of the room to facilitate much of that work. The ghastly vivisections Vuelib performs on abducted victims typically involves this machine, as well as the removal of their blood and organs for physiological analysis and various chemical washes to explore possible organic applications which the apparatus can provide. Vuelib’s ‘successes’ in these awful endeavors have resulted in the plague zombies, Onessa Jerreth’s transformation into an adherer, and the perfection of an assimilation strain for making humanity vulnerable to a jagladine invasion of their homeworld.
Common Zombie: ?
Skinstich, Patchwork Corpse: Although Lomrick can command the undead creature, he has little interest in it, as the skinstitch resulted from a failed early experiment with a derivative golem manual.
Ogre Zombie: ?
Zombie Mi-Go, Undead Mi-Go: ?
Juju Zombie: A subservient ally who is killed [by Enokk the Immortal Ichor] rises the next round as a juju zombie under the immortal ichor’s control.
A target that dies due to [Enokk's drown] ability rises the next round as juju zombie.
Zombie Servant: ?
Zombie: One experiment they have been running is a disease that colonizes the brains of its victims, eliminating all but the most rudimentary elements of identity and cognition, effectively transforming them into zombies that the hegemony can unleash on an area.
Create Specter. Bordirrin targets a humanoid within 10 feet of him that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target’s spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The specter is under Bordirrin’s control. Bordirrin can have no more than forty-two specters under his control at one time.
Create Breathless Spawn. The breathless one targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has died of suffocation or its Death Grip attack. The target’s body rises as a wight in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The wight is under the breathless one’s control. The breathless one can have no more than eight wights under its control at one time. These wights have a reach of 15 feet with their Life Drain, which does not affect creatures that do not breathe.
Dark Sacrifices
Magical Trap
Shadows from the statues come to life and transform into rotting undead forms that hold down blindfolded victims in the center of a ceremonial circle and stab at them repeatedly with jagged disemboweling knives.
Each round every living creature in a 20-foot-radius from the center of the courtyard is attacked by a shadowy form that attempts to grapple them. These forms have +8 to hit and deal 7 (1d6+4 damage) on a successful hit and grapple the target. Grappled creatures cannot move without first breaking the grapple (escape DC 14). The entire area is considered difficult terrain and is under the effects of darkness; the forms’ attacks are unaffected by this darkness. Each living creature in the area also takes 21 (6d6) points of necrotic damage per round. Once a creature leaves the area, it continues to take 3 (1d6) points of necrotic damage each round until it receives magical healing or it enters an area of bright light. The trap’s effects last for up to 1 minute or until all living creatures have left the area.
Shining sunlight down on the statues at the center of the courtyard destroys this trap.
