Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire
5e
Wintersouled, Dread Wintersouled, Saint of Death: Legend says that in the earliest days of the world, the veil between life and death was inviolate. There were no such things as undead. It was the Vested of the Galchutt who tore this veil asunder. The first spirits to cross over from death into the land of the living were the Wintersouled.
Once, long ago, there were no undead in the world, or so it is said. But through a great act of villainy, the veil between life and death was rent asunder, allowing the dead to enter the world of the living. The first of these are called the Wintersouled, and they remain among the most powerful of all undead.
Wintersouled, Ancient Undead: ?
Wintersouled, Mysterious Entity: ?
Wintersouled Master: ?
Summoned Wintersouled: ?
Uyethicas, Wintersouled: ?
Nyathoch, Wintersouled: ?
Selestical, Wintersouled: ?
Maloyatas, Wintersouled: ?
The King in Yellow, Wintersouled: ?
Kadavalus the Ageless Titan: ?
Lord Evanston: Thanks to preparations taken by his wife, Lady Callindis, Lord Evanston waits in his tomb in an undead state.
Servant of the Axe: The Servants of the Axe were fanatical dwarves, some of whom still exist as undead creatures. They all remain under the thrall of a powerful, mind-controlling artifact: an intelligent axe called Thundersong, whose control extends even past death.
Thundersong magic weapon.
Nursemaid: ?
Heavily Modified Skeleton: ?
Undead, Undead Creature, Undead Monster: The Galchutt then send a strange, magical virus to the Vallis moon to corrupt the Lords of the Seven Chains and destroy the soul of the world they guard. Again they are thwarted. Finally, they rend the veil between life and death, allowing the dead to return to the world as undead creatures (which had never happened before). The gods, aided by heroes, seal the breach with a huge piece of the Vallis moon, but in so doing they catapult the moon into the distant reaches of space.
The mysterious entities who created the Dark Reliquary were some of the oldest undead in the world. Millennia ago, tales say, a creature known as Vladaam, a Vested of the Galchutt, rent the veil between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead—likely in an attempt to breach the borders of the world. This brought a supernatural winter to the entire world and threatened to be the undoing of all life, until a group of self-sacrificing heroes managed to seal the breach. However, the veil has remained rent since that time, allowing foul magic and dark circumstances to usher undead creatures back into the realm of life.
Through spells and innate magic, the Wintersouled can create and command new undead almost at will.
Called by the Galchutt’s dire clarion, the Wintersouled gathered near the Spire almost two thousand years ago, waiting invisibly and beyond reach. Eventually, around 420 ia, they saw that the Galchutt soon would stir. They began creating large numbers of undead and fashioned a macabre palace for their “children” while they waited for their masters to awaken.
Legend says that in the earliest days of the world, the veil between life and death was inviolate. There were no such things as undead. It was the Vested of the Galchutt who tore this veil asunder. The first spirits to cross over from death into the land of the living were the Wintersouled.
Vladaam: A Vested of the Galchutt; rent the veil between life and death to bring forth the undead.
Sensing that the Galchutt would awaken within a few hundred years, the Wintersouled begin granting soldiers who fell in the Ghulwar the gift of unlife.
Free-Willed Spirit: ?
Incorproeal Undead: ?
Undead Spirit: ?
Fell Creature: ?
Undead Servitor: ?
Undead Slave: ?
Undead Minstrel: ?
Undead Companion: ?
Undead Defender: ?
Undead Servant: ?
Undead Spirit: ?
Undead Ally: ?
Powerful Undead: ?
More Powerful Intelligent Undead Creature: ?
Animated Corpse: ?
Undead Nightwing: ?
Extremely Powerful Undead: ?
Undead Trooper: ?
Animated Undead Guardian: ?
Undead Giant: ?
Minor Undead: ?
Undead Guardian: ?
Animated Undead: ?
Undead Cthorn: An ancient species devoted to the cause of darkness, the cthorn lived mostly in what is now Kem far to the southeast. Before coming to the Spire, Ghul slew the last members of this corrupt and dying species, and stole from them their knowledge. When he created Goth Gulgamel, he brought their remains here, entombed in a shrine-mausoleum honoring their slavish dedication to evil magic.
The power of the cthorn was so great that their spirits managed to use the dark energies from the nearby banes of the Banewarrens to bring themselves back from the dead. They rose as undead but retained many qualities and talents they had while alive.
Unlike most of the other denizens of Goth Gulgamel today, the cthorn despise Ghul and grow angry even at the mention of his name. But then, they’re always angry, their undead state fueled by the bitterness and spite of the Skull-King’s genocidal attack.
Undead Minion: ?
Demonic Undead: ?
Shadowskin: ?
Skeletal Hands: ?
Undead Fodder: Through spells and innate magic, the Wintersouled can create and command new undead almost at will.
Intelligent Undead: ?
Low-Intelligence Undead: ?
Undead That Lack Free Will: ?
Undead Fanatical Dwarf: ?
Horrible Gaunt Ogre-Sized Undead: ?
Zombie-Like Undead Creature: ?
Huge Undead Worm: ?
20-Foot-Tall Undead Giant: ?
Huge Shadowy Bat-Like Undead: ?
Powerful Kind of Shadowy Undead: ?
Undying Creature: ?
Immortal Being: ?
Monstrous Creature: ?
Nonphysical Creature: ?
Being That Hates the Light of Day: ?
Bodak, Comatose Hairless Humanoid-Shaped Undead Creature: A demon growing in one of the pods died upon “birth” and transformed into this creature.
Bodak, Comatose Hairless Humanoid-Shaped Undead Creature Tainted With Fiendish Energy: The vats contain the remnants of what once were elves. These would have been transformed into Harrow elves, but they have been here far too long. They have instead turned into bodaks.
Devourer, Ogre-Sized Undead Creature: ?
Ghast: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghost of the First Men: ?
The Last King, Ghost: ?
Tyrus Green, Ghost, Bitter Malevolent Spirit: Thirty-five years ago, a sailor named Tyrus Green, after winning a large bag of his shipmates’ coins in a game of Peg the Tom, was murdered by the angry sailors. His body, weighted down by his own sea chest tied to his neck, was dumped beneath Pier Five.
The ghost of Tyrus Green haunts the pier to this day. Sometimes he causes ships moored there to take on water or for someone on the pier to trip and fall into the drink. Occasionally—still thinking like a sailor—he boards a ship docked nearby and travels with it, causing all kinds of havoc until the vessel gets more than twenty leagues from Ptolus, at which point his spirit is dragged back to the location of his demise.
Gigantic Ghost: ?
Malevolent Ghost: ?
The Minstrel, Ghostly Minstrel, Spirit of a Dead Bard: ?
Parnell Alster, Human Ghost: Sheva’s closest friend is a ghost named Parnell Alster (male human ghost). Parnell was a companion of hers when she was an adventurer, and the two went on many missions together. Parnell died while they fought a dragon to gain the Crown of Ki-Lias and, due to a strange magical property of the crown, he could not be raised from the dead. Nor, however, could he proceed to the afterlife.
Ghost, Spirit: ?
Ethylassir, Ghost, Spirit, Ghost Mage: A naga leading an elite cadre of ogres, creatures of Ghul’s own sorcerous creation, discovered the castle and managed to enter it, which stabilized the place within the normal flow of time. Ethylassir, still alive, defended her home valiantly, but the breach had caught her unprepared. The evil creatures overcame her and she died, the last of her line.
Hungry Ghost, Dangerous Ghost: ?
Harmless Spook: ?
Lakimos, Lackie, The Beggar King, Ghost, Mysterious Figure: ?
Unruly Ghost: ?
Storamere, Black Dragon Ghost: ?
Ghost of an Artisan: ?
Ghost of a Dwarf: ?
Frana Amberfist, Dwarf Ghost: ?
Ghost of an Elder Elf: ?
Polemith, Ghost: The Dread One once had a human lieutenant named Polemith who spent all her time studying the dark side of music and sound. Her studies helped her master create such awful sound-manipulating creatures as cloakers and destrachans and loose them upon the world, but such creatures had only a fraction of Polemith’s powers. When the Dread One died, Polemith found herself trapped within Jabel Shammar. She died here, but her ghost remained to haunt the place.
The Dire Song: The Dread One once had a human lieutenant named Polemith who spent all her time studying the dark side of music and sound. Her studies helped her master create such awful sound-manipulating creatures as cloakers and destrachans and loose them upon the world, but such creatures had only a fraction of Polemith’s powers. When the Dread One died, Polemith found herself trapped within Jabel Shammar. She died here, but her ghost remained to haunt the place.
Over time, though, even the haunting subsided. With the passage of millennia, the ghost’s intellect eroded away, until all that was left of it was the haunting melody at its very core. This Dire Song is itself a thing of corruption and darkness, even though it no longer has an intelligence behind it.
Ghoul: The Forsaken value death and undeath more than life. These disgusting necrophiles, necrophages, and necrophiliacs worship dark gods and consort openly with undead and the Fallen. They headquarter their activities in a place called the Dark Reliquary in the Necropolis. Many become ghouls unintentionally by means of something they refer to as the Lovely Malison or the corpse kiss.
Those swallowed and slain [by the ghoulworm] become ghouls.
Any creature swallowed and killed [by the ghoulworm] becomes a ghoul.
The Lovely Malison, The Corpse Kiss disease.
Hungry Ghoul: ?
Aullik, Ghoul Sorcerer: ?
Ghoulworm, Guardian, Gargantuan Pale Grey Worm-Like Creature: ?
Kagrisos, Lich, Ghost-Lich, Powerful Ghost-Lich, Undead Chaos Worshipper, Evil Ghost-Lich: ?
Sokalahn, Lich, Half-Demon Lich: ?
Lich: ?
Aggah-Shan, Lich, Mysterious Figure, Powerful Lich: ?
Mohrg: A zombie-like undead creature that is the animated corpse of a mass murderer, with a long, grasping tongue.
Mohrg, Undead Skeleton With Visibly Writhing Intestines and a Prehensile Tongue: ?
Mummy Lord: ?
Mummy: ?
The Six Blasphemers, Mummy Lord: The Dread One created the Tower of Blasphemy to mock all things divine, and in particular all things holy. During his reign of terror, he captured powerful priests, used years of torture to coerce them to renounce their faith, and then slew them in painful ways. These priests he made into undead versions of themselves, infusing them with some of his own power in order to replicate some of the divine spellcasting abilities they wielded in life. These, the Six Blasphemers, he placed in the Temple of Impiety at the top of this tower.
The mummy lords here, known as the Six Blasphemers, were powerful clerics of their time, broken through torture and forced to renounce their gods. After they did, the Dread One killed them to reforge them in undeath.
Nightshade Nightcrawler, Undead Nightcrawler: ?
Nightshade Nightwalker, 20-Foot Tall Giant Made of Pure Darkness: ?
Nightshade Nightwing, Undead Nightwing: ?
Nightshade Nightwing, Huge Shadowy Bat-Like Undead: ?
Nightshade Nightwing, Huge Shadowy Bat-Like Undead, Undead Beast: ?
Shadow, Typical Shadow, Undead Shadow, Shadow of the Dead: ?
Greater Shadow: ?
Shadow Minion: A creature who immerses themselves entirely in the [Tenebrous p]it gains the ability to control their own shadow and, with practice, the shadows of other creatures, as well as undead shadows. Controlling one’s own shadow gives a character a shadow minion (identical to the undead monster, although creatures slain by it do not rise as shadows) as an ally, spy, and bodyguard.
To control someone else’s shadow or an undead shadow, a character must make the attempt at the start of their turn, and cannot use a bonus action or reaction until the start of their next turn (the character can attempt this once per day). The target can resist this control with a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the character permanently gains control of the shadow.
Bound Shadow Companion: ?
More Powerful Version of a Typical Shadow: ?
Shadow of the Dread One, The Dread One's Shadow: It’s worth noting that this is not a shadow in the undead sense, nor is it truly a ghost or wraith. It is but a tiny sliver of the soul essence of the Dread One—all that remains of him.
Shadowy Minion: ?
Skeleton: ?
Animated Skeleton: ?
Troll Skeleton: ?
Dwarf Skeleton: ?
Wraith-Like Specter: ?
Specter: ?
Vampire: Shigmaa Imbue With Undeath power.
Particularly Powerful Vampire: ?
Mighty Vampire Sorcerer: ?
Medre Allaconda, Vampire, Senior Vampire: ?
Menon Balacazar, Vampire: ?
Na'haras, Vampire of the Void, Vampire Powered by Necrotic Energy Rather Than Blood, Undead Protector, Void Vampire Bodyguard, Vampiric Bodyguard: Malkeen’s bodyguard is Na’haras, an ancient human recently brought back to life via an equally ancient, powerful, and evil spell to walk the earth as a “vampire of the void” (a vampire powered by necrotic energy rather than blood).
Na’haras was a deadly assassin in Kem more than two thousand years ago. Malkeen Balacazar received his remains as a gift from his father on his twentieth birthday and had him reconstituted as an undead protector.
Zachean, Dark Elf Vampire: In fact, Doraedian slew Zachean many decades ago, but dark elf sorcery brought him back as a vampire.
Hadrien Runihan, Vampire: Hadrien is a vampire, cursed with the affliction as the final retaliation of the ghost-lich Kagrisos against his father.
Bloodstarved, Masterless Vampire Spawn: ?
Covenant of Blood Vampire: ?
Lyrikka, Powerful Vampire, Human Vampire, Vampire Guardian: ?
Fellis, Powerful Vampire, Human Vampire, Vampire Guardian: ?
Vampire Spawn: ?
Kistron Naleblast, Human Vampire Spawn: ?
Karee, Covenant of the Blood Vampire, Harrow Elf Vampire: ?
Mighty Vampire: ?
Linele Cran, Unliving Thing, Undead Daughter, Spontaneously Generated Vampire: The player characters end up looking for a sunken ship that carried the coffin of Linech’s deceased daughter. The coffin holds more than just her corpse, however—it also contains a demon-possessed watch very valuable to Linech and the Balacazar family. When the PCs learn that the watch has caused Linech’s daughter to rise from the grave as an undead creature, returning her to her father suddenly becomes much more complicated.
Linele, Linech’s daughter, was on Sallachor Isle when it was attacked. She died in a fire started by a magic spell cast in her father’s house. Her body was on the ship that went down on its way back from Sallachor. The watch was hidden in her coffin.
The sahuagin brought Linele’s glass coffin to the central cave, where the evil presence in the pocketwatch caused the little girl to rise up as an undead creature.
A short time ago, after the sahuagin deposited the glass coffin here, the power of the demon-possessed watch fully animated Linele as an undead creature.
Linele hides in a cave northwest of the pool and the eel. She no longer needs to breathe, as she has become an unliving thing animated by the power of the demon-possessed watch.
Ylouil’s very presence carries a strong evil taint that can have varied effects on those exposed to the spirit over a period of time. These effects are up to the GM, but they always involve corruption of some kind—like turning an innocent young girl into an undead creature.
Alchestrin, Spellcasting Wight, Undead Mage: ?
Wight, Elite Undead Warrior, Undead Soldier: ?
Wight: ?
Wraith: Wintersouled Create Wraith power.
Quideth Minnisham, Undead Wraith, Undead Arcanist: If they go, the PCs learn that it was true, but that long ago the undead Alchestrin used the crystal to create an undead wraith of Quideth.
Wraith, Bodiless Undead Spirit: ?
Dread Wraith: The son of Lady Callindis and Lord Evanston, Nilliad, died very young. The lad’s nurse and the family butler were entombed here with him; both remain as dread wraiths.
Vengeful Wraith: ?
Dwarven Wraith: ?
Slivers of Ghul's Evil Essence: Where Ghul bled, slivers of his evil essence take the form of wraiths and attack all that lives.
Wraith Enslaved: Wintersouled Create Wraith power.
Zombie: [C]reatures killed by the [hellwasp] swarm become infested with hellwasps and rise as zombies under the control of the swarm.
Zombie Slave: ?
Local Zombie: ?
Zombie Worker: ?
Stitched Zombie: ?
Human Commoner Zombie: ?
Zombie Covered in Diseased Filth: ?
Zombie Bodyguard: ?
Wandering Zombie: ?
Create Wraith. The Wintersouled targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that died violently and has been dead for no longer than one minute. The target’s spirit rises as a wraith in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The wraith is under the Wintersouled’s control. The Wintersouled can have no more than ten enslaved wraiths at one time, but its Undead Dominance ability means that undead beyond this limit will still obey it to the best of their ability.
THUNDERSONG
Weapon (greataxe), legendary (requires attunement)
This weapon appears finely made but fairly unremarkable. It is a +3 greataxe that scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. It attempts to control any dwarf who touches it (no attunement required). If the dwarf dies while under the control of Thundersong, there is a 25 percent chance that they reanimate as a Servant of the Axe, an undead fanatical dwarf under the axe’s control. The axe is aware of everything its undead servants experience.
Sentience. The axe is a sentient chaotic neutral weapon with an Intelligence of 18, a Wisdom of 13, and a Charisma of 22. It can see, hear, and perceive with blindsense out to a range of 120 feet. It can speak and communicate telepathically.
Personality. The axe is selfish, controlling, and egotistical. Although it enjoys controlling dwarves, it hates all other species.
The Lovely Malison
The Lovely Malison, also known as the corpse kiss, is a supernatural disease contracted by eating the flesh of an undead creature or a corpse that has been corrupted in some other way. An intelligent creature dining on such flesh must succeed at a DC 17 Constitution save or become infected, taking 5 (1d10) necrotic damage each day and gaining 1d3 levels of exhaustion each day until it dies. The following night, the victim rises from the dead as an undead ghoul. The creature retains all its memories and, if it succeeds at a DC 20 Wisdom save, it may retain some or all of its other abilities (such as spellcasting or class abilities) as a ghoul. Many Forsaken undergo this transformation intentionally.
Imbue With Undeath. Once per day, animate a fallen foe as a vampire. The new vampire has a “death debt” to the shigmaa and cannot attack them for twenty-four hours, but thereafter can act as it wants. Most shigmaas use this ability sparingly because the vampire might challenge them in the future.
