Undead Origins


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War of the Burning Sky 5E #2: The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar
5e
Ghast: One of Innenotdar’s most harrowing and revolting tragedies lurks now at the grove. Two druids—a husband and wife who had pledged themselves as caretakers for seven children—tried to hide with the youngsters in caves upstream, on a tributary of the river that has since boiled away. They hoped to wait for the fire to die out, but when it did not, the couple began to eat the children. For this act, they rose as ghasts upon their eventual death.
Tragedy, Shadowy Incorporeal Creature, Figure: ?
Ghoul: ?
 
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War of the Burning Sky 5E #4: The Mad King's Banquet
5e
Jutras, Mohrg, Creature More Terrifying Than Death Itself, Oldest Prisoner, Terrible Mass Murderer, Monstrosity, Unique Tool of Torture: Though executed 50 years ago, Jutras’ heinous crimes caused him to arise after his execution as a creature more terrifying than death itself.
Behind this door, which can be noticed itself with a successful DC 21 Wisdom (Perception) check, lurks the castle’s oldest prisoner, a terrible mass murderer named Jutras, who had sought the crown of Dassen fifty years ago. For his crimes, he rose as a mohrg after being hung, and the malicious executioner decided to take advantage of the monstrosity rather than destroy him.
Greater Tragedy: This is a tragedy, an undead monster created by Inquisitor Torrax in a dark ritual that included the sacrifice of many people whom Steppengard had arrested on suspicion of treason.
Zombie: A creature that dies while paralyzed by Jutras rises 1 minute later as a zombie under Jutras’ control.
Typically [Jutras] will terrorize a prisoner and then finish them off, dumping the body into the septic tunnel where it eventually becomes a zombie.
Greater Tragedy, Shadowy Incorporeal Creature, Spectral Figure Shrouded in Ashen Gray Robes Its Face Flickering Between the Horrified Screams of a Half Dozen Different People: ?
Undead: ?
Hungry Zombie: ?
Frozen Zombie: During normal weather, the refuse-filled tunnel under the prison is filled with dozens of hungry zombies, kept in check by steel grates on either end of the chamber. The fierce winter, however, has frozen them in the muck, so that now only their arms and heads reach out.
 

War of the Burning Sky 5E #6: Tears of the Burning Sky
5e
Dark Pyre Sergeant: Instead he calls upon the power of the Dark Pyre, conjuring a black lightning bolt as he did when the heroes first arrived. These bolts, which Griiat can only evoke once per day, can animate the corpses strewn about the battlefield outside the castle, which intuitively know Griiat’s command. Each bolt raises up a group of swarmers as shown here or a sergeant and soldiers as shown in the Patrol encounter.
Dark Pyre Soldier: Inquisitor Griiat has spotted the heroes, and he has commanded the Dark Pyre to raise defenders for the castle.
A black bolt of lightning descends from the heavens and strikes the floor of the canyon barely thirty feet away, beside an overturned steel cage that lies atop a vast pile of charred skeletons that must once have belonged to hundreds of men, horses, and stranger monsters, all long dead.
The spot where the lightning struck shifts, and bones move with a chorus of deathly laughter; the skeletons of nearly a dozen men rise, grabbing up weapons from around them, their eyes streaming tears of flame.
Instead he calls upon the power of the Dark Pyre, conjuring a black lightning bolt as he did when the heroes first arrived. These bolts, which Griiat can only evoke once per day, can animate the corpses strewn about the battlefield outside the castle, which intuitively know Griiat’s command. Each bolt raises up a group of swarmers as shown here or a sergeant and soldiers as shown in the Patrol encounter.
Thorkrid the Dark, the robed skeletal gnoll, is a necromancer who was drawn to this area in a vision he had the night of Emperor Coaltongue’s death. He aspired to lichdom, but found a slightly different fate when he and his guards were slain by the burning rain.
Dark Pyre Swarmer: Instead he calls upon the power of the Dark Pyre, conjuring a black lightning bolt as he did when the heroes first arrived. These bolts, which Griiat can only evoke once per day, can animate the corpses strewn about the battlefield outside the castle, which intuitively know Griiat’s command. Each bolt raises up a group of swarmers as shown here or a sergeant and soldiers as shown in the Patrol encounter.
Each night shortly after midnight, Griiat animates a squad of warriors and directs them to find and kill the intruders.
Fallen Knight: ?
Feaster of Flesh and Souls: ?
Findle the Minstrel, Ghast, Undead Abomination: Later, when the firestorm tore through Korstull, the executed rebels and the murdered bard were animated as ghasts.
Ghast: Later, when the firestorm tore through Korstull, the executed rebels and the murdered bard were animated as ghasts.
Inquisitor Griiat, Spectral Inquisitor, Spectral Form: Since his death he has learned to draw divine magic from the power of the planar rift, and views it as his maker, almost his god, which he calls the Dark Pyre. Griiat is cursed, however, to remain in the castle until he is released from his duty, which he failed when he allowed the emperor to die, and so without the intervention of those from the outside, the spectral inquisitor and all his undead minions will remain in the castle for eternity.
Reddengot, Wraith, Wraith Minion: ?
Skeleton, Normal Skeleton: These are just normal skeletons, animated from slain soldiers by Griiat.
Thorkrid the Dark, Dark-Robed Mage, Robed Skeletal Gnoll: Thorkrid the Dark, the robed skeletal gnoll, is a necromancer who was drawn to this area in a vision he had the night of Emperor Coaltongue’s death. He aspired to lichdom, but found a slightly different fate when he and his guards were slain by the burning rain.
Tragedy, Incorporeal Tragedy: ?
Zombie: A humanoid slain by [necrotic damage from a fallen knight's Blood Body power] rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the knight’s control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed.
A humanoid slain by [a fallen knight's pseudopod] attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the knight’s control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed.
A host dies if its hit point maximum is reduced to zero [by a swarm of hellwasps], at which point the body is treated as a zombie while it is inhabited.
Sergeant Smash, Dark Pyre Sergeant, Defender, Skeleton, Leader, Dark-Pyre Infused Creature: Inquisitor Griiat has spotted the heroes, and he has commanded the Dark Pyre to raise defenders for the castle.
A black bolt of lightning descends from the heavens and strikes the floor of the canyon barely thirty feet away, beside an overturned steel cage that lies atop a vast pile of charred skeletons that must once have belonged to hundreds of men, horses, and stranger monsters, all long dead.
The spot where the lightning struck shifts, and bones move with a chorus of deathly laughter; the skeletons of nearly a dozen men rise, grabbing up weapons from around them, their eyes streaming tears of flame.
Dark Pyre Soldier, Defender, Skeleton, Dark-Pyre Infused Creature: ?
Dark Pyre Bulette: One bulette went wild and fled during the battle, and it was roaming in the nearby area when the firestorm struck, killed it, and animated it.
Dark Pyre Bulette, Undead Bulette: ?
Dark Pyre Soldier, Bestial Skeleton, Guard, Bodyguard: ?
Dark Pyre Sergeant, Skeletal Warrior, Skeleton: ?
Dark Pyre Swarmer, Flaming Skeleton: ?
Fallen Knight, Former Knight of the Aquiline Cross: ?
Feaster of Flesh and Souls, Cadaverous Creature, Hungry Extraplanar Undead: ?
Tragedy, Shadowy Incorporeal Creature, Incorporeal Form: ?
Lord Gorquith, Unique Undead Jelly, Viscid Mass of Yellow-Grey Ooze, Abomination, Gelatinous Mass of Sickening Yellow-Gray, Ooze Creature, Slimy Noble, Skeleton-Filled Ooze, Ooze: When Emperor Coaltongue took possession of Korstull, he sat upon the throne and ordered Inquisitor Griiat to execute Lord Gorquith and his officers then and there. The noble’s execution was most brutal off all—being thrown into a huge ochre jelly.
Later, when the firestorm tore through Korstull, the executed rebels and the murdered bard were animated as ghasts, and Gorquith’s skeleton was animated within the ooze, the two being bound together as a unique undead jelly.
Undead, Undead Creature: That evening, however, as the emperor slept soundly with the satisfaction of his victory, a trio of assassins struck. Avoiding or striking down every guard, defeating every magical and mundane defense that protected Coaltongue, the assassins managed to reach the emperor’s bedchambers, located behind the throne room. Poison struck down Darius, one of his inquisitor bodyguards, but not before Darius sounded an alarm. The assassins slew the emperor before he woke, and then, bearing the emperor’s body and the Torch, they battled their way to within sight of the open sky and activated the Torch, teleporting away.
But the Torch’s power went awry, and the assassins left behind a rift in the fabric of reality, crossing the Material Plane with the Astral Plane and the Plane of Elemental Fire. Within moments the castle and miles around it were engulfed in flames, and all those slain by the blaze were infused with necromantic energy, soon to rise as undead.
Now, the firestorm created by the rift drifts for miles in every direction, raining liquid flame upon the land, turning anything it slays into undead.
With the wind at their backs, the heroes set out for Castle Korstull, the canyon fortress where Emperor Drakus Coaltongue was slain, and where it is believed the Torch of the Burning Sky may lie. An endless firestorm wracks the surrounding lands, animating all whom it kills as undead, including those who defended the castle that was to be the emperor’s final conquest.
Undead Minion: Captives are taken to the Dark Pyre to be animated as undead minions in Griiat’s personal army.
Undead Soldier: ?
Ignorant Undead: ?
Weaker Sort of Undead: ?
Flaming Undead: ?
Undead Defender: ?
Undead Commander: ?
Mindless Undead: ?
Undead Guard: ?
Suicidal Undead: ?
Lesser Undead: ?
Ghoul: ?
Lich: ?
Specter: Reddengot's Create Spectre power.
Zombie, Zombie Beekeeper: ?

Create Specter. Reddengot targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it 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.
 
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War of the Burning Sky 5E #7: Trial of Echoed Souls
5e
Ghast: ?
Malhun the Blood Wolf, Canny Vampiric Warg, Hunter, Minion, Wolf of Icy Deathly White Its Chest Stained With Blood That Has Poured From Its Wounded Neck, Leader, Beloved Wolf: ?
Rhuarc's Shadow: ?
Skeleton: ?
Specter: ?
Tragedy: ?
Will-o'-Wisp: The native elves of Ycengled Phuurst are all but extinct, wiped out by a Shahalesti prince obsessed with the purity of elven blood. The forest remembers them still, and their spirits haunt the paths and the glades in which they once dwelt.
Undead: ?
Aurana Kiirodel, Vampire Wizard, Unique Type of Vampire, Undead Witch of Great Power, Chief Advisor to the Shahalesti Prince: A few years ago the elves became worried that Supreme Inquisitor Leska was advising the Ragesian emperor Coaltongue to attack Shahalesti, and Aurana tried to assassinate Leska. This attempt failed, and the inquisitor retaliated by feeding her own immortal blood to Aurana, turning the elf woman into a unique type of vampire.
Skeleton, Skeleton Minion, Skeletal Minion: ?
Specter, Spectral Horror, Hunter, Minion, Ghostly Form, Elf Clad in a Wolf Pelt: ?
Tragedy, Shadowy Incorporeal Creature: ?
Tragedy, Tragedy Companion: ?
Will-o'-Wisp, Spirit, Swiftly Running Figure, Phantom Elf, Ball of Light: ?
Ghoul: ?
Ghost: The crusade forty years ago succeeded in murdering almost all of the Taranesti, but did not find Trilla, for she had fled deep underground, afraid of a dark power growing in her. Enraged over this failure, Shaaladel ordered all the Taranesti who had been captured to be chained to the trees at the edge of their forest, left to wither and die unless they revealed Trilla’s hiding place. None could, and so the Taranesti were wiped out nearly to the last person.
But the Taranesti did not leave. 41, wretched and aged inside his temple, did not want to let the enjoyment he had taken at their suffering end, so he turned the temple’s powers upon the forest, trapping the ghosts of the dead within the forest’s borders. Now he can enjoy their torment forever.
Swooping Screaming Ghost: ?
Vampire Spawn: A humanoid slain in this way [by Malhun the Blood Wolf's bite attack] and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under Malhûn’s control.
 
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War of the Burning Sky 5E #8: O, Wintry Song of Agony
5e
Horde Zombie: ?
Horde Zombie, Slavering Zombie: ?
Undead: ?
Ander Folthwaite, Ghost, Slender Gnome: “See, I’ve always been a bit stubborn. My mam told me to care for strangers and that I always have, but I’ve never cared much for what they do outside my home, if you see. Well, when I got caught harboring a mage, the Ragesians brought me in for questioning and they tortured me, which got me right pissed off. I only gave a tired man at my door a place to stay for the night!
“So they told me to tell them what I knew, and I was so mad I told them I knew all about that man’s mission but wouldn’t ever give it up. That,” he admits, a little shamefaced, “were probably a bit childish. But I didn’t!” He looks proud of himself. “They brought in some amateur, with mind magic and such, and I blotted him out with a set of bar tunes day after day, until he had to admit he couldn’t do it! Suck on that lemon, Ragesia!
“Then, they bring this real pro, don’t use magic or nothing. Just sticks me with needles and cuts my thigh open with scissors and haves his pet ghoul gnaw on my fingernails. By this point, it was a matter of pride. I told them I’d let myself die before I’d squeal.”
He looks over his shoulder at the distant fortress. “So they brought me here. I think they said they were going to use me for parts in some kind of machine, but I didn’t let them get me that far. I clawed, I bit, whatever it took, and finally, I won! I forced them to stab me out here. I wasn’t about to sit around in their stinking dungeon and rot, not me. Ha!”
“And then I thought, well, what’s one more? So after I beat their mind wizards and their soldiers I took on Death. I think I’m doing pretty well, so far, except for those creepy monsters they send after me from time to time.”
Ghoul: ?
Vampire: ?
 

War of the Burning Sky 5E #9: The Festival of Dreams
5e
Aurana Kiirobel, Vampire, Vizier, Sorceress, Most Powerful Servant: ?
Gabal, Dread Wraith, Undead Horror, Overwhelmingly Straightforward Opponent: Through a powerful ritual, inquisitors called back Gabal’s soul and transformed it into a dread wraith which still possesses the abilities the archmage had in life, but is firmly under the control of the Ragesians.
Squad of Skeletons: ?
Specter: They are unlikely to be a threat to the heroes, but if not stopped they will ruin the defenses, for the wraiths replenish their specters from the fallen defenders and kill everyone in a squad before moving on.
When Gabal’s magic mouth taunts the intruders, the wraiths will attack the prisoners, turning them into specters, so that the entire gathering of prisoners will be turned into twisted undead horrors.
At the sounds of combat, the prisoners begin crying out to be rescued, and the wraiths enter the cells. The wraiths act on initiative count 0 (losing ties). They each alternate between killing a prisoner on one turn and raising the victim as a specter on the next turn.
When he is reduced below 35 hit points, Gabal fires one final spell in spite, and flies up through the ceiling into the fourth floor. There he shatters the mirror of life trapping and proceeds to strike at the prisoners while they are too stunned to react. He uses an action to kill one helpless prisoner before raising it as a specter on his next turn, although Vigilance will escape his grasp.
Gabal's Create Specter power.
Wraith Create Specter power.
Wraith: The newly undead Gabal has created wraiths as spawn, and they wait near the cells on the first floor.
Squad of Skeletons, Quick Horror: ?
Specter, Twisted Undead Horror: ?
Skulking Wraith: ?
Undead Veteran Inquisitor: ?
Undead Horror: ?
Vampire Spawn: A humanoid slain in this way [by Aurana Kiirobel's bite attack] and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under Aurana’s control.
Ghost: ?

Create Specter. Gabal 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 Gabal’s control. Gabal can have no more than seven specters under his control at one time.

Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it 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 the wraith’s control. The wraith can have no more than seven specters under its control at one time.
 

War of the Burning Sky 5E #10: Sleep, Ye Cursed Child
5e
Jesepha, Dread Wraith Sovereign Trumpet Archon, Six-Foot Tall Figure Composed of Shadows With Great Wings of Darkness and a Tall Crown of Flickering Guttering Light, Undead Spirit, Heinous Undead Being, Fallen Archon: The trumpet archon Jesepha failed to protect Trilla decades ago, and was slain by Drakus Coaltongue. She was corrupted in death, and now as Trilla’s fate becomes tied to the fate of the world, the celestial has returned as a dread wraith sovereign trumpet archon. This heinous undead being is composed in equal parts of sacrilege, cruelty, and hate.
Vargenga, Vampiric Fire Giant: ?
Wraith: Jespepha Create Wraith power.
Undead: ?
Wraith, Wraith Minion: ?
Specter: Wraith Create Specter power.
Vampire Spawn: A humanoid slain in this way [by Vargenga's bite attack] and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under Vargenga’s control.

Create Wraith. Jesepha targets a humanoid within 10 feet of her that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target’s spirit rises as a wraith in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The wraith is under Jesepha’s control. Jesepha can have no more than seven wraiths under her control at one time.

Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it 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 the wraith’s control. The wraith can have no more than seven specters under its control at one time.
 


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