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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 7902607" data-attributes="member: 2209">Volo's Guide to Monsters5eBodak: A bodak is the undead remains of someone who revered Orcus. A worshiper of Orcus can take ritual vows while carving the demon lord's symbol on its chest over the heart. Orcus's power flays body, mind, and soul, leaving behind a sentient husk that sucks in all life energy near it. Most bodaks come into being in this way, then unleashed to spread death in Orcus's name. Orcus created the first bodaks in the Abyss from seven devotees, called the Hierophants of Annihilation. These figures, as mighty as balors, have free will but serve the Prince of Undeath directly. Any one of these bodaks can turn a slain mortal into a bodak with its gaze. Hierophants of Annihilation, Bodak: Orcus created the first bodaks in the Abyss from seven devotees, called the Hierophants of Annihilation. These figures, as mighty as balors, have free will but serve the Prince of Undeath directly. Devourer: A lesser demon that proves itself to Orcus might be granted the privilege of becoming a devourer. The Prince of Undeath transforms such a demon into an 8-foot-tall, desiccated humanoid with a hollowed-out ribcage, then fills the new creature with a hunger for souls. Orcus grants each new devourer the essence of a less fortunate demon to power the devourer's first foray into the planes. Gnoll Witherling: Sometimes gnolls turn against each other, perhaps to determine who rules a war band or because of extreme starvation. Even under ordinary circumstances, gnolls that are deprived of victims for too long can't control their hunger and violent urges. Eventually, they fight among themselves. The survivors devour the flesh of their slain comrades but preserve the bones. Then, by invoking rituals to Yeenoghu, they bring the remains back to a semblance of life in the form of a gnoll witherling. When a war band grows desperate for food, its members turn on each other. Those who succumb to the violence are devoured, but their service to the war band doesn't end at that point. The survivors preserve the bones of their fallen comrades, so that a pack lord or a flind can perform a ritual to Yeenoghu to turn them into loyal, undead followers known as witherlings. Mind Flayer Alhoon: Mind flayers that pursue arcane magic are exiled as deviants, and for them no eternal communion with an elder brain is possible. The road to lichdom offers a way to escape the permanency of death, but that path is long and solitary. Alhoons are mind flayers that use a shortcut. Lichdom offers salvation and the prospect of being able to pursue knowledge indefinitely. Having feasted on the brains of people when alive, a mind flayer has no compunction about feeding souls to a phylactery. The only hindrance to a mind flayer becoming a lich is the means, which is a secret some mind flayer arcanists stop at nothing to discover. Yet lichdom requires an arcane spellcaster to be at the apex of power, something many mind flayers find is far from their grasps.Confronting this awful reality, a group of nine mind flayer deviants used their arcane magic and psionics to weave a new truth. These nine called themselves the alhoon, and ever afterward, all those who follow in their footsteps have been referred to by the same name. Alhoons can cooperate in the creation of a periapt of mind trapping, a fist-sized container made of silver, emerald, and amethyst. The process requires at least three mind flayer arcanists and the sacrifice of an equal number of souls from living victims in a three-day-long ritual of spellcasting and psionic communion. Upon its completion, free-willed undeath is conferred on the mind flayers, turning them into alhoons. Mind Flayer Lich, Illithilich: The path to true lichdom is something only the most powerful mind flayer mages can pursue, since it requires the ability to craft a phylactery and cast the imprisonment spell. Spawn of Kyuss: Kyuss was a high priest of Orcus who plundered corpses from necropolises to create the first spawn of Kyuss. From a distance or in poor light, a spawn of Kyuss looks like an ordinary zombie. As it comes into clearer view, one can see scores of little green worms crawling in and out of it. These worms jump onto nearby humanoids and burrow into their flesh. A worm that penetrates a humanoid body makes its way to the creature's brain. Once inside the brain, the worm kills its host and animates the corpse, transforming it into a spawn of Kyuss that breeds more worms. The dead humanoid's soul remains trapped inside the corpse, preventing the individual from being raised or resurrected until the undead body is destroyed. The horror of being a soul imprisoned in an undead body drives a spawn of Kyuss insane. Spawn of Kyuss Burrowing Worm power.Banshee: ?Beholder Death Tyrant: When a beholder sleeps, its body goes briefly dormant but its mind never stops working. The creature is fully aware, even though to an outside observer it might appear oblivious of its surroundings. Sometimes a beholder's dreams are dominated by images of itself or of other beholders (which might or might not actually exist). On extremely rare occasions when a beholder dreams of another beholder, the act creates a warp in reality- from which a new, fully formed beholder springs forth unbidden, seemingly having appeared out of thin air in a nearby space. This "offspring" might be a duplicate of the beholder that dreamed it into existence, or it could take the form of a different variety of beholder, such as a death kiss or a gazer (see "Beholder-Kin"). It might also be a truly unique creature, such as could be spawned only from the twisted imagination of a beholder, with a set of magical abilities unlike that of its parent. In most cases, the process yields one of the three principal forms of the beholder: a solitary beholder, a hive, or a death tyrant. Crawling Claw: ?Flameskull: ?Ghoul: Devourers hunt humanoids, with the intent of consuming them body and soul. After a devourer brings a target to the brink of death, it pulls the victim's body in and traps the creature within its own ribcage. As the victim tries to stave off death (usually without success), the devourer tortures its soul with telepathic noise. When the victim expires, it undergoes a horrible transformation, springing forth from the devourer's body to begin its new existence as an undead servitor of the monster that spawned it. Devourer's Imprison Soul power.Ghast: ?Lich: The road to lichdom offers a way to escape the permanency of death, but that path is long and solitary. Lichdom offers salvation and the prospect of being able to pursue knowledge indefinitely. Having feasted on the brains of people when alive, a mind flayer has no compunction about feeding souls to a phylactery. The only hindrance to a mind flayer becoming a lich is the means, which is a secret some mind flayer arcanists stop at nothing to discover. Yet lichdom requires an arcane spellcaster to be at the apex of power, something many mind flayers find is far from their grasps. Mummy: The mummies are the undead remains of yuan-ti malisons or purebloods. Shadow: ?Skeleton: ?Specter: ?Vampire: ?Wight: Devourers hunt humanoids, with the intent of consuming them body and soul. After a devourer brings a target to the brink of death, it pulls the victim's body in and traps the creature within its own ribcage. As the victim tries to stave off death (usually without success), the devourer tortures its soul with telepathic noise. When the victim expires, it undergoes a horrible transformation, springing forth from the devourer's body to begin its new existence as an undead servitor of the monster that spawned it. Devourer's Imprison Soul power.Zombie: Normally usable only by a death tyrant, negative energy prevents survivors of a battle from healing and animates any dead or dying creatures as zombies under the beholder's control. Devourers hunt humanoids, with the intent of consuming them body and soul. After a devourer brings a target to the brink of death, it pulls the victim's body in and traps the creature within its own ribcage. As the victim tries to stave off death (usually without success), the devourer tortures its soul with telepathic noise. When the victim expires, it undergoes a horrible transformation, springing forth from the devourer's body to begin its new existence as an undead servitor of the monster that spawned it. Devourer's Imprison Soul power.Ogre Zombie: ?Beholder Zombie: ?Imprison Soul. The devourer chooses a living humanoid with 0 hit points that it can see within 30 feet of it. That creature is teleported inside the devourer's ribcage and imprisoned there. A creature imprisoned in this manner has disadvantage on death saving throws. If it dies while imprisoned, the devourer regains 25 hit points, immediately recharges Soul Rend, and gains an additional action on its next turn. Additionally, at the start of its next turn, the devourer regurgitates the slain creature as a bonus action, and the creature becomes an undead. If the victim had 2 or fewer Hit Dice, it becomes a zombie. If it had 3 to 5 Hit Dice, it becomes a ghoul. Otherwise, it becomes a wight. A devourer can imprison only one creature at a time. Burrowing Worm. A worm launches from the spawn of Kyuss at one humanoid that the spawn can see within 10 feet of it. The worm latches onto the target's skin unless the target succeeds on a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw. The worm is a Tiny undead with AC 6, l hit point, a 2 (-4) in every ability score, and a speed of 1 foot. While on the target's skin, the worm can be killed by normal means or scraped off using an action (the spawn can use this action to launch a scraped-off worm at a humanoid it can see within 10 feet of the worm). Otherwise, the worm burrows under the target's skin at the end of the target's next turn, dealing 1 piercing damage to it. At the end of each of its turns thereafter, the target takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage per worm infesting it (maximum of 10d6). A worm-infested target dies if it drops to O hit points, then rises 10 minutes later as a spawn of Kyuss. If a worm-infested creature is targeted by an effect that cures disease or removes a curse, all the worms infesting it wither away.</blockquote>

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