Staffing an Undead Mega Empire for Quest, need cool undead

[Jowgen]

I'm putting together a cooperative 3-ish session quest, ECL 16 that's meant to include everything undead.

Premise:

There's an island in the frozen north (roughly the size of ireland) that is completely over-run with undeath. The undead armies have withstood assault after assault for centuries, never weakening. During their latest failed crusade, the church of St Cuthbert finally managed to penetrate deep enough into the undead territory to discovered the source: A Cauldron of Corruption (Dragon Mag 340 p. 76), gifted to some powerful undead necromancer by Orcus himself half a millennium ago. An elite party of adventurers is assembled to infiltrate and destroy the damn thing.

Terrain:

The terrain is cold jagged wastes inter-seeded with looming mountains, making land-based movement difficult with either slippery ground, deep snowy ground, or even worse deceptive thin ice over frozen lakes. General temperature is Extreme Cold in the day and unearthly cold at night, with constant severe wind on ground level and Windstorms and sometimes Hurricane-strength winds higher up, where the mountains don't provide any shielding. Due to the density of undeath, all undead receive +4 Turn resistance.

Population and noticeable NPCs:

This is the part I am looking for input on. The place has been a known undead area for a long time, so a lot of powerful undead will have flocked here over the years. I want to use at least a few things that are more interesting than your average Lich and Dracolich. Some Wendigo's here and there. I'm thinking of having an at least roughly organized civilization of intelligent undead here, although there is the issue of them fueling their hunger for life (as per Libris Mortis).

Really, I'm just looking for ideas to flesh the whole thing out. :smallsmile:

[atemu1234]

Is third party content allowed?

[DrMotives]

Hunger for life would most likely be solved by either trade, or piracy abductions of live victims. Frankly, trade seems more sustainable. So what good could you isle of death offer the outside world? At least the bit of the outside world willing to sell slaves as a food source.

Agriculture seems highly unlikely, but mining some rare material could happen. Or, some sort of Aurora Borealis effect could make the place a magnet for asteroids falling to earth. Perhaps some sort of necrological waste product of lesser undead is farmed out and sold to necromancers.

[Honest Tiefling]

Yanno, if these St. Cuthbert guys keep failing, and Orcus is one spiteful dude, I think you need some undead with PC levels to represent the previous crusades. Nothing says 'keep out' quite like the tortured remains of your religious order. Maybe toss in an undead half-celestial or aasimar for kicks and giggles as well.

Especially ones that can mimic being alive just long enough to trick people, through I don't know of many off of the top of my head. I think there's a spell for that.

They could just trade for victims with neighboring countries. Exchange some useless and rebellious slaves for magic wands? Don't mind if I do! Want a free criminal and/or revolutionary with your purchase? There could be a civil war between two faiths or nations, each one viewing the other as being evil enough to deal with the undead in the hopes the undead will stay put where they have turn resistance. I bet if you were fighting the legions of Demogorgon and all of his assassins, suddenly dealing with undead sounds a lot better. After all, not everyone would know of the undead's ties to a demon, so it might really seem like a better option.

Or perhaps a famine! So you get a choice of everyone dies of starvation, or you grab items to produce food at the expense of people no one else likes. I mean, you got a choice of die or die harder, right? Orcus' mortal servants could be actively purchasing foodstock, and manipulating things so such a trade is cheap and easily done. Such as making sure such a famine exists. As well as sabotaging those pesky crusades...

[Flickerdart]

Devourers (from the SRD) have a few very interesting SLAs, notably control undead and lesser planar binding. Especially with the blessing of Orcus in the mix, they would make excellent lieutenants that each control a small domain.

[Novawurmson]

One of my favorites is the necrosis carnex (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98703.jpg) from MM4. It's only CR 3, but you could add class levels or hit dice to bring it up to par.

Here's an interesting list of undead (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=181.0) I found.

[AlanBruce]

I ran an undead arc in my campaign which took place in a stone giant valley, which had consumed all the inhabitants by either turning them to zombies or worse.

There was a group of Nerull cultists that wandered into the valley years before the PCs, believing Nerull to reside there. The party eventually fought most and destroyed almost half of the cult.

I gave them PC levels and switched some feats to better suit them, since the party was fairly optimized, but you can adjust as you wish.

Entomber (LM) Fighter 2/ Paladin of Tyranny 2. This guy was built as a tripper, using his spiked chain to drop the PC and then moving in and slamming them to use their Entomb ability to great effect.

Boneclaw (MM3) Rogue 1/Fighter 2/Barbarian 3. Nasty undead who caught more than one PC flatfooted and used his stretch claws to great effect. Deadly without flight.

Visage (LM) Sorcerer 4. Its spell list was utility, like See Invisibility, but they do have SA, which works really well if you have it fly and flank with the Boneclaw.

Slaughterwight (LM) Rogue 2. Given that it has so many HD, I chose to add just 2 rogue levels for evasion. Nasty opponent. Very high Stealth modifiers and can Energy Drain an unwary PC with a slam. Ad Hoc Craven in for good measure.

Allip Bard 5/ Diresinger 3. Good to buff the undead.

Defacer (MMIV) Beguiler 4. Not the most optimized (can't sneak on people, due to its Keening ability), but it can Earthglide and catch a foe by surprise and stun them with its slam attack. Dispel Magic from Beguiler works as well for solid debuffing.

Heucuva (Template) Human Cleric 3/ Wizard 3/ MT 1. Classic MT caster, stays way back and spams debuffs and MM.

Human Evolved Spellstitched Lich Necromancer 1/Human Paragon 3/Master Specialist 4/Shadow Adept 4. Leader of the group and a nasty spellcaster if you choose the right spells and magic items for him, plus his SLAs. I know you mentioned no liches, but it was worth mentioning since it gave the party's Conjurer a run for his money during a one on one duel.

Hope that helps!

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Angel of Decay LMo
Blood Fiend Demon FF
Dream Vestige LMo
Entropic Reaper LMo
Abyssal Ghouls LMo
Alhoon Mind Flayer LoM
Necronaut MM3
Advanced Revived Fossil That Damn Crab (online and LMo) - Revived Fossil requires a "skeletal system" not necessarily an endoskeleton
Ulgurstasta FF
Corpse Rat Swarm LMo
Skin Kite LMo
Spectral Lyrist LMo
Zombie Dire Shark SRD
Selkie Specters FF
Ghost Kraken SRD
Crawling Apocalypse Sandstorm
Blackskate Stormwrack
Malysnep (Int, Evil, Snowswimming seals) Frostfell
Marzanna (Winter Hag) Frostfell
Widderribhinn (Ravenloft Gazetter V5) Rusalka Frostfell

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Is third party content allowed?

Is "you have to homebrew it" allowed?

If so I propose a species of undead that can only start out as a dwarf. While the dwarf has turned into a mindless zombie, it's still living beard controls the corpse. The personality of this undead depends on its beard style (whether you can change their character by giving them a trim is unknown, they are quite rare and tend to bite).

[atemu1234]

Is "you have to homebrew it" allowed?

If so I propose a species of undead that can only start out as a dwarf. While the dwarf has turned into a mindless zombie, it's still living beard controls the corpse. The personality of this undead depends on its beard style (whether you can change their character by giving them a trim is unknown, they are quite rare and tend to bite).

That actually is pretty cool.

[Th3N3xtGuy]

On a side note your campaign sounds really fun.

Death knight General: A former lord, paladin and crusader that came over in one of the many failed invasions.

Half Shade/Half Skeleton: Spymaster and very cunning maybe Rogue/Assassin can summon lesser shades during a fight uses shadow jumping and minor illusions

[Inevitability]

How about having an area ruled over by a ghost sorcerer who is obsessed with psychological torture? He uses Detect Thoughts from behind a few undead minions to learn about the PC's, then uses horrific spells to make them regret ever coming here.

One of the PC's has a daughter? A slaymate disguised as her attacks the party, continuously begging him not to kill her.

A PC is afraid of the dark? He gets a Persisted Blacklight cast on him. Or, if you are particularly cruel, a Seething Eyebane.

[atemu1234]

How about having an area ruled over by a ghost sorcerer who is obsessed with psychological torture? He uses Detect Thoughts from behind a few undead minions to learn about the PC's, then uses horrific spells to make them regret ever coming here.

One of the PC's has a daughter? A slaymate disguised as her attacks the party, continuously begging him not to kill her.

A PC is afraid of the dark? He gets a Persisted Blacklight cast on him. Or, if you are particularly cruel, a Seething Eyebane.

I like this. One of them has an animal companion? Have it kidnapped, slain and turned into a potent undead of some sort.

One of them has a spouse? Use False Sending, pretend to be that spouse and fake them being attacked. Or saying they want a divorce.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I'm a big fan of the Phantom template, from MMV. While it doesn't have anything to do with undead especially, it gives corporeal creatures a hybrid (in)corporealty that is guaranteed to throw your party off balance (Wait, did that ghost just trip us?). Great to add to unusual creature types, like oozes and swarms, for that extra WTFactor - ideally, a swarm of phantom undead oozes. Stack tons and tons of these guys in your moats and canals, and pretend it's ghostly essence flowing through.

[Jowgen]

Thank you to everyone who contributed, this volume of material ideas should do as it's meant to be a rather short one. Gratitude. :smallsmile: