Is This Canon In Any D&D Edition or Setting?

[Palanan]

I’ve been given a reference to a “canon” city which was under siege and began to manufacture undead for the city’s defense. The only identifying detail is that “they learned to make 3 undead out of each corpse: one from the skin, one from the meat, and one from the bones.”

Does anyone recognize this? It’s most likely from 2E or 3E, and I’d be interested to know which city, which setting, and if possible which source this is from.

Please note I am not looking for ways to replicate this approach—I’m just looking for a citation on the source.

[Nifft]

Not recycling the ghost and the shadow? How wasteful.

Necromancers under siege reminds me of Hollowfaust's history (from the Scarred Lands setting) -- but I don't recall that specific form of necromancy.

[smasher0404]

Not recycling the ghost and the shadow? How wasteful.

Necromancers under siege reminds me of Hollowfaust's history (from the Scarred Lands setting) -- but I don't recall that specific form of necromancy.

I was just about to pop in with the results of my own google searching. I found another reference to the Scarred Lands setting having the three types of undead from an old forum thread here in the last post. Apparently, the monster stats are found within the Menace Manual book for the setting.


EDIT: After some further digging, I have located the actual citation, Creature Collections II contains stats for the 3 undead, attributing their creation to a priest Yrgdryth in "a fortress on the plains that have since become the Mounds of Man"

[Millstone85]

Not recycling the ghost and the shadow? How wasteful.

Is it bad that I am having an easier time imagining a ghost teaming up with their own corpse and shadow, than with the idea of a boneless skinless zombie?

[Batcathat]

Is it bad that I am having an easier time imagining a ghost teaming up with their own corpse and shadow, than with the idea of a boneless skinless zombie?

No, that seems like a reasonable reaction. I guess a skinless zombie would work (and look even scarier than a normal one) but a boneless zombie seems like it'd just be... weirdly squishy.

[Eldan]

I guess they just make a kind of floppy undead ooze monster?

[Quertus]

Hoards of Titan spawn attacked in unending waves, and the divine defenders were able to continue to repulse the attacks only because of the economical creation of replacement forces the Wizard's processes allowed. The fact that these replacements were undead also allowed the still living among the defenders to more easily ration the fairing food supply.

In order to maximize the value of each dead soldier who was raised to fight again for the divine army, Y~ decided this unique methodology for 3 fashioning the undead soldiers from a single cadaver…"

Sounds like what I remembered. Published, but 3rd party.

So, not canonical to D&D (unless sword and sorcery / scarred lands magically became Canon), just to the greater d20 multiverse. Mea culpa.

Still, the concepts of "siege" and "rations" sound like valid concerns for The Vault, no?

[warty goblin]

I guess they just make a kind of floppy undead ooze monster?

This is pretty easy to picture for me, and also utterly horrific. Just imagine, a heap of oozing meat and organs, covered in flies and leaking foul juices, slithering across the ground, before seizing its victims and dragging them into the morass to be digested alive.

What you can do with the skin is less obvious to me. There's no structure, and just way less material to work with.

[Batcathat]

What you can do with the skin is less obvious to me. There's no structure, and just way less material to work with.

I suppose you could turn it into kind of a version of the classical bedsheet ghost. Might be a nicely disturbing twist on a cheesy classic.

[Lord Torath]

This is pretty easy to picture for me, and also utterly horrific. Just imagine, a heap of oozing meat and organs, covered in flies and leaking foul juices, slithering across the ground, before seizing its victims and dragging them into the morass to be digested alive.

Anyone see Spies in Disguise? There's a gun in there that temporarily turns your bones to jelly. Fortunately there are no adverse effects (in the movie, not in real life) to suddenly no longer having any supporting structure for your internal organs.

Also, does not having a skull make it easier to go for a head-shot kill on the zombie?

[Kane0]

Is it bad that I am having an easier time imagining a ghost teaming up with their own corpse and shadow, than with the idea of a boneless skinless zombie?

Sounds like a 5-man party to me!

[ventoAureo]

This is pretty easy to picture for me, and also utterly horrific. Just imagine, a heap of oozing meat and organs, covered in flies and leaking foul juices, slithering across the ground, before seizing its victims and dragging them into the morass to be digested alive.

What you can do with the skin is less obvious to me. There's no structure, and just way less material to work with.

Skin balloon filled with noxious gases that flies around enemy lines, spreading said gases until it flops down onto the floor.

[MrZJunior]

What you can do with the skin is less obvious to me. There's no structure, and just way less material to work with.

You could stuff it with straw or something and turn it into a sort of malevolent scarecrow.

[SleepyShadow]

What you can do with the skin is less obvious to me. There's no structure, and just way less material to work with.

Those are canon in D&D. They're gross critters called Forsaken Shells, from Libris Mortis.

[JNAProductions]

So, boneless zombies have no support...
But tendonless skeletons are fine? There’s literally GAPS there!

I do like the ideas, but there’s also the “It’s magic” explanation. :P

[Hopeless]

The only one I know about is the Eberron setting with the Karrnath?


https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Karrnath