Incorporeal Undead

A poltergeist is an angry spirit that forms from the soul of a creature that, for whatever reason, becomes unable to leave the site of its death. Sometimes, this might be due to an unfinished task— other times, it might be due to a powerful necromantic effect. Desecrating a grave site by building a structure over the body below is the most common method of accidentally creating a poltergeist. The poltergeist experiences great trauma over its condition; this trauma twists its psyche to evil and fosters an overall hatred of the living expressed in outbursts of rage. A poltergeist is bound to a specific place, usually a building, room, or recognizable area (a section of a cemetery, a stretch of lonely road, and so on). This place typically corresponds to its place of death or the resting place of its mortal remains.

Those who fall prey to madness and take their own lives sometimes find themselves lost on the path to the afterlife, trapped in a state between life and death. These unfortunates, known as allips, suffer from the violent and incurable insanity they faced in life and take out their terror, confusion, and rage upon the living. They reach out to those they encounter—possibly in wrath, but also perhaps oblivious to their own insane nature—spreading the psychoses that led to their own untimely deaths. In combat, allips relentlessly attack the nearest living creature, relying on their babble to let them close in before attacking with their touch of insanity. Many seem to be driven to states of ferocity upon witnessing the terror living creatures exhibit when facing their spectral forms, or when faced with the intangibility of their incorporeal states. While allips have no way to kill creatures, those knocked unconscious by an allip’s Wisdom-draining touch often emerge from the state suffering from insanity—a fate that many would say qualifies as worse than death. Allips often seek to harm those who played a part in causing their mad, unholy condition. When faced with such foes, an allip ignores all other targets that confront it in favor of its hated enemies, attacking them until its tormentors have been forced into a vacant stupor. Alas, such vengeance does not put the allip to rest, but simply serves to further fuel its madness as it finds itself trapped in a world now no longer even holding the satisfaction of vengeance.

The sinister shadow skirts the border between the gloom of darkness and the harsh truth of light. The shadow prefers to haunt ruins where civilization has moved on, where it hunts living creatures foolish enough to stumble into its territory. The shadow is an undead horror, and as such has no goals or outwardly visible motivations other than to sap life and vitality from living beings.

Wraiths are undead creatures born of evil and darkness. They hate light and living things, as they have lost much of their connection to their former lives.

An exiled shade is a wretched, undead remnant of an evil organization. Driven out and possibly even slain by its former allies, the exiled shade wallows in the pain of its betrayal and its paradoxical desires to simultaneously destroy and be reunited with its former comrades.  Exiled shades linger near the places they once served, but are psychologically unable to return to the places from which they were exiled. Instead they attack lonesome travelers, enslaving them to use as puppets against their onetime allies.  An exiled shade is approximately 6 feet tall.

When a soul is not allowed to rest due to some great injustice, either real or perceived, it sometimes comes back as a ghost. Such beings are in eternal anguish, lacking in substance and unable to set things right. Although ghosts can be any alignment, the majority cling to the living world out of a powerful sense of rage and hatred, and as a result are chaotic evil—even the ghost of a good or lawful creature can become hateful and cruel in its afterlife. More than most of the monsters in this book, a ghost benefits from a strong and detailed backstory. Why did this character become a ghost? What are the legends surrounding the ghost? An encounter with a ghost should never happen completely out of the blue—there are plenty of other incorporeal undead like wraiths and spectres to fill that role. A proper encounter with a ghost should be a climactic scene after a lengthy period of tension building with lesser minions or manifestations of the undead spirit. The sample ghost above is that of a human princess who was murdered by an unfaithful lover—after she confronted him, he murdered her by wrapping her in chains and throwing her into the castle well, where she drowned. The ghost’s abilities were selected to fit this backstory, and it shows how potent a villain you can create with a simple NPC class. Applying the template to creatures with class levels or creatures with significant racial abilities can create even more powerful ghosts. When a ghost is created, it retains incorporeal “copies” of any items that it particularly valued in life (provided the originals are not in another creature’s possession). The equipment works normally for the ghost but passes harmlessly through material objects or creatures. A weapon of +1 or better magical enhancement, however, can harm material creatures, but any such attack deals only half as much damage (50%) unless it is a ghost touch weapon. A ghost can use shields or armor only if they have the ghost touch quality. The original items remain behind, just as the ghost’s physical remains do. If another creature seizes the original, the incorporeal copy fades away. This loss invariably angers the ghost, who stops at nothing to return the item to its original resting place (and thus regain the item’s use).

Psychic stalkers are the undead minds of psychic spellcasters who suffered unexpectedly violent deaths. Such minds are sometimes powerful enough to persist even after their bodies’ destruction, transforming into incorporeal creatures composed entirely of thought, yet they retain no true memories or abilities from their former existence. Knowing only that they are missing a vital part of their being, psychic stalkers are ruled by the envious desire to take control of new bodies.

Spectres are evil undead that hate sunlight and living things. Most are the remnants of murdered or evil humans, their anger preventing them from entering the afterlife. Like ghosts, spectres haunt the places of their deaths, and seek to draw others into the lonely abyss of undeath. A spectre looks much as it did in life and can be easily recognized by those who knew the individual or have seen the individual’s face in paintings or drawings. Spectres retain a strong sense of identity, and even ancient, insane spectres generally remain coherent. Evil historians and necromancers often try to ally with spectres for the knowledge they held in life and retain in undeath.

When a righteous crusader is denied the path to the afterlife in death, its spirit can rise as one of the fallen— undead driven to enact a crusade against all life in a frustrated corruption of their beliefs. The undead creature’s fall in battle remains the greatest disappointment vexing its soul. Driven by hatred and shame, the fallen wander battlefields and wildlands in constant search of someone to end their misery by performing last rites.

A festering spirit arises when a vile person’s corpse is put in a mass grave, or when such a person is buried, exhumed, and placed in a charnel house or ossuary. The lingering hatred and evil of the dead mixes with the worst remnants of dozens of other people, creating a frustrated incorporeal shade of sickness, hate, and rot. Powerful mortals might arise as multiple festering spirits, each spawned from a different aspect of the original creature’s personality. A festering spirit can’t travel more than a mile from its remains. When left alone for long periods, a festering spirit usually wanders the halls and rooms near its burial site, destroying things, indulging in pranks, or trying to eat and drink anything it finds palatable (which falls through its incorporeal body to no effect). Its senses can barely detect these treats, though some adventurers report that strong alcohol and spicy foods can distract the spirit as it savors these sensations.

Greater shadows are those undead shadows that have come to be particularly infused with negative energy, such as those that have spent vast lengths of time in areas of the Plane of Shadow awash in negative energy, or those that have drained the lives of thousands of victims. These undead monsters are often found with a small band of normal shadows, which typically treat a greater shadow as a leader to rally behind.

Polongs are the spirits of murderers who have been magically bound to a bottle. Whoever possesses a polong’s bottle can command the creature to carry out murderous acts. Necromancers, cultists, and assassins sometimes use polongs to perform assassinations from afar. Commanding polongs is dangerous, however, as their desire to kill makes them turn on their own masters if given the chance.  When a polong’s bottle is opened, the creature manifests as a blood-drenched spirit with hands transformed into long claws. Its thirst for violence and murder twists its distorted features into a hateful visage. Polongs remember little of their past lives, their own thoughts turned to committing the heinous acts commanded by their masters.

A caller in darkness grows from the psychic remains of a creature with psychic sensitivity that died a violent death, its restless spirit compelled to visit upon others the horrors that it suffered before dying. As more and more minds are absorbed, it grows, and the original spirit is lost in the swirling mass of hatred, confusion, and despair.

A wraith that exists for long enough and feeds on enough life force undergoes an unholy transformation, becoming a creature known as a dread wraith.

A bhuta is a ghostlike undead creature born of horrible death or murder in a natural setting. It is a manifestation of rage at the injustice of a death that interrupted important business or unsated desires. Doomed to haunt the wilderness within several miles of the site of its demise, a bhuta turns to the local fauna as tools for its vengeance. A bhuta can appear in a variety of animalistic forms by using its veil ability, but its natural appearance is that of a bestial humanoid phantom that floats a foot above the ground as it moves. While bhutas are incorporeal, the touch of their claws creates horrific, bleeding wounds. A bhuta’s feet point backward. To disguise its nature, a bhuta can appear solid, manifesting in long robes that help disguise the fact that it floats and has strange feet. By means of its magic jar spell-like ability, a bhuta can also possess living animals to use as its minions; an animal possessed by a bhuta casts no shadow, and therefore prefers to lurk in heavily canopied or thicketed areas, waiting for the right time to strike out and attack intruders. Animals find themselves attracted to bhutas, which use their spell-like abilities to manipulate such victims toward evil and deceptive ends. Bhutas generally avoid inf luencing animal companions or domesticated animals, for changes in behavior among such creatures can easily arouse suspicion and reveal a bhuta’s presence and inf luence. A bhuta might have tasks it wishes to complete from its previous existence as a living creature, or it might work against those who slew its living form. This link to its past life is vague and compulsive rather than clear, unlike that of a ghost. Bhutas who have no specific target for retribution still seek to trouble those living in or near their domains, coaxing passersby into accepting them as traveling companions and using their influence over animals as a testament to their benevolence. When invited to join a group, a bhuta can journey outside its normal territory. However, a bhuta’s hunger for living blood usually drives it to attack its companions before it wanders far.

An aoandon is an incorporeal outsider formed from the spirit of a woman who died pursuing some ill-fated relationship. An aoandon waits for her chance to seek revenge on those who wronged her in her mortal life. If that person is dead, she finds a surrogate—someone who reminds her of the wrongdoer—and acts out her delusions with unrelenting vindictiveness. These spirits can also appear as a result of mishaps with calling spells, but such instances are rare.

A banshee is the enraged spirit of an elven woman who either betrayed those she loved or was herself betrayed. Maddened by grief, a banshee visits her vengeance on all living creatures—innocent or guilty—with her fearsome touch and deadly wails.

Fearsome phantasmal carriages pulled by ghostly horses, death coaches appear without warning to collect and carry off unwilling mortal souls to the afterlife, slaying their victims first if need be.

A dybbuk is a misplaced soul who has eluded judgment because of a some great transgression or a pitiful suicide. Like a ghost, it lingers on in the mortal world, either trying to fulfill an insane need to right some great failure that has marked its soul for eternity or merely to spread the torment it is condemned to face for eternity. Bodiless and left to wander, dybbuks grow increasingly bitter and resentful over the loss of their bodies and endlessly seek mortal or even inanimate forms to steal and use to sow suffering. Vile manipulators, they seek bodies that have the greatest potential to cause pain in those closest to their victims, taking pleasure in shifting a leader’s agenda toward the destruction of her followers or torturing an innocent from within. Dybbuks also often animate unliving things to spread fear, reveling in the chaos resulting from manipulating corpses to confuse and terrify. Most also realize they have all of eternity to torment their chosen victims, and might lurk quietly near a living target for weeks or months, waiting for the right moment to act and begin their terrors anew.

A nemhain is formed when a soul deliberately assumes undead status as a means of protecting a person, object, place, or ideal. Often, a devoted priest or ally volunteers herself and her (often unwitting) kin for transformation into a nemhain in order to continue protecting her home even beyond her death. The blasphemous rituals used to create nemhains are often believed to have been lost.  While most nemhain aspirants are evil to begin with—such individuals are often members of cults worshiping deities of lost or forbidden secrets— occasionally a goodly creature considers protecting a site worthy of a corrupted, tortured existence. Such an act, however well intentioned, is destined to damn her for all eternity.

Wyrmwraiths arise from the souls of powerful dragons who refuse to accept death or have an irrational fear of moving on to an afterlife. No longer concerned with amassing wealth and power, wyrmwraiths instead brood with an unrelenting hatred of all living things. They hate other dragons above all else, seeing the existence of those living creatures as a mockery of their own.  Wyrmwraiths typically haunt their former lairs or some other location where they can hide from the sunlight. They are drawn toward ancient ruins, forgotten catacombs, and other places associated with death. Litter, detritus and   bones lie heaped in areas controlled by a wyrmwraith instead of the coins and gems. In the rare instances when a wyrmwraith is away from its den, the malice of its presence still lingers palpably in the cold air. Still displaying the draconic instinct to protect their homes from would-be thieves, wyrmwraiths will often create and leave behind undead guardians.  Wyrmwraiths slay those who venture near their lairs, surrounding themselves with their newly created dread wraiths and any other undead they can create or control, carving out small fiefdoms populated by undead servitors. They send their minions to collect anything and anyone with knowledge or power they believe can aid them in their dark endeavors. Captured individuals who please the wyrmwraith can expect to be reborn as powerful undead while those that fail wallow in eternal torment as dread wraiths.  On rare occasions throughout history, powerful necromancers or dark cults have managed to entice or coerce a wyrmwraith into an alliance. These collaborations are fleeting, as wyrmwraiths still retain a twisted shadow of their draconic pride, seeing all other creatures as beneath them. Unless compelled to work with others, a wyrmwraith turns on its allies once they are no longer useful to it.  Finding a way to gain a wyrmwraith’s attention is difficult because it is no longer interested in wealth or other mundane material possessions. Instead, wyrmwraiths seek knowledge or items to reverse or improve their undead condition. Their own loathing of what they have become is the only thing as strong as their hatred of the living. Yet, despite their predicament, they still fear ultimate death.  A wyrmwraith blights the land with its very presence, a slowly spreading stain tainting anything it touches. Undead activity inevitably increases in any area a wyrmwraith inhabits. Unless a wyrmwraith is destroyed, its territory often becomes a lifeless wasteland for miles.  Wyrmwraiths are very dangerous opponents in combat. They prefer to soften up enemies with their breath weapon and spells before closing in for melee. Wyrmwraiths target clerics, paladins, and other spellcasters wielding divine magic, both because they know divine magic possesses the greatest threat to them and because they see it as a chance to strike back against the gods for their accursed state. Wyrmwraiths care little about how many of their undead minions are destroyed in combat. They are merely pawns to the wyrmwraiths, who have the means at their disposal to create more.  Wyrmwraiths appear as skeletal, ghostly versions of their former selves, their features warped by malice. No matter the size they once possessed, wyrmwraiths measure roughly 50 ft. from snout to tail. Unencumbered by flesh, they move with a silent, effortless, and deadly grace. Even wyrmwraiths’ minds become changed in undeath. Already long-lived creatures when they were dragons, some wyrmwraiths have spent an even longer time as undead. Brooding and nurturing brutal hatred for the living for so long drives these wyrmwraiths insane, causing them to become reckless—or self-destructive—and to venture out into the night to rain down destruction on a nearby settlement or even an entire kingdom, knowing that they will eventually be hunted down and destroyed.