Undead have always been my "DM thing." I love them, as you can probably tell from the blog. Today, I present a zombie that I love. They aren't typical, and are barely a threat to anyone.
In the world of Mord Mar exists a book, the Book of Eyes. The demonic text contains rituals to pull power from others into the caster. One such ritual involves removing their eyes and turning them into zombies.
The caster cannot control the zombies. The zombies wander aimlessly, and only attack if struck. They are often found facing corners in out-of-the-way rooms. The eyeless zombies seem to have a replacement for sight. Demonologists speculate that using the "sight" causes the zombies pain, and that's why they are often found in dark corners. Any person bitten by an eyeless zombie can also become an eyeless zombie. When a person transforms, they attempt to travel to where the zombification ritual was most recently completed. If they arrive there, they remove their own eyes and depart.
The caster gains the power to look through any eye disembodied by the ritual (or placed on the altar after). The caster becomes disoriented, and it takes a measure of control to see through whichever eye they want. Most casters give their followers a necklace with one or more eyes from the ritual on it.
Other dark secrets reside within the Book of Eyes, but no adventurer in Mord Mar had the fortitude to delve too deep into the book.
As a bonus, here's the Walking Death disease. Originally written for Mord Mar in Pathfinder by Adam Brown, I have adapted it to S&W.
Walking Death Disease: When a person is struck or bitten by a zombie infected with walking death disease, they must make a save. Failure of this save indicates the character has contracted walking death. Over the next 24 hours, they will spike a high fever and feel chilled. Within 24 hours of the onset, they become unable to walk due to weakness and vomiting. Within 24 hours of vomiting, the victim dies and rises as a zombie about an hour later. From infection to death never takes more than 3 days, and cases of less than 15 hours have been observed.
Ok, that's all kind of warped. I like it!
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