Taker of Eyes

A Pathfinder Campaign Setting Supplement Authors • Eric Cagle, Brian Cortijo, Brandon Hodge, Steve Kenson, Hal Maclean, Colin McComb, Jason Nelson, Todd Stewart, and Russ Taylor Cover Artist • Kekai Kotaki Interior Artists • Christopher Burdett, Victor Pérez Corbella, Alberto Dal Lago, Francesco Graziani, Damien Mammoliti, Roberto Pitturru, Scott Purdy, Chris Seaman, Florian Stitz, Eva Widermann, and Kieran Yanner Creative Director • James Jacobs Senior Art Director • Sarah E. Robinson Managing Editor • F. Wesley Schneider Development Lead • James L. Sutter Editing and Development • Judy Bauer and Christopher Carey Editorial Assistance • Jason Bulmahn, Rob McCreary, Mark Moreland, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Sean K Reynolds Editorial Intern • Michael Kenway Graphic Designer • Andrew Vallas Production Specialist • Crystal Frasier Publisher • Erik Mona Paizo CEO • Lisa Stevens Vice President of Operations • Jeffrey Alvarez Director of Sales • Pierce Watters Finance Manager • Christopher Self Staff Accountant • Kunji Sedo Technical Director • Vic Wertz Marketing Manager • Hyrum Savage Special Thanks • The Paizo Customer Service, Warehouse, and Website Teams Credits Table of Contents This product makes use of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide, and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2. These rules can be found online as part of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document at paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd. Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, etc.), dialogue, plots, storylines, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress. (Elements that have previously been designated as Open Game Content or are in the public domain are not included in this declaration.) Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above), the game mechanics of this Paizo Publishing game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited is published by Paizo Publishing, LLC under the Open Game License version 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Paizo Publishing, LLC, the Paizo golem logo, Pathfinder, and GameMastery are registered trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC; Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Pathfinder Module, Pathfinder Player Companion, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Society, Pathfinder Tales, and Titanic Games are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC. Printed in China. Paizo Publishing, LLC 7120 185th Ave NE, Ste 120 Redmond, WA 98052-0577 paizo.com This book works best with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. Although it is suitable for play in any fantasy world, it is optimized for use in the Pathfinder campaign setting. Introduction Bodak Devourer Graveknight Lich Mohrg Nightshade Ravener Shadow Spectral Dead Wight Open Game License Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited The Dead Will Rise tome, you’ll find nothing but undead, those tragic souls transformed by evil from beyond the mortal world or cursed by their actions in life to rise again after death. The hideous creatures presented here are not simply the easily named bogeymen of children’s tales, but the darker denizens of roleplaying history, the familiar festering faces that have plagued players of fantasy games for decades. Unsealing the Tomb Presented here is a brief overview of the undead covered in this book. Though each is explored here in depth, the basic statistics for these monsters can be found in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary (devourer, lich, mohrg, shadow, spectre, wight, wraith), Bestiary 2 (banshee, bodak, nightshades, ravener), Bonus Bestiary (allip), and Pathfinder Adventure Path #26 (graveknight). Both the allip and the graveknight will also be available in the forthcoming Bestiary 3. Bodak: When mortals venture to the utmost depths of unforgiving planes, they sometimes come across knowledge so terrible or witness events so horrifying that their very souls are consumed, killing them and then reanimating them as the weird, smoke-eyed creations called bodaks. Eric Cagle presents us with an in- depth look at the nature, habits, and horrifying origins of these planar terrors. Devourer: Only the bravest and most powerful adventurers dare step beyond the boundaries of the known planes, into whatever darkness lies beyond. Most who do so never return—yet some, especially the evil ones, come back changed and twisted. Todd Stewart introduces us to the dread devourers, insane emissaries of the dark who draw their powers from the trapped souls of mortals. Graveknight: Some warriors are too arrogant to die. Hal Maclean presents the terrifying graveknight, for whom death is no barrier to the lust for battle and conquest. Trapped within the armor they wore in life, graveknights are nigh-unkillable masters of warfare, the battlefield’s answer to the craftier and more conniving lich. Lich: The classic undead masterminds, liches are spellcasters who bind their souls into special receptacles called phylacteries, thus making themselves effectively immortal. Though their flesh may rot and stiffen, leaving them skeletal horrors, their spirits live on, allowing them to continue their foul research and machinations. Colin McComb takes us inside the formidable brains of the deathless magic-users, exploring both how and why they seek their bizarre existences. W hen we set out to make Classic Horrors Revisited, we quickly discovered that we had a problem. No matter how we tried to divide things up, there were simply too many monsters lurking beyond the lights of our campfires. Eventually, we decided to let that book focus on the so-called “gothic” monsters, the creatures of classic horror films and stories. Yet we knew that we weren’t finished with horror. Not by a long shot. Though that book contained entries on the classic skeletons, ghosts, and zombies of horror history, the book you hold is more specific. Inside this moldering, grave-rotted Introduction Mohrg: Those who exult in the needless taking of life sometimes return to the world after death as mohrgs, skeletal monstrosities wrapped with freakish, animated intestines. Brian Cortijo reveals the inner lives (or lack thereof) of the undead who hunt the streets, creating and guiding their lesser spawn. Nightshade: Where the Shadow Plane meets the Negative Energy Plane, evil and darkness hold sway in vast and lightless gulfs. When a fiend succumbs to the ravages of this environment, the ensuing death can be the catalyst for creating one of the most powerful undead. Todd Stewart details the existence of the undead behemoths called nightshades, monsters whose greatest goal is nothing less than the destruction of all life. Ravener: Unwilling to yield even to death itself, some dragons seek immortality in a horrible transformation into undead. Wrapped with the soul-energy of all those they devour, these evil draconic tyrants must constantly feed on life to keep their own existence and powers at their peak. Russ Taylor explores the strengths and weaknesses of the dreaded draconic raveners. Shadow: Not even the grave can stop the greed of some people. Driven by envy and covetousness, those misers and thieves led to evil by their avaricious natures sometimes fade away or return after death as shadows, dark reflections of their former selves. Steve Kenson brings us the truths surrounding these undead silhouettes. Spectral Dead: Not a single creature, but rather a whole family encompassing allips, banshees, spectres, and wraiths, these incorporeal undead may no longer have physical bodies, but they can kill you all the same. Brandon Hodge explains the differences between all four, from the means by which they’re formed to the crazed obsessions and emotions that drive them even after death. Wight: Hungry for the spirits of the living, wights resemble lesser undead such as zombies and skeletons— but don’t let their rotting flesh fool you, for behind their burning eyes rests a grim intelligence. Jason Nelson reveals the varied origins and motives of the sinister wight, and how they can be turned to a crafty GM’s advantage. Creating Undead The spells animate dead, create undead, and create greater undead account for methods by which spellcasters can create a wide range of undead creatures—but the options granted by these spells are limited. With the GM’s permission, these can be adjusted to allow for the creation of additional types of undead. Doing so requires additional material components and spells (additional spells are cast as part of the casting time of the undead creation spell, but do not extend that spell’s casting time). Note that some undead can never be created by create undead or create greater undead. The methods by which these undead can be created are given in their specific monster write-ups. In the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary and Bestiary 2, such undead include the following: ghost, lich, nightshade (all), poltergeist, ravener, revenant, skaveling, vampire, void zombie, and winterwight. The following table summarizes what spells, minimum caster levels, and additional material components are needed to create other undead with animate dead, create undead, or create greater undead. Creating Undead Undead Creature Spell to Create Min. CL Additional Requirements Allip* create greater undead 15th insanity Attic Whisperer create undead 13th crushing despair, fear, corpse of a humanoid child Banshee create greater undead 20th fear, wail of the banshee, corpse of a female elf Bodak create greater undead 20th must be cast in the Abyss Crawling Hand create undead 11th severed hand of a Medium or smaller humanoid Crawling Hand (giant) create undead 14th enlarge person, severed hand of a Large or larger humanoid Crypt Thing create undead 16th teleport Draugr create undead 12th — Dullahan create undead 17th decapitated humanoid corpse Greater Shadow create greater undead 19th shadow walk Huecuva* create undead 11th corpse of a cleric (preferably an evil cleric) Juju Zombie create undead 11th** enervation or energy drain Skeletal Champion create undead 11th** enervation or energy drain Totenmaske create greater undead 18th caster must be a cleric Wight create undead 14th enervation Witchfire create greater undead 19th corpse of a hag * This creature is detailed in the Bonus Bestiary and the upcoming Pathfinder Bestiary 3. ** You must have a caster level greater than the HD of the undead to be created. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited Bodak “We did our best to ignore the screams emanating from the tower attached to the baron’s home, and wept silent tears for loved ones he sent on ‘grand journeys,’ never to return. At least, almost never. “The one who did return, well... Gray Tom, the closest thing we have to a lawkeeper around these parts, swore that he saw someone emerge from the manor, just past moonrise. Screamed it, in fact, for the whole two days it took him to wear himself out. He doesn’t speak much now, and insists on wearing a blindfold everywhere he goes. Most folks think he’s crazy, but if so, I ask you this: how come nobody’s seen the baron since?” —Sabrina Telmach, midwife of Stannish Corner Bodak T he world is filled with evil and unspeakable things. Dark clerics pray to vile gods, and wizards seeking unbridled power make pacts with foul demons, all of which allow sinister things to take root among the living. Yet evil is not merely a supernatural phenomenon—man’s own inhumanity to man also brings with it a pall of evil and malevolence. Terrible wars and genocide spawn untold numbers of personal tragedies and events that scar the minds and souls of those unlucky enough to witness them. Torture victims endure days, weeks, or years of horrible, mind-bending pain and misery. Those lucky (or unlucky) enough to survive these horrors are forever changed. Yet for some, bearing witness to true horror and supernatural evil does more than twist their minds— it ravages their souls to such a degree that they are themselves transformed. Requiring evil far beyond that normally found among mortals, this rare transformation occurs when unprepared mortals venture deep into those extraplanar spaces where humanity was not meant to tread—the deepest hiding holes of the evil planes. In these repositories of unholy knowledge, things are seen that cannot be unseen, and which indelibly stain the souls of the foolish. The creatures that emerge from these places are mortal no longer. Rather they are bodaks— misanthropic husks whose very eyes smoke with the horror of all they’ve seen, destined to wander the planes and bring their terrible visions to the living. The transformation into a bodak is as physically painful as it is spiritually damning. As the images of the horror are replayed over and over in the victim’s mind, his body is wracked with pain, causing him to thrash about in debilitating seizures. The victim’s eyelids clamp shut in a nearly unbreakable bond—nothing short of prying or cutting the eyelids apart will force them open. Those who witness this transformation and live to tell of it say that the victim’s eyes seem to migrate about the face, growing and shrinking in size as if trying to escape from the person’s head. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the body undergoes a change as well, with the limbs elongating, hair falling off, and skin drying out on the bones, giving the victim an emaciated, androgynous frame. Within 24 hours, the conversion is complete and the victim has become a bodak. Only then do its eyes open once more, though now they are blank orbs set deep in cavernous sockets, constantly weeping foul, smoky vapors. The conversion seriously damages the muscles, giving the bodak a slow, shambling gait. The intellect of the victim also dwindles to pure, base instincts—yet strangely, it does not lose the ability to speak. When a bodak speaks, its words are full of venom, gibberish, and horrific threats and insults, reflecting its extreme anger and desire to inflict its own terrible fate on others. The purifying touch of sunlight also becomes intolerable to the bodak. Even a tiny sliver of sunlight damages and burns the creature, enraging it and forcing it to flee. For this reason, bodaks on the Material Plane only come out at night and must find a secluded place to hide during the day. The eyes of the bodak serve as a conduit to the horrors that spawned its transformation. The shimmering, milky orbs briefly mesmerize anyone unlucky enough to catch a direct glimpse of them. If a victim lacks the will to break the gaze, he is quickly overwhelmed by its power and dies shortly thereafter—the transformation into another bodak begins immediately. Survivors of the bodak’s deadly gaze speak of a flood of bizarre memories, flashes and snippets of the event that caused the bodak’s transformation. Although a person lucky enough to resist the gaze is unharmed, these memories of the darkest reaches of the planes may haunt the survivor periodically for the rest of his life. Bodaks are tortured creatures, driven by endless sorrow, terrible longing, and an extreme bitterness and jealousy toward the living. Bodaks lack even the malevolent joy that fiends seem to feel when tormenting and killing mortal creatures. Only by forcing living creatures to gaze into their eyes and perish do they find anything resembling relief, although that too is very short lived, forcing the bodak to find even more victims in an endless Bodak Apocalypse? Because of their ability to propagate through their deadly gaze attack, bodaks can spread through an area in a frighteningly short period of time. GMs could set up a scenario where local people speak of people being turned into the undead at an alarming rate, with those attacked by the creatures turning into undead as well. Most players would immediately presume that the town or area was under assault by zombies or some other relatively weak undead that spread quickly. This is a perfect setup for fooling the adventurers into thinking that they can walk into the area and easily clean up the mess. Over time, a village or other lightly populated area may turn into a literal graveyard, as the entire population is transformed into a small army of potent undead. Adventurers that expect to clean out a low-level undead infestation will find themselves in for quite a shock upon discovering high-CR bodaks running amok, so bodaks make perfect candidates for bringing the classic “zombie apocalypse” adventure to higher-level characters. And of course, the original bodak in the town had to come from somewhere, and adventurers may also have to deal with a powerful cleric, wizard, or demon, making the situation even more perilous. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited cycle. Some bodaks are so overwhelmed by their desire to turn the living into more of their kind that they drag off victims of their deadly gazes to secluded places in order to watch over the transformation and make sure nothing interrupts it. Once the new bodak arises, however, its creator typically loses interest, leaving the spawn on its own. In rare instances, however, bodaks band together in small units called gangs. This does not seem to reflect any true sense of companionship, but is most common when a bodak kills either a former loved one or the person who led it to the point of its original transformation—the bond between them is now twisted together into hate and loathing, but still unbreakable. Though inclined to wander the planes when given their freedom, the slow-witted bodaks are rarely seen outside the evil-aligned planes, and especially the Abyss, where powerful demons find them useful minions. On that plane, they often serve as guardians, assassins, or thralls, particularly for nabasu demons or liches (both of which are immune to its gaze). Extremely skilled necromancers are able to use powerful magic, notably create greater undead, to create bodaks, but only if the spellcaster is located on one of the evil Outer Planes. Mortal spellcasters who dare to summon a bodak must protect themselves with other magic to keep its deadly gaze at bay. EcOLOGY Scholars and theologians have long debated the exact nature of these strange undead, positing that it’s the very act that creates a bodak—witnessing some evil and hideous occurrence beyond all mortal capacity for understanding—that gives unholy life and purpose to these creatures. In some sense, the bodak is the very manifestation of such an act, a curse upon the living, its life force scarred to such a degree that only causing others to gaze into its eyes and share its agony gives it some sort of relief. Most researchers believe that mundane evil is not enough, arguing that only traumatic deaths in the darkest pits of the planes are pure enough to form a bodak, with the creature’s animating energy being drawn from the evil Outer Planes where it met its fate. Yet others insist that it’s not the place that causes the transformation, but rather the purity of the evil and horror involved, thus making it possible for an ordinary human (or, more likely, a summoned demon) to spark the transformation, provided the horrors it shows to the victim are heinous enough. Regardless, such quibbles are academic and unimportant in the face of the dangerous creatures themselves. Bodaks exist only to find the living and damn their souls to a similar fate. In many ways, bodaks found on the Outer Planes are worse off than those on the Material Plane, if only for the distinct lack of living humanoids upon which to inflict their particular method of torment. The longing of Abyssal bodaks is akin to an eternal, insatiable hunger, which is perhaps mirrored in the bodak’s emaciated form, and helps to explain their slow- witted willingness to serve demons who provide them with living fodder from time to time. No bodak has ever been witnessed feasting on the meat of its victims, but some have been seen to enter into a violent frenzy after having killed a living creature with its deadly gaze. HABITAT & SOCIETY Driven by their insatiable urge to bring misery and death to the living, most bodaks are solitary creatures. For the most part, they wander the planes, stumbling through portals and occasionally succumbing to the wills of powerful fiends and evildoers. When brought to the Material Plane as individuals, they wander the world on their own, seeking out population centers in which to bring the destruction they desire. If applicable, a freshly created bodak typically attempts to bring its gaze to bear upon the person or people responsible for the transformation—the wizard who cast it into the Abyss, the party members who accompanied it on the doomed planar adventure, the demonic cultist who offered it up to another bodak as sacrifice, and so on. When given the opportunity, many bodaks return to the places that once brought them comfort and joy in their mortal lives, following their fragmented memories to destroy their loved ones and acquaintances with their deadly gazes. Astute investigators can sometimes deduce the former identity of a bodak based on the trail of dead and missing persons, especially if the bodak is the spawn of an attack rather than the result of unholy visions. Yet ultimately, a bodak wanders with little control over where it ends up, and those who succumb far from home rarely make it back, simply taking what victims they can find. If a bodak is created on Golarion, it is condemned to conduct its shambling hunts eternally until it is brought low by adventurers or becomes caught outside during the day and withers away to dust in the sunlight. Its time is spent meandering the nighttime countryside in search of sentient, living creatures to torment, and hiding in secluded dens, abandoned buildings, or caves during the day. Although rather dim-witted, bodaks possess both a low cunning and animalistic instincts that let them know when daylight approaches or living creatures are nearby. A bodak is savvy enough to know when it is outnumbered or facing more powerful foes, at which point it switches from direct assault to silent stalking, waiting for the right moment to attack individuals away from the protection of the group. Some have been known to wield weapons, but most prefer to rely solely on their gaze, as merely killing a creature is nothing compared to sharing its horrible gift. Bodak In the Abyss, bodaks sometimes unite in small gangs, roaming the chaotic terrain in an often-fruitless search for living creatures. Considering the scarcity of mortal beings in the Abyss, most bodaks make do with recently arrived souls. Other demons sometimes round up bodaks, individually or in small bands, for use as mindless shock troops—though demons and other outsiders cannot be transformed into new bodaks, many of these can still be killed by the creatures’ attacks. Bodaks are smart enough to follow basic orders, which they do to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, if these thrall bodaks ever encounter living humanoids while undertaking a mission, they almost always become distracted, hunting down and killing any mortals that they find. Bodak-wrangling demons generally expect this sort of behavior, and rarely give the creatures orders that require much in the way of finesse. Bodaks that enter into these sorts of relationships do not seem to know or care they are being used, and take to their given role with great gusto, gazing upon or tearing apart anything that gets in their way. CAMPAIGN ROLE Bodaks are the physical manifestation of a metaphysical event— what happens when a mortal being is exposed to pure supernatural horror. In this way, bodaks are a great way to introduce themes of innocence lost or illustrate for players the price of unbridled curiosity into the dark arts. Bodaks are perfect wandering monsters for adventures that take place on the Outer Planes (especially the evil ones), as well as creatures that evoke both pity and horror—particularly if the bodak used to be a friendly NPC. Bodaks work well as bogeymen, waiting patiently in the shadows until they find lone victims to ambush and transform into others of their kind. If a bodak fails to kill a victim with its gaze, it may still tear him apart with its claws, leaving behind bloody gobbets and few clues as to the true nature of the killer. Adventurers who make it to the Abyss itself may find themselves hunted by bodaks almost immediately, drawn by the presence of living creatures in their infernal realm. As relatively slow monsters, bodaks are better ambush predators than outright combatants, as most PCs who survive the initial meeting can quickly distance themselves and run for safety. This shortcoming can be mitigated by having the PCs encounter the bodaks in confined areas, or can be played up for greater effect, with the PCs fleeing but knowing that the bodak is still behind them, following slowly, tirelessly, and utterly without mercy. TREASURE Fueled only by the urge to destroy the living, bodaks rarely hoard treasure or coins on purpose. Those rare individuals that remain in one place, however, may acquire a small stash of incidental treasure from their victims. Perhaps harkening back to hazy memories of their living life, these bodaks tend to collect clothes and other personal items worn by the living, while ignoring coins, gems, scrolls, and other “impersonal” items. Some bodaks even arrange these items inside their lairs to simulate a living person, using pants, shirts, and boots to create a sort of scarecrow humanoid. Given the rage that bubbles inside them, however, these effigies commonly become the target of the bodak’s wrath, with the creature tearing them up and scattering them in anger, only to reassemble them again later. While such spoils are not treasure per se, bodaks have also been known to pluck the eyes out of victims they kill but do not transform with their deadly gaze attack. Bodaks that stick to a general location adorn their lairs with these “prizes,” dangling them from trees or neatly lining them up on cave shelves, but otherwise shun collecting valuable items. Bodaks that roam the Abyss never seek out or collect treasure of any kind—victims are too far and few between to hoard prizes, and the scant few mortals found roaming the plane are killed and transformed without thought to the gear they carry. VARIANTS Most bodaks begin as normal humanoids that fall prey to another bodak’s gaze or a scene of mind-bending, incomprehensible planar evil, yet on extremely rare occasions, other creatures may fall prey to these effects as well. The unique natures of these transformations create bodaks with some unusual twists to their forms and abilities. Even among ordinary humans, a few manage to retain enough shreds of their former lives to retain some Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Revisited of their class levels and abilities—ironically making them even more dangerous to their former allies. Larger Bodaks: A giant that falls prey to a bodak’s deadly gaze retains its larger size, as well as its natural armor bonus if that bonus is larger than the bodak’s normal natural armor bonus. To generate statistics for a giant bodak, adjust its statistics as necessary for its larger size and advance its undead racial Hit Dice to match the total number of humanoid racial Hit Dice the giant possessed while it lived. If the giant had 10 or fewer racial Hit Dice, then no change to the standard bodak (apart from size) is necessary. The bodak’s CR should be adjusted upward to account for its greater size and HD—as a general rule, every 2 HD added should increase the bodak’s CR by +1. Smaller Bodaks: Small humanoids that become bodaks have all the appropriate bonuses and penalties for dropping from Medium to Small size (–4 Str, +2 Dex, +1 size bonus on attack rolls and to AC, reduced natural attack damage, etc.). A Small bodak’s CR does not change—it remains a CR 8 monster. Multiple Heads: A bodak created from a creature with multiple heads, such as an ettin, becomes deadlier because it has more eyes with which to project its horrific stare. The save DC against a multi-headed bodak’s death gaze increases by +2. BODAKS oN GOLARION Bodaks are extremely rare on Golarion, because of the bizarre factors that must be present in their spontaneous creation somewhere on a distant plane. When they do make an appearance on the Material Plane, however, they can appear almost anywhere, stumbling through planar portals or summoned by evil diabolists, necromancers, and tyrants in search of the perfect weapon to use against their enemies. Most of those who seek the services of a bodak prefer to summon it or find and cage it rather than attempting to make a new one, as the conditions involved are highly dangerous, and even those capable of casting the proper spells can only do so on evil-aligned planes. Needless to say, both methods are deadly to all but the most committed and skilled, yet only obtaining the first bodak is difficult. After that, it’s simply a matter of providing the captured bodak with living humanoids to transform, turning one bodak into an undead army. Thanks to its Abyssal taint, the Worldwound hosts the largest population of bodaks in the Inner Sea region. Moreover, the Abyssal nature of the land itself makes it one of the few places—perhaps the only place—on Golarion where bodaks can form spontaneously in the same way they do on the Abyss, as the result of witnessing horrible extraplanar evil and depredations beyond mortal ken. While more likely to roam free than their Abyssal kin, these bodaks are also sometimes rounded up by demons and driven toward the front lines of the battle against the Mendevian crusaders, where their death gazes are terribly effective. Most crusaders who’ve faced down a bodak find it even more terrifying than confronting a demon, as being torn apart by the latter is relatively merciful compared to an eternity of insanity and murder. The undead kingdom of Geb sometimes plays host to bodaks, which may run wild through the land or be retained by liches, vampires, and other powerful undead creatures. “Servant” bodaks are used as shock troops and bodyguards for the elite members of Gebbite society, though their utility is often less important to their masters than the status having such a powerful minion brings. As actual retainers, bodaks are relatively frustrating to deal with, even for the undead rulers of the nation, as the bodaks’ tendency to turn important humanoid guests into bodaks with a simple glance is both inconvenient and difficult to prevent. As creatures robbed of their sanity and animated by the evil of the planes, bodaks are looked down on by other, more “traditional” undead, who see them as pathetic brutes, closer to fiends than proper examples of undeath. Sitting alongside Geb, the Mana Wastes and, to a lesser extent, Nex boast their own populations of bodaks—a holdover from the many wars and battles in their age- old conflict. Most originate in the Mana Wastes, with the occasional individual wandering into Nex’s inhabited territories. Fortunately, centuries of practice allow the soldiers and wizards of Nex to keep these incursions to a minimum, although sometimes with heavy casualties. The diabolists favored by the aristocracy of Cheliax require large numbers of unwitting victims to perform their rites. While most of their dungeons and torture rooms are mundane, filled with wretched prisoners who bear witness to unspeakable things on a nearly daily basis, some of these spellcasters prefer to take victims to Hell itself, making their offerings to the plane in person. Few of these victims (and not all of the diabolists) survive these offerings, but a tiny fraction end up exposed to greater horrors than initially expected, with either the master or prisoner undergoing the transformation into a bodak. Diabolists powerful and lucky enough to avoid being slain by the creatures they helped create find them extremely useful as weapons of terror, keeping them locked away until their services are necessary. The strange religions found in the Mwangi Expanse sometimes demand sacrifices and dark rituals. Explorers and adventurers unlucky enough to be caught by these more sinister tribes, particularly the zealots of Angazhan living in the ape city of Usaro, are sometimes transformed by bizarre and terrifying demonic rites. These bodaks roam the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse, terrorizing the inhabitants and sometimes transforming entire villages into their own kind. Bodak Sample Bodak This hairless creature wears tatters of armor over an emaciated frame. Trails of smoke seep from its cavernous eye sockets.

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Description

Male bodak antipaladin 8 (Pathfinder Bestiary 2 48, Advanced Player’s Guide 118)

Source: Undead Revisited, p. 10