Full Description
Not all zombies are the standard shufflers and shamblers, some are a bit more...freakish. Mwahahaha
1. Manus Necrotis
Best characterized by Thing from The Addams Family, the Manus Necrotis is a severed hand that retains enough necromantic essense to remain mobile. These zombie hands are largely an annoyance to most folk, lacking teeth or or claws and most tend to enter advanced decomposition after three to five weeks. Some Mani retain their original arm as far up as the shoulder socket, these tend to be slower, but having greater mass tend to last a bit longer in terms of necrogen loss, but are also seen as snacks by other undead.
2. Death Siren
Few would use the word sexy to describe a zombie, but to an extent the Death Siren is just that. Her clothes are frayed and torn, but her figure is filled out and hard to ignore. As a greater zombie, the Death Siren has regained some vestiges of her mortal demeanor even as her more delicate features slough off. The Death Siren preys on those who are too drunk or indifferent to notice her graveyard stink.
3. The Regurgitator
a bloated and rank zombie, the regurgitator has no arms, having already eaten them. It is a large and aggressive zombie that's primary mode of attack is to produce a thick and viscous spray of necrotic acid. This acid is not very strong, but it carries a melange of toxins, parasites, and poisons. Victims thusly sprayed are usually weakened and blinded so that the Regurgitator can subdue them and eat their corpse. If driven deep enough into hunger the Regurgitator will turn on it's more fleshy zombie compatriots.
4. The Relentless Crawler
Somewhere along the road, this zombie was broken in half and from the ribcage down is naught but congealed viscera and scraps of flesh. While not fast, these zombies are incredibly tenacious and tend to bite through ankle tendons and attack without warning or notice. Once noticed, they are slow enough to avoid and easy to flank and destroy.
5. The Spider Zombie
This greater zombie started as a relentless crawler, but through hunting it's own kind and feasting on the living, the spider zombie was able to increase it's strength and potence. As it grew stronger, this crawler started attaching severed limbs to it's body until it was little more than a head and torso in the middle of far too many arms. Unlike the slow crawlers, the spider zombie is fast and nimble for a zombie, plus it is an excellent climber. It prefers to lurk quietly in high places and to drop down unannounced on unsuspecting prey. Spider Zombies are very good at grappling and subdual attacks.
6. Rib-Maw Zombie
Necrophagic consumption is not a matter of chewing, digestion and absorption, but a brutal and violent puncturing and draining. The Rib-Maw zombie is not a naturally occuring undead, but one tailor made to hunt and destroy other undead, as in feuds and wars between necromancers. The core aspect of the Rib-Maw is the conversion of the rib-cage into a hinged jaw like structure that is able to quickly rip into a soft and half rotten zombie to draw out it's necrogenic material in the fasted and most efficient manner possible. Rib-Maw zombies look like normal shambling type zombies until they open their chests to reveal sharpened ribs and a gullet slick with blood. They have no aversion to using their rib-bite on living victims.
7. Blood Incubators
Some of the most human looking of the zombie freaks, Blood Incubators are very sanguine and tend to not show much in the way of rot or decay. These undead exist for the sole purpose of creating more zombies. When a blood incubator encounters groups of the living, it will approach and when it is close enough, usually a few feet at best it will vomit forth a gout of blood. While not as debilitating as necrotic acid, this blood is seething with zombie tainted necrogen. Those who have open wounds, or get this infected blood in their mouth, eyes, or any other mucus membrane is as infected as a zombie bite victim and have 1D6 hours before they die and become a zombie themselves.
8. The Chain-Zombie
This zombie was stitched together from many corpses, each ut off at the waist and disemboweled. The torsos were attached to create a macabre centipede like zombie that move halfway between crawling and half slithering like a giant snake. This huge undead, often consisting of a dozen or more corpses, is a living siege ram that can batter down walls, break apart infantry formations and the like.
9. Wolf-Bite Zombie
This zombie has had it's human teeth removed before it was reanimated. In their place, animal teeth most often wolf and boar teeth have been stitched into place with metal wire. Wolf-Bite zombies have a greatly enhanced bite attack and like said wild animals have a more animalistic aspect to their demeanor.
10. The Leech
Opposite the Wolf-Bite, the Leech zombie has significant bone loss and bone damage. While unable to bite, the Leech will attack it's prey and use it's tongue like a drill and then suck out the victim's blood, brains, or whatever it desires. This opportunistic zombie seldom goes for ankles or necks, but instead perfers the mouth, eye socket, or other reachable orifice.
11. The Infernal
Something other than necrogen animates this zombie, it's eyes glow red and it moves with speed and intent. Thankfully, Infernal Zombies are short lived as their high level of activity and inability to consume necrogen limits how long their corpse holds together. Most Infernal break down after two to three weeks of activity.
12. The Rotting Tank
The Tank was a man of action before his death and he died with his boots on and still wrapped in his plate mail. As a zombie he retains his plate mail and it now as much holds it together as protects it from foes. At first a tank might not seem a zombie, but once the smell is noticed, it should not take long for the truth to become apparent. Once the tank slays a foe, it's weapon held in place by a locking gauntlet the tank lifts it's visor revealing a rotten melon of a face hungry for flesh
13. The Swollen Zombie
With ruddy flesh that is shiny and painfully distended, the swollen zombie shuffles near the front of the pack. it's eyes bulge a stream of bloody spittle runs from it's lips. The zombie is quite normal until it is hit with a piercing weapon. This zombie is full of both decomposition gases as well as a soup of infected blood, necrotic acids, and just freaking nasty puss. The struck section pops in a shower of fluid and escaping gas.
14. The Monsterous Zombie
This massive zombie was once an ogre, but now, with a collection of stitches holding it together it is a war machine. While slower than most zombies, the Monsterous Zombie is incredibly strong, able to break doors and shields with it's heavy punches. It's bite is also large, capable of removing a head or a limb up to the elbow.
15. Rot-Wing Zombie
A macabe collection of membrane and brutally lightened corpse, the rot-Wing zombie can fly in a clumsy and gliding fashion. These zombies usually last for a few hours of use before their wing membranes tear, dropping them to earth as small and pathetically weak zombies.
16. The Knight Entropic
A specially constructed zombie, the Knight Entropic has been grafted to the corpse of his horse so that the two cannot be parted. As a greater undead zombie, the Knight unstands the use of basic weapons and some grasp of tactics. The amalgam creature actually can feed from either the human and horse mouths.
17. The Shell-Zombie
This zombie collects things, most notable being body parts taken from other zombies. After a while, the original zombie is hidden under a coat of torn flesh and dangling limbs. This provides a good deal of armor, but makes shell zombies slow. Most shell-zombies are ambush hunters, lurking in one place until sometihng suitable comes by to investigate the heap of rotting meat.
18. The Half-Zombie
Recently infected, this mortal is in the last few minutes of their life, with the infection almost complete. The zombie urges, the hunger for human flesh, are becoming manifest at the same time their bodies are dying, with the mind remaining largely intact. The victims often weep, beg, or rant in anger as they wrangle with bouts of vomiting, explosive emptying of the bowels and hemorraging from their point of infection.
19. The Melted Zombie
This zombie has spent a good deal of time inactive and unmoving. As such, decomposition has done a number on it's corpse. Much of the body fat and non-muscle flesh has entered a semi-fluid state leaving the creature a shuffling weeping horror of puss and necrotic slime. Most melted zombies are getting close to the end of their operation existance.
20. The Lurker
The Lurker Zombie is recently turned, with the last vestiges of the mind fading as undeath takes final hold of the corpse. The lurker appears human save for the vitrification of the eyes, which usually turn a milky white. The sorrow of the lurker is that the almost human zombie returns to familiar places, often encountering family and friends, only to turn on them in a heartbeat, tearing out their throats to feast of their blood and living essence.
21. Large-Mouth Zombie
With their cheeks ripped open and faces covered in blood, large-mouth zombies often resemble clown-zombies. These zombies are gluttonous feeders, tearing off chunks of flesh too large for their mouths, in the process ripping their own flesh to make room for the hunks of meat.
22. Creepy Little Dead Girl
A staple of every zombie movie, the CLDG appears to be a normal girl around the age of 6 years. This zombie rocks quietly nibbling on a piece of human flesh until someone comes close enough that it can attack. Like a land mine, the CLDG can infect one opponent before fleeing or being destroyed.
23. The Elder Zombie
After years of survival, the elder zombie has gained a level of sentience that is frightening. While the original person is long sense dead, the zombie has regained access to the better part of their memories and has staved off it's own decay and is on the cusp of advancing to the next level of undead evolution, becoming a ghoul. The Elder Zombie is driven by a maniacal hunger for more necrogen, and for the flesh of the living.
24. The Bloody Bone
This zombie is not much more than a bloody spinal column with a skull and thin bony arms. Like a Relentless Crawler, the Bloody bone drags viscera behind it, but unlike that slow undead the bloody bone is a quick and agile scuttler. The end of the spinal column is sharp and the bloody bone feeds primarily by jabbing it through the heart of a victim, living or dead.
25. The Hollow-Dead
This zombie has been flayed of it's skin, and cleaned like a hunted animal. It is tormented by the hollowness of it's body as well as its continued existance. Hollow-dead make for superb trackers and hunters as their burning need to feel full draws them relentlessly towards their next victim.
26. The Heckler
This odd creation is proof that somewhere there is a necromancer with a sense of humor. The Heckler is a human skull perched on top of ten spidery fingers. The skull brays and laughs loudly and it scuttles around, all the while rolling it's rotten eyes and making rude noises. Hecklers can bite for minimal damage but their real value is as early warning systems and spies.
27. Pretty Dead Girl
Ala Norbert the Creepy, the Pretty Dead Girl is a specially preserved corpse of an attractive young woman. This zombie often has her mouth locked shut just so she doesnt get any funny ideas.
28. The Soldier
This zombie was a good and valiant man who perished in a bitter and pointless war, his name and face forgotten. As a quiet zombie, the soldier wanders the battlefield, wrapped in the tangling wire that took his life. Now he shares his wire and pain and loss with anyone foolish enough to get too close. This zombie is unique in that it can feed through it's gore dripping wires.
29. The Slug
The Slug was a morbidly obese person on like and is now a grossly fat zombie, driven to ever increase it's own mass. As it fed voraciously the Slug rose in power until it became a greater undead zombie, and uses it's influence to control other lesser zombies to bring it more food to eat, be it living, infected, or other weaker zombies. The Slug is borderline immobile but it terribly strong and it's hide is very resilient.
30. Two-Scoops
This zombie was formerly in a laboratory for necromantic examination, where it was restrained while it's skull was opened and the brain was removed. The zombie now shuffles about aimlessly and blind. when it does find a victim, it will respond with shocking brutality and will rip open a victims skull and with two scoops of it's rotting hands pull out their still warm brain to dump in it's empty cranium.
Necrogen
The animating essence of necromancy is commonly known as necrogen, a shortening of Necrogenesis Essence. This material is present in small amounts in all animated undead, and the greater the concentration of the substance, the more potent the undead in question becomes. Skeletons and zombies tend to have very small amounts of necrogen, while liches contain the highest concentrations.
Necrogen in it's free state is a green vapor that is slightly denser than air, is noxious to breath but not in itself lethal. Prolonged exposure to necrogen stregthens undead who 'respirate' the substance, and causes a gradual weakening of the living including chronic illness, coughing up small amounts of blood, tooth decay and increasing lividity of the skin.
Greater Zombies
Zombies can be broken into two general categories, the common shuffling or shambling zombie, and the greater zombie. While a great zombie will retain roughly the same appearance as a common zombie, the greater zombie has as benefit of more concentrated necrogen, has regained a semblance of it's intelligence. This does not, however, restore any sense of ethics, morality, or the like. Greater Zombies tend to organize and lead packs of common zombies and demonstrate tool using abilities and problem solving skills.
Some greater zombies are able to demonstrate some restored memories, such as occupational skills and rudimentary communication. This is deceptive as said zombie might remember it's mortal life and even some people from that life. This comes with a sense of detachment as a greater zombie with memories is still a zombie and will remorselessly hunt down and kill their friends and family.
Necrophagic Consumption
most of the time, zombies have little interest in each other, but this is because most zombies encountered as created at the hands of mortal, or immortal sorcery and are artificial undead. Naturally occuring undead and feral undead, that is zombies and such that survive the death of their master, must gain necrogenic sustainence where they can. This mode of feeding is only done by zombies and other undead that are considered to be the lesser forms of undead. Greater forms of undead such as vampires and liches either have refined modes of feeding or have sufficiently concentrated their essence to no longer require it.
Zombies will turn on each other to consume the necrogen of their peers to sustain their undeath. While this usually appears as the meaty ripping and eating of other zombies, there is nothing biological about the act. As the zombie consumes it's peer, it is absorbing their necrogen. While one type of zombie might devour a corpse whole, it is no different than another zombie that rips out another zombie heart and eats just that part. Most of the act is symbolic of the energy transferal occuring between two undead.
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? Responses (11)
Haha...awesome, well written and with a nasty touch of humor...me like! `Tis a perfect day for zombies, huh? Reckon I´ll put on "Evil dead" before this night´s through...
/David
Army of Darkness after that? High Five!
Well, timing, subject matter and quality all align to make this an awesome sub!
Love it! Lots of classics, and few new ones. A necessary 30 for any horror genre.
Horribly good. How clever can a zombie get?
I have little else to say except to add to the chorus of approval. Great Halloween sub!
I am impressed. So many great visuals for a GM to contemplate!
particularly juicy are: The Slug, Two-Scoops, Blood Incubators, Large-Mouth and Half-Zombie.
Awesome Scras! Fiver.
ZOMBIES!!!
I am getting Resident Evil vibes from this for some reason... anyway, if someone needs 'em, they are right here to employ.
Echo likes the Heckler a lot :)
I absolutely love it!