The "Mellified Men" - an OSR Monster!

 So, a little last minute, but here's my entry for The Grand Original Map Contest!

These guys will be statted out for OSRIC/Generic OSR D&D.

Centuries ago, there was a race of men, their name lost to the ravages of time, who worshipped nature in all its myriad forms. However, every so often a cult would arise to venerate one particular aspect of nature above all others - the deeps of the sea, fire, or in one case, the humble bee.

Well, the not so humble bee - this particular cult had found a species of bee whose honey held strange properties. It seemed to both radiate and absorb magic, and could "store" spells cast into it. Whether this was a natural mutation, the design of some curious wizard or divine intervention, the cult latched onto this new-found source of power, and began breeding and keeping the bees, collecting their honey, and worshipping them as divine agents.

As their belief swelled, and their breeding became more complex and refined, they finally birthed a Queen of such great size that, even as a larva, it dwarfed all but the biggest men. This Queen was seen as an Aspect of The Great Queen - the Mother-God of all bees, if you will. Around her, men and bees constructed a great hive, a labyrinth of honeycomb that stretched for miles underground.

As part of their strange rituals, this cult would add their lesser dead (slaves, drudge workers) to the Great Hive, allowing them to nourish their charges even after they had passed on.

Their more respected members were submerged in the honey vats after death - the honey acting as a preservative, mummifying the corpse with little other work needed.

Their greatest members, their Mages and Priests, were allowed to choose the date of their death. When this date had passed, they began eating nothing but honey - slowly, they would waste away, but their bodies would radiate strongly with magic, as it suffused every fibre of their being. When the finally passed, they were sealed into their own honey-filled casket, and the surviving members of the clergy would perform arcane rites and blasphemous rituals on them to ensure that they would be spared the worst of the ravages of death, to join the Great Queen and become one with the Hive.

However, for some reason (recent surges of magic, disturbance of their resting place, specific alignment of the stars), a few of these Bee-Priests have risen, and have began production once again - and they'll do anything to keep their practices secret.

In terms of appearance, these "Mellified Men" resemble other preserved corpses - their skin is leathery, with a yellow-brown colouring, and surprisingly little obvious decomposition (barring the wasting of muscles, and some of the thinner sections of skin having bones showing through). Some wear jewellery and ornamentation, clearly as part of their burial attire.

The Hive

Even the walls of this place are laced with the corpses of the cultists. Some sections have retained an odd semblance of life, powered and maintained by the power of the honey even after centuries. 
Sticky, brittle bones reach out at you as you pass, hoping to serve their Queen from beyond the grave.

No. Encountered: 2d8 metres
Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 10HP/5ft
Attacks: Special
Damage: 1d6
Special attacks: See above
Special Defences: Spell immunities
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Non-

The Hive Wall does not act as a creature as such, more like a trap - anyone passing within 5 feet must make a Saving Throw vs Breath Weapon or be grappled, and take 1d6 damage per round they are grappled. Once grappled, the character may make a Strength check/Bend Bars roll once per round to escape The Wall's foul clutches, and may take no other action until free. 

Drone Zombies

These shambling creatures, taught skin a yellowish-brown hue, seem to be the workers and grunts of the operation. They don't seem too bright.

Use the standard OSRIC Zombie stats, with the following changes:

Special Abilities: Hivemind
Int: Non - Special
Hivemind: In groups of at least 20 other Drone Zombies, each Drone Zombie's Intelligence rises to Low, making them capable of using weapons (change damage as appropriate) and basic ambush tactics. They will still fight to the death.

Hive Guardians

These creatures seem to be infused with a strange intelligence and vitality - they seem less decomposed than their fellows, and are capable of some very complex strategies. These zombies can be seen taking charge of Drone Zombies in non-controlled situations, and when controlled may act as "generals".

Use the standard OSRIC JuJu Zombie stats, with the following changes:

Special Abilities: Hivemind Synapse
Hivemind Synapse: Hive Guardians may grant the effects of Hivemind to groups of Drone zombies numbering less than 20,  so long as they remain within 50 feet of the Hive Guardian (line of sight does not affect this ability).

Bee-Priests

These Undead wear fine robes spun from silk, decorated with complex geometric patterns (mostly hexagons), and are decked out in fine jewels. These spellcasting Undead are frequently found leading large groups of other Mellified Zombies from the back, providing support and heavy firepower.

(Turned as type 10)
No. Encountered: 1d4
Size: Man-sized
Move: 120 ft
AC: 1
Hit Dice: 8+3
Attacks: 2
Damage: by weapon or spell
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defences: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Lair Probability: 25%
Intelligence: Exceptional
Chaotic evil
Level/xp: 8/3,810 + 12/hp

These creatures share other undead’s immunity to charm, hold, and sleep spells. Electricity and cold
does only half damage, and they are unaffected by normal weapons. They also the ability to cast spells either as a Cleric or Wizard of 10th-level. Most will use the Inflict Wounds spells to heal their troops, along with classic offensive spells.

Similar to the Hive Guardians, these creatures possess the Hivemind Synapse ability, except they can maintain it out to 200 feet.

Most of these creatures will travel with a guard of 8d10 Drone Zombies, and 1d10 Hive Guardians.

MiniSix 40k Bestiary: Humanity

The Koronus Expanse is packed full of the sorts of right nasty fuckers you'd do better to avoid than fight. That being said, it's not always that possible. Although, sometimes the allure of more Thrones than they can shake a stick at might bring them over to your side - always try diplomacy first, failing that CASH MONEY, and failing both of those, the biggest gun you can find.

These guys are all modified from pre-existing sample characters in the MiniSix book, bar the Astartes.

Average Human * 

The common or garden Imperial subject.

Strength: 2D Intelligence: 2D

Agility: 2D Fellowship: 2D

Skills: Any three at +1D each

Gear: As needed by profession.
Static: Dodge 6, Soak 6

Adept - Int 2D+2, Common Lore 1D, Trade (Pick one) 1D, one other Skill (by Home World)
Entertainer - Fel 2D+2, Perform 1D, Charm 1D, one other Skill
Hired Gun - Agl 2D+2, Pistols 1D, Dodge 1D, Intimidate 1D, Laspistol or Hand Cannon, ballistic armour (+3)
Native Guide - Str 2D+1, Fellowship 2D+1, Tracking 1D, Navigation 1D, Blades 1D, Knife (+1D), Crossbow (3D), leather armour (+1)
Scum - Fel 2D+2, Charm 1D, Deceive 1D, Knives 1D (for a Cultist, add Forbidden Lore (pick one))
Voidfarer - Int 2D+1, Fel 1D+2, Navigation 1D, Ship Lore 1D, one other skill


Imperial Guardsman ***
The footsoldiers of the Imperium's war machine.
Strength: 3D+1 Intelligence: 2D
Agility: 2D+1 Fellowship: 2D
Skills: Dodge 3D+1, Rifles 4D+1
Gear: Flak Armour (+4), Lasgun, copy of The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer.Static: Dodge 10, Block 10, Soak 10(14)

Traitor Guard - Fel 1D, Forbidden Lore 2D

Adeptus Arbites ***

They ARE the law.

Strength: 4D Intelligence: 2D+1

Agility: 3D+1 Fellowship: 2D+1

Skills: Brawling 5D, Dodge 4D+1, Pistol 5D+1, Melee 4D+1

Gear: Carapace Armour (+6), Hand Cannon (4D) or Bolt Pistol (5D) or Combat Shotgun (4D+2), shock maul (+3D, stuns for 1d3 rounds)

Static: Dodge 13, Block 15, Parry 12, Soak 12(18) 

Adeptus Astartes ***** Scale: +2D/+6
The Emperor's Angels, His Will Incarnate
Strength: 6D Intelligence: 3D+2
Agility: 4D Fellowship: 3D
Skills: Melee 6D+1, Rifles 6D+1, Pistols 6D+1, Dodge 4D, Intimidate 3D
Perks: Space Marine, Black Carapace (removes Scale penalties, keeps bonuses)
Gear: Astartes Power Armour (+10, +1D Might), Chainsword (+6D) and Bolt Pistol (5D) or Boltgun (6D)
Static: Dodge 12, Block 19, Soak 18 (28)

The Creeping Death: Blackened Ooze

The shambling thing before you resembles a moving pit of tar. As it roils and churns, pulling its indeterminate bulk towards you on foul pseudopods, sharpened points of bone and debris emerge, only to be sucked back into its horrid mass the next second.

You hope the noise it made was just the wind howling through its oddly brittle, porous frame - otherwise, it was a howl of anguish and hatred.

Oozes are a common enough feature of many dungeons. Some live in commensal relationships with other creatures (like humanoids feeding them scraps in exchange for their protection). Some, however, form far more sinister relationships - like the Blackened Ooze.

When an ooze devours Undead, most are simply digested and excreted as with most meals. But, when an ooze eats many such creatures, and lives in an area that is cursed to produce Undead (whether by Divine edict, or perhaps a natural conduit to the Plane of Negative Energy), these horrific creatures can be formed.

Hulking, oily-black beasts, the are tainted with the energies animating the Undead, and end up stuck in some bitter mockery of life - a half-dead state. Their digestive processes begin to shut down, leaving them only just capable of digesting flesh and other organic matter, but little else. The bones and weapons of their kills may break, leaving the surface and innards of the creature filled with razor-sharp spikes and slivers of bone.

Some Necromancers claim knowledge of how to create these foul beasts, and will use them to devastating effect in contained areas.

Blackened Ooze

No. Appearing: 1d2
Size: ~9ft Diameter (Large)
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 6
Movement: 70’
Attacks: 2 (Slam 2d6, Bashing and Piercing Damage)
Morale: -
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Neutral

Blackened Oozes have an immunity to paralysis, charm and sleep effects. Healing Spells and effects (such as Cure Light Wounds, or a Paladin's Lay on Hands) act as their reversed equivalent (so, Inflict Light Wounds, or Harm for Heal), causing damage instead of healing. Those reversed spells (Harm and Inflict X Wounds) may act as Healing Spells, at the DM's discretion. They can also grapple and overwhelm opponents, who take 1d8 damage per round they are grappled.

One particular Necromancer (whose name has been lost to time) was interested in using these beasts as guardians for her lair, and began to create a large number of them. She also experimented with way to increase their intelligence, to better understand her commands and make for a more effective "watchdog" system. After many years of "breeding" these twisted mockeries of nature, she finally produced a single specimen capable of independent reasoning.

She noticed something strange - unlike other oozes, which split and create a "new" organism, this ooze maintained control over its separated pieces. A quick thought led her to implant a section into a test subject, and lo and behold - the ooze could control the victim, after a fashion. They began to exhibit great sickness, then "died" - only to be raised as a peculiar ooze-filled Undead, totally in thrall to the original. These "Blackened" would form the core of her Undead army, and she terrorised the local populace for many years.

As she researched ways to extend her life, she came to a compromise - she would mentally dominate the ooze, allow it to enter her body, and use magic to stave off it effects - hopefully allowing the symbiont to enhance her body, and extend her lifespan until she could achieve true immortality through Lichdom, or some other Necromantic process.

Sadly (for her), the plan was not to be. She did not realise quite how strong-willed the ooze had become, and instead of infecting her, it simply absorbed her, both bodily and spiritually, into itself - becoming more intelligent, and also quite mad. It had become so accustomed to the Negative Energy that once fed it, it was unable to leave its lair without causing itself great damage, starving itself f those foul energies - but it's working on it. And it may still send its "servants", Undead imbued with its horrid essence, out into the world to do its bidding, and collect the ritual components it thinks it might need to allow it to leave the cold embrace of its home.

Now, this foul creature lurks in the depths of her old lair, under a local dungeon, biding its time until it decides to leave its lair and cause havoc across the land. Locals who have somehow survived encounters with it refer to the creature as "The Creeping Death", a name whispered in the darkest of legends.

The Creeping Death
No. Appearing: 1
Size: ~25ft Diameter (Colossal)
Armor Class: -4
Hit Dice: 12
Movement: 120’
Attacks: 4 (Slam 2d10, Bashing and Piercing Damage)
Morale: 15
Intelligence: High (15)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

The Creeping Death is a Spellcaster, and may use any Necromancy spells you think it should have. It also shares all immunities with both Undead and Oozes.

When a character is implanted with a lump of the Creeping Death, they must make a Save against Death Magic every hour, or lose one point of Constitution. Once this drops below a quarter of its original score (rounded up), the character begins to show signs of the possession - coughing up black, tarry blood, an unstoppable rage, an inability to feel pain, and a much-toughened physique. Once the character is reduced to 0 Con (or killed normally), they will reanimate within (original Constitution score) minutes, as one of the Blackened. These creatures are totally in thrall to the Creeping Death, and follow its commands without hesitation or error.

Blackened

No. Appearing: 2d4
Size: Medium (as base creature)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 2 +5
Movement: 40’
Attacks: 1 (Slam 1d6) or by weapon
Morale: -
Intelligence: Mindless
Alignment: Neutral


Blackened share all immunities with other Undead creatures (and are, to all intents and purposes, zombies).

Z is for Zombies

One of my favourite bits of zombie makeup!

A staple of genre fiction. Whether they're shambling corpses, re-animated villains, or virally-infected berserkers, this particular form of Undead has been garnering quite a lot of media attention over the past few decades.

In fantasy, zombies are the mindless servants of Necromancers and Bad People. Mostly resurrected through manipulation of some dubious force (Dark/Black/Blood/Death/Plague Magic, Negative Energy, Curses and Hexes, whatever), they make good minions - they are too mindless for anything else. Your typical Fantasy zombie is slow, already rotting, and capable of only following the orders and will of their Master. No weapons for them - they'll claw and bite and scratch, like animals.
Occasionally, you get something closer to a flawed resurrection - Necromancers might raise loyal servants from beyond the grave, granting them some measure of their previous abilities. Unlike most zombies, these guys are sentient (though bound to their master's will), and might even be capable of full battle or spellcasting. They're sort of like a poor man's Lich, cheating death and becoming somewhat more powerful for it. Mostly kept to one or two per villain - an army of these wouldn't provide the proper sense of having "mooks" and "elites".

With someone in charge of their actions, these kinds of zombies can be a fair threat - they can be buried, and called out when they need to be used, or even used to make a bottleneck or a walking wall to cover other troops from attack. It's all up to how tactically-minded the one in charge is (and, if he's a proper tactician, a horde of Undead servants can easily turn the tide of any battle).

Modern Zombies are a different kettle of fish. Well, two distinct kettles of fish.

Firstly, the fantasy-like "slow zombies". Think Romero, Fulchi, the classics. Normally, they're created by a virus that reanimates the dead, or some other pseudo-scientific explanation - few seem to use the classic "Voodoo Zombie" archetype any more. The main problem with these is the fact that they operate without any other thought than hunger - and as they move slowly, you can avoid them pretty well. Note how there's rarely a single zombie? You can kill one pretty easy. A city of them, well, one of them's bound to get a lucky bite in somewhere. They need to be used as a horde to have much of an effect - and in some games, running such a thing can be troublesome (D&D has always had a little issue with mass combat). Operating something like 4e's Minions could help in such a situation, but most games might have issues balancing such a large group of enemies. Without numbers on their side, they're just too stupid to provide any real threat, and with numbers, they can very easily overwhelm even the best-prepared group.

Second, you have the Fast Zombies - almost always scientific, and most often not actually dead (yet). Mutated strains of rabies are a perennial favourite explanation (because rabies is fucking horrifying). 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead are the main codifiers of these bad boys. While still somewhat stupid, they make a far more pressing physical threat - they're faster and stronger (due to being uncaring as to how much damage they do to themselves), incapable of feeling pain or fear, and are purely designed as vectors for their chosen Zombie Virus. Some might even be able to use simple weapons, like clubs and cudgels (which can add a little extra "oomph" to their attacks). In hordes, they become practically unstoppable.

"I took Cleave and Greater Cleave. I'll be fine."

But the one defining trait that both the modern types have? You have to destroy the brain. Headshots, blunt force trauma, fire, electrocution, doesn't matter how - you just need to kill the brain to kill the beast. In modern systems, this means Called Shots - Called Shots everywhere. And, as you normally need to pour a lot of points/skills/whatever into them to make them somewhat effective, most people will rely on attacking them normally, ruining some of the charm of the zombie genre. Look at The Walking Dead - despite being ostensibly gritty and "realistic", characters can pull of several headshots in a row, on moving targets (albeit slow-moving ones), while running for their lives, on a regular basis. You just try that according to many Modern RPG systems. I'll wait.

... Harder than it looks, right?

One compromise I might make (if you want a more "cinematic" zombie experience) would be to make headshots easier. A selection of mechanics might include:

• Any "critical hit"-type effect automatically becomes a headshot, killing the zombie instantly. Means even an untrained character has a chance to do it with some reliability.
• Make Called Shot mechanics more easily available, or reduce the penalties (against a zombie, a Called Shot to the head involves no penalty) for using them without training (at least in close quarters - long range penalties still apply).
• Certain weapons (like shotguns, or maybe high rate-of-fire weapons) might have an increased Critical Threat range, to up their chances of hitting the head.

Fantasy zombies lack that particular weakness (mostly) - you have an arcane force possessing a body, doesn't matter whether it's got a head or not, it'll still be driven by the will of the one who bound it into that body. This makes them a lot more dangerous - destruction or dismemberment of the whole body is required. Weirdly, most rulesets ignore this somewhat, and make zombies very low-level combatants. A strange one, considering the amount of damage you should need to do to kill the damn things.

While I love zombie literature and cinema, one of the most recurring themes is that the zombies aren't the main threat. It's what other people will be willing to do in such a situation - whether it's leaving their friends to die, using the chaos as an excuse to loot, pillage, and generally make a nuisance of themselves, or to see everyone else as a threat, regardless of their intent. Zombies are simply a catalyst for the breakdown of modern societal rules - and while some will cling to them (almost overbearingly), some will equally take the chance to cast them off, embracing savagery and horror that would make any normal person disgusted, all with the excuse of survival.

When running a zombie game, however, zombies should still be a big threat - but sometimes, you need a band of slavers, or cannibals, or some threat closer to home than the Undead - just to bring forth the real horror of the situation the PC's find themselves in.

...and I'm spent! An A to Z tour of what I do, what I like, and what I don't. Thanks for reading! Normal service will now be resumed.