WILDERLAND ZOMBIE - By Tim Martin
Frequency:
Very rare
No. Appearing: 2-20
Armor Class: 7
Move: see below
Hit Dice: 1-8
% In Lair: 100%
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. Of Attacks: See below
Damage/Attack: See below
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defense: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: S-L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: 25 +2/hp
The wilderland zombie is a pathetic, and thankfully rare, unfortunate side effect in droughts in some areas of the world. Some areas, such as on Earth the great savannas of East Africa and on Toril some regions of the Shaar are noted for vast herds of herbivorous animals such as elephants, buffalo, zebra, and giraffe. They normally blanket the landscape, vast nomadic bands of animals that follow the rains and the forage, moving over hundreds of square miles in the continual quest for food, water, and safety from predators.
Occasionally droughts strike the areas they live in, perhaps local ones, sometimes ones that cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles. Grass turns brittle and brown, trees die off, range fires start, rivers dry up. Those animals unfortunate to be stuck in the region, unable to leave for greener lands, often crowd around the few remaining waterholes in the region. The waterholes, perhaps a few pools from a once mighty river or lake, perhaps the results of some artesian spring, become a mecca for the last animals in drought-stricken lands. Herbivores and carnivores, in an uneasy truce, cling to these desperate oasis in the hopes that the rains will again come one day, merely hoping to survive from one sunset to the next. If the drought persist, each day finds new desiccated corpses littering the ground around the waterhole. If the drought is a lasting one or permanent, virtually all life around the waterhole can die, leaving nothing but dried out animal husks and a cracked mud, littered with fish and crocodile bones, their skulls staring up at the unyielding heavens in betrayal.
Sometimes the fierce spirits that animate animals linger on in death, the drive to survive and continue, to give birth to new offspring and to one day graze on fresh green pastures. Long past the actual death of the animal, the spirit remains in the corpse, animating it. A person visiting one of these dead waterholes, or the lands around it, might encounter these naturally occurring undead. Perhaps it is a herd of sickly looking antelope, brittle skin stretched tautly over ribcages, skulls partially exposed, rows of glistening white teeth in a deathhead’s grin. Maybe a lone bull elephant, mourning the death of his herd, trunk shriveled to almost nothing, partially mummified in the hot dry winds, plodding on around the dead pond, looking for his companions.
Generally the wilderland zombie will perform no threatening actions, simply wandering around aimlessly, continually searching for long dead companions or phantom sources of water. However, if any water is found, the zombies will do anything they can to obtain it. If it should rain again naturally, the creatures simply melt away in the course of minutes or hours, their spirits at last satisfied. If however a PC should possess water on them, perhaps in a wineskin, canteen, bucket, pail, or any other apparatus, the wilderland zombie will attack the PC to acquire it. The attack will be much as the animal would have performed in life; a zombie antelope will use its horns and maybe a trample attack, a zombie elephant will gore with its tusks and trample with its mighty muscular legs, etc.
The animals will continue to attack until destroyed, offered whatever water the PCs have on them, or until the PCs flee and the zombies are unable to follow them (the wilderland zombie will move at half the movement rate of the animal in life). They can be turned as a regular zombie, and can be destroyed by water, each pint of water doing 1-2 points of damage to them. Dousing with the same amount of holy water triples the damage. Wilderland zombies are immune to charm, cold, death magic, hold, and sleep attacks. Edged weapons do half damage.
ANTELOPE, ZOMBIE:
Frequency:
Very rare
No. Appearing: 2-40
Armor Class: 7
Move: 12”
Hit Dice: 3
(2)
% In Lair: 100%
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. Of Attacks: 2 hooves or 1 antler
Damage/Attack: 1-4/1-4 or 2-12 (1-2/1-2 or
1-6)
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defense: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: S-L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: 25 +2/hp
Probably among the most common of this naturally occurring type of undead, which is not to say it is common or anything. The category antelope includes gazelles, gnu, pronghorn, eland, and the sable antelope among others. A buck can make one antler or two hoof attacks; a doe only makes hoof attacks. An antler attack counts for both antlers. Statistics above are for small antelope, such as gazelles and springboks.
BUFFALO, ZOMBIE:
Frequency:
Very rare
No. Appearing: 4-24
Armor Class: 7
Move: 8”
Hit Dice: 5
% In Lair: 100%
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. Of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-8/1-8
Special Attacks: Charge
Special Defense: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: 25 +2/hp
Probably the second most common of the wilderland zombies, the buffalo entry can cover water buffalo and the Cape Buffalo as well. The buffalo zombie can charge as it did in life, doing 3-18 points of damage impacting and a further 1-4 points of trample damage, though owing to the slower speed of the zombie at least 60’ feet must be covered and the buffalo will be –2 to hit.
ELEPHANT, ZOMBIE:
Frequency:
Very rare
No. Appearing: 1-12
Armor Class: 4
Move: 6”
Hit Dice: 12
% In Lair: 100%
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. Of Attacks: 4
Damage/Attack: 2-16/2-16/2-12/2-12
Special Attacks:
Nil
Special Defense: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (11’ tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: 100 +2/hp
Probably one of the most dangerous of the natural zombies, a zombie elephant can be a real hazard. While most of the formerly herbivorous zombies such as the buffalo, giraffe, and antelope are prone to guard their former watering holes, a zombie elephant is just as likely to go on a slow but deliberate rampage, actively seeking out sources of water. They may travels days, weeks, months, or even years to seek out water; if this water is found in the form of a lake, river, or oasis the zombie can find a peaceful end, but if a village or caravan is come across death and destruction result. It has been document of elephants dying in a drought across a desert and crossing to the other side years later to harass desert towns that have never known the species to naturally occur.
The atrophying and drying of the skin denies the zombie elephant its trunk attack, though it can still successfully combat others for water by a stab by its two tusks and trampling with its front two feet. Owing to the nature of their already tough hide as well as reduced sensitivity to damage the zombie elephant as a relatively low AC (armor class 4).
Owing to the elephant’s higher than animal intelligence, dedication to the herd, and longevity the zombie elephant has been known to actually survive, in zombie form of course, through several droughts, perhaps to haunt a desert permanently or some other otherwise fairly dry land (though not necessarily without water). Sometimes the zombie elephant is continually seeking other members of its herd, sometimes it is simply defending the waterhole from all those who might use it (whether or not the water hole actually ever holds water again). The are legends of entire herds of zombie elephants in the deep deserts of the Sea of Dust on Oerth and Anauroch on Toril, wandering from one long gone water hole to another equally extinct one, following the pattern of rainy and dry seasons in a scorched hell that now knows no difference. Though perhaps representing a vast wealth of ivory, the locals greatly fear such undead herds.
GIRAFFE, ZOMBIE:
Frequency:
Very rare
No. Appearing: 1-10
Armor Class: 7
Move: 8
Hit Dice: 5
% In Lair: 100%
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. Of Attacks: 2 hooves
Damage/Attack: 1-8/1-8
Special Attacks:
Nil
Special Defense: See below
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: 25 +2/hp
A very rare from of this type of undead, as generally giraffes will not be found as much in areas that are prone to such severe drought, often found in the areas between grasslands and forests. As in life, they can deliver a vicious kick with their heavy hooves either to the front or to the rear though not both at once.