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THE LORDS OF DARKNESS

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Tales From Beyond the Grave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Ghouls and Ghasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5

Wights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2

Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9

Mummies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4

Vampires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2

Ghosts .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1

Spectres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 9

Lich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7

The Night Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6

A Mundane Guide to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Lords of Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9 2

Credits:

Authors: Ed Greenwood (Introduction, Lich, Mundane Guide,

Lords of Darkness), Deborah Christian (Skeletons, Shadows,

Spectre), Michael Stackpole (Zombies), Paul Jaquays (Ghouls

and Ghasts, Mummies), Steve Perrin (Wights), Vince Garcia

(Vampires, Ghosts), Jean Rabe (Vampires).

Editing: Scott Martin Bowles

Project Coordinators: Bruce A. Heard, Karen S. Boomgarden

Cover Art: Jeff Easley

Interior Art: Karl Wailer

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS,

DRAGON, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks

owned by TSR, Inc.

Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in

Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by

regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any

reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork presented herein in

prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc.

Cartography: Dave LaForce

ISBN 0-88038-622-3

Typography: Kim Janke

$8.95 US

Keylining: Stephanie Tabat

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9240XXX1501

TSR, Inc.

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England

INTRODUCTION AND DMING UNDEAD

With a final sharp, splintering sound,

the door gave way. The warriors forced

it aside and peered into the dimness

beyond, blades drawn.

They beheld a dark, littered chamber,

silent and dead. Dust lay thick every-

where. Though there were no traces of

anyone having come there, an old man

sat in its midst, sucking a pipe and hum-

ming into his beard as he regarded

them levelly.

And who are you, graybeard?

demanded the foremost man-at-arms,

approaching warily. In reply, the old

man spoke a word of power that smote

their ears with a clap of thunder His

challenger staggered back as if dazed,

dropping blade and shield with a clang-

or.

My name, despoilers of tombs, he

said in a deep, rolling voice, is Elmin-

ster. I sit in this crypt to be with my

friends. You will leave them, and you

will leave meNOW. And he rose, eyes

flashing. The men turned and, with one

accord, fled.

The old man chuckled, sighed, and

sat down again. You were saying? he

prompted the darkness. And the dark-

ness answered. .

DMs devising their own undead adven-

tures.

The Night Gallery details the main

character or creature of each adven-

ture and is useful in planning a series of

encounters.

It is followed by A Mundane Guide to

Wards vs. Undead, Spirits, and Other

Entities, which explores the magic and

lore of dealing with undead. Some lore

will be common knowledge (readable

to players), and more can be revealed

by consulting veteran adventurers,

sages, or crumbling tomes. Much

should be learned only by trial and

error, during combat.

The Lords of Darkness section

presents new spells for necromancers

(those mages who specialize in working

with undead). They are fully compati-

ble with the spells in other AD&D

of shuffling zombies chill farmers and

merchants alike late at night around

dying hearth fires.

Some undead are clearly evil,

directed or created by or allied to dark

powers. Others are just as clearly neu-

tral, and the intelligent undead have

proven time and again that they are

capable of all the emotions and align-

ments of their living counterparts:

treachery, suspicion, friendship, honor,

and even kindness. There are benign

undead who warn or aid travelers as

well as those who kill the living. What-

ever causes undead to come into exist-

ence (spell, natural process, divine

deed, or unknowable mystery) are

strong in the Realms; there are a LOT of

undead.

game rulebooks, and are recommended

as rare and mysterious magics, not

spells widely known and available. Cler-

ical equivalents may be devised in

accordance with the deities of individ-

ual campaigns.

DMing Undead

Most DMs use undead for their memo-

rable, fearsome nature and their

unique powers, which can sorely test

low-level player characters. How

undead are handled in battle is of para-

mount importance; while the mindless

nature of lesser undead allows a DM to

rescue foolish PCs from battlefield folly,

too often, more powerful undead are

handled in as mindless a manner.

Consider a lich, for example: a mage

or cleric so thirsty for immortality as to

try to cheat death, and already power-

ful at magic. All too often a lich is played

by the DM as a being who suddenly

throws a paramount instinct for surviv-

al beyond death away, to stand and

trade spells with a band of adventurers.

Liches should be cunning and elusive

why be destroyed when one can slip

away to strike again another night?

Whats the hurry, whats time, to a lich?

The DM should always have a clear

idea of what encountered undead are

trying to accomplish, from skeletons or

zombies mindlessly seeking to slay, to a

vampire or lich defending a trap-filled

lair. Why defend such a lair?

The lichs lair presented in this book

has a purpose: Alokkair is trying to

strip greedy adventurers of all the mag-

ic (and valuables which can buy more

Undead are among the most vividly

chilling monsters in AD&D

Undead in the

Forgotten Realms

Although this sourcebook is set in the

FORGOTTEN REALMS

game cam-

paigns, from awesome vampires to

silent, purposeful skeletons. Many

adventurers have battled wraiths and

cut their way through zombies; DMs

wanting to give players more such

excitement will find adventures aplenty

here. Everyone has fears and gruesome

images of the undead; may you find

more in these pages.

This sourcebook begins with intro-

ductory notes on the nature and han-

dling of undead. Tales From Beyond

the Grave then presents 10 complete

adventures. Each highlights a classic

undead type, with the challenges rising

as one proceeds to the later scenarios.

DMs should modify these as necessary

to better integrate them into campaign

play.

Creature Notes accompany each

adventure. These studies of the fea-

tured undead are particularly useful to

fantasy world,

DMs need not have other Realmslore

(such as the campaign set) if they wish

to set these adventures in different fan-

tasy campaign settings. For those

whose campaigns are set in the Realms,

a few notes will help in planning fur-

ther undead adventures.

Many types of undead are known in

the Realms, including sorts not in the

official AD&D game rules; boars,

horses, wolverines, and even owlbears

have been reported. There are also

undead animated by mages, such as

crawling claws and dracoliches (see

DRAGON

Magazine issue Nos. 32 and

110), little known in other worlds.

Undead are a recognized fact of exist-

ence in the Realms, much feared and lit-

tle understood. Many gory tavern tales

about liches and vampires and armies

magic) he can. A vampire or spectre

may try to separate individuals from a

party with pit traps and the like, so as to

drain them at leisure, and gain undead

followers.

All intelligent undead will have aims

(even if they are insane ones, or whim-

sies to entertain them). The natural

creation of greater undead seems

related to strength of purpose and

character, so thinking undead without

something to do (beyond exulting in kill-

ing and mayhem) should be rare.

A vampire or lich that clashes with

player characters many times to

become a behind-the-scenes personal

foe is far more memorable, frightening,

and satisfying to defeat than an undead

menace seen for only an instant before

PCs let fly with all their firepower. All

too often, undead are defeated with

boring ease, when a wily vampire

would become gaseous and escape,

only to ambush PCs later when asleep,

separated, or battling another monster.

If DMs play undead as energetically as

PCs, players will soon have their own

chilling tales of undead and hard battles

in the dark.

result in a loss of character experience.

l Temporary paralysis with no sav-

ing throw, either complete or partial,

thereby preventing spell-casting, climb-

ing, picking locks, and giving a -2 pen-

alty to AC and attacks, for 1d12 + 10

rounds; curable.

l Loss of all experience gained back

to the minimum required for the char-

acters current level.

l Immediate loss of consciousness,

loss of 2d6 hit points, plus a permanent

loss of 1 hit point per drain attack, plus

possible loss of currently memorized

spells.

l Loss of ability points at random;

character must save vs. poison to see if

each loss is permanent.

l Permanent withering of touched

limb (limited wish or wish notwith-

standing), or bestowal of a disease of

severe, chronic nature.

l Bestowal of minor permanent

curse (see Curses!, DRAGON

game rules:

dangerous monsters that must be

fought. There are vampires in the

Realms who command small armies of

undead, and liches who rule entire cit-

ies or underground realms.

But vampires have helped travelers

and battlefield survivors. Liches have

trained, advised, or chatted amiably

with adventurers. Skeletons have

marched out of crypts in besieged cities

to snatch up children-their

descendants-and bear them to safety.

The great paladin Ralgorax, the

Sword of Tyr, in the dead of night

roused the sleeping northern village

where he had been born, riding his

charger down its streets and banging

his great sword against his shield. He

warned of an oncoming orc horde

and slew its boldest scouts as the vil-

lagers scrambled to gather their

belongings and flee.

Maga-

zine, issue No. 77).

l Character stricken with insanity

(refer to DMG for types), or, if the char-

acter is a spell-caster, the PC perma-

nently loses knowledge of how to cast a

certain spell at random or perform a

type of a magic.

l Alignment shift of character, one

step per attack, toward that of the

attacking undead. Note that this could

cause back-and-forth alignment shifts

as a character with a long career

encounters undead of different align-

ments.

l Immediate feeblemindedness plus

a permanent loss of 1 ability point tran-

dom choice, save vs. poison to avoid).

The next day, after the paladins blade

had slain many an orc, the full light of

day revealed that Ralgoraxs flesh was

withered. He bore old death wounds,

and the horse beneath him was also car-

rion. He smiled sadly at their revulsion,

saluted, and rode away-into the

horde.

Alternatives to

Energy Draining

Many DMs are reluctant to use undead

as much as the vivid descriptions of

these monsters tempt them to; it seems

unfair to DMs and players alike to lose

10 years of life (in a campaign where

time is largely ignored, the loss is mean-

ingless; in a roleplaying campaign, the

loss seems horribly steep) at the mere

sight of a ghost, or have a single undead

attack drain one or even two levels of

hard-won experience, robbing a player

of the game benefits of what might be

literally years of AD&D

DMs should keep players on their

toes by occasionally using monsters

that vary from their official versions:

intelligent, unturnable skeletons are

frequent undead examples. Why not

helpful undead? Or neutral undead

who do not even know they have died,

such as merchants caught encamped

and asleep by a long-ago blizzard?

Undead need not always have malicious

personalities.

game play.

The horror and might of undead

must be preserved: to merely turn a

level-draining ability into so many dice

of physical damage seems a poor solu-

tion. DMs may well devise their own

solutions, but here are some alterna-

tives to an attack that would normally

Non-Evil Undead

The arts of creating and controlling

undead are Evil-and, as many have

learned to their detriment, very dan-

gerous.

But undead themselves are not

always evil. In the Realms, and many

other real and fictional lands, there are

tales of apparitions that warn the living

of hazards such as washed-out bridges

and impending disaster. Others provide

That is how easy it is to create non-

evil undead. Such variety in an AD&D

game campaign will give its participants

glowing memories of exciting, vivid

play . . . and isnt that what gaming is

for?

silent, non-attacking grim reminders of

long-ago battle valor, or guard family

crypts and the resting places of heroes.

Other undead are of the sorts

described in the AD&D

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