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Stellar undead are undead creatures native to wildspace in the Spelljammer campaign setting.[1]

Overview[]

Stellar undead are the corpses of spelljamming sailors animated by raw energy from the Negative energy plane, returning them to a semblance of life. The negative energy warps their minds as they lay dying, twisting their final thoughts of home, safety, and friends into an unholy desire to walk among the living again and to be warmed by drinking their life blood.[1]

Description[]

Because most corpses decompose very slowly in the vacuum of wildspace, stellar undead look much like they did when alive, especially from more than 3-feet away. If they died due to violence, their bodies and clothes will still show clear evidence of how they died, though most will remove any weapons still stuck in their bodies.

Stellar undead retain some vestiges of intelligence, and can speak one of the languages they knew in life. Their voices are a hollow croak, though some may confuse this with a dehydrated sailor's dry throat. Most of their conversations are monosyllabic, consisting of single word such as “help”, “yes”, “no”, “food”, or “thanks”. In order to track down warm-blooded prey, stellar undead can see body heat up to a distance of 90-feet.[1]

Behavior[]

Stellar undead tend to congregate in areas where it would be normal to find bedraggled survivors, such as shipwrecks or barren asteroids, where they may appear to be castaways from a crashed ship. A typical strategy is to cling to fragments of a spelljamming ship and pretend to be stranded sailors. Some act unconscious, while others wave frantically and call out to passing ships. When brought onboard, they try to pass for living sailors as long as possible, engaging in normal behavior, such as drinking or eating food, to keep up pretenses for as long as possible.

The undead will generally just go wherever they are led, mumbling their thanks, until their need to feed overcomes their self control, and they tear into their rescuers, attacking in force and sinking their teeth into the first warm flesh they can grab. Though they may still be carrying the weapons and equipment they had in life, they will no longer remember how to use them effectively. Some may occasionally try to swing a sword clumsily or even try to activate a wand, without success. The chance of stellar undead effectively imitating the living depends entirely on how long they've been dead; the shorter the time, the more life-like they behave.[1]

Stellar undead remain on the Material plane, though their existence is closely tied to the Negative energy plane. If they are encountered within five miles of an actual gate to the Plane of negative energy, they cannot be turned by a priest, and will regenerate any damage inflicted upon their bodies.[1]

The stellar undead can somehow sense the presence of other undead in their line of sight.[1]

Combat[]

Stellar undead attack by biting and clawing at their opponents. If they manage to grab hold of their victim with both hands at the same time, they may attempt to savagely mawl their opponent with their teeth. Once they have grappled an opponent, they will continue to crush them while biting them savagely. A victim may attempt to break loose from a stellar undead's grip by straining with all their might.

Like most undead, stellar undead are immune to all mind-affecting spells such as sleep, charm, fear, and hold spells. Due to their close connection with the Plane of negative energy, they can only be turned by an experienced priest, on par with a lich. Being hit or splashed with holy water will also injure them.[1]

Notable Stellar undead[]

  • A group of stellar undead made their lair onboard a derelict ship infested with mortiss, posing a dual threat to any ship who came to investigate.[2]

Appendix[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 John Terra, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Undead, Stellar entry
  2. Nicky Rea and Wes Nicholson, SJR8 Space Lairs, 1993, (TSR Inc.), The Mortiss Ship chapter, page 50
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