Saturday 29 November 2014

Down among the Dead Men - The Undead in RuneQuest


Skeletons and Zombies
These are certainly undead. The first problem they pose is one of command. I rule that commands given to a skeleton or zombie must be spoken by the enchanter who created it, and if the command is not understood (the chance of which is 50% minus the enchanter's language ability), the creature will continue to follow its last orders. It takes 1MR to issue orders.

Using dispel magic to deactivate a skeleton or zombie is not possible because the Rune magic used in creating these undead merely activates the corpse/skeleton, and does not maintain it in its undead state. Trying to destroy a zombie with dispel magic 4 is no more sensible than trying to kill a resurrected character with dispel magic 6.  Finally, note that a skeleton or zombie is limited in its weapon skills by the levels of ability it possessed in life, up to the quoted maximum of DEXx5%.

Ghouls
Raised from the grave by Vivamort cultists, they cannot drain POW from others — presumably they regenerate it naturally. (If so, they aren't undead. Undead, by definition, are cut off from the universal POW flow. This would seem to make ghouls -living dead- a distinction drawn in GW's Questworld pack. —DM). RQ states that ghouls maintain their  status by eating the dead, while Cults of Terror claims that they hunger for the flesh of the living. I rule that they must eat the flesh only of creatures less than seven days dead. Besides adding horror value (you may not care about the ancient bodies in the Catacombs of Crendos, but what about your newly dead mother being stolen from the grave?) this also gives the ghouls a reason for attacking the player characters.

Certain conditions and defensive measures will serve to reduce the chance of being demoralized by a ghoul’s howl:
Armour covering ears* -5%
Objects jammed in ears -5%
Character of Rune level -5%
Initiate or higher of Death or Undead cult Vivamort -20%
Thanatar, Cacodemon -15%
Humakt, Zorak Zoran,Storm Bull -10%

*Except troll helmets, which are made to channel sound to the ears.

These are cumulative. The howl essentially enhances an adventurer’s fear of death, which will be less for a Death cultist. Characters of rune level will have endured many battles, and should have their fears under more control than others would.

Vampires
These are covered in depth in Cults of Terror. However, since you must lose all your POW to become a vampire, it seems to be impossible to become a Lord-Priest of Vivamort. Maybe it's just as well. (Unless a suitable candidate was elevated from an Initiate to a Lord-Priest in a single ceremony, perhaps? —DM)

Mummies
It is not stated how these are created. The mummy in Griffin Mountain was a former Priest of Zorak Zoran. It is not unreasonable to assume that a mummy can be created only with the spells available to that cult. A create zombie along with a successful divine intervention should do the trick. Cults with these spells can thus create mummies (except for the Cacodemon cult, whose divine intervention takes a special form). To counteract the mummy's demoralizing aura, being unable to smell or see would reduce the chance of demoralization by 5%, as would being a Death or Undead cult Initiate.  Owing to the problems involved in regaining lost POW, I feel it unlikely that Vivamort would have many of these in his employ.

Ghosts, Wraiths & Whirlvishes
These are not undead, even though a roll of 01-25 for the turn undead spell is quoted as ‘undead destroyed, released, or whatever’. Ghosts are a very special form of bound spirit which does not count against the binder's CHA. A ghost is bound to an object and may not move more than 10m from it. (That was Tom Holsinger’s unofficial suggestion in Wyrms Footnotes 13. I suggest you don't use it as hard-and-fast if you like your ghosts to roam battlements, lonely moors, and so forth. -DM). Wraiths and whirlvishes are variant forms of ghost, and so not undead either.

Thanatari Heads
Once destroyed these become ghosts; but while living and hanging from someone's belt they are undead and can be turned— rolls of 76-95 are ignored and rolls of 96-00 are treated as 01-25. A befuddlement may affect the owner too.

Redcaps
These are affected by turn undead and free ghost. Redcaps are created at ‘ancient sites where much bloodshed has occurred’ — they are a physical manifestation of the hate, fear and other negative emotions that were prevalent during the battle. When a free ghost is cast, this POW returns to the spirits until the redcap comes back a week later. Turn undead merely disposes of the physical form, leaving the composite spirit in limbo until it can form a new body. This body forms from the very earth of the battle site itself. It would take a Heroquest to remove the blight from the area. Only one redcap is created for each battle that occurred at a given place.

Healing Undead
There are several methods of repairing damage to undead.
Skeletons: As long as the skull is undamaged, a repair spell to each broken hit location enables the skeleton to resume its duties. If the skull has been broken, a new use of create skeleton will also be required.
Zombies: Zombies heal one hit point for every 2 points of healing used (though healing 6 will still reattach a limb). There is no time limit for healing. A zombie whose head was destroyed would need a new casting of create zombie. Flame damage is irreparable. Zombies do not heal naturally.
Ghouls: Ghouls heal naturally; all normal rules apply.
Vampires: These creatures regenerate, except for certain forms of damage (see Vivamort cult).
Mummies: A mummy can only be healed with repair. A casting ofthe spell will reattach a severed limb or restore 1d4 points to a damaged (but not severed) location. If a limb which has been reattached with repair is struck before it gets any points back from further castings of the spell, it shatters irreparably.
Thanatari Heads: See cult of Thanatar write-up.
Redcaps: These cannot be healed.


By Alex McDonald (White Dwarf #54 - June 1984)

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