Blood terrors are a pure extension of the Blood of the Beast. Their glistening bodies – with skin-less musculature defined by clotted coagulations – boil with a raw, powerful rage.

Legacy of Giants. Blood Terrors appear to be immortal, and are often found as tomb guardians in the cyclopean barrows of the Tyrannis Gígās (the Tyrant Giants). Long mistaken for some sort of transformation of the Tyrannis’ skyldur (their human serfs or chattel), the true nature of the Blood Terrors was rediscovered when the long-forgotten Idol of the Beast was recovered among the island kingdoms of the south.

Idol of the Beast. The idol once sealed the Beast’s connection to this world, but it was corrupted by the dream cults who still honored the old ways. The Idol became a conduit through which the Beast’s will could be made manifest and around which new cults could arise in dim memory of a primitive and bestial past.

Blood terrors can now be found in the wake of the Idol, serving the cultists who have performed the strange rites of creation/summoning which signify their loyalty to the Beast.

Creatures of Blood. Blood terrors “contain” a seemingly impossible amount of blood. It is perhaps more accurate to think of them as extrusions of the Blood of the Beast, pumping their way through the planar skein of reality. When their manifest forms are violated, their strange blood – which is paradoxically antithetical to natural life – is eager to spew out into our world.

BLOOD TERROR

Medium aberration, chaotic evil

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Armor Class 17

Hit Points 94 (11d8+44)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 16 (+3), DEX 12 (+1), CON 18 (+4), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 10 (+0)

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Skills Acrobatics +4, Athletics +6

Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire

Damage Immunities poison

Senses passive Perception 15

Languages Giant, Issyl, telepathy 100 ft.

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

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Blood Blight. Once per day, the blood terror can exude a 20 ft.-radius mist of blood that lasts for 1d4 rounds. Non-evil creatures who enter the mist or who start their turn within the mist must make a DC 13 Constitution save or suffer 4d8 damage and gain the poisoned condition. (On a successful save, the damage is halved and the character does not suffer from the poisoned condition.)

Blood Spray. When the blood terror is injured, it releases a spray of blood that covers the ground in a 10-foot square centered on the blood terror. This operates as per a grease spell (DC 13) and lasts for 1 minute. Other creatures of the Beast are not affected by the blood spray.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Blood terrors make two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage.

Hundreds of parchment pages arranged in thick leather folders record an almost manic obsession with and study of dealing death to humanoids. Minute experimentation in dosage, placement of blows, and the like is exhaustively studied through what appear to be actual trials and experimentation.

Beyond that, the “subjects” of these trials appear to have been revivified through the arts of zombification on a vast scale. Hundreds of corpses were created, reanimated, and then exmorisected for an active study of undead tissue and simulated organ operation in the face of wounds and poisons.

Use of this research grants advantage to Medicine checks made to identify the cause of death for humanoids.

PRIME CORPSE

PRIME CORPSE
4^th level necromancy (Cleric, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Target: Up to four corpses or piles of bones within range
Components: V, S, M (one 100 gp black onyx stone for each corpse)
Duration: Instantaneous

Prime corpse allows you prepare a number of corpses or skeletons for animation using the animate dead spell (or similar method), making them easier for their animator to control. If and when these corpses become undead, each only counts as half an undead for the purposes of their creator commanding or controlling them. (Other characters seeking to command or control them do so normally.) This does not affect the number of undead created by the animate dead spell; only the number controlled.

For example, a normal casting of animate dead can allow the caster to control up to four zombies or skeletons that were previously created. If these undead had been targeted by prime corpse before their creation, their original creator would be able to control up to eight of them for each casting of animate dead (instead of the normal four).

The caster of prime corpse need not be the same caster as the one who animates the undead. Undead who are already animate are not affected by this spell; it must be cast on corpses prior to animation.

At Higher Levels: If cast with a 6^th level spell slot or higher, this spell has a similar effect on the targets of a create undead spell, although it requires 400 gp black onyx stone for each corpse.

Design Note: If the Romans had faced a zombie plague, they might have invented the word exmortuus to describe the undead (“mortuus” being the dead and “ex-” being from or out of; thus those come from or out of death). Much later, the same bloke who invented the word “vivisection” might have also invented “exmorisection.”)

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

These loosely bound pages describe Sagrathea’s efforts to unlock the secrets necessary for brewing potions more powerful than normally possible through magi-alchemical means. Sagrathea was able to get a few of the experimental concoctions reliably effective, but it seems the work was abandoned because he was unable to perfect them. The potency of the brew made it impossible to stabilize the potions, resulting in significant side effects.

Assassin’s Touch (Rare): This oil bestows upon the user the ability to poison all nonmagical creatures they touch with their bare skin. The specific poison inflicted by the assassin’s touch is dependent on the poison used when brewing it. The effect on the drinker normally lasts 1 hour, but each dose applied carries with it a 10% chance that the effect becomes permanent instead.

Draught of the Nightingale (Uncommon): This potion grants the imbiber the ability to sing the magically beguiling melody of the harpy as an action. Every humanoid and giant within 300 feet of the drinker must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the song ends. The singer must take a bonus action on subsequent turns to continue singing. The singer can stop singing at any time. The song ends if the singer is incapacitated.

While charmed by the singer, the target is incapacitated. If the charmed target is more than 5 feet away from the singer, the target must move on its turn towards the singer by the most direct route, trying to get within 5 feet. It doesn’t avoid opportunity attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the singer, the target can repeat the saving throw. A charmed target can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If the saving throw is successful, the effect ends on the target ends and the target is immune to the singer’s song for the next 24 hours.

The potion lasts for 1 hour. With dose, the imbiber must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw (+2 DC per additional dose). Failure results in the drinker’s gradual but irreversible transformation into a depraved, harpy-like abomination over 1d6+3 days. (Only a wish spell or similarly powerful magic can reverse this curse.)

Eyes of the Medusa (Very Rare): Upon quaffing this poison, the imbiber’s eyes glow red for 1 hour and they gain a petrifying gaze as per a medusa.

Though a powerful elixir, the instability of the eyes of the medusa require the drinker to make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw (+2 DC per additional dose). On a failure, the imbiber is turned to stone (and will do so upon all subsequent attempts to take the potion).

Granite Hide (Uncommon): This grainy, chalk-tasting, orange liquid turns the imbiber’s skin into a pliable yet hard-as-granite substance. (Treat as a stoneskin spell.) The potion lasts 1 hour. After the potion wears off, the drinker suffers from a calcification of their joints, causing them to suffers disadvantage on all Dexterity checks and saving throws. This condition can be removed by a long rest or any effect which would remove a level of exhaustion.

Potion of Absolute Invisibility (Uncommon): The drinker of this potion benefits from a greater invisibility spell for 1 hour. However, they must also succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the effects of a confusion spell. A new saving throw may be attempted every 10 minutes while under the effects of the potion.

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

This text, written in Ancient Arathian, is difficult to translate even for one familiar with that dead language, as it contains lengthy, erudite passages featuring complex alchemical terminology using what appears to be a heavily modified version of the long-defunct Sarkasian nomenclature.

ELETRO-ALCHEMICAL DISTILLATION OF ARCANO-CEREBRALITE POTIONS

“The arcanists’ mind – both physical and ephemeral – is laced with the highly potent potential of the vast energies they harness and hook through their personal cerebral cortexes. Like all energies of life, these are not instantly dispelled upon death, but instead dissipate lingeringly over time. If the brain can be harvested in due course and before this final dissipation occurs, the occult energies can be salvaged.”

PRESERVATION: Part of this text describes how an arcanist’s brain can be surgically removed without disturbing the nascent arcane energies of their currently prepared spells (requiring a DC 18 Wisdom (Medicine) check) and then preserved through the use of an alchemical bath (25 gp in material costs, DC 12 + highest spell level to be preserved Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check).

PULPING: The rest of the text describes how the brain of a freshly dead arcanist (within 24 hours) or a preserved arcanist’s brain can be pulped using a three-dimensional mortar and pestle in order to create potions from the spells they had previously prepared.

This process is complex, requiring an Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check at DC 15 + spell level for each spell withdrawn from the brain. The alchemical supplies cost as much as it would normally cost to brew a Rare potion, but without the need to expend spell slots or meet other prerequisites. The process also only requires one day of effort.

There is no limit to the highest level of spell that can be turned into a potion using this method.

DETERMINING SPELLS: In order to determine exactly which spells were prepared by the arcanist, an alchemist can use a detect thoughts spell and make a separate Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check (DC 10 + spell level) for each spell. On a failure, there’s a 25% chance that the spell energies have been disrupted and lost. On a success, the alchemist identifies the spell (which will then allow them to know exactly what the pulped potion they prepare will do).

POTION EFFECT: Brain pulp potions are distinct from other potions due to their eponymous pulpy texture. Drinking a brain pulp potion will either immediately allow the drinker to benefit from the spell’s effect or allow them to immediately use the spell effect as if they had cast it.

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

Lesser bloodwights are either the pupa-like clone-spawn of true bloodwights or the first stage of recovery for a bloodwight who has been reduced to a desiccated state.

The Crimson Sheen. The signature of the bloodwights is the sheen of blood which they cause to erupt on the skin of the living. They are so inimical to life, that mortal flesh erupts in a hemorrhagic rejection of their presence. But the bloodwight itself thirsts for the warmth and energy of life, their limbs growing sleek and supple in its presence.

The sheen notably does not require line of sight, allowing bloodwights to lurk in sealed up attics or glide through city sewers. There are tyrants who have been known to wall up lesser bloodwights in oubliettes, into which can be thrown doomed prisoners.

Blood-Damned Nests. Bloodwights have a strong nesting influence, constructing mounds from whatever material may be at hand (furniture in mortal dwellings, detritus in ruins, leaves or fallen trees in forests, and so forth).

There may be a hunting component to this behavior, as the bloodwights can lay hidden within a nest while nevertheless feasting on any living creatures who pass by. In some cases, those excavating these nests have found them to be connected to other nests in the same area through shallow tunnels.

BLOODWIGHT, LESSER

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 14

Hit Points 45 (6d8+18)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 14 (+2), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 11 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills Stealth +3, Perception +3

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities poison

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Any

Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

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Bloodsheen. A living creature within 30 feet of a lesser bloodwight must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or begin sweating blood (covering their skin in a sheen of blood). Characters affected by bloodsheen suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus 1 point of damage for each bloodwight within 30 feet. A character is only affected by bloodsheen once per round, regardless of how many bloodwights are present.

Health Soak. A lesser bloodwight within 30 feet of a living creature gains 2 hit points per round. A lesser bloodwight benefiting from health soak will gain hit points even after their normal maximum number of hit points has been reached, up to a maximum of 66 (the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die).

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ACTIONS

Multiattack. Lesser bloodwights make two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage.

Blood Welt. When a creature is struck by a lesser bloodwight’s claw attack, they must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer a blood welt. A blood welt bleeds for 1 point of necrotic damage per round. The victim can repeat the saving throw at the beginning of each turn, ending the effect of all current blood welts on a successful save. Alternatively, the bleeding can be stopped with a DC 14 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

Bloodwights appear in The Complex of Zombies.