Random World Extras: Unusual Monsters

I've written down quite a bit about the still-unnamed 'Random World', including it's more common and mundane (if such a thing exist!) monsters so it seem only fair to write about the monsters which are not commonplace.

An Otyugh. Artist unknown.

Mutants and Aberrations

The existence of mutants in the Random World was briefly hinted at in the post about Cafeld, the City of Mercy. This was a small nod to the tendency of OSR game and blogs to provide mutation tables and since I never intend for a true or properly 'canon' version of this setting I left it open that mutants do exist but their origin and how common they are can be deliberately vague. As such, using DCC for this setting, for example, could allow the Mutant class from Hubris if I felt like it.

The creatures known as Aberrations (and the use of a term from 3e onward is deliberate) is the catch-all term for anything which has been horribly deformed and twisted beyond it's original form and function. In general for the Random World I've been keeping the Lovecraftion inspiration to a bare minimum as to not over abuse the amount of tentacular eldritch monsters on the basis that these lose all terror they can generate when there's so many of them around. As such, the creatures which modern D&D call Aberrations do exist but their stat block are used for unique monsters.

D&D 4e Wights. Artist unknown.

The Undead

The oh-so-useful undead are not commonplace in the Random World, being creatures which are truly unnatural. For one thing, the basic spell to create mindless undead (Animate Dead) is not in the default Magic-User or Cleric spell lists, requiring one to dig into darker and more vile sorceries to uncover this kind of power. As such, basic skeletons and zombies might show up as minions to some evil wizard of some kind but they shouldn't really be expected to be marched out in drove. And even then, these creatures are not considered 'true undead', being nothing but mindless, soulless and essence-less puppets of decayed organic matter.

The creatures known as True Undead are always semi-unique and while they might end up using the stat line of the likes of Ghoul or Wight for simplicity, others have more unique stats. Each undead is defined by it's ravening, all-consuming passion, desire or hunger and they tend to posses some ability which allow them to corrupt either people or their surrounding. They're not these all-powerful beings (unless you're dealing with a Lich, maybe) and in theory one could get destroyed by a suitably large and angry mob with torches and pitchfork but in practice they are nasty, unnatural monsters. The only reason they are not more of a threat is that most lack anything resembling sanity, spending all day inside their lair sleeping or pacing around in madness unable to experience new things or thoughts. Some lack a body and exist as ghosts and wraiths but the basic concept is the same.

There exist a second category of True Undead, which are 'born' when an unnatural or distorted spirit animates a corpse which is tainted in some way. Unlike the previous type, this is not the mind of the original individual (even if some memories may remain) but a foul alien intellect. These type of undead may have more esoteric powers. Either way, this kind of table would be a good place for me to start with making unique undead. It is worth noting that True Undead never create spawns: at best they can create zombies or skeleton.