D&D: Five Eldritch Undead From Beyond the Stars
Do you like a little eldritch spice with your hideous beings clinging to an unnatural unlife? These eldritch undead are sure to please!
Look, not everything eldritch is from the darkness between the stars. And sure, not everything here is strictly from the far realm or parts unknown. But these undead have an unnerving aura about them. Moreso than usual.
Perhaps it’s the fact that they’ve turned undeath, which is already horrific, into something creepy and full of tendrils. Nothing good comes from tendrils. Mark my words, you see a tendril? It’s about to get eldritch.
Alhoon (Mind Flayer Lich)
Alhoons are Mind Flayers, so they’re already from far realms beyond the distant suns, but even among Mind Flayers, these guys are aberrations. They’re outcasts and exiles. Dangerous deviants whose very existence threatens an Illithid colony.
Because these Mind Flayers embrace arcane magic, eschewing the purely psionic discipline of their brethren. And this knowledge is not just forbidden, it forever changes them. As an Illithid perceives the workings of minds beyond the thoughts of their kind, unlocking secrets and spells, these ideas creep in.
And the Elder Brain’s grasp on the Alhoon weakens. Those who leave find freedom, but also seek power. They are no longer accepted as part of the colony, their minds will never commune with the Elder Brains. Thus, bereft of psionic immortality, they turn to the arcane arts and become liches. Powerful ones at that.
Soul Shaker
Soul Shakers originate on the Deep Ethereal plane, These writhing masses of corpse parts can be found in Journeys through the Radiant Citadel.
A Soul Shaker is a grasping mass of Humanoid limbs that has but one purpose: drain the vitality of the living, pulverize their flesh, and add them to the mass of quaking, grasping appendages.
To that end, these eldritch horrors can charm and get enemies into working with them, using their newfound thralls to lure in suitable prey. Then, they grapple the prey and drain it of vitality, killing a target instantly if it drains the last drop, so to speak.
Atropal
Atropals are unique among beings. They are undead, but not by dint of having arisen from the grave. Atropals were never finished to begin with. These are the ghastly, incomplete works of evil and/or dead gods.
These malformed creatures have never been alive, and as such, they can never be raised from the dead or resurrected or anything. Not even divine intervention or Wish can give true life to one of these vacant, hungry creations.
Coldlight Walker
Coldlight Walkers are a great example of how not everything has to be “great old one”-themed to still be Eldritch. Sometimes the cold, isolation of the frozen wastes is the perfect place to spawn an eldritch horror. Coldlight Walkers prove this.
These are beings who died from extreme cold, and whose spirits have arisen from their frozen remains. Now they emit a spectral light that is painful to look upon. Some say the gods of winter can create these directly as well. They blind and bind everyone with their cold, deadly light.
Eldritch Lich
Okay, this one’s a gimme. It’s literally a Lich who has heard the whispered promises of a Great Old One, whose grasp can expand the Wizard’s horizon but at a terrible price. An Eldritch Lich is created when a Great Old One implants a Far Realm parasite in the Lich, which not only grants tremendous power (and immortality in the form of undeath), but also grants the Great Old One undue influence over the Lich in kind.
What are your favorite eldritch horrors?
