The Azure Dead.
There are few places on Neurim where one can find hordes of the mindless dead: the great crater-tomb of Svog, Asuria, and the southern reaches of the continent of Mgamba. A different plague infests the world: husks. Ancient worker constructs made of bismuth and bone, animated by blue astral fire, like gaseous glass.
Husks, also known as the Azure Dead, are not undead, though most anti-undead measures on Neurim are designed to also work on them. They are constructs, animated by magical energy, skeletons reinforced with bismuth armor and forced to move by astral fire, the force of the Dead Star, Gnottis, forcing animation into that which is long dead.
Husks are ancient, hundreds of thousands of years old. They were the
worker constructs of the once rulers of Neurim, known only as the
Bodyless Ones. They are connected by a vast mind-network that allows
them to communicate in an instant, though this network is in disrepair
and husks have a tendency to lay inanimate for millennia, until forced to rise again by the presence of a demiurge or a mage with the knowledge of the arcana of stars.
Armies of the Bismuth Host.
The husks were not built for war. They are service-machines, designed for manual labor and planet re-shaping. Even today, the husks are not designed for combat. They try to kill with sharpened fingers and rocks. Husks are incapable of using weaponry. Their machine minds cannot grasp the concept.
No one knows why the husks gave up on their mission to do war. All that is known by historians (elves alive since that day) is that one day the husks began to tear each other limb from limb. Beautiful violence performed by machines with no idea of how to do violence. Wherever one finds supplies of bismuth, it is a safe assumption that the husks warred there in elder days. The husks that survive today are those that were the victors of their battles.
Modern husks are only animate when in the range of a demiurge or a controlling mage. Better maintained husks can travel further from their source of animation before shutting down, up to 100 miles.
Husks.
Drudges.
The lowest workers. Built of the skeleton of a human or elf, reinforced with bismuth armor.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.
Reavers.
Immense harvester husks. Built of the skeletons of ogres or trolls but with their arms replaced with massive bismuth blades.
HD: 6Priests.
Repair husks. A humans skeleton hovering a few inches above the ground, with robes of paper-thin bismuth. Their skulls are replaced with bismuth. They move as if puppeted by string.
Repair Protocol: Another husk is healed for health equal to 1 HD.
Overdrive Protocol: .Another full-health husk takes an immediate turn, then dies.
Hosts.
Formed of the skeletons of a large beast like an elephant. The back has been replaced with a bismuth construct with a number of holes carved in the side. Deploys small workers, formed of smaller beast skeletons, no larger than a dog.
HD: 5
Defense: As Plate.
Mobility: As Human.
Tactics: Hide behind other husks. Deploy lots of workers. When out of workers, flee.
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Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.
Worker Host: A hosts has 2d20 workers remaining in it. Workers have 1 hit point and deal 1 damage with an attack (no roll to hit). When killed in melee by a trained combatant, the killer gets another attack.
Deploy Worker: The host deploys 1d4+1 workers.
Demiurges.
Husks designed as receptor towers for other husks. Built of the bones of an immense creature, like a dragon or giant, but with bismuth wings.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.
Emergency Husk Call: Every turn the demiruge calls all nearby husks to its aid. Husks drop all current tasks and move at maximum speed to the Demiurge.
Astral Fire Breath: 60' cone, deals damage as fireball.
Oracles.
Oracles are heavily modified drudges, converted from physical labor to remembering machines. Oracles have the knowledge of the ancient days stored in their machine minds, though most of their data has been corrupted over millenia. Oracles are animated of their own will. Unlike all other non-demiurge husks, oracles can move throughout the world, which they do to record data and history.
An oracle has a 50% chance to remember any occurrence in the past century. Every century prior reduces the chance by 5%. A husk has a 1% minimum chance of remembering anything.
Oracles are non-violent, and will not attack unless provoked, even if nearby husks attack. If stats are necessary, use the drudge's.
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