Overview
Undead
AX.GHW.13.08
Undead are the dead that did not stay that way, returned through violence, through will, through shadow compact, or through the simple weight of unfinished business that refused to let the body or spirit rest. They occupy the widest range of threat profiles in the hidden world: Zombie thralls that barely constitute individual threats; Vampires who have lived long enough to build empires in the hidden world's margins; Vengeful Spirits who are genuinely pitiable and genuinely lethal; Revenants whose singular focus makes them more dangerous than any of them.
What undead share is an inversion of the living state. They do not heal naturally. Many do not think, or think only in fragments. They are often immune to conditions that affect the living, fear, exhaustion, disease, poison, and they are often specifically vulnerable to things that the living world uses to mark the boundary between its side and death's: salt, iron, consecrated ground, radiant energy, the resolution of the business that keeps them here.
Category traits common to most undead: - Immune to poison and disease - Do not require air, food, or sleep (exceptions noted per entry) - Radiant damage is effective; Infernal damage typically is not - Many are repelled or harmed by consecrated ground (Sacred Fire: Consecrate Ground; Order of the Warden's Flame protocols) - Salt disrupts spiritual cohesion, most incorporeal undead cannot pass a solid salt line without a successful Wit Save vs Threshold 3
The living and the dead: Haunt lineage characters have a particular relationship with undead threats, their Psychic Sensitivity to dead at Near range means they often perceive undead before other characters do, and undead perceive them as something neither fully living nor fully dead, which produces unpredictable responses. GMs should develop how specific undead react to Haunt characters based on each entity's intelligence and motivation.
Variant Rules
The Sympathetic Vampire: Not all Vampires are predators who view humans as food. Some have developed synthetic feeding methods, feed only from willing donors, or have centuries of ethical development behind them. These Vampires are NPCs with complex motivations who may be allies, contacts, or reluctant adversaries. Mechanically identical to standard Vampires; the distinction is behavioral and relational, not mechanical.
Ghost Investigation Mode: In campaigns emphasizing investigation over combat, Vengeful Spirits and Poltergeists function primarily as mysteries to be solved rather than threats to be defeated. Combat is possible but counterproductive, the Spirit reforms. The scenario is resolved by investigation work (Wit + Lore, Mediumship applications) that identifies the anchor and the resolution path. GMs running this variant should reward investigation successes with narrative progress rather than combat advantage.
Zombie Outbreak: A necromantic source producing ongoing Zombie reanimation creates a containment scenario rather than a combat scenario. Individual Zombies are manageable; the accumulation is not. Scenario resolution requires finding and eliminating the source, with Zombie management as the ongoing pressure. Appropriate for Street Level campaigns or as a mid-campaign complication at Regional level.
Plot Hooks
- A Bloodline Court has contacted the party through Safe Harbor intermediaries. One of their Court-recognized Vampires has disappeared. The last known contact was with a Vanguard-adjacent operative whose current assignment is not public.
- A forensics report has come through Network channels: a body in a small-town morgue has bite marks consistent with Vampire feeding, but the victim's blood work shows something no Vampire victim has ever shown before. The Aldersham researcher who flagged it is now not answering messages.
- The Poltergeist in an apartment building has been building in intensity for three months. The building's management company has been aggressively suppressing reports. The reason they're suppressing reports is more interesting than the Poltergeist.
- A Revenant is walking toward a specific address in a residential neighborhood, ignoring everything in its way. The person at that address is a retired BUA agent. The Revenant's face matches a photo in a sealed BUA file from 1987.
Destruction Methods Summary
| Undead Type | Temporary Stop | Permanent Destruction |
|---|---|---|
| Zombie | Destroy the brain; immobilize with salt | Destroy brain; fire; address reanimation source |
| Vampire Thrall | Kill as human | Kill as human; break blood bond for recovery |
| Vampire | Stake to heart (immobilizes); sunlight | Decapitation + burning remains |
| Revenant | Reduce to 0 HP (reforms in hours) | Fulfill or formally resolve its purpose |
| Vengeful Spirit | Salt/iron damage (disperses temporarily) | Resolve unfinished business; inter remains properly; Mediumship Threshold 4–5 |
| Poltergeist | Kinetic Storm can be interrupted; leave the space | Find original anchor; resolve as Vengeful Spirit at Threshold 5 |
| Vampire Elder | Stake + daylight sustained exposure | Stake + decapitation + burning |
| Master Vampire | The Sleep (reforms in 24 hours) | Stake in repose + decapitation + burning; neutralize Blood Empire first |