Iron Hide Zombie-Clang!-
-Clang!-
-Squish!-
-Sclitch.-
-Thud.-
-Sigh.-
-Clang!-
-Clang!-
“Um. Flakim?” The heavily-armored dwarf reached one hand up to grasp the human’s elbow. A quick shrug of his shoulder and Flakim threw off the hand to take another swing at an encroaching zombie.
-Clang!-
“Leave me alone, Alakin. There are only two more of these monstrous germ-bags left. And they can only come through this door one at a time. They have me right where I want them.” The human took yet another swing.
-Squish.- Flakim’s longsword finally sliced through the zombie’s neck.
-Sclitch.- The rotten head fell to the stone floor and split open like a melon.
-Thud.- The undead body followed the head to the ground.
-Sigh.- The human wiped his brow with the back of his leather glove.
Another diseased walking corpse stepped over several fallen zombies and through the doorway toward the human and dwarf.
“Yeah, umm.... Flakim, ‘bout that.... It’s takin’ y’quite a while t’slice through ‘em.” Alakin gestured toward the oncoming undead. “An’ it’s a lot noisier than usual.”
“Take a step back, friend Dwarf. The task has fallen to me and I am doing it, I am doing it. I will be victorious. I am, after all, the bearer of Mithlos Crotch-mangler.” Flakim held up his jeweled longsword in front of the dwarf as emphasis. “Mithlos will get us through this. ‘Tis just a matter of time until these evil cretins fall to the might of my God.” Flakim thrust the ornate sword toward the ceiling, just as the latest zombie reached out and slammed his hand down on Flakim’s helm with a loud ‘CLANG’.
The human’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he sagged to the floor. This time the sigh came from the dwarf as he hefted his greatclub to his shoulder and readied his first swing.
==========================
Iron hide zombies are sturdier than the normal zombie template and more difficult to kill. The recipe to create this type of undead has been lost to antiquity. There are many guesses, but none who can tell which story is the truth. However, the manner of creation has been newly recovered, having been found scrawled on a tattered piece of parchment in the back of a tome in the Coldtreath Library’s stacks. The tome was a rare copy of How to Sound Smart About Rune Magic, by Galamedes, Mage of the Orange Chaos. It is unknown why the parchment would have been in this tome, other than a bookmark, as the tome has nothing whatsoever to do with necromantic magic.
One of the key elements of this modified template is the use of a suite of full plate armor, which is entirely consumed in the creation of the zombie. The cost of this armor severely limits the number of zombies that can be created at once, as each zombie requires an entire suit of armor to create. It is believed that the armor adds the element of strength and invulnerability to the undead.
Practically, the effect of adding the armor to the zombie’s creation process adds a +3 to the natural armor bonus for a zombie of similar size category. In addition, the damage from the zombie’s slam attack is increased as if the zombie were actually one size category larger. This change also increases the CR of the particular zombie by +1.
| Size | Armor Class | Damage |
| Fine | +3 | 1d2 |
| Diminutive | +3 | 1d3 |
| Tiny | +3 | 1d4 |
| Small | +4 | 1d6 |
| Medium | +5 | 1d8 |
| Large | +6 | 2d6 |
| Huge | +7 | 2d8 |
| Gargantuan | +10 | 4d6 |
| Colossal | +14 | 6d6 |
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Last year's "I": I is for Inkeeper
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