Dread Beasts are hulking undead animals raised by Lutheria, Mistress of Death and Lady of Dreams. These creatures typify both of her domains, as these twisted mockeries of life are nightmarish indeed. Dread beasts engage in few—if any—of the behaviors they did in life and are almost universally driven to slaughter any humanoid they encounter. While most of these creatures lurk in the hidden, barely-trod corners of the world, others conduct nocturnal raids against villages and other civilized communities.
After it has been raised, a dread beast continues to rot. Although the creature’s flesh festers and falls away, this process does nothing to diminish its considerable strength.
Dread beasts are typically many times larger than their living counterparts. This gigantism is often due to the fact that dread beasts are frequently created from the remains of legendary mythic beasts.
Dread Boar#
Usually created from the remains of great boars of legend, dread boar lumber across the plains of the underworld and on the peripheries of civilization. Although still more intelligent than the average mundane beast, dread boar are largely stripped of their previous existence’s, leaving them husks of their former selves. Dread boar often haunt cemeteries where they desecrate the tombs and grave markers of mortals who have displeased their mistress.
Traveling Miasma#
The stench that cloaks a dread boar is even stronger than that of other dread beasts. This is partly due to the creature’s filthy, gore-caked tusks. Rather than being relegated solely to the creature’s mouth, the necrotic black discharge that makes its bite so deadly oozes continuously over the dread boar’s deadly tusks.
Voracious Appetites#
Dread boar are driven by an insatiable hunger that is a far greater threat to the civilized world than their murderous tempers. A single undead can devour entire fields of crops and herds of livestock in a matter of hours. If left unchecked and allowed to encroach upon mortal settlements, a dread boar makes short work of all available food stores, leaving the residents to starve. Lutheria sometimes personally sends these creatures to plague prosperous cities she believes have not offered her adequate sacrifices.
Dread Wolf#
The relentless dread wolves track their prey with unerring precision. Once a dread wolf has smelled the blood of a living creature, it tirelessly pursues its quarry. Occasionally, dread wolves are used as hunting “dogs” by more intelligent monsters on the trail of particularly elusive champions.
Strange Origins#
Although most dread wolves have been fashioned from the corpses of ordinary wolves, humanoids are occasionally selected to transform into these creatures upon death. Those so chosen are invariably evil and were often werewolves or prolific murderers—or both—in life. Ever a cruel goddess, Lutheria has been known to bestow this “gift” to her worshipers.
