Ashen husk

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the ashen husk is an undead. They are the animated corpses of those who died of thirst and dehydration while in the desert (contrary to being labelled as animated corpses, however, they are not zombies).

Publication history

The ashen husk first appeared in third edition in Sandstorm (2005).^[1]

Physical Description

An ashen husk resembles a normal zombie or skeleton for the most part, except bone dry. So devoid of fluid they are brown and crumbling, and their flesh so desiccated that it appears nearly skeletal. Accompanying them wherever they go is a dry, sucking heat that makes the air waver, almost as though they bring with them the soul of the waterless desert.

Environment

Ashen husks of course inhabit the deserts, where who they once were died of thirst, and arose as the undead creature.

Society

Many ashen husks died of exposure in the open desert when they became lost without water. Sometimes entire caravans get lost and die of thirst, causing all of them to die and rise as husks who years later stalk the deserts desperately searching for water.

Combat

Ashen husks slam their foes with bone-hard limbs, but they expose their real threat against living creatures caught in their dehydrating aura that accompanies them. Anyone within 10 feet of a husk, without making a successful save, takes heat damage and becomes dehydrated, a dangerous combination.

In addition, any creature killed by an ashen husk promptly rises shortly after as another ashen husk.

Misc

Ashen husks are neutral evil in alignment.

References