A Third Corpse-Wagon Full of Necromantic Novelties: Railroads, Sharks, and Skeleton-Style Severance

Last time: More Necromantic Novelties: Anathema, Bacteria, Dinobomb

Location: Necropolis Railway

Managing the dead is challenging enough when they stay dead. Managing them in a world of undeath is  more complicated by a whole order of magnitude.

The threat of the undead changes how societies handle corpses and remains. But for significantly large urban areas, the first order of business is to get the dead away from the living. Facilitating that process requires serious infrastructure, including a way to get the bodies from where they die to where they will be laid to rest. Depending on the setting, the railway can be a literal railroad, or a more low-tech equivalent (e.g., river barges pulled by beasts of burden on the shoreline).

What dangerous situations might adventurers find on the necropolis line or at its terminus?

1. Overrun cadaver carriage. Zombie unlife has spread amongst the corpses on one of the carriages, and now all the bodies within are trying to get out.
2. Plague rat outbreak. Rats attracted to the cemetery are carrying a virulent new disease. Rumors suggest it is causing the infected dead to walk from their graves, but this may be misinformation.
3. Charnel snuffer. A ghost snagged in the cremation chimney has inhaled enough necromantic energy to move about the crematoriums, blowing out the fires and slowing this crucial work.
4. Missing VIP. Some corpses are preserved, typically because the railway masters anticipate that they may someday be the subjects of magic like Speak With Dead or (in rare cases) Resurrection. One such cadaver is missing, and a frantic search is underway to locate it before it is accidentally destroyed.
5. Religious dispute. The burial grounds around the railway terminus were carefully laid out to keep the faithful of different sects from crossing paths, but a recent schism in the church has led to clashes and disputes over choice burial sites. An opportunistic wight hopes to amplify the violence and turn members of both sides to undeath amid the confusion. 
6. Expired Express. Unsubstantiated reports suggest that necromancers and grave robbers are disguising themselves as ordinary mourners to get through cemetery security. Board the train and investigate suspicious characters, without angering the legitimately grief-stricken travelers.

Monster: Mummy Shark

Undead sharks preserved in formaldehyde and covered in seaweed wrappings. The rot from their bite has a particularly fearsome reputation among sailors, as the pus that emerges from the wound allegedly warps and weakens the wooden parts of sailing ships. Creatures that die within a mummy shark’s stomach emerge as zombies at the next low tide. This blog cannot be held liable if your players begin to sing an obnoxious song after they hear you say the words “mummy shark.”

Modern statblock:

Mummy Shark (large undead beast) AC 13 (natural armor) HP 126 Speed 30’ (swim) or 10’ (a flopping and thrashing crawl on land) 

Challenge 6 XP 2300 

Actions: Bite + Dreadful Glare. 

Bite (melee): +9 / 3d10+6 damage, save CON DC 14 or contract mummy shark rot; can only recover HP while fully immersed in salt water, and ships on which the infected character travel suffer wear and tear at x3 normal rate.

Dreadful Glare: Save WIS DC 13 or frightened until end of mummy shark’s next turn; fail by 5 or more, paralyzed also.

Old-school statblock: 

Mummy Shark AC 13 HD 8 HP 36 Att +7 bite (2d10 + mummy shark rot (can only recover HP while fully immersed in salt water, and ships on which the infected character travel suffer wear and tear at x3 normal rate) ML 12 MV x2 normal swimming, half normal on land. Silent until it attacks, only harmed by magic or electricity, save WIS/PARA on first sight or paralyzed with fear until it attacks or moves out of sight.

Milieu: Skeletal Severance  

Necromancy is legal, but highly regulated. Anyone with healthy bones can sell the rights to the use of their skeleton for a set number of years after their death. 

The clergy condemn this practice, and many right-thinking people are at least… squeamish about such a transaction. But many who are struggling to make ends meet will decide that security in life is worth some indignity in death.

Adventure hook: When a painter with a record-setting skeletal service contract goes missing, the Necromantic Guild has a strong incentive to verify if they’re alive or dead. They will pay well for proof of death, and more for the recovery of the skeleton. But be wary; the church may interfere with your efforts, in the hopes that an unresolved claim will destabilize the skeleton trade.