Ranged attacks for the undead

[Quorlox]

I'm preparing an adventure that will include mass combat with undead armies and am looking for ideas for troops with ranged combat.  The power level should be around something that could be animated by Walking War Machine.  Any ideas?

 

[Ker'ion]

How about a bone thrower.


Launching bone shards made from the desicated zombie corpses in the army.  It "eats" a zombie in the army, then spits the parts at high velocity at its opponents using Essence from a high level Essence-Containing Gem (Abyssal Book, Pp. 255).  Say a mote or two per shot.  I don't have time for a full write-up at the time, with three twelve hour shifts looming ahead, so, someone else can run with the idea, or I can write it up later.

 

[wordman]

Cannon that fire undead spiders into the ranks of mortal troops.

 

[Quorlox]

What sort of mechanical constructs might be possible?  Zombies aren't the best soldiers, but are excellent at repetitive physical tasks.  Ammunition is a problem, but I guess that's a problem for all ranged attacks.

 

[Jukashi]

If you want ideas for undead mass combat, take a look at the undead in Warcraft III. In particular, the Corpse Wagons- mobile storage/catapults which both store corpses for necromantic purposes, and hurl the bloated, disease-filled gore at the enemy.


If all else fails, just hurl zombies at them with a trebouchet or something.

 

[Quorlox]

If you want ideas for undead mass combat, take a look at the undead in Warcraft III. In particular, the Corpse Wagons- mobile storage/catapults which both store corpses for necromantic purposes, and hurl the bloated, disease-filled gore at the enemy.

Disease transmission would be a good ranged weapon, and verbal ranged weapons seem to be an Exalted theme.  


What about flying machines?  Manual flight for humans is hard, but you have to lift an entire human.  Necromancy could animate a pair of wings with a head powered by eight arms.


EDIT


I suppose you wouldn't even need entire arms, just extracted muscles.  Cover the body with sharp weapons and you could have a cloud of sharp flying instruments.  Maybe they could be be small, packaged into a container that bursts upon impact, and attack what's around them for a couple of rounds.

 

[Sherwood]

In the description of Spine Chains in the main book they talk about how they hook up spike harnesses to the things and have a thousand pounds of flesh and steel slam into armored formations.  Have them ball up like a pill-bug and launch them into the body of troops, then unroll and attack.  That would wreck havoc on even a diciplined formation of troops.

 

[Quorlox]

Thanks for some ideas!  Shooting spine chains would be cool!  


I'm currently thinking of making a undead flying creature inspired by the Essence Glider in the north (which is where our current campaign is centered).  Cover the wings with skin, give it a number of eyes for 360 degree viewing, and three arms to stand on and carry bombs.  This would provide some good ranged capability and be a creature that could engage Haslanti airboats.

 

[Quorlox]

This is what I have in mind:  


Flayed Flyers


Soon after the first Essence Gliders (Wonders, p. 52) arrived in the Underworld as grave goods, Underworld craftsmen began experimenting with ways to include a similar frame into a flying undead.  After a few decades of experimentation, the flayed flyer emerged as the most popular construct.  The wings of the frame, which appears similar to the Essence Gliders’, have numerous muscles stretched between the fingers, and then these are covered with fresh skin or hide.  The center of the glider is often a human torso, although torsos from animals can be used as well.  In place of a head, a flayed flyer normally has numerous eyes in a ring around where the neck would be, as well as several eyes on the top and bottom of the torso.  These give the flayed flyer a 360 degree view of their surroundings.  Normally, three appendages are attached to the chest of the torso to allow for bombs to be carried, often these are arms left over from destroyed zombies or other undead, but anything that can grab will do.    


Flayed flyers are essential to northern undead armies that fight the Haslanti League; otherwise armies on the ground would be especially vulnerable to their airboats.  Like airboat crews, flayed flyers can carry and drop bombs (Bastions of the North, p. 99), up to three can be carried, but a flayed flyer carrying three bombs cannot take off from the ground with them.  Flayed flyers have trouble taking off from flat ground (Dex + Athletics, Difficulty 3), although the designers are uncertain why. Armies with flayed flyers usually have perches for them.


Although more fragile than zombies, flayed flyers are a little more intelligent, allowing them to relay reconnaissance information (such as approximate troop numbers), and follow moderately complex orders.  If attached to each other before animation, up to ten flayed flyers can be animated from a single casting of Walking War Machine.  Often, tails are used to tether the back of one flayed flyer to the front of another for animation, and then when they are separated, the tail remains.  


Str/Dex/Sta: 2/3*/2


Per/Int/Wits/Will: 3/2/3/10


Health Levels: 0/-1/-2/-4/I


Attack: Hand/Claw - 5/4/2L/2, Bombing 6/5/Depends on bomb type/3


Dodge DV/Soak: 3 (flying) – 2 (ground)/1L/3B


Abilities: Athletics 1 (Aerial Maneuvers +2), Awareness 2 (Detect Ambush + 3), Dodge 1 (Flying + 2), Linguistics 1, Lore 1, Martial Arts 1, Thrown 1 (Dropping Bombs + 1), Resistance 1, Survival 2.


*For the purposes of movement, a flayed flyer’s Dex is increase by two when flying and decreased by two when on the ground.