Boneless

A boneless is a gangly figure with long, shriveled limbs and a small, wrinkled knob of a head swaying on a cord-like neck. Its folded, puckered skin is a translucent reddish brown and smells of rot. Some wear baggy rags sewn right into the flesh. It lurches unsteadily, sometimes dropping onto all fours for speed or balance. It cannot speak but obeys simple spoken orders from its maker.

For all their flimsy look, boneless are remarkably strong and supple. They can use melee weapons at normal damage but are usually told to grapple. Each round one slaps with both hands for 1d4 apiece, and if both connect the victim is caught. From then on it squeezes automatically for 2d4 each round. A held victim cannot attack, cast spells with somatic components, or do anything except struggle; he or a rescuer can break the hold with a bend bars/lift gates roll. Anyone attacking a boneless that is holding someone has a 40% chance of hitting the captive instead.

Edged and piercing weapons work normally, but blunt ones do half damage. A vial of holy water or a pressed holy symbol each deal 1d8, and boneless can be turned as usual. Fear, sleep, charm and hold spells, death magic, poison, and every telepathic psionic science and devotion all fail against them. They fight until destroyed unless ordered otherwise. Their pliancy makes them handy tools: one can slide under a door with just an inch of clearance, or fold into a single cubic foot.

They were first made by a wizard experimenting while a guest at a lich-king's keep in a mist-shrouded realm, who discovered that the right conditions let him animate a corpse's body and its bones separately. His methods have since spread to others. Boneless have no society and need neither food nor sleep, but they must be soaked in water once a week to stay flexible. One stored airtight or under two or more inches of water needs no upkeep. A dried-out boneless loses its grappling and contortion abilities and fights like an ordinary zombie, attacking once a round for 1d4 or by weapon, and fire of any kind deals it double damage.

They have no natural place in the world. Their creation is said to resemble animate dead with different material components, and much evidence suggests the process works only within the misty dread realm.