Desert Zombie

A desert zombie is a parched human corpse, its brown skin shrunken tight over the bones. Unlike common zombies its flesh stays whole and never decays further, and it barely smells. It wears whatever it died in, though old ones may have lost their clothes to time. Old wounds and battle damage remain, and it keeps any weapon it held at death, unmaintained, until the thing rots or rusts away.

Though they walk haltingly like other zombies, desert zombies are not as slow and roll initiative normally. Every hit deals 1d8, armed or not, though they can be ordered to use magical weapons and gain their benefits. Heat (though not true fire), cold including cold spells, poison, death magic, hold, charm and sleep all fail against them. Seeing one requires a horror check; DMs may give hardened veterans a bonus or skip the check, since repeated exposure dulls the dread.

They swim through sand. Near the surface they leave furrows like a boat's wake, a terrifying sight for a lone traveler. One can reach up and grab a leg with a normal attack roll against AC 10 (Dexterity bonuses apply). A held victim suffers -2 to THAC0 and AC and is hauled under over three rounds, with a Strength check each round to break free. Under the sand he lasts one round, and the second round's end brings suffocation.

Their master usually has them lie hidden just under the sand, grabbing victims' legs as they pass while the rest burst up to surround them.

The zombies have no society; they are extensions of the greater mummy Nebkhaset, who sees and hears through all of them and controls them every round without hindering his own actions. He cannot make them talk or pick up items nearby. They must stay within 8 miles of him, and when idle they scatter and bury themselves at least a dozen feet deep until needed. Rumors say other spellcasters in the desert kingdom have begun making them, unproven so far.

Nebkhaset gave up all his spellcasting to create and control this army and to gain partial command over the desert kingdom. Anyone who dies of the disease from his touch rises as a desert zombie a full day later, unless the body is destroyed in the meantime.