Red Zombie

A red zombie looks as it did at death, but with dull red skin and a bright red glow spilling from its eyes and mouth. The curse leaves even those who had no curse-born gifts horribly mutated.

Like ordinary zombies they are slow and act last, clawing and gouging out flesh and eating it as they go. They prefer targets carrying the curse-warding red metal and keep fighting until every possible victim is dead. They are immune to cold-based spells, poison, death magic, hold, charm and sleep. A vial of holy water burns them like acid for 2d4, and crimson steel weapons deal double damage.

Each point of damage a red zombie deals drains a day's worth of the victim's red metal, so 7 damage strips 7 days' worth, or 1 ounce. For every full ounce drained the zombie gains 1 temporary hit point, lost at the next sunrise.

Usually an evil mage or priest makes one by casting animate dead on someone in the curse's deforming final stage. One may also rise on its own from a victim of the red wasting, the illness that afflicts those without curse-born gifts or beyond the protective haze who wear the metal, costing them 1 Constitution a day until death. Such a victim buried without a blessing has a 10% chance of rising a day later.

Whatever its alignment in life, the zombie becomes evil, obsessed with destroying the metal that killed it. It can sense the metal automatically and lingers near deposits and its users. Its dim wits and ability to handle complex orders make it more useful than ordinary zombies, but the obsession makes it hard to control: a commanded red zombie saves vs. spell every four weeks, and on a success breaks free and attacks its master. Red zombies rarely cooperate unless something controls them.

One without curse-born gifts in life never gains any. Those that had gifts keep them, and a former member of the curse-gifted orders has at least two, maybe more at the DM's option.

Being unnatural, they play almost no part in ecology, but they are a real menace to anyone who relies on the red metal.