Zombie Wolf

A zombie wolf keeps the body it died in, so gaping wounds and even missing legs are common. Its fur is filthy and matted, and its rot can be smelled 100 feet away. It cannot howl; instead it sometimes throws back its head and chokes out a strangled cry through decayed vocal cords, and the first time anyone hears that sound, a horror check follows. It moves stiffly, at half a living wolf's speed.

Slow like all zombies, it always loses initiative and acts last. It bites for 1d4+1, and its tough, dead hide gives it a slightly better AC than a normal wolf. Mindless, it fights until it or its target is dead, breaking off only when the domain's lord recalls it.

Cold-based spells, poison, death magic, hold, charm and sleep have no effect, and holy water deals 2d4. Priests can turn and destroy it as a zombie, but at -2 when the lord is directly commanding it.

These wolves stay within a few miles of where they died and rose. They run in packs like the living, but small ones of eight or fewer. When the lord summons them, though, nearly all the domain's zombie wolves can gather into one pack over 1d6 hours, and the mere sight of that host assembling forces fear and horror checks, whether or not it has chosen a target yet.

No wizard or priest makes these creatures; the cursed, mist-bound domain does it. Any wolf that dies there and is not beheaded gets up again 2d8 days later as a zombie. Most believe the soil channels Negative Material energy into the carcass. Some sages think keeping the body off the ground for eight full days would stop the change, but no one has tested it.