Skeleton
Greetings and welcome to the 6th issue of the
Behind the Monsters series! Each issue is nar-
rated by Jadrin Nelv, monk of the Order of the
Sacred Branch. Jadrin schools novice monks in
the ways of the multiverse’s creatures and we,
the readers, get to listen in. Whether you’re a
player or a GM, you will find something of use
within these pages. For publishers, open game
content is presented as boxed text in the second
and third sections. Now, let’s see what Jadrin
has to say about that most classic creature of
undeath—the skeleton.
History
Why do you suppose that death is most close-
ly associated with the representation of a hu-
manoid skeleton? Is it because the mere sight
of a skeleton triggers an awareness of our mor-
tality? Most certainly, the skeleton represents
what most creatures will one day become—the
final form in the decay process—and no one
wants to be reminded of their own eventual de-
mise. But what triggered the initial association
1
Author - Bret Boyd
Illustrator - Rick Hershey
between mortality and the skeleton and contin-
ued to reinforce it into the collective conscious-
ness? The answer to that question leads us to
today’s lesson as we look at the origin of the
monster known as the skeleton.
Many centuries ago, the northlands were home
to the ancient human realm of Noras. More a
collection of independent regions, Noras was
governed by a council formed by the elected
leaders of those same regions. In matters of
defense, the council turned to the primary re-
ligion of Noras—the god of protection. Being
a realm on the frontier of known civilization
at that time, worship of the church of protec-
tion, a fairly militant organization, allowed the
populace to focus on their own pursuits without
worry of their sons going into battle. This is
not to say that young men (and women) from
Noras did not join the church, but rather the
bulk of the church’s forces came from outside
the realm for the clergy generously opened its
coffers to those interested in serving (especially
in remote locales).
And so it came to pass that a lone farming
community along the eastern border of Noras
had need of such protection. Repeated attacks
by gnoll raiders called for establishment of a
small church of the protection deity there. In
a few short weeks, the church was constructed
and a complement of 15 worshippers (referred
to as “Shields”) led by Highshield Stal-
phos Vren was ready to defend the
area. A noted officer of the church,
Vren took to this newest assignment
with his usual diligence, learn-
ing all he could about the area
and the people living within
it. One resident in particular
became the focus of his at-
tention—an alluring young
woman named Nalta. Born
and raised here, Nalta’s fa-
ther was recently slain in a
gnoll attack and she was ea-
ger to aid the church in any
way she could.
During the first month, Vren
could be found more and
more often at Nalta’s farm.
Her mother was too old to be of
much assistance with the physi-
cal labors so Vren, after seeing
first to his church duties, visited
the farm to lend his own strong
hands and back to the chores.
As you can likely guess, Vren
and Nalta became romantically
involved. The Shields were con-
cerned by this at first but, if their
commander could still carry out his
duties and while finding happiness on the
frontier, then what harm could come from the
relationship? Unfortunately, they were soon to
find out the terrible answer to that question.
In those early weeks of the church’s presence,
the worst enemies to be repelled were smat-
terings of gnoll raiders, human bandits, and
the occasional hungry monster—nothing they
could not handle but which the locals would
not have done well against. What no one knew,
however, was that an unseen enemy waited and
2
watched for an opportunity to strike. Some
years before this, worshippers of the protec-
tion deity did battle across the civilized world
against the forces of a deity called the Destroy-
er. Itself destroyed by the protection church’s
forces, surviving worhippers of the Destroyer
scattered into rural regions as separate cells.
One such cell was there, just outside of Noras,
and when those evil cultists saw the erection of
a protection church, they prepared for
their day of vengeance.
And so, one late night
while Vren was on watch
at the church, the cult of
the Destroyer struck. The
Highshield dutifully walked
atop the church’s open-air
roof, keeping a careful eye on
the forests surrounding the com-
munity. When he chanced a glance
back at the house of his lovely Nal-
ta, he was horrified to see it ablaze!
All thoughts of protocol fled from
Vren’s mind. Instead of alerting
the sleeping Shields or sounding
the warning bell atop the church to
alert the community of danger (a
special addition to the building he
himself thought of), Vren’s mind
was filled with visions of Nalta
trapped or injured within the blaz-
ing farmhouse. It is for this very
reason that the protection church
strongly frowns upon a wor-
shipper becoming emotionally
attached to a charge—“With
emotion comes clouded judg-
ment,” a phrase taught to Vren
even as a novice.
The Highshield fled from the
church to his beloved’s home only to find no
sign of movement from his vantage outside.
Vren called to Nalta and her mother but no re-
sponse was forthcoming. It took a few more
moments for the Highshield to recall a spell that
would shield him from the flames and cast it
before rushing into the inferno. Vren continued
to call for the women but when he found them
still in their beds he understood why they had
not answered—both of their throats had been
sliced open. Even as he removed the bodies
from the collapsing farmhouse in numb confu-
sion, evil was striking back at the church.
The followers of the Destroyer knew of the
Highshield’s romance with Nalta and, after ob-
serving the church for a time, came to know
the watch schedule as well. It was therefore an
easy matter to distract Vren away from his post
in such a way as to leave his fellows unguarded
and defenseless. Their plot unfolded perfectly.
Vren returned to the church after removing the
bodies from the house to find the last of the cult-
ists fleeing the scene. He could not identify the
fleeing humanoid in the dark but Vren’s dread
deepened at the sight of the church’s open door.
Sure enough, all of the Shields inside had been
slain, most in their beds but a few with weap-
ons in hand.
Wracked with guilt, fear, and intense sorrow,
Vren stumbled into the church’s nave to ask for
forgiveness. What he found was unforgiving
punishment. Because of his attachment with
Nalta, 16 people lost their lives. The protec-
tion deity informed Vren of his grievous errors
in judgment and meted out the kind of punish-
ment only a god could give.
“Highshield Stalphos Vren,” the god’s voice
is rumored to have said, “you are hereby grant-
ed immortality, charged to eternally protect this
area, from which you cannot leave except in
pursuit of your duty.”
From here, history tells us that the villagers
mourned not only for the fallen but for Vren as
well who was falsely punished, as far as they
were concerned, for loving someone. The im-
mortal Highshield, from that time on, kept to
himself within the church which he barely main-
tained. Instead, as per his deity’s orders, Vren
gave no quarter to those beings who threatened
the community. As mentioned before, such en-
emies were in plentiful supply but the deadliest
threat would again come from worshippers of
the Destroyer.
The evil cultists rejoiced at the death of Vren’s
fellows but their victory rang hollow while the
Highshield survived, even in his disgraced sta-
tus. Time and again they sent teams to assas-
sinate their foe, never realizing he could not be
slain. When they did finally learn the truth, it
was from the mouths of other evil beings who
3
could no longer plunder the area without signif-
icant loss of life. Against their better instincts,
these rival evil groups of gnolls, bandits, and
cultists formed a temporary coalition dedicated
to removing Vren from his post.
Their plan proved surprisingly ingenious.
After Vren was lured away from the communi-
ty, the group captured and threw the Highshield
into a subterranean chamber with a creature
called a gelatinous cube. The chamber was
sealed by a great stone and Vren was securely
tied with rope. The cube knows only hunger
and it fell upon the hapless priest with its acidic
caress. The coalition of evil rejoiced as Vren’s
muffled cries of agony spilled from the dark
cave leading to the chamber. As always hap-
pens with evil, the group members turned on
each other in that instant and the coalition dis-
solved in a blood bath.
Poor Vren could only writhe in anguish as
clothing and flesh melted from his form. After
what seemed like an eternity of pain, only the
Highshield’s skeleton remained but, as per his
deity’s decree, the ordeal did not grant death.
After another span of days, Vren clawed his
way out of the chamber and returned to the sur-
face. By this time, the poor priest had delved
into madness. Only vengeance upon those who
robbed him of his life (for how could the villag-
ers accept his presence, much less his protec-
tion, now that he was but a gruesome walking
skeleton?) mattered now.
Near to the cave stood a dilapidated tool
shed. Vren smashed into the squat structure
and grabbed the first offensive implement he
found—a scythe. At his touch, the rust and de-
cay fell from the weapon, a sure sign that his
deity approved of it. From the corner, Vren
retrieved and donned a tattered black woolen
hooded robe no doubt once used to warm a
farmer on a wintry day. From there, he tire-
lessly tracked down those who had assaulted
him. Gnoll, bandit, and cultist alike could not
hide from Vren’s divinely charged scythe and
word of the tireless dealer of death spread like
wildfire through Noras.
By the time Vren made his way back to
the farming community, his deeds were well
known. But as he feared, no one wanted the
skeleton around. Vren’s form scared human
and animal alike to the point where he had to
retreat into the forest. And still, Vren’s curse
remained, dooming him to eternally protect
the area. Despair only deepened the priest’s
madness and any being that even pretended
to harm local flora or fauna was subjected to
fierce attack. Vren’s “protection” became such
a stranglehold on the area that the farmers had
to move away or risk bringing down the skel-
eton’s wrath by accident, leaving the undead
Highshield alone.
There have been enough sightings over the
centuries to confirm that Vren still maintains
his vigil over that section of Noras to this day.
His form and reputation inspired the creation
of the skeleton we know today. Many necro-
mancers attempted to instill their own creations
with Vren’s ability and temperament but could
never achieve it. As a point of interest, Vren in-
spired the spell animate dead when he attacked
a gnoll raiding party. The lone survivor was a
young gnoll named Kritak and his story can be
found within the pages of Behind the Spells:
Animate Dead.
Know Your Foe
The table below shows what a character
might know when confronted by a skeleton.
A successful Knowledge (religion) roll
reveals the details of all the information at
and below the roll result.
DC 11: This skeleton is an undead creature
animated by magic to perform single-
minded tasks.
DC 16: The skeleton can attack with hand-
held weapons or by any natural means it
possessed in life. Its form is particularly
susceptible to bludgeoning weapons.
DC 21: Instead of fleeing, a skeleton can
be thrown into confusion by successful
turning.
DC 26: The very first skeleton was a human
cleric cursed with immortality by his god
for neglecting his duties which allowed
innocent people to die.
4
Adventurer Advantages
If you are without weapons such as a ham-
mer, mace, or club, then you can expect a
longer than average combat with a skeleton.
Composed simply of what their name states,
the skeleton is a collection of bones animated
and held together by magic. In fact, few schol-
ars know that the bones of a skeleton actually
possess a kind of magical cartilage that binds
the whole together. These small transparent
gobs are just beneath the surface of the bones
and cannot hope to be damaged by slashing or
piercing weapons. Bludgeoning damage, how-
ever, is just as effective on these as it is on the
bones themselves and destroying them serves
to weaken the skeleton’s structure.
While skeletons are normally immune
to critical hits, the variant rule presented
here tweaks that fact a bit. At the GM’s
discretion, a character who learns of the
magical cartilage binding a skeleton’s bones
together can score a critical hit normally
but only with a bludgeoning weapon of
masterwork quality or better. A successful
critical strike also forces the skeleton to
succeed a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage
dealt) or be structurally weakened. This
means that the skeleton loses 1 point of
natural AC for every 5 points of damage
dealt to it. A spider web of cracks spreads
across the bones so struck as visible
evidence of the serious blow.
Divine spellcasters have a special ability most
useful against skeletons—the ability to turn
undead away from them using divine power.
However, there is another facet of turning sel-
dom utilized. Instead of causing skeletons to
flee or be destroyed, a cleric can instead tempo-
rarily scramble the command the skeletons are
currently operating under, plunging their next
minute’s actions into uncertainty. This hidden
turning function is mostly used by cleric’s of
chaotic deities or by those hoping for some un-
expected allies as the affected skeletons tend to
attack their own comrades.
 A character successfully turning a skeleton
(or group of skeletons) can, instead of
turning or destroying it, send it into a
chaotic state of “mind,” effectively causing
it to be confused for 1 minute. The character
must possess at least 5 ranks in Knowledge
(religion) in order to use this turning variant.
All other rules pertaining to turning undead
are the same.
Related Research
Spellcasters that enjoy meddling with a crea-
ture’s abilities find the skeleton one of the easi-
est to experiment on. Already stripped of intel-
lect and its own special attacks, a skeleton is a
blank canvas on which these egomaniacal spell-
casters can paint their strange visions of mon-
strous perfection. One such “improvement”
is detailed below in the flesh stealer skeleton,
although recently there’s been some scholarly
debate about this particular skeleton’s origins.
Historically, this skeletal type was attributed
to some unknown “crazed mage.” But recent
discoveries in the tomb of an ancient chroni-
cler indicate that flesh stealer skeletons form
from the bodies of those souls who struggled
for life until the very last moment it left them.
These poor souls, so it seems, carry an inordi-
nate amount of negative energy with their bod-
ies and, upon becoming skeletons, bond with it
in the way described below. Flesh stealers will
never recover their own lives but forever feel
the need to siphon it from others in this grisly
way. No matter their origins, everyone should
be wary of these deceptively powerful skele-
tons. If you see a faint purple nimbus playing
about a skeleton’s form, you know what you’re
dealing with.
5
VARIANT MONSTER—
Skeleton, Flesh Stealer
As the normal skeleton template but with
the following additional Special Attack:
Flesh Steal (Su): When the skeleton inflicts
damage with a natural weapon against a
living opponent, the target must succeed a
Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ skeleton’s hit
dice). Success means the target suffers
no further ill effects and is immune to that
skeleton’s flesh steal ability for 24 hours.
Failing the save, however, means the
skeleton inflicts additional damage as if it
had used the vampiric touch spell (+1d6
damage per two hit dice; skeleton gains
temporary hit points equal to this damage
for one hour). The effect also allows the
skeleton to acquire flesh replicating the
target’s in a certain location as given on the
table below (for humanoids, roll 1d6; for
non-humanoids roll 1d10).
Roll Body Location
1 Head
2 Torso
3 Left arm
4 Right arm
5 Left leg
6 Right leg
7 Left wing
8 Right wing
9 Tail
10 Other (or re-roll, disregarding any
roll of “10”)
Acquiring the flesh and skin of a target does
not grant the skeleton any bonuses beyond
what is stated above. No matter where the
skeleton struck the target to initiate a flesh
steal, the target acquires a small purple scar
on the body location rolled for above for
one hour. The flesh gained by the skeleton
exactly matches that of the target (which
may prove interesting if, for example, a
flesh stealer owlbear skeleton were to in-
jure a gnome!). Adding this special attack
to a skeleton increases its Challenge Rating
by +2.
 Skeletons are the easiest to create and there-
fore seem to be the most frequently encoun-
tered members of the undead. Not a month
goes by where local taverns aren’t abuzz about
the most recent attack of skeletons created by
a self-styled necromancer. Since adventurers
are not always at hand to defeat these foes, the
local folk are left to deal with them as best they
can (unless they want to bow down to an evil
novice wizard). A dark-skinned southern alche-
mist named Forlin Prann fashioned a handy oil
to deal with just this type of situation, his own
village having been menaced no less than five
times in two months by skeletons gone rogue
after adventurers slew their creator. Forlin
became rich in a short time hawking his eco-
nomical oil of bashing to hamlets far and wide,
proclaiming, “Sometimes we commoners must
clean up the forgotten pieces of adventurers’
good intentions.”

NEW ALCHEMICAL ITEM—

Oil of Bashing
When applied to a weapon or shield, this
light green oil immediately hardens into a
thin but tough crust around the item. This
not only increases the hardness of the
item by 5 but also causes any slashing or
piercing weapons it is applied to to inflict
bludgeoning damage. The oil is effective
for 1 minute before the crust crumbles to
dust.
Craft (alchemy) DC 15; Cost 20 gp /
application.

6
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System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rick Baker, Andy Collins,
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Behind the Monsters: Skeleton, Copyright 2008, Tricky Owlbear Publishing, Inc.