Drowned Ones
I'm not overly fond of the sea, but I've met a colleague or two that are less water-averse than I. I know many necromancers have developed zombies with aquatic adaptations and they are reasonably effective in or near the water, but they aren't quite as effective as naturally occurring Downed Ones."Magnati, independent necromancerby Eron12 with Heroforge"Drowned Ones are ostensibly similar to zombies in that they are corporeal undead from reanimated corpses with relatively few physiological changes post mortem, but zombies are created by a necromancer deliberately casting magic, but Drowned Ones seem to be created by unusual supernatural events. If a Scarterran necromancer managed to artificially duplicate the creation Drowned Ones with a spell or ritual, she has kept this secret to herself.
Causes
Drowned Ones are an exogenic undead type occurring when several mortals drown at roughly the same time in the vicinity of magical energies which results in the the corpses reanimating themselves.
Drowned Ones are "born" in packs with no incident to spawn less than five such undead. Based on adventurers' tales (which admittedly are prone to exaggeration), the record for Drowned Ones in one place is supposedly two hundred but it is possible that this was a coalescing of multiple and didn't involve a single mass drowning event.
by me with Midjourney
Symptoms
Like a zombies, Drowned one are mortal corpses that move and fight after death. Like zombies, Drowned Ones do not bind the soul of the deceased to the mortal plane, and they do not possess any trace of the original living person's personality.
Drowned Ones are stronger and tougher than they were in life and are surprisingly fast and agile, especially in the water. Only "tier three" zombies can approximate this physical prowess.
Drowned Ones have supernaturally enhanced senses that put even the most advanced zombies to shame. They have senses of smell akin ghouls. As long as they are in or near water they can see perfectly in the dark and they can track enemies in the water without sight or smell by feeling the ripples and vibrations in the water.
Drowned Ones have a very unique and highly specialized ability to control their buoyancy. While they can use their arms and legs to swim conventionally, they can float or sink whenever they wish. They commonly hover just below the surface of water in order to ambush boats passing by.
Prognosis
In instances where a mass drowning event creates one or more ghosts in addition to a pack of drowned ones, the drowned ones will obey the commands of one or more of the ghosts.
It's been documented multiple times to have a ghost captain of a lost ship commanding a crew of drowned ones. Even if the ghost commanding a group of drowned ones was not the original captain, they may give themselves the title captain. "King" Stubleb the goblin ghost chose to be a king rather than a captain, but his tribe of drowned ones never had a ship to begin with as they were drowned underground.
by me with Midjourney
Magnati, independent necromancerby Eron12 with Heroforge"Like most exogenic undead, Drowned Ones are notoriously difficult to bind or command with mortal necromancy. How the so-called 'ghost captains' manage this feat remains as of yet unknown. Fortunately, there is a workaround. If you cast a binding spell on a 'ghost captain' you can command a whole horde of Drowned Ones. But beware, restless dead capable of commanding Drowned Ones tend to be very strong-willed."
Affected Groups
Drowned ones can seemingly only occur among humanoid mortals. Goblin, elf, and human drowned ones are fairly well common. Others are not unheard of.
Usually, if drowned ones occur at all, between 20% and 50% of the casualties from the mass drowning come back as undead.
Hypothetically, if a ship went down with 20 humans, 5 elves, 2 satyrs, and a tengku the satyrs and the tengku are just as likely to become drowned ones as the humans or elves.
For their part, drowned ones are not sentient enough to notice or care about what race their fellow drowned ones nor do they care what race their victims.
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