Marrowborn Cystern An alien landscape of slow death and excruciating pain, a cystern serves as a lair for the infectious undead known as the marrowborn. A cystern can be constructed just about anywhere by a Marrowborn Empress , though the matriarchal monster seeks out locations with a few requirements in mind. These are in order of this priority; covertness, defensibility, spaciousness, and mobility. As such most cysterns are created within abandoned fortresses or dank caverns that are reasonably close to humanoid populations. The empress needs those poor souls to create Marrowborn Pawns from their skeletal structure. However, the cystern may be formed within the sewer system underneath a major city, the depths of a steaming jungle, or the hull of a listing galleon along a shipping route. Sometimes, an empress may found a chain of cysterns to better propagate her brood and ensure it would be very difficult to wipe them all out. The interior of the cystern is a grand, profane cath...

The marrowborn partisan is a near-absurd miscreation. Its upper half is the skeleton of the warhorse it was born from, the mottled bones scribed with alien runes. What remains if its pilfered organs hang like ruptured pupae beneath swelled ribs with a grinning-humanoid skull where a heart should be. The partisan's head still retains an equine shape as well, though it is one smooth plate of osseous matter with a jaw fused shut by opaque cartilage. Instead of a horses hind, the marrowborn's vertebra have expanded out and resemble something close to centipede segments complete with appendages made of skeletal, human legs. Cadaverous Cavalry. The marrowborn partisans are born from both a warhorse and a humanoid, often its rider. The marrowborn hive slits open the poor beast and stuffs the cyst-implanted humanoid into its core. As the horror gestates, the two creatures fuse together before tearing free of the hosts as one chimerical undead. The Marrowborn Empress. deploys the...

The marrowborn cardinal's name derives from the deep-red coloration of its bones, forever stained by the bloodiness of its profane creation. The undead abomination's frame is slim and armless. Only the ribcage and spine remain, along with a few shriveled organs sticking to the bone. Its skeletal legs dangle lifelessly, clacking like windchimes as the marrowborn cardinal floats along. The creature's head is a conical mass of bone, unevenly bisected by a fleshy slash one might call a mouth. The orifice contains too many teeth and serpentine tongue that cannot fully retract into the solid cranium. The marrowborn has no eyes to speak of, nor does it need them. Abhorrent Arcanist. The marrowborn cardinal is a dedicated spellcaster for the undead brood. With no hands to weave spells, the horror animates its desiccated organs for the task. The leathery meat undulates into arcane shapes within the cardinal's ribcage whenever it casts a spell while its upturned mouth s...

When motionless, the marrowborn rook may be mistaken for a monolith of carved bone worshipped by a mad, alien cult. However, as the horror comes alive its hulking forearms peel away like a beetle's wings to reveal its grotesque entirety. The rook resembles a giant's ribcage filled with rancid organs floating on a squirm of cartilaginous tendrils. A few of the ghastly pseudopods roam past the framework's boundary, ready and eager to catch other marrowborn on the move. Its head is a crenellated growth of petrified keratin with an anemone-like bloom of sensory apparatus nested in the top and the lower jaw of a giant as a foundation. Sprawling out of the bottom of the anathema, the thickest tendrils propel the marrowborn rook along in a manner not unlike an octopus. As with all of its vile species, the undead's bones are scrawled with blasphemous, undecipherable runes. Unliving Rampart. The marrowborn rook is designed to be a siege engine, a mobile fortress, and con...

The undead anathema's skull bears little resemblance to a humanoid save its general shape. Its 'face' consists of a bone plate etched with sharp-angled sigils and ends with a toothless upper jaw. From the abrupt terminus dangles a thick, long tongue dotted with bonespurs. The top marrowborn consort's skull is ruptured by a cross-shaped growth of lipless mouths spewing arcane formula whenever the horror casts a spell, despite its lack of language. The consort sports a mantle made of lacey sinew from its bony shoulders to tiny waist. The spongy growth is riddled with holes and provides little protection for the putrid organs within. Its bony arms start off small, human, but end in wide plates not unlike kite shields worn 90 degrees askew. Just like its 'face', these plates are scrawled with unfathomable runes. Tiny, skeletal hands lurk beneath them. The consort tetters atop normal sized legs, though its feet have grown three extra sets of phalanges, each pointing...

This undead terror usually moves on all fours despite its bipedal frame. Its skull is cone shaped, ending in a singular, fleshy node at its zenith which contains a collection of alien sensory nerves. While covered with geometric patterns, the creature's head is otherwise featureless. Its shoulder blades flare out like spongy fins, as does its pelvis. These flexible bones allow it to switch from walking on four legs to two and then back again with ease. The marrowborn pawn's ribcage is covered with a regal filagree of tendons that reminds one of a doublet. It also keeps the monster's collection of putrid organs in place. Pitter Patter of Little Bones. The marrowborn pawn's potency stems from two behaviors. It is an ambush predator and rarely attacks alone. The undead thing's fingers and toes are twice as long one might expect and number six on each extremity instead of five. These thin claws are enveloped in sound-dampening mucous. While it leaves noxious drops...

Sculpted from bone, sinew and glistening cartilage, the marrowborn empress is an abomination like no other. As artistic as it is obscene, the undead monster towers are nearly nine-feet tall. The human-like qualities of its lower skull ends just above the nose hole where the bone flares into a latticework crown complete with wet-gristle instead of inset diamonds. Within the miscreation's throat lurks a sinuous tongue ending in a barbed spike, ever-eager to pull a victim closer to the empress. A sheaf of scrimshawed bones cover its torso in the imitation of an over-bust corset. Thought, one can still see down into its ribcage where marrowborn cysts pulsate within a moist, mucous lining. The bottom half of the anathema's body is a series of bone-plates stylized like an ankle-length dress. The marrowborn empress doesn't have ankles, though. Three dozen arachnid-like legs ring the hem. Constructed from phalanges and grey muscle, the collection lets the horror scuttle along with...