Husk

Among necromancers there is no greater art than that of Husk construction. To craft the perfect warrior from the bodies of the dead requires a skillful eye and a delicate touch. Not just any corpse will do. To craft an effective Husk, one must scour a recent battlefield and select only the choicest parts from the newly-slain. The arm of a swordsman, the legs of a shield-bearer, the skull of a general… disparate pieces combined into a merciless whole. But finding the right pieces is only the first step in a grueling process. The body must be assembled according to certain rites and stitched together with thread woven from the hair of a hanged man. Armor and weaponry scavenged from barrows and tombs is then attached to the body by means of sutures and hooks. The most difficult part is saved for last. The wretched shell must be imbued with Undeath. There are many possible methods of accomplishing this unholy deed. A necromancer can employ the vital forces of the natural world, often in the form of lightning, to fill the Husk with motive power. They draw these forces into the carcass using forbidden technologies or taboo rituals, and then trap them within the Husk. Or they can use a variety of elixir of restoration made from the blood of Demonspawn or Skinwalkers, combined with various alchemical tinctures, to infuse the monstrosity with something resembling life. The most common method, however, involves trapping the souls of slain warriors and magically fusing them into a cohesive, if not entirely stable, essence. This is also the most dangerous way of accomplishing the empowering of a Husk. If the magics binding them falter for even a moment, the fused souls will attempt to rip themselves apart, inevitably leading to the destruction of the Husk, or worse. Such an occurrence often results in the tormented Husk running amok, slaying its creator, and going on a rampage until it is destroyed. While the majority of Husks exist only for a short period of time due to being composed largely of rotting bodies, some persist for years, grotesquely outlasting even the putrefaction of their own flesh. One such Husk was the creature known as the Butcher. Crafted from the remnants of a skirmish between a band of Orcs and Kaerok soldiery by an ambitious necromancer, the Butcher was sent to slaughter more warriors in order to assemble a stockpile of fresh parts for its master to experiment with. In the weeks that followed, it slew dozens of foes; Orc champions, knights of Kaerok, and servants of the Sacred Order, who were actively hunting for the Husk’s creator. It took pieces from each person it killed, using the gory trophies to repair itself. The necromancer hoped to create an army of Husks, of which the Butcher was but the first. But the souls that empowered the Butcher grew more fractious with every battle, and it became less and less responsive to its creator’s commands, though the latter paid little attention to this, being more concerned with creating more Husks. Finally, there came a day when the Butcher turned on the necromancer, tearing him asunder with its bare hands and destroying his lair in an orgy of bloody violence. Those who’d been hunting it and its master assumed that it had perished with its creator. But it is said by some that the Butcher continues to roam the battlefields of Kaerok and the surrounding kingdoms, mindlessly continuing its collection of body parts in order to keep itself functioning.