Skeleton warrior

Skeleton warriors were undead lords, formerly powerful warriors cursed with unlife by magic-users, trapping the skeletons' souls in golden circlets.

Description
Skeleton warriors often appeared as yellowed and cracked with age skeletons with chunks of decaying flesh still clinging to their bones. Their eye sockets were deep and black, each dotted with a sinister pinpoint of reddish light. Skeleton warriors wore rusted and rotten remnants of clothes and armor they wore in life.

Behavior
Skeleton warriors could often be found near the places of their deaths or burial sites. They usually possessed collections of treasures, trinkets, and remnants of their lifetimes of adventures. They did not guard said treasures as the only thing they cared about was recovering the soul circlets.

Skeleton warriors were often created to serve as bodyguards, servants, or workers. Some were too obsessed with the recovery of their soul circlets and were uncontrollable, becoming even more undependable, and dangerous. They rarely associated with other types of undead and preferred solitude.

Ecology
Skeleton warriors were undead creatures, brought to nightmarish existence by powerful wizards or demigods. As undead, they did not need to eat, sleep, or perform any bodily functions. The most common type of skeleton warriors had their souls trapped by the creators in golden circlets. Their existence was bound to the circlets, and countless skeleton warriors are roaming the Prime Material Plane in search of the accursed jewelry.

History
In some cases, a curse of divine magic created skeleton warriors. In 1369 DR a group of adventures encountered a skeleton warrior sustained by a curse that was placed on the Accursed Tower in Icewind Dale. With his dying breath, Kaladar the Cruel, a priest of Myrkul, placed a curse on the tower turning everyone who died within the structure into horrific undead monsters.

Appearances

 * The Paladins
 * The Accursed Tower