Realms of the Dead

"Not Even the mightiest mage, working spells that remain utterly reliable, can hope to prevail against dozens of tireless, ruthless UNDEAD who suffer no pain and can be distracted by nothing.

Every creature on Faerûn has its dark mirror in the undead - from the ghosts of ancient warriors to the rune-scribed skeletons of dragons. And in a world with as rich and bloody a history as the Forgotten Realms, they are legion - outshining the living in variety and number.

Here are a dozen of the most terrifying tales of the haunted Realms."

Pieces
By Richard Lee Byers

This story follows Bareris Anskuld and Mirror as they try to rejoin the resistance movement against Szass Tam. In the city of Amruthar, they discover the body of Urmas Sethdem, whom they question with the aid of Bareris's bardic necromancy magic. From him, they learn that he answered to Chon Vrael, an influential Kossuthan priest in the city who detests undead for the pain they've caused his family.

When they approach Vrael after one of his sermons and tell him about the death of his subordinate, he doesn't believe them; not only are Bareris and Mirror both undead, but Urmas Sethdem is alive and has been advising him! During the course of a conversation between Vrael and Sethdem, Bareris learns that the impostor is psychically dominating the priest and that it is using that influence to have Vrael call a meeting of his closest allies.

During the course of the meeting, a necromancer under Vrael's command magically questions Bareris, forcing him to answer truthfully. When the council discovers he has been telling the truth and that someone was indeed impersonating Sethdem, they discover he is missing. Seconds later, a small group of skeletons and an ulgurstasta - a huge, worm-like undead thing - burst in to the chamber, killing three council members and mortally wounding Chon Vrael.

Though Bareris manages to escape his imprisonment and defeat the impostor (who turned out to be a visage) and his summoned ulgurstasta, it is too late for the resistance leader. With his dying breath, he asks Bareris and his necromancer to raise him as a free-willed undead. Though they do their best, Mirror and Bareris agree that they did something terrible.

Soul Steel
By Lisa Smedman

Set on the 21st of Uktar in the Year of the Private Tears, "Soul Steel" follows the story of Trelwyn Vithannis as she seeks vengeance for the death of her brother, Rollan, who was executed two days previous, supposedly for killing the pet jaguar of Queen Bethilde of the Forest of Amtar, though it wasn't wearing its collar at the time. When Trelwyn searched her brother's home, however, she found his journal, which contained memories of his having witnessed the queen having an affair with someone other than the king, and later a note about the queen giving birth. That same day, Rollan was executed.

Seeking vengeance, Trelwyn meets with a drow lich by the name of Valek, asking him to enchant her sword with a dweomer powerful enough to pierce the queen's magical protections. The lich did so, telling her that anyone killed by the blade would have their soul absorbed into the sword until the sword killed again, at which point the previous soul would be destroyed. As part of the ritual, according to Valek, the sword needed to be used to kill someone. The dwarf Spinnel, who had been caught prospecting ore in the forest, was sentenced to death by the queen, and Trelwyn offered to be the executioner. A moment before the blade would have pierced the dwarf's chest, Valek stepped in front of it (though he made it appear as if the dwarf had dodged) and his soul was absorbed into the sword.

Spinnel made a deal with Trelwyn: in return for killing the queen, Trelwyn would allow him to go free. Agreeing to this, the two traveled to the royal court, with Spinnel acting as her prisoner. When the guards demanded to know why she was returning with a still-living prisoner, Trelwyn told them that the dwarf had information about a traitor among the queen's guards, producing the collar of the jaguar her brother had slain, which she found not far from the spot where it had died. Knowing that Trelwyn knew of the part she played in Rollan's death, the queen dismissed her guards to deal with the two privately.

Seeing her chance, Trelwyn threw her sword to Spinnel, but Bethilde reacted instantly and used magic to force the blade into Spinnel's chest. Enraged that she was not going to get her revenge, Trelwyn quickly retrieved her weapon and lunged at the queen. The queen temporarily blinded her with a quick spell, but Trelwyn kept swinging, and Spinnel's soul guided the sword, and she managed to wound the queen before the guards knocked her unconscious.

When she woke up, Trelwyn found herself locked up, but Bethilde had her released. When the two were together again, the queen revealed that she was actually Spinnel in the queen's body, the sword having released his soul into her body. The two decided that the drow lich had planned it so that he would take over Bethilde's body and rule the elves there. They hatched a plan where they would escape the forest under the guise of the queen renewing her spells in a sacred grove. The original plan was for Spinnel to then go his own way and find a wizard to polymorph him back to his original form, but he decided he'd rather be polymorphed into another - male - elf form, and Trelwyn decided to go with him.

The Resurrection Agent
By Erin M. Evans

Set over a two-day period in early Eleasias in the Year of the Reborn Hero, "The Resurrection Agent" follows the life and death of a woman known as the Harlot, who is a "resurrection agent" - someone hired to spy on people and intentionally be caught and killed, and later resurrected to give testimony. Viridi, the woman who recruited her, has been killed, and she and a man known as the Shepherd (the Selûnite priest who does the resurrecting) go to retrieve the body.

However, before they can escort the body to a place suitable for resurrecting Viridi, they are attacked by a vampire named Reshka and her minions, a pack of gravehounds and a wight named Na, both of whom are familiar to the Harlot; the vampire was a woman the Harlot was hired by Saestra Karanok to find, and Na is one of the Harlot's killed bodies. The Harlot and Shepherd fight them off, but not before Reshka steals the body of Viridi.

To prevent Viridi from being raised as a minion and spilling all her secrets, the two track Reshka back to her resting ground, a cave they are eventually forced to pull down on their own heads to defeat their enemy and bury Viridi. The Harlot is mortally wounded in the process, but the Shepherd escapes, and the Harlot manages to convince Saestra Karanok to let him go.

Wandering Stones
By Bruce R. Cordell

Set in Returned Abeir, it is the story of a Dragonheir.

The Bone Bird
By Jaleigh Johnson

A cleric of the Earth Mother has to destroy a powerful undead.

Feast of the Moon
By Christopher Rowe

A cleric of Malar is tasked by his dark god to destroy a powerful undead through his ritual vision.

A Prayer for Brother Robert
By Philip Athans

Brother Robert, Cleric of the Amaunator has to enter the areas' haunted house, by he has his hands full with its strange denizens.

The King in Copper
By Richard Baker

Before the Spellplague the Harmach made a deal with Aesperus.

Dusty Bones
By Rosemary Jones

A Carver and his cousin release a powerful undead being into Waterdeep.

The Many Murders of Manshoon
By Ed Greenwood

One of Manshoon's cloners sets out to cleanse the Zhentarim.

A Body in a Bag
By Erik Scott de Bie

After a lordling is turned into a Wight while in an exploration with his fellows, those two friends, the Necromancer and the Tiefling face troubles in their lives.

Iruladoon
By R.A. Salvatore

Set in Icewind Dale, after the Spellplague, "a place without time" tries to claim the crew and passengers traveling across the Lac Dinneshere. Two of the crew stumble across a duo long lost to the world.