The Greendeath appear as skeletons twined with creeping vines and colorful blossoms, a contrast of colors and strange creaking marking their every movement; all of them have their skulls broken. Strange ‘muscles’ of greenery flex as they move, and taught vines serve to bind their bones together. The result is a creature with something far beyond the shambling of other rotting undead; the vitality of the woods flows in their unnatural forms, and they move with the graceful deadliness of a forest predator.
They have little need of weapons, having sharpened the bones of their hands and feet shortly after arising, as well as having thorny plants twined about their bones. Even a glancing blow from one of these undead will leave poisonous lacerations, and a direct strike often leaves the victim strangling on the blood from his own torn-out throat.
The Greendeath only arise in those woods which are being swiftly felled by woodsmen, far faster than the wood can replenish itself. Inevitably, fights break out, and a woodsman by himself, too angry to be near his fellows, will often have his life ended by a deadwood branch dropping on his head, the forest’s spirit sensing his wrath.
All too rapidly, the plants of the shrinking wood invade the corpse, consuming the soft tissues to fuel their growth and nurturing the anger resonating within the corpse, building it to a fever pitch as they bind the bones together with creeping tendrils, replacing ligaments and muscles with the dense strength of the woods.
Soon, all that remains are the bones, the plants that twine about them, and the anger; anger enough, between the woodsman and the forest, to drag the strange assembly to unnatural life. Driven by hate, they set off to slay those who kindled that anger, becoming a loathsome and unnatural protector of the natural world as it does so.
-Woodsmen have begun disappearing in the nearby forest; unknown to the locals, who fear rabid animals or perhaps an angry tribe of forest-dwellers, a Greendeath stalks the wood, slaughtering any who would bring iron to threaten the woods.
-A druid has begun deliberately creating greendeaths, using magic and herbal taints to drive tempers to the boiling point before staving the skulls of those who head off by themselves. Soon, the druid intends to release the hatred of the undead on the nearby town that has been logging in the forest far beyond their needs.
-What to do when a friend goes missing in the forest after a fight with his father? Go looking, of course! Unfortunately, by the time the party finds their friend, the poor soul is only recognizable by the pendant around his skeletal neck…