7 Undead Plot Hooks for D&D 5e
Ready-to-run undead hooks for D&D 5e, each paired with a free statblock and a one-shot in Questweaver.
Drop one of these on the table
Hollowcrown Lich
CR 13 undead- Every grave in the valley cemetery was dug open from the inside in a single night.
- A returning patrol found their fallen comrades standing in formation with green fire in their eye sockets, blocking the mountain pass.
- A scholar who copied an old funerary inscription aged forty years overnight and now whispers the same two words in her sleep.
Grimcrown Caller
CR 4 humanoid- A widow paid the caller to speak with her dead husband and came back mute, her voice traded to bind the spirit longer.
- Three soldiers found their dead captain's signet ring on their doorsteps overnight, each engraved with a new order in his handwriting.
- A pale bird has been circling the bell tower for six days, and the sexton says it screams in a voice he recognizes.
Hollowveil Seer
CR 4 undead- A merchant stumbled into town unable to remember his own name, clutching a scrap of parchment with a date three days from now and nothing else.
- A noblewoman's mirror shows her a hooded figure standing behind her each night, but no one else can see it.
- Travelers at a crossroads shrine report finding answers to questions they never asked, scratched into the stone in their own handwriting.
Cinderwing Revenant
CR 9 undead- A caravan found scorched to its axles on the high road, every body reduced to white ash but the cargo left untouched.
- A village well has gone warm overnight, and the water tastes of sulfur and old bone.
- A hunter's blind on the ridge overlooks a crater where nothing grows, and at night a shape with burning wings circles above it.
Marrowpact Shaman
CR 5 fiend- A merchant's hands turned black overnight; he says he bought a charm from something in the bog and never paid the second installment.
- Villagers leave animal skulls at the swamp's edge each new moon, and the fever that plagued them for a decade stopped.
- A missing herbalist was last seen following a trail of golden sap into the mire.
Wailer of the White Rift
CR 7 giant- A blizzard moves against the wind, carrying a low mournful horn.
- Missing hunters are found frozen upright, eyes glazed with fear.
- Old maps mark a rift that never seems to stay in the same place.
Stormgrave Dracolich
CR 11 undead- Every thunderstorm now cracks with the sound of rattling ribs.
- A ruined tower is lit each night by blue fire in its empty skull.
- Farmers find fields scorched in a spiral pattern after the storms pass.
Undead monsters and NPCs
Undead one-shots
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Crown of the DeadThe dead are rising along the old road, marching toward a ruined keep where a hooded sorcerer sits enthroned. The party must cut through the lich's risen ranks, find the soul orb that keeps it from dying, and end the thing wearing the crown of bone.
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What the Dead RememberThe party needs information only a dead person can provide. A Grimcrown Caller can summon the spirit, but every summoning feeds the shade bound to the caller's crown, and this one is getting hungry.
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The Price of KnowingThe party seeks a prophetic oracle at a crossroads shrine, but the seer's truths come at a steep cost. They must negotiate what they are willing to forget in exchange for the answer they need.
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Ashes Walk AgainA cinderwing revenant has risen from a battlefield cremation pit and is burning its way toward the town that ordered the mass burning. The party must track it through scorched terrain, survive its flame-choked lair, and destroy or banish it before it reaches the town walls.
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The Bone LedgerThe party seeks out a swamp-dwelling shaman to lift a curse or retrieve a missing person. The shaman deals on its own terms, and if the party cannot stomach the price, the negotiation turns violent fast.
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The Moving RiftA traveling whiteout swallows the mountain pass. The party must find the moving rift, rescue trapped travelers, and stop the giant before the blizzard reaches the next settlement.
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The Storm-Bone SpireA storm refuses to break over a coastal ruin. The party must reach the spire, destroy three bone-anchor nodes, and confront the dracolich before the next tidal surge.
