Wight

A wight was an undead created through excessive necrotic magic. When a humanoid died from too much necrotic magic, it sometimes created a wight – an intelligent husk of the living mortal, sworn to serve its creator.

Description

Wights appeared as gruesome and twisted reflections of the forms they once had in life. Their desiccated flesh clung to their twisted skeletons, their hands ending in deadly claws. Their name came from that flesh's color – bone-white, bleached of all life and vitality. The only spark that remained was behind their eyes, burning with red-hot malice. A wight's cold touch could drain the life through flesh, clothing and armor. Wights hated all forms of radiance, sunlight most of all. Humanoids slain by a wight would rise as zombies under its control.
A wight was created when a humanoid was slain by more necrotic energy than was necessary to kill them. That necrosis lingered in the corpse long after death, often even after burial. While the wights of Thanatos were typically created intentionally to serve their necromantic masters, "accidental" wights occurred as well, sometimes rising from their barrows to trouble the living.

Behavior

Unlike lesser undead created from sheer necrotic energy, wights possessed the memories and drives of their former living selves. They heeded the call of whatever dark entity transformed them into undead, swearing oaths to appease their new lords while retaining their autonomy. Never tiring, wights pursued their goals relentlessly and without distraction. They were entirely without imagination or cunning and confronted all challenges in the most direct manner possible.
In Thanatos, wights formed the backbone of the undead society. They served as bureaucrats, tradesmen and military commanders. A human who lived well and honored their undead masters could reasonably expect to be reanimated as a wight upon death. While difficult and expensive to create, they were nonetheless the most common of the intelligent undead.
When created by circumstance, wights did their best to seek out the spellcasters that created them and serve their will. When they could not and were free to roam at will, they sought out any form of life they could extinguish it and, for a moment, feel the sensations lost to them in life. They made their lairs in barrow mounds, crypts and tombs – silent, desolate places, surrounded by dead plants, noticeably withered and devoid of beasts or birds.

Notable Wights

• Logisticos Tefar
• Witherby

Campaigns

The Menagerie

• Vhakizla: Upon arriving in Vhakizla, the Menagerie made the acquaintance of several wights, including Logisticos Tefar. (Chapter 4) They investigated the body of a wight merchant, ritualistically killed in Izla Square, when hunting the Sanguine. (Chapter 6)

All Hail Yog

• The Ritual: When seeking a politician's tongue as a material component for a ritual, the villains murdered Witherby, an old enemy of Ernst in Tzal Necros, and stole his tongue.

Wight

Creature Type: Undead
Size: Medium
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Challenge Rating: 3
Features: Life drain, can spawn zombies, immune to necrotic, resistant to nonsilvered weapons, sensitive to sunlight