Bone Head
Most undead want your body. The Bone Head wants your mind. It wants the chemicals your adrenal gland produces when you are terrified beyond reason, and it has the tools to make sure you provide them. Where Hunters stalk the isolated and Trappers ambush the unwary, the Bone Head walks directly into a group of survivors and tears it apart from the inside without laying a hand on anyone.
Bone Heads are Lurking Threats, classified as both Aberrant and Zombie. Their elevated intelligence is not merely predatory; it is psionic. These creatures possess the ability to reach into the minds of the living and twist what they find there. Betrayal forces a survivor to turn on their allies, attacking friends with the same ferocity they would direct at the dead. Delusions fill the target's senses with false input, stunning and disorienting. And beneath it all is Fractured Meal: a psionic feeding that inflicts terror, agony, and lasting psychological fractures on victims who have already been brought to the edge of death.
The tactical problem is that every standard survival protocol works against you when a Bone Head is involved. Group cohesion, the primary defense against Hunters and Trappers, becomes a liability. A Bone Head does not need to separate the group; it turns the group into its own weapon. Allies swing at allies. Coordinated defenses collapse into panic. And the thing with the skull face watches it all with an unhurried calm, feeding on the fear that fills the air like smoke.
Survivors with mental resistance training or abilities that counter psionic influence have the best chance of maintaining cohesion. Aberrant survivors face an additional threat: Aberrant Suffering specifically targets and disables their unique abilities, turning their greatest strength into a vulnerability. The recommended approach is to spread out (limiting the area-of-effect reach of Betrayal and No Escape), prioritize a fast kill before psionic abilities erode the group, and bring more than one person capable of delivering Double Tap. The most dangerous variants require multiple applications to stay down.
Bone Heads are Lurking Threats, classified as both Aberrant and Zombie. Their elevated intelligence is not merely predatory; it is psionic. These creatures possess the ability to reach into the minds of the living and twist what they find there. Betrayal forces a survivor to turn on their allies, attacking friends with the same ferocity they would direct at the dead. Delusions fill the target's senses with false input, stunning and disorienting. And beneath it all is Fractured Meal: a psionic feeding that inflicts terror, agony, and lasting psychological fractures on victims who have already been brought to the edge of death.
The tactical problem is that every standard survival protocol works against you when a Bone Head is involved. Group cohesion, the primary defense against Hunters and Trappers, becomes a liability. A Bone Head does not need to separate the group; it turns the group into its own weapon. Allies swing at allies. Coordinated defenses collapse into panic. And the thing with the skull face watches it all with an unhurried calm, feeding on the fear that fills the air like smoke.
Survivors with mental resistance training or abilities that counter psionic influence have the best chance of maintaining cohesion. Aberrant survivors face an additional threat: Aberrant Suffering specifically targets and disables their unique abilities, turning their greatest strength into a vulnerability. The recommended approach is to spread out (limiting the area-of-effect reach of Betrayal and No Escape), prioritize a fast kill before psionic abilities erode the group, and bring more than one person capable of delivering Double Tap. The most dangerous variants require multiple applications to stay down.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The face is a skull wearing skin as an afterthought. Bone structures push through pale, bleached-out flesh across the forehead, jaw, and cheeks, giving the impression that the skeleton is rejecting its own covering. The eyes are hollow and deep-set, sunken into shadowed sockets that seem to pull in light. Dark lines trace the gaunt features like cracks in porcelain, and the overall pallor is wrong: not the grey of ordinary decay, but a bleached, almost luminous white.
What sets a Bone Head apart visually from other Lurking Threats are the markings. Faint glowing lines trace patterns across exposed bone and skin, pulsing with a rhythm that does not match any heartbeat. These psionic indicators are visible even at a distance, and survivors who have encountered Bone Heads report that the glow intensifies when the creature is actively using its mental abilities. The clothing is minimal and ragged, hanging in strips that expose the skeletal frame beneath. The overall impression is deliberate, almost regal: a thing that does not need to hide because it does not need to be afraid of anything it can see.
What sets a Bone Head apart visually from other Lurking Threats are the markings. Faint glowing lines trace patterns across exposed bone and skin, pulsing with a rhythm that does not match any heartbeat. These psionic indicators are visible even at a distance, and survivors who have encountered Bone Heads report that the glow intensifies when the creature is actively using its mental abilities. The clothing is minimal and ragged, hanging in strips that expose the skeletal frame beneath. The overall impression is deliberate, almost regal: a thing that does not need to hide because it does not need to be afraid of anything it can see.
Biological Traits
The Bone Head's ability set is designed to dismantle groups from within. Betrayal forces a target to attack their own allies, and at higher ranks this becomes an area-of-effect ability that can turn an entire squad against itself. Delusions combine stun and hallucination to remove a target from the fight entirely. Aberrant Suffering specifically disables the unique abilities of Aberrant survivors for a duration, stripping away the very traits that make them dangerous. Fractured Meal is the feeding mechanism: a psionic assault that inflicts terror, agony, and lasting psychological fractures on victims already at the edge of death.
Physically, Bone Heads are no less dangerous. Brawling Strike Spike delivers devastating enhanced melee damage, and both Melee and Ranged Damage Reduction make them difficult to bring down through conventional means. Corpse Bound Healing allows them to regenerate, extending already difficult engagements. The tactical calculus is grim: you need to kill it fast before it turns your group inside out, but both melee and ranged damage are reduced, and getting close means risking Betrayal and Delusions. Spread formations limit the impact of area-of-effect abilities. Mental resistance preparations are essential. And bring extra Double Taps; the Robust variants do not go down easy.
Physically, Bone Heads are no less dangerous. Brawling Strike Spike delivers devastating enhanced melee damage, and both Melee and Ranged Damage Reduction make them difficult to bring down through conventional means. Corpse Bound Healing allows them to regenerate, extending already difficult engagements. The tactical calculus is grim: you need to kill it fast before it turns your group inside out, but both melee and ranged damage are reduced, and getting close means risking Betrayal and Delusions. Spread formations limit the impact of area-of-effect abilities. Mental resistance preparations are essential. And bring extra Double Taps; the Robust variants do not go down easy.
Behaviour
Bone Heads observe the three-phase pattern common to Lurking Threats, but the character of each phase is distinct. The Unaware state carries an eerie calm rather than the shambling mimicry of a Hunter; even at rest, something about the Bone Head's posture suggests awareness. The Stalking phase is almost regal. The creature moves with deliberate, controlled strides, closing distance with no urgency. It is savoring the anticipation, positioning itself where its psionic abilities will affect the most targets. The Attacking phase is less about physical violence and more about psychological destruction: waves of fear, forced betrayals, and sensory overload that leave survivors fighting each other instead of the threat.
When the situation turns against them, Bone Heads follow the Lurking Threats escape protocol. Rise Again is used to disengage, and the creature flees toward other undead concentrations. Higher-ranked Bone Heads recover faster through Rapid Rise Again, dropping and surging back with a five-second turnaround that barely gives pursuers time to react. The most dangerous variants possess Robust Rise Again, which requires multiple applications of Double Tap to keep them down permanently. A Bone Head that escapes will return, and next time it will have learned which members of your group are most susceptible to its influence.
When the situation turns against them, Bone Heads follow the Lurking Threats escape protocol. Rise Again is used to disengage, and the creature flees toward other undead concentrations. Higher-ranked Bone Heads recover faster through Rapid Rise Again, dropping and surging back with a five-second turnaround that barely gives pursuers time to react. The most dangerous variants possess Robust Rise Again, which requires multiple applications of Double Tap to keep them down permanently. A Bone Head that escapes will return, and next time it will have learned which members of your group are most susceptible to its influence.
It does not need to touch you to break you.
Threat Class
Lurking Threats
Counts As
Aberrant and Zombie
Body Range
50-75 across ranks
Key Threat
Psionic group disruption and fear harvesting
Average Physique
Skeletal, gaunt, deliberate and regal bearing
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Bleached white skin, exposed bone, glowing psionic markings
