The full moon shines down on the ruined farm. Bodies lie scattered across the barnyard in pools of congealed black blood. The first sign is dry rattling cracks from all around you, and then hundreds of little avian skeletons emerge from the surrounding area and move toward you, empty eye sockets implacably staring.

Doom fowl are swarms of the animated skeletons of chickens, ducks, geese, and other common barnyard fowl. Never ones to waste resources, the gnomes of Neimheim developed a variant usage of animate dead to turn the dead flocks of raided farms into a source of horrible minions. The resulting swarms of undead fowl often incorporate nearby materials into their incomplete skeletons, a feature that the gnomes quickly realized allowed them to augment their creations.

Doom Fowl (CR 3)

XP 800
NE Tiny undead (swarm)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5

DEFENSE
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size, +0 natural)
hp 21 (3d8+9)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +3
Defensive Abilities half damage from weapons, swarm traits; Immune undead traits, DR 5/bludgeoning

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft. / Fly 10 feet (poor)
Melee swarm +7 (1d6 plus distraction +1d6 fire)
Space 10 ft., Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 13), burn (+1d6 damage)—construction point ability

STATISTICS
Str 7, Dex 13, Con —, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 15
Base Atk +2; CMB 0; CMD 0
Feats Toughness
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +5

ECOLOGY
Environment: Any (agricultural)
Organization solitary, pair, or nuisance (3–5 swarms plus 1 necromancer)
Treasure: Incidental

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Integrated Items (Ex): Necromancers animate doom fowl with a ritual that often incorporates items or devices into the skeletons. This means that doom fowl have 1 build point to spend on the animated item build point chart. The doom fowl may not take flaws to increase their number of points and may only take the single choice. Note that the above swarm was made with the burn ability, which the GM may replace with any other 1 CP construct ability.

Ecology

As undead abominations, doom fowl form no natural part of Midgard’s ecology. Instead, they kill living things and remove them from the natural cycle, living among the dead and moldering bodies of their victims.

Habitat and Society

Swarms of doom fowl lack intelligence and often unthinkingly mime wandering and feeding in a horrible parody of daily farm life. The undead fowl possess an instinctive hatred for the living and swarm over any living things that disturb them. They also follow and serve necromancers throughout Midgard, since the usage of spell has spread far and wide. A necromancer can animate a flock of doom fowl using the animate dead spell. Spending an additional 500 gp for parts allows the flock to have one CP of animated object abilities.