ZOMBIE-IN-THE-BOX
Magical Item
A cruel and (un)deadly trap and assassination tool in the innocuous guise of a gaily colored children’s toy.
The box is a brightly painted wooden cube one foot on a side with an ornamental wooden bow on top (think gifts, not archery) and wide contrasting stripes painted down the sides to mimic ribbon. There is large red button on the front below the metal latch at the top edge, and its only other distinguishing feature is a metal crank on one side; its joins, hinge, and penetrations are virtually seamless, nearly invisible, and highly resistant to probing, tampering, and investigation. The box does not rattle if shaken, and it is deceptively light in weight, almost as if it is empty.
Destructive force applied to the box barely scuffs it, although after a full heart 
is absorbed it (and its contents) will simply wink out of the existence with no trace. Investigation (conventional lockpicking attempts) will almost certainly be fruitless, although the magic on the box will hide the tampering is actually doing damage to it (with half the effort achieved though lockpicking rendered as damage to the box’s structural HP). Arcane inspection or detection will reveal that the box has a significant magical aura.
Turning the crank will play a strangely soothing and likely familiar (EASY INT roll to recognize) traditional nursery rhyme melody as if from some unseen music box apparatus contained within, and after the fourth full rotation (and the melody) is completed and the crank arm reaches its apex, the otherwise unbreachable box pops open; the same effect is initiated if the red button is depressed as a shortcut.
When the spring-loaded wooden lid on box pops open, the magically stabilized extradimensional pocket contained within connects to the physical reality outside the box, dumping its contents—a ravenous and grisly full-sized formerly human(oid) zombie (, previously held in magical stasis)—straight at the adventurer who opened it. The zombie is flung straight forward in mid-air and appears at CLOSE range for an immediate EASY bite attack on anyone standing directly in front of the box. (The GM should make the zombie’s entrance a really good jump-scare.)
As this happens, the lid pivots around its hinge in a full 360-degree arc, inverting the extradimensional pocket upon itself and swallowing up the wooden box, causing it to disappear without a trace.
Except for the zombie.
Zombie
+1 STR +3 CON -1 DEX -3 INT -2 WIS -3 CHA DEF 8
- ATTACK—CLAWS: D4 basic (slashing) damage
- ATTACK—BITE: D4 basic (piercing) damage; characters bitten by the zombie who fail a CON check will be poisoned and feel ill, taking mysterious poison damage (D4) every hour unless cured (not just healed) with medicine or magic, and death by zombie bite will result in humanoid targets reaminating as zombies in 3D8 hours unless the brain is destroyed.
- IMMUNITIES: A zombie is immune to poison damage; it does not suffer from the side effects of poison, it cannot be charmed, and it is immune to fear.
- UNDEAD: A zombie doesn’t need to drink, sleep, or breathe, and it eats your brains because it WANTS to (badly), not because it has to.
- UNDEAD FORTITUDE: A zombie reduced to 0 HP by means other than magical/radiant damage can make a successful CON roll to pop up with 1 HP on its next turn.
- DESTROY THE BRAIN: A zombie’s head may be targeted specifically by any melee or ranged weapon attack on a HARD STR or DEX roll, as appropriate; one heart of damage to the head will drop the zombie permanently, and headshots on zombies are critical on a natural roll of 19+.
Notes:
See what else is on top of The Loot Pile.