[Necromancy] Monster - Fleshmire

Easily mistaken for an ooze from a distance, the fleshmire is little more than a cobbled mass of resurrected flesh, organs, and bile fused into monstrous form. Partially melted forms of hands, feet, and limbs from multiple bodies protrude from the heap of undead flesh, each reaching out for more to subsume. Eyes and faces are not an uncommon sight, somehow glued onto the flayed flesh.

Fleshmires represent one of the crowning achievements of necromancy, perhaps spawning the first specialist field of sarcomancy. Because most basic undead require bones for ambulation, necromancers who can raise fleshmires are no longer restricted to skeletons and zombies. A sarcomancer’s laboratory often holds towering vats of putrid flesh for their work. Though more convenient to store, transport, and hide than corpses, undead flesh is more prone to natural decay.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

As a monster, they were created to essentially fulfill this idea that all corpses could be turned into three undead - skin, flesh, and bone - as a way to get some more unique undead. In a way where skinmelds are gaseous and skeletons are solid, fleshmires could be considered liquid. In battle, they're rather straightforward (it's a CR 1/4), but I made sure to include a little ribbon uniqueness where they're more effective against fleshy creatures (warforged rejoice!)

Necro-sarcomancy is a new compound word - the muscle to the bones of osteomancy. A little long for a name though.

As for the art, I started a little oddly using a different process than I normally would - just continuous overpainting. I started with a block, sketch, then continued to render details until it looked done. Unfortunately, that also meant some of the linework turned into thick black lines and parts were rendered improperly (or overrendered), plus the textures made it difficult to gradient. I should stick with my old method of black+white first for something this complicated. I ended up spending much of my LONG worktime trying to fix it. At least I learned some muscle drawings and it looks rightly creepy. Hopefully not too gory.

If I were to do this again, I'd also try for a different silhouette and reserve some time for creating a messier, drippier look. Unfortunately, I can't spend forever on one piece!