Monster: Boneless
Game/Product: AD&D 2nd ed./Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium - Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness
Origin: What's the opposite of a Skeleton? Created by dark necromantic magic (is there any other kind?), these things don't occur in nature (or graveyards, if you like), so they are strictly servants of the wizard who made them. As the story goes, the necromancer Faylorn was experimenting with undead things and found he could animate the bones and the flesh of a same individual separately. Now everybody's making them!
Fear Level: A nice alternative to animated skeletons, they look gross and can squeeze under doors, or unfold out of a box. Perhaps more jump scare than scare for high-level characters, but they do that weird four-limbed run from all those Japanese movies, and get up close and personal to squeeze the life out of you, so fairly scary.
Danger Level: A 3 HD monster, it's fodder for the higher levels, but fairly dangerous for the lower ones. Their grappling/constricting attack is low damage, but impairs the victim in the fight. Boneless must keep their moisture to be effective, saturating themselves with water once a week, but it's a weakness that's hard to exploit. As with many undead hordes, its strength is in its numbers and immunities to normal damage.
Famous examples: Doctor Who introduced other-dimensional aliens called the Boneless (in "Flatline"), which aren't the same at all, except for their shambling gait. Could be inspiration. By the 5th Edition, there are Boneless who are just loose animated skins, not humanoid at all. Boneless were sometimes known to act as servants of Velsharoon, the neutral evil Faerûnian demigod of necromancy.
I wonder if: A Boneless was made into the Necronomicon's cover.
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