Necromancy
Fear of death, an obsession with attaining immortality, a desire to divine the secrets known only to the dead, or some darker motive could explain why someone would risk awakening Lord Death’s wrath by dabbling in these dark arts. Necromancy offends the god for it dabbles in the domain He claims: chiefly death and dying things. The spells it offers create abominations, undead that pervert life, or sap life force from others on which the necromancers feed. Most students of the tradition deserve the stigma attached to its study, but a few find a way to use the magic for good, if not noble, ends.
Necromancy Talents
DEATH’S DOOR (Magical): You can use an action to target one incapacitated creature you can see within 5 yards. Either the target dies and you heal 1d6 damage or the target heals 1d6 damage. You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
ENERVATION (Magical): You can use an action to sap life force from a creature. Target one creature within 5 yards. If the creature has a Health score of 5 or more, make an Intellect roll against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes 1d6 damage and you heal 1d6 damage. At level 3, the target takes 2d6 damage and you heal 2d6 damage. At level 7, the target takes 4d6 damage and you heal 4d6 damage. On a critical success, the target also becomes weakened until the end of your next turn.
PRESERVE CORPSE (Magical): You can perform a ritual to safeguard a dead creature or repair an undead creature. Target one dead creature or one undead within 5 yards. When you finish, the target becomes immune to decay and emits no odor for 1d6 days. An undead target also heals 4d6 damage. You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
ROUSE CORPSE (Magical): You can use an action to animate a dead creature that is not already undead. Target one Size 1 dead creature. When you finish, the target stands up if it can and becomes undead for 1 minute. The undead is your controlled companion.
| WEAK UNDEAD |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 9 (-1), Agility 6 (-4), Intellect -, Will –
SIZE: 1, SPEED: 3 (no running)
IMMUNE: asleep, poisoned
NATURAL WEAPONS: The undead uses its claws as natural weapons that deal 1d6 damage. The undead rolls to attack with 1 bane.
NATURAL DECAY: The undead loses 1 Health at the end of each round.
You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
Novice Necromancy Spells
Animate Corpse
Castings: 1, perform a ritual, you have a writing kit
Target: One dead creature within reach
Duration: Instant
During the ritual, you paint profane runes on the target’s body. When you finish, the target becomes an animated corpse until it becomes incapacitated. The target is your controlled undead companion. You can have a number of animated corpses under your control equal to your level. The spell fails if you attempt to create more.
| ANIMATED CORPSE |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 9 (-1), Agility 8 (-2), Intellect 3 (-7), Will 15 (+5)
SIZE: 1, SPEED: 3 (no running)
IMMUNE: asleep, frightened, poisoned
NATURAL WEAPONS: The animated corpse uses its hands as natural weapons that deal 1d6 damage. The corpse rolls to attack with 1 bane.
NATURAL DECAY: The animated corpse loses 1 Health at the end of each of your rests.
You can expend a casting of this spell to target one undead within 15 yards. The target heals 3d6 damage.
Bone Burst
Castings: 3
Target: One flesh-and-blood creature within 10 yards
Duration: Instant
The bones in the target’s body swell and threaten to burst. The target takes 2d6 damage. Then, make an Intellect roll against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage and becomes weakened until the end of your next turn. A target incapacitated by this spell dies as the bones in its body burst apart.
Corpse Scream
Castings: 1
Target: One dead creature within 10 yards
Duration: Instant
The spirit that once inhabited the target returns long enough to cause the body to let loose a blood-curdling scream and then depart. Each creature within 5 yards of the target takes 1d6 damage and makes a Will roll with 1 bane. On a failure, the creature takes an extra 3d6 damage and becomes frightened of you (luck ends).
Grave Grasp
Castings: 1
Target: The ground in one Size 5 space within 10 yards
Duration: 1 minute
Pale, rotting hands and skeletal claws reach up from the ground in the target space to snatch at anyone in their midst. The ground becomes challenging terrain until the spell ends. Each creature on the ground in the target space when you cast the spell, and at the start of each of your turns, makes an Agility roll with 1 boon. On a failure, the creature becomes held and frightened (luck ends both). A creature can overcome these afflictions with a success on a Strength roll. If the creature is held already, it takes 1d6 damage and falls prone.
Osseus Blade
Castings: 1, you have a small piece of bone
Target: You
Duration: 8 hours
The bit of bone you hold in your hand grows, flowing like water until it becomes a long, thin blade. The Osseus Blade is a magical one-handed melee weapon that deals 3d6 damage and has the Slashing trait. When you attack with the weapon, you can use Intellect in place of the attribute you would normally use. Finally, when your attack with the weapon causes a living creature to become incapacitated, the creature dies and, at the end of the round, stands up as if you had used the Rouse Corpse talent on it.
Pieces and Parts
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: Instant
You fling hands, feet, scraps of skin, and other body parts, infusing them all with dark magic. Make an Intellect roll against the target’s Agility. On a success, the parts hit the target, the target takes 1d6 damage, falls prone, and becomes held (luck ends). A target can overcome the affliction with a success on a Strength roll. Each time the target gets a failure to end the affliction, the target takes 2d6 damage.
Expert Necromancy Spells
Blood Blister
Castings: 3
Target: One Size 1 space on a surface within 10 yards
Duration: Instant
A bubble of blood appears in the center of the target space and swells to fill it. The bubble has Health 20. If the bubble is not destroyed before the end of the round, it bursts. Each creature within 5 yards of it takes 4d6 damage and makes a Strength roll. On a failure, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage and becomes vulnerable (luck ends).
Bone Carapace
Castings: 1, you have a small piece of bone
Target: You
Duration: 8 hours
You hold tiny bones in your hand that turn to liquid and spread across your body, hardening in place. TThe spell grants you armored Defense 16 and renders you immune to damage from cold. The spell ends early if you become unconscious. If you use an action to end the spell, the bones covering your body burst from you. Each creature in a Size 5 space centered on you takes 1d6 damage and makes an Agility roll. On a failure, the creature takes an extra 4d6 damage.
Death Smoke
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space centered on you
Duration: 1 minute
Smoke reeking of a crematorium spills out of your mouth to fill the target space with total obscurement. At the end of each round, the smoke moves 5 yards in a direction you choose, and each creature in the smoke takes 3d6 damage. You, creations, spirits, and undead ignore this damage. A creature that takes this damage also makes a Strength roll. On a failure, it takes an extra 2d6 damage.
Eaters of the Dead
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 15 yards
Duration: 1 minute
You shake your hands, and from them fall a profusion of flesh-eating insects that then flow forward to envelop the target’s body for the duration. The spell ends early if the target takes 10 damage or more from cold, fire, or lightning. The target becomes blinded (luck ends). If the target is blinded in this way at the end of the round, it makes a Strength roll. On a failure, it takes 6d6 damage and becomes weakened until the end of the next round. If the target becomes incapacitated, it disappears along with everything it was wearing and carrying that was not made of bone or metal.
Rot Hulk
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 2 space on the ground within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
The ground bulges and breaks apart to release a rot hulk, a 10-foot tall mass of rotting meat, bones, and bits of fur sprouting here and there. The rot hulk becomes your controlled undead companion for the duration or until it’s destroyed. When the spell ends, the rot hulk falls to the ground in slippery chunks and stinking jelly.
| ROT HULK |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 13 (+3), Agility 8 (-2), Intellect 3 (-7), Will 15 (+5)
SIZE: 2, SPEED: 4 (no running)
IMMUNE: asleep, frightened, poisoned
STENCH OF THE GRAVE: Each enemy not immune to the poisoned affliction within 1 yard of the rot hulk is weakened for as long as it remains there.
NATURAL WEAPONS: The undead uses its hands and teeth as natural weapons that deal 3d6 damage. When it gets a critical success for a roll to attack, the target makes an Agility roll. On a failure, it takes an extra 2d6 damage.
Quicken Death
Castings: 1
Target: Any number of undead you control inside a Size 5 space within 10 yards
Duration: 1 minute
You bolster each target with profane energy that enables it to move more quickly. Each target increases its Health by 10, imposes 1 bane on rolls against its Defense, makes attribute rolls with 1 boon, increases its Speed by 5, and gains the Slippery trait. The target’s attacks also deal an extra 1d6 damage.
Master Necromancy Spells
Angel of Death
Castings: 1
Target: One empty Size 1 space within 15 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A dreadful apparition, all clotted darkness, appears in the target space. Each creature, other than you, that sees it makes a Will roll. On a failure, the creature becomes frightened of the apparition and vulnerable until the spell ends or the creature overcomes the affliction with a successful Will roll. The apparition is immune to harm.
When a creature within 5 yards of the target space becomes incapacitated, the apparition swoops toward the creature to steal its soul, which prevents it from being restored to life, and each creature that sees the apparition makes a Will roll. On a failure, it becomes frightened of it (luck ends). If it’s already frightened of it, it becomes stunned until the end of its next turn. The apparition then returns to its space.
When a creature within 5 yards of the target space becomes injured, that creature makes a luck roll with 1 bane. On a failure, the creature takes 6d6 damage.
Army of the Dead
Castings: 1
Target: The ground in one Size 10 space centered on you
Duration: 1 minute
Mist rises from the target ground to create light obscurement for the duration. Following the mist come forth a host of skeletal figures, rotting bodies, and body parts beyond counting that amass in the space until the spell ends.
When you cast this spell and again at the start of each of your turns, each enemy in the target space takes 3d6 damage and makes an Agility roll with 1 bane. On a failure, the enemy takes an extra 3d6 damage and becomes held and vulnerable (luck ends both). If the enemy was already held, it takes an extra 3d6 damage.
Create Undead Abomination
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 2 space on the ground within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
All plants, if any, on the ground inside the target space wither and die as a profound stink rises from the cracks that suddenly appear. Rising from the ground, dirt falling from its body, is an undead abomination, a towering amalgam of many corpses all fused together and bound in chains. The undead abomination becomes your controlled companion for the duration, but the spell ends early if it becomes incapacitated. When the spell ends, the abomination explodes, throwing broken bits of metal, chunks of rotten meat, and unspeakable fluid in all directions. Each creature within 5 yards of it makes a luck roll with 1 bane. On a failure, the creature takes 3d6 damage.
| UNDEAD ABOMINATION |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 14 (+4), Agility 8 (-2), Intellect 3 (-7), Will 15 (+5)
SIZE: 3, SPEED: 5 (no running)
IMMUNE: asleep, frightened, poisoned
STENCH OF THE GRAVE: Each enemy not immune to the poisoned affliction within 5 yards of the undead abomination is weakened for as long as it remains there.
MELEE ATTACK—FIST: Strength (+4) with 1 boon (6d6)
TWO ATTACKS: The abomination makes two Fist attacks.
Death Comes For Thee
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 10 space within 30 yards
Duration: Instant
A spectral figure swoops through the space and then disappears. Roll 20d6 and note the total. Compare the total to the Health scores of each flesh-and-blood creature in the target space. A creature whose Health score is equal to or less than that sum loses its remaining Health and dies.
Shrieking Skull
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space within 10 yards
Duration: Instant
A humanoid skull appears in the center of the target space, shrieks, and disappears. Each creature in the target space takes 6d6 damage and makes a Will roll. On a failure, the creature takes an extra 6d6 damage and becomes frightened of you (luck ends).
Slay
Castings: 3
Target: One creature within 15 yards
Duration: Instant
You extend your hand, fingers splayed, and then tighten it into a fist. The target takes 7d6 damage. Make an Intellect roll against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes an extra 7d6 damage. On a critical success, the target takes 10d6 damage instead. A creature inca- pacitated by this spell dies.