GL∆G Necromancer

With special thanks to Nickorish and Random Interrupt who helped get me over the Corpse Explosion hump by writing those two entries for me. Go check out their stuff, I'm sure they've been at this much longer than me and they've got plenty of good stuff to read!

What do the peasants call you? Roll once on each table.

1D8

Death

Grave

Corpse

Barrow

Tomb

Cadaver

Putrefaction

Decay

1D8

Touched

Sworn

Priest

King

Child
Slave

Preceptor

Maid

A Necromancer is not made, but born through trauma. You cannot learn to be a Necromancer, it is a mantle earned through grief, suffering and hopelessness. You can be taught how to cope with the curse, but it is just that - a curse, not an occupation to be selected from an ancient tome and studied in a musty tower.

Things that might thrust you headlong into the dark arts of the grave:

1. Surviving a mass murder event

2. Dying and being resurrected against your will

3. Momentous grief

4. Surviving the Deadlights

5. Being made a Liche’s thrall

6. Suicide

The Dark Arts build upon each other; one cannot fully resurrect a person until they know how to raise a simple skeleton - as such, you cannot learn an Art in the next tier unless you know an Art in the previous tier and same domain. The three domains are Summoning, Curses, and Poison/Bone

(0) Speak with Dead - Gain an uncomfortable familiarity with Death and the endless lands it rules. Once you’ve become acquainted with Death, you’ll begin to hear the voices of the dead. They are incessant; never sleeping and always lonely for companionship. You can hear the voices of and respond in kind to any dead within the normal range of sound, though the voices of the dead are not audible.

Summoning

( 1 ) Raise Zombie 

Under the light of the full moon, dig up a grave at least a month old, but no older than a year. Open the casket, retrieve the corpse, dance under the moonlight with the corpse, put the corpse back, and refill the grave. If you’re not caught and no one suspects the grave has been tampered with then you can raise a zombie. If you ever wish to raise multiple zombies, you must dig up and dance with multiple corpses in the same night. You’re only limited by the hours of moonlight and the speed of your spade. It is a mindless undead that will attack whatever it’s directed at without regard for itself. Zombies persist for the same length of time the moon was in the sky the night you danced with them and the disintegrate.

( 1 ) Dismiss

Voluntarily relinquish your control over one of the abominations you have summoned and destroy it through force. Once you have done this, you may dismiss any summoned being of that same type with nary a thought. If you haven’t defeated the type of creature you’ve summoned, you can’t dismiss them, but they’ll fade away in their own time.

( 2 ) Raise Skeleton

Discover a mass grave. Exhume the corpses. Assemble their skeletons, binding their bones together with black silk. For every complete set you are able to reassemble and return to its family, you may raise one skeleton. Skeletons take commands of up to six words and can wield weapons and shields, but not armor. Skeletal minions last as long as their bones have been at proper rest before disintegration, which means your various skeletal minions will disperse at different times based on when you repatriated their corpses.

( 3 ) Raise Skeletal Mage

Prove the innocence of a man or woman wrongly executed as an evil magic user and erect a shrine to honor their earthly works and educate passersby about their innocence. Each time you do this, you may raise an additional skeletal mage. Skeletal mages are highly intelligent and unless voluntarily dismissed they will persist for as long as they were believed to be guilty before you cleared their name. Skeletal mages launch balls of elemental energy; element determined by a random D4 1. Fire 2. Cold 3. Lightning 4. Poison 

( 1 ) Raise Clay Golem

Kidnap a famous sculptor, drown him in his own clay slip. Cover his body in clay and erect him as an art piece somewhere public. If your art piece is allowed to stand without suspicion for at least a week, you may raise a clay golem. Clay golems follow commands as skeletons, cannot be forcibly moved and their attacks knock targets prone. Clay golems persist for as long as they remain moist to the touch, and thus are ill favored by necromancers in warmer climates.

( 2 ) Raise Metal Golem

Build a metal structure that is hostile and dangerous, but meant for a kind purpose - like a children’s playground, and convince the townspeople to use it. If your structure is adopted by the townspeople, you may raise a metal golem by sacrificing a piece of equipment like a weapon, shield, or plate armor. Your golem takes on the characteristics of the item you sacrifice. Iron golems follow commands as skeletal mages. Metal Golems persist so long as they remain unrusted, and are thus highly favored by Necromancers of dry, arid climes.

( 3 ) Blood Golem

Drown a violent man in the blood of his victims. You may summon a blood golem by sacrificing a washing bowl full of your own blood. The golem is inextricably linked to you and you to it. If you die, it dies. If it dies, you’ll be brought to the very door of death. When your blood golem kills an enemy, a measure of your youthful vigor will be restored. Blood golems will remain by your side until you die or they are voluntarily dismissed, but occasionally require another infusion of blood.

( 4 ) Fire Golem

Use your minions to slay a dragon, cut out it’s heart and take the eternal flame within and extinguish it, wastefully. You may now summon a fire golem at your leisure. This golem moves as fast as fire spreads, and anything that attacks the golem is damaged by its flames in the process. Fire golems last as long as something nearby is burning.

( 4 ) Raise Creature

Complete a taxidermy specimen of a creature, using the anatomy of a different creature of the same species for each individual anatomical part of the specimen. Once you have fully assembled a creature from the disparate parts of several of its kin, you may bring these creatures back to a semblance of life. It will be clear they’re dead, but they’ll retain the capabilities they possessed in life, have the intelligence of a small child and will take your commands. Creatures raised in this manner will remain for as long as their natural life span before rotting away to nothing.

( - ) Ressurection

There is no prior Art, Work, or Craft that will prepare you for what comes next. It’s an undertaking that will likely require several highly experienced Practitioners to accomplish. The only way to achieve full resurrection is to traverse the lands of the dead, wrest free the soul from its unearthly moorings and drag it back into the land of the living. It never gets any easier on you and your companions and each successive incursion into the land of the dead only further strengthens its denizens.

Curses

( 1 ) Blind

Live your life blind for as long as it takes you to best an enemy without the use of your sight, once you’ve done this you can curse your foes to be blinded - in a manner of speaking - they’ll be able to see the inside of their grave and nothing more for the duration of the curse

( 2 ) Soften Flesh 

Soak in a warm, sweetly perfumed bath until your skin begins to break down and slough off so that you may better understand the curse. When your skin comes off in great sheets and you can’t escape the water of your own volition, you’ll have mastered the curse of soft flesh. Your enemies will tremble before your athame, knowing even the slightest nick in their skin will result in grievous injury.

( 3 ) Terror

 Lie in wait for an unsuspecting stranger and scare them to literal death to spread the curse of terror. Thus cursed, only the bravest or most foolhardy of men will be able to stand before you.

( 4 ) Iron Maiden 

Allow someone to restrain you in an injurious material - rope coated with tar and broken glass perhaps - and break free at the expense of your own skin to better understand this curse. Once you know it, the strength and ferocity of your enemies will be their doom, the harder they fight against you, the more they’ll injure their own flesh as though they were imprisoned in the namesake torture device.

( - ) Soul Siphon 

Travel to the lands of the dead until you find the river of lost souls. Drink from the river, taking care not to let your skin touch the river itself lest its grasping hands force you to join yourself with the river. Instead, ladle yourself a portion with a chalice made from the skull of a king and pure gold. Once you have tasted the river, you’ll be acquainted with the flavor, the delicacy of souls and will intuitively know how to coax bits of it from the lips of your victim with a heady kiss. Consuming the soul of another will reverse the flow of time on your body and replenish your arcane strength.

( - ) Decrepify 

Allow yourself to grow old, infirm, frail. Rest only within a fully mirrored room so you may watch your body decay. On the brink of death, imbibe from the soul of a hero of great renown. Drink from him until he withers before your eyes and you truly understand what it means to become and to make someone become decrepit. Only then will you be able to cast this terrible curse.

Poison and Bone

( 1 ) Blade of Decay

Craft a weapon by amputating the limb of a living creature or person and defeat and one opponent with said weapon during each of its five stages of decay - fresh, bloat, active decay, advanced decay and dry/skeletonized. Once you have done so, the wounds from any blade wielded by your hand will immediately begin to decay as though the whole body were dead.

( 1 ) Blade of Bone

Unearth the grave of a fallen giant and steal its femur. Sharpen the bone to a lethal cutting edge and kill a blacksmith and a swordsman with it. Henceforth, you’ll always be able to find a bone blade just beneath the soil wherever you go.

( 2 ) Grave Carapace

Fasten armor from the bones, flesh and sinew of a stronger and more skilled Necromancer and survive a killing blow in your newly created armor. Afterwards, you’ll be able to summon a bone carapace strong enough to withstand all, but the mightiest of blows.

( 2 ) Armor of Stinking Death

Flay the skin from a friend who has betrayed you. Cut the skin into long thin strips and fasten them to your clothing. Commit a serious crime in broad daylight in full view of the law and escape justice by virtue of your stench. From now on, you can cloak yourself in a cloud of death that will poison anyone who gets within arms length of you.

( 3 ) Wall of Bones

Construct a castle from the bones of the dead and survive a siege within it. After the siege has broken, the bones will tell you their secrets and you’ll be able to erect walls of bone on a whim. The longer the siege lasts, the stronger and more expansive your summoned bone walls will be.

( 3 ) Wall of Rot

Define a perimeter on contested ground and mark it out with fresh corpses impaled on hand carved oaken stakes at least five feet tall. No one may cross your perimeter for one week. If they do, start over with fresh stakes and fresh corpses - the interloper chief among them. If your border goes one full week without being breached, you can now summon a wall of decay, sure to dissuade all but the most determined from crossing it.

( 4 ) Corpse Explosion (Bone)

Observe and record the decomposition and bloat of a fresh human corpse from its last heartbeat. Once the corpse begins to bloat and release gasses, set the gasses alight - if the flame causes the corpse to explode then the next time you wish a corpse to explode you’ll be able to send bone shrapnel flying at will.

( 4 )  Corpse Explosion (Poison)

Watch a fresh corpse undergo decay in a pond or lake, where it eventually floats to the top and bursts. Be ready! When the corpse bursts, inhale a breath of the gasses and swim to the bottom of the water and back to the top. If you live, you’ll never be able to hold your breath for more than a few seconds again, and toxic fumes will be especially dangerous to you, but you’ll have the power to rapidly decompose a corpse and cause it to unleash a cloud of toxic fumes.

( - ) Poison Nova 

Traverse the lands of the dead and fill your canteens and water skins with as much liquid from the river of the dead as you can carry. Take it back to the land of the living and distil it as though you were making moonshine. Drink this concentrated misery; if you survive, you’ll be able to expel a cloud of death from your person that will quickly kill anything and anyone within five grave lengths of you.

( - ) Bone Spirit

Steal a soul from the lands of the dead and force it into a projectile. Use that projectile to strike a target so far away that you can’t see it with the naked eye. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to steal the soul from any freshly deceased corpse and turn it into an intelligent and relentless missile that will track your enemy down until it hits them.