Lore

Life, Death and Resurrection - by T.A. Saunders ©2011 v1.5

Cheating Death: The Soul Gem and the Soul Vessel

Exclusively the province of Necromancers (and by default, Shadowmancers), the Soul Gem and the Soul Vessel are means by which he or she can defy death. As mentioned above, a Soul Gem is a specifically prepared jewel with the specific purpose of capturing a soul. M`aati gems are used for this purpose, where the Mana-Storing properties inherit to the gem are corrupted so that it will instead store a soul. The corruption process takes a week to prepare and the Necromancer must saturate the gem in the ashes of a vampire, mingled with the blood of a demon. It is worth noting that the quality of the M`aati gem, the power of the vampire slain and the potency of the demon's blood used all attribute to the overall quality of the Soul Gem.

Once created, the Soul Gem can then be used to trap a soul — willingly or unwillingly — for whatever purpose the Necromancer chooses. In many cases, the captured soul can be fused into a construct or placed within another body (with the penalties described above in both cases). Accomplishing the trapping of the soul is no small feat however. Assuming the soul is not protected, the Necromancer will have to make sure the Soul Gem was crafted to a high enough potential to capture the target in question. If the attempt to claim a soul is a hostile one, then a battle of wills, of a sort, takes place between the Necromancer and his or her victim. A base 50% is applied here, with +/-5% given to the difference in power between the Necromancer and the victim. There is also a +10% solid modifier if the victim is a follower of a Deity of Order. Success means the soul of the victim has been captured and their body dies. Failure means the Gem cracks and becomes unusable, with a 40% chance of the Gem exploding outright, causing severe injury and possibly death to the Necromancer. A non-hostile Soul Gem attempt does not require any form of check however.

As a contingency, a Necromancer may also place his or her own soul into a Soul Gem. This is a means of safeguarding their souls, should their bodies be destroyed. This is a risky proposition however, as once they are in the Soul Gem, they are powerless to effect the outside world and must rely on a trusted comrade or henchmen to fuse their soul into a properly preserved corpse or back into their own, if it has survived.

A Soul Vessel allows a Necromancer to invest a corpse or a construct of some sort with a portion of his or her own essence. By doing this, the Necromancer is then able to assume control over that corpse or construct as if it were their own body. This allows them to enter potentially hostile situations with only minor risk to themselves. Because some of their own life-force is used to power the Vessel, should that Vessel be injured or damaged in some way, the Necromancer will sustain a 25% of that damage themselves. Should the Vessel be slain, the Necromancer in question will be knocked unconscious for 1d4 hours and lose control of any other Vessels he or she might be maintaining (a Necromancer can maintain up to three Vessels at once).

Maintaining the control of a Vessel does not require any concentration on the Necromancer's part; each Vessel is entirely autonomous and of its own will, save where the Necromancer chooses to take active control of the Vessel in question. It is possible for multiple vessels to interact with one another as well…possibly even getting in an argument with one another, if not actively monitored by the Necromancer. These Vessels have 25% of the Necromancer's spell-casting ability and access to 100% of the Necromancer's mundane knowledge.

Both fresh corpses (dead within the last twenty four hours) and constructs can be used, as mentioned before and either has a purpose. In using a corpse, the Necromancer can effectively assume an entirely different identity for purposes of spying on an enemy, or to interact with a person that might otherwise might dislike or actively want to kill the Necromancer. When entering hostile territory and possibly being faced with a multitude of enemies, the Necromancer often use a construct instead of a fresh corpse. Constructs can be tailor made for various situations and are much like golems in most regards. These constructs must be made of flesh and bone however, for a Necromancer to use it as a Vessel.

Vessels do have some drawbacks however, aside of the fact that they are linked to the Necromancer and hence, convey damage onto him or her when they are wounded. With Vessels made from fresh corpses, they must consume a pint of blood for every twelve hours they are active. This can be any sort of animal blood, but humanoid blood tends to work the best to maintain integrity. For every hour the Corpse Vessel goes without fresh blood, deterioration takes place, eventually falling into an ashen husk after twelve hours of depletion. Construct Vessels are a little more hardy in this regard, only requiring the consumption of two pounds raw meat every twelve hours. Like the Corpse Vessels however, Construct Vessels will begin falling apart every hour they go without fresh meat, until finally collapsing into a pile of liquefied flesh and bones after twelve hours without nourishment.

A variant of the Vessel is the Puppet. These are relatively weak constructs that only require a drop of the creator's blood and do not convey damage back to him or her. These Puppets must be made of flesh and bone and can take any form the Necromancer wishes, including simply using a relatively fresh cadaver. While made from dead flesh, they are not considered true undead and cannot be turned by knights or priests, but they can be barred from a particular area by blessings and protective wards. There is no limit to how many Puppets a Necromancer can control, however the more puppets they attempt control, the more likely he or she will lose control of all of the Puppets. For every Puppet over ten the Necromancer attempts to control, there is a +5% chance cumulative that control will be lost. Loss of control means there is a 50/50 chance that the Puppets will simply collapse into gore or turn on their controller.

Unlike Soul Vessels, the Necromancer must maintain a small bit of concentration on the Puppets to make sure they don't wander off and say, walk right off a cliff, start killing each other or shamble out in front of a stampede of angry Lasher bulls, for example. Like with Vessels, the Necromancer can see and hear everything their Puppets are doing. They do not last forever, though; after twelve hours Puppets begin to decompose and fall apart.