Dredging Up Graves (Class: Necromancer)

 For QAL ASHEN.

A mesopotamian-esque setting, where the world is consumed by a curse that infuses all living things with Too Much Life, turning them into immortal monsters. The only safe place, where uncursed people remain, is a bleak, theocratic city where the God of Death is worshipped: Qal Ashen. 

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Animating the Dead is the sacred duty and skill of the Arbiters, the grim priests of Qal Ashen. The sacred labouring dead move the mills of the city, gather the crops, build the walls, lime the walls and hammer flat the ground so roads may be laid. This is the blessing of the Arbiters, and the source of their quiet rule over the city.

These are imitators, of course. Whenever anything is denied to the people, they will find ways to gather it to themselves. Necromancy is as old as the city. The priests decry it, but it is practised regardless. 

The city fears the Necromancer, but they love her, too. They cannot do without this poison friend. 

THE NECROMANCER

+1 Save and +1 Animated Corpse per Template. 

A - Arts, Empower Undead, Mere Husks

B - 2 Spells, +1 MD

C - Three Faces, +1 MD

D - Revived Power, Door to Darkness, +1 MD. 

Your Spells are rolled from a 1d100 List. In lieu of the intended one, the one from Vain the Sword 2e is well written and inspiring. 

Animated Corpses

You have black wisps of smoke you store in your brain. 

At your command, they may flit out and restore a corpse of your choice to life. This takes an action in combat.

The corpses have up to [templates + 2] of the HD they had in life. 

They are perfectly loyal. Removing your wisp from a corpse destroys it and leaves it useless to you (and to other Necromancers)

Arts

You can identify how long a corpse has been dead by sight, see what a corpse looked like in life by touch, and, with an hour’s work, identify the cause of death by the dread skill of Autopsy, widely reviled by the Arbiters. 

Empower Undead

You may give an undead +1HD and some of the powers its owner had in life, with an hour-long ritual that requires animal sacrifices. The sacrificed animals must have the same or more total HD as the corpse did in life. 

Tales of using massive sacrificial piles to create hyper-empowered undead monsters are likely apocryphal. 

Mere Husks

So long as you see an attack coming, you can choose for it to hit one of your Animated Corpses. 

Three Faces

Each morning when the sun rises, you choose whether you are Living, Undead, or Dead, with all that implies.

Obviously, when Dead, you can’t do anything, but you can still choose at the start of each day to become Living or Undead. This is a half-Death, so your Shade does not go on to the Underworld unless you are properly killed. 

Revived Power

You may use an Animated Corpse as an MD when casting a spell. You can only use one Corpse at a time. 

"Expending" the MD causes the corpse to collapse into fine ash. 

Door to Darkness

You may annihilate one of your Animated Corpses to transform it into a portal to the Underworld. You get the wisp back. The portal lasts for a day.