This tome has a thick, black leather-bound cover with a small humanoid skull nailed to the front cover. The skull has two jet black onyx stones embedded in its eye sockets.
Once per day while you are holding the tome, as an action, choose up to three corpses of Medium or Small humanoids within range. Each corpse becomes a skeleton under your control.
As a bonus action on each of your turns, you can mentally command any creature you animated with this tome if the creature is within 120 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.
The creatures are under your control for 12 hours, after which they crumble to dust.
Curse. This tome is cursed, and using it extends the curse to you. Until the curse is broken, you are unwilling to part with the tome, keeping it within reach at all times. With each passing day, your physical appearance becomes withered and gaunt. When you use the tome for the first time, and after each long rest thereafter, you age d10 years. This process can be slowed down by killing a humanoid each day and writing its name in the tome, reducing the aging to d4 years that day.
If this curse would cause you to die of old age, the curse is broken and your dead body returns to its original physical appearance. The curse can also be broken by a remove curse or similar spell.
Notes: Summoning, Cursed