Using an unholy ritual, the caster paints a magical circle on the ground spaced out by black, magical candles. Trapping the soul within the cage along with the blood crystal, the golden cage is placed within the clay body. After an hour of incantations, the body is resurrected, controlled by the soul used to reanimate the body, retaining all the original attributes the soul possessed. The body requires no food or oxygen to survive, but will run out of energy after 1 day. To prevent this, the reanimated body can consume the soul of a recently deceased humanoid to extend it's duration by 1 week. Each time the body extends it's duration it requires twice as many souls for each subsequent week. If the body fails to consume enough souls, the body crumbles away and the possessed soul is lost forever, not even a Wish spell can return it.
The reanimated retains all abilities and statistics it would have had in life, except alignment which shifts to evil. The shift can take longer for a truly devout good soul, but it will invariably become evil the longer it remains resurrected. As long as the soul-trap cage is unharmed the body can regenerate. Reducing the hp of the reanimated creature only disables it for 1d4 rounds while it regenerates, upon which it regains all hp. The only way to destroy the reanimated body for good is to prevent it from consuming enough souls to sustain itself or destroying the soul cage.
The reanimated has it's own will, but is mentally linked to the caster. Using a contested charisma check, the caster can assert control over the reanimated. The reanimated has a -10 penalty and disadvantage, but each week it's duration is extended the penalty is reduced by 1. If the reanimated instead wins the charisma check, the reanimated soul leaves it's vessel and takes over the caster's body, no longer needing to consume souls to maintain itself but losing it's regeneration ability.
* - (Enough enchanted clay to shape the body, a crystal with the caster's blood on it within a ornate golden cage worth 2000gp, and an extracted soul. Additional magical paint and candles are needed to draw the ritual around the body.)
Comments