Shield of Shattering Bones

Cost: 18m
Target: Caster

Crimson Essence flows from the caster's heart to her outstretched hand, where it coalesces into a phantasmal red fire. She crushes it, and a blood-red halo bursts outward from her across the battlefield. Before it fades away at 25 yards, any skeleton or zombie the expanding ring touches glows for a moment with a faint red fire. Thereafter, until the next sunrise, the necromancer may reflexively spend three motes before damage against her is rolled in combat Step 10 to shunt all remaining dice onto one of the affected undead. Damage is then rolled as normal, but the result is applied to the affected zombie.

Only a number of the nearest walking dead equal to (caster's Essence x 5) are bound to the caster's life, and they must stay within 50 yards to be valid targets for the redirected damage. On a successful (Perception + [[[Awareness]] or a relevant combat skill]) roll, any onlooker can notice that attacks don't hurt the caster. The caster gets struck with a goremaul (for instance), but a nearby skeleton shatters; the wavecleaver that just kissed the caster's chest leaves her unharmed, but a grinning gray wound opens on a zombie.

Once the last zombie affected by the original burst falls, the necromancer must cast the spell again if she wants its protection. Shield of Shattering Bones cannot affect ghosts or other intelligent undead, only the near-mindless walking dead.