Dead Man's Voice

Cost: 18m
Target: One creature

Through an arcane link—a piece of flesh or blood, or something important to the target—the necromancer can use another person as a conduit for his own awareness. Invoking the spell and closing his eyes, the caster sees the area around the person whose arcane link he holds. There, he may invest his consciousness into that person, overwhelming the victim's mind to use her as a mouthpiece. Necromancers use this method of casting when they send emissaries to a foreign court but wish to speak to the local potentates in person. They often keep tokens from their emissaries for just this purpose. Alternatively, the necromancer can possess a nearby mortal or ghost. This latter method is useful when the caster has an arcane link to a person, but wards against scrying or mental intrusion make direct possession impossible. Living creatures with Essence 1 and ghosts with Essence 2 or less have absolutely no defense against Dead Man's Voice. Other targets use their Dodge [[MDV]] to resist the caster's (Essence + Presence) attack.

Once the necromancer possesses a victim, he sees and hears with her senses, and his own voice speaks through her mouth. He prevents his victim from taking actions of her own, but he cannot do much more himself than turn his borrowed body and incline the head to face different people. He cannot walk, run, fight or anything else that requires significant control. The caster can use Awareness Charms and Charms that affect social combat through his puppet, however.

This spell is harsh on possessed bodies. The victim's eyes burn black with the magic of the Labyrinth and drip blood (or ghostly plasm). After a short time, a mortal's skin pales, then whitens completely. Her body shakes with chills that the caster never notices. She sweats blood. Her hair grows brittle and her fingernails yellow and crack. The deadly Essence consumes her from within. After half an hour of possession, a victim looks like someone minutes from the grave. And she is.

Most mortal victims of this spell die before the spell's one-hour duration ends, but the caster's will keeps the body standing and speaking. Ghostly victims don't get off any easier. As the spell wears on, a ghost's form flows apart, melting like hot wax before the plasmic corpus boils away into nothing at the spell's end. Victims of Dead Man's Voice suffer one unsoakable level of lethal damage every 10 minutes (or two actions in social combat) until either the necromancer releases them or the hour ends. The caster does not suffer any penalties for wounds suffered by the host body.