Death Mask

Cost: 14m
Target: Caster

To cast this spell, the necromancer must first oversee the painful sacrifice of a living human. As life flees the body, the caster invokes Death Mask to capture her victim's higher soul and wash away its sentience, leaving an empty shell of soul-stuff. (Victims of this spell never rise as normal ghosts, but their lower souls usually become hungry ghosts.) The spell then hides the cloak of ghostly plasm Elsewhere.

Later, the caster can invoke the spell again and spend 10 minutes easing the soul-shell from Elsewhere and donning it. Acting too quickly can tear the soul and render it useless. While wearing the soul-cloak, the necromancer appears to all eyes like a normal ghost. A successful (Perception + [[[Awareness]] or Occult]) roll at a difficulty equal to the caster's Essence allows an onlooker to recognize an impostor spirit. Living creatures cannot see the plasmic disguise at all without using techniques to see Essence.

Any lethal or aggravated damage the caster suffers while wearing the cloak also affects the disguise. Once it suffers four levels of damage, it falls off in tatters and reveals the necromancer. In order to use the spell again, the necromancer must prepare another soul. If the death mask is not destroyed, however, it recovers one health level per full week it remains Elsewhere. Worn in Creation, the cloak is intangible and takes damage only from attacks that harm dematerialized spirits.