Denying the Call

Cost: 24m
Target: Creature, recently dead

As a puppeteer controls dolls of wood and cloth, so does the necromancer pull the strings of life and death. Balling her hands into fists, the caster forces a soul recently dead to reanimate its body and ties it there. The threads of black Essence that bind the soul to its dead flesh quickly wear out, however, and no force is mighty enough to keep fate at bay forever.

The target must have died no more than one minute before the spell was cast. He rises again with only a single health level above Incapacitated (usually -4), but that health level can only be lost to a level of aggravated damage. For the spell's duration, the target individual is considered a creature of darkness; in all other ways, the spell's subject is not one of the undead. For just a short time, Denying the Call returns a target to his original life, where he remains for a number of actions equal to the caster's Essence or until he's destroyed, whichever comes first.

A dead soul wants nothing more than to lie down, to sleep restfully for the three days before it can release its po and fly toward reincarnation or an unlife in the Underworld. Targets are very much aware that they were briefly dead, though they are fuzzy on what killed them. They do not know they are doomed to collapse again shortly (though some people might guess). Animals and the very stupid generally return to whatever they were doing before being slain, while the canny or loyal recognize the opportunity for revenge or a short period of continued service.

Denying the Call works only once on a given target. If a target's hungry ghost later rises in the night, it will be at half its normal health levels, as will the higher soul if it appears in the Underworld. The damage heals at the normal rate for ghosts.