Life and Death and Life Again

[Dark Angel]

So my group has a NPC who they actually liked (at least enough to drag his dead body around for weeks) that died in combat. The group has been searching for a cleric and I am feeling benevolent enough to allow them to find an elderly priest to help them out (after saving said priest and the town he is based in at the same time that is). The priest himself is very old and the act of resurrection will kill him in the process (make the group feel a bit guilty). Now the NPC is coming back, but I am tempted to mess with the group a bit and make them appreciate the powers they are dealing with. Now I don't want the guy to come back pristine and shiny without issue. On the flip side, a Pet Semetary return is far too extreme. Any suggestions to make them doubt everything went right and pop in some sinister effect or situation? I am checking into a variety of sources, but would love to hear suggestions from anyone with ideas!

[Garudos Celestar]

Perhaps the poor NPC's mind could be saddled with the Ghostsight feat as a consequence of his stay in the afterlife... and gradually going insane from the phantoms he can now see. This would both give a guilt-trip inducing consequence and potential assistance (if the NPC can see something to give the PCs a hint on a future adventure).

[A G Thing]

Perhaps he can have one of these...

He came back connected to death more in such a way that while others feel he is off giving him an outcast rating for giving off an uneasy feeling. This could be developed into a more dire circumstance by making others be unable to stabilize when within the same range while in negative hit points. He could seem unnatural to animals to the point they are uncomfortable around him. Perhaps he even has some sort of personal view about returning to life that has changed how he thinks, though maybe not for the better. Finally he might rise as an undead creature upon death.

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Or maybe those who can sense it can feel death hovering around him and those that can see ethereal beings will see a grim reaper around him waiting. As long as the NPC is around them or others, if any of them fall unconscious and dying the nearby reaper will come for them as well. Defeating the reaper may or may not stop an new one from coming to watch their friend like a vulture.

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The character might return with memories of being dead. These memories might be wonderful or horrible depending upon his destined afterlife or they may be disappointing. What if there was no afterlife waiting for him and he just became a ghost riding with his corpse. He may be driven insane or changed emotionally. He might thank or even hate the characters for ripping him from his fate. With proper reasoning and roleplay he could even become a villain in the tale or a character that grows along with them to achieve something as well.

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Finally he could simply come back fine, but not alone. Perhaps he is being followed by the Revel of Lost Souls. A massive wandering group of spirits that appear as a group of entertaining people celebrating an expensive wake and carrying a fancy coffin. They bring drinks and vices as well as song, dance and performances that are wild and lively and with even a little dark but funny humor. Some are wear outfits of solemn make but others wear exuberant party dress and many are in common relaxed informal clothing. Still all of these party goers are throwing an extravagant and open celebration and invite anyone they meet to join in and hear tales celebrating the deceased that sound similar to the life of the NPC but with no name attached. They seek to capture and feed on any being that is returned from death. They do this by absorbing the soul of these victims and forcing them to become part of the revel. These souls appear to be themselves but twisted to excitedly working to feed their new hunger. They are for all their individuality now just a part of the thing that ate them. They can do nothing but help the creature grow and survive.
The Revel of Lost Souls was created during the requiem as clerics of the eternal order united their efforts to try and revive their many dead clergy and followers. Deaths current dominion and the remnants of Azalins soul warped the magic with just their effect on the land of Darkon. During that time of conflict it escaped the domain before it could be discovered. The new undead abomination began to hunt for new souls to feed upon. But while it could feed on any living soul, it discovered that it could only grow if it devoured the soul of one who returned from the dead. Those rare souls are hard to find but the 241 various souls that now make up its form can testify to the many people who seek resurrection. The creature controls all the solid spirits with an overwhelming hunger. They feed by trapping the NPC in the coffin which is a spiritual construct just like they are where the thing steals the victims soul. If done in secret the Revel will end only when the victim dies at which time they will bury them and depart before anyone notices the victim is gone. If discovered they will fight to keep their victim in the coffin till the feeding is complete and their numbers make them a serious threat alone. The Revel of Lost souls has never been stopped even when denied. Those who survive resisting it fear to talk about it as if that would summon the creature to kill them. Those older souls or scholars of hearth lore may have heard of the creature and a few weaknesses are known. The coffin is the mouth of the spirit and thus its appearance is revealed to those who can see in the ethereal. This coffin cannot be destroyed by mundane methods and is oddly indestructible but in all other ways it behaves as a normal but sentient undead coffin. The undead monstrosity is oddly weak to death effects and those cast against it kill the soul body of one of its captured souls. A resurrection spell cast against it restores it to full health and revives all the enslaved soul bodies. These spirit bodies can also be defeated by normal means for harming the people they appear to be but they are immune to precision damage or critical hits. The bodies until defeated can heal as normal but once slain they can only be brought back by feeding on a resurrected soul.
The only way to kill it is to put its many soul bodies to rest by defeating them all and then bury a normal persons corpse in the coffin. If this is done correctly and that person is never resurrected then the monster will never rise again. If the grave is disturbed the soul of the body will be called back as a ghost to defend the coffin and will rejuvenate as long as their remains are still by majority in the coffin. If the ghost is forced to be resurrected in their body they instead become the first soul captured in the Revel's return to power.
If however the person had ever been resurrected before the beast will crawl from the earth with its new soul and begin again.

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These were just some ideas I have had in the same vein. I have been working on The Revel of Lost Souls for a while but I just have to write it out from my development notes. Feel free to use it and even to comment.

[Jimsolo]

I have a custom table for exactly this situation. When people in my game use resurrection magic, they have to roll on a d100 table that I call the 'Come Back Wrong' table. (In Ravenloft, I make people who use the lesser Raise Dead spell roll twice, with the DM being able to pick the result that applies!) This takes the place of normal level loss.

My original notion had been to eliminate 'do you want to be raised?' conversations by taking the decision out of the hands of the dead player and putting it into his party members' hands. Sort of like, "Gee, we've had Frank raised six times now, and by this point he is harmed by holy water, always smells like grave dirt, eats raw meat, and is affected by Necromancy spells as though he were undead. Guys, do we really WANT to travel with Frank anymore?"

If you would like me to email the table to you, let me know and I'd be happy to oblige!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

That table sounds like a great Quoth the Raven entry, Jimsolo! Any change you might share it with all of us for the next issue?

[Eddyspaghetti]

I fully agree.
I also would accept a continuation of this list, until we had 100 possibilities and compile that into an article.

Getting the Cold One feat added to your character is one of my favorites. Also an Involuntary Blackwater Invocation feat.

[Dark Angel]

Also an Involuntary Blackwater Invocation feat.

What is that?

I also like the idea of compiling into an article, but Jimsolo has a damned good start on the rest of us!

[Dark Angel]

I am thinking of sticking with Ghostsight as the ability, but toss in drow-like light sensitivity on top of it and we have a bit of balance. However, he will have a harder time dealing with this newfound ability psychologically. That should be more fun. Too bad they are not in Mordent (at least not yet).

[Eddyspaghetti]

Blackwater Invocation is a feat appearing in Stormwrack that channels negative energy to create a radius of terribly cold black water, as would be at a great depth. Making it involuntary would chill up any water you happened to enter, damaging anyone around you. The bearer would be bringing the "chill of the grave" to the water, appropriate for a drowning victim maybe?
How someone dies can easily play into what is altered when they come back.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Now if I could just find a copy of Stormwrack...

Sometimes simple works best. Dying and coming back could inflict a mild Madness effect that is permanent. Or cause a subtle but disturbing change in personality or behavior. Choose a new and disturbing habit, something fairly innocuous, and just let it develop organically. One NPC I used was raised but came back with an obsession with death and the dead. At first was it was just fairly morbid as they dressed in black and lived in a house more like a tomb but things sort of grew out of there. I'll decline to continue because things became downright bizarre and unsettling by the end. And because my meds are kicking in as I type this.

[Dark Angel]

Thanks for the information and the input! I am likely going to mix this up and combine game effects, behaviors, and physical changes. He had been dead and had been decaying for weeks. Granted, Resurrection completely heals, repairs, and completes the person upon casting. But the elderly priest will die afterwards (aging issues combined with the situation he had been dealing with earlier in the adventure) and some parts of the spell may not come off without issue...

[alhoon]

I have a custom table for exactly this situation. When people in my game use resurrection magic, they have to roll on a d100 table that I call the 'Come Back Wrong' table. (In Ravenloft, I make people who use the lesser Raise Dead spell roll twice, with the DM being able to pick the result that applies!) This takes the place of normal level loss. If you would like me to email the table to you, let me know and I'd be happy to oblige!

That table sounds like a great Quoth the Raven entry, Jimsolo! Any change you might share it with all of us for the next issue?

I certainly want to see that table.

[Jimsolo]

That table sounds like a great Quoth the Raven entry, Jimsolo! Any change you might share it with all of us for the next issue?

Sure. I'll submit it this year. After Kobold Quarterly rejected it, I stopped submitting it places.

[MichaelTumey]

Not even close to what you're asking, but Rite Publishing has a unique template called the Restless Souls that are individuals (of any race) who has died and gone to their respective afterlife, while maintaining unfinished business in the living world (usually a singular goal of some kind that was attempted but never met in life) and a deal is made with Death to grant this individual a respite from death as a temporary measure to return to life and finish that singular goal. Once that goal is complete, they die again, and return to the afterlife - so its only a temporary situation. However, that singular goal could be something major, that only a higher level character could reasonably accomplish successfully.

Restless souls are considered outsiders (from the plane they were in, in their afterlife), not undead, though like Raise Dead, a restless soul loses two experience levels in their return to life - this makes so restless souls doesn't become the normal means of continuing to adventure for all party members who die. It should be a rare thing, that a single individual in an adventuring party might accomplish if their unfinished goal is worthy (up to GM discretion.)

Its not the best solution for a return from death, but it is another way of going about the issue.

[Dark Angel]

Hey, don't be afraid to suggest things off the mark. If it doesn't apply to my current concept, that's fine. If it inspires something else or changes the thing I already had in mind, that is fine too. Thanks for the suggestion!