Pine Kindred Initiation. A pine kindred jarl knows a special ritual spell that transforms Medium humanoids (living or dead) into pine kindred. This spell can only be cast in a sacrificial grove (see
Groves of Death).
Other pine kindred can assist the jarl by taking a spellcasting action on the first round of the ritual. If a ritual assistant's participation is interrupted (to fight intruders, for example) the spell does not break.
The ritual requires vast amounts of fresh, liquid pine sap. At least one gallon per humanoid to be "Initiated" must be prepared in the grove's ceremonial vessels before the spellcasting starts.
It takes 20 minutes to cast
Pine Kindred Initiation and the casting time must end during the hour of midnight. Being a ritual, the jarl can cast the spell two or three times per night provided all the castings finish within the midnight hour. (Note it could start the ritual 19 minutes and 9 rounds before midnight and complete it on the first round of midnight).
The ritual can create any combination of pine kindred, pine kindred fircarls, and pine kindred resin-thralls the jarl desires. During the ceremony, humanoid bodies and corpses are drained of blood and their empty veins filled with pine sap. The jarl and its assistants can use bonus actions to perform
Necrotic Sap Infusion during the ceremony, but they can only use it to infuse necrotic sap in either each other and the "candidates" for Initiation. They can do this while a victim is still alive. The necrotic sap donor only takes half of the 1d6 damage per dose of using
Infusion since they are in a sacrificial grove.
A pine kindred who uses a single dose of
Necrotic Sap Infusion during the ritual can split it between two recipients to give them half a dose apiece.
To turn an "initiate" into a particular type of pine kindred, they must receive sufficient doses of
Necrotic Sap Infusion. It takes one dose to initiate a resin-thrall (half it the victim was alive), two doses to initiate a fircarl, and four doses to initiate a living victim into a full-blooded pine kindred. A pine kindred initiate must receive at least one dose from a jarl, a fircarl initiate needs half a dose of jarl's sap if it's created from a corpse. If an initiate receives insufficient necrotic sap, it becomes the strongest type of pine kindred it qualifies for (three doses would create a fircarl, for example) or just a corpse.
Further details are as follows:
Pine Kindred can only be created from living humanoids. They are slowly bled to death over the course of the ritual, usually dying shortly after the halfway point 10 to 15 minutes into the ritual, but may cling to life for longer.* On the final round of the ritual, the jarl or an assistant uses their bonus action to sacrifice each victim with a ceremonial weapon, killing them if they're still alive. If multiple living creatures are to be turned into pine kindred, each requires a separate pine kindred to perform this sacrificial act.
Living victims need to be completely nonresistant, usually they are securely bound with leather straps, but they may be immobilized or rendered cooperative by any means (paralysis, dominated, brainwashing, being buried neck-deep and so on). If a victim put up any resistance on the final sacrificial round, their initiation is damaged and they become fircarls rather than pine kindred. A single action can bind a victim's cut and stop the bleeding. If they live past the end of the ritual they will not rise as a pine kindred, even if they die the very next round.
*Should the time of death is important, each living victim normally dies after bleeding for 1d8+8 minutes plus 2d6+8 rounds (10-15 minutes), but if they succeed at a DC 13 Con save with Disadvantage they die after bleeding for 2d8+12 minutes plus 4d6+6 rounds (15-30 minutes) so may be killed by sacrifice.
Fircarls can be created from living victims and recently dead corpses in a good state of preservation (no more than three days dead and still intact). A living victim is slowly killed as described for the full-blooded pine kindred. A corpse can be drained of blood before the ceremony.
Resin-thralls can be created from a living humanoid or any humanoid corpse, although limbless thralls are of little use.