Create memento mori (Necromantic)
Priest 3
Sphere: Necromantic
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 2 hours, plus 1 hour for every die of energy imparted
Area of Effect: Body touched
Saving Throw: See below
The casting of this spell on a dead body causes a sliver of the soul that once inhabited the body to return to the Prime Material plane and become a memento mori, standing guard over its body. Only one memento mori can be made from each person’s soul, as a loss of a greater number of soul-slivers would be detrimental to the soul wherever it now rests. In addition, a memento mori cannot be created if the body of the deceased is not present, nor if the body or soul of the deceased has already been turned into some other form of undead. Unlike other spells that create undead, this use of create memento mori is not considered evil if, when he was alive, the person who becomes the memento mori was part of a culture believing in this practice as an accepted custom. Each memento mori is able to cause a mild, static-electric effect that they use to defend their bodies against cowardly pests, and most are also imbued with electrical energy they can use in combat. The material component for this spell is a collection of herbs, spices, oils, and precious substances that are placed in or about the body as it is prepared for internment. The cost of these stuffs is 500 gp, with an additional 25 gp worth of these things being required for every hit die of electrical energy the memento mori is to be imbued with (e.g., a memento mori to be imbued with two hit dice worth of energy would cost 550 gp, while 1,000 gp would produce a memento mori with 20 hit dice available to it). These oils and such are all incorporated into the body when the spell is cast and are not recoverable.