Healing & Death
Falling Unconscious
When you recover from 0 hit points you gain a level of exhaustion.Healing Magic
Attempting to use healing magic requires you to know what it is that you are healing.
You must make a DC 15 Medicine check:
| Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Natural 1 | Healing fails completely |
| Failure | Healing is reduced by one die or ½ if not a dice roll. |
| Success | Healing works normally |
| Natural 20 | Healing is increased by one die or ½ if not a dice roll. |
Restoration
Like healing, using restoration spells requires an understanding of medicine.
Using either Lesser Restoration or Greater Restoration requires a DC 15 Medicine Check.
On a failure, the spell fails.
Death
Death is a very serious matter on Ærethis because the dead don't always stay dead. Usually this is caused when someone attempts to revive the dead or raise undead. Occasionally, the many folds and ripples in the magical weave will cause this to happen seemingly spontaneously.
Necromancy
Any spell or magical affect that creates undead has a 60% chance of the undead being hostile to the creator. Magic that is designed to return the dead to life such as Revivify or Resurrection can have this chance reduced while magic designed to create undead cannot.
Resurrecting the Dead
Due to the lack of existence of other planes of existence, the dead can only rest by becoming part of the æther which is the collective name for things such as the life force of the planet or the magical weave. When magic is used to try to return life to the dead, there is a chance that instead it will create an untethered undead.
When any spell or magic source is used to return life to the dead, there is a 60% chance that an untethered undead will be created instead. This percentage can be lowered with certain actions as described below, however; the chance to create undead cannot be lowered below 10%.
Aiding the Magic
Reminding Them of Life Those that care for the dead can take a moment to remind the dead of an event, item, or emotion that connects the two. This action takes at least on minute to complete and reduces the chance of creating undead by 1 to 5% dependent on the strength of the connection as decided by the DM. An individual can only reduce the chance once per death.
Sourcing the Undead Bringing an untethered undead near the dead and killing it in a ceremony known as Sourcing the Undead will lower the chance. This action takes one hour to complete and requires a special magical dagger known as a Blurring Blade. This reduces the chance of creating undead by 10%.
Being Whole The wounds of the deceased can be made whole in order to reduce the chance of undeath. This means healing any wounds magically. Casting healing magic such as Cure Wounds will reduce the chance of creating undead by 2% per casting up to 3 times. A single caster can only cast once on the deceased. Healing potions do not work for this.
What Have they Become
The type of untethered undead that the dead becomes in the case that it happens is outlined by the table below:
| Method of Resurrection | Type of Undead |
|---|---|
| Revivify | Untethered Skeleton |
| Raise Dead | Untethered Zombie |
| Reincarnate | Untethered Ghoul |
| Resurrection | Untethered Banshee |
| True Resurrection | Untethered Wraith |
| Wish | Untethered Vampire |
Untethered Undead
When magic is used with the intent to raise the dead is successful, the spirit of the victim is bound to the entity by a tether or is rejoined with the body. In some undead this tether is tenuous and the spirit is merely a passenger while in others they posses some level of control.
Untethered undead have the spark of life but the soul is no longer attached. There are theories as to why this happens. Some believe that the spirit is set free to join one of the æther. Others believe the spirit is destroyed completely. Yet others believe that the spirit remains in the location but is unable to join the æther or return to their body.
Disease of the Deathless
Untethered undead suffer from a magical disease known as The Disease of the Deathless. This disease is transferable via bites as well as other special abilities that these undead possess.
A creature who contracts the disease has a limited time to be cured. The length of time is equal to the creature's Constitution modifier in hours. If the creature has a negative Constitution modifier or is knocked unconscious, the effect is immediate. During the duration prior to the disease taking full effect, the creature suffers the following effects:
- They gain 3 levels of exhaustion. If this brings them to 6 levels, the full disease takes effect.
- They are unable to regain hit points by any means including magical.
Curing the Disease
The disease can be cured like any other disease using one of the following spells:
Additionally, the following magic items can cure disease:
- Elixir of Health
- Keoghtom's Ointment
- A hag's Heartstone
- Potion of Vitality
- Blurring Blade
When the full effects of the disease take hold, the creature becomes an untethered undead and are beyond being cured.
Destroying the Untethered
When an untethered is brought down to zero hit points, they enter a torpor. if left in this state for more than 24 hours, they will rise again with their full hit points.
There are four means of destroying the undead completely.
- The first is to entirely destroy the body while it is in torpor. This is usually done by burning the body on a pyre. Obviously, this won't work with those undead that are incorporeal. Mechanically, the fire must do damage equal to double the undeads full hit points.
- The second is for a cleric of sufficient level to destroy the undead to do so while the undead is in torpor.
- The third is to use a Blurring Blade to raise another dead creature using the undead's body.
- The last is to bury a Tethering Stone into the chest of the corpse or in the location of rest of the incorporeal undead and performing a ritual that takes 1 hour.