Stuart Renton is the creative mind behind Bottled Imp Games. Stuart is expertly placed to step up and into May of the Dead as he is responsible for the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 books Lords of the Night: Vampires, Lords of the Night: Zombies and Lords of the Night: Liches. The following is a contribution of some 3.5e blood magic from the Gloom Lich Grimoire.
Today, Stuart runs The Geekest Link an online shop for cool collectibles and geek gifts.
You can keep up to date with May of the Dead, here.
Putting the Bite Back into Your Game
Mortal wizards spend their eternity-challenged lives searching out power without first learning that some arcane arts are beyond them. I intend to teach them a valuable lesson… Haferax.
These spells have been taken from grimoire of the ancient Gloom Lich, Haferax, who succeeded in developing the ancient art of Blood Magic. These spells allow a DM to give their monsters subtle but powerful effects that might make any hero pause for thought before charging into battle. These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of necromancy that can bolster the power of your monsters to make every fight that little bit more exciting.
Plot Hook: Never look a gift spellbook in the mouth…
Haferax circulated many different version of his spells across the land and his spellbooks were fraught with booby-traps and fake enchantments that would afflict an unwary caster with the Netherblight Curse (see below). A wizard should be exceptionally careful when dealing with any item from the ancient lich, no matter how appealing its mystical contents may at first appear.
Aura of Spiteful Transference
Level: Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting time: 1 standard action Range: Touch / special
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Spell Verbals: Un Illustriar Ex Mana Sorcerae Nox Vortis
Blood Magic: Yes (1 per target)
This spell surrounds you with a faint bloody aura of swirling mist-like energy. Once cast, the spell deflects a portion of all melee damage back to the attacker.
Caster Deflection Level Aura 9 to 11 1 12 to 14 2 15 to 17 3 17 to 18 4 19+ 5
One point of damage is deducted from each single attack and passed back to the attacker (where an attack only does 1 point of damage only 1 point can be deflected back to the attacker). This ability is in addition to Damage Reduction (and takes effect before DR has been applied).
Nox Morose
Necromancy
Level: Clr 5, Wiz 5
Components: V, S
Casting time: 1 standard action Range: Personal
Area: 30-ft.-radius emanation, centered on you
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Spell Verbals: In Morr Vaporuum Esto Mana Valius Nox
You surround the area about you with a deep sense of foreboding. Powerful entropic effects swirl around you and although the effects of this spell are not directly visible, black shadows flit at the edges of your enemies’ vision and the air is filled with a palpable gloom that saps at the resolve of the living. All those not allied to the caster will suffer the following effects:
- Attacks and Spell Failure Chance: 10% +1% per caster level.
- All damage dealt is reduced by 1 point per die (min of 1).
- Innate positive energy healing effects (such as regeneration) are halted.
- Positive-energy spells have their effect, range and duration halved. In addition, the casting time for all such spells is doubled. All healing spells heal for 1 fewer points of healing per die (for a minimum of 1 per healing dice).
- All skill checks and saving throws are reduced by 2.
This spell also works in conjunction with a Gloom Lich’s Nox Miasma aura.
Black Transference
Necromancy
Level: Clr 3, Wiz 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting time: 1 standard action Range: Personal
Area: 100 yards per caster level
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Spell Verbals: Mana Logare Esto Spiritus Transmorus Nox
Blood Magic: Yes (1 per target)
You create a link between yourself and one or more targets, siphoning off any damage you receive to them.
Damage is siphoned off to a maximum amount of hit points per round, and is always calculated last (after all other resistances and modifiers have been taken into account), or until all the attuned living beings under the influence of this spell are dead.
So long as you are within range, the damage taken per round will be automatically transferred to any attuned creatures within range. Damage is randomly spread throughout all attuned creatures.
Creatures slain in this way will rise up as undead under the thrall of the spellcaster within 2d6 rounds (as per the spell, animate dead – making zombies with a 10% chance of making a ghoul instead).
Transferred Hit Points Per Round
Level Max Hit
Points per Round
5 3
7 4
9 5
11 7
13 9
15 10
17 12
19 15
Attunement: You may prepare up to your level x 10 Hit Dice in living beings for use with this spell (or other Blood Magic spells). The preparation process takes a single day per living being. You may attune up to your level in Hit Dice for free, but thereafter you may attune up to 10 x your level at a cost of 1 Hit Point per ten hit dice attuned (as per standard Blood Magic rules) to a maximum of 20 Hit Points.
Blood Mage armed with this spell often has entire halls filled with imprisoned victims acting as receptacles for their dark magic. The existence of a blood mage is a terrible one and not for the faint of heart.
Material Component: The living essence of a child of no more than four years of age.
Black Contingency
Necromancy
Level: Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M (+ standard spell components)
Casting time: 1 standard action Range: Special
Duration: Special
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Spell Verbals: In Mana Septero Ux Uuthalaar Vortis Nyx
From blackest heart I strike at thee!
You may place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect at the point of your death. The contingency spell and the companion spell are cast at the same time.
The spell to be brought into effect by the black contingency must be one you could normally cast (typically a touch spell or any spell that can be centered on you) and be of a spell level no higher than one-third your caster level (rounded down, maximum 6th level). Only one creature may have one Black Contingency at any time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled.
“A fireball upon your death is always particularly vindictive…” Arch Necromancer Vantikarr.
The preferred spell for black contingency is the Netherblight Curse (see below), although other necromancers prefer anything from direct damage spells to more complex and difficult to fathom hexes.
Material Component: The components of the companion spell, plus a blood-steeped ruby of at least 50 gp value (which is consumed by the spell).
Netherblight Curse
Necromancy
Level: Clr 9, Wiz 9
Components: V, S
Casting time: 1 standard action Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Yes
Spell Resistance: Yes
Spell Verbals: In Ust Kulthar. Esto Ebaradan. Cursus Mana Mortis.
Discovery of Netherblight energy is the greatest achievement of the lich, Haferax. A necromantic radiation found deep within the Negative Energy plane, its oddly swirling darkness is inimical to mortal life and the merest moment of contact can strip a wizard of his life energies in a heartbeat.
The Netherblight Curse contains a flicker of this radiation, which can contaminate a victim and if left unchecked, will transform him into a Gloom Lich under the thrall of the great Haferax himself.
The effects of this curse are slow reaching. The spellcaster suffers no ill effects until they lose their first point of Constitution, at which point their skin grows increasingly pale and the moons on their fingernails grey and will eventually go black.
Initially the curse has no symptoms, the magus can go about his business freely and unaware of any ill effects from the Netherblight, but every 30 days after he has cast any form of non-necromantic spell, he must make a Fortitude save; failure will deprive him of 1 point of Constitution and afflict him with the Withering. The caster must make a Fortitude save every 30 days (but only once per month) after he has cast any form of non-necromantic spell until his eventual demise as he depletes the final few points of his Constitution.
A person afflicted with the Withering becomes not only physically weak but their skin grows dry, greying, and puckered as they are quite literally touched by death. They slowly have their strength stripped from them, becoming ever sicker, and casting spells (particular positive energy spells) will stricken them with the most horrendous coughing and shaking fits.
A spellcaster may use necromantic spells with impunity while afflicted by the Withering. This is the dark road Haferax desires: the spellcaster to increase their knowledge of the dark arts until their journey to his domain is complete.
Curing the Netherblight: Mundane magic cannot remove this spell (although there may be mystical palliatives that can mitigate some of its effects for a short time). A powerful healer could remove the Netherblight, but attempts to do so quickly discover that removal of the spell energy around the subject’s heart has a price: the spell can be removed but to do so will only transfer the spell energy to the healer. Only a powerful servant of Haferax can lift the curse (and always at a high price). Other cures do exist although they will always require considerable effort on the part of the spellcaster and may involve travelling to far-off worlds or even the farthest reaches of the Positive Energy plane.
A mortal who dies while under the influence of the Netherblight always becomes a lesser Gloom Lich under the thrall of the arch lich, Haferax.
Follow the rest of May of the Dead for more undead goodness.
