0409 — The Necromancers

The small animals of this thorny woodland bury their dead here in shallow mounds of leaf litter, concealed from both ground and sky. Any creature buried this way undisturbed from a full moon to a new moon rises again, in full health, though they only retain their vigor in close proximity to where they were buried. Those that venture or are taken far from their place of burial will weaken, losing 1d6 Health per week spent more than 10 miles away.

If enough of these burials are disturbed before they rise, woodland beasts such as squirrels, birds, foxes, and mice will conspire against those doing the disturbing.

Throughout these woods it is common to find great anthills, up to three feet tall. If these were to be excavated, there would be found cube-shaped constructions of human and whale bone, built into ten by ten food frames and placed ten feet below the forest floor. If these chambers are destroyed or removed, this place loses its power. The ants, who strip the dead of their decaying flesh before they are reborn, live in these constructions will defend them with their lives.

The cube shaped constructions are worth 5000 coins apiece to practitioners of magic actively hostile to the idea of a “natural order.” There are 6 that remain to be found beneath the largest anthills, and two notable sites of old excavations that have scarred the earth and trees around them.