The average 5E player could be forgiven if they said they had never heard of Gentle Repose. Two paragraphs tucked between Geas and Giant Insect outline a spell with trivial component costs and a duration of 10 days. It has three effects; it protects a body from becoming undead, prevents decay, and extends the resurrection clock.
While this spell may be a footnote for adventurers, deployed only rarely as a bridge to a planned resurrection, it has far greater implications for game worlds in which it exists.
Gentle Repose in a Low-Magic World
Spellcasters of any kind are a rarity, and live either in seclusion, or in positions of power and influence. Access to even simple second level spells might make a person a feared or envied arcanist in the eyes of a superstitious populace.
The queen has lain dead for weeks now, but there has been no funeral. Her court arch-witch has conducted strange rituals to keep her body pristine and her soul tethered to the mortal realm, but the magic to reunite them evades her. The arch-witch's inquisitors scour the country, seeking old magics powerful enough to bring the queen back. Rumor has it that the druids of the drumlins once cast such spells, but that their magic changed the affected body into some strange and different form. The kingdom swore off the ways of the fey a thousand years before. But something will have to give, because the queen's enemies are plotting to disrupt the rituals, despoil the body, and claim power for themselves...
No comments:
Post a Comment