Please someone explain the Resurrection Spell to me...

[HorusZA]

I was running my group through the China chapter of Masks when they acquired a copy of the Resurrection (aka Restore Life) spell.

Collectively, we tried to figure out how the spell was supposed to work, but I'm not sure if we've understood it correctly:

The spell can be cast forwards and backwards: It reduces the body of a person into its essential alchemical salts or, alternatively, reforms the same compounds into the original form along with its life-force. Does this mean to resurrect a person it must be cast twice: once to reduce the body to its compounds and then again to reform the same ingredients but now with added soul? Or did we get it completely wrong?!

[SunlessNick]

You don't need to cast the spell to reduce a dead body down to its salts (that just takes chemistry/alchemy, though learning the spell presumably teaches you the specifics).  Then you cast the spell to turn the salts back into the person, or you can cast it in reverse on an existing resurrectee to undo it and make them salts again.  You can't use it to turn a regular never-died person into salts.

[Stormkhan Cogg of Pavis]

Not to be dismissive, at all, but read/re-read The Case of Charles Dexter Ward to get the feel of it.

None of the ... ah ... victims were subject to a spell but once they were recovered whole, I assume they were subjected to some form of treatment.

[VonJunzt9kx]

"Does this mean to resurrect a person it must be cast twice: once to reduce the body to its compounds and then again to reform the same ingredients but now with added soul? Or did we get it completely wrong?!"

I think you are close.  A spell/ritual is done to reduce a corpse to their essential salts and compounds.  Then the spell/ritual continues to bring that person back to what appears to be the living person.  Next using the words of the spell backwards, the resurrected person can be turned back to dust, stored away and then reanimated later.  Sanity and power must hold out in these rituals.  The idea in the story was to gather the secrets of the dead, so this is some dire necromancy, not really something to bring back a dead PC.

[mvincent]

5 hours ago, HorusZA said:

It reduces the body of a person into its essential alchemical salts or, alternatively, reforms the same compounds into the original form along with its life-force. Does this mean to resurrect a person it must be cast twice

No (unless the Keeper wishes it, since it is technically open to interpretation). The spell can be used to resurrect corpses, as indicated by the text:  "resurrected need not be all in one piece—as long as the coffin is intact and sufficient care is taken to scrape together all the fragments and dust within, the spell succeeds".

If the designer intended that it required two castings (i.e. a highly unintuitive interpretation for the most common use of the spell), that would've been made explicit. That said, I'm surprised the spell's description is still so confusing after so many editions. It seems like errata is in order.

[tendentious]

The spell as written seems unambiguous: "Reduces a corpse to its essential salts, a bluish-grey powder, or reverses the process to yield ultimately the form and soul of the deceased." So casting the spell on any corpse causes the body to break down into powder; a handy way of disposing of evidence if you ignore the SAN cost. Casting the spell again on the resultant powder causes the powder to coalesce into a body and brings the person back to life.

Personally, I think it should work as it does in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, where the process of breaking a corpse down to its "essential saltes" is an (al)chemical one that takes expertise, resources and time. The spell then allows the caster the raise up or put down the already-powdered remains.

[SunlessNick]

Checking back, @tendentious does seem to be right.  However that's not how I would run it.

[HorusZA]

12 hours ago, tendentious said:

The spell as written seems unambiguous: "Reduces a corpse to its essential salts, a bluish-grey powder, or reverses the process to yield ultimately the form and soul of the deceased." So casting the spell on any corpse causes the body to break down into powder; a handy way of disposing of evidence if you ignore the SAN cost. Casting the spell again on the resultant powder causes the powder to coalesce into a body and brings the person back to life.

Personally, I think it should work as it does in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, where the process of breaking a corpse down to its "essential saltes" is an (al)chemical one that takes expertise, resources and time. The spell then allows the caster the raise up or put down the already-powdered remains.

This is pretty much how we thought it worked, hence my comment about having to effectively cast it twice to get the resurrection effect.

[mvincent]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:04 PM, tendentious said:

casting the spell on any corpse causes the body to break down into powder

The spell can be recited forwards (1 round) or backwards (2 rounds):

• Reciting it forwards takes 1 round and resurrects someone: "A complete corpse is necessary"... "the successfully resurrected need not be all in one piece—as long as the coffin is intact and sufficient care is taken to scrape together all the fragments and dust within, the spell succeeds"
• "Reciting the spell backward returns the resurrected entity to dust" and "takes two rounds"

[tendentious]

Sorry to...Resurrect...this thread. Actually, that was just a happy coincidence.

The spell Resurrection as written works as discussed above. Having recently re-read 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' I realised that the actually Resurrection spell as depicted in the novella is actually the process as described in Chapter 3 Section 6. It involves Charles chanting a different incantation to either the ascending or descending Dragon node for over 2 hours, along with a range of eerie effects: howling dogs, darkening of the sun, intolerable stenches.

So it seems the resurrection process in the novella involves breaking down the body into "essential saltes" via alchemy, then performing a ritual that raises the dead back to life - followed by an extended period in which the resurrected individual needs to feed on blood to complete their reconstitution. It seems similar to the movie Hellraiser where Frank only partially returns and has to feed on victims to rebuild himself fully. Possibly the amount of feeding required depends on how much of the original remains the sorcerer managed to scrape together. Does that mean that the specimens that are described as "ye liveliest awfulness" could be returned to a complete state if provided with enough blood?

Once an individual has been resurrected they can be reduced back to essential saltes and the raised up from saltes by using the ascending and descending Dragon nodes. So the ascending Dragon node is not the actual resurrection spell. The 'Dragon Head' and 'Dragon Tail' formula are only of use once a person has already been resurrected by the original ritual.

[EricW]

I think the horror of the resurrection spell is they seem completely normal, except to intimate medical examination, in which the cells appear a little "coarse" (according to Charles Dexter Ward).

The danger is you don't know what the person you resurrect is capable of. Resurrect a random mummy and you might end up raising a wizard of unspeakable power, who once dominated the entire world with his ancient knowledge. Try putting that one down before it incants something which prevents you from causing harm. 

Of course, if the spell goes wrong all sorts of strangeness is possible, like composite beings accidentally composed of multiple people and / or animals, vampiric feeders, monstrous abominations if you accidentally raise someone who wasn't really human. All good fun. 

 

[mvincent]

On 9/29/2023 at 11:45 PM, tendentious said:

Once an individual has been resurrected they can be reduced back to essential saltes and the raised up from saltes by using the ascending and descending Dragon nodes. So the ascending Dragon node is not the actual resurrection spell. The 'Dragon Head' and 'Dragon Tail' formula are only of use once a person has already been resurrected by the original ritual.

Thanks for the literary research!

Anecdote: I once had the BBEG (a former PC that went insane) cast the reverse version of this spell in combat. The look of confusion, then horror on the players' face was priceless (since two of then had once been resurrected by that same character before he became an NPC).

[SunlessNick]

The quoted passage in the story also describes the process as a way to call back the dead - or the "shape of any dead ancestor" - "without any criminal neccromancy."  So not everyone who used this considered it the same thing as necromancy.  And possibly didn't consider the resurrectee to be the same entity as the living original, rather than a sort of duplicate.

[tendentious]

Below is (an admittedly complicated) version of Resurrection, that also incorporates elements from "Herbert West - Re-animator. It's part of an addendum to the existing magic system that I've been working on, involving different levels of corruption.. It's closer to the spell as it appears in the novella, but I can definitely see why the game opted for a simpler mechanism for the spell. It also seems more appropriate for a Pulp-style campaign. I have visions of a sorcerer on a train throwing down an urn, which smashes and spills powder on the floor. The sorcerer recites the Dragon's Head, raising up the mangled remains of tiger to attack the investigators.

 

RESURRECTION (Perverted)

Cost: 1 magic point per 10 SIZ of the subject
Casting Time: 1 hour
Foci: Astrology (Spring Equinox or Good Friday); Special (Dho Formula)
Signature Manifestations: erratic and fearful behaviour in animals within a mile; arcs of lightning flashing to the sky; an invisible charnel miasma covers the vicinity carrying intolerable stenches and causing a reddening of the sun.

A powerful spell that allows the caster to return the recently- or long-dead to “life”. The remains of any living thing may be resurrected: animals, humans, deep ones, elder things, etc.
The first step is to acquire the remains of the being to be resurrected. The target may have been deceased for an hour or for many centuries. Anything from the occupant of a morgue drawer to a mammoth frozen in permafrost are viable subjects. The remains should be as “complete” as possible.
Base Effect
The Resurrection spell is performed in the presence of a corpse. This causes a form of life to return to the corpse. A resurrected being is referred to as a revenant. The revenant is only as “complete” as the remains upon which it is cast. The Keeper must decide the percentage of the remains that were recovered for the spell. Note that the completeness of a cadaver does not include missing water, which may make up 60% of the mass of a body.  A mummified corpse may be more “complete” than the damaged cadaver of someone who died the day before.
            Up to 25% - the remains are too incomplete to revive. The spell fails.
            26% up to 50% - the spell creates “ye liveliest awfulness” in the form of a dripping form of bone and skinless tissue.
            51% up to 75% - The revenant is returned to some semblance of their former self, although they are still hideously incomplete. Their SIZ is halved.
            76% up to 100% - The revenant is returned and appears as a living specimen, although they appear to be deathly ill or terribly injured. Their SIZ is reduced by a quarter.
Revenants crave living flesh and blood. They have a rude intelligence and can be “trained” through the application of torture. They also respond instinctively to the commands of intelligent revenants (see below).
Although a revenant can be killed again by violence, they no longer require sustenance to survive nor do they seem to age. They heal slowly, recovering 1 hit point per week. A revenant that is killed may be resurrected again, although it may be less complete than before, depending on how it was killed.
Due to some principle of sympathetic magic body parts cannot be subjected to Resurrection unless the original organism is dead.
Corrupted – If the remains are sufficiently complete then the deceased’s former intelligence and personality are restored, and the body may even be rebuilt through a terrible process of vampirism.
             51% up to 100% - The revenant craves living flesh and can recover their SIZ at the rate of 1 point per day on any day they feed on living blood and flesh, slowly replacing their missing tissues. The revenant’s appearance improves as their SIZ rises, returning to their original appearance once all SIZ is recovered.
Animal revenants - even if fully restored to a living appearance - or “ye liveliest awfulness” never lose their craving for flesh and blood. Sapient beings can control this urge, although they still feel its pull on them, especially if they have been injured.
Being returned to life costs the subject 2d10 SAN.
Additional Effects
+1 Rank – Alchemical - The cadaver is rendered down into its “essential saltes” by alchemical means. This requires access to a laboratory and reagents, and takes roughly one day per 10 SIZ to reduce the remains to a few handfuls of frictionless powder. The cadaver may be “complete” even if it isn’t intact. A dismembered corpse may be just as “complete” as a whole corpse.
The Resurrection spell is performed in the presence of the “essential saltes” of a corpse. This causes the “saltes” to combine in a swirling cloud into the form of the deceased. If the caster chooses the revenant may be resurrected but remain in “saltes” form (see below).
The revenant can be reduced to powder again and raised up from powder by a pair of relatively simple incantations. These are the Dragon’s Tail and its reverse the Dragon’s Head. These phrases are short enough to be learned in 10 minutes and recited with a casting time of 1 round. One may perform the Dragon’s Head or Dragon’s Tail even if one doesn’t know the Resurrection spell.  If the Dragon’s Tail is recited in the presence of a revenant and a single magic point is spent the caster and the revenant may make an opposed POW check. If the caster succeeds then the revenant’s body returns to its powdery state. If the Dragon’s Head is recited and a single magic point expended in the presence of a revenant that has been reduced to saltes then the body will reform.
The saltes of multiple revenants cannot be combined. Casting Resurrection or reciting the Dragon’s Head on a mixture of the saltes of two or more revenants will result in the return of only one of the revenants.
A revenant that is wounded or even killed may be restored again by reciting the Dragon’s Tail to return their form to powder. Reciting the Dragon’s Head and spending magic points equal to the damage the revenant has taken returns the revenant to full health and life. Each time a revenant is raised up with the Dragon’s Head they lose 1d10 SAN.
+1 Rank – The revenant does not view the caster as a source of food. An intelligent revenant may recognise that the caster is a possible source of food, but does not feel an urge to feed on the caster.
+1 Rank -  Resurrect multiple targets with a single casting. This costs the same number of magic points as Resurrecting each target individually. 

Edited October 15, 2023 by tendentious