From: Stefan Matthias Aust <sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de>
Subject: The Resurrection Ritual
System: Elric!

A new spell for the Elric! role playing game. It may not suitable for the original setting of the Young Kingdoms, but if you use the Elric rules for another fantasy world, as I do, this may be useful.

RESURRECTION (24) [ritual]

This rarely available spell can be used to resurrect someone who died recently. You need the corpse to use this spell. The body must not have lost more than negative maximum hit points. Each 24 hours after the death, the body will lose one additional hit point.

Example: Tanro, 11 HP, loses in a fight again two Bruus. He takes 4 then 8 HP damage and becomes unconscious. A killing blow reduces his HP by an additional 7 HP. He's now at -8 HP and dead, before his friends can drive away the Bruus. They need three days to reach the next town, which reduce the HP by another -3 (Tanro's body is now at -11 HP). If the priest, who knows the resurrection ritual, doesn't start the ritual right away, but waits until the next day it would be too late.

The ritual lasts 1d8 hours. Apply the usual rules. It is suggested that expensive accessories, chanting, etc be required to fulfill the spell. The caster has to spend 24 magic points and 1 point of POW if he wants the spell to be permanent.

At the end of the ritual, the caster has to make a luck roll; 99 or 00 is a fumble as usual. The magic points and the POW point are lost in any case.

Because of the exertion of the ritual, which forces the caster to fight with the gods (lords) of death for the soul, the spellcaster loses 1d3 CON permanently.

Also, the target loses 1d6 POW permanent, because as the spell caster fights for his soul, to tear him back to life, a small part of his soul stays where all the dead will be. This part is permanently destroyed. If the target loses all his POW, he's not alive but also not dead. He's undead and unless controlled by some other spell, wanders around purposelessly.

Finally, because of the stress of the resurrection, the body looses 1 point of each STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT and APP permanently.

Example: The priest starts to prepare the ritual. He draws a circle, lights candles and performs a ritual cleaning. Then, he begins the ritual, pressing the holy sign of his temple onto the body of the dead Tanro. The 1d8 shows 5, so after 5 exhausting hours, the priest has to roll against his luck. Let's say, he's successful. He looses 24 magic points, 1d3 CON and 1 POW. Tanro had a POW of 10. His player rolls a d6: 4. So, he's alive again, losing 1 point of every characteristic but POW and 4 points of POW. Now the priest tells the party the price for this resurrection...

The resurrected has 1 HP after the ritual. Use normal healing rules or magic to regain full HP. First Aid will not work.

A non-permanent resurrection lasts 10 min. After this time, the target dies again. In both cases, his soul loses 1d6 POW permanent.

-- Stefan

PS: Thanks to Frank Tonn for his ideas and help