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fortheworld’sgreatestroleplayinggame
The Forbidden Resurrection
T
his is a neat little ritual I came up with
after one of my player’s character died.
They were a low-level party at the time
(levels 3-4) and didn’t have the resources
and/or the abilities to resurrect their fallen
comrade.
I didn’t want to just give them a deus
ex machine to bring the character back to
life. It had to be pricey in order for them to appreciate
the danger the world represented. They found it exciting
and intense and I hope it will bring you joy as well if you
decide to use it.
1. Assessing The Dead
The first thing to do after the death of a party member is
to asses in what time frame it would be reasonable for
the corpse to be still “intact” for a successful resurrection
ritual. Rotten flesh and other death related changes to
the body can have consequences if such a body was to
be brought back to life with this ritual. Furthermore,
if the shaman suspects that the corps is in such a
condition that a resurrection would create physical and/
or psychological consequences, he or she could simply
decline to do the ritual.
Rules
A character can make a DC 12 Wisdom (Medicine)
check in order to establish in what time frame the ritual
should be performed in order to avoid consequences. The
standard time frame in which to perform the ritual should
be 2 days after the death occurred. (Using an hour-to-
hour countdown adds to the urgency.)
The weather and the climate plays a role in
determining the time frame. Consult the following table
and adjust the number of days the characters have until
the dead body is beyond “repair” by this ritual.
Weather/Climate Days modifier
Cold +1
Mild 0
Warm -1
On a failed check the party has no idea how much time
they have. The DM could tell them something like:
“You are certain that after five days the body will start to rot
and disintegrate. You are unable to imagine that resurrecting a
body in such a state would be possible.”
2. Finding the Shaman
I decided on a kenku shaman who could perform the
ritual. However, you can, of course, use any race that fits
your setting and campaign. I used a kenku because they
hadn’t met any kenku to that point before and they were
very mysterious to them.
Finding the leads to someone who could perform such
a ritual is imperative. Rumors are usually the best way to
find a lead. The bigger the city, the bigger the chance to
come across rumors about the shaman.
Rules
The party members can make different checks in a
settlement in order to get information and come across
rumors about rituals that could raise the dead. Here are
some examples of checks they could do:
Persuasion checks. If a player decides that his or her
character is talking to different kinds of people in the
settlement in order to find a lead, you could make them
do a Charisma (Persuasion) check.
Stealth checks. If a player decides to try to overhear
private conversations by being a fly on the wall, you could
make them do a Dexterity (Stealth) check.
Investigation checks. If a character decides to
investigate knowledge around town (from rumors,
books, legends, tall tales), they could deduce the
possible fragments of truths by making an Intelligence
(Investigation) check.
Performance checks. They could perform something
(a play or a song) which thematizes bringing the dead
back to life. This could get people talking about possible
real-life events that are similar to that performance, by
making a Charisma (Performance) check.
Whatever you or your players come up with, use a DC
14 for the checks. However, keep in mind that the size
of the settlement and the time they spent in doing their
research around the settlement can influence this DC.
Settlement Population DC modifier
Thorp 20-80 +3
Hamlet 81-400 +2
Village 401-900 +1
Small Town 901-2000 0
Large Town 2,001-5,000 -1
Small City 5,001-12,000 -2
Large City 12,001-25,000 -3
Metropolis 25,000+ -4
For every 3 hours they spend on looking for leads,
decrease the DC by 1.
3. The Ritual
Whatever the means by which the party gets to the
shaman are, I would suggest that you play him somewhat
eager to help the party with the ritual. In my way of
reasoning, the shaman is interested in helping the party
because he doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to perform
the ritual. However, he wants to get better at it and
perform it as many times as possible. I also added that he
has a ceremonial dagger on him and that he hovers his
hand above it while speaking to the characters.
Once the players agree to the ritual, tell them to place
the corps in front of the shaman and read the following.
THE FORBIDDEN RESURRECTION
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 “The shaman suddenly projects telepathically an idea into
your minds. He doesn’t use words; you just have the following
CLOSING THOUGHTS
knowledge about the ritual, as if it were something that you I hope some of these things mentioned here will
always had known.” be useful in your campaign. I would like to share a
few things I used in my session which added to the
atmosphere.
Proceed to explain these rules to the players:
When the shaman appeared, I played this music
Rules (https://youtu.be/oxvDnaWe5XE) as background. It really
fit the mysterious atmosphere of the scene.
• To bring the dead back to life, the shaman has to roll When the ritual was performed, I used this music
a successful DC 30 Intelligence check. This can be (https://youtu.be/3boVOF2zHVs) over the first one, which
attempted two times. If it fails the second time, the soul fit quite nicely into each other.
is lost and cannot be brought back by any means. While rolling, I turned off the lights and my players
• The shaman has an Intelligence modifier of +3. lit the roll with their phones, which also added to the
• The DC is lowered by one for every act of tension.
remembrance any party member has done between I hope you will have as much fun as we had with this.
the death and the ritual. If the bard has, for example, Happy gaming!
performed a song in honor of the character, decrease
the DC by one. Or, if the cleric has spoken a prayer
for the character while traveling. Or, if the rogue has
drunk in the name of the fallen. Any of these and
similar acts may contribute to decreasing the DC of the
ritual. (Don’t tell this to the players beforehand and try
to remember if they did something worthwhile.)
• Before the ritual begins, the shaman goes from
character to character and hands them the ritual
dagger. Each of the characters decide how much
maximum hit points they are going to offer for the
ritual. This is a permanent loss. Every maximum hit
point they offer decreases the DC by one.
• Once they have made their decision, roll a d20 in front
of them.
• If the first try doesn’t succeed, let the shaman yell
at them to concentrate more. Every character that
didn’t reduce the DC by an act of remembrance can
at this point make a DC 14 Intelligence (Religion)
check. Every success reduces the ritual DC by one.
Furthermore, the characters can sacrifice more
maximum hit points to decrease the DC more.

Development
The shaman performs the ritual ba stabbing the corps
in the chest with the dagger. If it is successful, the dead
character takes a deep breath and wakes from the dead.

COMPLICATIONS
You may add a further complication to the ritual once the
character is brought back to life.
In my original usage of this ritual, my characters asked the
kenku shaman what the price for the ritual was, and he said:
“It has been paid already.” As the characters were leaving, the
shaman raised his hand and clinched his fist. The resurrected
character fell to her knees with an enormous pain in her soul.
“It has been paid”, the kenku repeated before releasing her from
the pain and disappearing in the darkness.
This gave me a hook I can deploy in the future, and the
characters were intrigued as to what the shaman’s motives are.
Of course, you can come up with other complications, if any.

THE FORBIDDEN RESURRECTION

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