The sun was setting. It was time to begin the ceremony which must be completed before midnight. Tonight was the winter solstice, the time when the earth was reborn and renewed for another year. All willing tonight would also be the rebirth of his beloved. Carefully picking up the jade mask that had been constructed specially for this night Sha'et put it on, using the leather straps. Raising his arms he began to chant . . .
Manza Sha'et was a sorcerer of the ancient arts. When his wife died he slowly became consumed with the idea that he could bring her back from the dead. It did not work, and he was only able to raise her spirit.
This magic item is in the shape of a delicately crafted jade mask. When used properly it can communicate with the recently deceased (those who have been dead one year or less). To activate, the user puts the mask on and simply murmurs the name of the person with whom they wish to speak. If they do not know the name of the person they can use it by touching a body part from the deceased.
If the wearer isn't a trained necromancer, the mask will fail one out of every four times. Roll a d100 and if the result is a 25 or less it doesn't work.
The dead are not part of this world, so they can not stay long. Roll 1d10 to determine how many minutes you can speak with them. The dead are not concerned with earthly things, so communication can be tough and hard to understand.
As a result the player can choose to sacrifice 10% of their remaining hit points (or 1, whichever is greater, always round up) to extend the time by one minute. Alternatively they can expand the same amount of hit points to seek to gain some understanding of what was said, if the advice given was too cryptic.
Regardless the mask will demand a payment of 10% of a player's hit points. Using magic is difficult. Using death magic is even more difficult and can potentially be deadly.
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