TEXT: 1
  Last Rites
  Last Rites
  Knowledge Check
  
  2
  Knowledge Check
  Knowledge Check
  Author: Richard D. Bennett & Jason Wallace 
  Artist: Rick Hershey
  Design and Layout: Rick Hershey
  Fat Goblin Games Team Members: 
  Chris Bayes, Eric Hindley, Jeff Swank, 
  John Bennett, Justice Mora, Kalyna Conrad,
   Kiel Howell, Lucus Palosaari, Nick Esposito, Rick Hershey, 
  Richard Bennett, Troy Daniels, Tyler Beck 
  Line Developer: Richard D. Bennett
  Publisher: Rick Hershey
  Knowledge Check: Last Rites © 2015 Fat Goblin Games 
  Compatibility with the Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game requires the Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game from Paizo 
  Publishing, LLC. See http://paizo. com/pathfinderRPG for more information on the Pathfinder® Roleplaying 
  Game. Paizo, Publishing, LLC does not guarantee compatibility, and does not endorse the product. 
  Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and the Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game and the 
  Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility Logo are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and are used under 
  the Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game Compatibility License. See http:// paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility for 
  more information on the compatibility license. 
  Open Game Content: All material — including but not limited to art, place and character names, character and setting descriptions, background, and new 
  class descriptions—is Product Identity. 
  All other content is considered Open Game Content. 
  Reference to non-Open Game Content (thus not covered by the Open Game License) in this work to content owned by others is not a challenge to their 
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  About Fat Goblin Games
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  Last Rites
  Knowledge Check
  
  3
  Last Rites
  Last Rites
  Knowledge Check is a product line for players and gamemasters. 
  Each book is a collection of rules and information designed to add 
  a little knowledge to any fantasy campaign, focusing on a particular 
  aspect of the skill system and adding depth and breadth to your play 
  experience. Knowledge Check: Last Rites will take you down the dark 
  roads that lead beyond the veil that parts life and death. An extensive 
  discussion of funerary rites, both celebratory and punitive, joins with 
  grisly archetypes, spells, and gear to see characters off to the great 
  beyond…and make sure they stay there.
  Contents
  Chapter One: Dust to dust 
  6
  Chapter Two: Dead Rules 
  23
  Chapter Three: Grave Goods 
  26
  Chapter Four: The Ossuary of St. Len 
  29
  
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  Knowledge Check
  Congratulations on purchasing Last Rites, 
  your one-stop place to find information about 
  how to get rid of all those inconvenient corps-
  es the PCs tend to leave behind (not to men-
  tion the hordes of NPCs you sacrificed to make 
  a decent plot hook).
  You may be wondering just why you need a 
  book about funeral rites and burial customs. 
  Neither is really a focus of roleplaying games. 
  After all, the point is to keep your character 
  alive, and any enemies that happen to die are 
  usually just left to rot or be eaten by the local 
  wildlife (especially dragons).
  Why bother with funeral rites? To be fair, if 
  your game consists of mostly dungeon-crawl-
  ing hack-and-slash, you probably don’t need 
  to. Any sort of rites would get in the way of 
  killing things and taking their stuff. This is why 
  so many video RPGs have the corpses just fade 
  away. Even in a social game, there are times 
  when bothering about the dead would just get 
  in the way.
  But there are also times where dealing with 
  and remembering the dead can add new and 
  deeper levels of both roleplaying and adven-
  ture for players and for GMs. That’s when you 
  will want this book. 
  For players
  It happens to everyone. A bad roll of the 
  dice, a poor roleplaying judgment, a snide 
  remark to your GM, and suddenly your char-
  acter is no more. Poof, ashes to ashes, dust to 
  dust, character sheet to recycle bin.
  In some games this isn’t a problem. Med-
  dling clerics, morally ambiguous necroman-
  cers, and even lenient DMs can bring charac-
  ters back beyond the veil of death if you’re 
  lucky. But what happens when characters 
  don’t come back? How is it that you should 
  send your character on to the afterlife? How 
  do their friends and loved ones—or even their 
  enemies—mourn their passing? 
  These aren’t questions roleplayers usually 
  ask. Players often deal with PC death more 
  readily than they deal with a host of other 
  misfortunes. Getting over a character’s death 
  is usually as easy as grabbing a new sheet and 
  picking out some cool abilities. At most, you 
  make a pyre of the old sheet and that’s that.
  But what if you want to do something big-
  ger? What if you want to actually give your 
  character or that of a comrade a royal send-
  off, give them a thanks for all the hours of 
  fun—and maybe even push the other PCs 
  into paying for it? On the flip side, nothing 
  rubs it in the face of your dead enemy like 
  desecrating their corpse and making sure 
  they’re totally unprepared for the afterlife 
  that awaits them.
  For gamemasters
  This book may be useful to players, but it’s 
  really here for you. For every PC that bites 
  the dust, dozens, if not hundreds, of NPCs 
  pass into the great beyond—often at the PCs’ 
  hands. Most of these deaths don’t take a lot 
  of pomp and circumstance to get over, nor 
  should they. But as a matter of storytelling, it 
  helps to bring the occasional death into focus. 
  No matter how calloused a society may be, 
  death should never be casual. There is always 
  some sort of process to send the dead on 
  their way and give the living an opportunity 
  to resolve their own feelings on the matter. 
  Besides, just think of the players’ faces when 
  
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  Last Rites
  they revisit the dungeon they raided only to 
  see the goblin children wailing as their parents 
  are lifted onto a funeral pyre.
  Don’t overdo it, obviously, but a moment 
  to remember the dead can really add some 
  depth to your roleplaying. If you don’t like 
  somber, change the rites so that funerals 
  become celebrations of life. Nothing livens a 
  place up like a party right after someone died.
  Chapter One looks at the many and diverse ways 
  in which the living have paid their last respects 
  (and, on occasion, their last vengeance) to the 
  dead. This potpourri of funerary customs can 
  be mixed and matched to meet whatever your 
  game’s needs might be.
  Chapter Two introduces some new rules and re-
  minds us of some extant ones for dealing with 
  the dead, both those who stay in the ground 
  and those who are a little more restless.
  Chapter Three looks at gear, both magical and 
  mundane, that touch upon funerary and grave-
  yard practices.
  Finally, Chapter Four takes us to one of the most 
  oddly morbid places in the world – the Ossuary 
  of St. Len. This location, with its bones and its 
  secrets, can be dropped whole into your game.
  Special thanks: Thanks go to Wikipedia, Project 
  Gutenberg, and Google for saving me untold hours 
  entombed among dusty shelves. Also thanks to 
  Dr. C. Wilfred Griggs, for firsthand explanations of 
  lesser-known Egyptian burial practices.
  
  6
  Knowledge Check
  Chapter One: 
  Dust to dust
  Or, how to deal with the recently deceased
  Everyone dies. That is part and parcel of 
  being mortal, and, barring infernal pacts or 
  carefully-worded wishes, no one gets out of 
  it. Most animals could not care less when one 
  of their own passes away—ants, for example, 
  treat a dead comrade like another piece of 
  trash—but sentient beings care very much for 
  their dearly departed. Most sentient beings 
  believe in some sort of soul, and so they are 
  quite concerned with how to properly treat 
  the bodies of the dead. Sometimes this stems 
  from respect, other times from fear. Nothing 
  ruins your day like your dead mother-in-law 
  coming back to haunt you because you got the 
  funeral prayers wrong.
  What is considered “proper” for a corpse 
  varies enormously from place to place. One 
  region’s funeral custom is another’s anath-
  ema. Doing the wrong rites in front of the 
  natives can be messy for those conducting 
  the rites, especially if you are in a culture that 
  makes a meal of the departed.
  This chapter deals mostly with different 
  ways of dealing with the dead. These are all 
  pulled from real-world cultures, though some 
  aspects have been elaborated on to reflect 
  a typical fantasy setting (such as cremating 
  corpses to keep them from rising as undead).
  Death ItselF
  Before preparing a body for funeral rites, 
  you have to be sure it’s dead. Some rather 
  infamous mistakes have been made because 
  people didn’t know how to take a proper 
  pulse. The legend that families held “wakes” 
  in case the deceased was just sleeping is an 
  exaggeration, but not by much. Magic often 
  makes it much easier to tell if someone’s actu-
  ally dead, since healing spells can sometimes 
  repair a corpse’s tissue but not bring it back to 
  life, while necromancy by definition can only 
  work on someone who’s actually deceased. 
  Non-magical investigators have to stick to 
  the physical signs, such as taking a pulse and 
  checking for breathing. There are a few other 
  signs of death that can, with experience, even 
  give you an idea of when the death occurred.
  Pallor mortis is only obvious in people with fair 
  skin. Without a heartbeat, the corpse’s blood 
  quickly pools on whatever side is facing down, 
  leaving the rest pale. Pallor mortis usually oc-
  curs within half an hour of death.
  Livor mortis refers to the red-purple splotches 
  that form on the corpse’s underside. Livor 
  mortis is the flip side of pallor mortis: all that 
  blood has to drain somewhere, and it pools on 
  whatever side is down. (Skin that’s actually 
  contacting the ground is an exception – the 
  pressure keeps the blood away.) Livor mortis 
  starts within a few hours of death and is com-
  plete within 6-12 hours.
  Algor mortis simply means that corpses cool 
  after death (assuming the corpse was warm-
  blooded to begin with—not always a guaran-
  tee in fantasy settings). Measuring the body’s 
  internal temperature can give you a rough idea 
  of when death occurred, with the body los-
  ing slightly less than two degrees Fahrenheit 
  
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  Last Rites
  every hour after death. Getting the right tools 
  to make this sort of measurement precisely, 
  however, is difficult. It usually just comes down 
  to “Is he still warm?”
  Rigor mortis is the best known symptom of 
  death. Starting roughly twelve hours after 
  death and lasting for up to several days, the 
  corpse’s muscles stiffen as if it were clenching 
  them all at once. The stiffness slowly relaxes as 
  decay sets in. Rigor mortis is one reason why 
  most necromancers prefer to make zombies of 
  slightly more decayed persons, as it’s no fun at 
  all to make a minion that’s stuck in place.
  Postmortem spasms have caused more than a 
  few heart attacks. Nothing gets your blood go-
  ing like a dead body suddenly jerking its arm 
  toward you. While you can ocasionally blame 
  a nearby necromancer, in some cases it’s just 
  a random twitch. Even though the body is 
  dead, the tissue is still intact, and the muscles 
  can still jerk on their own. Sometimes the 
  spasm just wiggles a finger, and sometimes 
  it makes the entire body lurch. Keep the holy 
  symbols ready just in case, but if no other 
  signs of necromantic meddling appear, you’re 
  probably okay. 
  Once you’ve established that the body is 
  dead, what do you do with it? The answer 
  depends both on the culture you live in and 
  the social stratum you belong to, not to men-
  tion what caused the death. A commoner who 
  died in an accident gets simple rites, whereas 
  one that died of smallpox is either cremated 
  or buried in a mass grave, and one who died 
  robbing a noble’s house will likely have his 
  head mounted on a stick.
  rItes oF passIng
  After someone’s death come the rites of 
  passing. They are usually just called “funerals,” 
  but rites of passing include much more than 
  what we usually mean by that word. The sim-
  plest rites of passing take only a few minutes, 
  while the longest can take months or years to 
  fully complete. Whatever their duration, most 
  rites of passing exist to help the living, not the 
  dead.
  Rites of passing are inexorably tied up with 
  religion. Atheists are rare in medieval societ-
  ies, especially if the local gods are fond of 
  smiting the unbelievers. The near-universal 
  belief in both a soul and a post-mortal exis-
  tence make it impossible to touch on death 
  without bringing religion into it somehow.
  The exact details of each rite, how it inter-
  sects with the local religion, and what form 
  it takes would be a book unto itself.  Instead 
  of inundating you with a long list of rites, we 
  are going to give you a list of components. 
  These components often show up in rites of 
  passing, and you should feel free to mix and 
  match them however you like. For those of 
  you interested in how these components may 
  come together in a variety of cultures, check 
  out Knowledge Check: Nine Funeral Rites.
  For the living
  Viewing: Many rites of passing include viewing 
  the corpse, often this is done in person, but 
  it may, for many reasons, be done in effigy 
  (such as a painting, bust, or other stand-in). 
  On the other hand, some religions forbid 
  viewing a corpse, either out of fear of con-
  tamination, in respect for the dead, or for 
  more exotic reasons.
  
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  Knowledge Check
  Public displays: Nobility and royalty like to leave 
  this world with the same pomp they enjoyed 
  while in it. This is like a viewing, except on a 
  much grander scale. The body or an effigy of it 
  is placed in a prominent public area, and some-
  times even paraded around the city. Whether 
  this is a somber funeral procession or a true 
  parade depends on the culture. In some cul-
  tures, the family of the deceased wears masks 
  during the procession, representing the already 
  departed ancestors welcoming the deceased 
  into the afterlife. The point of all this is to have 
  as many people as possible see the body and 
  mourn for their dearly departed leader. Most 
  often, it is the other nobles that do the most 
  visible mourning – it helps ingratiate them with 
  any surviving heirs.
  Oratory: During some rites, one or more people 
  stand up and talk, usually about the deceased. 
  This can be a priest explaining what happens 
  to the soul after death, a loved one extolling 
  the virtues of the deceased, or even a complete 
  stranger who simply performs eulogies for a 
  living. Most religions do include oratories at 
  funerals, but some consider it disrespectful 
  to speak of the dead too much or praise their 
  earthly accomplishments. After all, the dead are 
  now supposed to move on to a higher state of 
  being, and if you flatter them too much, they 
  might stay behind.
  Music: Many funeral rites feature music, though 
  the styles can range from somber background 
  music to boisterous cacophonies. Most funerary 
  music is closely tied to religion, but sometimes 
  it’s just the friends of the deceased gathering 
  together for one last rousing drinking song.
  Food: Food is usually present at funeral rites 
  that are more celebratory than somber, though 
  there are a few exceptions (see “Cannibalism”). 
  Some cultures have a specific ceremony, sepa-
  rate from the funeral itself, devoted to sharing 
  food and memories of the deceased. These rites 
  are called “wakes,” and may coincide with the 
  viewing. 
  Colors: Colors are very important in rites of 
  passing, since almost every culture has colors 
  associated with death. Not only will people 
  wear these colors, but the rites themselves 
  often include them as well. The most common 
  is black, the color of night, darkness, and en-
  tombment. Others are less common, but literally 
  any color of the rainbow can be associated 
  with death given the right reasons: red is the 
  color of blood, white can symbolize purity, and 
  yellow and orange can signify the flames of 
  cremation.
  Superstitions:  Some cultures are extremely 
  preoccupied with making sure that the dead 
  don’t bother the living. Go back far enough in 
  history, and most funerary practices spring 
  from this. Closing the eyes of the dead, covering 
  nearby mirrors, placing sheets over the body—
  all were originally to keep the spirit of the dead 
  from coming back and hurting the living. Some 
  cultures even go so far as to cut off the corpse’s 
  feet to prevent it from walking back—a certain 
  risk in some roleplaying settings, though crema-
  tion works better. Some even cut off the head 
  of the corpse, though stuffing it full of garlic is 
  purely optional. Many people will also refuse 
  the name the dead person until some time has 
  passed, and even when they do they add a 
  phrase, such as “gods bless his soul,” to keep the 
  spirit appeased.
  For the Dead
  Anointing: Some religions include the need to 
  anoint the corpse as part of the funeral rites. 
  The anointing is usually done by a priest or 
  other religious leader, and involves placing 
  oil, incense, perfume, or other holy liquids on 
  various parts of the body, usually while saying 
  a prayer. These anointing rites are usually to 
  protect or cleanse the corpse after death, and 
  in some areas serve as proof against reanima-
  tion as undead. (In an ironic twist, very similar 
  rites are usually used to create undead).
  Possessions: Many people are buried with mate-
  rial goods – either things they were attached 
  
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  Last Rites
  to in life, or offerings to take with them. A 
  warrior, for example, may be buried with his 
  sword and shield, a mage with her spellbook, a 
  priest with his vestments and holy symbol, etc. 
  (this is why old tombs are usually such good 
  sources of powerful artifacts). When the body 
  is cremated, paper or wood surrogates for the 
  items are often burned instead of the item 
  itself. 
  Flowers: In some cultures, it is customary to 
  bring flowers for the deceased. This appears 
  to be a very ancient practice, but it varies 
  wildly among cultures. Some cultures prefer 
  cut flowers, others live ones, and still others 
  prefer trees, shrubs, or other plants that can be 
  planted and will last longer. Sometimes you’re 
  not supposed to bring a plant at all, but rather 
  seeds as a representation of new life.
  Transportation: Due to taboos and other customs 
  about death, moving a corpse from one loca-
  tion to another can sometimes be problematic. 
  Thus, during rites of passing the corpse must 
  be transported in special vehicles, such as 
  hearses. Another variation on this is that only 
  a certain group of people can move a corpse 
  (e.g. clergy or family of the deceased), and even 
  then they are usually considered “unclean” 
  until they perform specific purification rituals.
  magIc In Funeral rItes
  Most of the rites mentioned herein don’t as-
  sume magic is involved in the ceremony. This 
  is partly because our world’s funeral rites lack 
  overt magic, but also because even in a high-
  magic world most people consider funerals 
  too somber to involve a lot of flashy magic. 
  There are exceptions, however. Just remem-
  ber that how much magic is used in funeral 
  rites depends mostly on the culture and its 
  expectations. Cultures that favor quiet, simple 
  rites aren’t going to employ lots of magic, 
  whereas those that want the dead to go out 
  with a bang will load up as much as they can 
  afford. Also keep in mind how common magic 
  is; if all you have is hedge wizards capable of 
  Plot hook
  The Queen lived in glory and wanted to die 
  the same. Though she passed away quietly 
  in bed, the funeral she planned prior to her 
  passing—rumor has it she had been adding 
  to and elaborating on it for decades—more 
  than makes up for it. Between the 500-per-
  son choir, the march through three cities, 
  and the parade of albino peacocks (yes, pea-
  cocks), it is fit to break the bank. The King, 
  however, is afraid that if he goes against her 
  wishes she will come back to haunt him. 
  But the treasury has run thin, and so he has 
  decided that it will be far cheaper to just 
  hire the player characters to guard him from 
  her ghostly wrath until she gets over it (“she 
  always does”) while he gives her a simple, 
  more pedestrian funeral. Even if they de-
  mand a king’s ransom for the services, it will 
  be cheaper than the funeral.
  
  10
  Knowledge Check
  minor prestidigitations, the funerals will be 
  short on magic. The story is very different if 
  half the population can throw around fireballs. 
  In any case, you can bet that royalty will have 
  far more—and far more elaborate—magic in 
  their funerals than the poor commoners.
  What role magic serves in the funeral is lim-
  ited only by your imagination. Here are some 
  ideas to get you started:
  Minor effects: Magic can be used to add a hint of 
  mysticism to common effects, such as lighting 
  candles from afar or sending the soul into the 
  afterlife with some minor pyrotechnics.
  Atmosphere: Magic can also provide certain 
  necessary effects to help the feel of the fu-
  neral. You can the candle flames dark blue, 
  for example, or keep soft music playing in the 
  background. Magic can also provide emphasis 
  during certain parts of the ceremony, such as 
  by lighting up stained glass windows in a cer-
  tain order or chiming bells at a specific time.
  Spectacular farewells: Some people like to go 
  out with a bang, and magic can provide that 
  in spades: giant fireballs, flashing lightning, or 
  coruscating curtains of color. Any visual effect 
  can help the dead on to the afterlife, even if it 
  is just to scare the spirit away from the liv-
  ing. A variation on this is common in military 
  funerals, especially for war mages: an honor 
  guard casts synchronized spells, such as burst 
  of flame or similar assault spells, to send off 
  the spirit of the deceased. It’s the magical ver-
  sion of a 21-gun salute.
  Necromancy: Probably the flashiest of all is to 
  bring back the spirit of the deceased. Some-
  times this involves raising them up (undead or 
  otherwise), and sometimes it is just calling the 
  spirit back so it can say its final farewells. (This 
  is particularly handy if royalty dies without 
  a chance to name a successor.) Funerals that 
  involve calling the dead back tend to be either 
  the most somber or the most festive, depend-
  ing on whether the culture treats it as one last 
  chance to say goodbye, or one last chance to 
  party the night away with a beloved friend.
  Interment
  Interment, or burial, simply means putting 
  the deceased body away somewhere. This can 
  mean putting them in a grave and covering 
  them with earth, placing them in a carved-out 
  tomb or mausoleum, or even just collapsing a 
  Plot hook
  The Great Wizard Melfastarine’s magi-
  cal prowess was equaled only by his ego. 
  The highlight of his funeral was his eulogy 
  for himself, delivered post-mortem thanks 
  to some cleverly engineered necromantic 
  summoning. Everything went well until 
  Melfastarine took his bow and tried to 
  leave—and couldn’t. Since he’s dead he 
  can’t work magic himself, and the PCs are 
  drawn into it help him pass on. They’re 
  likely inspired by the reward he’s posted, 
  but it could also be as a favor from a friend 
  or to pay off a debt. Whatever the PCs’ mo-
  tivation, they just need to break into Mel-
  fastarine’s arcane tower and retrieve his 
  research notes from the topmost room—
  after getting past the varied and deadly 
  magical defenses he left in place to prevent 
  people from doing just that. Melfastarine’s 
  spirit can accompany the PCs and give 
  them some help (if they’re willing to put 
  up with his insufferable egotism), but even 
  he doesn’t remember all the defenses.
  
  11
  Last Rites
  cave on them (even if they have not died yet, 
  though this is usually accidental). Interment is 
  a common form of funeral rite, probably be-
  cause many creation myths include the gods 
  creating mankind out of the earth. Interment 
  lets a body return to its original state, safely 
  tucked away where everyone else doesn’t 
  have to see the rather messy process of it.
  Before being interred, the body is usually 
  washed and cleaned, then dressed in some 
  sort of garment. Some cultures prefer that the 
  dead wear what they would have worn in life, 
  some use simple funeral shrouds, and some 
  dress the dead more richly than kings. In the 
  latter cases, some corpses can end up wear-
  ing multiple layers of fine clothing which total 
  several years’ worth of income.
  After the body is prepared and any addi-
  tional rites performed, it is time to actually 
  inter the body. Except in accidents like cave-
  ins, burial locations are almost never chosen 
  by chance. Placing a dead body in the ground 
  is serious business, especially if it might come 
  back as undead, and people want to be sure 
  they get it right.
  The most common burial location is a cem-
  etery—a plot of land specifically set aside for 
  burying the dead. Cemeteries can range from 
  simple family plots to sprawling urban grave-
  yards, and you can usually recognize them by 
  the markers showing where a corpse has been 
  buried. Crypts—actual buildings to house the 
  dead, usually built underground—are also 
  common alternatives. 
  Some cultures don’t set aside specific areas 
  for interment, but instead make sure to bury 
  the body near a specific feature of the land—a 
  bridge, a copse of trees, running water, etc. 
  Sometimes the dead are even buried under 
  people’s homes so that the departed spirit can 
  watch over the household. Many people find 
  this a little nerve-wracking, though, and take 
  the opposite approach. For example, bury-
  ing someone at a crossroads is supposed to 
  confuse the spirit so that it can’t find its way 
  home, and is especially common for corpses 
  might rise as undead. After all, if the corpse is 
  going to go on a shambling rampage, it might 
  as well be in someone else’s town.
  In addition to the burial location, the posi-
  tion of the corpse is extremely important. 
  Most religions bury their dead with the head 
  or face pointing a certain direction, such as 
  toward north, a nearby holy site, or the rising 
  sun. Additionally, most corpses are buried 
  lying on their backs as a symbol of rest and 
  repose, though some bury the body resting on 
  its side and still others place it in a lotus posi-
  tion. The rarest burial position is upside-down: 
  not only does it carry all sorts of negative 
  connotations, but it’s also usually reserved for 
  criminals and corpses that may rise as undead 
  –  an upside-down zombie will have a much 
  harder time clawing its way out of the ground.
  Since interring corpses requires a lot of 
  space, large cities sometimes run out of burial 
  locations. When this happens, most cultures 
  respectfully exhume the oldest bodies and 
  move the bones to an ossuary, a building or 
  other site set aside to hold the bones of the 
  dead. Most ossuaries are simple chambers, 
  but sometimes the bones are used as (slightly 
  morbid) decorations, being worked into case-
  ments, pillars, and even chandeliers. 
  
  12
  Knowledge Check
  BurIeD alIve
  Some people—usually members of the up-
  per class with too much time on their hands—
  suffer chronic fears of being buried alive. 
  While this is a legitimate concern for some 
  people (e.g. miners), most people who actual-
  ly worry about it think that they’ll go to sleep 
  one night and then wake up in a coffin under 
  six feet of dirt. No matter how many people 
  point out that this is nearly impossible, people 
  still go to great lengths to assure it won’t hap-
  pen to them or their loved ones. Common 
  precautions include putting handles on the 
  inside of crypt doors, running string from the 
  coffin to a bell above ground, or using minor 
  magics to detect movement after burial. The 
  problem with this is that if your loved one 
  actually is dead but doesn’t stay that way, you 
  give the resulting zombie/vampire/whatever 
  an easy avenue of escape.
  crematIon
  Simply put, cremation is burning a body until 
  there is nothing left to burn. There are sev-
  eral ways to accomplish this, but in a typical 
  medieval setting the most common is to build 
  a pyre of some sort, place the corpse on top, 
  and set it alight. Cremation is the funeral rite 
  of choice for religions heavy on fire symbol-
  ism, while a few instead use it to free the spirit 
  by removing the body it was attached to. As a 
  side benefit, it also tends to keep them from 
  coming back as undead. Cremation is also fa-
  vored in some urban areas where there simply 
  isn’t room to bury corpses.
  Cremating someone requires a few basic ele-
  ments. First, you need a fuel source because 
  human corpses don’t burn very well on their 
  own – there is too much water in them. Most 
  cultures use wood, but anything flammable 
  works, including dried dung, peat moss, fabric, 
  or dry sod. Most pyres also include incense, 
  both for religious reasons and because it helps 
  to cover the smell of the burning body. Final-
  ly—and arguably, most importantly—you need 
  a source of flame. Most cultures do not care 
  where you get the fire from, but sometimes 
  a funeral pyre must be lit by fire taken from a 
  specific source (say, a temple to the local fire 
  god) or with a torch made from a specific kind 
  of wood.
  Plot hook 
  The PCs were invited to dine with the 
  Marquis d’Salle, and they enjoyed a fabu-
  lous meal before retiring for the night. 
  When they wake up, they are in a cold stone 
  room, with a single torch burning in the 
  wall. A note in the Marquis’s handwriting 
  informs them that they’re to be his latest 
  entertainment. Thanks to the drugs in the 
  food, he has moved them to the d’Salle 
  family crypt, which the Marquis has retrofit-
  ted with various traps, mazes, dead ends, 
  and other nefarious methods of dispatching 
  the unwary. Meanwhile, the only exit is tied 
  to a sand timer slowly trickling away. If they 
  escape before three hours pass, the Mar-
  quis will reward them handsomely for their 
  trouble. If they fail . . . well, then he will 
  have to find someone else to entertain him. 
  The Marquis is obviously insane, but unfor-
  tunately none of his previous “guests” have 
  made it out to inform the authorities.
  
  13
  Last Rites
  As with most funeral rites, cremation exists 
  as much for the living as for the dead – a cer-
  emony to help the dead pass on, and the living 
  to grieve and begin to heal. Some cultures, 
  however, claim that the deceased’s loved 
  ones—especially their spouse—should throw 
  themselves on the pyre as an act of devotion. 
  The practice is rarely enforced, and there are 
  several accounts of people fulfilling it of their 
  own free will. Spouses, friends, and even 
  servants have thrown themselves on a funeral 
  pyre so that they can be with their loved one. 
  Sometimes, living alone is just too hard.
  In less pleasant circumstances, nations often 
  use cremation to get rid of large numbers of 
  bodies, especially after battles or plagues. Cre-
  mation can sometimes even be a punishment, 
  in which case you usually do not wait for the 
  person to die before lighting the flames. This is 
  especially common for religious heretics. Dif-
  ferent religions provide different reasons why 
  they do this, but the basest answer is prob-
  ably simplest: it’s excruciatingly painful, and 
  thus provides the proper punishment for such 
  heretics.
  While cultures that do not practice crema-
  tion usually just see it as a little strange, some 
  actively oppose it. Religions that believe in a 
  bodily resurrection, for example, usually dis-
  courage cremation because it can be seen as 
  an attempt to thwart the gods’ will to restore 
  the body to life. A few religions even forbid 
  cremation, except for criminals and heretics, 
  because they believe it actually destroys the 
  soul (whether this is really the case depends 
  on your campaign, of course).
  Dem bones, dem bones
  Unless you are using a truly extraordinary 
  (i.e. magical) fire, cremation cannot destroy 
  human bones; it just is not hot enough. Tech-
  nological societies sometimes pulverize the 
  leftover bones into “ashes,” which are then 
  kept, buried, scattered, or used in any of 
  several more interesting (and often morbid) 
  uses, such as being reconstituted into paint 
  for a portrait of the deceased or fused into 
  diamond jewelry. Other societies, including 
  medieval ones, collect the bone fragments 
  and place them in a container of some sort, 
  such as an urn. The urn can then be interred, 
  placed in a shrine or temple, thrown into a 
  nearby lake, or simply left to collect dust in 
  the attic. This last isn’t very common since it 
  tends to anger the spirit of the deceased.
  emBalmIng anD mummIFIcatIon
  Embalming and mummification are practical-
  ly the same thing. The main difference is that 
  embalming is sometimes used as a preface to 
  another rite—interment, for example—while 
  mummification is the last rite itself.
  Embalming
  “Embalming” is a catch-all phrase meaning 
  any chemical technique used to slow or arrest 
  decay in a corpse. In lay terms, it just means 
  you use fancy concoctions to keep a corpse 
  fresh—relatively speaking, anyway. Some em-
  balming techniques can only preserve corpses 
  for a few days, while others work for years or 
  even centuries.
  
  14
  Knowledge Check
  Embalming happens for many reasons. The 
  most basic is to keep a corpse presentable 
  until after the funeral rites have finished. 
  Other times a corpse needs to be moved long 
  distances before the rites are done, such as 
  someone being returned to their ancestral 
  home, and embalming makes sure the body 
  is presentable when it arrives. Physicians also 
  embalm corpses in order to preserve them for 
  study.
  Actually embalming a corpse involves infus-
  ing the body with a mixture of chemicals to 
  keep decay at bay. The nature of the mixture 
  changes from culture to culture, and in some 
  cases the recipes are secrets known only to 
  the embalmers themselves. Formaldehyde 
  did not appear until the mid-19th century, so 
  ancient and medieval embalming mixes rely 
  on natron (a salt), alcohol, wax, and honey as 
  their primary ingredients. Spices and rare oils 
  are sometimes thrown in as well, at least for 
  the rich. They don’t always preserve the body 
  better, but they can ameliorate the smell. A 
  well-embalmed corpse can appear fresh for 
  decades or even centuries afterward, though 
  you have to protect it from outside elements. 
  Sealed crypts work well, as do airtight glass 
  coffins if you plan to put the body on public 
  display. The original embalmer was Mother 
  Nature, and for the poor she is still their only 
  choice. People too poor to afford embalmers 
  are just buried in the sand, making this just 
  another form of interment.
  Most religions don’t have an opinion on 
  embalming, since by and large it does not 
  interfere with other, more important rites. 
  A few take issue with it, however, because it 
  prevents the corpse’s return to nature. These 
  latter religions rely on natural techniques to 
  preserve a body, such as exposing it to cold 
  (outside or underground). They tend to have 
  funerals very quickly after the death, for obvi-
  ous reasons.
  mummIFIcatIon
  While simple embalming can preserve a 
  corpse for a little while, if you want it to last 
  forever you really need to mummify it. Mum-
  mification is most common in areas where 
  it happens naturally (deserts, usually). Even 
  when other cultures adopt the practice, they 
  usually limit it to the rich; without the right 
  natural conditions, the poor can never afford 
  the extensive embalming techniques needed 
  to really mummify someone.
  The natural heat and dryness of the desert 
  dries the body out before it can decay, leaving 
  a mummy that stays preserved as long as the 
  climate holds (a very long time in most des-
  erts). Some cultures bury their dead in simple 
  shrouds, but others clothe the corpse in finery 
  far beyond what they ever wore in life. Not 
  surprisingly, this usually happens in cultures 
  where the spirit’s status in the afterlife de-
  pends, at least in part, on what it takes with it.
  The mummified rich get far better treat-
  ment. First, the internal organs are removed 
  and preserved separately, sometimes to be 
  added back in later. Then the body is suffused 
  with a potent mixture of salts and chemicals 
  to desiccate it, that is to remove all of the 
  moisture. Once the body is desiccated, it is 
  placed in funerary clothing that can range 
  from traditional linen wrappings to royal 
  regalia, and necklaces, brooches, amulets, 
  and other adornments are also added. Some-
  times the body is dressed in more esoteric 
  items, like armor and weapons, as well. The 
  
  15
  Last Rites
  finished mummy is placed in an expensive 
  sarcophagus, usually made of rare woods and 
  often with gold leaf or an actual pounded gold 
  exterior. The sarcophagus is sometimes filled 
  with herbs and spices, then interred in an ap-
  propriate location so that the dead may rest 
  in peace for all eternity—or at least until the 
  looters and archaeologists show up.
  Cultures that use mummification often be-
  lieve that you can take it with you. People, es-
  pecially nobles, tend to be buried with all sorts 
  of gold, jewels, furniture, cooking utensils, and 
  anything else that they may find useful in the 
  afterlife. This can even include servants (usu-
  ally just wooden effigies) and mummified pets.
  Most cultures that practice mummification 
  believe that a person’s body must be intact in 
  order for the soul to fully enjoy the afterlife, 
  either because of a residual link between the 
  two or because the soul has to come back and 
  visit occasionally. Mummification thus keeps 
  a body in good (enough) shape for the soul 
  indefinitely. Destroying a body, such as by let-
  ting it rot or cremating it, profanes the soul’s 
  afterlife, or at the very least puts a serious 
  kink in its eternal reward. Such souls are left 
  to wander the world as restless dead, which 
  is why this fate is usually reserved for heretics 
  and criminals.
  Mummy oddities
  On a somewhat morbid note, it’s a wide-
  spread belief that powdered mummy is a po-
  tent medicine, especially for hemophilia and 
  other bleeding disorders (Presumably, it “dries 
  up” the bleeding.) This can make mummies 
  a very expensive black market item, ardently 
  sought among certain royal lines. Some mum-
  my wrappings have also been used to create a 
  specific shade of brown paint, called “death’s 
  head,” that is almost impossible to replicate. 
  Thus when looters steal from a mummy’s 
  tomb, they are not always content with just 
  the gold; sometimes the mummy itself is just 
  as valuable, if not more so. Needless to say, 
  cultures that practice mummification find this 
  “mummy harvesting” abhorrent.
  Plot hook
  The countess of Zura-Meton recently 
  purchased a vial of natural restorative from 
  an apothecary, and ever since has been 
  plagued by recurring nightmares. Ap-
  parently the restorative included ground 
  mummy, and now every night she dreams 
  of the lord Akamren-Rul demanding rec-
  ompense. The dreams are getting more 
  violent, and she fears for her life. If not 
  fixed soon, she thinks Akamren-Rul will 
  find a way to carry out his demands—
  namely, that she die and be mummified 
  to return his body to its natural state. The 
  players’ characters are brought in to rectify 
  the situation. They can try to convince the 
  Countess that the dreams are just dreams 
  (a distinct possibility), try to make peace 
  with the spirit of Akamren-Rul, or even try 
  to find some way to confront him and force 
  him to leave the countess alone. The spirit 
  could be a haunt, or as dangerous as a 
  full-blown ghost. The party should be care-
  ful, though; there’s a reason why so many 
  mummy legends feature horrible curses.
  
  16
  Knowledge Check
  exposure
  Not all funeral rites include taking good care 
  of the body; some have just the opposite in 
  mind. The most common of this type of rite 
  is exposure, meaning that you just leave the 
  body out in an open location so scavengers 
  can consume it. While most cultures go to 
  great lengths to prevent this, a few buck the 
  trend and actively encourage it. 
  This does not mean people just toss bod-
  ies in the street, of course. First the corpse 
  is given all the appropriate funeral rites the 
  local religion requires (see “Rites of Passing”). 
  Then a procession of priests and/or loved ones 
  carries the body to a secluded spot which 
  is usually set aside for exposing the dead—
  mountainsides, hills, and small towers are the 
  most common. These sites are usually several 
  miles from the nearest settlement and tend to 
  acquire solid, lonely names, e.g. “The Tower of 
  Silence,” or “The Mountain of the Departed.” 
  Once there, the body is left clothed in, at 
  most, a simple shroud. Any further religious 
  rites are carried out, and then the living de-
  part and leave the dead to the elements and 
  the carrion-feeders.
  Most cultures that practice exposure do so 
  because they believe a corpse is unclean, due 
  to simple decay, the fact that demons can 
  possess it now, or other reasons. Removing 
  it from the society and letting the scavengers 
  take care of it is a way of keeping the soci-
  ety pure. The scavengers are usually unclean 
  anyway, and in this way the pure elements of 
  earth and fire remain uncontaminated as well 
  (which wouldn’t be the case with interment 
  and cremation, respectively).
  Once the elements and scavengers have 
  removed all the flesh—a process of about a 
  year—the bones are usually put in a nearby 
  ossuary pit and allowed to further disinte-
  grate. This can take a very long time indeed, 
  but with enough time even the bones are 
  reduced to splinters and dust, and all returns 
  back to whence it began.
  Exposure works best for small, isolated 
  communities. As cities build themselves up, 
  they often start encroaching on the traditional 
  exposure sites. Some cities just designate new 
  exposure sites further out, others create a buf-
  fer zone of gardens and forest around the site, 
  and still others ignore the problem entirely 
  and just adopt foreign funeral customs like 
  cremation and interment.
  Plot hook
  The High Priest of Vularan is quite dis-
  traught. For over two centuries, the Tower 
  of Sighing Echoes has held the bodies of 
  the deceased, keeping the land and water 
  pure from the taint of death. Yet when he 
  led the last funeral procession there three 
  weeks ago, he thought some of the bod-
  ies had gone missing. It bothered him so 
  much he checked again a few days later 
  and confirmed that three more had disap-
  peared. Now nearly all of them have gone, 
  and the poor priest fears that some sinister 
  plot is afoot. He suspects that the local guild 
  of physicians has robbed the Tower for its 
  dissections, or that the Sect of Chal’ara is 
  defiling them with some necromantic rite, 
  but he has no proof. He implores the PCs to 
  investigate, both for the sake of the dead 
  themselves and for the purity of the city. Of 
  course, finding proof will be rather difficult, 
  especially if someone notices the PC’s inqui-
  ries and decides to silence them.
  
  17
  Last Rites
  BurIal at sea
  For most cultures, burial at sea is a rite of 
  necessity, not of choice. While it is possible 
  to bring remains back from the middle of the 
  ocean, the logistics of it are hard to pull off. 
  That said, there are a few groups that do pre-
  fer burial at sea: 
  Seaborne nomads: For obvious reasons, those 
  who live at sea prefer to be buried at sea. 
  Sailors and seaborne merchants are often the 
  same.
  Naval officers: For many who make their career 
  in the navy, the sea is home far more than any 
  strip of land. Retired naval officers will some-
  times request that their remains be buried at 
  sea even if they themselves haven’t set foot on 
  a ship in years.
  Paranoid individuals: When it comes to corpse 
  protection, burial at sea is second only to cre-
  mation for protecting the corpse; once a body 
  is at the bottom of the ocean, only epic efforts 
  can actually get it back. This prevents enemies 
  from mutilating, reanimating, or otherwise 
  desecrating the body.
  A basic burial at sea consists of little more 
  than placing the body in a weighted bag (usu-
  ally made from sailcloth) or a casket and drop-
  ping it overboard. Most sea burials are more 
  elaborate, of course, with at least a simple re-
  ligious service said before lowering the body. 
  (After major battles, the service is usually very 
  simple because of how many bodies there are 
  to take care of.) More distinguished people, 
  especially high-ranking naval officers, often 
  receive very elaborate funerals, but the end 
  result is the same.
  A more spectacular method of burial at sea 
  was popularized by the Scandinavians. It’s 
  actually a combination of cremation and sea 
  burial, and consists of loading a dead leader 
  onto a large boat filled with funeral posses-
  sions. The boat is then pushed into the water 
  and set on fire. Though spectacular, it has not 
  caught on in most of the world. (Similar tradi-
  tions involve simply burying the dead in a faux 
  boat made of either stone or wood, or some-
  times cremating the ship on dry land).
  cannIBalIsm
  Contrary to popular belief, cultures rarely 
  indulge in cannibalism for mere nutrition. 
  (Supply gets low pretty fast, especially when 
  word gets around.) Most of the time—at 
  least, when eating other people isn’t totally 
  taboo—cannibalism is closely tied to religious 
  rites, especially funeral rites, and carries heavy 
  symbolic meaning. Though there is plenty of 
  obvious symbolism in eating your enemies, 
  we’re going to focus on the slightly less obvi-
  ous symbolism of eating your friends.
  Most “civilized” societies consider cannibal-
  ism brutish and barbaric, but the societies 
  that practice it regularly actually do so out of 
  respect. Consuming the flesh of the deceased 
  brings the dead person’s power and prowess 
  into yourself, and it can actually be a mark of 
  great honor to be allowed part of the de-
  ceased’s flesh. Cannibalism also links the spirit 
  of the dead to future generations, as the body 
  of those have gone before becomes part of 
  those who are now. Though not documented 
  historically, it’s certainly possible to have a 
  society where pregnant women are the only 
  ones allowed to partake of the dead’s flesh, 
  
  18
  Knowledge Check
  so that the spirit of the dead may be reborn 
  in the child. In other cultures, consuming the 
  dead is meant to help the spirit of the de-
  ceased pass on by destroying the flesh that 
  tied it to life.
  Slightly less noble reasons for cannibalism 
  exist and are, unfortunately, used from time 
  to time. Since eating the flesh of a powerful 
  man is supposed to make you more powerful, 
  some people will kill and eat others to gain 
  that power. Youth, too, is sometimes supposed 
  to be transferred this way. Most of the time 
  there’s no obvious result, but that doesn’t 
  mean it’s not working.
  The one major problem with cannibal-
  ism (aside from how it annoys the “civilized” 
  neighbors) is that some diseases can spread 
  extremely rapidly through it. Most cultures 
  have no idea what a “prion” is, but they are 
  notoriously easy to get if you eat the flesh 
  of someone infected with them. Mad cow 
  disease is the most well know such disease, 
  but there are others, and eating the body of 
  someone who died of one is a good way to kill 
  an entire village.
  thanatology anD necromancy
  Not everyone lets the dead rest in peace. 
  People who meddle with death fall into two 
  broad camps: thanatologists and necroman-
  cers. The general public doesn’t distinguish 
  between them, but the differences are fairly 
  important. 
  Thanatologists
  Thanatologists are the scholars of death. 
  Instead of seeking to control death, they try to 
  understand it, and people’s reactions to it.
  Thanatologists aren’t so concerned with 
  the Big Questions of why death exists, what 
  comes after, and such—they leave that to the 
  philosophers and priests—but instead focus 
  on the physical and psychological aspects 
  of death. For example, a thanatologist with 
  some medical training will study what biologi-
  cal processes cease with death, which ones 
  are still active, the procession of pallor mortis 
  through rigor mortis, and the process of decay. 
  Thanatologists with a more psychological bent 
  study how people react to oncoming death, 
  how those left behind grieve and recover, and 
  how people react to witnessing violent death. 
  Adventurers make an excellent pool of people 
  who have caused many violent deaths, and are 
  thus highly sought out by some thanatologists. 
  A few thanatologists every study the cultural 
  Plot hook
  The Lord of Morath has kept the land un-
  der his thumb for a hundred years, thanks to 
  his eating the flesh of murdered youths. The 
  party’s task is simple: take him down. Sim-
  ple, that is, if you consider sneaking past or 
  fighting loyal guards, getting into the fortified 
  keep, and taking down a possibly immortal 
  ruler as simple. The PC’s motivation is up 
  to you; it could be simple mercenary work, 
  due to general principle, or because the Lord 
  just kidnapped one of their younger siblings 
  or lovers in preparation for killing and eat-
  ing them. Of course, there’s the rumor that 
  anyone who eats the lord’s heart will gain 
  a hundred years of youth, but no PC will be 
  tempted by that . . . right?
  
  19
  Last Rites
  rituals and rites that surround death, but they 
  must tread carefully because it is astonishingly 
  easy for them to annoy the local religions.
  Thanatologists are, by and large, harmless. 
  They’re no more dangerous than your average 
  philosopher or alchemist, and the worst most 
  of them will do is subject grieving family mem-
  bers to interminable questionnaires. Many of 
  them even work as counselors of a sort, help-
  ing people through the grieving process and 
  giving comfort as death approaches. 
  Necromancers
  Whereas thanatologists are the scholars of 
  death, necromancers are the workers of it. In its 
  strictest sense, necromancy means simply call-
  ing up the spirits of the dead and trying to get 
  information from them. But, really, when was the 
  last time you saw a necromancer in a roleplaying 
  game just summoning the dead for a chat?
  Basically, if thanatologists are like chemists, 
  necromancers are like demolitions experts. 
  The two disciplines use many of the same 
  tools and knowledge, but for vastly different 
  purposes. One seeks to explore death, the 
  other to conquer it—usually by raising a mas-
  sive army of zombies and skeletons to take 
  over the world.
  Most cultures look on necromancers with 
  distrust at best and loathing at worst. The 
  dead should rest in peace, and even the sim-
  plest necromantic call disturbs their eternal 
  rest. Of course, the dead aren’t too fond of 
  it either; nothing puts the departed in a bad 
  temper like being bound back into a half-
  decayed body. (And you wonder why zombies 
  are always in such a bad mood.)
  Even though most cultures distrust necro-
  mancers, that doesn’t mean that they shun 
  them. Many societies have a strong cadre of 
  necromancers on the fringes, ready to call up 
  the dead in exchange for a small (and some-
  times quite large) fee. A few societies even 
  break the mold and treat their necromancers 
  quite well, letting them live opulent lifestyles 
  as members of an elite guild, or even as privi-
  leged members of the royal court. But these 
  are the exceptions.
  That said, there are still all those necro-
  mancers who insist on raising undead legions 
  and trying to conquer the world. Everyone 
  needs a hobby.
  Plot Hook
  The esteemed thanatologist, Sir Michael 
  Carmichael Valduvius VI, is trying to write 
  the quintessential work on the psychology of 
  those who have seen great death. After decid-
  ing that military men and physicians were 
  too banal, he hit on the idea of adventurers, 
  and thus found the PCs. Now he won’t leave 
  them alone. No matter how much they cajole, 
  threaten, or even attack, he continues to fol-
  low them and ask an interminable series of 
  questions. (“When did you first kill someone?” 
  “What do you do with the blood on your 
  clothes?” “Do you dehumanize your victims 
  before eviscerating them?” “What effect did 
  your early family life have on your sociopathic 
  tendencies?”) If they ignore him, he continues 
  pestering them. If they answer his questions, 
  he’s back in a day or two with a list twice as 
  long. (And if they actually kill him, his nec-
  romancer friends bring him back within the 
  week.) Their only real hope is to try to find an 
  ever more bloodthirsty set of adventurers to 
  sic him on, and let him be their problem.
  
  20
  Knowledge Check
  lIFe aFter Death
  One of the great questions about death is, 
  of course, “What happens next?” Philoso-
  phers, priests, and even scientists have grap-
  pled with this question for millennia, but so 
  far no clear answers have emerged. But keep 
  in mind that even when people don’t actually 
  know what happens after death, they usually 
  think they do.
  There are as many ideas about post-mortem 
  existence as there are cultures, but most of 
  them fall into a few broad categories. We’ve 
  outlined the most common ones, and keep 
  in mind that they aren’t mutually exclusive. 
  Some religions, for example, believe that 
  the soul follows cycles of reincarnation until 
  it reaches a certain point of purity, at which 
  point it is subsumed back into the universe at 
  large. Others meanwhile believe that the righ-
  teous are rewarded with eternal bliss, while 
  those of the wicked are simply extinguished 
  from existence.
  Extinction: The idea that consciousness ceases 
  with death is rare in medieval societies, but it 
  does exist. Basically, birth is the beginning of life 
  and death its end, and there is nothing more. 
  This worldview is more popular with atheists 
  and others who break from traditional religions, 
  and when it does make its way into religious 
  texts, it’s usually reserved for the unrighteous.
  Afterlife: The most common belief is probably 
  that consciousness continues to exist after 
  death in an “afterlife,” another sort of exis-
  tence with rules that sometimes deviate wildly 
  from mortal existence (the most common one 
  being that you can’t be killed again). Some af-
  terlives are paradise, some are miserable, and 
  some are just another place to live. The quality 
  of your afterlife usually depends on your deeds 
  in life.
  Reincarnation: The second-most-common idea 
  about where souls go is probably reincarna-
  tion, the idea that the soul is reborn into a 
  new body. Some beliefs hold that the soul only 
  cycles among humans or other sentient beings, 
  but some beliefs allow it to cycle into anything 
  from an ant to a tiger to a blade of grass. 
  Reincarnation is usually meant as a sort of 
  training ground for souls – the end goal is that 
  you eventually learn whatever it’s supposed to, 
  terminate the cycles, and move onto either an 
  appropriate afterlife or subsumation.
  Subsumation: Subsumation is the idea that con-
  sciousness returns to something greater upon 
  death, like a drop of water returning to the 
  ocean. The individual ceases to be an individu-
  al and merges with the All. While some cultures 
  believe this happens immediately after death, 
  most require some sort of preparation in order 
  to properly lose the trappings of mortality; 
  only holy men and sages become enlightened 
  enough during life to shed their individuality 
  immediately upon death.
  But I know what happens to the dead!
  In some roleplaying campaigns you know 
  exactly what happens to the dead. They stick 
  around as ghosts, go off to petition their gods, 
  get devoured by angry demons, or join the 
  Heavenly Bureaucracy. What do you do in 
  cases like this?
  First off, remember that most people don’t 
  actually have firsthand experience with what 
  happens to the dead. Just because the world 
  guide says all dead go to the Plane of Paradise, 
  that doesn’t mean everyone living in the world 
  actually knows that. Unless travel between life 
  and afterlife is unbelievably common, most 
  people take their afterlife on faith. PCs are an 
  exception, since they have an uncanny ten-
  dency tend to get into sticky situations with 
  
  21
  Last Rites
  the dead, not to mention demons and gods. 
  Most people aren’t nearly so (un)fortunate 
  and must live by faith. Thus even if you know 
  what happens to the dead, feel free to pepper 
  your world with NPCs that have very different 
  ideas about it.
  Mix and Match
  Remember that it’s not even necessary that 
  only one system apply to a world. Individual 
  religious beliefs aside, it’s possible that the 
  entire world actually operates on differ-
  ent afterlife principles for different people. 
  One god may keep reincarnating her follow-
  ers, another rewards his with paradise, still 
  another subsumes hers into her own soul . . . 
  anything is possible. 
  Some worlds are even so politically correct 
  that they let everyone experience the afterlife 
  they think they will. Thus if you expect to go to 
  heaven, you will. If you think you’ll be reincar-
  nated as a giant panda, it happens. And if you 
  think you cease to exist . . . well, that one’s a 
  bit trickier to manage, and makes an absolute 
  mess of the paperwork. (Thankfully most soci-
  eties have a large excess of dead bureaucrats 
  to take care of it).
  DesecratIon oF the DeaD
  Not everyone wants to send the dead on to 
  a blissful afterlife. One of the surest ways to 
  disrespect the dead—and sometimes deprive 
  them of their place in eternity—is to desecrate 
  their body. Desecration takes many forms, 
  and it’s always tied up with what is considered 
  proper – a perfectly acceptable rite in one 
  culture is anathema to another.
  Exposure: Most cultures hate letting scavengers 
  feed on corpses. Leaving them out for wolves, 
  ravens, rats, and other carrion-feeders is 
  disdain of the highest degree. This often hap-
  pens on battlefields due to simple logistics, in 
  which case people try to rectify it as soon as 
  possible, but many people do it intentionally. 
  Criminals are especially apt to get this treat-
  ment to “make an example” of them, usually 
  by hanging their corpse in a public place and 
  letting their bones get slowly picked clean. It’s 
  supposed to reinforce that you shouldn’t com-
  mit crimes; usually, though, it just reinforces 
  that you shouldn’t get caught.
  Mutilation: Even though most cultures don’t 
  require a corpse to be intact for it to get a 
  proper funeral, intentional mutilation is still 
  taboo. This means it’s a favorite for people to 
  perform on their enemies, and they’ll usually 
  proudly display it, too. Common mutilations 
  include beheading, castration, skinning, pluck-
  ing out the eyes, driving spikes or other ob-
  Plot hook
  The Avatar of Mudala is extremely precise 
  in his incarnations among humanity. Every 
  time a previous avatar dies, the avatar’s soul 
  migrates into a newborn babe exactly nine 
  days, nine hours, and nine minutes later. But 
  it’s been two weeks since the avatar died, 
  and the correct child has not been found. 
  The priests of Mudala are praying madly, 
  trying to see if the avatar’s spirit is angry 
  or simply lost its way, but in the meantime 
  they’re taking more physical approaches, 
  too. The PCs are brought in to help seek out 
  the new avatar and bring the baby safely. 
  They need to hurry, since it’s know that the 
  rival nation of Nu’atla is also looking for the 
  child, and will kill it if found.
  
  22
  Knowledge Check
  jects through the body, and even posthumous 
  piercings or tattoos.
  Cremation: One culture’s funeral rite is another’s 
  desecration. Certain cultures, especially those 
  that mummify the dead, believe that destroy-
  ing the body forces the soul to wander lost for 
  all eternity. Thus no surer desecration exists 
  than to destroy the body completely with fire, 
  forcing the soul to wander forevermore. Only 
  criminals and heretics usually get this treat-
  ment—though, as always, an enemy might do it, 
  too, to get revenge.
  Cannibalism: Most cultures share an extreme 
  prejudice against cannibalism and see anyone 
  engaging in it as absolutely barbaric. This has 
  led to cross-cultural misunderstandings as one 
  culture tried to honor the dead and horri-
  fied another in the process. In less honorable 
  circumstances, some war leaders have been 
  known to feast on the bodies of their enemies, 
  though it’s just as common for them to force 
  their prisoners to do so—often by feeding them 
  the corpses of their own loved ones. Cannibal-
  ism has also been employed by psychopaths 
  and for vengeance, both to horrifying effect. 
  (The latter is usually especially cruel, as it in-
  volves someone unwittingly eating the remains, 
  and then being forced to confront the evidence 
  of it—in most cases, the remains of someone 
  they loved).
  Reanimation: With very few exceptions, raising 
  a body as an undead is considered desecrat-
  ing the corpse. Even when it’s not the person’s 
  own spirit called back, most cultures still find 
  it utterly perverse. This is the chief reason 
  necromancers are rarely welcome in societies. 
  And, really, nothing is more demoralizing to an 
  enemy than seeing their own comrades raised 
  and fighting against them.
  
  23
  Last Rites
  Chapter Two: 
  Dead Rules
  Those Who Deal With the Dead
  The people who must deal with the dead, 
  both those at rest and those less so, are as 
  varied as any other profession. In this chapter, 
  we will take look at the people who interact 
  with the dead and some of the spells and skills 
  at their disposal. 
  Archetypes
  GrAve WArden (slAyer Archetype)AcG
  Most of those who challenge the undead 
  rely on the power of the gods to return the 
  dead to their graves. In the absence of such 
  divine power, the grave warden is a truly 
  unique creature: an assassin of those already 
  dead. An expert on the walking dead and their 
  weaknesses, she strikes swiftly and ruthlessly, 
  laying the dead back to rest
  Holy Water Sprinker (Ex) At 2nd level, a grave 
  warden can draw a flask of holy water as if it 
  were a weapon (and can thus use the Quick 
  Draw feat to draw flasks of holy water). As a 
  swift action, she can open a flask of holy water 
  and pour it onto a held or adjacent melee weap-
  on. If the weapon successfully hits an undead 
  creature before the end of the grave warden’s 
  next turn, the undead takes damage as if it took 
  a direct hit from the holy water, in addition to 
  the damage from the weapon, if any.
  This ability replaces the slayer talent gained at 
  2nd level.
  Death Ward (Sp) At 7th level, a grave warden 
  learns to perform a short ritual that grants the 
  benefits of death ward, using his slayer level 
  as his caster level. Performing this ritual takes 
  1 minute and uses 4 flasks of holy water. The 
  grave warden can protect only himself with 
  this ability.
  This ability replaces the advanced slayer talent 
  gained at 10th level.
  Slayer Talents: The following slayer talents (and 
  rogue talents) complement the grave warden ar-
  chetype: fast stealth, finesse rogue, surprise attack, 
  swift poison, terrain mastery, trap spotter, and 
  unwitting ally.
  Advanced Slayer Talents: The following ad-
  vanced slayer talents (also available to rogues) 
  complement the grave warden archetype: hunter’s 
  surprise and slayer’s camouflage.
  ACG - This archetype originally appeared in 
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced 
  Class Guide
  
  24
  Knowledge Check
  thAnAtoloGist (Alchemist Archertype)
  Often ill understood, even when they’re 
  not mistaken for necromancers or vivi-
  sectionists, the thanatologist wishes to 
  understand death and its processes. While 
  their understanding of biology and chem-
  istry produces less explosive results than 
  the traditional alchemist, their unmatched 
  expertise in physiognomy makes them a 
  credible threat to both the living and the 
  dead when their studies (or their person) 
  are under threat.
  Funerary Expertise
  A thanatologist adds Knowledge (religion) to his 
  list of class skills.
  Sneak Attack At 1st level, a thanatologist gains 
  the sneak attack ability as a rogue of the same 
  level. If a character already has sneak attack 
  from another class, the levels from the classes 
  that grant sneak attack stack to determine the 
  effective rogue level for the sneak attack’s ex-
  tra damage dice (so an alchemist 1/rogue 1 has 
  a +1d6 sneak attack like a 2nd-level rogue, an 
  alchemist 2/rogue 1 has a +2d6 sneak attack like 
  a 3rd level rogue, and so on).
  This ability replaces bomb.
  One Eye on the Grave At 2nd level, a thanatolo-
  gist adds gentle repose to his formula book as 
  a 1st-level extract. He may add deathwatch to 
  his formula book as a 1st-level extract when-
  ever he is normally able to add formulae to his 
  book (such as when gaining a new level).
  Magpie’s Eye At 7th level, a thanatologist adds 
  blood biography to his formula book as a 2nd-
  level extract.
  At 9th level, a thanatologist adds blade of bright 
  victory (if he is good) or blade of dark tri-
  umph (if he is evil) to his formula book. A neu-
  tral thanatologist may choose either, but may 
  only choose one.
  
  25
  Last Rites
  spells
  Memento Mori
  School necromancy [evil]; Level antipaladin 1, 
  cleric/oracle 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
  Casting Time 1 action
  Components V, S, DF
  Range personal
  Target creatures within sight
  Duration 1 round
  Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
  Description
  You transform yourself into a horrifying vision 
  of death, crawling with maggots and rotting away, 
  exuding the stench of the grave. All creatures that 
  see you are entitled to a Will save; those that fail 
  lose their next standard action (or lose all actions 
  next round if they roll a saving throw of 1).
  Those that roll a successful saving throw are im-
  mune to further castings of this spell for 24 hours.
  Grave Binding
  School enchantment; Level cleric/oracle 3
  Casting Time 1 action
  Components S, M, DF
  Target 1 undead creature
  Duration 1 day/level
  Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance no
  Description
  You compel an undead creature to remain in 
  or under the earth, and ideally in its grave or 
  sarcophagus (if this spell is cast on a creature 
  currently resting in its grave, mausoleum, or 
  coffin, it suffers a -3 circumstance penalty to its 
  saving throw). The creature can still speak, cast 
  spells, and even attack creatures within reach, 
  but it cannot leave the location it is bound to. If 
  attacked, the creature is entitled to an immediate 
  saving throw for each attack, with a cumulative +1 
  bonus for each further attack.
  Mythic: The binding is permanent.
  
  26
  Knowledge Check
  Chapter Three: 
  Grave Goods
  Bringing your campaign to life
  This chapter contains examples of a few mate-
  rial goods to pass along, some of which you actu-
  ally can take with you. The pieces are intentionally 
  modular, so any of them can be dropped into your 
  campaign for a bit of added vitality.
  non-magIcal  Items
  The following items are the mundane, run-of-
  the-mill items that just about anyone can buy.
  Item
  Cost
  Weight
  Curse Tablets
  5 sp
  0.5 lbs.
  Ghost Money
  2 cp
  - 
  Accidental Inhumation Bell
  5 gp
  1 lb.
  Curse tablets
  These small tablets—about the size of a man’s 
  hand—are the perfect solution for when you just 
  want to ruin someone’s day. Simply inscribe your 
  target’s name on the tablet, include instructions 
  for the curse, and place it in the casket with 
  someone who recently died. The deceased will 
  carry it with them to the afterlife and give it 
  to the god of the dead, who will then enact the 
  curse (or so people say). 
  Price 5 sp; Weight 0.5 lbs.
  Most curse tablets are made of lead and wood. 
  The wording of a curse tablet just has to be clear, 
  and eloquence is purely optional.  “Jerthom Bar-
  nun, to come down with the pox ‘cause he stoled 
  my pig” works just as well as “A curse to be laid 
  upon the turncoat Emara t’lathil, oathbreaker and 
  betrayer, may her teeth rot within her mouth and 
  fountain of her youth dry up, and may all her fair 
  skin turn bilious and barren, for she has aban-
  doned her sacred honor to find love with anoth-
  er.” The actual efficacy of such items is left up to 
  the GM’s discretion.
  Ghost Money
  Ghost money is cheap and easy to come by, so 
  that people usually buy a lot to burn on funeral 
  pyres. The idea is that the spirit of the money 
  goes with the spirit of the dead, so the latter 
  can spend it in the afterlife. 
  Price 2 cp; Weight -
  More expensive versions exist, including ones 
  painted with actual gold leaf, though only the rich 
  can actually indulge in such things.
  Accidental inhumation bell
  Accidental inhumation bells are most popular 
  among the rich; poor folks usually just find 
  them silly. Most people post 24-hour guards 
  to listen for the bell, at least for the first week 
  after the burial, so that help comes right away. 
  The air inside the coffin is not infinite, after all. 
  Price 5 gp; Weight 1 lb.
  This simple device consists of a small bell fas-
  tened to a pole set above a fresh grave. A length 
  
  27
  Last Rites
  of string leads from the bell through the earth 
  and into the coffin, where it is tied around the 
  deceased’s hand. Thus anyone who is accidentally 
  buried alive must merely pull their hand to ring 
  the bell and summon aid.
  magIc  Items
  Most people like to keep magic well away from 
  funerals, but there are some exceptions. You may 
  find the following items useful when it comes to 
  dealing with the departed—especially if you want 
  to keep them that way.
  Item
  Cost
  Weight
  Coins of Repose
  2,000 gp
  -
  Preserving Coffin
  12,000 gp
  50 lbs.
  Shroud of DisintegrationUE
  3,300 gp
  10 lbs.
  Sepulchral Staff
  3,000 gp
  4 lbs.
  UE – This item originally appeared in Pathfinder 
  Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Equipment
  Coins of Repose
  Many cultures put coins over the eyes of the 
  dead to pay whoever carries the spirit to the 
  afterlife. These leaden coins, however, have a 
  much more immediate purpose – the protection 
  of a corpse from being animated as an undead 
  creature. While this isn’t as foolproof as other 
  methods (such as beheading, cremation, or 
  staking through the heart), the coins are much 
  less obtrusive. Some people tie them in place 
  with a bit of cloth to ensure they won’t fall off.
  Price 2,000 gp; Slot Eyes; Aura faint evocation 
  [good]; CL 1st; Weight –
  These items always come in a pair and both 
  coins must be used in order for them to be ef-
  fective. If the coins are placed over the eyes of 
  the remains of a sentient creature, that crea-
  ture’s corpse may not be raised as an undead. 
  Any attempt to raise the creature as an undead 
  automatically fails. If the creature was slain by an 
  effect that would normally raise the slain victim 
  as an undead, the effect is delayed for as long as 
  the coins are in place.
  constrUction reQUireMents
  Cost 1,000 gp
  Craft Wondrous Item, sanctify corpse
  Preserving coffin
  This casket is usually sealed with molten glass, 
  but lead also works. Rumors circulate that 
  young maidens placed in a preserving coffin 
  can be restored to life by a passing prince, but 
  these remain unconfirmed.
  Price 12,000 gp; Slot none; Aura faint necromancy; 
  CL 3rd; Weight 50 lbs.
  This clear, glass coffin magically preserves any 
  corpse laid in it. As long as the seal remains in-
  tact, the body is protected from decay, scavengers, 
  and all other intrusions. 
  constrUction reQUireMents
  Cost 6,000 gp
  Craft Wondrous Item, gentle repose
  Shroud of Disintegration
  When ensuring that a dead enemy (or relative) 
  cannot return to pester the living, annihilating 
  the remains is an enticing option. Where inter-
  ment leaves a body, and cremation leaves bones, 
  these grim shrouds leave naught but dust.
  Price 3,300 gp; Slot none; Aura moderate trans-
  mutation; CL 11th; Weight 10 lbs.
  These burial wrappings are made of fine, em-
  broidered materials. When a body is placed inside, 
  
  28
  Knowledge Check
  speaking a command word turns the body to dust. 
  The magic of the shroud is usable only once, after 
  which the wrappings become ordinary, fine cloth.
  constrUction reQUireMents
  Cost 1,650 gp
  Craft Wondrous Item, disintegrate
  Sepulchral Staff
  This is the deluxe version of the accidental 
  inhumation bell. Instead of attaching a simple 
  bell to the corpse with a length of twine, this 
  staff is magically connected to the corpse 
  through a bracelet placed on their wrist. Some 
  people also use these staffs to detect undead 
  clawing their way to the surface, but polite 
  society frowns on it.
  Price 3,000 gp; Slot none; Aura faint abjuration 
  and illusion; CL 3rd; Weight 4 lbs.
  Any movement on the part of the body will trig-
  ger the staff, which immediately sounds an alarm 
  and starts flashing. Unfortunately, these staffs 
  tend to be a bit too sensitive, so that they some-
  times make a great hullabaloo when in fact all 
  that happened was a postmortem spasm. 
  constrUction reQUireMents
  Cost 1,500 gp
  Craft Wondrous Item, alarm, prestidigitation
  
  29
  Last Rites
  Chapter Four: 
  The Ossuary of 
  St. Len
  This massive ossuary dates back centuries at 
  least. In current times, it looks like a cathedral, 
  surrounded by a few acres of pleasant gardens 
  with a low wall bracing it against the encroaching 
  city. Buried deep inside the ossuary is the original 
  stone structure, but the additions have long since 
  overrun the original.
  The ossuary’s core is made from stone and 
  mortar, though you’d hardly know it from the 
  façade. Worked onto, in, and around the stone-
  work are hundreds of thousands of human bones, 
  taken from the city crypts once the bodies have 
  decayed. Skulls and femurs trace the jointing, tibia, 
  fibulae, and finger bones form ornate chandeliers, 
  and every wall is covered with ribs, clavicles and 
  unidentifiable bone work. The monks of St. Len 
  spend most of their time designing and creat-
  ing new pieces of art for addition to the ossuary, 
  much like monks of other orders illuminate manu-
  scripts, though a bit more morbid.
  Travelers find the ossuary fascinating in a 
  grotesque sort of way, but for those whose bones 
  lie in the walls of the ossuary, there can be no 
  greater eternal reward. By becoming part of the 
  very building itself, their bones become a conduit 
  to the gods. Being denied a place in the ossuary 
  is akin to being denied a place in paradise. Some 
  rival religions claim that all that bone work is in 
  fact a channel for necromantic powers, and that 
  on moonless nights the monks perform diabolic 
  rituals in the catacombs. 
  The ossuary consists of several main areas that 
  characters may wander into:
  The gardens: The monks keep the gardens sur-
  rounding the ossuary lush and well groomed. 
  Visitors can walk the textured paths and 
  peacefully contemplate existence while sur-
  rounded by towering trees, flowering shrubs, 
  and grasses and vines of all sorts.
  The Great Hall: The Great Hall sits at the center 
  of the Ossuary, the first and greatest addition 
  to the original building. The hall stands eighty 
  feet long by forty feet wide, with ceilings arch-
  ing thirty feet overhead. The Great Hall is used 
  for the daily religious ceremonies, along with 
  more infrequent ceremonies such as funerals 
  and even marriages. As with the rest of the 
  ossuary, bone is the chief decoration—bone 
  chandeliers, bone pews, even the stained glass 
  has knucklebones set along the lead casing. 
  Legend has it that the very mortar between the 
  floor stones is made from ground bone.
  The Winding Rooms: Beyond the Great Hall, the 
  ossuary is a rambling amalgam of haphazard 
  additions, with rooms added apparently at 
  random according to the whims of whichever 
  architect was in charge at the time. Most of 
  the additions are small and sparsely furnished 
  with benches or chairs—made from bones, of 
  course—with windows placed wherever pos-
  sible to let in a modicum of light. Some scholars 
  suspect that the placement of the rooms is not 
  random at all, but instead acts to magnify the 
  channeling properties of the bone structure. 
  Only the monks know if this is true, and they 
  aren’t talking.
  
  30
  Knowledge Check
  The catacombs: Beneath the ossuary sit the 
  catacombs, hallway after hallway of winding 
  tunnels larger even than the building aboveg-
  round. Here the bones of the departed are kept 
  until they can be added to the building above. 
  Each type bone has its own room, such that 
  there’s the skull room, the femur room, the 
  rib room, etc. Only the monks are allowed into 
  the catacombs, though an enterprising burglar 
  could work his way inside.
  Brother umphal, monk oF st. len
  Brother Umphal is one of the higher-ranking 
  monks at the Ossuary of St. Len. He hasn’t left the 
  ossuary grounds for over twenty years, and some 
  say he never even leaves the building.
  This is not true, of course. On nights of the full 
  moon, Brother Umphal wanders through the gar-
  dens until he finds the one special clearing where 
  he can see the entire ossuary at once. There 
  he sits, seeing the light shimmer over the ossu-
  ary, practically feeling the divine power flowing 
  through the bones.
  Perhaps all that seclusion has addled his brains, 
  or perhaps something really is speaking to him on 
  those moonlit nights. In any case, Brother Umphal 
  has started to feel that the ossuary is missing 
  something, a source of power stronger than mere 
  moldering bones. If old bones provide a link to the 
  gods, he reasons, wouldn’t fresh ones provide a 
  stronger one still? What if they were worked into 
  the spires while still, technically, alive? What sort 
  of power would that bring down?
  Brother Umphal is well into middle-age, with 
  gray-streaked brown hair and a face full of dour 
  wrinkles. He is quite somber, talks little, and usu-
  ally dresses in the gray robes of his order.
  Brother UMphal 
   
   
      cr 4
  XP 1,200
  Male human monk 5
  LE Medium humanoid (human)
  Init +5; Senses Perception +11
  DeFense
  AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+1 deflection, +1 Dex, 
  +1 dodge, +1 monk, +3 Wis)
  hp 31 (5d8+5)
  Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +8; +2 vs enchantments
  Defensive Abilities evasion; Immune disease
  oFFense
  Speed 40 ft.
  Melee unarmed strike +6 (1d8+3) or
  mwk siangham +7 (1d6+3) or
  unarmed strike flurry of blows +6/+6 (1d8+3)
  Ranged javelin +4 (1d6+3)
  Special Attacks flurry of blows, stunning fist (5/
  day DC 15)
  statistics
  Str 16, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8
  Base Atk +3; CMB +8 (+10 grapple); CMD 23 (25 vs. 
  grapple)
  Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Grapple, 
  Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, 
  Power Attack, Scorpion Style, Stunning Fist
  Skills Acrobatics +7 (+12 when jumping), Climb +8, 
  Intimidate +7, Knowledge (religion) +8, Percep-
  tion +11, Sense Motive +11, Stealth +9
  Languages Common
  SQ fast movement, high jump, ki pool (5 points, 
  magic), maneuver training, purity of body, slow 
  fall 20 ft.
  Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds (2); 
  Other Gear javelin, masterwork siangham, 
  cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1, 347 
  gp
  
  31
  Last Rites
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   15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors: Jonathan 
  Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; 
  Author: Paizo Publishing, LLC.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: 
  Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  Deep Magic © 2014, Open Design LLC. Authors: Wolfgang Baur, Tom Benton, Creighton 
  Broadhurst, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, Charles Lee Carrier, Tim Connors, Adam Daigle, 
  Jonathan Drain, Mike Franke, Ed Greenwood, Frank Gori, Jim Groves, Amanda Hamon 
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  Ben McFarland, Nicholas Milasich, Carlos Ovalle, Richard Pett, Marc Radle, Stephen 
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  Voyce, and Mike Welham.
  Pathfinder Player Companion: Quests & Campaigns © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; 
  Authors: Amanda Hamon and David N. Ross.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide © 2014, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Dennis 
  Baker, Ross Byers, Jesse Benner, Savannah Broadway, Jason Bulmahn, Jim Groves, Tim 
  Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, Jonathan H. Keith, Will McCardell, Dale C. McCoy, Jr., Tom Phil-
  lips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Sean K Reynolds, Tork Shaw, Owen 
  K.C. Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game NPC Codex © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Jesse 
  Benner, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Alex Greenshields, Rob McCreary, Mark Moreland, 
  Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-McFarland, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Equipment. © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; 
  Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Benjamin Bruck, Ross Byers, Brian J. Cortijo, Ryan 
  Costello, Mike Ferguson, Matt Goetz, Jim Groves, Tracy Hurley, Matt James, Jonathan H. 
  Keith, Michael Kenway, Hal MacLean, Jason Nelson, Tork Shaw, Owen KC Stephens, and 
  Russ Taylor. 
  *Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Magic. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: 
  Jason Bulmahn, Tim Hitchcock, Colin McComb, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Stephen 
  Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reynolds, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Knowledge Check: Last Rites. © 2015, Fat Goblin Games; Authors: Jason Wallace and 
  Richard D. Bennett
  
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  Knowledge Check
  Last Rites
  Knowledge Check
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Pathfinder/1st Edition/3rd Party/Fat Goblin Games/Knowledge Check - Last Rites.pdf