Death Masks

"L'Inconnue de la Seine"

Death Masks

have been been used to preserve a person's likeness from the time of the pharaohs to relatively recently when photography became prevalent. However a hidden family of morticians in Egypt known as the Coin Eaters(the process is very expensive) have passed down an ancient ritual to imbue death masks with the deceased's personality and memories. This allows one to continue existing on the material plane using a surrogate body after death.

Ritual of Transference

The following components are required to begin the ritual:

• The deceased's head(with/without body) which is cleaned, sutured, and painted to the look alive to the best of the mortician's ability*. This done to ease the transference of the deceased's persona and to shape the mold of the face with wax. Requires a successful Cosmetology Skill roll to complete. A failed roll means the process must be redone from scratch wasting 1d10 x 10sp worth of materials. The client of course foots the bill.
• Offerings of precious metals equal to 1000sp x the character's level that is smelted down to construct the mask. The stronger the personality the more expensive the mask to house it. Requires a Successful Mask Making Skill roll to complete. A failure means the mask must be melted down and recast again, costing the family 1d10 x 25sp worth of materials. The client of courses foots the bill.
• A whole corpse to wear the mask. The family will provide the body for an additional charge of 100sp or will work with whatever the client provides. When the ritual is completed and the mask worn, the corpse takes the physical appearance of the character the mask was made for.

*Mortician Skills- Usually the family requires a substantial donation to allow one of their more experience members to forge the mask. In lieu of coin, the family may also ask for an errand(of varying difficulty) to be completed at their behest. 

1. Novice Mortician- 250sp, 3-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 3-in-6 Mask Making Skill
2. Experienced Mortician-  500sp 4-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 4-in-6 Mask Making Skill
3. Expert Mortician-  1000sp 5-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 5-in-6 Mask Making Skill
4. Master Mortician- 2000sp 6-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 6-in-6 Mask Making Skill

Once the mask has been forged(and the fees paid) the Ritual of Transference may commence. The family allows the clients to view the forging of the mask but the actual magic is done behind closed doors. Its a family secret after all. In my game the process involves a certain piece of music...and takes three days to complete.

Once completed the mask holds the deceased's Class Level/XP, Mental Stats(INT,WIS,CHA), personality, and memories. The body procured earlier provides the Physical Stats(STR,CON,DEX) and holds any gained XP. As long as the mask stays intact(the mask has 50hp), the character only needs a new body upon death to continue. Though they begin with the stats they had when the mask was constructed and any new xp or levels are lost. I'll let you decided if they get to keep memories or not.