Macabre Memento [CARD] (Patreon)

Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

This crystalized skull of a lich serves as a gruesome font of necrotic power. This item can be used as an arcane focus.

Touch of Death. You are resistant to necrotic damage. Whenever you deal necrotic damage, you deal one additional die of necrotic damage.

Grave Defilement. When you reduce a living creature to 0 hit points with necrotic damage and the body has not been destroyed as a result, at the start of your next turn you may have it rise as an undead under your command. Its maximum hit points are halved and it cannot speak, but can use abilities it had in life. The undead is added to the initiative order after you and follows your verbal orders to the best of its ability. On each of your turns, you can issue a verbal command to it (requiring no action on your part), telling it what it must do on its turn. If you issue no command, it defends and preserves itself to the best of its ability. The undead remains for 24 hours or until it drops to 0 hit points after which it disintegrates. You can only command one undead at a time with this ability, and if a second undead arises with this ability the first undead disintegrates.

Curse: Become Death. This item is cursed with the essence of a lich, and becoming attuned to it extends the curse to you. Once you attune to this item, you are unwilling to part with it and you remain attuned to it until you die or the item is destroyed. When you die, your corpse awakens as a boneclaw at the start of your next turn. The boneclaw is hostile to all other creatures. If it is reduced to 0 hit points, it disintegrates. If a creature uses the Dismissal function of the Dispel Evil and Good spell on the boneclaw, on a failed save it vanishes and your stabilized body appears in its place at 0 hit points.

I know I made the damned thing, but I'd never seen nothing like it before. Bringing things back without a word or nothin'. A job well done I'll admit, but I'm just happy it's out of me sight. Even just looking at that gem gave me the creeps. Liches tend to do that I figure…