2025 Apr 14: Blood Servants

 A lesser form of necromancy, the art of creating Blood Servants is a relatively commonly known ritual. One needs only to spill some of their own blood with a copper knife onto a limestone altar, then call upon the assistance of Harath-Amur, the Blood Lord with a short poem written in the language of the Bronze Elves. Then the blood will gather into a small orb, that has a rudimentary sort of intellect to it, and can move freely and follow simple orders. Blood may be added to the creature later, which will make it grow, but if blood other than the original caster's is added to it, it may become more rebellious and malicious. Besides making the creature larger, adding more blood also enhances the Servant's intellect. By the time they are the size of a large dog, they can follow detailed commands, and if they ever reach the size of an elephant, they become basically as smart as a human, elf or any other of the mortal races.

Besides performing tasks that a large mobile blob of liquid blood is able to, the Blood Servant has some additional uses. First, its master can, if they close their eyes, vaguely perceive the immediate surroundings of the Servant, and hear everything they would hear if they stood in the Servant's place. In fact they can even hear through walls better than if they pressed their ear against them, as long as a significant portion of the Servant is touching the wall in question. The other use of the Servant, is that blood from the Servant may be taken, and used to heal its master's wounds. Large enough Blood Servants are often used in a similar manner as guard dogs, as they can be just as intelligent, and there is little an intruder can do, if a living pool of blood decides to cover their faces and prevent them from breathing.

If the sorcerer who made the Blood Servant dies, the Blood Servant loses all the blood that originally came from the sorcerer. In most cases this kills the Servant, but if the caster fed it any blood from someone else, the Servant will seek out the person who contributed the most blood to it, and will serve that person. If none of the other people who contributed are still alive, the Servant will go feral and try to kill every living mortal it can see. The more intelligent feral Servants may even go after animals, as a way to hurt those who may depend on them for food.

 

Image from Pathfinder, by Mattias Fahlberg, copyright Paizo