Ghastly Presence

This spell is a part of the Mourning Bell spell chain and can be found in the Mourning Bell rune stone.

The necromancer has always been aware of them. Long before they understood their magic, long before they knew the names of Serenity or Pain or what it meant to  be born under the runic element of death, they could feel the ones who hadn't left. The restless ones. The ones who died with something unfinished, something unresolved, something they could not set down even when setting down was the only thing left to do. Most people catch glimpses of them at the edge of their vision and look away. The necromancer looked directly, and in doing so made a kind of silent agreement; I see you, and one day I will ask something of you.

When the necromancer casts Ghastly Presence, they are keeping that promise and asking that ask. When the necromancer casts the spell they reach beyond the veil that separates the living world from those who still linger, and call. Not to specific spirits or to anyone in particular. It is just an open call to whatever restless presences happen to be nearby. They always answer. The dead who have not moved on are hungry for acknowledgment, for purpose, for one last moment of being something other than forgotten. They come willingly.

A ghostly form erupts into being directly behind each enemy on the battlefield simultaneously, drawn from the ambient presence of whatever dead linger in the area. Each one strikes once with spiritual claws which are cold, silent, and deeply unpleasant, dealing 3d10 damage before dissolving back into nothing. They do not linger. They were not summoned to stay, only to strike, and the brief moment of purpose the necromancer gave them is already spent. The enemies may look behind them afterward and find nothing there. That, in its own way, is worse, the fear of what they cannot see and do not know.