Returned One

This spell is a part of the Graveyard's Warding spell chain and is found in the Graveyard's Warding rune stone.

Reanimation is preservation. The seniumancer was  taking what just fell and returning it to use before The Worm has had time to begin. The Returned One is something else entirely. It is the seniumancer deciding that what the target was is no longer relevant, and that what The Worm can make of them is considerably more useful.

When this spell is cast the corpse lifts briefly into the air, held there for just a moment by the surge of decay magic pouring into it. Then The Worm does what it does but all at once, in a single catastrophic instant rather than the patient process it normally prefers. The flesh, the muscle, the organs; everything that was soft and living and vulnerable ruptures outward in an explosive release of blood and matter, gone in a flash, leaving behind only what decay cannot touch. What remains is the skeleton of the target, standing and animate and entirely under the seniumancer's command.

This is not a zombie. It is not diminished or shuffling or limited by the remnants of what it was. It is the target reduced to their most essential and indestructible form, driven by nothing but the seniumancer's will and The Worm's sustaining power. It cannot be destroyed for the duration for The Worm holds the bones together against any force applied to them. Each round it may attack up to 1d4 times, each strike landing with 5d12 plus the seniumancer's Runic Power as the skeleton fights with a focus and ferocity it never possessed in life. When the spell's duration ends The Worm releases its hold and the skeleton collapses, scattering into nothing more than bones. The Returned One's purpose fulfilled, its brief and violent existence concluded exactly as The Worm intended.