Ghoulraiser

The necromancers of Innistrad treat their practice as more of an art form than a job and take pride in every shambling corpse that steps out of their laboratory. Both ghoulcallers and stitchers work to create the best undead minions possible, and some of the more well-known necromancers spend their days pushing the boundaries of what their magic can do.   All this said, there are still times when a necromancer, particularly ghoulcallers, need quantity over quality. And while a gouhlcaller planning a hostile takeover of a small border town might spend weeks building an army of undead large enough, the work is made infinitely easier with the help of properly applied ghoulraisers.   Spreading the Love Looking at a ghoulraiser, there is little to identify it as being separate from any other walking dead. Its crumbling, decomposing body looks like any other zombie, and while ghoulraisers are often given shovels to help in their work, zombies capable of wielding tools they used in life aren't unknown. The only sign of something different about the ghoulcaller are the subtle necromantic runes carved into its skin, the barely-there light of a malignant intelligence in its eyes, and the fact that those it kills stand up moments later to join its ever-growing undead forces.   The ghoulraiser is made in the circumstances as other zombies, its corpse forced to dance under the influence of dark necromancy. But the runes inscribed in the ghoulraiser's skin and bones strengthen the magic animating it and help spread the spell to other creatures it kills, and other corpses it encounters. A single ghoulraiser, left unchecked in Innistrad's empty backwoods, could risk raising whole grafs as an army for an unscrupulous necromancer.   Trade Secrets In spite of its simplicity and popularity, making a ghoulraiser isn't something every two-bit amateur can craft. The necessary runes take work to carve, and the incantations that must be spoken during the process are closely guarded by those who know them, given only to allies and apprentices who have earned there trust necessary to learn them- or killed those who know, and stopped the information from their still-warm brains.