Malkina's Boon is a gift from that eponymous goddess. Also called blessed boon, boon, or, scientifically, Ovasporia beneficium, it is a species of symbiotic fungi of the genus Ovasporia and includes hundreds of subspecies differentiated primarily by the host organism. It grows on nearly every member of the orders Poales and Alismatales and thus is distributed planet-wide, from grasslands and farmlands to the ocean floors, including wetlands, forests, and tundra.

The life cycle begins when a spore of Ovasporia beneficium enters a floret of flowering grass or cereal coincident with a pollen grain during fertilization. Symbiosis requires that the fungal spore have access to the stigma; the proliferating fungal mycelium reinforces the plant ovary and connects with the vascular bundle that provides seed nutrition, strengthening the transport system, breaking down nutrients to improve availability to the host, and providing protection against infections such as rusts and blights. It simultaneously forms a soft, white to golden tissue (known as colustrae) that produces sugary honeydew which contains millions of asexual spores (conidia). On land insects, particularly honeybees, disperse this dew to other florets. (It should be noted that the honeydew itself is extremely nourishing to bees, richer in protein than pollen. Even a small quantity of honeydew honey can be the decisive factor in colony survival during periods of reduced food supply.) Underwater the action of waves spread the spores.

Later, the colustrae convert into a spongy golden shell that surrounds the ripening seed. At this stage, it secretes a number of different chemicals that accumulate inside the hull. One of the compounds secreted by the colustrae is an alkaloid trace amine, beneficimine, that works on the mammalian central nervous system. It is a potent analgesic, more effective than opiates, without any sedative effects; it is a carminative, antinauseant, and antiemetic without peer; it is a gentle stimulant, promoting mental alertness and concentration, and improving reflexes without deleterious cardiovascular effects; it is a highly efficacious aphrodisiac, improving capability as well as heightening desire; and it is a unique psychoactive, an empathogen that reduces aggressive behaviours and promotes cooperation, producing feelings of empathy, love, and emotional closeness to others.

When a mature husk drops to the ground, the fungus remains dormant until proper conditions (such as the onset of spring or the seasonal rainy period) trigger its fruiting phase. It germinates, forming one or several fruiting bodies with heads and stipes, varying in colour from white to dark orange and including numerous shades of yellow and gold. In the head, threadlike sexual spores form, which are ejected simultaneously when suitable grass hosts are flowering. Boon symbiosis causes a substantial increase in the yield and quality of grain, graze, and hay; while only one or two flowers per plant host the mycelium, the entire plant is strengthened thereby due to improved vascularity, nutrition, and disease resistance.

When mammals eat the symbiotic grain or forage, it has several beneficial effects: it acts as a tonic, in part because of the improved nutritional quality of the plants overall, but also because many of the chemicals secreted by the colustrae act directly to produce or restore healthy balance and function of the systems in the body; it immediately increases stamina and generative capacity for both males and females, with consumption during and in the weeks immediately preceding oestrus enhancing fertility. It significantly reduces stillborn and postnatal mortality when the mother's diet includes 2% by weight whole boon-grain with the colustrae intact, and produces larger litters and more vigorous offspring. Administration during the early stages of parturition effectively eliminates dystocia and reduces the average duration of labour by between 10% and 25%, depending on species. One caveat with its use is that in cases of malpresentation and cephalopelvic disproportion; due to the efficacious analgesic properties of boon, heifers, in particular, show minimal or no distress even when labour is not progressing satisfactorily.

Most necromantic spells can be used for good; those that can not do not exist on Erden. For example, Ray of Fatigue is an excellent way to safely apprehend a criminal suspect--safe for both law enforcement and for the spell target. With repeated castings the alleged lawbreaker becomes exhausted, eventually collapsing in a quivering heap, unable to move or attack. However the spell inflicts absolutely no damage or has any lasting consequences; the target is as fit as he ever was once he has rested. Locate Remains can be heartbreaking, but is unequivocally benevolent when used to find victims of an earthquake, flood, or avalanche, and either try and Raise them or give them proper funeral rites. Detect Life used under the same circumstances is frequently lifesaving.

Priests of Lokki have access to all Necromantic spells, both clerical and arcane (although arcane spells must be learned; they are not granted). However, these priests must also be unequivocally and unshakably good aligned (LG, NG, or CG; most are CG, as is Lokki) and are held to a code of conduct stricter than that of paladins. If they ever abuse their power in any way, their powers are lost, sometimes irrevocably. They are not Necromancers, they are Biomancers.

Chaotic good does not mean they are obstructionist, or do not obey good laws. It means that the principle of "greatest good possible" for both the one and the many takes precedence in their thinking. Whilst acknowledging the necessity for just laws, they safeguard the rights of the individual and of society, making sure that nonconformity is not confused with wrongdoing. Given that focus, perhaps it is not really surprising that many Biomancers are members of law enforcement.

They are also well represented in the healing professions; the best orthopaedic surgeons in the world are priests of Lokki, strong in both faith and knowledge of the arts of medicine. Patients with shattered bones that have no chance of healing through other means are often made whole when a priest casts Feign Death (for safe anaesthesia and to control blood loss for extended periods) followed by Patternweave (to locate all the fragments and see how they should fit together) and Bone Growth (to affix each piece in its proper place and hold it there until it can knit). Provided proper attention is paid to the concomitant soft tissue damage, these patients usually walk out of the hospital whole and well within a very few weeks. The reverse spell, Bone Blight, does not exist.

Undead are very rare on Erden. There have never been any nefariously created undead creatures, and as long as the gods hold sway, there never will be, but upon infrequent occasion the circumstances of someone's death keep them from passing peacefully into the afterlife. They become ghosts, haunts, even spectres and revenants. Only a priest of Crom can communicate with these tormented spirits well enough to help them lay down their mortal burdens and move on. They are helped to leave such concerns in the hands of the living and know that justice will be done in the fulness of time.

However, priests of Lokki (and, to a lesser extent, Oden) can often help them fulfill the responsibilities that compel them, empowering and assisting them to carry out their missions or to expose their murderers--without letting them take over a living body or cause other harm. An example of this application occurred in game. A strong, determined, very loyal Trewschan warrior was tasked with a vital and urgent courier mission; he had to bring word that the verbeeg were massing and preparing for war to an allied Jarldom. En route he was struck down, murdered by a verbeeg patrol. There was a great chance that he would become a haunt or revenant. His body was found by a Trewschan patrol that included a priest of Oden. The priest cast Speak with Dead to discover the dead man's wishes; the warrior was even more driven and restless than the priest had feared so, over the disapproval of his comrades, he cast Animate Dead. He poured half of his own life force into the spell, giving the warrior all the strength and endurance he could, then cast Purify to preserve the body and Glyph of Warding to increase his defences. The warrior became a zombie in a sense, but he was no creature of horror; he strode forth in the traditions of the Einherjar, completed his mission, and the Raise Dead spell cast on him was successful. He was well enough to rejoin his kin and fight at his father's side during the Battle of Grumach.

That is Necromancy as it is practised on Erden.

This is not a complete list, but it does include those low level spells most frequently used or unique to this setting.

• Ebony Helping Hand (only available to priests of Lokki)

This minor meditation focusses a benevolent, necromantic aura in the caster's dominant hand, enveloping the fingers in a shimmering, rainbow radiance. The aura enhances the delivery of helpful, touch-related spells (such as Cure Light Wounds) by extending the priest's reach by 1 square (5 feet) + 1 square/2 levels (10 feet at 3rd level, 15 feet at 5th, and so forth).

Once Helping Hand is cast, the magic of the touch-delivered spell is no longer conducted though physical contact with the caster's fingertips, but through the pure aura of the hand, enabling the priest to "touch" the recipient even if he can't physically reach his target.

The companion touch-delivered spell(s) may be cast either before or after the creation of the aura, which does not expire with a single, successful touch and may be used to deliver several blessings if the spell duration permits. Note that Helping Hand does not enhance ranged spells.

The material component varies from priest to priest, but it is usually a piece of apparel or jewellery which is worn on the caster's hand to help focus the meditation (often a shining, white silk glove or a simple silver, electrum, or mithral ring with or without a gemstone such as diamond or clear quartz). Regardless of the actual focus employed, the material component is not consumed by the spell and may be employed in multiple castings.

• Death's Door

When a cleric employs this spell, he or she touches a subject who is injured, unconscious, and "at death's door" (–1 to –con hit points); the spell immediately stabilises the wounded individual. Although (in most cases) the victim remains unconscious, bleeding and deterioration are stopped, and he regains 1d8 hit points.

The material components of the spell are the cleric's holy symbol, a bit of white linen, and any form of unguent.

• Spirit Bind/Spirit Release

When cast on the corpse of a newly dead individual, this spell binds an individual's life force to the physical remains, preventing a spirit's departure to the afterlife. This spell must be cast on a willing target as ascertained by a Speak with Dead spell.

Spirit Bind must be cast on the body of the deceased within one hour of the individuals' death, plus one turn for every level of experience of the caster. Thus a 12th-level priest may bind the spirit of an individual who has been dead for three hours. If successful, the spirit bound corpse takes on a pale silvery or mauve radiance. Normal animals and even monsters of low intelligence will involuntarily shun this necromantic aura.

While under the effect of this spell, a cadaver becomes immune to the normal effects of rot and decay. Spirit Bind may thus be employed to preserve a body for a subsequent raising, for which the spirit bound individual is considered to have been dead for less than a day. Furthermore, because of the strong, necromantic link already forged between the spirit and the body, the victim receives a –10% bonus on his or her system shock roll.

While immune to normal decay and dissolution (and the ravaging of animals and dumb monsters), the spirit bound corpse is in no way protected from destruction by a sentient creature or individual. Should its body be destroyed, the spirit instead becomes bound to the last area resided by the physical remains. Such a restless, quasi-liberated spirit might become a non-corporeal undead (such as an apparition, banshee, haunt, poltergeist, wraith, ghost, or spectre). A spirit imprisoned in this manner may only be released by casting the reverse of this spell (see below). Because of the considerable dangers for the subject, priests are sometimes reluctant to employ Spirit Bind, but for all the risks inherent, it is still the best way to keep a corpse fit and uncorrupted to facilitate Raise Dead.

The reverse of this spell, Spirit Release, severs a spirit's ties with the material world and is a common practice at formal funerals.

The material components of the spell are, for bind, the priest's holy symbol, a green silk ribbon tied around the wrist of the corpse, holding in place some talisman of life, either actual or symbolic, precious to the deceased (a lock of his child's hair, his wedding ring, a bit of fur or a feather from a familiar or animal companion have all been used at one time or another); to release, the priest's holy symbol, a green silk ribbon cut as part of the somatic component of the spell, and burning incense.

• Life Drain Transfusion

By casting this spell and touching another individual, a priest may fortify another's life force at the expense of a willing donor. This spell enables the priest to drain 1–8 hit points plus 1 hp per level of the caster from a living creature. The priest may immediately bestow the hit points on him or herself, or transfer them to another individual within 1–4 rounds of the casting. If the donated hit points increase those of the recipient beyond the normal maximum, the surplus only last for up to one turn per the caster's level. Any damage suffered by the recipient is first subtracted from these additional hit points. This spell is usually employed to strengthen an injured or weak comrade when everyone must be in the best possible condition for a particularly dangerous feat or foray.

A more hostile use of this spell (and one almost never used by priests of Lokki) is to drain the life force of an enemy and bestow it on an ally. When the victim (the donor of the life force) is unwilling, a saving throw indicates that the spell was partially resisted and only half the hit points were drained.

The material components of the spell are the cleric's holy symbol and a hollow straw or reed.