Necromancy [Death]
Level: Cleric of Curiss 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: Unead creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will
Spell Resistance: Yes

The living dead -- those whose souls still reside within their bodies, even though their bodies are dead -- are the antithesis of all that Curiss stands for. A Stantion of Curiss (the name for their specialty priests) can thus cast soul suck in order to sever the living dead's contacts with the realm of mortals, and take that negative planar power into themselves, converting it into their own life's energy. Thereafter, the soul remains within the body of the Stantion, giving him strength and a sense of purpose.

For every level of the caster, the priest can affect one hit-die of undead with an Intelligence score of 1 or higher. Thus, a 3rd-level Stantion can soul suck a shadow, and an 8th-level Stantion can soul suck a bodak. The Stantion invokes a prayer to Curiss, and at his touch, he can take the unliving soul into himself -- effectively destroying the motivating force behind whatever body it might have had. The soul remains his prisoner until his death, and can never harm him or others outside of its living prison. The Stantion can, of course, release the soul at will, though this is usually done within the confines of a church or temple that can deal with banishing the soul into the afterlife.

The destructive capacity of this spell against the undead makes the Stantion -- and all priests of Curiss -- primary targets by the sentient undead. Liches and dread knights have been known to turn and flee from these priests because of their power to soul suck.

When a Stantion dies, all of the souls contained within his body are released into the immediate vicinity, so Stantions make regular trips to their churches -- especially after soul sucking a powerful undead creature.  Undead souls that can animate bodies take over the body of a slain Stantion; in the case of multiple such, the souls are released to find the nearest available bodies.  The strongest souls (those with more Hit Die) have first choice of bodies, including the Stantion's.

Soul attacks, such as magic jar cast upon a Stantion, automatically frees the souls stored within the Stantion's body. Magical attacks such as sleep, or other Willpower-requiring saving throws, do not free the undead souls.

While a Stantion contains souls that have been sucked, there are several distinguishing characteristics. For one, the other souls can occasionally be seen in their eyes. For another, spells such as invisibility to undead do not function while they are carrying other souls.  True sight and similar spells reveal the burning-bright nature of one body with many souls within.