Grave Callers are undead whose only goal is to accost the living and spook them into welcoming undeath. They resemble shambling corpses similar to zombies and carry shuttered bullseye lanterns, which they hold ready to unshutter on their victims. Unlike zombies, they are semi-intelligent and can speak Common (or a different language from their lifetime).

Grave callers are uninterested in causing physical harm to their adversaries. Instead, they illuminate victims with their lanterns so that other creatures can take advantage of the situation. Their lantern lights apply a permanent save penalty of +1 to the target on saves vs. Death against victims each time they are caught in the beam. The penalties may be removed with a casting of the bless spell, against which the victim must save vs. Death. Success indicates one penalty is removed, and the other effects of bless are applied as well, while failure means nothing happens, and the spell is totally wasted. However the penalty is applied, once it becomes impossible for the victim to succeed a save vs. Death, the victim dies and will rise as a grave caller in 2d6 days unless a number of Clerics equal to the number of penalties acquired perform a ritual to free the victim from the curse, the ritual requiring one day for each penalty as well; the transformation from life to undeath is paused once the ritual begins.

Grave callers that are reduced to 0 hit points will rise again in 2d6 turns with newly-rolled hit points. The only way to kill grave callers for good is to submerge them completely in holy water. They will not flee from combat unless Turned by a Cleric (as a zombie), since they are aware of their undeath and the benefits it allows them, including immunity to sleep, charm, and hold magic.