Grim Rider's Spurs
Description: These appear to be an ordinary set of riding spurs. Magical senses reveal a strong aura of dark magic around them. Further examination reveals this to be some form of potent necromancy.
Powers: If the wearer of these spurs has their mount slain, the spurs seize on its departing life force to power a burst of necromantic magic, instantly transforming the creature into an undead version of itself. The mount's stats remain unchanged and it is restored to full health, but it becomes an undead creature with all the associated vulnerabilities and immunities your game system grants. It still responds to its rider's directions as well (or as poorly) as it did when alive, but will no longer make any kind of attack unless the rider uses their own actions to compel it to do so and designate targets for it. Other than that the creature is entirely passive and effectively mindless.
The mount is clearly undead, bearing mortal wounds that still fail to impede its performance. It decays rapidly, and within the hour will be reduced to a ghastly parody of itself, desiccated skin stretched tight over withered muscle and yellowed bones. Eventually the necromancy animating the creature exhausts itself, and the steed crumbles into dust at the next sunrise, or as soon as the rider dismounts from it, whichever comes first.
The spurs affect any creature acting as a mount, not merely horses and the like. Zombie dragons, zombie griffons, even a humanoid could be transformed if the wearer was playing horsey when they perished. If the wearer is riding a chariot or on a howdah or similar platform the effect will not trigger, but acting as (say) an elephant's mahout would work.
If the mount started out as undead, the spurs will instead restore it to full health once, but have no effect upon if it is "slain" again. Undead mounts "saved" this way still crumble eventually as above.
Possible Origins: These spurs were originally created at the behest of a cold-hearted nobleman who had seen too many of his brothers in arms slain when their steeds failed them by falling in combat. He vowed that no such fate would befall him, regardless of cost. Little did he know that something far darker awaited him.
Alternately, the rituals used to make these spurs may date back farther, perhaps to a lost kingdom ruled by vampiric knights who used them to sustain their merely mortal steeds beyond living endurance.
Complications: The operation of the spurs is automatic and entirely out of the rider's control. This means that at some point you're likely to suddenly be riding a zombie horse or something even worse. This may provoke comment from witnesses, to put it mildly. If the newly-undead steed was something sapient (eg a unicorn or dragon) its allies and relatives are likely to object, perhaps violently.
On the plus side, natural animals will refuse to track the wearer of the spurs when they are either on foot or riding a zombie mount. On the down side, carrion eaters and some unnatural creatures will find the trail almost irresistible to follow, so expect to be shadowed and possibly attacked by hyeneas, ghouls, hungry ghosts and other unsavory spirits.
The greatest danger of the spurs is nearly unknown among sages, although it has certainly happened at least once in the past. If the wearer is riding a mount zombified by the spurs when they themselves are slain, the spurs will transform them into a free-willed, intelligent, and utterly malicious undead form. The GM should use either a existing monster of similar power level to the slain rider, or create a custom undead that fits their game best - perhaps one with a "damned to ride eternally" kind of motif. Such an undead will generally flee the battle that created them only to return later to harry both sides, (former) friend and foe. Such undead are permanent barring destruction, and will sustain their steed indefinitely as well.
Design Commentary: Actually meant to put this up back around Halloween, but it slipped my mind and I'm only just getting around to it. You should probably check with your group to see if anyone's likely to be triggered by cruelty to animals since it involves not only violently killing a horse (or whatever) in the first place but the further abuse of its corpse as an undead puppet afterward.
You could also do a story arc around trying to track down and lay to rest a wearer of the spurs who become undead themselves. In a military-focused campaign there might be an elite unit of cavalry that's been issued these things, possibly without knowledge of the possible effects on the riders. A ruthless general would certainly see the advantage of having knights whose steeds are twice as hard to kill and can be driven into a wall of spears like, well, mindless zombies.
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