2.6   THE WALKING DEAD On rare occasions no psychopomp comes to release the soul of a recently departed child of clay.   If left only for two or three days, there is no problem.  The soul will wait peacefully to be freed.  By the third or fourth day, however, things have changed.   Now the soul becomes restless, and the decayed husk all around will begin to corrupt it.   It is a form of insanity of sorts.    By the fifth and sixth day it is too much to bear. In desperation the soul reanimates the body.  Once again the arms and legs begin to move, and the brain itself begins to functions.  But this newly revived soul is not like it was before.   The decaying flesh all around has driven it mad and filled it with rage.  It wanders about, lashing out at any living creatures it comes across. It is a myth that the walking dead have a craving for human flesh.   While they will almost certainly attack any human they come across, it is out of rage not hunger. Psychopomps who find one of these wretched things can still free its soul.   The task, however, is slightly harder, requiring a roll of 25 to complete.   Once the soul is freed, the body is no longer animate and can be buried in peace.  When the walking dead first rises, all his aspects remain at their original level.   All other traits on the character sheet are irrelevant at this point.   As time passes, however, and the decaying flesh loses more and more cohesiveness, these aspects will begin to drop.   The time it takes for a body to completely decay is dependent on the climate and surroundings.   The process of total decay can take from as little as a week to as long as a few months.   When these aspects reach 0, the creature can no longer function. Even when the body is completely incapacitated, the soul will remain with what is left of the bones.  It will remain trapped there forever, until a psychopomp come along to free it.