Animate dead

Animate dead is an evil necromancy spell that allows the caster to bring a corpse or remains into an undead state, under the caster's control, as either a zombie or a skeleton. The state of the remains determines the type of undead creature; if there are bones but there isn't much flesh, the spell yields a skeleton, but if there is still a lot of flesh, the spell yields a zombie. There is a limit to the number and power of creatures that can be controlled at one time by the same person, but this limit can be doubled with the desecrate spell.

A black onyx gem worth at least 25 gold pieces must be placed in the mouth or an eye socket of the creature to be animated. The casting of this spell causes the component to become a worthless burnt out shell of the gem.