Speak with dead

Speak with dead is a necromancy spell that makes a corpse answer a small number of questions. The spell is language-dependent.

Effect
You grant the semblance of life and intellect to a corpse, allowing it to answer several questions that you put to it. You may ask a couple of questions. The corpse's knowledge is limited to what the creature knew during life. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive. The corpse may resist the spell if it is hostile to you.

If the corpse has been subject to speak with dead within the past week, the new spell fails. You can cast this spell on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, but the body must be mostly intact to be able to respond. A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all.

This spell does not let you actually speak to the person (whose soul has departed). It instead draws on the imprinted knowledge stored in the corpse. The partially animated body retains the imprint of the soul that once inhabited it, and thus it can speak with all the knowledge that the creature had while alive. The corpse, however, cannot learn new information. Indeed, it can’t even remember being questioned.

Any corpse that has been turned into an undead creature can’t be spoken to with speak with dead.

The arcane spell speak with the dead is a very rare spell in the Realms.

History
This is a commonly known divine spell known to all clerics.

Realmslore
Tessaril Winter has created an arcane version of speak with the dead, that she uses to interrogate all murder victims. The Red Wizards also have created an arcane version of speak with the dead.