Repose Dust
Repose dust is one of the easier and cheaper magical dusts that is commonly available. Only costing about 3 silver pieces a standard dose.
Unlike most magical potions and dusts, Repose Dust is not dosage specific, it can be spread out or diluted without losing disproportionate magical potency. A "standard" dose will completely negate rot and repel scavengers from a human-size corpse for six days but that same dose can be spread on six corpses to preserve for a single day.
Alternatively, if a full dose is applied to a single body part, that body part can be preserved for much longer than six days. This is commonly used by assassins or macabre warlords wishing to display their foes' severed heads.
Properties
Material Characteristics
Repose Dust appears like dark purple colored grains of sand with a faint sparkle and an odd flat odor that would be similar to a modern sterile lab but is pretty alien to Scarterra.
History & Usage
Everyday use
Repose Dust keeps decay and vermin away from a corpse. It is used by some undertakers, mostly for relatively high status individuals whose bereaved friends and relatives wish to set up lavish funerals (where often takes weeks to send letters inform everyone concerned of the death and the time and location of the funeral).
More sinisterly, Repose Dust is used by assassins and bounty hunters in case their clients require the subject's body as proof of death.
Some necromancers require "fresh" corpses for certain rituals and spells and Repose Dust can be used to keep a corpse properly preserved until the necromancer is fully ready. That said, that is a rare use of Repose Dust because most necromancers know the Gentle Repose spell or something roughly equivalent.
Repose Dust, despite being made from necromantic magic, is actually benign. It can be used to safely preserve animal meat keeping it magically preserved for future consumption, but this is a very expensive way to preserve meat and many people superstitiously refuse to eat anything ever touched by Repose Dust.
Distribution
Storage
Unlike most potions and magic dusts, Repose Dust lasts practically forever. The upper limits have never been tested but it is documented that three hundred year old Repose Dust works just fine.
Law & Regulation
Repose Dust is legal to manufacture and possess in most place because it is sometimes used by high end undertakers, but Repose Dust is more commonly assoicated with Scarterran Bounty Hunters and other unsavory individuals so anyone spotted buying or carrying Repose Dust is likely to face increased scrutiny by local authorities and random busy bodies.
Do you NEED a magic item to preserve a corpse?
No, but because of the wide spread availability of Repose Dust, few if any Scarterran alchemists have bothered to research and develop nonmagical means of embalming.
Type
Metaphysical
Value
3 silver coins a standard dose
Rarity
Relatively common (by magical item standards)
Related Locations
Related Technologies
Related Professions
An interesting creative idea to keep bodies for longer so that even distant family members can say goodbye. I found your idea that it is used to have evidence when an opponent is murdered interesting and creepy. But that makes it all the more believable.