Book of Bone and Ebony

(Necrosurgery) rating of ••••. Each roll represents two
solid days of work.
Like Walking War Machine, Spurring the Beast of
War requires (8 - necromancer’s Essence rating) motes of
Essence per success on the necrosurgery roll. Animating
larger creatures therefore costs a great deal of Essence, but
this increased cost reflects the greater difficulty of animating
larger death engines.
War machines animated with this spell have the
following stats:
Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5, Charisma
0, Manipulation 0, Appearance 0, Perception 3, Intelligence
1, Wits 4
Virtues: Not applicable. Never fails Valor rolls, never
succeeds at any other rolls.
Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 2, Brawl 4, Dodge 4,
Endurance 3, Melee 3, Resistance 3, Stealth 1
Base Initiative: 7
Soak: Highly variable, but not less than 4L/8B.
Health Levels: For each success on the initial necrosurgery
roll, the walking war machine has two -0, two -1 and three
-2 health levels.
Obsidian Reanimation
The most powerful spell for animating war machines is
the Void Circle spell Incomparable Destruction Engine. A
necromancer cannot even attempt creating one of these war
machines without a Craft (Necrosurgery) rating of •••••
or more. Each roll represents three full days of work.
The minimum Essence cost of Incomparable Destruction
Engine is equal to the number of successes needed on
the necrosurgery roll, although the Storyteller may double
that in the case of truly colossal war machines (such as
Juggernaut).
The war machines animated with this spell have the
following stats:
Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 3, Stamina 7, Charisma
0, Manipulation 0, Appearance 0, Perception 4, Intelligence
2, Wits 4
Virtues: Not applicable. Never fails Valor rolls, never
succeeds at any other rolls.
Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Brawl 6, Dodge 2,
Endurance 4, Melee 4, Resistance 5, Stealth 1
Base Initiative: 8
Health Levels: For each success on the initial necrosurgery
roll, the walking war machine has three -0, three -1 and
four -2 health levels.
NEMISSARIES
With the right force of skilled ghosts, necromancy
isn’t even strictly necessary to animate a war machine.
Nemissaries animate bodies just as well and slightly more
dexterously than necromancy. A nemissary animating a
war engine must know Nemissary’s Ride (see Exalted: The
Abyssals, p. 250) or Drive the Necrotic Colossus (see p.
92). Some Deathlords and many Abyssals are less fond of
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CHAPTER FOUR • CREATIONS OF BONE
this technique because nemissaries are, among other things,
somewhat difficult to keep fed in Creation. Furthermore,
many Deathlords and deathknights take a slightly dismissive
tone toward nemissaries, whom they see as “mere
ghosts.” The real problem with using nemissaries, of course,
is that they have minds of their own. A necromancer
knows that a construct animated with Walking War
Machine will follow his instructions no matter what.
Using nemissaries to animate his war machine detracts
from that certainty.
Nemissary-animated war machines will have stats
appropriate to the size of the creation (as described above
under necromantic reanimation, but use the nemissary’s
Mental and Social Attributes (excepting Appearance).
DEFENSE
Without defenses, the walking war machines of the
Deathlords would fall before Creation’s defenders before
accomplishing their missions. The Deathlords have learned
how to make the most of the size and power of these
creations, but certain weaknesses in the basic design (such
as their susceptibility to fire) have yet to be overcome.
VANGUARD
Not actually a part of the war machine proper, a
vanguard is a contingent of undead troops that swarms
around the war machine, defending and supporting it. The
monstrosities of the Deathlords are fearsome and powerful,
but speed and maneuverability are not known to be their
primary strengths. The point of the vanguard is to make up
for this weakness by providing quicker and more maneuverable
troops to neutralize (or at least slow down) any
forces that might be able to damage or destroy the war
engine before it has been fully unleashed. This vanguard
may contain zombies, but it will definitely include nemissaries
augmented for war, and it will be charged with defending
the war machine. Most support troops follow in the wake
of war engines, but larger or more crucial war machines will
have at least a few necrosurgeons (if not full on necromancers)
to make repairs, should they prove necessary. These
combat necrosurgeons could be Abyssal Exalted, but more
often they will be nemissaries or exquisite undead aides
(see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 226), as the deathknights
are too rare and too prized to act as mere backup.
ARMOR
There are as many different ways to armor a war
machine as there are engineers devising them. Enormous
plates of iron, soulsteel shielding, alchemically hardened
flesh, bone carapaces and even more terrifying forms of
armor are used to harden these undead horrors.
The following stats are for war machines that use large
plates of the named material as armor. These plates are at
least half an inch thick and cover important joints, sockets
or vulnerable areas. In size class 3 and 4 war machines,