Book of Bone and Ebony

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(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 99 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,
EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY these plates are especially thick near the ground, up to a height of 10 feet. TOUGHNESS The war engines of the Deathlords are notoriously difficult to damage. Dead flesh is already tougher than living flesh (as represented by common zombies and nemissaries having 10 health levels [see Exalted, p. 299] instead of the seven possessed by most mortals), and it can be further hardened through mummification. The war machines of the Deathlords can also be fortified through the reinforcement of bones or through sheer size. A war machine’s base health levels depend on its size and the spell animating it. A necromancer can also imbue its creation with extra health levels by spending extra Essence during the animation. The formula for this is: Every 2 additional motes of Essence spent on toughness, above and beyond the basic reanimation costs, provides the war machine with (size class x 1) -1 health levels and (size class x 2) -2 health levels. Material Hardness Soak (L/B) Resource Cost Bone 3 5/6 None Iron 4 8/8 Equal to Size Class Jade 7 14/14 Size Class x 3 Soulsteel 9 18/18 Size Class x 3 100 War machines animated by nemissaries don’t gain this advantage, but they can benefit from the Intangible Guardian Presence Arcanos (see p. 91). REPAIR Not defense in the purest sense of the word, repair is an after-the-fact way of dealing with the damage inflicted on walking war machines by a Deathlord’s enemies. In addition to any combat necrosurgeons in the machine’s vanguard, the support crews that follow in the wake of most such war machines will have nemissaries, exquisite undead aides (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 226) or deathknights capable of making necrosurgical repairs. Abyssal Exalted who also possess the Charms Form-Restoring Touch or Bone Graft Technique (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 188) are especially well suited to these repair teams. If the mending process is particularly demanding, the deathknight may need to cannibalize zombies in the war machine’s vanguard for parts.
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AND A Compendium of Necromantic Lor
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