Book of Bone and Ebony

crystal as the air freezes around him. The darkness crystallizes
around him, and as it crawls over his face and eyes, he
sends his higher soul from his body. There is a moment of
blackness before the caster regains consciousness. He is
standing before himself as a ghost. He appears as a simple
spirit, utterly unremarkable.
The necromancer’s loosed spirit has Appearance ••
and cannot be recognized as himself by visual inspection
alone. All other Attributes and Abilities remain the same.
While wandering as a ghost, the caster cannot access any of
his natural Charms. Martial Arts Charms beyond the Form
Charm are similarly unusable. The necromancer recovers
Essence as a ghost does and may learn Arcanoi as a ghost if
he has experience available. These Arcanoi cost normal
experience to purchase and Essence to use, but they may not
be used except while the necromancer has encased himself
in the Crystal Ghost Shard. Those of the Moonshadow or
Eclipse Castes may use any Arcanoi they have learned
outside of the use of this spell at this reduced cost.
The necromancer may remain outside his body as a
ghost indefinitely. As long as he does, the Essence used to
power this spell remains committed, and his body continues
to float, the cocoon lightly shedding a dark smoke and
protecting his body from averse spiritual and physical
intrusions. No spell of the Terrestrial or Shadowlands
Circles can penetrate the crystalline shell, and when
attacked physically, it has a 30L/20B soak — any attack
that deals raw damage under half of these values does no
damage. If over 20 levels of damage are dealt to the ghost
shard, it cracks. A full 40 levels will shatter the crystal to
pieces, pulling the necromancer’s spirit back into his body
violently and dealing two levels of unsoakable aggravated
damage to the caster.
If the necromancer’s spirit is slain while projected
from his body, his consciousness snaps back into his body
in a blur, the raw Essence of the world around him tearing
bits and pieces of his awareness off until he is only raggedly
seeing, and he is bleeding through his thoughts. His
cocoon shatters as he awakes, bereft of one dot of permanent
Willpower.
DEAD MAN’S VOICE
Cost: 18 motes
Target: One creature
Requires an arcane link
There are more effective, and more disturbing, ways
to communicate in the Underworld than merely speaking,
though some weak-hearted mortals grow faint enough at
the thought of being addressed by a ghost. When this spell
is cast into the joyless night, the necromancer sends his
consciousness aloft and buoys it with the dark Essence of
the least wakeful Malfeans. In short order, guided by the
arcane link the caster holds, his mind hovers over his
target. The necromancer can view all that goes on around
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CHAPTER FIVE • NECROMANCY
her, and he may choose a single mortal or ghost nearby to
seize and use as his mouthpiece or may simply dive into his
target and steal her will.
The above is a form of scrying and can be blocked by
normal wards. If the subject or the area around the subject
is warded, the necromancer may only attempt to control
the creature whose arcane link he holds.
Once the necromancer has a secure hold on his
chosen victim’s mind, he may begin to communicate. He
can see and hear with the victim’s faculties and speak with
her mouth, but he may not manipulate her motor skills or
make her move in any way. This spell is used for effective
real-time communication between powerful necromancers
and their henchmen or their enemies.
This harsh use does not treat the vessel well. The
victim’s eyes burn with black power and soon begin to
bleed. As the palaver continues, her skin turns pale, even
as she begins to involuntarily shudder with chills and sweat
blood. After half an hour, the victim’s hair has become
thin, her teeth and fingernails have yellowed, and her
muscles have withered beneath her skin. The force of the
necromancer’s will is eating her alive and decaying her
from within. Most mortal creatures die shortly after the
half-hour mark, but at this point the will of the necromancer
keeps their bones locked and mouths moving until the
spell wears thin and snaps as the hour turns. Ghosts fare no
better, but as they grow nearer to dissolution, their forms
lose cohesion, melting and flowing like hot butter before
their plasm boils away when they die.
Necromancers utilizing this spell must decide: If they
cast it through an arcane link with the person to whom
they wish to speak, wards may waste their efforts. On the
other hand, bearing a link to a patsy means that it will be
more difficult to use — one must be sure the victim is in the
right place at the right time — but it allays any worries
about wardings.
Only living creatures of Essence • or ghosts of Essence
no greater than •• may be forced to speak with the Dead
Man’s Voice. Neither have any ability to resist the intrusion
of the necromancer’s consciousness. While bound by the
spell, the victim suffers a single unsoakable level of lethal
damage for every five minutes of discussion. Treat extras as
though they have seven health levels for this purpose.
DENYING THE CALL
Cost: 24 motes
Target: One creature, recently dead
Closing her fists, the necromancer grasps tightly the
strings of the Underworld’s fate. Pulling them as a master
puppeteer, she can draw out of the sunless lands a soul that
has recently died. Tying it tightly with cords of necrotic
energy into its old body, death is temporarily averted.
The dead creature arises immediate and resumes its
life — it remembers its death only briefly. As invisible