Book of Bone and Ebony

EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY
rings that circle each of the fingers, seeming no more than
an exotic decoration. If the owner commits 5 motes of
Essence to attune herself to it, she will find that it fits her
perfectly, whatever her size or build. More importantly, at
a moment’s notice, she can point at someone within 10
feet and have the chains jump from her hand to wrap
around the victim and snare him.
The victim’s player may attempt to roll his character’s
Perception + Dodge against the wielder’s Dexterity +
Occult in an attempt to evade the chains, with appropriate
penalties for already being restrained or for being taken by
surprise. If the target is caught by the chains, they thicken
to the size and thickness of grave-prison chains (see
Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 257) and wind around him in
order to immobilize him, with a single length of chain
going back to the wielder’s hand. Like grave-prison chains,
the hand snare chains prevent the victim from spending
Essence or using Arcanoi. The chains return to their
normal size and free their captive in an hour’s time or
whenever the wielder may desire it before then.
Artifact Traits:
Power •••, Usefulness •••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity •••;
Drawback ••• (Component •, Notoriety ••)
MIRROR THAT LOOKS UPON ITS TWIN
(ARTIFACT •••)
These hand-mirrors are always linked in pairs: One of
the pair is black iron ornamented with pallid orichalcum,
while the other is solid gold chased with glistening soulsteel.
They form a convenient two-way link for communication
between the Underworld and Creation. When they are
activated, the holder of the first mirror can see and hear all
that is reflected in the second mirror, and vice versa. They
are fine tools for the spies, ambassadors and assassins
employed by Deathlords.
To activate his mirror, the holder smears his blood
onto the mirror’s surface in the shape of the sigil embossed
on the back of the mirror. This act, together with an
expenditure of 5 motes of Essence, opens a channel to the
other mirror. The holder may see everything that is currently
reflected in the other mirror and hear everything in
its vicinity. Of course, if the other mirror is in a bag or a
sealed chest, the view is somewhat uninteresting. Spies
using these mirrors often arrange set times to communicate,
in order to ensure that someone will be waiting by the
other mirror of the pair. The black-iron mirror must always
remain in the Underworld or in a shadowland during night
or Calibration, while the gold mirror must always remain
in Creation. If either is brought across into the area that is
antithetical to it, both mirrors crumble into dust. Likewise,
if one mirror is destroyed, the other, wherever it may be,
also flies into shards.
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Artifact Traits:
Power ••, Usefulness •••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity •••;
Drawback ••• (Component ••, Notoriety •)
NIGHT MOTHER DOLL (ARTIFACT •••)
The first of these artifacts was made for a princess who
died while still very young, whose grieving parents wanted
her to be cared for in the Underworld until they should
join her there themselves. Others have been produced
since, but they still remain rare commodities and are
highly priced in Sijan or similar communities. A night
mother doll looks like a normal large doll when inactive,
with its face and hands carved from articulated jade and its
body swathed in long drapes of silk. These dolls are always
adult females and can normally be identified as belonging
to a particular culture or background.
When called on by their owners, they grow to the size
of an adult and have the statistics of a jade effigy (see
Exalted: The Abyssals, pp. 20 and 21), though they carry
no weapons. They will obey any command given by their
owners. While a night mother doll is capable of fighting, it
can also cradle its owner in its arms and hold her through the
night or sit by her bedside and watch patiently over her. A
doll can also carry its owner while traveling or lift her over
obstacles. It can remain in full adult form for as long as is
necessary, even for centuries on end. However, if its owner
enters Lethe or falls to Oblivion, the doll returns to its small
form and remains that way till claimed again.
A doll can only be owned by a ghost child who lived
less than 10 years, however long he or she may have been
dead and in the Underworld. However much an older
ghost may attempt to attune to a doll that falls into his
hands, it simply will not work.
Artifact Traits:
Power •••, Usefulness ••••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity •••;
Drawback ••• (Component •, Notoriety ••)
PALE BEES OF THE GHOSTLY HIVE
(ARTIFACT •••)
These bees are creatures of darkness, striped with
shadow and pale gold like nightmare ghosts of real insects.
While dormant, they dwell inside a honeycombed piece of
white jade the size of a man’s fist. When they are called
upon, they come swarming out of their hive in a flurry of dark
wings, buzzing like a death-rattle, and rip at the flesh of their
opponents, before carrying the remnants back with them to
the hive. They do damage as would a casting of the spell
Death of Obsidian Butterflies (see Exalted, p. 217-218)
except that the user rolls Perception + Awareness (rather
than Perception + Occult). Attacks on the swarm have no
effect. The Hive itself must be destroyed to kill them, and it
requires five levels of lethal damage to shatter it.