Book of Bone and Ebony

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otch on this roll ruins the flesh, leaving it fit only for carrion eaters, and new cadavers must be acquired. Once the pieces of the meat golem have been assembled, the surgeons throw the patchwork creature into a (sardonically named) resurrection pit. Resurrection pits are cylindrical pits of thick soulsteel, eight feet in diameter and fifteen feet deep and weighing three to four tons (some Deathlords have much larger permanent models near their citadels in the Underworld). Powered either by Hearthstones (of at least rating •••) or by several soulfire crystals or Essence-containing gems, they are etched with vile necromantic glyphs and filled with a repulsive broth of blood and assorted necromantic reagents brought from the depths of the Labyrinth. Maintaining a resurrection pit on an ongoing basis requires Resources •• or better. The pits consume 1 mote of Essence per hour, and the soulfire crystals and Essence-containing gems must constantly be refilled by ghosts using Filling the Precious Vile (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 247). Pits powered by Hearthstones, obviously, are much less trouble to maintain. Transporting a resurrection pit is no small undertaking, but they are often loaded into wagons drawn by animated yeddim corpses or carried on vast palanquins that require scores of zombies to move. Once they reach their destination, resurrection pits are usually set into the ground, but they can be assembled above ground, in which case they are surrounded by scaffolding and ladders to allow easy access to the pits. Deathlords and their deathknights typically deploy battlefield support labs as close to combat as possible. Once ghosts and mortals have recovered enough parts for a composite zombie, the necrosurgeons assemble them into a whole creature and toss it into the resurrection pit. The foul broth in the resurrection pits causes the parts to merge into each other, linking the components with a kind of thick scar tissue that’s often tougher than the original flesh. An assembled composite zombie must be left to soak in the pit for at least 24 hours to allow the pieces to fuse properly. Once the parts have fused, the necromantic spark reignites and the composite zombie pulls itself from the pool, ready to be deployed again against the forces of Creation. If any piece of the composite corpse had not been previously animated by necromancy, the corpse will not mend and cannot be animated except through direct necromancy. While these battlefield zombie labs are unwieldy and difficult to deploy, a force running low on zombies can often reclaim 20 to 40 percent of its casualties by making the fallen into composite zombies — without the need for a necromancer. Resurrection pits count as Artifact •••• or ••••• devices, depending on the size. The smaller of the two types can hold and process around 20 meat golems at a time; the larger Artifact ••••• version holds around three times that. All of the Deathlords have at least one and some, such 83 CHAPTER FOUR • CREATIONS OF BONE as the First and Forsaken Lion, have dozens. Currently, resurrection pits work only in the Underworld and in shadowlands, but the Deathlords are aggressively working on a version that functions in Creation. ZOMBIES AND MORTALS It is an unnatural state of affairs for zombies and mortals to work together, but in cases where mortals are necessarily present, a determined necromancer can integrate the two fairly easily, at least on a small scale. This is likely to occur if mortals from a shadowland make up a majority of a necromancer’s fighting force, for example, or if the necromancer needs mortals to serve in battlefield support labs. This happens a fair amount, as mortal troops are popular with the Deathlords. Not only do they learn twice as fast as ghosts, but they can be made to learn faster yet with Hardened Killer Training Style (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 178). And when mortals die, they frequently provide more troops in the form of ghosts, hungry ghosts and zombies. Moreover, the living don’t need Essence to be effective in living Creation proper and work well in battlefield formations. Oblivion-tainted idealism aside, most Deathlords are practical enough to incorporate living forces into their ranks. A more expensive variant of Soul Brand, a simple Shadowlands Circle spell (see Exalted: The Abyssals, pp. 225-226), lets the necromancer create an amulet or talisman identifying a mortal as an inedible ally for a cost of 30 motes. The amulet is typically implanted under the skin on the recipient’s sternum so it cannot be lost. The same spell can create talismans that can be carried freely, but these can lead to problems and are deliberately kept rare. These talismans last indefinitely in the Underworld or in shadowlands, but disintegrate after a year in Creation. Likewise, these “artifacts” are not artifacts in the truest sense of the word, and Sapphire Countermagic destroys them instantly. While they count as a level-2 artifacts, they can also be given to those with Backing (Deathlord) ••. There’s also a black market for these amulets, especially near shadowlands, and they typically cost Resources ••••. When the bearer of one of these amulets falls in battle, the amulet is typically cut from the corpse, cleaned and inserted in a new host as a means of preserving resources. Some necromancers also know a 20 mote Labyrinth Circle spell, Black Investiture, that grants mortals limited control of zombies (on top of the benefits of Soul Brand), allowing those mortals to serve as lieutenants in the necromancer’s army of the undead. This appears as a tattoo, like Soul Brand, but it may also, for 40 motes and a Willpower, be committed to an amulet. Amulets made with that spell are more powerful than those that simply identify mortals as allies, and they contain some of the necromancer’s Essence. A mote of Essence must be committed to the amulet, and in so doing, the necromancer
EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY confers some of his authority over the dead to his mortal minion. Should the mortal ever turn on the necromancer, the latter can reflexively withdraw his committed Essence, effectively de-authorizing the mortal. Given the power of these amulets, and their potential for abuse, they are always implanted under the bearer’s skin (although that’s not necessary for the magic to work), usually beneath the skin over the brow or under the scalp. Nemissaries sometimes use these items, but they must be obtained with Artifact •••, Backing •••• or Resources •••••. DISEASE Zombies are terrors on the battlefield. Not only are they repulsive and hard to destroy, but their putrefaction makes them bearers of disease. Wounds inflicted by the necrotic touch of a zombie is far more likely to become infected and fester than most other wounds sustained on the field of battle. Resisting infection from normal battlefield wounds requires a Stamina + Resistance roll against difficulty 3 (see Exalted, pp. 233-234). Resisting infection of wounds inflicted by zombies, on the other hand, requires five successes. When mortals close in battle with zombies, the mortal army suffers two kinds of casualties: those the zombies kill outright and those who fall victim to infection after being wounded. Treating such wounds with alcohol, fire or other sterilizing agents within a few minutes of being wounded is the key to surviving wounds delivered by zombies as it reduces the difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll to 2. The fire damage necessary to sterilize the wound is equal to one level of lethal damage. Those of Creation’s armies that encounter the walking dead more than once develop tactics for dealing with the infection caused by zombie wounds. Many of the living have discovered that pure grain alcohol is worth its weight in jade to the living combatants. Not only does it counter the gangrenous touch of the zombies, but its highly flammable nature makes it ideal for creating firebrands to wield against the walking dead. GHOSTS With a few notable exceptions, ghosts play a far smaller role than the walking dead in the war between Creation and the Underworld. They are far less involved than zombies and hungry ghosts unless the living dare attack the dead in their spirit realm. Garrisons of war ghosts are quite useful in the shadowlands, however. Though they can’t easily engage during the day, as soon as night 84 falls, the army materializes from whatever perfect strategic location or flanking position they have secured. Marching into the shadowlands and waiting for nightfall is suicide. The ghostly forces see attackers coming and the attackers can’t see them, and when the living are tired, the ghosts are ready to spill and drink their blood. The cost of materializing in Creation is prohibitively expensive (nearly half of the average ghost’s Essence pool), particularly given that ghosts don’t easily regain Essence outside the Underworld. That said, ghosts can certainly receive offerings of blood, prayers (in the form of Ancestor or Underworld Cult ratings) and other forms of sustenance. After major battles, Deathlords typically execute livestock and prisoners, dumping the blood of the sacrifices into vats offered to the dead hordes in terrifying victory celebrations. Despite their limitations, there are some ghosts whose particular skills make them especially well suited to deployment in the world of the living. HUNGRY GHOSTS Even in Creation, hungry ghosts are naturally material at night and need not spend Essence to affect the living — a powerful advantage among the undead. This makes them at least moderately useful to the Deathlords, despite the hungry ghosts’ feral tendencies. Hungry ghosts are at least on par with zombies — and possibly far more powerful, depending on how powerful the hungry ghost was in life. The forces of the Deathlords often make use of hungry ghosts by employing the tactics of strategic violation to increase their armies. A single slain mortal whose body has been carefully desecrated will yield two soldiers for the Deathlords: the animated fleshly remains in the form of a zombie and the corpse’s hungry ghost. More than once, the armies of Creation have been duped into believing they were confronting a modest force of zombies, when, in fact, their enemies’ numbers doubled with the setting of the sun. While the Deathlords don’t like to use this ploy too often lest it lose its value, it remains one of their favorite tactics. At the very least, hungry ghosts are key agents in establishing ancestor cults in Creation, as the living can see for themselves what happens when a corpse is not given proper burial. For more on hungry ghosts, see Exalted, pages 300- 301, and Exalted: The Abyssals, pages 61-62. A STORM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS The necromancy spell Shade Prison Amulet (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 225) allows a necromancer to capture hungry ghosts within a piece of engraved bone. The hungry ghost is freed only if the etched bone shard is destroyed. This necromancy spell is a relatively common one, and many necromancers accumulate large collections
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