Book of Bone and Ebony

etween the Deathlords and nephracks aren’t always
cordial, a persuasive Deathlord might be able to borrow
a few hundred (or thousand) suicide commando
mortwights that are barely recognizable as humanoid.
Marching into Creation with such a force doesn’t require
the ghosts to know Moliation, and it will take a serious
toll on the morale of Creation’s defenders. Of course,
doing so would likely give all the Deathlord’s mortal
soldiers nightmares for a week, but such is the price of
using the acolytes of the Neverborn.
NEMISSARIES
Nemissaries, those ghosts that can possess the bodies
of the living and the dead, are by far the most
frequent ghostly recruits in the war against Creation.
They are capable of entering Creation in an assumed
body — and for far less Essence than it takes to make
their own ghostly forms solid or to seize the flesh of the
living. Their abilities in reconnaissance, diplomacy and
war with the living are invaluable to the Deathlords’
plans. Before the appearance of the Abyssal Exalted,
nemissaries occupied the most favored position in the
Deathlords’ hierarchy, and they channeled vast resources
into the creation of stealthier, stronger and
more highly trained nemissaries. In the last few years,
however, that favored position has largely been usurped
by the Abyssal Exalted, and some Deathlords are making
much less use of nemissaries in favor of the more
powerful deathknights. This is not the case across the
board, however. Some Deathlords (such as the First and
Forsaken Lion and the Mask of Winters) still favor
nemissaries, if only for their relative plentitude.
That said, there still tend to be a handful of the old
guard lurking around the citadels of the Deathlords. These
creatures include centuries-old nephracks, steeped in bizarre
Malfean Arcanoi and placed into Artifact •••••
war-bodies. Ghosts such as these are as lethal as a young or
even moderately powerful Abyssal and could easily annihilate
a recently Exalted deathknight who presumed too
much. Soul Mirror (see Savant and Sorcerer, p. 43) was
made for a nemissary, after all, and few among the dead are
as terrifying as a well-equipped and ancient war ghost.
On the whole, the arrival of the Abyssal Exalted has
been a boon for the nemissaries. They now have some very
capable field commanders, and the deathknights’ skill at
necrosurgery has also benefited the nemissaries immensely,
as they now have access to much more skillfully customized
fleshly vessels.
Still, some nemissaries have grown bitter at their
perceived displacement by the Abyssal Exalted. While few
nemissaries would be so rash as to engage a deathknight in
direct combat, even with the finest war body, lone Abyssals
would be wise to watch their backs around groups of the
ghostly puppeteers.
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CHAPTER FOUR • CREATIONS OF BONE
CUSTOM CORPSES
Any nemissary can possess a common cadaver, so long
as it’s reasonably intact. If it really comes down to it, a
skilled nemissary can make do with any corpse, whether it
be scavenged from a battlefield, a graveyard or from the
embalmer’s table. Unless the nemissary decides otherwise,
chance alone dictates what pallid face she wears until the
stolen flesh rots away and she must jump to a new host.
But many nemissaries would prefer not to comport
themselves like common body thieves. They are highly
trained and proud ghosts. Nemissary’s Ride, the Arcanos
that gives them the ability to possess dead bodies in the first
place, is an advanced Arcanos, and the ghosts who learn it
are respected for their skill and dedication. There is prestige
to be had among nemissaries by possessing the strongest,
the prettiest or the most lethal vessel, and the corpses they
run across by chance alone are unlikely to suit them, unless
they are trying to look like a common zombie for stealth
purposes (or just slumming). Nemissaries often seek out
the best corpses they can find until something better (or
better suited to a specific mission) comes along.
Ghosts in service to an Abyssal Exalt (or to one of the
Deathlords, of course) usually have better options, receiving
bodies carefully harvested and specially modified for a
specific mission. These bodies, called “transcendent
revenant vessels,” are carefully chosen corpses augmented
through a combination of necrosurgery, alchemy and
necromantic enchantment. No two of these dread artifacts
are exactly alike. Instead, each is custom-built for a specific
task. Models exist for diplomatic assignments, for covert
scouting and assassination and for open warfare.
There are two ways of obtaining a transcendent
revenant vessel. Taking the Artifact Background lets the
ghost have a vessel that’s entirely hers. She can do with it
as she pleases, but the responsibility for maintaining or
upgrading it is also hers. Alternatively, the Backing Background
can be used in place of the Artifact Background, in
which case the revenant vessel is on loan from a Deathlord.
In this case, the vessel may be taken away at any time if the
nemissary displeases her master. At the same time, she may
occasionally be issued other vessels (with the same rating)
for use in particular missions.
A nemissary can upgrade her transcendent revenant
vessel by paying a necrosurgeon to perform the augmentation.
The cost for this process is exorbitant (see below) but
results in a more powerful tool. A nemissary using one of
the Deathlords’ revenant vessels can gain access to better
vessels by improving her Backing rating.
Depending on the level of power invested in them,
transcendent revenant vessels range from Artifact • to
•••••. Such vessels are never extras. All versions possess
the following characteristics:
Decay Resistance: Vessels do not rot while possessed, but
slowly decay if left uninhabited. For every three days of rot,