Book of Bone and Ebony

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Paralytic Touch (4 points): The war body is soaked extensively in an array of plant toxins until it is so saturated with poison that its touch is venomous . The player of any character touched by (or touching) the nemissary with bare flesh (e.g., most Brawl or Martial Arts attacks, for instance) must successfully roll Stamina + Resistance, difficulty 2, or have his character be paralyzed for the rest of the scene. If the war body draws blood with its natural weaponry (fangs, claws), the difficulty rises to 4. Spikes (5 points): The vessel has riveted spikes of bone or metal protruding from its flesh. It inflicts +1L damage with clinches it controls, while anyone holding or crushing the vessel with a clinch suffers 3L damage per turn. Vessels with this enhancement cannot have an Appearance greater than ••. Stench of Rotting Offal (3 points per purchase): Not that the dead ever smell good, but war bodies augmented in this fashion are soaked extensively in a brew so foul it could gag maggots. The stench within 10 feet of the nemissary is so revolting that a successful Stamina + Resistance roll must be made for other characters, or they vomit until they can get away from the stench. Those whose players succeed lose one die from their attack rolls for each time this augmentation was purchased due to watering eyes and the urge to retch. Toughness (4 points per -2, 6 points per -1, 8 points per - 0): The vessel has been partially mummified, been reinforced with metal or had its bulk augmented with extraneous dead tissue from another corpse. Whatever the reason, it has additional health levels. NEMISSARY ARCANOI AND WONDERS Once a ghost learns how to possess a dead body, entire new avenues of power open up to her. Not only can a nemissary learn to possess larger and more powerful forms, but she learns how to maintain and augment the bodies she possesses. The nemissaries’ great utility as spies and warriors in Creation has tended to place them a step above most other ghosts in the eyes of the Deathlords. The added prestige of being a nemissary has resulted in many such ghosts channeling vast amounts of time and energy into refining the nemissary’s art. Below are some of the many Arcanoi used by nemissaries or by ghosts who intend to become nemissaries. INTANGIBLE GUARDIAN PRESENCE Cost: None Duration: Permanent Type: Special Minimum Compassion: 2 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms: Mortal-Shadowing Technique 91 CHAPTER FOUR • CREATIONS OF BONE This Arcanos is a type of Ox-Body Charm that works only on vessels the ghost is riding or possessing. While it doesn’t add anything to the ghost’s health levels, it dramatically fortifies all vessels she is skinriding using Mortal-Shadowing Technique, Nemissary’s Ride or subsequent Arcanoi in the tree. Some ghosts skinride mortal descendants to protect them in battle, while others augment possessed corpses to increase their own battlefield prowess. When a ghost departs the vessel she was riding, the extra health levels are crossed off, whether they held damage or not. Each purchase imparts one -0 and one -1 health level on the ghost’s vessel. A ghost can buy this Charm as many times as she has dots in her Compassion rating. Storytellers should note that a ghost’s own Ox-Body Technique does not fortify hosts, only her own plasm. This Arcanos is particularly helpful when the ghost is riding a smaller animal, such as a raiton, which usually has far fewer health levels than a human being. THE EMBALMER’S ART Cost: 15 motes (committed), 2 Willpower Duration: Indefinite Type: Simple Minimum Compassion: 2 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms: Nemissary’s Ride With this Arcanos, a nemissary refines her ability to possess and animate dead flesh. She may automatically commandeer a corpse as if using Nemissary’s Ride (see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 250) but requires no roll to do so. Such possession lasts until the ghost withdraws the Essence committed to the Arcanos. Finally, a body possessed using the Embalmer’s Art does not decay. Any existing decay from prior to possession remains, and the body resumes decomposing normally if the ghost leaves it. Furthermore, the nemissary may fortify the vessel it’s riding with Essence. For every 4 additional motes of Essence the ghost commits to the vessel, it gains a -2 health level. The ghost can impart up to its Compassion rating in additional health levels on a vessel this way. Nemissaries wanting to develop their powers even further can purchase a superior version of this Arcanos called the Embalmer’s Enduring Triumph. This Arcanos functions exactly as The Embalmer’s Art, but requires Compassion •••, Essence •••• and the Embalmer’s Art as a prerequisite. However, the Embalmer’s Enduring Triumph costs only 10 motes and 1 Willpower to activate and 2 motes per -1 health level, and the Willpower cost is waived if the ghost is in a shadowland.
EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY INSTAURATION OF THE FLESHLY VESSEL Cost: Varies Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Minimum Compassion: 3 Minimum Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: The Embalmer’s Art Among the most powerful — and sometimes most painful — Arcanoi used by nemissaries, Instauration of the Fleshly Vessel allows a ghost to repair damage to a body she is possessing, whether that damage was caused by rot or combat. Many ghosts dislike this Arcanos because of the pain it causes them, but it provides the nemissary with options for keeping a war body useful well beyond its usual duration. The first technique in this Arcanos repairs rotting damage. Every 4 motes of Essence the ghost channels into this Charm undoes all rotting damage sustained over the course of a single day. In most climates, an unprotected corpse will last from six to eight weeks before it becomes structurally compromised. At that point, the vessel loses two permanent health levels per day until it reaches zero health levels, at which point it is little more than a jumble of bones and necrotic goo. A nemissary using this Arcanos can take control of a vessel that may have gone untended a bit too long and render it more habitable. Bodies rot at a different rate depending on the climate. In the extreme North and South, bodies are mummified by the cold or arid climates and last for several months before ceasing to function. In warm, humid climes, a corpse may last only a couple of weeks before falling into a putrescent gray mass, and a nemissary may need to use this Arcanos frequently to keep her vessel intact. The Storyteller determines how often this Arcanos needs to be used on a body to keep it in good repair. Repeated uses of this Charm on even extremely decayed flesh can, eventually, result in a body that looks as though it’s only moments past its final breath. Once the ghost has repaired a possessed body with this Arcanos, she may use the Embalmer’s Art to preserve the corpse’s improved state indefinitely. The other use of this Charm heals damage taken by the nemissary’s vessel, but at the expense of her corpus. For 1 mote of Essence per health level, the nemissary bleeds her own integrity into the vessel to restore it. She suffers one unsoakable level of damage per level regenerated, with the type of damage appropriate to the type healed. She may heal bashing or lethal injuries in any order. Ghosts with the Ox-Body Technique Arcanos (a Conviction Arcanos with no Prerequisites and an Essence and Conviction minimum of 1 that gives two -2 levels per purchase, up to a limit of the ghost’s Conviction rating — see the Exalted Players Guide, pp. 83-84) are far more capable of using this Charm than other ghosts. 92 This Charm cannot heal damage caused by fire, aggravated sources or magic specifically designed to inflict deleterious effects on the undead (such as that caused by the Zeniths’ anima flare or the Charms Solar Spike or Blazing Solar Bolt). DRIVE THE NECROTIC COLOSSUS Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 experience point Duration: One day Type: Simple Minimum Compassion: 2 Minimum Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: Nemissary’s Ride Nemissary’s Ride allows a ghost to possess and animate a shell as large as a very large (eight feet tall, 400 pound) human. To animate corpses larger than that (or the multiple connected corpses of some necromantic war machines), the ghost must know Drive the Necrotic Colossus. This Charm allows ghosts to animate the bodies of even the largest natural animals and war machines up to the size of a large temple. If the shell to be animated is larger than that (as the largest war machines and behemoth corpses are), then multiple nemissaries must work in concert to animate it. Once the player spends the experience point, the character no longer has to commit Essence to the Charm. At that point, the nemissary stays inside the war machine she’s “piloting” until she decides to leave. The 30 nemissaries that propel Mask of Winter’s Juggernaut do so through the use of this Charm. BINDINGS OF ETERNAL PRESERVATION (RESOURCES •• OR •••) Any number of alchemical processes can fend off the rotting of a corpse. In the First Age, mummification was considered unnatural and immoral throughout most of Creation, a perversion of the natural cycle. Since the Great Contagion, however, emotion has more and more frequently overcome wisdom, and arguing with the bereaved has grown more difficult. In the Second Age, there exist a myriad of alchemical processes that suspend rot altogether, most of which involve mummification. While these methods are more than enough to fend off rot from a nemissary’s host body, most practitioners of the Stringless Puppeteer Arts have better things to do with their time in Creation than to soak in baths of pungent herbs and alchemical salts. Bindings of eternal preservation are linen or leather wrappings soaked in the chemicals used in mummification. The mummification solution soaks into the dead flesh, suspending the rotting process for as long as the bindings are worn. So long as they’re wrapped around the corpse with no more than an inch of exposed tissue between bindings, the corpse is sufficiently protected. While the bindings of eternal preservation won’t
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AND A Compendium of Necromantic Lor
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Book of Bone and Ebony

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