Book of Bone and Ebony

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mimics the northern lights seen in Creation, almost everyone recognizes them on sight. These creatures are drawn to grave goods and items made of the Five Magical Materials and attempt to steal them. By engulfing its target, a glimmer apparition focuses its will to grasp the loot with a physical hand created out of its compact light. Should the item be in the hands of — or worn by — someone at the time that the creature attempts to steal it, the two engage in an opposed Strength check (where the apparition uses Willpower as its offensive Attribute). Glimmer apparitions are unable to carry items that have a higher weight than their Strength + Athletics permits, unless two or more of them cooperate. In combat, note that, although glimmer apparitions are made out of light, it’s possible to harm them with mortal weapons in the Underworld or in a shadowland at night. Also, some barbarian shamans have discovered that it is possible to imprison the creatures by locking them up in special containers made out of wind howler bones. Such cages cost Resources ••• or can be made if one has access to wind howler bones and commits 20 hours of effort to the project. This requires Occult ••• and a successful Dexterity + Craft (Carving) roll at difficulty 3. These cages are mainly used by ghostly shamans. LIVING TUNDRA Not all creatures exist in a single place or are even capable of movement; living tundra is one such being. Living tundra are magically occurring phenomena in areas where agents of Oblivion use their dark powers in abundance (e.g., in prolonged combat or in long rituals). Shortly after the Death-aspected Essence flows have calmed down, the residue awakens the tundra and transcends it into a creature capable of devouring those who stand on top of it. Living tundra has an extremely high soak rating, but it’s contrasted by the fact that it’s unable to inflict any damage on its enemies unless they’re located on top of it. Spotting living tundra before it makes its presence known requires Survival ••••. The difficulty of the Perception + Survival roll is 3. All living tundra varies in size, but always range between 5 and 20 square yards. When the living tundra opens its maw, avoiding it requires a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll, difficulty 2 (+1 difficulty per five square yards in size). Failure means that a victim clings to the edge of the hole. Unless she manages to find the strength to climb up from the edge (Strength + Athletics, difficulty 3), she plunges into the creature at the beginning of the next turn. A botch on the roll indicates that she immediately falls into the tundra and faces complete destruction, just like anyone who falls into the creature. Entombed characters may fight their way out before they suffocate. Players of entombed characters roll at a three-die penalty due to 157 CHAPTER SIX • CREATURES OF THE UNDERWORLD friction on their arms. Treat the tundra as a stone wall (see Exalted, p. 239) for the purposes of absorbing attacks directed at freeing the trapped character. See page 243 of Exalted for rules on suffocation and holding one’s breath. SHATTER Despite all their might, even the Exalted fear shatters and their ability to insert mental blocks in their victims. These half-formed arachnids, with weak and damaged bones, tattered bodies and without the ability to spin webs, are of the same size as bear cubs. While there are two types of shatters — shatters and queen shatters — the only way they visibly differ is in size. A queen is three times as large and inflicts aggravated damage when she strikes with her razor sharp legs. Only one queen exists in a shatter nest, which consists of at least 100 of these creatures. Also, unlike her minions, she has retained the ability to spin webs, which the nest uses for protection against intruders (use the same rules as being trapped by normal shatters). Once shatters engage their opponent, they attack with the sharp edges on their legs while trapping the victim in a pool of unformed webbing that either leaks out of their belly or that they spit (often used in combat). Players of those trapped in the webbing must succeed in a reflexive Strength + Athletics roll, difficulty 4, or a Dexterity + Larceny roll, difficulty 3, in order to avoid their characters being immobilized for the next two turns before being allowed to try and break loose again. If shatters choose to spit their webbing, it has the appearance of a small, gray ball that cannot be parried, only dodged (note that the spit has a rate of 2). Weapons covered in it are immediately stuck to the hands that wield them and cannot be moved with the same grace as they normally could (subtract one success from all attack rolls). Should the shatters manage to inject their poison, the effect does not occur until after a number of turns equal to the victim’s permanent Essence rating. Use the poison rules on page 243 of Exalted. The difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll to resist the poison is 3. If the roll is failed, the victim’s Mental Attributes drop to • until cured through magic or through a slow process of healing and rehabilitation (that is, spending experience). On a success, the poison imposes a one-die penalty to all mental actions for one hour. Cures for their poison come in three known ways: through suicide (despite the risk of ending up in Oblivion), which is the most common; through the use of Charms or sorcery; and by drinking a brew made from the bones of a shatter queen (requires Alchemy •• to create). Shatters exist all over the North, with nests in caverns and holes in the tundra, and they often nest close to living tundra.
EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY WIND HOWLER The black mountains around Tzatli are home to wind howlers, plasmics that appear as gigantic, decayed, threeheaded falcons. Wind howlers engage their victim in pairs, approaching the target from different directions. Their attack is not physical, but works through a muted scream that affects all who can hear it. Resisting requires an extended Willpower roll, difficulty 15, that is rolled on the turn the character first hears the shriek and for five turns thereafter. Failing this roll permanently imposes one derangement from the list on page 281 of Exalted (player’s choice). A failed Willpower roll during the six turns indicates that the following checks are at +1 difficulty (these penalties are cumulative). If a character is exposed to the howl again and again, reset the turn counter and the number of accumulated successes each time the character is exposed to the sound. YGDRA These ash-tree creatures springs to life in the Northeast and are famous for trapping prey in their branches and then crushing their victims before devouring the corpses’ Essence. By successfully performing a clinch attack (see Exalted, p. 239), the trees ensnare prey in their branches. Each turn, the trapped may attempt to escape. This action is reflexive and does not impose any penalties other dice rolls, but all non-Charm-based dodge and parry attempts fail. Ygdras may make up to three crushing attacks each turn, but they suffer normal dice-pool penalties. They may choose to not perform crushing attacks during two turns and make an attempt to drain Essence on the third. Each success on the attack roll drains 3 motes from the trapped being. LESSER PLASMICS Frostbite: The frostbites are no larger than a grown human’s fingers and almost impossible to discover in the snow (difficulty 5) before it is too late. Once a frostbite swirls in the wind and attaches to a victim’s skin, its purpose for existing is fulfilled, and it melts. Being touched by a swarm of frostbites freezes the joints of both the living and ghosts. When struck by a frostbite, the target’s player must succeed on a Stamina + Resistance roll, difficulty 1, in order to avoid a one-die penalty on all actions until she has recuperated by a fire for three hours. If hurt by a weapon, a frostbite perishes, since the creatures have no soak or health levels. Shadow Bear: Although these plasmics have the appearance of bear shadows, they lack exact and rigid features as the shadows shift with each step they take. They possess no special magical abilities, but they are driven to locate living people that have strayed into the Northern shadowlands to feast on their warm blood, since even the amount found in a human child provides a shadow bear 158 with two additional -0 health levels for three days, while a grown human provides twice that number of health levels for a week. Yeti-Spawn: The yeti-spawn gained their name due to their torso and head’s similarity to those of the yetis of Creation. Their lower bodies have practically nothing left except for bent and broken bones. Their upper half also shows signs of decay, and underneath the matted gray fur, there is only rotten meat. Also, these creatures have only empty sockets where their eyes once were. When engaged in combat, the yeti-spawn prove to be excellent blind-fighters, suffering no dice pool penalties due to their lack of vision. STYGIAN PLASMICS The following plasmics have the Isle of Stygia as their natural habitat. ALAUN Before the Dragon Kings came to be, when the gods were mere infants in the Primordial psyche, the ancients were served by birdlike humanoids. Their arms were covered in feathers, while their long necks would make it possible for them to stretch thousands of feet in the air so that they could listen more closely to their masters. Instead of mouths, they had beaks like that of any bird, but their winglike arms could not sustain flight. They were bound to the ground, and the Primordials remade them by giving them hands and fingers. In life, they served without the ability to question. In death, they are alone and confused. After the Primordial War and the Underworld’s formation, the alaun ended up on the southwestern coast of the Isle of Stygia — the place where they were first conceived. Always controlled by their masters, the alaun had little intelligence and wits to rely on, but they knew how to serve and how to construct simple things such as houses and tools. At first the alaun lived in peace, but when the ghosts of those who slew their creators (and themselves) began to appear in the Underworld, the creatures were lost to madness and despair. Today, they have barricaded themselves inside a great stone fortress hidden among the southern mountains close to where one would find Lord’s Crossing in Creation. They intend to defend themselves from anyone attempting to get close to their home, for they will not perish once again. They will fight to destroy anyone who threatens them or their now-dead masters. Underworld alaun have retained the appearance that they had in Creation with the exception that their long necks have lost their muscles and are now dried and full of broken tissue, merely looking like ostrich or crane necks, and cannot stretch thousands of feet. The arms are covered in black feathers, contrasted by the alaun’s long, twisted pale fingers. Their legs are extremely thin and easily broken, but
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AND A Compendium of Necromantic Lor
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Book of Bone and Ebony

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