Book of Bone and Ebony

may be at a distance of up to 100 yards away and the target
need not know of her presence — and must spend an hour
painting the target on a blank surface, using the inkbrush.
The player of the painter must then roll her character’s
Perception + Craft (with any modifiers for painting) against
a difficulty of the target’s permanent Essence. The number
of successes scored is the number of the target’s Fetters that
appear around him in the painting. In the event of only some
of the Fetters appearing, then the strongest appear first until
the total number of successes is reached.
The Fetters appear as they were in the target’s memory
of them, rather than as they may currently be in the world
of the living. Any clear surface may be used for this art,
from expensive silk to plain canvas or leather to the wall
of a room. Once the painting is complete, it does not
change and is as durable or as fragile as the surface on
which it is painted.
Artifact Traits:
Power ••, Usefulness ••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity •••;
Drawback •• (Component •, Notoriety •)
THE LOOM OF COBWEBS (ARTIFACT ••)
Though the Sidereals would deny it, this loom surely
owes something to the pattern spiders. The frame of the
Loom of Cobwebs is carved from ivory and inlaid with
chips of human bone, and the shuttles — which move by
themselves, on command — are ebony spiders with deep
garnet eyes. When fed with bobbins of raw silk and human
hair taken from corpses, the Loom produces a tapestry
showing the future of a given target, who must be either
dead or an Abyssal. It depicts an event from the target’s
future, which will occur within a year. The owner of the
Loom has no control over when or where the event will be,
and if he attempts to read the same target’s future again, he
may receive the same tapestry as a result or a complete
different one.
The Loom does not require too much in the way of
ingredients, and a single head’s worth of hair is sufficient
for one tapestry. The resulting tapestries can be removed
from the Loom and may be kept for as long as the owner
wishes, though they are as fragile, as one would expect
items woven of hair and silk to be, and are extremely
flammable. The Loom takes a whole day to weave a
tapestry, but it may be used continuously if the owner has
sufficient raw materials. Incidentally, Abyssals react rather
poorly to having other people attempt to divine their
futures without permission, even using so simple a tool as
the Loom of Cobwebs, and investigate rumors of such
artifacts with extreme prejudice.
Artifact Traits:
Power ••, Usefulness ••, Game Impact •••, Script
Immunity ••;
Drawback •• (Component •, Notoriety •)
67
CHAPTER THREE • THE WONDERS OF THE DEAD
ONYX SOUL WINDOW (ARTIFACT ••)
Carved from obsidian and bound in place with crimson
ribbons, this circular lens is set in front of either the left
or the right eye, and requires a commitment of 5 motes of
Essence for attunement. Once it is set in place and attuned
to, it provides automatic and constant use of the Spirit-
Catching Eye Technique Arcanos (see Exalted: The
Abyssals, p. 248) and use at will of the Sensing the
Delicate Strands Arcanos (see Exalted: The Abyssals, pp.
252-253) at the usual price for that Arcanos. Wearers
often choose to conceal it, while keeping it at hand for
quick use, by wearing an eyepatch over it. This artifact
does have one important flaw, however. Its wearer will
always be visible to other ghosts as though they were using
Spirit-Catching Eye Technique, however much he tries to
conceal himself. The only way of preventing this is for the
wearer to remove the onyx soul window from his eye. Even
though he remains attuned to it, he can now go unseen.
Artifact Traits:
Power •, Usefulness •••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity ••;
Drawback ••• (Component •, Notoriety ••)
PATCH HIDE ARMOR (ARTIFACT ••,
••• FOR NO LOSS OF APPEARANCE)
There are many ways for a ghost to armor herself in the
Underworld, and this is one of them. The wearer has the
skin peeled from parts of her body, and raw hide torn from
spectres deep in the Labyrinth is fastened in its place with
soulsteel rivets that pattern their way across her body. This
process may render the ghost surprisingly attractive, if the
hide was taken from a pallid alabaster-skinned spectre, or
it may make her vile and unappealing, if it came from some
scaled, rotting creature of foulness. In either case, it makes
her tougher. In return for a permanent commitment of 3
motes of Essence, and a great deal of pain, the ghost gains
a bonus of 6L/4B to any other soak she may have. It also
most often results in an Appearance penalty of -2, due to
the abhorrent resulting patchwork appearance. Versions
without the Appearance penalty are Artifact •••.
Artifact Traits:
Power ••, Usefulness •••, Game Impact ••, Script
Immunity •••;
Drawback •• (Component •, Notoriety •)
RING OF FLIES (ARTIFACT ••)
This chased garnet band is, on closer inspection, carved
with the tiny figures of thousands of blowflies crawling over
one another. By spending 5 motes of Essence, the wearer of
the ring can manifest in a shadowland, or even in Creation
itself, as a throbbing swarm of blowflies. While this swarm
can use Arcanoi or spells, it has no solid substance and
cannot make any physical attacks or use any weapons. It
can, however, travel freely and rapidly, moving at the speed