Book of Bone and Ebony

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
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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