Book of Bone and Ebony

EXALTED • BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY
several of his peers, although none of them have yet fielded
units equipped with the artifacts.
This frightening necromantic armor takes the form of
a metal and bone exoskeleton that automatically resizes
itself to the measurements of its master when first donned.
A steel-reinforced spine and sternum support white ribs
curved around the chest, while rigid bones extend like
grotesque splints along the legs and arms. A skull-helmet fits
snugly over the wearer’s head, its gaping sockets fitted with
lenses of smoky obsidian that hide all traces of life or
empathy. Finely articulated gauntlets transform the wearer’s
fingers into skeletal claws. Throughout this elaborate framework,
plates and hinges of blackened steel and enchanted
alloys cover all vital areas. The design exposes more flesh
than prudence would advise, but enchantments in the
armor give the wearer’s skin the ashen pallor and leathery
resilience of the walking dead. Each loathsome osseous shell
is an undead creature animated by the spell Walking War
Machine, a necromantic symbiont that coordinates its
movements and monstrous strength to improve the wearer’s
physical capabilities. To facilitate its connection with a
wearer, the armor inserts a slender metal spike into the back
of her neck, siphoning Essence to forge an arcane link.
System: Once a character dons a loathsome osseous
shell, the control spike inserts itself into his neck. The
puncture itself is minor and inflicts no actual damage, but
the spike drains one Willpower point from mortals or 5
motes of Essence from magical beings. This cost remains
committed for 10 hours, after which, the armor drains and
commits new energies to sustain the link. Each new
commitment of Essence or Willpower replaces the previous
cost, allowing recovery of those expended energies. If
the wearer cannot pay this mandatory cost, the armor
leeches power from the wearer’s own life force, inflicting
one level of unsoakable lethal damage.
As armor, the artifact provides 9L/9B soak with a
mobility penalty of –2 and a fatigue value of 0. In addition,
the wearer’s Strength rating increases by 2 and his Stamina
rises by 1. These bonuses apply to all rolls. More impressively,
the armor completely negates all fatigue from other
sources or encumbrance (such as a shield), but the character
remains unable to carry more than his augmented
Strength permits. If he exceeds the lift value of his adjusted
rating, he still feels no fatigue but can only stagger short
distances under the heavy burden. The character can
perform hard manual labor or walk tirelessly for as long as
he wears the armor, dramatically increasing his effective
speed over long marches. The same magic also negates all
dice penalties for pain or wounds, although injuries still
affect his movement rate normally. The only limit to this
unnatural endurance is the device’s regular upkeep, which
eventually drains his soul and finally kills him if worn too
long. Characters wearing loathsome osseous shells cannot
sleep and, therefore, receive no opportunity to recover
Willpower through Conviction, but magical beings can
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still rest or meditate to respire Essence. As a final benefit,
the character’s horrific visage adds an extra die to all
intimidation-based Social rolls.
Although a loathsome osseous shell incorporates trace
quantities of soulsteel in its frame, it does not receive the
augmented soak rating normally conferred by that metal.
Conversely, any Exalt or magical being can wear such a suit
without paying the double surcharge. The intricate components
and enchantments of an loathsome osseous shell are
quite durable, but the armor still requires maintenance after
every 120 hours of operation. After 20 hours of missed
maintenance, the armor loses its ability to negate pain and
fatigue and gains a fatigue value of 1. This value cumulatively
increases by 1 for every further 20 hours of missed
maintenance, until the armor’s joints stiffen and refuse too
move after 100 missed hours. Characters performing the
maintenance need a relevant Craft (e.g., Necrosurgery or
Armoring), Lore and Occult rating of ••• each. Such
repairs take one hour and cost Resources ••.
ENGINES OF ANNIHILATION
The war engines of the Deathlords are a varied lot. Each
Deathlord, as well as his or her Abyssal Exalted, have
different approaches to the necromantically animated monstrosities
they deploy in their war of attrition against the
living. Some, such as the Mask of Winters, depend heavily
on fewer but more powerful war machines. Some, such as the
Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water, make little use of war
machines at all, preferring to rely largely on either zombies,
Moliated ghosts or nemissaries. And still others, such as the
First and Forsaken Lion, use everything at their disposal in
amassing a massive integrated fighting force.
Some of these choices are determined by strategy
alone: The First and Foremost Lion is somewhat more
prepared to war on his fellow Deathlords than on Creation
because he has never had the opportunity to field-test his
tactics in the realm of the living (or at least not on a large
scale as of yet). Likewise, the Mask of Winters realized
when he happened upon the colossal rotting corpse that
became Juggernaut that he had an unprecedented windfall
of dead flesh on his hands. The Deathlord transformed
Juggernaut into a key piece in his incursion into Creation,
providing him with a beachhead the other Deathlords
could only envy — of course, if Juggernaut were somehow
removed from the picture, the Mask of Winters’ operations
in Creation would be severely compromised.
Other choices regarding the use of war machines are
dictated by circumstance: An island isn’t a practical place
to store land-based war machines that will only take up
space until they are deployed, so those few war machines
that the Silver Prince does employ are all stored and
deployed in or under the water.
Still, nearly all the Deathlords make some use of
necromantic war machines. They’re too effective not to