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Ashande's Lair

The Skull of Twelve Blasphemies

Once, there was a Maiden
And the Maiden had many virtues... twelve of them
But the Raven and the Rat envied the Maiden,
And took her son away
The Maiden's son was far of vision,
Tuned to all her Virtues.
But the unblinking eye made of these a mockery
And made of Virtue Blasphemy
"To pervert the world," the Maiden said
"..is to conquer it."

So the ancient sutras say, when speaking of the Twelve Blasphemies. Supposedly once the skull of a Sidereal, claimed as a battle trophy by the Circle of Abyssals who slew him, it has been imbued with foul magic and put to fouler purpose by the Deathlord Eye and Seven Despairs. Taking the name and nature of the original - Twelve Virtues the Sidereal - he has corrupted it so that while it retains a gift for prophecy, it speaks only the gravest and most degraded of them.

The skull is of average size for a human being. The bone, never bleached properly, has achieved the sickly yellow color of ancient parchment. The jaw remains attached to the skull by a clever series of leather straps - some say made from the skin of the Sidereal so slain - and the hair - trimmed into a luxurious black braid - still hangs from it. A number of blasphemous sigils and script of the Old Realm decorate the skull, first carved in with a knife, then painted over with blood.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the skull is the eyesockets, however; in the battle that felled the Sidereal, his face was damaged, a blade sinking into the middle of his face. The damage done was rather severe, and thus the Abyssal crafter had to make certain allowances for aesthetics. Thus, the eyesockets have been chipped out and extended, so there is but a single large empty space. Some who have witnessed the Twelve Blasphemies claim a chill, rank air emits from that socket, and that it gleams with sickly green light when functioning, but others dismiss this as mere rumor.

The Twelve Blasphemies count as Artifact ***.

Powers of the Twelve Blasphemies

The Twelve Blasphemies have been bound to perform a set number of tasks, unlike many Artifacts; once its tasks are completed, most believe the skull will simply fall apart, returning to the dust of ages and freeing the spirit within. Until such time, the skull possesses the following abilities:

• Minor Blasphemy - The skull may, at random, speak. Anything it says at such times is entirely up to the ST, and often cloaked in deep symbolism and applicable in only the vaguest ways. The ST may request those trying to puzzle out the clues to succeed on a Wits+Occult roll, of variable difficulty. When this occurs, the Exalt most bonded to the skull - ST's discretion, but probably the owner - feels a tugging on his spirit, draining him of 2 motes of Essence. The ST should not use this power as an excuse to drain the Exalt of motes spuriously.
• Intrinsic Knowledge - The skull was formerly attached to the body of a knowledgeable individual, and the spirit trapped inside still remembers some of it. By meditating on the skull for three hours before midnight, and spending 3 motes of Essence - through spilled blood, which causes a Health Level of damage, and the skull soaks it up - the skull can act as a Mentor *** for the character until dawn. Alternatively, the character may simply commit 6 motes of Essence as normal for an artifact, and have access to this benefit at all times.
• The Twelve Blasphemies - Twelve times the skull will speak, giving foreknowledge of a great atrocity, and giving the individual it is attuned to knowledge of specifically how to bring on that Fate. Once it has spoken twelve such prophecies, the weight of decay will fall upon it, sending both skull and bound spirit to Oblivion. When one of these prophecies is coming, the Exalt must immediately spend 8 motes; if he is unable to do so, the skull instead leeches away the owner's life force, inflicting two automatic and unsoakable health levels of lethal damage that cannot be prevented in any way.

Comments

This is extremely cool =) - SMK

Okay, since this is obviously for my game, I figure I'll go ahead and leave a few comments. I like the teaser and history stuff, and the systems don't seem too bad either, but there's a few issues I'd take here and there. First, I don't think a commitment cost fits very much. I'd make this a "spends the users Essence on demand" kind of artifact. Minor Blasphemies probably require 1 mote, while the Twelve Blasphemies probably take 8 motes or 1 lethal health level (if the user doesn't have the motes to power them; these aren't optional). I'm unsure of Intrinsic Knowledge, since that's the power I'd have to fiddle with the most. I think it might work to give this power a small commitment cost, and let the Skull act as a Mentor *** or something instead of a Sifu. Twelve Virtues didn't really know a lot of MA. -- CrownedSun

I was going back and forth on whether to make it cost for commitment, or leech you when it "went off." Due to your comment, it has been made a leech, rather than committed. I'm leaving Intrinsic Knowledge for know, while I brood on other possibilities, but in all likelyhood that'll be your suggestion, too. - Ashande

Final change - maybe. Changed Intrinsic Knowledge. - Ashande

Just one little question. It almost seems like the skull can't give prophecies without someone owning it. In this case, I'm talking about the Twelve Blasphemies. So, is it an "If no one is there to hear it, it doesn't make a sound." sort of thing? - haren

I would say that it probably doesn't speak if no one "owns" it for the Minor Blasphemies. On The Twelve Blasphemies, I'd say it pulls the Essence out of the closest living human it can find, if it has no owner. - Ashande

So when you find it in the morning surrounded by corpses, you know it said something but you don't know what. Nice toy.  :) - Falcon