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The River of Souls

Soul Vessel Meditation
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Feasting Technique
Upon learning this charm, the Abyssal sculpts her soul into something... other. A vessel for other souls, adding an essence-hungry stomach, becoming a beast that can shackle other souls in eternal torment within. Nothing less than living Soulsteel. The Abyssal must drink a target dry of blood, then spend 3 motes as a reflexive action. Upon doing so, she drinks more than the blood, but the very soul of her prey, locking it within herself, as a reservoir of power. The Abyssal can hold, at most, her permanent Essence x5 souls within. Each dot of permanent Essence the soul has above 1 makes it count as another for storage and require an extra turn drinking their blood to absorb them as well - therefore Charms such as Crimson Banquet Method can only be used to instantly kill and absorb Essence 1 souls.

At any time, the Abyssal may consume one of those souls for power, as an unrolled dice action. The Abyssal must split her pool to do so and act in the same turn. The Abyssal may consume a number of souls a turn equal to her Conviction. A captive soul may...

• ... be consumed to give the Abyssal 3 motes.
• ... be consumed to heal the Abyssal a Lethal Health Level.
• ... be consumed to heal the Abyssal a number of Bashing Health Levels equal to his Essence.

A single soul must be consumed all at once – therefore, consuming an Essence 5 soul gives the benefit of consuming 5 souls at once with but one action, but if the Abyssal was only 10m or 4 Health Levels short of his total, any excess motes or health levels are wasted.

Spirits killed by spirit-killing Charms are eligible to be drank by the Abyssal, as if she had drained them dry of blood.

Unleashing the River of Souls
Cost: 12 motes, 2 Health Levels, 3 Experience Points
Duration: One Day
Type: Simple
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Vessel of Souls Meditation
Sometimes, even the mightiest of the Exalted can find herself outnumbered, and the need comes to sacrifice her power for numbers. She looks upon her spiritual stomach, and opens it in a gruesome manner, unleashing a river of damned souls upon her foes. When this Charm is used, the Abyssal fades from view, and from the spot she was on, the souls ride forth, given flesh once again. The Abyssal becomes invulnerable against any direct attack for one turn per essence unit in her reservoir of souls – if the Essence 5 Abyssal has 10 souls within, she will remain invulnerable for 2 turns. Every turn, a number of souls equal to an Essence unit in this reservoir come forth.

All those enfleshed souls are undead, and creatures of darkness. All gain soak equal to the Abyssal’s Essence, suffer no wound penalties, never need to make any Valor roll, and are mindlessly loyal to the Abyssal. Mortals come as Heroic ones, and with their full capabilities. Those that had familiars come with replicas of them. Dragon-Blooded and Spirits come fully armed with replicas of their mundane weapons (or mundane replicas of their artifact gear, equivalent to perfect equipment), and full use of their Charms. Celestial Exalted come with their full Permanent Essence, the same rule for their equipments as with Dragon-Blooded, but without their Exalted Essence, their access to Charms is the akin to Half-Castes – they lose their access to combos, persistant and perfect effects.

At the end of the Day, the bodies fall to the ground, dead. They do not vanish. All the souls used in this maneuver are lost, and spiral to the Void, free of their torment within the Abyssal.

Palace of a Darkened Heart
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Survival: 7
Minimum Essence: 7
Prerequisite Charms: Unleashing the River of Souls
The soul of the Abyssal becomes great as a Soulsteel Palace, able to hold whole armies of tormented souls. The holding capacity of Soul Vessel Meditation becomes Essence x 200 souls. Moreover, the Abyssal may go to the palace of her own darkened soul, within herself, and talk to his subject souls. To do so, the Abyssal must spend 1 willpower and enter a trance state, wherein he will be completely detached from the outside world. However, his body can still use Reflexive Defenses that allow him to defend from attacks he is not aware of, and any damage taken to his body will awaken him. He may remain within as long as he wishes, however, but the souls are no more cooperative than they would otherwise be - but the Abyssal can freely use his Social Charms to convince or intimidate any of them.

Crimson Contract Technique
Cost: 20 motes, 1 willpower, 5 experience points
Duration: Permanent
Type: Simple
Minimum Survival: 6
Minimum Essence: 6
Prerequisite Charms: Unleashing the River of Souls
When the Abyssal Unleashes the River of Souls, his subject souls are lost to him forever. But upon learning Crimson Contract Technique, he discovers this is not so absolute. By tearing open his hand and feeding his blood and power to one of the enfleshed spirits, the Abyssal can allow the souls to remain as his servants, with the expenditure of 20 motes, 1 willpower and 5 experience points. They still follow all other restrictions on Unleashing the River of Souls. If the Abyssal is killed, they crumble and die. However, external intervention might allow them to remain.

Beasts of Oblivion

Thousand Shadow Beast
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Survival: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Fetter the Beast
Touched by the Void, the animal companions of Abyssal Exalted are eerie, subtly wrong. Blessing his Familiar with the Essence of the Void, the Abyssal enhances those subtle impressions, turning them into overt displays of terrible supernatural might! This Charm allows the Exalt to grant his Familiar Nightmares; Upon purchase of this Charm, the character's Familiar receives a number of Nightmares equal to his Permanent Essence. The character may buy extra Nightmares at the cost of 4 Experience Points each. If a Nightmare requires a number based on the character's Permanent Essence, it will instantly upgrade when the character's Permanent Essence score increases. Each Nightmare may only be taken once.

Possible Nightmares include...

Raiton's Gaze:

Like the Raiton braving the skies of the Underworld, the beast is undaunted! The Familiar will never again feel fear, or balk at anything. It will not become suicidal, however.

Beast of Ill Omens:

The Familiar becomes a beast of ill omen upon Creation, something that all other beasts feel! No beast of the living world will strike at it, and all fauna will run away with its passage! Familiars may be compelled to attack the Familiar, but only if its owners succeed on a Charisma+Presence dice action with a difficulty equal to the character’s Essence.

Pyre-Flame Step:

The Familiar’s paws are covered in pyre-flame when it walks, leaving burning footsteps even upon water and air! Those burn to vanish all trace of its passage, however, burning even its weight away! The Familiar doubles its movement speed and adds the character’s Essence in dice to all attempts to track the Familiar’s movements within 10 minutes of its passage… and subtracts the same amount of dice from attempts to tracking its movements afterwards.

Viper's Whisper:

The Familiar grows glands of venom, gaining a bright coloration in dark, lime green or red on some part of its body. The Familiar receives the equivalent of Poison Snake Venom.

Gargoyle Wings:

The Familiar sprouts great leathery wings from its back, whose composition seems mineral, as if they were carved out of some unnatural labyrinthine rock. Those wings allow the Familiar to fly at half its normal running speed, ascending at half that, and descending at four times that.

Red Ice Skin:

The Familiar’s blood freezes and comes to the fore, forming a carapace of red ice over its body. This increases the Familiar's natural soak by the same rating as a mundane armor whose resources cost cannot exceed the character’s Permanent Essence. Its Fatigue Value and Mobility Penalty apply as normal, however.

Bloodthirsty Beast:

The Familiar’s teeth becomes sharper and sharper, a pair of canines appearing upon them if it lacked those before, its eyes taking on subtle red freckles. The Familiar becomes able to subsist in blood and flesh as easily as if it was its natural diet, and if it is able to channel Essence, it can devour motes per Health Levels just like an Abyssal.

Obsidian Shard Claws:

The Familiar receives natural weapons even if it possessed none before, jagged and dark like obsidian shards. Their stats are equal to those of a mundane weapon whose resources cost cannot exceed the character’s Permanent Essence.

Hallowed Ghost-Flesh:

The Familiar’s skin becomes glossy, unnatural, as if it was painted, still life that should not be real, should not be touched. The Familiar becomes able to soak lethal damage with half its Stamina, to resist magical powers like and to heal from damage like an Exalt.

Ever-Vigilant Crypt Keeper:

The Familiar becomes a glossy, still being, smelling faintly of embalming. The Familiar will never need to sleep again, and if it remains perfectly still, a Perception+Survival or Ride roll at a difficulty equal to its handler’s Essence is necessary to tell that it is a living being, and not a statue or decoration.

The Eternal Guardian:

The Familiar’s eyes become deep, its depths filled with fractured images like broken glass, showing the many remembrances of its restless soul. The Familiar enhanced this way will never age again.

Ghost-Drinking Gaze:

The Familiar’s eyes swirl with a maelstrom of undifferentiated ghost-light, chains which connect it to all ghostly flesh! The Familiar may strike immaterial beings as well as if they were material(or vice-versa, if it somehow finds itself immaterial). However, it can always be struck by immaterial beings as if it was immaterial as well. Material beings may not strike it if it finds itself immaterial, however.

Mane of Flickering Shadows:

The Familiar bends light around it, seeming to always have some sort of thick, shadowy fog covering its movements, a strange dark blur which makes all attempts to strike or hold it impossibly difficult! Increase the difficulty of all close combat attacks on the familiar by 2, and of ranged attacks by 3.

Terrible Visage:

The Familiar becomes scarred, horrible, terrible to behold as the Essence of Void within the Abyssal disfigurates it into an instrument of oblivion. The Familiar's Appearance falls to 0, and those facing it must suceed in a Valor roll; On a failture, they are at -2 dice on all combat actions against the Familiar or the Character, on a botch they run away from the battle. The character also receives the Familiar's rating in dice to all intimidation attempts in which the familiar may be useful.

Terrible Bone Wyrm:

The Familiar, while still alive, becomes a mass of bones holding a few of its organs. It doubles its natural soak against lethal damage, but doubles any bashing damage done to it after it is rolled.

Shadow's Kin:

The Familiar's skin becomes dark and soft as velvet. When it touches shadows, it seems to disappear, one's gaze going through it. As long as it can be partially or fully covered in shadow, it adds the character's Essence in dice to all stealth rolls.

Hallowed Memory Training
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Thousand Shadow Beast
In its training with the character, the Familiar sees much. Ghosts and Whispers, the Labyrinth and the Malfeans. Slowly, those whispers are heard by the beast, and those beasts that do not fall to feral madness glimmer an eerie knowledge from the whispers and memories of countless dead souls, of the dead primordials themselves! The Familiar becomes intelligent and cultured as a human if it was not already, able to communicate through signs and gestures as a human would, distributing twice the Exalt's Permanent Essence in points between its Abilities. New Abilities may be added from scratch. The Exalt may further increase the Familiar's Abilities from that point onward by paying 1 Experience Point per dot added to its Abilities, which may not exceed the character's maximum. The Familiar also receives a rating in the Whispers background equal to half its owner's Essence rating, rounded down. It will sometimes do mysterious tasks guided by the Malfeans, although never directly against the Exalt's objectives.

Darkshine Familiar
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Hallowed Memory Training
Such is her majesty that the Abyssal is able to channel the power of the eternal void into her Familiar, sparks of the Void unfurling like dark sun in the Familiar's eyes as its enlightement grows a thousandfold. The beast enhanced by Darkshine Familiar receives...

• ... a Permanent Essence equal to the character's Permanent Essence minus one.
• ... an Essence Pool equal to (character's Permanent Essence x10).
• ... a single Arcanoi, two if its Familiar Rating is 3, three if it is 5.

The Abyssal may buy more Arcanoi for the Familiar at the rate of 4 Experience Points apiece. The Arcanoi imparted upon the Familiar require their pre-requisites, as usual. The Abyssal may teach a Familiar whose anatomy is applicable Martial Arts Charms, but those must be known to the Abyssal(or another teacher) and imparted upon the Familiar with training, but at the same Experience Cost for the Abyssal as imparting an Arcanoi upon his Familiar would have. If the Familiar had no defined Virtues and Willpower, distribute 6 points between its Virtues, and add one to the resulting Willpower.

World-Crossing Beast
Cost: 6 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Fetter the Beast
Abyssals are neither living nor dead, walking the fine line between both worlds. Upon learning this Charm, the Abyssal turns her Familiar into the living embodiment of this aspect of her existence, an anchor between worlds. By using this Charm while touching her Familiar(or being very close) the Abyssal can walk through worlds, and appear on the respective spot in the Underworld from where she stands on Creation(Or the respective spot on Creation from where she stands in the Underworld). Without the use of other magic, the Abyssal cannot see what the other world is where he stands, but this will never allow the Abyssal to appear into an object or on a dangerous place such as an active volcano - in those circumsntances the Abyssal and his Familiar appear on the closest safe place. Wards against teleportation can prevent the use of this Charm. This Charm can also be used in a Shadowland's edge to take the Abyssal to any one of the two worlds at any time of the day, and when used this way its willpower cost is waived.

Ride the Hekatonkire
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Survival: 5
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Darkshine Familiar
Touching the very nature of the Void its master is a direct path to, the Familiar... changes. In body, in mind, in soul, in nature. Ascending to a godly aspect, it becomes in Essence an Undead Behemoth - an Hekatonkire. A spiritual being of unparallalled might, guided by whispers of Oblivion, its very appearance and nature changed beyond belief. As an Hekatonkire created by this Charm, the Familiar...

• ... counts as an Ghost creature and a Creature of Darkness.
• ... receives a single Abyssal Charm, two if its Familiar rating is 3, three if it is 5.
• ... receives Whispers *****. It hears the Void singing within its mind, and acts upon it!
• ... becomes wreathed in Void; all of its natural attacks deal Aggravated Damage equal to its Essence, soaked separately.
• ... receives a single Iron or Onyx Circle Necromancy Spell it can use as an innate ability, at half its usual mote cost and instantaneous Casting Time.
• ... may or may not become a Spiritual Being, to the Abyssal's discretion. If it does, it naturally receives the Materialize Charm with a cost equal to half its Essence pool. Even if it does not, it ceases to require eating or drinking, and cannot be killed without the aid of abilities that can permanently slay Spirits - if destroyed, it will simply regenerate within the Abyssal's heart and reappear after a the Calendar of Setesh has marked seven days and seven nights.

The Abyssal may buy more Charms for the Hekatonkire at the rate of 4 Experience Points apiece. The Charms imparted upon the Familiar require their pre-requisites, as usual. The Hekatonkire will remain in existence after the Abyssal is killed, becoming in essence a true Hekatonkire. It will be unable to acquire new Charms, Arcanoi or Nightmares, but it will retain all those it previously received, and become a force in the Underworld on its own right.

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