The Black Sword
This two-handed greatsword is of an unknown design, superficially similiar to both the great Scottish blades of the 15th century, but possessed of ornaments completely alien to that locale and time period. Indeed, the intricate runic designs and ornamental embellshments on the blade, hilt and guard correspond to no known historical culture. Although the runic inscriptions on the blade itself bear resemblance to established rune-systems, there appears to be no true correspondance. Scholars have suggested that the blade was designed to appear to come from an ancient, alien culture, citing as credence the unknown black metal it is made of, the obvious artificial language of the runes, and the curious and unique embellishments and style, which would require modern technology to properly fabricate. Unfortunately, the magical nature of the blade has so far disallowed proper metallurgical testing.
The Black Sword is the prison of a powerful toxic spirit of man, with a Force and Spirit Energy of 12. Every time the blade strikes, the spirit uses its Essence Drain and Karma Drain powers on the victim, drinking their very spirit. It suffers from Essence Loss, and thus seeks to feed at every opportunity (at any time, the Black Sword's spirit may attempt a Contest of Wills with the wielder, as it twists in their grasp to slay the nearest sentient...or the wielder, if there are no others nearby).
The blade may be bonded as a Weapon Focus(12), and the spirit will aid the wielder's sorcery with its Aid Power, in the manner of an ally spirit.
The spirit within the sword may, if the wielder allows, possess the wielder for a short time. During this possession, the wielder is effected by Enhanced Attributes equal to the Force of the spirit, has an effective Edged Weapons (Sword [The Black Sword]) skill of 12, and is in a constant exultant, cruel beserker state. If the wielder at any time loses contact with the sword, the possession immediately ends. Otherwise, it continues until the wielder makes a successful Contest of Wills, or the Sword's Essence reaches 0.
Rumors hint that the Black Sword may be made to "bleed" (a function of the spirit's Wealth power), and that drinking the resultant blood transforms the wielder into a being similiar to a Vampire Pawn. The immortal unfortunates often quickly become enslaved to the sword, little better than mass-murdering monsters sustained by the sword's essence alone. They are derogatively (but fearfully) referred to as "Sword Wraiths."
The Book of Infinite Spells
Originally crafted by a very minor enchanter who happened upon the newly-freed ally spirit of a recently deceased mage-librarian, this heavy book is filled with more than a thousand spells, each one to a page and of widely different languages, styles, traditions, and schools. Now if only there was an index...
A relatively weak Force 1 free ally spirit (called Erasmus) is bound to this heavy tome, which also serves as a Force 3 free spirit focus (for Erasmus only). Whenever the owner of the book asks, Erasmus must use its Wealth power to create the formula for a spell within the book. Unfortunately, Erasmus is not the most powerful of spirits. Therefore, all of the spell formulae in the book are relatively minor. Furthermore, unless specified at the time of being asked to create them, Erasmus chooses the tradition andlanguage of the spell formula at random. A magician in possession of the Book of Infinite Spells may therefore, with 1d6 minutes of study(Erasmus refuses to help), discover any Force 1 spell. However, there is only a 1d6 chance that the spell is in the same tradition as the magician, and thus must be translated as normal.
Some magicians have erronously stated that the book actually casts spells if the formulae are written aloud. The truth of this is that Erasmus was once bedevilled by a much more powerful imp, who learned all of the spells in the Book and would cast them as the magicians read them...often to mischevious ends. The current owner of the book, who had ended up needlessly married because of a "Detect Pregnancy" spell csat by said imp, managed to seal the imp in a warded thimble, and then (at some cost) arrange for it to be taken on a shuttle headed into low-earth orbit. Whether the imp managed to survive the mana warp at those velocities is unknown.
The Hermetic Seal
A popular service recently come into vogue among certain circles, the Hermetic seal is a large warding sigil drawn in henna on the torso, arms and legs of the client. The cost of the service is reasonable, based on the strength and duration of protection required. Permanent versions are sometimes available upon request, although the cost is commensurate.
Essentially, this new side-line for entrepreneurial magicians affixes a temporary ward to a metahuman subject, using henna or other strong dyes, mixed with the necessary thaumaturgical reagents, to draw out the warding symbol (usually the geometric signs of the Seal of Hermes.) This seal is popular among mundanes and adepts who are afraid of unwilling possession, and saw a spread of popularity in Hong Kong during the long duration of the astral shallow there (with sporadic astral rifts fuelling the paranoia about random spirit possession). Astral projection is not possible without first breaking through the ward, but the ward is "polarised" to allow astral perception to work normally.
Costs are standard for creating a ward, the typical force is 3, with stronger wards being more rare and usually only for the longer-lasting protections. The so-called "permanent" ward is actually a quickened tattoo magic version of the Force:6 Spirit Barrier.
The Ace of Winchesters
A sleek, classic Winchester rifle, made of bright steel and dull gems that seem to burn when the light catches them right. There are three notches along the ivor-inlaid stock.
Rumors has it the Ace of Winchesters was made during the abortive second Texas Republic by one of the Rangers, built from metal from the Heavens and gems from the earth and the bones of saints to kill the dark spirit of the Aztlaners. Some even claim the Ranger sold his soul to make the rifle.
The Ace of Winchesters is actually a Force 8 ally spirit, whose summoner gave it the form of a classic Winchester rifle. Seamus O'Grady, the summoner, rents out the ally spirit as a weapon, quietly encouraging the legend he's built up around it. The Ally Spirit is dual-natured at all times while "on assignment."
O'Grady came up with the idea after finding an astral construct of a set of bullet-casting tools in an abandoned mine. He sends spirits searching far and wide across the astral, bringing him other astral constructs made of metal, smelting them into bullets for the Ace of Winchesters with the aid of a fire elemental and the tools.
Renting the Ace of Winchesters costs 10,000 CAS dollars per diem, paid in advance, and comes with three "astral bullets" and a box of ten silver bullets for more ordinary fare. Once the time-or the bullets-are used up, the Ace of Winchesters returns to O'Grady.
The Bone Machine
Dozens of skulls propped up on corroded chrome poles, entwined with wires down into the black, featureless plastic of the Electric Altar. Jacked into the bone machine lies a magician, listening to the quite susurrus of spirits teaching him...
A work-in-progress, as they say. Michael Perez was your average otaku dwarf, minding his own business, when SURGE hit and suddenly he Awakened. The experience was a bit much for the young technomancer...and he flipped. The result is the Bone Machine.
Over a dozen spectres and apparitions have been bound into the weirdling computer known as the Bone Machine; Michael thinks he's communing with the spirits of the dead magicians whose skulls he's wired up into the computer. The truth is that the "computer" does nothing except store Michael's hermetic library (Rating
, which he's copied from sources all over the Matrix. However, when Michael (or anyone else) jacks in to the computer, they can indeed communicate with the bound spirits. The respective attitude and knowledge of each spirit varies in helpfulness and usefullness, but each one is bound to answer and teach as best they can. One or two of them were even magicians in their past lives, or developed spell-casting abilities later, and have been instrumental in teaching Michael how to initiate and make the most of his abilities...although Michael's isntability is such he sometimes confuses these things.
-wise and recyclable too.
