Soul Capturing Device

[Darkon]

Hey all, in one of my games one of the characters needs to find something he can use to trap the souls of his defeated enemies in before forging them into Soulsteel artifacts. Do you all know of any such devices/artifacts, and if so where might I find them? Additionally, if there are any such custom/fan made artifacts posted on the Internet somewhere, could you direct me to them? Thanks everyone.

 

[cyl]

Hi, I remember a necromantic spell giving the possibility to collect ghosts as souls to be forged, so an artifact keeping in store a soul could be an idea... Soul Mirror also collects the souls of defeated ennemies, but it does not give them back.

 

[Plague of Hats]

Well, there's the Ebon Dragnet and Soul Prison manse powers from Oadenol's. If you're so inclined, I highly recommend my Random Exalted Stuff PDF, linked in my signature, which includes a hefty overhaul of how manse powers work, including the two aforementioned.


I can't think of anything else published relating to your query, except the shoulder-shrugging plot device rock in the West chapter of Return.


But, how about this thing I just made up:


Seven-Score Ghost Barbs (Artifact •••)


"Almeter trudged through the snowy streets with leaden footsteps. There was a dumb look in his eyes, fixed forward, the only part of his face you could see over the scarf across his mouth. He might be bald, or richly coiffed. The same inscrutability covered him neck-down, plain furs that might mean he was a rich man seeking privacy or a poor man trying to look not quite so poor.


His lumbering gait proved fateful, the stars glinting mischievously as he stumbled somehow into the only other man on the wide street. Whatever either of them did in a cold North night in the open, none could know by looking, but the accident certainly gave clear purpose to the stranger Almeter almost tripped.


'Filthy drunk,' the man growled. He was small but stoutly built, and swung a hand in retribution. Almeter raised a weak arm to fend it off, and caught his own hand across his lip for his troubles. The nail of his middle finger cut his mouth, and he tasted blood. He did not whimper piteously, but gave a small grunt.


'Oh ho,' the now enraged stranger barked. 'You'd raise a hand to me? I mop the piss off drinkhouse floors with your betters. Come, I'll show you the college and faculty of Dirik!"


Dirik snaked his arm around Almeter's and clamped a hand across the back of the poor oaf's head, dragging him into a nearby alley for some privacy.


'You think this cold stops the heat in my veins, pansy,' Dirik matched his cruel tone with action, twisting Almeter's arm painfully. 'I'll leave you a few teeth to chatter as you crawl your way to whatever hole you call 'home', but…dear gods!'


Almeter whimpered piteously, finally, and had set the drunkard going, but only long enough to build a head of steam. The Abyssal's head turned, like an owl's, and the scarf fell away from his face revealing the terrapin taper of his toothless mouth. His body was like water as it slipped out of Dirik's grasp, and a shaft of moonlight caught his face at just the right angle to reveal his pitch-black eyes.


'Fa…,' was the last noise like a word Dirik ever uttered in his life, as Almeter the Frozen Crow snaked around behind him, like some shadow playing in a fire. His chill, bare, gnarled hands brought up a silver string to wrap around Dirik's neck, tiny knots like nettles biting into the flesh of both of them. Almeter did not bleed.


It took Dirik two minutes to stop struggling, and another one to stop convulsing in a vain attempt to breathe. Almeter felt the sharp tang in his gums like the lingering taste of liquor, smooth and dark and light and warm and chill all at the same time, as Dirik's soul caught on the wire's barb and hung there, visible for a brief few seconds. The poor boy's phantasmal face looked more confused than pained as its tattered aspect retreated into the garrote wire like a plume of oil being sucked down a bath drain. Almeter let the barbed silver wire spool back into the black box under his coat.


Two more to go!"


Seven-Score Ghost Barbs are small soulsteel boxes with a spring and spool inside wrapped with barbed silver wire. The wire possesses 70 barbs exactly, each one capable of drawing out and containing the ghost of someone slain while the wire is wrapped around their neck. The wire need not be used in the actual act of killing the target, but it must be wrapped around their neck to draw out the higher soul with the last breath. Wrapping the wire around a victim's throat and leaving it there while you kill them with something else is a (Dexterity + Martial Arts) attack using the weapon traits listed below, and is a Called Shot (Exalted, p. 158) usually imposing a -2 external penalty. Someone with the wire left wrapped around their neck may take a Miscellaneous action (DV -2) to untangle themselves, which amounts to them performing a Ready Weapon action with the Seven-Score Ghost Barbs.


This artifact does not claim po souls, only hun souls or their equivalent. It prevents the victim from rising as a ghost normally, but it does force them to become a ghost and traps them. The victim's po may be left sufficiently angry that it rises as a hungry ghost from their corpse. A spool of Seven-Score Ghost Barb wire may contain only 70 hun souls; the other 70 referenced in its name the presumed hungry ghosts left behind by its wicked use. Someone attuned to the artifact may spool out a length of wire and call forth one of the ghosts it contains by committing one mote while touching it. The ghost hangs from one of its barbs like a sheet in the wind as long as the wielder commits the mote. Upon first being called up this way, the ghost may attempt a (Willpower + Essence) roll against difficulty 5 which, if successful, inflicts two levels of aggravated damage as the spirit tears free of the barb and liberates itself from the artifact. If the barb from which a ghost hangs is spooled back into the device, the ghost is spooled back as well. When spooling the wire back in, the wielder of the artifact may choose to release a ghost instead of keeping it trapped. Either way, the user releases the committed mote.


A ghost called forth from the artifact that fails to escape is trapped hanging from the wire, possibly with its fellow prisoners like sheets on a clothesline strung across the wall of some macabre laboratory. Hanging ghosts may be manipulated in whatever fashion is available to other characters who find them in that state, and they may even be stretched and folded like a piece of cloth, reaching lengths of up to three yards. This is a great convenience for soulforgers, as the ghost can do nothing to escape the beginning of the process and, by the time the ghost must be released from its barb, the process of turning them into soulsteel is nearly complete and they have no chance to escape their bitter end.


Four motes are required to attune a spool of Seven-Score Ghost Barbs. If the artifact is de-attuned while it contains ghosts, those ghosts tear free as if they had succeeded on a (Willpower + Essence) roll to break free when spooled out.


Seven-Score Ghost Barbs (whip): Speed 5, Accuracy +0, Damage +1L, Defense -1, Rate 2, Tags: MR


Seven-Score Ghost Barbs (garrote): Speed 6, Accuracy +0, Damage +2L, Defense –, Rate 1, Tags: CMP

 

[Aasharu]

That... is an absolutely kick-ass weapon. I'm sure every Daybreak player will love you for it.

 

[Jimborg]

WE'RE NOT WORTHY!


Seriously, good stuff.

 

[Kyeudo]

Plague of Hats scares me sometimes.

 

[MorkaisChosen]

Deeply wonderful.

 

[uteck]

While not as good as Wordmans item, I would recommend looking at the Yasal crystal which does what you want and is already in the game.


Just make a weapon with one of them embedded into it and chop away.


Compass of Celestial Directions: The Wyld (p. 114)


Compass of Celestial Directions: The South (look in the section about Gem)

 

[Mr. S]

I'm very lazy and didn't read most of this thread, but has anyone mentioned the hungry stone of the silver prince? Perhaps you could use that as a template.

 

[Darkon]

Freakin Awesome Artifact

PoH' date=' that was great. That may be just [i']exactly[/i] what the PC is looking for. Thanks a lot. If anyone else has anything they wish to suggest, let's see it. Thanks everyone for posting so far