The Great Darkness

«««Further Notes from my Ex-Hellbound-Necromancer Acquiantance... -- Silence»»»

Sometimes Hellbound Necromancer's get latched onto by the smarter "demonic" ghosts. Sometimes a Necromancer wants to make a deal with the devil before he sells his soul completely. Sometimes the Demons don't call themselves that, sometimes they do. I did enough work with the spirits of the dead to know that the Zenshöan had the right tack when they lumped their categories together. Ichor... nasty stuff. Twice as aura-corrosive as untainted ectoplasm, and the ghosts whose bodies are made with it... they've long forgotten any humanity they may or may not once have had. Dealing with Ichorous spirits isn't quite like dealing with normal ghosts, which is why most necromancers just call 'em demons, even though the stuff that makes 'em up is just a toxified derivative of what makes "normal" ghosts tick. For one thing, demon's can't guide you to the Planes of the Dead, they guide you to Hell. Hell... [ha] Probably where the bulk of MY spirit will end up, considering the amount of ichor in my aura. It's... not a nice place. Not like ANY toxic metaplane's likely to be NICE, but... Hellbound Necromancers traffic there for orders and support, since many their Dark Masters tend to prefer not to manifest here any longer. Non-toxified Necromancers go to get info on and control over demonic spirits, to locate toxified spirits of the Dead, and to bargain for dirty-work even the Powers in the Planes of the Dead won't touch. And bargain they will, to keep you coming back for more... because if you make the SLIGHTEST mistake, you'll STAY in hell and feed them. Either literally, or the toxicity of the Ichorous realm will flood you and bind you, and you'll take hell, and your new Dark Master, wherever you go, until he drags you back to stay.

Another common occupation for Necromancers is eating ghosts. This isn't really a NEW thing, folks in Haiti have been doing it for years. Zombie meat stew was considered THE thing to ward off the attention of hostile magic. Of course, as a rule, it was zombie spirits inhabiting goats or chickens that was used, after the Spirit was Cast Out by a Houngan, but you never know. Anyway, come the Awakening, DEAD Zombie's are a practical thing again, and the issue's gotten stickier for the average Haitian. Not so the necromancer: He knows the scoop. Consuming a ghost's plasm infuses your aura with the ghost's, and if the plasm's properly prepared, even non-necromancers get a rush off it, generally accompanied by a flare of the ghost's memories as it breaks down. A NECROMANCER, though... plasm is POWER, Chummers... BELIEVE it. A Death-Mage skilled in dealing with what we call Soulfires can use that energy to boost his spells, his abilities, use it to jazz up almost anything he does, drawing out the plasm as pure necromantic force. As a rule, Necromancer's have one name for consumable plasm, and most ANY plasm can be MADE consumable. They call it Juice, and getting it, keeping it, and using it is a major interest: not only can they use it themselves to stave off age, etc., it's major currency among Free Ghosts as well, since most of the bigger ghosts keep from fading by eating little ghosts. I was taught that that was how the first necromancer's discovered how to get and use Juice... watching hunting ghosts.

There's really only one way to get Juice, and that's necromancy (duh :-). Specifically the skill in manipulating Soulfires, which is a fancier, older term FOR Juice. A necromancer can just use this skill to suck the Juice from a ghost directly, or he can use a necromantic variation on Enchanting we called Investiture to distill the raw Juice into a more stable form that even non-necromancers can use. The form of the distilled Juice varies based on what form of plasm's used, and right now, God help us all, the names for the three forms are based on the Street Drug version of the materially anchored Juice.

«««Street Drugs??? -- Skim»»»

«««Yeah. That's right. Street drugs. -- Silence»»»

«««Why do I have a BAAAAAD feeling about this? -- Little Timmy»»»

«««Just makes sense, if you think about it... you take older, weaker ghosts, the ones too puny to be much help with Necromancy, either because they're mindless, or too tattered to stand the stresses, you cook 'em down, and peddle 'em on the street: most ghosts like that you can get for 5 minutes effort, no expense. Folks buy 'em because they ARE a MAJOR rush, as long as you don't know what the rush is coming from. Stuff makes you CRAVE more, as it erodes your aura something fierce, particularly if you don't know the protections... an eroded aura casts phantasm's like NObody's business, so sooner or later, your ghost-junkie goes too far, and the ghosts he's eaten eat their way back out, going loose again as the putz dies screaming and casting his OWN spirit out as a cloud of fractured ghosts... and the necromancer nets more little fish to start over, eating the best, and using the rest as bait, and making cash as he goes. -- GP »»»

Anyway, for disturbin' your sleep, here's the bottom line: Distilled basic ectoplasm is called Wisp, and generally matrixed in nitrous oxide, but I know some 'mancers that bind it into marijuana or tobacco... anything works, as long as it's inhaled.

«««Ohhhhhh... DREK! -- How do you, you know, kick? -- Skim»»»

«««Dunno, Ski-mon. I'll look around, but my advice is to spend a LOT of time in the sunlight, if y'can find any in Seattle, of course... -- Silence»»»

«««Law of the 'plex, Skim: ALWAYS know what you're taking before you take it. For obvious reasons, eh? -- GP»»»

«««Thanks EVER so much, slot. I die and come back as a ghost, man, you are ON my drek-list. -- Skim»»»

«««As someone who was on it, I can tell you a little. The stuff is f***in' fantastic. A huge rush, and then the feeling like you could walk on air, no worries. It's like a workout without the sweat. But then you crash down, and WHAM! You fall hard and fast. You just want more and more. I got off cold turkey, and it hurt like hell. I've seen a true addict though, and she ain't got much farther to go. Drek's bad, man. -- Spaz»»»

For the Hellbound Necromancer, distilled and matrixed Ichor doesn't just serve the usual ghost-farming function of Wisp. Spook (as it's called on the street) also serves to toxify non-Hellbound Necromancer's, thereby opening them for Hellbound Domination for the Spook-distillery's Dark Master. Stuff is MAJOR hell on your aura. Chews BIG holes in it. Fortunately, it's not a simple inhalant like Wisp, you have to eat it or inject it, and the taste is bitter/sour, EXTREMELY so, so it's hard to SLIP it into something unnoticed. Not impossible, just hard. You were warned...

«««So, basically, don't drink the lemonade? Hyuk-hyuk-hyuk -- Haggismon»»»

«««Unfortunately, lemonade, and mixed drinks with really strong lemon in 'em, ARE one of the best ways to cover Spook spiking. Since Ichor's got a dual-nature, though, you should be okay as long as your drink's not got an astral presence... which should make you hesitate even if you DON'T know drek about spook, really. -- Silence»»»

«««Nifty, what if you're 'astrally challenged', wise-hoop? -- Rick The»»»

«««Always take your Mage bud's t'parties, I guess... -- Your DorisAjhar»»»

«««Hardy-Har-Har -- Rick The»»»

«««I'd use the tried and true advice of not letting the dead looking chick across the bar from you buy you a drink. Of course, you know better than that anyway, right? -- Pink»»»

«««Hey, some people go for the "fresh out of the grave" look. If you do, I'm the pale chick in black leather who always sits at the end of the bar at the Rusty Keg. Come in and say hi! Mwa ha ha ha... -- Jett.»»»

And yes, while it's not as common, Zombie meat is still processed and used for its old purposes. Main reason it's not as common is that it takes SO much more effort to materialize Protoplasm than Ecto or Ichor. But for Necromancer's that make regular use of Zombie's or Revenants, when they finally fall apart, the protoplasm can be rendered and distilled just like any other plasm, and has the added advantage that it IS its own matrix. The desiccated and crumbled distillate is generally distributed as-is, often through Talismongers unaware of its nature or effects.

Prev | Next | Out | Introduction | Background | Mechanics | Sourcebook