Forsaken Life Engine
Cost: 50+m
Target: Area and conjured automaton
To cast this spell, a necromancer first constructs a scale model of a necromantic mechanism, from components all derived from a single human body. Doing so requires an (Intelligence + Craft [lesser of Fire or Water]) roll at difficulty 5. The caster holds his palm-size invention level with his eyes and pours his Essence into it. When he drops his hand, the forsaken life engine becomes a colossal reality, sitting hundreds of yards away where his perspective put it.
The forsaken life engine's cogs are carved from slices of thigh- and arm-bones and reinforced with iron. Its cables are woven from sinew and spinal cords. None of it would run without bile-tainted blood as lubrication. Twenty feet wide and almost as tall, heavy iron beams raise it even higher so a yeddim could walk beneath it. Its bottom features a gaping black hole ringed with teeth. Smoke trickles upward from the engine's pipes like blood trickling from a dead man's mouth. It is an automaton with the power to make shadowlands.
Putting a living creature beneath the engine brings it to life. Four bone-and-iron claws extrude from the engine's sides and shovel the victim into the hole, where mechanisms hidden within the apparatus devour the sacrifice and its Essence. The smokestacks belch gouts of black steam and crematory ash into the air, forming a spreading cloud. For each point of permanent Essence the engine consumes from its victims, the infernal machine darkens the earth and sky in a wider area, merging Creation with the Underworld. Many deaths are needed to complete the breakthrough and create a shadowland. The engine must consume a number of points of permanent Essence equal to (10 x the number of motes spent on the spell) in order to finish its work. If the engine should be destroyed before the job is done, the region snaps back into Creation.
For 50 motes, the forsaken life engine creates a shadowland 50 miles in radius. For every additional 10 motes spent in the initial casting, the engine increases in size by about 10% and the completed shadowland increases in radius by another 50 miles, to a maximum of (caster's Essence x 50) miles. As the shadowland expands, the engine grows fainter, more transparent. When the shadowland reaches its full size, the engine disappears as if it had never been. Until then, it can be destroyed and the spell aborted. Obsidian Countermagic ends Forsaken Life Engine instantly, while Adamant Countermagic inflicts 10 levels of damage to the engine with each casting. The engine does not dodge, but it has a Parry DV of 7 that suffers only the lowest of all DV penalties incurred by the claws' actions.
At normal speeds, the creation processes five weak or unresisting creatures each minute (one every two actions or so). When the "herd" begins to fight back, this slows the project by an amount determined by the Storyteller. This spell has no effect when cast in the Underworld.
===Forsaken Life Engine== Motivation: Feed on life and rend Creation
Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 4, Stamina 6; Charisma 0, Manipulation 0, Appearance 0; Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 4
Virtues: Automaton: Never fails Valor checks, never makes others.
Abilities: Athletics 2 (Lifting +3), Awareness 3, Martial Arts 6, Resistance 5 (Versus Knockdown and Knockback +3)
Join Battle: 7
Attacks:
Claw: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 16L, Parry DV 6, Rate 2
Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 12, Damage 16B, Parry DV —, Rate 1
Soak: 22L/30B (Hardness: 22L/30B)
Health Levels: -0x60/I
Essence: 1
Other Notes: In combat, each of the engine's claws acts independently. Each may flurry on its own, and its Rate only limits the number of times an individual claw may perform a given attack. Each claw could clinch once on the engine's action, for example. When a claw breaks a hold, it usually throws its victim as far as (Strength x 10) yards away, thanks to its great leverage. Alternatively, it can hurl a victim upward into the engine's mouth, but only one claw can do so per action. A (Dexterity + [[[Dodge]] or Athletics]) roll at difficulty 3 enables such a victim to avoid the mouth (and subsequently fall to the ground). Otherwise, a devoured creature suffers three levels of lethal damage from chilling cold and crushing gears before he can try again to escape on his next action.