Saminga first created these artifacts, oddly enough. While he is fond of Undead, he wasn't fond of the fact that they were incapable of personal growth, so to speak: he developed the Force Brooch to circumvent that minor little detail. It works, and most willful undead will gladly accept one, but they aren’t particularly safe to wear. In fact, in some ways they're even worse than Vaputech.

A Force Brooch adds to either the Corporeal, Ethereal or Celestial Forces of it's wearer (chosen at creation). This will affect skill rolls, hits, Song use, Disturbance, and Essence capacity. This Force will not, however, give extra points in character generation. The relic comes in a wide variety of forms (old Force Brooches resembled clay tablets, which might have sparked the old legend that mummies keep their soul hanging around their necks), but must be visible to work. Only mortals may use a Force Brooch.

However, this increase in personal power comes with a price. First off, only one Brooch may be worn at a time: furthermore, it may only boost one type of Force. The maximum increase is 3, and may not increase a particular number of Forces past 5 anyway. Somewhat more important is the fact that damage done to a wearer is taken off of his or her personal hits first, rather than the relic. A mortal will not die until he takes damage equal to his inherent body hits and those added by the Force Brooch. Damage done this way will not affect the relic, but a Force-Brooch can be specifically targeted. Damage done to it will not affect the user, but see below for the consequences of a destroyed Force Brooch.

Worse, the ritual that attunes the relic to the user means that you just can't take it off. Doing so will cause 1d6 appropriate damage to living humans, and 3d6 to undead. Safely removing it takes a half-hour ritual and a Precision Roll at +4. If the relic is destroyed (and no one's ever been able to make a Force Brooch indestructible), double the above damage.

Creating a Force Brooch requires a skill of at least Enchantment/6, and at least 10 spare Forces of the appropriate type for each level of enhancement. Needless to say, Saminga makes most of these…

Sample Force Brooch

Note that the maximum increase in number of Forces and the order in which damage is taken are essentially considered special effects.

Relic/1 (Force) 10pt

Convenience: can be hidden 3pt

Vulnerabililty: Celestial artifact destroyed when artifact destroyed -4pt

User Restriction: only useable by mortals 2pt

Visibility: Instantly recognizable -3pt

Harms User: (Special: 1d6/3d6 if removed without a ritual; double

damage if destroyed) -4pt

Fragility (usually very tough) 2pt

Total: 6pt