Shabti

{{Infobox_Merit
|Source=Strange Alchemies
|Pages=58 59
|Status=Allowed
|Fixed=Yes
|Type=Retainer
|Restriction=Promethean
|Level1=3
|Prerequisite=Revivification Bestowment
}}
The Promethean — most likely an Osiran
— owns a “Shabti,” a small, fairly intelligent creature
that follows his commands and guards him when he rests.
It takes the form of a little unformed man, maybe a foot
tall, made of clay or of some kind of ceramic. It might
be the color of blue faience, or brightly painted, like an
Egyptian tomb ornament.
The Shabti has been animated with the same Azoth
that created the Promethean, channeled through his
conceptual journey to the land of the dead. The Shabti
has an empathic link with its master. No matter how far
away the Shabti is from its master, it knows what the
Promethean is feeling. The Shabti can say a few words,
and can repeat perfectly things it has heard said, even if
it doesn’t understand what it has heard. It has grasping
hands, and can, if its master wishes, bear small objects
or use weapons. A less scrupulous Promethean could use
his Shabti as an assassin, able to enter an enemy’s home
through small cracks, and strangling him in his sleep.
The Promethean can spend one Pyros to be able to
see through the Shabti’s eyes for a scene. While sharing
the creature’s perceptions, the character can’t perform
any other action, but is aware of what’s going on around
him and can choose to abandon looking through the
Shabti’s eyes.
A Shabti, being made of inanimate material, doesn’t heal
naturally, but its master can heal any wounds the Shabti has taken using Pyros. One Pyros heals one point of aggravated
damage, or two points of lethal or bashing damage.
If the Shabti dies, the Promethean loses the Merit,
although he can use the Revivification Bestowment
to resurrect the Shabti in the same way that he could
resurrect another Promethean.
Making a new Shabti involves a great deal of effort, as
the Promethean spends days crafting a new Shabti figure
out of faience, metal or clay, contemplating its shape and
design, and infusing it with tiny amounts of Azoth (in
game terms, he’s just spending the 12 experience points
necessary to buy the Merit over again).

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