By Robert Kirkpatrick, for the Necromancers sub-tradition.
Necromicon Talismans vary widely. They encompass all the Spheres and almost any conjuncktional magick possible. The pages themselves also vary in what is written on them: some are single pictures, while others are elaborate stories, while still more are precise, "scientific" descriptions of rituals or biological essays on strange, devilish beings.
Sonnet of the Seeker (Level 1): This page of the Book of the Dead actually helps to find other pages of the Book of the Dead. It has a Matter 1 and Prime 1 that allows the Mage to locate other pages of the Necromicon by its material and by its Quintessence. The Necromancer, however, has to be in the same general area and the same dimension/plane/whatever as the page that is being looked for. The Sonnet of the Seeker is a poem that reads: "Blessed is the all-consuming Eye, the Vision of the Darkest Lords, like Horus above the sky, force my eyes in the direction of your Hoard."
The Warrior's Epoch (Level 3): This page describes, in bloody detail, the many victories of Magog- Gog, a mighty warrior of ancient Assyrian who was known for being able to tear his opponents limb from limb with his bare hands. This Talisman gives its owner a fraction of Magog-Gog's fighting ability. The effects are as follows: Life to give heightened Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina; Time to get extra attacks; and Entropy that allows the Necromancer to find weak points in their opponents, in order to rip them apart. The Talisman also has a Mind effect that puts delusions into the Necromancer's head, turning them into a berserker in battle. This only shows up when enough Paradox to warrant a flaw of 3 is accumulated. This flaw is not permament, unless a lot of Paradox is gained while using this Talisman. The use of this page provides a coincidental effect: the Necromancer appears to go crazy with anger and starts destroying things in a rage -- of course, with the Paradox Flaw, this may actually be the case.
Soul Warp (Level 5): This page consists of diagrams of a gigantic spiral, or hurricane, that envelops the entire world. Whole bodies are shown being torn apart by the force of the shockwaves -- bone and flesh like tattered rags and debris in the wind. What the page allows the Necromancer to do is create a vortex out of someone's body. This page is nothing more than pure attempt to straight-out destroy someone. It is completely, one-hundred percent vulgar. It has Entropy 2 effect to increase damage by overstressing the joints in the body, it has a Life 4 effect that allows the body to be affected anyway, it has a Forces 5 effect that provides the telekinetic force to tear the flesh asunder, it has a Prime 3 effect that causes the victim to be stunned while this is going on, and it has Mind 2 effect of inserting the thought of "Surrender" into the victim's mind so that he won't try to resist. All this happens at once. If the victim doesn't succeed in resisting the Mind 2 effect with a willpower roll, he must spend as much willpower as the number of magickal successes made in order to soak any physical damage. The number of successes rolled is the amount of damage done times 5, due to the Forces effect. Also, the number of successes is additional damage due to the Entropy effect. Thus, final damage = (5 x No. of Magical Successes) + No. of Magical Successes. The Prime effect is that the victim (if a Mage) can't pump Quintessence into any countermagick attempt.
If a character possesses this Talisman, he better be cautious and show restraint in its use. Not only does Paradox punish severely for its use, but the Nephandi have been known to seek out it's user. It's rumored that the Talisman might have a Correspondence, Spirit, and Mind effects that may call out to the Nephandi each time it's used. Like a beacon. If this page is used sparingly, the Nephandi will only be able to read -- like radar -- a few blips every once in a while. If used too much, it will give out a constant cry out to god-knows-where and god-knows-what.
The Wheel of the Earth (Artifact; Level 7): Naturally, no beginning character can have this. This part of the Necromicon is actually about 5 pages of diagrams and commentary on the various forces that have held together static reality. It begins with the idea of Pangaia (the one continent earth), that was split apart by the WILL of various inhabitants who didn't want to live with one another, and who didn't want war either. It also describes the reality of the Mythic Age, and the current reality. None of these commentaries are all that in-depth, but they give an idea of the Magick of the past. What the Arifact does actually, is provide an anchor, or nexus, for all these realities to exist at once in one belief system. It hints at an idea of Mages being a pivot of all realities, an axle that holds all the spokes in the wheel of the universe.
This being the case, the Artifact itself is a being grounded in its purpose, and is in itself the ultimate in static reality. It holds all the visions of static reality in its pages.
The magickal effects of this Artifact are vague, because it only has been discover twice -- both times to apocalyptic ends. The Artifact obviously possesses Correspondence and a Forces of at least 6. The Artifact is so ingrained with the issue of static reality that it becomes grounded to one spot after awhile. If moved from that spot, a massive natural disaster occurs (Forces 6). The last two times have been at Pompeii, causing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and at the city of Atlantis. It is also rumored that the Great Flood was as a result of the Artifact being moved.
The Artifact also causes Mages not to be able to use Quintessence to power any magickal effects while around it. Also, Paradox is doubled when it occurs. Only the Mage who possesses this Artifact will be unaffected by these effects. In fact, the Mage can decide what things causes Paradox in his general vicinity, because -- in essence -- he possesses the nexus of all static reality. Thus, if he makes it illegal for things to fall downwards, it would create Paradox for it to do so. However, the Mage doesn't create a new reality. In the example, things will still fall down, but it will create Paradox each time things do. There will be no way to avoid it.
This Artifact is currently said not to be in anyone's possession. But that remains to be seen, as evident from the recent earthquake in both India and Japan. Necromancers have been scrounging those areas in mass to find out if this portion of the Necromicon was behind it.
There is another Artifact similiar to this one that supposedly has high Entropy effects. This Artifact has apparently caused the slow fall and disintegration of many great empires. It is said that it is currently in the United States somewhere, slowly eroding away at its supposed might.