Dark Mechanicum - Occult Artefacts: Animus Skull - Servo-skulls are a common sight across the Imperium, unnoticed and unremarked, except when a citizen offers a brief respectful moment to the honoured servant whose mortal remains host the installed mechanisms. Within the Askellon Sector, though, there are tales of a servo-skull that became possessed during a turbulent Warp translation, one that now hosts a daemonic entity. Though the Askellian Mechanicum insists there is no possibility of its existence, hereteks and techno-cults across the sector have never stopped striving to locate and harness its baleful spirit. That the entity within might only be toying with its supposed masters is rarely suspected.Bone Flute - At first glance, this artefact appears to be little more than a simple flute, such as is found on feudal worlds across the Sector. Closer inspection shows that it has been carved from a length of bone, specifically a human femur. Roughly 55 centimetres in length, it has been carefully shaped and polished. Both ends of the flute are decorated with thin bands of silver, into which are inscribed various sigils and symbols. The origins of the Bone Flute are unclear, although the name Mateus is often associated with its history. If the stories are true, Mateus, a popular musician from the hives of Fenksworld, created the flute in an effort to, as he put it, "play the music of the cosmos." It’s unknown if he succeeded in his quest, as Mateus committed suicide soon after crafting the flute -- although some say his death wasn't by his own hand, and investigators found his dismembered body scattered about his squalid quarters. This has resulted in the Bone Flute developing a reputation as an ‘unlucky’ instrument. Whilst it is possible to produce haunting and unworldly melodies with it, sooner or later, the musician using it will come to a terrible end.Forge of Nightmares - The Forge of Nightmares is a huge bio-mechanical construct comprised of an oily black lattice of supports, struts, and braces. This outer shell only barely restrains the bulging, reddish, fleshy masses that expand and contract at a regular rate, akin to a monstrous pulsing heart. The Forge consists of four greater and four lesser furnaces radiating equidistantly out from a central vent; each furnace ends in an opening resembling a distended mouth. The furnaces are two to three metres in height, whilst the central stack is well over 10 metres tall. Even when supposedly quiescent, the furnaces draw in air, with various foul vapours being expelled from the towering vent. Those who have viewed a Forge in this state find it uncomfortably similar to the act of respiration. Supposedly, these monstrosities are shaped in order to hold a great and terrible daemon of unimaginable power, although some swear a Forge is actually the daemon itself assuming physical form in our world. In either case, even the merest hint of a Forge of Nightmare’s existence will bring the full force of the Ordo Malleus to bear, as an unchecked Forge brought to full operation can render an entire world over to the Forces of Chaos. Once lost to the Imperium in such a manner, the only recourse to save the doomed world is Exterminatus. Certain documents and numerous Inquisitors link Forges with the appearance of the Tyrant Star of the Calixis Sector. The prevailing opinion is that a Forge is meant to draw a daemonic entity known as Komus to it, weakening the fabric of realspace so the Immaterium can leak through. Whilst others dispute this theory, no one can deny that an operating Forge of Nightmares lives up to its name, bringing forth madness and violence over a wide area and leaving only ruin and despair in its wake. Activating the Forge of Nightmares requires at least eight malefic cultists—one to stand at the opening to each furnace—and as many sacrifices as deemed necessary. The forge is fueled by human souls and will greedily consume any and all that are forced screaming into each of its furnaces. Once the first sacrifices have been fed to the Forge, it will start to shudder, the furnaces appearing to swallow each victim as blood and other unnamable fluids begin to seep from various small orifices scattered over the forge’s surface. As the forge consumes souls, a Chaos Sorcerer can attempt the ritual that activates it fully. Once activated, the air above the Forges vent will start to shimmer and ripple as the fearsome construct starts to moan. Soon, strange scintillating colours will pour forth from the Forge’s vents, accompanied by shrieks and howls as the barriers between this world and the Warp begin to break down. As these barriers fray, a full-scale psychic Warp Storm will begin to rage about the Forge of Nightmares: the sky will roil with dark clouds, showers of flesh and blood will fall from above, lightning will strike not in bolts but in sheets, foul spirits will walk freely, technological devices will suffer from a myriad of problems before failing outright, and weak men will go hopelessly mad.Glory of the Emperor in the Light of Dawn - This blasphemous abstract painting, reputed to show the God-Emperor greeting the rising sun over Holy Terra, is both surreal and unsettling. Mostly painted in various shades of yellow, gold, blue, and white, the painting has the unsettling ability to cause feelings of vertigo and unease, as if someone was looking back at the viewer, when viewed for any length of time. Close examination of the frame shows it to be composed of thousands of human shapes wrought out of solid silver. The human figures, perfect in every detail, are entwined about one another in positions of either ecstasy or anguish. The painting has a number of additional disturbing traits which only become apparent over time: the painting and its frame always feel warm to the touch; the figures making up the frame slowly move and twist, endlessly orbiting the painting itself; the colours making up the painting gradually shift, creeping over so slowly across the canvas. Although unnerving, the painting is effectively quiescent unless properly treated with a new layer of varnish. A thin line of black crust where the canvas meets the frame reveals the true nature of this varnish -- human blood. It’s unknown who exactly created the painting, as records indicate The Glory of the Emperor to at least a thousand years old. Certain scholars among the Ordo Malleus believe The Glory of the Emperor was painted aboard a a spaceship during a particularly violent warp storm. Others have declared the painting to be erroneously named, as not even the Immaterium is capable of corrupting the visage of the God-Emperor Himself.Lens of Seeing - This artefact appears as nothing more than a simple monocle, similar to those worn by the aristocracy across the Imperium. Close inspection will show the lens itself is made from the finest crystal, with none of the usual marks left by mechanical polishers. The frame is gold wire, engraved with tiny symbols and sigils, and comes with a length of fine chain so the lens can easily be attached to one’s clothing. A curious and almost benign artefact—unlike many creations of the malefic arts—the Lens of Seeing was in fact shaped by the Radical Inquisitor Immel Amud. He sought to use it for the Imperium’s benefit, seeking a way to decipher the oft-encoded tomes found in the possession of cultists and sorcerers. For a time, the Lens proved to be a valued tool in his crusade against the forces of Chaos, allowing Amud to clearly read even the most minor of notes, thus laying the cultists’ plans out in the open to be countered. But eventually, the fickle nature of the warp made itself known, and Amud discovered far too late the price the Lens asks for its services. Driven to near madness by his obsession with secrets the Lens revealed, Amud met his end when a supposedly minor gathering of cultists proved to have ten times that number. Slain in the ensuing battle, Amud’s body was eventually recovered, but the Lens was not to be found.Libellus Appello (The Book of Names) - This small booklet, scarcely larger than an Imperial Infantryman’s Uplifting Primer, has a cover made from wooden plates covered in carefully prepared human skin. It opens via a single iron hinge, which has been fashioned to resemble the eight-pointed star of Chaos. A brass hasp locks the booklet closed. If opened, the pages revealed are shown to be made of fine vellum. Though of nominally human origin, the exact nature of these well-dressed sheets is far too monstrous for most Acolytes to dare contemplate. Each leaf of the Libellus Appello is covered in mathematical formulae, alchemical symbols, star charts, and dense blocks of text written in an obscure tongue. Written by the disgraced and heretical Adept Hetoun Parang Levon, the Libellus Appello’s passages must be translated before a person can properly use the book. One this has been done, the Libellus Appello is revealed to be a guide to the true names of daemons, as well as how to divine them through thorough examination of certain astronomical phenomena. A number of daemonic names are included in the book—some added by hands other than Levon’s—along with scattered comments in the margins detailing the requirements of summoning any of the daemons mentioned in the main text (but not the summoning rituals themselves). Levon was executed for heresy soon after the completion of his blasphemous masterpiece, and the book vanished for a time, only to reappear in the hands of various malefic cultists. Supposedly, at least one sorcerer used it to predict the next appearance of Komus, the Tyrant Star. Finally captured by Amalathian Inquisitors, the Libellus Appello currently resides deep in the vaults of the Tricorn Palace, located in Hive Sibellus on Scintilla.Madani's Music Box - This apocryphal item originates, according to most legends, from the private workshops of amateur metalsmith Baron Michellius Madani of Vouxis Prime. Roughly the size of a fat dataslate, its baroque exterior hides an impossible number of gears and levers that whirr frantically when the brass crank is operated. Tales claim that it only plays a single piece of music—“Nuella’s Lament to the Fallen of Juno”—although no records remain of who Nuella was, or who the “Fallen of Juno” were. The sad tales relate that those hearing the song were enraptured, ignoring everything else and swaying oddly to the ringing tune. Some scholars believe reports of mass disturbances linked to the item; these describe a cacophony of discordant noise emerging from a main harmony that grows louder to eventually drown out the original tune. When the tune ceased, listeners fell to the ground as their skin erupted with lesions and unusual scars. Driven mad without it, these wretched sufferers would thrash uncontrollably, pleading to hear the music once again. Dark tales speak of entire hab-blocks or cities going into riotous frenzies, tearing apart everything and everyone around them in their frantic desire to recapture the song. Mere recordings, it is said, would not suffice, and only broadcast a dry recitation that enraptures no one—a worrisome note that many Inquisitors believe can only indicate the device has psychic effects or Warp based components.Mech Spider - This object consists of a Human head, fashioned from brass, mounted on a small eight-legged chassis. The head is fashioned to be an almost exact replica of a human’s, except it is missing the eyes, ears, lips, and tongue. Inside the head is a mechanism that operates the legs, eyes, and mouth—if there was anything mounted there for it to control. Created as a mockery of a Tech-Priest's Servitor, Mech Spiders are often used by sorcerers and witches to spy upon the unsuspecting or to communicate with remote cells of cultists and the like. They require no small skill to create, and are usually only found on hive and forge worlds, as other planets normally lack the resources needed to make one.