Ring of Anubis
A ring of black obsidian set in the shape of an open eye

The wearer of the ring carries the Mark of Anubis and has his power over things dead

Grants [+2]
[-1] Ghost-Speaker
[-1] Marked by Power
[-1] Refinement (Ectomancy Control +1, Ectomancy Power +1)
(total cost -1)

(When I was running it the ring was invisible to mortals and could not be removed by the character - perhaps the Refinement shoudl be sponsored magic instead)

Theoretically, if the heroes have been in conflict with said villain for several exchanges, the villain would be able to buy out of a serious compel with one of the small pool of Fate Points built up from the players' previous compels and aspect tags.

I agree - any named villan important enough to the plot should definatly have some fate when they get to the point they're actually interacting with the PCs (by GM fiat if not actually as a result of compells).
Just because they have negative refresh shouldn't necessarily mean they have no fate.

...and conversly anyone not important enough to the plot to have fate should be able to be taken out with a compel (by the GM or otherwise) of an aspect such as "Asleep" when a PC gets to a point of being able to do something like a coup-de-gras.
It need not require a fate from the player - as a GM I would probably just give the result to them, but the underlying mechanic would be a compell of the aspect.

Storywise as a GM I would be wary about doing the reverse to the PCs - When the ninja squat comes for them, I would feel obliged to go after the person with fate first, so they could at least buy off the compell, or more likely give them an alertness against the Ninja's stealth with an invoke against their "asleep" aspect as they maneuver for "in position to give a coup-de-gras" - handily giving them a fate to buy off the compell of that aspect! - They are important to the ploy after all, and the drama is from them escaping the near death experience not succumbing to it

You could see the throat slit death as a compell of the "sleeping target" aspect, which the target could "buy out" if they had fate points to spare.

This handily makes it work easily on mooks, but the story important NPCs are likely to wake up/fight off the effects at just the right time to prevent the kill, as they will have the fate points available.

It also would reward the players by draining the NPC of fate

Not totally sure how all these aspects invoke/compell, but they were all good quotes
Egg Shen
High Concept: Wizard Tour-guide
Trouble: "I am the past come back to haunt you Lo Pan"
Background: "See? That was nothing"
Rising conflict: "that's how it always begins. Very small"
Story aspects:
"The Evil Dream Will Die"
"see things no one else can see, do things no one else can do"
The Six Demon Bag
"China is in the heart"

Superb: +5
Lore
Great: +4
Resources, Conviction
Good: +3
Discipline, Presence
Fair:+2
Scholarship, Investigation
Average: +1
Fists, Deceit

Not sure about Powers - Probably full wizard load-out, he seems to have a bucket load of enchantments/foci and definitely does potions!

lol - yes - I was trying to come up with a skill he was actually good enough in to replace it with - I suppose conviction covers the self belief involved with quoting yourself all the time!

Does anyone ever get people to specify the 8 components? As a GM i'd be tempted to make any potion maker list them

Base:
Smell:
Taste:
Sight:
Hearing:
Touch:
Mind:
Spirit:

One for an actor NPC I've just come up with:
Performance
Stage fighting   -you may use performance+1 for melee  (Weapons/Fists) attacks, however you do 1 less stress with any damage inflicted

Feel free to steal them for the master list ;-)

"Use their strength against them" was always intended to cost the next action (as it is obviously based on a fists version of Riposte)
I also intended defensive Focus to be a prerequisite so:

(when defending with Defensive focus you may make an automatic grapple or maneuver if successful - opponent's might complements this success (ie apply +1 to the result if their might is greater than your discipline) this costs your next action)

Would it be better to make 2 stunts - one for grapple and one for maneuver? or is it the might thing?(to be honest the opponent's might complimenting was mainly for flavour!, but I quite like it)
This was originally for a pacifist character, so I didn't want him to gain any bonus to delivering stress (which is why I tied them up in the one stunt), but you could split it up:

Use their strength against them: Use your opponent's might value to complement any attacks rather than your own
Throws and holds: When defending you may make an automatic grapple or maneuver if successful - this costs your next action