Revision as of 20:43, 10 February 2005

Abyssal Craft Charms

by CorlanDashiva

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These charms were written by a player of mine, who wants to play an Abyssal heading towards being a Tzimisce. I've tidied them up and changed a few things, and thought I'd post them here for comments, criticism and the like.
These charms are all designed to make use of Craft (Necrosurgery). They may or may not be applicable to other crafts and I leave it up to others to work out how. They also go hand in hand with the Medicine charms here

Crafting the Living Form</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes
Duration: 1 Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Crafts: 1
Min. Essence: 1
Prereqs: none

This charm gives the Abyssal the ability to use necrosurgery on the living as long as they are not actively resisting, and also adds your Medicine rating to any Necrosurgery rolls.

Attach the Limbs of the Dead</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes per limb + special
Duration: Special
Type: Simple
Min. Crafts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Living Surgery Technique 

This allows the necrosurgeon to attach limbs to the undead, and if Crafting the living form is used, it can be used to graft limbs and other parts to the living as well. Each limb added by this charm above the normal amount (so 2 arms and 2 legs for a humanoid) lasts for 1 day per mote spent in addition to the 10 motes used to activate the charm on an undead or 1 day per 3 motes extra spent on a mortal. At the end of this time the undead limb will collapse and disintergrate. Any mortal who has had a limb disintegrate is inflicted with a plague which is non-communicable and deals 1 health level of damage per day until the mortal dies. The undead in question suffers normal multiple action penalties for using extra limbs.

As an example, Bob the Necromancer is very annoyed when his favourite zombie servant, Simon has both arms chopped off. He decides to use this charm to replace them and seeing as he is making changes he figures an extra pair of arms will let Simon carry many more cups of tea at once. Spending 30 motes, he gifts Simon with four arms, and the extra two arms last for 5 days (5 motes per arm = 20 motes, leaving 10 motes extra between the two extra limbs or 5 motes each).

Animate the Dead</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes + 2 motes per corpse raised
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Crafts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Attach the Limbs of the Dead 

This charm allows the Abyssal to animate zombies. Standing tall, the Abyssal calls out to the Dead Gods to restore life to the corpses and a black energy sweeps out from him/her. Everyone nearby feels a strange coldness as the corpses touched by the blackness start to rise to their feet. The Abyssal must first have used Craft: Necrosurgery to repair any serious damage that would prevent them from being animated, requiring a Dexterity + Craft: Necrosurgery roll at a difficulty equal to the number of wounds they took beyond incapacitated when they were killed. This step can be omitted but if it is then the corpses collapse at the end of the scene and can not be animated again. The zombies created by this charm have stats the same as those in the Exalted Core book page 299 except that they are always extras.

Alter the Restless Dead</b>

<b>Cost: Special
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Min. Crafts 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Animate the Dead 

This charm allows the Abyssal to enhance an already raised zombie. The zombie may come from any source. This charm works by the grafting of bits of other corpses or creatures onto the zombie to achieve effects such as increased Physical attributes.

The Abyssal rolls Dex + crafts: necrosurgery. The charm costs 10 motes per success rolled, plus one willpower. Each success allows one of the following:

• Enhanced Strength: +1 Strength (normally by grafting additional muscles over it's own)
• Enhanced Stamina: +1 Stamina (Normally by removing unnecessary internal organs and replacing them with muscle mass)
• Enhanced Accuracy: The zombie gets +1 accuracy on one combat manouver (punch, kick, etc - normally provided by fine-tuning the limb used)
• Enhanced Speed: The zombie gets +1 initiative (general fine-tuning)
• Toughened Skin: The zombie gets +1L/+1B soak (attaching the skin of something like a Lizard)
• Toughness: +1 health level (-0, by adding bulk) or +2 health levels (-4, by toughening the skeletal structure)

For two successes, the following can be purchased:

• Enhanced Dexterity: +1 Dexterity (more fine muscle control)
• Extra Limb: The zombie has an extra limb and all dice pool penalties from splitting dice pools are reduced by 1 (adding an extra limb)
• Extra Head: The zombie can have Soul graft used on it an additional time. There is no other benefit (grafting an extra head)

This charm can be used multiple times, but no one category can have more successes put into it than the Abyssal's crafts: necrosurgery rating. Each use of this charm takes 1 hour per success spent.

This charm requires a commitment cost of 1 mote for each time it is used. The only way to get motes committed to this charm back is to destroy the zombie enhanced by it.

Comments

"he figures an extra pair of arms will let Simon carry many more cups of tea at once." - This would be Bob the terribly British Necromancer then? - Garden

Alter the Restless Dead - Can this be used on a living being if used in conjunction with Crafting the Living Form? If so, I would possibly consider an xp/health level cost for the target... something like that maybe. - Garden

I liked these when I first read them, but something just occured to me. Animate the Dead is Permanent... that means the motes are technically never released. Did you mean for it to be instant with the zombies being Permanent? Also, I know it's not really needed, but would you think that a zombie could be enhanced to be faster in movement. (I have this image of zombies shuffling towards battle, then suddenly bursting into a sprint at terrible speed. They can't dodge, but don't need to with their razor sharp finger bones, they're meant to do alot of damage fast.) This reminds me, adding natural weapons perhaps... I really like this. :) - haren

Ouch - good catch on Animate the Dead - fixing it now - CorlanDashiva