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Guardian of Brass and Gold</i>
Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Jade (all colors), Starmetal
Artifact •••••
Commitment: None
In the height of the First Age, the Twilights began to turn their powers to the creation of life. Creating new life from existing life was relatively easy, and while inventing entirely new life forms was time and resource consuming, the principles behind it were still masterable. With these problems already solved, some of the Twilights turned their energies to creating life that was entirely artificial. Many of the earlier experiments were abject failures, creating nothing more than mechanical slaves who would obey every order without question. A few of the experiments had some limited free will, but this was mostly accomplished by including lists of conditions with instructions to be carried out when those conditions were met. A very few of them--many, unknown even to their creators--attained actual sentience. Later on, of course, the process became far easier and sentient machines far more common, but many of the automata produced early on still remained.
One of them, originally simply called "The Guardian" after his function, began as a simple automaton built in the likeness of a man out of brass, steel, and four of the Five Magical Materials. Initially, he was one of the will-less slaves, and his creator eventually gave him to another Twilight as a gift with the words "perhaps you can make something out of him." He was passed from Twilight to Twilight in this fashion so often that eventually it became a game. At every Calibration, when the Twilights gathered for their festival, the Guardian of Brass and Gold would be ceremonially passed on to another Twilight who would try his or her luck during the following year. It often simply sat in the Twilight in question's residence without ever being touched, but most Twilights took at least one or two nights out of the year to try their hand at the game.
At the time of the Usurpation, every Twilight in Creation, and many No Moons and Chosen of Secrets as well, had had their chance with the Guardian of Brass and Gold, most of them multiple times. There were some promising signs of intelligence, and it was able to recognize simple objects and respond to stimuli without outside prompting. It had even shown itself to spontaneously develop names for things without explicit tutoring, based on simply listening to the speech of others around it. After centuries of time and thousands of experiments, it seemed that the Twilight Caste had finally managed to push the Guardian of Brass and Gold onto the path of sentience. Unfortunately, they would never learn the results. After the Usurpation, it was locked in the tomb of its last owner and ordered to stand eternal watch over her.
But something had been triggered. Some critical threshold had been passed, and the growth of the Guardian of Brass and Gold did not stop with the end of the game. For centuries since one enterprising Twilight had installed dozens of memory crystals and dreamstones into it, it had recorded everything it saw, heard, or felt, and now it could use the information without outside prompting. Alone, in the dark of its mistress's tomb, it thought. At first its thoughts were like a child, with little pattern. It spoke but rarely--for its creators had given it the power of speech during one of its modifications--but gradually it grew to master the Old Realm that it had heard so many times. It searched the memory crystals installed into it long ago and ruminated on the information that it could finally access. And all the while, it watched over the body of his mistress, waiting for her to return. In its memories it knew about the reincarnations of the Solars, and its last order had been to watch over her--not her grave. The Guardian of Brass and Gold reasoned that one day she would return, and occupied its time at first with learning, then later with puzzles, then finally with an extensive record of all that it had seen and heard. An encyclopedia of the First Age--but even that eventually grew stale, and it finally lapsed into silence, moonsilver eyes staring at the wall. All its thoughts had been thought. There was nothing left to think.
Only to wait.
The Guardian of Brass and Gold is a roughly human-shaped being made mostly of brass and Orichalcum--it originally mimicked the human form exactly, but later alterations drew it away from its first appearance. It has joints made of Moonsilver (which can form into claws for battle from the fingers--an alteration added by one of the No Moons), lines of starmetal circle the head, and the five types of jade are liberally sprinkled throughout its body as well. It has a hearthstone setting in its chest, but it was later modified to function on the ambient Essence of its surroundings. Some of the memory crystals installed into it protrude from its body in odd places, but most are concealed under the skin.
Statistics
Name: The Guardian of Brass and Gold
Nature: Savant
Strength: 5, Dexterity: 3, Stamina: 7
Manipulation: 1, Charisma: 1, Appearance: 1
Perception: 6, Intelligence: 7, Wits: 7
Skills:
Athletics: 1, Awareness: 3, Brawl: 2, Craft (First Age Mechanisms) 3 (Itself +3), Dodge: 3, Endurance: 5, Linguistics: 0 (Native: Old Realm), Lore 6 (The First Age +5), Occult 6, Resistance: 5
Note: These skills (and its low social attributes) are due to the circumstances of its confinement in the tomb. With practice and access to the rest of the world, it could learn much more.
Virtues: Compassion: 2, Conviction: 4, Temperance: 3, Valor: 4 (cannot fail Valor rolls)
Dodge: 6
Soak: 10L/12B (7L/5B body of metal)
Hardness: 5
Special Powers: Immunity to the warping effects of the Wyld
Base Initiative 10
Attacks:
Punch: Speed: 10, Accuracy: 6, Damage: 5B, Defense: 6, Rate: 5
Kick: Speed: 7, Accuracy: 6, Damage: 8B, Defense: 3, Rate: 3
Claws: Speed: 12, Accuracy: 6, Damage: 10L, Defense: 6, Rate: 4
Willpower: 10
Essence: 3
Essence Pool: 30
Health Levels:
-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/ Incapacitated
If it is damaged, the Guardian of Brass and Gold can repair itself (it learned this skill through long observation of others' work), though the materials necessary for this repair require Resources ••• (Resources •••• if it is damaged to the -2 level or below). Another may also attempt to repair it. This is undertaken at a difficulty of 1 + (wound level), using Crafts (First Age Mechanisms), with each success restoring one health level. Attempting to repair it requires minima of Crafts (First Age Mechanisms) •••, Occult ••, and Lore •••. If it cannot provide instructions during the repairs, this rises to Crafts (First Age Mechanisms) •••••, Occult ••••, and Lore ••••••.
The Guardian of Brass and Gold has an Essence Pool that can be used for the following effects. Most of these were added by the No Moons who worked on it--the Twilights were far more interested in its mental prowess.
- Spend three Essence to extrude moonsilver claws for a scene.
- Spend five Essence to boost one physical attribute by one for a scene.
- Spend five Essence to double its movement rate for one round.
- Spend ten Essence to raise its soak by 5/5 for a scene.
The Essence only regenerates at the rate of 1 mote per full day, however--the rest is siphoned off to power it. If the Guardian is ever in an area where it cannot draw on ambient Essence such as the Underworld, it will consume 5 Essence per day (and it will be sluggish and slow, as it attempts to minimize power use) until it has run dry, at which point it will stop functioning. Placing a hearthstone in its chest negates this drawback.
<i>Transcendent Glory of the Phoenix</i>
Orichalcum
Artifact •••••
Soak: 15L/15B (including material bonus)
Commitment: 12 Motes
Fatigue: 2, Mobility Penalty: -1
Hardness: 6
During the First Age, Dragon Armor was mass produced for the Terrestrial Exalted because of their numbers. It was reasoned that, as they had imperfect mastery over their Essence and such short life spans, individually crafting empowered armor for them would have been a waste of time in most cases. For the Solars and Lunars, however, the opposite was true. One such suit, crafted for the Solar named Dancing Ruby Phoenix, was the Transcendent Glory of the Phoenix--an item similar to Dragon Armor though surpassing it in every way.
Transcendent Glory of the Phoenix has a great number of powers built into it by the artificers of the First Age.
- +2 to all Awareness Checks made while inside, due to the sense-sharpening equipment.
- For 2 motes per minute, the user may activate the Essence Sight power, which functions in all ways as the Solar Charm All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight
- Add two dice to Endurance and Resistance rolls made again poison and disease while inside
- The armor adds 3 to the user's strength for the purposes of A) damage, B) carrying capacity, C) clinches, and D) jumping distance.
- The armor doubles the user's ground speed.
- For 2 motes, the armor shines with the glory of the Unconquered Sun for the user's Essence in turns. Any attempts to attack the user are at +4 Difficulty. The light is visible up to the user's Essence in miles away.
- For 1 mote, the user can project her voice to be heard over the flow of battle. Everyone within 200 yards will hear the user as though she was standing right next to them.
- The armor's greatest power is that of flight. For 3 motes, the user may travel through the air at triple her ground movement rate for a scene. For 6 motes, the armor becomes a blazing comet, streaking across the sky--for a full hour, the armor travels at 500 miles an hour. Any combat is impossible during this period. The user can only navigate, and slowing down ends the period and forces the user to land (though she will not crash). When this power is in use, enormous wings of flame unfold from the back of the armor, though they have no effect beyond the cosmetic.
- Finally, if the user takes enough damage to kill her while wearing the armor, the armor can prevent it. For the cost of all of the user's temporary Willpower and Peripheral Essence, the suit will maintain her at one level above incapacitated for a number of turns equal to her Essence. Nothing can harm her during this period, though she would be wise to use it to run away.
Transcendent Glory of the Phoenix requires a Level 2 Hearthstone in order to operate properly. It can function for a full week before needing maintenance (Repair rating 2).
<i>Cat of Two Tails</i>
Moonsilver
Artifact •••••
Speed: [3-15), Accuracy: 6, Damage: 5L, Defense: 3, Rate: (1-7) (including material bonus)
Commitment: 10 Motes for the pair
The Lunar Nine Lives was an eccentric. He spent most of his time during the First Age working on what some Twilights disparagingly called "children's toys"--the magical infrastructure that made life so easy for the mortals of that time. He spent so much time on these things that he never had enough time to craft weapons for himself, relying instead in the claws he gained when he adopted his hybrid battle form. Finally, in amused exasperation, his mate created a pair of lightning chains for him to wield so that he wouldn't, in her words, "Keep coming back and tracking blood all over the carpet."
The <i>Cat of Two Tails is a pair of lightning chains beautifully crafted from moonsilver. They are carved all over with tiny Old Realm glyphs representing important events from Nine Lives' life. When in use, the shine slightly in the dark. When charged with energy, they crackle with silver lightning.
- The wielder may, reflexively, reassign the Speed rating at the beginning of every round, before initiative is rolled. This reassignment immediately changes the Rate as well--every three Speed removed adds one to Rate. This represents the protean chains changing their length to match the will of the wielder.
- For two motes, the wielder may charge the chains with energy for a scene. This causes them to do Aggravated damage to creatures of the Wyld, and also allows for several other effects:
- For the expenditure of three motes after another is hit with the chains, the chains break all committed charms. Charms such as Flow like Blood, Dance of Shining Joy, or similar effects fail unless the target immediately repays the full cost of the Charm. This counts as an external shapeshifting effect when wielded against a Lunar's shapeshifting.
- The energy shocks anyone hit with the chains. For the rest of the scene, people successfully damaged by Cat of Two Tails have a -2 dice penalty, treated as a wound penalty. This does not stack with itself.
- The wielder may pick up discarded weapons and use them as though he were wielding them. The chains have a range of 1 yard for every 3 points in speed, and anyone attacked will be unable to counterattack unless they can somehow bridge that gap. Defending against weapons wielded with this power is done at Difficulty 2. Even artifact weapons can be wielded in this manner, though the wielder of the chains must pay 1 mote per round if the artifact isn't attuned to them. It cannot be performed on artifacts attuned to others.
- With the expenditure of five motes, one of the chains will begin whirling around the user, constantly changing length in order to more efficiently block any attacks aimed at the user. The user is treated as though he had full cover (-2 successes from melee attacks, -4 from ranged attacks) against all attacks aimed at him. This bonus doubles if both chains are used in this fashion. This does not interfere in any way with the wielder's own attacks.
- The wielder may make disarm attempts at no penalty.
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Comments, Suggestions, or Flames
That is one of the most incredibly cool backgrounds/ideas I've read in a long time - NightRain
Just to let you know, I'm not stealing the concept of fighting chains that can use weapons, since I was the one that gave it to you in the first place. I'll post a link to my set of ultimate fighting chains some time in here so you can take a look. -EndlessChase
I Realy like your armor but I actuall think that a lvl 4 hearth stone Is a little rough. Id drop it to levle 2 and als take mobility penaly -1. It is after all a 5 dot artefact-Azurelight
- I actually did that in my game, after being reminded that it's First Age--not Shogunate--era. Thanks for the reminder! -Dorchadas
