Difference between revisions of "HearthstoneRelay/Fever"

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Feverish Sickness of Fire

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Delirium Orb (Nikink)

 Fire Aspected
 Manse •

This crystal clear egg-sized stone begins cool to the touch, and over the course of attunement and handling becomes slowly more slick and sweaty (it steams gently in cold enough temperatures). It normally provides +2 initiative, but becomes more powerful when its owner becomes sick. Upon getting ill, each die of penalty caused by the illness becomes a +2 bonus to Initiative, and +1 yard movement (the disease must cause a fever for this effect to work). In this feverish state, the bearer of the Hearthstone has trouble differentiating reality from illusions; during combat she must make at least one attack per turn, and all Perception and Temperance rolls suffer a +2 difficulty. (Beware attacking friends and loved ones!)

Gem of the Feverish Muse (Ikselam)

 Fire Aspected
 Manse ••

Resembling a candle without a wick, this thick, disc-shaped stone is waxy to the touch. When attuned, it can transform the feverish malaise of sickness and sleep-deprivation into the clear-burning fires of genius. Mechanically, whenever the character is suffering dice-pool penalties from wounds, disease, poison, or fatigue, he may choose to change the penalty to a bonus for purposes of any roll involving artistic or academic endeavour. This bonus is explicitly prohibited from adding to combat rolls of any kind. The bonus only lasts as long as the penalty persists, so it cannot be used on rolls which take more time than the penalty's duration.

Stone of Feverish Dancing (Charlequin)

 Fire Aspected
 Manse •••

This gem takes the form of a rounded, elongated triangle of deep crimson, with a subtle orange light constantly flickering within its depths. Its owner may tap into the delerious Essence within and channel it into a performance that can cause the mind to reel. Once per week, the character may dance an energetic, feverish dance; those who watch this performance draw that fever out into themselves. The character must roll Charisma + Performance; any viewer whose Stamina is less than the number of successes becomes ill with a burning-hot fever. Those suffering the Feverish Dancing Sickness suffer -4 to all dice pools involving considered or methodical action, and -2 to any actions not taken with absolute reckless abandon. This sickness lasts for three days, during which time no mortal medicine can cure it; for magical medicine, its treatment difficulty is 3. Those who possess the Feverish Dancing Sickness have been known to pass the fever on to others through performances of their own, though they are contagious only during the first two days.

Gem of Fiery Catharsis (Ikselam, dissolvegirl, willows)

Fire Aspected
Manse ••••

This lumpy, oblong hearthstone is dull black, like a lump of basalt. It is always warm to the touch; if struck with sufficient force, parts of its surface may flake off, revealing a glowing orange substrate which quickly cools to matte black. When attuned, it gives its owner the ability to purge herself of doubt and uncertainty in a most extraordinary way.

The Gem of Fiery Catharsis may be used once per story. Upon activating it, the character rapidly begins to feel sick. Within about an hour, she will be running a high fever and will feel too miserable to move (4-die penalty on all actions); this lasts for a full day. After this time, the character will become violently ill, and vomit forth a copious amount of red-hot, molten metal. As soon as she is done retching, she will feel perfectly well again; in fact, she will be more invigorated than ever. She immediately regains all her temporary Willpower, as well as all her temporary Virtue points. For example, if she had Compassion 4, and had already channelled it three times, she could normally only use it one more time before the story ended; using the stone would allow her to use it four more times.

The metal vomited out by the character is magical, and may be used in artifact construction. If an item made out of it is attuned by the character who produced it (and only that character), she gains a Magical Material bonus based on her highest Virtue at the time she used the stone.

Compassion: Weapons gain +2 defense. Armor has no fatigue penalty.
Conviction: Weapons gain +3 speed. Armor has no mobility penalty.
Temperance: Weapons gain +2 accuracy. Armor gains +2 hardness.
Valor: Weapons gain +1 damage (PowerCombat: and +1 rate). Armor gains +2L/+2B soak.

Burning Infant Stone (Telgar)

Fire Aspected
Manse •••••

A cylinder of purple-red stone that is slightly flexible, this Hearthstone infects its user with a harmless disease that is transmitted by sexual contact. Any person that the bearer of this Stone has intercourse with becomes infected with the disease. Infection guarantees conception for the next act of sexual intimacy that the partner indulges in. Any child born of an infected parent becomes a Fire Elemental-Blooded with Inheritance 3. The infection and conception are perfect effects, unless the user wishes to suspend them. Suspension of the Stone's effects costs 1 willpower per effect (infection and conception are two seperate effects). The owner of this Hearthstone is able to locate any Elemental-Blooded born of the disease by spending 5 motes and succeeding on a Perception + Occult roll.

Comments

If anyone has a better idea for the Gem of Fiery Catharsis' material bonuses, please share. _Ikselam

No brilliant thoughts, other than that Valor should boost Speed and Conviction should boost Damage. And are you guys collaborating on IRC? For shame!  :) - Quendalon

What are YOU doing right now, hmmm? Why aren't YOU on IRC chatting with the rest of us? Shame on YOU! ^_^ -- Charlequin

I'm actually about to go food shopping! Maybe I'll download mIRC at home when I get back... and maybe not! You're not the boss of me! - Quendalon

We don't normally, but I wanted to get the relays moving again (since HearthstoneRelay and ArtifactRelay both seemed stalled) and didn't want to just take credit for others' ideas. _Ikselam thinks the next theme should be "stones which work together."

Well, it's good to see the relays in action again. I'm not always in the mood for them, myself, but they do turn out some interesting (and useful!) results. - Quendalon

It seems a bit odd that the GoFCs material bonuses are so similar to the 5MM. Maybe either make each Virtue correspond exactly to a MM, or lessen their effects. So Compassion becomes equivalent to Jade in every way, or it merely lessens fatigue by a set amount (maybe a flat -2, or even -Rating). Just a thought, Have Fun... nikink

The problem with that is that Jade is clearly inferior to the other three "proper" MM. _Ikselam

Specific suggestion, assuming you don't completely redesign the bonuses: assign the Rate boost to go with the Speed boost, rather than with Damage. Increase the Damage bonus to +3. (Accuracy will always be better than an equal amount of Damage.) - Quendalon

Actually, a point of accuracy is not strictly better than a point of damage; accuracy effectively adds damage, but only if the attack roll generates successes. The source material also seems to think damage is worth more than other stats. +3 damage would be better than starmetal; one of the points of these pseudo-MMs is that while they are okay, they aren't as good as actual MM (the metagame reason for this being that feeling ill for a day is not the same level of inconvenience as producing a "real" MM). _Ikselam]

Hmmm... what happens if the parent infected by the Burning Infant Stone is, say, a Solar Exalt with an Essence of 4+? Does the power of this stone supercede their normal siring of a half-caste? - szilard

Yes, it does. Unless, of course, they suspend the effects. - Telgar

I was expecting the Burning Infant thingie to give you an effective Breeding 5+ for purposes of determining if your kid Exalts as a Fire-Aspect DB. _Ikselam

Relay indexed and linked over on HearthStones -- JesseLowe 6/25/05

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