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Hearthstone Relay Archive

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The Twenty-Third theme is "Power with a Price"

Luck Transaction Jewel (Resplendence)

 Sidereal Aspected
 Manse: •
 Trigger: Concentration (reflexive)

The Luck Transaction Jewel is a clear, geometrical, multi-faceted gem that refracts light into a cascade of the Maidens' colors. When it is used, the number and complexity of its facets increase. It reverts to a simpler shape once its powers are resolved.

The gem's bearer can increase any dice pool by two (which doesn't count toward dice pool maximums) by subtly borrowing luck from her future. What is borrowed must be repaid, however - fate reduces a future dice pool by the same amount. The action must be of roughly the same importance and influence on fate, but not necessarily the same kind of action. Borrowing luck to strike down one's arch-nemesis might result in reduced luck with seducing one's one true love later. Fate prefers to resolve such transactions as quickly as possible, but it won't settle for less or let the user amass a big debt - the stone's power can't be used again until the previous transaction has been repaid. If the dice pool of a repayment action is reduced below zero, it results in an automatic botch.

There exist similar Hearthstones of higher power. For every level of the Hearthstone, up to two dice can be borrowed.

Evaporating Innards Jewel - FourWillowsWeeping

Fire Manse ••

Trigger: Injury

This Hearthstone looks like a withered ball of intestines filled with coal. When the bearer suffers Lethal damage, the coals heat up and begin to glow. He gains as many motes as he has Health Levels of injury.

Stone of Blood-Drawn Fury (WaiyaddoNoDan)

 Abyssal Aspected
 Manse: •••
 Trigger: Concentration (reflexive)

This stone appears to be a dull red rock, roughly ovoid, with a rough, uneven surface. Upon closer inspection the roughness is a complex series of tiny ridges, almost like a maze etched into it.
Produced by manses stained by pain and blood, the bearer of this hearthstone can choose to call upon the stone when spending Essence for any reason and draw any number of motes through the stone instead of from his normal Essence pool(s). In exchange, the user suffers dice of unsoakable aggravated damage equal to the number of motes drawn from the stone as it dissolves their blood and flesh into pure Essence. This damage may not be negated by any means, including the Solar Charm Adamant Skin Technique or similar effects. The damage may not be healed, even by magical means, until a full 25 hours after the stone was last used, after which it is treated like any other aggravated damage. If Essence from the stone is committed, the stone is considered in use until it is no longer committed. The damage is rolled after any effects the motes are spent on get resolved; even if the character is killed, he will remain alive long enough to complete whatever action he is using the stone for. For this reason, sorcerers sometimes use such stones to cast a final death-curse upon their enemies.
Even if the character has no peripheral Essence pool, the Essence expended is peripheral and produces an anima display (much like that of a God-Blooded with the Aura of Power flaw).
The stone's Essence may be used to attune artifacts as well as fueling Charms, including the artifact it is set in, even if the character has no Essence pool to start with. Like any other hearthstone, the Stone of Blood-Drawn Fury offers no special benefits to Fair Folk.

Stone of Broken Hearts (Falcon)

 Solar Aspected
 Manse: ••••
 Trigger: Concentration (reflexive)

These stones are often heart-shaped, and a gentle roseate pink colour. When activated, they flush crimson and sometimes blood oozes from their settings. They are produced by a very specific design of manse that slowly builds great stores of power and releases it in occasional sudden bursts. Driven by the essence of heroism and self-sacrifice, they allow the bearer to garner the love and approval of the world by trading it for their love of a particular person.

To activate this stone, the bearer must first love someone. This can be familial love or deep friendship, but romantic love works best. The bearer sacrifices that love, and their heart grows forever cold to the other person in the relationship (effective Compassion 0 towards that individual). In exchange, the world loves them better and grants them success in their endeavours.

The actual mechanics for 'success in their endeavours' are quite vague. At the very least, a single dramatic roll should just succeed, regardless of opposition (minimum one success after opposed rolls). You can leap that chasm. You can get the telling blow in that duel. If the character did something major, like traded the love of their life to this stone, the success should probably be extended to one scene and/or one task, like 'defeating the First and Forksaken Lion in single combat' or 'saving the world from the kukla' or even 'making toast', although I don't know what kind of weirdo would swap true love for the power to make toast.

Fundamentally, losing the ability to love someone is a big thing, and should have big results.

True Conviction of Self Crystal (FlowsLikeBits)

 Solar Aspected
 Manse: •••••
 Trigger: None 

This translucent stone is the dark black of deepest night. Inside it can be seen a tiny, but incredibly bright speck of light, as thought an incredibly bright sun were a nigh infinite distance away in darkness. Bearers of this stone must have a Conviction of 3+ to utilize it's powers. If their conviction is less than 3, the only benefit provided is essence regeneration. The bearer of this stone has their drive to overcome adversity increased tremendously. Mechanicly, the number of times they may channel Conviction per story is doubled.

Additionaly, the charachters will to survive is so strong that they can overcome limitations of their body, to an extent. Mechanicly, while she bears the stone, the bearer is immune to age and illness. Additionally, she cannot die. In game terms, treat ever addtional level of damage beyond -4 as an additional -1 penalty, these levels also count for the purposes of healing times. They heal like a -4 level. Thus a characher who was at their last -4 level and suffered 3 more levels would be at -7. This is considered a wound penalty and can reduce a characthers die pool to zero. Penalties beyond -4 cannot be ignored, even by charachters who ignore wound penalties, as these represent enough damage to the body to impare it's functioning. Thus, charachters who ignore wound penalties effectivly reduce them by 4. Thus, in the previous example, the charachter would be at -3, instead of -7. Actions that have zero dice, cannot be taken. A charachter with this stone can be damage to the point where they are incapable of acting. Also, this stone does not help heal damage. It is suggested that destorying a specific part of the body, say removing an arm, takes Stamina levels of lethal damage or 3 aggregated levels.

Comments

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure whether the dice bonus for my Luck Transaction Jewel should count towards the dice pool maximums. It is fundamentally different in nature from Essence-boosting, after all. Resplendence

I like the idea, but I think the mechanic would be annoying to track. Also, the essence limit thing is weird.It makes higher level stones pretty worthless(which I think is the idea, so why bother mentioning them?) Why not just treat it like the Lucky/Unlucky merits/flaws from the PG? I.e. this stone adds to their pool. Here's another idea: It can also be repayed by giving dice to an opponent, rather than reducing the bearers pool. More options would allow it be repayed quicker, reducing the bookkeeping. I like the idea, just the bookkeeping feels problematic to me. -FlowsLikeBits

That's why it only allows one transaction at a time. You can't borrow again until you've repaid, so there's really only one thing to keep track of. I removed the Essence limit and dice pool maximum limit. Hmm, that makes a pretty nifty level five stone... Resplendence

The "but it cannot be tricked with repayment of actions that are worth less." sentance confused me. Does this mean the repayment is under the control of the bearer, i.e. they choose what pool gets reduced?(it said "fate reduces a future dice pool by the same amount", which implies that it isn't under their control) That seems abusable, although it does reduce bookkeeping...wow, that's tough -FlowsLikeBits

Good catch. My intention was that fate (i.e. the ST) decides, so I guess that sentence was unnecessary. Resplendence

Love it! Definitely think you should state whether the player or the ST gets to decide which future dice pool suffers, though. (I'd vote for ST.) I don't think the bookkeeping would be a major problem, personally -- to me, it actually seems like about the same amount of bookkeeping as the Luck merit. But then again I'm all stuffed full of Vicodin. Oh yeah, and is the future action measured by whether it has the same influence on Fate in general, or the character's fate in particular? Seems like there's a pretty big difference to me.
~ Shataina

The ST decides. It rhymes better with the relay's theme and works better with my devious ST style. As for the impact on fate, well... I'd say it would lean towards individual fate, although boosting an action that affects fate on a wide scale should be paid back on an action of similar scope. Again, "fate" translates to "the whim of the ST". :P Resplendence

Question on the gem, Willows. If I take 1L this round, and 2L next round, do I gain 1, and then 2 motes? Or 1, and then 3 motes? Just not sure on the wording, and your intentions. - Scrollreader

Thanks! The latter. - w

Um, what's with all the ' ? Resplendence

I love the concept of the Luck Transaction Jewel! But three points about the execution:

1. Sidereal fate-manipulation usually works by changing target numbers, not dice pools.
2. It's book-keeping and ST responsibility to have to choose a future action "of equal importance".
3. At high levels this Hearthstone is too weak. A level 5 stone that lets you gain 10 dice on an action, but then lose 10 dice in future, isn't as good as most other level 5s.

This would be my version :

The gem's bearer can reduce the Target Number of any dice roll by up to (the Hearthstone's level) by subtly borrowing luck from her future. What is borrowed must be repaid, however - fate increases the Target Number of all subsequent rolls by 1 for a time which depends upon the TN reduction chosen:

1 - Until the end of the next round.
2 - For the rest of the scene.
3 - For 24 hours.
4 - For 7 days.
5 - For 13 days.

The benefits of this hearthstone do not stack with other TN reducers. This stone cannot be activated during the "aftermath" period.

-- Xarak

Thank you for your suggestions, but I find it amusing that you first complain of bookkeeping and then introduce a bunch of new rules. Remembering one event isn't that hard, and if you really shun ST responsibility or don't trust your ST... Maybe you should reconsider your games? There was a point in having an x-factor in the trade and not having it completely predicable. Your system allows you to just do nothing during the repayment period and effectively cheat fate. Anyway, I thought about the target number reduction, but decided a plain dice trading is better than the limited target numbers. Maybe if you reduce your target number, and repay with reduced dice pool? Resplendence

Hey, um, not to spoil anyone's fun or anything, but when did this become LameVerboseWorkshopRelay? The comment section here is like five times longer than the content. If you'd all start posting Hearthstones instead of whining about how you think someone else's Hearthstone should work (and this applies to the other Relays too) then we'd have a lot more good stuff here. - willows

Yeah! Having a lot of stuff nobody likes is way better than having a few really cool things! Also, stop criticizing Hearthstones over there in MartialArtsRelay! &Arafelis actually agrees with willows for the most part but is easily amused.

Since I try to construct relay entries that are usable in my games, the discussion is usally about tweaking for me. I for one welcome constructive criticism that turns a loose idea into a useful one. But yeah, a little more actual content would be nice. Resplendence

My God, Falcon. I love it, but it scares me on a fundamental level.
~ Shataina, predictably.

Ga...That so feels like a Sidereal stone for some reason. -FlowsLikeBits

Yeah, I was wondering, but I decided that the whole 'sacrifice for power' thing was more of a Solar schtick. It's all about the tragic heroism. Sidereal stones tend to be more... ephemeral. - F

Strangely, in the game in which I'm currently playing, making toast has played a rather important role... - szilard

re: true conviction of self crystal: Never thought the day would come when I'd see a hearthstone more powerful than the Gem of Incomparable Wellness. I'm pretty sure that even if you keep the rest of its powers intact, you should allow aggravated damage to kill the character. Also, what exactly is the "price" of this stone's power supposed to be? _Ikselam

I think it is the bit about your love fading away.

Isn't that curious? It's like, the opposite of story fuel! "I no longer have strong feelings for this person, and also several obstacles do not endanger me! T3h w1n!" - willows

Willows, you're thinking of the Stone of Broken Hearts.

Ikselam - I suppose that in a manner of speaking, the price is that you gain no benefits from the stone until you're at -4 (and mounting) penalties, while the Gem of Incomparable Wellness gives you other benefits than not dying. I'd actually say they're on par - while the one here also keeps you from dying, it doesn't HEAL the character, so while they can function longer than with the Gem of Incomparable Wellness, they're more screwed in the long run. My biggest problem is that characters who ignore wound penalties have their penalties capped at -4. The stone could use some specific mechanics for the body being destroyed beyond functioning, like it taking X levels of damage - maybe treat it as a house door or oak door, as per the object strengths on p. 239 of the core? ~ WaiyaddoNoDan

I'm not sure how it is more powerful than the Gem of Incomparable Wellness. That allows you to regenerate(1 level/turn, 1/min for agg). This doesn't. Thus you have to heal the damage at the normal rate. Also, after a while, you can't keep ignoreing the penalties either. Thus you will eventually have all your pools reduced to zero. All the stone does is basicly prevent you from going incapicated. You can still do stuff, if you can muster a die pool against -20... It's basicly designed to be a slightly Gem of Incomparable Wellness with more gruesome mechanics. You may not be able to die, but your eternally in pain... I put in a suggestion for removing body parts, but I don't know of any precedent for this. It seems like it should be tied to attributes, but this tends to break down in the presence of lunars. So , I dunno. I considered saying it also prevents you from sleeping and gives a minor derangement, but took it out as to harsh. -FlowsLikeBits

It has also a not-so-slight other drawback: if you're down to -20 (or -16 when you can ignore the first 4 penalties), your enemy could most probably take away the stone and watch you die... (since it says "while she bears the stone"). And the bit about being eternally in pain: drop somebody wearing the stone into a pit of lava - will he die or will he be there, forever in pain? *shudder* -- MadFreddy