Difference between revisions of "IntelligenceArts"

Latest revision as of 08:34, 9 January 2005

Intelligence Arts

Minister of Roiling Climates
Cost:  5 blood feast
Duration:  Instant
Type:  Simple
Minimum Intelligence:  2
Minimum Essence:  2
Prerequisite Arts:  Three different Suffusion Arts

This Art is an unusually basic one for Kaishar, and is often used by their immortal hands to measure out their displeasure unto their herd. It allows the Kaishar to summon or dispel storms overhead, through will alone. The Kaishar spends five points of blood feast in order to focus his will upon the clouds and winds, and makes an Intelligence + Lore roll; successes indicate how fast the weather changes in response. One success indicates an hour, while five indicate moments. The Kaishar using this Art may elect to intensify or calm the weather, whichever he prefers, but the nature of the weather is intrinsic to its locale, be it snowstorms, wind storms, hurricanes, etc.

Tempest Beckoning Fury
Cost:  None
Duration:  Permanent
Type:  Special
Minimum Intelligence:  3
Minimum Essence:  3
Prerequisite Arts:  Minister of Roiling Climates, Five-Devil Miasma,
                    five different Suffusion Arts

This powerful Art works in a unique manner. At its initial purchase, it irrevocably links the Kaishar to the weather of Creation. From that moment on, in a mile radius surrounding the Kaishar, the nighttime weather reflects the predator’s mood. If sullen, the day is overcast and grim. If joyous, clouds drift apart and reveal the moon and stars. If furious, then storm clouds gather, and spontaneous bolts of lightning rain down angrily from the heavens. As a general rule of thumb, the impact of the weather is directly proportionate to how passionate the emotion evoking it. The Kaishar has no conscious control over this beyond that gained from the Minister of Roiling Climates Art – it simply happens that when night falls, his moods hold dominance over celestial goings on. In regions thickly occupied with Kaishar possessing of this Art, the evening weather can be remarkable and unpredictable indeed.

Unearthly Devil Eyes
Cost:  3 blood feast
Duration:  One scene
Type:  Simple
Minimum Intelligence:  2
Minimum Essence:  1
Prerequisite Arts:  None

Unaided in his detection by actual perception, the Kaishar floods his mind – not his eyes – with the dread energy of blood Essence. His psyche is minutely changed in certain regions, and then perceives the complex angles of reality wherein the phantasmal is hidden. This Art’s activation opens the Kaishar’s eyes to perceiving broad panoplies of blurred images overlain on his vision of the world, indistinct and eerie. Spirits, immaterial, float through his sight along with ghosts and rippling, ambient energies. The Kaishar cannot only see these fluctuations, but he can sense the general power of them based on the brilliance of the aura they bear – the brighter the aura, the more potent. To a Kaishar’s eyes, the hunger dominates all, and any aura he sees is somewhat red in hue, reminding the devourer of his constant parasitic need.

Five-Devil Miasma
Cost:  Varies
Duration:  Varies
Type:  Special
Minimum Intelligence:  3
Minimum Essence:  3
Prerequisite Arts:  Unearthly Devil Eyes

Tapped into the corruptive current of death, yet eternally bound to the elemental natures of fleshly being, the Kaishar may call upon twisted, perverse dark elements through use of this Art, sometimes conjuring a fistful, and sometimes splitting the night with the light of dark and immense elemental lances. This Art is an interface to much greater use than one simple ability. The first time it is purchased, the Kaishar is granted three purchase slots for which to buy skill in uses of this Art. Different uses have different power levels, and so they also have different purchase slot costs. Additionally, each use may only be applied to one of the devil elements, and must be purchased again for each additional devil element. This Art is activated each time one of the devil elements is put to use. Additional purchases of this Art grant two more purchase slots, which may be held in reserve for future use. Once purchase slots have been spent, they may not be changed, ever. Dice pools gained from aiding uses of this Art may never exceed the Kaishar’s total Intelligence Arts. Minor, and ineffectual (or perhaps even stunt) uses of devil elements may be granted by the Storyteller for one point of blood Essence: candles may be lit and metal trinkets set ablaze with devil fire, chalices may be filled with devil water, etc. This Art only counts once towards the maximum amount of Intelligence Arts the Kaishar may learn, no matter how many times he may purchase it. It also only counts once towards the total Intelligence Arts the Kaishar knows, for the purposes of limiting other Arts of the same Attribute. A Kaishar may not have more instances of any single Art than he has permanent Essence.

• Devil Air is a slow, spreading black wind, drifting through the plainer air like shadowy tendrils snaking out from a charcoal core. Enough of it can choke out vision and muffle sensations, clouding the mind and will. Damage done with devil air also saps one point of Willpower, if it exceeds the target’s permanent Essence.
• Devil Earth’s surface takes a crusty, ashen form, but inside it pulses with a hideous, imperceptible throbbing noise, that echoes in the minds of all who surround it. Devil earth sucks hungrily at the energy of life, sapping out a mote of Essence from its living Exalted and spirit victims, yet having no effect on creatures of death or the abyss beyond the normal damage.
• Devil Fire is a pale white mockery of flame – it has no temperature, being neither hot nor cold. Instead, it eats insidiously through decay, and primarily in the regards of devil wood – metal. When used to damage metal, devil fire ignores the material’s soak value and goes straight to decaying it.
• Devil Water is hauntingly similar in weight, texture and taste to blood, but it wriggles sickeningly into things it splashes upon, hiding within them to sup. Devil water is parasitic, taking life slowly instead of giving it. Almost possessing of a cruel joy, devil water causes bashing damage equal to its conjurer’s permanent Essence at the rate of one health level per turn until they have all been delivered. Then the water is rendered inert.
• Devil Wood is actually metal. It grows of its own volition, like Malfean brass, and is barbed and vicious. Gleaming and always cold, shadows of unknowable origin flicker off its mirrored surface. Blood is absorbed by devil wood, and indeed, it thirsts hungrily. When used for damage, devil wood saps one additional health level.

The uses for devil elements that this Art grants are:

• Disk (2 slots, reflexive instant use) erects a brief instance of the devil element before the conjurer in order to interrupt an assault. For every point of blood Essence spent activating this use of the Art, the disk absorbs one health level of damage from one attack – additionally, if the assault is hand-to-hand, the attacker suffers the devil element’s unique damage property. The soak granted by this use cannot exceed the Kaishar’s total Intelligence Arts.
• Lance (1 slot, supplemental instant use) works exactly as the Nimbus use, below, excepting that it may be used on ranged attacks only.
• Miasmic (3 slots; simple use) devil elements are thick clouds of ambient element lending a dreary, oppressive feel to a diameter of the Kaishar’s permanent Essence in yards, for his permanent Essence in turns. This use of the devil elements limits sight and sound, as well as generating an unusually strong malaise, resulting in a –3 penalty to all dice rolls made within its boundaries, excepting the conjurer. Additionally, the devil element’s unique damage property is dealt to everyone in its boundaries but, again, the conjurer. This use costs four points of blood feast.
• The Nimbus (1 slot; supplemental instant use) costs one point of blood feast, and enshrouds a hand-to-hand strike in a devil element for one attack, wherein the element disperses. The hungry devil element adds one die to the accuracy of the attack, and one level of damage to the weapon’s base. It also adds the devil element’s unique damage property to the attack.
• Palm (1 slot; simple one-turn use) conjures a handful of the devil element in question for one point of blood feast. This may be held as long as the Kaishar wishes, and does not expire so long as it is held. It may also be thrown using Dexterity + Thrown, dealing 2B base damage with a range of 10 yards. While it is held, the fistful of the devil element glows brightly enough to read by.
• Shroud (1 slot, simple one scene use) creates a voluminous cloak or cape draped around the Kaishar, which drifts harmoniously in the fashion of its pertinent devil element. This provides no effect except to inflict the devil element’s unique damage property upon anyone who touches the Kaishar. Note that this devil elemental shroud is identical to a cloak in all purposes, shielding from weather and obscuring his features handily.

Noble Shroud Defense
Cost:  1 blood feast per 1B/1L
Duration:  Instant
Type:  Reflexive
Minimum Intelligence:  2
Minimum Essence:  2
Prerequisite Arts:  Unearthly Devil Eyes

Enchanted by powerful flows of blood Essence, the Kaishar’s garments come alive, achieving preternatural resilience under the guidance of the Kaishar’s mind. Rapidly sculpting itself into demonic features, such as immense bat wings or a man-sized be-clawed fist, the garments interrupt a blow, blocking it stubbornly. For every point of blood feast spent activating this Art, the Kaishar adds 1B/1L to his soak. No more blood feast may be spent activating this Art than the Kaishar has total Intelligence Arts. A large, loose garment such as a robe or cloak is necessary for this Art to work.

Whipping Shroud Minion
Cost:  5 blood feast
Duration:  One scene
Type:  Reflexive
Minimum Intelligence:  3
Minimum Essence:  3
Prerequisite Arts:  Noble Shroud Defense

Instead of briefly animating a robe or cloak into a temporary defensive measure, the Kaishar now entrusts a large flow of sanguine magic into his garments, locking them for a scene into viciously shaped arms and armor. This does not alter the garments’ weight, and so the Kaishar finds movement is in no way hindered by the transformed adornments. The weapon may be any melee weapon the Kaishar wishes, but each uses the same statistics (Spd +3, Acc +1, Dmg 1L + the Kaishar’s total Intelligence Arts, Def +1). The armor fluctuates in power, with a bashing and lethal soak equal to the Kaishar’s total Intelligence Arts. A large, loose garment such as a robe or cloak is necessary for this Art to work.

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