Revision as of 09:02, 3 April 2010

Charm Relay

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God Charms: Romantic Archery

These are Charms of Uhura the Unfettered, Goddess of Emancipation. Uhura appears as a proud woman with bronze skin and long, unruly hair. Short lengths of broken chain dangle from her iron manacles and collar. Although most people (and gods) associate her with slave rebellion, she actually considers her primary bailiwick to be legal manumission. It is said that she bears some close relationship to Sigur (the mule-headed god of human bondage); a long-standing rumor has it that she was once his human slave, and that he freed her and raised her to godhood as a reward for some great service. (Ikselam created this god for CelestialBureaucracy/BureauOfHumanity.)

Liberty’s Arrow (Quendalon)

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None

Uhura whispers a word of freedom, and it becomes an arrow laid across her bowstring. This arrow strikes and undoes a lock, bar or knot. She rolls Compassion + Archery against a difficulty equal to the Resources rating of the obstruction. Artifact locks add their Artifact rating to the normal Resource cost for a lock of their type, and locks bound by Charms add the Essence of the person who set the locking Charm. Success means the obstruction gives way; locks pop open, knots untie themselves and bars slip aside, allowing free passage.

Faithless Maiden Bolt (FourWillowsWeeping)

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Liberty's Arrow

Though Uhura rarely uses this ability anymore, it is one she is feared for more than her many other, less subtle powers. Plucking a flower, she fills it with a soft exultation which makes it fly straighter and truer than any arrow. She adds her Compassion to her attack dice pool. The flower arrow does no damage, but instead Uhura rolls her Perception plus extra successes; the target gains the amount of successes in points of Willpower, up to his normal maximum, and can add the same amount to his dice pool to resist making a promise, or to break one already made. No being may gain Willpower from this Charm more than once per scene.

Bond of Entwined Hearts Arrow (Charlequin)

Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Faithless Maiden Bolt

Drawing from her unending quiver three strands of hair from a maiden who died in her lover's arms, Uhura pulls them across her bow and fires them into the air, where they will cut like razors through anything in its path. Uhura must roll attack rolls against two targets; if she strikes both, the arrow plunges through the heart of one and into the other. Each must roll a Compassion check; if both succeed, these two are inextricably linked from this date forward. From now on, each receives a bonus of +3 dice to all actions taken while the two of them are within 10 feet of one another, and both suffer a penalty of -3 dice whenever they are more than 100 feet apart from one another.

Quiver of Unbreakable Promises (FourWillowsWeeping)

Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Until Used
Type: Extra Actions
Minimum Compassion: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Faithless Maiden Bolt, Principle of Motion

When Uhura uses this Charm, a variation of the Principle of Motion, she creates a quantity of arrows equal to twice her Valor and conceals them in her inexhaustible quiver. Arrows in this quiver can be expended for extra Archery attacks on Uhura’s initiative or reflexively, to parry an attack or to refresh her Archery pool when using the full parry maneuver. If she does not use all the arrows in the quiver, they remain available for it in the following turn. Arrows will persist for many months, and Uhura routinely makes sure she retains a full complement of arrows in case she is ambushed. Uhura cannot use this Charm again until she has used up all the extra actions granted by the last use of the Charm. While she has Unbreakable Promise arrows in her quiver, the motes of Essence used to power this Charm are committed.

These arrows take the form of strips of paper, weighted at the fletching end with an iron ring. They can perform as physical target arrows or nondamaging Essence projections at Uhura's option. A target struck by such an arrow can be supernaturally bound by the promises he makes. It costs Uhura 3 motes to place this binding, at the instant the arrow strikes. It does not count as the use of a Charm. Until Uhura decommits these motes or the next Calibration, when the motes are automatically released, the target gains 1 Willpower whenever he fulfills a verbal or written contract fully, and loses one whenever he considers reneging.

Bondage-Cutting Barb (Quendalon)

Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Faithless Maiden Bolt, Benefaction

When the goddess bleeds or weeps, she may shape a drop of her blood or one of her tears into an arrow with the power to cut away a baneful compulsion. This may be an addiction, a neurosis, or a promise that was formed unwisely or under coercion. This requires a single success on a Dexterity + Archery roll. If the promise or compulsion to be broken is magical in nature, the target of the arrow must then roll Valor + Essence against a difficulty of the Essence of the one who laid the compulsion.

Ultimate Geas-Annulating Arrow (Resplendence)

Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Bondage-Cutting Barb

The Goddess of Emancipation plucks her bowstring like a harp, producing an otherworldly, somber but hopeful note. She fires the quivering sound as a normal arrow, invisible but audible. When it strikes a being enslaved or with its free will limited by spells or other magic, she becomes instantly aware of the nature of the magic, the control and conditions it imposes, as well who is responsible for the binding. A being of Creation are thus identified so that Uhura knows them by name, station and appearance. For beings outside of Creation, such as Abyssal Exalted and demons, Uhura knows roughly what they are and gains an instinctual feeling that can identify them if she ever meets them in person, but nothing else. If she wishes, she can instantly and permanently shatter the bonds. She normally realizes if there are any Celestial implications of such an act.

The Charm only works on bonds implemented by beings of equal or lower Essence. The enthralled is freed immediately from all effects of the magic on her will and soul, especially those affecting her Willpower, Virtues or Nature. Permanent effects such as altered memories or injuries remain though. The Charm specifically does not break oaths sanctified by Eclipse Caste Solars. It can theoretically break the bonds that enslave demons and elementals to sorcerers, although the Goddess knows better than to meddle with such things without very good reason.

Comments

/ThemeDiscussion

I had a similiar idea to FourWillowsWeeping regarding the next Charm after Liberty's Arrow but his mechanics are much cooler than what was bouncing around my head. :D -LiOfOrchid

Charlequin and I were just discussing how insanely cool these Charms are, both mechanically, and in their special effects. It seems like Uhura inspired the Generalized Ammunition Technique! - willows

Meh. I started writing my Charm yesterday and finished it today, only to discover you had already moved on. It seemed like a waste to just forget it, so here it is. Resplendence

Not sure if this Archery is romantic, particularly... Have Fun... nikink

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