EndlessChase/IdeaBin
The Idea Bin
This is where I plan to throw up everything that I'm working on at the moment. Every so often I'll put whatever's in here and completed where it's supposed to go.
The Stuff
Lunar Caste Ability Spread
FULL MOON WAXING MOON HALF MOON WANING MOON NO MOON Archery Medicine Awareness Investigation Craft Athletics Performance Bureaucracy Larceny Dodge Brawl Sail Lore Martial Arts Linguistics Endurance Socialize Melee Stealth Occult Presence Thrown Ride Survival Resistance
Cloak of Blades
Artifact: ••••• Commitment: 15 Motes (Power •••••, Usefulness ••••, Component •••, Notoriety •••)
The first Cloak of Blades was made by a Solar of the Dawn Caste as a presant for her Dragon-Blooded captain durring the Primordial War. The Solar, Danato Mitsuo, had grown fond of her captain, and in an effort to stop him from dying so easily, as the Dragon-Blooded were known to do, made for him the tool that brought him leagues above his fellows.
The Cloak of Blades is no cloak at all, but a set of five daiklaves made from any of the magical materials. When attuned, the daiklaves float into the air, and hover with their hilts half a foot from the back of their owner's neck and thier blades stretching out behind, much like a cloak.
Each turn the owner of the blades can make a single attack with each at a range of up to ten yards or a single parry. These actions are not splittable. These attacks do not take any of the owner's action for the turn, though she may use charms to enhance them as though they were her own attack. The blades have the statistics of normal daiklaves, including the magical material bonus, and are considered to have a Dexterity + Melee + Specialty pool of 13 dice and a base strength of 5.
The blades can be wielded by hand, though any blades being used for things outside of the cloak lose their free action.
Thirsting Blade
Artifact: ••• Commitment: 5 Motes (Soulsteel/Moonsilver)
As the Thirsting Blade slices, it drinks from it's victim, soaking their blook into its blade and holding it until the wielder is ready to drink it. On any attack that does lethal damage, the blade soaks up a level of lethal damage worth of blood, and stored it, keeping it fresh. An Abyssal may then consume the blood to regain essence as normal, or store it for later consumption. Only the most recent health level of blood spilt is stored in the blade. Older blood is poured from the hilt where one would normally feed from.
Somewhat suprising to many people, the design is not an Abyssal one, but Lunar in origin. The first of these blades was captured by an Abyssal after slaying the Lunar that owned it. The Lunar had used it to store the Heart's Blood of his victims so he could continue fighting instead of having to stop to lap at their severed throats or to carve out their still warm hearts.
The Thirsting Blade has the statistics of a normal Daiklave, though they are only crafted of Soulsteel or Moonsilver. Reaver, Reaper and Grand versions of the Thirsting Blade exist, but these are far rarer, and the latter is rated artifact ••••.
Froststrider Boots
Artifact: •• Commitment: 3 Motes (Jade or Moonsilver)
Designed and Made by the Lunar Endless Chase, these boots freeze anything directly beneath them when active. For a cost of three motes, the boots will exude powerful cold beneath them, forming a layer of ice on the ground around the bearer for three yards, just enough for anyone within hand to hand combat with them to have to deal with.
Anyone caught in the radius, friend or foe, must make a dexterity + athletics roll at standard difficulty or suffer knockdown each round. The wearer of the boots is immune to this effect. The boots will also freeze water solidly enough for the bearer to walk on, though she must succeed in a dexterity + athletics roll at standard difficulty to stay balanced on her small iceburgs.
In addition the boots protect the wearer's feet from the elements to a limited extent. The wearer gains one die in any survival situation where it would be advantageous for their feet to be cool. (Walking through the desert, striding through low flames, etc.)
Scales of Ibis and Jackel
Artifact: N/A Commitment: none
The scales, though constructed of Orichalcum, Moonsilver, and Starmetal, appear to follow all of the design requirements of any normal set of merchant's scales. Aside from the materials used in it's construction, the only other extrodinary feature about the scales are their size. The set takes up nearly an entire room of the manse in which they typically reside, nearly twenty feet across and a dozen high. The base and upright of the scales are orichacum, the dishes in which things are to be measured are made of Starmetal, and the very thin chains suspending the dishes are made of Moonsilver.
Under normal circumstances the scales will function normally, comparing the weight of whatever is put in the dishes to be compared. A celestial exalt, however, can use the scales even further. By spending a single mote of essence and putting two objects in the scales, one in each dish, the scales will compare not their weight, but their value. Items with a higher resourses value will sink further. Depending on the amount of descent or rise, which do not necessarilly happen evenly, the value of each item can also be determined.
If a celestial exalt spends five motes and places artifacts on either side, they may make a similar comparison, though weighing the artifat's rating instead of a resources value.
The true potency of the artifact comes when it is used by a member of the Eclipse Caste. By spending ten motes, the Eclipse can weigh and measure anything that they can conceive of. By placing two people on the scales she can compare their personalities, or how drunk they are, or how strongly thy hold to their convictions. The only exceptions are that the scales can only measure things directly about the things they weigh in a quantitative sense.
Mechanically this ability allows a player to determine anything that can be represented on a charater sheet that has a rating associated with it, except for backgrounds.
Day Blossom
Artifact: •••• Commitment: None
Any that have seen this rare and wonderful flower have beleived it to be the most glorious bloom. The petals of the flower are a bright and vivid red while the center of the bloom is a fierce and radiant gold. The flower gives off faint light when open, making it clearly visible in the dark.
The flower has eight petals and nestled within it are three seeds. If someone capable of channeling essence consumes one of the petals from the flower they find themselves better able to recoup the essence that they have spent. For the rest of the day the person gains an additional two motes per hour, regardless of their activity level. This essence regeneration functions even in the underworld. Abyssal Exalted are the exception to this case. An abyssal that consumes a petal from the Day Blossom will find two motes of their own essence painfully burned away each hour. Abyssals also suffer a dice pool penalty equal to their own permanent essence rating for the durration of the day.
Should one of the seeds be planted a new Day Blossom will grow in an hour, though the plant must survive a full year before the petals will be ready for consumption or the seeds ready to be sewn. If one of the seeds is planted in the heart of a Shadowland, however, the effects is wonderful. Once the seed grows into a bloom and flourishes, the shadowland around it is erradicated (as per the spell in BoB&E, with only the base cost spent). Any flower grown this way does not bear seeds of it's own, though the petals do provide the normal essence regeneration benifits.
Night Lotus
Artifact: •••• Commitment: None
Glowing eerily in pale moonlight, this wonderous blossom has been known to captivate the attention of nearly all who stare upon it. It's pale white petals peel back to reveal a shining metalic center, and, within the very center, three seeds.
Though the lotus has many leaves, there are eight that grow silver on the inner side. If someone consumes these petals, they find themselves feeling heatier and healthier than ever. The healing rates of anyone that has consumed one of the petals doubles, and they may make a check to defeat disease every hour, as opposed to every day. This increase in healing rate applies to creatures that regenerate, such as Lunars with the gift Wound Kniting power or people under the effects of the Wood Dragon Form.
If one of the seeds is planted into either healthy soil or is cast into a pond, another flower will grow within the hour, though the petals and the seeds it produces must mature for a year before they are able to be consumed for any benifit. If one of the seeds is planted inside a wyld area or within the wyld itself, a very different thing happens. Once the flower blooms, the land around it in a ten mile radius becomes more real. Border and middle marches become as creation, while everything else is reduced by two stages. This effect is permanent as long as the flower remains alive, or if enough life from creation makes it's way to the spot, keeping it from naturally descending back into chaos.
A flower grown in this way does not produce seeds, though the petals do provide the normal healing benifit once mature.
Uncounted days had dawned upon creation under the watchful eyes of the Celestial Incarna. Sol Invictus lit the day with his majesty and counted the hours with his path across the sky. Luna shined down in the night, and told the passing of the months as her form shifted from new to full and back again. The five Maidens watched over all things both great and small, and ensured that all things that were came to pass.
And though creation was maintained by the gods, they did not rule it. Though they were the masters of their domains, the Incarna were forced to bend knee before masters of their own. The Primordials.
Creation, under the care of the gods, was first made by the Primordials, and it had been their lot to watch it. They had reveled in what they had created, and after a time they took a bit of all that was wonderful and good and made with those fragments the Games.
The games were made, and so the games were played. For times untold the Primordials left creation to itself as they enjoyed themselves fully, until the lady Gaia looked up, as it was not her turn, and saw the decline that had befallen her once glorious terrain. She spoke to her sisters and brothers, saying, "Look away from the board, siblings, and look what has happened?" And the primordials, reluctantly turning from the games, saw that all they had built was falling into nothingness.
((Don't like it, but don't want to get rid of it just yet. Let's try again...))
A very handsom young man walked hand in hand with a very pretty young woman. Though they should be very happy, tears fell down from their eyes. The yound man had asked the girl's father for her hand, and with smiles and words of admiration, her father had guided their palms together. That was the night before. In the morning, the young man had woken to the pounding of a heavy fist upon his door.
Rising slowly ang groggily from happy dreams, the young man had opened the door to find soldiers waiting there for him. The told him that the war between the Gods and those that came before had moved out of the heavens and into creation. Though those fights were beyond the capabilities of men, the battles left monsters and slave-creatures, discarded weapons, in the wake of the battles. All able bodied men were to be soldiers.
And so it was that the young man was given just a day to spend with his young love.
At the end of the day, as the sky had just started to darken and the moon shine paley, they found themselves laying next to each other on the bank of a small brook.
"I fear I may never see you again." The young man told the young woman, "For tomorrow I go to fight the things of our nightmares."
Her hand clutched his ever more tightly. "Then let us live our whole lives tonight, and regret nothing." She said as she brought his hand to her breast.
And so there they made love, under the watchful eyes of the descending sun and the rising moon.
When they came the air around them filled with lights bright and warm and soft and cool. Bathed in a golden and silver aura, they found themselves watched by two figures, and saw that it was from their forms that the different lights were coming. Stepping forward, the figures spoke, and they heard two voices as one. "Your fears be assuaged/as your love will endure/for tonight you become/more than ever you were" And with the final word the light faded.
It was then that they knew they were Exalted. The knowlege of what they had become and what they were to do was there, despite the few words spoken by their majestic visitors. Together they stood, and seperated from each other. From her bright red drops of blood from her maidenhead fell upon the soft grass. From him pale drops of his seed fell next to the red spots upon the grass.
Hand in hand once again they stood, and together they walked into the sunset, his naked form glowing pale and calm silver, hers warm and radiant gold. The first of all the chosen had been born.
In the morning both the soldiers and the girl's parrents went searching for them. The only thing they found, however, was a small patch of golden and silver colored flowers growing near the bank of the brook that no one had seen before.
((Still not right, but better))
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