Han'ya/Artifacts

Level 3

Gauntlets of Colossal Power

Any Magical Material

5m to attune, 5m to use

Crafted for those Exalts who just wanted to break stuff, the Gauntlets of Colossal Power have a very interesting function. They use the smashfist profiles, but for 5m also double the user's Strength for a scene. They may also reflexively spend 1m to activate the effect for a single attack against an inanimate object. The two bonuses are not cumulative. This does not count as a dice bonus from charms, but neither does it count as the wearer's natural attributes. So, if a Lunar was using Essence Overwhelming, with Strength 5 and the strength-doubler active, the biggest pool of Strength dice he could get would be 18, or (Strengthx3+Specialty).

Level 5

Revealer of Secrets

Sanguine jade casing, soulsteel-hexsteel-luminous jade internal mechanisms, sorcerous glass screens, preserved hekatonkhire parts, soulsteel cables

8 motes

Crafted by the best artificers of the Mask of Winters for his servant, the Looming Breaker of Nations, the Revealer of Secrets is a magitechnical wonder. Its most prominent component is the helm. It is very large and very thick (almost two finger joints). Its casing (which forms the actual armor component of the helmet) is made of an alloy ofsanguine jade from the West of the Underworld and very small amounts of soulsteel. A large fist-sized disk of matte-black sorcerous glass is centered between the wearer's eyes. Other smaller screens occupy the inside of the helmet. Four extraordinarily well-preserved hekatonkhire eyes sit in sockets on the cheekplate, connected to hexsteel (a material forged from the corpses of the slumbering Neverborn's lesser souls) wires that transmit information to the glass screens. The intricate circuit boards are comprised of hexsteel wires set in boards of luminous jade (from the South of the Underworld), and the screens and circuit boards are held in place by soulsteel frames. Two tiny units of soulsteel and necromantically modified hekatonkhire ears are hooked up to the helm casing and provide the wearer complete hearing, even extending far beyond human capabilities into the subsonic range. The wearer's peripheral vision is not very much restricted at all. The magical mechanisms convey all manner of information to the wearer.

The helm is not the entire artifact, however. Several cables of soulsteel spring from the back of the helmet, with curious mechanisms dangling from them. These (as well as the more delicate mechanisms within the helm itself) must be surgically melded with the wearer's corpus, requiring an extended (Dexterity+Medicine) roll, at a difficulty of 5 for each roll, with intervals of one hour per roll, and a total of ten successes required. Every roll made means that the individual to whom the revealer is being grafted loses a lethal health level. If the surgery is successful, the cables will sink into the wielder's flesh at shoulders, collarbone, and to either side of his spine a few inches above the small of his back. His knuckles and hands will be sheathed in thin but strong plates of soulsteel, and the tops of his feet will be plated in soulsteel, extending to armor over his toes, forming short rectangular claws. It also creates a hearthstone socket just above the heart. Once the surgery is complete, removing the artifact intact requires a difficulty 3 (Dexterity+Medicine) roll, and would be fatal for the wearer.

Mechanically, this artifact confers a plethora of benefits. The wearer can at all times reflexively activate mechanical effects identical to Measure The Wind and Merciless Triage Judgement for no cost, which does not count as a Charm use. He may spend three motes to activate all of the following effects for the scene:

• Determining how many health levels a being or object has remaining
• Determine the soak and hardness of any being or object
• Determine how many motes a being has remaining to the nearest multiple of 5
• Determine how many Charms are currently affecting a being or object
• Determine the effects of any charms affecting a being if the caster of the Charm's permanent Essence score is equal to or less than (Wearer' Essence+1), or (Wearer's Essence+2) if the being inspected is an Abyssal
• Access a vast computerized library that adds one automatic success to all informational non-social Medicine, Linguistics, Investigation, Lore, and Occult rolls
• Activate mechanical effects allowing the wielder to perceive and touch immaterial entities (not objects)
• Reduce all wound penalties by one, to a minimum of zero
• Neutralize any magics concealing a Lunar's tattoos
• Determine the caste or aspect of one Exalt (the wearer must know the target is an Exalt, and of what type) with a difficulty 1 (Perception+Awareness) roll
• Neutralize any Stealth Charms or other methods of magical concealment activated by beings with an Essence less than the wearer's
• Treat all Charms used within sight as Obvious

These effects cannot be activated or deactivated individually. They must all be activated and deactivated at the same time. While they are active, the character may not channel their Temperance, and adds one to the difficulty of all rolls utilizing that Virtue.

The soulsteel plates on the character's hands confer the bonuses of perfect cestii.

Comments

Why is it that you make a special note about it neutralizing Lunar tattoos compared to the more general magical concealment tricks? -BogMod

Because no matter how 1337 your tattoo-hiding charms are, it sees though them. You could be an Essence 10 Incarna Jr. using "Super-Auspicious Hide My Tattoos Prana Of Pimpness" and if Dude X is wearing the Revealer it does you exactly zero good. - Han'ya

But why did you feel it was important to note that? You can already tell who and what is a Lunar thanks to the two powers below it. Why is it really special that it notices tattoos? It just seems like you want to extra bone Lunars unnecessarily since you can already see past most of their shapechanging advantages for stealth. -BogMod

Shapechanging does not count as magical stealth. And no, they really don't. Hiding your tattoos is not the same as hiding yourself. And it doesn't tell you "Hey, this dude is a Full Moon" when you first see the guy. All it tells you is "Hey, he's got moonsilver tattoos. I wonder why." And yes, I do want to extra bone Lunars, since this artifact is being used by an adversary in my campaign (wherein the PCs are all Lunars). But I disagree with your assessment of its fairness, and the "unnecessarily" bit. - Han'ya