Artifacts/IkselamFourDot
Ikselam's Level Four Artifacts
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Seeds of the Builder</i>\\ Artifact ••••\\ Commitment: none (single use)
These artifacts were developed by Yugash's mightiest artificers for use in the Locust Crusade. Their purpose was to enable Autochthonian forces to rapidly establish permanent bases and infrastructure aboveground.
Each Seed of the Builder resembles a foot-long metal sunflower seed composed of all five magical materials, and weighs almost two hundred pounds. Each one has a key protruding from its blunt end, secured by five safety catches. When the catches are disengaged and the key is fully wound up, the seed begins vibrating violently for approximately fifteen minutes. When placed on the ground, the seed's vibrations will cause it to rapidly tunnel beneath the soil. After the fifteen minutes are over, a fully-formed building erupts from the ground where the seed was planted, amidst a shower of displaced soil and rock. The process is quite violent, and anyone in the immediate area when the seed "sprouts" will take 15 dice of bashing damage, soaked normally.
The buildings created by the Seeds of the Builder range in size from armored bunkers capable of sheltering ten soldiers to barracks halls which can bunk three hundred; the type of building created is determined when the seed is constructed. All buildings are characteristically squat and unadorned. The seed draws in the most durable materials at hand and uses them to construct the building; rocky areas will produce stone buildings, while areas where clay is predominant will yield adobe. Planting a seed in a glacier will actually result in a building made of ice, while planting it in sand will result in buildings entirely composed of thick, sturdy glass. Seeds planted in areas rich in plant material (both living and decomposed -- rich soil falls into this category) will produce wood-and-brick buildings.
As the Locust Crusade continues and the Autochthonians become more accustomed to life aboveground, seeds which grow into towers and other multi-story structures will become increasingly common, as will slightly less blocky building designs.
<i>Stepping Stones</i>\\ Artifact ••••\\ Commitment: 3 motes each (generic)
These amazing artifacts were developed at the very end of the First Age, and never made it past the prototype stage; only ten existed in the entire world when the Solar Exalted were overthrown, and most of them were presumably destroyed along with their creator's laboratory.
Each Stepping Stone is a slightly irregular circular rock roughly one foot in diameter. The top is rough-textured, normal-looking stone; the bottom is inlaid with a delicate web of magical metals in complex interlocking designs.
When a Stepping Stone is activated with the commitment of three motes, any person setting foot on it will be instantaneously transported to the location of the nearest other activated Stepping Stone, which can be up to fifty miles away. With practice, it is possible to walk from stone to stone without breaking stride, covering massive distances in an eyeblink. A character attuned to a Stepping Stone may, at any time, expend five motes and a willpower point to summon the stone to his hands, regardless of its location.
Stepping Stones only function as destinations if the area directly above them is relatively clear of obstructions and contains enough space for the traveller's body. They will never cause the user to materialize inside a solid object, or underwater. A person passing through a Stepping Stone can carry up to one hundred pounds of baggage. Anything above this amount is left behind, beginning with the heaviest object not touching the character's skin.
Stepping Stones cost Artifact 4 for a pair. Additional Stepping Stones are Artifact 2 each.
Comments
Hi again Ikselam.\\ Your artifacts still rock.\\ Corrected another typo ("solid" under the Stones used to be "solide").\\ When someone is using a Stone to teleport, then they are teleported to the "nearest attuned stone". Does the same person have to be attuned to both stones, or could person A step from Stone 1, which is attuned to person B, to Stone 2, which is attuned to Person C?\\ What if two Stones are the same distance away?\\ ~ Shataina
You're transported to the nearest stone which is attuned to <i>you. It's very unlikely that two stones would be exactly the same distance away, but if you somehow engineered such a situation, I dunno. Maybe you'd be tapped Elsewhere, or maybe you'd just go to a random stone. Since the artifacts are noted as being a prototype, I think it's reasonable to think that their creator hadn't bothered creating a failsafe to deal with this extremely unlikely event.\\ _Ikselam
Right then, just to make the whole thing painfully clear (sorry if these questions bug you, I tend to try to iron out all the stupid details, which I know can be annoying) ... anyway, so anyone can use the Stone, but it will only lead them to another Stone as long as it is attuned to the same person attuned to the first stone, right? Just making sure.\\ ~ Shataina
Hm, rereading the actual text of the artifact, I retract my previous statement. You go to the nearest activated Stepping Stone, not the nearest one to which you have committed Essence. If you started mass-producing the things, you'd probably want to make it so that different "families" of stones only linked to one another.\\ _Ikselam
Am I right in assuming that travel along a chain of these things is one way? Since they go to the closest, (not the closest in roughly the right direction, as far as I can see) then you could only go, say 40miles, then 30, then 20, etc, and not at all back in the other direction.\\ Other than that, i like all of your artifacts, and as Shataina says, they rock!\\
-- Darloth
I hadn't really considered it, but yes, that is a consequence of their design. Once you reached the "end," you'd be able to travel back one step, but that would be it.\\ _Ikselam
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