Greymane/RubiArti
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Rubicund's Artifacts
These were artifacts made for a Solar Akuma who styled himself Rubicund. Intended to be as purely and unabashedly evil, he could be somewhat likened to the characters of Snidely Whiplash or Professor Fate; someone who was completely unrepentant and even thrilled in his villainy. He was also a complete pervert and sadist on a level to make GoldenCat shudder, a thrilling victory over the creator of Vestal of the Livid Lamasery, and these particularly artifact write-ups made even Selina blink a little.
He may possibly appear in A Dance of Angels in the future. For now, his artifacts have been archived to share their nastiness. Taste the villainy and cackle with me!
Harness of Purity Artifact 5
Four maidens danced about the little gray church which stood upon the open plain. Under the glaring eye of the baneful sun, it longed for the safety of the shadowed glade. Four maidens with flesh as white as snow and bells upon their toes spun and danced as one, while the monster with blue eyes watched them from the doorway. One by one, the monster in the doorway snatched them from the circle and took them into his embrace. One by one, he leashed them with chains of brass, until all four kicked and laughed in glee as the burning hooks gripped them deeply and scarlet splashed across their snowy skin. Brandishing a whip of night-roses, he struck their flesh and made them strain against their bonds as one, pulling at stone and mortar. For four hours, ten days, and three months, the maidens laughed as tears of agony rolled down their cheeks and pulled against the little gray church. Until upon the sounding of the fifth hour, their blood had spilled enough to make the ground soft and slick. Under the lash of the blue-eyed monster, the crimson-skinned maidens pulled the little gray church across the open plain and into the safety of the welcoming glade.
Proud of their work and pleased with the maidens, the monster with blue eyes cut them free of their blood-stained skin one by one and let the offal of their flesh and bones to rot while their living souls danced still at the end of his chains. Rubicund, pleased with himself for bringing this bastion of his master away from the taunting eyes of Heaven, stitched a great coat from the skin of the four maidens; a coat of the softest leather and the most beautiful shade of crimson. He bound into it the chains of brass and the souls of the playful maidens, hiding the glistening hooks and chains into places that could never be seen or found, willing the maidens yet to wait until he hand need of them again.
A scent of sweet flowers and chiming bells follows the coat whenever it goes, broken by the occasional soft feminine laugh, madly cheerful. Rubicund never dirties nor seems to look worn or ragged while wearing the Harness. The aura of pleasant sensation grants him an additional +1 to all his Socialize rolls, though the faint dim of sound the follows him increases the difficult level of all Stealth rolls by 1. The Harness also serves as armor, providing 4B/2L soak with no fatigue or mobility penalties, and possess slots for two hearthstones upon it's flared collar.
The maidens await the word of the blue eyed monster to dance free again, their tormented souls caught upon the barbs of Rubicund's chains. At his word and his will alone, they will come to life again, sprouting like wings of brass-bone from the hidden places beyond Creation where they lurk, dragging their chains with them. With loving frenzy, they leap upon those around them as friends and partners, clutching with ghostly hands and the ripping point of the hooks caught within them.
Once he as activated the Harness, Rubicund may take four additional actions per turn using the brass chains which sprout from his back. The chains attack with Speed +5, Accuracy +10, Damage +8L + extra successes, and Defense +4. In addition to this, they can be used for climbing virtually any surface, each chain adding a single automatic success to any climbing attempt when they devote their full action to the act.
Aching Hearts Caress - Artifact 3
Ten iron nails, pulled from the plain where they grew like grass. Ten iron nails hammered through the hands and hearts of innocent girls as they were thrust screaming into a oven to be baked as bread for the feast. The living flame who tended the hot stone within lusted for their fine flesh and the tender taste of their unfulfilled dreams. With scorching embers caressed secret places upon them, brought sweat to their supple skin, coaxed their dreams from hiding, and shattered their minds with screams of pleasure as they roasted alive.
The girl-child bread was gobbled up by the hungry demons who attended the gala, though none did suspect their host of poisoning them until their entrails came to life and devoured them from within. From the bloody carrion that remained of his infernal guests, Rubicund plucked each of the ten iron nails, now stained scarlet with the hearts blood of innocent and evil alike. Pleased with himself, he reworked the nails of iron into nails of another sort – iron pegs into glossy, dusky shards. With a knife forged from the glass-soul of a coward, he cut away the mortal traipsing at the tips of his fingers one by one and replaced them with the bloody shards of iron.
Every touch of Aching Hearts Caress upon the flesh of a woman brings forth an overwhelming pleasure. No matter how temperate or controlled she may be, the touch of the infernal iron nails brings forth a hot pleasure in all the most sensitive places upon her body. Not merely her sex, but any hidden spot of sensativity, even those that she herself may not know about, begins to tingle and throb in need. The sensation is impossibly distracting, penalizing every dice action the woman makes by 1 for the remainder of the scene.
For a single mote of Essence, when touching a member of the opposite sex with Aching Hearts Caress, Rubicund can force them to speak every dark, secret unfulfilled desire that lurks in the depths of their heart. Upon a successful Manipulation + Charisma roll, with a difficult level equal to the woman's Temperance, his victim will uncontrollably confess her inner most fantasy and desire.
As long as he carves carefully with his nails, Rubicund's touch can part flesh as water without breaking it nor drawing blood, adding +2 to all attempted surgery.
Fifteen Hands to Madness and the Lonely Matron
The lonely matron and her daughter labored in silence for years. Kidnapping the girls of the village, they played a game of bones and dice with them that the little lovelies could never win and whose stakes were their very lives. The lonely matron and her daughter built a clock of great beauty in the basement of their home. The girls of the village were tied and bound together into the shape of a tower. The lonely matron and her daughter used sewing needles to stitch the pretties into a single body, till not one could move without the other screaming in agony and forcing all to move unless the proper time was shouted each hour. They made cogs and gears from left over parts to make the girls fingers twist and mark the passage of proper time and a clock with a face of fifteen slender hands splayed into a circle and an blind-eye between each finger.
And then the shadowed man came and smiled at the lonely matron and her daughter. He took each into his bed and made them his lovers, and while they lay breathless and spent, he cut out their hearts and set the still beating organs to swing from the pendulum of limbs. Rubicund was pleased with the work of the lonely matron and her daughter. He wrapped them both in burning brass skin and their creation into a sarcophagus of iron scraped from the walls of the demon city, placing the cold black clock and it's searing keepers into threshold of his home to welcome unwelcome guests.
Fifteen Hands to Madness Artifact 2 Clock
The girls of the village suffer eternal and know that suffering alone awaits any who fall into the hands of the lonely matron. They seen nothing beyond their prison walls, but sound echoes and rings through their black darkness and they have learned to measure foot steps well. To those unfamiliar to their ears, they scream warning and plea for flight. They risk the pain of motion to beat their singular body against the infernal iron as their voices rise into fevered shouts, begging the intruder to turn away.
All who hear the screams of the village girls warning must make a successful Valor + Manipulation roll at a difficulty 3. Failure may not send them to flight, but will fill them with overwhelming terror at what may lay ahead. For the remainder of the scene, they suffer a three die penalty to all actions which are not of pure self-preservation (fleeing, defending, ect).
Also, the clock keeps perfect time.
The Lonely Matron Two Artifact 3 Guardians
The lonely matron and her daughter await in the shadow of the clock they created. They await the shadowed man to return and pleasure their achingly unsatisfied desires. They await visitors; await to escort the men to their beds and the young girls to the workshop where their bodies can be reworked as new gears and pistons for the clock.
The lonely matron and her daughter are both beautiful monstrosities; half living flesh and half brass automation. Their faces are unmoving masks of polished brass, framed with long red hair, molded into the shapes of an attractive older woman and her equally beautiful daughter. Between their metal legs, their sexlay bare and weeping down their thighs in need of the fulfillment they will never receive. Each stands armed with shield of black rose petals and a lance-like needle of iron. The lonely matron and her daughter can both speak, but rarely have anything to say. No longer living, thinking beings, they cannot be reasoned or bargained with, though a clever enough intruder could trick them into believing herself a welcome guest. The lonely matron and her daughter will seek to subdue intruders, rather than slay them outright. Males caught by them are bound a bed of needles and raped by the half-mechanical women until their bodies sink into the iron spikes. Women are carted away to tiny, cramped cells in the basement of the manse, awaiting Rubicunds eventual judgment of them.
The lonely matron and her daughter both share the stats of a Brass Legionary (CotW page 103-104), save that their appearance is 4, they have no Lore or Archery abilities, their Melee specialty is +2 Spear, and they do not come equipped with short swords or bows, but do possess tower shields.
