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 Brute Who Breaks Nations On His Knee, the Revealer of Secrets is a magitechnical wonder. Its most prominent component is the helm. It is quite hefty, made of solid sanguinary jade and almost a finger-joint thick. Its casing (which forms the actual armor component of the helmet) is made of an alloy of sanguine 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 cheek plates, connected to hexsteel (a material forged from the corpses of the slumbering Neverborn's lesser souls) wires that transmit information to the glass screens. 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 hands and feet will be reinforced with thin plates of soulsteel. 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 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 the size of a being's mote pool and how many motes it currently has remaining
• Determine how many Charms are currently affecting a being or object
• Determine the effects of a Charm or Combo with a reflexive (Perception+Awareness) roll, receiving two automatic successes, at a difficulty of the caster's permanent Essence. If the caster has already used the same Charm or Combo on a previous occasion that was observed by the Revealer, the difficulty decreases by one.
• Determine the classification of a magical being with a (Perception+Awareness+Essence) roll at a difficulty of the target's permanent Essence, with 2 automatic successes. This will identify a being as a god, demon, elemental, ghost, spectre, hekatonkhire, construct, fae, or Exalt, and will specify the type and Caste or Aspect of an Exalt. Alchemicals and any other form of previously unknown Exalt will result in a "No Match Found" notification, but will thereafter be incorporated into the Revealer's database. N.B.: This roll is not reflexive, and may not be activated without knowledge that the target is a supernatural creature of some sort.
• Penetrate any magics concealing a Lunar's tattoos
• Penetrate all Stealth Charms or other methods of magical concealment with victory on a contested Essence roll
• Treat all Charms used within range of perception as Obvious
• Increase the host's MDV by one against Illusion effects.

These effects cannot be activated or deactivated individually. They must all be activated and deactivated at the same time.

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. In addition, at all times the Revealer of Secrets adds 2 bonus dice to all sight or sound-based Perception and Awareness rolls.

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