Ambisinister/WarpandWeft

Warp and Weft
Author ~ Ambisinister
Artifact Level ~ Two seperate level 5 artifacts
Type ~ Paired Starmetal Daggers
Commitment ~ 8 motes each

Warp and Weft are a pair of daggers reputedly forged just after the start of the Primordial Wars by the Maidens themselves. As the story goes, when the Incarna first decided to rebel, one of the first tasks assigned to the Maidens was to eliminate all of the gods related to the weaving of Fate that may have still been loyal to the Primordials. All of the defeated gods were forged into starmetal to be used in the creation of artifacts for the Maidens' chosen. The starmetal which was used to forge Warp and Weft is said to have come from the greatest of these gods.

The daggers are made almost entirely made of starmetal. The edges of the blades are the only exception, instead made of starmetal alloyed with threads from Fate. The hilts are wrapped in leather made from the very skin of the Maidens. Finally, the daggers have had their names and purposes inlaid into their tangs using a lacquer whose base is comprised of light from all 25 of the major constellations. The weapons have a very simple and elegant appearance. Each is approximately two feet long from tip to pommel. The blades are single edged and slightly curved. About a third of the way up the blade, on the back, is a sharp, backwards curving hook. The leather wrapping the hilts changes color based on which constellations are pirmary in the sky. The interior edge of Warp's hook is sharpened, whereas Weft's is left dull. There is a single hearthstone setting in the pommel of each weapon.

Warp and Weft were created to be wielded by the greatest of the Maiden's chosen. Originally, each house had possession of the daggers for a single season before they were passed on. The last documented use of the blades was during Usurpation. They were in the possession of Relentless Gale, the Deceptive Mirror, a Chosen of Endings. Gale's Solar Liege, in a fit of desperation, overloaded his manse causing a massive explosion. The entire structure was ripped to pieces, destroying the very demense which lent it power. The ground sunk beneath the site leaving only a rubble filled crater. Relentless Gale, and Warp and Weft, were never seen again. Gale has yet to re-incarnate and astrologers have been unable to locate his shard.

stats: Warp
melee
Spd +12 Acc +4 Dam +8L Def +1
PC:Spd +2 Acc +4 Dam +9L Def +1 Rate 7

thrown
Acc +4 Dam +8L range 20 rate 2
PC:Acc +4 Dam +9L range 20 rate 1

Weft
melee
Spd +12 Acc +1 Dam +6L Def +4
PC:Spd +2 Acc +1 Dam +7L Def +4 Rate 7

thrown
Acc +1 Dam +6L range 20 rate 2
PC:Acc +1 Dam +7L range 20 rate 1

Both daggers have the following powers:

• <i>Tool of the Maidens-Once formed, attunement to Warp and Weft can only be ended by the will of the Maidens.
• Auspicious-Warp and Weft contain thread from Fate and are permanetly blessed with good luck. As a result, the TN of all attacks and parries made with the blades are reduced by one. In addition, all attacks against the wielder are at +1 difficulty. Finally, reduce all post soak damage done to the wielder by one, this may reduce damage to zero.
• Landscape of the Loom-The wielder may spend an action to roll perception + craft(fate) to see if a target is currently being inlfluence by astrology. For each success the character can identify an astrological effect or the presence of the dark fate, lucky, unlucky, destiny, or cursed merits/flaws. Additional successes may be used to determine the relative strength of the above phenomenon.
• Threads of Fate-Warp and Weft are forever intertwined with the Threads of Fate and may exert some measure of control over them. So long as the user can see them, he may reflexively call them back to his hand.

In addition Warp may:

• Cut Destiny-Warp may be used to snare and sever the strands of Destiny. By spending a number of motes equal to the target's essence and succeeding at a essence + craft(fate)roll (In order to make the above roll, the character must first strike the target's weave. This is a difficulty 3 attack roll. If capable, the target may attempt to parry at +2 difficulty.)with a difficulty equal to the target's essence, the wielder may perform one of the following:
  
  • Sever Astrology-May immediately end a single astrological effect on the target. In this case the difficulty of the roll is equal to the astrologer's essence.
    
  • Remove From Fate- May place a target outside of Fate. This lasts for 15 - (the targets essence) in months. It also generates one paradox.
    
  • Sever Thread- If the target is an extra or object with no script immunity, the character severs its weave destroying it outright. This simply requires the expediture of 1 mote of essence, no roll is neccessary.

and Weft may:

• Weave Destiny-Weft may be used to snare and weave the strands of Destiny. By spending a number of motes equal to the target's essence and succeeding at a essence + craft(fate)roll (

In order to make the above roll, the character must first strike the target's weave. This is a difficulty 3 attack roll. If capable, the target may attempt to parry at +2 difficulty.)with a difficulty equal to the target's essence, the wielder may perform one of the following:

• • Weave Astrology-May create a limited astrological effect with a scope of 1 person and a duration which cannot exceed one week. Use successes on the roll to buy effect and duration as if using standard Sidereal astrology. Should the wielder decide to craft a longer lasting fate based on the one he already created, he is at +5 dice, so long as the effect is still active at the time of his petition. This effect generates 3 paradox.
    
  • Entangle in Destiny- May bring a target outside of Fate into Fate. This lasts for 15 - (the targets essence) in months. This generates 1 paradox

Finally, if both weapons are attuned the wielder is given access to the following powers:

• Blessed by Mercury-If the blades are ever lost or stolen, they will find their way back to their attuned user. This will happen within a week's time. Depending on the circumstances of their disappearance, this may require heavy work on the part of the Pattern Spiders and can result in the accumulation of 1-3 paradox at the story teller's discretion.
• Blessed by Jupiter-While attuned to Warp and Weft the users attempts and stealth and misdirection always count as charm aided. In addition, reduce the TN of all rolls which pertain to deceit, deception, or misdirection by one.
• Blessed by Venus-Warp and Weft can be dematerialized as a relexive action on the part of the wielder. By spending a full round concentrating, the wielder may turn himself dematerial. He must spend another full round to materialize again. (need a more appropriate power)
• Blessed by Mars-While wielding Warp and Weft ignore the off-hand penalty. In addition, the first six actions made using Warp and Weft suffer no multiple action penalties.
• Blessed by Saturn-When rolling damage, double 10's. The character's damage pool may not be reduced below his permenant essence+3.

Comments

Nice. These feel strong, even for a 5. VEry nice though. 12, certainly.
-- Darloth

Even if their power level were spot on, which I'll get to later, these are FAR too complicated and long-winded. You can condense most of these powers into bullet-points and a sentence or so instead of huge lists of permacharms. That's not only hard to read and annoying, it makes them seem like a collection of Charms rather then Artifacts. Which isn't what you want, I don't think.

As for their power level, they're just a bit too strong. No specific power, but just how MANY they have. I have some issues with a few and I'll specify.

• Tool of the Maidens - good.
• Auspicious - what is the TN modifier? Otherwise, good.
• Landscape of the Loom - I'd be tempted to count an item granting this power as a strong level 3 or a weak level 4 depending on the prelevence of astrology in the chronicle. It's very, very good and almost merits its own artifact.
• Threads of Fate - seems alright but how does this work when they're first summoned? You summon a thread as a diceless (reflexive?) action and can it instantly attack or defend? That's four instant reflexive, diceless attacks per combat. That's pretty sweet, but I don't think it's what you're after. This whole power is really quite confusing. Do the threads just act as weapons that can be mentally controlled or are they like Arms of the Abyss from Vampire, able to act independently of the character? This one needs cleaning up.
• Mercury - Good
• Jupiter - How much is the TN reduction? 1? Gotta specify.
• Venus - This one looks a bit strong, since it gives two Spirit Charms with no mote cost. And also a Solar Charm.
• Mars - Very nice, very strong.
• Saturn - Really, really nice. Also really, really strong.
• Cut Astrology - Pretty strong, depending on your game, man.
• Remove from Fate - This one, I think, is TOO strong considering how rule-less being outside of Fate is and how powerful it can be in certain circumstances.
• Cut Thread - While mostly fluff, this power is actually really strong in the game context. Deathlords have this power.
• Weave Astrology - If only Astrology were this simple...but since it's not, this is damn, damn powerful.
• Entangle - A hugely potent effect since it opens up a whole host of targets to all sorts of other effects. Truly nasty.

Basically any, say, FIVE of these 14 powers would make an excellent level 5 weapon. Maybe if Warp and Weft were level 5 Artifacts EACH and each had about HALF these powers they'd be alright...maybe. But you've just got so much stuff crammed in here I'd have to slap a Level N/A on these. They're basically every effect a Sidereal Warrior or Astrologer or, hell, ANY sidereal could ever want in his artifacts. They combine so many other high-end powers that they're just blown way beyond anything else. These are totally Mantle of Brigid level right now.

I'm not saying they're bad, they're not. But you're trying to fit too much in them. Several of these powers would make awesome Daiklave powers on their own and a few are good non-combat artifacts. And in each case, it's a level 3 or 4 effect. That many level 3's and 4's is too much for a single level 5. - Telgar

I suspected they might be beyond the cuff of a single level five artifact. Instead of short changing myself I decided to put everything in and decide to sort later. First off,now that you mention it, my formatting is irritating, I'll have to remedy that. On to power-level.

So here's what I'm thinking, make each dagger a seperate artifact with an attunement cost of 8. Each blade will have Tool of the Maidens, Landscape of the Loom, Auspicious, and its unique powers. If you attune both blades you get access to the Five Maidens Blessings. Actual power fixes below:

• Regards TN, it's -1 on both accounts, I just forgot to put them in.
  
• Landscape of the Loom:This is the extreme extrapolation that I reached when I considered what it would be like if you could see destiny. Really, all a character needs is to be able to percieve Destinies and astrological effects on a person so they could cut and/or interact with them. So we reduce the power to that level.
• Threads of Fate: So the way these work: It's a diceless action to summon each one. Once summoned, they must be wielded. You could, say, split your action 6 ways to summon thread, summon thread, attack, attack, attack, attack. The exception is that once summoned you get a single full pool action with ONE thread a round, regardless of how many are around. I thought these would be a cool power to have, but in the end, maybe they should be a seperate artifact. So we just keep the reflexive return to hand bit.
  
• The Five Maidens Blessings: I'm really happy with mars,jupiter, and mercury. Saturn may be on the strong side and I debated whether or not to make Saturn's blessing one or the other. As for Venus, I couldn't think of a really suitable power to put here. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'm game.
  
• Warp and Weft's Unique Powers- The intent was that Warp could cut threads and Weft could weave them. When I tried to come up with a mechanic, that's the first thing that popped in mind. What I want is the feel and color such powers lend them. The mechanical translation may be a little rough. I've amended the above rules to reflect some of these changes.

Of course, the other option is slap an N/A on the bastards, refine them a little and leave them as is. We'll see how I feel when the nerfed versions are commplete.-Ambisinister

I'm fairly happy with them now, though the unique powers of weaving and cutting fate and still sorta iffy mechanically. I know how hard it is sometimes to translate cool ideas into annoying crunch. As two level 5's that form a set with increased powers, they seem balanced and useful. I would suggest creating a level 3 artifact that summons the Threads and a level 3-4 with the old Landscape of the Loom. Those are good ideas. You know I keep wanting to call you Abminister. - Telgar

Oddly, so do I.
-- Darloth

That's not that odd, I am, after all, the Minister of Abdomens. Every time anyone, anywhere does a cruch or situp, it's like the turning of a prayer wheel to me. Thanks to fitness celebrities I have a level 4 cult providing some nice essence and willpower gain. It's also raised the status of my god-hood and my salary has gone up. Not a bad gig. I'm hoping to challenge for Daimyo-ship once my influence gets a little higher.

At any rate, having had time to look things over, I think I am happier with this version than the original. I don't want them to be N/A and they haven't lost any of the color and flavor that sparked their development. Just need a better power for Venus's Blessing and to tighten the Cut and Weave Destiny mechanics. - AmbisinisterThe Ab Minister

Shouldn't you be off getting a six-pack to increase your godly powers rather then writting Aritfacts? - Telgar

I too have always read your name as abminister. - TheHoverpope

Moved from another conversation Hmmm, I was hoping you (GregLink implied) could help me out. I'm a little stymied on some mechanical solutions over at Level 5 Artifacts. If you've got any ideas to help me out in my trouble spots (as indicated in the comments section) That'd be great.-Ambisinister

Ambi - Much to your chagrin, I've got to say that Warp and Weft are beyond my ken. While I could probably sit down with you, and in about two hours, get them down to maybe 2 paragraphs each, it'd require some real mangling. As much as Telgar believes that coolness is key, I'm also a fan of the S&S rules, as they allow one to deal with situations like these. Sure, the mechanical effects of S&S are dry, but at least they're solvable in linear time. Warp and Weft? Those things are beyond even a second-circle demon to solve quickly. My honest recommendation is to tri them down, heavily. Much as some of the artifacts atAmbisinister/SandSArtifacts are dry collections of quick and simple abilities, there needs to be a way to do that with Warp and Weft too. You just shouldn't need more than two paragraphs for a single artifact. At that point, it stops being cool, and starts being a hodgepodge of powers. Think of it like a Tricorder. Sure, Tricorders can do umpteen things, but you never hear about them. Instead, Tricorders allow the player to make an Awareness roll on any effect within 50 yards, regardless of whether that effect would normally be detectable or not. In addition, a Tricorder can serve as an appropriate tool for any computer or electronic related task. Two sentences, to describe how cool a Tricorder is. Sure, you lose a bit in the translation, especially fun things like how you can scan people to compare their genomes and .... But at the end of the day, your ST should allow you to make an Awareness roll on their internals to compare, and poof. The trick is figuring out a simple mechanic that will cover 90% of the situations, and word the other 10% as fluff text and let the ST handle it from there. Other examples include the Circlet of Cleanliness, or whatever it is. It doesn't give you +2 on any situation that you would normally be dirty on. It doesn't lower the TN of cleaning rolls. It just makes you clean. End of story. -- GregLink

As it is probably known, GregLink and I have highly divergent views of Artifacts. I believe that these Artifacts can still be condensed and straighted up but they don't need to fit into two paragraphs. Most of MINE do, but not all. And I disagree 100% on GregLink's assertion that Warp and Weft need to be converted to S&S style rules. They are just not that sort of Artifact at all. They're MY sort of Artifacts, the cool ones. Not the collections of statlines. Now, I will attempt to offer some helpful hints on retinkering these thingies to the Ab Minister....and looking at them again I think I'll just re-write them as I would have written them and post that on another page for you to pick over for anything you like. - Telgar

Oh Telgar, before I lose all credibility, much as you once caught me for putting words in your mouth, I now catch you for putting words in mine. By no means do I think these should be S&S'ed. I'm just saying that's the only reason to keep S&S around - to provide a metric of power by which something can be measured. I'm saying that these can and should be storytold, much as your artifacts are. I'm just saying that a dense enough story should be able to fit the mechanics into two paragraphs. Any more than that and it's too much to internalize easily. -- GregLink

Sorry if I put words into your mouth but your post seemed to say that you thought these Artifacts should by SSified. As to the two paragraphs thing, I'm gunna have to disagree and point you at a number of my Artifacts which I've done my best to condense and simply can't condense any further despite them being 4 or 5 paragraphs long. True, I have only a single level 5 Artifact that required its own subpage, but still I often hit 3-4 paragraphs when getting into level 4 Artifacts or Artifacts with a rather complicated functionality. Sometimes two paragraphs just isn't enough space for both clarity and completeness. - Telgar

Are we talking more than 2 paragraphs of fluff, or mechanics here, to be precise? -- GregLink, locked in an eternal struggle with Telgar, 90% of which is merely syntactical in nature...

I interweave fluff with mechanics, since to me they're much the same thing. So both. Really the only one where I've seperated things out specifically was Artifacts/TelgarFlyingCrane because it was rather intricate in design. In other artifacts, it's as long as it is long, I've reduced it to what I consider essential. - Telgar

I've re-written these thingies over on Artifacts/WarpAndWeft. Hope those give you some ideas. - Telgar