Artifacts/IkselamFiveDot
Ikselam's Level Five Artifacts
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Compass of the Heart's True Desire
Artifact ••••• Starmetal compass Commitment: 4 (starmetal)
The Compass of the Heart's True Desire was constructed by a First-Age Sidereal magus who, despite his great power and learning, found that true contentment consistently eluded him. It took him one hundred years to gather the components needed to construct the Compass, and another century to forge it. Once it was completed, he immediately set out alone, on a voyage into the uttermost North. He was never heard from again. Years later, a group of Solar adventurers found his derelict airship drifting among the flying icebergs of the Northern Wyld, from which they retrieved the Compass and many other potent artifacts.
Once a character commits 4 motes to this elegant starmetal compass, its needle infallibly points toward the place, person, or thing which will lead to his or her complete happiness. If at any time the Compass becomes deattuned, the character can never again use it, in this life or any other.
[#MuteRequiem] Mute Requiem
Artifact ••••• Soulsteel grand daiklave Speed -3 Accuracy +3 Damage +11L Defense +0 (including material bonus) Speed +10 Accuracy +2 Damage +12L Defense -1 Rate 3 (PowerCombat, excluding material bonus) Commitment: 8 (soulsteel), plus hearthstone
This soulsteel grand daiklave is an ultimate weapon created by the Pharaoh Who Dreams of Unbroken Silence. It is currently wielded by Hollow Elegy, a powerful Abyssal Exalted in the Pharaoh's service. Both daiklave and deathknight have been known for less than a year, but their infamy has already spread far and wide, and many heroes have been struck down by the frigid black blade and its eerily silent wielder.
The Mute Requiem has the same specifications as a normal grand daiklave. Its surface is matte-black, rimed with delicate traceries of frost. Unlike most soulsteel weapons, it absorbs sound rather than emitting it. A sphere of total silence, twenty yards in radius, extends from the blade at all times. Within this zone, the air is totally still; vibrations of any kind are completely muffled, and even the fiercest of winds are snuffed out instantly as they reach the perimeter. No sound made outside the sphere can penetrate into it, and nothing inside the sphere produces sound of any kind. This extends to sounds and vibrations transmitted through the earth or other materials (taut strings and the like), and even magical spells or Charms. The penalty for fighting blind doubles within the sphere of silence, and Charms or other abilities which work by sensing or producing sound or air movement will not function.
Sound is not the only thing absorbed by the daiklave. To a being with the ability to sense Essence flows, the Mute Requiem is surrounded by a huge whirlpool of Essence, spiralling into the black blade and vanishing like water down a drain. Anyone within the zone of silence will feel this effect, as the very life-force is drawn out of their bodies. Characters lose one mote from their Essence pools for each turn spent inside the zone (peripheral goes first), and suffer +1 to the difficulty of all actions as numbing lethargy spreads through their limbs. In addition, any being with an Essence score reduces it by one while they are within twenty yards of Mute Requiem. This is a true reduction, and affects the victim's Essence pool, their ability to use and withstand Charms, and anything else for which the permanent Essence score is used.
Curiously, the Mute Requiem seems to affect death Essence even more strongly; ghosts and the undead lose two motes per turn, take all actions at +2 difficulty, and lose two points of permanent Essence while inside the area of effect. These increased penalties do not apply to Abyssal Exalted, although Deathlords are affected.
If Mute Requiem reduces a character's Essence to zero or below, that character immediately begins losing points of Stamina at a rate of one per turn. When their Stamina reaches zero, they die, their soul completely consumed by the frigid blade. The only way to stop the Stamina drain is to move outside the zone of silence; lost Stamina dots return at the rate of one per turn as long as the character's Essence is above zero. If Essence has been reduced to zero, Stamina loss will continue at a slower rate: one point per day rather than per turn.
Essence dots lost to Mute Requiem are harder to reclaim. They do not immediately reappear after exiting the sword's sphere of influence; rather, victims may roll their remaining permanent Essence once each day (starting the day after they exited the zone of silence), keeping a running tally of the successes. Willpower and/or Virtues may be used on this roll as normal. Raising one's Essence back to its normal level requires a number of successes equal to twice the character's normal Essence score. Thus, raising Essence from one back to two would require four successes, while regaining one's fifth dot would require a total of ten successes. On a botch, the Essence reduction becomes permanent and may only be remedied through the expenditure of experience points.
None of the penalties detailed above apply to the Mute Requiem's wielder, except for the silence effect.
Mute Requiem drains motes from a target on a successful hit, just as a normal soulsteel weapon does. All such motes are consumed by the blade. Anyone killed by Mute Requiem will not leave a ghost behind. Spirits and ghosts killed by it are permanently dead.
The daiklave has settings for four hearthstones, but only three of them provide any benefit to the wielder. The fourth feeds Essence directly into the daiklave. Mute Requiem will immediately become dormant if no hearthstones are connected to it. In this state, it is no more than a large, unwieldy chunk of what appears to be wrought iron.
Mute Requiem requires a commitment of 8 motes.
Scarab of Unparalleled Health
Artifact ••••• Orichalcum scarab Commitment: 8 (orichalcum)
The Solar physician Jora Sen-Sera was renowned throughout Creation for his knowledge of medicine and the many different scarab-shaped artifacts he created, all of them designed to promote good health. The Scarab of Unparalleled Health was his greatest invention, created for his only child, Juna Sai-Sera. When the girl was born, she was sickly and weak; Jora's diagnosis revealed that she had less than a year to live. Both he and his wife, the Lunar Exalted Perspicacious Owl, were desperate to save the child, and immediately turned their tremendous wisdom and learning to finding a method to extend the infant's life.
Finally, after twelve months of intensive research and construction, Jora was forced to test a prototype artifact on his daughter, who was at death's door. Happily, the Scarab of Unparalleled Health proved even more effective than he had hoped, and Juna became completely healthy overnight. As the years passed, she grew up into a vivacious, intelligent woman, eventually Exalting into the Waxing Moon Caste and bringing much honor and happiness to her parents with her numerous deeds of bravery and kindness.
The Scarab of Unparalleled Health is a large orichalcum scarab, roughly the size of an average woman's palm. Its legs are each tipped with inch-long needles. When activated with the commitment of 8 motes and placed on a person's sternum, the scarab's belly immediately sinks through the skin and melds with the breastbone, anchoring itself securely to the wearer. The needles then plunge into the wearer's body, piercing into the aorta and five auspicious essence centers.
At this point, the scarab's effects begin to be felt. The first needle begins introducing tiny golden motes into the wearer's bloodstream, while the other five bring the essence flows of her body into harmony. The motes quickly circulate throughout her veins, and allow the scarab to instantaneously diagnose any illness or injury she may suffer. The scarab can then command the motes to move to the place they are most needed and begin repairing the damage and stimulating the wearer's body to heal with the maximum possible efficiency. The essence-balancing effect aids in this, as well as granting significant protection against disease, poisoning, and various harmful energies.
In game terms, the scarab's wearer heals lethal and bashing damage at ten times the normal rate, and aggravated damage at twice the normal rate; these multipliers apply in full to magical effects which erase damage, but not to those which simply convert damage of type to another (so a Lunar with Wound-Knitting Power would heal 10L per turn instead of 1L, but could not use Mother's Touch to convert 10L to 10B for only 3 motes). She also becomes totally immune to disease, up to and including the Great Contagion, and receives three automatic successes on any roll to resist poison. The duration of any poison-inflicted dice pool penalty is also halved.
The scarab also fortifies the character's body, insuring that she remains in good condition. While wearing the scarab, none of the character's Physical Attributes can be permanently reduced below two. If she normally has a ranking below two, the scarab increases it to two. Furthermore, the essence-balancing effect also increases the difficulty of any attempt to drain the wearer's essence, or magically reduce her Attributes, by +1.
Finally, some of the scarab's powers can be briefly conferred upon others. If a character drinks a small amount of the wearer's blood, the golden motes will enter his own bloodstream and retain their curative effects as long as his skin is touching hers. Characters receiving this treatment heal lethal and bashing damage at five times the normal rate (again, this muliplier applies to magic healing), and receive a single automatic success on any roll to resist poison or disease.
Wearing the Scarab of Unparalleled health is permanent; it cannot be removed without killing the wearer, and if the eight motes powering it ever become decommitted, the golden motes will swiftly accumulate in the heart, clogging it up and killing her within minutes. The person to whom the scarab is attuned need not be the one who wears it; transferring attunement from one person to another will not cause the wearer to die.
[#KeeningEdge] Transcendent Glory of Dawn, the Keening Edge
Artifact ••••• Orichalcum and glass daiklave Speed +5 Accuracy +3 Damage +7L Defense +3 (excluding material bonus) Speed +9 Accuracy +3 Damage +9L Defense +3 Rate 5 (PowerCombat, excluding material bonus) Commitment: 5, orichalcum
This elegant, straight-bladed daiklave is fashioned out of orichalcum and adamant glass; slim and delicate in design, it is substantially less bulky than most daiklaves, though not much shorter. The razor-sharp crystal edge is faceted like an chipped-obsidian blade, scintillating with rainbows when the light strikes it.
Transcendent Glory of the Dawn was forged as a weapon against the Fair Folk. The blade emits a constant hum, just on the edge of hearing; when it is held ready for conflict, it begins to sing in a forgotten Old Realm dialect. The achingly beautiful melody perfectly accentuates the weapon's movements, plotting out the course of the battle even as its loveliness breaks the hearts of all who hear it. All creatures within earshot take a dice penalty to all actions equal to their Compassion + 2. Fair Folk double this penalty, and must fail a reflexive Compassion check each turn in order to act; otherwise, they stand transfixed by the song's beauty, completely unable to act, or indeed to perceive anything besides the beautiful sound. Beings who have no sense of hearing, or no emotions, do not suffer this penalty, nor do the wielder's allies.
The rhythm of the song follows the flow of battle. A skilled wielder can take advantage of this fact, synchronizing her movements to the melody. Doing so imposes a dice penalty equal to the wielder's Performance (plus any specialties relating to dance) upon attacks made against her, as the sword's song guides her smoothly out of harm's way. This penalty does not apply to undodgeable attacks.
Transcendent Glory of the Dawn possesses a mind and soul of its own, and is a god among swords. When mortal weapons behold it, they immediately abase themselves. The first time Transcendent Glory of the Dawn is drawn in a scene, all nonmagical bladed weapons within sight of it automatically drop from their weilders' hands, just as if they had been the targets of successful disarm attempts. They can be retrieved as normal, but will shatter if they come into contact with the daiklave -- mortal blades would rather sacrifice themselves than risk harming its beauty. Even magical edged weapons respect Transcendent Glory of the Dawn; the difficulty of any attack made against it (and by extension, its wielder) is increased by the number of dots by which the artifact's rating falls short of 5. For example, a regular 2-dot daiklave would suffer a +3 difficulty penalty (5-2=3). These powers apply to bladed weapons only.
Unfortunately, Transcendent Glory of the Dawn has suffered great tragedy. During the Usurpation, it could not protect its mistress from the Dragon-Blooded's onslaught, and spent centuries locked up in an underground tomb stewing in its grief and sense of failed duty. It is now consumed with grief and anger, which only the touch of the one who bears its original owner's Exaltation can assuage.
If wielded by the Solar Exalted who is the reincarnation of its First Age mistress, the daiklave has all the powers listed above. However, if wielded by anyone else, it becomes greatly distraught, filled with fear and anger and desiring only to return to its rightful owner's hand. Its song becomes a keening wail of woe and rage, which strikes fear into all who hear it.
In this state, the sword's song becomes sad and terrifying. Its mechanical effects remain the same; its song of suffering is still beautiful, though it is an angry, frightening beauty. As long as it is fully attuned, its wielder can prevent the song from affecting his allies. If he is not fully attuned (i.e., is not receiving the orichalcum material bonus), the song affects everyone except him. The sword will also continue to sing at the top of its voice even when sheathed, unless special measures (very heavy wrappings, special wards, etc.) are taken to silence it.
The song still plots out the course of battle, but in a different way; when separated from its mistress, Transcendent Glory of the Dawn wishes for nothing but to hurl itself into combat, drowning its sorrow in blood. Any attempts to defend against attacks made with it suffer a penalty equal to its wielder's Performance, if he follows the song's urging. This replaces the normal defensive power.
In its heartbroken state, the daiklave deeply resents being drawn, and is prone to lash out violently. Only the taste of blood can mitigate this. If any wielder besides its rightful one attempts to sheathe it, he must make a Willpower check at a difficulty of his own Valor, or go berserk as the sword's sorrow and anger overwhelm his senses. This has the same effects as the Solar Charm, Bloodthirsty Sword-Dancer spirit, but without the ability to distinguish friend from foe; the character attacks whoever is nearest him, regardless of who they are. If the sword tastes at least one health level of human blood, or the life blood of a large animal such as a cow, it is momentarily appeased; it can be sheathed with no trouble within the next three turns. If it takes a human life, it can be sheathed at any time in the remainder of the scene.
This artifact has settings for two hearthstones.
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Comments
I am not totally happy with the game effects of the Scarab of Unparalleled Health. Any suggestions as to how I might streamline/improve its powers are welcome. _Ikselam
Hi again. Remember me?
Not sure what to do about the Scarab; I'll think about it.
On Mute Requiem. It's an awesome daiklave, and I'm aware it's a level 5, but the fact that it can kill spirits permanently seems a little extreme. I mean, it already kills / destroys every mortal and ghost that doesn't get out of its range in time, gives everyone a -1 or a -2, etc ... I mean, it even reduces the Essence scores of everyone including Deathlords and gods, sometimes permanently. I think it really does do quite enough without also being able to destroy little gods permanently. Plus, the power seems kind of out of line with the rest of the weapon -- it's nasty against Death Essence, and spirits are the incarnations of Creation-centered, living forces.
~ Shataina
It permakills any kind of sentient Essence matrix (e.g., ghosts, gods, elementals, demons) because it's almost literally an extension of the Mouth of the Void (which is the reason it's especially good at consuming death Essence); it's like a black hole as far as Essence is concerned. Heck, ever since I wrote it, I've been thinking of saying that it will permanently destroy Exaltations. _Ikselam
Yikes!
Wow, that's pretty hardcore.
Maybe if you do that you could make it an artifact N/A? Not that I'd personally let any players take it at chargen if it was that powerful anyway, even if they did have 5 Artifact, but it does seem rather more along the lines of N/A than 5 if it's going to be that horrifying. :)
~ Shataina
It's a horrifying power, all right, but it's a horrifying power which has no in-game effect. The horrifying powers which do have mechanical effects are pretty badass, but I wouldn't say they're N/A level. The Essence-reducing thing is the only big one (unless you happen to be an Air-Aspected DB, in which case virtually all of your powers stop functioning within the zone of silence), and that can be gotten around pretty easily by just not closing to under 20 yards of the sword. The weapon is a nightmare for close-range fighters, due to all the penalties it slaps on them, but doesn't really do anything to inconvenience ranged attackers.
In my little fantasy world, this drawback is largely compensated for by the fact that Mute Requiem is wielded by an Essence 6 Abyssal (see the Pharaoh's writeup). But in the hands of the average player, I don't think it would be totally overpowering. In certain situations, it would be dramatically more effective than Soul Mirror, but its powers are also less broadly-applicable than Soul Mirror's. _Ikselam
Sorry, I think I was unclear. I was saying that if you have Mute Requiem revoke Exaltations, maybe then it should be an artifact N/A.
Also, perhaps I misunderstood the description, but doesn't it say that all beings with an Essence score have 1 taken away (and if this brings it to 0, they start dying)? So, since mortals have an Essence score of 1, doesn't it kill all mortals within its range fairly quickly? And since it subtracts 2 from ghosts and then starts killing them, doesn't it also kill most ghosts? That's a really nasty in-game effect ...
I'm also a firm believer in making artifacts with the potential to do really powerful things high-level -- thus, since Mute Requiem has the potential to permanently reduce the Essence of say, Mask of Winters, I'd call it level 5 just for that. But that's probably just a difference of opinion.
~ Shataina
It doesn't look like it can revoke Exaltations, though it's certainly capable, through repeated encounters, of eroding an Exalted soul away; it's just a strong soul-eating effect. Frightening, and worth Artifact 5.
As for the mook-killing effect, that's what that is. It kills anyone who's not important. It's approximately as nasty as Glorious Carnage Typhoon or that Solar Archery bit. Who gives a {whatever}?
- willows
Mortals and beings with Essence 1 aren't always stupid and unimportant, though. Like that magical race in Creatures of the Wyld -- umm, apheliotropes maybe? And it does the same thing to death-aspected creatures with Essence 2. I wouldn't call these things necessarily mere "mooks".
The description of the artifact doesn't say it can revoke Exaltations, you're right. But Ikselam mentioned that he might decide that it could, so I suggested that if he does decide that it can, then in that case, it should perhaps become N/A.
~ Shataina
It wouldn't "revoke" Exaltation, it would just destroy the Exalted soul of anyone it slew (along with all other parts of their soul). So there'd be an empty drawer in Lytek's cabinet, and no one would ever Exalt with that particular spark again; a huge deal in the game world, but not so much from an OOC perspective.
Yes, it's pretty murderous against any Essence 1 creatures (or Essence 2 ghosts) caught within its area of effect. You wouldn't even have to go through the extra step where it consumes the ghosts of people it's killed, since people it kills don't leave ghosts. So swarming its wielder with extras would be even less effective than usual. Not really all that worse than the Crown of Thunder's effects, in my eyes.
I don't think the permanent Essence reduction thing is worth worrying about. The reduction is only permanent on a botched recovery roll, a roll on which Willpower expenditure is explicitly allowed. Only a total nimrod would fail to spend Willpower on this roll, unless he happened to have zero temporary Willpower at the time -- which is very unlikely, since the rolls start the day after you leave the area of effect (meaning you'll probably get to rest and regain wp in the interim, even if you don't do any 2+ stunts or use wacky Charms or whatever to recharge your wp). Even then, it only occurs on a botch, the chances of which are pretty low (especially for high-Essence people like Mask of Winters). _Ikselam
(cross-edited with roger) To your first point: No, not always, but it's a convention of the game and a consequence of the system that positions of power and influence flow to Essence-manipulating beings, as a result of their clearly superior abilities! Any exception to this tendency is this: an exception. Its ghost-eating power isn't that scary to me; ghosts have pretty good access to Essence 2, and Abyssals are generally unafraid of them (thay have many beating-on-ghosts abilities); it seems like a natural extension of the weapon's abilities.
I agree with Ikselam that abilities with no in-game effect shouldn't be figured into an artifact's cost, regardless of how frightening they are in the setting. - willows
I don't really have a problem with the Essence-1-being-killing-effect, honestly. I mean, it's a level 5, it should do things like that. I was just citing it because Ikselam said that Mute Requiem doesn't have any "big" powers except for the Essence-reducing one. Obviously, though, the question of whether almost automatically killing all Essence-1 beings in a 20-yard radius is a "big" power is just another matter of opinion. (Lots of those today ... :)
I wouldn't say that destroying an Essence permanently has "no in-game effect", considering that you could make Solars extinct after maybe 10 years of jihad if you had a powerful full Circle and your Deathlord's armies at your back. But I do get your point.
Many thanks to both of you, especially Ikselam, for answering my questions and having patience. :)
~ Shataina
you could make Solars extinct after maybe 10 years of jihad
Well, yeah. If you read my writeup of the Deathlord associated with this item, it should be pretty clear that he intends to do something along these lines. Although since he's outgrown the "Enemy of All Who Live" stage, and is well into the "Enemy of All Which Exists" one, he probably wouldn't stop with just Solars.
_Ikselam
I've heard that some games handle PC death by having the same shard reincarnated to create the player's new character. Mute Requiem would put some hurting on that approach. - Quendalon
A spiffy effect would be to have the shard flee in terror as the Exalt in question is brought down to essence 0. Flying off to save itself, and only having it re-incarnate in someone after a long time of nurturing up in Yu-Shan. And as a fun Side effect in game, have the player that receives the new shard have nightmares about the previous bearer's death, and no other dreams of a past life. -EndlessChase
Re: Scarab effects I'm not quite up on my Medicine-fu, but I'll take a shot at a suggestion or two. As a disclaimer, I'm unsure if you want to streamline/improve the mechanics or the "effect" so I'll offer a bit of both.
I realize this might be a bit of a cop out, but you might consider mimicking/adapting Wound-Knitting Power or other health charms to fit the Scarab's effects. (You could have it heal "X"L/"Y"B a round or some such). I like the idea of accelerated healing, but stackable 10x Normal Rate seems slightly underpowered for Level Five. Perhaps you could have the Scarab gradually convert health levels from agg. to lethal to bashing, set a rate and a limit (say, the Scarab converts the only worst damage in the system before moving on to lesser injuries), and then have it insta-heal a number of health levels per period (probably a round or a minute) once all damage has been reduced to Bashing. Then again, that might be to complicated. Another option along this line might somehow involve the 8 golden motes in the body. Maybe the can temporarily be "used" to insta-heal a health level and their use returns after a certain period of time.
If you're looking for less mechanics (which I doubt, but I'm hedging my bets here), perhaps the Scarab prevents limbs from being fully severed, as thin golden insectoid legs slowly drag the lost appendage back into place. Or maybe the Scarab glows or hums as its bearer suffers damage. It'd be neat if the user's blood was speckled with gold, or if miniscule orichalcum filigree floated upon its surface or somesuch. - EJGRgunner
You might want to clarify whether the distraught singing sword -always- sings in its scabbard, or only if the wielder isn't fully attuned. To me at least the wording could indicate either.
--Darloth
Unless you happen to be its rightful owner, it sings all the time. Even full attunement won't make it shut up; it just lets you choose who is targeted by the mechanical effects of the song. If you want it to be quiet, you need special wards, heavy wrappings, and so forth. _Ikselam
So you could carry Mute Requiem in one hand and Trascendent Glory in the other? :P -LiOfOrchid
Well, MR is a grand daiklave, so probably not. And several of TG's powers wouldn't work, while its disadvantage would still apply. _Ikselam
I just want to say that I think Transcendent Glory of Dawn really, really rocks -Fade
