DarkPhoenix/RoninsSakeJug

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Ronin's Sake Jug

Artifact 2

At first glance, the Ronin's Sake Jug might seem remarkably useless, as it's only obvious ability is to provide the bearer with alcohol, usually, as the name would suggest, sake, but there is more to this artifact than first seems. The Jug actually stores 5 motes of essence, which can be used in two different ways.

The first way is to convert 1 mote of essence into the alcohol the Jug is known for producing. If consumed, this alcohol restores half the users Essence score in motes, rounded down; or, alternatively, it can be used for alternate methods, as described under Masamune, the Bushido Blade for Banishing Blade.

The second, and more powerful, ability is to throw the Jug at ones enemies, 'detonating' it with a simple mental command. This counts as an attack, using the character's Dexterity + Thrown pool to determine whether it reached the desired destination. The actual explosion itself affects everything within x yards, causing 2*x dice of lethal damage, where x is the number of remaining motes stored in the Jug. This ability uses all remaining motes in the Jug, and cannot be used again until all 5 motes have been restored.

The owner can use this Jug to store motes of their own essence, which cannot be 'drunk' until they have had a full hour to settle; they can, however, be used for the second function. Additionally, the Jug regains a mote of essence for every hour it's not used, up to the maximum of 5. However, once Essence has been stored in the Jug by the character, they must wait an hour before those points can be consumed again.

The Jug has a single hearthstone setting, and the type of stone set into it changes the effects of the two abilities slightly, as below:

||Type||Drink produced||Explosion|| ||Fire||Tequilla||Pyro - Causes x Lethal damage, ignoring armour, and an additional 1 Lethal for x turns|| ||Water||Rum||Cryo - Causes x Lethal damage, encases victims in ice, that has x Health Levels|| ||Wind||Vodka||Sonic - Causes knockback of 2*x yards|| ||Earth||Whiskey||Concussion - Causes 2*x Bashing damage, target's dice diff's raised by 2 for a scene|| ||Wood||Wine||Poison - Roll Sta+Resistance for x turns. Failure yields 1 Lethal damage|| ||Solar||Yellow Tequilla||Pyro - Causes x Agg damage, ignoring armour, and an additional 1 Agg for x turns|| ||Lunar||150 Rum||Cryo - Causes x Lethal damage, encases victims in ice, that has 2*x Health Levels|| ||Sidereal||Russian Vodka||Sonic - Causes knockback of 4*x yards|| ||Abyssal||Dark Whiskey||Concussion - Causes 2*x Bashing damage, target's dice diff's raised by 4 for a scene|| ||Alchemical||Araoc||Poison - Roll Sta+Resistance for 2*x turns. Failure yields 1 Lethal damage||

Comments:

Very nice... just a few comments. First, if it uses Auron's pool specifically, how big is that pool? ^_^ (I suspect that's an error left from somewhere else - user's pool, right?)

Secondly, the essence-regeneration ability for drinking the alcohol seems a little strong. If it turns 1 mote into Essence motes, and can do so five times, then it's basically a 10m essence store for even an essence 2 character, and gets higher quite fast. That seems too much for a level 2 artifact with another useful ability. If you want to keep it as level 2, I'd have to suggest that one mote in equals one mote out... otherwise, I think I would put it as a level 3 artifact, and maybe up the commitment cost a bit.
-- Darloth

First,I agree completely about the essence-regen, Darloth. You're basically using a milder form of Essence-Gathering Temper without any of the potential pain. At most, it should be an essence battery, letting you store like Essencex2 or 3 or something in motes like a familiar or some such, while regenerating it yourself.
Second, when you throw the jug, I'm assuming its not destroyed. How does it return to the owner? I envision it getting blasted like debris back to the owner's hand, very 'coincidentally'.
Third, I have some comments about your liquor choices. For a Water hearthstone, how about gin? Its clear and clean, and has a far more 'cold' flavor and feel about it than rum. Then I have some big issues for the Celestial boozes... for such exotic hearthstones, they should be very exotic liquors.

• For Solars, instead of the rather low-brow and coarse tequila, I recommend mead, or honey wine. Golden in color, it's the drink used in many mythological tales as a heavenly beverage (also my personal favorite). Perfect for the highest of demigods. Unless you want it be more coarse, then I suggest goldschlager.
• For Lunar, I like the potency idea of the 150... but what if you jacked it up to everclear for sheer power, or to incorporate the shape-shifting illusionary natures of the Lunars... absinthe.
• Sidereals... vodka tends to be russian... even if its not made in russia, it originated from russia, russian is implied. Plus, there's no Russia in Creation. So what about, say, brandy or port? The mundane analogy to celestial wine, potent, flavorful, and still very very classy, just like them starfolk.
• Light whiskeys are still awful dark, aren't they? Let's think DARK for Abyssals. How about the licorice jagermeister? That's some rough stuff. Or, to reflect death... formaldehyde, the preferred sauce of zombies everywhere. Comes about naturally in the body after drinking wood alcohol, too. Another idea is to represent booze gone wrong... vinegar. I don't think that burns much, though. Would be excellent for chefs, though.
• Araoc? What is that? the chemical ArOAc? Is that p-nitrophenyl acetate? I don't know TOO much about chemistry, but sounds technical. Technical sounds good. However, you need a carbon with an -OH attached, I believe, to be an 'ethanol', the precise name of what we consume to get blitzed. So should we just call it 'ethyl alcohol' or 'isopropyl' or some other fancy chemical alcohol? Or, yeah, the Lebanese Araoc.
  

Wow, I took that way seriously. I guess I like booze. --UncleChu

Araoc is a Lebanese Alcohol, which, undiluted will kill you. Its made of Grapes and Aniseed, and when diluted with water, turns white. Its distilled 4-5 times, and is roughly 200 proof. Perfectly efficent for one wishes to get drunk in a hurry. How conveinient for an alchemical drink.
- ArabianNinja who provided the idea in the first place :P

Ah, perfect! Strange how a Googlin' didn't bring that up. It definitely gets a thumbs up from me, though, as it sounds rather exotic. Though, on the other hand, why do I feel the taste of grape and aniseed would be completely alien to an autochthonian? Perhaps they get sauced on some other ethanol, synthetically extracted from gasoline or found in one of Autochthon's many veins.--UncleChu

The stuff tastes like it could fuel somthing, think the stuff Seifer gives to Neo in the matrix, good for cleaning engine parts, and killing brain cells. - ArabianNinja googling probably didnt work cause its hard to put arabic into english letters properly.

Okay. First, the mention of Auron's pool was an error, which has since been corrected - the artifact was originally constructed for him. Second, I forgot to add a minor clause to the Jug's essence storing function stating it takes an hour before it can be consumed again - it was never meant to be an essence converter, but the ability to add essence back in was more to allow you to use it's explosion ability more than once every five hours. Thirdly, as for the Jug coming back, just use whatever you feel the most appropriate. If you feel it should return to it's owner's hands, then have it do so. During a game in which I used it - to cool a pool of lava no less - it was actually recovered by an Alchemical ally, swimming through the lava at the time. Finally, I've lowered the amount of essence that can be 'drunk' to half the character's permanent Essence, rounded down. If you guys feel this is still overpowered, then don't hesitate to let me know how, and thanks for the feedback. :D -DarkPhoenix
Ps. If you don't like the alcohols in question, use whatever you want; it has no real bearing on anything.

Wow, way to invalidate an hour's worth of thought. The fluff! The fluff! Describing stunts have no real bearing on anything! Describing the enemy you're fighting has no bearing on anything if you have his stats! Heck, why not just name it Artifact #3255? Harumph. Otherwise, I dig, just tryin' to be helpful. --UncleChu

I see your point... When the Jug is used as a grenade, it doesn't explode, but the essence stored inside it does. It doesn't return on it's own, but with an appropriate stunt, the character could have the Jug return to him without him having to go fetch it, otherwise it stays where it lands; alternaively, a character with appropriate Craft could redesign it slightly to have it return on its own (I have no idea about what stats would be needed, so whatever the Storyteller approves). Now, as for the Celestial alcohols, they were chosen purely to be 'upgraded' versions of the Terrestrial-level drinks, because their explosive effects are upgraded versions as well, but mechanically, it would make no difference should someone wish the Solar stone to produce mead. I admit I wasn't thinking too 'Exalted-esque' when I made my last comment, and I apologise for it. - DarkPhoenix