Ambisinister/TheSweetKissofRuin

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The Sweet Kiss of Ruin
Artifact Level ~ 5
Commitment ~ 10 motes

The Sweet Kiss of Ruin was forged from the Soulsteel pieces of a broken First Age weapon known as Coaltion's Wrath. For more of that story, please see The Legacy of Coalition's Wrath.

In its un-attuned state The Sweet Kiss of Ruin appears to be a pair of gloves fashioned from a very fine mail. The mail is a glossy grey material, similar to hematite. If the gloves are worn and attuned they undergo a transformation as thousands of tiny metallic barbs burrow into the wielder's flesh and bone inflicting an unsoakable level of aggravaed damage. The gloves shift into articulated plate gauntlets with dozens of leering, grinning faces peering out from within their depths. Asthe gauntlets merge with the wielders hands 4-inch talons of pitted Soulsteel emerge from each digit. While in this state feats of fine dexterity are all but impossible. The talons may be sheathed and 'drawn' as a normal weapon and while sheathed return to their mailed glove state. Unlike other examples of Soulsteel, the faces within The Sweet Kiss of Ruin do not appear to be in pain, but are instead smug and content, often taking on a countenance of malicious glee as the weapon rends flesh.

When drawn and wielded in combat, The Sweet Kiss of Ruin inflicts terrible gaping wounds which bleed profusely. Such wounds will not stop bleeding without the aid of charms or medical attention, with mundane medical attempts having their difficulty increased by 2. The inherent magical quality of the Exalted to halt bleeding also has its difficulty increased by 2. Those wounded by The Sweet Kiss of Ruin are afflicted with a realization: That everything will end and that this ending is the glorious and right course for the world to take. Emboldened by an addictive euphoria, these targets crave to feel The Sweet Kiss or Ruin again. Compare the attacker's successes to the victim's MDV as well as their physical DV. If the attacker scores more successes than the victim's MDV, then for the rest of the scene reduce the victim's dodge and parry DVs by that amount. This is not a cumulative effect and only the highest penalty is taken. This is a form of unnatural mental influence and the victim may pay 1 point of willpower to ignore it. The second time he is afflicted, he must pay 2, and third time he must pay 3. Any character who ignores The Sweet Kiss of Ruin three times is immune to its effect for the rest of the scene.

The Sweet Kiss of Ruin craves and grows stronger with the destruction of others. As they wound, the claws become lambent with white light that grows in intensity until bursting into white flame with a black core. In this state its touch is inimical to life and it reduces living organic matter to fine ash. Once a character has inflicted at least 12 health levels of damage with The Sweet Kiss of Ruin, he may reflexively activate the Flames of Ruin which change the weapon's damage profile to "+5A".

There is a hearthstone setting on top of the outer wrist of each gauntlet. If stones are set into these settings, then they will remain even in the gloves' sheathed state. While sheathed, The Sweet Kiss of Ruin alters the character's "Punch" weapon profile. Attempting to remove The Sweet Kiss of Ruin requires the character to beat his own MDV with a (willpower+essence) roll and the expenditure of a willpower. If he fails the willpower is still spent. This may be attempted once a day. Successfully removing the weapon inflicts a level of unsoakable aggravated damage. Like all of the weapons forged from the pieces of Coalition's Wrath, The Sweet Kiss of Ruin does aggravated damage against the Fair Folk and creatures of the Wyld.

Punch
|| ||Spd||Acc||Damage||Defense||Rate||Tag|| ||1E ||-||-||-||-||-||-|| ||1E PC ||-||-||-||-||-||-|| ||2E ||5||+3||+2B||+2||3||N, *||

*May parry lethal damage without a stunt
Statistics include the Soulsteel MM bonus.

The Sweet Kiss of Ruin
|| ||Spd||Acc||Damage||Defense||Rate||Tag|| ||1E ||-||-||-||-||-||-|| ||1E PC ||-||-||-||-||-||-|| ||2E ||5||+6||+7L||+2||3||M,*,**||

*Cannot be disarmed
**Paired weapon, does not suffer from an offhand penalty
Statistics include the Soulsteel MM bonus.