ArtifactRelay/UnconventionalArmour

Element Bath Battle Makeup ~ IanPrice

Jade-powder infused face cream

Artifact •

Commitment: 1 for Aspect element, 2 for other element; 4 (must force material attunement) for non-Dragon Blooded.

Many warriors prefer to go into battle with frightening face paint. Some practical Dragon-Blooded warriors, probably from the Wyld Hunt, decided some time back in the mists of history that it would be a good idea to mix powdered Jade in with their face paints, as a good luck blessing. They soon found that it brought them better than just luck!

Whenever an attuned wearer displays an anima banner, they gain +2B/+2L soak if wearing their Aspect element's color. Other colors grant +1B/+1L soak. The beautiful thing about these paints is that they may be combined, for a total soak bonus of +6B/+6L at 9 motes commited, which doesn't count as armor, and stacks with armor. Another added benefit is that any creature painted with this makeup, attuned or not, is immune to the damage of a Dragon Blooded anima flare.

Each dot of Artifact represents five applications of the makeup (any combination of elements). The makeup is applied by streaking it across the face artfully. When all five elements are worn, the character's face and neck are covered with a rainbow of black, red, white, blue, and green. If improperly applied, this can look horrendous and silly. If artfully applied, it can look quite impressive. These makeups may be purchased during gameplay: the cost is Resources ••• purchase per application for Dynasts, but Resources ••••• for anyone else. On the Blessed Isle, a Dynastic Dragon Blood can simply purchase as much of these creams as he or she wants from specialty shops. Anyone else must find a black market vendor, and so the price is much higher. One application lasts for one scene before losing its potency. You could theoretically wear the paint all day, but it would stop being any good for protection after the first scene.

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Veins of the Sun ~ Seiraryu

Orichalcum Jewelry

Artifact ••

Commitment: 3 motes

Made of orichalcum, this somewhat plain-looking set of jewelry was used by diplomats and wary politicians often during the First Age. Due to its exclusivity with the magical material that is needed, they aren't as common in the Age of Sorrows. The set is composed of a necklace, two anklets and two bracelets. All of these are made of pearl-sized spheres connected by a thin orichalcum thread. When worn and attuned, the jewelry sinks slowly into the body of the Exalt, disappearing under her skin.

The character may now soak Lethal damage with her full Stamina; and she may even resist the effects of aggravated attacks with half her Stamina (rounded down). Veins of the Sun are compatible with Charms that are usually incompatible with armor, and their effects stack with armor. Whenever any damage is soaked, or the character demonstrates any level of anima, the Exalt's veins glow through her skin, a pale and eerie gold. If the Exalt is actually hurt enough to bleed, her blood will drip laced with a golden sheen which fades within a turn. The glowing veins last until the combat ends or the anima vanishes, whichever occurs later.

Example: Suaka is a Solar Exalted, attuned to a set of Veins of the Sun. She has a Stamina of 5. Her natural Lethal soak would normally be 2, and her Bashing 5. With the Veins of the Sun, however, her Lethal and Bashing soak values are both 5, and she gains an Aggravated soak of 2.

Insidious Armor Disease ~ Scrollreader

Adamant Sphere

Artifact •••

Commitment: 5 motes (involuntary)

Once, prized by great heroes among the exalted, but always used carefully, now this artifact is almost forgotten. It appears as a small orb of adamant, with a tiny amout of each magical material inside. It dissolves instantly in alcohol (or, as some enterprising souls have discovered,any other poisons). When the liquid and the orb enter the body, it immediately begins making drastic changes. First, it siphons away 5 motes to attune itself, as it re-assembles next to the wearer's heart 5 rounds after consumed (1 mote per round). The very next round, tendrils of the magical material most closely associated to the bearer burst from their skin, as the brilliant web of strands of the magical material enshroud the body, as he can do nothing but writhe in agony (only reflexive actions are allowed during that round). This adds the user's essence to all his soak categories (including aggravated) and counts as armor in all respects (including an inability to stack with other armor). It imposes a mobility and fatique penalty equal to half the amount of soak provided, and reduces movement by one yard for every two points of mobility penalty. But the disease progresses. Each day, the bear gains another point to each of his soak values (up to a total of 4 times his permanant essence) with concurrant increases in penalties. Every additional two points o soak increases the attunement cost by 1 mote. The bearer /does/ gain the magical material bonus for this armor. Removing the armor is quite difficult. The bearer suffers one unsoakable lethal die of damage for each point of soak he currenlty has, minus one for each sucesses on a dex+medicine roll by his doctor, a gruesome process that takes a day and requires a skilled surgeon, leaving the surgeon with the sphere again. Should the sphere become unattuned, somehow, before it is removed, the beaer loses all Magical material bonuses, and all penalties /triple/ as the metal becomes almost unbearably heavy. It is said that some who lost control of these armors can be found, though there is nothing now, to tell them apart from statues made of the five magical materials, unless they are cut open, and inside the hollow shell, the small and unassuming adamant orb will be found. This is an external shapechanging effect, and tatooed Lunars spend one action to cough up the sphere after the five rounds have passed, still suffering the reflexive only round as they force the ball back up. If used on a mortal, it will kill the mortal as razor edged shards of adamant slice through his body after five rounds, before contracting back into the ball.

Unified Armors of the Circle ~ GregLink

Various Artifact ••• Armors

Artifact •••• (each)

Commitment: 2 motes more than the armor it is based on

Never produced alone, the Unified Armors of the Circle were instead produced in sets, each forged with materials from the same mines, worked by the same craftsmen, with the same tools. Each set, composed of a number of identical Artifact ••• suits of armor, is completed by the addition of a single, unique sigil on the chest of each suit of armor. These armors, once bound, are forever linked to each other through a magical bond that cannot be broken. When at least two suits from a given set are attuned (by different wearers, most likely), this bond is activated, and the armors resonate with each other, sharing the weight of blows. When one of the wearers is struck in combat, and damage would normally be done, the wearer may choose to distribute the damage dice among any of the beings currently wearing one of the set armors. As long as at least one damage die remains on the original victim, any effects that rely on damage being done will continue to affect the original target, and rely on damage being successfully done to the original target. If all damage dice are shunted off of the original victim, the effect has an equal likelihood to apply to whichever brother(s) are receiving the largest number of damage dice. In the first age, these armors were often worn by actual brothers within Dragon Blooded families, scattered throughout the various legions of the army. They provided a quick means of letting each brother know that the others were alive (because they could shift damage to them), and the distribution of damage helped ensure that each would survive the next combat. As each legion often saw combat on different days, this wasn't especially problematic, as the few damage taken for a brother could easily be healed before the next combat was entered. In the modern day, the expense of building such suits, as well as the inherent risk one takes in allowing another to damage them unsuspectingly, limits the use of these armors to mostly rigged duels and parades.Unified Armors of the Circle require two more motes to commit than the Artifact ••• armor they are based on.

Jade Talon - FlowsLikeBits

Various Full Armors

Artifact ••••• (Talon)

Commitment: 2 motes per Fang or Leader

This artifact appears to be a talon(125) of suites of ordinary armor. These are always full body covering versions, superheavy or articulated plate. They usually appear as 4 wings of 25, and one leader. Each wing consists of 5 fangs of 5. An exalt attempting to wear one of these suits will discover several things. One is that there is a thin film of jade on the inside of the armor(leader suits have a different magical material). Another is that it is possible to commit 2 motes to the armor. If this is done, it will ask to be removed.

When two motes per fang or leader are commited, each group of armors will animate and serve it's owner. These suits were created during the first age from volunteers and each is a magical automata with the imbued soul of a mortal. Each suit is effectivly an elite extra and has it's own personality, etc. The are immune most mortal ailments(poison and disease) and do not require food or air, but do require sleep. The suits can be damaged, but do not feel pain per say(but are aware of damage), however they are impaired normally by wound penalties and the mobility and fatigue penalties from their armor. The sorcery that created them does not compel them to serve their owner(they are effectilvy followers), but the owner may reflexivly deattune the motes that animate them, which puts the entire fang(or leader) into a state of suspended animation.

Each Talon has a leader, which is a suit lined with a different magical material(usually orichalum or moonsilver). Leaders are equivilent of a starting charachter of the apropriate exalt type, although they were also created from mortals. In terms of rating, a leader is equivilent to an entire fang.

During the first age these Talons were used in combat training for exalts, as they do not feel pain, and can easily be repaired with the apropriate craft skill(very powerful attacks may destroy them permanently, at storyteller discrestion). At the end of the first age, most of the Talons were entombed with the Exalts they served, on the suspion of traps. One is believe to guard the inside of the Imperial Manse, although Empress refused to speak of it, so this has not been confirmed.

During the second age, most talons have been damaged and are missing members. A single (non-leader)member is Artifact •, a fang or leader is Artifact •••, while a wing of 5 fangs is Artifact ••••. One may switch a fang for a leader without changing the rating although multiple leaders are rare.

These Talons were commonly created for combat, although they need not be. Some, which resemble animate statues more than suits of armor were created for other purposes, craft being a common one.

the Carvings of Shadow - Darloth

Soulsteel Tattooes

Artifact •••••

Commitment: 10 motes, one lethal health level. They may never be decommitted, ever.

These tattooes are forged from the soul of their wearer and hammered into soulsteel without ever once being detached. As can be expected, this process is agonizingly painful, and almost every abyssal tattooed with them has been irrevocably damaged, even those with effacious pain-resistance charms. However, for those few that survive, the experience will forever remind them that whatever they face, they have survived far worse things. As such, the bearers of these tattooes ignore all wound penalties of any source, any lesser pain being simply a pallid reflection of their past agonies.

In appearance, the tattooes are the onyx-black of normal soulsteel, but without the faces or faint hints of other damned souls, and are wound over every part of their bearer's body. The design they are fashioned in varies, but they are typically wrapped with an almost endless litany of blasphemous symbols and prayers to the Malfeans in languages long dead, or (less commonly) covered with a thousand different occult wardings and bindings. The tattooes always cover exactly 50% of the body, giving rise to a brain-twisting set of alternating patterns where the bare skin is often just as significant as the soulsteel stripes.

Mechanically, being covered in flexible soulsteel grants an impressive soak, before the other enchantments on the tattooes. The bearer is granted +10 soak against everything, and this soak does not count as armour for the purposes of charms that defeat armour or are incompatible with armour. However, this bonus does not count as natural either, and so soak aggravated damage or natural-ignoring damage as per usual. The soak is not inviolable, but only effects which specifically reduce the soak of anything will do so. (Soulsteel bracers are an example of such an effect)
The tattooes may not be stacked with armour-based soak, but work perfectly well with any armour-forming charms such as Crimson Petal Armour or the Ivory Blossom Carapace.

Being encased in a solidified and bound extension of your own hollowed out and inverted soul has its advantages also. Much like a tattooed lunar, the bearer may never be affected by external shapeshifting, even beneficially. This replicates the effect placed on the armoured carapace of the First and Forsaken Lion, and indeed, he is the originator and most prevelant forger of these pieces.

As a final benefit, the whorls of occult power, pain and soulstuff bound into the skin of the bearer strongly affect their anima, and it is forced to express only through the areas not covered by the tattoes. While this usually just looks cool (and makes flares of power flow almost constantly from eyes, nose and mouth) there is a noticable benefit when attempting to draw essence from other beings. The direct connection between material and soul increases the efficiency of such things, and increases the essence-drain maxima to 5 motes for extras, and allows doubled regains per HL inflicted via other charms. Not only this, but if the abyssal cannot use any of the better methods for draining essence, the tattooes allow them to do away with fangs. Any clinch or barehanded strike that hits bare skin can drain essence as the tattooes shift and sink razor-sharp strips of soulsteel into exposed flesh, creeping and spreading underneath the target's skin and along their essence-flows, to blossom into ugly and inchoate symbols at their essence meridians. This instantly kills any extras so clinched/struck, draining them dry in an instant and withdrawing from the dusty corpse that remains, but is a purely cool/creepy visual effect on anything else, although it does the same automatic health level in a clinch that fangs would otherwise cause.

Comments

More than happy to choose the theme, kind of liked the previous weapons one, thought it might be neat to do in armour. -Miles

Shouldn't FlowsLikeBits choose though? -- Telgar

I said he could. I've done some before, so I figured I'd let someone else have a try. -FLB , who didn't have any good ideas anyway

So, elemental face paint. Too much? Too little? Just right? - IanPrice

It's a bit unclear how the artifact rating and appliations interact. So so can you buy artifact 1 and then just buy applications of any color? Is each color it's own artifact? I would make it artifact 1 for an applicator and 5 uses of any color. Otherwise 6/6 for artifact 1 that doesn't count as armor is pretty good. Not counting as armor is actually quite powerfull. Also the stacking of colors seems odd, as, well wearing 5 layers of paint at a time can't be good. Maybe colors shouldn't stack? -FlowsLikeBits

Artifact • armor gives 6B/4L for 2 motes. Each Artifact • of this stuff gives you 6/6 (admittedly more) for 9 motes (lots more than the additional bonus). I justify the "not counting as armor" because it's single use; I've made that fact more clear now. Your Artifact dot goes byebye. Admittedly, these are probably a great investment for Dynastic DBs... but the high commitment total makes it not always the best choice to use all five. Motes are precious to terrestrials. - IanPrice

Um, what's the line about them being Resources ••• about, then? Do you spend Artifact dots on the first application and then Resources on the refills, or what? ...DeathBySurfeit, confuzzled

Y'know how certain kinds of Artifacts are so common in the Realm they're bought and sold for money? This is one of them. I have further clarified. Yes, if you want to start the game with some, you use Artifact dots. If you want more during gameplay, you spend money. - IanPrice

Oh, I like the Insidious Armour Disease... I can see some unwitting assassin use it as an undetectable assassination technique, only to have it fail for humourous effect when they try and use it on an exalt. Actually, it has -tons- of different uses. It detects exalts very nicely as well, if you're willing to lose any you're not sure about. But hey, I doubt most dragon-blooded mind the occasional mortal. Worse than witch trials any day.
-- Darloth

I really like the varied color of the Insidious Armor Disease. One of the few truly new artifacts we see around these days. I only have one question and problem with it. It seems like pretty crappy armor, overall, which makes me wonder why anyone would even use it under supervision. As a means of getting a Martial Artist into a tough spot, it's great, as you poison him - with armor! This, of course, prevents his amazing MA charms from working, and gives him mobility penalties that, while annoying to a Solar, really hurt a Sidereal, as their "dice adder" doesn't add dice, it converts them to successes. If they're down dice, it hurts them. So yeah - a great means of assasination, but I can't see why anyone would try to use it as actual armor. The benefit just doesn't seem there, as it's pretty bad armor. If it were a better suit of armor, I might understand, but right now, it seems purely a weapon (and a cool one!), but the initial flavor text makes little sense. -- GregLink, hoping that either a small power change or altered flavor text will make this his most favoritest artifact evar.

Well, consider that the moonsilver version has no mobility penalty. Or that the jade one has no fatigue value. I can see earth immaculates making the sacrifice to become the living jade. At ess 5, It's soak 20. Which is nothing to be ashamed of. But of course, the most wicked thing of all to do with it is to be a Solar, and just flat out annihilate the penalties. If you wanted to be really sneaky ... You can get someone to forcibly de-attune you once it's fully grown. And then use the second solar armor charm. Who /cares/ if it'sgot -30 to mobility? Not you! And for no commited motes. - Scrollreader Who could add hardness if people really think it's warranted

True, true. Perhaps as long as this nice little guide of ways to exploit it were somehow appended, future Wikizens might not have the same uninformed concerns I did? -- GregLink

Hmm... To bagsie the art 5 slot with my soulsteel tattooes of surprising utility and extreme icky-ness, or not? An interesting question... I'd need to spend more time on them, but it's an idea. If noone else has taken it by the time I get home tonight, I think I will. Then my players will complain they're overpowered and such, but ah well ^_^
-- Darloth

Go for it. We can have two Level Five's in this one. You can pick also. -FlowsLikeBits, [i]who originally had a L4, but tweaked a bit[/i]

Nice artifact, FLB. Very very nice. ~ Seiraryu

Seeing as I'm still yet to even see the abyssal with the tattoos, (The Eidolon isn't it?) doesn't bother me in the slightest. - Trithne,who doesn't think anything in Exalted can be overpowered., and who also forgets to close his tags.

the Carved Saint of Shadowed Ways, actually.
-- Darloth

There we go. Also, I have no idea what a Cricle is, but I'm fairly sure we don't have a relay for them. Pity, really, they sounded interesting... But no, I shall not declare the next topic to be Cricles, that would be unfair, especially as not even I have the faintest idea what they are, other than a typo of circle...
-- Darloth

Niiiiice Darloth. Yet another impressive Artifact. Your turn to pick a theme... ~ Seiraryu

Even one of your players agrees, the one that has the greatest reason to loathe anything associated with that artifact ever...DeathBySurfeit

Concurred. - Trithne

May I make a Crunch suggestion? Why not include an Artifact N/A in the relay? (Hell, Legendary Spells in the Spell Relay too.. =X )Then the N/A person makes the choice for next theme. I sure do like the N/A category.. Or we could include the N/A and still have Mr. 5 make the decision? What do you all think? A chance for imaginative and whimsical impossibles without restrictions.. what could go wrong? - Paincake

Because N/A level artifacts are far, far too wildly variable according to people's interpritations. You can look at 1-5 and say "yeah, that's about right" but NA is just 100% subjective. Anyway, 1-5 is nice, simple, makes sense. We have enough trouble finishing relays at 5 steps and the level 5's are already hard to create anyway. - Telgar

Also, casting Legendary spells is hard. You typically need an entire circle of solar sorcerers, custom charms, and/or a Mantle of Brighid lying around. Or more. The still theoretical post-solar circle is never going to be easy, and probably will only exist in a few games.
-- Darloth

I love the idea of soulsteel tattos! Im making a character for a story im running and this fits him PERFECTLY with some little modifications. Thanks for the idea - Nkolos