BujiArtifacts/IscrepsBracers
Concept
- I have a player who is all about acquisition of information and the exploitation or use of this information. Once he learned of the Sidereals he decided they were bad ... they keep secrets, that's his job! So his character has yet to learn of the Sidereals but this will open the door to that story arch and allow him to play out his whims with the Sidereals.
Description
The bracers are crafted out of a fine leather and banded in silver at both ends. Throughout the leather are markings branded into the leather and complimented with raised silver markings as well. The bracers markings are illegible to all but the elite of scholars, or those who are blessed by the Maidens. From the bracers a web extension wraps through the fingers and ties to a silver circle on the palm. The circle has a thinly sliced amethyst set in the silver circle. The circle isn't large enough to hinder the characater from making a fist or handling objects.
Iscreps Bracers</b>
Artifact •••
Leather and silver bracers with trace amounts of Starmetal
Activiation: 3/10 (see below)
Iscreps Bracers have no combat bonuses what-so-ever to them, the bonuses they instill are completely different. While wearing the bracers the character may spend 3 motes to activate the silver circle and amethyst disc. These discs when placed together and charged with Essence creates a jubilant construct of Essence in the shape of a snamll unmanifested emerald pattern spider. This creation grants the wearer the abilities of the Sidereal Charm: Efficient Secretary Technique (page 163). When the character is creating the spider he/she must a have a question in mind. It will race off after it is constructed to gather the information and will return the next turn to whisper the information in the wearer's ear. The construct is indestructable as long as the Exalt lives. The spider can gather any information that is neither generally lost nor actively concealed. Examples are the name of the local god-king or carpenter, how many years ago widow Esther lost her husband, the status of a given war, the number of oxen an old friend now owns, the temperature in Nexus and so forth.
The second trait the bracers have the fact that they allow the wearer to simulate the Sidereal Charm: Walking Outside of Fate (page 172). By spending 10 motes the character steps entirely out of the weave of fate. Only characters with an Essence greater than the wearer can sense them directly. Everyone else makes a Perception + Awareness roll to feel their presence nearby. If they do succeed in sensing the character they are still +2 difficulty to attack or affect the wearer with Charms. Only supernatural trackers can engage in tracking contests with the character. The Exalt returns immediately if the anima banner makes Steath Charms fail. While using the bracers the wearer is considered outside of fate.
This item is constantly watched for by all Sidereal with artifact knowledge. It is considered blasphemous to the Maidens and its history of creation is not fully known. If the character uses this item too often it will draw down the ire of the Maiden of Secrets and will be actively sought out to be destroyed. It has laid dormant since the First Age undisturbed in a long forgotten tomb so none have sought it. If brought back into the fold of Creation and abused, the character will have many a Sidereal to answer to. With this artifact comes much responsibility.
<b>Storyteller background:
Here is how I saw the item so you understand the results. It has a power level of 5(1 Charm of Essence 3, 1 Charm of Essence 2), a game influence of 3 (it can make a substantial difference), Usefulness of 3 (specific applications, limited use), Script Immunity of 3 (something I want to be an asset later in the storyline), Essence Drawback 1 (slightly inefficient 2-3 motes more), Notoriety of 4 (actively sought by both the gold and bronze factions).
Comments
Looks interesting. If you want, you could probably do these without any artifacts:
For the Efficent Secretary Technique: give the Night Caste some kind of spirit familiar or sidekick who can do a similiar thing. That way, you have a chance to devolop the personality of a cute familiar, require the Exalt to rescue him occasionally, et cetera.
Walking Outside Fate, if you want to allow it, could be a high Essence Stealth charm. I'd be a little cautious here, as its a powerful ability and it steps rather squarely on Sidereal toes.
As long as there are no PC Sidereals, stepping on their toes is fine, surely. Heck, if it's an against the Bronze type of campaign, it might even be encouraged just to annoy them. I agree, however, that for most general campaigns, this is inappropriate and crosses boundries... It seems appropriate for the game in question, and by the artifact creation rules is perfectly possible, assuming a Sidereal made it (for some obscure and probably illegal reason). Perhaps a sidereal found they could not ever learn the charms in question, but were required to use them, and thus, had their student/teacher/mentor/lover/counterpart forge these bracers for them, covering up for the lack. Perhaps they were then found out, and exiled/executed, but somehow the bracers survived (maybe due to the student/teacher/etc) and were lost for a score of years or more... etc etc.
I would however point out that the Bronze will probably be seeking it too (whatever the story behind it's creation) because it allows people to avoid their scrutiny, and thus they probably want to hang on to it. That might up the notoriety, since in all likelyhood every siddy that's heard the legend (whatever it is) probably wants it either to destroy it or for themselves.
-- Darloth
- I don't think that stepping on Sidereals' toes is a bad thing. Solars should step on everyone's toes. It is what they do. If Solars know about the nature of Fate, there is no particular reason that they couldn't create a Stealth Charm to hide from it. - szilard
- I disagree. In the world of Exalted, there is only one sin: stepping on someone else's schtick. By stepping on someone else's schtick, you make them literarily redundant and dilute what you, yourself, are supposed to be. Solars should do Solar things. Solar things can be, well, almost everything... but those things that are explicitly Sidereal things or Lunar things or even Terrestrial things should be beyond Solar power. - Seraph
- You are welcome to disagree. Walking outside of Fate, however, isn't even a distinctly Sidereal thing. Anyone with Crimson Armor of the Unseen Assassin can do it. Demons do it. Ghosts do it. I see absolutely no reason to suppose that Solars (who aren't really strictly bound by Destiny anyway) couldn't do it if they wanted to. I mean, really, it is just being stealthy enough that the Pattern Spiders forget about/don't notice you, and they are just spirits. - szilard
- I agree with szilard, stepping outside of fate isn't really stepping on the Sidereals' collective polished toes. I do think that it should be a rather high-Essence Charm for non-Sidereals, though. It's my opinion that Solars and Lunars would be able to develop that ability - Solars at around Essence 4-5, Lunars at probably Essence 6. For Solars, I could see it as an Occult or Stealth Charm, and with Lunars probably a ... I dunno. Manipulation, perhaps? - David.
- You are welcome to disagree. Walking outside of Fate, however, isn't even a distinctly Sidereal thing. Anyone with Crimson Armor of the Unseen Assassin can do it. Demons do it. Ghosts do it. I see absolutely no reason to suppose that Solars (who aren't really strictly bound by Destiny anyway) couldn't do it if they wanted to. I mean, really, it is just being stealthy enough that the Pattern Spiders forget about/don't notice you, and they are just spirits. - szilard
- I disagree. In the world of Exalted, there is only one sin: stepping on someone else's schtick. By stepping on someone else's schtick, you make them literarily redundant and dilute what you, yourself, are supposed to be. Solars should do Solar things. Solar things can be, well, almost everything... but those things that are explicitly Sidereal things or Lunar things or even Terrestrial things should be beyond Solar power. - Seraph
First of all thank you all for taking the time to view this and comment, I am glad I am not the only looking at this page. Here is some answers to a few questions posted. A familiar would not work with the player's "image" of his character. So I tried to avoid that aspect although I do like the idea a lot. Stepping on Sidereal toes ... just telling the player that will make him enjoy it all the more. He has large issues with the Realm and once he learns that the Bronze faction is running things behind the scenes he'll hate it more. He doesn't trust them and will enjoy spiting them ... and he's never encountered one! I am planning on making the Bronze Faction an upcoming antagonist as the plot develops. Finally, as far as the item's history. The Maiden of Secrets knows and there may be a few obscure texts floating around in hidden libraries throughout Creation. This item will be hunted after by the Sidereals when used and if "abused" all of Creation will be scoured looking for it to destroy it and put it to rest. Thanks again for visiting, I appreciate the feed back. -Buji
