Charms/DariusSollumanDBCrafts

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Purifying Touch of (Element)
Cost: 10 motes per item
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Crafts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Flaw-Finding Examination

By using this Charm, the Exalt literally scours away the weaknesses of a physical item. This manifests slightly differently, depending on which element is performing the scouring, and has slightly different effects, but a few points of commonality are certain. First, that the Purifying Touch has no effect on even the most shoddily constructed of finished products, as removing the impurities from such would lead to an overall weakening of the item- even a cracked brick may help keep a wall up. Second, the Purifying Touch never finds any of the Magical Materials impure in and of themselves. Third, the Charm is meant to be used in conjuction with the crafting processes, cleansing the raw materials before they are shaped. Such raw material is always considered exceptional, for purposes of crafting equipment or artifacts. A single Touch will purify enough enough materials to make weapons or armor with a Resources value equal to the Essence of the Exalt using the Touch.
A Dragonblooded may learn only the Purifying Touch of their Element.

Air: Material scoured by Air is buffeted briefly by ice cold winds, the air blowing through the material and carrying away the impurities as smoke. This reduces the weight of the item or any item made of Wind-purified stock; weapons add 1 to their Rate, while Armor reduces it's Mobility penelty by 1.
Earth: Material scoured by Earth is covered is a suddenly manfiest brilliant white sand. This sand scratches and polishes against the material for a brief moment, growing blacker and dimmer from absorbing the impurities of the item. This leaves them stronger than they would have been before; weapons add 1 to Defense, while Armor increases it's Bashing and Lethal soak by 1 each.
Fire: Material scoured by Fire heats to white hot in a moment, and then cools to cherry red. The rest of the cool process follows as normal; the impurities manifest as a black residue on the surface of the materials. Such items feel almost alive, energized- jumping to be used. Weapons made from Fire-touched materiall adds 2 to it's Speed, while Armor adds +1 to the difficulty of striking the character.
Water: Material scoured by Water is briefly surrounded by a ball of living water. This liquid trembles for a moment, and the impurities are drawn forth, spreading out like black clouds of ink. A weapon touched by Water is unnaturally difficult to guard against, adding 1 to it's accuracy; armor touched by Water is more comfortable in any climate, and reduces the Fatigue by 1.
Wood: Material scoured by wood seems almost alive for a moment- blades of grass and flowers of Essence spring from it, only to wilt and die as the impurities are removed, fading in less than a second. Weapons touched by Wood know the cycle of life and death; the increase their Damage by 1. Armor so touched is one of the more subtle qualities- it adds 3 dice to the bearer's rolls to resist wounds becoming infected and to stop bleeding.

Comments

I presume you meant Essence in resources value, so I went ahead and changed that. I also changed 'ever' to 'never' where you spoke about magical materials... hope that was okay too. I also have a question though - Could artifacts benefit from this? Obviously not the magical materials, but the steel they are to be alloyed with and various other exotic components? It's a wonderfully nice charm, but I fail to see why it wouldn't have been applied to every first age artifact if that were the case... perhaps the enchantment only works on appropriately aspected jade alloy? Eitherway, it's a really nice way of giving another small-bonus flavour enchantment to lots of small things, and I'll perhaps use it for that in my game, so thanks for having the idea.
-- Darloth

I'd say the effects of all five Purifying Touches are applied to any item of artifact quality, either directly, or through the engines of the Cathedral-Workshops of the First Age. The purification of the materials needed for artifact creation is such an important process, after all- that's what a lot of the artifact creation described in S&S is, really. Now, in this fallen age, getting 5 master craftsmen Dragonblooded to each purify the materials you'll be using to make your Daiklaive might very well be easier than firing up your non-existant infrastructure... DS

PS: Thanks for the edits, they were needed :)