FrivYeti/Malic

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Malic's Regalia

In the First Age, the Dawn Caste called Malic found that, while his arm was strong and his Charms were powerful, his enemies used many underhanded tactics in order to fight him. To combat them, he had his Waning Moon Mate Shogar craft him a set of simple artifacts that would help him fight in safety. Shogar created three artifacts, which together made Malic the enemy of primordials and demons everywhere.

The Subtle Sword (Artifact 2)

Malic's sword has a hilt of pure orichalcum, with strands of starmetal entwining it. Its blade, however, is translucent, a shimmer of golden light that is difficult to see if you aren't looking for it, a slender daiklave blade that, despite its size, lacks the impressiveness of other daiklaves.

The daiklave has an interesting power: it is capable of cutting ghosts, Fair Folk, and demons, regardless of whether they are materialized or not. However, it is incapable of harming anything else. The blade will even slice harmlessly through a human in order to cut a demon, ghost or raksha possessing them.

The daiklave cannot parry or be parried by anything save gossamer, Wyld Artifacts, weapons forged of the materials of Malfeas, or soulsteel. It ignores all armour save those above. All of the weapon save the hilt will also pass through buildings and objects not made of the above materials. It has the same statistics and attunement requirements of a regular daiklave.

There are certain beings against whom the daiklave functions, but poorly: demon-blooded, ghost-blooded, fae-blooded, Abyssals, and Fair Folk with 7 or more mutation points. Against such beings, the daiklave deals only bashing damage, but is otherwise tangible.

The Sunlit Sheathe (Artifact 3)

This sheathe is gold, but hints of silver flicker across it when the sun strikes it. Forged from orichalcum and demon hide, with moonsilver woven through it, the sheathe's natural form is that of a simple sheathe, large enough for a longsword. If attuned, at the cost of 6 motes, it will automatically resize itself to any weapon placed in it.

If a weapon spends at least a full scene in the sheathe, the next time it is drawn it will gain tremendous power for a scene. For the duration of the scene after which the weapon is drawn, it will glow with the light of the Sun (this increases the difficulty of all Stealth rolls by +2). It will deal aggravated damage to Fair Folk, demons, and the undead. The Sheathe functions fully on Abyssals.

The Primal Shield (Artifact 3)

Malic's shield is a small buckler, made of orichalcum with designs of the Unconquered Sun traced in red and blue jade. Committing to it requires 5 motes of Essence.

The shield applies a +2 difficulty to all rolls to hit the character. However, it has an added effect, stretching into the spirit to guard the soul of its wielder. All mind-affecting Charms used against the character by Fair Folk, demons, or the undead are at +2 difficulty. In addition, increase the character's (Trait) + Essence by 2 when determining immunity to Fair Folk glamour.

Comments

I'm curious as to how you figured the rating for the Subtle Sword. It seems - to me - to be a significantly more powerful artifact than a standard Daiklave. Sure, it isn't useful in many situations, but that's not what it is for... -szilard

It's not just that it isn't useful in certain situations. (I admit, I go by the 'eyeball' school of artifact judging). It's that it's counter-productive in most situations by tying up Essence. I looked at what the sword added to a normal daiklave (striking immaterial demons, immaterial ghosts, and demons, ghosts and Fair Folk possessing people), and what it took away (being able to fight mortals, Dragon-bloods, Lunars, Sidereals, other Solars, Autochthonians, gods, beasts, magical monsters, automata, traps, and objects), and it seemed like a fair trade-off. Under S&S (which, admittedly, I dislike), it would be: Power 2 (hitting dematerialized spirits, a second-tier Essence 2 Charm for Solars), Usefulness 2, Game Impact 3, Script Immunity 3 (or whatever), Major Drawback something. That would be Artifact 2.5 without the drawback. - FrivYeti

My curiousity was genuine. This was one of those artifacts that I just don't know how to judge. It still seems more powerful than a normal daiklave to me, even if it is used in somewhat different circumstances, but I can understand how you came to your conclusion. This is one of those times when I get increasingly frustrated with the graininess of the 5-point scale. -szilard