Haku/RagnarokBlade
Ragnarok Blade Ver 6.5
Orichalcum, Jade, Chiaroscuro Artifact Weapon
Artifact : 4 (Variable : Level is +2 on top of the base)
Stats : Same as the artifact weapon being used as the base
Requires : Same as the base artifact weapon, and Lore 2
Attunement : 8 motes for all variants
Author : Haku
"It was an age of lawlessness...
Of disorder and chaos...
Blood and steel, flesh and bone...
An age of magic..."
"Bastard!!" by Kazushi Hagiwara
Ledaal Kebok Omeger wiped away a trickle of blood from his forehead as he gazed down at the minions he had struck down while his brotherhood dealt with the heretical priest of the thousand gods, that had held worship in an ancient temple ruin. "That's all the guards."
"Wait...."
The child of Pasiap froze at that voice, it sounded like...
"You have one left... brother dearest."
"That voice..." Kebok slowly turned in shock to gaze at someone he had long thought dead, standing over the body of his brotherhood's Immaculate monk advisor. "Snowy? But... I saw you die! Twenty... years ago."
"You know what they say, a good gal is hard to put down," Ciara, Crimson Blood on Snow, smiled back at her step-brother, a glimming crystal sword the size of a Grand Daiklave rested easily on a shoulder. "And I... am VERY hard to put down."
"It can't be," Kebok simply looked with disbelief at the weapon that pulsed with a soft light in tune with its owner's heart, before looking back at the raven haired woman. "A Ragnarok... but you didn't Exalted..."
"Oh... I wouldn't say that," With that, a roaring anima banner flared and formed around and above Ciara, a bright gold and white serpent-like dragon that clawed with rage at the heavens, even as a golden disk within a ring formed on her uncovered forehead. "Let me and Strife here show you what we can do."
"DECEIVER!!!!" Kebok shouted out to his brotherhood even as he dropped into a defensive stance invoking the power of the 'Five-dragon blocking Technique' even as the anathema charged at him, her Ragnarok's glow becoming brighter and brighter as it soon matched the brilliance of her foul anima banner.
The way she struck with her weapon was like that of a viper, swift and deadly. The tales of the Ragnarok blades were true, Kebok noted to himself, for even as he dodged and pushed the weapon to one side with his bare hand, he could see the way it slashed open the very stone floor that it passed over with the raw power of essence that grew in the weapon with its inner light.
Kebok kept dodging and parring desperately even as his brotherhood joined him in facing the anathema that once was his sister.
The stats below are for Ciara's weapon, Strife, a 'Grand Ragnarok Blade'.
Please note that this weapon is sheer overkill in terms of how much damage is done, once the artifact's innate power is activated.
Exalted Combat
Artifact : 3 (+2) : total artifact level is 5
Speed -2, Accuracy +3, Damage +11L, Defense +1
Requires Strength 3, Lore 2
Power Combat
Artifact : 3 (+2) : total artifact level is 5
Speed +10, Accuracy +3, Damage +12L, Defense +0, Rate 4
Requires Strength 3, Lore 2
During the war against the enemies of the gods, many weapons of potent might were crafted. Some, like the daiklave still remain unchanged for several miliennia, while others fall out of favour with the falling of the Solars, for they had been crafted by the Solars for other Solars.
One of the type of weapons that nearly fell out of favour amongst the Terresterial Exalted are the Ragnarok Blade. Such weapons were fashioned with blades from Chiaroscuro glass, with blue Jade and Orichalcum internal cores and handles which meant that both Solar 'Anathema' and Terresterial Exalted can wield them without any penalty.
The Ragnarok Blades are flashy weapons that signify that its user can channel essence, there's no two ways about it. They're also very, very deadly weapons to both opponent and user.
A Ragnarok Blade is always crafted in the form of a sword, ranging from the small Reaper Daiklave design all the way up to Grand Daiklave, there have been the rare Direlance version, however it's mainly a 'small' crystal blade attached to a very long handle. The name simply changes from 'Daiklave' to Ragnarok Blade, so a 'Reaver Daiklave' would be Reaver Ragnarok Blade, while the 'Dire Lance' would be known as Ragnarok Lance.
The artifact level of this weapon is varies, to get the level of the artifact, simply add to the artifact level.
The attunement cost for any and all types of Ragnarok Blades is 8 motes. All essence users who can’t attune to Orichalcum or Jade need to do the whole wrong magical metal attunement penalty in order to even use the artifact.
The statistics of the artifact are identical to their base artifact. The magical metal bonus is always orichalcum, even for dragonblooded users.
The minimums of the ragnarock blades are identical to their ‘normal’ counterparts, only with an added Lore 2.
The amount of materials to be used to construct a warstrider version would strip Chiaroscuro of all its glass, something that wouldn't be wanted by its inhabitants, so no, there are no warstrider versions of this weapon available in the Age of Sorrow.
The Ragnarok blades also had 2 very simple and effective powers, which made them attractive as weapons, namely, the fact that its uses could boost the damage of the weapon, as well as unleashing it in a furious blast. Naturally, such power comes with a drawback.
Power Up:
A Ragnarok Blade can have additional Essence committed to it, which causes the crystal blade to glow with an intense light, the blade is cool to the touch, due to the blue jade within it. The edge of the blade becomes sharper, and deadlier, as it can now cut through the strongest materials known.
For an additional 2 motes of Essence committed to the Ragnarok Blade, it gains an additional dice of damage. The wielder can commit as much essence as he wants in this fashion, but must keep track of the total number of motes committed above the normal required amount.
Power Blast:
If the wielder is willing to simply use up the committed motes, she may use the essence in a flashy linear blast of blazing energy that can not be parried without the use of any supernatural effects such as charms, spells OR hearthstones. The blast is 1 yard wide, with a range of yards equal to the total number of motes committed divided by 5, any fraction is rounded down. The soakable damage is lethal equal to total number of motes committed.
The attack is calculated as a regular melee attack by the attacker and is defended (parry or dodge) against as a ranged attack. This attack counts as a full action, and may not be part of a split action.
For example, if 44 additional motes are committed, the range of the attack is 8 yards, and damage is 44L.
Overload:
Committing so much essence to the blade, while increasing it's power, has a disastrous effect upon the wielder and those nearby. Every turn/round that the additional essence remains committed, the wielder must make a Wits + Lore roll at Difficulty equal to the total number of motes committed divided by 10, any fraction is rounded down.
For example, if 35 additional motes are committed, the difficulty of the roll is 3. If the roll is successful, nothing happens to the wielder and those around him... as the light thrown off by the blade is simply that, light.
However, if the wielder fails the roll, then the light immediately burns the wielder and those nearby, as it surges with the raw essence committed to the blade. Everyone within a 5 yard radius, including the wielder, takes Lethal damage equal (soakable only with stamina) to the difficulty of the roll. This effect can be completely soaked, if the damage is reduced to 0, then no damage is rolled.
In the unfortunate event of a botch, the essence committed in the blade erupts from it and, in all likelyhood, killing the wielder and all around him or her. Everyone within a 10 yard radius takes Aggravated damage equal to the difficulty of the roll. This damage can NOT be soaked by armour. The artifact is not destroyed by the explosion of essence.
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C&C would go here, any and all C&C are welcomed.
I believe that the blast power on this is woefully underpowered... The rest seems fine, but spending 44 motes of essence for a single unstoppable 8L attack is just useless. It's still soakable, so most people will absorb the hit and take 2 + successes in damage. Even assuming 8 successes... Most characters can take 5 lethal levels (I assumed a good damage roll) and keep on fighting, often without that much trouble. Wheras a character can very rarely spend 44 motes of essence on something and still be able to fight effectively. I would suggest perhaps only dividing the motes by 2, as with the normal damage, as they are expended and ranged, and not unsoakable or unrolled or anything else utterly horrible. The drawbacks as well contribute to it currently being rather undesireable. Cool though!
-- Darloth
That is a very good point... but mainly the main effect of the artifact is superlative amounts of damage. In any event, I wanted an artifact that you could woah and dodge like crazy. I've removed the limiter on the damage in the ranged attack, as well as its unparriable portion. Althou, the text could use some work. mmmmh....
-- Haku who thanks Darloth for his comments.
