HearthStones/Resplendence
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See also:
Earth
Gem of Safe Return by Resplendence
Manse: ••• Trigger: Concentration
Despite its simple appearance – a roughly rounded rock with glimmering jade-like striations – this Hearthstone is comfortably smooth and warm to the touch.\\ When concentrated upon and thus activated, the Hearthstone allows the bearer to sink into the ground and disappear. This takes one full turn, during which the bearer is defenseless and has to rely on her armor or persistent defense Charms. Regardless of the distance to the stone’s Manse, the bearer appears there one scene later. During the transit she experiences no time passing, as she is dispersed into the great Essence flows of the Earth. At the time of activation, the bearer must be in contact with the earth. She can’t activate it in the air, while swimming or in a wooden building. The Hearthstone only works in the same realm the Manse exists in – normally Creation.
Unshakable Jade Statue Gem by Resplendence
Manse: ••• Trigger: Concentration
Only the briefest moment of concentration is required to activate this cubic Hearthstone, seemingly made of polished white jade. In the blink of an eye, it transforms the bearer to a statue of solid white jade. The bearer becomes immobile as long as she is transformed, but she cannot be forced to move by any mundane means and she is nearly impervious to damage.
The transformation can be activated reflexively, but this cancels all actions, Charms and such that require the slightest bit of motion. Once activated, the transformation can be sustained for as long as the bearer remains conscious, but she cannot revert back until the beginning of next turn and it also counts as a dice action. While in jade statue form, all her senses, except tactile senses (which are dulled and impose a +2 difficulty on all related rolls), work normally but are limited by her inability to move. She doesn't experience physical fatigue of any kind, nor does she need to breathe. Hunger and thirst affects her normally though. The flawless jade gives the bearer a natural 30B/20L soak, with a hardness value of half the soak values. Armor and all other forms of non-natural soak are inactive. She also gains a Strength rating of 20 (replacing her own Strength), but only passive due to her inability to move -- it can be used to prop up collapsing roof like a pillar, or to maintain a nearly unbreakable grip. If the bearer activates the Hearth-stone when engaged in a clinch, she can use her new Strength rating instead of Dexterity. Further-more, it becomes impossible to move her from the spot by any mundane means. Magically assisted attacks, lifting or such has to overcome her new Strength rating to succeed, but even so, a normal-sized person weighs about 2000 pounds in jade statue form.
Stone-Shifting Gem by Resplendence
Manse: ••• Trigger: Concentration
Using this hearthstone – an elongated smooth rock twisted like a drill – one can focus at a nearby solid material and walk through it. The stone smoothly displaces the material in a bubble around the user, and reforms it behind her without a trace of her passage.
It is possible to move at a rate of five yards per turn in earth and similar loose materials, down to a rate of one yard per turn in rock. Solid metal slows the rate to a crawl – a yard per minute – while especially durable materials (adamant, the magical mate-rials, etc) blocks the powers of this hearthstone. The displacement bubble can be up to Essence yards across, but the user can percieve an equal distance of surrounding solid materials around it, determining their structure, density and such.
It’s impossible to entomb anything inside a solid material with a Stone-Shifting Gem, unless the gem is destroyed when inside solid material. Otherwise it pushes everything along within the bubble. It is possible, however, to run out of breathable air if one travels for a long distance without magical breathing aid.
Fire
Ashes to Bonfire Gem by Resplendence
Manse: ••• Trigger: Wits + Occult roll (Simple)
This Hearthstone is a smooth, black ellipsoid. In its dark depths one can see a flickering fire, straining to be released. By activating its powers, the stone flares bright Essence flames that swirl around the bearer. It releases a surge of Essence that allows her to replenish her powers quickly, if she can handle the Essence flows correctly. This completely drains the channel and leaves the hearthstone completely inactive for some time.
Upon activating the hearthstone, the bearer must roll Wits + Occult to channel the Essence surge. She immediately regains three motes per success, filling her personal Essence before peripheral Essence. Peripheral Essence regained through the use of an Ashes to Bonfire Gem activate the bearer’s anima as if had spent the regained amount of motes. No more than a total of 20 motes can ever be drawn from the gem. A botched Wits + Occult roll inflicts 5 dice of lethal damage from the Essence flux. Only by natural soak applies to this damage.
After its use the Hearthstone becomes pitch black and is useless for a full day. During this time it cannot be used in any way, not even to regain Essence normally or to power artifacts.
The Phoenix' Egg
Manse: ••••• Trigger: Death
This smooth, jet-black ovoid gem is cold, smelling strongly of ashes and seemingly inert. It lies dormant until the moment the bearer meets a violent death. Then it explodes in a conflagration of Essence, consuming her utterly but leaving the surroundings unscathed. The bearer is then miracously reborn in a similar Essence fire at the hearthstone’s Manse a scene later. The conflagration consumes all her mundane equipment, but leaves items of the five magical materials unharmed at the scene of her death. The Hearthstone itself is also consumed and reforms at the normal pace.
Coming so close to death is a harrowing experience that requires a Willpower roll at difficulty five. Failiure permanently reduces Willpower and a random Virtue by one (not below the minimum required for the Great Curse). A botched Willpower roll also reduces Essence permanently by one. Should the roll reduce Willpower or Essence to one or lower, the soul is too weak to reform in the new body, and the bearer dies. If not, she is reborn in full health, cured of all and with full Essence pools.
Water
Dripping Stone by Resplendence
Manse: • Trigger: Concentration
This drop-shaped, smooth Hearthstone seems to be filled with clear, sparkling water. It’s always wet to the touch. Concentrating upon it, the bearer can make it produce clear, cool water. It takes a few turns to produce enough to sate a full-grown man’s thirst.
Wood
Stone of the Yeddim’s Stomach by Resplendence
Manse: • Trigger: Eating plants
The Stone of the Yeddim’s Stomach appears to be a sweet-smelling ball of irregularly and tightly woven hay or grass, but it’s surprisingly heavy and impossible to mar. Grass, leaves, moss and other plants that only the hardiest herbivores could eat become edible with this Hearthstone. Not only does plant matter of all kinds provide nourishment, the bearer becomes immune to all natural plant poisons with a difficulty to resist less than her Stamina rating. She is likewise protected from any unpleasantries, digestive trouble and illnesses that can befall her from eating plants, save for the actual taste.
Abyssal
Still-Born Cherub Stone (Resplendence) - from HearthstoneRelay/Ick
Abyssal Aspect Manse •••
Little good can be expected to come from a Hearthstone that takes the shape of a petrified skeletal fetus. Indeed, the stone kills any child the bearer sires in the womb of its mother, but it continues to grow quickly on the stone's dark Essence that feeds and warps its little dead body. Worse yet, the ghost of the unborn child is fettered to the undead fetus. Late one night about a month after the conception, a skeletal, pale mockery of a child is fully deformed, and claws and bites its way out through its mother's body. Since this is fatal for a mortal mother, the wailing, gore-drenched Cherub usually finds itself bitterly lonely. It immediately and unfailingly seeks out its father. Very few survive the hardships of Creation or the Underworld for very long, though.
Alternatively, if the bearer of the Hearthstone is female, she will give birth to a Still-Born Cherub herself if she is attuned during conception. The Cherub claws its way out through her body as usual, but the pains are no worse than regular birth pains, and the wounds close within a scene and leave no marks.
- Still-Born Cherub
- Image: Half fetus, half young child, all undead monstrosity. Most are skeletal and thin, but some are bloated. Most are human-shaped and only vaguely deformed, but some are grossly warped -- one Abyssal's pet undead daughter is little more than a child's head on six spidery legs resembling large, bony and clawed fingers. All Cherubs have small, sharp teeth and claws, deathly pale skin and dark eyes. They usually bear an uncanny resemblance to their Abyssal parent.
- Personality: Still-Born Cherubs desperately seek out their parents first of all -- either their Abyssal one or the mortal, if she should rise as a ghost after dying horribly from giving birth to it. In the company of a parent they are cruelly mischievous, often found tormenting small creatures and suckling their blood. Their existence is almost pure torment though, and they are forever filled with a child's fear and nightmares. With discipline, they can become obedient to their parent, but they never develop any intelligence beyond that of a small child, except maybe an instinctual understanding of existence in the Underworld.
- Notes: Outside the Underworld or a Shadowland, Cherubs quickly wither and die. Sunlight scalds them like boiling water. They are fully physical undead. If the body is killed, the ghost is usually so euphoric over the release from its tormented existance that it succumbs to the comforting embrace of Lethe.
- Atributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 0, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, Wits 2
- Abilities: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Dodge 1, Stealth 1
- Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 1, Temperance 1, Valor 2
- Willpower: 3
- Essence: 1
- Base Initiative: 5
- Attacks: Bite (Speed 2, Acc 4, Dam 2L, Def 2), Claw (Speed 5, Acc 5, Dam 1L, Def 5)
- Dodge Pool: 4
- Soak: 2B/1L
- Health Levels: -0, -1, -2, -4, Inc
- Notes: +1 difficulty to hit due to their small size, but halved movement rate unless provided with special means of motion by deformities, such as spider legs or wings.
Splinter of the Somber Domain
Manse •••
Gloomy, whispering darkness constantly surrounds this Hearthstone. It takes semi-physical, mist-like shape, twisting occasionally into ghastly apparitions, before spiralling into the stone. The stone doesn't seem to have any shape of its own - only the formless shadows it consumes. Despite its ephemeral substance, it is cold and heavy.
In Creation, the Splinter projects a small Shadowland around itself at all times, with a radius of five yards. This Shadowland confers the regular benefits and drawbacks to those who dwell in it. The dead regain Essence at a normal rate and ghosts are solid during the night. While in Creation, the Shadowland works as a one-way portal to the Underworld. In the Underworld, the Hearthstone offers no way back, and in fact only provides increased Essence regeneration to its user there. If the user enters the Underworld, she fades to shadows, but the Shadowland doesn't fade immediately. For up to a minute afterwards it can be used to follow her into the Underworld. Noone can be forced against his will to enter the Underworld through the stone's Shadowland, unless the user enters it herself and physically pulls a victim through. She can of course also persuade or fool a victim to enter as well.
The Hearthstone leaves no mark on Creation unless the user stays in the same place for more than a scene, after which death slowly starts tainting everything within its radius.
Comments
Fixed minor spelling and punctuation errors. Hope you don't mind! -- Kirsch
- Why, you little... Using the Wiki as it's intended - how dare you? :P Resplendence
