SolarSail/Gamlain
Godmastery of the Eternal Ocean
Cost: 10+ motes Type: Simple Duration: One Voyage Minimum Sail: 5 Minimum Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: Golden Essence Sails, Ignore the Wind Technique, Seek the Earths Bounty, Depth Plumbing Intuition
The Eclipse caste were the ambasadors to the spirits as well as to mortal men. In the first age, Negotiateing with the natives of the Wyld and of Malpheas and of the Underworld was their sworn duty before the fall of the Solars into corruption, and they possesed many methods of meeting those they would have dealings with; Their mastery of Sailing was one of the most potent.
A Solar with Godmastery of the Enternal Ocean gains access to the most potent secreets of the sea: All oceans are one ocean, and all journeys are the same journey. The Solar spends 10 or more motes and sets sail for a destination, which must be reachable by water from somewhere, but need -not- be directly connected to the same body of water. The Solar's vessel will thereafter be born by currents of essence - both of wind and water - through the parts of the essence of the ocean that remains the same in all worlds, and swiftly reach his sought after port.
If the port is anywhere within creation, the cost of the charm is 10 motes, and the voyage lasts only a single day. Sailing from creation to the Underworld, the Wyld or Yu-shan costs 20 motes and takes three days, and sailing from creation to Malpheas requires the commitment of 30 motes and takes a harrowing week's journey.
An exalt sailing to Malpheas reaches the shores at the edge of the Demon Desert Cecelyne after two days; The Demon City itself lies five days further on, across her sands. If the exalt wishes to sail over the sand dunes themselves, some other charm or method will be necessary from that point in, and that journey will allways require five more days, no matter what transportation is used.
In all cases, reaching the destination is not made -certain- by the use of this charm - merely possible and fast; The journey requires a Wits+Sail roll, as the journey through the mythic sea depends more on instinct and skill that learning, with a difficulty determined by the Storyteller, but which cannot be less than 3. Failure to meet the difficulty indicates that the journey went mildly astray. In creation this is 100 miles off target per success the exalt fails to make, but failure when sailing to the oceans of other worlds could put the exalt nearly anywhere.
A botch leads the Solar's ship into dangerous territory - a hostile port, deadly sea hazards, or worse - sailing directly into the more dangerous parts of the wrong world's ocean are all possible.
The return journey requires the same cost to be paid again, and no route exists to directly link any of these relms other than those which reach the ocean of creation - to sail from Yu-shan to the prison of the yozi, you must first sail from Yu-shan to creation and from the great ocean make the harrowing journey into hell.
This charm grants the Solar no special immunity or right to sail into the port he docks at. The Eclipse caste typically relied on their diplomatic immunity; Other solars must deal with their 'hosts' in whatever ways they can manage.
Comments
I quite like the charm, but I have a minor nitpick. I think in GoD it says somewhere that all journies to malfeas cannot be longer or shorter than a single calibration. So, you might want to change that travel time to malfeas to 5 days. Otherwise the charms seems really cool. I might try to get my ST to aprove it at some point.
--BrilliantRain
I think its pretty cool, but it kinda seems to step on the toes of Sorcery. That is, if I am remembering a handful of spells correctly, though they might be spells to get to sanctums and not to Yu-Shan. I'm not sure I would have a character buy deep enough into Sail to get it, but it's still cool. - Andrew02
- Thank you both! BrilliantRain - After checking, it seems that GOD is not exactally consistant about how long it takes to reach the prison of the Yozi, which is what I'd intended the charm to do. It *is* consistant that it takes 5 days to cross the demon desert to reach the city/yozi itself. Since I imagine that the demon city is land locked, I guess that means it takes a two days for this charm to get you to the desert - and then you get to cross it (five days). You'd need some other method to make the ship sail over demon sand if you don't want to walk, naturally. Modified the charm to note that. Since pretty much everything powerfull steps on sorcery's toes, I'm not to concerned about that, personally, but Andrew02 does raise a point. My innital reaction is that stepping on Sorcery's toes is a good thing; I dislike the 'It can do anything' nature of sorcery - it discourages legendary charms in abilities beyond Occult. So, stuff. Thanks again for comments ^^ Gamlain
- There's an artifact ship in the ST Companion that can go on land and sea, if memory serves.
- I'm with you on the sorcery thing, though. Especially given how some Sorcery effects are better at that level than Solar charms. You won't find an Essence 3 Resistance or Endurance charm as good as Invulnerable Skin of Bronze. Maybe the way you've got it is the way it ought to be . . . high end Solar charms are indistinguishable from Sorcery. ~ Andrew02
