SpiritRelay/Willows

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Charms

5. Romantic Archery (divine)

Faithless Maiden Bolt

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Liberty's Arrow

Though Uhura rarely uses this ability anymore, it is one she is feared for more than her many other, less subtle powers. Plucking a flower, she fills it with a soft exultation which makes it fly straighter and truer than any arrow. She adds her Compassion to her attack dice pool. The flower arrow does no damage, but instead Uhura rolls her Perception plus extra successes; the target gains the amount of successes in points of Willpower, up to his normal maximum, and can add the same amount to his dice pool to resist making a promise, or to break one already made. No being may gain Willpower from this Charm more than once per scene.

Quiver of Unbreakable Promises

Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Until Used
Type: Extra Actions
Minimum Compassion: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Faithless Maiden Bolt, Principle of Motion

When Uhura uses this Charm, a variation of the Principle of Motion, she creates a quantity of arrows equal to twice her Valor and conceals them in her inexhaustible quiver. Arrows in this quiver can be expended for extra Archery attacks on Uhura’s initiative or reflexively, to parry an attack or to refresh her Archery pool when using the full parry maneuver. If she does not use all the arrows in the quiver, they remain available for it in the following turn. Arrows will persist for many months, and Uhura routinely makes sure she retains a full complement of arrows in case she is ambushed. Uhura cannot use this Charm again until she has used up all the extra actions granted by the last use of the Charm. While she has Unbreakable Promise arrows in her quiver, the motes of Essence used to power this Charm are committed.

These arrows take the form of strips of paper, weighted at the fletching end with an iron ring. They can perform as physical target arrows or nondamaging Essence projections at Uhura's option. A target struck by such an arrow can be supernaturally bound by the promises he makes. It costs Uhura 3 motes to place this binding, at the instant the arrow strikes. It does not count as the use of a Charm. Until Uhura decommits these motes or the next Calibration, when the motes are automatically released, the target gains 1 Willpower whenever he fulfills a verbal or written contract fully, and loses one whenever he considers reneging.

11. Manipulating Worshippers (dead)

Ashes and Passions Offering

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Compassion: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None

The first skill of a king is to ensure the happiness of his subjects. With the Ashes and Passions Offering, the ghost-king can make a sacrifice personally fulfilling for a worshipper. A ghost who knows this Arcanos instantly becomes aware when a burnt offering is supplicated to him. He may use this Charm at any point in the offering rite to turn the gift's energy back on the worshipper; instead of providing the ghost with energy, it refreshes the worshipper's strength of spirit, bolstering his ability to serve while filling him with confidence. This restores a number of temporary Virtue points to him equal to the offering's Resources value. At the ghost's option, two temporary Virtue points can be converted into a Willpower point instead. Most ghosts will perform this conversion for worshippers who have not expended any Virtue points.

Blood Commands Litany

Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Min. Compassion: 5

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: Bittersweet Ascending Rapture, Mark of One Above

With this Arcanos, the wisdom of the dead is not only spoken by the living, but lived by them. It can only be used on a willing ghost and one of that ghost's descendants - who may not be so eager! The living target may, if he is unwilling, roll Perception + Compassion to resist this Arcanos, at a difficulty of the highest Essence of the ghost using this Arcanos and the ghost targeted by it.

If the living target fails this roll or is willing, then he falls into the hypnotic grip of the Arcanos, and begins to chant the names of his forebears, calling upon an unfathomable ancestral memory. This draws the soul of the target ghost into his body, and causes it and its memories to fuse with his own. The ghost is effectively destroyed in this process, but from this moment forward the mortal beneficiary becomes a Ghost-Blood, calculating his Inheritance using the Essence ratings of the two ghosts involved in this Charm's use; he may use the bonus points that Inheritance provides only to purchase Traits that his forebear possessed.

17. Distant Thunder (elemental)

My Head Against the Sky

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Min. Compassion: 2

Min. Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Natural Prognostication

Standing tall, a storm elemental seems to surround his head with clouds. In this stance, he can send a message to all elementals of similar heritage, to be received when they enact this Charm, or become receptive to such messages.

A Walk Among the Fields of Clouds

Cost: 7 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Min. Compassion: 4

Min. Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: An Ear for Storms

It is said that storms gather strength and profundity as time goes by; this Charm is one of the reasons. The elemental turns himself to swift-moving sound and lightning, and crosses the sky to a place where a storm is brewing. An elemental of higher Essence or one of the user's bureaucratic superiors in the Court of Seasons must be present at his destination.

19. Understanding Blood (demonic)

Extension of Ferric Passion

Cost: 5 motes (1 Health Level)

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Min. Compassion: 3

Min. Essence: 2

Prereq Charms: Fervent Blood Awareness

Pouring a chalice of blood through her fingers, Auguinare forms an ingot of metal which she can lift in one hand. This metal is ruddy, flaking iron if made of mortal blood, and fragrant, fine lavender steel if made of Auguinare's own. This second option requires that she expend 1 Health Level to collect a sufficient amount of her own blood. Other exotic metals can be obtained by draining beings with unusual substances flowing through their veins. Items made of these bloodmetals allow the bearer to convert Willpower into temporary Virtue points in the same manner as Fervent Blood Awareness; Auguinare's own bloodsteel is also particularly fine, and items she forges out of it are always of Exceptional or Perfect quality.

It has been suggested that an advanced variant of this Charm allows Auguinare to distill the Five Magical Materials out of the blood of Chosen.

Other Self Infusion

Cost: 10 motes

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Simple

Min. Compassion: 4

Min. Essence: 3

Prereq Charms: Blood Makes Noise Method

From understanding comes deep harmony. Just as Auguinare can hear the inner secrets of those nearby by listening to her heart, she can become them by taking some of their blood into herself. She must first use Blood Makes Noise Method to obtain an understanding of the target, with the exception that she must consume Health Levels worth of blood from the target to obtain the proximity benefit. Once she has done so, she may use this Charm to behave in the same manner as the target does; anyone encountering her who knows the target will immediately think, this is (the target) in disguise! until presented with evidence to the contrary. She adds a number of dice equal to the successes on the Blood Makes Noise Method roll to any Ability checks needed to maintain this façade upon deeper scrutiny.

Manufacturing Desire'

Cost: 15 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Min. Compassion: 4

Min. Essence: 2

Prereq Charms: Extension of Ferric Passion

By using this Charm on an ingot of metal, Auguinare causes the metal to take the shape of its dearest desire. Natural metals tend to respond by shaping themselves into crude dragon statues with hundreds of eyes, or, if they are very refined, assuming alchemical shapes recalling the Essence pathways of their related Magical Materials. Bloodmetal ingots instead take on a shape that allows the blood donor to better realize his deepest, most secret hope.

Three successes on a Blood Makes Noise Method roll allow Auguinare to predict this shape, reliably; five successes will guarantee that she is correct. If she donates the ingot while under the effects of the Other Self Infusion, she may choose which desire, among all those deeply held by the original donor, the newly produced object will satisfy.

Greatest Fear Shape

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Min. Valor: 4

Min. Essence: 4

Prereq Charms:The Sound of Another, Manufacturing Desire

With an unarmed strike, Auguinare infuses her victim with some of her purple metal blood, while her heart beats a disharmonious chord. This blood injection replaces the normal damage of the attack. This sudden invasion of the target's body can be rejected with a Stamina + Resistance roll, opposed by Auguinare's normal damage roll, plus automatic successes equal to her Essence. Charms that resist toxins are able to assist the target.

If Auguinare wins, her blood inspires the target's, and it forges itself inside his body, taking the shape of his greatest fear. This reduces his temporary Willpower by Auguinare's net successes on the opposed roll, and suspends his bodily processes as per the Heartless Maiden Trance. Finally, the target adds his Valor in automatic successes to intimidation rolls, but each turn he must succeed at a Willpower roll at a difficulty of his own Valor, or spend the turn weeping in terror.

The blood infusion lasts until the target has recieved Health Levels of damage equal to the sum of his Virtues; at this point, Auguinare's blood is dispersed and the target returns to his original form. If the target is killed before he returns to his ordinary shape, the blood metal sculpture remains, and it can be manipulated as a blood ingot of the appropriate size.