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Halloween Jack posted:Posting on the weed page. Weed for the weed god, dope for the dope throne 
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Nov 20, 2021 23:42
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Age of Sigmar: Blades of Khorne wrath blood skull wrath Wrathmongers are among the most elite forces fielded by the Bloodbound. They are gigantic warriors, hulking slabs of muscle in brass and iron armor. They drive themselves into a killing frenzy in battle to maximize the damage they deal with their giant wrath-flails, basically turning into spinning balls of murder. They launch their flails at people or use the flails to launch themselves, smashing anyone in their path. Everyone nearby feels their infectious rage, and the Bloodbound are pushed to new heights of berserking fury by their mere presence. This is actually a divine gift of Khorne - their crimson skin exudes a red mist of rage that drives even the most stoic people into a raging bloodlust. It's not easy to become a Wrathmonger, though. To do it, you have to survive the ritual of the Brass Cage. This is a secret rite of the Slaughterpriests, who say that Khorne guides those whose path is meant for it and will reveal nothing else to those who do not. Even they seem to know little of the specifics, save that it involves a personal quest out into the world. Most who attempt the rite never return, but those who do are transformed. Their bodies swell and mutate under the daemonic power they bear - their blood is as hot as a furnace and actually oozes out of their pores to form the red mist that empowers their allies and curses their enemies with their own violent fury. Being splashed by the blood makes the effect even stronger, turning even the most strong-willed into berserkers with little ability to tell friend from foe. The Skullreapers, on the other hand, are more simple, though not much less deadly. They are veterans of the Bloodreaver tribes, cannibals who have managed, somehow, to survive the unending carnage that is life among the masses of the Bloodbound. Most Bloodreavers die pretty fast, but the Skullreapers manage to survive for extended periods, and this survival allows the raw power of Khorne to alter their bodies. In honor of their survival, they perform the Trial of Skulls. Every tribe has its own variation on the ritual, but the basic core of it is that every day, the would-be Skullreaper must offer up eight worthy skulls to Khorne. Failure to do so results in being cursed by horrible mutations or finding their strength removed from them. Success leads to magnified strength, their muscles twisting and bulging under flesh that can barely contain them. A single blow from a Skullreaper is often enough to rupture a body entirely, but the risks of failure always haunt them. It makes the Skullreapers manic in battle, determined to get their kill count so that they do not suffer the curse of Khorne. They are almost entirely fearless, because they know that nothing the enemy can do to them is worse than what awaits them for failure. If sunset approaches and they haven't met quota, most will quickly turn to attacking their own allies to make up the difference. Khorgoraths are not daemons, despite their looks. They begin life as natural predators in the Mortal Realms - bears, wolves, that sort of thing. These animals, when they become more vicious and tainted by Chaos corruption, are sometimes drawn into the Realm of Chaos, and those that land in the Skull Lands are quickly captured by Bloodletters. They aren't killed most of the time, because...Khorne likes animals, I guess? Instead, they get taken to the Brass Citadel, where Khorne mutates and alters them to fit his idealized image of a perfect predator. Their minds and bodies alike are reshaped, and they are given an insatiable hunger for skulls, a hunger so great it causes the beasts physical pain. This ultimately is what drives Khorgoraths. The only peace from pain they can get is to collect as many skulls as possible, and that relief is always fleeting. It drives the monstrous mutants to dive into battle without fear or restraint, using the massive strength and deadly talons they have been given to kill as many victims as possible. They are also granted long, bony tentacles that end in sharp fangs, the better to impale prey and drag them closer. Once the Khorgoraths glut themselves on their foes, the skulls gather in their guts and begin pushing their way out through the flesh. In this time, the beasts feel the only peace they will ever know. This compels them to return to the Skull Lands, to allow their bounty to burst out and be collected by the daemons. At that point the cycle begins again, their burning hunger driving them out to the Mortal Realms once more. The Bloodbound tend to herd them up and use them as warbeasts, which the Khorgoraths have learned to put up with because it usually gets them fed. Can a human become a Khorgorath? Well...probably not, but something happened to Scyla Anfingrimm. Once, he was a mortal champion, a Khornate warrior who performed endless acts of brutal destruction. In reward, he was transformed into something bigger, more bestial, more brutal than any human. He is now a living siege weapon, a giant wrecking ball of a creature that is strong enough to tear a Stormcast in half. He never rests nor sleeps, for fatigue cannot touch him. His orange skin and ape-like form mark him easily, and he cares for nothing now but tearing stuff apart. No one's really sure who he was before he became this or what he did to earn his transformation, though. He seems to predate the Mortal Realms themselves, for when the Age of Chaos began, he was trapped in the depths of the Crystal Labyrinth of Tzeentch. Scyla would remain there to this day had Khorne not reached out and freed him personally, presumably because Khorne thought he was a cute gorilla or something similar. Khorne liking animals feels consistent. Whatever the reason, Khorne did do that thing and let Scyla out into the Mortal Realms. Ever since, he's been an unending, unthinking campaign of destruction, driven by a rage he cannot satisfy. Scyla often joins up with Bloodbound tribes, and his presence is seen as a mark of Khorne's favor on the tribal leaders. However, once a battle ends, he inevitably starts trying to kill whoever he was working with before wandering off again. Most Bloodbound tribes consider a death at Scyla's hands to be a great honor, though, so losing a bunch of Bloodreavers to him before he gets bored is considered a worthwhile risk. Skarr Bloodwrath is a less mutated monster, but a monster all the same. His mere presence drives others to blood frenzy, similar to the Wrathmongers. He wields the Bloodstorm Blades, two massive axes on long chains, which he swings around like flails. In battle, he is a silvery blur in a cloud of blood mist, and few foes can ever actually get close enough to hit him before they are torn to pieces. Like most Khornate mortals, Skarr knows what it is to die. Unlike most Khornate mortals, this is because he has done so many times. Skarr dies fairly often, in fact. He just always comes back, reborn from the blood of his victims. Sometimes that rebirth is instant, and he returns to fight even in the same battle he was cut down. Other times, he will remain dead for years on end, until someone performs a great enough slaughter in the name of Khorne and gets rewarded by Khorne sending his favorite berserker to go help them. Whatever the case, he is always reborn from a gout of blood, and he's always there to just kill people. Skarr is not a good leader, has absolutely no understanding of strategy, and doesn't even want to conquer anyone. He just wants to whirl around like a fool and carve people to bits, seeking ever stronger foes. He has no concern for his own survival, largely because he knows that as long as Khorne exists, he'll eventually come back to entertain his god. Despite his terrible leadership skills, Skarr usually does end up attracting a following entirely without meaning to. The Bloodbound just like following him around, because when he has nothing else to do he immediately goes charging towards the nearest army or civilization to find more people to fight. The guys that chase him around inevitably die, often quite horribly...but they usually take down quite a few foes with them, and the legend keeps getting built up among the Bloodbound. Once they're dead, next time there will always be more ready to chase after Skarr and think that this time, they'll kill everyone.  Blood Warriors are probably the toughest of the rank and file. To earn this position, a warrior must bathe in the blood of their foes, drenching themselves in gore and entrails. If Khorne decides this is enough, he will grant them the Red Baptism. The experience of it varies - some say they had their own blood pour from their skin and form a hardened, scabby set of armor plates to protect them. Some say they were pulled into the Realm of Chaos and granted hellforged plate. Either way, the new Blood Warrior is clad in protective armor and transformed utterly into a dedicated and unquestioning servant of the Blood God. It should be noted - not all those who are granted the Red Baptism actually come from Bloodbound tribes. Anyone who is sufficiently Khorne-y, murderous and dedicated to slaughter over all else can be taken for it, even those who once considered themselves enemies of the warhordes. Khorne can't just grab randos and do it, of course - but anyone who has given themselves to murder and violence over all other concerns? Yeah, that'd work. They are flooded with images of hatred and slaughter as they are transformed, and what comes out the other end is a relentless killer who fears no weapon and is armed with a heavy axe and a spiked gauntlet. Even when mortally wounded, they will perform one last act of defiance against their foes, trying to take someone with them into the grave. Mighty Skullcrushers are the closest the Bloodbound have to proper cavalry. They style themselves the knights of Khorne, trampling foes beneath the hooves of their Juggernauts and cleaving heads from bodies with their heavy axes. Unlike daemons, the Mighty Skullcrushers are chosen by their mounts instead. When a warrior of Khorne has proven worthy in the eyes of the metal cows, a Juggernaut will exit the Realm of Chaos to approach them. At that point, the mortal has eight heartbeats to decide how to react now that the scent of their own killing has drawn one of the beasts out of Khorne's stockade. The Juggernaut wants a worthy rider, and in those few seconds, it offers up visions of glory in battle atop it, showing images of the carnage it would cause. (Apparently Juggernauts can do this?) In the eighth heartbeat, the choice must be made - submit to Khorne and accept the beast's offer, or die. Any hesitation, and the daemonic creature will immediately gore its potential rider to death and then eat them. Those who accept without any doubt are granted the right to ride the Juggernaut, becoming Mighty Skullcrushers. Is this a lot to put on the back of a metal rhino-cow? Sure. But as we've established, Khorne fuckin' loves animals, so why shouldn't his mortal cavalry be chosen by the cows? Bloodreavers form the majority of the Bloodbound - roving tribes and bands of cannibal slavers. They're usually poorly armored, exceptionally violent and prone to dying in large numbers. They are much smaller than Khorne's great champions, lack their divine gifts and individually are usually rather weak...but in large enough numbers, they can take down entire nations. Most of them did not begin life as Bloodreavers, though. Most were simple members of Chaos tribes trying to survive. As their people fought other Chaos tribes, they often descended into bloodier and nastier rituals to help empower them. Those who got most into it ended up undergoing the Eight Trials of Khorne and became Bloodreavers, often killing their fellows and joining up with a Bloodbound group instead. Not all did so willingly, either. Many people who would become Bloodreavers were victims of Khornate assault that failed to defeat their attackers. When they lost, they were captured and given a simple choice: die, or join the group in a cannibal feast. The Goretide pioneered this method, and it's become common in Khornate forces. Those of the captives who willingly went along with this and began to buy into their conquerors' beliefs quickly became Khornates and were elevated to the ranks of the Bloodreavers if they survived their Trials, while those who did not became slaves. Either way, Bloodreavers all eat human flesh. It's their favorite food, in fact, and learning to savor it is usually the line between conquered slave and willing Khornate. The more human flesh they consume, the stronger the Bloodreavers get. It increases their muscle growth tremendously, improving their bodies to superhuman strength and size. Of course, the gifts of Khorne are highly corruptive, and the more they consume, the more any remnant doubts are eradicated from their minds. Eventually, they become exactly what Khorne wants - violent killers who want only battle and meat. Many of these will go on to seek further trials to rise in Khorne's ranks, while some others will devolve into Chaos Spawn, unable to handle the raw power flowing through them. But any trace of who they once were tends to go away either way once they willingly embrace the life of the Bloodreavers. The End! And we get a Soulbound interruption! Artefacts of Power has just come out, a book on realmstone, endless spells and magical items! So that's next.
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Nov 20, 2021 23:46
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Gatto Grigio posted:Weed for the weed god, dope for the dope throne
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Nov 20, 2021 23:49
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Mors Rattus posted:
Thanks for the heads-up, I'mma buy that.
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Nov 21, 2021 10:31
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power This book doesn't waste any time - we start with the first chapter, Blood of the Realms, and a deeper understanding of realmstone. The Mortal Realms were formed by the coalescence of the Winds of Magic into physical form, so that each Wind became a full world for people to live in and interact with. The core of each realm is relatively mundane, acting as the solid grit around which the pearl of magic formed - though 'relatively' is a key word, each is still intensely magical. Around the edges of each realm, however, the magic is wild and elemental, stripping away everything that does not align with the true nature of the Wind that is the realm. The most pure form of this physicalized magic is realmstone, compressed and solidified magic with little intervening material. It is somewhere between the physical stuff that forms the realms and the raw magic that flows around them, and some versions of it are barely able to be called "stone," taking on the form of cobwebs or light or blood-like liquid. It isn't true stone at all - it's magic. While realmstone naturally accumulates along the Perimeter Inimical of each realm, that's hard to get to and tends to kill people. Fortunately, it also gathers in areas that are strongly magical, such as places where ley lines intersect or where immense magical events have occurred, such as the death of an Endless Spell. At this point in time, there's eleven kinds of realmstone known to exist - eight for the eight realms, varanite for the Eightpoints, warpstone for Blight City, and nullstone, the anti-magical substance of the aetheric void. All are immensely powerful substances, more precious than any other material pound for pound. Mass harvesting of realmstone is nearly impossible - the Perimeter Inimical is just too dangerous for living beings, and even things like Nagash's collection of gravesand to build the Black Pyramid was done at great cost and over a very long time period. It is rarely processed industrially, because the power within any given amount of realmstone is too highly variable and the stuff is far too volatile - a small bit might last for many uses, while a large amount could burn out fast. Besides, it's dangerous to have around. Realmstone is sometimes called cursestone for this reason. It puts forth a constant magical influence on the world around it, which affects mortal beings on a spiritual and emotional level. It affects how people think and act, and disaster seems to follow those who overrely on it. This makes it very hard to traffic in realmstone for money - it's rare and hard to find, but also very hard to put a consistent value on. Still, it's powerful, and that means people want to use it. They will hunt it down, excavate it from ancient ruins, find those who will deal in it and more. Sometimes it worth it - the stuff may be dangerous, but it is incredibly powerful when correctly harnessed. Its unique properties can be used to create legendary weapons and tools that can change the tide of history...but always with risk. It's not all combat uses, either. There's a lot of potential in realmstone, and while most people would consider it madness to try to consume, it should be noted that Aqua Ghyranis is itself a highly diluted form of Ghyran's cyclestone, and every species has at least some history of consuming realmstone for power. Wizards can tap into the magic of the substance to enhance their spells and accelerate their rituals or to power arcane machinery. It is well known that the architect Valius Maliti used realmstone as a component of the foundations of several Cities of Sigmar, and that these deposits are used by the Ironweld of those cities to power factories and other machines or to enhance wards that protect against corruption. Of course, since Valius is an identity used by the daemon shapeshifter Changeling, it's likely that at least some of these foundations have darker purposes, too. Each of the eight main forms of magic has an associated realmstone, and the realmstone reflects that type of magic not just in appearance but in its behavior and nature. It often seems to have a will of its own, a desire to enact the signature changes of its form of magic - a desire that can and will rub off on everyone near it. It reflects not only the physical power of its magic but the emotional essence of it, too. This includes the two Chaos-aligned realmstones and nullstone, and other forms of realmstone may exist, perhaps associated with things like the Bad Moon or the Uhl-Gysh.  Aetherquartz, the realmstone of Hysh, cannot be physically interacted with much in its natural state, which is beams of golden light. Its use was rare for a long time, until the god Teclis discovered how to trap it and transform it into more usable forms. Now, however, practically every Lumineth soldier carries a bit of aetherquartz into battle. It is sometimes called Hysh crystal, because in its trapped form it resembles a transparent quartz that glows from within, endlessly refracting its own light. To trap it, a seer must be used to track and foresee its pattern of movement so that it can be frozen in midair with magical spells, then transformed into crystalline form. The crystals must then be cut so precisely that the trapped light cannot escape. When left alone, aetherquartz gems will usually arrange themselves into symmetrical, rune-like shapes, aligning themselves as if drawn magnetically into these positions. Thus far, the only people who have managed to interpret any meaning in these patterns are the Lumineth, who don't like to share their findings about the materials, as they know the substance can be extremely dangerous and do not trust outsiders to handle it, given how overuse of the material nearly destroyed their own civilization. The Great Nations of Hysh now regulate aetherquartz production extremely strongly. Despite the difficulties and rules, aetherquartz usage remains widespread among them, and some Lumineth crafters use it to make devices to concentrate or weaken magical energies. The largest of these machines include the Tower of Prios, an entire gigantic building intended for arcane studies. Weaponsmiths use aetherquartz to etch patterns on their tools and creations, and it is widely suspected that aetherquartz is a component in the bright steel they call sunmetal, though no non-Lumineth has ever been able to confirm this. Most often, though, Lumineth crafters set aetherquartz gems into jewellery and weapon hilts for ease of access, as they tend to believe using it to refine the bearer is more helpful than trying to refine the tool. When a person touches aetherquartz, they feel themselves being filled with Hyshian light. Their senses grow stronger, their reflexes faster, their minds more efficient. Wizards find the most use from this gift of insight, as it quickens their ability to grasp and command spells, but just about anyone can benefit from increased mental acuity and sensory ability, from poets to guards to thieves. Use of aetherquartz to enhance mental abilities was once extremely common among the Lumineth, to the point that some even pierced their skin with the substance or sucked on it under their tongues so that they would never be without its benefits. This is an unwise decision - there is a price to the gifts of Hysh. As the light of Hysh is consumed through use, the crystal begins absorbing emotional energies to replace it, drawing out compassion, kindness, anger, caution and all other distractions from its bearer. When the high of aetherquartz usage fades, users generally feel listless, cold and without energy. They find the world duller than they did while under the effects. This can create a dependance and addiction to the substance to avoid confronting those feelings, and this perpetuates a cycle of shorter and shorter highs with deeper and deeper lows. Eventually, their crystals die out completely, wrung of all light, and all that is left within them is psychic pain and anguish. The Lumineth discovered that this emotional toxic waste was so dangerous that they needed an entirely new group to deal with it, creating the Cathallar of the Scinari caste to ensure it was disposed of safely. Without the Cathallars locking it away and draining it slowly, spent aetherquartz was found to tear at the nature of reality itself, drawining in Slaaneshi daemons. The most illustrative example of the historic tragedies of aetherquartz overuse is the Pit of Cathartia, once the site of a beautiful city. Its landfill of spent aetherquartz imploded during the Age of Chaos, destroying the entire city and leaving only a pit of shadow and despair. The pit exists still, overwhelming and crushing any who get too close with its aura of endless sorrow.  Amberbone is the Ghurish stone, often unnoticed and ignored because it resembles the gnawed bones left by predators. However, it has a subtle amber glow to it and weighs more than most rocks of equivalent size. Amberbone comes in all shapes and sizes of bone, from a star-eagle wishbone to a petrified Rhinox horn to immense godbeast skulls. It can also appear as less conventional "bone," such as molted arachnarok exoskeleton or hardened harkraken cartilage. It can even look like human bone, though that's rare. It is entirely unknown if amberbone actually forms in the bodies of living beings or coalesces in its boney form to begin with, but it's been known to appear in the bone piles around predator dens. Some believe it actually is born inside the bodies of the fittest beasts, who survive the longest. Others say it forms when Ghur itself consumes a kill, coalescing in the "stomach" of the hills and steppes after the land "digests" its prey over centuries before finally "spitting" the amber substance back out. Even if amberbone is not derived from living beings, its resemblance to bone is definitely significant and not just aesthetic. Its power is famously able to be harnessed to transform into animals, and amberbone that resembles the animal you want to be makes it much easier. When crafted to make armor or jewelery, it typically retains its clear original shape, allowing even non-wizards to take on bestial aspects when they grow hungry or angry. Many legends of people able to turn into eagles, wolves or other animals are drawn from actual events in which someone instinctually tapped into the power of amberbone in their family talisman or heirloom. Deliberate access can produce even stronger effects. The orruks are able to use amberbone to unleash their own natural strength to impossible heights by created amberbone-tipped staves or feeding it to their beasts...or themselves. A wielder of amberbone can clear their mind to tap into the instincts that exist within the substance, for it retains the nature of the beast - the hunt, the chase, stalking the prey, and similar. As with aetherquartz, however, there is a cost to use of amberbone. Tapping into the power of beasts makes you into a beast, and that doesn't go away fast. Frequent users become restless, hungry and often frustrated with other people, especially when they have to explain their reasoning for their actions - something they tend to lose grasp on even when they actively try to think. Other effects tend to vary with the shape of the material. A cow skull amberbone might make you more stubborn, defensive and distrustful of outsiders, while a rat claw might make you abnormally alert, fearful and suspicious of everyone. There are also physical changes. Horns, fur and fangs often appear when the bearers of amberbone are under stress, receding again when they calm down. The most common effect, however, is a growing inability to be aware of much outside the immediate and your own feelings. For beasts, the present moment is all that matters. Past and future are unimportant compared to surviving in the now. So too for those who overuse amberbone, as they find their ability to recall memories or plan for future events begins to elude them. Eventually, if they are not given time and space to recover from their overexposure to the substance, they will give up entirely on civilization, wandering the wilderness in a simple existence of survival with no greater purpose. Well, almost none - most such people become obsessed with gathering up as much amberbone as they can find, eating the stuff or turning it into piercings. They usually grow much larger than is natural for their species, developing all kinds of bestial adaptations until they become apex predators and living avatars of the hunt.  Celestium is the substance of Azyr, and it most frequently forms not on the landbound Perimeter Inimical, but in the high vault of Azyr's sky. It collects in the upper reaches, then falls down to the world below, appearing as shooting stars or comets. Its movements in the sky often accompany the appearance of Dracothion, the Celestial Drake, though it's unclear if he's chasing the meteors or is actually creating celestium. What is clear is that when he is sighted in the sky, a rain of celestium is likely to follow in the lands below, leaving gleaming blue-white rocks and sand across the landscape. Stargazers prepared for the event will quickly head out to collect the grains of magical sand, possibly sifting from the dirt, to melt down and alloy with metal or blow into glass. Most commonly, this refinement is done in the forges of the Sigmarabulum, for the God-King requests his followers to bring all celestium they gather to him for use in arming the Stormcast. It is believed that celestium is a key component of sigmarite, though if this is true, it is known only to Sigmar, the Six Smiths and their forge-companions. It is also likely that celestium is in some way related to celestite, the meteoric mineral that the Seraphon mine and use in their weapons, but the Slann are unlikely to ever tell anyone exactly what that relation is. Still, both substances have proven quite powerful in war, and also quite hard for Chaos to get its hands on, as they return to lightning or starlight and race back to Azyr or the Seraphon temple-ships in the same manner as the bodies of those that fell wielding them. Raw celestium is quite powerful on its own, too. One speck of it can be used to power an orrery for months on end or grant a seer visions of the threads of fate that are clearer than any other. Celestium glass used in telescopes produces supernatural clarity of vision and immense range, and celestium rangefinders guide arrows and bullets to their destination. When infused into weapons, celestium allows the wielder to see the movements of their foes even before they happen, striking with precognitive accuracy. The danger, of course, is that constantly seeing the future blinds people to the present. Overuse of celestium tends to make people contemplative and extremely slow to act. They become detached from the world, unnaturally passive and even unable to care for the suffering of others due to the magical material pushing them into a fatalist mindset in which only the big picture matters and individual lives are but gears in a greater machine. Some rogue scholars even claim that celestium overdose is what made Sigmar wait so long to launch the Tempest and reopen Azyr's gates while the other realms were razed by Chaos forces. It is unlikely that these claims are true, being more rooted in (admittedly fairly understandable) resentment rather than fact, but the feeling is common when dealing with Azyrites and especially those who work closely with celestium. These people become passive, cold and without urgency, believing that there will be time enough to perfect their plans and achieve the perfected outcome regardless of who is lost along the way. This mindset is sadly quite common among Azyrite nobility, though it's unclear if this is the result of celestium influence or just intense privilege. It may not be possible to ever know or distinguish between the two, for the nature of Celestial magic is subtle but extremely far-reaching, with the consequences of celestium influence often not apparent until far later. Next time: Chamonite, Cyclestone, Emberstone
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Nov 21, 2021 19:29
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  Magic, Part 4: Demons & Seeds Root Magic and Talismanic Magic create magical items. There are no rules for actually doing it, because Witches have a monopoly on this stuff. PCs can get these buffs by buying them or doing favours for Clades. I suppose they could also be found in Wormholes, since the game needs more concrete reasons for Kin to go down there. Root Magic is also called Herbal Magic, and a lot of these magic items are just made from common herbs. Root Magic also involves concretions. The word concretion has several meanings; one of them is something like a bezoar. In Nightlife they’re magical items derived from animals. Some of these are specific animal parts, like bones and feathers, while others are small stones which contain something of the animal’s “essence.” Finally, Root Magic also includes amulets made from minerals and metals. The benefits of Root Magic can be significant, but they’re not really analogous to e.g. potions, scrolls, and other magic items in Dungeons & Dragons. Single-use items are rarely as straightforward as potions of healing. We’ll start with the herbs.  A poultice of amaranth heals a few points of SP. Wearing angelica increases the SP cost of spells cast against you, but the same cost applies to your spells, too. Drinking a potion of belladonna grants prophetic visions, but does FIT damage. It says flat-out that this is really a tool for the City Planner to foreshadow the next adventure, so why hinder the PC? Wearing caraway gives you a +10 bonus to ATT or Seduction rolls. Drinking a tincture of clove pink gives you a permanent +1 to FIT. One-time only. A potion of eyebright gives a permanent +1 INT and PER. One time only. Wearing laurel gives you a +10 bonus to Escape being possessed. Wearing onion gives a +10 bonus to Escape spells, but halves the effects of any other anti-magic items you have. Probably worth it! Wearing rue gives you a +10 bonus to resist Seduction. Now for the concretions. As a rule, concretions tend to give bigger buffs. Wearing a badger’s foot gives a +5 bonus on Seduction rolls. Christ, these wizards are horny. The right eye of a bat lets you use the Invisibility Edge temporarily. It’s a single-use item. You can get the same ability from the bones of a black cat. These work 1d10 times. But you have to get it by boiling the cat alive, so don’t. Wearing the stone of a chameleon gives a +10 bonus to INT SKill rolls. Burning one lets you use the Control Weather Edge once. Wearing the stone of a cow gives +1 ATT. Wearing a crab’s claw gives a +2 bonus to Escape spells. An eagle’s stone gives a +1 bonus to Luck rolls. It also adds 1d10 years to a humna’s lifespan, but who cares? The heart of an eel grants a vision of the future, much like belladonna but without the side effects. The stone of a hyena gives a +15 bonus to Escape mind-controlling Edges and spells. A lion skin gives a -20 bonus when you’re forced to roll on the Fear Table. The feet of a mole give you a 50% chance to find a bit of money if you have none. The stone of an ox near your bed gives a +15 bonus to resist the Send Dream Edge. The stone of a rooster gives you a +1 bonus to LUCK rolls and a +10 bonus to Escape spells. I strongly encourage you to wear a cock. A sheep’s stone gives a +2 ATT bonus, but only to women. A tiger stone gives a +10 bonus when gambling. And finally, the minerals and metals. Amber gives a +20 bonus to PER rolls when looking through it. Amethyst, ground into a potion, gives a +20 bonus to resist poison for a month. Antimony gives a +5 bonus to resist any attacks by demons or Witches. Beryl gives a +10 bonus to persuasion. Chalcedony gives a +20 bonus to resist being blinded. Coral lets you reroll one failed roll every day. Highly advised. Diamond gives a +5 bonus to your Armor Edge! Flint gives a +5 bonus to Escape spells. Jade gives a +5 bonus to Escape disease. Brass gives a +5 bonus to resist any attacks from spirits and Witches, but increases the SP cost of your spells. Not a problem for Kin. Lead in a door forces spirits and Witches to make a WILL test to enter. Meteorite does double damage to wtiches and doubles the SP cost of nearby spells. Ruby gives a +10 bonus to the Danger Sense Edge. A Whistlin’ Bone is a flute made from human bone. Playing it forces Witches to make a Fear Test. Not sure why any Witch would want to give you one of these! Goofer Dust is grave dirt. Blowing it in someone’s face works like the Wither spell.  Enchanted weapons are created with Talismanic Magic. (I thought the minerals and stones should be coverd by this, but no, that’s Root Magic.) There’s no long list of unique magic items like holy avengers and dwarven throwers, just a list of enchantments that can be applied to any weapon. That’s any weapon, from a knife to an assault rifle. Making enchanted weapons is difficult and dangerous. It involves etching magic runes into the weapon with special knives. For every rune, a Skill Test is made. If the roll fails, the knife shatters. Since each weapon requires up to 10 runes, this gets costly and probably really annoying. Enchantments also cost a lot of SP, so the whole coven has to get involved. (They don’t tell you how many runes are required for each enchantment, by the way. Although there’s a Skill for this, you still can’t make them yourself.) Attunement enchants the weapon to hurt a specific type of Kin. It will ignore any Armor Edge possessed by those Kin. Danger Sense gives you that Edge at 40 if you don’t have it, or a +10 bonus if you do. Human Register enchants the weapon so that it can’t hurt humans. Invisibility makes the weapon invisible to anyone but you and Kin with Aura Sight. Personalization binds the weapon so that it can only be used by a specific person. Protection gives a -10 penalty to anyone who attacks you. That’s all. These don’t actually get a lot of page space. One last note, though: sometimes items give you a bonus to your Basic Abilities, and sometimes they give you a bonus to an Ability’s roll. There is rarely any difference. There’s some information on the New York clade, but I’m going to save it for the update on organizations. Instead, I’ll finish out by covering the section on enemies of the Kin. This includes some stuff that got incorporated into the 3rd edition corebook, like the Pooka, Sludges, and The Virus. What didn’t make the cut? Motherfucking Demons!  Demons are a group of species native to the Twisted Dimensions. The Daemons came to Earth thousands of years ago to get away from these sadistic assholes. Demons can appear on Earth when they’re summoned by spellcasters. Or, let’s be real, if the City Planner decides that they do. You all know that I don’t get deep into stat blocks, but all Demons have a few things in common. They’re not technically Kin, but for practical purposes they are. They have the same immunities and have to Drain to survive. As antagonists, Demons are definitely a step up from other “anti-Kin” like Skinthieves, Zipperheads, and even The Virus. Demons often have a Basic Ability as high as 70, good combat skills, and potent Edges, including 10-30 points of Armor. They all have names that sound like fantasy metal bands. As a rule, Demons are repelled by holy objects. There’s no notion of Demons being connected to a fiery hell, since all Demons are vulnerable to fire. poo poo, there’s a race of Demons whose thing is that they’re constantly on fire, and they don’t attack with fire and are extra-vulnerable to fire. Demons actually have a Compulsion to do evil. They don’t really need the incentive, because they have a massive Drain requirement—-from 20 to 50 SP a night. Their Max Humanity is 0. Demons are BAD GUYS, and will go on a very destructive rampage if they’re not stopped.  Ssivvinne of the Ssscreaming Heads are hideous humanoids with dozens of small heads sprouting from their upper body. They attack with a poison bite that does FIT damage. They apply a 2d10 penalty to any attacks against them because of the shrill screaming of their many heads. They Drain life force, and absord the bodies of their victims to grow more heads.  Glavantharax the Self Devouring Ones are 7-foot stacks of ropy intestines with fanged maws, endlessly gnawing at themselves. They attack with a torrent of bites doing 3d10 damage. They’re so hideous that seeing them provokes a roll on the Fear Table, no save.  Sthlashr the Charred Ones appear to be humans who are always burning, but never consumed. They actually come from a much colder plane of existence, and coming here causes them to constantly smolder. They’re even more vulnerable to fire than most Demons, and they attack by Draining body heat.  Vrarng the Brutish Ones look like massive, obese elephant-men. They’re the strongest and toughest Demons, and attack by wrestling their victims and Draining their life force. Vrarng are very stupid and often used as henchmen by other Demons.  Xlenx look like big cats. They can control cats, Drain pain like Werewolves, and use ordinary animals to create distractions while they stalk their pray.  Orbs are skeletons with scraps of flesh clinging to their bones. They see through the jewelry that they make from human eyes, which gives them Aura Sight and Nocturnal Sight. They drain life force through their staves of bone.  Phrhth are small, vicious Demons who fight by sneaking up on prey and grappling them to Drain their life force. Alone among Demons they seem to possess a cruel sense of humour.  Kgorek are the fanged, claws, hunchbacked monsters you see above. They’re the most intelligent Demons, the kind who enjoy entering contracts with mortals and exploiting them. Their actual abilities are kind of boring—Claws, possession, Drains life force. But their stats are mostly 50s across the board!  Krrsd are mechanical insect-men. Scholars suppose that they come from some Dimension full of mechanical life and are only distantly related to other Demons, since they’re the only ones not bothered by holy relics. They feign stupidity, but are actually even more intelligent than the Kgorek. They Drain bioelectricity.  Threel are blobs of acidic protoplasm. They attack by engulfing victims with their acid touch. There’s no information on Demons having any kind of society. It’s implied that some serve as henchmen to others, but nothing about any sort of rivalry. All of them have the Alter Form and Possession Edges, so you can expect Demons on the loose to leave a trail of bodies and possessed vessels. Some of them aren't intelligent enough to really take advantage of these powers. The next update will be the last one for the Magic sourcebook. We’ll look at organizational stuff, including musical groups, monster hunters, and everything about how the US government deals with the Kin. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Nov 22, 2021 |
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Nov 22, 2021 03:33
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But I gave them the slip because I was wearing an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
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Nov 22, 2021 07:40
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What I'm getting from this post is that a Nightlife wizard is a constant jangling mess of charms and amulets made from dozens of different kinds of crystals, stones and body parts. Are there any limits to how many of these you can wear at the same time?
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Nov 22, 2021 09:29
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Page 421 is made for Rockposting
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Nov 22, 2021 10:49
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power The Power of Rock  Chamonite, also called wyrdgold and changestone, is rather obviously the realmstone of Chamon. It is flowing but metallic, rather like mercury, but it doesn't act like a normal liquid. It does not pool or flow according to gravity, instead always moving into a floating spherical shape. It can be molded like clay, but any changes will fade as it returns to its sphere. If divided, individual globules will form independent spheres, but they re-merge easily. When stored in a container, chamonite will fill it like a liquid, but as soon as it has enough space to do so it will resume the sphere state. Unlike most realms, Chamon likes a flat plane with clear core and edges, but some of its floating sub-realms are closer to the realmsphere edge than others, and chamonite is most common in these places. When transfiguration storms cross over the landscape, anything caught in them has a chance of melting away into chamonite - a threat that means those prospecting for it must be very careful so they don't become part of the bounty. Chamonite is incredibly useful for engineers and enchanters, though it is alloyed with another metal in almost all cases. The simplest result is to make the alloy flexible and easy to work, but more sophisticated use of chamonite can allow for full reconfiguration of the end result or the ability to switch between several modal forms. A chamonite-gilded weapon can penetrate armor by flowing between gaps, while chamonite armor may harden on impact and lighten on internal pressure for maneuverability. Chamonite can be used in alchemy to grant metallic skin, cure poisons by transforming them into harmless materials or permanently alter physical traits. With a proper catalyst, chamonite itself can be altered in form, making it take on various useful physical traits and appearances. Some aether-khemists theorize that aether-gold is possibly a variant form of chamonite; they often experiment heavily with chamonite as a fuel source in hopes of finding ways to make it act like aether-gold. Chaos forces particularly enjoy using chamonite as a material, and it's very common among Tzeentch's cults as a fuel for various rituals. the problem with using chamonite is its unpredictable nature. it causes unreliability, mood swings and even entire personality shifts with little warning, and it encourages people to pursue change for the sake of change. (Which is one reason that Arcanite cults like it so much, in fact.) Pure Chamonite does not cause horrific mutations the way Chaos energy might, but it does cause subtle physical changes to things like hair color, height, eye colors, vocal timbre, and similar things. These changes can come quite rapidly, and may be overwritten hour by hour if working with sufficient quantities of the material. The Kharadron who theorize that chamonite is a component of aether-gold suggest that this may be why aether-gold causes paranoia in those who touch it unprotected. Chamonite is particularly dangerous if you like having friends and family. One of its most dangerous possible side effects is severing relationships that exist or causing extremely strong emotional connections between people who don't know each other at all. Perhaps even more dangerous is the fact that chamonite itself is not a stable material. It might function consistently in alloyed state for years, but the material is exceptionally reactive. Introduced to the wrong alchemical reagent, it can and will alter its behavior and physical properties. It's possible for this to happen by accident thanks to natural weather effects or magical flux, but that's fortunately rare. Less rare is deliberate sabotage - if you want to ruin an enemy's chamonite tool, throw chemicals at it until it changes.  Cyclestone, the realmstone of Ghyran, appears in places of strong life, though whether it is cause or result of that flourishing is entirely unclear. It is also known as jadeite, swirlstone or jade ice. It actually operates in a continuous cycle of melting into green liquid, evaporating into green steam and sublimating into green ice over and over again, though not in a random or frenzied way. The cycle is regular and relatively slow, reflecting the natural rhythms of plant life. Cyclestone frequently flows through the rivers of Ghyran, but it can also appear in desert dew or rain along coastlines. Some legends claim Ghyran's edge is a ring of cyclestone glaciers, where plants bloom, die, rot and regrow in seconds. The Sylvaneth once controlled most of the sacred places where cyclestone is most common, but they lost a lot of ground in the Age of Chaos. Many cyclestone springs have been corrupted by Nurgle or the Skaven, and are now full of pus and unnatural fleshy growths. Unhealthy cyclestone is easy to spot - it is overflowing with rot and decay, rather than moving through a cycle. Pure cyclestone, undiluted, is exceptionally rare and exceptionally valuable. The stuff is a component in Aqua Ghyranis, which is harvested from sacred waters in Verdia, and it is an extremely potent tool for healing. Its energy is one of growth and healing, and while it can be dangerous, it is highly prized for medical uses of all kinds. Free Cities in Ghyran occasionally expert fertilizer laced with cyclestone to Aqshy and Shyish, though the Sylvaneth usually get upset about it. (Not always - a few Sylvaneth groups help with more sustainable takes on the process, but it's very controversial among them.) Dawnbringer movements occasionally use raw cyclestone when their aqualiths prove unable to purify the land they want to settle, too. Sylvaneth try to preserve cyclestone in its raw state as much as they can, but even they find uses for it. Sylvaneth waystones often have inlaid cyclestone to help hide the location of their groves by encouraging constant growth. Cyclestone charms are occasionally used by Sylvaneth mages to call forth Wyldwoods, and they do use the stuff to help purify Chaos-tainted lands as well. That said, they are well aware that while pure cyclestone can cleanse taint, it is easily tainted itself. Nurgle's Maggotkin and the Skaven of Clan Pestilens maintain hidden stores of the stuff, twisting it to assist them in their fetid rituals, calling forth dark plagues and horrific mutations. Even pure cyclestone isn't very safe, either. It can cause people to grow to multiple times their natural size or cause plants to sprout on their bodies in ways unable to be easily removed. Cyclestone doesn't discriminate, either - it assists all life at all stages. It can cause mass population booms in insects as it helps the crops, it can make the wild beasts more active, and it can easily age someone to death if they aren't careful. Its nature is the cycle of life and death and rebirth, and it does not treat individual lives as important. Its nature is to promote the health of an ecosystem, regardless of what people might think of it. Bearers should also be careful if they intend their bodies to be displayed after death - dying while bearing cyclestone almost always means having your corpse transform into mulch and earth instantly, to feed the cycle.  Emberstone is the stone of Aqshy, also called ragerock, brightstone and aqthracite. It is in a constant state of burning without being consumed, and its fires radiate heat and passion alike. The easiest passion for it to harness is rage, an ancient and primordial rage that comes from deep in the soul. The Bloodbound claim it is the anger of Khorne, marking the realm as his, but they are probably wrong, since emberstone is capable of causing overwhelming love and pride instead of anger, though no one is quite sure what causes that. Some believe that anger is most frequent because emberstone reflects the collective frustrations and angers of all mortal life that questions why the world is as it is. Most Aqshians take the stance, however, that what emberstone does is not inflict anger but call it out of your soul, and explain that anything you feel from it was already there - just set alight now and given permission to burn hot. The material is most often found in places of extreme heat, like volcanic tunnels or impact craters. All attempts to artificially generate it by use of fire magic or rerouting magma have failed. So far, anyway - the Fyreslayers, Collegiate Arcane and others attempting the matter remain hopeful. Emberstone is easily weaponized, creating burning blades or armor of protective flame with exceptional ease. Indeed, the question of how to use emberstone for war is easily answered. What surprised many outside Aqshy is how useful it can be in other contexts. After all, its nature is uncontrollable heat and emotion. Still, having a heat source that cannot be put out has obvious uses, especially in industry. Diluted emberstone makes for an excellent fuel, and the result, shards of aqshian coal, is popular in the colder parts of Ghur and the darker parts of Ulgu to provide light and heat. Emberstone itself can also be used as fuel for transports and machinery or to magnify spells that enhance courage or fight fear. Particularly daring and rich folks in Aqshy occasionally use crushed emberstone as a spice in the belief that it will enliven passion in artistic performance, sport or other things. Used moderately and with care, emberstone can be quite gentle. It is, however, quite a simple and elemental substance. It is fire made physical, and it burns. Using it too much will consume you, eventually burning out all emotions that are not burning passion or rage. Emberstone mines are prone to riots, and it is well known that those who work with emberstone do not grow old, though they tend to have very exciting lives before they burn out. When an army prepares emberstone gear for war, they must be careful to only give out a few and to ensure that they are deployed as far from each other as possible, as those who bear emberstone weapons have a tendency to fight each other. Worse, frequent interaction with emberstone plants its light in the mind. Their souls are lit on fire, burning away things like nuance, calmness, even memories. What is left behind is purified emotion, raging as hard as possible. All these people can focus on are the things that inflame their anger or their joy, and then only to think about the violence or extreme action that these things push them to. They eventually lose even the desire to eat and sleep. Emberstone may never stop burning, but those who overdose on it are not infinite fuel. They will, eventually, burn themselves out and die of exhaustion.  Falsestone, Ulgu's realmstone, is also called shadowstone. It's very hard to find, because it extremely does not want to be perceived. Its true form can be seen only by the Witch-Sight, under which it appears as a mass of tangled cobwebs moving in a nonexistant wind. To anyone without this vision, it can appear as practically anything - rocks, dust, rusty nails, anything that seems unimportant. This disguise is also not simple trickery - of all realmstone, falsestone seems to be the one with the most obvious intelligence. It watches and listens to all that happens around it and will adjust its own appearance to fit the suspicions of onlookers. If moved, it will alter itself to match its new environment, and its disguise affects both sight and sound. It cannot hide its own texture, but it retains a final defense - if touched, it floods everyone nearby with hallucinations to make them question everything around them. Only those of exceptional calm can see through all these defensive illusions and recognize falsestone for what it is. It's entirely unknown if the stuff shows up with any frequency anywhere but the Perimeter Inimical, largely because the substance actively hides itself. Falsestone is exceptionally hard to work with for anyone that is normally an honest person, but it does alloy well with nearly any material, as this helps mask its nature. It is practically impossible to dispel a falsestone-based illusion, even with magic or miracles, and even most Witch-Sight is too weak to break the magic over alloyed falsestone enough to recognize it. When woven into cloth, the material remains very light, but becomes as durable as any realmstone armor. It also has the power to cloak its wearer in illusion easily. Many Ulguan craftsmen, mages and others work with the stuff as much as they can, but the techniques they use are always closely guarded secrets. It's said that Morathi's greatest temple is built on a geyser full of falsestone mist, helping her perform illusions and hide her plots from the gods. The Slaaneshi Hedonites are also said to make use of falsestone to create illusions of excess so absurd even they can't manage to create them in reality. It is widely believed that Malerion is the greatest master of falsestone, using it to conceal many of his secrets. What cannot be denied is that falsestone is as dangerous as it is useful. Even once it's been revealed, it never stops trying to deceive people. The hallucinations it causes become subtler and less panicked...at first, anyway, but over time they grow ever more brazen until the falsestone has fully replaced the reality of those around it with lies. Frequent use of falsestone causes compulsive lying, and often causes the user to believe their own lies completely, regardless of any contradictions. It also encourages paranoia and suspicion in those around it, which can easily lead to violence. It's not clear to what extent it can actually manipulate physical reality. It's raw magic, after all, and magic can change the world - even if that magic is primarily based in illusion. It has been observed that some falsestone "illusions" have physical reality somehow, though some believe such things are merely physical effects caused by falsestone acting within the imagination of its victims to trick their own bodies. Eventually, those who abuse falsestone will themselves fade from the perceptions of everyone around them, forgotten even by their closest associates. Next time: Grave-sand, warpstone, varanite, nullstone
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Nov 22, 2021 14:39
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Last chance to sign up for TG Secret Santa. Please don't shame the forum by letting the number of Santas in the world dwindle even further!
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Nov 22, 2021 16:36
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PurpleXVI posted:What I'm getting from this post is that a Nightlife wizard is a constant jangling mess of charms and amulets made from dozens of different kinds of crystals, stones and body parts.
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Nov 22, 2021 16:45
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I actually like Nightlife's insane list of charms made from just about anything, it feels more "alive" to me than stuff only being made from unobtanium like in so many RPGs. There's something folkloric about, say, onions having supernatural properties if you know the right rituals. I also like the insane demons. A fire demon that doesn't actually want to be on fire, which makes it hate fire even more, is a great concept.
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Nov 22, 2021 16:59
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Nightlife has so much good stuff in it. If it had had better production values instead of looking like it was printed at a copy shop with art made by a high school metal band member, and a slightly more 'effective' ruleset, it probably would have stomped Vampire. White Wolf understood style over substance so much better though.
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Nov 22, 2021 17:49
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Nightlife has so much good stuff in it. If it had had better production values instead of looking like it was printed at a copy shop with art made by a high school metal band member, and a slightly more 'effective' ruleset, it probably would have stomped Vampire. White Wolf understood style over substance so much better though. Vampire was basically an RPG take on Interview with a Vampire. Nightlife is more like The Light at the End
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Nov 22, 2021 21:43
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power Evil Rocks  Grave-sand has become somewhat infamous following Nagash using it to invert Shyish and create the Black Pyramid. Grave-sand flows in the far deserts of Shyish, running down the dunes. It's said that each stream corresponds to life, and it ends when that life does. After Shyish's magical polarity reversed and the Nadir was created, all the magic usually happening on the Perimeter Inimical moved to the Nadir at the core...but many believe grave-sand rivers still flow there for each life, dropping into the bottomless pit. If the legends of grave-sand and lives are true or not doesn't really matter - what matters is that the Nadir isn't actually the only place to get the stuff. While much of the new stuff pours deeply into it, much of the stuff in the desert never got harvested. Grave-sand also builds up along the rim of the Nadir, though it is nothing compared to the concentration building up in its center. Its presence is quite dangerous, though, to everyone but the dead. Grave-sand grants power over death - which means it can kill easily and prevent death. Had the Necroquake worked as intended, the pulse drawn out of the grave-sand would have instantly killed literally everyone in the universe. Even a few grains of the stuff can kill massive amounts of people in a very short time, aging them to dust. However, it can also be harnessed to halt aging, save the dying or pull the dead from the grave. Ossiarch Bonereaper soulgems incorporate grave-sand as a preservative, ensuring the soul-gestalt remains together and does not fade away when the body is destroyed. Grave-sand can be made into glass, which is commonly used to make brooches and wards to protect against ghosts. While few dare to build with heavily compacted grave-sand, small amounts are often mixed with clay to create buildings that can withstand the deathstorms of Shyish without crumbling or withering. It also is likely a component in nadirite, the metal the Ossiarchs favor for weaponry. Even Nagash is careful about grave-sand. When his skeletons were harvesting it, each one carried only one grain at a time, and even so, many collapsed to dust under the strain of the substance. It might be possible for a necromancer to use grave-sand heavily without withering, but only if they were able to redirect its power somehow. Even a single screwup could tear decades from their life. No normal mortal would stand a chance without precautions. Stormcast and Soulbound don't age, but even they feel lethargy and crushing fatigue when handling grave-sand, and the stuff encourages pessimism, fatalism and exhaustion. Nothing but a god is truly immortal, and it is possible that concentrated grave-sand could even prevent Stormcast reforging or Sylvaneth lamentiri replanting. The wise work with it at a remove or dilute it heavily. Grave-sand drains the life from the world around it, too. Unless it is specially prepared or otherwise diluted, it withers all plants nearby, makes colors fade from the world, erodes stone...everything ages and dies. Eventually, grave-sand reverts the entirety of reality around it to the plain, featureless deserts from which it is born.  Warpstone draws on the dark power of Blight City, the Skaven nest-realm that lies between the Mortal Realms and the Realm of Chaos. It is an impossibly filthy, gigantic city that is constantly about to fall apart. Districts collapse constantly, but more are always being built. There's more realmstone in Blight City than any other location in existence...but all of it's warpstone. The entire city is built atop a gigantic bedrock layer of warpstone. It appears as a black crystal with a sickly green glow that devours the light around it. Sometimes it moves on its own, twitching and rattling, or lets off sparks. Other times it just sits there smoldering. It brings out all the worst in the Skaven - and anything else left near it, creating a self-consuming reality cancer that destroys everything around it. While it is most abundant in the Blight City, it can be found in every realm but Azyr thanks to the damage dealt during the Age of Chaos. The Skaven mine it relentlessly, and while the other Chaos forces find it less useful, their more desperate followers often find uses for the stuff. Warpstone is the fuel that drives everything in Skaven society. It powers their warp-lightning, helps mutate their abominations, creates horrible diseases. Even for the clans that are less focused on research and development of new technology use it to make knives, armor and similar. The Skaven also eat the stuff, knowing that its raw power is the quickest route to greatness...or an explosion, if you're unlucky. They will go to nearly any length to acquire more warpstone, even if they're unsure what they're going to do with it yet, and they backstab each other readily to get at the stuff. There is no realmstone that is more capable of raw, brutal destruction, and it's shockingly easy to work with. Most realmstone requires special study and handling to harness, but not warpstone. You can do just about anything with it and get a result - staple it to a sword, put it in an engine, feed it to a monster, shove it up your nose, it's going to make a dangerous and transformative result. Few non-Skaven ever consider using warpstone seriously. Even daemons tend to have more self-preservation instinct than to mess with it heavily, for warpstone is exceptionally dangerous to its wielders as well as their foes. Of course, the desperate are willing to take that risk. Warpstone is, after all, relatively common as realmstone goes and it does do its work easily. To many first-time users, the dangers seem exaggerated, as the stuff floods their minds with arrogance and a sense of personal power. Often, they die quickly due to the uncontrollable energy flux or to stray warp-lightning sparks. These are the lucky ones. Those who survive find their worst traits magnified massively by the material while their bodies mutate into hideous and twisted forms. Worst of all, realmstone floods the soul with Chaos energy. Its users almost inevitably drat themselves, embracing the Chaos taint. Once someone begins using warpstone, it's often near impossible for them to find redemption. Their vices and sins take over their personality, and they spread their corruption to anyone that will listen to them. Better for everyone that the warpstone's energy kills them quickly, for when it doesn't, it creates insidious, gruesome monsters who come to care for nothing but spreading their own horrific state. (The Skaven consider this to be completely normal, of course.)  Varanite is found in the Eightpoints, the Chaos-corrupted land that was once the trading realm Allpoints. If there was a realmstone there before Archaon conquered the place, its name and nature are entirely lost. Now, there's just varanite, the superheated blood of the land itself. It is sometimes called bloodrock, octarite or Archaon's gift, and it is formed by Chaos energy that flows out of the Varanspire and fuses with spilled mortal blood. Chaos energy and bloody soil are both extremely common in the Eightpoints, so there's plenty of varanite seams around the place, even far from the Varanspire. Chaos warbands often use mining slaves to excavate the seams, though they must be careful not to touch the raw varanite. Large operations use summoned daemonic bore-wyrms to dig into and drink up the varanite, storing it in their guts for later. Varanite must be treated with extreme caution, because its nature is mutation. It can cause bigger and faster changes than any other realmstone, even warpstone. Some Chaos sages suspect that the two materials are actually the same thing, despite their differing appearances, and are just variations on the theme of Chaos realmstone. However, warpstone represents Chaos as ruin, while varanite represents Chaos as corruption. It also operates on contact rather than proximity, for the most part. You can stand near varanite and be...mostly fine...but touching even a drop of raw varanite will alter your body immediately, often turning you into a screaming, pained monster. A drop of it on stone can make the stone sprout organic bits, acidic fangs and weirder poo poo still. Even if cooled down and rendered usable by magic, it continues to mutate its victims. Varanite swords are able to create hostile mutations in those they cut, and varanite armor (insofar as it exists at all) tends to fuse with the skin and form hardened bone and hide plating to assist it. Varanite can also be used to corrupt or control realmgates. The Arcways, the massive realmgates connecting the Eightpoints to everywhere else, are hugely strategically important...but the one leading to Azyr has been forced shut for centuries by Sigmar's power. Archaon planned to use varanite to force it open, and had Morathi not stolen his entire stockpile, he might well have succeeded. Morathi consumed massive quantities of the stuff to fuel her divine apotheosis...and while that had consequences, it's likely only varanite had the raw mutative power to actually pull the trick off given where she started from. Varanite's power is immense, both in the results and the dangers. Any terrain it touches is corrupted heavily, becoming identical to that found in the Realm of Chaos. Mining the stuff is exceptionally dangerous, and only a rare few forces in the Eightpoints have varanite weapons despite the fact that the seams are relatively common by realmstone standards. Slaves die in droves for every such tool made, and even after the massive amounts of processing and enchantment required to render them mostly safe, a user that gets cocky can easily doom themselves. Varanite doesn't have the subtle or intermediate stages of other realmstone effects - you mishandle varanite and you are mutated heavily. Period. It is immediate, drastic and potent, and those mutations as easily affect the mind as the body. Its mental mutations typically revolve around feelings of helplessness before the dark gods and a strong sense of futility in defying them.  Nullstone is drawn out of the aetheric void, and it is...rather lacking in actual substance as a result. It can only form in a total vacuum, a place with no magic, no matter and no emotion. It is easily destroyed by any of these things, even by the Seraphon temple-ships and Tzeentchian towers that trawl for it in the void itself. It's unclear to everyone what, exactly, causes nullstone to harden and become permanent, but this state is the only way it can survive entry into the realmspheres. Once inside a world, it can be observed, appearing as a black stone that seems to emit rainbow light. (It doesn't actually - this is the visual result of it eating ambient magical energies, which generate the light.) Small amounts of nullstone exist in every realm, but they're very hard to find, as scrying spells and magical devices can't perceive them at all due to the way nullstone consumes magic. It can only be seen by physical eyes, which tends to annoy the Collegiate Arcane. Nullstone prospectors rarely have any magical talent whatsoever and often consider the stuff to be a way of leveling the field against the powerful. That said, the nature of nullstone is not balance - it is emptiness. It is the void, without care or emotion. Nullstone amulets can protect against curses, hostile spells and even daemons, and they tend to be exceptionally expensive. The market is full of fakes, useless trinkets sold by con artists. The area around the Coast of Tusks is the best place to find real nullstone, as the Nullstone Brotherhood of Excelsis once acquired vast amounts during a wave of anti-magic sentiment in the past. Most have remained in the area. Nullstone weapons are rarer, but quite powerful. They must be made by hand, using no magic of any kind in the process, which means arrowheads and spear tips are more common than swords, but the Kharadron have developed anti-magic nullstone explosives as well. They actually quite like the stuff, though they tend to call it voidstone. Wizards that specialize in hunting endless spells also prize nullstone, using it to make jars in which to capture and store the things. Nullstone is inert, but that doesn't make it safe. Unfortunately, because so much fake nullstone is in the market, most people don't understand this at all. Nullstone is still realmstone and still exerts influence on the souls and world around it. That influence is the power of the void, and regular users of nullstone frequently suffer out-of-body experiences. They lose their sense of self, slowly becoming unable to remember their own desires, ambitions or even relationships, likes and dislikes. Eventually, the spark of life within them winks out. They stop thinking and moving. Eventually, they suffer organ failure. At the end of all that, nullstone overdosers just...wink out of existence. They become one with nothingness and cease existing, falling into the aetheric void. In sufficient amounts, nullstone will do this to everything around it - not just the user, but the air and earth themselves. After all, everything in the Mortal Realms is, in a sense, made of magic and cannot exist without it. Next time: How to get magic rocks.
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Nov 22, 2021 23:54
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Emberstone just makes me think meth.
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Nov 23, 2021 06:41
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power The Quest To Capture The Noble Rock First up, the game straight up acknowledges that the way player characters get realmstone is to tell the GM they want some, and the GM then decides that their enemies or places they are already going happens to have access to it. They then have to decide when they want to risk going after that realmstone despite the added risk on their adventures. Sure, in theory, a Soulbound party could try to do standard mining or buy realmstone on the market, but overall that's usually going to be the slow and boring method and people will want to have adventures. What follows is details on how npcs tend to get realmstone - industrial mining efforts, for the most part, which PCs might raid and disrupt. Realmstone is, generally speaking, rare and hard to find. There's a fair amount around the Perimeters Inimical, but those are essentially inaccessible to most civilizations, and the stuff that isn't tends to get harvested fast. It's powerful stuff, after all, and it's not able to be recharged as far as anyone can tell. It can't be made artificially, and when it's used for crafting, it can't be unmade - an emberstone sword can't be broken back down into raw emberstone. The transformation and alloying is permanent. This means it's always in demand, and any society that doesn't quickly claim nearby realmstone will find it stolen by another. A single mining haul of realmstone can launch a fortune for those who sell it...assuming they survive the effort. Realmstone sells for a lot of money - or may even be usable as money itself, in some societies, though generally it is only nations engaging in trade with each other that deal in realmstone as a currency. (And, it should be noted, mining is not the most common way to get realmstone. Theft is. Someone has to mine it, but after that people will raid for it, steal it or otherwise acquire it from others.) Mining realmnstone is a three-stage process - find it, get it out of the grand, transport it to somewhere for sale. None of these are particularly safe or easy, especially given the dangers of travel in most rural parts of the Mortal Realms. Realmstone is rarely found in inhabited lands, after all. When it is discovered in areas someone actually controls, you generally get a rush to claim the site as fast as possible. Information on the location can be sold for a high price if you find the right buyer, because knowing where to look gives you a huge leg up on the competition to get there first. Few of these deposits can be claimed without battle, though - there will inevitably be competitors trying to push you out. A good deposit of realmstone will require a good defense, and the battles to control it may be quite large. An entire fortress might rise around a valuable vein - and may end up falling to siege as well. (If not, it will likely be abandoned once the vein runs out.) To avoid battle, some prospectors will head out towards the realm edge to find less contested realmstone sources...but that has its own dangers. There may be fewer wars, but the environmental hazards are often far, far greater. On Aqshy, the realm edge is full of undying flames covering vast plains, while in Ghur, the predatory mountainsides of the realm edge are incredibly active. Similar dangers can be found in the other realms, too. Few people can survive long in these places, and those sent to mine the area must be incredibly durable and able to withstand great torment...or must be so expendable that you don't mind the need to constantly replace them. Some groups do specialize in operating out in the far lands, like the Null Myriad Ossiarch legion or the Thunder Lizard constellation of Seraphon...but most groups that go for rimward mining tend to go for the mass replacement of expendable workers option. The Skaven in particular are known to throw hundreds of rats through portals to claim a warpstone deposit, considering the operation a success if even one returns with any. Which is not guaranteed - most realmstone mining operations near the Perimeters Inimical just don't return. But hey, let's assume you have found and secured a realmstone vein. Now you have to mine it. Most veins are underground, but because realmstone is inherently volatile, you can't just use magic to blow it to the surface. You're going to need to very carefully dig out and sift through the earth even as you fight off other forces or deal with horrible magical storms or other environmental events. The most proficient mining groups use enhanced forces to aid in this - the Null Myriad have special necromantic bone constructs hardened against magic that assist their efforts, while the Thunder Lizard use beasts of burden whose hides they infuse with Chamonite to resist magical dangers. Even if a realmstone vein is not underground, it is almost always physically difficult to get to. Cyclestone causes mass vegetative growth around itself, meaning you have to be constantly fight it back to allow miners near the stuff, and celestium panners have to dodge meteor showers and lightning storms. Aetherquartz and varanite both need intense magical processing before they can be used at all. Amberbone and falsestone are easier...once you identify them at all, which can be a real challenge. And throughout it all, everyone involved is being exposed to the emotional influence of the realmstone. That influence is also the biggest problem with transporting realmstone. While it's underground, the rock around it serves as a buffer that protects most of the folks nearby...though, as noted, not the miners, who have to get up close and personal with the stuff. During transport, it is able to influence everyone involved or even nearby, and has not yet been processed or diluted to reduce its ability to do so. The effort of resisting the effects is extremely tiring, and you have to keep doing it, day in and day out, for as long as it takes you to get to your destination. If you were mining out by the realm edge? Yeah, that could be a long loving time. Even with realmgate shortcuts, it might take weeks. Emberstone is especially infamous for being hard to move, as it tends to cause fights among the transporters and makes any tensions much, much worse by inflaming anger, but all realmstone has its problems - cyclestone encourages the miners to go back for more even though they don't have the supplies, grave-sand ages them to death as they go, and so on. One way to avoid the danger is to use nullstone containers, but these have their own risks, since nullstone also has an influence on people...and also is often faked. Others rely on extremely resilient and often unintelligent transporters to assist them, as these beings have less or even no mind to affect - mechanical constructs of the Ironweld are hard to emotionally influence, for example, and Archaon's daemon bore-wyrms are naturally resistant to varanite. Soulbound are especially valuable to those who would move realmstone. The Binding protects them from mental corruption and magical delusion, for the most part, and they tend to move faster than larger organizations, which require more time to handle bureaucracy or change. While Soulbound are rarely able to assist in mining efforts, they are ideal for moving (or stealing) concentrated realmstone supplies. But hey, you've found realmstone, you've helped harvest it, and you've gotten it to market! Good for you! Most markets deal in realmstone only rarely, usually after an army returns with it or a harvesting expedition succeeds. In some places, though, it can be reliably bought and sold - mostly settlements expressly designed to service realmstone mines. In these places, realmstone may be used as a currency instead of Aqua Ghyranis, though generally only in extremely tiny quantities per unit. A fraction of any realmstone sales are fake, though the odds of finding fakes depend on how hard the authorities come down on counterfeiting. The problem, of course, is there's no way to tell how long any given piece will last. Realmstone is always a gamble - sometimes it dies fast, sometimes it doesn't - so it's hard to value. Due to the inherent quality irregularity, it's generally just sold based on weight and size and everyone hopes for the best, though more recently harvested stones are generally more expensive, as there is a growing theory that realmstone degrades over time due to its magic flowing back into the world. You can of course just try to buy realmstone gear, which has already had the sufficient amount to power it up used and does not need more or risk running out of power, but at that point you're dealing with the stuff that happens to be available rather than the specific thing you have in mind. There just isn't a lot of realmstone gear out there for sale, and if you want something specific you may well need to make it yourself. A single unit of realmstone sufficient to trade with is generally worth about 300D of Aqua Ghyranis, though the price doubles if you're trying to get it outside its realm of origin...except nullstone, which is found in roughly equal amounts everywhere. The game notes that generally speaking, 300D of realmstone is enough to create a single piece of gear, and 100D of realmstone will last through an entire adventure of active usage before being burned out...unless it's narratively appropriate and dramatic to have it burn out some other time. The GM is told to never try to trick players or shortchange them on the value of realmstone, but also try to make it feel unpredictable and hard to quantify. So how much realmstone do you generally get for that 300D value of 'enough to make an item?' Well, that's a single gem of aetherquartz, about an ounce in weight. Mostly you see that around the Lumineth, and they don't expect anyone else to deal in it or use it as currency. Amberbone shards make for excellent trade currency among orruks and ogors, though they rarely trade it in terms of direct amounts, but rather in a system of gifting, debts and favors. A shard of about an ounce is the "standard" amount for human trading, though. Celestium is by the grain - one grain is enough to do most things. Grains are generally placed inside glass spheres that are then suspended in water. You know that as long as they glow with blue light, they're functional. One fluid ounce of chamonite is the standard, usually carried in a sphere of glass about the size of a thumb, and mostly found in cities with strong alchemical traditions. A one ounce chip of cyclestone is the same value, though rarely seen outside of the Sylvaneth using them as gifts or trade goods. Emberstone ore is often cut into one ounce coals and stuck into stone coins, which has led to an Aqshian saying for being angry - 'having a full coinpurse.' Falsestone is valued by the wisp, but it's actually impossible to figure out how much a wisp weighs. Dealing in it is a bluffing game where you hope you're actually getting falsestone and not just some sticks. Grave-sand, like celestium, is valued by the grain. Shyishans sometimes use it as currency by storing it in tiny, thimble-sized hourglasses in which the one grave-sand grain shines brightly against the normal sand. Warpstone is the only currency accepted in Blight City, valued by ounce-weight gems, but no one except a Skaven would ever dream of trading in it. They will happily trade in chips, flakes or even warpstone dust, though. Varanite is valued by the fluid ounce, though solidified and stabilized clumps are sometimes given as tribute among Eightpoints warbands. And nullstone? Valued by ounce shards, which tend to be the most stable of realmstone currencies. Superstitious people often buy tiny pebbles of it to hold over their heart as a ward against curses. Next time: Realmstone gear and usage
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Nov 23, 2021 18:20
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I love the GM advice in Soulbound
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Nov 23, 2021 18:59
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I love that this book gave cool magic gear.
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Nov 23, 2021 19:05
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If I ever get to play Soulbound as a player I'm doing knight-zephyros that impersonates chaos warrior, breaks into chaos realmstone mine, frees slaves and steals everything he can lay his hands on.
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Nov 23, 2021 19:08
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Covermeinsunshine posted:If I ever get to play Soulbound as a player I'm doing knight-zephyros that impersonates chaos warrior, breaks into chaos realmstone mine, frees slaves and steals everything he can lay his hands on. Hopefully leaving the Varanite alone. Because you really, really don't want to be near that for any extended periods of time. Or at all. The side effects table for Varanite made me go  when I saw it.
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Nov 23, 2021 19:21
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I wonder just how many rats the lords of the Skaven throw at the problem of stealing varanite in hopes of figuring a way to turn it into warpstone or an acceptable substitute.
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Nov 23, 2021 20:00
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By popular demand posted:I wonder just how many rats the lords of the Skaven throw at the problem of stealing varanite in hopes of figuring a way to turn it into warpstone or an acceptable substitute. The answer is they don't care. They will spend as many lives as possible cause everyone but them is expendable. I imagine they would see Varanite as useful in it's normal form anyway. While Warpstone is their primary thing the Skaven are all too happy to experiment with the others.
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Nov 23, 2021 20:33
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mellonbread posted:SCENIC DUNNSMOUTH PART 5: SECOND ATTEMPT Thanks for doing this mellonbread. I enjoy kits for procedural generation in rpgs because it adds some mystery for the GM as well during game prep. The author, Zzarchov Kowolski, has gone on to make another rpg procedural generation kit; this time for making haunted houses for the players to plunder, exterminate the ghostly gribblies and then flip the real estate, called The Price of Evil. Like Scenic Dunnsmouth, it uses playing cards to generate rooms and what they are haunted with if anything. Another example is the blog In Corpathium. Like Scenic Dunnsmouth, Corpathium uses the innovative "throw all your dice on a piece of paper and mark where they fall" technique for building a settlement. There are several tables and generators on the blog for fleshing out Corpathium and for making adventure hooks there. mellonbread posted:SECOND ATTEMPT Smart idea. I think this is a better way to display all of Scenic Dunnsmouth's creativity than just showing parts of the book due to random generation. mellonbread posted:The menhir the house boat is moored to has runes on it that let you summon a dimetrodon from the ancient past. It’s always the same specific dimetrodon, so if someone else casts the spell while you have it summoned, it gets teleported to them instead. It respawns back in the past if it dies, though. You get a save vs Magic to control it, otherwise it wanders off and does dimetrodon things. From Delta Green to OSR, random dinosaurs really do inject excitement into the game. Who doesn't like crushing one's enemies with a dimetrodon? What I like significantly less was the bit about the sexual assault of the elf guardian by Ivanovik. I attribute this to Scenic Dunnsmouth being under the Lamentations of the Flame Princess banner, because I don't believe (I'm pretty confident but not 100% sure) that the author's next procedural creation, The Price of Evil, includes any of that grody stuff. mellonbread posted:
I like that Scenic Dunnsmouth has three options for "the cult", but I wish there were more adventure hooks to investigate Dunnsmouth than just "Fantasy IRS" or "Find the Time Cube magic McGuffin". Although I do think the situation you've presented with the players vs Dunnsmouth with the objective to carry off everything not nailed down, could be fun for certain groups. As you've pointed out mellonbread, I wish there were more hooks or options for players to interact with some of the NPCs as opposed to the polarity of cultists/non cultist interactions. I guess what I really want is more detail in the book. Pvt.Scott posted:Scenic Dunnsmouth would definitely benefit from all of those if/then conditions being a choice between one of two interesting options rather than all or nothing. It does seem like a good set of bones to build your own site/adventure generation tool off of, though. I agree. I think a procedurally generated product with two interesting if/then options is significantly harder to write but it would be more rewarding for the DM.
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Nov 23, 2021 23:57
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power Fiery Swords Realmstone gear can do all kinds of things, but weaponizing it is usually the easiest - take some realmstone, alloy it into a sword, and boom. Most melee weapons focus on getting the realmstone to the point of impact with the enemy - the blade, the hammer head, and so on - while ranged weapons focus it where they touch the ammo, so the bowstring, rifle chamber or, for some, inside the ammo proper. A skilled blacksmith can mix realmstone into armor, as well. In both cases, pure realmstone is rarely used. Instead, it is alloyed into other material or used as fuel during the forging process, which tends to be difficult, expensive and quite risky. Realmstone usually adds 500D to an item's price, plus another 500 if it had to be shipped in from another realm. That said, it's rare to have an actual market for realmstone gear - it's more of the legendary named artifact type deal, and most of the time the party's going to be looting it from their enemies rather than buying it. Alloyed realmstone has reduced mental effects, though it does still have minor side effects on the user. There's a chart you can use to generate random realmstone when coming up with gear or for artifacts incorporating realmstone, which has equal odds for each realmstone type, plus an additional slot for 'the one for the realm you are currently in.' Realmstone weapons gain the Realmstone trait, which gives +1 Damage and the Magical trait, plus a second trait based on what realmstone is used. Aetherquartz weapons let you drain away emotional distraction from yourself to perfect your form. After you attack with one, you can spend 1 Mettle and temporarily reduce your max Mettle by 1 to get double damage. You can't drop your max Mettle under 0, so once you hit 0 you stop being able to use the trick. Max Mettle returns at a rate of 1 per Rest and returns to full capacity over a downtime period. Amberbone weapons instill instinctive terror in the foe. Whenever you deal damage with one, your target has to make a Determination roll with complexity based on the damage dealt or become Frightened of you until the start of your next turn. Celestium weapons are so fast that they seem to do nothing until foes collapse seconds later, blood fountaining out. When you attack with one, you may choose to have your attack ignore Armor. If you do, the target does not actually take the damage until the start of your next turn. Chamonite weapons flow and morph into new forms. As a Free Action at the start of your turn, you can choose to give your weapon one of the Close, Defensive, Restraining, Reach, Spread, or Penetrating traits. Whenever you do, it replaces the last one you gave it. Cyclestone weapons pulse with the energies of life. At the start of your turn while wielding one, you heal Toughness based on your Body. Further, whenever you are in combat, plants grow from the weapon, fusing around your hand and making it impossible to disarm you. Emberstone weapons spread rage through everyone nearby. Whenever you deal damage with one, you engulf the target in rage-spewing flame. While they're on fire, they take an extra 1 damage that ignores Armor at the start of their next turn...but they also deal +1 Damage for that turn. Further Emberstone-weapon damage dealt while they're still on fire increases both their damage bonus and the damage they take from the fire. They remain on fire until they or an ally of theirs in Close range spends an Action to put out the fire, at which point both effects end. Falsestone weapons disguise their own true nature. You can spend an Action to make one appear as any nondescript item of approximately the same size, with the illusion working on sound, sight and touch. Its true form can only be detected via Witch-Sight. Further, the weapon is automatically Subtle no matter what tags it normally has, and it ignores Armor when you use it to attack targets unaware of you. Grave-sand weapons steal the life of their victims. Whenever you kill a creature with one, you heal Toughness based on your victim's Soul. Warpstone weapons damage reality itself and draw power from Chaos. They do not deal the normal +1 Damage from the Realmstone trait. Instead, they get bonus damage based on the Doom, and whenever you kill a Champion or Chosen foe with one, the Doom increases by 1. Varanite weapons mutate foes. Whenever one damages someone at 0 Toughness, it automatically causes a Deadly Wound, as teeth and tentacles sprout from the wound and tear the victim apart. Whenever a Champion, Chosen or PC is killed or Mortally Wounded with one, the victim is transformed into a Chaos Spawn and the Doom goes up by 1. Nullstone weapons can destroy spells. If a spell targets you, your Zone or any target within Close range of you, you can spend 1 Mettle to try to unbind the spell as per the Unbind talent, using the appropriate skill for the weapon instead of Channelling, and adding the weapon's damage to your successes. Further, nullstone weapons do double damage to wild Endless Spells. Realmstone armor also gains the Realmstone and Magical traits, but for armor Realmstone gives +1 Armor on top of its normal. You also get another trait, as with weapons. Aetherquartz armor shines to blind foes. Whenever a creature within Close range damages you while you wear it, they have to make a Reflexes roll based on your Armor value (or bonus armor from a shield) or become Blinded until the end of your next turn. Amberbone armor awakens instinct. While wearing it, you sprout fur, feathers, claws or other animal traits during combat, your Speed becomes Fast, and when you Charge, you get an additional bonus die. Celestium armor guides its wearer out of danger. While wearing it, you get a bonus to Defence against anyone lower in Initiative than you. Chamonite armor shifts to suit the wearer. As a Free Action at the start of your turn, you can choose to gain a single bonus - +1 Armor against melee attacks, +1 Armor against ranged attacks, +1 Armor against spells, or +1 Armor against all attacks and spells from one creature within Long range. Whenever you choose a bonus, it replaces your last choice. Cyclestone armor makes you grow and move along natural cycles, and in death it uses you to fuel growth. While you are wearing it, your Size increases a step, to a max of Large, and if you take a Rest while wearing it, you heal an additional space on the Wound track. If you die while wearing it, your Zone is sanctified as with the Lifebloom spell. Emberstone armor returns all strikes with flame. If you take a Wound while wearing it, your Zone becomes a Major Hazard that ignores non-Magical armor and sets flammable objects on fire. If you take another Wound while in the same Zone, it increases to a Deadly Hazard. The effect lasts until either combat ends or you're no longer in danger. Also, while wearing the armor, you double your Armor for all fire- or heat-based damage, including from spells and Hazards. Falsestone armor also called shadow-weave, making cloth armor that's as tough as steel. As an Action, you can make it appear as any set of clothes you choose. Also, the armor loses any Loud trait and gains Subtle if it doesn't already have it. Once per turn, if you are attacked, you may spend 1 Mettle as a Reaction to cause the attack to automatically pass through you harmlessly, revealing it was an illusion as you appear anywhere else in the Zone, which has been your actual location the whole time. Grave-sand armor preserves and binds souls in place. While wearing it, you may choose at will to appear dead as per the Death Shroud spell, with your choice of duration. Further, you get reduced Death Test complexity, and if any effect would automatically kill you (like a Bloodthirster's decapitation power) you instead become Mortally Wounded and only have to pass a relatively simple Death Test to survive. Warpstone armor absorbs the power of attackers. If you are hit by a spell or Magical weapon while wearing it, you get a cumulative Damage bonus until the end of your next turn. Varanite armor fuses to the wearer, becoming an obviously mutated shell or similar part of their body as it floods them with Chaos. It does not use normal Armor stats, but instead gives Armor based on the Doom. While wearing it, you get a bonus on opposed Intimidation rolls. However, each time you are Mortally Wounded, you reduce your maximum Wounds by 1. Further, Varanite armor cannot be removed by any means until the bearer dies, at which point it falls off and reverts to its original form. Nullstone armor unravels hostile magic. You double your dicepool for any rolls to resist spell effects and double your Armor against spell-based damage, including all damage dealt by wild Endless Spells. As a side note, if you want to use the crafting rules from Steam and Steel, Realmstone has a Trait Cost of 4. However, if you just want to apply a Realmstone bonus to gear you already have you can also just use the new Infuse Realmstone Equipment endeavor. If you're a wizard, you can also use realmstone to fuel your casting! Raw realmstone can be used this way, though it's incredibly dangerous. Harnessing it for a spell can be done any number of ways - crushing it, putting it in a machine, eating it, or even just holding the stuff is fine. You do your spell and the realmstone reaches out to help it...assuming it is associated with the right kind of magic, anyway. Of course, this also means you're mainlining the raw power of the stone in every possible way, so it has plenty of chance to influence your mind. When you roll Channelling to cast a spell that shares a realm affinity with a chunk of raw realmstone you are holding, you can change any number of the dice you rolled into 6s. However, regardless of spell success or failure, you have to roll the same number of dice on the spell failure table to determine what backlash you get from the realmstone. It is safer to dilute and craft the realmstone into a focus - an hourglass, a staff, any kind of tool you can use to help with your magic. These arcane foci, when made with realmstone, serve as a conduit for their realm's energies without going quite so wild as raw realmstone does. When you are wielding one, you get realm affinity with any spell from a matching lore, no matter where you are, which stacks with normal realm affinity - so basically, you get a bonus die on top of any other bonus dice. However, if you fail a Channelling roll where the realmstone focus gave you a bonus, you have to roll twice on the failure table and use the worse result. Realmstone Foci can be made just like weapons or armor, or you can buy 'em for slightly less money than one of those would be. Generally speaking, realmstone's not malicious...but it does affect everything nearby. That influence is going to apply to everyone near raw realmstone, along with those close to a wielder of worked realmstone - or the wielder themselves. This can be purely roleplayed, but there are optional rules for if the PCs succumb to some of the effects. (Fortunately for PCs, Soulbound have a natural resistance to such influence, so it's usually temporary.) The rules are simple - if you used or were near realmstone during an adventure, at the start of the next downtime you have to make a Determination or Fortitude roll, with difficulty based on how close the contact was - relatively easy if you just camped near a big deposit, harder if you touched raw realmstone or used realmstone gear, and hardest if you channelled raw realmstone or were trapped inside a chunk of realmstone. Complexity is based on duration of exposure, generally equal to the number of sessions involved, though it might be modified if more in-game time elapsed than normal. If you fail, you develop a realmstone side effect. There's a table you can roll on with 6 possible results for each type, or you can make up your own. Realmstone side effects have no mechanical weight - they're stuff like "your features become perfectly symmetrical" or "you now wander away in the middle of long speeches" or "you always suspect betrayal is coming." Some of them can be quite nasty, though - "you stop caring about your closest friend," for example, is a possible chamonite result, well all the varanite ones are things like "every organ sprouts another organ" or "you can only communicate by screaming in agony" or "you must obey those who hurt you most." However, some groups may want harsher penalties! In that case, if a character gains more narrative side effects than their Soul, or if they suffer truly extreme exposure to massive amounts of realmstone, there are also mechanical penalties presented. Aetherquartz: You consider only logic and reason and find it very hard to process the emotions of others or feel any of your own. You get a large penalty to Guile, Intuition and Intimidation rolls. Amberbone: You know you are the apex predator and all others are mere prey. You get a penalty to Defence and must make a Determination roll in order to take the Help action. Celestium: You see infinite possibility and it paralyzes you. You always go last in combat, regardless of any spells or other effects, including your own actions. Chamonite: You refuse to act predictably, for you embody change. In combat, you cannot take the same Action twice in the same turn. Outside combat, you can't make the same skill roll consecutively, even during Endeavors. Cyclestone: You suffer accelerated aging. While Soulbound cannot die of old age, you will continue to just get older and more senile indefinitely. Every time you Rest, you must make a Fortitude roll to avoid losing Training, Focus, Mind or Body randomly (and permanently). Emberstone: You are completely controlled by your emotions and cannot focus on simple, mundane work. You get a large penalty on Arcana, Lore and Medicine rolls. Falsestone: Nothing about you is ever the obvious. You must roll everything twice and take the worst result each time. Grave-sand: Your soul is pulled towards Shyish. Every time you become Mortally Wounded, you permanently lose a point of Soul, immediately dying if it hits 0. Warpstone: You are utterly unpredictable, embodying Chaos. Whenever you make a roll, ignore your stats and skills. Instead, you roll 1d6 to see how many dice you roll, with 6s exploding. You never apply Focus to rolls. Varanite: Your form is constantly shifting. Every time you Rest, roll 1d6 for each of Body, Mind and Soul. Those are your stats now, replacing the last set, and they come with horrible physical mutations you can sprinkle to taste. If you ever get the same result for all three at once, you immediately die and become a Chaos Spawn. Nullstone: You exist in a constant anti-magic field. You cannot benefit from Magical gear, treating it as if it wasn't Magical. You gain no benefits from Aqua Ghyranis. You cannot cast spells, and any spells cast in the same Zone as you are automatically unbound. Also, you probably can't be targeted by or benefit from spells cast from outside that range, but it's somewhat unclear if the phrase "preventing spells from being cast on you or drawing active spells toward you" is rules text or not. Lastly, we have some new Talents and Endeavors! Talents: Artefact Scholar: You double Training for all rolls to find, operate or remember stuff about ancient artefacts. Martial Affinity: You must have a realmstone weapon. You learn how to fight in the philosophy of a realm - pick one kind of realmstone. You get a bonus to Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill when wielding a weapon of the appropriate realmstone type. The GM may choose to increase this bonus based on location. Spell Breaker: You must have Training 2 in Arcana and one of Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill or Crafting. You may perform Unbinding Actions against wild Endless Spells using your choice of the three skill options, representing either specialized fighting styles or equipment. (More on those later.) Spell Ecologist: You must have Training 2 in Arcana or Lore. You have studied the behavior of Endless Spells. As an action, you may target a wild Endless Spell in Long range and make a Lore roll to learn one of its Alterations, Behaviors or Weaknesses. (More on that later, too.) Spell Sunder: You must have Training 2 in Arcana and Channelling. You reduce the difficulty of rolls to unbind Endless Spells or take Unbinding Actions against wild ones. Spell Tracker: You must have Training 2 in Survival. You get a bonus to opposed rolls to track Endless Spells or wizards. If you spend an hour studying the traces of an Endless Spell, you may apply your Survival Training and Focus to all rolls to resist its effects, unbind it or otherwise stop it. Spell Trapper: After you unbind an Endless Spell, you may try to trap it in a prepared container. This requires a roll similar to that required to resist the spell, or an Arcana roll if it doesn't have one. If you succeed, you gain a Spell in a Bottle containing that spell; if you fail, it just dissipates. (More on Spells in a Bottle later.) Stable Temperament: You must have Soul 3+. You double Focus on any roll to resist realmstone side effects or to resist the influence of similar effects at a realm's edge. Further, if you spend an entire adventure not exposed to any realmstone, in the next downtime you can make a Determination or Fortitude roll to remove one realmstone side effect you currently suffer. Sworn Protector: You must have Training 2 and Focus 2 in Determination. You have a Lost Artefact that has been given to you by someone, with the condition that you must protect it with your very life. You work with the GM to design it, and it has one Property and one Eccentricity. It shows up in your next downtime, and if it is every lost, stolen or destroyed, the Doom goes up by 1 and cannot drop below 2 until you get it back or repair it. Versatile Affinity: You understand how to align behavior with a realm. Pick one realm. When in that realm, you get a bonus to a skill associated with that realm. (Azyr gets Arcana, Aqshy gets Determination, Chamon gets Reflexes, Ghur gets Survival, Ghyran gets Fortitude, Hysh gets Awareness, Shyish gets Theology and Ulgu gets Deception, which is probably supposed to be Guile.) The GM may increase the bonus in some locations. You may take a different skill to get the bonus than the one listed if the GM agrees, as long as it fits the nature of the realm, and you may choose it for realms or locations besides the main eight as long as a Lore is associated with them or they are a distinct subreality - so 'deep oceans' is possible, since the Lore of the Ethersea exists. You can take this multiple times for a different skill each time, but all must be associated with the same realm as the first one. Also, you can't ever get a bonus to Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill or Channelling from this. Weapon of Choice: Pick a weapon you have (or other piece of gear, with GM approval). You have a special connection to that weapon now. You may summon it to hand as a Free Action regardless of distance, and no matter how damaged it gets, it can always be repaired. Endeavors! Craft Realmstone Focus: You make a realmstone magical focus, as above. On average, this costs 300D in realmstone, though that may vary up or down depending on your realmstone's potency and the GM's whim. This is an extended Crafting roll, aiming at 8 successes over three rolls in one week. If you succeed, you get a Realmstone Focus aligned with the type of realmstone you used. If you fail, you screwed up but didn't use up your materials...unless you fail by 3 or more successes, in which case you waste the realmstone or discover it was too weak, and you need to start over from scratch. Consume Realmstone: You must have around 300D in realmstone for this. Most people don't try to eat realmstone, but every culture has legends of those who absorbed the stuff and became powerful beyond measure. You somehow consume a small quantity of realmstone and spend the week recovering from the experience and controlling the new power. Until your next downtime, all of your stats increase by 1, but you become a source of minor realmstone exposure for purpose of causing realmstone side effects, and you immediately and automatically gain a realmstone side effect. You may alternatively choose a Loyal Companion or NPC ally who trusts you completely to be the one to do the eating, in which case they get the benefits and you spend the week taking care of them. Fuel Spell: You must be a spellcaster. When you do this, you pick one spell you know that has a non-instant duration, making a casting roll as normal. You may then expend realmstone of the corresponding type. Every 100D of realmstone you expend this way adds ten times the base duration to the spell's total duration. If you spend more than 300D of realmstone, you must choose to either take a Lasting Wound or suffer a realmstone side effect. Harvest Realmstone: You can only do this if you're near a realmstone deposit or the Perimeter Inimical. You spend the week working with a local harvesting team, which is an extended roll aiming for 8 successes. You get three rolls over the course of the week, with the first being a Determination roll to resist the influence, then two Might rolls to carry the stuff. If you succeed, you get 100D of realmstone, plus 50D per success over 8. The rest is given to your local patrons who helped with the mining...though you can insist on taking more if the GM allows it. If you do, the Doom increases by 1. If you fail the roll, you are incapacitated by the dangers of the harvest and must choose to either take a Lasting Wound or suffer a realmstone side effect. Infuse Equipment: You must have smith's tools, forge access, 300D of realmstone and 2 Training or Focus in Crafting. You pick a weapon or armor you have access to, take it to the forge and imbue it with the realmstone. This is an extending Crafting roll, with 3 rolls over the course of a week. It's easiest (8 successes) for light armor or a Subtle weapon, then 10 successes for Medium armor or a one-hander, then 12 for heavy armor or a two-hander. If you fail, you can either spend another week trying, abandon the job and get half the costs back, or leave it to finish in a later downtime (but then, y'know, not have access to the gear while it's in the forge). If you succeed, the gear gains the appropriate Realmstone traits. Next time: Magic items.
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Nov 24, 2021 00:09
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One fun this with the Amberbone side-effects on the chart is that it pretty much turns you into a cat. But yeah, the Varanite side effects are something. 1: Your body inverts itself 2: Every organ sprouts another organ. 3: You can only communicate by screaming in agony. 4: You cannot help but obey those who hurt you most. 5: Perhaps with more mutation you can escape this pain. 6: All others must suffer as you suffer.
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Nov 24, 2021 00:32
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Cooked Auto posted:
There are a ton of different ways this can be interpreted. None of them are pleasant.
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Nov 24, 2021 03:17
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MonsterEnvy posted:There are a ton of different ways this can be interpreted. None of them are pleasant. It's worse than that flesh eating virus you've heard about! It is a real fun take on powerful macguffins.
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Nov 24, 2021 10:08
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By the time a single rat gets back with that one ounce of Varanite it's more mineral than rat (semi intelligent singing cancerous lumps notwithstanding)
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Nov 24, 2021 13:18
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A little late to the blood-skull-party but some of the fiction in AoS actually reflects the same sentiments about Khorne's followers choices of names. The context of this was during Broken Realms and Slaanesh followers are guarding places where they worship him/her:quote:‘The Blood God’s whelps?’ he asked, rolling his eyes as Rall nodded. Even since the revel had begun, Khorne’s armies had been hurling themselves against the Abyssal Hollow. A maddening influence had taken hold of them that saw them barrel through the trickster mists of Ulgu to assault this sacred ground in near-constant waves. Some had come close to breaching the defences, leaving mounds of butchered Hedonites in their wake. This latest incursion was likely no more than a warband, but Gestharyx was not so blithe a tactician to discount it. Rall shrugged. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/01/08/broken-realms-fiction-the-hateful-stasis/
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Nov 24, 2021 18:17
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I'm sure most Khornates don't last long enough to decide on a name, the ones that do didn't survive by their prose skills. Mostly. I'm sure you can actually find a few that pass as warrior-poets inspiring everyone to disembowel for his glory.
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Nov 24, 2021 18:26
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power Magic Power Simple magical gear is easy to find - cloth that can't be stained, instruments that play themselves, ink you can only see if you speak a password. That's normal for the Mortal Realms. However, some things are far greater tools, weapons of immense power, or so on. These are what people refer to as artefacts, and they're often very, very hard to get your hands on. You can buy minor magic items pretty easily, but artefacts? There's never enough on the market...but there's ways to get one. Obviously, the artefact trade is unsteady, but it does happen. Some groups specifically deal in them, risking great danger to acquire new ones and then find those worthy of purchasing them. (Worthy in this case having extremely variable meaning.) Pirates and adventurers sometimes end up in possession of artefacts that they can't use and will try to sell them, and in some locations, like Brightspear or Bataar, there are ancient ruins that produce relatively frequent artefact discoveries. Artefact dealing in those cases becomes a major part of the economy...but even in those places, openly dealing in such powerful items can be dangerous. You're often dealing with sorcerers, cult leaders and other powerful types who demand good service, fair prices and secrecy - and who are more than willing to take out their competition. You can try to find artefacts for sale yourself, but that's likely to get you entangled in all kinds of business. Also, they don't really have a set cost - the standard price of an artefact is (1d6+Doom)*100D if you try to find one via the Shopping Endeavor. The GM is also free to complicate your purchase with all kinds of folks who want the thing you just picked up or by having the seller ask you for proof of your worthiness by doing a quest or specific service. Can you make artefacts? Yes! Yes you can. Creating them is difficult and expensive, though, following the standard rules from Steam and Steel - and that assumes you have the magical talent to do it, the specialized materials, and ideally a specialist in those materials helping you. Only the most skilled can manage it, and often with unintended side effects. Most artefact-makers specialize in a single kind of thing - Duardin Runelords are known for armor, the Idoneth and Darklings mostly make control collars for monsters or people, while the Kharadron make aether technology. Collegiate Arcane crafters tend to focus on ways to augment their spellcasting, but their collaborations with other groups produce many diverse kinds. The game does not suggest what special rules you'd need to reproduce all the artefact powers in this book using the Steam and Steel rules, though, so your GM's gonna have to fudge those. The main way a lot of folks get artefacts is to steal them from other people. Tomb robbing, looting the dead and similar are included in this, and while some folks may object on moral grounds, there's a lot more who don't. Bindings may also even be sent after people people who have stolen artefacts with instructions to get them back. Not all artefact theft involves killing the last owner, either, and so you might perform heists and get away with the goods without having to murder people! The fact that the Necroquake has shut down a number of the Penumbral Engines that conceal the Stormvaults of Sigmar has meant that criminals able to get into dangerous areas and get out with magical goods are even more in demand than ever. Of course, not all the artefacts wielded by dark forces are worth using yourself - and some just can't be used except by specific groups. Still, you may want to steal those back to deprive foes of their power. Doing so can be tricky, especially transporting them safely, but...hey! That's the work, right? Speaking of work, it must be admitted that one big way for PCs to get ahold of artefacts is as a reward for their service. It's very rare for such potent items to be just handed over, but it does happen when some folks are sufficiently grateful. They may also come to mark promotions in service to large organizations or similar, or they may be won at great noble tournaments. The Demigryph Knights, Akhelian Guard and Vanari Dawnriders are all fierce competitors in mounted jousts, and the extremely wealthy sometimes put up really amazing prizes. Other items are passed down along family lines as heirlooms. (Considering that Soulbound are unable to have children by any means, this is often a somewhat thoughtful and grim reminder, and many make a point of trying to find a mortal worthy to take up the item when they die.) Bloodline artefacts often become involved in massive vengeance feuds, for when one is lost, it must certainly be reclaimed - the family honor is at stake. The gods sometimes also gift their champions with powerful items, though this is most common among the Chaos Gods in their efforts to earn the devotion of those on the Path to Glory. Still, Soulbound are chosen by the gods from among the exceptional, and if anyone's going to be divinely gifted mighty gear to ensure they get the job done, well, it's them. Now we're going into the big list of artefacts for GMs to use in games, as inspiration, or otherwise do stuff with! Arboreal Resin: This is golden sap from the depths beneath the Arboreal Mountain of Ghyran, later unleashed on the city of Aelfgrove. It encased the city in amber for centuries, until the Cult of the Ur-Phoenix transformed the amber to mist and restored the place as the Phoenicium. The fog settles into places and solidifies still, then gets harvested as a construction material and weapon. A container of it usually has about ten applications' worth. As an Action, you may release an application of resin from the container and order it to stick to one object or creature of up to Medium size within Short range. On an object, it reinforces the thing against almost all physical damage but prevents any moving parts from doing anything. Against an unwilling creature, you have to make an attack roll. The attack does no damage, but if it hits, the target is Restrained. If the resin coats their head, they may also be Blinded and begin to suffocate. Ark of Sotek: The Seraphon maintain massive snake pits under their temples, nested around tiny, realmgate-like portals. These portals connect to mobile relics which can be used to shoot snakes at people. The big Arks are mounted on Bastilodons as massive snake shotguns, but there's also much smaller, amulet-sized variants, a number of which have been stolen over the centuries by adventurers. As an Action, you may activate an Ark of Sotek amulet to fire a bunch of snakes out into your Zone, creating a Major Hazard. The Hazard's damage is Penetrating, and anyone damaged by it has to make a Fortitude roll or become Poisoned until the end of their next turn. You have some degree of control over the snakes, enough to make the Hazard not damage you and any allies you choose. Astral Compass: These tools were created by the Collegiate Arcane of Azyrheim in an effort to help navigate the Realms. Each is a globe about the size of a baseball, set into a metal framework to measure distance and orient you towards the realmsphere center. They're especially well-liked by the Stormcast Vanguard-Hunters as a way of coordinating guerrilla attacks away from diviners, but Bindings may make great use of them as well. While carrying one, you get a bonus to all Survival rolls and are immune to getting lost short of powerful magic or divine intervention. Once per adventure, you can give the thing a destination or target and get your choice of the safest, fastest or most concealed route to it, which the GM must provide truthfully. Blade of Symmetry: This is a Hyshian sword designed to strike at body and soul alike. Its power expanded during the Necroquake, and many Scinari have attempted to master its secrets through meditation, none fully succeeding. Their reports are that the blade itself desires to bring balance to battle, ensuring that whoever wields it has a level field against anyone they face, no matter how strong or weak. The Blade is a Magical two-hander with good damage, but when attacking with it, you do not compare Melee and Defence values. Instead, the Difficulty of the attack roll is always the same: 4. You always have a 50/50 shot on every die you roll with it. Cloth of Gloriphus: Gloriphus is a weather elemental in the court of the Spitemonarch, and the original Cloth is a blanket woven from magic thread from the same court, usually carried in a basketweave hamper when not in use. When the cloth is unfolded, it causes rain at its location, with the time until the rain comes based on local conditions - immediate if you have clouds, but it may take a few minutes if they need to form. The rain falls only around a few hundred meters' diamater centered on the cloth, but may last for days or even weeks. The GM may rule that this may cause Difficult Terrain or force Athletics rolls to not become Prone. The original cloth isn't the only one around any more - a number of craftsmen have replicated it in various designs, such as flags, cloaks or tents. Wars have been fought over them in areas where water is hard to come by, like Aqshy, but it should be noted that rain isn't always a good thing - boiling mercury raining from the Chamon sky counts, as does bone rain in Shyish and rains of flesh-eating beetles in Ghyran. Embermaw's Promise: The first of these artefacts was a gift from the magmadroth Embermaw, who helped the Fyreslayers fight many battles. When it finally died, it swore on the blade that had killed it - that if a warrior with a passionate, burning heart called on it, Embermaw would answer even in death. Some say that other elder magmadroths have made similar artefacts in their dying moments, but others say there's only the one blade, unbreakable as the promise itself. The tool is a chunk of obsidian blade, its lower half wrapped in magmadroth skin to serve as a grip. It is useless as a normal weapon...but if you make a Last Stand while holding it, you can shove it into your own heart to call on Embermaw's power. If you do, instead of the normal Last Stand rules, you immediately become a Magmadroth at full Toughness and no Wounds. Any nonmagical armor and clothing is destroyed, and all weapons and other gear drop to the ground. You remain in control of yourself for the duration of the transformation, which lasts until the battle is over. At that point, Embermaw's Promise explodes and fades into the aetheric void, leaving you in your natural form for a brief moment before you immediately die. Ethereal Amulet: This is a Shyishan artefact, supposedly first created by a desperate widower who wanted to touch the ghost of lost wife once more. He did succeed...but Nagash punished him with centuries of torment for his hubris. Many others have made them since, and they too have been tormented in death. When you hold the amulet tightly in hand, you gain the Ethereal trait for a full day. However, each time you use it, the Doom increases by 1, and you have to note down the number of uses you've had total. If you ever use it a number of times higher than your Soul, you immediately die and become a Nighthaunt under Nagash's command. (Personally, I'd allow a Soulbound to not become controlled by Nagash, but becoming a ghost is still going to be very traumatic.) Faneway Mirrorshard: These are made from shadeglass, a magical material made out of grave-sand under the command of the Katophrane nobles that ruled the city of Shadespire. The Faneway was their greatest creation, a mirror of souls that contained the souls of their fallen and allowed them to retain consciousness and communication in death without serving Nagash. Obviously, this pissed Nagash off, and he shattered the Faneway and cursed Shadespire to an eternal undying torment in the void between Hysh and Ulgu. The mirrorshards are what remain, though now tainted by Nagash. The bearer may try to cheat death with one, at least. If you would die while carrying one, you can force your soul temporarily into the mirrorshard until your body can be healed. While in the shard, you can't do anything but talk to someone holding the shard or try to return to your body. To do the latter, the shard has to be put near your corpse, then you have to make a Determination roll that gets harder as Doom rises and as time passes while you're in the shard. If you fail, you die for good and are trapped in Shadespire. If you succeed and your body's been healed, you come back to life. Gargant-Bone Dice: These are made from gargant bones and Amber magic, and they're really big. You can throw them, and they land with the impact of a falling giant, triggering earthquakes around you. They are most common in the Ghurish city of Everquake, where gladiators throw them at each other in massive dice tournaments. As an action, you can throw them against any solid surface in a Zone within Medium range. Roll 2d6. On a 2, they roar with laughter and all creatures in the target Zone are Deafened. On a 3-11, the ground shakes in the target Zone, forcing a Reflexes roll to not become Prone. On a 12, a massive sound explosion bursts out, causing 5 Damage to all creatures in the target Zone, pushing them into a random adjacent Zone and causing them to be Prone and Stunned until the end of their next turn. Great Tethers: These are named for the chains which Grungni used to bind Ignax, the Solar Drake, but they're actually any number of magically enchanted binding ropes or c hains. The Idoneth and Black Ark Corsairs use them for hunting, and the Crawling City of Ghur uses them to control the worm Shu'gohl that their city is built on. The aelven gods even used some in binding Slaanesh, though obviously not by themselves. When you hold them, you get a big bonus on grapple rolls against Beasts, and if a Beast is Restrained, you can make a Beast Handling or Intimidation roll against their Determination to bind them to service until the tethers are released. If you do, they are no longer Restrained but get a penalty to Melee, Accuracy and Defence as long as the tethers are in place. Anyone not bound by the tethers can remove them as an Action with a relatively easy Beast Handling roll. Breaking out while bound is a much, much harder Might roll. Harvestboon: This is a weapon of the Sylvaneth, also known as Autumn's Ire. Its power is drawn from the wielder, allowing them to blaze brightly before the cold winter, burning themselves out to protect their allies. These are not corrupted weapons, but the fact that they function on self-sacrifice is dangerous, and they can easily be misused. Those who turn to self-mutilation to wield their power rather than standing in protection of others often end up falling to Slaanesh. No matter what appearance it takes, Harvestboon is a moderate damage Magical two-hander with Cleave. However, whenever you have less than full Toughness, you get a good bonus to attacks with it, and an even bigger bonus if you have any Wounds. You get a gigantic bonus when making a Last Stand while wielding it. However, if you intentionally harm yourself (or an ally intentionally harms you) to trigger any of those bonuses, the Doom increases. Also, wielders often find that outside of adventures, they succumb to the lethargy and fatigue of winter. After any adventure in which you wield its powers, you must use your first Endeavor in the next downtime to hibernate. Heartstone Pendants: The first of these were made by the witch Antonia the Quixotic, who wanted to preserve the bond with her wife while she was away. Ever since, these pendants have been part of many romantic legends, and their creation is often done with great ceremony and romantic celebration. They can come in any form of jewelry or accessory, but always are created in matched sets, usually but not always pairs. Once someone accepts one as a gift, it is bound to them for life, and you can't ever trick or coerce someone into accepting one. It doesn't work - the power only activates if all involved parties enthusiastically consent to it. Anyone wearing one of the set can sense the strongest emotions felt by anyone else wearing one of the set. Further, if anyone wearing one of the set becomes Charmed or Frightened, anyone else wearing one of the set can immediately spend Mettle as a Free Action to remove it. If no one does, everyone wearing one of the set gains the same Condition. If any pendant wearer dies, all others take a Serious Wound and the Doom increases by 1 on top of the normal increase from a PC dying. Next time: Artefacts from L
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Nov 24, 2021 19:14
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Blade of Symmetry seems perfect for mage characters with weak melee.
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Nov 24, 2021 23:29
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Mors Rattus posted:Heartstone Pendants: The first of these were made by the witch Antonia the Quixotic, who wanted to preserve the bond with her wife while she was away. Hooray for the first LGBT character I've ever seen AoS mention.
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Nov 25, 2021 00:04
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They're around. One of the example characters in the core book, the Duardin Skyrigger Malgra, is nonbinary as they're only referred as they/them in the text. (Pretty sure I got the term right there. Sorry if I didn't.) And I think there's a genderqueer Stormcast mentioned in another book that came out before Artifacts.
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Nov 25, 2021 01:29
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 Privateers and Gentlemen, Part 3.5 I forgot a tiny bit of character creation, so I'm going to stick it into its own mini-update before we get to the meat of how you play this game, or rather, how you roll to see if you're allowed to play this game.  Yep, that's right, we can join a party, but not the fun kind. We've got our choice of the Tories or Whigs. What's the difference? Well, I'm going to just let the book do the talking here.  The following section on American politics takes up almost an entire page. Age of Sail politics are obviously a subject Williams had some opinions on. Well, I don't know that much about 18th-century British politics (and thus can't comment on how accurate the author's presentation is), but I know for a fact that the Tories are the biggest twits in modern day Britain, so we'll say Oliver is a Tory. Now what does that do for him mechanically? Not a whole lot; you roll a d100 when you get assigned under a new superior. On a 51-70, he's a Tory, on a 71-100, he's a Whig, and otherwise he's unaligned. If you match, you get +5 to your Notice checks, if he's from the opposite party, you get -5. quote:Other effects of party politics will be up to the referee, who is urged to remember that politicians will rarely hold back from ruining a man for life if it means political advantage... remember Admiral Byng! So with a strictly inferior mechanical benefit, no real effect on the actual political positions your character might hold (at least according to the author), and any story benefits completely up to the Referee, being a Tory in 18th-century Britain is about as appealing as being a Tory in 21st-century Britain. Oliver hosed up. Whoops. Next Time: No, seriously, you actually have to roll to see if you're allowed to play the game. Tulul fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Nov 25, 2021 |
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Nov 25, 2021 02:01
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I mean, at least he seems appropriately derisive of both Tories and Whigs.
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Nov 25, 2021 02:28
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Cooked Auto posted:They're around. One of the example characters in the core book, the Duardin Skyrigger Malgra, is nonbinary as they're only referred as they/them in the text. (Pretty sure I got the term right there. Sorry if I didn't.)
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Nov 25, 2021 04:31
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power Thunderguns Lightning Battery: This is actually an umbrella term for any number of conductive materials enchanted with the power of lightning. They can be made from sigmarite, Dragon Ogor hearts, the fossilized shells found in Fangmora eel dens and more. When given a small charge, they generate a (relatively) small amount of lightning, which you can use for all kinds of purposes. Including shooting people, but not limited to it. The Ironweld of Greywater Fastness are experimenting with them as power sources for vehicles, and Athanasian necromancers use them to raise undead more potent than simple deadwalkers. Used as a weapon, they do pretty nasty Short-range Magical Blast damage. However, they can also be used to operate or augment machines. A single battery can boost one of Speed, Melee, Accuracy or Defense for any Medium or Large Automaton or Vehicle for a day. However, using it this way requires a Crafting roll. After a day or if you fail, the battery is drained and must be recharged in the next downtime, though doing so happens automatically. The GM may allow larger vehicles or automata to get the bonus by making the roll harder. Mantle of Fire: This is a cloak that is on fire. You can control the intensity of the flame down to a safely low level, but the cloak urges its wearer to push it to its limits. The first versions were made by the wizards of Lumnos in the Age of Chaos as a defensive tool, which they later adapted to their rites of passage as a show of self-restraint in young wizards. As an action, you can activate the Mantle to send it to its full potential. This turns your Zone into a Hazard to everyone - including you, the wearer. You may set the Hazard's damage level when activating it, anywhere from 1 to 5 damage. As a Free Action on your turn, before you take damage from it, you can choose to increase the power, up to a maximum of 10 Damage. It takes an Action to turn the Mantle back off. Multiplication Jewel: These are excavated from the stone of Chamon, where they are always found surrounded by giant blocks of metallic stone. When set into a brooch to focus their energy alchemically, they are able to be used to perfectly duplicate small items. (Possession of multiplication jewels is a criminal offense in Vindicarum and most skyports, due to the ease of using them for counterfeiting.) As an Action, you can use one to clone a single inanimate, non-magical object by touching it to the gem, as long as it's no bigger than two-foot cube. The duplicate appears next to the original and is identical in all respects, even to magical or microscopic examination. The next time the jewel is used, the previous cloned item and its original both crumble to dust instantly and cannot be repaired. Nightbloom Garland: These are made from nightblooms, a flower that emits a veil of shadow that hides itself from sight. They grow mostly in Ghyran and Ulgu, and they are highly prized by the Sylvaneth and the aelves. When made into garland crowns or similar accessories, they share their natural invisibility with the wearer, for whatever purpose they may desire it. As long as you are wearing one, you cannot be seen clearly by other living creatures. As long as you move at Slow speed or lower and perform no attacks or sudden moves, you are essentially invisible. Faster than that, you appear as a streaked blur, giving a bonus to Stealth rolls. Oath Stone: Oath Stones come from a variety of sources, but they are large inscribed stones bearing, well, oaths. While paper and books are useful for a lot, when it comes to a vow or contract that will never be broken, stone remains a popular material. It's used by the Khazalid duardin for their oathsworn tablets, the Darkoath of Chaos to swear vows to the gods, and even the Stormcast during foundation of a Stormkeep, when Sigmar will carve the contract of defense into the stone personally with his lightning. These stones empower those who uphold the oaths upon them. If you have one, when you choose a new Short-Term Goal (for yourself or the party) you can inscribe it onto the stone. It can hold only one Goal at a time. When the inscribed Goal is completed, it gives double the normal XP, the Binding regains all Soulfire, and the stone crumbles to dust. However, if you fail to complete the Goal before your next Downtime, Doom goes up by 1. If you abandon the Goal, Doom goes up by 2. Polyglot Jawbone: These tools are made from the facial bones and teeth of multiple species merged together, then enchanted with Hyshian magic of understanding. You wear them as a jawplate over your own mouth. They were originally created by Alumnian Lumineth explorers cooperating with Ghurish trackers, and the knowledge of how to make them has now spread among the Lumineth and the Ghurish tribes. While you wear one, you can understand and be understood by any creature that has any form of spoken language - including infants, animals and spirits. This just grants understanding - you have to roll dice normally to get them to do stuff. Realmshaper Orb: Seraphone Realmshaper engines remodel the world to the design of the Old Ones, terraforming it into the preferred habitat of their masters. The most vital component is the Realmshaper Orb, found atop the ziggurat of the engine, and some adventurers have stolen these orbs for their own use. Thus far, though, no one has found a way to stop them from eventually creating dangerous jungles. Once per turn, you can spend an Action to activate the orb targeting a Zone within Long range and apply one effect. You can stack the effects over multiple turns. The three options are that you can cause sudden vegetative growth that gives Partial Cover, split and reshape the earth to cause Difficult Terrain, or call forth sharp rocks and dangerous plants to create a Major Hazard. All of these changes are permanent and irreversible. Over the course of the next week, the Zone's plants will grow in an unstable and dangerous ways, making it a Major Hazard if it wasn't already, regardless of which other options you applied. Sandglass of Infinity: These are glasses full of magical sand that moves in impossible geometries. When released, the sand will create localized temporal anomalies which can be used to extend various effects. Most of the released sand will eventually settle along realm edges or at the bottom of the sea, but the mystic time-sand can also sometimes be found in the grave-sand around the Shyish Nadir or in the Beaming Desert of Hysh near the ruins of Cathartia. A Sandglass contains nine doses of sand by default. Whenever you use a Talent, miracle or spell that could last for more than a round while holding it, you can expend one or more doses to increase the duration by one round per dose. If the final dose is spent, during the next downtime you roll 3d6. On a result of 9 or more, the sands reverse their own temporal flow and refill the Sandglass. Otherwise, it cracks and rapidly rusts, dissolves or otherwise becomes totally unusable. Sceptre of Flame: These are control tools designed by the Agloraxian Empire to command the ancient weapon Prismatikon, which fired lasers to enforce their rule. Each one is a staff topped by a crystal lens, granted to a ruling Arch-Dominus to let them direct a miniaturized version of the Prismatikon in a similar manner to its own alignment towers. They wielded this power against the legions of Khorne until he got annoyed enough to personally destroy their capital, Ahramentia. The Prismatikon is long since shattered, but these artefacts are still sometimes excavated in the Ahramentian ruins or under Brightspear, and they still contain some of its power. You can use them to hit people or shoot lasers, using Mind instead of Body for the attack rolls. The ranged attack does good Magical Blast damage at Long range and causes the Zone you fire it into to become a Major Hazard until the start of your next turn. As a melee weapon, it's a good damage Magical two-hander with Rend. However, either form of attack can only be used in Aqshy unless you are a Bright Magic caster or have some emberstone on hand. Seerstone Amulet: Communication over great distances is always a challenge, and it can be vitally important for military matters. As yet, no one has devised a magical tool good enough for everyone to use, though there's been efforts. Morathi uses mist mirrors that hide identity, while the Sylvaneth transfer information via flowers grown on their realmroots. The Seerstone Amulets are the most popular of the current crop, made by the scryers of Tempest's Eye to help stay in contact with their Stormkeep guardians. Some of them have been given to the Kharadron as payment for defense efforts, and a few of those have gone on the open market. They are always created in pairs, a "master" gem and a "subordinate." When either is activated by the spoken password, the wearer can see and hear everything from the perspective of the other party. Supposedly, this requires consent of both parties, but this is actually only true of the subordinate gem. The master gem can spy on the subordinate gem at any time without revealing that it is doing so. Master amulets are kept under close guard in Tempest's Eye at all times if at all possible. Seven-Fold Shadow: It's not entirely clear if these are magical curses or actual artefacts. They are believed to be first created by Malerion or his servants in Ulgu, and they are enchantments that animate the bearer's shadow and make it sentient. The shadow can move as it desires as long as it maintains physical contact in some degree to the bearer, allowing it to warn of danger or help them travel through the Umbral Web. The problem is that the shadow cannot necessarily be trusted. While you bear the curse, you get +2 Natural Awareness and a bonus to all rolls to intimidate or frighten others. Also, as a Move you can make a Determination roll to teleport across the Umbral Web, appearing from a shadow in Long range without passing through the intervening distance. However, if you fail the roll, you become Poisoned until you next Rest after the teleport, as the journey saps your strength, and your destination is instead chosen by the shadow. The shadow can whisper to you, and no one else can hear it. Doing what it says may reward you, but also may increase Doom - or both, at the GM's whim. So how do you get the shadow curse? The only method of transfer is to kill someone who has it. If you die while you bear the curse, it passes to your killer. This is the only surefire way to be rid of the shadow, though some stories say that the Lumineth Scinari may be able to cleanse it with the magic of Hysh. (The shadow's agenda is never entirely clear, probably because it's working for Malerion.) Soul Prison: These are tools used to bind the essence of some entity into a physical vessel. They are dangerous to make - dealing with these entities is itself not usually good for you, and Nagash doesn't like it when people steal souls from him, which he considers this to count as. The practice still happens in many forms, however - haunted paintings, magic books, daemon engines, and so on. Even a noble spirit bound into one of these tends to degrade and become dangerous due to deprivation of physical form, and most legends surrounding them are about how the users and spirits within tend to be monstrous. Most soul prisons appear to be relatively mundane small objects like puzzle boxes, chalices or jewelry, and they can contain any soul of a Champion or Chosen with a Soul of 2 or more. The contained soul can telepathically communicate with anyone in the same Zone, and you can spend an Action to ask the soul to do a spell or miracle they could do in life. (The soul can refuse, though - you have no special control over it.) Generally, it's common to bargain with the soul inside the Prison, trading information and help for various favors in which you both try to take control over the relationship. As with the Seven-Fold Shadow, doing what the soul inside wants may give you rewards, increase Doom or both. Spell in a Bottle: The Kharadron are generally bad at magic, but the Aether-Khemists have mastered the art of turning spells alchemically into inert gas. They can then trap these spells in prepared containers, allowing them to be unleashed on demand by breaking the container. While they retain most of them, sometimes they will sell a Spell in a Bottle to others, often at massive prices. Each one contains a single-use spell, which can be from any Lore, designed as a custom spell, or taken from a monster statblock as the GM desires. Typically, it will have a combined difficulty and complexity of 8 or less, and will cost 100D mulitpled by the combined difficulty and complexity. You can spend an Action to break the bottle, at which point the spell inside is cast immediately on a target of your choice within Medium range. No rolls are needed, but the spell cannot be overcast - it does exactly what it was designed to do when captured. It cannot be unbound or negated. Spellmirror: This is an Ulguan device appearing as a personal hand mirror that isn't very good at reflecting things. In truth, however, it is a powerful anti-magic tool, though a somewhat mischevious one. Once per turn as a Free Action, you may use the mirror to trigger the effects of the Unbind talent, even if you don't have it. This costs no Mettle and gives a bonus to the Channelling roll involved. If the spell is unbound, instead of just fizzling, you may select a new valid target for it, using the same range, successes and overcast effects as it had when cast. If you fail to unbind a spell this way, however, the Spellmirror shatters under the strain and is destroyed. Strangler-Kelp Noose: This is made from strangler-kelp, a rare and exotic algae found in the Penumbral Sea of Ulgu, the Green Gulch of Ghyran, and some other oceans across the Realms. It moves with its own apparent sentience, tying itself in knots to secure its grip on things and whipping out at potential dangers or predators. Misthavn's fishermen have learned to collect the stuff and adapt it into self-binding nooses to kill or restrain. You can order the noose to wrap, bind or tie itself, securing objects together until you give the release command. It is not indestructible, though, and will snap if it has to bear the weight of anything Enormous or larger or is struck by a melee attack. Also, you can use it as a melee weapon, dealing moderate damage as a Restraining, Reach one-hander. Tack Boots: These are magical shoes that control your personal gravity. They were first discovered by the Idoneth, who found them on a skeleton of a dead pirate at the bottom of the Searing Sea. Later, they were stolen by an Ironweld submarine crew, who sold them to the Kharadron. At this point, they have been reproduced by all parties involved and also the Collegiate Arcane. As long as you are wearing the shoes, you can walk on any solid surface as if it was level ground. However, the shoes want to stick to stuff, so swimming in them is extremely ill-advised, and if you try to swim while wearing them, you are dropped to Slow speed. Warding Lantern: These are tools and weapons designed to harness the light of Hysh, usually using one or more of aetherquartz crystals, god-made metals and shards of the Mallus. The Lumineth produce most of these lanterns, often using them as tools to improve accuracy for their Starshard Ballistas, but the Stormcast have quite a few, too, handing them out to Lords-Castellant and some Knights-Azyros. Once per turn, as an Action, you may open the Warding Lantern's light and point it at a target in Medium range. If they are an ally, they heal 3 Toughness and get an Accuracy bonus until the start of your next turn. If they are an enemy, they take 3 Armor-ignoring damage and are Blinded until the start of your next turn. Whorlshell: These are spiritually sensitive shells found near Idoneth enclaves, which absorb the power of the ethersea and link to the memories of those around them. When the bearer unleashes their power, both they and their target experience the target's most repressed memory. Idoneth use them as interrogation or torture devices, but other groups have other uses - the Stormcast and the forces of Death have used them as ways to recover long-lost memories, even if it means traumatically reliving them. As an Action, you can pick a target in Short range. Both you and they relive their deepest or darkest memory. Both of you must make a Determination roll or be Stunned until the end of your next turn. The roll gets harder if the memory is particularly painful, horrific or agonizing, especially stuff like the memory of Reforging on the Anvil of Apotheosis or the memory of torment by daemons. Most people, fortunately, do not have such terrible memories locked away. Next time: Lost Artefacts, or, what if random magic items
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Nov 25, 2021 18:09
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