THE CARPENTER CROWNED IN IRON
[X]Plan The Carpenter In Iron and Brass.
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
-William Ernest Henley
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.
-Robert Frost
DEVIL-TYRANT SHINTAI: THE CARPENTER CROWNED IN IRON AND BRASS
Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai: +1 Strength, + 4 Dex, +1 Stamina
7x Demonic Aspects
- 2x Demon Armor: +4 Soak dice
- 3x Hardened Devil Body: +9 (-0) HLs
- 1x Extra Limbs: Telekinesis. Removes multiple action penalties.
- 1x Swift Stride: x2 Movement Speed
Pre-Shintai Statline
Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3
4 Soak dice with Ebon Scales
7HLs
Running speed 32 yards/turn
Final Shintai Statline
Strength 5, Dexterity 8, Stamina 4
8 soak dice with Ebon Scales + 2x Demon Armor (13 soak dice with VLE, 18 soak dice if we add Invulnerable Skin of Bronze)
16 HLs(7 base HLs + 3x Hardened Devil Bodies)
No multiaction penalties to dice pool
Running speed 88 yards/turn
HIGH CONCEPT
Ethniu meets Captain Atom meets AC Odyssey!Kassandra
Minor influences
Charlize Theron's Ravana
Cate Blanchett's Galadriel
DC Starfire
LoL Senna, Samara and Illaoi
Asura's Wrath Generals
DESCRIPTION
In height the Empress-In-Waiting stands a hair below six feet. Green, glowing eyes gaze out of a face the color and composition of infernal brass, illuminated by glowing green studs in her left nostril and in her ears. Hair the color and temperature of the frozen wastes of Enma-O's fief, or Arctis Tor's heartspring, adorn her head.
Her temples are cradled by a circlet of black iron, both a mark of Royalty and a technomagical interface for any appropriate technological gear subordinated with Hollow Mind Curse, like an earpiece radio or handheld GPS that she might have had on hand at the time of transformation.
The bonds of her imprisonment in Arctis Tor have been kept but repurposed, with the cuffs as bracelets cum bracers, and the neck collar as the ornamental collar of a haltertop faeriesteel dress falling midway to her knees, and exposing shoulders that could seemingly carry the world.
Black gossamer threads weave an additional layer of breeches around her legs, extending downwards until they terminate in brass-shod boots. The pale marks of tattoos trace across her shoulders and visible portions upper body, the ink burned away by her transformation and its place filled by the viridian light of Primordial hellfire.
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TRANSFORMATION
"Pree Ashma. Yis-Asram, the Blooded One. Yis-Prama, Hansa and Prat Pavam, who temper my heart. Yisun Atru Vyam. Forgive me for this violence I am about to inflict."
— 82 White Chain Born in Emptiness Returns to Subdue Evil, Kill Six Billion Demons
When the Infernal is pressed, or decides that the situation at hand demands a full display of her displeasure, an effort of will, with or without a vocal component, is all it takes to triggers the change.
A containment/summoning circle appears below her feet as her anima roars to life, followed by a rush of hell butterflies emerging from within it, obscuring the details of her form to external observers as they spin layered protections on the surface of the Infernal's skin and rework her attire to incorporate her existing gear's abilities into her warform.
As the rush of butterflies lessens, her hair color bleaches out in the storm of power, and her demon sword appears in her right hand, its surface aflame with litanies of prayer in a language long dead when dinosaurs walked the earth.
And then her eyes burn bright
green.
Behold! The awesome fires of God. The limitless power of pure creation itself. Look carefully. Observe how it is used for the same purpose a man might use an especially sharp rock."
— Meti ten Ryo, Kill Six Billion Demons
REASONS
Devil-Tyrant Shintai is the only human sized option, and gives the most Aspect points.
Also the option that gives the largest mechanical bonus to Dexterity, which is your god stat for combat and movement.
So picking the highest Dexterity package gives us the most movement speed and the highest combat dice pool.
7 Aspect points for picks.
Extra Limbs removes the dice penalty that our combat or action pool suffers whenever we attempt to execute two or more simultaneous actions. There are Infernal extra attack charms, but no extra action charms, or charm that negates that penalty.
So this is a must-purchase.
Swift Stride doubles movement speed and jumping distance.
This synergizes with the +4 Dexterity from going Shintai, taking her from 32 yards/turn to 88 yards/turn.
In V20, a combat turn is 3 seconds. When we buy the Windborn Stride charm, this speed will go up even further.
Demon Armor stacks with existing armor, and can be bought with Rage Recast if we want, so while we must take some, we dont have to prioritize it as much. At 13 soak dice, we can reasonably expect to eat damage from every personal scale weapon with minimal, if any damage.
Hardened Devil Body otoh is exclusive to shintai, and does not stack with Ox Body.
So if we want some, we must buy it here, since the next canon opportunity is at E4.
3x buys gives us 9x HLs, essentially doubling our base HL pool.
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The
Rage Recast charm can give Flight, so we dont have to include that in our shintai; we can buy it at our next XP spend.
Hardened is redundant since the 1 dot charm Transcendent Lord of Flies gives immunity to environmental damage.
Aquatic's benefits are redundant when
Boiling Oil Mastery is a 1 dot charm, and does everything it does, but better.
Nightvision is redundant when we can make goggles or contact lenses that do the same thing.
I wanted
Energy Projection, but a careful reading says that you can only use it (Essence) times per shintai manifestation.
Which would seem rather disappointing, and not worth the buy.
DESIGN NOTES
Molly Carpenter is still a teenager.
She is neither body shy, nor afraid of (physical)attention. Hence her first shintai is meant to reflect this: loud, bright and brassy.
Because Molly is also Strength 4, which is Exceptional, and only 1 dot from Strength 5, which is peak human.
At five foot eleven, she is the physical lookalike of her mother, who is Michael's regular sparring partner, and wields a warhammer as her preferred melee weapon.
She has the physical build. Her shintai should look like it.
I also wanted to make a callback to the Soulgaze with Dresden, where Harry saw her with broken chains.
Having those manacles repurposed as part of her outfit is deliberate.
And is a referemce to the charms Cracked Cell Circumvention and Tool Constructs.
Two thematic color palette options:
1)Ice white skin/armor layer from Lanka and Arctis Tor. Blood red hair, representing what was spilled on the tree. .
Brass/gold eyes that can turn red. Brass colored tattoos that light up with combat charm use.
Spectral black-green crown of fire. Black/green outfit.
2) Brass skin as brass is thematic for infernals.
Icewhite hair for Enma'O's Hell and Arctis Tor. Radioactive green glowing eyes for the ruins of Ravana's fief. Glowing Jade sunbursts in both ears, glowing jade stud on left nostril. Black interface circlet a la Galadriel for any technological doodads.
I went with metal over ice. Felt more rock and roll for an Infernal.
The crown/circlet is for any thematic technology or gear that Molly had on her when she triggered the transformation, which has
Hollow Mind Curse on it. Like a communication earbud, or cellphone or nightvision goggles or handheld GPS.
It integrates into the crown for the duration of the transformation to keep offering its benefits.
