Molly Carpenter... neophyte wizard, prisoner of the fey and technically a warlock, now champion of the forgotten Hells whose masters have faded from the universe long ago. If the Yozi could laugh from beyond oblivion they would. Also Harry Dresden did technically set the green fire....
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
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Statistics (28 threadmarks, 43k words)
User Total ThatGazzer 1 Yzarc 4 Yog 1 uju32 4 Nightdream 1 deadcrystal 1 Artemis1992 1 powergoat 1 myrix 1 Exmorri 3 Jack vile Ripper 1 Valkhir 1 Acolyte 4 Negentropy 2 BronzeTongue 1 Nyarky 1 -
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Omake: Emerald Sun Lights over the Wicked.
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A.N. It is done. Behold!
Shintai: Demon-Emperor Shintai
-Strength +3, Dexterity +2, Stamina +3, Appearance 0
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor: +2 Soak
-Flight: The ability to fly
-Hardened Devil Body: +3 Bruised Health levels
-Hardiness (Heat): Immunity to heat of any kind.
Appearance:
-The Final Form of the Conqueror of Hell appears to be a giant sixteen-foot-tall viridian sun in the shape of a burning, lidless eye glowing with sickly green light. The eye is surrounded by 4 rings that layer its upper half in an asymmetrical arc, making it as if the eye tracks the movement of everyone under its baleful glare. Each ring is adorned with ever-changing, multi-hued fractal feathers that sprout off each ring like willow branches with crystalline quality. Underneath the burning eye is a tripod in the shape of three titanic millipedes, their skin shimmers with volcanic glass sheen and at their tip are mandibles that act as the eye's hand. And upon a maw was grasped an obsidian Macuahuitl-blade that seeps all light into it.
Sequence:
The Demon Empress closes her eyes as she is enveloped by a vast ball of green fire crowned by eight rings of brass. Each ring holds eight mouths, each containing eight vicious fangs.
The rings lazily rotate and spin about the fire until it coalesces into the form of a giant green all-seeing eye, which never moves but gazes in all directions regardless. To any and everyone around her, the empress is always staring directly into their eyes.
When the empress chooses to draw her sword and spread her wings, her rings begin to spin so quickly that they blur and sing demonic praises in an ancient tongue to the glory of their master.
In a fraction of a second eight of her sixty-four mouths yawn so wide that they split their rings, sending them shooting out spinward at specific locations around the eye.
As their praises peak the seven mouths on each once crown slam closed their jaws and swallow themselves whole, allowing each one to reform to reflect its new purpose.
One crown grows sharp and sprouts jagged fangs, forming a brazen Macuahuitl-blade dripping with nuclear venom and spite.
Four are positioned along the upper half of the eye, such that a trick of perspective (and essence) make them appear as asymmetric arcs framing the gaze of the empress in all directions. An illusion enhanced by skeletal frame of fractal feathers grown from each wing's broken fangs.
The final three orbit beneath the eye as a tripod, segmenting into what appears to be titanic millipedes of volcanic glass with almost delicate grasping mandibles.
Unbound by its crown, the lidless eye grows brighter and seems to glare at the world around it.
In-Effect:
-The rings of the eye encircle one another, flaming the burning eye with sight-searing incandescence as the wings hymns notes of needle-ice being twisted and crushed to the ears of those that can hear. The burning eye's flame licks and spews out gouts of nuclear fire. The eye propels itself in disobedience of gravity and its motion controlled by its will. The millipedes act as the limbs for the eye and they undulate and billow out with languid motions. Each chittering leg writhes voices of blandishments that exult the Infernal's glory and whispers voices that seed apostasies and schism. Unbound by the physical restraint of its Crown, the eye fills the mind of those who beheld it in their sight. Never sufficient to learn something new, or confirm something suspected, but always just enough to draw the mind to questions that could have been asked and truths that could be known. And the sword seems to gorge upon all sources of light into eternal frost and darkness.
As the Infernal battles, she uses her many rings to protect herself against harm by layering them unto the path of an attack. She uses her tripod-like limbs to grasp her sword with dextrous ease and reach against her enemies. When she works her sorceries, her flame sputters and dances as arcane glyphs and runes appear in sparks and ash.
A.N.: Thank you @Artemis1992, @BronzeTongue and @CorruptedKing for giving me ideas in making this Eldritch Angel.
Emerald Sun Lights over the Wicked.
Shintai: Demon-Emperor Shintai
-Strength +3, Dexterity +2, Stamina +3, Appearance 0
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor: +2 Soak
-Flight: The ability to fly
-Hardened Devil Body: +3 Bruised Health levels
-Hardiness (Heat): Immunity to heat of any kind.
Appearance:
-The Final Form of the Conqueror of Hell appears to be a giant sixteen-foot-tall viridian sun in the shape of a burning, lidless eye glowing with sickly green light. The eye is surrounded by 4 rings that layer its upper half in an asymmetrical arc, making it as if the eye tracks the movement of everyone under its baleful glare. Each ring is adorned with ever-changing, multi-hued fractal feathers that sprout off each ring like willow branches with crystalline quality. Underneath the burning eye is a tripod in the shape of three titanic millipedes, their skin shimmers with volcanic glass sheen and at their tip are mandibles that act as the eye's hand. And upon a maw was grasped an obsidian Macuahuitl-blade that seeps all light into it.
Sequence:
The Demon Empress closes her eyes as she is enveloped by a vast ball of green fire crowned by eight rings of brass. Each ring holds eight mouths, each containing eight vicious fangs.
The rings lazily rotate and spin about the fire until it coalesces into the form of a giant green all-seeing eye, which never moves but gazes in all directions regardless. To any and everyone around her, the empress is always staring directly into their eyes.
When the empress chooses to draw her sword and spread her wings, her rings begin to spin so quickly that they blur and sing demonic praises in an ancient tongue to the glory of their master.
In a fraction of a second eight of her sixty-four mouths yawn so wide that they split their rings, sending them shooting out spinward at specific locations around the eye.
As their praises peak the seven mouths on each once crown slam closed their jaws and swallow themselves whole, allowing each one to reform to reflect its new purpose.
One crown grows sharp and sprouts jagged fangs, forming a brazen Macuahuitl-blade dripping with nuclear venom and spite.
Four are positioned along the upper half of the eye, such that a trick of perspective (and essence) make them appear as asymmetric arcs framing the gaze of the empress in all directions. An illusion enhanced by skeletal frame of fractal feathers grown from each wing's broken fangs.
The final three orbit beneath the eye as a tripod, segmenting into what appears to be titanic millipedes of volcanic glass with almost delicate grasping mandibles.
Unbound by its crown, the lidless eye grows brighter and seems to glare at the world around it.
In-Effect:
-The rings of the eye encircle one another, flaming the burning eye with sight-searing incandescence as the wings hymns notes of needle-ice being twisted and crushed to the ears of those that can hear. The burning eye's flame licks and spews out gouts of nuclear fire. The eye propels itself in disobedience of gravity and its motion controlled by its will. The millipedes act as the limbs for the eye and they undulate and billow out with languid motions. Each chittering leg writhes voices of blandishments that exult the Infernal's glory and whispers voices that seed apostasies and schism. Unbound by the physical restraint of its Crown, the eye fills the mind of those who beheld it in their sight. Never sufficient to learn something new, or confirm something suspected, but always just enough to draw the mind to questions that could have been asked and truths that could be known. And the sword seems to gorge upon all sources of light into eternal frost and darkness.
As the Infernal battles, she uses her many rings to protect herself against harm by layering them unto the path of an attack. She uses her tripod-like limbs to grasp her sword with dextrous ease and reach against her enemies. When she works her sorceries, her flame sputters and dances as arcane glyphs and runes appear in sparks and ash.
A.N.: Thank you @Artemis1992, @BronzeTongue and @CorruptedKing for giving me ideas in making this Eldritch Angel.
Last edited:
Omake: Calling Down, Part 1
- Location
- Norway
Omake: Calling Down, part 1
"...it's for a fic I'm writing." said Molly, suddenly having second thoughts about asking Gareth, the school's biggest D&D nerd, for advice about a thinly disguised version of her own situation.
"Sounds cool! First of all. Very important thing: the protagonist should summon angels. Or archons, or whatever they're called in your setting. Is it a setting where people can summon angels?"
"I never thought about that." said Molly honestly.
"Right, well, it varies even in D&D, but in the latest edition they standardized a lot of the weird edge cases and merged spells to have descriptors for the different uses, instead of being several different spells that are mostly copy-pastes of the same mechanics." said Gareth, reaching into his book bag and pulling out a stained Player's Handbook. He flipped through the well-worn pages until he got to the spell list and pointed a finger at one in particular. "There. Lesser Planar Ally. The basic Cleric spell for this sort of thing. It's an Evil spell when used to summon a demon, it's a Good spell when used to summon an angel, or it's a Fire spell when used to summon a fire elemental."
Molly nodded, staring at the wall of text like it was in another language. "What's H D?"
"Hit Dice. An estimate of how powerful a creature is. I can lend you the book if you want to read it? Or you could come to game night, I assure you it's newbie-friendly, we have pregens-"
"No, please, just explain why the summoning angels thing."
"Right. Because angels won't backstab you the moment the contract's finished. Or go on a rampage burning everything in sight if they break free from the binding, or whisper lies to your friends to set them against you, or that sort of thing. People are constantly quoting Lovecraft, 'do not call up what you cannot put back down', but calling up an angel means there's no reason to put it down. Or would it be calling down an angel and having to put it up? Anyway, angels are safer to summon and will negotiate in good faith. Unless your protagonist has a secret evil cultist spy in the party and then the angel might break loose to reveal and attack the spy, but that would be a good thing."
Molly had a sudden intuition that the secret evil cultist spy was probably something that had happened in one of Gareth's games. "I see. Thank you, that's a fascinating idea. I can't promise I'll use it, but you've given me something to think about." She excused herself politely from the conversation, leaving Gareth muttering to himself about whether angels were called up or called down. "Usum?"
"Your friend's grimoire" -Molly chuckled at that description- "touches a true point in saying it is theoretically possible to summon beings of any sphere by similar means. What it fails to note is that some are already linked more closely than others to another will, another design. I cannot see Heaven, but I conjecture that angels are very closely tied to the order of Heaven, and would be harder to summon."
"Harder or impossible? Because I kinda like Gareth's suggestion of summoning something friendly... Oh no!" Molly trailed off as she realized what she was suggesting. Angels were people, in a sense, and outside of D&D it was probably immoral to use magic to summon a friendly person for her own purposes. Maybe she should just politely ask one instead. Wait, wasn't that basically praying? Did it make a difference whether she prayed for God to send an angel, or prayed to an angel to personally help?
For a moment, Molly considered asking Michael for advice. Then she tried to imagine his reaction to "Dad, can I use magic to summon angels?" and decided that would be a bad idea. Asking Mom was right out. Asking Harry was probably a bad idea too. That left Usum, who had already reached the point of conjecture (why did people have to use such a fancy word for 'guess'), and maybe Father Forthill, if he knew anything.
This was confusing. Molly sat down, took a deep breath, and thought it over. Maybe she could ask Dresden if there was a wizard library, and then she might find a relevant book by herself. Maybe...
"Does my princess wish for me to continue?" asked Usum a few minutes later, when Molly's thoughts had started to wander. She nodded silently. "Most mortal summoning takes the form of a request, sweetened with pleasant terms. Sorcerors will commonly make offerings and promises to the object of their summoning, encouraging them to enter into a contract." She recalled Harry mentioning pizza for the fairies, and continued nodding along to Usum's lecture.
"I think that angels would answer 'no' to any such request of yours, fools that they are. More ambitious sorcerors summon by demand. To demand-summon a spirit of note and name is in a sense to contend with its superior. This is most effective for elementals, who have little in the way of internal hierarchy. If you attempted to demand-summon fey of the Winter Court, you would have to match the Winter Queen. To demand-summon an angel, you would have to match the King of Heaven." Molly flinched as she realized just what Usum meant by that, but the toady was undeterred in his overestimation of Molly's capabilities.
"While this is certainly something that would be within your power eventually, you would also need a ritual fit for purpose, and I cannot imagine that any mortal sorcerors know a ritual capable of channelling even a fraction of your awesome might. You would have to design it from scratch."
"Stick to the requests. Don't ever suggest doing that other thing again." Molly ordered.
"As you wish."
A week later...
Usum had explained a bit more about summoning to Molly. She'd also spoken to Gareth again and learned a lot of D&D trivia that she'd probably forget in a week, and then she'd asked Harry in general terms about summoning safe things that weren't demons. Harry had told her more about Toot-toot and wyldfae, and agreed that it was possible to summon other things from the Nevernever.
She felt this was still not an entirely solid foundation for summoning an angel, but after being attacked by vampires twice in one week, and hearing some of Harry's other war stories, Molly was a lot more willing to try and experiment. Gareth had made a very convincing argument that angels were safe to summon even if you messed up the ritual, unless you were secretly evil. Molly didn't think she was secretly evil, and she'd said the Lord's Prayer, the Confession, and the Ave Maria beforehand, just to be on the safe side.
Now she was sitting on an empty pier in an abandoned dock on the edge of Lake Michigan, drawing a summoning circle and preparing to summon an angel. Usum and Gareth's speculations had agreed that the most powerful angels were probably assigned to the oceans and big cities, there might be a medium-ranking one watching over the Great Lakes in general who probably lived in Lake Superior, and a low-ranking one at Lake Michigan. Probably.
Molly double-checked the summoning circle, and asked Usum to triple-check it. Then she channeled Essence and spoke: "I, Molly Carpenter, request that the Angel of Lake Michigan please appear before me in this circle." She felt the words of summoning should be more formal, but she hadn't found any wizard library, and Usum had assured her the formalities were for lesser, mortal sorcerors. Usum had also suggested she should use more of her titles like 'Most Dreadful Flower of the Endless Night', which she had refused to do.
Something like a merman appeared in the summoning circle, hovering in mid-air. He had a human head and torso, a flat chest, arms but no wings, the lower body of a fish, and iridescent scales on his fins and tail. Around his middle was a bright white cloth protecting his modesty. The creature dripped water. "Be not afraid." he said, then casually swept his tail out to the side, straight through the summoning circle, wiping away the chalk lines and flicking the hula hoop aside.
Molly felt afraid.
This is not a real vote.
{ } Run. Breaking a summoning circle is a really, really bad sign. At least the creature looks like it can't go far from the lake, nor move very fast.
{ } Attack. Breaking the circle must have cost it a lot of power. Banish it before it has a chance to recover.
{ } Disbelieve. This must be an illusion. The creature is pretending it's escaped to trick you into letting it actually escape.
{ } Talk. This is why you summoned an angel in the first place. Even if it's loose, it's safe to talk to. Hopefully.
{ } Write in.
(part 2)
"...it's for a fic I'm writing." said Molly, suddenly having second thoughts about asking Gareth, the school's biggest D&D nerd, for advice about a thinly disguised version of her own situation.
"Sounds cool! First of all. Very important thing: the protagonist should summon angels. Or archons, or whatever they're called in your setting. Is it a setting where people can summon angels?"
"I never thought about that." said Molly honestly.
"Right, well, it varies even in D&D, but in the latest edition they standardized a lot of the weird edge cases and merged spells to have descriptors for the different uses, instead of being several different spells that are mostly copy-pastes of the same mechanics." said Gareth, reaching into his book bag and pulling out a stained Player's Handbook. He flipped through the well-worn pages until he got to the spell list and pointed a finger at one in particular. "There. Lesser Planar Ally. The basic Cleric spell for this sort of thing. It's an Evil spell when used to summon a demon, it's a Good spell when used to summon an angel, or it's a Fire spell when used to summon a fire elemental."
Molly nodded, staring at the wall of text like it was in another language. "What's H D?"
"Hit Dice. An estimate of how powerful a creature is. I can lend you the book if you want to read it? Or you could come to game night, I assure you it's newbie-friendly, we have pregens-"
"No, please, just explain why the summoning angels thing."
"Right. Because angels won't backstab you the moment the contract's finished. Or go on a rampage burning everything in sight if they break free from the binding, or whisper lies to your friends to set them against you, or that sort of thing. People are constantly quoting Lovecraft, 'do not call up what you cannot put back down', but calling up an angel means there's no reason to put it down. Or would it be calling down an angel and having to put it up? Anyway, angels are safer to summon and will negotiate in good faith. Unless your protagonist has a secret evil cultist spy in the party and then the angel might break loose to reveal and attack the spy, but that would be a good thing."
Molly had a sudden intuition that the secret evil cultist spy was probably something that had happened in one of Gareth's games. "I see. Thank you, that's a fascinating idea. I can't promise I'll use it, but you've given me something to think about." She excused herself politely from the conversation, leaving Gareth muttering to himself about whether angels were called up or called down. "Usum?"
"Your friend's grimoire" -Molly chuckled at that description- "touches a true point in saying it is theoretically possible to summon beings of any sphere by similar means. What it fails to note is that some are already linked more closely than others to another will, another design. I cannot see Heaven, but I conjecture that angels are very closely tied to the order of Heaven, and would be harder to summon."
"Harder or impossible? Because I kinda like Gareth's suggestion of summoning something friendly... Oh no!" Molly trailed off as she realized what she was suggesting. Angels were people, in a sense, and outside of D&D it was probably immoral to use magic to summon a friendly person for her own purposes. Maybe she should just politely ask one instead. Wait, wasn't that basically praying? Did it make a difference whether she prayed for God to send an angel, or prayed to an angel to personally help?
For a moment, Molly considered asking Michael for advice. Then she tried to imagine his reaction to "Dad, can I use magic to summon angels?" and decided that would be a bad idea. Asking Mom was right out. Asking Harry was probably a bad idea too. That left Usum, who had already reached the point of conjecture (why did people have to use such a fancy word for 'guess'), and maybe Father Forthill, if he knew anything.
This was confusing. Molly sat down, took a deep breath, and thought it over. Maybe she could ask Dresden if there was a wizard library, and then she might find a relevant book by herself. Maybe...
"Does my princess wish for me to continue?" asked Usum a few minutes later, when Molly's thoughts had started to wander. She nodded silently. "Most mortal summoning takes the form of a request, sweetened with pleasant terms. Sorcerors will commonly make offerings and promises to the object of their summoning, encouraging them to enter into a contract." She recalled Harry mentioning pizza for the fairies, and continued nodding along to Usum's lecture.
"I think that angels would answer 'no' to any such request of yours, fools that they are. More ambitious sorcerors summon by demand. To demand-summon a spirit of note and name is in a sense to contend with its superior. This is most effective for elementals, who have little in the way of internal hierarchy. If you attempted to demand-summon fey of the Winter Court, you would have to match the Winter Queen. To demand-summon an angel, you would have to match the King of Heaven." Molly flinched as she realized just what Usum meant by that, but the toady was undeterred in his overestimation of Molly's capabilities.
"While this is certainly something that would be within your power eventually, you would also need a ritual fit for purpose, and I cannot imagine that any mortal sorcerors know a ritual capable of channelling even a fraction of your awesome might. You would have to design it from scratch."
"Stick to the requests. Don't ever suggest doing that other thing again." Molly ordered.
"As you wish."
A week later...
Usum had explained a bit more about summoning to Molly. She'd also spoken to Gareth again and learned a lot of D&D trivia that she'd probably forget in a week, and then she'd asked Harry in general terms about summoning safe things that weren't demons. Harry had told her more about Toot-toot and wyldfae, and agreed that it was possible to summon other things from the Nevernever.
She felt this was still not an entirely solid foundation for summoning an angel, but after being attacked by vampires twice in one week, and hearing some of Harry's other war stories, Molly was a lot more willing to try and experiment. Gareth had made a very convincing argument that angels were safe to summon even if you messed up the ritual, unless you were secretly evil. Molly didn't think she was secretly evil, and she'd said the Lord's Prayer, the Confession, and the Ave Maria beforehand, just to be on the safe side.
Now she was sitting on an empty pier in an abandoned dock on the edge of Lake Michigan, drawing a summoning circle and preparing to summon an angel. Usum and Gareth's speculations had agreed that the most powerful angels were probably assigned to the oceans and big cities, there might be a medium-ranking one watching over the Great Lakes in general who probably lived in Lake Superior, and a low-ranking one at Lake Michigan. Probably.
Molly double-checked the summoning circle, and asked Usum to triple-check it. Then she channeled Essence and spoke: "I, Molly Carpenter, request that the Angel of Lake Michigan please appear before me in this circle." She felt the words of summoning should be more formal, but she hadn't found any wizard library, and Usum had assured her the formalities were for lesser, mortal sorcerors. Usum had also suggested she should use more of her titles like 'Most Dreadful Flower of the Endless Night', which she had refused to do.
Something like a merman appeared in the summoning circle, hovering in mid-air. He had a human head and torso, a flat chest, arms but no wings, the lower body of a fish, and iridescent scales on his fins and tail. Around his middle was a bright white cloth protecting his modesty. The creature dripped water. "Be not afraid." he said, then casually swept his tail out to the side, straight through the summoning circle, wiping away the chalk lines and flicking the hula hoop aside.
Molly felt afraid.
This is not a real vote.
{ } Run. Breaking a summoning circle is a really, really bad sign. At least the creature looks like it can't go far from the lake, nor move very fast.
{ } Attack. Breaking the circle must have cost it a lot of power. Banish it before it has a chance to recover.
{ } Disbelieve. This must be an illusion. The creature is pretending it's escaped to trick you into letting it actually escape.
{ } Talk. This is why you summoned an angel in the first place. Even if it's loose, it's safe to talk to. Hopefully.
{ } Write in.
One small note only you could totally command the presence of a Winter Fey if you had their name and the right spell because while Mab could contest it she does not have unlimited multi-tasking to pull back on every pixie someone is dragging along. Whether that would be true of the White God Usum is not sure, though he is quite sure an angel is stronger than a pixie
(part 2)
Last edited:
Omake: Calling Down, Part 2
- Location
- Norway
Omake: Calling Down, part 2
(part 1)
"Who am I talking to?" Molly asked nervously.
(Spent 1 Essence on Subtle Flowery Name Buffing Prana)
"The acting angel of Lake Michigan." answered the merman. His voice was confident, clear, well-spoken, easy on the ear. Like many supernatural creatures.
"Acting? What, did the regular one go on vacation?" Molly said, holding back a chuckle.
"No, there just isn't one. Angels aren't assigned to lakes." The alleged angel gestured at the wet streaks on the floor where the circle had been. "And we can't be summoned. I volunteered to show up for this since you're a bit of a special case. This whole situation is very irregular."
"Can't be summoned? Why?" This conversation was not going as planned. But at least nothing was on fire, which according to Harry frequently happened when his encounters with a powerful being didn't go as planned. And sometimes even when they did.
"He lies." opined Usum.
"Well, the way he broke the circle felt like a mortal scuffing it, not like a supernatural overpowering it." Molly answered internally.
"Not being summonable is the normal state of creatures. Demons can be summoned because they lost, fae can be summoned because they have oaths in place of souls, some other creatures can be summoned for their individual reasons, but no such bond lies on you nor me." exposited the alleged angel. "Kindly forgive any imprecisions of brevity."
"I'd like to see proof of that. Um, not that I mean to accuse you of lying, sorry, but I don't know if you actually are an angel, and something that isn't an angel might able to lie and pretend it was one."
"I can leave, and then you can try to summon me again and get nothing." answered the merman, turning as though to leave.
"Wait! Please!" said Molly quickly. "Before you go, can you recommend someone friendly I can summon?"
The merman turned towards Molly again. "I won't actually leave yet, I have more to say. To answer your question: Wyldfae. Dresden has experience with them."
"You're an angel and you're suggesting I deal with the fae?"
"No. I am answering your question as a freebie, out of kindness. There are friendly wyldfae you can summon. I do not recommend doing this. If you feel unsafe alone, I recommend speaking to your father, both for his company and for his advice."
A hundred questions buzzed in Molly's head: about wyldfae, about angels, about summoning, about things Usum wanted her to ask. But as often happens, the most recent grabbed her attention first. "Did you just say 'freebie'?"
"Yes. You struck me as doubtful of what I was saying, so I decided to highlight the fact I was giving you free information to emphasise that I am not bound by the like-for-like obligations and exchanges you have come to expect from experience with Harry Dresden and the fae. Fae don't do charity. Is this perhaps the proof you wanted?"
"That only proves he's dangerous and unbound, not that he's an angel." said Usum.
"Well what proof should I ask for? That he grow wings and fly me home?" retorted Molly.
"I do not think asking this creature to fly you anywhere is a good idea."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I'm afraid I don't have any proofs he could perform in mind, O Dread Princess. Perhaps you should ask your father to check on him."
Molly weighed her options and took a deep breath. It had seemed like such a clever plan at the time to summon an angel who would negotiate honestly and reasonably. Now it was being undermined by the fact she didn't know if it actually was an angel she was dealing with. But that it was offering freebies and not trying to rush her into a decision was two points in its favor. "Suppose I say yes." she said carefully. "What then?"
"Then I deliver the warning that is part of why I was allowed to volunteer."
"Tell me."
"You bear the image of God, Molly Carpenter, and that is not lost because you have taken up an immortal power never before seen on Earth. Good and evil are not one thing for the weak and another for the mighty. Be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of life."
"Heard that part. What's new?" quipped Molly, immediately regretting she was so blasé to an angel. If it was an angel.
"Your own crown is greater-" Usum began.
"Shut up! Not now!" Molly commanded angrily.
"But the power you wield holds within it a seed of some who do not bear the image of God. If allowed to flower freely, it will efface you to recreate them. Do not let that happen. This is the word of the Lord."
"Keep my power under control, got it. Thanks. Can I ask one more question before you go?"
"Yes. Like Gareth said, I negotiate in good faith, so I'm not counting that one."
"You know Gareth??" Molly blurted out.
"Not counting that one either." said the angel, and while his expression remained majestically calm as it had been through the entire conversation, with not even a hint of a smirk, Molly nonetheless had the feeling she was being smugged at.
Once this was done, she resolved, she'd see Harry about not-asking-questions training so that she stopped blurting out questions like that.
What topic do you ask the acting angel of Lake Michigan about?
{ } Fae
{ } Angels
{ } Summoning
{ } Your power
{ } The problem of evil
-{ } Optionally: write in specific direction to one of the above
{ } Write in other topic
IC Note: The five suggested options will gain you 1 essence for discovering secret lore. Write-ins will probably get the same benefit but I don't know in advance what the players will choose to ask about. For all I know you might ask the angel for the answer sheet to Molly's next history quiz.
OOC Note: Not a real vote, not actually giving lore nor essence, and not canon. Also I wrote much of it before the most recent update (A1 P4) went in a different direction from what I expected.
(part 1)
{X} Goldfish
-{X} Stall for time. Activate Subtle Flowery Name Buffing Prana while asking who this is and whether it can provide proof.
-{X} If it's friendly, angel or not, use Diplomacy-Related Excellency to ask for introductions or names of someone who'd be amenable to long-term summoning on a diplomatic basis.
-{X} If attacked physically, use Blatant Overpowered Armor Charm and start running away. Even if we could probably beat it, this isn't a fight we need to have.
-{X} If the being does anything else malicious, use Running Fast But Verbosely So and start running away, while covering our ears to not hear anything it says.
-{X} Stall for time. Activate Subtle Flowery Name Buffing Prana while asking who this is and whether it can provide proof.
-{X} If it's friendly, angel or not, use Diplomacy-Related Excellency to ask for introductions or names of someone who'd be amenable to long-term summoning on a diplomatic basis.
-{X} If attacked physically, use Blatant Overpowered Armor Charm and start running away. Even if we could probably beat it, this isn't a fight we need to have.
-{X} If the being does anything else malicious, use Running Fast But Verbosely So and start running away, while covering our ears to not hear anything it says.
"Who am I talking to?" Molly asked nervously.
(Spent 1 Essence on Subtle Flowery Name Buffing Prana)
"The acting angel of Lake Michigan." answered the merman. His voice was confident, clear, well-spoken, easy on the ear. Like many supernatural creatures.
"Acting? What, did the regular one go on vacation?" Molly said, holding back a chuckle.
"No, there just isn't one. Angels aren't assigned to lakes." The alleged angel gestured at the wet streaks on the floor where the circle had been. "And we can't be summoned. I volunteered to show up for this since you're a bit of a special case. This whole situation is very irregular."
"Can't be summoned? Why?" This conversation was not going as planned. But at least nothing was on fire, which according to Harry frequently happened when his encounters with a powerful being didn't go as planned. And sometimes even when they did.
"He lies." opined Usum.
"Well, the way he broke the circle felt like a mortal scuffing it, not like a supernatural overpowering it." Molly answered internally.
"Not being summonable is the normal state of creatures. Demons can be summoned because they lost, fae can be summoned because they have oaths in place of souls, some other creatures can be summoned for their individual reasons, but no such bond lies on you nor me." exposited the alleged angel. "Kindly forgive any imprecisions of brevity."
"I'd like to see proof of that. Um, not that I mean to accuse you of lying, sorry, but I don't know if you actually are an angel, and something that isn't an angel might able to lie and pretend it was one."
"I can leave, and then you can try to summon me again and get nothing." answered the merman, turning as though to leave.
"Wait! Please!" said Molly quickly. "Before you go, can you recommend someone friendly I can summon?"
The merman turned towards Molly again. "I won't actually leave yet, I have more to say. To answer your question: Wyldfae. Dresden has experience with them."
"You're an angel and you're suggesting I deal with the fae?"
"No. I am answering your question as a freebie, out of kindness. There are friendly wyldfae you can summon. I do not recommend doing this. If you feel unsafe alone, I recommend speaking to your father, both for his company and for his advice."
A hundred questions buzzed in Molly's head: about wyldfae, about angels, about summoning, about things Usum wanted her to ask. But as often happens, the most recent grabbed her attention first. "Did you just say 'freebie'?"
"Yes. You struck me as doubtful of what I was saying, so I decided to highlight the fact I was giving you free information to emphasise that I am not bound by the like-for-like obligations and exchanges you have come to expect from experience with Harry Dresden and the fae. Fae don't do charity. Is this perhaps the proof you wanted?"
"That only proves he's dangerous and unbound, not that he's an angel." said Usum.
"Well what proof should I ask for? That he grow wings and fly me home?" retorted Molly.
"I do not think asking this creature to fly you anywhere is a good idea."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I'm afraid I don't have any proofs he could perform in mind, O Dread Princess. Perhaps you should ask your father to check on him."
Molly weighed her options and took a deep breath. It had seemed like such a clever plan at the time to summon an angel who would negotiate honestly and reasonably. Now it was being undermined by the fact she didn't know if it actually was an angel she was dealing with. But that it was offering freebies and not trying to rush her into a decision was two points in its favor. "Suppose I say yes." she said carefully. "What then?"
"Then I deliver the warning that is part of why I was allowed to volunteer."
"Tell me."
"You bear the image of God, Molly Carpenter, and that is not lost because you have taken up an immortal power never before seen on Earth. Good and evil are not one thing for the weak and another for the mighty. Be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of life."
"Heard that part. What's new?" quipped Molly, immediately regretting she was so blasé to an angel. If it was an angel.
"Your own crown is greater-" Usum began.
"Shut up! Not now!" Molly commanded angrily.
"But the power you wield holds within it a seed of some who do not bear the image of God. If allowed to flower freely, it will efface you to recreate them. Do not let that happen. This is the word of the Lord."
"Keep my power under control, got it. Thanks. Can I ask one more question before you go?"
"Yes. Like Gareth said, I negotiate in good faith, so I'm not counting that one."
"You know Gareth??" Molly blurted out.
"Not counting that one either." said the angel, and while his expression remained majestically calm as it had been through the entire conversation, with not even a hint of a smirk, Molly nonetheless had the feeling she was being smugged at.
Once this was done, she resolved, she'd see Harry about not-asking-questions training so that she stopped blurting out questions like that.
What topic do you ask the acting angel of Lake Michigan about?
{ } Fae
{ } Angels
{ } Summoning
{ } Your power
{ } The problem of evil
-{ } Optionally: write in specific direction to one of the above
{ } Write in other topic
IC Note: The five suggested options will gain you 1 essence for discovering secret lore. Write-ins will probably get the same benefit but I don't know in advance what the players will choose to ask about. For all I know you might ask the angel for the answer sheet to Molly's next history quiz.
OOC Note: Not a real vote, not actually giving lore nor essence, and not canon. Also I wrote much of it before the most recent update (A1 P4) went in a different direction from what I expected.
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Single Shining Point in the Void
- Location
- Germany
If Molly's Exaltation remembered the Single Shining Point in the Void Style
Breathe in. Breathe out.
You look at the sword in your fathers hands, your own blade in the lower half of your field of sight.
Breathe in.
As you focus on the swords, all else falls away. You are nearly alone in the darkness.
Breathe out.
The line of not-steel that stands against you is held by a faceless figure, the white point closer to you is held by your will as much as any flesh.
Breathe in.
Your sword moves in a high thrust, aimed at the figure behind the bright blade of Amorrachius. The holy blade moves to block, but your body twists to the right, moving your sword but keeping the tip perfectly aligned to a point in the opponents shoulder.
You know, if there were a second blow, you would loose, having given up your footing and position utterly.
Breath out.
Time slows to your senses, the swords crawl closer to each other as Amorrachius still moves to parry and your nameless blade still seeks the target's shoulder.
You can see that you will hit, as the movement of your body brings your sword further to the right without loosing the alignment of the point, but you also know that you will hit only with a fraction of your momentum behind it, too much had been redirected to avoid the parry.
And so you watch as that single shining point touches its target.
And as time begins to flow again, your father stumbles back from a hit to the shoulder, the tip not even piercing his padding, even as you tumble to the ground from the near-jump you had made to bring your blade to the target.
This was propably not something to try in most real fights...
Just an Omake, of someone trying to imitate a Celestial Art without actually knowing it.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
You look at the sword in your fathers hands, your own blade in the lower half of your field of sight.
Breathe in.
As you focus on the swords, all else falls away. You are nearly alone in the darkness.
Breathe out.
The line of not-steel that stands against you is held by a faceless figure, the white point closer to you is held by your will as much as any flesh.
Breathe in.
Your sword moves in a high thrust, aimed at the figure behind the bright blade of Amorrachius. The holy blade moves to block, but your body twists to the right, moving your sword but keeping the tip perfectly aligned to a point in the opponents shoulder.
You know, if there were a second blow, you would loose, having given up your footing and position utterly.
Breath out.
Time slows to your senses, the swords crawl closer to each other as Amorrachius still moves to parry and your nameless blade still seeks the target's shoulder.
You can see that you will hit, as the movement of your body brings your sword further to the right without loosing the alignment of the point, but you also know that you will hit only with a fraction of your momentum behind it, too much had been redirected to avoid the parry.
And so you watch as that single shining point touches its target.
And as time begins to flow again, your father stumbles back from a hit to the shoulder, the tip not even piercing his padding, even as you tumble to the ground from the near-jump you had made to bring your blade to the target.
This was propably not something to try in most real fights...
Just an Omake, of someone trying to imitate a Celestial Art without actually knowing it.
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The Glorious Apocalypse Princess
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Alright, so here is my Shintai Idea.
Shintai: Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor (x2): +4 Soak
-Hardened Devil Body (x4): +12 Bruised Health levels
-Swift Stride: Movement speed and jumping distances are doubled.
Notes:
The Transformation pings off the legend of the Infernals in ExWoD, where Shintai are the shadow of the Demon Emperor they might become should they ascend to a throne above the Earth with the dawning of the Sixth Age. They are heralds of the new age and by definition, do not belong in this one. For within their hearts ticks the doomsday clock, a promise, a world engine, a reflection of what should be. Thus they can't help but rejects what is for what could be and set forth to make their world a reality and it is minutes from midnight.
It referenced both the origins of the Infernal's power being derived from the Yozis power, what they become and the Horror of Nuclear War. The same also includes the fact that the Heavens have reached out to Molly and keeps the hope for tomorrow which also references the fact that they were once Solars who were changed.
The form and theme of both the appearance and transformation represents Great and Terrible power but also one that is tempered by Hope and Faith which references Molly's upbringing as well as her character. There is no redemption for Infernals but even the darkest of days and the Blackest of Nights must end and a new Dawn always rises, representing the death of an age and the birth of a new one. Though if the Dawn is Green or Gold, if not in form then in spirit, is yet to be decided.
Reasons:
Size and ease:
Devil Tyrant Avatar is human sized. What this means is that any place that Molly can enter into, she can transform in with no ill effects. So, we do not have to worry about being underground, in a building or even being in a car. We can transform with no extra difficulties due to location, size, and other such restrictions. We can also do all the things Molly can and are not penalized for it nor is her appearance reduced to 0 like in ALL the other Shintai options.
By comparison, we have Demon -Emperor which is at the minimum 12 ft tall and has stated difficulties going through a door. It's huge size also makes fine manipulation extremely difficult if not outright impossible, due to the gigantic size and what form we take.
Incarnate Apotheosis Shintai is a natural disaster such as a living sandstorm, inferno, pool of living acid studded with eyes, amorphous shadow, or swarm of demonic locusts etc. It also operates on the swarm rules found on page 391 of V20, which…..yeah. It does soak damage so there is that but still.
Then there is Devil-Beast Shintai, which is an animal form but suffers a –3 penalty to all attempts to perform fine manipulation due to its lack of proper human hands.
Stat Spread:
Then there is the Stat Spread. Devil-Tyrant Avatar is the only Shintai that offers +4 Dex.
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Dexterity is the absolute key to both avoiding getting hit and hitting enemies. You can make up strength with the Venomous Demon Aspect +3 Lethal Dice and charms like GSNF and augment stamina with Demon armor Aspect for +2 Soak and charms like VLE, but if dexterity is low, we are not going to be doing much in combat except bleeding out.
To put it simply, if we do not take max dex now, we will never be getting another Dex booster as there is no other dex booster at all.
You can also justify rolling it for just about any physical task. It encompasses gross agility, fine dexterity, general flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and running and movement, being prone etc. This especially combos well with Devil-Tyrant as the shintai can do all the things Molly Can do, so we do not loose out on any ability and instead get a flat boost on what we can do in combat.
What this means is that we roll like this.
Dex 4 + Melee 5 + Shintai 4 + Stunt 2. So 15 Dice without a Excellency in combat without needing to spend any essence and 24 dice with an Excellency. This is immediately out of the gate at E2 and will only increase once we get to Dex 5 for a max of 26 dice.
Demon Aspects:
Devil-Tyrant Avatar grants us 7 Demonic Aspects and builds off our Human form. What that means is that we can customize it as we see fit. However, it should be noted that if added to a shintai- Demon Aspects are forever locked behind the shintai. So what that in mind….
Aspects Already Gained:
Demon Weapons – Melee Sword from our Head demon.
Transcendent Anathema – By Rage Recast.
Aspects to take for the Shintai:
Demon Armor (x2)– Adds +4 Soak.
Swift Stride – Doubles Moment Speed and Jumping distance. Applies to Flight when we take it, so it is not rendered redundant.
Hardened Devil Body (x4) – 12 (3 x4) Bruised (–0) health levels.
We can purchase Essence Ox-Body charms in our base form but does not apply to our Shintai and if we do not take at least 4 HDB then our base form will have more health levels than our shintai. So, by taking it HDB 4 times, this makes our Shintai competitive in High Essence fights as it has the Equivalent of taking x4 Ox-Body technique and can keep up with High Essence enemies that do boatloads of damage in single attacks.
With this our health levels look like this….
-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-4/Na.
As you can see, this allows us to get hit, a LOT and fight high level opponents with a reasonable degree of failure. The point of the shintia is to act as a buffer against dying and having a ton of health levels would aide in that. Anything more then 4 is a waste as we will be getting other charms to heal/mitigate damage. But similarly, anything less then 4 makes us much more squishy then we really should be in a super mode.
In addition, we have greatly reduced wound penalties, thanks to the -0s and can put off taking Ox-body charms for our base body as they would not be that much of a Priority.
The Glorious Apocalypse Princess
Shintai: Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor (x2): +4 Soak
-Hardened Devil Body (x4): +12 Bruised Health levels
-Swift Stride: Movement speed and jumping distances are doubled.
Appearance:
A terror born from the Nuclear Radiance of the Long Night and the fear born from the Nightmare of Atomic Armageddon, she walks forth clad in the armor seemingly carved from Brass and Basalt, yet paradoxly Finely-crafted and customized exactly to task. In all appearance, the armor appears to be made with exceptional craftsmanship with its own unique flourishes and decorations.
The core of the Armor is made from Basalt drawn seemingly from the depths of Lanka, the Demon City of the Rakshas. Yet savants of the occult, if allowed to study the material, will realize that this Basalt has no origins in Lanka, instead hinting at a far more ancient and forgotten origin. Indeed, for the Basalt that makes up the core of the armor is far older then even the most ancient of the Bedrocks of Lanka.
The Brass that highlights the Basalt is no less impressive. If observed under eyes that can see beyond the mundane, Green writing, glowing faintly, can be seen. If one can read the arcane and forgotten language then they would understand that the writings are wards made from litanies praising the rise of the Glorious Apocalypse Princess.
She wears the Horned helm of Ruin and Glory, marking her as a Demon Royal. On her shoulders sits the heraldry of the Demon Empress to be, the badge of Glory that strikes fear in the hearts of those who understand the magnitude of the terror to come for the same represent the Creation Ruling mandate that the Empress wields, taken from the hands of the cold dead corpses of her opponents.
But not all is lost, for the Heavens are not blind to the terror the Princess represents and saw fit to send forth their finest Knight, who tempered indifference with Compassion, doubt with conviction, indulgence with temperance and fear with Valor. Thus, the Empress to be wears the Mantle of Sunlight, that shines not with the balefire of Nuclear Annihilation but with the light of the resplendent dawn, representing strength, superiority, order, glory and striving for the absolute. For all things must end, even the Long Night and there must always be hope for tomorrow.
But whether the gambit of Heaven awoke the Spark of Solar Glory......only time shall tell.
Transformation:
The Empress to be stands unmoving and unflinching under her foe's onslaught, hardening her body to break her foes against her immortal flesh. She waits until the light of hope begins to shine in her foe's eyes before she utters one and only one word.
"No"
The shock of the absolute act of defiance spreads at an ever expanding rate, the word travelling through the filaments of her World, calling forth its very foundations to aid her. She flares her Anima and immediately collapses the same into her flesh, producing a brief, blinding cataclysm of emerald flame even as Dark Essence flows into her, beginning her transformation.
Her heart begins to palpitate and her blood gleams with the green light of Armageddon. The same tainted essence flows through her veins like blood, transforming her flesh with the materials of a Demon City for older then Lanka. Her form is clad in armor grown from her own body, even as her hair takes on a brassy sheen and hardens into a helm fit for a Empress. Material flows within her body, forming replacements limbs and organs and so that the same may be made of hardier material and not pathetic flesh.
When the light clears, the Empress to be stands transformed, her demonic nature stamped unmistakably into her flesh as her anima roars once more.
A terror born from the Nuclear Radiance of the Long Night and the fear born from the Nightmare of Atomic Armageddon, she walks forth clad in the armor seemingly carved from Brass and Basalt, yet paradoxly Finely-crafted and customized exactly to task. In all appearance, the armor appears to be made with exceptional craftsmanship with its own unique flourishes and decorations.
The core of the Armor is made from Basalt drawn seemingly from the depths of Lanka, the Demon City of the Rakshas. Yet savants of the occult, if allowed to study the material, will realize that this Basalt has no origins in Lanka, instead hinting at a far more ancient and forgotten origin. Indeed, for the Basalt that makes up the core of the armor is far older then even the most ancient of the Bedrocks of Lanka.
The Brass that highlights the Basalt is no less impressive. If observed under eyes that can see beyond the mundane, Green writing, glowing faintly, can be seen. If one can read the arcane and forgotten language then they would understand that the writings are wards made from litanies praising the rise of the Glorious Apocalypse Princess.
She wears the Horned helm of Ruin and Glory, marking her as a Demon Royal. On her shoulders sits the heraldry of the Demon Empress to be, the badge of Glory that strikes fear in the hearts of those who understand the magnitude of the terror to come for the same represent the Creation Ruling mandate that the Empress wields, taken from the hands of the cold dead corpses of her opponents.
But not all is lost, for the Heavens are not blind to the terror the Princess represents and saw fit to send forth their finest Knight, who tempered indifference with Compassion, doubt with conviction, indulgence with temperance and fear with Valor. Thus, the Empress to be wears the Mantle of Sunlight, that shines not with the balefire of Nuclear Annihilation but with the light of the resplendent dawn, representing strength, superiority, order, glory and striving for the absolute. For all things must end, even the Long Night and there must always be hope for tomorrow.
But whether the gambit of Heaven awoke the Spark of Solar Glory......only time shall tell.
Transformation:
The Empress to be stands unmoving and unflinching under her foe's onslaught, hardening her body to break her foes against her immortal flesh. She waits until the light of hope begins to shine in her foe's eyes before she utters one and only one word.
"No"
The shock of the absolute act of defiance spreads at an ever expanding rate, the word travelling through the filaments of her World, calling forth its very foundations to aid her. She flares her Anima and immediately collapses the same into her flesh, producing a brief, blinding cataclysm of emerald flame even as Dark Essence flows into her, beginning her transformation.
Her heart begins to palpitate and her blood gleams with the green light of Armageddon. The same tainted essence flows through her veins like blood, transforming her flesh with the materials of a Demon City for older then Lanka. Her form is clad in armor grown from her own body, even as her hair takes on a brassy sheen and hardens into a helm fit for a Empress. Material flows within her body, forming replacements limbs and organs and so that the same may be made of hardier material and not pathetic flesh.
When the light clears, the Empress to be stands transformed, her demonic nature stamped unmistakably into her flesh as her anima roars once more.
Notes:
The Transformation pings off the legend of the Infernals in ExWoD, where Shintai are the shadow of the Demon Emperor they might become should they ascend to a throne above the Earth with the dawning of the Sixth Age. They are heralds of the new age and by definition, do not belong in this one. For within their hearts ticks the doomsday clock, a promise, a world engine, a reflection of what should be. Thus they can't help but rejects what is for what could be and set forth to make their world a reality and it is minutes from midnight.
It referenced both the origins of the Infernal's power being derived from the Yozis power, what they become and the Horror of Nuclear War. The same also includes the fact that the Heavens have reached out to Molly and keeps the hope for tomorrow which also references the fact that they were once Solars who were changed.
The form and theme of both the appearance and transformation represents Great and Terrible power but also one that is tempered by Hope and Faith which references Molly's upbringing as well as her character. There is no redemption for Infernals but even the darkest of days and the Blackest of Nights must end and a new Dawn always rises, representing the death of an age and the birth of a new one. Though if the Dawn is Green or Gold, if not in form then in spirit, is yet to be decided.
Reasons:
Size and ease:
Devil Tyrant Avatar is human sized. What this means is that any place that Molly can enter into, she can transform in with no ill effects. So, we do not have to worry about being underground, in a building or even being in a car. We can transform with no extra difficulties due to location, size, and other such restrictions. We can also do all the things Molly can and are not penalized for it nor is her appearance reduced to 0 like in ALL the other Shintai options.
By comparison, we have Demon -Emperor which is at the minimum 12 ft tall and has stated difficulties going through a door. It's huge size also makes fine manipulation extremely difficult if not outright impossible, due to the gigantic size and what form we take.
Incarnate Apotheosis Shintai is a natural disaster such as a living sandstorm, inferno, pool of living acid studded with eyes, amorphous shadow, or swarm of demonic locusts etc. It also operates on the swarm rules found on page 391 of V20, which…..yeah. It does soak damage so there is that but still.
Then there is Devil-Beast Shintai, which is an animal form but suffers a –3 penalty to all attempts to perform fine manipulation due to its lack of proper human hands.
Stat Spread:
Then there is the Stat Spread. Devil-Tyrant Avatar is the only Shintai that offers +4 Dex.
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Dexterity is the absolute key to both avoiding getting hit and hitting enemies. You can make up strength with the Venomous Demon Aspect +3 Lethal Dice and charms like GSNF and augment stamina with Demon armor Aspect for +2 Soak and charms like VLE, but if dexterity is low, we are not going to be doing much in combat except bleeding out.
To put it simply, if we do not take max dex now, we will never be getting another Dex booster as there is no other dex booster at all.
You can also justify rolling it for just about any physical task. It encompasses gross agility, fine dexterity, general flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and running and movement, being prone etc. This especially combos well with Devil-Tyrant as the shintai can do all the things Molly Can do, so we do not loose out on any ability and instead get a flat boost on what we can do in combat.
What this means is that we roll like this.
Dex 4 + Melee 5 + Shintai 4 + Stunt 2. So 15 Dice without a Excellency in combat without needing to spend any essence and 24 dice with an Excellency. This is immediately out of the gate at E2 and will only increase once we get to Dex 5 for a max of 26 dice.
Demon Aspects:
Devil-Tyrant Avatar grants us 7 Demonic Aspects and builds off our Human form. What that means is that we can customize it as we see fit. However, it should be noted that if added to a shintai- Demon Aspects are forever locked behind the shintai. So what that in mind….
Aspects Already Gained:
Demon Weapons – Melee Sword from our Head demon.
Transcendent Anathema – By Rage Recast.
Aspects to take for the Shintai:
Demon Armor (x2)– Adds +4 Soak.
Swift Stride – Doubles Moment Speed and Jumping distance. Applies to Flight when we take it, so it is not rendered redundant.
Hardened Devil Body (x4) – 12 (3 x4) Bruised (–0) health levels.
We can purchase Essence Ox-Body charms in our base form but does not apply to our Shintai and if we do not take at least 4 HDB then our base form will have more health levels than our shintai. So, by taking it HDB 4 times, this makes our Shintai competitive in High Essence fights as it has the Equivalent of taking x4 Ox-Body technique and can keep up with High Essence enemies that do boatloads of damage in single attacks.
With this our health levels look like this….
-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-4/Na.
As you can see, this allows us to get hit, a LOT and fight high level opponents with a reasonable degree of failure. The point of the shintia is to act as a buffer against dying and having a ton of health levels would aide in that. Anything more then 4 is a waste as we will be getting other charms to heal/mitigate damage. But similarly, anything less then 4 makes us much more squishy then we really should be in a super mode.
In addition, we have greatly reduced wound penalties, thanks to the -0s and can put off taking Ox-body charms for our base body as they would not be that much of a Priority.
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Endless Light Casts Infinite Shadows
Endless Light Casts Infinite Shadows
[X] Shadow and Calamity Incarnation
"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things."
Isaiah 45:7
Shintai: Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai
-Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor: +2 Soak
-Hardened Devil Body x 4: +12 Bruised Health levels
-Hardiness (Heat): Immunity to heat of any kind (Environmental effects).
-Swift-stride
Transformation:
The Infernal appears to steel herself as if in determination, appearing vaguely saddened that it has come to this.
Searing, brilliant green light appears to break through from beneath her skin, from the direction of her heart, specifically from behind it.
At the precipice of where the Demon-Empress would become pure light and destruction, her remaining flesh and body suddenly flash freezes from the direction of her physical heart outwards, as the organ begins pumping liquid darkness, the appearance of which casts a sudden darkness over the world momentarily, as a holy, infernal light casts a deeper shadow still by shining through the substance of darkness.
The obscurement lasts a barely perceptible moment after which the changes are complete and the god-body of the Demon Empress stands in the world complete, her future fate grasped in the present world by will and mastery of Essence.
Appearance:
The god-body of the Demon Empress appears at first glance as an ice-sculpture of otherworldly, impossible beauty, with an intricate facsimile of a human body carrying liquid darkness in place of blood.
Until the Demon Empress opens her eyes, not ones on her once face, as her physical body is merely a vehicle of her will and a vessel of her transcendent soul which casts the shadow of her physical expression into the fallen world through it, but the ones in her blood which serves as her true physical vessel.
Whenever the Infernal would use her eyes as normal, eyes blazing with pupils of searing green open in random spots in the liquid darkness her current body uses as blood, peering out from her veins through the perfect, crystalline ice that serves as her flesh.
Whenever she speaks, her voice sounds like the symphony of glaciers cracking and moving combined with the rushing of an open flame or continuous nuclear explosion, which somehow assembles into a voice vaguely similar to her normal one, issued forth from no point in particular from her body.
If she is wounded more than skin deep (more than -0 Bruiser), which otherwise merely results in chips of ice flying off, the liquid darkness of her body bleeds profusely, and in seemingly illogical amounts her body should not be able to contain, but it always evaporates before it can touch any surface as if without the direct support of her existence it fades away like a dream.
When she attacks with her sword, the liquid darkness constantly dripping from the edge of it, as if it were a part of herself, ignites into a nuclear conflagration which burns with the world-destroying, soul-scouring dreams of Lanka tamed to the will of the Demon Empress, which leaves wounds charred to ruin but swelling with a vile black fluid, as if even the fires were merely vehicles for the will-carrying blood of the Demon Empress which further seeks the destruction of her Enemies.
(If she has Flight from By Rage Recast) Her back cracks open horizontally around her shoulders, and a sheet of her blood flows down in a single shape. After it reaches sufficient length what appears to be a mantle made of a night sky of green stars, which are in truth distant eyes, lifts itself up and flexes into two great wings, ready to carry her aloft.
(If she has Shadow Spite Curse Signature) Whenever her eyes focus on something for too long, shadows cast by seeming emptiness begin to appear in her field of vision. In truth, the light cast by the inquisition of the Demon Empress' regard wounds the Essence of the fallen and diminished world, causing it to bleed and weaken from her presence.
(If using Bloodless Murk Evasion) The Infernal steps into a shadow and her ice-body completely shatters and evaporates into water, which quickly fade to nothingness. Meanwhile her blood falls as a deluge into the shadow and emerges from her destination already having donned a new body.
If she is wounded to incapacitation, her ice-body in chunks, her true center and core becomes visible. It appears to be an orb of swirling shadowy substance, which occasionally becomes more see-through, coinciding with flashes of extremely pale green radiance from within it, as if it were a looking glass or mirror through which something on the other side is peering into the world.
I'll just post mine too just in case.
And to keep voting for the other one too.
[X] Yzarc
Edit: Thematic wise, other than incorporating the Hells that are Key ones, Kakuri and Lanka, is as shown by the quote to show a potential use or evolution of an Infernal who still follows ot at least is allied in the future with the White God.
He also creates and inflicts calamities, disasters and harsh discipline, so I imagine those themes would naturally resonate more with Yozi and Hell influenced Infernal Exaltation.
Ice is due to cold and night of Kakuri + Arctis Tor.
The heart is of Lanka because nuclear power is...pretty symbolic of power, and the spiritual nuclear reactor that is an Exaltation, hidden by shadows so it is modulated and not world-scouring indiscriminately.
Lanka's dream harnessed.
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The Queen In Rags
ThatGazzer
Minds Eye Bind
- Location
- PNW
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Shintai: The Queen In Rags
-[x] Devil-Tyrant Avatar: Strength +2, Dexterity +2, Stamina +2
--[x] Aspect: Demon Armor [The Patchwork Regalia] – Increase Soak by 2
--[x] Aspect: Camouflage– Reduce Difficulty of Stealth by 2
--[x] Aspect: Stealthy– Add 2 dice to all Stealth rolls.
--[x] Aspect: Swift Stride– Movement and Jumping Distance are doubled
--[x] Aspect: Venomous– May Envenom Attacks, +3 dice of Lethal Damage
--[x] Aspect: Keen Sight– Lower Difficulty of all Perception Checks Using Sight by 2
--[x] Aspect: Extra Limbs– When the Infernal takes multiple actions, each subsequent action raises its difficulty as normal but doesn't suffer a penalty to its dice pool.
The Queen In Rags Can See You,
On Her Panoptic Throne,
She Knows You Lack All Virtue,
So She Waits 'til Your Alone.
The Queen In Rags is Shadow,
She Is The Thing You Fear,
She Is No Simple Scarecrow,
She'll Make You Disappear.
The Queen In Rags Has Killed You,
But Worst Is Coming Next,
Your Soul is Cut To Patches,
A̰̲͡n͏͉̝d͍̬͟͝ ̴̼͙͉͓A̛͙̻̦dd̗̘̯̻̣ḛ̀͝d̗̘̠̦̀͟ t̛̘͍͈͢͡o̴͜͠ ̫̪T̘̹̳h̪́͡͞e̙̦͘ ̵̤̺Res̵̷̲͕t.
-The Queen In Rags, A nursery rhyme popular in Sheol [or whatever Hell we end up making.]
Activating the Shintai, Molly's Burning Crown Of Eyes Alights casting impossible shadows all about her. She plants her sword before herself as her body transforms— A Crown of Brass and Vantablack Ice grows itself out of the Emerald and Obsidian Gem that lays inset upon the The Infernal's Brow, Her Third Eye manifested in the Mundane, a Portent of Her Power— The Unblinking Infernal Gem glows gently with a strange fel-light, her hair grows long, color fading away into a snowstorm white, before coming to life under the will of The Empress To Be— all the while, The Shintai grows powerful digitigrade legs ending in panther like paws with vantablack fur, the rest of Her body stretching and twisting painlessly to match The Infernal's new proportions in a unreal fashion, leaving Her long-limbed and gaunt in a way that perhaps reminds one of a certain wizard.
Then with a sound like tearing fabric, the Awaited Infernal Empresses own Shadow rips Itself free from Her body using the cutting edge of Her Demonic Blade, which starts to drip, imbibed with venomous darkness, Her Shadow tears Itself to shreds in the process, only to float about The Thousand Eyed Queen shoulders like a mantle, whereupon It coalesces into The Patchwork Regalia. Consequently— because of The Nature of The Shintai while it is active, Molly casts no visible shadow, though objects or persons she might carry will.
The Regalia appears to be a long jacket with attached hood and a full suit in whatever cut or fashion most pleases Her, all perfectly tailored for The Queen In Rags. It seems made out of a motley of collection of rags, the color of The Regalia seeming to shift and move at the Infernal's whim. leather, cloth and occult patches held together with brass thread, safety pins and studded with dully shining fixtures made of the metal-hard Ice Of Kakuri, The Regalia is best thought of as a Battle Jacket from Hell, which Molly wears To War with all that Offends The Fated Infernal Empress. Indeed, after every killed enemy, defeated foe, or challenge overcome of personal significance to Molly, a patch or scrap of fabric that symbolizes her Victory is added to the Regalia, though this has no actual effect besides Proclaiming To All the Glory of The Queen In Rags.
Crustpunk Stealth Build, with merit badges
-[x] Devil-Tyrant Avatar: Strength +2, Dexterity +2, Stamina +2
--[x] Aspect: Demon Armor [The Patchwork Regalia] – Increase Soak by 2
--[x] Aspect: Camouflage– Reduce Difficulty of Stealth by 2
--[x] Aspect: Stealthy– Add 2 dice to all Stealth rolls.
--[x] Aspect: Swift Stride– Movement and Jumping Distance are doubled
--[x] Aspect: Venomous– May Envenom Attacks, +3 dice of Lethal Damage
--[x] Aspect: Keen Sight– Lower Difficulty of all Perception Checks Using Sight by 2
--[x] Aspect: Extra Limbs– When the Infernal takes multiple actions, each subsequent action raises its difficulty as normal but doesn't suffer a penalty to its dice pool.
The Queen In Rags Can See You,
On Her Panoptic Throne,
She Knows You Lack All Virtue,
So She Waits 'til Your Alone.
The Queen In Rags is Shadow,
She Is The Thing You Fear,
She Is No Simple Scarecrow,
She'll Make You Disappear.
The Queen In Rags Has Killed You,
But Worst Is Coming Next,
Your Soul is Cut To Patches,
A̰̲͡n͏͉̝d͍̬͟͝ ̴̼͙͉͓A̛͙̻̦dd̗̘̯̻̣ḛ̀͝d̗̘̠̦̀͟ t̛̘͍͈͢͡o̴͜͠ ̫̪T̘̹̳h̪́͡͞e̙̦͘ ̵̤̺Res̵̷̲͕t.
-The Queen In Rags, A nursery rhyme popular in Sheol [or whatever Hell we end up making.]
Activating the Shintai, Molly's Burning Crown Of Eyes Alights casting impossible shadows all about her. She plants her sword before herself as her body transforms— A Crown of Brass and Vantablack Ice grows itself out of the Emerald and Obsidian Gem that lays inset upon the The Infernal's Brow, Her Third Eye manifested in the Mundane, a Portent of Her Power— The Unblinking Infernal Gem glows gently with a strange fel-light, her hair grows long, color fading away into a snowstorm white, before coming to life under the will of The Empress To Be— all the while, The Shintai grows powerful digitigrade legs ending in panther like paws with vantablack fur, the rest of Her body stretching and twisting painlessly to match The Infernal's new proportions in a unreal fashion, leaving Her long-limbed and gaunt in a way that perhaps reminds one of a certain wizard.
Then with a sound like tearing fabric, the Awaited Infernal Empresses own Shadow rips Itself free from Her body using the cutting edge of Her Demonic Blade, which starts to drip, imbibed with venomous darkness, Her Shadow tears Itself to shreds in the process, only to float about The Thousand Eyed Queen shoulders like a mantle, whereupon It coalesces into The Patchwork Regalia. Consequently— because of The Nature of The Shintai while it is active, Molly casts no visible shadow, though objects or persons she might carry will.
The Regalia appears to be a long jacket with attached hood and a full suit in whatever cut or fashion most pleases Her, all perfectly tailored for The Queen In Rags. It seems made out of a motley of collection of rags, the color of The Regalia seeming to shift and move at the Infernal's whim. leather, cloth and occult patches held together with brass thread, safety pins and studded with dully shining fixtures made of the metal-hard Ice Of Kakuri, The Regalia is best thought of as a Battle Jacket from Hell, which Molly wears To War with all that Offends The Fated Infernal Empress. Indeed, after every killed enemy, defeated foe, or challenge overcome of personal significance to Molly, a patch or scrap of fabric that symbolizes her Victory is added to the Regalia, though this has no actual effect besides Proclaiming To All the Glory of The Queen In Rags.
Crustpunk Stealth Build, with merit badges
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THE CARPENTER CROWNED IN IRON
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
-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.
=============
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.
===
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.
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Infernal Monster Style Homebrew Conversion
I suppose it has been long enough.
Also, here is a Signature Charm effect for Baptismal Agony Blessing. I doubt we'll use it because it is four dots and Molly does not get a discount on it, but it is a more humane way to create bakemono.
Baptismal Agony Blessing: When performed in her Shintai form, the Infernal no longer needs to choose which element to protect or to guarantee the scarring of. the Infernal's victim is either completely protected from the negative consequences of becoming a fomori, or suffers the ruination of his looks, health, and mind, not just one.
General Charm - Soul-Vassal Conception (•••••)
Infused with the powers of Hell, the Infernal finds her soul becoming fat and bloated on demonic power. An Infernal with such a powerful soul has the potential to think and feel the things she cares about to such an extent that those feelings can develop the ability to think and feel themselves. To do this, the Infernal just has to express them with a little preparation and an act of will.
System: The Infernal must first journey to a location brimming with corrupt essence, such as a tainted Dragon Nest, or in a place such as Yomi Wan or Malfeas. There, the Infernal may spend 10 Essence, 1 Willpower while meditating on one of her Intimacies to grow a chrysalis to be nurtured by its power. Over the course of (Essence) days, that Intimacy festers and feeds on corrupt Essence, gestating into a wicked spirit known as a Subsoul.
Subsouls are the Infernal's Intimacies given form, so they themselves possess the the same Intimacy, or a slight variation of it if appropriate. They also have an Intimacy of unshakable loyalty to their Infernal master and are unable to purposely hurt her, even if in some rare cases they do not even like their master. A Subsoul has a maximum amount of Essence equal to the Infernal's (Essence rating x 5), and is generated using spirit rules. The Subsoul has a number of Attribute dots equal to its maximum Essence to divide between Gnosis, Rage, and Willpower, and a number of spirit Charms equal to the Infernal's (Essence rating - 1), along with the basic Charms known by most spirits. Realm Sense usually only applies to an Intimacy that is a place, but it can also be applied to a personal fiefdom in the Infernal's Hell-Realm if the Infernal has one. Re-form sends the Subsoul to its master's side, albeit on the other side of the Gauntlet if the Infernal is in the material world, or to its master's Hell-Realm.
The Infernal has a general awareness of what direction her Subsouls are currently in, and can choose to summon one to her side by spending 5 Essence and 1 Willpower. If a Subsoul is destroyed, the Infernal regenerates it at the beginning of the next story. Powers that can permanently kill the unkillable, like those wielded by other Exalts, can permanently destroy the spirit and the Intimacy it represents, but the Infernal can potentially replace it with a new Intimacy that is more or less the same as the old one if she puts in the effort to rebuild those feelings.
If the Intimacy that the Subsoul is based around is replaced with another, its base personality, memories, and form are maintained, but certain details may shift, allowing the Infernal to redistribute the Subsoul's Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower ratings, along with its selection of Charms.
It is important to note that while the Subsoul is loyal to the Infernal, it is likely to develop desires and goals of its own based off various factors in the Infernal's subconscious and its own life experiences. While demonic in nature, most Subsouls are no more evil than the Intimacy and person that spawned them, even if they do not necessarily think like a human.
Thoughts: Subsouls were one of the coolest things about going Devil-Tiger even if it was never actually a Charm you could purchase in most games. While it is seems powerful and possibly a little unfair for the other Solaroids, I have an Abyssal equivalent written up that allows an Abyssal to create a mini-Specter network for their minions and have thought about making an ExVsWoD equivalent to that one god creation Charm from 3e that Solars have.
Kakuri Charm - Eldritch Secrets Mastery (••)
The Infernal obscures the flow of her Essence with a shadowy facsimile, allowing her to better hide her corrupt power.
System: Through an act of will and the expenditure of 1 Essence, the Infernal perfectly disguises the source of her power, causing anyone who tries to ascertain what the Infernal is to get false readings. If she wanted to, the Infernal could appear to be just about anything else under supernatural scrutiny. An Infernal imitating one of the Kindred wouldn't grow fangs, but anyone who peeked at her soul with Auspex would see that she is a Vampire. The Infernal could even imitate Clan and the signs of Diablere if she so chose. An Infernal cannot imitate a Vampire or anything else unless she s seen it before, and things like Clan and signs of Diablere can only be accurately decided on if she's aware those sorts of things exist. This effect persists until the Infernal reflexively dismisses it, or until her anima flares.
Thoughts: Eldritch Secrets Mastery was a very useful expansion to Loom-Snarling Deception back in 2e, and I thought something like it would be nice to have for dealing with things like Auspex and Sense Wyrm.
Lanka Charm - Rebuking Impudent Arms (••)
Emperors are emperors and tools are tools, one commands and the other obeys. Tools with spirits inside of them sometimes fall under the delusion that they are more than what they are, the emperor to be shows them otherwise.
System: Using the authority of her Crown, the Infernal forces a fetish to submit. The Infernal never needs to make an Essence roll to attune to a fetish, she instead succeeds automatically. She may also pay 1 Essence to automatically activate any fetish she uses for the rest of the scene.
Signature Effect: Rebuking Impudent Arms is always active at no cost while the Infernal wears her Shintai form.
Thoughts: I think Erupting Fury Rebuke was supposed to be the equivalent of Rebuking Impudent Arms in ExVsWoD, but I think a Charm that could force the spirits in fetishes to obey you seemed cool and the name works.
Lanka Charm - Urban Hell Renovation (•••)
The Demon City was once thought invincible by its master before it was was heavily damaged. Even after suffering unthinkable destruction, the city still provides shelter for many raksha, even in ruins.
System: Spend 2 Essence and make a Charisma + Streetwise against difficulty 7. Success creates a small, but well fortified and luxurious mansion that would not look out of place in Lanka. Despite its heavily damaged exterior, The inside is temperature controlled, so if summoned in extreme environments it will still be habitable inside, if not comfortable. The mansion also has the basic amenities you would expect to find in a house, such as lighting and running water, along with furniture fit for a prince (even if it looks like it has seen better days). The mansion remains in existence for a number of days equal to the successes on the activation roll, or until the Infernal dismisses it. The walls are as durable as cement.
The mansion's creation is not destructive, instead the environment shifts to make room for the new building. Space will bend, buildings will move out of the way, and roads will change their course to incorporate the mansion into the neighborhood.
Signature Effect: When the Infernal dons her Shintai, she automatically creates a large arena made of demonically reinforced brass and basalt around her. The walls of the arena are about twenty feet high and ringed with seats for any spectators who want to view the fight. In addition, the walls add the Infernal's Essence score to the Strength required to break through them. Besides from being durable, the walls also repair any damage done to them every round. It is not impossible to escape from the arena however. Not only are the walls covered with intricate carvings that make excellent handholds for climbing, but the arena always has a large and prominent exit for any cowards who will not face the Infernal's full power.
Thoughts: Based off a really cool fan Charm that functioned as a Malfeas equivalent to Cecelyne's desert creation Charm. Works to help support Ablation of Brass and Fire.
Lanka Charm - Purity of Madness Defense (•••)
By realizing she is the only thing that truly matters, the Infernal can reject any changes something tries to make to her as just a delusion.
System: Whenever the character is the subject of any supernatural power that seeks to transform, infect, taint, transport, or control her body or spirit, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower and roll Willpower against difficulty 7. Success undoes the hostile magic before it can finish affecting the Infernal, protecting her completely, and allows this Charm to be activated reflexively at no cost for any valid effect from the same source against difficulty 6 for a scene. She only needs to succeed once on a continuous effect.
If the Infernal fails a roll, is still effected, and not dead, she may spend 1 Essence or Willpower once a round to activate this Charm. If successful, the Infernal removes a number of changes equal to the number of successes rolled as she wakes from what was clearly just a nightmare. This benefit remains even after the scene that Purity of Madness Defense was activated ends. Nothing can prevent her from activating Purity of Madness Defense.
Signature Effect: When the Infernal enters Shintai, she instinctively and automatically activate Purity of Madness Defense for free, which reverts and effects that it can protect against. While in her Shintai form, the Infernal may activate Purity of Madness Defense on the behalf of anything she owns within (Essence score) yards of herself, which naturally includes people she consider her subordinates.
Thoughts: Shaping defense Charms are very useful, but the Infernal one is five dots. Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy is good, but five dots for a Charm is pricey for an out of Caste purchase, especially when other similar Charms like Resisting the Lure of Madness and Integrity-Protecting Prana cost three. I am not certain on the mechanics of it, but I wanted it to work completely different so it was not just Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy, but cheaper and worse.
The Hell of Boiling Oil Charm - What Lurks Beneath (••••)
The devils native to the Hell of Boiling Oil are for the most part little more than animals. Why shouldn't the Infernal introduce a few new species of her own?
System: By touching a pool of poisonous or tainted liquid and spending 2 Essence, the Infernal can cause it to bubble and boil out to a distance of (Essence) yards. Despite its appearance, this makes the liquid no more dangerous than it usually is except to corpses, which dissolve and break down as if simultaneously boiled in oil and left sitting in stomach acid for several hours. A corpse needs to be largely intact to be usable, if anymore than 1/3rd of the corpse is missing, it dissolves down into useless grease, meat, and bone. The liquid will remain like this for about an hour.
Once the Infernal has added corpses that have the traits she desires, she may begin her grisly work. The Infernal chooses one of the corpses she threw in as a base to build on and rolls Intelligence + Occult against difficulty 8. A botch ruins the batch and the Infernal will need to start over with fresh corpses. The base creature provides the physical Attributes, Abilities, and hit boxes the demonic beast starts with at the beginning of creation, although it does not keep any of the animal's natural weapons. All such creatures created by the Infernal have Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, and Wits 2. Creatures created by the Infernal tend to be about as intelligent as a pig and have a vicious disposition, but they obey the Infernal like a particularly loyal and devoted dog. All of the Infernal's creations are immune to any sort of harm from liquid, including things like crushing, battering, drowning, boiling, and getting poisoned, and can swim as fast as they can move on land, presuming they cannot swim faster. These creatures can reproduce if the Infernal creates two of the same species, but they only do so once per year and must give birth in tainted or poisonous liquids or the baby will die shortly after. While not exactly bakemono, demonic beasts are similar enough that they cannot become one. Powers that effect mundane animals often work on them, but there may be exceptions.
The Infernal can add a number of traits from the donor animals to the base creature equal to (3 + Essence rating), such as:
• An appropriate rage or Shintai form Aspect.
• Be made hermaphroditic or able to reproduce through parthenogenesis.
• If any of the donors have more health boxes or dots in a physical Attribute or Ability than the base creature, then it can be raised by one per trait point up to a maximum cap of the donor creature's higher Attribute or Ability. Increases in the number of health boxes and Attributes like Strength and Stamina increase the size of the creature too, presuming the donor is larger than the base creature.
Thoughts: I wanted a Charm to summon demon animals based off What Lurks Beneath, but could never figure out how to get it to work. Since I also wanted to create a custom minion creation power based off of some Kimbery fan Charms, I decided to combine the two ideas.
The Hell of Burrowing Maggots Charm - Scoured Perfection of Form (•••)
Many Infernals find bakemono useful for their strange abilities, but the final results of their creation can often be unpredictable. Sometimes, an Infernal has need for a bakemono with certain qualities that she does not have in her service, qualities that she can grant him.
System: The Infernal may spend 3 Essence to permanently grant a bakemono a new fomor power (see W20, p. 429) of the Infernal's choice. A bakemono may usually only benefit from Scoured Perfection of Form once, but in certain circumstances, such as a bakemono ceasing to be one but then becoming a bakemono again, it may be used again.
Signature Effect: Choose a single fomor power that cannot be changed. When the Infernal dons her Shintai form, all bakemono loyal to her within (Essence rating x 3) yards gain that fomor power until the end of the scene. This includes bakemono that have been granted a new fomor power by a standard activation of Scoured Perfection of Form.
Thoughts: Bakemono-based Charms are always fun.
Infused with the powers of Hell, the Infernal finds her soul becoming fat and bloated on demonic power. An Infernal with such a powerful soul has the potential to think and feel the things she cares about to such an extent that those feelings can develop the ability to think and feel themselves. To do this, the Infernal just has to express them with a little preparation and an act of will.
System: The Infernal must first journey to a location brimming with corrupt essence, such as a tainted Dragon Nest, or in a place such as Yomi Wan or Malfeas. There, the Infernal may spend 10 Essence, 1 Willpower while meditating on one of her Intimacies to grow a chrysalis to be nurtured by its power. Over the course of (Essence) days, that Intimacy festers and feeds on corrupt Essence, gestating into a wicked spirit known as a Subsoul.
Subsouls are the Infernal's Intimacies given form, so they themselves possess the the same Intimacy, or a slight variation of it if appropriate. They also have an Intimacy of unshakable loyalty to their Infernal master and are unable to purposely hurt her, even if in some rare cases they do not even like their master. A Subsoul has a maximum amount of Essence equal to the Infernal's (Essence rating x 5), and is generated using spirit rules. The Subsoul has a number of Attribute dots equal to its maximum Essence to divide between Gnosis, Rage, and Willpower, and a number of spirit Charms equal to the Infernal's (Essence rating - 1), along with the basic Charms known by most spirits. Realm Sense usually only applies to an Intimacy that is a place, but it can also be applied to a personal fiefdom in the Infernal's Hell-Realm if the Infernal has one. Re-form sends the Subsoul to its master's side, albeit on the other side of the Gauntlet if the Infernal is in the material world, or to its master's Hell-Realm.
The Infernal has a general awareness of what direction her Subsouls are currently in, and can choose to summon one to her side by spending 5 Essence and 1 Willpower. If a Subsoul is destroyed, the Infernal regenerates it at the beginning of the next story. Powers that can permanently kill the unkillable, like those wielded by other Exalts, can permanently destroy the spirit and the Intimacy it represents, but the Infernal can potentially replace it with a new Intimacy that is more or less the same as the old one if she puts in the effort to rebuild those feelings.
If the Intimacy that the Subsoul is based around is replaced with another, its base personality, memories, and form are maintained, but certain details may shift, allowing the Infernal to redistribute the Subsoul's Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower ratings, along with its selection of Charms.
It is important to note that while the Subsoul is loyal to the Infernal, it is likely to develop desires and goals of its own based off various factors in the Infernal's subconscious and its own life experiences. While demonic in nature, most Subsouls are no more evil than the Intimacy and person that spawned them, even if they do not necessarily think like a human.
Thoughts: Subsouls were one of the coolest things about going Devil-Tiger even if it was never actually a Charm you could purchase in most games. While it is seems powerful and possibly a little unfair for the other Solaroids, I have an Abyssal equivalent written up that allows an Abyssal to create a mini-Specter network for their minions and have thought about making an ExVsWoD equivalent to that one god creation Charm from 3e that Solars have.
Kakuri Charm - Eldritch Secrets Mastery (••)
The Infernal obscures the flow of her Essence with a shadowy facsimile, allowing her to better hide her corrupt power.
System: Through an act of will and the expenditure of 1 Essence, the Infernal perfectly disguises the source of her power, causing anyone who tries to ascertain what the Infernal is to get false readings. If she wanted to, the Infernal could appear to be just about anything else under supernatural scrutiny. An Infernal imitating one of the Kindred wouldn't grow fangs, but anyone who peeked at her soul with Auspex would see that she is a Vampire. The Infernal could even imitate Clan and the signs of Diablere if she so chose. An Infernal cannot imitate a Vampire or anything else unless she s seen it before, and things like Clan and signs of Diablere can only be accurately decided on if she's aware those sorts of things exist. This effect persists until the Infernal reflexively dismisses it, or until her anima flares.
Thoughts: Eldritch Secrets Mastery was a very useful expansion to Loom-Snarling Deception back in 2e, and I thought something like it would be nice to have for dealing with things like Auspex and Sense Wyrm.
Lanka Charm - Rebuking Impudent Arms (••)
Emperors are emperors and tools are tools, one commands and the other obeys. Tools with spirits inside of them sometimes fall under the delusion that they are more than what they are, the emperor to be shows them otherwise.
System: Using the authority of her Crown, the Infernal forces a fetish to submit. The Infernal never needs to make an Essence roll to attune to a fetish, she instead succeeds automatically. She may also pay 1 Essence to automatically activate any fetish she uses for the rest of the scene.
Signature Effect: Rebuking Impudent Arms is always active at no cost while the Infernal wears her Shintai form.
Thoughts: I think Erupting Fury Rebuke was supposed to be the equivalent of Rebuking Impudent Arms in ExVsWoD, but I think a Charm that could force the spirits in fetishes to obey you seemed cool and the name works.
Lanka Charm - Urban Hell Renovation (•••)
The Demon City was once thought invincible by its master before it was was heavily damaged. Even after suffering unthinkable destruction, the city still provides shelter for many raksha, even in ruins.
System: Spend 2 Essence and make a Charisma + Streetwise against difficulty 7. Success creates a small, but well fortified and luxurious mansion that would not look out of place in Lanka. Despite its heavily damaged exterior, The inside is temperature controlled, so if summoned in extreme environments it will still be habitable inside, if not comfortable. The mansion also has the basic amenities you would expect to find in a house, such as lighting and running water, along with furniture fit for a prince (even if it looks like it has seen better days). The mansion remains in existence for a number of days equal to the successes on the activation roll, or until the Infernal dismisses it. The walls are as durable as cement.
The mansion's creation is not destructive, instead the environment shifts to make room for the new building. Space will bend, buildings will move out of the way, and roads will change their course to incorporate the mansion into the neighborhood.
Signature Effect: When the Infernal dons her Shintai, she automatically creates a large arena made of demonically reinforced brass and basalt around her. The walls of the arena are about twenty feet high and ringed with seats for any spectators who want to view the fight. In addition, the walls add the Infernal's Essence score to the Strength required to break through them. Besides from being durable, the walls also repair any damage done to them every round. It is not impossible to escape from the arena however. Not only are the walls covered with intricate carvings that make excellent handholds for climbing, but the arena always has a large and prominent exit for any cowards who will not face the Infernal's full power.
Thoughts: Based off a really cool fan Charm that functioned as a Malfeas equivalent to Cecelyne's desert creation Charm. Works to help support Ablation of Brass and Fire.
Lanka Charm - Purity of Madness Defense (•••)
By realizing she is the only thing that truly matters, the Infernal can reject any changes something tries to make to her as just a delusion.
System: Whenever the character is the subject of any supernatural power that seeks to transform, infect, taint, transport, or control her body or spirit, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower and roll Willpower against difficulty 7. Success undoes the hostile magic before it can finish affecting the Infernal, protecting her completely, and allows this Charm to be activated reflexively at no cost for any valid effect from the same source against difficulty 6 for a scene. She only needs to succeed once on a continuous effect.
If the Infernal fails a roll, is still effected, and not dead, she may spend 1 Essence or Willpower once a round to activate this Charm. If successful, the Infernal removes a number of changes equal to the number of successes rolled as she wakes from what was clearly just a nightmare. This benefit remains even after the scene that Purity of Madness Defense was activated ends. Nothing can prevent her from activating Purity of Madness Defense.
Signature Effect: When the Infernal enters Shintai, she instinctively and automatically activate Purity of Madness Defense for free, which reverts and effects that it can protect against. While in her Shintai form, the Infernal may activate Purity of Madness Defense on the behalf of anything she owns within (Essence score) yards of herself, which naturally includes people she consider her subordinates.
Thoughts: Shaping defense Charms are very useful, but the Infernal one is five dots. Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy is good, but five dots for a Charm is pricey for an out of Caste purchase, especially when other similar Charms like Resisting the Lure of Madness and Integrity-Protecting Prana cost three. I am not certain on the mechanics of it, but I wanted it to work completely different so it was not just Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy, but cheaper and worse.
The Hell of Boiling Oil Charm - What Lurks Beneath (••••)
The devils native to the Hell of Boiling Oil are for the most part little more than animals. Why shouldn't the Infernal introduce a few new species of her own?
System: By touching a pool of poisonous or tainted liquid and spending 2 Essence, the Infernal can cause it to bubble and boil out to a distance of (Essence) yards. Despite its appearance, this makes the liquid no more dangerous than it usually is except to corpses, which dissolve and break down as if simultaneously boiled in oil and left sitting in stomach acid for several hours. A corpse needs to be largely intact to be usable, if anymore than 1/3rd of the corpse is missing, it dissolves down into useless grease, meat, and bone. The liquid will remain like this for about an hour.
Once the Infernal has added corpses that have the traits she desires, she may begin her grisly work. The Infernal chooses one of the corpses she threw in as a base to build on and rolls Intelligence + Occult against difficulty 8. A botch ruins the batch and the Infernal will need to start over with fresh corpses. The base creature provides the physical Attributes, Abilities, and hit boxes the demonic beast starts with at the beginning of creation, although it does not keep any of the animal's natural weapons. All such creatures created by the Infernal have Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, and Wits 2. Creatures created by the Infernal tend to be about as intelligent as a pig and have a vicious disposition, but they obey the Infernal like a particularly loyal and devoted dog. All of the Infernal's creations are immune to any sort of harm from liquid, including things like crushing, battering, drowning, boiling, and getting poisoned, and can swim as fast as they can move on land, presuming they cannot swim faster. These creatures can reproduce if the Infernal creates two of the same species, but they only do so once per year and must give birth in tainted or poisonous liquids or the baby will die shortly after. While not exactly bakemono, demonic beasts are similar enough that they cannot become one. Powers that effect mundane animals often work on them, but there may be exceptions.
The Infernal can add a number of traits from the donor animals to the base creature equal to (3 + Essence rating), such as:
• An appropriate rage or Shintai form Aspect.
• Be made hermaphroditic or able to reproduce through parthenogenesis.
• If any of the donors have more health boxes or dots in a physical Attribute or Ability than the base creature, then it can be raised by one per trait point up to a maximum cap of the donor creature's higher Attribute or Ability. Increases in the number of health boxes and Attributes like Strength and Stamina increase the size of the creature too, presuming the donor is larger than the base creature.
Humans and Other "Animals" Yes, you can throw humans into the pit and even some supernatural beings as long as they are not spirits, but the resulting creations are still no smarter than any other demonic beast. The animate undead are spared this fate, although a vampire in torpor will work just as well as any other corpse presuming he is not so old that he turns to dust upon Final Death.What Lurks Beneath largely works on a physical level, so if something like a Garou corpse was thrown in, it usually is not any different than using a mundane example of its breed. If the Infernal were to throw a metis in, she would have a Crinos base to work from if she wanted to, and could grant the resulting creature the Predator King Aspect. In circumstances where no Aspect fits, fomori powers (see W20, p. 429) can be used as well. |
Thoughts: I wanted a Charm to summon demon animals based off What Lurks Beneath, but could never figure out how to get it to work. Since I also wanted to create a custom minion creation power based off of some Kimbery fan Charms, I decided to combine the two ideas.
The Hell of Burrowing Maggots Charm - Scoured Perfection of Form (•••)
Many Infernals find bakemono useful for their strange abilities, but the final results of their creation can often be unpredictable. Sometimes, an Infernal has need for a bakemono with certain qualities that she does not have in her service, qualities that she can grant him.
System: The Infernal may spend 3 Essence to permanently grant a bakemono a new fomor power (see W20, p. 429) of the Infernal's choice. A bakemono may usually only benefit from Scoured Perfection of Form once, but in certain circumstances, such as a bakemono ceasing to be one but then becoming a bakemono again, it may be used again.
Signature Effect: Choose a single fomor power that cannot be changed. When the Infernal dons her Shintai form, all bakemono loyal to her within (Essence rating x 3) yards gain that fomor power until the end of the scene. This includes bakemono that have been granted a new fomor power by a standard activation of Scoured Perfection of Form.
Thoughts: Bakemono-based Charms are always fun.
The Infernal Monster
In the deepest depths of their rage, spite, and self-loathing, every Infernal can feel the Monster lurking inside, screaming to be let free. It's easy to miss, and acting out on these feelings does not accomplish anything special beyond what an Infernal would usually be capable of while experiencing overwhelming negative emotions. Infernals must meditate on these feelings and contemplate them. By doing so, they can forge a key and finally uncage the monster.
This Secret Art functions much the same as the more esoteric ones that can be rediscovered by the Sidereals, but there are a few differences. Both Sidereals and Infernals can learn them as though they were Caste Charms, for (rating x 3) experience points, but Sidereals, along with Solar, Abyssal, and Lunar Exalted, can only learn up to the 4-dot power and must first be taught by an Infernal. All other Exalted can still only purchase up to the 3-dot power, and all non-Sidereal, non-Infernal Exalted pay (rating x 4) to learn from a mentor. Infernals and Sidereals can both teach any Infernal Monster Secret Arts Charm they know, but the less esoteric nature of The Infernal Monster means that anyone who has learned One Hand Fury can also teach them.
Much like other Secret Arts, an Exalt cannot buy an Infernal Monster Charm that is rated higher than her Essence rating.
Retribution Will Follow (•)
Whoever dares strike the Monster will immediately learn that she will inflict back what was done to her one thousand fold. If the fool who attacked her is unable to withstand her assault, the Monster will find someone who can.
System: By reflexively spending 1 Essence when the Exalt gets hit, she may enter a berserk frenzy for the rest of the scene. While berserk, she must attack the person who injured her or the nearest hostile target. Once all hostile targets are dead, the Exalt may spend 1 Willpower to make a difficulty 9 Willpower roll. If she fails, she must continue killing until no one is left. If there are no people still alive, the Exalt will start destroying the scenery. If she fails her roll, the Exalt may continue spending 1 Willpower every time they attack a new target to attempt a new difficulty 9 Willpower roll to end Retribution Will Follow early. If the person or thing the Exalt is attacking is one of her Intimacies, she may instead attempt to spend 1 Willpower to make the roll to stop attacking every round until she succeeds in ending Retribution Will Follow or in ending her victim. While Retribution Will Follow is active, the Exalt is immune to all negative effects from wound penalties and any thought or emotion-altering magic used by someone unless the user has a higher power equivalence than the Exalt's Essence rating. When the Exalt does not end this Charm prematurely, she finds the violence incredibly cathartic and gains 1 Willpower at the end of the scene as long as she killed someone or destroyed a hated object.
World-Breaker Grip (••)
Victims of the Monster find that they are little more than a chew toy for a great beast.
System: By reflexively spending 1 Essence while grappling someone the Exalt's general size or smaller, she can maintain a hold as a reflexive action. The Exalt cannot perform a clinch while using this Charm, but the hold action never takes any penalties from multiple actions and she can use the victim as a weapon to attack and even parry attacks.
The difficulty to attack using a person as a weapon is 8 and he inflict Strength +4 bashing damage. The unfortunate victim automatically takes the Exalt's Strength rating in bashing damage every time they are used to strike or parry. If the attack the victim is used to parry does lethal or aggravated damage, they take that damage instead.
Infernal Monster Form (•••)
Closing her eyes, the Exalt gets a strange, almost regretful look on her face. When she opens them once more, the Exalt reveals glowing green eyes even as her muscles swell in size. Then the killing starts.
System: Spend 1 Essence to activate Infernal Monster Form for the rest of the scene. While active, she becomes a creature of darkness if she was not already and gains the following benefits:
• The character can block attacks unarmed without getting hurt and her unarmed attacks ignore soak provided by armor.
• The first time the character attacks in a round, her Strength increases by 1 dot after the attack action is resolved. Every round she goes without attacking, she loses 1 dot of this bonus. This increase in Strength is not added to Excellency dice pools and cannot raise higher than the Exalt's Essence rating.
• With an increase in size and power comes an overwhelming increase in metaphysical importance. All attempts at divination performed within a mile of the character by someone with a lower power equivalence than the Exalt's Essence rating communicate the same disturbing result: "The Monster is here."
One Hand Fury (••••)
By internalizing the lessons of the Infernal Monster, one of the Exalt's arms undergoes a startling transformation as those lessons are literally burned into her skin. While normally hidden, a strange poem in a language that was old when the world was created appears in glowing green runes upon it. Even if the Exalt cannot read these words, she automatically understands their meaning: "Survival is Fury."
System: One of the Exalt's arms takes on a demonic appearance. Any Brawl attacks made with it deals 2 + Strength damage if it would do less, and lethal if the damage would normally be bashing. The arm may also be used to block attacks without worrying about being harmed. If the arm is ever cut off, it grows back over the course of a week if the Exalt has no way of regenerating it sooner. She may hide her arm's demonic appearance as long as she is not in Infernal Monster Form for a scene with a successful Essence rating roll against Difficulty 6.
By spending 1 Essence, 1 Willpower, the Exalt can cause the demonic script on her arm to begin to burn brightly and boost the power of earlier Charms in the following ways:
• When Retribution Will Follow is active, the Exalt's movement speed and jumping distance doubles as long as she is moving towards her current target of violence
• If the Exalt is attacked while holding someone using World-Breaker Grip, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence to use her victim as a shield. Doing so forces the victim to take the hit instead, and the attacker cannot abort the blow. If the attacker kills a loved one doing this, he automatically loses 1 Willpower from shock and despair.
• Infernal Monster Form no longer loses Strength for not attacking.
The light that is produced by the writing on the arm can be hidden with a glove made from human skin. This includes most supernatural creatures that were born human.
Untamed Apocalypse Shintai (•••••)
An Infernal who has fully mastered the Infernal Monster has come to a full understanding that they are the Monster and what that means. This brings with it a form of violent enlightenment that allows her to call that truth into reality.
System: The Infernal gains a second Shintai form, which must be a different type than the first. The second Shintai form can possess different Signature Charms and Aspects than the original. The second stage transformation from Unbound Eschaton Shintai cannot be combined with this new Shintai, but she still benefits from the extra Signature Charm it provides.
When the Infernal dons her Untamed Apocalypse Shintai, she automatically activates Retribution Will Follow and Infernal Monster Form at no cost. The only way to end this Shintai early is by ending Retribution Will Follow, which causes her to both return to her normal form and automatically ends Infernal Monster Form. Finally, the Shintai granted by Untamed Apocalypse Shintai can be donned once per story without counting against the number of times the Infernal has entered her Shintai form that story.
Thoughts: The idea to bring back Infernal Monster Style was largely spawned by the thought that since Infernal Monster Style is the native style of all Green Sun Princes and Akuma, they should still technically be able to learn it in the same way that Solars still get their Brawl Charms. Other Exalted can learn and teach it because it is a Celestial Martial Art. Sidereals still get a discount because supernatural martial arts was always one of their things and I did not want to just steal Secret Arts from them to give to Infernals. I actually briefly considered letting fomori and hungry dead learn Retribution Will Follow, but decided against it.
The only Charm I think is probably broken for its cost is World-Breaker Grip. The main reason I didn't include the Fists of the Old Ones or God-Smashing Blow is because besides from the splattering a spirit part, it is pretty boring. Besides, I wanted the final dot to be for Infernals only, and One Hand Fury was the capstone Charm and I wanted other splats to get it. Untamed Apocalypse Shintai was an Infernal-only Ink Monkeys expansion Charm that caused a permanent berserk state along with a few other changes. It was a bit of a strange decision to include it, but I always thought the best part of Infernal Monster was all the weird expansion Charms, and a lot of them could get really esoteric like SMAs. It isn't really the same as the original Charm, but I thought an Infernal-only capstone that was a Charm to "unleash the monster" so to speak would be neat. Besides, who does not love a berserk demon transformation? I am a bit iffy about getting new Signature Charms, but I wanted to help differentiate it more from the standard Shintai. I could also grouse about how the other Solaroids automatically get two and they are active all the time, but that does not actually matter when it comes to making choices like this.
The potential Secret Arts in the sidebar are references to different Infernal Monster expansion Charm trees. Two are from Ink Monkeys and two were created by fans. There were so many expansion trees, all exploring different ideas on what makes a monster and what it means to be a monster.
In the deepest depths of their rage, spite, and self-loathing, every Infernal can feel the Monster lurking inside, screaming to be let free. It's easy to miss, and acting out on these feelings does not accomplish anything special beyond what an Infernal would usually be capable of while experiencing overwhelming negative emotions. Infernals must meditate on these feelings and contemplate them. By doing so, they can forge a key and finally uncage the monster.
This Secret Art functions much the same as the more esoteric ones that can be rediscovered by the Sidereals, but there are a few differences. Both Sidereals and Infernals can learn them as though they were Caste Charms, for (rating x 3) experience points, but Sidereals, along with Solar, Abyssal, and Lunar Exalted, can only learn up to the 4-dot power and must first be taught by an Infernal. All other Exalted can still only purchase up to the 3-dot power, and all non-Sidereal, non-Infernal Exalted pay (rating x 4) to learn from a mentor. Infernals and Sidereals can both teach any Infernal Monster Secret Arts Charm they know, but the less esoteric nature of The Infernal Monster means that anyone who has learned One Hand Fury can also teach them.
Much like other Secret Arts, an Exalt cannot buy an Infernal Monster Charm that is rated higher than her Essence rating.
Retribution Will Follow (•)
Whoever dares strike the Monster will immediately learn that she will inflict back what was done to her one thousand fold. If the fool who attacked her is unable to withstand her assault, the Monster will find someone who can.
System: By reflexively spending 1 Essence when the Exalt gets hit, she may enter a berserk frenzy for the rest of the scene. While berserk, she must attack the person who injured her or the nearest hostile target. Once all hostile targets are dead, the Exalt may spend 1 Willpower to make a difficulty 9 Willpower roll. If she fails, she must continue killing until no one is left. If there are no people still alive, the Exalt will start destroying the scenery. If she fails her roll, the Exalt may continue spending 1 Willpower every time they attack a new target to attempt a new difficulty 9 Willpower roll to end Retribution Will Follow early. If the person or thing the Exalt is attacking is one of her Intimacies, she may instead attempt to spend 1 Willpower to make the roll to stop attacking every round until she succeeds in ending Retribution Will Follow or in ending her victim. While Retribution Will Follow is active, the Exalt is immune to all negative effects from wound penalties and any thought or emotion-altering magic used by someone unless the user has a higher power equivalence than the Exalt's Essence rating. When the Exalt does not end this Charm prematurely, she finds the violence incredibly cathartic and gains 1 Willpower at the end of the scene as long as she killed someone or destroyed a hated object.
World-Breaker Grip (••)
Victims of the Monster find that they are little more than a chew toy for a great beast.
System: By reflexively spending 1 Essence while grappling someone the Exalt's general size or smaller, she can maintain a hold as a reflexive action. The Exalt cannot perform a clinch while using this Charm, but the hold action never takes any penalties from multiple actions and she can use the victim as a weapon to attack and even parry attacks.
The difficulty to attack using a person as a weapon is 8 and he inflict Strength +4 bashing damage. The unfortunate victim automatically takes the Exalt's Strength rating in bashing damage every time they are used to strike or parry. If the attack the victim is used to parry does lethal or aggravated damage, they take that damage instead.
Infernal Monster Form (•••)
Closing her eyes, the Exalt gets a strange, almost regretful look on her face. When she opens them once more, the Exalt reveals glowing green eyes even as her muscles swell in size. Then the killing starts.
System: Spend 1 Essence to activate Infernal Monster Form for the rest of the scene. While active, she becomes a creature of darkness if she was not already and gains the following benefits:
• The character can block attacks unarmed without getting hurt and her unarmed attacks ignore soak provided by armor.
• The first time the character attacks in a round, her Strength increases by 1 dot after the attack action is resolved. Every round she goes without attacking, she loses 1 dot of this bonus. This increase in Strength is not added to Excellency dice pools and cannot raise higher than the Exalt's Essence rating.
• With an increase in size and power comes an overwhelming increase in metaphysical importance. All attempts at divination performed within a mile of the character by someone with a lower power equivalence than the Exalt's Essence rating communicate the same disturbing result: "The Monster is here."
One Hand Fury (••••)
By internalizing the lessons of the Infernal Monster, one of the Exalt's arms undergoes a startling transformation as those lessons are literally burned into her skin. While normally hidden, a strange poem in a language that was old when the world was created appears in glowing green runes upon it. Even if the Exalt cannot read these words, she automatically understands their meaning: "Survival is Fury."
System: One of the Exalt's arms takes on a demonic appearance. Any Brawl attacks made with it deals 2 + Strength damage if it would do less, and lethal if the damage would normally be bashing. The arm may also be used to block attacks without worrying about being harmed. If the arm is ever cut off, it grows back over the course of a week if the Exalt has no way of regenerating it sooner. She may hide her arm's demonic appearance as long as she is not in Infernal Monster Form for a scene with a successful Essence rating roll against Difficulty 6.
By spending 1 Essence, 1 Willpower, the Exalt can cause the demonic script on her arm to begin to burn brightly and boost the power of earlier Charms in the following ways:
• When Retribution Will Follow is active, the Exalt's movement speed and jumping distance doubles as long as she is moving towards her current target of violence
• If the Exalt is attacked while holding someone using World-Breaker Grip, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence to use her victim as a shield. Doing so forces the victim to take the hit instead, and the attacker cannot abort the blow. If the attacker kills a loved one doing this, he automatically loses 1 Willpower from shock and despair.
• Infernal Monster Form no longer loses Strength for not attacking.
The light that is produced by the writing on the arm can be hidden with a glove made from human skin. This includes most supernatural creatures that were born human.
Untamed Apocalypse Shintai (•••••)
An Infernal who has fully mastered the Infernal Monster has come to a full understanding that they are the Monster and what that means. This brings with it a form of violent enlightenment that allows her to call that truth into reality.
System: The Infernal gains a second Shintai form, which must be a different type than the first. The second Shintai form can possess different Signature Charms and Aspects than the original. The second stage transformation from Unbound Eschaton Shintai cannot be combined with this new Shintai, but she still benefits from the extra Signature Charm it provides.
When the Infernal dons her Untamed Apocalypse Shintai, she automatically activates Retribution Will Follow and Infernal Monster Form at no cost. The only way to end this Shintai early is by ending Retribution Will Follow, which causes her to both return to her normal form and automatically ends Infernal Monster Form. Finally, the Shintai granted by Untamed Apocalypse Shintai can be donned once per story without counting against the number of times the Infernal has entered her Shintai form that story.
Further Exploring the Infernal Monster As time goes on and more and more Infernal Exalted achieve complete mastery of The Infernal Monster, some may come to the conclusion that their knowledge is incomplete. Rumors will begin to swirl about theoretical different avenues to explore what it means to be a monster. Other Exalts may begin to hear terms like "The Inescapable Fiend," "The Roar of the Devil Beast," "The Unstoppable Demon Monster," and "The Gluttonous Boar," thrown about.If these Infernal Secret Arts do exist, it would surely require complete mastery of The Infernal Monster and a lot of hard work to start developing them. It might even be possible that other Exalts could be taught them too as long as they know One Hand Fury, with the same costs and restrictions as purchasing dots in Infernal Monster. |
Thoughts: The idea to bring back Infernal Monster Style was largely spawned by the thought that since Infernal Monster Style is the native style of all Green Sun Princes and Akuma, they should still technically be able to learn it in the same way that Solars still get their Brawl Charms. Other Exalted can learn and teach it because it is a Celestial Martial Art. Sidereals still get a discount because supernatural martial arts was always one of their things and I did not want to just steal Secret Arts from them to give to Infernals. I actually briefly considered letting fomori and hungry dead learn Retribution Will Follow, but decided against it.
The only Charm I think is probably broken for its cost is World-Breaker Grip. The main reason I didn't include the Fists of the Old Ones or God-Smashing Blow is because besides from the splattering a spirit part, it is pretty boring. Besides, I wanted the final dot to be for Infernals only, and One Hand Fury was the capstone Charm and I wanted other splats to get it. Untamed Apocalypse Shintai was an Infernal-only Ink Monkeys expansion Charm that caused a permanent berserk state along with a few other changes. It was a bit of a strange decision to include it, but I always thought the best part of Infernal Monster was all the weird expansion Charms, and a lot of them could get really esoteric like SMAs. It isn't really the same as the original Charm, but I thought an Infernal-only capstone that was a Charm to "unleash the monster" so to speak would be neat. Besides, who does not love a berserk demon transformation? I am a bit iffy about getting new Signature Charms, but I wanted to help differentiate it more from the standard Shintai. I could also grouse about how the other Solaroids automatically get two and they are active all the time, but that does not actually matter when it comes to making choices like this.
The potential Secret Arts in the sidebar are references to different Infernal Monster expansion Charm trees. Two are from Ink Monkeys and two were created by fans. There were so many expansion trees, all exploring different ideas on what makes a monster and what it means to be a monster.
Baptismal Agony Blessing: When performed in her Shintai form, the Infernal no longer needs to choose which element to protect or to guarantee the scarring of. the Infernal's victim is either completely protected from the negative consequences of becoming a fomori, or suffers the ruination of his looks, health, and mind, not just one.
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Secret Arts: The Qiao of the Devil
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
So, here is my attempt at making a Secret Arts of Qiao of the Mo Kung and Meng or at least using it as a base. The idea is that a Infernal uses their innate knowledge of the Infernal Monster Style and Qiao of the Mo Kung and Meng to break the former and use the later as a core for a new style based on the parts salvaged from the former.
The Infernal charm set has some glaring holes in it and I hope that this would cover some of them.
Secret Arts: The Qiao of the Devil
Within the depths of an Infernal's mind and essence lurks a monster. A shadow of titans long gone. Of hate and spite unending. A source of great and terrible power, if it can be tapped into. The easiest way is to cast aside morality and decency in the naked pursuit of power, to give into rage. Yet, wise is the Infernal who knows well the dangers of Power being anything more than a means and not the end itself.
Thus, was born the Qiao of the Devil. The Style takes the teachings of the Qiao, more specifically the Qiao of the Mo Kung and Meng, to slay the monster within and take its power for one's self. For power serves the infernal and not the other way around.
The Practioners of the Style aim to achieve enlightenment by virtue of being "illuminated" through the experience of confronting the evils within. Confronted by their inner darkness, they have to slay their inner demon, thus mastering their hate and rage.
Savants would caution that playing with fire may result in being burned, but you cannot be burnt if you are fire itself.
This Secret Art functions much the same as the Sidereals ones but a few caveats. Both Sidereals and Infernals can learn them as though they were Caste Charms, for (rating x 3) experience points, but Sidereals, along with Solar, Abyssal, and Lunar Exalted, can only learn up to the 4-dot power and must first be taught them by an Infernal. All other Exalted can still only purchase up to the 3-dot power, and all non-Sidereal, non-Infernal Exalted pay (rating x 4) to learn from a mentor. Infernals and Sidereals can both teach any Secret Arts Charm they know.
Much like other Secret Arts, an Exalt cannot buy a Charm that is rated higher than her Essence rating.
Not sure how balanced or over or underpowered it is, so here it is regardless.
The Infernal charm set has some glaring holes in it and I hope that this would cover some of them.
Secret Arts: The Qiao of the Devil
Within the depths of an Infernal's mind and essence lurks a monster. A shadow of titans long gone. Of hate and spite unending. A source of great and terrible power, if it can be tapped into. The easiest way is to cast aside morality and decency in the naked pursuit of power, to give into rage. Yet, wise is the Infernal who knows well the dangers of Power being anything more than a means and not the end itself.
Thus, was born the Qiao of the Devil. The Style takes the teachings of the Qiao, more specifically the Qiao of the Mo Kung and Meng, to slay the monster within and take its power for one's self. For power serves the infernal and not the other way around.
The Practioners of the Style aim to achieve enlightenment by virtue of being "illuminated" through the experience of confronting the evils within. Confronted by their inner darkness, they have to slay their inner demon, thus mastering their hate and rage.
Savants would caution that playing with fire may result in being burned, but you cannot be burnt if you are fire itself.
This Secret Art functions much the same as the Sidereals ones but a few caveats. Both Sidereals and Infernals can learn them as though they were Caste Charms, for (rating x 3) experience points, but Sidereals, along with Solar, Abyssal, and Lunar Exalted, can only learn up to the 4-dot power and must first be taught them by an Infernal. All other Exalted can still only purchase up to the 3-dot power, and all non-Sidereal, non-Infernal Exalted pay (rating x 4) to learn from a mentor. Infernals and Sidereals can both teach any Secret Arts Charm they know.
Much like other Secret Arts, an Exalt cannot buy a Charm that is rated higher than her Essence rating.
This is fairly strait forward. The Infernal gains the effects of Multi-hand. A simple power but a useful one that allows the Infernal to do multiple things without the problem of reducing dice. The second part is that turning a penalty into a bonus, which is in theme with the Infernal and the Infernal Monster Style that acts as one of the base for this Secret Art, though in this case, due to discipline, it is instead inflicted on the enemy. The Penalty is also capped at essence, so it balances itself out.
How this works is simple, if the Infernal is E3, the first enemy suffers no penalty and the second a -1 to their dice pool, the third suffers a -2 and the fourth and all others suffer a -3 for the rest of the turn. The next turn, the second suffers a -1 and then the third a -2 and so on.
How this works is simple, if the Infernal is E3, the first enemy suffers no penalty and the second a -1 to their dice pool, the third suffers a -2 and the fourth and all others suffer a -3 for the rest of the turn. The next turn, the second suffers a -1 and then the third a -2 and so on.
This charm is scene long but also has some serious restrictions on it. Compare it to Armor-Rending Claw Fist and Soul-Cleaving Strike, which are Essence turns and one turn respectfully but in the infernal version, it is balanced by having to do Agg damage.
What that means is that most foes are not going to soak Agg damage, so this charm does not apply to them and the +1 difficulty is meaningless if our enemy does not roll the dice.
The second thing is that it only reduces (Strength) Armor and not ignore it completely.
The third is that soak granted by armor is limited. Usually to +4 max and Armor does not stack with other sources of Armor baring special circumstances. It is a utility charm and does not work against Stamina soak rolls, which is the main source of Soak. So is balanced with that in consideration.
Compared to charms like Soul-Cleaving Strike, which can raise difficulty of soak to 9 AND ignore armor fully, it is balanced by being scene long.
The reroll of 1s are due to the enhanced focus that is central to the style and we already ignore 1s on our key ability.
What that means is that most foes are not going to soak Agg damage, so this charm does not apply to them and the +1 difficulty is meaningless if our enemy does not roll the dice.
The second thing is that it only reduces (Strength) Armor and not ignore it completely.
The third is that soak granted by armor is limited. Usually to +4 max and Armor does not stack with other sources of Armor baring special circumstances. It is a utility charm and does not work against Stamina soak rolls, which is the main source of Soak. So is balanced with that in consideration.
Compared to charms like Soul-Cleaving Strike, which can raise difficulty of soak to 9 AND ignore armor fully, it is balanced by being scene long.
The reroll of 1s are due to the enhanced focus that is central to the style and we already ignore 1s on our key ability.
So this charm is a copy of the Body of the Dragon. The theme is that the physical enhancements of the capstone of the Qiao of the Mo Kung but with a CMA twist.
With regards to balance, the Qiao of the Mo Kung already allows us to raise all Attributes to 9, so raising it to 10 is not a problem.
I added immunities as they are all physical immunities that are fluffed as being there due to the increased stats. Due to the raw power granted by the form, those concerns like wounds etc are put in the back burner.
With regards to balance, the Qiao of the Mo Kung already allows us to raise all Attributes to 9, so raising it to 10 is not a problem.
I added immunities as they are all physical immunities that are fluffed as being there due to the increased stats. Due to the raw power granted by the form, those concerns like wounds etc are put in the back burner.
This charm is balanced by the fact that we do not get more actions but simply reduces the difficulty of actions we take during a Multi-Action turn. Keep in mind that this is a 4 Dot effect and is in the same tier as Perfect defenses. It also compares with the likes of Fivefold Bulwark Stance but is limited by the fact that it only reduces the difficulty penalty for the infernal and still restricts the character in how many actions they can take.
I also added the difficulty inverter as Infernals desperately need some Multi Action charms to defend themselves like parry or dodge or blocks and it would be too weak otherwise. How this works is simple, if the Infernal is E4, the second enemy suffers a +1 difficulty, the third suffers a +2 and the fourth suffer a +3 and the fifth and all others suffer a +4 for the rest of the turn to a max of difficulty 9. The next turn, the second suffers a -1 and then the third a -2 and so on.
I also added the difficulty inverter as Infernals desperately need some Multi Action charms to defend themselves like parry or dodge or blocks and it would be too weak otherwise. How this works is simple, if the Infernal is E4, the second enemy suffers a +1 difficulty, the third suffers a +2 and the fourth suffer a +3 and the fifth and all others suffer a +4 for the rest of the turn to a max of difficulty 9. The next turn, the second suffers a -1 and then the third a -2 and so on.
This charm is self-explanatory. It removes the cap on stacking and allows "The Devil Awakens" to stack with shintai and other sources. It also acts as a refresh which we can use once per combat. The requirement is low but we are in combat very rarely and Molly is not going to go around killing people. Even otherwise, there are other ways to use shintais like the Signature effect of Mother Sea Mastery, which is a one dot charm. So this being a 5 Dot charm, is balanced when compared to the "Do not die when killed" charm like "The King still Stands".
Not sure how balanced or over or underpowered it is, so here it is regardless.
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