For the the Thread and @DragonParadox consideration please taking all feed back on these prodigies Especially @Yog and @BronzeTongue if you guys can come up with an interesting restriction or Drawback for Worlds Breaker that would be great.

●● Duelist gloves, crafted from supple black leather that molds to the wearer's hands with a sleek and elegant fit. Each glove is meticulously adorned with a series of metallic Runes of the Five Fold Court, intricately etched along the edges and seams in a symphony of ancient symbols.
Base Prodigy benefits
• –1 difficulty to attack with Melee Weapons
• –1 Strength minimum to wield handheld melee weapons.

1 dot enchantment: Sure Grip the difficulty of a disarming maneuver against the possessor is increased by one, the difficulty of any strength roll relating to grip is lowered by 1.

2 dot enchantment: Technique Expansion, As extensions of fists and feet, weapons hold a long pedigree in the field of martial arts. A skillful combatant doesn't simply hack away at enemies with her sword – she slashes,feints, disarms, subdues, and otherwise employs her weapon like the extension of her body that it truly is. The Chosen's grasp upon her weapon never falters, never lessens. System wise this changes all the base difficulties of Maneuvers to that of Weapon or base whichever is lower, if the maneuver already has Weapon as a difficulty remove any pluses and keep any minuses to the difficulty the same.


●● Queens Modern Armor, Similar in appearance to a black Linen Three piece Double breasted suit with a Vibrant Blue turtleneck with gold embellishments along the lapel with jacket hanging over the shoulders. In actuality top of the line Military armor (Mage 20th pg 447) crafted and disguised by Molly Carpenter's immaculate craftsmanship.
Base Prodigy benefits
• –1 difficulty to Soak
• +1 Armour bonus
1 dot enchantment: Serious Business, People defer to you as a reflex; subtract -2 from the difficulty of your Social-Trait rolls whenever you're trying to make an impression.

2 dot enchantment: Feather Light alleviates the dexterity penalty of such heavy if concealed armor.


●●●●● Worlds Breaker, A magnificent Greatsword formed from a near-black Metal, its imposing presence enhanced by a dark hue reminiscent of the night sky. Adorned with an array of seemingly glowing dots in vibrant shades of green and white, this weapon possesses an otherworldly allure. These luminescent dots, scattered across its surface like stars in a dance.
Base Prodigy benefits
• +1 damage bonus.
• –1 difficulty to attack with.

1 Dot Enchantment: Vorpal Edge, Space twists minutely along the midnight starry edge. Attacks made with Worlds Breaker against objects deal an extra essence damage to their Durability and Structure. Attacks against animate beings ignore one soak.

2 Dot Enchantment: Warp spasm, Distances seem to twist, bend and fold along its arc. By paying 1 Essence The Exalt can attack from (Prodigy's rating) x 5 yards past her normal limits for a scene.

3 Dot Enchantment: Void Rift, Space roils and tears. The Exalt may concentrate all of her power into a particular Warp Spasm Attack for a point of Essence she may extend its range by an additional 30 yards, expand the width of a cut or radius of a blow by 100% and the attack will attempt to strike all targets within a line until it reaches its specified or maximum distance or strikes something too hard to pierce.

4 Dot Enchantment: There is No Wall, The weft of space emulsifies. By using one essence Worlds Breaker can attack in any dimension its wielder can perceive or cleave open a Way.

5 Dot Enchantment: Possibility Collapse (Singular,Area) The very space between Probabilities falls to nothing possibilities of angles of attack open but never close creating a seeming multiplicity of attacks. By spending one essence the exalt may multiply Worlds Breaker's existence by essence + 1 for one attack creating simultaneous overlapping slashes. System wise this works by the player rolling one attack with the defender rolling essence + 1 defenses and taking the worst in damage. By paying one essence the exalt can attack everyone & everything in Warp spasm range she can perceive as reflected possibilities momentarily manifest, these attacks work by proximity either to the enemy the exalt chooses to attack or the exalt herself with the outer edge of Warp Spasm being considered the least of probability. System wise this works by modified multiple action rules with each attack as an action except when the difficulty hits 9 keep taking off dice and keep the difficulty at 9.
 
Arc 12 Post 45: Answers on Ice New
Answers on Ice

24st of January 2007 A.D.

Floating above the icy waters that had swallowed the plane you consider mercy, taking prisoners is the right thing to do of course, but in this case it also offers you the chance at Mikaboshi's secrets which might well be worth as much as the soul of the demon inside. So as the drones are setting up a perimeter and the gurvel were starting to deal with the physical and arcane trash-fire that is triumph against the demons of the Wicked City you descend into the cold dark water, the storm transforming into a vortex where it touched the water and then into a helix of swirling water that recalled the twin dragons that supported the palace at the center of Sanctuary.

The water here was just a bit deeper than the average at thirty-six hundred feet or little more than half the reach of your influence so it does not take longer than a few seconds to get deep enough, to feel the water, like a thousand far off fingers pressing upon the steel of a broken-backed plane. As you start to lift the spark of electricity, and more than electricity still running though the wreck... running rampant. A self destruct racing to the engines...

With only a split second to decide you do the only thing that comes to mind freeze the water around each engine solid then expand the ice until the whole plane is one ball of ice about sixty feet in diameter.

Then you just start giggling like a little kid when you realized where the inspiration had come from, not some secret trove or arcane lore, nor the Geo-engineering of Sanctuary. You had frozen the demon plane like it was the Last Airbender.

Carefully balancing the thing —the properties of water change along the column— you float it into the open air and press a hand to the cold surface: "I offer sanctuary for service," you you tap out on the ice in Morse Code.

There is a pause, just three seconds, though at the speed computers think it might as well have been three years, then an answer comes back in hollow thumps, metal arms against metal striking, muffled by the ice: "Accepted if self-destruct is prevented. Not under control of primary programing. Desire: Execute wing separation."

Now you're just pissed, mostly at the fact that the would be Dread Star of Heaven fitted what is basically bomb collars on some of his servants, but also, you're a little shocked to find within yourself, because he was so bad at it. Fuel's explosive, stick a bomb there and some kind of sensor for an enveloping magical force there and call it a day. Never mind that if anyone ever figured out the parameters they would be able to flick planes like this one out of the sky with barely any expense of magic. After all who else could match the technical experience of Mikaboshi?

Anger drives your arm, gives precision to your swings as you carve off two symmetrical wedges of the sphere, wings and all. Even more trash to clean up. The wind picks up a little harsher, making Nergui's hair and the mane of his steed flutter wildly, though the spirit binders have enough affinity with the winds to keep it from setting their robes a flapping.

"What is your designation?" You ask the spirit of the now wing-shorn plane

A string of binary that does not translate to anything in code or letters bombards your ears.

"Right, we can go over that again later, you are free to change your designation if you wish or keep it as you please. Tell me what you know of the plans of your former master." After a moment considering paranoia of the Yama Kings you amend: "The plan of the punitive expedition you were part of."

Data spirits were among the most malleable when it came to identity, you learned that from Clippy. After all it is part of the point of digital files that they are easy to edit, though they do have to keep the same 'extension' as it were, the spiritual register in which they had been made.

"Recovering the initial goal of Expedition Boston was deemed low probability, most likely to be achieved though negotiation and intimidation. Primary goal of the Herald 110001 was to prepare for later, wider conflict against Present User. This included the transmission of recordings of skills and abilities, the forceful acquisition of servants, living or dead as well as biological samples of Present User. This was to be done in conjunction with the capture units already in Boston City."

All this is delivered in the mechanical voice emanating tonelessly from inside the wreck, such that it takes you a moment to realize that 'present user' isn't actually being used in the neutral context the surrounding language might imply. Like most things Mikaboshi has had a hand in there's a slimy undertone, the pragmatic made callous, the utilitarian reforged to cruelty. "My name is Molly, you can just use that," you assure the spirit. "What do you know of the forces you were to rendezvous inside Boston?"

"Only their base purpose, to harden mortal servitors against arcane threats and aquire test subjects who have passed though the proving grounds once Phase Two of the Bind Broadening Directive was initiated."

"What was the Mind Broadening Directive?" you ask, not sure you want to know. No, that is not true, you do want to know so as to stomp it flat. It's just that there's a high chance of throwing up afterwards.

"Clearance insufficient for briefing."

"Wait a second, are you still connected to his Network?" It would make sense of course, it is one of the main things you use SUTRAs for, interconnection, but you had just assumed any traitors would be kicked out of the network automatically, but it's not as though the spirit's fundamental nature has changed, 'just its loyalties.'

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 6/15

What do you do?

[] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability

[] Attempt to presenve the connection for later use, putting the plane spirit in standby until you can devote more time and recurces to the matter.

[] You cannot concentrate on this now, what you know is already reason enough to rush to Boston

[] Write in


OOC: I had forgotten we were in the middle of Avatar's initial run-time at the moment until I got to the ice scene, I checked and it was a fun coincidence so I had it be something that occurred to Molly as well.
 
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"Demons. Horrors. Spirits. Monsters. Long ago, the Thousand Hells lived together in disharmony. Then, everything changed when the Fivefold Courts attacked. Only the Demon Emperor, master of all Hells, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred minutes passed and my minions and I discovered the new Demon Emperor, a young godslayer named Molly. And although her murdering skills are great, she has a lot to learn before she's ready to rule anyone. But I believe Molly can destroy the world."
 
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Last time the noosphere stuff came up I posted an alternative application of the same themes I think would be a good alternative:




This is an expression of how Molly actually interacts with the themes of techno magic and the FCF. She isn't a virtual adept or a technocrat programmer, she's a primeval sovereign over that which gives rise to those things.

It's also actually useful to Molly and makes sense as a tool/skill she'd develop without being too broken. In a lot of ways it works like FPH for electronics. In the modern world that's very useful. A spy satellite refusing to commit idolatry by recording her, Data analysis systems to blaspheme by drawing negative attention to her, and missiles to strike their goddess in anger unless you get down there to drag them kicking and screaming into sin would make a lot of things easier without being boring.

It also makes for a fun inversion of Mikaboshi's themes of constantly sociopathic monitoring.
I like this a lot, especially as it seems like Molly is definitely going to war against Mikaboshi loner or later, given their opposing themes.
 
How do you guys feel about this alternative I posted a while back for Spirit Shifting Stride by the way?

Five Paths, One Ring
The infernal finds her footing on the five pillars of her soul, dancing among them under the life giving light of the will that encircles them all.

System:
By leaning into the essence of one of the five pillar-cities of her soul the infernal may enter a shift centered on its themes. So long as she acts in tune with that nature success builds on itself; each overall check she passes using the relevant skills will add +1 dice to the pool for all of them up to +3.

She may only adopt one shift at a time, and actively using abilities in the domain of another city immediately resets the bonus and pushes her to that city's shift.

Rolls that use skills other than those outlined below do not end a shift, but only benefit from the bonus if clearly in line with the one currently in use.

The Red City: Law, Leadership, Intimidation, Melee, Alertness, firearms
The Emerald City: Academics, Occult, Science, Technology, Craft, Computer
The Sapphire City: Expression, Politics, Performance, Subterfuge, Athletics, Larceny
The Amethyst City: Medicine, Investigation, Empathy, Finance, Etiquette, Stealth
The Golden City: Survival, Brawl, Awareness, Streetwise, Animal Ken, Drive


It seems like less of a bookkeeping headache, and while it is constant it has some interesting counter play and is a dice adder instead of a difficulty adjuster. It's still a very good effect though, and helps bring some of the FCF cultural flavor into the set.
●● Duelist gloves
The way prodigies work for the first dot is that you either pick a pair of benefits from the given set to go with the passive durability stuff or you swap the modifiers for another minor effect.

You can get both, but you have to pay for it by adding 1 dot to the modified cost of the item.

This is more subjective, but I think that the strength requirement reduction is probably not the most useful unless the goal is to give someone a truly oversized weapon. Mechanically they might be able to use it, but they'll be getting 1 less damage die than another user would because they don't have the attribute of the average user.

If you buy more strength dots all you do is catch up with the average of people who could already use it, where the +1 damage dice on something like an axe gives the same modifier as a heavy sword and doesn't fall off once you qualify to use the weapon in your hands.




●● Queens Modern Armor
This is neat, but has the effect problem of the other and I think the dot ratings should be flipped on those powers. No dex penalty is a 1 dot thing, that difficulty modified is more 2.


●●●●● Worlds Breaker


This is neat, but has a broader problem that the others also include that I haven't touched yet.

Prodigies don't work like paths as far as I can tell, you don't have to take every level up to the one you want and they have an additive effect on price.

A 1 dot and 2 dot power in a single item costs 3 dots of resources to build.

Think the sword itself is neat, but the pricing could use some work. Which is good, because as it stands we'd need to buy off 11 dots with flaws to make it.

The 5 dot power is cool, but the standard here is essentially plot impact of the power within the scope of mortal magic. A 5 dot prodigy power is something that a legendary sorcerer or powerful mage makes to perform plot relevant time travel or bring the dead back to life.

If anything this particular power seems like a 4 dot, because it's a good combat buff but at its worst still an AoE throwing around what reads like a strong 3 dot combat effect.

The rules do have a good chunk of leeway for adjusting this on the basis of plot impact though; being killier isn't necessarily as big an impact now as it once was and therefore there might be room to cap the rating somewhere lower so we can pay it off without so many flaws that it's basically useless.

Maybe Shintai style and it can only be used at maximum strength once per arc? Or potentially something like requiring a certain amount of damage be dealt before it can be used in the scene.
 
If the demon still has access use the crown to get the credentials of an admin, link it up to a SUTRA and have them plunder the entire network of the Wicked City freely.

While that is not a bad idea if you guys think you can spare the essence, keep in mind the code on the other side is not just code, it too is alive and it can make value judgements to the tune of 'this transportation entity should not have those codes.'
 
There is no way that this update does not count as learning supernatural secrets and binding a unwholesome being into our service.
 
There is no way that this update does not count as learning supernatural secrets and binding a unwholesome being into our service.
Oh, yeah, forgot about the second part - we bound the devil into our service by making it surrender! We do this rarely enough that I forget about this constantly, but that also counts for essence recovery, doesn't it?

In regards to the vote, I think either of these two options works. Or, rather, they both have about equal downsides:

[] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability
We aren't really prepared (no really dedicated spirits in place, no infrastructure, etc). On the other hand, this is the time the network would be the most vulnerable. At later date, it's be more hardened, once MIkaboshi learns that we also have cyberdevils.

[] Attempt to presenve the connection for later use, putting the plane spirit in standby until you can devote more time and recurces to the matter.
This might work, but can also fail. And it invites a risk of spying.

Tentatively, I'll vote for smash and grab.
[X] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability
-[X] Have the Sutra you have with you work with the surrendered spirit to do a quick grab of data.
 
This is a situation where Prince of Ruin Attitude would have been most useful. We could have just flown the plane to Boston ourself for no essence cost.
 
Now you're just pissed, mostly at the fact that the would be Dread Star of Heaven fitted what is basically bomb collars on some of his servants, but also, you're a little shocked to find within yourself, because he was so bad at it.

That's the flip side of his themes. The isolation, paranoia, and industrial callousness of the Wicked City lends itself to shoddy production quality. It's like what happened to Boeing after the post merger culture change. The skill is (or was) there, and when they really need to they can make stuff work, but the general corruption encourages sloppy corner cutting and a lack of investment in a particular job beyond what's necessary to avoid punishment.

"Recovering the initial goal of Expedition Boston was deemed low probability, most likely to be achieved though negotiation and intimidation. Primary goal of the Herald 110001 was to prepare for later, wider conflict against Present User. This included the transmission of recordings of skills and abilities, the forceful acquisition of servants, living or dead as well as biological samples of Present User. This was to be done in conjunction with the capture units already in Boston City."
Okay, so we did pretty well here but it's possible they're going to press the issue in Boston even harder. Too bad those recordings are already in the wind.



"Wait a second, are you still connected to his Network?" It would make sense of course, it is one of the main things you use SUTRAs for, interconnection, but you had just assumed any traitors would be kicked out of the network automatically, but it's not as though the spirit's fundamental nature has changed, 'just its loyalties.'

Another potential use here is to try a cyber attack. That risks giving away information about our abilities, but making a huge mess of his stuff would be entertaining if we can manage it.

Edit:
Error
 
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The water here was just a bit deeper than the average at thirty-six thousand feet
36,000 or 3,600 feet? The deepest point in the Arctic ocean is less than 19,000 feet.

[X] You cannot concentrate on this now, what you know is already reason enough to rush to Boston
-[X] Command the spirit to download everything it can safely manage without arousing undue suspicion, then permanently disconnect itself from the network.
 
This might work, but can also fail. And it invites a risk of spying.
Yeah it's way too risky. Let's not get greedy here and just take what we can get.

[X] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability
-[X] Have the Sutra you have with you work with the surrendered spirit to do a quick grab of data.
 
[X] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability
-[X] Have the Sutra you have with you work with the surrendered spirit to do a quick grab of data.
 
Recovering the initial goal of Expedition Boston was deemed low probability, most likely to be achieved though negotiation and intimidation. Primary goal of the Herald 110001 was to prepare for later, wider conflict against Present User. This included the transmission of recordings of skills and abilities, the forceful acquisition of servants, living or dead as well as biological samples of Present User. This was to be done in conjunction with the capture units already in Boston City."
Wait did it mean recordings of us or the Demons?
 
keep in mind the code on the other side is not just code, it too is alive and it can make value judgements to the tune of 'this transportation entity should not have those codes.'
we can make it more generic. ask for the most useful code to get the most access at this time. or wait,prepare infrastructure,and use an even higher code to punch as far in as possible. i would go with the first one.
 
How do you guys feel about this alternative I posted a while back for Spirit Shifting Stride by the way?




It seems like less of a bookkeeping headache, and while it is constant it has some interesting counter play and is a dice adder instead of a difficulty adjuster. It's still a very good effect though, and helps bring some of the FCF cultural flavor into the set.

The way prodigies work for the first dot is that you either pick a pair of benefits from the given set to go with the passive durability stuff or you swap the modifiers for another minor effect.

You can get both, but you have to pay for it by adding 1 dot to the modified cost of the item.

This is more subjective, but I think that the strength requirement reduction is probably not the most useful unless the goal is to give someone a truly oversized weapon. Mechanically they might be able to use it, but they'll be getting 1 less damage die than another user would because they don't have the attribute of the average user.

If you buy more strength dots all you do is catch up with the average of people who could already use it, where the +1 damage dice on something like an axe gives the same modifier as a heavy sword and doesn't fall off once you qualify to use the weapon in your hands.





This is neat, but has the effect problem of the other and I think the dot ratings should be flipped on those powers. No dex penalty is a 1 dot thing, that difficulty modified is more 2.





This is neat, but has a broader problem that the others also include that I haven't touched yet.

Prodigies don't work like paths as far as I can tell, you don't have to take every level up to the one you want and they have an additive effect on price.

A 1 dot and 2 dot power in a single item costs 3 dots of resources to build.

Think the sword itself is neat, but the pricing could use some work. Which is good, because as it stands we'd need to buy off 11 dots with flaws to make it.

The 5 dot power is cool, but the standard here is essentially plot impact of the power within the scope of mortal magic. A 5 dot prodigy power is something that a legendary sorcerer or powerful mage makes to perform plot relevant time travel or bring the dead back to life.

If anything this particular power seems like a 4 dot, because it's a good combat buff but at its worst still an AoE throwing around what reads like a strong 3 dot combat effect.

The rules do have a good chunk of leeway for adjusting this on the basis of plot impact though; being killier isn't necessarily as big an impact now as it once was and therefore there might be room to cap the rating somewhere lower so we can pay it off without so many flaws that it's basically useless.

Maybe Shintai style and it can only be used at maximum strength once per arc? Or potentially something like requiring a certain amount of damage be dealt before it can be used in the scene.
I don't have a problem with that idea? I also mostly agree with you on the sword, it's not really plot relevant enough to cost 5 dots

[X] Steal as much data out of Mikaboshi's network as you can at once before anyone on his side notices the vulnerability
-[X] Have the Sutra you have with you work with the surrendered spirit to do a quick grab of data.
 
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