God-Blooded
Charms
Conditional
Blessing/Conditional Curse (Spirit)
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Until Calibration
Type: Simple
Minimum
Compassion/Valor: 2
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Benefaction/Imprecation
With these Charms, a spirit may place a
mark of Essence upon a target in its line of sight as a delayed trigger for
another Charm. If the delayed effect has a positive intent, the spirit must
know and use the Compassion Charm Conditional Blessing. A negative or harmful
intent requires the Valor Charm Conditional Curse. A Manipulation +
Compassion/Valor roll against a difficulty of the target’s Essence is necessary
to inscribe the mark. If this roll succeeds, the spirit chooses one Charm it
knows that can directly affect that target. If the selected Charm has multiple
uses or permutations, the spirit must also select the exact effects the Charm
will take. The spirit then establishes the precise actions the target must
perform to trigger the delayed Charm.
The spirit may include as many conditions
as desired, any of which may be as elaborate or straightforward as desired. For
example, the spirit may decide to heal a loyal shaman with Touch of Grace if
she speaks a specific prayer petitioning aid. Conversely, a demon might arrange
to summon its Demon- Blooded daughter to a dungeon in Malfeas (via Capture) if
she ever disobeys a direct order or reveals her infernal heritage to anyone she
is not actively trying to kill.
Whenever the target of a Conditional
Blessing or Curse performs the requisite actions, the spirit knows. At any
time, it may then immediately activate the triggered Charm as a reflexive
action to end the Conditional Blessing/Curse regardless of distance or withhold
its benediction/ wrath until it can learn more about the target’s actions.
This Charm and its mark also fade without
effect if the target does not meet the established conditions by the next
Calibration. Only spirits and other beings capable of perceiving Essence at
work can see the mark of an extant Conditional Blessing/Curse.
Dematerialize
(Spirit)
Cost: Varies
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Valor: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Through the use of this Charm, an elemental
may transmute its flesh and personal belongings into spiritual Essence, thereby
assuming an incorporeal state. Dematerialized elementals may perceive and
interact with other incorporeal beings as if both were solid, either magically
or with touch. However, immaterial beings are utterly undetectable to physical
beings and cannot directly affect the physical world in any way without Charms
or other powers intended for such use (such as Possession, Will-o-Wisp etc.).
Dematerialized elementals with Essence 2+
can spend 1 mote to manifest for a scene as a translucent phantom of themselves and speak in a quiet voice or whisper, exactly as
normally immaterial spirits can do as an innate ability.
As always, the Storyteller remains the
final arbiter of whether a particular power may affect the physical world from
a dematerialized state. This lack of physical interaction also allows an
incorporeal elemental to effortlessly pass through solid walls and other
material obstructions, though appropriate magical wards can still bar their
path.
The cost of this Charm is normally between
50 percent and 100 percent of the elemental’s total available Essence pool. For
elementals without a listed cost to dematerialize, the percentage cost of total
Essence they must expend equals their (Essence rating x 5) + 45, rounded up.
For example, a spirit with Essence 2 and an available pool of 48 motes pays 27
motes (55 percent).
Eclipse Caste Solars and Moonshadow Caste
Abyssals who learn this Charm also calculate their cost according to the
preceding formula without applying the usual double cost modifier for learning
spirit Charms, determining the value according to a percentage of their total
Essence pool (Personal + Peripheral). The half-spirit descendents of gods,
elementals and demons do not pay a percentage of their total pool, instead
paying a cost of their (Essence rating x 5) + 5 motes.
Unlike other Charms of non-instant
duration, Dematerialize does not require that elementals commit the Essence
cost to sustain the magic. However, beings that normally exist in a material state
cannot regain Essence through respiration while Dematerialized
(and vice versa for immaterial spirits who materialize). Instead of committing
Essence, beings using this Charm must pay half the normal cost each day at
sunrise as a reflexive upkeep, rounded up. Failure to pay this upkeep
immediately ends the effects of the Charm. Otherwise, characters must spend a
dice action reverting back to their natural state, though success is automatic.
The rules printed here expand upon and
supersede those for the Materialize Charm in Exalted and apply in reverse for that Charm.
Fertile Soul
Endowment (Arcanos)
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower,
1 lethal health level
Duration: Special
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Feeding Life’s
Fountain
With this Arcanos, a ghost may sire
offspring with a human, God-Blood or Exalted woman. The ghost must be
materialized, either through Weighted With the Anchor
of Flesh or by siring the child in a shadowland at night. It is also possible
for the living to facilitate mating with copious doses of ghost flower tea.
Fertile Soul Endowment automatically fails in the Underworld, as the very
principles of that dark realm oppose life. The ghost need not actually copulate
with the living partner, though the two must exchange a minimum of a deep,
passionate kiss. As such, female ghosts may use this Arcanos as readily as
males.
Finally, the living partner cannot already
be pregnant. If all the appropriate conditions are met, the ghost’s player rolls
Temperance + Essence against a difficulty of the partner’s Essence rating.
Ghosts with appropriate Passions may also channel them for additional dice, as
normal. A failure means the living partner’s Essence rejects the energies and
no conception takes place. A botch means the partner immediately becomes
sterile unless her player makes a successful Stamina + Resistance roll
(difficulty 2). Exalted and other magical beings do not risk sterility from
such a union.
A successful roll on the part of the ghost
means the partner immediately conceives a Ghost-Blooded offspring, which she
then carries to term normally. The living partner need not be willing or even
know that conception has taken place. Essence used to power this Arcanos
remains committed until the birth of the child. The ghost may not voluntarily
withdraw this commitment, and even the destruction of the ghost does not
release the Essence prior to birth or end the pregnancy. A Ghost-Blooded child
born of such a union will have innate power appropriate to the total Essence of
its parents as normal. Ghosts that sire offspring upon Exalted
women are more apt to produce Half-Caste children, though the Arcanos still
affords the certainty of conception.
Ox-Body Technique
(Spirit, Arcanos)
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum
Conviction: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Like the Exalted, the children of spirits
may also exhibit superhuman resilience. Each time this Charm is purchased, the
character gains two additional -2 health levels. Characters cannot purchase
this Charm more times than their Conviction rating. Actual gods, elementals and
demons do not normally use this Charm, but instead, manifest health levels
appropriate to their nature. As the souls of mortals, ghosts require this
Arcanos to surpass mortal limits of resilience.
Death In Life Path
Transubstantiation
Of Flesh
Cost: 5 motes per hour (plus 1
Willpower in Creation)
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum
Conviction: 2
Minimum Essence:
1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
With this Arcanos, a Ghost-Blood may
suffuse his body with necrotic Essence, blurring the distinction between flesh
and corpus. This effect lasts one hour for every 5 motes spent. During that
time, the ghost-blood’s body becomes fully malleable to the Arcanoi of the
Shifting Ghost-Clay Path. In addition, the character gains the ability to soak
lethal damage with half Stamina and otherwise resists injury, poison and
disease like one of the Exalted. When the duration ends, however, the spectral
flesh overrides all changes and reverts to its original state. Characters
employing this Arcanos can perceive incorporeal ghosts clearly, though other
types of spirits remain hidden to their senses.
Lower Soul
Ascendant
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Conviction:
2
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Transubstantiation of
Flesh
Unlike their ghostly parents, the
Half-Dead retain both higher and lower souls. Although both halves remain
conjoined until death, a Ghost-Blood with this Arcanos may briefly subsume his
higher consciousness to the bestial power of his bloated po. For the rest of
the scene, the character loses all morality and embraces psychopathic behavior
such as that imposed by the Deliberate Cruelty Virtue Flaw. In addition, the
character suffers no wound penalties and adds his Essence rating to all
Physical Attributes. When the Arcanos ends, his player must roll Conviction +
Essence. The character remains trapped in his inhuman cruelty for a number of
hours equal to the successes rolled. Incapacitated or mortally wounded
Ghost-Blooded may explicitly activate Lower Soul Ascendant as a reflexive
action regardless of whether they are conscious or have already used a Charm
during the turn. If the character cannot pay any part of the cost, the Arcanos
still takes effect but the character loses a dot of permanent Willpower. Used
in this fashion, the Ghost-Blood instantly heals all bashing levels and a
number of levels of lethal damage equal to his Conviction but also loses a dot
of permanent Essence as the Arcanos activates (in addition to any permanent
Willpower loss).
The character retains any Arcanoi for
which he fails to meet the Minimum Essence requirements, but he cannot use them
until he spends experience to restore his diminished spirit.
Spiteful Essence
Onslaught
Cost: 1 mote per 1L per target
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Conviction: 3
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Lower Soul Ascendant
Building on the principles of Lower Soul
Ascendant, a Ghost-Blood can manifest the wrath of her swollen po in rays of
pale, searing Essence. As the Arcanos activates, dancing sparks of cold light
ignite around the character like will-o-wisps, brightly visible to material and
immaterial onlookers alike. From these sparks emerge beams of manifested spite.
The Ghost-Blood’s player makes one attack roll of Charisma + Conviction, with a
base difficulty of the number of separate targets included in the barrage. The
character cannot attack more targets in a single use of this Arcanos than her
Essence rating. The base damage is 1L per mote spent powering the blast, plus
successes on the attack roll, but the character must spend motes for each
target separately, allocating at least 1 mote to each.
Characters cannot spend more motes on all
uses of this Charm in a single turn than their Conviction + Essence. Thus, a
barrage against two targets by a character with Conviction 4 and Essence 2
could inflict up to 5L on the first target and 1L on the second target or
inflict 3L to each or divide the damage in any combination of 6L or less. This
Arcanos affects material and dematerialized beings equally and may be used by
incorporeal Ghost-Blooded to attack the living as readily as spirits.
Wraith Form
Transformation
Cost: 6 motes per hour, plus 1
Willpower
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum
Conviction: 2
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Transubstantiation of
Flesh
A Ghost-Blood employing Wraith Form
Transformation ripples and fades away with a rustling whisper, her flesh wholly
subsumed into the corpus of her Half-Dead soul. This Arcanos duplicates the
effects of Transubstantiation of Flesh, including resistance conferred and
susceptibility to Arcanoi of the Shifting Ghost-Clay Path.
Furthermore, she does not need air, food
or water for the duration of the effect. However, the Arcanos also causes the
Ghost-Blood to dematerialize as per the spirit Charm of the same name. Unlike
elementals, Ghost-Blooded may still regain Essence through respiration and pay
no upkeep while dematerialized with this Arcanos. However, it still requires a
dice action for a Ghost-Blood to prematurely end the effect to rematerialize,
and wards intended to bar the passage of ghosts can stop her.
While immaterial,
Ghost-Blooded can use Arcanoi of the Terror-Spreading Art or Stringless
Puppeteer Art to affect the physical world, though a possessing Ghost-Blood
suffers forcible ejection from her host as the Arcanos ends and she reforms. Characters employing this Arcanos may
reflexively spend 1 mote to manifest as a translucent phantom in the physical
world for up to one scene. While manifested as a phantom, the character may
speak and be heard as a faint whisper, but she remains incorporeal. A character
who dies while under the effects of Wraith Form Transformation always becomes a
ghost.
Ghost Body
Evasion
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum
Conviction: 4
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Wraith Form
Transformation
A Ghost-Blood with this Arcanos may
dissolve into an incorporeal form in response to physical danger, perceived or
otherwise. He remains visible to onlookers as a luminous translucent phantom,
but all physical attacks pass through his incorporeal body. Use of this Arcanos
is not considered a type of dodge or soak, but may preempt damage by allowing
the character to become immaterial in the instant before an attack strikes.
Obviously, Ghost Body Evasion provides no defense against attacks that function
against immaterial beings. Characters may rematerialize prior to the end of the
turn if so desired by reflexively spending one Willpower point. The immaterial
state granted by this Arcanos duplicates the effects of Wraith Form
Transformation.
Restless Spirit
Sojourn
Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum
Conviction: 3
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Wraith Form
Transformation
With the activation of this Arcanos, a
Ghost-Blood’s body falls into a deep coma, and her
soul flows from her mouth as an immaterial cloud of Essence. The soul reforms over
the next turn into the dematerialized semblance of the character, as if she had
used Wraith Form Transformation.
This spirit body begins with a number of
-0 health levels equal to the character’s permanent Willpower plus any levels
obtained with Ox-Body Technique. The soul keeps track of health separate from
the actual body. A Ghost-Blood using Restless Spirit Sojourn may return her
soul to her body across any distance by reflexively spending a Willpower point
and accepting a level of unsoakable aggravated damage to her flesh. Recalling a
soul does not count as a Charm use and may be performed on the same turn as the
character activates other Charms. No Essence or Willpower is required if the
soul can “touch” its flesh in an attempt to rejoin, and this form of return
incurs no aggravated damage.
If a character’s spirit body dies, she
loses one point of permanent Essence, and her scarred soul returns to its
flesh. Once soul and flesh rejoin by any method, the body immediately awakens
with a painful gasp. An awakened Ghost-Blood cannot escape her flesh again with
this Arcanos until a number of hours have passed equal to the health levels of
damage her soul had suffered at the time of rejoining.
While using this Arcanos, a Ghost-Blood’s
torpid body needs only a third of its usual intake of air, food and water and
may be force-fed by caretakers. Since characters do not feel the needs of their
flesh while using this Arcanos, Ghost-Blooded must take care not to let their
bodies wither away from starvation or thirst. If a Ghost-Blood’s body dies in
its soul’s absence, the soul experiences a turn of terrible agony in which she
can do nothing but writhe and scream. When the pain fades, the character
becomes a full ghost with her body’s usual health levels minus any spiritual
damage already sustained.