The Foundation
Pattern
Ox-Body Technique
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Like many magical beings, most Mountain
Folk are considerably hardier than their physiques suggest. Every purchase of
this Charm provides one -1 and one -2 health level. Jadeborn
cannot develop Ox-Body Technique more times than their highest Virtue.
Essence Satiation
Method
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Mountain Folk who develop Essence
Satiation Method alter their metabolism, subsisting on an ephemeral diet of Essence.
With the first purchase of this Charm, the character halves the amount of food
and water she needs to consume in order to remain healthy and fit. With the second
purchase, this requirement drops to a quarter of normal. Jadeborn
must have Essence 3 to purchase the Charm a third time, but this purchase
obviates the need for sustenance altogether.
Stone-Still Lungs
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
By studying this Charm, Jadeborn may learn to respire Essence
in place of air. With the first purchase of Stone-Still Lungs, the character
only needs to take a breath every (Stamina + Essence + highest Virtue) minutes.
Suffocation proceeds normally after this interval passes. With the second
purchase, the interval increases to ([Stamina + Essence + highest Virtue] x 3)
minutes. Upon the third purchase (which requires Essence 3), the character no longer
needs to breath at all except to facilitate speech or other vocal utterance.
Sleepless Rock Emulation
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
Mountain Folk with this Charm surpass
the physiological need for sleep, although they still derive spiritual benefit
as represented by respired Essence and Conviction rolls to regain Willpower. If
a character goes more days without sleep than his Stamina rating, each
subsequent day of sleeplessness cumulatively reduces the number of motes he
gains from respiration each hour. For example, a Jadeborn
with Stamina 3 could go without sleep for three days. After the fourth day, he
respires one less mote per hour (7 for meditation, 3 for inactivity). By the
seventh day, he only respires 4 motes per hour of
meditation and cannot respire by casual inactivity at all. Sleeping one full night
for eight hours resets the count back to zero. This Charm provides no benefit
outside of Creation.
Eternal Jade Rejuvenation
Cost: 20 motes
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Essence Satiation
Method (x 1), Stone-Still Lungs (x 1), Sleepless Rock Emulation
The Jadeborn
floods his body with Essence, crystallizing his flesh and personal possessions
into a statue of the purest jade. He remains aware and conscious in this state,
but he loses all senses and mobility, leaving him a prisoner within his own
transmogrified form. Upon activating the Charm, the player must specify the
intended duration in increments of one month. The Jadeborn
cannot abandon the state any sooner, nor can he be roused by conventional means.
As a statue, he has a nearly invincible soak of 20L/30B and completely ignores
all attacks that do not inflict more damage than his soak. He heals any damage
sustained at the rate of 1L or 2B per day, remaining a lifeless and broken
statue if killed. Furthermore, he does not hunger, thirst or breath. Instead of
aging, his biological age actually decreases by the chronological time spent in
torpor. When he emerges from slumber, he has full reserves of health, Willpower
and Essence (minus the commitment required by the Charm and any recent
injuries). All mundane diseases and poisons are purged by the magic, though supernatural
maladies remain as virulent as they were at the time of transformation.
The experience of total isolation
inflicted by this Charm can be maddening, even for one of the Enlightened. Roll
the Jadeborn’s Willpower with a difficulty of the
number of months spent comatose. If the roll fails, the character gains a
derangement that he must contend with normally. On a botch, he also loses a dot
of permanent Willpower. Time spent torpid counts as training time for Mental
Attributes but cannot be used for raising or purchasing any other Traits that
have a required training time. The only way to end Eternal Jade Rejuvenation prematurely
is through Emerald (or greater) Countermagic.
This spell shatters the enchantment,
leaving the Jadeborn with sufficient levels of unsoakable aggravated damage such that he has only two
health levels remaining when he awakens. This Charm only functions in Creation.
Darkness-Piercing
Technique
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: (Essence + 1) hours
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Jadeborn’s
eyes darken to the glassy black of obsidian. In this state, she can see in
total darkness without penalty. She cannot see any better through fog or other visual
obstructions, however.
Sensory Focus Discipline
Cost: 3 motes per difficulty point
Duration: One hour
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
Suffusing her senses with Essence, the Jadeborn’s senses become preternaturally attuned to details
and stimuli. For every 3 motes spent, she subtracts one from the difficulty of
all Awareness rolls for next hour. Multiple activations of this Charm are
cumulative, but no roll can have a difficulty lower than 1.
Pebble Among Boulders Stance
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: One hour
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Jadeborn
freezes in place, becoming like a statue. His skin and possessions take on the
visual and tactile semblance of rock or earth, blending in with any
subterranean environment. So long as he remains motionless, his player adds the
character’s Temperance to all Stealth rolls. This camouflage vanishes as soon
as he moves, falling away as a fine sheen of gray-brown dust. However, the
camouflage reasserts itself the moment the Jadeborn
stops moving again and continues to do so for the duration of the Charm.