Ride Charms
Master Horseman’s Eye
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
With but a glance, the character can evaluate the age,
health and temperament of a mount or draft animal. The Charm will effortlessly
penetrate the sorts of ruses used to pawn substandard animals off at full
price.
Horse-Summoning Whistle
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Master Horseman’s Eye
Through the use of this Charm, the character silently
summons her mount, which will move toward her at the best possible speed. This
Charm has a range of (10 x the character’s Essence) miles. The character must
have built up a relationship with the summoned animal — typically riding and
caring for it for several days — before it will respond to this Charm. While
the character’s steed will always respond to this call and will not become
distracted or lost, it’s still an animal. It can’t get through locked doors or penetrate
complex obstacles any better than it normally could.
Phantom Steed
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Horse-Summoning Whistle
This Charm allows a character to summon up from raw Essence
a great white steed with a burning golden mane and tail. It has the same
statistics as a warhorse of excellent quality, but it is tireless and fearless
and need not eat or sleep.
Spirit-Steadying Assurances
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Master Horseman’s Eye
Horses’ instincts are to run away from what they perceive as
danger — the smells of fire and blood or the sounds of conflict and wounded
animals. This often puts them at odds with adventurous riders, who are probably
trying to reach and linger near the stimuli. Through the use of this Charm, a
character can render her mount immune to terror for the rest of the scene, thus
obviating the need for rolls to control the animal around frightening
sensations.
Steed-Sustaining Method
Cost: 6 motes per mount
Duration: One day’s march
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Steadying Assurances
While their speed in battle is tremendously greater than
that of a man on foot, traveling long distances with mounts is often slower
than walking. Mounts must be rested during the march and must be cared for
before and after the day’s travel.
Through the use of this Charm, the character can reduce the
need to care for animals during travel. Mounts under the effect of this Charm
are very resistant to problems such as thrown shoes and injured hooves and
legs. They can also keep up a brisk walk for an entire day without resting,
even when burdened with armored riders or cargo panniers. Keep in mind that,
unless this Charm is used on the characters’ remounts or their pack animals,
the characters’ overall marching speed will still be limited by the speed of
the slowest beast in the group.
Horse-Healing Technique
Cost: 4 motes, 1 health level
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Steed-Sustaining Method
A sick or injured mount is a serious problem for its rider.
Even outside of a battle, the loss of an animal can be a tremendous expense. By
the use of this Charm, the character heals a number of his mount’s health
levels equal to his Essence rating. If the mount is unwounded, then this Charm
cures any diseases or parasites the beast possesses. This Charm does not take
effect instantly — the character must spend a scene tending to the mount by
dressing its wounds, feeding it, currying or otherwise grooming it — for the
healing effects to set in.
Flawless Partnership Meditation
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Steadying Assurances
Through the use of this Charm, the Exalted and her mount
become as one. The player need never roll for her character to accidentally be
thrown or fall from her steed. Her mount will never panic, and she receives a
bonus equal to her Essence score to all Ride rolls that cause the horse to
jump, rear or otherwise perform tricks.
Flashing Thunderbolt Steed
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 health level
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Steed-Sustaining Method
By using this Charm, the Exalted can imbue his steed with
endless energy. While under the effect of this Charm, the steed can run at full
speed for a full scene (a full march, outside of dramatic time) without
becoming fatigued. This Charm has no long-term ill effects on the mount — the
Exalted pays the price in Essence and his own health.
Soaring Spirit Steed
Cost: 15 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Phantom Steed
This Charm summons
a horse of pure Essence, much like Phantom Steed, except the
Feathery Gallop Exercise
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Ride: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Spirit-Steadying Assurances
The Exalted infuses
Essence into her mount, lightening its steps and distributing its weight. The
mount leaves no tracks, even in snow or soft sand, and can run across any
surface ―even mud, quicksand or water ― at its normal speed without
sinking. Note that the mount’s hooves do still touch the surface, so a mount
cannot run across dangerous liquids such as molten lava or acid without harm.
The
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Feathery Gallop Exercise
When the Chosen
uses this Charm, her mount can run on the empty air between two solid surfaces
as if there were a solid, invisible bridge there. This lets the Exalt bridge
gaps such as canyons and chasms, allowing horse and rider to cross. The mount
moves at its normal speed, and the Exalted must spend Essence each turn of the
crossing, or gravity takes hold once again, usually with regrettable results.
Wind-Racing Essence Infusion
Cost: 5 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One
scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Ride: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Steed-Sustaining Method, Flawless Partnership Meditation
This Charm infuses
the Exalted’s mount with Essence, granting it extraordinary speed. The mount
can run at a maximum speed of ([it’s Stamina + the Exalt’s Essence] x 10) miles
per hour. The mount still tires at the normal rate (unless also under the
effects of a Charm such as Flashing Thunderbolt Steed), it simply moves at a
greater rate of speed during that time.