Man-Machine
Protocols
Similar
in power to Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, Man- Machine Protocols are the most
common form of pattern-weaving protocols among Autochthonia’s
Exalted. Even so, Creation’s sorcerers would recognize only a handful of its
effects. The protocol Charms built into the Alchemical Exalted produce magic
that is mostly unknown in Creation, and many of its effects are clearly for use
in Autochthonia. Weaving a protocol is very similar
to casting a spell. Man-Machine
Protocols require the weaver to spend 1 point of Willpower to make initial
contact with the design weavers in order to change fate. Most spells have a
minimum Clarity requirement.
This
represents the lowest degree of communion the Alchemical Weaver can have and
still expect the design weavers to process his protocol.
Automaton Override
Protocol
Cost: 5 or 15 motes
Target: One nearby automaton, or all automata in
a 30-foot radius.
Duration: One scene
Minimum Clarity: 3
Alchemical pattern weavers use this
protocol to control animated creatures, soulless intelligences and minor machine
spirits. These include golems, zombies and automata (such as smoke cobras,
hounds of the five winds and the like) as well as items of advanced technology,
such as First Age ships, skyships and weapons. This
protocol may affect spirit machines, including most of the mechanical wildlife
denizens of the Reaches (such as custodians) if their Essence rating is 2 or
less. The Exalt weaving Automaton Override Protocol instantly takes control of
the affected automata, directing them to do his bidding, whatever it may be.
This includes stopping such creations from attacking or causing them to attack
the Alchemical’s enemies. The Alchemical weaver
overrides any other programming the automaton might have, replacing it with her
own.
The Exalt focuses her Essence, then speaks a short command phrase. A whorl of bright-green
arcane symbols flow from her mouth or, in some cases, her soulgem
and infuses the form of the target automata, suspending all prior commands and
making her will the target’s new purpose. For 5 motes, the sorcerer takes
control of a single automaton. By spending 15 motes, the sorcerer may take control
of (Essence rating x 2) automata or technological devices in a 10-yard radius.
Automaton Override Protocol may be countered by Emerald Countermagic, by
Essence Draining Defense or by any Alchemical Exalt with a permanent Essence
exceeding the weaver’s by 2 or more. This protocol has no effect on natural
creatures, elementals or machine spirits with Essence ratings of 3 or higher.
Only the Alchemical invoking this
protocol has override authority. Others trying to interact with the automata are
ignored or dealt with as the weaver sees fit. If the automaton was summoned by
another Exalt and the other Exalt has a higher Essence than the
Alchemical, make a contested Willpower roll for the pattern weaver and the other
Exalt. If the other Exalt’s player wins, he maintains
control of the automaton. If the Alchemical’s player
wins, she wrests control of the automaton from its summoner.
Note that the consequences of this can
be particularly hazardous if the other is riding in the automaton when control
is wrested away (as in the case of the summoned warstriders
used by necromancers, for example).
Binding Filament
System
Cost: 10 motes
Target: One person
Duration: Indefinite
Minimum Clarity: 0
On completion of this protocol, the
target is instantly wrapped in fine strands of silvery filament. The metallic threads
are extraordinarily tough. Very strong individuals might be able to break out
of these threads as a feat of strength requiring a Strength + Athletics total
of 10, but doing so causes the strands to act as garrotes on the flesh, cutting
the escapee to ribbons (inflicting levels of lethal damage equal to the weaver’s
Essence). This damage can be soaked.
For reasons unknown, some sorcerers know
this protocol as Her Glistening Silvery Strands.
Crystal Lotus Of
Repose
Minimum Clarity: 2
Except that the protective containment
is made of crystal and strongly resembles a lotus flower, this protocol is
identical to Sleep of Stony Safety.
Docility Assurance
Field
Cost: 25 motes
Target: One individual
Duration: One scene or one hour, whichever is longer
Minimum Clarity: 0
Upon invoking this protocol, the Exalt
binds his target in a shifting mesh of luminous filaments. This web of light in
no way impairs the target’s mobility, but any time the target spends Essence,
he suffers damage. The sorcerer determines the kind of damage inflicted at the
protocol’s weaving, either one level of bashing per mote of Essence spent by
the target or one level of lethal damage for every 2 motes of Essence spent (in
which case the expenditure of a single mote causes no damage). This damage can
be soaked only with the target’s Essence rating. This protocol in no way interferes with activities that don’t require Essence expenditure,
nor does it interfere with Essence the target has already committed. This spell
cannot target beings of greater Essence than the weaver character’s.
Driving The Shadow
Machine
Cost: 20 motes
Target: Weaver
Duration: (Weaver’s Essence rating x 4) hours
Minimum Clarity: 2
This protocol reconfigures physical
reality to bring into being a floating pocket of roiling shadow, an incorporeal
machine that feeds on Essence and ambient light — and in which the pattern
weaver and his companions can ride. This machine, commonly called a tenebrapede, may carry 200 pounds of additional cargo or
passengers per point of the weaver’s permanent Essence rating.
The tenebrapede
is perfectly silent and goes where the Alchemical wills it to go. All he need
do is step into the roiling mass of shadows and assert his will. The view from within
the tenebrapede is crystal clear in 180 degrees, but those
trying to look in see only darkness.
The shadow vehicle flies at a rate of
200 miles per hour (nearly 600 yards per turn). If time runs out before the voyage
is finished, the tenebrapede comes to a rest in the nearest
city or safe section of the Near Reaches, and the weaver and his companions
have one minute to unload their possessions before the tenebrapede
and anything left inside it fades back away into the shadows. For all its ephemeral
nature, the tenebrapede is remarkably solid. It has
25 health levels and a soak of 25L/35B. The tenebrapede
provides 90 percent hard cover to those who ride in it. In addition, the shadow
machine’s speed makes attacking its passengers exceedingly difficult. Only one
attack can be made against the tenebrapede or its occupants
unless it is matched in flight by the attackers. Attacking out of the chariot
is similarly restricted.
The vehicle protects its occupants and
cargo from all but the most extreme climatic conditions, though the environment
of some of the elemental poles or the most inhospitable of the Far Reaches might
be more than the shadow vehicle can counteract.
Aside from disappearing at the end of
the protocol’s duration, the tenebrapede lasts until
it reaches its commanded destination, until it is commanded to land prematurely
or until it is dispelled.
Elsewhere-Evoking
Asana
Cost: 20 motes
Target: Area of effect
Duration: The longer of one hour or one scene
Minimum Clarity: 5
The weaver must assume a seated
meditative posture to weave this effect, which allows her to manifest a small portion
of the great Void to which the Machine God exiled himself. For many Alchemicals, this protocol is as much a spiritual exercise
as anything, allowing a weaver to contemplate the ordeals suffered by the Great
Maker over the course of his exile, but the protocol creates, as a byproduct, a
powerful defense field around the weaver.
Once cast, the weaver is surrounded by a
sphere of cold, airless, aphotic void to a radius of
(Essence rating x 5) feet. This void instantly snuffs all fire. Entities that
need air suffocate, and visibility is equal to heavy snow at night. Moreover,
the life-sapping cold of this field is extremely damaging, equal to standing in
a bonfire. Within the field, there is neither up nor down (i.e., no gravity).
The players of those caught within must get three or more successes on a
Dexterity + Athletics roll for their characters to propel themselves through
this void. Once a character makes herself move, she
continues floating in the direction she propelled herself until she exits the
field, at which point she falls to the floor. Fewer successes than that
indicates that the character cannot muster enough coordination to propel
herself in any direction. Items entering this protocol’s sphere of effect from without
lose all momentum: An arrow fired into the sphere of effect is brought to a
total inertial null the moment it breaches the void. Likewise, a lunging man would
find himself relieved of all momentum and would need
to somehow propel himself to escape the field generated by this reality-weaving
protocol.
The Alchemical pattern weaver,
maintaining the asana, floats serenely at the center of the void, immune to all
of the effects of Elsewhere-Evoking Prana except for
the visibility penalties. The sorcerer can bring the protocol to a halt
instantly by breaking the posture, but while she maintains the posture, she
regains Essence as if she were meditating (since that’s exactly what she’s
doing).
Entropy Manipulation
Protocol
Cost: 25 motes
Target: All automata within range
Duration: One scene
Minimum Clarity: 4
More than any other denizens of Autochthonia, Alchemical Exalted make forays into the
gremlin-infested Far Reaches. This potent protocol allows a weaver to
temporarily knock all nearby automata offline. When an Exalt weaves this
protocol, all gremlins, golems, zombies and all other forms of automata within
(Essence x 10) yards take the weaver’s Essence in bashing damage and fall
inert. At the beginning of the next scene, the affected automata will resume
functioning, but they may be confused about where they are and what they’re
doing. The automata may or may not return to what they were doing before the
protocol took effect. While the Entropy Manipulation Protocol doesn’t shut down
warstriders or other forms of powered armor, it does
deaden the armor’s limbs somewhat if they’re not shielded. The basic mobility
penalty imposed by this protocol for Artifact ••• armor is -2. Each additional
dot of Artifact lessens the mobility penalty by 1. Artifact ••••• armor,
therefore, is not affected by this weaving.
Essence Reallocation
Protocol
Cost: 25 motes
Target: Special
Duration: Instant
Minimum Clarity: 0
Inefficiency is dangerous in a closed
system, and the denizens of Autochthonia can be
extraordinarily efficient with regard to what they reuse and how they reuse it.
Like Emerald Countermagic, Essence Reallocation Protocol is a reflexive
protocol that counters Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, but it also affects
Man-Machine Protocols and Shadowlands Circle
Necromancy. The protocol does this by absorbing all the Essence out of the
cancelled spell and channeling it into the Alchemical’s
Essence reservoir. If the absorbed Essence puts the weaver over his maximum rating,
the Alchemical’s metal Charms flare up and emit sparks
for a moment as they shunt away the excess Essence.
Lightning Elemental
Concatenation Protocol
Minimum Clarity: 0
This Alchemical protocol is identical to
the spell Lightning Spider, known by Creation’s sorcerers. It is suspected that
Autochthon himself may have given this spell to the sorcerers of the Exalted.
The Maker’s Basic
Defense Array
Cost: 20 motes
Target: Weaver
Duration: 12 hours
Minimum Clarity: 3
Upon invoking this protocol, hundreds of
small polished metal spheres surround the Exalt, rapidly whirling and flowing
around her in a perfect defensive sphere. The sphere moves with the weaver, and
it can change shape to accommodate tight passages or the like. The Maker’s
Basic Defense Array functions like armor in that it knocks aside blows aimed at
the Alchemical. It has an effective hardness of 5 and adds 10L/10B to the
character’s soak.
When a physical attack
comes at the weaver, the spheres flow swiftly to intercept the blow, knocking
it aside with the loud report of hundreds of metal balls slamming into their
target. The impact
is tremendous. Every time a weapon that is not made of the Magical Materials
takes this kind of battering, the Storyteller rolls one die to determine the
damage the Defense Array inflicts on the weapon. Normal weapons shatter on any roll
of 7 or less, while exceptional weapons shatter on a roll of 5 or less. Perfect
weapons are immune to this damage.
Even if the weapon sustains no damage,
the player of the attacking character must make a Dexterity + Melee roll (difficulty
2) to prevent the impact of the metal spheres from knocking the weapon out of
the character’s grasp. Characters making unarmed attack upon the sorcerer suffer
10 dice of bashing damage. This damage is soaked normally.
The Maker’s Instantaneous
Forge
Cost: 20 motes
Target: One conjured automaton
Duration: (Essence) weeks
Minimum Clarity: 0
This protocol can be a strange one for
Alchemical Exalted to use as it’s a weak and distantly related variant of the
protocol that animates the Alchemicals themselves. By
performing this protocol, the weaver creates a powerful automaton to serve her.
Alchemical sorcerers don’t need to build or create the shells of their golems.
The shell appears out of the ground upon weaving, a gift of the Machine God.
The sorcerer’s power is necessary mainly for binding a spirit into the vessel
to animate it. Each shell is animated by an Autochthonian
elemental assigned to the
The automata summoned by this weaving
vary in Traits and appearance based on the type of elemental bound into them.
In addition, a golem will have two Charms unique to its type. These Charms
cannot be learned by Exalts who would otherwise be able to learn Charms not
native to their Exaltation.
An automaton of this type will serve its
summoner for (summoner’s
Essence) weeks before merging once more with the substance of the Maker. A
weaver can have as many of these automata serving him at one time as she has points
of Essence.
Optimized Component
Integration Protocol
Cost: 5 motes per target
Target: The weaver and all willing targets in a
10-foot radius
Duration: The longer of one hour or one scene
Minimum Clarity: 5
Upon invoking this protocol, the weaver
and all
participating individuals become models
of perfect cooperation and interdependence, like the components of a well-oiled
machine. They intuitively know what is needed to optimize the group’s
performance and achieve their shared goal. So long as they are working on one
shared task (usually something that would require an extended action, such as
building a device or opening a tunnel), all benefiting members gain one die to
their dice pools for each additional member of the group up to a total of (Wits
+ Essence) individuals (i.e., if a group has five members, each member gains an
additional four dice to her pools to accomplish that one task). This protocol
ends if the group accomplishes its task before the time expires.
Phlogiston Web
Cost: 15 motes
Target: Area of effect
Duration: (Essence) turns
Minimum Clarity: 0
Upon invoking this protocol, the weaver
expels an enormous blazing red net of phlogiston — sticky solid fire — from his
body, usually from his mouth or from the palm of his hand. The phlogiston web
is enormous, covering an area of 100 square feet per point of permanent
Essence, but the exact measurements are up to the sorcerer. An Exalt with an
Essence rating of 4 could create a web 20 feet by 20 feet or 10 feet by 40 feet
or whatever best suits his purposes. The blazing net inflicts (the weaver’s
Essence rating) + 4 health levels in lethal damage every turn.
Cutting the net is possible only with a
weapon made of the Magical Materials and requires four successes on a Strength
+ Melee roll. Using pure strength to break the strands of netting requires a
Strength + Athletics roll, difficulty 5. Characters immune to fire take no
damage from this protocol.
Plague Of Bronze
Snakes
Minimum Clarity: 0
Except that the snakes wriggle out of
the body of the Alchemical sorcerer at the protocol’s commencement, this is the
same as the spell found on page 112 of Savant and Sorcerer.
Probability Degradation
Matrix
Cost: 15 motes
Target: Enemies in a 10-yard radius
Duration: One hour or one scene, whichever is longer
Minimum Clarity: 5
An Alchemical enacting this protocol
pulls all the slack from the strings of fate connected to her enemies,
depriving them of grace and good fortune and making their every word and
gesture an invitation to disaster. In effect, it turns fate itself against the
weaver’s enemies.
When the Alchemical weaves this design,
her soulgem radiates an angry red glare that makes
the eyes itch. Enemy familiars with a Familiar rating less than 3 flee the area
of effect. The Storyteller must succeed on a simple Valor roll for any hostile
spirit with permanent Essence of less than 2, or it will flee as well, overcome
by a sense of dread. Such beings will flee at their full movement rates for two
turns per point of the weaver’s Essence and will not return until the protocol
is complete.
This protocol has no effect on the
Alchemical weaver’s allies, but all those working against her, directly
or covertly, are afflicted with extraordinary bad luck. For the duration of the
protocol, the target number of all rolls for those afflicted increases by one,
10s count as only a single success, and every 1 rolled negates one success.
Sonic Hammer Vocalization
Cost: 12 motes
Target: Area of effect
Duration: (Essence) turns
Minimum Clarity: 0
The Alchemical opens his mouth, and a
devastatingly shrill wail issues from his throat. The vibration caused by this
attack shakes bone, rattles teeth and shatters glass. Hearing over the noise is
impossible. Items of glass or crystal suffer 10 levels of bashing damage. In
all other regards, this protocol is identical to the spell Thunder Wolf’s Howl.
Soul Archiving Protocol
Cost: 10+ motes
Target: Ghost
Duration: Permanent
Minimum Clarity: 0
This ancient and classified protocol
preserves the efficiency of Autochthon’s soul recycling by capturing loose
souls (i.e., ghosts) in a soulgem. It’s rarely used,
as soulgem recycling is so efficient in Autochthonia, but on those rare occasions when a soulgem has been left on its corpse for so long that the
soul has escaped the soulgem (usually two weeks or
more), this protocol corrects the oversight by recapturing the loose soul in
its gem.
The weaver need only weave this protocol
while holding out the soulgem. His player makes a
contested Willpower + Essence roll against the ghost. If the ghost’s will is
strong, the weaver can spend 5 motes of Essence per each additional die he
wants to add to his dice pool.
Ghosts captured in this way remain
safely in the soulgem and have no chance of escape
until the death of their next incarnation.
This protocol controverts Luminor dogma, and its very existence is a carefully
guarded secret given only to old and trusted Exalted. Learning this protocol
requires Backing of at least 4 from the Luminors.
Static Essence Absorption
Protocol
Cost: 5 motes
Target: One item
Duration: Instant
Minimum Clarity: 2
One of many tasks assigned to the
For the purposes of this protocol,
Essence is Essence, and the source — Hearthstone, Essence committed to a
necromancy or sorcery effect, etc. — is moot. This protocol cannot drain
Essence from an Essence-users Essence pools. That power is held too closely for
this attack.
Summon Autochthonian Elemental
Cost: 10+ motes
Target: Elemental
Duration: Up to one month
Minimum Clarity: 0
This protocol is exactly like the
Terrestrial Circle spell Summon Elemental, but only the elementals common to Autochthonia — crystal, lightning, metal, oil, smoke and
steam — may be summoned with it
Summon Machine Spirit
Cost: 15+ motes
Target: One machine spirit
Duration: Instant
Minimum Clarity: 0
This protocol is very similar to Summon
Elemental, but instead of an elemental, it captures a machine spirit. As with
summon elemental, the weaver can designate the machine spirit she wants based
on any criteria she chooses, and the Willpower contest is the same. The machine
spirits serving the Great Maker are often dedicated to their function in
Autochthon and don’t like multi-tasking. Consequently, many larger spirits are
very likely to send subroutine spirits to serve in their stead, much in the way
that greater elemental spirits are wont to do.
Theoplastic Engineering Protocol
Cost: 15 motes
Target: Terrain
Duration: One scene
Minimum Clarity: 0
The Machine God’s techno-organic metal
landscape is itself the environment surrounding all denizens of Autochthonia,
and the Alchemical Exalted are empowered to shape that landscape as necessary.
Upon invoking this protocol, the Alchemical need only point his hands in the
direction of the material he wishes to work and the local terrain flows to
accommodate his will.
Alchemicals use this protocol to seal off tunnels
in the Reaches, to make room for expanding cities, to pull inaccessible veins
and conduits closer to the surface (a service they perform frequently for the
miners of the Illustrious Conductors of the Consecrated Veins) and to
accomplish similar tasks. Given time, a group of Exalted pattern weavers
working in concert could open up whole new open veins within the Maker (for putting
in a new tram line, for example). One weaver can shift an area equal to 500
cubic feet of material per turn.
When used in Creation, this protocol can
create trenches, mounds, dikes, berms, reservoirs or
pits in soft earth or sculpt up to (the weaver’s Essence rating x 100) square
feet of stone. Repeated use can create tunnels, bridges of stone or even small
islands. It can even pull veins of ore to the surface, so long as they were not
located more than (Alchemical’s Essence rating x 100)
feet down (and the weaver has to know the vein is there in the first place).
This protocol could be used to immure an
enemy, but it’s slow (5 turns) and the target can struggle to free himself
(Strength + Athletics, difficulty 2, +1 to difficulty for every turn the sorcerer
shapes the ground around the target).
In theory, it might be possible to use
this protocol to shape the tunnels of the Underworld’s Labyrinth or the
landscape of Malfeas as well (both being forms of
Primordial flesh as well), but neither of those speculations has yet been
tested.
Vat Surrogate Reweaving
Technique
Cost: 10 motes
Target: One Alchemical Exalt
Duration: Instant
Minimum Clarity: 4
If the weaver has Charms on retainer at
the Vats, this protocol allows him to instantaneously swap one of his currently
installed Charms for one of those stored, bypassing the need for downtime or
visiting the Vats.
Vision
Transmitting Protocol
Cost: 10 motes
Target: One creature
Duration: One message
Minimum Clarity: 0
Upon invoking this protocol, the sorcerer
spits forth a fist-sized crystal dodecahedron. The crystal grows for a moment
as the weaver finishes shaping the Essence. Once the crystal is fully grown,
around the size of a human head, the weaver may speak a message into it. This
protocol then functions exactly like the Terrestrial spell Infallible
Messenger, except the recipient can see the speaker’s image in the crystal as
well as hear him, and may even view events taking place in the background.