Sail Charms
Hurricane-Predicting Glance
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
With a look at the sky, the
Exalted can predict the weather for the next day or so; his empathy with the
currents of the ocean and air give him real prescience regarding the weather.
The Charm will fail if the local weather is changing in response to a magical
event or sorcery; this Charm only describes to the character when the natural
weather will be if nothing unusual takes place. Perceptive Dragon-Blooded can
sometimes use this Charm to predict events other than the weather: If, for
instance, Admiral Potan’s fleet is preparing to sail
on a rebellious prefecture as soon as a storm breaks, the user of this Charm can
predict exactly when they will set sail. And impossibly heavy clouds appearing
out of clear blue skies might be a harbinger of an impending volcanic eruption.
This Charm only works when the character is on the water; it fails when the Exalted’s feet are on land.
Storm-Outrunning Technique
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms:
Hurricane-Predicting Glance
When time is of the essence and
getting a ship into safe harbor is more important than the crew’s rest and
safety, a captain or pilot with Storm-Outrunning Technique is essential to
survival and success. This Charm allows a ship’s officer to double that ship’s
rate of movement for the current scene. This may enable a small ship to beat an
enemy to a friendly port, giving the city some warning; it may let a ship beat
a storm to safety; or it may let a crew of merchants beat a rival to a choice
port. To activate the Charm, the Exalt need only spend the necessary Essence.
The greatly increased speed may require one or more Sail rolls, especially if
the ship cruises through hazardous waters at double normal velocity. Also, note
that if this Charm is used form the deck of a becalmed sailing ship, it will
have no effect, as a speed of zero, when doubled, remains zero.
Fine Passage Negotiating Style
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Hurricane
Predicting Glance
The finest captains and pilots can
thread their ships through the most dangerous patches of sea, avoiding
submerged hazards with flair and panache. This Charm is the source of more than
one pilot’s reputation. With it, an Exalt gains an instinctive knowledge of any
submerged hazards within five miles of the ship’s current location, as well as
the prevailing current, danger spots and safe channels in the same radius. The
net effect of this knowledge is that the pilot’s Sail dice pool improves by
three dice for the remainder of the scene for the purpose of avoiding hazards.
This Charm does not directly protect the ship from such hazards: If the pilot
makes a bad mistake, the hull might still be rent asunder. It also does not
give its user any special awareness of the activities of other characters: It
cannot point out an ambush in a narrow passage or the impending arrival of an
enemy vessel.
Sturdy Bulkhead Concentration
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Fine
Passage Negotiating Style
A Charm favored by Wood-aspected sailors, Sturdy Bulkhead Concentration enhances
the strength of a ship’s hull without making it heavier. When this Charm is
active, the hull gains three additional health levels and 2 additional soak.
The benefit only remains as long as the Exalted who activated the Charm remains
aboard the vessel. To activate the Charm, the character needs only to spend the
necessary Essence while aboard the ship.
Pirate-Masquerading Method
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Fine
Passage Negotiating Style
Whenever a ship under the
command of a Dragon-Blooded with this Charm comes into contact with hostile
ships of any stripe, it is temporarily camouflaged as a ship of that
allegiance: The ship appears to be a merchantman to those aboard merchantmen;
it looks as a pirate ship does to pirates; and so on. The Charm is largely a
visual illusion ― the vessel’s flag changes its appearance, and the crew
appears, from a distance, to be the appropriate sort of crew for a ship of its
type. The Charm does not change the line of the ship itself, so one cannot, for
instance, hide an imperial dreadnought among fishing smacks and expect to go
unnoticed. The Charm also fails should any viewer set foot upon the ship;
visitors and raiders see the ship as it really is, once they are aboard it.
Wind-Summoning
Whistle
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Storm-Outrunning Technique
By pursing her lips and whistling as she invokes this
Charm, an Exalt can call the winds into the sails of her ship and escape from a
dangerous situation — or hurl herself into battle. The
wider the sails and the mightier the ship, the more winds are called, as the
spirits of the air hasten to obey the Exalt, until the ship is moving at full
speed in the desired direction. The winds are intensely localized and will
affect other ships within a couple hundred meters of the Exalt’s
ship. However, they cannot be commanded to alter their direction once summoned.
The ship may run before the wind or tack into it, but it cannot turn back on
itself. The winds will cause the ship to move at its full rate of speed,
depending on the type of ship, and will last for up to a scene.
Terrible
Glow Of Nautical Valor
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Fine Passage Negotiating Style
When this Charm is activated, all those who see the ship
on which the Exalt stands perceive it as an awesome naval battleship, haloed
with strange lights and manned by deadly warriors — even if it’s a rickety old
piece of wood held together by worn-out nails and crewed by the sweepings of
the local port. While common sense cuts in a moment later and the ship is
clearly visible as what it actually is, the players of all those who were
looking at the ship when the Charm took effect must succeed in a reflexive Willpower
roll for the characters to attack it. This Charm is normally used in order to
gain the advantage of surprise. A wise captain can have half the enemy crew
slaughtered before it manages to pull itself together and fight back.
Pleasant
Convocation Of The Like-Minded
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Fine Passage Negotiating Style
By spending 5 motes of Essence and invoking this Charm,
an Exalt can whisper his name into the waves around his vessel, and it will be
carried to all sea spirits, pelagials or other
sentient inhabitants of the ocean within five miles of his ship. All those who
have no particular and personal reason to hate that Exalt will be instinctively
reminded of the power and authority of the Exalted and will travel to the
vessel to pay their respects and to find out why the Exalt has declared his
presence. Particularly powerful creatures or minor gods may send a
representative rather than attend themselves. This Charm can be used while at
port, but fewer creatures of the sea are likely to answer the summons. Any
beings who will arrive do so within half an hour at
the most. Their behavior and the length of time they remain depends
upon the attitude or requests of the Exalt.
Enemy-Fouling
Method
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Pleasant Convocation of the Like-Minded
By invoking this Charm, the Exalt summons a great swarm
of lampreys and similar clinging creatures, which adhere to the hull of the
target ship, slowing it and possibly even causing it to founder if the weather
conditions are exceptionally bad. The target ship, which must be within a mile
of the Exalt, has its speed reduced by 10 percent for every mote of the Exalt’s permanent Essence and will remain at this reduced
speed until its hull is cleaned or for a week, whichever is sooner. This may
require a formal dry-docking, if the crew has no facilities to do so at sea.
This Charm fails to work on any ships whose hulls are crafted from the Five
Magical Materials or other imperishable First Age materials, though the Essence
is still lost, as such ships are of too noble a substance to be so fouled.
False
Color Flying Demonstration
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Pirate-Masquerading Method
This Charm invokes the powers of the Exalted to disguise
the ship, clothing it in the appearance of an ally — or even an enemy. When a
ship with this Exalt on board flies the colors of a particular person or group
and comes into contact with other ships, the Exalt’s
ship temporarily appears to be the ship of the captain who flies those colors
or a typical ship of that group. This is a visual illusion and even goes so far
as to alter the perceived lines of the ship if necessary, so that a warship may
appear to be a slaver’s dhow or even a common fishing vessel. The Charm fails
the moment that any outsider sets foot on the ship or if any damage (such as
that of a flaming arrow or a barrel of pitch) is done to it. It has no
mechanical effects in terms of sailing speed, defense or anything else.
Water
Drop Protection Technique
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Storm-Outrunning Technique
This Charm is specifically designed to work with Northern
air boats. The character can completely protect her air boat from the effects
of storms. This Charm does nothing to affect the storm. Instead, it sheathes
the air boat in a large bubble of protective Essence. The winds
of the storm continues to push the air boat forward, but the Charm completely
protects both the vessel and everyone on board from all environmental damage.
The entire air boat and all of its rigging are completely calm, even if
gale-force winds are blowing a few feet away. This Charm can be recast as necessary,
but most air-boat pilots use it as a chance to outrun a small storm or to land
and stake down the air boat to protect it from the effects of a prolonged
storm.
Deck-Walking
Prana
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
Whether the character is on a trireme off the coast of the
Blessed Isle or on an air boat high above Diamond Hearth, the deck and rigging
of any ship can become exceedingly treacherous during a storm, a battle or any
other emergency, and a single misstep can cause a character to fall to her
death. This Charm effectively removes such risks. A character using
Deck-Walking Prana can move across the deck or up and
down the rigging of a storm-tossed ship as safely as if she were doing so while
the ship was in dry dock. The Charm also negates all movement penalties
associated with environmental factors such as ice, snow, water or motion. If an
action such as sliding rapidly down the rigging would normally require a roll
to be safely performed, then the character’s player must still roll, but this
Charm removes all penalties associated with adverse environmental conditions. This
Charm only works on board a ship, and it does not allow the character to perform
actions that would normally be impossible, such as walking along the side of
the hull or striding across the canvas of a billowing sail. In addition to
being able to use this Charm herself, the character can also cast it on anyone
she can touch.
Ship-Striding
Technique
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Deck-Walking Prana
This Charm allows the character employing it to move about
a ship in any possible fashion and under any conditions. She can walk along the
underside of a flying air boat or stand on the bottom of the keel of a ship
sailing through a storm, with no risk of slipping or falling off. The character
can completely defy gravity with this Charm, but the object she is standing upon
must be able to physically bear her weight. The character can also use this
Charm on anyone she can touch. Although this Charm allows the character to stand
firmly upon the hull in calm conditions, if she is buffeted by waves or high
winds, her player must make a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll for the
Exalt to avoid falling — the difficulty of this roll would be 1 for the normal motion
of a ship through water or on an air boat during a gale. The difficulty only
rises to 5 during a storm so severe that it is almost certain to destroy the
vessel.