Sail
Charms
Master Sailor’s
Memory
Cost: 1 mote per dot
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The character momentarily closes his eyes
and dredges memories from the drowned dead of the Underworld. When he opens his
eyes, he intuitively understands the craft of sailing as though from decades of
experience at sea. The Exalt adds one dot to his Sail rating for every mote
spent, although this Charm cannot raise a character's Sail above 5. In
addition, Exalted using this Charm never botch a roll to keep their balance in
tumultuous seas, although they can still fall normally.
Ghost On The Deck
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Master Sailor's
Memory
The character digs deeper into the
memories of sailors long dead, allowing the stolen expertise to guide his every
movement. While this Charm is in effect, the Exalt has perfect balance and may
effortlessly stride about the deck or scurry up rigging without requiring a
roll, even in the middle of a howling typhoon or on impact with a submerged
reef. The rest of the crew may fly overboard from the impact or lashing winds,
but the Exalt stands eerily unruffled. Characters using this Charm are also
completely immune to seasickness.
Crew Sustaining
Technique
Cost: Varies
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:
Ghost on the Deck
Channeling the Essence of the Underworld
and his own life force, the character may reduce a crew's need for food and
rest. The character must spend one point of Willpower, plus 1 mote for every
four crewmembers or fraction thereof that he wishes to enchant. If there are
rats or other vermin aboard, their life energy is absorbed into powering the
Charm, reducing the cost to 1 mote per six crewmen. This side effect steadily
kills off all pests, including the inevitable weevils in the ship's biscuits,
which most sailors regard as a bad omen. Unless a ship is very large or very infested, it takes only two or three applications of
this Charm to completely eradicate all vermin aboard.
A sailor ensorcelled
with Crew Sustaining Technique needs only a quarter of the food, water and rest
that she normally does.
She does not suffer from scurvy or other dietary deficiencies from substandard
rations and feels unusually enervated. Long-term exposure is dangerous,
however. If this Charm is used on a character for more days than her Stamina,
each successive day reduces her Stamina by one dot. Characters reduced to zero
Stamina die. Lost Stamina returns at the rate of one point
per day. Only after a character has fully recovered her Stamina can she
be safely enchanted again. This Charm has no effect on Exalted or other magical
beings and cannot be used except to sustain the crew and passengers of a ship.
Phantom Sail
Technique
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Master Sailor's
Memory
With this Charm, a character channels
Essence to patch the rips and tears of a damaged sail and rigging. The
character concentrates and raises his hand, summoning a morass of shadows to
spread over the targeted sail. For the next 24 hours, the sail behaves as if
undamaged and provides appropriate propulsion. If a ship has multiple sails,
the Exalt may have to use this Charm more than once. While Phantom Sail
Technique can restore clinging tatters to full function, it cannot create a
sail from nothing. At least some identifiable vestiges must remain.
Ghost Wind Prana
Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Phantom Sail
Technique
The Abyssal stands on deck, arms upraised
and crackling with Essence as she summons a cold wind from the Underworld. This
wind only exists to propel her vessel and displaces all natural breezes for
that purpose, but otherwise, it does not disturb the water or the wind for other
ships (though they may hear its eerie howling). Ships so enchanted move as
though the wind were full in their sails, regardless of the prevailing wind's
direction or the course set by the helmsman. The spectral wind has the same
intensity as the winds around it, however, so ships sailing in a hurricane must
still contend with the dangers of such a gale.
Wind-Killing
Stance
Cost: 20 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Ghost on the Deck,
Ghost Wind Prana
With this Charm, an Abyssal can extend a
zone of stillness from him, displacing even the fiercest gales within its
periphery. The Exalt stands on deck and concentrates, tracing a horizontal arc
with his arms. At the conclusion of the gesture, a spherical wave of Essence
flashes out from the arc to a radius of (the character's permanent Essence x
15) yards. This wave vanishes almost immediately, but its magic kills all
breezes inside its boundary. This artificial stillness moves with the Exalt and
lasts for one scene or until its creator dies or moves more than a yard
from his original location on deck. The character can still speak and gesture
normally while maintaining this Charm, however. Wind-Killing Stance cannot stop
magical breezes or breezes called by magical beings unless their creator is
substantially less powerful than the Abyssal (Storyteller's discretion). This
Charm is primarily used to weather storms and to prevent enemy sailing vessels
from escaping.
Hull-Hardening
Technique
Cost: 1 mote per 1L of soak, plus 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Ghost Wind Prana
By laying hands against a ship and willing
Essence to flow through its timbers, an Abyssal with this Charm can mystically
reinforce her vessel. The ship gains 1L soak per mote spent, although the
deathknight cannot purchase more points of soak than his Stamina + Sail. This
limit applies to all applications of the Charm in a scene. Hull-Hardening Technique
does not require Willpower if used to strengthen a ship while another
application the Charm remains active. Hulls regularly treated with this Charm
look bleached and weathered before their time, although they retain the
durability of their true age.
Hull-Restoring
Meditation
Cost: Varies, plus 1 Willpower
Duration: Special
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Hull-Hardening
Technique
The Abyssal extends his anima in a myriad
of tendrils through the hull, caulking and patching breaches and split seams
with raw Essence. Within moments, this energy calcifies into a durable material
with the consistency and appearance of bleached bone. Repairing combat damage
requires the Abyssal to spend motes equal to the ship's
damaged or destroyed rating, as appropriate to the severity of damage. For
non-combat repairs and general caulking, the Storyteller should assign an
Essence cost based on the severity of damage and the ship's size.
Sealing a leaky warship requires
considerably more Essence than a river yacht.
While this Charm can stave off certain
destruction by sealing massive breaches, it does not remove handling penalties
for water trapped in the hull. Such penalties remain until the water is pumped
or bailed out normally. This Charm requires something resembling an intact hull
to work. It cannot regenerate entire missing segments, let alone restore a
ruined hulk. Ships repeatedly treated with this Charm look far more like
floating skeletons of behemoths than vessels fashioned by human hands. This
Charm cannot repair ships of First Age design. This Charm lasts for a number of
hours equal to the Abyssal's Essence in Creation, but if the ship is in or
enters a shadowland or the Underworld while the hull is so patched, the patches
will endure so long as it does not leave that shadowland or the Underworld.
Unsinkable
Derelict Preservation
Cost: 10 motes, 2 Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Hull-Restoring
Meditation
Although it is possible to strengthen and
repair vessels with lesser Charms, an Abyssal with Unsinkable Derelict
Preservation can enchant a ship to ignore damage entirely. The Exalt channels
Essence through the ship's hull, temporarily sealing all breaks and gashes with
translucent wisps of relic from the Underworld. Ships ensorcelled with this
Charm act entirely as if whole, keeping out water and moving with their normal
maneuverability and speed. Further damage is also similarly ignored for the
Charm's duration. Once the Charm's protection ends, severely damaged vessels
take on water and sink normally. This Charm can even restore a rotting hulk to
full operation, so long as enough of the hull remains to identify the ship.
Vessels that have broken asunder cannot be enchanted, as they lack the material
foundation to accept relic grafts.
Ultimately, the Storyteller is the final
arbiter of whether or not a ship retains enough substance to preserve. This
Charm can affect First Age ships.