Thrown
Charms
Hungry Missile Technique
Cost: 1 mote per die
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Thrown:
2
Minimum Essence:
1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Suffused with malevolent
hunger, the character's weapon leaps from her hand and turns in flight to
pursue its prey. After
the target declares any defense, the Abyssal may activate this Charm to
subtract one die per mote spent from the target's player's defense roll against
a single Thrown attack the Abyssal makes. The Abyssal cannot spend more motes
powering this Charm than are required to reduce a victim's dice pool to his
permanent Essence rating. If the target has Charms or other effects that allow multiple
forms of defense, Hungry Missile Technique applies only to the first defense.
Lightning Clutch
Of The Raptor
Cost: 1 mote (4 motes against area attacks)
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Thrown:
4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Hungry Missile
Technique
A character with this Charm moves with
impossible speed, plucking arrows and other missile weapons from the air before
they can hit her. The Abyssal may reflexively parry any ranged attack she is
aware of with her full Dexterity + Thrown. If this roll leaves the attacker
with no successes, the Exalt has successfully caught the projectile and may
subsequently do with it whatever she wishes. Even if the defender fails to
score more successes than her attacker, she still reduces the damage of the
attack as normal, so the Charm is not an all-or-nothing proposition. The speed
at which the character grabs incoming missiles is sufficient to douse most
fires, including flames set by the Solar Charm Fiery Arrow Attack. The
character cannot parry bolts of Essence or other purely mystical projectiles
unless she has a permanent Essence of 3 or higher. If an Abyssal fully parries
an intangible missile, it disperses harmlessly against her palm.
Lightning Clutch of the Raptor may also be
used to defend against ranged area-of-effect attacks such as the Death of
Obsidian Butterflies. This use costs 4 motes instead of 1, and the character
only deflects missiles threatening her. Otherwise, parrying an area assault
follows the same rules as any other application of this Charm.
Incomparable Assassin
Method
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Thrown:
3
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Hungry Missile
Technique
An Abyssal with this Charm instinctively
knows where and how to throw his weapon to deliver a fatal blow. The player
makes an attack roll as normal, but the damage is doubled after it is rolled.
However, if this not enough to kill the target outright, the strike only
inflicts one automatic unsoakable health level of damage. As an ancillary benefit,
the character's attack inflicts lethal damage (at least 1L) if it didn't
already, so this attack can be used to throw tiny or unconventional weapons
such as dominos with Range 10, Accuracy +0, Rate 3.
Aid Of Ill Wind
Cost: 2+ motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Thrown:
3
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The Abyssal lightens her weapon as she
launches it, buoying its flight with a spectral gust summoned from the Underworld.
The weapon's range increases by one factor for every 2 motes spent. Thus, a
character that spends 2 motes doubles her attack's range, while one who spends
4 motes triples it, etc. Characters cannot spend more 2-mote increments
activating this Charm than they have points of permanent Essence.
Ivory Spine Attack
Cost: 1 mote per needle
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Thrown:
4
Minimum
Medicine: 1
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Aid of ill Wind
With a subtle flick of her wrist, an
Abyssal who knows this Charm may extrude a slender bone needle from her palm or
fingertip. The needle itself is quite small — no more than the length of a
child's finger — but its paralytic venom coating helps make up for its size.
Needles created with this Charm have a base lethal damage and Accuracy equal to
the character's Essence rating and a Range in yards of five times this value.
Without other magic, a character cannot throw more than three needles per turn.
Note that needles do not add Strength for determining damage, although attack
successes contribute normally. Needles remain envenomed for one hour after
creation. Players of unarmored characters struck by a poisoned needle must reflexively
roll Stamina + Resistance against a difficulty of the Abyssal's Medicine score.
Exalted victims whose players fail this roll suffer levels of unsoakable lethal
damage equal to the deathknights Essence. UnExalted victims whose players fail
die painfully after one day unless treated with curative magic. The Abyssal
Exalt is naturally immune to her own poison.
Thousand Needle Torrent
Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 health
level
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Thrown: 5
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Ivory Spine Attack
The character channels Essence through her
entire skeleton, growing hundreds of Essence-laden bone needles similar to
those produced with Ivory Spine Attack. Within seconds, the needles tear
through her skin at high velocity, saturating the immediate area with
razor-sharp spikes. Everyone within five yards of the Exalt suffers lethal damage
(soaked normally) equal to the Abyssal's Stamina + Thrown + Essence.
This damage is reduced by one die for
every yard further out, so victims six yards away suffer (Stamina + Thrown +
Essence - 1 )L, etc. This damage cannot be dodged or blocked without a stunt or
Charm. Successes on dodge or block attempts reduce the damage by 1L per
success. Needles created with this Charm disintegrate seconds after their
explosive flight. Armored characters may not use this Charm, as their armor
blunts the explosion.
Burrowing Bone Maggot
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum Thrown:
5
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Ivory Spine Attack
With this Charm, an Abyssal may fling a
burrowing splinter of gleaming bone at his target. Upon striking a living
victim, the spine rapidly burrows into her body and begins its painful journey
to her heart. The needle has the same statistics as one created with Ivory
Spine Attack, although it is not poisonous. Rather, if it successfully hits a
victim, it begins inflicting one die of unsoakable lethal damage each minute.
This damage continues until the victim dies or the Abyssal wills the needle to
temporarily stop. The Abyssal can later will the needle to resume its path at
any time. The spine itself remains in existence as long as the Abyssal leaves
Essence committed to it or until its victim dies. Skilled doctors can sometimes
remove a Burrowing Bone Maggot, but the Dexterity + Medicine roll for such
surgery has a minimum difficulty of 4 and requires a sharp knife and the
surgeon's undivided dice action for 10 turns (half a minute).
Pitiless Scything
Razor
Cost: 7 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Thrown:
5
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Incomparable Assassin
Method, Aid of Ill Wind
A thrown weapon enchanted with this Charm
becomes an extension of its owner's malice, arcing and ricocheting from one
target to the next like a swooping bird of prey. The weapon makes a number of
separate attacks equal to the character's Thrown score. Each attack is made at
the Abyssal's full dice pool, with no subtractions for multiple actions. If an
attack misses, the weapon simply moves on to its next target. However, if any
roll botches, the weapon strikes an unintended victim and falls to the ground.
Otherwise, the weapon faithfully returns to its master's hand at the end of the
turn. All targets of Pitiless Scything Razor must be in range when the
character first throws the weapon, and no target may be hit more than once with
a given weapon during a single use of this Charm.
Ravening Crimson
Chakram
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Thrown:
5
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite
Charms: Pitiless Scything
Razor
Imbued with a measure of its master's
bloodlust, a weapon enchanted with this Charm leaps from its master's hand to
slake itself on the life energy of its prey. Ravening Crimson Chakram
duplicates the effects of Pitiless Scything Razor with two key differences:
First, the thrown weapon can attack the same target more than once. Second, the
weapon actually feeds when it hits, absorbing 1 mote of Essence for
every health level of damage inflicted after soak. If the Abyssal's player does
not botch any attack rolls, the deathknight gains all harvested motes when he
recovers his weapon at the end of the turn. Soulsteel throwing weapons also
drain motes as normal for each attack.