The Worker
Pattern
Pillar Of (Virtue)
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence + 1) hours
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
With solemnity and dignity fueled by
Essence, a Worker accepts the burdens and blessings of service. Pillar of
(Virtue) is actually four separate Charms, one for each Virtue. Characters who
know multiple versions can activate them in conjunction on the same initiative
as if they were a single Charm. Additionally, Jadeborn
who master all four versions reduce the activation cost to 2 motes per Charm
instead of 3. Characters can only benefit from one application of each version
at a time. Reactivating the Charm before the effect wears off merely resets the
duration.
Compassion: The Jadeborn
becomes deeply empathic, adding a bonus of half her Compassion rating (rounded
up) to all Ability dice pools to discern the emotional state or health of
others.
Conviction: The Worker becomes unswervingly loyal to
his superiors (or personal values, if Enlightened). Whenever
anyone attempts to make the Worker directly betray the subject of his loyalty
(either magically or through mundane means), add the Jadeborn’s
Conviction rating to the resistance roll. In the case of magic that offers no
resistance roll, the Worker’s player may roll Conviction + Essence at a
difficulty of the opposing character’s Essence rating to ignore the effect.
This Charm does not protect characters from all forms of mind-control and
influence, only such effects as would lead to a betrayal of true loyalties.
Temperance: The Jadeborn
gains a practical intuition for task management. She can determine the complexity
and efforts required for any job, as well as gauge the expected interference of
all perceived and predictable obstacles. Furthermore, she can determine any
required tools and calculate the projected time required for the task. From a
rules perspective, the Worker’s player knows the final difficulty of any roll after
applying all modifiers, as well as all other supplementary information outlined
above. Her foresight also adds bonus dice equal to half of her Temperance
rating (rounded up) to all Physical and Mental Attribute actions with a duration of two turns or more, provided she spends a full
turn contemplating the task in advance as a simple action. This bonus cannot
stack with itself for longer planning efforts.
Valor: The Worker grows inured to hardship,
adding half his Valor rating to all Endurance and Resistance pools to withstand
harsh environmental conditions or fatigue.
Harvest Multiplying
Labor
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Until harvest or slaughter
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Compassion
A potent aid to farmers, Harvest
Multiplying Labor accelerates the healthy growth of crops and nonsentient livestock. Use of this Charm requires one day
of inspecting, watering, feeding and otherwise tending the agricultural
products. The Worker cannot affect more than one acre of farmland or (the Jadeborn’s Essence x 10) cumulative health levels worth of
livestock with a single activation of this Charm. Target animals must be non-magical
and either domesticated or penned for the purposes of domestication. Crops affected
by this Charm grow twice as tall, fast and thick, producing double their standard
yield. Furthermore, they are exceptionally resistant to blight and only take
ill from magical diseases.
Livestock blessed by this Charm grow
stronger and roughly 25 percent larger, as represented by the Large pox, over the course of a month, as well as adding an
automatic success to all rolls to resist disease. The increased bulk and
resistance to disease lasts for the remainder of the animal’s life.
Unfortunately, the Charm cuts the remaining life span of such beings in half.
Enhanced animals yield almost twice as much meat as they would otherwise do so
and lay eggs twice as often (for egg-laying species). Crops and animals can
only benefit from a single application of this Charm and ignore all subsequent
activations.
Essence Aligning
Treatment
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Until fully healed
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Compassion
The Worker spends a minute massaging a
living patient’s pressure points and Essence centers, his touch warm and
gentle. In addition to inducing mild euphoria, the treatment harmonizes the
body’s rhythms and Essence flows to greater efficiency. Patients blessed with
this Charm multiply their standard healing rate by the Worker’s Compassion rating
to recover from all bashing and lethal injuries. Furthermore, the patient’s
player adds one die to all rolls made for the patient to resist or throw off
disease (including infection). The benefits of this Charm last a number of days
equal to the Worker’s Compassion or until the patient has healed all bashing
and lethal injuries and purged her system of all disease (whichever comes
first). Jadeborn may treat themselves
with this Charm.
Earth Yields Abundance
Cost: 30 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Harvest Multiplying
Labor, Essence Aligning Treatment
The Worker presses both hands in the
dirt of sown farmland or lays them upon an immature animal. Verdant Essence
flows from the touch and races outward in a pulse that skims the land or
briefly outlines the animal in an aura of power. Wherever the light passes,
life flourishes. On croplands, the Charm triggers vastly accelerated growth in
plants and fungi. Everything from a seed and spore to a scraggly blighted husk
grows to the enhanced prime of life in the span of a single day. Such growth is
unsustainable, so every plant and fungus withers and dies a week after being
treated with this Charm.
The region of intensified growth can
have any shape and dimensions, but the zone cannot extend further away than
(the Worker’s Compassion x 100) yards. Only Jadeborn
with Essence 5 can target sentient animals with this Charm (including mortals),
and the Charm cannot ever affect magical beings. Animals touched by the Charm
grow to full maturity in the span of an day, during which
time they are wracked with pain and mostly helpless. The Charm permanently
bolsters strength, size and disease immunity exactly as Harvest Multiplying Labor
but similarly cuts the being’s remaining life span in half. Furthermore, the
animal retains the mental faculties of its true age.
Faithful Servant’s
Mien
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Conviction
The Worker dons the persona of humble
servitude, submerging his true personality behind a mask of duty. This allows
him to tend to the needs of obligation with maximum efficiency, removing the
imperative to pursue his own goals during hours of free time. For the duration
of the Charm, the character’s Nature changes to Follower, and he doubles all
Willpower recovered as a result of acting in accordance with this Archetype.
However, such characters lose a point of Willpower whenever they take any action
in direct contradiction with their new Nature. As a final benefit, the character
adds one bonus die to all Ability rolls made in fulfillment of duty or in
direct defense of a recognized superior. This bonus only applies when the character’s
superior orders him to complete a task and does not benefit rolls made as a
result of the Worker’s autonomous initiative.
Enlightened Mountain Folk using this
Charm become obedient to the greater good of their race and the ideal of order
rather than the social hierarchy itself. Their Nature changes to Paragon, and
they receive the bonus die to actions that heroically serve the greater good
even above their own desires and happiness.
Eidetic Recollection
Discipline
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Conviction
With this Charm, a Worker may perfectly
recall any piece of sensory information she has ever encountered. She need only
concentrate a moment, and the desired memory replays itself in her mind as if
she were reliving it. As an added bonus, this mnemonic boost adds one automatic
success to any subsequent Ability roll partially based on memory (correctly
mixing an alchemical mixture, making a good first impression using memorized
customs, etc.). Players must take good notes for characters with this Charm, or
else, they must accept the rulings and often less-than- perfect memory of the
Storyteller.
Obedience Inculcation
Method
Cost: Varies
Duration: Varies
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Faithful Servant’s
Mien, Eidetic Recollection Discipline
Where lesser Workers reap the rewards of
dutiful compliance, Enlightened Mountain Folk with this Charm may command
obedience. The Jadeborn lays one hand on each side of
a sentient subject’s head and stares into her eyes, spending one Willpower
point and motes equal to (the subject’s Willpower + Essence x 2). Essence
flashes in a brilliant arc through the subject’s overwhelmed brain, blue-white
light spilling from her eyes and mouth. The subject’s Willpower rating drops by
a number of dots equal to the Jadeborn’s Conviction (to
a minimum of the subject’s permanent Essence).
She immediately loses all Willpower
points in excess of her new rating. If this results in a Willpower rating of 3 or
less, the subject’s Nature shifts to Follower. She becomes docile and passive
with a strong desire to serve her new master to the best of her ability. This
master can be the Jadeborn or anyone he designates.
If the subject’s Willpower is higher than 3, she retains free will to the capacity
of her dimmed spirit. If the Worker desires greater complicity, he must use the
Charm again. The effects of this Charm are not permanent. Mortals, God-Blooded,
Unenlightened Mountain Folk and weaker magical beings recover one dot of
Willpower every month and regain their former Nature and autonomy when their
Willpower rises to 4 or higher. Exalted, Enlightened Mountain Folk and other
magical beings of comparable power and significance recover a dot every week.
Chaos Seers recover a dot every day. Alternately, Emerald Countermagic
can break the compulsion immediately and fully restore subjects to their former
selves, though sorcerers cannot free themselves in this manner. This Charm
cannot affect beings with a higher permanent Essence than the character using
the Charm. Using this Charm on mortals or Exalted is an egregious violation of
the Great Geas.
Obedience Inculcation Method is most
often used as a combination of punishment and reeducation for the few recalcitrant
Workers deemed salvageable by the Conclave. It is illegal to use this Charm on
an Enlightened citizen without the direct
authorization of the Conclave, but it is not quite as egregious a crime as
murder so the practice sees some use in spite of the ban. Chaos Seers are always
treated with this Charm before being transported between locations, in hopes
the Charm will prevent escapes and fatal accidents.
Incomparable Efficiency
Trance
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One task
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Temperance
The Worker dedicates his will to a
single physical task with a duration greater than
instant. For as long as he continues to do nothing but labor at that single
task, he accelerates his pace by a factor of his permanent Essence. Mountain
Folk employing this Charm are not much faster than before, but they move with
greater apparent skill and economy of motion. If a Worker takes a break or
attempts any other non-reflexive actions not directly associated with the job,
the trance ends.
Hundred Tool Technique
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: One scene
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of
Temperance
With application of Essence and this
Charm, a Worker gains the ability to replicate the function of any and all
simple mechanical tools with his bare hands. This Charm does not actually
change the Jadeborn’s hands in any apparent way
except to toughen them, but it allows feats that appear impossible. For
example, a fist can hammer a nail, a fingernail can turn screws, a hand’s edge can
saw and slice through planks, and a turned finger can drill holes. This Charm
is perfected in its emulation, adding one bonus die to any roll aided by the
improvised tools. Hundred Tool Technique cannot
emulate weapons or facilitate changes quickly enough to merit a direct attack,
although a bit of concentration and a drilling finger aids in interrogations as
readily as in industry.
Transcendent Efficacy
Instruction
Cost: 1 mote per subject, plus 1
Willpower
Duration: One task
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Incomparable
Efficiency Trance, Hundred Tool Technique
The Mountain Folk gathers subordinates
and assigns them a task. She must spend 1 mote per subject, plus one Willpower
point, and no subordinate can have a higher permanent Essence than her own. So
long as the affected laborers carry out their assignment together as a
collaborative effort, they multiply their rate of progress by the lowest
permanent Essence among the group (minimum of double speed). This bonus is
additively cumulative with Incomparable Efficiency Trance, so a x3 and x2 modifier yields x5 rather than x6. Anyone who
stops work for any reason loses the benefits of this Charm, exactly as with
Incomparable Efficiency Trance.
Synergy Of Purpose
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One task
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of Valor
This Charm links groups of cooperating
Workers into a collective hive-mind, allowing the collective sense of purpose
to enhance every effort toward harmonious synchronicity. The Jadeborn gains one bonus die for every five characters
using this Charm, provided that each contributing character is working toward
the same task. This bonus cannot exceed the character’s Valor rating. For tasks
that are extended rolls, the bonus applies to each roll until the job is done
or until sufficient laborers leave the collective pool to lower the number of extra
dice. If the Worker stops his own labors prematurely or does any unrelated task
requiring conscious effort, the Charm immediately ends.
Industry And Forge Wisdom
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Pillar of Valor
The Worker draws upon the imprint of the
Machine God in his soul, channeling brute intuition to understand and operate a
mechanism. For most Workers, this experience is the closest they ever get to
the glory of Enlightenment. The character may substitute Valor for an Ability
rating in a single roll, provided the roll fulfills the stated intent of the
Charm (therefore usually replacing Lore or Craft). For the purposes of Industry
and Forge Wisdom, a mechanism can be magical or can operate purely on complex
mundane physical principles such as clockwork. If the character has the
required Ability at an equal or higher rating than Valor, he instead adds half
his Valor rating (rounded up) as bonus dice.
Crucible Of Earthblood
Cost: 30 motes, 3 Willpower
Duration: One hour
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Synergy of Purpose,
Industry and Forge Wisdom
With minds like machines, Enlightened
Workers probe beneath mechanisms to the primal fire at the core of all
industry. Somewhere between alchemy and blacksmithing, this Charm allows Jadeborn to stoke bonfire-sized flames with Essence in an
elaborate ritual lasting five minutes. When completed, the rite transforms the
burning energies into the primordial ideal of fire. Flames enchanted by
Crucible of Earthblood rage at volcanic temperatures
and burn where they were made without fuel or air, quickly reducing whatever
sits beneath or around them to so much slag and mephitic vapor. Only furnaces
made from adamant, the Magical Materials or similarly durable substances can
contain and resist these fires, as anyone or anything foolish enough to touch
the obliterating white fire suffers 20A per turn. Besides scorching deep
craters and causing utter devastation, this Charm has an equally powerful constructive
purpose. In the crucible, gold smelts and purifies to orichalcum,
silver flows to moonsilver, diamonds harden to
adamant, and mixed precious ores crystallize into fine jade. Only
a tenth of the mass remains of the original substances, the rest having been consumed
by the process of forging the remainder into Magical Materials. Every
five minutes of exposure converts 10 pounds of precious ore into a pound of the
appropriate substance. In general, the precious raw materials for artifacts
have a Resources cost equal to (the rating of the artifact + 2). Consequently,
lesser wonders require a dramatic investment of wealth, while greater wonders
remain well beyond the purview of most individuals to finance on their own.
This Charm cannot create soulsteel or starmetal.
Earthen Insight
Method
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: One Pillar of
(Virtue) Charm
The Worker reaches out with her mind,
searching for familiar patterns in the earth. She can use this Charm in one of
two ways, either orienting herself toward concentrations of a specific material
or mapping the surrounding terrain. In the former case, the Worker can choose
any earth-based substance she has ever touched, including metals, rock types, specific varieties of jewels and so on. If any of that
substance exists within a radius of (her Essence x 10) yards, she senses the
direction and distance of the largest concentration from her present location.
She does not know the quantity or quality of the deposit. If this Charm is used
as a map, it provides a snapshot image of the terrain within the aforementioned
radius. The character only knows what spaces are filled with earth and what
spaces are not. She has no way to know whether a particular empty region is
filled with air, water or a nest of hungry Darkbroods.
This Charm only functions underground in Creation.
Stone-Breaking Touch
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One hour
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Earthen Insight
Method
Essence spreads over the Worker’s body
with a faint hum, changing pitch and tone as he moves. For the next hour, his
unarmed attacks inflict lethal damage to any non-magical inanimate object made
of earth (metal, stone, ceramics, etc.), and he cannot injure himself delivering
such blows. Furthermore, all hand-to-hand attacks against earthen objects
double their raw damage before applying the target’s soak. Finally, the
character is always assured of inflicting at least one level of damage with
each successful blow, even if the object’s soak completely negates the attack.
This ensures that the Worker can slowly tunnel and carve through even the toughest
ores.
Flowing Rock Stride
Cost: 8 motes per hour
Duration: Varies
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Stone-Breaking
Touch
The Worker closes her eyes and
concentrates, walking confidently into barriers of solid stone or other earth. As
she reaches the obstruction, her body and personal possessions displace the
rock with less resistance than water. In her wake, the stone hardens back to
its original configuration. For as long as the Charm lasts, she can half-walk, half-swim through the earth at her normal
ground speed without needing to breathe. She can move horizontally, at an angle
or even vertically if so desired. Although blind, she remains constantly aware
of her surrounding terrain according to the guidelines and range of Earthen Insight
Method. Multiple activations of this Charm extend the duration of the effect
accordingly. If the Charm ends while the character remains encased in earth,
she is entombed in unyielding earth and immediately begin to suffocate. Without
other magic or outside help, she will soon perish unless she reactivates this
Charm.
Parting Stone Blessing
Cost: 10 motes per hour, plus 1 Willpower
Duration: Varies
Type: Enchantment
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Rock Stride
By touching another being, the Jadeborn can confer the effects of Flowing Rock Stride upon
her. The target need not be willing, and this Charm may be activated from
within a clinch. Particularly sadistic Mountain Folk have been known to hurl
their enchanted enemies into walls or floors and then deactivate the Charm,
leaving such victims to die horribly.
Command The Earth
Cost: Varies
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: All Pillar of
(Virtue) Charms, Parting Stone Blessing
The Jadeborn
gestures imperiously and grandiosely, directing the earth around him with the
raw force of Essence.
This Charm can only impose crude and
sweeping changes without finesse or grace, though not necessarily without primal
beauty. For example, the character can open yawning chasms or raise megalithic
towers, crumble walls of stone like eggshells and variably cave in or open long
stretches of tunnels. These changes cost two Willpower points, plus 1 mote for
every three cubic yards of earth affected. Only three cubic yards shift each
turn after the character uses the Charm, so most changes take several minutes
to completely assemble. Thankfully for witnesses, the rate of change is slow
enough that agile characters can avoid suffering damage. The tectonic forces
generally pulverize any characters unfortunate enough to be caught in the
changes (this does about 20L damage every three turns if the character doesn’t
move, plus leads to possible suffocation), so Storytellers should give players
ample opportunity to move their characters out of the way or take ingenious
shelter.
Worker Pattern Mastery
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Entire Worker
Pattern (21 Charms total)
Enlightened Mountain Folk who obtain
cumulative mastery of the Worker Pattern become intrinsically attuned to its
ways and power. This transcendent state reduces the Essence cost of all Charms
in this Pattern by 3 motes, to a minimum expenditure of 1 mote. More
importantly, these engineer-savants can construct new extensions of the Pattern
by creating their own custom Charms. Each personal Charm requires Storyteller
approval and oversight, and all must have at least one of the existing Worker Pattern
Charms as a direct or ultimate prerequisite. Custom Charms should follow the
themes and overall power level of the Worker Pattern, particularly with regard
to emphasis on practicality as well as interaction of Virtues and elements.
Only Jadeborn with Worker Pattern Mastery can learn
custom Charms for this Pattern.