Sail Charms
Salty Dog Method
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
While this Charm remains in effect, it
gives the character perfect sea legs. While the Charm lasts, the character will
not lose his balance or footing, even on the most storm-tossed ship, though
collisions and so forth may still require Dexterity + Athletics rolls.
Characters using this Charm will not become seasick, even on rough seas.
Shipwreck-Surviving
Stamina
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Salty Dog Method
A character using this Charm can survive
indefinitely in water. She will never tire from treading water and may drink
seawater without ill effect. She is protected from sunburn and other exposure
effects and can hold her breath for up to five minutes per point of Stamina.
This Charm does nothing to ward off hostile sea life, nor does it protect a
character from inclement weather.
Perfect Reckoning
Technique
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Salty Dog Method
Through the use of this Charm, the
character may learn exactly where her ship lies in relation to landmarks and
locations she already knows. This knowledge allows her to pinpoint her
location, but only in regard to known landmarks. The Charm does not allow the
character to indirectly divine the local geography by sensing her distance from
previously uncharted reefs or lost islands.
Weather-Anticipating
Intuition
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Perfect Reckoning
Technique
By placing her finger in the water, the
character can instantly predict future weather for a number of days equal to
the
Depth-Plumbing
Intuition
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Perfect Reckoning
Technique
By feeling the Essence flows in the world
around him, the character can sense the depth of the water for (100 x his Essence
rating) yards. This knowledge allows him to discern harbor channels, sense
reefs and so on.
Note that awareness of a hazard doesn’t
necessarily mean that the character’s ship is agile or well-handled enough to
avoid the obstacle.
Wind-Defying Course
Technique
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Salty Dog Method
A character using this Charm while aboard a
ship can tack much more closely to the wind than would be normal for his ship and
rigging. Ships affected by this Charm cannot sail directly into the wind, but
they can sail very near to it and, in general, handle more lightly and
responsively than normal. Aside from additions to maneuverability and speed,
which vary from ship to ship, the pilot may add the Essence rating of the
character invoking the Charm to her Dexterity + Sail for ship handling. A ship
that has had multiple Exalted use this Charm on it only benefits from the
character with the highest Essence score.
Storm-Weathering
Essence Infusion
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Wind-Defying Course
Technique
Storms are great banes of ships,
particularly the lightly built galleys that ferry cargo between the ports of
the
Hull-Preserving
Technique
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower,
1 health level
Duration: One turn
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Storm-Weathering
Essence Infusion
Even more dangerous to a boat than a storm
is a sharp impact — from the ram of a warship or from a rock or shoal. Even
running aground on a sandbank can gut a ship or damage it so severely it
founders. By bracing herself against the ship and channeling Essence through it
at the moment of impact, the character can cause her magic to absorb the
damage, leaving the ship unharmed. This effect can cause severe damage to a
ramming vessel, as the preserved ship yields only as much as the impact of the
ram pushes it sideways through the water. The character may have to use this
Charm multiple turns in a row if the ship suffers multiple impacts. For
example, if the ship fails to turn away and scrapes longways
across a reef, the character may have to renew the Charm every turn the
scraping continues. As with Storm-Weathering Essence Infusion, a character
cannot use this Charm to protect a ship of more than (20 x the character’s
Essence rating) feet in length.
Seeking The
Earth’s Bounty Method
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Perfect Reckoning Technique
By casting his will forth upon the waters,
the Chosen can uncover where the nearest safe harbor or beaching site is
located and how to get there. Although the approach to the harbor will be clear
of hazards and the beach there usable for small craft (even if the vessel
itself cannot beach), the harbor will not necessarily be safe for the crew.
There might well be monsters in the bay or surroundings, the nearby natives (if
any) may be unfriendly, or other hidden dangers may exist.
Fire’s Kiss
Resistance Prana
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Wind-Defying Course Technique
Fire is rightly feared on all sea-going
vessels. Even a ship with a First Age hull is filled with furnishings and
supplies that will burn ― and the crew has nowhere to go. Even small
fires are tolerated only because of necessity, and the galley on a ship is the
most carefully designed part of most vessels. This Charm renders a vessel
completely immune to the ravages of fire altogether; while it is in effect, no
natural fire can start aboard the ship. Although existing fires will not be
affected, neither will the spread further, confining themselves to destroying
what they are actually burning at that moment; any fuel added to the fire will
simply refuse to burn. Magical or elemental fires can be set normally, but they
will burn for half as long and take half the effort to douse than usual. While
burning, they will inflict whatever damage they normally would, however.
Ignore The Wind’s
Course Technique
Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Wind-Defying Course Technique
By dint of this Charm, an Exalted helmsman
can not only tack deeper into the wind than any mortal helmsman, she may ignore
its direction completely. So long as the Charm is in effect, her vessel moves
as if the wind were full in its sails, no matter what direction the winds
actually blow or what course the
helmsman sets. Anyone watching the Exalted’s vessel
while it sails in defiance of the winds will obviously know that some sort of
powerful magic is in use.
Mast’s Unbreakable
Will Prana
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Wind-Defying Course Method
A ship’s mast is its life; without the
mast, a sailing vessel is utterly subject to tide and current, and few vessels
survive an attack or sudden squall that wrecks the mast. By way of this Charm, the
Exalt can render the mast of a ship he is one immune to event he greatest winds
or the strongest attacks. Only actions taken by Deathlords,
extremely powerful elementals or spirits and the most powerful Exalted (those
with a permanent Essence of 6 or greater) can hope to destroy a ship’s mast
while this Charm is in effect.
Harden The Hull
Practice
Cost: 3 motes + 2 per (Essence)L of soak
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Storm-Weathering Essence Infusion
Unseen hazards and dangers are a threat to
every sailing vessel. Using this Charm, an Exalt can reinforce the hull of her
vessel to resist these unforeseen problems. For every 2 motes of Essence she
spends, the hull gains lethal soak equal to the Exalted’s
permanent Essence. This Charm can be applied multiple times to the same vessel
in a scene, but under no circumstances can the soak gained through the use of
this Charm exceed the highest Stamina + Sail total of any Exalt who used this
Charm on the ship during the scene.
Ship’s Hull
Maintenance Technique
Cost: 10 motes, 2 Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Harden the Hull Practice
Breaches, cracks and holes in the hull will
send even the largest ship to a watery grave. By means of this Charm, the Exalt
can stave off this doom, if not prevent it altogether. The Solar summons his
Essence and lets it flow into the hull, temporarily sealing any breaks or
missing portions of the hull and making it seaworthy again, for a time. While
this Charm is in effect, the vessel will act in all ways as if it were whole;
water will be kept out of holds, and the ship will maneuver and travel just as
if undamaged (if subjected to further damage, however, the ship will continue
to deteriorate, until it is incapable of floating at all). The Charm requires
something resembling an intact vessel to work; it cannot replace whole missing
sections of a ship, nor can it turn the skeletal remnants of a ruined hulk back
into a functioning vessel on its own.
Golden Essence Sails
Cost: 6 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Salty Dog Method
The character
using this Charm weaves sails out of pure Essence for a ship that has no sails
(or badly damaged ones). The new sails are of shimmering golden cloth, as light
as silk but stronger than canvas. They appear on the ship’s masts and furl or
unfurl at their creator’s command. They may bear an emblem of the Chosen’s
anima, if she wishes it. Golden Essence Sails have a soak value of (the Exalt’s permanent Essence score + 2) for resisting attacks
against the ship’s rigging or sails, and they do not accumulate damage (they
ignore any attack insufficient to damage them, just like the ship itself does).
Phantom Crew Charm
Cost: 8 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Golden Essence Sails
With this Charm,
the Chosen calls into being phantom sailors able to crew any ship the character
is aboard. The phantom crew speaks only when necessary and obeys all of its summoner’s orders. The phantom sailors will sail the ship
anywhere and perform any shipboard duties, although they will not fight and
should be treated as extras with relevant Abilities equal to the Exalted’s Essence. The character can summon a crew
sufficient for a ship of up to (Essence x 40) feet in length.
Glorious Solar Ship
Cost: 15 motes, 1
Willpower
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
Minimum Sail: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Phantom Crew Charm
The Exalted
conjures an entire vessel from pure Essence, capable of bearing him and a
maximum length of (the character’s Essence rating x 20) feet and appears ready
to sail, with all of the necessary equipment on board. The Glorious Solar Ship
has no crew; it is up to the Chosen to provide one, either mortal or otherwise.
Other Sail Charms can be applied normally to the Glorious Solar Ship.