Nameless red jade shard wrapped in starmetal wire and a prayer trip for Saturn and the constellation of the Sword, can manifest a blade of violet flame and is intended by its creator to be a tool of Heaven for execution.
I haven’t thought of what kind of evocations would this daiklave manifest yet though aside from a bunch of anti-CoD (and probably gods too) effects.
You ever want to really ruin an artificer’s day? This is how you do that. Be careful with your starmetal weapons, folks. This is technically a campaign spoiler for one of my groups but oh well
As creatures from below the darkness learned of the fall of the Lawgivers, the Five Score Fellowship and the Dragonblooded Host found themselves with more enemies than allies. They had saved the mortals whose lives were held in the hands of their god-kings, but the monsters who raged beneath Creation stirred instead.
When Lu Kai first crafted his Quiver is unclear, but the stories about it fill Shogunate legends. An arrow from the skies would strike and the Mandate of Heaven would declare them victorious as they tore through any enemy, from the Fair Folk Tinted Iron Shadows to the raging behemoth The Burning Spite of Resplendent Air.
The final battle that Lu Kai aided was the end for both him and his weapon. As the Wyld poured across Creation like a wave, the sidereal fired shots in the aid of a tribe of Lunars, turning them into rampaging beasts. Even as they ripped Raksha limb from limb in a mad fury, Lu Kai became their enemy as well. Lu Kai fell that day and his quiver fell into the hands of the Wyld’s nobility.
Lu Kai himself was a Chosen of Battles, his name lost to the Dragonblooded who benefited from his weapon. He sewed threads of Starmetal into his shimmering quiver and forged an intricate handle of the remainder, drawn from fallen stars. While the bow has no limbs, neither above nor below the handle nor even string, the power fires for an attuned wielder.
Attunement: 5m
Type: Medium (ACC -1/+5/+3/+1/-1, +12 DMG, OVW 4)
Tag: Archery (Long), Lethal
Hearthstone Slots: 1
Era: The Shogunate(?)
Evocations of Lu Kai’s Quiver
Lu Kai’s Quiver is simply a handle found inside of a brilliantly shining rainbow colored satchel. The quiver need not be filled for reaching in produces an arrow made of anima and a string and bow form of the same light. At the end of the combat, all present forget this display of light unless they pay 1wp (or 1wp per point of Essence of a resonant wielder), remembering only a normal bow.
Terror-Slaying Shot
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Resonant
Duration: One roll
Prerequisite: None
The Exalt aims her shot not at her foe, but at her ally. She kills not their body, but their fear. This creates a Soul-Piercing gambit which has a difficulty of (target’s Guile). If the gambit is successful, then her ally’s Resolve is boosted by (her temporary Willpower / 2) or his roll gains (Temporary Willpower / 2) automatic successes to resist the next fear inducing effect. A battlegroup gains (Temporary Willpower / 2) automatic successes on their next rout check.
Resonant: Whenever an ally makes check against fear or has her Resolve attacked by a fear effect, she may activate this evocation reflexively. If she wishes to strike multiple allies in a single hit, she must forfeit her next action and pay 1m per additional ally, but rolls her full initiative for each gambit, at which point she resets to base initiative.
Nerve-Killing Streamer
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Dissonant
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite: Terror-Slaying Shot
Soldiers need survive the battle and no longer. This evocation creates a Soul-Piercing gambit like its prerequisite that instead kills her ally’s ability to feel pain. When shot, her ally gains (her temporary Willpower / 2) as -0 health levels that fill with damage before any others. Healing, even magical, cannot heal these fake health levels. At the end of the current scene or combat, these health levels fade, filling the normal health levels of her ally instantly, even if this would kill him.
Dissonant: Wielders dissonant with starmetal create -1 health levels instead.
Falter, Beast Accursed
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-Only, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite: Terror-Slaying Shot
The will to fight cannot just be bolstered, it can be shot out of a target and killed like a still beating heart. With a soul piercing arrow, the Exalt strikes her targets very will. This creates a Soul Piercing gambit against an enemy like its prerequisite. Instead of removing fear, her arrow induces it. If she succeeds, she rolls an automatic Intimidate action of (Manipulation + Presence) to get the enemy to surrender or flee. If her enemy pays a Willpower in a decision point to resist, the Exalt regains 1wp. This evocation can only affect a single target once per day.
Resonant: The target must spend Willpower equal to the Exalt’s (Essence) to resist. The Exalt still only regains a single point of Willpower.
To turn men into savage beasts in desperation became the only answer to Lu Kai’s eyes when the Wyld swept across creation. With this evocation, the Exalt targets a single range band within the range of the weapon and rolls Manipulation + Archery. Anyone in the range band whose current temporary Willpower is overcome, including the Exalt herself, becomes affected by a supernatural Inspire action that drives them into a furious rage of kill or be killed. They gain a Defining intimacy towards bloodshed and can only exit this state if a character not affected takes a successful Persuade action that draws on a defining intimacy. Even if this occurs, the target must spend 1 point of willpower per point of the Exalt’s essence.
Affected characters gain +1 success on all combat actions, ignore wound penalties, and become immune to fear. They must fight until every enemy is dead and then fight until every ally is dead. If no-one is around out to Long range of the last man standing by the time the rampage ends, he may exit this fugue state naturally. Even then, this evocation is extremely taxing and imposes a Derangement of a level appropriate to the amount of time spent in the state afterwards.
Battlegroups affected by this evocation gain +1 might, become immune to fear, and add the Exalt’s (Essence) to their Magnitude levels. When they eventually reduce to Size 1, they break apart and gain the normal benefits (and drawbacks) of this evocation.
Special Activation Rules: Only an Exalt resonant with Starmetal may activate this evocation.
