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View Full Version : Worlds From the Desert (Exalted 2nd Edition, Infernal Charms for Cecelyne)



GryffonDurime
2009-04-04, 04:56 PM
Right, so, not sure how many Homebrewers in the Playground are up on Exalted--much less the Infernals--but, submitted for the approval of the Playground, I present an additional charm tree for Cecelyne, the Endless Desert.



So...I'm just spitballing some charm ideas that are stuck in my head.

Desolation-Carving Petroglyph
Cost: 10m, 1w; Mins: Essence 3, Cult 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Messianic, Combo-Basic
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: First Cecelyne Excellency

Cecelyne, above all other Yozis, is infinity defined. Through the use of this charm a Green Sun Prince forms a link to a part of the endless desert that not even Cecelyne herself has conceived of yet.

Using this charm requires roughly twelve-hours worth of work, wherein the user etches a complex glyph into the natural features of a place of desolation, utilizing the exacting grammar and syntax of Cecelyne's own laws to so accurately describe a location, it can not help but exist. The created glyph is generally person-sized, and the investment of Essence insures it's stability: not even a glyph inscribed in the sands will blow away until the essence supporting this charm is uninvested.

The player rolls a Charisma + Linguistics check against a difficulty of 3. Success means that the glyph stabalizes. Any living creature that touches the glyph with bare flesh is instantly transported to the area described within--generally, an enclosed desert grotto or similar area of desolation no larger than 100 square yards per the user's Essence. Any attempts to leave this enclosed space are met with frustrating impossibility: there is nothing outside save a cold white nothing akin to Elsewhere--the emptiness of space that Cecelyne has yet to reach. For each extra success on the Charisma + Linguistics roll, the player may define one minor amenity provided by the nature of the area: outcroppings that form natural awnings, luminescent crystals. Such amenities may never include potable water or plant matter.

A similar glyph exists at the center of the created space that returns those within to Creation. Ending this charm destroys both glyphs and shunts anyone in the grotto immediately to Creation. A wise Prince is judicious in their use of this charm: it is an effective hideout, a sanctuary wherein even the greatest blasphemies may be practiced away from the eyes of Heaven...even still, the door does not close behind them.

Word-World Burden
Cost: -- (+5m) Mins: Essence 3, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Desolation-Carving Petroglyph

Cecelyne gives her favored broad leeway in bringing her words and teachings to the masses of Creation, and by this charm is that task accomplished. When creating a grotto with Desolation-Carving Petroglyph, the user may voluntarily increase the difficulty of the Charisma+Linguistics roll to 5 in order to create the glyph on something movable, most often a tablet of desolate stone. Once created, the tablet serves as a link to the world described within. If anyone other than the creator attempts to handle the target, they must make a Wits+Occult roll or accidentally touch it in such a manner as to activate the link. The tablet may be brought outside of desolated areas by investing an additional five motes into it as a reflexive action, and this investment may be reclaimed immediately upon returning the tablet to a desolated area.

Those who exit through the glyph in the grotto appear at the location wherein they touched the tablet, not the current location of the tablet.

Horizon Distancing Diction
Cost: -- (+15m) Mins: Essence 3, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Desolation-Carving Petroglyph

By invoking an additional 15 motes in the creation of a glyph, the resulting grotto's area is multiplied by a factor of 10. An additional purchase of this charm, requiring Essence 5, multiplies the area instead by 25.

Glimpsing Eternity Pronunciation
Cost: -- Mins: Essence 4, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Desolation-Carving Petroglyph

By speaking the unspeakable syllables of a Desolation-Carving Petroglyph, a Green Sun Prince may actively emulate the terrible powers of their Yozi progenitor. Desolation-Carving Petroglyph gains the Sorcerous keyword. Purchasing this charm again at Essence 6+ raises the required level of Sorcery to dispel the magic of the Petroglyph to Solar. Purchasing this charm a third time at Essence 8+ renders the creation wholly permanent: the glyph and grotto are real, connected, inviolate. If the physical glyph is destroyed, the Prince may invoke Desolation-Carving Petroglyph to recreate the link to a specific grotto; this effect applies only to the third purchase of this Charm.

World-Walking Goddess Emulation
Cost: -- Mins: Essence 4, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: World-Word Burden

Cecelyne's chosen are as free as their progenitor is constrained. When creating a grotto with Desolation-Carving Petroglyph, the creator may spend extra successes on the Linguistics+Charisma roll to create multiple copies of the glyph, either physically anchored or on movable tablets. Only an essence user may remove a tablet from a place of desolation by investing it with five motes as normal. The creator instantly knows the distance and direction of any glyphs she has created, and can reflexively send her senses into any grottoes she has created, though doing so prevents her from sensing the world around her.

By spending 5 motes, the user may touch any glyph they have created and transport themselves to any grotto they've made, even if the glyph isn't usually connected to that grotto.

Worth-Proving Demand
Cost: -- Mins: Essence 4, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: World-Walking Goddess Emulation

Cecelyne's love is consumptive as fire. It smoothers her beloved like desert heat.

As a reflexive Shaping action (Speed 6, DV -3), the Green Sun Prince may, while in one of her own grottoes, immediately relocate the glyph that returns to Creation. The Green Sun Prince announces conditions to reaching the glyph in a voice that emulates Cecelyne's imperious legalisms: the player selects a logical combination of Attribute + Ability. A successful roll with a difficulty equal to the Green Sun Prince's Essence is required to reach the glyph--Strength + Athletics to climb a sheer wall leading to the glyph, Stamina + Resistance to hold one's breath long enough as they swim through sands to reach it. No one with Essence lower than the Green Sun Prince's may use any charm to supplement this roll: instant effects are negated, and indefinite effects suspended during the challenge. Artifacts and other such external magics function normally. This Shaping effect is permanent until undone by the owner of the grotto.

Love-and-Chains Exile
Cost: -- Mins: Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Worth-Proving Demand, Soul-Sieve Transmutation

When utilizing Soul-Sieve Transmutation to dematerialize a targeted foe, that same foe must make an immediate Willpower+Essence roll at a difficulty of the user's Essence to avoid being instantly sent into any grotto that the user bears the glyph for.

Otherworld Insinuation Practice
Cost: -- Mins: Essence 6, Cult 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Messianic, Blasphemous
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Glimpsing Eternity Pronunciation

This charm remains theory: none of Cecelyne's servants have yet developed it because the very idea sends their patron into throes of rage. Originally theorized by an Akuma of Szorney given rather broad leeway in pursuit of his Urge, this charm would--if it existed--expand the sort of elements a Green Sun Prince could incorperate into a grotto by drawing on the influence of another Yozi. While no plant matter can sustain itself within Cecelyne, Szorney's silver trees and brassy funguses could, in theory. No water can flow in her sands, but Kimberry's acrid tides may yet run true. For any creature of the desert, such amenities could easily be adapted to, requiring a month of slow, measured contact and consumption. Life could begin anew, even in the deepest wastes.

Every extra successes garnered in the glyph-creation roll can be parlayed into the influences of a single Yozi, providing either strange water or vegetation. This charm is Blasphemous, not to Heaven, but to Cecelyne herself and it's use would surely result in the user suffering an immediate Torment, even if their Urge was designed by another.

Multiple invocations of this charm blur the borders of the Endless Desert: if these grottoes and glyphs are allowed to exist for a month, all First Circle Demons of the Yozis invoked into it's creation are treated as if they were ultimately progeny of any other Yozi who was involved. Expansions to this charm could theoretically expand this effect to Second or even Third Circle demons, though their costs would likely be dire and the consequences swift if done against the will of the Endless Desert or any of her siblings.