Essence-Compressing Capture Sphere
Artifact ●,●● or ●●●●
Essence-Compressing Capture Spheres are roughly fist-sized metal orbs, split horizonntally in half and held together by a white metal stud and a hinge-like mechanism and covered in arcane symbols and occult patterns. They can be made from any material, require no attunement and are considered throwing weapons of speed 5, rate 3 and 50 ft range until they actually contain something, gaining all the bonuses for an attuned ranged weapon of that material (Excluding those pertaining to damage). When they succesfully hit a spirit, elemental or non-human creature (Alchemicals and Jadeborn are considered human), instead of calculating damage, the target rolls (Resistance+Integrity) against the user's (Thrown+Presence). Should the target fail the roll, they are converted into a stream of compressed essence and sucked into the Sphere. From then on, the creature or spirit is considered the owner's familiar; they will automatically obey any order given to them by their master unless they fail or pass a required Virtue roll, or pass an integrity roll against an order that opposes their mental or metaphysical nature (such as ordering a nephwrack to defend a living being). Additionally, though they can disagree with their master, they will not actively oppose them unless under the effects of unnatural mental influence, and if owned by a player character, their actions in combat are completely directed by the player. Captured beings automatically pass their rolls on future capture attempts. Whilst inside the sphere, beings heal and respire (For applicable beings) twice as fast, and are immune to environmental effects outside the sphere. For the purposes of respiration, underworld denzins are considered inside the underworld whilst in a soulsteel Sphere.
As mentioned before, Spheres can be made of any material, and provide a -3 penalty to the rolls of the target creature should it be made of a specific material:
- Orichalcum and Starmetal Spheres apply the penalty to devas and gods.
- Jade Spheres apply the penalty to elementals and kami.
- Moonsilver Spheres apply the penalty to Wyld creatures and mutants with 5 or more mutations.
- Soulsteel Spheres apply the penalty to all types of ghosts.
- Adamant Spheres apply the penalty to Autochthonian elementals and examachina.
- Any vitrol-corrupted Sphere applies the penalty to demons instead of their original targets.
Additionally, Spheres are much more common than other artifacts. A set of six Spheres of identical material can be purchased for Artifact ●● at startup, and Jade spheres can be purchased in most towns in a Second Age setting by any character with Resources ●●●+ or equivalent (purchasing more than 10 Spheres in a month subtracts one dot), with Spheres of other materials available from more specialized shops. In a First Age game, Spheres of any material (Excluding Soulsteel and, after Autochthon's exile, Adamant) can be purchased by Resources ●●+ or equivalent with no such restrictions. In Autochthonia, Spheres of any material can be purchased for resources ●●+ or equivalent (●●●+ in the Second Age).
Beings above essence 5 require specialized Spheres for capture, which raises the artifact level to 4 and rendering them entirely unavailabe for purchase in the Second Age (They can be purchased in the First Age for Wealth 3 or equivalent). Attempting to capture beings of essence 6 or 7 with an unspecialized sphere imposes a -3 penalty to the user's rolls, while beings of 8+ impose a -5 penalty. Additionally, succesfully capturing an essence 8+ being with an unspecialized Sphere causes it to explode in a perfect 75 foot ball of shimmering, concentrated essence in the colour of its component material, glowing with the intensity of a star. Beings within 300 feet of the blast are blinded for six months unless underground or inside a windowless building (Exalted and essence 4+ beings may roll Resistance), while those inside the blast suffer both this roll and 10 levels of unblockable, undodgable Aggrivated damage.
While a person can possess any ammount of empty spheres, they may only possess six occupied Spheres at any one time. Should they possess a Manse, excess Spheres are automatically transported to a vault in said Manse should they have their hearthstone somewhere on their person. This vault can be accessed remotely while meditating uninterrupted for over five minutes with the hearthstone. Otherwise, succesful captures are automatically released. While these vaults are practically unlimited in most games, Storytellers may impose a limit on the capacity of these vaults. In this case, these vaults are considered to have a maximum capacity of (Manse levelX5). At the Storyteller's discretion, a manse with definite statistics may have a specialised vault, increasing the capacity to X10.