Ideal Visage Minion

Similar in many respects to the minion of deadly touch (wola.106), an ideal visage minion is meant to act as a bodyguard and decoy, rather than an infiltrating assassin. These minions are First Age magitech constructs build to resemble a particular person, usually the person who created it. Such minions were used as doubles for powerful solars and other exalts, and either sent to perform minor official functions to free the exalt's time or to confuse spies and assassins as to the exalt's true location.

Construction of an ideal visage minion requires a quantity of the original's blood, and usually a mold made of their body. The minion is usually built to have the Appearance and Linguistic ratings of the original. In some case, other abilities may also have been matched to the original as well, but mostly the minions otherwise followed a standard template. Once its shape is defined, it may not be changed.

To all normal senses, the automaton is considered to be wearing a perfect disguise of the original, automatically defeating any non-magical attempts to penetrate it. Even magical attempts that are based on enhancements to normal senses have little chance to determine that the minion is not the original, needing fifteen successes to realize the minion is an automaton. Even magical senses and essence sight are defended against. In some cases (see below), the minion displays artificial traits that can fool magical sight seeking specific information (e.g. Essence Discerning Glance). In more general cases, magical sight must gain six successes to notice the minion is an automaton. In addition, all charms designed to detect lies automatically fail on them.

The minion contains an essence reservoir used to power its functions. For every 10 motes added to this reservoir, the apparent Essence rating of the minion raises by a point, allowing the minion to mimic the Essence rating of even powerful exalts. Thus, with between zero and nine motes, the minion appears to have an Essence of 1, from 10 to 19 motes gives the impression of Essence 2 and so on. The minion can use the motes in this pool for the following effects:

• One mote is used each day to power the minions basic functions. This includes the ability to heal on level of bashing damage per minute, if desired.
• Once per hour, the minion can spend a mote to heal one level of lethal damage.
• Minions cannot digest, but are sometimes forced to eat for appearance sake. For one mote, the minion can expel the contents of its stomach into Elsewhere. Such contents cannot be retrieved.
• For one mote, the minion can generate an anima banner display at the lowest level. For each additional mote, the intensity of the display may be increased one level. The anima effect matches that of the original, set when the minion is constructed. If mimicking terrestrial animas, the cost is doubled.
• For three motes, the minion may reflexively dodge attacks with its full pool for a turn.
• The minion may invest up motes into any personal artifacts that require 10 motes or less commitment. The minion may then use the artifact as if they were the same exalt type as their original. This commitment lasts only for one week, however, at which time the essence is spent.
• For one mote, the minion may turn any of its bodily fluids into a contact venom for a single attack (1E: Dif 4, Suc 4L, Fai 8L, Pen 8 actions/-4, 2E: Dmg 8L, Tox 4L, Pen -4).
• If within five yards of their original, the minion may spend 4 motes to intercept an attack or effect intended for the original.
• The blood used to create the minion acts as a ritual link back to the original, so to avoid being used as such, the minion may spend all the remaining motes in its pool to self-destruct. This creates a blast with a radius equal to the minions current apparent Essence rating in yards and has deals damage of 1L for every four full points in the pool. The attack cannot be parried, and may only be dodged by moving out of the area of effect.

Only the original may transfer motes into this pool; however, the minion can siphon stray energy from any charm use within 100 yards. For every three full motes spent on a charm or spell, the minion increases her pool by one. This only works if the minion is present during the casting of the effect and has no adverse affect on effect's result. Should the minion's pool ever drop to zero, they become inert until they regain essence.

The inside of the minion also contains an extra dimensional space in which the minions original can hold objects. The original can pay 1 mote to summon a single item into or out of this space, as long as they are in contact with the minion. These items cannot be larger that three feet on any side. If the minion is destroyed items stored within reappear next to the body.

Ideal visage minions are fanatically loyal to their original, and are usually quite intelligent. They have a complete knowledge of their original's mannerisms and tendencies, but have no special knowledge of the original otherwise. If for example, the original meets someone but does not tell the minion, the minion has no way of knowing the person.

Instances

Wyr'palja made use of many of these minions, who refused to leave her side and are now buried with her in Wyr'palja's mausoleum.

Game Information

Commitment: none
Artifact: ●●●●
Repair: 2

Vitals
Gender	None	Height	cm	Eye Color
Nature	Martyr	Weight	kg	Hair Color
Type	Automaton			Skin Color
Concept	Reformed assassin
Attributes Appearance ●●●● Charisma ●●● Dexterity ●●●● Intelligence ●●●● Manipulation ●●●● Perception ●●●● Stamina ●●●● Strength ●●● Wits ●●●● Equipment Bare fist Kick Health -0 _ _ _ -1 -2 _ _ -4 _ Inc _ Natural Soak 4B/2L/0A Total Soak 7B/5L/0A		Abilities Athletics  ●● Awareness  ●●● Bureaucracy  ●●● Craft  ●● Dodge  ●●●● Endurance  ●●●●● Larceny  ●●●● Linguistics  ●● Lore  ●● Martial Arts  ●●●● Medicine  ●● Melee  ●● Performance  ●●●●  imitating original +3 Resistance  ●● Socialize  ●●●● Stealth  ●● Thrown  ●● Traits Compassion Conviction Temperance Valor Willpower ●●●●●●●●●● Essence ●   Personal 10 ()