Wyr'palja's Workbook
Bound between thin plates of orichalcum on a hinged spine, this book contains Wyr'palja's notes on artifact design, manse construction and similar projects. Carved into the cover, a complex arrangement of a multitude of small gears appear to move as one looks at them. The book is about eight inches tall and twice as wide. The book is organized into loose chapters, mostly written by hand in Old Realm, along with many diagrams. It is unclear from the notes if the items in this book were invented by Wyr'palja, or merely constructed by her. The detailed plans in this book and the notes that accompany them can supply instruction for the sciences of Magitech ●-●●● and Architectonics ●-●●●.
Trifles
Designs for the following Rating 1 artifacts:
- Aegis-Inset Amulets (wola.71) - A set of surgically implanted amulets that allow mortals to wear magical armor, in exchange for accelerated aging.
- Jade Salary - A jade jar that produces salt each day.
- Liquid Blade - A sword hilt that any can use which collects water into a blade. Skilled users can control the solidity of the blade to subtract 2 successes from attempts to block it.
- Bracers of the Shapeless Wardrobe - Bracers allowing the storage and instant exchange of various sets of clothing to and from Elsewhere.
Trinkets
Designs for the following Rating 2 artifacts:
- Discreet Essence Amor (wola.80) - A set of wrist and ankle guards that generate a glowing force field.
- Portable Geomantic Recharging Module (wola.61) - A device that allows artifacts to be recharged from a hearthstone.
- Prayer Transceiver Module (wola.61) - A small disk that allows messages to be left and played back for people with the same type of artifact.
- Wall Eater (wola.130) - A skull-sized beetle-like seige device that can slowly eat through walls or ship hulls.
Practicals
Designs for the following Rating 3 artifacts:
- Blood Seed (bo3c.94) - Plant this metal seed to grow five armored troops for a scene.
- Dauntless Bracers - An advanced set of hearthstone bracers that add the rating of the hearthstone used to soak and subtract the hearthstone rating in dice from attacks against you.
- Essence Twister (wola.132) - An area-effect riot control weapon that causes nausea in targets, though less effective against non-mortals.
- Fire Lance (wola.77) - A spear that can shoot fire.
- Golden Bird of Sunlight (cult.69) - A bird that can carry messages at 100 miles per hour.
- Hyperion Sphere - A crystal ball used as a throwing weapon that returns to the attackers hands after each toss. Each time the ball hits, it's damage bonus increases by +1L, to a max of +12L. The bonus resets on a miss. The magical material used in construction also provides a bonus, depending on material.
- Omniscient Literary Advisor (wola.64) - A sheet of blue jade that can memorize and summarize books.
- Quagmire Perimeter Mine (wola.91) - A device that can be buried and will turn the ground to quicksand under the feet of targets with specific characteristics.
- Sentinel Defense Force Armor (wola.81) - Armor intended to enhance local security forces.
- Sky Mantis Tower (wola.65) - A large weather control machine.
- Silken Armor (cb_e.80) - Silk enchanted to provide soak, without interfering with Martial Arts.
- Sunshine Walking Anklets - Brightly glowing anklets that allow the user to walk on air and increase their movement rate.
- Whale-Belly Carp-class water transport - A foot long metal fish containing a pocket of Elsewhere, allowing it to carry 1000 pounds of people and luggage on an underwater voyage to a specified location, traveling 300 miles per hour.
Keepsakes
Designs for the following Rating 4 artifacts:
- Armor of Elemental Inurement (wola.83) - Five different types of armor, each built to withstand one of the five elements.
- Eternally Sepulchered Warden - A collection of chain and blades into which a demon can be bound.
- Iron Horse (cb_e.81) - A tireless, extremely sturdy, mount automaton.
- Spirit-Focusing Regalia - For purposes of charm and spell effects, your Essence rating is considered to be 6.
- Stepping Stones - When a stone is stepped on, the user will be teleported to the next nearest stepping stone.
- Warbird (ruin.88) - A bird-shaped flying mount automaton.
- Warstrider Firelance (wola.159) - Large, vehcile or warstrider mounted weapons that spew fire. Two different designs are shown. One uses a built-in essence battery and is meant for use in warstriders. The other uses tanks of alchemical fuel called vim vitae, intended for mounting on warbirds.
- Wings of the Raptor (wola.54) - Cloaks that can sprout wings.
Triumphs
Designs for the following Rating 5 artifacts:
- Crucible of Tarim (bo3c) - A pot into which spells can be distilled into liquid.
- Mother's Call - A collection of 101 jade rods that accelerates the healing of shadowlands.
- Storm Hammer (wola.135) - A hearthstone-powered weapon allowing the controller to call down lightning on any within two miles.
Projects
This chapter holds a hodge podge of notes about various large projects, scattered in no particular order. These are:
- Fifteen pages detail a rating 5 solar manse, obviously the central palace of Q'in Sanizaj. The manse features a large, four-sided tower tapering smoothly to a point roughly 300 feet off the ground. The middle third of each face, running vertically the entire length, is a clear transparent sheet, allowing light inside the tower. At intervals, the corners contain open balconies. At the base, each corner holds a large door leading from the courtyard on which the tower rests. Orbiting around the tower are three, floating ancillary towers. These are constructed of glass (one green, one blue, one clear) and have triangular cross-sections, tapering to a point at both the top and bottom. The top and bottom fourths of these towers are polished mirrors, sculpted to reflect light to the top of the central tower. The hearthstone room there collects the light and distills it.
Drawbacks: Maintenance {[Dots|4}}, Fragility ●; Powers: Comfort Zone (1pt), Magical Conveniences (1pt), Well-Favored Aspect (1pt, solar), Archive (2pt), Dangerous Traps (2pt), Bound Servant Force (3pt), Factory Cathedral (5pt); Hearthstone: unknown. - Twelve pages detail a manse built on a solar demesne and then altered into rating 4 lunar manse. The end result is a large courtyard dominated by a reflecting pool. Surrounding the courtyard are large marble trees, with sections cut into their trunks in which mirrors have been set. Looking in these mirrors shows your reflection in a large hall, and by thinking about it, you can be transported there. The large feasting hall is actually under the pool, which forms the room's ceiling.
Drawbacks: Habitability ●●; Powers: Bound Servant Force (3pt), Workshop Manse (3pt), Wyld Revocation (4pt); Hearthstone: Stone of Dream Entrance. - Two pages describe a rating 3 wood manse designed as a tangle of vines, with rooms built inside within a maze of three-dimensional vine tunnels.
Drawbacks: Maintenance ●, Fragility ●●, Habitability ●●; Powers: Control Room (2pt), Wood Dragon's Will (3pt), Zone of Influence (3pt), Puzzle Manse (3pt); Hearthstone: Stone of the Sure Path. - Twenty pages supply fine details of the construction of a moonsilver noble warstrider called Molt-Defying Plumage, including all of its components. These include a system that allows it to fly, and a gauntlet that can transmute into any type of weapon.
- Six pages describe a rating 4 solar manse constructed as a torus of stained glass floating fifty feet off the ground. The drawings show how light that comes through the windows is directed into mirrored tunnel that loops the entirety of the structure, guiding the light around and around. Eventually, a small portion of it gets reflected onto a narrow 75 foot tall tower standing in the center of the torus, concentrating the light into the hearth at the top of the tower.
Drawbacks: Maintenance ●●●, Fragility ●, Habitability ●●; Powers: Magical Conveniences (1pt), Well-Favored Aspect (1pt, solar), Sympathetic Dream Link (2pt), Guardian (3pt), Ultra-deadly Traps (3pt), Rainbow Tabernacle (4pt); Hearthstone: Stone of Inhuman Beauty. - Four pages illustrate without comment the construction of a spherical metal framework, like a geodesic sphere with tines of orichalcum. The last of these page illustrates the sphere set within the center of mass of a large pyramidal structure labeled the "Pyramid of the Sun". Sunlight comes down a long shaft in the pyramid to hit a object labeled a "breath lens" suspended within the sphere above the figure of a prone man.
- Five pages show the transformation of a waterfall into a level 3 water manse, with the water cascading over the building and running through channels in the rooms. The water also runs over a series of waterwheels that are harnessed to run equipment within the manse.
Drawbacks: Maintenance ●; Powers: Comfort Zone (1pt), Magical Conveniences (1pt), Eyeless Sight of Daana'd (2pt), Water Dragon's Nest (3pt); Hearthstone: Jewel of Daana'd. - Thirty pages labeled "Arainthu" detail a series of devices with difficult to discern purposes. One is clearly some kind of telescope. One is some kind of large clockwork with gears of wood and stone, powered by a waterwheel, a windmill and fire. One has a nest of crystal gears and a series of 25 arms with labels like "The Mask", "The Ewer" and the "The Haywain". Others are even more obscure.
- Seven pages give precise schematics for a series of strangely shaped tunnels carved into rock to form a rating 3 earth manse. From top view drawings, the tunnels suggest a strange, insectoid appearance.
Drawbacks: Maintenance ●; Powers: Central Control (2pt), Pasiap's Buried Whiskers (2pt), Fortress (3pt); Hearthstone: Jewel of the Master's Hand. - Two pages outline a fairly large garden complex, dedicated to growing plants that thrive in bright light, acting as a rating 2 solar manse. The emphasis of the design seems to be tranquility.
Drawbacks: Habitability ●●; Powers: Comfort Zone (1pt), Well-Favored Aspect (1pt, solar), Bound Servitor (2pt), Geomantic Subtlety (2pt); Hearthstone: Jewel of the Lawgiver's Authority. - Twenty pages supply fine details of the construction of an orichalcum noble warstrider called Luminous Talon Rain, including all of its components. These include a system that allows it to fly.
- Plans of an ornate manor house on a single page conceal the nature of a rating 2 wood manse, which gets its power from the alignment of the trees on the grounds.
Drawbacks: Maintenance ●●; Powers: Comfort Zone (1pt), Magical Conveniences (1pt), Veil of Shadow (2pt), Geomantic Subtlety (2pt); Hearthstone: Scintillating Gem of Ally's Embrace.