Scoffney Shever and Mark of Autochthon: Difference between pages

From DivNull RPG
(Difference between pages)
Jump to: navigation, search
imported>Wordman
 
imported>Wordman
mNo edit summary
 
Line 1: Line 1:
__NOTOC__
{{ExaltedArtifact
==Personality==
|summary = A magical mark over the heart, marking you as selected by Autochthon
|description = ''As the flash washes over you, you feel a slight burning sensation inside your heart. You hear your own voice inside your head, saying: "You have been selected for a task of great importance by the Great Maker. He offers you this mark on your heart to aid you, but this mark cannot be forced. Accept it now and be part of the Maker's Design forever more, or deny it now to make your way without His divine aid." As you decide what to do, you instinctively know what this mark will do. Read its effects below, and decide if you want to accept this mark or not.''


While his family continually pushes him into poliics, Scoffney is not particularly interested. Fairly apathetic and possessing no work ethic at all, Scoffney tends to wander through life, letting it happen to him as it may.
The mark is considered to be an insubstantial artifact, with no commitment cost. Once accepted, it is a permanent change to the character and cannot be transferred. It is normally invisible to the naked eye, but under some conditions, it will appear on your chest as a series of spectral gears, in colors matching your anima. The conditions where it can be seen are:


==Appearance==
* Any time your caste mark shows, Autochthon's mark is equally visible.
* Essence sight of any kind can perceive the mark on a Perception + Occult (5) roll.
* Alchemical exalted will notice the mark on a Perception + Occult (2) roll.
* Spirits of Autochthonia will notice the mark automatically.
* You can spend 2 motes to make the mark obvious to any onlookers.


Not your average dwarf, Scoffney is more slight of build and smiling, sometimes giggling, in presentation. He has Auburn hair and brown eyes.
The mark provides the following benefits and drawbacks:


==History==
'''Will of Autochthon''': You gain an additional Nature of "Avatar". This allows you to make an immediate check for regaining Willpower any time you accomplish a goal significant to Autochthon's plans. You will get this check whether you know Autochthon's plans or not. Your original Nature continues to work as normal. In addition, for any tests that directly further the goals of Autochthon, you may channel Virtues without spending Willpower.


==Affiliations==
'''Cog in the Wheel''': When confronted with a situation that clearly advances the goals of Autochthon, if you want to act counter to those goals, you must ''fail'' an appropriate Virtue test to do so. This works like normal virtue suppression (core.130), so if you get any successes on this test, you either need to work toward Autochthon's goals or spend a point of Willpower to avoid doing so (solars and lunars also gain a point of Limit when they do this).


Born into '''[[Hose Shever]]''', Scoffney tries to deal with them as little as possible. He knows enough not to antagonize family members, but most of them view him as a slacker. This causes some to simply ignore him, while others feel obligated to "rehabilitate" him.
'''Emissary of the Maker''': Any entity native to Autochthonia (mortal, spirit, alchemical) who sees your mark immediately knows its significance, and will consider you to be highly connected to the Machine God. This will generally result in a highly favorable reaction. Older gods in Creation may also recognize the mark; their reaction will depend on their opinion of Autochthon.


What little drive Scoffney does have is dedicated to the [[Longfingers Guild]].  
'''Lost in the Machine''': You gain a Background called "Precision", representing the depth of your connection to the Great Maker, and generally measuring how much humanity you have lost. Unlike most backgrounds, your Precision rating will likely change quite a bit, both up and down. This is explained in more detail below. You gain Precision at one dot immediately upon agreeing to the mark.  


Scoffney is a guildsman in the [[Delver's Guild]], giving him access to guild information, library, maproom and waystations. He also gains a 10% discount at Ebbert's Outfitters.
'''Five-Fold Synchronicity''': All five of the magical materials are now considered your "favored" material; you no longer need to commit double the motes to attune to non-favored materials. If you have particular abilities that work specifically on your favored material, they expand to work on all five materials. (For example, various shapeshifting rules interact specifically with moonsilver; these now interact with all five metals.)


On the rare occasions that Scoffney feels a religious urge, his thoughts tend toward The Lady, a goddess of luck, fate, long shots and last chances. She is also a protection goddess.
'''Infinite Variety in Infinite Forms''': You gain the ability to learn combos instantaneously. You must still pay their xp cost, but learning a new combo takes no training time at all. You can even create them on the fly during combat. Each time you learn a combo in this way, you gain a dot of Precision (see below).


==Associations==
'''Deep Resonance''': You may enter an eight-hour trance that allows you to learn rapidly. While in the trance, each point of Willpower you spend compresses 100 hours of training into the trance. In any given trance, you may pay as much Willpower as you like, but may only train toward a single goal (e.g. learning one charm, improving a trait by one dot, etc.). After each trance, you gain a dot of Precision (see below).


==Rumors==
'''Opening the Mind's Eye''': You may name an additional Ability as a favored ability upon agreeing to take the mark.


==Future Advancement==
'''Tapping the Source''': You gain five dots in a Background called "Source", representing your ability to exploit the connection to Autochthon for knowledge. Dots in this background can be spent to gain enlightenment in several ways. Spending a dot of Source permanently reduces its rating by one and buys any one of the following:


Some possibilities for future advancement. This is not an exhaustive list.
* Immediately gain a specialty of your choice without paying xp or training costs.
* Reduce the xp cost of any training by four.
* You gain access to training in any one improvement that you would normally be able to learn without a trainer.
* Gain a "virtual trainer" for learning one restricted terrestrial or celestial martial arts charm (including forms, pinnacle charms, initial style charms and the Immaculate martial arts). Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
* Solar exalted gain a "virtual trainer" for improving a [[Forgotten Suns: Science|Science]] by a dot, including any First Age science. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
* Sidereal exalted gain a "virtual trainer" for learning one sidereal martial arts charm. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
* Lunar exalted may drink the heart's blood of one standard size spirit, demon, elemental, wyld creature, or construct to add its form into their shapeshifting library. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).


The most obvious use for a new level is to continue with either rogue or bard. These would provide:
== Precision ==


* Rogue 3: +1 BAB, +1 Fort save, +1 Will save, sneak attack damage to 2d6, trap sense +1, +1d6 hp, +11 skill points
Being connected to the Great Maker tends to make you more machine like. While this provides some benefits, you also run the risk of losing your humanity entirely. Even creatures like the Alchemical Exalted, who are built for such things, can loose themselves to the machine. They measure this with a trait called Clarity, but it works a bit differently for you, being born human. Your loss of humanity is measured by a Background called Precision.
* Bard 4: +1 BAB, +1 Reflex save, +1 Will save, learn two second level spells, cast one extra 1st level spell and 1 2nd level spell per day


Not to many prestige classes leverage the rogue/bard mix, so there will probably not be many that would appeal to Scoffney. Some exceptions are:
Precision is increased by tapping into the connection to Autochthon (as outlined above). Any time you gain a point of precision, you ''also'' gain a point of Limit or Paradox, as appropriate.


*The Dungeon Delver prestige class has some cool dungeon-crawling features, which would be useful in a setting like Ptolus. To qualify for it, Scoffney would need to bump a number of skills and acquire the Endurance and Blind-Fight feats.
Embracing your humanity and human emotion in significant ways decreases Precision, represented as follows:
*The Virtuoso prestige class would put Scoffney well into the performer part of his personality. He would need to buy some specific skills to qualify for this.
*The Seeker of the Song is a more esoteric prestige class dealing with the power of primal music. It requires 13 ranks in knowledge (arcana) and perform skills and the Skill Focus (Perform) feat.


All characters gain a feat every three levels. Since his next level will make his total character level (CL) 6, he gets a new feat of his choice. His next such feat will come at CL 9. Some of the feats he has the prerequisites for are (there are, of course, others):
* Any time you spend Willpower to channel a Virtue (core.129), and the resulting action is successful, you automatically loose a dot of Precision.
* Any time you use a stunt of two dice or more that reaffirms your humanity or expresses genuine emotion (joy, rage, pity, love), if the stunt succeeds, instead of regaining motes or Willpower, you may choose to loose a point of Precision.
* Significant emotional or social experiences may reduce Precision by a point.


* Scoffney has Combat Expertise. He has not really used this and, in retrospect, some other feat (like Point Blank Shot) might have been a better choice. Les will allow Scoffney to swap this feat for another one, if desired.
Precision acts as both a blessing and a curse, with the following general effects:
* Point Blank Shot: Adds +1 to attack and damage for ranged attacks at less than 30 ft. Also acts a as gateway feat to a large number of other ranged attack feats.
* Precise Shot (requires Point Blank Shot): Eliminates the -4 penalty for firing into melee.
* Far Shot (requires Point Blank Shot): Increases range by 50% (100% for thrown weapons).
* Rapid Shot (requires Point Blank Shot): Gain an extra ranged attack per round when making a full attack. The attack is at your highest base attack bonus, but each attack you make in that round (the extra one and the normal ones) takes a -2 penalty. This feat does not provide any additional reload ability, so to use this with guns, you'd either need Rapid Reload, a gun that could somehow fire more than one shot per round, or multiple guns.
* Shot on the Run (requires Point Blank Shot): Move both before and after ranged attacks, though you cannot exceed your normal movement rate.
* Rapid Reload: Reload a gun or light crossbow with a free action, or a heavy crossbow with a move action. You still need both hands free to do this and reloading still provokes an attack of opportunity.
* Skill Focus (Perform): Adds +3 to all Perform skill checks. This feat is a prereq for the Seeker of the Song prestige class.


When spending skill points, if Scoffney wants to eventually take levels in the prestige classes mention above, they have some specific skill requirements that should be planned for. Some other non-obvious skill choices would be to branch out into other types of performance, such as Perform (strings) or Sense Motive. Scoffney is also the only member of the group who has Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Info and Rope Use as class skills (meaning these skills cost twice as much for others to learn).
* Precision rating is added to initiative rolls.
* Precision rating dice are added to any Temperance checks or Temperance channels.
* Precision rating dice are added to mostly mechanical Craft tests.
* Precision rating dice are subtracted from any Compassion checks or Compassion channels.
* Precision rating dice are subtracted from mostly creative Craft tests.
* Precision rating dice are subtracted from any social tests. This ''always'' includes tests involving Charisma, Manipulation, Socialize, Performance and Presence, but may include and test with a social component as well.
* Precision rating dice are subtracted from any defenses against social attacks.


==Data==
In addition, as the rating increases, the more mechanical your personality becomes:


*[http://rpg.divnull.com/ptolus/scoffney.pdf Character sheet]
: {{Dots|1}} - No noticeable changes, but the character's thoughts are often more coldly logical.
: {{Dots|2}} - Mannerisms convey a sense of distraction and a faint disdain for mortals and mortal frailty. Less patience for people.
: {{Dots|3}} - Notably inhuman. Movements and speech become clipped and laconic, replacing courtesy with efficiency. Mortals are never pitied and are largely ignored. At this level, the character's original Nature is ignored, no longer capable of regenerating Willpower.
: {{Dots|4}} - Humanity is a distant memory. Mortals are treated like resources, to be used as efficiently as possible. Enjoyment, desire and other feelings no longer exist. At this level, the character loses the ability to channel Valor and Compassion entirely.
: {{Dots|5}} - An utterly alien extension of the Machine God. The character has free will and is not a drone, but will consider the needs of the Machine God over its own. At this level, the character automatically fails Compassion rolls and can no longer roll to resist the Will of Autochthon (see above).


[[Category:Dissolution]]
Precision can be reduced to zero, but the trait itself will remain as long as the mark does. Precision may not increase over five dots; attempts to do so simply fail.
[[Category:Character]]
 
|instances =
|rating = 5
|commitment = 0
}}

Revision as of 19:08, 27 January 2009

As the flash washes over you, you feel a slight burning sensation inside your heart. You hear your own voice inside your head, saying: "You have been selected for a task of great importance by the Great Maker. He offers you this mark on your heart to aid you, but this mark cannot be forced. Accept it now and be part of the Maker's Design forever more, or deny it now to make your way without His divine aid." As you decide what to do, you instinctively know what this mark will do. Read its effects below, and decide if you want to accept this mark or not.

The mark is considered to be an insubstantial artifact, with no commitment cost. Once accepted, it is a permanent change to the character and cannot be transferred. It is normally invisible to the naked eye, but under some conditions, it will appear on your chest as a series of spectral gears, in colors matching your anima. The conditions where it can be seen are:

  • Any time your caste mark shows, Autochthon's mark is equally visible.
  • Essence sight of any kind can perceive the mark on a Perception + Occult (5) roll.
  • Alchemical exalted will notice the mark on a Perception + Occult (2) roll.
  • Spirits of Autochthonia will notice the mark automatically.
  • You can spend 2 motes to make the mark obvious to any onlookers.

The mark provides the following benefits and drawbacks:

Will of Autochthon: You gain an additional Nature of "Avatar". This allows you to make an immediate check for regaining Willpower any time you accomplish a goal significant to Autochthon's plans. You will get this check whether you know Autochthon's plans or not. Your original Nature continues to work as normal. In addition, for any tests that directly further the goals of Autochthon, you may channel Virtues without spending Willpower.

Cog in the Wheel: When confronted with a situation that clearly advances the goals of Autochthon, if you want to act counter to those goals, you must fail an appropriate Virtue test to do so. This works like normal virtue suppression (core.130), so if you get any successes on this test, you either need to work toward Autochthon's goals or spend a point of Willpower to avoid doing so (solars and lunars also gain a point of Limit when they do this).

Emissary of the Maker: Any entity native to Autochthonia (mortal, spirit, alchemical) who sees your mark immediately knows its significance, and will consider you to be highly connected to the Machine God. This will generally result in a highly favorable reaction. Older gods in Creation may also recognize the mark; their reaction will depend on their opinion of Autochthon.

Lost in the Machine: You gain a Background called "Precision", representing the depth of your connection to the Great Maker, and generally measuring how much humanity you have lost. Unlike most backgrounds, your Precision rating will likely change quite a bit, both up and down. This is explained in more detail below. You gain Precision at one dot immediately upon agreeing to the mark.

Five-Fold Synchronicity: All five of the magical materials are now considered your "favored" material; you no longer need to commit double the motes to attune to non-favored materials. If you have particular abilities that work specifically on your favored material, they expand to work on all five materials. (For example, various shapeshifting rules interact specifically with moonsilver; these now interact with all five metals.)

Infinite Variety in Infinite Forms: You gain the ability to learn combos instantaneously. You must still pay their xp cost, but learning a new combo takes no training time at all. You can even create them on the fly during combat. Each time you learn a combo in this way, you gain a dot of Precision (see below).

Deep Resonance: You may enter an eight-hour trance that allows you to learn rapidly. While in the trance, each point of Willpower you spend compresses 100 hours of training into the trance. In any given trance, you may pay as much Willpower as you like, but may only train toward a single goal (e.g. learning one charm, improving a trait by one dot, etc.). After each trance, you gain a dot of Precision (see below).

Opening the Mind's Eye: You may name an additional Ability as a favored ability upon agreeing to take the mark.

Tapping the Source: You gain five dots in a Background called "Source", representing your ability to exploit the connection to Autochthon for knowledge. Dots in this background can be spent to gain enlightenment in several ways. Spending a dot of Source permanently reduces its rating by one and buys any one of the following:

  • Immediately gain a specialty of your choice without paying xp or training costs.
  • Reduce the xp cost of any training by four.
  • You gain access to training in any one improvement that you would normally be able to learn without a trainer.
  • Gain a "virtual trainer" for learning one restricted terrestrial or celestial martial arts charm (including forms, pinnacle charms, initial style charms and the Immaculate martial arts). Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
  • Solar exalted gain a "virtual trainer" for improving a Science by a dot, including any First Age science. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
  • Sidereal exalted gain a "virtual trainer" for learning one sidereal martial arts charm. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).
  • Lunar exalted may drink the heart's blood of one standard size spirit, demon, elemental, wyld creature, or construct to add its form into their shapeshifting library. Spending a dot in this way also gains a dot of Precision (see below).

Precision

Being connected to the Great Maker tends to make you more machine like. While this provides some benefits, you also run the risk of losing your humanity entirely. Even creatures like the Alchemical Exalted, who are built for such things, can loose themselves to the machine. They measure this with a trait called Clarity, but it works a bit differently for you, being born human. Your loss of humanity is measured by a Background called Precision.

Precision is increased by tapping into the connection to Autochthon (as outlined above). Any time you gain a point of precision, you also gain a point of Limit or Paradox, as appropriate.

Embracing your humanity and human emotion in significant ways decreases Precision, represented as follows:

  • Any time you spend Willpower to channel a Virtue (core.129), and the resulting action is successful, you automatically loose a dot of Precision.
  • Any time you use a stunt of two dice or more that reaffirms your humanity or expresses genuine emotion (joy, rage, pity, love), if the stunt succeeds, instead of regaining motes or Willpower, you may choose to loose a point of Precision.
  • Significant emotional or social experiences may reduce Precision by a point.

Precision acts as both a blessing and a curse, with the following general effects:

  • Precision rating is added to initiative rolls.
  • Precision rating dice are added to any Temperance checks or Temperance channels.
  • Precision rating dice are added to mostly mechanical Craft tests.
  • Precision rating dice are subtracted from any Compassion checks or Compassion channels.
  • Precision rating dice are subtracted from mostly creative Craft tests.
  • Precision rating dice are subtracted from any social tests. This always includes tests involving Charisma, Manipulation, Socialize, Performance and Presence, but may include and test with a social component as well.
  • Precision rating dice are subtracted from any defenses against social attacks.

In addition, as the rating increases, the more mechanical your personality becomes:

- No noticeable changes, but the character's thoughts are often more coldly logical.
●● - Mannerisms convey a sense of distraction and a faint disdain for mortals and mortal frailty. Less patience for people.
●●● - Notably inhuman. Movements and speech become clipped and laconic, replacing courtesy with efficiency. Mortals are never pitied and are largely ignored. At this level, the character's original Nature is ignored, no longer capable of regenerating Willpower.
●●●● - Humanity is a distant memory. Mortals are treated like resources, to be used as efficiently as possible. Enjoyment, desire and other feelings no longer exist. At this level, the character loses the ability to channel Valor and Compassion entirely.
●●●●● - An utterly alien extension of the Machine God. The character has free will and is not a drone, but will consider the needs of the Machine God over its own. At this level, the character automatically fails Compassion rolls and can no longer roll to resist the Will of Autochthon (see above).

Precision can be reduced to zero, but the trait itself will remain as long as the mark does. Precision may not increase over five dots; attempts to do so simply fail.

Instances

Game Information

Summary: A magical mark over the heart, marking you as selected by Autochthon
Rating: ●●●●●
Commitment: 0