Everyday Wonders

Everyday Wonders

Though mortal men have little access to the sort of magic wielded by Exalted, spirits and the Fair Folk, they are not completely without the ability to wield occult power. In a time as magical as the Second Age of Man, there is power to be found in even the smallest acts. Though the Exalted often overlook this magic as beneath them or useless compared to the power to directly shape Essence, the sorcery that men can accomplish is neither worthless nor useless. Mortal thaumaturges practice geomancy, astrology, warding, weatherworking and other crafts, and they also have access to a variety of minor wonders to ease their burden and tilt the scales of fate in their favor.

Age-Staving Cordial (Resources •••)

Created from the sap of a vine from the jungles of the Far East and the poison of a species of clam from the Southwest coasts, this drug is sold as small packets of dark red powder. When mixed with water or wine, it creates a brew that slows aging. Anyone taking weekly doses of age-staving cordial will live 25 percent longer than someone who doesn't have regular access to the drug.

Ghost Flower Tea (Resources •••)

This rare and unusual drug consists of the ground dried petals of the luminous, palm-sized ghost flower, which grows only in shadowlands in the temperate portions of the East. Users steep ghost flowers with water, creating a faintly luminous tea that they drink just before sleep. The first few times it is used, ghost flower tea produces vivid dreams in which the user can see and communicate with any ghosts nearby. Continued use (more doses than the user's [[[Stamina]] + Resistance] in a single season) means that the user builds up enough resistance to the drug that she can remain awake while under its influence and see and communicate with ghosts while awake. Taking more than ([[[Stamina]] + Resistance] x 3) doses in a single season allows the user to touch and be touched by ghosts. She can fight duels with ghostly opponents, or even take ghostly lovers. Frequent users appear pale and sickly, and their lips glow faintly in dim light. Ghosts can also take ghost flower tea and use it to communicate with the living in a similar way. Anyone who dies from taking ghost flower tea becomes a ghost herself.

Seven Bounties Paste (Resources •••)

Seven bounties paste is, as its name suggests, made from the roots of seven rare plants. When mixed with alcohol, it makes an extremely hot-tasting, bitter, red paste normally mixed with rice and broth to render it palatable. The seven bounties paste can cure almost any illness, save leprosy and the Great Contagion. The player of a character imbibing the paste can make an immediate difficulty 1 (Stamina + Resistance) roll, without any penalties, for the character to overcome any ailment from which she suffers, be it a sickness or an infected wound. Each of the seven bounties affects the character once—roll once for each successive day for seven days for the character to overcome the effects of the illness. Seven bounties paste is rare to begin with—in times of plague, its price can rise to astronomical levels.

Sweet Cordial (Resources ••••)

Brewed from orchids found only in the Southeast jungles, tubers from the slopes of the Imperial Mountain and the glands of certain deep-sea fish found only near the Elemental Pole of Water, this cordial's overwhelming sweetness is matched only by its astronomical price. Yet, despite that price, this thick purple potion is constantly on demand.

Immediately upon imbibing this elixir, the character falls into a narcotic haze for the next 12 hours. Her player may make a (Stamina + Resistance) roll at diffiulty 1, without wound penalties, for the character to recover from the effect of any wound-related infections. She also automatically heals one health level while under the cordial's effects. Once the cordial has been drunk, it remains in the character's system for a full 28 days. If the potion is taken again before it passes naturally from the characters system, it acts as a hallucinatory poison. The character suffers 12 hours of horrifying narcotic hallucinations and her player must succeed in a (Stamina + Resistance) roll or the character takes four health levels of lethal damage.

Celestial Wine (Resources •••••)

This wine comes from Yu-Shan, the city of the gods, and even there, it is reserved for the Celestial Incarnae and the highest gods. If it should be found in Creation, then it has been stolen, which carries a commensurate price. Each bottle of this Heavenly wine holds three glasses worth of liquid. A single glass of celestial wine will heal a number of health levels equal to the character's Essence trait. Alternatively, a glass will cure any poison or disease from which the character is suffering, including the Great Contagion. Drinking three glasses in one day will return a character to full health levels, and the drinker will be immune to all poisons and to all diseases weaker than the Great Contagion for a year and a day afterward.

Artifacts Suitable for Mortals

• Toys and Minor Tools: One-dot artifacts have minor effects with limited influence on the game. One-dot artifacts are weak. They might amaze a mortal, but a one-dot artifact should not much impress an Exalt; they do cooler things themselves. Such artifacts are often tools of convenience: writing brushes that take dictation, or cups that create limited amounts of water or ale. The least of the artifact weapons and armors are one-dot artifacts because they improve only slightly on the mundane weapon.

Most magical toys are one-dot artifacts; some of these may have an incidental ability to aid a very limited set of tasks. Very large toys may have greater artifact values to represent their grand scale and that they required more effort to craft. Artifacts with minor benefits may require less committed or spent Essence. One value of toys (versus the more effective minor tools at this level) is that they are more easily sold. Rich lords may spend money for an animate soldier; fewer care to own an aid to surviving the wilderness.

Maximum benefits: Attributes +1, Abilities +2, Soak +2 and Hardness 2, Damage +2, Rate +0
Standard Essence (C/E): 2m/2m

Examples: A brush that paints as its owner mentally directs, enabling it to include details smaller than most humans can manage. This decreases the difficulty of appropriate rolls by one and works while the character performs other actions. A drum that slowly beats through the night without a player, keeping wild animals away. Toys: A toy soldier that animates and moves as directed. A Gateway board that plays out its own games. The first might aid in increasing the War skill if used in numbers, decreasing the untutored training time by one day. The second might similarly reduce training for a Gateway specialty under War or Lore.

Band of Faith (Artifact •)

The person who wears this ring, forged of gold with a thin vein of purer orichalcum wending through it, can access the direct beneficence of the Unconquered Sun. In the First Age, thousands of these rings were crafted for the unExalted masses who worshiped the deity; the Chosen, too, wore them as symbols of faith.

A Band of Faith contains a single mote of Essence that can be wielded by anyone who wears the ring. Though a small benefit for any Exalt, God-Blood or Dragon King, this 1 mote enabled mortals to activate and operate some of the nearly accessible tools and minor wonders of the First Age without training.

Finding such a ring in the Age of Sorrows is not difficult. More than one Solar was buried, in his day, with a full panoply of faithful servants, devoted to him and to his god.

Only one Band of Faith can benefit an individual. Once the mote within is used, the band recharges it after a full hour spent in sunlight.

Cache Egg (Artifact •)

Created to store treasured or particularly useful possessions Elsewhere, both to keep them "nearby" at all times and out of the reach of thieves, these jade vessels have the shape and texture of large eggs. One-dot Cache Egg can hold one cubic foot or less.

Opening or closing a cache egg requires a touch and costs one mote. Up to half the shell may be opened from any point on its surface. The interior is hollow and may be filled with any inanimate cargo up to its maximum volume. If the shell is completely sealed and the vessel contains nothing living, a character may touch it and spend 20 motes (uncommitted) to banish the vessel as a diceless miscellaneous action, causing it to flicker and vanish from the world into the non-space of Elsewhere. While banished, the egg retains an arcane link to the character who banished it, allowing her to recall it at any time into a space large enough to contain it by spending another 20 motes as an action. Recalled vessels return in physical contact with their owners, where they may be opened and their contents reclaimed. Objects stored Elsewhere experience no passage of time from the moment they are banished until they return to Creation. Characters cannot have more than one egg linked to them, and banishing a second vessel while the first remains Elsewhere shatters the earlier connection, most likely exiling the egg and its contents to remain forever apart from the world.

Note: mortals do not usually have 20 motes of Essence available and thus they can't send the egg Elsewhere, but it's still useful.

Cord of Winds (Artifact •)

These knotted, blue-silk cords are common sights on all ocean-going vessels with any sort of sails. They usually hang from the central mast at head height. Each knot contains a slumbering air elemental, willingly bound at the artifact's creation. Untying a knot releases the spirit, which then blows in whatever direction the ship’s captain desires for a night and a day.

Cords of winds contain elementals from Essence 1-4. An elemental increases the ship's mileage per hour by its Essence. Cords typically begin with a cumulative bound Essence of 40, generally containing four elementals each from Essence one to four, but are usually found with less.

In any game that spends serious time on the water, this is a useful power to have available. It can defeat both doldrums and pirates. The cord has finite uses, though—a restriction significant enough to reduce it from two dots to one.

Fire Pearl (Artifact •)

Repair: 1

These scarlet orbs of flawless red jade are roughly an inch in diameter and were originally invented as a type of reusable ammunition for heavy alchemical flame weapons such as fuel bolt launchers. In the Second Age, only well-educated savants know this bit of trivia. To most people who have heard of them, fire pearls are merely useful baubles that can start fires without need for tinder or flint. To use a fire pearl in this manner, a character need only hold it and concentrate his attention on a flammable inanimate object no bigger than himself within one yard. Roll the user's (Wits + Lore) at a difficulty of 1 for highly flammable targets such as dry wood, or difficulty 3 for moderately flammable objects such as fresh corpses or wet wood. If successful, the target object catches flame and burns normally thereafter. Fire pearls can be used only three times per day without Essence expenditure, but further uses cost only one mote apiece. With a stunt, it is possible to ignite a number of small and similar objects in a single action, such as lighting all the candles in a candelabrum with a flamboyant gesture.

Freshwater Pearl (Artifact •)

These fist-sized, snow-white pearls occasionally form in giant oysters that grow in the Western Bordermarches of the Wyld. If a freshwater pearl is placed in a barrel (or lesser quantity) of seawater or fouled water, it instantly renders the water as clear and fresh as that of a mountain spring. It has no effect on larger quantities of water, though ancient legends tell of Solar Exalted (or in the "corrected" versions, the Immaculate Dragon of Water) collecting the magic pearls for a great rite to purify a salty inland sea.

Each pearl works up to five times a day. If placed in a barrel of wine or other alcohol, then the pearl turns the liquid back to grape juice or whatever the appropriate source liquid might be. These pearls has no effect on actual poison.

Gill Cloak (Artifact •)

Repair: 2

These brilliantly colored diaphanous cloaks are beautiful but otherwise unremarkable on land. In the water, however, once the wearer commits two motes to the cloak, the translucent membrane spreads out behind the wearer and collects air dissolved in the nearby water and allows the character to breathe underwater, although it does not let the wearer speak or grant any other capabilities.

Golden Flame (Artifact •)

This stylized flame is about palm-sized and made of normal gold except for a small core of orichalcum. Some are designed to be worn as pendants, others as broaches or clasps. It requires no commitment, and spending one mote suffuses the character with pleasant warmth for one full hour. It also reduces environmental damage from natural cold by two dice, to a minimum of zero, before soak.

Golden flames can be very useful in Northern series. They reduce damage by no more than two dice, marking them as Artifact 1. The lack of commitment and the low Essence expenditure balances the brief duration and minor protection, making this a solid one-dot artifact.

Heaven Thunder Leaves (Artifact •)

Heaven thunder leaves are broad fans, reinforced with a magical material and painted with various scenes. They serve equally well for combat (treat as mundane war fans) or courtly dancing. The magical fans add one die to ([Dexterity or Charisma] + Performance) rolls to use them for dancing, and when the fans are flourished properly, they tell a classic legend or fable. Each set of heaven thunder leaves tells a different story.

With at least three successes on the Performance roll, the dancer attracts the attention of local Terrestrial gods, and each success beyond that adds one die to the next social roll the character makes toward one of those gods. With two matching heaven thunder leaves, the maximum dice bonus becomes six. With only one, or with mismatched leaves, the successes necessary to attract gods increases to five and the maximum dice bonus is three. Heaven thunder leaves are Artifact 1 each. Commitment is two motes per leaf.

Heaven thunder leaves count as magical weapons, but their real strength lies in attracting godly attention. This qualifies the pair of heaven thunder leaves as Artifact 2. Separated, the difficulty to attract gods becomes high enough to reduce a lone heaven thunder leaf to Artifact 1, even though it can accomplish the same end. The maximum possible dice bonuses are higher than normal, but characters must work to get them.

Iron Toes (Artifact •)

Forged and worn by a First Age Solar who loved to walk for hours, days, weeks or longer at a time, the Iron Toes are a pair of fine leather sandals with tiny orichalcum nubs in the soles for traction. These sandals allow anyone who wears them and commits 1 mote of Essence to the artifact to ignore all fatigue so long as she walks. She still needs to eat, but sleep and weariness are held at bay as long as her feet keep moving. Neither running nor the typical patterns made with feet during combat suffice. Someone trying to retain the benefit of the sandals while in combat cuts his movement in half and suffers a -1 penalty to his DVs. Once the constant walking stops, any sleep and fatigue that the character heretofore ignored catches up with him and must be dealt with normally.

The Solar who owned these sandals lived early in the First Age, when there was still much to explore and many new things to find simply by walking and looking for them. When he died, he was buried with much pomp and circumstance, with these sandals still upon his feet.

Perfected Boots (Artifact •)

Repair: 1

This artifact has been made since the early days of the First Age, but most modern examples were manufactured in Lookshy. Almost half of the Dragon-Blooded ground troops fielded by this martial state wear a version of this artifact. Once the wearer commits one mote of Essence to this item, these boots become the most comfortable footwear she has ever worn. This artifact keeps the wearer’s feet cool and dry in all conditions, and she will never develop blisters while wearing them. In addition to comfort, these boots also allow the wearer to both run and march considerably faster than normal. In combat, the wearer adds three yards per tick to all move actions and six yards per tick to dash actions. When walking long distances, the wearer can march at a speed of 10 miles per hour and can cover up to 100 miles in a day, allowing the wearer to overtake carriages and to easily keep up with all but the fastest mounted characters. In addition, the wearer adds two to her Strength when calculating jumping distances. This bonus adds directly to the wearer's Strength if the jumping distance is multiplied because of Charms, additional artifacts or anima powers. One of the primary advantages these boots provide for Lookshy is that heavy infantry who wear these boots can easily keep up with cavalry troops, allowing Lookshy forces to be exceedingly swift and mobile.

Privacy Veil (Artifact •)

Privacy veils are curtains that come in a wide variety of styles. All are opaque—clearly designed for privacy. A character concerned also with being heard may commit one mote to the veil, levying a -2 external penalty to any attempt to eavesdrop through the barrier.

This power is limited in nature. The external penalty has limited impact, as it only applies to eavesdropping or being overheard, and characters with high Awareness, Perception or Investigation ratings can still hear through the veil. Considering that a character must activate the veil, this artifact has a limited effect on games and qualifies for Artifact 1.

Resplendent Personal Assistant (Artifact •)

Repair: 2

During the long ago days of the First Age, these items were popular trinkets owned by the majority of Essence users. Many thousands remain today, lying in graves and ancient ruins, but new ones are also being manufactured in the Realm, and many Exalted ship captains own them. Regardless of their age, these multi-function artifacts are one-inch-wide bracelets made of an exquisite combination of all five magical materials. In addition to containing a miniature jade compass that points to the Elemental Pole of Earth and also reveals both how far the wearer is from this elemental pole and how far above or below sea level she is, this artifact also contains a minute timekeeper. The least spirit of this timekeeper tracks the exact second, minute, hour, day and month by listening to the whispers of the pattern spiders. In addition to keeping track of the time, the assistant also can instantly tell the phase of the moon and how much time remains until the next sunrise or sunset. The compass combined with the timekeeper provides a -1 reduction in difficulty to all rolls involving navigation or astrology that the user makes. At the wearer's choosing, this device can either whisper this information to her or display it on a tiny panel of jade. The user need only commit one mote of Essence to activate the artifact and to cause the bracelet to size to fit.

Seven-Jeweled Peacock Fans (Artifact •)

These war fans are half-again as large as normal and reinforced with a magical material. They are called "seven-jeweled" because their join is set with that many gemstones. Skilled warriors can use them to subdue by precisely lashing out with them when closed, to kill by closing the razor-sharp inside edges on veins, and to disarm by capturing or flicking weapons out of opponents’ hands. They are Artifact 1 alone, but 2 for a matched pair.

Seven-jeweled peacock fans are more accurate and defensive than mundane war fans and gain the disarming bonus, but they are on par with other one-dot artifact weapons.

Speed	Accuracy	Damage	Defense	Rate	Minimums	Attune	Tags
5	+3	+5B/+1L	+3	3	Str •, Dex •••, Mrt •••	4*	D, M

* Attunement cost is for a matched pair; no offhand penalty to wield set paired.

Silver Brush (Artifact •)

The mahogany handle of this writing brush conceals a thin core of orichalcum, but most people see its silver bristles immediately. The silver resists wear but is soft enough for good calligraphy. When a person commits a single mote to the artifact, the brush produces its own ink of any quantity, consistency and color.

Writing without the need to buy ink or replacement brushes is purely a matter of convenience. The lack of any additional powers set the Silver Brush squarely at Artifact 1—truly no more than a toy.

Steelsilk Sails (Artifact •)

A few master artisans in the West know how to weave the silk of Essence spiders into sails as light as canvas but as strong as steel. Captains who possess such sails guard them highly, sometimes only removing them from a well-locked hold when the ship's survival depends on them.

Storms, fire and weapons that would destroy ordinary sails all fail to damage steelsilk sails. The magical sails have 10L/15B soak, take 20 health levels to damage and 40 to destroy. They also suffer only half damage from wind, waves or fire. Their durability makes a ship fitted with them easier to handle, adding +1 to all Sail rolls to control a ship in a storm or for gaining or losing speed. Steelsilk sails also allow a ship to sail closer to the wind. Steelsilk sails requires Charms or thaumaturgical enchantments to mend: ordinary mortal crafts are not up to this task.

The Fur Merchant's Gift (Artifact •)

People call this minor artifact by the above name because of its appearance; it has no history to suggest anything else. It is a heavy fur mantle sized for a child of eight or nine. Any character may attune it for three motes, but it only offers protection to someone it properly fits. As long as it remains attuned, the person wearing it reduces all environmental damage from natural cold or heat by three, to a minimum of zero, before soak. The mantle is no more difficult to destroy than any well-made fur cloak.

Compared to the golden flame (above), the fur merchant's gift is superior: it reduces environmental damage further and affects both heat and cold. Its damage reduction might qualify it for Artifact 2. But it has a greater-than-average commitment, and being restricted to child-sized individuals is a drawback significant enough to ensure that it remains Artifact 1.

Traveler's Staff (Artifact •)

This gnarled staff is a branch from an ancient apple tree found in a powerful Wood demesne on the Blessed Isle. The Empress claimed this demesne as a crownland until a few decades ago, when she awarded it to House V'neef. Only tools of the magical materials can cut this tree's wood, and only a master of Lore, Occult and Craft (Wood) can preserve the ageless tree's magic in a staff.

A traveler's staff can be used as a normal quarterstaff in combat, but the staff is more useful as a source of food, firewood and shelter. At sunset, the user may plant the staff into the earth and commit 3 motes. The branch then grows into a full-size apple tree that bears enough ripe fruit to feed five people for the evening. If she needs firewood, the owner can use the tree's branches to provide it—wood gathered this way burns readily. Come morning, she can find a large, straight branch that easily snaps off—and it becomes the original staff. The tree then dies and rapidly rots away. By sunset, no sign of its presence remains, and the Essence is released to the Exalt who caused it to grow.

Windslave Disk (Artifact •)

Repair: 1

Extremely common in the First Age, these devices still see regular use throughout the Realm and more prosperous cities of the Threshold. In appearance, they are blue jade-alloy disks the size of large coins. If pressed against an inanimate object and attuned for a commitment of three motes, the disks mystically adhere to the touched object until pried loose by their owner (which ends the commitment). As long as they remain affixed, the disks reduce the object's weight by half or by 500 pounds, whichever is less. Multiple disks attached to the same object stack, but each lightens the current weight, so it is not possible to make an object truly weightless.

Winged Messenger Bauble (Artifact •)

Repair: 2

These intricately crafted pieces of jewelry were typically fashioned from orichalcum and coated with a light sprinkling of gem dust. They are most commonly found in the shape of iridescent dragonflies or golden bumblebees, although many Celestial Exalts had theirs forged in accordance with their unique design preferences. The Chosen commonly wore these baubles as brooches, bracelets, hair pins, or belt buckles though they could just as easily be integrated into the pommel of a dagger or into the jeweled horn of a saddle. When the bauble's wearer needed a message delivered to someone nearby (the messenger's range is no farther than a mile radius from the wearer) he would channel a mote of Essence into the device to animate it, and the tiny automaton would fly off to find the recipient. Upon finding the recipient, the winged messenger bauble would then either speak the wearer's message or release any documents it held clasped in its legs. If a reply were requested, the messenger would say so and wing its way back to its owner with the response.

Winterbreath Jar (Artifact •)

A winterbreath jar is a small urn or jug, finely crafted and inlaid with blue jade. Its enchantment of elemental air keeps its contents at a constant 45 degrees (+7 °C). Inside, perishables remain fresh and sparkling wine nicely chilled. Winterbreath jars rarely hold more than two bottles of wine or a small watermelon. They require no commitment.

As an object of convenience, especially with the limit on its contents, this artifact will not impact any game strongly—unless the players find some terribly clever use in some extraordinary circumstance. A clear Artifact 1.

Everyday Wonders

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