New Keyword: Colossus
Colossus Charms and submodules either require Colossus-Class Upgrade Installation (Alchemicals, p. 175) or provide additional benefits while it’s installed. If the Alchemical uses Elsewhere Compression Mode (Alchemicals, p. 176), these benefits are suppressed for the duration.
Shining Assault Armor Configuration
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Appearance 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Augmented, Colossus, Dual
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Supreme Icon of Battlefield Glory
Layered plates of jade and shining adamant envelop the Alchemical like radiant armor, augmenting her prowess and magnifying her inspiring presence.
The Alchemical gains the following benefits:
- Hardness (Appearance), or (Essence + Appearance) against enemies whose Resolve is lower than her Appearance. If she’s unarmored, she also gains that much armored soak.
- She rerolls (Appearance/2, rounded up) failed dice on feats of strength and movement actions.
- She gains two motes whenever her Hardness negates a decisive attack, her soak reduces a withering attack to its minimum damage, or rerolling dice with this Charm turns a failed action into a success. These motes can only be spent on Alchemical Charms used to enhance command actions and attacks against battle groups.
If the Alchemical has Colossus-Class Upgrade Installation, she gains the increased soak and Hardness against Legendary Size enemies.
Luminous Godstrider Iconography
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Appearance 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Augmented, Colossus, Dual
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Ardor Embodiment Programming, Colossus-Class Upgrade Installation, Supreme Icon of Battlefield Glory
The Alchemical’s titanic frame shines with vivid neon rainbows of anima, a shining colossus of captivating beauty and terrifying menace.
The Alchemical gains the following benefits:
- She adds (Anima) to her base Initiative when she resets after a decisive attack.
- When she crashes an enemy whose Resolve is lower than her Appearance, she gains Initiative equal to half the difference, rounded up, maximum (Appearance/2, rounded up).
- She adds (Anima) to her effective Appearance to determine how many dice it adds on influence rolls and for other effects that compare her Appearance to another character’s traits.
- She can make influence rolls against characters who can see her within long range, plus (Anima + 1) range bands of extreme range.
- Characters whose Resolve is lower than her Appearance must pay an additional Willpower to resist her influence. In combat, they must also pay Initiative equal to the difference, maximum (Appearance).
- She can use her devastating action to make a threaten roll, ignoring multiple target penalties. Enemies whose Resolve is beaten must use their next turn to move away from her, in addition to any other actions they take. Resisting this influence renders characters immune to further uses for a scene. Trivial characters can’t resist with Willpower, and battle groups can’t do so unless they have Might or elite Drill.
Essence Pulse Cannon
God-Cannon Overdrive (3xp; Dexterity 5, Essence 3, Siege Devastator Mode): The Alchemical chooses a specific artifact siege weapon, like an implosion bow (p. XX). Her Essence Pulse Cannon gains that weapon’s traits while in Siege Devastator Mode, though it never requires a hearthstone. She gains any Evocations that awaken upon attunement, like an implosion bow’s Collapsing Point of Destruction. She can switch between these traits and Siege Devastator Mode’s base traits reflexively.
Piston-Driven Megaton Hammer
Metropolis-Smiting Megadeus Fist (Colossus) (6xp; Strength 5, Essence 5, Anti-Materiel Detonator Impact, Colossus-Class Upgrade Installation, Shockwave Driver Barrage): On close-range attacks, the Alchemical can double up to (Strength) 9s and 10s on the damage roll and waives the limit entirely for unarmed attacks. Her maximum knockback range on close-range attacks increases to long, and she can knock back entire battle groups. Doing so triggers a rout check. When she uses Anti-Materiel Detonator Impact at close range, she applies the feat from impact to all other objects and scenery within close range of the point of impact.
Ancillary Battle Consciousness
Expansive Battle-Mind Architecture (Colossus) (Wits 8, Essence 5, Colossus-Class Upgrade Installation; Omnisituational Contingency Matrix) (+5m): Neural architecture distributed throughout the Alchemical’s colossus frame lets her pay a five-mote surcharge to make two Join Battle rolls, forming two ancillary Initiative tracks.
Collapsing Point of Judgment Style
Collapsing Point of Judgment style is both vanishingly rare and highly destructive for the same simple reason: the style employs implosion bows, Essence-powered siege engines of space-warping annihilation. Stylists capable of wielding these weapons do so with extraordinary technical prowess, manipulating their internal mechanisms to push the limits of what they can achieve.
In Autochthonia, its most common practitioners are Alchemical colossi, though some younger Alchemicals install Charms that allow them to wield its mighty weapons. The principles behind the style were formulated by Nurad’s First and Final Iteration, but it was Estasia’s Blithe Dreadnought that first put them into practice on the battlefield. Nuradi historical texts portray this as a collaborative research venture; Estasia celebrates it as an act of plunder. It’s spread throughout the Octet, with each nation’s colossi developing distinctive martial traditions.
This style also exists in Creation, a convergent innovation made in the First Age. It’s even rarer than in Autochthonia, and was even during the Old Realm’s height, when it was practiced by warstrider pilots like the Exigent Null Tide and Lunars in their giant forms, like Vray the Behemoth-Eater. Creation’s most renowned practitioner today is Lookshy’s Yan Yu Kirisa, though they only rarely take to the field in one of the Seventh Legion’s warstriders.
Collapsing Point of Judgment Style Weapons: This style is compatible only with implosion bows (p. XX), which must be wielded by hand — typically by a Legendary Size character. It isn’t compatible with unarmed attacks. Alchemicals can use it with Essence Pulse Cannon if they use God-Cannon Overdrive (p. XX) to give it implosion bow traits.
Special: Characters with any dots in the style can use this style’s signature technique to attack without using Collapsing Point of Destruction, firing before her shot is fully charged for a less powerful projectile. They waive the Initiative cost of attacking with implosion bows wielded with Legendary Size.
Armor: This style is compatible with all armor.
The Big Guns
Characters with Legendary Size can wield siege engines as handheld weapons, without needing feats of strength to move them. They roll (Dexterity + [Archery or War]) to attack and can use Archery Charms with siege weapons. However, they suffer the usual penalties for not having a crew to operate it unless it’s specifically designed for their use, or has been retrofitted for it with a repair project. Even then, they must pay two Initiative per attack.
Material Annihilation Blast
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The stylist looses a rapid-fire pulse of incredible force, leaving naught but dust behind.
The stylist makes a withering or decisive attack with (higher of Essence or 3) bonus dice on the attack roll. She treats her attack roll as a feat of demolition with the implosion bow against all unattended objects and surfaces within short range of the target. Success adds dice of decisive or post-soak withering damage equal to the highest Strength minimum among the feat’s targets. Damaged surfaces become difficult terrain.
If the destruction changes the circumstances of the battlefield in a way that benefits the stylist, affected enemies each lose (stylist’s Essence/2, rounded up) Initiative.
Special activation rules: The stylist can use this Charm against a trivial enemy or battle group as her devastating action.
Collapsing Sky Missile
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Dual, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Matter Annihilation Blast
Space folds and collapses around a vortex blast as its impossible momentum approaches infinity.
The stylist adds one die of decisive or post-soak withering damage. This increases to two dice if she rolls 3+ extra successes, or three dice with 5+ extra successes. If the attack benefits from aiming, she converts one of these dice to an automatic success for each consecutive round spent aiming. An enemy who takes 5+ withering damage or any decisive damage falls prone. He must roll to rise from prone until the end of his next turn and suffers a −3 penalty on the roll.
Against battle groups and trivial enemies, the stylist doesn’t need to aim to convert damage dice to successes.
Mastery: The stylist can pay a three-mote surcharge to double her extra successes when determining how much damage she adds. If she deals 3+ decisive damage to at least one enemy or crashes him, she can pay three motes to prevent all such enemies from rising from prone at all until the end of their next turn, pinning them beneath heightened gravity.
Ascent-Driven Recoil Surge
Cost: 4m, 2i; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Terrestrial, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Material Annihilation Blast
The stylist uses her own attack’s shockwave to propel herself across the battlefield.
The shockwave of the stylist’s attack propels her one range band away from her target, or up to two range bands if she rolls 3+ extra successes. If the stylist fires up or down, she can leap an additional range band in the opposite direction. She doesn’t suffer falling damage, and can drift one range band horizontally as she falls. This uses her movement action for the round.
The stylist can use this Charm without a target or attack roll, but can’t gain the additional range band for attack roll extra successes.
Terrestrial: The stylist needs 2+ extra successes to leap at all, and 4+ extra successes for an extra range band.
Collapsing Point of Judgment Form
Cost: 7m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Dual, Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Ascent-Driven Recoil Surge, Collapsing Sky Missile
The stylist assumes the Six Postures of Annihilation, moving through them with fatal grace as she lines up each shot.
The stylist gains the following benefits:
- She increases her attacks’ range by one band.
- She can reflexively aim at an enemy when she crashes him. Against battle groups and trivial characters, dealing any damage qualifies.
- Collapsing Point of Destruction’s once-per-scene limit doesn’t apply to attacks against crashed enemies, trivial characters, battle groups, or Legendary Size enemies.
- She can use Collapsing Point of Destruction reflexively as her devastating action if all characters within its area of effect are crashed, trivial, battle groups, or Legendary Size.
Special activation rules: The stylist can enter this Form reflexively when she deals 7+ total levels of decisive damage with Collapsing Point of Destruction, uses a devastating action to crash an enemy, or deals 5+ decisive damage.
Inescapable Orbit Pull
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Collapsing Point of Judgment Form
As the stylist charges for another shot, the mounting gravitational force draws a hapless foe into her sights.
The stylist makes a grapple gambit against an enemy within long range, rolling (Wits + Martial Arts) for the control roll. Success drags her enemy into close range. She doesn’t suffer any of the usual penalties for grappling and doesn’t lose rounds of grapple control for being attacked. Damage still causes her to lose control.
On the stylist’s next turn, she can use Collapsing Point of Devastation, knocking the grappled enemy back into the center of the blast. The attack is undodgeable against him. If she doesn’t, the grapple ends and her target falls prone, losing (stylist’s Essence) Initiative.
Reset: Once per scene. This Charm resets whenever Collapsing Point of Devastation is reset.
Mastery: The stylist doubles 9s on the Initiative and control rolls.
Vortex Interception Pulse
Cost: 7m, 2i, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Collapsing Point of Judgment Form
The stylist fires on instinct, meeting an attack against her with a volley of devastation.
The stylist clashes an attack against her with a decisive attack, knocking her attacker back one range band if she deals any damage. If she uses Collapsing Sky Missile to enhance the attack, enemies knocked prone by it are unable to rise from prone until the end of the stylist’s next turn.
Regardless of whether the clash succeeds, the stylist can let herself be driven one range band back from him by the blast’s recoil.
Special activation rules: The stylist can reflexively use Ascent-Driven Recoil Surge, waiving its Initiative cost, to jump an additional range band. She can leap upward as well as back.
Terrestrial: This uses the stylist’s attack for the round, or the next round if she’s already attacked.
Perpetual Collapse Horizon
Cost: 1wp or 4i; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Collapsing Point of Judgment Form
The stylist is one with her implosion bow, transcending its limitations as the Essence of her triumphs courses through it.
The stylist can reset Collapsing Point of Destruction when she satisfies one of the following conditions:
- She crashes a nontrivial enemy with an attack that benefits from aiming.
- She incapacitates a nontrivial enemy with an attack that benefits from aiming.
- She deals enough damage to a battle group with a decisive attack to reduce its Size.
- She deals a total of 7+ decisive damage with Collapsing Point of Devastation.
Reset: The stylist can trigger each condition once per day.
Mastery: The stylist can trigger each condition once per scene.
Terrestrial: The stylist can only trigger one condition per day.
Cosmic Spiral Maelstrom
Cost: 10m, 5i, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Dual, Mastery, Perilous, Terrestrial
Duration: Until next turn
Prerequisite Charms: Inescapable Orbit Pull
The stylist redirects her implosion bow’s energy as she charges it to its limits, generating a powerful gravitational vortex around her.
To use this Charm, the stylist must have Initiative 15+ and spend a round aiming. She makes an unblockable withering attack against all characters within medium range. She only gains Initiative from the highest damage roll. Damaged enemies are drawn one range band toward her and fall prone. Crashed enemies are pulled into close range.
At the start of the stylist’s next turn, a burst of force erupts outward, making an unblockable decisive attack against all characters within medium range. This uses her attack for the round. Characters who weren’t hit by the initial withering attack receive +3 non-Charm Defense against it. Characters damaged by the blast fall prone and are knocked back one range band, plus an additional range band if they’re crashed. If they collide with an obstacle, they suffer two dice of decisive damage, plus an additional two dice for each range band of movement they had remaining. This ignores Hardness.
If the stylist is crashed or incapacitated before her next turn, this Charm ends prematurely.
Reset: Once per scene unless reset by incapacitating a nontrivial enemy with this Charm’s decisive attack.
Mastery: Enemies are knocked back an additional range band if they take 3+ decisive damage.
Terrestrial: This Charm’s range is reduced to short for both attacks. It can’t be reset.
Singularity-Strafing Annihilation Barrage
Cost: —(+5m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Cosmic Spiral Maelstrom, Perpetual Collapse Horizon, Vortex Interception Pulse
The stylist fires her implosion bow with superhuman focus and incredible speed, forcing as much power from it as she can as she unleashes a volley of annihilating vortices.
The stylist can pay a five-mote, one-Willpower surcharge when she uses Collapsing Point of Destruction to let her fire multiple blasts. She rolls (Perception) dice and fires (1 + successes) projectiles. She makes a single attack roll for all projectiles, but divides her Initiative and rolls damage separately for each projectile. Battle groups and trivial characters suffer (stylist’s Initiative) damage dice and don’t count when dividing her Initiative. If the projectiles’ areas of effects overlap, characters caught in both suffer whichever projectile’s damage roll is higher.
Reset: Once per scene.
Mastery: Instead of dividing Initiative, each projectile rolls (Initiative/2, rounded up) damage dice. Crashed enemies suffer (Initiative) dice and don’t count when dividing Initiative.
Terrestrial: The stylist rounds down when dividing her Initiative.