Red Revel (Soulsteel Grand Daiklave, Artifact •••••)
In life, the Lunar huntress-queen Seven Shadows Blossom was one of Creation’s first necromancers, student to the Black Nadir Concordat. When she perished in battle against a dread abomination, her soul, steeped in death, arose as a ghost. Yet, unlife was a tragedy to Blossom: deprived of her lower soul, she could no longer feel the primal emotions that had guided her in life, the bliss of wrath, hunger, passion, and the thrill of the kill. Desperate to regain her lost drive, she dove into the River of Blood, and emerged changed. From blood, she gained a fleeting, gruesome vitality. Others followed her, and so she became one of the first saints of the Incarnadine Path.
Hungering for more life, Seven Shadows Blossom drew an ore of deepest crimson from the bed of the River of Blood. Willing worshipers sacrificed themselves to be forged on her anvil. From these she forged Red Revel, the sacred blade, which in her hand provided her with the feelings of life — for as long as blood fed the blade and her. In the end, Blossom forged her own soul into the sword, so she could experience the lives it took directly.
Blossom’s successors were less skilled than she in wielding the blade. It was taken during the Fallen Spear Imperium’s failed invasion of Stygia, sinking to the bottom of the Sea of Shadows when the fleet was wrecked by tempest. Some claim to have spotted the blade wielded by a lone warrior in the last year, and Ukhala Enlightened-in-Blood has taken notice, decreeing that her followers must stop at nothing to retrieve the sacred relic.
Red Revel is a long, curved blade of crimson soulsteel, slender for its size, rich with dark reflections, with a hilt carved of black jade. The souls within suffer little, lost as they are to the primal joy of bloodlust for as long as they are fed or allowed to slumber within their scabbard of behemoth-tree ebony.
Attunement: 5m
Type: Heavy (+1 ACC, +14 DMG, +0 DEF, OVW 6)
Tags: Lethal, Melee, Balanced, Reaching, Two-Handed
Hearthstone Slot(s): 2
Era: Black Nadir Concordat
Evocations of Red Revel
Attuning to Red Revel causes its wielder to gain a Minor Principle of “I find joy in violence,” which cannot be reduced below Minor as long as she remains attuned. The blade seeks out blood: it adds the value of the highest wound penalty of any non-trivial character in the scene to its base damage, Overwhelming value, and as dice to its decisive damage, maximum four. If a non-trivial character has been incapacitated in this scene, that value is set at four. Upon rolling Join Battle, Red Revel’s wielder may suffer one level of lethal damage to increase both the bonus and its maximum value by +1.
Life-Reaping Enthusiasm
Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Withering-only, Resonant
Duration: Until next turn
Prerequisites: None
Battle is the ultimate thrill, and to experience it fully, one must abandon thoughts of survival.
The wielder increases the raw withering damage and Overwhelming value of her attack by the intensity of her joy in violence Principle, but penalizes her Defense by one until the beginning of her next turn, or two if her Principle is Defining. Crashing an enemy upholds her Principle.
Resonant: The wielder also adds the intensity of her Principle to her soak. She can use the Evocation reflexively in response to an attack.
Joyful Crimson Cut
Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
Blade trailing blood in a shimmering arc, Red Revel bites deep into the foe and draws out his blood to join the celebration.
The wielder’s decisive attack doubles 10s on the damage roll and increases its victim’s wound penalty by −1 (this does not stack). If this increases their wound penalty to −2 or higher, a living target or spirit begins to bleed out, ignoring the benefits of Exalted healing and suffering one point of lethal damage per minute until tended to (Exalted, p. 236).
If a victim’s effective wound penalty ever exceeds his Stamina while suffering from this effect, he begins to suffer one level of lethal damage per turn instead.
Infinite Crimson Waves Dance
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Dual, Resonant
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Life-Reaping Enthusiasm, Joyful Crimson Cut
Shed blood flies and multiplies, forming crimson ribbons around the wielder, which become blades, spears, and slicing waves.
For the rest of the scene, the wielder gains the following benefits:
- Her melee attacks reach out to short range.
- When she crashes an opponent within close range with a withering attack, she may make a reflexive decisive attack against him with (higher of Essence or 3) damage; she loses Initiative equal to that amount but does not reset to base.
- When she increases the wound penalty of an opponent within close range with a decisive attack, she may make a reflexive withering attack against him with (higher of Essence or 3) base damage and Overwhelming. She gains any Initiative from the attack after resetting to base.
- She cannot willingly withdraw from battle until a non-trivial opponent is incapacitated.
- Ending this Evocation early requires spending one Willpower and all of her Initiative, crashing her.
These effects are suppressed while the wielder is crashed, though she must still spend one Willpower to end the Evocation in crash.
Resonant: This Evocation may be activated reflexively upon dealing 3+ decisive damage to an opponent.
Bloody Omen Promise
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Infinite Crimson Waves Dance
As Red Revel tears into her foe, flying blood congeals into a terrible tapestry over the battlefield.
When the wielder’s decisive attack increases her opponent’s wound penalty, she may make a reflexive threaten roll against all characters within short range, adding the value of the wound penalty she just caused as non-Charm successes against each opponent. Characters whose Resolve is overcome are confronted with a terrible manifestation of Red Revel’s ideal of joy in violence, and must either balk in horror, or embrace the revel.
- Characters who reject Red Revel’s omen gain a Minor Tie of fear toward its wielder, or strengthen a pre-existing Intimacy by one step. They suffer a penalty equal to this Intimacy’s intensity to attack rolls against the wielder, as well as movement rolls to approach her, for the rest of the scene.
- Characters who embrace Red Revel’s omen gain a Minor Principle of joy in violence. Their wound penalty does not apply to their attack rolls, and they add this Intimacy’s intensity to their withering raw damage. However, they also suffer a penalty equal to that intensity to their Defense, Hardness, and soak.
Resisting this influence outright requires entering a Decision Point and citing a Major or Defining Intimacy that would motivate them to continue fighting without finding joy in the fight itself, and costs three Willpower.
World-Sweeping Scarlet Tide
Cost: 10m, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Infinite Crimson Waves Dance
Infusing her own blood into Red Revel’s slash, the wielder cuts forth with a tidal wave of blood that sweeps away her foes.
The wielder makes a single unblockable withering attack against all characters in a 90 degree arc out to medium range. She only gains Initiative from the highest damage roll she makes, but still gains the full Initiative awards for hitting or crashing enemies. Characters who are damaged by this attack are knocked prone and driven back one range band, and their blood rushes to join the tide: any damaged character with a wound penalty also suffers one level of unavoidable lethal decisive damage.
Resonant: The tide reaches out to long range. The wielder can use this Evocation outside of combat to perform feats of demolition consistent with a tidal wave’s destructive potential. She uses her attack roll as her feat of strength roll, and may perform Strength 10 feats.
Reset: Once per scene.
Bleed the Sky
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Bloody Omen Promise
Red Revel tears open a gash in the sky, inviting the world to join in the celebrations.
Dark crimson clouds gather overhead, and blood starts raining down out to medium range of the wielder. This imposes a −2 penalty to ranged attacks as well as Perception rolls based on vision. Additionally, characters other than the wielder within the area of effect are subjected to a poison with Damage 2i/round, Duration (Appearance or Charisma) rounds, Penalty −2, every round they begin in the area. Crashed characters do not suffer damage from this poison, instead losing one Willpower and suffering the erosion of one of their Intimacies related to peace, kindness, love, or tranquility, starting with the lowest, or the increase of one of their Intimacies related to violence, pleasure, attraction, or wrath (the player chooses), each round until out of crash or the poison runs out.
A character who endures the duration of this poison becomes immune to further exposure for the rest of the scene.
At Essence 4+, the user may expand this rain of blood to cover an (Essence) miles radius. Rain beyond medium range lacks the poison component, but has the destructive effects on the environment of a rain of blood, killing vegetation, making water unsuited for drinking, and sickening humans and animals.
Resonant: This Charm is reflexive.
Reborn in the Red River
Cost: 10m, 4i, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Dissonant, Resonant
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Bleed the Sky, World-Sweeping Scarlet Tide
From blood shed on the battlefield, Red Revel summons the River of Blood to anoint its wielder.
Dissonant: Characters dissonant with Red Revel cannot awaken this Evocation.
This Evocation requires Initiative 10+ and for a non-trivial character present in the scene to be bleeding out or incapacitated, or for the wielder to be suffering from a −2 or higher wound penalty. A tidal wave of blood erupts in a circle around the wielder, sweeping out to medium range of her. This is an environmental hazard with Damage (Essence)L, difficulty (Appearance or Charisma). Characters who fail to resist the damage are knocked prone and dragged back out to the maximum range of the wave. They cannot attempt to get up until the end of the wielder’s next turn. This destroys any structure less sturdy than a stone fortress.
As the blood wave recedes, the wielder stands framed by wings of blood, Red Revel lengthened and strengthened by accrued gore. For the rest of the scene, Red Revel gains +1 Accuracy, +2 Damage, +1 Defense, and +1 Overwhelming. Additionally, the wielder may hover at short range above the ground, ignoring ground-based difficult terrain and other obstacles. When she increases a non trivial character’s wound penalty or reduces a battle group’s Size, she heals one non-aggravated health level.
Resonant: A resonant wielder may have the wave reach out to long range.
Sky Phalanx (Soulsteel Powerbow, Artifact ••••)
“Now destitute following my escape from Hell, I relied solely on what literary reputation I could muster among the quaint republic of Sowther. Here, I chanced to encounter a charter caravan of the little-known Four Quarters Company, who were setting out to fabled Dari of the Mists through the shadowland of Stillmere. Their exotic wares drew my professional notice, and I struck an accord with their leader Pargej to assay them for a modest fee.
Particularly, my attention was drawn to a monstrous greatbow, some dozen spans in length, which took four strong men to carry from its cart for my perusal. Both the limb and the twined cable it was strung with were of ashen-gray soulsteel, whistling eerily like a distant mountain pass. The limb was studded with polished human knucklebones, of which I counted 126.
This weapon I identified as Sky Phalanx, as provenanced in the travelogue Treasures of the Eastern Threshold by my thrice-great aunt Jurul Bryar. During the Waxwood War of RY 89, so the story goes, the fearsome witch-queen of Gulmohar, Na-Narijya, sensed treachery in her royal guard, and so slew them with fell curses and wrought their bones into a weapon to fight in their stead. She took to the battlements of the palace alone and bedeviled the besieging legion with the ghosts and spears of her erstwhile guard for three nights. She was finally slain by the hero Desai Yara, whose family would later rule in the Realm’s name. Sky Phalanx languished, ill-favored, for centuries in the vaults of House Desai, but was documented lost in the Burnt Flower Uprising’s looting, and was presumably thereafter acquired by the Four Quarters.
Pargej offered me a handsome retainer to continue with the caravan on the road to Dari and further lend my expertise. Though tempted, I ultimately resolved to travel East, and bade the company farewell. I know them to have a buyer in mind for the item, though they cryptically refused to reveal whom. I have heard no rumor of Sky Phalanx since.”
— Ledaal Kusam Valdris, One Thousand Shards of Jade
Attunement: 5m
Type: Heavy (+14 DMG, OVW 5)
Accuracy: Close −1; Short +5; Medium +3; Long +1; Extreme −1
Tags: Lethal, Archery (Long)
Hearthstone Slot(s): 2
Era: The Waxwood War
Evocations of Sky Phalanx
Sky Phalanx is unusually large and weighty, even for a powerbow, and launches enormous, javelin-like arrows. It’s a heavy ranged weapon, but firing it after moving on the same turn incurs a flurry penalty (Exalted, p. 195).
The wearer unlocks Lone Lancer’s Charge for free upon attunement.
Lone Lancer’s Charge
Cost: 5m, 4i; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dissonant, Resonant, Uniform, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
Just as an enemy avoids a greatarrow loosed by Sky Phalanx, ghostly hands grab it in flight like a spear and redirect it to strike true.
If the wielder would miss with an attack, she may use this Evocation to roll again, ignoring any penalties for cover or visual obstruction. The rerolled attack uses the same dice pool as the original, but does not benefit from any other instant-duration magic.
With an Essence 2+ repurchase, the wielder can reduce this Evocation’s Initiative cost to two and redirect her attack to any other enemy within her range. Her rerolled attack suffers a dice penalty equal to the successes by which she failed to meet her initial target’s Defense.
Dissonant: This can only target lower-Initiative enemies.
Resonant: The rerolled attack benefits from all magic used to enhance the original.
First Champion’s Challenge
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Resonant, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Ivory Circle Necromancy, Lone Lancer’s Charge
As a sovereign among the dead, the wielder of Sky Phalanx can send a champion to uphold her cause.
To use this Evocation, the necromancer must have a bound or willing ghost within close range. She may launch the ghost with an arrow to any point within range to appear unharmed at the destination: the ghost takes hold of the arrow and is harmlessly carried to his destination as it is loosed. If she attacks an enemy, the ghost moves to within close range of that target. If she hits, the ghost rolls (necromancer’s Essence) and gains that much Initiative.
Resonant: The ghost rolls (necromancer’s Essence + 2) and gains that much Initiative on a hit. If she hit using the reroll of Lone Lancer’s Charge, he rolls (necromancer’s Essence + 5) instead.
Pankration’s Distant Grasp
Cost: 5m, 1i; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Lone Lancer’s Charge
A ghostly figure leaps from the arrow to wrestle the wielder’s target.
The wielder makes a decisive attack against an enemy in range. After rolling damage, she rolls all failed damage dice and summons a semi-corporeal warrior from within the bow. This functions as a roll to Join Battle for the wraith, as well as the Initiative roll of an automatically successful grapple gambit against the enemy the wielder attacked.
The wraith rolls (wielder’s [Dexterity + War]) for the control roll, and can only savage, restrain, or release his enemy. His damage is +10 for withering savage attacks, and has (wielder’s War) Evasion and Parry, soak 5, and Hardness 4. Attacking him awards no Initiative; he vanishes after suffering 5+ withering damage, any decisive damage, or when the grapple ends.
March of the Flying Phalanx
Cost: 10m, 5i, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Pankration’s Distant Grasp
As the wielder looses her arrow, dozens of phantom spearmen follow it in flight, charging through the enemy ranks in a final glorious charge.
Resonant: Only a wielder resonant with Sky Phalanx can use this Evocation.
The wielder makes a single decisive attack against an area one range band wide and one range band in front of her, extending to two or three range bands in front of her if she aimed once or twice respectively. Each target suffers (War + extra successes) damage dice. This doesn’t include her Initiative or reset her to base.
If used with this Evocation, Lone Lancer’s Charge waives its Initiative cost, and rerolls the attack only against missed targets.
If she knows First Champion’s Challenge, she can use it once to deploy any number of individual ghosts or a battle group of up to (half Essence, rounded up) size anywhere within the target area.
Reset: Once per scene.