The Wyld and Chaos-Repelling Pattern

[Skeptic Tank]

Alright, here's a situation: A circle of solars is walking through middlemarches. As they trudge over steel-wool grass, through a torrential downpour of rusted bolts, the sorcerer puts up Chaos-Repelling Pattern.


Now, within... in this case, nine feet of him, the laws of Creation take jurisdiction. What does this mean for the hailstorm of rusted bolts?


Do they vanish once they touch the pattern's circle? Would the reappear as it left?


Or would they continue to fall and batter our heroes, while the circle merely protected them from mutation and wyld addiction?

 

[Flagg]

I'd say they'd become very real, non-mutable rusted bolts as soon as they entered the perimeter.

 

[Persell]

I'd say that Creation's laws would rule a hail of rusty bolts as a regular hail of ice chunks the size of rusty bolts.

 

[Flyck]

I'm kinda siding with Flagg on this one.  The Wyld created the rusted bolts outside of range.  Once a rusted bolt begins falling, it doesn't matter if it's "raining", it's still a falling rusted bolt.  I'd probably say they would be very real once they hit the perimeter.

 

[wordman]

I'd say they'd become very real, non-mutable rusted bolts as soon as they entered the perimeter.

+1


For this reason, it doesn't bode well when the plants nearby start walking around an belching hallucinogenic smoke. The charm isn't like a force field. While the plants within the area won't suddenly animate, and the mobile plants outside might be too freaky to live in the laws of creation (then again, they might not be), the smoke itself has no such qualms.


One way to think about it is this: the charm prevents the Wyld from passively messing with you, but that's it. It grounds you such that the situation is much like being in a dangerous place in creation: you don't have to worry about your face warping off and flying away, but things lurking in the darkness can still get you. As can the environment, if you let it.

 

[Haku1]

Pretty much, they DO cover this in further detail in the Fairfolk book, the 2e Core and Wyld books.


Basically, the charm prevents a fey from shaping things INSIDE the radius, no "lol, your hand eats your face off!", but there's nothing stopping a fey from shaping a gigantic monstrosity that flies over the mountain that attacks you and eats you!


Or conversely, creating a cloud high above you that rains acid rain and rusty bolts of steel, which harm you as much as you would normally be when bathed by acid and rusty bolts falling on you.

 

[Charon]

Well, it's called chaos-repelling pattern.  


And it's a fairly expensive (8m) charm with a very narrow focus that affect a small area (essence/yard).


So to interpret it in a way that mean 90% of the Wyld effect will still affect you because they originated outside the area of effect neuter that charm.


Personnally I'd have the hailstorm of rusted nail disolve on the edge of the charm's area.  


If you argue that the nails just become real nails then you can argue that ALL environmental effect become "real" inside the area of effect and you just made the charm virtually pointless.


Of course, I'd still let focused direct attacks of all sorts pass through (Spells work in creation, after all).  But it would protect against all hostile wyld environmental effect.


That's how I'd rule it anyway.

 

[Haku1]

Nope... that's the trouble, things can't be made/changed INSIDE the region. Which means you're not shaping the wyld at all, nor are the people inside the radius No subconcious trickery.


Notice that part, inside.


The enviroment outside... different story. Things like rusty bolts ARE real, even if their source isn't of Creation.


Giant monsters that attack you? Behemoths, acid rain? They're caused by fey actively attacking you. Or by a lunar whose mastered the arts of shaping the wyld. That means to stop it, you need to smack the one doing the shaping.

 

[The zombie cat]

Just preventing change you yourself, your gear ad the ground at your feet is a big thing, try walking threw the middle marches for a couple of months without that kind of protection and see what you have left.


Edward

 

[Persell]

They become ordinary nails of course, if they have been wyld mutated nails with claws and fangs before that is a definitely a nice effect.

 

[skafte]

Just remember that with the giant monster, the fay will need to create a monster that can function (live) inside Creation. Some of those bad boys have a really hard time bending their body to the will of Creation and still live, and unless the fay remember this, its big monster will die without a fight. And i'm guessing a monster created for Creation will not take the warping of hte wyld all to well neither...

 

[wordman]

If you argue that the nails just become real nails then you can argue that ALL environmental effect become "real" inside the area of effect and you just made the charm virtually pointless.

Not at all, though I'll grant that the name of the charm does give the impression that "I'm invulnerable to the wyld", when it really offers no such thing.


Think about it this way: creation and the wyld are alike in several ways. When you are out walking in either of them, the weather (hail, lightning, sandstorms) can harm you, wild beasts might come out of nowhere to try to eat you, the terrain might cause issues (landslides, steam vents, quicksand, etc.), bandits might attack, etc. The wyld is different in that a) it's weirder and usually more dangerous and b) it can mutate you, your mind and your stuff just by being in it.


All Chaos-Repelling Pattern does is prevent "b", making walking in the wyld more like walking through a particularly dangerous part of creation. This is not an insignificant effect, but it is not invulnerability to the wyld. If you still think such protection is "virtually pointless", I'd suggest you test the theory by walking in a middlemarch for a while without it. (Remember to make tests for your gear as well as yourself.)

 

[Yggdrasil]

I remember that one of Creation's rules is that creatures too much mutated by the wyld won't survive.


I interpret this Charm this way: the Fair Folk see a tiny little piece of that disgusting shaped and formed Creation walking into their garden. While the Charm may prevent you and your gear from wyld shaping effects, it will not prevent some big and ill-tempered behemoth from crushing you with their hand.

 

[tjcoonrod]

Rule on it how you like, of course - I can't recall, but I believe there is text in the charm that actually explains this type of situation - something I think, it says where your armor wont turn to lava, but that won't stop that dragon from breathing lava on you (probably not even close, but something along those lines).


Heres how I would rule on it personally: The rusted bolts (not really that far out there, minus the fact they are falling in place of hail) would remain - becoming normal rusted bolts that would rain down on the pcs for 1 'action' - perhaps allowing them all to roll dex+dodge to avoid being hit for that 1 action, or roll an 'attack' roll against their DVs. (and then I would wonder why the sorceror was walking through the middlemarches without it up as he stepped in there in the first place)


But after that, no more rusted hail bolts would come down from the hail clouds - that's not normal.


The sorceror could, theoretically, edge forward through the storm slowly, so that the bolts would stop out of everybodys range (assuming the Exalts even care, or have mortals following them that need to get through alive).


And I agree with what wordman said. I wouldn't underestimate this charms usefulness in the wyld.

 

[Flyck]

If you want to argue the cost expenditure of the charm (8motes), then here's something to think on...  The charm actively protects you AND your gear, and anyone within range.  Secondly, it completely stops all shaping from happening inside it's region.  So, without such protection, one walking into the wyld can expect mutations or bizzare changes to their equipment (Lol, you thought you were wearing clothes!  Now it's melted into water!).  They can also expect a Raksha to freely attack them however he sees fit, with little to no limitations...  "Hmm...  I think I'll open the ground up underneath them, shape it into a giant mouth, swallow them, then turn the ground and the dirt around them into fire, leaving them to fall endlessly (on fire) until I feel like having them land in some acid."  Of course, more could be endlessly applied.  


8 motes is sounding pretty reasonable to me...  Not like you don't regenerate motes when in the wyld.

 

[wordman]

8 motes is sounding pretty reasonable to me...  Not like you don't regenerate motes when in the wyld.

Since those 8 motes are committed, though, you won't regenerate them until you drop the charm.

 

[Lord Heru]

tjcoonrod, the Charm you were thinking of is the Integrity-Protecting Prana. This is an Integrity Charm that is on page 199 of the Corebook. This Charm protects the Solar's "mind, body, spirit or traits." It only affects the Solar, his base equipment, and nothing else. The charm lasts for a day.


It should be said that this charm only affects a shaping effect onto the Solar not the environment. For example, it will stop the Wyld from putting a snake in the belly of a Solar, but it won't stop the Wyld from turning that nearby tree into a deadly snake that comes out and eats the Solar.


It also protects the Solar's equipment from transforming into deadly things. For example it will stop a Solar's armor from being turned into lava, but it won't stop it being turned into butterflies. Personally, I have chosen to ignore this and read it as the Charm stops all shaping effects of the Wyld on the mind, body and equipment of the Solar.


Their is also Destiny-Manifesting Method that protects the Solar form shaping effects by giving an increase to the boost. But it works equally well against the Labyrinth and Sidereals as it does the Wyld.


Chaos-Repelling Pattern, as mentioned, protects the Solar and his compatriots from harm in a certain radius around the Solar. This is interesting, because how I read it, is that it covers above and below the Solar just as it does around. This means that at minimum, 3 yards above, below, and a radius around is protected. If an effect happens outside that and falls then it can affect the Solar otherwise it cannot get in.


The very, and I think most useful part of this Charm is that it stops the ground he is walking on from transforming into something else. If he is walking on solid ground it will always remain solid ground, it won't become an open chasm or butterflies or a bug or whatever. This is one of the most useful, and I think everlasting, parts of the Charm.


One of the things that I wish they had did for the two above charms is create additional meta-charm affects. I can see some charms for both that, like the Element-Resting Prana and Eternal Elemental Harmony Charms, reduce the cost or extend its timespan. Such things could become quite useful and make sense in my view.


I'll end at this point for now, and hope that the above information and ideas is useful to others and makes sense.

 

[Ledaal Zyden]

In the end, he went with Flagg's idea. The sorceror got pelted with the bolts, and gathered some up. When the storm stopped, they began to melt, but remained stable while within the sorceror's Chaos-Repelling Pattern. He ended up using them to demonstrate the extent of his little Creation circle, by tossing them out, and showing us where they began to melt.


Moral of the story: Nobody is safe from tetanus.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Well, tetanus won't kill an Exalt...any more than any other disease. On the other hand an 'I'm sick -2 penalty' sometimes can.

 

[Flyck]

Since those 8 motes are committed, though, you won't regenerate them until you drop the charm.

Well, then committing 8 motes still sounds pretty reasonable to me.