MasterDAF
Senior Member
Sherwood
I've completed the stats to the next major artifact I'd like to work on. I purposefully chose for Viktor to recover his predecessor's daiklave 'Daylight Doom of the Unshaped' at the tomb so that he could later reforge it into a Goremaul with its own enchanted abilities, thus providing a thematic link between the fallen Solars of the past and the newly rising Solars of the present. I feel it should be stat out at Artifact 3, but obviously await your decision. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it! 
ORICHALCUM GOREMAUL ‘ENDURING CHISEL OF DAYLIGHT REFORGED’ (ARTIFACT 3)
WEAPON STATS
- Speed (5) Accuracy (+3) Damage (+10B/2) Defense (+1) Rate (3) Attune (5) Tags (O)
* These reflect normal stats from Errata with Orichalcum benefits included
APPEARANCE
- This long sleek sledge is of an appropriate size to be wielded either two-handed or one-handed when attuned. It is constructed with a sturdy core of pearl-white Adamant encased in wide spiralized stripes of tempered Orichalcum, a features thin shallow grooves carved along the core’s handle that follow the spiral upwards towards the head of the hammer. The twin protruding sides of the hammer head are forged of a mixed Orichalcum and bronze alloy, and fully encase a reinforced tube of Red Jade used for storing and combining fire-aspected essence with the essence of perfection provided by its Solar wielder. The grooves from the weapon’s haft continue up the sides of its golden head, randomly branching to the sides and digging thin trenches across it in their trails around the sledge head. At the central point atop the artifact where the grooves all converge is a slight concave dip that houses a hearthstone socket of white Adamant like that used in its handle.
RED JADE FIRE-CHARGE CAPACITOR
- The head of the Goremaul must lay within a fire for six hours to gather a single charge of fire-aspected essence. Any fire will accomplish gathering charges, so long as it is at least as large as a campfire. This reinforced tube of Red Jade can contain a maximum of (Essence x 2) charges within it. All abilities require the mixing of fire-charges with Solar essence, thus without a creative stunt all other Exalts are precluded from making use of these abilities (though they can still force attunement and use the weapon as a basic Goremaul for 2x motes).
ESSENCE/WP COSTS SUMMARY
- Attunement would require committing 5m
- ‘Holy Blaze’ ability requires expenditure of 2m, 1 fire-charge
- ‘Goldfire Artificer’ ability requires expenditure of 3m, 1 fire-charge per elemental
- ‘Pachyderm Trample’ ability requires expenditure of 5m+, 3 fire-charges
- ‘Holy Blaze’ ability requires expenditure of 2m, 1 fire-charge
- ‘Goldfire Artificer’ ability requires expenditure of 3m, 1 fire-charge per elemental
- ‘Pachyderm Trample’ ability requires expenditure of 5m+, 3 fire-charges
(ABILITY) HOLY BLAZE OF COMBAT
- Forged as a weapon of purpose against Creation’s foes, the fabled Daiklave ‘Daylight Doom of the Unshaped’ was able to burst alight with holy flames of gold that licked at the enemies of Creation and inflicted terrible wounds upon them. In reforging the blade into a sledge, Viktor has managed to carry this enchantment over both for its utility and in deference to the purpose his predecessor originally intended for this weapon.
- By spending 2 motes and 1 fire-charge, the Exalt causes the head of the sledge to become temporarily engulfed in flames of gold. Until their DV refreshes, the Solar’s attacks with this weapon gain +2 base damage and inflict aggravated damage against creatures of darkness.
- By spending 2 motes and 1 fire-charge, the Exalt causes the head of the sledge to become temporarily engulfed in flames of gold. Until their DV refreshes, the Solar’s attacks with this weapon gain +2 base damage and inflict aggravated damage against creatures of darkness.
- The Goremaul soaks up sunlight and fire, absorbing the two materials within its Red Jade capacitor and combining their complementary essences within the sledge. With an unspoken mental command, the spiralized grooves along the handle glow golden and quickly trace their way up to the head of the artifact. The glowing grooves twine across the twin Orichalcum and bronze-alloy protrusions and meet along the top as they form a wreath of light around the imbedded hearthstone socket. With the infusion of Solar essence, a humanoid elemental formed of golden fire emerges from the artifact to aid with a single crafting endeavor.
- By spending 3 motes and 1 fire-charge, the Exalt can create a goldfire elemental tasked to one specific project chosen when they emerge. The Exalt is limited to creating a maximum of (Essence) elementals, as any more than that would be too taxing for the Goremaul to sustain. These elementals are born with an innate connection to both Gaia and the Unconquered Sun through their composite materials. As such, every two elementals working in tandem provide +1 success to crafting attempts involving Orichalcum or Jade, and all Craft (Fire) attempts regardless of materials. However, both deities view the Neverborn and the Yozi as antithetical to Creation; thus, goldfire elementals refuse to aid in any craft attempt that involves the use of materials associated with Underworld/Ghosts (such as Soulsteel) or with Malfeas/Infernalism (such as Vitriol).
- Goldfire elementals cannot engage in any other action besides the assigned crafting task, treating anything else as an unacceptable order, and if they are damaged with any amount of damage they immediately dissipate. They also dissipate after their assigned project is completed, melding back into the local Dragon Lines.
- By spending 3 motes and 1 fire-charge, the Exalt can create a goldfire elemental tasked to one specific project chosen when they emerge. The Exalt is limited to creating a maximum of (Essence) elementals, as any more than that would be too taxing for the Goremaul to sustain. These elementals are born with an innate connection to both Gaia and the Unconquered Sun through their composite materials. As such, every two elementals working in tandem provide +1 success to crafting attempts involving Orichalcum or Jade, and all Craft (Fire) attempts regardless of materials. However, both deities view the Neverborn and the Yozi as antithetical to Creation; thus, goldfire elementals refuse to aid in any craft attempt that involves the use of materials associated with Underworld/Ghosts (such as Soulsteel) or with Malfeas/Infernalism (such as Vitriol).
- Goldfire elementals cannot engage in any other action besides the assigned crafting task, treating anything else as an unacceptable order, and if they are damaged with any amount of damage they immediately dissipate. They also dissipate after their assigned project is completed, melding back into the local Dragon Lines.
- The wielder throws the sledge at their chosen target, and their blazing anima leaps from their brow and binds itself to the flung weapon. The golden essence of their anima enwraps the artifact and coalesces around it to form a massive translucent shape similar in appearance to a charging elephant.
- To use this ability, the Exalt must already have their anima banner flaring at the 11-15+ mote range, or reflexively spend 10 motes to activate their anima banner. From that point onward, as long as their anima bonfire remains at the 11-15+ mote level, they may spend 5 motes and 3 fire-charges to form a massive golden elephant from their encircling essence. Upon casting the Goremaul at their target, the great golden totem flares around the weapon and charges along its path.
- Targeted enemies cannot parry this attack, only dodge DVs are applicable, and even then the DDV of the target is reduced by half for purposes of dodging the golden tusks careening towards them. The Exalt can send their weapon anywhere within (Essence x 50) yards and uses an attack pool of (Dexterity + Melee + Essence), with a base bashing damage equal to an elephant’s strength reinforced by the Exalt’s essence (14 + Essence).
- Against targeted inanimate objects double the raw damage of the attack, as the golden elephant spirit tears through walls and obstacles and leaves wreckage in its path. Against large groups of foes instead roll (Dexterity + War + Essence) and treat the elephant spirit as though it had a magnitude and might equal to (Essence), allowing it to effectively trample across them without the penalties typically endured by a solo unit.
- This attack has a Speed of 5 and requires an additional 5 ticks after the spirit totem collides with its target to fly back to the Exalt, thus depriving them of the Goremaul for the following turn. Since it travels through the air to return, it can be intercepted by someone wishing to prevent its motion. They must make a successful (Strength + Athletics) roll against a difficulty equal to the Exalt’s (Strength + Essence) scores.
- To use this ability, the Exalt must already have their anima banner flaring at the 11-15+ mote range, or reflexively spend 10 motes to activate their anima banner. From that point onward, as long as their anima bonfire remains at the 11-15+ mote level, they may spend 5 motes and 3 fire-charges to form a massive golden elephant from their encircling essence. Upon casting the Goremaul at their target, the great golden totem flares around the weapon and charges along its path.
- Targeted enemies cannot parry this attack, only dodge DVs are applicable, and even then the DDV of the target is reduced by half for purposes of dodging the golden tusks careening towards them. The Exalt can send their weapon anywhere within (Essence x 50) yards and uses an attack pool of (Dexterity + Melee + Essence), with a base bashing damage equal to an elephant’s strength reinforced by the Exalt’s essence (14 + Essence).
- Against targeted inanimate objects double the raw damage of the attack, as the golden elephant spirit tears through walls and obstacles and leaves wreckage in its path. Against large groups of foes instead roll (Dexterity + War + Essence) and treat the elephant spirit as though it had a magnitude and might equal to (Essence), allowing it to effectively trample across them without the penalties typically endured by a solo unit.
- This attack has a Speed of 5 and requires an additional 5 ticks after the spirit totem collides with its target to fly back to the Exalt, thus depriving them of the Goremaul for the following turn. Since it travels through the air to return, it can be intercepted by someone wishing to prevent its motion. They must make a successful (Strength + Athletics) roll against a difficulty equal to the Exalt’s (Strength + Essence) scores.
[1] Viktor plans to smelt down the Daiklave ‘Daylight Doom of the Unshaped’, while working carefully to preserve the Orichalcum and Adamant core of the weapon to be used as the core and haft for his sledge. He recognizes the importance the Daiklave held to its creator and wishes to share such a feeling without entirely dismantling the forged object of his former self. This will create a theme of building on the past, by keeping a piece of his predecessor’s work and incorporating it into his own.
[2] As Viktor has used his recovered Essence Pulse Grenade, it has raised questions as to the nature of essence storage using magical materials as a conduit and container. Tinkering with his grenade, he’ll eventually decide to try building something similar. It won’t be successful in the way he’d planned, but it will produce a reinforced tube of Red Jade that has the curious property of retaining ambient fire-aspected essence. He’ll eventually experiment with flooding the tube with his own Solar essence, and in doing so discover its unique ability to combine the two forms of essence to produce otherwise separate effects. This will eventually be fitted inside the Goremaul as his first prototype essence capacitor, lending its fire-aspect containment to the artifact’s natural Solar-aspected benefits.
[3] In an effort to create an arcane link between his anima and the reforged weapon, Viktor will create a small Jade effigy in the shape of an elephant (his anima totem). It will be blessed (hopefully by Darian within the temple to the Sun) and then Viktor will blaze his anima to a raging bonfire of essence and invest it into the small vessel. He will melt the effigy over the forge as he smelts the Orichalcum, hopefully transferring and binding his anima into the artifact.
[2] As Viktor has used his recovered Essence Pulse Grenade, it has raised questions as to the nature of essence storage using magical materials as a conduit and container. Tinkering with his grenade, he’ll eventually decide to try building something similar. It won’t be successful in the way he’d planned, but it will produce a reinforced tube of Red Jade that has the curious property of retaining ambient fire-aspected essence. He’ll eventually experiment with flooding the tube with his own Solar essence, and in doing so discover its unique ability to combine the two forms of essence to produce otherwise separate effects. This will eventually be fitted inside the Goremaul as his first prototype essence capacitor, lending its fire-aspect containment to the artifact’s natural Solar-aspected benefits.
[3] In an effort to create an arcane link between his anima and the reforged weapon, Viktor will create a small Jade effigy in the shape of an elephant (his anima totem). It will be blessed (hopefully by Darian within the temple to the Sun) and then Viktor will blaze his anima to a raging bonfire of essence and invest it into the small vessel. He will melt the effigy over the forge as he smelts the Orichalcum, hopefully transferring and binding his anima into the artifact.
BASIC WEAPON STATS
- As both the Daiklave and the Goremaul are stat out as artifact 2 weapons, and Viktor is working to transform one to the other, the starting working-assumption will be that the artifact is level 2.
- Artifact requires attunement of 5m, the same as a Goremaul normally requires and at the level normally expected for a level 2 artifact, thus does not heavily affect the level of the artifact up or down.
ABILITY BENEFITS
- Holy Blaze provides a benefit like that of 'Enemy Castigating Solar Judgement', a Solar charm costing a flat 2m (roughly a mid-high level 1 power) and adding an additional 2 dice to the damage is almost negligible and equivalent to a cheap excellency, pushing the ability firmly up to a high-level 1 power.
- Goldfire Artificer allows one to summon elementals to do their bidding which can be compared to the Terrestrial Circle Spell 'Summon Elemental' which has a min Essence of 3 and costs 10m (roughly mid-level 2 power). This ability cost is much cheaper than the spell though, at roughly 1/3 the motes of the spell, pushing it up to roughly low level 3 power.
- Pachyderm Trample's mechanical effects function extremely like the Solar Melee charm Blazing Solar Bolt, to such an extent that it has more in common than it does different with the Essence 3, Melee 5 charm (placing it comfortably as a mid-level 2 power). Additionally, it also doubles damage against inanimate objects, it increases its traits to attempt match-ups against high magnitude enemies, and it reaches far enough out to hit flying opponents who would normally be out of range from their attacks (none of which are massive benefits on their own, but they are all useful and combined provide something around a high-1 power). All placed together this ability can be used to great effect, and while it is not very unique (as most is drawn straight from an existent charm) it does make the wielder a very difficult obstacle to overcome if challenged in a way that allows them to make full use of their artifact, marking it as roughly high-level 3 power.
DRAWBACKS
- Red Jade capacitor and subsequent fire-charge costs. While the capacitor is not difficult at all to charge (set-it and forget-it), it does take considerable time to do at 6 hours per point of charge. As 2/3 of the abilities are used for combat applications, this can severely limit the amount of fire-charge the user has to draw upon when they expect to use it the most frequently (creating a mid-high level 1 drawback). Additionally, if the wielder makes use of the crafting ability of the sledge, they can realistically expect to be constantly missing a large chunk of the fire-charges available before they ever make it to the battlefield (pushing the drawback up to roughly low level 2).
- Goldfire Artificer summons elementals to aid the user, but unlike the similar spell, there is a different cost required that limits the applicability/frequency of summoning multiple goldfire elementals as well as a maximum number of elementals that can be summoned with the artifact total (creating a roughly high-1 or low-2 drawback). Then factor in the somewhat limited applicability of usage, only helping with certain crafts/materials and outright refusing other types (boosting drawback to roughly mid-high 2) and their inability to do anything but craft, while spell summoned elementals can be ordered to serve in almost any way imagined. This flaw quickly decreases the opportunities of usage to very specific ones, as otherwise one should just use the spell to summon elementals to keep them for more varied usage and a longer period of time, ultimately leading to a drawback sitting somewhere around mid-high 3 drawback.
- Pachyderm Trample requires the Exalt to have their anima banner blazing at the bonfire level, thus making sure that the use of this power will always carry the side-effect of revealing the Solar to everyone in their vicinity (possibly a deadly inconvenience dependent on location), probably a mid-high level 1 drawback.
TOTALS
Totaling the power points, there are roughly 7 beneficial points, and 6 drawback points, leaving a surplus of 1 point. With the artifact starting at level 2 overall, these rough calculations adding an extra point should bump the Goremaul up to artifact level 3. Oadenol’s Codex states that “Three-dot artifacts confer a great advantage in a single discipline or a significant advantage in a broad range of circumstances” (p. 14). Taking stock of the combat abilities, this Goremaul should function as a capable weapon as well as a minor bane to creatures of darkness and a good unexpected on-the-fly tool for sieges or combat with Behemoths/Warstriders (though its resources are extremely limited would only serve a couple times before being drained). Additionally, while not as powerful for crafting purposes, it does provide varied lesser benefits for a somewhat-limited selection of crafting.
- As both the Daiklave and the Goremaul are stat out as artifact 2 weapons, and Viktor is working to transform one to the other, the starting working-assumption will be that the artifact is level 2.
- Artifact requires attunement of 5m, the same as a Goremaul normally requires and at the level normally expected for a level 2 artifact, thus does not heavily affect the level of the artifact up or down.
ABILITY BENEFITS
- Holy Blaze provides a benefit like that of 'Enemy Castigating Solar Judgement', a Solar charm costing a flat 2m (roughly a mid-high level 1 power) and adding an additional 2 dice to the damage is almost negligible and equivalent to a cheap excellency, pushing the ability firmly up to a high-level 1 power.
- Goldfire Artificer allows one to summon elementals to do their bidding which can be compared to the Terrestrial Circle Spell 'Summon Elemental' which has a min Essence of 3 and costs 10m (roughly mid-level 2 power). This ability cost is much cheaper than the spell though, at roughly 1/3 the motes of the spell, pushing it up to roughly low level 3 power.
- Pachyderm Trample's mechanical effects function extremely like the Solar Melee charm Blazing Solar Bolt, to such an extent that it has more in common than it does different with the Essence 3, Melee 5 charm (placing it comfortably as a mid-level 2 power). Additionally, it also doubles damage against inanimate objects, it increases its traits to attempt match-ups against high magnitude enemies, and it reaches far enough out to hit flying opponents who would normally be out of range from their attacks (none of which are massive benefits on their own, but they are all useful and combined provide something around a high-1 power). All placed together this ability can be used to great effect, and while it is not very unique (as most is drawn straight from an existent charm) it does make the wielder a very difficult obstacle to overcome if challenged in a way that allows them to make full use of their artifact, marking it as roughly high-level 3 power.
DRAWBACKS
- Red Jade capacitor and subsequent fire-charge costs. While the capacitor is not difficult at all to charge (set-it and forget-it), it does take considerable time to do at 6 hours per point of charge. As 2/3 of the abilities are used for combat applications, this can severely limit the amount of fire-charge the user has to draw upon when they expect to use it the most frequently (creating a mid-high level 1 drawback). Additionally, if the wielder makes use of the crafting ability of the sledge, they can realistically expect to be constantly missing a large chunk of the fire-charges available before they ever make it to the battlefield (pushing the drawback up to roughly low level 2).
- Goldfire Artificer summons elementals to aid the user, but unlike the similar spell, there is a different cost required that limits the applicability/frequency of summoning multiple goldfire elementals as well as a maximum number of elementals that can be summoned with the artifact total (creating a roughly high-1 or low-2 drawback). Then factor in the somewhat limited applicability of usage, only helping with certain crafts/materials and outright refusing other types (boosting drawback to roughly mid-high 2) and their inability to do anything but craft, while spell summoned elementals can be ordered to serve in almost any way imagined. This flaw quickly decreases the opportunities of usage to very specific ones, as otherwise one should just use the spell to summon elementals to keep them for more varied usage and a longer period of time, ultimately leading to a drawback sitting somewhere around mid-high 3 drawback.
- Pachyderm Trample requires the Exalt to have their anima banner blazing at the bonfire level, thus making sure that the use of this power will always carry the side-effect of revealing the Solar to everyone in their vicinity (possibly a deadly inconvenience dependent on location), probably a mid-high level 1 drawback.
TOTALS
Totaling the power points, there are roughly 7 beneficial points, and 6 drawback points, leaving a surplus of 1 point. With the artifact starting at level 2 overall, these rough calculations adding an extra point should bump the Goremaul up to artifact level 3. Oadenol’s Codex states that “Three-dot artifacts confer a great advantage in a single discipline or a significant advantage in a broad range of circumstances” (p. 14). Taking stock of the combat abilities, this Goremaul should function as a capable weapon as well as a minor bane to creatures of darkness and a good unexpected on-the-fly tool for sieges or combat with Behemoths/Warstriders (though its resources are extremely limited would only serve a couple times before being drained). Additionally, while not as powerful for crafting purposes, it does provide varied lesser benefits for a somewhat-limited selection of crafting.
