Revlid
2010-06-07, 07:04 PM
This is a character-specific artifact I've come up with for an Infernal Scholar.
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The Macawdex: (Artifact **)
The Macawdex is a large book – most mortals would have trouble lifting it with one hand. Its cover is dark red leather and its spine is tainted jade, the sickly green material carved by Alveua with figures equal parts avian and insect. A slender but deceptively strong brass chain dangles from the beak of one of these creatures, allowing the book to be locked shut, linked to a belt, or even swung like a librarian’s flail, while leftover chips of jade have been fixed to the inside rim of the cover, forming (hopefully) decorative teeth. The book's pages are wine-red and just slightly rough in texture, gathered from the shed plumage of the Malfean behemoth Halkomelem. They bear Old Realm writing in a softly pulsing golden script which shifts to the desired passage, moving like mercury across the page.
Powers: The Naneke bound within the jade spine of this artifact has standards - attunement to the Macawdex requires a minimum Lore of 3, and the ability to read Old Realm - this attunement costs two motes. Anyone attuned to the Macawdex may add an additional die to any Lore or Occult-based pools.
The Macadex may be read by anyone who can read Old Realm – it contains the autobiography of its attuned owner. This autobiography is written automatically, describing events as they happen in perfect detail, albeit from the owner’s point of view. The autobiography automatically includes any events that occur while it is in contact with its owner, and ceases recording when removed from his possession, although it retains what it has written even if it is deattuned - it only loses this information if it is attuned to a new owner, in which case it is wiped clean and starts recording again. The attuned owner may choose to add any missing periods to the book himself once it is returned simply by concentrating, just as if the book had been in his possession for those periods. So long as the attuned owner can read the Macawdex, its perfect record grants him the Eidetic Memory Merit (Scroll of Heroes, pg52).
The behemoth-red pages of The Macawdex are immune to vandalism; ink and other writing materials are absorbed perfectly by the pages, leaving no mark. Any physical damage to the pages – their removal or destruction – may be perfectly repaired by the attuned owner spending a single mote, as they (and their writing) grow back like eerie leaves over the next hour. Any stolen pages retain their writing for one week before fading, allowing a canny thief to get an insight into the attuned owner's character or history. Note that the sheer volume of information contained within the book means that the thief would need to spend time investigating it, or else be very lucky to get any information of value.
The one exception to this protection is the attuned owner, who may scribble on blank pages as he wishes, and wipe them clean with a thought. If he is an Infernal or Abyssal Exalted, then the malevolent entities with a stake in his soul may add their own notes in the margins – he gains an additional point in the Whispers or Unwoven Coadjutator Backgrounds, as appropriate.
The book's final ability is perhaps its oddest, and entirely unintended on the part of Pirash (though Alveua may have included it as a joke). The Macadex may be "fed" any other non-Artifact book, scroll, poster, etc. Its dark-jade teeth clamp and chew, as the manuscript vanishes into its pages. From that point on, the information contained in the consumed book may be read from the Macawdex - it appears on the pages in much the same manner as the autobiography.
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TL;DR:
Macadex - Artifact **
+1 dice to Occult/Lore 1/1
Eidetic Memory 3
+1 Malfean-Themed Specialty 1
May eat books
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The Macawdex: (Artifact **)
The Macawdex is a large book – most mortals would have trouble lifting it with one hand. Its cover is dark red leather and its spine is tainted jade, the sickly green material carved by Alveua with figures equal parts avian and insect. A slender but deceptively strong brass chain dangles from the beak of one of these creatures, allowing the book to be locked shut, linked to a belt, or even swung like a librarian’s flail, while leftover chips of jade have been fixed to the inside rim of the cover, forming (hopefully) decorative teeth. The book's pages are wine-red and just slightly rough in texture, gathered from the shed plumage of the Malfean behemoth Halkomelem. They bear Old Realm writing in a softly pulsing golden script which shifts to the desired passage, moving like mercury across the page.
Powers: The Naneke bound within the jade spine of this artifact has standards - attunement to the Macawdex requires a minimum Lore of 3, and the ability to read Old Realm - this attunement costs two motes. Anyone attuned to the Macawdex may add an additional die to any Lore or Occult-based pools.
The Macadex may be read by anyone who can read Old Realm – it contains the autobiography of its attuned owner. This autobiography is written automatically, describing events as they happen in perfect detail, albeit from the owner’s point of view. The autobiography automatically includes any events that occur while it is in contact with its owner, and ceases recording when removed from his possession, although it retains what it has written even if it is deattuned - it only loses this information if it is attuned to a new owner, in which case it is wiped clean and starts recording again. The attuned owner may choose to add any missing periods to the book himself once it is returned simply by concentrating, just as if the book had been in his possession for those periods. So long as the attuned owner can read the Macawdex, its perfect record grants him the Eidetic Memory Merit (Scroll of Heroes, pg52).
The behemoth-red pages of The Macawdex are immune to vandalism; ink and other writing materials are absorbed perfectly by the pages, leaving no mark. Any physical damage to the pages – their removal or destruction – may be perfectly repaired by the attuned owner spending a single mote, as they (and their writing) grow back like eerie leaves over the next hour. Any stolen pages retain their writing for one week before fading, allowing a canny thief to get an insight into the attuned owner's character or history. Note that the sheer volume of information contained within the book means that the thief would need to spend time investigating it, or else be very lucky to get any information of value.
The one exception to this protection is the attuned owner, who may scribble on blank pages as he wishes, and wipe them clean with a thought. If he is an Infernal or Abyssal Exalted, then the malevolent entities with a stake in his soul may add their own notes in the margins – he gains an additional point in the Whispers or Unwoven Coadjutator Backgrounds, as appropriate.
The book's final ability is perhaps its oddest, and entirely unintended on the part of Pirash (though Alveua may have included it as a joke). The Macadex may be "fed" any other non-Artifact book, scroll, poster, etc. Its dark-jade teeth clamp and chew, as the manuscript vanishes into its pages. From that point on, the information contained in the consumed book may be read from the Macawdex - it appears on the pages in much the same manner as the autobiography.
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TL;DR:
Macadex - Artifact **
+1 dice to Occult/Lore 1/1
Eidetic Memory 3
+1 Malfean-Themed Specialty 1
May eat books