The weapons of the coven are usually assembled from mundane objects, sometimes with magical ones thrown in. They usually require puissant clots, little buildups of magical energy stuck fast to the lining of your brain, to create. New witches generally have two, but you'll gain more as you see strange and wonderful things, kill adepts and beasts, and penetrate occult mysteries.
Wands: Your go-to ranged weapon for a wizard, wands can be made from anything solid, provided it's roughly between the length of a pen and your forearm. Wands generally shoot magical projectiles, though they will likely have other functions. Wands take one puissant clot to create, but can be made more powerful, and gain more functions, in tiers by investing subsequent clots. Tier two requires an additional 3 clots, from there to tier three takes 5, and the unholy power of a tier four wand needs seven clots more to be unlocked. Wands can also be used to parry magical projectiles, gaining puissance and negating the occult missile.
Spells cast by wands consume puissance, which regenerates over time to one's limit.
Staffs: Staffs are the melee counterpart of wands. They can be upgraded in the same way, with the same costs for each tier. Staffs generally have aoe or defensive spells, or temporarily transform into extremely destructive magical weapons. Staffs can also be used to block magic. They must be at least a metre or so in length, staff-sized.
Chalices: Chalices are created using a base chalice (a container, or anything that can hold some liquid, such as a t.v. aerial), a banal medium (a non-magical liquid, such as oil, blood or lemonade) and an occult medium (a magical liquid or solution, such as the spinal fluid of a necromancer, blended sentient crab flesh, or yeti urine). Chalices can be used to form a contract with a demon, which the creator of the chalice will then be able to summon repeatedly, at a puissance cost that decreases exponentially with their ritual strength. Strong summoners do not need particularly large or quickly returning stores of puissance at all: summoning will cost very little for them. Note that especially reactive or potent mediums may bring up demons that are excessively hard to control.
The demon summoned will depend on the materials used. Notably, more powerful occult mediums will result in the summoning of more powerful, if more free-thinking, demons. The number of puissant clots used also greatly determines the strength of the demon. Though only one is required, there is no limit to the number of clots that can be invested at creation. Chalices cannot however be upgraded.
Inexperienced summoners are advised not to mix occult mediums in one chalice. Generally, demons can be banished at the summoner's will, though if this proves impossible, trapping them in a circle sprinkled with their banal medium will suffice to send them back. Demons can be summoned repeatedly even if destroyed, though some time may be required between summonings.
Pendants: These do not require puissance, and depend on the ritual strength of the user. Everyday objects roughly the size of a clenched fist, these require an investment of one clot, and can be upgraded once with two. Pendants cast a miracle performed by a maybe-god that half exists, the object functioning as a holy relic of the congregationless deity. Pendants, once used, must be replenished over time by their creator. The greater the ritual strength of the user, the more pendants they can restore at once, and thus the great the number of miracles they can perform over a given time.
Talismans: Ranged (or more likely to be) pendants. Do note that not all talismans are ranged: they are simply ranged where a pendant would have been melee. In all other respects, they are the same.
Brooms: Any cleaning implement over a metre can be turned into a flying vehicle. This costs one clot, though the speed, steering, duration of flight and ability to fly unaided can be enhanced in tiers requiring 2, 3 and 4 clots. A tier-one broom can still hover and swoop short distances, though a tier-four one can fly through a lightening storm unscathed at hundreds of miles an hour even when the rider is unconscious and bleeding. Brooms are enhanced by the user's agility.
Rings/Gems: Magical events and substances often create occult gems of a certain element, such as fire, sleep, coffee or boredom. These can be used in the creation of weapons, chalices, etc to enhance them with that gem's element. The gem can also, with one puissant clot, be turned into a ring which grants the wearer resistance to that gem's element.
Caduceus: A healing tool created by wrapping two snake-like flexible things, such as showerheads or ropes, around a stick of over a metre. Caduceuses can be used to heal pretty much any injury, and cost three clots to create. They cannot be upgraded, and rely on puissance.
Magic Swords: Made from a valiantly retrieved material (steel bars snatched from the mouth of a dragon, a stone idol pulled from the stomach of a giant undead alligator, a pile of rusty doorknobs fliched from the private toilet of an evil psychic CEO) and a gem. These can be used by those with skill in banal weapons as swords, though also have magical effects not affected by one's banal skill, such as firing occult projectiles. The power of the sword scales according to the valiance with which it was retrieved. In this case, "valiance" means idiotic heroism and proximity to oversized and overarmed magical tossers.
You restore yourself to human, and are rewarded with vague and senile whisperings about "palaces of flesh", "legions of the raised" and "movement towards perfection". Nothing useful in any way really.
The two of you go off and Ben stabs a homeless man to death. He has nothing to steal except cardboard boxes, being homeless and destitute. It's unlikely that someone will find the body.
You also notice some posters with Ben's face on them, to do with violent crime, robbery, and unauthorised possession of explosives. News of his escapades, or what the police will tell the press about them, is scattered over the pages of the recent papers. What mortals made of the magical explosions, murder and property damage of the last night's mission has also been attributed to him, according to glimpses of televised news you catch.
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Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 153806 times)