[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Lost Crafts

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Supernal Materials

Perfected Metallurgy

My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle. 

Sources: The original design of the following materials were created by Mathew Hagen & Korri Smith.

Part III. Lost Craft

Amalgam: Teratosine

By mystically merging perfected silver and perfected mercury, a mage may create a consumable fluid that bestows remarkable protean abilities for a short time. Unfortunately, the liquid is also extremely toxic and instantly fatal to Sleepers. 

Description: Teratosine is an extremely reflective liquid, obviously metallic. It smells vaguely of ozone, and has no taste, and is slick to the touch, but leaves behind no residue. Strangely, it is non-conductive and non-magnetic; one could carry some through a metal detector without triggering any alarms.

Creation (Matter 4 + Life 4): The creation of teratosine is relatively simple; one needs to simply cast a combined Matter 4 + Life 4 spell upon a mass of lunargent and hermium. The spell creates a number of draughts equal to Potency. Reach +2 can make the Amalgam Lasting.

Benefits: After drinking a draught of teratosine, the imbiber gains the ability to change his shape as a reflexive action. The forms he takes are not limited to those found in the natural world; indeed, his body seems to become living liquid metal, capable of shrinking and expanding (may assume any Size from 2 to 10), morphing into any tool or weapon (automatic +5 equipment bonus to any task that could benefit from using tools), or mimicking any person, animal or object he can imagine (Intelligence + Subterfuge for people, Intelligence + Animal Ken for animals, or Intelligence + Crafts for objects), as long as they fit within his size constraints. Additionally, his amorphous form is incredibly resistant to physical damage (immune to bashing, heals 1 lethal per turn). These effects last for a scene, unless the imbiber dies first (see below). Finally, it may have additional effects if the imbiber already possesses some method of changing forms, such as werewolves and some vampires.

Drawbacks: Teratosine is deadly. It has a toxicity of 10, and there is no known method of treatment. Even magic of the Life Arcanum is relatively impotent in deflecting the worst of its effects; only supernatural creatures seem inured to its lethality, and even then, only to a certain degree. Even the undead succumb to the destructive effects of the poison. Every round after consumption, the character must make a Stamina + Gnosis roll until he accumulates 10 successes. Until 10 successes are gained, however, he takes 10 points of lethal damage per round (this cannot be healed by teratosine’s restorative properties). If the imbiber dies while under the effects of teratosine, his body melts into a puddle of mercury, with no traces of anything organic left behind.


True Jade

Jade has always been regarded as a purifying mineral. The myths and legends that predate history hold that this green stone can remove bad luck and keep evil spirits at bay. The truth is far grander and tragic. The jade that is found among the stones of the Fallen World have lost all such protective qualities. There are those who know the secret ways of calling forth true jade, which can cleanse the stains of Awakened hubris.

Description: Most know jade as a green semiprecious soft stone found naturally in the earth. Supernally grown jade, however, comes in a variety of hues. All jade has a translucent sheen, and Supernally created jade seems to shimmer with an inner glow. Each color corresponds to a Supernal realm, embodying the purity of the higher Truths, defying the corruption of the Abyss. The magical tradition of Taoism also associates each color with one of the five Eastern elements, blue for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal, and black for water (see Magical Traditions p. 47 for more on Taoism). Green jade that is found naturally is actually inert jade, possibly created during the Time Before.

Creation (Path Arcana 3): The act of creating jade is perhaps one of the most hubristic (albeit humbling) acts a mage can perform. She must open a portal to the Supernal realm of her Watchtower while within a demense attuned to that realm. The demense must also contain a potent Hallow. While the portal is open, she must then summon forth a Supernal being. By treaty, guile or force (which is a Wisdom 2 sin if taken against the will of the Supernal being), she must then draw the blood of the Supernal entity and spill it on the ground surrounding the hallow. Left there, it will begin to crystalize, growing into the gleaming colored stone over time. To nurture its growth, the nascent jade will consume the prime energy of the hallow until it has reached its maturity. It may then be harvested and put to use.  When the blood is spilled the entity rolls its Rank.  Successes determine the potency of the Jade.

Benefits: The primary application of jade is to purify the fallen world of Abyssal corruption. When used as a channel for Supernal magic as a dedicated magical tool, it reduces the paradox of any spells cast through it by -2. This can reduce the paradox dice pool to zero, at which point no chance die is rolled, as it perfectly purifies the supernal energy. Additionally, if the magic drawn through it is of the specific Arcana (listed under Purifies) that follows the productive cycle of elements, as shown below, the caster may choose to further reduce the paradox of the spell by its potency. However, each time a piece of jade is used in this manner, it reduces the potency by one, until it becomes a piece of inert green jade at potency zero.

Attuned Jade also offers a passive benefit beyond absolving paradox; it provides its bearer a minor protection against the gross emanations of its controlling elemental realm (+1 to resistance against the Gross Arcana of its listed Path).

These benefits do not stack the more pieces of jade a bearer has attuned.

Additionally, there are passive benefits that are magical in nature (but do not count against spell tolerance), and do not manifest when supernal magic would provide similar benefits. They do, however, stack with appropriate merits. They are outlined in the table below.

Color	Element	Path	Purifies	Passive Benefit
Blue	Wood	Obrimos	Mind and Space	+potency to resisting poisons, venoms and suffocation
Red	Fire	Mastigos	Death and Matter	+potency allowed action on extended rolls
Yellow	Earth	Moros	Fate and Time	+potency bonus to resist any mundane social manipulations
White	Metal	Acanthus	Life and Spirit	+potency bonus on any Wisdom checks
Black	Water	Thyrsus	Forces and Prime	+potency bonus to Speed

Finally, jade has an intangible but powerful effect on resonance. If placed strategically, such as in a ley-line node or a hallow, it will gradually scrub negative resonance from the areas affected. It is often places around sanctums to prevent the buildup or intrusion of any emotional or hostile essence, whether from being in a bad neighborhood or from sharing the sacred space with angry cabalmates. There is no mechanical benefit to this, but the Storyteller should flavor his description of the environment appropriately, keeping in mind the element and Supernal realm to which the jade is attuned.

Special: Certain cabals that follow the precepts of Taoist tradition, primarily based in the Far East, have developed medicinal uses for the various colors of jade.


True Adamant (Adamantine Objects)

Description: Adamant is the platonic form of diamonds and crystalline supersolids infused with the power of the soul.  They are infinitely and fractially complex and unique.

Creation: The creation of Adamant is an arduous and involved process, befitting any working of the soul. The first step is preparing the vessel. Adamant is a fusion of a natural diamond (which cannot be created by science or magic) and a Soulstone. To prepare the diamond vessel, it must be cut perfectly to resonate with the Soulstone which will inhabit it. This involves knowing both the true nature of the Soulstone and the requisite shape of the gemstone. Any Soulstone may be used, but using another living mage’s Soulstone is a Wisdom 1 sin, while using one’s own Soulstone is a Wisdom 4 sin. Using a Soulstone that belongs to a now-deceased mage is not a Wisdom sin, and is currently the only accepted practice (of those that know the secret).

Once understanding has been achieved, the two stones must be harmonized. Either the diamond must be accurately and precisely reshaped, by hand or by magic, or the soul must undergo a metamorphosis to reflect the current condition of the gem. After the stones are compatible, the vessel must be primed to receive the soul fragment.

Priming the diamond requires casting, in succession, an Unveiling spell from each Arcana (requiring at least one dot in each Arcana). These spells may not be part of a combined casting; they must be cast individually. They may, however, be cast ritually with a properly synergistic cabal, should the primary caster lack the understanding of the Arcana involved (teamwork rolls for spellcasting are used in this case). The difficulty is in sustaining each spell, due to the limitations a mage has in controlling his spells.  Unfortunately, as a ritually synergistic cabal shares the burden of controlling all the spells they have cast together, they cannot alleviate the high Gnosis requirement.

With the stones properly harmonized, and the vessel primed, it is a simple thing to join the two. They must each be placed into a basin of perfected water and they are joined.

Benefits:

Adamant is unbreakable. No known magic or physical force can alter its shape in any way, embodying as it does the true form of the soul shard.

However, Adamant may be consumed in an all but forgotten process to “lubricate” the reacquisition of a Soulstone into a mage’s soul. The use of Adamant in this way allows a mage to return his own Soulstone to its rightful place without the requisite cost in Gnosis. Reabsorbing a Soulstone that has itself been refined into Adamant requires the use of a separate piece of Adamant to facilitate the reclamation.

In every way, Adamant also acts as a Soulstone, with three notable additions. First, Adamant knows no master; even if the Soulstone used to create the Adamant did not belong to the mage using it, it acts as if it were his, and can be used as a dedicated magical tool and to neutralize paradox.

Secondly, in lieu of absorbing your own paradox, you may use a piece of Adamant to absorb another’s paradox once per scene, determined after the paradox pool has been rolled but before it manifests.

Finally, Adamant has no sympathy, even if its soul donor is still alive.

If the mage who brought forth the Soulstone was a member of a Legacy when the Adamant was created, then the Adamant contains the seed of understanding necessary to refine one’s soul similarly. The donor’s Legacy may be learned by any who study the Adamant shard as if it were a Daemonopticon, ignoring the limitations of Path and Order prerequisites. This is the equivalent of creating or rediscovering a Legacy, with appropriate Gnosis requirements.

Note - An Atlantean Highborn’s soul is incompatible with this procedure: neither may he learn a Legacy from Adamant, nor may others ‘learn’ to be an Exile by examining it. Alternatively, a soul mod may gleaned by intensive study.

As a final benefit, Adamant is potentially one of the most dangerous and destructive materials known to the Awakened. There is a reason that the warriors of forgotten Atlantis are known as Adamantine Arrows; weapons crafted primarily of Adamant (and due to the generally small size Adamant, the only viable weapons that can be made are arrowheads) are exceedingly rare. When the diamond is shaped to the soul, it may take any number of forms, but only in very special circumstances is that shape an arrowhead. It is then more reasonable to shape the soul to fit the diamond. This is the source of the title of Adamant Sage; in ancient Atlantis, the soul of the perfect soldier was the only one suitable to hold the shape of the First City’s greatest weapon. They always do aggravated damage, and they also ignore all armor and durability; there is no stopping an Adamantine Arrow once it has been loosed.

Rumors persist of the lost art of using Adamant or Soul Stones as Golem cores and magical batteries for constructs.

Primium

Description:  Light as aluminum, non-conductive, non-corrosive, flexible but virtually unbreakable, it has the color of highly polish Bronze and seems to glow with a bronze coloration

Creation (Matter 5): Alloy of Lunargent (magically rarefied silver) and Orichelcum (magically rarefied gold) created with magic and a Nuclear Furnace… with methods lost since the immediate post-3^rd Age timeline.  Creating it takes powerful Matter mastery spells to re-arrange the molecules of both metals to combine them along with the supernal truth of nuclear fission (not fusion) to make them mesh together as a byproduct of splitting atoms.

To attempt to create this material in the modern age would require a mage to construct a nuclear power plant with a blast furnace chamber capable of sustaining temperatures akin to the surface of the sun.

Benefits:

In clothing:  Each point of Primium adds +1 Armor to any material it is added to that exceeds its normal cap and stacks with mundane and magical armor. Each dot adds +1 to Counterspell rolls made by the wearer. Each point adds +1 durability to the materials it is worked into

In weapons:  Weapons made with it do Aggravated damage to vampires (from Orichelcum’s association with the sun) and werewolves (from Lunargent’s association with the moon).  It can effect beings in Twilight and does regular corpus damage to spirits and ghosts and most incorporeal supernatural creatures.

Want more? In ancient texts it mentions the hyperadvanced material called Mendaxium.  Also Temples of the mysterious Time Before are sometimes composed of materials called Adamas, indestructible and bursting with magic their creation has been lost to time.  It is said only Archmasters of Matter and possibly Prime can make them.  There is also Perfect Aperion, a material made by Archamaster Moros that can take on any properties it needs.