Ink Monkey Bones #5: Modern Lunar Charms | Eric Minton's Blog https://ericminton.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/ink-monkey-bones-5-mod...

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Ink Monkey Bones #5: Modern Lunar Charms

I found a happy surprise in my inbox yesterday. Fellow freelancer Robert Vance had some 2e material
that he’d go�en approved by the developers, and he wanted to know if I’d be willing to post it on my
blog. Would I? Of course!

Please enjoy the following guest post. Take it away, Robert!

Sometimes, material get cut because of the restrictions of word count. Other times, they are cut because
of the even crueler restrictions of linear time! This is the case of the la�er—a whole bunch of Charms
that I wrote for Lunars in the Exalted Modern shard, but way after the final draft for Shards of the
Exalted Dream had been sent in. While they’re geared for the Modern shard’s world of intrigue,
gunplay, and car chases, a lot of them should fit nicely into other shards or the default Creation.

Dexterity

Crossfire Guardian Vigilance

Cost: 2m; Mins: Dexterity 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Golden Tiger Stance

Coming between the sights of a Lunar marksman spells death for his enemies–but for his allies, there is
no safer place to stand. The Lunar can parry a�acks with Archery, Firearms, or Thrown until his next
action. His Parry DV is equal to ([Dexterity + appropriate Ability + Accuracy] ÷ 2). Crossfire Guardian
Vigilance is compatible with the Defend Other action, and extends their range to (Dexterity x 2) yards.

In se�ings that do not feature guns or other firearms, this Charm is known as Arrow Sentinel Technique,

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in honor of Beloved Ca�alesta.

Moon-Graced Gunplay Method

Cost: 3m; Mins: Dexterity 2, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any Dexterity Excellency

Lunar marksman excel over their enemies in both dexterity and cunning, outwi�ing foes mid-ba�le with
impossible trick shots. Honing their aim with Essence, they can ricochet shots off of walls, shoot the
weapon out of an enemy’s hand, or spell out their initials with bullet holes left by a fatal spray of lead.
Moon-Graced Gunplay Method negates any called shot penalties to a ranged a�ack (see Exalted, p. 158).
Environmental penalties are also negated, allowing the Lunar to fire in the middle of a howling gale,
while balancing on slick ice, or in the middle of a skydive at no disadvantage. The impossible trajectory
of the Lunar’s projectile imposes a -2 penalty to any DV applied against it. Mortals are unable to block
the a�ack, and the DV penalty to Dodge rises to -3 for them.

In se�ings that do not feature guns and other firearms, this Charm is known as Winged Volley
Marksmanship.

Charisma

Everyone’s Tongue Storyteller

Cost: — (+1wp); Mins: Charisma 4, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Compulsion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Instinct Memory Insertion

Urban legends and rumors follow after the Lunar Exalted like loyal dogs. More often than not, the
sensational stories told about the Moon’s Chosen were started by one of them. The Lunar may pay a
point of Willpower when he uses Instinct Memory Insertion to a�ach an unnatural Compulsion to the
information he conveys with that Charm. Any character who hears it and has a Dodge MDV lower than
the Lunar’s (Charisma + Essence) is compelled to relate the information to anyone whom she thinks
would find it interesting. This unnatural mental influence is explicitly compatible with wri�en social
a�acks.

This Compulsion is subtle enough that the affected character’s behavior seems natural, rather than the
result of an obsessive fixation or mind control. She’ll bring it up casually in conversation, post about it
online, and use it to start conversations with friendly strangers. As a general rule of thumb, the

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Magnitude of people who hear about the information second-hand will be equal to the (Magnitude of
affected characters + 2) under normal, modern-day circumstances. Resisting this influence costs three
points of Willpower, but it passes even without being resisted once the Lunar’s (Charisma) in days has
passed.

With Essence 4+, characters under the effects of the Compulsion spread it to anyone they communicate
the information to. This secondary Compulsion is weaker than the original: it only affects characters
with a Dodge MDV lower than the Lunar’s (Charisma), costs only one Willpower to resist, and only lasts
a day. The contagious Compulsion typically increases the Magnitude of characters who hear the
information to (Magnitude of affected characters + 3).

Manipulation

Memory-Spinning Gossamer Couture

Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Manipulation 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Lost Mirror Flight

Memories are pliant as clay in the hands of those who have walked through time and nightmares. The
Lunar makes a (Manipulation + Presence) social a�ack against a character, weaving a story that will
become a false memory in her mind. The extent of the new memory may impose penalties on the
Lunar’s roll. Success inflicts an unnatural Illusion on the victim that weaves the Lunar’s story into her
memories as though it had actually happened.

However, characters receive MDV bonus based on the scope of the memory the Lunar a�empts to
create:

• Characters receive no bonus against memories limited to a recent time frame, such as “You were
a�acked by a rogue Dragon-Blood last night.”

• Characters add +1 MDV against a false memories that would make one large change to an extended
portion of their life, such as “You grew up in Meruvia.”

• Characters add +2 MDV against false memories that totally change a period of up to five years of their
life or effect similar changes.

• Characters add +3 MDV against memories that rewrite their entire lives, or other similarly substantial
alterations.

Note that extensive changes to people’s minds may also oppose Intimacies, Virtues, or Motivations if
they would cause a character to believe that she has taken actions contrary to them or alter memories
that strongly resonate with those traits. Victims confronted with proof that their memories are false may
pay a point of Willpower to resist this unnatural mental influence for one scene, snapping back into the

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delusion at its end. Once they have spent a total of (10 – MDV bonus based on the implanted memory)
points of Willpower this way, the Illusion is broken permanently.

Appearance

Digital Phantom Distortion

Cost: 4m; Mins: Appearance 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None

The police are baffled. Security cameras show nothing. Recording devices play back nothing but static. A
laser alarm system, installed at an undisclosed cost, is proved worthless. And somewhere, a Lunar is
smiling. Digital Phantom Distortion makes the Lunar incapable of being detected or recorded by any
form of electronic or technological device. He is effectively invisible and inaudible to any kind of sensor
device, and is imperceptible to advanced technology such as thermal imaging goggles, metal detectors,
or the senses of automatons.

The precise nature of the obfuscation can manifest in one of two ways, chosen by the Lunar. It can either
remove all traces of his presence from the recording, as if he had never been there, or distort and garble
the recording so badly that nothing at all can be recovered from it.

Living Cipher Incarnation

Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Appearance 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Digital Phantom Distortion

A Lunar’s mastery over his personal identity does not end when it crosses over into the online realm.
Weaving obscurity and anonymity around himself, he becomes unknown to the world. Living Cipher
Incarnation renders any electronic or digitally stored information on the Lunar totally inaccessible.
Online searches for him return only error messages. Pictures of him on a smartphone now appear
glitched beyond recognition. Any news channel that tries to play footage of him experiences inexplicable
technical difficulties. A dedicated character can a�empt to recover a specific piece of obscured
information by making an (Intelligence + Lore) roll at a difficulty equal to the Lunar’s (Appearance +
Essence).

Should the Lunar wish, he may have this Charm only conceal depictions or descriptions of him in forms
other than his human true shape, allowing him to hide any evidence of his shapeshifting powers

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without interfering in his ordinary online life or media presence.

Intelligence

Argent Saga Upload

Cost: —; Mins: Intelligence 3, Essence 2; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Counting the Elephant’s Wrinkles

Shaping protean Essence into a shimmering duplicate of one of his own memories, the Lunar sends it off
into the invisible world of information. The Lunar can use Counting the Elephant’s Wrinkles while
touching a computer or similar digital storage medium to transfer the recalled memory onto it as a file
of whatever format he chooses, if the roll succeeds. He could turn memories of an event into a video file,
transcribe his recollection of a conversation into a text file, or create crystal-clear images of anything he
has ever seen. Images and audio created by this Charm appear entirely genuine, with no signs of post-
recording manipulation.

Digital Dreamer Hacking Methodology

Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Intelligence 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any Intelligence Excellency

The Lunar’s fingers tap out a drumbeat of random keystrokes, his eyes slowly closing before the glare of
the screen. He is not hacking, not as mortals understand it. His mind has gone into the web, wandering
the meridians of Essence and spirals of geomantic power that weave together the countless computers of
the world. Digital Dreamer Hacking Methodology allows the Lunar to hack a computer through a
hallucinatory vision quest, entering into a digital spirit realm of data gods and screaming machine-
devils. His mental projection transcends the limitations of mundane computer networks, halving any
external penalties he suffers due to hacking at a distance (see Shards of the Exalted Dream, p. 131).

Within the vision quest, the Lunar must evade traps, solve puzzles and outwit guardians that represent
digital security, retrieving encrypted information in the form of jewels or treasure or sabotaging systems
by sha�ering idols or slaying sorcerer-kings. Computer hardware plays no role in this mental challenge,
denying him any equipment bonuses he would receive from it. Instead, he adds the highest of his
Dexterity, Charisma, or Wits to the hacking roll as non-Charm bonus dice, as he struggles to overcome
these symbolic challenges. Once the vision quest ends, the Lunar awakens from his trance. Any a�ack,
harm, or jarring movement will wake the Lunar from his visions prematurely, causing the action to fail.

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Wits

Steel Falcon’s Wings

Cost: 5m; Mins: Wits 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None

Whether it is on the wings of falcons or the supersonic engines of cu�ing edge military aircraft, the
Chosen of the Moon take to the skies as if born to them. The Lunar’s incredible reaction time adds +3
Mobility to any Sail-based vehicle he pilots, and negates penalties for maneuvering around obstacles or
through tight surroundings. His skillful maneuvering imposes a -2 external penalty on a�acks against
the ship, or a -3 penalty on a�acks made by significantly larger vessels or enemies. In a chase, Steel
Falcon’s Wings negates the increase difficulty for taking the Close In action.

In se�ings that do not feature modern aircraft or spacecraft, this Charm is known as Iron Kraken
Admiralty. The prowess of Lunar pilots extends even to the storm-tossed waves and the depths of the
sea.

Concrete Jungle Instincts

Cost: –; Mins: Wits 3, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Lodestone Reckoning Manner

Only fools believe that the Lunar Exalted are simple savages to be confounded by traffic lights or city
grids. While using Lodestone Reckoning Manner, the Lunar intuitively senses the presence and shape of
roads, alleyways, sidewalks, and similar urban pathways out to a range of (Wits x 100) yards, effectively
giving him a “mental map” of his surroundings. He also gains a feeling for the tenor of urban areas,
giving him a general sense of what each area is used for. This intuition counts as perfect equipment for
navigating through urban environments or tracking other characters through them, adding three
automatic successes instead of a dice bonus. It also negates any penalties to those actions from being in a
strange or unfamiliar area. In a chase through urban surroundings, the bonuses of this Charm also apply
on Cunning Maneuver or Hide actions that are stunted in a way that takes advantage of the Lunar’s
mental mapping.

In se�ings that do not feature modern or futuristic city environments, this Charm is known as Scurrying
Rat Wisdom.

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Metal Moon-Beast Awakening

Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Wits 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-Basic, Merged, Obvious, Touch
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Pumpkin Chariot Prana

Wisps of silver Essence flare out from the Lunar, coalescing into a hazy outline of his spirit shape before
entering into a vehicle he owns, awakening it as a great machine-beast. Metal ripples and warps as the
vehicle takes on a hybrid form, combining elements of the original machine with aspects of the Lunar’s
spirit shape. Vehicles animated by this Charm do not become independent characters with their own
traits, but act semi-autonomously under the Lunar’s control. The transformation has the following
effects:

• The Lunar can make piloting rolls to control the vehicle in combat as a reflexive action.

• The vehicle’s monstrous hybrid features grants it an a�ack with the statistics of a moonsilver daiklave.
A car’s grille might split open into a fanged maw; a jet fighter might grow razor-sharp metal talons; a
submarine might extend numerous mechanical tentacles. The roll to a�ack with the vehicle is (Wits +
[Drive, Ride, or Sail]).

• The Lunar does not actually need to be in the vehicle in order to make piloting rolls or have it make
a�acks with its weaponry, as long as he is within (Essence) yards of it.

• The Lunar’s Tell obscures the machine-beast from recognition. Any character whose Dodge MDV is
not high enough to see through the Tell is unable to perceive that the vehicle has been transformed in
any way. While they still notice any unnatural capabilities the vehicle exhibits, such as steering itself or
a�acking, they rationalize these away as mere coincidences, high-tech capabilities, or mistaken
impressions on their own part.

Knacks

Argent Memoriam Repast

Prerequisites: Ash and Tears Banquet, Prey’s Skin Disguise, Essence 5, Intelligence 5

Before the Infernal demiurges sealed the gates of the Underworld and created the Abyssal Exalted to
reign over it, their Lunar mates hunted the dead side-by-side with the Green Sun Princes. The secrets of
stealing power from the dead have not yet been forgo�en to Luna’s Chosen. Whenever the Lunar
successfully performs the sacred hunt to gain a ghost’s shape, he may also add the form that ghost
possessed while alive to his Heart’s Blood library. Non-human ghosts may require the Lunar to possess
the appropriate Knacks before he can access the forms they had in life.

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Machine-Heart Integration

Prerequisites: Essence 3, Intelligence 4

Peerless skinwalkers even in an Age of gleaming steel and intricate circuits, the Lunar Exalted may take
on the forms of automatons, constructs, and other forms of mechanical life. These become valid targets
for the sacred hunt with the same default time as human targets. The Lunar rolls (Intelligence + Craft
[Earth]) in place of (Wits + Survival) to complete the hunt, identifying a core component that he can
consume to claim the form. The Lunar does not gain access to any magical or Essence-based powers of
automaton forms.

In se�ings that do not feature modern or futuristic robotics, this Knack is known as Golem-Body
Transmutation.

Primordial Scion Shape

Prerequisites: Essence 3, Stamina 4

Mankind is not the only race to walk Creation, only the most prominent. The mysterious Alaun that
guard the slopes of Mount Meru, the Dragon Kings that menace civilization from the East, the
subterranean Jadeborn—these things are known to the palates of the Lunar Exalted. This Knack makes
all of the non-human sapient races of Creation valid targets for the sacred hunt, with the same default
time as human targets. The Lunar does not gain access to Charms, Paths, or other magical powers.

Posted in Exalted, Guest Posts, Ink Monkey Bones and tagged Exalted, gaming, guest posts, Ink Monkey
Bones, Robert Vance, roleplaying on June 11, 2014 by Eric Minton. 4 Comments

4 comments

1. Charlie Raspin says:

June 11, 2014 at 5:35 pm
Digital Dreamer Hacking Methodology is love: h�ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUzzAlorT7Q

Would Digital Phantom Distortion also apply to a manse’s senses?

REPLY
1. Robert Vance says:
June 12, 2014 at 4:29 pm
As wri�en, no, although that’s certainly a reasonable thing to stunt with it if manse sensors are a
prolific thing in your game.

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REPLY
2. Erik says:
June 12, 2014 at 3:38 am
Crossfire Guardian Vigilance: “between the sights” sounds like it means the ally is standing on the
gun. Still, nice effect.

Moon-Graced Gunplay Method: Yar yar impossible shots. I’m somewhat disenchanted with the
amount of impossible running around Exalted by now.

Everyone’s Tongue Storyteller: The Magnitude based on initial hearers seems decoupled from the
MDV limits. I’d take those figures as very loose guidelines.

Memory-Spinning Gossamer Couture: Feels overpowered to me. After all the effort to remove
“perfect or die” from the physical combat system, this doesn’t seem to fit – spending 7 to 10 WP to
break free is nearly “perfect or Limit Break”. Also, the way it keeps reasserting and reasserting and
reasserting itself will probably make both the victim’s allies IC and the storyteller OOC sick and tired
until they wind up handwaving past the repetitive scenes of saying “That never happened”.

Digital Phantom Distortion: This almost deserves a post to itself.

DPD, the good: A very neat paradigm shift. For the cheap, lasting, blanket immunity to a wide array
of stuff, my first comparison is to Integrity-Protecting Prana, but this isn’t just protection from a kind
of mostly-nasty thing, it’s bypassing entire aspects of modern society, allowing for a very different
kind of character and behavior. Hilarity may ensue at airport screening when the screening devices
can’t detect anything suspicious about you, because they can’t detect anything about you, even if the
mall cop thinks you look suspicious as hell.

DPD, the bad: Likely to screw you over at some point. For example, you can’t use telephones or
microphones with this active. It’s unclear whether you can use a computer at all. Can you use a
vending machine? You might draw sudden a�ention to yourself if someone is watching a device and
the world simultaneously – for example, if there’s a guy holding up his iPad in camera mode and
noticing that he sees you in the crowd but not on the screen, or there’s live video of a place being
projected onto a local screen in that place, or someone a�empts to shake hands with an artificial
hand.

DPD, the ugly: How the hell does this work? “any form of electronic or technological device… any
kind of sensor device… imperceptible to advanced technology” etc. don’t describe well-defined
classes, they don’t describe the same class of thing, and they don’t flesh out the borders of each
other’s classes. I am baffled about what this Charm does and doesn’t work on, unclear on the
mechanism (“it’s magic!” Yes, but what sort of magic?) and my a�empted common sense
interpretation is in gross contradiction to my a�empted consistency interpretation.
For example, if the Lunar stands in front of a windsock (that’s a sensor device, but it’s not advanced
technology), blocking some of the airflow, and activates this Charm, how is the windsock affected?
Common sense says DPD won’t make the Lunar permeable to wind, so the windsock will droop;
consistency says DPD shouldn’t stop working just because the sensor device is unusual, so the
windsock will keep standing out at full height and strength in order that people can’t notice that the
Lunar passed in front of it. (Does it vary with the advancement level of the windsock?)
Next up: does the Lunar cast a shadow against artificial illumination with Digital Phantom
Distortion active? Common sense says that DPD shouldn’t prevent her from playing Charades by
lamplight or flashlight, but consistency says that if she casts a shadow from a flashlight, then she’s

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also going to break a laser tripwire.

I could go on with things like pressure plates, water traps, blocked roombas, detectors with no
moving parts, but I think I’ve made my point. Is this charm supposed to be All-Aspects-Stealth,
Hide-From-Robots/Garble-Robot-Data, or Mass-Data-Removal-Needing-Shaping-Keyword or what?
Is it supposed to fail against sensors of sufficiently ingenuous design?

Living Cipher Incarnation: Several of my complaints about DPD apply to this too. My common sense
and intuition try to impose sanity checks on the effectiveness; my consistency and desire to not screw
the players over with loopholes in protective charms try to make this charm absurdly powerful for its
ability to hit computers that are disconnected or turned off, data that’s encrypted or distributed, and
otherwise bypass protections. How much narrativium is in this thing?

REPLY
3. asdf` says:
January 25, 2018 at 8:01 am
“merged”? why is moonbeast merged?

REPLY

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