From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Thanatos)
Subject: VAMP:  Item:  SolCryst
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 03:12:38 GMT

Note:  Part 2 of Patrick's Guide to Swords.  This one took a while
to write.  I was going to write highlights from the book mentioned
below, but got halfway through, and got real tired of it.  I cut it
out, realizing it was steadily becoming fluff.  Anyone wanting to
read what I have can ask me.  I'll gladly send it.  Yet another
thing to torment your players with.  Comments, Critiques,
Complaints always welcome.
 
Item:  SolCryst
 
Loyal reader:
     It is with no small amount of embarassment that I apologize
for presenting the exact location of a Ghulblade in this forum. 
Suffice it to say, when rumors of this nature surface, I first look
to my responsibility to disseminate information as quickly as
possible amongst my faithful readers.  Unfortunately, this means an
occasional toe gets stepped on, as is the case here.  I was unaware
the structure housing the Ghulblade was under Elysium, and will be
more careful to research my finidings before releasing them. 
Perhaps now whoever called the three Assamites on me will kindly
accept the apology, and revoke the hit.
     I was going to spend this column discussing a rumor I
unearthed concerning weapons attuned to specific clans, when a
package was delivered unto me.  Inside was a deluge of clippings,
mimeographs, and ripped out pages.  They all seemed to speak of a
weapon, a tool of Goodness and Life, designed to specifically
destroy our kind.  Such weapons are common enough in folkloric
traditions, most providing nothing to worry about.  But this one
truly distressed me, for contained in the copious notes is a bit of
scientific musings by one Lazlo Christians, wherein he expounds
that the weapon, once a misbegotten legend, can be accurately
recreated at present technological levels.  I referred this to an
old associate of mine, who assured me the calculations were quite
sound.  I fear for what the future holds, then, if this rumor comes
to pass.
     Oddly, the best accounting of the legend of the SolCryst,
comes from the pulp talents of one David Francis, a writer of
shoddy "sword and sorcery" pieces in the 1930's.  From whence he
garnered such accurate information baffles me.  After reading
through this Howard Carter "wannabe," I present to you a brief
synopsis, to give you an idea of the history of this weapon.
 
The main characters are a boy by the name of Karl, and a Kindred by
the name of Ferdinand.  The tale takes place just south of the
Carpathians, in an area conquered by the Turks 100 years later.
 
     Karl returns home from an pilgrimage alone, despairing that
all in the group perished, including his father.  He alone escaped,
being clever enough to hide when the Saracens descended upon them. 
When he enters his home village, he discovers the place has been
ransacked, and that his people have been driven west in a great
mass.  He sets out to discover their fate.
     While en route, he runs into Ferdinand, a "creature too horrid
to behold.  Hairless and almost noseless, its pointed ears provided
the only decoration to the bulbous head.  Its pale skin expressed
too well the patchwork of veins that crossed its flesh."  To those
who do not immediately read Nosferatu into this, ought to take a
drink from the clue vein.
     Ferdinand tells him that his people were captured by a
horrible vampire lord and his minions, to work as slaves, until
such a time as they become food for their monstrous appetite.  Karl
is determined to do something, but Ferdinand warns against it,
saying the creatures are far too dangerous to attempt to take out
alone.
     After much boring "bonding," wherein the two, first hateful of
one another, eventually become good friends, (trust me...utter
tripe), Ferdinand agrees to take Karl to a magus he knows.  It
seems this magus has a vendetta against the same vampire lord (ooo,
what a _coincidence_).  He's willing to fashion a weapon of great
power, to drive back the monster.
     Now, two important things can be derived from this section. 
First, we have the recipe for creating such a weapon handed to us,
and avaliable to any kine silly enough to pay the $.50 as I did. 
The magus had a sizeable hunk of a strnage kind of vis, (a form of
concentrated magical energy) reputedly one of the spokes from
Apollo's Chariot, left when Phaeton crashed it into the errth.  His
Spring Covenant came upon a wheel consisting of powerful emanations
of Aurum Vis and Ignem Vis, comingled in such a way, that they did
not consume one another.  Each took a spoke, and this was his part.
     Over the course of a month, he fashioned the spoke, which
seemed to be made of a crystalline substance, into a sword.  The
magus clained that it held within it the "heart of the sun."
     The second interesting part of this chapter is the interplay
between Ferdinand and the magus.  The magus demanded Ferdinand's
blood as payment for services.  From the nature of the dialogue, it
seems the unnamed magus was greatly interested in using the blood
to either control vapires, or even perhaps to become one,
possessing the best of all the disciplines.  One must read the part
themselves, but I am certain any sane fellow will see that this is
Tremere, the Magus himself.  His final words to Ferdiand are
especially chilling, "If you won't, then perhaps the fool Salubri
might."
     Going back to the story, Karl and Ferdinand drive back the
monsters easily with the magicked blade.  As is the case, everyone
lives happily ever after.  Yay.
     From what I am able to determine from the book, the powers of
the blade are:
     The ability to do _horrendous_ amounts of damage to Kindred,
because of its ability to store solar power.
     The abilty to fire off bursts of energy, which do horrendous
amounts of damage.*
     The ability to create the effect of a noonday sun, in a large
area.*
     The ability to heal the wielder with the natural energies of
the sun.*
     The ability to resist the effects of the mind disciplines when
wielding the sword. (Obfuscate, Dominate, Presence)*
 
Now one might imagine me a bit Chicken-Little-ish, running about,
proclaiming the sky is falling.  It's but one sword, correct? 
Wrong.  
 
From the research my mysterious benefactor has garnered me, the
secret of the SolCryst is far from lost.  Versions of it have been
popping up all over history, the most famous being in the hands of
Louis XIV, who used the sword to drive back the Kindred who tried
to influence/assassinate him, and calling himself the "Sun King,"
because of it.  Some of the tales about his rule now do make sense,
to a degree.  In a society so dominated by Kindred, how was he able
to retain his free will?  I believe I have found one possible
answer.
 
Along with the other tidbits my "partner" provided me with, one is
most frightning indeed.  In a minor journal dedicated to making our
world a purer place through proper applications of solar energy,
there is a new breakthrough in the field.  By growing certain
quartz crystals according to exacting standards, it is possible to
bestow upon them certain piezothermic qualities.  To wit, the
swords can absorb solar energy, and retranslate it as thernal
energy.  They are but a full month away from allowing the crystals
to release the energy as sunlight.
 
Imagine.  Imagine weapons lined with these horrid items, delivering
the dreadful kiss of the sun with but a stroke.  My heart catches
in my throat at the thought.
 
To convince you I am not deluded Malkavian paranoid, I present to
you two pieces of information.  One is a contract to rerelease
David Francis's book into the mass market, under the imprint of
Gaia Press, as part of their "Driving back the Darkness," bookline. 
Other books in the series will be _Dracula,_ a few of August
Dereleth's Cthulhu works, and some other choice pieces of kine
triumphing against great evil.  The second is a Record of
Incorportaion, linking Gaia Press, the Journal that the above
article appeared in, and the laboratory doing the research, to the
same corporation.  It seems the Lupines are learning our games...
 
As far as I can tell, there exist six solcrysts in history.  The
two most potent, Karl's and Louis's, are, for now, lost to us. 
Recent diggings in the Carpathians may change that.  I can but
caution you, my faithful reader, to be on the lookout for such a
weapon, and to destroy it as soon as it is discovered.
 
Your Humble Servant,
 
Patrick
 
------
Game Stuff: 
SolCryst, the original, is DAMN powerful.  Unfortunately, it is
unique.  By being exposed to the sun during the day, it can build
up a battery of solar energy, which can be defined in terms of Sol
Points.  SolCryst can only store 10 such points.  Every hour of
exposure gains it one Sol Point (SP).  It must be laid out in plain
sight, its blade exposed, to recharge.  This makes it rather
conspicuous, so Hunters need a good place to hide.  A cloudy day
will hinder regeneration to 1 SP / 2 hours.
 
It possesses the following abilities:
 
     All damage is aggravated toward vampires and others that fear
sunlight.
     A Hunter can unleash the power of SP to increase their stats,
as would a vampire using Blood Points.  The resoning is that the
sun is the source of our life's energy, and SolCryst can convert
that into a useful burst of internal energy.  Maximum is still 5,
but effect lasts for one hour.
     A Hunter can unleash the power of SP to heal damage, as Blood
Points.
     By spending 1 SP, a Hunter can make the sword glow for one
hour, and vampires must resist Rotschrek, Difficulty 5, to remain
in the same room. (This is useful for determining if Kindred are in
a room.
     By spending 5 SP, and raising the sword above her head, a
Hunter can create the effects of a noonday sun for Five minutes
(difficulty 10), in a 100' area.  The hunter can move during this
time, but must keep the sword raised for the effect to last. 
Unless the cainite is suicidal, he will probably flee.
     By spending x amount of SP, the Hunter can fire off a bolt of
pure solar energy, which strikes as per a crossbow, except that the
damage is eqivalent to x, the amount of force the Hunter put into
a bolt, and aggravated to boot.
     To resist mental disciplines, a Hunter must have the sword
drawn, and be grasping the hilt.  Take the current SP total, divide
by 2, and the hunter is _immune_ to that level of Dominate,
Obfuscate, and Presence.  The Hunter can merely see right through
the pathetic attempt to fool her mind.
     Also, by spending a SP, the wielder can, for 1 hour, become
immune to the aggravated attacks of vampires.  She will still take
damage from fangs and claws, but it won't have the severity of
being aggravated.
     The final power is perhaps the most important.  The wielder,
by touching a Ghoul, can choose to negate the vampiric blood within
the ghoul's body.  This does no damage, and costs a SP for every BP
transferred.  Unless the ghoul gains a bloodpoint within the next
week, he can nevermore become a ghoul, as per the Hunters Hunted.
 
Pretty impressive, huh?  Not really.  Those 10 points go by DAMN
quick.  And only the first 6 have the 10 point batteries.  Tech
based versions can only have a max of 5 SP, and are horrendously
expensive.  However, arrowheads made of the crystal are ideal,
since they do aggravated damage, without making the arrows too
unaerodynamic.
 
The garou are pioneering this research, since it is essentially
"clean tech," and erodes at the power base of their arch rivals. 
Note that the aggravated damage resistance does not hold for them. 
They may be crazy, but they're not STUPID.
 
I have had ruminations of a cult of priests dedicated to the
Unyielding Flame, who have batteries of 10 SP, and can do all the
above.  There wouldn't be many, but DAMN, they'd be potent.
-- 
I don't mind being the smartest	    / Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Unknown
man in the world...I just wish it   \ Time and Space tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu 
wasn't this one...	       	    / It's a Zen thing... 
	-Ozymandias 		    \	 you wouldn't understand...  
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