Inkscribe

This world is filled with beauty and wonder. Recreating that in some measure is a relentless, tireless journey that can often become obsessive. It is a craft that must suffice for whom the whole world is not sufficient.

My choice is with inks. The ink that I use however is different. It is alive. It has needs. Desires. Cravings. Through me, it can see the world and experience it. Through the ink, I can reshape the world. It is a darker world that I envision and with my brush, I'll paint this world as I see fit.

Yishen of Parandam, the Grim Illustrator

Across the planes artists of all types and masteries can be found. Some of them may dream of adventuring or living a more carefree lifestyle, but typically this is only done for inspiration or to find the next target of their works. Whether they end up as exiles or just to appease their wanderlust, there is a type of artist that can be found adventuring across the planes — the Inkscribes.

The living ink they use comes with a steep cost however, as it permanently stains their soul and desires even more. An Inkscribe finds themselves fighting against their source of changing the world while simultaneously letting it take control to create true masterpieces.

The art of an Inkscribe is capable of changing reality to match the whim of the artist and the ink. This allows them to manipulate people, places and things to their desire and even grants them some ability to create ink-based imitations of life.

Background

The Inkscribe is a newer profession, rare to find with adventuring Inkscribes being even rarer still. Becoming an Inkscribe often involves obsession for art as tracking down someone who possesses some of the living ink is a fairly difficult task. It is not unusual for an Inkscribe to have an apprentice or two, as learning to master the living ink on one's own can be very taxing and dangerous.

On Asnonad, the Xhimelech Elves who first experimented with the ink vital to their craft did so during a time of immense turmoil and confusion for their kind, to the ability to reshape reality was embraced with open arms. It wasn't until the corrupting power of the ink began to manifest that the true cost became apparent; their physical forms began to take on new shapes, their minds began to break and their souls tainted. The ink was no longer welcomed or accepted and the remaining Inkscribes needing to go into hiding.

Like all sources of power though, the living ink has hidden away and spread across Asnocad and the other planes with time. There is, after all, always an artist willing to sacrifice everything to be able to create their ultimate masterpiece.

<xh2>The Living Ink</xh2>

The ink that an Inkscribe uses is alive, but what it is exactly isn't entirely known. It doesn't seem to need to eat, breathe or sleep but exhibits signs of having needs and desires. The Selenehelion caused a lot of things on Asnocad to change, and the living ink was one of them. It now exhibits an intelligence and beyond simply staining things black physically, seems to also do so in both a mental and spiritual nature.

To use the living ink, an individual offers up themselves to it. The viscid fluid will rush over the individual, attempting to encase them in its dark tide. A battle of wills commences, with the hopeful Inkscribe pushing against the ink. The engagement does not always end well for the neophyte; those who lose or surrender are never seen again. If they manage to prove they can work with it however, the living ink will retreat inside of the Inkscribe. There it will remain, lurking and waiting for opportunities to contest the Inkscribe.

Abilities

<xh2>Lore</xh2>

From a lore standpoint, an Inkscribe's abilities are based on altering reality based on their whims through extensive use of the living ink that now resides in their body. This allows them to assume several different roles.

<xh2>Mechanics</xh2>

Notes

• Inkscribe abilities can be referred to as strokes, portraits, compositions or sketches.

• An Inkscribe's abilities must be purchased as individual powers and not be part of a power pool.

• To mechanically simulate the fact that the Inkscribe must concentrate and complete painting-like strokes of a specialized brush to use his powers, all powers must take the following Disadvantages:
  • Concentration (½ DCV) [-¼]
  • Focus (Obvious Accessible Focus) [-1]
  • Gestures [-¼]
  • Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate) [-¼]
  • Required Skill Roll: Requires "Ink" Luck Roll (Dice Total vs AP/3 Target Number) [-¾]
  • Side Effect: Suffer Side Effect equal to -¼ per Matching Die Of Luck Roll [-¾]

<xh3>Manifesting Inkscribe Abilities</xh3> An Inkscribe has access to a variety of abilities, and an individual Inkscribe can attempt to manifest any of his abilities at will. However, each ability has a target number that the Inkscribe must achieve by rolling their Ink dice. The number of Ink dice available to a Inkscribe is determined by their Artistry Rating, and is the true measure of a Inkscribe's talent; the more dice they can roll the more likely they will succeed when using their abilities. An Inkscribe can theoretically attempt to manifest any of their abilities, but some abilities have sufficiently high target numbers that they are effectively impossible to cast unless a character has multiple Ink dice.

<xh3>The Ink Hungers</xh3> To replicate the cost the living ink has on the Inkscribe, rolling more dice incurs more danger. Any time two or more Ink dice roll the same number some side effect occurs. The nature of the side effect ranges from an annoyance for a pair to devastating with five or more matches. The more dice one rolls, the more likely some unforeseen side effect will result; this adds an compelling potential risk to every single Ink roll, and means an Inkscribe is always struggling with the dilemma to manifest or not to manifest, and how many dice to roll if they do. It is important to note that if the target number of the ability is reached, it is still successfully manifested even if the Consuming Ink is invoked.

<xh3>Artistry Rating</xh3> Each point of Artistry a character has is translated into a single die of a special form of the Luck Power. This form of Luck is not used in either the normal fashion of Luck in the HERO System or any of the optional uses.

Instead, whenever an Inkscribe wants to manifest an ability they must roll one or more of their "Ink" Luck dice and add the face of the dice together. If the total equals or exceeds the Active Points divided by 3 (AP/3) of the ability being manifest, then they successfully manifest the ability; if not then they fail to manifest the ability.

There is no limit per day on how often an Inkscribe may use their "Ink" Luck dice in this fashion, but they may not use it for any other purpose.

The number of "Ink" Luck dice an Inkscribe can have is directly constrained by the size of their Magic VPP as described to the side, but in summary a character with an Artistry Rating 1 VPP must have exactly 1d6 "Ink" Luck (no more, no less), while a character with an Artistry Rating 3 VPP must have exactly 3d6 "Ink" Luck, and so on.

• Ink Die: 1d6 "Ink" Luck ; Partially Limited (Suffers -1 per 2 PD/ED of Armor Currently Worn, (- 1/2)), Real Cost: 3.33 points per d6

<xh3>Armored Manifesting</xh3> As indicated, when an Inkscribe is wearing armor, it is much more difficult to manifest their abilities fluidly. When they roll their "Ink" Luck dice, an Inkscribe must subtract one (-1) from the face of each die rolled for every 2 PD/ED of Armor they are wearing (rounded in their favor).

This is where the Armored Artistry ability comes in handy. Defined as Penalty Skill Levels to Offset Armor Casting Penalty for All Powers at the 3 points per +1 level, the ability can be purchased multiple times. However, while the penalty is applied to each die, the PSL's are not; they are applied one for one to individual penalties. Thus if a character is suffering -2 to each die for wearing Armor with 4 PD/4 ED and had +2 PSL vs Armor Casting Penalty, then they would essentially ignore the penalty altogether on one of the dice they roll.

Example: Yishen of Parandam is wearing a leather cuirass (2 PD/2 ED) and tries to manifest an ability with a 30 Active Point spell with a target number of 10 (30/3). Yishen has three "Ink" Luck dice at his disposal and decides to roll all three. They come up 6,4,2 for a total of 12. Normally Yishen would have succeeded, but since he is wearing 2 PD/2 ED armor each die suffers a -1, which means he only rolled a 9 and thus the spell fails. If Yishen had the Armored Casting ability he would have offset two points of the penalty for a total of 11 and thus succeeded.

• Armored Casting: +2 Penalty Skill Levels to Offset Armor Casting Penalty, Real Cost':6 Points

<xh3>The Hungering Ink</xh3> The ink always hungers for more. For each matching die rolled with Ink "Luck", the spell suffers -¼ worth of a random Side Effect as per the Power Limitation Side Effect. Thus if doubles are rolled, then the spell has a "Minor Side Effect", which is worth -¼. If triples are rolled, then the spell has a "Major Side Effect", which is worth -½. If quadruples are rolled, then the spell has a "Major Side Effect" that also affects the character and the environment , which is worth -¾. If quintuplets are rolled, then the spell has an "Extreme Side Effect", which is worth -1. And so on and so forth.

The actual effect that a given Side Effect takes is up to the GM. Some GM's might want to model individual occurrences based off of other source material in HERO System terms, while others might want to play it more by ear, and still other more diabolical GM's might devise their own Hungering Ink effects.

When all else fails or in a pinch a GM can always fall back on a number of dice of Unluck with a cost equivalent to the Active Points indicated by the Side Effect. Thus if a 40 Active Point spell causes a Minor Side Effect, then the GM could reasonably just roll 3d6 of Unluck (15 points worth of Unluck proxying for the 15 Active Points of the Minor Side Effect) against the character and let that be his guide for how severe to make the Side Effect.

Whichever way a GM decides to handle it, they should be aware that the Hungering Ink will occur a lot, and the nuances of how the GM handles it will have a big impact on the performance of Magic and how it is perceived by the players. If the GM is heavy handed with it, few will be eager to play an Inkscribe, those that do will manifest few powers, and the working of their craft will be seen as very dangerous thing to be around even for bystanders. If the GM is lenient, then Inkscribes will be much more common and abilities will be manifested more often. Either way or something in between, the GM should be sure that they are sending the message they want to send to portray using the living ink as they think appropriate to the kind of story they are trying to tell.

Archetypes

History

During the Third Age on the Plane of Asnocad, the previous form of the Xhimelech Elves had discovered a living, viscous fluid that seemed to possess an intelligence of its own. It could escape from containers, permanently stain things black, crawl uphill and seemingly create more of itself. It was used for a variety of minor things on Asnocad but more often than not was seen as a novelty.

When the Selenehelion occurred and brought forth the Reunion which merged their ethereal forms with their lost physical forms, other things on the world experienced transformations as well. One of which was the ink-like fluid, now seemingly sentient and driven with purpose. Though the Reunion caused chaos, the now malevolent living ink wasn't able to cause any substantial harm, but it had clearly become something more than a novelty.

The years after the Reunion saw a substantial period of inner strife and turmoil for the Xhimelech Elves as they once again found themselves with physical forms. It is unknown what caused them to attempt to control the living ink, but in doing so found a new capability of expression, though at a seemingly great cost. The living ink now left stains beyond its physical existence, staining the soul of the artist attempting to use it.

As the living ink artists spread across Asnocad, the practice of its use began to become refined. It was only a matter of time until it left through a Trigate, only for the living ink to end up being found on other planes.

Amongst the Planes

Summary

Summary

Type
Source of Capabilities	Living Ink
Concept Role	Support, Offense, Skill Focus, Crafting
Focuses	Offensive Support, Creating Artistry Pets, Ranged Combat
Planar Rarity	Rare
Properties	{{{properties}}}