Medicine

Perfected Midwife Blessing
Cost: 1m Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Touch
Mins: Medicine 2, Essence 1 Prereqs: (Any) Medicine Excellency

No Exalted is as tied to the cycle of life and death as the Terrestrial Exalted, whose very power passes through the blood from parent to child and on and on. Thus, it is that the Dragonblooded were gifted with the ability to protect children, especially the unborn, so as to secure their legacy.

To use this Charm the character touches a pregnant woman and commits a single mote of Essence. This Charm perfectly protects the foetus from any harm that may befall the mother. No act of violence, no disease, no poison or harsh conditions, no malnutrition shall prevent the child from being born healthy. The child will survive anything short of the death of the mother and, with prompt medical attention, even that will not significantly harm a child late enough into the pregnancy (approximately eight months). This Charm even provides the mother with a limited sort of immunity to disease and poison. So long as the pregnancy (and this Charm) endures, the mother cannot die of poison or disease: once the mother is reduced to Incapacitated by a Sickness or Poison effect, set aside all other damage until the end of the pregnancy. The mother slips into a coma, and once the child is born all accumulated damage is applied at once. Any attempt to heal the mother must not only remove the disease, but also cure any accumulated damage as well. If the mother is undamaged, this Charm assures a clean, painless, quick and complication-free birth.

This Charm does not retroactively heal harm to the foetus. Even so, a Dragonblooded with this Charm is practically guaranteed a reasonable living anywhere in Creation.

Dread Sterility Infliction
Cost: 3m Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Touch, Crippling, Obvious
Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2 Prereqs: Perfected Midwife Blessing

Even knowledge of this Charm is considered a crime in the Realm, and its actual use is severely punished (often fatally if used on a Dynast). This Charm allows the Dragonblooded to, with a light touch, inflict permanent infertility on a subject. Against an unwilling target, this requires a martial arts attack. Successful use of this Charm renders the target infertile, and it will also abort a pregnancy in mid-term.

This Charm saw widespread use during the Shogunate as a way of dealing with certain leftover Solar-created artificial lifeforms that proved too difficult to kill off enmasse in the traditional method.

Infection Banishing Gesture
Cost: 2m Type: Simple (Speed 7, DV -1)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Touch, Obvious
Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: (Any) Medicine Excellency

The Exalt can quickly clean and close wounds with a touch and a flare of Essence. This Charm allows a Exalt to prevent any wound from becoming infected. The Exalt simply touches the wounded person and spends the motes, which causes a flare of appropriate elemental effects. Fire aspects may cauterize wounds, wood may produce a healing salve while Earth may create a bandage of sterile stone over all wounds. Whatever the special effects, use of this Charm guarantees that the subjects wounds will not degenerate due to infection. This Charm also halts all bleeding.

This Charm only protects against pre-existing wounds. If the subject is wounded again, those new wounds are not protected by this Charm.

Grievous Wound Alteration Energy
Cost: 5m, 1wp Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Touch, Obvious, Cooperative
Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2 Prereqs: Infection Banishing Gesture

The Realm cannot afford to have its heroes laid up with injury for long. The Dragonblooded moves among his patients, allowing his aura of healing to envelope them. While this Charm is active, all the patients heal lethal wounds at the same speed they would heal Bashing wounds.

A single Dragonblooded medic can apply this Charm to a magnitude 1 unit. Each additional Dragonblooded healer increases the magnitude of the unit by 1.

Emergency Triage Grasp
Cost: 5m (or 1lhl) Type: Simple (Special)
Duration: One Minute
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Touch, Obvious
Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Grievous Wound Alteration Energy, Perfected Midwife Blessing

While many consider the Dragonblooded disposable, this is not true. Replacing an existing Dragonblooded officer is a matter of decades for a child to mature, Exalt and receive even the minimum training. Not to mention the major setback of losing a veteran officer. This Charm was developed to prevent that.

This Charm prevents death. To use this Charm, the Dragonblooded grabs a hold of a person and spends the motes. If the subject has been reduced to Incapacitated or worse by lethal or aggravated damage, this Charm prevents his condition from degenerating for one minute. Not even deliberate action from outside parties can kill the patient, unless said action kills the Exalted medic first and ends this Charm. At the end of that minute, the Exalt can reactivate this Charm, preventing damage for another minute and so on. If the Exalt ever runs out of motes he can spend 1lhl to maintain (but not initiate) this Charm for each minute. While maintaining someone with this Charm, the Dragonblooded must concentrate all his attention on the patient, rendering him Inactive in combat. This Charm serves as a useful stopgap, but ultimately only as a stopgap. Since he can’t do anything but maintain this Charm, the Exalt is left waiting for help to arrive that can stabilize the patient.

Exquisite Nurse Attitude
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None
Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: Third Medicine Excellency

The Dragonblooded may not be master healers, but their able assistance can prevent even the greatest doctor from performing a medical disaster. So long as the Exalt is participating in a medical procedure, he may evoke his Third Medicine Excellency to assist any other person in the procedure. This Charm merely allows the Exalt to evoke his excellency for others, it has no effect on the Charm timing rules or compatibility and timing issues of the Third Excellency.

Well Organized Trauma Team Prana
Cost: 7m, 1wp Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Cooperative, Combo-OK
Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Grievous Wound Alteration Energy, Exquisite Nurse Attitude

While no one can match the Solar Exalted and their ability to heal, not even the Solars can treat as many patients as quickly as a team of Dragonblooded. Using this Charm, the Exalt selects a single doctor to act as the primary medic (this can include the Dragonblooded himself). The Exalt then uses a combination of elemental telekinesis and Exalted efficiency to quickly spread the doctor’s treatments among the populace.

Using this Charm, a single roll can be made to affect a unit of Magnitude equal to 1. Each additional Dragonblooded further increases the Magnitude of the unit that can be treated by 1. This treatment is guided entirely by the primary doctor, the various Dragonblooded enter a trance-like state where they become extensions of the doctor’s will. The treatment takes exactly as long as it would take the doctor to perform it if he was using it on a single patient and it has exactly the same effects (including any Charms) the doctor might have used.

This Charm has no effect on treatment actions that don’t require medicine rolls. Using this Charm, the Exalted armies would often surprise Primordials who thought they had crippled their enemies with “incurable” diseases.

Healer’s Oath
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima
Mins: Medicine 1, Essence 1 Prereqs: None

While this Charm was developed by dedicated Dragonblooded doctors, its use is still relatively rare. When a character develops this Charm, his anima banner will never again hurt a living human being or animal, under any circumstances. This includes any anima Charms which serve as direct damage attacks such as Elemental Bolt or Refining the Inner Blade and the anima powers of Fire and Wood-aspected Terrestrials. Even the most compassionate Dragonblooded doctor thinks long and hard before taking the Healer’s Oath.

Sterilizing Aura
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima
Mins: Medicine 2, Essence 2 Prereqs: None

The Dragonblooded refines his anima, so that it does not merely harm people and things, it also harms the spirits and germs that carry disease. Exposure to the Dragonblooded’s anima at the 7+ motes level perfectly sterilizes objects and places of any mundane (non-supernatural) disease that might be lingering, even in the foulest offal or brackish water. Further, for the cost of 1m the Dragonblooded can sterilize any tool he can hold in his hand, making it safe to perform surgery without fear of contagion.

Hideous Elemental Venom
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima, Poison, Elemental
Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 3 Prereqs: Sterilizing Aura

They say that all things bitten by the Elemental Dragon of Wood die, only to be reborn again into new life. The Dragonblooded learns to emulate this quality, infusing his anima with the elemental poison of the five dragons. Those affected by this poison suffer a terrifying and painful death, as their body is converted into pure elemental energy from the inside out. The Dragonblooded can concentrate this poison into his blood, creating one dose by spending 5m and losing 1 lethal health level worth of blood. In combat, the character can transform his opponent’s blood into the poison. This is a reflexive action that cost five motes and must supplement an attack made against a target within the Dragonblooded’s anima (1 yard at 7+ level, five yards at the 11+ level). Anyone exposed to the poison successfully (through ingestion of the blood poison, or an augmented attack that does at least one lethal health level) must resist the poison. The victim rolls Stamina + Resistance against a difficulty equal to the Dragonblooded’s Essence. This roll is made once per tick until the victim succeeds at three consecutive rolls (in which case the poison ceases to affect them) or they die.

Air Aspect poison appears as a clear flavourless and odorless substance, very hard to detect when applied to food or drink (difficulty up by +2). Victims freeze solid internally, eventually transforming into frozen statues which shatter seconds later and evaporate into a puff of frigid breeze. The victim is at a -3 internal penalty from the pain and takes one lethal health level (level, not dice) of damage for each failed roll. Additionally, each health level inflicted reduces the character natural soak against bashing and lethal damage by one, to a minimum of zero.

Earth Aspect poison appears very similar to arsenic. It can easily be ground into a powder which can then be blow into the face of enemies. Earth poison takes effect even if it only achieves skin contact. Victims begin to experience a slow petrification as first their skin, then their muscles and finally their internal organs and brain change to stone. Victims of this poison leave behind particularly gruesome statues. The victim suffers a -3 internal penalty from the pain and adds one to the Speed of all actions. Every failed roll inflicts one lethal health level of damage, and that roll is penalized to 0 before applying Charms if the victim is in direct contact with the Earth. As a mild bonus, the victims Bashing and lethal soak increase by one for every health level of damage inflicted.

Fire Aspect poison kills quickest of all. It appears as a smoky liquid that sizzles if exposed to organic substances. Exposure to the flesh will not poison an individual, but the poison burns like acid (1L/tick, trauma 2) until washed off with plenty of clean water. Victims rapidly immolate as their body burns to death from the inside out. The pain is crippling, at -5 to all rolls. Victims take 2L damage for every failed roll.

Water Aspect poison appears like water, utterly indistinguishable from regular water by anything other than magic (reduce dice pools to detect the poison to zero before Charms are applied). Victims of this poison might not even realise they are sick. This poison inflicts no penalty due to pain. Instead it slowly breaks down the bonds in the person’s body, eventually reducing them to a disgusting ooze. The victim takes one bashing damage per failed roll and must succeed on a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty = Dragonblooded’s Essence) to realise they are poisoned before they are reduced to incapacitated. Once lulled into a coma the victim degrades faster (bashing damage rolls over into lethal) until his body dissolves.

Wood Aspect poison is the most virulent. It appears as a single drop of glowing green liquid. When exposed, the victim is wracked with pain as his veins slowly turn green and bulge across his body. The skin ruptures and flowering plants emerge. When its work is done the victim has been reduced to a small pile of beautiful flowering plants. The victim suffers a -2 internal penalty due to pain and takes one lethal damage for every failed roll. However, reduce the Stamina + Resistance pool to zero before applying Charms.

Any of these poisons are almost certainly instantly fatal to mortals (especially extras) unless they receive immediate care from powerful magic. Because of the magical nature of these poisons, they may affect spirits, walking dead, Fair Folk and other things which are normally immune to poisons.

All content unless stated otherwise is ©2021 Chris McNeil. He can be contacted here. The banner picture is courtesy of Jason Heavensrun. You can find more of his stuff at Checkmate Studios.