Auguinare

Auguinare, The Blood of the Forge

'Demon of the Second Circle, Expressive Soul of The Manse of Echoes Ascending'

When Amalion first found delight in her own loveliness, the Blood of the Forge appeared to share that delight with her. Auguinare remains her progenitor’s most favored soul; the Manse of Echoes Ascending pampers her, granting her whims and calling her ‘daughter.’ She appears as an alabaster-skinned maiden with glossy black hair and six fingers on each hand. Her eyes glow a luminous violet hue; her blood shares that color, hardening into violet metal when spilled and taking on whatever form she desires.

Sorcerers summon Auguinare through orgiastic rites or human sacrifice. The common element of these rituals is neither blood nor life; rather, Auguinare craves passion, and only sufficient passion may call her across the bars of her prison. Emotion is her hallmark; when she sheds her blood, whatever emotion she feels in her heart pulses in the depths of the resulting Bloodmetal. Anyone who touches a bloodmetal item’s warm, shining surface feels the fervor locked within it. Moreover, she may admix her own blood with another’s, imbuing the resulting alloy with the donor’s emotions rather than her own.

Auguinare needs no forge, for her intent shapes her bloodmetal more precisely than any blacksmith’s hammer. She travels about the demon prison in search of demons whose passions inspire her craft. Mortal emotion is more precious still, for all that its metal rusts in the fullness of time, and she seeks it out whenever she may. Infernal artificers petition her to contribute her metals to their relics, as demonic Essence bonds more easily with materials that share its nature. Ligier himself calls upon her to supply bloodmetal for his works, and the Shogunate-era Register of Enchanted Weapons dubs her ‘the Mother of Gervesin.’

Ordinary emotion suffices for ordinary craft, but she requires emotions of preternatural potency to do her finest work. To incite passions among her blood sources, she practices play-acting in many modes: student, confidante, lover or adversary. She utterly submerges herself in her chosen persona, only to shed it like a serpent’s skin when the need passes. Afterwards, all she feels is a dwindling affection for those who contributed to her craft. The passions she craves often inspire the potent voices that Berengiere seeks to weave into cloth, and their squabbles over ardent mortals (and over Berengiere’s Passion Morays, many of whom Auguinare has suborned) have resulted in a long-standing rivalry.

Summoning

(Obscurity 2/4) Summoners invoke Auguinare to forge items of bloodmetal or to provide exotic ingredients from which to craft wonders. She has also been employed to seduce or suborn a target, though she always seeks to inspire a passion in the chosen victim that she may congeal into metal. She occasionally emerges from Malfeas when mortal blood, shed in a moment of passion, falls upon molten metal.

Statistics

Motivation: To work great passion into metal. Auguinare’s Intimacies include such things as Amalion, blood, metal, smiths, her mortal lovers, her creations and the last three beings to willingly give her some of their blood for her craft.

Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5; Charisma 4, Manipulation 3, Appearance 5; Perception 5, Intelligence 3, Wits 4

Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 3, Valor 3

Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 4, Craft Fire 3 (Bloodmetal +3), Dodge 4, Integrity 2, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: Flametongue, High Realm, Low Realm, Riverspeak, Guild Cant) 5, Lore 3, Brawl 4, Medicine 3 (Drawing Blood +2), Melee 4, Occult 2, Presence 5, Performance 4, Resistance 4, Socialize 3 (Staying In Character +3)

Backgrounds: Artifact 5, Backing 3, Contacts 3, Cult 1, Mentor 5, Resources 5, Sanctum 2

Charms:

Amethyst Awareness

Call —Those gripped in the throes of powerful emotions

Creation of Perfection —Transform freshly drawn blood into metal

Essence Plethora —10 extra motes

Foretell the Future —Auguinare can sometimes predict when and where a particularly potent emotion will be felt, such as the flare of passion from a Celestial Exalt’s Limit Break

Materialize —Costs 70 motes

Measure the Wind —The Blood of the Forge may measure the strength of any creature whose blood she has turned to metal

Meat of Broken Flesh —Auguinare gains motes when she draws blood to craft into metal

Natural Prognostication —Sense impending moments of passion

Ox-Body Technique

Principle of Motion —Auguinare possesses up to nine banked actions

Stoke the Flame —Strengthen an emotion currently felt

Touch of Grace —Repair things of metal with a touch

Sheathing the Material Form —If Auguinare has a bleeding wound (at least one unbound, unhealed level of lethal damage), her blood spreads and hardens into armor

Symbol of Invincible Authority—Immunity to anything she has crafted

First (Ability) Excellency—Craft, Presence, Resistance

Second (Ability) Excellency—Craft, Presence, Resistance

Third (Ability) Excellency—Craft, Presence, Resistance

Infinite (Ability) Mastery—Craft

Join Battle: 8

Attacks:

Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 5B, Parry DV 6, Rate 3

Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 8B, Parry DV 4, Rate 2

Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 5B, Parry DV —, Rate 1, Tags P

Bloodmetal Sword (Amethyst Bodhisattva of Wrath): Speed 4, Accuracy 14, Damage 9L, Parry DV 6, Rate 3

Soak: 12L/15B (Robes of Hatesilver embroidered with threads of Gold-of-Enlightenment, 10L/10B, -2 mobility penalty, 2 fatigue value)

Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap

Dodge DV: 8 (6 in armor-robes)

Willpower: 9

Essence: 6

Essence Pool: 115

Other Notes: Auguinare suffers a one-die penalty when working with the five magical materials of Creation (Jade, Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, and Soulsteel) because her nature is not aligned with them.

Auguinare may harvest Bloodmetal from any creature with life-giving fluids pumping through its veins. Her own blood is lambent violet metal.

Source: Eric Minton, pulled from an Ink Monkey Bones blog post