Talk:Christopher Westin

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town
And beats high mountain down.

Current Identity

Robert Nishida, Japanese-American LAPD SWAT.

Technocrat Westin: CDC Special Warfare Group. Progenitor Damage Control.

GURPS Hilarity

I was really bored and found my copy of GURPS Mage: The Ascension. The results are hilarious.

Base: ST 16 [60], DX 18 [120], IQ 14 [80], HT 18 [80]

Perception +4 [20]

Will +5 [25]

Appearance (Attractive) [4]

Basic Subtotal: 389 pts

Advantages

Animal Empathy [5]

Avatar 4 [60]

Awareness [15]

Charisma +1 [5]

Combat Reflexes [15]

Common Sense [10]

Intuition [15]

Immune to Delirium [25]

Spirit Empathy [10]

Very Fit [15]

Magery

Arete 4 [65]

Entropy Rank 3 [45]

Life Rank 3 [50]

Forces Rank 2 [30]

Spirit Rank 2 [30]

Magick Skills

Entropy 14 [8]

Life 14 [8]

Forces 14 [8]

Spirit 14 [8]

Disadvantages

Duty, All the Time, Extremely Hazardous [-20]

Fanaticism [-15]

Nightmares [-5]

Secret: Non-Technocracy Mage [-30]

Languages

English (Native) [0]

Arabic (Native) [6]

Chinese (Native) [6]

Greek (Native) [6]

Japanese (Native) [6]

Skills

Acrobatics (18) [4]

Acting (16) [8]

Boxing (17) [1]

Climbing (17) [1]

Diplomacy (16) [12]

Driving (Car) (17) [1]

Fast-Talk (16) [8]

Firearms:Pistol (18) [1]

Firearms:Rifle (18) [1]

Jumping (18) [1]

Knife (17) [1]

Mechanic/Firearms (13) [1]

Meditation (11) [1]

Poetry (13) [1]

Psychology (16) [12]

Shadowing (16) [8]

Shortsword (17) [1]

Stealth (17) [1]

Streetwise (13) [1]

Wrestling (17) [1]

Writing (13) [1]

Medium-Term Goals

• Learn how to drive again. It's been a long, long while.
• Reintegrate with humanity maybe. Maybe. Of course, it's nice to have a distance from them considering your job. Attachments are harsh when you know all things must end in time. Maybe you could fake it?
• Stop putting it off, raid the Pharos's library and bone up on your Occult. Gotta pass the Chalice written exam (they do have a written exam right? The recruitment flyer is awfully nonspecific.)
• Follow Cathy on an "archaelogical expedition" to find a mummy. Maybe she'll be marginally more sane after she does so.
• Confront Tom Oneeagle. Guy needs some talking to.
• Brawl 4, Occult 4, Enigmas or Melee 4. Start working on that omnicompetence!

Long Term Goals

• Entropy 4, bless self to be lucky forever!
• Life 4.
• Firearms 5.

Fun With Spheres

• Entropy is naturally subtle. Remember this in emergencies.

Entropy

• Entropy 3/Mind 2 may be able to affect predictable responses to actions. (Requires Mind 2 but I kind of want to get it anyways.)
• Entropy 3/Life 3 could affect autonomic physical reactions.
• Entropy 2/Life 2 can alter random chance as applies to life (i.e. meeting strangers, etc.) to increase probabilities of certain results.
• Entropy 3/Life 2: Affect predictable actions of living things. Guard movements, office shifts, et cetera.
• Entropy 2/Forces 2: Random forces effects-target lightning and shrapnel, direction of the wind to blow fires in?

Life

• Life 2 allows minor adaptations to mundane climate extremes, Life 3 can do it to other people.

Chalice XP Costs

5 skills required of: Dodge, Subterfuge, Stealth, Melee, Firearms, Technology, Enigmas, Occult at 4+.

Firearms 4 (0 XP) X

Stealth 4 (0 XP) X

Enigmas 4 (2 + 3 = 5 XP)

Occult 4 (2 + 3 = 5 XP)

Dodge 4 (0 XP) X

Melee 4 (6 XP)

Technology 4 (2 + 4 + 6 = 12 XP)

Subterfuge 4 (0 XP) X

PROGRESS: 4/5

Achievement

Cheapest method: Occult 4 (9), Enigmas 4 (6) for 15 XP cost, 7 skills raised (7 sessions or downtime needed).
Shortest method: Melee 4 (7), Occult 4 (9) for 16 XP cost, 5 skills raised (5 sessions or downtime needed).
Most roundabout method: Technology 4 (15), Subterfuge 4 (12), Occult 4 (9) for 36 XP cost, 12 skills raised (12 sessions or downtime needed).

Probably best to choose Occult/Enigmas/Dodge. Technology and Subterfuge are nice but totally extraneous.

Final Evaluation

Without Mentor/Library Discounts, Spirit 2 costs 10+8 (18) XP. 25 XP remains to fulfill Chalice requirements and any miscellaneous attributes/abilities desired.

Chalice Requirement skills/XP cost after any guaranteed discounts:

• Melee 4 (4+3) [7] XP
• Subterfuge 4 (4+6) [10] XP
• Enigmas 4 (1+2+3) [6] XP
• Occult 4 (3+1+2+3) [9] XP
• Technology 4 (3+2+4+6) [15] XP

Miscellaneous Desired abilities and attributes:

• Brawl 4 (3) [3] XP
• Strength 4 (6) [6] XP
• Stamina 5 (8) [8] XP
• Appearance 4 (6) [6] XP
• Perception 4 (12) [12] XP

Potential Combos

• Stamina 5 + Occult 4 + Melee 4 (8 + 9 + 7 = 24 XP)
• Enigmas 4 + Occult 4 + Technology 3 (6 + 9 + 9 = 24 XP)
• Strength 4 + Melee 4 + Occult 4 + Brawl 4 (6 + 7 + 9 + 3 = 25 XP)
• Perception 4 + Occult 4 + Enigmas 4 (12 + 6 + 9 = 27 XP, requires at least 2 XP saved from Mentor/Cathy's Library).

Spheres desired

Correspondence 2 (go into the internet, remote use of Mind 2/Entropy 2/Forces 2)

Mind 2 (mental shield, multitasking, affect predictable mental responses)

Matter 2 (conjunctional with Corr2 to teleport small items such as weapons, see through walls, etc)

Prime 3 (anti-magick)

Rotes

Aspect of Achilles (Life 3/Forces 2)-Anointing oneself with water as a sympathetic link to the River Styx, Life 3 is used to harden the skin against blows while Forces 2 saps their energy. Adds soak to the

Ultima Ratio (Entropy 1/Forces 2)-By zeroing and anointing a ranged weapon to a level of precision that would make the god Apollo proud of his servant, the god provides his favor by blessing a weapon so lovingly cared for beyond its normal ability. Entropy 1 senses weak points, Forces 2 increases kinetic energy, reducing attack/damage difficulties for gunshots. Variants could be used with blades (Ares, god of up close and personal warfare is an alternate aspect)

Athena's Boon (Entropy 1/Forces 1)-The goddess of warfare and wisdom (and wisdom in warfare) smiles on well-laid plans and those who execute them. The planning and prayers dedicated to this plan focus the mage's will on combat, reducing attack difficulties with a chosen weapon, and dodge difficulties against the same implement. An alternative, calling upon Ares, god of war, is used when well-laid plans fail and sheer unrelenting violence is the sole determinant of victory.

Armor of Nyx (Forces 2/Entropy 2)-The mage steps accepts the embrace of the goddess of night, whose shadowy arms envelop him or her, hiding the mage from the world. Shadows around the mage warp to aid his concealment, reducing stealth difficulties and increasing the difficulties of others to spot him.

Of Paths Left Untraveled (Entropy 1)-With the use of a dowsing rod or a meditative trance, the Mage accepts Apollo's gift of prophecy to see what is significant and what is not, or the best answer to a specific question. The dowsing variant is better used to acquire physical objects (like, say, a clue to a crime scene) while the meditative variant is more useful for questions.

Maneuvers

Or: How to end fights quickly and horribly maim people.

Neck Snap (Difficulty 9, Dex + Brawl, Damage Str + 3, opponent may add Strength to Stamina to soak, any unsoaked damage means the opponent's neck is broken: Instant death/incapacitation.)- C:tD 239

Joint Break (Difficulty 8, Dex + Brawl, Damage Str + 2, any unsoaked damage means the joint is shattered and limb is made useless)- C:tD 239

Tendon Slice (Difficulty 9, Requires Melee 4 + Dexterity 2, Dex + Melee, Damage [As Weapon], 2 HLs or more of damage mean a critical tendon is cut and a limb is rendered useless, is considered dishonorable by faerie nobles but who gives a shit about them?)- C:tD 240

Paradigm

Magic is the gift of the gods to those who have a major role to play in weaving the world's fate. Mages are heroes in the ancient sense, men of great power and prowess. Few are heroes in the modern sense, as power almost invariably comes with hubris, though. The blessings of the Greek gods and the blood of Zeus empowers Westin as it did with thousands of other heroes, granting him the strength and ability to accomplish heroic deeds.

Philosophy

Service is Magic

To use magic, a willworker must have will, and this will is provided by things greater than one man. Service is magic, for without an underlying philosophy more important than life, a mage cannot function. Magic is the gift to heroes and the just by the gods, a gift which should not be abused. To use magic correctly involves understanding that magic is not a right, it is a privilege, and those who are granted it are granted it for their ability to do great deeds. Ours is to tend the Wheel, to ensure that fate gets its due.

Great may not always mean good, but one must strive to do good in every task. Many mages choose to serve tasks easier than the tending of the Great Wheel, especially those known as the Fallen, who choose decay without rebirth because it is easier to sow chaos and destruction than to prune carefully. They are the antithesis of us, and all they do is cursed.

Life is Conflict

The Great Wheel is a cycle of death and rebirth. Those who are reborn are tested by life, and go on in death to be improved, their flaws removed in Acheron for them to attempt to get ever closer to Ascension. All life is conflict, whether it is the violent conflict of war or the conflict of friendly competition. Conflict is how ideas are refined, the forge from which all triumph and heroism springs.

Existence is War

A Hiercthonoi, therefore, is a warrior. But a warrior's battlefield is not merely the physical. One must be capable and willing to fight on any battlefield-physical, mental, ethical, electronic, spiritual. True warriors understand that any realm may be a battlefield, and as such they must always be ready to fight no matter where the opposition is. To be able to defend one's decisions against the harshest critics is a talent a warrior must be proficient at, just as much as the ability to defend one's ideals with blade or firearm.

Sacrifice is Necessity

Those who live in conflict must be willing to sacrifice for their moral code. A code which one is unwilling to back with one's life is irrelevant. It is not a code, just a lie one sells to himself via self-deception.

Ethics

• The world is just-fate intervenes to remove the unjust. As an agent of fate, your task is to remove the unjust. Accepting magic is accepting this task.

• The mage is heroic-all willworkers are granted this power as the agents of greater powers. We are heroes, blessed with the ability to do great deeds and transform the world. As an agent of fate, your deed is to ensure that the world is transformed for the better.

• Hatred is poisonous-to hate is to lose onself in rage, lashing out unthinking. To hate is to justify any atrocity, actions against one's ethical code, because of hate. The Hiercthonoi cannot hate those he kills, for to hate your target makes killing them into pleasure. Death should always be something to regret,