Animalistic Totem

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Animalistic Totems are highly scripted items that can be worn as either non-functional fluff or for functional mechanical benefit depending on how they are unlocked. Unlock options are available a la carte, allowing their features to be unlocked in almost any combination instead of in a fixed order. While similar to Animalistic Spirit gear, they do not provide added benefit to the gear set and can be used independendly of it.

An Animalistic Totem can attune up to five different animals' spiritual essences to it by POINTing the totem at a monster, mount, familiar, animal companion, or similar creatures. They can also be pointed at a piece of gear with the Animalistic Spirit script to attune the currently selected animal in it. Not all creatures work with Animalistic Totems. There are noun restrictions in addition to creature type for spiritual essence. Only the ranger or wizard owner of an animal companion or familiar can add it to a totem.

Animalistic Totems can have different sides customized similar to a Deck the Halls item or Veola hair accessory, capable of taking a foraged item, feather, bones/teeth, skins, etc., to change the totem's animalistic decoration. They were introduced in the August 2024 run of Duskruin and are sold in its shop, Totemic Spirits. They were designed by GM Avaluka.

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OTS

OTS Animalistic Totems can hold one creature's spiritual essence. They come with ambient messaging and a set of fluff verbs. They have the ability to PUSH an animalistic decoration into the totem, changing a portion of its long description similar to a Deck the Halls item or a Veola hair accessory; decorations can be removed at any time. They also can have the base material changed by ADDing an item that is made of bone, wood, or metal; doing this will permanently destroy the item added.

Analyze

You analyze the balsawood idol and sense that the creator has provided the following information:
    -- Animalistic Totem --
This idol is an item that holds the spiritual essence of an animal.  The essence can be gained from animal-like creatures, familiars, animal companions, or Animalistic Spirit items.
        ==Features==
    * Spiritual Essences [1 out of 5 Slots Unlocked]
POINT the idol at an appropriate animal-like creature, familiar, animal companion, or Animalistic Spirit item to have the idol absorb some of the creature's essence.
If you have more than one spiritual essence slot unlocked, you can use TURN on the idol to switch between the stored essences.
    * Ambient Messages [ON - PROD to toggle]
While you are wearing the idol, the spiritual essence currently chosen will make itself known every so often with ambient messaging.  You can use PROD to quiet the spirit at any time.
    * Animalistic Decoration
You can PUSH Foraged Items, feathers, bones/teeth, skins, and other small items into the idol and change its long description (the portion after the noun only).  Visit any willing merchant to change how each decoration type looks.  You can then PULL the idol to remove the item at any time.
While holding something made of metal, wood, or bone in one hand, you can ADD to the idol to change its base material.  CLEAN it to return it to how it looked initially.  WARNING: Materials used to change the idol's base material are lost forever, so be sure you are happy with what you choose.
    * Accent Material Change [Locked]
Once unlocked, you can then TWIST the idol to focus on the accent material instead of the base material, allowing ADD to change the idol's article.  You can use CLEAN, as well, while focused on the accent material to return the idol to its original article.
Once an accent material has been added, you can use FLIP to adjust the article to different styles based on that material.
    * Movement Styles [Locked]
When unlocked, you can allow the spiritual essence inside the idol to affect how you look when you move from room to room.  SPIN will select a style, while COVER will toggle the feature off.
    * Wear Location Change [Locked]
When unlocked, you can use FOLD on the idol to switch between pin, wrist, and neck-worn locations.
    * Bestial Power [Locked]
  (Flares: OFF, RUB to toggle)
When unlocked, the spiritual essence inside the idol can help you passively in combat.  Only one of four paths can be chosen, and this cannot be changed once unlocked.
Abilities happen at a standard flare rate during combat if there are enough charges available.
Animalistic Endurance (Defensive) - +2 crit padding per tier.
Bestial Block (Defensive) - +3 DS/+2 TD per tier
Shifting Strike (Offensive) - +3 AS/+2 CS per tier
Feral Ferocity (Offensive) - +2 crit weighting per tier
The ability is fueled by skins from creatures, and up to 500 charges can be stored.
    * Fluff Actions [Locked, T1 of 2]
        ==Alteration Guidelines==
    * Alterations are fine, though the noun must be "idol", "totem", or "fetish".
    * The adjective field should contain the material the idol is made of.
    * This idol cannot accept a show description.
    * Any willing merchant can change the designs for when feathers, bone/teeth, flowers, gems, bugs/sea creatures, or miscellaneous items are PUSHed into the idol.  These work much like Veolas, but the only part of the description you can customize is the part after the noun.
    * Any willing merchant can change the color of the different spiritual essences.
        ==Usage==
You will find that you can use the following verbs: POINT (attune to a creature), ADD (add a material), PUSH (add a decoration), PULL (remove a current decoration), CLEAN (set material back to default), PROD (toggle ambient messages).
        ==Current Settings==
    * Current Spiritual Essence: a raven [Color: misty green]
    * Feather Design: None [Default]
    * Bone/Tooth Design: None [Default]
    * Flower Design: None [Default]
    * Gem Design: None [Default]
    * Bug/Aquatic Life Design: None [Default]
    * Miscellaneous Design: None [Default]

You get no sense of whether or not the idol may be further lightened.

Usage

Verb First Third
ADD This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Add a material to change totem's base material. Added item will be destroyed.
CLEAN This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Set material ADDed back to default.
POINT This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Attune to a creature.
PROD This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Toggle ambient messages.
PUSH This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Add a decoration to change totem's long description.
PULL This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Remove a decoration that is changing the totem's long description.

Fluff Actions Unlock

This unlocks the fluff verbs from OTS/Tier 1 to Tier 2. Four fluff verbs are added.

Usage

Verb First Third
POKE This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
PRAY This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
TOUCH This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
WAVE
(targeted)
This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
WAVE
(untargeted)
This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!

Accent Material Unlock

This allows the totem to be further customized. TWIST is now an option to toggle between the totem's base material or accent material when ADDing a bone, wood, or metal item to change it, and FLIP can further adjust different article styles based on that material type. The item added will be destroyed. Due to character count limitations, not all materials added will work with all articles.

Usage

Verb First Third
ADD This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Add a material to change totem's base material or accent material. Added item will be destroyed.
FLIP This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Change the article style based on the added accent material type.
TWIST This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Toggle between adding an item to change the totem's base material or accent material.

Spiritual Essence Unlock

This will add +1 Spiritual Essence slot to an Animalistic Totem with each unlock applied, up to a max total of 5 slots. The additional unlocks allow for different animals' spiritual essences to be stored and used by the totem. Only one spirit can be active at a given time.

Usage

Verb First Third
TURN This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Cycle between spiritual essence slots.

Movement Style Unlock

A movement style, visible when moving room to room, can be toggled on or off. The active movement style varies depending on the currently selected animal's spiritual essence. Each animal type has three different options corresponding to a sound, tracks, or a glimpse of the animal selected. This only works if the wearer's MOVEMENT is set to NORMAL; rangersneaking, if on, will interfere with this movement option.

Usage

Verb First Third
COVER This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Turn on/off the totem's movement style.
SPIN This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Cycle between movement style types for the selected animal's spiritual essence.

Wear Location Unlock

This unlock option allows the worn location to be cycled between pin, wrist, and neck-worn.

Usage

Verb First Third
FOLD This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Change wear location.

Bestial Power Unlocks

When unlocked, the spiritual essence inside the idol can help passively in combat. Only one of four Bestial Power paths can be chosen, and this cannot be changed once unlocked. The Bestial Power unlock changes the totem from non-functional to functional. There are four types of Bestial Power paths, with two focused on offense and two focused on defense.

Bestial Power can be unlocked from Tier 1 to Tier 5, with increasing benefit at each tier unlock for the individual paths:

  • Animalistic Endurance (Defensive) - +2 crit padding per tier.
  • Bestial Block (Defensive) - +3 DS/+2 TD per tier
  • Shifting Strike (Offensive) - +3 AS/+2 CS per tier
  • Feral Ferocity (Offensive) - +2 crit weighting per tier
Bestial Power abilities happen at a standard flare rate during combat if there are enough charges available. Charges are added by PUTting skins into the totem up to 500 stored charges. The value of the skin determines how much they charge the totem at a rate of 100 silver value per 1 charge. Skins can be added individually or bundled.

Usage

Verb First Third
PUT (skin in totem) This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Charge the totem's Bestial Power flares.
RUB This section has not been added yet; please add to it now! This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
Toggle Bestial Power flares on/off.

Additional Information

Due to how the totems are coded, there are some restrictions on what items will work with them for changing the base material or accent. Items that work for accents include: small weapons/runestaves, forging blocks, alteration fodder items, gems less than 15 characters in length, certain skins/bones/antlers/horns, ribbons. The metal or wood name needs to be 15 characters or less.

When altering the different sides for animalistic decorations, only the portion after the totem's noun can be modified. The <full> and <adj> placeholders both function with totems as they do for a Deck the Halls item or Veola hair accessory.

Any merchant can change the color associated with an animal if they are comfortable doing so. Colors are stored per animal and can be different for multiple spiritual essence slots.

See Also

Animalistic Totem Information
Type Mechanical
Item Classification Accessory
Item(s) Applied to Totem
Alterable Yes
Light/Deep
Customizable Yes
Custom Spiritual essence color for each animal
Long description sides for feather, bone/tooth, flower, gem, bug/aquatic life, or miscellaneous objects
Original Release Venue Duskruin
Original Release Year 2024
Tiered Yes
How to Unlock Certificate
Restrictions Noun must be idol, totem, or fetish.
Adjective field must contain totem's material.
No shows.
Item Verbs
ADD CLEAN COVER FLIP
FOLD POINT POKE PRAY
PROD PULL PUSH PUT
RUB SPIN TOUCH TURN
TWIST WAVE