Shadowdeath vambraces

Originally posted by SHADOWTHEFT 23 June 2005

Lesser Vambraces

The notes are gathered and (most of) the observations are complete. So here they are, Thanthyl's (lesser) shadowdeath vambraces.

Description

some black alloy arm vambraces

Made of an odd sort of black alloy, the vambraces give the odd appearance of something akin to ebon water trapped under glass. Currents ebb and flow, light catching occasionally here and there causing odd variations in the shades trapped within. The large guards may be worn with adjustable straps made of the same material, but give the distinct impression that it would be difficult to get a good fit without some additional assistance. Other than the odd properties of the metal, nothing else stands out.

Verb Traps

VERB	FIRST	THIRD
As Vambrace
Nudge	You concentrate for a moment, and everything within sight suddenly becomes basked in a dull grey pallor. Everything here shifts as a mere shadow of its former self. Before your eyes can adjust to the alien sight your vision clears once more.	Gaerit's brow furrows suddenly and swirling black ebon lines invade his eyes, turning them into flat ebon orbs. Gaerit looks around, scanning the area before his eyes suddenly return to normal.
Attend	Shadows suddenly burst forth from your body, swarming across you and settling on you with the comfort of a close friend. Gnawing dark hunger and safe security compete for your attention before the shadows slowly sink into your skin, disappearing below the surface.	Shadows suddenly burst forth from Gaerit's body, swarming across his skin and settling on him with noticeable closeness. It lasts only momentarily before sinking back into Gaerit's skin once more.
Wave (untargetted)	You extend your arms in a wide sweeping motion, thousands of snaking tendrils of shadow bursting forth creating a great arc of snapping swarming, biting shadow maws and spiked tentacles. As your arm completes the circuit, you can feel the shadows retract, like iron spikes driving into your flesh.	Gaerit extends his arms in a wide sweeping motion and thousands of snaking tendrils of shadow suddenly burst forth creating a great arc of snapping, swarming, biting shadow maws and spiked tentacles. As Gaerit's arms complete the circuit, the shadows shrink back beneath his skin.
Prod	You feel a cold knot in the middle of your stomach, but it soon fades and you're left standing with an empty feeling in your gut.
Wear (First time)	As you put the vambraces on, a sudden bone-chilling cold creeps across your body until it you feel it settle like an icy grip on your heart! Your vision clouds momentarily, but then returns to normal.
Wear (Normal)	As you settle the alloy arm vambraces into place, you feel complete once more.	Gaerit puts on his vambraces. You could swear you saw shadows writhe across his body.
Remove	You remove the alloy arm vambraces, your veins suddenly bulging under your skin. The motion of the vambraces feels as if it were your skin being peeled away. Long tendrils of shadowstuff underneath thin and snap until the vambraces is finally free in your hands. You feel a distinct sense of loss.	Gaerit removes the alloy arm vambraces, peeling it away even though it is attached by many tendrils of shadowstuff that pull and snap one by one until the vambraces are free in his hands.
Get	As you reach for the vambraces, you notice the surface ripple like a stone dropped into a pond of black liquid. A sensation of completion fills you, and somewhere in the very back of your mind, a voice whispers something just beyond comprehension. You remove some black alloy arm vambraces from in your spidersilk cloak.	As Gaerit gets the vambraces, the surface ripples like a stone dropped into a pond of black liquid. Gaerit removes some black alloy arm vambraces from in his spidersilk cloak.
Rub (to check charges)	Your hand hovers close to the alloy arm vambraces, and suddenly a coldness seeps deep into your bones. Your stomach clenchs tightly, and yet you feel completely satisfied, as if you had just finished a meal at a large banquet. (full) Your hand hovers close to the alloy arm vambraces, and suddenly a coldness seeps deep into your bones. Your stomach clenchs tightly, and despite the cold, you feel surprising comfortable, as if you had recently eaten a meal. (almost full) Your hand hovers close to the alloy arm vambraces, and suddenly a coldness seeps deep into your bones. Your stomach clenchs tightly, and then rumbles - you feel the urge for a snack. (mid level) Your hand hovers close to the alloy arm vambraces, and suddenly a coldness seeps deep into your bones. Your stomach clenchs tightly, and hunger pangs grip you as if you hadn't eaten recently. (almost empty) Your hand hovers close to the alloy arm vambraces, and suddenly a coldness seeps deep into your bones. Your stomach clenchs tightly, and you feel a blinding, burning hunger course through you, as if you hadn't eaten in days! (empty)	Gaerit places his hand next to some black alloy arm vambraces for a moment.
Tap	An ice cold sensation grips your heart for a brief moment but passes just as quickly. (armor is not created because there are not enough charges) Something twists hard and cold near to your heart as though it might burst forth. Just as you feel as if you cannot contain it anymore you sense a great feeling of resistance, and the sensation disappears. (armor is not created because you are wearing standard armor already) You tap your alloy arm vambraces and an icy cold grip settles on your heart. The pain is almost unbearable, and you feel as though you're on the very verge of collapse when suddenly hundreds of tiny tendrils of shadow seem to burst from your skin, swirling and snapping until they settle into the form of armor type here. (armor is created and worn)	Gaerit taps his alloy arm vambraces and seems to freeze for a moment. Suddenly, hundreds of tiny tendrils of shadow seem to burst forth from his skin, swirling and snapping until they settle into the form of armor type here.
As Armor (shadows)
INSPECT	As you focus on the shroud of shadows, darkness suddenly obscures your vision and overwhelms you! The blackness is all-encompassing, pressing in on every side until it seems as though you are trapped deep within the darkness. Harsh, grating voices fill your ears, chanting in some long dead dialect of a language similar to elven, whispering things that although you cannot understand give the distinct impression of tremendous horror.
RUB	You caress the shroud of shadows, fingers trailing through the shadows as if it were water, leaving little wakes.	Gaerit caresses his shroud of shadows, fingers trailing through the shadows as if it were water, leaving little wakes.
TAP	Your fingertips touch the surface of your shroud of shadows in a tapping motion, causing ripples of darkness to spread across like a pebble dropped in water.	Gaerit's fingertips touch the surface of the shroud of shadows in a tapping motion, causing ripples of darkness to spread across like a pebble dropped in water.
POKE	You poke the shroud of shadows, pushing your fingers into the bone-chilling cold shadowstuff until you cannot bear it anymore.	Gaerit pokes the shroud of shadows, pushing his fingers into the shadowstuff until he suddenly pulls his fingers back out.
REMOVE	You reach to remove a form-fitting shroud of shadows, but your hands just pass right through it!	Gaerit tries to remove a form-fitting shroud of shadows, but his hands just pass right through it!
TURN	(to cycle through armor types) You push a finger into the shadowstuff of the alloy arm vambraces and feel no resistance as the cold seeps to your finger bone. (the first of the five steps - set to robes) You push a finger into the shadowstuff of the alloy arm vambraces and feel more resistance. (the next four steps through the armor types)	Gaerit pushes a finger into the alloy arm vambraces, the shadowstuff enveloping it.
PULL	(attempt to darken the area) Ice grips your heart, but the area doesn't grow any darker. (failure to darken the room because it is too bright) You feel a chill grip you, but nothing seems to happen. (fail to darken the room because you're low on charges) An icy tingle shoots down your spine. The area grows darker.	The area suddenly grows darker.
TWIST	(anchoring the spot to teleport to) A cold chill grips you, but you cannot seem to make a connection here. (you can only anchor in certain rooms) Shadows seem to pool at your feet for a moment before seeping into the ground. You feel connected to this place, now.	Shadows seem to pool around Gaerit's feet for a moment before seeping into the ground.
Teleporting
SCREAM Success	You start to open your mouth to scream, but your guts suddenly wrench and feel as though they're going to leap right out of your throat! You open your mouth in pure agony and black shadow pours out to cover your world and turn it all to a dark grey. Your surroundings shift, the world around you is streaming shadow and blackness. Things speed by at a dizzying pace, and you seem to be walking...somewhere. Ahead. A bright, piercing light, as full as the noon sun and blistering with heat, you grow nearer and nearer until... (you enter the room)	Hundreds of tendrils of shadow suddenly burst forth from the surroundings, writhing and swirling as if they were alive. They quickly combine into a shadowy shape of Gaerit that evaporates away, leaving him standing there! (entering the room you've anchored to)
		Gaerit looks as he might scream, but instead of a scream writhing tendrils of shadow pour forth from his mouth! They cover Gaerit completely before suddenly fading into the surrounding shadows! (leaving the room you are currently in)
SCREAM Failure	You scream but nothing happens. (failure when you don't have enough charges) (Or if the room is brightly lit)
TOUCH Success	(to pull a charge from a corpse, no treasure or gear is left behind, but experience is gained normally) Ravenous tendrils of shadow suddenly burst forth from the darkness, streaking towards the storm giant to consume it in a gory feast of toothy shadow maws and barbed tentacles! (from hiding or invisible)	Ravenous tendrils of shadow burst forth from Gaerit's body, streaking towards the storm giant to consume it in a gory feast of toothy shadow maws and barbed tentacles!
TOUCH Failure	Ravenous tendrils of shadow burst forth from your body and streak towards the cold guardian, writhing and snapping furtively before returning! (failure if the critter is undead, a player character, or some odd magical entity that doesn't have a substantial form)

Armor Types

• Some flowing black shadows (robes)
• A form-fitting tunic of shadows (light leather)
• A loose coat of shadows (full leather)
• A form-fitting shroud of shadows (double leather)
• A dense shroud of shadows (brigandine)

Armor is 3x to 6x based on how many charges are left.
A cold tingle runs down your spine, and you can feel the shadows suddenly shift. (armor drains a charge approximately once every four minutes)

Various Notes

• The vambraces have certain restrictions for some of the abilities. For example, you can not make a room darker with the 205 evoke effect if the room is extremely bright. The logic behind this is that it's more easy to make a low-lit room darker than it is to make a well-lit room darker. The more light there is, the fewer shadows there are to manipulate.
• You also can't anchor anywhere you please for the teleport ability. I haven't gone hopping around from town to town to discover all of the locations, but I believe you can anchor in the majority of the major nodes and fog spots. If one of those areas is too bright, you can not anchor to it.
• Teleporting pulls random charges from the vambraces and has a varying roundtime of 5-15 seconds.
• Unlike the shadowdeath weapons, charges are gained and drained on a non-varying scale (except for when teleporting drains charges). This means that it's possible to count how many charges are in each "hunger" level. I started to work on this, but stopped since I really didn't care that much.
• The majority of the grammatical and syntax errors have been bugged. I've found some more since my initial testing of Thrassus' set, but Thanthyl wanted me to hold off on bugging any new ones until fixes rolled in.
• All of the mechanical bugs (that I've discovered) have been bugged. The most interesting is the bug that causes a suppression of the ATTEND verb. When wearing the vambraces, you can ATTEND them and watch people blink at you when the shadows go all nuts.
• However, you can not attend any other item you wear unless you take them off. Fixes will roll in whenever.
• No, you don't scream AT the vambraces to teleport. You just scream. =D
• Future additions may consist of a loresong and bug fixes. A greater set will be released with an additional super awesome power.
• Because the vambraces are symbiotic in nature, removing them causes your Constitution score to drop by -5. This penalty lasts for approximately fifteen minutes, or until you put the vambraces back on again.
• The vambraces have the same level regulation when it comes to obtaining charges. In other words, Great Lords can't recharge on roltons.
• I'm hoping Warden allows some other ideas I've suggested through (like having the armor flare like the weapons since it isn't padded). However, other than the loresong and bug fixes, I think the vambraces are pretty much done.
• As you can see, there's a lot too them. I'm still astounded by the sheer volume of actions and abilities any time I tinker with 'em. And the fact that they're vambraces on a small weapons user really seals the deal for me (I've wanted vambraces in game for a long time).
• For those of you who don't know what vambraces are, they're a type of arm guard used to actively parry blows from an opponent's weapon - unlike regular arm guards which are meant to absorb blows from a weapon to lessen the severity of damage taken in case you happen to be struck on the arm. An example of this can be seen in Batman Begins, or the final episode of the Kenshin OVA.
• Unfortunately, game mechanics do not support the proper use of vambraces, and the shadowdeath vambraces don't inspect as armor.
• Further questions, comments, or concerns can be sent to my play.net address.

Greater Vambraces

I'd first like to say how eternally grateful to the owner, Liagala, I am, for letting me tinker around with them to figure all of the what-not and who-how out a couple of times. And for allowing me to share the information.

I even managed to break the room within the first 10 minutes of use. =)

Secondly, I'd like to dispell some rumors:

No, I didn't pester, beg and beseech, or otherwise claw at the owner day in and day out, nonstop.

No, I don't own them.

No, the owner doesn't wish to sell them.

Onwards.

The greater vambraces contain all of the abilities of the lessers.

The greater vambraces have an additional ability.

Cross Realm Teleportation

• Can be used 1x a day.
• Activated by the PROD verb.
• Drains all charges within the vambraces when activated.

When used, the following can be seen by everyone outdoors in the same realm:

Day: The skies darken for a moment and a deep black column the color of polished onyx streaks upwards into the sky.

Night: The moon is dimmed for a moment as a deep black column pierces the surrounding night and lauches itself into the sky.

The user sees:

A cold suddenly grips you, the pain of the chill so unbearable that it feels as though your very muscle and bone were being frozen in place and then shattered with a massive hammer. Darkness descends like a curtain around you, and there is the distinct sense of travelling at a very great speed, completely separated from your flesh body. A thousand needles pierce your mind as you feel every piece and fragment of your form coalesce once more and you notice you're now somewhere else...

Roundtime: 6-12 seconds (I'm thinking it's actually 5-15, but I haven't used them enough to determine the actual random roundtime threshold)

This takes the user to their own, personal room in the game, as seen below...

[A Plateau]
A cold, dark wind howls across the top of a plateau that is utterly featureless except for the grit and small stones that blanket the cracked and pitted surface. No apparent sun or moon can be spotted in the sky, but a dull grey seems to suffuse everything above the ground in a dim pallor. Shadows leap and dance across the landscape as if they were alive, adding to the chill strangeness of the place. A short pillar of obsidian set with onyx studs stands in front of a dark shadowy black portal.
Obvious exits: none

Thought Net: While at the Plateau, you can be heard on the ledge near Shadow Valley/Dark Pasture/Shadow Plain in Landing. And, I'm assuming, through all of those areas as well.

The Pillar

The pillar is used to set what destination you wish to arrive at. There are six destinations in all. Pushing the pillar changes the destination.

Look: The fine lines and expert craftsmanship of the pillar seem abnormally out of place in this forlorn location. The pillar has been studded with a series of six perfect half orbs of black onyx each set within a crown of black iron. The third onyx has been depressed into its setting.

Tap: You touch a finger to the pillar and notice how it appears to part like water, small ripples of silvery-black liquid radiating out.

Push: Your fingers trail across the pillar and run across a raised onyx stud. Before you can react, the stone slides into the pillar with a soft click and the entire pillar rotates.

Pillar settings:

• 1st: River's Rest
• 2nd: Solhaven
• 3rd: Landing
• 4th: Mule
• 5th: Illistim
• 6th: Zul Logoth

The Portal

The portal is used to reach the destination you've set.

Look: The portal stands before you, a flat plane of mirror-like shadowy black the consistency of liquid. Occassionally, the portal seems to ripple as if something had disturbed it, but otherwise it hovers there, a constant pool of blackness.

Tap: You touch a finger to the portal and notice how it appears to part like water, small ripples of silvery-black liquid radiating out.

Go: You step into the portal, and feel a cold shock as the black liquid envelops you. For a brief moment, the shadows part into a brilliant vista of an enormous starfield. One of the pinpoints of light suddenly comes rushing up to you until it fills your vision, blinding and all-encompassing. The coldness of the dark begins to burn alternately with the blazing light in front of you, and just as the bliss of unconsciousness begins to overtake you...

Roundtime: 11 seconds (Also variable, I believe)

She be a lucky girl, that she be.

Once again, I'd like to thank Thanthyl for the creation of this item, and Varluv (I think) for overseeing its release in Prime.

Now if only there was a way to get other people there...