IN> The Gauntlet

[-=|horsefly|=-]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 8:58 PM, Maurice Lane <moelane_1999 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  I am, by the way, declaring May to be A Month of
>  Content.

Far be it from me to play the blues with Old Scratch, but that did
sound like a challenge, so here it goes.

The Gauntlet

No one is quite sure who made it--both Sides claim they did--or when,
and the blessed (or cursed, one supposes) thing never stays put if
locked away in the celestial plane. It's forever being stolen by
someone or lent out to someone else. This explains how it so
frequently winds up on earth, though it's been recovered a number of
times in the Marches as well. It appears as a single, metal-shod glove
on the corporeal, with nothing innately *obvious* about its nature
until it's used. The Gauntlet--it is not part of a pair--fits any hand
slid into it, right or left, of any size person, and has in one
recorded instance been worn by a dog. The notion that it was once
wielded by a rabid wolverine to fend off a grizzly bear must be taken
as the sort of mindless drivel one associates with drunkards and
lunatics... though it would certainly explain some legends. In the
Marches, The Gauntlet radiates power, going so far as to thrum audibly
and shed light in a ten-foot radius; the wearer is never disoriented
in the Marches, and can always return to the place where he entered
the Marches in the first place. In Heaven, The Gauntlet thrums as it
does in the Marches, but as there is no need for light in the presence
of Light, none has been recorded emanating from The Gauntlet. Or
perhaps it just doesn't like to compete with the Almighty. Demons,
naturally, take a dim view of this notion, but since they're unlikely
to talk about the light-bearing properties of The Gauntlet with angels
in various places, this argument hasn't cropped... yet. The Gauntlet
does shed a baleful, sanguine glow in Hell, and the thrum of power
beats in time to a demon's personal Symphony. Regardless of band or
choir, The Gauntlet will affix itself to any being who tries to wear
it, regardless of whether the angel or demon typically has hands.

The Gauntlet enhances self-worth, such that any successful Will roll
is treated as having a CD of 6, and also enhances any given
resonance--add 6 to the Target Number of any Resonance roll, and treat
any successful roll which is not a favorable Intervention as having a
CD of +6 (no, not six, plus six)--and while Ethereals find the power
of their Strands doubled, humans find their Will score tripled; any
human who was not Symphonically Aware and capable of controlled
Essence expenditure becomes so after a day's use of The Gauntlet, and
these conditions will continue after The Gauntlet is removed for a
number of days equal to the Essence spent while wearing The Gauntlet.
The Gauntlet also functions as a reliquary, doubling the Essence
storage of the wielder. Not surprisingly, The Gauntlet is also a
Fighting/6 talisman, with an Accuracy of +2 and a Power of +3. It also
protects the wielder from harm from attacking with it--like breaking
one's fingers, burns from attacking someone on fire, et cetera. This
protection only extends to the hand wearing The Gauntlet. More
frightening is the fact that damage dealt by the wielder affects the
target on all planes for which the target has Forces. A brick wall,
for instance, will simply take body hits. A person struck by The
Gauntlet takes body, mind, and soul hits. Taking off The Gauntlet and
slapping someone, however, will do no more than one point of each kind
of damage--instead, it afflicts the target with the Angry Discord at
the level of the attacker's Ethereal Forces (Will roll to resist,
minus the attacker's Ethereal Forces, plus another Will roll to resist
the urge to attack the wielder in turn). Finally, it can be shucked
free and thrown at the feet of an adversary in a momentarily blinding
flare. Treat the next roll taken by the target as an unfavorable
Intervention.

Neither the person who threw down The Gauntlet, nor the person it was
thrown at, can recover The Gauntlet. Once it's been used to slap an
opponent or taunt into a challenge, someone else must reclaim it (it
will be empty of Essence). It can be freely removed by the wielder at
any time and put back on if not used for either of the preceding
reasons, but it cannot be forcibly removed, nor can a person's arm or
hand be sawed off to get The Gauntlet. It must be voluntarily thrown
down.
-- 
-=|horsefly|=-

"It was a different time: a time of blood and guns and killings.... It
was a time when killers needed saints, for so much of God's
good work was being done."
 --SAINT OF KILLERS #4, Garth Ennis