Purification: Keeping Things Clean
System
Craftsmanship demands precision and intent. An artist, in ventor, or technician who does sloppy work gets sloppy results. And so, when a mage crafts a Wonder, that Wonder should be purified: processed through a ritual or procedure that hopefully removes its flaws and protects it from spiritual or material contamination.
Once again, a character’s practice and beliefs will determine the purification process he prefers. A Q Division tech would work with special tools in sterile conditions; a Hermetic of House Flambeau would pass her Talisman three times through mystic fire; a gutter-mage could rinse his brand-new creation in the clear cold water of a park fountain, while an Infernalist consecrates her nasty new toy in a river of freshly-shed blood. Whatever fits the mage and his or her process may serve as purification, so long as it’s done with dedicated intent.
System
-wise, a purification process requires several Prime 2 Effects – one per level of purification. Simple items with neutral energy won’t require many successes, but complex items with messy energy may demand quite a few of them. Each purification process lowers the difficulty of Step Three’s Arete roll. If there’s conflicting energy in the process, then that modifier counters the associated penalty.
The Investment Roll Modifiers chart offers three levels of purification and their associated bonuses. The more complex and time-consuming the purification process is, the more it helps the mage who’s crafting that Wonder. Especially if there’s conflicting energy involved in Step Two, the purification process is worth a bit of extra work.
Beyond the obvious magickal Effects stored within a Wonder, certain treasures have strange blessings or awful curses. Sometimes, these “features” get built into the Wonder: user-recognition pro grams, homing enchantments, feelings of serenity that radiate into the owner’s hand when she clutches the Wonder… that sort of thing. And occasionally, a friendly spirit or quirk of good luck simply drops those goodies into the mix as a bonus from Fate.
Ah, but then other Wonders wind up flawed, either by poor workmanship, tainted Quintessence, malignant spirits, or other twists of fortune. These flaws dog the Wonder’s owner, making her life miserable and testing her commitment to the troublesome “treasure” in her possession. In really nasty situations, she has no choice but deal with it; the Wonder refuses to be discarded, and once you’ve got it, it’s got you too!
In all cases, features and flaws are more like story-elements than like reliable powers. For the most part, they don’t rely upon die-rolls or game systems, but simply manifest as narrative devices: the voice that whispers sweet suggestions at all the right (or wrong) times, the hackles that rise up the back of a gunman’s neck when he’s got one bullet left in the chamber of his modified Barretta, the “bad feeling” a hacker gets when she opens her laptop just as someone’s spying on her through its camera… such features and flaws make a Wonder more… well, wondrous.