Author Topic: A Truespeaker's Inventory  (Read 1697 times)

Offline Bauglir

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A Truespeaker's Inventory
« on: August 29, 2012, 11:36:08 PM »
Truespeech Items

A truespeaker, like a member of any other class, benefits from the appropriate equipment. Items listed in this section are either created using the power of a truespeaker, or are particularly helpful to such a character.

Written Truespeech - WIP, Unbalanced as Fuck
Skilled truespeakers can put to paper the almost impossibly complex rules for pronouncing truespeech. After all, it's merely almost impossible. There are two ways of doing this; mundane text, and supernatural runes. The former amounts to an instruction guide that includes not only the syllables and punctuation but supplementary written instructions for the nuances of that particular bit of text. Runes are far more compact, for readers hear the correct sounds echo in their minds as they read, conveying perfectly the intent of the author, but the True Tongue escapes such bonds quickly, destroying the surface as it does so, giving these a short lifetime and encouraging creators to place them only on stone or similarly sturdy surfaces. In either case, while many truespeakers are prolific authors and keep extensive journals, this isn't out of a sense of practicality. At best, they're personal reminders for knowledge already gleaned, since speaking an utterance involves so many variables that must be accounted for in the moment of speech that simply knowing a truename is usually the easiest part of the work.

However, there remain several uses for written truespeech. Most widely known is the art of transcribing a personal truename, an eternally consistent Word that grants tremendous power over its subject. There are also Truescribed Scrolls, which do convey everything you need to know in order to use an utterance, as well as Truecut Runes, which allow the powers of the True Tongue to be incorporated into items and other physical objects. Finally, there are more mundane uses that still find use among truespeakers of all kinds, in particular the Truespeech Dictionary.

Recording anything in the True Tongue requires a Truespeech check with a DC of at least 15. Most written documents in the True Tongue don't have the power of an utterance, but you can write such a thing if you desire. If you are transcribing an utterance, the DC usually equals the DC to target the subject described by whatever unit of truespeech is being written. Transcribing an utterance requires you to make decisions as if you were actually speaking it, such as its target. In the case of transcribing a personal truename (which is a Word targeting the subject with that truename for the purposes of being written), the DC is equal to the DC of the check you would make at the end of research in order to learn the subject's truename. You must actually know a personal truename in order to transcribe it.

To learn to speak a written unit of the True Tongue requires a Truespeech check, and time spent learning it. You must spend at least 8 hours per day, for a number of days depending on the length of what you're learning, though these need not be consecutive days. The Truespeech DC to learn a written unit of the True Tongue is 10 for a Syllable (which takes 1 day), 15 for a Phonema or Word (which takes 7 days), or 20 for a Sentence (which takes 30 days). This is not the same as the DC to speak it after having learned it. Neither does learning an utterance in this way tell you what its effects will be - to determine that, you must make a Truespeech check while learning, as if identifying the utterance as it was spoken. If you learn an utterance in this way, you learn it exactly as it was recorded, including its target and so on. For instance, a Phonema would appear entirely useless if you failed to identify it, unless you spoke it within 30 feet of the target. Failure to speak an utterance learned in this way results in ability burn to each of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, and the utterance fails entirely rather than being shortened (as it would with broken speech).

Truespeech Dictionary: This massive tome contains a variety of priming exercises, general words, and grammatical exercises. Studying it for 1 hour grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Truespeech checks for the rest of the day. This is a masterwork tool of Truespeech.
Weight: 5 lb. Cost: 400 gp.

« Last Edit: September 05, 2012, 02:48:31 PM by Bauglir »