4.3.1.1 ¿Qué interfaces se pueden usar para trabajar con consultas BEx?
4.3.1.4 Restricciones al usar consultas BEx Nota:
POSTED BY: BLOODHOUND
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I’ve got Bloodhound here as a little bit of a courtesy. He does work as a bounty hunter specializing in blood mages, and I thought it would be useful to hear what he has to say about fighting them, but he had something a little juicier to share.>
Red>
I take being called blunt, cold, and methodical as a compliment, so I am just going to lay out what I have discovered. It’s big and I don’t like any of it one bit. Y’all make of it what you will.>
BloodhoundThere are all manner of injuries and maladies that can happen to a person. The wonders of mod- ern medtech make it possible to replace what is lost, including cyberlimbs, biotech organs, or even cloned replacement parts. Awakened individuals in need of such care have tough choices to make though. Cyberware and bioware replacements are easy to find but require losing a bit of that magical power they have been fighting for years to mas- ter. Cloned parts are possible but are beyond the reach of most street docs. In most cases, you have to be willing to trust a corp clinic with your genet- ic samples and cough up a lot of nuyen to make yourself whole again without taking a hit to your magic. Considering quite a few corps have what you might call “aggressive hiring practices” when
it comes to talented magicians, many are loath to take the risk.
Some Awakened individuals who have suffered great injuries such as lost limbs or permanently damaged organs are on rare occasion approached by unidentified individuals. These individuals offer them another option. They offer the Awakened person the answer to all their prayers—magically active crystals which will bond to them and grow faceted, crystalline replacements to the lost limb or organ without diminishing their magical abilities. On rare occasions these crystals can be found on the magical black market. All attempts to trace the source of these crystals have met at a dead end. Interrogation of individuals who have acquired these crystals reveal they can never remember de- tails surrounding the source. Subjects show signs of powerful magical memory manipulation. It is currently unknown where these crystals come from or how they are made. It has been speculated that they are created by a newly developed branch of blood magic, or they are machinations of the Black Lodge, or a rediscovered technique from a lost age, or they are gifts bestowed by spirits for an unknown reason.
Prior to bonding, the crystals are transparent. Upon bonding, the crystals turn blood red and be- come opaque. During bonding, the blood crystal grows and takes the shape of any missing or se- verely damaged limb or organ. Existing damaged tissue appears to be absorbed and supplanted by the crystal, replacing the whole limb or organ in a matter of minutes. In the case of replaced limbs, the musculature appears hard and faceted while retaining the warmth, mobility, and tactile sensi- tivity of natural flesh and blood. If the individu- al the crystal is bonded to dies, the crystal turns black, becomes extremely brittle, and loses all of its magical properties. Once a crystal has bonded to an individual it cannot be removed and bonded to someone else.
The few known attempts that have been made to use these blood crystals on non-Awakened individuals have proven disastrous. The crystals grow over a period of several days, replacing more and more tissue until the individual becomes an inert crystal statue. This has led to speculation that the blood crystal feeds off of the magical energy of an Awakened individual, and when bonded to a mundane individual feeds off their life essence in- stead. This theory is strengthened by that fact that blood crystals will not bond to any individual with
an active HMHVV infection, presumably because the virus interrupts the bonding process.
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Y’know, for just one moment, I got kinda excited at the thought of getting magic like this.>
Sounder>
I’m not surprised it won’t bond with infected. HMHVV is a greedy sonofabitch.>
Doc Fangs>
It’s also possible that they represent incompatible magical elements.>
Lyran>
Elements?>
Elijah>
It’s about half-theoretical, but certain types of magic simply aren’t compatible with one another. You see the most evidence of this in conflicting background aspecting, but plenty of manatech labs are trying to unlock the specific components that obstruct each other to find ways around that. Not unlike dissecting the DNA of a living organism to find which components trigger which expressions.>
The Smiling Bandit>
And here I thought you meant spells that don’t mix. I saw some joker wizganger claim he had designed a spell that shot fire and ice at the same time. When I told him to put up or shut up, he swaggered over and shouted something like, “Icy Hot!” like he’s in an anime, and he gets covered in boiling water.>
Riot>
Let’s stay on topic, folks.>
Glitch>
Absolutely. But, Riot? Can you get me that boiling water spell, please?>
Ethernaut>
I’ve heard about some wiz-gangs turning blood magic into a kind of rite of passage. The stain on the soul commits you to the gang so you can’t just up and leave their protection, and it proves you’re a badass. Of course, most of these jokers are prime material for blood hunters. At their low level, it’s a pretty sweet payday and a decent way to cut your teeth.>
Hard Exit>
Yeah. And weed out the wannabes.>
SticksThere are benefits and downsides to bonding a blood crystal. During bonding, the crystal reduces an individual’s essence much in the same way cy- berware would. The crystal, though, seems to re- place this essence with its own energy, providing a sort of augmented essence. This prevents any re- duction in an Awakened subject’s magic and does not impair magical abilities in any way. However, if the blood crystal is removed, the augmented es- sence supplied by the crystal is removed as well, and the individual suffers the effects of essence loss as normal. During bonding, the blood crystal will grow and take the shape of any missing or se- verely damaged limb or organ.
Additional abilities are often attributed to blood crystals, although they seem to be highly depen- dent on the individual and the body part replaced. Little is known about the long-term effects of the use of a blood crystal, as this is a relatively new phenomenon. Very few live subjects have been studied, and the results of studies that were per- formed are secrets closely guarded by the parties involved. I have acquired what information I can on the subject, but the picture is frustratingly in- complete at this point. Several corporations and magical groups have outstanding bounties for anyone bonded to a blood crystal, most notably the blood mages of Aztlan. That there is some- thing apparently related to blood magic that Az- tlan allegedly doesn’t know about troubles me greatly. Because of these bounties, most crystal bearers have gone into hiding. We know the most about those with crystal limbs, as they are harder to keep concealed. Several have exhibited limited ability to shape their limbs, growing claws or shap- ing their entire forearm into a blade at will. We don’t know too much about internal crystal aug- ments, as there are no outward signs of their bond. There are rumors of a man who had severe lung damage from exposure to some sort of toxic gas which was cured by implantation of blood crys- tal that then allowed him to breathe underwater. Another rumor hints at a woman who was dying of cirrhosis of the liver, but when the organ was replaced with a blood crystal, she received great endurance and resistance to toxic substances.