Using Moonshards

There are multiple ways Moonshards may be used.

Moonshard Resources

Supply Moonshards become a Moonshards resource when found or bartered. Most Moonshards added to resources in this way are a Rank 1 Moonshards, though some may be more powerful. At the beginning of a scenario, if the Cohort has a Resource slot open, they may add a Rank 1 Moonshards resource that represents their habitual scavenging for Moonshards everywhere they go.

Moonshard Destruction

The simplest way to use a Supply Moonshard or Moon Relic is for a character to psionically connect with it while destroying it. Destroying a Supply Moonshard activates the Power Up stunt for existing Ethertech Powers. Destroying a Moon Relic may activate the Power Up stunt, or unleash the Power inside. The latter creates a temporary Power for the remainder of the scene. Unleashing the power of a Moon Relic in this way will create a more potent effect than controlling its power through an item or infusion, increasing its Rank by one. However, destroying a Moon Relic can also have unpredictable side effects (creating a trait or stress) and can only be done a single time.

Moon Relic Integration

By far the most popular way to use Moon Relics is to integrate them into items to create new Ethertech. To do so, a character spends dice from their Growth pool and creates the new Psionic Power upon a successful test. Narratively, multiple Powers may be integrated into the same item, but the Powers stand alone when building a dice pool. That is, only one Power may be used per dice pool. For example, a character with a RUNESWORD might have both a LIGHTNING BOLT and a WEAKENING STRIKE as associated Powers. Only one Power (and its Stunts) may be used at a time (per turn), however.

The process of integrating a Moon Relic into an item requires several days in-game.

Moon Relic Infusion

All characters in the Relics of the Moon setting have the power to infuse the power locked inside of Moon Relics into themselves permanently. This creates a Psionic Power for the character after successfully making a Growth test. The process of infusion requires an infusion machine and takes approximately one day in-game. The process consumes the Moon Relic as its knowledge and power infuses the character’s bioform. If the process is interrupted, the infusion will fail and may have consequences (create stress and/or hindering traits). To remove a Moon Relic infusion takes the same amount of time, but does not re-constitute the original Moon Relic. All Cohort Mules will have an infusion machine, as will many larger settlements.

Moon Relic Disruption

Infusing Moon Relics destabilizes a character’s bioform; the greater the number of infused Moon Relics, the greater the destabilization. Each infused Moon Relic creates one Agony with the trait Moon Relic Disruption. Each level of Moon Relic Disruption lowers the character’s maximum Stress by one (1). For example, a character with two infused Moon Relics has Moon Relic Disruption 2. Their maximum Stress is reduced by two (2) for a maximum of eight (8) Stress instead of ten (10).

Because each infused Moon Relic creates one Agony, this means a character has a soft cap of four infused Powers (five for Synths) without risking permanent instability or instant death upon taking another Agony. In practice, most people will have one or two infused Moon Relic powers at most, if they have any at all. This is the primary reason why most Moon Relics are integrated into items rather than simply infused.

Moon Relic Disruption may be removed by using an infusion machine to remove the Moon Relic. Doing so removes the Agony caused by the Moon Relic as well as permanently destroys the Moon Relic. This requires the standard Growth test to remove Agony.