The Glitch: Reboot

[Dark Silver]

Official Reboot of The original Glitch Book IV game.


Old players are familiar with the Glitch game, and may be familiar with the previous version of Glitch IV. While this reboot happens on the same world, the previous 2 games have no bearing what happens in this game. The story is similar, but it is being told from a different viewpoint. You can bring in old characters, with the realization they will be different versions of said characters.

Players will create Two sheets: One for their "in-game" character (For the Destiny MMO character) while the other will be for the person who plays in Zion, back on Earth (the "real" character).

Interaction will take place both in Zion, and possibly the "Real World", through out of game mediums (Message Boards, emails, IM's between the characters, phone calls, face to face meetings, etc).

Name:
Age:
Description:

Background

Name:
Level:
Description:
Race:

Background: (this tells stuff you've done in the game, more than anything really)

Equipment:

Skills:

Aside from what is listed below, The "Special Skills" of the various Characters in the MMORPG I will for you to come up with as apart of your character. Destiny is a very advanced MMORPG with massive amounts of customization in it's entire structure, to best suit the player.

No better is this showcased than in the Magic System. While there are spells available to every spellcaster in Destiny, the magic system is such that players can craft their own spells, utilizing the Spheres of Magical Influence, and save them to personal spellbooks. The magical system is limited only by the players imagination, and game-balancing needs. Please feel free to put any special abilities and or spells in the Destiny Sheet, to be gone over, or PM/IM me for discussion. I'm being open ended with the races available to play, PM me for discussion if you have any questions, otherwise basic fantasy races will work.


Below is the guide for creating your "Destiny MMORPG" character's

Destiny Character Creation:

Players start off with 70 points, able to divide them amoungst any
of the skills listed. Players gain additional skill points for every level they gain after the first five levels (approximately 5 points per level), up to a maximum of 500 skill points. Each skill ranking goes from 0-100. You only have to list which skills you are versed in, and their point allotment, Characters can level up to Level 90, which is the current designed cutoff.

Zion Character Skills:

Swords
Mace
Polearms/Staffs
Fencing - the use of primarily thrusting, hand-held weapons (such as daggers, rapiers, fist weapons, etc)
Archery/Guns - the use of crossbows, bows, and guns
Throwing - Use of throwing weapons in combat (throwing daggers, darts, etc)
Parrying - the ability to block a weapon with your own weapon
Shields - use of shields in combat
Wrestling/Unarmed - Fighting an opponent unarmed

Poisoning (Knowledge of poisons and their use - especially on weapons)
Anatomy (helps determine critical damage you inflict with melee weapons)
Tactics (helps determine base damage for weapons you hold)
Healing - The use of conventional means to heal damage, cure poisons, etc

Animal Taming - Allows you to tame certain animals in the game, gaining them as allies in combat and pets.
Herding - the ability to make tamable creatures follow you, though you exert no other control over them.
Veterinary - the ability to heal animals through non-magical means

Magical Power is separated into Spheres of Influence, which the Spell-crafter may utilize in creating spells involving, one, or multiple spheres. Spheres may only be used if the player has points in them - some spells requiring more knowledge of a Sphere before it can be utilized.

These Spheres Are:
Divination (The Ability to find what is lost or hidden from ones sight)
Transmutation
Summoning
Elementalism (Manipulation and control of the various elements)
Necromancy
Ethermancy (Manipulation of the Innate Mystical Forces of the Universe)
Enchantment (Empowering a Object through magical means)
Restoration (Healing)
Spectramancy (Manipulation of Light)
Holy




Bardic Skills are another form of magic that progresses through the power of music, most often, this is done with a instrument, and is often accompanied by the Musicianship skill

Provocation (the ability to set two monsters against each other through the power of music)
Discordance (debuffing/weakening opposing foes)
Peacemaking (the ability to calm the rage in those who hear the music, causing them to case fighting)

Blacksmithing
Carpentry
Cartography
Bowcrafting & Fetching
Gunsmithing
Alchemy (potion crafting)
Cooking
Inscription
Tailoring
Engineering
Musicianship

Item Identification
Taste Identification

[Dark Silver]

I. History

In the beginning there was nothing.

Then; there was Pong.

When the program was finally compiled, and the first video game took shape on a human television display, the Game-verse was born, a shimmering, glowing dimension, which existed alongside our own, connected, yet hidden. This Game-verse was teeming with infinite possibility, but it was in it's infancy, all it possessed was potential. As time moved on, Worlds began to appear, and as these worlds took form, life, in all it's crudeness, took shape. This was not life as we knew it - this was life created through the efforts of a outside force.

In our world, video games, the first being Pong, had arrived. Through the worlds brought to us on the Atari, Intellivsion and Colecovision consoles, in the countless Arcades scattered across the world, we visited new worlds and new meet countless companions. From Pacman to Mario, from Samus Aran to Laura Croft, we explored these worlds, these characters as our eyes and ears. The worlds began more vibrant and realistic with each generation of new technology made available to us. And we reveled in it.

Unknown to us, the creation of these worlds, and the advancing of our technology affected the hidden Game-verse. With each new game we created, another World appeared, populated by the very information we encoded, given digital flesh and binary blood. As the technology in which we played games advanced, so did the Game-verse. But through it all, each world remained separate, an island unto itself.

During the 8-bit Era, the time of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System, the two worlds first touched. In the depths between the game worlds, a great evil waited. Biding it's time, it drew together the most powerful villains it could find – Dr. Wily, King Hippo, Eggplant Wizard and the Mother Brain - and unleashed them upon the Nexus of the Game-verse, the Crystal Castle. The battles waged, and the barriers between the Game-worlds began to weaken. Eventually, the King of the Crystal Castle was lost in battle, and with the last bit of power allowed to him, opened a gate to our world.

A teenager named Kevin Keene was the first human to enter the Game-verse, and utilizing the Items of Power granted to him, lead a team of hero's gathered from across the game-worlds against the Legion of Darkness. Eventually, the forces were defeated, and the portals where thought sealed. The Chosen One was returned to his own world, and the world moved on, none the wiser.

With the defenses of the Nexus at it's weakest following the final battle, and the leaving of the Chosen One, the dark force which brought the Legion together, assaulted the Crystal Palace. It quickly overwhelmed the Nexus' defenses with it's dark horde, slaughtering the protectors before they could once more summon the Chosen One. With the Nexus under it's control, the Dark Force obtained the ability to open the gateways as it desired, and began to reformat the Nexus and the Crystal Palace to it's own twisted vision.

After the fourth Great upgrade (the coming of the 32/64 bit Generation), the Nexus was a dim legend in the mind of the Game World's inhabitants. No one knew what happened to it. A year after the Fourth Great Upgrade, the Dark Force made itself known. Having spent years absorbing the power of the Crystal Palace, it opened Warp Gates to the Game-worlds, and abducted their greatest characters. On it's world, a twisted amalgamation of terrain from every game-world known, the dark force introduced itself as the Glitch, and offered them a choice, serve it, or spend the rest of their days in an battle.

The Glitch War began then, hundreds of hero's and villains where brought to the Glitch-world, some accepted the offer, some rejected it. The lines between good and evil were blurred, Hero's and Villains alike found themselves on similar side, and old rivalries where put aside, as only two sides existed, The Glitches Dark Horde, and the Resistance. The battles were brutal and many where lost. Eventually, the Resistance fought to the gates of the Dark Castle, and defeated the horde.

Once the Resistance won the day, and where confronted finally, by the awesome power of the Glitch, that it finally explained to them the purpose of bringing them to the world, of allowing the battle.

It was a test.

And they had failed.

The Glitch had brought them to it's world to gauge their ability, to determine it's own origins. It told them, they were useless. And with that, they were sent home without memory of the events.

Five years later, the Glitch began a second assault, this time focusing it's attention on the worlds themselves, instead of the hero's and villains. Like a dark cloud, it enshrouded entire words with it's power, drawing to it those who would follow it to the Glitch-world, the Dark Nexus, and infused them with greater power and strength then before. The war ravaged entire Game-worlds, leaving some to be forgotten and lost, a empty husk which would eventually atrophy and die, becoming new Glitch-worlds. It was through a vast alliance of the last of the game hero's and villains who managed to not be lured into the Glitch's promises of power, that the forces of chaos met their downfall. The Glitch was defeated, thrust back into the Dark Nexus - believed to have been sealed away. During the war, a select few of the vast host of heroes began to realize something – they were but the creations of some otherworldly beings, more powerful than even the Glitch itself, and those beings where not aware they existed.

Seventy years passed, and things remained peaceful. Another Great Upgrade came forth and changed the Game-verse, increasing the beauty and splendor of the Game-worlds, and increasing the power of the Core Worlds. On the fringes of the Game-verse, and with the Great upgrade, a new threat arose. Bob Page, following the orders of a being he named the First One, gathered a powerful collection of Archvillans, and sent forth a army of twisted beings, called Nulls. The Null Hordes quickly overwhelmed countless Game-worlds, converting them into lifeless digital rocks. Many worlds on the edge of the Game-verse were consumed with little chance of defending themselves.

It was through the actions of a group of heroes, that the Hordes where finally defeated, and the Dark Council dissolved. It was discovered that the force behind the Dark Council was none other than the Glitch itself, taken new form, spawning the Null's first from itself, then the game-worlds it consumed. With the defeat of the Glitch this third time, many worlds were restored to their former glory.

Indeed, humans were not aware of the repercussions their actions had created. They were unaware that the fruits of their labor was not just a video game, but the creation of a entire world, and impacting of events in another level of reality entirely. Only one human had ever been to that other realm, so long ago, and he died with it’s secret – sure that no one other human should ever impact that realm again.

But things change, human technology advances, and the time is upon them. The first humans are striding through the Digi-verse, making their marks upon certain Game-worlds…..and they do not even know it, for another Great Upgrade has occurred in the human realms – holographic technology allows the humans, for the first time, to truly experience the Digi-verse and leave their marks upon it. How little they underestimate the bold new technologies their play with.

And in the depths of the Crystal Palace - the Glitch prepares.

[Dark Silver]

Note: Prior to the May, 2008 – Events in the “The Glitch”' Real World mirrors that of modern day Earth.


:May 3, 2008:
- The Scourge Virus is uploaded in a dormant form to a popular Internet site. The code is packaged in a unassuming, but whimsical Flash video file from a recent talent show.


:May 4, 2008:
- The dormant Scourge Virus disseminates through networks as it is downloaded with the flash video. Eventually it copies itself into 98% of all computer networks on the planet.

:July 10, 2009:
- After fourteen months of dissemination and wait, the Scourge Virus activates at 1230 hours local time throughout the world - usurping control of almost every computer system on the planet. Governmental computers go haywire, beginning "Armageddon countdowns" on almost all nuclear payloads, with a ten hour launch time. These countdowns where diverted by quick thinking technicians who simply pulled the plug on the launch computers.

- 1600 hours: Computer systems worldwide begin to come back online as the Scourge Virus seems to have played itself out. Several High Frequency Active Aurora Research Program (HAARP) stations across the globe release a high intensity pulse into the ionosphere near this time, there are no visible effects to this occurring.

- 2000 hours: US president George Herbert Walker Bush addresses the public, saying the Government will pursue those who created and spread the virus and punish them to the full extent of the law.

:August 2009:
- After studies of the viral code located in computer systems, and extensive research, it is discovered that only those computer systems running ENCOM OS, while infected, where not affected by the Scourge Virus, due in part, to its extensive inherent security protocol - the MCP

:July 2012:
- Due to it's inherent User-friendly GUI, solid codebase, near perfect kernel, and extreme cross platform emulation (allowing most programs to run as fast as if they were native), ENCOM OS has obtained 95% Market Share, and become the dominate OS in all new generation computer systems.

- Patents are filed for the Holographic Display Device (HDD) in America and Japan by Envision Corporation. Holographic Technology is not yet able to support the existence of the HDD.

- The Internet laws and control evolves, turning the Internet into a globally controlled network – no country is capable of filtering out content through it’s connections, as these abilities are now in the hands of the Global Network Commission – a multi-national group formed to assure the Internet maintains it’s core ideals and evolves with the growing world and human needs.

:Sept 2016:
- Holographic technology advances significantly at the hands of Envision Corporation, holders of the HDD patent. Holographic technology continues to assume a more lifelike feel to it, though the technology is not yet "compact" enough for widespread commercial use. First Commercial Holo-theaters appear, allowing consumers to experience lifelike holographic technology which can fool nearly all the senses.

:October 2026:
-Rapid leaps in holographic technology have decreased the space required for the lifelike holographic displays, and have aided in the ability for them to fool virtually every human sense, including touch. Personal sized HDD's become a step closer to reality.

:December 2033:
-Personal Holographic Display Devices go on sale. At first considered a luxury item, the ability to patch into any digital signal such as Television or computer and offer three dimensional displays quickly drive demand.


:January 2038:
-continued advancement in holographic and computing technology make the HDD affordable, as well as provide a large library of entertainment and scholarly titles which make use of the fully immersive holograms .

-Closed Beta Testing for a HDD-only MMORPG, dubbed Destiny, begins. Reviews released by trade magazines praise the game, as well as reports leaked by beta testers. Fortuna does nothing, figuring free publicity is better than no publicity.


:December 2039:
-After nearly two years of Beta Test, "Destiny" goes on sale. It quickly shatters all previous sales figures, with 15 million downloads from the Global Network alone, with another 4 million purchasing the retail packaging.


:May 2044:
Destiny has become the "killer app" and is bundled with nearly every new HDD sold in the world. Penetration rate of the HDD system reached nearly 80% of homes globally.

[Dark Silver]

These will be expanded on as nessacry.

Q: What is Zion?
A: Zion is the game setting for the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game known as Destiny. It is a Gameworld where High Fantasy and Steam Punk elements have converged to create a fully realized world. It has 3 main landmasses available accessible to the players, and while persistent, the world is meant to be a “true to life” world, that constant evolves in content and quests. Routinely, old content and quests will “fade out” and regulated to history, as events occur in the game world. This is all brought to life for the players through the holographic technology of the HDDs.

Q: what can be done in Destiny?
A: Anything you could dream of. Because of its advanced design, player classes are not set – “Classes” are not given to the players, instead a robust skill-set is provided – broken down into classifications of skills – in which a player my invest the points given at creation, then later earned through leveling. While this leaves a large possibility open to the player during creation, it will eventually narrow in scope as the player invests points to create the character they desire.

Q: What’s to stop a character from maxing out the most powerful ranks of multiple skills and creating a unbalanced super character?
A: While this is a possibility, the natural design of the game, and how the different mechanics work, eventually stop this from occurring. Any character can wear any type of armor, (from simple cloth, to full plate mail), each level of armor is more and more suited to a specific type of play style, that eventually negatively effects the higher rankings of certain skills. Plate Mail, for example, provides high amounts of protection from damage, but lowers the ability to restore a spell casters Mana, limiting the amount and how often they can cast spells in battle. Cloth armor, while light weight and mostly unrestrictive, would not be suitable for a Melee Brawler, because it would not deflect damage inflicted upon the warrior, and lead to a quick demise.

Q: What is a HDD?
A: a HDD (Holographic Display Device) is a commonplace household entertainment device on the Earth of “The Glitch”, developed by Encom Systems subsidiary, Envision Corporation. In its first forms, it was a massive device a entire room of a house would be devoted to, and despite being a display only device, it had as much processing power as most home computer systems in order to relay the advanced holographic images it delivered. In its modern form, the HDD is a combined Computational and Display device, taking the place of the old desktop computer and monitor set up – a variable sized virtual screen and interface devices are generated and tracked by the HDD itself, for times when the full room Holographic Display is not required.

Q: Who is EnCom? What is the Encom OS?
ENCOM Corporation and the ENCOM OS

Development of the ENCOM Operating system began in the early 1980's as a rival to the popular DOS/Windows and UNIX operating systems for use in commercial and consumer computers. Due to problems in during the alpha testing of the product on company owned computers and terminals, the project was canceled, and all code pertaining to the ENCOM OS was sealed away. ENCOM managed to survive the loss of millions from the development of the operating system, eventually becoming a powerful software developing house for videogames and other forms of media, headed by it’s new CEO, Kevin Flynn.

In the late 90's, the ENCOM OS Project was restarted, led the vision of Kevin Flynn. This new OS Project was an attempt by ENCOM to go toe to toe with Microsoft, wanting desperately to tap a new source of revenue. Unlocking the original code, the team began to update the OS kernel and accompanying systems to make it extremely fast, stable, secure and user-friendly. Despite their hard work, and the acclaim by industry papers, ENCOM OS failed to obtain more than a niche market in the consumer market, though those who managed to obtain the consumer version touted it as a finely crafted piece of software, capable of literally running any program, due to the extensive power of it's emulation systems, capable of running any code at native speeds.

When the Scourge Virus struck, ENCOM OS managed to be the only operating system that, while infected, never initiated any of the code. This was due to the Master Security Control Program, which validated nearly every piece of code which runs on the OS, while maintaining a small memory footprint. Within a year, ENCOM was becoming a success in both the commercial and private sectors, with lucrative deals coming to ENCOM to allow OEM's to package the OS on their desktops and laptops. Eventually, ENCOM OS was refined to a point where even PDA's and Cellphone's could run simple versions of the OS.

[Lys]

This sounds suspiciously like Project .hack .

[Dark Silver]

...what exactly, is project .hack ?

I'm assuming some send up of the .hack// anime and video games....rest assured, the Glitch series of games come from before the anime and video games themselves (I was running this game on another message board in the late 90's, off and on, and transferred it to here when I opened up LibArc).

It has it's sources in the Captain N, cartoon series, as well as Tron, and other various things over the years with similar concepts. .hack// did play some small role in the later portions of Glitch IV: Inversion when I first started it some years back. for reference, the original Glitch thread on this board can be found : here

[Lys]

Project .hack refers to the PS2 .hack// games, the anime .hack//Sign, and a number of other media covering the same overall setting. It and Glitch, at least as described here, are very much alike. I was just curious if you had deliberately made a homebrew variant of it. Guess not, the similarities are entirely incidental. That is even more interesting! Two completely unrelated creative efforts coming up with very similar results by using the same sources of inspiration. Not the first time it's happened, but still pretty neat!

It was not my intention to sound accusative in my previous post, and I am sorry if I did. I forgot the emoticon. ;_;

I would play, but for the time being I don't think I can handle more than two RPGs at once. I will probably follow the game instead, like I said it's a neat setting.

[SirNitram]

.hack// has made an appearance. Unsurprisingly, since it's a game!(And thus all of it's content can be accessed in the Glitch-verse grid.) One villain apparently jacked the main character and took his Data Drain as a torture device.

[Dark Silver]

yeah...that was pretty fun to use....

I kinda liked torturing people with Data Drain...

[White Haven]

Kinky. Very kinky.

[SirNitram]

Real World:

Name: Michael Thomson
Age: 23
Description: Young, in shape, easily overlooked in a crowd. Usually wearing durable clothing.

Background: A Parkour enthusiast in London, England, Mike tends to go online when it rains and thus is too slick for his climbing and exploring. He works data-entry for the government, and is a bit of a goof-off, but good at heart.

Zion:

Name: Lord Malkamar Of Sunlit Keep
Level: 90(Yes, cleared with DS)
Description: Tall, handsome, and decked out with plate armour that shines with golden light from it's enchantments, studded with engraved gems.
Race: Human

Background: Malkamar was, in fact, the first 'toon' Mike rolled up, and the Paladin has been his main ever since. Despite the difficulties of poor implementation of Paladins in some earlier patches, he kept up with new content, travelling far from the newbie zones and into the epic lairs of the most powerful bosses and organizations. When housing was fully implemented, he didn't become one of the many groups pooling resources to build a Keep out in the wilds of the highest level continent; there, Keeps were the only respite from enemies, the closest to towns you got. No, he went back to the newbie zones, and began to build his Keep.

Since then, the Keep has expanded as the system was improved, and now features daily quests to gather materials, kill nearby enemies, and stopping theives. Within, one can find many basic shops, a small PvP ring, a hall displaying the various Legendary gear assembled over the years, and various other small keepsakes. It's become a sort of extra town for low levels, where they can get a head start.

Malkamar, himself, rarely fights anymore, except for going after new content for the satisfaction of completing it. When invasion events hit the low-level zones, he'll arrive there, using his potent Healing spells to help the low levels make progress.

Equipment: Savior Of The Damned armour set(Increases his already impressive Healing and Necromancy casting), Bulwark Of Ages(Tower shield that extends his protection to nearby allies), Blade Of Dawning(Longsword that has a high chance to blast the target with Holy damage).

Skills:

Swords: 100
Shields: 100

Animal Taming: 100

Restoration: 100
Necromancy: 100

Unique Spells:

Redemption Of The Brave: Mass-ressurection of an area around him, granting everyone raised full health and magic, and a buff to defense and attack.

Shatter Horde: Manipulating life energy through the twin disciplines of Necromancy and Restoration, Malkamar can break the will of large groups of basic-intelligence foes, causing them to break formation, have lowered morale, and easily flee.

Undying Guardian: Not seen outside those who've watched uploaded videos of his raids, the Undying Guardian summons a fallen paladin to augment his defense and protect him while he casts.

Cripple The Mighty: Draining the life-force of a Boss, granting him self-healing and the Boss a debuff causing all attacks to deal more damage. Always drains a percentage, even against level 1 Bosses.

[LadyTevar]

A Parkour enthusiast in London, England, Mike tends to go online when it rains and thus is too slick for his climbing and exploring.

So... you spend a lot of time indoors do you?

[huntess]

>:3 You better tell me when this starts so I can remember to come back here and play too.

[LadyTevar]

Again, Huntress, this one was from months ago and Nitram was the only one to ever post a Char.

[Dark Silver]

She already talked to me about it Tev....I just have it on the back burner for now, until we're less full of games, or we get more people.

Then I might be putting it back up for re-interest.

[White Haven]

Am I the only one who's giggling his head off at the idea of Huntress playing a necromancer, given the context?

[Comrade Tortoise]

Name: Professor Alfred Lindson (Prole for short)
Age: 32
Description: You would not expect looking at him that he spends about 50% of his waking time with his nose buried in old manuscripts, were it not for the glasses. Around 2 m tall and massing 75 kilos, he is a fit and strong individual. You see, the rest of his waking time is spent either in Zion, or physically practicing what he reads, and that involves swords, axes, maces, bows, armor etc. Has blond hair and green eyes.

Background: Alfred is a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Pittsburgh where he does research on the military history of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, he also runs a local ARMA affiliated study group on the practical use of weapons in the time period.

If there were blackbelts in going medieval on someone's ass, he would have a few.

He spends much of his free-time in Zion due to the stress involved with country wide budget cuts to universities and the stress to his program... and while he cannot kill administrators and politicians, he can kill game characters and NPC monsters to vent his frustration.

Zion:

Name: Sir Robert Walsham
Level: 78
Description: Pretty much as he is in real life, though with a coat of plates, plate armor over his upper legs and arms (chainmail over the rest), and an english kettle helmet over a coif of maile. He carries with him an arming sword (Type XV) and buckler.

Skills:

Swords-90
Shield-90
Parry-90
Tactics-90
Anatomy-75

In Game Background: Ser Robert is the first, and for that matter only character Alfred has created. For a while, he quested and killed monsters like everyone else, but by level 40, he had created his own guild. A Free Mercenary Guild. They (all several thousand of them, from level 40 all the way up to 90--though in the early days it was 60) are arranged into divisions based upon their specialty (archery, steampunk mecha, mages, polearm or blade infantry, siege engineers, cavalry etc). The Crimson Tide Marauders hire themselves out to guilds who want an edge in war with other guilds.

The system is set up in such a way that when someone builds a keep, they gain control over resources and some other content in the region, which does give a certain incentive to go to war (think Eve online, yes I cleared this with DS). So, a guild can hire the Marauders to go to war with a third faction. Wars are of course not surprise affairs (usually). PMs are sent to the heads of a guild to be attacked to give a date and time for an assault so they can organize a defense. The official taking of the territory is done by the contracting guild, and shares from the fee are paid to those who participated in the assault. There are some other rules as well. Not welching on contracts (except for non-payment or betrayal), assisting beset players who do not belong to a contracted enemy guild etc.

Contracting guilds can also hire the Marauders to hunt down and kill members of other other guilds without assaulting cities, or to "grief" newbie starter cities, though this is double the price of more conventional assaults.


Equipment: Subject to approval, of course

Footman's Saving Grace Armor Set: Increases strike and parry rate, and permits bene jesurit style sidestep (this has a significant cooldown).

Blood-Drinker: this thrusting blade has a chance to ignore some or all of someone's armor, and a chance to drain the life of a foe, transferring the damage it does to the wielder as a heal.

Steel Fist of God: A buckler that stores the energy from successful parries (technically a buckler does not block, it parries) and allows it (up to a limit) to be transferred back to a target upon a physical strike with said buckler

Testudo Cloak: When thrown over Sir Robert (think, dracula sielding himself from the sun), the cloak provides protection against ranged weapons equivalent to a shield.