Personal Tree

Item

Image
Description	The transition from tradition to commercial product is always a little rough, which explains why Zaibatsu hasn't been exporting these for generations. But there's something compelling about a little bit of greenery in a modern sprawl. Even if tradition has been replaced by carefully packaged tools and genetic engineering, the satisfaction of taking care of something alive doesn't seem to change.
Type	Furniture
Use	You unpack your tree and clear off a table so it can get some space… maybe even a little light.
Effects	+1 Power to Techniques using Will

Sources

Zack's House of Coins, originally available in season 42 for two unearthly coins.

Uses

Appears in your apartment as a Tiny Tree.

Starts off with the following:

Your little tree stands proud and calm.

<soil status>

Starts off with the following:

Your little tree doesn't seem to be doing very well. Its leaves are discolored and drooping, but it's hard to guess at the exact cause.

<soil status>

The following are the potential soil statuses.

Message	Requirement
The pot's soil looks more like sand.	No water
The pot's soil is dry.	1 water, no food
The pot's soil is dry and smells strangely nutty.	1 water, 1+ food?
The pot's soil is visibly damp.	2 water, 0 food
The pot's soil is dark and earthy-smelling.	2 water, 1 food
The pot's soil is dark and smells like a Southside dumpster.	2 water, 2+ food
The pot beneath is filled with thin mud	3 water, 0 food?
The pot beneath is filled with dark mud.	3 water, X food?
The pot beneath is filled with an earthly-smelling morass.	3 water, 3 food?
The pot beneath is filled with stinking mud.	Max water and food

Summary of Choices

(None of these choices cost Energy.)

1. Water it —
2. Add some food —
3. Peer closer —
4. Trim it up — conditions?
5. Leave it be —

Water it

You pour some water into the tree's pot. It's not particularly big, so it probably doesn't need much.

Increases soil moisture?

Add some food

You shake some "food" from the tree's packet into the soil at its roots. The tree isn't particularly big, so it probably doesn't need much.

Peer Closer

Available once per day. There are different results depending if Etheric or non-Etheric, and how sick your tree is. (Minor forms of Etheric such as Slags Poisoning work for Etheric results.) XP gains are equal to floor(sqrt(base Will)) + 2. Gains are based on Will regardless of the stat gained.

Status	Image	Text	Rewards
Non-Etheric, Healthy?		You inspect the tree, but everything seems okay. There's not really a manual, but the leaves have a healthy sheen and it's not falling over or anything. It seems appropriate to meditate on the tree for a bit.	Gain X XP in Will
Non-Etheric, Too much water?		You inspect the tree's leaves, but find more sign of problems on its bark. There are more than a few unhealthy white flecks, but a larger collection forms a snowflake-like structure over the tree's fine bark. You meditate on its form.	Gain X XP in Strength
Non-Etheric, Too much water and food?		You inspect the tree's leaves, finding nothing wrong with the leaves, but something clearly alive moves beneath the soil. It's disquieting, but certainly not dangerous to you. You meditate on the subtle shifting on the soil.	Gain X XP in Perception
Non-Etheric, Too dry		You inspect the tree's leaves, peering closer and closer as you release the small wriggling forms are some kind of mite or tiny spider. They don't seem dangerous to you, but they certainly seem to enjoy chewing on the tree's wilted leaves. You meditate on their movements.	Gain X XP in Reflexes
Etheric, Healthy?	(same as non-etheric?)
Etheric, Too much water?		You inspect the tree's leaves, but find more sign of problems on its bark. There are more than a few unhealthy white flecks, but a larger collection forms a snowflake-like structure over the tree's fine bark. The damage probably goes deeper, but you can't help yourself, picking away at the fruiting structures until you have several living snowflakes and the tree looks moderately better.	Gain: 2-3 bits of snowflake fungus
Etheric, Too much water and food?	—	You inspect the tree's leaves, finding nothing wrong with the leaves, but something clearly alive moves beneath the soil. As you, perhaps unwisely, stare into the dirt, you can see the pale flesh underneath. As you watch it ripple through the musky-smelling soil, it seems to grow larger and larger until it fills your field of view with loose soil and the thing crawling beneath.	Fight a Burrowing Grub
Etheric, Too dry	—	You inspect the tree's leaves, peering closer and closer as you release the small wriggling forms are some kind of mite or tiny spider. As you look closer, their forms grow more distinct than the walls, the table, and even the tree.	Fight 2 Crawling Mites

Trim it up

You take the tiny scissors that came with the tree and start to trim branches and leaves that have gotten a little too unruly.

It's calming, trimming away at the little branches, but it doesn't really take much time.

Alternatively (Condition?)

It's calming, trimming away at the little branches, but it still feels somehow predatory to you. Perhaps its just the scent of the leaves bringing out something a little primal… or at least decades-old, when there were animals worth hunting outside preserves.

You learned a new Technique: Green Shot

Leave it be

You ignore the tree for now. It can take care of itself, right?

Technique Summary

Chain	Technique	Type	Attribute	Dam/Def	Notes
	Carapace Block	Evasion	Will	8 (M, ?)	enhanced with shields/mite carapace
	Bristled Strike	Melee	Will	4	+4 vs. Melee, Leaves Jagged Wounds with a bristled leg equipped
	Burrowing Ruse	Stealth	Will	7	enhanced underground, fails vs. Evasion
	Green Shot	Ranged	Will	8	Undodgeable when outdoors, further enhanced with a scope

Other Uses

This item is not a component for any kind of crafting.

This item cannot be salvaged.

This item cannot be added to a gang stash.

Remaining Mysteries

Item #2307 is unknown and among the block of items associated with the personal tree.
Skill #98 may be associated with this item.

From Podcast 47:

Digging into this, there's a lot going on with the personal tree. Totally forgot Green Shot technique, thought Argeth was making it up at first. But it does exist. There's a couple of things going on there. Not crazy difficult to get one, but not surprised it took a long time to get one. Takes a leap of faith (or happy accident) to find that there. Need a very different view on it which might take a happy accident. With a lot of techniques, it gets harder to get additional copies so if Argeth did exactly the same thing again, may not get it. There's a lot in there though, it's pretty hard, maybe harder than it should be, might be a mistake on my part or maybe it's a metaphor for difficulty in finding inner peace.