Sherwood
Luna's Concubine
I will add various approved MA Style rewrites here.
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Dice Exalted 2.5 Sidereals - Lore
- Thread starter Sherwood
- Start date
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- Tags
- high fantasy
Sherwood
Luna's Concubine
Here are some of the MA rewrites done by Plague of Hats.
Charcoal March of Spiders Technique
Unnatural Many-Step Stride
Cost: 4 or 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
…whose skill was great enough to climb a whirlwind over water.
The character scuttles along the unseen strands of fate woven throughout Creation, allowing him to move and stand freely on thin air as easily as the ground. In a location outside fate the martial artist is force to constantly reweave his own fate, tethering it to points in the area, increasing the cost of this charm to 6m. Further, the martial artist may reflexively spend a point of willpower (in Step 2 if in response to an attack) to hide between the strands in the web until his next action, turning him both invisible and immaterial. When used in Step 2, this acts as a perfect defense against an attack if the attacker cannot strike dematerialized targets. If the attacker can strike dematerialized targets, but has no way of seeing invisible targets, use normal rules for fighting blind apply.
Dance of the Hungry Spider
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Counterattack
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Unnatural Many-Step Stride
Arrows fell upon her, forcing her to descend.
The character moves in a sliding, shifting kata—her feet constantly moving and nearly impossible for the eye to track. All attempts to sweep the martial artist, knock her down, clinch, or hold her, or make a targeted attack against her lower body suffer an external penalty equal to the martial artist’s Essence. Further, she may always stand back up as a reflexive action.
Finally, the martial artist glides effortlessly across creation. Once per tick she may reflexively move (Martial Arts x2) yards. This can be done in Step 9 as a counterattack to move after the effects are applied in Step 10.
Maw of Dripping Venom
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Poison, Stackable, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
But the Essence burning within her set the arrows afire.
The martial artist’s fingers needle into the target’s flesh, tainting the target’s Essence such that her soul slowly dissolves from the inside. An unarmed attack supplemented by this charm is modified by a special poison (Special/Action, --, Trauma (Essence), -(Martial Arts)/2) that is applied if at least one die of damage is rolled. On each of the character’s actions, she bleeds off 5 motes minus threshold successes on the Trauma roll. This lasts for (Essence) actions. Multiple applications stack the duration and penalty like a normal poison.
If the defender runs out of motes, she falls into a coma for the attacker’s (Martial Arts) days, during which she need not eat, drink or breath (though they wake up ravenous enough to make up for lost time) and she does not regain motes or Willpower. Upon waking, the target has nothing but the haziest recollection of what happened during the scene she fell unconscious as an Illusion effect that costs 5wp to overcome.
Rain of Unseen Threads
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
She answered the arrows’ flight with a storm of her own.
The character extrudes a number of fine threads of essence equal to her permanent Essence, each with a length of (Essence) x10 yards, use the martial artist’s (Strength + Martial Arts) as its strength. These threads are under her control, and each thread immediately does one of the following:
• Lift and manipulate a single unattended weapon or object. Attacking with a weapon held by a thread relies on the martial artist’s normal traits and counts as an unarmed martial arts attack for purposes of this charm
• Pierce an opponent’s skin, using the statistic for the martial artist’s punch, except that it deals lethal damage and adds the piercing tag.
• Disarm or sweep an opponent.
Each of these actions is Speed 6, DV -0 and are unparriable unless the target is immune to unexpected attacks. These actions are in addition to the character’s normal action, but he not split any of these actions.
Nest of Living Strands
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Shaping
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Rain of Unseen Threads
And the small maiden began
Hundreds of fine, transparent filaments of Essence launch from the character’s hands, weaving around the surroundings and each other to entangle all opponents within (Essence + Martial Arts) x10 yards. Inside this radius movement speed is halved and the martial artist can reflexively perform blockade movement actions on anyone in the radius. Further, everyone in the area takes a (Martial Arts)/2 External Environmental Penalty on all actions that require movement. The martial artist and up to (Essence) additional people at a time can be rendered immune to these penalties, chosen at the beginning of each action tick. These threads move with the martial artist, catching new opponents who enter the radius yet eerily bending out of the way of anyone he wishes to give passage. This is a shaping effect on the environment, not an individual.
Charcoal March of Spiders Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-Type, Combo-Basic, Overdrive
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: One complete Celestial martial art (all Charms), Dance of the Hungry Spider, Maw of Dripping Venom, Nest of Living Strands
to climb the waterspout again.
The character moves her hands with the deft, arachnid precision of a weaver, her fingers flicking like the limb of a spider. With such grace and coordination, she may take three fully independent physical actions at a time. In effect, on each action tick the character goes three times, functioning as though three characters were going simultaneously. You take the highest speed of any of your actions but the DV penalties from all your actions are cumulative. If any of your independent actions contain a charm that is not Combo-OK or Combo-Basic then you are unable to use any reflexive charms after your action tick until your DV next refreshes. Although the martial artist may split these actions normally (only taking the penalties for doing so within that Independent Action), if any of his actions contain an Extra-Action charm then you lose the benefits of this charm—that is, you can choose to either take three independent actions from this charm or use an Extra Action charm, not both. Independent actions do not allow you to move more than once, and only one action’s worth of time has elapse for the purpose of duration.
Further, the character gains an Overdrive pool of 10 motes while this Form is active. While this form is active, the character gains 1 mote on any tick where he successfully hit more than one enemy with an attack, an enemy loses motes in a fashion other than spending them, or she attacks someone outside her engagement range as it was at the beginning of her action tick. You can gain, at most, 1 mote per tick from this charm.
Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Charcoal March of Spiders Form
to climb the waterspout again.
The martial artist learns how to consume the power of attacks directed against her. Swirling her hands in a hypnotic pattern, the character creates a vortex of Essence that draws in and disrupts the substance of the attack. This functions as a Martial-Arts based parry that may parry unparriable attacks, ignores all penalties to PDV, and can not be halved. If successful, the attack is bound up with the committed motes of this charm. As a Simple (Speed 5, DV -1), Combo-Basic action the character may release the motes committed to this charm to also release the consumed substance of the attack, using that attack against someone else. The attack uses the same original dice pool and everything else that modified the attack is still modifying it.
If the martial artist does not release the stored attack against someone else by the end of the scene, then they internalizing it—suffering the effects of the attack as though it hit with 0 threshold successes.
Thumbnail Spider March
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Charcoal March of Spiders Form
…and to one child she said, “I have many things to show you.”
A character using this Charm is as destructive to anything in her path as the swarming, hungry thumbnail spiders of the East. These tiny spiders sometimes migrate in the millions, devouring any creature in their way.
As part of this attack, the martial artist immediately moves up to (Essence x10) yards. Afterwards, she launches up to three Martial Arts attacks at her full dice pool, taking only the highest DV penalty of those attacks and applies them to everyone she chooses within (Martial Arts) yards of her during any point of that movement. Everyone defends separately, and one person’s defense does not help anyone else in the area. These attacks ignore all internal penalties and all counter-attacks, much as a swarm of spiders ignores the loss of a few of their number. Ghostly, evanescent images of the martial artist multiply and swarm all over the path of destruction, and are the ones actually performing these attacks. These images disappear as quickly as they appear. These attacks can hit both materialized and dematerialized entities equally.
Jumping Spider Strike
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Crippling
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
And to another she said, “You may rest within my home, and eat; no need to fly.”
People of the South tell stories of the idol Ma-Un-Enle and the great sand spiders who worship before it. Sometimes, Ma-Un-Enle speaks a name. In response, one of the spiders bows on all its legs and walks away. It hides in the sand, waiting years or centuries, until the person whose name Ma-Un-Enle spoke comes near. The spider then leaps from the sand to strike.
As part of using this charm, the martial artist may leap up to (Essence)/2 miles to anyone she can see. An unarmed attack supplemented by this charm adds (Essence) dice to its raw damage. If any damage dice are rolled in step 8 than the target’s body immediately loses cohesion—it becomes a mosaic of bone chips, blood-fog and ripped skin held together by essence and a soul that doesn’t realize the target should be dead. Any future dice of damage against the target are automatically successes. The target takes one unsoakable level of lethal damage on every action tick she does anything but remain still (being inactive) as her body slowly falls apart from the inside out. When the target’s incapacitated health level is filled from any source, they explode into a gory mess as causality finally catches up to them.
Water Spider Bite
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch, Sickness
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
And to a third she said, “How beautiful you are.”
Far to the West, hand-sized green spiders scuttle along the underside of the ocean’s surface as if it were a web. Their pinprick bite paralyzes fish, even sharks or whales, and the spiders burrow into the flesh of their prey as it sinks into the depths. They rise to the surface again days or years later, when they have eaten every piece of their kill.
One swift blow supplemented with this Charm sends the martial artist’s essence flooding the system of the person touched. This functions as a Third Circle Disease with the following traits:
Virulence: (Essence); Incubation: Immediate
Diagnosis: 5; Difficulty to Treat (Mundane/Magical): 20/(Martial Arts)
Morbidity: (Martial Arts) Treated Morbidity: (Martial Arts)/2
The martial artist is connected to the parasitic essence, allowing her experience the infected person’s perception as a faint overlay that doesn’t interfere with the martial artist’s senses. The person infected can’t heal health levels except through supernatural means, and that requires a charm roll-off for every instance of healing. Further he recovers only half the motes (rounded up) from all sources, including stunting. Finally, the martial artist may cause some of the essence to burst out of the target’s body and attack. She may use the infected person as the origin-point of any unarmed martial arts attack and thus target the infected person over any distance. All charms lose the Touch keyword when targeting the infected person.
Pattern Spider Touch
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Thumbnail Spider March, Jumping Spider Strike, Water Spider Bite
And as each heard her words and came to the center of her web...
Once, changes to the Loom of Fate could change anything in creation. The pattern spiders, which tend to the Loom, no longer permit swift and drastic changes, but that potential remains. Wish a successful unarmed attack, a character can use this Charm to fundamentally change his target, reweaving the structure of the target’s existence. Doing so causes one of the following effects:
• Diminish and transform the target’s body. This can reduce any number of her attributes. Note that leaving an attribute at 0 often makes the target incapable of many actions. It can also grant the target any number of negative mutations. She may also grant up to an equal number of points worth of positive mutations, usually to represent the target’s new form.
• Transform the target into an object—usually corresponding to one of the five elements; a breeze, a flame, a stone, a pool of water, or even a living tree. The target remains alive and aware, serving as that object’s least God but being rendered completely unable to interact with the world around them.
• Grant the target a new life and identity as any type of creature commonly found inside fate (this cannot mimic a specific individual inside fate). As far as everyone else is concerned, the target was simply always this way—immediately everyone’s memories are rewritten to accept the new reality. Being outside Fate or spending 5 WP negate this Illusion effect. This can transform the character’s physical appearance, motivation, intimacies, and memories but it offers no other mechanical changes beyond purely aesthic ones. A Dragonblood turned into a Lunar still has all of his Dragonblood charms and isn’t actually a Lunar beyond appearance and memory.
• Unmake the target utterly. The target is irrevocably killed, their soul(s) completely consumed. This charm’s effect is as absolute as Ghost-Eating Technique and is capable even of turning Primordials into Neverborn.
• Remove a Shaping effect on the target. You must succeed in an Essence + Martial Arts roll with an external penalty equal the Essence of the character that inflicted the shaping effect. In the case of natural phenomena, use an Essence of 1 or how man steps towards the Wyld it occurred in.
Grandmother Spider Mastery
Cost: –(+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Prayer Strip
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Pattern Spider Touch
…she ate them.
To master this style is to emulate the grandeur of Asna, the first of the pattern spiders. When the character strikes, she seems to divide into many onrushing warriors at once or spin endless invisible filaments of web, as with Rain of Unseen Threads. Either way, fighting such a character is like taking on an army of Asna’s own young. Her attacks buffet the victim from all sides, as she surrounds and bewilders her foes.
This charm permanently enhances Charcoal March of Spiders form. By adding a 10m, 1wp surcharge to the form and wrapping a prayer strip inscribe with the Elder Sutra of Consumption on her left leg, the martial artist gains the ability strike out against multiple foes at once. Instead of taking 3 independent actions, the martial artist can note every opponent in her engagement range, regardless of where the martial artist actually moves. Any unarmed attack she makes attacks all opponents in her engagement range, regardless of where she actually moves. Everyone defends separately, and one person’s defensive charms do not apply to anyone else. Unlike the normal use of Charcoal March of Spiders form, this form is compatible with extra action charms but not with charms that inherently target multiple people.
However, she gains the ability to use Thumbnail Spider March when using the Independent Action option of Charcoal March of Spiders form.
Unnatural Many-Step Stride
Cost: 4 or 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
…whose skill was great enough to climb a whirlwind over water.
The character scuttles along the unseen strands of fate woven throughout Creation, allowing him to move and stand freely on thin air as easily as the ground. In a location outside fate the martial artist is force to constantly reweave his own fate, tethering it to points in the area, increasing the cost of this charm to 6m. Further, the martial artist may reflexively spend a point of willpower (in Step 2 if in response to an attack) to hide between the strands in the web until his next action, turning him both invisible and immaterial. When used in Step 2, this acts as a perfect defense against an attack if the attacker cannot strike dematerialized targets. If the attacker can strike dematerialized targets, but has no way of seeing invisible targets, use normal rules for fighting blind apply.
Dance of the Hungry Spider
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Counterattack
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Unnatural Many-Step Stride
Arrows fell upon her, forcing her to descend.
The character moves in a sliding, shifting kata—her feet constantly moving and nearly impossible for the eye to track. All attempts to sweep the martial artist, knock her down, clinch, or hold her, or make a targeted attack against her lower body suffer an external penalty equal to the martial artist’s Essence. Further, she may always stand back up as a reflexive action.
Finally, the martial artist glides effortlessly across creation. Once per tick she may reflexively move (Martial Arts x2) yards. This can be done in Step 9 as a counterattack to move after the effects are applied in Step 10.
Maw of Dripping Venom
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Poison, Stackable, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
But the Essence burning within her set the arrows afire.
The martial artist’s fingers needle into the target’s flesh, tainting the target’s Essence such that her soul slowly dissolves from the inside. An unarmed attack supplemented by this charm is modified by a special poison (Special/Action, --, Trauma (Essence), -(Martial Arts)/2) that is applied if at least one die of damage is rolled. On each of the character’s actions, she bleeds off 5 motes minus threshold successes on the Trauma roll. This lasts for (Essence) actions. Multiple applications stack the duration and penalty like a normal poison.
If the defender runs out of motes, she falls into a coma for the attacker’s (Martial Arts) days, during which she need not eat, drink or breath (though they wake up ravenous enough to make up for lost time) and she does not regain motes or Willpower. Upon waking, the target has nothing but the haziest recollection of what happened during the scene she fell unconscious as an Illusion effect that costs 5wp to overcome.
Rain of Unseen Threads
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
She answered the arrows’ flight with a storm of her own.
The character extrudes a number of fine threads of essence equal to her permanent Essence, each with a length of (Essence) x10 yards, use the martial artist’s (Strength + Martial Arts) as its strength. These threads are under her control, and each thread immediately does one of the following:
• Lift and manipulate a single unattended weapon or object. Attacking with a weapon held by a thread relies on the martial artist’s normal traits and counts as an unarmed martial arts attack for purposes of this charm
• Pierce an opponent’s skin, using the statistic for the martial artist’s punch, except that it deals lethal damage and adds the piercing tag.
• Disarm or sweep an opponent.
Each of these actions is Speed 6, DV -0 and are unparriable unless the target is immune to unexpected attacks. These actions are in addition to the character’s normal action, but he not split any of these actions.
Nest of Living Strands
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Shaping
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Rain of Unseen Threads
And the small maiden began
Hundreds of fine, transparent filaments of Essence launch from the character’s hands, weaving around the surroundings and each other to entangle all opponents within (Essence + Martial Arts) x10 yards. Inside this radius movement speed is halved and the martial artist can reflexively perform blockade movement actions on anyone in the radius. Further, everyone in the area takes a (Martial Arts)/2 External Environmental Penalty on all actions that require movement. The martial artist and up to (Essence) additional people at a time can be rendered immune to these penalties, chosen at the beginning of each action tick. These threads move with the martial artist, catching new opponents who enter the radius yet eerily bending out of the way of anyone he wishes to give passage. This is a shaping effect on the environment, not an individual.
Charcoal March of Spiders Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-Type, Combo-Basic, Overdrive
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: One complete Celestial martial art (all Charms), Dance of the Hungry Spider, Maw of Dripping Venom, Nest of Living Strands
to climb the waterspout again.
The character moves her hands with the deft, arachnid precision of a weaver, her fingers flicking like the limb of a spider. With such grace and coordination, she may take three fully independent physical actions at a time. In effect, on each action tick the character goes three times, functioning as though three characters were going simultaneously. You take the highest speed of any of your actions but the DV penalties from all your actions are cumulative. If any of your independent actions contain a charm that is not Combo-OK or Combo-Basic then you are unable to use any reflexive charms after your action tick until your DV next refreshes. Although the martial artist may split these actions normally (only taking the penalties for doing so within that Independent Action), if any of his actions contain an Extra-Action charm then you lose the benefits of this charm—that is, you can choose to either take three independent actions from this charm or use an Extra Action charm, not both. Independent actions do not allow you to move more than once, and only one action’s worth of time has elapse for the purpose of duration.
Further, the character gains an Overdrive pool of 10 motes while this Form is active. While this form is active, the character gains 1 mote on any tick where he successfully hit more than one enemy with an attack, an enemy loses motes in a fashion other than spending them, or she attacks someone outside her engagement range as it was at the beginning of her action tick. You can gain, at most, 1 mote per tick from this charm.
Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Charcoal March of Spiders Form
to climb the waterspout again.
The martial artist learns how to consume the power of attacks directed against her. Swirling her hands in a hypnotic pattern, the character creates a vortex of Essence that draws in and disrupts the substance of the attack. This functions as a Martial-Arts based parry that may parry unparriable attacks, ignores all penalties to PDV, and can not be halved. If successful, the attack is bound up with the committed motes of this charm. As a Simple (Speed 5, DV -1), Combo-Basic action the character may release the motes committed to this charm to also release the consumed substance of the attack, using that attack against someone else. The attack uses the same original dice pool and everything else that modified the attack is still modifying it.
If the martial artist does not release the stored attack against someone else by the end of the scene, then they internalizing it—suffering the effects of the attack as though it hit with 0 threshold successes.
Thumbnail Spider March
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Charcoal March of Spiders Form
…and to one child she said, “I have many things to show you.”
A character using this Charm is as destructive to anything in her path as the swarming, hungry thumbnail spiders of the East. These tiny spiders sometimes migrate in the millions, devouring any creature in their way.
As part of this attack, the martial artist immediately moves up to (Essence x10) yards. Afterwards, she launches up to three Martial Arts attacks at her full dice pool, taking only the highest DV penalty of those attacks and applies them to everyone she chooses within (Martial Arts) yards of her during any point of that movement. Everyone defends separately, and one person’s defense does not help anyone else in the area. These attacks ignore all internal penalties and all counter-attacks, much as a swarm of spiders ignores the loss of a few of their number. Ghostly, evanescent images of the martial artist multiply and swarm all over the path of destruction, and are the ones actually performing these attacks. These images disappear as quickly as they appear. These attacks can hit both materialized and dematerialized entities equally.
Jumping Spider Strike
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Crippling
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
And to another she said, “You may rest within my home, and eat; no need to fly.”
People of the South tell stories of the idol Ma-Un-Enle and the great sand spiders who worship before it. Sometimes, Ma-Un-Enle speaks a name. In response, one of the spiders bows on all its legs and walks away. It hides in the sand, waiting years or centuries, until the person whose name Ma-Un-Enle spoke comes near. The spider then leaps from the sand to strike.
As part of using this charm, the martial artist may leap up to (Essence)/2 miles to anyone she can see. An unarmed attack supplemented by this charm adds (Essence) dice to its raw damage. If any damage dice are rolled in step 8 than the target’s body immediately loses cohesion—it becomes a mosaic of bone chips, blood-fog and ripped skin held together by essence and a soul that doesn’t realize the target should be dead. Any future dice of damage against the target are automatically successes. The target takes one unsoakable level of lethal damage on every action tick she does anything but remain still (being inactive) as her body slowly falls apart from the inside out. When the target’s incapacitated health level is filled from any source, they explode into a gory mess as causality finally catches up to them.
Water Spider Bite
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch, Sickness
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cannibalistic Heritage Technique
And to a third she said, “How beautiful you are.”
Far to the West, hand-sized green spiders scuttle along the underside of the ocean’s surface as if it were a web. Their pinprick bite paralyzes fish, even sharks or whales, and the spiders burrow into the flesh of their prey as it sinks into the depths. They rise to the surface again days or years later, when they have eaten every piece of their kill.
One swift blow supplemented with this Charm sends the martial artist’s essence flooding the system of the person touched. This functions as a Third Circle Disease with the following traits:
Virulence: (Essence); Incubation: Immediate
Diagnosis: 5; Difficulty to Treat (Mundane/Magical): 20/(Martial Arts)
Morbidity: (Martial Arts) Treated Morbidity: (Martial Arts)/2
The martial artist is connected to the parasitic essence, allowing her experience the infected person’s perception as a faint overlay that doesn’t interfere with the martial artist’s senses. The person infected can’t heal health levels except through supernatural means, and that requires a charm roll-off for every instance of healing. Further he recovers only half the motes (rounded up) from all sources, including stunting. Finally, the martial artist may cause some of the essence to burst out of the target’s body and attack. She may use the infected person as the origin-point of any unarmed martial arts attack and thus target the infected person over any distance. All charms lose the Touch keyword when targeting the infected person.
Pattern Spider Touch
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Thumbnail Spider March, Jumping Spider Strike, Water Spider Bite
And as each heard her words and came to the center of her web...
Once, changes to the Loom of Fate could change anything in creation. The pattern spiders, which tend to the Loom, no longer permit swift and drastic changes, but that potential remains. Wish a successful unarmed attack, a character can use this Charm to fundamentally change his target, reweaving the structure of the target’s existence. Doing so causes one of the following effects:
• Diminish and transform the target’s body. This can reduce any number of her attributes. Note that leaving an attribute at 0 often makes the target incapable of many actions. It can also grant the target any number of negative mutations. She may also grant up to an equal number of points worth of positive mutations, usually to represent the target’s new form.
• Transform the target into an object—usually corresponding to one of the five elements; a breeze, a flame, a stone, a pool of water, or even a living tree. The target remains alive and aware, serving as that object’s least God but being rendered completely unable to interact with the world around them.
• Grant the target a new life and identity as any type of creature commonly found inside fate (this cannot mimic a specific individual inside fate). As far as everyone else is concerned, the target was simply always this way—immediately everyone’s memories are rewritten to accept the new reality. Being outside Fate or spending 5 WP negate this Illusion effect. This can transform the character’s physical appearance, motivation, intimacies, and memories but it offers no other mechanical changes beyond purely aesthic ones. A Dragonblood turned into a Lunar still has all of his Dragonblood charms and isn’t actually a Lunar beyond appearance and memory.
• Unmake the target utterly. The target is irrevocably killed, their soul(s) completely consumed. This charm’s effect is as absolute as Ghost-Eating Technique and is capable even of turning Primordials into Neverborn.
• Remove a Shaping effect on the target. You must succeed in an Essence + Martial Arts roll with an external penalty equal the Essence of the character that inflicted the shaping effect. In the case of natural phenomena, use an Essence of 1 or how man steps towards the Wyld it occurred in.
Grandmother Spider Mastery
Cost: –(+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Prayer Strip
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Pattern Spider Touch
…she ate them.
To master this style is to emulate the grandeur of Asna, the first of the pattern spiders. When the character strikes, she seems to divide into many onrushing warriors at once or spin endless invisible filaments of web, as with Rain of Unseen Threads. Either way, fighting such a character is like taking on an army of Asna’s own young. Her attacks buffet the victim from all sides, as she surrounds and bewilders her foes.
This charm permanently enhances Charcoal March of Spiders form. By adding a 10m, 1wp surcharge to the form and wrapping a prayer strip inscribe with the Elder Sutra of Consumption on her left leg, the martial artist gains the ability strike out against multiple foes at once. Instead of taking 3 independent actions, the martial artist can note every opponent in her engagement range, regardless of where the martial artist actually moves. Any unarmed attack she makes attacks all opponents in her engagement range, regardless of where she actually moves. Everyone defends separately, and one person’s defensive charms do not apply to anyone else. Unlike the normal use of Charcoal March of Spiders form, this form is compatible with extra action charms but not with charms that inherently target multiple people.
However, she gains the ability to use Thumbnail Spider March when using the Independent Action option of Charcoal March of Spiders form.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style
The Student's Sutra of Essence: Once, there were maidens...
Deadly Starmetal Offensive
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
...and their names were JI
The character infuses her fingernails with Essence, hardening them, sharpening them, lengthening them into bweapons - and, most importantly, causing them to bend, influence and predict the path of fate in the manner of starmetal. While this Charm is active, the character’s unarmed attacks gain a minimum damage of 3 and the O tag, may parry lethal attacks without a stunt, and may re-roll the damage roll in step 8 whenever she attacks, taking the higher of the two results.
Editor's Note: I changed this one because Blade of the Battle Maiden makes the character's hands a Starmetal Daiklave. I felt this charm should be both different and synergistic.
Orichalcum Sheathing Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins:Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type:Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords:Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and PENG
The character wraps her body in a sheath of Essence, mirroring in its interaction with her own anima the link between Solar Exalted and orichalcum. While this Charm is active, the character is considered to be wearing orichalcum armor with the martial artist’s (Essence + Martial Arts+2) Bashing and Lethal Soak, (Stamina+Martial Arts)/2+5 Hardness, a -0 Mobility Penalty, and a 0 Fatigue Penalty. Further, the martial artist subtracts 1 from any attack’s minimum damage (minimum of 1) and 2 from the damage of any environmental effect (minimum of 0). The armor provided by this charm is compatible with all martial arts, even those normally not compatible with armor. However, the benefits of this charm count as equipment and the rules for stacking equipment apply to it.
Editor's Note: Made the soak scale. At E5, MA5, STM 5 you're looking at up to 12 Soak, 11 Hardness from armor which is still worse than just getting Superheavy Plate. At E10, MA10, STM10 you're looking at 22 Soak and 21 Hardness. This does stealthily, effectively have every magical material bonus applied.
Flickering Moonsilver Approach
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and LU
The character traces patterns through the air that echo the slippery, mutable ways in which moonsilver twists the flows of Essence around it. Opponents cannot precisely determine the character's location: she may cause her attacks to originate from any point within (her Essence x5) yards. Such attacks impose a -2 penalty to the defender's PDV, on top of ignoring all cover bonuses to DV.
Editor's Note: No longer ignores shields, and a change in wording allows for better stunting IMO, without altering the mechanics any.
Five Jade Fury
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and ZHOU
The character binds the substance of Creation to her Essence, shifting into a pattern of attacks that radiates the elemental authority of jade. Each gives a gift, which applies only to unarmed Martial Arts attacks. Her blows can be bashing or lethal, as she chooses, reflecting the compassion and conviction of green jade. The grace of black jade steers her attacks well: she adds 2 to the Accuracy and Defense values. The reliability of white jade ensures reasonable damage: she adds 3 to her Damage value. The force of blue jade grants her weapon the Piercing tag. Finally, the swiftness of red jade adds 1 to her weapon's Rate and -1 to its Speed. The benefits of this charm count as a Magical Material bonus and the appropriate rules for stacking apply.
Editor's Note: You effectively add every magical material bonus to your attacks. Balanced by the fact that, without other charms, you're still using your Punch's stats. It results in a Speed 4, Acc +4, Damage +3L, Defense +3, Rate 5 weapon with piercing. With Blade of the Battle Maiden this results in a Speed 4, Acc +4, Damage +8L/2, Defense +4, Rate 5 weapon with piercing. This is a nice, general weapon but nothing compared to the better artifact weapons.
Four Magical Materials Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Deadly Starmetal Offensive, Orichalcum Sheathing Stance, Flickering Moonsilver Approach, Five Jade Fury
and HOU TUI
The character attunes herself to the Essence of the world, drawing on the flows of interwoven fates, raw power, progressive change and elemental stability that play out all around her. In this fashion, while she maintains the Form, she becomes a living artifact. This Form does not mimic the Essence of soulsteel.
When using this Form, the character automatically and reflexively activates all four prerequisite stances as part of the Form activation for no cost. In addition, she becomes unbreakable, becoming immune to Crippling effects, unless the effect could damage the Five Magical Materials.
Editor's Note: No change, moving on.
Charm Redirection Technique
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and AN
The character learns to catch, tangle and throw the Essence flows of Charms as if they were the flailing limbs of her hapless flows. This Charm may be invoked in Step 2 in response to a Charm-enhanced attack. The martial artist immediately rolls their (Essence + Martial Arts) against a difficulty of the attacker’s Essence. If successful, they perfectly parry the attack and another character in range of the attack is immediately made the new target for the attack, starting in Step 2. The activation roll for this charm is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.
Editor's Note: This one was a pain to balance. It's effectively an expensive PD with a bad flaw that doubles as a redirect. It's powerful, but expensive--hopefully I struck the right balance?
Sequential Charm Disruption
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Charm Redirection Technique
and CAI
This Charm expands on the principle of Charm Redirection Technique. Rather than redirecting the essence flows, this charm instead disrupts them. The martial artist may immediately cancel one or more charms used on the attack against them for the duration of that attack. If more than one offensive charm is canceled, add a +2m, +1wp surcharge to this charm. If an Excellency is canceled, add a +5m surcharge to the charm. Rather than cancel a charm with a duration longer than instant for just one attack, a charm may be completely canceled as a shaping effect by adding the cost of the canceled charm as a surcharge to this one. The cost of canceled charms is still paid. This effect may not cancel Form-type Charms, Extra Action charms or charms with a minimum essence higher than the martial artist’s permanent Essence.
Editor's Note: This charm is an odd duck. It's not quite a perfect defense but it might as well be. Late-step offensive charms bypass it, but other than that it's a psuedo-perfect that can be powered by overdrive. That's why it's as expensive, if not moreso, than a normal perfect defense.
Spell-Shattering Palm
Cost: 5m per Circle or (Minimum Essence of a Sorcerous Charm)*3m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and LI
The character uses martial arts to yank the threads of a delicate construct of sorcery out of place. This charm allows the character to make Martial Arts attacks or defenses against sorcery, similar to countermagic. Used on the offense this modifies an unarmed strike, you must target the manifestation or center of the spell—such as the character benefiting, the spirit summoned, or the approximate center for spells like Rain of Doom. Spells that do not otherwise have a stated DV have a DV of (Circle)*4 or (Minimum Essence)*2 for Sorcerous Charms. If you defeat the DV by at least the Sorcerer’s (Essence)/2 than the effect is shattered as though struck by the appropriate level of countermagic.
Used defensively, this charms functions as defensive countermagic of the spell’s circle if the character’s PDV exceeds the caster’s Essence + Twice the Spell’s Circle or the caster’s Essence + The Sorcerous Charm’s Minimum Essence. This requirement is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability when used defensively.
Editor's Note: I tried to bring this in line with Magic-Shattering Palm and the Lunar equivalent, rather than bringing it in line with Adamant Circle Countermagic. It's occasionally cheaper, but you don't regain motes for success. I notably didn't use a mote-regaining mechanic because it can be made free/cheap with Overdrive and the form-charm.
Astrology Interruption Method
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and HUA JI
The character uses her education in the nature of fate in conjunction with her martial skill to disjoint, snarl and otherwise tangle the fates the spiders weave. By lightly striking the target in the five points where the threads of the Loom of Fate attach, the character can negate Sidereal astrological effects. She must make a successful Martial Arts attack against the target. If she succeeds with threshold successes exceeding the Essence + College of the Sidereal that created the effect, the effect is dangerously torn or frayed, and the pattern spiders abandon it.
Editor's Note: It's cheaper now! Please use it? But seriously... >_> Also, added the Touch Keyword.
Soul Fire Shaper Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Overdrive, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Charm Disruption Technique, Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, Astrology Interruption Method
and QIAN JING
The character balances her actions so perfectly to the local flow of Essence that the world around her cannot help but support her victory, regardless of whether she stands in Creation, Malfeas or the Underworld.
While using the Soul Fire Shaper Form, consider the Exalt's permanent Essence to be five higher than her current Essence for the purposes of resolving Charm conflicts and interacting with her enemy’s charm effects. She is unaffected by any condition or effect that would negatively impact her Essence pool or recovery, including but not limited to environmental factors such as being in the Underworld as a native of Creation, or hostile effects such as Charms that would prevent her from regaining motes in combat.
In addition, the character gains an Overdrive Pool of 10 motes while this charm is active. Every time your DV refreshes while using this form, roll a number of dice equal to the highest minimum essence of any non-Sidereal Martial Art charm used by another character since the last time your DV refreshed and gain 1 offensive mote per success.
Finally, the martial artist also gains one free use of Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, or Astrology Interruption Method every time his DV refreshes. Any effects, including surcharges that increase the cost of those charms increases it from a base cost of 0m, 0wp.
Editor's Note: A bunch of minor tweaks here. Instead of increasing one's mote pool it uses an overdrive mechanic. since PAoC is the general and buff Sid MA I made the refill mechanic general and pretty good. I modified what the +Ess applies to slightly and you can't use Charm Redirection with it anymore. I'm honestly skeptical about letting people use Sequential Charm Disruption with it but figure there's enough ways around it.
God Ways
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None
and ZUO GU
The character steps into an object or person, displacing its natural spirit with his Essence manipulations as easily as a master of legermain might steal a mortal's coat. The character's player rolls Charisma + Martial Arts against a difficulty equal to the Essence of the Exalt's target - the body he wants to steal or the god or least god of the thing he wishes to possess. The target's player can spend a point of willpower to make a willpower roll difficulty equal to the martial artist's Essence once on each of the martial artist's action ticks to regain control over her body. As a restriction, the character may not possess any entity with a size greater than her Essence in yards in its largest dimension.
In the meantime, the character's body dematerializes and fades into her stolen form. She may move and take Martial Arts actions through her stolen flesh, using her own Physical Attributes or those of her stolen form, if they are higher (inanimate objects usually have 0s in all Physical Attributes). This Charm imbues any stolen form with supernatural flexibility and mobility - possessed trees can attack and unattended ox-carts can charge. Attacks that strike dematerialized entities damage the character's dematerialized self as well as her stolen form. Otherwise, she suffers no ill effects from having her possessed body damaged or destroyed.
The character cannot possess soulsteel. She can only possess objects made of other Magical Materials if she knows the style's Charm for emulating that Magical Material.
Editor's Note: I made ejecting the Sidereal more difficult. If you're caught without shaping defenses on an attack that costs more than 8m you deserve what you get.
[Exalt] [Caste] Ways
Cost: 5m, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None
and YOU PAN
The character strikes his throat, abdomen, spine, brow and crown chakras, forcibly reshaping his Essence and altering how his anima interacts with this world. This Charm allows the character to mimic the anima banner and anima effects of one other type and caste of Exalted. This Charm temporarily replaces the character's anima banner. This charm can never allow the character to learn charms she otherwise could not, for instance by mimicking the Eclipse Caste’s anima. Select one Caste when you first purchase this charm, and other castes may be added at the cost of 4xp each but you may only activate one [Exalt] [Caste] Ways at a time.
Editor's Note: Made learning new castes much cheaper, made the duration indefinite, and removed the limitation on caste marks so it can be used for disguises.
Games of Divinity Form
Cost: 10m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Emotion, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: God Ways, Exalt Ways
and WU JI
The character adopts the attitude and posture of the spirit courts, moving with the infinite baroque complexity necessary to the management of Creation. Directed by the four powers of her mind - aspiration, effort, intention and analysis - the whole of her Essence flows as one. Simultaneously, even the smallest mote of her being directs itself toward managing its own affairs.
Though no imperfect creature can truly master it, this Form has a perfect beauty to it. Anyone who does not know this charm immediately forms an unnatural, inviolable positive intimacy of addiction towards it unless they spend a number of points of willpower equal to half the character’s Essence, to a maximum of 5. If this intimacy is eroded, it attempts to re-assert itself every time the character sleeps—the perfect beauty dominating their dreams.
A character with the intimacy of addiction cannot harm someone using this Form-Type charm unless they fail a compassion roll. Once they fail a number of such compassion rolls equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence they may attack the martial artist freely. The long-term addiction effect can be broken by Charms such as Transcendent Hero Meditation or other effects that shatter long-term Compulsions or by, of course, learning this charm herself.
Editor's Note: There's a couple of ways to defend against this charm, but if you don't--it's difficult to get over it. As a fun side-effect your allies can't be mind-controlled into attacking you.
Demesne Emulation Practice
Cost: 7m, 1w, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and KAO
Tugging gently on the flows of Essence around him, the character forms herself into a nexus, a convergence point through which power pours. While this Charm is active, each of the character's successful unarmed attacks that would apply at least one level of damage in step 10 convert one of those levels of damage to aggravated. The character's hand upon an enemy's chest burns him with raw Essence, her elbow in his ear fills her head with Essence lightning, and her foot against his knee is as terribly cold as the Essence of a saltwater siren's heart.
Editor's Note: Had to simplify this to be compatible with the new system. Multiple applications of damage is hax.
Demesne and Manse Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Demesne Emulation Practice
and CHUNG TING!
The character adopts the stately grandeur of a temple and radiates the ancient power of a Manse. She can now properly channel and constrain the raw Essence flow that the Demesne Emulation Practice feeds into her, coalescing it around her Caste Mark into a level 5 hearthstone set in her brow. This hearthstone only exists while the character is using Demesne and Manse Form. While using this Form, the character receives the hearthstone's benefits, as if it were set into an artifact. Treat major changes to the character's personality (on the same magnitude as changing her Motivation) as architectural alterations to a Manse for the purposes of altering the hearthstone, adjusting hearthstone abilities appropriately.
As a final benefit, upon activating this form the martial artist gains (Essence x10) attunement motes as her hearthstone serves to power her artifacts. She may substitute motes from this surge to substitute a Hearthstone required to power an artifact on a 10 per 1-dot basis. Upon de-activating this charm all attunement motes are lost as though the scene had ended.
Editor's Note: Here's the thing, for 15 XP I get the same hearthstone, a manse (all those awesome benefits), and great essence regeneration. I wanted this charm to not look like a foolish speed-bump by comparison. In that vein, I lowered the cost and made it grant a hax number of attunement motes. This is at least partial balanced by the fact that one of the forms in this tree basically replaces your equipment anyways.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
Cost: 10m 1w; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Four Magical Materials Form, Soul Fire Shaper Form, Games of Divinity Form, Demesne and Manse Form
The Elder Sutra of Essence: The last maiden's name was TAO. These were their names, but they knew them not.
As she assumes this Form, the character vanishes into the flows of Essence around her. For a long moment, she is nowhere and everywhere, embodied in the dance of all things. Then, she manifests again, in every movement consummately aware of everything around her, reacting to intentions before they are formed, actions before they are taken and to the battle as a whole as easily as to a single blow.
Activating this Charm causes the character to vanish until her DV refreshes. While in this state, she may not be affected by any externally applied effect that requires her to be present. While the Charm remains active, the character is automatically aware of every attack against her and is immune to sensory penalties. She can sense every effect, object and creature within (Essence x10) yards, and adds her Essence in automatic successes to rolls to reveal hidden things within this radius.
The Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is transcendent and accepts other Forms as lesser parts of itself. While the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is active, the character may have more than one Form-type Charm active, as an exception to the rules governing Form-type Charms, detailed as follows: All four of this Form's prerequisite Forms may remain active along with the main Form. Form-type Charms not part of this Style may also benefit, but any use of out of style Forms limits the character to two total Form-type Charms in addition to Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form. While multiple Form-type Charms are active, any form weapons of any of the Forms' styles are considered form weapons for all of them. This is a specific benefit of the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form and not a general rule.
In addition, the character may choose to reflexively activate allowed sub-Forms as part of the activation of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
The Student's Sutra of Essence: Once, there were maidens...
Deadly Starmetal Offensive
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
...and their names were JI
The character infuses her fingernails with Essence, hardening them, sharpening them, lengthening them into bweapons - and, most importantly, causing them to bend, influence and predict the path of fate in the manner of starmetal. While this Charm is active, the character’s unarmed attacks gain a minimum damage of 3 and the O tag, may parry lethal attacks without a stunt, and may re-roll the damage roll in step 8 whenever she attacks, taking the higher of the two results.
Editor's Note: I changed this one because Blade of the Battle Maiden makes the character's hands a Starmetal Daiklave. I felt this charm should be both different and synergistic.
Orichalcum Sheathing Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins:Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type:Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords:Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and PENG
The character wraps her body in a sheath of Essence, mirroring in its interaction with her own anima the link between Solar Exalted and orichalcum. While this Charm is active, the character is considered to be wearing orichalcum armor with the martial artist’s (Essence + Martial Arts+2) Bashing and Lethal Soak, (Stamina+Martial Arts)/2+5 Hardness, a -0 Mobility Penalty, and a 0 Fatigue Penalty. Further, the martial artist subtracts 1 from any attack’s minimum damage (minimum of 1) and 2 from the damage of any environmental effect (minimum of 0). The armor provided by this charm is compatible with all martial arts, even those normally not compatible with armor. However, the benefits of this charm count as equipment and the rules for stacking equipment apply to it.
Editor's Note: Made the soak scale. At E5, MA5, STM 5 you're looking at up to 12 Soak, 11 Hardness from armor which is still worse than just getting Superheavy Plate. At E10, MA10, STM10 you're looking at 22 Soak and 21 Hardness. This does stealthily, effectively have every magical material bonus applied.
Flickering Moonsilver Approach
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and LU
The character traces patterns through the air that echo the slippery, mutable ways in which moonsilver twists the flows of Essence around it. Opponents cannot precisely determine the character's location: she may cause her attacks to originate from any point within (her Essence x5) yards. Such attacks impose a -2 penalty to the defender's PDV, on top of ignoring all cover bonuses to DV.
Editor's Note: No longer ignores shields, and a change in wording allows for better stunting IMO, without altering the mechanics any.
Five Jade Fury
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and ZHOU
The character binds the substance of Creation to her Essence, shifting into a pattern of attacks that radiates the elemental authority of jade. Each gives a gift, which applies only to unarmed Martial Arts attacks. Her blows can be bashing or lethal, as she chooses, reflecting the compassion and conviction of green jade. The grace of black jade steers her attacks well: she adds 2 to the Accuracy and Defense values. The reliability of white jade ensures reasonable damage: she adds 3 to her Damage value. The force of blue jade grants her weapon the Piercing tag. Finally, the swiftness of red jade adds 1 to her weapon's Rate and -1 to its Speed. The benefits of this charm count as a Magical Material bonus and the appropriate rules for stacking apply.
Editor's Note: You effectively add every magical material bonus to your attacks. Balanced by the fact that, without other charms, you're still using your Punch's stats. It results in a Speed 4, Acc +4, Damage +3L, Defense +3, Rate 5 weapon with piercing. With Blade of the Battle Maiden this results in a Speed 4, Acc +4, Damage +8L/2, Defense +4, Rate 5 weapon with piercing. This is a nice, general weapon but nothing compared to the better artifact weapons.
Four Magical Materials Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Deadly Starmetal Offensive, Orichalcum Sheathing Stance, Flickering Moonsilver Approach, Five Jade Fury
and HOU TUI
The character attunes herself to the Essence of the world, drawing on the flows of interwoven fates, raw power, progressive change and elemental stability that play out all around her. In this fashion, while she maintains the Form, she becomes a living artifact. This Form does not mimic the Essence of soulsteel.
When using this Form, the character automatically and reflexively activates all four prerequisite stances as part of the Form activation for no cost. In addition, she becomes unbreakable, becoming immune to Crippling effects, unless the effect could damage the Five Magical Materials.
Editor's Note: No change, moving on.
Charm Redirection Technique
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and AN
The character learns to catch, tangle and throw the Essence flows of Charms as if they were the flailing limbs of her hapless flows. This Charm may be invoked in Step 2 in response to a Charm-enhanced attack. The martial artist immediately rolls their (Essence + Martial Arts) against a difficulty of the attacker’s Essence. If successful, they perfectly parry the attack and another character in range of the attack is immediately made the new target for the attack, starting in Step 2. The activation roll for this charm is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.
Editor's Note: This one was a pain to balance. It's effectively an expensive PD with a bad flaw that doubles as a redirect. It's powerful, but expensive--hopefully I struck the right balance?
Sequential Charm Disruption
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Charm Redirection Technique
and CAI
This Charm expands on the principle of Charm Redirection Technique. Rather than redirecting the essence flows, this charm instead disrupts them. The martial artist may immediately cancel one or more charms used on the attack against them for the duration of that attack. If more than one offensive charm is canceled, add a +2m, +1wp surcharge to this charm. If an Excellency is canceled, add a +5m surcharge to the charm. Rather than cancel a charm with a duration longer than instant for just one attack, a charm may be completely canceled as a shaping effect by adding the cost of the canceled charm as a surcharge to this one. The cost of canceled charms is still paid. This effect may not cancel Form-type Charms, Extra Action charms or charms with a minimum essence higher than the martial artist’s permanent Essence.
Editor's Note: This charm is an odd duck. It's not quite a perfect defense but it might as well be. Late-step offensive charms bypass it, but other than that it's a psuedo-perfect that can be powered by overdrive. That's why it's as expensive, if not moreso, than a normal perfect defense.
Spell-Shattering Palm
Cost: 5m per Circle or (Minimum Essence of a Sorcerous Charm)*3m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and LI
The character uses martial arts to yank the threads of a delicate construct of sorcery out of place. This charm allows the character to make Martial Arts attacks or defenses against sorcery, similar to countermagic. Used on the offense this modifies an unarmed strike, you must target the manifestation or center of the spell—such as the character benefiting, the spirit summoned, or the approximate center for spells like Rain of Doom. Spells that do not otherwise have a stated DV have a DV of (Circle)*4 or (Minimum Essence)*2 for Sorcerous Charms. If you defeat the DV by at least the Sorcerer’s (Essence)/2 than the effect is shattered as though struck by the appropriate level of countermagic.
Used defensively, this charms functions as defensive countermagic of the spell’s circle if the character’s PDV exceeds the caster’s Essence + Twice the Spell’s Circle or the caster’s Essence + The Sorcerous Charm’s Minimum Essence. This requirement is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability when used defensively.
Editor's Note: I tried to bring this in line with Magic-Shattering Palm and the Lunar equivalent, rather than bringing it in line with Adamant Circle Countermagic. It's occasionally cheaper, but you don't regain motes for success. I notably didn't use a mote-regaining mechanic because it can be made free/cheap with Overdrive and the form-charm.
Astrology Interruption Method
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
and HUA JI
The character uses her education in the nature of fate in conjunction with her martial skill to disjoint, snarl and otherwise tangle the fates the spiders weave. By lightly striking the target in the five points where the threads of the Loom of Fate attach, the character can negate Sidereal astrological effects. She must make a successful Martial Arts attack against the target. If she succeeds with threshold successes exceeding the Essence + College of the Sidereal that created the effect, the effect is dangerously torn or frayed, and the pattern spiders abandon it.
Editor's Note: It's cheaper now! Please use it? But seriously... >_> Also, added the Touch Keyword.
Soul Fire Shaper Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Overdrive, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Charm Disruption Technique, Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, Astrology Interruption Method
and QIAN JING
The character balances her actions so perfectly to the local flow of Essence that the world around her cannot help but support her victory, regardless of whether she stands in Creation, Malfeas or the Underworld.
While using the Soul Fire Shaper Form, consider the Exalt's permanent Essence to be five higher than her current Essence for the purposes of resolving Charm conflicts and interacting with her enemy’s charm effects. She is unaffected by any condition or effect that would negatively impact her Essence pool or recovery, including but not limited to environmental factors such as being in the Underworld as a native of Creation, or hostile effects such as Charms that would prevent her from regaining motes in combat.
In addition, the character gains an Overdrive Pool of 10 motes while this charm is active. Every time your DV refreshes while using this form, roll a number of dice equal to the highest minimum essence of any non-Sidereal Martial Art charm used by another character since the last time your DV refreshed and gain 1 offensive mote per success.
Finally, the martial artist also gains one free use of Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, or Astrology Interruption Method every time his DV refreshes. Any effects, including surcharges that increase the cost of those charms increases it from a base cost of 0m, 0wp.
Editor's Note: A bunch of minor tweaks here. Instead of increasing one's mote pool it uses an overdrive mechanic. since PAoC is the general and buff Sid MA I made the refill mechanic general and pretty good. I modified what the +Ess applies to slightly and you can't use Charm Redirection with it anymore. I'm honestly skeptical about letting people use Sequential Charm Disruption with it but figure there's enough ways around it.
God Ways
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None
and ZUO GU
The character steps into an object or person, displacing its natural spirit with his Essence manipulations as easily as a master of legermain might steal a mortal's coat. The character's player rolls Charisma + Martial Arts against a difficulty equal to the Essence of the Exalt's target - the body he wants to steal or the god or least god of the thing he wishes to possess. The target's player can spend a point of willpower to make a willpower roll difficulty equal to the martial artist's Essence once on each of the martial artist's action ticks to regain control over her body. As a restriction, the character may not possess any entity with a size greater than her Essence in yards in its largest dimension.
In the meantime, the character's body dematerializes and fades into her stolen form. She may move and take Martial Arts actions through her stolen flesh, using her own Physical Attributes or those of her stolen form, if they are higher (inanimate objects usually have 0s in all Physical Attributes). This Charm imbues any stolen form with supernatural flexibility and mobility - possessed trees can attack and unattended ox-carts can charge. Attacks that strike dematerialized entities damage the character's dematerialized self as well as her stolen form. Otherwise, she suffers no ill effects from having her possessed body damaged or destroyed.
The character cannot possess soulsteel. She can only possess objects made of other Magical Materials if she knows the style's Charm for emulating that Magical Material.
Editor's Note: I made ejecting the Sidereal more difficult. If you're caught without shaping defenses on an attack that costs more than 8m you deserve what you get.
[Exalt] [Caste] Ways
Cost: 5m, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None
and YOU PAN
The character strikes his throat, abdomen, spine, brow and crown chakras, forcibly reshaping his Essence and altering how his anima interacts with this world. This Charm allows the character to mimic the anima banner and anima effects of one other type and caste of Exalted. This Charm temporarily replaces the character's anima banner. This charm can never allow the character to learn charms she otherwise could not, for instance by mimicking the Eclipse Caste’s anima. Select one Caste when you first purchase this charm, and other castes may be added at the cost of 4xp each but you may only activate one [Exalt] [Caste] Ways at a time.
Editor's Note: Made learning new castes much cheaper, made the duration indefinite, and removed the limitation on caste marks so it can be used for disguises.
Games of Divinity Form
Cost: 10m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Emotion, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: God Ways, Exalt Ways
and WU JI
The character adopts the attitude and posture of the spirit courts, moving with the infinite baroque complexity necessary to the management of Creation. Directed by the four powers of her mind - aspiration, effort, intention and analysis - the whole of her Essence flows as one. Simultaneously, even the smallest mote of her being directs itself toward managing its own affairs.
Though no imperfect creature can truly master it, this Form has a perfect beauty to it. Anyone who does not know this charm immediately forms an unnatural, inviolable positive intimacy of addiction towards it unless they spend a number of points of willpower equal to half the character’s Essence, to a maximum of 5. If this intimacy is eroded, it attempts to re-assert itself every time the character sleeps—the perfect beauty dominating their dreams.
A character with the intimacy of addiction cannot harm someone using this Form-Type charm unless they fail a compassion roll. Once they fail a number of such compassion rolls equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence they may attack the martial artist freely. The long-term addiction effect can be broken by Charms such as Transcendent Hero Meditation or other effects that shatter long-term Compulsions or by, of course, learning this charm herself.
Editor's Note: There's a couple of ways to defend against this charm, but if you don't--it's difficult to get over it. As a fun side-effect your allies can't be mind-controlled into attacking you.
Demesne Emulation Practice
Cost: 7m, 1w, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None
and KAO
Tugging gently on the flows of Essence around him, the character forms herself into a nexus, a convergence point through which power pours. While this Charm is active, each of the character's successful unarmed attacks that would apply at least one level of damage in step 10 convert one of those levels of damage to aggravated. The character's hand upon an enemy's chest burns him with raw Essence, her elbow in his ear fills her head with Essence lightning, and her foot against his knee is as terribly cold as the Essence of a saltwater siren's heart.
Editor's Note: Had to simplify this to be compatible with the new system. Multiple applications of damage is hax.
Demesne and Manse Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Demesne Emulation Practice
and CHUNG TING!
The character adopts the stately grandeur of a temple and radiates the ancient power of a Manse. She can now properly channel and constrain the raw Essence flow that the Demesne Emulation Practice feeds into her, coalescing it around her Caste Mark into a level 5 hearthstone set in her brow. This hearthstone only exists while the character is using Demesne and Manse Form. While using this Form, the character receives the hearthstone's benefits, as if it were set into an artifact. Treat major changes to the character's personality (on the same magnitude as changing her Motivation) as architectural alterations to a Manse for the purposes of altering the hearthstone, adjusting hearthstone abilities appropriately.
As a final benefit, upon activating this form the martial artist gains (Essence x10) attunement motes as her hearthstone serves to power her artifacts. She may substitute motes from this surge to substitute a Hearthstone required to power an artifact on a 10 per 1-dot basis. Upon de-activating this charm all attunement motes are lost as though the scene had ended.
Editor's Note: Here's the thing, for 15 XP I get the same hearthstone, a manse (all those awesome benefits), and great essence regeneration. I wanted this charm to not look like a foolish speed-bump by comparison. In that vein, I lowered the cost and made it grant a hax number of attunement motes. This is at least partial balanced by the fact that one of the forms in this tree basically replaces your equipment anyways.
Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
Cost: 10m 1w; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Four Magical Materials Form, Soul Fire Shaper Form, Games of Divinity Form, Demesne and Manse Form
The Elder Sutra of Essence: The last maiden's name was TAO. These were their names, but they knew them not.
As she assumes this Form, the character vanishes into the flows of Essence around her. For a long moment, she is nowhere and everywhere, embodied in the dance of all things. Then, she manifests again, in every movement consummately aware of everything around her, reacting to intentions before they are formed, actions before they are taken and to the battle as a whole as easily as to a single blow.
Activating this Charm causes the character to vanish until her DV refreshes. While in this state, she may not be affected by any externally applied effect that requires her to be present. While the Charm remains active, the character is automatically aware of every attack against her and is immune to sensory penalties. She can sense every effect, object and creature within (Essence x10) yards, and adds her Essence in automatic successes to rolls to reveal hidden things within this radius.
The Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is transcendent and accepts other Forms as lesser parts of itself. While the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is active, the character may have more than one Form-type Charm active, as an exception to the rules governing Form-type Charms, detailed as follows: All four of this Form's prerequisite Forms may remain active along with the main Form. Form-type Charms not part of this Style may also benefit, but any use of out of style Forms limits the character to two total Form-type Charms in addition to Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form. While multiple Form-type Charms are active, any form weapons of any of the Forms' styles are considered form weapons for all of them. This is a specific benefit of the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form and not a general rule.
In addition, the character may choose to reflexively activate allowed sub-Forms as part of the activation of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
Weapons and Armor: This style treats as unarmed attacks those made with fan, sash, cape and rope. Without appropriate reinforcement (as a war fan or rope dart), such weapons are rarely useful. Some have artifact equivalents, like the fate ring or forms of magical clothing. Most clothing and similar things are too flimsy to serve as weapons for this style, but those that are specially weighted (usually at negligible increased cost) can serve as improvised weapons that are compatible with the style. They generally have Speed 6, Accuracy -3, Damage +0B to +4B, Defense -2, Rate 2. Many carry the ‘R’ tag.
There is a thaumaturgical ritual from the Art of Enchantment known as Careful Master Peacock Attire (2, Intelligence, 3, One week) that is often used to reinforce clothing for use with this style. It transforms ordinary clothing of any quality into subtle protective gear that gives its wearer +1L/1B armor soak that stacks with standard forms of armor but not similar sources of soak (such as steelsilk clothing, which is a suitable artifact substitute). Clothing or other objects so enchanted are sturdy enough to be used at least as improvised weapons that are compatible with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style’s Charms. Increasing their Artifact or Resources cost by one allows them to be used as real weapons, eliminating the Accuracy penalty their equivalent improvised version would suffer.
This style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Dreaming Pearl Courtesans must have at least one dot in either Performance or Presence as well as one dot in Socialize.
Demure Carp Feint
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The distracting beauty of the martial artist’s hand gestures and flashing fans make it difficult to bring oneself to strike her and, even when violence is sought, to strike true. This Charm can only be used when the character can validly apply her own Martial Arts-based Parry DV with an unarmed free hand or with a form weapon of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. It grants her a cover bonus to DV equal to the Defense trait of her weapon. This does not count as a dice bonus from Charms and this bonus is based only on the Defense of the weapon in question, not any external bonuses that may increase the weapon’s Defense like Perfected Kata Bracers. Magical material bonuses and the like are not external bonuses. If a weapon’s Defense is 1 or less, this Charm’s distracting kata still provides a cover bonus of +2.
Pearlescent Filigree Defense
Cost: 1m per +1L/2B soak; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Captivating as baubles and precious treasures, still the shining beetle carapace and oil-slick, rainbow surface of cabochons are impenetrable and sturdy. Activating this Charm, the stylist adopts this same combination of fortitude and sparkling countenance, a prismatic sheen falling over his skin and clothing to turn aside blows and amaze onlookers. Every mote spent on this Charm increases his natural soak by +1L/2B for the rest of the scene, up to a maximum of (Martial Arts) motes.
Lethal Paper Fan Attack
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Leaving behind a white cloud of afterimages in the air, the martial artist’s attacks are fierce and fast, even with “weapons” like clothing. The world shivers with the cutting precision of the martial artist. Used to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts attack, this Charm reduces its Speed by one, to a minimum of 3, and raises the weapon’s Accuracy to +0 if it would be lower. If the weapon already has Accuracy +0 or higher, this Charm adds one to its Accuracy.
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack
The Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is the center of attention, always accompanied by fluttering allies. When adopting this form the character releases up to (Essence) weapons that are form weapons of this style (not her own hands or feet, of course). They float in the air, surrounding her like a gossiping crowd. As long as one such weapon flies free, the martial artist may make a single, reflexive unarmed Martial Arts attack every action tick, but only with one of the flying weapons.
An attack that successfully inflicts at least one level of damage to the martial artist may also knock one of her accessories out of the air, the attacker sacrificing one level of damage to do so. This causes no permanent harm to the prop, but without reactivating this Charm the weapons no longer flies nor counts for the bonuses provided by this Charm.
In social combat, these floating accessories help to emphasize the martial artist’s intentions. She gains extra dice on Performance- and Presence-based social attacks equal to the number of weapons flying around her. The weapons flit about, acting out, twisting, moving the air and framing the character’s face and actions to call attention to her points as she desires.
While this Form Charm is active, it also enhances the use of its prerequisite Charms in the following ways:
• Demure Carp Feint: On the tick the martial artist activates Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and until her next action tick, she may activate Demure Carp Feint as if it were not a Charm. By reflexively paying a two-mote surcharge, the martial artist may do so again after having already activated this Form. The Charm also gains the Social keyword while this Form Charm is active, allowing it to apply its DV bonus as bonus dice to shield the user’s motivations (Exalted, p. 131) and to enhance Socialize rolls to set up an unexpected social attack. These social combat options do count as a dice bonus from Charms.
• Pearlescent Filigree Defense: The soak bonus provided by this Charm increases to +2L/3B per mote. Every two motes spent on the Charm also increases the character’s Appearance for the scene, but only to a maximum of (Essence) additional dots. No combination of Charms that includes this one may increase Appearance by more than a total of (Essence) dots, and dice provided this way count as a Charm bonus.
• Lethal Paper Fan Attack: If a weapon’s Accuracy would be less than +0, it rises to +1. If it is already +0 or higher, it is increased by +2. Taking advantage of this benefit increases the Charm’s cost by one mote and is optional. This same surcharge may be applied to give the Charm the Social keyword, allowing it to further emphasize the points made by the martial artist’s flying weapons. This enhances a Presence- or Performance-based social attack, making it unnatural influence that costs one Willpower to ignore as the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s words cut truer and deeper with her showy emphasis.
Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
Cost: 2m per weapon, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, at least one of which must be made with the character’s own hands or a held weapon. The others may be made with her hands, feet or held items, or by the flying weapons that surround a martial artist who has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. Attacks made with flying weapons can validly target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away.
The attacks made with this Charm ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate, and impose a DV penalty equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry.
Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack using the character’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool to respond to an attack against him. The martial artist must have successfully parried the attack. If he has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and has at least one floating weapon available, he may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as much as (Essence) yards away; otherwise, this is a close combat Charm. It may have one of two effects:
• Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them in response. This follows all the rules found on Exalted, p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on his attack roll. This is an Instant effect.
• Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold them. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains within (Essence) yards of his foe and commits motes to this Charm. Every six ticks after initiating it he reflexively maintains the clinch with ([Dexterity + Martial Arts] ÷ 2) successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms.
He may not maintain more of these grapples than he has flying weapons as per Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, and each grapple reduces by one the number of weapons considered for the effects and bonuses of the Form Charm. A foe that gains control of the clinch can only respond by ending the clinch normally. If the flying prop used for the grapple is attacked and destroyed or knocked out of orbit, the associated clinch ends immediately.
Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book
Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Emotion, Shaping, Social
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
With a word and perhaps a rude gesture, a secret properly revealed might leave even the most confident exposed and unmanned. Having gotten to know a foe, the martial artist can now embarrass him. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite, adding the following response options:
• Successfully striking the aggressor does not inflict damage. Instead, the target makes a reflexive roll of (Wits + [Dodge or Larceny]) against a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s threshold successes on the counterattack. If the target fails, the straps and buckles loosen on their armor and their bulwark flies from them as they try in vain to evade the counterattack, depriving them of the benefit of their armor as it comically slumps across their shoulders and down their knees. This is equally effective against mundane and magical armor, but it can only remove one source of armor soak at a time. A character may resituate their armor and regain its benefits with a number of consecutive miscellaneous actions equal to its mobility penalty (minimum one), which cannot be flurried.
If the target benefits from armor soak from Charms, these become Obvious in nature to the martial artist. Instead of stripping the target of the physical armor that hangs from his frame she may flense his spirit with derisive laughter, forcing one of the target’s armor soak-providing Charms to prematurely end as if the target canceled it. This is a Shaping effect.
• In social combat, the Charm can be used to respond to a social attack with a saucy slap to the behind (with or without the aid of a long, weighted sleeve) or even just a knowing look that tells everyone how transparent the target is. This is still resolved like a physical counterattack, but if it successfully hits the target must roll their Temperance at a difficulty of half the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s Essence. If they fail this roll, the target suffers a -2 internal penalty to all social actions, reflexive or not, for the rest of the scene. Overcoming this unnatural emotion costs two Willpower.
Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
There is only so much room around the star of the show, and so there is always competition to fill that space. Those left out of the running are heartbroken, neither savvy nor lucky enough to spend time with the martial artist. This Charm is activated with a (Manipulation + Martial Arts) roll, adding extra dice equal to the character’s Performance. Those whose MDV is lower than the martial artist’s successes are helplessly entranced by his posture, his movements, his mere presence.
This unnatural emotion imposes a -1 internal penalty to an affected character’s actions that do not reflect such feelings, such as paying close attention to other tasks or even defending oneself. The penalty increases to -3 when performing actions directly contrary to infatuation with the martial artist, such as attacking the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan or attempting to leave her presence. This lack of self-control lapses for (target’s Temperance) actions if the martial artist attacks a given target, and it may be ignored completely for two Willpower for the rest of the scene. This cost rises to three Willpower if the target already has a positive Intimacy to the martial artist when the Charm is activated.
The infatuation of this Charm lasts as long as a character can see the martial artist. When the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is out of sight, it does not fade but instead transforms into longing melancholy to recapture the vision of one so lovely. It is otherwise dealt with in the same manner, inflicting penalties and resistible with Willpower expenditure as above.
Seven Storms Escape Prana
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Giving ground before opposition, the martial artist gains a new position from which to respond. Such canny strategy is as much a defense, and as admirable, as remaining a bulwark and standing one’s ground. This Charm is activated in response to an attack either physical or social, the martial artist exhaling a small cloud of murky, blue smoke and disappearing in a flurry of sleeves, fans, gestures and polite nods. The character disappears and reappears up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The martial artist may only reappear in a place that she can see and could currently reach with any number of valid Move actions. This Charm fails to activate if the martial artist attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.
When the martial artist activates this Charm and sacrifices a valid, readied (in hand or floating nearby with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form) in-style weapon to serve as a distraction, she may roll her (Manipulation + [Stealth or Socialize]), adding her Essence as extra successes. Leaving behind a torn sleeve or crumpled fan, the martial artist is nowhere to be found, having slipped into hiding as per a valid Stealth or Socialize action to conceal one’s location and intentions. The martial artist rolls Stealth in physical combat or Socialize in social combat. She may even hide when there is no valid cover, her foes dumbly losing track of her, but in this case she remains concealed only for two ticks.
This Charm does not help to defend against the attack to which it responds, though if that attack is part of a flurry it may render her an invalid target for the rest of the flurry. Obviously, this Charm does not render her an invalid target if she remains visible and within range of the attacker, but whether using Stealth or Socialize it can be equally effective at hiding her from a bone-breaking assault or a withering argument.
Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious, Shaping, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book, Seven Storms Escape Prana
Sidereal scholars who study this style make many conjectures on the nature of beauty and enchantment. If the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan reflects on the desires of the world as a whole, whence do these aesthetics come? Even the alien perspectives of the Primordials seem orthogonal to the nature of the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension. Activation of this Charm begins a physical transformation which occurs over time, from the tick it begins to when the character’s DV refreshes. The martial artist lifts into the air, too delicate to touch the ground. His body elongates, taking on the natural, powerful shape of a dragon, covered in iridescent scales. His eyes distend and warp to form perfect teardrops of burning sapphire, searing blue runnels dripping from them to mark their hundred-and-one duplicates trailing down either side of the character’s sinuous body. Instead of a dragon’s head, the martial artist’s thins and stretches into a gold-beaked foal’s head, crowned with four endlessly twisting antlers that dance like smoke in the wind. For each dot of his permanent Essence, the character’s new body possesses a pair of barbed carp fins. These float lazily within a few inches of where one might expect them to belong on such an alluring alien form.
When the character activates this Charm, he may reflexively and simultaneously activate Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form by paying its cost. The shining rainbow scales of the character’s new body affords him an armor soak of 8L/12B and 4L/4B Hardness. He may substitute his permanent Essence for his Appearance rating as if it were his natural Attribute rating for the duration of the Charm. He loses his normal appendages, but the beak and fins serve largely the same purposes despite their odd appearance. These natural weapons of the Ascension body have the statistics listed below. In addition, the character’s fins are valid weapons to be levitated into the air around him by his Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. They may be knocked out of alignment like other flying weapons, but this merely deprives the Form Charm of their use, it does not remove them from the martial artist. They may be left behind to conceal the character using Seven Storms Escape Prana, in which case this does count as a Crippling amputation that removes the fin permanently (or until this Charm is ended and reactivated).
The character’s gear disappears Elsewhere for the duration, though necessary equipment may be called back to rest daintily atop a fin by paying one mote and taking a miscellaneous action to draw it forth. These appendages offer no hardship in holding, manipulating or caressing the world around the martial artist.
Though tales may be told of the Ascension body’s physical perfection, its beauty touches something deeper than simple visual aesthetics and transcends all known boundaries. The first time in a scene anyone with Dodge MDV less than (martial artist’s [Martial Arts + Essence]) sees, hears, feels or smells the martial artist, they are subject to an unnatural emotion that instills in them an Intimacy of heartaching appreciation for the wonderment that is the Ascension. This Intimacy cannot be suppressed or eroded until after the scene ends, though it may be rejected initially for two Willpower, rendering a character immune to this effect from any source for the rest of the scene.
The mystical advantages of this form can run to cruder ends, too. A character who has adopted the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension body treats the Type of Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as Reflexive (Step 2) rather than Simple. In addition, he reduces the total cost of activating any other Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Charms (including the Form) by one mote, to a minimum of one.
Beak: Speed 5, Accuracy +1, Damage +2L, Defense -2, Rate 3, Tags: NP
Fin: Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L, Defense +2, Rate 1, Tags: NR*
Coils: Speed 6, Accuracy +4, Damage +4B, Defense –, Rate 2, Tags: CNP
* Each fin is a separate weapon, and the character receives (Essence x 2) fins, so despite their low Rate they can be used to flurry many attacks.
There is a thaumaturgical ritual from the Art of Enchantment known as Careful Master Peacock Attire (2, Intelligence, 3, One week) that is often used to reinforce clothing for use with this style. It transforms ordinary clothing of any quality into subtle protective gear that gives its wearer +1L/1B armor soak that stacks with standard forms of armor but not similar sources of soak (such as steelsilk clothing, which is a suitable artifact substitute). Clothing or other objects so enchanted are sturdy enough to be used at least as improvised weapons that are compatible with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style’s Charms. Increasing their Artifact or Resources cost by one allows them to be used as real weapons, eliminating the Accuracy penalty their equivalent improvised version would suffer.
This style is incompatible with armor.
Complementary Abilities: Dreaming Pearl Courtesans must have at least one dot in either Performance or Presence as well as one dot in Socialize.
Demure Carp Feint
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The distracting beauty of the martial artist’s hand gestures and flashing fans make it difficult to bring oneself to strike her and, even when violence is sought, to strike true. This Charm can only be used when the character can validly apply her own Martial Arts-based Parry DV with an unarmed free hand or with a form weapon of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. It grants her a cover bonus to DV equal to the Defense trait of her weapon. This does not count as a dice bonus from Charms and this bonus is based only on the Defense of the weapon in question, not any external bonuses that may increase the weapon’s Defense like Perfected Kata Bracers. Magical material bonuses and the like are not external bonuses. If a weapon’s Defense is 1 or less, this Charm’s distracting kata still provides a cover bonus of +2.
Pearlescent Filigree Defense
Cost: 1m per +1L/2B soak; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Captivating as baubles and precious treasures, still the shining beetle carapace and oil-slick, rainbow surface of cabochons are impenetrable and sturdy. Activating this Charm, the stylist adopts this same combination of fortitude and sparkling countenance, a prismatic sheen falling over his skin and clothing to turn aside blows and amaze onlookers. Every mote spent on this Charm increases his natural soak by +1L/2B for the rest of the scene, up to a maximum of (Martial Arts) motes.
Lethal Paper Fan Attack
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Leaving behind a white cloud of afterimages in the air, the martial artist’s attacks are fierce and fast, even with “weapons” like clothing. The world shivers with the cutting precision of the martial artist. Used to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts attack, this Charm reduces its Speed by one, to a minimum of 3, and raises the weapon’s Accuracy to +0 if it would be lower. If the weapon already has Accuracy +0 or higher, this Charm adds one to its Accuracy.
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack
The Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is the center of attention, always accompanied by fluttering allies. When adopting this form the character releases up to (Essence) weapons that are form weapons of this style (not her own hands or feet, of course). They float in the air, surrounding her like a gossiping crowd. As long as one such weapon flies free, the martial artist may make a single, reflexive unarmed Martial Arts attack every action tick, but only with one of the flying weapons.
An attack that successfully inflicts at least one level of damage to the martial artist may also knock one of her accessories out of the air, the attacker sacrificing one level of damage to do so. This causes no permanent harm to the prop, but without reactivating this Charm the weapons no longer flies nor counts for the bonuses provided by this Charm.
In social combat, these floating accessories help to emphasize the martial artist’s intentions. She gains extra dice on Performance- and Presence-based social attacks equal to the number of weapons flying around her. The weapons flit about, acting out, twisting, moving the air and framing the character’s face and actions to call attention to her points as she desires.
While this Form Charm is active, it also enhances the use of its prerequisite Charms in the following ways:
• Demure Carp Feint: On the tick the martial artist activates Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and until her next action tick, she may activate Demure Carp Feint as if it were not a Charm. By reflexively paying a two-mote surcharge, the martial artist may do so again after having already activated this Form. The Charm also gains the Social keyword while this Form Charm is active, allowing it to apply its DV bonus as bonus dice to shield the user’s motivations (Exalted, p. 131) and to enhance Socialize rolls to set up an unexpected social attack. These social combat options do count as a dice bonus from Charms.
• Pearlescent Filigree Defense: The soak bonus provided by this Charm increases to +2L/3B per mote. Every two motes spent on the Charm also increases the character’s Appearance for the scene, but only to a maximum of (Essence) additional dots. No combination of Charms that includes this one may increase Appearance by more than a total of (Essence) dots, and dice provided this way count as a Charm bonus.
• Lethal Paper Fan Attack: If a weapon’s Accuracy would be less than +0, it rises to +1. If it is already +0 or higher, it is increased by +2. Taking advantage of this benefit increases the Charm’s cost by one mote and is optional. This same surcharge may be applied to give the Charm the Social keyword, allowing it to further emphasize the points made by the martial artist’s flying weapons. This enhances a Presence- or Performance-based social attack, making it unnatural influence that costs one Willpower to ignore as the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s words cut truer and deeper with her showy emphasis.
Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
Cost: 2m per weapon, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, at least one of which must be made with the character’s own hands or a held weapon. The others may be made with her hands, feet or held items, or by the flying weapons that surround a martial artist who has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. Attacks made with flying weapons can validly target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away.
The attacks made with this Charm ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate, and impose a DV penalty equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry.
Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack using the character’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool to respond to an attack against him. The martial artist must have successfully parried the attack. If he has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and has at least one floating weapon available, he may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as much as (Essence) yards away; otherwise, this is a close combat Charm. It may have one of two effects:
• Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them in response. This follows all the rules found on Exalted, p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on his attack roll. This is an Instant effect.
• Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold them. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains within (Essence) yards of his foe and commits motes to this Charm. Every six ticks after initiating it he reflexively maintains the clinch with ([Dexterity + Martial Arts] ÷ 2) successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms.
He may not maintain more of these grapples than he has flying weapons as per Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, and each grapple reduces by one the number of weapons considered for the effects and bonuses of the Form Charm. A foe that gains control of the clinch can only respond by ending the clinch normally. If the flying prop used for the grapple is attacked and destroyed or knocked out of orbit, the associated clinch ends immediately.
Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book
Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Emotion, Shaping, Social
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
With a word and perhaps a rude gesture, a secret properly revealed might leave even the most confident exposed and unmanned. Having gotten to know a foe, the martial artist can now embarrass him. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite, adding the following response options:
• Successfully striking the aggressor does not inflict damage. Instead, the target makes a reflexive roll of (Wits + [Dodge or Larceny]) against a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s threshold successes on the counterattack. If the target fails, the straps and buckles loosen on their armor and their bulwark flies from them as they try in vain to evade the counterattack, depriving them of the benefit of their armor as it comically slumps across their shoulders and down their knees. This is equally effective against mundane and magical armor, but it can only remove one source of armor soak at a time. A character may resituate their armor and regain its benefits with a number of consecutive miscellaneous actions equal to its mobility penalty (minimum one), which cannot be flurried.
If the target benefits from armor soak from Charms, these become Obvious in nature to the martial artist. Instead of stripping the target of the physical armor that hangs from his frame she may flense his spirit with derisive laughter, forcing one of the target’s armor soak-providing Charms to prematurely end as if the target canceled it. This is a Shaping effect.
• In social combat, the Charm can be used to respond to a social attack with a saucy slap to the behind (with or without the aid of a long, weighted sleeve) or even just a knowing look that tells everyone how transparent the target is. This is still resolved like a physical counterattack, but if it successfully hits the target must roll their Temperance at a difficulty of half the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s Essence. If they fail this roll, the target suffers a -2 internal penalty to all social actions, reflexive or not, for the rest of the scene. Overcoming this unnatural emotion costs two Willpower.
Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
There is only so much room around the star of the show, and so there is always competition to fill that space. Those left out of the running are heartbroken, neither savvy nor lucky enough to spend time with the martial artist. This Charm is activated with a (Manipulation + Martial Arts) roll, adding extra dice equal to the character’s Performance. Those whose MDV is lower than the martial artist’s successes are helplessly entranced by his posture, his movements, his mere presence.
This unnatural emotion imposes a -1 internal penalty to an affected character’s actions that do not reflect such feelings, such as paying close attention to other tasks or even defending oneself. The penalty increases to -3 when performing actions directly contrary to infatuation with the martial artist, such as attacking the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan or attempting to leave her presence. This lack of self-control lapses for (target’s Temperance) actions if the martial artist attacks a given target, and it may be ignored completely for two Willpower for the rest of the scene. This cost rises to three Willpower if the target already has a positive Intimacy to the martial artist when the Charm is activated.
The infatuation of this Charm lasts as long as a character can see the martial artist. When the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is out of sight, it does not fade but instead transforms into longing melancholy to recapture the vision of one so lovely. It is otherwise dealt with in the same manner, inflicting penalties and resistible with Willpower expenditure as above.
Seven Storms Escape Prana
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Giving ground before opposition, the martial artist gains a new position from which to respond. Such canny strategy is as much a defense, and as admirable, as remaining a bulwark and standing one’s ground. This Charm is activated in response to an attack either physical or social, the martial artist exhaling a small cloud of murky, blue smoke and disappearing in a flurry of sleeves, fans, gestures and polite nods. The character disappears and reappears up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The martial artist may only reappear in a place that she can see and could currently reach with any number of valid Move actions. This Charm fails to activate if the martial artist attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.
When the martial artist activates this Charm and sacrifices a valid, readied (in hand or floating nearby with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form) in-style weapon to serve as a distraction, she may roll her (Manipulation + [Stealth or Socialize]), adding her Essence as extra successes. Leaving behind a torn sleeve or crumpled fan, the martial artist is nowhere to be found, having slipped into hiding as per a valid Stealth or Socialize action to conceal one’s location and intentions. The martial artist rolls Stealth in physical combat or Socialize in social combat. She may even hide when there is no valid cover, her foes dumbly losing track of her, but in this case she remains concealed only for two ticks.
This Charm does not help to defend against the attack to which it responds, though if that attack is part of a flurry it may render her an invalid target for the rest of the flurry. Obviously, this Charm does not render her an invalid target if she remains visible and within range of the attacker, but whether using Stealth or Socialize it can be equally effective at hiding her from a bone-breaking assault or a withering argument.
Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious, Shaping, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book, Seven Storms Escape Prana
Sidereal scholars who study this style make many conjectures on the nature of beauty and enchantment. If the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan reflects on the desires of the world as a whole, whence do these aesthetics come? Even the alien perspectives of the Primordials seem orthogonal to the nature of the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension. Activation of this Charm begins a physical transformation which occurs over time, from the tick it begins to when the character’s DV refreshes. The martial artist lifts into the air, too delicate to touch the ground. His body elongates, taking on the natural, powerful shape of a dragon, covered in iridescent scales. His eyes distend and warp to form perfect teardrops of burning sapphire, searing blue runnels dripping from them to mark their hundred-and-one duplicates trailing down either side of the character’s sinuous body. Instead of a dragon’s head, the martial artist’s thins and stretches into a gold-beaked foal’s head, crowned with four endlessly twisting antlers that dance like smoke in the wind. For each dot of his permanent Essence, the character’s new body possesses a pair of barbed carp fins. These float lazily within a few inches of where one might expect them to belong on such an alluring alien form.
When the character activates this Charm, he may reflexively and simultaneously activate Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form by paying its cost. The shining rainbow scales of the character’s new body affords him an armor soak of 8L/12B and 4L/4B Hardness. He may substitute his permanent Essence for his Appearance rating as if it were his natural Attribute rating for the duration of the Charm. He loses his normal appendages, but the beak and fins serve largely the same purposes despite their odd appearance. These natural weapons of the Ascension body have the statistics listed below. In addition, the character’s fins are valid weapons to be levitated into the air around him by his Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. They may be knocked out of alignment like other flying weapons, but this merely deprives the Form Charm of their use, it does not remove them from the martial artist. They may be left behind to conceal the character using Seven Storms Escape Prana, in which case this does count as a Crippling amputation that removes the fin permanently (or until this Charm is ended and reactivated).
The character’s gear disappears Elsewhere for the duration, though necessary equipment may be called back to rest daintily atop a fin by paying one mote and taking a miscellaneous action to draw it forth. These appendages offer no hardship in holding, manipulating or caressing the world around the martial artist.
Though tales may be told of the Ascension body’s physical perfection, its beauty touches something deeper than simple visual aesthetics and transcends all known boundaries. The first time in a scene anyone with Dodge MDV less than (martial artist’s [Martial Arts + Essence]) sees, hears, feels or smells the martial artist, they are subject to an unnatural emotion that instills in them an Intimacy of heartaching appreciation for the wonderment that is the Ascension. This Intimacy cannot be suppressed or eroded until after the scene ends, though it may be rejected initially for two Willpower, rendering a character immune to this effect from any source for the rest of the scene.
The mystical advantages of this form can run to cruder ends, too. A character who has adopted the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension body treats the Type of Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as Reflexive (Step 2) rather than Simple. In addition, he reduces the total cost of activating any other Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Charms (including the Form) by one mote, to a minimum of one.
Beak: Speed 5, Accuracy +1, Damage +2L, Defense -2, Rate 3, Tags: NP
Fin: Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L, Defense +2, Rate 1, Tags: NR*
Coils: Speed 6, Accuracy +4, Damage +4B, Defense –, Rate 2, Tags: CNP
* Each fin is a separate weapon, and the character receives (Essence x 2) fins, so despite their low Rate they can be used to flurry many attacks.
Sherwood
Luna's Concubine
More CMAs to pick from, thanks to
Red Shadow Claws
Red Shadow Claws
Celestial Dragon Style
One of the most fearsome of the 12 Celestial Animal Styles, this style seeks to emulate the fearsome power of the Celestial Dragon. The Five Glorious Dragon Paths, it is said, were derived from this style. Certainly it teaches its students how to emulate the elemental nature of the dragons. Mastery of this style allows Exalts to practice the Five Dragon Styles without paying an elemental surcharges. It’s still occasionally taught to particularly promising Immaculates by Sidereal sifus. This style treats razor claws as form weapons. It is compatible with armor.
Piercing Gaze of The Dragon
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Dragon’s gaze surveys all, both corporeal and immaterial, both hidden and obvious, he is in tune with the elemental nature of creation, and nothing formed of that essence can hide from his gaze. The martial artist Closes his eyes, breathes deeply of the essence of creation, and opens his eyes. When his eyes open his irises transform into reptilian slits, and his eyes burn with fiery inner light. His transformed eyes grant him a new perspective on the world all living beings become limed with halo of light. Because of this strange form of essence sight, all living beings are visible to him, even those taking steps to hide themselves behind cover or in shadows. This automatically negates mundane attempts at stealth, provided they are occurring within the Martial Artist’s field of view. He adds one automatic success to all sight based awareness checks. Finally he may see dematerialized elementals and can recognize beings who posses elementally aspected essence with a successful (Perception + Lore) roll allowing him to learn which element their essence is attuned to
Terrifying Dragon ’s Roar
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Piercing Gaze of the Dragon
The martial artist voices a terrifying, draconic roar that promises horrible death to her foes. She emits a horrifying cry that trikes terror into the hearts of those facing her. No one who does not succeed at a reflexive Valor Roll can attempt to attack the martial artist without first spending one Willpower to overcome their fear.
Talons of the Celestial Dragon
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Terrifying Dragon’s Roar
The character’s Essence infuses his hands with the power of a Dragon’s deadly claws. His blows inflict lethal damage even if he is unarmed. Either way he adds a number of damage dice equal to the character’s Essence to his raw damage for the attack.
Celestial Dragon Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Talons of the Celestial Dragon
Adopting the fierce stance of the wrathful dragon, the martial artist takes on a portion of its aspect. His body appears sinuous and powerful and his Essence flares up around him to form a vaguely dragon-like silhouette about his body. His nails appear to lengthen and sharpen and the Essence around his hands takes on a claw-like appearance. The Dragon Stylist’s face becomes frozen in a ferocious grimace, inflicting a -1 internal penalty on all social interactions except attempts at intimidation (which gain a +1 benefit). Furthermore the martial artist’s bare-handed attacks can parry lethal damage and inflict lethal damage in the form of savage lacerations resembling claw marks. His newly refined form takes on the deadly grace of the dragon he is emulating and his unarmed attacks all reduce their Speed by one and gain a +1 Accuracy bonus.
Respiring Red Dragon Breath
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Elemental, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Dragon Form
Taking a deep breath and channeling the Essence of Fire through her lungs, the martial artist spits forth a gout of flame that extends for (Essence) yards in front of her. Her attack roll is her (Perception + Martial Arts), and she adds a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence. The attack inflicts (Essence) dice of lethal damage which bypasses even magical armor and may reduce mundane armor to molten slag, as a result this damage can only be soaked naturally. The rolling flame cannot be parried but can be dodged normally.
Donning White Dragon Armaments
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Dragon Form
Executing a short kata, the Celestial Dragon stylist emulates the temperance and imperturbable nature of the Earth Dragon. Coming to rest in the Central Dragon Stance, the martial artist’s body becomes a vehicle for the Essence of the earth. His flesh gains the impervious nature of white jade and hardens, his flesh takes on the scaled texture of the dragon’s hide. The character adds (Martial Arts) to his lethal, bashing and aggravated soak. This bonus acts as natural soak. He also gains an equivalent amount of Hardness.
Adopting Blue Dragon Fury
Cost: 4m per action; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Donning White Dragon Armaments
The Dragon of the Wind is a fast and ferocious beast; the Dragon stylist emulates this ferocity and speed, allowing it to augment his fighting style. Each blow he lands feeds his fury, and grants him the speed and ferocity to strike yet again. This Charm is a magical flurry with a total DV penalty of -2. Any Martial Arts attack that hits a target spawns another. As long as the martial artist continues to strike targets he may make another attack at his full dice pool against the same target. He must make this attack unless he cannot afford the mote cost or he has already made (Martial Arts) attacks.
Emulating Black Dragon Grace
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Respiring Red Dragon Breath
Essence bends and flows like the tides of the Western Seas around the martial artist, and her body adopts the impossible fluid grace of a Dragon of the Water. Her attacks come from improbable angles, her body bending and flowing, almost as though it were composed of fluid instead of flesh and bone. Her attacks are difficult to anticipate and characters defending against them suffer a -2 penalty to their Parry DV. The martial artist’s impossible movements also bolster her defenses, adding (Martial Arts) to the calculation of her Dodge DV.
Expressing Green Dragon Vigor
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Adopting Blue Dragon Fury, Donning White Dragon Armaments
Emulating the vigor and vitality of the Dragon of Wood, the martial artist suffuses his body with its Essence, regenerating one lethal or two bashing health levels per action.
Celestial Dragon Body Meditation
Cost: 10m 1 wp Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Expressing Green Dragon Vigor
Meditating on the sheer power and fury of the Celestial Dragon, the martial artist spends a few moments pondering its limitless capacity for power and its wondrous ability to balance the elemental Essences of creation. On the martial artist’s next action his anima banner erupts to full iconic fury enfolding him in a torrent of Essence and then vanishing. His hands become draconic talons, which seamlessly integrate any artifact razor-claws or tiger claws into their organic makeup, making it impossible to disarm him. If he was wearing no weapon his claws do no more damage than his hands normally would, but appear menacing nonetheless.
His body grows a few inches taller and becomes proportionally leaner as he adopts the sinuous musculature of a dragon. He radiates pure, rarified, celestial Essence, and any Immaculate is sure to confuse him for some god or anathema. He may distribute a number of dots equal to his (Essence) between his Strength, Stamina and Dexterity. These dots are allocated when the transformation takes place and cannot be redistributed without reactivating the Charm. His godly body is utterly perfect, a figure of unassailable physical and spiritual strength. As a result he ignores penalties to his DV from onslaught and coordinated attacks. This Charm cannot be used with armor.
One of the most fearsome of the 12 Celestial Animal Styles, this style seeks to emulate the fearsome power of the Celestial Dragon. The Five Glorious Dragon Paths, it is said, were derived from this style. Certainly it teaches its students how to emulate the elemental nature of the dragons. Mastery of this style allows Exalts to practice the Five Dragon Styles without paying an elemental surcharges. It’s still occasionally taught to particularly promising Immaculates by Sidereal sifus. This style treats razor claws as form weapons. It is compatible with armor.
Piercing Gaze of The Dragon
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Dragon’s gaze surveys all, both corporeal and immaterial, both hidden and obvious, he is in tune with the elemental nature of creation, and nothing formed of that essence can hide from his gaze. The martial artist Closes his eyes, breathes deeply of the essence of creation, and opens his eyes. When his eyes open his irises transform into reptilian slits, and his eyes burn with fiery inner light. His transformed eyes grant him a new perspective on the world all living beings become limed with halo of light. Because of this strange form of essence sight, all living beings are visible to him, even those taking steps to hide themselves behind cover or in shadows. This automatically negates mundane attempts at stealth, provided they are occurring within the Martial Artist’s field of view. He adds one automatic success to all sight based awareness checks. Finally he may see dematerialized elementals and can recognize beings who posses elementally aspected essence with a successful (Perception + Lore) roll allowing him to learn which element their essence is attuned to
Terrifying Dragon ’s Roar
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Piercing Gaze of the Dragon
The martial artist voices a terrifying, draconic roar that promises horrible death to her foes. She emits a horrifying cry that trikes terror into the hearts of those facing her. No one who does not succeed at a reflexive Valor Roll can attempt to attack the martial artist without first spending one Willpower to overcome their fear.
Talons of the Celestial Dragon
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Terrifying Dragon’s Roar
The character’s Essence infuses his hands with the power of a Dragon’s deadly claws. His blows inflict lethal damage even if he is unarmed. Either way he adds a number of damage dice equal to the character’s Essence to his raw damage for the attack.
Celestial Dragon Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Talons of the Celestial Dragon
Adopting the fierce stance of the wrathful dragon, the martial artist takes on a portion of its aspect. His body appears sinuous and powerful and his Essence flares up around him to form a vaguely dragon-like silhouette about his body. His nails appear to lengthen and sharpen and the Essence around his hands takes on a claw-like appearance. The Dragon Stylist’s face becomes frozen in a ferocious grimace, inflicting a -1 internal penalty on all social interactions except attempts at intimidation (which gain a +1 benefit). Furthermore the martial artist’s bare-handed attacks can parry lethal damage and inflict lethal damage in the form of savage lacerations resembling claw marks. His newly refined form takes on the deadly grace of the dragon he is emulating and his unarmed attacks all reduce their Speed by one and gain a +1 Accuracy bonus.
Respiring Red Dragon Breath
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Elemental, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Dragon Form
Taking a deep breath and channeling the Essence of Fire through her lungs, the martial artist spits forth a gout of flame that extends for (Essence) yards in front of her. Her attack roll is her (Perception + Martial Arts), and she adds a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence. The attack inflicts (Essence) dice of lethal damage which bypasses even magical armor and may reduce mundane armor to molten slag, as a result this damage can only be soaked naturally. The rolling flame cannot be parried but can be dodged normally.
Donning White Dragon Armaments
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Dragon Form
Executing a short kata, the Celestial Dragon stylist emulates the temperance and imperturbable nature of the Earth Dragon. Coming to rest in the Central Dragon Stance, the martial artist’s body becomes a vehicle for the Essence of the earth. His flesh gains the impervious nature of white jade and hardens, his flesh takes on the scaled texture of the dragon’s hide. The character adds (Martial Arts) to his lethal, bashing and aggravated soak. This bonus acts as natural soak. He also gains an equivalent amount of Hardness.
Adopting Blue Dragon Fury
Cost: 4m per action; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Donning White Dragon Armaments
The Dragon of the Wind is a fast and ferocious beast; the Dragon stylist emulates this ferocity and speed, allowing it to augment his fighting style. Each blow he lands feeds his fury, and grants him the speed and ferocity to strike yet again. This Charm is a magical flurry with a total DV penalty of -2. Any Martial Arts attack that hits a target spawns another. As long as the martial artist continues to strike targets he may make another attack at his full dice pool against the same target. He must make this attack unless he cannot afford the mote cost or he has already made (Martial Arts) attacks.
Emulating Black Dragon Grace
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Respiring Red Dragon Breath
Essence bends and flows like the tides of the Western Seas around the martial artist, and her body adopts the impossible fluid grace of a Dragon of the Water. Her attacks come from improbable angles, her body bending and flowing, almost as though it were composed of fluid instead of flesh and bone. Her attacks are difficult to anticipate and characters defending against them suffer a -2 penalty to their Parry DV. The martial artist’s impossible movements also bolster her defenses, adding (Martial Arts) to the calculation of her Dodge DV.
Expressing Green Dragon Vigor
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Adopting Blue Dragon Fury, Donning White Dragon Armaments
Emulating the vigor and vitality of the Dragon of Wood, the martial artist suffuses his body with its Essence, regenerating one lethal or two bashing health levels per action.
Celestial Dragon Body Meditation
Cost: 10m 1 wp Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Expressing Green Dragon Vigor
Meditating on the sheer power and fury of the Celestial Dragon, the martial artist spends a few moments pondering its limitless capacity for power and its wondrous ability to balance the elemental Essences of creation. On the martial artist’s next action his anima banner erupts to full iconic fury enfolding him in a torrent of Essence and then vanishing. His hands become draconic talons, which seamlessly integrate any artifact razor-claws or tiger claws into their organic makeup, making it impossible to disarm him. If he was wearing no weapon his claws do no more damage than his hands normally would, but appear menacing nonetheless.
His body grows a few inches taller and becomes proportionally leaner as he adopts the sinuous musculature of a dragon. He radiates pure, rarified, celestial Essence, and any Immaculate is sure to confuse him for some god or anathema. He may distribute a number of dots equal to his (Essence) between his Strength, Stamina and Dexterity. These dots are allocated when the transformation takes place and cannot be redistributed without reactivating the Charm. His godly body is utterly perfect, a figure of unassailable physical and spiritual strength. As a result he ignores penalties to his DV from onslaught and coordinated attacks. This Charm cannot be used with armor.
The Celestial Rat is not powerful; he is not strong, he does not inflict grotesque amounts of damage. He might not be the most fearsome or daunting foe, but through cunning and guile he comes out on top. When the 12 Celestial animals raced around the world it was the Rat that won, not because he was strongest or fastest, but because he was the most versatile, adaptable and, above all else, cunning. Rat stylists emulate this resourcefulness, flexibility an cleverness in combat. True, they are rarely the most upstanding members of their community. Even the most virtuous Rat stylists employ deceit and trickery in the pursuit of his noble goals, and the more amoral stylists are craven, ruthless individuals. Yet, despite the fact that the rest of the martial arts community looks with suspicion upon this style’s practitioners, few would reject assistance from one in a fight and even fewer would relish the prospect of facing off against one. Sneaky, subtle, and quick to react, rat stylists favor the deadly efficiency of knives, treating such weapons and their artifact equivalents, as form weapons for the style. This style demands total flexibility and cannot be practiced in armor.
Uncanny Rodent Awareness
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The martial artist can sense people in her vicinity. Anyone within a radius of (Essence x 5) yards cannot hide from her and cannot surprise or ambush her without the use of Charms. She is considered aware of all entities and attacks from anyone within that range. This awareness only allows her to perceive sentient, animate, entities, and is useless at detecting the presence of walls, furniture or traps, therefore it does not permit the martial artist to maneuver in the dark. Likewise, this Charm cannot detect any creature without true sentience or who are not truly alive, such as automata or the undead. Her supernatural sense also enables a practitioner to guess how people will act. When performing a Join Battle action, this Charm gives her two extra dice. Outside of battle, the martial artist’s uncanny ability to discern what people have in mind reduces the difficulty of rolls to read motivation or intentions by one normally and by two against those who bear her ill will.
Scampering Vermin Maneuver
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Uncanny Rodent Awareness
The martial artist moves with darting, unpredictable speed of the rat. She scuttles, rolls and bolts through her enemies defenses and out of their line of sight, positioning herself to strike from behind before her enemy realizes where she’s gone. Her attack becomes unexpected, unless a reflexive (Wits + Awareness) roll for the target scores at least as many successes as the Rat stylist’s Essence.
Scuttling Shadows Distraction
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Uncanny Rodent Awareness
The rat moves stealthily, even when he scuttles across the open floor he is never where he appears to be. Misdirection is his watchword and guile his most prized skill. Drawing on this aspect of the Rat, the martial artist calls forth flickering shadows of essence which appear to be him but are not. These shadows are perceptible only to one opponent, but they have a measurably deleterious effect on his ability to fight. The martial artist reflexively calls forth these distracting Essence shadows, cutting his own shadow loose from his body and sending portions of it to dazzle and confound his foe. This effect penalizes the attacker’s Accuracy dice pool 3 dice.
Celestial Rat Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Scampering Vermin Maneuver, Scuttling Shadows Distraction
Although the Exalt doesn’t change physically upon activating this form, his posture changes. He stands low to the ground, his weight and stance constantly fluid, his eyes dart around him at great speed. His manner resembles that of the Rat in many ways. His reflexes also grow faster and he becomes as nimble, perceptive and quick to react as the beast he emulates. He adds half his Essence (round up) to his Awareness while this form is active. Additionally, because he keeps his body in constant motion and near the ground attacks against him suffer a -2 external penalty. The rat is the bringer of sickness and disease, and the Celestial Rat stylist twists and taints his own Essence to emulate this. While active, this Charm increases the difficulty to resist infection from the practitioner’s lethal attacks by two.
Slipping through Cracks Attitude
Cost: 6m ; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Rat Form
The Rat may pass through any seam, crack or chink in any surface or cage. He walks easily through bars and through, holes or windows, as if they were large enough for him to pass through normally. The hole only needs to be large enough for him to fit his head through. Similarly he can use this Charm to escape from bondage or from a clinch. Against magically warded surfaces or magical bindings the martial artist rolls (Dexterity +Martial Arts) at a difficulty equal to the Artifact rating of the magical bindings or the Essence of the entity that created the ward. As far as escaping from a clinch goes, this Charm functions perfectly against mortals. Otherwise it provides an extra (Essence) successes to escape the clinch. This Charm cannot be used to take control of a clinch, only to escape from it.
Pestilent Fang Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Sickness
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Rat Form
The martial artist calls to mind the disease ridden Celestial Rodent, twisting his own internal essence such that he to becomes a bearer of infirmity. He then spits saliva, saturated in this tainted Essence, upon his hands or upon the blades of his knives. The spit tarnishes metal and makes his palms appear withered and clammy. Thereafter any target the martial artist strikes within the time limit is infected with a Second Circle spiritual disease known as Wide-Eyed Frothing Death (see Scroll of the Monk, p. 154 for more on spiritual diseases):
Virulence: (attacker’s Essence)Incubation: (target’s Essence) daysDiagnosis: 3 Difficulty to Treat (Mundane/Magical): 4/2Morbidity: 4 Treated Morbidity: 3
During the incubation period, the victim feels just a little bit off, maybe the result of a poor night’s rest or a bit of bad food. She sweats profusely and begins to feel feverish and disoriented. She suffers a -1 penalty to all actions. Once that period ends, the victim’s condition worsens rapidly, she becomes deranged and prone to outbursts of rage, she may not recognize old friends and is violent and increasingly hostile. She begins to foam at the mouth. Mechanically she must roll (Stamina+ Integrity) or spend one point of Willpower per scene to avoid attacking anyone in her immediate vicinity. As the disease progresses, the infected victim must roll (Stamina + Resistance) every hour. Victims who fail suffer one level of unsoakable lethal damage and an internal penalty of -2 on all actions. Three consecutive successful Morbidity checks defeats the disease. Exalted always roll against Treated Morbidity.
Contagion-Ridden Beast Infliction
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Sickness
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Pestilent Fang Technique
Activating this Charm allows the rat to ignore effects of any disease to which he has been exposed, she continues to carry the toxin or affliction in her body, and may even manifest physical signs of illness, but the disease has no negative effect upon her. Instead it suffuses her Essence as a dark taint to be passed to the martial artist’s next victim. At the drug or poison or disease’s first damage interval or morbidity roll, the martial artist can reflexively activate this Charm instead of trying to resist. Her player rolls (Stamina+ Resistance). If the roll succeeds, the effect is constrained within the flow of carefully controlled tainted Essence that suffuses the rat stylists being. This renders it temporarily powerless to affect the martial artist.
The substance remains suspended thus until either the Charm’s duration runs out or he successfully strikes someone in close combat and his player rolls at least one die of lethal damage. Whether the damage roll succeeds or not, the illness is passed to the victim of the attack, in a wispy shell of tainted, curdled Essence. This effect often manifests as a tiny green noxious cloud that passes from the martial artists anima or body into his victims mouth nose or other orifice. Once transferred the substance’s effects kick in as if the victim had been infected. The transfer is automatic, and beyond the Rat stylist’s control. He may bear the plague without fear, but he cannot control to whom it passes. Furthermore only one illness or poison at a time can be contained through this Charm, attempts at applying this Charm to a second malady while this Charm is active automatically fail. This Charm is powerless over spiritual diseases more serious than those of the Second Circle.
Endless Horde of the Rat King
Cost: 3m per target, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Stackable
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Slipping through the Cracks Attitude
There is reason a horde of rats is sometimes referred to as a plague. It has nothing to do with their sunny disposition and everything to do with their disease carrying bites and penchant for getting into and ruining food larders, silos and crops. The presence of one rat is dangerous and troublesome, but several rats can be ruinous to the health and wellbeing of even the hardiest of communities. The Rat stylist’s anima twists and fractures when this Charm is activated, creating illusory rats which scurry over his body and fly through the air about him. As he strikes these spectral beasts lash out with tiny gnashing teeth against his opponents, scurrying over their arms and legs and swamping them. The martial artist first spends 3m per target and then rolls a Martial Arts attack against each with his full dice pool, suffering a -1 DV penalty per target. Targets of this Charm must be within range of a normal unarmed Martial Arts attack. This Charm may not target more than three targets at a time and cannot target the same character more than once per activation.
If the initial attack lands against one of the targets of this Charm, even if it does no damage, then the spectral rats latch on to him, scurrying about his body and bitting any and all exposed flesh and continuing to make extra attacks. The number of extra attacks is equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, and each attack has the same speed as the initial attack for determining the ticks upon which subsequent attacks occur. The horde of spectral vermin that swarm over the target of this Charm roll the martial artist’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool for each of their attacks, inflicting (Essence + extra successes) damage. The practitioner can perform any other actions he desires as the phantom rats’ independent attacks proceed, including using this Charm again on the same target. Indeed these attacks continue regardless of the martial artist’s wishes, until the Charm ends, even if the martial artist dies.
Flee the Sinking Ship Defense
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Endless Horde of the Rat King
Spending four motes, the martial artist fades out of the path of an attack his body dissolves into empty clothes and a mass of squirming rodents who scamper away to safety. The rats re-coalesce into the Exalt within a heartbeat in a new position within (Essence) yards. This resembles a sort of short teleportation, though it cannot carry the stylist through surfaces not normally permeable to a rat. This effect reduces the dice pool for the attacking character to zero. Flee the Sinking Ship Defense cannot defend against any attack that is unblockable or undodgeable. Attacks supplemented by Charms that add automatic successes also might still strike should the amount of successes be sufficient, on their own, to overcome the martial artist’s Dodge DV.
With an appropriate stunt, this Charm can allow the martial artist to reconstitute himself directly behind an enemy within range, giving him an opportunity to attempt an unexpected attack (see Exalted, p. 155). Items attuned to the martial artist dissolve and reform with him, however unattuned items, such as mundane clothing and weapons, fall to the floor where the martial artist dissolves. Therefore, the martial artist may reform naked or unarmed if he is careless.
Quintessential Survivor Attitude
Cost: 15m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One day
Prerequisite Charms: Contagion-Ridden Beast Infliction, Flee the Sinking Ship Defense
Survival, even in the face of impossible circumstances, is the ultimate expression of the Celestial Rat’s nature. It is, of course, better to emerge victorious and triumphant, but that ideal is not always attainable. Sometimes one must be content to live to fight another day. Through this Charm the martial artist guides the hand of fate just enough to ensure his survival. This Charm requires preparation. On the eve of the conflict the martial artist must spend three hours in quiet prayer and supplication to the forces that shape the world. During this time he performs an extended kata intended to evoke the enduring nature of the Celestial Rat. He also rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts) to reflect the degree to which the kata properly emulated this style’s namesake. Should Fate deign to hear the martial artist’s plea, he can go into battle confident that he, at least, will survive the entanglement. The same cannot be said of his companions unfortunately, as they are unprotected by this Charm and must rely on their personal prowess to live. Fate itself, however, conspires to ensure the martial artist does not perish, though he generally is not unharmed. If he hides, his enemies will be unable to find him. If they set a trap, he will evade it, even if it is only by accident.
Mechanically this means that the character may apply a number of automatic successes equal to the net successes on his initial (Charisma + Martial Arts) roll to any attempt to escape death. This could mean dodging a killing blow, evading a more powerful opponent, or surviving a fall that might otherwise prove fatal. Whether a situation is sufficiently dire for the martial artist to benefit from these bonus successes is up to the storyteller’s discretion. Furthermore, while this Charm is active, no mortal (without awakened Essence) can reduce the character to Incapacitated through any means and no extra can cause him damage at all unless they are commanded by an Essence-user.
Weapons do not bounce off the martial artist, rather attacks suffer from catastrophically bad luck which cause them to fail. Arrows break in the quiver, swords get stuck in the floor boards, attackers trip on unseen obstacles. These misfortunes are frequently embarrassing but do no damage to the attacker, nor do they have any other effect other than preserving the life of the person protected by this Charm. This Charm protects only the martial artist not his companions, or allies, units under his command do not gain any of the benefits of this Charm, nor may the martial artist gain any benefit from this Charm when he is trying to preserve anyone’s life besides his own (even if he is also trying to save his own life). This is the price that Fate demands. The Rat stylist will survive even the most dangerous situations, but his life will be as lonely as it is long, as all his companions, one by one, pass away in conflicts which he himself miraculously survives. There is no mechanical representation of this dark fate, but storytellers should keep in mind that this protection is a mixed blessing.
Uncanny Rodent Awareness
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The martial artist can sense people in her vicinity. Anyone within a radius of (Essence x 5) yards cannot hide from her and cannot surprise or ambush her without the use of Charms. She is considered aware of all entities and attacks from anyone within that range. This awareness only allows her to perceive sentient, animate, entities, and is useless at detecting the presence of walls, furniture or traps, therefore it does not permit the martial artist to maneuver in the dark. Likewise, this Charm cannot detect any creature without true sentience or who are not truly alive, such as automata or the undead. Her supernatural sense also enables a practitioner to guess how people will act. When performing a Join Battle action, this Charm gives her two extra dice. Outside of battle, the martial artist’s uncanny ability to discern what people have in mind reduces the difficulty of rolls to read motivation or intentions by one normally and by two against those who bear her ill will.
Scampering Vermin Maneuver
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Uncanny Rodent Awareness
The martial artist moves with darting, unpredictable speed of the rat. She scuttles, rolls and bolts through her enemies defenses and out of their line of sight, positioning herself to strike from behind before her enemy realizes where she’s gone. Her attack becomes unexpected, unless a reflexive (Wits + Awareness) roll for the target scores at least as many successes as the Rat stylist’s Essence.
Scuttling Shadows Distraction
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Uncanny Rodent Awareness
The rat moves stealthily, even when he scuttles across the open floor he is never where he appears to be. Misdirection is his watchword and guile his most prized skill. Drawing on this aspect of the Rat, the martial artist calls forth flickering shadows of essence which appear to be him but are not. These shadows are perceptible only to one opponent, but they have a measurably deleterious effect on his ability to fight. The martial artist reflexively calls forth these distracting Essence shadows, cutting his own shadow loose from his body and sending portions of it to dazzle and confound his foe. This effect penalizes the attacker’s Accuracy dice pool 3 dice.
Celestial Rat Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Scampering Vermin Maneuver, Scuttling Shadows Distraction
Although the Exalt doesn’t change physically upon activating this form, his posture changes. He stands low to the ground, his weight and stance constantly fluid, his eyes dart around him at great speed. His manner resembles that of the Rat in many ways. His reflexes also grow faster and he becomes as nimble, perceptive and quick to react as the beast he emulates. He adds half his Essence (round up) to his Awareness while this form is active. Additionally, because he keeps his body in constant motion and near the ground attacks against him suffer a -2 external penalty. The rat is the bringer of sickness and disease, and the Celestial Rat stylist twists and taints his own Essence to emulate this. While active, this Charm increases the difficulty to resist infection from the practitioner’s lethal attacks by two.
Slipping through Cracks Attitude
Cost: 6m ; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Rat Form
The Rat may pass through any seam, crack or chink in any surface or cage. He walks easily through bars and through, holes or windows, as if they were large enough for him to pass through normally. The hole only needs to be large enough for him to fit his head through. Similarly he can use this Charm to escape from bondage or from a clinch. Against magically warded surfaces or magical bindings the martial artist rolls (Dexterity +Martial Arts) at a difficulty equal to the Artifact rating of the magical bindings or the Essence of the entity that created the ward. As far as escaping from a clinch goes, this Charm functions perfectly against mortals. Otherwise it provides an extra (Essence) successes to escape the clinch. This Charm cannot be used to take control of a clinch, only to escape from it.
Pestilent Fang Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Sickness
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Rat Form
The martial artist calls to mind the disease ridden Celestial Rodent, twisting his own internal essence such that he to becomes a bearer of infirmity. He then spits saliva, saturated in this tainted Essence, upon his hands or upon the blades of his knives. The spit tarnishes metal and makes his palms appear withered and clammy. Thereafter any target the martial artist strikes within the time limit is infected with a Second Circle spiritual disease known as Wide-Eyed Frothing Death (see Scroll of the Monk, p. 154 for more on spiritual diseases):
Virulence: (attacker’s Essence)Incubation: (target’s Essence) daysDiagnosis: 3 Difficulty to Treat (Mundane/Magical): 4/2Morbidity: 4 Treated Morbidity: 3
During the incubation period, the victim feels just a little bit off, maybe the result of a poor night’s rest or a bit of bad food. She sweats profusely and begins to feel feverish and disoriented. She suffers a -1 penalty to all actions. Once that period ends, the victim’s condition worsens rapidly, she becomes deranged and prone to outbursts of rage, she may not recognize old friends and is violent and increasingly hostile. She begins to foam at the mouth. Mechanically she must roll (Stamina+ Integrity) or spend one point of Willpower per scene to avoid attacking anyone in her immediate vicinity. As the disease progresses, the infected victim must roll (Stamina + Resistance) every hour. Victims who fail suffer one level of unsoakable lethal damage and an internal penalty of -2 on all actions. Three consecutive successful Morbidity checks defeats the disease. Exalted always roll against Treated Morbidity.
Contagion-Ridden Beast Infliction
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Sickness
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Pestilent Fang Technique
Activating this Charm allows the rat to ignore effects of any disease to which he has been exposed, she continues to carry the toxin or affliction in her body, and may even manifest physical signs of illness, but the disease has no negative effect upon her. Instead it suffuses her Essence as a dark taint to be passed to the martial artist’s next victim. At the drug or poison or disease’s first damage interval or morbidity roll, the martial artist can reflexively activate this Charm instead of trying to resist. Her player rolls (Stamina+ Resistance). If the roll succeeds, the effect is constrained within the flow of carefully controlled tainted Essence that suffuses the rat stylists being. This renders it temporarily powerless to affect the martial artist.
The substance remains suspended thus until either the Charm’s duration runs out or he successfully strikes someone in close combat and his player rolls at least one die of lethal damage. Whether the damage roll succeeds or not, the illness is passed to the victim of the attack, in a wispy shell of tainted, curdled Essence. This effect often manifests as a tiny green noxious cloud that passes from the martial artists anima or body into his victims mouth nose or other orifice. Once transferred the substance’s effects kick in as if the victim had been infected. The transfer is automatic, and beyond the Rat stylist’s control. He may bear the plague without fear, but he cannot control to whom it passes. Furthermore only one illness or poison at a time can be contained through this Charm, attempts at applying this Charm to a second malady while this Charm is active automatically fail. This Charm is powerless over spiritual diseases more serious than those of the Second Circle.
Endless Horde of the Rat King
Cost: 3m per target, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Stackable
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Slipping through the Cracks Attitude
There is reason a horde of rats is sometimes referred to as a plague. It has nothing to do with their sunny disposition and everything to do with their disease carrying bites and penchant for getting into and ruining food larders, silos and crops. The presence of one rat is dangerous and troublesome, but several rats can be ruinous to the health and wellbeing of even the hardiest of communities. The Rat stylist’s anima twists and fractures when this Charm is activated, creating illusory rats which scurry over his body and fly through the air about him. As he strikes these spectral beasts lash out with tiny gnashing teeth against his opponents, scurrying over their arms and legs and swamping them. The martial artist first spends 3m per target and then rolls a Martial Arts attack against each with his full dice pool, suffering a -1 DV penalty per target. Targets of this Charm must be within range of a normal unarmed Martial Arts attack. This Charm may not target more than three targets at a time and cannot target the same character more than once per activation.
If the initial attack lands against one of the targets of this Charm, even if it does no damage, then the spectral rats latch on to him, scurrying about his body and bitting any and all exposed flesh and continuing to make extra attacks. The number of extra attacks is equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, and each attack has the same speed as the initial attack for determining the ticks upon which subsequent attacks occur. The horde of spectral vermin that swarm over the target of this Charm roll the martial artist’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool for each of their attacks, inflicting (Essence + extra successes) damage. The practitioner can perform any other actions he desires as the phantom rats’ independent attacks proceed, including using this Charm again on the same target. Indeed these attacks continue regardless of the martial artist’s wishes, until the Charm ends, even if the martial artist dies.
Flee the Sinking Ship Defense
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Endless Horde of the Rat King
Spending four motes, the martial artist fades out of the path of an attack his body dissolves into empty clothes and a mass of squirming rodents who scamper away to safety. The rats re-coalesce into the Exalt within a heartbeat in a new position within (Essence) yards. This resembles a sort of short teleportation, though it cannot carry the stylist through surfaces not normally permeable to a rat. This effect reduces the dice pool for the attacking character to zero. Flee the Sinking Ship Defense cannot defend against any attack that is unblockable or undodgeable. Attacks supplemented by Charms that add automatic successes also might still strike should the amount of successes be sufficient, on their own, to overcome the martial artist’s Dodge DV.
With an appropriate stunt, this Charm can allow the martial artist to reconstitute himself directly behind an enemy within range, giving him an opportunity to attempt an unexpected attack (see Exalted, p. 155). Items attuned to the martial artist dissolve and reform with him, however unattuned items, such as mundane clothing and weapons, fall to the floor where the martial artist dissolves. Therefore, the martial artist may reform naked or unarmed if he is careless.
Quintessential Survivor Attitude
Cost: 15m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One day
Prerequisite Charms: Contagion-Ridden Beast Infliction, Flee the Sinking Ship Defense
Survival, even in the face of impossible circumstances, is the ultimate expression of the Celestial Rat’s nature. It is, of course, better to emerge victorious and triumphant, but that ideal is not always attainable. Sometimes one must be content to live to fight another day. Through this Charm the martial artist guides the hand of fate just enough to ensure his survival. This Charm requires preparation. On the eve of the conflict the martial artist must spend three hours in quiet prayer and supplication to the forces that shape the world. During this time he performs an extended kata intended to evoke the enduring nature of the Celestial Rat. He also rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts) to reflect the degree to which the kata properly emulated this style’s namesake. Should Fate deign to hear the martial artist’s plea, he can go into battle confident that he, at least, will survive the entanglement. The same cannot be said of his companions unfortunately, as they are unprotected by this Charm and must rely on their personal prowess to live. Fate itself, however, conspires to ensure the martial artist does not perish, though he generally is not unharmed. If he hides, his enemies will be unable to find him. If they set a trap, he will evade it, even if it is only by accident.
Mechanically this means that the character may apply a number of automatic successes equal to the net successes on his initial (Charisma + Martial Arts) roll to any attempt to escape death. This could mean dodging a killing blow, evading a more powerful opponent, or surviving a fall that might otherwise prove fatal. Whether a situation is sufficiently dire for the martial artist to benefit from these bonus successes is up to the storyteller’s discretion. Furthermore, while this Charm is active, no mortal (without awakened Essence) can reduce the character to Incapacitated through any means and no extra can cause him damage at all unless they are commanded by an Essence-user.
Weapons do not bounce off the martial artist, rather attacks suffer from catastrophically bad luck which cause them to fail. Arrows break in the quiver, swords get stuck in the floor boards, attackers trip on unseen obstacles. These misfortunes are frequently embarrassing but do no damage to the attacker, nor do they have any other effect other than preserving the life of the person protected by this Charm. This Charm protects only the martial artist not his companions, or allies, units under his command do not gain any of the benefits of this Charm, nor may the martial artist gain any benefit from this Charm when he is trying to preserve anyone’s life besides his own (even if he is also trying to save his own life). This is the price that Fate demands. The Rat stylist will survive even the most dangerous situations, but his life will be as lonely as it is long, as all his companions, one by one, pass away in conflicts which he himself miraculously survives. There is no mechanical representation of this dark fate, but storytellers should keep in mind that this protection is a mixed blessing.
The Glorious Dust Dancers are an order, or rather a sect, of oucaste dragonblooded martial artists who dwell in the deserts of the south. They have dwelt their since time immemorial, a small, but renowned, group of martial artists. They are of particular note because they practice a Celest ial Style, and moreover, a Celestial Style which is considered to be Heretical by the Realm. They’re ranks are formed of the scions of their line and of other Oucastes they induct into their ranks. They tend to Learn The Tiger-Bear Awareness and Tiger-Bear Unity initiation Charms. Most of their number are Fire-, Wood-, or Air-aspected, and they are all performers, wanderers and tellers of tales. Their martial art is, for them, an expression of their reverence for the Great Desert and the Wind that blows through it.
The style is characterized by sinuous, sensual, and often provocative dance-like movements, its masters every move seems to be part of some great, beautiful dance of life and death. No one is certain where the sect came from, but the Realm has long sought to destroy it, and only its small size and itinerant lifestyle have preserved it. Immaculate doctrine holds that this cult worships the Anathema, but more learned scholars suspect that this style may have ties to Yozi worship, specifically to cults of Celecyne and Adorjan. Though for the most part the sect has lost its ties to such beliefs if it ever had any, one must still wonder about the origins of their signature style. Certainly it is powerful and its practitioners tend to grow increasingly distant from the traditional “human” worldview, becoming more and more cold and distant, even as their minds begin to grow unnaturally comfortable with the concepts of mortality, eternity, and entropy...but that must surely be a natural by product of the style’s philosophical underpinnings, not part of something entirely more sinister.
This style may not be practiced with armor. This style treats slashing swords and reaper daiklaives as form weapons. Practitioners of this style tend to have at least Performance ••.
Dance Through Life Attitude
Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
Even when the desert’s winds are quiet and the sun is set, their power remains, even if it is not currently manifest. The Dancers emulate this through this Charm, their bodies move at all times with a grace and rhythm that is almost like a dance, and they are ever ready for combat even when they appear at ease. The martial artist increases his Join Battle dice pool by an amount equal to his Martial Arts or Essence (whichever is higher). These count as dice added from Charms. This Charm is Obvious only to those who know of the style, though others may find the rhythmic, controlled, movements and mannerisms the character has adopted strange and enthralling.
Zephyr Stride Technique
Cost: 3m or 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Dance Through Life Attitude
The Dancers may move as the wind through the desert, surfaces that would be impossible to balance on they traverse with ease, they may even move up vertical surfaces as if they were walking on open terrain. The wind cares not whether it moves horizontally or vertically. At essence 2 the character us¬ing this Charm spends three motes and can then move or dash, normally, across impossibly narrow surfaces, such as tight ropes or clotheslines, or some other surface that would otherwise be impossible for him to balance on, effortlessly. His balance becomes infallible. At Essence 3 this Charm can be activated for two motes per action allowing the character to move with equal ease up vertical surfaces as well. If his turn ends while he is balanced impossibly or on a vertical surface she must reactivate the Charm or make an appropriately difficult (Dexterity + Athletics) check to maintain his balance or to find purchase on a vertical surface. Either iteration of this charm can be activated individually or both can be activated at once for 5m.
Sandstorm’s Pace Evocation
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dance Through Life Attitude
With the Deadly grace of a sandstorm the Dancers strike with speed that is beautiful and terrifying to behold, one attack follows another with speed and grace as the Dancer twirls towards her opponent with inhuman beauty and economy of motion. By activating this Charm the Dancer reduces the Speed of any single Martial Arts attack by one, to a minimum of 3.
Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Zephyr Stride Technique, Sandstorm Pace Evocation
The Dust dancer becomes a perpetual blur of whirling twisting motion, at once totally tantalizing and sensuous and utterly kinetic. Her feet barely touch the ground and she twirls about her opponent with wild abandon with all the beauty and weightless grace of sand dancing on the desert wind. Her Essence takes on the granulated aspect of sand and whirls about her, a perfect visual accompaniment to her endless dance. For the duration of this Charm the character ignores all mundane knockdown or knockback effects; she recovers her balance effortlessly, dancing on currents of air. She also gains +3 successes to resist magical effects which would knock her down and ignores penalties for unstable footing, stepping lightly over muck and other difficult terrain. Finally, just as the sand finds its way through all the cracks, so do her attacks slide through armor. Her unarmed martial arts attacks inflict piercing damage for the duration of the Charm.
Unyielding Fury of the Wind Tactic
Cost: 3m per attack, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
As the Dancer advances on her foe her movements turn from serene and graceful to take on the violent aspect of a sandstorm. She becomes a whirlwind of death, heartless and unforgiving, faster than the eye, overwhelming his foe. This Charm is a magical flurry. For every three motes, the Dancer makes an unarmed Martial Arts attack with his full dice pool, to a maximum number of attacks equal to his (Essence) rating.
Shifting Sands Rhythm
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Obscured behind a screen of, golden sand of Essence, dancing in an invisible breeze, the Dancer undulates sinuously behind this veil of essence, in perfect tandem with the violently churning. This Charm imposes an external penalty on incoming attacks equal to half the martial artist’s Essence for the rest of the action, rounded up. If an attacker succeeds on a reflexive Perception + Awareness roll at a difficulty of the practitioner’s Martial Arts, this penalty is reduced to -1.
Revelry of Travail and Peril
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 5)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Dancers not only overcome adversity, they take joy and pleasure in facing it down. They dance barefoot on the hottest sands and caper about merrily though the unforgiving sun beats down upon them and the dry desert stretches endlessly around them. Dancers laugh at their enemies when the fiend’s best efforts fail to harm the them. From this exultation and triumph they draw forth the strength the keep going. While the Charm is active, the player rolls the character’s permanent Essence whenever an opponent’s attack fails to overcome the character’s relevant DV. Each success on the roll replenishes two motes of spent Essence. This charm cannot recover more than (Essence) motes on a single roll. This Charm only functions if the character is faced with real danger (storyteller’s discretion); attacks not actually intended to leave the character harmed do not allow him to regain Essence, nor do attacks from characters with a permanent Essence more than three points below the Dancer’s.
Rapture and Fascination Pirouette
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Compulsion, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Revelry of Ecstasy and Peril, Shifting Sands Rhythm, Unyielding Fury of The Wind Tactic
The Dancer’s movements slow and become calm, languid and utterly hypnotic. The air around her becomes comfortable and warm and the world, from the observers perspective, fades from view. The martial artist’s player rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts), adding half their Performance (round down) successes to the roll. All characters who can see the martial artist compare the results of this roll to their MDV. Those whose MDVs do not negate the successes on the martial artist’s player’s roll find themselves transfixed in place, enraptured by the beauty of the dance and the perfect poise and grace of the Dust Dancer. For them there is nothing in the world but the dance. Characters whose highest MDV is lower than the Dust Dancer’s Essence will go so far as to attack people who try to interrupt the dance, even their own allies.
Hypnotized characters are rendered Inactive. They are completely unaware of their surroundings, except the dancer, and can do nothing but stare with rapt attention at the dancer, unless they spend one Willpower to shrug off this influence. Even those who spend Willpower to overcome the compulsion find themselves driven to distraction, suffering an internal penalty equal to the Exalt’s Essence to all dice pools. When the Dancer stops performing, the bewitchment slowly fades. In ongoing combat, the effects linger for a number of actions equal to the martial artist’s Essence. During this period, former victims suffer a penalty equal to half the Dancer’s Essence (round up).
The Wind Heeds Not The Blade
Cost: 1m per bhl or 2m per lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Rapture and Fascination Pirouette
Nothing is whole. Even granite is, at the atomic level, comprise of swirling particles, dust blown on the wind of Creation, the Dancers know this truth, it is the first axiom they are taught during their arduous training. It is a truth they embrace in all aspects of their lives, they dance to the rhythm of the universe an d feel its wind blow through their very beings. The Dust Dancers employ this Charm to physically embody this truth, making their own bodies, even momentarily, more space than matter. If the Dancer’s DV proves insufficient to stop an attack, the damage roll of which scores one or more successes in Step 8 of attack resolution, the Dancer may reflexively activate this Charm. When she does so, she reduces the damage the attack inflicts on her by one bashing health level per mote or one lethal level per two motes. Witnesses don’t see wounds open and heal, but rather they see the Dancer shift impossibly out of the way, often bending in places where she has no joints. These contortions are unnatural but always beautiful.
Fire Wind Unity Ascension
Cost: 10m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Elusive Wind Prana, The Wind Heeds Not The Blade
The Dancer, at this level, has become one with the Desert itself. She does not merely emulate the blistering sun, unforgiving night, and perilous windstorms through her dance, she becomes one with them. Her body’s movement are perfectly timed with the sand that swirls around her and it is no longer clear where she begins and the swirling sands, this is more than just an optical illusion, her body actually takes on the immaterial aspect of the heart of a storm, coming dangerously close to total non-existance. This charm, once activated, cause the martial artist to dissolve a whirling gale of sand and wind. She becomes a sentient environmental effect that with a radius of (her Essence x 3) yards. She has a Damage of (Martial Arts)L/Action and Trauma of (Essence). She may dash as a normal move action, and makes no sound. Though she must stay at ground level, she may move over any surface, however fragile and may pass through cracks and penings in doorways. While the Charm is active she may take no other actions other than to move, defend herself, or speak in a voice which sounds like a whisper on the wind (-2 to all social dice pools). Also, she may only be affected by things which can affect the immaterial. Because she is dispersed as motes of essence amidst a giant windstorm attackers must either have some form of essence sight active (like All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight) or be able to see the immaterial otherwise their attacks suffer penalties associated with fighting an invisible opponent.
This Charm, though exceedingly potent, is also highly risky to use. It brings the martial artist in dangerously close harmony to the elements of the desert. She risks losing herself entirely to the mindlessness of nature, truly becoming nothing but sand air and essence without any animating intelligence or soul. Should the character botch any roll while this Charm is active she must spend an additional Willpower or eternally become one with the desert, losing herself forever. If the character has no Willpower remaining, she suffers 1ahl of damage. Finally, the character may reflexively spend five motes and a Willpower at the end of this Charm’s duration to renew it. This counts as his charm activation.
The style is characterized by sinuous, sensual, and often provocative dance-like movements, its masters every move seems to be part of some great, beautiful dance of life and death. No one is certain where the sect came from, but the Realm has long sought to destroy it, and only its small size and itinerant lifestyle have preserved it. Immaculate doctrine holds that this cult worships the Anathema, but more learned scholars suspect that this style may have ties to Yozi worship, specifically to cults of Celecyne and Adorjan. Though for the most part the sect has lost its ties to such beliefs if it ever had any, one must still wonder about the origins of their signature style. Certainly it is powerful and its practitioners tend to grow increasingly distant from the traditional “human” worldview, becoming more and more cold and distant, even as their minds begin to grow unnaturally comfortable with the concepts of mortality, eternity, and entropy...but that must surely be a natural by product of the style’s philosophical underpinnings, not part of something entirely more sinister.
This style may not be practiced with armor. This style treats slashing swords and reaper daiklaives as form weapons. Practitioners of this style tend to have at least Performance ••.
Dance Through Life Attitude
Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
Even when the desert’s winds are quiet and the sun is set, their power remains, even if it is not currently manifest. The Dancers emulate this through this Charm, their bodies move at all times with a grace and rhythm that is almost like a dance, and they are ever ready for combat even when they appear at ease. The martial artist increases his Join Battle dice pool by an amount equal to his Martial Arts or Essence (whichever is higher). These count as dice added from Charms. This Charm is Obvious only to those who know of the style, though others may find the rhythmic, controlled, movements and mannerisms the character has adopted strange and enthralling.
Zephyr Stride Technique
Cost: 3m or 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Dance Through Life Attitude
The Dancers may move as the wind through the desert, surfaces that would be impossible to balance on they traverse with ease, they may even move up vertical surfaces as if they were walking on open terrain. The wind cares not whether it moves horizontally or vertically. At essence 2 the character us¬ing this Charm spends three motes and can then move or dash, normally, across impossibly narrow surfaces, such as tight ropes or clotheslines, or some other surface that would otherwise be impossible for him to balance on, effortlessly. His balance becomes infallible. At Essence 3 this Charm can be activated for two motes per action allowing the character to move with equal ease up vertical surfaces as well. If his turn ends while he is balanced impossibly or on a vertical surface she must reactivate the Charm or make an appropriately difficult (Dexterity + Athletics) check to maintain his balance or to find purchase on a vertical surface. Either iteration of this charm can be activated individually or both can be activated at once for 5m.
Sandstorm’s Pace Evocation
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dance Through Life Attitude
With the Deadly grace of a sandstorm the Dancers strike with speed that is beautiful and terrifying to behold, one attack follows another with speed and grace as the Dancer twirls towards her opponent with inhuman beauty and economy of motion. By activating this Charm the Dancer reduces the Speed of any single Martial Arts attack by one, to a minimum of 3.
Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Zephyr Stride Technique, Sandstorm Pace Evocation
The Dust dancer becomes a perpetual blur of whirling twisting motion, at once totally tantalizing and sensuous and utterly kinetic. Her feet barely touch the ground and she twirls about her opponent with wild abandon with all the beauty and weightless grace of sand dancing on the desert wind. Her Essence takes on the granulated aspect of sand and whirls about her, a perfect visual accompaniment to her endless dance. For the duration of this Charm the character ignores all mundane knockdown or knockback effects; she recovers her balance effortlessly, dancing on currents of air. She also gains +3 successes to resist magical effects which would knock her down and ignores penalties for unstable footing, stepping lightly over muck and other difficult terrain. Finally, just as the sand finds its way through all the cracks, so do her attacks slide through armor. Her unarmed martial arts attacks inflict piercing damage for the duration of the Charm.
Unyielding Fury of the Wind Tactic
Cost: 3m per attack, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
As the Dancer advances on her foe her movements turn from serene and graceful to take on the violent aspect of a sandstorm. She becomes a whirlwind of death, heartless and unforgiving, faster than the eye, overwhelming his foe. This Charm is a magical flurry. For every three motes, the Dancer makes an unarmed Martial Arts attack with his full dice pool, to a maximum number of attacks equal to his (Essence) rating.
Shifting Sands Rhythm
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Obscured behind a screen of, golden sand of Essence, dancing in an invisible breeze, the Dancer undulates sinuously behind this veil of essence, in perfect tandem with the violently churning. This Charm imposes an external penalty on incoming attacks equal to half the martial artist’s Essence for the rest of the action, rounded up. If an attacker succeeds on a reflexive Perception + Awareness roll at a difficulty of the practitioner’s Martial Arts, this penalty is reduced to -1.
Revelry of Travail and Peril
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 5)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Dust Dancer Form
Dancers not only overcome adversity, they take joy and pleasure in facing it down. They dance barefoot on the hottest sands and caper about merrily though the unforgiving sun beats down upon them and the dry desert stretches endlessly around them. Dancers laugh at their enemies when the fiend’s best efforts fail to harm the them. From this exultation and triumph they draw forth the strength the keep going. While the Charm is active, the player rolls the character’s permanent Essence whenever an opponent’s attack fails to overcome the character’s relevant DV. Each success on the roll replenishes two motes of spent Essence. This charm cannot recover more than (Essence) motes on a single roll. This Charm only functions if the character is faced with real danger (storyteller’s discretion); attacks not actually intended to leave the character harmed do not allow him to regain Essence, nor do attacks from characters with a permanent Essence more than three points below the Dancer’s.
Rapture and Fascination Pirouette
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Compulsion, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Revelry of Ecstasy and Peril, Shifting Sands Rhythm, Unyielding Fury of The Wind Tactic
The Dancer’s movements slow and become calm, languid and utterly hypnotic. The air around her becomes comfortable and warm and the world, from the observers perspective, fades from view. The martial artist’s player rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts), adding half their Performance (round down) successes to the roll. All characters who can see the martial artist compare the results of this roll to their MDV. Those whose MDVs do not negate the successes on the martial artist’s player’s roll find themselves transfixed in place, enraptured by the beauty of the dance and the perfect poise and grace of the Dust Dancer. For them there is nothing in the world but the dance. Characters whose highest MDV is lower than the Dust Dancer’s Essence will go so far as to attack people who try to interrupt the dance, even their own allies.
Hypnotized characters are rendered Inactive. They are completely unaware of their surroundings, except the dancer, and can do nothing but stare with rapt attention at the dancer, unless they spend one Willpower to shrug off this influence. Even those who spend Willpower to overcome the compulsion find themselves driven to distraction, suffering an internal penalty equal to the Exalt’s Essence to all dice pools. When the Dancer stops performing, the bewitchment slowly fades. In ongoing combat, the effects linger for a number of actions equal to the martial artist’s Essence. During this period, former victims suffer a penalty equal to half the Dancer’s Essence (round up).
The Wind Heeds Not The Blade
Cost: 1m per bhl or 2m per lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Rapture and Fascination Pirouette
Nothing is whole. Even granite is, at the atomic level, comprise of swirling particles, dust blown on the wind of Creation, the Dancers know this truth, it is the first axiom they are taught during their arduous training. It is a truth they embrace in all aspects of their lives, they dance to the rhythm of the universe an d feel its wind blow through their very beings. The Dust Dancers employ this Charm to physically embody this truth, making their own bodies, even momentarily, more space than matter. If the Dancer’s DV proves insufficient to stop an attack, the damage roll of which scores one or more successes in Step 8 of attack resolution, the Dancer may reflexively activate this Charm. When she does so, she reduces the damage the attack inflicts on her by one bashing health level per mote or one lethal level per two motes. Witnesses don’t see wounds open and heal, but rather they see the Dancer shift impossibly out of the way, often bending in places where she has no joints. These contortions are unnatural but always beautiful.
Fire Wind Unity Ascension
Cost: 10m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Elusive Wind Prana, The Wind Heeds Not The Blade
The Dancer, at this level, has become one with the Desert itself. She does not merely emulate the blistering sun, unforgiving night, and perilous windstorms through her dance, she becomes one with them. Her body’s movement are perfectly timed with the sand that swirls around her and it is no longer clear where she begins and the swirling sands, this is more than just an optical illusion, her body actually takes on the immaterial aspect of the heart of a storm, coming dangerously close to total non-existance. This charm, once activated, cause the martial artist to dissolve a whirling gale of sand and wind. She becomes a sentient environmental effect that with a radius of (her Essence x 3) yards. She has a Damage of (Martial Arts)L/Action and Trauma of (Essence). She may dash as a normal move action, and makes no sound. Though she must stay at ground level, she may move over any surface, however fragile and may pass through cracks and penings in doorways. While the Charm is active she may take no other actions other than to move, defend herself, or speak in a voice which sounds like a whisper on the wind (-2 to all social dice pools). Also, she may only be affected by things which can affect the immaterial. Because she is dispersed as motes of essence amidst a giant windstorm attackers must either have some form of essence sight active (like All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight) or be able to see the immaterial otherwise their attacks suffer penalties associated with fighting an invisible opponent.
This Charm, though exceedingly potent, is also highly risky to use. It brings the martial artist in dangerously close harmony to the elements of the desert. She risks losing herself entirely to the mindlessness of nature, truly becoming nothing but sand air and essence without any animating intelligence or soul. Should the character botch any roll while this Charm is active she must spend an additional Willpower or eternally become one with the desert, losing herself forever. If the character has no Willpower remaining, she suffers 1ahl of damage. Finally, the character may reflexively spend five motes and a Willpower at the end of this Charm’s duration to renew it. This counts as his charm activation.
Horse Style Is part of the 12 Celestial Animal Styles, ancient Celestial Styles, devised by some of the first serious practitioners of the Celestial Arts. Several such Celestial Animal styles endure even in the bleak second age, Horse style emphasizes powerful kicks, speedy movements. It may not be practiced in armor. It considers smashfists and god-kicking boots form weapons
Iron Shod Kick
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Lashing out with the swiftness and deadly stregth of a horse’s iron shoed kick, the martial artist’s unarmed attack becomes lethal and inflicts (Essence) additional raw damage. This Charm can enhance attacks other than kicks.
Buck The Rider
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Iron Shod Kick
The Horse begrudges the unworthy rider and will throw him to the earth for his presumption. In voking this Charm when he is subject to a clinch, the martial artist adds (his Martial Arts) successes to an attempt to oppose the clinch. Winning control, he may immediately opt to throw the clincher up to Strength + (Essence x2) yards in any direction. This throw may cause the character to take damage should she hit a dangerous surface, at the storyteller’s discretion. The surface always takes a number of levels of damage equal to the number of yards the character had yet to travel.
Slip the Bridle
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Buck The Rider
The Horse will not be tethered. Its natural place is running free across the plains and it will abide no restraint, nor brook no obstacle to its total freedom. This Charm allows the martial artist to prevent herself from ever being restrained. When she uses it, mundane chains and restraints instantly snap and fall away, magical forms of restraint can be ignored for (Essence x 2) actions. This charm adds two successes to the Martial Artist’s attempts to gain control of a clinch, but he must immediately extricate himself from the clinch should he gain control.
Weather The Lash
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Buck The Rider
A true stallion knows how to ignore the sting of the whip and the bite of the crop. They pay no head to such frivolous distractions, nor allow them to break their spirit. When a character invokes this Charm she may ignore up to (her Martial Arts) in wound penalties until her next action.
Horse Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Slip the Bridle, Weather The Lash
Adopting the poised yet balanced stance of the Horse, the Martial artist takes on the aspect of this majestic beast. His anima flares and might start to resemble a mane or indeed take on abstractly horse-like shape. While this Charm is active, the Exalt divides adds half his Martial Arts (round up) to his bashing and lethal soak and soaks lethal damage with his full Stamina. Finally, the martial artist’s fearsome kicks become increasingly dangerous. He adds a +1 bonus to the accuracy and damage traits of his kick attacks, and reduces their speed by one. (minimum 3).
Gallop On the Wind Method
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The Horse Runs swiftly, over terrain both flat and rolling and over land which lesser beasts have trouble traversing. Activating this Charm, the martial artist emulates the speed of the horse as well as her poise and grace. This Charm allows the character to add (Martial Arts) to his Move and Dash distance for the duration, and the most unstable or difficult terrains are no obstacle for him. He may effortlessly run over unstable footing and run lightly over surfaces which could not normally bear his weight, such as mud or extremely thin ice, or even water, as if it were the most perfectly paved road and takes no penalty for doing so. He may not stop moving on such a surface, however, or she will sink as usual.
Hoof From The Heaven's Blow
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Gallop On the Wind
The Exalt lashes out with a savage, and unexpected strike. The attacker is quiescent one moment, and violent the next, lashing out at his opponent in burst of unpredictable violence. The speed of this attack is such that it often even catches prepared foes unaware. Characters subject to an attack augmented by this Charm must make a normal check against surprise or this attack becomes unexpected, even if surprise could not normally be established. This attack is so fearsomely powerful that no armor can withstand it, attacks supplemented by this Charm ignore Hardness and deal piercing damage. Traditionally, sifus of this style taught their students to augment a kick with this Charm. However, this Charm can be applied to any unarmed Martial Arts attack.
Majesty of the Stallion Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Compulsion, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The Sight of a powerful warhorse rearing up in the distance or the spectacle of a cavalry charge bearing down on the enemy can have a powerful emotional effect on combatants, though the prescise nature of this effect varies consider ably depending on which side of the battle one is on. Activating this Charm the martial artist’s Essence harmonizes with the aspect of the charging stallion, the character’s anima billows up into this to¬temic image. The martial artist then rolls (Charisma+ Martial Arts) and compares it MDV of all opponents who can see him within (Essence x 3) yards (closing ones eyes does not block this effect). Enemy combatants,, thus overwhelmed, will be filled with awe and retreat. Until the Martial Artist’s next action affected characters must move away from her as fast as they are able. Resisting this compulsion costs 1wp and imposes an internal penalty of (Essence) against all actions which do not involve fleeing as quickly as possible.
The Pale Horse Neighs
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Majesty of the Stallion Stance
Throwing his head back and closing his eyes, the Horse Stylist raises an ululating whinny that is both terrifying and destructive. Glass and crystal shatter violently and nearby foes find their ears bleeding and their bodies overcome by debilitating nausea and vertigo. The martial artist makes one attack using his (Charisma+ Martial Arts), with a base bashing damage of his Charisma. The attack strikes everyone within (Martial Arts x 5) yards, except the martial artist himself, and it cannot be dodged or parried without a stunt or a Charm. The attack cannot be aimed and strikes everyone within its range. Even those it does not strike find themselves overcome with crippling nausea and dizziness, inflicting a two dice penalty to all actions until they’re next action.
Stampede of the Celestial Herd
Cost: 8m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Hoof from the Heavans Blow, The Pale Horse Neighs
A herd of powerful horses galloping over the open steppe is a wondrous and awesome thing to behold. Beneath their hooves even mighty Pasiap shudders, and their passing makes a sound like Mela’s roar. The Horse stylist learns to channel this force into themselves, becoming the embodiment of the running herd. The earth quakes gently about him and his churning anima mimics the thundering rumble of galloping hooves. For a number of actions equal to the character’s Martial Arts, the Horse stylist moves faster, tripling her move distance and halving the speed of any attack she makes (to a minimum of 2). The martial artist may take one free extra action, so long as it is not an attack, per turn. This extra action can be taken reflexively even on ticks when the character is not normally able to act. It cannot be used to activate a Charm, however it could be used to dash, without penalty, while parrying a rain of arrows, leaping over a chasm and attacking a foe without penalizing one’s dice pools. The character may take only one such extra action, per time her DV refreshes. Unused actions do not accumulate. Charms and Combos that could reasonably enhance these extra actions can be used, but must follow the normal rules governing Charm activations.
The Character pays the motes and Willpower cost up front, and may reflexively pay the cost again when the Charm’s duration lapses (doing so does counts as Charm use.) The mote and Willpower cost is reduced by one mote and one willpower per each activation after the first (so initially activating the Charm costs 10m, 2wp the first reactivation costs 7m, 1wp, the second 6m 1wp, and so on.) The cost of this Charm never dips below one mote and one Willpower.
Iron Shod Kick
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Lashing out with the swiftness and deadly stregth of a horse’s iron shoed kick, the martial artist’s unarmed attack becomes lethal and inflicts (Essence) additional raw damage. This Charm can enhance attacks other than kicks.
Buck The Rider
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Iron Shod Kick
The Horse begrudges the unworthy rider and will throw him to the earth for his presumption. In voking this Charm when he is subject to a clinch, the martial artist adds (his Martial Arts) successes to an attempt to oppose the clinch. Winning control, he may immediately opt to throw the clincher up to Strength + (Essence x2) yards in any direction. This throw may cause the character to take damage should she hit a dangerous surface, at the storyteller’s discretion. The surface always takes a number of levels of damage equal to the number of yards the character had yet to travel.
Slip the Bridle
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Buck The Rider
The Horse will not be tethered. Its natural place is running free across the plains and it will abide no restraint, nor brook no obstacle to its total freedom. This Charm allows the martial artist to prevent herself from ever being restrained. When she uses it, mundane chains and restraints instantly snap and fall away, magical forms of restraint can be ignored for (Essence x 2) actions. This charm adds two successes to the Martial Artist’s attempts to gain control of a clinch, but he must immediately extricate himself from the clinch should he gain control.
Weather The Lash
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Buck The Rider
A true stallion knows how to ignore the sting of the whip and the bite of the crop. They pay no head to such frivolous distractions, nor allow them to break their spirit. When a character invokes this Charm she may ignore up to (her Martial Arts) in wound penalties until her next action.
Horse Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Slip the Bridle, Weather The Lash
Adopting the poised yet balanced stance of the Horse, the Martial artist takes on the aspect of this majestic beast. His anima flares and might start to resemble a mane or indeed take on abstractly horse-like shape. While this Charm is active, the Exalt divides adds half his Martial Arts (round up) to his bashing and lethal soak and soaks lethal damage with his full Stamina. Finally, the martial artist’s fearsome kicks become increasingly dangerous. He adds a +1 bonus to the accuracy and damage traits of his kick attacks, and reduces their speed by one. (minimum 3).
Gallop On the Wind Method
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The Horse Runs swiftly, over terrain both flat and rolling and over land which lesser beasts have trouble traversing. Activating this Charm, the martial artist emulates the speed of the horse as well as her poise and grace. This Charm allows the character to add (Martial Arts) to his Move and Dash distance for the duration, and the most unstable or difficult terrains are no obstacle for him. He may effortlessly run over unstable footing and run lightly over surfaces which could not normally bear his weight, such as mud or extremely thin ice, or even water, as if it were the most perfectly paved road and takes no penalty for doing so. He may not stop moving on such a surface, however, or she will sink as usual.
Hoof From The Heaven's Blow
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Gallop On the Wind
The Exalt lashes out with a savage, and unexpected strike. The attacker is quiescent one moment, and violent the next, lashing out at his opponent in burst of unpredictable violence. The speed of this attack is such that it often even catches prepared foes unaware. Characters subject to an attack augmented by this Charm must make a normal check against surprise or this attack becomes unexpected, even if surprise could not normally be established. This attack is so fearsomely powerful that no armor can withstand it, attacks supplemented by this Charm ignore Hardness and deal piercing damage. Traditionally, sifus of this style taught their students to augment a kick with this Charm. However, this Charm can be applied to any unarmed Martial Arts attack.
Majesty of the Stallion Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Compulsion, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The Sight of a powerful warhorse rearing up in the distance or the spectacle of a cavalry charge bearing down on the enemy can have a powerful emotional effect on combatants, though the prescise nature of this effect varies consider ably depending on which side of the battle one is on. Activating this Charm the martial artist’s Essence harmonizes with the aspect of the charging stallion, the character’s anima billows up into this to¬temic image. The martial artist then rolls (Charisma+ Martial Arts) and compares it MDV of all opponents who can see him within (Essence x 3) yards (closing ones eyes does not block this effect). Enemy combatants,, thus overwhelmed, will be filled with awe and retreat. Until the Martial Artist’s next action affected characters must move away from her as fast as they are able. Resisting this compulsion costs 1wp and imposes an internal penalty of (Essence) against all actions which do not involve fleeing as quickly as possible.
The Pale Horse Neighs
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Majesty of the Stallion Stance
Throwing his head back and closing his eyes, the Horse Stylist raises an ululating whinny that is both terrifying and destructive. Glass and crystal shatter violently and nearby foes find their ears bleeding and their bodies overcome by debilitating nausea and vertigo. The martial artist makes one attack using his (Charisma+ Martial Arts), with a base bashing damage of his Charisma. The attack strikes everyone within (Martial Arts x 5) yards, except the martial artist himself, and it cannot be dodged or parried without a stunt or a Charm. The attack cannot be aimed and strikes everyone within its range. Even those it does not strike find themselves overcome with crippling nausea and dizziness, inflicting a two dice penalty to all actions until they’re next action.
Stampede of the Celestial Herd
Cost: 8m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Hoof from the Heavans Blow, The Pale Horse Neighs
A herd of powerful horses galloping over the open steppe is a wondrous and awesome thing to behold. Beneath their hooves even mighty Pasiap shudders, and their passing makes a sound like Mela’s roar. The Horse stylist learns to channel this force into themselves, becoming the embodiment of the running herd. The earth quakes gently about him and his churning anima mimics the thundering rumble of galloping hooves. For a number of actions equal to the character’s Martial Arts, the Horse stylist moves faster, tripling her move distance and halving the speed of any attack she makes (to a minimum of 2). The martial artist may take one free extra action, so long as it is not an attack, per turn. This extra action can be taken reflexively even on ticks when the character is not normally able to act. It cannot be used to activate a Charm, however it could be used to dash, without penalty, while parrying a rain of arrows, leaping over a chasm and attacking a foe without penalizing one’s dice pools. The character may take only one such extra action, per time her DV refreshes. Unused actions do not accumulate. Charms and Combos that could reasonably enhance these extra actions can be used, but must follow the normal rules governing Charm activations.
The Character pays the motes and Willpower cost up front, and may reflexively pay the cost again when the Charm’s duration lapses (doing so does counts as Charm use.) The mote and Willpower cost is reduced by one mote and one willpower per each activation after the first (so initially activating the Charm costs 10m, 2wp the first reactivation costs 7m, 1wp, the second 6m 1wp, and so on.) The cost of this Charm never dips below one mote and one Willpower.
Ox Style is another one of the 12 Celestial animal styles. It Focuses on strength, resilience and power. Its practitioners often have high temperance, and must have at least Resistance •• and Integrity •• to endure the harsh training students of this style must undergo. This style treats goremauls, tetsubos and grand goremauls as form weapons. This style may not be practiced in armor.
Stubborn Ox Stance
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
As any farmer can tell you when an Ox decides it will not move, there is no force in Creation that can budge it. Invoking this Charm allows the Ox stylist to become utterly stationary and immoveable. Using this Charm adds a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence to any attempt to resist being moved or knocked down, as from knockdown or knockback. Her ability to lock her joints and channel the immovable nature of the Ox also adds these successes to any opposed check to maintain a grapple, as long as she is not attempting to break the hold. More creative applications of this Charm allow the Ox stlyist to resist disarm attempts or in maintaining stability on footing which is unstable (such as in an earthquake). While this Charm is active the character may move and take actions as normal, but when he stops moving he is unmovable by outside forces.
Meditative Cud Chewing Resilience
Cost: 1m per 1L/2B soak; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Adopting the dull-eyed calm of the Ox in the field, the martial artist gains a measure of his capcity to whether hardship with equanimity. Each mote spent adds one to the character’s lethal soak and two to the character’s bashing soak. (This bonus does not count as armor, but as a form of natural soak.) The character cannot spend more motes of Essence to fuel this Charm than he has dots of Essence.
Shrugging the Yoke of the Flesh
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Meditative Cud Chewing Resilience, Stubborn Ox Stance
Strong and resolute the Ox stylist’s human frame is, itself, not a sufficiently capable of expressing his raw physical potency. Activating this Charm the martial artist s back ripples and his muscles strain against his flesh like those of the Celestial beast of burden this style emulates. Spending the requisite motes the martial artist’s Strength and Stamina increases by (Martial Arts ÷ 2, round up).
Celestial Ox Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Shrugging the Yoke of the Flesh
Taking the wide, low and very stable stance of the ox, the martial artist becomes as inexhaustible, strong, and willful as the Celestial Ox. The martial artist can soak with his full stamina, also he adds his Essence in dice to all Martial Arts attacks he makes. As a final bonus he may add Essence to his Strength + Athletics for the purpose of feats of strength, and may also parry lethal damage barehanded without a stunt.
Stoic Defense
Cost: 3m or 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Ox Form
The Ox appears powerful indeed, but also slow. There is truth to this, the Ox stylist knows he well never be the swiftest combatant, the most nimble defender. He does not wish to be. The Ox’s greatest defense is his sheer strength. He need never worry about being surprised, nor being overwhelmed, the Ox. One cannot catch him with his guard down, nor hope to overwhelm him, his power is absolute and immutable. Invoking this Charm in response an attack, the Ox stylist’s Essence emulates the aspect of the Invulnerable Oxen, and he gains, if only for a moment, a portion of it insurmountable stamina. Used in response to an attack, this Charm allows th Exalt to ignore all penalties to his Parry DV. It is still 0 if it is inapplicable, or if he is faced with a perfect attack. He may also parry lethal attacks barehanded, if he could not already do so. Finally, by spending an additional mote, he may use his Parry DV against an unexpected attack. This defense is particularly useful because it can activated reflexively even while the character is inactive and could not otherwise activate a Charm.
Diligent Field-Beasts Stamina
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Ox Form
The Celestial Ox Does cannot be easily laid low, he toils as long as he chooses despite heat, fatigue, or depravation. So too does the Ox stylist fight without regard for wounds or fatigue. For the Charm’s duration the martial artist does not suffer from penalties associated with fatigue or hunger, furthermore she cannot suffer wound penalties more severe than -2. Damage in¬flicted against her is still registered, however, she does not suf¬fer wound penalties and cannot be incapacitated. She does not fall until she loses her last Dying health level, at which point she dies immediately.
Plow Shares To Swords Approach
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Diligent Field-Beast’s Stamina
The Ox is not a violent beast, but when moved to aggression few things stand up to its might. With its head it can dent steel, its kick shatter bones and liquefy organ. This Charm imbues an Ox stylist’s attacks with this terrifying raw capacity for damage. If the character inflicts two or more levels of damage with an unarmed attack, he may reflexively activate this Charm to reduce the attack’s damage to only a single level of damage but inflict one amputation disability (see Exalted, p. 152) appropriate to the type of damage. A Lethal wound might mangle a limb while a bashing wound might crush a fist or shatter ribs. The injury does not actually sever any body part, merely damages it beyond usability. However, Exalted victims (and those with similar healing) can recover from the Crippling effect by spending a day resting, though they cannot heal any other wounds or other damage while regenerating this way.
Intractable Bovine Negation
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Stoic Defense
Of all the celestial animals the Ox alone had the sheer inflexibility of will to say “no” to the fundamental forces of Creation. With a simple, stubborn, shake of the head and a shrug of his powerful shoulders, the martial artist pays the cost to activate this Charm, and makes a simple (Willpower) Roll. With even one success the martial artist completely negates the damage from any attack. This functions as a perfect soak effect. The difficulty of the roll doubles, however, every time the Charm is used (so it’s 1 the first time, 2 the second, 4 the third and 8 the fourth). The difficulty of this roll resets to 1 every time the Martial Artist DV refreshes.
Stubborn Ox Stance
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
As any farmer can tell you when an Ox decides it will not move, there is no force in Creation that can budge it. Invoking this Charm allows the Ox stylist to become utterly stationary and immoveable. Using this Charm adds a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence to any attempt to resist being moved or knocked down, as from knockdown or knockback. Her ability to lock her joints and channel the immovable nature of the Ox also adds these successes to any opposed check to maintain a grapple, as long as she is not attempting to break the hold. More creative applications of this Charm allow the Ox stlyist to resist disarm attempts or in maintaining stability on footing which is unstable (such as in an earthquake). While this Charm is active the character may move and take actions as normal, but when he stops moving he is unmovable by outside forces.
Meditative Cud Chewing Resilience
Cost: 1m per 1L/2B soak; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Adopting the dull-eyed calm of the Ox in the field, the martial artist gains a measure of his capcity to whether hardship with equanimity. Each mote spent adds one to the character’s lethal soak and two to the character’s bashing soak. (This bonus does not count as armor, but as a form of natural soak.) The character cannot spend more motes of Essence to fuel this Charm than he has dots of Essence.
Shrugging the Yoke of the Flesh
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Meditative Cud Chewing Resilience, Stubborn Ox Stance
Strong and resolute the Ox stylist’s human frame is, itself, not a sufficiently capable of expressing his raw physical potency. Activating this Charm the martial artist s back ripples and his muscles strain against his flesh like those of the Celestial beast of burden this style emulates. Spending the requisite motes the martial artist’s Strength and Stamina increases by (Martial Arts ÷ 2, round up).
Celestial Ox Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Shrugging the Yoke of the Flesh
Taking the wide, low and very stable stance of the ox, the martial artist becomes as inexhaustible, strong, and willful as the Celestial Ox. The martial artist can soak with his full stamina, also he adds his Essence in dice to all Martial Arts attacks he makes. As a final bonus he may add Essence to his Strength + Athletics for the purpose of feats of strength, and may also parry lethal damage barehanded without a stunt.
Stoic Defense
Cost: 3m or 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Ox Form
The Ox appears powerful indeed, but also slow. There is truth to this, the Ox stylist knows he well never be the swiftest combatant, the most nimble defender. He does not wish to be. The Ox’s greatest defense is his sheer strength. He need never worry about being surprised, nor being overwhelmed, the Ox. One cannot catch him with his guard down, nor hope to overwhelm him, his power is absolute and immutable. Invoking this Charm in response an attack, the Ox stylist’s Essence emulates the aspect of the Invulnerable Oxen, and he gains, if only for a moment, a portion of it insurmountable stamina. Used in response to an attack, this Charm allows th Exalt to ignore all penalties to his Parry DV. It is still 0 if it is inapplicable, or if he is faced with a perfect attack. He may also parry lethal attacks barehanded, if he could not already do so. Finally, by spending an additional mote, he may use his Parry DV against an unexpected attack. This defense is particularly useful because it can activated reflexively even while the character is inactive and could not otherwise activate a Charm.
Diligent Field-Beasts Stamina
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Ox Form
The Celestial Ox Does cannot be easily laid low, he toils as long as he chooses despite heat, fatigue, or depravation. So too does the Ox stylist fight without regard for wounds or fatigue. For the Charm’s duration the martial artist does not suffer from penalties associated with fatigue or hunger, furthermore she cannot suffer wound penalties more severe than -2. Damage in¬flicted against her is still registered, however, she does not suf¬fer wound penalties and cannot be incapacitated. She does not fall until she loses her last Dying health level, at which point she dies immediately.
Plow Shares To Swords Approach
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Diligent Field-Beast’s Stamina
The Ox is not a violent beast, but when moved to aggression few things stand up to its might. With its head it can dent steel, its kick shatter bones and liquefy organ. This Charm imbues an Ox stylist’s attacks with this terrifying raw capacity for damage. If the character inflicts two or more levels of damage with an unarmed attack, he may reflexively activate this Charm to reduce the attack’s damage to only a single level of damage but inflict one amputation disability (see Exalted, p. 152) appropriate to the type of damage. A Lethal wound might mangle a limb while a bashing wound might crush a fist or shatter ribs. The injury does not actually sever any body part, merely damages it beyond usability. However, Exalted victims (and those with similar healing) can recover from the Crippling effect by spending a day resting, though they cannot heal any other wounds or other damage while regenerating this way.
Intractable Bovine Negation
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Stoic Defense
Of all the celestial animals the Ox alone had the sheer inflexibility of will to say “no” to the fundamental forces of Creation. With a simple, stubborn, shake of the head and a shrug of his powerful shoulders, the martial artist pays the cost to activate this Charm, and makes a simple (Willpower) Roll. With even one success the martial artist completely negates the damage from any attack. This functions as a perfect soak effect. The difficulty of the roll doubles, however, every time the Charm is used (so it’s 1 the first time, 2 the second, 4 the third and 8 the fourth). The difficulty of this roll resets to 1 every time the Martial Artist DV refreshes.
This is another Celestial Animal style, practiced only by those with a high compassion and a penchant for self sacrifice. This style emphasizes the virtues of sacrifice and selflessness. Practitioners of this style are beloved by the people, even if their lack of regard for their own lives means they rarely live long. This style may not be practiced in armor. It treats staves and wrackstaffs as form weapons.
Eyes of the Saint
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lamb stylist is, above all things, connected to the world around him. He is preternaturally attuned to the natural ebb and flow of the natural essences of the world and can sense his surroundings and the people in it with perfect acuity. When this Charm is active, the Lamb stylist can operate perfectly blindfolded or in pitch darkness, seeing things not through his eyes, but by feeling the Essence of the world around him. He never suffers from unexpected attacks unless he is so beset with foes that he cannot avoid all the blows (when surrounded by multiple opponents). When used outside of combat, he may add a number of dice equal to his Essence to any Awareness roll as long as the focus of his attention is within a number of yards equal to his (Essence x 10). This Charm cannot help him perceive creatures outside fate, their Essence is alien to creation and he is not sympathetically attuned to it. He can, however, detect when he is in the presence of something from outside fate by the hole in his perception it leaves.
Martyr’s Virtuous Interposition
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Eyes of the Saint
This Charm allows the martial artist to redirect an attack aimed at someone else to himself. For all purposes, including determining onslaught penalty, the attack becomes an attack on the Exalt. The character defends against the redirected attack as normal. To help someone, the attack’s original target must be within the martial artist’s close combat range, though he may use his normal Move action for the tick to reach them.
Sacrificial Lamb Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Martyr’s Virtuous Interposition
Those rare compassionate fighters who choose to learn the Sacrificial Lamb Style abhor violence even as they practice it a s an art form. These practitioners love all life are, in a real way, connected to it. They are loathe to end it, but that does not mean they are not effective warriors. Part of loving something is, after all, being able to defend it. Adopting this f orm the mar¬tial artist strikes blows using his fingers, palms, and complex patterns of delicate touches with his fingertips, specifically aimed at his opponents vital chakra points. This inflicts a very special type of bashing stunning damage. Treat it as bashing, but be¬cause the martial artist’s blows are in harmony with the essence of life, no living creature may use its natural soak against these attacks. Only armor soak is applicable. A character who suffers this special stunning damage doubles the effect of his wound penalties. The stunning damage heals naturally twice as fast as normal bashing damage. Inflicting stunning damage upon a target who is Incapacitated does not inflict lethal dam¬age or otherwise harm the target any further. While this form is active the martial artist may parry lethal damage while unarmed.
Life from Death Attitude
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Sacrificial Lamb Form
Just as the essence of life is bound to the cycle of life and death, decay and renewal, so to does the ever compassionate Sacrificial Lamb stylist harvest Essence from his own wounds. This Charm allows the martial artist to regain one mote for every dice of lethal damage rolled against him, or one mote for every two dice of bashing, after soak is applied. Alternately, at essence 3, he may regain one Willpower for every two successes on a post-soak damage roll.
Striking from Understanding Counter
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sacraficial Lamb Form
The Lamb gazes upon the violent souls of her opponents not with hate, but with pity. She knows the poison in their souls intimately and wishes only to see them rise above it. From this understanding and empathy she gains an unparalleled ability to thwart the violent tendencies of her adversaries.
Invoking this Charm, the martial artist understands her foes hostility and how best to .counter it. The martial artist then parries or dodges the attack, adding her Compassion score to the DV of her choice. Should she successfully defend herself, she may make a counterattack at her full dice pool. She may also add a number of extra dice to this counter equal to the number by which her DV exceeded the initial attack roll. This counter attack, if successful, must either inflict the special stunning damage as if the Form Charm were active, or otherwise does no damage, instead knocking the opponent back a number of yards equal the counterattack’s raw damage. Hitting something hard, mid-flight, might cause damage, but the counter blow itself does not.
Power From Wounds Prana
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Compassion 3, Essence 3; Type: Refexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Striking from Understanding Prana
Though the wounds of their enemies may weaken their bodies, the Lamb stylist can draw strength from such injury. Indeed, for every lethal wound he suffers in the tick he activates the Charm, the hartial artist may add a number of dice equal to the wound penalty that losing the health level imposes to a number of traits equal to the number of health lethal levels of damage he has currently lost. This Charm can augment any Attribute or Ability, but no other trait. The bonus dice cannot be split and must be all added to one trait. (For example, if Sue lost her third health level [a -2 in this case], and she activated the Charm, she would be entitled to give three traits a two-die bonus, one trait a four-die bonus and one trait a two-die bonus, or one trait a six-die bonus, but could not give six traits a one-die bonus). This bonus may exceed normal limits on dice added from Charms only when they are modifying values affected by wound penalties, and only insofar as they compensate for the wound penalty.
Gentle Submission Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling
Duration: Until Released
Prerequisite Charms: Life From Death Attitude
The Sacrificial Lamb never seeks to destroy his foe, such an concept is utterly alien to this styles philosophy. However, sometimes it is necessary to disable a particularly troubling enemy. This Charm supplements an unarmed Martial Arts attack, allowing the martial artist to strike a vital cluster of chakra points on the body with his fingertips. On a successful attack, the martial artist may spend four motes to force her enemy’s immediate submission. The target’s player rolls (Stamina + Integrity) at a difficulty of the Martial Artist’s Essence . If the roll fails, the target falls to his knees and cannot move from that spot unless the martial artist releases the charm. She can move past him, talk to him, offer words of guid¬ance and wisdom. Since her victim can’t stand or shift his legs, he cannot use his Dodge DV at all. Any physical action he manages to take suffers a -2 external penalty, and his Parry DV decreases by two. The target may, on his next action, spend a Willpower point for a (Stamina + Integrity) re-roll, the difficulty of which is reduced by one, but if he fails again, he remains at the martial artist’s mercy. The target remains crippled in this sway until they succeed in such a roll or until the difficulty drops to 0.
Curse of Empathy Technique
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Gentle Submission
The Lamb shares an empathic link to all creation around him, this is the source of his strength but also what motivates his extreme self sacrifice. Sometimes the callousness of his foes can only be countered by giving them a glimpse of the pain they cause others. Once an attack connects, the Exalt invokes this Charm to share the pain with her foe. For every level of damage (not every die of damage) the martial artist suffers, her attacker suffers two dice of unsoakable stunning damage.
Blood of the Lamb Renewal
Cost: 3m per hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5, -2 DV)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Power From Wounds
The Martial artist’s compassion knows no limits. His sympathetic link to the world around him is so strong he may even absorb the pain of others into his own body, where he can then heal them. All the martial artist must do is touch the injured subject and temporarily merge their Essences. The target then heals one health level for every three motes the Sacrificial Lamb stylist spends. The wounds pass from one party to the other, and the Lamb stylist immediately suffers the appropriate wound penalties, as the cuts and gashes appear on his body. This Charm can transfer any type of damage, even aggravated, but always transfers the most serious damage first.
The Lamb Bleeds for All
Cost: 10+m, 1+wp, 1 lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Curse of Empathy, Blood of the Lamb Renewal
The pinnacle Charm of the Style represents the ultimate act of empathy and compassion. Activating the Charm, the martial artist spreads his arms in a gesture of love and compassion for the world, golden essence expands from her open arms, cloying tendrils of golden essence wind their way through the air (Essence x 5) yards around the martial artist, these tendrils of vaprous golden Essence pass into the target’s mouth, nose and pores, saturating them with the martial artist’s compassionate Essence. The martial artist must spend the base cost of the Charm, plus two motes and one Willpower for each additional target after the first (up to the martial artist’s Essence).Thereafter, every time physical harm befalls the Lamb, it also befalls those attuned to him, conversely, should he heal damage, those affected by this Charm also are healed. Mechanically, this means that each level of damage that the character suffers is also suffered by those connected to him. The Sacraficial Lamb Masters avoid using this Charm to kill at all costs, however it is a possibility. Furthermore, should a character be using this Charm while she is killed, all those attuned to her must roll (Stamina+Resistance) against a difficulty of the martial artist’s Essence or immediately fall to incapacitated.
Eyes of the Saint
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lamb stylist is, above all things, connected to the world around him. He is preternaturally attuned to the natural ebb and flow of the natural essences of the world and can sense his surroundings and the people in it with perfect acuity. When this Charm is active, the Lamb stylist can operate perfectly blindfolded or in pitch darkness, seeing things not through his eyes, but by feeling the Essence of the world around him. He never suffers from unexpected attacks unless he is so beset with foes that he cannot avoid all the blows (when surrounded by multiple opponents). When used outside of combat, he may add a number of dice equal to his Essence to any Awareness roll as long as the focus of his attention is within a number of yards equal to his (Essence x 10). This Charm cannot help him perceive creatures outside fate, their Essence is alien to creation and he is not sympathetically attuned to it. He can, however, detect when he is in the presence of something from outside fate by the hole in his perception it leaves.
Martyr’s Virtuous Interposition
Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Eyes of the Saint
This Charm allows the martial artist to redirect an attack aimed at someone else to himself. For all purposes, including determining onslaught penalty, the attack becomes an attack on the Exalt. The character defends against the redirected attack as normal. To help someone, the attack’s original target must be within the martial artist’s close combat range, though he may use his normal Move action for the tick to reach them.
Sacrificial Lamb Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Martyr’s Virtuous Interposition
Those rare compassionate fighters who choose to learn the Sacrificial Lamb Style abhor violence even as they practice it a s an art form. These practitioners love all life are, in a real way, connected to it. They are loathe to end it, but that does not mean they are not effective warriors. Part of loving something is, after all, being able to defend it. Adopting this f orm the mar¬tial artist strikes blows using his fingers, palms, and complex patterns of delicate touches with his fingertips, specifically aimed at his opponents vital chakra points. This inflicts a very special type of bashing stunning damage. Treat it as bashing, but be¬cause the martial artist’s blows are in harmony with the essence of life, no living creature may use its natural soak against these attacks. Only armor soak is applicable. A character who suffers this special stunning damage doubles the effect of his wound penalties. The stunning damage heals naturally twice as fast as normal bashing damage. Inflicting stunning damage upon a target who is Incapacitated does not inflict lethal dam¬age or otherwise harm the target any further. While this form is active the martial artist may parry lethal damage while unarmed.
Life from Death Attitude
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: Sacrificial Lamb Form
Just as the essence of life is bound to the cycle of life and death, decay and renewal, so to does the ever compassionate Sacrificial Lamb stylist harvest Essence from his own wounds. This Charm allows the martial artist to regain one mote for every dice of lethal damage rolled against him, or one mote for every two dice of bashing, after soak is applied. Alternately, at essence 3, he may regain one Willpower for every two successes on a post-soak damage roll.
Striking from Understanding Counter
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sacraficial Lamb Form
The Lamb gazes upon the violent souls of her opponents not with hate, but with pity. She knows the poison in their souls intimately and wishes only to see them rise above it. From this understanding and empathy she gains an unparalleled ability to thwart the violent tendencies of her adversaries.
Invoking this Charm, the martial artist understands her foes hostility and how best to .counter it. The martial artist then parries or dodges the attack, adding her Compassion score to the DV of her choice. Should she successfully defend herself, she may make a counterattack at her full dice pool. She may also add a number of extra dice to this counter equal to the number by which her DV exceeded the initial attack roll. This counter attack, if successful, must either inflict the special stunning damage as if the Form Charm were active, or otherwise does no damage, instead knocking the opponent back a number of yards equal the counterattack’s raw damage. Hitting something hard, mid-flight, might cause damage, but the counter blow itself does not.
Power From Wounds Prana
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Compassion 3, Essence 3; Type: Refexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Striking from Understanding Prana
Though the wounds of their enemies may weaken their bodies, the Lamb stylist can draw strength from such injury. Indeed, for every lethal wound he suffers in the tick he activates the Charm, the hartial artist may add a number of dice equal to the wound penalty that losing the health level imposes to a number of traits equal to the number of health lethal levels of damage he has currently lost. This Charm can augment any Attribute or Ability, but no other trait. The bonus dice cannot be split and must be all added to one trait. (For example, if Sue lost her third health level [a -2 in this case], and she activated the Charm, she would be entitled to give three traits a two-die bonus, one trait a four-die bonus and one trait a two-die bonus, or one trait a six-die bonus, but could not give six traits a one-die bonus). This bonus may exceed normal limits on dice added from Charms only when they are modifying values affected by wound penalties, and only insofar as they compensate for the wound penalty.
Gentle Submission Technique
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling
Duration: Until Released
Prerequisite Charms: Life From Death Attitude
The Sacrificial Lamb never seeks to destroy his foe, such an concept is utterly alien to this styles philosophy. However, sometimes it is necessary to disable a particularly troubling enemy. This Charm supplements an unarmed Martial Arts attack, allowing the martial artist to strike a vital cluster of chakra points on the body with his fingertips. On a successful attack, the martial artist may spend four motes to force her enemy’s immediate submission. The target’s player rolls (Stamina + Integrity) at a difficulty of the Martial Artist’s Essence . If the roll fails, the target falls to his knees and cannot move from that spot unless the martial artist releases the charm. She can move past him, talk to him, offer words of guid¬ance and wisdom. Since her victim can’t stand or shift his legs, he cannot use his Dodge DV at all. Any physical action he manages to take suffers a -2 external penalty, and his Parry DV decreases by two. The target may, on his next action, spend a Willpower point for a (Stamina + Integrity) re-roll, the difficulty of which is reduced by one, but if he fails again, he remains at the martial artist’s mercy. The target remains crippled in this sway until they succeed in such a roll or until the difficulty drops to 0.
Curse of Empathy Technique
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Gentle Submission
The Lamb shares an empathic link to all creation around him, this is the source of his strength but also what motivates his extreme self sacrifice. Sometimes the callousness of his foes can only be countered by giving them a glimpse of the pain they cause others. Once an attack connects, the Exalt invokes this Charm to share the pain with her foe. For every level of damage (not every die of damage) the martial artist suffers, her attacker suffers two dice of unsoakable stunning damage.
Blood of the Lamb Renewal
Cost: 3m per hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5, -2 DV)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Power From Wounds
The Martial artist’s compassion knows no limits. His sympathetic link to the world around him is so strong he may even absorb the pain of others into his own body, where he can then heal them. All the martial artist must do is touch the injured subject and temporarily merge their Essences. The target then heals one health level for every three motes the Sacrificial Lamb stylist spends. The wounds pass from one party to the other, and the Lamb stylist immediately suffers the appropriate wound penalties, as the cuts and gashes appear on his body. This Charm can transfer any type of damage, even aggravated, but always transfers the most serious damage first.
The Lamb Bleeds for All
Cost: 10+m, 1+wp, 1 lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Curse of Empathy, Blood of the Lamb Renewal
The pinnacle Charm of the Style represents the ultimate act of empathy and compassion. Activating the Charm, the martial artist spreads his arms in a gesture of love and compassion for the world, golden essence expands from her open arms, cloying tendrils of golden essence wind their way through the air (Essence x 5) yards around the martial artist, these tendrils of vaprous golden Essence pass into the target’s mouth, nose and pores, saturating them with the martial artist’s compassionate Essence. The martial artist must spend the base cost of the Charm, plus two motes and one Willpower for each additional target after the first (up to the martial artist’s Essence).Thereafter, every time physical harm befalls the Lamb, it also befalls those attuned to him, conversely, should he heal damage, those affected by this Charm also are healed. Mechanically, this means that each level of damage that the character suffers is also suffered by those connected to him. The Sacraficial Lamb Masters avoid using this Charm to kill at all costs, however it is a possibility. Furthermore, should a character be using this Charm while she is killed, all those attuned to her must roll (Stamina+Resistance) against a difficulty of the martial artist’s Essence or immediately fall to incapacitated.
Sherwood
Luna's Concubine
Here are a few other Sidereal Martial Arts
This is from the Glories of the Most High: Maidens
Some say time is a River. A vast stream down which all people and events travel, carried, to the end of their days, by its irresistible flow. They are wrong. Time is not a river. It is a concept, which integrates the numerous manifestations of natural entropy, fate and causation into one continuous, but illusory, linear path. No, there is no objective flow of time, only the perception of one. And yet, events do flow in a sort of linear progression, causality is progressive and fate does, like a river, run its course. Perhaps Time is not a river, but it can be understood, and indeed manipulated, as one. It is from this wisdom that this style emerged. Indeed, much of its appeal is derived from the fact that, by manipulating the subsidiary realities that underpin an abstract concept, they have reified and empowered that concept in a way that few would imagine possible. The River Exists, not because it Exists, but because it could exist, and from that potential flows this style’s power. Exercising control over this power, they become daunting adversaries or valuable allies. They couple great destructive power with improbable insight, even for Sidereals, into the workings of Fate and the shape of things to come.
The Pattern Spiders loath this style’s subversion of the Loom’s power, Sidereal practitioners of this style often complain that they gain paradox far quicker, and have a harder time interacting with the Spiders. There is no proof of this, The pattern spiders certainly never betray their distaste openly, but the number of complaints continues to grow. Why the Spider’s seem to dislike this style is anyone’s guess. Those who are prone to arrogance say it is because they begrudge the river its power, believing that a mere concept, no more substantial than whatever ephemera comprises human thought, should exert power over their domain. Others cite the number of snarls and tangles in fate this style causes, which leads to extra work for the spiders. A small few whisper in hushed tones of this style’s uncertain origins and suggest that the River might have been a concept of primordial creation, which never was realized because Autocthon instead constructed the Loom, but which lingers on as a specter in the ambient essence of creation. “Certainly,” they say, “This would explain the unusual, often fate defying, but still Creation-bound, powers of this style.” Of course, everyone else says these people are crazy. It is known, however, that should there ever cease to be a living master of this style, the entire martial art would vanish from memory and need to be re-created, likely as something quite different, though no one is sure how this is known, or what the new style would be like. Indeed, perhaps it has already happened, there is no way to know. This is not a major concern as the style remains fairly popular.
This style is incompatible with armor and may not be used with weapons.
NB: The First three Charms of this style are Tiered, they become available as alternate powers for that Charm (at rising costs) when the Martial artist both meets their requirements and when he learns the Form. Some Speculate that there may be Second and Third Tier versions of the Elder Sutra C
but none have ever been found and attempts to discover them end, in failure or, in some cases, gruesome death.
Student Sutra of Time: Once There Was A Maiden who lived by a running stream
Running With the Current
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,Touch
Duration: Five-Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
All day she’d tend her garden,
Character’s Move and Dash action’s take place outside the normal flow of time. This allows her to move and dash 4x her normal distance per tick. She moves with such speed that body appears as a blur of color and motion. Though she moves swiftly, she is just as vulnerable to attack when she is not moving. However when she takes a dash action all attempts to target her body, which appears as nothing but a vague streak of color, with ranged attacks fail unless they are supplemented by Charms, and even then they suffer from a -5 external penalty. To her the world slows to a crawl, for she has separated herself, in some small way, from the normal flow of time, but to everyone else she is merely moving with impossible speed. The only time her motions return to their normal rate are when she is interacting with another entity physically or when she is not taking a Move or Dash action.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 8m 1wp) At this Level of Mastery the sidereal may apply the benefits of the first Charm to (essence) willing targets. She may also extend the duration of the first ch arm, for her own purposes, to One Scene. Finally, she may use her increased understanding of how to manipulate the Endless River to further separate herself from normal time. This Effect lasts Five Actions At this level of chronological de-synchronization she is further separated from the flow. The world around her becomes hazy. Faces are difficult to discern and the light appears muted and gloomy. While this Charm is active, her move and dash distances are multiplied by six, and no mundane attack can target her, even when stationary she still apart from times flow and therefore moves with speed that defies comprehension. Attacks enhanced by Charms may hit her, but they suffer a -5 external penalty, even while she is NOT taking a dash action. Her godlike speed makes her hit harder. Given the speed of her movements, even her weakest blows can pulp organs and break bones. Attacks made while this Charm is active add Martial Arts dice to the raw damage. However, due to her inhuman speed, it becomes difficult for the martial artist to target foes who move, from her perspective, at a snails pace. The blurring and light distorting effects of this more advanced speed, don’t help either. She takes a -3 internal penalty to all attack rolls against targets that are not ALSO using this Charm.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 15m 1wp) The final Tier of Understanding represents total mastery of the are of Running With the Current. She May, by paying th e mote cost for this third tier of this Charm she may extend the effects of the second tier version to a number of allies equal to her Essence. Or She may activate the most advanced version of this Charm, which lasts the standard 5 actions. The whole world seems to fade from view, even the brightest light seems dim and pale, people are utterly unrecognizable. Characters must succeed at a (Perception + Awareness) Check at a difficulty of 3 to identify the people she sees. She also suffers -6 internal penalty to non-inanimate target any opponent NOT Running With the Current, with an attack and a -3 penalty against anyone who is not using the 3rd tier version of the Charm. On the bright side, this Charm allows the character to move up to 1 mile per tick on a move action and 2 on a dash action. They are considered invalid targets for any attack that is not perfect, unless the attacker is also using at Running With the Flow. Even if this Charm is being used attacks still suffer a penalty of -4 if they are made with the first tier active or -2 if they are made with the second tier active. While this Charm is active the Sidereal’s unarmed attacks deal lethal damage, if they didn’t already, and she adds Martial Arts successes to the damage roll and counts 10’s twice. The wounds inflicted by these attacks are often spectacularly gory and explosive due to the high velocity of the attacks.
Refuge from the River
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Touch, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
She loved the blossoms, red and green
The martial artist touches an object that is no larger than a suit of armor and gently presses it outside the flow of time, giving it a modicum of permanence. The object becomes immune to mundane damage and wear and tear. Environmental effects do not harm it, nor do mundane attacks. This Charm offers no resistance against magical damage or decay, caused by Charms or sorcery, and cannot be used on an artifact or a living being. Furthermore it cannot affect an object outside of fate. Baring these restrictions any object affected by this Charm is utterly impervious to harm. This protection lasts for as long as the motes remain committed to this Charm. The Fate of an object affected by this Charm becomes rigid and immutable, this frustrates the pattern spiders who must work around it.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 10m 1wp) Functions the same as the First Tier Charm, but it can target objects as large as a yeddim. However, this object, because of the degree to which it is separated from the flow of time, becomes totally rigid. Clothing, armor, indeed anything that is meant to be flexible, or has moving parts becomes as rigid and unable to move or bend at all, even hinges do not function. By paying the price of for the Tier Two effect the Sid ereal can make an object already affected by the first tier of this Charm permanently timeless.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 12m 1wp) May make objects effected by the second tier permanent. Furthermore this Charm now affects objects the size of a manor house, temple, or any other large, but continuous, structure. This Charm’s powerful scope presses the object even further beyond the flow of time. Items thus affected may not be moved at all, no part of them can bend, hinge or change position (Should such a structure be capable of changing positions then it, itself, becomes immovable). This can, needless to say, be beneficial. A final application of the third teir is the ability to, for no longer than one scene, make an Item already affected by the first or second Charm impervious even to sorcery or magic for one scene. After this time that character can never use any iteration of this Charm on that object again. The pattern spiders firmly reinforce it’s attachment to the power of Fate.
Rust and Renewal Duality
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
By dusk the petals withered and the River Carried them Away
Time is A River. Like a river its flow can be re-directed to nurture a region, to starve it of water, or to drown it in a flood. The Martial artist who uses this Charm can use his command over the endless procession of time to cause objects to instantly grow older or younger. With a touch a character may age a single object, or part of a structure, by 50 years. He could cause a door to rot and rust, a sapling to grow into a fully grown tree, or a dead body to turn to ash and bone. He can also reverse the effects of aging on an object. Advancing an obect forward through time only causes it to undergo natural processes such as maturation and decay, therefore this Charm cannot be used to speed crafting. However it could be used to unmake a crafted item (by winding it back through the flow of time until it unraveled into its component parts.) This effect is instantaneous, allowing for a character to use it for any number of interesting stunts, from raising a fully grown tree out of the ground in front of her for cover against archery, to causing the wooden floor of a building to rot and turn to dust, or to turn an opponent’s weapons or armor to useless bits of rust. Using this Charm to alter a piece of an opponent’s equipment requires a successful (Dexterity + Martial Arts) attack which suffers the normal penalties for a called shot, it may also be activated by a martial artist who is in control of a clinch.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 8m 1wp) At this level, the martial artist may choose advance an object even faster down the Endless river. She may age an object she 100 years.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 10m 2wp) At this level the sidereal may age an object 1000 years, causing even the hardiest of materials to decay and fall apart.
Gazing Upstream
Cost: 7m Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 4)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Refuge From the River, Rust and Renewal Duality, Running With The Current
She did not mourn their passing;.
The Sidereal is conscious enough of his place in Time’s flow that he can peer into the wake of specific entities and see where they have been and what they have done. The martial artist rolls Perception + Martial Arts + Essence against the target’s MDV. If he succeeds he then rolls (Essence + extra successes) to learn the value of four of the character’s Abilities or attributes, plus every everything that happened to them for a number of days equal to the successes rolled. Should the Storyteller see fit, the martial artisist may also learn about any formative events in the character’s past. This knowledge comes to him all at one, washing over him in a wave of understanding.
Endless River of Seconds and Hours Form
Cost: 12m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Gazing Upstream
She’d plant again the next day.
The Sidereal parts the waters of time and steps into the space between instants. Still a part of the flow of time, and yet utt erly separate from it, the Sidereal slips even outside the power of the loom. He becomes an observer of the river’s flow, aware of its totality, of its course, but not caught up in its currents. This has profound effects on how the world appears to the sidereal. Events around him slow to an impossible crawl, as if the world were submerged in thick molasses. His perspective widens and he gains a 360 degree field of view. More impressively, his sight stretches a few moments into the future as well. He sees not just the present, the events of the next few seconds. Phantoms of events that are about to occur or of actions that will soon be taken presage the actual events or actions by several seconds. This prescient vision is superimposed on his normal field of view, but, because everything moves so slowly, does not distract or hinder his sight. This prescience does not extend to his other senses, he cannot hear, touch or smell anything that hasn’t happened yet. He may, however, as a diceless reflexive action examine any character he can see and know what, if any, action they, as of the moment he looks at them,will take in the next six-ticks, or the next time they can act (whichever comes first).
This information should be general, but subject to change only if something interacts with that character in a way which would force him to change his intention, the knowledge the the Sidereal gains is general and along the lines of “Attack character X, Run Away, Cast a Spell” etc. Once this ability is used, the Sidereal must wait for his dice pool to refresh before it can be used again. The Sidereal is automatically attuned to his own fate and can sense immediately whenheis subject to an attack. He is immune to surprise and can detect traps automatically as long as the Charm is active. Because his sight encompases 360 degrees even attacks which come from behind do not come as a surprise.
Finally, He is also aware of any immediate threat to any ally within (Essence x 3) yards who he can currently see. Should he choose to reflexively spend 3 motes, he vanishes blur of motion, rushing to his companion’s aid with speed possible only to someone who stands apart from time. Interposing himself between his ally and their assailant, he immediately becomes the target of the attack and may parry or use defensive Charms, but not dodge, on her ally’s behalf. All the awarenes enchancing effects of this Charm automatically fail to register creatures outside fate (Certain raksha and other Sideareals using this Form), and beings which are truly invisible.(such as through the Charm Dematerialize). This Charm automatically ends if the Sidereal is subject to a Charm which brings him back under the Loom’s power.
26 Chapter Three • The Lotus Blossom
Mountain Carving Passage
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Endless Stream of Seconds and Hours Form
Elder Sutra of Time: The Maiden loved the river
The martial artist skips over the surface of the river of time, dancing around the same moment like an exotic insect balancing on the surface of a flowing brook. Thus his speed is augmented a thousand fold and, for an instant, his omnipresent. The Sidereal Makes three unarmed Martial Arts attacks with her full dice pool. Every opponent within a seven-yard radius of her is subject to each attack and must defend against them as normal. A legion ghostly, flickering, images of the martial artist seem to permeate the entire area, blinking in and out of existence and striking at his opponents. The martial artist ignores counterattacks, except those which inflict damage on anyone who touches the target, such as anima power of the fire aspected Dragon-Blooded, for she most still be in contact with the character to affect them. Normal attempts to strike at the flickering images of the martial artist fail. The martial artist is not, after all, there. She is everywhere.
Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
Cost: 12m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mountain Carving Passage
For All the world flowed through it.
The river meanders on, and all things in its flow eventually are worn away. For this is the river’s nature. So too, does time eventually wear down even the greatest of titans. As a practitioner of this style advances towards mastery, he learns to cause people to suffer the ravages of time farm more rapidly. A character using may strike any visible target, regardless of how far away they are. Activating this Charm the character traverses the distance between him and his target instantaneously and strikes a blow which channels the full force of millennia directly into their body. This attack inflicts its damage normally, adding the martial artist’s Essence as automatic successes on the damage roll.
The target’s player must also attempt a reflexive (Stamina + Integrity) roll against a difficulty equal to the Sidereal’s Essence. If that roll fails, the weave of that person’s fate crumbles into to glittering motes dust on the loom as thousands of years of life and hardship are channeled into it with unstoppable force. The victim’s their skin rots, turns to ash, and they crumble into a pile of ash and bone. This process takes five ticks, during which time, unless the character is protected by an effect, which negates shaping (Such as Integrity-Protecting Prana), or takes her out of the loom’s power. This will halts the Charm’s effects, but will not reverse them. Even if she should be saved, she suffers a number of levels of aggravated damage equal to the number of ticks that elapsed before she could be saved, this is often enough to kill on its own.
Cut From the Flow Practice
Cost: 10m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Shaping, Combo-Basic
Duration: Varies
Prerequisite Charms: Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
She tarried by the river and longed for its touch,
With a few well placed touches the Sidereal can set a living being free from the flow of time itself. This requires a simple touch, or a successful unarmed Martial Arts attack if the subject is unwilling. This Charm functions similar to Refuge from the river except that it can be applied to living beings. Mortals subject to this Charm gain 10L/10B natural soak and a hardness of 5. They also ignore all sources of mundane and environmental damage. Indeed, any mundane attempt to alter the character’s form automatically fails. Tattooing needles break against his skin, wounds cannot be closed, but no blood is lost. His body is ageless and unalterable. The minds of those who have been Cut From the Flow are equally static, they ignore all natural mental influence (even if it is in line with their motivation), not supplemented by Charms. Though a character targeted by this Charm no longer requires sustenance, he can also no longer eat, or drink, and doing so causes them to vomit violently. Most shockingly of all, the character can no longer spend experience to learn knew skills, develop attributes, or improve virtues. His mind has become too rigid and immutable. Being cut from the flow of time also cuts them out of fate itself. Magical effects bypass this protection, although the soak and hardness still applies. Effects, which bring a character back under Fate’s power, end this Charm immediately.
Cut From the Flow has significantly reduced effects against exalts. Their essence structures are already permanent, and are not as mutable as a Mortal’s, nor are they as easily displaced from time’s flow. An Exalt targeted by this Charm may reflexively resist this Charm by succeeding at a (Stamina + Integrity) roll at a difficulty of the Sidereal’s essence. Even if they are effected by this Charm, they may spend two willpower to dismiss its effects for a day. This Charm is dispelled once they spend a number of willpower equal to the Sidereal’s Essence. They also only gain half as much soak and hardness. They may still be pressed outside of fate through this Charm’s use and are still made impervious to non-magical harm, but they may resist this effect with Charms or Lunars with tattoos may not be affected by this Charm. This Charm remains active as long as the Sidereal keeps motes committed. Its effects may be made permanent by expending one point of permanent Essence.
Striding Upstream Practice
Cost: 14m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6; Essence 7;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Two Days
Prerequisite Charms: Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
But the river could not love her and be the River
To a Master of this style misfortune is something that happens to other people. When she learns this Charm, the character’s understanding of the temporal river is so comprehensive that he may wade against its current, a little bit anyway. The Sidereal commits Essence to the Charm and executes an elaborate kata as only an Endless River stylist could, by performing all 108 postures simultaneously. The sight of this kata is as beautiful as it is mind-bendingly impossible. This Essence-fueled temporal distortion the sidereal generates cuts that instant off from the normal flow of time and preserves it in a chrysalis of essence.
For the next two days, as long as the Sidereal keeps her Essence committed, a perfect metaphysical imprint character’s physical self, as they were at the moment they executed the kata, is isolated from the time stream. While this effect is in place, the Sidereal may act without fear, because she knows that she can, at a moment’s s notice substitute her current state of being for the ‘saved’ one. She need only reflexively spend a point of willpower and her body is restored to condition it was in when she activated the Charm. Mechanically, her All her traits, permanent or temporary, instantly revert to exactly what they were when she activated this Charm.
If the character dies while motes are committed to this Charm, and she has willpower to available, the reset effect will trigger automatically, effectively returning a character to life. This effect is not flashy, or necessarily obvious, but it can be. If a poisoned sidereal uses this Charm, then she appears to simply have shrugged off the poison’s effects. However, if a Sidereal is bleeding and near death one moment and then utterly refreshed and unscathed a second later, observers will likely suspect the supernatural. This Charm suffers from two major restrictions. It cannot be used to negate the cost of Charms or spells that require the character to spend permanent Willpower or Essence to fuel (such as the Greater Sign of the Maidens). Also, once it has been used, the Kata must be re-performed and essence re-committed before it can be used again. Given the level of concentration required, this is not possible to do during battle. The pattern spiders resent the snarls and tangles in the loom that this Charm causes. The punish users of this style for their presumption in meddling with the causal flow of the world, and for making their hectic lives that much more busy.
Prison of the Frozen Instant
Cost: 20m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Cut from the Flow Practice, Striding Upstream Practice
So the River did not touch Her
Time is not a river, but it flows like one, and each person leaves a wake as he travels down the endless stream of moments. In this wake there are ripples and eddies and vortices where tried to hold on to a moment, to futile though it may be, to balk the flow of time. Inevitably, no one can truly resist the currents of the River of Ages, and such moments slip away. The act of resistance leaves a permanent mark upon the character’s being, a mark that denotes a time that was, for whatever reason, especially dear to the character. This Charm exploits such foolish attachments.
This Charm supplements an unarmed clinch attack. On a successful clinch the martial artist studies the ripples and eddies of the character’s past. He then rolls his (Essence + Martial Arts + Perception), which may benefit from Excellencies as usual, against his victim’s MDV. If he succeeds, he selects a particularly powerful moment in the character’s past and hurls the character right into the middle of it. The victim of this Charm vanishes from this world and is emersed in a second, self contained, universe that exists elsewhere, this universe is comprised entirely of a blissful or otherwise significant moment in the character’s life preserved for eternity.
The martial artist does not know what the moment is, only that it is dear to her target, who will be disinclined to escape from this paradise. The victim appears in this world, disoriented and unsure of what happened. He must succeed in a (Perception + Occult) roll a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s extra successes on the initial (Essence + Martial Arts + Perception) to even recognize the illusory world for what is. This roll’s difficulty reduces by one each time it is attempted until the character succeeds. Even then, she must spend 3 willpower to escape the illusion. Time passes irregularly in this semi-real world, and this escape should be dramatic, resulting in the character coming to terms with his loss and shedding old attachments. He emerges from the world with full Essence pools and renewed resolve. If the Storyteller decides to roleplay out his time in this phantom world, then it would be appropriate to give him some small experience reward.
Either way, the next time the character sleeps she regains all her spent virtue channels and regains all her willpower. This effect is potent and sidereal practitioners of this style often use this technique on themselves and their students to train them to come to grips with loss and adopt a level of detachment appropriate to a master of this style. A character affected by this Charm is Elsewhere while imprisoned and cannot be harmed.
Kingdom Drowned in the River
Cost: 15m, 2wp or 25m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 7, Essence 7; Type: Simple (DV -3)
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Prison of the Frozen Instant
So she lingers by its banks and hopes that one day it will.
This Charm reflects a perfect understanding of the Metaphor of the Endless River. Through it she exerts true control over the flow of time to great destructive consequence. Weaving her hands through the air, she catches the strands of fate her fists and snarls them into a great tangle. Then, with a great force and savage purpose she rends them asunder, unraveling creation itself around her. A circle of desolation spreads out from her body in all directions, reducing her surrounding ito the ash dust, and base elements from whence it came and to which it must surely return.
This zone of instant entropy extends from her body for 60 yards, at a cost of 15 motes, or 100 yards for 25 motes. Either way, activation also costs two Willpower. Anything living creature caught in the entropic wave suffer 10 dice of aggravated damage and, which is unblockable, undodgeable and bypasses armored soak and hardness. Indeed, the entropic wave is so potent that mundane weapons and armor instantly rust and corrode, being destroyed or rendered useless. The desolation is pervasive, and passes into any structure less air tight than a fallout shelter. This Charm’s use leaves the landscape desolate. Plant life, if any survives, is dead and petrified. Buildings, which might have been new a moment earlier, now resmble thousand year old ruins. This cosmetic degradation takes place even if the actual effect doesn’t seriously damage the structure. The dragon-lines of the area affected by this Charm are tainted by the flood of degenerative essence. Though the area is not, necessarily, going to become a shadowland, it is certainly possible, especially if this Charm is used more than once in the same area. Regardless, characters in the region respire essence as if they were within a shadowland, plants do not grow there, and animals avoid the region. If used within a demesne it temporarily lowers that demesne’s rating by half. Used within a manse it could, at Storyteller’s discretion, cause the manse to suffer the effects of power failure, or similar mishap.
Finally, because this Charm temporarily subverts and destroys the area’s connection to the loom, the entire area is considered outside fate as long as the taint lingers. This miasma of decay remains in place for a number of weeks equal to the martial artist’s Essence.
The Pattern Spiders loath this style’s subversion of the Loom’s power, Sidereal practitioners of this style often complain that they gain paradox far quicker, and have a harder time interacting with the Spiders. There is no proof of this, The pattern spiders certainly never betray their distaste openly, but the number of complaints continues to grow. Why the Spider’s seem to dislike this style is anyone’s guess. Those who are prone to arrogance say it is because they begrudge the river its power, believing that a mere concept, no more substantial than whatever ephemera comprises human thought, should exert power over their domain. Others cite the number of snarls and tangles in fate this style causes, which leads to extra work for the spiders. A small few whisper in hushed tones of this style’s uncertain origins and suggest that the River might have been a concept of primordial creation, which never was realized because Autocthon instead constructed the Loom, but which lingers on as a specter in the ambient essence of creation. “Certainly,” they say, “This would explain the unusual, often fate defying, but still Creation-bound, powers of this style.” Of course, everyone else says these people are crazy. It is known, however, that should there ever cease to be a living master of this style, the entire martial art would vanish from memory and need to be re-created, likely as something quite different, though no one is sure how this is known, or what the new style would be like. Indeed, perhaps it has already happened, there is no way to know. This is not a major concern as the style remains fairly popular.
This style is incompatible with armor and may not be used with weapons.
NB: The First three Charms of this style are Tiered, they become available as alternate powers for that Charm (at rising costs) when the Martial artist both meets their requirements and when he learns the Form. Some Speculate that there may be Second and Third Tier versions of the Elder Sutra C
but none have ever been found and attempts to discover them end, in failure or, in some cases, gruesome death.
Student Sutra of Time: Once There Was A Maiden who lived by a running stream
Running With the Current
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,Touch
Duration: Five-Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
All day she’d tend her garden,
Character’s Move and Dash action’s take place outside the normal flow of time. This allows her to move and dash 4x her normal distance per tick. She moves with such speed that body appears as a blur of color and motion. Though she moves swiftly, she is just as vulnerable to attack when she is not moving. However when she takes a dash action all attempts to target her body, which appears as nothing but a vague streak of color, with ranged attacks fail unless they are supplemented by Charms, and even then they suffer from a -5 external penalty. To her the world slows to a crawl, for she has separated herself, in some small way, from the normal flow of time, but to everyone else she is merely moving with impossible speed. The only time her motions return to their normal rate are when she is interacting with another entity physically or when she is not taking a Move or Dash action.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 8m 1wp) At this Level of Mastery the sidereal may apply the benefits of the first Charm to (essence) willing targets. She may also extend the duration of the first ch arm, for her own purposes, to One Scene. Finally, she may use her increased understanding of how to manipulate the Endless River to further separate herself from normal time. This Effect lasts Five Actions At this level of chronological de-synchronization she is further separated from the flow. The world around her becomes hazy. Faces are difficult to discern and the light appears muted and gloomy. While this Charm is active, her move and dash distances are multiplied by six, and no mundane attack can target her, even when stationary she still apart from times flow and therefore moves with speed that defies comprehension. Attacks enhanced by Charms may hit her, but they suffer a -5 external penalty, even while she is NOT taking a dash action. Her godlike speed makes her hit harder. Given the speed of her movements, even her weakest blows can pulp organs and break bones. Attacks made while this Charm is active add Martial Arts dice to the raw damage. However, due to her inhuman speed, it becomes difficult for the martial artist to target foes who move, from her perspective, at a snails pace. The blurring and light distorting effects of this more advanced speed, don’t help either. She takes a -3 internal penalty to all attack rolls against targets that are not ALSO using this Charm.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 15m 1wp) The final Tier of Understanding represents total mastery of the are of Running With the Current. She May, by paying th e mote cost for this third tier of this Charm she may extend the effects of the second tier version to a number of allies equal to her Essence. Or She may activate the most advanced version of this Charm, which lasts the standard 5 actions. The whole world seems to fade from view, even the brightest light seems dim and pale, people are utterly unrecognizable. Characters must succeed at a (Perception + Awareness) Check at a difficulty of 3 to identify the people she sees. She also suffers -6 internal penalty to non-inanimate target any opponent NOT Running With the Current, with an attack and a -3 penalty against anyone who is not using the 3rd tier version of the Charm. On the bright side, this Charm allows the character to move up to 1 mile per tick on a move action and 2 on a dash action. They are considered invalid targets for any attack that is not perfect, unless the attacker is also using at Running With the Flow. Even if this Charm is being used attacks still suffer a penalty of -4 if they are made with the first tier active or -2 if they are made with the second tier active. While this Charm is active the Sidereal’s unarmed attacks deal lethal damage, if they didn’t already, and she adds Martial Arts successes to the damage roll and counts 10’s twice. The wounds inflicted by these attacks are often spectacularly gory and explosive due to the high velocity of the attacks.
Refuge from the River
Cost: 6m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Touch, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
She loved the blossoms, red and green
The martial artist touches an object that is no larger than a suit of armor and gently presses it outside the flow of time, giving it a modicum of permanence. The object becomes immune to mundane damage and wear and tear. Environmental effects do not harm it, nor do mundane attacks. This Charm offers no resistance against magical damage or decay, caused by Charms or sorcery, and cannot be used on an artifact or a living being. Furthermore it cannot affect an object outside of fate. Baring these restrictions any object affected by this Charm is utterly impervious to harm. This protection lasts for as long as the motes remain committed to this Charm. The Fate of an object affected by this Charm becomes rigid and immutable, this frustrates the pattern spiders who must work around it.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 10m 1wp) Functions the same as the First Tier Charm, but it can target objects as large as a yeddim. However, this object, because of the degree to which it is separated from the flow of time, becomes totally rigid. Clothing, armor, indeed anything that is meant to be flexible, or has moving parts becomes as rigid and unable to move or bend at all, even hinges do not function. By paying the price of for the Tier Two effect the Sid ereal can make an object already affected by the first tier of this Charm permanently timeless.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 12m 1wp) May make objects effected by the second tier permanent. Furthermore this Charm now affects objects the size of a manor house, temple, or any other large, but continuous, structure. This Charm’s powerful scope presses the object even further beyond the flow of time. Items thus affected may not be moved at all, no part of them can bend, hinge or change position (Should such a structure be capable of changing positions then it, itself, becomes immovable). This can, needless to say, be beneficial. A final application of the third teir is the ability to, for no longer than one scene, make an Item already affected by the first or second Charm impervious even to sorcery or magic for one scene. After this time that character can never use any iteration of this Charm on that object again. The pattern spiders firmly reinforce it’s attachment to the power of Fate.
Rust and Renewal Duality
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
By dusk the petals withered and the River Carried them Away
Time is A River. Like a river its flow can be re-directed to nurture a region, to starve it of water, or to drown it in a flood. The Martial artist who uses this Charm can use his command over the endless procession of time to cause objects to instantly grow older or younger. With a touch a character may age a single object, or part of a structure, by 50 years. He could cause a door to rot and rust, a sapling to grow into a fully grown tree, or a dead body to turn to ash and bone. He can also reverse the effects of aging on an object. Advancing an obect forward through time only causes it to undergo natural processes such as maturation and decay, therefore this Charm cannot be used to speed crafting. However it could be used to unmake a crafted item (by winding it back through the flow of time until it unraveled into its component parts.) This effect is instantaneous, allowing for a character to use it for any number of interesting stunts, from raising a fully grown tree out of the ground in front of her for cover against archery, to causing the wooden floor of a building to rot and turn to dust, or to turn an opponent’s weapons or armor to useless bits of rust. Using this Charm to alter a piece of an opponent’s equipment requires a successful (Dexterity + Martial Arts) attack which suffers the normal penalties for a called shot, it may also be activated by a martial artist who is in control of a clinch.
Second Tier: (Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; 8m 1wp) At this level, the martial artist may choose advance an object even faster down the Endless river. She may age an object she 100 years.
Third Tier: (Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; 10m 2wp) At this level the sidereal may age an object 1000 years, causing even the hardiest of materials to decay and fall apart.
Gazing Upstream
Cost: 7m Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 4)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Refuge From the River, Rust and Renewal Duality, Running With The Current
She did not mourn their passing;.
The Sidereal is conscious enough of his place in Time’s flow that he can peer into the wake of specific entities and see where they have been and what they have done. The martial artist rolls Perception + Martial Arts + Essence against the target’s MDV. If he succeeds he then rolls (Essence + extra successes) to learn the value of four of the character’s Abilities or attributes, plus every everything that happened to them for a number of days equal to the successes rolled. Should the Storyteller see fit, the martial artisist may also learn about any formative events in the character’s past. This knowledge comes to him all at one, washing over him in a wave of understanding.
Endless River of Seconds and Hours Form
Cost: 12m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Gazing Upstream
She’d plant again the next day.
The Sidereal parts the waters of time and steps into the space between instants. Still a part of the flow of time, and yet utt erly separate from it, the Sidereal slips even outside the power of the loom. He becomes an observer of the river’s flow, aware of its totality, of its course, but not caught up in its currents. This has profound effects on how the world appears to the sidereal. Events around him slow to an impossible crawl, as if the world were submerged in thick molasses. His perspective widens and he gains a 360 degree field of view. More impressively, his sight stretches a few moments into the future as well. He sees not just the present, the events of the next few seconds. Phantoms of events that are about to occur or of actions that will soon be taken presage the actual events or actions by several seconds. This prescient vision is superimposed on his normal field of view, but, because everything moves so slowly, does not distract or hinder his sight. This prescience does not extend to his other senses, he cannot hear, touch or smell anything that hasn’t happened yet. He may, however, as a diceless reflexive action examine any character he can see and know what, if any, action they, as of the moment he looks at them,will take in the next six-ticks, or the next time they can act (whichever comes first).
This information should be general, but subject to change only if something interacts with that character in a way which would force him to change his intention, the knowledge the the Sidereal gains is general and along the lines of “Attack character X, Run Away, Cast a Spell” etc. Once this ability is used, the Sidereal must wait for his dice pool to refresh before it can be used again. The Sidereal is automatically attuned to his own fate and can sense immediately whenheis subject to an attack. He is immune to surprise and can detect traps automatically as long as the Charm is active. Because his sight encompases 360 degrees even attacks which come from behind do not come as a surprise.
Finally, He is also aware of any immediate threat to any ally within (Essence x 3) yards who he can currently see. Should he choose to reflexively spend 3 motes, he vanishes blur of motion, rushing to his companion’s aid with speed possible only to someone who stands apart from time. Interposing himself between his ally and their assailant, he immediately becomes the target of the attack and may parry or use defensive Charms, but not dodge, on her ally’s behalf. All the awarenes enchancing effects of this Charm automatically fail to register creatures outside fate (Certain raksha and other Sideareals using this Form), and beings which are truly invisible.(such as through the Charm Dematerialize). This Charm automatically ends if the Sidereal is subject to a Charm which brings him back under the Loom’s power.
26 Chapter Three • The Lotus Blossom
Mountain Carving Passage
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Endless Stream of Seconds and Hours Form
Elder Sutra of Time: The Maiden loved the river
The martial artist skips over the surface of the river of time, dancing around the same moment like an exotic insect balancing on the surface of a flowing brook. Thus his speed is augmented a thousand fold and, for an instant, his omnipresent. The Sidereal Makes three unarmed Martial Arts attacks with her full dice pool. Every opponent within a seven-yard radius of her is subject to each attack and must defend against them as normal. A legion ghostly, flickering, images of the martial artist seem to permeate the entire area, blinking in and out of existence and striking at his opponents. The martial artist ignores counterattacks, except those which inflict damage on anyone who touches the target, such as anima power of the fire aspected Dragon-Blooded, for she most still be in contact with the character to affect them. Normal attempts to strike at the flickering images of the martial artist fail. The martial artist is not, after all, there. She is everywhere.
Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
Cost: 12m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mountain Carving Passage
For All the world flowed through it.
The river meanders on, and all things in its flow eventually are worn away. For this is the river’s nature. So too, does time eventually wear down even the greatest of titans. As a practitioner of this style advances towards mastery, he learns to cause people to suffer the ravages of time farm more rapidly. A character using may strike any visible target, regardless of how far away they are. Activating this Charm the character traverses the distance between him and his target instantaneously and strikes a blow which channels the full force of millennia directly into their body. This attack inflicts its damage normally, adding the martial artist’s Essence as automatic successes on the damage roll.
The target’s player must also attempt a reflexive (Stamina + Integrity) roll against a difficulty equal to the Sidereal’s Essence. If that roll fails, the weave of that person’s fate crumbles into to glittering motes dust on the loom as thousands of years of life and hardship are channeled into it with unstoppable force. The victim’s their skin rots, turns to ash, and they crumble into a pile of ash and bone. This process takes five ticks, during which time, unless the character is protected by an effect, which negates shaping (Such as Integrity-Protecting Prana), or takes her out of the loom’s power. This will halts the Charm’s effects, but will not reverse them. Even if she should be saved, she suffers a number of levels of aggravated damage equal to the number of ticks that elapsed before she could be saved, this is often enough to kill on its own.
Cut From the Flow Practice
Cost: 10m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Shaping, Combo-Basic
Duration: Varies
Prerequisite Charms: Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
She tarried by the river and longed for its touch,
With a few well placed touches the Sidereal can set a living being free from the flow of time itself. This requires a simple touch, or a successful unarmed Martial Arts attack if the subject is unwilling. This Charm functions similar to Refuge from the river except that it can be applied to living beings. Mortals subject to this Charm gain 10L/10B natural soak and a hardness of 5. They also ignore all sources of mundane and environmental damage. Indeed, any mundane attempt to alter the character’s form automatically fails. Tattooing needles break against his skin, wounds cannot be closed, but no blood is lost. His body is ageless and unalterable. The minds of those who have been Cut From the Flow are equally static, they ignore all natural mental influence (even if it is in line with their motivation), not supplemented by Charms. Though a character targeted by this Charm no longer requires sustenance, he can also no longer eat, or drink, and doing so causes them to vomit violently. Most shockingly of all, the character can no longer spend experience to learn knew skills, develop attributes, or improve virtues. His mind has become too rigid and immutable. Being cut from the flow of time also cuts them out of fate itself. Magical effects bypass this protection, although the soak and hardness still applies. Effects, which bring a character back under Fate’s power, end this Charm immediately.
Cut From the Flow has significantly reduced effects against exalts. Their essence structures are already permanent, and are not as mutable as a Mortal’s, nor are they as easily displaced from time’s flow. An Exalt targeted by this Charm may reflexively resist this Charm by succeeding at a (Stamina + Integrity) roll at a difficulty of the Sidereal’s essence. Even if they are effected by this Charm, they may spend two willpower to dismiss its effects for a day. This Charm is dispelled once they spend a number of willpower equal to the Sidereal’s Essence. They also only gain half as much soak and hardness. They may still be pressed outside of fate through this Charm’s use and are still made impervious to non-magical harm, but they may resist this effect with Charms or Lunars with tattoos may not be affected by this Charm. This Charm remains active as long as the Sidereal keeps motes committed. Its effects may be made permanent by expending one point of permanent Essence.
Striding Upstream Practice
Cost: 14m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6; Essence 7;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Two Days
Prerequisite Charms: Scouring Wave of Ages Strike
But the river could not love her and be the River
To a Master of this style misfortune is something that happens to other people. When she learns this Charm, the character’s understanding of the temporal river is so comprehensive that he may wade against its current, a little bit anyway. The Sidereal commits Essence to the Charm and executes an elaborate kata as only an Endless River stylist could, by performing all 108 postures simultaneously. The sight of this kata is as beautiful as it is mind-bendingly impossible. This Essence-fueled temporal distortion the sidereal generates cuts that instant off from the normal flow of time and preserves it in a chrysalis of essence.
For the next two days, as long as the Sidereal keeps her Essence committed, a perfect metaphysical imprint character’s physical self, as they were at the moment they executed the kata, is isolated from the time stream. While this effect is in place, the Sidereal may act without fear, because she knows that she can, at a moment’s s notice substitute her current state of being for the ‘saved’ one. She need only reflexively spend a point of willpower and her body is restored to condition it was in when she activated the Charm. Mechanically, her All her traits, permanent or temporary, instantly revert to exactly what they were when she activated this Charm.
If the character dies while motes are committed to this Charm, and she has willpower to available, the reset effect will trigger automatically, effectively returning a character to life. This effect is not flashy, or necessarily obvious, but it can be. If a poisoned sidereal uses this Charm, then she appears to simply have shrugged off the poison’s effects. However, if a Sidereal is bleeding and near death one moment and then utterly refreshed and unscathed a second later, observers will likely suspect the supernatural. This Charm suffers from two major restrictions. It cannot be used to negate the cost of Charms or spells that require the character to spend permanent Willpower or Essence to fuel (such as the Greater Sign of the Maidens). Also, once it has been used, the Kata must be re-performed and essence re-committed before it can be used again. Given the level of concentration required, this is not possible to do during battle. The pattern spiders resent the snarls and tangles in the loom that this Charm causes. The punish users of this style for their presumption in meddling with the causal flow of the world, and for making their hectic lives that much more busy.
Prison of the Frozen Instant
Cost: 20m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Cut from the Flow Practice, Striding Upstream Practice
So the River did not touch Her
Time is not a river, but it flows like one, and each person leaves a wake as he travels down the endless stream of moments. In this wake there are ripples and eddies and vortices where tried to hold on to a moment, to futile though it may be, to balk the flow of time. Inevitably, no one can truly resist the currents of the River of Ages, and such moments slip away. The act of resistance leaves a permanent mark upon the character’s being, a mark that denotes a time that was, for whatever reason, especially dear to the character. This Charm exploits such foolish attachments.
This Charm supplements an unarmed clinch attack. On a successful clinch the martial artist studies the ripples and eddies of the character’s past. He then rolls his (Essence + Martial Arts + Perception), which may benefit from Excellencies as usual, against his victim’s MDV. If he succeeds, he selects a particularly powerful moment in the character’s past and hurls the character right into the middle of it. The victim of this Charm vanishes from this world and is emersed in a second, self contained, universe that exists elsewhere, this universe is comprised entirely of a blissful or otherwise significant moment in the character’s life preserved for eternity.
The martial artist does not know what the moment is, only that it is dear to her target, who will be disinclined to escape from this paradise. The victim appears in this world, disoriented and unsure of what happened. He must succeed in a (Perception + Occult) roll a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s extra successes on the initial (Essence + Martial Arts + Perception) to even recognize the illusory world for what is. This roll’s difficulty reduces by one each time it is attempted until the character succeeds. Even then, she must spend 3 willpower to escape the illusion. Time passes irregularly in this semi-real world, and this escape should be dramatic, resulting in the character coming to terms with his loss and shedding old attachments. He emerges from the world with full Essence pools and renewed resolve. If the Storyteller decides to roleplay out his time in this phantom world, then it would be appropriate to give him some small experience reward.
Either way, the next time the character sleeps she regains all her spent virtue channels and regains all her willpower. This effect is potent and sidereal practitioners of this style often use this technique on themselves and their students to train them to come to grips with loss and adopt a level of detachment appropriate to a master of this style. A character affected by this Charm is Elsewhere while imprisoned and cannot be harmed.
Kingdom Drowned in the River
Cost: 15m, 2wp or 25m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 7, Essence 7; Type: Simple (DV -3)
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Prison of the Frozen Instant
So she lingers by its banks and hopes that one day it will.
This Charm reflects a perfect understanding of the Metaphor of the Endless River. Through it she exerts true control over the flow of time to great destructive consequence. Weaving her hands through the air, she catches the strands of fate her fists and snarls them into a great tangle. Then, with a great force and savage purpose she rends them asunder, unraveling creation itself around her. A circle of desolation spreads out from her body in all directions, reducing her surrounding ito the ash dust, and base elements from whence it came and to which it must surely return.
This zone of instant entropy extends from her body for 60 yards, at a cost of 15 motes, or 100 yards for 25 motes. Either way, activation also costs two Willpower. Anything living creature caught in the entropic wave suffer 10 dice of aggravated damage and, which is unblockable, undodgeable and bypasses armored soak and hardness. Indeed, the entropic wave is so potent that mundane weapons and armor instantly rust and corrode, being destroyed or rendered useless. The desolation is pervasive, and passes into any structure less air tight than a fallout shelter. This Charm’s use leaves the landscape desolate. Plant life, if any survives, is dead and petrified. Buildings, which might have been new a moment earlier, now resmble thousand year old ruins. This cosmetic degradation takes place even if the actual effect doesn’t seriously damage the structure. The dragon-lines of the area affected by this Charm are tainted by the flood of degenerative essence. Though the area is not, necessarily, going to become a shadowland, it is certainly possible, especially if this Charm is used more than once in the same area. Regardless, characters in the region respire essence as if they were within a shadowland, plants do not grow there, and animals avoid the region. If used within a demesne it temporarily lowers that demesne’s rating by half. Used within a manse it could, at Storyteller’s discretion, cause the manse to suffer the effects of power failure, or similar mishap.
Finally, because this Charm temporarily subverts and destroys the area’s connection to the loom, the entire area is considered outside fate as long as the taint lingers. This miasma of decay remains in place for a number of weeks equal to the martial artist’s Essence.
Sidereal who work in the Golden Barque are all, at least nominally aware of it, it is a potent style and oft favored among the more itinerant Sidereals. Delving deep into the loom of fate and the underlying principles of Travel and Place, the Martial artist learns to exploit location and displacement, and the fundamental essence of Journeys the martial artist can manipulate it and use it to grant him a significant edge in combat.
Weapons and Armor: This Style is compatible with the rope dart and the Chain Daiklaive. It may not be used in armor.
Complementary Abilities: To learn this style the martial artist must have Survival 2 and Ride or Sail 2.
Student’s Sutra of Travel: Once there was a maiden on the road.
Unrestrained Wanderer Method
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
She walked a hundred years…
The martial artist is accustomed to the ordeal of travel, and suffers little form natural impediments to her progress. She moves with speed that is not so much impossibly great as supernaturally deft. The martial artist moves at his Dash speed, and may cross any terrain without regard for difficulty. Although she must still roll to maintain her balance if necessary, the Marital Artist essential ignores all obstacles to her movement. She suffers no penalties unbalanced, or difficult terrain. Most impressively, while the Charm is active, the martial artist may run up vertical or even inverted surfaces. Assuming such obstacles could be circumvented given sufficient acrobatic feats, the martial artist is assumed to do so.
Though he may not perform impossible feats, such as walking on water, through a solid object or across hazardous terrain (such as lava, etc.) without harm, the Sidereal may essentially move wherever he pleases. No external penalties affect the martial artist’s movement. All These benefits apply to all forms of locomotion, not just walking, but also climbing, swimming and Riding. If the martial artist does not move on any tick while this Charm is active, the Charm ends immediately.
Cutting to the Chase Technique
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Unrestrained Wanderer Method
…crossed a thousand roads.
Every seasoned traveler knows that the significant moments of a journey are often separated by seemingly interminable expanses of mindless, boring, forward progress. Sidereals who know this style may manipulate the flow of Fate and Essence, effectively “skipping to the important part” of a journey, without having to endure the dull parts. Provided the stylist could reach a point within (Essence) consecutive actions (which may encompass any type of movement the martial artist is capable of, but may not assume the activation of Charms or effects not already active when the Charm is used). The martial artist sidesteps the intervening space, appearing at her intended location without traversing the space in between. This means that, while the martial artist must be able to travel across the area, by running, climbing, leaping, swimming or other means, he need not necessarily concern himself with the perils of doing so.
Any environmental effects, traps, or other hazards that lie in the martial artist’s path may be ignored. Obstructions, such as locked doors or impassible boulders, which can be circumvented through feats of strength (Exalted, p. 127), may be bypassed with one of the martial artist’s ‘actions’ as long as the martial artist’s Strength + Athletics value must be sufficient to the task. Furthermore, because the journey is ‘assumed’ by fate and causality, and did not actually happen, the object is not actually moved or destroyed. When this Charm is activated, the martial artist vanishes, reappearing three ticks later at his intended location. During the interim the martial artist is nonexistent and is an invalid target for attacks. The martial artist’s movement for this Charm can benefit from any relevant Charms he has active, provided their durations are long enough that they will not terminate before the martial artist reappears.
Horizon Chaser’s Obligation
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting To the Chase Technique
But she could not rest…
A Traveler cannot tarry one place too long and be a traveler still, for every period of sedentary life two must be spent in motion. The martial artist may exploit this fact, deliberately standing still and incurring a debt of distance to the maiden of journeys, one that must be repaid with interest. For every tick the martial artist doesn’t take any Move action, he doubles his Move distance for the remainder of the scene. This increase stacks with itself to a maximum of (Essence) increases.
Vagabond’s Whim Defense
Cost: 12m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (5/-1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Horizon Chaser’s Obligation
…could not linger.
Place is a circumstantial consideration. A true wanderer can just as easily be in one place as a hundred others. The Sidereal who learns this Charm masters this detachment from location and, like so many vagabonds, uses it to avoid trouble. While this Charm is active, the martial artist is detatched from the specifics of place and has wedded the Fate of his location to that of his personal location. Whenever he is subject to attack, he may make a full Move action in Step 2, this functions as a counterattack (even though it does no damage) and therefore may not be used against other counterattack Charms. If this Move action carries him out of the reach of his opponents blade or the current range increment of their attack, the attack automatically fails and combat resolution proceeds no further. This also interrupts any flurry unless the attacker can close the distance somehow. If the attacker has not taken his movement action yet, he can use it in an effort to close the range between them.
If the distance the martial artist covers exceeds 1 yard, melee attacks fail, unless they carry the R tag (which then requires the stylist to move 3 yards away from the attacker). Ranged attacks fail automatically if the Exalt moves out of the attack’s range. If the Exalt cannot move, or if the attack is supplemented by a Charm that allows it hit with 0 successes, or have infinite range, this Charm offers no protection. The martial artist may only elude his opponent in this manner once per enemy action. The movement this Charm provides is obviously supernatural, the marital artist appears to slip into the distance without any conscious effort on his part, as if he had been there all along.
Winding Path Assault
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting to the Chase Technique
The horizon called to her daily…
A True Traveler seldom takes the most direct route, for to do so would deprive him of the pleasure of the journey. The martial artist adopt the posture of Ambiguous Presence, and his limbs and weapon seems to twist and shift, occupying and moving in a way that is wholly unpredictable. The martial artist’s attacks do not approach strait on, but twist and bend impossibly, becoming difficult to anticipate. Unarmed blows twist and bend, limbs becoming malleable beyond the capacity of the human form. Attacks with the form weapon coil like angry serpents, following equally impossible trajectories yet loosing none of their efficacy. At the beginning of the Sidereal’s action, Targets subject to Martial Arts attacks made by the sidereal, must (Wits + Awareness) at a difficulty of the Exalt’s (Essence), or the attack or flurry becomes unexpected. If the target is an Essence User, and she fails the roll, she may spend 1wp reflexively, forcing herself to ignore the distracting strangeness of the attack. Doing so enables the target to apply her full DV against the martial artist’s attacks for that action. However, her DV’s are still reduced by the martial artist’s (Essence) against the attack, because they remain rather confusing and difficult to react to. Charms which negate surprise perfectly, allow the target to forgo this roll, but still impose the (Essence) DV penalty unless the character spends 1wp, in which case he may ignore even this for a single action. Any character who spends the Sidereal’s (Essence) in wp resisting this Charm becomes immune to it for a scene.
Caravan Self Mastery
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Winding Path Assault
…and the one place she could not go...
The truly transcendent travelers, Like Luna and Mercury, may walk many roads at once, but great thought the Sidereal is, he cannot yet perform that miracle. He can however, divide his essence, so that a portion himself might travel several paths, so long a they arrive at the same location. Thus the Sidereal assures that even if he doesn’t follow the best course, his ability to learn from experience insures eventual success. Thus, as a mortal relies upon his forebear’s experiences to ensure his success on the road, does the Sidereal blazes the trail for his own journey. Activating this Charm, the martial artist releases a number of dazzling golden simulacra from his anima. These essence phantasms strike at his foe, blazing a trail for the martial artist’s own attack. This Charm enables the martial artist to construct a magical flurry of up to (Essence) unarmed Martial Arts attacks against one target. Each attack benefits from the experience of the one that went before it. Therefore, it suffers, not normal multiple action penalties, but rather an inversion of them. The martial artist’s first attack gains a dice bonus to its Accuracy roll equal to half the number of actions in the flurry and every attack after that increases the dice bonus by one. Should the dice reach the maximum allowable bonus from Charms, the additional dice are applied as an internal penalty to the target’s PDV and DDV. This penalty is applied before onslaught but may not reduce DVs below 0.
Indispensable Journey
Cost: 6m per target; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Caravan Self Mastery
…was her destination.
No destination can be reached without a journey, and no goal can be attained without the necessary travails. Every seeker owes a journey, both to themselves and to Mercury. Where circumstances would prohibit the Sidereal from traveling the distance to achieve his object, he may force the issue, creating a path and a journey. Having tasted the object of his desire, the Sidereal is loath to relinquish it. This Charm may be activated against any target the martial artist can directly see (even if they are behind cover), and whom he has successfully attacked or been attacked by previously in the scene. Even if neither attack did damage, that prior physical contact is necessary.
Activating this Charm the martial artist may make unarmed Martial Arts attacks against the target even if they would not be within range normally. These attacks gain extra successes equal to (martial artist’s Essence ÷ 2) and ignore cover, shields, range and environmental penalties. The attacks travel to the target’s location via folds in the warp and weft of fate, circumventing the distance between the two, and taking the journey in spirit if not in practice. A martial artist may subject no more than (Essence) targets at one time to this Charm.
Golden House of Wanderers Form
Cost: 13m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Indispensable Journey, Vagabond’s Whim Defense, One Complete Celestial Martial Art
The road was her home.
The martial artist takes the posture of the Student of the World his posture is easy and his gaze expansive. Paths form where he treads and his eyes and anima become shot with winding reflections of golden light. For the duration of the Charm, the martial artist is a traveler beyond compare. While on foot, or riding, he may walk up walls, or even inverted surfaces, as easily as anything. He seems to be able to casually ignore gravity. His feet form a path wherever he steps. The path is comprised of Essence hardened into a material appropriate to the Exalt’s personality. This path vanishes in his wake into its component motes, but it can support the martial artist anywhere, allowing him to walk through the air or over liquid. It also prevents the martial artists feet from ever really touching the earth, which permits him to walk unharmed over dangerous surfaces and also leaves no trail. Mundane attempts at tracking the stylist automatically fail.
The martial artist gains a further benefit from this form. By folding journeys past and future into the present, the martial artist manifests himself at an almost unlimited number of locations. In lieu of his Move action, the martial artist may vanish from his current location to appear at any other location within (Essence x 10) yards, or anywhere he had previously stood in that scene. The martial artist does not travel to this location, instead he just vanishes from one point and reappears at the other. Finally, the martial artist gains the benefits of the Charm Unrestrained Wanderer Method.
Endless Expanse Buffer
Cost: 17m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Golden House of Wanderers Form
Elder Sutra of Travel: The Maiden walked across the World…
The Exalt stretches the journey between himself and his enemies indefinitely. He dilates the space between himself and them, widening the gulf of empty air to form a buffer between himself and his enemies. Whenever an attacker would approach the martial artist while the Charm is active, he finds that, regardless of how fast or far he moves, he is always 2 yards away from the stylist. Ranged attacks suffer a similar fate, as the Exalt is always exactly 2 yards out of their range. Attacks which ignore range, also ignore this effect, but there is no way for an attacker to close to melee range while this Charm is active. Teleportation effects circumvent this protection. The Sidereal himself is affected by this buffer, and must use Charms such as Indispensable Journey to attack from a distance. The buffer zone extends in a circle around the martial artist, and affects everything within (Essence x 2) yards, preventing anything that enters within that radius from getting within 2 yards of the stylist. Multiple characters who surround a target and all employ this Charm could, theoretically, fence the target in and prevent him from moving.
Walking A Thousand Roads
Cost: 20m, 1wp 1ahl; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Golden House of Wanderers Form
…and stood atop every mountain.
The notion that location must be singular, and that an entity can occupy only a single, discrete, place at a time, is utter illusion, The Martial artist learns. Nothing keeps the a being from being in more than one place at a time, but that being’s own capacity make it so. Sidereals, having progressed far on the road to mastery, have refined this capacity. Folding and twisting the threads of Fate and Journey to the near breaking point the Exalt can literally be in more than one place at a time. The Exalt creates (Essence) doppelgängers, folded into being by a brutal torsion of the Exalt’s own living journey.
The entities share one mote pool, and are limited in their use of Charms as if they were one entity, but otherwise each have fully independent actions which they may flurry normally. They have only (Essence) -0 health levels and are clearly marked as the copies by the way that they are shrouded in a golden halo. Each uses the exact same traits as the stylist and is treated as if they had the same equipment as the original. When the Charm duplicates weapons, it always creates mundane variants (that appear like the original) but have the traits of the weapon’s non-artifact counterpart. The copies cannot give their gear away, and it immediately vanishes if it leaves their possession. Finally, the group resists mental influence as one, and spends Willpower to do so as one.
Journey Launching Blow
Cost: 17m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Shaping, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Walking A Thousand Roads, Endless Expanse Buffer
The horizon came to kiss her…
Travel is not always something one chooses to do. Indeed, there are some dull souls who would stay bound to the same location for all their lives. The martial artist can free them from this drab fate however, striking her a blow with her bare fist, the martial artist separates the target’s identity and self from the place to which it is bound. Thus does she free the target of her ties to the land and send her, quite abruptly, on a journey. A target struck by this attack suffers no damage, instead they are hurled across creation to any specific location the Exalt has been within the last week, has ownership of (Exalted, p. 238) or, otherwise to any specific location within ([Martial Arts + Essence] x 2) miles.
The target flies there propelled by the force of the journey that has been foisted upon him, becoming semi-material as he shoots through the sky at impossible speeds. He phases through obstructions, taking no damage from collidions. Normally he lands safely on the ground, though if the Exalt wishes he may cause the target’s journey to end in midair, causing the target to fall and, potentially, take falling damage (Exalted, p. 158). This Charm is a Shaping effect, but the attack it supplements is not, even if a defense negates the effects of this Charm, the blow might still do damage. Sidereals frequently use this Charm to provide swift transport to themselves or their allies…and sudden death to their enemies.
Inescapable Psychopomp Stride
Cost: —(+Varies); Mins: Martial Arts 7, Essence 7; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Shaping, Touch
Prerequisite Charms: Journey Launching Blow
…and the two were one.
A journey with boundaries is not a journey. Crossing thresholds is the essence of travel, and the total separation of self and place is the treasure that, in their hearts, all wanderer’s seek. The martial artist, having learned this Charm, has achieved total, transcendent, separation from place. There is nothing that may gainsay his movement, no wall or barrier that is relevant to him. An Exalt who learns this Charm is permanently transformed into a creature, not of place, but of journey. He permanently occupies the line between one space and another. This manifests physically in ways that are observable, but not easily understandable. When the martial artist walks, the movement of his legs seems out of sync with his physical displacement, as if he were really gliding from place to place, and only aping normal movement. Periodically the martial artist will veer off the balance of materiality and immateriality, causing parts of his body to accidentally phase through solid objects. This is never harmful or beneficial, and is totally outside the Sidereal’s control, (though it might be an interesting explanation or consequence of a botch). This Charm offer’s several benefits:
• The Exalt may pay one Willpower in addition to the usual cost of the Charm Journey Launching Blow to cause the journey to end in the immaterial realm (causing the target to remain immaterial at the end of the journey), in Yu-Shan (provided the Exalt owns [Exalted, p. 238] a space in Yu-Shan), or in a parallel location in the Underworld that is either within range of the normal travel or which the Exalt has visited in the last week. This makes being hit by the Charm very dangerous on the Blessed Isle, near the Imperial Mountain (which is mirrored by the Mouth of Oblivion in the Underworld).
• They May also pay one Willpower in addition to the cost of Journey Launching Blow, to have it affect a number of willing targets equal to (the Sidereal’s Essence).
• The Exalt may pay one Willpower in addition to the usual cost of Cutting to the Chase Method to allow the Exalt to bypass any barriers or obstructions to his journey without need of a roll, as if he were immaterial.
• The Exalt is solid to both the material and immaterial. He is not perfectly balanced between both states, however, so he sees the immaterial as faint, blurry, phantasms. This incurs a -2 external penalty on rolls to perceive or attack an immaterial target. He can touch and be touched by immaterial creatures.
• At a cost of one mote and as part of a move action, the Exalt can set himself enough out of phase with the world phase through solid objects. While the Form is active, the stylist’s mastery over his spiritual and physical location is sufficient that he may perform this trick reflexively as a defense against any attack not supplemented by Charms or made with an artifact weapon. This transformation lasts for only an instant so the Exalt must be clear of whatever damaging effect or solid surface he wishes to phase through, on the next tick. This Charm may be reactivated on simultaneous ticks, or instants if it is used as a defense, but its cost doubles on each subsequent tick until the Exalt’s DV refreshes. This protection does not function against magical attacks at all, but doesn’t count as Charm use.
• Finally, as a speed 6 miscellaneous action, which while the form Charm is active, the Exalt can spend one Willpower to transcend materiality entirely. He becomes, at once, more and less material than everything. This state persists for (Essence) actions during which time no one can touch the stylist without using Charms that allow them to attack beings of the opposing material state (such as Ghost-Fire Blade, or Shattered Adamant attack). This means that immaterial beings require attacks that target the material and material beings must make an attack that targets the immaterial. The Exalt, however, can affect both with impunity.
Weapons and Armor: This Style is compatible with the rope dart and the Chain Daiklaive. It may not be used in armor.
Complementary Abilities: To learn this style the martial artist must have Survival 2 and Ride or Sail 2.
Student’s Sutra of Travel: Once there was a maiden on the road.
Unrestrained Wanderer Method
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
She walked a hundred years…
The martial artist is accustomed to the ordeal of travel, and suffers little form natural impediments to her progress. She moves with speed that is not so much impossibly great as supernaturally deft. The martial artist moves at his Dash speed, and may cross any terrain without regard for difficulty. Although she must still roll to maintain her balance if necessary, the Marital Artist essential ignores all obstacles to her movement. She suffers no penalties unbalanced, or difficult terrain. Most impressively, while the Charm is active, the martial artist may run up vertical or even inverted surfaces. Assuming such obstacles could be circumvented given sufficient acrobatic feats, the martial artist is assumed to do so.
Though he may not perform impossible feats, such as walking on water, through a solid object or across hazardous terrain (such as lava, etc.) without harm, the Sidereal may essentially move wherever he pleases. No external penalties affect the martial artist’s movement. All These benefits apply to all forms of locomotion, not just walking, but also climbing, swimming and Riding. If the martial artist does not move on any tick while this Charm is active, the Charm ends immediately.
Cutting to the Chase Technique
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Unrestrained Wanderer Method
…crossed a thousand roads.
Every seasoned traveler knows that the significant moments of a journey are often separated by seemingly interminable expanses of mindless, boring, forward progress. Sidereals who know this style may manipulate the flow of Fate and Essence, effectively “skipping to the important part” of a journey, without having to endure the dull parts. Provided the stylist could reach a point within (Essence) consecutive actions (which may encompass any type of movement the martial artist is capable of, but may not assume the activation of Charms or effects not already active when the Charm is used). The martial artist sidesteps the intervening space, appearing at her intended location without traversing the space in between. This means that, while the martial artist must be able to travel across the area, by running, climbing, leaping, swimming or other means, he need not necessarily concern himself with the perils of doing so.
Any environmental effects, traps, or other hazards that lie in the martial artist’s path may be ignored. Obstructions, such as locked doors or impassible boulders, which can be circumvented through feats of strength (Exalted, p. 127), may be bypassed with one of the martial artist’s ‘actions’ as long as the martial artist’s Strength + Athletics value must be sufficient to the task. Furthermore, because the journey is ‘assumed’ by fate and causality, and did not actually happen, the object is not actually moved or destroyed. When this Charm is activated, the martial artist vanishes, reappearing three ticks later at his intended location. During the interim the martial artist is nonexistent and is an invalid target for attacks. The martial artist’s movement for this Charm can benefit from any relevant Charms he has active, provided their durations are long enough that they will not terminate before the martial artist reappears.
Horizon Chaser’s Obligation
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting To the Chase Technique
But she could not rest…
A Traveler cannot tarry one place too long and be a traveler still, for every period of sedentary life two must be spent in motion. The martial artist may exploit this fact, deliberately standing still and incurring a debt of distance to the maiden of journeys, one that must be repaid with interest. For every tick the martial artist doesn’t take any Move action, he doubles his Move distance for the remainder of the scene. This increase stacks with itself to a maximum of (Essence) increases.
Vagabond’s Whim Defense
Cost: 12m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (5/-1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Horizon Chaser’s Obligation
…could not linger.
Place is a circumstantial consideration. A true wanderer can just as easily be in one place as a hundred others. The Sidereal who learns this Charm masters this detachment from location and, like so many vagabonds, uses it to avoid trouble. While this Charm is active, the martial artist is detatched from the specifics of place and has wedded the Fate of his location to that of his personal location. Whenever he is subject to attack, he may make a full Move action in Step 2, this functions as a counterattack (even though it does no damage) and therefore may not be used against other counterattack Charms. If this Move action carries him out of the reach of his opponents blade or the current range increment of their attack, the attack automatically fails and combat resolution proceeds no further. This also interrupts any flurry unless the attacker can close the distance somehow. If the attacker has not taken his movement action yet, he can use it in an effort to close the range between them.
If the distance the martial artist covers exceeds 1 yard, melee attacks fail, unless they carry the R tag (which then requires the stylist to move 3 yards away from the attacker). Ranged attacks fail automatically if the Exalt moves out of the attack’s range. If the Exalt cannot move, or if the attack is supplemented by a Charm that allows it hit with 0 successes, or have infinite range, this Charm offers no protection. The martial artist may only elude his opponent in this manner once per enemy action. The movement this Charm provides is obviously supernatural, the marital artist appears to slip into the distance without any conscious effort on his part, as if he had been there all along.
Winding Path Assault
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 5)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting to the Chase Technique
The horizon called to her daily…
A True Traveler seldom takes the most direct route, for to do so would deprive him of the pleasure of the journey. The martial artist adopt the posture of Ambiguous Presence, and his limbs and weapon seems to twist and shift, occupying and moving in a way that is wholly unpredictable. The martial artist’s attacks do not approach strait on, but twist and bend impossibly, becoming difficult to anticipate. Unarmed blows twist and bend, limbs becoming malleable beyond the capacity of the human form. Attacks with the form weapon coil like angry serpents, following equally impossible trajectories yet loosing none of their efficacy. At the beginning of the Sidereal’s action, Targets subject to Martial Arts attacks made by the sidereal, must (Wits + Awareness) at a difficulty of the Exalt’s (Essence), or the attack or flurry becomes unexpected. If the target is an Essence User, and she fails the roll, she may spend 1wp reflexively, forcing herself to ignore the distracting strangeness of the attack. Doing so enables the target to apply her full DV against the martial artist’s attacks for that action. However, her DV’s are still reduced by the martial artist’s (Essence) against the attack, because they remain rather confusing and difficult to react to. Charms which negate surprise perfectly, allow the target to forgo this roll, but still impose the (Essence) DV penalty unless the character spends 1wp, in which case he may ignore even this for a single action. Any character who spends the Sidereal’s (Essence) in wp resisting this Charm becomes immune to it for a scene.
Caravan Self Mastery
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Winding Path Assault
…and the one place she could not go...
The truly transcendent travelers, Like Luna and Mercury, may walk many roads at once, but great thought the Sidereal is, he cannot yet perform that miracle. He can however, divide his essence, so that a portion himself might travel several paths, so long a they arrive at the same location. Thus the Sidereal assures that even if he doesn’t follow the best course, his ability to learn from experience insures eventual success. Thus, as a mortal relies upon his forebear’s experiences to ensure his success on the road, does the Sidereal blazes the trail for his own journey. Activating this Charm, the martial artist releases a number of dazzling golden simulacra from his anima. These essence phantasms strike at his foe, blazing a trail for the martial artist’s own attack. This Charm enables the martial artist to construct a magical flurry of up to (Essence) unarmed Martial Arts attacks against one target. Each attack benefits from the experience of the one that went before it. Therefore, it suffers, not normal multiple action penalties, but rather an inversion of them. The martial artist’s first attack gains a dice bonus to its Accuracy roll equal to half the number of actions in the flurry and every attack after that increases the dice bonus by one. Should the dice reach the maximum allowable bonus from Charms, the additional dice are applied as an internal penalty to the target’s PDV and DDV. This penalty is applied before onslaught but may not reduce DVs below 0.
Indispensable Journey
Cost: 6m per target; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Five actions
Prerequisite Charms: Caravan Self Mastery
…was her destination.
No destination can be reached without a journey, and no goal can be attained without the necessary travails. Every seeker owes a journey, both to themselves and to Mercury. Where circumstances would prohibit the Sidereal from traveling the distance to achieve his object, he may force the issue, creating a path and a journey. Having tasted the object of his desire, the Sidereal is loath to relinquish it. This Charm may be activated against any target the martial artist can directly see (even if they are behind cover), and whom he has successfully attacked or been attacked by previously in the scene. Even if neither attack did damage, that prior physical contact is necessary.
Activating this Charm the martial artist may make unarmed Martial Arts attacks against the target even if they would not be within range normally. These attacks gain extra successes equal to (martial artist’s Essence ÷ 2) and ignore cover, shields, range and environmental penalties. The attacks travel to the target’s location via folds in the warp and weft of fate, circumventing the distance between the two, and taking the journey in spirit if not in practice. A martial artist may subject no more than (Essence) targets at one time to this Charm.
Golden House of Wanderers Form
Cost: 13m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Indispensable Journey, Vagabond’s Whim Defense, One Complete Celestial Martial Art
The road was her home.
The martial artist takes the posture of the Student of the World his posture is easy and his gaze expansive. Paths form where he treads and his eyes and anima become shot with winding reflections of golden light. For the duration of the Charm, the martial artist is a traveler beyond compare. While on foot, or riding, he may walk up walls, or even inverted surfaces, as easily as anything. He seems to be able to casually ignore gravity. His feet form a path wherever he steps. The path is comprised of Essence hardened into a material appropriate to the Exalt’s personality. This path vanishes in his wake into its component motes, but it can support the martial artist anywhere, allowing him to walk through the air or over liquid. It also prevents the martial artists feet from ever really touching the earth, which permits him to walk unharmed over dangerous surfaces and also leaves no trail. Mundane attempts at tracking the stylist automatically fail.
The martial artist gains a further benefit from this form. By folding journeys past and future into the present, the martial artist manifests himself at an almost unlimited number of locations. In lieu of his Move action, the martial artist may vanish from his current location to appear at any other location within (Essence x 10) yards, or anywhere he had previously stood in that scene. The martial artist does not travel to this location, instead he just vanishes from one point and reappears at the other. Finally, the martial artist gains the benefits of the Charm Unrestrained Wanderer Method.
Endless Expanse Buffer
Cost: 17m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Golden House of Wanderers Form
Elder Sutra of Travel: The Maiden walked across the World…
The Exalt stretches the journey between himself and his enemies indefinitely. He dilates the space between himself and them, widening the gulf of empty air to form a buffer between himself and his enemies. Whenever an attacker would approach the martial artist while the Charm is active, he finds that, regardless of how fast or far he moves, he is always 2 yards away from the stylist. Ranged attacks suffer a similar fate, as the Exalt is always exactly 2 yards out of their range. Attacks which ignore range, also ignore this effect, but there is no way for an attacker to close to melee range while this Charm is active. Teleportation effects circumvent this protection. The Sidereal himself is affected by this buffer, and must use Charms such as Indispensable Journey to attack from a distance. The buffer zone extends in a circle around the martial artist, and affects everything within (Essence x 2) yards, preventing anything that enters within that radius from getting within 2 yards of the stylist. Multiple characters who surround a target and all employ this Charm could, theoretically, fence the target in and prevent him from moving.
Walking A Thousand Roads
Cost: 20m, 1wp 1ahl; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious,
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Golden House of Wanderers Form
…and stood atop every mountain.
The notion that location must be singular, and that an entity can occupy only a single, discrete, place at a time, is utter illusion, The Martial artist learns. Nothing keeps the a being from being in more than one place at a time, but that being’s own capacity make it so. Sidereals, having progressed far on the road to mastery, have refined this capacity. Folding and twisting the threads of Fate and Journey to the near breaking point the Exalt can literally be in more than one place at a time. The Exalt creates (Essence) doppelgängers, folded into being by a brutal torsion of the Exalt’s own living journey.
The entities share one mote pool, and are limited in their use of Charms as if they were one entity, but otherwise each have fully independent actions which they may flurry normally. They have only (Essence) -0 health levels and are clearly marked as the copies by the way that they are shrouded in a golden halo. Each uses the exact same traits as the stylist and is treated as if they had the same equipment as the original. When the Charm duplicates weapons, it always creates mundane variants (that appear like the original) but have the traits of the weapon’s non-artifact counterpart. The copies cannot give their gear away, and it immediately vanishes if it leaves their possession. Finally, the group resists mental influence as one, and spends Willpower to do so as one.
Journey Launching Blow
Cost: 17m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 7; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Shaping, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Walking A Thousand Roads, Endless Expanse Buffer
The horizon came to kiss her…
Travel is not always something one chooses to do. Indeed, there are some dull souls who would stay bound to the same location for all their lives. The martial artist can free them from this drab fate however, striking her a blow with her bare fist, the martial artist separates the target’s identity and self from the place to which it is bound. Thus does she free the target of her ties to the land and send her, quite abruptly, on a journey. A target struck by this attack suffers no damage, instead they are hurled across creation to any specific location the Exalt has been within the last week, has ownership of (Exalted, p. 238) or, otherwise to any specific location within ([Martial Arts + Essence] x 2) miles.
The target flies there propelled by the force of the journey that has been foisted upon him, becoming semi-material as he shoots through the sky at impossible speeds. He phases through obstructions, taking no damage from collidions. Normally he lands safely on the ground, though if the Exalt wishes he may cause the target’s journey to end in midair, causing the target to fall and, potentially, take falling damage (Exalted, p. 158). This Charm is a Shaping effect, but the attack it supplements is not, even if a defense negates the effects of this Charm, the blow might still do damage. Sidereals frequently use this Charm to provide swift transport to themselves or their allies…and sudden death to their enemies.
Inescapable Psychopomp Stride
Cost: —(+Varies); Mins: Martial Arts 7, Essence 7; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Shaping, Touch
Prerequisite Charms: Journey Launching Blow
…and the two were one.
A journey with boundaries is not a journey. Crossing thresholds is the essence of travel, and the total separation of self and place is the treasure that, in their hearts, all wanderer’s seek. The martial artist, having learned this Charm, has achieved total, transcendent, separation from place. There is nothing that may gainsay his movement, no wall or barrier that is relevant to him. An Exalt who learns this Charm is permanently transformed into a creature, not of place, but of journey. He permanently occupies the line between one space and another. This manifests physically in ways that are observable, but not easily understandable. When the martial artist walks, the movement of his legs seems out of sync with his physical displacement, as if he were really gliding from place to place, and only aping normal movement. Periodically the martial artist will veer off the balance of materiality and immateriality, causing parts of his body to accidentally phase through solid objects. This is never harmful or beneficial, and is totally outside the Sidereal’s control, (though it might be an interesting explanation or consequence of a botch). This Charm offer’s several benefits:
• The Exalt may pay one Willpower in addition to the usual cost of the Charm Journey Launching Blow to cause the journey to end in the immaterial realm (causing the target to remain immaterial at the end of the journey), in Yu-Shan (provided the Exalt owns [Exalted, p. 238] a space in Yu-Shan), or in a parallel location in the Underworld that is either within range of the normal travel or which the Exalt has visited in the last week. This makes being hit by the Charm very dangerous on the Blessed Isle, near the Imperial Mountain (which is mirrored by the Mouth of Oblivion in the Underworld).
• They May also pay one Willpower in addition to the cost of Journey Launching Blow, to have it affect a number of willing targets equal to (the Sidereal’s Essence).
• The Exalt may pay one Willpower in addition to the usual cost of Cutting to the Chase Method to allow the Exalt to bypass any barriers or obstructions to his journey without need of a roll, as if he were immaterial.
• The Exalt is solid to both the material and immaterial. He is not perfectly balanced between both states, however, so he sees the immaterial as faint, blurry, phantasms. This incurs a -2 external penalty on rolls to perceive or attack an immaterial target. He can touch and be touched by immaterial creatures.
• At a cost of one mote and as part of a move action, the Exalt can set himself enough out of phase with the world phase through solid objects. While the Form is active, the stylist’s mastery over his spiritual and physical location is sufficient that he may perform this trick reflexively as a defense against any attack not supplemented by Charms or made with an artifact weapon. This transformation lasts for only an instant so the Exalt must be clear of whatever damaging effect or solid surface he wishes to phase through, on the next tick. This Charm may be reactivated on simultaneous ticks, or instants if it is used as a defense, but its cost doubles on each subsequent tick until the Exalt’s DV refreshes. This protection does not function against magical attacks at all, but doesn’t count as Charm use.
• Finally, as a speed 6 miscellaneous action, which while the form Charm is active, the Exalt can spend one Willpower to transcend materiality entirely. He becomes, at once, more and less material than everything. This state persists for (Essence) actions during which time no one can touch the stylist without using Charms that allow them to attack beings of the opposing material state (such as Ghost-Fire Blade, or Shattered Adamant attack). This means that immaterial beings require attacks that target the material and material beings must make an attack that targets the immaterial. The Exalt, however, can affect both with impunity.
This is from the Glories of the Most High: Maidens
SAPPHIRE VEIL OF PASSION STYLE
This ancient Sidereal martial art is popularly known among the Viziers as “the twice-mastered art.” The less crude interpretation of this moniker
refers to the style‟s history. Legend has it that Sapphire Veil of Passion style was originally invented by Entwined in Night‟s Shadows, a Chosen of Secrets. But he was selfish and proud, and refused to teach the style he had invented. He never took a student or produced any records, and its mysteries died with him. Centuries later, it was re-created from second- hand accounts and first-hand insights by an ambitious Joybringer to settle a bet with Ma-Ha-Suchi, and has remained a favored possession of the Chosen of Serenity ever since.
Sapphire Veil of Passion was derived from extensive first-hand study of that most ancient and enduring fascination of the human race—sex. Its masters weather the ribald jokes and off-color commentary of their younger contemporaries with patience and good humor. Those who face them in battle discover that these martial artists have turned their focus inward upon the hottest of flames and have tempered it into an exceedingly fine weapon. They do not jest about the style afterward. For more information on Sidereal martial arts, see Scroll of the Monk.
Weapons and Armor: Charms of this style treat attacks made with the urumi and its artifact equivalent, the floating ribbon, as unarmed attacks. This style is not compatible with armor, but is traditionally used with a buckler.
The Student’s Sutra of Desire: Once, there was a lusty maiden…
INTO INFINITE DEPTHS
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
…who desired the ideal lover.
Clearing her mind of all but the sensation of the moment, the martial artist cuts her gaze across an opponent. In so doing she sees him anew, with unsurpassed clarity. The character immediately gains the following knowledge about one individual: what manner of being the target is (Solar Exalt, god, raksha, etc), which martial arts styles he knows at least one Charm from, which martial arts styles he knows up to the Form-type Charm, which martial arts styles he has mastered, whether he has any Intimacies toward the martial artist, and the nature of those Intimacies, if they exist.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist gains a +2 bonus to her DVs and MDVs against any opponent she has evaluated in this manner.
Into Infinite Depths may be activated as an innate power, which does not count as a Charm activation if Sapphire Veil of Passion Form is active.
ETERNAL INFATUATION DANCE
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
She flirted her way across Creation,
Taking attention to imply invitation, the character is able to quickly close with those who draw her notice. This Charm may be activated in response to any social or physical attack. The martial artist vanishes in a swirl of collapsing sapphire ribbons, appearing one yard away from her attacker. In the case of long-range social attacks (such as those delivered through sorcery), the Charm‟s maximum allowable range of movement is (Essence x 20) miles. This action incidentally acts as a perfect dodge upon activation against physical ranged attacks of which the martial artist is aware, assuming the attack can be dodged. Subsequent ranged attacks during the remainder of the Charm‟s duration must be defended against normally.
As long as the martial artist does not voluntarily move away from the individual whom she activated Eternal Infatuation Dance to approach, she may stay within one yard of him at all times, regardless of his movement rate or any exotic movement abilities employed.
The initial movement granted by this Charm is considered a counterattack. This Charm may not be invoked more than once per action.
YELLOW DRAGON FLIGHT
Cost: 13m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
courting handsome boys
Wild ribbons of yellow and scarlet power blaze around the character‟s attacking limb. Channeling her understanding of the male principle of Essence,
the martial artist enchants an unarmed attack with aggressive, penetrating power. The attack is considered unblockable, ignores soak derived from armor, and in addition to inflicting standard damage, ignites a number of the target‟s motes equal to the martial artist's (Essence x 2). These motes are not only lost, but also immediately applied as raw lethal damage which ignores armor, but is soaked separately from the original attack. If the target lacks sufficient Essence, or lacks Essence at all, this aspect of the attack is wasted.
BLACK DRAGON COILS
Cost: 5m, 3wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Yellow Dragon Flight and smiling girls.
Stepping back from determined opposition, the martial artist swirls with onyx ribbons. Channeling her understanding of the female principle of Essence, she enhances an unarmed parry against any attack she can perceive, even unblockable attacks, rendering the defense it provides perfect. Additionally, the martial artist regains one channel of any Virtue of her choice for every five motes or fraction thereof the opponent spent on the blocked attack. For example, if an opponent spends one to five motes, the martial artist regains one channel. If an opponent spends six to 10 motes, the martial artist regains two channels (one for the first set of five motes, and another for the remainder in the second set of five motes).
DISSOLUTION OF VALUE
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Eternal Infatuation Dance, Into Infinite Depths
She attended great debauches, but quantity did not satisfy.
Rooting herself in the midst of her opponents, the martial artist's anima erupts into a series of spiraling ribbons that brush aside the attacks of her foes. While this Charm persists, no penalties of any kind may reduce her DVs. (As always, inapplicability is not a penalty.) Characters attacking her from behind in a press also do not gain a free unexpected attack. Dissolution of Value automatically ends if the martial artist moves more than one yard from the point where she activated this Charm.
SATISFYING IDLE FANTASY
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Dissolution of Value
Finally, she met a mirror. Realizing she had learned nothing,
Wrapping herself in self-indulgent dreams of her own triumph, the martial artist denies opponents the ability to hold themselves superior to her. No penalties may apply to her dice pools when she attacks any character she has evaluated with Into Infinite Depths during the course of the scene, save
for multiple action penalties. Additionally, when any of her attacks inflict damage, the target must pay one Willpower or accept an Intimacy toward the Sidereal. (This Intimacy represents lust if appropriate to the character‟s gender preferences, uneasy fascination otherwise.)
SAPPHIRE VEIL OF PASSION FORM
Cost: 13m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Crippling, Form-type, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Black Dragon Coils, Satisfying Idle Fantasy, One complete Celestial martial art
the maiden was satisfied.
The martial artist executes a languid kata, hesitates a moment, and then erupts into a shuddering battle pattern. Her anima unfolds into a towering, shifting array of cerulean and sapphire ribbons, which twine about her body even as they strain for the sky. She levitates a finger‟s length above the ground as she moves, incidentally gaining perfect balance and the ability to move safely over hazardous terrain. Players of all characters who possess any sort of Intimacy toward her, positive or negative, must fail a Compassion roll or pay one Willpower per attack made against her. If she manages to strike any character who possesses no Essence or Willpower (non-Essence users are not evaluated for current Essence, only Willpower) with an unarmed attack, that character is immediately rendered unconscious for (attacker‟s Martial Arts) hours as a Crippling effect. Finally, she gains five motes whenever her DV refreshes.
SOMEONE ELSE’S CONSEQUENCE
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
The Elder Sutra of Desire: One morning, the maiden awoke…
Advanced students of the Sapphire Veil of Passion are among Creation‟s more careless fighters (and lovers), unconcerned with the consequences of their actions. This Charm may be activated when the martial artist successfully strikes an opponent with an unarmed attack, levying one of the follow- ing effects:
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all unnatural mental influence from which she suffers, transferring them to her target, who must then deal with them as he is best able.
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all Poison and Sickness effects from which she suffers, transferring them to her target.
SILKEN ROPE TRICK
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
…to find herself wearing a leash and collar.
Moving through a swift kata, the martial artist weaves sapphire threads out of her own Essence, which quickly knot around her. She is unable to take Dash or Jump actions while this Charm is in effect. More beneficially, she adds her Martial Arts rating in successes to all rolls to establish or control
a grapple. Any character who enters a grapple with her (even one who initiated the grapple by attacking the martial artist) automatically gains an Intimacy of lust toward her, regardless of standard sexual preferences. This unnatural Emotion effect costs three Willpower to resist, or two if the character is not of the sex to which the target is normally attracted. Finally, all rolls by opponents to establish control of a grapple suffer an external penalty equal to the martial artist‟s Appearance if her last action was to hold an opponent.
JOY IN OWNERSHIP
Cost: 20m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Servitude, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Silken Rope Trick, Someone Else's Consequence
She could not recall when or where she had acquired such fetters.
The martial artist gently touches a target she has rendered unconscious during the scene, manipulating the flow of his Essence through the chakra points known as the gates of desire. Upon awakening, the target gains a second Motivation to “Love and obey (the martial artist).” Her memories are also altered so that she believes the martial artist is an old friend or lover (whichever is appropriate to her normal sexual preferences). Memories that might contradict this belief are suppressed.
Resisting this unnatural mental influence requires that the target spend three Willpower within the space of a scene, over a number of scenes equal to (10 - target's Essence). While Joy in Ownership remains in effect, the target is metaphysically considered to be the martial artist‟s property.
SAPPHIRE BINDING PATTERN
Cost: 16m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-basic, Obvious, Shaping, Stack- able
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
She set about to follow the leash,
This Charm may be invoked to enhance a hold during a grapple. Spinning ribbons of sapphire Essence around her target, the martial artist impedes her Essence flows for the rest of the scene. One of the following effects is applied:
• All of the target‟s actions are reduced to 0 dice if not supplemented by a Charm or stunt.
• A mote surcharge equal to half the martial artist‟s Appearance is added to all of the target‟s Charms. This effect may be applied only to targets of lower Essence.
• The target‟s Dexterity is considered to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Move and Dash actions, and his Strength to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Jump actions.
These effects last until the end of the scene, and this Charm may be re-applied to the same target over the course of repeated hold actions in order to inflict additional effects.
MEMORIES OF INTIMACY
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
pursuing it past a line of all her former lovers,
Try as they might, the martial artist's former conquests cannot shake that status. This Charm supplements an unarmed attack, rendering it unblockable and undodgeable if any of the following criteria apply to the target:
• The martial artist has defeated the target in combat at some point in the past (defined as having rendered the target unconscious, or the target
having voluntarily admitted defeat or surrendered to the martial artist on the field of battle, even if only in a sparring match).
• The target carries an Intimacy of any sort for the martial artist.
• The martial artist owns the target.
• The target suffers from any Crippling effect inflicted by the martial artist.
If two or more of these criteria apply to the target, the attack is also considered unexpected.
THOUSAND DESIRE RIBBONS
Cost: — (+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6;
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Memories of Intimacy, Sapphire Binding Pattern
and found that it resided in her hand.
Coming to understand the pinnacle of desire, the martial artist steeps himself in the inconsequential motives that shift the world. This Charm allows the martial artist to pay a (+10m, 1wp) surcharge when activating Sapphire Veil of Passion Form, upgrading it with the following capabilities:
• The martial artist gains the ability to solidify and control the sapphire ribbons of her anima, treating them as starmetal floating ribbons. Each time her DV refreshes, she gains a pool (equal to half her Essence) of reflexive martial arts attacks with these ribbons, which she may unleash at any time using her full dice pool. This pool refreshes along with her DV, and may not exceed (Essence/2) actions.
• The range on all urumi or floating ribbons the martial artist employs extends to (Essence x 10) yards. No motes need be paid for this benefit.
• Any character wounded by an urumi or floating ribbon wielded by the martial artist feels the pain transformed and transported into a kind of transcendent ecstasy. The distraction from this overwhelming sensation changes all wound penalties from internal to external until the end of the scene, as a Crippling effect.
This ancient Sidereal martial art is popularly known among the Viziers as “the twice-mastered art.” The less crude interpretation of this moniker
refers to the style‟s history. Legend has it that Sapphire Veil of Passion style was originally invented by Entwined in Night‟s Shadows, a Chosen of Secrets. But he was selfish and proud, and refused to teach the style he had invented. He never took a student or produced any records, and its mysteries died with him. Centuries later, it was re-created from second- hand accounts and first-hand insights by an ambitious Joybringer to settle a bet with Ma-Ha-Suchi, and has remained a favored possession of the Chosen of Serenity ever since.
Sapphire Veil of Passion was derived from extensive first-hand study of that most ancient and enduring fascination of the human race—sex. Its masters weather the ribald jokes and off-color commentary of their younger contemporaries with patience and good humor. Those who face them in battle discover that these martial artists have turned their focus inward upon the hottest of flames and have tempered it into an exceedingly fine weapon. They do not jest about the style afterward. For more information on Sidereal martial arts, see Scroll of the Monk.
Weapons and Armor: Charms of this style treat attacks made with the urumi and its artifact equivalent, the floating ribbon, as unarmed attacks. This style is not compatible with armor, but is traditionally used with a buckler.
The Student’s Sutra of Desire: Once, there was a lusty maiden…
INTO INFINITE DEPTHS
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
…who desired the ideal lover.
Clearing her mind of all but the sensation of the moment, the martial artist cuts her gaze across an opponent. In so doing she sees him anew, with unsurpassed clarity. The character immediately gains the following knowledge about one individual: what manner of being the target is (Solar Exalt, god, raksha, etc), which martial arts styles he knows at least one Charm from, which martial arts styles he knows up to the Form-type Charm, which martial arts styles he has mastered, whether he has any Intimacies toward the martial artist, and the nature of those Intimacies, if they exist.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist gains a +2 bonus to her DVs and MDVs against any opponent she has evaluated in this manner.
Into Infinite Depths may be activated as an innate power, which does not count as a Charm activation if Sapphire Veil of Passion Form is active.
ETERNAL INFATUATION DANCE
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
She flirted her way across Creation,
Taking attention to imply invitation, the character is able to quickly close with those who draw her notice. This Charm may be activated in response to any social or physical attack. The martial artist vanishes in a swirl of collapsing sapphire ribbons, appearing one yard away from her attacker. In the case of long-range social attacks (such as those delivered through sorcery), the Charm‟s maximum allowable range of movement is (Essence x 20) miles. This action incidentally acts as a perfect dodge upon activation against physical ranged attacks of which the martial artist is aware, assuming the attack can be dodged. Subsequent ranged attacks during the remainder of the Charm‟s duration must be defended against normally.
As long as the martial artist does not voluntarily move away from the individual whom she activated Eternal Infatuation Dance to approach, she may stay within one yard of him at all times, regardless of his movement rate or any exotic movement abilities employed.
The initial movement granted by this Charm is considered a counterattack. This Charm may not be invoked more than once per action.
YELLOW DRAGON FLIGHT
Cost: 13m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
courting handsome boys
Wild ribbons of yellow and scarlet power blaze around the character‟s attacking limb. Channeling her understanding of the male principle of Essence,
the martial artist enchants an unarmed attack with aggressive, penetrating power. The attack is considered unblockable, ignores soak derived from armor, and in addition to inflicting standard damage, ignites a number of the target‟s motes equal to the martial artist's (Essence x 2). These motes are not only lost, but also immediately applied as raw lethal damage which ignores armor, but is soaked separately from the original attack. If the target lacks sufficient Essence, or lacks Essence at all, this aspect of the attack is wasted.
BLACK DRAGON COILS
Cost: 5m, 3wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Yellow Dragon Flight and smiling girls.
Stepping back from determined opposition, the martial artist swirls with onyx ribbons. Channeling her understanding of the female principle of Essence, she enhances an unarmed parry against any attack she can perceive, even unblockable attacks, rendering the defense it provides perfect. Additionally, the martial artist regains one channel of any Virtue of her choice for every five motes or fraction thereof the opponent spent on the blocked attack. For example, if an opponent spends one to five motes, the martial artist regains one channel. If an opponent spends six to 10 motes, the martial artist regains two channels (one for the first set of five motes, and another for the remainder in the second set of five motes).
DISSOLUTION OF VALUE
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Eternal Infatuation Dance, Into Infinite Depths
She attended great debauches, but quantity did not satisfy.
Rooting herself in the midst of her opponents, the martial artist's anima erupts into a series of spiraling ribbons that brush aside the attacks of her foes. While this Charm persists, no penalties of any kind may reduce her DVs. (As always, inapplicability is not a penalty.) Characters attacking her from behind in a press also do not gain a free unexpected attack. Dissolution of Value automatically ends if the martial artist moves more than one yard from the point where she activated this Charm.
SATISFYING IDLE FANTASY
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Dissolution of Value
Finally, she met a mirror. Realizing she had learned nothing,
Wrapping herself in self-indulgent dreams of her own triumph, the martial artist denies opponents the ability to hold themselves superior to her. No penalties may apply to her dice pools when she attacks any character she has evaluated with Into Infinite Depths during the course of the scene, save
for multiple action penalties. Additionally, when any of her attacks inflict damage, the target must pay one Willpower or accept an Intimacy toward the Sidereal. (This Intimacy represents lust if appropriate to the character‟s gender preferences, uneasy fascination otherwise.)
SAPPHIRE VEIL OF PASSION FORM
Cost: 13m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Crippling, Form-type, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Black Dragon Coils, Satisfying Idle Fantasy, One complete Celestial martial art
the maiden was satisfied.
The martial artist executes a languid kata, hesitates a moment, and then erupts into a shuddering battle pattern. Her anima unfolds into a towering, shifting array of cerulean and sapphire ribbons, which twine about her body even as they strain for the sky. She levitates a finger‟s length above the ground as she moves, incidentally gaining perfect balance and the ability to move safely over hazardous terrain. Players of all characters who possess any sort of Intimacy toward her, positive or negative, must fail a Compassion roll or pay one Willpower per attack made against her. If she manages to strike any character who possesses no Essence or Willpower (non-Essence users are not evaluated for current Essence, only Willpower) with an unarmed attack, that character is immediately rendered unconscious for (attacker‟s Martial Arts) hours as a Crippling effect. Finally, she gains five motes whenever her DV refreshes.
SOMEONE ELSE’S CONSEQUENCE
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
The Elder Sutra of Desire: One morning, the maiden awoke…
Advanced students of the Sapphire Veil of Passion are among Creation‟s more careless fighters (and lovers), unconcerned with the consequences of their actions. This Charm may be activated when the martial artist successfully strikes an opponent with an unarmed attack, levying one of the follow- ing effects:
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all unnatural mental influence from which she suffers, transferring them to her target, who must then deal with them as he is best able.
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all Poison and Sickness effects from which she suffers, transferring them to her target.
SILKEN ROPE TRICK
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
…to find herself wearing a leash and collar.
Moving through a swift kata, the martial artist weaves sapphire threads out of her own Essence, which quickly knot around her. She is unable to take Dash or Jump actions while this Charm is in effect. More beneficially, she adds her Martial Arts rating in successes to all rolls to establish or control
a grapple. Any character who enters a grapple with her (even one who initiated the grapple by attacking the martial artist) automatically gains an Intimacy of lust toward her, regardless of standard sexual preferences. This unnatural Emotion effect costs three Willpower to resist, or two if the character is not of the sex to which the target is normally attracted. Finally, all rolls by opponents to establish control of a grapple suffer an external penalty equal to the martial artist‟s Appearance if her last action was to hold an opponent.
JOY IN OWNERSHIP
Cost: 20m, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Servitude, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Silken Rope Trick, Someone Else's Consequence
She could not recall when or where she had acquired such fetters.
The martial artist gently touches a target she has rendered unconscious during the scene, manipulating the flow of his Essence through the chakra points known as the gates of desire. Upon awakening, the target gains a second Motivation to “Love and obey (the martial artist).” Her memories are also altered so that she believes the martial artist is an old friend or lover (whichever is appropriate to her normal sexual preferences). Memories that might contradict this belief are suppressed.
Resisting this unnatural mental influence requires that the target spend three Willpower within the space of a scene, over a number of scenes equal to (10 - target's Essence). While Joy in Ownership remains in effect, the target is metaphysically considered to be the martial artist‟s property.
SAPPHIRE BINDING PATTERN
Cost: 16m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-basic, Obvious, Shaping, Stack- able
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
She set about to follow the leash,
This Charm may be invoked to enhance a hold during a grapple. Spinning ribbons of sapphire Essence around her target, the martial artist impedes her Essence flows for the rest of the scene. One of the following effects is applied:
• All of the target‟s actions are reduced to 0 dice if not supplemented by a Charm or stunt.
• A mote surcharge equal to half the martial artist‟s Appearance is added to all of the target‟s Charms. This effect may be applied only to targets of lower Essence.
• The target‟s Dexterity is considered to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Move and Dash actions, and his Strength to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Jump actions.
These effects last until the end of the scene, and this Charm may be re-applied to the same target over the course of repeated hold actions in order to inflict additional effects.
MEMORIES OF INTIMACY
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
pursuing it past a line of all her former lovers,
Try as they might, the martial artist's former conquests cannot shake that status. This Charm supplements an unarmed attack, rendering it unblockable and undodgeable if any of the following criteria apply to the target:
• The martial artist has defeated the target in combat at some point in the past (defined as having rendered the target unconscious, or the target
having voluntarily admitted defeat or surrendered to the martial artist on the field of battle, even if only in a sparring match).
• The target carries an Intimacy of any sort for the martial artist.
• The martial artist owns the target.
• The target suffers from any Crippling effect inflicted by the martial artist.
If two or more of these criteria apply to the target, the attack is also considered unexpected.
THOUSAND DESIRE RIBBONS
Cost: — (+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6;
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Memories of Intimacy, Sapphire Binding Pattern
and found that it resided in her hand.
Coming to understand the pinnacle of desire, the martial artist steeps himself in the inconsequential motives that shift the world. This Charm allows the martial artist to pay a (+10m, 1wp) surcharge when activating Sapphire Veil of Passion Form, upgrading it with the following capabilities:
• The martial artist gains the ability to solidify and control the sapphire ribbons of her anima, treating them as starmetal floating ribbons. Each time her DV refreshes, she gains a pool (equal to half her Essence) of reflexive martial arts attacks with these ribbons, which she may unleash at any time using her full dice pool. This pool refreshes along with her DV, and may not exceed (Essence/2) actions.
• The range on all urumi or floating ribbons the martial artist employs extends to (Essence x 10) yards. No motes need be paid for this benefit.
• Any character wounded by an urumi or floating ribbon wielded by the martial artist feels the pain transformed and transported into a kind of transcendent ecstasy. The distraction from this overwhelming sensation changes all wound penalties from internal to external until the end of the scene, as a Crippling effect.
Last edited:
Sherwood
Luna's Concubine
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