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House of Leisure Style

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Origins

In a flurry of completist ingenuity, the astrologers of the House of Leisure designed this Style to complete the quintet of astrological styles. In typical Serenity fashion, they built it so that once can practice this Style almost without effort, which allows the Musicians (as they prefer to be called) the distinctive ability to interweave this Style with another, adapting their plans to the situation at the last possible moment.

Musicians tend to wear fine silks, cut to cling close to the shapes of their bodies or woven of transparent gauze. They do not cut their hair. The form weapon of the House of Leisure Style is the straight sword.

Transitions

Each Charm in this Style, apart from the Form and Love Has No Rules, is a stance, a particular viewpoint from which the martial artist sees and interacts with the world. The transitions connect the stances in the most natural fashion; in shifting from one stance to another, the martial artist performs the transition automatically. This is the way it works in mortal martial arts, at least.

The supernatural transitions of the House of Serenity are slightly less effortless. When an appropriate opportunity arises, the martial artist may pay the appropriate cost to perform the transition. A transition begins in one stance and ends in another; performing it causes the first stance to end and the second to begin. The activation cost of the new stance need not be paid; the motes committed to the first stance are transferred to maintain the second, instead. The action associated with a transition benefits from the effects on the new stance.

"The use of transitions" counts as a Charm use, but it does not matter what transitions the martial artist is using; he may use several in a single turn. He cannot normally activate a Charm and use transitions in the same turn. Transition use cannot normally be placed in a Combo.

Presentation Format for Transitions

Name

Cost

Duration

Type

This paragraph describes the transition's effect.

Presentation Format for Charms

In addition to the standard Charm description, the stances of the House of Leisure Style describe their transition linkages, as such:

Name of Transition :: Name of Stance

This paragraph is a description of the condition that allows the adept to change stance. The stance named above is the stance that the martial artist ends in when he performs this transition from this stance.

The Charms

Student Charms

Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 2

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisite Charms: None

The martial artist takes joy in being untouchable, in being free, and in this radiance, others find despair. When an opponent attacks the Sidereal but the attack does not hit her, he loses 1 Willpower point. If no one succeeds in attacking her for a full turn while this stance is in effect, she adds her Martial Arts in dice to Dodge rolls.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Unerring Path of the Ring :: Love is What You Make of It

When an opponent loses Willpower due to the effect of Love is Smiling at Your Troubles, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Red Gold Manacles :: Love is Hard

When an opponent attacks one of her allies, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Thy Sash Untied :: Talking to Raindrops

When she rolls more successes on a dodge than her attacker's permanent Essence, the Sidereal may use this transition; she adds half her dodge successes to the pool granted by the invocation.

Love Endures

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

Behind the maiden dances a violet shadow, and the shadow cannot be trusted, but the maiden dances on. Whenever the martial artist deals Health Levels of damage from an unarmed Martial Arts attack, the shadow lashes out. The lash reaches the same opponent one turn later; it deals a number of dice of unsoakable lethal damage equal to the levels of damage caused by the initial attack.

When the martial artist botches an attack, the shadow lashes out at her instead, measuring its attack by the damage of the last attack that hit her.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Ward Off Sapphire Lotus :: Love is Smiling At Your Troubles

When she is attacked by a material being, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Flock of Cobalt Songbirds :: Love is What You Make of It

When one of her allies makes an attack, and before damage is rolled, the Sidereal may use this transition; she places a hand on her ally's arm, and the transition's effect is based on the damage of his attack.

Two Doves Part Company :: You are the Body, I am the Shadow

When the Sidereal witnesses someone being killed or reduced to Incapacitated, she may use this transition.

Love is Hard

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

Sometimes things don't go so well, you know? War is like that. With this Charm, the character gives up her power to get it; she is able to perform unarmed Martial Arts parries on behalf of creatures within 3 yards. (It doesn't provide parries, just alters their applicability.) If the attack does not hit, she gains one Willpower point; if it does hit, then transfer one-half (rounding down) of the attack's damage to the martial artist after it has been rolled.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Unerring Path of the Ring :: Love Endures

When she gains Willpower due to the effect of Love is Hard, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Red Gold Manacles :: Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

When an opponent attacks her, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Robe-Tearing Urgency :: Meeting Long Awaited

On her initiative, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Love is What You Make of It

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Love Endures, Love is Hard

The secret of Exaltation is the unholy wrath that can destroy Creation. While he uses this stance, the martial artist can strike dematerialised spirits, and he negates difficulty penalties against his unarmed Martial Arts attacks based on the fire of his anima. At the 4-7 mote level of display, he negates 1 level of difficulty. Each subsequent level negates an additional level; at the iconic level of display he suffers from no difficulty penalties at all.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Ward Off Sapphire Lotus :: Love Is Hard

When she is attacked by an immaterial being or with Charms, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Flock of Cobalt Songbirds :: Love Endures

When she is attacked in hand-to-hand combat, and before damage is rolled, the Sidereal may use this transition. She places a hand on her attacker's face, and the transition's effect is based on the damage of his attack.

Tangled Hair, Tangled Thoughts :: The Queen of My Dreams

When the Sidereal's anima display increases in intensity as he performs an unarmed Martial Arts attack, he may use this transition; its effect is based on the successes of the attack.

The Form

House of Leisure Form

Cost: 7 motes

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Love is What You Make of It

The martial artist moves at the centre of every dance; if he is wearing a Resplendent Destiny of the House of Venus, then he may increase any dice or difficulty modifiers based on that Destiny's College to his Essence in his presence. Upon activating this Charm, he becomes aware of the astrological effects he may bolster and chooses which ones to affect. This effect functions on the Blissful Idiot Blessing, Fortified Spirit Blessing, Ruin Without Failure Curse, and Name-Destroying Curse. It also functions on the various powers of resplendent blessings activated by the expenditure of effect points.

The Musician knows the joy of dancing poorly; he adds his Martial Arts to dodge dice pools. He may attack for lethal damage and parry the same bare-handed, and while the Form is in effect, the use of transitions does not qualify as a Charm use.

This is a Martial Arts Form-type Charm; it is incompatible with armour and with other Forms.

Mastery Charms

Talking to Raindrops

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: House of Leisure Form

Raindrops are the tears of clouds, too distant to touch the mountains that they desire. The Sidereal carries them in her heart, and her generosity gains her their gratitude; whenever she rolls at least 4 successes on a dodge, she gains twice as many motes as her Appearance.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Robe-Tearing Urgency :: Love is What You Make of It

Upon his initiative, the warrior may use this transition. He adds his Conviction to the dice pool of the first attack he purchases.

Red Gold Manacles :: Love is Hard

When one of her allies is attacked, the Sidereal may use this transition; if she extends the effect of the Charm to another, the beneficiary must be the attacker.

The Queen of My Dreams

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Talking to Raindrops

In the secret places of his heart, every warrior dreams of a warrior queen, garbed only in green silk, fighting with sword and feathered fan. In this stance, the Sidereal serves the function of that practical alliance.

When she first enters this stance in a scene, or when she activates the Charm (as opposed to transitioning into it), the Sidereal chooses as many allies as her Essence. So long as they are within twice her Dexterity in yards, she may reflexively move to parry attacks made against them; she reflexively adds her Essence in dice to these parries. Should the beneficiary parry as well, subtract the successes of both parries from the attack.

Under the effects of this stance, the Sidereal may defend against attacks made by dematerialised beings.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Thy Sash Untied :: Love is Hard

When she rolls more successes on a parry than her attacker's permanent Essence, the Sidereal may use this transition; she adds half her parry successes to the pool granted by the invocation.

Unerring Path of the Ring :: Love Endures

On her initiative, the Sidereal may use this transition.

Thou art Flesh, I am Shadow

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: House of Leisure Form

As his beloved dies, the Sidereal vanishes in a wine-dark pillar of shade; when one is not there, neither is the other. He is invisible to mortal senses while under the effect of this stance, but can be detected by effects that reveal dematerialised spirits. In addition, he adds his Compassion to the base damage of his attacks, and they are piercing.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Tangled Hair, Tangled Thoughts :: Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

When she is attacked in hand-to-hand combat, and before she tries to defend herself, the Sidereal may use this transition. She places a hand on her attacker's arm, and the transition's effect is his attack roll.

Flock of Cobalt Songbirds :: Love is What You Make of It

When she is attacked in hand-to-hand combat, and before damage is rolled, the Sidereal may use this transition. She places a hand on her attacker's face, and the transition's effect is based on the damage of his attack.

Meeting Long Awaited

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: 5 turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Thou art Flesh, I am Shadow

Too long have warrior and lover been apart! In his impatience, the martial artist finds ferocity. He reduces the penalty for multiple actions by one-half, rounding up.

This is a Martial Arts Stance-type Charm; if the martial artist uses another Stance-type Charm, this one ends immediately.

Two Doves Part Company :: Love Endures

When the Sidereal witnesses someone being killed or reduced to Incapacitated, she may use this transition. While Love Endures is in effect, she adds her Compassion to the shadow lash's damage pool.

Ward Off Sapphire Lotus :: Love is Smiling at Your Troubles

When the Sidereal is attacked by an opponent he has attacked in the same turn, he may use this transition.

The Ultimate

Love Has No Rules

Cost: 3 motes (10 motes, 1 Willpower)

Duration: One Scene

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisite Charms: The Queen of My Dreams, Meeting Long Awaited

Dancing more and more awry, the martial artist stands at the center of chaos. When he activates this Charm, he chooses one of the four prerequisite Charms of the House of Leisure Form. While this Charm is in effect, he may always use the transitions that Charm permits, for the appropriate result. Sidereals and those who learn this Charm as Sidereals may enhance it with a Scripture of the Dancer, which sinks into the earth to form a lapis dancing ring centred around the Sidereal, with a radius equal to 10 * her Essence in yards. She chooses one of the four Stances of this style that require the Form as a prerequisite; she continuously benefits from this Stance while within the ring, and may invoke its transitions without losing the Stance's effect; the Stance is not actually active and so she may move freely through the other Stances of the style. Invoking the enhanced version of this Charm requires that the Exalt pay the greater activation cost.

Mastery of the style confers another benefit, which is permanent and not dependent upon this Charm's being activated; the Sidereal may use any weapon with the style that she has soulforged out of a consenting god.

The Transitions

First Current

Unerring Path of the Ring

Cost: 4 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

The Sidereal performs an unarmed Martial Arts attack, outlining the arc of a wedding ring or of a crown. Regardless of the result of the roll or difficulty penalties, the attack always has at least one success; this success has no special protection against defences, but an attack that is unresisted will never miss.

Red Gold Manacles

Cost: 2 motes (4 motes)

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

The Sidereal is an object to be owned, but not to be owned cheaply. He moves his Dexterity in yards. This may be used after a dodge against an attack is rolled; if it is, then add the successes of the dodge to the distance he moves, and the movement must separate attacker and target. The attacker must follow for the attack to connect, if it is a hand-to-hand attack; ranged attacks suffer from the increased range, if the character has moved into another range band.

By paying the higher cost, the Sidereal may catch some beneficiary by the sleeve and drag him with her.

Ward Off Sapphire Lotus

Cost: 2 motes + 1 mote/2 dice

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

With his love, the warrior turns an attack into the completed movement of a dance. He parries an attack with his Compassion in dice; he can purchase additional dice, up to his full defensive pool, at a rate of 1 mote per 2 dice.

Flock of Cobalt Songbirds

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

In the trees of Chaya nests a particular bird, blue as the summer sky. It is timid when caught alone, but in flocks they defend their colonies with fervour! The martial artist gains 2 motes per HL of damage an attack deals.

Second Current

Tangled Hair, Tangled Thoughts

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

The martial artist's movement sends her hair swirling, a dark screen. She adds the successes of an attack to her next dodge or parry roll; she declares which defence will benefit when using the transition.

Robe-Tearing Urgency

Cost: 3 motes per attack, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Extra Actions

The Musician is so consumed with desire that he tears away his attacker's clothing as he fights him; he may purchase additional Martial Arts attacks at a rate of 3 motes per attack. Each attack disarranges the victim; if an attack hits (it need inflict no HLs of damage), the victim suffers a -1 penalty to Social rolls until the end of the scene. This penalty is cumulative.

Two Doves Part Company

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

The martial artist uses this transition when he witnesses the incapacitation or death of another. He adds that individual's Temperance to his Compassion. This bonus fades at a rate of one dot per turn.

Thy Sash Untied

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Seeing his opponent in a moment of hesitation, the Sidereal makes some flirtatious performance. He may make an Athletics or Performance action with his full pool.

Comments

Sublime, sublime. I haven't really pondered the implications that the use of stances and transitions hold, but the imagery, the titles: you're a poet, willows. -- OhJames

Thanks! I owe much of the credit to Hindi song lyrics and Japanese poetry, though. (And the Scriptures!) - willows

What level is this style? Terresterial, Celestial or Sidereal? Because if it's not sidereal, the effects are far greater then what they should be. If it's sidereal, the minimums are way too low.

Sorry, if this sounds rude or anything. The style is very poetic, it's effects just doesn't match its minimums. ^_^;
~ Haku

"Because if it's not sidereal, the effects are far greater then what they should be." I'm curious as to why you think so. It's celestial, naturally. - willows

Let's take the very first charm up there as an example. It's martial arts 2, essence 1... and for 5 motes and the next 5 turns, you can siphon off people's temporary willpower for a successful defense AND it gives her MA in dodge die under a conditional effect. It's giving far too much for the cost and level of the charm. People would laugh if this was a solar charm, let alone celestial level.
~ Haku

It is actually inferior to the Optimistic Security Practice. - willows

Shrugs Well... it is your MA style, but it's still over-powered for your effect for cost and level. I'm not going to go into the sidereal charms, given that they were designed by the maidens and such and have appropiate niches.

And if it's such a hotshot style, they would have taught it to the dragonblooded as this is in effect easier to use and far more effective then the IO styles, just based on the pre-form charms.
~ Haku

Generally I consider critique constructive when it offers a solution in addition to pointing out percieved problems. - willows

Fair enough... I would advise upgrading minimums for the charms if they're celestial MA level, as well as make them equivilant to solar charm in terms of power level and cost. But then, that's just me and my feeling that Solar charms should be the base guide-line for celestial MA charms in terms of effectiveness.
~ Haku

Ok. Upgrading the minima is not a big thing at all. Once I figure out what good Trait requisites are, I'll do that. What would you suggest are good bases for comparison, based on these effects? - willows

Hmmm, this is going to be tricky. I would suggest looking at the solar melee tree for the combative effects, as well as their performance and presence charms for the not so obvious effects. The lore tree (regards willpower regain and lost) might also be handy. The problem is that pre-form charms tend to be 'buy-in' charms and are suppose to be weaker then solar charms on a comparable level. At least, that's how I understand how they function.
~ Haku