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Morning Glory Style

Ohjames' guidelines: This is a Celestial style and I'm thinking ten Charms or so. It should focus on grapples, stealing Essence (or Willpower, or health levels), and looking pretty. In addition, morning glory seeds are powerful hallucinogens, while the blossoms can be made into a mildly alcoholic and psychedelic drink. Some Charms should probably reflect this property.

The Morning Glory style, while not actually aspected towards the Underworld, is heavily favored by the Abyssal Exalted, because its beauty grows from the death of its host. Much of the imagery associated with its katas is twining, dark, and intoxicating, and its practitioners aspire to a similar self-image. Morning Glory stylists tend to be arrogant, elegant, and callous; indeed, much of their form relies on sapping the strength of others, whether they be friend or foe.

Those martial artists who favor the Morning Glory style often garb themselves in baroque costumes of black, silver, and deep green, with highlights of white or sky blue, to symbolize the morning glory's blossoms. These costumes almost always include a light coat or jacket embroidered with thin, twisting patterns that seem to flow across its length.

This style is incompatible with armor. It treats attacks made with whip or fighting chain as unarmed.

Stilled Petal Strike - garrisod

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None

The initiate begins to channel the narcotic powers of the morning glory, secreting an indetectable anaesthetic through his palms. His attacks numb and disorient his opponent, leaving them unsure as to whether his attacks leave scratches or mortal wounds. This Charm supplements an unarmed Martial Arts attack.

Hide the results of the damage roll from the target. If the practitioner's attack does at least a single level of damage, the practitioner may roll his Essence; if he rolls even a single success, add an unsoakable level of bashing damage to the total damage of the attack. The target does not suffer any wound penalties from this attack or other Stilled Petal Strikes until the end of the scene, but is also not informed of how many Health Levels they have lost until the end of the scene or until they are Incapacitated.

Alluring Blossom Feint - Ambisinister

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None

The initiate of the Morning Glory Style learns to emulate the harmless appearance of a beautiful flower. By feigning an air of distracted indifference, the practioner lulls his opponent into defenselessness and then strikes. This Charm supplements a Martial Arts attack.

The Morning Glory Practioner rolls his Manipulation + Martial Arts against a Difficulty of his target's Wits. If the martial artist succeeds, his opponent loses a number of dice defending against the supplemented attack equal to the martial artist's permanent Essence plus the number of successes on his Manipulation + Martial Arts roll.

In These Pale Arms - OhJames

Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Five turns
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms:  None

With a hum and a smile, the martial artist twines his limbs around his opponent, stabbing his fingers, elbows, and knees into special points on the body that correspond to Essence and the soul. This Charm supplements a clinch attack. Instead of inflicting damage, the martial artist may choose to instead drain his Essence in motes from his opponent each turn for up to five turns, or until the clinch is broken, whichever comes first. The martial artist gains these motes, while his victim loses them. In the case of beings without an Essence pool, the martial artist may instead choose to drain either a dot of Strength or of Stamina. Attribute loss can only be inflicted once per activation of this Charm, but is permanent without the aid of magical healing. The martial artist does not gain any attribute dots from this effect of the Charm.

Morning Glory Form - OhJames

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Stilled Petal Strike, Alluring Blossom Feint, In These Pale Arms

The martial artist lets his body move with the twining grace of the morning glory vine, forcing pulses of intoxicating Essence to suffuse his blood. For the duration of the scene, his supernatural flexibility adds his Martial Arts in dice to all attempts to initiate or escape from a grapple, but not to continue one.

The Essence flowing through his veins transmutes his blood and other bodily fluids into mild intoxicants. The martial artist negates one die of his wound penalty and may continue to act when Incapacitated, at a -4 wound penalty.

Finally, should an opponent deal lethal damage to the Morning Glory stylist, he must suceed at a Stamina + Resistance roll (Difficulty 1 if armed and armored, Difficulty 3 if armored but unarmed or vice versa, and Difficulty 5 if unarmed and unarmored) or suffer a -2 dice penalty to all rolls, as his vision swims with odd hallucinations and his reaction time slows. This penalty lasts for five turns before dissipating harmlessly and is not cumulative with itself.

This is a Martial Arts Form-type Charm and is incompatible with other Forms

Creeping Vein of Earth - FourWillowsWeeping

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Health Level
Duration: Special
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 2
Prereq. Charms: Morning Glory Form

The martial artist rips a vein from his wrist and drops one end of it into the earth; the other remains rooted in his flesh. The blood vessel sprouts and blooms into a gruesome vine that feeds on the dead and dying. Each turn on the martial artist's initiative, it latches onto the nearest Incapacitated or dying persons present, stopping when the summed Essences of persons it has attached to this turn equal or exceed the Essence of the martial artist, or there are no valid targets. On his initiative, the martial artist regains 1 mote per individual the vine has attached itself to.

The vine can be attacked, at the segment between the martial artist's arm and the earth; it is a part of the martial artist's body, and his dodges, parries, and other miscellaneous defensive abilities all apply to it, though it does not benefit from armour.

If the martial artist's Essence in turns passes without the vine finding a new target to feed on, it wilts. Beings that the vine has fed on will die by the end of the scene if they do not recieve medical attention.

Blissful Midnight Breath - garrisod

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:  Morning Glory Form

The martial artist exhales a cloud of shimmering, starry black fog, scented with morning glories, that unerringly seeks out and surrounds its target. The smell of the Breath is intoxicating, and its form beautiful, and it clings to a target and seeks to overwhelm his senses with its smoky tendrils. Each turn, the target must make a Temperance check (difficulty 1) if he wishes to resist inhaling the Breath; if he fails, he loses a point of Wits. In addition, each turn, the target must keep his eyes shut (suffering penalties for blindness); otherwise, the Breath enters through his eyes, causing the target to lose a point of Perception. Ability point losses return at the end of the scene, but if the target's Perception or Wits reach zero, he is incapacitated in a catatonic, delusional stupor and cannot respond to any stimuli until the end of the scene. These victims are particularly vulnerable to the Creeping Vein of Earth, providing twice the normal Essence regeneration while the vine feeds upon them.

Tap Root Strangling Grasp - Ambisinister

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Special
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:  Morning Glory Form

When one plant attacks another, it sends its roots forth to strangle the roots of its rival and steal its nutrients. A martial artist proficient in Tap Root Strangling Grasp can attack an opponent's essence pools and slowly strangle their access to them.

This charm can only be initiated while the martial artist is currently controling a clinch and may only be used to target the martial artist's opponent in said clinch. Roll the Exalt's willpower + essence + martial arts in a contested roll against his opponent's willpower + essence. If the martial artist wins, then his opponent will have a cap placed on the amount of essence he can spend in a round. This cap is equal to the target's permanent essence x (5 - the number of successes the Exalt won the contested roll by). If the opponent wins or ties there is no effect and the charm fails. At the start of each subsequent round the exalt may re-activate this charm to maintain the restrictive cap. The Exalt cannot sustain this charm for any longer than his permanent essence in rounds. Once the charm is activated the martial artist need not remain in control of, or even in the clinch that intiated the charm, but he must remain within his essence x 3 yards of his victim.

Graceful Exemplar Of Consumption Attitude - DeathBySurfeit

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Creeping Vein Of Earth, Blissful Midnight Breath, Taproot Strangling Grasp

From the moment it is chosen, a Morning Glory's host is doomed to perish, exchanging its life for the flower's own. With sufficient understanding, a practitioner of the Morning Glory Style sees how the spirit can be spread from host to host.

When this Charm is activated, the character breathes out a cloud of softly luminescent pollen, cascading about her as she collapses, quite dead. But she is not yet gone from this world - as a single glowing mote settles upon a dead body (even the martial artist's own, in a pinch), it sets root and grows. After five turns, the corpse bursts open in a bouquet of vibrantly-hued Essence, its skin folded open like the petals of a flower and the character emerges renewed from within, beautiful in shameless purity.

This regrowth heals a single level of bashing or lethal damage in the process, but the martial artist is not given more than his own body; all equipment must be gathered from his corpse, although any attuned artifacts remain so. The character's old body, devoid of a po, will never rise as a hungry ghost. This Charm may be used as a perfect defence, of a sort, or else as a means of surprising your foes.

To Weave Such Tangled Webs - OhJames

Cost: 5 motes per target, 1 Willpower, 1 health level
Duration: Until healed
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Creeping Vein Of Earth, Blissful Midnight Breath, Taproot Strangling Grasp

The morning glory derives strength from all around it; all other plants, be they offensive or harmless, are potential sources of nourishment. A stylist who learns this technique is able to open his arms and his soul to all beings, realizing that friend and foe are just different words for the same concept: victim.

The martial artist must first make a long gash over his heart, thereby providing ingress to the power that he will soon take on. The practitioner then touches each of his targets in turn, possibly requiring a barehanded Dexterity + Martial Arts roll, placing a spiritual tendril within their souls. Until the gash over his heart is healed, the martial artist may then, as a reflexive action costing 2 motes of Essence, steal up to his Martial Arts + Essence in dice from any of the beings linked to him. Dice stolen in this way are actually removed from their owners' pools and put into the martial artist's own, but are returned to their owners at the end of the turn. Dice may only be stolen from like pools: dice stolen from a victim's Dexterity + Dodge pool as she runs away from the Wyld Hunt cannot be added to the martial artist's Charisma + Performance roll to talk his way around the guards. Dice may be stolen once per turn but may be stolen from as many different victims as desired. A martial artist may only have a number of victims tied to him at one time lesser than or equal to his Martial Arts score. These dice count against the user's dice-adder cap.

Example: Dead Beast Queen, a Daybreak caste Abyssal and master of the Morning Glory Style, is getting ready for battle against the forces of Creation. She has a short chat with Pursuer of the Truest Cut, a Dusk caste colleague of hers, and touches his cheek as they part, implanting the requisite spiritual tendril. During a fight with a Dragon-Blooded, she is forced to abort to dodge to avoid an unblockable attack, but she has no Dodge ability. So she spends 2 motes of Essence to steal from Pursuer's Dexterity + Dodge pool of 8. She adds only her Dexterity in dice, 5, due to her dice-adder cap (she can no more than double her Attribute + Ability pool). If Pursuer needed to make a Dodge that turn, he would only have access to 3 dice.

Beautiful Engorgement on Dying Souls Prana - IanPrice

Cost: 8 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Graceful Exemplar Of Consumption Attitude, To Weave Such Tangled Webs

To truly pattern one's self after the Essence of the Morning Glory is to flourish with intoxicating beauty in the act of consuming the dead. Near the pinnacle of their art, practitioners of this style achieve this flawless appearance by entering a relaxed stance. From this position, the Exalt's Essence sends out roots, and blossoms beautifully. The Exalt's anima banner flares to the fullest extent when this charm is activated, though no matter what it would normally be, the iconic image displayed in this anima is a plethora of Morning Glory vines and flowers. The anima banner continues to flare for the remainder of the scene, and the iconic Morning Glory vines twine around the practitioner's arms and legs. The vines move and grow on their own in this beautiful display, and so this Prana is often used as part of the performance of dance or other displays, since it is not in itself a harmful effect. Such a use of the charm would be appropriate for many possible Performance stunts.

The anima vines are not mere decoration, though. Whenever the character performing this Prana uses Creeping Vein of Earth, they may do so without harming themselves, as the Essence vines in their anima reach out to consume the fallen foes. This also means that the vines cannot be attacked without some magical means of attacking incorporeal targets.

Additionally, every lethal or aggravated health level that any person present within the anima banner's radius suffers releases a floating golden mote of Essence, which is consumed by the iconic vines in the Morning Glory practitioner's anima. This restores one mote of Essence (peripheral first, then personal) per health level to the user. Anyone within the user's Essence x 100 yards is considered to be within the anima banner.

Comments

Suggestions on the Form - I'd suggest that the intoxicating effect not inflict a wound penalty specifically - a simple die penalty would be better, as it won't get confused when combined with other wound penalties - although I'd make it a difficulty penalty to all actions instead. I'd also suggest making the Stamina+Resistance roll a difficulty equal to the martial artist's Essence (and scrap the armored/armed distinctions). Also, what happens if the stylist reaches Incapacitated is she Incapacitated or at -4? My suggestions: When lethally wounded, the attacker makes a S+R roll equal in difficulty to the exalt's Essence. If the roll fails, the attacker's actions are at +1 difficulty for the rest of the scene. In addition, the exalt can ignore up to her Essence in wound penalties. -szilard

Altered, in accordance with a few of your suggestions. However, I think making the Difficulty equal to the martial artist's Essence is... I don't know. Kind of dull? Anyway, I think it makes more sense this way. If you whack a Morning Glory stylist with your bare hands, you'll get messed up. If you poke her with a sword while wearing heavy Jade plate.... not so much. -- OhJames

Ambisinister: I fixed a couple of typographical errors in your Charm, nothing major, just a comma and some capitalization. I also added a sentence because I felt the Charm's text wasn't exactly clear. Feel free to remove it if you like. Otherwise, looks good. -- OhJames

Your edits are welcome and appreciated. It's a cool premise for a Style. I have some other ideas, but I'd like to give some other folks a chance to come up with charms before I flood the market. -- Ambisinister

I was planning on saving this Charm as a possible pinnacle for the Style, but exuberance got the better of me (post more Charms, people!), so I've dropped the requisites and written it up anyway. All feedback is, as ever, very welcome...DeathBySurfeit

Heh heh... DeathBySurfeit, that's a fantastic charm - evocative, powerful but not power-gamey, and perfect for all the Morning Glory antagonists who need to avoid final death at the hands of our PCs. Its use is somewhat limited, due to the time limit, but it's good for a number of different uses (surprise, perfect dodge, minor healing, sheer creepiness.) I think it's just fine with its current requirements without being the pinnacle - it's a great "second best" charm for the tree; the pinnacle, presumably, being a powerful effect that all who know of the Morning Glory fear - this is the effect that you wouldn't want anyone to know about! It's awesome - "Dawn enters bedchamber to find his beloved concubine has been murdered, and activates Surprise Anticipation Prana to confront the Morning Glory assassin waiting in the shadows; they duel, with the Dawn finally ending the martial artist with a blow that leaves the assassin's body crumpled on the floor. Dawn sits down on the bed to mourn the loss of his beloved, cradling her body in his arms; when all of a sudden, he looks down on the face of the assassin, as those once-dead arms seek to embrace him... limit break, anyone?" -garrisod

Thanks, garrisod, that's pretty much exactly as I had imagined it. Glad to see the Charm received so fondly; I shall try to outdo myself further at the next opprtunity...DeathBySurfeit

About In These Pale Arms</i>: the motes of Essence are described as being "drained," and the same with the attribute dots. Does this mean the Morning Glory practitioner gains them? Or are they just removed from the target and then they disappear? - IanPrice

When creating charms I tend to err on the side of underpowered, especially since I had no idea where in the balance of this Style TRSG was going to go. Looking at the style as a whole, the charm definately needs some modification. -Ambisinister