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Underworld Finial Style

• by User:Daneel_Rush.
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The history of this style harks back to the time immediately following the Primordial War, and to the life of one Walker at Sunrise, an Endings Caste Sidereal of no little prowess. He had fought at the frontlines, and it was he who reported to the other Sidereals that Malfeas had been felled. He had guided many Exalts during the war, evaluating their strategies and developing techniques for the Solars to strike at the transcendent Primordials. Among those, the Dawn Caste Solar called Wings Spanning Creation was by far the dearest to him. He cherished her dearly and spent more time with her than even her Lunar mate. So, he grieved terribly when she died, right after the end of the war, from a wound inflicted by the Holy Tyrant which forever refused to heal.

Listening to word of a bleak reproduction of Creation in which the higher souls of the regretful and the stubborn lingered in a pale imitation of life, Walker traveled to the Underworld in the hopes of finding his Solar beloved and beg forgiveness for his inability to save her. Indeed, he found her, and even if her smile was not as radiant in death, he still fell in love with her all over again. So, Walker swore loyalty to the ghost of his dearest, even above his duties as a Vizier, and the two roamed the Underworld together, challenging its spiteful storms and eradicating the many foul monstrosities that roamed its vast and lawless wastes. They joined the first crusade towards the center of the Underworld, and they were present when the decision was made to build a fortress against Oblivion. It was in the first building of what would become Stygia where Wings Spanning Creation accepted the call of Lethe, leaving her dear sifu and companion alone once more, but this time with a purpose.

While the crusade’s war leaders looked at building impenetrable walls and structure to ward off hekatonkhires and other abominations from the Labyrinth, Walker looked towards the sky. He studied both the violent weather of the Underworld and the original design of the megalopolis of the dead. He fearlessly submerged himself within the dark thunderstorms raging above the great citadel and listened to the hateful whispers of the vanquished Malfeans, and from their horrific words he understood what Stygia had to become if it was to survive. And when he presented himself to the first of the Dual Monarchy with his idea, they listened, and thousands of the dead and the living gathered to assist him.

At the very center of the city, Walker started performing his katas. And in unison, thousands of geomancers, sorcerers, astrologists and petty laborers worked hard on raising a city that would tame the hatred and the spite of the Malfeans. Stygia had already established itself as the bulwark against Oblivion, but it in that moment when it truly became worthy of that title. Buildings were raised, and their construction itself was as work of art as their architecture, for the thousands of laborers were an orchestra and Walker at Sunrise its director. For his katas carried the instructions on what to build, where to build and how to build geomantically and auspiciously proper structures that would siphon the fell energies of the Underworld’s storms into the Labyrinth without leaving swaths of destruction behind. So thousands toiled, like extensions of Walker’s hands, feet and fingers, while he performed his circle dance around the Mouth of the Void. And from the four directions of the Underworld’s compass, a hundred times that many people directed their prayers towards the city, and Walker gathered those prayers as well and embedded them into the city’s walls, where they would educate Stygia itself on how to fulfill the role it was meant form. And the city learned, and the city sang a requiem when, after a century of unceasing work, Walker at Sunrise passed away on the spot, for what purpose could he find after completing his magnum opus?

This Celestial Martial Arts style was born from records of his life and deeds written by the ghosts of forty-four Solar and Sidereal martial artists who witnessed Walker’s work, for could not pass into Lethe before leaving behind testimony of this act of greatness. After the Usurpation, the living Exalts who joined the second great crusade to save Stygia found these records, and the Underworld Finial Style was born of their attempts at reproducing them. It emphasizes the concepts of redirection (in the city’s aspect as a finial), enduring (in the city’s aspect as a bastion against the wilderness of the Underworld) and gathering (in the city’s aspect as a collector of the Underworld’s prayers).

But what of Amaranthine Finials of the Grand Necropolis, the Sidereal style with which Walker at Sunrise educated Stygia into its role at the center of the Underworld? That remains to be rediscovered, for no amount of written descriptions can teach their readers of the terrible, blasphemous things that were the lightning storms of the timeless Underworld, nor of the dreadful words of hate and spite and longing the Neverborn whispered in their howling winds. Perhaps the current incarnation of its designer, curiously named Walker at Nightfall, could reconceptualize the style from vestiges of memories of his former life.

Weapons and Armor: Disciples of this martial arts style are proficient with swords and spears (and their artifact equivalents) and Charms of in the Underworld Finial Style treat attacks made with these weapons as unarmed attacks. This style is compatible with light armor.

Complementary Traits: Underworld Finial Style is strongly connected to the Virtues of Compassion and Temperance, and students of this style must choose one of them as his “driving Virtue” when beginning his martial studies. The character’s rating in the driving Virtue must be at least 3 and cannot ever drop below this number. Should it ever do so, the Charms of this style become unusable until the Virtue rating is restored above the threshold.

Charms

Bitterness-Weathering Spirit

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 2

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: None

Towards the baleful storms of the Underworld, the finial feels only pity. She accepts the violent Malfean hatred when it strikes her, for it will never make her sway. The martial artist adds her driving Virtue to her lethal soak against an environmental hazard, and she will never be knocked off her feet by the harmful effect, no matter how much damage she takes after soak.

Fortress-Against-Oblivion Kata

Cost: 1 mote per 1L/2B soak

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: Bitterness-Weathering Spirit

Even if the dire Underworld and its most horrendous inhabitants lash at its walls and ravage its structures, the foundation of the necropolis endures, and will do so until the end of time. After crossing her arms before her chest while gathering her Essence and animatedly sweeping them to her sides, the Exalt’s body gains the endurance of the Underworld megalopolis, adding 1L/2B to her soak for every mote committed to the Charm. The character cannot commit more motes than twice her driving Virtue. This bonus is counted as natural soak.

Stygian Lightning Rod Technique

Cost: 1 mote

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: Bitterness-Weathering Spirit

The finial protects. It is her duty to endure the calamities that would otherwise inflict harm on many others. With this Charm, the finial redirects an attack aimed at somebody else towards herself. The attack is effectively changed as if it has been originally aimed at the finial in the first place, and all bonuses and penalties are adjusted accordingly.

For the purpose of this Charm, the original target of the attack must be within the martial artist’s melee range, but she may still move up to half of (Dexterity + 12) yards to reach someone, if she has not moved yet in that turn.

Underworld Finial Form

Cost: 6 motes

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Fortress-Against-Oblivion Kata, Stygian Lightning Rod Technique

The martial artist assumes an austere, upright stance, both her weapon and her chin held high, and her eyes studying the battlefield like a seasoned general. He is a lightning rod, accepting all punishment and never succumbing to it. He is Stygia, a sinkhole for all the malign forces suffusing the Underworld, but what a proud sinkhole it is.

The finial adds her Martial Arts score to her bashing and lethal soak, her Essence score to her aggravated soak, and she may soak lethal damage with her full Stamina score. Furthermore, whenever she channels her driving Virtue to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts parry, she may also add the chosen Virtue’s rating to her soak against that same attack. If the martial artist is defending himself against one of the undead or against a servant of the Malfeans, the driving Virtue dice become automatic successes and the bonus to soak doubles.

Finally, this form Charm allows the martial artist to parry lethal attacks while barehanded without a stunt.

Necropolitan Nexus of (Virtue)

Cost: None

Duration: Permanent

Type: Special

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Underworld Finial Form

Every day that passes fuels the morale of the citizens of Stygia, for the city remains unbroken by the cruel and hateful world that wishes for its end. This Charm permanently enhances Underworld Finial Form. While a character with this Charm has Underworld Finial Form active, she recovers a channel of her driving Virtue every time she successfully soaks an attack down to its minimum damage and furthermore does not take any health levels of damage after the final roll. Also, she automatically adds her driving Virtue in dice to all prayer rolls she makes while the form is active.

The Charm takes its name from the finial’s driving Virtue, so some might learn it as Necropolitan Nexus of Compassion and others as Necropolitan Nexus of Temperance.

Imperturbable Storm Terminal Stance

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Necropolitan Nexus of Virtue

No matter where they come from, Stygia meets and resists the hateful hammering of the servants of Oblivion. Even when they pour out of the Mouth of the Void and lash at the Grand Necropolis from within, the city is ready to defend itself.

The finial may invoke this Charm in response to an attack, immediately reducing the extra successes in the enemy’s attack roll by the character’s Essence + Martial Arts before applying soak. This Charm may reduce extra successes to zero, effectively reducing the attack’s effect to merely base damage (Strength + weapon bonus), and it explicitly works against attacks the character is not aware of—a lightning rod needs no warning to do its job properly. The finial may always channel her driving Virtue with this Charm to further decrease successes by her Virtue rating.

Internal Stygian Mint Defense

Cost: 2 motes per 1L/2B, 1 Willpower, plus 1 Willpower per 1A

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Underworld Finial Form

The finial lessens the effect of an enemy attack by transmuting the Essence that fuels it into currency. This Charm can only be used in response to attacks powered by Essence, and it must be used after applying soak following injury but before rolling for damage. Each mote spent reduces the final roll by one dice of lethal damage or two dice of bashing damage. This Charm may also protect against aggravated damage: the finial must spend a point of Willpower to convert one dice of aggravated damage into lethal damage, and he may then spend two motes of Essence to reduce this damage as well. This Charm may reduce an attack to zero damage dice.

The character then rolls Intelligence + Larceny. She may replace Larceny with Lore or Bureaucracy if she has a Specialty in Economics or related. Each success turns two dice of reduced lethal or aggravated damage or four dice of reduced bashing damage into a one-dot bonus to her Resources level, which should be counted separately from her normal Resources Background score. Resources bonuses cannot stack beyond five dots, so successes beyond the fifth in the Intelligence + Larceny roll build a second “pool” of extra Resources until the tenth success, and so on. Naturally, no more successes in the roll can be transmuted than the number of damage dice reduced in the first place. Each pool of created Resources allows a single purchase at its level. Once the purchase is made, the entire pool is lost as the currency scatters into the local economy.

This Charm is particularly effective when used in the Underworld: successes in the Intelligence + Larceny roll transmute a single die of lethal or aggravated damage or two bashing damage dice into a dot of Resources. Note that success in the Larceny roll guarantees the authenticity and validity of the currency created by this Charm, which is always forged in the most common local coin.

Sky-to-Labyrinth Syphoning Method

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Internal Stygian Mint Defense

Transcending even the greatness of unfaltering Stygia, the finial in his wisdom learns to give a new purpose to the blows his body must bear with. This Charm may be activated after the Exalt applies his soak to an attack which has struck him, but before damage is finally rolled. The finial then reaches with either hand or weapon to touch a third party, effectively becoming a conduit for the blow she has received rather than its target.

The martial artist makes an unarmed Martial Arts attack against a person within range, which cannot be the original attacker. This attack, which is rather a simple attempt at establishing contact, inflicts no damage. Instead, each additional success in the attack roll transfers one die of the first attack’s post-soak damage dice to the touched target as undodgeable, unblockable dice of damage, which the target may only reduce with his natural soak. The finial may always channel her driving Virtue into this “attack”; if her target is an undead or a creature at the service of Oblivion, the Virtue dice become automatic successes.

The finial does not have to roll any of the damage dice she transfers in this manner, and she cannot transfer more damage dice than she was meant to roll herself. Dice of bashing damage are transferred as bashing damage, lethal as lethal and aggravated as aggravated. If the target of the Charm’s damage dice redirection uses a perfect parry or dodge, this Charm fails and the martial artist has to roll damage normally. If the redirection target uses a perfect soak, neither the finial nor the target have to roll the transferred damage dice.

This Charm is treated as a counterattack, meaning that it cannot be used in response to another counterattack, and the martial artist cannot use another counterattack Charm in response to the original attack.

Breathe in the Past and Present

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Underworld Finial Form

The martial artist stands with feet wide apart, takes a deep breath and raises her arms to the sky, tracing a large circle as she brings them down to the space between his knees. Her will reaches into the minds of many, and their passing thoughts fly in currents of invisible Essence towards the finial. The Exalt thus submerges herself in a sea of information made by the thoughts of every intelligent being within the character’s Essence x 100 yards, receiving a random passing thought of the Storyteller’s choice every turn. The martial artist may seek the thoughts of a specific person she knows within the Charm’s range, making a Perception + Investigation roll to which she adds her Martial Arts in extra dice. Note that this Charm does not allow its user the to dig out the memories and knowledge of others; it only reveals whatever they are thinking of at the moment.

Essence-wielding beings possess an innate mental resistance that may prevent their thoughts from flying towards the finial’s inviting mind. Such beings may reflexively spend a point of Willpower and succeed in a Wits + Willpower roll at a difficulty of the finial’s Essence to protect their thoughts against this Charm. Beings with higher Essence than the finial are not affected by this Charm at all.

While this Charm has no effect within the Wyld, it is particularly effective in the Underworld, where the memories of the dead make the foundation for the pale realm’s substance. The finial adds her driving Virtue as extra successes to her Investigation rolls to seek the thoughts of a specific individual, as long as this target is no longer alive. For such entities, the difficulty of the Wits + Willpower roll to resist this Charm increases by the same amount (the finial’s driving Virtue), and Underworld dead (and undead) with higher Essence than the finial must also spend Willpower and succeed in the Wits + Willpower roll to protect their thoughts against this Charm.

Underworld-as-Sifu Enlightenment

Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Breathe in the Past and Present

Drawing the wisps of released Essence towards herself, the finial may draw upon wisdom otherwise unassailable to her. This Charm may be invoked whenever the finial witnesses any action in which Essence was used. She must be aware of the use of Essence, and this Charm does not grant such awareness. With a beckoning kata, the finial draws upon the vestiges of flickering Essence dispersed during the event, and she gains knowledge and prowess from the Essence she absorbs.

As long as motes remain committed to this Charm, and the witnessed action is one the finial could already perform herself, she gains a +3 specialty applicable to any rolls to perform the same action or resist or defend against that action when performed upon herself. If the action witnessed was one she cannot perform but could potentially perform with an expenditure of experience (such as witnessing a Charm she can learn and already fulfills the prerequisites for, or the use of a language she does not yet know), she may immediately pay experience points and gain that knowledge without need for training time. Even if she could not normally pay the necessary experience for whatever reason (not having enough experience points, not fulfilling all the prerequisites to learn a Charm), she can hold to that knowledge indefinitely by keeping the motes committed. Paying the necessary experience and fixing the knowledge in her mind immediately ends this Charm.

Even if the finial could not ever gain the ability to reproduce the action she has witnessed (a Charm she cannot ever learn, for example), she may still hold to the knowledge to give it to someone who may make use of it. She can thus teach things she cannot herself do, and the training time is reduce by a factor equal to her Essence. She must keep the motes committed to hold to that knowledge for the whole training period, and the Charm’s effect ends when the trainee(s) pay experience and claim the imparted knowledge as his own.

The Deathless Amaranth Blossoms

Cost: 10 motes, 2 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: Imperturbable Storm Terminal Stance, Sky-to-Labyrinth Syphoning Method, Underworld-as-Sifu Enlightenment

Stygia is a fortress against Oblivion and a lightning rod for the Underworld’s storms. It directs the foul energy released in those storms back into the Labyrinth. The martial artist who has achieved mastery of this style can do better, turning the very foul energies he opposes into a weapon against the forces of Oblivion. She invokes this Charm after she is struck by an hand-to-hand or ranged attack and applies her soak to it, but before damage is rolled. This is a perfect defense; the finial takes no damage whatsoever, and this Charm explicitly negates any other deleterious effects the character would have suffered due to being struck, aside from damage.

She then channels the energy fueling the enemy attack into an eruption of reddish purple Essence that engulfs any one enemy within range. This is resolved as an unblockable unarmed Martial Arts counterattack, using her full dice pool and adding the negated attack’s post-soak damage dice to the attack roll. This may increase the dice pool beyond the usual limit, but the finial may not add further dice to the attack roll with other Charms, not even in a Combo. Automatic dice or successes from effects already in place (such as scene-long Charms) still apply to this counterattack as normal. This attack always inflicts lethal damage, and it deals aggravated damage to the undead and to servants of the Neverborn.

Metadata

Name: Underworld Finial Style

Author: Daneel Rush

Description: A heavily defensive Celestial style connected to the founding of Stygia and its purpose as a bulwark against the Underworld and Oblivion.

Type: Celestial

Rules: E1

Form Weapons: Swords,Spears

Armor Allowed: Light

Shield Allowed: no

Essence Range: 2-4

MA Range: 2-5

Total Charms: 11

Forms: 1

Comboable Charms: 6

Reflexive Charms: 7

Persistent Charms: 5

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