Latest revision as of 01:17, 6 April 2010

Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Style

By LordAuran

Background:

Type: Terrestrial

The highly specialized Dusk at the Emerald Gallows style is based upon an enlightened view of death, duty and the struggle for survival. Though founded by a death cult of martial artist/philosophers, the style has found its greatest popularity among those who favor less esoteric pursuits; it has become a hallmark of executioners, assassins and others who engage in "unsavory" violence. It is exceedingly popular among those few mortals who attain the Root of the Perfected Lotus, which does nothing to help its reputation among Exalts.

In terms of technique, the style focuses on single combat directed toward nothing less than the swift death of the enemy. Each step, each strike, each feint and brutal grasp is calculated to bring the target one step closer to his demise; for this reason (among others), many martial artists feel justified in refusing to spar with or compete against practicioners of the style. Whatever its philosophical trappings, they argue, it is not an art of battle, but an art of murder.

Masters and students of the Dusk at the Emerald Gallows style see it differently. To them, the natural end of conflict is violence and ultimate destruction. Murder is murder, whether commited with a guillotine, a daiklave or poisoned goblet of wine; to leave shame behind is to know the truth behind the martial arts. Though not necessarily bloodthirsty or thoughtless, practicioners embrace brutality as a way of life, pursuing their calling as Creation's hangmen to its natural end. Dust at the Emerald Gallows Style favors the fighting chain, axe, greataxe, and Grimcleaver.

Note: While this style predates Abyssal Exalted and its origins have nothing to do with the Deathlords or any dark power, some practicioners and schools have adopted the false doctrine of the Deathlords and incorporated their teachings into the style's study. This strain of the style and its philosophy is small but growing, and causes no end of trouble and prejudice for mainstream practicioners. Many Immaculates consider the style's entire, small following to be expendable for the purpose of rooting out the heretics.

Charms

Severing the Thread of Life

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min. Essence: 1
Prereqs.: None

A practicioner of Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Style never takes his prey to death's door without nudging him through it. Upon damaging an opponent to Incapacitated or below, the character may activate this charm and slay the target on the spot by redirecting his blow to one of the body's five vital points. The target has only one turn before death takes him, is limited as usual by his Incapacitated state during that turn, and is beyond the help of mortal medicine. Regeneration or charms that can heal Aggravated damage are the only useful aid for the target; if he is raised above the Incapacitated level by either method, he avoids death.

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs.: Severing the Thread of Life

Central to the philosophy of the style is the idea that all killers and all victims are the same; when the two play their ancient roles, personal greatness and personal passions have no purchase. For the remainder of the scene in which an Exalt invokes Unfeeling Hangman Approach, any difficulty penalties to combat based upon awe, fear, compassion, etc. are lowered by the Exalt's personal Essence (to a minimum of 0). Additionally, the character gains an extra die on Valor rolls to resist fear, but adds one to the difficulty of Compassion rolls.

Cost: 2 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 1
Prereqs.: Severing the Thread of Life

To end a person is not a simple matter of physical violence. People have hopes, values, a will, and those must be crushed along with their bones to thoroughly terminate a life. Clinches supplemented by this charm have their damage calculated as usual, including subtraction of the target's soak, but each success on the damage roll costs the target one temporary WP instead of a health level, up to a single-attack total of the attacker's Permanent Essence.

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 1
Prereqs.: Severing the Thread of Life

Dust at the Emerald Gallows style teaches such brutal economy of action that those cocky enough to drop their guard seldom see a second chance. An attack supplemented by this charm does its normal damage; if the target scores no dodge nor parry successes against the attack, add the character's MA to damage, and convert all damage to Lethal.

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs.: Strangle the Soul, Stillness Begets Stillness Technique

The largest, toughest and most imposing warriors have the worst lot on their day of execution; their bodies resist death to the agonizing end, leaving them to pray for death as the axe falls again and again, or the executioner methodically cracks through toughened bone and muscle. When an attack supplemented by this charm has its damage reduced to 1 or lower by soak, the character may forfeit his usual minimum damage and instead inflict a single level (not a single die) of aggravated damage. Attacks insufficient to penetrate hardness still inflict no damage at all.

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs.: Unfeeling Hangman Approach, Bestowing the Brute's Demise

A martial artist using Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Form becomes a living instrument of death, his body firmly centered and still as a corpse while at rest, yet striking swiftly an inevitably as a falling blade while in motion. So attuned is the character to the patterns of death that he may automatically kill any Incapacitated or dying character he touches more than casually; he may stride across a battlefield full of injured and dying men, crushing each one's throat; reflexively snap the spine of any opponent he batters into unconsciousness; his fingers will even seem to reach hungrily for the pressure points of the deathly ill, seeking to bring the disease instantly to its natural, fatal end. All unarmed attacks by the character do Lethal damage, and even his successful parries inflict one die of Lethal damage when they are successful against close range opponents.

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs.: Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Form

Most people fail to live up to their full potential, and hamstring their own success in the brutal Age of Sorrows. Essence, like life, abandons the unworthy. When the Exalt successfully attacks a target or parries an attack, he may activate this charm and make a contested virtue roll against the opponent. The character may choose any Virtue, but he and his opponent must roll the same Virtue. If the character wins, his demonstration of his opponent's failings causes the opponent's Essence to flee. The opponent loses 3 motes per dot by which the martial artist's Permanent Essence exceeds his own, at a minimum of 3 motes (mortals without access to their essence pools are considered to have motes of Essence equal to their permanent Willpower for the purposes of this efect). Upon being reduced below 0 motes, mortals lose 1 Permanent Essence. Mortals (including heroic mortals) reduced below 1 Permanent Essence die instantly. Only mortals can lose Permanent Essence from this effect.

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs.: Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Form

While practicioners of the style have a reputation for brutality, this does not imply impatience. Like one's death day, the martial artist wins by waiting for life's struggle to take its course, delivering the final blow only after the battle has reached its foregone conclusion. Activating this charm permits the martial artist to enhance his weapon's defensive abilities at the expense of its offensive power, allowing him to surely but slowly wear down his opponent. The martial artist adds +2 to his weapon's Defense modifier, but subtracts its existing defense modifier from the weapon's Speed, Accuracy and Damage. With some weapons especially suited to the style (those with negative Defense modifiers), this may actually result in a bonus to Speed, Accuracy and Damage, but the bonus cannot exceed +2, and the post-bonus total of any one trait cannot exceed +10. The martial artist may enchant his fists or feet with this effect, wreathing them subtly in shadow and causing them to move with utter efficiency of motion; this permits the martial artist to parry lethal damage unarmed. More exotic natural weapons are beyond the scope of this charm.

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs.: Dusk at the Emerald Gallows Technique

Execution can be a lengthy affair; a ready blade does much to discourage would-be rescuers. When the martial artist is in control of a clinch at the beginning of a round, he may activate this charm. For the duration of the round, his combat actions are unencumbered by the clinch. This allows him to parry and dodge normally. In addition, the martial artist gains one extra action this turn that may only be used for a clinch attack.

Cost: 3 motes, 1 WP
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs.: Shameful Extinction Approach, Undertaker's Patience Mantra, Hope-slaying Duality of Noose and Blade Technique

When a newborn child takes its first breath, it begins its struggle against death. From that moment, its ultimate failure is ordained. A martial artist using this attack strikes not at his opponent, but through his only path of flight, toward his only defensible spot. The opponent must roll Valor at difficulty 2 to avoid foolishly and instinctively defending his life. If he succeeds, treat the attack as normal, but subtract 2 dice from both its accuracy and damage; the target may defend himself as usual, his fearless defiance breaking the charm's effect. If the target fails his Valor roll, the attack will suceed with at least once success, regardless of the attack roll, defense roll, or any other factors. Perfect defenses are, of course, perfectly suited to evading the inevitable, and as such they provide their usual degree of protection from this attack.

Comments

This is definitely an interesting style; I like it on flavor alone, and I'm glad to see Grimcleavers getting a little love. There are a few effects I have misgivings about, though. First of all, there are several effects where the primary focus is dealing or parrying lethal damage; this seems to be the primary function of the form and is important to Undertaker's Patience Mantra and Stillness Begets Stillness Technique. Although the flavor of all of these is very cool, I just wonder if the effects are underpowered given that the form weapons are so effective at dealing lethal damage as is. Wielding a greataxe or Grimcleaver in this form already guarantees you're going to be dealing and parrying lethal, and there doesn't seem to be any incentive for students of this form not to be wielding an axe of some sort.

My other concern is for Shameful Extinction Approach. It's definitely a useful effect, but it seems like the mortal-related approaches are basically going to be instant killers, since the only mortals likely to have Essence pools and a permanent Essence rating more than 1 are God-Blooded, thaumaturges, and the odd Essence-channeling Wyld mutant. I can understand this being very lethal to mortals, but is that intentional? -- AntiVehicleRocket

Re: dealing and parrying lethal, my vision for that stuff was as a secondary effect, so that those who choose to use this style unarmed can somewhat keep up with beheading-Grimcleaver-guy and choke-you-with-a-chain-gal. I'm iffy about Stillness Begets Stillness being too weak. My balance comparison is Five-Dragon Force Blow. Stillness Begets Stillness is a marginally better value in terms of damage (they have equal damage potential barring Legendary Strength, but SBS bases extra damage on an Ability instead of an Attribute, so it's cheaper to minmax), but its requirement is very restrictive. Any advice on making SBS slightly stronger without removing the no-defense requirement?

I don't envision anybody using Undertaker's Patience Mantra on their hands or feet if they've got an axe handy, and that's intentional. That charm is just a thinly-veiled Grimcleaver de-nerfer. As for incentive to fight without an axe; none for an Exalt once you hit Undertaker's Patience, that's for sure. Before that, the defense penalty hurts a bit. In fact, mortals might even prefer to use a chain post-Undertaker's Patience. Unarmed combat is sub-optimal, but the option's nice for assassins and the recently de-axed.

At your suggestion, I gave mortals a virtual pool of motes equal to their Permanent Willpower for the purposes of Shameful Extinction Approach. Still pretty deadly, and I did want to make it nasty for mortals, but now an Essence 2-3 Exalt would need 2-3 uses of the charm to off a mortal who's really digging his heels into Lethe's shore (WP 7+).

Thanks for the comments. -- LordAuran

Regarding Severing the Thread of Life and by extension the Form charm: Is it your intention to allow even the weakest dabbler in the style to irrevocably slay even regeneration-specialist Lunars and bearers of Gems of Incomparable Wellness - who would otherwise keep healing even when well beyond Incapacitated?

Mechanically, this idea bothers me a great deal considering the minimal effort it takes the martial artist to enact such an ability. Thematically it bothers me because it lets even mortal practitioners kill a mighty hero when he's down, and prevents them even croaking out the obligatory bloody-lipped soliloquy they'd get several turns for while bleeding out. Instant death effects, regardless of conditions placed on them, should not be so cheaply done IMO. - OrigamiFox

This may be my ignorance of Lunar charms shining through; it's a real blind spot for me, so I can't speak to the mechanics of Lunar regeneration. My reason for making Severing the Thread of Life so cheap and accessible is that it's only usable upon opponents the martial artist has damaged to or below Incapacitated. This means that, essentially, the martial artist has already won the fight (or somebody on his side has, and the martial artist is just kicking the poor guy while he's down), and could easily kill the fallen opponent barring a) outside intervention or b)lack of time. This charm just negates those two exceptions, really. But I've thought of an elegant way to handle both of your objections and updated the charm; tell me what you think. -- LordAuran