Difference between revisions of "Lotus Eater Style"
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| + | <b>Lotus Eater Style</b> | ||
| + | by [[garrisod]] | ||
| + | <b>Background</b> | ||
| + | |||
| + | In the great decadence of the First Age, Lady Burning Feather, Mistress of Intoxicants, was a goddess of enormous power and influence, as verily, everyone was partying all the time. One day, the god of Opium appeared before her, his liege, with a request: to protect his poor worshippers, for they endured so much abuse while enjoying the object of his domain. They would wake up from their dreaming in ditches, covered in bruises; their reflexes were slow and their perceptions clouded with figments, and bandits and thugs would cut their purses or slit their throats without the slightest fear of retribution. Oh Mistress, pleaded the Opium God, save my people! | ||
| + | |||
| + | But Lady Burning Feather was so great in that era that her ambitions were equally scaled. I shall invent a school of martial arts, she thought, (this was not unusual, everyone of consequence was doing such things at that time), not just for the Opium God’s people, but for the drunkards, the dope fiends, and the layabouts, the addled and laggard and the not very ambitious. All of Creation shall tremble before my invincible style! She found the three great Sidereal Masters who had been kicked out of the Heavenly Bureaucracy for failure to show up for work and together, they spent three centuries putting off their project before inventing the entire style in an afternoon. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <b>Training</b> | ||
| + | |||
| + | This style can only be learned by the Celestial Exalted due to its incredible power, and is invariably taught to the Exalt in a dream or hallucination. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <b>Weapons and Armor</b> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lotus Eater Style has no form weapons and is not compatible with armor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <b>Charms</b> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Secrets of Future Sloth</i> | ||
| + | Cost: None | ||
| + | Duration: Permanent | ||
| + | Type: Permanent | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 1 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 2 | ||
| + | Prereqs: None | ||
| + | The Exalt fully realizes, as the three Sidereal Masters did, that any particular action is pretty inconsequential in the big scheme of things, and if it’s worth doing, why rush it? The Exalt’s total Initiative is halved during the first round of any combat. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Counter-Exercise Exercise</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 3m | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 2 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 2 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Secrets of Future Sloth | ||
| + | The Exalt has learned that, in the absence of all things, in the space between actions, there happens to be a lot of Essence sitting around. Just sitting there. Everyone else just seems too busy to go after it. For the rest of the scene, at the end of each round of combat in which the Exalt neither takes attack or defense actions, he receives motes of Essence equal to his permanent Essence. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Lotus Eater Form</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 8m | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 3 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Counter-Exercise Exercise | ||
| + | Truly embracing the philosophy of the Enlightened Lotus Eater, the martial artist takes a stance of dreamy inaction, taking a penalty to Initiative equal to his martial arts rating. Opponents seeking to harm the martial artist find themselves somewhat ambivalent about attacking, suffering a penalty equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence. In addition, in the process of doing nothing, the martial artist is curiously prepared for anything; he may reflexively dodge any attack at his regular dodge dicepool as long as the attack occurs before his turn that round. Martial artists using this form suffer no penalties for fighting prone. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Inertial Armor</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 6m | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 4 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form | ||
| + | So pervasive is the Lotus Eather’s dedication that, even when struck by weapons and blows, his body loathes to transform its peaceful state towards a more bloody and broken one. The Lotus Eater gains bashing and lethal soak equal to his martial arts rating. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Incredible Negligence Defense</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 1m/health level | ||
| + | Duration: Instant | ||
| + | Type: Reflexive | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 4 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form | ||
| + | Blessings on the Burning Lady, to innovate near-invulnerability out of sloppy ambivalence! The Lotus Eater may spend 1 mote of Essence per health level to reduce the damage of an attack against him, although he cannot have attempted to dodge or parry this attack. The attack can be reduced below normal damage minimums, but cannot be reduced to fewer levels than the Lotus Eater’s Conviction rating. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Assumed Inconsequence Prana</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 6m | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 4 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form | ||
| + | Observe the Lotus Eater. He seems the most harmless of martial artists: he yawns and does nothing, sometimes he takes a nap, he stumbles around or maybe stares into space for a little while; all in the pitch of battle. And yet, this facade is calculated! While this charm is active, opponents must make a Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, or they cannot attack the Exalt that round as long as another foe exists. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Unconquered Slumber</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 4m, 1w | ||
| + | Duration: Special | ||
| + | Type: Reflexive | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 5 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Inertial Armor | ||
| + | The Lotus Eater is able to focus his Essence to restore his body to perfect health, but only while in the most passive of states. Sometimes this results in the most inconvenient naps, but it is also responsible for the Lotus Eater’s unparalleled battle-readiness, for after even a short period of sleep he is ready for yet another combat full of frenzied inexertion. This charm can explicitly be used while the Exalt is sleeping, unconscious or incapacitated, but only when he is in those states. The Exalt heals one unaggravated health level per round until fully healed of all unaggravated damage, and then wakes. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Death’s Convenient Postponement</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 4m, 1w | ||
| + | Duration: Reflexive | ||
| + | Type: Instant | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 5 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Incredible Negligence Defense | ||
| + | A gem of the style’s Sidereal designers, this charm enables the martial artist to show up late to the afterlife’s impending appointments. If the martial artist has taken more damage this round that he has remaining health levels, he may activate this charm to negate the damage and become incapacitated instead. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Affrontery to Ambition Prana</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 6m | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 5 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 3 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Assumed Inconsequence Prana | ||
| + | Observe the Lotus Eater. He is the most irritating of martial artists: he avoids your attacks without any effort, he hardly bothers to fight back; your soldiers trip over him as he sleeps and bump into him as he stumbles. He ruins the entire rhythm of battle and dampens one’s feelings of bloodlust, and unless he is eliminated he turns the glory of combat into a farce. While this charm is active, opponents must make a Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, or they cannot attack anyone except the Exalt that round as long as he is still alive and conscious. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <i>Implied Futility of Everything Enigma</i> | ||
| + | Cost: 10m, 1w | ||
| + | Duration: Scene | ||
| + | Type: Simple | ||
| + | Min. Ability: 5 | ||
| + | Min Essence: 4 | ||
| + | Prereqs: Unconquered Slumber, Death’s Convenient Postponement, Affrontery to Ambition Prana | ||
| + | Fighting a Lotus-Eating Grandmaster is a terrible prospect, because one quickly forgets why they bothered in the first place. You attack him and your weapons meander; you attempt the coup-de-grace and he rolls over in his sleep at the last second. You punch him and he doesn’t seem to care, your grappling becomes a most disconcerting kind of cuddle; and that horrid yawning is so infectious! The grandmaster can enhance these feelings of uselessness and despair with this most powerful charm. At the end of each round of combat, any combatant within a range of the grandmaster equal to his Essence in yards becomes drowsy (equivalent to stunned) unless they have dealt or received at least one health level of damage that round. This drowsiness lasts until the end of the scene, or until the target takes at least one health level of damage. Any combatant within the grandmaster’s Essence range who is already drowsy and fails to deal or receive damage that round falls to the ground, asleep until the end of the scene. | ||
Revision as of 20:06, 23 June 2005
Lotus Eater Style by garrisod
Background
In the great decadence of the First Age, Lady Burning Feather, Mistress of Intoxicants, was a goddess of enormous power and influence, as verily, everyone was partying all the time. One day, the god of Opium appeared before her, his liege, with a request: to protect his poor worshippers, for they endured so much abuse while enjoying the object of his domain. They would wake up from their dreaming in ditches, covered in bruises; their reflexes were slow and their perceptions clouded with figments, and bandits and thugs would cut their purses or slit their throats without the slightest fear of retribution. Oh Mistress, pleaded the Opium God, save my people!
But Lady Burning Feather was so great in that era that her ambitions were equally scaled. I shall invent a school of martial arts, she thought, (this was not unusual, everyone of consequence was doing such things at that time), not just for the Opium God’s people, but for the drunkards, the dope fiends, and the layabouts, the addled and laggard and the not very ambitious. All of Creation shall tremble before my invincible style! She found the three great Sidereal Masters who had been kicked out of the Heavenly Bureaucracy for failure to show up for work and together, they spent three centuries putting off their project before inventing the entire style in an afternoon.
Training
This style can only be learned by the Celestial Exalted due to its incredible power, and is invariably taught to the Exalt in a dream or hallucination.
Weapons and Armor
Lotus Eater Style has no form weapons and is not compatible with armor.
Charms
Secrets of Future Sloth
Cost: None Duration: Permanent Type: Permanent Min. Ability: 1 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: None
The Exalt fully realizes, as the three Sidereal Masters did, that any particular action is pretty inconsequential in the big scheme of things, and if it’s worth doing, why rush it? The Exalt’s total Initiative is halved during the first round of any combat.
Counter-Exercise Exercise
Cost: 3m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 2 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Secrets of Future Sloth
The Exalt has learned that, in the absence of all things, in the space between actions, there happens to be a lot of Essence sitting around. Just sitting there. Everyone else just seems too busy to go after it. For the rest of the scene, at the end of each round of combat in which the Exalt neither takes attack or defense actions, he receives motes of Essence equal to his permanent Essence.
Lotus Eater Form
Cost: 8m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 3 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Counter-Exercise Exercise
Truly embracing the philosophy of the Enlightened Lotus Eater, the martial artist takes a stance of dreamy inaction, taking a penalty to Initiative equal to his martial arts rating. Opponents seeking to harm the martial artist find themselves somewhat ambivalent about attacking, suffering a penalty equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence. In addition, in the process of doing nothing, the martial artist is curiously prepared for anything; he may reflexively dodge any attack at his regular dodge dicepool as long as the attack occurs before his turn that round. Martial artists using this form suffer no penalties for fighting prone.
Inertial Armor
Cost: 6m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form
So pervasive is the Lotus Eather’s dedication that, even when struck by weapons and blows, his body loathes to transform its peaceful state towards a more bloody and broken one. The Lotus Eater gains bashing and lethal soak equal to his martial arts rating.
Incredible Negligence Defense
Cost: 1m/health level Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form
Blessings on the Burning Lady, to innovate near-invulnerability out of sloppy ambivalence! The Lotus Eater may spend 1 mote of Essence per health level to reduce the damage of an attack against him, although he cannot have attempted to dodge or parry this attack. The attack can be reduced below normal damage minimums, but cannot be reduced to fewer levels than the Lotus Eater’s Conviction rating.
Assumed Inconsequence Prana
Cost: 6m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Lotus Eater Form
Observe the Lotus Eater. He seems the most harmless of martial artists: he yawns and does nothing, sometimes he takes a nap, he stumbles around or maybe stares into space for a little while; all in the pitch of battle. And yet, this facade is calculated! While this charm is active, opponents must make a Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, or they cannot attack the Exalt that round as long as another foe exists.
Unconquered Slumber
Cost: 4m, 1w Duration: Special Type: Reflexive Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Inertial Armor
The Lotus Eater is able to focus his Essence to restore his body to perfect health, but only while in the most passive of states. Sometimes this results in the most inconvenient naps, but it is also responsible for the Lotus Eater’s unparalleled battle-readiness, for after even a short period of sleep he is ready for yet another combat full of frenzied inexertion. This charm can explicitly be used while the Exalt is sleeping, unconscious or incapacitated, but only when he is in those states. The Exalt heals one unaggravated health level per round until fully healed of all unaggravated damage, and then wakes.
Death’s Convenient Postponement
Cost: 4m, 1w Duration: Reflexive Type: Instant Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Incredible Negligence Defense
A gem of the style’s Sidereal designers, this charm enables the martial artist to show up late to the afterlife’s impending appointments. If the martial artist has taken more damage this round that he has remaining health levels, he may activate this charm to negate the damage and become incapacitated instead.
Affrontery to Ambition Prana
Cost: 6m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Assumed Inconsequence Prana
Observe the Lotus Eater. He is the most irritating of martial artists: he avoids your attacks without any effort, he hardly bothers to fight back; your soldiers trip over him as he sleeps and bump into him as he stumbles. He ruins the entire rhythm of battle and dampens one’s feelings of bloodlust, and unless he is eliminated he turns the glory of combat into a farce. While this charm is active, opponents must make a Willpower roll, difficulty equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, or they cannot attack anyone except the Exalt that round as long as he is still alive and conscious.
Implied Futility of Everything Enigma
Cost: 10m, 1w Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 4 Prereqs: Unconquered Slumber, Death’s Convenient Postponement, Affrontery to Ambition Prana
Fighting a Lotus-Eating Grandmaster is a terrible prospect, because one quickly forgets why they bothered in the first place. You attack him and your weapons meander; you attempt the coup-de-grace and he rolls over in his sleep at the last second. You punch him and he doesn’t seem to care, your grappling becomes a most disconcerting kind of cuddle; and that horrid yawning is so infectious! The grandmaster can enhance these feelings of uselessness and despair with this most powerful charm. At the end of each round of combat, any combatant within a range of the grandmaster equal to his Essence in yards becomes drowsy (equivalent to stunned) unless they have dealt or received at least one health level of damage that round. This drowsiness lasts until the end of the scene, or until the target takes at least one health level of damage. Any combatant within the grandmaster’s Essence range who is already drowsy and fails to deal or receive damage that round falls to the ground, asleep until the end of the scene.
