Revision as of 12:43, 5 April 2009

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House of Endings Style is a Celestial Martial Art created by willows. Despite its brilliance and how fitting it is for replacing Violet Bier of Sorrows in my games, I have a number of small qualms with it, and thus I am making my own 'fixes' upon it. It is a wonderful style that works as-written by willows, however! This is just a change for my own preferences.

House of Endings

The Astrologers of the House of Endings developed this Style to reflect their portion of the sky in spirit and appearance. Its lesser Charms rotate around the Form, which participates in the power of the Crow. Adepts of this Style often take upon themselves the epithets associated with the Chosen of Saturn, particularly the title Reckoner. They dress in robes of translucent black gauze, and their weapons are never polished; they are dull mirrors reflecting only desolation.

This is a Celestial Martial Art. The House of Endings Style's form weapons (which it treats as an unarmed attack) are wind-fire wheels, representing the Sword's wreath of withered flowers, and knives, representing the Sword's cutting edge, hidden by the flowers.

Charms

Students' Charms

Remembered Death

Cost: 1 mote per die

Type: Reflexive

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 2

Min. Essence: 1

Prereqs: None

Observing the violet weave of Destiny around him, the Sidereal remembers the moment of his demise and can act to change it. While he cannot escape inevitability, he is able to postpone his death until its properly appointed time. Drawing his attention away from a future attack, he defends himself with prescient facility. For each mote spent on this Charm, he adds 1 die to a Martial Arts parry attempt, up to a maximum of his Dexterity + Martial Arts. This Charm can create a parry from a nonexistent pool, or supplement an existing parry. Parries enhanced in this way receive a bonus equal to the Sidereal's Essence, in the same manner as a Dodge.

Furthermore, he can weave this defence with the Essence of the future; the Charm can be used even if he has already used a Charm this turn, but it counts as the next turn's single Charm use instead. This precludes the possibility of using a Combo next turn, but Combos that include Remembered Death can be activated "preemptively", using its ability to be activated in the turn before its actually counting as a Charm use. In this case, the remainder of the Combo takes place in the next turn.

Corpse-Candle Antagonism

Cost: 2 motes

Type: Reflexive

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 3

Min. Essence: 1

Prereqs: Remembered Death

The Reckoner who knows this Charm can fly about on the guttering flames of dying lives; as they smoulder and fade, he gains speed and skill. This Charm can be activated when the Exalt makes a successful attack, but before damage is rolled. He multiplies his remaining movement for the turn by the number of HLs inflicted by the attack. In addition, if his next dice action is an unarmed Martial Arts attack, he adds his prior target's Essence in dice to his pool, provided that the two targets are different. This bonus counts toward the maximum dice bonus from Charms, and dissipates if it is not used in one turn. This Charm is incompatible with armour.

Senescence Offensive

Cost: 2 motes

Type: Supplemental

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 3

Min. Essence: 2

Prereqs: Remembered Death

The threads of destiny stretch in every direction, even into the past and future. With this attack, the martial artist draws his target's Essence closer to old age, crippling him with the infirmities of a declining body and decaying mind. If the attack this Charm is associated with deals at least 1 HL of damage, the victim's movement speed is halved and the incremental increase of her multiple-action penalties is increased to the martial artist's Essence. These detriments persist for a number of turns equal to the Gardener's Martial Arts.

The increment of a multiple-action penalty is ordinarily 1: a sequence of three actions is done at a penalty sequence of -3, -4, -5. Under the effects of an Essence 2 Senescence Offensive, the sequence of penalties would be -3, -5, -7.

Tranquility Knife

Cost: 5 motes

Type: Simple

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 4

Min. Essence: 2

Prereqs: Corpse-Candle Antagonism, Senescence Offensive

With a wound across the victim's Essence nodes, the martial artist reminds her how good it is to be whole, by unweaving the flows that make her incomplete. One of the non-Instant Charms the victim has active instantly ends if the Tranqillity Knife deals at least 1 HL. If the martial artist is able to percieve Essence flows, through the effects of All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, Telltale Symphony, or a similar Charm, he may choose the effect to sever, but otherwise it is chosen randomly.

Form

House of Endings Form

Cost: 5 motes

Type: Simple

Duration: One Scene

Min. Ability: 4

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: Tranquility Knife

Enacting this Form, the House of Endings adept takes on the relaxed posture of a professional killer. By allowing the destinies of Endings to guide him, he can hurry people along to their ends, gaining a damage bonus to his attacks equal to the target's current wound penalty, ignoring any wound-penalty reducing effects, such as Insensible Corpse Technique. The Sidereal's attitude of professionalism gains him the favor of the College of the Crow. Under its auspices, his attacks gain an air of fated certainty, and only those adept at escaping the strictures of Fate can avoid them. The maximum number of successes on a parry or dodge against the martial artist's unarmed Martial Arts attacks is equal to the defender's relevant Ability, plus her permanent Essence for defenders whose Essence is awakened.

Finally, Sidereal adepts of the Colleges of Endings (those who have at least three dots in a particular College) are able to use unusual weapons with the House of Endings Style; deep initiation into the study of destiny allows them to manipulate these items in ways that reinforce the sorrowful edges of their fates. All of these unusual weapons are treated as wind-fire wheels or knives, and, if the Sidereal is a Master of the College (one who has at least five dots in this particular College) the Magical Material Bonus of Starmetal.

• Corpse: Textbooks.
• Crow: Feathered cloaks.
• Haywain: Sleeves of a tattered robe.
• Rising Smoke: Good luck prayer strips.
• Sword: Wreaths of withered flowers.

This is a Martial Arts Form-type Charm and is incompatible with other Charms of like type; should the martial artist activate another Form, this one immediately ends. This Charm is incompatible with armour.

Masters' Charms

Dragonfly-and-Nymph Defence

Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower

Type: Simple

Duration: One Scene

Min. Ability: 4

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: House of Endings Form

The College of the Corpse governs the end of lives and metamorphic creatures. With his understanding of this College, the Reckoner can transform one defence into another, escaping his end in the process - he can apply any Martial Arts effect that specifies a parry to a dodge as well, and vice versa.

Nameless Salt, Distant Iron

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower

Type: Simple

Duration: One Scene

Min. Ability: 5

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: Dragonfly-and-Nymph Defence

Settling his anima in the constellation of the Haywain, the Exalt makes his boundaries indistinct. His weapons become misty rings in his hands, and his outline shifts and blurs. To parry these half-unseen strikes, the defender must succeed at a Perception + Awareness roll at a difficulty of the martial artist's Essence; failure indicates that she miscalculated the attack's position and her parry fails.

In addition, while this Charm is in effect, the adept's own demise is blurred, and he may continue on fighting after he is reduced to the Incapacitated Health Level, though at a -4 penalty to his dice pools, for as many turns as his Essence. This Charm is incompatible with armour.

Weeping Surgeon Chant

Cost: 3 motes

Type: Supplemental

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 4

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: House of Endings Form

Softly singing the 53 Names of the Sword helps the adept to craft attacks so savage that they cause the heart to quail and wives to burst into tears upon seeing their wounds. An unarmed Martial Arts attack supported by this Charm inflicts wounds that cannot be healed naturally, and when healing is assisted by magic, they are healed as wounds of the next higher level of severity, with regard both to the penalty the wound assesses and its damage type (bashing, lethal, or aggravated).

Measure-of-Impediment Palm

Cost: 7 motes

Type: Supplemental

Duration: Instant

Min. Ability: 5

Min. Essence: 3

Prereqs: Weeping Surgeon Chant

With an opened hand and the mudra of the Rising Smoke, the Exalt pushes his opponent backward along his path toward a goal, causing his progress to break down and ruining any momentum he had collected. He makes an unarmed Martial Arts attack and determines his damage pool as normal; he may, instead of dealing damage, give an injury to the target's future. He may exchange any number of dice out of his damage pool after soak, for each die exchanged, one roll the target makes toward accomplishing a particular goal has its difficulty increased to the martial artist's Essence. This goal may be as simple as "Survive attack" or as complex and far-reaching as "Find and restore the Manse of my ancestors." This impediment manifests indiscriminately, at every available opportunity.

Ultimate Technique

Conclusion-Pursuing Approach

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 health level

Type: Simple

Duration: One Scene

Min. Ability: 5

Min. Essence: 4

Prereqs: Measure-of-Impediment Palm, Nameless Salt, Distant Iron

At the pinnacle of the House of Endings Style, a character learns to draw strength from the endings he brings. His attacks gain resolve as his enemy falters. He is trained to take full advantage of the weakness of the wounded, stalking falling prey as death hunts those whose time has come. Whenever he successfully harms an opponent with an unarmed Martial Arts attack, he gains one point of Willpower. In addition, an opponent's wound penalties are tripled when it comes to attacking him or defending against his unarmed Martial Arts attacks.

Sidereal Exalted, and those who learn this Charm as a Sidereal Charm, can enhance it with a prayer strip marked with the scripture of the Expectant Maiden. The character fixes it to his weapon, wrapping the whole in radiant burgundy light in the shape of the Sword's constellation. While the prayer strip survives, the weapon cannot be destroyed, and each successful Martial Arts attack subtracts one Willpower point from the target. Creatures Outside of Fate and targets with 0 Willpower instead lose 10 motes of Essence. If the target does not have 10 motes of Essence to lose, convert all damage dice to automatic successes instead.

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