MartialArtsRelay/LucentGuardianintheNightSky
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Contents
Previous Themes
- /PressurePoints - the Charadrius Style.
- /SerpentOcean
- /GiantSlaying - Mountain Killing Gadfly Style
- /LucentGuardianintheNightSky - Sidereal Warstrider astrolgy based martial art
Lucent Guardian in the Night Sky Style
Blame TedPro.
This is a Sidereal-rank style containing 11 Charms. There are five Charms, plus a Form Charm with all five other charms as a prerequisite, in the Student Sutra, and five Charms in the Elder Sutra, of any structure.
This style is compatible with warstriders, but no other weapons or armor, and should be usable with or without a warstrider, though the abilities should be keyed around the strengths and weaknesses of a Warstrider. The style should be designed for First Age situations and was historically used during the First Age. The flavor and abilities of the Style should relate to Sidereal astrology. (TedPro)
Students sutra:</b>There was once a maiden, who met a giant...
Charms
1. <b>Captain of the Iron Soul Meditation</b> - Issaru
<b>Cost: None Duration: Permanent Type: Special Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 4 Prereqs: None
She crawled into his mouth and stood behind his eyes
This Charm is the culmination of several breathing and visualization techniques that forge a deeper bond with an attuned warstrider, bringing the warrior and armor together like a hero on his immortal mount.
The Exalt gains a number of bonus points equal to twice her Essence that may be applied to the following traits of an attuned Warstrider:
- Strength
- Reduction of mobility penalty (on a one for one basis)
- Reduction of fatigue value (on a one for one basis)
- Dexterity (considered natural for charm purposes, and traded on a two for one basis)
- Soak (1 point per 1 lethal and bashing soak)
- Hardness (on a one for one basis, to a maximum of half the armor value of the warstrider).
The Exalt distributes these values when first attuning to the Warsrtider and they are the same every time she is attuned to that warstrider barring a change in Essence. As a side effect, attuning to Warstriders costs two Essence less.
- I'm not sure that it actually costs any motes to attune a warstrider. Can someone check the magic books? - willows
- 10 Motes. It's on pg151 Savant and Sorcerer - Issaru
2. Five-Metal Scaffolding of Destiny - willows
Cost: 20 motes Type: Simple Duration: One Scene Minimum Martial Arts: 5 Minimum Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: Captain of the Iron Soul Meditation
and beheld the structure of the world.
The Sidereal performs the Sign of the Gauntlet in Autumn; it rips apart the structure of the armor he wears, transforming it into a network of fibres spliced into his fate. He may subtract up to his Essence from his armor's lethal and bashing soak, dividing the number of subtracted levels among two effects:
- He may treat his anima display as one level less intense for every two levels of soak spent; this does not actually suppress the display, but makes it possible to use Stealth Charms and avoid Resplendent Paradox.
- He may alternatively convert one level of soak into one "floating" effect point, which can be spent to activate a Resplendent astrological effect. These floating effect points are lost when the Charm ends.
It is impossible to cannibalize the increased soak bonuses of charms such as Captain of the Iron Soul Meditation in this manner.
3.Destiny Countering Blow</b> - Issaru
<b>Cost :15 Motes Duration :Instant Type :Simple Min. Martial Arts :5 Min Essence :5 Prereqs :None
She heard whispers of its unmaking
The Martial Artist wraps the destiny of failure around his fists; Old Realm characters formed of Essence appear around them, chronicling failures past and future. With a strike, she brands her opponent with these sigla. This effect robs the character of good luck, making any endeavor more difficult. The Exalt makes a Martial Arts attack. If the attack is successful, the opponent must make a reflexive Essence+Stamina roll at a difficulty equal to the Martial Artist's Essence. If he fails, increase the difficulty of all his dice actions by the artist's permenant Essence. This effect persists for the martial artist's Essence in turns. The Exalt adds her rating in the College of the Sword, if any, to her Essence for the effects of this Charm.
- I don't like two things about this Charm: First, the prohibition against stunt dice. That seems way too much like stripping away a character's heroism, and I don't like that at all. Second, it's useless to anyone but a Sidereal. How can we change it so that that's not the case? First idea: Make it so it gets a cool bonus from the Sword, instead of depending on it completely. - willows
- I didn't mind the stunt dice killing effect, because it only killed the dice you could still use srunts to do the impossible or regain essence. - Issaru
4. Distance-Eating Factor - willows
- Cost: 15 motes
- Duration: One Scene
- Type: Reflexive
- Minimum Martial Arts: 5
- Minimum Essence: 4
- Prerequisite Charms: Destiny Countering Blow
from the remote edges of the universe
Stretching his destiny like a bowstring, the Exalt enables himself to move with the speed of an arrow. Each time he performs an unarmed Martial Arts attack, he may move (3 * Strength) yards in a straight line; this does not count against his movement for the turn. He may subtract successes from his attack after is is rolled; he may not subtract more successes than his permanent Essence. Each subtracted success adds 1 to his Strength for the purposes of using this Charm.
If the martial artist is in a warstrider, he may use its Strength rating rather than his own. Martial Artists with ratings in the College of the Quiver add their rating in the Quiver to their Strength for the purposes of this Charm.
5. Plucking the Strings Between the Stars - szilard
Cost: 20 motes Type: Reflexive Duration: varies Minimum Martial Arts: 5 Minimum Essence: 5 Prerequisite Charms: Five-Metal Scaffolding of Destiny
and then a resonant silence.
The Exalt sits strapped into a Warstrider, surrounded by a network of cables. He projects the points at which the cords meet onto the stars and, inspired by the College of the Musician, reaches out to pluck a single, reverberating note, which echoes through the armor and is sustained for a number of turns equal to the Exalt's Essence plus any effect points in an active Resplendent Destiny. If the Exalt does have a Resplendent Destiny active, the tone is distinctive to the relevant College.
Plucking the cable causes tension to build up within the armor that is released explosively when it is most fortuitous for the Exalt. While the tone is sustained, the Exalt, each turn, gains a number of dice equal to his mobility penalty that he can apply to any Athletics, Dodge, Martial Arts, or damage roll after the roll is made. These successes on these dice are added to the successes on the original die roll as if they were a single roll. These dice may be split among multiple actions in a single turn, but they refresh each turn and cannot be saved from one to the next, nor can they be used to buy up an action from zero dice.
6. Lucent Guardian in the Night Sky Form</b> - TedPro
<b>Cost: 20 motes Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum Martial Arts: 5 Minimum Essence: 5 Prereqs: Plucking the Strings Between the Stars, Distance-Eating Factor, One complete Style (all Charms)
"Someone must defend this," she said quietly
The Exalt takes on the elegant simplicity of the night, omnipresent and mysterious. All success penalties and difficulty modifiers for the size of an opponent are cancelled - evan an Exalt in a Warstrider can strike a human-sized target, or an insect, as easily as a giant. While this Form is in effect, the Exalt can levitate, moving upards or downwards at normal speed. This is treated as effortless flying, except that lateral movement is only possible while on the ground. Movement penalties apply normally. The Exalt can reach an altitude of five hundred yards with this Charm.
In the First Age, before the College of the Mask was damaged, this form caused the Martial Artist, and anything worn or carried, to become completely invisible. In the Age of Sorrows, the Martial Artist is instead guaranteed obscurity, even in a warstrider. This effect is similar to Sidereal Arcane Fate, but it also applies more immediately, giving a penalty equal to the user's Martial Arts score to any attempt to defend against the first attack on a particular target by the Sidereal. Normal Stealth rolls also become possible, even in a Warstrider.
This is a Form-type charm, and is incompatible with weapons, other Form-type Charms and most armor, but is compatible with the use of a Warstrider.
7. Prayer to the God-Metal</b> - TedPro
<b>Cost: 10 motes Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Minimum Martial Arts: 5 Minimum Essence: 5 Prereqs: Lucent Guardian in the Night Sky Form
ELDER SUTRA: The maiden walked from home to home on new metal legs
Only usable while within a Warstrider, after an attack hits but before damage is rolled. The Exalt calls upon the House of Leisure to carry her prayers. The awakened metal-gods inside the Exalt's Warstrider give off a rolling chaotic pulse of Essence as a blow strikes the armor. If the attack does not inflict any Health Levels of damage, any Hearthstones on the attacking weapon risk being shattered. For each Hearthstone, the Exalt using this Charm rolls Essence (with bonus dice equal to her lowest College in the House of Leisure) with a difficulty equal to the Hearthstone's level. If successful, the Hearthstone shatters. Only Hearthstones lodged within weapons are at risk.
8. Standing Before the Skies</b> - Szilard
<b>Cost: 2 motes per point sacrificed Duration: Indefinite Type: Simple Minimum Martial Arts: 5 Minimum Essence: 5 Prereqs: Lucent Guardian in the Night Sky Form
in search of a hero
The Exalt adopts the stance of the heavenly champion who stands before the stars in protection, gaining strength from the House of Battles. Though he engages some of his own resources to protecting the heavenly gods, he fights with their strength. An Exalt invoking this charm may choose to do so offensively, defensively, or both, lending his strength of arm and body to the gods of the heavens in exchange for a portion of their strength. For each point of Strength that the Exalt sacrifices he must pay 2 motes of Essence. In return, each of his unarmed martial arts attacks will affect an additional area equal to one yard in diameter equal for each point of Strength sacrificed. This will often allow fot a single attack to hit multiple individuals. In such cases, the Exalt need simply make a single attack that is applied individually to each target. For each point of Soak that the Exalt sacrifices, he must also pay 2 motes of Essence. In return, each of his unarmed parries will parry a number of simultaneous blows equal to the number of points of Soak sacrificed. Each point of Soak sacrificed lowers both the Exalt's Lethal and Bashing Soak by one, but does not have an effect upon Hardness unless use of this Charm would cause Soak to be reduced below Hardness, in which case Hardness is equal to Soak. If using this Charm defensively, an Exalt may parry lethal attacks unarmed. If in a warstrider while using this charm, points sacrificed come off of the bonuses given by the warstrider before having an effect on an Exalt's natural abilities. Any points sacrificed through this Charm return immediately at the end of this Charm's use. Use of this Charm can be ended reflexively.
9. Quiet Nightmare in the Moonless Sky</b> - TedPro
<b>Cost: 15 motes + 1 mote per extra damage Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 5 Prereqs: Lucent Guardian in the Night Sky Form
but she found only treachery.
The stars above the Exalt twist and turn rapidly as this Charm is activating, suddenly shifting the destiny of a single blow to increase its consequences. Just before the blow lands, the Exalt is transported to strike her target, guided by Destiny. The Exalt can be transported up to a mile, and need not see the target, as long as she can clearly identify the foe. The target can defend normally.
Furthermore, if a Sidereal Exalt is using this Charm while wearing a warstrider, she may weave the Warstrider's destiny deeper into the House of Endings. The amount of raw damage caused by this blow can be increased by 1 per mote of Essence spent, up to a maximum bonus equal to the total number of levels the Sidereal possesses in all colleges of the House of Endings.
10. Ten-Thousand Roaring Comets Assault</b> - Issaru
<b>Cost: 20Motes, 1Willpower. Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 6 Prereqs: Standing Before the Skies
In her despair she became an engine of destruction.
Description:Essence flares around the Exalts hands as balls of colorless flame. Her anima flares, and is filled with smaller balls of colorless flame. The exalt then begins to move with the speed of a striking comet, and assurity of starmetal. With little effort she can hurl these "comets" at her adversaries as martial arts attacks. The turn in which this charm is activated the exalt gains a number of extra actions equal to her Essence. She may also make martial arts attacks up to her Essence(x10)yards away, these attacks inflict her strength in lethal as base damage with extra success adding to damage as normal. She may substitute the strength of a Warstrider if she wishes. Additionally a sidereal may add the rating of her highest college in the house of Battles to her strength and/or Essence for purposes of the bonuses/abilities given by this charm.
11. Glyph of Divine Embodiment</b> - Wohksworth
<b>Cost: 25 motes, 2 Willpower Duration: One scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 6 Min. Essence: 7 Prereqs: Prayer to the God-Metal, Quiet Nightmare in the Moonlit Sky, Ten-Thousand Roaring Comets Assault.
- In her destruction she became an engine of Fate.
Chanting a forgotten koan of the House of Secrets, the Exalt wraps Destiny around herself as a sorcerer's robe, and disappears from Creation, dancing between hidden motes. She may perceive any action within Essence*500 yards as though she were present. Though she may not interact with physical creation, she may invoke Fate to create coincidental yet unmistakable signs -- blood falling in specific divination, or an Immaculate chant rising from the din of battle. Implicit meanings are clear to her allies, and terrible to Extras, who do not recieve an action unless the Exalt allows it, though they will continue to act as though nothing inhibited their actions.
If the Exalt instead activates this Charm when piloting a Committed warstrider, her fate becomes partially bound to the Essence systems powering her armor. A green glyph marks the warstrider's surface above where the character would normally be bound. She maintains her distant perception, while her armor becomes a surrogate body. She may ignore any penalty which would affect her pool prior to splitting actions. She does not suffer from wound penalties, treats the warstrider's soak as natural soak, and her Hardness equal to her total soak. She may perform actions which would normally be inhibited by her armor, such as casting Sorcery, finely manipulating an object, or employing stealth. Those against the Exalt will not remember her presence in the battle, though neither will her absence be noted, and history will quickly forget the battle unless it is immediately and intensely scrutinized by Essence-wielding organizations.
Sidereals who "die" while using this Charm may not be truely dead. Prying open their fallen warstrider reveals only an unnatural moisture and a wisp of incense, both of which quickly fade. Fate considers the Exalt to be dead, but her body and mind remain wrapped in the weave of Destiny; one record in the Bureau of Destiny recalls a Circle, driven by occult signs and flaws in the Tapestry, finding their fallen companion drowning in a lake which did not reflect the night sky, unsure how he came to be there.
Comments
If we pull this off, I officially declare Martial Arts Relay as awesome. --TedPro
Astrology based, thus I'd imagine it's Sidereal level. But, maybe we should try to think of it as a Terrestrial art, as they were the most common warstrider pilots. Or Celestial, such that only the greatest DBs would be initiated into this most elite MA? Each Charm could be designed so as to correspond with astrological houses. But 25 seems a bit much. So how about one from each Division of Journeys, Serenity, Secrets and Endings, and one per house of Battles? Journeys = a Movement or Endurance effect, Serenity = ? (Craft effect for maintenance? Performance effect to reduce mobility penalties as the pilot learns to dance with the armour?), Secrets = Lore effect to enhance maintenance, Endings = an Awareness effect to aid the pilot's perception from within the clumsy machines, Battles = a Charm to aid Ranged attack, Melee attacks, Hand-to-Hand attacks, Battlefield Presence (Leadership? Fear?), and Resistance effect (ignore Wound penalties? Shrug off lack of maintenance penalties?). Then a Form Charm will take this to a nice ten Charm style. How about a Form Charm that reduces the pilot's Permanent Essence by one for Astrological Purposes (since Astrology is harder to apply to Higher Essence beings)? Not sure what other effect to give the Form... B-) Anyways, just my 2c, what do y'all reckon? - Nikink Damn, not able to type fast enough...
- Dude Sidereal Fu in giant robots is to cool to pass up; and as stated before i wanna see if we can do this - Issaru
This has such massive potential to be awesome. I'm still brainstorming, but for some reason I really want to do something with the idea that a starmetal warstrider has some sort of resonance of the poor god that got press-ganged into being the starmetal, and thus that the martial artist can in some regard pull an Earth and Sky Bargain with it for some sort of bonus. How this will work mechanically is an open question, though. -- AntiVehicleRocket likes thinking out loud
Don't forget every suit of armour has a Least God, and warstriders are likely to have fairly powerful ones. You could bring them into the equation too
-- Darloth
Added a sutra line to Willows' Charm. I thought it fit nicely, but change it if ya want... B-) - Nikink
- Cool. - w
What should we call this MA? my suggestions are "Brilliant Breath of the Automaton", "Rainbow metal warrior", and "Thrashing Iron Destiny". - Issaru
- My suggestion is to post some Charms and let the name take care of itself. - willows
What does Destiny Countering Blow have to do with Warstriders? - Quendalon
- Yeah... it's a pretty nice charm, and fits well in an -astrology- martial art... But I can't see the connection to warstriders either. Then again, I can't suggest anything else to replace it yet, so I'm not exactly on the high ground here.
-- Darloth- I know I know it doesn't have much to do about Warstriders but it can be used just as well in them as out of them.I just thought that this Art shouldn't be completely dependant on them, but i'm open to suggestions. - Issaru
What does "rating in the house of endings" meaan? Is that a particular college? Any college from Endings? The highest there? - haren
- thanx for catching that it was supposed to be for the sword college.I'm on those changes now. - Issaru
I made some edits in the Charms to link them to Divisions or Colleges. Also, changed "kanji" to "Old Realm characters". - willows
Added a Form-type Charm, and took a shot at the end of the Student's sutra. -- TedPro
szilard, I love your Charm. So far, all the other Charms in this Style seem to be associated, in flavor or effect, with a single College of astrology. Any chance you could put a mention of a college into the Charm? Maybe the Lovers, the Sorcerer or the Musician? --TedPro
- I edited in some of that color where I could; some of the Charms didn't start that way. I have been trying to follow Nikink's suggestion, where we make reference to one of the non-Battles Houses, and the Charms following those make a reference to a Battles College. - willows
- Aha! Okay, I added one, myself. Hope it's okay, szilard. If not, change away. --TedPro
- Fine with me. I tend not to be a big fan of Martial Arts Charms that are mechanically keyed off of specific Colleges or utterly depend upon membership in a College, but flavor text is cool. -szilard
Both Distance-Eating Factor and the Form charm have lower requirements than their prerequisite charms. Is this a bug? -Ben-San
- There's several examples from the books of Charms that have lower requirements than their prerequisite Charms. But, yeah, it sure is in my case. Fixed. --TedPro
We already broke the non-Battles houses with the College of Quivers, so I'm going to have a subsequent charm based on Houses, rather than individual colleges. How's the Charm? Too strong? Too weak? --TedPro
I have no idea if Standing Before the Skies is overpowered, underpowered, overcosted, or undercosted. Suggestions? -szilard
- Neat concept! Sacrifices and blessings, in the form of armor kickassery! I'd drop the Willpower requirement, since it already involves attribute sacrifices. Also, consider making it affect one extra target instead of working in yard-radius. -TedPro
- Dropped the Willpower cost. The thought behind this is that, when in a Warstrider, an Exalt probably has Strength and Soak to spare... so why not throw it away? This is more of an army-killer Charm than anything else, I think. -szilard
- Modified it to include a reference to the House of Battles, for overall thematics. -TedPro
Haven't heard from you lately about this School, FourWillowsWeeping. You're definitely the Sidereal Martial Arts guru - any suggestions? --TedPro
- blush* It's been kinda urting my eyes...the Charm texts are so long! But the new Charms look pretty cool to me. I'm going to try and whip up something, too. - willows
yo TedPro can we get acost for Quiet Nightmare in the Moonless Sky?It has a mote cost in the text but not in the cost line.
- Oops! Done -TedPro
Hmmm... I'm not sure how I feel about Quiet Nightmare in the Moonless Sky. It seems deprotagonizing. -szilard
- Because it takes away the choice for where the blow hits? Yeah, I could see that. It's kind of a "I don't know where to punch. I'll let the Storyteller decide" effect, combiend with instant teleportation and increased damage. Great for having an NPC come in to save the day when all seems hopeless, but kind of a desperation tactic for a PC. -TedPro
- I don't know. I can't ever imagine a PC using this, really. -szilard
Hmmm. How about something like this instead? --TedPro
More Charms! Almost done here! -TedPro
Re: Glyph of Divine Embodiment - The initial intent wasn't for this Charm to be the pinnacle, but I had not noticed the numbering error on Charm numbers 8 until I had already written and posted. I upped the terror slightly to account for its finality -- if someone would like to write a more appropriate pinnacle Charm (and, by all means, please do!), the original version's Sutra was "The stars will sometimes sing of her battles...", Min. Essence 6, and excised the effects of destroying extras and the inevitable forgetting of the battle, but was otherwise largely the same. Regardless, I'd like a slightly more occult mechanical effect or visual trick affecting the warstrider, if anyone has any suggestions. _Wohksworth
- I think it's a cool pinacle charm.Anything that allows you to beat the tar out of a nations army and making them forget about it it not only cool as ever it's so useful as to not need a follow up charm.Further it's a second chance for life for a master of this art who would otherwise have died not that someone using this charm would "go quiet into that good night".well this was all JMO. - Issaru
