Enchantress/HeroicGunzosha

Heroic Gunzosha

It’s bothered me for a while now how Lookshy Gunzosha "work" mechanically. Despite them sacrificing half their lives nothing makes them seem paticularly heroic and they come across as little more than slightly tougher Ashigaru. Not to mention that in light of the rules for enlightened mortals, their sacrifice is further belittled to the point that it's just Lookshy cutting corners rather than using rituals to enlighten their elite soldiers.

This is my attempt to turn a Gunzosha from a powerful extra into a tragic hero who’ll often fight beyond their limits until their dying breath.

I would advise Storyteller digression in deciding if these rules are worth it for their particular game. In most Celestial games where the Gunzosha's heroism isn't important to the plot, they'll only serve as an added complication. In a Mortal or Dragon-Blooded game (particularly one in Lookshy) however they can fulfill a niche role between mortals and Dragon-Blooded.

Abilities

As in Wonders of the Lost Age the Gunzosha armour provides a lethal and a bashing soak of 9L/9B with a hardness of 5L/5B with a –3 mobility and a fatigue of 2. The armour has a repair rating of 2.

When encased in the armour a mortal commando gains +1 strength and stamina and most importantly an effective essence of 2 and access to a total essence pool of 20 motes. These motes can be used to activate the armour's various weapon systems, or used to attune to other artifacts. An Exalt or enlightened mortal cannot use this function of the armour (though it may still protect them) their essence pool is incompatible with that of the suit.

Weakness

The essence pool of the Gunzosha Commando is drawn from their own life essence and recovers at a the rate of one mote of essence per day, extracting more than this would risk catastrophic damage to the Commando's essence.

This lack of readily available essence can however be countered by a series of specially designed inset amulets, it is with great reluctance that a Gunzosha Commando uses this function however.

Drawing upon their own internal essence in this manner can be extremely dangerous- the Gunzosha makes a stamina + resistance roll at a difficulty equal to the number of motes they require. Success provides the motes they need but ages the Commando outwardly by 1 year per mote gained. Failure yields the same result- only each mote gained also inflicts a level of lethal damage upon the Gunzosha.

In addition the armour requires upkeep and maintenance for every 100 hours of use, failure to provide this will incur a 1-mote surcharge to all the suit’s abilities. This surcharge is cumulative meaning that poorly maintained armour is almost vampiric in it's hunger for essence and life.

Onboard Systems

Gunzosha can use their limited essence to activate or augment the armour's systems, the specifics of these systems varies between individual suits and each system occupies one of the five "hard points" on the armour. These integrated systems can be replaced during routine maintenance to allow the commando to prepare for different combat roles.