TrialByFire/ShunVersusSilk

The Contestants

Alternate Universe Shun - IanPrice brings this new version of Shun, known as "Shining Crane," to the contest. Shining Shun still uses Celestial Monkey Style, but instead of his old Resistance tricks he now wields Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style, along with a pair of charms from the Violet Bier of Sorrows. Unarmed and unarmored, Shun relies on the plethora of persistent charms available to him to carry the day. His most potent weapon is the ability to activate all five forms in Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style at once, followed closely by his Combo which can activate all of his reflexive, scene-long charms during his Join Battle action.

Thrice Damned Mercurial Silk - Ambisinister's Twilight is a Gold Faction trainee who made a deal with the devil - or the Ebon Dragon, who is close enough. Silk uses the entire Snake and Violet Bier of Sorrows Styles, as well as the Charcoal March of Spiders style up to the form. Silk has chosen to add his First Martial Arts Excellency to his Combos, and use Infinite Martial Arts Mastery to sustain his dice adding. However, it is without doubt that the most potent ability in Silk's arsenal is the Charcoal March of Spiders Form, which provides him with not only incredible mobility, not only a powerful defense, but three fully independent actions which may in themselves be flurries (though not magical flurries) and which each have their own charm use and seperately refreshing DVs.

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 10/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 56/1/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 75/0/75, DV: P6/D8/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, Next Action: ?, Current Wardrobe: Martial arts gi of light white-gold silk, in the old style once favored in Yu-Shan.

Silk: hl: -|------|----------|-|-, wp: 10/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 47/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 75/0/75, DV: P9/D9/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, Next Action: ?, Current Wardrobe: Loose fitting, deep violet pants; open black vest; White scarf with trailing ends

The Setup

Mercurial Silk leans forward with one arm resting upon the battlement. As he gazes out over the quiet harbor, he uses his other hand to effortlessly fold small origami lotuses. After each successful folding, he releases the paper flower out onto the breeze. Freshly spilt blood still steams on his skin in the cool air. Turning his gaze from the sea to the origami, he smiles slightly as he muses, "Hmmm, my hands are staining the flowers red...perhaps I should be making poppies instead of lotuses." He releases his most recent creation and then runs his hands through his hair to clean the remaing blood off before returning his paper into a slender, lacquered case. He gently sets the case down and turns to look at the person stepping out onto the battlement behind him, "Hello. Is there something I can do for you?"

Shun's caste mark burns to match the fury in his eyes as the blonde young man steps up to the battlement. Though his eyes never leave Silk, he carefully steps around the waste of the dead nearby. "You are Silk, I presume? Triple-damned murderer? No, from what I have heard of you, I do not think you can oblige me by dying quietly. Instead I must apologize to these dead, that I did not arrive sooner. I will be your opponent; your slaughter ends today."

With that, Shun raises his hands defensively, assuming his stance atop the crennelations.

"Oh, so you want to play?" The small smile on his face broadens into that of delighted child's. "You don't know how much this pleases me. It's so lovely out, I was thinking I'd have to waste the weather being contemplative." He performs a long, relaxed stretch, fingers interlaced above his head, back arched. "So far I haven't been very impressed with the competition in this supposed city of warriors, hopefully you'll provide better sport." With that said he begins to execute a complicated kata, his hands moving through a set of three interwoven positions. As the motion progresses Silk becomes blurry and hard to bring into focus, and then, in an eye watering lurch, there appears to be both a single Silk performing the kata, and three distinct Silks. One continues to stretch, one performs a rapid series of strikes and taps along his chakras, and the third continues the disturbing kata.

Shun enters Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form (10m1w). His Join Battle pool will be doubled (20), and due to Secrets of Future Strife 10 of those dice are converted to successes (though I am not joining battle yet). He also has a perfect awareness of all things around him, including Essence flows, and reduces the speed of his actions by 1.

Silk enters Charcoal March of Spiders Form (8m). He now has access to three indpendant action pools. In addition, he is constantly under the effects of Unnatural Many-Stepped Stride and Dance of the Hungry Spider. For note his Join Battle pool is also doubled due to the effects of Secrets of Future Strife (also not joining battle). Shun must now succeed at a valor check each time he wishes to act, lest he become inactive for 5 ticks. With his remaining two actions, Silk will activate Infinite Martial Arts Mastery (20m 1wp) and Iron Kettle Body (4m, 1wp). He will also take his reflexive move action to move towards Shun.

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 56/1/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 65/10/75, DV: P6/D8/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Silk: hl: -|------|----------|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 47/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 43/32/75, DV: P9/D9/-0, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, Next Action A:? B:? C:?, Current Wardrobe: Loose fitting, deep violet pants; open black vest; White scarf with trailing ends

Distance: 60 yards.

Shun's eyes remain focused on the central image of Silk, matching his pace back along the wall. "A warrior such as I may provide you amusement, but be cautious which fires you play with, Silk."

With that said, Shun executes a kata of his own. Golden fire leaps out of his body in all directions, his hands tracing sutras of Essence through the air. His fingertips glow and flicker as he touches the very motes themselves. Then, with a shout, all the Essence is pushed away from him. The wave of Essence seems to illuminate a previously unseen figure: the totemic aura of a Crane standing over him with protectively furled wings, shining like the sun.

"My my, what a pretty birdy. Did you know that in the east, birds such as cranes are preyed upon by spiders?" One perception of Silk crouches and rushes forward, leaping into the air and readying Versatility in Disjunction. His motion is broken and stuttered, as if he is moving through a strobelight. A second perception of Silk gathers a ball of essence towards his chest and then casts his arms straight behind him as thousands of gossamer threads explode outward from the ball and trail behind him. The third perception of Silk pulls out a strip of paper, slashes his palm open with it, and then scribes a message. The paper is deftly folded into the shape of spider and tossed straight up, where it vanishes in a puff of violet essence. Core Silk continues to execute the weaving kata, and as he does so a massive spider made of purple gold essence erupts from behind him. A giant web sprawls out from this point glowing with sickly green light. Trapped in the center of this web is compact mass of golden essence, straining to burst free of the entangling threads.

Shun rolls Valor: (4, 5, 7, 8, 9) 3 successes. He is able to act, moving back and entering Soul Fire Shaper Form (15m). His Essence is 10 (granting him more potential storage but no current motes), and he may make one use of Charm Redirection Technique, Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, or Astrology Interruption Method without paying any Essence. Intentionally treating these essence expenditures as peripheral essence, the Twilight power has now automatically active, reducing all damage by 10 levels after it is rolled. Incidentally, why did you take a point of bashing damage? Was that intentional?

Silk will use his first action to flurry a dash/jump/ready weapon action and reflexively activate First Martial Arts Excellency(0m) to modify the activation roll of Nest of Living Strands. He will use his second action to activate Nest of Living Strands, and his final action to activate Conclusion Pursuing Approach. For every action Shun is within 50 yards of Silk(starting now) he accumulates an internal penalty of (Silk rolls Dexterity 5 +MA5, +1stMAE 10=20 dice:1,1,1,3,3,4,5,6,6,6,8,8,8,9,9,9,9,0,0,0=13 ss) 7 dice. In addition, his movement is reduced by 4 yards. Finally, SIlk regains 1wp whenver he successfully damages Shun with a MA attack and Shun's wound penalties are tripled when attacking Silk or defending against Silk's attacks. As a result of all thes expenditures, Silk's anima is also totemic, and he subtracts 5HL from the damage of all attacks. (as for that damage, i thought i was activating CPA that round, but i didn't and forgot to change it) Can I declare a Join Battle action as part of that flurry? I'm unsure as to when exactly you're allowed to call for fighting.

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/40, prph: 56/1/92, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 50/25/75, DV: P6/D10/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 6/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 47/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 13/62/75, DV: P9/D9/-0, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, Next Action A:? B:? C:?, Remaining Charm Uses: 0, Current Wardrobe: Loose fitting, deep violet pants; open black vest; White scarf with trailing ends

Distance: 29 yards (dash of 11, jump of 20)

---

"Taimyo, Intelligence Directorate officer Supplanted Oath reports that the two Anathema are in contact atop a tower within the Port District, just north of the Lighthouse."

Taimyo Bukane Winter Rose's brow furrowed in consternation. "Do they appear to be maintaining civility? We do not want Anathema fighting within our walls!"

"Taimyo, no. The one known as Thrice-Damned Mercurial Silk has murdered a Justicar, four Grey Legion officers and five civilians that we are aware of since his arrival last night. He is powerful, Taimyo. Our reports indicate the Anathema known as Shining Shun is also a mighty opponent, and seems to have been hunting Thrice-Damned Mercurial Silk for some time."

"Hmmm. Conflict would seem unavoidable then. We must drive them from the city at all costs. The damage to the City, and our reputation, could be imme..."

Twin suns burst into existance above the Port district, illuminating Bukane's worried face through the coloured glass window.

"By the Dragons! I am assuming rightful command of this crisis. Ready the Artillery! Send in the Gunzosha! Activate the Warstriders!"

A dozen functionaries dart from the room. The Lookshy warmachine is waking...

Join Battle

Shun's stance lightens, instantly responding to the tensing of Silk's muscles, and he matches Silk's spring forward with an easy leap.

Nest of Living Strands is an offensive action, requiring you to Join Battle. Join Battle, while handled as an action, isn't exactly an action - more like a reaction. So let's get that out of the way. Shun activates his reflexive Battle Initiation Ritual: Four Halo Golden Monkey Realignment (8m), Monkey Leap Technique (3m), Graceful Crane Stance (3m), Feather-Foot Style (4m), Joy in Adversity Stance (5m), and 1 wp for the Combo. He can also activate Seven Shadow Evasion at this time if he needs to, but he doesn't yet. Shun rolls: (2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7, 7) = 4 successes + 10 automatic = 14 successes.

We all know what Silk is up to. He will modify his Join Battle roll by activating Striking Cobra Technique (3m) which adds his MA in auto successes to his Join Battle Roll. Silk Rolls:1,2,3,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,7,7,8,8,8,9,9,9,0,0=14 ss + 5 automatic = 19ss He will also activate Joy in Adversity Stance (5m)

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 25/0/40, prph: 56/1/92, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 27/48/75, DV: P6/D10/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Join Battle: 14

Next action: 5

20 horizontal yards reflexive leap per tick.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 6/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 44/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:0, charm unused

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:0, charm unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:0, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: Loose fitting, deep violet pants; open black vest; White scarf with trailing ends

Current Distance: 49 yards

Tick 0

"Some of these Eastern spiders lie in wait for their prey to happen by, then they leap out and strike..." Silk continues his dash forward and leaps again, this time, however, he vanishes in an eye stinging twist of essence at the end of his leap only to appear standing on thin air over Shun's head. He lashes out with Versatility in Disjunction, the spider in his anima mimicking the blow and striking Shun as hundred of threads entangle and distract him. Silk flickers again, gathering threads from his anima and delivering another sharp strike with his staff. Continuing to move like a broken zoetrope, Silk finally appears again above Shun and with a snarl yanks hard upon the gathered and woven threads, pulling himself in and grasping Shun in a powerful hold. "Other spiders craft complicated webs with which to ensare their victims." As shun moves and speaks, his wardrobe changes to a matched set of muted white pants and shirt. Embroidered onto the hems and cuffs of these garments is a motif of green spiders stalking golden cranes.

NoLS roll: 1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,4,5,6,6,7,8,8,8,0,0,0= 10ss With Action A Silk will flurry a dash and a leap closing the distance to 18 yards. With Action B Silk will flurry staff strike/staff strike/clinch. He will use the reflexive movement granted him by Dance of the Hungry Spider to bring the distance to 6 yards. He will then use Action A's charm to activate Uncoiling Serpent Prana (3m) to supplement this attack allowing to make it out to a range of 10 yards (and if i'm not mistaken he now has the height advatange as he's standing on the air over Shun's head). He will once again use DotHS's reflexive move to close to conventional melee range for the second strike. For the clinch he will use his reflexive movement to return above Shun's head and remain in conventional melee range. He will use Action B's charm to activate 1stMAE(0m) to supplement all three attacks and to supplement NoLS's activation roll. Once Shun comes within 50 yards of Silk he will suffer an internal penalty of -5 to all phsyical actions and his movement will be reduced by 3 yards. Shun's attempts to parry Silks attacks suffer a further -7 internal penalty due to DotHS (Dodges suffer a -5 internal penalty). Action C will be used to guard and its charm will remain unspent.

Two dice for air-walking and arrogance in wardrobe.

I don't how you run things, does the stunt count as successful even though you SSE'd out of it?

You can roll the stunt dice by themselves; get successes, get rewards. That's how I work it when there's a perfect defense involved, to be fair to both sides.

stunt roll (7,8) I'll take the willpower. I get two back due to hearthstone.

"I have faced the wooden spiders of the east," Shun says as Silk's webs close in on him. His shadow seems to lengthen and split, and then he seems to dance on air, disappearing gracefully with each strand and strike Silk sends his way, appearing perched on the spire of one of Lookshy's commercial buildings. The high winds blow his hair and gi all about, but his stance is unmoved as he surveys the tangle of Essence threads that are uncomfortably near him even still. "They are just as arrogant as you."

Shun will use Seven Shadow Evasion four times, once for Nest and once for each of your attacks. He also leaps away 20 yards again.

1 die stunt for you sir, although i do have a question: what is your flaw of invulnerablility for SSE?

Conviction this time. Stunt roll: (2). No essence regained.

1. Flurry (staff, staff, clinch). Channeling Valor on the clinch. Attack pool: Staff: 5 Dex + 5 MA + 3 specialty +10 First Excellency + 1 accuracy=24 dice. Clinch: 5 Dex + 5 MA + 3 specialty +10 First Excellency+5 valor=28 dice. Multiple action penalties (-3, -4, -5 | attack dice are [21 1st staff, 20 2nd staff, 23 clinch]). Base attack damage of the staff attacks is str 5 +10B from staff +2 from bracers= 17B, which is piercing.
2. Defense Declaration: Seven Shadow Evasion
3. Result: No hits, no essence regeneration.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 41/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-5/3yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 3, charm: Uncoiling Serpent Prana

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 6, charm: 1stMAE

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 3, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: matched set of white pants and shirt embroidered with green spider stalking golden cranes

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 13/0/40, prph: 56/1/92, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 27/48/75, DV: P6/D10/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Ticks 1 & 2

With light footsteps, Shun dances up and back, placing himself high atop a taller building, out of range of the webs.

"So Shining Shun likes to hide in shadows? Adorable" Silk continues to skitter his way out, hopping and slidding from strand to strand of the web surrounding him.

40 yards back, 20 yards up. Distance: 60 yards. 22 yards forward: Distance: 38 yards. Shun is one again in the webs.

Tick 3

"So tell me, have you heard about the spider that builds a decoy from sticks and rocks, only to strike at an unexpected angle?" Silk charges forward then leaps into the air, whipping his staff around and twisting his body to generate momentum. As he draws close to Shun, his vector changes direction suddenly and with no warning as Silk slides top-like in a clockwise arc around Shun to crack him, base-ball style, in the kidneys with his whirling staff.

Action A will be a flurry, dash/jump/staff strike. Movement brings him to seven yards away, DoHS's reflexive move is enought to cover 7 yards. Silk will supllement using the still available 1stMAE(0m) from tick 0's Action B. Action C will continue to guard. NoLS does not reactivate yet, as it is keyed to action B. To summarize Shun's internal penalties: -5 from NoLS + -7 (if parrying) or -5 (if dodging).

There is no current Nest penalty. As of tick 6, I will have to deal with another one. Nest normally can't be avoided, but SSE can dodge the undodgeable. Thus, no penalty until it is reapplied. That being said, one stunt die. Not much environment in that stunt.

"No, but thank you for the insight." Shun's movement is as brief as his reply: he turns his foot, sliding down the roof out of the way of the blow and back the way he came, catching the edge and throwing himself to the wall, off of which he springs, flying back to the fortress wall of Lookshy. He is nearly bowled over by a very surprised private carrying implosion bow shells, who trips and falls as he looks back, realizing who and what he just brushed past.

interfering with hapless privates. 2 dice. also, i know i got two dice in tick 0, but did it count as a success?

Shun will dodge, and do some more leaping. DDV is (5 Dex + 5 Dodge + 10 Essence - 5 Dance) = 15 / 2 = 7.5, round up: 8. Spending a WP to make that 9.

1. Staff strike. Attack pool: 5 Dex + 5 MA + 3 specialty +10 First Excellency + 1 accuracy=24 dice.Multiple action penalties -5 | attack dice are 19. Base attack damage of the staff attack is str 5 +10B from staff + 2 from bracers = 17B, which is piercing.
2. Defense Declaration: Dodge
3. Attack Roll 19+1stunt=20 1,2,2,3,3,4,5,5,5,5,7,7,7,7,7,8,8,9,9,0=11
4. Attack Reroll: None.
5. External Penalties
   1. DDV 9 + stunt roll: (2, 4)
6. Defense Reroll: Third Dodge Excellency invoked through Dodge Essece (4m). DDV = 12.
7. Result: Just barely a miss. Rolling 10 Essence dice for Joy in Adversity Stance: (2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 8, 10) 4 successes. Shun regains 2 willpower (1 stunt, +1 hearthstone) and 8 motes of Essence. Silk regains 2 motes from his stunt.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 43/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-5/3yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 8, charm: unused

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 6, charm: 1stMAE

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 6, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: matched set of white pants and shirt embroidered with green spider stalking golden cranes

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 17/0/40, prph: 56/1/92, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 27/48/75, DV: P6/D10/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Tick 4

"I need not hide, Silk, but only a fool would willingly stay in your webs." Shun then smiles to the cowering private. "Get inside. I will handle this." With that, he leaps lightly to the top of one of the Essence-cannon bunkers. "Or are you too slow to keep up?"

"You say you've come to fight, but all you do is run." Silk pursues, moving intentionally so the rushing private gets tangled in his webs.

Another 20 yard leap.

11 yards of dash.

Tick 5

Shun composes himself, then snarls, assuming a wide stance with a stomp of his foot, denting the armored dome he stands on. The stomp also sends him soaring into the air, seemingly borne aloft by the wings of his totem. His muscles bulge and strain, shining with raw essence. "Come get me!"

Silk maintains his skittering stride through the sky

Valor roll: (1, 1, 1, 8, 9). Man I'm glad this isn't old WoD. Shun activates Body of War Meditation. Pumping 100 motes into it, he increases all his Strength and Dexterity attributes by the maximum (his Essence) of 10, so they are both 15. His reflexive leap now goes 20 yards vertically (and 40 horizontal). Four Halo Golden Monkey Realignment eliminates the penalty to DV for taking this action.

I'm a little confused. Under you charm write up, 4 Halo Golden Monkey Realignment is a reflexive charm with instant duration, but its effects last for the whole scene? Also, it prevents both your parry and dodge DV's from suffering onslaught penalties?

It's reflexive with scenelong duration. Just like in the Player's Guide. And since it gave a reflexive fullpool parry for the scene in 1e, I had it imitate Fivefold Bulwark Stance's new mechanic in 2e. 2e FFBS affects both DVs. Since the 2e version of FFBS is Combo-OK, I made this be so too.

That sounded odd, so I re-read 2e core. It is odd but true. I am baffled and confused as to why a melee charm would affect your dodge DV, but them's the rules so back to the fight.

11 yards of dash

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 17/0/40, prph: 33/24/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P11/D15/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A

Distance: 38 yards away horizontally, same vertical level.

Next Action: 10 (Speed 6 Charm action - 1 Prismatic Arrangement of Creation)

Tick 6

"As you wish." Silk rushes forward. As he does so he reaches back to grab another Silk and hurls him forward. As this Silk sails though the air, the first gathers together a massive amount of webbing and tosses it around Shun. Second Silk reaches the end of the toss and inverts himself as he stutters over Shun. Feet sliding along an invsible wall of air, Silk curves around Shun, Versatility in Disjunction arcing around Shun's neck in the process. First Silk takes the mass of webbing and, looping it around the essence cannon and then through one of the rings on his bracers for leverage, yanks the mass taut pulling Shun down towards the tower. At the same time Second Silk flips back down to his feet, back to Shun, landing on thin air and leans forward causing Versatility to tighten around Shun's neck and hoist him straight up.

NoLS: 1,1,2,3,3,6,6,6,7,7,8,8,8,8,9,9,9,0,0,0/b>=15=-8/4yd
Action B will be a dash/leap flurry closing the distance to 7 yards. Action B charm use is to activate 1stMAE. Action C will be a clinch assisted by DoHS and supplemented by 1stMAE. Shun suffers a combined -15 internal penalty to his parry DV an a -13 to his dodge DV.

That's a very painful 2 dice to you for painfully pinning. (Don't mind the punning.)

Shun winces as the sticky essence of the webs finally strikes home, ripping bits off his clothes as he moves past, slowing him down considerably. Feeling himself pulled towards the cannon, Shun inverts himself away from Versatility and dives, treating the web like gravity and the barrel of the weapon as his place to leap off of, sending himself down to the ground.

1 die for you.

Shun dodges. A valor channel here too (I have reviewed the rules on this, and when defending, I'm supposed to roll this like stunt dice and first excellency dice). He then falls/leaps 36 yards.

1. Clinch: Channeling Valor: Attack Pool: Dex 5 + MA 5 +Specialty 3 + 1stE 10+ valor 5= 28
2. Defense Declaration: Dodge.
3. Attack Roll: 28 dice +2 stunt=30: 1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,5,6,<b>7,7,7,7,8,8,8,8,9,9,9,0,0,0=17ss (damn you lucky valor roll!)
4. Attack Reroll: None.
5. External Penalties
   1. DDV 9 (pool 15 + 5 + 10 - 13 = 17 / 2 = 8.5, round up = 9) + Valor (7, 7, 8, 9, 9) = 14 + stunt (2) = 14
6. Defense Reroll: Third Dodge Excellency invoked through Dodge Essence Flow (4m). DDV = 17.
7. Result: Attack misses, just barely. 2 motes of Essence from Stunt. Joy in Adversity Stance roll: (1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 10, 10, 10) 6 successes. 14 total Essence regained. Silk takes his two willpower.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 43/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 8, charm: unused

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 9, charm: 1stMAE

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-1, next action:tick 12, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: matched set of white pants and shirt embroidered with green spider stalking golden cranes

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 27/0/40, prph: 33/24/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P11/D15/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Distance: 0 yards away horizontally, 36 yards vertical level difference.

Tick 7

Shun dashes down the Lookshy streets, seeking distance to get the webs behind him. The collection of Silks return to roughly the same point in space over the tower and then plummet straight down, his clothing shifting into a dull grey kimono. "I'm not here to race, Crane. You bore me...

36 more yards leaping. Incorrect Assumption, I will not be pursuing, my movement is downwards. Distance= 72 yards

---

The sound of heavily armoured soldiers echoed through the stairwell of Hummingbird Tower. Ashigaru Fang Cloudshield ascended quickly and resolutely to reach the artillery room on the top floor.

A small essence gem began flashing red in the hand of Ashigaru Haichei Sopoko. "Gochei! I believe we may have a problem."

Tick 8

"Since you are not providing the sport I seek, I shall find a challenge elsewhere." And with that Silk dematerializes and drops through the roof into the tower.

Using the reflexive power granted by Unnatural Many Step Stride to dematerialize (1m). Silk will rematerialize the next time Action A's DV refreshes. Action A will be a guard action. Action B's Dash will be used to move further down into the tower.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 42/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 11, charm: unused

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 9, charm: 1stMAE

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-1, next action:tick 12, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono

Distance:72 yards

---

Ashigaru Gochei Amilar Cloudshield began to sprint up the stairwell. "Faster! We must not fail in our duty! Sopoko! Where are the Anathema?"

Haichei Sopoko slowed and let the rest of Fang Cloudshield run past. "Gochei, I do not know," the armoured head peered at the flashing gem intently, "They appear to be all around us? By the Dragons! It's coming from above! It's in the walls!"

Tick 9

Though Silk vanishes from conventional sight, Shun's perfect senses are able to track his movement through the tower. His senses also provide a perfect reckoning of each and every life as it is snuffed out following Silk's passage.

NoLS:1,1,3,3,3,3,4,5,5,7.7.7.7.7.9.9.9.9.9.0=12. -6/3 yd Silk will be interrupting his guard action forcing his rematerialization. He will then perform a massacre/massacre/massacre/massacre flurry with Action A destroying whatever unfortunate extras happen to be in his path. He will also use Action A's charm use to activate 1stMAE. Action B will be declared as a guard action. As a note, since Shun was outside of NoLS's effects this activation, his current penalties fromt the charm will start to fade at the rate of -1/1yd every 3 ticks so long as he remains outside of Nest's radius of effect. Returning to the area of effect will cease this fading and cause cumulative penalties to accrue.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 42/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 14, charm: 1stMAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 12, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-1, next action:tick 12, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now probably covered in gore)

Distance: 72 yards. Plus, Silk is now in the middle of the tower, so Shun will have enter from the top or bottom and traverse the interior to get to him, or he'll have to make some holes in some walls. As his Dex is 15, I'd say a standard move action from the top or bottom, once he gets to the tower, should be more then plenty to get him to silk.

---

Fang Cloudshield paused as one, and staired at the ceiling. A dawning horror grew in their minds as the ceiling began to glow.

Almost as one they fell to the unstoppable onslaught of Thrice-Damned Mercurial Silk. Only Haichei Sopoko remained, unbreathing behind a bend in the stairs. His heartbeat deafening inside his Ashigaru cage...

Tick 10

Shun alights on a nearby tower, sucking in a pained breath as he realizes what Silk is up to. Every muscle goes taut as he strains to hold himself back. His memory returns to his training; a day when he wanted to kill his Sifu, Flame Whisper. The elder Sidereal had brought him to an island town in the West, where the two of them were to witness the Exaltation of another Solar. It happened four days after they arrived, and turned out to be a girl Shun had become fond of in that time. When she heroically resisted the sexual harrassment of the squad of house Lintha sailors, the Exaltation was upon her - and Flame Whisper's finger in Shun's back, stabbing a pressure point that paralyzed him utterly as he was forced to watch them kill her as Anathema instead of raping her. His master's words that day rang in his ears still, "If you fight the wrong enemy, or before you are ready, you defeat yourself. You must weigh what is Necessary against what is Right." Now as then, Shun assumed the only attitude he could to accept this advice: the blissful uncaring of his first-learned form.

Shun comes to rest an even 80 yards distant, and activates Celestial Monkey Form. NoLS penalty on him decays by 1 die (technically, this happened on tick 9).

Decay doesn't start until tick 9. The first point doesn't decay until tick 12. You need to be outside of NoLS's effects for a full activation cycle before it starts decaying. You were effected on tick 6, you count as being under the charm's effect until the next reacitvation on tick 9. Since you were outisde of the the charm's effects on tick 9 when it reactivated, that's when the decay starts. It's the same reason you were able to SSE out of it on tick 1 and not be effected by it until next reactivated.

Ah, I suppose I was mistaken then.

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 27/0/40, prph: 28/29/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P11/D15/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Tick 12

Non-plussed by his encounter in the tower, Silk dematerializes again and begins skittering through the walls looking for better sport. Shun skips off rooftops, keeping distance with him easily.

NoLS: 1,1,1,2,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,6,6,6,6,7,8,0,0<b>=6. -3/2yd Action B is a dash and a reflexive dematerializing (1m). Supplementing NoLS with 1stMAE. Action C is a guard action. Silk will move into the corridors within the walls and is heading away from Shun. Also, now Shun's NoLS penalty drops by 1.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 41/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 14, charm: 1stMAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 15, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-1, next action:tick 15, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now probably covered in gore)

Shun: hl: ---|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 27/0/40, prph: 28/29/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P11/D15/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, NoLS Penalty:-7/3yd

Distance:80 yards.

Tick 14

Silk continues to move forward. Action A is used to guard.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 41/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 17, charm: 1stMAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 15, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-1, next action:tick 15, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now probably covered in gore)

Distance: 80 yards.

Tick 15

Silk, who has been moving gently downward finds himself in a larger hall at ground level and pauses to take in his surroundings as he re-materializes.He perks up as hears the sound of artillery and steps outside. Stepping out through a door, he looks around and observes Shun's massive display. Returning his gaze upon more terrestrial affairs, he takes in the squad of Gunzosha which has mustered into the yard before him preparing to storm the building he just left. He looks at them, and in an odd three part harmony says, "Well at least you're a little larger. I suspect you'll only disapoint me like everything else.

NoLS:1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,5,5,6,6,<b>7,7,8,9,0,0,0,0=12 ss. -6/3yd NoLS will be supplemented by 1stMAE as provided by action A's activation. Actions B and C will be used to Guard. As Shun maintained distance his penalty does infact decay.

Shun seems to disappear, then the crane of his anima alights on a wire suspended between two buildings and he appears with it, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank Venus he is bored by troops of that level."

"I was a fool to approach him without preparation," Shun chides himself, carefully striking himself in pressure points at several chakras. "He might not have killed those men without my provocation. Forgive me, master. I have learned nothing since that day, it seems."

As Shun speaks to himself, performing the kata, his golden anima banner flickers with white. The Crane behind and above him twists and grows, becoming a gigantic eagle, gold now turned to silver as the light of the moon pours forth. Shun's movements seem quicksilver, utterly inhuman in grace and speed.

Activating Full Moon Lunar Exalt Ways, adding 10 (his Essence) autosuccesses to Dexterity (a favored attribute of Full Moon Lunars) rolls (10m, 1 lethal health level). Also, Shun's anima power changes. He no longer reduces all damage by 10 rolled levels - instead he doubles his move, dash, and leap distances. He can now leap 40 yards up or 80 yards horizontal, reflexively.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 9/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 41/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 17, charm: 1stMAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 18, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 18, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now probably covered in gore)

Shun: hl: X--|---|----|-|-, wp: 8/10, prsnl: 27/0/40, prph: 18/39/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P21/D25/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, NoLS Penalty:-6/3yd (next decay: 18)

Exalt Ways expires: Tick 65

Next Action: Tick 20

Tick 17

As the Gunzosha spread around Silk in a cautious semi-circle he settles back and rolls his head from side to side. Thousands of gossamer strands begin to slowly entangle and foul the armored troopers. Abruptly, Silk lunges forward, punching a hole through the gorget of the central soldier with the hardened tip of Versatility in Disjunction. He rips the tip back out and the staff whips around, snake-like behind and to Silk's right, obliterating the knee of the trooper standing in that place. Silk grabs the staff in his other hand as it continues it arc around his back and slides backwards on unmoving legs, smashing his elbow into the face plate of the wounded soldier and launching the staff forward to smash through the solar plexus of a third Gunzosha. Abruptly changing the direction of his motion, he flips forward in Versatility's wake, grabbing the weapon as it passes out the Gunzosha's back and pulling it all the way through. Crouching low he continues his slide and loops his staff around the leg of a fourth trooper, twisting it into a complicated leverage inducing bind and then squeezing, cracking the armor and crushing the limb as easily as a chef would a crab's leg with a cracking tool.

So Action A is full of combat goodness! It's a flurry that goes: puncture/whip/elbow/core-sample/crush. Good ol 1stMAE will be used to supplement the attacks. All of the gunzosha are at a -15 internal penalty due to NoLS and DoftHS which I believe exceeds their die pools. This is assuming they are not inactive from Unnatural Many Step Stride's valor check. Silk's pools are clocking in at at 21 for both the staff and the elbow. Which means that after the flurry penalty we're seeing 16,15,14,13,12. Plus a possible stunt. Should be plenty to kill or incapacitate. I'll roll if you want. Also, I technically get a willpower back everytime I inflict damage with a MA attack, so this should top me up.

Also, two dice.

stunt:3,9 Does this mean I get 2 motes or 4 motes?

Full reward.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 10/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 45/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-8/4yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-5, next action:tick 22, charm: 1st MAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 18, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 18, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now probably covered in gore)

Tick 18

Just as the first Silk finishes his frenetic dance, a second Steps up and cuts in to continue the dance with First Silk's unfortunate partners. As he steps in the strands of webbing grow even thicker around the Gunzosha. Leaping straight up into the air from the crouching position of First Silk, Second Silk rips Versatility through the Gunzosha's leg, severing it. Twisting parrallel to the ground and conveniently solidifying the air beneath his feet, he pushes off toward the one trooper who is still unscathed. Landing lightly on his feet, Silk slides forwards, whipping Versatility around his body in a blurry mobius of motion. He looses a massive onslaught of blows, the tips of his staff darting out and striking the soldier in hundreds of places faster than the mortal eye can follow. This finishes with both Silk and Versatility entwined about the Gunzosha's leg, torso, and arms. For a brief moment, nothing happens, and then Silk squeezes causing blood to leak and spray from gaps in the armor. Working quickly, Silk dashes forward, gathering webbing as he goes. He appears behind his first victim and tilts his head back causing blood to spray high into the air. As he darts across the field he threads a thick strand of webbing through the hole he made in his third victim. Continuing to collect and manipulate the web with one hand, Silk skitters past the soldier with the severed leg, and, grabbing him by the back of his armor, ascends up into his webs, blood pouring from the man's stump. Silk quickly adheres him to the webs in the air and slides down and away, twisting the webbing in a complicated cats-cradle between his hands, causing the strands to dance. With a deft motion Silk finally pulls the threads taught causing them to blossom out in a crimson spray from the body of his foe. As the threads twist and steady they collect the sprays and mists of blood tossed into the air. When everything settles, the blood has beaded and collected into a pattern on a gossamer canvas: caught on the webbing is a sanguine crane turning away from the five corpses of the Lookshy soldies. Silk licks blood flecked lips and smiles.

NoLS: 1,2,2,4,5,5,5,6,6,6,6,6,7,7,8,9,9,9,0,0=10ss. -5/3yds So I may have gone a little overboard here for what could possibly be done in a tick, but it was too cool an idea to pass up so I'm hoping for lenience. I can also add more actions to the flurry if neccessary. NoLS, as always, is modified by 1stMAE. Action B's flurry is Rend/Buffet/Craft:Air. Action C is a guard action. Once again, I don't know if I can actually collect stunts here or not, and I'm cool with whatever.

That, sir, was three dice of pure evil. If Shun wasn't currently immune to base emotional manipulation (note to self: Celestial Monkey Form should also modify MDV in 2e), he'd so be suffering Valor compulsion to come at you in a rage.

stunt dice:2,5,8. Same questionas in on tick 17

Once again, full reward.

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 10/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 47/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-5/3yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-5, next action:tick 22, charm: 1st MAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-3, next action:tick 23, charm: unused

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 21, charm unused

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now definately covered in gore)

Tick 20

Shun sighs at the wastefulness of Silk's actions, allowing himself to slip from his delicate perch. He twists gracefully in midair in an eternal moment. His totem, now eagle, takes wing; up it soars, and suddenly stoops towards the wall separating Shun from Silk. Shun seems to disappear as the pressure of his anima builds, sending a hairline crack through glass windows for blocks on every side. Then he truly has vanished from view outside, and the eagle of his anima passes through the wall, washing over Silk and his gory tableau. As the tailfeathers pass through him, Silk catches a glimpse of Shun out of the corner of his eye, just before the glowing silver heel delivers a spinning wheel kick at his cheek on the other side. Then, just as quickly as he appeared, Shun seems gone from the interior. He is truly standing on the roof's edge in a relaxed stance, having completed his easy leap up and across the gap. Unsightly green Essence gossamer has lodged itself throughout his anima, only slowly burning off in the silver glow. Inside, the pressure of Shun's anima brushing past has caused the intricate pattern of blood to fall to the floor, leaving a crudely squashed outline of itself splattered on the tiles.

As the silvered heel comes snapping in, Silk doesn't even move, just sublimates in a flash of golden green essence. When the kick connects, Silk explodes in a concussive wash of essence which vaporizes the remainder of his bloody artwork, scours the walls, and bleaches the stones beneath his feet. He appears in the air above the flickering, soaring Shun, twists Versatility into a complex pattern and fires forth a lance golden-purple essence. Simultaneously, Silk's shadow erupts into an arachnid shape and with mandibles dripping a sickly green essence, it lunges at Shun's shadow. In the air overhead, Yellow Spider pounces on Silver Eagle.

Shun activates Flickering Moonsilver Approach, and executes an acrobatic leap that will briefly take him within 50 yards of Silk's position. The charm is reflexive, and lets him attack targets within (Essence x 5 = 50) yards, because he exists at any point within that radius from his apparent position that he chooses to exist for the moment of the attack. Defenders suffer a penalty to defend equal to his Martial Arts (-5). He's rolling (15 dex + 5 MA - 5 NoLS) = 15 dice. Four Halo Golden Monkey Realignment gives him 5 automatic successes. Full Moon Lunar Exalt Ways gives him 10 more automatic successes.

Your NoLS penalty is actually -10/5yds. On tick 18 your penalty decayed from -6/3yd to -5/2yds. Unless I'm misinterpereting what happened, you did come within the 50 yard range of NoLS this round, which afflicted you with an additional -5/3yd, as that was the last activation roll. If you look at the charm, stepping into range after it activates still gets you caught. And a question, it would appear from FMA's text that you still actually appear next to me to hit me,I think, does this mean I can counter-attack? Also, two dice on stunt for you.

In 1st edition, it was pretty clear to me that if I wasn't in range on your initiative, the penalty wouldn't accrue that turn. If you want to play it that way, fine, I'm not going to argue. And sure, you can counter, as I'm there for the duration of the attack.

Silk will use Action C's charm to invoke his combo, Invulnerable God Body Rebuke (1wp). Silk will first activate Iron Skin Concentration(2m). He will also activate Snake Strikes the Heel(4m) to give himself a martial arts counterattack. He will then use Action B's Charm to invoke his combo Vitriolic Lance Penetrates and Consumes the Unrighteous(1wp). The combo consists of 1stMAE(0m), Uncoiling Serpent Prana (3m), Armor Penetrating Fang Strike (4m 1wp), Essence Venom Strike (7m, 1wp), Maw of Dripping Venom (5m), and Life Severing Blow (10m). The counterattack recieves +10 dice, ignores armor, inflicts aggravated damage, can be made out to a distance of 10 yards, and adds 5 automatics successes to the damage roll. In addition, if the attack hits Shun will be affected by Maw of Dripping Venom. Silk will further modify this counter attack with Dance of the Hungry Spider. Up to Ian if Silk benefits from attacking from high ground or not.

Sure, go ahead and benefit from it. Two die stunt.

1. Kick: Attack Pool: 10 dice + 15 automatic successes.
2. Defense Declaration: none. I'm letting him hit and applying neither of my DVs.
3. Attack Roll: 10 dice + 2 stunt = 12: (2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10) = 8 + 15 = 23
4. Attack Reroll: None.
5. External Penalties
6. Defense Reroll: none
7. Damage: Would have been 18B base + 23 attack successes = 41B.
8. Soak: Iron Skin Concentration: (stam 5 + Resistance5)=10dice. 1,2,3,4,4,5,5,6,8,0=3ss. Silk will invoke Adamant Skin Technique for an additional 4m. Shun still needs to roll his attack so Essence Gathering Temper and Snake Strikes the Heel can be resolved. (EGT keys off of damage dice rolled. Since I roll no dice, you get nothing. If you want to use EGT, you'll have to rely on your soak + twilight anima, not AST or a successful ISC. If you want to use Spirit Strengthens the Skin instead, that would work, just remember: with EGT's current wording, you roll twice the dice I actually roll for damage.) You are correct, I misread AST and thought it negated damage, not dice. Removing EGT from the equation.
9. Counterattack: Snake Strikes the Heel
   1. Staff Strike: Channeling Valor, Attack pool: 5 MA +10 1stMAE + 5 valor + 23 Shun's successes on his attack roll + 2 stunt = 45 dice. (SStH discussion moved to rulings page.
   2. Defense Declaration: Dodge. Spend WP.
   3. Attack Roll1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,6,6,6,7,7,7,7,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,9,9,9,0,0,0,0=24ss
   4. Attack Re-roll: none
   5. External Penalties: DDV= (15 Dex +5 Dodge +10 essence +20 Exalt Ways +2 WP -10 NolS -5 DotHS= 37)/2=18.5, rounded equals 19. Stunt dice: (6, 7) = 1 success. DV 20. DV is reduced by 1 as Silk has higher ground, making the final value 19.
   6. Defense Re-roll. Could bump it to 22. (15 +5 +10 + 20 +2 WP +2 stunt +5 3rdMAE -10 -5=44)/2=22
   7. Damage: base 10 from staff +5 strength +2 bracers + 5 attack ss=22A +5 automatic or 20A +5 automatic if Ian re-rolls
   8. Soak: 0
10. Result: Shun dies.

Rules question: Rulings/SnakeStrikesTheHeel

Silk: hl: x|------|----------|-|-, wp: 5/10, prsnl: 25/0/25, prph: 12/10/57, ISG: 50/0/50, ECG: 8/67/75, Soak: 13B/10L/4A, NoLS Penalty:-5/3yd

Action A:DV: P9/D9/-5, next action:tick 22, charm: 1st MAE

Action B:DV: P9/D9/-4, next action:tick 23, charm: Invulnerable God Body Rebuke

Action C:DV: P9/D9/-0, next action:tick 21, charm Vitriolic Lance Penetrates and Consumes the Unrighteous

Current Wardrobe: dull grey kimono (now definately covered in gore)

Shun: hl: X**|***|****|*|*, wp: 7/10, prsnl: 27/0/40, prph: 8/39/92, ISG: 0/50/50, ECG: 0/75/75, DV: P21/D25/-0, Soak: 5B/2L/0A, NoLS Penalty:-10/5yd (next decay: 18)

Exalt Ways expires: Tick 65

Flickering Moonsilver Approach ends: Tick 70

Next Action: Tick 24

Distance: 80 yards

Negotiations

Figure we should get talking about the specifics of the fight, no? Also, I have a few questions:

• Which VBoS are we using? The one from the Storyteller's Companion or the one from the wiki?
• Does piercing affect hardness? According to what I've read, it seems like the answer is no.

-Ambisinister

• You can choose which one you're using. I'm using the one from the wiki, which is why I linked it.
• No, it doesn't.

-IanPrice

Alright, I'll be using the Storyteller version. You have any ideas for setting?-Ambisinister

I was thinking we could be audacious, and fight atop the spires of the imperial city. Or maybe just the tall forests of the East. Someplace tall. - IanPrice

Alright, how's this for audacious: A Hslanti airport in Icehome. The airport consists of some low structures, a big open field, and a series of twoers, say three. Each tower could be, say 20 stories high. Each one could have a few airships (of the zepplin variety) docked to it. The towers are reached through counterweighted pulley-style elevators. The fight could rage across the deck of the airships, up and down the towers, in out of the structures. There'd be plenty of environment around in the form of supply crates, maintenance gear, ropes, spare parts, etc. Heck we could even have actually terrified extras running around to use as props if we wanted.

Or if you're looking for mre of a running tree top style battle, we coudl head to the East and bttle at a first age ruin (complete with spires and jagged edges) that just happens to be surrounded by a forest of tall trees. Maybe it's got a broken down manse that's only partially capping a demense which could provide some environmental haszards.

Or, to revist my first idea, we could put the battle at a harbor some where and we could fight amongst a forest of masts from all of the docked ships.

heh, or we could have an epic battle in a port built on first age ruins. The port will have airship docking towers and piers full of ships with tall masts. The first age sectoins of town come complete with spire-licious ruins, and the whole thing is built on an overgrown section of coastline in the East that is full of tall trees. I'm being kinda silly with this last one. Anything strike your fancy? -Ambisinister

That is exactly the kind of silly Exalted needs. I vote for the last idea... though I dunno if we could get the forest. Lookshy has the rest of those things though! - IanPrice

Don't mean to intrude, but Lookshy does have a bit of a Parkland within it's walls, iirc... So, y'know... cool... I can't wait to see you in action! nikink

Alright. I can agree on lookshy. We should determine our starting location (seaport, airport, city walls, or what have you). I'm fine with anything if you have a preference. City defenses sound like a cool idea as well. I think we should nominate a tick and have them start up then regardless of what's going on. I judge you, you judge me works for stunts. Now then, how would you like to handle die rolling? - Ambisinister

TonyC and I each rolled our own dice. I'm fine with trusting you if you are with me. As for a tick for the defenses to start shooting, let's say that every 10th tick, a new defender joins the fray (such as an implosion bow, an essence cannon, a DB in a warstrider, etc). As for initial location, I figure whoever posts the first setup action gets to choose that. - IanPrice

Right, so I'm cool with rolling our own dice (which may not be in my best interest since my god-forsaken dice loathe me unmercifully). Now we just need a starting location and a rough agreement on prep time, if any. As for the defenders, I'm sure something will work out. -Ambisinister

As in the previous battle, I say setup goes on until one of us declares Join Battle, with each of us posting one setup action at a time. If ticks matter, setup actions can be assumed to be about 6 ticks each. - IanPrice

Player Chat

Participants only: this space is mainly for crunch discussions between players.

So, I've been busy lately, but... we must kung-fu fight! - IanPrice

You and me both, but I should have some time this week to get the ball rollin. I'm hopin' to get Silk's story up tomorrow.- Ambisinister

Soon as I know what Silk looks like, I'm ready to roll. Oh, incidentally: Lookshy's defenses will probably start shooting at us at some point. I think that this would be best used as stunt-fodder. - IanPrice

OK, so now I have some timing questions:
1. If someone uses a charm to modify their join battle roll, as Shun did in this case, does that count as their charm use for their first action?
2. My use of Nest of Living Strands triggered the Join Battle roll. When the charm is activated, it immediately effects everyone in range. So is Shun effected? And if so, does it modify his Join Battle roll.
3. My use of Nest of Living Strands triggered the Join Battle roll. Does that mean I cannot use charms to modify my Join Battle roll?

1. Shun used a reflexive Combo on his Join Battle action. Join Battle comes with its own opportunity to use charms. Since you have 3 independent actions, though they share the same roll, you technically have 3 charm actions during your Join Battle time.
2. Nest of Living Strands has to be used in combat time, thus the roll. If you had surprise, it could have affected me without a roll, but since I was able to react I have the chance to react faster than you.
3. No, Join Battle still gives you its own set of charm uses.

So Nest of Living Strands counts as one of my actions (and charm uses) for my First Action? What about my flurry and my activation of CPA? DId those happen in 'prep' time or is my First Action already determined? Or are you saying that NoLS's activation roll happens here, and I can use my actions as normal?-Ambisinister who's still geting the hang of things

The former, since they were all done essentially simultaneously, and you have to Join Battle in order to use Nest.

Having Just looked at the charm, I reflexively make the MA roll with NoLS at the start of each my actions. I feel like if you activate NoLS outside of combat, and then you go into combat, NoLS's activation roll applies until your character's First Action, and then he simply makes another as the charm's text indicates. If someone moves into range of the charm before his first action, then they are effected by the intial activation roll. In our particular case, I'd say Shun is uneffected by the initial roll, and will begin to be effected, pending being within range now that combat as started. If things are going the way you're suggesting then I had already declared my First Action before even Joining Battle, which is just kind of weird. My intent was to make use of my second round of prep, and then Join Battle and have combat progress from there. If activating NoLS in a prep round would be taboo, then I'll just take it out, and declare it in my First Action.

Thing is, you can't mess with other people without Joining Battle. I'm okay with you activating it in the prep round, but whether it touches me or not is a matter for combat. After all, I could use Seven Shadow to get out of it. - IanPrice

By the way, in the previous fight, TonyC and I agreed that when stunts involve the use of a perfect defense, the stunt dice should be rolled by themselves to determine if anything is regained from the stunt. We also tended to apply one stunt to all the actions on a given tick. Do you think that's fair? - IanPrice

According to the way i do stunts, the only way i would ever not reward you stunt dice was if your action consisted of simply rolling dice or if you declared "I move and hit him". I think its safe to say that you'll be getting at least 1 die an action.

So I've noticed something interesting. Mind you, I bring this up not to influence the contest (I'm totally cool with the way things are going), but as a point of discussion. If you look at the charm texts for the 1st and 3rd excellencies you'll notice that the charm's mechanic is explained in plaintext and then summarized in a bolded font. To paraphrase the charms: when using the the 1st to modify a static pool, you roll a number of dice equal to the motes spent on the charm. For every success you add two dice to the pool which is used to determine the static value. The bold text simplifies this by saying, for every succes you roll increase the static value by 1. In a similar fashion, the 3rd excellency's text states that when activating the charm, you add an amount equal to the ability's rating to the pool to determine the static value. Bolds says that you are basically adding half the abilities rating to the static value. To take an example where the distinction between bold and palin text is critical i will use tick 6 as an example. When calculating a value using the bold text, as Ian did, you get a result that looks like this:

(pool 15 + 5 + 10 - 13 = 17 / 2 = 8.5, round up = 9 + 5 from Valor + 3 from 3rdE =17.

If you calculate the value following the plaintext you get:

dex 15 + 5 MA +10 essence + 10 valor + 5 3rdE -13 penalty= 32. 32/2=16.

Again. I'm not saying my clinch should hit (as I know have to think my way out of a difficult situation, which I enjoy), I just wanted to bring this to the attention of anyone who may be interested in discussing it. As for my action, well I have two possible courses, not sure which I'll take, and you'll all just have to wait for me to get back from dinner to find out-Ambisinister

I like the bold text in this case not only because it allows me to avoid an extremely (and literally) sticky situation in this fight, but because it seems to fit with the primacy of defense - since the most common static value here is DV, and the bold text is specifically about DVs pretty much. - IanPrice

To shed some further light on this subject I will share something I discovered whilst re-reading the charm section: On pg 185, in the charms and pools sidebar, the core book states, in bold text: "For unrolled activities such as DV, Mental DV, or feats of strength, Charms increase a character's static rating by adding to (the relevant Attribute +Ability)". It goes on to say in plain text "This bonus increases the (attribute + ability) pool, not hte final result of any calculations, so if the attribute + ability is divided in half, the bonus rating will be applied before the division, not afterward. The result is that the player will normally have to add two "dice" to increase a static value by one-although the First Excellency provides a discount of of sorts for this, increasing static values by one per success rolled." I don't really see how the 1E is a "discount" because the charm text clearly states that for every success you roll, you add two to the rating in question when determining static values. Thank you, that is all. I'm off to class, should be able to post some more stuff after I get back. -Ambisinister

If you want, we can put everything past that point into a seperate "oops" page, since that was a definitive wrong call by what you've quoted there. And it would have changed the whole course from there on (probably resulting in my losing, but eh). Otherwise, less talky, more fighty. - IanPrice

I'm cool with running as it stands based on our prior ruling. I'd like to see if my strategy will work, afterall. If, after this test, you want to do a "What would have happened if..." which starts at that point with the clinch succeeding, then by all means let's go for it. .-Ambisinister

We may do that. It would definitely be less good for me. - IanPrice

On the subject of when you get afflicted by NoLS, the sentence "Enemies inside the area of effect, or who enter that area before the character's next turn, suffer a cumulative penalty of...." seems pretty clear to me. By the way, I realize I'm rules lawyering here, and I apologize for that. -Ambisinister

What I've Learned

Ambisinister

Mobility is where it's at in 2e. You have mobility, you have major control of the fight.

now an addendum:Monkey Leap is approximately 1000% better in 2e. Always take monkey leap!

IanPrice

Aside from the things everybody focuses on, Nest of Living Strands is one of the reasons CMoS is so disgusting. There is no way to avoid those penalties without creatively applying perfect, applicability-trumping defenses, and they stack without limit. I could very easily end up with a pool of 0 in everything by standing around near Silk.

As much as it pains me to disavow you of this notion, that last statement isn't actually true. You see, they implemented a rule in power combat that they carried over into 2E. This rule can be found on page 121 in the second paragraph under the Internal Penalties header. To quote:"The total penalties afflicting an exalt or other magical beign with essence 2+ cannot reduce a dice pool below her essence rating, but this benefit can only offset internal penalties." The text goes on to say that the exceptions to this rule are wound penalties and mulitiple action penalties. So, due to the amazing Soul Fire Shaper Form, Shun's pools can never be reduced below 10 by anything I can throw at him. -Ambisinister

True. Still, 10 dice isn't all that much. - IanPrice

---

Snake strikes the heel is the most potent counterattack charm in existence. It has exactly one weakness: to be used to full effect, you have to let your opponent hit you with a lot of successes. Adamant Skin Technique, or any other damage-ignoring charm, can make up for this weakness with literal perfection.

Therefore, this fight has proved that Sidereal Martial Arts are insignificant in the face of Essence 3 Solar charms.

Notes

Nikink/TrialByFireNotes

Comments

Free for all!

I don't know who to put money on! I think the only certainty is that both competitors will have a difficult time harming the other... Although, SMA makes things uncertain even there. I'll vote for Shining Shun on the grounds that a complete SMA should be more significant than an incomplete one (and I like the punny name). B-) nikink

If I get Demense Emulation Practice up nicely, I don't think I'll have that much trouble hurting Silk, if I can hit him. Between that and Five Jade Fury, well, it's tough to soak agg. Hitting him will be more problematic - I'll need to make sure his Dex * 2 is shorter than the range of my attacks with Flickering Moonsilver Approach to avoid taking huge dice penalties, and even then I'll have to try to pierce a DV that won't drop from around 20. I have ways to do that, mind, because I can add disgusting numbers of automatic successes to hit. As for him hurting me, he doesn't really have to! Maw of Dripping Venom hits me, I'm pretty toasty. He can also pair Essence Venom Strike with Life Severing Blow without a Combo, and still have a charm use left over for a perfect defense. - IanPrice, didn't even notice the pun until now.

Anybody want to volunteer to control the stunt-fodder? Er... I mean... the defenders? - IanPrice

Problem with the stunt fodder reactions is that this whole battle may only last no more than 30 seconds... That doesn't really give a lot of time for Lookshy to react to the twin suns duelling on the rooftops. I think you should just make up whatever gives the best visuals when deciding your actions. - nikink

Depends how long we spend setting up. If we have 3 setup actions like TonyC and I did, that's a good 18 seconds all by itself. Having posited that the first defenses attack 10 seconds into the fight, that means they had 28 seconds of lead-up. Plenty of time for a crew to notice flaring anima banners, get their implosion bow aimed, and fire. Besides, I think this (like Shun and Monkey) will end up being a decently long fight. It might even break the 1 minute mark, if not 2. - IanPrice

Both of you are Known Anathema. You were noticed long ago and the Lookshy Justicars have been keeping an eye on you for some time. There's at least a talon of gunzosha commandos reinforcing the Justicars and who knows what else. Right now they're trying to discreetly evacuate the civilians while hoping that you'll go away quietly (and more time to organize reinforcements is always good). Of course, once you start showing up your anima banner, they'll be forced to take actions. Oh, and don't mind the fate ninja pretending to be the streetsweeper over there. He's just here to ensure one of you is dead so the prophecy will be fulfilled. Just be glad that thanks to the Seal of The Maidens, he won't reveal himself by killing the exhausted winner. - TonyC

What he said. - IanPrice, X-D

I just now realized what Soul Fire Shaper form does to the Twilight caste power. Shun now has a tremendous advantage, that I'm usnsure how to deal with, as the caste power's effect can't be bypassed. -Ambisinister wincing

And you have independent actions. - IanPrice shuddering

As it is hard to read intentions in this kind of media, I'd like to clarify that my comment was less of a bitch and more of a me smacking myself in the forehead kinda thing. I realize that my comment could have been misinterperated as snarky and whiny.-Ambisinister

As could mine, but I realized yours all along. No worries mate. We'll take it out in the beating of each others' faces. - IanPrice

Yeah, holy crap is it gonna be a tough fight! I'll be Lookshy Rapid Response Task Force if you like, as no one else has volunteered... On Tick 10 I'll start attacking... - nikink

Sounds fine to me. Bring on the warstriders! I needs my stunt props! Oh, speaking of props: Ambisinister, I don't think I've told you yet how awesome I think it is that you're playing a villain to use CMoS style. That's just so perfect. Also makes for a battle that can be gotten into more. - IanPrice

Thanks!-Ambisinister

nikink: You get a three-die stunt on that description of the Lookshy response. Take it for the cool points it's worth. :D - IanPrice

In tick 15 Shun activates Full Moon Lunar Ways, it also says he now has 10 auto successes on all dexterity rolls. Where do the auo successes come from? I re-read the whole shabang, but I may have missed the reason for it. Madoka

<Type> Exalt Ways gives access to the anima power of that Exalt type and converts all dice in one caste attribute or skill (depending on Exalt type) to successes. Thus Full-Moon Exalt Ways will let Shun convert all Dex dice to successes. Very powerful Charm, especially when able to raise your chosen attribute or skill to 10. nikink - who will take up the lookshy fluff again when not so totally wasted - until then, if you want, assume Essence Cannons of various sizes are beginning to fire. I should have stuff up tomorrow sometime.

Actually, it adds your Essence in Autosuccesses to one caste or favored attribute. So Shun gets the 10 autosux and also rolls his 15 dex dice, as well as whatever ability dice etc. - IanPrice

Ah, my faulty memory. Still, very powerful! nikink

Speaking of this charm, I belive you are also incorrect in stating that its effects replace your anima's. The charm explicitly states that sidereals employing the charm are still able to invoke the lesser sign of their maiden, i.e. their anima power. This being the case, it would seem that the charm allows a character to benefit from two anima effects for its duration, i.e. their inherent power and whichever power they are mimicking.-Ambisinister

Really? Hm. I'll reread Sidereals later. When I read it earlier today I didn't see that. I might have to declare that a prayer strip power, if so. For now, let's assume you're wrong. - IanPrice

Turns out you're right... so in my version, that's a prayer strip ability. - IanPrice

Your call.-Ambisinister

Re: Celestial Monkey Form, I'd just have it render you immune to Emotion effects of any kind. That seems to fit better with the fluff. - Hapushet, in awe of the blood and gore in this fight

Good point. I think I shall. - IanPrice

The biggest conclusion to me is, never, ever, ever close to attack a Sidereal Martial Artist if you don't have Charms prepared to defend with. They will flatten you like so much cardboard. If Shun had delayed on his action after turning on Flickering Moonsilver, he could have SSEd the counterattack and been completely unaffected. - FrivYeti

I would believe that if SMA had had anything at all to do with what happened. It didn't. That counterattack was all base-book, Essence 3 charms. - IanPrice

Holy Crap! I get caught up in RL stuff and look what happens! Wow. That was totally unexpected. With the Twilight Anima absorbing 10HLs Shun would have been marginally better off (by which I mean, may have lived another couple of agonising seconds...). Wow. - nikink

I haven't read this whole thing, so forgive me if this was covered, but if I'm reading the last tick correctly, Silk is using one of the actions from his Charcoal March of Spiders Form to gain a counterattack, but is using another of the actions to launch a combo to buff that counterattack. If the actions granted by the form are fully independent, how is this possible? The counterattack is one instant while the other action is a different instant. I don't see anything in the form charm that would allow them to be combined. - Wordman

Ian, you made hasty decisions and you gave up easily. In your position, the moment I discovered he's using Snake Strikes The Heel and I've put myself in a corner, I would've insisted on 1st Excellency granting only 5 dice, dodged, and then dropped Exalt Ways to regain your Twilight Anima ability. Do you realize that you can end your own charms at any time? And yes, I agree with Ambisinister that Snake Strikes The Heel is not capped the usual way. Also, Ambisinister can't use Adamant Skin Technique since he already used Iron Skin Concentration. Can't soak the same attack twice. - TonyC

I'll address Wordman first. I was under the impression that the actions and effects enacted during CMoS Form could be intermingled. That could be an incorrect interpretation, but its the one i was going with when I built the guy's combos and selected a strategy. That being said, I also thought that due to the nature of reflexive charms, a character would have access to whichever reflexive charms he's activated regardless of which action they came from. If your interpretation is correct, then that has some bizarre repercussions. Off the top of my head that would mean a character could parry the same attack with all three actions, because no action has any bearing on the other, it'd be as if parry attempts were being made from seperate entities, like in the case of a character with Virtuous Guardian of Flame active. Likewise, a character could make three counterattacks against the same attack, once again for the same reasons.

As for TonyC, ISC is a charm that enhances soak. AST is a charm that enchances soak. Neither charm provides a soak. I don't see how it's soaking the same attack twice. Furthermore all ISC did in this case was boost Silk's soak, it didn't have the same effect as AST. Now I'm willing to admit I could be totally wrong here because this is my first experience with 2e, I'm simply stating impressions I got from reading the core.-Ambisinister

I'm not sure about the doublesoaking, but the larger issue to me is that both ISC and AST must be activated at the same moment; I would say that you can't wait to see if ISC will resolve properly before turning on another Charm, since both are activated in Step 7 and resolve (IIRC) in Step 8. I would also agree that Ian gave up rather early, since he could drop back to Twilight and ignore potentially the entire attack. - FrivYeti

You can activate both ISC and AST at the same instant, although this is probably wasteful. What's not kosher is waiting around to see if ISC is successful first before invoking AST. How do I explain this... Okay, in this fight you know what Shun's Essence is, so you know exactly what you need to succeed, right? But assume a normal game against a myterious Exalted Kung-Fu master. He pulls this weird move you've never seen before, and despite your best defense, you get hit. You invoke ISC and hope for the best. Four successes, you tell your GM. Now, how are you supposed to discover whether four successes is enough? Do you ask the GM, "Hey, what's his Essence?" and expect to be told? If the GM's nice, maybe, but mechanically that's not how it's supposed to work. ISC is not supposed to be used as an Essence meter. Anyway, barring a lenient GM, you're supposed to find out by applying your soak to that attack and seeing whether you get Hardness infinity, or if it's just a +4A/+8L/+8B to your soak. However, once you apply this soak and find out, you can't invoke AST against that attack. Either that attack has bounced and there's nothing to soak, or that attack has already gone through and there's nothing to soak. (Mechanically, to figure out whether ISC succeeds or not, you need to go to Step 8. Once you are in Step 8, you can't invoke AST because AST needs to be invoked on Step 7 and you can't backstep.) I'm not sure what you mean when you say "enhancement" and "provides soak", as 2e does not distinguish soak in this manner. In this battle though, this is trivial, since I figure you'll just go "Oh, well, in that case I'll just use AST right away". - TonyC

I think I an agree with you about AST after ISC, although do think you would know how many successes you need before invoking ISC. I think the game is supposed to run on more or less perfect information. If you gamble and lose, sure, but, you should know what the gamble is ahead of time. I'm not actually sure that you can't activate AST after ISC by the rules(Step ordering fails again), but I can see an argument either way. This is another one of those things that I don't think matters TO much(If someone went through the trouble to stick BOTH in their combo's, I'd let them do it.). -FlowsLikeBits

Everything that both TonyC and FrivYeti say regarding steps and resolution makes perfect sense. Since I basically snagged my buddy's 2e books to prep for this fight, I'm still learning, and making mistakes is a reall quick way to learn. As far as this fight goes, if it continues to go at all, I'm perfectly content to roll with the consequences of my illegal action and take the 20 dice of bashing damage. Would I like to say, "Well in that case I'll just do it this way," sure, because that's the spirit of what I intended, but intent and execution are two seperate things and I understand that. -Ambisinister

I'm wrong, mostly. Looking into this further, I see what is going on now. It is not the CMoS form or the nature of reflexive charms that makes the interaction legal, it's the combo rules. Normally, instant reflexives only work in the instant they are activated. They don't usually "hang around". When used with combos, however, reflexives work a bit differently (and unfortunately, this is yet another timing situation that is not very well defined). Reflexives in combos do "hang around" to be used once the combo is activated (although exactly for how long could be debated). Tick 20 occurred before any of Silk's actions. He can still activate combos on that tick, but until he actually acts he can only use the reflexive components of those combos and supplemental charms that can legally enhance any actions gained by the reflexives. This means that he certainly could not have used Essence Venom Strike (which is Simple), but the other charms can be used, even though they came from a different combo, due to the "the supplemental Charm may benefit the character’s reflexive actions, including actions given by reflexive and permanent Charms, if it can validly apply to them" rule (pg. 245). Note this rule does not say that the reflexive actions have to be provided by the same combo. This is hugely important. (BTW, since Essence Venom Strike is simple, on tick 23, Action B must be spent using it and all of the supplementals in that combo, not that it matters now.)

Not sure about Adamant Skin, because the only way it could have been activated was by using action C. This would have burned action C's charm activation on tick 21, but is a legal activation. Since action C is fully independent, it seems legal that it could be activated.

As for multiple parries against the same attack with CMoS, that doesn't really apply in 2E, since defense is static. In 1E, I'm pretty sure using more than one independent action to parry would be completely valid if the actions were available. Certainly it is as valid as activating Adamant Skin with Action C. Held parry actions in 1E essentially reflexively interrupt the attack. This works because the actions are generating the parries. Having a charm like Flow Like Blood active, however, wouldn't give you three dodges against the same attack, because having three independent actions doesn't change the way Flow Like Blood works. You probably could, however, use one fully independent action to activate a charm giving a single reflexive parry, another action to activate that same charm again, and the third to activate a reflexive dodge, all against the same attack. (Again, in 1E). The counterattack might be possible as well. For example, if you activated Snake Strikes the Heel with each independent action, that might well generate three counterattacks. That's what having fully independant actions is all about. - Wordman

Yeah, I totally got it in my head somewhere that Essence Venom Strike was supplemental. Obviously this isn't the case. I've also got a comment and question: The comment regards turning a charm off. A number of you, at this point, have posited that Ian could just ditch Full Moon Exalt Ways to regain the benefit of his Twilight anima. What seems kind of off to me about that is that he's already made use of the charm in the tick. When declaring his action he clearly factored in a movement rate of 80 yards as opposed to 40. Likewise, the charm is affecting the combat in step 3. I mean I guess it is supported by the rules that he could then dump the charm in step 9 (or whatever step counterattacks are handled in), it just seems kinda funny to me to do that. How exactly would his movement be resolved at that point?

As for my question, that's about timing. Say i flipped my combo activations around and had Silk activate the soak combo with Action B and the attack combo with Action C? If that were the case, then C, which was a guard action, would be aborted on tick 20 and become a simple charm activation (the Essence Venom Strike) of the attack combo. I know that turns into a simultaneous action situation, but I'm still a little unclear as to how that resolves. For purposes of Silk's declaration, is the situation treated as if Shun wasn't acting in tick 20 and vice versa for Shun declaring against Silk? How do DV penalties and wound penalties factor into this situation? That is, attacking incurs a DV penalty (moot here because of 4 Halo Golden Monkey Realignment). Would attacks against Shun factor that penalty into account, or no because the action is simultaneous? Shun started at 80 yards, closed to attack and then moved back out to 80 yards. At what point of that movement is he in for the purposes of determining range? I'm a little confused here, and I'm hoping that someone with more experience with 2e's systems, or someone who has had a situation come up in a game could chime in with some clarification. -Ambisinister