CharmRelay/Sorrow

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Charm Relay

Sorrow

These are MartialArts.


Mourning Shroud Aura (LiOfOrchid)

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None

Assuming the mein of a disconsolate mourner, the Abyssal becomes sympathetic and more difficult for the kind-hearted to harm. This Charm is used as a defense, before an attack is rolled. The attacker must fail a Compassion roll or lose half their dice pool to hit on that attack. Charms may be used by the target afterwards to increase the dice pool normally. This Charm may not reduce a target's dice pool below their permanent Essence.


Anonymous Tombstone Stance (Grandmasta)

Cost: 3 motes per die
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Exalt unleashes a paralyzing cry, forged by the anguish of a soul forgotten, and strikes her unknowing target from the shadows. For every three motes spent, she may reduce the target's Wits + Awareness roll to detect the incoming surprise attack by one die; this may not reduce the target's pool below zero. This Charm may not be used after combat has begun, or in any situation where the prospective target is already aware of the Exalt's presence.


Black Mourner Form (CrownedSun)

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Mourning Shroud Aura, and Anonymous Tombstone Stance

The Exalted takes on the dour appearance and somber attitude of a funeral mourner, his head hung low in sorrow and his limbs relaxed and seemingly devoid of any will to fight. Anyone striking the Exalt in the Black Mourner Form subtracts the practitioner's Essence rating from his attack rolls, as the creeping despair and black sorrow robs the strength and conviction from the attackers blow. The Exalt adds his Martial Arts pool to any Performance rolls he makes during the scene, his voice taking on a haunting tone of sorrow, remorse and black despair. A character may not use more than one Martial Arts Form-type charm at a time. This Charm is incompatible with the use of armor.


Lament of the Violated (Quendalon)

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Black Mourner Form

The character gives voice to a terrible wailing cry that expresses her rage against those who have hurt her and those she loves. By allowing her lament to guide her movements, she repays them with pain. When this Charm is activated, the character chooses a single instance in which one or more people, places or things that she holds dear came to harm. For the rest of the scene, the character adds her Valor to all of her attack rolls against any opponents that were involved in inflicting that harm. This bonus does not count against her normal dice pool limits. A character may not use more than one Lament-type Charm at a time.


Lament of the Damned (Nikink)

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Black Mourner Form

The character emits a low, haunting groan expressing the futility of existance and the inevitable decay of all creation. The noise reverberates with Oblivion and fills the character with it's devouring essence. When this Charm is activated, the character becomes aware of the end of all things. For the rest of the scene, the character adds his Conviction in automatic successes to all actions involving the destruction of non-living things. This includes all attempts at damaging objects, and explicitly allows the Exalt to parry Lethal attacks bare-handed and attack the weapons and armour of an opponent (upon a successful parry, this object breaking roll is reflexive). Thus an opponent of one who has mastered this Charm may be quickly disarmed and disrobed as their weapons and armour crumble beneath the touch of the Abyssal. As usual, artifacts of the 5MM are not subject to this Charm's power. This bonus does not count against normal dice pool limits. A character may not use more than one Lament-type Charm at a time.


Lament of the Hopeless</b> (Grandmasta)

<b>Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Black Mourner Form

The character momentarily loses herself in introspection, reflecting for a bare moment on her own inadequacies and those of the creatures around her. She grows cold and numb, mentally retracting from the outside world, and sighs softly at the tragedy that surrounds her. For the duration of the scene, the Exalt ignores all wound penalties with a rating of her Temperance or less (for the purposes of this Charm, Incapacitated is equal to 5); in addition, she subtracts her Temperance from all Social rolls involving any degree of empathy. A character may not use more than one Lament-type Charm at a time.


Lament of the Betrayed</b> (Arudaur)

<b>Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Black Mourner Form

The character raises his eyes to the heavens, and cries out a gut-wrenching moan of purest agony at the injustice of untimely death, bloody tears streaming down his face. For the rest of the scene, all creatures within (Essence x feet) subtract the Abyssal's Compassion from their Willpower, to a minimum of 1. A character may not use more than one Lament-type Charm at a time.


Flame Extinguished in the Heart (FourWillowsWeeping)

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Actions
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Lament of the Violated, Lament of the Damned, Lament of the Hopeless, Lament of the Betrayed

The martial artist lets fly a string of heart-shattering, carefully constructed accusations, with the weight of studied tone and matrtial posture behind them. These have the effect of breaking the moral fiber of those they are levelled against. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy! He makes an Appearance + Martial Arts roll against as many targets as his Performance. The targets may reflexively resist with an opposed Willpower roll. For each net success, the target loses a Virtue dot. This can't reduce the Flaw Virtue of an Exalt below 3. For mortals, this loss is permanent; for targets with awakened Essence, the lost Virtue dots return at a rate of one per day. In addition, any target that loses a Virtue dot is incapable of channelling his Virtues normally for the remainder of the scene. This does not interfere with supernatural effects such as the nature of certain Sidereal Charms.


Comments

This doesn't have to be Martial Arts, if someone else prefers to make this a Performance or Presence tree. -LiOfOrchid

I'm not certain I'm happy with the effects of Anonymous Tombstone Stance, so if anybody has any suggestions...please speak up. :) ~ Grandmasta

I've taken the liberty of tweaking the wording a bit. I'll browse around my Exalted books and compare it to extant Charms, then I'll get back to you. - Quendalon
Okay... the balance issues are unclear, since the closest Charm I can find, Stalking Cat Movement Meditation, has its cost screwed up. It looks weak compared to general Stealth effects like Concealing Distraction Discipline; that's somewhat balanced out by the fact that it's a pool reducer and because MA Charms should be less efficient, but it might still be overcosted. My main issue is that the flavor text is a bit inconsistent; why should a sudden cry make it harder to detect the surprise attack? Fortunately, flavor text issues are generally easy to clear up. :) - Quendalon
Because, it, um, paralyzes you! Yeah! That's the ticket! ;) ... Would 2:die be a better balance? ~ Grandmasta

Hey CrownedSun! That's really few Charms leading up to the Form. Are you going to change this to a Terrestrial Martial Arts style? Perhaps something practiced and refined by the ghost-blooded of Sijan? - Quendalon

Hungry Ghost style has only two Charms before the Form as well. -LiOfOrchid
You are correct. So does Snake Form, for that matter. Whoops! Of course, that means that we'll still have a badly truncated tree, but I guess that would happen no matter what. - Quendalon
Thanks, Li:) Frankly, I'd recommend a MARelay in the future for MA charms:) But that's just me:P Personally, if someone wants to make two more pre-form charms, they are welcome to do so. *shrugs* However, I generally prefer my buy-in charms to be fewer in number. Remember, it's the post-form charms that you should be getting a style for. -- CrownedSun
Sounds good to me. ~ Grandmasta

While this need not apply to the next (and last) Charm in the Relay, if anyone wants to finish up this Style, there should be three more Laments, one for each Virtue. - Quendalon

Ooo...that's a badass idea. And one ultimate Charm probably. -LiOfOrchid

Nikink, when you post the last item in a Relay, it is your responsibility to archive the theme as well. Also, please try and post themes with room for interpretation. - willows is tired of you.

Gee... sorry. I didn't realise I'd become such a bane to your enjoyment here. I also didn't realise my choices of themes had been so restrictive. I guess we have different ideas about 'room for interpretation'. Again, I am truly sorry for having caused you so much aggravation. I hereby undertake to never posit a theme again (though by my recollection, the only theme by me has been Ignorance in the Artifact section, up until just now). Nor shall I post the last of any given relay. And, what the hell, if I offend Willows so much, I give him permanent permission to ignore everything I do. I really am sorry. Nikink who hopes that one day he can be less tiresome to the much admired Willows CharmRelay/I>

I do enough mopping at work. Enough with the buckets of sarcasm. - Telgar

He has just as much right to be sarcastic as willows has to <i>directly belittle him. _Ikselam

Willows, don't be a fuck-off. You're annoyed by the "have fun..." signature, so say that, don't give this bullshit about how "improvised weapons for brawl" is an insufficiently flexible topic, or bitch about how it's such a hardship to archive stuff. _Ikselam

Rightright. I apologize; I was out of line. I should probably try not to post in the morning when I know that I'm irritable. - willows

Er, barring any further hardship down here, think somebody could throw in a final Lament Charm? ~ Grandmasta asks if we can't all just get along

You know, if someone were to make this into a tree, the tree would look kind of like an urn. ~ Grandmasta, spooked

One possible idea is to upgrade Mourning Shroud Aura into the Compassion Lament and make a different pre-Form Charm. However, I'm short on ideas at the moment, so maybe in a bit. -LiOfOrchid

...Well, I guess that solves that. ~ G

What weapons and armour does this style allow? - Voidstate