LorienFeanturi/RestlessReposeStyle
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Misleadingly referred to as "The Restless", practioners of this style are typically quite adept at sitting still for hours at a time. Their name finds its origins in the painful sleep their victims would awake from, stripped of their arms, armour, money and pride. Developed by the a local healer of a collection of villages in the East, the martial application of the Restless' talents evolved slowly over generations of banditry and internecine squabbles. When one of their number Exalted as a Dawn Caste she realized that in order to fulfill her new role as the just protector of humanity, she would need to adjust her practices accordingly. Refusing to kill yet unwilling to turn her back, she redirected the focus of the Restless from healing and toward the prevention of permanent injury. Now, while almost all of the healing tradition in the Restless Repose Style has disappeared, it remains nonaggressive and (usually) nonlethal.
Restless Repose-style martial artists can use any weapon for the purpose of parrying or disarming an opponent. However, this versatility does not extend to offensive actions - attacks designed to injure an opponent with a weapon can not use this style's Martial Arts score (unless the character is skilled in another form, although such actions discouraged by the author for purposes of roleplaying). Similarly, charms designed to disable an opponent can not be channeled through any weapon.
Flow of Fortitude Method</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes, 1 health level Duration: 1 turn Type: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts: 2 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: none
The Exalt can divert the Essence from his own body, lessening the force behind a few blows at the expense of his own well-being.
By spending 1 health level and 3 motes, increase Bashing and Lethal soak by the characters permanent Essence for 1 full turn.
Balm of Sleep</b>
<b>Cost: 5 motes Duration: 1 day Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Flow of Fortitude Method
Perhaps in seeming contradiction to their name, the practitioners of Restless Repose Style were traditionally skilled healers and acupunturists. The knowledge gleaned from those medical roots are the foundation of the powerful attacks of the Restless.
By easing their patients in a comatose-like state, the Restless are able to accelerate the natural healing process. By spending 5 motes, she can triple the rate of healing in a willing patient. She can care for up to her Essence in patients at any one time. Patients are difficult to rouse from this sleep, adding 2 to the difficulty of all Awareness rolls while under the Exalt's care.
Restless Repose Form</b>
<b>Cost: 5 motes Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Balm of Sleep
When adopting the Restless Repose Form, an Exalt numbs himself to the stress placed upon his own body. He inhales deeply, relaxes his muscles, and adopts an informal pose unique to the Restless - shoulders almost slumped, hands in front of a bowed head, knees barely bent. While in this stance, the Exalt can parry lethal blows and revert to a cascading parry. He feels no pain, negating wound penalties or dice penalties from distractions due to both externally and internally induced agony. The blows of the Restless also automatically cause knockdown if not powered by charms with secondary effects (Shattering Glass Technique being an exception).
The Restless Repose Form explicitly does not do lethal damage. A character cannot benefit from more than one Martial Arts form at a time, and activating any other form immediately ends the effects of this one. This form is explicitly incompatible with the use of armour.
Sickening Strike</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Restless Repose Form
Having mastered control of his own body, the Restless by extension is much more aware of common points of weakness in all humans. By spending 3 motes of essence, he can make pinpoint strikes designed to cause a sickening wave of nausea but are otherwise harmless. The Exalt rolls the attack normally, but no damage is done. Instead, for each die of damage the victim would have suffered after soak, apply a dice penalty of 1 to all actions for the Exalt's Martial Arts in turns. This attack will stack through consecutive uses up to a maximum of the attacking Exalt's Essence.
Shattering Glass Technique</b>
<b>Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Sickening Strike
When striking, the Exalt can create debilitating vibrations within his target. These vibrations double the raw damage before soak of an Exalt's strike as rattled bones develop multiple fractures and jarred brains render the victim unconscious. This charm must be used with an attack that delivers bashing damage. If Restless Repose Form is active, automatic knockdown still applies with this Charm.
Flaring Agony Strike</b>
<b>Cost: 4 motes Duration: 1 turn Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Sickening Strike
An Exalt can momentarily heighten the pain of an opponent with a single strike, making small scratches feel like amputated limbs and those with serious wounds yearn for the kiss of the Maiden of Endings herself. The Exalt attacks and rolls damage normally. If the attack hits, the cumulative wound and dice penalty is doubled (if damage from the blow is dealt, this is included). Even if these modifiers fade or are healed in the interim, the body's memory of suffering lingers on and maintains the added penalty. Should the target have insulated himself from pain in a manner similar to the Restless (zombies and such don't count), this Charm has the effect of forcing the target to feel pain for a single turn.
For instance, if Big Double Ugly has lost 3 health levels to the Princess of Lithe (bringing his wound penalty to -1) and is feeling the effects of Sickening Strike (a -3 penalty in this case, bringing his total penalty up to -4) when he is hit with this attack, he will be at -8 until the next turn. If the attack dealt another level of damage (bringing his wound modifier to -2, total penalty up to -5), he would be at a crippling -10 for the next turn.
Should then his friend Simon show up and miraculously heal him for 2 health levels before his next action (bringing his wound modifier back down from -2 to -1), the added pain would linger on, still leaving him at -9. Princess Lithe proceeds to beat Big Double Ugly, point and laugh at Simon and run away from His righteous fury.
Glance of Mortality Method</b>
<b>Cost: 4 motes, 1 willpower Duration: 1 scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Restless Repose Form
Exalts of this style are specialists in creating pain without permanence, but their opponents often feel no sense of deterrence the next day when they awake with nothing but slightly achy limbs. By activating this Charm, the Exalt takes the lesson one step further to convince his victims that continued aggression is unwise.
Glance of Mortality Prana weaves an illusion around the pain caused by the Exalt. If the target's Essence is less than that of the Exalt, the victim will perceive such pain to be lethal in nature. This include all wounds from bashing damage and penalties caused by Sickening Strike and Flaring Agony Strike. Up to a point, this is purely a psychological edge - it may cause a character to perceive himself near death and thus surrender, or it may evoke a last-ditch and perhaps deadly effort.
Once the target is reduced to below -(2+(Target's Wits+Resistence)) in penalties -or- falls below incapacitated, he becomes comatose with the unassailable belief that he is dead. During the next (12-Wits) hours, he will lie unconscious. When he awakes, he will still be at a penalty of -4 above and beyond his real wounds. This added penalty fades at a rate of one per hour, as his body gradually accepts that he is not dead. What his mind accepts is another story, and should be determined through role-playing.
Envious Affliction Movement</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes/round Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Glance of Mortality Method
After being attacked and taking damage, the Exalt may reflexively activate the Envious Affliction Movement. In doing so, he can continue fighting knowing that his enemy is feeling the pain of his own success. This Charm, while active, adds the same number of health levels the Exalt suffers to the total damage of whoever afflicted that damage in phantom damage. No damage is actually inflicted, but wound penalties are applied as though the victim had lost those extra bars of health. The effect only lasts while the Charm is active. It begins with the initial attack and ends when the Exalt stops spending Essence to maintain it.
Princess Lithe finds Big Double Ugly again, only to realize that Simon was a better healer than she thought. It would appear that our favourite villain is perfectly healthy. He reaches out and sucker-punches her, doing two levels of damage in the process. Princess Lithe quickly executes the Envious Affliction Movement. She was lucky enough to still have the Restless Repose Form active, so she feels no pain, but Big Double Ugly looks stunned and touches his nose gently. For as long as Princess Lithe keeps this charm active, Big Doubly Ugly will tally the damage he does to Princess Lithe on top of his own, dealing with wound penalties accordingly.
Evasion by Preemption Method</b>
<b>Cost: 5 motes Duration: Essence in turns Type: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Flaring Agony Strike, Glance of Mortality Method
This attack slows the wits instead of aggravating the responses of the body. Upon a successful attack, no damage is rolled. Instead, for (Martial Arts)- (Target's Wits) (minimum of 1) in rounds, the target will find himself increasingly unable to respond efficiently or split his attention. His initiative is reduced by the Exalt's Martial Arts. Should he split his dice pool, his pools will diminishes at -2 instead of -1.
Princess Lithe is still toying around with Big Double Ugly, when suddenly he hits her with this Charm. She goes off in a fury, attacking him with her daiklaive as quickly as she can, but her responses are sluggish. She attempts 3 attacks: The first one is at -3 (as per usual), the second at -5 and the third at -7. He parries for once, grins stupidly and hits her in the face. Hard. Simon sighs and commences healing.
Shared Sensations Assault</b>
<b>Cost: 8 motes, 1 willpower Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 4 Prereqs: Evasion Through Preemption Method, Envious Affliction Movement
This potent Charm unites the minds of the Exalt's subjects, forcing them to feel each other's pain and suffering. The Exalt chooses up to his Essence*Martial Arts in targets, which can include himself. He then rolls Willpower. Any target who fails an opposed Willpower roll is joined to his neighbors, sharing their physical sensations. Those selected targets all feel the pain of the most heavily wounded in the group. Dice penalties quickly mount, groups are rendered incapacitated, and enemies joined by this bond unfailingly lay down arms - or unite against their tormentor.
Glaring Absence Prana</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Restless Repose Form
It is difficult to kill if your weapon is in someone else's hands. It is with this understanding that the Exalts that practice this form approach Glaring Absence Prana and subsequent Charms.
After successfully parrying an attack, an Exalt may use this charm to reflexively make a disarm attempt, adding his Martial Arts in bonus dice.
Thieving Body Stance</b>
<b>Cost: 6 motes, 1 willpower Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Glaring Absence Prana
While in the Thieving Body Stance, an Exalt is granted one free, reflexive disarm attempt against every attack that succesfully strikes him, even if it does no damage. His attacker may not attempt to parry or dodge the disarm: the Exalt's body itself attempts to draw the weapon away from its wielder. These weapons stick to or in the Exalt's body, creating a grisly and unnatural image by the end of a long battle. Any weapons that were successfully disarmed by the Exalt can be removed from his body at any time, or they will be expelled when the Charm expires.
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