Shataina/ScrollOfTheMonkCuts

Extra Material for “Scroll Of The Monk”

An extra Charm for Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style, and some advanced Secret Techniques for the Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style. Posted 12.21.06.

Again, co-authorship credit goes to Dustin Shampel. For this book, Dustin and I wrote the drafts for the Even Blade Style, Fivefold Shadow Hand Style, Laughing Wounds Style, Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style, Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style and Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style. Oh yeah, and also the Path of the Arbiter Style printed in "The Imperfect Lotus".

My editorial comments are in [bold brackets].

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Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style: Walking in the Fog

[I love this Charm, but it could be difficult to re-integrate back into the Style now that it’s out. I’ve given a couple suggestions on how to do so at the end.]

Walking in the Fog

Cost: --; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Shaping
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Shattering the Balance

then changed the angles at her whim,

A mirror’s reflection is infinitely mutable.

This Charm is a psychosis. Learning it is inseparable from being driven insane, and working through his lunacy -- for example, being magically cured of it -- will lose the Sidereal Walking in the Fog. Different forms of madness can lead to different versions of this Charm; players and Storytellers need not limit themselves to the five potential versions presented here.

• The most common version of Walking in the Fog causes the Sidereal to be severely paranoid. Events will show, however, that he has good reason for thinking that someone or something is working against him. A number of times per story equal to his Essence, he will discover a plot against him before it's too late. Characters as insanely paranoid as he understand this; if they, and only they, take action against him, then he may not discover it in time -- but only if their action is previously unplanned (i.e., planned less than one scene in advance).
• The martial artist sees things no one else does, and there is evidence that his hallucinations actually exist. Any hallucinations that he honestly believes are real can affect the world, though not within sight of other sentient beings. (For example, if the Sidereal is locked in a cell, then the illusory mentor who guides him can go get his possessions for him, as long as neither the belongings nor the cell are being directly observed by the guards; or, if the martial artist is speaking to a friend at the door of her home, then a hallucinatory mischievous sprite could rearrange her bedroom.) Wards against what the Sidereal believes his hallucination to be will work on it (so, the aforementioned mischievous elemental would be kept out of the bedroom if it were warded against elementals). Other characters who suffer from hallucinations will be able to sense the Sidereal's hallucinations.
• Depressed and miserable, the Sidereal is convinced that the world is a terrible place, and it isn't worth trying to accomplish anything. A number of times per scene equal to his Essence, an action he is observing that is important to someone outright fails, without a roll. These failures are first applied to actions whose success could harm the martial artist. Only actions that the acting character doesn't care about cannot be made to fail with this version of Walking in the Fog. Because the character himself doesn't feel any real enthusiasm about doing anything, he -- and any other characters who are similarly depressed -- will not be affected by this Charm.
• One version of Walking in the Fog makes the Sidereal emotionally unstable, unpredictable and irrational. His reality makes less sense than others would expect; even cause and effect seem to matter less than usual. A number of times per story equal to his Essence, everyone else will be convinced of something -- but the martial artist will be convinced of something in opposition to that fact. He will be unable to explain his logic or to produce evidence to back up his assertions; no one will be able to sway him; and he will be absolutely correct. Other characters who are as unstable and irrational as he will be able to understand his train of thought, if they hear about his conclusion -- but they won't be able to explain it to others, either.
• His identity has fragmented into many different personalities, and the Sidereal believes that each is a separate person in its own right. But the martial artist doesn't just think he's multiple people -- he is more than one person. Each personality has a completely different appearance and Fate from the others. If one takes Paradox, the rest don't; if one is wounded or killed, the rest are not. More than one personality can't be dominant at once, so more than one of the Sidereal's personalities can't be in Creation at the same time. Still, when the Sidereal switches between personalities, reality itself believes that there's more than one person involved; it may, for example, seem to outsiders that the previous personality departed the room, and the new personality just arrived. Because of this, it is impossible to discover that all the personalities belong to the same person, even by means of Charms -- unless the investigator also has multiple personalities.

[Two ways to approach this Charm:]

The Great Enlightenment of the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style

Walking in the Fog is never taught, and isn't a prerequisite for any later Charms. Instead, those who have learned the Charm Shattering the Balance may learn this Charm instinctively -- even if they would normally need a teacher to master Sidereal Martial Arts. Some Sidereals believe that it is less a technique than an understanding, an indication that a practitioner is particularly well-suited to this Style.

The few masters who can recognize this Charm in action have referred to it as Ei Zou’s Enlightenment, or the Great Enlightenment.

[This approach is good for people who like Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style the way it is, or who don’t want to force every practitioner to be a little crazy.]

The Great Weakness of the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style

Walking in the Fog is an intrinsic part of Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style, and cannot be unwoven from it. It is a prerequisite for the Form, and the madness the Sidereal contracts by learning it makes him both powerful -- and weak: for those who share his insanity can see the way that shapes his world, and pierce straight through the mystery of his delusions.

If a character shares all the Sidereal’s psychoses -- for instance, let’s say the Sidereal has the Hallucinations and Multiple Personalities versions of Walking in the Fog; a character who also suffered from both hallucinations and multiple personalities would share all his psychoses -- then the following Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style Charms are flawed in certain ways when he uses them against her:

• When she sees him use The Mirror Does Not Lie, she’ll know that he’s deflecting his opponents’ attacks, and who those attacks were intended for.
• He cannot use Vanished Within the Mist against her. (If a character already trapped with that Charm succumbs to her captor's insanity, she is instantly liberated.)
• If the Sidereal uses Breathing on the Black Mirror around her, she’ll know that he influenced Fate and what alternative futures he saw.

Also, she obviously counts as mentally unstable for the purposes of Ripple in the Silvered Glass.

You may wish to also remove the 1/10 chance that the Sidereal doesn’t know what happened on a given action from the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Form.

[This approach is good for people who feel that this Style is too powerful, or who like the idea of a psychotic nemesis who can only be defeated if a person learns how he thinks. It might also help involve insane characters in the plot.]

Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style: the Secret Techniques

Rumors have surrounded the Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style since its invention in the First Age. Its creator, a rather introverted Lunar Exalt, withdrew completely from society after she was tried by the Solar Deliberative for trafficking with demons, and her scandalous reputation was part of the reason the Style was not widely learned.

A few of the rumors, however, were of more incredible things than mere treachery; and those have miraculously persisted through the current Age. Whispers fly from Nexus dojos to the spiritual historians of Yu-Shan, speaking of greater techniques that only Nightingale masters comprehend. Some martial artists don't believe they exist; some spend decades seeking them, returning discouraged and dusty from empty libraries or long pilgrimages; some rack the memories of previous lives by means of specialized sorcery or Sidereal artifice. There is no word of any of them succeeding, but of course, there wouldn't be.

Naturally, the rumors are true. A character who has learned the entire Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style may then learn two unknown techniques: the Shattering Discordant Symphony and the Harmony-Forging Chorus. However, she won’t be able to learn them by means of self-study -- even if she learned the whole Style that way. No matter how she may excel at the martial arts, she must find a teacher to learn these final secrets.

Shattering Discordant Cacophony

Cost: 18m, 1WP; Mins: see below; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: all Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style Charms

The song of a thing’s Essence is known as its heartsong, and the Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style has taught the character to hear it. Intense and focused, the martial artist uses that insight to refine an enemy's heartsong into a tune so dissonant, it cannot retain its wholeness. As her foe is torn apart by the song's power, she watches him narrowly, knowing that she must strike at the perfect moment to break him completely. The singer must spend 18 motes and one Willpower on an attack at exactly the right time; if she doesn't hit, she must start over next scene.

The elements of a heartsong describe things that are important and integral to their parent. When the Nightingale pulls them apart, these take on their actual shapes, which, though always indicative of what they came from, could be absolutely anything -- a breeze, a story told by the desert tribes, a youth of surpassing beauty, the love of two spiders. The only common characteristic is that everything to come out of this Charm has something about it of brass: examples include being made of brass or colored like brass, having a brassy ringing tone or a brassy, presumptuous personality.

A Silver-Voiced Nightingale may use this Charm on herself.

Harmony-Forging Chorus

Cost: 18m, 1WP; Mins: see below; Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: all Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style Charms

Taking more than one heartsong and harmonizing them into an impossible symphony, the Silver-Voiced Nightingale pulls several things together into one. Over the course of a scene, the martial artist paces around whatever she wishes to combine, singing; in the end, she spends 18 motes and one Willpower and something entirely new is created, each thing becoming a component of a new heartsong.

Like the things destroyed with Shattering Discordant Cacophony, whatever is brought together by this Charm will be indicative of what comes out of it, though not necessarily in the way that the martial artist expects. The strongest influence on the end product is exerted by the ingredient whose spirit has the highest Essence, the weakest by the lowest. If a Nightingale tries to unite a group of things whose spirits have a combined Essence score higher than her own, the Charm fails; for this calculation only, her own Essence counts as 0.

Curiously, the new heartsong will have one extra phrase, whose source the martial artist cannot discern. The new thing will also have a brassy quality, much like the results of Shattering Discordant Cacophony.

A Silver-Voiced Nightingale may use this Charm on herself.

The Secret Techniques' Prerequisites

The secret techniques of the Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style are not actually Charms (although they are treated mechanically as Charms -- they must be Comboed for use with other Charms, et cetera). That's why many have tried and failed to develop them on that assumption, and that's why they surpass the limits of normal Celestial Martial Arts Charms.

These mysteries could come from anywhere. Some ideas:

• By means of strange and advanced Lunar shapeshifting techniques, the original Silver-Voiced Nightingale truly put her whole self into her Style. The secret techniques, in an odd but very real way, are the ancient poet, and those who know them have been granted a piece of her (whether they understand that or not). Even in her current form, she has an agenda: the powers will try to influence their user, and when they’re wielded, the results may benefit their source more than their master.
• Only the most brilliant and persistent students are intended to learn the secret techniques, for the manual to them is not physical, but lyrical. Fragments of songs and epics scattered all over Creation contain the key, but merely gaining the power is not enough: one must know how to listen to it. A student as perceptive as the first Silver-Voiced Nightingale hoped may spot a pattern in the things created by means of the secret techniques, and that pattern could lead her to the legacy the Master intended for her successor.
• The secret techniques are actually demonic investments -- magic of the same type that empowers akuma, Exalted slaves of the demon realm. Characters who wish to learn them may either discover their provenance on their own and seek out demonic aid, or be noticed and contacted by Malfeas; Berengiere, the Weaver of Voices, Demon of the Second Circle, is an excellent example of a demon who might have an interest in propagating them. And, should the martial artist make whatever terrible pact is necessary, then her very Essence will be tainted with the sickly green of Malfeas. Though she won't precisely be akuma, she won't be innocent of the charge, either.

Comments

In my personal cosmology, Quicksilver Scribe invented the Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style.
~ Shataina

RPGnet commenter Nexus asked for further explanation of the Secret Techniques.

Shattering Discordant Cacophony makes several new heartsongs from one heartsong, which are all facets of the destroyed thing. So, if Quicksilver Scribe hits Princess Amastara the loyal Dawn Caste with it, Princess Amastara will be removed from the world and replaced with ... oh ... a beautiful bow that will always defend her country, a tragic and painful love story involving a dark-haired man, and a family line of autocratic rulers. The bow has brass detailing, the story involves a brass ring, and the family line has brassy voices.

Harmony-Forging Chorus makes a new heartsong from several less important ones. So, if Quicksilver Scribe uses it on a beautiful bow that will always defend her country, a tragic and painful love story involving a dark-haired man, and a family line of autocratic rulers, Princess Amastara exists. Amastara has a brassy, presumptuous personality.

In other words, the first unmakes the target, its history and its Fate. The second weaves new ones.
~ Shataina

WWForum / RPGnet commenter Jester7789 asked for more solid mechanics for the Secret Techniques. I would be leery of using them as anything other than a plot device, but as a loose suggestion: Shattering Discordant Cacophony can only make objects with spiritual Essences summing the [original's Essence score - 1]. So Princess Amastara the 5-Essence Solar becomes a legendary bow whose spirit has 2 Essence, a family whose spirit has 1 Essence, and a story whose spirit has 1 Essence. Thus, you only get a Yozi-slaying weapon as a component if you shatter something really amazing, like Mask of Winters. Harmony-Forging Chorus creates things with an Essence of [sum of components' spiritual Essences - 1] -- so the bow, story and family result in a 3-Essence Amastara. Making something ridiculous would thus require a component like Mask of Winters, who you then have to hold still for an entire scene. Also, in case it needed to be said, the Storyteller is the final arbiter of what the results of these Charms are.
~ Shataina

How do you pace around nonmaterial things? Like a love story? Or a line of autocratic rulers? O.o -Overshee

You get creative. You find the first written copy of the love story to represent it, or you're forced to collect all the fertile representatives of the royal line. Or, my favourite general solution: you find the spirit whose domain is that thing and do it to them.
~ Shataina

Ah ha! *starts pacing around a pamphlet about the Constitution, a blank piece of paper, and a pencil in hopes of it assembling into an essay for midterms* -.- ~Overshee

I briefly added Touch in as a Technique keyword because on the Cacophony you have to succeed on an attack to use the Charm, but I'd forgotten that this Style gives you the ability to make sonic attacks. Duh. Don't mind me.
~ Shataina