TonyC/SolarsVsLionOops1

He flicked his right hand, letting the Charcoal March of Spiders Form dissolve around him as he prepared for the true fight. Gleaming razor shards formed in his hand, and he let them fly forth, the wind catching them and flinging them again and again into the air, each one spiralling into dozens of tiny spikes, shards through which the ultimate Oblivion of the world could be seen. The shards flew straight and true, slamming towards the Solars...

The Lion has almost certainly picked up Secrets of Future Strife, just because it's naturally useful. This boosts his base initiatve from 26 to 52, and he activates his customized Thrown combo: Spiralling Shards of the Abyss. This Combo includes the following Charms: Thunderclap Rush Technique, Ivory Spine Techique, Tornado Offense Technique, Cascade of Cutting Terror, Precision of the Striking Raptor, and Joint-Wounding Technique, as well as any defensive reflexive Charms the Lion may need.
With this Combo, the Lion immediately makes six Thrown attempts. Each is an Ivory Spine, and doubles its diepool, adding penalties via Joint-Wounding, and further increasing its Accuracy, and none can be dodged. Finally, any successful hits deal an extra 10 unsoakable levels (not dice) of poison damage (which, incidentally, bypasses Adamant Skin Technique). The Lion spends 25 motes on each attack (4 for Tornado Offense + 5 for Cascade + 3 for Joint-Wounding + 1 for Ivory Spine + 12 for Precision), -4 for the non-extra Action attack, +3 for Thunderclap rush, for a total of 149 motes and 1 Willpower. This, incidentally, is quite a bit more than the 131 motes that the Student has. The Accuracy of these attacks are 76 dice, targeting the Student first. If the Student dies, future attacks will direct themselves at Burning Mandala (No Animal Avatar for you).

Attack Rolls: 36 successes, 33 successes, 36 successes, 51 successes, 34 successes, and 40 successes to hit. Defenses?

I have no idea what Tornado Attack Offensive is. I went to #wod on magicstar.net and was told that it's probably Tornado Offense Technique. It makes sense and the number agrees, so I'm assuming that's what you mean.

Personal Essence 35/50 (32 committed), Peripheral 63/194 (34 committed), Willpower 6/10.

Student To The Sun And Stars just finished the three secret gestures, burning an essence-laden symbol in the air and sending it to hamper First And Forsaken Lion when the first of Lion's Ivory Spines reaches him. He has seen this before, and even been on the receiving end, but never in such force! His first instinct is to engulf and mire it with his own essence and perhaps, with luck, turn it back against Lion, but he instantly realizes that he does not have enough strength to do it. Changing tactics in midstride, he steels himself and throws himself back as far as he can to lessen the impact. Skin turning harder than steel, the first needle bounces harmlessly, but Student's trouble is just beginning as the poison coating the needles permeates through his skin. "Calm down," a memory of his mentor rose unbidden, "The body fights poison and illness naturally and does a very good job of it even unassisted. Overaction only hinders it". Landing a full 30 yards away, he ignores the little puncture wound on his clothing and noted that his body is resisting the poison well enough. So far.

Student: 2HL down (-1 penalty, 1 committed), personal 15/15 (24 committed), peripheral 84/91 (1 commited), wp 6/9.

-- The system side --
Student finishes Distracting Finger Gesture Attack. This happens before init roll, so it goes no matter what. I figure that Student can't possibly get the 36 parry successes, even with the 10 MA autosuccess, so instead Student aborts to full dodge. The dodge is inapplicable, but the important thing is that it justifies me activating Leaping Dodge Method. Student can then jump up to 30 yards away from Lion and he does so after the first Ivory Spine hit, but he activates Adamant Skin Technique and Essence Gathering Temper. I got 26 successes for EGT, but can only benefit from 4 successes. Student gains 40 motes (Essence 10, remember?). Dealing with the poison, according to Ivory Spine text, target gets Stamina + Resistance roll (unless there's something I'm missing?). Not taking any risk, I channel Temperance, rolls 14 dice, and gets 7 successes. He's not affected by the poison.

The first Ivory Spine attack is weathered successfully. Now comes the tricky part. First, Friv, you might want to award stunt dice. I think Student will need it. Second, we both forgot to specify how far away we are from each other. I had assumed 50 yards like before, except Princess, who's been moving closer all the time (probably 16 yards from Lion now). Student, Mandala, and Monkey are 50 yards away from Lion and form a small cluster, perhaps 3 yards away from each other. Diplomat is also 50 yards away, but 24 yards up in the air. She's off the side somewhere. Call it left side and she's been moving 24 yards too, although her exact distance from Lion will need some math, since she's moving kinda diagonally. We'll figure it out if necessary.

But anyway, now Student is 80 yards away from Lion. Ivory Spine has a range of 50 yards for Lion and I argue that this is, special effects aside, that this is an unarmed essence attack, and thus doesn't get the second and third range band that an actual physical thrown weapon gets. If this is not an unarmed essence attack, then it can't be comboed with Tornado Offense Technique, as a bone needle is not a form weapon for Air Dragon style. Lion can pursue, but does he wants to? And if he does, how close does he wants to go?

Next, thanks to Lion's attack and EGT, now I have enough motes to cancel the entire combo and would like to attempt to use SCD on the rest of the combo. I know I'm supposed to do so at the beginning, but in the beginning I can't, and now I can. As a comparison, I think had Lion used 5 of the Ivory Spines on Princess and the last one on Student, most STs will let Student use SCD on the last Ivory Spine. This has some similarity.

AND YOU, PEANUT GALLERY, GIVE US YOUR OPINION! FrivYeti's say is final, of course, but opinions are always welcome. - TonyC, who's glad Lion's overconfident and doesn't include Aid of Ill Wind in his combo.

PS: FrivYeti, do you want to describe Lion's set-up turns or leave it as it is? Because in a few days I'll move the entire system side of the set-up turns to its own wiki subpage. Also, I have a small but significant chance of succeeding the remaining 5 poison resistance roll, especially if I get stunt dice, so just settle the rules question as usual and ignore the survival/death issue.

I'm going to describe the Lion's setup turn - forgot to do it last night. I'll deal with that once I have the free time. :) I would rule, however, that since a combo is specified as having to be blocked when it is first activated, you can't annul it partway through. The Leaping Dodge works, though. Fortunately for him, the Lion hasn't moved yet, and he can reflexively close distance. His movement rate is 30, meaning that he can close to 50 yards again and fire off the next one. If the Student survives that and Leaping Dodges again, the Lion can pursue up to 150 yards with Spider Pounce Technique, throwing the darts in midair as he does so.

Good stunt, though. I'll give it two dice (and 4 Essence motes.) :) - FrivYeti

As for the combo, okie. But for Spider Pounce, Lion can't move and then use Spider Pounce. Charm text specifically says "instead of normal movement". Either Lion uses a normal move or he uses Spider Pounce. Also, Spider Pounce can only be used once per turn (charm text), so no constant pursuit either. - TonyC

So it does. Bad Friv, not reading Charm text closely enough. In that case, the Lion will use it, jumping to within ten yards of the Student to let him get two more shots off before the Student gets out of range. After that, shots loop over to Burning Mandala as normal. - FrivYeti