Triumphant Panoply Of The Invincible Hero

The Triumphant Panoply of the Invincible Hero

"Sing, all poets, all spirits, sing the glory of the famous spear-fighter, Aspidiotes:
That son of Luna, glorious warrior like the very gods in form,
He who slew demons with one thrust of flashing bronze,
Whose redoubtable shield set the bold to quivering, fearful of his wrath,
His swift-footed grace, his lion's courage, his infinite cunning.
Sing of his endless victories, sing of the foes he triumphed over,
Sing of his just rule, his great soul, sing how he set aside his long-shadow'd spear,
Declaring himself in a time of peace.
Sing then, O poets, of the jealousy and greed,
Sing of the single defeat of glorious, godlike Aspidiotes."

-excerpt from The Aspidiotean Cycle

Soon after the first Exalted came to be, one Lunar rose above the others, demonstrating incomparable valor, unstainable honor, and skill in battle that only the Dawn Caste could hope to match. He was named a hero many times by many people, inspiring many to strive for glory, and inspiring others to jealous hatred. A great gift was made to Aspidiotes, a panoply fit for a king above all kings. The weapons and armor had been forged over a thousand years at different times, but they flowed with such incomparable harmony, for they were unified with the soul of the hero. A special material was concieved, a bronze alloy thrice-blessed by no less than twenty priests of Luna, mixed with the protean blood of the Moon-Blessed. Thread of moonsilver was crafted, then inscribed with great poems and songs of the Lunar hero's exploits, and the ebon hide of a behemoth felled by Aspidiotes himself was worked with skill lost to the world. The Triumphant Panoply of the Invincible Hero consisted of a mighty bow, a fine corselet, a terrifying shield, and a redoubtable spear.

As the war came to a close, the Old Realm came into being, but this Lunar wanted no part. Histories surviving from the Old Realm tell of how he turned his back on the other Chosen, sinking into infernal pacts and vile decadence. The truth, however, is different, though probably forever lost to the world. Aspidiotes simply did not want to be part of the ruling class. He ventured far away, into the northeast, and came upon a great crater where a mighty foe had fallen, forever scarring the land. In memory of this battle, the Lunar erected a great temple of white stone, and made his home there. It wasn't long, though, before many gathered around him, building up a city around his home. The crater was soon filled by a great city of bright stone, populated primarily by mortals and a few Terrestrial Exalts. A single Solar of the Night Caste eventually came, seeking Aspidiotes in marraige. The Lunar hero, settled into his new city life, accepted, and they were wed.

The chronicles of this city have long been lost. No true histories remain, only scattered remnants of epic poems hailing the Lunar hero. It is clear, though, from the ruins of the city, that this tiny city-state never developed the mighty magical devices that the Old Realm festooned itself with, but lived a much simpler life. The Lunar and his mate kept to themselves, walled away in a fortress on the edge of the city. Life was calm, even boring, but ultimately peaceful for a very, very long time. The city had little or no contact with the Old Realm, though Aspidiotes did teach many great Lunar warriors the arts of battle, including the famed admiral now called Leviathan. For a time, he even ran a school of martial arts in his city, imparting partial knowledge of his own unique fighting techniques, which focused on acrobatic mobility and spear-and-shield methods. (It has been speculated, in fact, that Aspidiotes developed the Crimson Pentacle Blade Style. While this is not true, it is very likely that whoever developed it was highly influenced by the Lunar's own fighting style.)

However, the Deliberative grew to hate the Lunar and his city. They told themselves that it was an affront to their divine mandate to rule the world. They told themselves that Aspidiotes consorted with demons, that he mistreated the population, imprisoning them in his city with magic. A dispatch was sent, demanding that Aspidiotes turn himself in to the Realm, that his city fall under their rule. The Lunar was enraged, and singlehandedly thrashed the powerful Solar emissary and his honor guard, then sent the lot of them home naked and bruised. The response in the Realm was, first, chaos. A few argued that the ancient hero be left alone, allowed to spend his quiet life as he wished. Others, the great majority, demanded his immediate destruction. The admiral now called Leviathan pointedly refused to bring the fleet to battle against his old mentor, but conceded to draw the fleet near to the city to offload soldiers.

The battle was brutal. Many an Exalt of the Old Realm was reminded of the great songs and stories about Aspidiotes as the renowned warrior made it clear that the legends were far from false. Even his small guard of Dragon-Blooded sent chills down the spines of hardened Realm shock troops with their fearsome warcry, their flawless rhythm as they beat shield and spear together. However, not even the godlike ferocity of Aspidiotes could save his city from the full force flung upon him by the Realm. Slain in battle by the greatest Dawn Caste the Realm could offer, and even then only after suffering uncounted wounds from the Dawn's circlemates, whom he slew. His bride, it is said, stopped fighting the moment her husband was dead, and fell weeping over his corpse, where she was thoughtlessly killed by the honor guard of the Dawn who had taken her husband's life.

The arms of Aspidiotes were gathered up, the people of the city somehow managed to retain the shield and spear of their sentinel-king, and buried them in a great mausoleum. The bloodied corselet of Aspidiotes was delivered to Leviathan. If the stories are true, the admiral wailed, rending his uniform, and sank to his knees on his ship. In a short time, his grief gave way to anger, and he demanded that the fallen hero's full panoply be delivered into his hands. All but the shield and spear were given to the Lunar admiral, who set them up in a shrine to his mentor, near the center of Luthe.

Harrowing Countenance

The Harrowing Countenance of the Invincible Hero is a circular shield about three feet in diameter. The shield is held by a central grip, and on opposite sides of the shield are semicircular cutouts. The shield is made of no less than seven layers of adamant, hide, and bronze. The outermost layer, the face, is covered in menacing black leather, and inlaid with an emblem of burnished bronze, an ancient symbol that stands for victory against insurmountable odds, and a bright bronze rim completes the face. The inner surface is lined with eight smaller pieces of ebon leather stitched together. The thread is moonsilver, and was inscribed with an epic poem chronicling the exploits of an ancient Lunar hero, and this same poem is tooled into the leather of the inner surface. This shield lends an aura of terrible menace to the bearer, and it is said that no mortal could bear to look on the invincible hero that held this ineffable defense.

When attuned, the shield imposes no mobility penalty on the bearer, and offers greater defense, imposing a +2 difficulty on both ranged and close-combat attacks. Furthermore, the shield lends an aura of palpable terror to the Exalt who bears it. Foes of the bearer must roll Valor + Essence at a difficulty equal to the Exalted shield-bearer's Essence rating. Those who botch this roll flee in blind terror, while those who fail cannot bear to look upon the Exalt, and suffer the standard penalties for blindfighting. Supernatural powers that overcome blindfighting penalties may be of assistance, but only if they do not involve actually looking at one's opponent. This penalty can be overcome for one turn at the cost of one temporary Willpower point.

Apart from the rest of the Triumphant Panoply, Harrowing Countenance has an attunement cost of 5 motes.

Terminal Recourse

The Terminal Recourse of the Invincible Hero is a pair of identical spears, each seven feet from butt to point. The hafts are ash, coated with a translucent black lacquer. The gleaming bronze heads measure twelve inches, the blades' sides are parallel until they curve to a point over the last inch-and-a-half of the blade. At the bottom edge of each head's socket is a line of text, an inscription referring to the Lunar warrior for whom this spear was made, calling him only "impossible to overcome". The bronze buttcaps of the spears measure seven inches, and come to a sort of blunted bullet-point. Again, an inscription is found on the edge of the sockets, reiterating the insurmountable nature of the original wielder. The hafts are smooth save a point about one-third of the length up from the butt, where a leather hand-grip is tightly secured, stitched together with moonsilver thread and tooled with a complex geometric design. The legends that describe the spears in battle claim that they were faster than lightning in the hands of their master, and would leap from his hand, thirsty for blood.

In the hands of their attuned master, these are weapons of superlative swiftness and ferocity, and infallible loyalty. When properly attuned, the weapons are flawlessly balanced both for throwing and hand-to-hand combat. Aside from these spears' splendid balance and precision in combat, they are faithful allies in wartime. The attuned wielder can recall each spear to his hand for the cost of 1 mote. The spear leaps into Elsewhere, then bursts into the world again, grasped by its master. Alternately, its master can take hold of it from a distance to hurl it again. By spending one mote, the Exalt attuned to the spear can make a normal thrown attack with the spear without actually holding the spear. The weapon would simply leap from its resting place towards the target its master wishes to strike. This power can only be enacted if the spear is lying within its normal throwing range of the wielder, and the attack made in this fashion is considered a normal thrown attack in every way, save that ranged counterattacks would simply strike the point that the spear began flying from. Furthermore, the wielder can overcome the weapon's Rate statistic, spending 1 mote for every action taken beyond the base Rate of the weapon. For example, to make 6 attacks with the Rate 3 spear, the wielder would spend one mote for each attack over the normal Rate, 3 motes in that turn.

Standard Exalted Combat:

Hand-to-Hand:	Speed +6, Accuracy +2, Damage +5L, Defense +1, Minimum Strength ••
Thrown:	Accuracy +3, Damage +6L, Rate 3, Range 50, Minimum Strength •••

Exalted Power Combat:

Hand-to-Hand:	Speed +10, Accuracy +2, Damage +9L, Defense +3, Rate 3, Minimum Strength ••
Thrown:	Accuracy +3, Damage +6L (piercing), Rate 3, Range 50, Minimum Strength •••

Apart from the rest of the Triumphant Panoply, Terminal Recourse has an attunement cost of 7 motes.

Calamitous Reward

The Calamitous Reward of the Invincible Hero is a great bow, five feet long when strung. The bow is the oldest component of the panoply, fashioned near the beginning of the Primordial War from the horns of a mighty demon felled by the spear of the great Lunar hero. The Lunar's comrades in arms collected the skull of the demon and sawed out the center, where the horns joined the skull. Treating the bone and horns with various alchemical compounds, and bending the center formed the great weapon, the demon's horns stretching out to form the arms of the bow. The horns were shod with gleaming bronze, and the bowstring is a thread of moonsilver, inscribed with an epic recitation of the Lunar's victory over the demon. The hero's comrades then presented this fabulous weapon to Aspidiotes, honoring his courage, his honor, and his skill at arms. Over the course of its master's exploits, bronze inlays of intricate scroll- and knotwork were added to the glistening black horn, and the bronze was allowed to patinate, leaving a tracework of intricate scenes in dull, smooth brown, barely contrasting with the horn.

Calamitous Reward can be used to perform a cascading attack. The archer devotes his entire action for a turn to firing his bow, and for that turn the bow's Rate is considered infinite. Rather than splitting for multiple actions in the normal way, apply dice pool penalties like those incurred during a full dodge. The only limitation is that the number of attacks made cannot exceed the archer's total base attack pool, before Charms are included. This power is, obviously, incompatible with Charms that provide extra attacks, but interacts with powers that provide splittable extra actions, allowing for great volleys of arrows to fill the sky.

Combat Stats (applicable in original Exalted combat and Power Combat):

Accuracy +2, Damage +5L, Rate 2, Range 450, Minimum Strength ••••

Apart from the rest of the Triumphant Panoply, Calamitous Reward has an attunement cost of 7 motes.

Unapproachable Alacrity

The Unapproachable Alacrity of the Invincible Hero is a brilliant corselet fitted flawlessly to its owner. The base of the corselet is smooth black leather, the hide of a behemoth slain long ago. Over this, bronze scales are stitched tightly, once again with the fine moonsilver thread engraved with poetry. Every scale has an inlay of brass depicting one scene from the Lunar hero's brilliant career, the color difference in the metal so subtle as to be invisible to all but the most astute inspectors. The inner surface of the leather is tooled with the same complex scrollwork and knotwork that decorate the Calamitous Reward, and the yoke of the corselet is fitted with burnished black jade devices that rest over each side of the warrior's breast, each inlaid with bright gold, displaying the same glyph as that prominently shown on the Harrowing Countenance - victory against overwhelming odds. Strips of black leather hang from the waist and over the shoulders, each strip reinforced with bright bronze scales stamped with a symbol of victory. The strips would contrast sharply with the plain white chiton woven of spider-silk that the hero wore beneath his armor, and rang against one another, lending a fearsome din to his martial gestures. Many songs describe the great Lunar hero in battle, telling of his wild, acrobatic abandon in warfare, his effortless evasion and graceful leaps. Savants believe that a part of the Lunar's puissance was due to this glorious armor.

Attuned and fitted to the wearer, the armor provides significant protection without hindering the dance of the warrior in battle. In addition, the wearer becomes fleet-footed and nimble, very difficult to strike as he sprints and leaps across the battlefield. Once the armor is attuned, the wearer's running and leaping distances are doubled. In addition, the Exalt gains +4 successes to any dodge roll that rolls at least one success, and +2 successes to any Athletics roll involving balance or leaping. Finally, upon a successful dodge, the wearer may reflexively move up to eight yards in any direction, even straight up. This is explicitly stackable with Charms that provide a similar defense.

Soak 9L/9B, Mobility Penalty -0, Fatigue 1, Hardness 4

Apart from the rest of the Triumphant Panoply, Unapproachable Alacrity has an attunement cost of 7 motes.

The Triumphant Panoply

The Triumphant Panoply of the Invincible Hero is more than spear, shield, corselet and bow, of course. The other components of this incomparable set of arms and armor, however, are of far less power. When all of the components great and small are united, though, the Panoply resonates with itself and with the very soul of its wearer. Every component, though, is quite resilient, as resistent to wear and damage as the finest orichalcum plate. The only exceptions to this resistance are the arrows, which, while stronger than common projectiles, are quite breakable.

Beneath it all Aspidiotes wore a white chiton that reached two-thirds of the way down his thigh. The borders of the tunic are decorated with black and bronze-hued thread in a simple geometric pattern, and the buttons at the top are inlaid with the sigil of victory that graces most every component of the Panoply. A pair of sandals was presented along with the rest of the gear, made of the same nigh-imperishable ebon hide, fitted with Moon-Blessed bronze buckles and treads. Over it all fell a chlamys of brilliant, sparkling white, clasped at the left shoulder with a brooch of bronze and black jade, depicting the same icon that decorated Aspidiotes's shield. The lower edge of the chlamys repeated the geometric pattern from the tunic, and it was recorded that neither the tunic nor the cloak could ever be stained - they could be spattered with blood, grime, or sweat, and a simple rinse in water would leave them brilliant white again.

The armor is completed by bracers and greaves. The bracers are bronze, richly engraved with abstract, geometric patterns, scroll- and knotwork, and centered upon each is the emblem of victory against an impossible foe. Rich black lacquer fills in the engraving, causing the designs to stand out clearly in contrast. The greaves are similar, bearing the same rich patterns and finish, but lack the victory glyph. Both the greaves and the bracers are not secured with straps. Rather, they are springy, and hold themselves firmly to their master's limbs. The greaves and bracers may be attuned on their own for 4 motes, granting their wearer an addition die in all Dexterity rolls.

The compliment of weapons is completed by a short sword, its name lost to history. The sword is no more than twenty-two inches in overall length, the blade only comprising sixteen of this. It is forged of the same moon-blessed bronze as most of the panoply, the hilt is wrapped in the black behemoth-hide and secured with a web of poetry recorded with moonsilver thread. The pommel is a small sphere of bronze, engraved richly with abstract patterns, and the guard shares the same composition and decoration, though it takes the form of a flattened oval. The blade has no powers to speak of, beyond being as resistant to damage as the other, greater parts of the panoply. The scabbard of the sword is the same black behemoth-leather, with abtract bronze inlays holding its shape, and moonsilver thread stitching.

Standard Combat:	Speed +0, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L, Defense +2
Power Combat:		Speed +2, Accuracy +2, Damage +3L, Defense +1, Rate 4

A matching quiver, constructed in the same manner as the sheath for the short sword, accompanies the panoply, mundane in every way save that it can carry fifty arrows without discomfort to the warrior. The arrows that were made for Aspidiotes number fifty, all sharper than a tiger's fang, a meter long, with black-lacquered shafts, snow-white fletching, and narrow, bladed bronze heads two inches in length. The arrows are not nearly so imperishable as the other parts of the panoply, but they are superlative quality and sharpness, capable of piercing even the heaviest armors. The arrows deal +2L damage, which is piercing, and add 10 yards to the range of whatever bow fires them, for they are of immaculate balance.

When the Panoply is fully united, the attunement costs are lowered drastically. Lunars must commit 18 motes to the full Panoply, and gain access to all of its powers. Non-Lunars may attune the Panoply for 18 motes, but do not gain access to the unique powers of the components, only to the basic stats of each item. A non-Lunar who doubles the attunement cost may access the Panoply's powers as Lunars do. If the reincarnation of Aspidiotes attunes his legacy, he may add the moonsilver magical material bonus to the stats of the bow, the spear, and the short sword. For the purposes of this power, the Panoply should be considered fully united when a character attunes the Harrowing Countenance, Terminal Recourse, Calamitous Reward, Unapproachable Alacrity, and the bracers. The short sword and arrows, while very fine implements of war, are of no magical significance to the Panoply as a whole.

The Triumphant Panoply of the Invincible Hero resonates strongly with itself, and remembers the great deeds of its first master. Characters who reach the height of courage held by Aspidiotes (Valor 5 or Valor 4 with the Virtue Specialty Merit granting a Valor specialty against impossible odds) will find that the Panoply fits them flawlessly: the armor wants to safeguard the wearer, the spear becomes a natural extension of the wielder's will, the shield is ever-present for defense, the bow ferociously stings the wielder's foe. Such Exalts may add 2 to the soak and Hardness values of Unapproachable Alacrity, add 1 to the Accuracy, Defense, and Rate of Terminal Recourse and the short sword, add 2 to the Damage of the Calamitous Reward, and may never have the difficulty penalty imposed by Harrowing Countenance circumvented by any treachery or magic, so long as the shield is in the Exalt's grasp.

Where is it now?

The Triumphant Panoply of the Invincible Hero was separated upon the death of Aspidiotes. Terminal Recourse and Harrowing Countenance remained in the Lunar's city, buried in a great white stone sarcophagus in the center of an enormous shrine in his honor. Leviathan eventually, through several years of lobbying and outright demanding, collected the remaining components in full, and set them up in a small shrine in Luthe. After this, the details are sketchy at best, altogether missing at worst. It is generally presumed that the Triumphant Panoply remains at rest.

However, not long ago, there was a vague rumor of a Sentinel in the mountains just west of where the city of Aspidiotes once stood. More recently, a shadow fell over those mountains, death and decay took hold of the villages there.

But now another rumor stirs. It is said that in the center of a forgotten city, there is an empty tomb. Leviathan refuses to see any visitors for any reason at all.

A deathknight in the Skullstone Archipelago returned to his master with a story of a hero with hair the color of tarnished brass, armed at all points with gleaming bronze and black leather.

Comments

Thanks to BogMod - he came up with the powers the armor has. Thanks also to the crowd at #pvpexalted, for their input and critique. :) - David.