Veet/Celestial Horse Style
Few relationships in creation can match those of a horse and its rider, each must trust the other explicitly especially when riding into battle. The Celestial Horse martial arts seeks to take that relationship and apply it to a paired unit. Despite the fact that this form could make a decent combat style as either a mounted style or a ground style the true power comes from the fact that it is designed to work as powerful team style. Traditionally this team was a Solar and Lunar pair with the lunar acting as the solar’s great war mount but there is nothing to stop a sidereal or enlightened terrestrial from learning this form, even powerful familiars could potentially learn some of the charms in this martial art.
Charm Concept Allies:</b> Celestial horse style focuses on the coordination and teamwork; most of the charms in this style benefit an ally or draw benefits from an ally. For the purposes of these charms an ally is a character that is actively working with the martial artist or is under the protection of the martial artist and because of the focus on the philosophy of horse and rider these charms will count a mount as an ally as well. For this reason Celestial Horse form may be underpowered for a lone hero but is rather effective when trying to protect someone and can be downright powerful if there are two practitioners fighting side by side.
<b>Weapons and Armor:</b> The nature of this form gives it an interesting array of form weapons, Spears Iron Boots and their artifact counterparts are the traditional form weapons of this style and it may be practiced wearing light armor.
<b>Additional Skills:</b> Celestial Horse Style focuses on coordination as a result all practitioners must have at least a basic grasp of battlefield tactics and must poses at least 2 dots of war and ride. Athletics is beneficial but not required.
<b>Iron Shod Hoof
Cost: 2m Minimums: Martial Arts, 1 Essence, 2 Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: None
The horse’s hoof is a deadly weapon, even more so if it has been shod. This charm supplements an unarmed martial arts attack allowing it to do either lethal or bashing damage as the martial artist wishes and adds ½ their athletics score rounded up to the raw damage of the attack.
Perfected Partnership Technique
Cost: 2m Minimums: Martial Arts, 2 Essence, 2 Type: Reflexive Keywords: None Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Iron Shod Hoof
It takes both a good rider and a good mount to pull off the best maneuvers; this charm takes that to heart. This charm is activated in response to any action that one of the martial artist’s allies has successfully stunted for. The charm allows the martial artist to add their own stunt to the dice pool. They must be in range to do the described stunt and it is still subject to storyteller approval of how many dice are rewarded however if successful the character making the roll may add 1 to 3 stunt dice in addition to whatever stunt dice they have already won to their roll. This specifically breaks the maximum of 3 stunt dice.
Horse Form
Cost: 4m Minimums: Martial Arts, 3 Essence, 2 Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo OK, Form Type Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Perfected Partnership Technique
Few relationships come close to that of a good horse and good rider this charm only serves to strengthen this bond allowing them both to better protect one another. While active the character and a single ally of their choosing gain certain benefits from being in close proximity to each other. The martial artist chooses either their parry DV or dodge DV and both the ally and himself use the martial artists DV value provided they are no more than a couple yards away from one another, furthermore the allies permanent essence score is added to the chosen DV for the duration of this charm. The martial artist may target a different ally by refocusing his essence with a miscellaneous action. Also the martial artist may add his permanent essence score to his athletics when calculating their move or jumping distance. If both martial artist and ally know and have activated this charm one must designate parry DV and the other Dodge DV.
Unobtrusive Partner Method
Cost: 3m Minimums: Martial Arts, 4 Essence, 2 Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo OK Duration: One Attack Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The movements taught by the Celestial Horse Form are not only useful for mounted combat, they make the martial artists a person who is generally easy to cooperate with. This charm is activated when the martial artist participates in a coordinated attack, for that attack the martial artist does not count towards the calculation to determine the difficulty of the (Charisma + War) roll for coordination or the limit of 5 attackers per person. If a coordinated attack is done by a pair of martial artists that both activate this charm then no coordination roll is necessary and an extra –1 DV penalty is imposed on their target.
Back to Back Stance
Cost: 3m Minimums: Martial Arts, 4 Essence, 3 Type: Reflexive Keywords: None Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Unobtrusive Partner Method
All fighters know that when outnumbered and surrounded the best way to fight is back to back with ones allies. This charm takes that philosophy to heart. While this charm is active the martial artist confers the following benefits to a single ally; The ally can’t be surprise attacked or attacked from behind by any mundane means and supernatural means add the martial artists permanent essence score to the difficulty also coordinated attacks directed towards the ally are limited to a maximum of 3 attackers. Ideally this charm is activated by a pair of martial artists who then confer these benefits onto one another but this charm is just as easily used to protect any ally, if this charm is activated mutually by a pair of martial artists they may also add ½ their permanent essence score (rounded up) to their partners DVs. The martial artist can only protect one ally at a time with this charm and must cancel and reactivate it to move the protection to a new ally.
Heavens Perfected Runner Style
Cost: 3m Minimums: Martial Arts, 4 Essence, 2 Type: Simple Keywords: Combo OK, Obvious Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
When the martial artist activates this charm the speed and majesty of their namesake animal is theirs to command. While this charm is active the martial artist may dash with a move action and may add their permanent essence score to their athletics score for the purpose of determining dash and jump distance. This charm may not be active at the same time as Heavens Perfected Rider Style.
Heavens Perfected Rider Style
Cost: 4m Minimums: Martial Arts, 4 Essence, 2 Type: Simple Keywords: Combo OK, Obvious Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Horse Form
The practitioner of the Horse Style can learn to be a magnificent rider. When this charm is active and the martial artist is fighting from the saddle double all DV penalties applied to the martial artists opponents for attacking from horseback and add the martial artists martial arts score to rolls to keep balance in saddle. Furthermore the cap on abilities for the rider to attack from horseback is set to their martial arts score rather than their ride score for the duration of this charm. This charm may not be active at the same time as Heavens Perfected Runner Style.
Moon Eclipses Sun
Cost: 3m Minimums: Martial Arts, 4 Essence, 3 Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Heavens Perfected Runner Style, Heavens Perfected Rider Style, Back to Back Stance
A mount protects their rider just as much as a rider protects the mount and against them no sustained attack can last. This charm is activated in response to a flurry targeting an ally within range of the martial artist. At any point after the first attack the martial artists may impose themselves on the flurry becoming the new target and resetting the onslaught penalties being inflicted by the flurry. Furthermore they may add an amount to their DVs equal to the ally’s permanent essence score against that flurry.
Sun Eclipses Moon
Cost: 4m Minimums: Martial Arts, 5 Essence, 3 Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Moon Eclipses Sun
The cooperation of horse and rider can be such that it is hard to tell who is doing what. The practitioner of the horse style can similarly cooperate with an ally and they may act together, perfectly, against an opponent. This charm may be activated when an ally is acting allowing the martial artist to immediately act in a coordinated attack, which requires no coordination roll imposing the full DV penalty on the target, even if it is not their tick to act. The speed of the action is increased by a number of ticks equal to the ticks the martial artist would have had to wait if they hadn’t used this charm and they may not use this charm again until their DV refreshes.
If both the martial artist and their ally have access to this charm and both activate it during one of their turns they may go into a coordinated flurry, one acting after the other, each with a number of actions up to the lowest of the two permanent essence scores. Any onslaught penalties resulting from the two attacking a single target are not reset when their attacker changes instead both impose the penalties as if they were the same attacker. Multiple action penalties are incurred by either attacker as normal, but the DV penalty is equal only to the highest single penalty of any one action taken by each individual attacker. This charm allows the martial artist to ignore weapon rates for this flurry.
