Righteous Devil
Style
Type: Celestial
As pervasive and as inescapable as the
light of the sun at it’s highest meridian is the
undeniable destiny of those who serve at the feet of unrighteousness. For those
who would exist for the sole purpose of Creation’s defilement, Heaven prepares
a gift of harmonious vengeance.
At the hands of those who serve the
Principle of Righteousness, all who defy the Mandate of Heaven will be cleansed
by anointment in purifying, Celestial flame. These are the precepts of those
who would walk in the footsteps of the Righteous Devil.
This is not to say that the martial artists
who follow this style are paragons of virtue. Usually, quite the opposite is
true. Disciples of this style strive to exist, not in terms of good or evil,
but instead, in terms of right or wrong; appropriate or needlessly excessive;
necessary or wastefully destructive. Theirs is a discerning wisdom,
one they believe is the common truth. Similar to the way threads of Essence
connect an Exalt’s weapon to her target, they
believe, all things in Heaven and Creation are ultimately a singular entity.
And, therefore, they feel that all must work for the betterment of the whole. Those
who would defy this mandate would be better off if they shuffled off this
mortal coil that they might learn, through the lesson of rebirth, the
righteousness of appropriate existence.
Kiss Of The Sun Concentration
Cost: 1 mote per die
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial
Arts: 1
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The character draws a breath and
concentrates, extending her senses to feel the flow of Essence that unites her,
her weapon and her target. In this perfect moment, the Exalt fires her weapon,
and her firewand’s tongue of flame seeks out her
intended target with knowing assurance. For each mote of Essence the player spends,
his player may add one die to any Martial Arts roll using a firewand
or similar weapon. This added bonus cannot exceed the character’s Dexterity +
Martial Arts pool. Essence for this Charm must be spent prior to the attack
roll.
Blossom Of Inevitable Demise Technique
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial
Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Kiss of the Sun
Concentration
At this level, the character becomes more
intimately aware of how Essence flows through her and her weapon and is able to
dramatically increase the damage her weapon can do based on this understanding.
As with Kiss of the Sun Concentration, the character draws a breath,
concentrates and then fires her weapon. This time, however, the once thin
stream of flame expands to twice its normal girth, spiraling out from its
center like a blossoming peony of flame. The player activates the Charm and
doubles the damage done on a successful Martial Arts attack using a firewand or some similar weapon. The bonus damage is applied
before the target rolls to soak.
Lightning Draw Stance
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial
Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Kiss of the Sun
Concentration
With this Charm, the martial artist need
not have her weapon in hand before Initiative is rolled to use it. Vibrant
cobalt lightning crackles and coalesces about her forearm, and in one fluid
motion, the Exalt readies her firewand and fires. The
player spends 2 motes of Essence to invoke this Charm. Aside from the benefit
of surprise, “shooting from the hip” enables the character to attack more
quickly, adding 1 to her Initiative rating per point of her permanent Essence.
Blessing Of Righteous
Solar Spark Meditation
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Until fired
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial
Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Fire Blossom of
Inevitable Demise Technique
With this Charm, the character can turn a
mere firewand into a weapon of righteousness. The
Solar Exalted meditates and invokes a blessing on his weapon. Upon finishing
the evocation, gossamer tongues of heatless golden flame writhe along the
barrel of her firewand, imbuing it with a golden,
iridescent cast. The benefits to the weapon are more than merely cosmetic. The
player spends 2 motes of Essence for her character to invoke the blessing, and
these motes are considered committed until the Exalt fires the weapon,
releasing the charge. Add the character’s permanent Essence to the base damage
of the firewand or similar weapon when it is next
fired.
If this Charm is used against creatures of
the Underworld or Abyssal Exalted, the damage dealt is aggravated. If the Solar
using this Charm also invokes Fire Blossom of Inevitable Demise, the bonus dice
are added after the damage has been doubled. The increased damage dice gained
with Blessing of Righteous Solar Spark Meditation cannot be doubled with Fire Blossom
of Inevitable Demise Technique or any Charm that doubles base damage.
If the martial artist has multiple firewands, the Blessing of Righteous Solar Spark can only
be invoked on one at a time, and if done in combat, it takes two turns to do
so. Finally, if the Solar using a “blessed firewand”
invokes an attack Charm that allows her to make multiple attacks, the bonus
damage must be divided evenly among her targets.
Only Solar Exalted can use this particular
Charm.
Cloud Of Ebon Devils
Cost: 1 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial
Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Lightning Draw Stance
Despite the superior damage capabilities of
firewands, there are certain drawbacks to using them:
the low availability and astronomical price of firedust,
just to name a couple. Also, their temperamental nature and need for constant
upkeep and repair make them difficult choices for use in the field. But perhaps
the biggest difficulty in using firewands is that
most flame-discharge weapons are single-shot ones. The martial artist must take
a turn to reload a firewand after each shot. However,
a Solar with this Charm is able to bypass this particular weakness.
After the character makes an attack with
his weapon, the player may spend 1 mote for his character and make a Reflexive
Wits + Martial Arts roll, difficulty 2. The character’s hands move too fast for
unExalted eyes to see, trailing translucent clouds of
black firedust that waft about his torso. If the roll
is successful, the Solar Exalted successfully reloads his weapon and can bring
it to bear before his next action. If the roll fails, he is unable to load the
weapon correctly. If he manages to botch, the Storyteller should feel free to
use her twisted imagination to describe what happens when those black firedust clouds, from which the Charm gets its name, ignite
about the martial artist’s upper torso. A botch can be especially bad if the
character is using a First Age weapon.
Righteous Devil Form
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial
Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Blessing of Righteous
Solar Spark Meditation, Cloud of Ebon Devils
The martial artist takes on an
executioner’s terrible stillness. Shadows seem to darken about his eyes and render
his features gaunt, giving him an imposing, dreadful gaze. He is the fatal
answer to the depraved and unjust, the retribution all who would defy Heaven
knew must someday come. After activating this Charm, all extras who lay eyes on
the martial artist will move unassumingly, as not to draw attention to
themselves, yet swiftly for cover, pull their children inside and bolt their
doors.
Targets of the martial artist within a radius equal to (the martial artist’s Essence x 10) yards
feel a sense of foreboding and are compelled to confront the martial artist. Up
until a target actually makes eye contact with the Exalt, her player must make
a successful reflexive Willpower roll each turn with a difficulty equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence rating, or her character moves to
confront the Exalt. Characters may spend a point of temporary Willpower to stop
this compulsion. Once she has spent a turn engaged in combat or parley with the
Exalt, this effect ends for the remainder of the scene.
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial
Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Righteous Devil Form
With this Charm, a martial artist can
extend the range of his weapon. Upon activating this Charm, a halo of gold and
cobalt light encircles the tip of the firewand’s
barrel. When the character pulls the trigger, six golden swan wings, each the
length of a woman’s forearm, gracefully spiral out of the halo and speed the tongue
of flame to its extended target. The player spends 1 mote of Essence, and her
character can make a Martial Arts attack using her firewand
or similar weapon at twice its normal range.
Azure Abacus Meditation
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial
Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms:
The martial artist using this Charm draws a
controlled, deep breath and holds it. She extends her senses to perceive the
ebb and flow of Essence that permeates the world around her. As she
concentrates, the tenuous connections that tie her and her weapon to her target
become glaringly apparent to her. At this point, she can close her eyes, for
she need not see her target to strike it. Her Caste Mark flares and pulses with
the beating of her own heart. At the same moment, a series of notched rings of
silvery azure light encircle her target. They are of varying widths, numbering
between three and nine in total, and rotate around the target at odd angles,
some spinning clockwise, while others spin widdershins.
This is the Azure Abacus. In the days of
the First Age, this Charm was an artful meditation of the most introspective and
intimate — and, some considered, prideful — nature, for it measured, some
believed, a soul’s nature, existence and importance in the grand scope of
Creation. Unfortunately, in this dark Age, the
knowledge of how to glean any pertinent information from such a display is completely
lost, even to the martial artist invoking this Charm. If there are any alive
who remember how to gauge the delicate nuances of the Azure Abacus, they are
not sharing the information.
Upon reaching this harmonious state, the
Exalt invoking this Charm fires her weapon, and her shot zeros in on her
target, trailing a brilliant comet’s tail of flaming Essence. As the fireball
closes in on its target, this ancient accounting begins to solve itself. The
rings begin to align, starting with the innermost, and quickly rectify
themselves a hairsbreadth moment before the martial artist’s attack hits. In
this perfect moment just before the Exalt’s attack
strikes the middle of the Abacus, time slows to an immeasurable halt.
The martial artist’s target perceives the
rectified rings about him shift their shape. A chorus of aquiline, cobalt cherubim,
three to nine risers deep and awash in silver and golden flames begin to sing.
The melody resonates at a very intimate level with the target, matching the
harmonic frequency of his soul. Such a display can be very unsettling to those
not prepared for it, and the players of those subjected must make a successful
reflexive Willpower roll, difficulty 2, for their characters to do anything
other than stare or scream in shocked terror as inescapable retribution comes
calling. The martial artist spends 4 motes of Essence and one
Willpower. So long as the target stays within the firing range of the
martial artist’s weapon, the attack cannot miss. Even if the character can
move, the attack cannot be dodged by any means and can only be parried if the
target has Charms that enable him to parry insubstantial attacks.
Twin Salamander Fist
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial
Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Righteous Devil Form
With this Charm, the Exalt now has the
ability to use a firewand or similar weapon in either
hand without the “off- hand” penalty. The player spends 3 motes to activate this
Charm.
Dance Of The Howling Magma Sprites
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Martial
Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Twin Salamander Fist
Martial artists knowledgeable of this Charm
are deadly foes, especially in close quarters, with little to hide behind. Upon
firing his weapon, the bolt of flame spits from the end of the barrel only to
come to a shrieking halt a yard from the barrel-end of the firewand
and, with a thunderous clap, explodes into a small winged creature that howls, spiraling
toward its target. The player spends 4 motes and a point of temporary Willpower
for his character to invoke the Charm. The player rolls for the martial artist
to hit the first target. If the roll succeeds, he may immediately make a second
roll to hit the same target or a second target, and so on. The Exalt may make
as many attacks as he has points of permanent Essence, and each magma sprite
does the base damage of the martial artist’s weapon.
Phantom Flamebolt Prana
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial
Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Righteous Devil Form
When invoking this Charm, the Celestial
martial artist breathes deeply, tapping her inner reservoir of Essence, like
bellows stoking a furnace. With each breath, she channels Essence through her
weapon, using it as her focus. The Exalt can then fire a bolt of gossamer
golden flame from his flamewand rather than needing firedust. So long as he has Essence to fuel it, he need
never worry about running out of ammunition again.
Caress Of 1,000 Hells
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Varies
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial
Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Phantom Flamebolt Prana
A master of this style has an acute and
profound understanding into the nature of Essence. The invisible matrix of
divine energy that tethers all of Creation into one whole, where concepts of
space and distance do not exist, becomes evident and accessible to her.
When invoking this Charm, the martial
artist attunes herself to the ambient lines of Essence, pulling them through
her and focusing and filtering these energies through her righteous will.
Essence trails can momentarily be seen radiating around her Caste Mark, tongues
of Celestial fire and lightning writhe about her head and shoulders. The Exalt
fires her weapon, and an Essence-enriched deluge of cobalt-and gold-flame
engulfs her target. Any flammable items within the Exalt’s Essence in yards around the target is
incinerated to ash within seconds. The damage of the attack is aggravated, and
the target is engulfed in flames for a number of turns equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence.
After soaking the initial damage, the
target’s player must then make a reflexive Stamina + Resistance roll, difficulty
3, for his character. If the roll is successful, the target suffers a penalty
equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence rating to all dice pools. If
the roll fails, then the target can do nothing but writhe around on the ground
in agony. The victim’s player must make a Stamina + Resistance roll as a
reflexive action every turn his character remains aflame in order to continue
acting. For each turn the target remains on fire, he must soak the base damage
of the martial artist’s weapon. This damage is not aggravated. Also, his player
must reroll the Stamina + Resistance roll at an
additional +1 difficulty for each turn after the first.