Brawl, The Gauntlet

 

Once, there was a maiden…

…falling forever in the water. She reached for purchase, but found nothing; her arms swung through the sea.

The water did not slow her, nor the chill,

But she could not breathe.

Each time she gasped and found no breath, a human child died, and thus, she lived.

“Survival is acceptance,” she said.

 

Unobstructed Blow

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Brawl: 4

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

The character chooses the arc of his blow and writes it into forthcoming fate. One attack made using Brawl cannot be blocked. If it hits, the target’s armor provides no protection.

 

Tolerant Strife

Cost: 3 motes + 1 mote per die

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Brawl: 3

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisite Charms: None

The character adapts to the conditions of the battlefield, rewriting the course of events so that they aid rather than hinder her. She makes a Brawl attack, suffering no environmental or circumstantial penalties and adding up to her Essence in dice. Sidereal Exalted may always use their Compassion with this Charm.

 

Horrific Wreath

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Five turns

Type: Simple

Minimum Brawl: 2

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

The character mirrors her personal Essence to that of her enemies. When she strikes at a demon, this Charm wreathes her fists in a hideous red glare. When she attacks the servants of the Malfeans, her hands burn an undifferentiated white. Her unarmed attacks and attacks using starmetal brawling aids do lethal damage against ordinary foes and aggravated damage against inhabitants of Malfeas and the Underworld. This Charm can be invoked during a clinch, and its effects apply to a character’s clinching damage. Its effects also apply to barehanded Martial Arts attacks.

 

Crimson Palm Counterstrike

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Brawl: 4

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Horrific Wreath

Coming to an accommodation with an enemy’s movements, the character learns to interrupt an enemy’s strike an instant before it happens. If the character is aware of an incoming hand-to-hand attack, she can reflexively counterattack. A well-executed Crimson Palm Counterstrike knocks the enemy out of position: Her overreaches or stumbles and cannot complete his attack. The Sidereal’s player makes a single Dexterity + Brawl roll at her full dice pool. Count the number of successes. Apply these successes first as a parry, even against a lethal attack, to resolve the initial blow. Then, apply the remainder as successes received on an immediate Brawl counterattack.

The character can only use this Charm if she’s able to attack and cannot use it in response to Crimson Palm Counterstrike or any other counterattack Charm. Otherwise, the parry and counterattack succeed or fail independently ― she can knock her opponent aside without damaging him, or vice versa.

 

Easily Accepted Proposition Stance

Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 health level

Duration: One battle

Type: Simple

Minimum Brawl: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Unobstructed Blow, Tolerant Strife, Crimson Palm Counterstrike

This Charm uses a prayer strip marked with the scripture of the Drowning Maiden. The character knots it into her shadow, where it shimmers a soft scarlet.

Once per invocation of this Charm, the character can strike a fate-resolving blow, sending cascading vibrations through the weave of the world. She dictates a single event or circumstance. The dictum must be a feasible occurrence, although it can be highly improbably: Reinforcements might arrive, a wall might spontaneously crumble, or the character’s fallen army might turn out to be bruised and unconscious rather than wounded and dead. Legions of tyrant lizards cannot fall from the sky and set upon the foe.

The Exalt’s player rolls Intelligence + Brawl. The difficulty is the Essence of the highest-Essence entity directly and unpleasantly affected by the character’s dictum. If she succeeds, that enemy has a choice. Either the character’s dictum comes to pass, or the tremors in the weave ground through that enemy ― inflicting dice of aggravated damage equal to the Sidereal’s Essence, plus one die per extra success on the Brawl roll. This damage ignores armor. The attempted use of a defensive Charm nullifies the damage entirely; instead, the dictum takes effect.

Sidereal Exalted can always use their Valor with this Charm. Using this Charm without authorization is a Severity 3 offense.