Earth Dragon Style
Force Of The Mountain
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The power of the earth is
massive indeed, bearing as it does the entire weight of Creation. Martial
artists of the Path of Earth can channel some of that power through their
bodies and into their opponents. The Exalted takes a moment to center himself, then unleashes a powerful blow. The Immaculate may
add his Essence to the damage of the next Melee, Brawl or Martial Arts attack
he lands. If the blow is with a weapon, the character must pay an additional
point of Essence to channel the power of the earth through it ― unless
the weapon in question is the Earth Dragon’s signature weapon, the
seven-section staff.
This attack can also affect
dematerialized spirits as if they were material. Obviously, the character must
be using Spirit Sight to see the spirit and thus attack it.
Unmoving Mountain Stance
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Martial Arts in minutes
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm is a combination of
martial arts move and meditative technique. The disciples of the Earth Dragon
can often be seen standing as still as statues in the gardens of the Cloister
of Wisdom, for while invoking this Charm, a martial artist’s body takes on the
very stillness and semblance of stone.
But aside from its meditative
function, the Unmoving Mountain Stance has applications in combat. Displacing a
monk invoking the stance is no easy task. For the purposes of the Immaculate
holding his ground or keeping from being knocked down, treat her permanent
Essence as automatic successes in any contested roll to displace her. Fighting
opponents using this Charm can be a disconcerting experience, as they simply
refuse to be knocked off their feet no matter what sort of mayhem is applied to
them. They are immune to all knockback or knockdown effects as well.
The Charm also has some
non-combat advantages. If an Earth Immaculate is attempting to hide, the
ability to remain absolutely still and silent can be a great boon. Assuming the
Immaculate has found an appropriate hiding place and is totally still, any
attempt to locate her by hearing, sound, body heat, etc. must overcome the
character’s Essence in automatic opposing successes.
Stone Dragon’s Skin
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
With the invocation of this
Charm, the Exalt’s skin briefly becomes as hard as the stony hide of the Earth
Dragon. The Immaculate’s Martial Arts Ability acts as armor against both lethal
and bashing damage for the rest of the turn. The martial artist may also parry
weapons with his bare hands without the use of a stunt. This Charm may only be
used once per turn.
Earth Dragon Form
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Force of
the Mountain, Unmoving Mountain Stance, Stone Dragon’s Skin
By executing a series of katas,
the Earth Immaculate comes into true contact with the Earth Dragon and can
directly channel some of its power. For the remainder of the scene after
successful invocation of the Earth Dragon Form, the Exalt adds his Martial Arts
to his bashing and lethal soaks against any attack. This armor even applies to
aggravated damage, which cannot normally be soaked.
Invoking the form also requires
a successful Dexterity + Martial Arts roll. If the roll fails, the motes for
this Charm are not spent, but the action is wasted. The above benefits are
cumulative with any other Charms or anima powers invoked by the Immaculate.
Only one Form-type Charm can be used at any one time. Invoking a Form-type
Charm immediately terminates the benefits of any other Form-type Charm the
character may have active.
Shattering Fist Strike
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Martial Arts in turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Earth
Dragon Form
The raw power of the elemental
Earth is fearsome to behold. By channeling this power into this body, an
immaculate can create a great deal of destruction. This Charm doubles the
Exalt’s raw damage for the purposes of destroying objects. This boost lasts for
the character’s Martial Arts in turns. The Charm has absolutely no affect on
the amount of damage that a character does to living things. The effect of
Shattering Fist Strike stacks with other effects, such as a Slayer Khatar’s,
that increase a character’s damage against objects.
Great care is taken in training
disciples in how to use this Charm properly, as careless use can be dangerous.
Even though the Charm does affect living beings, improper application can cause
damage to the character indirectly. For example, if an Exalt were to use
Shattering Fist Strike on a pillar supporting the roof, he would probably be
crushed. The Storyteller should apply appropriate damage in these situations.
Weapon-Breaking Defense Technique
Cost: Special, plus 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Shattering
Fist Strike
This maneuver can be attempted
either bare handed or with martial arts weapons. Roll
normally to parry an attack. If the roll succeeds, the character has
successfully captured the weapon between her hands or with her weapon. Her
player immediately makes a reflexive Strength + Martial Arts roll. This roll is
difficulty 1 for normal weapons but difficulty 3 for exceptional weapons and 5
for weapons forged from the Five Magical Materials. If the roll succeeds, the
weapon the character was attacked with is broken, shattered or otherwise
rendered useless. Even if the Immaculate fails to break the weapon, the
weapon’s owner’s player must succeed in a reflexive opposed Strength +
Athletics test with the Immaculate player’s or be immediately disarmed. The
cost of this Charm is a number of motes of Essence equal to the difficulty of
the roll to break the weapon, and is paid before the parry attempt is made.
Weapons affected by this Charm
are not totally destroyed, just rendered immediately useless. They can
typically be repaired or reforged given time and skill.
Stillness Of Stone
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Special
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Earth
Dragon Form
With a precision martial arts
attack, the Immaculate not only strikes at certain critical nerve junctures,
she instills a small amount of Earth Essence into the target. The target is
paralyzed and completely unable to act for one turn per health level of damage
suffered in the character’s attack. If an opponent is reduced below
Incapacitated by such an attack, he is not only killed, but turned to stone.
The character’s body calcifies into rock, and he remains in that state forever,
a ghastly trophy to the Immaculate’s martial skill.
This attack cannot be channeled
through a weapon. The character must actually hit the target with her bare
hands.
Avalanche Method
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Until line of sight is
broken or the character is incapacitated
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Stillness
of Stone
The Exalted invokes this Charm
as he makes a normal attack, raining a flurry of blows down upon his opponent,
driving her to the ground ― or at least into some inferior defensive
posture.
If the character successfully
strikes his opponent, make a reflexive opposed roll pitting the Immaculate’s
Strength + Martial Arts against the target’s Stamina + Athletics. If the target
exceeds the character’s number of successes, she suffers normal damage but no
additional effect. If the character ties or exceeds the target’s successes,
Earth Essence courses from him into his target’s body, weighing her down as if
beneath the crushing weight of an avalanche. For every success he gets, the
target suffers a one die penalty to all physical tasks so long as the Exalt can
maintain line of sight to the target. These successes are not cumulative if the
target is subjected to the Avalanche Method on a subsequent turn ― only
the highest number of successes rolled applied.
If the Exalt accrues more points
of impairment than the target has points of Stamina, the target is “buried,”
completely immobilized and unable to take any physical action unless released
by the Exalt. The Earth Dragon Immaculate must maintain physical contact with
the target to maintain this immobile state. The Exalted can take actions as
normal, but all physical tasks are at +1 difficulty, reflecting the
inconvenience of maintaining contact with the target of the Avalanche Method.
Earth-aspected Terrestrial
Exalted are totally immune to the Charm, although they
may suffer normal physical damage from the blow charged with it. This power
cannot be channeled through weapons.
Earthshaker
Attack
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Earth
Dragon Form
To use this Charm, the martial
artist must be standing on the earth itself or on an earthen surface (stone,
masonry, etc.). The Immaculate brings her foot down upon the ground with a
mighty stomp, and the Earth Dragon heaves and tosses in response.
The players of everyone within
the invoker’s Essence x 10 feet must make a reflexive Dexterity + Resistance
roll with a difficulty equal to the Exalt’s Essence as the earth shakes and
rocks beneath their feet. A character whose player fails the roll is thrown
violently off his feet and into the air, taking one die of bashing damage per
point of the Immaculate’s Martial Arts. This damage is soaked as normal.
Hungry Earth Strike
Cost: 5 + motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Earthshaker Attack
After a moment of focus, the
Exalt crouches down and seems to simply strike the ground with an open palm.
But far from being a simple strike, shockwaves ripple through the ground toward
a target of the character’s choice. The earth beneath opens up like a gaping
maw ― then closes back up again with immobilizing force.
The Immaculate’s player a should
roll his character’s Strength + Martial Arts in a reflexive opposed roll
against the target’s Wits + Athletics. The target’s defense roll is reflexive.
Each success the Immaculate gets causes the target a difficulty penalty of +1
for any physical activity, as well as adding one to the Strength rating of the
grip of the earth. The impairment continues until the target breaks free, and
until she breaks free, the target may not move from the spot at which the
Hungry Earth struck her. The victim’s player may make a Strength + Athletics
roll with a difficulty equal to the strength of the earth’s grip to free herself. This escape attempt takes a full action. If the target
succeeds, she is free of the Hungry Earth.
If the character manages to
actually exceed the target’s Strength with the strength of the Hungry Earth,
the target is sucked down into the ground. She may do nothing except try to
free herself, and the Strength rating of the earth’s grip is doubled.
Additional targets can be
affected by the Hungry Earth Strike for the price of 1 mote per extra target.
The Immaculate’s player makes one Strength + Martial Arts roll, while each
target’s player gets her own Wits + Athletics rolls to evade the cracks. The
maximum number of targets the Exalt can affect is double her Essence.
Obviously, the subject of this Charm must be standing on the ground to be
affected.
Ghost-Grounding Blow
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:
Weapon-Breaking Defense Technique, Avalanche Method, Hungry Earth Strike
With a carefully placed melee
strike, the Earth Dragon warrior infuses a bit of elemental Earth directly into
a spirit’s form, making it solid enough to be affected by his attacks.
To use this Charm, the
Immaculate must first be Spirit Walking. Upon making a successful martial arts
attack on a spirit, the martial artist’s player should roll his character’s
Wits + Martial Arts in a reflexive opposed contest against the spirit’s
permanent Willpower. If the martial artist loses the contest, the blow has no
effect. If he wins this contest, the spirit takes no damage, but it is dragged
into the material world. The spirit must first drain its own Essence to pay for
the materialization. If the spirit’s Essence isn’t sufficient, the remainder is
drained from the character. If the Exalt doesn’t have enough either, the
Essence is still lost from both parties, but the spirit remains immaterial.
The spirit must remain
materialized for a number of hours equal to the Immaculate’s Martial Arts
Ability. It is in all ways a normally materialized spirit that is prohibited
from dematerializing and can use its Charms as normal,
assuming it still has enough Essence to do so. Should the Immaculate and the
spirit tie on the opposed roll, the spirit is driven into the material world
but need remain for only a single turn.
No spirit likes to be forced into
the material world, and most spirits are included to dramatically display this
displeasure. Needless to say, Earth-aspected Immaculates usually use this move
as a prequel to destroying the spirit in question.
This Charm has no effect on
spirits with permanent Essences higher than the Dragon-Blood’s.
Perfection Of Earth Body
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms:
Ghost-Grounding Blow
This Charm is the pinnacle of the
Earth Dragon Path, representing the Immaculate truly becoming one with the
Earth Dragon ― if only for a short time. The martial artist drops to his
hands and knees for a few moments, putting himself fully in contact with the
elemental Earth. The Immaculate’s body twists and shifts, his skin becoming
rough and craggy, his body hardening and calcifying. The Dynast becomes a being
of living stone for the rest of the scene.
The affects of this are quite
dramatic. The character’s Strength is doubled by the powerful Earth Essence
coursing through his body, and blows from the character’s fists become deadly
weapons, with Accuracy, Parry and Damage ratings equal to the character’s
permanent Essence and a Speed equal to twice the character’s permanent Essence.
The character’s unarmed attacks do lethal damage. The Immaculate’s granite-like
skin also gives enormous protection, increasing his lethal and bashing soaks by
his permanent Essence score and allows him to soak lethal damage with his
entire Stamina. This protection is incompatible with armor but works with any
other defensive Charms that character may be using. The character also ignores
the penalties of losing health levels. He still takes the damage normally but
functions as if unwounded until incapacitated. If the character is wounded
already when invoking Perfect Earth Body, those penalties are eliminated,
although the damage is not healed.