Silent Wayfarer
This is my spirit animal
- Profile
- Appearance
- Attributes
- Abilities
- Charms
- Spiritual
- Advantages
- Mutations, Merits and Flaws
- Combat Stats
- Spending
- Miss Fortune
Name: Lance
Caste: Dawn
Concept: Smiling Proud Wanderer
Motivation: Build his legend in Creation
Intimacies:
Passions
Miss Fortune is my partner and friend (with benefits).
I love a good fight; it's my reason for living!
Beliefs
Win or lose, do it with style. Do everything with style. Style is life.
Always spare worthy opponents; they make life more interesting.
Always pursue good women; it's a compliment to them.
Taboos
Never harm a child, or permit them to be harmed. Why?
Never harm a good woman; self-defense is permissible.
Duties
I am a sworn knight of the Lady; thus I am gallant and mighty.
If there is a hole, it's a man's job to thrust into it!
Background
Lance doesn't remember not being Exalted. The earliest memory he has is waking up in a sumptuous boudoir, with The Lady of Charm looking down on him. According to her, she had found him face down in the snow, with a pack of direwolves fast approaching. She had her footmen shoo the beasts away, then brought him back to her Tower of Charm, where she nursed him back to health. She explained that he was Exalted of the Unconquered Sun; specifically, one of the Dawn Caste, who were peerless warriors and generals. This matched up with the instinctual skills and Charms he was beginning to recall as he searched through the dregs of his memories. Out of gratitude to her, and because he was unable/unwilling to resist her supernatural beauty, he pledged his service to her as a champion and bodyguard.
This suggestion must have pleased The Lady, because she accepted his offer with a smile. He was taken and schooled in the various arts of battle; but he showed a particular aptitude for the disciplines of close combat and agility. In addition, he received an education in the arts of courtly etiquette and self-presentation. After all, there was no point in triumph if one couldn't do so in style. The Lady personally knighted him after his training was complete, and henceforth he was dubbed her Knight of the Sun.
His daily routine typically involved going out and battling some horrible monster or faerie champion, defeating it in a stylish and dramatic way. At other times, he would stand by her side when she held court, eager to defend her person and her honor against the slings and jibes of her (boorish/slatternly) peers. The typical reward for his exertions was to share the bed of The Lady after the day was done, or perhaps to couple with a fair maiden. All in all, it was quite an agreeable arrangement; he fought, he spoke, and after that, he got to have sex with inhumanly beautiful women all night long.
Though this state of affairs was hardly a burden on him (though death was always a risk in his profession), the routine began to wear on him. The heroic spark in his soul was beginning to wonder if there was something more than this endless pageantry, and eventually he broached the question to The Lady that he be granted leave to depart her kingdom and wander afield.
As it turned out, Lance's novelty was beginning to wear thin on The Lady, and she agreed to his request; provided he returned periodically, with tales of heroic deeds and proof to match. And of course, he still owed her his life; but it would be terribly gauche to keep mentioning it. Besides, it wasn't as though he was going to forget a sworn oath; she'd trained him too well for that.
"Show me a good time!"
Saint, sinner, heretic and hero, Lance is the reason why the Solar Exalted are condemned by the Immaculate Philosophy... and also why they are the best hope for Creation in the Time of Tumult. Granted, he is ruled by his penis and any good deeds he accomplishes are usually by accident, but when he's good, he can be very, very good.
Thing is, most of the time, he's just Lance.
Str 5
Dex 6
Sta 1
Cha 5
Man 1
App 3
Int 1
Per 5
Wits 1
Martial Arts 5 (Solar Hero Style +3)
Melee 5 (Blades +3)
Thrown 1
War 5
Integrity (F) 5 (vs Essence Channellers +3)
Performance (F) 5
Resistance 5
Presence (F) 5 (Persuasion +3)
Lore 1
Occult (F) 5
Athletics (F) 5 (Combat Mobility +3)
Awareness 5 (Combat Sense +3)
Linguistics 1 (Riverspeak, Old Realm)
Socialize 5
Martial Arts
Fists of Iron Technique
Sledgehammer Fist Punch
Dragon Coil Technique
Solar Hero Form
Heaven Thunder Hammer
Melee
First Melee Excellency
Dipping Swallow Defense
Bulwark Stance
Heavenly Guardian Defense
Call The Blade
Hungry Tiger Technique
Athletics
Monkey Leap Technique
Awareness
Surprise Anticipation Method
Linguistics
Sagacious Reading of Intent
Socialize
Mastery of Small Manners
Compassion 1
Conviction 5
Temperance 1
Valor 5
Willpower 10
It's said that not all Dawn Castes are mindless brutes who like swords and can think of nothing but violence. Lance is one of these... if only because he thinks about sex instead. Well, even that's not wholly accurate. In general, he just goes after what he feels like doing and gives it his all. This makes him come off as a jerk because he rarely considers how others are impacted by his actions, and his pride is an easily-tweaked vulnerability. So is his excessively direct approach to everything in life, though he does it with such great gusto that he tends to sway people with him in his wake.
Essence 2
Personal Essence 16
Peripheral Essence 26 (36)
Committed Essence 10
05 - Tiger's Claw
05 - A Daughter's Duty
Artifact 2 - Tiger's Claw
This orichalcum daiklave has an odd, sparkling texture on its surface. On closer inspection, intricate First Age glyphs have been carved into it, poetically describing a complete and thorough curriculum in the arts of armed combat, both from a mortal and a supernatural perspective. The blade's surface is protected by a mirror-finished layer of red-tinted adamant; not enough to alter the artifact's magical properties, but making the characters appear as though they were floating specks of light suspended in a sea of blood. Its sheath is as dull and unremarkable as its contents are eye-catching, and there is a small twist of hair tied to its mouth in the style of a charm. It smells nice.
During Lance's travels, before he picked up Fortune, he happened across the valley of Shenjian, which housed the Snow Tiger sword school. The Snow Tigers were famed for their command of the martial arts, but what really got Lance's attention was the dojo's heiress, a beautiful young woman called Fei. Being the sort of person who thought with his dick, he immediately applied to the dojo, hoping that he would get the chance to sleep with her. Despite himself, however, Lance found that the Snow Tiger's swordsmanship was... a lot of fun, and he resolved to take his time with his conquest while he properly trained himself up in its secrets.
While he was training with the Snow Tigers, he learned more about the dojo's situation. Apparently, the local lord Zhou wanted to acquire them as an elite guard, and Fei as a concubine. Now, normally Lance wouldn't care about local politics, but he wasn't about to let some no-name feudal lord take the woman he had an eye on, so when he heard that Zhou was going to march on the dojo and Fei and take them both by force, he volunteered his services as a commander.
The battle went badly, however. The Snow Tigers were excellent warriors, but terrible soldiers, and even Lance's leadership couldn't save them against hardened veterans that outnumbered them ten to one. While Lance's skills were prodigious, he was restricting his use of Essence and Charms so that he wouldn't put Fei off. In the end, Fei was mortally wounded by a lucky arrowshot, and the last surviving Snow Tigers sold their lives dearly to cover their leader's retreat into the dojo. With her dying breath, Fei begged Lance to protect the secret of the Snow Tiger's teachings, and not to let them fall into the hands of Lord Zhou.
When Lord Zhou and his lackeys mustered up the courage to enter the Snow Tiger dojo, they found Lance waiting for them, standing over Fei's body. There were many reasons why they were doomed. While the promise of... intimate gratitude from Fei had been a prime inducement, the Solar he had come to enjoy his time with the Snow Tigers, and he hadn't been happy about them being wiped out to a man. As it turned out, the secrets of the Snow Tiger dojo had been inscribed on the reaper daiklave called Tiger's Claw, which Lance now held. More importantly, Fei had been one hell of a woman, and now she was dead.
Which meant that he didn't need to hold himself back any more.
Lance buried Fei in the courtyard of the dojo, with the piled heads of Zhou and his generals as a grave marker. He left the ruins of the dojo behind, with a lock of her hair as a charm to remember her by.
Mechanically, Tiger's Claw is a standard orichalcum reaper daiklave. Formerly the property of the Peerless Tiger General Yongwu, he gave it to his loyal Tiger Warriors in the wake of the Usurpation, for them to keep in a safe place for future incarnations after sealing off the most potent enchantments of the blade. Out of respect for Fei and the long-dead Solar, Lance hasn't tried to unlock them.
Artifact 3 - A Daughter's Duty
At first glance, this suit of sleekly articulated plate armor seems to have been designed to follow the musculature of the human body. A savant might realize that the underlayer - with its striated muscle bundles studded with arcane talismans - marks it as a suit of gunzosha armor. A truly knowledgeable savant would know that it dates from the late First Age; specifically, it is of the Minuano pattern (designed to emulate the cool breeze at evening), and the forge-stamp declares that it was manufactured in Denandsor. Despite the generally imperishable nature of First Age architecture, the armor bears signs of battle damage, though that only enhances the rugged aura of its wearer.
A poem is carved into the left rerebrace: "The Wolf is Fallen / His Legacy Continues / A Daughter's Duty"
Lance has had some experience with the noble art of demon-quelling (demons and ghosts tend to behave when stabbed in the face), and during a stay in some nameless town in the River Provinces, he heard the rumors that a restless spirit was haunting a cave where the townsfolk gathered the mushrooms they needed to live. With the offer of free room and board and the services of the town's hookers as an incentive, he set out to silence the fiend and indulge himself thereafter.
Of course, things hardly turned out as planned. The main reason was because the ghost in question belonged to an attractive young woman and Lance is generally averse to harming them. Still, he didn't feel like going back empty-handed, so he did the next best thing; he asked the ghost to explain its circumstances. Hopefully he could find out how she died and why she had lingered, so he could send her on to Lethe without having to discorporate her.
Her name was Filial Lily, daughter to a gunzosha veteran named Iron Wolf. Her father had been murdered by Drake, his treacherous comrade. Eager to avenge him, she had stolen her father's armor and set out to track Drake down to exact justice upon him. However, gunzosha armor shortens a mortal's life rapidly even when the special aegis-inset amulets are used to control the drain of life-force. Lily had no such protection, and her energies were sapped so rapidly that she had aged to death within minutes of executing the corrupt Drake. But while she had discharged her filial obligation to her dead father, she had still stolen Seventh Legion property and the same conviction that had driven her to death now sustained her beyond it. Thus, she asked Wolf to return the armor to Lookshy in her place.
Not being one to turn down a pretty girl's request's (even if she was dead) and with the advantage of a suit of First Age armor to help him out, Lance promised to return the armor to Lily's family, and having extracted that promise, the shade of Lily departed after a proper funeral. The thought of just doing whatever the hell he wanted with it had occurred to him, but Lance (like most people with questionable moral values) has standards, and he knows that sooner or later he will be making that trip to Lookshy to drop the armor off.
Besides, Lily died by having her life energies sucked from her body by the armor that Lance is now wearing. Even if it wasn't thoroughly suffused by her Essence already, this suit of armor is a powerful Fetter for her...
Daughter's Duty is a suit of First Age gunzosha armor, with reduced mobility penalties and no need for maintenance. It bears many scars of battle, most of which are only cosmetic in nature, but the dynamic motion-link systems were significantly damaged and Lily's Essence is clogging up the transmission meridians and prevents the suit's auto-repair systems from fully restoring them. Its fatigue rating is thus 2 instead of 1.
Allies 2 - Miss Fortune
This Dragon-Blooded woman is aspected toward Air, and shows signs of truly potent breeding. She travels with Lance and is arguably the brains of the outfit, though she is content to follow him wherever he might go. Given that Lance is fiercely loyal to Fortune and defends her from harm, this trust is probably well-placed. The overall effect is kind of like a big sister whom he has sex with.
Lance first met Fortune in the Court of the Lady of Charm, where she had recently come into the raksha's possession. He was smitten by Fortune and traded a sizable fortune in wealth, artifacts and amusing trinkets to the Lady (along with an oath or two of service) in exchange for the right to possess Fortune. While he did bed her, he was not cruel, which improved her attitude toward him. More importantly, he wanted to head back out into the world, which was where she wanted to be.
Fortune knows that Lance is a Forsaken demon and a horrible menace to humanity (particularly women), but her past is hardly spotless either, and besides, keeping Lance on her side means that she has an ace-in-the-hole for future endeavours.
Mutations
Inexhaustible (1 pt)
Hypnotic (sparkly smile) (2pts)
Lacking Temperance (1 pt)
Large Appetite (2 pts)
Merits
Legendary Dexterity (3 BP)
Flaws
Amnesia - Before Exaltation (3 BP)
Intolerance - Child Abusers (3 BP)
Obligation - The Lady of Charm (4 BP)
Lance isn't quite sure exactly what happened between the time of his Exaltation and waking up in the boudoir of The Lady (or, for that matter, what happened before his Exaltation) but evidently, she made some... adjustments to him. His smile goes ting and can actually keep up with her week-long orgies in all three dimensions, but like all gifts of the fae, her gifts are double-edged.
That doesn't even begin to cover the life debt he owes her for saving his life, though she's allowed Lance to roam Creation for as long as it pleases her. But she's going to collect... and the raksha don't quite understand that the shaped aren't quite as immortal as they are.
Join Battle: 11
Move: 12
Dash: 28
Jump: 60 vert, 120 horiz
Dodge DV: 4
Punch: Speed 5 Accuracy 17 Damage 7B PDV 8 Rate 3 Tags N
Kick: Speed 5 Accuracy 16 Damage 10B PDV 6 Rate 2 Tags N
Clinch: Speed 6 Accuracy 16 Damage 7B PDV - Rate 1 Tags C,N,P
Tiger's Claw: Speed 4 Accuracy 22 Damage 11L/2 PDV 8 Rate 4 Tags O
Dawn Anima adds +2 to all DVs when active.
Panoptic Fusion Discipline adds +3 Acc and +1 DVs when active.
Hungry Tiger Tech doubles overflow success to damage for 1m.
First Melee Excellency can add up to 11 dice for any Melee roll.
Join Debate: 11
Dodge MDV: 10
Presence: Speed 4 Acc 13 PDV 7 Rate 2
Hypnotic reflexively makes a social attack UMI for 4m.
BP
04 - Attributes
11 - Abilities
03 - Merits
07 - Specialties
03 - Virtues
Real Name: Cynis Belar Arika
"Well, someone's got to take care of him..."
Arika was dealt a winning hand in life. Beautiful, intelligent, well-bred, skilled at savantry, public speaking, archery and cutting people down with words? You'd have to try really hard to fail with advantages like that.
Thing is, she did. Arika let success go to her head and became a thoughtless, manipulative bitch who said and did whatever she wanted without considering the consequences of her actions. She pissed off enough powerful people that they pooled their influence to remove Arika from the equation once and for all.
The plan was simple; they sold Arika to the Guild, and claimed to the House that she had absconded with a bunch of valuable merchandise. The Guild, in turn, sold her to one of their best customers; The Lady of Charm, who loved playing with Exalted slaves. She took great pleasure in renaming Arika as Miss Fortune, and training/reshaping her into the perfect little pleasure slave/songbird/talking encyclopedia. The time Fortune spent as The Lady's pet went quite a way toward adjusting her attitude, though she despaired of ever leaving that gilded cage.
Enter Lance, who was smitten by Fortune's looks, and bid a fair amount of treasure and artifacts for the right to possess her. The Lady was amused by this turn of events and permitted it, even allowing Lance to take her out of her Tower and into Creation. Arika, on her part, was eager to return to Creation, where she could finally begin amassing the power and influence needed to avenge herself on the people who'd sold her into slavery...
...except, Fortune's found that her priorities have shifted somewhat. Despite Lance being a boneheaded, hedonistic brute, she's come to see parts of herself in him; such as a disregard for consequences and a singleminded drive and devotion toward whatever objective he has in mind. In short, she's come to feel responsible for keeping him out of trouble, and keeping him from making the same mistakes she did.
Aspect: Air
Anima: A flock of birds flutters up behind her, fading in and out of the surrounding air.
Motivation: Get revenge on the ones who sold her to The Lady
Intimacies:
Attributes
Strength 1
Dexterity 5
Stamina 1
Charisma 1
Manipulation 4
Appearance 5
Intelligence 5
Perception 2
Wits 2
Abilities
Linguistics 5
- First Linguistics Excellency
- Poisoned Tongue Technique
- Voice of Mastery
- Wind-Carried Words Technique
- Voices On The Wind
- With One Mind
Lore 5
Occult 3
- Emerald Circle Sorcery (Demon of the First Circle)
War 3
Melee 1
Presence 1
Socialize 2
Bureaucracy 3
Investigation 1
Martial Arts 1
* Archery 5 (Energy Attacks +3)
Medicine 3 (Internal Medicine +2)
* Performance 5 (Strings +3)
- Soul-Stirring Performance Method
Ride 3 (Flyers +2)
Spiritual
Compassion 2
Conviction 5
Temperance 5
Valor 1
Willpower 10
Essence 3
Personal Essence 21
Peripheral Essence 44
Flaws
Enemy - House Cynis (5 pts)
Dark Secret - Formerly of House Cynis (1 pt)
Obligation - The Lady (4 pts)
Much like Lance, Fortune owes the Lady a debt of fealty, and she is persona non grata in her House, and quite possibly in the Realm at large; there was a fair bit of character assassination going on in order to dissuade the House leadership from pursuing the issue.
Advantages
Breeding 5
Artifact 3 (Wound-Mending Needles, Jade Infinite Resplendence Amulet)
Artifact 3 (Unsurpassed Sanxian, Power Mace, Yasal Crystal)
Resources 4
Fortune's Breeding is impeccable, and had she not been eliminated from her House, she might be able to pick and choose her suitors. Her Wound-Mending Needles, Unsurpassed Sanxian and Infinite Resplendence Amulet are gifts accumulated over years of service, while the Power Mace (shaped like a hammer) and Yasal Crystal were discovered during her journeys with Lance. Her Resources derive from her keen business acumen (she was a graduate of the Spiral Academy and part of her duties involved balancing The Lady's gossamer expenses and reserves) and from shrewd negotiation of payment for services rendered.
BP Spending
10 - Essence 2 to 3
02 - Linguistics 3 to 5
02 - Lore 3 to 5
02 - Archery 3 to 5
02 - Performance 3 to 5
01 - Temperance 4 to 5
02 - Conviction 3 to 5
03 - Specialties (6 dots)
04 - Breeding 3 to 5
01 - Compassion 1 to 2
XP Spending
10 - Charm
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