Dice Sorrow’s Reach - Exalted 3e (Characters)

WlfSamurai · Jan 11, 2019

Please post your characters here. Standard character creation rules.

Sherwood · Jan 11, 2019

Name: Ledaal Tomiko
Caste: Twilight
Supernal Ability: Occult

Attributes
Str: 2
Dex: 4
Sta: 3

Cha: 3
Man: 1
App: 3

Per: 5
Int: 5
Wits: 2

Abilities
Archery: 1
Athletics: 2
*Awareness: 4 - Spotting Small Details
Brawl
Bureaucracy: 2
Craft
*Dodge: 3
*Integrity: 2
*Investigation: 3
Larceny
*Linguistics: 3 - Ancient Writings
*Lore: 5 - Obscure Knowledge
Martial Arts
Medicine: 1
*Melee: 2
**Occult: 5 - Sorcery
Performance: 1
Presence: 1
Resistance: 1
Ride: 1
Sail
*Socialize: 2
*Stealth: 2
Survival: 1
Thrown
War
Artifact Wrackstaff - Gnomon: 4
Artifact - Infinite Resplendence Amulet of Moonsilver and Starmetal: 4
Eidetic Memory: 2
Languages: 3 - High Realm, Low Realm, Old Realm, Riverspeak
Manse - Heirophant's Eye: 4

Willpower: 8
Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 33 (20)
Committed: 13

Natural Soak: 3
Armored Soak: 5
Total Soak: 8

Parry DV: 4
Evasion DV: 4
Resolve: 2
Guile: 3

Join Battle: 6 + 3 successes

Virtuous Guardian of Flame
Parry DV: 6
Perception: 10
Soak: 6
Hardness: 1
Health Levels: - 0 x 6

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ]
- 2 [ ][ ]
- 4 [ ]
Incapacitated

Twilight Anima Effects
• For five motes, the Twilight projects an aura of pure force, reflexively gaining five Hardness for one turn. At the bonfire/iconic level, this power activates itself automatically at no cost. This effect doesn’t stack with other magic that raises Hardness, but it can be used during Initiative Crash.
• For 10 motes, one Willpower, the Twilight’s anima flares blue and white and consumes her body over the course of the round. On her next turn, she vanishes into her anima and ceases to exist. If the Exalt moves or suffers knockdown before the action is completed, it fails and the effect is wasted. After using this power, the Twilight will not reappear until the following sunset. When she does, it will be at a place of power within 10 miles of her vanishing point, chosen by the Storyteller. She might appear at a temple, a demesne, a major crossroads, the door of a god’s sanctum, the precise center of a city, etc.
• For 10 motes, the Twilight may touch an Essence 1-3 elemental or a demon of the first circle, conjoining its Essence to her anima. Roll Intelligence + Occult against the creature’s Resolve. If successful, this creates a pact that changes the spirit into her familiar, allowing her to target it with applicable Survival Charms. In addition, the Twilight can reflexively summon the spirit instantly for three motes, drawing it through the Essence of the world to appear beside her. She may banish the creature again, reflexively, for free, returning it to the tides of Essence that suffuse Creation until needed. The Twilight may have up to (Essence) spirit familiars bound in this fashion at once.
Athletics

Cost: 3m; Mins: Athletics 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar draws Essence through her pores and into her bones, suffusing and lightening her form and steadying her step. For the rest of the scene, she has perfect balance, and can stand or run on things too narrow or weak to support her normally, with no chance of falling or breaking through. She can run on a guy wire, stand on a crumbling parapet, balance on the tip of a pine tree, and perform many similar feats without needing to roll (Dexterity + Athletics).

Cost: 2m; Mins: Athletics 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt leaps with the speed and grace of a striking hawk. Using this technique, a Solar may automatically leap forward or straight up one range band. A Solar using this Charm can easily leap to the top of a twenty foot wall or cross a Nexus street over rooftops, without having to roll. This Charm counts as the Solar’s movement for the turn. If the Solar continues to leap to a different range band each turn, the cost is reduced to one mote after the first activation.

Linguistics

Cost: 3m; Mins: Linguistics 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute, Written-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
A Solar with this technique writes with superhuman speed. The Exalt pens brief social influence or short communiqués with incredible speed—she can write a full-page letter in just seconds, while shorter missives may be constructed almost instantly. She can also quickly copy massive volumes of information. This Charm does not allow her to produce new work longer than a few pages, but she may flawlessly copy a written work of any length as she reads it, writing quickly enough that she may copy a large book in a single day, or prepare a document that would take hours to transcribe in a matter of minutes. The Solar can even perfectly transcribe a rapid conversation between multiple parties. The Solar may also quickly copy maps—though this Charm lends nothing to her artistic ability, she is able to convey all the information the original conveys, such that one could be substituted for the other, in function if not in form. This Charm does not destroy quills from writing too fast, but writing instruments do wear down at the regular speed, and the Solar’s writing consumes the normal amount of
ink. As this Charm entails a dramatic action in which the Solar copies a work, the duration of the effect varies. In a scene where the Solar has used Whirling Brush Method, additional activation costs only one mote.

Lore

Cost: —; Mins: Lore 3, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar’s mind covers a spectrum of mastered topics. With this Charm, add the Solar’s Essence in non-Charm automatic successes to any Lore roll that involves a Lore specialty. In addition, the player may add an additional Lore specialty to her list of Lore topics at the end of each story. The Storyteller may veto any particular topic, in which case the player is allowed to choose another specialty that’s more acceptable. Finally, at any point in which the Solar succeeds at a moderately or extremely difficult roll to introduce or challenge a fact (p. 237), the player may request to add a related topic to the Solar’s library of known topics. As with all other topics, this is allowable only at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Melee

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt channels Essence through skill, honing her accuracy in order to strike true. Her attack gains one automatic success. Additionally, all 1s are rerolled until 1s no longer appear.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Excellent Strike
Sensing an opening, the Solar strikes with surpassing speed. Immediately after making a withering attack which lowers an opponent’s current Initiative from a value greater to a value less than the Solar’s own, she may use this Charm to unleash a second attack against that opponent. This second attack may be withering or decisive.

Occult

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar steps through the First Circle and is forever transformed. Upon learning this Charm, the Exalt gains the ability to learn and cast spells from the Terrestrial Circle of sorcery. In addition, the Solar learns one shaping ritual (p. 466) and one Terrestrial spell for free. The spell selected becomes the sorcerer’s “control spell,” and may feature in the anima iconography and be referenced in the mechanics of certain Charms.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Occult 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar can look through the pall of reality to glimpse the realm of spirits beneath. With this Charm, the Solar can see (but not touch) immaterial spirits.

Cost: 1m; Mins: Occult 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Detecting Glance
The Solar infuses her attack with the emotive force of her anima, to strike an immaterial spirit. This Charm supplements a single attack to strike a spirit which has not materialized. If the Solar is not using the prerequisite or another similar magic, this attack is made at -3 dice. Spirit-Cutting Attack may be used in combination with the Charms of other Abilities.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Cutting Attack
This Charm is the technique by which the Solars slew the enemies of the gods, and spirits hate and fear it. An attack supplemented by this Charm does aggravated damage against spirits, and draws a number of motes from the spirit equal to the highest wound penalty inflicted by the attack. For example, striking off a number of -1 health levels would give the Solar one mote. Striking off a number of -2 health levels and a -4 would give the Solar four motes.
If a spirit is slain by this attack, it is destroyed permanently, and the pattern of its Essence is subsumed by the Solar’s anima. Destroying a spirit with this Charm grants the Exalt (Solar’s Essence + spirit’s Essence) motes.

Cost: 4m; Mins: Occult 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Detecting Glance
The Exalt gazes into the Essence of the world and sees the patterns of magic that make up Creation. For a few seconds after activating this Charm, the Solar can see Essence flowing through the world. She can perceive immaterial spirits, but moreover, she can see the workings of spirit energies around her. If a character is using a shaping action or Evocation, the Solar may make an Intelligence + Occult roll at a difficulty of the effect’s Essence minimum to determine how the power works. This Charm may also be used to identify the presence of ongoing sorcerous effects such as mystical barriers and levitating platforms, revealing not only the presence of magic, but how it functions. This power also allows the Exalt to see places where Creation is thin—the borders of shadowlands and the Wyld appear as hazy, gauzy distortions of light. The Solar may also detect the entrance to spirit sanctums within her range of vision. This Charm does not reveal the working of the Charms of the Exalted.

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight
The Solar’s keen eyes burn through deception. This Charm enhances All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, aiding the Solar in an attempt to see through magical disguises, shapeshifting, or any other magic which allows a character—even another Exalt—to appear to be something or someone other than who he is. This Charm makes it possible to notice such effects with Awareness, adding the Solar’s Essence in automatic successes to the attempt. For the difficulty of seeing through disguises, see page 224. Unless stated otherwise, seeing through all other kinds of magical identity-deceptions is a difficulty 5 feat.
Cost: Ritual, 2wp
Keywords: None
Duration: (1 + threshold successes) hours
As the sorcerer recites ancient prayers to deities long forgotten beneath the open sky, huge chitinous limbs emerge from above, weaving the wind and clouds to her will. Shaping the weather is an (Intelligence + Occult) roll that takes a few minutes to complete, with a difficulty based both on how drastic the change the sorcerer wishes to make is and how typical the desired weather is for her current climate and season. Creating a light rain in a temperate climate might only be difficulty 1, while strengthening a heavy rain to a thunderstorm or halting it completely might be difficulty 2-3. Summoning a tempest from blue skies, or utterly stifling a hurricane, would be difficulty 7+. Likewise, any attempt to create rain might incur increased difficulty if attempted in a desert, as would calling a blizzard outside of the winter season.
If the sorcerer succeeds, That Which Stirs the Sky weaves the desired weather in an area out to (Essence + threshold successes) miles from the point cast the spell. It lasts for (1 + threshold successes) hours before reverting to normal. Subsequent castings by any sorcerer cannot alter the weather within the spell’s range until its duration elapses. Characters within the weather can identify its unnatural origin with a (Perception + [Occult or Survival]) roll of difficulty 1-5, with subtler alterations being more difficult to detect.
A sorcerer with this as her control spell may create sorcerous weather that follows her as she moves; this costs half her threshold successes, rounded up.

Cost: 15sm, 1wp
Keywords: Decisive-only, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Sculpting Essence into volant black glass, the sorcerer unleashes a cascade of obsidian butterflies. She rolls (Perception + Occult) as an undodgeable decisive attack applied in a line against enemies out to medium range. This line is wide enough to strike all opponents within the width of a single range band and reaches high enough to strike aerial enemies who are at short range to the ground (medium range enemies in the air can still be targeted by directing the butterflies to fly along an upward path, rather than a horizontal one). Battle groups are especially vulnerable to being cut down by this spell, taking a -2 penalty to Defense against it.
The attack deals raw damage equal to the sorcerer’s (Essence + extra successes), or (Essence + Occult + extra successes) against a battle group. It does not reset the sorcerer to base Initiative. Scenery made of wood, glass, or other fragile materials is generally destroyed. After this spell has been cast, the obsidian butterflies fall to the ground and shatter, creating terrain that may be hazardous for barefooted characters to traverse—treat as an environmental hazard inflicting two dice of lethal damage, difficulty 2 to resist with a (Dexterity + Athletics) roll, and if the character is barefoot, difficult terrain as well. Any character wearing armored boots can generally ignore the debris.
A sorcerer who knows Death of Obsidian Butterflies as her control spell gains (Essence) bonus dice to the spell’s attack roll. When her emotions run hot, butterfly silhouettes rise from her shadow. When she is angry, her fingernails turn to sharp volcanic glass, making it possible to cut cloth or paper, rend wood or flesh and other similar stunts.

Flight of the Brilliant Raptor
Cost: 15sm, 1wp
Keywords: Decisive-only, Perilous
Duration: Instant
The sorcerer shapes flames of diamond and ruby into the form of a majestic bird of prey, evoking the elemental majesty of the garda birds. The player rolls (Perception + Occult) as a decisive attack against an enemy at up to long range, then sends the raptor streaking forth to consume her foe in deadly flames. The brilliant raptor embodies the sorcerer’s will, with a base lethal damage equal to (her Initiative + current temporary Willpower), and resets her to base Initiative on a successful attack. As long as the raptor deals 3+ levels of damage to its target, it ignites a bonfire (p. 230) that engulfs him and all terrain within short range of him, and burns until the end of the scene.
A sorcerer who knows Flight of the Brilliant Raptor as her control spell may use it to attack a target one range band beyond long range by paying an extra 5sm when casting the spell.

Cost: 7sm, 2wp
Keywords: None
Duration: Three rounds
The sorcerer lulls the Essence of air into sleep, transforming it into an opalescent fog of slumber. Mists of Eventide creates a cloud centered on a point out to medium range from the sorcerer, spreading to engulf all characters within short range of the center. Each round that a character breathes or has skin exposed to the mist, he must roll against its poison (Damage 3i/round, Duration 6 rounds, -3 penalty). Characters who are crashed while suffering from the Mists of Eventide’s effects do not take damage from it—instead, they fall into magical slumber, rendered comatose for a single day.

Special activation rules: Mists of Eventide can only be cast once per scene, unless reset when a Mists-poisoned opponent falls into Initiative Crash. A sorcerer who knows Mists of Eventide as his control spell can control the dreams of anyone who sleeps within his mists, causing them not only to dream what he commands, but to physically act out those dreams while sleepwalking. They can even be forced to battle their allies. The sorcerer may also reflexively release a spume of the mists from his breath once per scene; a target who breathes in these mists suffers the effects of the spell as though it had been cast. Sorcerers with Mists of Eventide as their control spell sleep fitfully with their eyes wide open unless surrounded by the mists.
Distortion (Goal Number: 5): Distorting the mists weakens their efficacy, halving the duration of each dose. Additionally, an opposing sorcerer may wake a character forced into magical slumber with distortion actions targeting him, made at the same goal number.

Cost: 15sm, 1wp
Keywords: None
Duration: One hour
Bending the winds to her will, the sorcerer creates a servile dust devil to ride. The Stormwind Rider is treated as a flying mount (p. 202), although it cannot take the sorcerer to more than short range above the ground. (Wits + Occult) replaces the usual rolls for all combat movement actions. The whirlwind can carry up to (Essence x 2) additional characters, or one hundred pounds of cargo in place of a single passenger. While it cannot soar as high as the Cirrus Skiff, the Stormwind Rider can travel at nearly 100 miles an hour and maneuver through forests or cities. In a race with other characters, the sorcerer rolls (Intelligence + Occult + current temporary Willpower) for each interval. In combat, characters within the Stormwind Rider are treated as having light cover against attacks made from outside of it, and vice versa. A passenger who is crashed or hit with a decisive attack is knocked out of the whirlwind, and suffers falling damage if applicable.

A sorcerer who knows Stormwind Rider as her control spell is buffeted by winds whenever she is beset by strong emotions. Sudden movements cause a small vortex powerful enough to scatter papers, upset furniture and topple someone caught off-guard. Her vertical leaps are buoyed by wind, allowing her to leap upward a single range band as her movement action; she can do so up to (Stamina) times before needing to rest. In addition, characters with an Essence pool gain access to the following powers while this spell is active:
• Enduring Tempest (5m; Reflexive; Instant): Once this spell’s duration has elapsed, the sorcerer may use Enduring Tempest to extend its duration for another
hour. She may do so for as long as she has Essence to continue using this power.
• Zephyr Rush (1m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant): The sorcerer whips the Stormwind Rider into a sudden frenzy of speed, allowing her to move up to two range bands with a single movement action in combat or doubling 8s on one interval of a race.
Distortion (Goal Number: 15): Distorting a stormwind rider causes it to buck and swerve violently in its flight, threatening to throw off its riders. All characters carried by the whirlwind must succeed at a difficulty 4 (Dexterity + Athletics) roll to maintain balance, although the sorcerer who cast it may substitute (Wits + Occult). Characters who fail their roll fall out of the whirlwind.

Cost: 15sm, 2wp
Keywords: None
Duration: One day
The sorcerer draws a flaming sword from her own heart, shaping a fiery sentinel to keep vigil over her. As she completes the spell, the burning blade collapses into a will-o’-the-wisp no larger than a torchlight —the sorcerer may conceal the Virtuous Guardian of Flame by commanding it to rest within an existing lit lantern or torch she carries. Should she be attacked, the wisp flares back into sword shape to fend off her enemy, protecting her as per the defend other action (Exalted, p. XX) with a Parry of ([higher of Essence or Intelligence] + 1). The virtuous guardian can even notice threats of which the sorcerer is unaware, rolling (Essence + Perception + Occult) to detect hidden enemies. Wooden projectiles or weapons successfully blocked by the guardian are burnt to ashes. If it parries an unarmed attack or other natural attack, the attacker suffers one die of lethal damage, ignoring Hardness. Even when its parries fail, its flames blunt the force of attacks against her, adding (Essence) natural soak against all but unblockable attacks.

The guardian has soak (Essence + 5), Hardness (Essence), and (Essence + Intelligence) −0 health levels. When the sorcerer Joins Battle, it gains Initiative equal to hers. It cannot take any actions of its own; instead, this Initiative is used solely as a buffer against withering attacks. If the guardian is crashed, it dissipates for a scene, unable to protect the sorcerer, but reforms after that. If its health track is filled with damage, it’s utterly destroyed, and the sorcerer cannot resummon it until its full duration has elapsed.

A sorcerer with this as her control spell may awaken Evocations from it, enhancing the guardian’s defensive power or wielding it offensively.
Distortion (Goal Number: 15): Distorting the virtuous guardian lets the distorting sorcerer temporarily usurp it from its caster, stealing its protection away from her for one scene.
Seven-Finger Wu is a name spoken with both reverence and outrage in the towers of Heaven, as the only thief known to have ever slipped past Yu-Shan’s gates and pilfered the orchard where the peaches of immortality grow. With a flash of his sword and a rapid sprint, he made off with a severed branch bearing enough sacred fruit to see his life through into the next age. He carved the branch into a peachwood walking stick, then disguised himself as a wandering hermit before stealing into Heaven a second time. With cunning, deception, and sheer nerve, he disguised himself as an elder Sidereal Exalt and hoodwinked a newly Exalted neonate into banding the staff with starmetal, completing the artifact for him before he absconded once again.

With Gnomon in hand, Seven-Finger Wu’s legend grew greater as he cheated time itself. He stole the ruby eye of Hesiesh from a Solar’s wedding band as it was being placed on her finger by her Lunar mate. He left an elegant poem in the private offices of Anys Syn’s celestial manse praising her prowess in pursuing him. However, when the Ichneumon Aeon arose from the Wyld, he banded together with his hunters to destroy the temporal predator, sacrificing his life to save Anys Syn from a fatal century-blow. Out of respect, she had the staff buried in the Night Caste’s tomb. Its location is lost to all but her, but legends of a peach tree of immortality that’s taken root in Creation have caught the ears of savants and scavenger princes alike.

Attunement: 5m
Type: Medium (+3 ACC, +12 DMG, +1 DEF, OVW 4)
Tags: Bashing, Melee, Reaching
Hearthstone slot: 1
Era: Gossamer Dawn Epoch

Evocations of Gnomon
Seven-Finger Wu’s trickery endowed Gnomon with an illusory mantle of celestial legitimacy. This quirk in destiny fools any Sidereal Exalted or god who works for the Bureau of Destiny into thinking that the staff’s wielder is a legitimate agent of Heaven. This is equivalent to a Minor Tie of trust.

Step Between Seconds
Cost: 2m, 2i, 1wp; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dissonant, Perilous, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
Time slows to a standstill as the wielder drives Gnomon down into the ground. She has a heartbeat’s worth of frozen time in which to move between moments. To use this Evocation, the wielder must win Join Battle at the beginning of combat and use it on her first turn. Time halts around her, allowing her to take a single action with any Ability during the frozen time — either a combat action, a miscellaneous action, or any other action she could normally take on her turn. She cannot use it to activate Simple-type Charms. Once time resumes, she takes her actions for the turn normally. Step Between Seconds doesn’t count as her combat action or movement action for the round if she attacks or moves while time is stopped. Outside of combat, the wielder may use this Evocation once per scene to take a single action in frozen time.
If the wielder attacks an enemy in frozen time, the normal flow resumes a split-second before she completes the attack. Her foe, perceiving the attack as an almost imperceptible blur, suffers the −2 Defense penalty for a surprise attack. Likewise, if she makes an opposed roll — such as pickpocketing a character or entering concealment — characters opposing it suffer a −3 penalty. Some actions, like social influence, cannot be used to affect other characters while time is stopped, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Dissonant: This Evocation can only be used outside of combat once per day.
Resonant: An Essence 4 repurchase of this Evocation allows the wielder to make a decisive attack during frozen time without resetting to base Initiative on a hit.

The amulet can generate any form of outfit the wearer can imagine, however grnad or humble. Changing the setting requires contact and a diceless miscellaneous action. Repairing or cleaning a worn outfit takes the same action as creating a new one.
The Amulet provides an extra success to all Resistance or Survival rolls to reduce or avoid the effects of deleterious environmental conditions, toxins or disease.
In addition, each Amulet has one material-specific feature by default, and composite designs include multiple features.

Moonsilver: The wearer gets two bonus dice to Stealth rolls and two bonus dice to assume a disguise with Larceny, as well as adding +5L/+5B protection that does not count as armor for Charms.
Starmetal: Such garments conceal numerous pockets folded into Elsewhere, providing sufficient storage space to carry up to a ton of assorted items safely out of reach of the world, provided the objects could actually fit through a pocket opening no larger than a foot across. Only the attuned wearer can reach into Elsewhere via these pockets; to others, they are merely stitched folds.

Keywords: Dependent, Linked
This black octagonal stone blazes with orange-gold light along each of its perfect edges. The Hierophant’s Eye grants one automatic non-Charm success to every shape sorcery action while socketed into an attuned artifact.
Knowledge is the Key to Everything (Defining)
Self Discipline (Major - Positive)
Immaculate Order (Major - Anger/Betrayal)
Old Friends and Colleagues (Minor - Nostalgia)
House Ledaal (Minor - Longing to Reunite)

Limit Break: Being faced with a intellectual challenge and not being equal to the task.

Crushing Doubt - The Solar is crippled by self-doubt. He will seek the assistance of his allies in every task, no matter how simple, and will pass his duties and responsibilities on to others whom he believes are more capable than him. If he is separated from allies, he must try to return to them
or else find some other companions, and will flee from any potential danger or obligation he encounters along the way.
Duration: Session. Crushing Doubt can be ended prematurely if the Solar is forced to face a significant danger alone and succeeds, or if he single-handedly saves an ally from a significant danger.

Tomiko grew up in the prestigious House Ledaal on the Blessed Isle. The precocious young girl was truly hungry for knowledge, and when it became clear that she was not going to Exalt as one of the Dragon Blooded, she dove into her studies and became one of the youngest people in her generation to graduate from the Imperial University. Tomiko then set her sights on becoming one of the tenured professors in the elite school, earning a place of honor in her family even as a mortal.

It was at this time that the professor, now one of the leading experts on the First Age, decides to lead an excavation on a recently discovered ruin that promised to hold many secrets from one of the many eras of the First Age. Once the expedition arrived on the site, it was everything that Tomiko had hoped for. It took many weeks to figure out how to open up the inner chambers of the ruin, and when they did so, disaster struck. A guardian automation that had been placed in the ruins to protect it from intruders began to attack the students and guards, killing all that it came across.

On the run and hiding inside the ruin, Tomiko is determined to save not only her own life but also the lives of the others with her on the dig. At one point, the Dynast comes across the remains of a tomb of some long forgotten Exalt just as the automation was heading towards her. Reaching out for the only thing she could use to defend herself, Tomiko grabs the Wrackstaff. As se does so, she takes her Second Breath as a Solar Exalt and with the power granted to her by the Unconquered Sun, she was able to destroy the automation and save the lives of her students.

Knowing that she would not be able to return to the Blessed Isle now that she is a Solar, Tomiko goes on the run.
Attribute increase - current rating x 4
Non-Caste/Favored Ability increase - current rating x 2
Caste/Favored Ability increase - (current rating x 2) - 1
New Ability - 3
Specialty - 3
Purchased Merit - new rating x 3
Willpower - 8
Solar Charm - 10 (8 if in a Caste or Favored Ability)
Martial Arts Charm - 10 (8 if Brawl is a Caste or Favored Ability)
Spell - 10 (8 if Occult is a Caste or Favored Ability)
New Evocation - 10

Xp Earned: 10
Xp Banked:

Solar Xp Earned: 8
Solar Xp Banked:

Psychie · Jan 11, 2019

Name: Scorpion
Caste: Dawn
Supernal Ability: Martial Arts

Attributes
Str: 3
Dex: 5
Sta: 4

Cha: 3
Man: 2
App: 2

Per: 2
Int: 2
Wits: 5

Abilities
Archery
*Athletics: 3
*Awareness: 3
*Brawl: 2
Bureaucracy
Craft
*Dodge: 2 - Ranged Attacks
Integrity: 2
Investigation
Larceny
Linguistics: 1
Lore
*Martial Arts: 5 - Swords
Medicine
Melee: 2
Occult
Performance: 2 - Playing to the Crowd
*Presence: 3
*Resistance: 3
Ride
Sail
Socialize
*Stealth: 2
*Survival: 3 - Deserts
*Thrown: 2
*War: 2
Merits
Artifact Armor - Silken Armor: 4
Artifact Daiklave - Shining Ice Mirror: 3
Hearthstone - Stone of Resilient Bamboo: 2
Languages: 2 - Flametongue, Riverspeak, Vashni (Local Tongue)
Martial Arts: 4

Flaws
One Arm
One Eye

Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 33 (23)
Committed: 10
Willpower: 6

Join Battle: 8 + 3 successes

Natural Soak: 4 + 2 (from Hearthstone)
Armored Soak: 5
Total Soak: 11
Hardness: 4 + 5 from Durability of Oak Meditation

Parry: 6
Evasion: 3
Resolve: 4
Guile: 1

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] - [ ]
- 4 [ ]
Incapacitated

Dawn Anima Effects
• At bonfire/iconic anima display, the Dawn adds half her Essence score (round up) to her base Initiative upon resetting to base after a successful decisive attack.
• For 10 motes, all of the Dawn’s combat and movement Charms with outstanding reset conditions are automatically reset. This effect can only be used once per day, becoming available again at sunrise.
• The Dawn Caste inspires terror in her foes. She adds half her Essence score (round up) in dice to all intimidating social influence. She may also intimidate targets which do not feel fear, such as automatons, golems, and certain undead.

Limit Break: When my allies suffer a setback or defeat due to a mistake on my part.

Heart of Flint - The Solar’s heart is hardened against all emotion, becoming distant and utterly lacking in empathy or feeling. While in Limit Break, he is treated as having no Intimacies whatsoever, making his decisions based purely on what is most efficient. His lack of empathy imposes a -2 penalty on all social rolls.
Duration: Session. Heart of Flint can be ended prematurely if the Solar’s apathy allows a character that he holds a Major or Defining positive Tie towards to come into life-threatening danger.
Athletics

Cost: 3m or 3i per dot; Mins: Athletics 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar draws remarkable strength from deep within her core. For every three motes of Essence or Initiative the Exalt spends, her Strength score increases by one. Each dot of increase also raises the base damage of her decisive attacks by one. The Solar’s Strength cannot be increased by more than her Essence rating through use of this Charm, and may not grant her more than double her Strength score. Through use of Increasing Strength Exercise, Solars can reach the Strength minimums required to attempt certain feats of strength (p. 229).

Cost: 2m; Mins: Athletics 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt leaps with the speed and grace of a striking hawk. Using this technique, a Solar may automatically leap forward or straight up one range band. A Solar using this Charm can easily leap to the top of a twenty foot wall or cross a Nexus street over rooftops, without having to roll. This Charm counts as the Solar’s movement for the turn. If the Solar continues to leap to a different range band each turn, the cost is reduced to one mote after the first activation.

Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Athletics 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Increasing Strength Exercise,
Monkey Leap Technique
The Exalt draws down on the Essence around her, pulling it through her upper body, her lungs, her core and down into her legs, and then explodes skyward, rising in a brilliant, Essence-laden arc. This Charm supplements a nonranged attack which can be made against aerial targets up to short range, or ground targets at short range. The Solar leaps at her target, striking with incredible force— damage is doubled after it is rolled. If the Exalt uses this attack to move to short range, it counts as her movement action for the round. After striking an aerial opponent, the Exalt may fall one range band without taking damage.
Thunderbolt Attack Prana is expressly permitted to be used in conjunction with Charms of other Abilities, and it is suggested that the player use it to create a signature attack that fits the character’s attitude and style.

Performance

Cost: 2m; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar’s talent is not free or instinctual, but rather the hard-won excellence that comes from a lifetime of practice. This Charm supplements a Performance-based action, granting one automatic success and rerolling 1s until 1s fail to appear. This Charm also makes the Exalt’s 1s unavailable to magic that might interfere with her performance.

Presence

Cost: 5m or 7m; Mins: Presence 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgiver embodies virility, magnetism and grace, empowering her forces of persuasion. For five motes, this Charm grants three bonus dice to all forms of social influence from all Abilities except Stealth. In addition, the cost of all social influence Charms are reduced by one mote, to a minimum of one. The seven mote version of this Charm extends the duration to indefinite.

Resistance

Cost: 3m; Mins: Resistance 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dual
Duration: One tick
Prerequisite Charms: None
A child cannot cleave a tree with a dull knife, nor can a foe hope to strike down the Solar with his petty blade. Against a withering or decisive attack, this Charm reduces raw damage by two. Against a decisive attack it also grants the Exalt four hardness. Note that the hardness bonus cannot be applied during crash.

Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 1, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The bodies of the Exalted are much more durable than those of mere mortals. To help simulate this, an Exalt may buy extra health levels with this Charm. The purchasing choices are based on the character’s Stamina rating:

At Stamina 1 and 2: One -1 and one -2 health level.
3 and 4: One -1 and two -2 health levels.
5: One -0, one -1, and one -2 health level.

The Solar may purchase Ox-Body Technique (Resistance) times. If she increases her Stamina after purchasing Ox-Body Technique, her health levels automatically change to reflect the new rating.
Single Point Shining Into the Void Style
Single Point Shining Into the Void is a sword style that emphasizes blinding speed and deadly-perfect finishing moves. Students learn to draw their blade as though it were an extension of their own body, transitioning effortlessly from the draw to a strike or parry. When a master duels a lesser swordsman, the fight often ends in a single stroke, the blade sheathed almost in the same instant it’s drawn. When faced against a foe who matches her in skill, the Single Point stylist fights with swift blows and an almost meditative focus, seeking the single moment of weakness in her foe’s defenses that will allow her to slash through him entirely.
Single Point Shining Into the Void Weapons: This style uses slashing swords and their artifact equivalents, reaper daiklaves, delivering lightning-fast attacks from the draw. It cannot be used unarmed.
Armor: This style is compatible with light and medium armor.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mastery, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The clashing steel and ferocious blows of the swordsman’s enemies do not disrupt her focus—rather, she welcomes them, gleaning the weaknesses of each foe’s fighting style from their offense. After successfully parrying an attack, the stylist can use Gathering Light Concentration to reverse the onslaught penalties inflicted by it. Instead of applying them to her Defense, she applies them to her attacker’s Defense until his next turn.
Mastery: At Essence 3+, the Solar may spend an extra 3i when activating Gathering Light Concentration to cancel all onslaught penalties she’s suffering from, and inflict them on her attacker.

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Committing fully to a lethal blow, the swordsman cleaves through her enemies with killing speed. Shining Starfall Execution adds (her Dexterity/2, round up) to the raw damage of a decisive attack. If she is at Initiative 15+, she adds her full Dexterity instead. However, if the attack misses, then the stylist adds (Dexterity /2) to the amount of Initiative she loses.
Mastery: Shining Starfall Execution also doubles 10s on the damage roll at Initiative 15+.

Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Gathering Light Concentration, Shining Starfall Execution
Sheathing her blade for a brief moment, the swordsman centers her mind and Essence. As she draw her sword once again and enters this form, it is as a lightning bolt of flashing steel, moving with unimaginable speed and control. While in this form, it is customary to sheathe one’s sword after each strike, and draw it anew for each new one—not merely as a show of this style’s formidable speed, but to contain and dissipate the overwhelming buildup of Essence that might erupt beyond the stylist’s control without such restraint. The first time the swordsman uses this Charm in a fight, she rolls her sword into battle with a (Wits + Martial Arts) Join Battle roll, giving it its own Initiative track separate from her own. This does not represent the sword gaining intelligence or agency of its own, but rather, the superior speed of the stylist allowing her to strike twice during each round. When the sword’s turn comes up in Initiative order, the swordsman may choose to make an attack with it, or to delay the action until later in the round. No other actions can be taken (including movement actions), and if the stylist does not choose one of these options, the sword’s turn is wasted.

The sword’s Initiative is separate from the swordsman’s own—withering attacks made by one cannot add to the other’s Initiative, and decisive attacks made by one do not reset the other to base Initiative. The base raw damage of decisive attacks made on the sword’s turn cannot exceed the swordsman’s own Initiative, even if the sword’s is higher. When the stylist is dealt Initiative damage, the character who damaged her may choose whether to apply it to her own Initiative or the sword’s, but cannot split the damage across both pools. The sword also loses a point of Initiative at the end of every round it was not used to successfully land an attack. If the sword’s Initiative is reduced to zero, then the stylist is forced out of this form, and cannot reactivate it again for three rounds. When she does, she does not reroll Join Battle, but only sets the sword to base Initiative. If the swordsman leaves this form voluntarily before the end of the fight, note the sword’s current Initiative rating. If it is reactivated later during the scene, the sword’s Initiative is reset to this value, rather than making a new Join Battle roll.

Special activation rules: Whenever the martial artist achieves the highest Join Battle value at the start of a fight, she may reflexively activate Single Point Shining Into the Void Form.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood must pay a point of Willpower each round she wishes to attack twice. Otherwise, she may only make one attack per round, choosing whether to “use” her own Initiative or the sword’s each round.
Mastery: The martial artist gains the following benefits:
• When using the sword’s turn to make a decisive attack, its damage is not capped by the stylist’s own Initiative.
• The sword does not lose Initiative on turns it did not successfully land an attack.
• If the sword’s Initiative is reduced to zero or less, the stylist loses the benefits of this form, but it still remains active. Once three rounds have passed, its benefits resume without the swordsman needing to activate it or pay its cost again. Additionally, if the swordsman crashes an enemy who reduced his sword’s Initiative to zero, then he may immediately roll Join Battle for it again and take an action with it on the same tick, as per the usual rules for Initiative Shifting (p. 194).

Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Single Point Shining Into the Void Form
Seizing the crucial moment, the swordsman lunges forward into an all-or-nothing attack, her blade blurring into a flash of crimson-flecked steel. Against an enemy with lower Initiative, Fatal Stroke Flash adds the difference to the raw damage of a decisive attack against him. The bonus damage cannot exceed the swordsman’s own Initiative. However, if the attack misses, then the stylist’s own Initiative falls to equal the enemy’s before he suffers the usual Initiative loss for missing a decisive attack.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood can only use this Charm after parrying an attack that caused the attacker’s Initiative to fall beneath her own. Upon doing so, she may use Fatal Stroke Flash against him on her next turn.
Mastery: The martial artist may also double up to (Essence) 9s on the attack roll.

Cost: 5m (+1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dual, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: One round
Prerequisite Charms: Fatal Stroke Flash
Moving faster than her foes can even blink, the stylist’s blade seems like a flowing river of steel. Liquid Steel Flow adds the stylist’s Dexterity to the raw damage of all her withering attacks. After landing a successful attack, she may pay a point of Willpower to extend this Charm’s duration to one scene. Making a decisive attack ends the Liquid Steel Flow, as the swordsman focuses all her speed into one deadly-perfect strike that converts up to (Dexterity/2, round up) dice of raw damage to automatic successes. If Fatal Stroke Flash is used to enhance this decisive attack, its Willpower cost is waived if the stylist paid Willpower into Liquid Steel Flow.
While this style’s form is active, if the stylist and her sword both act on the same tick to make decisive attacks, then the benefits of this Charm apply to both attacks before it ends. The swordsman does not seem to make two attacks, but a single stroke of steel that can fell even the mightiest enemies.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood cannot pay Willpower to extend this Charm’s duration.
Mastery: As long as the martial artist is at Initiative 11+, he also adds one automatic success on all attack rolls he makes against enemies of lower Initiative.

Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Single Point Shining Into the Void Form
As one heartbeat begins, the stylist draws her sword from its scabbard. By the heartbeat’s end, the blade is already stained with the blood of her enemy. The swordsman may attack an enemy out to medium range, drawing her blade and flashing to the enemy’s side in a single lunge that counts as her movement action for the round. She adds one automatic success to both the attack and damage roll for each range band she crosses, channeling the devastating momentum of her advance into the strike. However, if the attack misses, the swordsman loses control of her momentum, sliding past her target to end her movement at short range beyond him.
When the stylist and her sword take their turns together on the same tick, they may unleash the devastating attack known as the Countless Strikes Sheathed, combining the two turns into the single action of activating this Charm. The swordsman makes the attack roll before beginning her movement, and chooses whether she will use her own Initiative or the sword’s to make the final decisive attack. If the swordsman’s movement toward her target brings her within close range of other enemies whose Defenses would be hit by her attack roll, she may choose to reflexively strike them. Against each such enemy, she may choose to make a withering strike, which deals her Essence in Initiative damage and adds to the Initiative pool chosen for the final attack (including any Initiative Breaks received), or a decisive strike, which lets her forgo up to (her Dexterity) points of Initiative from the chosen pool and roll it as damage which ignores hardness. If one of these preliminary decisive strikes incapacitates a non-trivial opponent, the Initiative invested in it is recovered. Once the swordsman has cleared all enemies between her and the final target, she concludes with a decisive attack against the final target. Those struck by the Countless Strikes Sheathed do not even realize they have been attacked until the swordsman sheathes her blade at the conclusion of the final strike, at which point their wounds burst open.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood cannot use Countless Strikes Sheathed.

Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Single Point Shining Into the Void Form
Moving without the least sign of effort, the swordsman repels the blows of her attackers in a flash of steel before sheathing her sword, as if to seal away the wasted force of their strikes. Horizon-Swallowed Star Flash allows the martial artist to make a reflexive clash attack. A successful attack grants Initiative equal to her extra successes, up to a maximum of her Wits. This Initiative is added before calculating the raw damage of the attack.
While this style’s form is active, the stylist chooses whether to use her Initiative pool or her sword’s when making this clash attack. If she clashes, and then in the same round uses the other Initiative pool to make a decisive attack against the same enemy, that attack also receives the +1 damage bonus of being a clash attack. This combination move is known as the Shattered Mirror Nova-Strike.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood treats the clash attack granted by this Charm as her attack action for the round, and cannot make another. If she has already attacked this round, then it counts as her attack for her next turn.
Mastery: The martial artist’s attacker loses Initiative equal to the amount that the swordsman gains with this Charm.

Cost: 1m, 1wp (or 4m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Horizon-Swallowed Star Flash
Sweeping her blade through the motions of an intricate Essence-channeling pattern, the stylist forces hostile magic to condense itself into form, taking on shape as a howling devil which she swiftly dispatches and seals away as she sheathes her sword. The Six-Demon Scabbard Binding allows the swordsman to defend against a warping, twisting, or shaping effect that would alter her mind or body by making a clash attack against it, opposed by the activation roll of the effect. If the magic has no roll, its user rolls (Essence + Willpower), or a more suitable dice pool chosen by the Storyteller. Success on the clash attack allows the swordsman to strike through the manifest devil of the magic and its master with a single stroke. She may even clash against distant enemies, sending the devil howling back at its creator to deliver her wrath (which can strike dematerialized enemies as well as material ones).
The Six-Demon Scabbard Binding can also be used to cut a clear path through ambient or environmental transformative magic, such as the warping effects of the Wyld, at a cost of 4m. The stylist rolls (Dexterity + Martial Arts) against the difficulty to resist the effect, or an ad hoc difficulty set by the Storyteller. Success lets the swordsman cut a metaphysical path for herself, rendering her immune to that magic for one scene. It was with this Charm that Eternal Nova, the mythic creator of this style, defeated his own shadow to carve a path out of oblivion, giving this style its name.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood may only use this Charm to defend against hostile magic, and cannot make a clash attack against the character using it unless she uses Horizon-Swallowed Star Flash along with this Charm.

Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Liquid Steel Flow, Six-Demon Scabbard Binding, Void-Slicing Wind
The deadly finishing move of this style is a unique dual strike which can only be used when the swordsman has entered this style’s form, and acts on the same tick as her sword to attack a single enemy. She makes a single attack that slices between all hope for defense, splitting the air like a thunderhead. The first part of the Blinding Nova Flare is the overwhelming spiritual and physical pressure that proceeds the edge of the swordsman’s blade as she strikes, a difficulty 5 gambit made using the lower of the two Initiative pools. The swordsman need not roll an attack to execute this gambit. A successful gambit leaves the enemy incapable of any defense against the next part, a decisive attack made using the higher Initiative pool, rendered unblockable and undodgeable. Even if the opening gambit fails, the swordsman’s enemy suffers a -2 penalty to his Defense against the attack.
Special activation rules: Once the Blinding Nova Flare has been used successfully, it cannot be used for the rest of the fight until both the swordsman and his sword have reached Initiative 11+. If the opening gambit fails, this Charm does not need to be reset.
Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood who succeeds on the opening gambit does not render her enemy’s defenses inapplicable, but instead imposes a -1 penalty to his Defense for every success on her Initiative roll, up to a maximum -5 penalty.
Mastery: After the successful completion of this Charm’s opening gambit, threshold successes on the gambit roll are transferred into the pool used to make the decisive attack, after which both reset to base Initiative.
Soak +5, Hardness +4, Mobility Penalty 0, Attunement 4

Shining Ice Mirror is beautiful and minimalist by the standards of most daiklaves, with a thin, slightly curved jade blade the color of ice catching the afternoon sun and a hilt woven with the thinnest of precious starmetal wires. It’s a blade of deliberate nature, rewarding foresight in battle while disdaining those who hack and rend their way through their foes.

Ancient records indicate the daiklave was forged by the Terrestrial sorceress Mikako Khem as a gift for the Solar her family served as retainers. Shining Ice Mirror was shaped entirely in frozen flames at the heart of manse now long destroyed, and served as a sign of Gens Mikako’s bond of devotion until the night of the Usurpation. Surviving documents from the Shogunate indicate that it was unearthed from its Solar owner’s grave and carried into battle against the Winter Folk in several major battles, reverently returned after each untombing with great propitiating rituals. The weapon was believed lost during the Wyld Crusade, until it was recently unearthed by Haslanti League explorers during the excavation of First Age ruin buried beneath a massive glacier. Now a terrible shadow stalks the daiklave as it makes its way across the North. Its last three owners have been found torn asunder, their blood frozen around them; and yet no records survive to indicate where the weapon was once entombed.

Shining Ice Mirror possesses a single hearthstone socket at the bottom of its hilt.

Attunement: 5m
Type: Medium (+3 ACC, +12 DMG, +1 DEF, OVW 5)
Tags: Lethal, Melee, Balanced
Hearthstone slot(s): 1

Evocations of Shining Ice Mirror
A Solar who pays two extra motes to attune to Shining Ice Mirror may partake of its perfect balance and discerning spirit so that an aim action taken with the intent to strike with the blade also conveys the benefits (but not costs) of a full defense action.

Keywords: None
This stone gleams the pale green of young bamboo leaves. When its bearer sockets it in an attuned artifact and commits one mote, it helps shrug off minor injuries. She adds two to her soak, can parry lethal attacks unarmed without a stunt, and halves healing times for bashing damage.
Hatred of Slavery (Defining)
Love of The Unconquered Sun (Defining)
Hatred of the Vashni Desert Tribe (Major)
Protective of Allies (Major)
Fear and Distrust of the Dragon Blooded (Major)
To be known as the greatest blademaster in all Creation (Minor)

She never knew her family. How could she, since they had all been killed when she was just a baby? She also never quite understood why her life was spared; after all, what use was an infant to a bunch of desert nomads? No one ever told her why. No one ever bothers to give such details to a slave.

The tribe called themselves the Vashni. They lived hard lives in the desert, making a home in a place where most could not. If life was hard for the members of the tribe, it was nearly Malfeas for a young slave girl. She never even had a name. They just called her chula. She was a thing, a piece of property to be used as they saw fit.

Her days were filled with torture and humiliation, and her nights were consumed with loneliness and the wish to have a family of her own. She picked up a bone chip one day, and would lay awake at night carving at it with her small stone knife. She would create her salvation. Her freedom. She would call for a monster to come and rescue her. It would come and take her far away to a better place. Every night, she carved the bone chip into the rough shape of a scorpion; the first thing that came to her mind in the desert heat.

The carving took shape slowly, but finally, she was done. She carried it with her everywhere. She talked to it, whispering stories of how great it was, and giving it a terrible hunger. It would come for her and free her. Finally, one day, it did.

Members of the tribe were being hunted by some monster living out in the wastes. One by one, the villagers were taken. The warriors seemed helpless trying to find this predator that was feeding on their people. The tribe's shaman finally stood before his people and begged their gods for deliverance. He proclaimed that the one to free them from this scourge would receive the blessings of the gods themselves.

That night, she decided to hunt this beast herself. She was certain that she had called it out by some means, and it was up to her to stop it. It didn't take her long to gather her things. One advantage to not having much. Her only weapon was her simple stone knife. It would have to do.

The tracks lead her deep into the wasteland until she found its layer. A cave hidden behind the rocks and brush. She knew it was a foolish thing to go inside to fight the creature but she had no choice. Too many lives lay at her feet for calling it out.

A scorpion awaited her. She could feel its hunger and hatred flowing from it. With a wordless cry she charged. Pain blurred her mind as she became something less than human, something primal. Fueled by her rage, she fought on, ignoring the wounds and poison in her body. After what seemed to be hours, she found herself kneeling at the side of her fallen foe, badly injured and missing her right arm. Her final trophy was to take the stinger from its tail; proof of her victory. She was chula no more.

Going farther into the cave, she made a discovery. This used to be a tomb for one of the fallen Anathema, a Warrior of the Sun God, her new patron. Inside the cave, the darkness was banished by the glow of her anima banner, revealing the final resting place of one of the great Solar Exalted. With a sudden burst of strength, the young girl pries open the tomb and finds her reward waiting for her; a golden sword and armor, gleaming in the light coming from her. As her hands wrapped around the hilt of the blade, a sudden rush of knowledge hits her like a stampeding yeddim, memories from her past Exaltations. She was now ready to face her former tormentors.

She returned to the tribe and threw down the stinger before the shaman. Before the tribe, she demanded her due. Where were the blessings he had promised the one to rid them of this foe? He had no answer. He just stared in horror at the mark on her forehead. One of the warriors of the tribe cried out that she was a liar to claim victory when so many skilled warriors had fallen to the beast. He said he would prove this by dispatching this arrogant chula that would think it was a person.

Her rage returned. She could feel the strength flow through her once more. How dare he? He would pay! She had her own blessing. One from her God, the one that had granted her the strength to prevail in the face of certain death. She could feel her body change, the power of her Essence running through her, fueling her might. With a flash of metal, she drew her blade and with a smooth motion, takes his head off with a single swing.

She then turned to face the others, blood still dripping from her blade. "The next one to call me chula will join him in the Underworld! No one will ever call me that again! I am Scorpion, Blessed of the Sun! I should kill you all, but in my strength I am also merciful. More so than the lot of you deserve! Know this! Cross my path again and next time I will not stay my hand!"

That was the last she ever saw of them. Free from her slavery, Scorpion set out to start her new life, determined to make a name for herself. For some time, she traveled through the South, using her skill with a blade as both a sell-sword and a pit gladiator. This was before being approached by the Exalts of the Cult of the Illuminated, and they whisked her away to continue her training in earnest, away from the prying eyes of the Dragon Blooded.
Attribute increase - current rating x 4
Non-Caste/Favored Ability increase - current rating x 2
Caste/Favored Ability increase - (current rating x 2) - 1
New Ability - 3
Specialty - 3
Purchased Merit - new rating x 3
Willpower - 8
Solar Charm - 10 (8 if in a Caste or Favored Ability)
Martial Arts Charm - 10 (8 if Brawl is a Caste or Favored Ability)
Spell - 10 (8 if Occult is a Caste or Favored Ability)
New Evocation - 10

Xp Earned: 10
Xp Banked:

Solar Xp: 8
Solar Xp Banked:

Wish List:
Spirit Strengthens the Skin
Iron Skin Concentration
Blade Turning Body Technique (E2, Resistance 4)

Red Shadow Claws · Jan 18, 2019

Name: Gatherer of Clouds
Caste: Eclipse
Age: 21
Concept: A budding socialite
Anima: A silvery swirl of clouds, with a sun shinning through

Attributes
Str: 2
Dex: 2
Sta: 3

Cha: 4
Man: 4
App: 3

Per: 4
Int: 2
Wits: 3

Abilities
Archery
Athletics
Awareness 1
Brawl
Bureaucracy 3 (Greasing Palms)
Craft
Dodge
Integrity 3
Investigation 3
Larceny
Linguistics 2 (Native – Riverspeak)
Lore 3 (Lookshy)
Martial Arts
Medicine
Melee 3
Occult 3
Performance
Presence 4 (I’m Asking Nicely)
Resistance 2
Ride
Sail
Socialize 5 (Carousing)
Stealth
Survival
Thrown
War
Merits
Artifact: 2 (Red Jade Hearthstone Bracers)
Artifact: 4 (Dancing Moth’s Dress)
Resources: 2
Manse: 3 (Trance-Scorching Sardonyx)

Willpower: 7

Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 27
Committed: 6

Anima Power:
Bureaucracy
Deft Official’s Way

Cost: 5m; Mins: Bureaucracy 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgiver becomes preternaturally adept at navigating through bureaucracies. She can naturally sense who to talk to in order to produce results, who expects or is amenable to bribes, which functionaries are actually useful or friendly and which are officious tyrants abusing their meager sliver of power. The Solar may add her Bureaucracy score to the read intentions actions of any Ability so long as it helps her in producing a desired bureaucratic result, such as obtaining a license, gaining a passport or securing an audience.

Integrity
Stubborn Boar Defense

Cost: —; Mins: Integrity 2, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Bridge
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None or any 3 Bureaucracy, Presence, or War Charms
The Lawgiver’s resolve cannot be easily broken. Once the Solar has resisted a persuade action, she gains +2 to her Resolve if the issue is raised again. The Solar’s Lunar mate is always capable of insinuating herself into the Solar’s graces and may ignore this Charm’s effect.

Investigation
Watchman’s Infallible Eye

Cost: —; Mins: Investigation 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgiver is attuned to her subconscious, and is preternaturally aware of her surroundings. If the Exalt possesses this Charm, she feels an instinct each time she encounters a scene in which a case scene or profile character action (p. 224) should be used. At this point, the Storyteller informs the player which action is appropriate, and vaguely why—if danger is present, the player is informed that the Solar senses a trap and should use a case scene action; if there is a suspicious character, the player is made aware of that character so that a profile action can be used. This Charm does not entail automatic success at each prospective action. It merely informs the player which action should be performed, and why. As the Solar notices many things the player does not, this Charm can be used to generate reasons for investigations it would otherwise be impossible for a normal character to perceive.

Crafty Observation Method

Cost: 5m; Mins: Investigation 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Watchman’s Infallible Eye
By examining the undisturbed physical evidence of an event, the Solar can flawlessly reconstruct the physical process behind that event. Finding a corpse with a knife wound, she can tell what sort of knife was used, and from what angle the blow was struck. She can differentiate between blood spatters, assigning each to a different stroke of a weapon made at a different time, and so on. This Charm is not limited to crime scenes. The Solar can likewise reconstruct the evidence left behind by a liaison, examine the leavings of a camp site, etc. This acts as a normal case scene action, save that the Lawgiver does it in a handful of seconds, and gains (Essence) automatic successes and double 9s to her attempt.

Linguistics
Whirling Brush Method

Cost: 3m; Mins: Linguistics 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute, Written-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
A Solar with this technique writes with superhuman speed. The Exalt pens brief social influence or short communiqués with incredible speed—she can write a full-page letter in just seconds, while shorter missives may be constructed almost instantly. She can also quickly copy massive volumes of information. This Charm does not allow her to produce new work longer than a few pages, but she may flawlessly copy a written work of any length as she reads it, writing quickly enough that she may copy a large book in a single day, or prepare a document that would take hours to transcribe in a matter of minutes. The Solar can even perfectly transcribe a rapid conversation between multiple parties. The Solar may also quickly copy maps—though this Charm lends nothing to her artistic ability, she is able to convey all the information the original conveys, such that one could be substituted for the other, in function if not in form. This Charm does not destroy quills from writing too fast, but writing instruments do wear down at the regular speed, and the Solar’s writing consumes the normal amount of ink. As this Charm entails a dramatic action in which the Solar copies a work, the duration of the effect varies. In a scene where the Solar has used Whirling Brush Method, additional activation costs only one mote.

Occult
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar steps through the First Circle and is forever transformed. Upon learning this Charm, the Exalt gains the ability to learn and cast spells from the Terrestrial Circle of sorcery. In addition, the Solar learns one shaping ritual (p. 466) and one Terrestrial spell for free. The spell selected becomes the sorcerer’s “control spell,” and may feature in the anima iconography and be referenced in the mechanics of certain Charms.

Melee
Dipping Swallow Defense

Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
With speed and grace, the Exalt flashes to her own defense. Even when she is beleaguered she strikes away blows with preternatural accuracy. The Solar can ignore all penalties to parry an attack with her full Defense. In addition, any attack she successfully parries with Dipping Swallow Defense grants her one point of Initiative. This Charm cannot by itself remove the penalties from a surprise attack.

Presence
Harmonious Presence Meditation

Cost: 5m or 7m; Mins: Presence 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgiver embodies virility, magnetism and grace, empowering her forces of persuasion. For five motes, this Charm grants three bonus dice to all forms of social influence from all Abilities except Stealth. In addition, the cost of all social influence Charms are reduced by one mote, to a minimum of one. The seven mote version of this Charm extends the duration to indefinite.

Resistance
Ox-Body Technique

Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 1, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The bodies of the Exalted are much more durable than those of mere mortals. To help simulate this, an Exalt may buy extra health levels with this Charm. The purchasing choices are based on the character’s Stamina rating:

At Stamina 1 and 2: One -1 and one -2 health level.
3 and 4: One -1 and two -2 health levels.
5: One -0, one -1, and one -2 health level.

The Solar may purchase Ox-Body Technique (Resistance) times. If she increases her Stamina after purchasing Ox-Body Technique, her health levels automatically change to reflect the new rating.

Socialize
Mastery of Small Manners

Cost: 5m; Mins: Socialize 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar attunes herself to the patterns of social interaction, allowing Essence to guide her responses. While this Charm is active, the Exalt adapts to the expectations of a host culture, and is able to instinctively and reflexively follow its customs, behaving appropriately for the situation at hand. This Charm does not grant the Exalt perfect understanding of a society, but covers greetings, eating and gift customs, and flirtation mores. This Charm eliminates all penalties incurred by unfamiliarity with cultural expectations and group dynamics, and prevents a character from committing any major faux pas. In addition, those who hold positive Intimacies for the culture the Solar has attuned herself to gain a temporary positive Minor Tie of respect or admiration for the Solar, while those who hold negative Intimacies for foreigners or outsiders have that Intimacy temporarily lowered by one level of intensity.

Unimpeachable Discourse Technique

Cost: 3m; Mins: Socialize 5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mastery of Small Manners
The Solar is the guardian of her thoughts. If she’s in a situation where Mastery of Small Manners would apply, she may use this Charm to supplement a persuade or instill action that speaks to group policy, changing cultural attitudes or steering future courses. This Charm ensures that her arguments are logical and extremely well thought out: reroll all 1s until 1s fail to appear, and deny the benefits of the Solar’s 1s to the magic of her enemies.

Motive-Discerning Technique

Cost: 3m; Mins: Socialize 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm supplements a read intentions action (p. 218), applying the double 9s rule to the Solar’s roll. In addition, the Exalt may substitute Wits for Perception when she is reading the intentions of a person with whom she is speaking.
A Socialize 4+ repurchase enhances this Charm’s performance. When the Solar discerns the intentions of her target, the player may speculate on the existence of one of the target’s related Intimacies. If the player is correct, the Solar becomes aware of that Intimacy as per Cunning Insight Technique.
A Socialize 5 repurchase enhances this Charm when it is used to speculate about a target’s Intimacy; if the player’s first speculation is incorrect, the player may inquire about the existence of a second Intimacy.

Shadow Over Day

Cost: 1m or 2m; Mins: Socialize 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar flenses herself of emotion and expression, shedding her façade to become inscrutable. The Solar may reflexively raise her Guile by one point. At Essence 2+, the Solar may pay two motes for two points of Guile.

Quicksilver Falcon’s Eye

Cost: 1m; Mins: Socialize 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One turn
Prerequisite Charms: Motive-Discerning Technique
With a supernaturally keen sense for social interaction, the Lawgiver can gauge a character’s response to any social influence. She can even tell conspirators from rivals at a glance. With this Charm the Solar can intuit when a character applies Resolve or Guile against social influence actions and when he doesn’t. When she makes an argument she believes her target will readily accept, but he applies his Resolve, she senses his hesitation. When he applies his Guile to occlude his intentions, she knows he’s hiding something. When characters engaged in an argument seem to disagree yet she sees no application of Resolve, this is a clear sign of a sham performance.

Aspersions Cast Aside

Cost: 5m; Mins: Socialize 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Unimpeachable Discourse Technique
The Lawgiver is ever blameless. With this Charm she can cast aside all 1s and 2s after making a Socialize roll, forcing them onto a target within five feet. This target must then make a (Wits + Socialize) roll with a difficulty of the Solar’s Essence to keep his composure, with foisted 2s replacing the lowest successes (typically 7s) and 1s replacing the next digit up (usually 8s). The Solar gains these successes to her initial roll, while her target appears to be the one who said something ridiculous, upset his wine cup into the gravy bowl, or so on. The Solar may use his Charm in response to another Solar using Aspersions Cast Aside, but may not direct the impending botch back at the initiate.

Sorcery
Cirrus Skiff [Control Spell]

Cost: 15sm, 1wp
Keywords: None
Duration: Until ended
The sorcerer calls down a Cirrus Skiff to bear her skyward, a small white puffy cloud just large enough for her and one other passenger to ride upon. The cloud descends from the sky and hovers near the sorcerer like a faithful puppy until she steps on, at which point it rises into the air, obeying her mental commands. It is slow-moving, managing a pace of only (Essence x 6) miles per hour, but is virtually unlimited in its flight capability, able to rise upward with no limit other than the ability of its caster to endure the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere. In combat, the sorcerer rolls (Wits + Occult) in place of standard movement rolls to mentally direct the cloud, but otherwise faces no complications or penalties.
If the sorcerer wishes to sleep, study, or otherwise rest on the Cirrus Skiff without having to give it constant instructions, she may give it a set command, such as “Fly a mile up into the air and stay there” or “Circle around the satrap’s palace,” which it will obey until she gives it new orders. The sorcerer may disembark from the skiff for up to one scene without ending this spell, but any absence beyond that ends the spell, sending the cloud flying back up into the stratosphere.
A character who knows Cirrus Skiff as her control spell may cast it with an Indefinite duration. Her conjured cloud will follow after her after she disembarks, eagerly awaiting her return without ever leaving. It will follow simple instructions from the sorcerer, even when she’s not riding it, and can be summoned by the sorcerer’s call from anywhere in Creation, proceeding to her side at the best speed it can manage.

Distortion (Goal Number: 7): Distorting a Cirrus Skiff weighs it down, turning the cloud into a heavy, dense fog for a scene. The sorcerer suffers a -3 penalty on the (Wits + Occult) rolls to control the distorted skiff’s movement, and it cannot fly above long range from the ground. If it is already higher than that, it begins dropping at a rate of two range bands per round, in addition to any other movement the sorcerer takes.

Bloodsworn to Tempests [Sorcerous Initiation]

Awakened by mingling blood with that of a god of storms and swearing binding oaths of loyalty before Heaven, your mind has been set ablaze with new insight. In stillness, patterns reveal themselves to your inner eye. In fury, insight strikes swift and devastating. You may be adopted kin to cloud herders, but it is the storm that speaks to you as a sibling. The sorcerer’s blood brothers and sisters lend their aid, but also their wrath and sorrow. The Merit costs may bear some tweaking. The "start of any journeys" clause in Tempest Harvesting is specifically included under the assumption that journeys = exposure to weather and also to offset the pain of dragging that poor Crafter out of their workshop.

Shaping Rituals
Storm’s Bounty - The sorcerer gains sorcerous motes when using a stunt to incorporate a storm into a shaping action. If the storm is mere rains and winds, gain motes equal to the stunt’s rating. If the storm represents an environmental hazard, the stunt garners (stunt+3) motes instead. She may only gain these motes once per scene. Her control spell is not subject to the scene limitation.
Storm’s Fury - Upon gaining or acting on an Intimacy of hostility, anger, or sorrow, the sorcerer may reflexively add sorcerous motes equal to the value of the Intimacy to a shaping action. This expressly allows the sorcerer to maintain an ongoing shaping action while engaging in other actions. She may only draw on one such Intimacy per day with this ritual. Her control spell is exempt from this limitation, but the ritual may only grant up to 10 motes per scene.
Parting Clouds - Once per day when the sorcerer takes time to meditate, appraise the artistry of the Cloud Herders, or otherwise enjoys some time in quiet contemplation under the open sky, she may roll (Wits+Integrity) at a default difficulty of 1. She gains sorcerous motes equal to the number of successes. These motes are lost at the end of the day.

Merits:
Weather Eye (): Your kinship allows you to intuitively predict weather patterns. Roll Perception+[Lore, Sail, or Survival] at a difficulty determined by the Storyteller. Success allows you to predict the weather for the next 2-3 days. Every threshold success adds another day to that time, to a limit of a week and a day. Predictions may be upset by sorcerous or divine interference.

Voice of Thunder (): When you will it, your voice booms with palpable force. The sorcerer gains double 9s on all rolls where both volume and majesty would prove valuable, such as issuing orders in battle or performing before a large audience. She may also stunt usage of this talent to startle or deafen foes within Short range, but allies will also be at risk. The sorcerer may make herself intelligibly heard by those at Long range, and even those farther away may hear battlecries or incoherent shouts. Use of this ability can prove taxing, especially if used repeatedly or for extended periods.

Tempest Harvesting (): The sorcerer is able to draw creative inspiration from whispers and howls of the wind, the shapes of clouds, or the rhythms of falling rain.. She gains 2 silver xp at the start of any journeys or when stunting how the weather is inspiring her creation. The sorcerer may instead utilize especially forceful weather conditions (downpours, driving gales, thunderstorms) as a Means toward sorcerous workings.
Red Jade Hearthstone Bracers

A wide variety of decorative artifacts exist whose sole purpose is to provide a socket into which an attuned hearthstone may be placed. The most common form of these artifacts are amulets wrought of the five magical materials, though hearthstone bracers are nearly as popular, and some Chosen—particularly Sidereals—prefer circlets or tiaras which fix the hearthstone in the center of their forehead, directly over their Caste Mark. All such items cost a single mote to attune.
If a character wears magical armor of the same material as a worn hearthstone amulet (tiara, bracer, etc.), then the amulet’s socket is considered to be part of that armor for the purpose of dependent hearthstones (see p. 604).

Trance-Scorching Sardonyx

Keywords: Dependent
When this striped red and black orb is socketed in an attuned artifact, its bearer can call upon its inner fire to burn away unnatural lethargy. She gains +2 Resolve against magical effects that induce sleep, apathy, forgetfulness, or other passive mental or emotional states.

Dancing Moth’s Dress

Fluttering Hem Fire
Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
The hem of the Gown flickers like fire, drawing the eye. While the wearer is in motion, onlookers focus less on their defenses. During a single social influence roll, this Evocation increases the intensity of Intimacies toward the wearer or toward beautiful things.
Resonant: May spend +1wp upon activation to extend Duration to One Scene

Burning Touch Desire
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dissonant, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Fluttering Hem Fire
Those who watch the Gown in motion want to touch the beautiful, fiery patterns. When they do, they are burned—and want only to touch it again. While in combat, if the wearer has taken a movement action this turn (including Move), any foes that she attacks suffer a penalty to their Defense equal to the intensity of the Intimacy they have toward the wearer or to beautiful things, using the higher of the two.
Dissonant: The penalty uses the lower of the two Intimacies.

During the bloody chaos of the Shogunate, things of beauty were eschewed in favor of practical, violent things. Dancing Moth looked upon this brutal, ugly world, and she sighed. Then, a spark revealed how she could make something beautiful and dangerous.
The songs tell of Dancing Moth, who wore a gown of red and flame. Who danced within the halls of the Shoguns, who drew them in close with warmth of face, of body, and of fire. Who burned alive those who challenged her family’s authority. Dancing Moth’s treachery caught up with her, though, and that family now holds it. House Tepet claims ancestral ownership of it, while House Peleps claims practical ownership.
The Gown itself is of silk intertwined with the most delicate threads of red jade, producing a brilliant hot red color. While heavy for a dress, the trace amount of jade within it is not enough to provide the benefits of armor. The threads form a pattern of circles reminiscent of the eyes of moths’ wings.

Evocations of Dancing Moth’s Gown
Attunement to the Gown costs 5 motes, and provides (Essence) bonus dice to any seduction attempt.

Fluttering Hem Fire
Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
The hem of the Gown flickers like fire, drawing the eye. While the wearer is in motion, onlookers focus less on their defenses. During a single social influence roll, this Evocation increases the intensity of Intimacies toward the wearer or toward beautiful things.
Resonant: May spend +1wp upon activation to extend Duration to One Scene

Burning Touch Desire
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dissonant, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Fluttering Hem Fire
Those who watch the Gown in motion want to touch the beautiful, fiery patterns. When they do, they are burned—and want only to touch it again. While in combat, if the wearer has taken a movement action this turn (including Move), any foes that she attacks suffer a penalty to their Defense equal to the intensity of the Intimacy they have toward the wearer or to beautiful things, using the higher of the two.
Dissonant: The penalty uses the lower of the two Intimacies.

Invitation to Inferno
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Fluttering Hem Fire
The wearer looks upon a foe with inviting eyes and a gesture with hand and swirl of gown. This is a persuade action made toward a foe within Short range. If successful, the target must take a Move action to draw close to the wearer. This effect may be resisted for 1wp.

Moth-Eye Distraction
Cost: 6m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Dissonant, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Invitation to Inferno
The wing-and-eye pattern of the Gown hypnotizes its viewers, encouraging them to remain in her presence with nary a word. This is a persuade action, that, if successful, convinces the targets to remain within Medium range of the wearer for the scene. If outside of this range already, the target must take Move actions to be within range as soon as possible. This may be resisted at any time on the target’s turn for 1wp. This action may be performed nonverbally at no penalty.
Dissonant: The action must have a speaking component or suffer the usual nonverbal penalty.
Resonant: The range is reduced to Short.

Moth-Wing Scintillation
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Burning Touch Desire
The wearer swirls the gown and shakes off wisps of black smoke, dotted with shimmering sparks, as she dances about. This Evocation creates an environmental hazard within Close range, and its effects linger in a range band for 1 round. The hazard deals 1 die of Bashing damage per turn, and imposes a -1 penalty to all combat and Awareness actions while within it.

Moth-and-Flame Union
Cost: 6m; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: One grapple
Prerequisites: Moth-Eye Distraction, Moth-Wing Scintillation
As the moths draw in, the flame of desirous destruction becomes only more beautiful. This is a persuade action that, if successful, forces the target to make a grapple attempt against the wearer. While she is grappled, the Gown erupts into flame, subjecting the target to bonfire-intensity environmental damage. If the grapple fails, the flames within the Gown burst outward, subjecting all creatures within Close to 4 dice of Lethal damage.
Resonant: The burning heat of the Gown increases, subjecting grappled foes to lava-intensity environmental damage instead.

Moth-and-Spark Dance
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dissonant, Resonant
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Moth-and-Flame Union
Sparks fly, moths fly, and ashes fly. Giving the hem of the Gown a flourish, a pair of moth-wings flare into being. This enables the wearer the ability to fly, temporarily granting the 5-dot version of the Wings merit.
Dissonant: Characters who are dissonant with Jade cannot awaken this Evocation.
Resonant: Buoys of heat and flame lift targets of the Gown’s Evocations, allowing them to move through the air to obey the functions of the Evocations.
Special Activation Rules: Slaying a nontrivial foe reflexively activates this Evocation at no cost.
Health Levels
-0 [ ][ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
I [ ] [ ] [ ]

Willpower: 7

Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 27
Committed: 6

Join Battle: 4

Parry: 3
Evasion: 1

Total Soak: 3
Hardness: 0

Guile: 5
Resolve: 3

War Fan – Accuracy: 8, Damage: +9. Defense: +0, Overwhelming: 1, Tags: Disarming. Melee, Light
Intimacies
Defining (positive): Bring the Scavenger Lands together
Major (positive): Ragnald, her father
Major (negative): Realm Dragon-Blooded, not to be trusted
Minor (positive): Metagalapa, a shinning mountain
Minor (positive): Seducing men

Background
Gatherer of Clouds was born with the name Salveta and was the daughter of one of Metagalapa’s Dragon-Blooded hawk riders. She proved to have a way of charming others, mainly men, and he secured for her a position in Lookshy, hoping that she will be taught there, and bring him honor, and maybe capture the heart of a Dragon-Blooded there, and either seduce him to come to Metagalapa with her, or to take her as his wife, and bear Dragon-Blooded children.

While she didn’t know all of her father’s plans for her, she was thrilled to see this magnificent land-bound city.

But things didn’t go quite as planned, for when she was dropped off in Greyfalls, in the hands of Tepet Kaolin, the woman sought to turn her against her father, and to act as a spy for her in Lookshy, and when Salveta resisted, she called forth a Thunderbird, seeking to have the elemental strike fear into the mortal, and cow her, but the strangest thing happened. The moment she laid eyes on the elemental, it was like a floodgate opened in her soul, and it cried out to the elemental. She reached her hand, and stroked it’s beak, and was suddenly engulfed in a warm radiance. She turned towards the Dragon-Blooded, who panicked, and tried to have the elemental strike at the Anathema, only to have the thunderbird turn side, and strike at the Tepet Kaolin, killing her. picking up the Artifacts the Dragon-Blooded carried, Salveta fled, seeking to understand what happened.

It was a few weeks later, that she met a kind stranger, who told her of how the Solars were the rulers of Creation, and taught her that her powers were good. Salevta then decided to shed her name, and former life, and take up her new life as a Solar Exalted. She will bind the nations of the Scavenger Lands together, more tightly than the Confederacy does, and will lead them to a better life.
BP Expenditures:
Willpower from 5 to 7 – 4 BP
Socialize from 3 to 5 – 2 BP
Merits – 1 BP
2 Evocations – 8 BP

Trait Experience Cost

Trait Experience Cost
Attribute Increase - current rating x 4
Non-Caste/Favored Ability Increase - current rating x 2
Caste/Favored Ability increase - (current rating x 2) -1
New Ability - 3
Specialty - 3
Purchased Merit - new rating x 3
Willpower 8
Solar Charm 10 (8 if in a Caste or Favored Ability)
Martial Arts Charm 10 (8 if Brawl is a Caste or Favored Ability)
Spell 10 (8 if Occult is a Caste or Favored Ability)
New Evocation 10

Xp Earned: 10
Xp Banked: 5

Solar Xp Earned: 8
Solar Xp Banked: 5

Melee 2 to 3 - 3 XP
Presence 3 to 4 - 5 XP

Crocodile · Jan 19, 2019

Name: Mountain Shadow
Caste: Night
Age: 30
Concept: Hulking Assassin
Supernal: Athletics
Anima: Motes of grey fall like snow about him as a moon in violent shadow grows increasingly into view behind him.

Attributes
Str: 5
Dex: 3
Sta: 5

Cha: 3
Man: 2
App: 2

Per: 3
Int: 3
Wits: 3

Abilities
Archery
Athletics 5 - (Feats of Strength)
Awareness 3
Brawl 3
Bureaucracy 1
Craft
Dodge 2
Integrity
Investigation 2 (Casing a Location)
Larceny 4
Linguistics 1
Lore 1
Martial Arts
Medicine
Melee
Occult
Performance 1
Presence 1 - (Intimidation)
Resistance 2
Ride
Sail
Socialize 1
Stealth 4 - (Stalking a Target)
Survival 1
Thrown 1
War
Merits
Ambidextrous 1
Boundless Endurance 2
Languages 3 - Riverspeak, High Realm, Low Realm, Old Realm
Mighty Thews 3
Resources 1

Willpower: 5

Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 33
Committed:

Anima Power:
Athletics
Graceful Crane Stance
Monkey Leap Technique
Increasing Strength Exercise
Ten Ox Meditation
Thunder's Might
Power Suffusing Form Technique
Legion Aurochs Method
Aegis of Unstoppable Force

Brawl
Fists of Iron Technique

Larceny
Lock-Opening Touch

Resistance
Durability of Oak Technique
Spirit Strengthens the Skin
Ox-Body Technique

Stealth
Easily Overlooked Presence Method
Blinding Battle Feint
None
Health Levels
-0 [ ][ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
I [ ]

Willpower: 5

Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 33
Committed:

Join Battle: 6

Parry: 4
Evasion: 3

Total Soak: 5
Hardness:

Guile: 2
Resolve: 2

Unarmed - Accuracy: 7, Damage: +7, Defense: +0, Overwhelming: 1, Tags: Bashing, Brawl, Grapple, Natural
Intimacies
Defining: You can get to anyone or anything with enough time and patience
Major: To be underestimated is best.
Minor: Hatred for the corrupt (Negative)
Minor: Spread the wealth around, you can't take it with you. (Posititve)

Background
Mountain Shadow had begun his life as a slave in Nexus. More so he was trained to fight as a gladiator but had always had his wits about him. It was in this that he had grown into a massive figure, but surprisingly demonstrated a grace and grasp of stealth and cunning that had surprised his owners. This was enough for others to seek his purchase and train him more in the arts of stealth and concealment even as they continued to develop his physique. On some level it was to create a paradoxical individual to sow doubt someone so large and powerful could be an unseen shadow. It was enough that Mountain Shadow earned his current name and freedom as a mercenary. He found his talents were sought after but one mission in particular had caused his exaltation. It had been to steal a rare tome from under the nose of a dreaded sorcerer how taken up residence in the Firewander district. It had been a effort to spy on such a being, considering they were a Terrestrial exalt banished from the Realm. It made them paranoid and surrounded by guards and demonic servitors. It had taken consultation with occultists and careful watching to maneuver the deadly maze that was the sorcerer's tower. The exaltation found him there and it was was with it he managed to succeed in seizing the tome and fleeing.

Since then, Mountain Shadow has tended to be on the move if only due to the enemies he has made like the sorcerer who eventually discovered whom had taken their tome. He also finds himself faced with his status as an Anathema while considering what to do with this new power. It has enhanced his body while granting keener senses. Theft continues to be a way of life for him when not taking contracts, but he finds he enjoys targeting the corrupt more. They are far more challenging with greater defenses and perhaps it is the former slave in him seeking some odd sense of justice.
BP Expenditures:
Strength 4 to 5 (3)
Stamina 4 to 5(3)
Athletics 3 to 5 (2)
Brawl 3 to 5 (2)
Investigation 1 to 2 (1)
Larceny 3 to 4 (1)
Stealth 3 to 4 (1)

Trait Experience Cost

Trait Experience Cost
Attribute Increase - current rating x 4
Non-Caste/Favored Ability Increase - current rating x 2
Caste/Favored Ability increase - (current rating x 2) -1
New Ability - 3
Specialty - 3
Purchased Merit - new rating x 3
Willpower 8
Solar Charm 10 (8 if in a Caste or Favored Ability)
Martial Arts Charm 10 (8 if Brawl is a Caste or Favored Ability)
Spell 10 (8 if Occult is a Caste or Favored Ability)
New Evocation 10

Xp Earned:
Xp Banked:

Solar Xp Earned:
Solar Xp Banked:

MasterDAF · Feb 13, 2019

Name: Deimos
Caste: Zenith
Supernal Ability: War

Attributes
STR 2
DEX 4
STA 2

CHA 5
MAN 2
APP 4

PER 3
INT 2
WIT 4

Abilities
Archery 0
*Athletics 1
*Awareness 4
Brawl 1
Bureaucracy 0
Craft 0
Dodge 2
*Integrity 1
Investigation 0
Larceny 1
Linguistics 1
*Lore 1
Martial Arts 0
Medicine 0
*Melee 4 (Spears +1)
Occult 1
Performance 0
*Presence 2 (Inspire +1)
*Resistance 2 (Poison +1)
*Ride 1
Sail 0
Socialize 1
Stealth 1
*Survival 1
Thrown 4
*War 5 (Fighting Undead +1)
Artifact 3: Orichalcum Longfang (Löwenklaue)
Fast Reflexes 3: +1 to Join Battle rolls
Resources 3: Silver gained from recent skirmishes against Realm's 12th Army (the 'Flaming-Paw Legion') and clearing bandits/undead from local villages near Nexus
Command 2: The Gold Claws (a mercenary company of roughly 100 average men who serve Deimos on missions in/around the Scavenger Lands)

Willpower: 7
Essence: 1
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 28 (33)
Committed: 5

Natural Soak: 2
Armored Soak: 5
Total Soak: 7

Parry DV: 6
Evasion DV: 2
Resolve: 3
Guile: 2

Join Battle: 8 +1 + 3 successes

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ]
- 2 [ ][ ][ ]
- 4 [ ]
Inc [ ]

Zenith Anima Effects
- For one mote, the Zenith's anima leaps from her hand to a corpse she's touching, igniting it in Solar flame. This power incinerates the corpse and ensures the soul of the deceased will not return as a hungry ghost. In addition, the Zenith may perceive the strongest Intimacies of the deceased and may choose to accept them. When she is ready, she may pay one mote, touching a target of those Intimacies to pass on feelings of peace, love, and assurance, shedding them in the process. She may also transfer them to an object, allowing it to convey comfort or a sense of duty to the subject. Conversely, she may touch someone who caused the deceased to suffer, paying one mote and rolling ([A social Attribute] + Presence) with three automatic non-Charm successes against their Resolve to transfer pain suffered by the deceased back on the one who caused it. The Storyteller is free to dictate the length and weight of such attrition.
- For 10 motes, one Willpower, the Zenith channels her Essence into an aura of divine retribution, surging around an attack. This power supplements a successful decisive attack against a creature of darkness, preventing the Solar's Initiative from returning to its base value after the attack. When the Zenith's anima is at bonfire, reduce the cost of this power by five motes and ignore the Willpower. This power may only be used once per day, resetting when the sun is at its zenith.
- For seven motes, the Zenith may order a dematerialized spirit to manifest using a Charisma + Presence) persuade action with (Essence) automatic successes. All spirits inherently recognize the Unconquered Sun's authority in the priest-kings and are compelled as if by a Defining Intimacy, but may still have Defining Ties or Principles which counter this advantage. If successful, the Zenith's very command draws the spirit into the material word, so that it doesn't not need to pay the cost to materialize.
Gold Claw Mercenary Traits

Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Senses: 4 dice; Threaten: 4 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 2, Guile 1

Combat
Attack (Short Sword): 8 dice (Damage 12, min 2)
Attack (Short Spear): 6 dice (Damage 14)
Attack (Spear-Throw): 8 dice at close range (Damage 12)
Attack (Shield bash): 6 dice (Damage 12)
Combat Movement: 4 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness 8/0 (Lamellar)
WAR

Cost: 3m; Mins: War 1, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- This Charm supplements the Strategic Maneuver roll (p. 211); as the Lawgiver develops a tactic for victory, fighters of the world are drawn to her call to glory. Ignore the -1 penalty for troops with poor drill, and increase the battle group's effective Size by one upon joining battle.

Cost: 5m; Mins: War 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: War God Descendent
- This Charm is activated when the Exalt begins the long, arduous process of drilling her soldiers. As she toughens them with want and rain, she reminds them of the hardships they have endured at the hands of their tormentors. When they hunger, her words feed them. When they shiver, her exhortations warm them. Fed by the Solar's will, they suffer less from long marches, empty bellies, or harsh climates. When the Lawgiver is finished drilling these troops, her commitment to the Charm ends, and her soldiers are forever improved; they cannot suffer demoralizing effects (such as the Demoralize stratagem on p. 212) that are not created by Reflexive or Simple types of magic. In addition, ignore penalties on the Strategic Maneuver roll having to do with hunger, bad weather, or the physical exhaustion associated with long marches over difficult terrain.

Cost: 3m; Mins: War 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: War God Descendent
- The Solar makes a reflexive rally action (p. 210) with (Essence) automatic successes.

Cost: 2m; Mins: War 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: War God Descendent
- This Charm supplements the Strategic Maneuver roll (p. 211) to establish a stratagem, allowing the Solar to ignore all penalties from unfamiliarity with the opposing force or its generals.

Cost: 3m; Mins: War 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- This Charm applies the double 9s rule to all of the Solar's order actions (p. 209). At War 5, Essence 3+, the Exalt may pay six motes, three initiative to enhance her orders with double 8s.

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: War 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: League of Iron Prep.
- This Charm enhances the effects of Drill (p. 206). The Solar's training regimens are brilliant, ingraining her troops with perfect actions codified from a peerless mind for war. With this Charm, she can train an undisciplined unit up to Average after just a week, and an Average unit with Elite status after only a month. Any unit which gains Average Drill under the aegis of this training also gains the combat traits of battle-ready soldiers, while any unit raised to Elite Drill gains the combat traits of elite troops.
- At Essence 3+, the Solar can further enhance an Elite battle group with her transforming will (Demon-Fighting Principle, Giant-Slaying Tactics, Glory of the Inevitable).

MELEE

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- The Solar's attack gains one automatic success. Additionally, all 1s are rerolled until 1s no longer appear.

Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- The Solar can ignore all penalties to parry an attack with her full Defense In addition, any attack she successfully parries with Dipping Swallow Defense grants her one point of initiative. This Charm cannot by itself remove the penalties from a surprise attack.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- Roll (Wits+Melee) at difficulty 4, on a success the weapon flashes to hand instantly, without traversing the space between. On a failure, the weapon leaps to the Solar's hand, overcoming friction and gravity to do so.

STAMINA

Cost: - ; Mins: Resistance 1 , Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
- At Stamina 2: One -1 and one -2 health levels

THROWN

Cost: 1m; Mins: Thrown 1, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
- The Solar's accuracy is calculated as if it was made from close range, regardless of the distance from which she is throwing. If the Charm is used at chose range, the target's defense is lowered by one. This Charm does not allow the Exalt to strike a target beyond the range of her weaponry.

Cost: 2m; Mins: Thrown 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Precision of the Striking Raptor
- The use this Charm, the Solar must win Join Battle and made a decisive attack. Winning Join Battle means beating the roll results of all enemies present in the scene. Steel Storm Descending supplements this attack, granting a number of bonus dice equal to the difference between her Initiative and the Initiative of her target.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Steel Storm Descending
- This Charm adds a single automatic success to the Solar's Join Battle roll, and then treats her roll as if she scored (Essence +1) additional successes for the purpose of determining attack order in the first round of combat.

Cost: 3m; Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only, Stackable
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Precision of the Striking Raptor
-If her attack does at least three damage, it adds a -3 penalty to all of her opponent's dice pools for the rest of the scene.
Orichalcum Longfang (called: Löwenklaue)
- If the ancient short-spear has any evocations on it, Deimos has not unlocked them yet
Intimacies
(Defining Principle) "If you make a name for yourself now, you'll be immortalized forever"
(Major Principle) "To the victor go the spoils"
(Major Tie, Positive) Loyalty - The Gold Claws
(Major Tie, Negative) Vengeance - Bloody Reeds of Whistling Delight
(Minor Tie, Positive) Respect - Löwenklaue
(Minor Tie, Positive) Overindulge - Carnal Desires
(Minor Tie, Negative) Worry - Rapidly Increasing Shadowlands

Limit Trigger
If Deimos perceives that someone in a position of authority disrespects him, such as a commander of soldiers thinking him weak or the leader of a village ignoring his advice, he must take a point of limit. This point of limit can be avoided if Deimos acts in some way to attack their source of perceived authority, such as by challenging the commander to combat or speaking ill of the leader to erode their authority among those present.

Background
Deimos was the son of a poor farming couple that lived on the outskirts of Nexus, and his early years were spent helping tend crops and herd livestock. His parents died in his seventeenth year when a caravan of traders traveling from Sijan accidently brought a deathly sickness with them into the trading hub. Deimos joined up with a local mercenary company, and though most of his time was spent doing chores and cleaning weapons to start with, over time he began to learn the art of war. For ten years he was weaned on the stories of glorious battles from a by-gone era, and the lasting impression on history that one could leave if they were a famous warrior or general. By his twenty seventh birthday he had long been a full fledged member of the mercenary crew, known locally as the Rusted Helms due to the rust that often accumulated on their armor when they would take jobs near the coast.

It was during this time that Deimos was thrust into a battle against shambling undead and ghoulish war ghosts along the coast of the Inland Sea, and though they fought valiantly his crew was unable to hold back the ghastly tide. The enemy was led by a strange pale man who seemed to anticipate every move their forces made. When a sinkhole eventually opened in the midst of the battle to spill out shambling corpses and began swallowing soldiers it was too much to handle and their battle lines broke. The majority of the mercenary company began falling to pieces under the undead assault. Deimos was one of the soldiers pulled under, but the young man refused to be lost and began climbing his way out. Before he could make it back up to the fighting, he noticed the glint of something gold protruding from the earthen side of the hole. Grasping it tightly, Deimos' muscles strained and wrenched free a golden spear about five foot in length. The young man was amazed, and as a golden glow began to manifest upon his brow his body flooded with energy and he heard a booming voice within his head urge him onward to save his men and with the mantle of greatness that had been bestowed upon him. It was on his shoulders that a new era of wonder would be ushered in, that a new Empire of the Sun could take root, and success would ensure he was remembered for all eternity.

Deimos quickly turned the almost-rout into a stunning victory, chasing off the undead forces before returning to Nexus. It was there that he learned the leader of the undead forces had been a monstrous man named Bloody Reeds of Whistling Delight. He vowed vengeance upon the foe, but before he could cobble his disparate forces together he was stripped of his command for consorting with demons. A few well placed coins and some fond memories helped to ensure Deimos was sprung from the city before he could be tried for the claimed offense, and with a cadre of loyal soldiers at his back the newly exalted Solar left Nexus behind and founded the mercenary company known as the Gold Claws.

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