The city is under siege. That is the nature of a city — its inevitable fall, written right into the workings. That's the magic trick of it — the barbarians providing only the slightest exhalation and the entire card tower collapses, revealing what you thought before was walls and moats and drawbridges is only casino grade, black-core cardstock. This end is manifest to the paladin already. Out he goes even as the city begins to catch fire in its crossways. He carries a bit of it with him, not as it IS but as it pretended to BE, that out in the wider world it might find a marl worth making something out of.
1.
INGRESS INTERCESSOR
(gate guarder) (true
paladin)
Sin: Hubris
The Prime Material is like a moth-eaten blanket. There are holes everywhere. They patch the holes with gates — doors — barricades. Keep it quiet. Drawing attention to the gates’ existence is to weaken them — it puts stress on the barrier. Calls the demon sea. But leaving them be lets in water anyway — rodents with the forequarters of human children chew a bigger and bigger hole until the door fails. Witness the Intercessor. He watches from their guardhouse — not obviously, just are in the area — and will still the hand that is foolishly throwing the latch.
Where Where You? – In instances where the players unwisely SPLIT the PARTY, the Intercessor enters a quantum state. Until he engages with the action, he can appear in either location.
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| Scott Hampton |
(breaker rider) (chevalier)
Shirtless. Shiftless. But according to the strictest of codes. Cross Bodhi in Point Break with Johnny Utah and add in a splash of Neo. Agents are rapidly closing in – they all have the same face. Resistance is obligatory. “This was never about the money for us. It’s about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit . . .”
Wave Sage – If reduced to negative HP, the Ex President can flash his baby blues and have his CORE PURPOSE absolutely take over an adversary. Mechanically, the target gets a save vs. P/P/P, on failure the paladin takes over the body — same level as before, same hp as the target. This is NOT in fact the same guy, and as a result is not “unethical” to do this, but rather the strength of his conviction is of such force that the target gets all caught up in the ethos and acts according to the tendencies of the fallen knight.
“My whole life has been about this moment, Johnny.
Come on compadre”
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| Jeff Boyes |
3. KUBIKIRI
(neck chopper) (divinate)
Sin: Rigidity
Some jobs attract bad men. A good man doing them instead is more important than anything.
Sword Tester – The Kubikiri carries himself with a sort of confident authority so that everyone immediately can grok his skillset. If the PCs have an enthusiastic encounter (and howzabout that Charisma bonus, Sir Charles!), there is a 1 in 3 chance that there is someone lying around in need of executing. The village headman would RATHER not be the one doing it, seeing as the strain it puts on the complex social interplay and ultimately undercutting his authority by a thousand grievances. Cut off too many bandits’ hands, their third cousins will eventually wonder what it would be like to cut off yours. You'll have to use his weapon, of course.
If the Kubikiri goes for it (and he probably well ought to if he knows what's good for him) and does it nice and cleanly (hope for a reasonably well cared-for ceremonial chopper), in the aftermath, the area will owe him a solid. +30% to any further reaction rolls (or whatever system you want, the equivalent bonus to Chr 17) in addition to his previous bonus. This goes for the whole hex too – even (especially) villains recognize a job well done.
(this only applies to the periphery – however - more urban locales have a more atomized structure and an appropriately situationed sadist – you might well get asked, but you'll make enemies instead of friends amongst the decapitator set).
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| Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima |
1.
4. RIGHTOUS REVENANT
(wight knight) (envoy)
Sin: Inaction
Called back from beyond the veil to make up for unrepented misdeeds.
Already Dead - HP are not damaged on a hit. He has 0 HP already. Instead, damage is done one of his statistics, determined randomly. A RR reduced to 0 Str might not be able lift anything, but he persists. 0 Con is in pieces, but they twitch forward. Only either a 0 Wis or Chr will do him in entirely.
Of note, this damage does NOT remove the revenant's paladin status - thing is, he probably lost his status before being killed (see the word misdeed above), but yet here he his.
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| James O'Barr |
5. BANNERET of the MESEKTET
(solar accompanier)
(equerry)
Sin: Melancholy
"Fire upon thee, O' Apep, thou enemy of Ra! The Eye of Horus prevaileth over the accursed soul and shade of Apep, the flame of the Eye of Horus gnaweth into the that enemy of Ra, the flame of the Eye of Horus eateth into all the enemies of P-aa in death and life"
The Banneret is charged with shepherding some object, person, or sacred fire through a hostile gauntlet, likely underground. If the VIPPoT is a person, that person is likely not aware of their full significance. Conversely, if an object, anyone can feel the pull to possess it.
Fire Carrier - The Banneret has some limited resistance to the contaminating effects of the animal, vegetable, or mineral they are charged to transport. Other travelling companions, however, may slowly come under its influence.
Flow Control - One can safely assume that any given wandering monsters are after the thing - even indirectly (see bats, giant that only if you look closely can you see the control collars). The Banneret has a sense for this and can reroll any result (not the w. m. check itself, only the encounter content). Watch out! Many a displacer beast got turned to a dragon because you tried to get cute with the numbers.
As one would suspect, Arnold Goblin also engaged with this, and better.
Rekindle - Save vs. Death Magic if the fire goes out, and you can re-light it. Save for objects (at -3): those pesky magic rings tend to fall into the water even if the villains run off with them. Save for persons (at -5): it was never the supposedly important person - it was the banneret all along who everyone was after.
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| Ryan Konzelman |
