Campaign:EA-Exalted/Sheltering Arms

Basics

• Campaign: Campaign: EA-Exalted
• Name: Sheltering Arms
• Concept: Den Mother
• Caste: Full Moon
• Motivation: protect the lost and homeless of Creation
• Spirit Shape: Kodiak bear
• Positive Intimacies: the downtrodden
• Negative Intimacies: nobility
• Anima: A massive bear, standing on its hind legs behind her.
• Age: 32

Background

Sheltering Arms was a misbegotten of An-Teng, her mother a common baker who bore her out of wedlock and was slain along with her lover for her trouble. The young Sheltering Arms was cast out on the street to die or live as she could, and she chose to live. As she grew older, a knot of her fellow misbegotten began to form around her, each protecting the others, and the growing young woman protecting them all. They lived in the side streets and abandoned buildings of An-Teng - until one day, the government grew tired of the downtrodden taking their food and ruining their tourism. They sent a small detachment of militia to "take care" of Sheltering Arms' family. The misbegotten weren't having it, and fought back so intensely that every man was repulsed or killed. That night, Sheltering Arms' defiance earned her a visit from Luna, who explained to her the gift she had been granted and the duties she now bore. Sheltering Arms accepted without hesitation, casting aside her old name, and the next morning she began to convert an old building into a true home for her family, her newfound strength keeping potential attackers far, far away.

Sheltering Arms was left to learn how to be a Steward on her own until the arrival of Jackal, a Lunar of the Silver Pact. He was only passing through, but he taught her briefly and gave her her moonsilver tattoos, giving her the basics of Stewardship and a promise to return sometime.

Eventually, Sheltering Arms began to collect misbegotten from other nearby cities. She went on an expedition to Iron Bud, a small town not far from her base of operations, but once there the town was overrun by undead. Not willing to die after she had put in so much work, she fled to a nearby island nation with the refugees, and that's where she now stays.

Appearance

Sheltering Arms is a tall woman with deeply-tanned skin, her body heavily muscled. Her black hair falls in wild tangles down to her shoulders, and her golden eyes are slightly sunken in her face, giving her strong face a slightly primitive look, though she isn't exactly unattractive. Her tell takes two forms - a growling undertone to her words whenever she speaks, and the slight sensation of fur under the hand of whoever touches her bare skin.

Attributes

Primary                Secondary              Tertiary
Strength ●●●●●●        Charisma ●●●           Perception ●●  
Dexterity ●●●●         Manipulation ●●●       Intelligence ●●
Stamina ●●●●●●         Appearance ●●●         Wits ●●●

Abilities

Archery           Integrity ●●●          Craft              Athletics ●●●   Bureaucracy 
Martial Arts ●●●  Performance            Investigation      Awareness ●●    Linguistics ●   
Melee             Presence ●●●           Lore ●             Dodge           Ride        
Thrown            Resistance ●●●         Medicine ●●●       Larceny         Sail        
War ●●            Survival ●             Occult             Stealth         Socialize ●

Crafts: None.

Languages: Low Realm, Old Realm.

Specialties

None.

Backgrounds

Heart's Blood ●●: Crocodile, calico cat, aurochs, tree strider, mospid, snapping turtle, 
An-Teng militiaman.
Artifact ●●●●: Moonsilver Articulated Plate (Soak 12L/14B, Hardness 8L/8B, Mobility 0, 
Fatigue 1, 6m attunement)
Mentor ●: Though Jackal only passed through briefly, he left Sheltering Arms with her suit 
of plate and a promise to return and teach her further.

Charms

First Strength Excellency -- Essence Overwhelming
Cost: 1m per die; Mins: Strength 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm may be invoked when making a roll based on the relevant Attribute. This Charm adds one die to that roll per mote spent. This Charm is the most common source of dice added to rolls; no combination of Charms can add more than her Strength in dice to the roll.
This Charm can also enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Attribute. Common examples of this include climbing the Feat of Strength chart with the Strength Excellency. When enhancing a static value, each success rolled with dice from this Excellency increases the effective relevant Attribute by two for an instant. Thus, one success would increase her ranking on the Feats of Strength chart by one.
This Excellency, other Excellencies and other dice-adding Charms cannot "create" actions. They may supplement existing actions or increase static values that are already in use. Each Charm also functions only for a single instant or task--the Charm supplements a single attack or defense but must be activated multiple times for multiple attacks or defenses, even on the same tick.
Essence Overwhelming may be Comboed with the Second Excellency, but can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.

Claws of the Silver Moon
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Strength 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 4)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Gift, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Channeling a nimbus of silver from her soul into her hands, the Lunar endows them with large, vicious silver claws. The claws improve the statistics of the character's basic natural attacks as follows: Speed +0, Accuracy +2, Damage +(Strength)L, Defense +0, Rate +0, and they may be used to parry lethal damage without magic or stunts. If the character possesses other natural attacks (in addition to kick or clinch, which are already affected), she may spend one extra mote to add the Charm's bonuses to those attack forms as well.
Once a character with this Charm reaches Essence 3, she may spend two additional motes to make the claws slimmer and more needlelike, providing Accuracy +(Dexterity). At Essence 4, she may spend another two motes to give the weapon Damage +(Strength + 2)L/(Essence + 1) and the Overwhelming tag. These extra options may be activated together or seperately.
When the Lunar uses Deadly Beastman Transformation, she may commit one mote to add the basic bonuses to her natural attack. By committing three motes, she gains the best bonuses she can access.

Impressions of Strength
Cost: 2m; Mins: Strength 4, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Fury-OK, Knockback
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any Strength Excellency
The blows of the Lunar Exalted possess an unparalleled raw power. This Charm supplements an attack, to which the character applies the following edge.
Birth of Flight. Add (Strength) to the difficulty of any knockdown or knockback check caused by the attack.

Shell-Crushing Atemi
Cost: 2m; Mins: Strength 4, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Fury-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Impressions of Strength
Stewards refuse to allow something as meager as magical armor or reinforced walls get in their ways. Using this Charm allows the character to ignore Hardness for a single attack.

First Stamina Excellency -- Essence Overwhelming
Cost: 1m per die; Mins: Stamina 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm may be invoked when making a roll based on the relevant Attribute. This Charm adds one die to that roll per mote spent. This Charm is the most common source of dice added to rolls; no combination of Charms can add more than her Stamina in dice to the roll.
This Charm can also enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Attribute. Common examples of this include increasing alcohol Tolerance with the Stamina Excellency. When enhancing a static value, each success rolled with dice from this Excellency increases the effective relevant Attribute by two for an instant. Thus, one success would increase her alcohol Tolerance by one.
This Excellency, other Excellencies and other dice-adding Charms cannot "create" actions. They may supplement existing actions or increase static values that are already in use. Each Charm also functions only for a single instant or task--the Charm supplements a single attack or defense but must be activated multiple times for multiple attacks or defenses, even on the same tick.
Essence Overwhelming may be Comboed with the Second Excellency, but can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.

Relentless Lunar Fury
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: None
Duration: (Essence x 2) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Charm's initial benefits are modest. The character adds one automatic success to all combat actions, from attacking and resisting knockdown to keeping balance during the fight, but her Defense Values remain unaffected. She does not suffer wound penalties until they are worse than -1 and completely ignores fatigue for the duration. Finally, the maximum benefit the character may obtain from her physical Attribute Excellencies increases to (Attribute + Essence).
Relentless Lunar Fury's real power lies in other Charms. Certain Charms have the Fury-OK keyword. These charms describe special (but related) effects that they have when activated simultaneously with the Relentless Lunar Fury. Any Fury Charm's special benefit may be activated as a part of Relentless Lunar Fury without a Combo by adding two motes to the cost of Relentless Lunar Fury. These Charms' fury effects always end with Relentless Lunar Fury. Characters may have the normal version of a Charm active at the same time the Fury-OK version of a Charm is active. A character may not activate more than (Essence) additional fury Charms at once.
A Lunar's fury comes with one drawback: The Lunar becomes so very focused that she cannot perform non-combat actions. The Lunar must continue to hunt and kill enemies until the Charm ends. With a successful reflexive Willpower roll, the character can perform a non-combat action (at -2 dice) or come off the offensive for a single action. She can only stop the fury early by forcefully calming her anger and cooling her blood; to do so, her player rolls (Willpower) at a difficulty of the character's Valor.
When a character activates more than three additional Charms in tandem with Relentless Lunar Fury (Which requires Essence 4 or higher), the Charm becomes Obvious. Silver and white light flows around the character's weapon and forms contrails to emphasize her prowess.

Steadfast Yeddim Meditation
Cost: 2m+; Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Fury-OK, Stackable
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Any Stamina Excellency
Lunar warriors are known for their ability to keep on going despite the pain. For each two motes spent, the character allows herself to ignore one point of internal penalties from wounds, fatigue or any manner of deprivation or pain. A Lunar may cancel up to (Stamina divided by 2) points of penalties. The character need not have any penalties in order to use the Charm; she may preemptively render herself proof against these penalties. Penalties from wounds are always canceled first; other penalties are prioritized by the Lunar's player and may be reprioritized at will.
When this Charm is activated with Relentless Lunar Fury, the Lunar ignores wound penalties completely until her rage subsides.

Ox-Body Technique (x2)
Cost: -; Mins: Stamina 1, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Stackable
Prerequisite Charms: None
A player may purcahse this Charm multiple times, but no more than once per dot of Stamina. Each purchase provides two additional Dying health levels and the player's choice of the following:
●Two -1 health levels
●Four -2 health levels (Chosen twice)

Knacks

Towering Beast Form
Prerequisites: Essence 2, Stamina 3
Lunars without this Knack cannot master shapes any larger than something about the size of an adult moose. With it, even creatures as large as yeddim and tyrant lizards become valid targets of the sacred hunt. This Knack expands the range of possible spirit shapes for a starting character.

Deadly Beastman Transformation
Prerequisites: Essence 2, Stamina 3
This Knack forms the basis of many Lunar battle techniques. Once a character learns it, she can shift into the fearsome war form of the Lunar Exalted, a monstrous amalgam of her two other true true forms. The Steward usually gains several feet in height and increases proportionally in mass. Muscles ripple across her form, which usually gains several feet in height and increases proportionally in mass. Muscles ripple across her form, which usually has fearsomely long and sharp teeth and/or claws. Even if the Lunar's spirit shape is something as harmless as a groundhog, the hybrid war form looks awesomely dangerous.
War forms are stronger, faster and more resilient than the character's normal forms. They have animal characteristics that give them an edge. Lunars in war form heal even faster than other Exalted, and war form allows them to make use of special aspects of certain Charms, called Gifts. Because Dexterity, animal qualities, healing and gifts can all be useful outside of combat, some Lunars use war forms for purposes outside of combat. At the very least, the war form is a tool of purpose--the Lunar dons this form to accomplish a goal. Design the war form as follows:
● Bonus Attributes. When a character takes Deadly Beastman Transformation, her player adds one dot each to the character's Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. This increase can bring a character's physical Attributes above five and only affect the character when she is in war form. Any improved Attributes are considered natural when calculating the Lunar's dice maximums.
● Wyld Mutations. The character's player adds mutations to the form to represent animalistic features. She chooses from the list of Wyld mutations or creates her own, then applies these to the war form. The player has (Essence + 4) special bonus points to spend on mutations, using the normal bp cost. Increases in Essence later on allow the player to choose further mutations or "upgrade" existing mutations.
While in the war form, Lunars also gain a supernatural resilience that helps them survive terrible wounds. The Lunar does not actually heal any faster (that requires Charms such as Bruise-Relief Method and Healing the Scarlet Flow). While in war form, however, a Lunar can completely regrow lost limbs or organs using such Charms. It takes at least an hour to regenerate such an extreme wound.
When a Lunar in war form falls into her Dying health levels, her wounds do not worsen. She does not lose additional levels of damage until she dies; instead, she remains that wounded until either someone stabilizes her with surgery (returning her to Incapacitated) or she uses a Charm to heal a point of lethal damage, which accomplishes the same effect).
Taking Deadly Beastman Transformation also allows the character to make better use of Gift Charms. Legend says that Luna herself composed Gift Charms for her Exalted. When a character learns a Charm with the Gift keyword, she gains abilities that she can activate automatically when she dons her war form. See the individual Charms for more details.

Prey's Skin Disguise
Prerequisites: Essence 2, Appearance 3
This Knack enables the Lunar to take the form of another human (or basically human creature). She develops an instinctive understanding of the different sacred hunt necessary to make humans valid targets of the hunt. Taking on a false human shape costs a point of Willpower.
The base time of the hunt is half a day, during which time the character studies the person's habits and nature, absorbing them the same way she will steal the person's body. Some Lunars watch their victims covertly during the process; others hunt the target viciously, tormenting him and studying his reactions until the final blow. The latter method is faster but more difficult in high-population areas. Either way, it's murder (unless the Lunar has Life of the Hummingbird and merely takes a person's shape temporarily). Taking a human's Heart's Blood triggers a Compassion roll in any character with Compassion 3 or greater, and each success adds one point of Limit to the Lunar's total, no matter what his dominant Virtue may be.
Lunars pursue human forms for many reasons: Having eve a single human false form is useful when one's true form becomes dangerous and an animal shape is inappropriate. Some human forms are useful for their identities-becoming Great Forks' Minister of Lore is a significant advantage. Finally, different human forms may have access to different resources. Stealing a wealthy merchant's form gives the character a lot of money to throw around, and becoming a friendly socialite comes with a host of contacts and allies. Lunar Exalted may benefit from these stolen Backgrounds temporarily, but they require effort to maintain-otherwise, the investments dry up, and friends forget about the person who is no longer around often.
Exalted and other human creatures may have Charms and other powers of their own. Taking on one's form through the sacred hunt does not give the Lunar access to any of their Essence-based powers. Taking a Lunar's form in this way provides only the Lunar's human true form, not the spirit shape or any other form the victim might know. For that, a character needs Taste of Luna's Champions.

Merits/Flaws

Past Lives ●● (Heroes p60)
Huge ●● (Wyld p146)

War Form

Strength ●●●●●●●
Dexterity ●●●●●
Stamina ●●●●●●●

Mutations:
Talons ●● (Core p289)
Armored Hide ●●●● (Core p289)
Night Vision ● (Wyld p144)
Enhanced Sense: Smell ● (Core p288)

Essence

Essence: ●●●●
Personal Essence Pool: 14/14
Peripheral Essence Pool: 29/29
Committed Essence: 6

Willpower

Willpower: ●●●●●
Temporary: 5/5

Virtues

Virtues:

Compassion ●●
Conviction ●●●
Temperance ●●
Valor      ●●

Virtue flaw: The Curse of the Hungry Wolverine. The character is overcome with the boundless importance of the instant. He cannot ignore his vision of how things should be, no matter what the consequences. The Hungry Wolverine will cripple someone who tries to take his bowl of rice as surely as he will fight to preserve his own life. The character must always do what he thinks is right even if it means dying in the process. Storytellers should consider the character’s own past history when judging what the character defines as “right.”

Partial control: The character may verbally bully an opponent into cooperating rather than resorting to violence. Of course, some foes may not cooperate in which case fighting may prove inevitable.

Inventory

loose pants & shirt, plate armor

Combat

Attacks & Defenses

With Moonsilver Articulated Plate

(Soak +12L/+14B, Hardness 8L/8B, Mobility 0, Fatigue 1, 6m attunement)

In War Form (base 5m spent)

Claws of the Silver Moon (full) 3m commit: MA Acc +4, Dam +6L/5L Overwhelming, parry lethal
Total 8m, 5 spent, 3 commited, duration indefinite
Other effects: MA +2L, Soak +4B/+4L, +4d survival, night vision, +2d perception: smell)

with Relentless Lunar Fury (base 1m 1wp spent)

Shell-Crushing Atemi 2m cost: ignore hardness
Steadfast Yeddim Meditation 2m cost: ignore wound penalties
Impressions of Strength BoF 2m cost: knockback/down with every attack
total 7m 1wp spent, lasts 8 actions, non obvious
Other effects: 1 autosux to all combat actions (except DVs), no -1 wound penalties, ignore fatigue, dice+max physical att + ess)

Attacks Speed Acc Dam ParryDV Rate Tags
Clinch 6 13d+1s 15L/5 - 1 Clinch, Natural, Piercing, Overwhelming
Kick 5 13d+1s 18L/5 4 2 N,O
Punch 5 14d+1s 15L/5 6 3 N,O

Join Battle: 5
Dodge DV: 5
Dodge MDV: 6
Soak: 12A/19L/25B
Pierced: 6A/11L/16B
Hardness: 0A/8L/8B

In War Form without Relentless Lunar Fury

Attacks Speed Acc Dam ParryDV Rate Tags
Clinch 6 13d 15L/5 - 1 Clinch, Natural, Piercing, Overwhelming
Kick 5 13d 18L/5 4 2 N,O
Punch 5 14d 15L/5 6 3 N,O

Join Battle: 5
Dodge DV: 5
Dodge MDV: 6
Soak: 12A/19L/25B
Pierced: 6A/11L/16B
Hardness: 0A/8L/8B

In Human form with Relentless Lunar Fury (for full claws, add Acc +4, Dam +6L/5, parry lethal)

Attacks Speed Acc Dam ParryDV Rate Tags
Clinch 6 8d+1s 6B - 1 Clinch, Natural, Piercing
Kick 5 8d+1s 9B 3 2 N
Punch 5 9d+1s 6B 5 3 N

Join Battle: 5
Dodge DV: 4
Dodge MDV: 6
Soak: 12A/15L/20B
Pierced: 6A/9L/13B
Hardness: 0A/8L/8B

In Human form (basic)

Attacks Speed Acc Dam ParryDV Rate Tags
Clinch 6 8d 6B - 1 Clinch, Natural, Piercing
Kick 5 8d 9B 3 2 N
Punch 5 9d 6B 5 3 N

Join Battle: 5
Dodge DV: 4
Dodge MDV: 6
Soak: 12A/15L/20B
Pierced: 6A/9L/13B
Hardness: 0A/8L/8B

Health

□ -0
□ -0
□ -1
□ -1
□ -1
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -2
□ -4
□ Incapacitated
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying
□ Dying

Advancement

BP Expenditure
Essence 3 (10)
Past Lives (2)
HUGE HUGE HUGE (2)
Resistance 3 > 4 (1)

XP
88 starting:
-27: Essence 4
-3: Linguistics 1
-10: Relentless Lunar Fury
-10: Steadfast Yeddim Meditation
-20: Ox-Body Technique x2
-6: MA 3 > 4
-9: Dex 3 > 4
3