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战斗力 鹅
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发表于 2020-9-12 22:39
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本帖最后由 雷鹰 于 2020-9-12 23:19 编辑
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General Ones
Crowning the Ancestor (Level 7 Rite)
Among the Wan Kuei, "ancestor" describes not just a political position, but a spiritual state. The leader of a court is not simply an appointed official; rather, he is actually elevated by the efforts of the mandarins who put him in office.
This rite is composed of a grueling series of tests, where the prospective ancestor demonstrates not only his knowledge and wisdom but also his power and his domination of the P'o. When it is completed (if it is completed - by no means all prospective ancestors make the grade, and the latter stages of the test are quite fatal if failed), the mandarins in question culminate the rite with the enthronement of the ancestor, carrying him to his throne in a palanquin borne on their own shoulders. This rite requires the participation of at least a dozen mandarins, meaning that it is only performed in the most powerful courts.
System: The actual tests vary from version to version. Various courts and Dharmas have their own unique tests, emphasizing various different abilities and strengths. When several mandarins meet to select an ancestor, they generally mix and match the various pieces of the rites they know to in order to get one appropriate for the situation the new ancestor will inhabit. Aside from the scholarly component, the tests invariably involve some sort of combat, as well as at least one situation involving a very severe soul state roll of each type (shadow, fire and wave).
After surviving this rite, the ancestor gains several benefits:
● She may store five more points of both Yin and Yang Chi in her body than her Dharma level would normally allow.
● She may spend one more point of Chi per turn than her Dharma level would normally allow.
● Her player's rolls to oppose a negative soul state are decreased in difficulty by 2; however, as a side effect, she cannot willingly enter fire soul.
● She may use Demon Chi to power Demon Arts and burn raw Demon Chi without making a shadow soul roll. Black Wind still requires a P'o roll each round to avoid fire soul, however, but the difficulty is modified, as above, and so, is only 6.
These abilities last so long as the vampire continues to exist - the only Wan Kuei known to have gained these abilities and subsequently lost them are those who have been remade as greater akuma or otherwise transfigured.
This rite is rarer than it might seem - given its benefits - because getting 12 mandarins to agree to support a single ancestor is a difficult task indeed. Also, the rite is very dangerous, not necessary to the Road Back and not entirely a matter of skill and knowledge - the recipient is to some degree subjected to Heaven's scrutiny, and woe unto those who conspire to receive the August Personage's mandate of authority under false pretenses.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 97
Devil-Tigers
Ritual of Heavenly Defilement (Level 6 Ritual)
Devil-Tigers cherish dragon nests. Much to the consternation of their fellow Gui Ren, they prefer that such places bubble with dark Chi and teem with Bane-spirits and kuei. By means of this ritual, the Devil-Tigers defile the Chi of a dragon nest. While the effect of this ritual is similar to that of unleashing the P'o during osmotic feeding, it covers a much smaller area and operates in a much more carefully controlled fashion.
These defiled dragon nests are important to Devil Tiger practice. Most Heavenly Devil demonological rituals must take place in a such a defiled Nest, and in any case, such areas naturally teem with wicked spirits for the Crimson Tigers to command. Hengeyokai call these defiled dragon nests "Centipede Burrows." and they either avoid them or actively seek to destroy them.
System: The Devil-Tiger ritualist performs a ritual that stretches over five nights. During each of the five nights, the venom of the five poisonous animals are poured onto the soil of the Nest, and the ritualist must make elaborate offerings to Heaven and the Ministers of the Celestial Bureaucracy. At midnight on the fifth night, the dragon nest's Chi curdles like sour milk. Next comes a Charisma + Manipulation roll, at a difficulty of the local Wall rating + 2. For each success on this roll, a Devil-Tiger of Dharma 6 or higher may absorb one point of Demon Chi from the dragon nest per night.
Unlike absorbing Chi from an area that has been defiled, this sort of feeding does not cause Shadow Soul. However, the nest cannot be used for normal osmotic feeding，and Kuei-jin who absorb Demon Chi beyond their P'o rating run a substantial risk of developing the Defiled Flaw (Kindred of the East, p.95). This Ritual can be used to "purify" (in a manner of speaking) dragon nests defiled by the power of the Yama Kings, but only if the ritualist has mastered the Chi'iu Muh power Purification.
Resource: Dharma Book: Devil-Tigers (WW2904), Page 56
Memorial to the Merciless Ministers (Level 7 Rite)
This rite allows a Devil-Tiger mandarin to send a memorial to Heaven, where it is received by the ministers who deal with such matters as woe, punishment, pestilence and pain. This document, essentially a formal petition, is signed by the Devil-Tiger who wrote it (and possibly by others, see below). If the ministers of Heaven agree with the recommendations of the memorial, they may cause the request to be fulfilled. If they are disinterested in the matter, ordered to do otherwise by their superiors, if the matter is beyond their purview or if the target has a powerful horoscope or allies in Heaven or the Yomi Realms, they may be forced to simply ignore the memorial. If the request is presumptuous or awkwardly phrased, the ministers (who are touchy at the best of times) may choose to visit Heaven's wrath on those who presented the memorial, as a lesson that the ministries of punishment and woe are not to be invoked lightly.
This rite is used only in the most critical of circumstances - when a greater akuma is abroad in the land and cannot be put down by the usual means, when a great dragon nest has been destroyed or when a terrible sinner must be subjected to a punishment beyond the capabilities of even the Wan Kuei.
Heaven ceases to acknowledge these memorials of woe with the ending of the Fourth Age.
System: The author of the memorial, who also must be the practitioner of this rite, must get five successes on an extended Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 9) to get the petition right. Each roll consumes about three to five working nights.
Once he has composed it, he must make a Dexterity + Linguistics roll (difficulty 10) to write it properly. Such missives are traditionally submitted in kaja, and so, the ritualist must obviously be able to write that language.
This missive, essentially a formal petition, is best accompanied by a large bribe of gem-quality jade. Both are burnt in a fire of incense, charcoal and resin, and the smoke carries the missive up to Heaven.
Before sending it, the ritualist must make their chop-mark on the document, and this causes him to permanently lose a point of P'o as he attaches a bit of his wickedness to the document to lend it credence. Other Devil Tigers may make their chop-marks on the rite to show their support for the measure (also losing a point of permanent P'o in the process), but the marks of vampires below Dharma 6 are unlikely to do much in the way of helping the document gain celestial attention, and those of disciples are actively injurious to the memorial's chances. If the ministers of Heaven wanted to hear what the Running Monkeys have to say, they'd ask.
The actual effects of this rite ate entirely up to the Storyteller. If it works, the effects can be very bad indeed - indeed, powerful almost beyond description. Mountains can be uprooted, seas can be boiled, plagues and barbarian hordes can be loosed upon the land. At other times, the effect is more subtle, for the ministers would rather conserve their budget than spend it frivolously and have to go begging to the August Personage for more. Regardless, if it works, the effects are nigh-inescapable, and if it fails badly, the retribution is likewise unerring.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 98
Bone Flowers
The Righteous Hunt (Level 6 Rite)
The Bone Dancers, like the Resplendent Cranes, safeguard the sanctity of the ancestors, Unlike the Cranes, however, they do not often act directly against those who be little or ignore the departed. Instead, they allow the spirits of the Yin World to handle such matters of disrespect themselves.
This rite marks the target for the attentions of kuei, unrighteous ghosts and other unclean Yin spirits. The exact effects vary, but they can include ghastly wasting sicknesses, terrible sanity-threatening nightmares or simply a horrible and inexplicable death at the hands of a brutal unseen assailant. Bone Dancers do not inflict this punishment lightly, reserving it only for those who commit what they see as the most serious acts of wrongdoing - defiling a graveyard or ancestral shrine, the burning of libraries and the persecution of legitimate scholars and seekers of knowledge.
System: The ritualist must actually mark the victim or her household with a mixture of bone oil (see Bone-Oil Kiss, above), grave earth and the ashes of a carefully written denunciation of the victim's crimes. This rite takes about 30 minutes and must be performed in the victim's presence or in her household. Luckily, the rite is slow and subtle enough that it can be performed under the shelter of the Shrouded Moon (Yin Prana ●).
The actual effects vary depending on the type of spectres and kuei that are attracted to the victim, but being the target of several wicked ghosts is never pleasant. Prayer and magic can bar the ghosts from the area, but this only angers them. The mark lingers, even in death, and if the victim dies and passes into the Yellow Springs, her existence will be forever troubled by the depredations of unrighteous Yin spirits. The only way to remove the mark of the Righteous Hunt is to atone for the wrongdoing, which any medium or exorcist will be able to divine the general nature of (if only from the blood-curdling insults hurled by the evil ghosts circling the victim). Otherwise, the subject will be the target of supernatural evil for the balance of her (probably greatly abbreviated) life.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 100-101
The Inauspicious Gate (Level 8 Rite)
This rite not only allows the character to enter Yomi, it allows her to decide which hell she visits. It grants limited control over where in the hell the character appears, but that, for the most part, is determined by the Yama King. This rite is very secret, and those who practice (Note: It is incomplete, may be an errata)
System: The vampire seeks the deepest location available (e.g. a sub-basement, pit or canyon), inscribes the entire rite on the walls, sacrifices three Kuei-jin victims and invokes the name of the Yama King whose hell she wishes to enter. The player spends one Yin and one Yang Chi and rolls Intelligence + Rituals against a difficulty of 9. Even one success indicates that the Yama King petitioned is granting access to her or his hell. For what purpose, however, is known only to that Yama King.
Resource: Dharma Book: Bone Flowers (WW2905), Page 63
By the way, Bone Flower Dharma Book has an alternative advanced Discipline which is also the only one in the whole Kindred of the East, I post it here.
Dance of Shiva (Yin Prana 8)
This dance is rumored to be based on the dance of Shiva the Destroyer. The Bone Flower goes through an intensely complicated series of mudras to bring the most destructive forces of the Yin World through the Wall. The black Yin of destruction pours from the Kuei-jin's fingertips, mouth, eyes, nose and ears. As the vampire-continues her dance, black waves of icy Yin ripple outward from her to consume everything in her vicinity. It is one of the most destructive powers known to the Shadow Song Dharma.
System: At the beginning of the first turn, the vampire begins dancing and the player spends three points of Yin Chi. She rolls Dexterity + Performance against the difficulty of the local Wall. The effect lasts two turns for each success, and the player must spend an additional point of Yin Chi at the beginning of each turn. The Dance of Shiva is very like Bitter Yin Caress and Bitter Yin Cloud except that it destroys everything within five feet of the vampire the turn after the vampire starts dancing, and the effects expands by another five feet every turn she continues to do so. Obviously, then, the Bone Flower must begin the dance one turn before she wants to start seeing the results. Any disruption of the dance spoils the effect, and the Yin Chi is wasted.
Resource: Dharma Book: Bone Flowers (WW2905), Page 61
Thousand Whispers
Loose the Wandering Spirit (Level 6 Rite)
Sometimes Hollow Reeds find their attachment to their corpse a hindrance in following their path. They seek to attain the freedom possessed by the Yulan-jin soul jumpers, able to inhabit a succession of bodies, making them into masks. This rite allows a Wise Centipede to do just that. Many other Kuei-jin look on this as foolishness at best, an attempt to cheat karma at worst. It is only taught and performed by followers of the Path of a Thousand Whispers and usually then only in secret.
The ceremony is similar to the rites of the Dark Jade Lover, conducted at the end of a mortal mask. The supplicant places any affairs in order, then prepares a complete funeral rite, including a suitable tomb for his corpse. He then undergoes the Little Death, forcefully separating spirit from body.
System: When the vampire undergoes the Little Death, the player rolls Willpower (difficulty 9). If successful, the subject's spirit is separated from its body and becomes Yulan-jin, with all of their normal abilities and limitations (see Kindred of the East Companion). A failure results only in the Little Death, which the vampire must recover from normally (see Kindred of the East, p. 144), although the shadow soul roll on recovering is at +2 difficulty for the Hun. A botch results in the vampire's soul becoming trapped in the Yomi World, unable to escape without outside aid. If the soul is freed, it becomes Yulan-jin but loses one point of Dharma and permanent Willpower in the process.
Resource: Dharma Book: Thousand Whispers (WW2906), Page 54-55
Embracing the True Death (Level 7 Rite)
The ultimate death rite of the Dark Jade Lover is practically a legend among the followers of the Thousand Whispers, undertaken only by those ready to become bodhisattvas. It involves the complete destruction of the body, freeing the soul to wander in the spirit worlds rather than being cast into oblivion - to look death in the eye and to embrace it like an ally, a lover, to welcome it and let go of everything else. Only the most enlightened Kuei-jin can perform this rite successfully; it is very rare in the Fifth Age.
The vampire chooses a place and time for the rite and usually invites fellow wu members and local mandarins to attend. The Kuei-jin faces Final Death in whatever manner he desires, usually by Facing the Eye of Heaven, although self-immolation is popular, particularly among the Kuei-jin of the Golden Courts, and seppuku is common for the gaki of Nippon. After meeting Final Death, the vampire's body turns to dust and scatters on the wind. If the rite is successful, the Kuei-jin's soul enters the spirit worlds and travels there. If not, the vampire is truly dead and gone forever.
There is no way of knowing how long the Kuei-jin's spirit will travel in the spirit worlds - years at least, often a mortal lifetime or more. During that time, the Kuei-jin communes with the shen of the spirit worlds, gaining wisdom and instruction. The Kuei-jin is not aware of the years passing in the Middle Kingdom, but when the spirit is ready, he returns to the physical plane. The dust that made up his body swirls up on the wind, and the Kuei-jin reappears, reborn out of nothingness.
System: Roll the character's Dharma rating against a difficulty of 9. Failure means the character suffers Final Death and is destroyed. Success allows the enlightened spirit to pass on into the spirit worlds. The time and place of the bodhisattva's resurrection is entirely up to the Storyteller.
The Wise Centipede automatically gains one point in his Dharma from the experience and appears completely healed of any damage, with full Chi scores of all types. If desired, the character can re-allocate his permanent Yin and Yang to balance those virtues, if they are not already. The vampire returns in shadow soul and remains there for a full night.
Resource: Dharma Book: Thousand Whispers (WW2906), Page 59-60
Reeds in the Cycle of Seasons (Level 7 Rite)
Just as the teed bed is sometimes burned down to the roots in time of drought, so the Wise Centipede knows that she too must occasionally pass from the scene. By means of this rite, the Thousand Whisper stages her own demise. While not the Final Death, it is very close. The vampire's body is reduced to dust, and she spends decades or centuries blowing on the winds of the spirit worlds until she finally returns to substance in a place where the Tapestry is thin.
This rite takes several months to prepare, as the Wise Centipede makes herself ready for her death by whatever means she chooses, at the appointed time and in the appointed place. Because it is so essential that the time and place and method of demise be known, this rite is usually a form of ritual sui*cide. This is most often a simple Facing the Eye of Heaven, but it can also be extremely elaborate and involve quite a large cast of unwitting participants. There are also stories of Dragon Tear or Tzu Wei masters using this rite to cleverly sidestep demises they foresaw but could not avert.
System: The vampire must spend several months preparing for the big event, though she need not work fulltime. However, she must put a fair amount of preparation in, and Storytellers should feel free to invent urgent horoscopes or rituals to disrupt the day-to-day activities of a vampire preparing to sidestep a few centuries of existence. It requires extensive prayers at various times and locations and cannot be undertaken while in bondage or under house arrest, at least not without the consent of the vampire's captors. If it is being used to fake the vampire's death, even the slightest mishap in the timing or method of death may result in the vampire's actual destruction.
A character must have a Rituals and Occult score of at least 4 each to perform this rite. If nothing has gone away during the preparations (which the Storyteller should probably make an elaborate subplot), the character makes an Intelligence + Rituals roll (difficulty 7) at the moment of her physical demise. Success means that the rite has worked. Failure means that she has met the Final Death. The length of time the vampire remain outside the Wheel is entirely up to the Storyteller; there is no way the vampire can predict the length of her false death, which can be as short as a few decades or as long as a few centuries.
When “dead," the Wise Centipede is effectively impossible to contact. Her body rots away to dust or burns to ash. Her spirit cannot be reached or compelled with necromancy, she is unaware of what happens around her, and she gains no experience. To the outside world, it as if she had met the Final Death. To the vampire, it as if she had laid down for a deep, dreamless sleep.
The vampire will swirl together from dust, fallen, leaves, thin air and the like on some auspicious night in the far future. On reforming, the vampire is naked and physically perfect, replenished in Chi and Willpower. She has left behind past lives and entered a new one. This is among the most auspicious occasions a Wise Centipede can experience, and the player makes an immediate Dharma roll unopposed by the P'o.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 101-102
Thrashing Dragons
The Breathing Mask (Level 7 Rite)
It is the greatest desire of the Thrashing Dragons that they return to life. By means of this rite, elder Thrashing Dragons can (to a limited extent) live again. Through great ritual preparation, the Thrashing Dragon can walk in sunlight and experience drugs, sex and alcohol as a normal living human would.
The downsides are the price and the incredibly addictive character of the process. Some of the materials for the rite can be gathered only in the Yang World and the Yomi Realms, and other components such as rhinoceros horn, which must be bought from Silk Road merchants, who carry them from the other side of the world. The cost of even a few doses is enough to leave the purses of even the richest mandarins flat. Even those who can afford it soon cannot because having tasted the breath of life once, there are few indeed who can say no to a second taste and a third and so on. Just as among those who eat the Chi of the hsien, hundreds of years of enlightenment can come crashing down in a few short months of addiction.
The existence of this rite is well known among Thrashing Dragons, at least in rumor. Those elders who know it are unwilling to teach it to those not wise enough to use it as an instruction toward enlightenment and not as a crutch to avoid it. Indeed, many elders refuse to use the rite at all and assiduously conceal their possession of it. The frantic attempts of younger mandarins to obtain this rite, ostensibly for the purposes of enlightenment, are often painful to behold, and this single rite has probably caused more woe to the Dharma than all others combined.
System: Unlike many other rites, this rite can be performed on a Wan Kuei by another vampire or by a Wan Kuei on herself. The subject must be permanently Yang-imbalanced for this rite to work, and the ritualist must have the Science and Occult Knowledges of at least 4 each to perform the complex process of mixing the various ingredients necessary for the potion. This requires an Intelligence + Rituals roll (difficulty 8). The ingredients must be drunk at the next sunrise, and the effects last from sunrise to sunset.
While the rite is in effect, the vampire is alive again. She cannot use Disciplines, cannot spend Chi, does not have access to her innate powers and cannot soak lethal damage. The P'o still whispers in her ear, and she is still subject to shadow soul (although the Hun enjoys a -1 difficulty bonus), but she is immune to fire and wave soul. For the most part, she is a normal mortal. If killed, she suffers the Little Death, regardless of the Cause. Vampires who have been exposed to the rite must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) to not attempt to get further access to the Breathing Mask.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 103-104
Welcoming the Penangallan (Level 7 Rite)
Among the vampires of the Golden Courts, the term penangallan describes a Kuei-jin who has fulfilled certain prerequisites. These include reaching an advanced state of the enlightenment (Dharma 6), possessing female sexual characteristics, having borne a child after taking the Second Breath and accumulating enough resources that she need never take another husband to increase her wealth.
But this position is not simply a matter of fulfilling a few preconditions. To become a true penangallan, a vampire must survive a grueling initiation similar to the rite used by the mandarins of the Quincunx to crown ancestors. It comprises a series of tests where the prospective penangallan demonstrates her Dharmic knowledge, combat skills and ability to endure and overcome pain. If the participant survives, the penangallan who tested her celebrate by forcing the hallucinogenic poison used in Donning the Necklace of Skulls between her lips and dragging her through the ritual dance and the subsequent orgy. If she fails, her corpse is left for the Eye of Heaven, and the dust of her remains that are left when night falls are used in the garden of the penangallan who sponsored her when she was a langsuir.
System: The rite involves three parts: a test of Dharmic knowledge, a test of combat ability and a test of endurance. Each test requires the player to make an extended roll at difficulty 7. In the first, the player rolls Yang three times, in the second, she rolls her Martial Arts, Melee and Firearms once each, and in the third, she rolls her Stamina three times. In each case, she must accumulate five successes in those three rolls for her character to pass the test.
If the vampire fails the first test, she loses face and cannot take the test for five years. If she fails the second test, she suffers the Little Death (including a roll for a possible act of blindness) and cannot take the test for another year. If she fails the third test, she dies the Final Death, and her soul falls into Yomi. If she passes the initiation. the penangallan gains several benefits:
● Her maximum Yang Chi is increased by 5.
● The player may spend one more point of Chi per turn than the vampire's Dharma level would normally allow.
● Her attempts to resist wave soul are decreased in difficulty by 2.
● She no longer suffers the increased likelihood of fire soul associated with permanent Yang imbalance.
These abilities last so long as the vampire continues to exist. Like Donning the Necklace of Skulls, this rite is shared with the Brilliant Embers sect of the Devil-Tiger Dharma.
Resource: Dharma Book: Thrashing Dragons (WW2907), Page 59
Resplendent Cranes
Purifications of Rice and Garlic (Level 6 Rite)
Through the use of this powerful and closely guarded rite, a Resplendent Crane mandarin may, for a time, become truly holy. Though this state is fragile, it is blessed creatures of wickedness cannot stand against the vampire, and the Crane's touch causes them grave pain. It is said that those in this state who can meet the Eye of Heaven while retaining their composure ascend directly to Heaven. Of course, there is no real evidence of this. With the turning of the Age, this ritual becomes more and more difficult, until it finally ceases to function in the 1700s.
System: The Crane must have her internal organs removed, save for the heart, diaphragm and lungs. Doing this according to the proper ritual forms requires at least 10 cumulative successes on an Intelligence + Medicine check (difficulty 8). One roll is permitted per hour, and the process must be completed by sunrise. Obviously, the vampire cannot do this herself.
In place of the absent internal organs, the vampire's body is stuffed with white rice fumigated in the most expensive of incenses and garlic cloves upon which have been carved prayers to the buddhas and the ministers of Heaven. This process causes the vampire to take three health levels of unsoakable lethal damage that cannot be healed until the vampire's insides are allowed to return to their normal configuration. Carving the garlic requires 50 successes on a Dexterity + Crafts (Carving) roll (difficulty 8), though assistants can be employed, provided they are properly purified during the work.
The vampire must then stay awake, meditating, all through the daylight hours, This requires three Stamina + Meditation rolls: One at difficulty 7, one at difficulty 8 and one at difficulty 9. If all three rolls succeed, the player must make a test just as if the character had reached an auspicious occasion (see Kindred of the East, p. 52-53). If the P'o succeeds, the vampire immediately dies the Little Death from accumulated bodily and spiritual trauma and experiences a concurrent act of blindness. It is traditional to burn the corpse after such failures.
If the vampire succeeds in the Dharma roll, she immediately gains a form of True Faith, The player may roll a number of dice equal to half the vampire's Dharma (round up) to repel wicked creatures as if the vampire had the first level of Western True Faith (as described in Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 272). The vampire need not use a holy symbol to repel unrighteous beings, though she must pray, gesture or otherwise indicate her displeasure. The vampire's touch also causes one level of aggravated damage to any unrighteous being, in addition to any normal hand-to-hand damage that might apply. Obviously, the vampire's Faith does not affect herself.
This effect lasts until the player fails a soul state roll. While in this state, the vampire cannot perform internal alchemy (as he has no internal organs) and so can only feed by breath or osmosis. In fact, imbibing anything at all is impossible, for the vampire has no stomach. Also while in this state, the vampire cannot spend or gain Demon Chi.
Resource: Blood & Silk (WW2950), Page 99-100
Naming the Ancestor (Level 7 Rite)
In earlier ages, every Dharma had its own version of this rite, usually called Crowning the Ancestor. Now only the Cranes practice it on a regular basis, and the other Dharmas simply call on Crane masters of rituals when they wish it performed for one of their own. The only notable exception to this is Welcoming the Penangallan, the rite practiced in the Golden Courts by members of the Burning Embers sect of Devil-Tigers and the Passion Bloodflower sect of Thrashing Dragons (see Dharma Book: Thrashing Dragons, p. 59).
A Kuei-jin ancestor holds a position of spiritual authority as well as an institutional role, and Cranes' concern for proper leadership makes them intent on proving that a candidate for ancestry does in fact have the necessary qualifications. Details of the rite vary from one sect to the next; what follows is a common version practiced among the August Courts of the Quincunx.
The candidate must first, over the course of five nights, compose a poem or memorial on each of the five ways of the Great Principle and then present each in an address to the examiners. Each night requires a Dharma + Academics roll for the written text and a Dharma + Expression roll for the speech, all at difficulty 7. If there are hecklers or detractors, make an opposed roll to represent the effort at distracting the candidate (generally Wits + Expression or Manipulation + Intimidation) against the candidate's written or verbal roll, with the candidate requiring more successes than the hecklers. The standard modifiers for social rolls between characters with differing Dharma ratings apply (see Kindred of the East, p. 54).
The candidate must then maintain a 24-hour vigil in a spot chosen by the court's mandarins. This cannot be in direct sunlight, but can require the candidate to face terrifying or confusing environments. The usual rolls and costs for maintaining wakefulness during daytime apply, along with one or more Willpower rolls at difficulty 7 in the face of powerful distractions. The Flame Court of Hong Kong has been known to submit candidates to low-flying aircraft with a chosen spot just short of the end of an approach to a local airport.
Finally, the candidate must fight and defeat three disciples or jina chosen from among the court's ranks, all less than two centuries from their Second Breath. Tradition allows any hand-to-hand weapon for the challengers, while the candidate must use only his own abilities and disciplines. She must subdue the attackers, who strike at her simultaneously. Most courts allow one challenger death, but regard more killing as evidence that the candidate lacks an adequate range of resources for responding to such crises.
A candidate who passes all these tests stands confirmed before the court. A night of blessing and celebration follows, after which the new ancestor gains the following benefits:
● She may store five more points each of Yin and Yang Chi in her body than her Dharma level ordinarily allows.
● She cannot willingly enter fire soul, but she receives a -2 difficulty bonus on all efforts to oppose negative soul states.
● She may use Demon Chi to power Demon Arts and burn raw Demon Chi without having to make a shadow soul roll. Black Wind still requires a roll each round, but the above benefit drops the difficulty to 6.
These benefits last even if the ancestor steps down from authority. Only transfiguration into akuma condition or other comparably thorough reshaping of the soul can remove them.
Resource: Dharma Book: Resplendent Cranes (WW2908), Page 65-66
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发表于 2020-9-12 22:37
