Campaign:Suikogaiden Sids/daydreamer

Basics

Campain: Suikoden Sids
Name: Zahi Xiu
Concept: Daydreamy bluesid
Caste: Chosen of Serenity
Motivation: Restore harmony among the Sidereal factions
Positive Intimacies: Pretty things*, music, harmony
Negative Intimacies: Pain, discord
Anima Banner: Sparkling cerulean aura.
Anima Effect: Spend 10 motes to add (Essence) automatic successes to all Performance rolls made by him or his allies within (Essence x 10) yards.
Experience: 26/75
-When applied to living things, 'Pretty' refers to anyone with an appearance of 3 or higher

Background

Zahi doesn't remember much about his childhood. That's not to say it was bad, or that some traumatic memory caused him to block it out- it was dull, if pleasant, and he lived in a peaceful farming village for most of it. He was known mostly in his home village as the boy who always told the best stories, or who sang the loudest, or who always had good advice for people ... although behind his back, people would remark about how scatterbrained he really was, and how he spent so much of his time daydreaming. Oblivious to this, he continued in his own way to make life cheerful and happy for everyone- until his Exaltation, when a group of Sidereals showed up (looking confused and a bit rumpled) to usher him off to Heaven.

Since then, he's noticed the way people step carefully around him, though he hasn't let it get in the way of the work a Chosen of Serenity would have to do anyway ... with an added personal campaign of trying to get everyone to work together. (His last attempt, sticking a Bronze faction Chosen of Secrets and a Gold faction Chosen of Journeys in a closet together and not letting them out until they could get along, didn't really end that well for any party involved. Zahi is really just lucky he's so likeable.)

Appearance

Zahi is about six feet tall and slim, with refined features and long blue hair that, if it lay flat, would be about shoulder-length around his face. It doesn't lay flat, though- it has a very ruffled look a lot of the time, sticking up at odd angles or poking out in weird ways. It's kept out of his face only by use of a handy-dandy headband. His eyes are a bright vibrant blue, right down to the starry flecks in the pupils, and are highly expressive- it's really easy to tell what he's thinking or feeling just by looking at him. He seems to always know what to wear for a given situation, usually light colorful clothing that's easy to move in.

Zahi has an odd way of moving, too- at times it almost seems like he's moving in slow-motion, although he's very obviously getting to his destinations with the same speed, and sometimes he almost seems to move faster than is humanly possible, and always with a strange unearthly grace in his step- unless he's stumbling over himself. It's difficult to pinpoint what's odd, exactly, but it's clear that something is odd.

Personality

People who know Zahi closely will tell you that he's sweet, but not too bright. They're only partially right- while Zahi is very charming when he wants to be, as well as super perceptive and with booksmarts to spare, he's incredibly naive when it comes to the world, and tends to do badly under pressure. Anything that requires quick thinking and adaptability usually just fails miserably with him, although his relentless optimism keeps him trying. Zahi is forgetful and a bit scatterbrained, but underneath all of that he's earnest, likeable and good-natured, and genuinely wants everyone he meets to be happy- even someone who might be trying to kill him at that time. He tends to be easily distracted from the task at hand ("Hey! A KITTY! :3"), but will usually return to it as many times as necessary to finish ... as long as someone remembers to remind him about it.

Zahi has a dreamlike quality about his personality, as well. While most of the time his logic leaps are spur-of-the-moment and make about as much sense to him as they do to everyone else (read: not a whole lot), if he's alone and given a chance to think, his logic can twist around in incredible- and sensible!- ways. Zahi notices a lot more than he lets on, too, and sometimes chooses to pretend he hasn't noticed them if it suits his purpose. He's not secretive-- save that for the guys in green-- and he'd admit the truth to anyone who asked directly, but he's not as dumb as he would seem at first glance, either.

Attributes

PHYSICAL		SOCIAL		MENTAL
Strength	●oooo	Charisma	●●●●●	Perception	●●●●●
Dexterity	●●●●●	Manipulation	●oooo	Intelligence	●●●●●
Stamina	●oooo	Appearance	●●●●●●●	Wits	●oooo

Abilities

JOURNEYS		SERENITY		BATTLES		SECRETS		ENDINGS
Resistance	ooooo	Craft	●oooo	Archery	ooooo	Investigation	●●ooo	Awareness	●●●●●
Ride	ooooo	Dodge	●●●●●	Athletics	●●ooo	Larceny	ooooo	Bureaucracy	●●ooo
Sail	ooooo	Linguistics	●●●oo	Melee	ooooo	Lore	●●●oo	Integrity	●●ooo
Survival	ooooo	Performance	●●●●●	Presence	●●●●●	Occult	●●ooo	Martial Arts	●●●●●
Thrown	●oooo	Socialize	●●●●●	War	ooooo	Stealth	●oooo	Medicine	●●●oo
A S T R O L O G I C A L   C O L L E G E S
The Mast	ooooo	The Peacock	●oooo	The Quiver	ooooo	The Key	ooooo	The Crow	ooooo
The Messenger	ooooo	The Ewer	●●●oo	The Banner	ooooo	The Guardians	ooooo	The Haywain	ooooo
The Captain	ooooo	The Pillar	●oooo	The Spear	ooooo	The Treasure Trove	ooooo	The Rising Smoke	ooooo
The Ship's Wheel	ooooo	The Musician	●oooo	The Gauntlet	ooooo	The Sorcerer	ooooo	The Sword	ooooo
The Gull	ooooo	The Lovers	●oooo	The Shield	ooooo	The Mask	ooooo	The Corpse	ooooo

Languages: Old Realm, Riverspeak, Low Realm, Seatongue (Native)

Backgrounds

Background 1: Acquaintances ●●●

You’ve developed a close relationship with one mortal, and several mortals consider you their friend. Alternately, you have up to three tight groups that happily acknowledge you among them and a spread of casual acquaintances. Your fronts can be the same identity in multiple places, multiple identities among the same group (in which case you choose which is “on” when you approach that group) or combinations thereof.

Background 2: Celestial Manse ●●●●

A towering pagoda, a massive palace or a mansion with expansive attached grounds, such as a hunting lodge and preserve stocked with godly deer. Produces a level 4 hearthstone.

Background 3: Salary ●●

Solid salary. You have a small townhouse or a large apartment in an unfashionable neighborhood. You always have a smorgasbord for your pleasure. The Quintessence in your pay still outweighs the Ambrosia. You have Resources ••• in Heaven and •••• in Creation, though exercising the latter in full could earn you trouble. This is standard pay for Sidereals.

Background 4: Artifact ●● (Discreet Essence Armor)

While all Exalts desire protection from harm, those who favor certain martial arts styles cannot combine armor with their chosen fighting style. In addition, Exalts are sometimes forced to appear in ceremonies, diplomatic meetings or similar situations where wearing armor is considered rude or unmannered, or proof of either lack of trust or aggressive intent. While some Exalts wear chain shirts, others choose an even less obvious form of protection. This artifact consists of a pair of bracers and a pair of anklets that are all made from one of the five magical materials. The left bracer contains a socket for a single hearthstone, and both the bracers and the anklets appear relatively delicate and extremely ornate.

To use this item, the wearer must wear all four of these items and commit five motes of Essence to them. In addition, the wearer must wear these artifacts next to his skin and cannot wear armor or any other heavy garment made of metal, hard leather or any other inflexible material. If the user attempts to stack these artifacts with any other type of armor, the artifacts will not function. The user may, however, dress in anything from light clothing to the most elaborate robes. If any attack is made upon the wearer, the discreet Essence armor instantly and automatically activates before the attack strikes the wearer. When activating, the artifact automatically draws three motes of Essence from the wearer. The wearer can deliberately choose not to spend these motes, but in this case, the artifact remains inactive and does not help reduce the severity of the blow. Once activated, these artifacts remain active for one full scene, unless the wearer dismisses their protection earlier. When the discreet Essence armor activates, it covers the wearer in a glowing sheet of Essence that is obviously magical. This glowing sheath raises the difficulty of all Stealth rolls by two, including Stealth attempts aided by Charms.

This armor is specifically usable with Charms that require the wearer to not wear armor. The armor gains all of the appropriate magical material bonuses for the material out of which it is made.

Background 5: Sifu ●●

Your sifu knows two supernatural martial arts styles and one Sidereal style.

Background 6: Connections ●● (Bureau of Heaven)

Two major contacts and several minor ones give you a good deal of pull in your area of influence.

Background 7: Backing ● (Cerulean Lute of Harmony)

Membership in a minor fate-planning committee; respected member of a convention; recognized faction member.

Merits & Flaws

LUCK ●●●
5/5 points

For whatever reason, your character is favored by the Loom of Fate such that he is protected by chance and good fortune. For each level of this Merit, the character gains a “luck pool.” A point of luck may be spent to reroll any failed (or even botched) roll made for the character save for a roll that botches through the operation of the Eclipse Caste oath or a similarly powerful curse. The character can even apply multiple luck points to a single roll until he gets the desired result or until he runs out of luck points. Spent luck points return at a rate of one per week that has passed without the character calling upon his luck pool. The luck pool refreshes completely between stories.

In addition to its reroll properties, the character can use his luck to influence the outcome of a game of chance or any other completely random event. As a general rule, each point of luck spent in this manner increases the odds of a favorable result by 10 percent. For example, if the random event is a coin toss with a 50-50 chance of coming up heads, the Storyteller should roll one die, adding one to the result for each luck point spent, with the coin landing favorably to the character on a result of 6 or higher.

Not all Sidereals have the Luck Merit, but those who do are exceptionally lucky. For each level of this Merit taken by a Sidereal, add two to the luck pool, to a maximum pool of five. Thus, by spending one point on this Merit, the Sidereal gains a luck pool of three, while spending three points confers a luck pool of five.

Charms

DODGE

• (Dodge) ABSENCE
  • Cost: 2m; Mins: Dodge 2, Essence 2;
  • Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
  • Keywords: Combo-OK
  • Duration: Instant
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • Viziers anticipate attacks upon them, and avoid them. This Charm is used in response to an attack. It allows the Exalt to ignore all penalties that apply to his Dodge DV when resolving that attack. His Dodge DV is still 0 against an undodgeable attack, but he takes no further penalties.

• (Dodge) DUCK FATE
  • Cost: 10m; Mins: Dodge 3, Essence 2;
  • Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
  • Keywords: Combo-Basic
  • Duration: Instant
  • Prerequisite Charms: Absence
    • Vibrations in the strands of fate alert a Sidereal to imminent danger. Her player rolls (Dexterity + Dodge) against a difficulty equal to the permanent Essence of the foe responsible for the trouble. (Environmental dangers are difficulty 1.) If the roll succeeds, the Exalt avoids the harmful effect. For this Charm’s purposes, a “harmful effect” includes unexpected attacks, area-of-effect attacks, attacks with no physical component or even continuous effects with a duration longer than instant. (The character only needs to avoid a continuous effect once.) Attacks with very wide areas of effect (such as the Rain of Doom spell) defeat this Charm if the character is physically incapable of moving the distance needed to escape the effect. The Sidereal’s player must activate this Charm either before her opponent’s attack roll or as soon as the player becomes aware of the effect.

SOCIALIZE

• (Socialize) SHUN THE SMILING LADY
  • Cost: 7m; Mins: Socialize 2, Essence 2; Type: Simple
  • Keywords: Emotion, Fate, Shaping
  • Duration: Indefinite
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • An office of the Bureau of Destiny holds a list of every person in a generation who is destined to fall in love. A spurned, vindictive or simply overprotective Sidereal can remove a person’s name from this roster for as long as the Sidereal commits Essence to this Charm. When he does so, the victim’s Appearance drops to 1 before the application of any supernatural effects. For the victim to apply such effects, he must pay the standard cost of the effect, and then his player must spend a Willpower point and succeed at a (Manipulation + Socialize) roll with a difficulty of the Sidereal’s Essence. If a person with romantic feelings toward the victim has a permanent Essence score lower than the Sidereal’s, that person’s romantic feelings cease immediately. Intimacies related to those romantic feelings also disappear. Neither the feelings nor the Intimacies may be re-established until the Charm ends. A player whose character’s Motivation centers on love for the Charm’s victim must immediately choose a new Motivation. This does not cost experience points. If the player wants to resume the old Motivation once the Charm ends, however, this does incur the normal cost of two experience points.

PERFORMANCE

• (Performance) FAULTLESS CEREMONY
  • Cost: 1m; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1; Type: Simple
  • Keywords: Combo-Basic
  • Duration: One week
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • When the Sidereal participates in a ceremony—anything from a newborn’s naming to a funeral—her involvement confers an orthodoxy that pleases Heaven. Her player rolls (Charisma + Performance + Essence) at a difficulty equal to (8 – the Resources expended on the ceremony). If the roll fails, the ceremony is still complete, but does not attract any notice from the Celestial Bureaucracy. If the roll succeeds, the authorities in Heaven look favorably on the ceremony’s participants. For the next week, the people for whom the Sidereal performed the ceremony—a wedded couple, the children who commissioned their father’s funeral or the like—enjoy a +1 bonus on any dice roll meant to represent their efforts. The successful prayer also grants a broader blessing of harmony and joy to the participants that goes beyond anything dice pools can represent: the dutiful children divide the estate without bickering, the newlyweds are assured of fertility and so on.

• (Performance) PERFECTION IN LIFE
  • Cost: 5m; Mins: Performance 2, Essence 2; Type: Simple
  • Keywords: Combo-Basic, Fate, Virtue (Compassion)
  • Duration: One scene
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • Not every person in Creation has a glorious destiny, but every person can live up to his destiny with grace. One of the duties of the Chosen of Venus, then, is to see that mortals and Exalted all live up to their potential. A Sidereal uses this Charm while he gives a performance of some kind, such as singing, dancing, reciting an epic poem or the like. Audience members feel the sense of completion, triumph and peace—the exaltation—that comes from knowing you are exactly where you should be, doing what you should do. The Seer’s player rolls (Charisma + Performance) against the highest Dodge Mental Defense Value of his assembled audience. If the roll succeeds, everyone who witnessed the Exalt’s entire performance (and is not a creature outside fate) gains a temporary Willpower point. A person can receive this bonus from the same Exalt only once per day, but the extra point can put the person over his Willpower maximum for the scene.

• (Performance) DEFENSE OF SHINING JOY
  • Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 2;
  • Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)
  • Keywords: None
  • Duration: One scene
  • Prerequisite Charms: Perfection in Life
    • Moving with the tempo of her opponent’s actions, as if the two of them were lifelong dance partners, the Sidereal can predict the perfect completion of any attack that opponent launches. She can also make certain that this perfect completion does not involve her. For the rest of the scene, the character adds her Performance score to her Dodge in calculating her Dodge Defense Value. Also, the character can use either her Performance or Dodge Excellencies (but not both) to increase her Dodge Defense Value static value. This new Defense Value ignores onslaught penalties and reduces the Defense Value penalty of any attack the character makes by one (to a minimum of zero).

LINGUISTICS

• (Linguistics) FAVORABLE INFLECTION PROCEDURE
  • Cost: 5m; Mins: Linguistics 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
  • Keywords: Emotion, Virtue (Compassion)
  • Duration: Instant
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • The Chosen of the Gods honor mere mortals just by acknowledging their existence. A Sidereal can forge a powerful connection to another person just by saying his name in his presence. The Seer’s player then rolls her (Charisma + Linguistics) against the target’s Dodge Mental Defense Value and adds her Essence in automatic successes. If the roll succeeds while the target is calm, the target feels more connected to and enriched by the Sidereal. He gains a single Intimacy toward the Sidereal for the rest of the scene. If the target is upset or hostile toward the Sidereal, the character can use this Charm to calm him. If the roll succeeds, the target’s hostility and its cause evaporate from his mind, giving the Sidereal a chance to change the subject or hide whatever set the target off in the first place. Physical evidence of the trigger (seeing a Sidereal climbing out the window while holding the target’s newborn infant, for instance) will rekindle the passion in the target. However, this Charm cannot affect an Exalt in Limit Break.

• (Linguistics) BLUE VERVAIN BINDING
  • Cost: 5m, 1xp; Mins: Linguistics 3, Essence 1;
  • Type: Simple (1 long tick, DV -2)
  • Keywords: None
  • Duration: One minute
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • The Sidereal recites a minute-long blessing in the Old Realm’s tongue. (The Charm absolutely requires knowledge of that language.) If his player succeeds at an (Intelligence + Linguistics) roll at difficulty 5, the blessing binds together the fates of two creatures (one of whom may be the Seer himself) such that those two creatures can understand each other’s speech forever after. This understanding goes only so far as each creature’s respective intellect allows, of course. A Sidereal could no more explain the nuances of motonic physics to a Haltan san-monkey than that Sidereal could understand the san-monkey’s description of the pheromones that attracted him to his san-monkey mate.

MARTIAL ARTS

• (Violet Bier of Sorrows Style) SECRETS OF FUTURE STRIFE
  • Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 1, Essence 1;
  • Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
  • Keywords: None
  • Duration: Permanent
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • The character trains himself to listen for the slightest telltale hum in the strands of fate that presage the outbreak of combat. He can react to a conflict almost before it starts. This Charm doubles the character’s unmodified Join Battle dice pool.

• (Violet Bier of Sorrows Style) BLADE OF THE BATTLE MAIDEN
  • Cost: 2m/die, 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
  • Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
  • Keywords: Obvious
  • Duration: One scene
  • Prerequisite Charms: Secrets of Future Strife
    • • Scarlet Essence flares around the Vizier, giving her the fate of an armed and armored warrior. For the rest of the scene, the character’s Martial Arts attacks (including clinches) inflict lethal damage. The character can also parry lethal damage from physical attacks (including ranged attacks) without using a weapon or stunt. What’s more, every two motes spent on this Charm add one die to each unarmed Martial Arts attack, and one to the pool used to calculate Parry Defense Value. For this Charm alone, the maximum number of dice added rises to (Dexterity + Martial Arts)— but only for Martial Arts, and only if the character does not wear armor.

• (Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style) THE QUICKSILVER STAIRCASE
  • Cost: —; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Permanent
  • Keywords: None
  • Duration: Enlightening, Permanent
  • Prerequisite Charms: None
    • The martial artist learns to take control of his inner self. He is now an entirely lucid dreamer and may remember his dreams perfectly (excepting those in which he learns this style). He also gains certain related benefits:
      • The martial artist perceives the true nature of objects crafted from glamour or gossamer, the dream-stuffs of the Fair Folk. This does not intrinsically grant the power to see the reality behind glamours, but at least the character knows to try.
      • The character can handle raw dream-stuff, such as dreams pulled out using Dream Ravager Hand, as if he held a physical object. Because other people can’t normally hold dreams, however, he cannot hand one to someone else unless he places it in a dream catcher (see p. 141).
      • The martial artist resists mental and physical warping from the Wyld. Treat all Wyld zones as one step closer to Creation. For example, the character resists the Deep Wyld as if it were only a Middlemarch.

Name	Type	Keywords	Duration	Effect	Cost:
Fervent Night Fantasm	Supplemental	Combo-OK, Illusion, Touch	Instant	The dream remains latent until the next time the target sleeps. It is just a dream, with no physical or metaphysical consequences. The target vividly remembers the dream on waking, though, so the martial artist can use the dream as a medium to attempt a social attack upon the target, using whatever Abilities she possesses.	2m
				The martial artist forces the character to dream while awake. The induced hallucination introduces one new entity into the target’s perception. The new entity cannot include any sensation more overpowering than a brass band, but otherwise just about anything is possible. The martial artist can use this hallucination to mask real entities too. The dream image lasts the rest of the scene. The target can resist the waking dream for one action by spending a Willpower point. Implanting a new hallucination cancels out the old one.	4m
				The martial artist takes total control of the target’s consciousness, for as long as she wants to keep it and can stay awake herself. She can add, subtract or change whatever perceptions she wants. She may hurl the target into a complete dream world with no connection to reality, or she may work subtly, deluding the character by changing just a few words heard by the character.	6m
Peaceful Repose Touch	Supplemental	Combo-OK, Compulsion, Touch	Instant	The target can be stunned through her next action. An unresisting subject can also be sent instantly to a normal sleep. This level also infallibly forces a sleeper to wake up, including someone put to sleep by this Charm, other Charms that induce sleep or spells.	2m
				The attack forces the target to sleep deeply for 24 hours. The target can resist the compulsion by spending one Willpower per action, but doing so only delays the target’s slumber. The target can still be awakened by shocks such as slapping or dunking her in cold water. Alternatively, the target becomes unable to sleep naturally for as many days as the attacker’s successes.	4m
				The target sleeps as long as the martial artist wants. Spending Willpower delays slumber but does not counter the effect. Someone who has a strong Intimacy to her can awaken the target. The martial artist can also set a condition for the target to wake up, such as physical harm or calling her name. The sleeper does not age or need to eat, excrete or breathe (though she does seem to breathe very slowly and shallowly). Alternatively, the target becomes unable to sleep again (until some set trigger removes the curse). Not only does this remove the target’s ability to recover Willpower by sleeping, she will go mad after a number of days equal to her Willpower.	6m

Essence

Essence: ●●●
Regeneration: 12/hour while active, 16/hour while resting, 20/hour while asleep
Personal Essence Pool: 14/14
Peripheral Essence Pool: 31/31 (36)
Committed Essence: 5

Willpower

Willpower: ●●● ●●● ●
Temporary: □□□ □□□ □

Virtues

Virtues:

Compassion ●●●●●
Channels   □□□□□
Conviction ●
Channels   □
Temperance ●●
Channels   □□
Valor      ●●
Channels   □□

Inventory

Discreet Essence Armor 
Soak    Hardness  Mobility  Fatigue  Attune  Tags
+5L/5B  3L/3B     -0        0        5       –
Gives a -1 external penalty to damage rolls, to a minimum of 0

Manses and Heartstones

STONE OF INHUMAN BEAUTY (MANSE ••••)
This iridescent white oval adds four dots to the
wearer’s Appearance, raising it to a maximum of 7. In
addition, the bearer cannot be made to look anything
other than beautiful: nothing short of Solar Circle
Sorcery can even temporarily reduce his Appearance.
If dressed in rags and covered in mud, he appears handsomely
disheveled; if disguised to look horribly scarred,
he seems to bear noble wounds that must obviously
have come from performing some grand feat of heroism.
Other people always notice the bearer unless he uses
stealth, Charms or the cover of darkness to conceal
himself. This is good when giving a speech... not so
good for a discreet meeting with an informant.

Combat

Join Battle: 12
Dodge DV: 6 (8 with Defense of Shining Joy)
Dodge MDV: 6
Soak: 5A/5L/6B
Pierced: 2A/2L/3B
Hardness: 3A/3L/3B

Attacks

(example:)
Example Attack (Speed X, Accuracy X, Damage XL, Parry DV X, Rate X, Tags X, Y, Z)

Health

□ -0
□□ -1
□□ -2
□ -4
□ Incapacitated

Advancement

1bp: MA 3
2bp: Manse 4
6bp: Compassion 5
2bp: Dodge 5
2bp: Performance 5
2bp: Awareness 5
3bp: Merit: Lucky

5xp: Socialize 4
7xp: Socialize 5
5xp: Martial Arts 4
7xp: Martial Arts 5
3xp: Presence 3
5xp: Presence 4
7xp: Presence 5
10xp: Peaceful Repose Touch

Total: 49xp