Campaign:Golby's Beautiful Placeholder/Lu Shao of 10,000 Shrines

Basics

• Name: Lu Shao of 10,000 Shrines
• Concept: Wandering Hunter of the Dead
• Caste/Aspect: Zenith Caste Solar
• Anima Banner: "Sorrowful Sword Maiden", a willowy, ivory-skinned woman in white robes surrounded by the light of morning sun, whose face is turned down in grief. A sword is one hand, and a scroll is in the other.
• Motivation: Stop the deathknights and lay the hungry dead to rest.
• Intimacies: Hatred of the deathknights, Brave Rose Thorn's legacy,
• Experience: 0/0

Background

Lu Shao, in his mortal life, was a student of the sword living at the Sublime Way School of Swordsmanship in a small town outside of Port Calin. He was a brilliant student, taking to the lessons of the blade with remarkable ease, but he was also arrogant. He often crowed about his skill, stating that he could almost take on the Master of Sublime Way, Brave Rose Thorn, singlehandedly. Almost. He greatly admired the woman who ran the school, and was proud to call her a friend, even if he didn't entirely agree with some of her teachings. For her part, Brave Rose Thorn saw him as a loud-mouthed but dear sort of younger brother. The two often joked; he would make a mock-challenge, and she would tease him with joking hints about almost-hidden secret knowledge that she alone knew.

Of course, she did have knowledge that she alone knew. Brave Rose Thorn was a Solar Exalt, and had been for over a year. She'd inherited the school from her father, and the knowledge of an ancient style of swordsmanship from her Exalted shard, knowledge which she'd managed to keep secret, letting out only dribs and drabs of the style's tenets to her students. It was her goal to bring about a renaissance of swordsmanship as an art form, and to temper the souls of fighters with the beautiful simplicity of a well-placed stroke.

Then Lu Shao met the man in skull-faced armour. Coming home drunk after a night of partying on the edge of town, he saw the man and a large band of the dead, which he mistook for other partygoers through the haze of drink. The haze fled quickly when the deathknight attacked him. He only barely managed to draw his sword in time to parry the warrior's blade, and only just managed to survive long enough for Brave Rose Thorn to throw herself into the attack, shearing through the warrior's retinue of hungry dead. Lu Shao applied himself to attacking the creatures around her, trying to keep them from slaughtering the townsfolk.

Brave Rose Thorn and the knight, calling himself Gore-Slick Hand of The Unrighteous, fought a brief but fierce battle, until Gore-Slick Hand dealt the woman a mortal blow. Brave Rose Thorn fell with a shriek, and her Exaltation fled her in a blast of blinding light. It hovered as the deathknight stepped over her and leveled his sword at Lu Shao. He turned, gripping his own sword in both fists, teeth gritted and a tear running down his cheek. Rose Thorn's Exaltation flew into his body as he lunged for the deathknight, shouting at the top of his lungs. The Unconquered Sun reached down as he struck, propelling him through the deathknight in a flash of golden light.

Gore-Slick Hand fell, cut in half at the waist. Lu Shao spared him little thought as he ran to Rose Thorn's side, pressing his hands to her wound. She smiled up at him and handed him her swords. Everything of hers was now his, she told him, on the condition that he continue in his lessons, and pass what he learns to others. She told him of a scroll she'd written and hidden in her room which detailed an ancient and powerful style. Lu Shao promised that he'd do as she asked as the light faded from her eyes.

Gore-Slick Hand let out a bloody laugh and spat at the killer. He promised that others would follow, deathknights like him, and that he would return at their head to kill him. He died, then, leaving Lu Shao alone in corpse-littered street.

Lu Shao dissolved the Sublime Way School (not hard, as most of them had fallen in the deathknight's attack) and took to the road, vowing to pray for his friend's soul at every shrine he encountered. He would teach her style to all who came to him, but first he would have to find the deathknights and put a stop to them, so that there would be a world there to teach them in.

Appearance

Lu Shao is artfully scruffy. Stubbly whiskers adorn a strong chin and several hairs poke out at strategically placed locations on his loose topknot. The effect makes the tall warrior look charming, rather than just unwashed, which the wandering warrior often is. There are often circles under his eyes, and leanness comes from many days spent going hungry, but even this only adds to his charm. Rather like a tired, stray dog with a lopsided smile.

Attributes

• Physical: Strength 2 - Dexterity 5 - Stamina 2
• Social: Charisma 5 - Manipulation 2 - Appearance 4
• Mental: Perception 2 - Intelligence 2 - Wits 3

Abilities

 [ ]Archery:    	0   [C]Integrity:    	3   [ ]Craft:		0
 [F]Martial Arts:	5   [C]Performance:2   [ ]Investigation:	0
 [F]Melee:         	5   [C]Presence:    	5   [ ]Lore:          	1
 [ ]Thrown:        	0   [C]Resistance:	2   [ ]Medicine:	1
 [ ]War:           	0   [C]Survival:     	1   [F]Occult:        	2

 [F]Athletics:    	2   [ ]Bureacracy:	0
 [F]Awareness:     	5   [ ]Linguistics:  	1
 [ ]Dodge:         	1   [ ]Ride:         	0
 [ ]Larceny:       	0   [ ]Sail:         	0
 [ ]Stealth:		0   [ ]Socialize:    	0

• Specialties: Melee 2 (Reaper Daiklave), Presence 2 ( ), Integrity 1 (Against the Dead), Occult 1 (The Dead)
• Languages: Riverspeak (Native), Low Realm

Physical Combat

Join Battle: 8

Parry DV: 7 (8 w/Bending Willow)

Dodge DV: 3

Soak: 9A/10L/14B (Hardness 6L/6B)

Health Levels: 011122224IDD

Wounds: 0

Move: 4, Dash: 10, Jump: 4

Weapon                     Spd  Acc   Dam     PDV  Rate  Range  
Punchan                 -   5    12   +(2)B    2(2)  3      -  
Kickan                  -   5    10   +(5)B    2(2)  3      -
Lightning Flash  		 -   4    17   +(6)L    2(2)  4      -
Bending Willow  		 -   4    12   +(5)L    5(5)  4      -

Social Combat

Join Debate: 8

Presence Attack - Speed 4, Dice Pool 10 (12 w/Intimidation), Rate 2

Investigation Attack - Speed 5, Dice Pool 5, Rate 2

Performance Attack - Speed 6, Dice Pool 7, Rate 1

Parry MDV: 5 (6 w/Intimidation)

Dodge MDV: 6 (7 vs. the Dead)

Essence

• Essence: 2
• Regeneration: 4/hr at ease, 8/hr sleeping
• Personal Essence Pool: 13/13
• Peripheral Essence Pool: 22/32
• Committed Essence: 5+3+2=10

Willpower

• Willpower: 7
• Temporary: 7

Virtues

Virtues:

• Compassion: 3
• Conviction: 2
• Temperance: 4
• Valor: 2
• Flawed Virtue: :V
• Limit Break: 0/10

Backgrounds

• Face 2
• Artifact 2 (Many-Layered Warrior's Gi)
• Artifact 2 (Daisho: Lightning Flash)
• Artifact 1 (Daisho: Bending Willow)
• Resources 1 (Exorcism Implements and Such)

Charms and Combos

Charms

• Ox-Body Technique - Gain 1 -1 Health Level and 2 -2 Health Levels.
• 2nd Melee Excellency - 2m+, Reflexive, Instant: Lu Shao may add one automatic success to one Melee roll per 2m spent on this charm, and may spend up to (Melee+Dexterity) motes.
• Hungry Tiger Technique - 1m, Supplemental, Instant: Extra successes on a Melee attack roll count twice for damage.
• War and Peace Preparation - Lu Shao may fight with his sheathed sword without using a Draw/Ready action, and takes no penalty for fighting this way. Sheathed weapons function normally, but inflict only Bashing damage. Charms of Wind-Cutting Blade Style cannot cause a sheathed weapon to deal lethal damage.
• Mountain Strikes the Breeze - 3m, Reflexive, Instant: Lu Shao makes an Essence-enhanced parry, raising his Parry DV by (Martial Arts) or (Melee), whichever is lower. If this successfully stops an opponent's strike, then he inflicts a -1 DV penalty on the attacker.
• Wind-Cutting Blade Form - 5m, Simple (Speed 5), One Scene: Lu Shao may reflexively draw or sheathe his blade as a reflexive action while this charm is active, though any further drawing or sheathing is a miscellaneous action as normal. Further, all attacks with his in-style weapon receive a -1 Speed bonus, which cannot reduce the speed below 3.
• Wind Through Walls Attack - 3m, Simple (Speed 4), Instant: Lu Shao makes a standard attack with his full dice pool. This attack gains the Piercing tag and ignores Hardness. If the raw damage of this attack exceeds his enemy's full soak, then he may pay 1m more to ignore soak altogether. This charm may only be used if his weapon is sheathed and leaves the weapon unsheathed afterward.
• Surprise Anticipation Method - 1m, Reflexive, Instant: Lu Shao is instantly aware of immediate mortal danger, removing the unexpected quality from an attack.
• Spirit-Detecting Glance - 3m, Reflexive, One Scene: Lu Shao may see dematerialized creatures within the normal range of sight, making them valid targets for his Awareness actions.
• Spirit-Cutting Attack - 1m, Supplemental, Instant: Lu Shao may attack dematerialized creatures normally, and deals aggravated damage to spirits, materialized or otherwise.
• Integrity-Protecting Prana - 5m, 1wp, Reflexive, One Day: Lu Shao is protected from Shaping effects that alter his mind, body, spirit, or traits. He is also protected from undodgeable, unblockable Shaping attacks. This charm doesn't protect him from miscellaneous danger of the Wyld or Wyld-use.
• 1st Presence Excellency - 1m+, Reflexive, Instant: Lu Shao may add up to (Charisma/Manipulation+Presence) dice to one Presence roll, at the cost of 1m per die.

Combos

• Forest-Felling Stroke - (2nd Melee Excellency, Hungry Tiger Technique, Wind Through Walls Attack)

Lu Shao fixes his opponent with a steely glare and tightens his grip on his sheathed sword. The world is silent except for the wind tousling his hair and blowing dust and several autumnal gingko leaves between him and his opponent. Suddenly, his foot shifts, and swift drum music plays as he dashes toward his enemy, feet blurring to the time of the drums. The camera pans to Lu Shao's iron gaze, then to his opponent's stricken face, each superimposed over the picture of Lu Shao running and his enemy standing there agog respectively. The tempo increases as he closes the gap, rising to a feverish roll of drums as he reaches the enemy. Then, silence once more as Lu Shao strikes, sword blurring. He ends on the other side of the enemy, his sword drawn and clean, while behind him his enemy stands for a moment, bewildered, then falls over in two neat, bloodless pieces.

Cost: 4m or 6m+, 1wp

Inventory

• Daisho - This set of golden swords once belonged to Brave Rose Thorn, which she handed Lu Shao as she laying dying in the aftermath of the Death Knight's attack. Each is a simple, unadorned orichalcum blade with a handle wrapped in black cloth. Their true beauty is only realized when swung.

Lightning Flash (Orichalcum Reaper Daiklave)

Spd: 4, Acc: +5, Dam: +4L, Def: +2, Rate: 4;

Bending Willow (Refluffed Orichalcum Baneclaw)

Spd: 4, Acc: +2, Dam: +3L, Def: +5, Rate: 4; M

• Many-Layered Warrior's Gi - This heavy set of robes has several cunningly hidden sheets of flexible orichalcum stitched into the dark, simple fabric. It consists of heavy black fighting pants that tie at the ankles and waist and a dark blue coat with a chrysanthemum flower stitched in gold thread on the left breast, under which are several layers of thin white underclothing. Lu Shao normally wears only one sleeve, the other dangling at his side, since, while practical and tough, it's also hot.

Soak: 9L/12B, Hardness: 6L/6B, Mobility: -1, Fatigue: 0

• Scroll of the Wind-Cutting Blade - This scroll contains the secrets of Wind-Cutting Blade Style, which was bequeathed to him by the dying master of the Sublime Way School on her deathbed.

Advancement

Specialties (3 BP) Melee 5 (2 BP) Martial Arts 2 (2 BP) Presence 5 (2 BP) Awareness 5 (2 BP) Combo (3 BP) Face 2 (1 BP)

Conviction 2 (3 XP) Valor 2 (3 XP) Integrity 3 (3 XP) Spirit-Detecting Glance (8 XP) Spirit-Cutting Attack (8 XP)