The Thousand Sanctioned Beasts

THE THOUSAND SANCTIONED BEASTS Rand Brittain CREDITS SPECIAL THANKS • Writing and Layout: Rand Brittain • To the creators of the 13th Age roleplaying • Illustrations: Kirsten Moody game, and particularly the 13th Age Bestiary, for • Old Realm Translation: Richard Javier demonstrating the objectively correct way to do “Blaque” Stephenson & Stephen Lea Sheppard bestiaries in crunchy games. • To Jenna Moran, for not stopping me. sanction [san(k)-shən] • to permit • to penalize • a convenient word which means its own opposite © 2019 White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. Exalted®, Storytelling System™, and Storytellers Vault™ are trademarks and/ or registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. For additional information on White Wolf and the World of Darkness, please, visit: www.white-wolf.com, www.worldofdarkness.com and www.storytellersvault.com. M Martial Artists Everything that lives, and has not yet become extinct, three separate abilities, for followers of the first, has demonstrated the value of its survival strate- second, and third tiers. The Quick NPC writeups gy. Martial artists study the rhythms of the natural will indicate how many abilities to add to the write- world, the classical forms, and the mysterious truths up, and from how many schools. of the cosmos. By emulating these patterns, they The first three stat blocks in this chapter be- make their bodies windows into enlightenment. long to the initiate, the adept, and the master mar- In this sorrowful age, many students of the martial artists, who serve as three grades of generic tial arts care only for their effectiveness as tools of vi- mooks. The master might be a reasonable challenge olence, and are indifferent to their spiritual develop- for Exalts who aren’t terribly combat-invested, but ment. Their martial arts remain exactly as effective as a general rule, these three are here to fill out the as anybody else’s — just as any student of the natural ranks in a battle with a more powerful enemy and world would have predicted. her minions. The left-handed master, conversely, represents a mortal warrior who has tapped into Creation is absolutely lousy with martial arts tradi- some deadly forbidden secret and achieved her pin- tions. From the perspective of the players, the most nacle of power. She’s meant to serve as the leader of important thing about martial arts is the Charms a larger group of enemies, in which she’ll function they teach to the Exalted. However, the vast major- as the tank. For simplicity and consistency, you’ll ity of martial artists are mortals, who still practice often set up these groups of enemies using the same the same techniques without elevating them to the style all around, but that isn’t actually required. supernatural. Of course, even though my first intention in When writing this section, I wanted to create writing this section was to make mortal martial statistics for mortal warriors of different martial artists into a fun combat encounter, it would be traditions, so that Storytellers would have a wider downright irresponsible to leave out the two forms variety of opponents to throw against their players of Exalted who are famous for their martial arts. who were not actually Exalted or other supernatu- As a result, this section also includes two much ral threats. As a result, the Quick NPCs in this chap- more difficult opponents in the starry-eyed master ter each possess a base stat block which the ST will and the yin-yang master. In my experience, both of customize by adding the abilities of one or more these are potential killers, so calibrate them care- schools of martial arts. The details of these schools fully to your circle’s level of combat prowess. can be found at the end of this section. Each has INITIATE ADEPT These students are familiar with the arts of war… These martial artists have been in a battle or two, at least in theory. and since they’re still here, I guess they must have won. Now it’s time for battle three. Initiates are the base-level martial arts enemy. They are deadly foes to training dummies every- Martial arts adepts, in groups, make pleasingly where and can fill out the minion ranks in battle adequate foes against Exalted who have made against mortal heroes, or Exalts who are complete only moderate investment in combat skills, but noncombatants. a hero with any real martial focus will have no problem dealing with them. If your group has INITIATE extremely low combat ability, use one of these Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 6 guys as the main opponent. Otherwise, they’re more likely to be tagging along behind a master Health Levels: -0 / -1 x 2 / -2 x 2 / -4 / Incap. or left-handed master. Actions: Senses 4, Threaten 4 ADEPT Appearance 3, Resolve 3, Guile 1 COMBAT Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 10 Attack (unarmed): 7 (Damage 10) Health Levels: -0 / -1 x 2 / -2 x 2 / -4 / Incap. Attack (form weapon): 5 (Damage 14) Actions: Read Intentions 6, Senses 9, Threaten 6 Combat Movement: 5 Appearance 3, Resolve 4, Guile 1 Evasion 3, Parry 2 COMBAT Soak/Hardness: 3/0 (padded martial arts Attack (unarmed): 11 (Damage 12) gear) Attack (form weapon): 9 (Damage 12, SPECIAL ABILITIES minimum 2) Martial Arts Student: The initiate has the Combat Movement: 8 first-level ability of her chosen school. Evasion 5, Parry 3 Soak/Hardness: 5/0 (painted gi) PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER SPECIAL ABILITIES So, how do you turn these sets of stats into a com- Worthy Martial Arts: The adept has the first and bat encounter? Since a single enemy against a second abilities of her school. circle will be a smackdown for nearly any enemy, you’ll want a group fight. Choose a stat block tough THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER enough to keep the most fighty member of the circle occupied, and then give them enough backup from Why do all of these martial artists have such a high a group of lesser martial artists to even the numbers Appearance score? It’s probably a matter of pride. out. Each tradition’s students put a lot of work into being instantly recognizable as followers of an ancient If you suspect the Dawn is going to clear house school, whether that means wearing the crystal- with an alpha strike, Bespoken Blade stops that from and-gold ornaments of the Salamander School or erasing the encounter. Bear, Monkey, Mouse, and the bare-arms emulation of the Handsome Monkey Peacock are teamwork schools. Monkey, Bear, and King. Practicing a style is all about personal style. Hedgehog are primarily defensive. Salamander fo- cuses on stealth and distraction, while Swallow is …I sense that you do not believe me. all about mobility and attack power. Look, I am allowed to have a type, okay? MASTER They’ve learned to treat every day as a test of their abilities. But it’s not every day that they face you. A warrior who can be called a master has gone far down the road of comprehending her own Es- sence. This has benefits such as inner peace, long life, and more combat power than most mortals will ever possess. That said, mortal masters are still mortal. Martial artists of this caliber are the Imperial-tier mooks of the martial arts world. They’re a potentially scary threat to Exalted who have only modest combat prowess… but Dawn Castes will still eat them for breakfast. Even so, show some respect! What kind of martial artist doesn’t show veneration for an in- vididual who has devoted her life to the same arts they practice themselves? MASTER Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 10 Health Levels: -0 / -1 x 2 / -2 x 2 / -4 / Incap. Actions: Leadership 8, Senses 9, Threaten 7, Read Intentions 7 Appearance 4, Resolve 5, Guile 3 COMBAT Attack (unarmed): 11 (Damage 12) Attack (form weapon): 10 (Damage 13, minimum 4) Attack (ranged weapon): 10, short range (Damage 11) Combat Movement: 10 Evasion 5, Parry 4 Soak/Hardness: 7/0 SPECIAL ABILITIES Martial Arts Mastery: The master has all the abilities of her chosen school. School Solidarity: The master may reflexively interpose herself in front of a decisive attack that would strike an ally within short range before damage is rolled, taking the damage herself. (If the ally is more powerful than the master, only one master can do this in a scene.) LEFT-HANDED MASTER LEFT-HANDED MASTER This warrior has been reading from the scrolls that Essence: 1; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 10 Sifu told her not to open, and now she’s drunk with Health Levels: -0 x 2 / -1 x 3 / -2 x 3 / -4 x 2 power and come to challenge the master for control / Incap. of the school. Actions: Leadership 8, Senses 9, Threaten 7, Read Intentions 7 The left-handed master is a tank-type enemy, potentially capable of standing up to a strong Ex- Appearance 5, Resolve 5, Guile 4 alted warrior for a while. Field her alongside a COMBAT group of martial arts adepts, and you should have a moderately challenging fight for a group of Ex- Sorrowful Touch (unarmed): 12 (damage 15) alted. The banner of challenge ability lets her keep Attack (medium form weapon): 12 (damage the attention of the most powerful warrior in the 15, minimum 3) group while her underlings to their best to take Attack (heavy form weapon): 12 (damage 18, out the rest of the party. minimum 5) STARRY-EYED MASTER Attack (ranged weapon): 10, close range (Damage 11) It is written in the stars that you must die.

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