Ember Dancer

Trees dance. Seasons dance. Skies dance. When we dance, the world answers!

About

Public Knowledge

The Ember Dancers are a Path lost to history. In ancient times, the Ember Dancers were the crown jewel of the Whistler caravans. They wandered the whole of Seln, bringing their love of music and brilliant colors to the masses.

Then, seemingly overnight, the entire Path vanished.

The mystery of the Ember Dancers has endured in legend ever since. Countless plays and dramas have speculated on their fate and their return. Dozens of martial schools claim to be the descendants, literal or metaphorical, of this vanished school.

At the Grand Caravansery in Seln Alora, the home theater of the Ember Dancers still stands. Lovingly tended in preparation for the Path’s return over millenia, the theater hosts aspiring dancers, actresses, and starlets from the entire Kingdom. Every five years, the Whistlers host a grand gala and competition; the victor is crowned with a tiara of phoenix feathers and the title “Worthy of the Ember Dancers”.

But the Ember Dancers never return.

Application

What rites of entry the Path once had are long since lost. The Path itself is lost. How would you apply to a lost dream?

Perhaps some hint still exists in the deepest archives of Izu, the memories of the Great Spirits, or the jealous clutches of the Fae…

Path History

The disappearance of this Path was no accident.

United by jealousy, two among the Grand Fae joined forces. Vitha the Silent and Lamia the Collector joined their wills and their lieutenants to conquer and Claim this Path.

After a century of delicate planning, the duo struck, and the Path met with ruin in a single night. Starlets vanished from their beds; singers on the road never reached their destinations.

They stole more than the mere performers; they stole the memory of the Path - its secrets and songs.

Of course, Vitha and Lamia both schemed to betray the other and claim the whole of this new ‘collection’. Their agents betrayed each other in mass chaos, and much of the stolen Path was lost to the waves of the Akashic Sea or deep recesses of Seln.

Ever since, the Whistlers have sought after the fragments of their lost Dancers, but neither Grand Fae will part with even the smallest shard of their stolen booty. In fact, the Fae lieutenants often use false hints of the Path to lure Whistlers into terrible bargains and false quests!

Many among the Whistlers despair of ever seeing their Ember Dancers grace the stage again.

Powers

• Primary element: Water
• Secondary: Fire
• Bane: Earth

Spirit of Rhythm

As a dancer, you will grant effects to up and down tempo across the scene

• Allegro and Vivace speed up your allies
• Adagio and Caesura halt your foes

During your turn, you may choose one of the effects below:

• Spend 1 Fire Charge to grant Allegro to an Ally in this or an Adjacent zone
  • The ally must accept a Condition known as Allegro’d Out (defined below) and place in any concrete element Chakra
  • If the ally is unable to accept the Condition, they may not gain Allegro
• Spend 1 Water Charge to inflict the Adagio Condition on a foe
  • Challenge Water against a foe within this or an Adjacent zone
  • Disaster: You suffer the effects of Adagio on your next turn; your Charge is lost
  • Failure: The effect fails; do not spend your Water Charge
  • Success, Flourish: You inflict them with Adagio

Allegro

• The target ally may take an additional Action or Move (their choice) on their next turn
• The benefit is lost at the end of their turn if not used

Adagio

• The target foe must choose between several negative effects
  • Take either Move or Action (not both) and suffer no other negative effects
  • Take Move and Action but suffer a Penalty C to all Challenges
  • Take Move and Action, take no Penalty, and automatically suffer C-1 damage to Air, Water, or Earth (your choice)
• This is a Condition aginast Water; Severity is Cd6
  • You roll Severity when you apply the Condition
• At the end of each Round, Adagio degrades by the foe’s Prowess automatically

Allegro’d Out Condition: Severity 99 One instance of Exhausted expires at the end of each Scene until none remain

At C3, your powers of tempo and rhythm can be empowered by Ember Flourish (described in the section below)

When you choose to grant Adagio,

• Spend your Ember Flourish to upgrade Adagio to Caesura; the target foe must be under Adagio
• The victim of Caesura forfeits their next turn, taking neither Move nor Action
• This expends the Adagio Condition

When you choose to grant Allegro,

• Spend your Ember Flourish to upgrade Adagio to Vivace
• The target of Vivace takes two turns:
  • Their regular turn during the player phase
  • An additional turn, either at the end of the current round (before environmental effects) or at the beginning of the next round (before strong foes)
  • Start of turn and end of turn effects thus have two chances to activate within a single round
• The target must take Allegro’d Out to qualify for this as usual

At C4, you may spend your Enhanced Ember Flourish to instead cast Adagio or Allegro as AOE effects

• Adagio may affect all foes in this or one Adjacent Zone
• Allegro may affect all allies within this or one Adjacent Zone

Restrictions

• Between Adagio and Allegro, only one effect may apply.
  • Adagio removes Allegro; the target takes their turn as normal. The Adagio Condition is removed
  • Allegro removes Adagio; the target takes their turn as normal. the Allegro’d Out condition persists

Ember Flourish

Once you join, the fun begins

At Circle 3, you gain the Ember Flourish, a special resource available only to you.

For each target (ally or enemy) which you have affected with Spirit of Rhythm:

• While Adagio or Allegro is active on that target, each time they Challenge, add the matching element to your Ember Flourish tracker
  • The outcome of the Challenge is irrelevant for this effect
• When you have gained all four elements on this tracker, your Ember Flourish becomes available

Spend your Ember Flourish to empower the Spirit of Rhythm as outlined in the section above

Additionally, at C4:

• You may have 2 charges of Ember Flourish; each requires four concrete Challenges

Restrictions:

• Ember Flourish resets to empty at the end of any Scene
• You may not start progress on a new Ember Flourish until you expend your 1 (or 2) current charges
• The only valid way for Ember Flourish to fill is through Challenges made by Adagio or Allegro targets
• Once one Ember Dancer may benefit from Ember Flourish per given Challenge

Infectious Steps

The rhythm rises. It bids you follow

You gain extra benefits for your Partner, if you have one

• When you move with your Partner, they do not need to speed Movement
• When you Challenge agaisnt Difficult Terrain, you may carry your Partner along; they do not need to Challenge

Uniquely, you may Challenge a foe to Partner for this effect

• Challenge the foe’s Fire
  • Disaster, Failure: No effect
  • Success, Flourish: You may carry the target foe as though they were your Partner for this movement
• This applies to only a single move; you must Challenge fresh for each new attempt

This effect does not work on foes substantially larger than yourself.

Additionally, at C3:

• When moving allies, you may move up to C allies instead of one
  • You may not mix and match allies and foes; you are still limited to only one target when using this ability on foes

Additionally, at C4:

• Any ally moved by Infectious Step may benefit from either The Dancer Upon the Droplets or The Dancer Upon the Breathe (your choice) until the end of their next turn

Dancer’s Accoutrements

Knives? Don’t be silly, my dear! These are clearly stage props. Look, I’ll stab my friend here to prove it!

Your weaponry and equipment blend into your dancer’s gear. They do not physically change shape, but your Path bends their appearance to expertly camouflage each item as part of your regalia.

• All other characters must Challenge and defeat your Water defense to recognize the items as useful, valuable, or worthy of notice
  • Disaster, Failure: The character must treat the items as trivial or decorative
  • Success: the character recognizes the most pertinent item to the situation
  • Flourish: The character recognizes all your gear. Where was all that hiding?!
• This effect is suppressed for the Scene when you use that equipment
  • For example, Attacking with a weapon, using Armor to block a blow, or using a Kit in a Challenge
• Between Scenes, you are assumed to cloak your gear anew, varying the effect to fool repeated encounters
  • The effect resets even for those who have previously seen the equipment

You may use this effect to smuggle in gear for other characters, including weaponry that does not count as Graceful for your own use.

• The storyteller should grant Bonus Dice to Challenges against this effect based on the nature of your smuggled items
• Suggestions:
  • Cloaking expensive valuables such as jewelry: Bonus Ki
  • Cloaking a particularly unusual item: Bonus Ki
  • Smuggling in a large amount of weapons to a controlled space: Bonus Ki, +2 to Challenge
  • Cloaking weaponry that counts as ungraceful for this path: Bonus Ki
  • Being particularly flagrant or showing off: 2 Bonus Ki
• On the other hand, the storyteller should apply Penalties when the Ember Dancer goes out of her way to integrate her items into her aesthetic
  • Carrying only items of a non-violent nature: Penalty C
  • Reasonable explanation of how each item would function as part of a dance or play: Penalty 2C

Whirling Blades

Like a tornado through a field of wheat

Your Attacks are inherently multi-target.

• Each time you Attack with a Graceful weapon, you may target C valid targets instead of one
• Roll your Challenge once; compare the Result against each Defense
• If you have multiple Graceful weapons equipped, you may vary between Melee and Ranged in a single Action

Additionally, at C3:

• You may instead choose to spend your Action and 1 Fire Charge to release a Whirlwind Attack against all foes in your current zone

The Public Eye

Your Reputation does not degrade on Equilibrium so long as you perform in public at least twice over the last year

• “Public” here should be interpreted loosely to be any kind of performance for a group outside your circle of friends and family
• The performance should be capable of spreading by word of mouth
• You may spend Downtimes to satisfy this requirement (one each)
• The storyteller has discretion on the exact crowd size and composition. Examples:
  • Valid: An inn, a tavern, a public park with people present, before a noble that runs a famous orchestra
  • Invalid: Two drunks on the road, your clan, your mother

Graceful Combatant

Your Path exemplifies grace, and your weapons must do the same

• You may freely use these categories: Unarmed, spear, jian, Dagger, Gemgloves, silk, chopsticks, chakra, fan
• Any other weapon type causes you to take a Penalty 12 to all Challenges while equipped or used by proxy

The Jealousy of the Fae

When you embark upon this Path, your destiny is inevitably tied to conflict with a Rival.

• This Rival is a servant or agent (perhaps unwitting) of the Grand Fae
• This Rival has as their greatest goal your defeat and humiliation in every arena of life

Your Rival is never far behind

• The Rival automatically learns your general location (such as region or settlement) at the start of every season
• Once per year, at the storyteller’s time of choosing, the Rival automatically learns your exact location and state

Your Rival gains strength from your fame

• Your Rival adds your own Reputation die to any Challenges against you or in direct service to defeating you

Your Rival has an alarming ability to recover from seeming death or disaster and pop up again

• Only extraordinary acts of heroism and Harmony can truly defeat a Rival; otherwise, they pop back up again in a few years

Arts

Circle 2

Perfected Beauty

• Boon
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • You are supernaturally and incredulously impervious to being dirtied and sullied
  • Muddy water runs off you; smells refuse to stick; your hair remains perfect

Anesthetic song

• Boon
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • Gain a Bonus Ki when doing medical triage

Enchanting Song

• Chakra (Water)
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • Gain a Bonus Ki when performing as an actress or singer, such as the Perform in Public and Distract a Target sub-rules
  • You may challenge anyone of any reputation; they may not refuse based on Reputation gap
  • Your Reputation changes are accelerated: you either Boost twice for a victory or Break twice for a failure!

Lead From the Hips

• Boon
• Requires: None
• Effect
  • On a successful melee attack, you may Throw your target into an Adjacent Zone
  • You may apply this against multiple foes when using Whirling Blades

Circle 3

Dancing the ley line

• Boon
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • When you begin your turn on a ley line, gain +1 Speed this round

Graceful Parry

• Chakra (Fire)
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • You may Parry with any equipped Graceful Weapons; the cost is reduced to 0 Charge
  • If the foe suffers a Disaster in their Attack against you, you may gain one Charge in either Fire or Water (your choice)

Animating dance - seize objects and use as proxies

• Chakra (Fire)
• Requires: None
• Effect:
  • You may infuse your Ki into inanimate objects, bringing them to life under your control
  • You must maintain physical contact with the object (such as grasping one end of a rope)
  • The objects act as extensions of your body under your control, using your attributes to Challenge as usual
  • You sense through the object and may Challenge for awareness anywhere along or within its expanse
  • The object can only move as extensions of its existing form. A whip could lash; a house could open or shut its doors or windows.

Details

What counts as an object?

• A distinct unit that has no infused Ki of its own. It can’t be alive or a living system
  • Sorry, Seln might count as an object, but it is quite alive with its own Ki - we would call them ’the elements’
  • A unit means the object acts as a whole. You might animate a shirt, but not a single fiber within it

How big?

• Biggest possible is about the size of a large room. When in doubt, Charm x Charm x Charm meters volume
• If the object has been broken such that it no longer functions as a unit, you can pick a piece
  • For example, if a wagon has been shattered you could animate a wheel

Things that don’t count as an object:

• Fluids, gases, elements
• Aggregations of fine particles
  • You can take control of a single grain of sand, but not a beach

Weight limits:

• You can animate up to 100 kg * your Prowess with no penalties.
• Moving the object requires you to expend the appropriate effort
  • For example, you can direct a wagon to drive itself uphill as long as you could have pushed it!
  • You spend the equivalent effort and may become exhausted controlling large objects for extended periods of time

The Dancer Upon the Droplets

• Chakra (Water)
• Requires: Dancing the ley line
• Cultivate: AirWater
• Effect:
  • You may treat liquids as solid ground, ignoring Difficult Terrain
  • You choose whether to treat as solid or liquid at the start of your turn
  • This effect persists until the start of your next turn and may not be changed in between
  • You choose for all liquids. For example, this would apply equally to water, oil, and buckets of non-Newtonian fluids

Circle 4

Dignity of the Starlet

• Boon
• Requires: Perfected Beauty
• Effect:
  • When the target of an effect, you may spend a Water Charge
  • The offensive character must Challenge and defeat your Water defense
  • Disaster: The offensive character loses their Attack
  • Failure: The offensive character must choose another target
  • Success, Flourish: THe offensive character may target you as normal

The Dancer Upon the Breath - Limited flight

• Chakra (Water)
• Requires: Dancing the ley line, The Dancer Upon the Droplets
• Effect:
  • You may fly, float, or hover across the air so long as you end your turn on solid ground
  • You may use The Dancer Upon the Droplets to end your turn upon liquids as long as you choose to treat that surface as a solid

Cultivation