Essence Fever

You think carefully on what to say. While Starlit Night has been fine so far, fate is often unkind to mortals favored by it. It would be better if they were more ordinary, and not so likely to be dragged into events that they cannot survive. But it is what it is, and so you break the subject as gently as you can.

"Starlit Night." You begin.

"Yes?" They respond almost instantly.

"Has it occurred to you that there might be more to the strange things that happen to you on occasion than just chance or good luck? Perhaps luck could explain you finding an unclaimed demesne after a hard month of intense exploration, but surely finding one so close, before even the end of our first week here, cannot be dismissed as mere luck or coincidence."

"No, not really. Do you think it's haunted or something? That there's some reason it was abandoned?"

"I suspect it may be a sign of something else." You pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and continue.

"It isn't the only strange thing. You met me when I happened to be in the market on the only day you would be visiting Red River Bridge. You've been unreasonably lucky multiple times when getting out of a tough spot, too. I'm pretty sure you should have broken your arm when you got thrown into the tree by the weird tree stump monster. And you weren't even that bruised!" You're getting heated. You take another deep breath.

"And apparently your birth coincided with the appearance of a new star, which your mother happened to see and name you after."

Starlit Night Skill Revealed: Occult 0

They seem to be thinking very hard for a moment, and then shrug.

"I mean, I guess I'm pretty lucky?"

You take a moment to put your words together.

"That sort of luck tends to go both ways. You have a lot of luck, I think, but luck can be good and bad. So, yes, I think you are very lucky, in that good things happen to you a lot, but that it will probably lead to equally exceptional trials later."

"Huh."

They actually seem to be taking it seriously for a moment.

Starlit Night rolls Valor - 4 successes

Then they grin. "I guess we'll have to be awesome enough to win all of those trails together!"

You roll your eyes. "Sure. I'll do the work, and you stand in front with a spear."

"Hey!"

The week is over, and you've learned how to read the local language, and write legibly if not gracefully. You can, in fact, write well enough to copy books for paltry sums of script. You've begun to "cultivate", exalting the self in external essence.

Each action is 2 hours of labor. Theresa, because she is Fatigable, has 20 Actions each week. Sect rules require that 3 actions be spent on Combat Classes, and 1 Action each on Literature or Philosophy, Law, and Cultivation Classes.

Available Classes

Combat

Combat Conditioning - 3 actions
Spear Drills - 2 actions
Sword Techniques of the Imperial Style - 1 action
Advanced Sword Techniques of the Imperial Style - 1 action
Ghosts, and how to fight them. - 1 action

Literature and Philosophy

Basic Literacy - 3 actions
Excellent Poets - 1 action
Excellent Writers - 1 action
Poetry Writing - 1 action
Writing - 1 action
Rare Characters - 1 action
Morals of the Family - 1 action
Morals of the Cultivator - 1 action
Morals of the Subject - 1 action
Morals of the Soldier - 1 action
Ghosts, and Their Pains - 1 action
Barbarian Philosophies - 1 action

Law

Laws of the Empire 1 (General Imperial) - 1 action
Laws of the Empire 2 (General Provincial) - 1 action
Imperial Taxation - 1 action
Provincial Taxation - 1 action
Imperial Product Standards - 1 action
Imperial Laws of Nobility - 1 action
Imperial Court - 1 action
Of the Imperial Bureaucrat - 1 action
Laws of the Meeting of Sects - 1 action
Of the Specifics of Legal Burials - 1 action
Barbarian Law - 1 action

Cultivation

Cultivation - 1 action
Paths and Knowledge of Them - 1 action
Techniques (Theory) - 1 action
Techniques (Practical) - 1 action


Climbing Roses can be set to complete 1 task each week, which she will complete with her own abilities. She will provide 5 actions worth of completion to this task.
Current Mood - This is wonderful!

[Climbing Roses] - Chores and Miscellaneous Tasks - Theresa gains 5 Actions over the course of the week.
[Climbing Roses] - Learning Something - Theresa will spend 1 Action, or provide another trainer. Climbing Roses will learn the specified Ability, or increase it if she already knows it.
[Climbing Roses] - Explore the Sect - Climbing Roses will look around the Sect, and collect information on important locations, as well as investigate anything specified.
[Climbing Roses] - Explore Nearby Town - Climbing Roses will explore the nearby town, and make note of anything interesting. She will also investigate anything specified.
[Climbing Roses] - Explore Nearby Forest This is too dangerous to ask of Climbing Roses. (This goes against a Primary Virtue. If this is chosen, Compassion will be rolled. If the roll succeeds, Willpower will need to be paid)
[Follow on Adventure] - Ask Climbing Roses to follow you into an Adventure.
[Climbing Roses] - Write-in

Actions - Actions can be repeated, in as far as this makes sense. You can invite Allies to join you on actions, they may join you or refrain. You can also set aside time to spend time with them, and do what they want to spend time doing.

Sect Points - Sect Points are needed for various actions. In addition, you need to pay two points each week for rent.

Current Sect Points - 1

Purchase - Spend Sect Points in order to -
Purchase Potions -

• Eye of Essence - 2 Point
• Skin of Iron - 2 Point
• Lucid Dreamer - 2 Point
• Deep Dreamer - 2 Point

Upscale Rent - 5̶ 10 Points per week (Buying better housing for yourself and not Climbing Roses requires defying Compassion)
Tutors - 10 Points per Action Learning
Attend Classes - Variable - Attend your classes. Unknown consequences may otherwise result.
Explore Sect - 1 Action - Explore the area and look for interesting things.
Buy a Library Pass and Research - 1 Sect Point & Any Number of Actions

• Research Cultivation Paths
• Research Cultivation Techniques

Cultivate - Choose a Demense and Goal

• Demense Available -
• Sect Demesne - Cost - 5 Points Per Dot
• Starlit Manse - A 3 Dot Demesne held by Starlit Night - Cost - Free, but it would be appropriate to repay Starlit Night for their generosity.
• Goals - Possible objectives for your cultivation -
• Goal - Refine Body. Refine your strength, dexterity, or stamina.
• Goal - Define a Path and Cultivate it.

Spend time with a friend - Specify a number of actions, and let your friend choose what you will do together.
Offer to help Starlit Night with their projects - While you don't exactly owe them, they've done you a good turn.
Explore the Forest - 1 Action - Nearby wilderness, full of dangerous monsters. Sounds interesting!
Explore Nearby Town - At least 2 Actions - You'll have to travel to get here, but you could spend some time in town, seeing the sights and exploring.
Meet People - 1 Action - Spend some time getting to know people.
Teach Climbing Roses - 1 Action - Spend some time teaching Climbing Roses something. If she wants to get herself in danger, she should learn how to protect herself. Or she might get more reckless. You don't think so, though.
Work - 1 Action - There seems to be a list of available jobs by the Sect, to earn some sort of internal currency. You can copy pages for your colleagues in return for compensation, for 1 Point an Action.
Ingredient Bounties - 40 Point per Exotic Ingredient

• Roll - Intelligence + Occult - 2D10

5, 2
0 Successes
You can't think of any way you could get exotic ingredients. Maybe you could fight some sort of monster?
Adventure - 5 Actions - There's a list of bounties. Or a list of angry ghosts and Essence wielding beasts that they "would be deeply grateful if a virtuous disciple thought to slay them." With a precise amount of gratitude, in fact. Ugh. Bounties are beneath you, but angry ghosts do need slaying. - Start an Adventure, a short storyline with unknown rewards.
- The ghost of a woman enraged that her eldest son used her hard earned money to gamble and drink, and has returned to haunt him. Reward - 20 points. ???
- The angry ghosts of bandits hung by the government and placed beside the road, who have continued the sins of their lives into death. Reward - 50 points. ???
- A creature only described by a panicked survivor as "a mountain cat, but bigger, and meaner, and the teeth...it moved faster than I could see, and killed three men in moments! Reward - 30 points. ???
Adventure - 5 Actions - The nearby cave system goes deep into the Earth, and apparently has many demesnes for those with the strength to defend them from the stranger things beneath the world. At least, according to rumor. It may be nonsense, but you could certainly investigate.
Write in - Variable - Anything else that you can think of.

Only one Adventure May be Chosen.

The swordsmanship teacher, a dour woman with a stern attitude, teaches with a keen eye towards mistakes and a clear mastery of her style.

Roll 1
2 successes
Roll 2
4 successes
Roll 3
2 successes

8/10 banked for Melee

The classes on fighting ghosts, by contrast, are taught by a scholarly man, who is clearly more skilled with theoretical matters than teaching students.

Roll 1
4 successes
Roll 2
4 successes

8/10 banked for Occult

During the classes on cultivator morality, you pay special attention to the imperial philosophies, and how they understand how cultivators are expected to behave.
Roll: 3 Successes

3/10 banked for Lore (Imperial Philosophy)

While you try to pay attention to the instructor on the soldier's morality, his mediocre skill means that you understand almost nothing he is saying.

0 successes

Sound of Reeds, your instructor on the manners of the imperial court, is a skilled woman with a clear expertise in the circles of power. While her skill with teaching is much lesser, you learn much from her class.

Roll: 5 successes

5/10 banked for Socialize (Nobility)

The imperial bureaucrat who has been hired to instruct you is clearly a master of his craft, and is a credit to mortal achievement. He also teaches your class in product standards, but you admit that you are deeply bored by the minutia of inspecting physical objects.

Roll: 4 successes

4/10 successes towards Bureaucracy

Cultivation Class - Cultivation

Theresa's Notes

• Cultivation is a method of manual essence respiration
• Cultivation is used to improve the body and spirit. (No one mentions mind?
  • I asked. Apparently you can develop supernatural skill, which is probably the mental third of the self?
• Breathing patterns are different methods of cultivating. While raw will can be used, most people find techniques that make use of their talents. Not sure if that actually matters. Many such techniques are House secrets, but a few are available in the library, apparently.

The instructor let us see her use a few different techniques.

Roll - Perception + Occult - 5d10
5, 2, 2, 1, 10
2 successes

Breathing Pattern Discovered - Healer Reinforces Self Pattern
Roll - Intelligence + Medicine
The cultivator uses their mastery of Essence to direct it within their body.

Breathing Pattern Discovered - Loremaster's Pattern
Roll - Intelligence + Lore
The cultivator uses their knowledge of Essence to direct it within their body.

Cultivation Class - Paths

While the instructor discussed many classes, you took enough notes on another of them to be confident in replicating it, if you so choose.

Roll - Intelligence + Occult
8, 3
1 success

Path Discovered - Virtue Refinement: Develops Virtues beyond human maximum. Each dot requires 5^1.5 Essence per dot. Second requires (5^1.5)^1.5, and so on.


Teaching Climbing Rose Archery

Perception + Archery: 8d10

4, 2, 2, 5, 3, 5, 8, 6,
1 success

6, 9, 10, 5, 8, 10, 6, 2

6 successes

Climbing Rose makes decent progress learning archery, but it will clearly be a few more weeks before she can shoot reliably at this rate.

Over the next few days, you prepare for your hunt by cultivating with Starlit Night's demesne.

Roll 10d10

10, 4, 1, 9, 10, 7, 8, 9, 4
8 Successes
112/125 Essence Left

Core Refinement Chosen - 8/12 Essence Stored

You form a chamber inside your body, formed with your will, and store the Essence you draw forth from the world within.

Essence Conversion: As a miscellaneous action, Theresa can convert 1 Essence stored in her core into air aspected essence, stored within her blood and appropriate for Charms.

The next day, you return to try to store more solid Essence for some sort of later use.

Roll 10d10
2, 7, 10, 4, 7, 4, 3, 7, 8, 9
7 successes

You find yourself drawing forth with your will great amounts of it, too much to store. You cannot condense it down as you did before, the structure would need to be much larger, and you don't have enough for that. You instead pour it into your body, reinforcing your physical stamina.

Stamina Refined - 11 Essence Spent

4/13 Essence Stored

105/125 Essence Left

And so you continue your work the next day.

Roll 10d10
3, 3, 1, 10, 5, 5, 3, 7, 3, 5
3 successes

7/13 Essence Stored
107/125 Essence Left

Tired from your past successes, you manage to take only a bit of Essence from the earth.

But you continue on.

Roll 10d10

7, 6, 6, 1, 2, 6, 10, 3, 10, 7
6 successes

13/13 Essence Stored
101/125 Essence Left

And again you return the next day, to attempt to gather enough Essence to ascend once more.

Roll 10d10

1, 3, 1, 7, 2, 7, 1, 1, 5, 1
2 success

You fail rather comically, and decide to channel the overflowing power into you speed and grace. You would need a great deal of power, or else insight, to move from this stage into the next.

Steps: Each Step is a moment of transcendence, and a merging of Essence and self. Deeds and Essence combine into a moment of ascension. In other words, passing through each Step requires any combination of Essence and Experience combining to a total of 5 to the power of the Current Step. As such, passing into Step 2 requires 5 points of Essence and Experience, Step 3 requires 25, and Step 4 requires 125.


15/13 Essence Stored
Dexterity Refined - 11 Essence Spent
4/13 Essence Stored
109/125 Essence Left

You, however, continue on.

Roll 10d10
6, 6, 6, 9, 1, 2, 6, 6, 1, 8
2 successes
6/13 Essence Stored
107/125 Essence Left


You also do a bit of work copying pages, enough to cover rent for this week even if your hunting goes terribly wrong.

+1 Sect Point

Starlit Night takes you aside for a moment after you finish eating, and you follow them into a wooded patch nearby.

"So. I found out that the sect hosts tournaments."

You raise an eyebrow.

"Partnered tournaments! Partnered combat tournaments." They pause to take a breath. "And I want you to be my partner! You're the best person I know to work with! If you join me, we can't lose!"

You raise a finger and think for a moment. While tournaments have never been your strong suit, you probably won't embarrass yourself against a group of godblooded with often mediocre training. And Starlit Night is very exciting, and it would make them very happy. Besides, Their enthusiasm might make it fun, in a way. You've never partnered with someone who took everything so lightly.

You can't embarrass your house. Your parents and your matriarch are so far away that you can't contact them, let alone embarrass them.

Roll - Willpower
10, 7, 9, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 6
8 successes

You push your homesickness and grief aside. You can deal with it later.
Much later.

Starlit Night rolls Perception + Socialize
This roll is literally impossible for Starlit Night to make. They are hopelessly oblivious in matters of emotion.

Starlit Night grins and bounces up and down a few times.

"Alright! I'll help you get signed up! Do you have armour? I can point out the best potions!"


Starlit Night is willing to loan you 10 points to buy or rent combat equipment, to use for the tournament and your hunt. They expect you to pay them back within two weeks.

Armour
The sect rents armour to cultivators for 1 point a day. If you damage the armour, you will have to pay for its repair, but ruined armour likely saved your life, or, more likely, decorates your corpse. Renting it for the tournament will cost 1 point, and for the tournament and hunt, 2 points.

Chain Shirt - 3L/1B - Mobility -0 - Fatigue - 1
Buff Jacket - 3L/4B - Mobility -1 - Fatigue - 2
Lamellar - 6L/8B - Mobility - 2 - Fatigue - 1

Potions - 2 points each. Only 1 potion can be drunk safely at a time, and (Stamina) potions can be drunk each week.

Skin of Iron

This potion reinforces this skin, though it makes the drinker slightly reckless.

Skin of Iron

Mutation Total: 1
Natural Armor: 2
Overpowering Virtue: Valor (-1)

Beserker's Tonic

This potion makes the drinker into a berserker, immune to pain and barely able to tell friend from foe, much less retreat. It also induces hot flashes that can become debilitating in warm climates.

Beserker's Tonic

Mutation Total: 1
Painless: 6
Enhanced Painless: 4
Climate Sensitivity: Heat (-2)
Mood Swings: Rage (-2)
Overpowering Valor: -1
Emotion Trigger: Rage (Combat): -1
Madness Trigger: Beserk Anger (Combat): -3

Acidic Blood

This potion makes the drinker's blood into a terrible acid, but such acid running through the veins also wears away restraint and self control.

Acidic Blood

Mutation Total: 1
Natural Counterattack: 2
Lacking Temperance: -1

Skin of Silver:

This potion was made in an attempt to make a cheaper version of Skin of Steel. In a way, the potionmaster succeeded; in most circumstances, it functions as well as the so vaunted potion at a tiny fraction of the cost. On the night of the full moon, however, the drinker is overcome with a terrible sorrow so great that they cannot help but lay down their blades that they might mourn the terrible fate of Ever-Changing, ever parted from her love. Many sects relied on this potion to boost their combat prowess, until a sect was defeated utterly when their enemies invaded under the full moon's light, and their defenders foolish enough to drink this poition could not raise arms against them in their unending sorrow. The rest, used to going without armour, were easily slaughtered.

Skin of Silver

Mutation Total: 1
Natural Armour: 6
Overabundant Valor: -1
Emotion Trigger: Full Moon (Grief) -1
Madness Trigger: Full Moon (Heart of Tears) -3

Miscellaneous.
Anything mundane, like caltrops, throwing daggers, or poison for arrows, costs 1 point for a days supply.

[X] Write in how much, if any, borrowed points you would like to spend to prepare for your adventures, and on what.