Tales of Perpetual Peace/RDDloresheets

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Starting Entanglements

• Characters may access two District Lores free.
• Characters may access the Dancing Red Demon Lore (below) free.
• Characters may access the Vile Rain Cult Legend Lore (below) free; in addition, characters may choose one of the options listed under 'Why You Believe'.
• Characters may choose one of the options appropriate to their Archetype in the Life in Perpetual Peace Lores.

IJWTS wow! Why can't I think of tnhigs like that?

Vile Rain Cult Legend

Few among the Wulin -- and few more outside it -- think that the Vile Rain Cult is anything but a legend, a bogey used to scare the credulous and the naive. The notion of a corrupt society that practices human sacrifice, cannibalism, demon summoning, and worse(!), all while managing to escape the notice of the Martial Brotherhood at large can't help but appear preposterous. Now, some admit that such a baneful cult might once have existed, perhaps in the chaotic days at the end of the Han dynasty, or more recently perhaps in the Long Winter, but even then it is most often alleged that the so-called Cult was really just a few poor, deluded souls trying to emulate the tales of evil told around campfires.

Yet there are those who do believe -- and not without reason, either.

• 2+ Status: You are considered to be a Vile Rain Cult Expert; those who believe in its existence seek you out to share knowledge, receive advice, and to listen to their own theories. More than a few are cranks, but occasionally you meet someone with something interesting to say.
• 2+ Fortune: You have a contact, either in the Wulin or the Imperial Bureaucracy, who believes as you do, and -- while no more informed than you overall -- may be able to provide new information or insight into the Cult.
• 4+ Fortune: Once per story, you may declare that an NPC knows something of great importance about the existence and/or nature of the Vile Rain Cult, and its connection to the Dancing Red Demon plague. While your Wulin Sage is the ultimate arbiter of what the NPC knows, the information will be of great value.
• 0/5 Disadvantage: Among the Wulin and the Imperial authorities, you yourself are considered to be a Crank; no matter how strong your evidence, no matter how persuasive your arguments, past experience has led your peers and superiors to consider you prone to wild theories. Take one additional Destiny when your poor reputation causes you trouble.

Why You Believe

Why is it you believe that the Vile Rain Cult exists? You may pick one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one.

• They tried to recruit me! One night, while walking the streets alone, a figure cloaked in shadow approached you; his (her? its?) skin was sallow, with pale milky eyes, and foul breath. You were asked "Do you wish to be baptised in the Vile Rain?" and, whether out of incredulity, indignation, or disgust, you refused -- and before you know it the figure was gone. Perhaps, as you seek out this wicked creature, you may ask yourself why they tried to recruit you.
  • 0 Bonus: You have the equivalent of 2 Status: Marked by Darkness among Baneful Wulin.
  • 5 Destiny: Not only did a Vile Rain Cultist try to recruit you, but bringing you into the fold is one of their top priorities! Their efforts will be persistent and varied; they may attempt to seduce you, to blackmail you, to entice you with promises of power or forbidden knowledge -- whatever the method, they will not stop until they get their woman or man.
    • -2: Their efforts will be ongoing, but their patience has a limit. If you turn them down repeatedly (or violently!), the Cult will decide that if they can't have you, no one will.
  • 2+ Fortune: Though the one who attempted to recruit you disappeared, you nevertheless gained some clue about the activities of the Vile Rain Cult. Work with your Sage to determine what you inferred and how you inferred it.
• You have read The Gospel of Corruption. You picked up the scroll in a dusty corner of the library; was it simple curiosity that led you to read it, or was a deeper destiny at work? Whatever the reason, your mouth went dry and your stomach soured as you read the perverse tale -- a cosmogony of degeneration, a metaphysics of abjection, and a promise of salvation through evil. Whoever professes such a philosophy, to say nothing of the perverse soul who composed it, is a danger to all Shen Zhou.
  • 0 Bonus: You may take either a Learning Specialty: Vile Rain Cult Lore or a Wu Wei Specialty: Resisting Vile Rain Curses for free.
  • 3 Secret: In addition to its perverse philosophy, the Gospel also contains instructions for perverse applications of the Secret Arts! Work with your Sage to create a new Doctor's, Priest's, or Scholar's Tool; it should be appropriate to a text of such vile provenance, and it counts toward Corrupt Cultivation.
  • 5 Treasure: Not only did you read the Gospel, you absconded with the scroll, as well! This allows you to study the text in depth, but who knows what trouble it will bring? Work with your Sage to create a Minor Paired Influence/Curse Condition; the Influence can be any kind of Hyperactivity, but the Curse will be an Entanglement Weakness.
    • -2: Though it appeared forgotten, its original owner has not taken kindly to its disappearance, and he or she strongly suspects that you are the thief.
    • 0: You may take both specialties listed above, rather than just one.
• You have witnessed their rites. You did not go looking for evidence of the Vile Rain Cult's existence; their existence was thrust before your eyes. You stumbled upon one of their ceremonies, its celebrants dressed in parodies of Buddhist and Daoist priests, the room decorated with profaned objects of sacred devotion.
  • 0 Bonus: Once per chapter, you may ignore a Fears penalty when facing a Vile Rain Cult opponent; this lasts for one scene or one combat. You should describe yourself as drawing on something you witnessed in order to withstand the otherwise discomfiting opposition.
  • 3+ Fortune: You recognized one of the celebrants! You may not know the face or name exactly, but you've got some kind of identifying mark to go on. What you do with this information is up to you, but this is very dangerous knowledge ... to somebody. The cost of this option is relative to the prominence of the person you recognized.
    • -2: You were recognized in turn. You made yourself an enemy who is very motivated to keep you silent.
  • 3 Fortune: Such was your disgust at the sight of the ceremony, you were instilled with a Minor Wood Passion to destroy the Vile Rain Cult; this Passion is an action hyperactivity.
• You just know it to be true. Perhaps you had a dream, or a vision. Perhaps a series of coincidences revealed itself to be a warning. Or perhaps it has always been an article of faith, passed down to you from a father, a shifu, a mentor. But despite the disbelief of the rest of the Wulin world, nothing has dissuaded you from your conviction, and now -- for reasons perhaps just as mysterious -- you are sure proof is at hand.
  • 0 Bonus: You may take either a Confidence Specialty: Hard-Headed or a Wu Wei Specialty: Detect Corruption.
  • 4 Secret: Whether taught to you by a mentor or developed by sheer native talent, you possess the Picking Up the Scent of Putrefaction ability. You are mystically attuned to the particular spiritual corruption that hangs around those who have partaken in the Vile Rain Cult's rites (or perhaps you're unconsciously paying attention to physical and behavioral clues that are too subtle for others to see); you may take an Extended Wu Wei Action (requiring at least several minutes of proximity) to determine whether an individual is affiliated with the Vile Rain Cult. On a successful role, you have a strong intuitive sense, one way or the other; on a critical success, if the target is affiliated, you will also have a sense for the depth of the person's affiliation. The base difficulty is the same as that to analyze an opponent's style (corebook p. 175); opponents also automatically resist with the Confidence skill.
  • 2+ Fortune: You have an NPC ally who is similarly convinced of the existence of the Cult. For 2 Destiny, this ally is substantially weaker than you; for 3-4, he or she is roughly equal in abilities; and at 5+, he or she is more advanced.