Xia: Broken Mirror

Xia: Main Page -> Xia: Shen Secrets -> Xia: Broken Mirror

"You're right, I'm no good at this game. My position is untenable. Doesn't look like there's anything I can do. So I may as well try this. Oh... did I just win?"

Overview

This page is a Lore Sheet for Broken Mirror, a set of Shen Secrets relating to the insight in madness and the power of random action. Such techniques are shunned by right-thinking sages as being likely detrimental to the health of your Shen.

These techniques relate directly to mental conflict.

The Broken Mind

As soon as you take your first Shen Secret from this Lore Sheet your mind breaks, just a little. Any Inner Masteries you know from the Way of Perfected Shen are instantly lost, and you can never again learn Inner Masteries from that Lore Sheet. Also, your Mental Trait is permanently reduced by -1. If this reduces your Mental Trait to zero, you become a gibbering lunatic, with no mental function worth speaking of, and effectively become unplayable as a character.

Assuming you have at least Mental 1 remaining, you should still roleplay out your character's fractured sanity. Delusions, hallucinations, affective disorders and tics are all suitable.

Strength in Madness

"What's that, little flower in my head? you want to spread your roots into my dreams? Alright, but let us let the white horses past first, as they wish to graze, and time is short."

Cost: 3 Yang Chi and 3 Yin Chi.

Keywords: Action; Mental;

Effect: Your Mental Resilience is reduced to 1, and then you regain 3D6 Mental Resilience. You cannot use this kung fu secret if you have 0 Mental Resilience.

Plan Denied

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"

Cost: 2 Yang and 2 Yin Chi.

Keywords: Action; Mental; Attack;

Effect: Make a Mental attack against the target. If you successfully deal 1 or more Mental Resilience damage the target, then the target is tagged as being Disrupted by you for the remainder of the conflict.

If the target has 0 Mental Resilience when you activate this power, it works automatially (no attack roll needed) and has no chi cost.

At the start of your turn name one Kung Fu secret. Any targets disrupted by you cannot activate that Kung Fu secret until the start of your next turn.

Future Laid Open

"This is how its going to be. Probably."

Cost: None. Takes one hour.

Keywords: Preparation; Mental;

Effect: This power cannot be used during a Conflict, and must be completed immediately beforehand. The GM tells you the following information about the next planned conflict he has in the session:

• It's primary type (mental, social or physical)
• Who the enemies will be (just their names and numbers, not the full stats)

Note that actions of yourselves or others can then effect the accuracy of that prediction, and that the prediction is made purely on the GM's best guess as to what is going to happen next. If the GM doesn't know what the next conflict will be, he will tell you so.

Protection of Foresight

"The next attack will come low, he will feint left then strike right. Be ready."

Cost: 3 Yang Chi and 3 Yin Chi.

Keywords: Action; Subtle;

Effect: As an action, select one opponent that has a lower mental trait than you. The next attack (mental, physical or social) that opponent makes automatically misses.

Note that the next attack the opponent made does not need to be against you personally - regardless of who the target is the attack fails!

Discipline of Prediction Analysis

"Information, flow to me. I am ready."

Cost: 2 Yang Chi and 2 Yin Chi to adopt this disccipline.

Keywords: Discipline; Mental;

Effect: While you maintain this Discipline, reduce the chi cost of any kung fu secrets on this Lore Sheet to zero.

Maintain: Maintaining this discipline requires complete attention. If you use any kung fu secrets not from this lore sheet, the discipline immediately ends. Also, you may never activate any Stances or Postures while maintaining this discipline, not activate this discipline if you are maintaining any Stances or Postures.

Credits

This page created by Asklepios.