the

Half-Burnt
Manual

F A N C O M P E N D I U M
1
 This fan compendium was created by Team Li Si in an effort to expand upon the Legends of the Wulin
Roleplaying Game System. We are passionate about the system and wish to provide additional resources
for prospective Sages and players, especially in a PDF format that will make for easier table play.
The Legends of the Wulin Roleplaying Game System has been copyrighted 2012 by EOS SAMA, LLC. This
guide will not completely reproduce sections of the text; it will merely explain, correct, or expound upon
it. If you want the original text, go and buy it and support this great game!
This fan compendium will include material taken from the Legends of the Wulin fan wiki. Any material
presented in this PDF has been explicitly approved for our use by the original author, and are considered
to be under GNU Free Documentation License. This means this PDF is free. If you’ve paid for this PDF,
you’ve been robbed.
Team Li Si is composed of several notable members in the Legends of the Wulin fan community:

katechon zechstyr naldiin tedster

Other contributors include:

Golden Demon: The River Marshals [pg 23], Moonlight on the River [pg 96],
and Old Man of the Sands [pg 100].
Reyemile: Black and White Stones Style [pg 45].
Sage_Genesis: Grey Dusk Style [pg 38] and Three Kings Style [pg 63].
White Shadows: Devil Body Control Style [pg 50].
Hardkore Keltoid: A useful post on character creation [pg 103].

All artwork is copyright © 2013 Ryan Lee. All rights reserved. Artwork may not be reproduced, copied,
edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without his written permission. It does not belong
to the public domain.

2
 ERRATA & HOTFIXES
ERRATA
Page 52: The Iron Palm technique is a
Technique, not a Secret.
Page 75: The Falling Leaves Society is
erroneously called Fallen Leaves Society (and
on some other subsequent pages). Additionally,
the Falling Leaves Society Kung Fu free bonuses
to External Kung Fu and Internal Kung Fu are
under the wrong heading; they should be under
Falling Leaves Society Kung Fu.
Page 76: Sky-Scorching Flight is misspelled.
Page 178: Attack rolls must always be used
for a basic attack; there are no other options.
Page 184: Certain copies of the PDF have the
words ‘should be’ during the description of Chi
Aura in the second paragraph. Remove the
‘should be’.
Page 186: The Warrior’s Art has no Secret
Arts attack; ignore its presence in the chart.
Page 210: Prayer of Cosmic Rebirth should
have a +25 bonus to Burn, not +20.
Page 259: The Priest’s Arts information box
lists the wrong Toolset and Manipulation lores.
The correct Toolset lore is The Secret Art of
Daoist Magic (pg 263). The correct Manipu-
lation lores are Crafting Curses (pg 264) and
Manipulating Influences (pg 265).
Page 260: Fire Curses are not related to
Benevolence Inspirations.
HOTFIXES
Hotfixes are specific, small changes made to
clarify, balance, improve, or otherwise correct
portions of the main book. Hotfixes differ
from Errata in that Errata merely fixes editing
errors, while Hotfixes attempt to present the
material as intended and not as written.
THE BOOK OF WOOD
Initiative
The Initiative roll is treated as Opposed for the
purposes of Joss and River use (i.e. you may use
Joss and your River to affect that roll). Malicious
Joss spent during the Initiative phase is treated
as Xia Joss, i.e. it adds 1 die to your Lake rather
than removing 1 from your opponent’s.
Laughs At/Fears
Certain Loresheets, Techniques, Legendary
Weapons, Transcendent Techniques, and
Secrets that automatically grant a Laughs or
Fears bonus may conflict with other, similar
effects that state an opponent Never Laughs
or Never Fears. In this case priority should
be given to whoever actively spends Chi first,
then whoever has spent the most Destiny or
Entanglement on the bonus, and then whoever
has Flooded a Die for a weapon ability (such
as the Spear). The reasoning behind this
order is that many of the Internal Kung Fu
techniques that provide these bonuses must
be purchased with normal Destiny and then
prioritized over others, and then chi must be
3
 actively spent to gain these bonuses. This is a
significant long-term investment that requires
constant expenditure to use. Someone who
has purchased it as a passive effect with
Entanglement not only may always gain that
bonus, but this doesn’t compete with the
Destiny spent on kung fu. Finally, the flooded
weapon bonus from the Spear is accessible by
anyone (including Lesser Legends) and has
little long-term cost besides a flooded die.
Minority Report
I prefer to use destiny (including entangled
destiny) price as the first criterion to resolve
these conflicts, with active effects taking
precedence over passive one only where
price is equivalent or nearly so. Under this
approach, if an attacker should use the level
2 Fox Spirit Song technique Mirthful Fox
Plays with her Shadow against an opponent
who uses a Legendary Weapon (costing 10
destiny) that makes its wielder's defenses
never fear or be laughed at by attacks as a
passive effect, then the attacker would not
laugh at the defense, nor would the defense
fear the attack.
The hotfix suggested above seems to me to
deprecate the narrative significance of things
like (e.g.) being the descendant of the Sword
Spirit because it does not require chi use—
even as it prioritizes that effect over one (viz.,
the Spear's ability) that requires a flooded
die, a cost that is everywhere else roughly
equivalent to 2 chi. I prefer consistency, and
consistency in favor of price as a measure of
narrative weight.
4
THE BOOK OF FIRE
All Loresheets
All Transcendent Techniques and Legendary
Weapons have a base cost of 10 Entanglement.
Any Secret that mimics a Secret Arts-related
effect that would belong to a character’s
archetype provides cultivation. This may
include Secrets such as Eagle Defends the Nest
for Warriors, Mohist Wits for Courtiers, the
Secrets of the Black Lotus Pills for Doctors,
and any Secret that provides your archetype
with an additional Tool.
Heaven Sword Alliance
Secrets of Destiny: Heaven Sword Alliance
Kung Fu
Streaming Dragon Blade: This technique
provides the Strike bonus to the Secondary
Strike as well. Replace the first bullet
point’s effects with the following:
If you’re in the Great Ultimate Dragon stance
and use Dragon in Flight, you have a +5 bonus
to Break an opponent’s Shaping and Cover
Ground Waves.
Sword Spirit
Replace the fourth bullet point with the
following:
0 Secret: Whenever you behave as if your
main reason for fighting is the pure joy of
the fight itself and regard your opponent as
a kindred spirit instead of an enemy, you
automatically Laugh At any style that has
swords as its preferred weapon.
Eagle Talons
Gallant Eagle
10 Technique: Somehow you have learned
the Eyes of the Fiery Raptor technique!
Did Gallant Eagle somehow teach you this
unteachable technique, or did you rip the
information from his dead body?
Yun Clan
Secrets of Destiny: Yun Clan Kung Fu
0 Bonus: Green Jade Horse (see Chapter
3: Additional Homebrewed Material, pg
37) qualifies for the Yun Clan External
Kung Fu discount.
5 Technique: You learn the lost Black
Glacier Charge technique.
• If you’re in the Green Jade Horse
stance and use Heart-Chilling Frost,
you have a +10 bonus to any Disrupt
or Disorient marvel that exploits the
use of cold or freezing.
• If you’re in the Green Jade Horse
stance and use Devastation of Black
Ice, you also have a +5 bonus to
Damage.
Resplendent Phoenix Society
Secrets of Destiny: Resplendent Phoenix
Society Kung Fu
10 Technique: You learn the yin-oriented
Transcendent Technique, Thousand
Phoenix! You must be trusted highly by
the Phoenixes.
Beggar Fraternity
Secrets of Destiny: Beggar Fraternity
Kung Fu
A World Without Dogs: Replace the
technique’s effects with the following:
• If you’re in the Divine Pattern Long Strokes
stance and use Reflexes Like Lightning, you
may use this technique to improve every
Marvel you make or every attempt to Break
a Wave you make.
• If you’re in the Divine Pattern Long Strokes
stance and use Five Elements Supreme
Combination, you may boost this technique
to make an auto-selective Area Attack when
you make your Attack. You must still boost
this technique on your Initiative.
Falling Leaves Society
Secrets of Destiny: Falling Leaves Society
Kung Fu
10 Technique: You learn the Confucian
Transcendent Technique, Pillar of
Heaven! This is the great secret of a
true Gentlemen, supposedly invented by
Confucius himself.
Dragon Well Sect
Secrets of Destiny: Dragon Well Sect
Kung Fu
Harmony Towards All Things: This
technique provides the Strike bonus to the
Secondary Strike as well.
The Dragon Well
Drinking the Jade Water is a Technique,
not a Victory.
5
 Liquid Metal Delegates
Secrets of Destiny: Liquid Metal Delegate
Kung Fu
Swirling Shadows: This technique also
allows the use of Paired weapons.
The Liquid Shadow Magistrates
5 Fortune: This is a Fortune and not a
Disadvantage.
Hundred Ghost Faction
Secrets of Destiny: Hundred Ghost Faction
Kung Fu
0 Bonus: Royal Tiger (see Chapter 3:
Additional Homebrewed Material, pg 43)
qualifies for the Hundred Ghost External
Kung Fu discount.
10 Technique: You learn the dark
Transcendent Technique, Stalking Specter
Text! Let all your former enemies tremble
as you stalk them from beyond the grave.
6
The Restless Ghost Scroll
This Technique costs 10 Entanglement,
not 8.
As a clarification, a character with the
Restless Ghost Scroll may switch between
Living Corpse Technique and Bone Devil
Claw at the beginning of every round.
The Bone Devil Claw gets an additional
ability:
The Fear Passion Breath penalties inflicted by
the Bone Devil Claw are increased by 1, as
if they were inflicted by a Poison. (A Trivial
inflicts a Breath Penalty of 1, a Minor of 2, etc.)
Black Lotus Society
Black Lotus Society Kung Fu
Stainless Black Feathers: Replace the
second bullet point of this technique with
the following:
If you’re in the Graceful Crane stance and
successfully Dodge an attack by 10 or more
© RLee 2014
 points, you may choose to use a Petal-inflicting
technique on your opponent as a Reply. You
cannot inflict both Petals and a Ripple (if you
are capable of doing so).
Black Lotus Pills
4 Secret: The Doctors of the Black Lotus
Society are feared for a reason. Their
Unstained Lotus Mastery and their
knowledge of the Black Lotus Pills has led
to surprising advances in the medical field.
You learn the Blood-Spotted Lotus secret,
which allows you to use Unstained Lotus
Mastery techniques that inflict Petals on
your opponent when you make Doctor’s
Quick Work attacks.
+4: Your mastery is unparalleled. The
Wulin shudder at the sound of your
name, you nefarious doctor. The Doctor’s
Quick Work can now make use of
techniques that use and expend petals,
such as Lotus Seeds Lotus.
Blade Dogs
Blade Dog Kung Fu
As a clarification, a player cannot purchase
more than 5 points of their Techniques. As
a further clarification, these Techniques
provide cultivation as if they were
normally spent destiny (so 1 Entanglement
buys 1 Technique, and that provides a
rank 2 Internal Technique that provides 2
Cultivation).
The Sword Bastard
The Devil-Saint Apotheosis costs 5
Entanglement, not 10.
Baneful Humans do not gain a -5 discount
towards the Devil-Saint Apotheosis.
Everyone who does not possess the Baneful
Human loresheet increases the cost of this
technique by +5.
THE BOOK OF EARTH
Marvels and Waves
Marvels and Waves that have been created
with Skills are best defended against (or
Broken with) other narratively appropriate
Skills. Using a combat statistic in place of a
Skill levies a base -10 penalty to the result.
The Sage should shift this penalty up or down
based on the way the narrative is framed.
Similarly, Marvels and Waves that have
been created with combat statistics (such
as Heart-Cutting Strike or a Cover Ground
wave) are best defended against (or Broken
with) the relevant combat statistic. Using
a Skill in place of a combat statistic levies
a base -10 penalty to the result. The Sage
should shift this penalty up or down based on
the way the narrative is framed.
Combat Statistics
Toughness
The Toughness statistic does not require
the use of Chi Aura.
Energy Attacks
Energy Attacks are explicitly Minor
Actions. You may perform as many Energy
Attacks as you have techniques and sets
of dice. Team Li Si’s rationale is that this
provides more use for extra sets beyond
the usual Marvels and it provides a use for
the level 1, +5 Energy Attack techniques.
The Burn effect acts like a Freeze effect,
but provides an Action Penalty instead
of a Breath Penalty as it dries up the
opponent’s River.
Energy Attacks are not Physical Attacks,
but they can Take Out an opponent.
7

THE BOOK OF METAL
Weapons
Spears (qiang)
You may also use the Spear’s defensive
Flooding ability while you make a Dodge,
allowing you to dance out of an opponent’s
reach, keeping them at bay with your
Spear.
Improper and Improvised Weapons
As a clarification, a character is not limited
in the use of their external kung fu style
by the kind of weapon they’re wielding. If
a character is wielding the ‘wrong’ type of
weapon for their style, they can employ
all the techniques of that style and benefit
from all of its statistics, but they do not
gain stat bonuses from the weapon nor
use its special abilities. For example, if a
character is using a Ranged Weapon while
in Eight Legends style, the +5 Strike bonus
from the weapon does not apply, the attack
8
© RLee 2014
cannot automatically be extended into
another zone, and they cannot flood a die
to attack opponents farther away.
This means that if, for whatever reason,
a character is without their weapon,
they are always better off attempting to
improvise a weapon that works with their
external style, since at least then they
can potentially make use of the weapon’s
special abilities, if not its stat bonuses. (But
see the Player’s Guide section on Shaping
Waves for examples of how a character
might try to improvise effects that aren’t
compatible with their style’s weapons.)
Special Weapons and Armor may be
purchased with Entanglement, not just
normal Destiny, so long as it makes sense-
it’s very likely your society may provide
you with a Special Weapon, but why would
the Falling Leaves Society provide you
with a sickle and chain?
Additional, non-Special Weapons may be
purchased for 1 Entanglement or Destiny.
External Kung Fu
Buying a new External kung fu style now only
costs 7 destiny.
Destiny Cloud Fist
Guarding the Sun and the Moon
As a clarification, this technique’s penalty
also applies to anyone attempting to
Analyze your Destiny Cloud Fist kung fu.
Divine Pattern Long Strokes
Divine Iron Web
As a clarification, this technique can only
be used to stop people from Covering
Ground into and out of the zone. It does
not protect you or others from Knockback
marvels.
Sweeping To All Sides
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Opponents who would normally get bonuses
against you for having a higher initiative must
exceed your initiative result by 15 or they are
denied those bonuses against you.
Graceful Crane Style
Patient Crane
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Opponents who would normally get bonuses
against you for having a higher initiative must
exceed your initiative result by 10 or they are
denied those bonuses against you.
Twin Tiger-Subduing Talons
As a clarification, this technique acts as if it
were a normal physical attack that results
in a Passion. It adds Damage and subtracts
Toughness, and Armor provides additional
defense.
Great Ultimate Dragon Style
Great Ultimate Dragon Style, while flavorful
and evocative, is widely considered to be
unplayable by the Wulin community. We have
provided our own homebrew redesign of the
style’s techniques in Chapter 5: Sage’s Guide
under Houseruling [pg 149] in an effort to
make it playable.
Murderous Shadows
Void Nature
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Opponents who would normally get bonuses
against you for having a higher initiative must
exceed your initiative result by 15 or they are
denied those bonuses against you.
Ravenous Wings
Heaven Darkened By Wings
This technique provides a -10 penalty to
an opponent’s attempts to recover from
Disrupts or Disorients not a -5.
Storm God’s Fury
Thunderclap
As a clarification, this technique levies a -5
penalty to an opponent’s Speed.
9
 Internal Kung Fu
Any technique that provides a bonus to
Marvels only provides that bonus to a single
Marvel, no matter how many Marvels are made
on an attack, unless the technique is explicitly
stated to have a Round-Long duration.
Similarly, any technique that provides a bonus
to defense against Marvels only provides that
bonus to a single Marvel defense.
Boundless Prosperity Manual
Five Elements Supreme Combination
This technique and its boostable effect
must be activated while rolling Initiative.
Fire Sutra
Fusing Flames
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Round-long duration.
You have a +10 bonus to your Chi Aura when
rolling to protect against Burn damage. This
may also provide limited protection against the
environmental complications of fire made by
Shaping Waves (including secondary effects such
as smoke inhalation) at the Sage’s discretion.
If one or more fighters other than you within
your zone use any points of Fire Chi or you
use this technique to defend against any kind
of Burn effect (including from environmental
complications), you regain one additional point
of normal Chi at the end of this round. You can
gain only a single point this way, regardless of
the quantity or quality of the flame.
10
Elusive Desert Being
Your opponent can no longer negate this
technique’s bonus to your Dodge with their
attack roll. This negates the need to Boost
this technique.
Nine-Fire Seal
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Round-long duration.
Your normal attack may inflame an existing
Burn condition instead of an Injury Condition.
This attack does not ignore Armor or Toughness,
but it does apply your normal Damage bonuses
from other kung fu and your weapon.
You have a +10 bonus to a single Rippling Roll
made to inflict a Burn effect.
Aura of the Qilin
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
Round-long duration.
You have a +30 bonus to your Chi Aura
when rolling to protect against Burn or
Freeze damage.
You have a +10 bonus to any Burn effect you make.
Prayer of Cosmic Rebirth
Replace the effects of this technique with
the following:
You can use the Burn effect as a Minor Action
on your attack with a +25 bonus. If it forces
an immediate Rippling roll, the roll receives a
+15 bonus.
If the Burn effect of this attack hits, the target
must spend 2 Chi per die of Chi Aura purchased
to defend against Burn damage for the rest of
the fight.
Fox Spirit Song One-Tail-Amongst-Nine Dance

Hidden Teeth As a clarification, as per stacking rules an

opponent can only suffer a single extra
As a clarification, this replaces one of your
Ripple from the effects of this attack per
External kung fu combat statistics, and
round, no matter how many components
you may add your Weapon bonus to that
of the attack are augmented by this
for further bonuses. Since this can vastly
technique and hit.
improve a style’s combat statistics it counts
as a bonus from Internal kung fu for the
purposes of stacking rules. Techniques Heaven’s Lightning
that boost your Skills (such as Clarity in Dragon Chi
Openness) can explicitly stack with this Dragon Chi’s enhancement to Focus on
technique. Breath may improve the regeneration of
Mirthful Fox Plays With Her Shadow either Earth Chi or Normal Chi, not both.
This technique only benefits the attacker’s The player must decide which is improved
primary attack, and not any other at the beginning of the round.
component of the attack roll such as
Energy Attacks or marvels. A character Ice Sutra
may pay to use this technique again for a Devastation of Black Ice
Secondary Strike.
As a clarification, as per stacking rules an
Dispersing Like Songs opponent can only suffer a single extra
As a balancing measure, this technique Ripple from the effects of this attack per
allows you to see the defense’s roll before round, no matter how many components
you make your own roll. The order of the attack are augmented by this
of the turn is changed as follows: The technique and hit.
defender rolls their defense, the attacker
rolls their offense, the attacker makes Iron Body Skill
their declarations, and the defender
Black Tigers Hunting
makes their declarations. This is to avoid
making the defender choose between two This technique provides a +5 bonus to
terrible decisions: a mediocre, chi-saving Disrupt or Disorient your target, not a +10.
defense or blowing far too much chi on an
opponent who does nothing else with their
attack. With this modification the attacker
still knows if the defender had a mediocre
roll and reduces some of the risk of using
more expensive techniques.

11
 Jade Spirit Sword
Sword Heaven
This technique explicitly also allows you
access to the Paired weapon type if you
possess the Sword-Heart Skill.
Snake Hiding in Grass
If you are acting in accordance with a
Passion or Inspiration Hyperactivity, your
attack still inflicts one Ripple if it misses by
9 points or less.
Soaring Phoenix
As a clarification, this technique’s secondary
effect that allows a Reply only works for a
Block-based defense.
Iron Heart Clarity
Replace the effects of this technique with the
following:
Use this technique after one of your attacks
is blocked or you block an attack; it doesn’t
matter whether the block is successful or not.
You immediately learn one Chi Condition that
your opponent possesses. This only reveals
a pre-existing Chi Condition; it does not
Discover a new one.
If the opponent possesses multiple Chi
Conditions, the Sage will determine which
Condition is revealed. In general, higher
severity conditions are revealed before those
with lower severity, hyperactivities before
weaknesses, and action and breath bonuses
and penalties before other types.
Sword-Mindset
Sword-Mindset is widely considered to
be lackluster for a Tier Five technique
by the Wulin community, but it is still
12
playable and useful. We have provided
our own homebrew version of the style’s
techniques in Chapter 5: Sage’s Guide
under House Rules [pg 150] in an effort
to make it more enjoyable.
Removing Concepts
All-Seeing Eye of God
As a clarification, this replaces one of your
External kung fu combat statistics, and
you may add your Weapon bonus to that
for further bonuses. Since this can vastly
improve a style’s combat statistics it counts
as a bonus from Internal kung fu for the
purposes of stacking rules. Techniques
that boost your Skills (such as Calm Heart
Skill or Clarity in Openness) can explicitly
stack with this technique.
Continuation of Motion
As a clarification, this replaces one of your
External kung fu combat statistics, and
you may add your Weapon bonus to that
for further bonuses. Since this can vastly
improve a style’s combat statistics it counts
as a bonus from Internal kung fu for the
purposes of stacking rules. Techniques
that boost your Skills (such as Calm Heart
Skill or Clarity in Openness) can explicitly
stack with this technique.
Thousand Venoms
Miasma of Long Suffering
Infected Chi no longer heals naturally. It
must be either spent or expelled.
Power-Dissolving Radiance
If this technique is applied to an opponent,
its effects last for the duration of the
round. This makes this technique particu-
larly effective for pack hunters.
Unstained Lotus Mastery
Petals
Petals now heal at a rate of 1 per day.
Doctors may speed up this rate with a
successful Memorable (40) Medical check
to 2 per day.
Lotus Breaks the Tiger
This technique persists after combat. If
this technique is triggered outside of
combat, it adds 2 Petals and makes a
Rippling Roll based on Petals instead.
This technique counts as a Medical
condition with Duration 1, Interval 1
Day with a Recovery equal to the Strike
that inflicted it.
Formless Techniques
Formless Techniques get a cost reduction.
Formless Techniques provide a +5 bonus to
a Combat Statistic for 1 Chi, not 2. They
provide a +10 bonus for 3 Chi, not 4.
Secret Arts
Secret Arts list default conditions: to reiterate,
as per page 284 of the core book, a Secret Art’s
default conditions are just suggestions.
A successful Recovery roll does NOT allow you
to make an immediate second Recovery roll,
and the initial failed Resistance roll counts as
a Recovery roll for the purposes of triggering
the condition’s Interval. The full Interval of the
condition must pass before another roll may be
made, including rolls made for conditions with
a Duration greater than one. This functionally
means a Major condition with Recovery
10, Duration 3, Interval 1 Day will take a
minimum of 3 days to naturally soothe to
Minor, and another 3 days to reach Trivial, and
then finally 3 days to soothe away to nothing.
Other Secret Artists may of course speed this
up, bypassing Duration entirely. The lone
exception to this is the Doctor’s Arts and Injury
Conditions: they do not bypass the increased
Duration of an Injury Condition from
techniques such as Iron Buddha’s Disapproval.
They simply make it easier to recover from this
grievous injury.
This is to make the Secret Arts (especially
conditions levied by End of Battle Rippling Rolls)
more effective and to avoid cases where a Major
Injury Condition could be cured within a day-
something not in line with wuxia.
A player may choose to set the Recovery of a
Condition created through an End of Battle
Rippling Roll at 30 for a Trivial condition or 40
for Minor and Major conditions in lieu of the
original Rippling Roll result.
13
 Paired Condition Technique does not
have its own table of difficulties, durations,
and intervals. Instead it acts like the
relevant Archetype’s Discovery, using the
same mechanics and tables, but using the
Archetype’s Manipulation skill instead of
Discovery skill.
Weakness Entanglement Conditions do not
grant a character Entanglement. Instead
they reduce the amount of Entanglement a
character gains from their next Deed or basic
Entanglement distribution depending on the
severity of the condition.
Doctors
As a clarification, Doctors do not naturally
Discover Paired Conditions. Discovering a
Condition creates either a Hyperactivity or a
Weakness, not both.
As a clarification, the Manual bonus on pg
235 is considered part of a Loresheet for the
purposes of spending Entanglement.
The Fortune 3 of a Quality manual should be a
Treasure 2.
River Flows Upstream Method
As a clarification, this technique only
improves the Poison Rippling Roll, not
the ‘strike’ bonus of the Poison- which
by default is a +0 bonus. See Chapter 4:
Player’s Guide under The Players Guide to
Shaping Waves [pg 110] for ideas on how
to boost that bonus.
14
Warriors
As a clarification, a Combat Approach is
nothing more than an extremely accessible
Condition that is easily triggered in combat.
Courtiers
Courtiers do not need to factor in Virtues or
preexisting Conditions when spotting Inspira-
tion Discoveries. The Sage should feel free to
alter the difficulties freeform as needed instead
of specifically calculating it out.
Wisdom Tool
As a clarification, this Tool requires a prior
Rippling Roll to access. It is explicitly
stackable with the Truth As Weapon
technique; Wisdom Tool is a Tool Bonus
and Truth As Weapon is a Secret Arts
bonus. The Wisdom Tool can be used
without spending Chi, in which case it
grants a +0 Damage bonus.
Proper Forms of Conflict
As a clarification, this technique bases its
attack as a Flood+Inspire action- basing
the initial result on the Flooded dice.
The beginning of
wisdom is to call
things by their
proper name.
— Confucius

Scholars
As a clarification, the I Ching bonuses on pg
257 are considered part of a Loresheet for the
purposes of spending Entanglement.
The Fortune 2 of an extraordinary copy of the
I Ching should be a Treasure 3.
These changes are overridden if you decide to
use the Additional Scholar’s Arts in Chapter 3:
Additional Homebrewed Material, pg 89.
Priests
Curses and Influences may be influenced
and rationalized by Passions and Inspirations
(much like how it is possible to do so with
the Doctor’s Arts- “Your anger is a sign of a
diseased liver!”) or explicitly created from
them (via Internal-External Technique) but
are considered to be completely separate
mechanically. This means it is no longer viable
to use the Courtier’s Arts to soothe someone’s
Passion away, thus canceling a Curse. When
Curses and Influences are placed upon a
character, they take on a life of their own. This
hotfix was explicitly produced to ensure that
© RLee 2014
Priest Secret Arts couldn’t be simply shut down
externally by the Courtier Secret Arts.
For similar reasons, Priests may no longer
begin with the Story of the Self. They must
begin with the Story of Fortune.
Rising Flame Intercession
To clarify, this technique requires a Minor Wu
Wei Minor Action at Trivial difficulty (10) on
the character’s Initiative.
Sheltering Water Intercession
This technique is a Wave, not a Minor Action.
An opponent may temporarily resist the effects
of this technique by making a skill-based
Minor Action on their Attack roll, not their
Initiative. The default skill for making this
resistance roll is Awareness, but it may also be
any other skill that you can justify; if this isn’t
narratively appropriate, the Sage may penalize
this accordingly.
Waning Metal Protection Spell
This technique is a Wave, not a Minor
Action. It lasts for a Duration equal to the
character’s Rank.
15
 THE BOOK OF WATER
Legendary Weapons
As a clarification, Legendary Weapons may
also add to Footwork and Toughness if it is
appropriate.
Transcendent Techniques
Eyes of the Fiery Raptor
The Sacrifice techniques of Eyes of the
Fiery Raptor grant a +15 bonus instead
of a +10. We felt that the listed bonus
did not accurately portray the in-universe
awesomeness of the Eyes of the Fiery
Raptor.
Thousand Phoenix
The Chi granted from Regrowth
From Nothingness can be regenerated
mid-combat and adds to your Chi
threshold.
Pillar of Heaven
Replace the text of Infinite Xia with the
following:
Once per scene, you may use 1 Chivalrous
Joss to fill your entire River with 9s.
16
Lesser Legends
Lesser Legends are given the Toughness
statistic. Lesser Legends suffer an additional
Ripple for every 10 points of Damage they
suffer over their Toughness. They also reduce
Ripples by 1 for every 10 Toughness they
possess over their opponent’s Damage. They
can never use their Toughness to reduce the
number of Ripples they suffer from an attack
to 0.
Sages should feel free to give Lesser Legends
heavier armor. Medium and Heavy armor
grant a Lesser Legend extra ripples: 1 for
Medium and 2 for Heavy. However, they still
suffer the Footwork and Skill penalties from
their equipment.
Additionally, Lesser Legends may be affected
by Conditions gained through out of combat
Secret Arts actions. Lesser Legends usually
possess a single Condition of Minor severity or
lower, though it is possible for them to possess
a Major condition (such as a Warrior with the
Unassailable Battle Saint Technique). This
hotfix has been implemented because many
important characters in a Wulin game may not
necessarily be xia- like a canny government
official or the impressionable son of a rival.
Allowing the Secret Arts to affect Lesser
Legends gives Secret Arts more bite.
Lesser Legends also may possess and use Joss,
but may only use it outside of combat. They
do not start with Joss and only gain it through
Interesting Times or Deeds.
 HOMEBREWED MATERIAL
The Book
of Fire
ASURA BUDDHISM
Destiny Cost: 3
The Buddha began life as a prince in a far
away land.
Sheltered away from the world, he lived a live
of indolence and pleasure.
Even the Buddha once drank fine wine and
loved beautiful women.
Can any of us say we are better than he?
The Naraka whisper that his enlightenment
came from seeing others suffer.
What suffering is the Buddha worth?
The Little Forest Sect has had its share of
heretics, but they are often tolerated; they are
to be pitied, nothing else. Their heretical views
only harm themselves, after all. Of course,
there is an exception: the fragmented, tiny cult
of Asura Buddhists. Abbot White Cloud grows
terribly angry at even the hint of a mention of
their name, loudly proclaiming their heresy
as “a fancy philosophical excuse”. Asura
Buddhists naturally gravitate towards the ranks
of the Black Lotus Society, with the most famous
of them all perhaps being the Black Storm
Buddha Hei Mei! Some also find their way to
the Blade Dogs, despite the Sword Bastard's
derision of their beliefs; this only encourages
them, for some could argue that the Sword
Bastard's nihilism is an imperfect understanding
of the truth of Nirvana.
There are two schools of Asura Buddhism, the
Young Bodhisattva and the Grinning Naraka
schools. The Young Bodhisattva school teaches
that their current incarnation as a xia is proof
that they have accrued almost enough good
karma to reach Nirvana. They believe that their
current life is their just reward before leaving
the wheel of Samsara. As such, they intend to
live a life of freedom and happiness while free
of the confines of bad karma. This immunity
to bad karma allows them to reach unheard
of levels of depravity, all the better to provide
opportunities for others to gain good karma.
The Grinning Naraka school teaches that being
a xia is proof that they will not reach Nirvana
anytime in the next couple of incarnations.
A xia is, by their very nature, too tied to the
world to transcend it! It would be far better to
be born a simple monk without cultivated chi.
Because they are so tied to the world they fall
into despair, and in their despair they lose hope.
When all hope is lost, the student of Grinning
Naraka Asura Buddhism finds hope in balance:
they are doomed to accrue bad karma anyway,
but they can at least lessen this by showing
others the way to proper Enlightenment. They
come to the same conclusion as the Young
Bodhisattva school: that their depravity may
help others become truly noble.
Asura Buddhists are willing to do great evil to
spur others to good, which ultimately warps
and twists their Chi. They are therefore the
most dangerous of xia: men or women who
are quite capable of ruining entire lives in the
pursuit of evil for the sake of provoking good.
17

A madman is running
towards the east, the
man who chases after
him also running
towards the east.
They are similar in
running towards the
east, but different in
why they run towards
the east.
— Hui Su
Purposeful Depravity
Once achieved, this Corrupt Virtue works
alongside the others- you can perform Deeds
of it, but the achieved Entanglement works a
little differently. One point of Entanglement
Destiny from every Deed of Depravity will go
towards cultivation of Corrupt Chi, modeling
how your obscene acts drag you further to
your final apotheosis.
The maximum number of Corrupt cultivation
Destiny that you can earn during a Story
equals your value in the Depravity Virtue.
Someone with Purposeful Depravity act in
many ways the opposite of a proper Buddhist,
preaching a life of hedonism and the abuse of
power... though killing is often frowned upon.
Instead the Asura Buddhist prefers to use their
lifestyle as a teaching tool, spurring other people
towards the enlightenment they have already
18
gained (or alternatively the enlightenment they
cannot achieve, depending on the school). In
many ways Purposeful Depravity occupies a
middle ground between Individualism and
Ruthlessness: you do terrible things for your
own wellbeing, but not necessarily at someone
else's direct expense. You gain a Deed of
Depravity whenever you torture a person to help
them realize Enlightenment, when you throw a
fancy dinner party to teach the starving peasantry
The Truth of Suffering, or when you provide
an opponent the chance to improve their own
karma by resisting your work.
Corrupt Chi gained through Purposeful
Depravity usually ends up manifesting as
a behavioral chi deviation. It is also not
uncommon for Asura Buddhists to gain
mutations that make them appear demonic,
including bright red or blue skin, huge fangs,
or wide, bulging eyes.
5 Destiny: You subscribe to the philos-
ophy of Asura Buddhism; Nirvana is either
close at hand or too far away! You gain-
and can gain Deeds in- the Purposeful
Depravity Virtue. Your Depravity starts out
with a value of 1, and can be raised like
any other Virtue.
1-5 Status: Your Deeds bring you to the
attention of the Wulin; the Banes almost
certainly see you as a powerful asset, while
the Heaven Hunters will likely come and
seek you.
1+ Treasure: Your Deeds of Depravity
mean that you rarely (if ever) find your
needs wanting. You are surrounded
by concubines, riches, and anything a
mortal can ever ask for. There's very little
chance that you will ever succumb to the
traditional xia tendency to lose all your
creature comforts.
5 Destiny: You belong to the Young
Bodhisattva school of Asura Buddhism.
You are surely going to reach Nirvana
upon your death! If you gain any points
of Enlightened Cultivation from any
source, you may immediately convert it
to Corrupt Cultivation.
5 Destiny: You belong to the Grinning
Naraka school of Asura Buddhism. Since
you are doomed to fall to Hell, it is your
destiny to teach others how to avoid this
fate! Your first point of Corrupt Chi only
requires 5 points of Corrupt Cultivation.
If you already have a point of Corrupt Chi,
your next point requires 5 less points of
Corrupt Cultivation.
2 Victory: Gracious in defeat, you inspire
virtue in your opponents! After losing
to an enemy, you can forego the Ripple
roll and instead pay this cost to choose to
cause a Major Inspiration aimed towards a
proper chivalrous Virtue set- maybe even
Buddhist Piety, if everyone agrees it would
be appropriate.
10 Treasure: There are very few Asura
Buddhist weapons, but the few that do
exist are malevolent items that would love
to fall into an Asura Buddhist's hands. If
you have at least 1 point of the Purposeful
Depravity Virtue, you may find an evil
Legendary Weapon such as the Clawed
Heart Sutra.
• +3: This is a Special Weapon.
SWORD HELL
The Heaven Sword Alliance's headquarters is
justly famous for its beautiful Sword Heaven.
There, the blades of its finest heroes hang in the
domed chamber, sparkling like a thousand stars.
There have been many pilgrims to this chamber,
all of them convinced this was truly the greatest
locus of sword-power in Shen Zhou. They have
all been deceived.
Sword Heaven is the capstone, the dam, the seal
on the tomb of something worse. A sprawling
mass of tunnels burrows down into the
mountain, dotted with dank chambers only big
enough for one or two men at most. Skeletons
of black jade shot through with blood-red ruby
lay in these chambers, clutching at the bars of
their jail even in death. Some even say that
these unfortunate inmates can still speak. But
that is but the pathway to the tomb.
Sword Hell is a bowl cut into the very bowels
of the mountain, lined with the detritus of a
thousand broken evil weapons. Here one can
find the Thousand Hell Blade, unbreakable,
still whispering and hoping for meaningless
chaos. Further on one might find the Starving
Tiger King's axe, Bloody Howler, waiting to be
picked up and once again refilled. The tattered,
blood-soaked banner that was once mounted on
the Iron Shadow Warlord's spear lays under lead
glass, all but forgotten- but in its day it was said
to be the dark brother to the Warlord's armor. A
piece of the Demon God's armor lies there, lying
in a pile of scrap. And at the center of it all is
the banal wooden sword Cruel Calmness, bane
of the Heaven Sword Alliance, lying openly on a
pillar of white marble. Even just standing in the
chamber is enough to turn a xia's chi corrupt.
19
 It was a gamble, of course. The long-dead
Sword Spirit who first carved out Sword Hell
knew that the concentration of such evil
would be a problem in the long run. But he
consulted some of the greatest minds within
the Wulin, and found that the Ocean Unbound
Monastery's approach would not work with so
many evil weapons. There were not enough
monasteries in the world! Too many evil
weapons had arisen. And so began Sword Hell,
hidden far underneath its counterbalance of
Sword Heaven, a necessary pit of evil. When
questioned, the Sword Spirit remarked that it
was better to keep all the ink in its stone bowl
than to fling it all over the desk.
Nowadays Sword Hell is almost unknown.
Only eight people know of its existence and
history: the current Sword Spirit and his Seven
Heavenly Blades. But whispers abound. Great
evil weapons disappear and cannot be found.
Heroes of the Heaven Sword Alliance are often
the ones to defeat their wielders. Already the
Vile Rain Cult has sent its greatest spies to
infiltrate the Alliance. The Blade Dogs thirst at
the thought of such power, ripe for the taking,
and Sword Bastard has set his eyes on Cruel
Calmness: what a blow to the Wulin that would
be, to besiege the Heaven Peaks and pillage
Heaven and Hell!
1+ Involvement: Your story will be tied
to the terrible catacombs of Sword Hell.
Perhaps you have returned a weapon of a
fallen foe to be interred in the prison, or you
plan to plunder it for your own personal
gain. Maybe you are a great priest, seeking
to exorcise one of the weapons... or maybe
it is your fate to guard them!
20
The Blades of Sword Hell
1+ Fortune: Whether through your skills,
observation, or deeds, you have been
given information about Sword Hell. This
might include the names and histories
of weapons found there, the nature of its
geomantic curse, or some other aspect of
its history.
5 Fortune: You have been considered
trustworthy enough by the Sword Spirit
or one of the Seven Heavenly Blades to
see Sword Hell! Unfortunately for you,
this must come at a price: at least a week
of meditation and spiritual cleansing to
counteract the foul geomancy. You gain
a Minor Paired Chi Condition that may
not be inflamed and comes into effect
whenever you have gone through the
required period of spiritual cleansing: a
hyperactivity that grants you an Entangle-
ment bonus whenever in Sword Hell, and a
special weakness that reduces your Corrupt
cultivation by 1 whenever in Sword Hell.
• +5: You have been named a Holy
Guardian of Sword Hell! You may easily
pass in and out of Sword Hell without
any oversight by anyone but the Sword
Spirit and the Seven Heavenly Blades.
By keeping yourself properly cleansed at
all times and by meditating on the dao
of the blade while on duty, your Minor
Paired Chi Condition has been inflamed
to Major! Instead of granting an
entanglement bonus whenever in Sword
Hell, you gain a special Cultivation
bonus that provides you with a point of
Enlightened chi cultivation; you may
earn an additional point whenever you
perform a Deed of Honor or Righteous-
 ness keyed to protecting Sword Hell.
The associated weakness now completely
immunizes you from Sword Hell's
corrupt effects.
• -2: You are already a member of the
Seven Heavenly Blades.
10 Treasure: You have managed to steal
one of the blades of Sword Hell, and tied
your destiny to its own! Unfortunately,
you may still have to fight your way out
past the cells... good thing you have your
new dark ally.
• +3: This is a Special Weapon.
5 Secret: The weapon is significantly
evil beyond its Fate... simply holding it
can grant you corrupt Chi! You gain a
minor Corrupt cultivation hyperactivity.
This grants you a single point of Corrupt
Chi cultivation every session your
weapon significantly contributes to the
accomplishment of any Deed, Chivalrous
or Malicious. Many people think they can
tame such a weapon or use it for the power
of good, and they are fools.
• +5: You poor, pitiful creature. Do
you know what you have stolen? The
weapon is one of the most evil in
Sword Hell, and threatens to turn you
into a monster. The Minor Corrupt
cultivation hyperactivity is inflamed
to Major. Instead of requiring you
to perform a Deed with the help of
the cursed blade, you instead gain a
point of Corrupt Chi cultivation every
session you simply wield the weapon!
10 Victory: Somehow, you have
managed to evade the Heaven Sword
Alliance's greatest heroes and guards
and slipped into Sword Hell either
undetected or unopposed! All of its
fabled weapons are open to you, as well
as its unique corrupt geomancy!
© RLee 2014
21
 The Dark Geomancy of
Sword Hell
The barely contained evil of the blades of
Sword Hell twists and warps the geomancy
of the mountain, contained only by the pure
swords of Sword Heaven. So many legendary
weapons thirsting for evil can likewise warp
anyone unprepared for their influence. Still,
some hunger to bask in its evil, and many of
the priests of the Vile Rain Cult believe it could
teach them all manner of dark secrets...
Mechanically, this is a Trivial Curse that affects
anyone who enters Sword Hell: a hyperactivity
that could grant Corrupt cultivation. Charac-
ters that stay in the chamber for longer than an
hour must make a reflexive Wu Wei roll at Hard
difficulty (30)- if they fail the curse inflames to
Minor severity and they gain their first point of
Corrupt chi cultivation; if they succeed they are
inured to its effects for another hour. Foolishly
staying in the chamber for a cumulative day- it
doesn’t need to be all at once!- increases this to
Major severity if the character fails a reflexive
Wu Wei roll at Fantastic difficulty (60); success
puts it off for another cumulative day. At this
point, the character gains up to 3 points of
Corrupt Chi cultivation every full day they
spend in Sword Hell. Leaving Sword Hell
does not Soothe this condition; it may only
be soothed by a talented Priest or by avoiding
Sword Hell long enough to recover. These Chi
Conditions all have Duration 1, Interval 1 Story;
Moderate (20) difficulty to recover from Trivial
intensity, Memorable (40) difficulty to recover
from Minor intensity, and Legendary (80)
difficulty to recover from Major intensity.
5 Fortune: You are particularly susceptible
to the evil of Sword Hell! The difficulty
to avoid inflaming Sword Hell's curse is
22
increased by 10. The Recovery of that
condition is increased by 10 and the
Duration is 3.
3 Secret: You learn the dark art of Sword
Prayer from the unique geomancy, which
can be used as a Tool for the Secret Art of
Daoist Magic! It teaches that all things
may be made complete with the cut of a
blade, and so you make your curses and
influences complete with a cut of yours.
The Limitation of this Art is that it must
include self-harm: your own blood. Its
modifier is +0 to +10: you may inflict a
Ripple on yourself for a +0 tool bonus. A
self-inflicted Trivial wound grants yourself a
+5 bonus, and a self-inflicted Minor wound
grants you a +10 bonus. Anything more
than that disturbs your chi flows too much
to work properly.
5 Technique: You learn a variation of
Geomantic Formation- this one keyed
towards Corruption! This works similarly
to Geomantic Formation- Water, but harms
an opponent for moving out of it. A success
inflicts a ripple on anyone leaving the
formation; a critical success inflicts a ripple
plus a rippling roll. Rippling rolls inflicted
in this manner have a damage bonus of
+0 and inflict Curses or Influences like a
Priest's Quick Work attack.
10+ Victory: You have researched the
dark geomancy of Sword Hell and have
found a solution to counteracting its evil!
But like so many things, this solution is
a double-edged sword. You are in the
unique position: you may begin the
work necessary to heal the dark chamber,
or perhaps you might twist your own
exorcism, intensifying it!
THE RIVER MARSHALS
Destiny Cost: 3
Concept: Righteous Defenders of the
Waterways
Faultlessly loyal to the Emperor, the River
Marshals patrol Shen Zhou’s waterways,
defending the common folk from the
predations of bandits and pirates with their
trusted sword-brothers at their back.
Virtues: Zhong (Loyalty), Xin (Honor), Yi
(Righteousness)
Some seventy years back, the rocky province
of Yuqi had collapsed into near-anarchy. It
had chewed through four governors in four
years: the first had been murdered, the second
so frightened by his brief tenure that he
resigned from the civil service entirely. The
third turned bandit lord, and the fourth was
kidnapped and held for ransom! The situation
was dire. A constable of some fame named
Canwo Sheng, called “Wei Ding” or “Lonely
Dwarf” – ironically, as he was neither - was
dispatched, along with several of his lovers and
most trusted men (not infrequently the same
people), to restore order and imperial rule to
the province. Yuqi had always been a problem
area: countless tributaries of the Yangtze traced
torturous paths between high ridges, and
the region was stuffed to the gills with box
canyons, tall reeds, and hidden caves. It was a
veritable paradise for bandits and river pirates.
The constables initially met with little success
in their efforts, until a chance encounter
with a family of cormorant fishers who had
created a novel form of kung fu that allowed
them to fight underwater as easily as on land.
An alliance was formed, with the constables
and fishermen combining their knowledge to
produce a martial discipline uniquely adapted
to their aquatic environment. Within two
years, the rebellious former governor’s head
had been presented to the Emperor and rule of
law had been re-established! Rather than rest
on their laurels, Wei Ding and his comrades
petitioned the imperial court to expand
their mandate: soon, he and his “Imperial
Cormorants,” as they came to be called, were
patrolling waterways across Shen Zhou!
With their distinctive red neckcloths and
black bicorn hats, the River Marshals
have become a familiar sight on Shen
Zhou’s rivers, their great lodges on the
banks of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers lit
throughout the night by a blaze of lanterns.
The Cormorants, despite their Imperial
backing, have not the reach or the numbers
of the Eastern Condors, even within the
arena of river traffic, although they will not
hear it said that their kung fu is inferior:
nevertheless, they manage to maintain
offices in most major port cities along Shen
Zhou’s large rivers, and outposts every
fifty li or so in less settled regions. They
observe bandit movements, serve as guides
through treacherous regions, protect lawful
travelers, apprehend fugitives attempting to
flee by river, conduct sting operations, and
mount full-scale assaults on pirate fortresses
whenever practical, working closely with
the Liquid Metal Delegates, ordinary law
enforcement, and the Imperial military as the
situation warrants.
23
 Their effectiveness has won them no love
among the heterodox factions. The Black
Lotus Society, for example, finds the Marshals’
raids on their floating casinos and brothels
tremendously irritating; though the details
vary, the total destruction of the Imperial
Cormorants has been a consistent element of
the Black Lotus Society’s ever-evolving master
plan for decades. As the Southern Dragon King
attempts to extend the reach of his pirate army
throughout Shen Zhou, the River Marshals
have been on the front lines of the battle
against him almost as much as the Imperial
Navy has been. The legendary xia White Shark,
thought by many to be the mightiest warrior
of the Southern Dragon Pirates' Aquatic Corps,
was recently captured by a band of River
Marshals just outside the city of Red Paper,
and executed shortly thereafter. The Dragon
King's rage when the news reached him was
profound. Among the Southern Dragons, a
dead Cormorant will bring his or her murderer
as much face as killing a dozen lesser xia.
Secrets of Destiny:
The River Marshals
2+ Status: You are an Imperial Cormorant!
In your signature black-and-brown robes
(designed to mimic the unassuming
plumage of the bird from which your order
takes its name), you wander the waterways
of Shen Zhou, fighting unrighteousness
wherever you find it! You and your sworn
comrades will find welcome among the
common people, but have surely earned
the enmity of pirates and lawbreakers.
0 Bonus: You may choose a Survival Skill
Specialty: Navigation or a Hardiness Skill
Specialty: Holding Your Breath for free.
0 Bonus: You may buy any one Loresheet
for another Imperial organization, such
24
as the Imperial Army or the Liquid Metal
Delegates, or a criminal organization such
as the Black Lotus or the Southern Dragon
Pirates at a -2 Destiny discount.
5 Disadvantage: Marked Man.
Sometimes, the River Marshals make
powerful enemies. You've had one
of those times. Maybe you arrested
a crime boss during her anniversary
dinner with her husband. Maybe you're
putting an unacceptable dent in the
Black Lotus' opium shipping. Maybe
you stopped taking bribes. Whatever
the reason, you're a dead man walking.
Whatever powerful underworld figure or
organization you've managed to offend
or threaten, they're gunning for you hard
- you, and anyone who's ever helped
you. You gain 1 Destiny whenever this
vendetta causes you trouble - whether
by being unable to walk the streets
for fear of assassins, or the loss of a
friend or loved one, or all of your usual
informants suddenly clamming up. As
usual, this is free if it is your first or
second Disadvantage.
By the same token, criminal characters
may take a Disadvantage called Most
Wanted to represent the River Marshals
or another Chivalrous faction's extreme
interest in apprehending them, with
similar gameplay effects.
2+ Fortune: While not a member of the
Marshals yourself, you have earned their
trust and respect! You are doubtless a great
defender of righteousness, to have found
such favor with them. Once per Story,
you may call upon their aid – the cost will
depend upon the magnitude of the favor
and its impact on the story.
 1+ Involvement: You have committed
some depredation that has earned you the
ire of the River Marshals! Perhaps you are
a true brigand, or perhaps there has been
a gross mix-up, or perhaps you were just
in the process of talking yourself out of
captivity and into the bandit chief’s good
graces when the Marshals attacked his
camp! Whatever the case, you’re going to
have to do some fast talking, fast running,
or fast fighting to get out of this one.
Secrets of Destiny: River
Marshal Kung Fu
0 Bonus: As a member of the Imperial
Cormorants, you receive a one-time -2
Destiny discount when buying Flying Red
Silk or Flowing Universe as a secondary
External style.
3 Technique: You have internalized the
Fisherman’s Sutra! You may ignore any
action penalties or difficulties imposed
by partial or total immersion in water, as
your lithe and powerful movements propel
you through the water as gracefully as the
fishing birds that give your sect its name!
This does not make actions that would
normally be impossible while submerged
(lighting a fire, speaking intelligibly,
writing with liquid ink) possible.
4 Technique: Flock Traps School. The
Imperial Cormorants’ strength is in their
bonds of brotherhood and their loyalty to
the Emperor! It matters not how numerous
their foes, so long as they have faithful
comrades at their side. While in either
the Flying Red Silk or Flowing Universe
stance, your style Laughs At superior
numbers if there is at least one allied
character in the same Zone who is in either
stance and also knows this technique.
2 Technique: Thrashing River Dragon.
The bonus to Knockback Marvels that
would move an opponent into fully or
partially submerged Zones from your
Thousand Streaming Rivers technique is
increased to +10.
2 Technique: Like the Yellow River gathers
the substance of Shen Zhou all along its
length, all foes who face you are swept
up by your Yellow River Gathers Silt
technique! While in the Flying Red Silk
stance, all of your attacks count as Area
attacks versus groups of Minions.
2 Technique: You have mastered the
Cormorants Escape Arguing Fishermen
technique! The unskilled will only get
in each other’s way when attempting to
confront such a master of soft power as
yourself. While in the Flowing Universe
stance, all of your attacks count as Area
attacks versus groups of Minions.
2 Technique: Yielding Reed. You can use
the Flowing Universe style with the Sword
and Staff.
The Lone Marshal
Ordinarily, the River Marshals travel and
fight in groups: the wilds of Shen Zhou are
dangerous, and treachery waits around every
corner. There is one Cormorant, however, who
fights alone against the lawless river bandits.
Clad all in black, the Lone Marshal is a figure
of mystery and awe to his fellow Cormorants.
His peerless martial excellence and unwavering
devotion to the pursuit of justice and defense
of the innocent are matters of public record: so
too is his taciturn personality and preference
25
 to work alone. Rumors abound of some tragic
event in his past, the loss of a family or sworn
comrades, that has wounded his heart and
led him to shun human companionship. He
is not known to answer to any part of the
Marshals’ command structure, nor confine his
wanderings to any particular region. No one
is even sure if he collects a salary or not. He is
welcome in all River Marshal lodges, though,
by virtue of his reputation and of the jet-and-
mother-of-pearl-inlaid sword he bears at his
side, passed by Wei Ding himself to his first
successor when the aging constable retired to
grow old with his loved ones.
© RLee 2014
26
3-5 Fortune: You have learned some secret
about the Lone Marshal! Perhaps it is the
reason for his solitary, wandering lifestyle:
is it a tragic past, an esoteric cultivation
regimen, or simple misanthropy? Or
perhaps it is some remaining connection
he has to the wider world that will allow
you to locate or make contact with him…
or, with the proper application of leverage,
to ensure his compliance.
6 Victory: You have somehow prevailed
upon the Lone Marshal to take you as
his student! This grants you access to his
unique variant of the River Marshals’ kung
fu, as well as all Bonuses and Techniques
from Secrets of Destiny: River Martials
Kung Fu.
0 Bonus: You gain a Minor Hyperactive
Chi Condition that encourages you to fight
a tireless and solitary battle against villains
who threaten the waterways of Shen Zhou
– most likely a Passion or an Inspiration
that offers Cultivation bonuses, but work
with your Sage to determine what is most
appropriate. This condition fades on its
own if you ever set aside or stray from your
lonely mission to live a normal human life.
• -2 or +3: You have betrayed the Lone
Marshal! Maybe you betrayed him
by turning bandit, scorning the rule
of law, or aiding in the oppression of
the common folk. The Hyperactive
Chi Condition granted by the previous
Bonus immediately fades and you
gain a Disadvantage: Hunted By the
Marshal. You gain a point of Destiny
any session you are hounded by the
River Marshals… but the Lone Marshal
is sure to take this personally, and he
is a powerful xia. Will you be able to
 survive his righteous vengeance? If
this is your first or second disadvan-
tage, this refunds you 2 Entanglement
to be spent towards some unsavory
element of the Jiang Hu, such as the
Black Lotus Society or a Bandit group.
If you already have two or more
Disadvantages, this costs a discounted
3 Entanglement.
0 Bonus: You gain Status 4: Heir of
the Lone Marshal among the Imperial
Cormorants and the villains they oppose.
If you betray your master’s legacy, it
is replaced with Status 4: Traitorous
Apostle of the Lone Marshal.
5 Technique: Fisher-King Hunts Alone.
While in the Flying Red Silk or Flowing
Universe stance, you Laugh At and cannot
Fear fighting alone against multiple
opponents. The effects of this loresheet
secret are mutually exclusive with those
of Flock Traps School: while a character
may learn both techniques, learning one
replaces the benefits of the other.
5 Technique: Swift-Snatching Beak of
Justice. The Speed bonus of your Flying
Red Silk style increases to +10.
10 Treasure: The Lone Marshal has passed
his heirloom sword Moonlight On the
River (see pg 96) to you! Was it presented
at the conclusion of his final lesson, as
he passed on his lonely duty to you and
entered a well-deserved retirement? Did
you lift it from his dead hands, tears in
your eyes and thoughts of revenge echoing
about your head? Or is it the centerpiece
of your room of stolen treasure, a bloody
reminder of the duty you abandoned and
the master you betrayed?
THE IMPERIAL ARMY
Destiny Cost: 3
Concept: The Fractured Might of the Emperor
The career soldiers of the Empire attempt
to balance their loyalty to their superiors, to
the Realm, and to the Empire… and find that
many times their fatally loyalties conflict.
Virtues: Xin (Honor), Zhong (Loyalty)
The main military brawn of the Jin Empire,
the Imperial Army seems an unstoppable,
monolithic organization. In truth, the Liquid
Metal Delegates and the Spider Judges have
done all they can throughout their history to
crack the army into smaller, more manageable
pieces. This is unnecessary. All of the
rebellions and civil wars and defections in the
army’s history have been due to the practice of
the corvee draft, where the army would swell
its ranks in times of trouble with the peasantry.
In truth, the hard core of the Imperial Army
are its professional soldiers. Their career is
dependent on the state and so why would they
oppose it? Oh, sure, there have been some bad
apples, and there is the occasional general who
goes mad with power, but they never last long.
The Delegates almost never have to assassinate
them, because their own officers often do that
dirty work.
Still, it is cracked into pieces. The head of the
Imperial Army is the Emperor himself, and the
Emperor follows the practice of wu wei. All of
the Generals underneath him command sizable
forces, each with their own widely disparate
tactics, strategies, training methods, and kung
27
 fu. None of the Generals answer to each other,
leading to a startling lack of organization
on the battlefield- something that helped
the Jin overthrow the Han in the first place.
Nowadays, the Jin army finds itself falling
into the same trap. Many in the upper ranks
see the Imperial Army as a means of societal
advancement instead of service to the Empire.
Even so, there are plenty of stalwarts in the
Imperial Army that remember the virtues of
the soldier.
Secrets of Destiny:
The Imperial Army
2+ Status: You are an officer in the
Imperial Army. Most xia start at the officer
level simply by sheer strength of arms.
0 Bonus: You may choose Tactics skill
specialty: Military Action or a Hardiness
skill specialty: Long-term Stamina for free.
1 Fortune: As a member of the Emperor's
regular troops, you have the right to free
lodging in any major town or city. Usually
this means a town barracks, but some
soldiers are trusted enough- or have earned
the right- to sleep outside of the barracks
wherever they wish. Purchasing this Fortune
grants you this freedom, providing you with
better food and company than most soldiers.
It may also provide you with other story
chances, such as the courtship of a mayor's
daughter or stumbling upon the house of a
Vile Rain Cultist!
0-5 Disadvantage: The Keystone. It's
not uncommon for members of a military
squad to depend on one person as the
main arm of their formation, and often this
person isn't always the officer. Sometimes,
however, a soldier might win so much
renown that his influence is felt far beyond
28
The inferior turns to
great rewards and
high honor just like
the wild deer who go
to luxuriant grass.
— Viscount Wen
his own formation. Stories circulate about
how entire armies might fall thanks to
the loss of one man. Other stories talk
about how other, less fortunate soldiers
slowly grow more jealous of the paragon of
martial might. You gain an extra Destiny
every session where your influence is
too widely felt, crushing you under the
pressure of command, dependency, or
jealousy. This is free if it is your first or
second Disadvantage.
Secrets of Destiny:
Imperial Army Kung Fu
The Imperial Army has a startling mix of
kung fu, designed to benefit soldiers and xia
alike. What kung fu is taught depends on the
commanding General's own personal taste in
tactics, but officer exchange programs provide an
outlet for anyone wishing cross-training. This is
in practice, at least; many do not take it up, for
the rivalry between generals is strong and nobody
wants to make their own General paranoid.
0 Bonus: As a member of the Imperial
Army, you get a one-time 2-Destiny
discount when buying one of the following
as a secondary External Style: Bone-Fed
Wolf Fang, Divine Pattern Long Strokes,
Eight Legends, and Virtuous Adjutant.
4 Technique: You may learn Into the
Jaws of Hell. While in your Bone-Fed
Wolf Fang stance, you may Flood 1 die
from the River while you make a strike. If
your strike hits, you also Knockback your
opponent with a result equal to the Strike.
4 Technique: You may learn Profiting By
Their Panic. While in your Bone-Fed Wolf
Fang stance, successfully taking advantage
of a Disoriented or Disrupted target's Fears
nets you a +10 bonus instead of a +5. This
counts as a bonus from loresheets.
2 Technique: You may learn Leave No
Survivors. While in your Bone-Fed Wolf
Fang stance, all your attacks count as
Area attacks for the purposes of damaging
groups of Minions.
5 Technique: You may learn Encircling
Snare. While in your Divine Pattern Long
Strokes stance, your Speed bonus increases
to +10.
5 Technique: You may learn Unmovable
Pillar. While in your Divine Pattern Long
Strokes stance, your Toughness bonus
increases to +10.
5 Technique: You may learn Fighting
On Desperate Ground. While in your
Eight Legends stance, your Speed bonus
increases to +10.
2 Technique: You may learn Marching
Under Heaven's Banner. While in your
Eight Legends stance, you have a +5 bonus
to Cover Ground.
3 Technique: You may learn Supremely
Excellent Stance. While in your Eight
Legends stance, you have a +5 bonus to
any defense made against Disrupts.
2 Technique: You may learn Leading
By Example. While in your Virtuous
Adjutant stance, you have a +5 bonus to
your Inspire and Tactics for the purposes
of commanding Minions.
3 Technique: You may learn Heroic
Sergeant's Focus. While in your Virtuous
Adjutant stance, you have a +5 bonus to
any defense made against Disorients.
5 Technique: You may learn Stand
To The Last. While in your Virtuous
Adjutant stance, your Toughness bonus
increases to +10.
2 Technique: You may learn an upgrade to
the Formless technique Submissive Steel:
Hungry Falcon Edge. Not only does your
weapon fly to your hand at command,
but you've learned all sorts of little tricks,
flourishes, and other moves that allow
your weapon to act in ways that might
seem unnatural to the untrained eye! It's
not an illusion- your sword really did spin
completely around your waist, spilling
the Rotten Bear Bandit into the water
before returning to your hand. Whenever
you use Submissive Steel, you may boost
the technique for 2 Chi. For the rest of
the round, you have a +5 bonus to any
Tactics or Finesse Disrupts, Disorients,
Knockbacks, or Shaping Waves that
narratively focus on your weapon.
29
 The Rank and File
Most of the general soldiers in the Imperial
Army are not professionals, but instead peasant
laborers first forced to work for the army
and then pressed into service. There are few
professional soldiers, and a life of soldiering
and service to the Realm have made them
formidable. These professionals are often the
rock-hard core of the Imperial Army, and often
serve as the personal bodyguards of officers
and Generals.
1+ Destiny/Involvement: You are a
bodyguard to an officer or a General. It is
your duty to be their right arm, and often
you will be thrown into the thick of things.
Where there is conflict there is opportunity.
1+ Fortune: If you are are a member of
the Imperial Army, you have soldiers under
your personal command. How well do
you train them? These start at Fifth Rank
minions and improve by a Rank per two
additional Fortune spent, to a maximum of
Third Rank.
1+ Destiny: A wise officer knows when
to listen. The average soldier picks up
a startling amount of information and
spins it into strange rumor. If you pay
attention, you might be able to separate
the wheat from the chaff. Declare that
you discerned something important to
the current story from the idle babbling
of your soldiers. The source must be
at least somewhat plausible: if General
Meng is planning on secretly abandoning
his position to pursue greater glory,
you're more likely to hear that “a soldier
was spotted feeding the swiftest horses”
than a soldier claiming he heard General
Meng shout it to the heavens.
30
3 Fortune: If you are are a member of
the Imperial Army, you have a cadre of
hand-picked professionals. These are often
Fourth Rank Lesser Legend Warriors with
Imperial Army Kung Fu.
• +1-2: Your soldier has additional
Destiny to spend on Kung Fu, Extraor-
dinary Arts, or Skills. Every point
spent on this Fortune provides the
soldier with an extra 2 Destiny.
• +2: Your hand-picked man is supremely
loyal to you above all others, perhaps
even the Emperor himself!
The Quartermaster
There is only one person more feared in the
Imperial Army than a General... the quarter-
master. If his eyes should falter, a flawed blade
might slip through. IF someone should anger
him, he may cut off their rations. For this
reason, wise officers ingratiate themselves to
their quartermaster at every opportunity.
1+ Involvement: Bad news. The Quarter-
master hates you. Maybe this is a good
thing in the long run. Adversity causes
growth, right?
1+ Involvement: You've managed to make
sure the Quartermaster doesn't hate you!
How did you do so? ... More likely than
not, you bribed him. Still, now that you're
on his good side, maybe you'll get better
equipment for you and your men.
1 Treasure: You are able to procure better
rations and other luxury goods for your
troops. This has no mechanical benefit but
may pay off later.
 1 Treasure: You have adopted a sturdy
shield! This turns your Paired weapon
into a Shield, which acts as a Paired
weapon but grants a +5 Weapon bonus to
Block instead of Strike.
• +2 to +4: For an additional 2
Entanglement, you may provide
your Minions or Lesser Legends with
medium armor. This allows them
to sustain an extra Ripple. For an
additional 4 Entanglement, this is
upgraded to heavy armor, allowing
them to sustain an extra two Ripples.
Gods and Generals
The dozens of armies of Shen Zhou are each
controlled by a single General each, answer-
able only to the Emperor. It was not always
this way, but years of bitter practice, political
maneuvering, and outright strong arming
have made the Generals of Shen Zhou almost
immune to the machinations of career politi-
cians. So they think, at any rate. In practice,
each General finds himself working closely
with provincial governors for their armies are
dependent on the province's food and labor to
operate. Most of the more intelligent Generals
also realize that the Liquid Metal Delegates are
always close by and always watching, waiting
to step in if they overstep their bounds.
Though Generals are often strong xia, they
realize that this means only the strongest
Delegates are keeping an eye on them.
3+ Fortune: In battle, each General
has their own pet theory and method
of combat. Some lead from the front
with strength of arms, some with wily
stratagems. This makes their commanding
style as unique as a fingerprint! You may
declare to have gleaned some of a General's
strategies. What will you do with this
information?
5+ Fortune/Victory: Most Generals
realize at some point that this is the
greatest they'll ever be. Some Generals
have no greater aspirations than to support
the Emperor, while others try to carve out
their own surreptitious little kingdoms.
You may declare that you have seen a bit
into the heart of your General, getting a
glimpse of his greater plans. Perhaps you'll
have a place in them.
He who knows when
he can fight and when
he cannot will be
victorious.
— Sun Tzu

1+ Destiny/Involvement: If you are not

a General, you are at least attached to
one. Perhaps you are a servant, or lover,
or one of their children. Maybe you are
a bitter rival.

31
 © RLee 2014
BARBARIAN INVASIONS
Destiny Cost: 2
Concept: Threats From Beyond
Shen Zhou has been plagued by marauding
barbarians since the dawn of civilization.
Time and time again the Imperial armies have
beaten them off… but not always easily, or
particularly successfully. In the case of one of
the last barbarian invasions, they managed to
successfully overthrow the Han and became
the Jin dynasty!
This loresheet is meant to serve as a general
template for any kind of barbarian invasion
you might dream up. The Sage is encouraged
to add, subtract, or modify this loresheet to
their needs.
Virtues: Bao (Ferocity), Xin (Honor)
32
Secrets of Destiny:
Barbarian Invasions
1+ Status: You are a barbarian, or at least
you’re highly regarded by them. While
many barbarian cultures are welcoming
of outsiders (after a bit of hazing), just as
many are extremely insular.
0 Bonus: You may choose a Survival Skill
Specialty: Traditional Barbarian Methods or
a Stealth Skill Specialty: Untracked Wilds
for free.
0-5 Disadvantage: Language Barrier.
Shen Zhou’s cultural reach is long, and so
many barbarians actually speak a degenerate
form of Chinese. Usually they can make
themselves understood… but not you. Your
tongue is completely different and so you
can’t really communicate with anyone truly
civilized. You gain an extra Destiny every
session where the language barrier gets you
into trouble. This is free if it is your first or
second Disadvantage.
 4 Secret: Most barbarians view the world
in a completely different way, giving them
Barbarian Cunning. This secret enhances
your Joss use whenever you play up your
unique culture and how it lets you think
outside the box. Whenever you use Joss,
it also grants you a Laughs At bonus (if
Chivalrous) and/or a Fears bonus (if
Malicious) for any action you can success-
fully play up your cunning.
Secrets of Destiny:
Barbarian Kung Fu
0 Bonus: You get a one-time -2 Destiny
discount when purchasing one of the
following as a secondary External Style:
Green Jade Horse, Royal Tiger, and
Ravenous Wings.
These kung fu styles are representative
of a general template for the barbarians.
They may differ from their Shen Zhou
alternatives. Generally, Green Jade
Horse can be used to represent the steppe
nomads of the North. Royal Tiger is
perhaps best used for the jungle tribes
of the South. Ravenous Wings may
represent the bloodthirsty sailors of the
East or the barbarians of the West.
0 Bonus: You receive a -3 Destiny
discount for learning one additional
External technique within a style that you
already possess.
0 Bonus: You receive a -2 Destiny
discount for learning one additional
Formless technique.
2 Bonus: Your Barbarian kung fu is
especially odd! Citizens of Shen Zhou
suffer a -5 penalty towards Analyzing your
External kung fu. This counts as a penalty
from Loresheets.
• -2: This penalty also applies to your
Analyze External kung fu rolls against
citizens of Shen Zhou.
2 Secret: One of your styles is much
more different than its Shen Zhou cousin,
often incorporating Traditional Weapons.
You may add a single single weapon type
to any Barbarian External. This may
be purchased repeatedly, once for each
Barbarian style; you cannot add more than
one weapon type to a style.
5 Technique: Steppe Rider. The
Toughness bonus of your Green Jade
Horse stance increases to +10.
3 Technique: Savage Resilience. While
in your Green Jade Horse stance, you
have a +5 bonus to any defenses you make
against disrupts.
2 Technique: Riding Down Rabbits. In
the Green Jade Horse stance, all your
attacks count as Area attacks for the
purpose of damaging groups of Minions.
5 Technique: Wounded Tiger Frenzy.
While in the Royal Tiger stance, any
use of this kung fu style that requires an
opponent to have an Injury condition now
also works if you have an Injury condition.
5 Technique: Bone-Shattering Pounce.
The Speed bonus of your Royal Tiger
stance increases to +10.
4 Technique: Ripping Out Livers. While in
the Ravenous Wings stance, you may Flood
a die when you make a physical attack. If
the attack hits and causes a Rippling Roll, the
target suffers an additional Ripple after the
Rippling Roll is resolved.
33
 2 Technique: Carrion Bird’s Talons.
While in the Ravenous Wings stance, you
may treat your Ranged attacks as if they
were also Sabers. You may only combine
two weapon types at a time; if you have
more than two, you must choose which
weapon types to combine at the start of
each round.
4 Technique: Cruelly Hooked Beak.
While in the Ravenous Wings stance,
your opponents suffer a -5 penalty to their
Toughness against your attacks.
Woe To The Conquered
Barbarians often materialize on the borders
of Shen Zhou, often with very little warning.
Then they rampage throughout the border-
lands until they either are brought to heel, they
leave, or they realize they can press farther.
1+ Destiny/Involvement: The barbarians
have targeted the area your character’s
residing in! They become an important
part of your story. Perhaps you are
called to put a stop to them, or they hold
something you seek.
1+ Fortune: Contact with the barbarians
has been rare, short, and violent. Still,
they seem to be... mostly human... if one
could call a barbarian human. Surely they
have some sort of custom, or belief, or
shared language. You find something in
their culture that lets you close some of
the gap in Shen Zhou's understanding of
the enemy. After all, “Know yourself and
know your enemy, and you need not fear a
thousand battles”.
1-10 Victory: You have learned enough
of their culture to turn it against them.
34
Victorious warriors
win first and then
go to war, while
defeated warriors go
to war first and then
seek to win.
— Sun Tzu
You somehow successfully take advantage
of their customs to wrangle victory from
them. Did you make them fall for your
clever ambush? Did you defeat their
chieftain in one on one combat? Have you
instead gotten them to depart peacefully?
10 Victory: Woe to Shen Zhou: the
barbarians are unstoppable! What will
happen to Shen Zhou now?
Barbarians To Fight
Barbarians
Generations of Imperial Generals have asked
the all-important question: why risk our
troops against frothing, rabid, unwashed
barbarians when you can pay someone else
to do it? The Imperial Dynasties have a long
and storied tradition of pitting barbarian clans
against each other. This has had mixed results.
1+ Involvement: The barbarians invading
Shen Zhou aren’t the only ones in the area.
Perhaps they’re a loose coalition, or they
flee another group of barbarians, or they
chase another. Another barbarian culture
has been added to the mix.
 3+ Fortune: You have ingratiated yourself The Book
to a barbarian culture. They owe you a of Metal
favor! Perhaps you’ll use them to help
turn the tide against invaders. You may
only purchase this Fortune once per Story. EXTERNAL STYLES
Dugu Four Ultimates
The Culture War Swords, Saber, Unarmed, no Special Weapons.
1+ Treasure: This might be lucrative!
Money can be made from cultural friction. The Lonely Sword
Speed: +5
Your work with the barbarians provides Devil was said to
you with an unexpected windfall: trade have mastered Footwork: +0
goods, slaves, or plunder. every style but to
have created only Strike: +15
5 Victory: Whether they’ve won or lost
the war, the barbarians will no doubt lose two; the Four
Damage: +15
their soul. Shen Zhou’s culture is just too Ultimates Style
powerful, too big for the barbarians to and the Devil’s Block: +0
withstand. Slowly they become assimi- Chastisement
Toughness: +0
lated. How will they change Shen Zhou? Style. Of the two,
How much will Shen Zhou change them? Four Ultimates
You have a say in both. is far more mourned by the xia of the modern
wulin for it was said that this style destroyed
• +3: Not only do you get to decide
every enemy to face it!
their fate, but you remain in their good
graces. They won’t forget your role in Rumors abound of a revival and four strange
their story, and so they owe you. swordsmen each claim to have discovered
• -3: Since you’ve decided their fate, the true secret of this style. Their duels have
you’ve put a target on your back! You destroyed many innocent buildings! All agree,
must have infuriated someone, or elemental chi causes this style to become more
perhaps scared someone else. Regard- destructive than any other.
less, mainstream Shen Zhou finds you
worrisome. Some traditionalists may Qualities
even attempt to kill you. Dugu’s Four Ultimate’s Style is devoted to
relentless aggression and a disdain for all but
the simplest defenses. The Lonely Sword Devil
was not afraid of defeat, and this fearlessness
birthed a style whose tactics were like fast
water in a narrow chasm. It surrounds that
which is still and slams into anything that
resists its power.

35
 Laughs General Index Stance (5)

This style laughs at those who are so afraid of It was said that the world respected
defeat that they protect themselves; the very Dugu so much that it lent him power
concept of a defense is hilarious. It also finds enough to fight any opponent on equal
complexity far easier to shatter than simplicity. terms from moment to moment.
• By Flooding 1 die you may ignore a
Fears single opponent’s attempts to exploit
Just as it laughs at those who would avoid your Fears for a round. They are also
harm this style has a defense no better than unable to Float dice from their Attack or
that of an untrained fighter. It also fears those Defense Rolls when targeting you.
who use few tools; by forgoing armor and Energy Breaking Stance (5)
elaborate weapons such warriors have become
More than the gross trauma of lesser styles,
formidable.
the Four Ultimates can shatter the concen-
Techniques: tration of chi, causing a great turbulence
the fights all efforts to tame it.
Missile Breaking Stance (5)
• Wound penalties inflicted by this style
Dugu laughed at the arrows of his enemies,
may increase Breath Penalties by 1.
cutting them down with Shen Zhou itself
regardless of how far they fled if the stories
are to be believed. The style that bears his
name is likewise able to strike those who
think themselves safely distant.
• You may extend your own attack up
to one zone away by flooding a die.
This also enables any Replies from
weapons or styles to affect those in
adjacent zones.
Blade Breaking Stance (5)
Keeping track of one’s opponent, weapon,
and stance is amazingly difficult. Being
further distracted at the same time means
that all efforts suffer.
© RLee 2014

• A defender’s Block or Dodge suffers a

-5 in any round you attempt a Disrupt
Marvel on them.

36
Green Jade Horse Techniques:
Spear, Saber, Ranged Speed of the Red Mare (5)
The fastest horses of the Yun are said to be
Qualities their legendary red mares, beautiful creatures
Speed: +10
This style is often with hair as red as the setting sun. This
overlooked by Footwork: +0 technique seeks to emulate them.
those who talk
Strike: +5 • This style’s Speed bonus increases to +15.
of the Yun Clan’s
Pinpoint Charge (4)
techniques, and Damage: +5
for good reason. Through hard work and hours of practice,
Block: +10 you have learned how to perfectly position
It has existed for
centuries, but long Toughness: +5 your weapon in the midst of the most
ago it fell out of violent of movements.
favor and to this • If you have just successfully completed
day is only practiced by a few xia and lesser a Cover Ground action, this style’s
legends within the Yun Clan’s standing armies. Strike bonus increases to +10.
Pivoting Saddle Parry (4)
This is an old, no-nonsense style. It’s very
direct, focusing on powerful unstoppable It is already difficult for an opponent to
charges and incredible speed. The fact that hit you on horseback. With the slightest
few fighters know of this style has also become of motions, you may pivot in place to
a strange advantage for the Jade Green Horse: deflect any blow.
few are prepared for its unique nature. • If you have just successfully completed
a Cover Ground action, this style’s
Laughs At Block bonus increases to +15.
This style is often used by mounted warriors,
Trampling Underfoot (4)
and so it laughs at anyone that is not similarly
With a mighty blow of your weapon, you
mounted. It also laughs at those that try to
lay your opponent low and then trample
stand and outlast its power, for it can trivially
over their broken bodies.
assault such a foe and wheel about for another
devastating charge. • If you have just successfully completed
a Cover Ground action, this style’s
Fears Damage bonus increases to +10.
As a mounted style, Green Jade Horse Green Jade Boulder (3)
can be mediocre if the practitioner isn’t
You crash into your opponent with
mounted- especially if the opponent notices
unstoppable force, knocking them away
it! Additionally, any horseman rightly fears
from you and setting them up for your
the use of a properly fortified position, or
next glorious charge.
ranks of spear-wielding warriors prepared for
• You have a +5 bonus to Knockback
the charge.
Marvels.

37
 © RLee 2014
Grey Dusk but they mask a practitioner waiting for the
precise moment to make a short, devastating
Saber, Sword
strike. The self-discipline required of this
styles makes it unpopular with common
Qualities Speed: +0
mercenaries, instead it finds its favor with the
This style Footwork: +5 most cold-hearted of professional killers, and
emphasizes has a concomitantly evil reputation.
economy of Strike: +10
motion and
Damage: +10 Laughs At
heartless cruelty.
The Grey Dusk laughs at furious and energetic
To master it one Block: +5
opponents, because its cold nature calmly
must suppress all
Toughness: +5 smothers and dissipates their power. Styles that
strong emotion,
focus on speed are likewise easy prey to the
making one’s
Dusk, for the deceptive slowness tricks them
heart as grey as the dusk. The movements
into quickly making a mistake – it doesn’t
of this style look at times deceptively slow,
matter who strikes first, only who strikes last.

38
Fears
The Grey Dusk fears fluid, adaptive styles
which can handle both the slow feints and
swift strikes equally well. Attacks that strike
from a distance are also problematic because
the slowness is deceiving when viewed up
close but more easily figured out when seen
from a broader point of view.
Techniques:
Dazzling With Slowness and Illusion (4)
You artfully display a false sense of
weakness, tricking and drawing in your
enemies. But where they perceive flaws
they will actually meet skill and power.
• You may make a Finesse check as a
Minor Action on the initiative roll.
This style’s Block and Toughness
bonuses are +10 against all strike and
combat effect results against you,
unless the attacker includes a Wu Wei
skill check as a Minor Action during
the attack that equals or exceeds your
Finesse result.
Fading Light (5)
You harden your resolve and take on a
mindset like a blade. Cold and hard, sharp
and uncaring.
• Any roll that creates a Passion or
Inspiration chi condition on you
suffers a -5 penalty and you have a +5
bonus to recover from such conditions.
This benefit extends even outside of
combat, unless reason dictates you’re
not subconsciously using your Grey
Dusk kung fu.
Heartless Grey Immortal (5)
Your sublime blade, eager for bloodshed,
infallibly pursues your enemies like a
divine punishment.
• You may Flood one die from the River
after making an attack roll. If you do,
you may reroll one of your dice, with
an additional die allowed if your style
Laughs At the opponent or if their
style Fears yours (for a total of up to
two rerolled dice).
Night Sweeping Over the Great Plains (2)
When the sun fades the entire world is left
in darkness. Like the world-spanning night
your blade spares nobody, scattering men
like autumn leafs.
• All your attacks count as Area attacks
for the purpose of damaging groups of
Minions.
Sun Devourer (4)
Your dispassionate blade cuts away light
and life alike. When all hesitation is
severed from your heart, this style reveals
its true sharpness. So fearsome and
merciless does your weapon move that it
eclipses the light, a soaring arc of steel and
shadow!
• This style’s Damage bonus increases
to +15, unless you’ve got a passion chi
condition, an inspiration chi condition,
or a Disorient or Disrupt effect that can
be seen as emotional turmoil.
39
 Malicious Wasp Techniques:
Flexible, Ranged, Spear Blur of Wings (4)
From a distance, the Wasp is a streaking
Qualities Speed: +10 blur; by the time its opponent knows what
Favored by is happening, it is already in motion.
archers, assassins, Footwork: +10
• This style’s Speed bonus increases
and -- if the more
Strike: +10 to +15 when you begin a round in a
orthodox among
different zone than all your opponents.
the Wulin are Damage: +5
Escape in Ten Directions (3)
to be believed
Block: +0 To hit a wasp from distance is truly a
-- cowards,
Malicious Wasp Toughness: +0 divine feat; only a god could anticipate to
style specializes in which of the ten directions it will flee.
attacking quickly, • If an attack from a different zone is
decisively, and, most importantly, from a described in such a way that you suffer
distance. Like its namesake, practitioners a -5 penalty to Dodge it, you may
of this style harass opponents from outside ignore that penalty. If the penalty is
their reach, raining biting blows from one -10 or higher (perhaps from using a
place and then moving on to the next. Many Flexible weapon) then the penalty is
a mighty xia has been frustrated into foolish reduced by 5.
and rash attacks by this style.
Flitting Insect Dance (3)
Laughs At The Wasp does not move in straight lines;
its path is a tangle of zigs and zags, even as
The Wasp loves to keep its distance while it
it proceeds with blinding pace. Emulate its
attacks; it therefore laughs at opponents who
way, and none shall constrain you.
cannot reach it. And as the Wasp is strongest
during the summer months, so the practi- • Opponents who wish to Break your
tioners of this style are energized by powerful Cover Ground Waves must exceed
yang energy. your Cover Ground result by 10.
Stinger’s Charge (4)
Fears
The stings of the Wasp are always painful;
When an opponent denies the Wasp the
when they can gain momentum, they are
distance it desires, its techniques are greatly
deadly.
diminished, and it is the Wasp’s turn to
• The Damage bonus of this style
become frustrated and rash. The Wasp
increases to +10 when you attack from
is also made lethargic and slow-witted by
a distance.
powerful yin energies, just as winter makes
its namesake torpid.

40
 Wasp’s Baleful Launch (6) Master of Duels
When others fight from afar, they maintain Sword, Saber, Spear, Staff
special focus in order to make attacks at
all. Accustomed as you are to striking Qualities Speed: +10
from distance, you put your focus on
Much used by
making your attack count. Footwork: +10
the idle rich and
• If you Flow one or more dice from boastful bravos,
Strike: +10
your River into your attack, you may this style is a recent
use your weapon’s zone-extension modification of Damage: +0
ability for free in lieu of flooding a die. Eight Legends
Block: +5
• The Flowed dice must be used as a part specifically
of a primary or secondary attack if you designed for Toughness: +0
use them in this way. duels in which
two parties fight
more for fame and status than out of a desire
to do each other harm. It employs only the
traditional weapons, and prefers to fight in a
way that is, if not straightforward or honest,
then at least bound by a certain code of
conduct. The Master of Duels would rather
humiliate their opponents than cripple them,
and the better they look doing it, the happier
they are.

Laughs At
The Master of Duels laughs at those who fight
mano-a-mano, and those who choose to fight
within the boundaries of dueling protocol.

Fears
The Master of Duels isn’t fond of melees; he
fears groups of opponents, even if they’re not
all fighting him. He also fears unorthodox or
‘dishonorable’ attacks, using trickery, poisons,
and the like.
© RLee 2014

41
 Techniques
Fascination Strike (4)
Any thug off the street can land a blow;
A sound man by not
the mark of a true duelist is to land a blow advancing himself
with style. stays the further
• You may a Flood a single die on your ahead of himself:
attack roll. If you do, your opponent
must make a Memorable (40) Minor By not confining
Confidence Action on his defense roll himself to himself
or suffer a -5 penalty to his Block and
Toughness against your attack.
sustains himself
Fight to the Finish (3)
outside himself: By
Nothing is more unsatisfying than an
never being an end in
opponent who refuses to take his defeat himself he endlessly
with honor, and attempts to flee instead. A
master duelist doesn’t allow his opponent
becomes himself.
to lose face — at least not like that. — Lao Tzu
• You have a +5 bonus to Cover
Ground Waves made to pursue
Quick Draw (4)
an opponent and to Break the
Cover Ground Waves of opponents Half the battle is won or lost in the
attempting to flee your zone. competition to attack first; you should aim
to attack first.
Reputation-Destroying Blow (3 or 5)
• When fighting an opponent one on
Everyone has experienced the rush of
one, the Speed bonus of this style
blood, the feeling of constriction in
increases to +15.
the neck, the tensing of the back and
shoulders, the acrid taste in the mouth, Who Strikes First, Strikes Best (4)
and clenching of the jaw when an And when you do strike first, see how
opponent shows you up. Make sure that’s much easier it is to land a blow!
what your opponent feels.
• If your initiative is higher than the
• When you inflict a Ripple, you may target of your attack, this style’s Strike
choose to cause a Passion Condition bonus increases to +15.
that involves shame, despair, frustration
or rage instead of an Injury Condition.
• For 2 additional Destiny, if you cause
such a Condition during combat, you
have a +10 bonus to inflict a similar
one as an End-of-Combat Condition.

42
Royal Tiger Techniques:
Paired, Saber, Unarmed Bloodthirsty Tiger (5)
Those who wish to placate the Tiger with
Team Li Si would
Speed: +5 lesser offerings are mislead. People who
like to thank
think they can feed a Tiger with old meat
EwindaleMoss, Footwork: +5 are foolish. The Tiger is only satiated by
Golden Demon,
the taste of gushing blood in its mouth.
Lymond, Strike: +10
• The Damage bonus of this style
MorsRattus, and Yo!
Damage: +10 increases to +15.
Master for their own
Tiger Styles, which Block: +0 Stalking Wounded Prey (4)
inspired the creation Once it gets the scent of blood, the Tiger’s
Toughness: +5
of Royal Tiger. aggression becomes even more focused.
• The Strike bonus of this style
Qualities
increases to +15 against any target
The Royal Tiger is the epitome of aggression,
with an Injury Condition.
a yang-oriented style as old as anyone can
Imperious Tiger Leap (4)
remember. It refuses to subordinate itself to
anyone else, and tries to dominate fights with Once its prey is injured, the tiger has
powerful slashes and brutally strong, ripping nothing to fear from it; its panicked attacks
attacks. A Royal Tiger stylist ends fights as are easily avoided.
soon as possible: it wishes to feed off of an • If your opponent suffers from an Injury
opponent’s defeat, and playing with its prey Condition, the Footwork bonus of this
might only give them a chance to escape. style increases to +10 for the purposes
of Dodging his attacks.
Laughs At
Hide-Piercing Fangs (4)
Royal Tiger laughs at styles that emphasize
Pity the poor beast that thinks hide or
stability and solidity; by standing firm, these
carapace will save it from the tiger’s maw.
styles invite the Tiger’s vicious assaults. It
also laughs at the injured and the lame, for • When making a physical attack, treat
weakened prey have no hope. your target’s Chi Threshold as 2 points
lower.
Fears Tendon-Shredding Claws (3)
Tricks and cunning stratagems are beneath
The tiger does not blame its prey for trying
Royal Tiger’s dignity; because it cannot
to flee, but the hunter cannot allow escape.
understand them, it fears opponents who
• If you inflict a Ripple with a physical
employ them. Also, it fears especially fluid
attack, next round that target suffers a
and graceful fighters who can slip around its
-10 penalty to Cover Ground.
furious assaults with ease.

43
 Virtuous Adjutant Fears
Sword, Saber, Spear If there is one thing the Virtuous Adjutant
truly fears above all else, it is the truly
Qualities Speed: +0
unrepentant. All their words and all their
This style skill means little in the face of the true
approaches combat Footwork: +5 monsters. Additionally, the Adjutant does
from an unusual not perform well if being ordered to do
Strike: +10
position: that something patently foolish or blatantly
the practitioner is Damage: +10 against the chivalrous path- it is their role
already outclassed as the Virtuous Adjutant to remind their
Block: +5 superiors of the correct path, after all!
by their opponent!
With defeat very Toughness: +5
likely the best the
Techniques:
stylist can do is Unbent Arm (4)
make their defeat glorious, their opponent’s Your attacks are skillfully straight,
victory costly. They try to sway their opponent impeccable in their form... though a twist
to virtue with their peerless skill and moral here or a deviation there might have struck
strength. It is a spiritual cousin of Subtle Force your opponent. Though your blow does
and Eight Legends; it teaches even during the not strike their body, it fans the fires of
fight, admonishing with clean and shockingly their shame.
precise blows.
• If your attack misses by 5 or less, you
can Flood a die to inflict a Ripple.
Virtuous Adjutant is most often used by
the uncultivated. Given its firm roots in Timely Uttered Truths (1)
Mencius and the Confucian values, it is the Superior men are to speak modestly, but
style of choice for career soldiers with xia not all of them do so. Sometimes they
commanders. It is the place of the Virtuous belittle others, flaunting their superiority.
Adjutant to convert and distract opponents, to You take a moment to chastise them.
support his superior, and- most importantly- to
• When hit by a Marvel, you can Flood
keep his commander on the firm side of virtue
a die to Reply against your opponent.
when they waver.
You can do this only once for any given
attack, even if it included multiple
Laughs At
elements that hit you.
The Virtuous Adjutant laughs at those who
Vigorous Pursuit of Perfection (5)
don’t take them seriously, for while their defeat
may be a foregone conclusion the nature of You have pushed yourself to your earthly
their defeat is of their own devising. Those limits, making your strikes true and
whose actions speak of moral wavering do pleasing to Heaven.
not have the strength of mind to stand up to • This style’s Strike bonus increases to
the Virtuous Adjutant’s compelling martial +15.
argument.

44
Disarming Sincerity (3 or 5) White and Black Stones
In the face of your righteous assault, you Paired, Staff, Sword
have wavered but little. Your opponent
cannot help being impressed by your Qualities Speed: +5
devotion!
Where many Kung
• You may add this style’s Damage Fu styles rely Footwork: +5
bonus to End of Battle Rippling Rolls on intuition and
Strike: +10
made against an opponent, solely for instinct, White and
the purpose of creating Passions or Black Stone trains Damage: +5
Inspirations that view you or your its practitioners
actions in a positive light (commonly Block: +5
to fight using
Passions of Respect or Inspirations of intellect. Named Toughness: +5
Fulfilling Duties). for the game of go,
• If you pay an additional 2 Destiny, this this style imagines
style’s Damage bonus increases to +15 fighting as a tactical game, with strategies
when rolling an End of Battle Rippling that can be mastered and countered in turn.
Roll to create positive Passions or White and Black Stones is neither passive
Inspirations. nor aggressive, attacking and defending
simultaneously in its complex stances
Charging Oneself (5)
and weapon patterns. It seeks
In order to fulfill your duty, you must first out vulnerability and weakness.
look to yourself- if you cannot defend While White and Black Stones
yourself then you are doomed to will take an opportunity for a
grievous failure! one-shot kill if it presented, it
• This style’s Block bonus
increases to +10.

© RLee 2014

45
 does not seek such opportunities out; rather,
it seeks to prolong the fight, compounding the
incremental advantage of its strategies.
For the purposes of this style, an opponent’s
External Style has been Evaluated when you
have analyzed its Qualities and either what it
Laughs At or what it Fears.
Laughs At
White and Black Stones laughs at traditional,
orthodox styles, whose methods are very
familiar, and thus easy to predict. It also laughs
at trickery, as it’s razor-keen insight penetrates
deception with ease.
Fears
White and Black Stones fears direct, aggressive
styles, which make it hard to treat combat as a
technical exercise. White and Black Stones also
relies on anticipation for success, so it fears
circumstances that deny it the time or ability
to do so, whether that means intoxication, mad
or passionate opponents, or circumstances that
deny time to think.
Techniques:
Reverse the Trap (4)
Your opponent attempts to force your
hand. You gratefully take the opening he
offers without falling for the accompa-
nying trap.
• When you Dodge an attack described
as best Dodged, or when you Block an
attack described as best Blocked, you
Laugh At that attack and don’t Fear it.
Know the Board (4)
You view the opponent’s body as a game
board. His vulnerable points are places
you can move your pieces and gain points;
46
his guard, his own pieces blocking your
Advance. But you are the ultimate strate-
gist, and his defense is useless.
• This style’s bonus to Damage increases
to +10 against opponents whose
External Styles you have evaluated.
Thousand Stratagem Master (2)
By studying historical records and the
writings of great sages, you have mastered
one thousand strategies of battle.
• You can use the Learning skill in
place of the Tactics skill to evaluate
opponent’s external kung-fu styles.
Instant Tactic Formulation (4)
You can predict what your opponents are
going to do and can therefore counter
their movements before they’ve even
started to move.
• This style’s Speed bonus increases to
+10 as long as you have successfully
evaluated the style of at least one of
your opponents.
Seven Moves Ahead (3)
Your opponent may think he has the upper
hand, but your extensive knowledge of
battle lets you foresee the attack.
• You may use your Learning skill to
defend against Disorient Marvels
and to Break your opponents’ Waves,
regardless of circumstance.
Entangling Sidestep Pattern (3)
Predicting the location of lesser warriors,
you position yourself where their attacks
harm each other, not you.
• You may Reply when you are
attacked by a group of Minions, even
if you are hit.
 INTERNAL STYLES
Ashen Palm
(Enlightened style)
The Ashen Palm is the rare and storied
unarmed style, taught only by the Wulin
Judges or the forces of Heaven to the Heaven
Hunters. It is both powerful and efficient.
It is equally at home fighting the Selfish or
misguided as it is the truly Corrupt. It is at
its most powerful against the latter, burning
through Corrupt Chi and leaving only ash on
the master’s palms. But everyone knows it
is truly merciful at heart. For while it leaves
only ashes, every learned man- and every
unlearned farmer- knows that from ash comes
new life and hope.
Basic Technique:
1. Righteous Fire Hand
The way of the Ashen Palm begins with
the Righteous Fire Hand, a technique that
allows the stylist’s unarmed attacks to
dance and weave like a holy fire. In this
way the Ashen Palm is prepared for any
eventuality!
• Choose any weapon type. Until
the end of the round your unarmed
attacks add the characteristics of
that type of weapon to its own. This
allows you to claim the weapon
bonuses of both, and to combine
different types of styles as if it were a
special weapon.
Enlightened Techniques
The book gives us hints about the existence
of Enlightened Techniques but, aside from
a few of the Transcendent Techniques,
gives us no examples. Whether your game
features internal kung fu styles that are
Enlightened in the same way that Thousand
Venoms is Corrupt is entirely up to you.
You may prefer to have the existence of
Corrupt Styles balanced by Enlightened
ones, and treat them no differently; you may
have such styles in the game, but require
significant Deeds from your players before
they’re able to learn them. Or you may
say that Enlightened Cultivation is simply
harder to achieve than Corrupt Cultivation,
and decide that there are only Enlightened
Transcendent Techniques (or perhaps those,
plus a few, rare Enlightened Formless
ones). Different Sages and tables will have
different preferences, and even different
campaigns may call for different treatment.
Ashen Palm is offered for those who wish to
use Enlightened internal kung fu; for those
who don’t wish to use it, the style can be
treated as a Normal one.
47
 Advanced Techniques:
2. Dusty Arm Block
You swat aside your opponent’s attacks,
raising up puffs of mocking dust.
• You have a +10 bonus to Block.
2. Flaring Chi Crucible
You flood your body with your Enlight-
ened Chi, gaining strength from adversity
and power from the ashes.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Chi Aura
when rolling to protect against Poison
damage.
• If one or more fighters other than you
within your zone use any points of
Corrupt Chi, you regain one additional
point of Enlightened Chi at the end of
this round. You can gain only a single
point this way, regardless of how many
people use Corrupt Chi or how much
they use.
2. Ash Body Dodge
You dance around your opponent’s attacks,
leaving only a bitter cloud of ash that blinds
them as they flail angrily at your form.
• You have a +10 bonus to Dodge against
a single attack, or a +15 bonus if the
opponent has added a Secondary Strike.
2. Fingers Snatch Embers
Your speed and skill are heightened by
your Enlightened power, allowing you to
harry your opponents and undermine the
Corrupt.
• You have a +10 bonus to any Disrupt
or Disorient, or a +15 bonus if your
target has a Corrupt chi deviation.
48
3. All-Direction Body
There is no angle from which your attacks
cannot come. It is a simple matter to
attack in all those angles at once.
• This attack is an Area Attack.
3. Hands Buried in Straw
You have been trained to defeat the worst
that Hell can let loose; how can you fear
them? Your attack takes on the element
of a lesson, an embarrassing reminder that
strength covered in dirt and straw is not
true strength at all.
• If your strike hits, then the opponent
suffers a -5 Action Penalty on any
actions taken directly against you for
the rest of the fight unless they act
embarrassed and fearful of your skill.
• Victims may make a Wu Wei or
Confidence check as a Minor Action
on their initiative roll with a difficulty
equal to the total Strike that inflicted
this technique. On a success, they
regain their composure and are no
longer affected by this technique.
3. Smoldering Fist
Your blows smolder with Heavenly
strength. To most mortals they simply hit
harder, but to the corrupt? Your fists burn.
• You have a +10 bonus to Damage.
• If your target has a Corrupt chi
deviation, your normal attack may
inflict a Burn Condition instead of an
Injury Condition. This attack does
not ignore Armor or Toughness, but it
does apply the normal Damage bonus
of this technique, your External Kung
Fu, and your weapon to any immediate
Rippling Rolls.
4. Long Hand Strength
Your spiritual presence extends beyond
your mere fleshy hands. Sad imitators
have copied this technique and called it the
One Inch Touch, but they cannot approach
the Long Hand Strength’s power.
• You have a +15 bonus to Strike and a
+10 bonus to Damage.
4. Prayers For Cremation
The strain of punishing the Corrupt is
not for the faint of heart. Sacrifices must
sometimes be made. You push your soul
beyond its limits, praying to Heaven to
help punish the Corrupt and wreathing
them in body-sapping spiritual flame.
• You may make a special Energy
Attack as a Minor Action with a +15
bonus. This attack may inflict Ripples
but cannot inflict a Rippling Roll;
otherwise it follows all the same rules
as Energy Attacks for the purposes of
Block penalties and defenses.
• If your attack succeeds, you may apply
a -10 penalty to a Corrupt opponent’s
Speed, Footwork, Strike, Damage,
Block, and Toughness. Your opponent
may ignore these effects by spending 2
Chi on their initiative.
• Victims may make a Wu Wei check
as a Minor Action on their initiative
roll with a difficulty equal to the total
attack that inflicted this technique.
On a success, they break the exorcism
and are no longer affected by this
technique.
• You may boost this technique when
you make the attack by voluntarily
suffering Ripples. Every Ripple you
inflict upon yourself increases the
initial attack bonus by +5. You can
only boost this technique by 1 Ripple
per Rank you have achieved.
5. The Ashen Palm
The legendary Ashen Palm burns with
holy fury and mercy! When it strikes the
Corrupt it burns the corruption right from
their veins in a fiery paroxysm of black
flame. When the battlefield is quiet, the
master dusts the ash from his untouched
palms.
• If your strike hits, and the target has
a Corrupt chi deviation, he doesn’t
recover any spent Corrupt Chi points
at the end of this round.
• If you impose any Ripples with
this attack, you drain an amount of
Corrupt Chi equal to equal to the
amount of Ripples inflicted on an
opponent. If your opponent is reduced
to 0 Corrupt Chi or otherwise has
no Corrupt Chi, this also inflicts an
additional Ripple.
• An opponent wounded by this
technique does not suffer traditional
Injury Conditions. Instead this
attack inflicts a special Corrupt Chi
Cultivation penalty on your opponent,
reducing the amount of Corrupt Chi
cultivation gained by the opponent per
story. If the opponent is Taken Out by
this technique, they lose a single point
of purified Corrupt Chi. Cultivation
used to gain this point of Corrupt
Chi is instead applied to their Normal
Chi cultivation. Any excess Corrupt
Cultivation is still applied towards
their next point of Corrupt Chi.
49
 Devil Body Control
(Corrupt style)

By defiling his flesh with infusions of Corrupt

Chi, a martial artist can achieve a control over
himself that far exceeds even that of his Wulin
brethren, allowing him to shape flesh and
bone at will, turning his body into a disturbing
living weapon. Few can master this style –
most kill themselves, their bodies warping
uncontrollably when they first attempt to use
its techniques.

Basic Technique:

1: Muscular Focus
Your muscles swell and your tendons stand
out as cords as you drive them to greater
achievements.
• You have a +5 bonus to Damage.
2: Malicious Limb Extension
Advanced Techniques:
2: Boneless Flexibility
You can break your bones with a series of
sickening cracks for flexibility, re-setting
the instantly when you choose to.
3: Body Warp Blade
• You have a +10 to Footwork.
2: Black Flesh Raiment
Your flesh blackens and cracks as if
burned, leaving it hard as iron.
• You have a +10 bonus to Toughness.
2: Inviolate Body
By claiming control of your body, you can
block the attempts of others to tamper
with it.
• You have a +15 bonus to your Chi Aura
when resisting Rippling Rolls caused
by the Doctor’s Arts.
© RLee 2014
You may stretch your arms startlingly far,
joints popping from their sockets as you
reach out to catch enemies off guard.
• You have a +10 bonus to Speed.
You twist your body to manifest weapons
– bone spikes that function as swords, a
lashing extended tongue that can be used
as a Flexible weapon, or bone needles shot
from within the flesh to function as Ranged
weapons.
• Round Long Duration.
• You are treated as armed with a Special
Weapon that combines the properties
of Unarmed attacks with one other
weapon type.
• You may spend 1 Chi per round to
extend this technique’s duration.

50
3: Blood Chi Unsealing
Chi flows through the body, and every
fighter learns to unlock some of this.
But a master of this style can go further,
cannibalising his body’s resources, burning
away his life force to grant a temporary
boost of power.
• Round-long duration. You may
spend one Chi per round to extend
the technique’s duration another
round; you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round.
• You automatically gain one Ripple
whenever you extend this technique.
• When you Focus on Breath, you may
choose to improve the regeneration of
Corrupt Chi instead of Normal Chi.
3: Boiling Blood
You agitate the blood in your veins until
the heat radiates out from you, and then
launch a gout of it at your enemies.
• You can use the Burn effect as a minor
action on your attack with a +15
bonus.
• If this Burn effect forces an immediate
Rippling Roll, you may voluntarily
suffer a Ripple to grant the Rippling
Roll roll a +10 bonus.
4. Bone Blossom Armour
Flower-like growths of bone sprout from
your skin, spreading outwards to surround
you in armour.
• You have a +15 bonus to Toughness.
• You have a +5 bonus to your Chi
Threshold against any attack that causes
physical harm such as the Doctor’s Arts,
normal attacks, energy attacks.
4. Frenzied Body Explosion
A storm of acidic blood and bone needles
bursts outwards from your skin, scourging
everyone nearby.
• You automatically gain one Ripple
when you activate this technique.
• This attack is an Area Attack.
• You have a +10 bonus to Strike and a
+10 bonus to Damage.
5. Desecration of Flesh
A master of Devil Body Control can turn
its effects outwards. With a touch, you can
devastate an opponent’s body.
• You make a special Disrupt Marvel as
a Minor Action. This does not use a
skill, but instead grants a +5 bonus per
Rank achieved with an additional +10
bonus. Your opponent defends against
this Disrupt normally.
• If it is successful, it applies a Disrupt
effect to three of the target’s combat
statistics of your choice. Any
techniques that further modify the
Disrupt effect (such as Controlling
Outer Force) must be purchased
separately.
• Each Disrupt effect is recovered from
separately, using the same result.
• You may Boost this technique when
you make the attack to Disrupt
additional combat statistics at the
cost of 2 Chi per additional combat
statistic.
51
 Dragon God’s Footprints
(Earth style)
In the West of Shen Zhou, there is a tale of
how a dragon and a god fought a bloody battle
for a hundred years, demolishing mountains
and forests until they at last tore each other
to pieces and died. Their blood mixed and
spawned the mighty Dragon God, a terrible
creature that destroyed its opponents with
marvelous strength, skill, and cunning.
The Dragon God was eventually defeated a
powerful warrior, who stole a portion of its
terrible Kung Fu.
Basic Technique:
1: Footfalls Shake the Earth
You have just begun to understand your
Earth Chi’s potential. It’s a trivial matter
for you to shake the ground or disrupt an
opponent’s balance.
• You have a +5 bonus to a Disrupt
targeting an opponent’s Footwork
or Speed. You may attempt a single
Disrupt that would benefit from this
bonus with a single die instead of
needing a set.
Advanced Techniques:
2: Mountain God’s Knee
The brutal blows of the angry mountain
gods often leave opponents broken. Now
you emulate the spirit of their signature
attack!
• You have a +10 bonus to Damage.
52
2: Dragon Turns Over
To defeat an opponent you need to do
more than just hit him, you need to control
the battlefield. You have become a master
at disrupting the feng shui of the battlefield
to act in your favor.
• You have a +10 bonus to Might, or a
+15 bonus to a Might-based Shaping
Marvel.
2: Mountain God’s Elbow
The most powerful attacks are the ones
that the opponent doesn’t realize are the
most damaging. Many opponents struck
by this technique continue to act, unaware
that they’ve suffered far more than they
expected!
• Opponents struck by this attack suffer
one additional Ripple.
2: Dragon Rises Flying
When you master the environment you
master the battle. You cannot allow
yourself to be trapped in unfavorable
terrain not of your own making.
• You have a +20 bonus to Cover
Ground.
3: Insensate God’s Yawn
You lazily deflect your opponent’s attacks,
ignoring the paltry blows leveled at your
body. How boring, who can hope to harm
a god?
• You have a +10 bonus to Block and
Toughness.
• You may boost this technique to a
Round-long Duration by voluntarily
suffering a Ripple.
3: Angry God Throw
Your Earth Chi allows a blow to carry
deceptive power. Many are the wulin
who find themselves blown back by the
incredible force of Angry God Throw.
• If you inflict an immediate Rippling
Roll on an opponent with a physical
attack, they suffer an automatic
Knockback effect with a result equal to
the damage received after Chi aura.
3: Dragon Claw Flexes
You call upon your innate obsession over
perfection, your attacks finding the gaps in
an opponent’s defenses and allowing you to
become one with your chosen weapon.
• You have a +10 bonus to Strike.
• You do not have to Flood a die
to activate one special ability of a
Flexible, Massive, Saber, Spear, or
Sword weapon type on this attack.
4: God-Hammer of Heaven
With the battlefield set up and an
opponent to focus on, you call upon the
God-Hammer of Heaven! Your opponent
cannot hope to take your strikes, and they
find themselves often crashing painfully
into walls and other obstacles.
• Round-long duration.
• Apply a -5 penalty to the defender’s
Block and Toughness.
• Your attack ignores an opponent’s
Armor.
• You have a +5 bonus to a single
Knockback marvel.
4: Dragon Rebukes Cowards
Opponents who show their backs to you
are not worthy opponents! Cowards
deserve only a moment’s attention, enough
time to level a devastating insult or a last
sneering strike.
• Round-long duration.
• You may Reply once against any
opponent that leaves your current
zone, whether their choice to do so is
voluntary or not.
5: God Steps, Dragon Roars
By focusing on your Earth Chi, you
become the epicenter of destruction.
Your attack ripples outwards, the earth
buckling and erupting and destroying
whole swaths of opponents. Legends say
the most powerful Wulin who can use this
technique are capable of destroying an
entire city in a blow!
• This attack is an Area Attack.
• This Area Attack also affects an
adjacent zone, allowing you to
devastate wide areas at once.
• You may boost this technique. Spend
2 Chi to extend this attack to another
zone adjacent to a zone currently
affected by this technique, up to a
maximum of your Rank adjacent zones.
Darkness within
darkness.
The gate to all
mystery.
— Lao Tzu
53
 Flames of Creation
(Fire style)
The Fire God is the only known person in
Shen Zhou to teach this powerful Fire-based
kung fu, for it is rare and difficult to learn.
The Fire God whimsically claims that it was
the first Elemental kung fu ever created,
predating even Fire Sutra... a flagrantly
hypocritical claim, especially coming from the
leader of the Fire Doctrine!
This style uses what the Fire God calls the
Inner Flame of Creation to fuel powerful,
practical abilities. It lacks the innate
techniques to manifest flames outside of
the body that makes Fire Sutra so famous,
though many practitioners have found ways to
improvise fire with their Fire Chi.
Basic Technique:
1. Summoning Inner Flame
By focusing in on yourself, you kindle
and nurture the Inner Flame of Creation,
storing it temporarily in your Chi
meridians for later use.
• You gain one point of Inner Flame.
You may only gain one point of
Inner Flame per round. Inner Flame
lasts only for a scene and counts as
Normal Chi for the purposes of fueling
techniques from Flames of Creation.
You may only store up to your Rank
points of Inner Flame.
54
Advanced Techniques:
2: Quickfire Step
Your Yang energy is not burdened down
with the weights of the world! Your mind
is blissfully free of such worries, and your
reflexes begin to match your mind.
• You have a +10 bonus to your
Footwork.
2: Cultivating Inner Flame
You enkindle your Fire Chi, bringing you
perilously close to overloading your yang.
This sudden surge of energy keeps your
inner fire burning even when others try to
stifle it.
• Round-long duration.
• You may ignore any techniques that
would cause you to fail to regenerate
any kind of chi that is not Water,
Metal, Enlightened, or Corrupt.
2: Vinyasa Stance
You move from one flowing posture
to another, knowing that all things are
impermanent. Your opponent has precious
little chance to impose a flaw that will last
on so many shifting positions!
• You have a +10 bonus to your defense
against a single Disrupt or Disorient.
2: Fire Whip Strike
Many may think this technique improves
your precise blows- this is a comfortable
falsehood. Instead it speeds your
reaction time, allowing you to strike at
the weaknesses your sharpened mind
perceives.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Strike.
3: Ever-Dancing Flame
What is harder to strike than flame?
What use is lightning against a firestorm?
Can ice freeze a fire solid? Attacks pass
through your effortless dance.
• You have a +15 bonus to your Dodge,
or a +20 bonus if it is an Energy
Attack.
3: Spontaneous Backdraft
In the midst of your defense, when your
Inner Flames feel the most stifled, a
sudden surge of desperation fuels a new
attempt at excellence.
• Reroll a Defense roll.
3: The Racing Glow
Your body glows with your Inner Flame
as you achieve transcendent speed and
situational awareness.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Speed.
• You have a +10 bonus to a Shaping
Wave.
4: Filled With Inner Flame
When you are covered with wounds, when
your stances are ruined, when all seems
lost... you fill yourself with your Inner
Flame, filling these gaps with sheer power
borrowed from the Flames of Creation.
Nothing may hinder you but yourself, for
your body was not meant to hold on to this
power for long.
• Round-long duration. You may
spend two Chi per round to extend
the technique’s duration to another
round; you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round.
• Any and all penalties to your combat
statistics (Speed, Strike, Footwork,
Block, Damage, Toughness) you might
be suffering from are reduced by 10.
• You automatically gain one Ripple
whenever you activate or extend this
technique. This Ripple is applied at
the end of the round.
4: Smothered By Inner Flame
Just as you cannot hold your Inner Flame,
your opponent cannot either! Your
strikes infuse your opponent with your
Inner Flame, blocking their chi flows and
hindering their body and mind.
• If you inflict a Rippling Roll on an
opponent, you also inflict a Disrupt
or Disorient marvel on your opponent
with a recovery equal to the Strike that
inflicted it.
• Disrupts or Disorients caused by this
technique increase the penalty by -5,
and this increase is stackable with
Extraordinary Techniques that can
raise Disrupt and Disorient penalties to
-10. This allows you to inflict Disrupts
or Disorients that levy a -15 penalty.
5: The Flames of Creation
There is no place, no person in creation
that was not created by the Flames of
Creation. There is no place, no person in
creation who will not be destroyed by the
Flames. Their destruction is inevitable.
You simply speed up the process.
• You have a +25 bonus to your Strike.
• If this attack forces a Rippling Roll,
you may Flow a single die from your
River into that roll.
55
 Old Banyan Mudra
(Wood style)
The banyan is a sacred tree revered throughout
Shen Zhou. The Bharatan worship it; its
wood is often burned in the sacred initiation
rites of the Fire Doctrine. Buddhists believe
it is the tree under which Buddha gained
enlightenment. The Daoists believe that spirits
live within the banyans. These three religions
all recognize a different variant of what they
all call Old Banyan Mudra, a Wood style that
focuses on the balance of mankind’s soul
with the outside world instead of Boundless
Prosperity Manual’s internal alchemy.
Basic Technique:
1: Roots Upwards
The material world is a pale reflection
of the spiritual. When you look upon
a banyan tree reflected the water, you
glimpse that its roots extend upwards.
Your understanding of this gives you the
shadow of true power.
• You have a +5 bonus to Damage.
Advanced Techniques:
2: Extending Roots
You extend your soul much like the roots
of the banyan, spiritually extending your
attack to far-away enemies in a short burst
of Chi.
• You may extend an attack into an
adjacent zone.
56
2: Branches Down
Just as the roots of a banyan extend
upwards when reflected in the water, the
branches reach down. Your opponent’s
blows are mere shadows of their intent to
harm, and you understand that you cannot
be harmed by shadows.
• You have a +10 bonus to Block.
2: Unending Growth
The banyan and your soul constantly
grows outwards. A mere setback is
nothing in the face of infinite growth.
• You have a +15 bonus to recover from
a Disrupt or Disorient marvel.
2: Life Resists
Fire may scorch the banyan, cold may
freeze it. But it exists, for a little fire or
frost cannot harm the whole tree- or your
soul.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Chi Aura
when rolling to protect against Burn or
Freeze damage.
3: Nested Chakra Mandalas
Those sinners who have cut down a
banyan find another tree inside. Within
this tree they find more rings. Within
those, even more. You focus inward on
your wood chi, starting up a cycle of
incredible spiritual strength.
• Round-long duration. You may
spend 1 Chi per round to extend
the technique’s duration to another
round; you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round.
• When you Focus on Breath, you may
choose to improve the regeneration of
Wood Chi instead of Normal Chi.
3: Hymns As Leaves
The hymns of Bharata, the scriptures of
Buddha, the pacings of the Daoists... all
are as leaves of the soul. Your spirit is
strong enough to interpose these truths
over your opponent’s attacks, making you
untouchable.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +5 bonus to your Block.
• You have a +5 bonus to your Toughness.
• You have a +5 bonus to your Chi
Threshold.
• You can boost this technique for an extra
+5 Block or +5 Toughness per point of
Chi spent. You are limited to boosting by
5 total points per Rank achieved.
3: Medicine is Poison
The sacred figs of the banyan are often
used as medicine, but just as poison can
be medicine, medicine can be poison. You
strike your opponent with your Wood Chi,
sparking poisonous growth.
• You can use the Poison effect as a minor
action on your attack with a +10 bonus.
If it forces an immediate rippling roll,
the roll receives a +10 bonus.
Heaven is as low as
earth; mountains and
marshes are on the
same level.
— Hui Shi
4: Ground and Sky Aura
What use is lightning against a tree the size
of a forest? What use is poison? You take
your opponent’s attacks into your soul with
your Wood chi and then return their force
back to them.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +30 bonus to your Chi Aura
when rolling to protect against Shock
or Poison damage.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Damage.
4: Enlightened Expansion
Your soul surrounds your opponent,
making you quick enough to strike from
multiple directions at once.
• You have a Secondary Strike.
• You may make a single Marvel with
one die.
5: Contemplation of the Banyan
Praise the banyan; praise your own soul,
so close to enlightenment! Under your
tutelage your opponents realize their folly.
You strike your opponent with so much
concentrated Wood chi it disrupts their
own internal equilibrium, forcing them to
grow in new directions or perish, cut off
from cultivating their Chi forever!
• You can use the Poison effect as a minor
action on your attack with a +25 bonus.
If it forces an immediate rippling roll,
the roll receives a +10 bonus.
• A target wounded by this technique
does not suffer traditional Poison
wound effects. Instead this attack
inflicts a Cultivation penalty on your
opponent. If the opponent is Taken
Out by this technique, the Recovery of
that condition is increased by 10.
57
 Still Water Soldier
(Water style)
Still Water Soldier is a meditative internal
style named after its primary practitioners, the
elite warrior-monks of the Han Empire. The
Still Water Soldiers specialized in cloaking
themselves with their Yin energy, making them
superlative defensive fighters that could adapt
to almost any situation.
Basic Technique:
1. Mirror Lake
Through a quick inward burst of your Yin
chi, you reflect an opponent’s scrutiny
back towards themselves, filling them
with doubt.
• Round-long duration.
• Opponents receive a -10 penalty to
analyze your external style.
Advanced Techniques:
2. Stone Thrown Into a Quiet Morning
The little blows and distractions of an
enemy are swallowed up by your chi,
leaving nary a ripple.
• You may negate a ripple caused by a
Reply.
2. Twilight Mist Over the Lake
An opponent’s telling blow may not be as
decisive as they think; you rob the attack
of its force in the very last instant.
• You reduce the ripples suffered from an
opponent’s physical attack by 1. This
may not reduce the number of ripples
suffered to 0.
58
2. Lapping Over the Shore
Your blows softly slip over and through
an opponent’s guard, like a wave lapping
softly over a lake’s pebbly shore.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Strike.
2. Closed Eye Glance
Careful meditation and knowledge of chi
allow you to expertly size up an opponent
even as you focus inward.
• You may use your Focus on Breath
result to analyze an external style or to
identify a combat approach.
3. Still Water Stance
You adopt the stance of the Still Water
Lake, where even the largest waves quickly
find themselves settling back to placidity.
Nothing will be allowed to interfere with
your rhythm.
• You must activate this technique while
rolling initiative, and it lasts for the
entire round.
• You have a +15 bonus to your defenses
against Disrupts.
3. Low and High Tide
The tides of the placid lakes that surround
the ancient stronghold of the Still Water
Soldiers are not as dramatic as those of the
seas, but they still exist. Only a practiced
eye may notice the difference, and only
a practiced eye can determine the true
difference in your defensive techniques.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Dodge
or Block.
3. Rain-Fed Waters 5. Fed By Inner Springs
You let the rain of your chi fill your attack, With a superlative expenditure of your
sending it spreading out to affect everyone chi, you temporarily boost your defensive
around you. capabilities to their greatest potential.
• This attack is an Area Attack. Your defenses are not limited to the
physical world, but also to the spiritual:
4. Fishing On the Placid Lake
nothing can affect your chi if you do not
The fisherman on the placid lake will often wish it.
forgo trying to hook a fish- that would
• You have a +25 bonus to your Block.
disturb the serenity of his surroundings!
• If you are struck by an opponent’s
• You may forfeit a Rippling Roll to
attack and they have any effect that
inflict three additional ripples.
would cause you to fail to regenerate
• You can use this technique after the any kind of Chi at the end of the
defender makes his roll. round, you may ignore this effect.
4. Moon Dive Awareness
Still Water Soldiers often learn this style
through repeated meditative dives at
night, where they sit at the bottom and
focus within for as long as they can. Some If someone only observed
become lost and drown. Others come back
how much tin is in a
with a preternatural awareness.
certain mixture and what
• Round-long duration. You may
spend one Chi per round to extend
color the metal is, and
the technique’s duration another did not examine it in any
round; you must spend the Chi at the other way, then even Ou
beginning of each new round.
Yeh could not be certain
• You ignore up to 10 points of penalties of how sharp a sword is.
related to blindness, darkness, or other
forms of sensory deprivation.
Yet if someone observes it
• Your attacks and defenses always
slice off water-bird heads
Laugh At your opponents. and cut up land-horses,
• You may also apply a +5 Laughing then even the most
bonus to any of your Wu Wei rolls to ignorant slave would be
Sense Chi. able to know that the
sword is sharp.
— Han Fei Tzu

59
 Sword Devil Histories
(Metal style)
This unique internal style is practiced only
within the village of the Sword Devils, and
is the least impressive of their secrets. It
is one part kung fu, one part oral history.
Every technique is tied to a different crafting
technique, the story of the technique’s creation,
and the history of the village. Since there are
multiple teachers of this style, there are also
many different stories associated with each!
This style blends the art of creating weapons
with the art of fighting, and so is wholly
incompatible with Unarmed forms of combat.
Basic Technique:
1. All-Weapon Understanding
To the Sword Devils, every weapon is the
shadow of another weapon: a spearpoint
has two edges like a sword, a rude stick is
the shadow of a properly weighted staff.
The application of their chi allows them to
bring forth the reality of the weapon it is to
become.
• Round-long duration.
• You have a +5 bonus to Craft.
• If you are using a properly improvised
weapon, it is no longer considered
improvised. It gains the proper
weapon bonuses and you do not need
to spend chi to activate an ability that
requires you to also Flood a die from
your River.
60
Advanced Techniques:
2: Indestructible Edge
The quick application of chi through your
weapon renders it immune to even the
worst of an opponent’s attacks, allowing
you to block them without fear of hurting
your weapon.
• You have a +10 bonus to Block.
2: Sharpened on Spidersilk
Your weapon becomes charged with
your chi, delivering mighty blows and
destroying flesh and bone as if it were not
there.
• You have a +10 bonus to Damage.
2: Blessed Balance
The weapon in your hand becomes
superbly balanced, and then through it you
achieve a portion of the same transcen-
dental balance.
• You have a +10 bonus to your defense
against a single attempt to Disrupt or
Knockback you.
2: Yellow Tiger Hide
The Sword Devils once made a suit of
armor for the Emperor’s personal guard
that supposedly weighed him down as
much as normal clothing. Though they
have not made such a suit of armor since,
they can replicate it with the buoying effect
of their chi.
• Round-long duration.
• Any penalties you might be suffering
from wearing Medium or Heavy armor
are reduced by 10.

3: August Commission
The First Emperor once personally
requested the creation of a mighty blade
with which to unify all of the Great Plains.
This technique was created to satisfy the
commission, and through it the blacksmith
forged the Greater Virtue Sword.
• You have a +15 bonus to Craft.
• All opponents receive a -10 penalty to
break your Craft-related Waves.
© RLee 2014
3: Measure Twice, Cut Once
The Sword Devils have such a keen eye for
measurement that they are easily capable
of quickly assessing an opponent, then
striking where both their defenses and
their armor are weak.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Strike.
• If you cause a rippling roll, your attack
ignores 5 points of the opponent’s
armor.
61
 3: Weapon-Breaking Armor
The greatest armor made by the Sword
Devils is stronger than strength, and
weapons have been known to break when
they strike it! Their Kung Fu has drawn
upon the strength of their craftsmanship,
allowing their bodies to toughen and
shatter weapons.
• You have a +10 bonus to Toughness.
• You may Reply if you reduce the
damage of an opponent’s rippling roll
to 0.
4: Weapon-Warping Blow
This secret offensive technique is taught
by only a scarce few of the Sword Devils.
A mighty swing of their weapon can cut
through steel or flesh with equal disdain.
If you have been taught the technique
incorrectly, it can terribly warp your own
weapon!
• You have a +20 bonus to Damage.
• You may choose to damage an
opponent’s weapon instead of inflicting
injury condition with this technique:
the opponent’s non-Unarmed weapon is
now treated as an Improvised weapon.
• Victims with damaged weapons may
make a Craft check as a Minor Action
on their initiative roll with a difficulty
equal to the total Rippling Roll (before
Armor and Toughness) that inflicted
this technique. On a success, they
fix their weapon and are no longer
affected by this technique.
4: Armored Soul Alliance
The heat of the forge, the blade of the
knife, the bludgeoning blow of a staff,
the cutting rocks of the Thousand Sword
Peaks... none of them can harm a Sword
62
Devil who has achieved the ultimate armor
that comes from proper cultivation.
• Round-long duration. You may
spend one Chi per round to extend
the technique’s duration another
round; you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round.
• You may Flow dice from River into
your Chi Aura rolls.
• Your Metal Chi counts double for your
Chi Aura rolls.
5: Waking the Weapon’s Soul
Not every work may become legendary,
but every work made by a master of Sword
Devil Histories had the potential. Through
a quick meditation, you momentarily
awaken that tenuous potential.
• Make a Craft Wave on your Initiative
roll at Memorable difficulty (40), and
target the weapon you are wielding. If
you are successful, for the rest of the
fight, while you wield this weapon, you
gain several benefits. These benefits
end whenever you switch weapons or
put away the targeted weapon.
• You may reduce inferior defense
penalties to your Block by 5.
• You may Focus on Breath with one die,
as if Unarmed.
• You automatically gain a +5 Laughing
bonus to your attacks and defenses so
long as you wield the weapon.
• Your opponents may attempt to break
your connection with the weapon
as a minor skill-based Marvel (made
with any appropriate skill) on their
attack roll at a difficulty of your
initial Craft wave.
Three Kings
(Neutral style)
Knowing others is
Originally called the Star-Crown-of-Morning intelligence;
Kung Fu, this style was practiced by the
greatest of kings, Ying Zheng, the First
knowing yourself is
Emperor himself. Originating in the Zhou true wisdom.
Dynasty, this kung fu is old and proven in its Mastering others is
power – one of the exalted sword styles of
Shen Zhou! In this modern age, however, it is
strength; mastering
only rarely taught, as the few independent sifu yourself is true power.
who could teach it slowly die off. This kung — Lao Tzu
fu’s techniques all shine with distinction – they
are the unity of will and action, and are always
impressive to watch in their speed and grace.
2: Peerless Skill
This technique expresses the utmost talent
Basic Technique:
of the practitioner, seizing all opportunities
1: Left-Right Ren Stroke that occur and creating them where
needed.
Your assaults flow naturally from your
intent, unhindered by mortal concerns. • You can perform a single minor action
this roll that is based on a single die,
• Your attack may ignore up to 10 total
instead of needing a set.
points worth of penalties.
2: Wall of Unassailable Blades
Advanced Techniques: Lightly and without effort, you turn back
the assaults of your enemies.
2: Divine Dragon Speed
• You have a +10 bonus to Block.
Your inner power transforms your
3: Golden Invulnerability
movements, making them deft and
confident. The First Emperor was blessed with good
fortunes and robust health. This technique
• You have a +10 bonus to Speed.
makes your aura glow with a majestic
2: Ordering the Constellations yellow light that wards against all harm.
All things have a natural shape and progres- • You have a +10 bonus to your Chi Aura.
sion. Your mastery of the natural order is
such that you can guide events towards a
tranquil state with least resistance.
• You have a +15 bonus to any action to
break a Wave.

63
 3: Harmony-of-Principles
This technique hides your weapon in the
shadow of your opponent’s – no matter
what it may be! Unseen and inscrutable,
your attacks become mysteries to your
opponents.
• Your attack may not include any
Marvels; your weapon must move so
precisely that you must stick to the
basics.
• You reverse the usual order of rolling:
your opponent must first roll a defense
and only afterwards do you have to
make the attack. This also lets you
delay choices such as whether to use
certain techniques or the River. You
must still declare your attacks and your
techniques before the defender.
3: Sun Guided by Stars
This unusual technique is more scholarly
wisdom than a true martial knack but its
power is nevertheless respected by even
the crudest minds. You perceive what is
most auspicious and move in that fashion,
allowing the flow of destiny to guide you.
Mortal shortcomings are meaningless when
compared to the will of Heaven!
• You ignore up to 20 total points
worth of penalties caused by Marvels,
techniques or chi conditions.
4: Four-Armed Heaven-Blade Stance
A masterful technique that blends shadow
and light to create illusory duplicates of
your weapon. It makes it look like you are
attack with four weapons simultaneously –
thus making an unstoppable onslaught in
all directions that no opponent can easily
survive unscathed.
64
• This attack is an Area Attack.
• Opponents struck by this attack suffer
one additional Ripple.
4: Glowing Cloud of Heaven
When invoked, your weapon seemingly
makes so many strikes that it melts into
an endless cloud of metallic light before
your opponent, baffling his eyes and wits,
forcing him to recoil from the torrent of
feints and strikes.
• You have a Secondary Strike.
• Apply a -5 penalty to the defender’s
Dodge or Block for both this Strike and
the Secondary Strike.
5: Thousand Blossoming Flowers
The crowning glory of Three Kings kung
fu, this technique allows you to invoke the
strength of your virtues to overwhelm your
enemies!
• If your Strike hits and causes a
Rippling Roll, you may subtract 5
from your opponent’s Chi Threshold.
This affects both the normal and the
armored Chi Threshold and is applied
before the multiplier- for instance,
if this strikes an opponent whose
armored Chi Threshold is 20/40/60, it
becomes 15/30/45 instead.
• This attack is boostable. For every one
of your Chivalrous virtues rated at 4 or
higher, you may increase the applied
penalty by one for free.
Virtue of Care
(Neutral style)
The Virtue of Care is on its way to becoming
the most common internal style in Shen Zhou.
Developed somewhat in secret by a sect of
Mohists, the Virtue of Care is an eminently
easy style to learn: it is both approachable
and balanced. Critics point out that it has
very little real offensive capability, but that’s
what the critics often say about Mohist war
theory anyway! This style is made to chastise
or delay opponents, not to kill them. Mohist
masters roam the countryside of Shen Zhou,
teaching both their tenets and the Virtue
of Care to village elders, virtuous students,
and beleaguered towns. To learn the Virtue
of Care, one needs only a good teacher, the
potential to cultivate chi, and the capacity to
love the world and everyone in it.
Basic Technique:
1. Guarding Chi Focus
The first and most easily grasp of the
Internal techniques in Shen Zhou, this
technique allows you to better defend
yourself with your focused chi.
• You have a +5 bonus to your Block.
Advanced Techniques:
2: Shielding Chi Focus
A further refinement of Guarding Chi
Focus, this technique intensifies your chi
into protecting a small, concentrated area.
Blades are likely to chip off of your guard.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Block.
2: Stabbing Breath Hand
The most ethical way to fight is not to fight
at all, but the enemy has forced your hand.
You try to sap away their own will to fight,
breaking their breath’s rhythm with the
harmless pain that causes panic.
• If your strike hits, the target doesn’t
receive the benefit of Focusing on
Breath at the end of this round.
• The target additionally cannot Focus
on Breath the next round unless they
make a Moderate (20) Breath Check
on their initiative.
2: Master of Tools
A truly strong man doesn’t just rely on his
own power. He knows how to work with
his tools as if they were a part of his body.
• You do not have to Flood a die to
activate one special ability of a Ranged,
Flexible, Massive, Saber, Spear, or
Sword weapon type on this roll.
2: The Speed of Necessity
When the world is in danger, when the
need is great, you can call upon almost
unsurpassed speed.
• You have a +10 bonus to your Speed.
3: Fortifying Chi Focus
The greatest refinement of the first
technique, this allows you to defend
yourself against all but the most concerted
attacks.
• You have a +15 bonus to your Block.
65
 3: Criticism Without Suggestion
It’s one thing to attempt to correct an
opponent, but it’s quite another to try to
do so with no retort! You cannot put out
fire with fire, or stop a flood with more
flooding.
• You have a +15 bonus to your Strike.
3: Armor-Binding Offensive
The enemy wears armor to protect them
from harm; how could they expect it
becoming a hindrance? Your attacks find
the weak points of their armor like an
army finds weak points in the fortress,
using them against each other and eventu-
ally binding an enemy in their own source
of protection!
© RLee 2014
66
• You may make a Disrupt targeting
your opponent’s armor. Should the
Disrupt hit, it penalizes their Speed
and Footwork by -5. This explicitly
stacks atop any armor penalties they
might have. You may further stack
this disrupt by -5 per level of armor
they have- Light at -5, Medium has a
maximum of a -10 penalty, and Heavy
has a maximum of -15. An opponent
with Heavy armor who has fully
been bound by this technique would
therefore have a -25 penalty to their
Speed and Footwork. Techniques
that negate penalties from armor
also negate the penalties from this
technique.
 • An opponent may attempt to recover
from this Disrupt in the usual fashion,
or they may attempt to remove layers
of their Armor as a Finesse or Might
shaping wave on their Initiative; the
Sage is encouraged to allow them to
either remove the armor in stages
(Heavy to Medium, Medium to Light,
and so on). Removal of their armor
commensurately reduces the penalty
from this Disrupt.
4: Tricks of the Master
An ounce of extra effort goes a long way,
and subtlety is often forgotten in today’s
age. You have learned a few of your
Master’s tricks, the better to surprise an
unwitting opponent.
• You have a +10 bonus to a single
Disrupt or Disorient marvel.
• You can use this technique after the
defender makes their roll.
4: Retaining Standards
How can you remain stalwart in your life
when you are easily swayed? You can only
accomplish truly great things if you retain
a firm grip on your body, mind, and soul.
• You have a +15 bonus to your Chi Aura
when rolling to protect against Quick
Work attacks.
5: No Greater Love
Very few people learn the final technique
of the Virtue of Care. Those who do learn
it are scared to use it. It is the technique
of self-sacrifice, putting your body and life
on the line for those you protect. Who can
fail to be inspired by such love?
• You have a +15 bonus to your
Toughness.
• If you suffer a Major Injury Condition
as a result of this attack, you may
voluntarily declare yourself to be
Taken Out by the attack. This
automatically counts as a Deed of
Universal Love (Ren); you may grant
a character of your choice the Joss and
Entanglement you would normally
gain. The Sage spends the Entangle-
ment bonus in an appropriate manner.
• You may also apply this technique if
this attack Takes you Out. Unfortu-
nately, this does not grant a character
of your choice any Joss.
Yellow Emperor’s Breath
(Neutral style)
Once the exclusive provenance of the Eight
Mountain Sages’ acolytes, Yellow Emperor’s
Breath was the first of the methods employed
to purify one’s Chi and to prepare for the
more demanding disciplines ahead. Though
it spread across Shen Zhou quickly when first
introduced by the Lonely Apostle, it is still the
signature style of the Eight Mountain Sect, and
its followers claim exclusive understanding of
the path toward deeper cultivation promised
by its techniques.
Basic Technique:
1: Mountain Leaping Step
Even those of meager cultivation can make
use of Lightfoot skill; the first lesson of this
style makes one’s body as light as air.
• You have an additional +10 bonus to
Cover Ground when using Lightfoot.
67
 Advanced Techniques:
2: Suffocating Blow
Chi responds to Chi; you may use your
own inner force to disrupt that of your
opponent.
• You may perform a special Marvel
based on your Wu Wei skill as a Minor
Action on your attack roll with a +5
bonus. If it succeeds, the target respires
one fewer normal Chi per round until
he recovers.
• The target uses his Focus on Breath
skill to resist/recover.
2: Rapid Breath Exhilaration
The breath and the heart set the tempo of
the body; by increasing the cycling of your
breathing, your body learns to follow suit.
• You have a +10 bonus to Speed.
2: Expanding Lung Defense
By inhaling as Huangdi instructed, your
own lungs lead you away from harm.
• You have a +10 bonus to Dodge.
2: Imperturbable Breathing Method
The easy flow of your Chi grants you an
physical, emotional and spiritual balance
that is difficult to perturb.
• You have a +10 bonus to any Skill roll
made to Resist a Secret Arts attack.
3: Contracting Lung Attack
By exhaling as Huangdi instructed, your
fists are pushed toward your foe with even
greater precision.
• You have a +15 bonus to Strike.
3: Indefatigable Warrior Sutra
When buffeted by the blows of one’s
68
enemies, the native impulse is to constrict,
to shut one’s eyes, to hold one’s breath; by
facing harm with open eyes and balanced
breath, one can learn to find power in
adversity.
• You must activate this technique while
rolling initiative, and it lasts for the
entire round. You may spend one Chi
per round to extend the technique’s
duration another round; you must
spend the Chi at the beginning of each
new round.
• When you suffer one or more Ripples
due to an opponent’s physical or
energy attack, you respire 1 additional
normal Chi at the end of the round for
each separate Ripple-inflicting attack.
• Energy attacks and secondary strikes
are considered separate attacks for the
purposes of this technique.
3: Pure Chi Armor
Some distort their Chi for the sake of
fueling arcane techniques; show them the
power of unadulterated Chi by swatting
aside such attacks.
• You have a round-long +15 bonus to
your Chi Aura against energy attacks.
4: Balance through Excess
Many among the Wulin unbalance their
own internal systems in order to cultivate
special forms of Chi; by polarizing your
own well-balanced Chi toward Yin or Yang,
you weaken the power of elemental Chi in
your presence.
• You create a field of polarized Chi
in your current zone that targets
a specific element by performing
a Shaping Wave based on Wu Wei
 with a +10 bonus. You may increase
the bonus for +5 per Chi spent, to a
maximum +20 bonus. Opponents who
wish to Break your Wave may attempt
to do so using Wu Wei, or another
skill as the Sage deems appropriate.
• Anyone within that field -- including
you and your allies! -- who posses
elemental Chi of either the targeted
type or the types adjacent to it on
the Progression Wheel (e.g. if Wood
is targeted, Water and Fire are also
affected) suffers the following effects:
elemental chi of the affected types does
not count double for the purposes of
powering elemental internal styles;
elemental Chi cannot be used for
Chi Aura or Lightfoot; and, if the
field is active at the start of a round,
anyone who would respire the affected
types of elemental Chi must make a
Minor Action on their Initiative roll
using their Focus on Breath Skill at a
difficulty equal to the value of your
Shaping Wave to regain that Chi.
• This technique may be extended for
2 Chi per turn. You may not alter the
type of chi targeted if extending the
technique.
4: Pure Air Punishment
Few would long survive life in the Wulin
if they did not learn to draw upon their
Chi to protect their physical and spiritual
integrity. Your mastery of breath allows you
to penetrate that defense with ease—and if
your opponent has defiled themselves with
corrupt Chi, they will suffer greatly for
their corruption.
• Apply a -15 penalty to the defender’s Chi
Aura when you make a physical attack.
• If the defender has a Corrupt Chi
deviation, you may choose to forgo
inflicting any Ripples when you
successfully attack. If you do, the
defender suffers 1 Ripple for every
point of Corrupt Chi they use or
respire for the duration of the fight,
or until they make a Minor Action on
their initiative roll using their Focus
on Breath skill and exceeds your Strike
result.
5: Huangdi’s Method
It is said the Yellow Emperor created
this technique to give those who would
cultivate themselves an intimation of what
Enlightenment might bring. By concen-
trating on purifying your own chi, you
create a small reserve of more potent chi
that can be used for a number of purposes.
• Round-long duration. You may
spend Chi each round to extend the
technique’s duration another round;
you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round. The first
extension costs 1 chi, the second costs
2 chi, the third costs 3 chi, and so on.
• While this technique is activated, you
gain the following benefits: you have
+20 to Focus on Breath; normal Chi
counts double for the purposes of
activating any Yellow Emperor’s Breath
techniques other than this one; you
gain 2 Chi Aura dice for every normal
Chi spent; you may donate a number
of normal Chi equal to your Rank
achieved to another during combat
without the need for a Wave; and
normal Chi spent on Lightfoot grants
+10/Chi spent to Cover Ground, rather
than +5.
69
 FORMLESS STYLES
Zhen Racking Execution
All of the Wulin know of the Blade Dog Zhen
Hrong, the Hundred-Body Cleaver. His bloody
escape from the Zhen clan's compound left his
own clan broken beyond repair, their greatest
masters killed, their few great martial secrets
lost. It led many to question just what exactly
Zhen Hrong had done to deserve execution by
his own family's hands.

The truth lays in the creation of the very

technique that he used to escape: the Zhen
Racking Execution. Zhen clan kung fu
contained a specialized form of formless
martial arts that focused on long-lasting effects
for an initially large burst of chi. Zhen Hrong
had learned his clan techniques improperly,
for in his impatience he had skipped some
important steps. When he finally displayed
his 'talents' in front of his grand masters, the
resulting chi blockages nearly tore him apart
from the inside out. The Zhen masters saved
his life but humiliated Zhen Hrong by sending
him back to learn with the young children.
Zhen Hrong seethed and waited, focusing
on learning his clan's specialized kung fu.
When he finally learned it correctly, he hid his
© RLee 2014
mastery from his elders and discovered just
where he had gone wrong.

Then Zhen Hrong displayed his skills before his

master. The Zhen master's pleasure did not last
long, as Zhen Hrong attacked while his guard
was down. Zhen Hrong revealed the corrupt
strength of the Zhen Racking Execution, an
attack that targets an opponent's chi meridians
and introduces a partial blockage! Zhen Hrong
had learned that a full blockage of small-scale
chi circulation was not in and of itself deadly,
for the chi could find ways to reroute or would
simply fail to flow. But so long as there was
at least some flow the chi would try to force
its way through, tearing up their own chi
meridians and leaving victims in unspeakable
agony. The Zhen master's cries called the other

70
elders, who proclaimed that Zhen Hrong was to
be put to death immediately for the unspeakable
crime of corrupting their kung fu! Unfortu-
nately for them the Zhen Racking Execution
was tailor-made to break them, and so Zhen
Hrong cut his way through his clan compound
and to terrible glory.
Level 5 Corrupt Formless
• If your strike hits, your opponent
suffers under the Zhen Racking
Execution! If your opponent has any
techniques of a Round-long duration
that can be extended to subsequent
rounds, they automatically suffer a
Ripple for every point of Chi they
spend to extend their techniques.
This technique is not additive with
techniques that already inflict Ripples-
for instance, a person using Transforma-
tion of Dark Jade and suffering under
the Zhen Racking Execution suffers two
Ripples to extend the technique, not
three. An opponent foolish enough to
rely on multiple extended techniques
will soon find themselves squirming in
unspeakable pain!
• Victims may make a Hardiness or
Medicine-based Shaping Wave at
Memorable (40) difficulty to clear the
chi blockages in their system. The
Zhen Racking Execution is difficult
to purge from a system and requires
several sharp blows to the proper chi
meridians to clear the blockages, which
are obvious and easily interrupted.
Allies may also attempt this Shaping
Wave, but are restricted to using their
Medicine as a Shaping Wave made at
Fantastic (60) difficulty.
Devil-Deflecting Blade
The Devil-Deflecting Blade is a legendary
technique, once taught through the enigmatic
Seven Cloud Manuscript. It was clean,
powerful, and simple, but after hundreds of
years of war and a brutal war with the Infernal
Alliance the Seven Cloud Manuscript was lost.
Years later the Sword Bastard found the last
remaining manuscript but could not puzzle
his way through the lessons, and so created
the Devil-Saint Apotheosis, a terrible nihilistic
style based on the holes of the Devil-Deflecting
Blade. The Wulin shuddered in despair,
unsure how to deal with the Sword Bastard's
peerless skill.
But hidden things, both good or evil, have
a way of being found again. A daring theft!
A harrowing chase! A brutal fight, a sad
martyrdom, tears shed promising meaning
beyond revenge! The last remains of the
Seven Cloud Manuscript were recovered and
found their way into the hands of the Wulin
Judges. With the help of several daring xia,
the Wulin Judges began to reconstruct the
Seven Cloud Manuscript based upon the holes
they could see in the Devil-Saint Apotheosis.
They discovered the wonderful truth, that the
secret lies in the unspoken eighth cloud. That
the Devil-Deflecting Blade is actually eight
separate techniques, each one hinted at in the
oldest and proudest of styles, Eight Legends!
The Devil-Deflecting Blade techniques are
difficult to master, and it is now whispered
that each of the four Wulin Judges knows two
Devil-Deflecting Blades, with only the Wulin
Sage knowing all eight.
71
 Devil-Deflecting Blade: Li ☲
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade fills the user
with the speed and inner power of the Sun.
Nobody short of the legendary Hou Yi can
hope to hinder your path across the world.
• Your Cover Ground waves cannot be
broken.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Kun ☷
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade teaches the
user the benefits of yielding to an enemy's
attacks, receiving their enemy's energy into
their own and returning a portion to them.
• When hit by a Strike or Energy Attack,
you may Reply against the enemy,
inflicting a number of ripples upon them
equal to the number of Ripples you
have sustained. You can not inflict more
Ripples with this Reply than your Rank.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Dui ☱
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade suffuses
the enemy with an inordinate degree of
satisfied joy, miring them in spiritual
stagnation. They must struggle to change
the momentum of the battle!
• Round-long duration.
• Choose an opponent. Your opponent
must expend two points of one type of
Joss to gain the benefit of one.
72
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Qian ☰
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade spreads the
user's energy through the sky around
them, sustaining their momentum longer
than most think possible.
• Any Chivalrous Joss you spend this
round lasts until the end of the next
round. Joss extended to the next
round in this manner counts towards
the maximum Joss you can spend in
that round as well.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Kan ☵
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade shows the
dark face of the owner's enlightenment,
glowering dangerously over them like
a bad moon. It saps their energy, filling
them with fear of the holy abyss!
• Any Malicious Joss you spend this
round lasts until the end of the next
round. Joss extended to the next
round in this manner counts towards
the maximum Joss you can spend in
that round as well.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Gen ☶
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade roots the user
to the earth, making them as immovable
and still as a mountain. Nothing can
change or move them!
• Round-long duration.
• Make a Footwork check as a minor
action on your initiative roll. This
Footwork check may be modified by
any technique that benefits your Cover
Ground rolls, such as Lightfoot.

Hold out baits to
entice the enemy.
Feign disorder, and
crush him.
— Sun Tzu
• Opponents who attempt Knockback
or Disrupt marvels against you must
exceed the result of your Footwork
check in order to have any effect. If
an opponent exceeds this result by any
amount they effectively ignore this
technique for purposes of techniques
such as Disrupting Outer Force.
• This technique immediately ends if
you leave your current zone, no matter
the circumstances.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Zhen ☳
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade shows that
Heaven may not always smile upon the
user, but it certainly pays attention. It
promises change, division, revolution, the
excitement of the world on a razor.
• If you have not yet Flowed or Flooded
any dice, you may fill your River with
0's. Any use of the 0's in your River,
including actions such as Flooding to
activate a weapon's ability, forces you
to accept Interesting Times.
Devil-Deflecting Blade: Xun ☴
Level 5 Enlightened Formless
This Devil-Deflecting Blade gives you
unnatural combat flexibility, each gentle
blow opening up the way to further future
blows. What enemy can stand against you?
• If you Strike an opponent, you
temporarily gain the benefit of a
Combat Approach starting at Trivial
intensity with a Recovery of 10.
Further uses of this technique can
Inflame this condition, increasing
the Combat Approach's intensity
and recovery by one step. You may
not Inflame this technique to Major
intensity without Unassailable Battle
Saint Technique.
• If you already have a Combat
Condition at Major intensity and strike
an opponent, you may automatically
shift you Combat Approach to another
element or alter its bonus from an
Action Bonus to a Breath Bonus (or
vice versa).
Eight Legends Kung Fu
Eight Legends is the style most closely related
to the Devil-Deflecting Blade techniques. With
some schooling any user of Eight Legends can
learn the Devil-Deflecting Trigram Steps. This
technique is considered a Loresheet technique
but is fully compatible with other styles of
Eight Legends Kung Fu, such as Southern
Dragon Pirates Eight Legends.
5 Technique: Devil-Deflecting Trigram
Steps. If you are in the Eight Legends
stance and know Trigram-Pacing Steps, you
may reduce the cost of any Devil-Deflecting
Blade technique by 1 once per round.
73
 Skill-Improving Chi
Techniques
[Skill] Bolstering Chi
Level 1 Formless
• You have a +5 bonus to your [Skill].
This is only usable in combat.
[Skill]-Mastering Chi
Level 2 Formless
• You have a +10 bonus to your [Skill].
This is only usable in combat.
[Skill]-Transcending Chi
Level 5 Formless
• You have a +15 bonus to your [Skill].
This is only usable in combat.
• This technique has additional rare
and unusual effects based on each
individual [Skill]; talk to the Wulin
Sage to develop these effects. This is
only usable in combat.
74
Example 1: The Blade Dog Morning Rain
stole her family’s ancient manual that teaches
a variant of Stealth-Transcending Chi.
Whenever she makes a Shaping Wave with
her Stealth- usually to hide in the shadows-
she gains a benefit similar to Sheltering
Water Intercession, using her Stealth Wave as
the difficulty it takes for an opponent to sense
her. It lasts as long as she stays in the same
zone and she doesn’t make any incredibly
obvious, flashy attacks.
Example 2: The influential Spider Judge Orb
Weaver has perfected his Politics-Transcending
Chi. The wizened eunuch has accumulated
a vast quantity of blackmail material, and is
willing to use it- as well as his seniority- in
an instant. The merest whisper of knowledge
has made many a young upstart fatally pause.
Whenever Spider Judge Orb Weaver makes a
Disrupt or Disorient with his Politics against
someone who could be considered his subordi-
nate, they suffer a -10 Disrupt/Disorient
penalty instead of a -5.
© RLee 2014

SECRET ARTS
ARTISAN
The Craftsman's Art
Discovery Lore: Working With a
God's Hands
Discovery Skill: Crafting
Toolset Lore: Secret Arts of the
Craftsman
Manipulation Lore: Controlling
Projects
Manipulation Skill: Crafting
Resist/Recover Skill(s): Crafting,
Learning
General Conditions: Entanglement
and Action bonuses/penalties
A Guide to the Great Works
(A system topic)
Destiny Cost: 0
This Lore is free or anyone with the Craft skill
at +5 or higher.
Predictionists observe the world to make
decisions based upon it; Priests view their
work as altering the course of cause and effect,
natural results of natural processes of the
world. There is nothing passive or 'natural'
about the Artisan! The Artisan is gloriously
artificial, dedicated to becoming the Cause that
the scholars strain to look for and the Priests
must work backwards to discover. The Secret
Arts of the Artisan teach the eventual primacy
of humanity over the world, and it is said that
the greatest Artisans view themselves as gods.
But who can blame them? After all, wasn't
the engineer of the Grand Canal eventually
enshrined as a god of waterways? Isn't there a
guild of architects- more like a priesthood- that
oversees the maintenance of the Great Wall?
Aren't the Sword Devils treated as hermit-gods
by the Wulin, to be approached with respect
and fear?
What few understand about true Artisans is
that they are driven to do this as members of
the Wulin. Any village blacksmith can bang
out a passable sword, after all. Xia are drawn
to greater things: a sword that can cut the
hammer while it falls upon it. An artisan
without a Great Work is an artisan with a hole
in their heart, a pitiable thing doomed to lapse
in cultivation and wither away.
Artisans begin their Great Works at the most
logical place: the beginning. Any Great Work
requires two major steps, the design process
and the final work. The design process spawns
Project Conditions. These are either Hyperac-
tivities or Weaknesses that help push a project
towards completion.
Five Element Theory:
Building Great Works
While Artisans believe in humanity's eventual
dominance over the world, they do not discard
the world's influence lightly. Every Artisan
recognizes that every project is inherently
different. When they start designing, it is their
goal to nail down the difficulties to a unique
frame of mind and pattern their work along
these lines.
75
 A Project Condition is a condition that builds
towards the later Craft roll. These are usually
applied to the Artisan, but it's not uncommon
to apply Project Conditions to another
person or organization if they requested the
Great Work. After all, many projects require
a certain amount of cooperation between
Artisans and their clients.
Wood: Projects that embody the element
of Wood are often extremely adaptive. This
does not make them undemanding: the
project becomes more of an art than a
science, and will often require significant
aesthetic insight to fulfill.
The regional governor has asked you to create a
new wall to protect against barbarian excursions.
His only requirement is that it's north of five
nearby towns, giving you wide latitude in where to
place the wall. But where can it best be placed?
It is said that there are more recipes for the great
fire powder than there are Taoists in Shen Zhou.
Which recipe is best for the fireworks of the
Spring Festival?
Fire: There is no project type that bedevils
artisans like projects of Fire. Fire is the
element of indecision, jumping from one
new idea to the next. This is the element of
projects with a life of their own.
You desperately want to make yourself a new
weapon to counteract your rival's Bad Moon
Falling Axe, but you have no idea where to begin!
But you can't just sit around staring at nothing...
You send your youthful client off on a wild
goose chase, exhorting him to find you dozens of
nonexistent special ingredients just to get him out
of your hair.
76
Earth: Earth projects tend to be the easiest
for artisans, often incorporating ancient
techniques, recipes, or conventions: it is the
path that has already been well tread upon.
The last shipment of arrows you've made for the
nearby garrison have been well received and
praised by the soldiers. They've asked you to
make a thousand more: a trivial job since you
still have most of the designs!
The recipe for Sword Devil sword-steel has been
passed on from generation to generation. By now,
making it is as easy as breathing.
Metal: Projects that embody the element of
Metal are rigid and brittle in their implemen-
tation. One misstep or one little deviation
from what's expected results in nothing less
than disaster.
You have been tasked with creating a new throne for
the Emperor and he, in his divine wisdom, has given
you exact instructions. If you try to be creative, he
may call for your head!
The spear you've designed has a head too
heavy for normal wood. Only the mahogany
wood that grows upon Mount Tai is sufficiently
strong, balanced, and light enough to make the
weapon work!
Water: Water projects can best be described
as afterthoughts, ones that seem to create
themselves. They are moments of accidental
genius, often tied to other ongoing works.
While you toil away at sewing the lady Sweet
Reading's dress, you note you have just enough
silk to sew in hidden sleeve extensions... perfect
for the lady's special kung fu!
The servants rejoice: the stone quarry you've
been using for the past month has revealed a
hidden deposit of a rare color of jade! What
wonders can you make of it?
Working With a God's Hands
Discovery Lore (The Craftsman's Art)
This Lore is free for Artisans.
Destiny Cost: 3
A Great Work can be considered to be
separated into two parts: preparation and
execution. An Artisan Discovers the prepara-
tion process by recognizing what needs to be
done and discovering each piece of the puzzle,
then spends a period of time collecting all
the pieces. If all the pieces are in place, the
execution of the plan becomes that much
easier! This is much more insular than some
other Discoveries, requiring a lot of sleepless
nights pondering all the variables.
Designing Projects
The first step in creation is the simplest:
decide what you want to create. This may be
as broad or as fine strokes as you wish, but you
should have at least a general idea of what you
want to build ('a sword' or even 'a weapon' is
perfectly acceptable, but 'something to make
the Emperor like me a lot' probably isn't).
Unlike most other archetypes, you do not
Discover so much as you Design.
Next is to decide the scope. While 'a sword'
is a valid choice, you're not going to get a
legendary weapon out of the project: you
have to specifically try to design one, which
is difficult! At the same time, making a
hundred swords to improve a local militia is
going to be a lot easier than making another
Clay is fashioned
into vessels; but it
is on their empty
hollowness that their
use depends.
— Lao Tzu
Snowstorm. As a rule, you cannot get more
out of the project than you set out to make,
but you can get less. It is possible to make a
formidable castle when you set out to design
a system of interlocking impassable forts, for
example. The Sage sets the difficulty of the
Project below, and the Entanglement it would
normally cost to own the object. The player
then rolls their Craft against the difficulty.
Project Conditions are either Entanglement or
Action bonuses or penalties. Hyperactivities
are much more common in single projects, but
penalties are often used to sabotage someone
else's project or to encourage a more helpful
client. Entanglement Project Hyperactivities
are the most common, as they help generate
the Entanglement needed to ensure the success
of the Project. Entanglement weaknesses do
not donate Entanglement towards the project,
instead they donate Entanglement towards an
enemy or an opposing Project.
77
 Difficulty:
Simple (10) Why are you wasting
your time making a peasant’s teacup?
This usually would cost no Entangle-
ment to own.
Moderate (20) You have set out
to craft a simple thing: a house, a
soldier’s sword, a set of clothes. This
usually would cost 1 to 2 Entangle-
ment to own.
Hard (30) There is a chance of some
difficulty; this is common when
making Quality items or most special
weapons. This usually would cost 3 to
4 Entanglement to own.
Memorable (40) There are difficulties
inherent in the design: a complex
special weapon, for example. This
usually would cost 5 to 6 Entangle-
ment to own.
Fantastic (60) There are major
difficulties with the project, and more
might arise from any source. This
usually would cost 6 to 9 Entangle-
ment to own.
Legendary (80) A considerable
amount of blood, sweat, and tears
must go into this project; if successful,
it will be lauded as your greatest work.
This usually would cost 10 to 15
Entanglement to own.
Impossible (100) You’ve been
asked to create a weapon to dwarf
the might the Black Dragon Slayer.
This would usually cost over 16
Entanglement to own.
78
• On a standard success on your roll,
you have found a trivial Weakness
or Hyperactivity.
• On a Critical Success, you can
discover a Minor Weakness or
Hyperactivity.
• The associated element of the
Condition represents the flavor of
the project; you pick the general-
ized effects. The Sage chooses the
specific effects that might logically
arise within the story.
• This Project Condition is applied
to either you or the client (which
extends to the client’s representa-
tives: it is common to delegate),
your choice; the client may resist
with their Learning skill.
• The Recovery for this Condition
equals either the value of the roll
made to Discover it or Moderate
(30) for a Trivial condition,
Memorable (40) for a Minor
condition, and Fantastic (60) for a
Major condition.
• You can choose between (Duration
5, Interval 1 Story) or (Duration 1,
Interval 1 Arc).
• As usual, the Sage stipulates
one circumstance in which the
Condition fades by itself. This
is usually someone deciding to
completely end the project.
Crafting Projects
When the Artisan is ready, the Artisan may
attempt the final Crafting roll. This roll is
often Extended, taking over a scene’s worth of
work: sometimes even a story’s! The difficulty
of this roll is equal to the original difficulty
of the Design roll, with some modifiers listed
below. Project Conditions that supply Action
bonuses or penalties are also usually applied at
this point.
A success completes the project as planned;
a critical success may qualify you for an
immediate Deed or other story-based bonus
from the Sage, depending on the initial
difficulty. You may then spend your accrued
Entanglement on the project, finishing the
Great Work.
Crafting Difficulty Modifiers:
+50: You think the Great Wall was built in a
day? You lack 10 or more points of Entangle-
ment necessary to finish the project.
+20: You rush the job and lack four or more
points of Entanglement necessary to finish the
project and/or your assistants are malicious,
rebellious, or inept.
+10: You rush the job and lack two or more
points of Entanglement necessary to finish the
project and/or you have no assistants.
+5: You rush the job and lack one point of
Entanglement necessary to finish the project
and/or you lack proper assistants.
+0: You are working with average assistants
and on schedule.
-5: You are working alongside a xia with some
Craft skill who can assist with some of the
work of the design and crafting process.
-10: You are working alongside a skilled xia
Artisan who can assist you with the hardest
parts of the work... and they’re not trying to
sabotage you and/or you are being especially
deliberate in your work, extending the length
of the roll from a scene to a story.
Leftover Entanglement
Sometimes you put in more work than you
need! Entanglement that’s ‘left over’ is often
spent on things such as Status, Victories, or
perhaps a Secret you might discover. With
the Sage’s permission you might even apply
the leftover Entanglement to another project:
perhaps a Water Project?
Conversely, not every project ends in success.
Sometimes things were not meant to be. But
failures can still be successes if viewed in
the right light, and bravado can count for a
lot of an Artisan’s reputation. For instance,
if you were designing a Legendary Weapon
and accrued the Entanglement necessary to
create it, your failure might still result in an
Auspicious Weapon. You may fail at creating
the most beautiful dress in decades for Sweet
Reading, but she may still be impressed with
your worth and offer you a job designing
clothes for the Resplendent Phoenixes. And
then, there’s always a Water Project... that
leftover cedar from the mansion that failed to
impress that nobleman might have its uses...
79

A Note On Entanglement
And Projects
“Why do I need to do all of this when I
could just buy it normally?” Sure, you
can; a legendary weapon only costs 10-13
Entanglement, after all, and why go through
the middleman of the Artisan? The answer
is applicability: the Artisan is building it for
you, generating you more story hooks and
making the Great Work (whatever it is) better
fitted for your character. Plus, there’s always
the chance of a critical success...
EXAMPLES
Example 1: The Sword Devil Five Styles Bao
wishes to replace his friend Huang Zhimeng’s
staff after it was shattered in a recent duel. This
project is treated as a Hard (30) difficulty and
3 Entanglement for a Wood Project- a staff isn’t
hard to make, but Bao is putting on some major
aesthetic additions, as befitting a proper gift
to a good friend. He rolls a 41, good enough
for a Minor Entanglement bonus. Bao gains
an additional Entanglement every session he
painstakingly works on the bronze rings that will
encircle the ends of the staff. Unfortunately he
only has a session to complete it, and is forced to
rush the job. When he crafts the staff, it’s made
at Difficulty 30, plus 10 points for lacking the 3
Entanglement. Luckily for Five Styles Bao, he
has Sword Devil Kung Fu and is able to produce a
48 on the Crafting roll, and the staff is finished.
80
Example 2: The Buddhist monk Sits Under
Trees has been obsessed with building a giant
statue of the Buddha on the hill. The scope
and enormity of the project would normally be
Fantastic (60)... but Sits Under Trees’ player
insists that the statue will be enormous, and
nothing like it will ever be built again! The
Sage shrugs and duly increases the difficulty to
Legendary (80) and 10 Entanglement to create.
Sits Under Trees has a very particular vision,
making it a Metal Project... fitting, as it will be
made of iron and gold and copper! His player
rolls a paltry 34... nowhere near the difficulty of
the Project. Despite Sits Under Trees’ best efforts,
he can’t figure out a way to make such a huge
statue without it collapsing under its own weight.
He shakes his head and goes back to his less
worldly meditations.
Example 3: The noted blacksmith Silver Wings
Mei has been asked by a local potentate to equip
the elite core of the Emperor’s army, who’ve just
returned from a long patrol and are needed to
help put down a rebellion. Silver Wings Mei
is known this sort of work, so she sets to work
with her old designs. Mei decides that very high
quality weapons, while befitting the Emperor’s
elite, are too time-consuming and she’s got a lot to
make. The Sage sets the difficulty at Hard (30)
and 3 Entanglement: they’re simple swords but
she’s got a lot to make. This is very clearly an
Earth Project, but Silver Wings Mei decides it is
instead a Fire Project, as she has to account for
each person’s personal taste in arms and armor.
Silver Wings Mei manages to roll a 51, a Critical
Success that she turns into a Minor Entanglement
bonus aimed at the soldier’s Commander. The
Commander resists with his Learning but only
manages a 46: the girl’s plan is quite feasible,
and she does have a good reputation. The
commander accrues 1 Entanglement per session
to the project so long as he supplies Silver Wings
Mei with all the information she needs- each
soldier’s size, favorite weapon, and so on. Silver
Wings Mei decides that time is of the essence
and manages to inflame the condition to Major,
forcing the Commander to adopt a rigorous and
efficient system to make her life easier. By the
end of a session the Commander’s player has
accrued 3 Entanglement towards the Project.
But Silver Wings Mei isn’t finished! She’s
managed to get all the information she needs, so
she progresses the Project along the Five Phase
Wheel with her Elemental Progression Technique,
making it an Earth Project that provides
Entanglement so long as the Commander provides
her with good help. Now the Commander
scrambles to provide her with skilled blacksmiths
from nearby towns to mass-produce the
equipment, generating another 2 Entanglement.
Silver Wings Mei makes the final Craft roll: a
30. She easily beats it with a handy 49. The
Entanglement is spent on making the elite core
more effective (increasing their effective Rank),
and the additional 2 Entanglement generated
goes towards Silver Wings Mei: she gets Status 2
(Official Blacksmith) in the border province for
her timely and efficient work!
Recovery and Detection
Everyone who has this Lore may also recognize
existing Projects by making a Crafting roll
at the urging of the Sage, who also sets the
difficulty. This is usually 50 for a Trivial
Condition, 30 for a Minor, and only 20 to
recognize a Major condition. The target can
oppose this with Stealth or Craft. Usually
this is done by one Artisan to interfere with
another Artisan’s project, for good or for ill.
You recover from and defend against these
conditions by rolling your Learning- essentially
spotting flaws in the design and declaring the
condition’s role in the project to be pointless.
Alternatively someone may wish to wash their
hands of the project entirely, leading to the
condition’s immediate and total Recovery.
© RLee 2014
81
 Secret Arts of the Craftsman
(A system topic)
Toolset Lore (The Craftsman’s Art)
Destiny Cost: 3
This Lore is free for Artisans.
Unlocks: Controlling Projects
This is a Toolset Lore. You must use one of the
provided Tools to be able to manipulate Projects.
The Secret Arts of the Craftsman are not as
secretive or elusive as many people think.
The Artisan is, after all, working with the
same things as any other town blacksmith,
carpenter, or weaver. The difference (besides
cultivation) is the Artisan has the elusive eye
for his tools. The Artisan knows that a good
tool may not always be the right tool for the
job, it must be one they also feel comfortable
in using. It isn’t uncommon to see an Artisan
use a hammer better used for making huge
swords to make delicate ones, or to see them
using a fishhook instead of a common sewing
needle. But not everything is a literal tool.
The standard view of Artisans is that there are
five specific ‘tools’ integral to their craft.
To attain knowledge,
add things every day.
To attain wisdom,
remove things
every day.
— Lao Tzu
82
The Five Tools
Assistants
• Limitations: Assistants are only
human, and may not know what
they’re doing; they often require
an expenditure of Entanglement to
represent their upkeep and pay.
• Modifier: +0 (or +5 with Quality
Minions)
• Description: While the concept of
the hermit-Artisan is alive and well,
most Artisans find it necessary to have
servants around to handle some things:
be it operating the bellows, digging
ditches, or simply fetching you food.
Note that lacking proper assistants may
make your final Crafting roll harder!
Tools
• Limitations: Not everyone knows
how to use an Artisan’s tools, making
them useless when delegating jobs
to other blacksmiths or servants;
sometimes useless for larger projects.
• Modifier: +0 (or +5 with Quality
Tools)
• Description: The most obvious of
the Tools, these are literal tools in an
Artisan’s workshop. They are generally
used for small-scale projects that the
Artisan personally completes. No
Artisan would dream of touching
another Artisan’s tools unless they
meant the other ill.
Breath Infusion
• Limitation: Chi Cost, small but
powerful projects, Extended actions. The expectations
• Modifier: +0 (+5 with matching of life depend upon
Elemental Chi) diligence;
• Description: A natural extension the mechanic that
of Daoist Breath Sorcery, this is the
favored Tool of the Sword Devils when would perfect his
they attempt to make a wondrous work must first
item. The Artisan infuses their Chi
into their project in every step of the
sharpen his tools.
process of crafting. Using 10 points — Confucius
of Chi grants a +0 bonus; if this Chi
includes the proper Elemental Chi (for
instance, Metal Chi for a Metal Project) Wealth
this bonus is increased to +5. With the
• Limitations: Major patron required;
right description, it can also be used
some things cannot be purchased
to match the literal elements: Metal
Chi while hammering Metal, Fire • Modifier: +0 to +10
Chi while melting or burning, Wood • Description: The use of personal
Chi while woodcarving, and so on. wealth to smooth over (or cause!)
Breath Infusion may only be used on problems in a project is a time-hon-
Extended actions. ored tradition. This is the tool of
choice for large-scale projects like
Special Ingredients the Grand Canal and the Great Wall:
• Limitations: Extremely rare and mountain in the way? Hire workers
dangerous to acquire; usually to remove it! Very few individual xia
small-scale but difficult projects. have that kind of wealth, but many
are independently wealthy enough to
• Modifier: +5 to +10
smooth smaller hills.
• Description: A common staple of
the personal commission, special
ingredients are rare and powerful items
that require great cost and danger to
acquire. These may include the bones
of Daoist immortals, hairs plucked
from the Emperor, and other results.
They are almost always used to create
Legendary items and should require a
small story just to acquire.

83
 Controlling Projects Elemental Progression Technique

(Secret Arts) Cost: 3 Destiny

Manipulation Lore (The Craftsman’s Art) This allows you to transform a Project’s
element along the Five-Phase Wheel-
Destiny Cost: 4
Wood to Fire, Fire to Earth, Earth to Metal,
(Artisans get this Lore for free)
Metal to Water, Water to Wood. You can’t
Requires the Secret Arts of the Craftsman Lore skip steps, nor move in the other direction.
You must meaningfully work on the
Inflaming and Soothing Projects Project: usually progression only comes
through hitting dead ends and long hours
Cost: 0 Destiny
spent fixing a failure!
This is the basic tool of Artisans-
allowing them to speed up or slow down
Paired Crafting Technique
the pace of a Project.
Cost: 4 Destiny
Internal-External Technique This allows you to create two matching
Projects from nothing, one Weakness and
Cost: 5 Destiny
one Hyperactivity, completely sidestepping
This technique is a technique that only a
the Discovery phase... though in the Artisan’s
few artisans have mastered! This allows
case, this is closer to another archetype’s
you to create a Project from an individ-
Discovery than yours. For example, you
ual’s preexisting Passion or Inspiration.
could declare a noble’s bored attempts at
For instance, an Artisan might see a
making a new instrument a Fire Project
Magistrate’s worry over a border (an
Weakness, and use the opportunity to spawn
Earth passion) and use it to convince him
a Water Project Hyperactivity based off of the
to begin a massive construction project
noble’s more spectacular failures.
to repair damaged sections of the Great
Wall (an Earth Project).
Stealthy Work
Cost: 5 Destiny
Yin-Yang Technique
You can hide your use of these
Cost: 3 Destiny
techniques by making a Minor Stealth
You can use a Project Weakness to create
Action opposed by your opponent’s
a matching Hyperactivity or vice versa for
Minor Wu Wei or Awareness Action.
the given project- for instance, creating
Generally Artisans have a very hard time
a Water Hyperactivity granting you an
keeping their work truly secret!
Action bonus towards a new project
while laboring under a Fire weakness.
Quick Work
The Secret Art of Craftsmanship does
not encompass Quick Work. It is wholly
incompatible with combat.

84
Extraordinary Artisan
Techniques
Destiny Cost: 1
This Lore is free or anyone with the Craft skill
at +5 or higher.
Metal-Resonance Touch (2)
(Augment)
An Artisan knows the physics of steel better
than any other. It is a simple matter for one
to turn an opponent’s metal against them,
hitting it with such a blow that it becomes
difficult to hold.
This technique allows you to stack two
Disrupt Marvels aiming to penalize an
opponent’s Strike. These Marvels can
even be on the same turn. However, they
must both use your Craft skill, and will
not work against an opponent who fights
unarmed.
Blade-Chipping Block (2)
(Augment)
The Artisan knows the correct way to
block so that it won’t damage their own
blade- others do not. It is a simple matter to
cause an opponent’s weapon to chip or shatter
against your own.
This technique allows you to stack two
Disrupt Marvels aiming to penalize an
opponent’s Damage. These Marvels can
even be on the same turn. However, they
must both use your Craft skill, and will
not work against an opponent who fights
unarmed.
Finding Small Cracks (2)
(Augment)
After repeated use in battle, an Artisan is
able to see the weaknesses in an opponent’s
weapon. These weaknesses can be exploited,
making it impossible for the opponent to
block your attack without seeing their
weapon break into a thousand pieces.
This technique allows you to stack two
Disrupt Marvels aiming to penalize an
opponent’s Block. These Marvels can even
be on the same turn. However, they must
both use your Craft skill, and will not work
against an opponent who fights unarmed.
Walk With A Merchant’s Eye (3)
(Augment)
The Artisan is so deeply entwined with
the world that they are able to recognize
quality items at a glance. An Artisan
walking through a marketplace finds
himself at the center of a world of junk or a
universe of treasure.
You are highly skilled at appraising items;
spending Joss to set up lucky coincidences
is greatly enhanced. One Joss will allow
you to notice the knife you are inspecting
is the last work of an old master, or that
the hunk of metal in your hand really fell
from the sky, or that the stone a nearby
house is built from is ideal for your latest
building project, and so on. The Sage
may demand some Craft or Learning rolls
for exceedingly unlikely or outrageous
assertions, or outright veto silly ones, but
you should be able to turn an easy profit
and acquire strange things any time you
visit the market.
85
 A Lever Shifts the World (5)
(Flood, Wave)
Your situational awareness is beyond the ken
of most other xia. Everything around you
is a tool to be used to manipulate the world,
shaping it as you see fit! Other xia do not
know what you’re doing until the world
shifts underneath them.
You may make a Flood+Craft Shaping
Wave, usually focused around the
manipulation of the environment or
things found in it: destroying a ship so
that it sinks, raising an impromptu ladder,
or perhaps making a makeshift ranged
weapon on the fly out of nearby rope and
pillars. This Shaping Wave cannot be
broken unless an opponent makes a minor
Craft check on their attack at a difficulty
equal to your Shaping Wave. Improvised
weapons made with this technique gain
their weapon bonuses, but you still need
to spend Chi whenever you flood a die to
use their special abilities.
Mohist Theorycraft (5)
(Augment)
You have been given a traditional Mohist
education- and as a result a better apprecia-
tion and a deeper understanding for how to
design your projects.
This Extraordinary Art is very common
amongst the Yellow Ink Society and
other Mohists. If you possess this
Extraordinary Art, you may make your
Design roll with your Learning instead
of your Crafting, whichever you prefer.
Note that you will still need to use your
Crafting for the actual Craft roll!
86
EXAMPLES
The Thrifty Artisan
Recovery 40, Minor Water Project
Condition Hyperactivity/Weakness
A quick trip to the market found the
ingredients you needed for your current
Project at a quarter of the price! You’ve
used this unprecedented windfall to pick
up cloth for another Project.
As a Hyperactivity: How fortuitous!
Maybe if you keep on finding deals like
this you can do two Projects at once? You
gain Entanglement every session you seek
out new deals and scrimp on cash in an
attempt to fund a secondary Project.
As a Weakness: Your client wasn’t
expecting you to use his money on other
projects and word has leaked out. While
you managed to explain away the misunder-
standing, he still distrusts you and has sent
an overseer, who distracts and annoys you.
You suffer a -5 penalty to your eventual
Craft roll from the distraction!
Fine Needles
Recovery 60, Major Metal Project
Condition Hyperactivity/Weakness
You have been asked by a prominent
doctor in the Beggar Fraternity to make a
new set of acupuncture tools. The amount
of precision needed is time-consuming, but
he’s offered you plenty of money to get it
done quickly.
As a Hyperactivity: The project requires
fine concentration, forcing you to stay
indoors and spend hours on every
individual needle. The more time you
spend on each needle, to the detriment of
the rest of your life, the more Entangle-
ment you’ll gain.
Body-Breaking Treatment Technique (5)
As a Weakness: This project is too
time-consuming! Spending so much time
and energy on each needle makes you
forget about the important things in life...
like your wife. She silently seethes and
socks away bitter Entanglement- which no
doubt will make your life miserable later.
Is this job worth it?
DOCTOR’S ARTS
(Augment)
You already know how your enemy’s body
holds together- how hard is it to pull it apart?
You can bring about an enemy’s end with an
acupuncture needle sharper than any sword:
a spine-breaking seizure, blindness and pain
as absolute as Hell, or even just causing their
heart to quietly give out.
You can Take Out an opponent by
Inflaming a Medical Condition beyond
Major intensity through the use of Ripples,
or by rolling triple their Chi Threshold on
a Rippling check.
© RLee 2014
87
 WARRIOR’S ARTS
Gardener Shapes the Long Grass (3)
(Extended/Augment)
The greatest teachers learn from their
students, just as students learn from their
teachers. They take the lessons learned from
their greatest pupils and apply it to their
weakest. Your skills as a teacher let you
reach even the dullest of students!
This technique requires the purchase of
Gardener Shapes the Sapling. This allows
you to confer a Combat Approach to both
Lesser Legends and Minions, explicitly
allowing them the benefits of a Chi
Condition. This Combat condition lasts
until the end of the next combat.
Hidden Strength Technique (4)
The expert in battle
seeks his victory from
strategic advantage
and does not demand
it from his men.
— Sun Tzu
88
Competent Soldier Training Regimen (2)
(Extended/Augment)
Most xia despair of finding competent
help on the battlefield. Others learn from
the words of the masters, and educate the
men under their command. They become
the greatest of generals, esteemed for the
strength of their skill and the virtue of the
men beneath them.
If you are commanding a group of
minions who are benefiting from a
Combat Approach conferred with
Gardener Shapes the Long Grass, your
Minions may now make Shaping Waves
and Cover Ground actions as well as
attacks in the same round.
(Augment)
Many warriors can instantly read an
opponent and their battle style with the barest
of glances, so you have taken to developing
your skills of subterfuge. With this technique
you hide your strength, tricking an opponent
with a subconscious control over every aspect
of your body and mind.
The difficulty to analyze your External
style increases as if you were a Rank
higher. Additionally, you get a +5 to
Tactics or Stealth rolls made to hide your
External Style.
 SCHOLAR’S ARTS
The Secret Art of Prediction,
Expanded
In addition to the default manner of creating
Predictions, those with access to the Secret
Art of Prediction loresheet may purchase the
following Secrets of Prediction to augment their
divinatory practices. While they are not techni-
cally Tools (since they are used for Discovery
rather than Manipulation), they are presented
in that format, and the modifiers are Toolset
bonuses/penalties for the purposes of stacking.
3 Secret: The Story of the I Ching
[The following is intended as an
amendment for ‘The Story of the I Ching’
on p. 257, in order to put it in the same
format as the other options]
Skill: Learning
Modifier: -5 to 0
Limitation: You must use some tools
(traditionally yarrow stalks or coins) to
generate trigrams and consult an I Ching
Manual.
Description: If you improvise tools -- e.g.
grains of rice, marbles, twigs taken from
a tree -- you have a -5 penalty to your
Prediction. Otherwise, see corebook p.
257.
1 Secret: You have committed the entire
Book of Changes to memory, and need not
consult an I Ching manual to make your
predictions.
2 Fortune: You have an exceptional set of
trigram-generating tools; using them gives
you a +5 bonus to making Predictions.
3 Secret: The Story of Physiognomy
Skill: Awareness
Modifier: -5 to 0
Limitation: Requires an examination of
the subject of the divination; predictions
must be about that individual.
Description: It is said that our destinies
are written on our bodies, if only we know
the script. Scholars who know the Story of
Physiognomy are able to read that script.
Through a thorough examination of the
body, especially of the face and the hands,
a Scholar may divine the fortunes of that
individual -- and that individual alone.
The examination must be thorough; if it is
rushed (less than a scene spent in examina-
tion), or if there are limitations on the
examination (e.g. only visual examination
permitted), the Scholar suffers a -5 penalty.
3 Secret: The Story of the Old Ways
Skill: Wu Wei
Modifier: 0 to +5
Limitation: Requires animal bones or
shells to be burnt and shattered
Description: It is said that Fu Xi, the first
of the mythical Three Sovereigns who
brought civilization to Shen Zhou, taught
the people the arts of divination, so that
they might not be confused about Heaven’s
inclinations. What he taught them was to
become the basis of all ritual divinatory
practice that followed, and brought great
blessings to early, heroic Dynasties of
the land, but few now know the original
ways. Animal bones -- any of sufficient
size will do in a pinch, though the method
is especially effective when it employs
89
 tortoise shells or the shoulder blades of
oxen (+5 bonus) -- are inscribed with the
question to be answered, and then thrown
in a ritually prepared fire. The bone is then
struck, and its shards removed from the
flame; the way the bone fractures tells the
Scholar how Heaven views the question
asked.
0 Bonus: Once per story, you may make a
Prediction without spending a Joss.
2 Fortune: You have been instructed in
the Old Ways by one of the few remaining
genuine savants; you have an additional +5
bonus to making Predictions in this way.
3 Secret: The Story of the Three Arts
Skill: Special; usually Politics, Tactics or
Survival.
Modifier: -5 to +5
Limitation: Requires extensive research prior
to Prediction, along with specially made tools
including a divining board and astrolabe.
Description: The Three Arts (comprising
the distinct-but-related Divine Reckoning,
Wondrous Doors, and Great Cycle
methods) are the height of metaphysical
science in Shen Zhou. Combining Five
Element Theory, the I Ching, astrology,
and numerology, this approach to
Prediction is both the most powerful and
most demanding of the Scholar’s tools
for divination. Divinations made in this
manner, when dealing with especially
weighty matters, have been known to take
as long as a month to arrive at. As with the
standard approach to making Predictions,
the appropriate Skill is determined by
the subject matter; however, a Scholar
employing the Three Arts may choose to
90
employ the Learning Skill at a -5 penalty.
In addition, the Prediction roll has a
modifier based on the amount of time the
Scholar spends and the quality of informa-
tion he has at his disposal; if he spends
more than the minimum time or has, say,
an Imperial library at his disposal, he gains
a +5 bonus. If he attempts to rush his work
or is working without access to the proper
charts and tomes, he suffers a -5 penalty
(in which case, he cannot substitute the
Learning Skill for a more appropriate one).
2 Fortune: You have a quality set of
equipment for performing Three Arts
divination; using it gives you a +5 bonus to
making Predictions in this way.
Three Arts Specialties
Some Scholars become experts in one or more
of the Three Arts, which gives them added
bonuses and access to additional Extraordi-
nary Techniques.
0 Bonus: If you have expertise in two of
the three methods, you have the equivalent
of 3 Status among your fellow Scholars; if
you have expertise in all three, you have
the equivalent of 5 Status.
2 Secret: After many years of study, you
have attained Divine Reckoning Expertise,
the branch of the Three Arts that specializes
in studying the inclinations of Heaven as
they relate to matters of politics.
• 0 Bonus: You have an additional
+5 bonus to making Predictions
concerning matters of state (war,
diplomacy, succession) or similarly
large-scale events.
 2 Secret: After many years of study, you
have attained Wondrous Doors Expertise,
the branch of the Three Arts pertaining to
the small-scale but complex (and highly
consequential!) realm of everyday social
interaction.
• 0 Bonus: You have an additional
+5 bonus to making Predictions
concerning the gain or loss of wealth,
fame, or social standing.
2 Secret: After many years of study, you
have attained Great Cycle Expertise, the
branch of the Three Arts that grants insight
into the workings of the natural world.
• 0 Bonus: You have an additional
+5 bonus to making Predictions
concerning natural phenomena,
including agriculture and animal
husbandry.
Additional Extraordinary
Scholar Techniques
Riding Fortune’s Wave (5)
(Extended/Wave)
Whenever anyone in your presence
(roughly: the same zone) gains Joss of
either type from Interesting Times, you
may make a Memorable [40] Wu Wei roll
to accept Interesting Times as well and
gain a Xia Joss. In combat, you must make
this roll as a Wave on your Initiative roll in
the round following the Interesting Times.
Strengthen Destiny’s Weight (2)
(Augment/Extended)
You may attempt to raise the Recovery
number of your own prediction by making
a Learning roll. If the result exceeds the
Recovery number of the Prediction, you
may spend another point of Joss to set the
Recovery number at the new result; if the
result equals or is exceeded by the original
Recovery number, there is no effect and
you may not attempt to use this technique
again on that Prediction.
Finding the Loopholes (4)
(Augment/Minor Action/Extended)
You may make a Learning roll on your
own or another’s behalf to Resist the effects
of a Prediction. If applied to yourself,
this replaces your Wu Wei roll; if on
another’s behalf, it is in addition to his
or her Wu Wei roll, and the higher of the
two results is taken. You must be aware
of the Prediction to be resisted, at least in
broad outlines, and give some plausible
reason why you or the target is exempt. If
successful, the resistance lasts one chapter.
Battle Scholar’s Insight (3 or 5)
(Minor Action/Flood)
You may make an Tactics-based Minor
Action on your initiative roll to ‘predict’ a
single opponent’s offensive approach for
the round. If the Minor Action succeeds,
the opponent must act in accord with this
quasi-prediction or suffer a -5 penalty to all
actions on his attack roll. The difficulty of
this Minor Action is set by the Sage based
on the likelihood and the specificity of the
prediction. Something the target might do
anyway (e.g. target one of his opponents
that round over another) is Common [20]
difficulty; something that seems tactically
dubious but for which you can provide some
justification (e.g. ‘He forgoes using Dragon
91
 Chi this round to demonstrate his superi-
ority!’) can be anywhere from Moderate [30]
to Fantastic [60]; while absurd predictions
(e.g. the target attacks his ally, or surrenders
at the start of a fight against an evenly
matched opponent) are at least Legendary
[80], if not Impossible [100].
For an additional 2 destiny, you may
Flood a die from your river to increase the
penalty to -10.
The Bloom of Health (2)
(Augment/Extended)
You may make a Memorable [40] Learning
roll to aid in your own or another’s recovery
from an Injury Condition. The result of
this roll is treated exactly as a Doctor’s
Medicine roll -- i.e., the one attempting a
Recovery roll can use the higher result of
her Hardiness and the Learning rolls. You
must possess the Story of Physiognomy Tool
to purchase this technique.
Medical Evidence Approach (3)
(Augment/Extended)
You can use your knowledge of an existing
Medical Condition as a predictive tool. You
extrapolate it in Internal-External fashion,
seeing how the imbalance in the subject’s
body influences her fate. When you make
a reasonable reference to this knowledge
while making a Prediction using the Story
of Physiognomy, you have a +5 (if the
Medical Condition is Trivial or Minor) or
+10 (if Major) bonus.
92
Health and Fortune Intertwined (5)
(Augment/Extended)
If you achieve a critical success when making
a Prediction using the Story of Physiognomy,
you may also Discover a Medical Condition
along with your Prediction in lieu of any
other benefits the critical success may
provide. For the most part, the difficulty to
create the Medical Condition is the same
as that of the Prediction, though the Sage
may set it higher if the condition you wish
to create is only tangentially related to your
Prediction, or is otherwise unlikely.
Balancing Fortune’s Scales (5)
(Augment/Extended)
When making a Prediction using the Story
of the Old Ways, you may opt to spend
a second Joss of the opposite type from
the first you spent. If you do, you create a
second Prediction (with the same Recovery
number) with the opposite action modifier
(akin to Yin-Yang Technique); anyone
attempting to resist either Prediction
suffers a -10 penalty. The second Predic-
tion must be described as ‘balancing out’
the first.
Blessings of Fu Xi (6)
(Augment/Extended)
If you achieve a critical success while
making a Prediction using the Story of the
Old Ways, the associated bonus or penalty
applies to Chi Aura and Rippling rolls.
This effect is in lieu of any other bonuses
you might receive from a critical success.
Heaven’s Final Word (3 or 5)
(Augment/Extended)
When you achieve a critical success
when making a Prediction using the
Divine Reckoning method of the Three
Arts, you have a +10 bonus to your roll
solely for the purpose of opposing any
Predictions it may contradict. This bonus
continues to apply if another Scholar
makes a Prediction that contradicts
yours at a later time. For an additional 2
Destiny, the bonus increases to +15.
Following Paths to Hidden Doors (4 or 6)
(Action/Extended)
After being affected by a Prediction or
spending a scene interrogating someone
else who was, you may make a Hard [30]
(if you were affected) or Memorable [40]
(if you interrogated someone else affected)
Wu Wei roll to learn the details of the
Prediction. For an additional 2 Destiny, on
a Critical Success you also gain some clues
as to who made the Prediction. You must
have Wondrous Doors Expertise in order
to use this technique.
Elements of Fortune (5)
(Augment/Extended)
When you make a Prediction using
the Great Cycle method, you may give
your Prediction an elemental aspect;
the player and the Sage are encouraged
to be flexible when determining the
proper elemental aspect to apply, but
also to bear in mind the associations
in other Secret Arts. In general, Wood
and Fire Predictions will involve growth
and expansion, Earth predictions
involve stability, and Water and Metal
Predictions involve contraction and
degeneration.
This is treated as a normal Prediction in
all respects but one; you may, after the
Prediction is made, manipulate the Predic-
tion by moving it along the Five Phase
Wheel: Earth-aspected Predictions become
Metal-aspected, Metal-aspected Predictions
become Water, and so on. This allows
you to alter the terms of your Prediction,
including changing a Hyperactivity to a
Weakness, though it must retain the same
general subject matter.
This is, in effect, an Elemental Progres-
sion technique; as in those techniques,
you cannot skip steps, nor move in the
other direction. This technique requires
at least one hour to perform; the Scholar
uses Learning as the manipulation skill
and requires the expenditure of Joss. On
a critical success, you do not have to
spend Joss.
A scholar who loves
comfort is not worthy
of the name.
— Lao Tzu
93
 PRIEST’S ARTS
Lu
While many priest speak of their arts in
terms of energy or force there is another
way of altering the flow and structure of
the world; commanding the spirits of the
Celestial Court to make it so. For a handful
of sects this authority is formally invested
and empowered by granting their initiates
bureaucratic authority over a number of
minor gods. The names, duties, and nature
of these gods is contained in a lu or register
of spirits. These generally take the form of
Geomantic Formation- Earth (3)
carefully prepared scrolls or ledgers.
Each spirit in a lu is capable of effecting
either an influence or curse of a single
element. Thus one lu might affect Wood
Curses, Fire Influences, and Water
Influences. This gives rise to ten possible
combinations. When using a lu it acts as
a toolset and functions as the Incantation
tool with an additional +5 to the bonus
of any spells which the priest’s spirits can
affect.
5 Fortune, Requires Status 3: You
possess a lu! Your masters have given you
authority over three spirits.
2+ Fortune: Your authority has grown.
For every two points spent thus you may
acquire command of an additional spirit, to
the maximum of ten.
1 Fortune: After acquiring ten lu spirits
you have gained endorsement from a
higher heavenly official. The chi cost for
Priest Quick Work is now waived when
using a lu.
10 Victory: You stand as a middling
94
official in the vast and powerful Celestial
Bureaucracy with authority and power
beyond many minor gods. The base bonus
of the Incantation Tool is raised to +5. This
allows +10 in any situation your lu applies
in and +15 if the jargon is exceptional.
2 Secret: You learn the Art of the Mystics.
a skill of an ancient shamanistic priesthood
that was the precursor to the Daoists. This
allows you to use your Wu Wei as your
Priest’s Arts Manipulation skill in place of
your Learning.
(Extended/Augment)
While the study of other Geomantic
Formations teaches you to focus them on an
opponent, the study of the Earth Geomantic
Formations is different! You study the
dragon lines of the Earth, observing where
they coalesce and making your spells work
alongside them. This allows you to become
a master of feng shui, bringing blessings or
curses upon inanimate objects and the people
who interact with them.
You can alter the feng shui of a specific
inanimate structure (be it natural or
man-made) with your Priest’s Arts! This
allows you to use your Priest’s Arts to
Discover a Curse or Influence on a structure:
generally speaking, anything at least the
size of a small house. The structure may be
natural or artificial; a beautiful tree is as valid
as a merchant’s house. A Sage may decree
that structures that are too large (such as the
Imperial Palace) may need to be broken up
into separate rooms or they may raise the
Difficulty of the initial roll. Anyone who
comes or around the structure gains the
 benefit or curse of the structure’s feng shui.
Structures do not naturally recover from this
technique, which may require another priest
to come and exorcise the structure. The
priest that does not know this technique may
suffer penalties at the Sage’s discretion.
Geomantic Contagion (5)
(Augment)
You have become a learned master of
feng shui. Your skill in manipulating the
dragon lines is so powerful that anyone
who comes in contact with your work will
walk away changed!
This technique augments Geomantic
Formation- Earth. You may spend one
Joss when you Discover a condition on
a structure- a Malicious Joss for a Curse
or a Chivalrous Joss for an Influence.
The condition is now considered
infectious. A character who spends a
scene in the presence of the structure
finds themselves a target for a Discovery
of a similar, predetermined condition
with a result set at the initial condition’s
Recovery. The character can defend
We are what we think.
All that we are arises
with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we
make the world.
— Gautama Buddha
against this Discovery like normal. This
condition is always the same, no matter
who interacts with it.
Small World Geomancy (3)
(Augment)
“The Great Dao flows unobstructed in every
direction./All things rely on it to conceive
and be born,/and it does not deny even the
smallest of creation.” With this technique,
the daoist realizes that there is no difference
between a teacup and a tree; both have their
own kind of feng shui. The daoist uses the
principles learned from his other technique to
affect the small.
This technique augments Geomantic
Formation- Earth. You may now use this
technique to Discover conditions in items
smaller than a house, such as a sword, a
teacup, or an ink stone.
Soul-Breaking Spell Technique (5)
(Augment)
As a master of the spiritual world, it is only
fitting that you have learned this technique!
With a wave of your hand flights of crows
will peck out an enemy’s eyes, a foe may be
compelled to disembowel himself with his
own sword, or perhaps you will turn them
totally, mindlessly insane.
You can Take Out an opponent by
Inflaming a Curse or Influence beyond
Major intensity through the use of Ripples,
or by rolling triple their Chi Threshold on
a Rippling check.
95
 The Book
of Water
LEGENDARY WEAPONS
Moonlight On the River
The sword of Canwo Sheng himself, passed
down among the greatest heroes of the River
Marshals, Moonlight on the River is a symbol -
of the heroic legacy of the Imperial Cormorants,
of the righteous duty they perform, and of the
beauty of the waterways they defend. A narrow
blade beautifully inlaid with jet and mother-of-
pearl, Moonlight on the River apparently never
rusts- a handy trick, given how much time its
wielders spend in the water.
Baseline Weapon: Sword
Fate: Make the waterways of
Shen Zhou safe.
Glory:
5: +5 Strike
10: +5 Block
25: Flickering Reflection: Spend
3 chi for a Secondary Attack.
30: +5 Speed
35: +5 Strike increases to +10
Strike
40: +5 Block increases to +10
Block
50: Heaven-Sent Wrathful Flood:
Any Chivalrous joss you spend also
applies to your Rippling rolls, and
to any Chi Aura rolls for which you
purchase one or more dice.
96
The Knot That Cuts
Once, far in the past, the lowliest Sword
Devil had a daughter who seemed gifted
from Heaven itself. She was a genius at
working metal and surpassed all of her father’s
techniques before she came of age. In keeping
with Heaven’s tradition of being terribly unfair,
she was also a celebrated beauty. The soot of
the forge and the callouses of the hammer only
made her lovelier, and many people bought her
weapons just for the chance to glimpse at her.
But they only wanted her for her beauty and
none would deign to marry her. Who would?
She had no dowry, for most of the profits she
sold went right back to her community. Oh,
of course there were offers to take her on as
a concubine, but none would take her as an
actual wife. None, that is, except for one
nobleman who had fallen in love with her
not by sight. No, he had fallen in love with
her because of the weapon she made for his
cousin, a beautiful-looking saber that seemed
to gleam with awesome power as he grew in
favor with the court. The saber’s lines were
perfect, the hilt a work of art that should have
made her famous in and of itself.
And so he sent his proposal, and agreed that
the dowry would be set at a similar weapon
for himself. It was an astonishingly generous
offer. She met him one day and he was most
pleased at her actual beauty and fell head over
heels in love. He was a true gentleman, and
the two agreed not to rush things. They would
savor their relationship.
But things grew rocky. The daughter had a
whole year to make her fiance’s weapon, a long
gentleman’s sword. But every time she worked
at it, it was wrong. Wrong! She hammered
and shaped and tried again and again, pouring
an awesome amount of blood, sweat, tears, and
Sword Devil chi into her creation and it still
refused to be correct. And then it was time for
the wedding.
The Daughter strode to the wedding dressed
in mournful white. First she slew her fiance’s
cousin with the unfinished work, and felt the
first thrill as she noticed it was awakening.
Then her fiance’s father was next. She sliced
and cut her way through the wedding until at
last her dress was the proper shade of joyful
red, and her fiance stood in front of her,
white-faced.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Her fiance looked at The Knot That Cuts- a hilt
with ten long metal ribbons streaming from it,
ribbons that could cut and fillet him as easily
as it did with his whole family. He looked at
his fiance, still beautiful beyond words, even
soaked with blood. Tears fell from his eyes as
he told her the horrible truth.
“Beyond compare,” He whispered to her. He
brushed her cheek with his fingertips, the first
time they had ever touched. And this truth
somehow hurt her beyond any other, for she
knew that as beautiful as it was, it was not.
Yet.
Complete.
The Bloody Ribbon Daughter left the wedding
pagoda with the Knot That Cuts trailing
behind her, writhing into a knot. She and her
weapon seemed to purr with happiness. Yes.
Now it was beautiful beyond compare. Now
she was ready for her wedding.
Nobody knows exactly what happened to the
Bloody Ribbon Daughter, and the Sword Devils
refuse to speak of her. But the Knot That Cuts
must have been captured by the Heaven Sword
Alliance. It waits in Sword Hell, writhing like
a drunken serpent under a hundred gallons of
blessed red wine. One day someone else will
pick it up, one day someone else will use it
to slice through an unsolvable problem in the
most spectacularly beautiful way possible.
Baseline weapon: Flexible
Fate: Cut violently through
the bonds of divine frustration.
(Violence Solves Everything)
Glory:
5: +5 Strike.
10: +5 Damage.
15: +5 Block.
20: +5 Damage increases to +10
Damage.
25: The Exhilarating Solution:
If you inflict a Ripple this round
with The Knot That Cuts, your
natural Chi regeneration is
increased by 1, as if you were a
Rank higher.
50: A Perfect World: Channel
5 Chi for a +25 bonus to your
Strike. Opponents who suffer a
Rippling Roll from this technique
suffer a -10 penalty to any Chi
Aura rolls.
97
 Thoughtless
When Abbot Subtle Willow was but a young
(and uncultivated) man, he joined the Dragon
Well Sect with his good friend Yuanyi Yarrow
Blade. Yarrow Blade was a gifted swordswoman,
of the martial lineage of Master Golden Miracle
Sword. Her grasp of Eight Legends was almost
as peerless as her devotion to her ally. Subtle
Willow and Yarrow Blade both cultivated soon
after joining the Dragon Well Sect, adopting
the Removing Concepts kung fu style, as was
proper for a pair of Daoists.
But while Subtle Willow flourished, Yarrow
Blade languished. Subtle Willow became
more and more powerful, quickly grasping the
deeper secrets of his kung fu, but Yarrow Blade
faltered. She could not properly reconcile the
two styles, and a pair of sparring matches with
her good friend left her choking on defeat. Her
mind could not still itself. Slowly but surely
she sunk into a deep depression.
But Subtle Willow understood the problem:
while for him Removing Concepts was almost
as natural as breathing, Yarrow Blade was
overanalyzing techniques. She was attempting
to somehow merge her Golden Miracle Sword
school with that of Removing Concepts, to
make her own synergistic technique, and she
was not yet skilled enough to do so. Subtle
Willow was wise even at a young age, and he
realized that if this continued it would only
lead to tragedy.
He spent a year roaming Shen Zhou, taking
Yarrow Blade with him. They stopped to work
with a butcher for two weeks. Then they
chatted with a fisherman (and Yarrow Blade
introduced the fisherman to a beautiful woman
of a nearby village, much to Subtle Willow’s
98
Baseline weapon: Sword
Fate: Teach Proper Daoist
Self-Mastery.
Glory:
5: Move Without Thought: This
ability empowers Continuation of
Motion. You may now choose to
apply this technique to your Speed.
10: Intuitive Understanding:
This ability empowers All-Seeing
Eye of God. You may now choose to
apply this technique to your Block.
15: +5 Strike.
20: +5 Block.
25: +5 Speed.
30: Mind Stilled, the Universe
Surrenders: Channel 1 Chi upon
activating Clarity in Openness. This
technique now has a round-long
duration.
35: +5 Strike increases to +10
Strike.
40: +5 Speed increases to +10
Speed.
50: Limitless Internal Peace:
Channel 2 Chi upon activating
Existing Without Definition. If you
force a Rippling Roll later in this
round, you may add a number of
dice to this Rippling Roll equal to
the number of dice you previously
reduced with Existing Without Defini-
tion, as if they had been additional
Ripples. Unlike true Ripples, these
additional dice only count for this
single roll, not later ones.
later consternation). They spent a month
toiling at a mine before gently chastising the
local spirits and the callous overseers.
And then they went to the hidden village of
the Sword Devils. Subtle Willow provided the
black bone of a two-headed ox, the scales of
an immortal koi, and seven diamonds found
in the mines. For this they crafted him a fine
sword while Yarrow Blade sparred with the
Sword Devil smiths to whittle away at time.
The sword? Guardless. The blade? Edgeless.
The inscription? Wordless. The name?
“What is its name?” Yuanyi asked, holding it
in her hands.
“Thoughtless.”
And then she understood with thoughtless
speed. The time with the butcher taught
that the butcher did not contemplate cutting
his meat. The fisherman did not waste
time calculating the angle of his cast or
plot the best place to sit. The miners did
not painstakingly chart out a course to the
greatest ores and gems.
Yuanyi’s mind stilled. Her hand caressed
the blade. Subtle Willow smiled. Yuanyi?
Speechless.
Years later, Yarrow Blade relinquished
Thoughtless to the Dragon Well Sect. She
had reached the mountain peaks she desired,
had attained the wisdom that comes without
searching. Her kung fu was strong and unique
and Thoughtless was no longer necessary.
Now it sits in Abbot Subtle Willow’s private
armory, ownerless.
© RLee 2014
99
 TRANSCENDENT
TECHNIQUES Way: Desolation. Every time you
act to demonstrate the fearsome
Old Man of the Sands power and inhospitality of the
The north-west of Shen Zhou is a harsh land desert, this technique’s Mastery
choked by deserts and mountains. Seemingly increases by 5.
every tribe of nomads and small border village Mastery:
has a story to tell of a mysterious sage living
5: Implacable Desert King: Spend
deep within the deserts, wielding terrifying
1 chi to impose a -10 penalty to all
kung fu and cruelly punishing all those who
attempts to break your Waves for
trespass on his (or hers – accounts vary)
the rest of the round.
domain. The corpses of his foes, they say, are
left to dry in the desert winds. 15: +5 Damage at all times.
30: City-Swallowing Sandstorm:
The specific nature of this figure (or figures)
Spend 3 chi to make an Area
varies from region to region. The creation myth
Attack.
of the Nuofeng nomads tells of a black-robed
figure known as the Lawgiver, who gave the 40: +5 Dodge.
new-born people their laws and traditions 50: Dune-Raising Might: The
and watches over them in merciless judgment bonus to improvised Internal
to this day. In the furthest west, many an Shaping Waves based on manipu-
expedition has gone seeking the fabled lost lating sand is increased to +10 per
city of Wu, said to rest somewhere in the point of chi spent.
heart of the vast Overcoming Towers Desert.
Very few such expeditions have returned.
Conventional wisdom suggests that poor
preparations, entirely fabricated maps, and the
desert’s unusual proclivity for large, vicious
sandstorms are to blame (to say nothing of the
By letting it go it all
fact that the lost city does not exist); neverthe- gets done. The world
less, rumors persist of a terrible curse and a is won by those who
mad, deathless king who commands the very
sands themselves to bury trespassers. let it go. But when
you try and try, the
world is beyond the
winning.
— Lao Tzu

100
Penitent’s Devotion speak to them for three successive nights. The
first night he berates them for their folly. The
For every enlightened hero of Shen Zhou,
second night he tells them what good they
there are ten terrible villains. It is important to
could have done. The third night he praises
remember that these villains were not always
them for what good they have done in the
malicious at the outset, and that enlightened
world. Should the villain listen and generally
heroes sometimes come from the strangest
accept the sage’s arguments (the wandering
of sources. Sometimes, a true villain may
sage does understand such a man’s failings-
realize the folly of their ways, and retreat to
after all, that they are works in progress!) they
the corners of Shen Zhou in contemplation
wake up the next morning refreshed and with
of their atrocious deeds. If their remorse is
a new feeling of purpose.
true it is said that a wandering old sage will

Way: Redemption. Whenever 50: Crowning Atonement: You

you perform a Chivalrous Deed
and your score in that virtue is 3
or lower, this technique’s Mastery
increases by 5.
Mastery:
5: Acts Of Contrition: Whenever
you perform a Chivalrous Deed,
you gain one point of Enlightened
Cultivation that is set aside and
not added to your Cultivation
total. This includes the Deed that
provides your first 5 points of Way.
10: +10 Confidence when rolling
to resist any Passions or Inspira-
tions that resonate with Selfish
virtues.
15: Becoming Whole Again: You
have a +10 bonus to all attempts to
recover from Disrupts and Disorients.
25: Flowering Spirit: Channel 2
Chi for a +5 bonus to your Chi Aura.
immediately convert all 50 Way of
this Transcendent Technique into
50 Way of another Enlightened
technique, appropriate to your
character and chosen by the Sage.
You immediately receive all of your
accumulated Enlightened cultivation,
and your Lake is temporarily
increased by 1 for the entire scene.
This Transcendent Technique then
disappears forever (though you still
keep the cultivation from learning it).
Your character may not relearn it.
5+ Victory: Your virtuous attempt
at self-improvement has finally
cleansed your body! You may
permanently convert 1 point of
Corrupt Chi into Normal Chi
cultivation (for instance, your
second point of Corrupt Chi
is turned into 10 Normal Chi
cultivation). This Victory may be
purchased as many times as you
have points of Corrupt Chi.

101
 Stalking Specter Text:
Corrupt Way: Vendetta. Whenever you
The Restless Ghost Scroll is the ultimate secret perform a Deed of Revenge (or
of the Hundred Ghost Faction... so the stories Righteousness, if you can spin it
say. But the truth is that the Restless Ghost correctly!) against a large organi-
Scroll is the first step in a long line of rituals, zation for the purposes of slowly
eventually leading to the dark understanding ripping it apart, this technique’s
of the Stalking Specter Text. This text was Mastery increases by 5.
supposedly gifted to the Hundred Ghost Faction Mastery:
by emissaries of both Heaven and Hell. The
10: Hungry Ghost Walk: Channel
Emissaries of the Jade Emperor disgustedly
2 Chi whenever you Cover Ground.
signed off at a Yama King’s suggestion. The
You ignore any increased Cover
Stalking Specter Text empowers the practitioner
Ground difficulties caused by
with the power of a demon or ghost from hell.
intervening walls or similar barriers,
They can walk through walls, ignore their
so long as the walls are not thicker
own dripping blood, and elicit fear from even
than a meter, effectively allowing you
the most courageous of opponents. But this
to pass through walls.
power is not for everyone: it only is provided
to those that seek grand, drawn-out revenge 20: +5 Toughness at all times.
against specific organizations, and comes with 30: Unflinching Specter Advance:
the knowledge that the Stalking Specter may be Opponents who would normally get
eventually confronted by a Heaven Hunter. bonuses against you for inflicting
a Ripple are denied those bonuses
The only widely-known Stalking Specter is the
against you.
Crimson-Haired Demoness. Once there was
a burgeoning society that surely would have 40: +5 Speed at all times.
become one of the Banes of the Wulin, a group 50: Hell Demon Laugh: Channel 2
called the Salt Mandarins, whose leader deigned Chi on an attack. For this attack, you
to ruin a local nobleman’s daughter’s wedding. automatically Laugh at your opponent,
The Crimson-Haired Demoness tracked him and can’t Fear him. Your opponent’s
down years later at his hidden mountain camp. defense automatically Fears you and
The Salt Mandarins found their leader hanging can’t Laugh at you.
from a rope made of his own flayed skin,
and then the slaughter began. The laughing
Crimson-Haired Demoness pulled men through
walls and ceilings and eviscerated them behind
locked doors. Their screams of terror and agony
could be heard miles away, and to this day the
local villagers talk of the Night of the Hungry
Ghosts with terrified awe.

102
 PLAYER’S GUIDE
Character
Creation
This section was developed to help new
players build characters rapidly. There are
two methods given. The first is a top-down
Loresheet approach, based on crafting the
character on the player’s favorite loresheet.
The second is based on a more bottom-up
approach, crafting the character based on
specific mechanics.
TOP-DOWN LORESHEET
APPROACH
Let’s draw up an Eagle Talon priest, someone
who wards caravans and clients against scum
and ill fortune alike!
I have 15 points of Entangled Destiny (for
Loresheets only) and 20 points of Destiny that
can be spent on anything. I’ll want to spend
it mostly on Kung Fu and Secret Arts; I could
blow some of it on more Loresheets or skills,
but it’s generally not a great idea.
I start by looking at the Eagle Talon loresheet,
and buying into it for 3 Destiny. This doesn’t
mean I’m with them, it means I think they’re
cool and should be involved in my story. Then
I look at the Kung Fu they like: Nine Sun
Birds for an internal style and my choice of
Ravenous Wings, Shadow Catching or Bone
Fed Wolf Fang for external styles. I like Nine
Sun Birds/Shadow Catching, ‘cause if you’re
gonna be the fastest guy around, might as well
do it right. Sold, I drop 3 destiny on Status:
Eagle Talons. Now I’m with them, and can
start learning their Kung Fu Secrets.
They have a technique that makes my BARE
HANDS count as sabers. I want that - not only
is it badass, it lets me use my Shadow Catching
style unarmed. Being unarmed is lovely
because you can essentially regenerate 1 extra
chi a round for nothing, and besides, more
Speed and Footwork are always welcome. So
I’ve spent 5 Entangled Destiny on getting the
Eagle Talons involved with me, 3 on joining
them, and 2 on learning Eagle Claws. I have 5
left, which is just enough to buy Diving Eagle
Spirit, the technique that boosts my favored
styles. I make a note of the two Internal
Techniques it boosts - Light Diffused By
Clouds and Supreme Burst of Speed, which I
obviously want now.
With all my Entangled Destiny spent, I blow
my 20 real Destiny on Kung Fu and Secret
Arts. I get an Internal Style (including the first
technique) and an External Style for free. No
points for guessing which ones I pick. Shadow
Catching only has Strike +5, but it’s fast, really
really fast. Thankfully I’m a Priest and don’t
actually have to hit people to hurt them - but
it helps. I might drop 4 Destiny to increase my
Footwork to +15 when my initiative is higher,
if I have the points. For now, on to Nine Sun
Birds. I get the first technique for free. Most
people only get to buy one technique of each
level, but I can grab anything I want because
Eagle Talons love this style. Remembering
which techniques the Eagle Talons boost, I
103
 know I’ll want Light Diffused by Clouds and With 4 points left, I have just enough to snap
Supreme Boost of Speed, a 2 and a 4. My up Shadow Catching’s footwork booster. All
options for 3 are an Area Attack, a Secondary points spent!
Strike, and a Cover Ground boost. I’m not very
This isn’t exactly the best build ever, but it
good at this whole “hitting people” thing, so
does have uses if the battlefield’s big enough.
that kinda narrows it down.
Primarily I’d see this one using Finesse-based
I’ve spent 9 Destiny so far, with 11 points left. Disrupts/Disorients/Knockbacks to scatter
Let’s take our inventory: her enemies, shaping waves and Geomantic
Formation to lock them down in unfavorable
2: Even when they’re faster than me, the
places, and Quick Work to hurt them. Now
enemy can’t stop my actions unless they’re
she and her companions can pick their battles
WAY faster than me.
as they like! The important thing is to show
3: I can cover a lot of ground! When I how you might start with an archetype and
really put my mind to it, you’d have to be a sect loresheet, and let that lead you into a
mounted to keep up with me. workable build.
4: I have a +20 to Speed (like I need it) and
a round long +10 boost to Footwork and
Finesse. That last part is neat because you
can’t use the same technique twice in one
round, so a longer duration means I’m not
screwed against multiple attackers.
Looks like I’ve got good mobility, battlefield
control and defenses, not so much offense.
Rather than grabbing for a Strike booster, I
dash to the Secret Arts section and pick up
Quick Work, so I can “attack” people with my
Learning and they have to “defend” with Wu
Wei. That’s 3 Destiny, so 8 points left. Since
I’ve got such a mobility control thing goin’ on
here, I pick up Geomantic Formation - Water
to lock down my enemies. It’s a Wu Wei based
Wave. and I’m pretty damn good at making
them complete when I try.
© RLee 2014

104

BOTTOM-UP
MECHANICAL
APPROACH
Step 1: Pick Your Archetype.
Start off by picking your character’s archetype.
Some archetypes are easier to understand than
others; if you don’t feel comfortable with the
Secret Arts system, start as a Warrior! Over
time as you get more comfortable you can
expand by purchasing other Secret Arts. We
rated each of the archetypes here, from easiest
to hardest:
Warrior. Warriors don’t have to Discover
conditions, and their only Manipulation
is made during combat versus other
warriors and a set difficulty. This means
most new players can just grab Unassail-
able Battle Saint at the start and run
their character with the incredibly broad,
versatile, and passive Combat Approaches
without worrying too hard about the
Secret Arts system.
Courtier. Courtiers may have some of
the most complex and expensive Extraor-
dinary Arts, but their Conditions are easy
to understand. Passions and Inspirations
are easily recognizable by most players
and can be used to simple effect. It’s easy
to visualize using Elemental Progression
to turn Fear into Anger, for instance. The
Courtier archetype is therefore one of the
best places for a player to dip their toes in
the deep waters of the Secret Arts.
Doctor. While the Doctor’s conditions
are a bit more alien to players (especially
ones used to Western medicine), their
Extraordinary Arts are simple and effective.
A little bit of practice and the fine art of the
handwave is all that’s needed to grasp their
Conditions. Medical Conditions are also
some of the easier ones for new players to
use in combat: a daily massage to gain an
Action Bonus to anything using Footwork
is easy to understand and implement.
Another extra bonus of playing a Doctor is
saving points towards skills: it’s the only
archetype whose Discovery and Manipulate
skills are identical.
Artisan. The new archetype listed in this
guide isn’t particularly simple, and may
not have a major payoff a player may wish.
Its conditions are focused towards the
material world and less on other players,
so some might find themselves frustrated
when trying to apply their Secret Arts.
Scholar. The Scholar’s arts can be difficult
for some players to understand, though
it is very rewarding. The setup necessary
for a proper Condition (and the heavy
Joss use) limit its Secret Arts use, making
players work hard to choose the proper
Condition to get the most out of their Joss.
Priest. The Priest is not only the most
expensive Archetype but its conditions are
also the most confusing and specialized. It
should be noted that the Priest Extraordi-
nary Arts are some of the best in the game,
which may draw many players who may
not grasp its Secret Arts.
105
 Step 2: Pick Your Skills.
You start out with 20 Destiny’s worth of skills.
It’s very tempting to branch out and spread
your skills across everything that makes sense
for your character. Don’t do this- your Lake
counts for basic proficiency anyway, and it’s
much easier (and faster) to do a quick and
dirty split of your skill points. We suggest this
distribution:
• Breath Skill to +10
• Discovery skill to +10
• Manipulate skill to +10
• Another archetype’s Resistance skill to
+10
• Two random others at +5 OR one
random other at +5 and two specialties
This distribution guarantees you basic
proficiency at recovering Chi, gives you
capabilities in your Secret Arts, and then
gives you some extra flavor. It is strongly
suggested to put some Skill points into Tactics,
as understanding an opponent’s Kung Fu is
critical to winning battles.
Step 3: Pick Your Role.
At this point you should be giving serious
consideration to what you want your
character’s role to be. It helps at this point to
look at the different Loresheets and pick what
faction you want to belong to; this may help
you choose your role. Note that roles can and
often do overlap! Other people prefer to pick
out Loresheets after they’ve picked their role,
their External, and their Internal. Here’s a few
different forms your character might take:
106
The Fighter. These are the most common
of the character roles, usually built around
straight-up kicking butt. There are of
course subtypes of the Fighter role, but
they mostly revolve around traditional
combat.
• Suggested Externals: Eight Legends,
Royal Tiger, Storm God’s Fury
• Suggested Internals: Boundless
Prosperity Manual, Dragon God’s
Footprints, Iron Body Skill
The Secret Artist. The Secret Artist works
to not only defeat an opponent through
Quick Work but to also manipulate their
opponents before and after the fight. This
role may be harder to pull off for most new
players but can be extremely rewarding.
• Suggested Externals: Graceful Crane
Style, Subtle Force, Virtuous Adjutant
• Suggested Internals: Jade Spirit
Sword, Removing Concepts, Virtue
of Care
The Energy Attacker. This is an
uncommon build, but can be effective: it
seeks to overwhelm an enemy’s defense
with powerful Energy attacks. The more
sets you have, the more attacks you can
fling at an opponent! This is particularly
useful against opponents who specialize in
Toughness and Armor, or when paired with
External styles with a low Strike.
• Suggested Externals: Destiny Cloud
Fist, Flowing Universe, Malicious
Wasp
• Suggested Internals: Ashen Palm,
Fire Sutra, Thousand Venoms
 The Disrupter. The Disrupter depends
heavily on taking advantage of Laughs
and Fears while also using their skills
to consistently Disrupt an opponent.
Controlling Outer Force is often a must
for this build, though some Doctors and
Artisans can get away with something
similar with their own Extraordinary Arts.
• Suggested Externals: Bone-Fed Wolf
Fang, Murderous Shadows, White and
Black Stones
• Suggested Internals: Devil Body
Control, Fox Spirit Song, Unstained
Lotus Mastery
The Debuffer. Debuffers are a mix of a
Fighter and Disrupter, depending on their
External style and Internal techniques to
apply penalties to an opponent instead
of bonuses to themselves. This can be
extremely effective later on in a character’s
build, but can be shut down utterly by
characters with penalty reducers. There
are few styles that can pull off this role.
• Suggested Externals: Flying Red Silk,
Great Ultimate Dragon Style, Master of
Duels
• Suggested Internals: Ice Sutra,
Three Kings
Step 4: Pick Your External.
Now that you have your general role in mind,
you should take a look at some Externals that
might benefit your role and your faction’s
Loresheet. Picking a Faction helps narrow
things down a bit, as every faction has at
least two Externals that synergize with their
Internal kung fu. You may not always want to
pick based on this, though: if you want to be
a Liquid Metal Delegate with Divine Pattern
Long Strokes, well, that’s your prerogative!
Here’s a list of things you should look out for
if you’re a new player or not comfortable with
the system:
Prioritize Active Defense. You’re going to
want a style with high Block or Footwork,
the active defense combat statistics. You
want at least a +10 in those statistics,
counting any External techniques you
can purchase. An anemic offense can
be mitigated by clever Shaping Waves,
analyzing Kung Fu, and Disrupting an
opponent’s defense. A low defense can
do the same as well, but it may take
several rounds to accrue bonuses in
this manner, and in that time you’ll be
getting pummeled! Prioritizing a high
Defensively oriented Externals (such as
Divine Pattern Long Strokes, Graceful
Crane, or Destiny Cloud Fist) can keep
you in the fight long enough to get a hang
of things. This has the added bonus of
always being useful even if you’re making a
Secret Arts build.
Style Weapons. Certain weapons are
better than others for a beginner: staffs
and swords are ideal, as they provide Strike
and Block bonuses. Unarmed is a bit less
effective but it also provides a bonus to
Footwork and thus your Dodge. Look for
styles that capitalize on these bonuses.
Flat Bonuses. Flat bonuses may look
expensive and boring, but they work. A
permanent +5 Strike is worth its weight in
gold and it’s something you’ll never have to
worry about.
107
 Avoid Conditional Bonuses. In the same
vein, you might spot something like ‘If
you do X, boost your Combat Statistic by
+5’. While these are a bit cheaper and thus
more attractive, they can be harder to pull
off! For now leave those by the wayside
and focus on concrete bonuses you can
always use.
Avoid Cool Traps. Some External
techniques look extremely attractive, such
as Graceful Crane’s Twin Tiger-Subduing
Talons or Eight Legends’ Trigram-Pacing
Steps. While they are definitely useful,
they won’t be as useful to you in the early
game as Soaring Crane or Miracle Strike.
Also avoid picking an External because of
one or two cool-looking techniques… keep
an eye on them for later, but your goal is to
be effective AND cool!
Step 5: Pick Your Internal.
Usually you’re going to want an Internal
that synergizes with your External through
your Loresheet. If you’re a Beggar with Eight
Legends, you’re naturally going to be drawn
towards Boundless Prosperity Manual! This
is always a good and easy choice, both from a
mechanical and a narrative perspective. Some
of them may not be good choices, however!
Unstained Lotus Mastery is a beautiful Internal
style but it is strongly recommended not to
choose this as your first Internal style.
The reason for this is that you want to prioritize
active defense, and some Internals lack
strong defensive techniques. In the case of
Unstained Lotus Mastery, it’s only got a bonus
to Toughness- a passive defense. There are two
schools of thought here. Some believe that
you should pick an Internal that’s based on
108
your External’s primary mode of defense. For
instance, Iron Body Skill meshes well with Eight
Legends, and Nine Sun Birds works quite well
with Shadow Catching. This is the method we
personally recommend for a starting character,
as it provides you with a strong defense right off
the bat and is easy to use.
Alternatively you can pick an Internal with
an active defense based on your External’s
gap in defenses, such as Iron Body Skill with
Destiny Cloud Fist or Nine Sun Birds with
Divine Pattern Long Strokes. While this might
be counter-intuitive, it can be very effective
whenever you’re dealing with someone using
Massive or Flexible weapons. These provide
a -10 penalty to a specific type of defense and
opponents tend to catch on to your defensive
capabilities quickly, so you can switch between
Block or Dodge from round to round. This
approach isn’t recommended for newer players,
but it can be effective in the hands of more
experienced ones.
Step 6: Pick Your Conditions.
At this point your character should be at the
very least competitive. Every character gets at
least two Semi-Permanent Conditions, things
that define their character. It’s very important
for you- for the love of God, please- to grab at
least one Action Bonus! If you play up this Chi
Condition you can get between a +5 and +10
Action Bonus to all relevant actions, and this
can mean the difference between victory and
defeat. Warriors are especially good at grabbing
these bonuses with their Combat Approaches,
and it’s highly recommended that Warriors start
off with Unassailable Battle Saint Technique and
a Major Combat Approach that provides a +10
Action Bonus. Trust us, you won’t regret it!
Step 7: Pick Your Method Of
Not Dying.
Now that you’re all set, how do you make sure
your character build is actually effective?
Timing Your Actions. Your actions-
usually Attacks or Waves- don’t have to
occur the moment you get your turn.
Waves cannot be completed mid-action (so
you can’t make your Shaping Wave occur
mid-opponent’s attack), but you can have
them occur just before or just after their
attack. Note that this does give them a
chance to Break your Waves! It’s possible
to hold off your Attack and Cover Ground
rolls until the moment an opponent makes
their own Cover Ground roll into your
zone, thus allowing you to strike them and
run away before they can attack. With
proper timing, you can totally control a
fight, and that’ll keep you alive.
Tracking Your Chi. Remember to keep
a close eye on your chi. Ideally, you want
to keep as efficient as possible by using
as much chi as you’re regaining, no more
or less. A standard Rank 4 character
can respire between 2 to 6 normal Chi
per round, which is plenty at least for
a defensive technique and maybe an
offensive or two. If you find yourself
spending more chi than you’re regaining,
try to play more efficiently!
Managing Your Sets. One way to play
more efficiently is to take a close look at
your sets. Defensively, you should always
try to limit the number of Rippling Rolls
you sustain. A Ripple + Rippling Roll is
almost always less preferable than two
Ripples. If you’re already going to suffer
a Rippling Roll, it may also be worth it
to suffer an additional Ripple to save two
or more chi. You should also prioritize
canceling out Disrupts over Ripples;
Disrupts have an immediate impact on
your play, while a simple Ripple does not.
Using Your Joss. It’s usually a good idea
to remember you have Joss, but usually
it’s best to use it whenever you desperately
need sets on your Initiative. Both Malicious
and Chivalrous joss add dice to your
Initiative roll, so it’s always applicable.
There’s another, subtler use of Joss: using it
to define the narrative around you. With a
Sage’s permission, you can use that Chival-
rous joss to declare a bystander owes you a
favor and have him possibly step in to help,
or that there’s a conveniently placed loose
stone in the brick wall you want to smash.
You can likewise use a point of Malicious
joss to penalize opponents- a weak floor
tile, or letting an angry Delegate recognize
them as a criminal.
Folding Your Cards. Sometimes, you’re
going to lose. It happens! If you take
a Major condition, it’s probably time to
bow to the inevitable. If the battle’s life or
death, as soon as you take a Minor wound
you should start looking into how you can
escape. Usually this is done by using your
Chi purely defensively and pumping up
Cover Ground and Initiative results with
Lightfoot and the River. If it’s not a duel
to the death, it may be worth your while
to surrender immediately if the defeat is
crushing; this can get you out of a lot of
trouble later. Alternatively you can keep
fighting, knowing you’re going to lose
but hoping to build up Ripples on your
opponent for a more satisfactory End of
Battle Rippling Roll.
109
 The Great Player’s
Almanac of Shaping
Waves
This section is designed to provide players
with a list of example Shaping Waves they can
make. Every Shaping Wave listed will have
this format:
Name
(Example Skill) [Basic Difficulty]
Description
Effect
Note that the Sage may decide that another
skill is appropriate, may raise or lower the
difficulty, or may not allow it at all in the
situation! This is to provide ideas and a basic
template to create your own shaping wave.
Here’s a list of some standard wave effects you
can achieve with a Shaping Wave. You should
look for these in the conditions below; this is a
quick and dirty primer.
Altering Cover Ground Difficulties: The
most common use of Shaping Waves, these
alter the difficulty to enter or leave the Zone.
This might include erecting a barrier with
your Might or scaring off anyone who might
interrupt your duel with Inspire.
Justify Laughs and Fears: A good Shaping
Wave meant to improve your chances of
triggering your Laughs or an enemy’s Fears.
This might include smashing up the scenery to
benefit your Blossom Harvest Laughs or hiding
your weaknesses from a Ravenous Wings
stylist, making yourself look pure and healthy
and thus benefiting from their Fears.
110
Create and Destroy Zones: Sometimes you
need to create a zone, like freezing a section
of a lake to fight on. Other times you need
to destroy it, like utterly destroying a floor of
a building.
Extend Attacks: Sometimes you may need
to attack further than your weapon will allow.
Usually Sages might allow you to do so with a
canny Shaping Wave- like tying a rope to your
sword and throwing it, or focusing your Chi
into a makeshift attack.
Energy Attacks: These are for times you just
want to make an enemy burn. A successful
Shaping Wave will allow you to make an Energy
Attack on your attack roll. This might include
dousing your staff with oil and lighting it
aflame, freezing an opponent by tossing them
into a frozen lake, poisoning them with concen-
trated cayenne to the eyes, or slapping a metal
wire on your opponent in a thunderstorm.
Creating Environmental Conditions: Usually
related to Energy attacks, but not always;
these make a zone more interesting to fight in
and have various effects. This might include
setting it on fire to make you all fight in the
smoke, or scattering broken pottery on the
floor to make it harder for your opponent to
skulk about.
Inflict Minor Penalties: Sometimes a Shaping
Wave can best be used to inflict a minor
penalty on an opponent for a single round.
These are popularly used to interfere with an
opponent’s combat statistics and should work
like a single-round disrupt. Sometimes they
can be used as an excuse to make a disrupt
later. Good examples include temporarily
penalizing someone’s Block by throwing
something heavy at them, or interfering with
their Strike by throwing a net that tangles up
their weapon.
Reduce Injury Penalties: Sometimes an
injury you’ve sustained needs a bit more
justification to ignore or reduce- like tying a
tourniquet around a bleeding arm or setting a
broken leg with a makeshift splint.
Reduce Environmental Condition Penalties:
Smoke a problem? Wrap a rag around your
mouth! Opponent summon a tidal wave? Tie
yourself to a tree to avoid getting swept away!
Escaping the Net
(Tactics, Might) [30]
The Beggar Bamboo Tiger is currently trapped
in his brother Beggar Zhimeng’s pattern!
Zhimeng uses the Divine Pattern Long Strokes
and Bamboo Tiger can’t manage to avoid the
heavy blows of his friend. Bamboo Tiger uses
Escaping the Net, drawing on his nickname to
bull through Zhimeng’s net at an opportune time.
Bamboo Tiger’s shaping wave may seem to do
little enough, but this is enough for the Sage
to decree that Zhimeng may no longer claim a
Laughs At bonus from his Divine Pattern Long
Strokes. Of course, Zhimeng may always make
his own Shaping Wave to reverse it, but will
have to beat Bamboo Tiger’s initial Shaping
Wave to do so.
Broken Cloud Fan
(Finesse) [30]
Bitter Steel’s allies have just killed a Vile Rain
Cultist on the first floor of a teahouse, and his
corpse exudes a foul poison that makes them
cough their lungs out! Bitter Steel uses Broken
Cloud Fan, whipping her sword around her wrist
with superhuman speed to blow away the cloud
© RLee 2014
just long enough for her to jump down and rescue
her friends.
This shaping wave is easy enough: Bitter
Steel’s makeshift fan blows away the poison
that keeps her from suffering Ripples (or
worse) while also saving her friends from
inhaling more. Now to get them to a doctor!
Ice Mirror
(Freeze) [20]
Sharp-Tipped Shun finds himself at the mercy of
a nefarious priest. He can’t directly lay eyes on
the man thanks to the priest’s extraordinary art,
Sheltering Water Intercession! Instead he floods
the battlefield with water chi to make the Ice
Mirror, forming plates of ice that let him see his
opponent indirectly.
Successful use of this shaping wave reduces
the penalty suffered from Sheltering Water
Intercession by -5. At the Sage’s discretion,
if the Shaping Wave defeats the original
result of Sheltering Water Intercession’s
Learning roll, it may reduce it to -0! Of
course, the enemy Priest may always decide
to smash the mirrors…
111
 Barbarian Fury
(Inspire) [20]
The barbarian Ice Wolf faces the soldiers of the
483rd Brigade, garrison of Hanging White Paper.
Despite her lack of cultivation she’s endured the
worst their xia commander could throw at her…
and now she’s coming at them with her Barbarian
Fury! How can they stand against her?
The intent is that this Inspire-based Shaping
Wave causes the minions of the 483rd’s Captain
to be less effective. This could either manifest
as denying them the additional Ripples they’d
gain from their Captain’s Inspire or denying
them the bonus from his Tactics. Ice Wolf
decides on his Tactics. Unfortunately, the
Captain Breaks her Wave with his own Inspire...
Dark Coated Needle
(Medicine) [30]
The notorious Doctor Jade has been cornered,
leaving her fighting for her life along with her
horrible experiment Ogre Li. The poisonous,
stupid man is on his last legs, and soon she will
be cut down by Heaven’s heroes. Doctor Jade
doesn’t like getting her hands dirty, but she’ll have
to if she wishes to survive. She jabs one of her
acupuncture needles into a strategic point in Ogre
Li’s toxic flesh, creating the Dark Coated Needle.
Ogre Li knows the Thousand Venoms, so
Doctor Jade wishes to coat her needle in
some of his poisons. The Sage decrees that
this will provide her Quick Work with a +5
Laughs bonus… simply not enough to save
her. Instead she asks that her Shaping Wave
benefit her River Flows Upstream Technique,
to improve the Poison bonus from a +0 to
something higher. The Sage agrees, telling
her that if she reaches a 30 on her Shaping
112
Wave she gets a +5 bonus to her Poison effect,
and a further +5 for every step above that,
to a maximum of +25 (Ogre Li has nothing
more potent… and there are no steps above
Legendary (100)!). She manages a 56- giving
her a +10 Poison, +15 Rippling Roll poison
attack with her River Flows Upstream
Technique. That’s a bit more like it!
Throwing Fire
(Fire) [40]
Flaring Cinder is locked in a fight with one of the
Southern Dragon Pirates over a Holy Fire Sutra.
While the Pirate thinks this is part courtship
and part fun, for Flaring Cinder this is a deadly
serious holy crusade. The Pirate has kept outside
of her range, using Rage of the Dragon Kings
to attack her from afar and has already broken
her flute and closed off her throat, shutting down
her Deadly Music. With little other recourse
she channels her Fire Chi, Throwing Fire at her
opponent just as he’s sure of his victory!
A simple enough Shaping Wave- Flaring
Cinder spends chi to improvise a Shaping
Wave allowing her to extend her Burn attacks
to an adjacent zone. A high enough Shaping
Wave may also convince the Sage to extend her
other attacks as well.
Mount Hua Pine
(Might, Craft) [40]
Commander Zheng Tien Fong has tracked down
a bunch of barbarian soldiers in a forest, led
by a particularly competent (but uncultivated)
master of the shield. He’s been unable to break
the man’s defenses… but he has an idea. He cuts
down a small Mount Hua Pine with one slice of
his saber, sending it smashing down towards the
shieldmaster just as he attacks!
A simple Shaping Wave meant to do nothing Cat Of the Shadows (Stealth)
more than to break the man’s Block. There’s a [30]
few ways that Tien Fong could interpret this,
Stalking Bandit Cat has been discovered just as
but he asks the Sage to allow him to inflict a
she was about to snag the crown jewel of Eunuch
one time -5 penalty to the shieldmaster’s Block.
Maozi’s personal collection! The handsome
The Sage agrees and Tien Fong describes his
Captain Yellow Pillar is too much for Stalking
attack as Better Dodged, therefore inflicting a
Bandit Cat to handle in a one on one fight, but
-10 Penalty to the shieldmaster’s Block against
she is the Cat of the Shadows. Stalking Bandit
Tien Fong’s attack.
Cat melts into the dark corners of the room,
sprinting from display to display; Captain Yellow
Shame the Court Pillar can’t hope to catch her.
(Perform, Politics) [40]
Audacious Meng has challenged the politically As a Stealth wave, there are a few options
corrupt Governor Wang to a duel in front of his here. In this case the Sage decides that while
court. Simply defeating Governor Wang isn’t the Stalking Bandit Cat stays in the same
enough- though it would help his case, he must zone, Captain Yellow Pillar’s attacks Fear her
also Shame the Court as well! They are just as (as he can’t afford to accidentally smash one
guilty as Governor Wang and they must be made of Eunuch Maozi’s expensive displays) and
to realize it. Audacious Meng spends every second Stalking Bandit Cat’s attacks Laugh At him.
of the battle expounding on just how Governor But the Sage takes pity on Captain Yellow Pillar
Wang’s loathsome policies harm the empire. and states that he can temporarily override the
effects of this Shaping Wave for a single roll
One round of this likely isn’t enough, but with an Awareness action made at the difficulty
repeated shaping waves are almost certain to of the Shaping Wave. Catching glimpses of
soften the hearts of the Governor’s court. The Stalking Bandit Cat is easy; keeping her in his
mechanical effects of this may vary- the Sage sights is hard!
may decide that it improves the End of Combat
Rippling Roll against Governor Wang, or it
may act as a point of Chivalrous or Malicious
Joss as the court’s opinion shifts this way or
that. Alternatively it may not provide any
real mechanical bonus; with repeated Shaping
Waves (or a high enough Shaping Wave) it
may win him the fight prematurely as the court
turns against the Governor and tears him to
pieces on the spot!
© RLee 2014

113
 Heaven Reveals Wraiths
(Shock) [30]
Storm-Scarred Hawk has fought Wraith Ran Ao
Lan for three days, the two of them sniping at
each other from the shadows with arrows and
thrown knives. By day they skulk, snatching
precious moments of sleep between deadly
exchanges. The Wraith can see better in the
dark than she can, and he appears to be slowly
winning. She realizes that she needs a clearer
shot, so she prepares her move carefully. Over
the course of several hours, she shoots her
steel-tipped arrows into every alcove she can.
Then, at the right moment, Heaven Reveals
Wraiths- a burst of Earth Chi that sends
lightning bolts towards the point of every
arrow, lighting up the alcoves just long enough
to give her a clear shot!
The Wraith has been abusing his Stealth waves
for far too long. This Shaping Wave acts as
an Awareness Shaping Wave, overriding the
Wraith’s Stealth. A particularly powerful
Shaping Wave might also light the arrows on
fire, further making it impossible for Wraith
Ran Ao Lan to escape justice.
Touch of Naraka (Poison) [40]
Doctor Lo Kai, a former Blade Dog, fights
alongside his longtime companion Chipped
Jian against another Blade Dog searching for
revenge! Chipped Jian is no match for the
Blade Dog, who’s effectively shut down Chipped
Jian’s Combat Approach. Lo Kai needs all
the help he can get, so he hesitatingly applies
one of the dark techniques he’s learned… the
Touch of Naraka. A prickling poison ravages
his companion’s body and mind but gives
him hysterical strength from the pain, maybe
enough to turn the tables on their attacker.
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This Shaping Wave is meant to grant his ally
a +5 Action Bonus so long as he acts as if he’s
in a berserker rage from the pain. The Sage
declares this a bit too close to an in-combat
use of the Doctor’s Arts for his taste but
finds it narratively compelling, so he adds
a further complication. Chipped Jian will
suffer a Ripple for every round he suffers the
Touch of Naraka until Doctor Lo Kai stops
the process… something that might be very
tricky in the midst of combat! Since the
fight is do-or-die anyway, Chipped Jian can’t
complain too much, right?
Master Equestrian’s Trick
(Ride) [50]
The Liquid Metal Delegate Xi has taken to
horseback, chasing down the dangerous yet
oddly principled Black Lotus Assassin Bigu.
They are evenly matched, but a profoundly
brilliant attack from Bigu forces Xi to spend too
much chi! Xi needs a moment to recuperate, so
he calls upon his brilliant horsemanship and
Bigu’s own sense of honor. He uses a Master
Equestrian’s Trick, sliding off his saddle so that
he clings to the side of his horse- buying him a
few seconds out of Bigu’s range! The Assassin
can only smirk and salute his opponent, for he
is far too honorable to simply kill Xi’s horse.
The Sage scratches his head and declares
that Delegate Xi has temporarily created a
new Zone: Side of His Horse. This takes
him out of Bigu’s saber’s reach. The Sage
declares that the sheer difficulty (and the
novelty of the narrative) allows him to
move there without a Cover Ground action;
they’re already Covering Ground towards
their target while on horseback after all!
However, the Sage warns Xi that he’ll have to
make an additional Cover Ground roll using
his Ride on the next round no matter what,
40 to return to his saddle and 50 to stay
where he is. If he fails to do so he falls off
and Bigu escapes!
Quiet Monk’s Humility
(Inspire) [40]
The monk Saffron Tassel has already performed a
Shaping Wave- the Protection Through Humility
Technique. But this hasn’t been enough to protect
him from the six men who’re threatening to beat
him senseless! He shows them his Quiet Monk’s
Humility, and his soft words give the bullies pause.
The karmic burden just plain isn’t worth it.
With Protection Through Humility already at
work, Saffron Tassel decides to play off of it
and the protection he gains. He asks that his
Shaping Wave allows him an Area Attack for
any Courtier Quick Work actions he makes,
provided they narratively reinforce his aura
of humility. Since it’s an Area Attack against
minions, it’ll also inflict an extra Ripple if it hits.
New Life of Hardship
(Hardiness, Survival) [40]
High Walk and his nomadic wife Lonely
Mask are fighting a Fire Doctrine acolyte in
the basement of an inn. The acolyte, sensing
his inevitable defeat, has decided to burn the
place to the ground around them with his
own Shaping Wave. The former court dandy
calls upon two decades of exile to the harsh
wilderness, a New Life of Hardship, to ignore
the flames and smoke long enough to beat the
acolyte to death!
This Shaping Wave represents a surge of
heroic willpower, allowing High Walk to
ignore the penalties from fighting in smoke
and flame: in this case, an extra Ripple
per round he’s fighting in the smoke. The
Shaping Wave is set so low because it
doesn’t cover Lonely Mask’s as well- she’ll
need to make her own or suffer Ripples as a
consequence!
A Bedpost Will Do in a Pinch
(Craft) [20/40]
Ten-Stone Hsu is as strong as an ox, and none on
the battlefield can hope to do him harm. Unfortu-
nately, he’s also about as smart as an ox, which
is how he’s managed to end up in the Floating
Peony Blossom brothel without his trusty staff
and confronted by Lady Blackbird, the madam
of the house ... and agent of the Black Lotus
Society. Looking around, he sizes up the posts of
the canopy bed; just the right size, and made of
sturdy oak besides!
Hsu’s player doesn’t need a weapon to use
his Blossom Harvest kung fu, but lacking his
weapon bonuses and special effects will put
him at a decided disadvantage. His Sage tells
him that next round he can use the bedpost
as an improvised staff if he completes a
Normal (20) Craft-based Shaping Wave;
at least then he can spend a chi and make
use of its secondary attack. And because
the Sage judges the description particularly
entertaining, she will allow the bedpost to
act as a normal staff, including strike and
block bonuses, but only if Hsu’s player can
manage a Memorable (40) result.
115
 Sample Conditions
This section is designed to provide players
with a list of example Secret Arts conditions
they can make. Every Condition listed will
have this format:
Name (Severity, Element,
Condition Type)
Description
Further Notes
MEDICAL CONDITIONS
Drunken Beggar Strength
(Wood Medical, Cultivation
Hyperactivity)
Drinking copious amounts of wine helps
concentrate the blood into the liver while
they carouse, then during periods of action
stimulates the flow of chi. The Beggars
value this medical procedure not only for the
increased cultivation it grants but for the
excuse to keep drinking.
Very useful for Drunken Masters, but it
requires the character to remain soused for
as long as possible. This will no doubt cause
problems in the long run. Usually this only
develops Normal Chi cultivation, but players
with this condition at Major may want to
develop Wood Chi as their bodies acclimate
to their wine-fueled lifestyle.
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Gall Bladder Infection (Wood
Medical, Elemental Conversion
Weakness)
Fang An-Lai’s gall bladder is acting up, giving
him serious abdominal cramps and sapping his
energy. It’s proving impossible for him to practice
his traditional Kung Fu, making him easy
prey for the Black Lotus Society. Did they slip
something in his drink?
Sapping away Elemental Chi and turning it
to Normal Chi is a very effective way to use
your Secret Arts. Unless Fang An-Lai acts
like he’s in agony every time he stands up, he
doesn’t get the use of his Wood Chi… making
it extremely difficult for him to practice his
Wood style of mystical serenity. Either way
he’ll be in trouble the next time the Black
Lotus Society looks for him.
Shu’s Stammer (Fire Medical,
Breath Hyperactivity)
Shu has been afflicted with a stammer all of his
life, keeping him from following his father’s path
of the Courtier. However, it has made him an
excellent Warrior! His inability to speak properly
has given him an unerring understanding of how
to control and regulate his own breath, giving
him greater strength in battle. There he can truly
communicate with his peers.
So long as Shu stammers whenever he speaks,
he gains bonus Chi Breath. Not bad at all!
Of course, his father no doubt is looking for
a doctor who can fix his boy’s embarrassing
speech impediment. No doubt it’s caused by a
weak heart!
 Prophetic Dreams (Fire Medical,
Entanglement Weakness)
The corrupt Fire Doctrine priestess Dead Light
is plagued with constant prophetic dreams that
she is compelled to fulfill. Enkindling Saint, her
doctor, traces the problem to an excess of blood
and Fire Chi, something common for anyone
who spends too much time in the presence of
the Fire God. Enkindling Saint decides to draw
some of Dead Light’s blood every other day as
part of a delicate balancing act. Enkindling
Saint wants to keep the holy dreams but avoid
the crippling compulsion!
So long as Dead Light fails to do her
utmost to fulfill her prophetic dreams, she
suffers an Entanglement penalty. Which is
worse- trying to fulfill the impossible dreams
themselves or the gnawing feeling that she’s
left things undone?
© RLee 2014
Starving Monk (Earth Medical,
Cultivation Hyperactivity)
While Beggars gain inner strength from
hedonism, monks gain it through asceticism!
Purposefully starving themselves shunts blood
away from their stomach, forcing it to circulate
towards the spleen… intensifying the hunger, of
course. Still, adversity breeds strength.
Never underestimate a hungry monk!
Unfortunately for the monk, they have to
keep themselves all but starving to gain the
benefits of this condition. However, unlike
this condition’s mirror image- Drunken Beggar
Strength- the character will be far less disrup-
tive in polite society.
Food Allergy (Earth Medical,
Breath Weakness)
Pity poor Big Xuan- he has developed a food
allergy to his favorite food, the succulent Red
Dragon hot peppers grown in his home town!
Every time he eats one his throat closes up and
he can only wheeze and gasp. His commander
has told him to lay off of the Red Dragon but
he just can’t help himself. What has he done to
anger Heaven?
Little does Big Xuan know it, but he’s had
his spleen tampered with by a Vile Rain Cult
doctor! The Vile Rain Cult doctor will use
healing the allergy to insinuate himself into
Big Xuan’s life, eventually giving the doctor a
chance at murdering his commander. Even if
Big Xuan doesn’t fall for it, he’s still no doubt
going to eat the peppers at every possible
opportunity, giving the Vile Rain Cult a chance
to ambush him while he’s unprepared.
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 The Imperial Academy Effica-
cious Accidental Poisoning
Training (Metal Medical, Action
Hyperactivity)
Only the finest of students make it to the Imperial
Academy to become Imperial Doctors, and that
takes years of training. Along the way they are
exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of exotic
poisons and medicines. Is it any wonder that
they develop impervious immunity to all but the
most exotic of ingredients? What others do not
know is that most graduates continue taking
small doses of these ingredients over time to keep
up their internal defenses.
Good luck poisoning one of the Imperial
Academy graduates. This condition grants
them an Action Bonus whenever defending
against poison, and likely a Laughs bonus
when defending against a Doctor’s Quick
Work that narratively revolves around poison
or paralytic dust. Unfortunately finding the
materials necessary to keep up their immunity
may grow expensive, which is probably why 8
out of 10 Imperial doctors look like beggars.
Intense Migraines (Metal
Medical, Cultivation Weakness)
A brutal battle between the Broken Crane and
the Bound Dog has forced Broken Crane into
seclusion. Every time she tries to press herself
to her limits, her head erupts into stabbing hot
agony. How can she hope to continue her cultiva-
tion when she can’t do anything more than walk?
This particularly bad End of Combat Rippling
Roll condition threatens Broken Crane’s
spiritual advancement! Horrible migraines
don’t allow for very long or intense training
periods, meaning Broken Crane will either
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have to find a very good doctor or she’ll need
to find another path to spiritual strength.
Overworked Kidneys (Water
Medical, Cultivation Hyperactivity)
Doctor Jade has been given a once-in-a-lifetime
chance… the chance to experiment on a ‘willing’
Liquid Metal Delegate! She’s heard stories about
the Delegate’s loyalty and wonders if it’s medical
in nature. She cuts into the Delegate and tampers
with their kidneys directly, ramping up both the
Delegate’s rate of water cultivation and their
loyalty to their employers, which she believes is
indicative of filial piety run amok. Will Doctor
Jade see a change in the Delegate’s behavior?
Almost certainly she will- the Delegate uses
Heaven’s Lightning and has cultivated Earth
Chi, so it’s not in the Delegate’s best interests
to be too loyal to her supervisors. Thanks
to this condition profound loyalty generates
Water cultivation, and since Water conflicts
with Earth this puts the Delegate in a no-win
situation. Of course, this was Doctor Jade’s
true intent all along.
Profound Dizziness (Water
Medical, Breath Weakness)
The Yun soldier Li Yen has gotten himself into
another impossible situation. A particularly bad
knock on the head has rattled his brain and made
him horribly dizzy, keeping him from riding the
horse that is the key to his Green Jade Horse kung
fu. How is he supposed to deliver Snow Leopard’s
message when he can barely sit on his horse?
Li Yen suffers an Action penalty whenever he’s
doing something that requires full use of his
balance. He can, of course, play along with the
condition and cling to his horse, but his chances
aren’t good if he’s ambushed along the way.
 COMBAT CONDITIONS Coal Fire Under the Mountain
(Fire Combat, Action Hyperactivity)
Quiet Fury (Wood Combat, Breath The poet Lin Shu says: “On the outside, the
Hyperactivity) mountain is quiet. Trees line its sides. Birds sing
and the wind whispers. Smoke wisps from the
Razor Leaf On the Wind fights every battle with
mine.” Lin Shu may appear to be passive, but his
the same detached calmness… but a true warrior
kung fu is powered by the muse of combat! Lin
would be able to see underneath that mask. In
Shu’s movements are understated, almost lazy to
truth the xia fights with a fury evident in his
the untrained eye. Then he reaches into himself
occasional missteps and vicious attacks, and with
and explodes outwards in an intuitive burst of
severe quiet concentration.
skill. Then he seems to be at rest again, ready to
Razor Leaf On the Wind’s combat condition explode into action once more.
grants him a Breath bonus whenever he fights
Unlike many other Fire combat conditions,
quietly, refusing to acknowledge his opponent.
Lin Shu’s style focuses on explosive energy,
His player can also trigger it by occasionally
granting him an action bonus for his staccato
throwing in big bursts of chi or purposefully
fighting style. This explosive action still
making petty little mistakes in the description-
requires moments of rest to prepare again,
a missed step, a wilder series of blows, or even
meaning a savvy opponent may attempt to
purposefully taking a Marvel as he is too angry
interrupt his style by giving him no chance to
to be damned to avoid it.
build for another burst.

Force of Nature (Wood Combat,

Action Hyperactivity) Flirtatious Warrior (Fire
Combat, Breath Hyperactivity)
The Daoist monk Clear Sky is known throughout
The bodyguard Pale Moon is well known for
Shen Zhou for his unique kung fu. The Master
her flirtatious demeanor in battle. She makes
of the Five Energies (Clear Sky insists that ‘fist’
everything in a fight into an innuendo, some
is an energy!) weaves fire, ice, lightning, and the
playful and some otherwise. This drives her
occasional cloud of poison into his Destiny Cloud
opponents positively insane through either anger
Fist style. His use of his five mastered elements is
or lust. Which one is which depends on how
extremely aggressive- he never lets an opponent
beautiful her opponent is!
forget what he is best known for.
Pale Moon receives a Breath bonus at the end
Clear Sky’s character sheet must be interesting
of every round that she finds some way to turn
indeed! Clear Sky gains an Action Bonus any
an opponent’s actions or words into innuendo.
round that he incorporates an Energy Attack
In a world of swords and spears, this can be
into his attacks or uses a blatantly elemental
pretty easy to trigger. Of course, the worst
form of defense such as Frozen Shadow.
thing she could probably face is a sufficiently
Unfortunately, if he doesn’t have the sets or the
pious monk.
chi, the Master of the Five Energies is impotent.

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 The Only One In The World
(Earth Combat, Breath Hyperac-
tivity)
Yun Jiang is the very picture of a narcissist, and it
shows in his combat style. Every attack, defense,
movement is just a new way to reinspect himself
for any flaws. For Yun Jiang, his opponent is
nothing more than a living mirror that brings
new portions of himself to light. Why should he
pay them any attention?
The foppish Yun Jiang gains a Breath bonus
whenever he ruminates about his splendiferous
techniques or talks loudly about his own
magnificence. Every one of his actions is
either perfect or a deadly flaw that must be
rectified immediately. An opponent strong and
charismatic enough to catch his attention will
find the boy’s style easy to undermine.
My Own Ground (Earth Combat
Action, Hyperactivity)
Iron Face Mai is the inheritor of her father’s
legacy- the ancient Great Tortoise School of
Siegecraft. It is said that her skill at designing
fortifications rivals that of the greatest Mohist
schools. The Vile Rain Cult warlord who
assaulted her city found that out firsthand: none
of his warriors could touch her so long as she
fought on her own ground.
This condition applies whenever Mai fights on
one of her own fortifications, giving her the
home advantage. It’s very easy to trigger- but
the Sage can decree it’s also very easy to
soothe! A canny warrior could smash up her
walls to something unrecognizable, or an even
smarter warrior will find a way to lure her
away from the source of her strength.
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Madness Has Its Place (Metal
Combat, Action Hyperactivity)
The sweeping giant saber of Sharp Nail has cut
more than one xia down over the years. The
grizzled old mercenary perplexes them. His style
doesn’t make any sense! He rants and raves like
a lunatic but the glint in his eye says he’s sane.
At times he attacks thin air, only to then try to
chop an opponent in half. Everyone thinks that
there’s some sort of pattern to the lunatic’s actions,
but nobody’s survived long enough to find out.
Sharp Nail’s crazy ravings are of course excellent
narrative fodder; an action bonus simply makes
them all the sweeter! The player should describe
some of Sharp Nail’s actions- stabbing a wall
repeatedly, punching himself in the face, and
of course the obligatory drooling. Should an
opponent weather his offense, they might be able
to divine the method to Sharp Nail’s madness.
Hiding in Plain Sight (Metal
Combat, Breath Hyperactivity)
Five Styles Bao is renowned for his dabbling in
external styles. There’s nothing that exhilarates
him more than confusing an opponent with his
techniques. One could be forgiven for thinking
that his constant shifts between styles form the
core of his combat style; it’s what he wants people
to think, after all. In truth, he draws his strength
from the same powerful moves repeated a hundred
different ways.
This is a case of seeing a forest when the
enemy should just see a tree. Bao regains chi
every round he describes the exact same action
a different way, making the opponent think
that it’s something more when it is not. Some
people are sure to be fooled, thinking the key
to his style is analyzing all of his kung fu. Let
them! The basics are what truly matter.
Constant Counterattacks
(Water Combat, Action
Hyperactivity)
Whim of the Wind is not a very aggressive
fighter, preferring to run from an opponent over
duking it out with them. However, anyone
who manages to corner her finds her speed is
unparalleled. The girl meets every attack with
two more, her fists and feet a blur.
Whim of the Wind obviously will be able
to get her action bonus in any round she
inflicts a Reply, though she may also get it if
she describes her attack as occurring quickly
after an opponent’s. Unfortunately for her
this leaves her very vulnerable to opponents
attacking her from range. Her master
suggests she should carry some throwing
knives, just in case.
Fighting Without Fighting
(Water Combat, Breath
Hyperactivity)
The mohist inventor Zhuge Kong doesn’t like
violence, but he recognizes that the world won’t
immediately change to fit his ideals. Instead
Zhuge Kong fights back without really fighting.
He passively undermines his opponents, cutting
their soul instead of their flesh, and never raises a
hand in anger.
Zhuge Kong’s condition manifests whenever he
makes attacks that won’t harm an opponent,
such as Quick Work or his Subtle Force’s
Heart-Cutting Strike. He may also regain his
chi if he doesn’t attack at all, say by running
away from an opponent. At the Sage’s discretion
he might even be able to trigger this style if he
fights with Subtle Force’s Correct Approach, but
that may require a shaping wave.
© RLee 2014
121
 her former society. His vow was perhaps a bit
EMOTIONAL hasty. Now he suffers an Elemental Conversion
CONDITIONS penalty whenever he’s not doing what he can
to fix Old Doctor Cat’s problems, which could
The Five Stone Frogs (Wood wreak havoc on his kung fu.
Inspiration, Action Hyperactivity)
Miser Shu has few joys in life. Even his riches are The Emperor’s Whim (Fire
mere distractions to him. One of the few things Inspiration, Cultivation
that make him at all excited anymore are the Five Hyperactivity)
Stone Frogs of Magnificent Ink, a set of ink stones
What the Emperor wants, the Emperor gets…
made by the fabled artisan Inkhair Bai. The rare
and Hears Everything’s job is to get it for him.
inkstones are widely regarded as the most beautiful
Whether it’s bringing him the lovely courtesan
to ever have been created, and Miser Shu already
Moon Pearl or the head of Eunuch Naked Belly,
owns three of them. He’ll do almost anything for
Hears Everything will do it without hesitation.
the last two, and the mere rumor of one of them
His loyalty to the Emperor is absolute!
makes Miser Shu’s blood surge again.
Hears Everything is dedicated to the Emperor’s
Miser Shu gains an Action bonus to any
service, so much so that he won’t bat an eyelash
action he takes trying to get a hold of one of
at even the craziest request. Fortunately the
the Five Stone Frogs. Be it kicking a man,
Emperor doesn’t have that many crazy requests
convincing him to part with it for a low sum
yet, but just give him time. Hears Everything
(he is still a miser, after all!) or tracking them
will do what it takes, and he’ll grow more
to the ends of Shen Zhou, Miser Shu WILL
powerful for it. He gains Cultivation whenever
complete his collection.
he indulges the Emperor’s every whim.

Redeeming Old Doctor Cat Conquering the Heights

(Wood Inspiration, Elemental
(Fire Inspiration, Entanglement
Conversion Weakness)
Weakness)
Old Doctor Cat made some mistakes, it’s true.
Commander Shining Qilin must take the high
A member of the Resplendent Phoenix Society
plateau the Yellow Buckles have occupied by
shouldn’t take bribes from sex slavers, no
sundown. He knows that with his forces and their
matter how much they need the money. The
fortifications it’ll be a close thing… and only if he’s
aging Phoenix’s genuine contrition has touched
willing to sacrifice his men. He orders his men to
Moon-Cutting Swordsman’s heart: he will do
their deaths, knowing that it’s better their heads
what he can to bring her back to the Jiang Hu and
roll than his, and the Emperor’s will is absolute.
restore her cultivation!
The Yellow Buckles know that the Jin Emperor
Moon-Cutting Swordsman’s new mission is
is impatient; what better way to profit than to
to bring Old Doctor Cat back into the Wulin-
pressure their enemy into something stupid?
something that won’t be easy. He must get
Commander Shining Qilin avoids losing
her past her own guilt and the punishment of
Entanglement if he callously sends his men

122
to their deaths- and loses Entanglement (and
his head!) if he doesn’t manage to conquer
the heights. His men mutter and grumble,
knowing their Commander’s sent them off to
die for the sake of an earlier victory parade.
Rivalry of the Masters (Earth
Inspiration, Breath Hyperactivity)
Three Steps No Tiger and Master Crane have
been fighting for years, each one presenting a
student to the other and then meeting afterwards
to share a bottle of wine and complaining
about their worthless students. Jumping Rat
is sure that this time will be different. He will
convincingly defeat Master Crane’s student Ugly
Pig and then Master Three Steps will take him
to the wine shop!
Jumping Rat just wants to please his Master…
and that’s best done by beating Ugly Pig with
a staff until Ugly Pig resembles his namesake
even more! Jumping Rat gains a Breath bonus
so long as he relishes the storied rivalry that he
is now a part of.
The First Defeat (Earth
Inspiration, Cultivation Weakness)
Grinning Dugu has never been defeated. Ever.
Not once. The knowledge bothers him: is it true
that nobody can even hope to match him? He
seeks out greater and greater opponents, giving
them openings, hoping to see if they’ll offer him
his first defeat. So far, he’s proven that none of
them have what it takes.
Grinning Dugu suffers from this Cultivation
penalty whenever he mercilessly crushes his
opponents. He must offer them at least some
chance of winning and giving him his first
loss. Until they do, his kung fu is doomed to
gradually wither and die!
Honoring the Yang Family
Name (Metal Inspiration,
Elemental Conversion Hyperactivity)
Sixth Son of the Yang Family is a paragon of
righteousness and loyalty. Sixth Son walks
throughout the Wulin as a special agent of the Jin
dynasty, thanks to the considerations given his
father by the former Jin emperor. The traitors
and rebels allied to the Han best watch their step!
Sixth Son Yang might not know any Metal
kung fu, but this hyperactivity is offered by his
family loresheet- so why not? He gains Metal
chi whenever he fulfills the Yang family duty
of protecting the Jin dynasty. Maybe later he’ll
learn some Metal styles to make better use of
this condition!
Life Debt (Metal Inspiration,
Action Weakness)
Nighttime Spark owes the Ice Phoenix her
life. Now she dutifully follows the Ice Phoenix
everywhere, becoming the Ice Phoenix’s second
sword. Nighttime Spark will follow the woman
everywhere and do almost anything for her, for a
life debt is not something so easily repaid.
Thanks to this condition, resisting the Ice
Phoenix’s demands aren’t easy! Nighttime
Spark suffers an Action penalty whenever
she’s not following the Ice Phoenix’s orders,
no matter how distasteful they may seem. Of
course, the action is likely to fade automati-
cally if Nighttime Spark rescues Ice Phoenix
in a similar fashion. Thankfully, Ice Phoenix
is particularly ethical and never abuses this
condition… alright, rarely abuses it.
123
 Angry Ghost Walk (Water
Inspiration, Entanglement
Hyperactivity)
The brother of Ancient Saber Shaiming has no
name. All he has left anymore is his abiding
need to find the men who killed his brother and
left him for dead. Slowly he stalks through their
ranks, finding each one and putting things right
once again. Each one points to another target,
and another target, and another. Soon he will
find the end of the thread. Then he will have a
name again.
Angry Ghost Walk allows the brother of
Ancient Saber Shaiming to gain Entanglement
the more he seeks to redress the murder of his
brother. Every time one of the conspirators
finds justice at the tip of his sword the brother
gains Entanglement, helping him ruthlessly
hunt down every single one of his enemies.
Alone At Last (Water
Inspiration, Breath Weakness)
The Vile Rain Cultist Rabid Mouth cannot stand
the sound of other people. He keeps to the
trackless hills of Shen Zhou, seeking solitude
and preparing his kung fu. Soon he will descend
from the mountaintops with wax in his ears
and he’ll begin the dark reaping. Then, when
everything is blood and ashes around him, he
will be alone at last.
The noise of others doesn’t trigger this
condition- his desire to rid the world of all
noise effectively does. Rabid Mouth loses
Cultivation whenever he doesn’t actively plot,
scheme, and prepare himself to lay waste to
every living person around him in an effort to
bring blessed silence to the world.
124
Lover’s Quarrel (Wood Passion,
Cultivation Hyperactivity)
The Southern Dragon King and his wife Empress
Stingray often quarrel to the point of open warfare
between their followers. Lives have been lost over
arguments about the color of their bedsheets or the
way one was looking at another’s cabin boy. The
only thing more catastrophic than their quarrels is
what happens when they make up.
There has to be SOME reason those two keep
getting back together- and this is it. The
constant fighting provides them an outlet for
their vast power, exercising it like how a man
may stretch his legs after sitting for too long.
They gain cultivation- in this case, the both of
them gain Wood cultivation- whenever they
engage in sudden, prolonged spats.
An Embarrassing Loss (Wood
Passion, Action Weakness)
Northern Jin can’t get over his humiliating loss
to that little whelp of a boy last year. It’s far
too easy to tease the seasoned warrior over the
hilarious fight- from the honest catastrophic
misunderstanding to the ignoble end, and then
there was that thing with the goat! Northern Jin
is sure to fly into a rage just at the boy’s name.
It looks like Northern Jin isn’t going to win
any battles anytime soon. If he doesn’t fly
into a rage at a foe’s taunts about the battle, he
suffers an Action penalty to all of his actions.
Northern Jin had best change his Combat
Condition to a Wood one if he wants to fix his
laughable reputation!
Soaring Heart (Fire Passion,
Action Hyperactivity)
There is nobody that excites Fallen Fang more
than his rival, Broken Tooth. The two hate each
other with such pure cleanness that they live for
the moments they can compete, cutting each other
to ribbons only to let the other go to fight another
day. What is more pure than the hate for a rival?
What is closer to love?
Fallen Fang gains an Action bonus whenever
he engages Broken Tooth in combat, or
otherwise plays up their rivalry. Broken Tooth
wouldn’t have it any other way- the two are
stronger for their hate.
Give All, Gain Nothing (Fire
Passion, Entanglement Weakness)
Late Sword can’t help but to shower her love with
pearls, jade, and silver. The greedy courtesan
keeps putting off Late Sword, keeping her just at
arm’s length and proclaiming a headache. Late
Sword has tried to step away and ignore her love,
but it just gets worse and worse, and results in…
anguished poetry. Nobody wants to read that.
Late Sword’s problems are a common one for
some members of the Wulin. If Late Sword
doesn’t consistently waste her money on the
courtesan, she’ll experience an Entanglement
penalty as she grows slowly more miserable and
withdrawn, unwilling to pay attention to the
rest of the world. Her love needs an outlet! At
the same time, the courtesan is bleeding her dry.
Mastering Dragon Chi (Earth
Passion, Elemental Conversion
Hyperactivity)
Houyi Sparrow knows that the secret to her kung
fu is her Dragon Chi, but she has yet to make
any good use of it. She tests herself on a daily
basis, obsessing over mastering the technique.
She doesn’t use any other teachings but this one,
causing her reserves of Earth chi to grow.
Houyi Sparrow’s obsession over mastering this
technique grants her bonus Earth Chi while
she uses it: a significant advantage! However,
any savvy opponent can see that she obsesses
over it and uses the technique to the exclusion
of any other. Shut that down and it will shut
Houyi Sparrow down.
Finding Blaze (Earth Passion,
Breath Weakness)
Serious Monkey must find his friend Roaring
Blaze soon. He’s sure his friend has been captured
by the Fire God and will be used to feed his
corrupt Fire Chi. Nothing else matters to him but
finding his friend, and he worries about it every
second of the day.
If Serious Monkey doesn’t obsess over Roaring
Blaze’s location every second, he’ll suffer a
Breath penalty. This is, of course, something
serious to him; it’s unlikely he’ll want to ignore
this condition. The Fire God wants this to
happen! It’ll make him that much easier to
distract from other things later.
125
 A Dishonored Family (Metal
Passion, Entanglement
Hyperactivity)
The Kao family has fallen on hard times. After
their youngest son was arrested by the Delegates
for treason against the Empire, they’ve been
stripped of their lands and all members sent
into exile. The oldest son, Kao Xi, has vowed to
restore his family at all costs! He travels Shen
Zhou, finding old friends of his deceased father
in an effort to drum up the support he needs to
reinstate his family’s honor.
Kao Xi receives bonus entanglement so long as
he tirelessly works at his chosen inspiration.
His father had many friends in the Wulin; one’s
sure to help Kao Xi on his quest!
The Scarlet Wedding (Metal
Passion, Elemental Conversion
Weakness)
The Red Bridesmaid has nobody to blame but
herself for the massacre at her wedding…
after all, she’s the one that slaughtered all the
guests. The former Sword Devil dresses in a
blood-stained white dress, and can barely get
through a single sentence without sobbing.
Don’t be fooled- she is just as murderous and
blood-thirsty as she was her wedding night.
The Red Bridesmaid, insane as she is, must
constantly weep and blubber over her
catastrophic wedding night. If she doesn’t, this
condition saps away her Metal Chi, leaving
her defenseless against all the people who seek
revenge against her.
126
I Will Not Disgrace My
Master (Water Passion, Breath
Hyperactivity)
Dripping Icicle has been trained by one of the
greatest masters of the Ice Sutra, Master Frozen
Forge. Rather than making him confident, he’s
afraid that he’ll somehow disgrace his master’s
teachings through a stupid mistake! This gets
especially bad whenever he’s facing someone less
powerful than him… he’s sure he’ll never be able
to speak to Master Frozen Forge again if he loses.
Dripping Icicle’s fear is a very useful thing.
So long as he plays up how terrified he is
of losing to his opponent (at least if they’re
not overwhelmingly powerful, of course)
or otherwise not making the best use of his
Master’s teachings, he regains chi breath.
It would be best for him to inflame this
Condition so that he can get a bonus to his
Water chi breath.
The Cannibal Cultists (Water
Passion, Cultivation Weakness)
Eager Collar can’t take two steps without
looking over her shoulder. She was kidnapped by
cannibals at a young age, raised to become a fine
meal. Even after her rescue, she’s terrified that
she’ll be found and consumed. Her rescuer and
friend Silk From Clay notes that it’s interfering
with her personal cultivation, and takes steps to
get rid of it!
Silk From Clay uses a Discovery to note this
Water Passion in Eager Collar, which reduces
her Cultivation unless she acts afraid of the Vile
Rain Cult at every possible opportunity. Why
would Silk From Clay do this? So that she can
immediately try to soothe it, of course! It’s good
to have some paranoia but Eager Collar is safe
now, and it’s time for her to move past this.
 PREDICTIONS
Finding the Old Manual
(Prediction, Action Hyperactivity)
Old Lu knows full well that someday, someone
will find his kung fu manual. Then they will
inherit one of the most powerful, yet most subtly
corrupt manuscripts ever designed. The old man’s
sorrow is great… but wait! He consults the I
Ching over and over until he finds what he needs.
He travels to a nearby Buddhist temple, placing it
with all the other minor holy relics. The I Ching
is never wrong: only Heavenly Heroes will find
his manual, and when they do the Yama Kings
will declare his punishment complete.
Old Lu’s Prediction states that only heroes
will find his manual. Anyone searching for
his manual will have a tough time of it, but
the Heaven Hunters will gain an Action bonus
whenever searching for it. Surely his manual
will fall in the right hands!
Victory in the Morning
(Prediction, Breath Hyperactivity)
The great peasant leader Spreading Branches
has consulted the omens, sacrificed to the gods,
and made great oaths seeking Heaven’s favor.
Pragmatically, he’s sent ahead scouts to watch
the enemy, set saboteurs to impede the enemy’s
progress, and has helped design a new type of
bow and arrow. He calls his men together and
declares that tomorrow there will be victory!
It’s up to the Sage how likely his victory is- but
if he beats the difficulty of the roll, it may be
very good indeed. Men fighting under his
banner for his victory will gain a bonus to their
Chi Breath.
A Master’s Power Only Grows
(Prediction, Cultivation
Hyperactivity)
Master Bi Wan has been cornered by the Black
Storm Buddha, and is only seconds away from
death. He declares that his murder at the Black
Storm Buddha’s hands will only improve his
kung fu, and that the Black Storm Buddha’s
actions are nothing more than a very delayed
suicide. Master Bi Wan’s words do not save
him, but the Black Storm Buddha now has
cause to worry.
Master Bi Wan’s student Righteous Killer of
Stars is the target of this Prediction, not the
Black Storm Buddha! The boy will grow
in Cultivation as he practices and perfects
Master Bi Wan’s kung fu, and eventually he
The Hungry Ghost Festival
(Prediction, Elemental Conversion
Hyperactivity)
The White-Haired Ghost Lord tends not to
be someone who enjoys… festivals. But this
Hungry Ghost Festival might be an exception.
The dour lord of the Hundred Ghost Faction
has reason to believe that the Marked Door
Society- a group of men who’re responsible for
murdering several of their members- will be
attending the festival. The White-Haired Ghost
Lord puts his plan into motion, sending several
of his society’s members into hiding, seeded
throughout the city. This is the time for ghosts,
after all, and the ghosts are hungry.
Normally Predictions don’t have a native
element, but this comes at the Sage’s
approval. First the Sage determines the
likelihood that members of the Marked Door
Society will attend the festival. This is fairly
127
 likely, as it’s a major holiday! A successful
roll means that all participating Hundred
Ghost Faction members skulking about the
city gain Metal chi for the duration of the
festival so long as they attempt to carry out
some kind of revenge against the Marked
Door Society.
You Will Live In Interesting
Times (Prediction, Entanglement
Hyperactivity)
Master Crimson Veil Minister’s hand recoils
from the young student, worry etched across
his brow. He apologizes, wincing- “You will
live in interesting times”- and then turns away,
hurrying down the hall. The young boy blinks.
Just what’s that supposed to mean?
Unless the young student resists Master
Crimson Veil Minister’s prediction (an unlikely
prospect- he is so young!) the student will
gain Entanglement every time he partakes in
Interesting Times. It seems this boy’s destiny is
going to get strange indeed.
The Untouchable Gift
(Prediction, Action Weakness)
It is said that Metal Goat was blessed by the
Three Powers Sage on his name-day. The Sage
said that when the sun is overhead and he casts
no shadow longer than he is high, he will be
almost untouchable in combat! How much of
Metal Goat’s fearsome prowess is thanks his
own skill, and how much is thanks to the Three
Powers Sage?
128
The Three Powers Sage no doubt left a hefty
Prediction on Metal Goat. So long as Metal
Goat’s shadow is no longer than he is high
and the sun is in the sky, opponents suffer a
penalty to all combat actions made against
him. Still, some hero has to be strong
enough to overcome the Prediction, and
there is always fighting him at night...
Controlling the Market
(Prediction, Breath Weakness)
The Stone Wolf heads a small part of the
criminal element of Magnificent Ink. He and
his hired goons have brokered a deal with
both the Resplendent Phoenix Society and
the Falling Leaves Society: for future consid-
erations and help they’ll drive out the Black
Lotus Society! Stone Wolf isn’t sure that they’ll
truly go along but he’s certain that with their
help his goons will be able to eject the Banes
from their fair city for good.
As long as the Phoenixes and Leaves play ball,
and Stone Wolf works with them, the Black
Lotus Society doesn’t stand a chance. Their
agents are sure to feel pressed to uselessness,
strangled slowly from three sides... unless they
beat this condition’s Recovery. And, of course,
it’s highly suspect that the Phoenixes and the
Leaves are going to play too nice. There’s
honor amongst thieves, but not between
thieves and gentlemen.
Iron Buddha’s Disapproval
(Prediction, Cultivation Weakness)
The Little Forest Sect has been robbed!
Nobody’s sure who did it or how a twenty-
foot iron Buddha could just disappear from
one of the monasteries. Abbot White Cloud
thinks this a poor omen. He declares that the
disappearance is a sign from Buddha of his
disapproval, and that unless the Iron Buddha
can be found, the Little Forest Sect will
languish. Some think this the superstitions of
an old man, but the intelligent understand that
he speaks in metaphor: the Little Forest Sect
cannot let such a brazen theft go unpunished.
If they do, maybe they deserve to slowly wither
away.
Abbot White Cloud is out to teach his
students a lesson! The stronger students
see right through his ruse, beating the low
Recovery of this technique and ignoring
the ill effects. The weaker ones find their
cultivation will dwindle to nothing unless
they get to the bottom of this and find
just where Abbot White Cloud has hidden
the Iron Buddha. Of course, some might
question the Abbot’s choice in a Cultivation
weakness but sometimes the stick works
better than the carrot.
A Beggar Lord’s Realization
(Prediction, Elemental Conversion
Weakness)
The Beggars of Only Six Devils have finally
pushed the Devil Wenzi too far. It isn’t like
he’s an evil man; the Beggars just like to have
fun. Still, kidnapping his bride and forcing her
to dance for them on a table on her wedding
night? That’s too much! He knows that the
Beggar Lord of Only Six Devils is a reasonable
man and so he predicts that soon he’ll wake
from his drunken stupor and realize what he’s
done. Then he’ll beg forgiveness and Devil
Wenzi will have him right where he wants him.
Normally Predictions don’t have a native
element, but this comes at the Sage’s
approval. The Devil Wenzi uses his Passion
and Inspiration Technique to create a
Prediction from the Beggar Lord’s Inspiration
of Worldliness. Should the Beggar Lord fail
his resistance roll, he’ll find his Wood Chi
isn’t working as it should… and he’ll know
that he’s done wrong. The Beggar Lord will
shower the happy couple with presents and
blessings if he knows what’s good for him.
Of course some of his number may resist
the Prediction, but they’ll fall in line fairly
quickly or risk getting on the bad side of
both Devil Wenzi and the Beggar Lord!
Stand Together Or Die
Alone (Prediction, Entanglement
Weakness)
The Black Snow Mantra cult rampages in from
the southwest, tearing apart town after town
and threatening the Imperial City itself! Abbot
Subtle Willow consults the stars and informs
the rest of the great societies that they must
elect a Wulin Mengzhu or the Mantra will
claim them all.
Abbot Subtle Willow’s Prediction is strong,
but people can still resist it by beating its
recovery. If they don’t, then they will lose
Entanglement whenever they take actions
against electing a new Wulin Mengzhu… or,
at the Sage’s approval, simply not taking any
active stance at all!
129
 CURSES AND
INFLUENCES
It’s a common complaint that Curses and
Influences are practically opaque to players.
Because of this we’ll be not only providing
conditions but also clarifying and explaining
each element.
Hostility of the Descendents
(Wood Curse, Action Bonus)
Wood Curses
Wood curses should deal with mundane pain,
danger, anger, and weakness. Think of them
as ways to encourage things to happen to a
character that already could come to pass. If
you want to make it more likely that arrows
should hit someone, to make them feel older
than they are, or to send a tense diplomatic
talk spiralling out of control, then Wood
curses are your condition of choice.

Xin Wude was forced to spend a night in a local

tomb, where he picked up an ancient trinket that
interested him. Perhaps this would be the key to
finding the secret location of the Sword Devils?
It just might, but the Sword Devils think he’s
Gory Hound. On dark and blustery days it still
defiled the grave! Any Sword Devil he shows the
pains him, though the doctors can find nothing
pendant to will take offense to practically any
physically wrong with it; at night he feels like his
word he says, and will likely grow more hostile to
enemy is watching him, waiting for him to die so
him every second.
they can fight on in the next life. It must not be
What has Xin Wude stumbled upon? It’s likely long now.
he’ll never find out- this odd curse gives him
Wei Sen experiences a cultivation penalty any
an Action Bonus to any attempt he may make
time this condition triggers, though he can
to insult or otherwise grievously anger the
avoid it if he doesn’t play out his phantom
Sword Devils. Of course, he can avoid this by
pain, black nostalgia, blacker mood, and
not trying to do so at all (though Interesting
endless repetition of the same old story.
Times may certainly foul things up), or by
Nobody wants to be around Wei Sen during
not showing them the pendant and keeping
a rainstorm, especially since they’re sick of
it secret. This may, however, be an excellent
hearing the old story and seeing the ugly scar.
starting point for a Priest to manipulate the
The old warrior has a foot in the grave anyway,
young swordsman.
so why bother listening?

Old War Wound (Wood Curse, Fire God’s Blessing (Fire Curse,
Cultivation Weakness)
Elemental Conversion Hyperactivity)
The old fighter Wei Sen has more scars than
The Fire acolyte Illuminated has performed above
years, and that is certainly saying something.
and beyond the Fire God’s already high expecta-
Worst of all of his scars is the elbow wound he
tions, spearheading a battle that defeated three
took just before he killed his greatest enemy, the
agents of the Liquid Metal Delegates and capturing

130
them all for the Fire Doctrine’s dark rituals. The
Fire God blesses Illuminated with a wave of his/
her divine hand, granting her greater spiritual
power in exchange for her continued service.
Illuminated gets additional Fire Chi so long as
she follows the Fire God’s every whim. There’s
very little reason she’d wish to avoid this, but if
she did, it would be as ‘simple’ as resisting the
Fire God’s commands.
Lazy Student’s Reward (Fire
Curse, Action Weakness)
Fisherman Li has slacked off far too much for
Master Copper Mask’s tastes. A demonstration is
in order. Master Copper Mask gives his student
five days to whip into shape, and then he’d fight
an exhibition match with another school’s pupil.
Fire Curses
Fire curses should be considered ‘curses in
disguise’. They usually provide some sort
of short term benefit; even the weaknesses
should have a positive aspect to them,
usually by encouraging a character to joyfully
follow the short-term goals they’re already
chasing and penalizing them in the sorrowful
long term. Either way the benefit probably
isn’t in the character’s best long-term
interest. If you want to encourage someone
to keep gambling on their hot streak so that
you can fleece them at a later date, to find
the gold on their property that will attract the
attention of the greedy Mayor Hao, or to win
battles and lose a war, then you should look
no farther than a Fire curse.
While Fisherman Li sleeps away the day, Master
Copper Mask places a harmless little curse on
his student. A little embarrassment will do his
student good.
This curse makes it easy for Fisherman Li to
slack off… but for a price. When the exhibition
match comes, Fisherman Li will find his body
failing him. He will act slower, his maneuvers
will have no effect, and he’ll be thoroughly
thrashed. Fisherman Li can, of course, realize
what’s going on far earlier (for the curse takes
effect right away) and then strive to practice
properly, in which case this condition will
fade naturally. Chances are, however, that
Fisherman Li won’t- he just found a really, really
nice fishing spot by that one pool…
The Chosen Champion (Earth
Curse, Breath Hyperactivity)
Wonder of wonders- the Windblade has been
selected as the chosen champion of Governor
Pi in a duel of honor! He’s not sure how he was
selected, since he’d never met Governor Pi, nor
is he sure about why the duel started in the first
place. All he knows is that if he wins this battle
he will become the Governor’s right-hand man
and will live a life of luxury. Unfortunately for
him, he doesn’t realize that Governor Pi picked
him for his good looks and the chance to bed
him… and that he’s nowhere near as competent in
either arena as Governor Pi imagines.
This curse is seductive, granting the
Windblade a bonus to his Chi Breath whenever
he takes up Governor Pi’s banner. Unfortu-
nately for him, he’ll soon realize he’s out of
his depth. In order to survive he’ll need every
advantage he can get, and part of that will be
this curse, forcing him into greater and greater
trouble until something breaks.
131

Earth Curses
Earth curses can be summarized as curses of
obsessive self-deception. A good Earth curse
essentially presents someone with a beautiful
house made of rotten timber. If you want
to allow a hermit to confuse a hero with a
fantasy of their idealized world, to convince
the oafish Big Ox that he has defeated a
mighty hero instead of a scared peasant, or
to mislead someone into walking blindly into
a situation, an Earth curse is your best tool.
Delusions of Grandeur (Earth
Curse, Entanglement Weakness)
5th Interior Minister Bo works feverishly in his
studio, creating fine works of art to present to
the finest art critics of the empire. He refuses to
show anyone his work, and so nobody can correct
his flaws or deflate his expanding ego. Bit by
bit he grows more puffed up, alienating friends
and family alike with unprovable tales of his
incredible artistic abilities.
5th Interior Minister Bo suffers an Entangle-
ment weakness whenever he puffs himself
up- slowly but surely sapping any benefits
he might gain from presenting at the art
exhibition. Of course Bo may always cease the
posturing and meekly present his art, but that’s
what his rival is counting on… the judges
favor boldness!
132
Presentiment of Evil (Metal
Curse, Cultivation Hyperactivity)
Heigou the Butcher, foul practitioner of blood
sorcery, can only smile as the grief-stricken Raven
Scholar rages over the death of her student,
Anwei. For while the Raven Scholar may be a
potent adversary, Heigou calls upon the power of
the fallen man’s blood to lead the Scholar down
the path of revenge.
Using a special toolset, Heigou levels a
powerful curse on the Raven Scholar.
Instead of inflicting a weakness, however,
it increases the Scholar’s cultivation--but
only so long as the Scholar single-mindedly
pursues revenge, thereby leading her down
the path toward banefulness.
Ravaged Collection (Metal
Curse, Elemental Conversion
Weakness)
Rabid Dog Jin has always known that his
crimes would catch up with him, but he wasn’t
expecting justice to arrive so soon… or so
subtly! The once-genteel Blade Dog has always
found solace in his books, and now he’s found his
books have been eaten by some species of worm.
Every new book he adds to his collection is eaten
within a week, including the very book that
would explain to him how to solve this problem.
His ardor for his collection dampens and he
sinks into a deep depression, knowing that his
one last great joy is gone.
Rabid Dog Jin has Metal Chi which manifests
as a form of greed, focusing on building and
expanding his library… the only thing left of his
previous life. This weakness triggers whenever
he attempts to fulfill his Chi deviation, for he
knows that it’ll only get eaten by the supernat-

Metal Curses
Metal curses are curses of the supernatural,
the bereaved, and the unaccountable. A
good Metal curse has no rhyme or reason.
Anyone but a Priest who looks at the chain
of events related to a Metal curse should be
flummoxed: they seem to make no sense!
If you want to cause a good man to slowly
turn evil, to plague a house with luck so evil
that songs are afraid to mention their name,
or to terrify the world, a Metal curse should
call to you.
ural curse; it converts points of his Metal Chi to
Normal Chi. However, if he tries to ignore his
compulsion to add to his library, he no longer
gains the ability to respire Metal Chi.
The Long Slide (Water Curse,
Entanglement Hyperactivity)
Abbot Spider Wolf is very interested in a Daoist
named Yarrow Blade. Her skill and the bloody
impatience he sees in her would make her a fine
protege… or, failing that, a finer meal. But she
is too close to the Dragon Well, and he needs to
get her out of their protection. He places a dark
curse on Yarrow Blade, cursing her to make all the
right decisions at the wrong times. Every step she
makes towards a perfect solution to her problems
will ultimately end up driving a wedge between her
and the Dragon Well, pushing her towards the Vile
Rain Cult! The teacher she chooses to enhance her
kung fu may hate the Daoists; the young girl she
rescues begs her to rescue her mother on the other
side of Shen Zhou; killing the twisted Delegate
brings the wrath of his brothers upon her, forcing
her to go into hiding away from the Dragon Well.
Every time Yarrow Blade finds the ‘perfect
solution’ to her problems- something the Sage
determines to be a sufficiently rational course
of action- it builds Entanglement towards the
Vile Rain Cult. Yarrow Blade can of course
choose to make subpar choices if she wants to
avoid a confrontation with the cult.
Returning To a Lover’s Arms
(Water Curse, Breath Weakness)
Chiang’s fiance has been missing for far too
long. Their battle with the Glacier Maiden has
taken days, and Chiang’s worry is practically
palpable to the old monster. So Chiang’s fiance
feels the weight of his worry: a strangling
Water Curses
Water curses are curses of fear, distance,
and ultimately attraction. Ideally they
should drive a person away from one
discrete thing, hopefully driving it into
another thing of your choice (if you
can arrange it properly). Preparation is
important for a water curse: like a water
droplet, your target will likely try to join
with something else, so it’s important to
provide them somewhere to go. If you
want to woo an opponent to your side, to
split the Heaven Sword Alliance, or to keep
anyone from finding the Imperial Seal, then
prepare a Water curse.
133
 longing to return to Chiang, to rest in his arms
once more, to end the fight and just flee.
This is an excellent Curse to apply to
Chiang’s fiance as a result of a Priest’s Quick
Work. The curse drives Chiang’s fiance away
from Glacier Maiden: if she fights her, it
cuts off chi just when she needs it the most.
She can always run, of course, and regain her
ability to breathe properly. The urge to run
away must be irresistible!
Sweet Reading Works With
Her Hands (Wood Influence,
Entanglement Hyperactivity)
Sweet Reading is well-known amongst the
Resplendent Phoenix Society to be a ‘poisonous
flower’- beautiful, yes, but with a personality so
vile it’s a wonder anyone can stand to be in the
same room with her. Her superiors decide that it’s
time that Sweet Reading gains a little humility!
They place a Wood Influence on her, driving her
away from her apartments on Mirror Lake and
into the city. There she will work with the poor
and the disadvantaged, learning empathy and
becoming a better Phoenix for it.
This Entanglement hyperactivity gives Sweet
Reading extra Entanglement in the Resplen-
dent Phoenix Society so long as she goes out
into the city, attempting to improve the lives
of others besides herself. Unfortunately Sweet
Reading really doesn’t want to get her hands
dirty, and is much more likely to climb the
ranks of the Phoenixes through other avenues.
134
New Avenues of Attack (Wood
Influence, Action Weakness)
Abbot Subtle Willow is disappointed with General
Zheng’s campaign against the northern barbar-
ians. They have nothing worth besieging, no
forces they can meet in open combat. As spiritual
advisor to the General, the Abbot suggests that
maybe new strategies should be considered- say,
diplomatic overtures? General Zheng refuses
and comes up with a new plan… that fails! And
another… that also fails! Eventually General
Zheng gives up and sends his diplomat.
The General has a choice: ignore this Wood
Influence and suffer a penalty to all rolls made
to formulate his tactical plans, or go along with
the influence and actually get some results for
the Emperor. He doesn’t have the time to keep
bashing his head against a brick wall!
Wood Influences
Wood influences make someone want to
expand in new directions, often encouraging
benevolent behavior or results. Think of
them as plants: sending roots, branches,
leaves and vines wherever there is space.
They make excellent Entanglement
conditions. If you want to make a tragic
villain consider redemption, to soften a
warlord’s heart towards his subjects, or to
speed up the rate that your uncultivated
student learns kung fu, then consider a
Wood influence.

Fire Influences
Fire influences are the chosen influences of
the zealot, intensifying existing behaviors
and goals. They target something that is
already there and magnify it further. The
magnified thing may change, but it should
still be recognizable from its beginning
point. If you want to gradually turn
someone’s affection to true love, to turn a
rabble into a hardened army, or to make a
pretty village girl into the Emperor’s new
courtesan, then try a Fire influence.
The Ink Stone (Fire Influence,
Action Hyperactivity)
Third Dragon Princess is only a middling
artist… but her mother, Empress Stingary, has
presented her with what she claims is a magical
ink stone that will enhance her art. At first
Third Dragon Princess is skeptical, but her
masterful brush strokes soon put her fears to
doubt. Now even the false Emperor is clamoring
for one of her original works!
The Mad Monk’s Monologue
(Fire Influence, Cultivation
Weakness)
The Mad Monk Mengdao mainly makes
matters murkier with his manic mumbling
meanderings. Merely mentioning the Mad
Monk Mengdao’s madness makes the monk
mutter malevolently, mostly because he
manifestly makes merriment in men’s moans
of mystification. Miserably, the Mad Monk
Mengdao’s monologuing might be minimizing
his mystical might...
Whew! Blind Fu is sick of the Mad Monk
Mengdao’s alliteration, and so are we!
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This man is too crazy to be anything good,
and he’ll just get crazier. Blind Fu places a
Fire Influence weakness on the Mad Monk,
sapping away his cultivation the more the
man decides to torture the language with
alliteration. The crazier he gets, the weaker
he gets; alternatively, maybe the Mad Monk
will realize just what’s happened and he’ll
tone it down to avoid the Cultivation
penalty. Either way, Blind Fu wins.

This provides Third Dragon Princess with

an action bonus related to her art whenever
she uses the magical ink stone. How much
of the inkstone’s power is magic and how
much is just Third Dragon Princess’s boosted
confidence is up to debate, but no one can
deny her art is transcendent. Will she lean on
the ink stone as a crutch, or will she come to
realize her artistry was always inside of her?

135

Earth Influences
Earth influences are often the influence
of choice of generals and the faithful
Liquid Metal Delegates. Earth influences
encourage new behavior, but unlike the
wild growth of a Wood influence, an Earth
influence has a specific focus. Think of
Earth influences as digging holes in a field,
looking for treasure: it may be slow and
arduous, but it forces you to be methodical
and when you fill the holes back up in the
end it seems you have more soil than you
started with. If you want to encourage
your students towards Enlightenment by
carefully considering your cryptic words, to
plan your attack against the jungle tribes
of the South, or to get to the bottom of
Master Zhou’s supposed treason, then
weave an Earth influence.
136
Sergeant Xi’s Service (Earth
Influence, Elemental Conversion
Hyperactivity)
Sergeant Xi is well-known for his dedication to
his commander. The grizzled, cunning soldier
considers every possible order his commander
gives him, and then surprises him by fulfilling
the intent of the order and not just the letter.
More than one commander has been surprised by
the lowly sergeant’s thoughtful dedication, and
even more have been surprised by his curiously
powerful Earth style.
So long as Sergeant Xi’s character pays very
close attention to his commander’s orders and
then carefully fulfills them, exceeding their
expectations, he gains extra Earth chi. Of
course, reading the intent of his commanders
isn’t something that’s particularly easy… but
it’s well worth it, especially later on when
fighting on the battlefield!
Flower Refuses to Blossom
(Earth Influence, Entanglement
Weakness)
Songbird Mei is heartbroken. No matter how
hard she tries, she cannot win her mother’s
approval… and that’s something she’ll need
to rise in the Phoenix’s ranks. Night by night
she agonizes, trying to find a way to improve
her weak kung fu and finally get her mother to
respect her. Soon she hits upon a plan: tomorrow
she will speak with the visiting member of the
Heaven Sword Alliance, begging him to take her
on as a pupil and teach her Jade Spirit Sword.
Surely that is the right course of action?
Songbird Mei suffers under an Earth influence
that detracts from her Entanglement any time
she refuses to methodically think of a way to
improve her kung fu. This is, of course, her
mother’s intent when she prepared the influence:
the girl’s chi is sword chi at its core, a present
from her father. Eventually Songbird Mei had to
realize that only a member of the Heaven Sword
Alliance could teach her properly!
Slow and Steady (Metal
Influence, Cultivation Hyperactivity)
Ten Rocks often finds himself lagging behind his
rival, the Eagle Talon Gao. Gao keeps finding
new and better teachers, learning new techniques
and skills at a prodigious rate. Ten returns to
his nomadic tribe to speak with his shaman, who
informs him that mountains do not seem to move-
but they do so nonetheless. After a long ritual,
the shaman informs Ten Rocks that he need only
to continue on his own path. The way ahead may
be littered with defeats but in the end Ten Rocks
will endure and win.
A barbarian like Ten Rocks can’t hope to match
Gao’s resources and connections. He can only
hope to remain true to himself. So long as Ten
Rocks maintains his current training regimen,
keeps to his own ideals and refuses to compro-
mise himself, he will gain in cultivation. This
may not be the fastest way to gain strength but
it is a sure one.
Follow The Rules (Metal
Influence, Breath Weakness)
Feng Ang-lai solves most of his problems with
violence, so it was no surprise to Snakewolf
that her rejection of him would lead to a duel
at sundown. The jilted Feng Ang-lai decided to
arrange the duel all nice and proper, something
Snakewolf sniggers at. She inflicts a Metal
Influence on her opponent, forcing him to behave
according to the rules and strictures of the duel
Metal Influences
Metal influences are influences of proper
care and consolidation. It is not an influence
of stagnation! Someone acting under a
Metal influence wishes to properly stay the
course, to not add or do anything new but
to remain as permanent and timeless as a
bronze statue. Yes, metal may diminish by
corrosion with time, but it may last a very
long time before it becomes useless. If you
want to ensure the simple majesty of your
great family, to maintain your stranglehold
on the pepper trade, or to ensure you don’t
get entangled in any feuds, then you could
do far worse than a Metal influence.
he arranged. Too bad for him the Blood Wind
Cultist believes in playing dirty!
This isn’t a good situation for Feng Ang-lai!
Maybe he shouldn’t have insulted that Blood
Wind Cultist. Feng Ang-lai is forced to behave
according to the rules of the duel, even when
it’s clear that Snakewolf has no intention to
play along. What does Snakewolf care about
Shen Zhou’s little rules? If Feng Ang-lai breaks
them, he suffers a breath weakness! It looks
like her would-be suitor will be in for a very
enlightening battle.
137

Water Influences
Water influences seek to put a stop to
something entirely. When someone is
dominated by something in their life, their
life is out of balance and that thing must
be excised! In a way, they are very similar
to Water curses. The difference between
the two is that Water influences are more
internally based: they are a character’s active
rejection instead of a curse’s more passive,
external separation. If you want to cause
the Emperor to exile his scheming advisor,
to make a warrior lay down his sword and
swear to kill no more, or to finally convince
yourself to drop your grudge against
Beautiful Mei, then a Water influence may be
your only recourse.
The Forbidden Technique
(Water Influence, Breath
Hyperactivity)
Master Cao refuses to use his ancient family
technique, the Stone Cattle Knuckle. It is said
that it could kill even the toughest of fighters with
one blow! His students beg him to use it against
his opponent, the corrupt Blood Gnat, but still he
refuses. “The technique lessens me; it makes me
a smaller man.”
The Best Restraint (Water
Influence, Elemental Conversion
Weakness)
The Five Hell Wolf and her niece Little Shrike have
been captured by the local garrison. Little Shrike
has proven to be a model prisoner, but the Five Hell
Wolf has nearly escaped out of her cells four times.
Unbending Hua realizes that Five Hell Wolf’s grasp
of the five elements allows her amazing flexibility
in her attempts to escape the prison, so she
places a Water influence on the woman, making
her realize that the more she tries to escape the
more likely Little Shrike will be punished for her
transgressions. Then Unbending Hua prepares the
cell against all normal forms of escape as well as
four out of five of the elements.
Five Hell Wolf has used her elemental chi to
improvise cunning Shaping Waves to escape
out of the prison, and has yet to use Water.
Unbending Hua’s influence tries to convince
Five Hell Wolf to give up trying to escape- but
if she ignores it, it takes away her Water Chi in
the first place. Either way, the Five Hell Wolf
is finally trapped.

Master Cao’s refusal to use the Stone Cattle

Knuckle may be more complicated than a desire
to spare Blood Gnat’s life! Not using his most
powerful technique provides him with a Breath
bonus, allowing him to use his other kung fu
techniques with abandon… and keeps anyone
else from observing (and thus learning) it.

138
 Entanglement whenever he doesn’t work
PROJECTS more artistry into his project… something
he’s not sure he can even fit in.
An Evil Nose For Wine (Wood
Project, Action Hyperactivity)
The Skilled Laborer (Fire
Beggar Ching is a well-known brewer from Project, Entanglement Hyperactivity)
Stone Drunk Town. Drinking wine is like
General Diyu didn’t expect his head laborer to be
diving into a portrait, painted by a mad
so… competent. In his experience they’re greedy,
doomsday prophet high on Dragon Thunder
subversive little fellows who’re more interested in
Balls. His is not the wine of gentlemen, but of
petty power than their work. Every time Diyu
rapscallions and rogues and people who hate
investigates the grounds, Head Laborer Qing has
knowing their own name. Nobody’s quite sure
methodically added a new tower, or a cunning
how he does it, though if asked he’ll sometimes
moat, or worked out a new way to construct the
inquire if they know where to find some dead
main gate. General Diyu looks at her in a new
headless cockroaches.
light, and plans to promote her to his army’s
The secret to Beggar Ching’s wine is his use engineering corps.
of eclectic ingredients. He knows just what
How odd! Usually things don’t play out this
to add to his wine to make it a dark work of
way, but why complain? Obviously Head
art, and every jar he makes is different from
Laborer Qing is supremely competent. Yes,
the last. Beggar Ching gains the benefit of an
those items weren’t in the plans, but Qing
Action Bonus whenever his latest project gains
knows what she’s doing. Diyu’s Project gains
the benefit of unique, disgusting ingredients
Entanglement whenever he gives Qing free
added at just the right time and place.
reign in her work, making the project move
much faster.
The Emperor’s Decree (Wood
Project, Entanglement Weakness)
Meddling Secretary (Fire
Woe to poor Cub Tian! The Emperor has rejected Project, Action Weakness)
the plans to his latest project, a building for
Ruby Smile has decided to delay the construc-
Fourth Level bureaucrats. His Chief Architect
tion of Lord Nu Kai’s illegal tea plantation.
has decreed that Cub Tian’s design should reflect
How best to do it? Ruby Smile knows the
the majesty of the Emperor of the Jin, forcing Cub
Secretary of Agriculture quite intimately, and
Tian to start over from scratch. He whimpers
he agrees to help slow down Lord Nu Kai’s
and gets back to work, knowing that if he fails
expansion. The evil Lord is beset on all sides
he’ll lose his head.
by nagging bureaucrats. They snatch land
Pity poor Cub Tian- the Chief Architect is from him in the Secretary’s name, declare his
jealous and has sabotaged him before he tea bushes to be of subpar quality, and even cut
even got started. Cub Tian’s plan was exact, into his labor pool by transferring slaves to
down to the smallest tile. Now he has to other districts.
rework it almost from scratch. He loses

139
 Lord Nu Kai’s found himself a potent enemy in
Ruby Smile. Lord Nu Kai can, of course, play
along with the bureaucrats- something that
grates on his sanity and distracts him from his
work. However, if he tries to ignore them, they’ll
surely bring the full might of their department
on his head, represented as an Action penalty
to his Craft roll. Either way, he ends up with a
smaller crop or a lower quality one.
Da’s Specialty (Earth Project,
Action Hyperactivity)
Daoist Da has drawn the taijitu enough times he
can do it perfectly with his eyes closed. While
most would question the utility of this skill, he
finds it’s extremely useful whenever he’s making
the talismans requested by the rest of the Dragon
Well Sect. Abbot Subtle Willow has stopped
making his own talismans, and now only uses
those made by Da: a huge honor!
Making talismans may seem to be a poor use
of a Project condition, but mass-producing
Quality talismans for Priests is actually a big
deal! With this Action bonus granted for
drawing the taijitu, Da can dash off dozens
of Quality talismans in almost no time at all.
140
A Patron’s Duties (Earth
Project, Entanglement Weakness)
The Sword Devil Nuo refuses to do any work
for her future patrons unless they provide
her with the traditional gifts. She requires
eight-week dragon brains the first week,
ginseng the second; an apple resting on a gold
ingot the third, a black kitten the fourth; and
any time after that the patron is required to
provide her with dinner and conversation.
Failure to meet any one of her requirements
results in a cold forge!
There is no way Nuo will work on her project
unless her patron showers her in the gifts that
are her due. This Project condition is placed
on her patron, and while he could ignore her
demands she simply won’t gain any Entangle-
ment. Worse, she may actively destroy her
own work! It’s far easier just to give in to her
demands. Of course, where in the thousand
hells is a man supposed to find eight-week
dragon brains?! Better head to Only Six
Devils… where the patron will likely find it’s
merely a type of aromatic spice.
© RLee 2014
Cub Tian’s Great Work (Metal
Project, Entanglement Hyperactivity)
Woe to poor Cub Tian! His original project
was based on the old techniques of men who
were contemporaries to Confucius. Every tile
must be put in its proper place, every corner
pointing in the right direction, every bit of it
aligned to the subtlest flows of feng shui. Now
the Emperor wants him to… ugh… embellish.
This was Cub Tian’s original Project,
requiring an inhuman degree of planning
and slavish devotion to the old forms in an
effort to impress the Falling Leaves Society.
He gains Entanglement as long as he keeps
to these old forms, progressing his Project.
Unfortunately he has also been hit with The
Emperor’s Decree from earlier, meaning his
Project is likely to stall out!
The Weight’s Off (Metal
Project, Action Weakness)
Siege Engineer Big Boulder has slaved over his
newest siege engine for two weeks, and he just
can’t figure out what’s gone wrong. He’s certain
he got the weight of the counterweight just right,
but it keeps falling apart anyway. Has his idiot
son gotten the wrong kind of wood? Maybe he
needs the stone from the Yellow Creek instead of
Falling Tears River?
Something’s gone wrong in Big Boulder’s math.
Maybe it has to do with his other materials?
Big Boulder’s Project suffers an Action penalty
whenever he doesn’t use the right materials
and he doesn’t find the right weight of ballast
in the counterweight. He’ll need it absolutely
perfect to satisfy his patron!
High Quality Ore (Water
Project, Action Hyperactivity)
Gentle Hammer was surprised to find that the
iron he bought in the market was surprisingly
pure. It barely needed any work at all to turn
into steel. While it won’t make a stronger sword,
it will certainly make a more beautiful one… or
Gentle Hammer can speed up his project by quite
a bit of time as well.
The bonus provided by using this high
quality iron adds to Gentle Hammer’s final
Craft roll. He can use it to boost the quality
of the sword or he can rush the project,
using the Action bonus to override the
project’s Difficulty modifier.
A Greater Distraction (Water
Project, Entanglement Weakness)
Elephant Ear Wen can’t keep a patron. Every
time he starts to work on one thing, he keeps
getting drawn back to his pet project: a
working flying machine! Every little commis-
sion he takes depresses him and drives him
back towards his labor of love, often at the
advice of his cousin- “Do what you love and
damn the consequences!”. Eventually Elephant
Ear Wen will drive himself into utter poverty if
he can’t focus.
Elephant Ear Wen suffers this Entanglement
penalty any time he deviates from his current
job and goes back to his flying machine. At
this rate, he’ll get nothing done; he needs to
focus on one thing at a time. No doubt this is
the fault of his scheming cousin, who wants
the plans of the flying machine for himself!
141
 SAGE’S GUIDE
GENERAL
ADVICE
INTERNAL KUNG FU
OUTSIDE COMBAT
The Secret Arts are Wulin’s answer to ‘how
do I deal with out of combat actions’,
which makes certain Internal Kung Fu
styles problematic- specifically Removing
Concepts from the core book. Techniques
such as Clarity in Openness can potentially
be used outside of combat to provide a boost
to Secret Arts and other utility rolls that
no other character can easily match. Some
other styles can deal with this better than
others; Boundless Prosperity Manual has
protection from Doctors, for instance, while
Eight Legends has some protection from
Priests. Unfortunately this means that most
Secret Artists find themselves shoehorned
into Removing Concepts because it’s far, far
too good to pass up.
There are four major schools of thought to
how to handle Internal kung fu outside of
combat. We’ve compiled them all together
for you to peruse, including both their pros
and their cons:
1) No restrictions.
Some people believe that this makes Removing
Concepts work in general: one of its draws is
that it is indeed an excellent style for Secret
Artists and pure utility. It also allows for
142
significant design space for other homebrew
styles. This does mean that the aforemen-
tioned flaws go unresolved.
2) Additional requirements.
Another option is to require additional
requirements to the use of Internals outside
of combat. These requirements are meant to
reflect the concentration a character may need
to consistently use a technique over a longer
time frame or just to add some balance to the
way out of combat actions act. Internal styles
are, after all, mostly punctuated ‘burst’ effects
that occur over a split-second timeframe.
Some suggestions include:
Treat a scene as a round. Your chi does not
regenerate until the end of the scene, making
it very possible to run out of chi before you
can finish the rules. This is best used for
extended skill contests, such as a dancing
competition. Unfortunately, it’s also very
common for a non-combat scene to only
have one or two rolls (especially for scenes
revolving around the Secret Arts).
Require the use of a Minor Action on the
skill roll to use the technique. This eats up
a set of dice, making the player carefully
consider if they really want a bonus to a
roll when they want two or three sets to
spend on different Discoveries. The flaw in
this approach is that even at low ranks it’s
possible to get a lot of sets, and it may not
have much of an impact.
Require the use of Joss to use the technique.
Joss can be used to represent the long-term
consequences of using the technique,
including avoiding giving off too much Chi or
maintaining the concentration necessary over
long periods. It also provides a meaningful
restraint that carries over to any combat
afterwards. This suggestion’s flaw is that the
Joss use may not make as much sense in-story,
and some Sages and players may consider even
a single Joss use to be too high.
3) No Internal Kung Fu.
Many simply decide that Internal kung fu
shouldn’t be allowed outside of combat.
This vastly simplifies things and keeps
people from getting too confused about
additional rules you might make. In-game
it can fall flat: a rank 4 character can spam
a level 2 or 3 technique almost indefinitely
with basic chi use alone, so why can’t they
suddenly use that technique?
4) GM Fiat.
What the GM says, goes! Certain Internal
techniques certainly seem to work fine
and might be useful- like the Jade Tiger
Techniques- so why not allow them? Why
not let someone improvise a long-term effect
with Elemental Chi or beguile a governor
with Eyes Away From Heaven? If someone’s
abusing Clarity in Openness, shut it down!
That said, many players do not enjoy GM
Fiat and a learned Sage will have to be
careful and consistent with its use.
HOW TO
HANDLE DEEDS
Deeds are one of Legends of the Wulin’s
finest and most distinctive features; they
encourage players and Sages to show
appreciation for other players’ entertaining
roleplay, while also serving as an ingenious
advancement mechanism--players
themselves don’t get to decide how their
characters Deeds translate into entangle-
ment with the world. But perhaps it’s the
very distinctiveness of the mechanism
that can make Deeds sometimes fall flat
in play. Sometimes it can allow players
to take a ‘Monty Haul’ approach with
each other, larding one another with the
best techniques, legendary weapons, and
favorable ties to other factions; sometimes
it can lead to the opposite problem, where
players give Deeds based on the the lowest-
rated Virtues; but most often, players seem
to be reluctant to award Deeds, and to have
difficulty in spending the resulting entangle-
ment--especially if the game is using Novel
or Movie pace, where the awards are doubled
or tripled, respectively.
With regard to the first two problems, in the
best of circumstances, a conversation at the
table about what Deeds are supposed to do
and reflect ought to help temper excesses;
in any case, Sages ought to feel free to
‘overrule’ a Deed--either the Virtue for which
it was awarded, the Entanglement that was
awarded, or even (in rare circumstances)
the Deed itself. In the latter circumstance,
where players are hesitant to award Deeds
and unsure about how to spend the
Entanglement awarded, we recommend the
143
 following: regardless of the advancement
pace of the game (Trilogy, Novel, or Movie),
Deeds awarded by players should only ever
grant the Virtue score in Entanglement. If
the Sage thinks that a particular Deed is
especially significant, they can ‘top off’ the
award by granting additional Entanglement
equal to the Virtue score. (There is no reason
why players can’t top off awards given by
the Sage, or even by other players.) By
keeping the amount of awards low, there’s
less pressure for players to think up fitting
awards; and as always, the Sage can chime in
with suggestions.
Sages might also want to consider relaxing
the rule that each player can award one
Deed/chapter or session. While the rationale
for this rule is clear--to avoid the Monty
Haul problem--it can sometimes function
to make players gun-shy about awarding
Deeds, especially early on in the chapter.
If a Sage wants to remove this barrier, they
can allow each player to award one deed
per other player per chapter; while there’s a
risk of Deeds becoming too commonplace in
those circumstances, it might very well make
players less gun-shy, and Sages should, in
those circumstances, be more sparing in the
Deeds that they award themselves.
144
HOUSERULING
This section revolves around little modifi-
cations you can make to the game to tweak
it just to your liking. These differ from
Hotfixes in that they cause more drastic,
wide-spread changes to the game as a whole.
Either the problem the Houserule deals with
is not commonly considered an issue or its
implementation is not widely accepted.
Taming Elemental Chi
It didn’t take long for the more mechanical-
ly-inclined among the Legends of the Wulin
fan community to notice something about
character creation: characters who choose an
elemental style, and respire elemental chi as
a result, are at a significant advantage versus
those who choose a normal style. How much
of a problem this is depends on the tastes of
a given group. For some, gaining extra power
at the cost of becoming a freak fits into their
image of wuxia perfectly, and any imbalance
between those who start with special chi and
those who don’t isn’t regarded as a bug. For
others, whatever they think of the genre-ap-
propriateness of elemental chi, the size of the
gap between special-chi users and others is
a significant problem with the system that
requires a solution.
Whatever your own opinion, there’s agreement
about this much:
For standard starting characters, elemental
chi is a significant advantage. Gaining an
additional chi per round, one that counts
double for the purposes of what’s almost
certainly your main internal style, is the
equivalent of an extra major breath bonus.
Although elemental chi costs (current score
x5) for each point after the first, it’s not until
the 6th point of elemental chi that it becomes
more costly than an equivalent point of normal
chi. (The fifth and sixth points of elemental chi
require 55 and 80 cultivation, respectively; the
fifth and sixth points of normal chi above the
starting ten require 60 and 75 cultivation.) By
contrast, enlightened and corrupt chi already
become more costly than normal chi at the
third point.
The more advanced the characters, the less
significant of an advantage elemental chi
provides. When you can afford to invest in
multiple styles, the opportunity cost of picking
a non-elemental style decreases sharply.
How much of a counter-balance chi deviations
provide depends largely on how willing a given
Sage is to make them disadvantages. And even
then, from one perspective, deviations are
themselves bonuses; the more a Wulin Sage is
willing to focus on them as disadvantages, the
more spotlight the ‘deviant’ receives. (This is
the logic, after all, of charging players for their
Disadvantages.)
Again, whether or not you think elemental chi
requires ‘taming’ is a matter of opinion; that
said, it’s a widely-enough held opinion that we
feel it would be a service to the community to
provide a number of possible ways to decrease
the advantage of choosing elemental styles
over non-elemental styles. (For the purposes
of what follows, I’m assuming that the rules
for corrupt and enlightened chi will remain
as written; aside from the first suggested
houserule, nothing below impacts those rules.)
(1) Remove elemental chi
entirely.
The most radical solution is to remove the
concept of elemental chi entirely. In one
respect, this is a simple change; however, it
does require a changes to Corrupt Chi (since
its major use is counting double for any
elemental style) several loresheet bonuses and
kung fu techniques, and it obviates one kind of
chi condition entirely. Whether it’s a solution
that appeals to a given group will depend
largely on whether they enjoy the existence of
elemental chi in the setting.
(2) Give every style an elemental
aspect.
Another radical solution, this fixes the
imbalance in starting characters by removing
the option to be without elemental chi.
Under this approach, styles that currently
cultivate normal chi would be given elemental
(or corrupt) affiliation: Nine Sun Birds, for
instance, would likely become a Fire Style,
while Jade Sword Spirit might become Metal,
etc. The appeal of this solution will depend
on whether having every character possess a
deviation fits with their image of the setting.
It should also be borne in mind that, because
possessing elemental chi of one type sharply
increases the costs of cultivation the types it
controls or is controlled by, players may need
to think much more carefully about which
styles they choose.
(3) Remove elemental
cultivation.
A slightly less radical solution is to retain
elemental chi and retain the elemental affilia-
tion of some styles, but to remove the concept
of elemental cultivation. Under this rule,
145
 normal and elemental styles both cultivate
normal chi, and the only way to gain elemental
chi is through an elemental conversion
hyperactivity, where the maximum elemental
chi you can hold is based on the strength of
the condition (2 for a minor condition and 3
for a major).
In my current game, I’ve used a
version of this rule: only elemental
conversion conditions create
elemental chi, where deviations result from
maintaining such conditions.
(4) Change Normal Chi
Respiration
Sages can choose to increase the normal chi
respiration of those without elemental chi
(and perhaps corrupt chi, as well) by 1. While
it’s still an advantage to respire special chi,
this decreases the benefit to the equivalent
of a minor breath condition. This fix does
not, however, address normal vs elemental
cultivation.
I personally prefer running my game
as-written, but if I wanted to tame
Elemental Chi I’d probably run this
combined with the smaller fix 5a.
(5) Smaller Fixes
These are relatively minor changes to the way
elemental chi works, and are generally useful
in combination, as supplements to one of the
more significant changes above, or as a minor
tweak if the group is generally happy with the
rules as written.
(a) Treat the Chi Deviation as a ‘free’
condition
On page 229 of the rule book, it’s
recommended that “each Secret Artist
PC should be able to maintain one
146
near-permanent beneficial Chi Condition
per Rank level without the Sage messing
with it.” Treating a chi deviation as one of
these ‘free’ beneficial conditions gives those
who choose to forego elemental styles a
small bit of extra flexibility. If a character
has as many or more Deviations than she
is allowed free conditions, then she simply
has no free conditions; there is no other
disadvantage.
‘Free’ conditions are very,
very important to an effective
character build… especially for
those delicious Action Bonuses. With this
rule, doubling up on Elemental Chi early
on won’t just shoot a character in the foot,
it may very well blow the character’s foot
off. That might sound like a bad thing, but
it does keep people from going nuts with
the elemental Chi until later Ranks, which
is sorta the point.
(b) Alter Chi Deviations
Treat Chi Deviations (either in general,
or mutations only) as Entanglement
Weaknesses; this gives them a definite
mechanical drawback, rather than acting as
spotlight-attracting Disadvantages.
I’m using this rule in my
current game, with the rules
for Entanglement Weaknesses
presented in the hotfix section.
(c) Decrease Elemental Chi Utility
A common but minor fix is to not count
elemental chi toward chi threshold. This
makes some sense in-genre, and can
become a significant debility if a character
focuses on elemental cultivation to the
exclusion of other kinds, but it’s widely
agreed that this rule on its own does very
little to close the gap in utility.
One Technique Per Someone in Nine Sun Birds wishing to
Component Method make full use of their style would have to
pay 13 Chi and have two sets to make two
An overlooked problem with the Wulin
high-Strike attacks and a Burn effect, but
system is that internal techniques are applied
someone with the same style need only to
equally across a roll. For lower ranked
spend 4 Chi to apply a +20 Dodge to all
combat, this doesn’t seem to be much of
three components, a difference of 9 Chi for
a problem because of the low number of
what may only end up being one Ripple!
sets. At higher ranked combat (and high
Compare also to a Fire Sutra stylist using
Joss situations) this overvalues certain
multiple energy attacks: using all the Fire
techniques, mostly anything that benefits
Sutra energy attacks requires 15 Chi and 5
Marvels and straight defensive techniques.
sets, which mostly may be defended against
As a Disrupt/Disorient example, in the
with single dice by a single high-powered
standard core book, Black Tigers Hunting
defense. This gets even worse at later ranks,
provides a +10 to all Disrupts or all Disori-
when a character is likely to mix and match
ents in a single roll (changed to a +5 for a
Internal techniques.
single Disrupt/Disorient as per our hotfix in
Chapter 2: Errata and Hotfixes, pg 11). A A method for avoiding this is declaring that
character throwing out 8 dice and 3 Chival- every technique benefits only one portion of
rous Joss can end up with a substantial the individual roll: in the aforementioned
number of sets that will gain that +10 bonus. Nine Sun Bird scenario, the stylist would need
It should be noted that in the book there to apply his +20 Dodge to one component,
are very, very few Marvel defenses and that then add a +10 Dodge from another technique
managing multiple high-powered Marvels in to the second, and then would be out of
one roll can be decisive. additional techniques for the third. The
cost increases from 4 to 6 and leaves them
At the same time it undervalues other
open against the third attack; a lot of chi
techniques. Offensive techniques that
has been expended by the offense but at
increase the number of attacks (Secondary
least something might get through. It also
Strikes, Energy Attacks) become useless
leaves the opponent open for attack by
(worst case) or suboptimal (best case)
another opponent, as they’ve used up all
in combat, useful only at the very end of
their available defenses. This provides more
combat when you know an opponent has
reasons to get additional Defensive techniques
no more chi they can use to effectively
and makes using the Secondary Strikes/
defend themselves. This is particularly
Energy Attacks worth it. Marvel-boosting
bad for Secondary Strikes, which require
techniques only benefit a single Marvel in the
an additional chi expenditure of offensive
roll, forcing an opponent to prioritize their
techniques to benefit the Secondary Strike.
dice set and technique use appropriately.

147
 There are four downsides to this method:
• There’s slightly more bookkeeping as
more chi is used on the defense and the
defender has to pay more attention to
their set allocation.
• This opens an odd sort of middle ground:
while there are Round-Long techniques
and single component techniques, there
are no explicitly Roll-Long techniques
and may require some rejiggering on
a case by case level. That might be an
excellent opportunity to make custom
kung fu loresheet synergies. A good
example of a technique that should be
Roll-Long would be Leading Ox Through
River. You may have to eyeball some
techniques
• This does turn Wulin’s emphasis from
defensive to offensive play. This may
not be to everyone’s liking. As up above,
it should be noted that Wulin’s rules as
written may favor defense far too heavily.
This makes it far more balanced, but it’s still
now offensively-oriented. Given that some
people also believe that Wulin combat lasts
too long, this may actually be beneficial.
148
• Round-Long techniques become
overvalued, particularly ones such as
Frozen Shadow, Tenfold Steel Guard and
Five Elements Supreme Combination.
It does, however, make Round-Long
offensive techniques much more
palatable when used in conjunction
with Secondary Strikes. Round-Long
techniques have proven to be appropri-
ately powerful in games running this
houserule. However, there are still fewer
of them in general, especially in the core
Internal styles. They haven’t seemed to
break anything yet at higher ranked play.
It may be worth it to replace Round-Long
for some of these to Roll-Long if you find
it otherwise.
Alternatively, you can decide that Secondary
Strikes no longer require the repurchase of
their techniques or that the defense must
repurchase each technique against each
component of the attack. Unfortunately that
still leaves you open to Disrupt/Disorient
spamming, especially from Fox Spirit Song’s
Leading Astray the Innocent, as well as
problems with multiple Energy Attacks. We
have attempted to rectify Marvel spamming
with our hotfix to Marvel techniques in
Chapter 2: Errata and Hotfixes, pg 7.

KUNG FU HOUSERULES
Fixing Great Ultimate
Dragon Style
We attempted to rework Great Ultimate
Dragon Style to make it more fun to play, more
effective in a build, and to standardize some of
its technique pricing. As in the original style,
we elected to retain the non-standard Destiny
total (19 rather than 20) to reflect the unusual
presence of a ‘free’ technique. The style’s flavor
text, Weapons, Laughs At, and starting Combat
Statistics stay the same. Replace all of the rest
with the following:
Qualities: Great Ultimate Dragon is, in
whatever stance, supremely adaptable;
as the dragon combines the forms of
many different animals, so too does this
style encompass fundamentally distinct
approaches. It vacillates between extreme
yang and yin, without ever coming to rest
between them. Its other qualities depend
on which stance (Dragon in Heaven or
Dragon in Ocean) its practitioner employs.
• Dragon in Heaven Stance: The
Dragon in Heaven exemplifies yang
energy: it is aggressive, expansive, and
employs elaborate, graceful movement
in its attacks and defenses alike.
• Dragon in Ocean Stance: The Dragon
in Ocean exemplifies yin energy:
it tends toward a reactive posture,
eschewing the flourishes of its heavenly
counterpart for stillness and simplicity.
Fears: The Great Ultimate Dragon fears
styles that exhibit the balance that it
itself lacks. What else it fears depends on
its stance:
• Dragon in Heaven: The Dragon
in Heaven fears potent Yin energy,
whether in the form of energy attacks,
extreme environmental conditions, or
even more symbolic representations of
that principle.
• Dragon in Ocean: The Dragon in
Ocean fears potent Yang energy,
whether in the form of energy attacks,
extreme environmental conditions, or
even more symbolic representations of
that principle.
Techniques
Dragon Stance (0 or 3)
• Choose either Dragon in Heaven
or Dragon in Ocean stance at the
beginning of combat. Thereafter, you
may flood a die at the beginning of the
round to change stances.
• When an opponent analyzes your style’s
qualities or what it fears, they learn the
style’s general features, plus those of
the stance you currently occupy. When
you switch stances, your opponent still
knows your style’s qualities and what it
fears, but must re-analyze to learn those
of the new stance.
• If you pay an additional 3 Destiny,
you have one additional slot in your
River. This extra slot can only be
used to Flood dice to change between
Dragon in Heaven and Dragon in
Ocean stances. If this slot is ever filled
when you change your active style, it
automatically Washes empty.
149
 © RLee 2014

Dragon Dwells in Mist (2 or 5)

• Opponents have a -10 penalty to
analyze your style. This benefit applies
outside of combat, unless for some
reason you wouldn’t be in Great
Ultimate Dragon style.
• If you pay an additional 3 destiny, on
any turn in which you change stances,
you may ignore what your stance (but
not the style as a whole) Fears, and
opponents may not Laugh At your
style based on your stance’s qualities.
Permeating Presence (4)
• If you changed stances at the start of
this turn, the Strike bonus of this style
increases to +10.
117 Impenetrable Scales (4)
• If you changed stances at the start of
this turn, your opponents suffer a -5
penalty to their Strikes.
Universal Grasping Claws (3)
• If you changed stances at the start
of this turn, you have a +5 bonus to
Disorient or Disrupt your opponent.
Fixing Sword-Mindset
Replace the effects of this technique with the
following:
• Round-long duration. You may
spend Chi each round to extend
the technique’s duration another
round; you must spend the Chi at the
beginning of each new round. The first
extension costs 1 chi, the second costs
2 chi, the third costs 3 chi, and so on.
• The weapon bonus from your Sword
increases from +5 Strike and Block to
+10.
• If you have a Passion or Inspiration
Hyperactivity, each round that you act
in accordance with it while using this
technique, you may use Sword-Heaven
and one second-level Jade Spirit Sword
Technique (that you already know) at
no cost.

150

NPC CREATION
One of the most difficult aspects of running
a Wulin game is drafting up a proper
challenge for your players. Opponent
creation is an art more than a science, and
it requires you to have at least some basic
knowledge of the player characters. There
are three major points you should consider
before you start: (1) how the challenge
relates to the PCs, (2) how the challenge
relates to the plot, and (3) how the
challenge relates to the actual encounter.
(1) PC Relationship.
Determining the relationship to the
player characters may be the most or least
important step to actually building the NPC.
While there’s obviously plenty of ways they
might relate to the PCs, it pays to separate
them into ‘Dedicated Antagonist’, ‘Rival’,
and ‘Unrelated’.
Dedicated Antagonists should be designed
with dirty play in mind. They are there to be
removed from the game with prejudice. You
can often expect the PCs to gang up on these
guys at any time- after all, the Vile Rain
Cult has no honor, so why would a Beggar
agree to a one on one fight? It’s possible,
of course, but you can guarantee that the
players will be chomping at the bit to
remove him as quickly as they can. Drafting
up this kind of enemy usually means you
should make them a hair stronger than the
PCs in some department, or give them a way
of separating the PCs if they’re not careful,
or even give them some method to deal with
multiple opponents. Internal styles that
provide Area of Effect attacks or Round-Long
defenses are usually excellent choices,
and their External styles should at least
have a modicum of defense. While easily
beating down one of these opponents can be
extremely satisfying for a player, it can also
be anticlimactic. It’s tempting, but be wary
of making a Dedicated Antagonist with kung
fu that has a natural advantage over a given
PC. That’ll be seen as cheap by the player
and it’s not fun to play against. Another
alternative is to let the enemies travel in
a pack. Pack hunting is also a very valid
strategy and may be the easiest way to draft
up an appropriate level of opposition, but it
does require more bookkeeping and work to
stat up the additional opponents.
Rivals, on the other hand, are there specifi-
cally to deal with a single player character:
say, a character wants to eventually surpass
his dominant older brother, or they have a
friend in the same Society who’s vying for
the same prize. In this case, it’s advised to
put them at the same Destiny and Entangle-
ment of the PC, but you use their kung fu to
tweak the balance between them. Two rivals
in the Heaven Sword Alliance might both
have the same Jade Spirit Sword techniques
as well as Destiny and Cultivation, but the
stronger Rival may have Eight Legends while
the weaker uses Great Ultimate Dragon Style.
The ‘weaker’ Rival is then encouraged to
find a way to outshine the stronger through
alternative means than straight combat.
Unrelated opponents are there as additional
complications, so the PCs shouldn’t feel too
strongly about them story-wise. This gives
you surprising freedom and latitude in NPC
creation. This is your chance to experiment
with the system a bit: try picking random
151
 combinations of Internal/External kung fu
and see what you come up with! While
that may result in a weak opponent, it does
provide a certain amount of believability
to your world: not every xia is going to be
an optimally challenging opponent. The
players are unlikely to particularly care
too much about the Eagle Talon guarding
the caravan they want to rob. He’s just
someone to beat; if they want to care, that’s
what Entanglement is for (and hey, it gives
them something to spend entanglement on).
Making an Unrelated opponent crushingly
strong should be frowned upon. There’s
nothing more frustrating to a player than
getting their character’s butt kicked by
Random Encounter #586. This does happen,
especially if their External kung fu doesn’t
match up nicely, but it shouldn’t happen due
to a massive disparity of Destiny.
(2) Plot Relationship
Your next consideration should be ‘where
does the challenge fit in the plot”. This
helps you calibrate the exact strength and
abilities of the challenge. The second in
command of the Vile Rain Cult shouldn’t
be a Rank 4 xia, but the head of a Vile Rain
Cult cell in a small city might be. This is
more than just Rank and Destiny: it should
alter their technique choices and mechanical
strength as well. Someone in the semifinals
of a tournament should be more competent
than an opponent fought in the preliminary
bout, which means making sure the
character’s more mechanically rigorous than
anyone the player’s encountered before.
152
For kung fu, consider the character’s
Society. Since each Society has standard
kung fu this should make it fairly easy on
you. As stated earlier, tailoring an opponent
to match a PC is usually considered dirty
pool… but also remember that the Wulin
should react to changes within it. If a PC
has become sufficiently well-known or
powerful, and their opponent is a Dedicated
Antagonist or Rival, it should go without
saying that they’ve started to develop
countermeasures! There shouldn’t be too
many and the opponent should probably
brag at some point that they’ve done so.
This makes it more excusable, with two side
benefits: making the player feel proud that
they’ve become so infamous, and it should
encourage the player to branch out into new
and interesting directions to counter the
countermeasures.
From a narrative perspective, knowing the
plot relationship also means knowing the
flow of the game. Placing a decently-pow-
ered opponent in the wrong place- say, our
aforementioned Eagle Talon guard- can draw
out the game in an unfun way.
(3) Encounter Relationship
When you make an opponent you should
consider how you want the challenge to
actually play out. Not every fight will be on
the white tile of a tournament square. This
is usually not something you consider much
for Rivals- they pop up where and when
they like- but it is for Dedicated Antagonists
and Unrelated opponents. The Southern
Dragon Pirate should be designed to take
advantage of his ship; there’s no way the Vile
Rain Cultist will willingly fight the PCs in
the daytime; and the Falling Leaves Society
member who knows Divine Pattern Long
Strokes won’t be trying to compete in any
footraces anytime soon.
This means you effectively tailor the NPC
to the encounter that you have in mind
for them. It’s an old trick, and it works;
savvy PCs will go out of their way to draw
them out or to negate their advantages.
Consider giving the encounter a secondary
way to win, especially if the NPC looks
particularly powerful. Smashing the Pirate’s
ship should be a way to win even if he’s
too strong for three xia to beat; stealing
the Vile Rain Cultist’s secret cipher is sure
to get him killed by his superiors; beating
the Falling Leaves Society member to the
legendary weapon will no doubt prompt
him to graciously admit defeat. Putting in
these secondary conditions is also a very
good excuse to bump their total Destiny up a
notch or two if you don’t think the NPC can
handle more than one PC at a time.
When you put it all together, it may look
like this:
The Wulin Sage wishes to throw an opponent
at the Houyi Club: they’re attempting to gain
access to Fei Peng’s tomb, as there are rumors
that a Holy Fire Sutra can be found within.
The rumors are unsubstantiated but the Houyi
Club doesn’t know that! Still, there are some
people who’d be very interested in three xia
entering the tomb, and none of them are the
Fire Doctrine, the usual antagonists of the Club.
They have no rivals, so this is an unrelated
opponent. The Liquid Metal Delegates are
an obvious choice, but the Sage decides on an
honorable Falling Leaves Society member, Red
Crane. He decides to set the Red Crane as
about the same strength as the PCs. Helmsman
Oak has sent someone exactly their strength
to speak with them: too strong and there’s the
risk of a misunderstanding, too weak and his
emissary will be ignored! Red Crane obviously
makes use of the Graceful Crane Style with
Heaven’s Lightning, and will likely demand an
explanation from the PCs. If they can’t explain
themselves properly (“A Fire Sutra in the tomb?
Preposterous!”) he may challenge one of them
to a duel to get them to back down. Of course
the PCs could gang up on him, but that gives
the Falling Leaves Society the excuse to crush
them like bugs. Unfortunately, his Crane Style
is very poor at keeping the other PCs out, so
if they want they could just skirt around him,
avoiding the fight entirely...
Quickly Making NPCs
Once you have the relative power and the
planned abilities of the character down, you’re
ready to actually build the NPC. You should
refer to the article on how to make an Effective
Build at this point (Chapter 4: Player’s Guide,
pg 103) if you’re having trouble doing so. Once
you have that down, here’s a few quick and
easy pointers to statting up NPCs:
• One of the most effective ways to
quickly draft up an NPC is to assign
a flat amount of the total Destiny to a
character’s Skills, External kung fu, and
Internal kung fu. Work within those
totals and take from one or the other
towards the end if you have to; the point
is to at least get the basic skeleton of the
character down.
153
 • Entanglement for NPCs can take a long
time to apportion, especially at higher
Ranks. It’s also hard to envision, since
Entanglement in Wulin tends to be used
organically. Long story short, for most
NPCs you can almost completely avoid
Entanglement like the plague. It’s much
more of a PC tool. For most NPCs all you
really need to do is mark any Entangle-
ment bonuses such as Techniques, Secrets,
Fortunes that give them extra Conditions,
Legendary Weapons, and Transcendent
Techniques. That might seem like a big
list, but it’s really not: more often than
not you’ll grant a kung fu synergy, nab
the 5 cultivation, and move on. Again,
unless the NPC is very important, avoid
Entanglement like the plague. It only
slows you down.
• Conditions can be hard for some people
to dream up, which is why we provided
a library in Chapter 4: Player’s Guide, pg
116. Often you don’t have to even go that
far- you can paint most conditions in very
broad strokes if you wish. If players really
try to figure out the condition, then you
can fill it in later, but it doesn’t happen
too often. Often just saying “The Blade
Dog gets a Combat action bonus for acting
angry” is good enough.
• Having a template already on hand can
speed things up immensely.
I make great use of Google Docs
for this.
• If you’re having trouble thinking of an
NPC’s build, do yourself a favor and just
wing it by selecting some kung fu at
random. See what you get! At the very
least they’ll be unique.
A quick method for NPC builds is essential.
We tried to make a chart for Destiny and
Max Chi for every rank. In the table on
the right, Destiny represents both normal
and Entanglement Destiny, to represent
purchases such as skills, equipment, kung
fu, Secret Arts, and Loresheet bonuses that
have a definite mechanical effect. This is
assuming that you are generally avoiding
Entanglement like the plague.

• Tallying up Cultivation can be tedious for

some, so if that’s the case just give them
some basic Chi totals. As a rule of thumb
and without any houserules, the average
Rank 4 character has between 10 and 19
total Chi; a Rank 3 can possess between 14
and 23; a Rank 2 between 17 and 26; and a
Rank 1 character is guaranteed at least 20.
This means that a character can reliably
improve their starting Chi by 3-4 per Rank.

154
 Rank PC Requirements NPC Destiny NPC Max Chi

Starting N/A 70 12-14

4th

Advanced N/A 85 13-16

4th

3rd 50 Cultivation/ 90 14-18

Entanglement

Advanced NA 115 16-20

3rd

2nd 100 Cultivation/ 145 17-23

Entanglement

Advanced NA 170 18-25

2nd

1st 150 Cultivation/ 200 22-28

Entanglement

155
 SAMPLE CHARACTERS
OF EVERY RANK
Team Li Si has produced several sample charac-
ters from every Rank for the Sage to use. These
assume standard rules for increasing Rank, but
they do make use of our Hotfixes.
Bamboo Tiger, a Rank 4 Warrior
The Bamboo Tiger is a large, boisterous man
who began life as the son of a noted bandit.
When the Delegates came for them, his father
was killed but Tiger’s life was spared: he was
too young to know the law, and what other
choice did he have? Of course, he still had to be
punished, so his palms were scarred and his left
eye plucked out. The seething need for revenge
drove him to Jian Kang, where he fell in with
the Beggar Fraternity and taught their Kung Fu-
under the strict condition that he use his new
strength for Benevolence and not Revenge. This
has proven very difficult for the Bamboo Tiger.
This much strength shouldn’t be wasted!
Bamboo Tiger is a balanced bruiser, plain and
simple. He uses his Five Elements Supreme
Combination to usually boost his Strike and
Damage, which- when combined with the raw
might of Eight Legends- can pose a serious
threat to any opponent. Bamboo Tiger is likely
to hold on to dice in his River so that he can
make powerful Secondary Strikes with its
weapon technique. Since he can rapidly switch
between Staff/Flexible and Staff/Massive, he
can close out fights very quickly. Otherwise
he depends on his other Boundless Prosperity
techniques to get him close to his enemy or to
sustain the damage they deal him.
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
156
Down-On-Her-Luck Shui,
a Rank 4 Artisan
Once a rising star pupil of the Heaven Sword
Alliance, Beautiful Shui found herself on
the losing side in a fight with a Vile Rain
Cultist. She fled for her life, only to find her
fortunes had forever turned for the worse.
Now Down-On-Her-Luck Shui muddles her
way through life, trying desperately to regain
enough traction to meet with the current
Sword Saint, who should have some kind of
idea on how to fix her predicament. Of course,
to do that she has to find him; to do that she
has to find out who stole her sword; to do that,
she has to sink even further into the depths of
Jian Kang, where the gamblers dwell; and then
she realizes with a sinking heart that she’ll
actually have to win a few games first….
Down-On-Her-Luck Shui uses her Artisan’s
Extraordinary Arts to control the pace and
feeling of the fight, using her River to fuel A
Lever Shifts the World to order the environ-
ment to her liking and to compensate for her
loss of her sword if need be. Metal-Resonance
Touch allows her to use her high Craft to
brutally penalize her opponent’s Strike, and
combined with Great Ultimate Dragon Style’s
117 Impenetrable Scales she can begin to more
or less ignore traditional attacks! She can
then use her Soaring Phoenix to great effect,
stacking on the Ripples with her Replies. Her
access to Scything Moonlight Cut further
boosts this nontraditional defensive scheme,
allowing her to Disrupt multiple opponents all
at once. When she feels comfortable with her
opponent’s incompetence, she can finally cut
loose with her Blade of Infinity Strokes.
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
 Bamboo Tiger
a Rank 4 Warrior
Destiny: 25
Chi: 12 Normal (1/12 until next point), 2 Wood
(9/10 until next point)
Skills: Tactics +10 (Combat Approaches),
Hardiness +10 (Ignoring Pain, Focus on Breath),
Might +5, Awareness +5 (Blind Side), Survival
+5 (Roughing It Up), Confidence +5, Politics +0
(Bandit Politics)
Weapon: Dog-Beating Bamboo Stick (Staff/
Flexible or Staff/Massive)
Highest Virtue: Revenge, Force (4)
External Kung Fu: Eight Legends (Miracle
Strike, Golden Flash)
Internal Kung Fu: Boundless Prosperity
Manual (Retain Balanced Nature, Be Where You
Must, Covering Weakness With Strength, Five
Elements Supreme Combination)
Secret Arts: Unassailable Battle Saint
Technique
Loresheets: Beggar Fraternity (Status 3: Junior
Member ; Destiny 0: Dirty Clothes Division ;
Technique 2: Dog-Beating Stick; Technique 5:
Old Immortal Rascal ; Destiny 3: Hidden Past)
Permanent Conditions:
Blind Eye Fighting: Major Wood Combat,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 44. It’s not that
Bamboo Tiger particularly dislikes tables, chairs,
and walls… it’s just that with that big stick of
his, and his immense strength, and his blind eye,
they just get in the way! The clouds of splinters
and the crashing sound of building supports only
adds to the havoc that Bamboo Tiger causes
every time he enters battle, giving him the
benefits of an Action bonus.
Love of Gambling: Minor Fire Passion,
Entanglement Hyperactivity. Recovery 32. Every
Beggar has a vice, and for Bamboo Tiger it is
gambling. He simply can’t pass up a chance,
and he doesn’t think he should: he meets so
many interesting people when he does! Bamboo
Tiger gains Entanglement any session he spends
a significant amount of time gambling, or if the
stakes are suitably high.
Hatred of the Delegates: Minor Wood
Passion, Elemental Conversion Hyperactivity.
Recovery 38. The Bamboo Tiger was just a boy
when the Delegates took his father from him,
scarred his palms, and plucked out his eyes. He
was a good son; isn’t it his duty to avenge his
father? Over the years the feelings of duty have
faded as Tiger has realized his father needed to
be punished… and has been replaced with an
all-abiding hatred at the Delegates for needlessly
punishing him. Tiger converts a point of Normal
Chi to Wood Chi whenever he openly acts on
this hatred, even though it risks his place in the
Beggars as well as his own life.
Hand of Might: Wood Deviation. Though
he doesn’t look as obscenely strong as some
other xia, Bamboo Tiger’s Wood Deviation
makes him easily their equal. Bamboo Tiger
has a hard time holding back his own strength,
making things as simple as eating an exercise
in patience and restraint.
157
 Down-On-Her-Luck Shui
a Rank 4 Artisan
Destiny: 25
Chi: 13 Normal (10/13 until next point)
Skills: Craft +10 (Swords), Finesse +10, Wu Wei
+5 (Sword Chi), Awareness +5, Hardiness +5,
Inspire +5, +5
Weapon: Sword-Heart Skill (Unarmed/Sword)
Highest Virtue: Honor (4)
External Kung Fu: Great Ultimate Dragon Style
(Dragon Stance, Dragon Dwells in Mist to 5, 117
Impenetrable Scales)
Internal Kung Fu: Jade Spirit Sword
(Sword-Heaven, Soaring Phoenix, Blade of Infinity
Strokes, Scything Moonlight Cut)
Secret Arts: A Lever Shifts the World,
Metal-Resonance Touch
Loresheets: Heaven Sword Alliance (Status 3:
Junior Member ; Technique 3: Sword-Heart Skill ;
Technique 5: Streaming Dragon Blade), The Three
Solutions (Destiny 5: The Courtier’s Solution), Vile
Rain Cult (Fortune 3: Terrible Luck)
Permanent Conditions:
I Must Find The Sword Spirit: Minor Fire
Inspiration, Cultivation Hyperactivity. Recovery
35. If anyone can fix Down-On-Her-Luck Shui, it
is the Sword Spirit. Rumor has it that he’s gone
158
missing, so Shui has decided to track him down
no matter the cost. This quest can only improve
her chi over time- she gains a Cultivation bonus
every session she looks for hints of his passing.
Regret and Resolve: Earth Passion, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 34. Down-On-Her-Luck
Shi obsesses over lost opportunity. She beats
herself up over every mistake she makes, every
sword strike she misses, every word left unsaid.
While some might consider this a weakness, she
finds it a strength, as it inspires her to do better
next time. She gains an Action Bonus whenever
she obsesses over little things that others might
shrug off.
Terrible Luck: Minor Wood Curse, Entangle-
ment Hyperactivity. Recovery 56. Down-On-Her-
Luck Shui’s escape from the Vile Rain Cultist was
only partially successful. She has been plagued
with bad luck ever since, most recently finding
her sword has been stolen from her as she slept.
This may be a blessing in disguise, however… all
of this bad luck can only improve her character
in the long run! She just has to survive the
short run. She gains Entanglement every session
something goes terribly wrong… and must
always ask for Interesting Times.
Master Five Fights,
a Rank 4 Doctor
Master Five Fights is one of dozens of minor
school masters in Jian Kang. Once he was a
powerful fighter, talented and with hundreds
of students, respected by most Chivalrous
societies. Now, time has ravaged him and he
has nothing. His students have left him and his
school has been repossessed. New members
of the Chivalrous societies laugh in his face.
He can barely grasp his Three Kings Style,
remembering only the bare minimum necessary
to strengthen his Master of Duels techniques.
He has sunk into lassitude and depression and
knows that soon his cultivation will disappear
into nothing. Only a new talented pupil
can save him from his downward slide. It’d
certainly help if this pupil was a young, impres-
sionable and beautiful woman…
Master Five Fights is a shadow of what he
once was, on the slide to becoming a mere
Lesser Legend. Still, knowing almost all the
techniques of Master of Duels makes him at
least somewhat effective, and he often uses his
Quick Work to soften his enemy up. He has
a special synergy with his Three Kings Style,
the Five Kings in Heaven technique. When
in his Master of Duels stance, his Left-Right
Ren Stroke applies a +5 bonus to his Strike;
Harmony-Of-Principles allows him to Break
Waves and attempt Knockbacks. Because he
knows his strength is fading, Master Five Fights
bolsters it by holding on to his River as long
as he can to ensure unstoppable blows. Those
who laugh him off may find that old age and
treachery can trump youth and exuberance.
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
The Specter With No Tongue,
a Rank 4 Scholar
The Specter With No Tongue is an austere,
handsome young man with flesh as white as
powder and bruised black eyes. He has spent
weeks in Jian Kang, searching the streets for…
someone. Who? Nobody dares to ask, not
like he’d ever tell; it’s already bad enough that
a member of the Hundred Ghost Faction is
stalking the streets of the city, nobody wants
their attention! Rumors abound that he
was sent by the Hundred Ghost Faction to
eliminate someone on their Dark List. Those
rumors are more or less correct.
The Specter With No Tongue is very much a
glass cannon: his attacks are powerful and
bloody, but he has very little defense. He’s
a very straightforward fighter, and almost
exclusively uses the Living Corpse Technique
of his Restless Ghost Scroll. Fortunately for
him, his Breath hyperactivities and Action
bonuses are easy to trigger, meaning he can
maintain constant pressure against his foes.
Like Tiger, he prefers to use his River to power
his Paired secondary strikes.
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
159

Master Five Fights
a Rank 4 Doctor
Destiny: 25
Chi: 13 Normal (5/13 until next point)
Skills: Medicine +10 (Focus on Breath), Tactics
+10 (Analyze External Kung Fu), Hardiness +10
(Fast Recovery), Politics +5 (Lesser Jian Kang
Schools), Confidence +5, Wu Wei +5
Weapon: Saber
Highest Virtue: Individualism (5)
External Kung Fu: Master of Duels (Fascina-
tion Strike, Fight to the Finish, Quick Draw, Who
Strikes First Strikes Best)
Internal Kung Fu: Three Kings (Left-Right Ren
Stroke, Divine Dragon Speed, Harmony-Of-Prin-
ciples)
Secret Arts: Doctor’s Quick Work
Loresheets: Master Five Fights School (Status
5: Founder ; Technique 5: Five Kings In Heaven),
One Chivalrous Faction (Recommended Fortunes
such as the Beggar Fraternity owing him a favor),
Jiang Hu (Bonus 2: The Lesser Schools of Jian
Kang ; Fortune 3: Basic Jiang Hu Knowledge)
160
© RLee 2014
Permanent Conditions:
Blood Liver Demon Oil: Major Wood
Medical, Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 40.
Master Five Fights may not be the martial
powerhouse he used to be, but he remembers
his poisons well enough. In his youth he
cultivated an immunity to the Blood Liver
Demon Oil, and now he has one phial left.
Normally it would cause his own muscles to
tear themselves apart, but with his immunity
all it does is makes him faster, stronger, bigger,
better! It grants him an Action Bonus for the
duration of every scene he consumes this foul
stuff. Unfortunately, finding more might be a
bit difficult...
I Must Find A Student: Minor Earth
Inspiration, Cultivation Hyperactivity. Recovery
36. Master Five Fights nearly succumbed to the
ravages of time and lapsed cultivation, but he
pulled himself from the brink just long enough
to begin a search for a new student. He already
can feel his cultivation coming back to him in
slow trickles- he gains Cultivation every session
he actively looks for a new talented student.
 The Specter With No Tongue
a Rank 4 Scholar
Destiny: 25
Chi: 11 Normal Chi (10/11 until next point), 2
Metal Chi (5/10 until next point), 1 Corrupt Chi
(0/10 until next point)
Skills: Learning +10 (Imperial Rites), Survival
+10, Performance +5 (Making An Entrance),
Wu Wei +5, Inspire +5 (Fear), Hardiness +5,
Confidence +5
Weapon: Tiger Claws (Paired)
Highest Virtue: Righteousness (4)
External Kung Fu: Royal Tiger (Bloodthirsty
Tiger, Stalking Wounded Prey, Hide-Piercing
Fangs)
Internal Kung Fu: Iron Body Skill (Iron Power,
Humble Man’s Stern Rebuke, Fierce Dragon
Breaks Bones)
Formless: Twisting Serpent, Lunar Shadow
Flash
Secret Arts: Ultimate Prediction Technique
Loresheets: Hundred Ghost Faction (Status 3:
Junior Member ; Fortune 5: Purified Meal Chi ;
Technique 10: Restless Ghost Scroll ; Fortune 5:
Spirit of Vengeance ; Fortune 5: NPC of Choice
on the Dark List)
Permanent Conditions:
Fated Collision: Major Prediction, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 49. The Specter With No
Tongue knows that his prey will be found in Jian
Kang, during the time of the traditional yearly
rites. Their paths must cross. Both the Specter
and his target will find themselves drawn to the
same places; they receive an Action bonus to any
action that will eventually draw them together.
Wreathed in Spirits: Minor Metal Curse,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 38. The Specter
With No Tongue causes supernatural phenomena
to follow him whenever he spends his Metal chi.
Any action he takes where he uses his Metal Chi
and describes the horrifying supernatural results
around him gains the benefit of an Action bonus.
Purified Metal Chi: Major Metal Influence,
Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 43. The tutors
of the Hundred Ghost Faction have taught the
Specter With No Tongue the secrets to purifying
his Metal chi. Whenever he plays up his name-
stealthiness, stillness, and above all muteness- he
regains an additional point of Metal chi every
round.
Righting What Is Wrong: Minor Water
Inspiration, Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 34.
Someone has hurt the Specter With No Tongue,
and hurt him badly. Whatever happened, he
doesn’t speak of it. One day he will catch up
with the person who harmed him, and then there
will be a reckoning. The Specter regains points of
Normal chi whenever he wreaks his revenge on
his betrayer.
161
 Milk Fang, Despite her soft heart, Milk Fang is a capable
a Rank 4 Priest fighter. She’s well protected by her Old Banyan
Mudra, and opponents seeking to Disrupt or
Milk Fang is a young cub of the Blood Wind
Disorient her will have a hard time making
Cult, a malnourished teenaged girl with
those stick. While she has two techniques
more scars than soldiers twice her age. She
to boost her Damage, she has nothing to
has been sent from her harsh home in the
improve her Strike; she is entirely dependent
Steppes into Jian Kang to find and assassinate
on enhancing her Spear with Dancing Metal
a member of the Fallen Leaves Society… who
Intercession and using her Dancing Spear to
also happens to be the man who killed her
generate interesting Laughs and Fears. She is
mother. Her elders know she can’t handle
prone to always using her Joss on important
the task, but how can they refuse her? If she
targets to force them into Interesting Times
fails, they will send another, but they simply
with her Hungry Curse Technique, and is
cannot deny her this chance. They gave her
not shy about stalking targets long enough to
the largest wolf they had as a guardian and
establish pre-battle Curses on them. Her Wolf
companion, the wizened Blood Spot. Now
acts as a mount for the purposes of Green Jade
she roams the streets of Jian Kang, searching
Horse, but if dismounted it acts as a the Bandit
for an opportunity to complete her mission.
Leader Lesser Legend on page 287 of the Core
While she does so she has shown herself
book. Remounting is a Difficulty 20 Ride or
to have quite a soft heart, often working
Finesse Shaping Wave.
alongside the Beggar Fraternity within the
slums of the city. This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.

© RLee 2014

162
 Milk Fang
a Rank 4 Priest
Destiny: 30
Chi: 12 Normal (2/12 until next point), 2 Wood
(9/10 until next point)
Skills: Survival +10 (Steppes), Ride +10 (Wolf),
Wu Wei +5, Learning +5, Finesse +5, Hardiness
+5, Confidence +5
Weapon: Spear
Highest Virtue: Benevolence, Revenge (4)
External Kung Fu: Green Jade Horse (Speed of
the Red Mare, Pinpoint Charge, Pivoting Saddle
Parry)
Internal Kung Fu: Old Banyan Mudra (Roots
Upwards, Unending Growth, Hymns As Leaves,
Ground and Sky Aura)
Secret Arts: Curses, Art of the Mystics, Dancing
Metal Intercession, Hungry Curse Technique
Loresheets: Blood Wind Cult (Status 3: Young
Cub ; Fortune 5: Assassin Condition ; Fortune 5:
Lesser Legend Great Wolf Mount)
Permanent Conditions:
Guardian Ghosts: Major Fire Curse, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 43. A couple of blood
sacrifices and ancient rites have guaranteed
that Milk Fang’s slain mother will watch over
her during her dangerous assignment to Jian
Kang. Though she knows she risks stunting her
development by ‘laboring’ under this curse, she
knows she needs it to succeed. Serendipitous
events are sure to pop up during her travels!
She gains the benefits of an Action bonus as the
world bends to ease her path.
Nothing Is Impossible: Minor Earth Curse,
Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 35. Milk Fang
knows deep-down that she can’t truly handle her
target alone, not even with the help of her trusty
wolf Blood Spot. She has chosen to deliberately
curse herself into believing that she can perform
her duties: not knowing that something is
impossible makes it possible! She gains the
benefit of a Breath bonus whenever she outright
refuses to believe that she can’t handle her duties.
Chop Down the Tree: Minor Wood Curse,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 38. Milk Fang
has been assigned to Jian Kang in an effort
to find and assassinate a certain member of
the Fallen Leaves society. Milk Fang is awfully
young to attempt such a difficult assassination,
but for her this is personal! Her elders have
given her a special poison, cursed by their
priests, which is guaranteed to help her spear
find its mark. She gains an Action bonus
whenever she attacks her target.
163
 Fire Cultist Twins,
Rank 4 Courtiers
Twins are considered to be holy in Bharata, and
so when the Twins were born the Fire Doctrine
heralded them as living proof of their belief.
Unfortunately as the years went on, they
proved to be merely average. The two twins
could not grasp the Fire techniques as easily
as others, and came to depend on each other
too much for the Fire God’s liking. Now they
have been put under the care of Only Bonfire
For Many Li, mostly to be used as expendable
soldiers in their campaign. The Twins know
that the Fire God is displeased with them, and
they know that such displeasure is fatal.
Fire Cultist Twins
Rank 4 Courtiers
Destiny: 35
Chi: 12 Normal (7/12 until next point), 3 Fire
(1/15 until next point)
Skills: Inspire +10 (Quick Work), Confidence
+10 (FoB), Wu Wei +5 (Twin), Hardiness +5
(Heat Tolerance), Learning +5, Stealth +5
Weapon: Unarmed
Highest Virtue: Obsession (5)
External Kung Fu: Destiny Cloud Fist (All
Techniques)
Internal Kung Fu: Fire Sutra (Thought of
Flame, Fusing Flames, Breath of Buddha, Fire
to Heaven Ascension, Verse of Fire, Mantra of
Immolation)
Secret Arts: Male- Passions, Female- Inspira-
tions, Courtier’s Quick Work
Loresheets: Fire Doctrine (Status 3: Initiates ;
Technique 5: Volcanic Cinder Cloud)
164
Twin Brother and Twin Sister have near
identical training, though Twin Brother is
driven more by emotion and Twin Sister
by ideals. They’ve used their Secret Arts to
bolster each other with identical conditions,
giving them major bonuses. The Twins are
only average hand to hand fighters, instead
preferring to fight by burning the area around
them and dispatching their opponents with
smoke, fire, and their cutting words. They are
as flexible as xia their age can be, but that may
not be enough to save them.
These characters are pregenerated characters for
the Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
Permanent Conditions:
My Twin Before All: Major Fire Passion, Breath
Hyperactivity. Recovery 48. The Twins fight best
when working together, as they have trained
their entire life. Whenever the two fight side
by side, they both gain the benefit of a Breath
bonus.
In Service To A God: Major Fire Inspiration,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 44. The Twins
know that they are just foot soldiers in the Fire
God’s war, and they have made their peace with
it. They are upset that the Fire God thinks so
little of them, but know it isn’t their place to
argue; they will gladly sacrifice their lives for
the Fire Doctrine. They gain an Action bonus
whenever they follow the Fire Doctrine’s orders
without question.
A Life of Ash: Fire Chi Deviation. A common
deviation for common folk, the Twins both have
trouble with their fire chi. Things they touch
tend to burn, and they go through clothes at
a frightening rate. They are almost always
surrounded by wisps of smoke.
Yellow Dog,
a Rank 4 Warrior
Yellow Dog is one of the many youthful Blade
Dogs drawn to the Sword Bastard’s side. What
sets Yellow Dog apart from the others is his
extreme laziness, even by Blade Dog standards.
Oh, he took to his training well enough, but it
took him far longer to learn his lessons than it
should have. Nobody was particularly surprised
when he wandered off from the main pack one
day and ended up at one of the local brothels,
hustling off patrons for a few strings of cash.
Now Yellow Dog loafs around the local bars and
brothels of Jian Kang, his allegiance open to
whoever has the silver to afford it.
Yellow Dog
a Rank 4 Warrior
Destiny: 40
Chi: 12 Normal (0/12 until next point), 3 Earth
(14/15 until next point)
Skills: Hardiness +10, Might +10 (Wanton
Destruction), Tactics +10, Confidence +5
(Fearless), Survival +5, Politics +5 (Jiang Hu
Underworld), Wu Wei +5
Weapon: Sleeping Godblade (Massive/Saber)
Highest Virtue: Ferocity (5)
External Kung Fu: Blossom Harvest (Heart-Fire
Temper Skill, Iron Skin to 9, Nine Mountains
Great Strength)
Internal Kung Fu: Dragon God’s Footprints
(Footfalls Shake the Earth, Mountain God’s
Knee, Mountain God’s Elbow, Dragon Turns Over,
Insensate God’s Yawn, Dragon Claw Flexes, Angry
God Throw, God-Hammer of Heaven, God Steps
Dragon Roars)
Secret Arts: Unassailable Battle Saint
Technique
Loresheets: Blade Dogs (Status 3: Blade
Yellow Dog is a lazy fighter, and it shows:
he uses his God Steps, Dragon Roars to hit
opponents in adjacent zones rather than
Covering Ground to them; he’d rather pull
down a building than fight a hundred foes
inside. He ends fights as quickly as he can
with the Mountain God’s Knee and Mountain
God’s Elbow, and will only use his other
techniques when it’s obvious his opponents
aren’t going to roll over quickly. He’s very
prone to holding on to dice in his River for the
perfect moment- it’s the laziest way to play!
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
Whelp ; Technique 5: Learned Techniques)
Permanent Conditions:
Napping God: Major Water Combat, Action
Bonus. Recovery 43. The secret to Yellow Dog’s
style is his lassitude: pragmatism disguised as
laziness. He gains an Action bonus whenever he
puts in the minimum of effort necessary to gain
maximum results.
Slow-Beating Heart: Minor Fire Medical,
Cultivation Bonus. Recovery 35. One of the
Blade Dog doctors gave Yellow Dog a drug that
slows the beat of his heart to a precise amount:
just enough to stimulate his chi channels. If he
can keep his heart rate down, his spiritual power
will increase! He gains Cultivation every session
he manages to avoid overexciting his heart.
Once Paid, Always Loyal: Earth Chi Deviation.
Once paid, Yellow Dog simply cannot turn on
his ‘owner’. He will always see his job through,
no matter what; for this reason he tends to only
seek out short, small jobs that pay very well. He
has not been very lucky in that regard.
165
 Only Bonfire For Many Li,
a Rank 3 Priest
The man who became Only Bonfire For Many
Li was once a Mohist of great local renown.
Unfortunately his philosophical strength
outstripped his martial strength, and his tactics
proved of little use against a Fire Doctrine high
priest. He spent several months in the Fire
Doctrine temple, where he argued philosophy
and morality with two of the Fire God’s zealots.
Eventually they managed to turn his own
ideals against him, pointing out the injustices
of the Jin and Han empires to the ‘undesirables’
who live within Shen Zhou. After that it didn’t
take long to convert him to their cause.
Only Bonfire For Many Li is an effective
fighter, using his Formless and Extraordinary
Arts to give him extreme maneuverability. He
does not favor using Disrupts or Disorients,
instead using his potent Burn effects whenever
he has sets; if he can, he’ll use his River to
save up for a big use of Prayer of Cosmic
Rebirth and Aura of the Qilin, made even
more dangerous by his Fire Doctrine Kung Fu
synergy. Once he has hit an opponent with a
Burn effect, he constantly uses Nine-Fire Seal
to tear apart his opponent with his Shadow
Catching- it’s significantly cheaper than using
his Energy Attacks. At some point he picked
up a Holy Fire Sutra; whatever that is, he hasn’t
revealed it to anyone but the High Priests of
the Fire Doctrine.
This character is a pregenerated character for the
Burning Down Jian Kang adventure.
166
Zhen Hrong,
a Rank 3 Warrior
The Hundred Body Cleaver fled from his
own clan, his hands bloody and his family
shattered. Now he has thrown in with the
Blade Dogs, where he is considered one of the
stronger members of the vicious gang. He is
constantly engaged in a rivalry with Morning
Rain, and the two often supplant each other in
the Blade Dog’s hierarchy. Still, as infuriating
as the woman is, it’s better than getting his
head chopped off by some Imperial toady.
The Hundred Body Cleaver is not to be
underestimated. He’s fairly mobile and equally
at ease dealing with kiting opponents as he
is close-in combat. He should dominate
whatever zone he finds himself in, easily
displacing the occasional opponent with a
well-placed Knockback and keeping them
away with his Divine Pattern Long Strokes,
then harassing them a moment later with his
Malicious Wasp. Of further note is his unique
Formless, the Zhen Racking Execution, which
he especially loves using on members of the
Heaven Sword Alliance. Sword Mindset, hah!
To his great shame he has yet to master either
of his Internal kung fu styles, which might
prove a great weakness for him.
 One Bonfire For Many Li
a Rank 3 Priest
Destiny: 75
Chi: 14 Normal (2/14 until next point), 4 Fire
(0/20 until next point)
Skills: Wu Wei +15 (Focus on Breath), Learning
+15, Tactics +10 (Strategy Games), Inspire +5
(Seeming Reasonable), Survival +5, Politics +5
(Non-Han)
Weapon: Sword
Highest Virtue: Universal Care, Obsession (5)
External Kung Fu: Shadow Catching (All
Techniques)
Internal Kung Fu: Fire Sutra (Thought of
Flame, Fire To Heaven Ascension, Elusive Desert
Being, Nine-Fire Seal, Aura of the Qilin, The Sun
Scripture, Prayer of Cosmic Rebirth), Virtue of
Care (Guarding Chi Focus, Stabbing Breath Hand,
Criticism Without Suggestion)
Formless Kung Fu: Hundred Li Step, Drifting
Cloud Step, Unknown Holy Fire Sutra
Secret Arts: Influences, Bad Fortune Talisman,
Rising Flame Intercession
Loresheets: Fire Doctrine (Status 4: Middle
Priesthood ; Technique 5: Thousand Miles
of Light ; Victory 4+: Found Holy Fire Sutra),
Mohism (Destiny 5: Universal Care)
Permanent Conditions:
Talking Philosophy: Minor Earth Passion,
Action Bonus. Though he was thoroughly
defeated in his debates with the Fire Doctrine,
Only Bonfire For Many Li has not lost his taste for
friendly arguments. He obsesses over problems
of philosophy and theology and will gladly
discuss them with anyone who listens. He gains
an Action Bonus to any action he takes when he
drones on about his passion.
Flame Comes Naturally: Major Fire Influence,
Action Bonus. Only Bonfire For Many Li is a
natural at the Fire Sutra; he took to it much
faster than his Virtue of Care. A pity- if he was
born and raised in the Fire Doctrine, he would
be unstoppable! He gains an Action Bonus any
time he makes good use of his Fire Sutra Burn
techniques.
Dare To Be More: Minor Earth Inspiration,
Entanglement Hyperactivity. Despite Only Bonfire
For Many Li’s conversion to the Fire Doctrine,
he still clings to his Mohist roots. Change is
necessary to see a future dominated by Universal
Care; change arises from convincing others
to be more than what they are! Whenever
Only Bonfire For Many Li attempts to convince
someone to be more, do more, to take risks, he
gains bonus Entanglement.
Born Zealot: Fire Chi Deviation. Only Bonfire
For Many Li is the type of man every religion
wishes it has. When he begins to believe in
something he believes with all of his heart; he
throws himself headlong into his devotions.
Failing to do so shuts down on his Fire Chi
regeneration.
167
 Zhen Hrong,
a Rank 3 Warrior
Destiny: 90
Chi: 15 Normal (2/15 until next point), 3 Metal
(2/15 until next point), 0 Corrupt (5/10 until next
point)
Skills: Hardiness +15, Might +15
(Knockbacks), Finesse +10, Tactics +10
(Analyzing Kung Fu), Survival +5, Confidence
+5 (Fearless), Inspire +5 (Fear)
Weapon: Scarlet Slasher (Spear/Sword)
Highest Virtue: Revenge, Ferocity (4)
External Kung Fu: Divine Pattern Long Strokes
(All Techniques), Malicious Wasp (All Techniques)
Internal Kung Fu: Three Kings Style (Left-Right
Ren Stroke, Divine Dragon Speed, Sun Guided
By Stars, Glowing Cloud of Heaven), Iron Body
Skill (Iron Power, Grand Horse Tramples Rice,
Fierce Dragon Breaks Bones, Swaying Branches
Surround Willow, Eternal Temple’s God Armor)
Formless Kung Fu: Zhen Racking Meditation
Secret Arts: Unassailable Battle Saint Technique
Loresheets: Blade Dogs (Status 4: Major
member ; Technique 5: Blade Dog Iron Body Skill
Tutelage ; Fortune 5: Disadvantage as Condition)
Permanent Conditions:
The Thinking Brute: Major Metal Combat,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 42. The
Hundred Body Cleaver may have a reputation
for unthinking brutality, but that’s just what he
wants people to think. Many people have been
suckered into thinking he’s a frothing, rabid
fighter only to find he can easily pick them apart.
Zhen Hrong gains this Action bonus whenever he
plays up his savagery to hide his real skill.
168
Blood Cries For Even More Blood: Minor
Metal Curse, Entanglement Hyperactivity.
Recovery 34. Zhen Hrong’s evil deeds
reverberate throughout the Wulin. His Corrupt
technique slowly worms its way through him.
Whenever he uses his Zhen Racking Meditation,
Zhen Hrong slowly finds himself drawn towards
the Corrupt. Eventually Zhen Hrong will discover
one of the great Deviant Heresies, and he just
won’t care anymore.
Good Drinking Buddies: Minor Fire Passion,
Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 32. Life in the
Blade Dogs isn’t all blood and fighting. Zhen
Hrong enjoys the company of his drinking buddy,
Unrepentant Storm, and it shows when they fight
alongside each other in battle. He gains a Breath
bonus every round he fights alongside his fellow
Blade Dog.
Wanted: Minor Wood Curse, Entanglement
Hyperactivity. Recovery 36. Zhen Hrong is
hunted by the survivors of his Clan as well as
the Imperial Army. Zhen Hrong receives bonus
Entanglement every session he has to go out of
his way to escape from the people who want
his blood… or, more likely, cut his way through
them again.
Lodestone: Metal Chi Deviation. Zhen
Hrong’s middling metal chi has manifested
itself by drawing other metallic sources to
it. Zhen Hrong at first found the deviation
amusing, then he found it useful as it tipped
him off to an enemy ambush- he could feel
the pull of their metal blades. Now he realizes
it as a terrible curse, as it never fails to draw
their metal to his flesh.
Chaos Sage Wu,
a Rank 3 Scholar
A supposed descendant of the Iron Shadow
Warlord, Chaos Sage Wu is dedicated to
causing trouble wherever he goes. So far he’s
barely been a nuisance to Only Six Devils,
except for the the brutal pummeling of three
visiting Daoists over the course of two days.
The strangely tattooed and vicious xia appears
to be looking for something, and will only talk
courteously with the occasional steppe nomad
who visits his favorite inn. There are also
rumors that he exchanged money with a fallen
Phoenix, but didn’t make use of her favors.
What is he looking for?
Chaos Sage Wu
a Rank 3 Scholar
Destiny: 55
Chi: 14 Normal (7/14 until next point)
Skills: Learning +15 (Focus on Breath,
Predictions of Chaos), Wu Wei +10, Tactics +5,
Awareness +5, Survival +5, Confidence +5
(Resist Quick Work), Hardiness +5
Weapon: Double Hammer (Paired/Massive)
Highest Virtue: Ferocity (5)
External Kung Fu: Bone-Fed Wolf Fang
(Circling Pack, Fighting With Fire, Rainfall at
Night, Wolves Devour the Lion)
Internal Kung Fu: Fox Spirit Song (Fox Leaves No
Tracks, Parting the Grass, Mirthful Fox Plays With Her
Shadow, Flicking Tail Lashings, Laughing Face Under
Smiling Mask, Leading Astray the Innocent)
Secret Arts: Ultimate Prediction Technique, The
Story of the Old Ways, Balancing Fortune’s Scales
Loresheets: Dragon Well Sect (Status 2: Known
Antagonist), Vile Rain Cult (Status 1: Possible
Convert), Resplendent Phoenix Society (Status 1:
Chaos Sage Wu is dependant on his Disrupts
and Disorients to stay in a fight. He usually
leads with Leading Astray the Innocent to get
a defensive Disrupt on an opponent, and then
uses his River to deliver as many Secondary
Strikes as he can. This is why he didn’t
purchase March Towards Hell: it takes away
his primary offensive ability! His deal with
the fallen Phoenix has given him additional
techniques in Fox Spirit Song (explicitly
approved by the Sage), giving him greater
offensive and defensive flexibility. He also has
begun delving into his Secret Arts, giving him
access to many more methods of Prediction.
Shady Business Associate), Only Six Devils (Destiny
3: Descendant of the Iron Shadow Warlord)
Permanent Conditions:
Descendant of the Iron Shadow Warlord:
Major Prediction, Action Hyperactivity. Recovery
46. It is a foregone conclusion that the Chaos
Sage will discover more information about his
ancestor- whenever the Chaos Sage searches for
clues or information he gains an Action bonus.
The Half-Lidded Eye: Major Prediction, Action
Weakness. Recovery 41. The Chaos Sage’s
methods are unknowable, his every movement
unfathomable. Opponents trying to make sense of
his techniques or motivations are sure to suffer an
Action penalty.
Obsession With Chaos: Minor Earth Passion,
Cultivation Bonus. Recovery 36. Chaos Sage Wu
is a bit… obsessed… with the concept of chaos.
Thinking about it, meditating on it, ruminating
about it… all of it gives him Cultivation as he
realizes his fetters and throws them off one by one.
169
 Dark Cloud,
a Rank 2 Doctor
The man once known as Cool Iron has
lost his name. He is now one of the Dark
Heavenly Kings, Dark Cloud, named after the
weapon he carries. The fearsome Dark Cloud
spent his early life within the Little Forest
Sect, until he was dragged away by the Black
Storm Buddha and beaten into submission.
Now Cool Iron has become warped by drugs
and abuse, changed into a brutal shell of his
former self. He no longer even feels anger at
the Black Storm Buddha; instead he reserves
his hate for the Little Forest Sect for failing to
curb his master and for failing to rescue him.
Without him, the Black Lotus Society would
have no Black Lotus Pills. Without him, they
would not have the Blood-Spotted Lotus.
Without him, things would be different. He
Dark Cloud,
a Rank 2 Doctor
Destiny: 125
Chi: 17 Normal (6/17 until next point), 2
Corrupt (9/10 until next point)
Skills: Medicine +20 (Focus on Breath, Quick
Work), Hardiness +15, Wu Wei +15, Confidence
+10, Finesse +10 (Sleight of Hand), Inspire +10
(Deceit), Stealth +10, Tactics +10
Weapon: Dark Cloud (Legendary Sword/
Flexible)
Highest Virtue: Revenge, Purposeful Depravity
(4)
External Kung Fu: Graceful Crane (All
Techniques)
170
has learned to accept his fate, convinced his
incarnation is cursed, and follows the corrupt
path of Asura Buddhism.
Dark Cloud is, in a word, dangerous. He is
a versatile combatant, capable of physical
threat with his Devil Body Control and
horribly dangerous with his Doctor’s Arts and
Unstained Lotus Mastery. He prefers to use
his Graceful Crane to cause Passions in his
opponents- the better to serve as a base for his
Doctor’s Secret Arts later. His dark weapon,
gifted to him by Hei Mei, is malevolent and
mysterious. All anyone knows for sure is that
it allows him to use his Corrupt Chi as if it
were Enlightened, making his Unstained Lotus
Mastery even more intimidating. In a pinch he
can also switch to his Iron Palm, but this relic
of his old training sees less and less use as he
grows more corrupt.
Internal Kung Fu: Unstained Lotus Mastery
(All Techniques); Devil Body Control (Muscular
Focus, Boneless Flexibility, Blood Chi Unsealing,
Frenzied Body Explosion, Desecration of Flesh)
Secret Arts: Body-Breaking Treatment
Technique, Doctor’s Quick Work, Doctor’s Stealthy
Work, Doctor’s Yin-Yang Technique, Doctor’s
Elemental Progression Technique, Doctor’s
Internal-External Technique, Doctor’s Paired
Condition Technique
Loresheets: Little Forest Sect (Status 1: Heretic
; Technique 2: Iron Palm), Black Lotus Society
(Status 7: Dark Heavenly King ; Technique 5:
Stainless Black Feathers ; Fortune 3: Black Lotus
Pill ; Secret 10: Black Lotus Pills ; Treasure 10+:
Black Lotus Pills ; Secret 8: Blood-Spotted Lotus),
Asura Buddhism (Destiny 5: Purposeful Depravity
; Status 4: Noted Asura Buddhist ; 5 Destiny:
Grinning Naraka School ; Treasure 13: Special
Asura Weapon)
Permanent Conditions:
Growling Stomach: Major Earth Medical,
Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 59. Dark
Cloud’s constant battle with his own corpulence
once forced him into taking a severe diet, one
that proved fruitless. However, it did produce
interesting side effects. He found that hunger
sharpened him, improved his chi circulation,
kept him alert. Now he gains a Chi Breath
bonus whenever he keeps himself gnawingly
hungry. Dark Cloud has terrible self control,
and so he only truly fasts as preparation for a
specific conflict.
Steady Hands: Major Wood Medical, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 58. A Doctor’s hands are
all that separate him from a butcher. Dark Cloud
has taken numerous drugs, created many mental
techniques, and performed countless surgeries to
guarantee the steadiness of his hands. Whenever
Dark Cloud engages in something requiring
steady, deliberate use of his hands- something
very unlikely in combat- he gains the benefits of
this Action bonus.
Burning Down Little Forest: Minor Water
Inspiration, Entanglement Hyperactivity. Recovery
43. Dark Cloud blames the Little Forest Sect for
his fall into corruption, and does everything he
can to antagonize the Buddhists. Of course, the
true fault lies with the Black Storm Buddha…
and at some point, Dark Storm must bear the
burden for his own fall. Still, he refuses to see
the truth. As long as he tries to directly antago-
nize the Little Forest Sect, he gains Entanglement
that draws him closer and closer to his final
showdown with the Arahats.
The Light Poison: Trivial Metal Medical,
Cultivation Weakness. Recovery 35. Dark
Cloud perpetually injects himself with a light
poison of his own devising, which causes small
chi blockages across unnecessary chi channels.
Should someone manage to find this out, they
could strengthen it with doses of other poisons.
Black Lotus Pill: Major Metal Medical, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 68. The special Black
Lotus Pill that Dark Cloud consumes helps his
body fight poisons… often more than it probably
should! The presence of even the lightest touch
of poison forces his body into overdrive, making
him stronger, faster, quicker. He gains an Action
bonus whenever he suffers under a Poison effect
or a Medical condition described as derived from
a poison.
Black Lotus Pill: Major Wood Medical, Action
Weakness. Recovery 68. Even the great Dark
Cloud is not immune to the evil effects of
the Black Lotus Pills. His particularly potent
version of the pills require him to consume at
least one per week. Failure to do so causes his
body to twist and warp, stiffening with his own
congealed blood and striking him down with an
Action penalty.
Fat Devil: Corrupt Deviation. Like most Asura
Buddhists, Dark Cloud’s Corrupt deviation warps
his appearance. He appears as corpulent and
bloated as a well-fed leech, no matter how he
diets or what bizarre surgery he tries on himself.
171
 Floating Flower, Floating Flower is a unique fighter. She
a Rank 2 Courtier refuses to kill her opponent, no matter how
Corrupt they might be, instead depending on
Floating Flower is one of the greatest of the
reducing their capacity to fight. Her River is
Phoenix Society, the Third Celestial Maiden
often used to power Proper Forms of Conflict.
of the East. Her voice instills gentle calm in
She depends on her Courtier’s Quick Work
anyone who hears her, making her one of
to accrue Ripples, though she’s capable of
the premier diplomats of the society. While
switching to normal combat in a pinch with
she may not be the most socially adroit of
Splendor of the Silver Empress and Hidden
the four Celestial Maidens, she is the most
Teeth. Prayers For Cremation is an obvious
balanced, capable of calming a belligerent
choice for her if she takes the normal combat
both on and off the battlefield. Some time
route, and she’s very prone to combining this
ago she impressed a Wulin Judge in disguise,
with All-Direction Body if facing a number of
‘saving’ him from a young Vile Rain Cultist
lower-ranked fighters. She has to be careful,
and gently correcting the boy instead of killing
however: she’s not particularly mobile and can
him. Just about the only person she can’t
be pressed into running out of Chi too quickly.
stand too long is the Eastern Azure Dragon,
Additionally she depends too heavily on her
who has attempted five times to add her to his
Courtier techniques… another Courtier could
entourage to no avail.
undermine her too easily.
© RLee 2014

172
 Floating Flower
a Rank 2 Courtier
Destiny: 125
Chi: 16 Normal (10/16 until next point), 2
Enlightened (4/20 until next point)
Skills: Inspire +20 (Gentle Calm), Awareness
+20 (Social), Confidence +20 (Focus on
Breath), Performance +15 (Singing), Wu Wei
+10, Hardiness +10, Politics +10, Finesse +5,
Tactics +5
Weapon: Sun-Draining Talons (Special
Unarmed)
Highest Virtue: Righteousness (5)
External Kung Fu: Flowing Universe (All
Techniques)
Internal Kung Fu: Fox Spirit Song (All
Techniques), Ashen Palm (Righteous Fire Hand,
Dusty Arm Block, All-Direction Body, Prayers For
Cremation, The Ashen Palm)
Secret Arts: Passions and Inspirations,
Courtier’s Quick Work, Proper Forms of Conflict,
Truth as Weapon Technique, Heart-Breaking
Words Technique, Instant Inspiration Technique
Loresheets: Resplendent Phoenix Society
(Status 8: Celestial Maiden ; Technique 5:
Splendor of the Silver Empress ; Technique
2: Sun-Draining Talons), Wulin (Status 3:
High-Ranking Society Member), Wulin Judges
(Technique 15: Ashen Palm)
Permanent Conditions:
Anyone Can Be Saved: Major Wood
Inspiration, Cultivation Hyperactivity. Recovery
48. Floating Flower is a gentle soul, and seeks
to save everyone she thinks is walking a dark
path. While some might call her naive, she is
not: she knows that ultimately such things
come down to personal choice. She gains a
Cultivation bonus every session she successfully
gets through to someone, drawing spiritual
strength from their contrition.
A Gentle Word: Major Fire Inspiration, Action
Hyperactivity. Recovery 53. Floating Flower
believes in gentleness in all things, from battle
to love to poetry. True gentility is a philosophy in
and of itself! She gains an Action bonus so long
as she keeps to this philosophy, making her quite
potent so long as she doesn’t lose her temper.
The Sound of Music: Major Fire Passion,
Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery 44. If there’s
anything Floating Flower truly loves, it’s the
music of one of her favorite composers, Stringed
Autumn. Hearing any of his music makes
her heart soar and gives her limitless internal
strength. She cannot help but to sing along with
it, dance to it, to enjoy it for what it is. She gains
a Breath bonus every time she reacts to his music
with joy.
That Infernal Dragon: Major Wood Passion,
Elemental Conversion. Recovery 49. There’s
something about the Eastern Azure Dragon
that drives Floating Flower wild… and not in
a good way. He seems to know just what can
get under her skin. This has lead to several
combative bouts, and all agree that Floating
Flower’s kung fu has never been more beautiful
than when she faces the Eastern Azure Dragon.
She converts 2 points of her Normal Chi to
Wood Chi whenever she faces the Great
and shows her annoyance, though this often
contradicts her gentle philosophy!
173
 Gallant Eagle,
a Rank 1 Warrior
What can be said about Gallant Eagle that
hasn’t been said a thousand different times
in a thousand different inns? His kung fu is
legendary, his business acumen unparalleled.
This hero of the Wulin stands tall amongst
his peers, a beacon of might and honor.
Little do they know that Gallant Eagle finds
himself crumbling...

Gallant Eagle is a frightening adversary. His

mastery of Nine Sun Birds makes him very
mobile and adaptable, capable of kiting an
opponent or dealing with them in a stand-up
fight. He’s dabbled into Fire Sutra, the
better to take advantage of Reincarnating
Nine Brothers’ Burn effect and its synergy
with Bone-Fed Wolf Fang through the
Heavenly General technique. When

© RLee 2014
running on a Chi deficit, he often has to
make use of his Eyes of the Fiery Raptor…
which may be the only way he’ll eventually
fall to an opponent.

Gallant Eagle,
a Rank 1 Warrior
Destiny: 175 Highest Virtue: Force (5)
Chi: 20 Normal (3/20 until next point), 4 Fire External Kung Fu: Ravenous Wings (All
(0/20 until next point), 1 Corrupt (0/10 until next Techniques), Shadow Catching (All Techniques),
point) Bone-Fed Wolf Fang (All Techniques)
Skills: Tactics +25 (Escort Duty), Hardiness Internal Kung Fu: Nine Sun Birds (All
+20, Confidence +20 (Crushing Superiority), Techniques), Fire Sutra (Thought of Flame, Breath
Politics +15 (Business Acumen), Awareness +15 of Buddha, Nine Fire Seal, Aura of the Qilin,
(Ambushes), Wu Wei +10 (Hiding Corruption), Prayer of Cosmic Rebirth)
Survival +5 (Roughing It) Secret Arts: Unassailable Battle Saint
Weapon: Eagle Claw (Unarmed/Saber) Technique, Spring Follows Winter Technique,
Controlling Outer Force

174
Loresheets: Eagle Talons (Status 10: Leader
; Technique 10: Eyes of the Fiery Raptor ;
Technique 2: Eagle Talons ; Technique 5: Diving
Eagle Spirit ; Technique 5: Heavenly General ;
Technique 5: Rending Claws of the Sky-Father),
Wulin (Status 5: Society Head)
Permanent Conditions:
Sky-Father’s Anger: Major Wood Combat,
Action Hyperactivity. Recovery 58. When Gallant
Eagle decides to fight, it isn’t so much an elegant
battle as it is a frightening pummeling of the
other, poor bastard. Gallant Eagle’s fury is
legendary. He doesn’t stop until his opponent is
a bloody pulp.
The Insidious Taint of Corruption: Minor
Water Influence, Breath Hyperactivity. Recovery
32. After years of misuse, Gallant Eagle has
been forced to admit that his Eyes of the Fiery
Raptor has corrupted him. Now he seeks to
set the technique aside, both for the sake of his
son and for his own soul. It has made his heart
glad; so long as he doesn’t use the technique, he
breathes more easily.
Glorious Eagle Soars Above The World:
Minor Earth Inspiration, Breath Hyperactivity.
Recovery 35. Gallant Eagle set out to climb the
ladder of the Wulin, to make his Eagle Talons
the foremost escort agency in the world. He
succeeded. He continues to consolidate his
holdings, proving his place again and again. He
gains a Breath Bonus so long as he takes actions
to keep the Eagle Talons in their place as a Pillar
of the Wulin.
A Contract Is A Contract: Minor Fire
Inspiration, Entanglement Hyperactivity.
Recovery 47. Gallant Eagle has made a
point of always following his contracts to the
letter, right or wrong. This chivalrous display
of Loyalty has made him many friends. He
gains Entanglement every session he chooses
to uphold a contract, no matter how much it
might pain him.
A Burning Heart: Minor Fire Medical,
Cultivation Hyperactivity. Recovery 36.
Gallant Eagle is a man of passion, prone to
angry outbursts- that much everyone knows.
Few know the reason: a pain in his heart,
forcing him awake at the oddest hours as
he relives the minor failures of his life. For
now Gallant Eagle has tolerated this without
telling his doctors. Gallant Eagle gains Fire
Chi every session he lies awake, clutching his
burning chest and feverishly remembering
the past. He’s already felt his Fire chi grow
stronger over time, no doubt due to his
overactive heart!
Dancing Fire Soul: Fire Deviation. Gallant
Eagle’s Fire Chi forces him to always keep
his personality in a limited flux. No matter
how he wishes, he cannot keep stagnant. He
has a very hard time keeping any permanent
conditions above Minor intensity; only his
intensive training as a Warrior allows him to
keep Major combat conditions. Should he turn
stagnant, Gallant Eagle will find his Fire Chi
will fail to work.
175
© RLee 2014

176
 BURNING DOWN JIAN KANG
Introduction and
Preparation
This sample adventure is for anywhere
between 2-4 players. We’ve provided the basic
character sheets for the Player Characters.
These are:
• Bamboo Tiger
• Down-On-Her-Luck Shui
• Master Five Fights
• The Specter Without A Tongue
There are three major NPC antagonists:
• Yellow Dog
• The Male Fire Cultist
• Only Bonfire For Many Li
There is one neutral NPC:
• Milk Fang
There may be more named NPCs but these
characters are the core of the adventure.
Each scene will list the primary players, the
environment, and a brief description of the
plot. Each scene will additionally include
‘Alternative Options’, different ways of solving
the problems presented. It’s possible your
players will think of more ideas; try to use
these Alternative Options as templates telling
you how to react.
SCENE 1:
THE GO SQUARE
Primary Non-Player Characters: Yellow
Dog, Milk Fang, Single Fire Cultist Twin: Male
The Go Square is a place of peace and tranquility,
just west of the bustling heart of the city. Here
xia and commoner alike can sit at the public Go
boards, facing each other over the easy clack of
stone against stone. Quiet bets are made over quiet
boards, ranging from strings of copper cash to rare
bottles of wine from Stone Drunk Town. The PCs
are here for their own reasons: Bamboo Tiger is
here for the love of gambling; Down-On-Her-Luck
Shui seeks to tap into the underworld to find who
stole her sword; Master Five Fights searches for
a cultivated, pretty, smart girl to take on as a
student; and the Specter With No Tongue looks
for… someone… who just might be here.
In this world, peace and tranquility are easily
broken. It starts with the ringing of the fire bells
off in the eastern distance, at first just a minor
annoyance. The eldest of the Go players stands
from his table, scowling in the distance.
“A fire, on the day the Emperor is to complete
his holy Imperial Rites? This is an inauspi-
cious omen. Heaven must be displeased…”
Dozens of others stand up as the second bell
rings, off to the west. Then bells to the north
ring, and to the south. They can feel the panic
rising in the crowd… one fire is dangerous
enough, but several, throughout the city? This
177
 must be an attack! Their worst fears are realized
when the sumptuous brothel next door collapses
into a pile of burning splinters, and the dedicated
gambling parlor on the other side of the Go
Square goes up in vivid red flame. They can hear
the screams of the people inside each building,
some charging out in panic, others calling
desperately for help!
It is suggested you have the players make
a Sense Chi action with their Wu Wei at
Difficulty 30.
• Critical Success: If they get a result
of 40 or more, they should be able to
determine that the strongest xia is in
the brothel. They may also detect the
presence of another young xia with
Wood Chi approaching the brothel in
a hurry.
• Success: They detect the presence of
a xia in each building: Fire Chi from
the gambling parlor, Earth Chi from
the brothel.
• Failure: They detect the presence of
a xia with Fire Chi in the gambling
parlor.
• Critical Failure: If they get a 20 or
less, they don’t get a clear reading
either way. They have to enter the
buildings blind to the danger!
If the players are unsure of which building
to enter, point them towards the gambling
parlor. The players shouldn’t normally be
required to make a Cover Ground wave into
either building.
178
If the players choose
the gambling parlor-
The gambling parlor isn’t one of the seedy
ones you normally see in Jian Kang. This is
a relatively upscale neighborhood, so close to
the center of the city. Here, men gamble, but
they also do business. It was designed with
beautiful regard to feng shui, opening up to the
East to bring in money and fortune. There are
few obstructions on the first floor, except for
a round desk at the center and a cash counter
at the east end. Carpeted stairs lead up to
the second floor. They know from experience
that the second floor has several low tables
where men and women can gamble and discuss
business.
It is a shame to see so many beautiful
landscape paintings burning and to watch so
the once-magnificent silk curtains burn to ash
in an instant. The Master of Ledgers runs
out, oblivious to the flame that creeps up his
famously long beard- it can grow back but his
precious ledgers cannot! A tanned young man
with crimson hair and burnt robes stands at a
wall, touching a portrait of the Emperor with
his finger. It lights aflame immediately.
“You should leave. The rites are ruined.
The Jin Empire will fall today. Heaven will
bow to the Fire God, and soon the Emperor
will beg for the right to worship her.”
Three old gamblers scramble past him, their
clothes lighting aflame just by getting too
near the Fire Doctrine cultist. There are ten
men trapped on the floor above, their screams
getting louder as the fire roars and the smoke
billows upstairs.
There are three major zones here: the
Go Square, the First Floor, and the
Second Floor. The Go Square zone itself
encompasses the immediate area in front of
the gambling parlor’s first floor.
It takes a Cover Ground wave of 10 to move
between the Go Pavilion and the First Floor.
Flames block the stairs to the Second Floor,
keeping the men above from coming down
and dooming them to a crispy death. If they
want to reach the Second Floor, they must
make a Cover Ground roll at Difficulty 30:
• Critical Success: If they get a Cover
Ground roll of 40 or more, they
reach the top perfectly unscathed. Of
course, now they have to deal with
the smoke.
• Success: They arrive on the second
floor mildly scorched. They suffer a
Ripple.
• Failure: They arrive on the second
floor badly scorched. They suffer
a Ripple and a Rippling Roll. This
Rippling Roll is made with a +0
bonus to the Rippling Roll and
inflicts Burn injuries.
• Critical Failure: If they get a Cover
Ground roll of 20 or less, they only
get halfway up before they’re forced
back! They suffer a Ripple and
Rippling Roll as per a Failure, but
remain on the First Floor. Note that
players should be told the difficulty
of doing so before assigning their
sets; this is only likely to happen if
the Fire Doctrine cultist finds a way
to reduce their Failure to a Critical
Failure. This is possible through an
Injury or Burn condition to their legs
or levying a Footwork Disrupt before
they finish their Cover Ground
action.
You may want to remind your players of
the Lightfoot rules; they can add +5 to their
Footwork for the purposes of Covering
Ground for 1 Chi. At their Rank, they can
add +10 to their total.
Any player ending a round on the Second
Floor suffers a Ripple from smoke inhala-
tion. The ten men on the second floor die if
they aren’t saved within 5 rounds.
The Male Fire Cultist Twin will try to fill
the area with flames and smoke to mimic
the conditions of the Second Floor, then
will ignore them through the use of Fusing
Flames. It’s very unlikely that he’ll move
from his position. If they don’t take him
down within 10 rounds, presume the
building is about to collapse and give the
players a round to try to escape. Upon
suffering a Major wound, the Twin will also
try to escape by burning a hole through the
back wall.
If the players choose
the brothel-
There are two types of brothels in Jian Kang.
One is run by the Resplendent Phoenix Society,
bastions of good taste and subtle feminine beauty.
The other is run by the Black Lotus Society, and
are run-down hovels full of broken women living
in squalor. This brothel is one of the former,
a splendid building with a central staircase
surrounded by tables. This leads to a balustraded
179
 second floor, with further wings leading to a third.
From here the Flower Maidens would stand and
throw flower petals down to the revelers below,
who would no doubt be feasting on the finest
foods, drinking the greatest wines, listening to
talented musicians, and watch the best dancers
the madame could find.
This, however, is all in the past. The second
and third floors have collapsed and the central
staircase is nothing but splinters. The tables
have been broken to jagged pieces of wood and
there are a few bodies of the patrons unlucky
enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time. The madame, a woman of middling age
and some cultivation, clutches her broken left
arm. Three Flower Girls are stuck on what
remains of the third floor, trying to pry one of
their injured friends from out of the rubble.
The madame looks up at them and then at the
players, her handsome features hard.
“It was all as it should be, and then he
just… snapped my arm and tore up my place
with his Earth Chi. Please take care of him.
I need to save my girls!”
She points towards a once well-groomed thug
who’s busily hacking apart the staircase with
his heavy saber. He stands up and sees the
players, scratching his dark yellow hair as if
he has fleas.
“Ah. Finally. Some people actually worth
my time.”
There are three major zones here: the Go
Square, the First Floor, and the Collapsed
Upper Ruins. The Go Square zone itself
encompasses the immediate area in front of
the brothel’s first floor.
180
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Split the Party.
This is a perfectly viable solution to dealing
with this crisis, but for a new Sage this
may drive you up the wall! Running two
fights at once can be difficult. If this is the
case, we suggest that the brothel has been
shattered by Yellow Dog’s destructive kung
fu and is inaccessible without a high Cover
Ground roll. Roll out Yellow Dog’s Might
to determine the difficulty to get into the
brothel: at bare minimum, he will have used
his Kung Fu and chi condition to reach +40
on that roll (Might +10, Wanton Destruction
specialty +5, Chi Condition +10, and Dragon
Turns Over provides another +15). It’s very
unlikely that any of the PCs can beat that
result, and if they do, they may find they have
to face him one on one! You could also just
declare it out of bounds, but giving them a
chance to roll (and seeing what Yellow Dog
can do mechanically) might prove useful to
them later.
It takes a Cover Ground wave of 10 to move
between the Go Pavilion and the First Floor.
It takes a Cover Ground wave of 20 to move
between the First Floor and the Collapsed
Upper Ruins.
Yellow Dog will ignore the Madame, but the
Madame is not enough to quickly save the
girl… her broken arm is a problem! Saving the
girl requires the player to be in the Collapsed
Upper Ruins and then to make a Might or
Craft wave of 40 to free her from the rubble.
She won’t die of being pinned, but Yellow Dog
is extremely destructive. If a player moves up
to the Collapsed Upper Ruins and they seem a
good target, Yellow Dog is sure to use his God
Steps, Dragon Roars technique… which might
prove fatal for the Madame and her girls!
Remember to make it absolutely clear to the
players that the Madame is having trouble with
her charges.
Yellow Dog will attempt to flee if he takes a
Minor wound. He’s got other things he needs
to do, after all. When he runs he’ll attempt to
use Shaping Waves to split himself off from
the players to buy him the space he needs.
This might prove fatal for the remaining
civilians. If left entirely unmolested, he may
also try to take down the building with a
Shaping Wave: if he exceeds 60 the building
will come down. Players should be given a
round to try to escape. No matter what, this
adventure presumes Yellow Dog should escape.
Remember that wounds and problems carry
over, so the worse they wound him before his
escape the easier the fight against him later.
Should Yellow Dog dominate the fight too
much, Milk Fang should arrive to help them!
This Blood Wind Cultist will arrive riding her
huge wolf, Blood Spot. She will attempt to
save the Flower Girls first; if they are already
saved or dead, she will attempt to save the
players; otherwise she should join them in
attacking the Blade Dog.
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Sense Only Bonfire
For Many Li.
The Fire Doctrine leader is already at the
Go Square, one of the nameless faces in the
crowd. He has no Stealth with which to
completely hide his Chi, but his Priest Arts
might allow the Sage to declare he’s using
his Wu Wei to obfuscate his true nature.
When the players Sense Chi, roll for Only
Bonfire For Many Li. If they beat his result,
they’ll notice he’s a strong xia and may ask
him for help. In this case, he should point
them towards the Blade Dog while ‘dealing
with’ the Cultist Twin. If they manage a
Critical Success- beating his Wu Wei roll by
more than 10- they should realize he has far
too much Fire Chi for his presence to be a
coincidence! In this case Only Bonfire should
pay them a friendly compliment for seeing
through his disguise and point out that they
don’t have the time to deal with him for now.
If they attack, make him run.

“Honorless dog! You will pay for what you’ve

done!”

181

SCENE 2: THE DOCKS
Primary Non-Player Characters: Milk Fang,
Single Fire Cultist Twin: Female, Minions
If Milk Fang hasn’t already arrived, she should
make her entrance now, barging through the
crowd on the back of her giant wolf.
“I heard a guard say there are many more of
them by the canal,” Milk Fang growls with
righteous fury, “They must have hidden in one
of the big merchant barges and overpowered
the dock guards. Whatever they’re doing
there, they have to be stopped. Follow me!”
Milk Fang rides through the streets of Jian Kang
impatiently, only slowing down once it’s clear
nobody can match her speed. As they run they
can see a Guard captain crackling with Earth chi
chasing a Fire Doctrine priest over the rooftops.
The priest is leaving small bonfires of flame every
time he steps, leading the captain on a ruinously
merry chase. They pass a burning house, its
occupants long evacuated or dead. City guards
are hacking away at the next door buildings
with long axes, trying to ensure the fire can’t
spread further. It looks like they’re going to be
unsuccessful. Here and there they can see streaks
of flame in the sky as the Fire Doctrine agents do
their work.
“The Fire Doctrine has gone too far this time.
There are too many innocent people who’ll die
today. What spoiled children! They want to
build a new world with bones and ashes of the
helpless.”
182
It looks like the Fire Doctrine offensive started
there and moved out through the city. The
numerous merchant houses and piers have
been scorched and blackened by flame but not
completely destroyed. They can see charred
bodies wearing Imperial armor everywhere,
as well as hastily-made pyres for the Fire
Doctrine fallen. It looks like the Imperial
resistance was broken.
However, they’re not too late. Now that they
have a secure area, the Fire Doctrine is obviously
moving onto the next stage of their plan. A huge
barge has been tethered to a central pier, over the
skeletons of burnt-down smaller barges. Two
makeshift ramps have connected it to other piers,
and a stream of burned and scarred fanatics
wearing coarse red cloth rush boxes from the
barge to the dock.
A lone Fire Doctrine cultist stands guard in
front of the docks. She scowls as she sees them,
dropping into a defensive stance amidst the
mysterious boxes.
“Someone hasn’t been doing their job. More’s
the pity for you- you will not live to see the
new world!”
There are three major zones here: the Docks,
the Piers, and the Barge. The Canal Water
is shallow enough that we’re treating it as a
portion of the Pier, but at the Sage’s discretion
you might also decide to make it a fourth zone.
It takes a Cover Ground wave of 10 to move
between the Dock and the Pier as well as the
Pier and the Barge.
© RLee 2014
If the players have already fought her brother
in the previous scene, they should definitely
mark the resemblance! Now, the Fire Cultist is
severely outmatched, but she has some things
in her favor...
The players can kick, smash, or otherwise open
the boxes littered around the Dock zone with
a Shaping Wave. There they’ll find they’re
overpacked with fireworks! With these, she
can set fire to much of Jian Kang and nobody
will be able to stop it… what’s going on in the
city right now is just a prelude to this greater
conflagration. Even the lowliest Cultist will be
able to cause great devastation. The Fire Cultist
will make great use of her Thought of Flame to
explode these boxes one by one. There are five
clusters of these boxes present on the Docks, and
each one inflicts a Ripple and a Roll to everyone
in the Zone, dealing Burning damage with a +5
bonus to a Rippling Roll… except for the Cultist
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Hoisted By Her Own Petard.
Fusing Flames is a strong technique for the
destructive Fire Doctrine, but it must have
its limits. If two or more fireworks crates go
off at once, ask the players to make a roll
with their Wu Wei at Difficulty 30. Success
indicates her technique faltering momentarily
under the pyrotechnics. A Critical Success
reveals that five or more crates blowing up at
once in her vicinity is sure to overload her! Of
course, nobody wants to be in the same area
when that happens, and that might be difficult
to pull off. It may be a good idea to force her
onto the barge and then light the fireworks
belowdecks aflame (as per the third option
below). Doing so will almost certainly lead to
her immediate, spectacular death.
183
 herself, thanks to her Fusing Flames technique.
The fireworks can go off with a spark, so any
Shaping Wave narratively making use of fire and
left unbroken is likely to be successful.
The second are her minions, busily unloading
the barge. These are special minions who
can’t attack, but she’s got a lot of them. They
are Rank 4 minions, giving them a Lake of 7.
They constantly make special Might/Cover
Ground waves at a +10 bonus to bring more
explosives to the Docks from the Barge. This
means that every two rounds an additional
shipment of fireworks hits the Docks from all
three piers, so another 3 crates of fireworks!
Their sheer numbers give them protection,
but little else: they have a -5 basic bonus to
Defense and can explicitly suffer 9 ripples (11
when commanded by the Fire Cultist) so the
players can make short work of them.
The third is the Barge itself. As long as it
stays afloat or there are fireworks crates on the
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Breaking The Piers.
The Fire Cultist is dependent on her fireworks
to even the playing field. While killing the
minions is easy, destroying the pier is even
easier. The scorched, blackened piers likely
only take a modest difficulty to break- a
Might Shaping Wave of 30- while other, less
brute-force approaches might take 40 or
more. Of course, the Fire Cultist is quick and
will definitely try to Break the Waves as they
come, but she is only one person! If all three
piers are broken, her minions will have no
way to get them off the Barge.
184
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Sink the Barge.
As an alternative, the players can attempt
to sink the Barge itself. If it merely sinks
it will douse all the fireworks and make
them useless… but one can’t forget the
option of setting it aflame as well! Sinking
the Barge requires a Shaping Wave much
like breaking the piers, but should be a bit
harder- a Might Shaping Wave of 40- while
other, less brute-force approaches might
take 50 or more. This is more advantageous,
though, because the city will likely have a
more positive opinion of the players for not
destroying civil infrastructure. Managing
to throw some flame into the hold is likely
a Finesse or improvised Burn shaping wave
at Difficulty 20 that will cause a massive
explosion, destroying the barge and the
piers (as well as bowling over anyone on the
Dock!) It’s up to the Sage what happens to
anyone caught in the blast wave, but you can
be sure the civil authorities won’t be happy!
Docks, it can make a single Shaping Wave with
a Lake of 7 to light a fireworks crate. These are
peasant archers, badly trained, who know they
don’t stand a chance at hitting a dedicated xia.
Taking out the Minions will also take out the
Barge’s defenders. The Barge can be considered
to have unlimited fireworks crates.
The Fire Cultist Twin will attempt to flee if she
takes a Major wound, or if she takes a Minor
wound and there’s no way to empty the Barge
onto the docks (by destroying her minions or
the barge itself). It’s important that she fulfill
this part of the plan! At the same time, she
won’t stick around if the plan is defunct.

SCENE 3:
THE GARRISON
Primary Non-Player Characters: Milk Fang
Soon after the victory (or debacle) at the docks,
an armored contingent of soldiers marches into
the area. The leader, a Sergeant Xi, bows quickly
to the players and takes a step forward.
“If you will follow me, please. Guard
Commander Flying Cut requests your presence
at the Jian Kang garrison immediately!”
The Garrison is an imposing structure of stone
and iron. Already they can see it’s scorched
by flame and three Fire Cultists have already
been impaled and left out as a warning to any
other attempts. There are many, many more
dead guards, twisted burned corpses. They’ve
suffered serious losses.
Guard Commander Flying Cut is an imposing
gentleman with a sword as big as he is. He
once was handsome, after today he will be
considered ugly. Half of his body is covered
in burns, though it doesn’t seem to bother
him. He radiates potent metal chi, no doubt
the secret to ignoring the horrific wounds he’s
sustained. His voice is raspy and his lips start
bleeding as he speaks.
“Thank you for coming. This was an Imperial
Order but I decided to ask nicely first. I
apologize I couldn’t come in person. My
doctor won’t let me. I have been deputizing
any xia we can find to help us deal with this
threat and sending them to put out fires across
the city. Sometimes literally.”
He chuckles and looks over them.
“You five aren’t going to be much good at
putting out fires, but that’s fine. I need you
five to make for a Falling Leaves Society lodge
in the western edge of the city. It’s right next
to an old shrine, the Emperor was supposed
to stop there to perform rites to Guanyin. It’s
been hit hard by Fire Doctrine forces. I need
you to head there and assess the situation.
Lord Shen Lei is there and should have it
under control, since he’s quite a strong fighter,
but he hasn’t gotten back to me in over an
hour and I fear the worst. We’re narrowly
winning this fight, and Lord Shen Lei will
definitely tip the scales in our favor.”
After this, Guard Commander Flying Cut
will direct them to go. If the players protest
or demand, he’ll be sure to reiterate that
this is an Imperial Order… and that he’ll
personally be quite grateful, and will freely
bestow favors or money. Guard Commander
Flying Cut is desperate, after all.
The lodge is down a long, unbroken street.
It’s meant to be able to support an Imperial
Procession from the heart of the city with no
problems. Atop the stone shrine to Guanyin,
they can see a Falling Leaves xia exchanging
lightning bolts with a Fire Doctrine cultist.
The two are throwing off prodigious amounts
of chi, enough that they’re sure one of them has
to be Lord Shen Lei. Milk Fang slows down,
turning to face the players.
“That’s the one. We’re all friends, right? Or
at the very least we respect each other? I’m
here to kill that man.”
185
 She points at Shen Lei as he and the cultist
bring their fight onto the street.
“And I’d like your help in doing it. I can’t
take him on myself, and my family won’t let
me back until one of the two of us dies. Come
on, the Fire Doctrine’s already losing anyway.
This is my only chance!”
Once it is clear what the players decide- we’re
assuming they won’t side with her- Milk Fang
takes off down the street on Blood Spot. The
fight is three zones away, each zone a different
section of a Street.
The difficulty to move between zones is 0,
meaning any Cover Ground roll succeeds.
Milk Fang and her mount will be able to rush
straight for the fighters and leave the players in
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Talk Her Down.
Milk Fang explicitly does not have any real
Passions or Inspirations attached to her
sheet. None of the players are Courtiers,
making this a difficult prospect, but the
Sage is encouraged to let them try anyway.
Who knows, maybe a player will manage
a sufficiently convince her, as unlikely as it
may be. If the players insist on attempting
to roll, allow them to roll their Inspire
against Milk Fang’s Confidence as if they
were Courtiers… so long as they spend
a point of Joss to do so. Note that trying
to get Milk Fang to agree to a formal duel
probably won’t work. She only has a
small window of opportunity and she can’t
afford too much of a delay!
186
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Tip The Scales.
What works for Milk Fang could be
used for the players. Why not make Milk
Fang’s job impossible? Smart players
can attempt the same disruption tactic
that Milk Fang is trying against the Fire
Doctrine priest. This is obviously going
to work a lot faster for the players, as
there are four of them to Milk Fang’s one!
However, Milk Fang has a few advantages:
the head start from her Ride Cover Ground
and a much faster External kung fu with
which she can Break Waves.
the dust if they don’t Break her Cover Ground
wave. Milk Fang dedicates any dice she has
on her Initiative first to Cover Ground, then
directly to pumping up her Initiative. Thanks
to her Ride skill, she should be able to reach
the battle on the first round if she gets a set.
Once she’s at the site of the battle, she’ll use a
special Shaping Wave made with her highest
skill (in this case Ride) to harass Lord Shen
Lei. This is made more dangerous by her
Dancing Metal Intercession, which will allow
her to harass him at longer range if the players
make it to the zone with her.
This Shaping Wave requires her primary
attack to be made against Lord Shen Lei. She
may use additional sets to Break Waves, but
nothing else. Lord Shen Lei is too puissant for
Milk Fang to hit, but by attacking him now
she’s drawing Shen Lei’s attention. His fight
with the Fire Cultist is too close and dangerous
for him to split his attention, and slowly but
surely his strength will be whittled away! Five
successful attacks made against Shen Lei will
lead to his defeat.
If Milk Fang cannot make a Shaping Wave, she
will target the players. Her attacks will focus on
Knockbacks to buy her space or attacks meant
to cripple and wound but never to kill.
Milk Fang will not run, no matter what happens
to her. This is important to her. The Blood
Wind Cultists do not give up. They will chase
their target until they either die or they tear
out their target’s throat. Should she succeed,
she will immediately surrender. If the players
decide to bring her to Guard Commander
Flying Cut and inform him of her deeds, he will
immediately execute her with his sword.
© RLee 2014
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Side with Her.
This is probably the quickest way to end
this scene… and also probably the worst.
The players simply make Shaping Waves
alongside Milk Fang and overpower Lord
Shen Lei. Doing so will allow the Fire
Doctrine priest to succeed and immediately
escape. What happens from there is up
to the Sage and beyond the scope of this
adventure, but it will surely have some
repercussions down the road.
187

SCENE 4:
THE STREETS
Primary Non-Player Characters: Yellow
Dog, possibly both Fire Cultist Twins, possibly
Milk Fang
By this time the players should return to Guard
Commander Flying Cut. If Master Five Fights
is not one of the player characters, Flying Cut’s
physician is a skilled doctor and should be able
to patch up any wounds they have at this point
without a roll. Soothe any Injury conditions
they might have (including Burn effects) by
one step.
Flying Cut will either praise the players if they
succeeded or berate them if Lord Shen Lei
died. Whatever the case, he will acknowledge
that the day’s seen spectacular success or
failure across the city.
“Most of the Fire Doctrine’s been broken.
They made a big push for the Imperial Palace
but were stopped dead by the Central Golden
Dragon. Unfortunately they’ve done real,
significant damage to the city and they’ve
successfully interrupted the Imperial Rites.
The Jin Dynasty’s got enough questions to its
legitimacy… this will provide propaganda
fodder for the Doctrine for years. We’ll need
to go on the offensive against them soon,
which means we need more information. I
need you to head out into the city and capture
as many of the Fire Doctrine as you can find.
The streets are infested with their followers,
trying to blend into the city to avoid notice.”
188
The streets of Jian Kang are choked with
people, milling through the area in a panic.
So much of the city has burned that a good
number of these people are homeless or jobless,
though few have lost everything. There’s
a pervading despair in the air: has the Jin
Dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven?
Most of the cultists prepared to hide before-
hand- even if their plan succeeded, it’s even
better to infiltrate the city and cause more
trouble later! Finding the hidden cultists is
based on an extended Survival or Politics roll
at Difficulty 40. Each success rounds up a
different group of cultists. There are ten cells,
but the players need to find at least five cult
cells to progress to the next scene. The players
can each make a roll against the same cell,
but if they fail to find that one it’s considered
to have hidden itself entirely and cannot be
searched for again.
While Down-On-Her-Luck Shui and Bamboo
Tiger might have problems here, Master Five
Fights and The Specter With No Tongue
should be in their element. If Milk Fang is still
alive, she should be allied with the players, and
her presence will make this easier.
Master Five Fights can’t use his Doctor’s arts very
effectively in this situation, but who needs Secret
Arts when you’ve got connections? Master Five
Fights knows the city and knows it well. His
Entanglement in the Jiang Hu grants him a +5
Loresheet bonus to any social roll made within
the context of these lesser schools. He also has
basic Jiang Hu knowledge, meaning the player
can declare he knows basic knowledge of the
local Jiang Hu… including the neighborhoods.
Surely they have some suspicions that can point
him in the right direction!
The Specter With No Tongue should be able
to use his Predictions to boost their roll with
an Action Bonus, and the Specter has some
Survival as a skill.
Milk Fang’s Curses may not seem too useful at
first blush, but can be used to provide a Fire
Curse to provide an Action bonus towards
stumbling upon some Cultists.
Upon discovering the third Cultist cell,
they should be interrupted by Yellow Dog!
The Blade Dog should immediately kill the
cultist minions.
“Sorry, but they can’t be allowed to talk.
Business, you know how it is.”
Yellow Dog fights much the same way as in the
scene in the Brothel: if he can, he’ll lash out
with wide area attacks and will smash up the
street at every opportunity. Most importantly
he should try to escape the battle every round.
If he manages to get three zones away from
the players he’s escaped and the battle ends
(though the Sage is encouraged to make them
keep their Ripples to speed things up).
At this point, the players are engaged in a race
against Yellow Dog… he should make the same
rolls they do, one roll at a time. If he discovers
a cell before they do, he assassinates the
cultists. If the players beat him to a cell, they
can draw him into combat again or move on to
investigating the next cell.
If the Cultist Twins have survived their
previous scenes, they should be rediscovered
with the fifth cell the players find. They
will need to be neutralized- surrender is not
an option!
SCENE 5:
THE GO SQUARE
Primary Non-Player Characters: Only
Bonfire For Many Li, possibly Milk Fang
Upon capturing the last cell, the final cell
member should squeal like a pig in front of
a butcher. No doubt bringing him in front
of Guard Commander Flying Cut will help
with that.
“If you let me live, I’ll tell you who planned
it! I don’t know his name but I know he was
watching our efforts from near the center of
the city… the Go Square.”
At this point the players will likely point out
that they were there at the beginning of the
adventure. Guard Commander Flying Cut
will order them to scout this out to see if he’s
still there.
“If he is, I’ll want you to use this signal. If he
is, you can summon our troops with a sustained
flare of your chi. I’ll recognize it when I feel it.
Keep him in one place for as long as possible to
make sure we can capture him.”
Since players can Sense Chi with Wu Wei as
well as hide it, it makes sense they can display
it as well! You can explain to your players that
it’s as simple as spending a lot of Chi (similar
to a Priest’s Breath Sorcery) to signal other xia.
When they return to the Go Square, they find
it mostly abandoned. One xia sits at a table
with an old white-haired gentleman, playing
an intense game over two bottles of plum wine.
It’s clear the xia has won, and the old man is
playing only out of stubbornness. When they
189
 ALTERNATIVE OPTION: Some Cell Ideas
You will note that zones and locales weren’t
described in detail for this scene… and that’s
for good reason! Ideally your players will
step up to the task and search for you, but
this can be intimidating for a player. It might
not hurt to set up five sections of the city to
investigate and see if the players can get into
the groove of things. Here’s five suggestions:
1. The Slums. This is the most obvious
location for the Fire Doctrine. While many
slums have burned, Jian Kang is surrounded
by them and they’re almost impenetrable
to the city guards, who the slum dwellers
despise. Any cells here are likely to be found
quickly by more dedicated (and neutral)
investigators. The poor souls who live here
are deeply afraid of the Fire Doctrine, and
quite a few are surprisingly patriotic. It’s
most likely the poor will disclose the location
of supposed Fire Doctrine refugees for a bit
of coin.
2. The Merchant Quarter Garrison. The
Merchant’s Quarter is well-known for being
the haven of the foreign and the morally
dubious. The guards have already swept
through it three times and found nothing.
But this is because the guards ARE the Fire
Doctrine cultists! Bribes and blackmail
have kept them hidden for weeks, and the
merchants have been living it up without the
real city guards to rein them in. No doubt
that’s how they smuggled in so many Fire
Doctrine cultists!
3. The Qilin Temple. This small temple is
best known for its worship of relics of the
last Qilin to have been officially sighted.
The Qilin’s association with fire- as well
190
as the temple’s minor role as a stop in the
Emperor’s Imperial Rites route- made it a
prime place to place Fire Doctrine spies. They
so far have escaped the Guard’s notice, but
only because they came under attack and
suffered a great deal of damage. Investi-
gation may find that nobody knows who
headed off the Fire Doctrine xia who attacked
the Qilin Temple, meaning the priests did it
themselves to throw off any investigations!
The whole priesthood of the temple are
secret members of the Doctrine.
4. The School of Shadows. This tiny school
has existed for years in Jian Kang, teaching
its students the rudiments of the Shadow
Catching style. Many of its graduates have
moved on to becoming noted members of
the Eagle Talons. This puts it above most
people’s suspicion, but only a few people
know that the old and virtuous Master
Shadowcut has handed its management to
his most dedicated pupil… a Fire Doctrine
spy! It will break Master Shadowcut’s heart
to find his First Disciple has used his school
to train and hide Fire Doctrine insurgents.
5. The White Tree Inn. The White Tree Inn
is located at the edge of the city, actually
built into the side of the city wall. Part inn,
part teahouse, it’s a sleepy little place that
might be overlooked by the city guard. The
cultists have been frequenting this inn for
months, the better for them to blend in and
hide when things get rough. Widow Green
Earring is fiercely protective of her regulars
and will deny their involvement out of the
principle of the thing.
arrive they should be able to sense his Fire
Chi; he is displaying it openly. He stands up
from the game, admitting defeat to the older
man and bowing to the players. The old man
takes the bottle of plum wine and walks away.
“I recognize you. You were here earlier,
weren’t you? My name is Only Bonfire For
Many Li. Please, take a seat. Come drink
with me.”
The players may or may not take him up on
his offer. They’ll probably at least flare their
chi for Guard Captain Flying Cut.
“This is destiny, I’m sure of it. You were here
at the start of things and you are here when
my plan lies in shambles about me. But you’re
young, I’m old, and this is not a fight you can
win. If you wish, I’ll walk away right now,
peacefully, and this city will be safe for now.
If you’d rather fight, then we can fight; seize
greatness, dare to become more! But wouldn’t
you rather play a game of Go?”
There are ten major zones here: the Go Square
itself is nine zones, arranged in a 3x3 grid.
The center of the Square is covered by the Go
Pavilion; the tenth zone is the Pavilion Roof,
which has a little bit of space for easy fighting.
It takes a Cover Ground wave of 10 to move
between the Go Square’s lower levels. It takes
a Cover Ground wave of 30 to move between
any of the outer 8 Go Square zones to the
Pavilion Roof. A character cannot move to the
Pavilion Roof if they are on the center of the
Go Square, nor can they target anyone there
with their weapons (and vice versa).
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Play Him In Go.
This cultist enjoys games of strategy, no
doubt thanks to his prior affiliation with the
Mohists. In lieu of actually fighting him, they
can engage him in a game of Go! This should
be treated sort of like a battle, but using Skills
instead of Combat Statistics. At the beginning
of each round a player declares which Skill
they’re using this round, and it substitutes for
all Combat Statistics for that round. Usually
this means using Tactics, but at the Sage’s
discretion other skills might be useful: Tactics
for pure strategy, Learning for memorized
games, Inspire for psyching out an opponent,
Wu Wei for instinctively understanding a
pattern. Your External Kung Fu can be treated
as a sort of playing style. For instance, Only
Bonfire’s Shadow Catching means his style of
playing Go is fast, flashy, but ultimately based
on orthodox principles. Internal Kung Fu
should be heavily discouraged. If Only Bonfire
For Many Li is Taken Out by this game of Go,
he will surrender peacefully.
Only Bonfire For Many Li is an experienced
fighter and prone to using his Burn effects.
It is important to note that he will treat the
players more like wayward children than deadly
enemies. He is extremely unlikely to pick on
a certain player and will spread his attacks out
from round to round. He’ll only Take Out a
player if he has no other choice; when and if he
does, it’s very unlikely to be fatal, no matter how
riled up he is. While he could very effectively
kite the players with his high Speed and
Footwork, that is unlikely as well. They must
be given the chance to become great!
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 Throughout the the fight he is sure to give the
players reasons for his actions: the persecution
of the non-Han peoples, the illegitimacy of
the Jin, and the desire to recreate Shen Zhou
into something better. He is a true zealot and-
Heaven help him- an idealist.
The players have to delay the Cultist leader
for 10 rounds before the Guards arrive in
overwhelming force. Only Bonfire For Many
Li will realize this and will attempt to escape
Round 8, no matter how well the fight is
going for him. He will also attempt to escape
if he suffers a Major wound. Leaving the Go
Square automatically means his escape: he’s
ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
A Game of Fists and Stones
Instead of fighting him or playing him in Go,
why not do both? Every round he and one
of the players should make a Tactics Minor
Action to place a piece in between punches.
They can do this even at other zones, so feel
free to make some flashy moves describing
just how your pieces are finding their way
to the right spot on the board from across
the square! If multiple players make a
Tactics Minor Action, pick the highest result.
Compare the results of each, and deal that
side a number of Ripples as if it had been
a Strike against a defense. There are no
Rippling Rolls, they instead add a single extra
Ripple. The first side to accrue 10 Ripples
loses! If Only Bonfire For Many Li loses, he
will immediately surrender; if he wins, he will
fight as normal. While the Game of Fists and
Stones is active, Only Bonfire At Many Li will
never attempt to run.
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ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Let Him Leave.
The players may be considerably banged
up and fatigued by the previous scenes, or
maybe they see some truth to his words. He
is rather nice and respectful for a cultist,
after all. If they do let him leave, they
should probably try to wrangle some other
concession out of him. Let them! None of
them are Courtiers but Only Bonfire For Many
Li actually has low Confidence. Encourage an
Inspire roll made against his Confidence to
see if they can’t get some other benefits for
letting him go. Only Bonfire For Many Li will
never actually surrender, but he may offer
other intangible benefits.
a skilled xia, after all, and he’s much faster
than any of the player characters. If he
cannot escape when the Guards arrive, he is
automatically captured.
Even if Only Bonfire For Many Li escapes,
the Fire Doctrine has effectively been broken.
The players have managed to meaningfully
contribute to the defense of Jian Kang, and
their names are sure to become famous in the
Jiang Hu. They might’ve made friends and
allies, but they’ve no doubt made a serious
enemy. The Fire Doctrine will have heard of
these upstarts and their role in their campaign,
and will surely come for revenge...
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