Physical Adepts

Physical Adepts (often shortened to just Adepts) mentally focus their life force (or “Chi”) to unlock their body’s full potential; physically, mentally, and spiritually. As Adepts unlock new abilities (Adept Skills, or simply Skills), they become honed physical machines, using their Chi to enhance their close combat abilities.

There are four schools adepts in which can be initiated:

• Red Brothers focus on the Mystic Paths.
• Gray Brothers focus on the Mystic Trances.
• Green Brothers focus on the Mystic Ways.
• Black Brothers focus on the Mystic Threads.

Adepts aren’t tied exclusively to their schools; although their first Skill must be from within the school in which they are initiated. Subsequent picks can be from any school - in fact, Adepts are frequently encouraged to master at least one Skill from every school.

Initiating Adept Skills

Adept skills work like spells, just without having to know specific runes. The adept decide how muchrange, radius, and effort they will put into the skill. (For most skills the range and the radius will be 0)The effort times their effective Will (Will modified by the Meditation roll) equals the caster’s power. Skills are maintained as long as the adept is in a meditative state. The time required to activate a skill equals the amount of effort put into this spell (in action rounds)

Drain

The adept has a potential MF drain equal to the intensity of the skill put into effect. An Astral Theory roll will offset one potential drain for every success. Additionally, the adept will lose a point of MF every 120 minutes/(the number drain being held +1). Example, if the adept used 5 points for one skill and took 2 drain and 6 points for a second skill taking 3 drain, then they have 5 drain total. They will take an addition MF drain every 120/6 = 20 minutes.

Will

While in a meditative State (see Meditation, above), an Adept is able to internalize and focus their Chi (represented by their Will) to activate Adept Skills. For each Success on a Meditation roll, the Adept can channel 2 of their available Will points into an Adept Skill.

Astral Theory

Each level of Astral Theory allows one skill to be learned from the skill list. Skills can be reinforced by taking the skill twice.

Meditation

To use Adept Skills, the Adept must enter a meditative state, and maintain that meditative state for the entire time they use the Skill. The meditative state permits them to open their mind to the Astral realm in order to gather and focus the Chi energy required to fuel their heightened abilities. The Adept only needs 1 Success on their Meditation roll to enter the meditative State, which takes 1 round. They can hold it as long as they have Mental Fatigue points (see Drain, below), unless something threatens to jar them out of it. The following are just two examples to modifiers to the Mediation roll:

Using another Skill (other than a centering Skill) while attempting to meditate inhibits the Adept’s ability to reach a meditative state, and so incurs a penalty on the Meditation roll.

• Using a Knowledge, Artistic, Language, or Social Skill incurs a 3-dice penalty.
• Using a Physical or Combat Skill incurs a 1-die penalty.
• The Adept cannot attack while dropping into a meditative state, but they can defend.
• Once they achieved a meditative state the Adept must hold it as long as they use their Skills. If the Adept takes any damage while in the meditative state, they must make a Will roll, and achieve a number of Ss equal to the amount of damage they took divided by 4.

Using Adept Skills

Adept Skills work like spells, requiring the player to know the Range, Radius, and Effort to calculate a Skill’s Power and Drain. One major difference, however, is that the Adept does not need to know any runes.

Power

The Adept decides how much Effort (E) to put into a Skill. The amount of Effort times the number of Will (W) points allowed by the Meditation roll equals the Skill’s overall Power (POW).

POW = E x W

Time

The time required to activate a Skill equals the amount of PD in action rounds. The Adept can continue to use all activated Skills as long as they are in a meditative state. Remember that in order to start activating a skill the adept needs to be in a meditative trance. So for the first skill, the total time will be 1 round plus the amount of PD in the skill.

Drain

1. Calculate Potential Drain (PD)
   • The amount of drain an Adept could take is calculated as the Skill’s Range (Rn) plus its Radius (Rd) plus the Effort.
   • Unless specified otherwise in the Skill description, the Range and Radius always equal 0
   • PD = Rn + Rd
2. Calculate Actual Drain (AD)
   1. Each success on an Astral Theory (AT) roll offsets one potential drain.
   2. AD = PD - AT
   3. Additionally, the adept will take a point of actual drain every 120 minutes divided by the total drain (TD) of all Skills being used; AD = 120/(TD + 1)

Example: Shan the Adept is using two Skills simultaneously. He took 2 drain when initiating the first and 3 drain when initiating the second, for a total drain of 5. Shan will take a further 1 MF drain every 120/(5+1) = 20 minutes he continues to use both Skills.

Astral Paths

Red brothers are able to walk Mystic Paths on journeys through in their mind. They are accompanied on these Paths by spirit animals who imbue them Astral Power to directly fuel their physical actions.

Tiger Path

When on the Tiger Path the adept is able to sense where attacks will come from and where defenses will be placed. This Skill will raise a single combat Skill by 1 per 12 power.

Leopard Path

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When on the Leopard Path, the adept allows the astral powers to assist them with a balance and acrobatics Skills. This Skill will raise a single combat Skill by 1 per 12 power.

Monkey Path

When on the Monkey Path, the adept summons astral power to assist them with climbing and jumping. Each power adds 1 point to 2% to the adept’s jumping distance. Each 12 points add 1 point to skill.

Snake Path

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When on the Snake Path, the adept weaves their body in a motion that mesmerizes the opponent. When the adept starts the dance, a Contest of Wills occurs. Each extra success that the adept rolls reduces the Quickness and Dexterity of the victim by 1. Each extra success that the adept rolls increase the Quickness and Dexterity of the victim by 1 [until they are at normal levels]. As long as the adept has more success than the victim, the victim must watch the dance. If visual sight is blocked or the adept stops, then they will recover in 1 Quickness and 1 Dexterity per Action Round. For each 5 power in the Skill, the adept gets another bonus die.

Dragon Path

When on the Dragon Path, the adept unlocks their full potential attributes. For each 12 power in the Skill any single attribute can be increased by 1.

Trance

Gray brothers are able to sink into Mystic Trances to directly access the Astral Power that enhances their mental abilities, which allows them to better understand the environment around them. Although a solidly mental activity, the resulting deeper understanding can manifest itself either physically or mentally.

Serenity Trance

When in a Serenity Trance, the adept become more at one with the world and is able to sense intrusions on them from others. Their R (reaction) increase by 1 per 12 Power. This Skill also acts like Danger Sense. Additionally, though normally one cannot parry missile weapons as they are moving too fast. Even dodging is difficult; requiring a Skill test with a 5 target number. This Skill allows the adept to move quicker than normal and thus be able to parry or even catch missiles. Parries to missiles with weapons are allowed with a target number of 5. Dodges still have a target number of 5.

Clarity Trance

When in a clarity trance, the adept is able to see the world as it should be. This allows them to detect falsehoods. For example, the will be able to see when someone’s statements are not true. The victim may not know they are not true and may not be lying. They may be telling the adept what they believe to be true. The adept, however, will know it is not true. They also can detect illusions or other deceits (like misdirection). For each 12 power, the adept increases their Quickness by 1 to detect these things.

Affinity Trance

With the Affinity trance, the adept is able to place mental tripwires around themselves. If any attempt to harm the, they will be warned. Every 12 power in this Skill acts like 1 level of Danger Sense.

Acuity Trance

With the Acuity trance the adept is able to focus on small minute details and pick up their importance in the larger world. For each 12 power in this Skill acts like 1 level of Alertness.

Tranquility Trance

The Tranquility Trance reduces the stimuli going to the adept to only what is important to the physical Skill at hand. Each 12 power adds 1 Level to any single physical Skill.

Example: Melissa the Adept has a Will of 8 and used 6 Effort to help enhance her ability to hide in the shadows. The resulting 48 Power (8 x 6 = 48) lets her add 4 levels (48 / 12 = 4) to her Urban Stealth Skill.

Mystic Shrouds

Mystic Shrouds are externally-focused internal actions performed by Adepts using Astral Power’s arcane nature to increase their bodies’ abilities. The effects can appear magical in nature, and are frequently misidentified by non-Adepts as actual magic use.

Shroud of Sight

With the Shroud of Sight, the adept allows their astral vision to bleed into their physical vision. This allows them to see others who are hiding; to see in the dark; and even to partially see through walls. This Skill allows a user to fight blind. Every 10 power reduces lighting penalties by 1. Additionally, every 10 power increases the ability to see anything trying to hide themselves in shadows or camouflaged by 1.

Shroud of Shadows

With the Shroud of Shadows, the adept is able to wrap themselves in shadows making them harder to see. Each 12 points of power in this skill adds 1 die to any hide in shadows roll.

Alternatively, the shadows can be manipulated to change a person’s apearance to make them unrecognizable. A penalty die for each 12 points of power in the skill is added for anyone’s roll to identify the adept.

Shroud of Armor

The Shroud of Armor wraps the adept in a magical, shimmering armor. For each 5 power put into this Skill, the Adept will have an additional 1 AP.

Shroud of Melee

The Shroud of Melle creates a weapon from astral space. For all intents and purposes the Mystic Blade acts and conforms to a normal blade, however it is a magic blade, so its damage will affect creature who can only be damages by magical weapons. The Damage, Ready, and AP of the weapon are created from the power of the Skill. Each 5 power can add 1 point to one of these three factors.

Example, if the adept used 5 points with a Will of 8 for 40 power. The adept can create a weapon with 8 total points. They want to create a mace, they will need to put 3 into the Ready. This leaves 5 points for Damage and AP. They decide to use 3 for Damage and 2 for AP.

Shroud of Healing

With this Skill, the adept pulls on astral power to fuel the body. For each point of power, the adept can heal 1 point of damage. However, this Skill is still resisted by the recipient’s CON.

Mystic Splicing

Mystic Threads tie the world together, joining objects and creatures together other through time and space, creating a virtually endless mystic web of Astral Power that defines how life plays out. By splicing these Threads together in new, different, and unique ways, the adept can affect the very fabric of life and how people live and experience it.

Temporal Splicing

With Temporal Splicing the adept follows threads from something or someone and follows it back or forward in time. If the object or person is not within 1 meters of the adept, then follow the range magical table. Power in the spell can be factored into “distance” in time or in details of important events.

• Distance: 1 power = POW2 hours in time
• Details: 10 Power for a single detail

Powerful events resonate through time and can be felt even before or after the event. The effect is greater in the past than in the future. In the future, things may change and so the power is reduced. Use the follow to see the power reduction impact of events. These are additive.

Type of Event	Power		Number of People Involved	Power
Horrific Event	-25 Power		10+	2x Power
Appalling Event	-20 Power		6-10	1x Power
Awful Event	-10 Power		0-5	0.5x Power
Delightful Event	-5 Power
Wonderful Event	-15 Power
Enchanting Event	-20 Power
Future Event	+25 Power

For example: Helga the Adept wants to see who used a dagger to kill the king last week. She is holding the dagger so she needs to put no mana into Range (Rg=0). She’s looking at a small-scale event, to the Radius is also 0. The event took place about 1 week, or 168 (7 x 24 = 168) hours, ago, meaning Helga needs to put 13 Power into the Temporal journey to travel back that far (132 = 169). Fortunately for Helga, the event was appalling (-20 Power), and only affected two people - the killer and the king (x0.5 Power) - which results in a Power modifier of -10 (-20 x 0.5 = -10), meaning she only needs 3 Power (13 - 10 = 3) to witness the event. On the other hand, she wants to view the event as carefully as is practical, so she decides to use 50 power, which will show her 5 details (50 / 10 = 5). This makes her total Power requirement 53 points (50 + 3 = 53). SInce Helga has a Will of 8, she must put 7 Effort into the Skill, which gives her 56 Power (8 * 7 = 56), 3 more than needed to travel back a week in time and view 5 details about this event.

Perception Splicing

By splicing a person’s sensory threads, they can change how that person sees the world. The adept can’t create illusions as such, but alter who things look, feel, taste, sound, or smell. For every 1 power into the one specific item can be altered by 1% change in size / intensity.

Emotion Splicing

Emotion splicing allows the adept to pull threads which cause the victim’s emotions to change based on the Emotion Scale. For each 12 power, the victim loses (or gains) 1 level on the scale. Note that if the victim is not within touch distance, then the adept will need to use a range value for calculating drain.

The adept can also splice threads to either cause pain in a victim or cause them to fade away. This Skill also allows the adept to cause feelings of pain. Pain causes a penalty die per level. It will also prevent a person from fighting, even if they want. For every 12 power in the Skill, the adept gains a +1 level advantage on a Will or Interrogation roll.

Thought Splicing

With Desire Manipulation the adept pushes a thought to a victim. Whether the victim accepts the suggestion as their own depends on an opposed will test. For each 12 power in the Skill, the adept gets another die. For the results of the opposition test, see the following table:

Winner	Victory Margin	Result
Victim	3 Ss	The victim is aware that the adept pushed the suggestion and do not follow the suggestion.
Victim	2 Ss	The victim is aware of the thought, but don’t immediately think the adept pushed the suggestion. Later they may put two and two together. The suggestion is not followed.
Victim	1 Ss	The suggestion is not followed and the victim is unaware of the attempt
Tie	-	The suggestion is accepted, but overruled 2s later. The victim is unaware of the attempt. (~11 feet walking; ~16 feet running)
Adept	1 Ss	The suggestion is accepted, but potentially overruled 4s later. The victim is unaware of the attempt. (~22 feet walking; ~32 feet running)
Adept	2 Ss	The suggestion is accepted, but potentially overruled 8s later. The victim is unaware of the attempt. (~44 feet walking; ~64 feet running)
Adept	3 Ss	The suggestion is accepted, but potentially overruled 16s later. The victim is unaware of the attempt. (~88 feet walking; ~128 feet running)

Each additional success doubles the time the person may decide to change the thought.

Relationship Splicing

When the adept uses this skill, the manipulate the threads to chage the relationship between the adept and the victim. For every 12 power they will move the victim’s relatopnship one level on the Reaction Roles

When the adept used an astral thread, they also can create an Astral link between a willing participant and themselves. The effects of the Link depends on the strength of the bond and the distance. The Astral Thread Link works like a Sense spell with the linked person.The Link, however runs deeper and the details could be the following.

For example: Bob creates an Astral Link to Jeff. He powers the skill with 60 power. With this level of power, he can always tell:

• How far away Jeff is with +/- 10% accuracy
• He can envision a 32m permimeter area around Jeff
• The depth of connection allows them to mentally communicate

Power Degradation Table

The power of the link is degrade over range according to the following table [The formula is ((LN(Distance)/LN(2)-1)2):

Distance (m)	Power Loss		Distance (m)	Power Loss		Distance (m)	Power Loss
2	0		64	25		2,048	100
4	1		128	36		4,096	121
8	4		256	49		8,192	144
16	9		512	64		16,384	169
32	16		1,024	81		32,768	196

Sense Table

Power	General Information	Distance Accuracy	Quantity Accuracy	Depth of Connection
10	Presence of object confirmed	+/- 100%	+/- 100%	No Details
20	Area 1m around object	+/- 75%	+/- 75%	Physical feelings of the linked
30	Area 2m around object	+/- 50%	+/- 50%	Emotional state of the linked
40	Area 4m around object	+/- 30%	+/- 30%	Visual link through the attached’s eyes
50	Area 16m around object	+/- 20%	+/- 20%	Telepathic push of thoughts with the linked
60	Area 32m around object	+/- 10%	+/- 10%	Bi-directional Telepathy
70	Area 64m around object	+/- 5%	+/- 5%	Limited control of the linked’s body; linked physical Skills are at 2 penalty, adept’s physical Skills at 4 penalty; The linked can stop this through a contest of wills
80	Area 128m around object	+/- 2%	+/- 2%	Limited control of the linked’s body; linked physical Skills are at 1 penalty, adept’s physical Skills at 2 penalty; The linked can stop this through a contest of wills
90	Area 256m around object	+/- 1%	+/- 1%	Limited control of the linked’s body; linked physical Skills are at no penalty, adept’s physical Skills at 1 penalty; The linked can stop this through a contest of wills
100	Area 512m around object			Limited control of the linked’s body; Both linked and adept’s physical Skills are at no penalty; The linked can stop this through a contest of wills
100+	Each 10 doubles the area