Hungry Ghost Style

In the final centuries of the Solar Deliberative, some Exalted explored the Underworld more than was prudent. Groups such as the Black Nadir Concordat did not want merely to protect Creation from the Underworld and the Neverborn, they wanted to make its power their own. The obscure and terrible Hungry Ghost Style emerged from these explorations and experiments. Given the style’s associations, it seems likely that its creator became one of the Deathlords. It also seems likely that no style in existence could better metaphysically embody the innate cruelty and malice of the deathknights. At present, no one except Deathlords and Abyssals know Hungry Ghost Style. At least, no one else admits to it…

Weapons and Armor: Hungry Ghost practitioners cannot activate or maintain their Charms while wearing armor. The style treats attacks made with tiger claws, fighting chains and razor harnesses as unarmed attacks.

Complementary Skills: Hungry Ghost practitioners must know the way necrotic Essence flows. To learn this style, characters need at least one Occult or Lore Specialty related to ghosts or the Underworld, or initiation to Shadowlands Circle Necromancy.

Blood-Scenting Hunger

Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: None

The Exalt opens his mouth and probes the air with his tongue, tasting the air for blood as he awakens his primal hunger for flesh and Essence. For the rest of the scene, the martial artist can see dematerialized entities within a range of (Essence x 5) yards. This effect does not, in itself, enable the character to attack such entities. He also perceives which entities in that range possess Essence pools. Some Abyssals see an active Essence as a network of fine, glowing veins overlain on a target; others perceive the Essence pool as the person’s audible heartbeat, a rich taste of blood on the tongue, an odor or some other sensation.

While using this Charm, an Abyssal can size up one chosen target within range as a miscellaneous action. Doing so costs one mote but does not count as Charm usage. Sizing up a target reveals the target’s current wound penalty, her permanent Essence and the total number of available motes remaining in that character’s combined Essence pools. For the rest of the scene, the martial art- ist senses any Essence expenditure by the target, though Blood-Scenting Hunger does not reveal the purpose for the Essence use. If the martial artist wants to know how an opponent suffered from an attack or how much Essence she spent from a Charm, however, he must spend another mote and take another action to re-assess wound penalties and Essence pools.

Leaping Horror Approach

Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Scenting Hunger

Implacable fury infuses the martial artist’s muscles with superhuman speed and strength, sending him from quarry to quarry in a blur of carnage. There is nothing remotely natural about the ways his joints contort and muscles flex in the course of each leap.

This Charm supplements a flurry of attacks. After making each unarmed attack in the flurry, the Exalt can leap in a reflexive Move action to the next target, ignoring wound and mobility penalties to the distance he can travel. The Charm does not supplement the attacks themselves. They suffer the same penalties as if the character stayed stock-still.

The most obvious use for this Charm is to set up another attack against a new target with the next action in the flurry. Since the leap only follows an attack, a character cannot use this Charm to close with an initial target in the flurry who is outside standard close combat range. If the Exalt faces a Counterattack Charm from a defender while leaping away, the character’s Martial Arts rating adds to his Dodge DV.

Lunging Phantom Method

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Scenting Hunger

The Abyssal twists toward and around her foe, elusive as a ghost, positioning herself to strike from behind before her enemy realizes where she’s gone. Her attack becomes unexpected, unless a reflexive (Wits + Awareness) roll for the target scores at least as many successes as the attack roll for the Abyssal.

Shrouded Claw Attack

Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Scenting Hunger

The Exalt’s Void-charged anima lashes out from be- neath her flesh as a phantom image moving ahead of her own blow. The soul-chilling touch of this projection halves the pool used to calculate the target’s DV against the at- tack, rounded down. This Charm can enhance an attack to initiate a grapple as readily as a strike.

Shrouded Claw Attack also causes any dematerialized being “touched” by it to manifest visibly to all onlookers as a translucent apparition for the rest of the scene. This effect applies whenever the attack would hit its target, even if the character has no way to make physical contact with immaterial beings (such as Hungry Ghost Form).

Hungry Ghost Form

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1) Keywords: Form-Type, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Leaping Horror Approach, Lunging Phantom Method, Shrouded Claw Attack

The martial artist roars or howls in a scream of incalculable malice, allowing his worst impulses to possess him with their terrible power. Faintly glowing eyes betray those consumed by this martial arts form, illuminating features twisted into a rictus of taut tendons and clenched muscles.

While this Charm is active, the character is considered a creature of darkness (assuming he wasn’t already) and suffers from the effects of partially controlled Berserk Anger (see Exalted, p. 105), instantly reclassifying allies as enemies if they attempt to impede his rampage. Deactivating this Charm before its normal duration elapses costs one Willpower to shrug off the unnatural mental influence the martial artist exerts on himself.

In exchange for these disadvantages, the martial artist inflicts lethal damage with all unarmed attacks and can parry lethal attacks barehanded, without a stunt. Each action, he may activate his choice of Lunging Phantom Method or Shrouded Claw Attack as an innate power without it counting as a Charm use. He can also make unarmed strikes or clinches against dematerialized beings, though clinched spirits can grapple back until either party breaks contact. As a final benefit, the martial artist adds his Essence to his Stamina for purposes of innate soak.

As a side effect of learning this Charm, non-Abyssal martial artists gain the ability to purchase dots of Whispers without spending time in the Labyrinth. To walk in the steps of the hungry dead is to open one’s mind to ultimate malevolence.

Power Reaping Prana

Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10) Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Hungry Ghost Form

The Exalt greedily siphons Essence expended by his enemies for his own sinister purposes. These stolen motes glitter in trails winding into his opened mouth. When the character uses the Charm, he selects a target within (Essence x 5) yards who uses a Charm. The martial artist must have already used Blood-Scenting Hunger to assess the target’s Essence pool. The character gains a number of motes equal to half the total number the target spent activating all Charms during that tick (rounded down), up to a maximum award of (Martial Arts x 2) motes.

Charm-Smothering Technique

Cost: 1+m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Power-Reaping Prana

When the Abyssal senses a foe (already examined and “tagged” using Blood-Scenting Hunger) using a Charm, she can lash out with a jabbing fist or slashing palm. A whiplash of her anima snaps out to strike at the Charm. The Abyssal can expend up to (Wits + Martial Arts) motes in this attack. If her target does not then expend an equal number of motes, added to his Charm’s original cost, the Charm dissipates in a flash of sparks without taking effect. If the target pays the surcharge, his Charm takes effect as normal.

Charm-Smothering Technique affects only the Charms of the Exalted, spirits and ghosts. It does not affect sorcery, necromancy, thaumaturgy, Fair Folk glamours or other supernatural effects.

Unnatural Shambling Deftness

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Hungry Ghost Form

The martial artist lurches across the battlefield, flickering between bursts of speed and total stillness like the marionette gait of the hungry dead. This magical flurry contains a total number of unarmed Martial Arts attacks equal to the character’s Essence. These attacks ignore Rate, have no multiple-action penalties and carry a DV penalty equal to the highest penalty for any one attack.

Scuttling Apparition Defense

Cost: 4m or 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2) Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Obvious, Shaping Duration: One action Prerequisite Charms: Unnatural Shambling Deftness

Spending four motes, the martial artist fades out of the path of an attack with a gruesome contortionist kata, ceasing to exist except as motes scattered on the breeze. She reappears within a heartbeat in a new position within (Essence) yards as a kind of short-range teleportation. This effect reduces the roll for the attacking character to zero dice. Scuttling Apparition Defense cannot defend against any attack that is unblockable, undodgeable or capable of hitting dematerialized beings, nor can it let a grappled character escape. Attacks supplemented by Charms that add automatic successes also might still strike. Since the Scuttling Apparition Defense is not truly a perfect defense, it does not carry a Flaw of Invulnerability.

As a further benefit, the Abyssal can appear directly behind an enemy within range, giving an opportunity to attempt an unexpected attack (see Exalted, p. 155).

Against flurries, Exalted may spend six motes when using this Charm to add an unnatural Illusion effect that confuses attackers as to the martial artist’s location. Dis- oriented aggressors must pay a Willpower point or face debilitating waves of déjà vu and uncertainty that reduce all attack rolls in the flurry to zero dice.

Consuming Entropy Strike

Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 10) Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Hungry Ghost Form

An Exalt with this Charm may conduct a withering torrent of entropic Essence through an exchange of blows, cursing an enemy with physical decrepitude and ill luck that worsens subsequent injuries. In order to use this Charm, the martial artist must touch the target with an unarmed strike or grapple attack that dealt at least one die of damage.The martial artist could also use a Martial Arts-based parry against a close range attack from the target and successfully block the attack. If the martial artist meets either requirement, all forms of the target’s soak decrease by an amount equal to the Exalted’s Martial Arts rating for the duration of the Charm, starting with natural soak. Non-magical armor acquires a thin layer of rust or rot when struck, though this rust does not cause permanent damage.

Repeated exposure to this Charm uses the highest penalty rather than stacking. The martial artist may, however, activate this Charm repeatedly in an action to curse multiple targets. Note that piercing attacks halve the reduced soak rating. The reduction is not applied after the halving.

Blood-Freezing Technique

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious, Stackable Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Consuming Entropy Strike

The martial artist wounds an enemy’s chakras with brutal precision, and his target feels the chill of the grave race through his veins. If the Abyssal’s attack inflicts any damage, the target’s next action is delayed by one tick as her muscles shiver and joints momentarily stiffen. What’s more, her target loses one dot of Dexterity. This drain correspondingly reduces traits derived from Dexterity, including DV values. Lost dots return at the rate of one per minute.

The Dexterity loss stacks; the delay in the target’s next action does not. Victims reduced to Dexterity 0 are paralyzed. They can take no physical actions, though they can still think, talk (though chattering teeth) and use Charms that do not require them to move in any way. Blood-Freezing Technique does not affect creatures who are immune to cold or not alive, such as automata or ghosts.

Labyrinth-Walking Prana

Cost: 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 1, DV -1) Keywords: Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Hungry Ghost Form

By attuning his anima to the twisting Labyrinth and the potential for Oblivion in all things, a deathknight becomes a shadow flickering about the battlefield. This Charm, the first secret technique of Hungry Ghost Style, supplements Hungry Ghost Form and can be used only immediately after an Abyssal uses that Charm, effectively making assuming the form a Speed 6 action. If the martial artist takes this additional tick and spends a Willpower, his movement distance when using Leaping Horror Approach or Scuttling Apparition Defense increases to (Essence x 5) yards.

Soul-Flaying Strike

Cost: 10m, 1wp, 1lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Shaping Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Freezing Technique, Charm-Smothering Technique, Scuttling Apparition Defense

Arcs of deathly white Essence swirl around the Abyssal’s hands, wailing like lost souls and burning the deathknight himself with the power of Oblivion. The character makes a Martial Arts attack. If the Abyssal’s permanent Essence exceeds that of his target, the damage of his strike becomes unsoakable and aggravated as his body withers away into dust and his own soul shrieks in torment.

Living people slain by this attack—including Exalts—rise as hungry ghosts on the next night. A slain extra leaves a hungry ghost extra; a heroic character leaves a correspondingly powerful hungry ghost. (See The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity II, or just use the hungry ghost on p. 318 of Exalted.) They obey their killer for the next month as best they can comprehend his commands. Spirits, ghosts or Fair Folk slain by Soul-Flaying Strike evaporate on the spot, utterly destroyed.

Soul-Consuming Transcendence

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) Keywords: Obvious, Training Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Soul-Flaying Strike

Few deathknights have even learned that Hungry Ghost Style has this secret final technique, which could set its masters to devouring their fellow Abyssals. By spending one minute monstrously gorging on the corpse of an Essence-wielder who died within the past hour, a master of Hungry Ghost Style can digest some of the deceased’s mystical prowess along with her flesh and blood. He instantly intuits the basic description of every Charm the dead character knew as if they were all Obvious and may choose one of them to steal for which he meets all trait minimums (though this Charm cannot steal permanent Charms or Sidereal Martial Arts).

If the master knows all prerequisites and is otherwise capable of learning the stolen Charm, he may pay the normal experience point cost to do so without training time or tutelage. If the Charm has permutations or variations, the martial artist learns it exactly as its original owner knew it, apart from using his own traits. If he does not wish to pay this experience or cannot learn the Charm for whatever reason, the stolen knowledge lasts only a number of days equal to its owner’s Essence rating at the time of death. During this period, the martial artist may activate the stolen Charm as if he had learned it.

There is no limit to the number of Charms an Abyssal can steal at one time, except that he can get only one Charm per fresh corpse and temporary thefts quickly fade once a killing spree ends. Once a body serves as a target for this Charm, too little of its residual Essence remains to provide further knowledge.