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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Tyrants Reign]Tyrant's Reign[/get-post]
The Tyrant's Reign: Woe is used to fighting multiple opponents in combat with a whip. When a group of combatants is ganging up on him, the sound of his whip, the screams of his victim, as well as the pain and mortification it causes, will tend to result in pain transferring from the mere sight of seeing another person scourged or whipped. The pain will debilitate in degrees determined by Woe's torture skill, matched against the other opponents' discipline and/or endurance skill. At expert and above, the opponent may have some growing resistance to this effect.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Fallen Star]Fallen Star[/get-post]
Capstone: Fallen Star: Hits delivered with a a flexible weapon such as a whip, flail, or scourge can radiate through the protection of an armored opponent. It will produce debilitating pain radiating out from the apex of the whip's strike, whether it hits air, armor, or a weapon. The pain is enough to momentarily stun and slow any but the most disciplined and tough of opponents. If hitting the weapon, the radiation of damage may be bad enough to disarm the opponent. Experts and masters at Discipline and/or endurance can mitigate this effect, with certain pain-reducing capstones (for grandmasters) negating it entirely.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=True Lash]True Lash[/get-post]
Capstone: True Lash: Upon learning to use flexible weapons, mishaps are bound to happen. Formed from his earlier failures with the weapon, Woe has devised techniques that will absolutely prevent self-injury with a whip he is wielding. This method of prevention can also be extended toward those he uses the whip against, given his exquisite sense of control over a flexible weapon such as a whip or flail. When using flexible weapons such as whips, flails, and scourges, Woe can simply choose not to injure a person, whether it be himself or another. With finely tuned control of an attack's impact, he can increase the pain he causes while mitigating unintended damage by a factor determined by the quality of the whip and his skill with it.
The pain of these bloodless lashes are so intense, that they can stun the one struck if their discipline and endurance stats are lower than expert, with increasing resistance above those levels.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Whip It Good]Whip It Good[/get-post]
Capstone: Whip It Good: When Woe cracks a whip, the point at which it cracks can emulate the cutting power of a blade, the penetration of a spear thrust, or the bludgeoning force of a mace. This turns the whip from a weapon of intimidation and pain into one of mortal injury and destructive power.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Shattering Coils]Shattering Coils[/get-post]
Capstone: Shattering Coils: Cracking the coil of a chain or whip requires that the loop and bend in the coil of the whip follow through to the last couple of feet of its cord, where it can break the speed of sound. Woe has such a command of the flow of the mechanic of chains and whips, that at any point along the length of the chain or whip, he can cause that segment to produce a supersonic crack at a moment's notice, breaking the sound barrier at that chosen point. This allows a whip wielded to be more effective at closer range and indeed all along the length of the chain or whip's coils.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Everything is a Whip]Everything is a Whip[/get-post]
Capstone: Everything is a Whip: Well, not everything. But any object that is even remotely flexible and durable, such as a leather strap, a towel, a piece of fabric, a piece of rope, or even a long, springy tree branch, can be used by Woe as a whip, to the point where it's capable of performing all of his capstones without exception. This capstone doesn't alter the parameters (Length, hardness, etc.), make, and/or material of an improvised whip. This capstone simply allows Woe to use improvised whip weapons without a skill-level malus.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Whispering Strike]Whispering Strike[/get-post]
Capstone: Whispering Strike: When Woe bears flexible weapons, at all times he is capable of suppressing the noise it makes. Whether the clinking of the movement of a chain whip or flail, or the sonic crack of a bullwhip's strike. He can use it in such a way that the noise it makes doesn't carry. At the same time, while using whispering strikes, abilities and capstones that key in on the sonic crack of flexible weapons he wields will still be effective even when they are silent.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Fact and Fiction]Fact and Fiction[/get-post]
Capstone: Fact and Fiction
Woe is able to lie so persuasively that he casts doubt even if the person he is speaking to knows what he's saying is untrue. This is true even of those with immortal marks and magic to a point. Only another grandmaster in lie detection skills (investigation, psychology, etc.) or an exalted level ability or a master level Empath could begin to unravel the doubts his lies create. He is so convincing that, when he turns his mind to it, he can make people doubt their own knowledge, not simply their own beliefs.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Concealed Motives]Concealed Motives[/get-post]
Capstone: Concealed Motives
As Woe hatches plans, speaks, acts, or otherwise makes motions to do something, he is able to effectively disguise the sequence of actions he will take to enact such motives. To further confound his opponents, he is able to hint at acting contrary to his actual intent to the point of being convinced that he will act in a certain way, thus reacting to something he doesn't intend to say or do. This applies to combat, debate, and most other forms of events where Woe finds himself in conflict with another.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Pain Inflection]Pain Inflection[/get-post]
Capstone: Pain Inflection
When Woe hears the expression or sound of someone's discomfort or pain, he can generally pinpoint the origin of that pain. The subject need not be lucid or conscious for him to determine where the pain is.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Voices Carry]Voices Carry[/get-post]
Capstone: Voices Carry
In an enclosed space, with few solid barriers to the carriage of sound, Woe has found it much easier to isolate specific sounds, conversations, and other audible phenomenon. As such, he can focus on a point in the enclosed space, and generally hear everything that occurs there as if he was right there.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Pain Mapping]Pain Mapping[/get-post]
Capstone: Pain Mapping
As a result of Woe's extensive experience as a torturer in the past, he's discovered through his various senses that he can intuit a person's operable pain centers and weaknesses just by time spent observing them or engaging with them with either sight or touch. Each trill spent observing a subject provides Woe insight into their pain centers and otherwise weak points in their physiology. Small tells such as how they carry themselves, which leg or arm they tend to favor, all of these clue Woe into what would hurt them most. It would take either a trial of watching them to develop a full pain map of the individual in question, less time if he's able to touch them physically or striking them in combat. This learning process can be stalled by a subject's skill in deception, or through glamours, illusions, or other means of hiding ones true nature.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Ace of Hearts]Ace of Hearts[/get-post]
Capstone: Ace of Hearts
Woe has always been excessively led by his emotions. He's done the dance so long, that he's mastered the tug of various emotional highs and lows. He'll find that emotional extremes, whatever form they come in, give him a rush of focus and adrenaline, increasing one skill he's engaged in using in his current activity by one level (up to but not exceeding Master) for several bits, or until the source of the disturbance to his mood has passed. This can be done once a trial before he begins to suffer a moderate psychological strain.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Beyond Personal]Beyond Personal[/get-post]
Capstone: Beyond Personal
Even a master of discipline is tempted by things that are deeply ingrained in their personality, or personal lives. Woe is beyond the personal and can see past it to the big picture. He can overlook his own personal interests without ill effect, and do what he needs to do in order to come to a proper conclusion. He will not be bothered or traumatized by any choice he makes , without regard to how terrible or horrific, so long as it was done under his own power and will.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Domain Defiance]Domain Defiance[/get-post]
Capstone: Domain Defiance
As a former Empath, Woe was accustomed to dealing with the ebb and flow of arcane influences. As such, while masters are capable of resisting or maintaining their focus in the face of domain magics, Woe has gone slightly beyond that and is almost always able to maintain perfect clarity and focus while being assaulted by various domains that affect perception or the mind. Only Champions of Immortals, Effigy-bearers, Revealed mages or people with greater skill to distract him can accomplish such feats, and even then their efforts are markedly less effective than they'd be on any other master of discipline.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Divine Focus]Divine Focus[/get-post]
Capstone: Divine Focus
As a former Empath and mage, Woe has honed his focus when employing supernatural abilities. He can thus learn to employ multiple abilities within a short time-frame, without straining his ability to focus. Mechanically this means he can learn to use several Divine-based abilities in close succession, or simultaneously with the appropriate knowledge and practice. Generally, his use of such abilities will tend to go easier on him than on one who lacks his level of focus. Abilities that have x-amount of uses per period of time will still have their uses respected. This capstone only governs the skill to use them in succession or in tandem with other abilities. It does not increase the number of uses he can get from an ability.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Unflinching]Unflinching[/get-post]
Capstone: Unflinching
Extreme provocations and displays of violence or terror having been a commonplace occurrence in Woe's lifetime, he has developed an ability to carry on and about his business despite whatever horrors rage around him. As such, if confronted directly by a horrifying situation, creature, or person, he is capable of maintaining his composure enough to give a measured reaction which in most cases cannot be disrupted. At least a grandmaster of Intimidation or similar skills and higher are needed to have a chance of getting through this resistance.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Slow and Steady]Slow and Steady[/get-post]
Capstone: Slow and Steady
Given his patience and discipline in all factors of functioning, Woe is capable of extending the amount of time that is needed to complete a personal task. Some may call it procrastination, yet where there's no rush to finish what he's doing or rush to a conclusion, Woe can accomplish even greater feats. Mechanically, this means that any skill used for crafting, or business management skill that he employs can be accomplished with the best result possible for his level almost without the possibility of failure. If he would hit a setback that would cause upset, failure, or damage, it won't, but will instead only take more time to finish.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Tales of Anguish]Tales of Anguish[/get-post]
Capstone: Tales of Anguish: Having experienced a wide range of personalities under his power as a torturer, Woe has a keen sense of what motivates a person, as well as what demotivates them. Through any triggers, he's become aware of through psychological or social observation he can use them to break down their mental resistance, to render their mind more malleable to mental or emotional manipulation through other means.
This can be applied in several ways, although the effectiveness of these methods is dependant on ancillary skills used for such a delivery. Through higher levels of intelligence, teaching, or leadership, he can deliver the effects of this capstone by proxy through the process of instruction.
The effects can be accelerated through higher levels (expert and above) of torture or intimidation.
But as a basic function, as it is, without enhanced skills in other areas, Woe can simply engage a person directly and use tales of anguish to their full effect, as the one administering them.
e.g. Woe has a person in talk therapy and has learned without it being spelled out, by teasing it out through subtle hints and tells, that the person is deathly afraid of mice. Having established this knowledge, he can then use it against them without introducing real mice into the equation, but by steering their thoughts toward the subject of their fear. This gradually might wear down on a person of weak will, to where they may either be rebuilt or torn down to a more malleable mental state.
Discipline and meditation can mitigate the effects, or flat out negate them in the case of certain capstones.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Dissociative Regulation]Dissociative Regulation[/get-post]
Dissociative Regulation: When a person has been put in a dissociative trance, whether through drugs, poison, or hypnosis, Woe can begin to build a compartmentalized sub-strata in their mind that is separate from their conscious self. This means he can make little sub-sections where certain undesirable traits, memories, or habits are stored away so they won't trouble the person's conscious day to day life. If at any point they want to revisit those traits they locked away, they will be able to regain them at will. This takes him above and beyond mere behavioral modification, and in this way he can begin to rebuild a person from the ground up. However, he cannot do so without the full and unconditional cooperation of the person in question. In mechanical terms, for the purposes of other pcs, this means player consent is required.
While Woe might use drugs, empathy, other coercion skills to weaken someone to the point where they'd be more likely to comply, the effects of this capstone wouldn't last much longer than the very act and effects of said manipulation. The subject needs to be willing. If they aren't fully behind and motivated to make it work, it'd swiftly unravel as they are removed from the cause and source of whatever pushed them into it.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Tales of Memoria]Tales of Memoria[/get-post]
Capstone: Tales of Memoria: Using his mortal-born ability of ignorance to make people forget specific memories has given him great insight into how such things are forgotten, or remembered. With this capstone, Woe is able to help amnesiacs and similarly afflicted individuals recover memories. Sometimes this involves planting a memory that Woe knows to be true of that person, and can allow that memory to return to the individual in question, but only if the memory was mostly accurate. He cannot place false memories in this way. Should he, as part of this capstone, attempt to plant mostly false or inaccurate memories, only the parts of it that are true will maintain prominence. The parts that are false or inaccurate will eventually cause the entire 'memory' to slip the mind of the subject, but not before Woe is able to identify which parts may be true. Conversely, in the case of mostly true memories, only the parts that are false or inaccurate will fade, while the truth of the memory remains mostly intact. At that point, the rest of the gaps in their memory may be corrected until it is complete.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Mesmerize]Mesmerize[/get-post]
Capstone: Mesmerize: While Woe has limited practical experience in putting others into altered states of consciousness, he's experienced enough of those states himself to know what it takes to enact them. Whether through making himself forget memories, being in the Dreamworld, or being manipulated and assaulted by ghosts and other supernatural apparitions, Woe has seen himself through his share of dizzying displays of perceptual chicanery.
As such, he's able, after spending from half a break to a break with a person in conversation, to determine what it would take to put them into an altered state, whether that state be hypnotic, ultra-suggestible, or otherwise. He is able to do this with a minimal amount of distraction or show. With not much more than a single gesture and a glance of his eyes, he's able to put someone that he's established familiarity with under an altered state of consciousness.
This effect can be mitigated and countered to some extent, starting at master discipline, meditation, and/or endurance depending on the nature and intention of the altered state. He cannot use this capstone during highly tense encounters, such as from arguments to full-on battles. His subject needs to be reasonably relaxed for it to work.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Its an Argument not a Fight]It's an Argument, not a Fight[/get-post]
Capstone: It's an Argument, not a Fight
In Woe's time, he's talked his way through many thorny and difficult conversations, often enough while brandishing a weapon. So long as he holds a weapon he's proficient in, he can usually maintain a dialogue with any mortal. This persists so long as he trades words rather than blows. Once either party launches into an attack, the effect is null. This is not coercive and is mainly meant to target NPCs. Even though a PC usually has to give him that chance, if the player believes there's a strong argument for their pc not doing so, a third-party mod gets involved in that decision? Of course a PC or NPC's skills will factor into their resistance to this capstone in any case.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Golden Tongue]Golden Tongue[/get-post]
Capstone: Golden Tongue
Woe's words are as good as gold. When completing a seasonal wage thread he's able to command a greater wage, whether by negotiating a higher salary or convincing people to pay more for his services, or just doing a better job to command better rates, he can gain more wealth from his career than he otherwise might. This results in a +3 modifier to Wealth Points earned per seasonal wealth thread ONLY. He cannot use it to increase the value of bounties or extra wealth from threads that aren't his seasonal wealth thread. This Capstone isn't cumulative with other capstones that increase seasonal wage but may be used regardless of the wealth skill employed.
The seasonal wage may be increased by a full 5 wp if the skill he's using for the seasonal wealth thread is Socialization, but only 3 wp for other skills.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=For Just Five Nels More]For Just Five Nels More[/get-post]
Capstone: For Just Five Nels More
Woe is so accustomed to making use of wealth as a resource, a distraction, a means to acquire what he wants, that he's able to apply that principle to nearly anything. If he's willing to sacrifice a small amount of nels, he can open up the opportunity to make an exceptional acquisition. An exceptional acquisition being an item, resource, or material either very rare or unheard of within a region, from anywhere in the world. By paying five nels more (Flavor only, at no WP loss), he can guarantee the acquisition of a non-magical item or rare material from almost anywhere in the world, which he can then convince a craftsman to turn into whatever he desires without an associated price adjustment for the material. Rare materials still require moderator input, in order to acquire.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder]Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder[/get-post]
Capstone: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
As a solitary, private person, Woe is often given to bouts of cutting himself off from those he associates with, and those who care about him in turn. Thus, he's adapted to this circumstance by becoming greatly skilled at smoothing over his disappearances and absences. He can rebuild his trust with a given party for his absence with just a meeting. This capstone serves as a potential refresher for their relationship, allowing them to pick up where they left off, as if no time away had passed at all. PCs may or may not be subject to this capstone, depending on their choice and disposition. Collaboration is encouraged to determine how angry a PC might be at Woe for abandoning them, but this capstone is intended to smooth over that transition under any circumstance.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Onyx Compact]Onyx Compact[/get-post]
Capstone: Onyx Compact
Woe has a sublime command of the art of negotiation, especially when it comes to the exchange of wealth. This gives him an edge in most negotiation scenarios, but also makes his offers that much more appealing. By offering a measure of WP in payment to another PC or NPC, he may hold them to any deal that is mutually agreed to. Going against the deal means that Woe is able to take twice as many Wealth Points from that person, as a return should they fail to hold up their end of the bargain. This return of Wealth Points does not apply in matters of failure, where the other party sincerely attempted to meet their end of the deal. It's meant as enforcement against deal-breakers.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Strangely Familiar]Strangely Familiar[/get-post]
Capstone: Strangely Familiar
Woe can insinuate himself into almost any non-hostile social situation and usually is able to establish an immediate rapport with that person or group. In the case of a hostile environment, he's able to smooth the situation over to the point where he can then start building a rapport. Even without claiming to, Woe can implicitly convince people to regard him as somebody they know.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Stealth Entendre]Stealth Entendre[/get-post]
Capstone: Stealth Entendre
Woe is well accustomed to making his point subtly, almost without speaking in plain language what he means. Using subtle implications and tricks of rhetoric, Woe can float a message that is intended to find its way to the appropriate target. To anyone else, his comments/dialogue will appear entirely harmless and innocuous, yet his meaning will be clear to the target, whether for good or ill intentions. He either has to be speaking, signing, or using some form or method of communication in order for this capstone to work. He can be in individual conversation or in groups or giving a speech. As long as he speaks, and the other person hears or otherwise perceives what he says, the message will get through.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=It's a Gift]It's a Gift[/get-post]
Capstone: It's a Gift
While Woe is not given to generosity for its own sake, he has been known to grant gifts to people with whom he intends to maintain positive working relationships. When he engages in quid pro quo exchanges with anyone, whatever he's giving them is understood and maintained to be a gift and is never considered a criminal act or act of corruption. However, the gift will often prompt the person to either treat favorably toward Woe, or return the favor in some way. This is mostly intended to be used on NPCs, however I'd hope that PCs also acknowledge it in a way that makes sense for their PC. Although giving a 'gift' to a person in a quid pro quo situation isn't liable to be seen as corruption or illegal in any way, the 'gifting' of illegal materials or goods in a given locale are more likely to trigger suspicion, and are not necessarily within the remit of this capstone.
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[get-post=189635 excerpt=Social Zealotry]Social Zealotry[/get-post]
Capstone: Social Zealotry
Woe has much experience insinuating himself into all manner of occult and obscure religious sects. Ranging from his earlier life as part of the Webspinners, to his flirtations with the Theocratum of Quacia. Woe finds it simple to fit in with such obscure religious sects, to the point where they are willing to open up about their beliefs and operational principles with him. As long as it's not clear that he's diametrically opposed to them, and maintains a neutral stance toward them, he can get them to divulge quite a lot of information about their religious activities. However, it will take a little extra effort in order to get them to divulge personally damaging information, such as things that compromise their security or instances where they have broken local laws.
This is mostly geared toward NPCs, although I would hope PCs take it into account, it's not coercive in nature.
