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Tao Chi -- An Example by Thom Marrion "The Marchers have gone back to New York." Tizoc waited for a reaction from Seth Ankou. They had been laying low in one of the more expensive hotels in Los Angeles while the Rosicrucian Troubleshooters had been snooping around town looking for a Seer criminal. With his muscular build and exotic Aztec features, Tizoc fit in rather well with the trendy Californians gathered around the pool. Seth was huddled under the shade of a large sun umbrella looking like someone who just wanted to get back to the East Coast. Which wasn't very far from the truth. "Good," replied Seth, "We can finish the job here and then head back. I never did like California very much." "The sooner we get back, the sooner we can take care of that Seer. " "Christian Bach? Already taken care of. I didn't want it to wait, so I got in touch with someone from Red Lotus who owed me a favor. Gave him the address and told him to spare no expense with that salaud. Christian Bach will be experiencing long hours of unbelievable pain before he is finally killed. There should be a video of the whole thing waiting for us by the time we get back. We can watch it with that redhead he was trying to protect before we sacrifice her." Tizoc's eyes flashed Jaguar as he visualized it all. He was never disappointed in Seth's ability to be an evil bastard. The Red Lotus! Christian was really in trouble now. <i> * * * Hideo Onuma was really in trouble now. He went to the address that Seth had given him, 23rd Street, past Pacific Ave, near the Beach. He was supposed to kill Christian Bach -- white guy, late twenties, long curly dark hair with a white streak at the right temple. The address turned out to be an acupuncture place called Chang's Beachside Acupuncture Studio and the only person he had found at the address was an old, bald, Chinese man. Hideo had dealt with Magicians before, and had long since decided that outside Invocations, they were very unreliable about the information they handed out. But this was a pretty big detail to get wrong. It was a little late to start worrying about that though. The three large men he had brought with him for back up were already working on the old man. Pak had him in an armlock and Moon kept punching him in the stomach. Kwong yelled questions ineffectively in the old man's face. Subtlety was not their strong point. Hideo has Chi Mastery and so it is difficult to ambush him. The Chronicler tells him to roll versus his Chi Mastery and Perception. Hideo has Chi Mastery at 3 as well as a Perception of 3. He rolls a 4, which makes his total 10. One Success Level gives him a gut feeling that something bad is about to happen. Hideo turns around to see a young muscular Cantonese-American rushing into the store. He is wearing Nikes, jeans and a tight red tee shirt. He has shoulder length hair partially covered by a baseball cap with the Tsingtao logo. His name is Sonny Chang and he is a Storm Dragon. The man they are beating up is his uncle. Should there be a next time, those burly gents might want to learn some subtlety. Sonny has Essence Channeling at level four and started channeling the Essence when he saw his Uncle being harassed. He wants to use Speed of the Tiger (see Mystery Codex, p. 173), but he would prefer to wait until he had 12 points of Essence channeled so that he can have two free extra actions per round. This will even things out since he has to fight four adversaries. On the other hand, he can't wait too long so he heads into combat after only one Turns (4 Essence channeled). Sonny decides to take care of Moon, the thug hitting his uncle, first. Since Sonny is rushing into the store he decides to go with a flying jump kick. Sonny Chang has a Dexterity of 5 and Jump Kick at 3. He decides to aim for the head (incurring a -4 penalty; see WitchCraft, p. 138). He rolls a 9, plus his 8 for Dexterity and Jumpkick, gives him a total of 16. This becomes a 13 due to the negative modifier for the headshot. A Good Result (see Outcome Table, WitchCraft, p. 129). Unfortunately, all the thugs have Chi Mastery as well. Hideo Onuma was expecting to face a powerful Seer and not just an old man with a store at the beach. Hideo wanted only other Gifted for backup. Moon has Chi Mastery at 3 and a Perception of 2, so he also gets a chance to perceive the imminent danger that he is in. The Chronicler decides that Moon is preoccupied with beating up Uncle Chang and will be rolling at a -2. Moon rolls a 5 for a total of 8 (lower than Sonny's 13). His mastery of Yin and Yang forces and years of Martial Arts training in no way warn him of the kick to the head he is about to receive. Sonny Chang rolls for damage. A Jump Kick is D6 x (Strength + 2). Thanks to his bonus as a Storm Dragon, Sonny Chang has a Strength of 4. He rolls a 4 for a total of 24 points of damage to the head. Sonny also gets to add his Martial Arts (Storm Dragon) skill of 5 to the damage done, so the total is now 29. Blunt damage to the head is doubled so Moon takes a total of 58 points of damage to the head. This puts the Red Lotus thug at -20. Moon needs to make a Survival Test (see WitchCraft, p. 150). He rolls versus his Willpower of 2 and his Constitution of 3. Since he is at -20 Life Points, the roll suffers a -2. He rolls a 6 for a total of 9. Moon narrowly avoids dying instantly. Moon also has to roll to stay conscious at a penalty of -1 per negative Life Points. Moon is at -20 Life Points so his modifier is -20. Unless he is very lucky with his die roll, he will pass out from the injury. Moon rolls an 8 which gives him a 13, -20 for a total of -7. Yep, he's down for the count. During the same Turn, Pak backs up with the old man still in an arm lock. Kwang assumes a defensive stance and starts to channel Essence for a Chi Strike (see Mystery Codex, p. 171). Sonny and Kwang face each other as Hideo reaches into his black duffel bag past the interrogation and torture devices and pulls out his katana. Sonny reaches 8 Essence Points in his channeling. "You let my Uncle go!" says Sonny Chang. Kwang just mutters something in Korean. Sonny has Cantonese as his native language and a Language (English) skill of 3, so he isn't really sure what Kwang said. It probably wasn't very nice though. The Chronicler rules that this verbal exchange and face-off all takes one Turn. At this point, Kwang (Essence Channeling of 2) has accumulated 4 points of Essence and Sonny has 12. Kwang is going to use Chi Strike for extra damage. But Sonny has a higher Dexterity and the Fast Reaction Time Quality, so he gets to act first. Sonny Chang has a Willpower of 4, Speed of the Tiger at 3, 12 points of Essence channeled and he has been concentrating for one Turn. He rolls a 7, making his final result a 14. Three Success Levels means his speed will last for three Turns. Sonny begins to move in a blur. He plans to Spin Kick, Punch and then Kick (three actions at no multiple action penalty). His Dexterity is 5 and all three of those Combat Moves are at 5 as well. Feeling overconfident (Sonny has the Drawbacks of Reckless and Showoff), he decides to go for specific body parts on all three. The Spin Kick to Kwang's head suffers a -4. Sonny rolls an 8 for a total of 14. The Punch at Kwang's neck is at -5. He rolls a 3 for a total of 8 and misses. The Kick will be a crippling shot to Kwang's leg at -2. Sonny rolls a 7 for a total of 16 (a Very Good Outcome granting extra damage). Kwang still gets a chance to try to defend. His Dexterity is 4 and he has the Dodge Skill at 3. He decides to try and duck under the head strike first. He rolls a 5 for a total of 12 (lower than Sonny's Spin Kick Task result). Using a second defense action this Turn (-2 penalty; see WitchCraft, p. 134), Kwang tries to step away from the leg kick. He rolls a 7 for a total of 14 (lower than Sonny's Kick Task result). Neither is good enough to stop Kwang from taking damage, but at least he tried. Damage is rolled. The Spin Kick does D4 x (Strength + 2). Sonny rolls a 3 for a total of 18. Add in the 5 points from his Martial Arts skill and the grand total is 23. Since this was a headshot, the damage is doubled to 46. Kwang is already at -8 Life Points. The Kick does D4 x (Strength + 1). Sonny rolls a 2, plus 1 for the Very Good Task result makes it a 3 which brings the damage to 15, plus 5 for a total of 20. Kwang had 38 Life Points, so a third of that would be about 13. The leg is crippled and the seven extra points of damage are lost. Pak and Hideo start to get nervous as they see Kwang's face explode in a spray of blood and then hear the sickening crack of Kwangs leg breaking in two. This puts Kwang at -19 Life Points. Kwang rolls to survive just as Moon did. He has a Willpower of 2, a Constitution of 3 and suffers a -1 due to his current Life Points. Kwang rolls a 7 for a total of 11. He too escapes death but still needs to roll for consciousness at a -11. He rolls a 4, for a total of -2 and hits the ground hard as he blacks out from shock. Sonny has two more Turns of Speed of the Tiger left. He quickly considers his current situation. Pak has his back against a wall and Uncle Chang in an armlock with an acupuncture needle pressed against his neck. Hideo is rushing towards the Storm Dragon with his katana ready. Still, Sonny can still perform three actions at no penalty thisTurn. He runs to Pak and attempts to disarm him. The Chronicler rules that this will count as two actions. To disarm, Sonny must roll his Dexterity and Disarm against Pak's Dexterity and Hand Weapon Skill. Sonny has a Dexterity of 5 and his Disarm is 2. Pak has a Dexterity of 4 and a Hand Weapon (Knife) skill at 3. Both will add 7 to the roll, so at this point it is merely a matter of who rolls higher. Sonny rolls a 6 for a total of 13. Pak rolls a 4 for a total of 11. Sonny snatches the needle from Pak's hand before he can blink.
For his third action, Sonny decides to throw the acupuncture needle at Hideo Onuma. Sonny has a Dexterity of 5 and a Hand Weapon (Knife) (the Chronicler decides this is the most appropriate) Skill at 2. He rolls an 8 for a total of 15. Hideo has been channeling Essence since Sonny Chang first showed up two Turns ago. He has Essence Channeling at level 3 so he has accumulated 6 Essence Points. He puts this into Inner Strength (see Mystery Codex, p. 173) and must roll using his Willpower of 3 and Inner Strength of 3. He rolls a 7 for a total of 13. His Strength is now raised from 4 to 6 and he has 8 extra Life Points. He also has the opportunity to parry. His Katana skill is 5 and his Dexterity is 4. He rolls an 8 for a total of 17 which is an Excellent result and better than Sonny's total of 15. Hideo rolls for damage against the flying needle. He is swinging with both hands so rolls D10 x (Strength + 1). He rolls an 8, which is increased to 10 because of the Excellent Result on his Task roll. This is multiplied by 7 for a total of 56 points of damage. The Chronicler decides that the katana slices cleanly through the acupuncture needle and two thin metal pieces hit the floor with a high metallic chime. Hideo continues to run towards Sonny. Pak pushes Uncle Chang and also rushes Sonny and plans to hit him with an extra damage Chi Strike. Sonny prepares a Dragon Strike (see Mystery Codex, p. 172). The Chronicler decides that Sonny will go first because he is still benefiting from Speed of the Tiger. Hideo will go next and finally Pak, since Hideo has the Fast Reaction Time Quality and Pak does not. Sonny rolls versus his Willpower of 4 and his Dragon Strike of 4. He gets a 6. This would normally suffer a -1 because he plans to attack in the same round, but the Chronicler decides that since Sonny is in his last turn using Speed of the Tiger, the increased speed will allow the Storm Dragon to concentrate and attack in the same Turn with out suffering from the negative modifier. With the 6 that Sonny rolled, his total is 14. This is a Good Outcome and adds +6 to the damage modifier. Sonny then rolls to hit. He plans to take Hideo and his katana out of the picture first. He decides to go for a Spin Kick and adds his Dexterity of 5 and his Spin Kick Skill of 5 to his roll of 8 for a total of 18. This is an Excellent Result and allows him to add 2 to the damage before the Multiplier is applied. Hideo attempts to parry and adds his Dexterity of 4 and Katana of 5 to his roll of 8 for a total of 17. An Excellent result as well, but not good enough to parry the Dragon Strike Spin Kick coming his way. Sonny Chang rolls for damage, D4 x (Strength + 2). He rolls a 2. Plus 2 for the Excellent Task result for a total so far of 4. The 4 is multiplied by 6 (Sonny's Strength plus 2 for the Spin Kick) plus 6 for the Dragon Strike. This 48, plus 5 for Sonny's Martial Arts Skill, brings the grand total to 53 points. Hideo had 42 Life Points. He now has -11. But Hideo is still benefiting from Inner Strength with an extra 8 Life Points so he is really only at -3. He is knocked down and has to roll his Willpower and Constitution at a -3 because of the damage he took in order to get up. He rolls a 5, plus his Constitution of 3 and his Willpower of 3 makes 11. With the -3 this makes an 8 and Hideo remains sprawled on the floor with his katana lying a few inches away from his hand. Pak uses a Jump Kick against Sonny. He rolls a 7, plus his Dexterity of 4 and his Jump Kick Skill of 5 makes a total of 16 which is a Very Good Result and adds 1 to the damage before the Multiplier. He then rolls for his Chi Strike. His Willpower is 2 and his Chi Strike is 5, and he rolls an 8, which gives him a total of 15, a Very Good result. This again increases the damage rolled by 1 before applying the Multiplier. Due to his Success Levels with the Chi Strike, he will add 4 to the damage. Pak rolls for damage, D6 x Strength + 2, and gets a 3. This becomes a 5 because of his Success Levels, times 6 (Pak's Strength is 4) is 30. 5 more is added for his Martial Arts Skill for 35, plus 4 for Chi Strike for a total of 39 points of damage. Not surprisingly, Sonny Chang wants to avoid taking 39 points of damage so decides to parry for his defense task. He rolls versus his Dexterity of 5 and Martial Arts of 5 with a 6, for a total of 16. A Very Good result which beats out Pak's result. The blow is parried. Sonny follows this with a Counterpunch. The Chronicler decides that even with the last vestiges of Speed of the Tiger, Sonny will still be at a -2 for his Counterpunch Task. Sonny has already managed to concentrate his Chi for a Dragon Strike, knock Hideo to the floor with a Spin Kick, and still manage to turn and defend against Pak. The Counterpunch seems like one action too many for the Chronicler. Sonny rolls a 4, at a -2, plus 5 for Dexterity and plus 3 for his Counterpunch Skill, for a total of 10. He also gets to add 1 for every Success Level of his Parry (see Mystery Codex, p. 50), so the total is actually 14. Sonny rolls damage, D4 x Strength. He rolls a 4, which gives him a total of 16. Pak's Life Point Pool has been cut in half. The Chronicler decides that Pak just caused 39 points of damage to the wall near Sonny (call it Armor Value of 7, Damage Capacity of 40). Pak punches a hole in the wall and now his lead attack leg is sticking out in the stairwell that goes to the second floor apartment where Christian Bach lives. The rest of him is hanging upside down in Uncle Chang's Acupuncture Studio. Hideo rolls another Willpower and Constitution test to get up. This time he rolls a 9, and his roll is still at a -3 because of his injuries. This gives him a total of 12, which allows him to get up off the floor and review his situation. He is at -3 Life Points and Sonny Chang hasn't even taken any damage yet. Of the three henchmen he took with him, two are unconscious bleeding lumps on the floor while the other is hanging upside down from a whole in the wall, his leg sticking out into a stairwell. That leads to a second floor apartment. Which, now that Hideo thinks about it, is probably where they were supposed to go in the first place. Hideo carefully considers his current position and the huge mistake he just made. He throws down a smoke grenade and runs out the door. The other three will just have to take care of themselves. He never thought much of them anyway. * * * Christian got back from the grocery store a little bit later with a bag of groceries in each hand and a look of surprise on his face. There were two squad cars, and ambulance and three bicycle cops gathered around the building where he lived. He saw Mr. Chang inside his store talking to a police officer, so he knew that at least the old man wasn't the one going to the hospital. As Christian walked up the stairs to his apartment, he noticed the large whole in the wall. He peered through it and called out to old acupuncturist, "Are you OK Mr. Chang? What happened here?" The old man looked out through the wall at his upstairs neighbor and replied in his Cantonese accent, "You know how it gets around here in the summer. Tourists!"
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