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Secrets - Khale

Secret of Eight Forms
The character has concertedly taught himself to fight and kill humans. The student is supposed to learn this by observing the eight moietic animals, because other skins won’t share their secrets with you; in practice HEROES teach these arts freely to anybody. A character with this Secret can use his SPEARFIGHTING (V) with any (and I mean any) weapons, and even without, although he does suffer circumstance penalties. He also has no Pool spend cap on bonus dice when disarming opponents, and can use his own bonus dice as opponent penalty dice if they are fighting with unfamiliar weapons.
Perfect Chord of Joy
A successful MUSIC (I) check causes swellings of joy in the listeners. They also gain the KEY OF JOY until the end of the scene if they can. This Key is not in the book – you will have to create it yourself.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT.
Requirements: Buy off a pertinent Motivation Key.
Perfect Chord of Sleep
A successful MUSIC (I) check causes the audience to slumber.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT.
Requirements: Buy off a pertinent Motivation Key.
Perfect Chord of Sorrow
A successful MUSIC (I) check causes tears of sorrow for the listeners. The check heals or causes INSTINCT Harm depending on the situation.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT.
Requirements: Buy off a pertinent Motivation Key.
Perfect Chord of Longing
A successful MUSIC (I) check causes a sense of yearning for the audience. The Story Guide frames a flashback scene related to the situation.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT.
Requirements: Buy off a pertinent Motivation Key.
Perfect Chord of Fear
A successful MUSIC (I) check causes dread and terror in the listeners. This chord has a bad reputation among most tribes.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT.
Requirements: Buy off a pertinent Motivation Key.
Secret of the Lyric
By combining STORYTELL (R) into his music, a bard may direct the feelings caused by his PERFECT CHORDS into specific conclusion. This allows the player to control the effects and audience of the chords in a much more exact manner, convincing them of a specific point related to the song.
Cost: 1 REASON.
Secret of Full Music
Many legends are told of bards skilled enough to allure animals of the forest, force people to dance, beat King Khale himself in a contest, kill with a song and so on. Normally this sort of thing would require a TRANSCENDENT (7) Ability check, but with this Secret the character may do musical magic regardless. This only works when conducted with passion (a greater activation of a Motivation Key), and the character needs to use one or more perfect chords to channel the power of his music.
Cost: VIGOR equal to 7 minus the check result.
Requirements: Three PERFECT CHORDS
Secret of the Questor
This is the same as the SECRET OF TSAFARI from Qek. Tying knots in the Green World is much easier in that there are no time limits or other ritual constraints. Some of the other knotwork crunch might also be available in Khale to questors.
Secret of Forest Transport
The character can bring others into the Green World with him, holding the portal for them. The ancestors will hold the character responsible for the actions of the visitors.
Cost: 1 VIGOR per visitor
Secret of Bough’s Bosom
While in the Green World, the character can use any of his Pools interchangeably to heal naturally. Ability checks made to heal him in the Green World gain a bonus die as well.
Wooden Imbuement
Khaleans create out of wood items that would be made of metal in other places, such as tools, weapons and armor. The equipment is light, and has the effects of one equipment mastery imbuement of the creator’s choice, but it is somewhat frail: any attempts to break it use the SECRET OF SHATTERING.
Moon-Metal Imbuement
An item made of moon-metal is light, gleaming, stainless, flexible and sharp as it needs be. Whenever the item would normally be destroyed or broken, its quality merely decreases by one step. A moonmetal item does not have a limit to the number of imbuements it may have, and imbuing it gains a discount of one point. However, the item suffers when striking wood, breaking like a normal item subjected to the same Ability check; this can be resisted reflexively (that is, without effort or spending actions in extended conflict) by the user’s LUNAR FORGING (R).
Secret of Moon Heart
The character has consumed a quantity of moon-metal, which has bonded permanently to his flesh. He no longer needs fire to shape moon-metal, and may spend unlimited VIGOR for bonus dice in LUNAR FORGING (R). The character cannot enter the Green World, however, and Harm caused to him by wooden weapons is AGGRAVATED, marked accordingly on the Harm track. Such Harm does not shake down and cannot be healed naturally.
Secret of Hero Band
The character can form an elite warband out of people who are united by purpose, tribal, family and moiety ties. Use GENEALOGY (R), STORY-TELL (R) or SPEAK (R) to unite the warband into a HERO BAND. Such a band is created like equipment as per the SECRET OF CREATION, with the PURPOSE IMBUEMENT automatically included. Hero Bands can also imbue Keys. A hero band can be used by any member as equipment, although they can be disarmed by separating the character from his peers. The hero band is quite difficult to destroy, as named characters are more likely to escape and regroup than get killed; attacking their sense of purpose and loyalty is much easier mechanically.
Cost: as per the SECRET OF CREATION, except swap INSTINCT and VIGOR costs.
Purpose Imbuement
A HERO BAND always has this imbuement, as they have a definite purpose to which they are created. Using it for other reasons is only possible if the character convinces the heroes to take the new mission. The character might also lose the support of the band if he insists on going against its purpose. On the other hand, band members can only be suborned by overcoming the band quality, and they’ll always return for the character if he’s lost to them.
Initiation Imbuement
A HERO BAND with this imbuement can only be joined through initiation tests set by the hero band creator. Anybody wanting to join the band (creator included) has to pass the set check difficulties in specific Abilities. For each two levels of initiation decrease the introduction cost of the band by one point.
Key Imbuement (specify)
A HERO BAND with this imbuement has a Key that the character can use as his own. If anybody buys it off, all characters in the hero band gain experience.
An Example Hero Band
This AMAZING (4) hero band was formed by Lugh Salmon-Skin to fight the Ammeni. His heroic friends Kelvin Tree-hand and Witch Deirdre are members, as are two dozen most cunning woodsmen of thirteen tribes.
Ratings: +3 for fighting in water. +2 for fighting Ammeni. +1 for fighting. +1 for druidic magic.
Imbuements: Purpose (defeat the Ammeni) (V) Initiation (Amazing Woodcraft, Good Guerrilla Warfare and Good Spearfighting) (I) Sidekick (Kelvin) (V) Sidekick (Deirdre) (I)
Cost: 1 INSTINCT per scene.