Fantasy Core RPG: Jianghu Setting-Grandmasters

Fantasy Core RPG

© Jerry Harris 2013

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Jianghu Setting

Grandmasters

Supreme knowledge is only useful if it is held in the proper hands.

There are two known Grandmasters of martial arts in Shang-tu province.  They may be considered the most powerful warriors in the area, and yet they are the least likely to ever engage in any conflict. 

No stats will be given for the Grandmasters.  They should only be plot devices, who the characters learn from, not opponents to be fought directly.  These guys (along with truly pious Shamen) are about a step away from immortality, whereas the characters can’t even see it on the horizon.  Their concerns and motivations are well beyond normal mortal ones, such as whether should they try and become an Immortal or not. 

A Grandmaster might only become involved in a fight if a truly great evil surfaces.  Perhaps an embattled Governor Yu or one of his Ministers makes a deal with Yomi for supernatural power and demonic troops, in return for human sacrifices.  Perhaps a Mongol hoard attacks and indiscriminately begins to slaughter everyone in the province.  Of course, a Grandmaster will gather heroes to join him in the fight.

The wise claim to see reality the most clearly, as do the insane.

The Abbot of the Mount Tien Temple is Grandmaster Fu.  Fu is a funny, little old man, seemingly child-like in his attention span and senile in memory.  He speaks in strange, nonsensical phrases and non-sequiturs, along with absurd actions.  This is his frustrating genius, as those around him are forced to interpret what he does in order to learn anything from him.  His students attempt to read meaning into his every action, as much of the time he teaches lessons indirectly, by symbolic acts, metaphor, and allegory.  Then suddenly, he speaks in clear, unmistakable terms.  These tend to be moments of terror for the monks.  He was in one of these lucid moods when he dismissed Yune. 

If Fu is asked by a petitioner to teach them one of his Special Techniques (such as The Dragon), he is likely to respond with a seemingly foolish response, such as, “I’ll teach you after you put down your burden.”  He’s not talking about anything the characters’ are physically carrying.  Perhaps he’ll invite you to a tea ceremony, and afterward ask you how many sips you took.  Perhaps he sends you into the woods to capture a specific cicada.  When you return, he asks if you’ve found yourself yet.  Perhaps he tells you to meditate until you can’t take it anymore.  After ever increasing Fort Saves and eventual failure, Fu announces that you have succeeded. 

If all this sounds like something to frustrate the players more than the characters, that is correct.  Don’t stop until the actual player has learned something about the game or life in general.  (Tears will be shed!)  At that point, Fu announces that the character already knows the technique and knew it all along.  They never needed him at all.

Here are some more ideas for character trials.  (Some of these are rather painful.)  http://terebess.hu/english/zen.html

The company of the wise is a trial of mind, spirit, and body.

Grandmaster Lin is a hermit living in the woods in the Mount Tien mountain range.  He roves around, sleeping in trees and caves, and meditating on mountaintops, and at streams and lakes.  He subsists off of nuts and berries and, reportedly, wild creatures will kill themselves in front of him to provide him with meat.  Lin is an earthy creature.  Real earthy.  As a practical matter, DC 12 Fort Sv or nauseated 1 turn, when first meeting Lin.  If he decides to train you, that will be one of the easier Saving Throws you’ll have to make.   

Grandmaster Lin is a Wudan master.  He has harnessed his inner lifeforce and is able to externalize it throughout his body and can project it out.  (Mind over matter.)  Lin has perfect health and can survive in virtually any climate.  His Chi can produce tremendous healing powers, or it can produce devastating force (telekinetics).

Finding Lin, even with his smell, is going to be a task in itself.  Then there is matter of convincing the mercurial wild man of the woods that you are worthy of his teachings.  There should be plenty of humiliation to go around.  Then begins the harsh endurance training of mind, body, and soul.  The good news is that he won’t let you die in training, even if you fail.  The bad news is that he won’t let you die, no matter how much your character is suffering.  Where Fu might be mysterious and enigmatic in his teachings, Lin will be painfully direct and obvious.  “If you wish to develop Steel skin, take these burning coals out the fire and carry them to the stream.  One at a time.” 

     

Grandmaster Lin has many Special Techniques.  His most famous power, and requested teaching, is his Chi Force ability (once per encounter 2d12 + ½ level, must rest 1 turn after using powers).