Konoha Sect of Chakra Cultivation (2024)

Planning

Group makes choices about integration bonuses in a vote. This includes deciding if you spent ichor on the Lotus Eyes.
Next write up Turn 51 (Minato Training Arc II) goes up with a bit talking about visitors and Naruto Training a bit more.
Than that write up will trigger a vote to
-Finalize your Heart Formation plans
-Assign the Room/Facets of your Crystal Core of Will.
-Choose a Core Memory for the Crystal Core of Will.
-Choose how much Cultivation Base/Ichor to throw into your Heart Formation versus leaving in your Body.

Then:
I spend time updating the character sheet
And than I post Turn 52 (Chunin Exam Tournament) which will be several fights, unless you lose to Shino.
*Pulling Blows, your opponent's Defense counts as 1 higher in exchange you can only deal a maximum damage of a chosen amount. Please do not kill Shino.

* You have a total of 4 action slots over the whole month to spend on other things.
-[X] form a heart (Resplendent or normal, to be decided based on research results), 3 chakra generation sessions. (Ensure that there is at least 512 in both the heart and body, putting excess in the heart Use Ichor if needed to hit the minimums))
Kiseki Check
Research Roll: 89, yes +3 XP
Heart Formation: 36, no

You dive deep into the lore of Heart Formation and with the help of Kumo and Fumiko conduct experiments related to chakra interaction with the Memory palace. After a week of intense, memory palace added study you come the conclusion, backed by Fumiko and Kumo that with a mind bolsters with Mental cultivation like the Resplendent Memory Palace, one SHOULD be able to use the process of Heart Formation to imbed their thoughts and memories into their chakra nature. Thus the new Resplendent Memory Heart becomes the seat of consciousness for the new mind, with the Mental cultivation holding the persona and psyche together through the weirdness of the sensations that will invoke.

Fumiko becomes positively giddy. Just as Pillars and pillar enhanced organs and Memory palace rooms become methods of reach into what should be Heart Formation territory with pre-Heart traits, doing this grants one just a touch of the immense survivability of a Nascent soul, before ever reaching Nascent Soul.

Kumo argues that even if your ability to survive is improved, especially if you have the Seal the Flesh state and a Ka Enhanced Lifeforce, and especially for Minato with his weird senju healing, that it doesn't even hold a candle to a Nascent Soul's Soul's ability to potentially transfer to a new host or hide in a Sealed Vessel or something.

Fumiko says that might be true, unless you had a way to transfer or gather your chakra to an anchor. Then she looks off in a direction you know lies the Geomantic Nexus supporting Kumo's pillar cultivation.

"You're talking about using a nexus as an anchor for an individual. On death with a little luck, enough chakra would make its way to the nexus to eventually be considered the bulk of the individual and with a strong Ka, they could rebuild their body, especially if there were some supporting elements like Resonant Vestiges nearby. But it would still take luck and Heart Strength to survive a killing blow, and a lot of time to reform… and of course an Eguchi with a Resplendent Memory Palace and this special Heart we just finished designing."

Fumiko grins in a way that seems to strip years off her face, "I knew breaking my Heart was a good idea! Just watch Orochi-trash, this young fairy will become an unkillable immortal before you!"

Resplendent Memory Heart Formation complete, Fumiko seems obsessed with completing everything needed to turn herself into a Chakra Mummy. Basically using Chakra and Sealwork to bypass all the problems the Nameless empire had in making the original Mummies, or so she hopes.

The standard version to get us going

None of this has been changed to reflect Minato's… minato-ness.

Once a Chakra Network has been fully established and integrated a cultivator's soul has been drawn closer to the material and Chakra techniques can be used to impose greater changes upon the world. The next step is quite strenuous, turning your hara into a crucible and your Cultivation Base into raw material and fuel to form the Hara into a Heart as a new organ that acts as an extension of your soul into the material world. The exact effects of the Heart will depend on the method of cultivation but almost all grant increased elemental affinities, a massive increase to your potential Cultivation base and control of chakra in that base and an element of inherent chakra generation over time that lesser cultivators just don't have.

In preparing for Heart Formation you calculate your Power, Finesse and Resistance traits by adding up the appropriate traits and dividing by three. Fractions round up.

Cost for Initial Heart Formation is your whole Cultivation Base which must be at least 50 and at least one permanent willpower regardless of success or failure.

Increasing Heart Density also is your whole Cultivation Base +, essentially dissolving all extra Chakra available whether through condensation or supplied temporarily into increasing the Density of your Heart. Chakra control gains a modifier equal to the cube root of the strength of your Heart.

Difficulty in Forming/Re-Forming your Heart is the Square Root of your Cultivation Base, considering you have dissolved your cultivation base, failing can mean your cultivation collapses. To avoid this you can cover for insufficient success by expending permanent willpower equal to the difference, if this is insufficient you can spend your health levels, taking aggravated resistant wounds. So a bad failure can result in tremendous psychological and physical damage.

If you survive forming the Heart and recover from the experience your new Heart will be dense with Chakra and a new source of uplifting power from your soul. You immediately increase your cultivation level and the minimum that level can be is 6. Which means your attributes and skills can all be increased to 6. This first formation tends to be a very advantageous doubling of whatever you put in, so some deliberately delay forming a Heart to maximize this benefit, although its usually an excuse. Still many will go above and beyond to acquire potent chakra pills to get the most possible benefit of initial Heart formation, if only because many will find it years before they both recover and then are willing to risk their egoes, health, or cultivation again.

Heart Density or Strength is the cube root of the Chakra contained in the Heart rounded down. This acts as a multiplier to chakra control, and provides bonus traits from the occult influence of your soul intruding on reality, like influences from spirits, werewolf facets, Beast Atavisms, and mummy affinities. These are often chosen instinctively to enhance the new Jonins favored combat style. Others take a modicum of training as they use their new found powers to enhance a favored jutsu. They have as many of these as their Heart Density.

As your Heart represents an extrusion from your soul into the physical realm, increasing the density of your heart lets you draw more and more of your soul in. When you get to Heart Density level 10 you have effectively drawn as much of soul as can be drawn in Heart formation stage and gain no additional powers from further increases to your heart, just more chakra. At this stage you have established the fertile ground for moving into the Nascent Soul realm.

TLDR:

You regenerate your Heart Strength in Chakra every Hour, You gain 36 x your Heart Strength in free chakra during a two week turn.

You multiply your chakra control rating by your Heart Strength

You add your Heart Strength as elemental affinity distributed across the elements but generally favoring a "Second" element.

You add your Heart Strength as Health Levels.

Your cultivation level immediately goes up to 6 and goes to 7 when you reach Heart Strength 8.

You gain your Heart Strength in Heartbindings that can be used to gain supernatural abilities or special jutsu, or enhance existing ones so they can be useful in Heart Formation tier combat. Heartbinding can be used to bind certain high class weapons and tools, like the infamous Flying Swords nobles use, and the special Armor of Samurai.

Resplendent Memory Heart Formation

In this method you use the transformation you will undergo during Heart Formation and your already established modifications to your Mindscape to shift your Mental processes over to your Chakra itself. You do not think with your Brain. You think with your chakra which is of course pulsing out of your Heart.

With a Resplendent Memory Heart alone you are not technically combining your Resplendent Memory Palace with your Heart, but making that possible.

The below traits are modifications from the Standard Heart Formation and Assume you are NOT combining your Crystalized Core of Will with your Resplendent Memory Heart.

*You being able to think with your Chakra has many knock on effects, such as being able to think while decapitated and thus potentially survive long enough to heal. There may be ways to use the fact that the same energy enabling jutsu is also what you think with but that will take more exploration.

*Heart Bindings can be used to either purchase Resplendent Memory Palace Room/Crystal Facets LIKE effects or enhance them, ie applying the benefit of Heart Binding enhancement to features gained through the Memory Palace. While your Facets will not be added to your Heart Strength and your Heartbindings will not count fully as Facets at this level, I am willing to be more open to overlapping purchases, like an Influence or Strife that was partially paid for out of Heart Bindings and partially through Facets.

*You are more restricted in being able to purchase purely physical effects with the heartbindings of the Resplendent Memory palace. Boosting Natural limits of physical attributes or granting yourself more health levels would not be allowed for example.

Formation and Reformation of the Memory Heart is somewhat more perilous, costing an additional 8 successes than it otherwise needs. In this instance that penalty will be waived under the assumption of elaborate preparations with Kumo's assistance.

*You complete the research into the Crystallization of the Core of Will and undergo it if you choose to.
Kiseki Check:
Research: 33, no.
Crystallization: 82… I will say yes because its so exotic. +3 XP.

Once again research abounds, you want everything prepared before you make so many changes to your… well Mind, Body and Soul honestly.

Kumo and Fumiko join again with Kumo even more invested since having a path forward for Mental cultivation could be the make or break point for the clan now that they have committed to everyone participating in mental cultivation.

It becomes clear that your will need great deal of the power associated with memory to make this advancement. Pillars, the Memory skill, Geomantic nexus, and even breaking and releasing vestiges can all contribute to the initial formation and stabilization.

Just as a normal Heart Formation melts down your cultivation base and forms it into a Heart. The core effectively melts down your Resplendent Memory Palace and reforms it as a Crystal tighter around your soul. Every room you finalized becomes a facet on that crystal which must be polished to finish stabilization of the Core of Will.

This metaphysical polishing will draw out the full potential of that Facet and potentially allow further mental cultivation keying off that Facet going forward.

Being unable to do anything new with his Heart at this stage he settles into Crystallizing his Core of Will while you and Fumiko try to push further.

You understand how to Crystallize a Core of Will and stabilize it and insight into how to develop your cultivation going further, ie the full equivalent of mental Heart Formation stage.

Crystallization of a Core of Will

Using a core memory and a form of ritual drawing on the memory enriched energy you associate with pillars/vestiges/geomancy you forge a connection between your consciousness (In the form of your resplendent memory palace) and your soul. Through this direct connection you can draw your Memory palace (composed of Memory and chakra) away from the dross of the material and closer to the wonder of the soul. A collection of memories chained to your soul with a Core Memory forms a spiritual crystal, a core of will. You roll your lowest mental attribute + Memory + lowest pillar + Geomancy location + 1 per broken vestige.

You need five successes + 1 per any level of incomplete in a room set up to crystalize the Core of Will around a Memory.

Upon success you begin to recover pillars more easily. When pillars are not needed for recovery, a new form of energy briefly appears before fading as energy emitted from your soul is fed back on itself to assist in recuperation and can potentially be tapped for other purposes.
You may attempt to polish a facet of your Spiritual Crystal using the same dice pool triggered with an action costing 4 mental stress and 1 pillar recovery per roll. Every five successes results in a polished facet which reveals the core room associated with the facet and allows the crystallization of willpower.

Crystallizing Willpower into Conviction requires 4 mental stress and a bit of time, but no roll.

Crystallized willpower [conviction]: You may crystallize willpower points inside your Core of Will which makes them unavailable to be spent as willpower but enforces the very nature of your Core of Will, providing bonuses in case of mental combat effectively adding Durability to your spiritual core. Crystallized Willpower acts as a periapt for storing the extra energy generated from the Crystal covered soul, allowing it to be stored and spent as "soulfire". You may store one soulfire for every Conviction you possess. Every crystallized willpower also grants one dot of a merit in some form of psychic ability like telekinesis, telepathy, or clairvoyance. The strongest abilities probably key off your facets, like your ability to purchase Wood Release merits using Conviction and Garden of the God Tree. You may crystallize one willpower for every facet of your Spiritual Crystal, you spend this "soulfire" to activate any willpower costs associated with gained abilities.

[Spending one soulfire allows triggering a Clash of Wills with a technique that you otherwise might not be able to. This uses Conviction and you may also spend a soulfire to use conviction if that trait is superior to the normal Clash of Wills dicepool. You may spend 1-4 Soulfire extra on a Clash of Wills to add 1-4 extra dice as per the Endurance bonus. three soulfire could resolve a mental or physical tilt, soulfire may be spent with a natural willpower point to enhance the dice bonus to equal the total Conviction, Resistance granted through soulfire enhanced willpower expenditure as a trait bonus is more complicated but at 10 and 11 Conviction it is 6 and at 12 and 13 it is 7]

A Conviction may be spent to refresh the remaining crystallized will with soulfire, this can only be recovered through further mental cultivation.

Extra Will Powers that can be purchased. Additional abilities that key off your Facets, or other traits can possibly be learned. While the fact these can be added with minimal training is a boon, you may conceptualize Conviction abilities that require research and or training to utilize in addition to the Conviction purchase.

Enhanced Intelligence ** (stackable): You may increase the natural limits of your intelligence attribute by 1 per purchase, up to five purchases. Obviously you will lose access to extra intelligence if you divert this purchase to something else.

Conviction Looping ** (Stackable): For those with an inadequate base or those who simply want to achieve an overwhelming conviction, you may gain one more capacity for Crystallized Will per purchase. And yes Newly gained Conviction can be used with this to purchase yet more conviction as long as you have the natural willpower to cover it.

Aura Reading ***: one soulfire to roll Wits + Empathy to read an aura.

Clairvoyance ***: one soulfire to roll Wits + Occult, experience as if being in another location

Laying on Hands ***: one soulfire to roll Presence + Empathy, every success lets you heal two bashing, one lethal or three success for a single point of aggravated. Every two damage of the same type healed reflect on you as one.

Omen Sensitivity ***: one soulfire to roll Wits + Occult to interpret omens around you as answers to yes or no questions.

Psychometry ***: one soulfire to roll Wits + occult to interpret the embedded history of the item as a series of yes or no questions.

Telekinesis *-*****: one soulfire activated it for the scene, Rating counts as strength. Attacks are Telekinesis + Occult - Stamina to do bashing damage.

Telepathy *** or *****: One soulfire to roll Wits + Empathy, three dot version is only reading minds while the five dot allows broadcasting. Every success allows one thought in either direction per scene. Mental defense may contest this roll.

Spot Weakness ***: Once per battle you can spend a soulfire to reduce Defense OR Armor to 0 for one attack on one enemy

All or Nothing **: You may spend a soulfire to choose to gamble on a non-combat roll, if you succeed at all it counts as an exceptional success, if you fail it counts as Dramatic Failure.

Hurry ****: Spending a soulfire per roll in an extended roll halves the time it takes each roll requires. Thus enough soulfire spent may allow you to double the number of projects of certain types completed, like producing seals.

Moral Victory *: You may spend a soulfire if you suffer a dramatic failure into a normal failure.

Even Footing ****: You may spend soulfire during a contested roll to force both sides to roll the lowest dicepool of either side, effectively giving you an even chance.

Supreme Effort *****: Once per scene by spending a soulfire and a willpower you can reroll a dice pool, you must accept the second result.

Powerful Success *-*****: If you succeed on a roll at all you may spend a soulfire to add your rating in powerful success as extra successes.

Combat Instincts ***: You may reflexively spend a soulfire to allow a Brawl or Weaponry attack to benefit from the 8-again rule for the rest of the scene.

Spiritual Spasm: *****: When you are in astral conditions and in combat you may spend soulfire to bolster your astral body. Each point spent may boost Power, Finesse, or Resistance or add a level of Armor or Damage. You may sustain the boost by spending one Soulfire per turn.

Going Beyond

Upon reaching at least ten Conviction (but you can and probably should go higher) the next step is to suffuse the Spiritual Crystal with soulfire and then undergo a meditative process, infusing every memory with a reinforcing dose of Soulfire and Conviction. This results in your mind being unable to forget your memories and can be quite stressful to the psyche of the cultivator unless they are accepting of themselves. Upon achieving personal growth and answering the conceptual question of "Who they were?", they can make the next step. This releases the constrained Willpower from their Conviction and lets them create more Conviction, as representative of the process of personal growth reinforcing the cultivator's will.

This process somewhat repeats when the Cultivator has at least 20 Conviction, but the cultivator must explore their own psyche and subconscious, using their new Willpower to force open every trait, idea, and emotion. In essence forcing their eyes to remain open to the truth of Who They Are. Again this is extremely straining on the psyche but this deep self awareness once again forcibly boosts one's willpower, freeing Conviction to expand again. Most newly unlocked extra Conviction traits at this level are associated with mental and spiritual resistances or gaining the ability to manipulate and change themselves as a person. Achieving this step unlocks Cultivation Level 7 if you didn't already have it.

A final mental exercise can be begun upon reaching 30 Conviction, this time crystallizing their goals,motivations, virtues, and ideals within their mind-everything that they hold as "who they will be", essentially. This technique serves to close the final gaps in one's mystical defenses against manipulation, and vastly strengthens social defenses against the same as they can keep their goals and ideals in perspective against any such attacks. Further, it grants incredible internal motivation as one's planning and strategic capabilities increase, allowing them to effortlessly identify their goals and figure out the steps they need to take to achieve said goals-within reason and based on the information they possess. Lastly, this serves as the final key needed to once again increase the strength and purity of one's Willpower, crystallizing and purifying it in a way which makes an outright tangible force. Completing this process of freeing Conviction and either recrystallizing it to make more or simply deciding to settle with an expanded pool of Willpower Points readies one for the next step, Birth of the False World.

Crystal Memory-Heart Unison

While Kumo undergoes Core Crystallization as he has no desire to remake his Heart, promises of psuedo immortality deaf to his ears, you and Fumiko dive into the options available through a combination of Heart and Core formation at the same time.

Because if your going to be thinking with your chakra and are in a clan that can enhance their minds through their chakra… well that leads to interesting developments does it not?

While a resplendent Memory Heart has minimal effect on the Memory Palace, placing your memories inside your Chakra does lend credence to the idea you can combine the two. With the Heart bringing your soul to the material and your mind reaching out to cling to the soul and both being routed through your chakra, deep connections can be forged between mind, body and soul.

"Ready. Not only is there support but if you lose control these guys here will leap up and grab you to keep you contained until you regain control."

Naruto Grins. "Lets Go, I will master this Chakra. Believe it!"

This jutsu contains the ability to channel through your hand various qualities to Natural Energy, almost always in ways that calm, pacify or purify it. This generally requires touch, but with Mokuton you can arrange a touch through the end of branch as long as that branch is sufficiently hand like and sufficiently you. Mokuton Crystals are bits of Cultivation base that are isolated and self sustaining in a solid form which produce a passive calming effect on natural energy and act as an anchor for Mokuton Jutsu of this type, letting you effect someone with a crystal without touching them, although not out of line of sight.

*Most rolls are your Presence + Mokuton + assisted target's composure or resolve as seems appropriate contested by the Power + Resistance of whatever you are trying to calm or cast out.

*You can create Mokuton Crystals with what is basically Heart Formation, taking pieces of your Cultivation base and forming it into a Crystal. The Heart Strength of this Wood Heart Crystal dictates the impact of the passive effect it has on Natural energy around it. Presumably as bonus dice or reduced penalties if something comes up, but its generally not enough on its own.

*Mokuton can help deal with Essence afflictions and aid in learning sage mode but that is basically making the above roll (without the target's composure since they are doing their own thing already) and your successes are added to the user as teamwork bonus.

Naruto's training continues in the next post.

*You gain Dead Flesh *****

Well this training sucks, glad its done.

You gain rank 5 in Dead flesh, Five times per scene you may spend a turn reassembling your body to reverse the upgrade of lethal wound to aggravated wound. You may spend a pillar/soulfire to downgrade a fresh aggravated wound to lethal.

*Your Sheut, Ba and Ka are upgraded to Rank 5, your Ren and Ab are increased to rank 4.

A great deal of Memory Meditation while either breaking vestiges prepared by Kumo or even receiving pillar transfers from Kumo or Fumiko results in a lot of progress.

Your Sheut, Ba, and Ka are Rank 5. Your Ren and Ab are Rank 4.

For Rank five pillars you gain these upgrades to your Seal the Flesh state. These upgrades apply to whatever equivalent state you might replace Seal the Flesh with and if you have a means to share the Seal the Flesh state they might also get the bonuses, modified as appropriate.

*While in Shadow form you may spend a Sheut Pillar to temporarily gain a Manifestation or Numen appropriate to the situation.

*Mundane actions that are a means of fulfilling an Aspiration are considered an exceptional success with three successes instead of five.

*You gain +1 Armor

*You gain your Refined Sheut and Ren constructs.

As you study your name over and over again, filling it with the energy of your soul you sense your name grow to include more of the Word. As you grasp this concept you feel a greater understanding of what you have seen with the Scroll of Ages as the secret languages of the cosmos whisper their secrets to you but briefly before fading away.

Ren(Name): Title that uplifts you, TRUE NAME, pursuit of knowledge.

You possess an intense awareness of the relationship between a person and the names they use. Whenever someone introduces himself to you by name, you immediately recognize whether the proffered name is his true name (one that serves as a true identifier of him on a supernatural level) or a pseudonym, nickname, or title.
If the target introduced himself by his true name, you learn a number of pieces of information about the target equal to your Ren Pillar. This might include a Virtue, Vice, or Aspiration, but it could also be some other useful detail such as a birthdate, home address, relationship status, or work phone number. This will always be something you can use to your advantage, chosen by the Storyteller. You may consider whatever information gained as an equipment bonus with a rating equal to your Ren for rolls based on trying to understand the target's plans or motivations.

Your soul's beacon in Nomenclature attracts the attention of all around you, their own names surging to their lips around you as if they would be glorified to have you learn their name. If someone introduces themselves with their true name they gain a willpower point. You may subtract your Ren from the Target's Doors when trying to convince them to give you their name.

You have completed your Ren Refined Name and your True Name thrums with power. You gain a core memory: Secrets of Nomenclature.

This Core memory is very conducive to being used to create a potent Room/Facet within the resplendent Memory Palace. Here are some choices, remember at a minimum choosing these rooms would consume the core memory, Secrets of Nomenclature.

Unspeaking What is Known
Minato can draw others into the occultic mysteries of the world, pulling them away from the world's notice. Unleashing this requires Minato to perceive the target, which can be himself. He spends a Soulfire and rolls (Manipulation + Occult + Ba), resisted by the target's (Presence + Occult + Cultivation Level + Fame/Status). Success is automatic if targeting oneself, or if Minato knows the target's True name. If Minato wins, the target gains Enigma 5. This conferred Enigma drops by one dot per week that passes until it fades entirely. For targets who already possess Engima, the rating conferred by this tier does not stack (only the highest value applies).

Minato's power can unweave the physicality of a target's being, temporarily suppressing his material form to render him in a state of amxaibit. This requires Minato to be within 10 yards of a target and be able to perceive him; he must also know his given name in order to sorcerously unspeak it. Spend a Soulfire and roll his (Presence +Occult + Ka), resisted by the target's (Stamina + Resolve+ Cultivation Level). Success is automatic if Minato targets himself or knows the target's True name. With success, the target dissolves into shadows and enters a state of Twilight for one hour per success (or until Minato reflexively terminates the effect if he targeted himself). Others who are brought into Twilight this way emit a spiritual scent of blood that many spirits within ten miles can perceive, often leading to a feeding frenzy.

At the core potency this becomes a weapon of dreadful, spiteful power. It may be unleashed upon any mortal being, or upon any any supernatural being (such as a cultivator) whose True name Minato knows, but the target and Minato must be able to perceive one another directly (i.e. not via electronicmedia, clairvoyant visions, etc.). Unleashing this power costs 2 Soulfire and 1 Willpower. Roll Minato's (Intelligence + Occult + Ren) against the target's (Resolve + Composure + Ren). If Minato succeeds, the unspoken target instantly dies and is disintegrated utterly, first decaying to dust before that dust scatters to nothingness upon the cosmic winds of Sekhem throughout the universe. No remains endure. To add insult to annihilation, memories and records of the deceased are forgotten and lost as though the target possessed Enigma 5. Most beings who somehow survive having their bodies annihilated, such as some archmages and chthonic gods, cannot rebuild physical forms for themselves (or subsidiary entities of themselves) in the material world by use of any magic for a thousand years. Magic that would circumvent the spirit of this ban as decreed by Fate is likewise annulled by the universe itself and therefore cannot be cheated with clever technicalities or alternate stratagems. For example, the span of time of the ban is likewise proof against entry by the banished entity via time travel from outside that period. What such cosmic entities may do in revenge for such banishment even without a physical body is another matter altogether.

Inscriptions of Flesh
By combining your knowledge of the Body attained through Body Tempering and preparations for body tempering with the Secrets of Nomenclature this room focused on the language of Flesh becomes possible.

Beneath ordinary sight, energies flow in lines across all things. These lattices of power form glyphs of the ur-language used by gods and horrors to create the universe. Minato upon gaining this Facet, learns to see the "dialect" woven into living flesh: the powers the regulate muscles, nerves and even occult organs hidden from mortal physicians. As a reflexive action usable once per turn, Minato scrutinizes a Mortal in her line of sight spends a soulife before he rolls Ba + Cultivation Level. Each success reveals one piece of information selected from the following base points:
• The target's Physical Attributes, or Skills (and specialties), or Merits and Flaws.
• The target's current and maximum Health points or any physical ailment (disease or physical impediment) currently afflicting the target and an ailment in remission or otherwise hidden, though still present.

Minato understands these patterns of energy in an intuitive or comparative sense. He may not understand the modern medical function of the heart, but senses that in a case of heart disease, it will cause gasping pain and perhaps death. He knows that one woman is faster than another, and a third may run faster than them both, though at the game table, it's enough to just share Trait levels with the player.

In addition, any successes grant a +2 dice bonus to Minato's Brawl and Weaponry-based attacks, as he understands the target's physical weaknesses and movement habits. This non-cumulative bonus lasts for as long as Minato can remember his target's existence. The power only functions on mortal humans, but this includes mortals who wield magic, including cultivators below the Nascent Soul. It may only be attempted once per target per scene.

Deepening the room filled with medical understanding and jars of preserved organ grants Minato's sight understanding of the flesh-language of magical and undead creatures, including all Cultivators. He may unleash the early aspects of this power on any corporeal creature except for materialized ghosts and spirits, or automatons made of stone, metal or synthetic materials. Supernatural beings use (Composure +
Cultivation Level) to resist the Minato's (Wits + Ka + Cultivation Level roll). This costs two Soulfire. Their complex forms ensure that the bonus to close combat rolls against them only lasts for a single scene.

Minato may now attack the supernatural substrates of targets' physical forms. He mars the secret writing in their flesh, or rewrites it to their disadvantage. Every successful Brawl and Weaponry attack inflicted against scrutinized targets inflicts one point or aggravated damage on top of any other damage. Furthermore, if Minato scores an exceptional success to study an enemy, he may now inflict one of the following disadvantages with each successful attack:
• If the target carried some systemic disease or chronic condition, Minato may intensify it so that it inflicts one point of bashing damage per turn, for a number of turns equal to his Cultivation Level
• Minato may subtract one dot of the target's Strength, or Dexterity with each attack. This Attribute drain lasts for a number of turns equal to Minato's Cultivation Level, or until the target heals aggravated damage equal to the amount inflicted by the attack, whichever comes first. If the target's Strength or Dexterity falls to 0, he is incapacitated until both Attributes recover to 1 or higher.
• Minato may force a shapeshifter or being that conceals its true form under a supernatural aura to revert to its natural form.
• Minato may wound the subtle channels that circulate magical energy throughout a supernatural being's body. Against beings that manifest Pillars, this drains one point from the target's lowest Pillar, which Minato may absorb to replenish their
own. Against other supernatural beings, including cultivators, this drains one point of a corresponding expendable supernatural resource, but Minato does not benefit.

Minato may unleash this ability with more benign intentions by studying the target as above, and then touching him with his bare hand or a non-electronic writing implement. Minato does not need to score an exceptional success, and the target may choose not to resist. Instead of inflicting damage, Minato grants one of the following effects:
• Minato cures a mundane disease or debilitating condition, even if it would normally be incurable, so long as a body part necessary to the target's recover has not been destroyed or severed.
• Minato heals all bashing damage or one point of lethal damage (one point of aggravated with an exceptional success). Civilians become refreshed as if rising from a solid night's sleep.
• Minato reverses any of the effects (except for damage) inflicted by another effect of this Facet.
Upon fully polishing this facet and mastering the language of flesh Minato can, by rewriting the mystic instructions that regulate the subject's flesh, reshape it into beautiful or hideous forms. Minato needs a moment to read secret names shining beneath the skin. Living tissue is both the target and the surface upon which Minato writes. He needs to still his target. If the target isn't lying still, Minato must overpower him. The grappling maneuver of the same name will suffice, though he doesn't need to restrain his target himself.
Spend Three Soulfire and roll Minato's (Ren + Cultivation Level), resisted by the target's (Stamina + Cultivation Level). If Minato uses a knife, carving tool, or ink brush (including Letters Writ Upon Rivers; see integration bonuses), he rewrites the ephemeral words adroitly, earning a +2 equipment bonus. A successful roll allows Minato to perform one of the following actions. Exceptional success allows imposition of two of these conditions, or the same condition twice.
• Instantly kill a mortal, as long as he has never used magic. Minato erases or vandalizes the glyphs commanding vital organs. If the mortal ever possessed a supernatural template, used a magical ritual or relic, or demonstrated psychic sensitivity (such as that provided by Unseen Senses or Witness) the experience has changed him enough to
render him immune to this casual destruction.
• Inflict one point of aggravated damage per success. In case of an exceptional success, the condition may not be imposed twice for double damage.
• Add dots to target's Physical Attributes equal to Minato's Ren rating. If his rating drops while the target enjoys these benefits, this lowers the cap and may degrade these enhancements.
• Impose any Physical Merit (except for Fighting Styles and Merits that require training) any dot level up to the human maximum or any Physical Flaw. If these Flaws involve a non-functioning body part (ie they can live without it), Minato may choose to cripple it, so that it may heal over time, inflict a permanent deformity, or "erase" the part, so that a blinded victim's eyes vanish, as if he was born without them.
• Reshape a part of the target into an Amkhata Frame, Head, or Limbs. This does not convert the target into one of the Amkhat; rather, Minato has mastered this facet enough that he knows the secret names of those flesh components, and can rewrite the victim's body to replicate them. Minato cannot create a false ka for the victim, and the victim cannot dematerialize, sense Sekhem, or absorb it. In situations where one part is larger than a human body can typically support, other structures thicken and lengthen enough to allow the target to carry it.
• Perform another action that reshapes the target's flesh. The player and storyteller may agree on an effect about as potent as the others listed above.
• Reverse any non-damage effect from the list above. Beings capable of supernaturally healing aggravated wounds may reverse a non-damaging condition by exerting the effort required to magically heal two points of aggravated damage. If such a being can heal aggravated wounds in others, he can reverse such conditions in them as well, using the
same rule. Mortals (including Cultivators) given Physical Merits, enhanced Attributes or Amkhata parts suffer one point of aggravated damage per hour, victims of an inhuman code that cannot sustain them. They maintain any deformities after death. This Facet may only be unleashed on normally material beings. Ghosts and other normally incorporeal entities may not be affected. Minato may not target his own body, however.

Redacting the Word (Requires Akashic Shrine)
By combining access to the Scroll of Ages with the Secrets of Nomenclature it is possible to "edit" the Scroll of Ages.
In a waking dream, Minato stands before the Endless Scroll and claims the privilege of ancient scribes and historians: the power to censor. Like a Pharaoh eliminating the existence of a rival, he erases a portion of the primordial record. At the first tier, he may only eliminate knowledge, but this is no psychic trick. The knowledge itself vanishes, regardless of the minds that hold it.
Spend a Soulfire and roll Sheut + Cultivation Level, applying penalties
based on the nature of what the mummy intends to erase. IE the more people who already know the harder the information is to hide. Allowing any to retain a memory, including Minato, also applies further penalties.
This facet may only be used to target memory of a living mortal, resisted by a Composure roll. Keep in mind that most mortals are known to at least 100 people in their social network (applying maximum -5 penalty). However, certain individuals may have taken steps to reduce their visibility within the mortal world and inadvertently making the job easier. This Facet may not be unleashed to eliminate self-evident knowledge ("gravity works," or "I'm standing right here") and does not affect physical evidence. Thus, when the world forgets that a hermit ever existed, they may rediscover him when his Social Security records come up. Nevertheless, the erasure has a nearly universal effect. No mortal will remember it. Even Cultivators with Memory scores of 4 or less also forget the information. Immortal cultivators with Memory Traits of 5 or greater retain the information. So might other supernatural beings, should the storyteller desire it. These creatures reintroduce the information to the Scroll of Ages to the extent necessary to recall it, as their magical nature brings them closer to the cosmic record's essence. Minato may exclude specific individuals from forgetting, but this is difficult—he must not simply erase, but rewrite.

When this is used to erase knowledge deeply connected to an individual's life, that person often suffers a derangement and is aware of a dark gap in her consciousness.
Like a vengeful, ancient monarch, Minato eradicates the existence of the fallen. By learning the mystical true name of a dead individual (less dynamic now that they are deceased) Minato may eliminate non-living, physical evidence of her existence. By recording the existence of objects, the Scroll of Ages maintains their reality. The mummy erases the living anchor for that which is written in the Scroll.
This manifestation of the Utterance cannot be unleashed on the living, undead or ghosts. It does not destroy magical places or objects, such as vessels or tombs, or living things connected to the target, such as animals or relatives. Objects vanish in a series of coincidences. Electronic databases scramble and gravestones break. This tier does not affect memories, either, though the other effects do.

Minato must acquire (or create) an image of the target such as a photograph, painting or sculpture. This item must have been created by one who personally saw the target—automated security footage doesn't work. Minato meditates for an hour in an occult diagram that represents the Scroll of Ages and spends two soulfire. His player rolls Manipulation + Occult + Cultivation Level, resisted by the target's Composure + Cultivation Level (while she was last alive) and penalized by -2 for every dot of the target's Fame Merit, if she possesses it (the Merit greatly increases the amount
of the physical evidence the Utterance must eliminate). If the target generated an exceptional amount of physical evidence, further penalties may be levied. Heads of state and international media stars are not so easy to erase from history.

The ultimate manifestation of this Facet wipes a target from the Scroll of Ages. The Scroll accommodates the deletion, rewriting the cosmic record to seamlessly conceal the fact that the victim ever existed. These changes affect the past back to the distant past affecting all memories and physical signs (replicating the first two tiers of this Facet), though with as much metaphysical economy as possible. Most of what the target did to change the world remains, but gets reassigned to other causes. Children acquire different mothers and fathers. Anyone the target killed remains dead, but slain by another cause. Even deeply personal mystic structures suddenly lack essential context as to their creator. Minato may influence these cosmic "revisions" to a certain extent, as agreed to by the players and the Storyteller.

This particular power is difficult to use for one reason: Minato must acquire the target's True name. A typical mortal's true name includes her full legal name, all nicknames
(even the most private), and a sequence of mystical syllables that describe her unique connection to the cosmos. Magical beings, including cultivators, possess inherent protections against name theft, but these may be bypassed through the use of certain occult objects or through extremely thorough interrogation of anyone who happens to know the name.
Once Minato acquires the target's true name, he must ensure that her soul has been banished from the realm of the living, lest it renew its bonds with the flow
of history. Mortal targets must die, supernatural targets must be neutralized in the material world; the method is not important. At this point, Minato captures the target's soul, using it as a beacon to guide him to where the victim has written herself across the Scroll of Ages.

In a vision, Minato clutches the soul and journeys across the cosmos. Using the target's true name, he claims the right to erase her existence. Spend three Soulfire and a Willpower point, over the hour this vision takes place, the Minato rolls Intelligence + Ren + Cultivation Level, resisted by the target's Resolve + Cultivation Level. If a dramatic failure occurs, the target's spirit overwhelms Minato's and she captures him in the presence of the Scroll of Ages. The former victim may instantly slay her soul's captor and escape his otherworldly clutches.

*You receive expensive pills and support to integrate all your metaphysical organs into your Meridian Network. You will choose your bonuses.
Kiseki check
Sheut: 84
Ren: 68…. I will say between the two we can scrape up 1 XP.

Sheut Integration Core Effect
Khaibit Awakened: Your character may run up walls and along ceilings without chakra and when inside a shadow using the standard Sheut Darkened Shadow, may move through that shadow as long as a piece of shadow with a width as wide as your clenched fist exists to pass through, allowing you to come out in different locations. You may rest in the shadow of a moving object or person.

Base Sacrifice: When inside a target's shadow you may burn an amount from your cultivation base equal to the Cultivation level of your target to possess the person you are in the shadow of. This triggers a contest of your Manipulation + Occult + Sheut vs their mental defenses, often Resolve + Cultivation Level.

You have completed a Gate around your Sheut Darkened Shadow
-Gain +3 Cultivation Base
-Gain +5 Chakra Control Rating
-Gain Khaibit Awakened

Choose a Meridian Bonus, with an exceptional success you may select two choices from the below:
[ ] Gain +1 Chakra Reserves (may be chosen twice)
[ ] Gain +1 Chakra Control (may be chosen twice)
[ ] Lost in Darkness: You may exploit a target's virtue, vice, emotional state, or aspirations to penalize their roll to resist being possessed if you are aware of them and the activities you will perform are appropriate. Such as making someone Angry with a boss when you intend to possess them to attack said boss, even if they would never choose to do so.
[ ] A Louder Voice: Your ability to possess someone finds you quite persuasive. Reduce your possession roll's Target number by 2.
[ ] Dark Offering Deliverance: While wielding a weapon that is significantly made of animal remains, Minato finds his attacks enchanted. This includes metal knives with ivory or bone or leather handles and the like—the remains need not be part of the striking surface so long as they are prominent in the design. Attacks using such weapons apply the 8-again rule, they can strike beings in a state of Twilight as though materialized, and the weapons inflict aggravated damage to vampires and the Undead.
[ ] Eternal Darkness: Being inside a shadow is no longer straining. No timer related to your fatigue, like the need to eat, drink, breath or sleep passes while inside a shadow as long as you are not being active inside the shadow.
[ ] Silent as the Night: You may move at full speed, and as long as the means are not loud or eye catching, this includes any multipliers to speed that apply and you may roll stealth without penalty as you rush silently about. The implication is you are darting from shadow to shadow, only moving when no one is looking. But that is the aesthetic and not a mechanical requirement.
[ ] Deeper Darkness: Your presence in shadows is more subtle than most can know. If someone has a method to detect your presence in a shadow you may clash of wills to resist them, adding your Sheut to your Cultivation Level. If hiding in a being's shadow you may add their Cultivation Level to your Clash for all targets except them. For a second purchase this also applies to the person whose shadow you are inside.
[ ] Fleeting Darkness: You may move at twice your speed (or more likely add one more to your multiplier) when inside a shadow or by moving on all fours.
[ ][ ] Ancestry of Forgotten Stars: Your form is composed of much shadow and blows upon that are not prepared can find they lack purchase on your flesh. You may downgrade a number of levels of damage from any attack equal to your Sheut rating, unless the attack can hit beings in Twilight or is composed of light somehow (fire is not enough, it must be light itself). Bashing damage may be downgraded to no damage at all.
[ ][ ] By Steps Unseen: You may always attempt to hide, no matter the circ*mstances, and add your Sheut to your Stealth for such dice pools. By spending a Willpower point, you may teleport up to your Sheut × 10 yards as an instant action, moving to a destination within sight or that she has been to previously. The destination must be unobserved by another sapient being, else she simply dissolves into black smoke and shadow.
[ ][ ] Deathsight: Your deathly attunement allows you to detect whether someone is dead, undead, or has surpassed their natural lifespan at a glance. You perceive and may physically interact with beings in the Twilight — including harming them with her unarmed attacks. You add your Sheut to her Defense against the attacks of all such undead and Timeless beings. By spending a Willpower point, she senses the Vice, Integrity rating, and Sheut rating of a single character she sees, or equivalent traits the target may possess.
[ ][ ] Grip of Death: Your grasp is murderously potent. Your unarmed attacks deal lethal damage. In addition to causing damage as normal, adding your Sheut rating to dice pools establishes or continues a grapple. Victims caught in a grapple with you are supernaturally silenced, unable to vocalize any sound, and you inflict her Sheut rating as a penalty on perception rolls to notice you or your victim while in this state. You can also apply this penalty to perception rolls when in a non-violent grapple such as an embrace, bodily shielding someone, etc. Finally, you can rise to your feet from prone as a Reflexive action, even if struck with the Knocked Down Tilt. If you do so when prone in a grapple, you also bring your grappled victim up as well.
[ ][ ] Opener of the Way: Minato adds his Sheut rating to Larceny and Survival rolls, and his actions never cause mundane traps or alarms to trigger unless he so desires. Spending a Willpower point causes any door, lock, or barrier he touches to unlock and open. If necessary, mechanical or electric parts activate to allow this action, even if they lack power. He may also use this power to open supernatural gateways into other realms of existence, such as a door to the Underworld. However, this trait does not give him the ability to sense such otherworldly portals by itself.
[ ][ ]Scorpion Veins: Minato is immune to poisons and diseases, both mundane and supernatural, as are any pillar invested allies in his immediate presence. As an Instant action, he may deal himself one point of lethal damage to extract a single dose of venom from his flesh, enough to coat a weapon for one strike or poison a single item of food. This thin ichor is a poison with Toxicity equal to Minato's Sheut, inflicting the moderate Poisoned Tilt in combat. Delivered via contact, ingestion, or injury, he may also choose to exempt invested allies from its effects. By spending a Willpower point when touching another character, Minato may draw poison out of them. The target immediately reduces the Toxicity of any poisons affecting them by Minato's Sheut rating, completely neutralizing any that reach Toxicity 0.
[ ][ ]Voice of Temptation: Your voice resounds with the alluring call to indulge one's worst excesses, drawing forth the venom of sin to the surface of those who hear you. You add your Sheut rating to Social dice pools and social maneuvering rolls appealing to or invoking a target's Vice. If successful with such a social maneuver, you may also spend a Willpower point to open all remaining Doors.
[ ][ ]Night Creature: Minato draws strength from his darkest qualities:
• Minato reduces the target number by one for Stealth rolls made for himself to remain unnoticed. In actual darkness or within an aligned Geomantic Nexus, the reduction becomes –2.
• Minato can pay one Willpower to acclimate himself to darkness for the rest of the scene. In this state, he can see in the dark without penalty and can't be fooled by the brief lie of mortal beauty (i.e., only unaging characters gain a bonus from Striking Looks against him). His augmented sight also recognizes the "unclean" by the flickering aura of shadows around them. Unclean are defined as characters for whom one or more of these statements are true: Morality 3 or lower, no Morality trait, regained Willpower indulging Vice during this scene, or acted in a manner prompting a degeneration check this scene (regardless of outcome). The aura surrounding the unclean adds a bonus equal to Minato's Sheut rating to dice pools to notice them with perception, alerting him to their general proximity even in case of a failure.
• Minato may spend one Willpower to empower himself as an enemy of the unclean. This blessing lasts for the rest of the scene, reducing the target number of all his actions specifically intended to frighten or injure the unclean (such as attacks) by one. He can't anticipate or notice when this blessing applies without acclimating his sight to darkness (see above).

Ren Integrated Core Effect

Nomenclature Control: Once someone has introduced himself to you by any name (even a pseudonym), you can always recognize him regardless of any disguises, illusions, or alternate forms he may use to hide his identity (although not those that conceal his presence). This does not allow you to see through any disguise he might have worn at the time of introduction (nor does it grant knowledge of his true name if he offered a pseudonym). But you can tell that the nondescript man she encounters at the pharmacy is the same as the masked figure who taunted her at the warehouse the previous night. Whenever someone mentions you by your given name in spoken conversation, they invite your attention, regardless of how near or far away they are. Usually, you only hear the speaker's voice and a sentence or two that follows your name. If you recognize the speaker by his given name, however, you also see his face, immediate surroundings, and the individual(s) he is addressing. Once per chapter, you may suggest the existence of an interesting conversation that invokes your name. Although the Storyteller decides on the exact nature of this conversation, it should always be something you can use to your advantage. In addition, by speaking a person's true name aloud, you can (if you wish) cause him to hear her voice for several seconds as though you were whispering in his ear — as long as the target is someone who previously introduced himself to you personally..
Base Sacrifice: By damaging your cultivation you may temporarily obscure the true name of a target (including yourself), although you must know the target's true name. All written and digital records that reference a nameless person's erased true name become unlocatable while he remains nameless. Supernatural records and effects that rely on the connection between the target and the old true name likewise fail. While it lasts, namelessness blocks access to certain Merits that rely on having credentials, such as Resources and Status. You may spend a point of Willpower (or mental stress) to maintain this effect until the beginning of the next chapter, potentially maintaining it from chapter to chapter in this way. This explicitly protects from other True Name magic (or forces a Clash with You at least), including Edo Tensei.

You have completed a Gate around your Ren Refined Name
-Gain +3 Cultivation Base
-Gain +5 Chakra Control Rating
-Gain Nomenclature Control

Choose a Meridian Bonus, with an exceptional success you may select two choices from the below:
[ ] Gain +1 Chakra Reserves (may be chosen twice)
[ ] Gain +1 Chakra Control (may be chosen twice)
[ ] Erudite Bastion of Perfection: Whenever Minato encounters an object or being, he can spend a minute scrutinizing it to glean part of its True Name. This may be attempted no more than once per scene and requires a successful (Wits + Occult) roll. The penalty is -1 for relatively simple inanimate objects, -3 for complex inanimate objects, -5 for most animals, -8 for mortals, -10 for supernatural beings or famous/highly-symbolic objects. Once the cumulative number of successful attempts to scrutinize a specific target exceeds the dice penalty for the attempt, he assembles the entire true name within his head. The cumulative total resets to zero whenever the target grows, changes, or otherwise alters its nature in a significant way. On its own, this knowledge gives little power. In conjunction with name magic, such information affords hideous
possibilities.
[ ] Letters Writ Upon the Rivers: Minato is never without an implement of writing, nor ink with which to write. He can use his fingertip as a stylus to mark any surface with black writing that smells faintly of smoke and perfumed spices. Such writing appears in a bright flash as though etched by magnified sunlight, and is indelible. It will not fade and lasts until the medium itself is defaced or destroyed. You may touch a text while also touching a blank version of the Medium the text is written on of sufficient size and magically transfer the text over. You can choose if the original remains or is destroyed. Medium of the new copy must be the same though. For a second purchase you may copy it as above but choose an intelligent being as the medium, the person need not be present. The next time that individual touches a blank appropriate Medium a flash of golden light will copy the text over. Copied text appear in the order they were copied. Yes this is an instant an un-interceptable method of sending messages if the target is prepared and very confusing if they are not.
[ ] So it is Written: Your text is mildly magical, by paying a willpower you can cause your text to fade from view. You must indicate a gesture or word which will unlock your writing to be read. No you cannot simply choose to only allow allies to read it, anyone with the password can. For a second purchase you can instead keep track of such willpower point invested writings, the next time someone reads it you gain a vision that can guide you to this reader.
[ ] Speak Friend and enter: Your communication facilitated by your propensity for Genjutsu allows for a much greater ease of the whole communication thing. As long as you know their name and they know yours you can just communicate normally (or in codes or scent language if you want) with no need to manage things by saying names aloud or speaking in the correct tone of voice. It can go fully silent as you gain full magical girl telepathy, where you can speak silently but place your mind in no greater risk than talking normally would have. With a second purchase you can spend willpower to set up telepathic networks or get behind someone mentally and help push them, effectively letting spend YOUR willpower to help them.
[ ] Tear it from their minds: Or you can choose NOT to be peaceful. You may spend a willpower point when initiating such a conversation with Ren with someone whose name you know and you can gain additional information as if from a target who introduced themselves with their true name. This can stack with original information or be triggered even if you didn't get their name from their own lips. This can potentially go up against mental defenses but there is no Clash or Contest if the target doesn't have mental defenses.
-[ ] A boon of knowledge: With this you gain additional bonuses from the information, implying the information is deeper and more valuable, providing clues to their plans or more secretive information.
-[ ] A nebulous connection: You can attempt to get the basic effect going when introduced with a title or pseudonym if you spend a willpower point.
[ ] Untouched and Broken: Your soul hardens against the magic and guile of others. Whenever you use a dice pool to resist supernatural powers that do not target you via your name or True Name, you adds +3 dice. This same bonus applies to your dice pools to resist being deceived by outright lies, though not against half-truths and subtler forms of manipulation.
[ ] All-Tongue's Folly: You may understand, read, speak and write any mundane language. Only supernatural languages evade your translation. Your Academics rolls have the Target number reduced by 1 when used for mundane purposes.
[ ] By Providence Made Whole: Minato may speak the True Name of a target character he can perceive within 100 yards, provided he knows one or more persistent afflictions of the body that plagues the target. Such afflictions can be diseases, poisoning, transformation into a new and undesired form, maiming wounds like amputations, the ravages of old age or anything else the Storyteller approves. Damage alone from "usual" sorts of injuries do not qualify. After calling for a miracle and spending 1 willpower DOT, a condition may be restored or cured, but Minato takes on an appropriate condition or resistant damage that he will have to deal with (ie enough to prevent you from abusing the power, however much that takes). Every condition a given target character is restored from required more sacrificed Willpower. A second requires Two DOTs, a third requires Four Dots, a fourth requires 8 DOTS. This cost does not reset as long as the target is still on some level recognizably themselves.

[ ][ ] Blessed Panoply: You gain the 9-again mechanic on any roll using a tool or weapon no matter how improvised. Clothes and armor grant +1 Armor even if they would normally not grant any. Any rolls meant to harm your possessions become Worst of Two unless you have granted your permission. Your possessions are immune to aging and wear and tear.
[ ][ ] Enlightened Sense: You possess spiritually enlightened senses and you experience existence through the lens of intensified sensation. You add your Ren rating to your perception rolls, Craft rolls, and Investigation rolls, and reduce the range and concealment penalties for ranged attacks by the same amount. You are never surprised by an ambush or surprise attack. Finally, you both perceive and physically interact with beings in the Twlight spiritual frequency, and can harm them with your unarmed attacks.
[ ][ ] Godsight:Your blessed sight adds your Ren rating to your Occult rolls. By spending a Willpower point, you gain the ability to perceive supernatural beings and effects for the remainder of the scene, and adds your Ren rating to Clash of Wills dice pools to penetrate supernatural obfuscation, concealment, illusion, or misdirection.
[ ][ ] Soul Threads: You may spend a Willpower point to forge magical connections to any characters of your choice that you can see throughout the remainder of the scene. As long as the soul thread remains, you are aware of the target's exact location relative to yourself, their general condition — including whether they suffer damage or physical Conditions or Tilts — and their general emotional state. You always knows whether the character is aware of your own presence in a scene, and adds your Ren rating to dice pools to avoid the character's notice. You also add your Ren rating to dice pools to reach the location of a threaded character, including working your way past obstacles, avoiding security, or finding a viable path. Once forged, a soul thread remains until the end of the story or until you chooses to end it; you can maintain a number of soul threads at a time equal to twice her Ren rating. Warning: Soul thread DO count as a sympathetic connection.
[ ][ ] Charmed Life: All of the minor inconveniences melt away. You never seem to wait in line or get stuck in traffic. You gain the time freeing up effects of the Good Time Management Talisman without equipping it. Instead of gaining an improved sense of time like the talisman you can spend willpower to make minor changes to fate in your favor, like calling a dice roll. You may also prevent Target number increases to yourself by spending one willpower for a scene.
[ ][ ] Auspicious Repose: Minato can meditate more deeply in order to commune with Fate and replenish his soul. Upon reflexively activating this ability, he offers his name unto Fate and sinks into a slumbering coma at the edge of death. This state confers the following powers:
*His slumber so resembles death that no mundane medical examination can tell the difference. As far as medical science can tell, he is an inanimate corpse (albeit one that impossibly continues to heal and does not decay).
*Time spent sleeping this way does not count towards age limits or time until a cyclical Tribulation, effectively "stopping the clock" until he awakens.
*He awakens whenever it is best to do so. Although he is completely insensate in his slumber, his player may choose for him to awaken at any time (such as in response to danger or when sufficient time has passed). When he wakes, if he spent at least eight hours in the coma, he receives a standard Memory roll to recover Pillars and reduces the target number of this roll by -2. Sometimes, he also remembers prophetic dreams that offer clues pertaining to the purpose for which he was raised, but such visions occur only as Fate decrees and cannot be forced.
[That is if you get a full 8 hours of sleep you can get a bonus Pillar Recovery AND can get a Dream Divination without assuming you lose willpower from less effective sleep]
[ ][ ]Donning the Veil of Deceit: You can pull a mystical veil over yourself to mask your soul and seeming. This state also warns of prying eyes and aids you in your own attempts to deceive others. Add your Ren rating to any dice pool to deceive others, if you lie about yourself and succeed you may spend a willpower point to make it an exceptional success. You count as having the Barfly merit and are generally treated as a member of the elite and high society unless you explicitly don't want to be. You can intuitively sense the social standing of others around you, you also can intuitively understand what is considered socially acceptable in the setting and thus act normal for the setting even of you are clueless.
[ ][ ] Harvesting Named Truths: All rolls to discern a being's true name apply a -1 target number reduction. If you have successfully discerned the target's true name in the past, then the reduction is -2 instead (in addition to the usual +3 dice bonus).
● When you are attempting to discern a being's true name, you can ignore any one penalty that applies to the roll (such as the penalty for not knowing when the target was born). This expressly cannot negate the automatic failure for not knowing any of the target's names; this requirement cannot be bypassed.
● Whenever an action you take would directly result in a being's demise, you may petition Fate to avert that death as though the action never took place at all (and thus had no consequences whatsoever). This costs one Willpower point. Withholding death in this manner grants you a sudden revelation of the saved target's true name. This method cannot discern the true name of a Deathless, as there is no real death to avert.
[ ][ ]Words of Wounding: The one who knows a target's name has great power to hurt that target, all the more so with deeper knowledge of that target's name. Whenever you take a rolled action to cause damage to a target whose name you know, you cancel out up to three dice of penalties applying to that roll. For instance, when punching a target with armor 3, your blow strikes as if the target were unarmored. Secondly, if you know the target's true name, and if you spend a Willpower point before the roll, your roll to cause damage also reduces its target number by one.

*You max out Eguchi Seal Combat and Eguchi Seal throwing Styles.

* Hidden Tag: A technique to master hiding a sealing tag on your person and using sleights of hand to keep it hidden until it is needed. When you plan on using a sealing tag you may reflexively roll Manipulation + Stealth - Composure to hide the presence of a Sealing Tag in your hand (or other body part) You gain a +2 dice bonus to Dexterity + Larceny checks to conceal a tag on your person past an observer/pat down check looking for it.

**Tag Placement: With a big enough focus and false vulnerability you can slip something onto a target when they least suspect it. When you make an all out attack to place a tag on a target you gain the 8 again property, if you get more successes then the target's Composure they fail to notice placement (assuming Hidden tag succeeded). 8 again property also applies to hiding tags in the environment.

*** Tag Trapping: Expert training and experience in placement allows a maximization of the effect of your traps. Extra successes on hiding or placing a tag are added to the effect roll making it more likely to work. Extra successes on an attack roll may also be diverted from damage to improving the tags placement and adding those successes as dice to the effect of the tag.

****Prep Work: When getting a tag on someone can spell a victory and the best way to get that tag on them is an all or nothing strike, ensuring you get that strike from ambush is the Eguchi way. Take the rote quality to Stealth rolls to launch close combat ambushes.

***** Thats BS: Incredible familiarity with sealing tags at this point means the Eguchi has learned their ins and outs and with subtle pulses of chakra and intent, the meaning of a tag might be altered. Spend a willpower point to break the rules of a sealing tag. Such as shutting one down after failing the roll to do so, starting one up again after someone shuts it down, changing what sealing tag it is at the last second and other BS. Some changes might require chakra, more willpower, or rolls.

* Rapid Throw: It takes a lot of training to slip a seal onto the handle or ring of a Kunai with as as much speed as another ninja can draw an unmodified Kunai. Ignore thrown weapon initiative penalties, ready the next Sealed kunai reflexively.
** Reflex Throw: Sometimes an Eguchi is called to place a seal where it needs to go, even if that is not the foe in front of them. Ignore penalties for throwing in close combat, target can be someone outside of close combat or inside as you want.
***Sealing Throw: With a touch of chakra enhancement and a lot of practice you can throw sealing tags as if Sealed Kunai with no penalties, no damage other than the effect of the tag. It looks pretty cool too.
**** Clearing Cover: Its a work of practice and timing to figure out how to use explosions to hit people around the corner from you. Perfect for an Eguchi to handle. You can ignore a level of concealment in the target for every Rank of your explosive tag as you time the throw just right to go off as the kunai or seal passes where the target is in cover.
***** Trick Shot: Once cover is blown an Eguchi is generally served by running away, so why not learn to pepper the target with sealing tag attacks while you run away. You may perform a throw attack and an athletics action simultaneously for -2 to each.

*You complete Finishing Fuinjutsu and in addition Learn Kumo's B-rank seal which mimics the Swamp of the Underworld.

E Rank through B Rank:
Reinforcing Ward (Durability improving): Seal adds rank to Durability when on an item. Tag versions can be used to temporarily reinforce a structure.

Perfection of the Artisan (Equipment improving): Seal adds Rank as equipment bonus when on an item, Tags can be used to temporarily improve a tool or weapon.

Barriers: A sealing tag version projects a barrier with a durability equal to the Rank, and a max size equal to Tag Rank x 5. Usually just a chakra construct it is possible for sealers with great elemental affinity to make elementally nature barriers. It is possible for a Grand Seal to create a wider barrier but usually a large number of smaller seals or sealing tags is placed around the border of an area to be protected. So protecting a Size 50 area would require at least two A Rank seals but is more likely to use 3 or more B-rank seals.

Alarm Wards: These are seals placed in areas to detect something. They usually have to be placed on something as hiding them tends to penalize their ability to detect. What they detect is defined by the creator, it could be everything but that is not very helpful. The Alarm ward rolls five times its rank as a constant perception check for whatever its designed to catch. Basically treat them like security cameras or motion sensor alarms that can be programmed to catch almost anything the user can sense themselves. Can be made to produce the alarm from themselves, project it to another tag within Rank Miles of the first, or simply warn the creator mentally. For Eguchi it is possible to tie tags to a Talisman so a guard can attune a "Standard" talisman while on shift and monitor a large series of alarm wards that way and pass the responsibility on when they are off shift.

Barring Wards: This is the thing where you put a seal on a door and you cannot open the door until the seal is removed. That's E-Rank. At high ranks the barring seal itself is immune until either subsidiary seals are destroyed or brought to the door like a key. A B-Rank Barring Ward can have three keys that need to be destroyed or brought to the main door. You can generally add traps to these key locations or have them guarded if you have the time and resources to set it up. The ward generally only goes one way and you cannot hide the keys on the other side of the ward. Generally the key tags have to be within 100 x Rank meters away from the main door tag, but special training can improve this range.

Ward Entry: You understand Ward breaking and can initiate a Clash of Wills to get past a Ward through sealwork up to Rank B, instead of either brute force or following whatever method the Ward incorporates (And is thus filled with traps)

-Ward of [Thing warding] Tag (any Rank but must be purchased sequentially for the same target): Sealing something away from harm is common enough its just usually too specific to be terribly useful, especially since keeping multiple wards going tends to cause interference. You now can be assumed to know wards for a large variety of common sources in the Shinobi world, but could still be tripped by something rare or exotic. Targets for the Ward should be something like kunai, but that won't protect against shuriken or Senbon. Sufficiently odd variants are also not covered, as one user of a Sword ward discovered upon trying to face the seven swordsmen of the hidden mist. Esoteric sources like Essence, self harm, or anything with sufficient edge in cultivation can ignore such effects. Using one's body as a weapon results in even more specific requirements, ie you could make yourself proof against right hands but even a right elbow will hurt you much less the leg or left hand. Every rank effectively grants 1 armor or equivalent to harm from the specific source, so if you do know in advance your enemies preferred weapon you can give yourself an edge. You can combine two wards into a single ward for a one rank increase, which of course cuts into how much protection they can provide. Each scene long activation requires chakra appropriate to the rank, 1 for E-Rank, 3 for D Rank, 9 for C-Rank, 27 for B-rank. These can be applied as a body seal but its rare anyone would bother unless its to protect them from a weapon or fighting style which risks self harm.

Enhanced Storage Scrolls: By putting more time and effort into a Storage Scroll you can fit more things in, especially if you specialize and customize what is going in. A B-rank small storage scroll can hold 4 times as much as a Konoha Standard small storage scroll.

Enhanced Explosive tags: Explosive Tags cost just a small amount of chakra to set off the much larger store of chakra inside them. Generally this is 5 times the rank of the sealing tag. Some of the potential complication of the seal can be used to generate more customize triggers or specialized explosions, like making all the damage elemental, or focusing it all in one direction like a shaped charge would require ranking the damage down once compared to the difficulty of making the tag.

False Image Tag: You seal away an image from something that was available when the sealing tag was being made, usually yourself. Each rank costs more time and chakra to make but is more flexible and realistic and includes more senses. A B rank can follow programmed behaviors, set and adapted to the environment when triggered, produce sound, smell, and even cause apparent changes into the environment that make it look like its touching things from a distance. Enemy takes a -6 penalty to their perception check to see through a B-rank False Image Tag.

Sinkhole Seal Tag: This seal looks like a standard sealing tag, when activated a more elaborate seal projects out in a three (xTag Ranks) meter radius around the note and causes all to sink into the ground as if the ground was immaterial for three seconds before the ground returns to normal. Maximum depth is 3 (x tag rank) meters, and the activator has some flexibility and settings, usually shrinking the time since ninja with quick reactions can jump out and preferring it so their target will have their head sticking up and targetable during their moment of vulnerability.

Unbarred Entry Seal: This a one use body-seal can only be made when you have a subterfuge specialty in a specific organization you are trying to infiltrate. Creating this custom seal based on the knowledge your specialty provides and activating it means for one hour per Rank of the seal you are treated as having Status or Favor [Rank of Seal] or the equivalent merit effect. Presence + Subterfuge is rolled against Wits + Empathy if you do anything suspicious, this can be penalized if you focus on a lower total status than your rank allows, ie a B-Rank seal allows a -3 penalty to notice your suspicious if you are taking the role of a entry rank individual.

Eye of the Horizon Tag/Seal combo: This is a paired seal, linking a viewing seal kept with the user to an imaging seal placed somewhere you wish to see. The imaging seal has an obvious eye pattern that makes whats going on apparent and hiding it often means blocking your view. With work you can disguise the seal as the eye of something in a picture, painting, sculpture or toy though. At E-rank, the link is broken every sunset and must be refreshed by touching the seals and expending a chakra, the range limit is 12 miles. Every rank up adds a multiplier to how many sunsets it lasts and how long the range can be. So a B-rank can go 8 sunsets and go 96 miles.

D Rank through B-Rank:
[Element] Bolt Tag: This sealing tag throws a single fairly generic c, b, or A-rank elemental attack jutsu when activated. Attack is made with Wits + Sealing + (relevant element rating) vs the target's defense. Attack rolls 8, 12, or 16 damage of the relevant element if it hits.

Summon the Loyal Servant Seal: You may seal away and when needed release a mass of spirit stuff forced into a shape and animated by your sealwork for a time. Spend three chakra to activate this seal. When you do you gain a spirit servant like construct with a spirit rank equal to the Rank of the seal used minus one. For a D-Rank tag producing a Rank 1 Spirit construct this is a size between 1-7 as you wish and traits Power 1, Finesse 3, Resistance 1. Remains animated for one hour and is about as intelligent as a dog. More potent constructs can be more intelligent but still not as smart as a true spirit of that rank would be. True spirits tend to react poorly to constructs especially if of a similar type and rank to them.

C Rank through B-Rank
Major Bond of Fate Seal or Tag: You may apply the seal or tag to two objects which may not be alive, undead, or corpses that have even the most remote chance of becoming undead. If something is resisting the effect you may roll Cultivation Level + lower of Occult or Sealing for the Clash of Wills. Once bonded like this you may spend 9 chakra to 'link' the two for a scene after which ninjutsu or other supernatural effects applied to one object will apply to the other. At C-Rank the size of a small house is the largest it can go (usually linked to a smaller object of course). The B-Rank version may be applied to even large Structures and vehicles as long as it counts as a single object. A-Rank (which you do not know yet) is required to link a living person. Even the most powerless mortal will likely contest this with their Resolve+ Composure + Cultivation Level (if they have one) making it extremely unlikely to gain control over someone unless you are vastly stronger and more capable than they are.

Spiritual Reflection Seal: This is a complicated seal that may be applied to an object no larger than a four poster bed and no more complicated than a bicycle at C-Rank. Spending 9 chakra allows the object to gain a spiritual reflection, allowing the object to be used by spiritual beings. Weapons can be used to hurt spirits or allow 'invisible' spirits to wield weapons against ninja. Although it is just as often used by your family to provide creature comforts to spiritual beings as to trap or harm them and rarely do Eguchi seek to weaponize spirits. B-Rank can effect objects up to Size 20 and as complicated as an Engine (but not a computer).

E-Rank:
Body Preservation: A Tag which you can slap on a body to prevent any further decay. This is meant to allow bringing allies home, dissections of enemies, or harvesting of chakra beasts in safe conditions instead of immediate after killing them.

D Rank
False Door Seal: This seal must be made on a surface like a wall, it is NOT prepped with a tag or scroll before hand. It has the vague outline of a door inked onto the surface, taking time appropriate to the level of mastery available and costing 3 Chakra. The wall's thickness can be a maximum of the sealer's effective Cultivation Level (+1 for Eguchi, +1 for Death Gate). Roll Wits + Sealing + actual Cultivation Level - the durability of the wall (which can be boosted by various warding seals). Success causes the door to light with an opalescent sheen which will remain open to passage through the wall for one turn per success rolled. This open 'door' is no better at allowing sight or other senses to penetrate than the wall, you must step through to see the other side. A B-Rank version of this seal with better materials can make a nigh permanent door seal that can only be opened with the original sealer's chakra.

C-Rank
Veil of Animalia Seal(C-Rank): This seal when placed on a subject and activated for 9 chakra causes what the seal is applied to, even a cultivator, to become proof against all animal-based senses for the next scene, sight, sound, scent, even touch. You are completely undetectable to mundane animals. Against chakra beasts, spirit beasts, summons and the like (and presuming they have no special talents for piercing invisibility which basically auto-succeed) they can roll normally, i.e. not gaining bonuses to senses that should have them but not being kept from rolling. Trans-normal senses like Chakra sensing are not affected at all, even Chakraless civilians are completely immune.

B-Rank
Seal of the Dark Swamp: It involves placing 4 tags in a square around a target, 4 Hand seals, ~27 Chakra, the area within the tags turns to quicksilver mud and sucks the target in quickly. Target must succeed a Dexterity + Athletics - [Your cultivation level + your Sealing] (minus an additional 2 if truly surprised) roll or be dragged into the depths where they will both suffocate and experience 4 bashing damage a turn until freed or dead. If they activate a jutsu to escape you may add +4 dice to the resulting Clash of Wills roll for the sealcasters side. Merits can be learned which reduce the cost for small areas, allow increased cost for larger areas, potentially poison the mud, or incorporate other jutsu to spoil their attempt to jump away.

Sealing and Equipment
So many seals seem to have an effect on equipment, so why isn't this so common as to be the default? Well there is maintenance. Even doing nothing a seal needs occasional maintenance and chakra replenishment. Using it produces wear and tear and something like combat, well that probably needs a maintenance cycle after every battle. Thus only team mates of an eguchi tend to get such help. Worse, most objects have strict limits on how much sealing they can take based on the size of the object. A normal object can accept a number of sealing ranks equal to its size, whether tags or direct sealing. Most Eguchi are B Rank and the most common Eguchi weapon is a Size 4 spear. Its not a coincidence.

There is some flexibility. With great skill you can compress a seal down. So a B Rank could put a C rank enhancement on a size 2 object. An A rank might be able to get a C-rank improvement on a size one object.

Of course LARGE objects can accept a lot of seals, which is why the Eguchi are more known for infrastructure and Ward seals than for equipment enhancement. Large Walls can handle many seals pushed to the maximum.

Some materials and shapes have mystic properties that make them better receptacles for Sealwork. Spheres, Hoops, Crosses, and such may accept twice their size in sealwork. Torii gates are infamous for being amazing receptacles for sealwork and can accept three times their size in sealwork. There is not really a rule of thumb for improved material since you often have to choose between the optimal material for the tool or for the sealwork and comprimes that are pure victories are either lucky or the careful work of a master craftsman. Not this is generally how trapping a tag works. You are hiding another seal on the size one tag as if it was an object instead of a new tag. Thus you either need to be very good or have better than normal materials to create a high quality trap. Although Eguchi have seen weirdos use bigger than normal tags to give themselves some leeway.

Seal Creation:
For a trained tag which all of the above count as, sealing tag creation time has the formula (5 minutes - 30 seconds per Expression) times the rank (Seal Jutsu rank e is 1, rank d is 2, rank c is 3, etc) The cost is generally 5 x the Rank level, although exceptions may exist.

Seals intended to persist and scroll based seals, cost 20 chakra per rank and take about 4 hours per rank to make in an unhurried way (ie the rate you would do if you were doing it as a job and didn't want to stress yourself unduly). Assume an Eguchi can rush it at 5 minutes per Rank if they had to, but this is like the sealing equivalent of sprinting, not something you can just crank out endlessly for a work day.

So a Seal creation action would default to one time slot, up to 140 chakra and you gain 7 ranks worth of Seals or Sealing scrolls. You can spend less chakra to get less ranks of seals. You may spend anywhere from Rank to Rank x 3 in resources and favor for the seals being made.

Sealing Tag Creation would assume you create up to 70 ranks worth of sealing Tag sets to use (with the assumption being it 5 tags per set if you force it to matter). This costs 125 chakra, and 25 favor/resources to max out with the potential to go higher with special resources.

With your Ba Spirit or Wood Clones you trained to conduct sealing you can spend extra chakra to let them spend time making seals and sealing tags and use the time for something else yourself.

Glorious Sealing Armory Facet
If you take this as a Facet of your Crystal Core of Will you will be able to spend a willpower to create tags with a simple action, although rolls and chakra costs will remain. Creating normal seals which might persist and sealing scrolls can be done more rapidly with the formula (5 minutes - 30 seconds per Expression) times the rank for a single willpower cost.

If you have a Veil Piercing Portal Room Facet or the skills it represents you can store objects in your Glorious Sealing Armory related to sealing, including at least ten or more Sealing Scrolls or completed sealworks and you can insert them into reality using the portal room and the glorious armory facet to adapt them to the situation (like opening a scroll or carefully placing a seal on an object it might not have been custom designed for) using only a simple action.

More importantly you can store materials related to Seal creation into your Glorious Sealing Armory and then enter a trance state to work on those materials using the Mental multiplier. With the Grandfather Clock Facet this multiplier is 100 times. This is roughly as fast as a normal eguchi creating a sealing tag in reality. Mind you its not quite as stress free as NOT rushing it would be but the system is modeled after the Prompt laboratory. That is you can spend mental stress to add a multiplier to how many seals produced in a timeslot, up to 100 stress producing 100 times the normal amount. With a core facet you will gain a "free time slot" for sealing work as long as your provide the chakra and materials as its assumed you use trance and the Glorious Sealing Armory to work on seals inside your head during other activities.

And anything else I come up with that I feel any experienced Eguchi should know gets retroactively added when it comes up.

* Kumo is all about the Resplendent Memory Palace. He works with you to develop tricks to share Pillar Recovery by granting another your pillar to use, create Vestiges to serve as pillar refueling (And thus transferring your memory to another's progress) and other tricks which he is spreading through the clan and funnels most of the initial proceeds of this work unto you. In principle you should later help contribute to others advancement in the clan in a similar way but that could very well be your Sister and it would be fine.

*He spends time with you working up a "Standardized" Eguchi template for the Resplendent Memory Palace which should dramatically speed up acquisition for other Eguchi. Gain 25 Eguchi Favor when the Chunin Exam is over, get Rank 4 in Eguchi Clan status, auto rank 5 if you make chunin. Allow the Eguchi clan to gain strength as many Eguchi gain partial memory palaces even as they fail to complete CNI.
Kiseki check: 84, nope.

"So, Firming the Foundation stones seems clear. The speed up to completion and steadying of progress is great."

"No Arguments here. But do we want to standardize the Grandfather Clock and the Vestibule"

"A lot of mind only stuff benefits from the Grandfather clock and Vestibule is key to using the memory palace outside of a meditative state?"

"True. Sigh. It all disappears so fast. Not your Sallyport thing. That is useless without being a speed freak."

"True. That should also mean leaving out all my Divination based rooms, I mean… I can probably teach Divination to others but…"

"No, you're right. A shame, many of those are quite nice. Glorious Sealing Armory for the fourth room seems fine."

"Of course. I am thinking Lookout Tower to improve mental defense over time and Grand Foyer to buy more time for it to apply to. And the Lookout Tower makes expanding into the Five watchtowers for improved external perception an easy pick."

"You sure, I was thinking more along the lines of the Investigation based room."

"Wouldn't that go well with the Five Watchtowers. More information grants more to investigate."

"I suppose. What about War Room?"

"Well I can't deny it might be useful, but as a reason to grant it to every Eguchi? I mean.."
"Nara." "Nara."

"Right. We either end up stepping on their toes, or worse they just decide to let us take over that position."

"So for combat I was thinking my Clockroom and the Secret Passages."

"Quick reactions and fast initiative?"

"The better to get a seal off before the enemy… or even start running away before the enemy realizes in a true surprise situation. I mean it can help in a fight, but it can help run from a fight too. And probably any Eguchi dedicated to combat will also probably either not care about the Memory Palace or custom design one for themselves."

"That is probably true. OK Clock Room and Secret Passages. That leaves three left."

"Sheesh. I almost wish we could leave three custom rooms to the individual."

"Not really how it works, not locking in the whole thing eats into the discount so deep that you might as well go individualized Memory palaces. I mean eventually we might come up with variants to grant the future generations SOME flexibility but I want to see this work, and that means this first model has to either be super generic or very stereotypically Eguchi."

"So what, some kind of paperwork-nin power?"

Kumo rolls his eyes but than moves his hand to his chin in thought.

Minato flinches, "Brother, no!"

"Brother Yes! Its the best way to convince the majority of the clan to master this whole art. If they know super paperwork lies in their reach we will have 60 at peak Resplendent Memory Palace in a season!"

"It feels like such a waste."

"To you and me it might be a waste, if only because another room might save our lives. But for those whose jobs are effectively doing paperwork while maintaining the bare essential requirements to be a ninja. Or those who just go around maintaining sealwork infrastructure and have to keep careful documentation of it for the Sect. It is a Sacred Art which they can endure the trials of learning other techniques to acquire."

"Careful because we cannot let those records be stolen."

Kumo rolls his eyes, "Duh."

"Can we at least try to bury it deep in the path using pre-requisites?"

"As deep as we can make it, since most will stop on the path when they get there."

After a few hours of research you hash out enough for a Bureaucratic Office within the memory palace that you believe it is both possible, worthwhile, and will trick paper-nin into getting deep into the memory palace and picking up other useful skills like the Five Watchtowers, Investigation Room, Secret passages, and the Clock Room… ie forcing them into a degree of well rounded boons.

"So what about the Bed Chamber"

"Denied, not many are so focused working or training through a portion of the day cultural acceptable to rest during, even if someone CAN avoid sleep."

"So you will say the same for the Ever Present Library, huh"

"Insightful. Its not as bad, but if you are not pushing yourself to the neuron with mental training or maybe research its just not worth it.

"I guess we end it with the Veil Piercing Portal Room and the Vestige Atelier with a bit of hope."

"They are the best for anyone who does manage to complete the Resplendent Memory Palace and hope to crystalize the core. But they are probably going to get pushed to the back of any development list and I don't think we can force it."

"Ok, looks like we have our list and an intended order. Lets optimize everything."

The Standardized Cultivation Manual for Erecting the Resplendent Memory Palace is established. While there is some flexibility the below is the intended order of development.

Firming the Foundation, Vestibule, Glorious Sealing Armory, Grand Foyer, Lookout Towers, Five Watchtowers, Investigation Room, Grandfather Clock, Secret passages, Clock Room, Bureaucratic Office, Vestige Atelier, Veil Piercing Portal Room
Gain 25 Eguchi Favor. You are up for Status 5 in Eguchi if you make Chunin.

Gain a Door with Kumo.

*You complete Pillar Training Research

Through team work with Fumiko and Kumo you manage to create a Talisman which can be loaded with a Pillar and shifted to another Eguchi who can reclaim that pillar. This will allow every eguchi to eventually gain at least the first rank of their favored pillar even if they have no hope for the Memory Palace, thus granting some carry through value on Pillar based Seals and jutsu.

More crucially you have develop a Sorcerous Rite. By creating an area with five pillars which bear symbology and sealwork appropriate to the five pillars an anointing ritual may be conducted with a sacrifice of blood (which can be some from a human or an animal life, a human does not have to die). Someone with Memory meditation can draw on a bit of doped life energy and create an illusory pillar which they can use to train the real thing. The ritual has to be repeated every month or more frequently if the site is used regularly. Still this would let even non-Eguchi grasp the barest hints of Pillar cultivation.

Fumiko believes she can use improved Geomancy and Sealwork to make a 9 Fold Lotus variant to support this for Eguchi more efficiently. You wish her luck

You have developed methods to allow both Eguchi and with more difficulty, non-Eguchi to begin pillar cultivation. As far as you know someone who has not used the Foundation of the Resplendent Memory Palace refinement path shouldn't be able to have more then one dot in one pillar but maybe other Cultivation methods are compatible.

*You complete Vessel Creation research.

This time you work with Kumo since he is making Vestiges in bulk to help fuel your pillar cultivation. You note the qualities of each vessel he uses and start experiment with doping objects in various energies to see if they will become acceptable at a rapid time.

In the end a sustained flow of Pillar investment with the help of some fuinjutsu does the trick and a two week session proves enough.

You may render any mundane object a Vessel suitable for Vestige making through the investment of a Pillar Recovery per object. This does not consume time, although I won't be keeping careful track if you decide to try to spam Vessel creation when you don't use them regularly. From my end this means you don't need to search for Vessels and I don't need to keep track, its not permission to send every bit of extra Pillar energy into building up a large stock of Vessels.

*You complete the Improved Vestige Sealing Research.
As part of the process you dive fully into the Vestige Atelier and create several. In the process you fine tune your sealwork and methodology.

But after a few attempts you learn how to modify the flow of your invested memories and manage to wean yourself off, converting pillar expenditures and seal work to chakra and willpower until, using mostly your willpower, you manage to create a Vestige without any assistance from Chakra, Pillars or Fuinjutsu.

Then you go back, adding those things back in, in ways meant to enhance and control the process. You grin when creating powerful Vestiges that you can somewhat control the powers that manifest from.

You fully posses the Open Sorcerous Rite: Vestige Creation
You gain A-Rank Sealing Jutsu: Vestige Manifestation.
You gain Area of Expertise Vestige.

You may create Vestiges with Occult + 2 Rank, even without the Vestige Atelier.

You can create a masterwork object, expend a Core Memory, 10 Pillar Recovery and 100 Chakra to create a one dot Relic of any type, two dots if you get an exceptional success on the roll. Roll is Intelligence + Occult (+2 for Texts, +1 for Uter). You are NOT immune to the Curse of the Relic just because you create it.
Note: These are the rules of you do not have a Vestige Atelier facet when you are done.

You believe you can benefit from building a Geomantic Workshop but such things must be dedicated to a single Relic type.

Completing this research unlocks further investment into the Vestige Atelier.

Vestige Atelier: Creating Vestiges is a work of shaping the accumulated lifeforce within a Vessel into a specific (and hopefully useful) matrix using the Power of an emotionally potent Memory and locking it with a Fuinjutsu ritual. Memory being a vital part of the effort means that the Memory Palace is well equipped to aide this measure. The first purchase of this room optimizes the time and energy needed. As long as Vessels and Memories are available than you may take advantage of Trance to create as many Vestiges in one turn as you have purchases of the Grandfather Clock. For a second purchase you may potentially create Vestiges one rank higher than you would otherwise. For a third purchase you may recover the Memory from a destroyed Vestige although it will have been drained and will cause the same penalty to Vestige creation that a re-used memory from a Dismantled Memory Palace facility will cause, a -3 penalty to the resulting Fuinjutsu sealing roll. A fourth purchase grants more influence over the resulting abilities of the Vestige (within the limits of the Vessel and Memory chosen). With a Fifth purchase you can make Vestiges with Virtue and Vice Resonances that do not match your own. When the room is complete and the Facet is polished you will be able to create Relics based on Texts and you may use a Text based relic as if you were a Scribe, reducing the Curses they inflict. Texts rearrange the worlds around them when used but tend to affect the minds of those nearby. Relic creation requires a great deal of energy of the type associated with vestiges and Pillars. At this point you believe you would need to consume Core Memories or something like the output of a Memory Vault at a special Geomantically supported Workshop. Relics also have to be masterwork mundane objects intended to become Relics from the moment of conception that have become Vessels somehow, ideally from the very investment the maker put into creating them. Level five relics are possible at this level.

*You complete the Fifth Talisman Refinement research. You gain +20 Eguchi Favor.
Kiseki check: 46, nope.

While eager you mostly work with your Father for this project as he is one who can benefit from this while he couldn't from your other research.

Through the month you work together and in the end he completes the refinement, unlocking a fifth Talisman attunement for himself and the whole thing is well document and quickly spread through the clan as a tough but attainable improvement, even for those either wary or locked out of the Resplrendent Memory Palace.

Fifth Talisman Attunement Slot complete. Gain 1 Door with Father. Gain 5 Eguchi favor.

*You may set your final Resplendent Memory Palace if you believe you are ready for it.

* Kumo just gained his Heart formation and wants to test his powers against a peak Chunin like you. Gain a LOT of sparring experience. + 100 XP and narrative familiarity with fighting on this level (Peak Chunin/Low Special Jonin).

"What is that in your hand?"

You look at where he is looking with an odd expression, "A spear?" you reply hesitantly.

"Why are you holding a spear?"

"Senior Brother, I shouldn't have to tell you it is both a traditional Eguchi Armament and the one I have the most training in."

"Oh, then tell me Little Brother, with your Tempered Strength, bolstered by your Ka enhancement technique… what will happen if you strike with that spear."

It doesn't take you long at all to realize where he is going and frown… "It would probably shatter."

Minato holds up the practice spear, looking at it forlornly.

"Eguchi use spears to ward off monstrously strong beings before sealing. Except your monstrously strong. We use spears to ward off flyers, except you can fly. Or Hide under a tree I suppose. No Eguchi was ever this strong, there is no secret Artifact in the hidden armory that can handle your strength when you go all out. We might be able to figure out a spear strong enough for you by working with another clan, but not in the time you have."

Minato lets the spear tilt down and holds up one hand, "So its this for me."

"You have forged your fists into one of the strongest weapons in the Sect. Is it truly a surprise to be expected to hit things with it?"

Minato walks back to the wall and replaces the training spear into the rack, and returning to Kumo he is staring at his fist.

"Between my training for Wood Release, my speed training efforts and everything I have done in preparation for reaching this stage… I guess I didn't give it enough thought."

"Well you showed me your memories of your fight with Hinata. Lets start there and fill in some of the fundamentals in your Taijutsu and other combat arts."

Gain Brawl Five: 11 XP
Gain Weaponry (Sealed Kunai) Five: 33 XP

Gain Throwing Style: 18 XP
Practiced Toss *: You may use one hand to throw multiple things in a Short Burst, Kunai, Shuriken, Seals. Use one set up instead of a single usage to grant +1 attack bonus against a single Target.
Reaping Toss**: Use both hands loaded with throwing items as a Medium Burst. Consume two sets of throwing items, target 1-3 nearby people. Gain +2 attack bonus, lose one die for each target you attack.
Many Blades, One Throw: You may attack multiple targets wtih throwing weapons. Spend one willpower and you may make up to Dexterity throwing attacks in one action. Each attack suffers a penalty equal to the amount thrown.

Note: Many Blades, One Throw has been explicitly Eguchi adapted so you can use it to deploy sealwork that requires distributing sealing tags around an area.

Random
Gain Brawl Specialty (Pulling Blows), +6 XP Awareness, +6 XP Flying (Rank 3 Flying), Gain Area of Expertise and Interdisciplinary Specialty in Sealing Tags. Gain 6 XP in Subterfuge, gain 3 XP in Iron Skin (Reaching Rank 4).

Gain the First two techniques of Evasive Striking.
Focused Attack: Called Shot penalties are reduced by one and you can ignore one point of armor.
Defensive Strike: You may take a -2 penalty in a Brawling attack in order to gain +2 Defense for the turn.

*You consume the potential of many non-core memories

*You are obviously assumed to be fully refreshed when the tournament starts.