Unicorn Doomseeker

(Advanced School for Legend of the Five Rings pen and paper roleplaying game)

Doomseeker (Shugenja) (Unicorn Clan)

The Doomseeker is a strange and powerful tradition known only to certain members of the Unicorn clan. The origins of the Doomseeker are twisted and macabre: the school is founded on techniques created by Asahina Yajinden, imparted to the Ki-Rin when they wandered through the Burning Sands, as part of a long term plot to have his master Iuchiban killed. Only two people are known to ever mastered these powers: Iuchi Karasu, who used them to hunt down his former friend Kuni Yori when Yori became a powerful maho-tsuaki, and Iuchi Katamari, who learned them to fight Iuchiban.

Doomseekers specialize in achieving a contradictory goal: killing those who have made themselves unkillable. Whether through maho, the rituals of the khadi or other unknown arts and powers, there are those who haunt Ningen-do who defy all normal attempts to be destroyed. It is these powerful and insidious threats the Doomseekers make their enemies.

Learning these techniques requires one to become an apprentice to an existing Doomseeker, or alternatively, any Unicorn shugenja who meets the requirements and engages in extensive research into the forbidden lore of his clan may master these powers.

Requirements

Rings/Traits: Void 5, One Ring at 4 (must be Ring of Elemental Affinity)

Skills: Lore: Burning Sands 5, Lore: Shadowlands 5, Spellcraft 5, Lore: Spirit Realms 3

Other: Death Trance, either Great Destiny or Dark Fate

Techniques

Rank 1: Embracing Destruction

A Doomseeker must designate an enemy whose destruction he is dedicated to bringing about. The shugenja thinks of killing his foe with every thought he has, and contemplates his enemy's death with every breath he exhales. You gain Sworn Enemy for your chosen opponent, as well as the Driven disadvantage. Eligible opponents could be a Shapeshifter Spirit, an Oni Lord, a powerful Bloodspeaker, a khadi or any extremely high powered opponent (GM’s discretion). Generally a bushi, no matter how strong, would not be an eligible opponent unless he possessed Shadowlands powers or other supernatural abilities.

Whenever facing this enemy in battle, or an opponent who works for the enemy, you may use the benefits of this school's Techniques. If your enemy is defeated and you still live, you must choose a new enemy and begin your crusade anew. There is no retirement for a Doomseeker.

The Doomseeker knows that when facing such an opponent of awesome and horrible power, the longer the fight lasts the more likely he is to lose. Thus, he must strike as hard and as brutally as possible. When attacking an eligible opponent either with a melee/ranged attack or a spell, you may sacrifice spell slots to gain a bonus to damage. Each spell slot sacrificed adds +5 to the total of the applicable damage roll. If this is used to increase the damage of a spell, the spell slots must come from the element being used to cast the spell (Void spell slots can be sacrificed to grant +5 to damage of a spell of any element).

Alternatively, if you receive damage from an attack by an eligible enemy, you may sacrifice spell slots to reduce the amount of damage received by five per slot sacrificed. If the damage is from a spell, you must sacrifice spell slots from the Element of that spell (again, Void spell slots can be sacrificed regardless of the spell’s element).

Either way, you may not sacrifice more spell slots than you have Void Points remaining.

This Technique counts as a rank in your current shugenja school. You retain all previous Affinities and Deficiencies.

Rank 2: Chasing Death

The Doomseeker must be willing to sacrifice his life, his honor and his very self to defeat his opponent. Whenever facing your enemy in battle you may sacrifice parts of your soul to deal additional damage.

When striking an appropriate enemy, either with a melee/ranged attack or a spell, you may permanently lower one of your School skills by 1 rank (you cannot lower a skill below rank 2 in this manner), lower your honor by 5 points or remove one of your innate abilities to gain a 3k3 bonus to your attack/spellcasting roll. If this strike kills the opponent, your sacrificed rank/innate ability/honor returns to you after a full night's rest. This ability may be used simultaneously with your Rank 1 power.

This Technique counts as a rank in your current shugenja school. You retain all previous Affinities and Deficiencies.

Rank 3: Seeking Doom

The Doomseeker knows no victory unless his foe is dead, and knows no contentment until he is victorious. If successfully striking an eligible opponent, either with a melee/ranged attack or a spell, you may spend five void points to nullify the target's powers and abilities. For a number of minutes equal to your Insight rank, the target loses all benefits of, and ability to use, Carapace, Invulnerability, Shadowlands Powers, Spirit Powers, Shadow Points or Shadow powers, any Unique Abilities or supernatural School Techniques (GM's Discretion), Khadi abilities, Maho or Kiho. The target may still use School Techniques that do not require the Shadowlands Taint or Shadow Points and are not supernatural in nature, and may still cast Elemental Magic (or Name or Pearl magic if used against a Nezumi or Naga).

Alternatively, if you give your life to cast a damage dealing spell, as per the rules for Sacrificial Magic on page 127 of The Vacant Throne, you may choose to have anyone reduced to 0 wounds by your spell be permanently trapped inside a gem, diamond, pearl or similar object (GM’s discretion) you have on your person. Your soul is similarly trapped, and the two of you will continue to fight for all eternity. The Kharma spell cannot be cast in regards to a character who sacrifices himself in this way. If someone finds and breaks the object, both you and your enemy are released into the afterlife.

This Technique counts as a rank in your current shugenja school. You retain all previous Affinities and Deficiencies.