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Jan 12, 2008 -- 11:11PM, The_Crimson_Dawn wrote:

Well I once again have another vestige which I hope you guys like. My previous two attempts have not been talked about much so I do not know if they were any good or not but hopefully this one will be good.   

Yorinaga, The Black Wave
Vestige Level:2
BindingDC:18
Special Requirement:Yes

Yorinaga was an Honorable Samurai from the Draconis Combine. He grants you his weapons, skills, his ability to intimidate his foes, and his phantom abilities.

Legend:Yorinaga Kurita was a noble in the Draconis Combine, a nation ruled by warriors and the concepts of Bushido. He was a cousin of the ruler Takashi Kurita, known as the Dragon. Yorinaga was a renown warrior with few peers.    In single combat he was able to defeat the ruler of the Federated Suns, his nation's most bitter rival. In a bold move another master warrior, Morgan Kell, was able to get Prince Ian Davion's body before Yorinaga could claim it, thus preventing Yoinaga from claiming full honor over the kill.

In the following months Morgan and Yorinaga fought with to a standstill. Neither could get their armies to get an advantage over the other.    Finally Yorinaga got enough reinforcements to break Morgan's army. When the combine army started to advance on Morgan's unit, the Kell Hounds, the mercenary stepped forward and told Yorinaga his lineage and asked for a dual. Yorinaga was impressed that this mere mercenary would ask for a dual to save his men and agreed to duel for the right of victory. In the battle there are many different reports on what happen but the most reliable says that Morgan won without attacking. Yorinaga tired himself out fighting because he could not find a way to get through Morgan's defenses. Even Yorinaga's ability to sense where foes would be had no affect it was as if Morgan was not there or he was already dead. After fighting for hours Yorinaga finally accepted defeat and bowed to Morgan and left the battlefield.    Yorinaga declared Morgan the yellow bird (the symbol of the greatest enemy of the Dragon) went to a monastery in disgraced and petitioned his master Takashi Kurita to commit ritual suicide but was always refused.

Years later Takashi relented but would only allow the suicide after he created a new fighting unit trained in his fighting style called the Genyosha (Black Wave in Yorinagas tounge). Yorinaga agreed on his units first major engagement he faced off against the Kell Hounds this time led by Morgan's brother Patrick.    In this dual Patrick ignored Yorinaga and instead killed Yorinaga's men. Because of Patricks sacrifice the Kell Hounds escaped with the princess of the Lyran Commonwealth, who was betrothed to the prince of the Federated Suns.

When Morgan found out that Yorinaga was back and he killed Patrick Morgan came back from a monastery and led the Kell Hounds to war. In a final battle Yorinaga fought Morgan Kell with both now using the phantom power that Morgan had used in the previous fight. With this phantom power Yorinaga could strike at equal footing with Morgan but still Morgan did not fight back and no matter how many times he struck Morgan he would not fall. Finally Yorinaga tires again and with another bow Morgan finished Yorinaga without a single strike thrown. Broken in spirit Yorinaga performs a ritual suicide.   

While the suicide reclaimed his honor he still felt the sting of his failure to defeat Morgan Kell. Due to the strong pull of his honor he would not permit himself to enter paradise, and because of his strong sense of honor he was not allowed to be punished. Seeing his poor state in the afterlife his ancestors took pity on his spirit and turned him into a vestige which allows him to continue to serve and thus allow him to reclaim the honor he thought he lost. 

Special Requirement:You must be in service to some other power, lord, or being to bind yourself to Yorinaga. 

Manifestation:A Great black dragon comes from the darkness killing all manner of terrible beasts with little effort. A small yellow bird arrives and begins to peck at the dragon and soon the dragon breaks apart dying from the pecks of the bird. A great black wave sweeps most of corpse away leaving only the skull of the dragon which the yellow bird lands atop of. The bird and dragon speak as one to you.

Sign: When you bind Yorinaga you show his suicide wounds, a great triangle scar on your stomach and a scar around your neck. 

Influence: Yorinaga forces you to uphold the concept of Bushido. Talk to your DM what that entails though in general it is very honorable and follows a lawful alignment ideals.

Granted Abilities:Yorinaga grants you his weapons, some of his skill, his ability to strike fear in his foes, the ability to strike well in a duel, and his phantom ability.

Ancestral Weapon:When you bind Yorinaga you gain the use of his ancestral weapons and proficiency in their use. These weapons are the Daisho, which consists of a masterwork bastard sword (called a katana) and a masterwork short sword (called a wakazashi). You are fully proficient in these weapons.  Your bastard sword gains these properties at these EBL;

Level 1: masterwork 3: +1
7: +1, Ghost touch
10: Special Material. You can make the weapon out of any material allowed by the DM in your campaign (cold iron, silver, etc)
11: +1, ghost touch, honorable (in campaigns that do not have this ability it may be subbed with holy or the lawful version of holy at your DM's discretion) 
15:+2, ghost touch, honorable
19:+3, ghost touch, honorable  

Your wakazashi weapon gets these properties;

Level 1) Masterwork
5) +1
9) +1, defending (the binder may use the enhancement bonus from both of his daisho weapons to fuel this defending ability)
10) Special material as above
13) +1, defending, honorable (at Dms call you caould have the primary be holy and the secondary be lawful or the reverse to make the weapon more different)
17) +2, defending, honorable 

These weapons materialize after you make the bind and come with their own scabbards and the like. If you drop or are disarmed of your weapon the weapon tries to come back to your hand at the beginning of each round. This is not considered to be drawing a weapon.   

Yorinaga's Skill: You gain quickdraw and skill focus (Iajutsu Focus). 

Staredown At first level a binder gains the ability to demoralize an opponent when he performs a duel of wills (Found in TOB). Both use the same intimidate roll for both abilities. At level 6 the binder gets a +4 to all intimidate checks. At level 10 a samurai can demoralize all opponents within 30 feet which also applies to the duel of wills because of the first level ability if the binder desires. At 10th level the binder can demoralize as a move action instead of a standard action. At 14th level the binder may demoralize as a swift action. This ability can be used once every five rounds. 

Iajutsu Focus:A binder may make Iajutsu focus checks (found in Oriental Adventures) untrained. The binder also gets a bonus equal to his EBL on his Iajutsu focus checks. This bonus does not stack with actual ranks in this skill just like the bardic knack ability though it stacks with all other bonuses. This allows the binder to participate in duels and deal great damage to enemies who are flatfooted when the binder draws a weapon.   Iajutsu Focus is a skill check with a base DC of 10.  At a check of 10 your attack with a drawn weapon against a flat footed opponent you deal +1d6 points of extra damage.  Every 5 points you beat the DC you deal an extra +1d6 points of damage (ie. a total of 10-14 is +1d6 while 15-19 is +2d6 etc) to a maximum of +9d6 damage.

Phantom Warrior: To most special senses you are just not there. When a creature uses an ability that senses you by your soul or mind then if fails against you. This even works on blindsense or blindsight abilities that are based on finding you by your mind or soul.

thanks let me know what you think and I hope you like it. Also let me know about my other vestiges as I have not heard much about my recent vestiges (I hope that they are not bad). Also Here is to hoping that this thread does not die!

I have recently changed some things about this vestige since looking back at him it would be better with some changes.