#Tesshin (鐵身)
The day my heart was replaced by a mainspring, pain stopped. And then everything else stopped too.
- Role: heavy combat, squad modification, fortification
- Core Attributes: Physique (體), Finesse (技)
- Core Zone Entry: forced Breakthrough
- Base Class: Autonomous Automaton × Artisan
- Three Ways and Six Hearts: forced No-Heart (cannot change)
- Skills Eligible for Master: Unarmed Combat, Military Science, Survival, Disable, Geography, Stratagem
- Starting Automatic Skills: Military Science Trained, Unarmed Combat Novice, Disable Novice, Stratagem Novice
Common to Fiend Classes: GM permission required. Designed as an NPC villain, but if a player wants, it can be played as a "path of corruption." See Villain Play Guide.
#Scent — The Taboo of the Kunitomo Guild
The Kunitomo Guild is an association of artisans who make teppo. They build guns, mix gunpowder, and design mechanical devices. But their ambition did not stop at "making weapons." Not a weapon, but a human who is the weapon itself: that was the Tesshin Project.
There were volunteers. Samurai who had lost an arm in war, artisans whose legs had been crushed, people who could no longer live in their original bodies. The Kunitomo Guild made them an offer: "We will return what you lost. No, something better than that." Steel arms, lens eyes, a mainspring heart. Surgery began to replace the human body piece by piece with machinery. The pain defied imagination, but when the surgery ended, the pain disappeared with it. Most sensation had disappeared too. The autonomous automaton had been a machine from the beginning, but Tesshin had been human. That is the tragedy.
Tesshin has 3 built-in weapons: a blade hidden in the arm, a miniature teppo fired from the fingers, and a deployable steel shield. It cannot be poisoned, does not feel fear, and does not bleed. On the battlefield, Tesshin is nearly invincible: on land. A body made of steel sinks in water, conducts lightning, and is pulled by magnetism (磁力). Medicine has no effect on machinery, and faith healing barely reaches a being whose "soul has half departed." Above all, Fate (運) permanently becomes 0. Through mechanization, Tesshin has cut the thread of "fate" that humans possess. The Kunitomo Guild knew this and continued the experiment anyway. And when the final phase of the Tesshin Project began, the "legion mechanization" that modified ordinary Minion squads into machine squads, the shogunate finally felt fear.
- Recommended Weapons: built-in blade (sword), built-in teppo (shooting), deployable shield (defense)
- Recommended Schools: Kunitomo-ryu (mechanical combat art), Tetsujin-ryu (experimental)
- Recommended Faction Traits: Kunitomo Guild (origin) or independent action (escaped body)
#Law — Trait List
#1st Dan: Triple Armament (三重兵裝) [aptitude]
[aptitude] Triple Armament (三重兵裝)
Effect: Constantly equip 3 built-in weapons. Switching costs no action.
- Blade (刃): melee, attack +2, armor-piercing.
- Teppo (砲): shooting, range 2 zones, limited to 1/round.
- Shield (盾): Defense +3, cannot move while deployed.
**Complete immunity** to poison/fear/bleeding.
Fate (運) is permanently fixed at 0, and Fate-related checks automatically fail.
Zone: no restriction.#3rd-Dan Class Traits (choose 1)
| Trait | Type | Energy | Limit | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-Repair (自家修理) | [Kata] | 2 | 1/round | Recover 3 Wounds for yourself. Use instead of medicine/faith healing. Cannot move/attack while repairing. |
| Piercing Shot (貫通射擊) | [Kata] | 3 | 1/round | Enhanced fire from the built-in teppo. All units on 1 straight line, friend or foe, take Wounds -2. Range 3 zones. After shooting, that weapon cannot be used for 1 round. |
| Electromagnetic Barrier (電磁防壁) | [Kata] | 2 | 2/combat | Create an electromagnetic barrier in your zone. All allies in the zone gain Defense +2. Lasts 2 rounds. Deflects shooting attacks at a 50% chance. |
#5th-Dan Class Traits (choose 1)
| Trait | Type | Energy | Limit | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squad Mechanization (分隊機械化) | [Kata] | 5 | 1/session | Modify 1 allied Minion squad in the same zone into a machine squad. Machine squad: attack +2, Defense +2, immune to poison/fear/bleeding. However, Fate checks automatically fail. The modification is permanent. |
| Fortress Mode (要塞模式) | [Kata] | 4 | 1/combat | Fortify for 3 rounds. Cannot move, Defense +6, range of all shooting weapons +1. Cannot use the blade during Fortress Mode. Provides half cover to allies in the zone. |
| Overload Discharge (過負荷放電) | [Kata] | 4 | 1/combat | Release electric shock across your whole zone. All units except yourself take Wounds -2. Wearers of metal armor take additional Wounds -1. After discharge, all functions stop for 1 round. |
#7th-Dan Advanced Traits (choose 1)
| Trait | Type | Energy | Limit | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Mechanization (完全機械化) | [aptitude] | — | — | Human parts reach 0%. Treated as a Veteran-grade autonomous automaton. Wound maximum +5, Defense +3. All emotion-control checks automatically fail. Negotiation -5 (additional). |
| Self-Destruct Protocol (自爆手順) | [Kata] | all Energy | 1/session | Convert all remaining Energy into explosion damage. All units in your zone + adjacent zones take Wounds -(Energy spent). You become incapacitated. Machine squads also chain-explode (each takes additional Wounds -2). |
| Legion Command Device (軍團指揮裝置) | [aptitude] | — | — | Can remotely command machine squads created by Squad Mechanization. Use your action right to order machine squads within 2 zones to act. Machine squad movement +1. |
#9th-Dan Advanced Traits (choose 1)
| Trait | Type | Energy | Limit | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Monarch (鐵の君主) | [aptitude] | — | — | Remove the cap on machine squads (multiple squads can be modified). Machine squads in your zone gain attack +2/Defense +2 additional. If Tesshin becomes incapacitated, all machine squads stop functioning. |
| Undying Engine (不滅機關) | [aptitude] | — | — | When incapacitated, automatically restart after 1 round (Wounds 3). 2/session. On restart, 1 built-in weapon breaks (choose). On the 3rd break, permanently incapacitated. |
#Extreme Strengths
- Complete immunity to poison/fear/bleeding. Status-abnormality strategies do not work.
- Instant switching among 3 built-in weapons, giving maximum tactical response.
- Self-sufficient survival through Self-Repair. No medicine/healing required.
- Strengthens all allies through Squad Mechanization. Permanent effect.
- In Fortress Mode, Defense becomes abnormally high, making physical breakthrough extremely difficult.
#Extreme Weaknesses
- Fate (運) permanently 0: Fate-related checks automatically fail. No desperate comeback, lucky strike, fate evasion, or similar effects.
- Negotiation -3: uncanny valley effect. Human interaction always has a dissonant edge.
- Medicine/faith healing invalid: no healing method except Self-Repair.
- Water burial: entering deep water (knee-deep or deeper) causes instant death. Cannot ford rivers. Rain causes slowdown -1.
- Magnetism (磁力) vulnerability: when hit by magnetism-line techniques, damage ×2 + cannot move for 1 round.
- Loss of humanity: automatically fails emotion-related negotiation/persuasion. Cohesion checks -2.
#Typical Breath Pattern (5th Dan)
Count 11 — First breath:
Fortress Mode(4) → Defense +6, range +1
Count 8 — Second breath:
Piercing Shot(3) → straight-line Wounds -2
Count 5 — Third breath:
built-in teppo normal shot(2) = 2
→ remaining Energy: 11 - 4 - 3 - 2 = 2 (waiting for Self-Repair)
Lull — Self-Repair(2) → Wounds +3.#Zone Bonuses
| Zone | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Front Zone | Maximizes Fortress Mode. Can stop the enemy advance alone. |
| Rear Zone | Uses the built-in teppo's range. Sustained shooting from a safe position. |
| Core Zone | Directly engages the enemy commander. Poison/fear immunity ignores the enemy commander's intimidation. |
| River/Coast Zone | Forbidden zone. Instant death on entry. Never approach. |
#Three Ways and Six Hearts Conflict
Tesshin's Three Ways and Six Hearts are forced No-Heart. Emotions are suppressed by machinery, but have they disappeared completely?
- "Can a machine choose a Way?" A meta question about the Three Ways and Six Hearts system itself. A philosophical conversation between GM and player.
- "Is the absence of pain a blessing, or a sentence?" Power gained at the cost of sensation. Yet the beauty of cherry blossoms can no longer be felt.
- "Did the Kunitomo Guild save me, or kill me?" Feelings toward the creator, if such feelings exist. Fragments of the memory of being human sometimes malfunction.
- NPC Opposition: artisan factions praise Tesshin as "a victory of technology" while trying to replace it with a "better model." Esoteric monks treat it as "a soulless shell" and a target for exorcism. Wildlanders oppose it as "an insult to nature."
- PC Corruption Route: When an artisan or autonomous automaton PC suffers a fatal wound, the Kunitomo Guild may offer "mechanization surgery." If accepted, Fate becomes 0, and there is no going back.
"This arm is steel. This eye is a lens. This heart is a mainspring. Then where is 'I'?"
#Example Character
→ Integrated Sample for 12 Fiend Classes (1/5/10 Dan + Corruption Path Story)