Gensokyo Chronicles - Levander's Touhou Builds (Kaguya Houraisan)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Gensokyo Chronicles - Levander's Touhou Builds

Post by Jabroniville »

Wow, some interesting stuff you've got here! Welcome to the boards :)! How'd you end up finding us?
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Re: Gensokyo Chronicles - Levander's Touhou Builds

Post by Levander »

Oh, I've been on-and-off binging some Roll Call threads on the old ATT forums over the years, mainly yours, Thorp's and Taliesin's. Thorp's thread mentioned something about a move, which I wasn't even aware of, and Googling things eventually landed me here. Feels like I'm in high society. :)
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Koakuma

Post by Levander »

Image


KOAKUMA
PL 6 (60)


Unnamed Little Devil

OPL: 2; DPL: 6
Species: Youkai (Devil)
Main Place of Activity: Scarlet Devil Mansion

Debut: TH06 ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Stage 4 Midboss)
Other Roles: -
Songs: Voile, the Magic Library (Stage 4, EoSD)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 2, AGILITY 3, FIGHTING 2, AWARENESS 1
STAMINA 2, DEXTERITY 2, INTELLECT 1, PRESENCE 0

SKILLS:
Expertise (Librarian) 4 (+5), Perception 2 (+3)

ADVANTAGES:
Diehard

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease, poison [3]
Immortality 2: 1 week (Limited: not if exorcised -1, Uncontrolled -1) [1]
Feature 1: Regenerate over time [1]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision) [1]
Impervious Protection 3 [6]

“Wings”
Flight 2 (Wings -1) [2]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +2 (Tough DC 17)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 7 (DC 17), Parry 5 (DC 15)
Toughness +5 (Imp. 3), Fortitude +4, Will +4

Abilities 26 + Skills 3 + Advantages 1 + Powers 16 + Defenses 14 = 60

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.

Responsibility: Koakuma works as an assistant in the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s great library, presumably under the command of Patchouli Knowledge.


Description:
The heroines enter Scarlet Devil Mansion, only to find it strangely more spacious on the inside, and soon find themselves a massive library, the 4th stage of EoSD. Some of the local help tries to intercept them and is unceremoniously shot out of the sky.

Not much is known about devils, except that Koakuma here is a particularly weak one. Curiously, despite the name of the mansion, she’s the only actual devil in there; the so-called Scarlet Devil is in fact a vampire.

Build Comments:
Another nameless midboss with a fan nickname (“Little Devil”) in the same vein as Daiyousei. I actually kind of like Koakuma, because she at least has a nice simple design and established role within the mansion, but a mook’s a mook. At least she’s a bit tougher than Dai by virtue of being a youkai.

As a side note, as long as I’m still in the phase of establishing precedents for stuff, I decided to go back and add Uncontrolled to the default youkai Immortality. Thinking about it, it seems more appropriate to me that they might come back if not exorcised, rather than always doing so after exactly one week on the clock. I gave them all Diehard to make up for it, though, because I think it should usually take a finishing blow to kill them.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:05 am, edited 10 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Patchouli Knowledge

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


”I don't have time for this... First the little sister, and now you! This is the worst day ever!”

Marisa – "So, what can you tell me about this one? What's her power, or her weak point?"
Patchouli – "How should I know that already? I can't conduct research that quickly!"
Marisa – "You really are useless."



PATCHOULI KNOWLEDGE
PL 10 (130)


The Unmoving Great Library

OPL: 10; DPL: 8
Ability: Use of magic (specialized in the five elements)
Species: Youkai (Magician)
Threat Level: Medium
Human Friendship Level: Normal
Main Place of Activity: Scarlet Devil Mansion
Other Titles: The Girl of Knowledge and Shade, Enigmatic Source of Magic

Debut: TH06 ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Stage 4 Boss, Extra Stage Midboss)
Other Roles: IaMP (fighter), StB (enemy), SWR (fighter), SA (support), UNL (fighter)
Songs: Voile, the Magic Library (Stage 4, EoSD)
Locked Girl ~ The Girl’s Secret Room (Boss 4, EoSD)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH -1, AGILITY 0, FIGHTING 0, AWARENESS 3
STAMINA -1, DEXTERITY 2, INTELLECT 6, PRESENCE 1

SKILLS:
Close Combat (Magic) 6 (+6), Expertise (Alchemy) 8 (+14), Expertise (Librarian) 6 (+12), Expertise (Magic) 8 (+14), Investigation 6 (+12], Perception 2 (+5), Ranged Combat (Magic) 8 (+10)

ADVANTAGES:
Artificer, Benefit (full access to the SDM library), Eidetic Memory, Evasion 2*, Extraordinary Effort, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Alchemy, Magic), Well-Informed

POWERS:
“Youkai Magician Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, need for sleep, starvation and thirst [3]

“Levitation Spell”
Flight 1 (Subtle) [3]
Enhanced Dodge 5, Parry 5 (Sustained +0) [10]

“Shield Spell”
Impervious Protection 12 (Sustained +0; Treated as an active defense -1) [12]
Enhanced Advantage 2: Evasion 2 [2]

"Grimoire" [Easily Removable: 64 total, -26 cost] [see bottom of post]
Variable 8: 40 points to spend on elemental spells (Move Action +1) [64]

OFFENSE:
Close Magic +6
Ranged Magic +10

DEFENSES:
Dodge 5 (DC 15), Parry 5 (DC 15)
Toughness -1 (+11, Imp. 11), Fortitude +4, Will +10

Abilities 20 + Skills 22 + Advantages 8 + Powers 68 + Defenses 12 = 130

COMPLICATIONS:
Bad Health: Thanks to her asthma, anemia, iron deficiency, vitamin deficiency and god knows what else, Patchouli has to succeed on a Fortitude check per each minute of combat or other intense exercise (DC 10, + 1 per previous check) or suffer a level of fatigue.
Power Loss: In addition to holding her grimoire, Patchouli also needs to recite her spells out loud in order to cast them. Fatigue or exhaustion may cause penalties as her asthma disrupts her incantations.
Introvert: Patchouli shows little interest in leaving Scarlet Devil Mansion, and it takes some effort to drag out of her library. She doesn’t seem to mind too much if someone wants to visit her, though, despite her often sarcastic attitude towards them.
Relationships: Patchouli is good enough friends with Remilia Scarlet to have lived in her house for what must have been a fair amount of time by now. Remilia refers to her as “Patchy” and considers her one of the first people to turn to. She also has at least a working relationship with Marisa, who regularly borrows her books (with or without permission).
Responsibility: Her duty is largely to herself, but she is very protective of the library and its books. Koakuma seems to work under her.


Description:
Youkai magicians are separate from humans who merely study magic, though those humans can eventually become something similar, and youkai magicians are the most human-like of all youkai. They’re about as weak physically, and must learn spells to stop their aging and remove their need for food or sleep. The only real difference compared to a human is their natural talent for magic.

Patchouli Knowledge is a youkai magician at least 100 years old who dwells in the great library of Scarlet Devil Mansion. She’s not employed by the mansion but lives there as a personal friend of the owner, Remilia Scarlet. She’s spent her whole life studying books, especially magic based on the Eastern five elements (Wood, Earth, Water, Fire and Metal) plus the Sun and Moon. However, as proof of the frail nature of youkai magicians, this unhealthy lifestyle has left her asthmatic, anemic, and generally out of shape.

When the heroines start making a mess of her library and disturbing her studies, she’s obligated to try and drive them off. She fails, yadda yadda, they continue deeper into the mansion, but not before Marisa eyes some books to “borrow” on her way out. Marisa continues to visit the library in the future, though, and she and Patchouli develop enough of a camaraderie that she’s willing to offer her help from time to time.

Build Comments:
The character with the worst ability scores so far. But hey, she’s a wizard, and everyone knows wizards only need that sweet INT! Despite also being the only Toughness-shifted character so far, she’s a real glass cannon, especially as her powerful protection spell takes some focus and can be bypassed as if it were an active defense. With that grimoire, she can come up with any elemental spell she wants, even combining them together, but if someone manages to snatch it away, she’s royal(flare)ly screwed once more. She’s not really the fighter type, to be honest.

She’s Marisa’s superior in knowledge, yet Marisa seems to beat her in sheer firepower and practical skill. Who knows how good ol’ Patchy might be if she weren’t so unhealthy… but, well, more exercise would mean less study, so it might be a zero-sum game.

Expertise (Librarian) in her case represents a general knowledge of literature, plus the ability to find whatever tome she needs in that massive library of hers.

Below are some sample spells for her Variable power, which I know is always a pain in the ass:
SAMPLE GRIMOIRE SPELLS
  • ”Sun Sign: Royal Flare”
    Damage 10 (Burst Area +2 [60 ft.]) [30]
    Linked: Affliction 10: resisted by Dodge and overcome by Fortitude, Vision Impaired/Disabled (Burst Area +2 [60 ft.]; Limited Degree -1, Limited to one sense -1) [10]
  • ”Moon Sign: Silent Selene”
    Damage 10 (Cone Area +2 [120 ft.], Selective +1) [40]
  • ”Wood Sign: Green Storm“
    Ranged Damage 10 (Multiattack +1) [30]
  • ”Water Sign: Princess Undine“
    Move Object 10 (Damaging +1, Indirect 4) [34]
  • ”Fire Sign: Agni Shine“
    Ranged Damage 10 (Burst Area +1 [30 ft.], Secondary Effect +1) [40]
  • ”Metal Sign: Metal Fatigue”
    Perception Damage 10 (Limited to metal -1) [20]
    Linked: Perception Weaken Toughness 10 (Affects Objects Only +0; Limited to metal -1) [20]
  • ”Earth & Metal Sign: Emerald Megalith”
    Create 14 (Continuous +1; Inaccurate -2) [40]
  • "Water Sign: Deluge of Forty Days"
    Environment 10: Impede Movement 2, Visibility 2 [rainstorm in 2 mile radius] (Continuous +1; Limited to outdoors -1) [40]
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:08 am, edited 8 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Sakuya Izayoi

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


Reimu – ”So it was you after all. No wonder I thought the flow of time was weird.”
Sakuya – ”Whatever do you mean?”
Remilia – “You really are always doing something weird, aren’t you? That's Sakuya for you.”
Sakuya – “Oh, no need to be mean.”



SAKUYA IZAYOI
PL 10 (220)


Perfect and Elegant Maid

OPL: 10; DPL: 10
Ability: Manipulation of time
Species: Human
Occupation: Maid
Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
Other Titles: Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Dangerous Illusionist, Maid of the Devil, Maid of the Lightning Speed

Debut: TH06 ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Stage 5 Boss)
Other Roles: PCB (playable), IaMP (fighter), IN (playable), PoFV (playable), StB (enemy), SWR (fighter), UNL (fighter), DDC (playable), ISC (enemy)
Songs: The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood (Stage 5, EoSD)
Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial (Boss 5, EoSD)
Flowering Night (PoFV)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 1, AGILITY 5, FIGHTING 8, AWARENESS 1
STAMINA 3, DEXTERITY 5, INTELLECT 2, PRESENCE 1

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 4 (+9), Athletics 4 (+5), Close Combat (Knives) 2 (+10), Deception 4 (+5), Expertise (Perfect and Elegant Maid) 8 (+10), Investigation 2 (+4), Ranged Combat (Knives) 10 (+15), Sleight of Hand 6 (+11)

ADVANTAGES:
Agile Feint, Benefit (Status – Chief Maid of the SDM), Defensive Roll 3, Favored Environment (SDM), Fearless, Grabbing Finesse, Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Instant Up, Move-By Action, Precise Attack 2 (ranged cover & concealment), Quick Draw, Takedown 2, Throwing Mastery 3, Ultimate Effort (Toughness)

POWERS:
“Timeless”
Immunity 1: Aging [1]

“Sakuya’s World – Time Stop”
Quickness 9: 1 hour/round (Subtle 2) [11]
Flight 9: 2 miles (Subtle 2; Quirk -1 [Only during time stop]) [20]

“Misdirection”
Flight 3 (Reaction [to detected attack] +3, Selective +1, Subtle 2; Limited to once per round -1]) [15]

“Knife Volley”
Ranged Damage 5 (Improved Critical, Multiattack +1, Ricochet 3) [19]
  • AE: “Knife Strike”
    Str-based Damage 5 (Improved Critical, Penetrating 6) [1]
Time Manipulation Array
“Indiscriminate”
Damage 10 (Burst Area +2 [60 ft.], Subtle; Quirk -1 [only counts as rank 5 vs. Impervious]) [30]
  • AE: “Clock Corpse”
    Perception Damage 10 (Subtle; Quirk -1 [only counts as rank 5 vs. Impervious]) [1]
  • AE: “Luna Clock”
    Perception Damage 10 ( Burst Area +1 [30 ft.], Subtle; Distracting -1, Quirk -1 [only counts as rank 5 vs. Impervious]) [1]
  • AE: “Time Bubble”
    Move Object 9 (Burst Area +2 [60 ft.], Continuous +1, Selective +1, Subtle; Close Range -1, Limited to unattended objects -1, Limited to stopping/slowing/accelerating -1)
    Feature 1: Speed up or slow down time for objects (make plants grow etc.) [1]
  • AE: “Time Paradox”
    Illusion 6: All senses (Independent +1; Limited to duplicates of things present -1) [1]
OFFENSE:
Unarmed +8 (Tough DC 16), Knife Strike +8 (Tough DC 21)
Knife Volley +15 (Tough DC 20)
Indiscriminate (Dodge DC 20, Tough DC 25)
Clock Corpse (Tough DC 25), Luna Clock (Tough DC 25)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 14 (DC 24), Parry 9 (DC 19)
Toughness +3 (D.Roll +6), Fortitude +8, Will +9

Abilities 52 + Skills 22 + Advantages 22 + Powers 101 + Defenses 23 = 220

COMPLICATIONS:
Responsibility: Sakuya is fiercely loyal to her mistress Remilia Scarlet, and her position as Chief Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She’s usually motivated to act and solve incidents by something related to her duty.
Reputation: Though not actively ostracized, humans recognize Sakuya as the “Maid of the Devil” and often find her a bit disconcerting even when not actively frightening.


Description:
The Scarlet Devil Mansion’s hypercompetent Chief Maid. She has a large amount of fairy maids working under her command, paid in tea and treats, but they’re practically useless at their jobs, and she ends up being personally responsible for every chore in the massive mansion. Luckily she has the ability to stop time in order to clean everything in a flash or just take a moment to rest.

Her origins are a mystery, but the presence of a human in the mansion has certainly raised some eyebrows. Hieda no Akyuu has collected speculation that she could be a homunculus, a zombie, or simply an eccentric, but the most common theory is that she’s a vampire hunter who somehow ended up working for her foe – she even wields knives made of silver – yet she seems to do it voluntarily and with great loyalty. Her powers of time manipulation are similarly shrouded in mystery, though humans developing spontaneous magic isn’t unheard of. She seems to have served Remilia Scarlet for centuries, yet still looks like a young woman, probably thanks to her powers.

She’s definitely some sort of eccentric, constantly making grim or just incomprehensible jibes with a wide smile. However, she’s not as malevolent as she may seem, acting mostly indifferent towards other humans and having no trouble running errands in the village like she was just a regular maid.

After passing through the library, the heroines encounter Sakuya in the 5th stage of EoSD. She doesn’t want them to reach her mistress, but fails in the end, and is forced to lead them to her for the final face-off.

Build Comments:
Yeesh, time control, am I right? Time stop alone is always a mess to build and requires a bunch of handwaves for the exact mechanics. I’m generally annoyed by Reaction Movement and its ilk too, but hey, if I’m just recreating an existing character, it’s fine... I at least limited it to once per round and not working against attacks she can’t see, but I still feel bad about it on principle. I toyed around with some alternatives, but ultimately placed her a PL below Marisa, though way overpriced and with more than enough tricks to close the gap. Perception Damage is pretty brutal in a setting where almost everyone is Defense-shifted.

And yeah, if a time-stopping knife-thrower associated with vampires sounds like a walking JoJo reference, that’s because it is. ZUN is a fan. It’s called “Sakuya’s World” for gods’ sake.

So, her most famous trick is stopping time, in this case effectively performing an hour’s worth of movement and activity in one round (plus my version can only fly within her time stop, an hour’s worth of walking distance). She can also do various other tricks (most of which are only mentioned), and since time and space are fundamentally connected, manipulate space as well. However, her powers seem unable to affect people directly, so her main offensive trick is stopping time, surrounding the enemy with a cloud of knives and resuming. Outside that, or against people with decent Impervious (they’re only knives after all), her options are much more limited. Assuming she doesn’t just stop time and walk away to make dinner. I bet she can also pull off a whole bunch of power stunts.

Mechanics aside: Sakuya is another massive breakout character and one of the most iconic in the series, becoming a recurring protagonist for the next few games before fading away a bit. Fans tend to depict her as either overly serious or overly fussy and murderously protective of her mistress, but personally I really love her canon personality: you can view her either as a ditz with an edgy personality, an extremely deadpan troll, or both. One of the best examples was when she was ordered to find an identical teacup to replace a broken one: she did, and proceeded to break it as well into pieces identical to the first. She also has the gall to call herself an atheist. In Gensokyo. While speaking to Reimu.

No writer ever seems to be capable of keeping time powers straight without making them a huge game-breaker, but Sakuya’s powers manage to stay in check because a.) she doesn’t care to get involved in most incidents and b.) dueling in Touhou is normally bound by the danmaku rules described in the intro post, which explicitly forbid things like unavoidable attacks. Also, just like most people in the series don’t fly all the time even though they could, Sakuya seems to use her time powers pretty sparingly when outside the mansion, for whatever reason.

---

If you haven’t gotten into the habit of checking out each character’s soundtrack, I heartily recommend it. The music is what got me into this series to begin with. Flowering Night in particular is enough of a meme that you may well recognize it even if you’d never heard of Touhou before.

Also, a Sakuya-themed fangame named Luna Nights is coming out on Steam. It’s looking pretty good, but only in early access for now.
Last edited by Levander on Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:11 pm, edited 12 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Remilia Scarlet

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


Marisa – ”You're one of those, right? Can't stand sunlight or smelly vegetables, or silver things. The masters of the night, which for some reason have tons of weaknesses...”
Remilia – “Yes, I am a sickly girl indeed.”

"The moon tonight is red. You will know death."



REMILIA SCARLET
PL 12 (220)


The Eternally Young Scarlet Moon


OPL: 12; DPL: 12
Ability: Manipulation of fate (disputed)
Species: Youkai (Vampire)
Threat Level: Extremely high
Human Friendship Level: Very low
Main Place of Activity: Scarlet Devil Mansion
Other Titles: The Scarlet Devil, World of Crimson, Nocturnal Devil of Scarlet

Debut: TH06 ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Final Boss)
Other Roles: IaMP (fighter), StB (enemy), SWR (fighter), UNL (fighter), ISC (enemy), VD (enemy)
Songs: The Young Descendant of Tepes (Final Stage, EoSD)
Septette for the Dead Princess (Final Boss, EoSD)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 12, AGILITY 7, FIGHTING 10, AWARENESS 0
STAMINA 12, DEXTERITY 1, INTELLECT 0, PRESENCE 6

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 6 (+13), Intimidation 8 (+14), Perception 6 (+6), Ranged Combat (Magic) 6 (+10)

ADVANTAGES:
Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Benefit 3 (Status & Wealth – Mistress of the SDM), Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Equipment 3, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Grab, Instant Up, Move-By Action, Ranged Attack 3, Startle, Takedown

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease, poison [3]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision)

“Vampire Toughness”
Impervious Toughness 12 [12]
Regeneration 5 (Regrowth) [6]
Immortality 7: 8 hours (Limited: not if exorcised or head destroyed) [7]

“Wings”
Flight 7 (Wings -1) [7]

Vampire Magic Array
“Chains of Fate”
Move Object 12 (Damaging +1) [36]
  • AE: “Spear the Gungnir”
    Ranged Damage 14 (Power Attack) [1]
  • AE: ”Scarlet Devil”
    Damage 12 (Cylinder +2 [60 ft.]) [1]
  • AE: ”Bat Swarm/Mist Form”
    Insubstantial 2 (Variable Descriptor: bats/mist) [1]
EQUIPMENT:
Headquarters: “Scarlet Devil Mansion”
Size – A, Toughness – 10, Features – Dual Size (Huge), Holding Cells, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Personnel (Fairy Maids), Workshop [15]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +10 (Tough DC 27)
Chains of Fate +10 (Tough DC 27), Spear the Gungnir +10 (Tough DC 29)
Scarlet Devil (Dodge DC 22, Tough DC 27)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 12 (DC 22), Parry 12 (DC 22)
Toughness +12 (Imp. 12), Fortitude +14, Will +8

Abilities 96 + Skills 13 + Advantages 20 + Powers 79 + Defenses 17 = 220

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them. Powerful youkai like Remilia are said to be specifically forbidden from attacking people, but that doesn’t make them much less scary.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.

Childish: Remilia has the body of a 10-year-old, and even though she’s not quite as childish as she looks, she definitely has her moments. She has zero subtlety, is rather easy to manipulate, and often goes off on a whim. She may drag people into her zany plots, and others may have trouble taking her seriously despite her power.
Hunger: Remilia needs to feed on human blood on a regular basis.
Relationships: Remilia is the employer of Sakuya, Meiling, and a slew of fairy maids. Patchouli is a good friend of hers and lives in her mansion. She has a tumultuous relationship with her younger sister Flandre. She also likes Reimu enough to visit Hakurei Shrine for no particular reason.
Reputation: Everyone knows of the Scarlet Devil, for better or worse, and she has an ego to match.
Weakness: Vampires have a slew of strange weaknesses, some of them shared with oni. Remilia is vulnerable to the sun’s UV rays, requiring a parasol to move around in the day. She cannot move through or across flowing water, including rain. She (allegedly) won’t approach a sardine head or a broken holly branch, and roasted soy beans burn her skin. Her regeneration can be stopped if her head is destroyed. Her Toughness isn’t Impervious against silver weapons, and she has a -2 penalty on resistance checks against them.


Description:
Vampires are a very powerful breed of youkai, one which has only recently appeared in Gensokyo. Unlike commonly believed, they're not any sort of undead, but in fact a subset of oni (the Japanese word for vampires, kyuuketsuki, is written as "bloodsucking oni"). They possess the strength of an oni, the speed of a tengu, and great magical might. Many youkai can claim one of these abilities, but vampires have all three.

Remilia Scarlet is a centuries-old vampire who still looks and acts like an adolescent girl. Her looks and demeanor hide great strength, but her personality makes it difficult to wield any real influence in Gensokyo, where she has to compete with several equally powerful and much more intelligent rivals. Still, she's mostly content to spend time in her opulent mansion and grace the local social life with her charismatic presence and penchant for drama. Even then, despite her affable behavior, she is of the type of being that must feed on humans, and has an arrangement with the local youkai for a steady supply of blood.

Remilia is the mistress of Scarlet Devil Mansion, named after herself, which was transported into Gensokyo wholesale. Viewed from the outside, it's already a Western-style mansion of impressive size (and red color), but thanks to Chief Maid Sakuya's spacetime-warping powers, it's actually even more spacious on the inside despite only housing half a dozen people. She stays inside on most days, though a simple parasol is enough for her to be able to brave the sun.

Reimu and Marisa finally reach her in the 6th and last stage of EoSD. They find out she's been creating this red mist in order to block out the sun and let her walk outside in the day. It's a pain in the ass for everyone else, though, so down she goes, and the mist is dispersed. She doesn't seem to mind too much - probably since she can just use a parasol anyway - but takes a liking to the heroines and gets into the habit of pestering them on a regular basis.

Build Comments:
Remilia was a lot simpler to build than Sakuya (thank gods), but still ends up the same price. In M&M terms she’s actually a pretty decent Paragon type build – pretty rare in Gensokyo – with high speed, durability and hitting power in one fun-sized package. Speaking of which, I opted not to give her Shrinking like I did the fairies because it’s directly detrimental to her powerset, making it even more overpriced for no good reason. Besides, despite being “child-sized”, I still see her as being at least a full foot taller than them. I also didn’t give her any sort of special bloodsucking power, because there’s no particular evidence of it being any fancier than a regular chomp.

Remilia’s alleged ability of manipulating fate is one of the best examples of an important rule in this particular canon: “Abilities are self-declared”. There’s no proof of it, and other characters directly dispute it, but it’s written on her profile because she said so. It might theoretically be true, but no one has any idea what it’d actually do, which saves me the trouble of statting it up.

Also, yeah, Spear the Gungnir (sic) is in fact not a physical item but a projectile of concentrated energy. It’s pretty much her signature attack, or, hell, the only one with a really concrete image at all. Chains of Fate and Scarlet Devil, while approximately canonical, are mostly there just to round her out a bit.

Just like pretty much the entire EoSD cast, Remilia is extremely popular with the fandom, even though ZUN has long since moved onto newer characters and most of them only get brief cameos, her included. Remilia’s most iconic showing is in the side manga Silent Sinner in Blue, which centers around Remilia’s bright idea to invade the Moon on a homemade rocket, courtesy of Patchy. It’s great. It also includes Remilia's ridiculous feat of flying around the Moon in a few seconds (requiring something around Flight 20), but I'd chalk that up to Superman-level writer shenanigans or even a power stunt and not take it too seriously.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:18 am, edited 6 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Flandre Scarlet

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


Reimu – ”I'll come play whenever you want, so please, don't come to the shrine."
Flandre – “Oh, and I was thinking of visiting you with cake and tea as thanks."

Flandre – “I've been sleeping in the basement. For about 495 years.”
Marisa –”Sweet, I only get weekends off.”



FLANDRE SCARLET
PL 12/16 (230)


Sister of the Devil


OPL: 12; DPL: 12; Destruction: 16
Ability: Destroying absolutely anything
Species: Youkai (Vampire)
Threat Level: Extremely high
Human Friendship Level: Very low
Main Place of Activity: Scarlet Devil Mansion
Other Titles: Diabolic Wave

Debut: TH06 ~ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Extra Boss)
Other Roles: StB (enemy), VD (enemy)
Songs: The Centennial Festival for Magical Girls (Extra Stage, EoSD)
U.N. Owen Was Her? (Extra Boss, EoSD)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 12, AGILITY 6, FIGHTING 10, AWARENESS 0
STAMINA 12, DEXTERITY 0, INTELLECT 0, PRESENCE 3

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 4 (+11), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 6 (+6), Ranged Combat (Magic) 6 (+10)

ADVANTAGES:
All-Out Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Grab, Instant Up, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 3, Startle, Takedown

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease and poison [3]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision)

“Vampire Toughness”
Impervious Toughness 12 [12]
Regeneration 5 (Regrowth) [6]
Immortality 7: 8 hours (Limited: not if exorcised or head destroyed) [7]

“Wings”
Flight 7 (Wings -1) [7]

"Lævateinn" [Easily Removable: 27 total, -12 cost]
“Flame Strike”
Ranged Damage 13 [26]
  • AE: “Sword Strike”
    Str-based Damage 4 (Improved Critical 2, Reach 2; Inaccurate -1) [1]
Vampire Magic Array
“Destruction”
Perception Damage 16 (Alternate Resistance (Fortitude) +0, Also Affects Objects +1; Distracting -1) [48]
  • AE: “Four of a Kind”
    Summon 8: Duplicates (Active +1, Horde +1, Multiple Minions +3 [3 duplicates]; Indifferent -1) [1]
  • AE: ”Vanishing”
    Concealment 6: All vision and hearing (Passive -1) [1]
  • AE: ”Bat Swarm/Mist Form”
    Insubstantial 2 (Variable Descriptor: bats/mist) [1]
OFFENSE:
Unarmed +10 (Tough DC 27)
Sword Strike +8 (Tough DC 31)
Flame Strike +10 (Tough DC 28)
Destruction (Fort DC 31)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 12 (DC 22), Parry 10 (DC 10)
Toughness +12 (Imp. 12), Fortitude +13, Will +8

Abilities 88 + Skills 12 + Advantages 15 + Powers 88 + Defenses 14 = 230

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them. Not a lot of people have seen Flandre, but many have heard rumors of her, and some of those come pretty close to ghost stories.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.

Hunger: Flandre needs to feed on human blood on a regular basis.
Relationships: Flandre is the younger sister of Remilia, mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and acts quite snide towards her, as siblings do. Her relationship to the other inhabitants of the mansion is unknown, but presumably at least cordial.
Restraint: Or lack thereof. There are no reports of Flandre actually Destruction’ing people, but it is true that she can’t always control her strength, having a tendency to break things and overdo it in fights. Remilia generally doesn’t allow her to leave the mansion.
Sheltered: Having been shut inside the mansion for the past 495 years, Flandre can be a bit odd in social situations and not really know much about the world. She might not even be aware that the pastries she eats are made with human blood (not that she’d be disgusted to find out or anything).
Weakness: Vampires have a slew of strange weaknesses, some of them shared with oni. Flandre is vulnerable to the sun’s UV rays, requiring a parasol to move around in the day. She cannot move through or across flowing water, including rain. She (allegedly) won’t approach a sardine head or a broken holly branch. Her regeneration can be stopped if her head is destroyed. Her Toughness isn’t Impervious against silver weapons, and she has a -2 penalty on resistance checks against them.


Description:
Flandre Scarlet is Remilia’s younger sister who has spent the last 495 confined inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She is a vampire as well, and looks to be about the same age as her sister, but while Remilia is the public face of the mansion, Flandre is considered too dangerous to let outside. She may or may not be violent, but her childish personality combined with her uncontrolled strength is still a recipe for disaster.

Her most unique ability is to “destroy absolutely anything”. It’s explained that she accomplishes this by somehow moving the target’s spiritual weak point (its “eye”) into the palm of her hand and pouring her power into it – or in her words, she goes squeeze and the thing goes kaboom. The true extent of this power is unknown.

Some time after the Scarlet Mist Incident is resolved, Remilia visits Reimu and Marisa at the shrine. However, while she’s there, they notice that a localized rainstorm has brewed up over the mansion. Remilia realizes that Patchouli must have summoned the rain to stop Flandre from getting out, but it also stop herself from getting back in, so she sends the heroines to investigate. They do indeed find Flandre – she got curious about the outside when she heard of all these people visiting the mansion lately – and doesn’t seem to be up to no good, but insists on a bit of “play” before giving up.

Build Comments:
The base of Flandre’s build is just a clone of Remilia’s, but she generally has slightly less skill and slightly more brute force. Instead of Remilia’s energy spear, she has an actual staff that extends into a massive flaming sword she has trouble swinging very accurately. Her other, more quirky abilities should support her in landing those vital Power Attacks.

Flandre’s legendary ability is an infamous source of power level arguments and mischaracterization. It doesn’t seem to be false like Remilia’s might be, but even though she’s only seen using it once – on a meteorite about to hit the mansion – it’s kinda blended together with the statement that she has a tendency to break things, so a lot of the fanbase seems to imagine that not only is she literally undefeatable, she’s also totally psychotic and actively tries to murder everyone she meets. Never mind the fact that all her dialogue is actually pretty calm and friendly. Even if it supposedly always work, I just gave it an arbitrarily higher PL and called it a day; I mean, we haven’t seen how well it actually works on people, and maybe it’s only “absolute” in the same sense as a lot of superheroes are “invulnerable”, i.e. they just haven’t run into anyone strong enough yet.

The strangely named “U.N. Owen Was Her?” is another of the series’ most famous themes. You may have come across it mislabeled as the “Death Waltz”, which has sort of become a fandom meme in itself.
CLONE FLANDRE (Four of a Kind)
OPL: 8; DPL: 8 (Minion)

ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 8, AGILITY 3, FIGHTING 6, AWARENESS 0
STAMINA 8, DEXTERITY 0, INTELLECT 0, PRESENCE 3

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 4 (+11), Intimidation 6 (+9), Perception 6 (+6), Ranged Combat (Magic) 2 (+6)

ADVANTAGES:
Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Grab, Instant Up, Move-By Action, Ranged Attack 3, Set-Up, Startle

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease, poison [3]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision)

“Vampire Regeneration”
Regeneration 5 (Regrowth) [6]

“Vampire Resilience”
Impervious Toughness 8 [8]

“Wings”
Flight 7 (Wings -1) [7]

"Clone Lævateinn" [Easily Removable: 19 total, -8 cost]
“Flame Strike”
Ranged Damage 9 [18]
  • AE: “Sword Strike”
    Str-based Damage 4 (Improved Critical 2, Reach 2; Inaccurate -1) [1]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +6 (Tough DC 23)
Sword Strike +4 (Tough DC 27)

Flame Strike +6 (Tough DC 24)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 8 (DC 18), Parry 6 (DC 16)
Toughness +8 (Imp. 8), Fortitude +8, Will +4

Abilities 56 + Skills 9 + Advantages 13 + Powers 36 + Defenses 6 = 120

Flandre's summoned duplicates seem to have wills of their own, and it's not a given that they'll do exactly what Flandre Prime wants. They'll help her out in a fight, though, since they all have her personality and she rather likes fighting.
---

And that wraps up EoSD! That’s 11 out of my current list of ~100 characters to build, which seems like a good start. Next game in order is Perfect Cherry Blossom, but I think I’ll be taking a brief detour first…

You may have noted that almost every build has me grumbling about a fandom meme or two in the comments. That’s mostly because despite me personally enjoying the characters themselves, it’s not an uncommon opinion that EoSD is rather overrated. Thanks to being the first game of the modern series, it has both time and loyalty on its side (there’s a bunch of people pretty similar to the Pokémon fanbase’s “genwunners”), and fan content has become rather oversaturated and kind of tired as a result (not that there aren’t good EoSD fanworks as well). Even characters who ZUN clearly has no interest in using and who haven’t had a speaking role in 13 years (or ever) are disproportionately popular. These same problems apply to the other older games, but luckily to a much lesser extent, and ZUN’s worldbuilding starts to take form as well.

---

Speaking of, while I’m highly enjoying this so far, I know that most people are viewing this from the POV of not knowing much about the series, so I’d like to welcome open feedback: what sort of changes could make this thread more approachable, or what sort of information do you just think might be interesting/helpful? Or do you think it’s fine as it is?
Last edited by Levander on Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:11 pm, edited 9 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Side Materials

Post by Levander »

Touhou Side Materials

Starting as far back as 2002 but really picking up around ’05-’07, the Touhou games have been accompanied by various side materials in other mediums, all written/composed by ZUN. While the main games have some exposition in the form of dialogue and text files, these works’ main purpose – especially near the beginning – is to expand the setting and provide more context. Over time they become more and more closely connected, and start progressing the main plot as well, even though ZUN tries to hold onto a principle of making each work at least theoretically independent of each other.

Under each category is also a short list of characters from them I could potentially/am planning to build at some point.


DATABOOKS
Books describing the characters and locations of Gensokyo, based on the Gensokyo Chronicles written by in-universe scholar Hieda no Akyuu, and interspersed with things like newspaper articles and dialogue. Obviously one of the most important sources in terms of canon trivia, always adding a ton of new information. The games from 13.5 haven’t been covered by a databook yet, which means it’s high time for that to come out.

Hieda no Akyuu
  • Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (2006)
  • Symposium of Post-Mysticism (2012)

MANGA SERIES
Besides the huge amount of fan manga, there's also several official manga series illustrated by artists other than ZUN but written by him and included in the canon. EaLND, SBND, OSP and VFiS (collectively known as "Sangatsusei") are slice-of-life stories about the Three Fairies of Light. SSiB is a more story-based affair centering around Remilia's invasion of the Moon and all the intrigue surrounding it. Inaba is a 4-panel comedy series, and WaHH and FS can both be called "incident of the week" type stories, though rather different in style. Forbidden Scrollery has also become the first Touhou manga to receive an official English translation and become available in Western bookstores.

Yorihime Watatsuki
Toyohime Watatsuki
Sunny Milk
Luna Child
Star Sapphire
Kasen Ibaraki
Kosuzu Motoori
  • Eastern and Little Nature Deity (2005-2006)
  • Silent Sinner in Blue (2007-2009)
  • Strange and Bright Nature Deity (2006-2009)
  • Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth (2007-2012)
  • Oriental Sacred Place (2009-2012)
  • Wild and Horned Hermit (2010-Ongoing)
  • Forbidden Scrollery (2012-2017)
  • Visionary Fairies in Shrine (2016-Ongoing)

ASSORTED WRITTEN WORKS
Some other written works don't fit any of the categories above. CoLA was published a chapter at a time in various magazines and features Rinnosuke, the owner of a second-hand shop frequented by many of the other characters. BAiJR and AFiEU mainly contain newspaper articles written by in-universe reporter Aya Shameimaru. Grimoire of Marisa includes Marisa's descriptions and comments of various spell cards, and Grimoire of Usami is a lighthearted sidestory featuring spell cards in a similar vein. CiLR is a tie-in to Silent Sinner in Blue, mentioned above.

Rinnosuke Morichika
Tokiko
  • Curiosities of Lotus Asia (2004-2007, 2015-Ongoing)
  • Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red (2005)
  • Grimoire of Marisa (2009)
  • Cage in Lunatic Runagate (2009)
  • Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia (2017)
  • Grimoire of Usami (2019)

MUSIC COLLECTIONS
Containing both new songs and remasters of the game soundtracks, these CDs are accompanied by a story in the form of a booklet, where each short chapter ties into the song currently playing. The first CD features a cast of unnamed one-shot characters, whereas the rest involve an ongoing storyline featuring Renko and Maribel, two college students in the nearish future who investigate strange phenomena and even gain the ability to make brief dream-like visits into Gensokyo. These are in addition to a pile of pure soundtrack CDs with no story or new characters included.

Renko Usami
Maribel Hearn
  • Dolls in Pseudo Paradise (2002)
  • Ghostly Field Club (2003)
  • Changeability of Strange Dream (2004)
  • Retrospective 53 Minutes (2006)
  • Magical Astronomy (2006)
  • Trojan Green Asteroid (2012)
  • Neo-Traditionalism of Japan (2012)
  • Dr. Latency’s Freak Report (2016)
  • Dateless Bar “Old Adam” (2016)
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Hieda no Akyuu

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


”Nowadays, youkai almost never eat humans. As a result, I spent a lot of time worrying what to write about, and I included the traditional warnings of youkai and descriptions of how to protect yourself, but tried arranging them a bit to try and provide a new youkai-centric viewpoint. I even tried picking out specific youkai and delving into their personal lives, as I wanted to help create new relationships between humans and youkai. In addition, I received a great number of requests from youkai, so before I knew it, what started out as a guide to help humans defend themselves from youkai, became a way for youkai to help others learn about them.”


HIEDA NO AKYUU
PL 5 (60)


Memory of Gensokyo

OPL: 0; DPL: 4
Ability: Remembering everything she sees or hears
Species: Human
Occupation: Chronicler
Residence: Human Village
Other Titles: Ninth Generation Savant

Debut: No game appearances – Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (author)
Other Roles: SoPM (author), FS (secondary character)
Songs: Child of Are (PMiSS)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH -1, AGILITY 0, FIGHTING 0, AWARENESS 4
STAMINA 0, DEXTERITY 2, INTELLECT 7, PRESENCE 2

SKILLS:
Expertise (History) 8 (+15), Expertise (Nonhumans) 8 (+15), Expertise (Writing) 4 (+11), Insight 4 (+8), Investigation 6 (+13), Perception 2 (+6), Persuasion 4 (+6)

ADVANTAGES:
Benefit 3 (Status & Wealth – Hieda Clan, Child of Miare), Connected, Eidetic Memory, Skill Mastery (History, Nonhumans), Well-Informed

POWERS:
“Child of Miare”
Senses 4: Postcognition 4 (Limited to Gensokyo Chronicles and own past -1) [2]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +0 (Tough DC 14)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 0 (DC 10), Parry 0 (DC 10)
Toughness +0, Fortitude +0, Will +8

Abilities 28 + Skills 18 + Advantages 8 + Powers 2 + Defenses 4 = 60

COMPLICATIONS:
Reincarnation: As the Child of Miare, Akyuu is bound to die young and have to await her next reincarnation. Though she’s rather resigned to the idea, it understandably bothers her sometimes. The fact that she’s made youkai acquaintances in her current life actually eases her worries, since she knows they’ll be around a hundred years from now.
Relationships: Akyuu is close friends with Kosuzu Motoori, shopkeeper of the rental book shop Suzunaan. She’s also acquainted with Keine Kamishirasawa as a fellow human scholar, and has connections to most of the big shots of Gensokyo, including Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo.
Reputation: Everyone inside and outside the village recognizes Akyuu, whether as the Child of Miare, that one rich noblewoman, or as that nice human they once talked to – perhaps even in one of her past lives. Their reaction is generally positive.
Responsibility: Akyuu is devoted to her work on the Gensokyo Chronicles, and she wonders what might happen if the recent thaw in human-youkai relations actually makes the Chronicles – designed to warn humans against youkai – unnecessary.


Description:
Hieda no Are was an 8th-century scholar famous for compiling the Kojiki (“Records of Ancient Matters”), the oldest extant chronicle of Japan, containing much of its best-known mythology mixed with history and genealogy. It is said that he was highly intelligent and could recite anything from memory after reading or hearing it only once.

After Are died (this is where the real-life history ends), he made some arrangement with the Yama, judges of the dead, that allowed him to reincarnate every second century or so to continue his work. In exchange, he’d spend time working for the Yama in-between lives. These reincarnations came to be known as the Children of Miare, and Hieda no Akyuu is the ninth.

The Children of Miare's most important duty is to update and expand the Gensokyo Chronicles started by Aichi, the first reincarnation, and for this purpose they are born with great intellect, Are’s legendary memory, and all previous iterations’ memories of the Chronicles and their subject matters (even if hazy). Akyuu was already writing books and speaking like an adult by the time she was ten – including the quote above – and is perhaps the most knowledgeable human when it comes to Gensokyo. However, as a downside of this gift, a Child’s body is weak, leaving them just enough time on this earth to complete their work. Akyuu is likely to die around 30, and she’s currently in her twenties.

Akyuu is quite devoted to her work, but not in the sense of isolating herself in her study. Hands-on research and personal interviews with the most powerful beings in Gensokyo are all in a day’s work, and she even takes the time to moonlight as a detective novelist under the pseudonym "Agatha Chris Q.".

Build Comments:
The most total noncombatant I’ve built so far, Akyuu is PL 5 solely due to her great Expertise modifiers. She has no real game appearances, but is one of few select characters to offer a first-person point of view in her books, and also a prominent figure in Forbidden Scrollery due to being the main character’s best friend. For the record, the “Hieda no” in her name is a traditional naming scheme used for aristocrats; it basically means “Akyuu of the Hieda”. There’s a bunch of similar names in Touhou, and I’ll be writing them in Japanese name order despite generally using Western in this thread.

There’s been some great fanworks written with her, partly because she’s one of relatively few characters to actually live in the Human Village, and because her ability to remember parts of her past lives makes for a great plot device, especially when she starts getting disturbing or just otherwise unexpected flashbacks. Her impending death being a relatively central theme of her character, even if ZUN’s unlikely to actually go through with it, also makes for some obvious drama.

Personally I really like Akyuu. She feels about as realistic and down-to-earth as genius savants in fiction can get, and despite her intellect, she’s still depicted as fallible and dependent on the oft unreliable sources of her research. ZUN’s not the first nor last person to do so, but I love the idea of publishing books actually written by an in-universe character.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:34 am, edited 4 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Kosuzu Motoori

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


”This one’s a tsukumo book: it’s a youma book because the book itself transformed into a youkai. And that one’s a rare-for-Gensokyo record of marine phenomena. Over there is a grimoire passed from a great magician to his disciple. And of course this one is a highly recommended, privately printed Night Parade scroll! It’s got a bunch of minor youkai of the sort who don’t even show up in Gensokyo sealed up inside.”


KOSUZU MOTOORI
PL 3 (25)


Bibliophile with a Deciphering Eye

OPL: 0; DPL: 3
Ability: Deciphering any text by touching it
Species: Human
Occupation: Rental bookstore shopkeeper
Residence: Human Village
Other Titles:

Debut: No game appearances – Forbidden Scrollery (main character)
Other Roles:
Songs: Bibliophile with a Deciphering Eye (Forbidden Scrollery)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH -1, AGILITY 0, FIGHTING 0, AWARENESS 2
STAMINA 1, DEXTERITY 1, INTELLECT 3, PRESENCE 1

SKILLS:
Expertise (Rental Bookstore Shopkeeper) 6 (+9), Expertise (Nonhumans) 2 (+5), Perception 2 (+4)

ADVANTAGES:
Benefit (full access to the Suzunaan collection)

POWERS:
“Deciphering Eye”
Comprehend 1: Languages (Read any language) [2]
Senses 1: Mental (Detect Youkai Energy) [1]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +0 (Tough DC 14)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 0 (DC 10), Parry 0 (DC 10)
Toughness +1, Fortitude +1, Will +4

Abilities 14 + Skills 5 + Advantages 1 + Powers 3 + Defenses 2 = 25

COMPLICATIONS:
Curiosity: …killed the cat. Kosuzu’s great curiosity about all things youkai leaves her susceptible to manipulation and makes her act against what you really wish would be her better judgment. Her collection of youma books also tends to draw the attention of youkai.
Power Loss: Kosuzu must touch any book etc. she wishes to decipher, though this isn’t a problem very often, seeing as they're just books.
Relationships: Kosuzu lives with her parents in the Human Village. She’s also friends with Hieda no Akyuu, as well as a great deal of other people who frequent her store, including Reimu, Marisa, and various youkai in disguise.
Responsibility: Suzunaan is owned by Kosuzu’s family, but seemingly run by her most of the time, and she has to take care of the business.


Description:
Kosuzu Motoori lives with her parents and works at their business Suzunaan, a rental bookshop in the Human Village. She has the mysterious ability to decipher any book she touches, including ones written in a foreign language, a secret code, or in youkai letters no other human can read. However, this just contributes to her dangerous obsession with “youma books”, texts written by youkai that often contain powerful magic or even youkai themselves. Her desire to study them continues to cause trouble, and conversely, her growing collection often attracts actual youkai interested in them.

Kosuzu herself is a cheerful and excitable girl who lets all warnings fall to deaf ears and is constantly being bailed out of trouble by Reimu, Marisa or others.

Build Comments:
Forbidden Scrollery started in 2012 and we’re currently around 2003, so this is quite a leap, but she’s closely related and sort of similar to Akyuu, so I decided to do a “flash forward” feature of sorts. These will probably be a thing whenever I come across closely related characters who debuted really far apart, so I can introduce them in a row.

Well, when I say “similar”, I mean she’s a book-centric noncombatant with a single really cheap power. Now she just needs to learn to read body language or something and we’ve got a Cypher on our hands. Interestingly, she can only read, not write, speak, or even understand spoken language. Akyuu was actually decently expensive for someone of her caliber, but Kosuzu is just a regular girl who happens to have an unique power that keeps getting her in trouble. You’d think the fans would dislike a self-destructive idiot who keeps stubbornly causing trouble for herself and others and ignoring good advice, but she’s entertaining (and cute) enough that this doesn’t seem to have become a problem. Quite the opposite, if anything.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:38 am, edited 4 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Rinnosuke Morichika

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


Rinnosuke – ”…So, as I’ve just exhaustively explained, this tool was born from the continuing systemization of evocation. As for why it had to be systemized… the answer lies right here, in the letters relating the board to Kokkuri. Take a look at the ouija board. On the second row of letters, in the center of the board, you’ll find a ‘T’. This particular letter represents a tau cross. In fact, the whole reason that the alphabet is arranged in a fan shape across two rows is to place it square in the center...”
Kosuzu – ”Excuse me! I need to get home soon before my parents start worrying, so…”
Rinnosuke – “Hold on, I’m almost done.”



RINNOSUKE MORICHIKA
PL 5 (50)


The Unmoving Used Goods Seller

OPL: 1; DPL: 5
Ability: Knowing the name and purpose of items
Species: Half-Youkai
Occupation: Antique store shopkeeper
Residence: Kourindou
Other Titles: Store Owner of Kourindou, The Curio Shop Owner, Curious Fellow of Curios

Debut: Curiosities of Lotus Asia (main character)
Other Roles: Minor manga appearances
Songs: Curious Old Shanghai Tile (Touhou Mahjong, from a fangame but composed by ZUN)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 2, AGILITY 0, FIGHTING 0, AWARENESS 3
STAMINA 3, DEXTERITY 1, INTELLECT 4, PRESENCE 0

SKILLS:
Expertise (Antique Store Shopkeeper) 2 (+6), Expertise (Crafts) 4 (+8), Expertise (Dumb Trivia) 8 (+12), Expertise (Magic) 6 (+10), Investigation 2 (+6), Perception 2 (+5)

ADVANTAGES:
Artificer, Diehard, Equipment 1, Skill Mastery (Dumb Trivia), Well-Informed

POWERS:
“Half-Youkai Traits”
Feature 1: Longevity [1]
Immunity 2: Disease, starvation and thirst (Limited to half effect -1) [1]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision) [1]

“Identify”
Senses 2: Mental (Detect Name & Purpose of Item, Acute) [2]

EQUIPMENT:
Assorted junk [2]

Headquarters: “Kourindou”
Size – S, Toughness – 6, Features – Library, Living Space, Workshop [3]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +0 (Tough DC 17)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 0 (DC 0), Parry 0 (DC 0)
Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +5

Abilities 26 + Skills 10 + Advantages 5 + Powers 5 + Defenses 4 = 50

COMPLICATIONS:
Quirk: Rinnosuke has a habit of launching off on long-winded tangents about anything at all, which can be confusing, tiring or just plain annoying depending on the person.
Relationships: Rinnosuke used to work for Marisa’s family and has known her since she was a child (she calls him Kourin as an affectionate nickname). Through her, he’s also familiar with Reimu, and both girls often hang out at his place to leech on tea and food. He’s also acquainted with Yukari Yakumo, who provides him with heater fuel and information in exchange for the occasional item she’s interested in. He also knows a surprisingly large number of people who have wound up at his shop for one reason or another.


Description:
Rinnosuke Morichika is a biological half-youkai (one of his parents was a youkai), granting him a longer lifespan and resistance to disease. If it gives him any other potential, he’s clearly sleeping on it. He “runs” his own second-hand “shop” named Kourindou, but it’s located in an inconvenient location near the Forest of Magic, and his only customers tend to be nonhumans or other eccentrics like him. Most of them have no intention to really buy anything, and Rinnosuke himself is loath to part with anything actually interesting, so business is rather slow.

He has the unique magical ability to know the name and purpose of any item at a glance. This gives him an edge in understanding strange items from the Outside, which randomly pop into Gensokyo at certain locations for him to scavenge, but has the critical flaw of often not telling him how the item is used for its given purpose. This leaves him quite clueless about things like electronics… not that Gensokyo has the electricity to power them, anyway.

He’s highly knowledgeable about all sorts of things, though not nearly as much as he thinks, and eager fill the gaps with his own genius deduction. Trying to comprehend his rants and realize when he’s just making stuff up is a skillset all its own. Nonetheless, he’s something of a big brother figure to Marisa and Reimu – or a weird uncle, perhaps – and his occupation brings him into contact with a lot of diverse folks around Gensokyo.

Build Comments:
Gods, I love Rinnosuke. He’s almost a joke character here (Dumb Trivia?), but his first-person narration in CoLA is actually some of my favorite writing in the series. He’s legitimately smart – probably – but also a huge know-it-all who often goes on random tangents as an excuse to give people long-winded lectures, half of which he’s just pulling out of his ass based on some serious conspiracy theory logic. This isn’t helped by the fact that his unusual ability tends to be lacking or even actively unhelpful when it comes to more complex items: most infamously, he thinks a handheld game console is capable of “controlling everything and creating entire worlds”, leading him to declare it a doomsday device and hide it away in fear of its might.

Being the most notable male in the series, with a stream of women in and out of his store, fans occasionally transform him into some sort of involuntary harem protagonist or memetically manly sex bomb, but personally I prefer his canon self, where there’s been no sign of such a thing on either side. Hell, I think ZUN’s intentionally averting those tropes by making him so blatantly silly.

As a half-youkai, he could be a lot stronger if he gave a damn about anything other than his hoard of junk, but he does have his occasional moment of implied competence, such as having crafted Marisa’s very powerful Mini-Hakkero, Reimu's purification rod, and a lot of their clothes. Some of his possessions are actually valuable, too, including the one and only genuine Kusanagi, a legendary sword and one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. He keeps it in the attic.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:46 am, edited 7 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Tokiko

Post by Levander »

Image


The banging against the shop's door grew steadily louder.
“"I know the girl in red is in there! She's the one that took my books!"”



TOKIKO
PL 6 (60)


Unnamed Book-Reading Youkai

OPL: 2; DPL: 6
Species: Youkai
Other Titles: -

Debut: Curiosities of Lotus Asia
Other Roles: -
Songs: -


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 1, AGILITY 3, FIGHTING 2, AWARENESS 1
STAMINA 2, DEXTERITY 1, INTELLECT 1, PRESENCE 0

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 4 (+7), Perception 4 (+5)

ADVANTAGES:
Agile Feint, Diehard

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease, poison [3]
Immortality 2: 1 week (Limited: not if exorcised -1, Uncontrolled -1) [1]
Feature 1: Regenerate over time [1]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision) [1]
Impervious Protection 3 [3]

“Wings”
Flight 2 (Wings -1) [2]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +2 (Tough DC 16)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 7 (DC 18), Parry 5 (DC 15)
Toughness +5 (Imp. 3), Fortitude +4, Will +4

Abilities 22 + Skills 8 + Advantages 2 + Powers 16 + Defenses 12 = 60

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.


Description:
A youkai sitting by the road reading books which Reimu, in a bad mood, decided to confiscate. Tokiko landed a lucky hit before getting the snot beaten out of her, after which Reimu headed to Kourindou to get the tear in her skirt fixed. Tokiko followed her there, angrily demanding her books back, but Reimu had already traded them to Rinnosuke, so Marisa was sent out instead to beat her up a second time.

Build Comments:
Another unnamed minor character, nicknamed Tokiko (“Crested Ibis Child”) by the fandom. I decided to throw her in with Rinnosuke’s build because, eh, why not? I built Koakuma and Daiyousei, after all, and she actually has more lines than both of them combined (read: any). Tokiko’s just a generic youkai who’s nonetheless plucky enough to tag Reimu from behind (in a danmaku match, mind you). She’s seen reading a series of books titled “The Future of the Non-Neumann-Type Computer”, but there’s no indication of whether she actually understands much of it. People sometimes include her as a random background character at Kourindou.

---

Now, back to scheduled programming...
Last edited by Levander on Sun Oct 14, 2018 3:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

TH07 ~ PCB

Post by Levander »

TH07 ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom

Released: August 17th, 2003

“In Gensokyo, people relax and bask in the calm of a winter without end. Spring has shown no sign of arriving even though it's already May, and in fact the snowstorms are continually getting worse. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, is tired of being cold day in and day out and wants to find the source of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame, a black-clothed magician, sees a cherry blossom petal float down outside her warm house and wonders if spring is happening somewhere else. Sakuya Izayoi, the chief maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, knows that their winter supplies are diminishing quickly, and wants to end this prolonged winter before they run out completely.”

Image

Playable
Reimu Hakurei
Marisa Kirisame
Sakuya Izayoi

Opponents
Boss 1: Letty Whiterock
Boss 2: Chen
Boss 3: Alice Margatroid
Mid 4: Lily White
Boss 4: Lunasa, Merlin & Lyrica Prismriver
Boss 5: Youmu Konpaku
Final: Yuyuko Saigyouji
Extra: Ran Yakumo
Phantasm: Yukari Yakumo
Last edited by Levander on Fri Aug 31, 2018 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Letty Whiterock

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


Letty – ”The snow crystals are larger than in past years. Three times larger.”
Sakuya – “True, true.”
Letty – “And on top of that, there's a freaky flying maid coming towards me.“
Sakuya – “Yeah, that too. You’re the mastermind, after all.”



LETTY WHITEROCK
PL 8-11 (130)


What Winter Left Behind

OPL: 8-11; DPL: 8-11
Ability: Manipulation of chill
Species: Youkai (Yuki-Onna)
Threat Level: Medium
Human Friendship Level: Low
Main Place of Activity: Unknown (Only active in winter)
Other Titles: Localized Cold Wave, Youkai of Winter

Debut: TH07 ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Stage 1 Boss)
Other Roles: StB (enemy)
Songs: Paradise ~ Deep Mountain (Stage 1, PCB)
Crystallized Silver (Boss 1, PCB)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 2 [5], AGILITY 2 [5], FIGHTING 2 [5], AWARENESS 2
STAMINA 5 [8], DEXTERITY 0, INTELLECT 1, PRESENCE 0

SKILLS:
Perception 2 (+4)

ADVANTAGES:
Diehard

POWERS:
“Youkai Traits”
Immunity 3: Aging, disease, poison [3]
Immortality 2: 1 week (Limited: not if exorcised -1, Uncontrolled -1) [1]
Feature 1: Regenerate over time [1]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision) [1]
Impervious Protection 3 [6]

“Youkai of Winter” (All effects: Limited by level of cold -1 [uncomfortable, intense, extreme])
Enhanced Strength 3, Stamina 3, Agility 3, Fighting 3 [12]
Enhanced “Frostbite” 3 [15]

“Chilling Presence”
Immunity 6: Cold damage, environmental cold [6]
Feature 1: Creates a noticeable chill in a large area [1]

“Cold Wave”
Damage 8 (Cone Area +1 [60 ft.], Alternate Save (Fortitude) +0) [16]
Linked: Affliction 8: resisted and overcome by Fortitude, Impaired+Fatigued/Disabled+Exhausted (Cone Area +1 [60 ft.], Cumulative +1, Extra Condition +1; Limited Degree -1) [24]

OFFENSE:
Unarmed +2 (Tough DC 17)
Cold Wave (Dodge DC 18, Fort DC 18)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 8 (DC 17), Parry 5 (DC 15)
Toughness +8 (Imp. 3), Fortitude +8, Will +6

Abilities 28 + Skills 1 + Advantages 1 + Powers 86 + Defenses 17 = 133

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them. Letty has a reputation of being dangerous to anyone who meets her.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.

Seasonal: Letty is an embodiment of winter and cold, and only active during the winter months. When it starts getting warmer, she retreats somewhere the sun doesn’t shine and doesn’t come out before fall.


Description:
Yuki-onna (“snow ladies”) are female youkai associated with cold, thriving in the snowy mountains of Japan. Letty Whiterock is said to only show up on particularly cold winter days, but any humans who do see her are encouraged to run away before her deadly frost afflicts them. It is claimed that at full strength, Letty would be able to cause an incident all on her own.

As such, when the heroines swat aside Cirno and keep looking for the cause of this unnatural winter, Letty is an obvious suspect, and they come across her in the 1st stage of PCB. However, after she’s shot out of the sky a little too unceremoniously, they realize this wasn’t the case, and continue their search for the true mastermind.

Build Comments:
A bit weird that she shows up so close to Cirno. Anyhoo, the main difference is that she can’t make it cold when it’s not or create ice, only intensify cold that’s already there (don't overthink the thermodynamics on that one). She only has one offensive power, but it’s relatively nasty one (and expensive, too).

It’s ambiguous whether Letty causes bad weather or just prefers especially cold days, but an Environment effect would’ve gotten kinda confusing with her power boost thing, so I opted for the latter. Basically, she’s only active in winter, during which her PL varies from 8-11 depending on the ambient temperature (normal, uncomfortable cold, intense cold, extreme cold). Intense is the coldest it’s likely to actually get in Gensokyo, though. She’s probably only PL 9 during the events of PCB.

By strange coincidence, PCB in particular happens to have multiple characters with variable PLs, but at least most of them only switch between two. Well, technically they’re built at their maximum PL with some of their traits just being Limited, but I think marking those modes separately is a nice way to make it more obvious at a glance what’s going on. Same as Flandre being technically PL 16, but only for one single power, and PL 12 otherwise.

She’s not particularly big with the fandom, but unsurprisingly, people like to associate her with Cirno, often as some sort of mother or sister figure.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:41 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Levander
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:49 am
Location: Finland

Chen

Post by Levander »

Image

Image


”Humans? Posing a threat to us? Impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible! To think that you would dare oppose us...”


CHEN
PL 8/10 (147)


Black Cat of Bad Omens

OPL: 8/10; DPL: 8/10
Ability: Using sorcery
Species: Youkai (Bakeneko, Shikigami)
Threat Level: Medium
Human Friendship Level: Normal
Main Place of Activity: Animal trails, Youkai Mountain
Other Titles: Shikigami of the Shikigami of the Gap Youkai, Hyperactive Monster Cat

Debut: TH07 ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Stage 2 Boss)
Other Roles: IaMP (summon), StB (enemy), SWR (summon), UNL (summon), AoCF (summon)
Songs: The Fantastic Legend of Tohno (Stage 2, PCB)
Diao ye zong ~ Withered Leaf (Boss 2, PCB)


ABILITIES:
STRENGTH 5 [7], AGILITY 8 [10], FIGHTING 8 [10], AWARENESS 2
STAMINA 3 [5], DEXTERITY 3, INTELLECT 0, PRESENCE 0

SKILLS:
Acrobatics 2 (+10/+16*), Athletics 4 (+9), Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10), Perception 6 (+8), Stealth 2 (+10)

ADVANTAGES:
Agile Feint, Diehard, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Move-By Action, Set-Up, Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Athletics), Teamwork

POWERS:
“Shikigami Bond” (All effects: Limited to when in presence of Ran Yakumo -1)
Enhanced Strength 2, Stamina 2, Agility 2, Fighting 2 [8]
Enhanced “Phoenix Egg”/”Rumbling Jikokuten” 2 [4]

“Beast Youkai Traits”
Immunity 1: Aging [1]
Immunity 2: Disease, poison (Limited to half effect -1) [1]
Senses 1: Visual (Low-Light Vision) [1]
Impervious Protection 3 [6]

“Feline Traits”
Comprehend 2: Animals (Limited to cats -1) [2]
Senses 5: Auditory (Extended, Ultra-Hearing), Olfactory (Acute, Extended, Tracking) [5]
Movement 1: Safe Fall [2]
Speed 2 [2]
Leaping 2 [2]

“Claws and Fangs”
STR-based Damage 1 (Improved Critical) [2]

Sorcery Array
“Phoenix Egg”
Ranged Damage 8 (Burst Area +1 [30 ft.]) [24]
  • AE: ”Rumbling Jikokuten”
    Affliction 8: resisted and overcome by Fortitude, Impaired+Dazed/Disabled+Stunned (Cloud Area +2 [30 ft.], Extra Condition +1; Limited Degree -1) [1]
  • AE: “Flight of Idaten”
    Enhanced Acrobatics 6
    Enhanced Speed 3
    Enhanced Leaping 3 [1]
OFFENSE:
Claws and Fangs +10 (Tough DC 21)
Ranged +3
Phoenix Egg (Dodge DC 18, Tough DC 23), Rumbling Jikokuten (Dodge DC 18, Fort DC 18)

DEFENSES:
Dodge 10 (DC 20), Parry 10 (DC 20)
Toughness +6 (Imp. 3), Fortitude +8, Will +5

Abilities 58 + Skills 7 + Advantages 9 + Powers 62 + Defenses 11 = 147

COMPLICATIONS:
Alcohol: Despite their immunity to most poison, alcohol affects youkai normally.
Prejudice: Even weak youkai may inspire not-entirely-undeserved fear in those unaccustomed to dealing with them. Chen willingly maintains this reputation.
Weakness: As primarily spiritual beings, youkai are susceptible to certain magic (mostly sealing and exorcism) that might not affect humans. In addition, their Immortality cannot revive them if properly exorcised after death.

Power Loss: Chen avoids water at all cost, as being doused by it breaks her shikigami spell and reduces her to a regular bakeneko. This removes her Shikigami Bond and Sorcery Array and makes her more feral, though still physically powerful. The spell must be manually reapplied by Ran Yakumo. She also loses the benefits of Shikigami Bond if acting against Ran’s will.
Responsibility: Chen is the shikigami and servant of Ran, and Yukari Yakumo by proxy. She’s dependent on them to maintain her shikigami powers, and loyal due to their strength.
Weakness: Chen is very easily distracted by catnip.


Description:
Beast youkai are, as the name implies, youkai that are born from beasts and still resemble them to an extent. It is said that animals can become youkai by, for instance, living old enough or feeding on human corpses. Beasts have great physical strength, agility and senses, but weaker regeneration than most youkai. Bakeneko (“monster cats”) are youkai cats with forked tails.

A shikigami on the other hand is basically a “familiar”, a being bound into the service of a powerful magician. This bond can be applied to any creature to give them enhanced abilities, even greater in the presence of their master. Chen is the shikigami of Ran Yakumo, who is herself the shikigami of Yukari Yakumo; a testament to Yukari’s might. In her shikigami form, Chen is capable of some relatively simple sorcery.

Chen herself, though, is a rather childish and stubborn creature who's either allowed to roam Gensokyo on her own or runs off to do so anyway. When the heroines find her in the 2nd stage of PCB, she’s residing in the deserted village of Mayohiga and trying to train the local stray cats to do her bidding (it’s going about as well as you might expect from literally herding cats). She tries to drive them off of her territory and is unceremoniously shot out of the sky. Her nature as a shikigami isn’t actually revealed until later, when she shows up summoned by Ran.

Build Comments:
Another character with a variable PL, turning from a PL 8 jobber into a decent PL 10 threat when in the presence of her master. She can go really damn fast and Agile Feint just about anyone with the Flight of Idaten spell, with a couple backup options if melee isn’t working (throwing fireballs or raising clouds of dust).

People, me included, like to picture Chen, Ran and Yukari as a multi-generational family of sorts (making them the child, mother and grandmother respectively). Chen doesn’t use the Yakumo surname, though, raising questions of whether she hasn’t “earned it” or something or just doesn’t care. Their relationship seems to be a fair bit more strict and even harsh in canon, but to be honest, this is one matter where I actually prefer to ignore the somewhat glum canon in favor of fluffy fanon.
Last edited by Levander on Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:44 pm, edited 11 times in total.
Post Reply