[FOCI]
High Noon at Midnight
Few things feel more empowering than when you jump into the saddle and ride! Maybe you have a special mount called Thunder, Caballo, Dusty, or a name you don’t share with others. Or perhaps any mount will serve, because you’re just that skilled in the saddle. Whatever the case, when you and your mount are moving, other folks say they have a hard time figuring where one of you stops and the other begins—you act as a single creature that almost nothing can stop.
A mount plus riding gear including saddle, bridle, and stirrups.
You restore 2 points to your Speed Pool or 2 health to your mount.
You can take a second action this round.
You are trained in riding any kind of creature that commonly serves as a mount in the setting.
You can make an attack with a light or medium ranged weapon and attempt a riding task as a single action. Riding tasks could be as straightforward as keeping up with a fleeing foe or as tricky as hanging upside down beneath your galloping mount, standing upright on the saddle of your galloping mount, and so on.
You can use this ability in one of two ways. If you’re on your mount, you can move a long distance from one location to another almost instantaneously, carried by the creature you ride. You must be able to see the new location, and there must be no intervening barriers. Alternatively, you can use this ability to summon your mount from wherever it happens to be, leap up into the saddle, and use Trick Rider to make an attack or attempt a riding task. (Your mount can usually reach you even if you are deep underground, high in the air, or in another dimension, because your connection to your mount transcends the natural.)
Ability Choice: Choose either Enhanced Speed Edge or Nimble in the Saddle as a tier 3 ability. Either way, you also gain Expert Rider as a complementary tier 3 ability.
You gain +1 to your Speed Edge.
You are specialized in all tasks related to riding a mount, including those pertinent to the care and healing of your mount.
Whether in the saddle or not, you’ve developed amazing reflexes. You’re trained in Speed defense tasks.
Your ride your mount into the air and fly for one minute at a rate of up to a long distance each round. For each level of Effort you apply, you can increase the duration of the effect by one minute or carry one ally of about your size with you that will also fit on your mount.
Action to initiate.
Mount (horse or similar): level 3; moves a long distance each round Tricks attempted from horseback are usually level 3, but training in riding applies
When you attack from your saddle, you inflict 3 additional points of damage.
Ability Choice: Choose either Ride Across the Miles or Tornado Ride as your tier 6 ability.
You can ride your mount to an open location on the planet that you’re familiar with almost instantaneously. If you apply a level of Effort, you can attempt to penetrate covered locations that you’re aware of as long as a route exists from the open air to the area you want to reach.
Your mount’s flashing hooves churn up a small tornado, lifting you and your mount a long distance into the eye of the supernatural storm. The tornado moves as you direct it up to a short distance each round for up to five minutes or until you dismiss it. The swirling winds damage creatures, objects, and structures within short range of the tornado’s eye. Each round, creatures in the area take 3 points of damage due to debris on the wind. Attempts to damage objects or structures with your tornado are eased by two steps.
Action to initiate.
GM intrusions: Your mount develops a limp. The bridge on the road ahead is out. Your mount throws a shoe. Someone claims your mount is stolen.