Latest revision as of 23:34, 8 June 2010

Furtive Rat Style

A Celestial Martial Art by DeadManSeven.

Introduction

So, you may notice that this style overlaps a bit with Ebon Shadow. This is intentional, as I wanted a stealthy assassination-based style that, while it could fit the typical ninja style, wasn't heavily rooted in it. Hopefully the two don't step on each others' toes that much.

This is also my first animal style (after fifteen non-animal styles...), and the first style I've been able to write and complete in less than a day. Go inspiration!

Background

The Furtive Rat’s origins are placed by martial scholars in Nexus, home of thieves and cutthroats. Those who emulate the rat for power have little in the way of morals, killing and taking for their own personal gain. This is a favoured style of thieves and blades-for-hire, benefiting from skulduggery and merciless hit-and-run tactics. Knives, representing the vicious teeth of the rat, are treated as in-style weapons; many students take to carrying several knives strapped discretely to their person, each coated in a different deadly poison. All the Charms in the Furtive Rat Style are incompatible with armour, as armour is no friend to those wishing to hide silently in the night.

Charms

             Nimble Rat
          Scales The Walls
          /
  Bitter Rat          Stealthy  Rat
Bites The Hand --- Blends With Shadows
                     /
              Furtive
             Rat  Form
            /         \`
   Gutter  Rat        Skulking Rat
Knows The Streets   Plants The Knife
        |                   |
    Bold Rat          Fleeing  Rat
Steals  A Trinket   Evades  The Trap
            \         /
          Wily  Rat Lives
            Another Day
                 |
            Plague  Rat
        Spreads The Disease

(For a non-ASCII Charm tree, click here.)

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: One Turn

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 2

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisites: none

The cities are the rat’s playground; he moves effortlessly between walls and beneath floors, disturbing nobody. The martial artist adopts a crouching stance, keeping her bodyweight centred and even, ready to react to the slightest change. She adds her Essence to rolls to climb or balance, and her weight will not break any object that supports her, however fragile.

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisites: Nimble Rat Scales The Walls

Life in the gutter teaches the rat caution, for even a hand extended in friendship can quickly become a fist guided by anger. In anticipation of a new enemy, he vows to always bite at least once. If the martial artist takes damage from an attack, she may activate this Charm, rolling a single level of unsoakable lethal damage against her attacker. Bitter Rat Bites The Hand may only be used once per opponent each turn.

Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: One Scene

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: Bitter Rat Bites The Hand

The shadows are friend and home to the rat, hiding and protecting him in the dead of night. The martial artist adds half of her Martial Arts rating, rounded down, to the difficulty to attack her, provided she is at least partially hidden in shadow and darkness.

Cost: 7 motes

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: Stealthy Rat Blends With Shadows

As the martial artist assumes this Form, she drops low to the ground, hunched and ready to move when spotted; until then, she remains motionless and silent, observing while she is obfuscated. If she is discovered, her enemy will quickly learn she is dangerous. Some practitioners of this style prefer to keep the naming scheme of its techniques consistant thoughout; in such cases, this Charm is called Furtive Rat Lies In Wait.

Characters in the Furtive Rat Form can spend their action for the turn preparing a spot to lay in ambush, unnoticeable by casual bystanders. If she remains perfectly still in a spot in the dark, she will remain overlooked. Anyone actively searching for her adds her Martial Arts rating to the difficulty to locate her. The character is unable to hide while others are watching her, but could conceivably dash out of sight and find a dark corner to lurk in. If she is discovered before she intends, the Furtive Rat is prepared for this; she adds her Martial Arts to her Dexterity for the purposes of determining her running and sprinting distances, and her unarmed attacks deal lethal damage.

This is a Martial Arts Form Charm, and cannot be used in conjunction with other Martial Arts Forms.

Cost: 6 motes

Duration: One Night

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisites: Furtive Rat Form

The wise rat will never be lost in his city. He knows not only the alleys but also the tunnels he has made for himself, and he travels both without fear. The martial artist is able to see in perfect darkness, her eyes shining brightly if exposed to a sudden light. She may also pause for a moment to steady her sense of direction, finding a path to an area she knows the location of without any references to her current surroundings. The path may not always be the safest route, but it is reasonably swift and will always bring her to her intended destination.

Cost: 4 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Gutter Rat Knows The Streets

Many would paint the rat as a thief, but he is merely an opportunist, taking what he can - when he can get away with it. When the character successfully parries an attack, she may activate this Charm and roll her Essence; two or more successes indicates her succeeding in wrenching her opponent’s weapon from his grasp.

Upon mastery of this style, the Furtive Rat’s knowledge is broadened with the intent to keep the trinkets she takes for herself. As they are disarmed, enemies must roll their Essence; if they score less successes than the character on her Essence roll, Bold Rat Steals A Trinket will deattune artifact weapons in addition to disarming them.

Cost: 7 motes, (1 Willpower)

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Furtive Rat Form

The careful rat waits for his chance, watching in the shadows for the right moment to strike. The martial artist’s attack ignores armour. Also, any enemy struck by this attack has their wound penalties increased by one until they are completely healed; this effect only applies once.

If the Furtive Rat is able to make an attack without being noticed, she is presented with more opportunities to land a killing blow; by spending a point of Willpower, the character does not add her Strength to the attack, but the damage is aggravated.

Cost: 6 motes, 1 health level

Duration: One Scene

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Skulking Rat Plants The Knife

The rat is too smart and too quick to be caught. He knows the location of all the traps designed to catch him, and he escapes them with ease. The martial artist adds her Essence to any dodges she makes; this does not create a dodge pool, but does count towards a full dodge. She is also capable of extreme feats of contortion, her body bending and twisting as she slips free of bonds and between cracks; she can squeeze herself through gaps no wider than her palm, and adds three extra dice to escape being restrained. This includes escaping clinches.

Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: One Day

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: Bold Rat Steals A Trinket, Fleeing Rat Evades The Trap

The rat has not survived this long by winning every battle. He knows when is the right time to make his escape; living wounded is better than dying proud. The martial artist, too exhausted to continue and overcome by her injuries, collapses as the sun rises, and cannot be roused until the following night. She heals any damage that was dealt to her during the night she activates this Charm. This does not include health levels paid as costs for Charms or spells. While she sleeps, she does not regain essence, but as she wakes, she may roll to regain Willpower.

Cost: 10 motes, 1 lethal heath level

Duration: Varies

Type: Special

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: Wily Rat Lives Another Day

The rat’s greatest weapon is disease, for it is like him, growing rapidly and destroying a body from the inside. The Furtive Rat learns strict control of toxins upon mastery of this style, and can employ them to devastate her foes. Upon learning this Charm, the character adds her Essence to all rolls to resist disease and infection, including supernatural poisons, as that which is infected cannot again become diseased. Her very being becomes tainted with poison; ancient masters of this style have been rumoured to have cultivated techniques to make their very blood run with virulent plague.

However, this is not the most feared technique of those that learn Plague Rat Spreads The Disease. When she has damaged an opponent, causing at least one level of lethal damage, she will pass on part of her toxic nature to him. Before the injury has healed, she can activate this Charm to encourage the disease to grow. The level of damage will not heal with simple rest, and it is beyond the scope of mortal medicine to cure. Every day, the diseased target will take an additional, uncurable, lethal health level of damage as the poison spreads through his body. The target's death is inevitable, unless he is aided by someone skilled in supernatural healing. Any Charm that would purge the target of illness or heal all the health levels taken from the poison will restore him to full health. Thaumaturgical healers may also attempt to cure the disease, but shamans add the martial artist's Essence in difficulty to rolls to administer a cure. Particularly devious masters of the Furtive Rat Style use this gnawing poison as an extortion tactic; when they have gained what they demand, they release the target from the poison at the brink of death, and move on to find more marks to strong-arm.

Comments

Just a few.

• The Form-charm seems like a charm, but not like a form. It doesn't really relate to combat much, and while having some non-combat utility is nice, that really seems like it's just a stealth charm with "and you can do lethal damage" tacked on. Perhaps moving the stealth effect to a non-form charm, and putting something a bit more combat-related?

The logic behind putting mostly non-combat effects in the Form is that, to me, the Form Charm is the one that's supposed to go up first. It's the heart of the style, and it helps you do things you'll do a lot of. Standing your ground is the last thing you want to do, so the Form helps you lay in wait to score a cheap hit, and then run like hell if your target didn't die. You can then also use it if they decide to give chase, where you disappear into the nearest shadowy storeroom/maze of alleys/large old mansion and proceed to Batman-kill whoever's following you. It's got non-combat applications, yes, but the Form is geared for the sort of combat the Furtive Rat is going to see. I was actually thinking of taking out the unarmed lethal damage stuff anyway, since you can get the initiative damage you need for the final Charm from from either Bitter Rat or stealth-attacking with Skulking Rat. - DM7

• Bold Rat Steals the Trinket feels powerful to me, but I'm not sure about it. It could be right-on (I'd need to consult the DB book), but a diff three roll to de-attune artifacts seems a bit much, as you could theoretically use that on a Deathlord and make it happen no problemo. Perhaps an opposed roll of sorts for attuned artifacts?

A logical addendum. - DM7

• The Plague-Bearing charm, as I'm guessing you hoped, is cool. My only problem with it is the Essence+Medicine roll to cure it. Since the Martial Artist has at least Essence 4, that's a diff 4 roll they've got to make. Taking a DB, well, they're gonna have a tough time, as you need at least 8 dice to cure the thing, and that means an Ess 4, Medicine 4 DB will have a 50-50 chance per day. Not a problem, really, as DB's are supposed to be weaker, and if you had a real doctor, he'd use an Excellency-type charm to help out. Not a problem. The problem, then, lies with Lunars (who one would think might even be inclined to learn this style!). Lunars have no Essence+Medicine charms, as they're attribute based. In addition, since they're attribute-based, the Lunar doctor is likely to have high Int, rather than high Medicine - meaning that while DB's can deal with this, Lunars can't. Would you consider making the roll either "Either Essence or Intelligence, plus medicine"? That helps Lunars out a bit, but shouldn't break things for anyone else, that badly. Just a thought.

-- GreenLantern

I'd just make it a standard Int + Medecine roll. You could just say "supernatural aid is required" and this roll must be supplemented by a charm. As I think that's what your going for. That an Essence + Medecine just feels, well, odd. -FlowsLikeBits.

Way better system than what I was using. It almost boils down to being the same anyway, since none of my players ever cared about any Medicine Charms. :)

Also, I'm glad people are reading and liking my stuff. Thanks for your comments. - DeadManSeven