MartialArts/FifteenMonthsDescendingWater

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Background

Even if fate decreed it, you could not avoid the trap your own folly has laid. Now mop the dojo floor before sifu gets mad.

Training

Descending water emphasizes basic martial arts attacks and defenses for its physical training, with students spending nearly as much time practicing those as the students of Descending Earth do (though with less time correcting their stances). Swimming is also an essential physical training, immersing the student in the nature of water, understanding how it controls him or her before seeking to escape that control. The essence of this style develops as a study in philosophy, and the practice of one-upsmanship through pranks. Sifu who found schools for this style always have a ringer or two in their first class of students to ensure that a tradition of rivals pranking each other develops, while simultaneously inflicting harsh punishments on those who are caught being involved in these pranks.

The philosophy favored by Descending Water masters is derived from Sidereal scriptures of the house of endings, adapted to the element of water. Essentially, students are taught that each action eliminates options, just as water which flows one way cannot go back and take a different course. Actions which "freeze" the situation, which eliminate as many options as possible, are favored highly - but also greatly guarded against, because the enemy who takes these actions will benefit from them.

Students who realize the philosophy of the style in their pranks on other students are able to adapt their basic physical training to the advanced martial knowledge of this style.

Weapons and Armor

Improvised weapons, tonfa, fighting sticks (including staves, though not seven-section), and sai are form weapons. Armor is not allowed.

Complementary Abilities

Larceny ••, and Investigation ••, and an Athletics specialty in Swimming are prerequisites to this style. Students often develop good ratings in Lore, but it is not required.

Charms

Charm Name

Cost: m
Minimums: Essence , MA 
Type: 
Keywords: 
Duration: 
Prerequisite Charms: None

1. Carve the Channel (increase onslaught penalties with repeated flurries)
2. Barrel Catches Rain (increase DV with repeated successful defenses)
3. Frozen Rain Cracks Barrel (escape a clinch after spending two actions inactive)
4. Descending Water Form (Stunts which build on arrangements made with the scenery ahead of time, whether the form was active then or not, convert dice to automatic successes. No penalty to attack or defense while fully or partly in water, though thicker muck may apply a penalty.)
5. Fool Slips From Icy Path (Coordinate attacks with yourself in a flurry, automatically inflicting the maximum penalty, counting as a number of attackers equal to the attacks made in the flurry)
6. Snowy Path Conceals Icicles (Add 3m1w to Fool Slips to make rate = 8, and the 8th attack unexpected as for a person who is completely surrounded)
7. Cracked Barrel Holds Nothing (Escape a clinch, without damage, from an opponent whose clinch you have escaped this scene)
8. Useless Barrel is Discarded (Add 4m to Cracked Barrel to throw and damage (as with crush) opponent whose clinch you escape, as a counterattack)
9. Winter's Onset Ruins the Lazy (reduce opponent's DV with repeated successful attacks)
10. The Wise Yet Cruel Sell Grain at Steep Prices, aka, Wisdom May Forgo Mercy in Winter (May channel Conviction on any combat action while this charm is active, and may ignore Compassion checks unless it is affected by a Virtue Flaw, in which case may not ignore the Flaw's Lures. Each time opponent designated when charm is activated fails a roll or is hit by an attack, add 1 to pool of bonus successes which may be spent on any attack or defense against that opponent)