Desert Spurs Style
Desert Spurs Martial Arts by garrisod
Background
In the mean, dusty honkytonks and speakeasies of the South, ill-tempered wranglers and bandits have fought each other senseless underneath the unrelenting sun for millennia. One day, a Man with No Name took that time-honored form of kickboxing and refined it, mastering it so completely that all who saw him enter a tavern need only see the sun glint off of the spurs of his deadly boots and know that their time had come.
Training
One need only be one of the Celestial Exalted and to be able to drop a bull in a single kick in order to qualify for this humble style. One then only needs to find a practitioner and get him drunk enough that one can learn his moves without getting killed.
Weapons and Armor
Practitioners of the Desert Spurs treat Boots, Iron, God-Kicking or otherwise, as their favored weapons. Desert Spurs find the concept of armor both uncomfortable under the desert sun and totally sissified, so all charms but the first are incompatible with armor.
Charms
Punish the Lazy Foe
Cost: 2m Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Ability: 2 Min Essence: 1 Prereqs: None
The Exalt seizes a golden opportunity and gives a savage kick to an opponent while he’s down, with enough force to wake up the layabout and maybe enough to just put him back to sleep again. When making an attack against a prone opponent, the Exalt may add his martial arts rating to his damage dice.
Twelve-Blow Exhale Exercise
Cost: None Duration: Permanent Type: Permanent Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Punish the Lazy Foe
The next lesson a Desert Spur learns (after to kick a man while he’s down) is to make his feet preternaturally swift, hitting so quickly his boots seem a blur. The practitioner’s Kick and Boot attacks have their Rate increased by one, permanently. Under Power Combat, practitioners may also ignore the Speed penalty to kick and boot attacks.
Desert Spurs Form
Cost: 5m Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Twelve-Blow Exhale Exercise
After learning the third lesson, a man may truly call himself a Desert Spur. Not a soul will pick a fight with him, for he’s twisty like a rattler and his kicks hit like a sledgehammer. While this martial arts form is active, the practitioner receives a bonus to his Dodge pool equal to his martial arts rating. In addition, his opponent’s armor soak rating is reduced by his martial arts rating. The martial artist may add his permanent Essence to his damage dice for any kick or boot attack. However, bashing attacks are not upgraded to lethal damage, nor can the practitioner parry lethal attacks unarmed without a stunt.
Footloose Quickstep
Cost: 4m, 1w Duration: Scene Type: Reflexive Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Desert Spurs Form
The character’s feet glow with Essence, speeding and complicating his footwork so his enemies hardly know where he’s going next. Until the end of the scene, the character receives a bonus to his Dodge pool equal to his permanent Essence (this stacks with the bonus from the Form Charm.)
Boulder-Launching Boot
Cost: 3m Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 2 Prereqs: Desert Spurs Form
The Exalt’s precise and powerful kicks can make a special delivery out of just about anything. The Exalt kicks an object, no larger than his permanent Essence in feet, at his target, who is no more than 10 times the Exalt’s Essence in yards away. If the Martial Arts attack strikes the target, the target (and the object) both take bashing damage equal to the character’s Strength plus his extra successes. Suggested objects for booting: 1 Essence: Beer mug, bricks, expensive vase, dinner, decapitated head 2 Essence: Funeral urns, small boulders, breastplate 3 Essence: Chairs, wee Fair Folk 5 Essence: All of your (shorter) enemies
<i>Feisty Entrance
Cost: 4m Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Ability: 4 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Desert Spurs Form
Sometimes a man just doesn’t have time to find his keys. Or maybe it’s the door to another man’s place, and he don’t much care for that other man. Or maybe it’s just time to make a statement. Regardless, the Exalt takes down a door in one mighty kick, no farther across than twice his Essence in feet – either taking it right off its hinges or smashing it to flinders. This charm succeeds no matter how fortified or locked up the door is, as long as it isn’t magically barred or constructed of the Five Magical Materials, but it always renders the door irreparable and makes a really loud noise.
Dishonest Dance Step
Cost: 4m Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Footloose Quickstep
The Desert Spur knows that a man’s gumption lies in his feet, and how to lay low such a man. The Spur savagely brings his heel down on his victim’s foot, causing incredible pain and temporarily crippling the target. If the character’s attack lands, the target’s movement speed is halved for the rest of the scene. Successfully performing this attack twice on the same target reduces the target’s movement to one quarter normal; after that, this charm has no effect – the target is out of feet to step on.
Whirling Spurs Kick
Cost: 5m, 1w Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Boulder-Launching Boot
With the speed of a dust devil, the Exalt makes a spinning kick that endangers every combatant within the range of his deadly feet. The Exalt can make a martial arts attack from where he stands against every opponent currently within his melee range at that moment.
Thunderhead Stomp
Cost: 8m Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Feisty Entrance
Channeling incredible Essence through his boot, the Exalt stomps the ground with the force of a thunderclap, shaking the room and stunning his enemies. The Exalt rolls Strength + Martial Arts; within a radius of yards equal to the Exalt’s permanent Essence, all living targets must make Willpower rolls. Targets with fewer successes than the Exalt are both stunned and knocked prone (p. 234-5, Exalted) if they have less permanent Essence than the Exalt; targets with equal Essence are merely stunned, and those with greater Essence are unaffected.
One Day My Boots Will Walk All Over Thee Dedication
Cost: 10m, 1w Duration: Scene Type: Simple Min. Ability: 5 Min Essence: 3 Prereqs: Dishonest Dance Step, Whirling Spurs Kick, Thunderhead Stomp
It is said that the Man with No Name was the first to practice the Desert Spurs style, but he was not its greatest practitioner; no, that honor fell to his spouse. Crossing the Wife of the Man with No Name was surely death, for only she knew the final exercise that would express her unerring wrath. The Exalt calls out her chosen enemy, who must have wronged her prior to that moment. For the rest of the scene, her feet will always connect with that foe when she attacks him, making all of her attacks undodgeable (but not unblockable.) This charm cannot be activated twice in the same scene unless its first target is dead or unconscious.
