MartialArts/Elephant

• Back to MartialArts
• Back to Greymane

Elephant Style

The Maiden and the Blind Men
Once there were six blind men...
... who were brought to a Maiden.
She didn’t know who she was.
Each touched her here and there...
... and then each spoke a word.
“I am what you tell me,” she told them. “And I’ll never forget again.”
“You are the first obstacle to knowing yourself” the blind men said.
And the Maiden agreed. "To learn is to forget."

Mimicking primarily the raw strength and disruptive presence of an elephant, there is some contention as to precisely who founded the Elephant Style school of martial arts. Several gods and Lunars all lay claim to the title of master, yet no one truly remembers (and thus no one truly agrees) who created the art originally. Even the Chosen of Secrets themselves regard the matter as an engima. It is as if the founder somehow removed themselves from the world entirely, making some wonder if the founder had ever been a part of it to begin with.

Elephant Style treats attacks made with seven-section staffs as unarmed. The Charms of this style are not compatible with armor.

Student Charms

Unstoppable Ivory Assault
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Perquisite Charms: None
The adept’s body becomes an overwhelming hammer upon her foe, driving them before her like the world flees from the onslaught of the charging elephant. When using this Charm, the martial artist advances upon her foe to strike and does not stop upon reaching them. She may move up to her full running distance, carrying her foe with her the whole way. The adept travels in a straight line and anyone else caught in her path must attempt to dodge or be carried along as well, up to a number of people equal to the adepts Strength. Upon stopping, her foe is flung a number of yards equal to half the distance moved by the adept.

Gray Serpent Entanglement
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Perquisite Charms: None
Twisting her limbs fluidly around a fleeing foe, the adept transforms their flight into an embrace from which they cannot escape. Whenever an opponent moves away in combat, willingly or unwillingly, the adept may reflexively make a clinch attempt with her full Strength + Martial Arts pool, plus a number of dice equal to the number of yards her foe would have moved, up to her Martial Arts in dice.

Branch Seizing Technique
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Perquisite Charms: Gray Serpent Entanglement
Catching her opponent’s strike within her palm, the adept lunges in to engulf her foe in a tangle of entrapping limbs. Upon making a successful unarmed parry against a non-ranged attack, the adept may immediately make a counter-attack in the form of a clinch attempt with her full Strength + Martial Arts pool.

Forest Quaking Stride
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One Turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Perquisite Charms: Unstoppable Ivory Assault
White ripples of essence pluming out around her feet, the earth trembles and roars as the adept sprints across the ground. Trees shake down to their roots and buildings quiver on their foundations, their very spirits shaken before the adept. During the turn this Charm is activated, so long as she moves up to at least half of her full running distance, everyone within (Permanent Essence x 2) yards of the character suffer an environmental penalty to all actions that require concentration or verbal communication equal to her Martial Arts score. This Charm is explicitly allowed to be placed in a Combo despite its non-Instant duration.

Form Charm

Elephant Form
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Perquisite Charms: Branch Seizing Technique, Quaking Stride
The martial artist assumes a seemingly unorthodox fighting stance, her legs planted and straight and her arms swaying and limber, almost boneless. The earth shudders below her feet and every step she takes leave the round imprint of an elephants foot entrenched deep into the earth. For the remainder of the scene, the adept adds one-half her Martial Arts Ability (rounded up) to her Strength and adds her Essence to her natural lethal and bashing soak values. In addition, she becomes almost impossible to uproot and adds her Martial Arts ability in dice to her rolls to resist the effects of knockback or knockdown.

Mastery Charms

Thunderfoot Stomp
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Perquisite Charms: Elephant Form
Delivering a powerful blow to the ground before her, the adept causes the ground to heave and toss like an angry ocean. Everyone standing within a number of yards equal to her Martial Arts score must concentrate on keeping their balance by succeeding in a Dexterity + Athletics roll with difficulty equal to the martial artists Essence or be knocked to the ground Those who fail must use their next action to regain their feet and suffer a number of dice in bashing damage equal to the adept's Strength.

River Unearthing Tusk
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Perquisite Charms: Elephant Form
Both arms thrusting out in sharp inflexible jabs, the adept’s fingers gore through armor and flesh, striking at the channels of through which essence flows bellow the skin. Any unarmed attack enhanced by this Charm ignores all Hardness the target may possess and negates soak equal to the adept’s Martial Arts score. Additionally, for a number of turns equal to the adept’s Essence score, her foe must pay a mote surcharge on all essence expenditures equal to their current wound penalty.

Tree Ripping Trunk
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexively
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Perquisite Charms: Thunder Foot Stomp
Wrapping her arm around the limb of a foe, the adept tears her enemy off the ground. Bending against the joint, she snaps the bones and crunches the cartilage within their limb. This Charm may be activated reflexively whenever making a clinch attempt. If the adept wins the clinch, she may choose to end it immediately, but for the remainder of the scene her foe suffers from a wound penalty to all dice actions equal to the adept’s Martial Arts ability.

This penalty can be negated with the effects of Charms that normally nullify wound penalties (such as a Lunar’s Pain Numbing Prana) and Charms that normally heal health levels will reduce the penalty by one die per health level.

Wisdom Breaking Blow
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Perquisite Charms: River Unearthing Tusk
The adept suffuses her fist in spiritual might, delivering a blow that does not rip his foe from the ground, but instead pierces deep within them to pull the Perfected Lotus itself out by the Root. Rather than dealing damage, the adepts blow will instead break any forms or stances the target has activated, ending the effects of any Charm of non-instant duration. Her attack will shatter all Martial Arts based Charm effects the target currently has activated, while ending the effects of only a single other Charm effect based on other abilities, to be chosen by the adept. An opponent may attempt to maintain their Charms with a (Wits + Essence) roll, at difficulty equal to the adept’s Essence.

Pinnacle Charm

Eternal Ivory Remembrance
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Perquisite Charms: Wisdom Breaking Blow, Tree Ripping Trunk
For the duration of this Charm, the adept is considered to have the five-point version of Edict Recall merit and gains her Martial Arts in successes to any (Wits+Awareness) rolls the Storyteller may require to remember specific items. If the character also possesses the Past Lives merit, her Edict Recall allows perfect recollection of event from her previous lives as well. Her memory becomes so keen and focused that at even a single glance, she recalls perfectly every detail of the battlefield and how to work them to her advantage. The adept ignores all shield and environmental penalties to her movement and attacks, smashing through any obstacles she cannot avoid, while in turn is considered to always be behind nearly complete cover (-2 to Melee attacks and -4 to Ranged attacks).

Comments

I would remove the additional knockback on Unstoppable Ivory Assault, clarify whether the form charm adds dice or successes, simplify Thunderfoot Stomp to simply cause knockdown and perhaps remove the damage, and either tone down River Unearthing Tusk's effects or make it much more costly to activate. - Han'ya

Some good points. I cleared up Form and took the extra yard of knockback from Thunderfoot Stomp (though kept the damage). Only thing I didn't really agree with was the suggestion for Unstoppable Ivory Assault. The knockback on Ivory Assault is primarily the whole point of the Charm. Without it, you're more or less just giving the other guy a piggyback ride. - Greymane

Good point. Had not considered that. - Han'ya