MartialArts/SerpentineCoilsStyle
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Serpentine Coils Style
by MelWong
The Serpentine Coils Style is a water-aspected Terrestrial Martial Arts style. An assassin's art, it focuses on emulating the sinuous, graceful movement and the sudden crushing grip of the great constricting snakes. Characters may use fighting chains and seven-section staves (or their artifact equivalents, lightning chains and serpent-sting staves) freely with all Charms in the Serpentine Coils Style Martial Arts cascade. This style is incompatible with armor, even though its creator would love to use armor with it, but she does acknowledge that it would lead to overweening clinch twink madness.
Lissome Serpent Dance</i>
Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum MA: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: None
Filling herself with a rush of slippery liquid Essence, the Exalt loosens her sinews and relaxes her muscles to the consistency of soft clay. She may add her permanent Essence in dice to any one Athletics, Larceny or MA roll where such flexibility would prove advantageous, such as in the case of escaping restraints or bondage. This Charm is inapplicable to the contested grappling of clinches and holds. Sometimes, left behind in the manacles or loose coils of rope are shreds of shed snake skin.
<i>Seeking the Hot-Blooded Prey</i>
Cost: 1 mote Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Minimum MA: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: None
The character reaches out faster than the eye can track, seizing an opponent in an iron-hard grasp. It is said that the hands of Exalts using this charm appear as striking serpents, fanged and mawed. The Exalt must perform a clinch or hold attack on the turn he uses this Charm. Her Martial Arts score is added to her initiative for the purposes of this one clinch or hold attack.
<i>Breath-Freezing Python Grip</i>
Cost: 1 mote per turn Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum MA: 2 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Lissome Serpent Dance
The Exalt's limbs are filled with the cold muscular power of a great snake embracing and crushing its prey. The character reaches out and enfolds an opponent in a silent, deadly hug, rolling for a clinch as per normal. Should the character succeed, her victim finds himself unable to make a sound as his breath is stifled by freezing waves of Essence emanating from his opponent's iron grip. The character's clinch does lethal rather than bashing damage. For each successive turn the clinch is maintained and this Charm is paid for, the clinch does an additional +1L damage. Stopping the use of this Charm for even a turn will reset the damage of the clinch to normal and free the victim to cry out or shout a warning.
<i>Forked Tongue Meditation</i>
Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Minimum MA: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Seeking the Hot-Blooded Prey
Weaving one way and then another, the character presents a constantly shifting offensive to the opponent seeking to escape her grasp. This Charm must be used while the character is engaged in a clinch, before her opponent rolls the reflexive Dexterity + Martial Arts or Brawl roll to escape the clinch. The character subtracts her Essence in successes from her opponent's roll. If he would have failed to overcome her clinch anyway, nothing happens and the motes are wasted.
<i>Serpentine Coils Form</i>
Cost: 5 motes Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum MA: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Crushing Python Grip, Forked Tongue Meditation
The Exalt moves with the inexorable weight of a great constrictor snake, her limbs waving with the smooth grace of thick scaled coils. She swerves smoothly out of the path of danger and nothing can escape her deadly hug. While using the Serpentine Coils Form, the character adds her Essence to all clinch and hold rolls, and the difficulty of all clinch and hold attacks against her is increased by her Permanent Essence. Characters may not use more than one Martial Arts Form-type Charm at a time.
<i>Slitted-Eye Fascination Stance</i>
Cost: 4 motes Duration: One turn Type: Reflexive Minimum MA: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Serpentine Coils Form
The Exalt takes on the manner of a feinting snake, drawing back to strike again. Her movements are confusing and contradictory, like the eddies of a wind-chopped sea, and her gaze is hypnotic and mesmerising. Enemies attacking the Exalt subtract from their dice pools a number of dice equal to her permanent Essence.
<i>Thrashing Serpent Kata</i>
Cost: 1 mote per attack/foe Duration: One turn Type: Extra Action Minimum MA: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Serpentine Coils Form
When this Charm is invoked, the character's limbs seem to lengthen, toes seem to gain some degree of prehensile movement, and hands and wrists become hard as jade. She may wrestle up to four opponents at once. The Exalt's player makes Dexterity + Martial Arts rolls to initiate the clinches or holds. Each attack roll costs a single mote. Each attack must be made against a different target, and the Exalt may not make more than four such attacks. Characters targeted by this Charm may dodge or parry as normal, meaning that some may escape while others may not.
In subsequent turns, the character may, after initiative is rolled but before anyone acts, spend Essence to keep this Charm active. Again, the cost is 1 mote per already-restrained victim per turn. If the character has less than four victims and others are still within reach, then on her action, she may pay more motes and attempt to put them in clinches or holds. This added expenditure of Essence is considered a continuing effect, not a new invocation of the Charm.
If the Exalt does not pay the motes of Essence each turn to maintain the assault, then she must let some of the grappled opponents free. The Dragon-Blood may not move while using this Charm after the initial assault - her opponents must come to her.
<i>Creation-Encircling Serpent Girth</i>
Cost: 2 motes per turn Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum MA: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Thrashing Serpent Kata
The Exalt's Essence is by now insidious and liquid, able to slowly bypass whatever armor her foe wears either by the use of cunning grips, or simple sheer brute crushing force. The Exalt makes a clinch attack. Damage for the first turn the clinch is maintained ignores one point of the target's soak. For each successive turn this Charm is maintained and paid for, the target's armor is cumulatively eroded. Thus, on the second turn the clinch is maintained, the target is at a -2 to soak, and on the third turn, -3. The target's armor is not physically damaged, simply compromised to the benefit of the attacking Exalt. No other attackers gain this benefit, and the armor penalties do not last past the end of the scene.
<i>Cold-Blooded Unbeating Heart Invocation</i>
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum MA: 5 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Slitted-Eye Fascination Stance
The character's eyes turns clear like opals, gaze hard and unblinking. The character gains bonuses to Bashing and Lethal soak equal to her Essence, and may soak Lethal damage with her full Stamina rating. For the rest of the scene the character ignores wound penalties up to her Conviction in rating. The character fails all Compassion rolls and may not channel Compassion while this Charm is active.
<i>Swallowing The Mouse Technique</i>
Cost: 5 motes per turn Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum MA: 5 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms: Creation-Encircling Serpent Girth, Cold-Blooded Unbeating Heart Invocation
Drawing her opponent close in a deathgrip, the Exalt's own Essence overcomes their lifeforce and devours what is left like a succulent rat. This Charm may only be used with a clinch attack. The Exalt regains 1 mote of Essence per health level of damage inflicted in the clinch. If she is in a clinch with an Exalt, she may opt instead to drain motes from their essence pool equal to her Permanent essence per turn. Motes drained go to the Exalt's own Essence pool. The target's Personal pool is drained first. The Exalt deals no damage while draining essence instead of health levels.
This is a very nice style, the imagery is quite beautiful. I would allow armour to be used with this style with the form as well as the soak increasing charms not allowing armour. It is in the end, ionly a terresterial style.
~ Haku who thinks snakes are cool
