This style focuses on the use of poisons in battle. Named for the most poisonous concoctioniused by masters of this art, the warriors who specialise in this way are known for the hundreds of tiny needles coated with a variety of poisons they use in combination with their strikes. Practitioners are derided by other martial artists for using poison where they should use strength, but then are secretly sought out to remove rivals in innocuous manners.
Because mathematics is everywhere. Fucking with your shit. - SteveD, articulating my personal mantra ubercactuar@gmail.com admin.rpgnet@gmail.com BSC: Colliton
It is said that practitioners of the Way of the Squid style are made not born. Double-jointed children that show athletic promise will be adopted, bought, or stolen, and then trained for many years in the torturous and inhumane stretching exercises designed to pull every tendon past it's limit. By the time they reach the age of twenty they are inhumanly flexible, or sometimes crippled for life. Squid are trained to take advantage of this unusual flexibility with a variety of devastatingly effective and highly original grappling techniques and holds designed to be unbreakable by those dependant on orthodox counters.
No doubt because of its unsavory teaching and recruitment methods the squid seem to count a high number villains, madmen, and sadistic murderers amongs their ranks. Indeed many find this style in action to be a very disturbing sight and practitioners develop a peculiar and distinctive slithering gait that seems almost inhuman. Many Squid walk with canes or crutches to hide this tell-tale trait.
Way of the Spider
Designed to maximise maneuverability and stealth the Way of the Spider is focused around the use of a weapon and tool in one, the grappling hook. Two of them to be precise. They swing through the air and over walls with complete confidence, but they use their grappling hooks for much more than just climbing. With proper skill they can kill from great distances, and they can disarm their foes with great ease. The Spider almost always favor ambushes so that they can pick an arena where they will get the most effect out of their swinging abilities. An open empty plain is the Spider's worst nightmare.
Practitioners of this style spend the first month of their training in silent contemplation, watching the autumn leaves falling from the trees and stirring in the breeze. The Way itself is a loose, reactive style, hallmarked by gentle, soaring leaps, sudden shifts and twists, and deft - almost gentle - nerve strikes and sweeps. It is a beautiful art, with great power hidden within it's graceful motions.
Some styles are full of graceful movements, expert timing and balance, and rely on knowledge of leverage and anatomy. The way of Falling Blocks is not one of those styles.
Practitioners of this style tend to be those who have developed bulky musculature already - loggers, some sailors, for example, or other occuptions where anaerobic excercise has increased the upper body strength. This style teaches some general dodging but is, essentially, the application of brute force to overpower the opponent. This is not a style for the dojo - it is a style for the streets. It is a quick-to-learn, but (frustratingly) effective way to disable and damage an opponent. There are few leg movements - the style itself uses no kicks, and the legs are mostly used for manueverability, to add leverage and force to a punch, and to dodge out of the way. The style also teaches some basic blocks, but it is expected that a student of this style can be expected to take a couple hits, and the focus of the style is on offense. A typical fight strategy will usually consist of a number of quick, close-fisted blows to render the opponent off balance, followed by a single open-fisted chop at an exposed vulnerable point.
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Reinstate Curt. You know it's right.
"Funky is Spider Jerusalem reborn, except with D20 instead of the Smiler. That frightens me and amuses me at the same time." -- SteveD
"a sometimes misguided activist... but needs to like.. get a massage or something" -- Ghoest Police
"If I went and avoided ever game line, or company, that did something completely farkin' retarded at any point, I'd never play anything." - J Arcane
"I'd like to have hot, steamy yet intimate sex, but without touching the other person except in a very limited way." -- Cossack
The forums had some down time today, but the contest is still on. Off to a good start, too :) I'll give it another day or two (end of the weekish) and feel free to post more than once, should inspiration strike you!
L8r, --Dan
__________________ She's a kung-fu gunslinger. He's the King of Swing. They fight jerks. Dustbowl Xia
Okay, looks like it's time to call this thing! I'm gonna have to go with...
Alka-Seltzer's "Way of the Squid," because I just love the image of rubbery-limbed martial artists hobbling their way around the city on canes and crutches :)
Send me an email (dan@bayn.org) and we'll set up your free copy of the Erebus core book.
I must say, I liked all of the submissions quite a lot. I'll be posting a link to this thread from the website, so that future Erebus enthusiasts can enjoy them. If anyone else has a great fighting style idea they'd like to contribute, even though the contest is over, please feel free!
My thanks to everyone who posted and I hope you'll consider picking up a copy of Erebus & contributing to the website. We're all about fan-submissions!
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