Poisoned Shadows - Swordsman Schools

Description: Those who have dedicated their lives to the rigorous study of the Sidhe could probably have predicted the development of this fencing style. Once the techniques of Feadail were formalized into a comprehensive school of swordplay, it became inevitable that another group of Sidhe, in their endless efforts to ape the mortals that fascinate them, would create a rival school, allowing the capricious fey to play at the competition between Tricomi and Villanova, or Rasmussen and…well, everyone. The style is meant to be used with a Sidhe sword, though in a pinch, an ordinary rapier may be substituted.

Stylistically, Rhiannon often appears completely random, but this is far from the truth. Rather, a student of the style studies a large number of famous (and not-so-famous) duels: not just the causes, participants, and outcomes, but the actual exchanges of swordplay that opened, prolonged, or ended the battles (depending on what the duelist wishes to accomplish). When engaging in combat, a Rhiannon swordsman chooses a conflict from his store of knowledge and reenacts it to the best of his ability. Sometimes an exchange is selected (or changed) at random; sometimes the choice is based on some relevant factor known only to the Rhiannon swordsman: the terrain or time of day, perhaps, or something as trivial as the opponent’s hair and eye color.

Once a duel has been chosen, students of Rhiannon select a participant and recreate his maneuvers, striking whenever the original duelist struck, and focusing on defense whenever that duelist lost the advantage. Only two substantive changes are made: first, the duelist never repeats dialogue, nor alludes to the specifics of the original duel (unless he is feeling particularly smug), focusing instead on antagonizing the current opponent, especially if that opponent fights with the Feadail style. Second, the duelist will use his weapon defensively, bringing his sword up to intercept an incoming blow (even if that is not what happened in the initial duel), then falling back into his chosen story—after all, one can hardly recreate an epic duel if one is defeated in the first exchange or two. Learned students of Rhiannon memorize a truly impressive number of contests, and they may change stories (or, for that matter, change parts within the same story) whenever the whim strikes them. This makes the style’s techniques very difficult to imitate using Feadail, and has the added effect of keeping one’s opponents on edge, as they never know when a change in position is simply a random movement, a fundamental change in tactics, or the precursor to an attack.

The inherent weaknesses of this style are significant and fairly obvious. A Rhiannon swordsman’s actions are largely dictated by what happened in whatever duel he has chosen, and while this can be very confusing to an opponent, it severely handicaps the swordsman when it comes to strategy: he may want to strike at an enemy’s exposed heart or exploit a particular injury, but if his “model” backpedaled and then struck at the enemy’s sword arm at that point in the original duel, that is what he must do. These shortcomings are exacerbated when fighting against a particularly knowledgeable opponent: he may deduce the battle being reenacted before the duelist has a chance to switch, allowing him to perfectly anticipate the Rhiannon swordsman’s next few moves and exploit them fully.

Basic Curriculum: Bard, Fencing

Swordsman Knacks: Corps-á-Corps, Disarm (Fencing), Exploit Weakness (Rhiannon), Tagging (Fencing)

Apprentice: While an Apprentice of Rhiannon uses his footwork and bladework to tell a story, an opponent generally does not know which story is being told. In his eyes, the Apprentice is moving erratically, perhaps even at random. The opponent must attack tentatively, guarding against an unexpected counterattack, even one that might place the Rhiannon duelist at a disadvantage. When using his Parry Knack for defense, a Rhiannon swordsman may add his Mastery Level in Rhiannon to his TN to be hit, and twice his Mastery Level to Active Defenses.

Rhiannon is not sanctioned by the Swordsman’s Guild, and probably never will be, unless a mortal student (or a particularly curious and jaded Sidhe) takes it upon himself to press the matter. Consequently, students of Rhiannon receive a free Rank in one of their Swordsman Knacks rather than Guild Membership at no cost.

Journeyman: Rhiannon Journeymen have studied enough duels to learn that an angry opponent is a reckless opponent, and a reckless opponent is a defeated opponent. They specialize in provoking their opponents into careless action by both word and deed, and may add Unkept dice equal to their Rank in Tagging to any Taunt repartee actions they attempt in combat (in addition to Unkept dice added for any other Knack used for the action). Sidhe Journeymen may use the Tagging Knack to steal Drama Dice from an opponent (assuming that opponent has any), per the usual rules.

Master: For most opponents, the timing of a Rhiannon Master’s attacks are difficult to predict; they are determined by the pace of the story being reenacted, not by the current duel, so they may come at any time. Furthermore, when an attack in the story led to the death (or at least the disability) of an opponent, the Rhiannon Master has perfected the art of “assisting” an enemy in recreating his part in the historical or literary saga. A Rhiannon Master may use Interrupt Actions for attacks as well as Active Defenses, but the cost of an Interrupt Action used to attack may not be reduced in any way (e.g., by the Lightning Reflexes Advantage). In addition, after inflicting damage with any attack, the Master may immediately spend a Drama Die to attempt a follow-up Corps-á-Corps attack. The opponent does not make a Wound Check for the first attack until the results of the Corps-á-Corps attack are resolved.