Short, but sharp claws grow from the widow's fingertips. Her martial arts are an original product of the Widow's relentless martial arts training and her fastly mutating body: the Iron Serpent is a physically demanding style focused on grappling, immobilization, and powerful, precise and disabling strikes. Inspired by the movements of constrictor snakes, this style emphasizes controlled, heavy actions that apply constant pressure, overwhelming opponents with both physical dominance and precision attacks to vulnerable areas. Unlike lighter, quicker martial arts, Iron Serpent relies on wearing down the opponent through relentless holds, chokes, and joint locks, while leveraging surprise strikes to blind spots when the enemy is immobilized.
Key Principles:
Constriction and Immobilization: Practitioners of Iron Serpent should excel in grappling techniques that focus on tightly controlling the opponent's body. Chokes, locks, and body-weight pins are designed to restrict the enemy’s movement and breathing, gradually sapping their energy.
Heavy, Controlled Movements: Every movement in Iron Serpent is deliberate, focusing on using body weight and leverage to apply maximum pressure with minimal energy loss. It relies on solid stances and grounded techniques, designed to prevent easy escapes and maintain constant pressure.
Opportunistic Strikes: Aim to exploit opponents that are restrained, controlled or surprised. Practitioners strike with precision and these strikes, whether punches, elbows, or kicks, target weak points such as joints, ribs, neck, or behind the head, using the enemy’s weakness to avoid retaliation and maximize damage.
Endure, Disable, Overpower: The Iron Serpent style requires great endurance, both physical and mental. It focuses on wearing down the opponent over time, applying slow, constant pressure or chiping but disabling strikes until they can no longer fight back. Practitioners must remain patient, waiting for the right moment to strike with overwhelming force.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in unarmed combat.
+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +0 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Overtrained Left Hand.
You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.
You also gain the following effects:
Having lost and found enough different body parts, Bruno's body and blood patiently waits for replacement parts instead of bleeding out and dying.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every 6 hours. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.
As long as at least half your body remains intact, you cannot die and remain at Incapacitated, regardless of how many Injuries you take. It is clear to observers that you are still alive.
Once an Injury has been reduced in Severity by two levels, it no longer benefits from this effect and instead heals as normal.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand.
Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Each additional appendage you have gives you +1 dice to make and resist Grapples (up to a maximum bonus of +4 dice).
Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.
Your extra appendage can stretch to reach an additional 30 feet.
You may turn this Effect on and off at will during its duration.
Your extra appendage is not connected to your nervous or circulatory systems, and you will not take damage if it is hit by an attack or destroyed.
Your appendage has its own agenda (kill all monsters), which it will attempt to follow. You must roll Self-Control to reassert control when this occurs. If this occurs during Combat, it gets its own dice pool, and stopping it costs your entire Action.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: nightmare.
Jangles’ nose seems to glow as he begins juggling knives before unleashing a hailstorm of blades!
Requires him to be wearing the nose while the effect is active
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with thrown weapons. You must actively and obviously be using Big Red Nose to gain the benefits of this Effect.
+2 dice to all rolls utilizing thrown weapons.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Chelsea Smile.
You also gain the following effects:
Sora is not one to make promises often, so when he does, he intends to see it through. When pushed to the edge, He will continue to fight in spite of injuries to fulfill those promises.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
The characteristic that Vivian has imbibed has granted her an extreme level of control over her daggers, granting her the ability to throw and wield them with a high level of effectiveness.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with Swords and daggers.
+2 dice to all rolls with Swords and daggers. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using Swords and daggers.
You also gain the following effects:
The mobster's been through tougher scrapes than this. A few cuts and bruises won't stop them.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.
The mad scientist can craft steel helmets that protect their wearers from mental influence and attack.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +0 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
While transformed, the werewolf's toughened hide provides protection from all manner of attacks, except silver.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are in werewolf form.
You have 4, which reduces incoming damage from all sources of physical attack except silver. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. This Armor cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.
Any Injury received from Damage that was reduced by this Armor is considered Makeshift Stabilized and will not degrade further, and any Battle Scar caused by them is reduced by 1 level. You may attempt a single Proper Stabilization on such Injuries.
The ninja is a master of a wide variety of martial weapons. They kill quickly and quietly.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with melee ninja weapons.
+2 dice to all rolls with melee ninja weapons. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using melee ninja weapons.
You also gain the following effects:
The Ninja is so attuned to the sounds of their surroundings, they may focus their mind to "see" using the subtle acoustic vibrations.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.