Country of Origin: Montaigne
Salon: Charouse (Small)
Founded: 1623
Sanctioned (Swordsman’s Guild): 1656

Description: Blaise de Vigenère was a professor of mathematics at Charouse University. He was also a notorious hothead whose boorish behavior provoked many people to challenge him to a duel. A gifted fencer as well as teacher, Blaise was able to turn aside most of these challenges, and the ones he could not were (fortunately for him) never contested to the death. Fortune favored Blaise further when he happened to observe a Valroux Swordsman take on a Vestenmannavnjar bodyguard trained in the Urostifter fighting style. Watching the two disparate opponents attempt to one-up each other inspired Blaise to create his own School of fencing that, to his mind, could easily best the other two.

Like many Montaigne Schools, Vigenére relies on wielding a rapier and a main gauche at the same time and, for the most part, the main gauche is relegated to defense while the rapier is used to attack. Beyond this, students are taught how to mislead their opponents, forcing them to defend one side of the body more than the other, creating openings which the student is taught to exploit. On the other hand, when facing several opponents Vigenére Swordsman become a deadly whirlwind of flashing steel, more focused on delivering a thousand small cuts than one flashy maneuver.

Seasoned opponents quickly learn the weakness of this School, as Vigenére relies on executing brash and daring maneuvers which rely more upon bravado than skill. An opponent who can survive a Vigenére Swordsman’s tricks knows just how to bring that Swordsman down once those tricks have failed him.

Basic Curriculum: Fencing, Knife
Swordsman Knacks: Bind (Knife), Exploit Weakness (Vigenére), Feint (Fencing), Lunge (Fencing), Whirl (Fencing/Knife)

Revised Swordsman Knack: Feint. When attacking an enemy, you can declare a Feint. You roll Wits + Feint, and must roll a number of Raises equal to your enemy’s Wits in order for your Feint to be successful. If you are successful, he cannot avoid the attack using any Active Defense. The Raises taken on this roll add Unkept Dice to your damage roll as usual.

Apprentice: The student of Vigenére is trained to fight with a rapier in his dominant hand and a main gauche in his off hand, and may do so without penalty. In addition, he receives a free Raise when executing an Active Defense using Parry (Knife) as his defense Knack.

Journeyman: Journeymen of Vigenère have learned to trap a primary weapon with a main gauche, then launch a savage attack while the opponent’s ability to defend himself is restricted. After successfully executing a Bind, the Journeyman receives a bonus Action Die showing the current Phase, which he may use to immediately attempt a Lunge against the same opponent. (If the Journeyman chooses not to attempt the Lunge immediately after executing the Bind, the Action Die is lost.) Regardless of the results of the Lunge, the attack breaks the Bind. This maneuver may only be attempted against any given opponent once per Scene.

Master: Masters of Vigenére have learned to recognize the leader of a group of opponents and focus his attention on that individual even while cutting down his followers. When attacking a squad of Brutes who are supporting a Henchman or Villain (see page 169 of the 7th Sea Game Masters’ Guide), immediately after the results of the Attack Roll against the Brute are resolved, the Attack Roll is applied to the Henchman or Villain as if the Master has rolled a separate attack. Raises taken against the Brute Squad do not carry over to the attack against the Henchman or Villain, nor does the bonus granted by the Master’s Whirl Knack.

For example, the Vigenére Master is attacking a Villain with a TN to be hit of 25, and who is supported by three Rank 3 Brutes. The Master attacks all three Brutes, calling two Raises, and rolls a 26, modified to a 36 for his Whirl Knack: all three Brutes go down. The Master’s roll of 26 is next competed to the Villain’s TN to be hit of 25: a hit! The Master rolls for damage as if he had made (and succeeded at) a normal attack. If the Master had rolled a 23, all three Brutes would still have been taken out of the fight, but the attack against the Villain would have been a miss.