Country of Origin: Cathay
Dojo: Wat Phra Meru (Small)
Founded: 542 AV

Description: Chin Te, a peasant from Lanna who led his fellow field workers to overthrow a corrupt government official, taught his followers to use their flails as weapons. Today, the fighting style that bears his name uses the same agricultural flails. Chin Te knew that his forces were heavily outnumbered, so he developed techniques to allow his men to stand against multiple attackers.

Practitioners of the Chin Te style sometimes fight with a pair of agricultural flails, but normally they wield only one. The style is built around either keeping the weapon moving so that it will have momentum when it strikes, or adopting one of several stances with the weapon held stationary and a hand on each bar, allowing the wielder to use either hand for his next attack. The weakness of the style is its dependence upon a weapon that cannot be used to parry incoming attacks due to its wooden construction.

An agricultural flail is a small, blunt improvised weapon (1k1 Damage Rating). It cannot be used to determine Passive Defense, nor used in an Active Defense with Parry (Improvised Weapon).

Curriculum: Athlete, Improvised Weapon
Knacks: Disarm (Improvised Weapon), Exploit Weakness (Chin Te), Feint (Improvised Weapon), Sidestep, Whirl (Improvised Weapon)

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: Apprentices learn to be equally comfortable wielding an agricultural flail in either hand, and never suffer an off hand penalty, whether using a single weapon in either hand or two weapons at once. In addition, they receive a Free Raise to all Attack (Improvised Weapon) rolls made while wielding such a flail.

Apprentices receive a free Rank in one of their Swordsman Knacks in lieu of membership in the Swordsman’s Guild.

Journeyman: A Journeyman has mastered a circular attack that allows him to make a second strike using the energy of the rebound from his first strike. To do this, he rolls and resolves his first attack as normal. Then, if that hit is successful, he may immediately spend another Action die, whether or not that Action die is currently “legal” to be used on the current Phase, to make his second attack, which also resolves normally.

Master: Masters learn that even an agricultural flail may be used to block weapons, although it does take a special effort. He may spend a Held or Current Action Die in order to set his weapon (or weapons) into a spinning pattern. The Master rolls Wits + Attack (Improvised Weapon) and may use this as his TN to be hit by any melee weapon, thrown weapon, or unarmed attack until the next time he takes an Action. His TN to be hit by arrows, crossbow bolts, or other such missile weapons (not thrown ones) is unaffected, and anyone shooting a Firearm at the Master gets a Free Raise on his attack roll.