Country of Origin: Crescent Empire (Only Qatihl’i may learn this style)
Salon: Mount Ozayrat (Small)
Founded: 781 AV

Description: Qor’qunq is the assassination style of the Qatihl’i. It is a vicious, deliberate style focusing on striking deeply and fatally. An assassin using the Qor’qunq style will take his time looking for the right strike, and then spring forward with a lethal blow.

The sect’s calculating patience is both Qor’qunq’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness, because it allows the assassin to conserve his energy but also gives his prey a chance to fight back or escape.

Basic Curriculum: Knife, Spy
Knacks: Exploit Weakness (Qor’qunq), Feint (Knife) Lunge (Knife), Poison, Wall of Steel (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.

New Swordsman Knack: Poison. When diplomacy fails and a military victory is impossible, an ounce of arsenic will sometimes suffice. This Knack lets you know what poison to use and how much to administer, as well as how to handle it safely. Your GM will have rules for using this Knack in the Game Masters’ Guide. This is the same as the Poison Knack in the Spy Skill, but it is considered to be a Basic Knack for students of the Qor’qunq style.

Apprentice: The Apprentice of Qor’qunq is skilled at using his knife to make a single, deadly attack. He receives a free Raise on any Lunge he attempts with a knife. If this is the first attack he makes in a Round, he instead receives one free Raise per Mastery Level.

Students of Qor’qunq do not receive membership in the Swordsman’s Guild. Instead, they receive a free Rank in the Throat Strike Knack, as a Specialty Knack, if they do not have access to Throat Strike in one of their Skills. This does not count against the student’s limit of three Specialty Knacks.

Journeyman: Journeymen have learned to hold their strike while waiting for an opening. When they strike using a Held Action, their Damage Roll is increased by two times the number of Phases they have Held the Action. For instance, if a Journeyman’s Action Die shows a two and he Holds the Action until Phase six, he gets +8 to his Damage Roll.

Master: Masters are capable of harming their victims with the slightest of blows. When they successfully strike an opponent with a knife, they may expend one (and only one) Drama Die to inflict one Dramatic Wound in addition to any other damage that the attack would inflict. This Dramatic Wound is inflicted before the Damage Roll is made, and then the Wound Check is made against the Wounds inflicted by the attack.