Country of Origin: Vendel
Salon: Kirk (Large)
Founded: 1671
Sanctioned (Duelist’s Guild): 1672

Description: Ava Jensen, a second-generation Vendel, enrolled at the Rasmussen Academy at the tender age of seventeen. Within a year, she dropped out. Though she was a gifted student and a crack shot, she found the lessons in etiquette and other courtly graces frustrating and proved to be a wee bit too…well, bloodthirsty…for the Academy’s instructors. Ava was never content to fire at a distance and draw another pistol; she wanted to charge into the fray (and often did, surprising more than one member of the Swordsman’s Guild when she did so).

Disappointed with her experience at the Academy, but recognizing the value of a rigorous training regimen, Ava worked with her mother (a Castilian expatriate and skilled fencer) to create a hybrid style: one that would allow its students to punish their opponents with both lead and steel. While it took five years and a lot of trial and error to perfect the Techniques, the result was a firearms style intended for close combat, with a rapier wielded in the off hand for defense (and secondary attacks). A Student of the Jensen style typically holds his fire until he has closed within a sword’s length of an opponent, then fires at close range and uses his discharged firearm to bash people on the head. While he is drawing his second pistol, he can intercept melee attacks with his rapier…and deliver devastating counters as well. Should an opponent get past his defenses and inflict damage, the Jensen fighter is prepared to deal with that, too.

Jensen is a predictable style, though. A wise opponent will know that a pistol shot is unlikely to come while a student of the style is at range and can prepare himself for a strong offensive flurry while the distance is being closed. Furthermore, once the pistol has been discharged, the better part of the fighter’s offense is spent; the rapier may present an obstacle, but one that is far less dangerous than a loaded firearm.

Basic Curriculum: Fencing, Firearms
Knacks: Exploit Weakness (Jensen), Point-Blank Shot (Firearms), Pommel Strike (Firearms), Reload (Firearms), Riposte (Fencing)

New Swordsman Knack: Point-Blank Shot. A Point-Blank Shot is a rapid attack with a loaded pistol against an opponent in melee range. It is designed to disrupt a melee attack. When an opponent attacks you and you have a loaded pistol in hand, you may spend a Current or Held Action (but not an Interrupt Action) to perform a Point-Blank Shot against him. To do so, roll Wits + Point-Blank Shot as an Attack Roll against the opponent. If you hit, you deal your normal pistol damage to him. If this causes a Dramatic Wound to your opponent, then the attack he was about to make is canceled without effect and his Action Die is lost.

New Swordsman Knack: Reload. By making a roll of Finesse + Reload vs. a TN of 5, you may contribute one Action towards reloading your weapon, plus one additional Action for each Raise you took on the roll. If you fail to meet your Target Number on this roll, your Action does not contribute towards reloading your weapon, but any other progress made towards reloading your weapon is not lost. This is the same as the Reload Knack found in the Firearms Skill, but it is considered a Basic Knack for students of the Jensen Fighting Style.

Apprentice: Students of Jensen learn to wield a pistol in their main hand simultaneously with a rapier in their off hand. They can do this without restriction, and with no off-hand penalty for the use of the rapier. In addition, they may sheathe, draw, and/or pick up their rapiers (if they have been disarmed or dropped, perhaps to reload a pistol) without spending an Action.

Journeyman: A Jensen Journeyman learns the importance of protecting himself at all times. Needless to say, he has become very good at it. The Journeyman receives a free Rank in his Point-Blank Shot Knack. This may increase the Knack to a six. If it does not, the Journeyman may increase it from a five to a six later by spending 25 XP.

Master: Because a practitioner of Jensen is essentially a front-line fighter, he tends to sustain an abnormally high number of wounds for a gunfighter and has learned techniques to deal with them. Immediately after firing a pistol, the Jensen Duelist may spend a Current, Held, or Interrupt Action to press the heated barrel of his firearm against a wound he has sustained. While this is extremely painful, it cauterizes the wound, stops bleeding, and protects it from further injury. A Jensen Master who does this heals one Dramatic Wound he has sustained in that Scene.