The Fantasy Armory · Chapter 11
Flexible Weapons
Flexible weapons buy control and pay for it in reliability. Damage is the lowest in the book, and most entries will not drop anyone unaided.
Ensnare is the family's reason to exist: it takes a target's turn rather than its wounds, and no other family carries it in quantity. Wrapping is the second, and it ignores a shield's Defensive and Deflection entirely, which against a shield wall is worth more than damage.
Inaccurate appears on nearly every entry. These are support weapons, best carried alongside something that does the killing.
Skill: Light Melee unless noted. At tables using a single undifferentiated Melee skill, use Melee throughout.
Garrote
Strangling Wire, Bowstring, Silken Cord
+0 2 Engaged 0
Light Melee 50 Restricted Crushing Concealable 3, Ensnare 2, Awkward 3
A wire or cord between two handles, carried wound around the hand or sewn into a belt. Concealable 3 is the highest rating in the book and Crit 2 among the lowest, which suits a weapon used on an unprepared target.
Awkward 3 applies against anyone facing the wielder, in a crowd, or in a confined space, which covers most combat. Treat the garrote as a tool for an unopposed kill rather than a weapon for a fight.
Whip
Bullwhip, Sjambok, Cat-o'-Nine-Tails, Knout
+0 5 Engaged, Short 1
Light Melee 30 Common Cutting Reach, Ensnare 1, Disarming 1, Inaccurate 1
Braided leather with a weighted fall. It does no meaningful damage to anyone wearing a coat, and it will take a blade out of a hand at eight feet. Carried by drovers, slavers, and duellists who intend to humiliate rather than kill.
Net
Retiarius Net, Casting Net, Gladiator Net, Throwing Net
— — Engaged, Short 2
Light Ranged 35 Common — Ensnare 3, Limited Ammo 1, Inaccurate 1
A net deals no damage and has no damage type. It does one thing, and Ensnare 3 is the strongest immobilisation in this book, matched only by the mancatcher.
Thrown once, then it is on the ground and someone has to go and get it. Retrieving a net is a maneuver if it is at your feet and an errand if it is not.
Weighted Chain
Kusari-Fundo, Manriki, Chain Whip, Surujin
+1 4 Engaged, Short 2
Light Melee 70 Military Crushing Reach, Ensnare 1, Wrapping, Inaccurate 1
Four feet of heavy links, often with a weight at one end. It reaches, it tangles, and it goes around a shield. It is also close to unaimable, and it will not put anyone down on its own.
Meteor Hammer
Liú Xīng Chuí, Rope Dart, Flying Hammer
+3 3 Engaged, Short 3
Heavy Melee 110 Military Crushing Reach, Wrapping, Knockdown, Momentum 1, Inaccurate 2, Awkward 2
A heavy iron ball on a long chain, kept moving in a circle and released along its arc. The highest damage in the family and by far the least controllable. Inaccurate 2 is the worst accuracy in the book, shared only with the urumi, and the weapon genuinely wants the wielder to be moving when it lands.
Three-Section Staff
Sanjiegun, Three-Part Staff, Chain Staff, Jointed Staff
+2 4 see profiles 2
Heavy Melee 45 Rare Crushing Versatile, Inaccurate 1
Folded +2 Crushing Defensive 1
Extended +2 Crushing Reach, Wrapping; loses Defensive 1
Three hardwood batons joined end to end by two short chains. Folded, two sections lie along the forearm and the third is held, and the whole thing is a staff with a hinge in it. Swung out, it is six feet of weapon with a free end moving faster than any solid haft can move.
Neither profile is the good one. Folded, it covers the wielder. Extended, it reaches, it goes around a shield, and it covers nothing at all. Inaccurate 1 applies either way, because the free end goes where its own momentum sends it.
Kusarigama
Chain Sickle, Sickle-and-Weight, Kama-and-Chain
+2 3 see profiles 3
Heavy Melee 120 Rare see profiles Versatile, Inaccurate 1
Chain Crushing Reach, Ensnare 1
Sickle Cutting Vicious 1; loses Reach and Ensnare
A short sickle on one end of a weighted chain. The chain entangles at distance and the sickle finishes at contact, and switching between them is a maneuver. The only weapon in the family that can actually kill someone unassisted, and it needs two hands and a great deal of practice.
Urumi
Chuttuval, Whip Sword, Coiled Blade, Belt Sword
+2 3 Engaged, Short 1
Heavy Melee 60 Rare Cutting Reach, Sweep 2, Concealable 2, Inaccurate 2, Unwieldy 4
A band of spring steel as long as a whip and no thicker than a ribbon, sharpened along both edges and worn wound around the waist beneath a sash. Drawn, it is a whip with an edge. Worn, it is a belt.
Nothing else in this book puts Reach, Sweep 2, and Concealable 2 on one line. No other weapon can be carried openly into a room where weapons are not permitted and still threaten two people at Short range.
The rest of the line is the bill. Inaccurate 2 is the worst accuracy in the book, shared only with the meteor hammer, and Unwieldy 4 means a wielder below Agility 4 adds Bane to every check with it. An urumi in unpractised hands is a hazard mostly to the person holding it.
