Path of Fury

 I told you not to fuck with me. Now you're gonna pay.

Pay hard.

The Arts on the Path of Fury are all about smacking someone, or something, around. The Wraith reaches out with her mind and delivers blows into the Liveworld, or across the Deadlands: her Layer breaching the distance between worlds as easily as the distance between people. And as her understanding of the Path grows, she can deliver harder, faster and deadlier damage - perhaps killing with a single blow.

They say the Spooks, who specialize in this Path, like to hurt people. They say that's not true - they just find it incredibly easy to do. And if you're going to get hired to do what you do best... well, who are they to argue?

Look, Ma - No Hands

Much like the Basic Art of Kinesis, the Wraith has the choice of physically "hitting" the Liveworld target, or keeping her hands to herself. The first choice costs less energy than the other, but both will give Tainted Essence due to the destructive energy unleashed.

Likewise, as with * Object in Motion, the Wraith doesn't have to be within striking distance of a Deadlands target to use Fury Arts upon it. This will cost extra Essence to perform, but seeing someone across the field recoil from a blow they might not have seen coming is often priceless.

The Layer is often seen to be wrapped around the Wraith as she punches up close, and extends from her - like an astral double - when she shoves, or attacks from far away. In the case of the latter, the Layer delivers its blow{s}, and then circles back to the Wraith like a fast-moving hawk. When force is extended, the Layer holds off the target, and when the Wraith is delivering numerous blows - as with **** Whirlwind - the Layer makes her look as though she had many arms, one per strike.

Note that weapons cannot normally be used with these Arts, since the Layer will only cover the Wraith's corpus. If the Wraith is using weapons she's Shaped out of herself - such as finger-knives - then the damage will be increased to match the Wraith's change of state.

 

** Hard Shove

The Wraith can give someone one good push away from something, in any direction the Wraith cares to. This doesn't often do damage, unless the person being shoved away was running, or is built like a flimsy scarecrow.

A Wraith can also exert a continuous "wall" of force, keeping people and things a certain distance away from someone, or something. This extended action costs energy to keep going.

 

*** Swift Punch

The Wraith can deliver one good crack to someone - a normal blow, but the target can't really see coming, and therefore can't use her Defense to reduce. The Wraith can also do several small strikes, instead, coming at the target from any direction.

Using *** Swift Punch doesn't garner any Tainted Essence unless it should maim or kill a living target.

 

**** Whirlwind

A step up from the small strikes of *** Swift Punch, this allows the Wraith to do several normal blows, or else one concentrated, deadly strike that does lethal damage. Killing a living target is cause for Tainted Essence, but using the lethal option will cause its accrual no matter what shape the target is left in.

When engaged in this Art, the Wraith's arms strobe through the air, the Layer creating numerous arms ahead and behind of her real ones - a very intimidating sight.

 

***** Death Blow

This gives the Wraith the power to flood a single blow with intense, negative energy, doing aggravated damage to the target. Needless to say, this is cause for quite a bit of Tainted Essence - especially if the target dies from its wound.

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