Avoidance#
Why let a blade touch you at all? Strength is knowing where it won't be.
The rode of not being there. It raises your armor class, so attacks have to roll higher to hit you, armor or no armor.
Ranks and tests#
Armor class. Add it to your armor class, armor or no armor, so attacks have to roll higher to hit you. +2 at rank 1, up to +10 at rank 5. Rodes of war has the rest of its kind.
- Level20Rank 1: Initiate
+2 armor class
Stand in Horas's ring for a full minute against three students with blunted blades, and come out unmarked.
- Level40Rank 2: Walker
+4 armor class
Cross the docks at Maelo on a festival day carrying a full jug, and don't spill it.
- Level60Rank 3: Keeper
+6 armor class
Win a fight you could have won by hitting someone, without hitting anyone.
- Level80Rank 4: Warden
+8 armor class
Draw every attack in a fight away from someone weaker than you, without striking once.
- Level100Rank 5: Exemplar
+10 armor class
Face Horas in his ring. Nobody lands a blow on him; you only have to make sure he doesn't land one on you.
The master#
Horas Daquer fought in Maelo’s dueling rings until nobody would face him. He teaches in a hall by the harbor with no weapons on its walls, only the marks of blades that missed.
Find Horas Daquer at a fencing hall by the harbor at Maelo, in Crecia. Where the masters teach maps all fourteen.
How it shows#
None of this changes a roll. It’s how the people around you can tell what you walk, if you want them to.
- You clench and unclench your fists while you wait.
- You stand side-on to anyone you don’t trust, without meaning to.
Who walks it#
The classes the rode does the most for. Any class can walk it.
Pickpocket
A pickpocket can't afford to be hit, and heavy armor slows the hands.
Scout
Scouts fight in light armor and close in, where every point of armor class counts.
Monk
A monk fights unarmored, so the rode's armor class is armor they don't have to wear.
Hermit
Hermits already live by dodging, and the rode makes them harder still to touch.
The rode finder ranks every rode for a class.
What others say#
I hit him four times. My sword says I hit him four times. He says I hit the air beside him, and he's the one still talking.
Daquer's walkers make terrible guards. They step aside, and so does whatever you hired them to stop.
The duel nobody wins
Two merchant houses of Maelo agreed to settle a feud with a duel, and both hired walkers of avoidance. Neither can land a blow, the duel is in its third day, and the whole town is betting on it.
