The Wretch

Demda · February 13, 2006, 04:36 PM

PC Name:
Demda (Alias known to Imperia's public: Malmada Elder)

Race:
Half-Elf

Age:
Thirty-three (as of the 25th of Ioannes of Era XIV PF)

Physical Description:
Demda's black, coarse hair hangs down to her shoulders, braided in parts but for the most part free flowing. Her skin is a somewhat dusky shade, and darker where the scars lay. One runs from her upper lip down to the nape of her neck. The other is a souvinir of a fight with an orc in the Angry Pit, a small cut grazing just above and below her right eye. Her nose is slightly crooked and flattened where it had once been broken. Her build is short, slight, and flat-chested even for her supposed age, but with a slender tapering waist and gently curving hips. Her eyes are dark brown, almost black.

Major Items/Equipment:

- an Imperial Visa (Malmada Elder)
- a hatchet
- a black-handled kukri and a wooden sheath to go with it.
- a whetstone
- a tent, bedroll, and winter blanket.
- tinderbox with flint and steel
- sleeve sheath
- backpack
- five waterskins
- a satchel
- a small razor
- the clothes on her back
- a pair of brown, leather pants
- a brown, leather shirt
- new, brown, leather boots
- elbow spikes
- knee spikes
- punch cutters
- kick slashers
- cuir bouilli-reinforced sandcloth bodysuit and hijab
- a number of bags of Jamblai tea
- a number of bags of Chamomile tea

Demda · February 27, 2006, 03:19 PM

Adding usage points for when she's used a technique in a post. Crazy? Check.

In no way does this make her stronger. Just trying to get a feel for her style while fighting boredom.

Basic Gicha Hehan: (GM Adder)
Finding herself under new ownership on the first day of winter, Demda is roomed with an elder woman who happens to be an expert of Gicha Hehan. The woman then proceeds to take the half-elf under her wing, and teaches her the basics of the Art of the Blood Lotus.

Elbow strike: a close range attack with the elbows that can be used to strike at weak portions of the opponent's upper-body. Usage: |
Knee strike: a close range attack with the knees, which can be used to strike at weak portions of the opponent's lower-body. Usage: ||
Basic shape recognition: A fundamental understanding of the shapes that take form during combat. The line, the circle, the triangle, and the arc, which ones are utilized in certain movements, and which shapes are best utilized to counteract others. Usage: |||||
Basic acrobatics: A rudimental proficiency in acrobatics, enabling the user to do cartwheels, somersaults, flips, and handsprings. Usage: |||||/|||
Basic parry/counter: the principle of turning aside a blow intended for the user's body, and then utilizing the opening created by the attack to launch a counter. Often, the momentum for the opponent's original attack is used to empower the counter. Usage: |||
Low kick: The shape utilized for this move is an arc, and is usually intended for the vulnerable portions of the opponent's lower body, such as the groin, the shins, and the knees. It can be delivered either to the front or the side of the user. Usage: |||||/|
High kick: The shape of a triangle is formed by this kick, and it is used to target portions of the body that lay above the belt line. Like the low kick, it can be delivered either to the front or the side. Usage: |
Stances: The basic stance of Demda’s style of Gicha Hehan is a constantly swaying motion, from side to side, effectively making her a frustrating target, while also putting her body in a constant state of flux, where the origin of attacks are unpredictable, and constantly shifting. She keeps her knees well bent in the basic stance, with her legs spread out fairly far apart, but not so much or so often as to impede balance. Usage: |||||/|
Animal Instinct: The fundamental principles of avoiding large-scale trouble when the user is outmatched, the basics of releasing pent up anger and how to rely on instinct when it matters the most to survival. Usage: ||
Chain Grab: The chain grab utilizes an arc to block an opponent's incoming attack, whether they attack with an arm or a leg. Once the limb makes contact with the chain, the user wraps it around the said limb, opening the opponent up to a kick to vital areas, or even an elbow if the Demda decides to pull her opponent in close. Usage: ||
Straight Punch: The straight punch is a maneuver that is delivered with both fists at once in the same straight line toward an opponent's head or upper body. It's one of her less utilized moves, but one that is potentially useful for it's versatility as a counter or follow-up. She uses it mostly when probing her opponent's defenses, or in the event that they leave her an opening. Usage: |||
Straight-line drop kick: Demda formulated this technique during a match with an enraged dwarf in Westgate Arena, and used it in conjunction with the forward momentum of her opponent's rush to land a powerful, double-strength kick against his chest, reinforced by her entire body weight behind the kick. The original maneuver hadn't been quite so successful in that first bout, as she attempted a difficult handspring coming off of the kick, but has since replaced the acrobatic maneuver with a compromise of landing on her hands, feet, and rear backwards and facing up off the ground. Usage: ||

Professional Gicha Hehan: (GM Aqua)
Anxious now to further her training in her Zinn’ka, Demda seeks out other practitioners of Gicha Hehan in the dark fortress that is Malice. She asks around, and learns that a man in the Arena named Mirkis has slaves that practice a shackled, unarmed martial art. She approaches Mirkis with an offer: To fight for him in a couple of gladiatorial bouts in exchange for training. Mirkis agrees, and unbeknownst to Demda, intends on keeping the girl to expand his stable of already adequate fighters. Also unknown to Demda, Mirkis turns out to be an ally of her former master, Lash, and through certain circles, manages to get in contact with her master. After her training is completed, and during her second, and final bout under Mirkis, Demda is forced to face lash, much to her shock. She defeats him, but only by pure luck, as some warrior magi lay siege to the arena, breaking into the fighting pit and leaving a tunnel that leads out into the city streets. Demda delivers a debilitating knee strike to Lash’s groin, and runs for her newfound escape route. But not before going into a cave-in and finding her way to her sisters, so she could free them.

White Crane: Having been taught the most intimate details of the bone structure of humanoids, Demda can attack the weak points in their anatomy and dislocate or break the joints/bones of the target area. Examples of targets include the coronal suture at the top of the head, the tarsus or feet, the knee joints, the elbow joints, the eleventh and twelfth ribs, and the fingers. In conjunction with this methodology, she's picked up a few wrist locks. Usage: |||||/|
Nerves: Demda has been taught of various points on the body that can be targeted to elicit reactions of pain, paralysis, and/or spasms. Examples include the mastoid area behind the ears, the solar plexus of the upper abdomen, the brachial plexus area between the shoulders and neck, and the facial nerve just below the forehead and between the eyes. Usage: |||||
Fleeting Fury: Demda has developed her arm muscles to the point where she can support the rest of her body weight while standing on her arms. Having accomplished this feat, she is able to launch a flurry of kicks with both legs at her opponent. This move works best when coming off of a round off or cartwheel. Usage: |||||
Physical Conditioning: Demda has endured conditioning exercises where she was beat with sticks by her trainers for half a candlemark at a time, each day before training. The result is that her muscles have become harder, and more capable of absorbing blunt blows and shrugging them off. Usage: |||
Heel Kicks: Demda has learned a new variation of the basic kicks, where the heel is utilized in as straight a line of attack as possible. At this level, the heel kick mostly focuses on back kicks, both of the spinning and stationary variety, but at later levels, once she’s developed the flexibility of her legs, she might learn to deliver heel kicks to the side, or even to the front. Usage: |
Bent Arrow: This technique begins with a feinting low kick. She begins to move as though to deliver a low kick to her opponent’s groin. Just before committing fully to the attack, she grounds her foot, and uses the extra force to power a knee to her opponent’s face. This is a technique that she’s mostly used with those of smaller stature, namely dwarves and halflings, but it could be adapted to a larger opponent by targeting the ribs, groin, or abdomen with her knee, rather than the face. Sometimes, rather than grounding the feinting leg, she'll maintain a distance by sliding it back from the opponent and substitute the follow-up knee strike with a kick. Needless to say, the feint is really only effective against people who aren't familiar with her style, and those with little training. Usage: |||||/|
Double Kick: Having developed her acrobatics to a point where she can accomplish great leaps, Demda is able to deliver two kicks in quick succession in the course of one jump into the air. Generally this technique is used in a leap forward, but can also be utilized in a stationary upward jump. Usually the kick is delivered with a high kick first, and then a low one, although the order can easily be reversed. Usage: |
Vague Battle Shapes: Demda has begun to grasp the shapes that form and dictate the course of a combat. She can let go of her previous conceptions of the shapes and how they relate to the motions of combat and everyday life, and just let the shapes speak for themselves. Through knowledge of the shapes, she’s achieved a mental focus that allows her to bypass difficult obstacles. Usage: ||
Elbow Uppercut: This technique is a variation of the elbow strike learned at basic. Demda merely brings her elbow upwards in an arc. Preferable areas of attack are the chin, neck, or the nose. Usage: |
Thorns: This combination is a specific defense in response to an opponent’s attempt to grapple with her. First Demda targets the inside nerve on one of the incoming arms with her elbow while simultaneously grasping the wrist with her free hand. During the initial strike, she takes a daring step in between his arms and then swings the same elbow across her opponent’s temple. Afterward, while her opponent is dazed, she delivers a knee to his solar plexus, an elbow uppercut to the chin, and finishes it off with an attempted straight punch toward the jugular. Usage: |
Hammer Strike: This technique entails a forming of a double fist and a swing of Demda’s arms from a position above her head. Potential targets include the coronal suture, brachial plexus, the ear (in the case of a sideways hammer strike), and radial nerve. Usage: |
Ankle Sweep: While propping herself up on her arms and with one foot on the ground, Demda sweeps her leg, sometimes both, attacking her opponent's ankle or knee to help unsettle his balance. This move can work well when coming out of an acrobatic roll that aims to take her within her opponent's measure. Usage: |||
Shackled Grapple: Demda has achieved more proficiency in grappling with an opponent using her chains (when she has them), and can pull an opponent further along with his attack, giving her more force with which to apply a knee or reverse elbow strike. Usage: |
Double Uppercut: Since the hands of Gicha Hehan practitioners are often shackled, techniques formed that followed this basic limitation. The Double Uppercut is similar to the uppercuts of other styles, in that it forms a hook with the arm that travels on an upward trajectory. In this case, both hands move at the same time, never removed from each other by more than a few fists. Hence different areas might be targetted by the punch. For example, Demda could aim one of her fists for the chin, while the other seeks the throat. Usage: |
Headbutt: A strike delivered with the thicker portion of Demda's forehead, usually against weak points on her opponent's face such as the nose, jaw, facial nerve, and so on. Usage: |
Leaping Kick: A simple high kick performed at the apex of a leap forward. Demda developed this during the training for her third petal. Usage: |

Elite Gicha Hehan: (GD Fox)
Having learned from the raptorian leader of the Scavengers, Zverak, that there is an expert who could impart to the girl her third petal, Demda went to the supposed expert, Amanda, and had a short, terse talk with her about her past. She ended up upsetting the woman when she revealed that her primary purpose in being there was to attain her third petal. Nevertheless, Amanda agreed to teach Demda.

Ultimately, her relationship with Amanda left something to be desired, as Demda didn’t quite succeed in befriending her. Despite that, given a few cycles, she was finally able to achieve the third petal.

Sphere Kick: Demda's awareness of where her limbs can reach in relation to her own body have been learned on an instinctual level, and she can launch a kick in almost any direction around her, given the proper physical mechanisms and positioning of the rest of her body. Usage: |
Cold Mind: Demda has learned to put aside her anger, emotions, and outrage for the sake of focusing purely on the rhythm of the fight. As a result, she is less prone to starting things with other people, more cunning in the throes of combat, and generally less volatile. Usage: |
Vanguard: Taking the ability to turn aside physical blows to the next level, Demda had acquired a knowledge of the weaknesses of the weapons she has faced. For example, she’s learned that spears are mostly useful for thrusting, and thus can be parried at the shaft or on the flat of it’s blade, just as she might do for a sword. Taking this methodology just a step further, she’s learned to use shape grapples to both bypass the point of danger of a weapon, and disarm the wielder. Usage: |
Mosaic: Demda has achieved an evolving sense of awareness of the various shapes and combinations thereof that take form during combat. She’s learned to apply shapes to techniques to make them more devastating and effective. Her knowledge of the shapes allows her to effect control over the flow of most combats, and in turn makes them more predictable to her, while making her own motions less so to the enemy. Usage: ||
Combat Acrobatics: At this level, the knowledge of acrobatics was taken to the next level, where Demda was introduced to the concept of bringing more complex acrobatic maneuvers into close range combat. As well, she’s learned some new moves, flips, cartwheels, and rolls that can be combined with certain shapes to form effective attacks or defenses. Usage: |
Scissor Takedowns: Demda has learned to use both of her legs in order to take down an opponent who is just coming off of a maneuver, and hasn’t quite had the time to balance himself out. The scissor takedowns are best performed while coming off of a cartwheel, walkover, or similar move where the hands act as the balancing agent in the person’s body while the legs remain poised in the air or across the ground. Usage: ||
Scorpion Kick: Taking the instinctual knowledge imparted by the Sphere Kick methodology, Demda has devised a maneuver where, in a feat of great flexibility, she brings her leg up behind her back and over the back of her head, into an opponent’s body. Obviously one of the closer ranged moves, but one that has the added value of deception, as Demda bows down before her opponent, perhaps placing her hands on the ground and then launching the kick. Usage: |
Broken Triangle: An evolved variant of Broken Arrow, with added power for a more specific target area, and performed with only one leg. Whereas an ordinary high kick would form the shape of a triangle with the motions of her center of balance and that of her feet, this method broke the motion lines that would normally form with such a maneuver. She lifts her knee while shifting her body away from her opponent, and then, stretching her arms forward, she throws her body ahead, simultaneously stomping down or kicking out at the lower portion of his/her anatomy. The usual targets are the groin, shin, knee, and sometimes the foot. Demda's muscles have loosened to such a degree that she can perform this with either her heel, or the balls of her feet. Usage: |
Low Stances: A different form of close stance usually employed as a way of altering the prime target areas, and adding an extra element of unpredictability to the combat. Demda squats low to the ground in this stance, shifting from side to side somewhat slower than the upright stances, while her arms are held up higher on her body, covering attacks toward her head. She can easily, although not without added risk, place her hands on the ground, taking on the posture of a cat while crouching lower to the ground, with her knees now behind her. From there, it's a short trip to performing a scorpion kick, or any other techniques that require a start in the handstand position. Usage: |

Demda · June 5, 2006, 06:17 PM

Gicha Hehan: Elite

Total = 16 Experience (17 Pending Completion)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spear: Basic

Into the Angry Pit: 2 Experience

Total = 2 Experience

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Short blade (slashing): Veteran

Total = 7 Experience

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stealth: Basic

Total = 3 Experience

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Politics: Inept

Total = -3 Experience

Demda · August 26, 2006, 04:13 AM

Era XII Post Fractum:

Autumn: Months of Imperos and Junctior

0 cr. starting balance
+192 cr. in wages from the Phoenix Legions
-15 cr. when she was robbed by Morgan Brockenhurst
-0 cr. for living expenses (mooching off the Legion)
177 cr. as of the end of Junctior

Era XIII Post Fractum:

Winter: Months of Kalendryas, Immanis, Ponutis, and Melora

192 cr. starting balance
+250 cr. in wages from the Phoenix Legions
-110 cr. for clothes
-124 cr. for survival equipment.
-9 cr. for renting a room at the Ravaged Sea Inn for a cycle.
-15 cr. for renting a suite at the Golden Dragon Inn for a brightening.
-0 cr. for living expenses (mooching off the Legion and eating dry rations for a month.
184 cr.

Spring: Months of Cryxatum, Aperitus, Optia

184 cr. starting balance
-34 cr. for sandcloth bodysuit and veiled hijab
-80 cr. for fitting a sandcloth bodysuit with reinforced cuir bouilli plates.
-60 cr. for fine steel kukri
14 cr.

I now keep track of Demda's money through an excell spreadsheet. She's kinda poor up until Junctior of Era XIII and being supported by friends. From the first of Junctior, however, she makes 200 crowns per cycle with an expense account for food, clothing, and a house she can use for as long as she's Constable of Imperia. So that's 1000 crowns per month. Fast forward to Melora of Era XIV and she has 5000 crowns to spend. Alrighty?

Era XIV Post Fractum

Spring: Months of Immanis, Ponutis, Melora

2000 starting balance
+3000 from job as Chief Constable of Imperia
-260 for purchase of tea from Kerwyn's Herb shop or whatever
4740 cr.

After this point she does nothing but eat, and is essentially out of work. So about twenty crowns going down per cycle, buying food for herself, add to that ten crowns per cycle for misc expenses, up until the month of Ioannes, when her child is born. Then she starts spending ten crowns more for living expenses for the child, and also pays for Yolanda's food, as she serves as a wet nurse when Demda is unavailable (this was part of her job elsewhere in the city during Demda's pregnancy). At the beginning of Kalendryas she has about 3490 crowns That's where I'll start tracking her expenses.

Era XV Post Fractum:

Winter: Kalendryas

3490 starting balance
-100 crowns for living expenses for herself
-75 crowns for living expenses for Yolanda
-50 crowns for misc expenses
-125 for passage with a caravan to Arakmat
-50 crowns for living expenses for Sissy
3090 cr.

Winter: Immanis, Ponutis, and Melora

3090 cr. starting balance
-50 cr. for misc. expenses (up to the end of Immanis, when the Sanctum of the Open Hand starts paying for Demda's living expenses.)
-50 cr. for living expenses for Sissy (up to the end of Immanis, when the Sanctum of the Open Hand starts paying for Demda's living expenses.)
-100 cr. for living expenses for herself (up to the end of Immanis, when the... yeah see above.)
2890 cr.

Demda · October 16, 2006, 03:53 PM

To be developed further...