Blade-Handed Dervish

Itshould have been a normal jaunt through the astral. We knew precisely where wewere going, and the colour pool to Ysgard was a familiar sight to us. We’d doneit a hundred times before; what reason did we have to suspect that we’d beattacked?

Well,of course, we’d heard of the githyanki, but who’d have thought they’d have come thisfar away from their territories? We didn’t have so much as a chance to stop andcollect our thoughts when they attacked; within seconds they were among us,cutting at the cords of my comrades with their silver swords, hackingaway at their bodies with blades that were larger than they were. Somehow, we’dmanaged to withstand the initial shock, although half our number had alreadybeen killed. No tactic, however, could have prepared us for the second wave oftheir assault. They sent in the blade-handed dervishes.

Allgithyanki are experts with swords in their own terrifying way. These bashers,though, didn’t frighten us too much. I mean, they didn’t have those great bigswords or anything. Just scimitars - sharp chivs, sure, but not your weapon ofchoice when you’re sending in an army, right? If I knew then what I know now,I’d have had the good sense to call a retreat and try to get the hells out ofthe area. Some of them carried two blades apiece, weaving between us likewasps, slicing at anything that moved - that’s how I lost this arm. Even ourspellflingers weren’t much good against them. I saw Ymid trying to tag themwith fireballsand lightning bolts, but they were nowhere near as devastating as theyought to be. Those damn ‘yanki were swinging their swords about in such a waythat they looked like whirlwinds of steel. No-one could get near ‘em for fearof being minced, and even spells weren’t quite on target.

Theblade-handed dervishes (known as the ket’len kaan in the gith tongue)are a minor sect of warriors within the githyanki community. Not as widelyfeared or royally favoured as the Knights or as respected as the gish, butstill a force to be reckoned with. They are rarely found in great numbers,although they have been known either to band together, or as to operate asspecial forces among squads of githwarriors. Their usual tactic is to enterinto close combat, performing hit-and-run tactics or deep infiltration andharassment in order to throw their enemies into disarray, forcing them to breakformation. They eschew the longer blades favoured by most githyanki, preferringto fight with the scimitar. Since such a weapon is not widely available ingithyanki circles, and many githyanki are too arrogant to use weapons made by‘lesser’ races, they often have to make their own. Some might use shields too,although many find that they interfere with their acrobatics; especially whenthey are on planes with gravity. Some highly skilled dervishes fight with twoscimitars. Such warriors are among the scariest swordsmen in the planes.

ImbueSword:Blade-handed dervishes improve on their initial ability to enhance theirweapons with magic or psionic energy when they gain the ability to imbue swords.Once per day, they are able to give their swords a +1 enhancement bonus to hitand damage; a bonus that increases to +3 at 3th-level and +5 at 5th-level.The bonus does not stack with existing enhancement bonuses, although they itdoes replace it if the bonus granted by the imbue sword power isgreater. The enhancement bonus replaces any bonuses granted by masterworkweapons. This power is most efficacious when used on their scimitars - if usedon any other sword, consider the bonus granted to be two points lower thanlisted, with a minimum bonus of +1. The enhancement bonus granted lasts onehour per class level.

UncannyDodge: at 2ndlevel, the blade-handed dervish receives her Dexterity bonus to her ACregardless of circumstances such as being caught flat-footed or attacked by aninvisible creature. She still loses the bonus if immobilised, however.

DefensiveFlurry: Uponreaching level 4, the blade-handed dervish’s panache with the scimitar is atsuch an advanced state that she is able to use it to greater defensive effect.She can, as a full-round action, perform a series of manoeuvres that grant herone-quarter cover (+2 cover bonus to AC, +1 cover bonus to reflex saves). Ifshe has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat and wields two scimitars while executing adefensive flurry, she receives one-half cover (+4 to AC, +2 to reflex saves)instead, while possession of Improved Two-Weapon Fighting grants an astoundingthree-quarters cover. The cover provided by a defensive flurry surrounds theblade-handed dervish as opposed to the one-sided cover provided by, say, a shieldspell