Awesome / Way of the Tiger

Book 0

Ninja!

• The Ninja no Chigiri, or Ninja Covenant of those who follow the Way of the Tiger is a suitably Badass Creed.
  "I will vanish into the night; change my body to wood or stone; sink into the earth and walk through walls and locked doors. I will be killed many times, yet will not die; change my face and become invisible, able to walk among men without being seen."
• Your patron deity is the ridiculously metal Kwon the Redeemer, or, "He Who Speaks the Holy Words of Power", also known as "The Supreme Master of Unarmed Combat".
• What description we get of the obscenely difficult training the Monks of Kwon are subjected to on the Island of Tranquil Dreams. Hanging from tree branches by your arms for hours, flat-out sprint endurance conditioning for fifty miles while not allowing a thirty foot ribbon to touch the ground. Meditation to control pain dealt to you in combat, holding yourself motionless for prolonged periods of time, breath-control and cultivating/summoning Inner Force to increase striking power.
• Aiko, your lady ninja friend, using ventriloquism to imitate a "hapless" noblewoman to get a gang of ronin to lower their guard; then leaping out of concealment and launching a flying kick into one's face, pole-axing him.
• Gorobei, your elder fellow monk in the Grandmaster Trial, shows off his martial chops by bear-hugging an armored ronin to death, utilizing his own Inner Force to crush him in his grip. Sure, the armor was wooden, not metal, but still!
• With the skills of 'Climbing' and 'Picking Locks/Disarming Traps' it is possible to infiltrate Singing Wind's mansion residence, avoid all the guards and garrotte Mutari the brigand leader in his sleep. All without having to risk a Fate Roll.
• There is a fantastic description of you successfully making your way across the rock garden, slipping between the patrols like a shade and bounding across the pool's irregular boulders like stepping stones. Just make sure you have the skill of 'Acrobatics'.
• Chigeru, the eldest of your party, has some unique Qi tricks as befitting of his age and experience. When three monks of the Scarlet Mantis beat him up on the road and tie him up to torture. He separates his mind-body connection to the point his organism plainly disbelieves he's being stabbed! He even throttles one of his torturers to death with his calves when you distract the ne'er-do-wells. He can then bestow a minor healing touch on you and goes on to mind-trick/hypnotise the samurai sentries in the City of Nara.
• If you retrieve the flag of Lemné, you are free to trek cross country to Takahiri without following the roads in a little-known third path, confronting both a very dangerous spirit from Japanese folk-lore and then facing Bofu the Apostate and his merry band in a bamboo grove out of a Wuxia action-flick.
  • This can lead to perhaps your first instance of using the insanely awesome 'Teeth of Tiger Throw'. Which involves jumping up until your body is horizontal, wrapping your ankles around the opponent's neck and twisting violently all in one to fling them into a spiral take-off. In this case, the flashy, glorious stunt sends this foe spinning into the trees to knock him out instantaneously!
    • Even better? Their leader's ignominious defeat means the rest of the outlaws high-tail it out of there, rather than mess with you.
• Nao, an "infiltration specialist" of a criminal syndicate, is one of the few characters left in legitimate awe when he (armed to the teeth) is batted aside by the monstrous Pit Feeder, only for you to pummel it to death with your hands and feet. And he regards you with considerable respect after you save his life.
• For the eagle-eyed reader, there are early references to several villains you may, or may not encounter later. Including: Aiguchi "the Dagger", who sends the monks of Vile you encounter to track down and kill you and your compatriots. You can fall afoul of a near army of the brother chapter ninja of the Way of the Scorpion; their Ryu hidden within the Forest of Kami; and barely escape with your life. Even Manse the Deathmage and Daimyo Jikkyu attempt your murder throughout this prologue story.
• Daon, the last, but certainly not the least of the monks of Kwon can fight and slaughter up to ten of the twelve Hainu (winged-timber wolves) all on his lonesome. As though that isn't badass enough on its own, he's doing it as he charges up a snowy mountain at Manse while the sorcerer prepares a dread incantation!
• Our protagonist can carry a heavily wounded Daon across the blizzard-racked Mountains of Unlimited Devotion on their back without succumbing to frostbite or hypothermia. And can be visited by the Spirit Tiger for the first time in the series. When a recovering Daon asks how on Orb you survived the trek to a place of sanctuary, you blithely reply that "Kwon walked with me."
• If you decide to climb the burning mast of the Cutter in the climactic scenario and have assassinated the captain of said ship. The disorganized archers fire a volley at you. With the absolutely indispensable skill of 'Arrow Cutting', our protagonist deflects multiple shafts with their iron sleeves, one after the other, notable since it's usually one!
• Defeating the Abomination of Nemesis is really not possible unless you put everything you have into a lucky Winged Horse Kick and utterly pulverize it. Its touch drains your Inner Force on top of doing obscene damage and if you have no mojo left, your life is forfeit - but even an Abomination is not enough to stop an Avenger in training!
• Our protagonist shattering a war-ship's rudder wheel under three kicks! Without Inner Force!

Book 1

Avenger!

• The eponymous protagonist can not only defeat their elder prospective Grandmaster contestant in a martial arts duel but become the youngest Grandmaster of the Five Winds in their order's history. You have to assume that your hero is about seventeen years old!
• Glaivas lays out his badass-credentials at being able to uncover Yaemon's plot to bind Kwon in Inferno, but admits that for all his skill, the Grandmaster of Flame would annihilate him in single combat. He then questions whether Avenger could possibly have any hope of succeeding, leading to this exchange:
  Glaivas: You are young. Can you succeed where I, a Ranger Lord, would fail?
  Avenger: I am ninja.
• During the encounter with the sea pirates and their Ogre shock-troop, it's mentioned when performing the Winged-Horse Kick that you are aiming the outside of your foot at the brute's throat; the Ogre is nine foot tall! So you can imagine the Simone Biles level of gymnastics you must be performing to reach such a high target.
• You can also be gifted with the image of witnessing Avenger once again achieve the impossible and grab an arrow from the air as it speeds towards his chest; while he is in free-fall!
• The bad guys get a moment of awesome build-up when you reach the City of Doomover, where it's whispered that Honoric, Marshal of the Legion of Doom, once slew a Storm Giant in single-combat and personally butchered forty men at the Battle of Hollow Hill.
• Not to mention the stories of how Yaemon has been Grandmaster for over fifty seasons and it is widely agreed upon that no being on the whole of Orb is a match for him in single combat.
• To get the second secret method of assassinating Manse, you must win two three-on-one confrontations. One with the drunk Aveneg conscripts before you leave Doomover and the trio of Warrior Priests of Nemesis that are sent to pursue you because of your lack of subtlety.
• In another path, you can infiltrate the Temple to Vile without resorting to climbing along the ceiling and in a blasé description it is mentioned that Avenger walks on their hands for an hour to cross a room filled with gossamer trap-wires!
• Winning the entirely optional King of the Castle blood-sport contest underneath Mortavalon, if only for the gladiatorial audience's reactions to all your successful kills and showcases of ninja badassery.
• The Mystic, Togawa, who was once a Grandmaster of your order, saving you from a Rock Hulk with an Inner Force-powered spinning roundhouse kick he's dubbed Kwon's Flail. The attack floors the ten-foot-tall granite-armored beast in one blow! Not to be outdone, Avenger then masters this technique in all of an afternoon.
• When infiltrating Quench-heart Keep, Avenger at one point keeps themselves supported in the corner of a ceiling bathed in shadow for twenty minutes, while patrols move below him, never moving a muscle and breathing inaudibly. It's incredibly atmospheric and awesomely understated, compared to the more fantastical feats Avenger performs.
• Avenger's audacious scheme to assassinate Honoric while he sleeps. Since you can't get close without his magic sword warning him of your approach, you end up climbing into the space above Honoric's bed, dangling a waxed string directly over his mouth, and then pouring the Blood of Nil down the string. Even better, this method was supposedly really used according to historical sources from the Edo Period.
• Grinding Manse's skinny neck into the ground until it snaps like a twig under your heel is incredibly gratifying after the comrades he's slain and the numerous times he can kill you in some horrific fashion in both this book and the prequel.
  • Even better, because his black sorcery makes Manse the ultimate Glass Cannon. Let him get one spell off at you and you are a dead ninja. Then you bring Honoric's Infinity +1 Sword Sorcerak into his room. Not only is it sentient, can fly, cause fear in its opponent and shear through steel, it also exudes an anti-magic field. Manse, once unstoppable, is reduced to empty bluster and threats before you instagib him.
• 'Poison Needles' as a ninja skill is immensely useful, especially in this book. Allowing you to insta-kill or weaken numerous adversaries. But Yaemon utterly no-sells your surprise attack on both occasions that you can try it.
  • First, he snatches said needle out of mid-air, inches from his cheek.
  • Second, he literally blows off your attempt! And this is during the night, in driving rain.
• In the final confrontation with Yaemon, it is possible for you to send a "stream" of shuriken at the throat of your father's killer. Yaemon has no iron sleeves so he's in trouble, right? Wrong. He physically bats them off course with the flats of his palms while avoiding their prongs, meaning he slaps them away in an up-down motion of the elbow and shoulder. How can something so silly be so awesome?!
• It is entirely possible to curb-stomp Yaemon without taking any damage in return within two Inner Force-assisted blows. You can even cherry tap him with what should be minor damage when he has a mere 2 Endurance left.

Book 2

Assassin!

• If you take a stand at the central drum tower-roof of Quench-heart Keep, knocking the soldiers down the spiral staircase, then stunning the Bailiff's Bodyguard with one chop, the entire contingent of the Legion of the Sword of Doom sees that you have beaten Yaemon to death and this is the straw that breaks the camel's back as they promptly flee from you!
• Although this could be done in 'Avenger!', you can run straight into a "weakened" fifteen-foot eldritch being, trapped in the sewers beneath Quench-heart. An Elder God that can quite easily kill you in a couple of hits. To get past, you must defeat it and it is no easy task.
• Your Avenger can have the meteor-iron balls to sit down in the nearest town after their triple-assassination of three of the most powerful men alive to order a hearty breakfast! Just make sure you've invested in 'Acrobatics' if you want to survive your temerity!
• Outrunning the war hound pursuit and the fact that there are two distinct paths to take for replay-value. One through the Goblin's Teeth Mountains and one underneath the Sea of the Star.
• When you take on Tyutchev, Cassandra, and Thaum (of Talisman of Death fame) all at once, some careful planning and Fate's blessing will allow you to knock out both Cassandra and Thaum within seconds, with only a sudden interruption preventing you from kicking Tyutchev's ass as well. That especially goes for choosing to attack Thaum the wizard first before he can cast a spell, which the book itself will compliment as a sharp move.
• In the same combat, you may end up facing Cassandra alone: pick the right move and you avoid Cassandra's magic sword, trip her and smash her face into the floor, keeping her out of commission for the rest of the fight.
• The aforementioned interruption is caused by Mardolh, the son of Nil, Mouth of The Void, the abomination offspring off a God of Evil, who has chosen this inconvenient moment to bust through the wall like the goddamned Kool-Aid Man. If you haven't learned Kwon's Flail, or possess a Sun-Star Ring or better yet, a Water Elemental Crystal, then be prepared for a titanic battle that you'll need some balls-out die rolling just to survive.
• A villainous moment of awesome for Mandrake, guildmaster of assassins. If you do not act precipitously when the disguised hitman approaches you, or if you've exhausted Kwon's miracle favor already, you're already dead. Despite your own legendary reflexes, he's slick and quick enough to hurl an envenomed dagger right into your heart before you can launch any attack of your own.
• When confronted with attack-ambush options for the monstrous O-Bakemono, a scaled Eotan that is casually splintering tree trunks between his fingers to collect lumber, you have three options - the idiotic garrote attempt, the slightly more successful spider-fish venom poisoning to overcome his hideous constitution, or you can run up behind him and - in a move straight out of Road House (1989) - bust his head into pulp and bone shards while bellowing as you release Inner Force!
• Using the Blood of Nil to once again dispatch otherwise unstoppable foes, this time either the Hanya or the Arabaru-Kami.
• The Way of the Scorpion ninja beholden to the Supreme Principal of Evil, manages to assassinate all six of your samurai guards and can also screw you over entirely by flinging a Metsubushi trick egg into your face. The shell bursts and releases a primitive acidic mixture comprised of ash, chilli seeds and other corrosives right into your eyes. Blinded, Avenger actually manges to deflect two sword blows by hearing alone - it is not enough to save you, but an impressive feat nonetheless.
• If the ninja of the Way of the Scorpion manages to garrote you, the only way to survive is to use the oft-overlooked Feigning Death skill. In which case, you slow down your vitals, hear the prat crow in triumph as he thinks he's avenged Manse and Yaemon, and then when he goes to see your dead face and gloat some more, you surge out of the trance and sucker-punch him across the room!
• The Bare-Handed Blade Block you pull off when he means to bisect your skull in half with his ninjato sword, if but for his expression of utter shock and dismay at your feat - an expression that is obvious even with his ninja head wrap!

Book 3

Usurper!

• Avenger learning one of the two highest arts that the Grandmaster of the Dawn can teach you - either Shin-Ren, the reading of the heart or Yubi-Jutsu, nerve-striking. Within a few months, Avenger has mastered the new skill to the same (if not greater) extent that the Grandmaster himself has!
• Once again, you get a great forking path for how you wish to journey to Irsmuncast neigh Edge. Either pal along with Glaivas through the Valley of the Lich-Kings or retrace your steps across the Manmarch; crawling with the champions of the gods of evil!
• If you take the former path, there is an awe inspiring set-piece where Nemesis Himself, summons a Cauldron Fiend from the City of Brass in the Elemental Plane of Fire to drag your soul down to torment! In an epic acid trip sequence, Avenger leads this invincible djinn on an astral chase to the gates of the Seven Heavens and calls on the Spirit Tiger for aid to be their salvation. The glorious albino beast rips the Fiend apart with her teeth and claws.
• When facing off against Aiguchi in the Circle of Vasch-ro, the War God. For the multiplicity of choices you have in how to approach the trial by combat, which starts off as a battle of attrition similar to a sniper duel.
• Either surviving against or defeating and humiliating Honoric once more!
• The Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Paladin, Doré le Jeune pulling off a Big Damn Heroes, cutting his way through the Usurper's army and riding into the throne room on his piebald mare to aid Avenger in their Darkest Hour. You have been dealing Scratch Damage to Astaroth, the Seventh Duke of Hell and he has summoned three demon servants to annihilate your mortal life. While you take on Demon Centaur Scourge, Doré takes on two huge demon hyenas and Astaroth all at once! By the time you've banished an Inner Force-immune Scourge back to Dis; Doré has also banished both demons and taken Astaroth from a minimum of 17/33 Endurance, all the way down to 6! And negated his damage-soaking field!
  • Though this supreme effort does end with the Paladin slumped at Astaroth's feet, leading to...
• You soaring across the room to drive Iron Fist Punches into the Demon Lord's face until he too is sent back to hell!
  • In the updated re-release, if you pray to the statuette of Dama Gwyneth gives you when swearing her allegiance. The great statue of her deity's likeness, the Shieldmaiden of the Gods, comes alive to battle the demons with you! And this divinely animated construct does an even better job of softening up your opponents than Doré does!
• If you have gained the neutrality or support of Golspeil's mercenaries, then the Swordmaidens of Dama can topple the 5000-strong standing Army of the Usurper with a force of 3000. The 10,000 ramblers that comprise the mob also require the last-minute support of Onikaba's Samurai war-party.

Book 4

Overlord!

• In a very easy to miss segment, you can actually gain a point of popularity for imprisoning the Lord High Steward on your first day of office! Just be sure to have a middling dice roll when you elect to teach him a lesson for turning his back on you and invest in 'Acrobatics'.
• If you have Foxglove on your privy council, you will lose a point of popularity but it is worth it to be able to beat Mandrake at his own game; with significantly reduced risk to your royal person!
• No matter the outcome of whether Mandrake attacks you outside the Star Chamber or in Kwon's Temple, Avenger kills the Master Assassin with two blows!
• Putting well-placed trust in Force-Lady Gwyneth will score you loads of popularity, but it will also cost you two points when her star actually eclipses yours in the city's hearts. The Priests of Nemesis make a final play, (through the fickle mob) to urge Gwyneth's forces into a suicidal "punitive expedition" towards the Rift. For your life, and Irsmuncast's survival, you must order her to stand down.
• Infiltrating the Valley of the Scorpion and taking on up to three ninja sentries.
  • One optional, katana-wielding ninja, who has 9 defense against all your attacks!
  • The trap-door-spider camouflaged hatch, containing a ninja armed with a Kusarigama. You can take him out instantly with a poison needle if you choose to approach in the right direction and he lauds your talent as he dies.
  • Not falling for the decoy ninja and driving a spear hand into his throat.
• The falling mirror trap, tended by a morning-star-swinging priest of Nemesis.
• Every instant of the duel with the Grandmaster of Shadows. From the tension, to the feints and trickery, to the wealth of ninja weaponry involved. From a scabbard concealing a blinding mixture that's released in an arc with an Iado draw, to an Eskrima stick that is in actuality a switch-blade activated Kama sickle.
• When Avenger loses their left eye to the Grandmaster's last-ditch surprise attack. Your combat modifiers take a negative hit but you lose no Endurance!
• The Paladin King of Haven-of-Tor utterly butchering a blue lightning dragon with three swings of his Guts-level Dragonslayer sword.
• Before that, Avenger can save the king's son from the lightning dragon's maw and shatter its scaled nose with a Qi-enforced Leaping Tiger Kick!
• Avenger can survive the Kraken without an Amulet of Nullaq, by waiting for the great cephalopod to lift the elven swan ship you're sailing from the Elemental Sea, then as it draws you close to eat, chuck a shuriken through its gloopy eye, ripping it out!

Book 5

Warbringer!

• Avenger gaining the Orb of Kings as their Magical Eye. It's clear where Looking Glass Studios got their inspiration for Garrett's new look in the Thief Series. If you have Avenger try putting it in their empty eye socket and ride out the momentary pain of its magical implantation, they'll gain not only their normal sight and modifiers back but also the ability to see through magic illusions and extra-dimensional invisibility! In addition, the book will note that afterwards Avenger cuts a very distinctive image with their new implant, impressing the entire court.
• When a squad of orc arbalists loose their crossbows at Avenger, you can somersault over their heads and deflect one of the better-aimed bolts with your iron sleeve - right into the spine of another orc!
• No better display can be shown of how many levels you've taken in badass when you hurl an Inner Force-powered shuriken with enough power to shatter the Dark Elf commander's black steel magic sword to metal splinters.
• The Air Jousting against Shadazar's Lizard-Vulture if you turn yourself into a Griffin with the Vulcan Imp potion.
• If you try and convince the Republic of Serakub to lend you military aid, Avenger uses the Sceptre's +10 Charisma powers to sway the senate bole's representatives of the Temples of Good. When a Priestess of Nullaq realises you're using magic to persuade the delegates to your cause, she denounces you loudly as a trickster! The only viable option to acquire the alliance still is to flat-out ignore her! Like a boss!
• Defeating Honoric for what can be up to a third time in the series! Though this can easily be the most satisfying instance as you manage to punch his 80's porn mustache off his face in front of his entire army; disgracing him before his men, as they renege on the duel and rescue the Marshal from your fists and feet. Even better, since it was he who threw down the gauntlet and challenged you to battle by champion when he was facing forces that his own army outnumbered 2-to-1!
• Winning any of the six-scenario formations in the Battle of Bridgebeam without resorting to Save Scumming is a victory in game-book fiction like no other! Carefully reading all of what Avenger's flag relay scouts tell you and taking everything you can perceive happening on the field into account; each win-or-die choice is absolutely just and fair! Well... Just don't be smart and go for an envelopment of the Bringers of Doom at the penultimate choice. A straight pursuit will not lead you into a false withdrawal!
• The fact that the tactical map of all the arrayed forces and indeed the very terrain looks suspiciously similar to a medieval version of the Battle of Waterloo.
• As long as you successfully reconnoitered Honoric's camp, the White Mage Gandalf Expy battles three venomous wyverns above the battlefield, which are the Evil Alliance's trump cards, by flying unsupported and summoning thunderbolts! And even though he's wounded by them, the trio of monsters cannot harry your forces and are all slain.
• "For Rocheval!" "For Irsmuncast and freedom!" Cue cavalry charge.
• Another for the Sceptre. Many of the Bringers of Doom possess similar fear-inducing sorcerer's blades to Sorcerak but your royal badge of office inspires and buoys the confidence of your men, dissipating the magic pall of hundreds of dark artifacts.
• Braining the Old One with the Sceptre, since it's Avenger literally giving themselves a handicap, with no modifiers or Inner Force and still winning!
• Gliftel's Wood Elves stopping the Black Colossus, a twenty-foot unstoppable war golem, with lots of MUD spells from Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Topped with you, Doré, and your entire pursuit force laughing uproariously at Honoric's final humiliation.

Book 7

Redeemer!

• You start the book cocooned in a web, at the mercy of the Black Widow, the giant Animalistic Abomination that rules the forces of the Rift. Is this a game over? Nope, you and your companions can still break free and either using Kwon's help or the unexpected assistance of Everyman, make your escape. You can even throw a vial of Nil's Blood at the Black Widow, though it costs you some health.
• In the Forbidden Shrine, you and Glaivas team up to fight the smug duo of the Keeper (in the form of a giant spider with health regeneration) and Amin, an Hashashin-like warrior who has specialized in killing Kwon's disciples and can learn and counter any of your martial arts. By the time you're done, Amin has finally found his match and Glaivas has crushed the Keeper into a pulp.
• Play your cards right and the climax of the first part of the book have you, Glaivas, Doré and the friendly heroic party from Book 2 fighting your way through the hordes of Dark Elves, Giant Spiders and Ant Soldiers with the Black Widow herself hot on your heels. What's more, thanks to Fate, you can escape from under her chelicerae unharmed!