Emperor Valerian
First Post
EDIT - ending of the previous post changed, with a better ending provided by Felonca's player. 
The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit
Adventurer
I haven't been able to check in for a while, which was a bit frustrating. But the upside is that on getting back, I find four superb updates!!
The siege of Liaoxiang has been really excellent stuff, so far, Emperor V. And Felonca's duel with Hsiu even better. I'm really glad that it was she who faced up to her nemesis in the end - albeit with a little help from Nayu.
Now for the destruction of Prince Hu!!
The siege of Liaoxiang has been really excellent stuff, so far, Emperor V. And Felonca's duel with Hsiu even better. I'm really glad that it was she who faced up to her nemesis in the end - albeit with a little help from Nayu.
Now for the destruction of Prince Hu!!
Emperor Valerian
First Post
Striking Back
Felonca momentarily gaped, as the sky grew orange and pregnant. As the first tiny specks of fire fell, his mind immediately jumped back to her father’s tale of what had happened to Quan-Shi’s great army, when it had confronted the Prince on the field of battle... of how fire and wind ripped it apart, how lightning had shredded its ranks, how hail had pounded it into oblivion.
“Nayu! We need out now!” she barked unnecessarily as both she and Yari Ai struggled to haul Felonxi under a stone awning, before dragging the unconscious Dian beside his dying brother. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the sorcerer begin moving his hands around his battered body. Meiji finally came back, and she shoved him into the pile of people beside Nayu.
We need out of here!
Papa needs out of here...
Shakily, her father’s chest rose and fell, his breaths shallow and quick, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth even as it oozed from his wounds. Yari Ai looked up at Felonca, her eyes growing more desperate.
“Nayu hurry!” Felonca turned, as if the words would speed up his arcane magic. Inside her mind, conflict arose as she looked at him with fright. Teleport now! part of her shouted, wanting to see her father and uncle saved. Another part worried intensely. Don’t hurt yourself! Please!
Ancestors protect me if something should happen to you...
She saw her Emperor flash her a look, icy only in that he didn’t want any more interruption. Hu himself is here... he’s somewhere north of the wall... Felonca thought grimly, thinking to herself as rapidly the wooden houses in the area began to catch alight, choking smoke beginning to grow and billow, just as the air around them seemed to grow thick, and the world began to whirl.
They materialized back on the battlements of the Inner Wall, and immediately Felonca couldn’t help but to turn her eyes skyward. Instead of fine droplets of flame falling from the heavens, the air above seemed to glow, a solid sheet of flame dancing only twenty feet above their heads.
The Fire! Felonca’s mind panicked, and she immediately lunged, knocking Nayu over the prone body of her father, before landing on top of them both. Awkwardly, she spread herself as much as she could, trying to protect both taller people, her eyes closed tight as she expected fiery heat to incinerate her back...
“Ow,” she heard Nayu say breathlessly. She opened her eyes, and saw she was only inches from his face... and those brown eyes. They were wide open, and she felt his arm wiggle free from under her, until he began to push her off.
But the flames! If I move... She started to protest, till she realized no fire was raining on her back, no pain was searing her body. She rolled off of him.
“Excellency, Shao Wa-Feng!” she heard Won Wei’s voice call, and soon hands hefted her back up, and were quickly helping up Nayu as well.
“Someone fetch a healer for Shang Wa-Feng and Master Wakabayashi!” Won Wei barked, before turning back to Felonca and Nayu. His face was blackened, and it looked as if the fine robes he wore were partially scorched.
“Something’s stopping the fire,” Felonca thought aloud, as she looked up at the flaming heavens above. The base of the flames seemed to lick mid-air some twenty feet overhead, but as she looked out into the outer city, all she could see was smoke and fire raining from the black clouds above.
“We have all of the available scholars trying to hold back Hu’s magic, Shao Wa-Feng,” Won Wei said. “However, this means that they are not able to provide magical support to the troops... and there are no more signal flags or messages from the Middle Wall. We can only assume the enemy is pressing onwards towards the Inner Wall...”
Felonca blinked. The Middle Wall... but Quan-Shi was out there, he wouldn’t surrender without a fight...
... so they’ve gotten past him, and head towards us...
...but past us is only the Jade City itself... She blinked again, all eyes looking at her. Nayu is hurt, father is badly wounded, so is uncle, Quan-Shi is no where to be found... they’re looking at you... Part of Felonca shuddered at the thought, but quickly, her mind forced the fear away, focusing on the problem at hand.
“Won Wei, inform our people in the Jade City to finish gathering as many of the tomes as possible,” she said finally, “and tell them to be prepared to burn what they cannot carry. “And tell the Emperor and his Court that they should prepare to gather their things, and be ready to teleport in a few hours time.” She looked out across the burning city, towards the unseen hordes marching between the flames towards her.
We HAVE to hold them for a few hours! Just a few hours!
“There,” a weary Yari Ai said an hour later, and Nayu winced as the cleric pulled the bandage on his stomach taut.
“Thank you,” he whispered, “You are a miracle worker,” he added, before looking over at Felonca. Poor girl... he thought, watching her loom over her father, constantly hushing him and keeping him flat on his back as Yari Ai asked. I know what it feels like to lose a parent... and she almost watched her father die back there... Silently, he shook his head, a fierce anger boiling in his chest. My father was killed... and Hu tried to kill hers...
...he will pay... just as the Councilor that killed my father paid...
“Am I cleared to walk about?” Nayu asked, looking back at Yari Ai with a pained smile. She said his pain from the electrocution would die away in a few minutes... poor Felonxi would suffer aches and pains for days after his ordeal of being brought back from the brink.
“If you’re careful,” the cleric replied, as she put away her bandages and gave a suitable frown. “You, Felonxi and Dian have worn me out,” she said, a smile of relief breaking through, before she gave a sigh of exhaustion. “You cannot hurt yourself more tonight,” she added with a stern finger-point, her smile destroying whatever command those words held.
“Is he alright?” He turned, and saw Felonca headed his way, that strange look in her eye again. He frowned for a second, then dismissed it as concern when she came over and knelt beside him.
“I’m fine,” Nayu lied, looking at the bandages. Just burnt a bit, and in a tad bit of pain for the next couple hours. That’s all. By her eyes she didn’t believe him, but she merely sighed, the concern momentarily flickering into something else he could tell... what it was for sure, he didn’t know.
“Good,” she said, her face and eyes once again hidden behind her mask. She helped him up, and he noticed her eyes carefully checking each and every bandage, almost as closely as she examined her father’s bindings.
She’s really worried, Nayu assumed
“Really, I’m fine,” he held his hands up and gave a tense smile. Despite the pain that came from moving, he evidently hid his discomfort well... she stopped her examination.
She wasn’t this picky with me earlier, at the camp battle... something’s changed. Maybe getting so close to losing her father has made her worry... Mentally, he shrugged. If its something important... she’ll tell me.
“Good,” she gave an overly tense nod. “Then I assume you’d like to come me and Won Wei develop some kind of plan to keep the Prince at bay?”
“The situation is rather dire,” Won Wei began the meeting about ten minutes later.
“Rather dire?” Felonca snorted, looking up at the flames dancing above their heads, held at bay by the combined arcane might of thousands of scholars. “That’s an understatement. Hu’s forces are pushing past the Middle Wall... soon they will be before us on the Inner Wall, and once they get here in force, there’s no way we can hold them,” Felonca said with finality.
Great... Nayu thought. An army of walking dead, thousands of soldiers, and burning men all headed directly towards us... and nothing we can do...
“I’ve already told the scholars still in the Jade City to prepare the Imperial Family to leave immediately,” Felonca said, before her voice grew sharp, “but the Dowager Empress is refusing to leave, and she’s causing all sorts of obstacles...”
“Leave her behind then... get the young Emperor out,” Nayu interrupted her. Right now the Empire needs stability, and Yuandi can at least provide a person to rally the Empire around. In the long term... I’ll need to think of something. The Empress can rot in the Nine Hells, as far as I’m concerned.
“But if she...”
“The Emperor is your friend?” Nayu asked, before adding, “If so, then he’ll listen to you, not his mother, and leave. If she wants to die a fiery death, so be it.” I doubt anyone is going to shed a tear for her...
“That still leaves the problem of evacuating the tomes and scrolls from within the Imperial Library,” said Won Wei. “We will need several more hours to gather them all together, and burn those we cannot take, and with Hu’s army approaching...”
“We need a distraction, or a miracle,” Felonca finished the sentence. Her eyes were grave, but Nayu noticed yet again that something was peeking from behind her tiredness and concern...
A distraction... Nayu closed his eyes, and thought. An army needs many things... but this army isn’t normal. It doesn’t need food or water... but...
...leadership...
His eyes flashed back open, a plan in his mind.
“Okay... so,” Nayu put his hands on his hips as he looked at the maps laid before them, “does anyone know how far this damn fire spell goes from Hu?” Someone should know... these people are the arcane masters of the entire Celestial Empire... When silence greeted his ears, he looked up, confused...
...and saw all the eyes looking at him were also confused.
“Anyone know?” If they could tell me, and we could figure out the furthest area affected by this spell... its a spell, most definitely... I could pinpoint where Hu is on this map, and surprise the bastard, maybe slow him down, maybe kill him... cut off the enemy’s head before they strike... When there was no response to his second question, he gave a quiet growl, before asking another. “So no one has heard of a spell, or something, that can cause this fire?”
“Um... no, Excellency,” Won Wei said quietly. At Nayu’s brief look of anger, the scholar quickly added, “We know that the fire can be resisted by standard arcane magic, as can the hail, lightning and wind. Our problem is that it is requiring all of our efforts...”
“You already said that, Won Wei,” Nayu replied, a little more sharply than he intended. Dammit... so we can’t pinpoint him... “Won Wei,” Nayu sighed after a moment, “I understand the scholars are stretched to the limit trying to hold this off. For that, I thank you all. But,” he added, running a finger along the map, “if I can’t get information on this spell, we can’t get to him!”
“Maybe,” he felt Felonca’s hand on his shoulder and squeezing slightly, “we could just teleport even further north, and sneak behind his army, and maybe ambush him...”
Something about her hand managed to catch his mind, even as the air only twenty feet above their heads continued to glow with repelled fire. He’d felt that kind of touch only a few times in his life... his mother, most often, and something about it stuck with him. As Felonca spoke, he felt heat rushing to his face.
No... she’s not thinking that. Get that from your mind, he told himself.
“...and a good commander will know when to lead the advance and when to hold back. Hu’s a brilliant commander, to use my father’s words...” she continued.
What if she is? That would explain the looks she’s been giving you, the blushes and all that... aw hell...
Nayu! he suddenly shouted at himself. Focus!
“...probably not leading from the front, but holding back, directing his troops,” Felonca said finally. “Now... let’s think about this. He’s going to want a vantage point with excellent visibility... some place high probably.”
“He’s a mage... an arcane user of immense power,” Nayu heard himself say, “He can probably spy on us and our troops through numerous magical means.” If that is how she feels... Nayu paused for a moment, looking into his own heart, before the moment seized him again, and he growled in frustration.
“He’ll still need a vantage point for his signals to be sent to the army! His army is supposedly as vast as the oceans,” Felonca exclaimed, “which means that it’s got to have a damn good communication system! And I guarantee you, that either him, or a large contingent of signal bearers, will be on this hill!” Her finger stabbed at a location about two miles north of the outermost city walls, and she looked up at Nayu, triumph showing in her eyes, bright and blue.
She...
Dammit, Focus! he snapped to himself, giving another audible humph. To his chagrin, she gave one of those smiles she always gave when she was trying to cheer him up. The smile that made her face light up. He turned away quickly.
“That’s the highest hill north of the city,” Won Wei said, looking at the map and providing a good, convenient distraction. “It would be an excellent place to command from, I suppose.”
“Perhaps,” Nayu replied, his mind wrapping itself around the task, attempting to avoid where it would otherwise wander. I can’t teleport an army back there... and the scholars are all busy trying to keep this fire away long enough that they can salvage the tomes in the Jade City... not to speak of all the Imperial Court...
“We’re going to have to teleport back again,” Nayu said quietly, before turning to Won Wei, “though I want some kind of magical backup... give me a scholar, at least! Someone competent, too!” As Won Wei bowed, then turned to search for someone free,
Nayu looked sideways at Felonca. God knows she’s been through enough already... if something else happened to her father or uncle...
“We’re headed back out again?” she asked, her features suddenly clamping into the iron look of blankness he knew so well... the look she always took when she was covering up what she felt. Her eyes did not lie nearly as well, and he could see fear in them, as the danced quickly towards her still bandaged father, then to Nayu’s own bandages...
She’s worried.
“Your father is a bull... he’s going to be fine,” Nayu said with an awkward smile. Does she...um...
Nayu! Focus!
“I... I know,” she replied, her voice slightly shaky before she brought it back under control. He watched as her eyes looked worriedly at him.
“I’m okay,” he lied again , and her dark skin suddenly darkened again. For a moment, Nayu’s mind tried to deal with the question nagging his mind, but he forced it back, focusing himself without words on the present...
...there was a battle yet to fight...
Felonca momentarily gaped, as the sky grew orange and pregnant. As the first tiny specks of fire fell, his mind immediately jumped back to her father’s tale of what had happened to Quan-Shi’s great army, when it had confronted the Prince on the field of battle... of how fire and wind ripped it apart, how lightning had shredded its ranks, how hail had pounded it into oblivion.
“Nayu! We need out now!” she barked unnecessarily as both she and Yari Ai struggled to haul Felonxi under a stone awning, before dragging the unconscious Dian beside his dying brother. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the sorcerer begin moving his hands around his battered body. Meiji finally came back, and she shoved him into the pile of people beside Nayu.
We need out of here!
Papa needs out of here...
Shakily, her father’s chest rose and fell, his breaths shallow and quick, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth even as it oozed from his wounds. Yari Ai looked up at Felonca, her eyes growing more desperate.
“Nayu hurry!” Felonca turned, as if the words would speed up his arcane magic. Inside her mind, conflict arose as she looked at him with fright. Teleport now! part of her shouted, wanting to see her father and uncle saved. Another part worried intensely. Don’t hurt yourself! Please!
Ancestors protect me if something should happen to you...
She saw her Emperor flash her a look, icy only in that he didn’t want any more interruption. Hu himself is here... he’s somewhere north of the wall... Felonca thought grimly, thinking to herself as rapidly the wooden houses in the area began to catch alight, choking smoke beginning to grow and billow, just as the air around them seemed to grow thick, and the world began to whirl.
They materialized back on the battlements of the Inner Wall, and immediately Felonca couldn’t help but to turn her eyes skyward. Instead of fine droplets of flame falling from the heavens, the air above seemed to glow, a solid sheet of flame dancing only twenty feet above their heads.
The Fire! Felonca’s mind panicked, and she immediately lunged, knocking Nayu over the prone body of her father, before landing on top of them both. Awkwardly, she spread herself as much as she could, trying to protect both taller people, her eyes closed tight as she expected fiery heat to incinerate her back...
“Ow,” she heard Nayu say breathlessly. She opened her eyes, and saw she was only inches from his face... and those brown eyes. They were wide open, and she felt his arm wiggle free from under her, until he began to push her off.
But the flames! If I move... She started to protest, till she realized no fire was raining on her back, no pain was searing her body. She rolled off of him.
“Excellency, Shao Wa-Feng!” she heard Won Wei’s voice call, and soon hands hefted her back up, and were quickly helping up Nayu as well.
“Someone fetch a healer for Shang Wa-Feng and Master Wakabayashi!” Won Wei barked, before turning back to Felonca and Nayu. His face was blackened, and it looked as if the fine robes he wore were partially scorched.
“Something’s stopping the fire,” Felonca thought aloud, as she looked up at the flaming heavens above. The base of the flames seemed to lick mid-air some twenty feet overhead, but as she looked out into the outer city, all she could see was smoke and fire raining from the black clouds above.
“We have all of the available scholars trying to hold back Hu’s magic, Shao Wa-Feng,” Won Wei said. “However, this means that they are not able to provide magical support to the troops... and there are no more signal flags or messages from the Middle Wall. We can only assume the enemy is pressing onwards towards the Inner Wall...”
Felonca blinked. The Middle Wall... but Quan-Shi was out there, he wouldn’t surrender without a fight...
... so they’ve gotten past him, and head towards us...
...but past us is only the Jade City itself... She blinked again, all eyes looking at her. Nayu is hurt, father is badly wounded, so is uncle, Quan-Shi is no where to be found... they’re looking at you... Part of Felonca shuddered at the thought, but quickly, her mind forced the fear away, focusing on the problem at hand.
“Won Wei, inform our people in the Jade City to finish gathering as many of the tomes as possible,” she said finally, “and tell them to be prepared to burn what they cannot carry. “And tell the Emperor and his Court that they should prepare to gather their things, and be ready to teleport in a few hours time.” She looked out across the burning city, towards the unseen hordes marching between the flames towards her.
We HAVE to hold them for a few hours! Just a few hours!
“There,” a weary Yari Ai said an hour later, and Nayu winced as the cleric pulled the bandage on his stomach taut.
“Thank you,” he whispered, “You are a miracle worker,” he added, before looking over at Felonca. Poor girl... he thought, watching her loom over her father, constantly hushing him and keeping him flat on his back as Yari Ai asked. I know what it feels like to lose a parent... and she almost watched her father die back there... Silently, he shook his head, a fierce anger boiling in his chest. My father was killed... and Hu tried to kill hers...
...he will pay... just as the Councilor that killed my father paid...
“Am I cleared to walk about?” Nayu asked, looking back at Yari Ai with a pained smile. She said his pain from the electrocution would die away in a few minutes... poor Felonxi would suffer aches and pains for days after his ordeal of being brought back from the brink.
“If you’re careful,” the cleric replied, as she put away her bandages and gave a suitable frown. “You, Felonxi and Dian have worn me out,” she said, a smile of relief breaking through, before she gave a sigh of exhaustion. “You cannot hurt yourself more tonight,” she added with a stern finger-point, her smile destroying whatever command those words held.
“Is he alright?” He turned, and saw Felonca headed his way, that strange look in her eye again. He frowned for a second, then dismissed it as concern when she came over and knelt beside him.
“I’m fine,” Nayu lied, looking at the bandages. Just burnt a bit, and in a tad bit of pain for the next couple hours. That’s all. By her eyes she didn’t believe him, but she merely sighed, the concern momentarily flickering into something else he could tell... what it was for sure, he didn’t know.
“Good,” she said, her face and eyes once again hidden behind her mask. She helped him up, and he noticed her eyes carefully checking each and every bandage, almost as closely as she examined her father’s bindings.
She’s really worried, Nayu assumed
“Really, I’m fine,” he held his hands up and gave a tense smile. Despite the pain that came from moving, he evidently hid his discomfort well... she stopped her examination.
She wasn’t this picky with me earlier, at the camp battle... something’s changed. Maybe getting so close to losing her father has made her worry... Mentally, he shrugged. If its something important... she’ll tell me.
“Good,” she gave an overly tense nod. “Then I assume you’d like to come me and Won Wei develop some kind of plan to keep the Prince at bay?”
“The situation is rather dire,” Won Wei began the meeting about ten minutes later.
“Rather dire?” Felonca snorted, looking up at the flames dancing above their heads, held at bay by the combined arcane might of thousands of scholars. “That’s an understatement. Hu’s forces are pushing past the Middle Wall... soon they will be before us on the Inner Wall, and once they get here in force, there’s no way we can hold them,” Felonca said with finality.
Great... Nayu thought. An army of walking dead, thousands of soldiers, and burning men all headed directly towards us... and nothing we can do...
“I’ve already told the scholars still in the Jade City to prepare the Imperial Family to leave immediately,” Felonca said, before her voice grew sharp, “but the Dowager Empress is refusing to leave, and she’s causing all sorts of obstacles...”
“Leave her behind then... get the young Emperor out,” Nayu interrupted her. Right now the Empire needs stability, and Yuandi can at least provide a person to rally the Empire around. In the long term... I’ll need to think of something. The Empress can rot in the Nine Hells, as far as I’m concerned.
“But if she...”
“The Emperor is your friend?” Nayu asked, before adding, “If so, then he’ll listen to you, not his mother, and leave. If she wants to die a fiery death, so be it.” I doubt anyone is going to shed a tear for her...
“That still leaves the problem of evacuating the tomes and scrolls from within the Imperial Library,” said Won Wei. “We will need several more hours to gather them all together, and burn those we cannot take, and with Hu’s army approaching...”
“We need a distraction, or a miracle,” Felonca finished the sentence. Her eyes were grave, but Nayu noticed yet again that something was peeking from behind her tiredness and concern...
A distraction... Nayu closed his eyes, and thought. An army needs many things... but this army isn’t normal. It doesn’t need food or water... but...
...leadership...
His eyes flashed back open, a plan in his mind.
“Okay... so,” Nayu put his hands on his hips as he looked at the maps laid before them, “does anyone know how far this damn fire spell goes from Hu?” Someone should know... these people are the arcane masters of the entire Celestial Empire... When silence greeted his ears, he looked up, confused...
...and saw all the eyes looking at him were also confused.
“Anyone know?” If they could tell me, and we could figure out the furthest area affected by this spell... its a spell, most definitely... I could pinpoint where Hu is on this map, and surprise the bastard, maybe slow him down, maybe kill him... cut off the enemy’s head before they strike... When there was no response to his second question, he gave a quiet growl, before asking another. “So no one has heard of a spell, or something, that can cause this fire?”
“Um... no, Excellency,” Won Wei said quietly. At Nayu’s brief look of anger, the scholar quickly added, “We know that the fire can be resisted by standard arcane magic, as can the hail, lightning and wind. Our problem is that it is requiring all of our efforts...”
“You already said that, Won Wei,” Nayu replied, a little more sharply than he intended. Dammit... so we can’t pinpoint him... “Won Wei,” Nayu sighed after a moment, “I understand the scholars are stretched to the limit trying to hold this off. For that, I thank you all. But,” he added, running a finger along the map, “if I can’t get information on this spell, we can’t get to him!”
“Maybe,” he felt Felonca’s hand on his shoulder and squeezing slightly, “we could just teleport even further north, and sneak behind his army, and maybe ambush him...”
Something about her hand managed to catch his mind, even as the air only twenty feet above their heads continued to glow with repelled fire. He’d felt that kind of touch only a few times in his life... his mother, most often, and something about it stuck with him. As Felonca spoke, he felt heat rushing to his face.
No... she’s not thinking that. Get that from your mind, he told himself.
“...and a good commander will know when to lead the advance and when to hold back. Hu’s a brilliant commander, to use my father’s words...” she continued.
What if she is? That would explain the looks she’s been giving you, the blushes and all that... aw hell...
Nayu! he suddenly shouted at himself. Focus!
“...probably not leading from the front, but holding back, directing his troops,” Felonca said finally. “Now... let’s think about this. He’s going to want a vantage point with excellent visibility... some place high probably.”
“He’s a mage... an arcane user of immense power,” Nayu heard himself say, “He can probably spy on us and our troops through numerous magical means.” If that is how she feels... Nayu paused for a moment, looking into his own heart, before the moment seized him again, and he growled in frustration.
“He’ll still need a vantage point for his signals to be sent to the army! His army is supposedly as vast as the oceans,” Felonca exclaimed, “which means that it’s got to have a damn good communication system! And I guarantee you, that either him, or a large contingent of signal bearers, will be on this hill!” Her finger stabbed at a location about two miles north of the outermost city walls, and she looked up at Nayu, triumph showing in her eyes, bright and blue.
She...
Dammit, Focus! he snapped to himself, giving another audible humph. To his chagrin, she gave one of those smiles she always gave when she was trying to cheer him up. The smile that made her face light up. He turned away quickly.
“That’s the highest hill north of the city,” Won Wei said, looking at the map and providing a good, convenient distraction. “It would be an excellent place to command from, I suppose.”
“Perhaps,” Nayu replied, his mind wrapping itself around the task, attempting to avoid where it would otherwise wander. I can’t teleport an army back there... and the scholars are all busy trying to keep this fire away long enough that they can salvage the tomes in the Jade City... not to speak of all the Imperial Court...
“We’re going to have to teleport back again,” Nayu said quietly, before turning to Won Wei, “though I want some kind of magical backup... give me a scholar, at least! Someone competent, too!” As Won Wei bowed, then turned to search for someone free,
Nayu looked sideways at Felonca. God knows she’s been through enough already... if something else happened to her father or uncle...
“We’re headed back out again?” she asked, her features suddenly clamping into the iron look of blankness he knew so well... the look she always took when she was covering up what she felt. Her eyes did not lie nearly as well, and he could see fear in them, as the danced quickly towards her still bandaged father, then to Nayu’s own bandages...
She’s worried.
“Your father is a bull... he’s going to be fine,” Nayu said with an awkward smile. Does she...um...
Nayu! Focus!
“I... I know,” she replied, her voice slightly shaky before she brought it back under control. He watched as her eyes looked worriedly at him.
“I’m okay,” he lied again , and her dark skin suddenly darkened again. For a moment, Nayu’s mind tried to deal with the question nagging his mind, but he forced it back, focusing himself without words on the present...
...there was a battle yet to fight...
Emperor Valerian
First Post
Shorter update today, but that's because there's some DM fun at the end that has been tacked on for your pleasure ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Teleporting Behind the Enemy
The air around the party swirled and frothed with arcane energy, until the crackle of the burning city was replaced by an eerie, still silence.
Nayu opened his eyes, the area around him completely dark for a moment as he adjusted to the vast difference in light. Behind him, several miles away, he could perceive the glow of the burning Outer City, as well as very distant, very massive movement...
...Hu’s army.
“Well, it looks like I was a bit off on my guess,” he whispered quietly, blinking quickly, trying to get his eyes to adjust faster. It’d be wasteful to use a spell to improve my seeing now... especially when that spell could come in handy later...
“Um... Nayu?” He turned on hearing Felonca’s hurriedly whisper, and it was then that his ears began to pick up a jingling noise... not the noise of armor, but the noise of immense pieces of steel rubbing, clinking together. Just then, he saw glints in the distant darkness...
“What are those?” he asked, as Felonca pulled out her bow. As she yelled out a challenge, his eyes finally revealed to him something straight from a story of terror...
The two creatures covered from head to two in loose chains weren’t what scared him. They moaned as they advanced, chain links whirling above their heads. What scared him were the two things accompanying them... tall, wide banks of darkness, with black tendrils sweeping around their bodies impatiently, reaching out, searching as a low, quiet muttering reached his ears.
What are those things? Nayu asked himself, as the noise of the party drawing their weapons momentarily drowned out the light muttering he heard in the air. The sorcere focused himself, and stretched forth his hand towards one of the chain bound creatures.
I can see their weapons... they’re the more dangerous right now...
An enormous thunderclap echoed through the air as a lightningbolt shot into the first of the chain creatures, electricity arcing between its metal links. It shrieked and stumbled backwards, before resuming its lumbering gait towards the party. As he watched, Nayu saw arrows from Felonca and Felonxi seemingly pass through one of the large shadowy patches of darkness, as it continued to float closer and closer...
So the large creatures are ethereal... spectres of some kind... he realized, preparing another lightning bolt. I’m going to have to address them first, before those chain creatures. He started to turn to tell the others to deal with the chain monsters first, when his ears were suddenly assaulted.
The noise was no explosion of sonic power or blast of magical energy, but an incoherent, constant babble, a blur of noises, grunts, hoots and hisses that grated the ears and dug deep into his mind. For a second, Nayu felt his hands seem to move of their own accord, until he focused his mind, and wrested control back.
No one’s going to take over my mind today! he snapped, as the incoherent mumbling continued, seeming to rumble into his bones. They’re more dangerous than I thought... we should concentrate on killing them! He started to open his mouth to give directions to the others, when he suddenly stopped.
Nayu blinked, as Felonca and Meiji calmly, almost serenely, sheathed their weapons then walked, even meandered, over towards a tree between the two shadowy, chattering forms. Once under its gnarled branches, they calmly sat down, and stared off into space.
“What in the...” the sorcerer thought, trying to remember any spell, any compulsion that could cause someone to do that. They’ve obviously lost their minds... and it happened after the creatures started babbling... wait... does that mean...
“Allips!” Nayu shouted, recoiling himself. The tortured souls of the dead, arisen to take our minds! Allips were small creatures usually... but these allips were massive, easily close to twenty feet tall, the gathered souls of hundreds of dead each. The sorcerer spun around to warn his friends, only to see another chilling scene.
Yari Ai stared at him, her face a blank stare, while Dian spun around wildly, staring alternately at the allips, the chain monsters, then his allies, laughing maniacally and waving his hands about in the air.
“I’m the Grand Poobah of Pickerstan!” he screeched, waving his sword about, ignoring the confused stares of both Felonxi and Liu.
It’s taken them too! Nayu realized, as the babbling reverberated in his head more and more. Quickly, Nayu felt his arcane magic building yet again, and with a flash and enormous thunderclap, a lightning bolt leapt from his hands, enveloping one of the immense shadows. It’s filaments wreathed in the electric light, yet its babbling moan continued to sound over the plain.
“Got him!” Nayu heard Liu yell a moment later, as there was an enormous jingle of chains. The sorcerer permitted himself to look to the side, as one of the chain-bound creatures collapsed to the ground in front of the monk, its ‘head’ bent oddly to the side. A moment later, there was the immense crash of steel on steel, as Felonxi’s sword ripped the other chain creature in half.
“Focus on the shadow creatures! They’re trying to affect our minds!” Nayu yelled belatedly. He turned back around, another nascent bolt of lightning building in his hands, when his eyes caught Felonca. She was still sitting under the tree, when a fine filament of the first shadowy allip suddenly exploded, lashing forth and wrapping around her head.
“Felonca!” Nayu shouted, only to have the cry die in his throat as suddenly her dead-eyes flashed bright with confusion, then life. In a blur, her warfans lashed out, and she leapt free of the creature’s ghostly grip. Yet the calm cacophany continued, the creature’s both making quiet mumbling noises in a tongue no sane person could ever understand, and mere moments later, Felonca serenely returned to her perch under the tree.
“Whoosh! Whoosh!” Nayu heard a voice yell, and the sorcerer quickly spun around, only to see Yari Ai staring at him, her hands raised high over her head.
“Whoosh! BAM!” she yelled, adding child-like noises of crackling and burning as she poorly mimicked the movements of a scholar casting a fiery spell.
They’ve really gone off the deep end... the sorcerer groaned, turning towards the nearest of the great, shadowy figures yet again, arcane energy building in his veins. So they’ve lost their minds, and yet you’re still babbling. Things were going from serious, to just plain strange. If you want to cause harm, why are you making them sit under the tree, or laugh like madmen, or...
Pretend to be scholars? No matter...
You’ll let go of my friends... A fierce grin started to grow on Nayu’s face as he faced the dark shadow.
NOW!
The ground around them flashed white, and an immense thunderclap shook the trees as a lightning bolt of extraordinary power flashed from Nayu’s hands. The electricity seemed to envelop the titanic mass of shadow, crackling, running along the filaments of darkness. The creature’s incessant mumbling and babbling turned into an ear-splitting screech, its dark tendrils writhing away into nothingness.
Immediately Nayu spun around, just in time to see Liu, Dian and Felonxi break the other allip into nothingness, its shriek joining the cry of its fellow as it disappeared into the abyss. Nayu turned around to Felonca, and saw that the rogue was looking around, a bewildered expression on her face.
“Wha... what happened?” she asked, eyes wide in confusion, before she dropped back into a combat crouch. “Where are they?”
“Dead,” her father replied grimly.
“The allips took your mind, as well as Meiji’s and Yari Ai’s briefly,” Nayu explained, checking his friend over. From nearby, he heard Meiji and Yari Ai asking the same questions, and a grunt from Felonxi that they should listen to Nayu.
“Allips?”
“Dark spirits that are insane,” Nayu simplified. “They spread insanity and confusion through their constant talking and babbling.” At Felonca’s wide-eyed look, Nayu smiled. “No, you aren’t insane... you just got... confused... for a bit.”
“So that’s why I suddenly found myself under a tree?” she asked, putting things together.
“And why Yari Ai was pretending to be a scholar, and your Uncle started laughing maniacally at one point.”
“I was pretending to be what?” Yari Ai tapped him on the shoulder. Nayu turned, and despite the situation, found himself having to hold back laughter. Now that the danger had passed, everything seemed to grow incredibly funny.
“Um...” he snickered, “you were making whooshing noises. And waving your hands about like you were some kind of willow tree.” Nayu did a good job, and no full laughs managed to break through his defenses, despite Yari Ai’s red faced look of embarrassment.
“Ahem,” Meiji cleared his throat, pressing in between Nayu and Yari Ai. “I just blanked out, and now I’m next to Yari Ai. Did I just get laid?”
He let out a yelp when Yari Ai and Felonca jointly slapped him.
======================================================
The two creatures in this combat were especially fun for me to run. The chained creatures were chain devils, as described in the Monster Manual. They were meant as fodder... shiny tidbits to get the players attention so I could...well... play. The other creatures were immensely buffed up allips (advanced as far as possible, then sorcerer levels added and ability scores fiddled with) that I created for this encounter, which I have stated out below:
MIND CONTROL ALLIP
Huge Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 12d12+10d4 (103 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: Fly 80 ft. (perfect) (12 squares)
Armor Class: 19 (+4 Dex, +4 deflection, +1 size), touch 15, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +11/—
Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Babble, madness, Wisdom drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, +2 turn resistance, undead traits, SR 20
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +12
Abilities: Str —, Dex 18, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 18
Skills: Hide +25, Intimidate +17, Listen +17, Search +7, Spot +17, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Pair
Challenge Rating: 16?
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: ---
Level Adjustment: —
An allip is the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by a madness that afflicted it in life. It craves only revenge and unrelentingly pursues those who tormented it in life and pushed it over the brink.
An allip cannot speak intelligibly.
COMBAT
An allip is unable to cause physical harm, although it doesn’t appear to know that. It keeps flailing away at enemies, yet it inflicts no wounds.
Babble (Su): An allip constantly mutters and whines to itself, creating a hypnotic effect. All sane creatures within 60 feet of the allip must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or be affected as by the Allip Control Table listed separately. This is a sonic mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Madness (Su): Anyone targeting an allip with a thought detection, mind control, or telepathic ability makes direct contact with its tortured mind and takes 1d8 points of Wisdom damage.
Wisdom Drain (Su): An allip causes 1d8 points of Wisdom drain each time it hits with its incorporeal touch attack. On each such successful attack, it gains 5 temporary hit points.
SPELLS (7/7/6/6/5/3):
0th – Resistance, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Ghost Sound, Message, Open/Close, Mending, Prestidigitation. 1st- True Strike, Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement, Mage Armor, Obscuring Mist. 2nd – Hypnotic Pattern, Resist Energy, Touch of Idiocy, Detect Thoughts. 3rd – Suggestion, Vampiric Touch, Major Image. 4th- Phantasmal Killer, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. 5th – Dominate Person.
These lovely creatures (in my opinion), when they did make someone go mad, would induce an effect based on a random D20 roll, from the following table.
Allip Control D20:
1, 2 – Hop in a Circle (lose 1d4 turns, -10 on Hide and Move Silently next round)
3, 4 – Victim begins to nitpick own hair, checking repeatedly for lice (lose 1d4 rounds)
5,6 - Victim begins to garble incoherently and loudly to allies (-10 on Move Silently and Hide, lose 1d4 rounds due to garbling)
7,8 – Victim has sudden urge to laugh maniacally, for no apparent reason (-10 Move Silently/Hide, lose 1d4 turns)
9,10 – Victim will mime as if they are a spellcaster for next 1d4 rounds. Victim Launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
11,12 – Victim will mime as if they are a warrior for next 1d4 rounds. Victim launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
13,14 – Victim will get the urge to attack nearest living creature
15-20 – Victim gets urge to merely assist allip in search for tomes
I know I had a great deal of fun running the encounter, and watching the players (well, Felonca and the two NPCs she ran for the battle) do random things through the encounter, despite the fact that neither allip used their sorcerous powers and instead focused on babbling. :-D The players had fun laughing about it afterwards as well.
Teleporting Behind the Enemy
The air around the party swirled and frothed with arcane energy, until the crackle of the burning city was replaced by an eerie, still silence.
Nayu opened his eyes, the area around him completely dark for a moment as he adjusted to the vast difference in light. Behind him, several miles away, he could perceive the glow of the burning Outer City, as well as very distant, very massive movement...
...Hu’s army.
“Well, it looks like I was a bit off on my guess,” he whispered quietly, blinking quickly, trying to get his eyes to adjust faster. It’d be wasteful to use a spell to improve my seeing now... especially when that spell could come in handy later...
“Um... Nayu?” He turned on hearing Felonca’s hurriedly whisper, and it was then that his ears began to pick up a jingling noise... not the noise of armor, but the noise of immense pieces of steel rubbing, clinking together. Just then, he saw glints in the distant darkness...
“What are those?” he asked, as Felonca pulled out her bow. As she yelled out a challenge, his eyes finally revealed to him something straight from a story of terror...
The two creatures covered from head to two in loose chains weren’t what scared him. They moaned as they advanced, chain links whirling above their heads. What scared him were the two things accompanying them... tall, wide banks of darkness, with black tendrils sweeping around their bodies impatiently, reaching out, searching as a low, quiet muttering reached his ears.
What are those things? Nayu asked himself, as the noise of the party drawing their weapons momentarily drowned out the light muttering he heard in the air. The sorcere focused himself, and stretched forth his hand towards one of the chain bound creatures.
I can see their weapons... they’re the more dangerous right now...
An enormous thunderclap echoed through the air as a lightningbolt shot into the first of the chain creatures, electricity arcing between its metal links. It shrieked and stumbled backwards, before resuming its lumbering gait towards the party. As he watched, Nayu saw arrows from Felonca and Felonxi seemingly pass through one of the large shadowy patches of darkness, as it continued to float closer and closer...
So the large creatures are ethereal... spectres of some kind... he realized, preparing another lightning bolt. I’m going to have to address them first, before those chain creatures. He started to turn to tell the others to deal with the chain monsters first, when his ears were suddenly assaulted.
The noise was no explosion of sonic power or blast of magical energy, but an incoherent, constant babble, a blur of noises, grunts, hoots and hisses that grated the ears and dug deep into his mind. For a second, Nayu felt his hands seem to move of their own accord, until he focused his mind, and wrested control back.
No one’s going to take over my mind today! he snapped, as the incoherent mumbling continued, seeming to rumble into his bones. They’re more dangerous than I thought... we should concentrate on killing them! He started to open his mouth to give directions to the others, when he suddenly stopped.
Nayu blinked, as Felonca and Meiji calmly, almost serenely, sheathed their weapons then walked, even meandered, over towards a tree between the two shadowy, chattering forms. Once under its gnarled branches, they calmly sat down, and stared off into space.
“What in the...” the sorcerer thought, trying to remember any spell, any compulsion that could cause someone to do that. They’ve obviously lost their minds... and it happened after the creatures started babbling... wait... does that mean...
“Allips!” Nayu shouted, recoiling himself. The tortured souls of the dead, arisen to take our minds! Allips were small creatures usually... but these allips were massive, easily close to twenty feet tall, the gathered souls of hundreds of dead each. The sorcerer spun around to warn his friends, only to see another chilling scene.
Yari Ai stared at him, her face a blank stare, while Dian spun around wildly, staring alternately at the allips, the chain monsters, then his allies, laughing maniacally and waving his hands about in the air.
“I’m the Grand Poobah of Pickerstan!” he screeched, waving his sword about, ignoring the confused stares of both Felonxi and Liu.
It’s taken them too! Nayu realized, as the babbling reverberated in his head more and more. Quickly, Nayu felt his arcane magic building yet again, and with a flash and enormous thunderclap, a lightning bolt leapt from his hands, enveloping one of the immense shadows. It’s filaments wreathed in the electric light, yet its babbling moan continued to sound over the plain.
“Got him!” Nayu heard Liu yell a moment later, as there was an enormous jingle of chains. The sorcerer permitted himself to look to the side, as one of the chain-bound creatures collapsed to the ground in front of the monk, its ‘head’ bent oddly to the side. A moment later, there was the immense crash of steel on steel, as Felonxi’s sword ripped the other chain creature in half.
“Focus on the shadow creatures! They’re trying to affect our minds!” Nayu yelled belatedly. He turned back around, another nascent bolt of lightning building in his hands, when his eyes caught Felonca. She was still sitting under the tree, when a fine filament of the first shadowy allip suddenly exploded, lashing forth and wrapping around her head.
“Felonca!” Nayu shouted, only to have the cry die in his throat as suddenly her dead-eyes flashed bright with confusion, then life. In a blur, her warfans lashed out, and she leapt free of the creature’s ghostly grip. Yet the calm cacophany continued, the creature’s both making quiet mumbling noises in a tongue no sane person could ever understand, and mere moments later, Felonca serenely returned to her perch under the tree.
“Whoosh! Whoosh!” Nayu heard a voice yell, and the sorcerer quickly spun around, only to see Yari Ai staring at him, her hands raised high over her head.
“Whoosh! BAM!” she yelled, adding child-like noises of crackling and burning as she poorly mimicked the movements of a scholar casting a fiery spell.
They’ve really gone off the deep end... the sorcerer groaned, turning towards the nearest of the great, shadowy figures yet again, arcane energy building in his veins. So they’ve lost their minds, and yet you’re still babbling. Things were going from serious, to just plain strange. If you want to cause harm, why are you making them sit under the tree, or laugh like madmen, or...
Pretend to be scholars? No matter...
You’ll let go of my friends... A fierce grin started to grow on Nayu’s face as he faced the dark shadow.
NOW!
The ground around them flashed white, and an immense thunderclap shook the trees as a lightning bolt of extraordinary power flashed from Nayu’s hands. The electricity seemed to envelop the titanic mass of shadow, crackling, running along the filaments of darkness. The creature’s incessant mumbling and babbling turned into an ear-splitting screech, its dark tendrils writhing away into nothingness.
Immediately Nayu spun around, just in time to see Liu, Dian and Felonxi break the other allip into nothingness, its shriek joining the cry of its fellow as it disappeared into the abyss. Nayu turned around to Felonca, and saw that the rogue was looking around, a bewildered expression on her face.
“Wha... what happened?” she asked, eyes wide in confusion, before she dropped back into a combat crouch. “Where are they?”
“Dead,” her father replied grimly.
“The allips took your mind, as well as Meiji’s and Yari Ai’s briefly,” Nayu explained, checking his friend over. From nearby, he heard Meiji and Yari Ai asking the same questions, and a grunt from Felonxi that they should listen to Nayu.
“Allips?”
“Dark spirits that are insane,” Nayu simplified. “They spread insanity and confusion through their constant talking and babbling.” At Felonca’s wide-eyed look, Nayu smiled. “No, you aren’t insane... you just got... confused... for a bit.”
“So that’s why I suddenly found myself under a tree?” she asked, putting things together.
“And why Yari Ai was pretending to be a scholar, and your Uncle started laughing maniacally at one point.”
“I was pretending to be what?” Yari Ai tapped him on the shoulder. Nayu turned, and despite the situation, found himself having to hold back laughter. Now that the danger had passed, everything seemed to grow incredibly funny.
“Um...” he snickered, “you were making whooshing noises. And waving your hands about like you were some kind of willow tree.” Nayu did a good job, and no full laughs managed to break through his defenses, despite Yari Ai’s red faced look of embarrassment.
“Ahem,” Meiji cleared his throat, pressing in between Nayu and Yari Ai. “I just blanked out, and now I’m next to Yari Ai. Did I just get laid?”
He let out a yelp when Yari Ai and Felonca jointly slapped him.
======================================================
The two creatures in this combat were especially fun for me to run. The chained creatures were chain devils, as described in the Monster Manual. They were meant as fodder... shiny tidbits to get the players attention so I could...well... play.
The other creatures were immensely buffed up allips (advanced as far as possible, then sorcerer levels added and ability scores fiddled with) that I created for this encounter, which I have stated out below:MIND CONTROL ALLIP
Huge Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 12d12+10d4 (103 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: Fly 80 ft. (perfect) (12 squares)
Armor Class: 19 (+4 Dex, +4 deflection, +1 size), touch 15, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +11/—
Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +12/+7 melee (1d4 Wisdom drain)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Babble, madness, Wisdom drain
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, +2 turn resistance, undead traits, SR 20
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +12
Abilities: Str —, Dex 18, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 18
Skills: Hide +25, Intimidate +17, Listen +17, Search +7, Spot +17, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Pair
Challenge Rating: 16?
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: ---
Level Adjustment: —
An allip is the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by a madness that afflicted it in life. It craves only revenge and unrelentingly pursues those who tormented it in life and pushed it over the brink.
An allip cannot speak intelligibly.
COMBAT
An allip is unable to cause physical harm, although it doesn’t appear to know that. It keeps flailing away at enemies, yet it inflicts no wounds.
Babble (Su): An allip constantly mutters and whines to itself, creating a hypnotic effect. All sane creatures within 60 feet of the allip must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or be affected as by the Allip Control Table listed separately. This is a sonic mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Madness (Su): Anyone targeting an allip with a thought detection, mind control, or telepathic ability makes direct contact with its tortured mind and takes 1d8 points of Wisdom damage.
Wisdom Drain (Su): An allip causes 1d8 points of Wisdom drain each time it hits with its incorporeal touch attack. On each such successful attack, it gains 5 temporary hit points.
SPELLS (7/7/6/6/5/3):
0th – Resistance, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Ghost Sound, Message, Open/Close, Mending, Prestidigitation. 1st- True Strike, Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement, Mage Armor, Obscuring Mist. 2nd – Hypnotic Pattern, Resist Energy, Touch of Idiocy, Detect Thoughts. 3rd – Suggestion, Vampiric Touch, Major Image. 4th- Phantasmal Killer, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. 5th – Dominate Person.
These lovely creatures (in my opinion), when they did make someone go mad, would induce an effect based on a random D20 roll, from the following table.
Allip Control D20:
1, 2 – Hop in a Circle (lose 1d4 turns, -10 on Hide and Move Silently next round)
3, 4 – Victim begins to nitpick own hair, checking repeatedly for lice (lose 1d4 rounds)
5,6 - Victim begins to garble incoherently and loudly to allies (-10 on Move Silently and Hide, lose 1d4 rounds due to garbling)
7,8 – Victim has sudden urge to laugh maniacally, for no apparent reason (-10 Move Silently/Hide, lose 1d4 turns)
9,10 – Victim will mime as if they are a spellcaster for next 1d4 rounds. Victim Launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
11,12 – Victim will mime as if they are a warrior for next 1d4 rounds. Victim launches no actual attacks, only pretend attacks, including childlike noises.
13,14 – Victim will get the urge to attack nearest living creature
15-20 – Victim gets urge to merely assist allip in search for tomes
I know I had a great deal of fun running the encounter, and watching the players (well, Felonca and the two NPCs she ran for the battle) do random things through the encounter, despite the fact that neither allip used their sorcerous powers and instead focused on babbling. :-D The players had fun laughing about it afterwards as well.
Emperor Valerian
First Post
Desperate Defense
“I hate to be a spoil-sport, but where is Hu?” Meiji interrupted, drawing Nayu back from his chuckling. The bard scratched his head worriedly, looking around, until he pointed back towards Liaoxiang after a few moments. “There’s a lot of movement there.”
“I think we overshot him,” Nayu thought aloud. Dammit... I thought we could spring a trap on him... but he’s more clever, or foolish, than I thought.
Maybe he’s closer to the armies marching into the city...
“Um... Felonca? Are you fine now?” the sorcerer asked.
“Yes, now that I’m no longer sitting under trees,” the hengeyokai replied, kicking one of the chain-clad demons. “And yes, I can scout for you. It’s dark, and if me and Meiji slip in as hybrids, I doubt they’ll be able to see us.”
She’s volunteering herself again...
“Are you sure you and Meiji can go it alone?” Nayu asked. There’s an entire army out there, and if you get yourself caught... He stopped his mind from going any further. Nonetheless, she must have seen the worry in his eyes, for she put on a brave grin.
“We’re panthers! We’re quiet!” she said.
I certainly hope so...
“Before you head out, I want to cast a small spell on you... you’ll be able to talk to me mentally for a while... so tell us what you see...”
And if you run into trouble, we’ll be able to try to help...
“If there’s so much as a peep out of you,” Felonca hissed ten minutes later, her body low and close to the ground as she and Meiji slinked forward. Her eyes weren’t looking at the enemy, and instead bore down on her cousin.
“I didn’t see the twig,” he whispered back in apology, to which she only grunted.
With the flames to their front and their black bodies, Felonca was confident that for all intensive purposes, they were invisible to the army of Langya... the soldier’s eyes would have to adjust to the darkness, and they were two small dark objects, close to the ground in the distance. But noise carried far, and Felonca had no doubt that monstrosities and horrors with acute hearing were among Hu’s pets...
“You see anything?” Meiji asked a few minutes later.
“No, I’m still going closer,” Felonca replied with a muted hiss. Honestly, its like being a part of a trial with all of his questions! “Keep your head low, and stop talking!”
She was thankful when he didn’t reply.
As they slinked closer and closer, slowly, above the rumbles of thunder from the fiery sky above, they could make out other noises... hisses, screeches, and low, dissonant moans. Felonca wanted to peek her head above the grass, to see what was making the noise, but forced herself to stay put. I still won’t be able to see much... she judged from the noises, I’m still too far away. The moans and groans grew louder and louder, until finally, her curiosity got the best of her, and she looked.
She shuddered at what she saw.
Most obvious to the eye were great enormous demons... for horrors such as these only could come from the chaotic realms of below... each high above the ground on eight spindly legs, their immense spider-like forms clattering slowly, ponderously towards the great city walls. Between them walked the towering figures that at a glance looked like great men, yet the flames of the city reflected the gnarled warts and cysts that covered their bodies, as well as the leathery wings that stretched from their massive backs.
Closer to the ground, she saw the shining metallic armor of yet more of the great ragewalkers, blades whirling around their brilliant forms, as fiery skeletons dashed between them. Then, amidst this cacophany of terror, she saw men... men clad in fine armor, spears sharp, swords sharper, their eyes directed towards the city ahead.
Yet despite this menu of fear to set her eyes on, Felonca’s gaze was drawn to one figure. In the midst of the throng, high and imperious on a bone-wheeled chariot, stood a single man. A billowing black cloak covered his back, yet when he turned to give an order, Felonca could see that even his armor, it seemed was made from polished, white bone. Upon his head sat an immense helm of polished steel, a screaming gold skull emblazoned on its front. And as he outstretched his arm, Felonca blinked.
No... that can’t be...
Light seemed to shine through the man’s arm, as if there was no skin...
“Nayu! I see him! I see him!” Felonca hurriedly shouted in her mind.
“See who? Hu?”
“No! The Military Governor!” Felonca replied, crouching even lower as chills ran through her spine. He has no arm! He only has bones for an arm! She heard a muffled noise from Meiji, and immediately pushed her cousin down further in the grass. He’s so dedicated to the dead, he has no arm! Her stomach turned at the thought of what he could do with an abomination like that, and she felt bile rising in her throat.
Why would someone do that? Why would they get rid of their arm to replace it with exposed bones? she thought, more worry in her mind. Thoughts of the arm leaping from its body and strangling people came to her mind.
Then the world went white.
For a few moments Felonca furiously blinked, her eyes watering, trying to keep the bright white light out of her sight. Even when she closed her eyes, the color remained, slowly shifting to green, then red, its wide sheet congealing into eight ragged shapes. When she opened her eyes, the shapes seemed to all trek down towards the wall, as if from the sky. As one, the huge horde before her began to move, rumbling forwards, into the city...
“Felonca!” she heard in her head, “Get out of there now! Won Wei just told me that eight huge lightning bolts just took out some of the key spellcasters keeping the fire off of the Inner Wall! He’s going to have to pull everyone back to the Jade City itself! We’re teleporting out as soon as you get here!”
“Okay,” Felonca replied mentally, sliding backwards in the grass far quicker than they slipped forward.
“What’s happening?” she heard Meiji hiss.
“We’re going back. Hu’s army has finally breached the defenses,” she replied.
“Master Wakabayashi! Shao Wa-Feng!” Won Wei ran up towards the two of them only moments after they teleported back. His robes were now worn and dirty, soot covering the fine silk and linens. “We lost all of our spellcasters along the middle sections of the Inner Wall! Two huge lightning bolts...”
“I saw,” Nayu replied grimly. I’m sure Ling in Xianfung could probably see those bolts. Now... what do we do about this?
“We cannot hold the Inner Walls any longer! We have to retreat to the Jade City, and get out!”
“I know,” Nayu replied, testily. We’ll still need some time to teleport people out... and We need to get the Military Governor, if we can. If he lives, even if we destroy this army, he’ll raise more demons and undead to attack us.
How much time do we have, though... Suddenly, he stopped, an idea in his mind, one which he immediately started to dismiss. No Nayu... that’s too dangerous...
...but there isn’t another course! another part of his mind jumped in. The scholars can’t spread themselves enough to cover all the gates, and if you just pull back to the Jade City, Hu’s army will just pour through and crush your troops as they try to reach the walls... there’s too many of them, and they’re going to be too fast...
You need to slow them here!
You need to kill the Military Governor!
“Won Wei... how many gates are there along the Inner Wall of the city?” Nayu heard himself say, and inwardly, he winced. Are you sure there is no other way? Some way to attract their attention? Distract them?
No... it doesn’t appear so. They won’t go for any bait less than...
“One... Excellency. But there’s no way we can defend it! We’ll be spread too thin, and burnt to a crisp by this fire from the sky!” Won Wei moaned.
“That’s not my plan.”
If you don’t do things this way, they’ll just avoid your plan. You must seem helpless, unimportant for them to lumber into the trap...
If this works... there won’t be a Military Governor to direct them, to get them more demons and other abominations. Hu will have to start recruit soldiers again to replace his losses...
And it’ll buy us... I mean them... some time.
Why them? Nayu thought at his sudden mental changing of words, his mind growing darker at the thoughts coursing through his mind.
You said them because you’re probably going to die, the sorcerer heard a matter of fact voice say in his mind.
It had the same voice as his father.
“So they’re right at the main gate?” Nayu asked insistently a few minutes later, and Won Wei nodded. Felonca watched, worried, as Nayu’s eyes flashed upwards towards the one remaining gate to the Inner City, as an affirmative to Nayu’s question rumbled across its wooden beams. The demonic army was already here, battering away at the gate, and she’d seen that look before on Nayu’s face, when he’d threatened the village of Wang Liang...
“They’ll be held here,” he said suddenly, looking back towards Felonca and the scholar. “Won Wei, go and get the last of the tomes out that you can... I think I can hold them for a half hour or so,” the sorcerer said quickly, before barking more orders above the intermittent crash of the gate being assaulted, detailing which scholars were to teleport when... first on the list being the scholars teleporting the Emperor to Xianfung.
Doesn’t he mean we can hold them for a half hour or so? Felonca worried, her thoughts growing dark. Why did he say ‘I’... Her reverie was broken when Nayu turned to her.
“Felonca,” he grabbed her shoulders, and looked right into her eyes, “I need you, your father, and your uncle to do something special for me. I need you to go to the Jade City, and supervise the final defense.”
“Nayu?” Felonca asked, confused. But I thought we were going to hold them off here! Surely you don’t...
“Felonca, please!” the sorcerer said, his voice choking slightly before he regained himself, “Please. Promise me one thing.”
“Nayu... you can’t do this...”
“Promise me you’ll make sure the Emperor gets out alive and unharmed! Okay!” Nayu shouted above another crash against the gate. “The Empire will need someone to rally around, and if his mother is kept in check, Emperor Yuandi can be that person! I trust you with this!”
“Please Nayu... don’t...”
“Go...” Nayu said quietly, his eyes looking back towards the shaking gate, and Felonca shuddered when she saw the look in his eyes... vacant almost, as if he’d already let his soul leave his body. “Go now... get the walls of the Jade City prepared.”
“Nayu... you can’t...” Felonca started to stumble, tears starting in her eyes. There are demons, skeletons, burning men by the thousands beyond that gate! And the Military Governor! He can’t stop them by himself!
“Felonca... please... go man the last defenses,” Nayu repeated, his voice stronger but his eyes still empty.
He knows it too! He knows he can’t stop them by himself! Felonca mentally screamed. His eyes are empty! He knows if he does this, he’ll die! Her imagination ran wild... she saw one of the immense spider demons gripping her love in its claws.
“Nayu! No!” she yelled, grabbing his shoulder fiercely, shaking him. “You can’t! I...” she stuttered, upset, furious and frightened at the same time. “The people need you! I...” her voice died in her throat, her anxiety and fear conspiring to cut off her voice. I can’t imagine anything without you!
At her voice, she watched Nayu’s face suddenly change... something came alive, if only momentarily, in his brown eyes. She couldn’t tell what it was... it was too quick, too fleeting, before the empty, quiet look of resignation returned. For a moment, her old fear returned, and she thought she’d spoken too much... until Nayu turned around.
“Felonxi... please... take your daughter up to the wall, where she can help direct the final defense,” Nayu said quietly, slowly starting to walk away.
”NAYU!” Felonca screamed, as her father pulled her away. My Emperor! Why are you doing this! She twisted and turned in the larger warrior’s grip, but her father’s hold only tightened. “Nayu! You’re going to get yourself killed! Please!” she thrashed and snapped at her father, “Let me go! Let me go!” Felonxi’s grip only grew tighter.
Forlornly, she screamed out Nayu’s name, as the sorcerer receded into the distance, swallowed by the smoke, the flame, the sights and sounds of a dying city...
Nayu closed his eyes, and cursed. What am I doing here? he yelled at himself, even as he stared at the oncoming horde. The flames in the city created a draft, making his robes billow towards the advancing army. Felonca is worried... she’s scared...
She cares about me... Nayu fought himself, keeping himself from turning, looking back at her even as he could feel her eyes boring with fear into his back.
You started this journey wanting to help people, to save people from harm, from danger, Nayu thought, trying to build courage in his veins. You attacked that village of giants to save another village, you fought hard to keep Hu’s armies at bay...
...which is what you need to do now. He found his legs walking forward, as another enormous boom echoed through the air as more heavy blows struck the yielding gate.
A city needs you.
An Empire needs you.
He started walking faster, towards the breaking gate...
============================================
And Nayu goes off... to stop an army. Alone...
“I hate to be a spoil-sport, but where is Hu?” Meiji interrupted, drawing Nayu back from his chuckling. The bard scratched his head worriedly, looking around, until he pointed back towards Liaoxiang after a few moments. “There’s a lot of movement there.”
“I think we overshot him,” Nayu thought aloud. Dammit... I thought we could spring a trap on him... but he’s more clever, or foolish, than I thought.
Maybe he’s closer to the armies marching into the city...
“Um... Felonca? Are you fine now?” the sorcerer asked.
“Yes, now that I’m no longer sitting under trees,” the hengeyokai replied, kicking one of the chain-clad demons. “And yes, I can scout for you. It’s dark, and if me and Meiji slip in as hybrids, I doubt they’ll be able to see us.”
She’s volunteering herself again...
“Are you sure you and Meiji can go it alone?” Nayu asked. There’s an entire army out there, and if you get yourself caught... He stopped his mind from going any further. Nonetheless, she must have seen the worry in his eyes, for she put on a brave grin.
“We’re panthers! We’re quiet!” she said.
I certainly hope so...
“Before you head out, I want to cast a small spell on you... you’ll be able to talk to me mentally for a while... so tell us what you see...”
And if you run into trouble, we’ll be able to try to help...
“If there’s so much as a peep out of you,” Felonca hissed ten minutes later, her body low and close to the ground as she and Meiji slinked forward. Her eyes weren’t looking at the enemy, and instead bore down on her cousin.
“I didn’t see the twig,” he whispered back in apology, to which she only grunted.
With the flames to their front and their black bodies, Felonca was confident that for all intensive purposes, they were invisible to the army of Langya... the soldier’s eyes would have to adjust to the darkness, and they were two small dark objects, close to the ground in the distance. But noise carried far, and Felonca had no doubt that monstrosities and horrors with acute hearing were among Hu’s pets...
“You see anything?” Meiji asked a few minutes later.
“No, I’m still going closer,” Felonca replied with a muted hiss. Honestly, its like being a part of a trial with all of his questions! “Keep your head low, and stop talking!”
She was thankful when he didn’t reply.
As they slinked closer and closer, slowly, above the rumbles of thunder from the fiery sky above, they could make out other noises... hisses, screeches, and low, dissonant moans. Felonca wanted to peek her head above the grass, to see what was making the noise, but forced herself to stay put. I still won’t be able to see much... she judged from the noises, I’m still too far away. The moans and groans grew louder and louder, until finally, her curiosity got the best of her, and she looked.
She shuddered at what she saw.
Most obvious to the eye were great enormous demons... for horrors such as these only could come from the chaotic realms of below... each high above the ground on eight spindly legs, their immense spider-like forms clattering slowly, ponderously towards the great city walls. Between them walked the towering figures that at a glance looked like great men, yet the flames of the city reflected the gnarled warts and cysts that covered their bodies, as well as the leathery wings that stretched from their massive backs.
Closer to the ground, she saw the shining metallic armor of yet more of the great ragewalkers, blades whirling around their brilliant forms, as fiery skeletons dashed between them. Then, amidst this cacophany of terror, she saw men... men clad in fine armor, spears sharp, swords sharper, their eyes directed towards the city ahead.
Yet despite this menu of fear to set her eyes on, Felonca’s gaze was drawn to one figure. In the midst of the throng, high and imperious on a bone-wheeled chariot, stood a single man. A billowing black cloak covered his back, yet when he turned to give an order, Felonca could see that even his armor, it seemed was made from polished, white bone. Upon his head sat an immense helm of polished steel, a screaming gold skull emblazoned on its front. And as he outstretched his arm, Felonca blinked.
No... that can’t be...
Light seemed to shine through the man’s arm, as if there was no skin...
“Nayu! I see him! I see him!” Felonca hurriedly shouted in her mind.
“See who? Hu?”
“No! The Military Governor!” Felonca replied, crouching even lower as chills ran through her spine. He has no arm! He only has bones for an arm! She heard a muffled noise from Meiji, and immediately pushed her cousin down further in the grass. He’s so dedicated to the dead, he has no arm! Her stomach turned at the thought of what he could do with an abomination like that, and she felt bile rising in her throat.
Why would someone do that? Why would they get rid of their arm to replace it with exposed bones? she thought, more worry in her mind. Thoughts of the arm leaping from its body and strangling people came to her mind.
Then the world went white.
For a few moments Felonca furiously blinked, her eyes watering, trying to keep the bright white light out of her sight. Even when she closed her eyes, the color remained, slowly shifting to green, then red, its wide sheet congealing into eight ragged shapes. When she opened her eyes, the shapes seemed to all trek down towards the wall, as if from the sky. As one, the huge horde before her began to move, rumbling forwards, into the city...
“Felonca!” she heard in her head, “Get out of there now! Won Wei just told me that eight huge lightning bolts just took out some of the key spellcasters keeping the fire off of the Inner Wall! He’s going to have to pull everyone back to the Jade City itself! We’re teleporting out as soon as you get here!”
“Okay,” Felonca replied mentally, sliding backwards in the grass far quicker than they slipped forward.
“What’s happening?” she heard Meiji hiss.
“We’re going back. Hu’s army has finally breached the defenses,” she replied.
“Master Wakabayashi! Shao Wa-Feng!” Won Wei ran up towards the two of them only moments after they teleported back. His robes were now worn and dirty, soot covering the fine silk and linens. “We lost all of our spellcasters along the middle sections of the Inner Wall! Two huge lightning bolts...”
“I saw,” Nayu replied grimly. I’m sure Ling in Xianfung could probably see those bolts. Now... what do we do about this?
“We cannot hold the Inner Walls any longer! We have to retreat to the Jade City, and get out!”
“I know,” Nayu replied, testily. We’ll still need some time to teleport people out... and We need to get the Military Governor, if we can. If he lives, even if we destroy this army, he’ll raise more demons and undead to attack us.
How much time do we have, though... Suddenly, he stopped, an idea in his mind, one which he immediately started to dismiss. No Nayu... that’s too dangerous...
...but there isn’t another course! another part of his mind jumped in. The scholars can’t spread themselves enough to cover all the gates, and if you just pull back to the Jade City, Hu’s army will just pour through and crush your troops as they try to reach the walls... there’s too many of them, and they’re going to be too fast...
You need to slow them here!
You need to kill the Military Governor!
“Won Wei... how many gates are there along the Inner Wall of the city?” Nayu heard himself say, and inwardly, he winced. Are you sure there is no other way? Some way to attract their attention? Distract them?
No... it doesn’t appear so. They won’t go for any bait less than...
“One... Excellency. But there’s no way we can defend it! We’ll be spread too thin, and burnt to a crisp by this fire from the sky!” Won Wei moaned.
“That’s not my plan.”
If you don’t do things this way, they’ll just avoid your plan. You must seem helpless, unimportant for them to lumber into the trap...
If this works... there won’t be a Military Governor to direct them, to get them more demons and other abominations. Hu will have to start recruit soldiers again to replace his losses...
And it’ll buy us... I mean them... some time.
Why them? Nayu thought at his sudden mental changing of words, his mind growing darker at the thoughts coursing through his mind.
You said them because you’re probably going to die, the sorcerer heard a matter of fact voice say in his mind.
It had the same voice as his father.
“So they’re right at the main gate?” Nayu asked insistently a few minutes later, and Won Wei nodded. Felonca watched, worried, as Nayu’s eyes flashed upwards towards the one remaining gate to the Inner City, as an affirmative to Nayu’s question rumbled across its wooden beams. The demonic army was already here, battering away at the gate, and she’d seen that look before on Nayu’s face, when he’d threatened the village of Wang Liang...
“They’ll be held here,” he said suddenly, looking back towards Felonca and the scholar. “Won Wei, go and get the last of the tomes out that you can... I think I can hold them for a half hour or so,” the sorcerer said quickly, before barking more orders above the intermittent crash of the gate being assaulted, detailing which scholars were to teleport when... first on the list being the scholars teleporting the Emperor to Xianfung.
Doesn’t he mean we can hold them for a half hour or so? Felonca worried, her thoughts growing dark. Why did he say ‘I’... Her reverie was broken when Nayu turned to her.
“Felonca,” he grabbed her shoulders, and looked right into her eyes, “I need you, your father, and your uncle to do something special for me. I need you to go to the Jade City, and supervise the final defense.”
“Nayu?” Felonca asked, confused. But I thought we were going to hold them off here! Surely you don’t...
“Felonca, please!” the sorcerer said, his voice choking slightly before he regained himself, “Please. Promise me one thing.”
“Nayu... you can’t do this...”
“Promise me you’ll make sure the Emperor gets out alive and unharmed! Okay!” Nayu shouted above another crash against the gate. “The Empire will need someone to rally around, and if his mother is kept in check, Emperor Yuandi can be that person! I trust you with this!”
“Please Nayu... don’t...”
“Go...” Nayu said quietly, his eyes looking back towards the shaking gate, and Felonca shuddered when she saw the look in his eyes... vacant almost, as if he’d already let his soul leave his body. “Go now... get the walls of the Jade City prepared.”
“Nayu... you can’t...” Felonca started to stumble, tears starting in her eyes. There are demons, skeletons, burning men by the thousands beyond that gate! And the Military Governor! He can’t stop them by himself!
“Felonca... please... go man the last defenses,” Nayu repeated, his voice stronger but his eyes still empty.
He knows it too! He knows he can’t stop them by himself! Felonca mentally screamed. His eyes are empty! He knows if he does this, he’ll die! Her imagination ran wild... she saw one of the immense spider demons gripping her love in its claws.
“Nayu! No!” she yelled, grabbing his shoulder fiercely, shaking him. “You can’t! I...” she stuttered, upset, furious and frightened at the same time. “The people need you! I...” her voice died in her throat, her anxiety and fear conspiring to cut off her voice. I can’t imagine anything without you!
At her voice, she watched Nayu’s face suddenly change... something came alive, if only momentarily, in his brown eyes. She couldn’t tell what it was... it was too quick, too fleeting, before the empty, quiet look of resignation returned. For a moment, her old fear returned, and she thought she’d spoken too much... until Nayu turned around.
“Felonxi... please... take your daughter up to the wall, where she can help direct the final defense,” Nayu said quietly, slowly starting to walk away.
”NAYU!” Felonca screamed, as her father pulled her away. My Emperor! Why are you doing this! She twisted and turned in the larger warrior’s grip, but her father’s hold only tightened. “Nayu! You’re going to get yourself killed! Please!” she thrashed and snapped at her father, “Let me go! Let me go!” Felonxi’s grip only grew tighter.
Forlornly, she screamed out Nayu’s name, as the sorcerer receded into the distance, swallowed by the smoke, the flame, the sights and sounds of a dying city...
Nayu closed his eyes, and cursed. What am I doing here? he yelled at himself, even as he stared at the oncoming horde. The flames in the city created a draft, making his robes billow towards the advancing army. Felonca is worried... she’s scared...
She cares about me... Nayu fought himself, keeping himself from turning, looking back at her even as he could feel her eyes boring with fear into his back.
You started this journey wanting to help people, to save people from harm, from danger, Nayu thought, trying to build courage in his veins. You attacked that village of giants to save another village, you fought hard to keep Hu’s armies at bay...
...which is what you need to do now. He found his legs walking forward, as another enormous boom echoed through the air as more heavy blows struck the yielding gate.
A city needs you.
An Empire needs you.
He started walking faster, towards the breaking gate...
============================================
And Nayu goes off... to stop an army. Alone...
Last edited:
Bryon_Soulweaver
First Post
I think he's going to school for writting.
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit
Adventurer
Excellent update, Emperor V - possibly your best yet! You're setting very high standards for the rest of the story.
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