The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)

[Emperor Valerian]

A New, Urgent Mission

“Nothing? You can do nothing?” Nayu asked in a hushed horror. My town, my parents, and now Felonca...

“It’s beyond my capabilities, Master Nayu,” Liu affirmed with a sigh. The monk put a comforting arm around Felonca, whose eyes glowed orange as she stared into the dying campfire, soft, short coughs coming from her lungs. Nayu’s eyes flecked downward, his vision obscured by nascent tears in his eyes.

Poor Felonca... escaped hell only to die a few weeks later... poor poor... He felt his heart ready to break, the deep, harsh pang of anger and sorrow striking deep within him. What... what can I do?

C’mon, Nayu! a small part of his brain responded, growing larger by the second as he took in her terror filled eyes. She needs your help! Somehow you need to help her. Think!

“We... we can’t be more than two or three days from Xianlung!” Nayu offered quickly, desperately searching for hope. “Would that be enough time?” Please, please say that would be enough time!

For a second the monk’s eyes frowned in thought, before suddenly growing wide in hope.

“If the disease runs a normal course, she would have four, maybe five days to find her some treatment. If Xianlung is a good-sized city...”

“Its larger than Mukden,” Nayu said hopefully. Forty thousand people maybe, a very large city. If she cannot find healing there...

Felonca then suddenly broke free of Liu’s hold, and covering her repeated coughs, she darted towards the horses.

“Let’s go, Liu! I think she has the right idea,” Nayu yelled, running towards his own mount.



Felonca hunched further over, her teeth clattering together. Down her neck, shoulders and back she could feel the rivulents of rain run, despite her now completely drenched cloak and travelling clothes. The burning feeling in her lungs suddenly flared again, and she hunched over, coughing harshly again.

The coughing fits came and went. There were some points where she felt almost normal, save a slight tightness in her chest. Then there were moments like these, where she would launch into a spate of deep, hard coughs that could last half an hour or more at a time.

She'd had plenty of time the last few days to think over her life, only to come to the simple, unerring conclusion that she didn't want to die. She was young for a hengeyokai, barely 25, and she'd yet to see and experience many things the world had to offer.

Many times her mind had gone back to home... in her dreams she saw her father, accepting and proud of her, her mother, kind and smiling as always. Her fellow clansmen, showering her with respect.

None of which will happen if you let yourself die, Felonca! her mind snapped as her will to live fought against the disease wracking her body. Fight it! Work through it to find that shaman or healer!

“How are you doing?” she heard Nayu’s voice say quietly, amidst the harsh rocking on her horse as it struggled through the mire that had only two days before been a packed dirt highway.

“The weather spirits should be cursed,” Felonca rasped back. The burning HURTS! “How long to Xianlung, or have any of your requests been answered?”

“No one knows anything that can help your poison... yet,” Nayu added quickly, with a deep decisiveness.

If he could, he would merely will someone to know how to fix me, Felonca’s soft thoughts managed to conquer another series of sharp coughs, though the stabbing pain caused her to want to gasp, which only made the pain worse.

She felt herself sliding off of her mount, only to feel a pair of hands catch her shoulder and haul her back into place. Weakly, she turned and saw Nayu’s eyes, red with three days of worry and lack of sleep, staring at her through the shafts of rain.

“You’ll be fine, okay?” his voice carried a powerful force within it, but somewhere in its commanding depths she felt a small ripple of despair. “You’ll be fine. The next village will have a healer or a shaman. Just watch!”

“I...trust...you...Na...yu...” Felonca managed to rasp back. The smile she tried to force evidently looked hideous on her already emaciated face. “You...won’t...let...me...die,” she added. She felt his hand clasp around hers, and suddenly and fiercely grip it.

“I won’t! I won’t!” he replied, and between the raindrops, she thought she saw a tear run down his cheek.

“I...st...ill...have...two...days...” she added. Two days to find a cure...somewhere! Another vicious cough ripped through her system, and she found herself gagging. In a move that had almost become instinctive over the previous three days, she turned her head to the side, and spat out a small patch of the mold that was ever growing in her body.

”Apart from the weakness and coughing, you should be able to function like normal, until the last day,” she remembered Liu telling her a few days before. ”Then, the collapse begins quickly and in earnest. Should... should I go on?” she remembered the uncertainty in his voice as they rode through the night.

”Yes,” she had responded, ”I need to know as much as I can. I want to find a cure!”

From somewhere ahead of the party, she heard the splashing and splattering of a horse attempting to move through mud, and slowly she turned her head to look towards the front. Outlined against a featureless, gray sky was the figure of Chou, clad in his armor and calling to them.

“A village! Just ahead!” the warrior shouted, pointing eagerly over a rise. “And they say they know a powerful shaman of the wood!”

“The disease is caused by the yellow mold growing inside of your body, especially your lungs. On the fifth day or so, the fatigue will get you first. There will be too much mold for you body to function normally. Within a few hours, you’ll lose consciousness... and death results not to much beyond that.” She remembered Liu had shuddered, before he had added, “And after three days, your body will rise again as a corpse controlled by the mold... a most horrible end.”

That ending can still be rewritten!



“Many thanks for your kindness in telling us of this shaman, sirs,” Felonca said softly above the patter of the rain. Below her and her comrades, four peasants tipped their broad brimmed hats, before one, a greasy looking man with short hair spoke.

“It would be our pleasure, madam,” he said in a gruff voice. “The ‘Old Man of the Woods’ can heal anything, or so they tell me.” The man reached up under his hat and scratched his head. “He doesn’t usually want to have anything to do with many people, though.”

“They say,” one of the other peasants whispered, leaning close to the party, “that he drinks blood, and that he’s as old as many of the great trees in these here woods.”

“I don’t know about that... but I know he is quite wise, and powerful,” the greasy one cut in his friend’s descriptions. “Though... none of us here have ever seen him.”

“Wait... none of you have seen him?” Felonca heard Nayu grumble. She could tell by the furrow in his brow that fury was building behind his otherwise calm exterior. Fifty gold to find out they’ve never seen him?

“No... Zhen has that wrong,” the younger one stole the floor back. “I saw him... from a distance though. At his mound.”

“His what?”

“His mound. He goes to this little hill in the woods, and he, um... you know, does stuff there. They say that’s where the sacrifices take place, and where he does his magic. Its got skulls all along its bottom, and some kind of shrine or altar at the top!”

“Ren, these people are looking for –” the greasy one interrupted, only to be cut off himself.

“Where do we find this mound? Which way?” Felonca asked, her voice even softer. She felt the familiar tightness in her chest returning; another spate of coughing was soon to arrive.

“You go north of the village, and at a great oak, you turn towards the east...”

 

[TDRandall]

>>> They say that’s where the sacrifices take place

>>> Its got skulls all along its bottom, and some kind of shrine or altar at the top!

>>>> “Ren, these people are looking for –”

OK, as much as I want Felonca to be healed, it doesn't sound like THIS is going to be the right place for it. Rather, the villagers are sending them up as this season's/year's offering....

Unless I'm reading this wrong or there is a twist, something tells me if she does get better it's going to be in spite of this person's effort. Maybe something in the treasure when it's over?

And they're walking right into it. Don't you just love when urgency overrules wisdom?

Can't wait to read what happens next!

 

[drag n fly]

"Don't you just love when urgency overrules wisdom?"

At this point, Felonca has only a day or two before death, and they're still several days out from the main city, due to the rain slowing the group down. It's all or nothing at this point. And Felonca figures that if this healer-person can't help her, she can get the others to kill her or commit suicide so as not to come back as a zombie and possibly hurt her friends. Better to do that out in the woods than in a town or major city.

Poor, poor Felonca Such a brave stubborn hengeyokai.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

The ‘Old Man of the Forest’


The party immediately set off, following the peasants directions. For several hours they trudged through the woods, as the insistent rain finally began to let up, in time for the sky to turn a brilliant orange, gracing the woods with the glorious light of evening.

For Felonca, the light did not look very glorious at all, and the panorama her eyes saw in the orange glow looked more forbidding than glorious. All day little voices had been pouring over the words the peasant’s mentioned.

Sacrifices...

Hill surrounded by skulls...

She could tell by the eyes of Nayu and the others, such worry was running in their minds as well. Worry that had to be pushed aside, as each hour ticked by...

True to the word of the peasant, there was a large clearing in the midst of the trees, and at its center, a steep mound, rising some fifteen feet into the air. Brambles, grass, and leaves deeply covered its flanks, the slight evening breeze causing them to shift and rattle lightly. The crest of the hill was a flat plateau, perhaps ten feet in diameter.

“Um,” Felonca heard Nayu gulp, and watched the young man point nervously towards the base of the hill, “those... those are skulls.”

Felonca’s eyes followed where he pointed, and just underneath the leaves and thorns, she could see a bit of yellowish white, and the dark, empty eye sockets of what was once an enormous bear. Her eyes then searched along the base of the mound, a knot of worry growing in her stomach as she recognized other skulls... great deer, lions, a bevy of sharp toothed animals, great horned animals, and in general vicious looking animals. Finally her eyes settled on one skull whose eye sockets seemed to stare at her, and her heart stopped.

It can’t be... but... who would have the power to...

“Um... Nayu?” Felonca asked, her own arm nervously pointing. “Do you see that skull there? Is it what I...”

“A dragon skull?” Nayu’s voice replied in a nearly silent, frightened whisper at the monstrosity twice the size of the other skulls, large, powerful horns emerging from its rock hard bone. The beast’s mouth was agape, as if about to lunge, the maw large enough that Nayu could have easily been bitten in two by it.

“Who possesses the power to kill such a great thing?” Liu asked quietly, his own voice filled with fear, as he gingerly stepped forward to peer closer at the enormous skull. “Who would want to kill such a great beast?”

Felonca’s eyes searched about, fearfully, as the sun’s golden fingers still warmed her face. All around the sounds of birds chirping, squirrels chittering, and even the occasional animal noise made the eerie scene complete, as if nature did not care for what abominations might occur in this spot.

“I’m thinking we should wait in the woods,” Chou said quietly. “If our friend does not appear too... um... ‘friendly’ we can jump him, and make him heal you for his life.”

“Quiet,” Felonca rasped back. The coughing pain was returning again. “If he... or she... has great enough power to have slain a dragon, she might be able to hear what we’re saying from afar!” The first of what would be a series of coughs forced her to pause, before she managed to rasp onward.

“We...stay...here...show...we...mean...well...”



The sun’s golden disk had long ago disappeared below the horizon when Nayu gave his growl of frustration. He stomped over to the side of the mound, and barely resisted the urge to kick one of the skulls.

My friend is DYING, and whatever old foggie works in this place has taken the night off! For the love of all that is sacred, why do the fates always crap on us?!

His pacing then took him back towards where Felonca, Liu, Chou, and the old Captain, still bound but now ungagged, sat beside the horses. Liu and Chou’s eyes betrayed worry, Li’s betrayed relief (at Felonca’s insistence, Nayu had finally ungagged the old man)... while Felonca’s reddening eyes betrayed worry.

“Nayu...” she rasped out, an already thin hand reaching up to him, “calm...I’m...still...” The sentiment was interrupted by another bout of coughing.

“How can I stay calm, if you’re dying, and the one thing within a hundred miles that can save you decided to take the damn night off!” he snarled, spinning back towards the mound. In the growing moonlight, it rose from the ground like some huge abberation, as mists started to close in from the surrounding trees, clinging close to the ground.

Suddenly, the leaves that covered the mound began to rustle, whistle and crackle. First in ones and twos, and then in great clumps, the leaves blew off the mound, their whistling rising to almost a roar. In the moonlight, Nayu thought he saw a pair of stag antlers on the top of the hill, then he shook his head assuming his eyes deceived him.

But they had not. Beside them rose something long and thin, glittering in the night, just as the antlers rose higher and higher, the largest set of deer horns Nayu had ever seen. As the crest reached its apex, a head that belonged to no deer rose from the ground, followed by a shape, heavily covered in robes of furs.

The great beast, it appeared, stood well taller than even Nayu, perhaps seven feet. As the moon was at its back, Nayu could not see whether its face was human or beastial as it slowly strode down the mountain, unseen bones jingling as it walked.

“Who are you to have set upon my sacred clearing?” a voice, aged beyond ancient rumbled. A long bony finger swept across the entire group. “Who are you to have interrupted my meditations!”

“Oh damn,” Nayu heard Chou curse.

“Wise one,” Nayu began uncertainly, fearfully, “we come in peace, seeking your wisdom in healing!” We need your help, not your fury!

“And why should I heal mere interlopers as yourselves? For all I know, you could be bone collectors, sent to deface my sacred clearing!” the voice rumbled with anger as the apparition advanced.

“We...” Felonca started to rise, before doubling over as a powerful coughing fit shook her entire body.

Nayu’s eyes narrowed as he saw his friend in such a state, and a bravery came into his heart.

The bravery of desperation.

“Sir, that,” he pointed to his friend, who had by now collapsed to the ground, “is why we are here! My friend is terribly sick, she has been poisoned and will die within the day unless she receives help! And the villagers have told us that you, wise one, can heal almost anything!” Believe me! There is no time for fighting!

The apparition moved slightly to the side, its head flitting towards the doubled up Felonca. As it moved, moonlight now entered its cowl from Nayu’s perspective, and reflected the craggy visage of a terribly old man, a man so old that what would have been a great white beard only had strands and wisps of mane left.

He’s not convinced, Nayu thought, desperation powering his brain. Not convinced at all!

On complete impulse, Nayu suddenly dropped onto both knees. “We are your humble servants, wise one! We beg you, I beg you, please, save our friends life!” He then immediately prostrated himself in a full kowtow, wet grass and dirt touching his forehead.

After a moment, he felt something else touch his shoulder, as the long, bony fingers of the man tapped and pulled lightly for him to rise.

“Young one, I am neither a god, nor an emperor, you need not prostrate yourself,” the same ancient voice said as he helped Nayu to his feet. The man’s eyes looked at Nayu, but they seemed to also look far past him, to places miles and miles away.

“So, you are going to help her?” Chou asked, his voice filled with eagerness.

The antler headed man turned slowly, ignoring the question, till he faced the moon. As Chou started to ask his question again, Nayu held up his hand to prompt him to wait. The old man’s eyes had closed, and even Nayu felt some kind of power billowing around him. After a few moments, the man’s eyes reopened, and he turned to the group.

“I believe your story, but the spirits of the moon and stars are not so sure. They demand proof, a show of loyalty, that you are seeking what you are truly seeking, and not some agents of darkness set to damage this sacred ground.”

“Proof of loyalty?” Chou asked, indignance rising in his voice. “Give me a bow, and I shall bring back a bird, an oxen, whatever animal they require in sacri...”

“No!” the woods echoed with the wise man’s shout. “These spirits look after life, and seek life, not death!” His eyes blazed under his hood with a simmering rage at the suggestion.

“What do they seek, wise one?” Nayu said hurriedly, hoping to defuse the situation. The old man turned to him, and Nayu could see the fires of anger losing their power.

“These sacred woods are being attacked on all sides by undead, by beasts of fire,” the old man said after a few moments. “From the north, skeletons of fire burn my woods, while here in the south, undead beasts roam, destroying sacred life. I am but one keeper of the forest, and I cannot be in all places at all times.”

“We...can...assist...you...if...your...spirits...require...such...” Felonca rasped, the coughing fit over for now.

Nayu flashed her a worried look, knowing full well she wasn’t in a position to assist anyone really... perhaps not even herself.

“Yes... that would show the spirits your worthiness.” The man lowered his head in momentary thought, before it suddenly snapped up. “There is a great beast to the south of here, powerful and beyond death’s call. The spirits of nature call for it to return to the ground whence it came, but it refuses their beckon. If you can return it to the realm of the dead, where it belongs, I am convinced that the spirits will guide and allow me to heal your friend.”

“Where is this beast? Give me one swing of my sword, and I’ll put the ‘dead’ back in ‘un-dead!” Chou snapped.

“Chou...not...funny...” Felonca replied.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Sorry for the long delay. Posting is going to be rather spotty for the next two weeks... its finals, and I've got about 60 pages worth of papers to type up.

Oh... and that said... yeah, I sorta planned on the party rushing pell-mell about with no regard to safety... those parties are fun to play with *evil grin*.

===================================

A Hunting We Will Go... *hack* A Hunting We Will Go... *cough*

Felonca stifled another cough as the party slinked through the woods, the darkness of the impending night growing ever closer. She turned to the side and spat, and her throat had a momentary period of clearance before the next piece of mold began growing and tickling its delicate flesh.

“Bloody hell! We aren’t going to be able to see anything soon!” Nayu groaned quietly. Felonca felt a small chuckle rise to her lips, one that was which combined with a cough to make an unusual croak.

Nayu turned to look at her, and his eyes went wide.

Felonca could only imagine how emaciated she looked, or her face’s resemblance to a leering skeleton now that the mold was stripping away her inner flesh, coursing through her blood.

“I...can...still...see...” she reassured and teased him at the same time. Her cat-like eyes flashed with a touch of mirth, which seemed, for a moment, to push away the sea of sadness that had dwelled there. “I’ll...take...point...”

“No!” Nayu said a little too loudly, “I’m fine! I can see fine!” Worry was still in his eyes.

Let me help! Felonca’s mind wanted to snap back.

“It...will...be...okay...big...brother... ” The final two words Felonca delivered with the biggest rolling of her eyes that her face could manage, which was more than enough to convey her sentiment. “I...am...a...big...girl...”

And we NEED to find this monster! I am the only one in the group that can see decently at night without firelight! It does no good for the blind to lead me!”

Despite her weakened state, she easily slipped outside of Nayu’s reach and to the front of the little column. He started to come after to put her back into the safety of the middle of the group, when her cat-like eyes stared at him.

He backed up.



Some hours later, Felonca resisted the urge to scratch her neck with a paw as she slinked along the forest trail, her panther-form close to the ground. It felt easier to move in this form, and she knew she would be quieter... panthers were built for silence, and even her coughs were whispers in the forest.

Her eyes flicked about, constantly searching, her nose constantly sniffing, despite the dull pain it caused to her lungs. The day creatures of the forest were just readying for sleep, while the creatures of the night were stirring, and the late dusk cacophany covered the noises the rest of her less quiet companions made.

Suddenly, she caught a whiff of something. It lasted only an instant, but it smelled dark and dank, like the earth, coupled with the stench of maggots. Her head immediately turned, and within seconds she had leapt off the trail and into the woods.

She heard her companions hissing at her to slow down, but to her pleasure, she could only barely hear their crashing through the trees, desperately trying to keep up.

I need to find this thing, and kill it! Then I’ll be healed! her mind focused, as she padded to a halt on the edge of a large clearing.

Carefully, she slinked forward, belly pressed to the ground, ears flatted on her head, until her eyes could make out what was causing the nauseous stench that assaulted her nose.

It was a large beast, some three times the side of a horse. Its lizard-like tail was short and stubby, and from its flanks issued great ulcers and sores, yellowy bones showing the wounds in the last rays of the already set sun.

A crash of leaves broke above the noise of roosting birds and stretching owls and night-walkers, and the beast suddenly spun around... facing her.

Its head looked to be like those of dragons she’d seen on Master Hsiu’s prints, save its maw was longer, the skin drawn tight over its skull. From its mouth, great yellow teeth bared bloody, for behind its massive form lay the shredded form of a deer. The beast gave a great huff as it sniffed the air, before turning back to its meal.

I’m down-wind... thank the ancestor’s grace! Felonca thought as she barely heard four people draw up alongside her.

“You are really lucky... do you know that?” she whispered.

“Why? I only took a little tumble back there,” Chou whispered in reply.



“How are we supposed to take out that beast?” Nayu heard Chou whisper only a few seconds later.

“Its the size of a couple horses,” Li whispered, causing Nayu to frown in fury. It had been Chou’s idea to bring the still bound Captain along. Chou did not want to leave his bound father alone in the forest, and Nayu didn’t trust the man around the horses. The plan was perfect, until Nayu had time to think about it later.

It is neither living nor dead... but past experience shows that undead can still die...

“A powerful attack, that’s how we take it out,” Nayu whispered a moment later. “It doesn’t know we’re here, we have the drop on it. Felonca, you use your bow, and Chou, your crossbow. I’ll launch some magic.”

“And then I can run forward and fillet it with my sword... then we run off with its hoard,” Chou whispered. “Get it? Sword? Hoard?”

“Chou, sometimes...” Nayu started, before Li interrupted again.

“I can help. Lend me my blade, I can help you.”

“No,” Nayu hissed. You are from the group that murdered my parents! I would no sooner trust you with a blade than I would call out to that beast! “You... stay here, and keep quiet... bastard.”

“Nayu...maybe...we...should...” Felonca whispered, and gestured towards Li. Nayu shook his head vigorously, and instead motioned towards the beast.

“Everyone... take your positions... ready yourselves...”

The early evening chatter of nature was not disturbed by the quiet creaks of a bowstring and a crossbow being pulled, or two silent whispers or prayer and one of curse. The splatter of the beast feeding continued, right until Nayu’s shout.

A blazing line of fire leapt from Nayu’s hand, burning the back of the beast with magical flame. Twin twangs echoed in the forest as Felonca and Chou let loose, while Liu let forth a great shout that seemed to make the trees shiver (shout, obviously). The screeching of roosting birds was suddenly replaced by the thunder of their flight, and the terrified screams of forest animals darting away from the unknown light and thunder.

Save the great beast before them. It spun, its red eyes furious and deep. Already, a shing echoed in the air, as Chou leapt forward, armor jingling and blade high above his head. As Nayu’s chants slowly rose again, he noticed another shape dashing forward... one that was smaller and dark.

FELONCA!

Already the hengeyokai was racing ahead of Chou, her hybrid form clutching her warfans as her emaciated form leapt into the air, a silent scream coming from her lips as the blades flashed down, and she cartwheeled past the beast’s flank.

Chou then slashed into the creature’s flank, opening another fissure in its dead side. Moments later, another blast of scorching fire from Nayu’s hand crackled into the creature’s face.

And the beast when mad.

An enormous bellow, so loud and powerful it seemed to shake the roots of the very trees themselves, deafened the party’s ears. Its massive head suddenly swung hard to the right, catching Felonca as she sprung up for another attack. The side of its head crashed into her with the force of a cartload of bricks and Nayu watched in horror as her thin black form sailed through the air, crashing into the underbrush some thirty feet away.

Its head then snapped the other direction, and Chou, his metal armor silvery in the growing moonlight, cartwheeled in the air the opposite direction, landing with an ignominous thud in the dirt to the left.

Nayu did not need to look to know the crash of leaves to his right was Liu, charging off to heal the already battered Felonca. To Nayu’s horror, the beast’s enormous snout swung in that direction as well, its eyes narrowing on a new target dashing across the glen.

Another sharp burst of crackling fire slammed into the beast’s neck, as Nayu dashed out from amidst the dense undergrowth, and shouted.

“Hey! Idiot! Pauper’s excuse for a chamberpot dragon! You! Over here, you outhouse smelling git!” The enormous maw swung back, and the beady eyes bore down on Nayu’s now exposed form.

Gods... had to be brave, didn’t you! a small, insistent voice shouted in Nayu’s mind as he felt the ground begin to shudder as the great beast charged.

Well, someone needed to make sure Liu got over there to check on them! another part of his mind fired back. The young sorcerer’s hand flicked towards his morningstar, and he gave a sharp tug...

...only to find it stuck in his belt.

“Daaaaammmmmiiit!” was all he could yell as he felt an enormous blow to his chest, and he saw the sky and ground cartwheeling around him...



“Felonca... are you alright?”

“Meh.” A new pain filled Felonca’s chest and stomach, this one far more intense and insistent than the feeling caused by ragged mold in her lungs. That hurt like hell...

Then she heard the beast’s thundering move, and her tired muscles felt new strength flowing in them... the wonderous powers of adrenaline made her body flip painfully to her feet, just in time to see Nayu and the bound Captain Li both cartwheeling through the air...

Her lungs hurt, her body was sore, but she heard her warfans click as she flashed them open. Vaguely, she heard Liu shouting for her to stop, to wait, but the shouts receded as she felt her legs pushing her, faster and faster. Her bruised ribs ached, her lungs screamed as pain and mold combined to form pain she’d never felt before. But she rushed onwards, her arms instinctively putting her fans in a ‘low-guard’ as the beast started to turn, its maw opening to bellow and bite...

For a second, her mind flashed back to the Academy, to the acrobatic moves they were forced to practice. Then, she’d regarded it all as showy... foolishness. Now, as she tumbled down under the great creature’s maw, she didn’t have the mind or time to be thankful.

Instinct guiding her arms, her hands, her body as it twisted and contorted out of the beasts way. She smelled a blast of foul air, fouler than any beast’s mouth, and suddenly she found herself in a perfect ‘striking adder’ crouch, her fans in the precise location to strike yet again.

The beast seemed to stand there, almost as if it were made of granite, its red eyes staring at her with... was it shock? Slowly, their beady forms rolled back, and with a great, rumbling crash, the mighty undead creature fell to the side, a last heave of the nauseous fume of the grave erupting from its form.

Felonca hissed, and fell back, the pain in her chest now unbearable, and the adrenaline and fear that had pushed her body suddenly leaving it. Her breathing came in sharp wheezes, as her ribs and lungs fought to breath through the mold and pain. She heard running feet, and in the moonlight, she made out Nayu hovering above her, the side of his face already turning black and blue from his hard landing.

“You shouldn’t have done that!” he hissed at her, a weak smile of thanks on his lips. “You... you’re weak. You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”

“Nah...I...strong...like...bull...” she hissed back over the next minute, forcing herself to speak through the pain. She could almost feel the heaviness in her chest now, as if parts of her lungs were slowing turning into stone.

"I don't care! You still shouldn't have done that... and... I'm pretty grateful you did," the young man grimaced. He was starting to feel the pain in his face.

“Any...loot?”

“Once a thief, always a thief?” Nayu replied, just as Chou’s loud complaints from the far side of the clearing could be heard.

“Ow! Who the hell made this patch of dirt so hard to... oh... I don’t think I landed on dirt...”

8,200 silver pieces and a ball of gold into a bag of holding later...

“There...last...of...it...” Felonca wheezed.

“Felonca? I still don’t think it was wise to sit around and gather up this silver! We’ve wasted an hour!” Nayu continued to fuss and worry.

“I...said...I...strong...like...bull...” Felonca repeated, not necessarily slowly to emphasize her point, but to breathe. “It...only...take...a...few...hours...to...get...back...”


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The creature in this was a stahnk, which is found in the Creature Catalogue on this site. Very nasty, with the ability to basically knock people through the air up to thirty feet (witness Felonca, Chou, Nayu, Li). Felonca had some pretty big penalties assigned to her because of the illness to her Hide and Move Silently checks, but still managed to do stellar. SHe also had some penalties to her attack and damage, but managed to crit in a spectacular manner attempting to save Nayu (who was trying to distract the thing to save her). All in all, quite a heroic session.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Updates are likely going to be really slow over the next two weeks. I have a final and three essays due during that time . Afterwards, though, I have a month off... look for more updates (and far more frequent updates) after the 15th of December.

As a teaser, I'd like to post a couple quotes from the most recent session.

Felonca: "I realized it, you know. I'm not dumb!"
Nayu: "Whoops, I forgot about that!"


Nayu's player: "I want to punt the gnome between the two trees. Can I do that?"

 

[Mahtave]

Take your time Emp! This is yet another excellent SH penned by you, we can wait until after the 15th....

Is this game still only two PCs, or has then been some more players joining up?

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Yeah, there's still only the two PCs, haven't had anyone interested in joining yet. It makes it kinda challenging to round out the party and make sure they have the ability to tackle some stuff.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Done with papers! I'll get started on the next update ASAP!

 

[Emperor Valerian]

The End of the Line

Nayu winced again as he heard the ever deeping hack of Felonca’s coughing. He turned, and through the early morning mist, he saw her, bent over at the base of the druidic mound, coughing fiercely. His eyes then flashed up, staring into the thickening mist as a growl came to his lips.

Where are you?

It had taken several hours for the party to hike back to the mound, and now they sat, and waited as somewhere within the soup, the sun began to make itself known.

“Hello? Good sir?” Chou’s voice echoed for the tenth time in the past few minutes. “Good sir, where are you?”

Screwing around likely, not even going to pay us back! Nayu frowned deeply, and gave a pebble on the ground a sharp hard kick. The snap of it striking a tree echoed in the misty morning. He looked back at his friend, watching in anger, despair and fear as Liu came to her side, and gently patted her back as she struggled to breathe.

“I... am... okay...” she struggled to say over the course of a minute, before shakily rising to her feet. Her skin was drawn taut, her eyes sunken deep into her dark skin. Slowly, with great effort, her bony, thin arm pointed off into the mists, a look of question on her face even before she could struggle to utter the words.

Nayu’s eyes flashed to where she was pointing. About damn time! He breathed in deeply, planning to unleash a barrage of questions on the druid once his antlered head emerged from the mists. Why weren’t you here sooner? My friend is DYING! His mouth, however, merely hung open as he stopped before the words left his lips.

Instead of a hooded man, antlers rising from his cloaked head, Nayu saw a patch of pink within the mist... flowing into thin gossamer threads and then folding into itself, almost as if it were a bit of reddish steam. As he watched, amazed by what he saw, the pinkish mists drew even closer... ever closer, its tendrils seeming to reach out towards him, to touch him...

Suddenly, he felt as if thousands of pins were pricking his body on every section of exposed flesh. His eyes flashed down in horror, as blood began to seep from every pore along the first arm the mist touched, and then more of his body as the pink slowly enveloped him, its tendrils suddenly flushing a dark, blood red.

“Get off of me!” Nayu snarled, his hands clutching his morningstar, as he slashed through the depths of the mist, its red tendrils whirling and curling around the curves of his wicked weapon. He heard shouting, and felt his blood slowly pulsing out of him, as he struggled against the mist, and felt a force holding him there, as if the mists had grabed him and were holding him tight.

From somewhere, he felt a hand touch his shoulder, and the pinpricks suddenly abated somewhat. He spun, ready to attack, his frightened eyes catching the calm, brown eyes of Liu, blood starting to pool on the monks arm (Liu cast shield other). For a moment, Nayu felt strangely at peace, looking into the monk’s eyes, even as he heard Felonca’s raspy breaths close by, or the whoosh of Chou’s sword slashing through the air. For a moment, the young man sees his home, intact, his mother fixing dinner, his father in the bedroom, looking strangely at the plain wooden box that rested beside his parents bed...

Felonca’s wheezing, loud and anxious, snapped Nayu’s mind back to the present, as the reddish tendrils of mist seemed to cartwheel away, their thin strands breaking more and more, until nothing remained save the plain whiteness of the early morning fog.

“What the hell was... Felonca!”



BREATHE! Felonca’s mind screamed, as her hand clutched her chest. BREATHE! BREATHE DAMN YOU! Her heart still pounded, furiously trying to give oxygen to the arms that had just finished swinging her warfans yet again in anger, the legs that had somehow carried her up the hill to Nayu. They all burst with pain as if on fire, and it seemed an inferno was eating and blazing its way through her lungs.

It was then she could feel it. A cold, hard presence, something she could not see, but something icily persistent. It was always just beyond her reach, just outside her line of sight, just outside her focus of mind, but she knew it was closing... closer and closer.

The corners of her vision began to darken, as she slumped forward, her lungs trying in vain to cough, but only managing a weak wheeze. I’m going to die... The thought made her want to scream, which only made the pain in her chest explode more, as her vision grew even darker.

The world about her seemed to recede. She could feel her fingers desperately clutching the grass under her, pulling as if uprooting them would breath new life in her lungs. The voices of her friends, only moments before seeming so close and urgent, were now fading into a confused mumble, the distant drumbeat of her panicking heart growing louder and louder. Their shouts seemed so distant, so faint...

Blackness enveloped Felonca.



”Master always demands silence!” she heard a distant voice, high with the sparkle of a child not yet pubescent, call.

“I know!” Felonca growled at Nixu, an even younger version of her growled back in annoyance. The world seemed to spin and whirl, as Nixu repeated his call.

Now Felonca saw her Master’s room... the room of Master Yen-Chuan Hsiu, the legendary warrior, proud tiger hengeyokai, destroyer of legions. Along the walls of the small antechamber hung trophies from his days as a General in the Imperial armies; A wickedly curved scimitar from one of the cities of the Slave Coast, an exquisite bow made from deerhorn and birchwood, taken from a chief of the Kara Kitai tribes.

Felonca thought she felt her warfans slipping, and quickly adjusted her grip, even as panic flooded her mind. To be found in Hsiu’s chambers like this would earn certain death. To be found red-handed stealing from Master Hsiu’s chambers would lead to a fate somehow worse than death.

“Bastard,” her mind whispered, thinking of the constant abuse he’d heaped on her during her longer than acceptable stay at the Academy. Her eyes flashed to the window, where just on the horizon the first rays of dawn were rapid stretching from their slumber. She gave an imperceptible hiss, and looked again at Hsiu’s trunk.

“He deserves it,” her mind snapped, and she reached down and gingerly, silently pulled out a dagger. Its hilt was exquisite with a large ruby on the end, its blade silver etched with characters she could not recognize. After a split second of thought, it was in her boot, as she swiftly made her exit...



Death is very loud, Felonca thought, as the rumbling, thundering noise assaulted her, flowed about her, seemingly through her. They always said that to rest with the ancestors would be a peaceful repose...wait... The thundering rose slowly separated itself, the continuous rumble now dividing into individual thumps. After another moment, Felonca realized it was her heart.

“GAH!” she gasped, eyes flashing open to a blinding light. For a few seconds she was disoriented, a world of light and sound assaulting her senses, before her mind was able to organize them into sights and sounds.

Nayu was mere inches away, relieved panic plainly on his face. She felt his hand fiercely gripping hers, as a brother would protecting his sister.

“You were just within my help, young one. You are very fortunate,” came the whispery, mysterious voice the party had heard only the day earlier. She turned, and found herself looking into the dark hood of the antlered druid.

It was then that she realized she was breathing. There was no pain, there was no screaming fires within her chest. Giddily, she looked down, and watched her chest rise and fall a few times. No pain.

“YES!” she suddenly was up, and without thinking did a backflip of joy. After she landed, she started to run in circles around the party, laughing and cheering.



“Woah!” Chou cried, barely dodging the hyper and ecstatic Felonca. “Watch out, I think her kick might’ve caused some pain if she’d hit!”

“Crazy as ever,” Nayu grinned, his eyes flooding with happiness.