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The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)
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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1769357" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p>Note: There is now the <em>start</em> of a Rogue's Gallery Thread for this story. I give my players XP for turning in backgrounds (bonding with characters, adding depth to the game, as well as giving me, the DM, some ammunition <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /> ), so I'm posting the ones that players want up. The link to the thread is <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1769278#post1769278" target="_blank">here.</a> I'm going to try to update it as players level up, etc. as well</p><p></p><p><strong>Skeletal Worries, and Why Thinking Too Much on Watch Can be Bad</strong></p><p></p><p>“What?!” Nayu stood, eyes awash in concern and a touch of fear.</p><p></p><p>“These tomes raise the dead, a most evil act,” Liu repeated slowly, his voice still filled with dread. “If these came off of your town prefect, the entire village could be in danger!”</p><p></p><p><em>Mother... Father...</em> Images of his parents, his friends, all the people he had known while growing up flashed through Nayu’s mind. One by one, he saw each turn into a bleached skeleton in his mind’s eye, their skulls shrunken, their gait the scraping and clattering of bones.</p><p></p><p>“I’ve got to go back! I’ve got to warn them!” Nayu was immediately by his mount, hands hurriedly setting saddlebags in place. As the images replayed in his mind, he moved faster and faster. His movements had built to such a frenzy only a few moments later that he did not notice the twin pairs of hands that touched his shoulders.</p><p></p><p>“You can’t go now!” he heard Felonca’s voice say, its soft soprano filled with deep concern. “Night has fallen already, and there’s no telling how many more of those people,” her dark hand motioned towards the still trussed up Bohai, “are out there! You’ll only wear yourself out, and collapse to sleep the entire day!”</p><p></p><p>Nayu’s shoulder shrugged hard to get the arms away, and he spun to lash his tongue out at Felonca, until he caught sight of her eyes. Their blue depths were wide with worry, and spoke that her concerns came not from a lecture someone had given her, but experience from somewhere.</p><p></p><p>“Master Nayu,” the monk’s voice carried over the quiet crackle of the campfire, “I shall go with you as well. Fate as deemed my previous errand at an end... perhaps three lives were reincarnated to preserve those of many others. However, I cannot fully help unless I properly rest. Master Asoka teaches us that rest can keep our minds quiet, and pure, so that we may...”</p><p></p><p>Nayu didn’t hear the rest of Liu’s explanation of Master Asoka’s views on rest. His eyes looked at Felonca’s and he gave a soft nod. His gaze then switches to the young farmer, and unlike before, the trader’s brown eyes don’t harden.</p><p></p><p>“You will come with us, Bohai,” Nayu said simply, before turning to his horse and slowly unloading the hurriedly stacked supplies. </p><p></p><p><em>You know more about these ‘Burning Men,’ than we do... and that could save my parents lives...</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Felonca wasn’t surprised that Nayu was awake by just after sunrise, urging everyone to mount. She knew how it felt to lose parents... hers, as far as she knew, were still alive, but chances were high that she might never see them again. The Wu-Fang family had a tradition of being warriors, proud warriors.</p><p></p><p><em>A tradition I broke, so many weeks ago,</em> she thought rather glumly as she mounted up and goaded her gelding to a swift canter. Nayu started to rush past, his horse at a gallop, until she grabbed his reins.</p><p></p><p>“A fast canter will get you further faster... a horse can canter much longer than it can gallop, and you lose much endurance for only a little more speed,” she said, repeating the lesson she learned the hard way only two weeks before. The noise of Hsiu’s hounds still bayed in her mind, giving her chills at night.</p><p></p><p>For two days, the four rode, Bohai being strapped to the back of Nayu’s steed, Liu riding on Felonca’s. Boahi made a loud and grumpy fuss most of the way about his trusses being tight... enough that Nayu finally unbound him.</p><p></p><p>It was the night of the second day, only three days from Red Lotus, that things began to go to hell.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Nayu! Go fetch your mother some fruits from the market!</em> Nayu heard his father’s call. The young boy gave a laughing nod, and spun, leaping out the door. The market was a fun place to be, with travelers from far and wide! It was always exciting there, and today was going to be no different!</p><p></p><p>The young boy, barely six, careened around corners and ducked between legs trying to reach Madame Cixi’s stall. The old woman sold almost everything in her tiny wooden area... and she always gave Nayu a spoonful of honey. As a matter of fact, Nayu was so eagerly thinking about the sweet taste, he didn’t see the runaway horses until they were only a few feet from him.</p><p></p><p>Snorting, neighing and the thunder of hooves filled the air, as two black mounts, massive and terrible to the small child’s eyes, towered over him, looming, threatening to put him into ever-shadow. Instinctively Nayu raised his hands as a scream came to his lips, and suddenly the shadow had vanished. A bright light burst in front of the horses’ and they reared up long enough their master was able to catch their reins...</p><p></p><p>Nayu threw another stick into the fire, the image fading. <em>That was... eleven years ago now? Eleven years with magic,</em> the young man thought quietly, his concern for his village still ever present, still gnawing. He heard in his mind his father’s voice, telling him to be careful with his gift... and his mind’s eye then watched his father’s face shrivel to a bare bone skeleton.</p><p></p><p>Behind him, a gaunt figure, white as the pale moonlight that shone from above, slinked closer. Eyes yellow with malice and hate gazed at the unknowing young man, juding distance and speeds with uncanny accuracy. Shriveled feet brought iron talons closer and closer to him, a silent as a slight breeze...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>”The bow is a wonderful weapon, Master Quan-Shi. Thank you for the extra tutoring, Master Quan-Shi. May I share your bedroll tonight, Master Quan-Shi…”</em></p><p></p><p>Felonca growled, her body shifting to its hybrid form in her anger as the much smaller squirrel hengeyokai, Nurhaci, continued his singsong mockery of her.</p><p></p><p><em>”I did no such thing!”</em> she heard herself snarl furiously.</p><p></p><p><em>”Master Quan-Shi, I think I’ve failed!”</em> the little creature mocked further, his voice seeming to echo. <em> “I’m a proud panther, Master Quan-Shi! But I cannot fight like a warrior, and Master Hsiu will surely make me a mere servant in this school! Perhaps I can clean sheets, or warm beds, or hang like the failure I am!”</em> Nurhaci laughed, dancing around Felonca.</p><p></p><p><em>”A member of the Wu-Fang family would never suffer such dishonor!”</em> she heard her father’s voice shout. <em>”You failed us! You failed your family, running away from the school! It would only save family honor if you were captured!”</em> she imagined him saying, as a deep, musty smell flooded her mind.</p><p></p><p><em>What?</em> some part of her unconscious mind clicked, even as her dream continued to replay itself... her father’s anger and disappointment that she never heard, and the disowning she hadn’t seen. As the dream finished its course, the smell’s increasing potency made her mind slowly begin to rouse itself. </p><p></p><p><em>Something’s... not...right...</em> her unconscious mind realized, as her eyes slowly opened.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>“Damn bugs!” Nayu hissed as he felt the light, prickly sensation of a small bug trying to crawl into his shoe. His eyes looked down in annoyance, the fire’s light revealing a small black beetle as the cause of the disturbance.</p><p></p><p>“You’re the fifth one tonight!” he moaned, reaching down to flick the bug away.</p><p></p><p>Later on, he would thank his stars that bug was there. Just as he bent over, he felt a great rush of air fly over his head, and her the loud <em>thud</em> of a creature landing on the ground, just in front of him. </p><p></p><p>Staring back at him was the tall, emaciated figure of what was once a man. His hair was long, stringy and white, his skin bleached as milk white as the moon above. From sunken sockets feral yellow eyes gleaned with malice and hunger, while long, black talons of iron came from his fingers and toes. The creature opened its mouth with a hiss, revealing row upon row of long, black teeth.</p><p></p><p>Before he can react, the beast launches itself at Nayu again, its deadly claws slashing through the air. Some part of Nayu’s unconscious mind makes him duck hard to the left and then the right causing both of the intended blows to only slash through air. Stumbling over the log he was resting on, Nayu tried to scramble away as all the chaos began.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Within moments of the crash, Felonca’s feline-honed mind was fully awake. She saw Nayu stumbling backwards from a thin, white creature with long claws... and if its looks were not frightening enough, Felonca did recognize the smell that came off of it.</p><p></p><p>Death.</p><p></p><p>The smell of death, so thick and hazy that all other scents and aromas were pushed from her mind. It was so powerful it was almost nauseating.</p><p></p><p>Despite this, Felonca’s mind immediately realized her friend was in trouble. Without thinking, she closes her eyes, and feels a familiar sense washing over her... as if parts of her were being stretched and others compacted. Instinctively she fell onto all fours as a tail sprouted from her rear, her hands shifted and fused to form paws with razor sharp claws, her face changing from its elegant human shape to the smooth, deadly lines of a black panther.</p><p></p><p>She heard the monk shout, and her eyes caught a blur as he flashed into the attack. She also heard whimpering noises coming from behind her... <em>Bohai</em> she thought. But her mind, right now, did not have time for any of those.</p><p></p><p>Her eyes focused on the blur that was Liu dancing in front of the beast, his punches and kicks obviously having an effect. Feline calculations too quick and natural for a human to match immediately gave her an instinctual nudge, and with a thundering roar, she was in their air.</p><p></p><p>Whenever she’d pounced on someone in her natural form, be it in jest or in anger, the moment right before impact seemed almost peaceful... something Felonca felt was ironic, considering her mouth was usually agape baring fangs and her claws were extended. She felt alive, at home even.</p><p></p><p>Then there was the crash, the blurring movement as she felt something cold and clammy in her paws, then in her mouth as she bit and rent. She felt falling, and knew she’d knocked the creature aside at least, as a taste so foul, so putrid filled her mouth that she wanted to retch. Only moments later, she saw two bright flashes explode near the creature’s mouth, and saw it collapse to the ground, minus a head, and most of a shoulder, which she quickly spat onto the ground.</p><p></p><p>For a few seconds there was nothing but silence, save for Bohai’s whimpering, and her kitty-coughs as she tried to get all of the creature’s flesh out of her mouth. Her heart still pounding, she felt her instinctive mind slowly recede, and her human mind slowly returning. She shifted back.</p><p></p><p>“I... uh... thought you weren’t a good fighter,” she heard Nayu wheeze from beside her, the glow of magic slowly receding from his fingertips. A tired grin was on his face.</p><p></p><p>“I’m... not... water!” she called, coughing up a storm. Quickly Nayu had a canteen in her hands, and she eagerly gulped a large quantity to swish in her mouth before spitting out. The horrible taste was remedied... somewhat. The horrible smell in the air, however, not only remained, but got worse. On top of death, the smell of a privy rose. Felonca’s noise didn’t have to sniff far to realize that it was Bohai who had soiled himself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1769357, member: 15043"] Note: There is now the [i]start[/i] of a Rogue's Gallery Thread for this story. I give my players XP for turning in backgrounds (bonding with characters, adding depth to the game, as well as giving me, the DM, some ammunition :cool: ), so I'm posting the ones that players want up. The link to the thread is [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1769278#post1769278]here.[/URL] I'm going to try to update it as players level up, etc. as well [b]Skeletal Worries, and Why Thinking Too Much on Watch Can be Bad[/b] “What?!” Nayu stood, eyes awash in concern and a touch of fear. “These tomes raise the dead, a most evil act,” Liu repeated slowly, his voice still filled with dread. “If these came off of your town prefect, the entire village could be in danger!” [i]Mother... Father...[/i] Images of his parents, his friends, all the people he had known while growing up flashed through Nayu’s mind. One by one, he saw each turn into a bleached skeleton in his mind’s eye, their skulls shrunken, their gait the scraping and clattering of bones. “I’ve got to go back! I’ve got to warn them!” Nayu was immediately by his mount, hands hurriedly setting saddlebags in place. As the images replayed in his mind, he moved faster and faster. His movements had built to such a frenzy only a few moments later that he did not notice the twin pairs of hands that touched his shoulders. “You can’t go now!” he heard Felonca’s voice say, its soft soprano filled with deep concern. “Night has fallen already, and there’s no telling how many more of those people,” her dark hand motioned towards the still trussed up Bohai, “are out there! You’ll only wear yourself out, and collapse to sleep the entire day!” Nayu’s shoulder shrugged hard to get the arms away, and he spun to lash his tongue out at Felonca, until he caught sight of her eyes. Their blue depths were wide with worry, and spoke that her concerns came not from a lecture someone had given her, but experience from somewhere. “Master Nayu,” the monk’s voice carried over the quiet crackle of the campfire, “I shall go with you as well. Fate as deemed my previous errand at an end... perhaps three lives were reincarnated to preserve those of many others. However, I cannot fully help unless I properly rest. Master Asoka teaches us that rest can keep our minds quiet, and pure, so that we may...” Nayu didn’t hear the rest of Liu’s explanation of Master Asoka’s views on rest. His eyes looked at Felonca’s and he gave a soft nod. His gaze then switches to the young farmer, and unlike before, the trader’s brown eyes don’t harden. “You will come with us, Bohai,” Nayu said simply, before turning to his horse and slowly unloading the hurriedly stacked supplies. [i]You know more about these ‘Burning Men,’ than we do... and that could save my parents lives...[/i] Felonca wasn’t surprised that Nayu was awake by just after sunrise, urging everyone to mount. She knew how it felt to lose parents... hers, as far as she knew, were still alive, but chances were high that she might never see them again. The Wu-Fang family had a tradition of being warriors, proud warriors. [i]A tradition I broke, so many weeks ago,[/i] she thought rather glumly as she mounted up and goaded her gelding to a swift canter. Nayu started to rush past, his horse at a gallop, until she grabbed his reins. “A fast canter will get you further faster... a horse can canter much longer than it can gallop, and you lose much endurance for only a little more speed,” she said, repeating the lesson she learned the hard way only two weeks before. The noise of Hsiu’s hounds still bayed in her mind, giving her chills at night. For two days, the four rode, Bohai being strapped to the back of Nayu’s steed, Liu riding on Felonca’s. Boahi made a loud and grumpy fuss most of the way about his trusses being tight... enough that Nayu finally unbound him. It was the night of the second day, only three days from Red Lotus, that things began to go to hell. [i]Nayu! Go fetch your mother some fruits from the market![/i] Nayu heard his father’s call. The young boy gave a laughing nod, and spun, leaping out the door. The market was a fun place to be, with travelers from far and wide! It was always exciting there, and today was going to be no different! The young boy, barely six, careened around corners and ducked between legs trying to reach Madame Cixi’s stall. The old woman sold almost everything in her tiny wooden area... and she always gave Nayu a spoonful of honey. As a matter of fact, Nayu was so eagerly thinking about the sweet taste, he didn’t see the runaway horses until they were only a few feet from him. Snorting, neighing and the thunder of hooves filled the air, as two black mounts, massive and terrible to the small child’s eyes, towered over him, looming, threatening to put him into ever-shadow. Instinctively Nayu raised his hands as a scream came to his lips, and suddenly the shadow had vanished. A bright light burst in front of the horses’ and they reared up long enough their master was able to catch their reins... Nayu threw another stick into the fire, the image fading. [i]That was... eleven years ago now? Eleven years with magic,[/i] the young man thought quietly, his concern for his village still ever present, still gnawing. He heard in his mind his father’s voice, telling him to be careful with his gift... and his mind’s eye then watched his father’s face shrivel to a bare bone skeleton. Behind him, a gaunt figure, white as the pale moonlight that shone from above, slinked closer. Eyes yellow with malice and hate gazed at the unknowing young man, juding distance and speeds with uncanny accuracy. Shriveled feet brought iron talons closer and closer to him, a silent as a slight breeze... [i]”The bow is a wonderful weapon, Master Quan-Shi. Thank you for the extra tutoring, Master Quan-Shi. May I share your bedroll tonight, Master Quan-Shi…”[/i] Felonca growled, her body shifting to its hybrid form in her anger as the much smaller squirrel hengeyokai, Nurhaci, continued his singsong mockery of her. [i]”I did no such thing!”[/i] she heard herself snarl furiously. [i]”Master Quan-Shi, I think I’ve failed!”[/i] the little creature mocked further, his voice seeming to echo. [i] “I’m a proud panther, Master Quan-Shi! But I cannot fight like a warrior, and Master Hsiu will surely make me a mere servant in this school! Perhaps I can clean sheets, or warm beds, or hang like the failure I am!”[/i] Nurhaci laughed, dancing around Felonca. [i]”A member of the Wu-Fang family would never suffer such dishonor!”[/i] she heard her father’s voice shout. [i]”You failed us! You failed your family, running away from the school! It would only save family honor if you were captured!”[/i] she imagined him saying, as a deep, musty smell flooded her mind. [i]What?[/i] some part of her unconscious mind clicked, even as her dream continued to replay itself... her father’s anger and disappointment that she never heard, and the disowning she hadn’t seen. As the dream finished its course, the smell’s increasing potency made her mind slowly begin to rouse itself. [i]Something’s... not...right...[/i] her unconscious mind realized, as her eyes slowly opened. “Damn bugs!” Nayu hissed as he felt the light, prickly sensation of a small bug trying to crawl into his shoe. His eyes looked down in annoyance, the fire’s light revealing a small black beetle as the cause of the disturbance. “You’re the fifth one tonight!” he moaned, reaching down to flick the bug away. Later on, he would thank his stars that bug was there. Just as he bent over, he felt a great rush of air fly over his head, and her the loud [i]thud[/i] of a creature landing on the ground, just in front of him. Staring back at him was the tall, emaciated figure of what was once a man. His hair was long, stringy and white, his skin bleached as milk white as the moon above. From sunken sockets feral yellow eyes gleaned with malice and hunger, while long, black talons of iron came from his fingers and toes. The creature opened its mouth with a hiss, revealing row upon row of long, black teeth. Before he can react, the beast launches itself at Nayu again, its deadly claws slashing through the air. Some part of Nayu’s unconscious mind makes him duck hard to the left and then the right causing both of the intended blows to only slash through air. Stumbling over the log he was resting on, Nayu tried to scramble away as all the chaos began. Within moments of the crash, Felonca’s feline-honed mind was fully awake. She saw Nayu stumbling backwards from a thin, white creature with long claws... and if its looks were not frightening enough, Felonca did recognize the smell that came off of it. Death. The smell of death, so thick and hazy that all other scents and aromas were pushed from her mind. It was so powerful it was almost nauseating. Despite this, Felonca’s mind immediately realized her friend was in trouble. Without thinking, she closes her eyes, and feels a familiar sense washing over her... as if parts of her were being stretched and others compacted. Instinctively she fell onto all fours as a tail sprouted from her rear, her hands shifted and fused to form paws with razor sharp claws, her face changing from its elegant human shape to the smooth, deadly lines of a black panther. She heard the monk shout, and her eyes caught a blur as he flashed into the attack. She also heard whimpering noises coming from behind her... [i]Bohai[/i] she thought. But her mind, right now, did not have time for any of those. Her eyes focused on the blur that was Liu dancing in front of the beast, his punches and kicks obviously having an effect. Feline calculations too quick and natural for a human to match immediately gave her an instinctual nudge, and with a thundering roar, she was in their air. Whenever she’d pounced on someone in her natural form, be it in jest or in anger, the moment right before impact seemed almost peaceful... something Felonca felt was ironic, considering her mouth was usually agape baring fangs and her claws were extended. She felt alive, at home even. Then there was the crash, the blurring movement as she felt something cold and clammy in her paws, then in her mouth as she bit and rent. She felt falling, and knew she’d knocked the creature aside at least, as a taste so foul, so putrid filled her mouth that she wanted to retch. Only moments later, she saw two bright flashes explode near the creature’s mouth, and saw it collapse to the ground, minus a head, and most of a shoulder, which she quickly spat onto the ground. For a few seconds there was nothing but silence, save for Bohai’s whimpering, and her kitty-coughs as she tried to get all of the creature’s flesh out of her mouth. Her heart still pounding, she felt her instinctive mind slowly recede, and her human mind slowly returning. She shifted back. “I... uh... thought you weren’t a good fighter,” she heard Nayu wheeze from beside her, the glow of magic slowly receding from his fingertips. A tired grin was on his face. “I’m... not... water!” she called, coughing up a storm. Quickly Nayu had a canteen in her hands, and she eagerly gulped a large quantity to swish in her mouth before spitting out. The horrible taste was remedied... somewhat. The horrible smell in the air, however, not only remained, but got worse. On top of death, the smell of a privy rose. Felonca’s noise didn’t have to sniff far to realize that it was Bohai who had soiled himself. [/QUOTE]
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