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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2531215" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Facing the Master</strong></p><p></p><p>A lump filled Felonca’s throat, as the apparition from her past loomed in the firelit mist. She shuddered as the dull rumble of the tiger hengeyokai’s growl echoed off of the surrounding houses, his two titanic weapons each taller than she was. Instinctively, she raised her warfans in a defensive stance, even as her mind went overboard, trying to think of how to defeat such a powerful foe.</p><p></p><p><em>Hsiu is subtle,</em> she reminded herself. The big tiger had all the advantages – both size and power – yet she knew he was cunning <em>He was the first to tell all us cadets the value of traps, of deviousness on the battlefield...</em> She watched carefully, as he almost casually twirled his katana about, slowly coming closer. <em>He’s flexing his wrists, keeping them loose so he can spin his blade and slash quicker...</em></p><p></p><p>“Hsiu Lin!” Felonca’s father bellowed, the family longsword long ago drawn, “I do not know what you did to my daughter, but you’ll pay for it today!” Hefting his sword high above his head, Felonxi lunged forward, followed shortly by the hobbling Dian. </p><p></p><p>Most mortals would have recoiled at having the two heads of the Wa-Feng clan charging them, yet Hsiu merely bared his teeth in a ferocious grin. With a mighty swing from the flat of his axe, Hsiu sent Dian tumbling through the air, even as his katana easily blocked Felonxi’s attacks. As Dian landed hard against a house and was knocked unconscious, Hsiu gave a snarl, the monstrous general turned his entire attention to the smaller Felonxi, swinging and slashing with unbridled fury.</p><p></p><p>“Papa!” Felonca yelled, recognizing the danger. <em>Hsiu is bigger, and has two weapons to papa’s one!</em> For a moment she stood rooted in place by fear, watching as her father was almost instantly forced on the defensive, his sword blocking each powerful blow from Hsiu’s larger, more powerful strokes. </p><p></p><p>In a panic, she looked around. Meiji was still dispatching the last of the assassins. Nayu was still sprawled on the street, Yari Ai bent over him, trying to heal him the best she could. With sickening suddenness, Felonca realized she and her father were alone... not just against Hsiu, but the rakshasa still hiding behind the immense fighter.</p><p></p><p><em>I have to help him!</em> She knew that head-on, she stood no match against the gigantic warrior. His immense blade and hammer would likely slice through and crush her warfans respectively. But if she could get behind him, she knew she had something that <em>could</em> stop the powerful warrior...something that she was afraid to use, but to save her friends, her father, to save Nayu…</p><p></p><p>A deep dark feeling begin to bubble up in her chest. A feeling she had never had before, that scared her almost as much as she craved its strength. Almost without thinking she shifted to hybid. As her father backed up, furiously swinging to avoid the Hsiu’s attacks, she dashed, low and fast, behind the taller Felonxi, her black leather clothing and dark skin quickly melding into the shadows between the houses.</p><p></p><p><em>Keep backing up, papa...</em> she wished, as the deadly duel grew closer and closer to her, as her hand slipped down towards her boot, and wrapped around the cold silver hilt of the very weapon she had wanted to destroy. All of her being wanted to leap out into the fight <em>right now</em>, to fight side by side with her father, to help him. But she knew doing that would only mean both their doom.</p><p></p><p><em>Surprise is my ally,</em> she whispered to herself. <em>I will strike like a snake from the shadows. I will take Hsiu down when he least expects it...</em> Despite the mantra she repeated in her mind, she found it hard to remain quiet, and watch her father suffer under the withering blows.</p><p></p><p>Ferociously, seemingly with all the inevitability of a flood washing across the land, Hsiu’s blades clashed and clanged with her father’s sword, and bit by bit, she could see her father slowly becoming overwhelmed. A cut to his armor here, a chink knocked away there, as Felonxi was forced back. Finally, his longsword responded a split second too slow, and Felonca watched in horror as Hsiu’s greataxe crushed into her father’s stomach, the force of the blow spinning Felonxi around. With frightening elegance, Hsiu spung his katana around, and slammed the blade hilt-deep into Felonxi’s back.</p><p></p><p><em>PAPA!!!</em> Felonca wanted to scream, barely muffling herself from doing so. As she looked on in terror, Hsiu put his foot on her father’s back, and shoved the motionless body of Felonxi several feet forward onto the cobblestones below, just past the alley where Felonca huddled, hidden.</p><p></p><p><em>Papa...</em> she watched as the massive Hsiu chuckled, and lazily twirled his blades, his eyes looking about the deepening mists. Felonca’s hands shuddered as she watched the prone body on the street, no movement coming from its battered form. <em>Papa...</em></p><p></p><p>“Here kitty kitty,” the rumbling bass of the tiger crooned, those fierce green eyes seeming to gloom in the doom. “Come out Felonca... its just you and me now...” He looked about, until chillingly, his eyes stopped, staring directly up the small alley in which Felonca was hiding. His lips curled into a teeth baring smile. “Ah... so the black cat hides in an alley... how... appropriate...”</p><p></p><p><em>Close to the wall, Felonca...</em> she told herself, squeezing tighter against the wall, her eyes closed as she squeezed back tears. <em>Closer! Blend with the darkness!</em> She gripped the dagger hard in one hand, Kongxi’s Warfan tightly in the other.</p><p></p><p>“Where are you, little one?” Hsiu called, lumbering closer and closer to the alley entrance. “Come out and...”</p><p></p><p>Hsiu’s sentence was stopped short by an immense thunderclap, a bright flash that for a split second, illuminated the entire alley in a bluish glow. Just as quickly, the flash disappeared, the loud explosion now nothing more than rumbles echoing off of the city. The air stank of ozone, and when Felonca opened her eyes, she saw Hsiu staring towards the street, smoke rising in wisps from his great armor...</p><p></p><p>“Little wretch!” he snarled, now lumbering back out to the street. “This isn’t your fight, you little peasant! Want-to-be king!” </p><p></p><p>Felonca immediately recognized her chance, as the tiger hengeyokai’s back was wide open to her. Her military training came back to her, as she slipped away from the wall, to the middle of the alley, her muscles tensing, readying...</p><p></p><p></p><p><em> “Wrong, Wa-Feng!” her instructor’s voice snarled, and Felonca fought to keep her temper under control. She’s struck the melon dead on with her blow, and despite the helm covering it, had knocked the fruit from the post it had been mounted on. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“But sir, that blow would’ve have knocked a target unconscious!” she complained. For five years she’d listened to the constant harassment, and she was already growing tired of the complaints. No other cadet that was twenty was treated as she was, and she knew that an unconscious opponent could be dispatched with ease...</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“Wrong AGAIN, Wa-Feng!” her instructor bellowed. “Never, NEVER go to merely knock out a dangerous foe! Bai-Long Mao, what should one do when one has the chance to attack an unsuspecting foe?”</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Felonca turned, and glared at the young White Wolf, who was beaming at the chance to show her up. She managed to keep the growl in her throat quiet... that would have only inspired her instructor’s ire more.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“You must kill them, sir, by slashing apart their neck!” the White Wolf smiled as he delivered the answer, and Felonca felt the back of her eyes growing hot. She already knew what was coming... she expected having to do hours of extra physical training, past the point of pain. What angered her, was that Bai-Long Mao was getting a laugh at her expense...</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“Correct, Bai-Long Mao. Now, Miss Wa-Feng, you will give me seventy pushups for your error,” Master Hsiu Lin growled, his tiger eyes glowing with pleasure at another chance to break her...</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The neck,</em> Felonca looked, shifting into hybrid, spotting that as Hsiu lowered his head, looking down towards the street, a tiny gap opened in his armor at the base of his neck. <em>The neck,</em> she repeated to herself, clutching her weapons tight, as she started to run. <em>The neck!</em> Her muscles twisted in honed practice, her body leapt airborne, high enough for her weapons to get a clear strike, as finally, a banshee, screaming wail came from her lips as she jammed her warfan into one side of Hsiu’s neck, the infamous dagger into the other.</p><p></p><p>She wrapped her legs around his midsection, gaining a grip, pressing her body close to keep him from being able to throw her off. As he let loose an immense roar of pain, she twisted the dagger hard, jamming it deeper and deeper into his neck, her own scream echoing through the streets.</p><p></p><p>Hsiu thrashed, swinging wildly, but Felonca was pressed too close to his back. The tiger dropped his weapons, his immense paws reaching back, trying to claw her off, yet she only pressed herself closer, twisting the dagger more and more, her eyes closed with anger, hate and tears. <em>Kill him!</em> she mentally screamed at the dagger.</p><p></p><p>Then, she felt it.</p><p></p><p>At first, she felt a slight warmth along his armor, a warmth that quickly grew hotter and hotter, until she was forced to release her grip. Gracefully, she backflipped off of her perch, landing on the cobblestone streets, looking up just in time to see Hsiu turn towards her.</p><p></p><p>The immense hengeyokai bore no weapons... instead his hands clutched his throat, clawing, fighting, as if he could rip his throat open and pull out whatever was choking him. His green eye were wide with fright, as smoky wisps began to emerge from every joint and hole in his armor. Finally, one of his paws wrapped around the dagger, and pulled it from his neck. As his body shuddered and shook, those green eyes had enough time to see the blade and grow wide with absolute terror, before twin roaring tongues of flames blasted from the orbs. Flames erupted from his mouth, smoke poured from out of his armor, as Hsiu screamed in agony. First, he fell to his knees, his paws clawing and scratching his throat more... then, moments later, the cries died to nothing, as his burning corpse fell forward into the street.</p><p></p><p>Felonca spun around, and saw the rakshasa standing there, still haggard and hobbling, but with blue eyes wide with fear instead of confidence. She reached for her waist, and pulled out her remaining warfan, her eyes set. <em>Now, its your turn...</em> She started walking forward.</p><p></p><p>“No...” the rakshasa whispered, its hands raised as it backed away slowly, painfully...</p><p></p><p>Felonca brought her warfan across her body, then with a quick snap of her shoulder, let the warfan fly. It cut through the air in a perfect arc, before planting itself in the hapless creature’s neck. As its body fell forward, the rakshasa’s head bounced up the street.</p><p></p><p>She bared her teeth and growled as the hunter's passion of the kill went through her limbs, the ancient panther in her soul roaring to the surface. But as she turned back around to watch the bones of her old nemesis burn down into nothing, the panther in her faded back into the depths of her mind, and her body went slack as the weight of what had happened fell onto her. Beyond the still burning hulk of Master Hsiu, she saw the battered figure of a black panther, his shattered white armor now stained bright red. Yari Ai, her chain mail tinkling in the dark, hovered over Felonxi, while to her side, Nayu stood, bloody and unsteady.</p><p></p><p><em>No… </em>Felonca dashed over beside Yari Ai. The cleric had already turned Felonxi over, and now Felonca could see the full extent of the damage.</p><p></p><p>His chest armor had been slashed with such a powerful blow that its scales had been shredded away, leaving a deep, bloody wound. From his stomach, blood bubbled and gurgled, from where Hsiu’s katana had stabbed completely through the hengeyokai’s body. From the corner of his lips, blood dribbled onto the cobblestones below.</p><p></p><p>Felonca felt tears blur her sight, but she restrained them, and reaching out, she gently wiped blood from her father’s face. <em>If father dies…he died in battle. It’s what he would have wanted…</em></p><p></p><p>“He’s gravely wounded,” Yari Ai said hurriedly, “and unless we head back to the wall now, he’ll die,” she said bluntly. She looked up at Felonca. “There’s nothing I can do here... Hu’s people will probably be swarming over this area before I’m even partly done healing him. We have to go.”</p><p></p><p>Felonca nodded, and turned to retrieve her weapons, knowing that that’s what her father would have wanted. The night felt unreal as, kneeling, she retrieved the dagger from the ashes that had been her old master. The blade glinted in the light of the fires that still burned all around. </p><p></p><p>A pair of shaky hands reached around and gave her a hug from behind. She leaned back into Nayu and closed her eyes, for a moment not caring anymore about feelings, needing only the presence of someone she loved. </p><p></p><p>“We need to go, Felonca…” Nayu’s voice was stronger than she thought his shaking frame could support. <em>My Emperor… </em>Turning halfway toward him, she lifted her head and raised the dagger between them.</p><p></p><p>For a moment, they stared into each other’s eyes, emotions unreadable, then Felonca sighed and lowered her eyes to stare at the dagger. “I hate this thing…” she whispered, so soft he could hardly hear. “Every time that I use it…I feel like a piece of my soul is taken away.”</p><p></p><p>Nayu swallowed, not sure what to say. “Felonca…” he began, lifting his hand.</p><p></p><p>What he was going to say was never finished, as from above, the sky flashed red, then orange, before the pregnant clouds let loose a torrent of droplets. </p><p></p><p>Yet this rain was not one of water, but of fire...</p><p></p><p>======================================================</p><p></p><p>Hsiu, to begin with, was accosted by the injured Dian and Felonxi (being run by Felonca’s player), and the behemoth, with ease, knocked Dian aside, then hammered on Felonxi until he was down to –7 hit points (critting with the katana <em>and</em> the greataxe will do that). He then turned, and started hunting for Felonca (after all, the prissy little human cleric and the badly wounded sorcerer didn’t look like threats).</p><p></p><p>Nayu had rested for a round, and then launched a nasty lightning bolt at Hsiu, which of course got the hengeyokai’s attention. When he turned around, Felonca attacked him from behind, (sneak attack, something like 8d6) and more importantly, stabbed him with the dagger. I randomly rolled up what the dagger did... in this case, it sucked away 8 of Hsiu’s Con, dropping his hit points to the point it killed him instantly. Felonca then turned, dispatched the crippled rakshasa, only to arrive back to find her father is dying.</p><p></p><p>This also marks the end of the 11th session... yes, we did end on the cliffhanger. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious :]" data-shortname=":]" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 2531215, member: 15043"] [b]Facing the Master[/b] A lump filled Felonca’s throat, as the apparition from her past loomed in the firelit mist. She shuddered as the dull rumble of the tiger hengeyokai’s growl echoed off of the surrounding houses, his two titanic weapons each taller than she was. Instinctively, she raised her warfans in a defensive stance, even as her mind went overboard, trying to think of how to defeat such a powerful foe. [i]Hsiu is subtle,[/i] she reminded herself. The big tiger had all the advantages – both size and power – yet she knew he was cunning [i]He was the first to tell all us cadets the value of traps, of deviousness on the battlefield...[/i] She watched carefully, as he almost casually twirled his katana about, slowly coming closer. [i]He’s flexing his wrists, keeping them loose so he can spin his blade and slash quicker...[/i] “Hsiu Lin!” Felonca’s father bellowed, the family longsword long ago drawn, “I do not know what you did to my daughter, but you’ll pay for it today!” Hefting his sword high above his head, Felonxi lunged forward, followed shortly by the hobbling Dian. Most mortals would have recoiled at having the two heads of the Wa-Feng clan charging them, yet Hsiu merely bared his teeth in a ferocious grin. With a mighty swing from the flat of his axe, Hsiu sent Dian tumbling through the air, even as his katana easily blocked Felonxi’s attacks. As Dian landed hard against a house and was knocked unconscious, Hsiu gave a snarl, the monstrous general turned his entire attention to the smaller Felonxi, swinging and slashing with unbridled fury. “Papa!” Felonca yelled, recognizing the danger. [i]Hsiu is bigger, and has two weapons to papa’s one![/i] For a moment she stood rooted in place by fear, watching as her father was almost instantly forced on the defensive, his sword blocking each powerful blow from Hsiu’s larger, more powerful strokes. In a panic, she looked around. Meiji was still dispatching the last of the assassins. Nayu was still sprawled on the street, Yari Ai bent over him, trying to heal him the best she could. With sickening suddenness, Felonca realized she and her father were alone... not just against Hsiu, but the rakshasa still hiding behind the immense fighter. [i]I have to help him![/i] She knew that head-on, she stood no match against the gigantic warrior. His immense blade and hammer would likely slice through and crush her warfans respectively. But if she could get behind him, she knew she had something that [i]could[/i] stop the powerful warrior...something that she was afraid to use, but to save her friends, her father, to save Nayu… A deep dark feeling begin to bubble up in her chest. A feeling she had never had before, that scared her almost as much as she craved its strength. Almost without thinking she shifted to hybid. As her father backed up, furiously swinging to avoid the Hsiu’s attacks, she dashed, low and fast, behind the taller Felonxi, her black leather clothing and dark skin quickly melding into the shadows between the houses. [i]Keep backing up, papa...[/i] she wished, as the deadly duel grew closer and closer to her, as her hand slipped down towards her boot, and wrapped around the cold silver hilt of the very weapon she had wanted to destroy. All of her being wanted to leap out into the fight [i]right now[/i], to fight side by side with her father, to help him. But she knew doing that would only mean both their doom. [i]Surprise is my ally,[/i] she whispered to herself. [i]I will strike like a snake from the shadows. I will take Hsiu down when he least expects it...[/i] Despite the mantra she repeated in her mind, she found it hard to remain quiet, and watch her father suffer under the withering blows. Ferociously, seemingly with all the inevitability of a flood washing across the land, Hsiu’s blades clashed and clanged with her father’s sword, and bit by bit, she could see her father slowly becoming overwhelmed. A cut to his armor here, a chink knocked away there, as Felonxi was forced back. Finally, his longsword responded a split second too slow, and Felonca watched in horror as Hsiu’s greataxe crushed into her father’s stomach, the force of the blow spinning Felonxi around. With frightening elegance, Hsiu spung his katana around, and slammed the blade hilt-deep into Felonxi’s back. [i]PAPA!!![/i] Felonca wanted to scream, barely muffling herself from doing so. As she looked on in terror, Hsiu put his foot on her father’s back, and shoved the motionless body of Felonxi several feet forward onto the cobblestones below, just past the alley where Felonca huddled, hidden. [i]Papa...[/i] she watched as the massive Hsiu chuckled, and lazily twirled his blades, his eyes looking about the deepening mists. Felonca’s hands shuddered as she watched the prone body on the street, no movement coming from its battered form. [i]Papa...[/i] “Here kitty kitty,” the rumbling bass of the tiger crooned, those fierce green eyes seeming to gloom in the doom. “Come out Felonca... its just you and me now...” He looked about, until chillingly, his eyes stopped, staring directly up the small alley in which Felonca was hiding. His lips curled into a teeth baring smile. “Ah... so the black cat hides in an alley... how... appropriate...” [i]Close to the wall, Felonca...[/i] she told herself, squeezing tighter against the wall, her eyes closed as she squeezed back tears. [i]Closer! Blend with the darkness![/i] She gripped the dagger hard in one hand, Kongxi’s Warfan tightly in the other. “Where are you, little one?” Hsiu called, lumbering closer and closer to the alley entrance. “Come out and...” Hsiu’s sentence was stopped short by an immense thunderclap, a bright flash that for a split second, illuminated the entire alley in a bluish glow. Just as quickly, the flash disappeared, the loud explosion now nothing more than rumbles echoing off of the city. The air stank of ozone, and when Felonca opened her eyes, she saw Hsiu staring towards the street, smoke rising in wisps from his great armor... “Little wretch!” he snarled, now lumbering back out to the street. “This isn’t your fight, you little peasant! Want-to-be king!” Felonca immediately recognized her chance, as the tiger hengeyokai’s back was wide open to her. Her military training came back to her, as she slipped away from the wall, to the middle of the alley, her muscles tensing, readying... [i] “Wrong, Wa-Feng!” her instructor’s voice snarled, and Felonca fought to keep her temper under control. She’s struck the melon dead on with her blow, and despite the helm covering it, had knocked the fruit from the post it had been mounted on. “But sir, that blow would’ve have knocked a target unconscious!” she complained. For five years she’d listened to the constant harassment, and she was already growing tired of the complaints. No other cadet that was twenty was treated as she was, and she knew that an unconscious opponent could be dispatched with ease... “Wrong AGAIN, Wa-Feng!” her instructor bellowed. “Never, NEVER go to merely knock out a dangerous foe! Bai-Long Mao, what should one do when one has the chance to attack an unsuspecting foe?” Felonca turned, and glared at the young White Wolf, who was beaming at the chance to show her up. She managed to keep the growl in her throat quiet... that would have only inspired her instructor’s ire more. “You must kill them, sir, by slashing apart their neck!” the White Wolf smiled as he delivered the answer, and Felonca felt the back of her eyes growing hot. She already knew what was coming... she expected having to do hours of extra physical training, past the point of pain. What angered her, was that Bai-Long Mao was getting a laugh at her expense... “Correct, Bai-Long Mao. Now, Miss Wa-Feng, you will give me seventy pushups for your error,” Master Hsiu Lin growled, his tiger eyes glowing with pleasure at another chance to break her... The neck,[/i] Felonca looked, shifting into hybrid, spotting that as Hsiu lowered his head, looking down towards the street, a tiny gap opened in his armor at the base of his neck. [i]The neck,[/i] she repeated to herself, clutching her weapons tight, as she started to run. [i]The neck![/i] Her muscles twisted in honed practice, her body leapt airborne, high enough for her weapons to get a clear strike, as finally, a banshee, screaming wail came from her lips as she jammed her warfan into one side of Hsiu’s neck, the infamous dagger into the other. She wrapped her legs around his midsection, gaining a grip, pressing her body close to keep him from being able to throw her off. As he let loose an immense roar of pain, she twisted the dagger hard, jamming it deeper and deeper into his neck, her own scream echoing through the streets. Hsiu thrashed, swinging wildly, but Felonca was pressed too close to his back. The tiger dropped his weapons, his immense paws reaching back, trying to claw her off, yet she only pressed herself closer, twisting the dagger more and more, her eyes closed with anger, hate and tears. [i]Kill him![/i] she mentally screamed at the dagger. Then, she felt it. At first, she felt a slight warmth along his armor, a warmth that quickly grew hotter and hotter, until she was forced to release her grip. Gracefully, she backflipped off of her perch, landing on the cobblestone streets, looking up just in time to see Hsiu turn towards her. The immense hengeyokai bore no weapons... instead his hands clutched his throat, clawing, fighting, as if he could rip his throat open and pull out whatever was choking him. His green eye were wide with fright, as smoky wisps began to emerge from every joint and hole in his armor. Finally, one of his paws wrapped around the dagger, and pulled it from his neck. As his body shuddered and shook, those green eyes had enough time to see the blade and grow wide with absolute terror, before twin roaring tongues of flames blasted from the orbs. Flames erupted from his mouth, smoke poured from out of his armor, as Hsiu screamed in agony. First, he fell to his knees, his paws clawing and scratching his throat more... then, moments later, the cries died to nothing, as his burning corpse fell forward into the street. Felonca spun around, and saw the rakshasa standing there, still haggard and hobbling, but with blue eyes wide with fear instead of confidence. She reached for her waist, and pulled out her remaining warfan, her eyes set. [i]Now, its your turn...[/i] She started walking forward. “No...” the rakshasa whispered, its hands raised as it backed away slowly, painfully... Felonca brought her warfan across her body, then with a quick snap of her shoulder, let the warfan fly. It cut through the air in a perfect arc, before planting itself in the hapless creature’s neck. As its body fell forward, the rakshasa’s head bounced up the street. She bared her teeth and growled as the hunter's passion of the kill went through her limbs, the ancient panther in her soul roaring to the surface. But as she turned back around to watch the bones of her old nemesis burn down into nothing, the panther in her faded back into the depths of her mind, and her body went slack as the weight of what had happened fell onto her. Beyond the still burning hulk of Master Hsiu, she saw the battered figure of a black panther, his shattered white armor now stained bright red. Yari Ai, her chain mail tinkling in the dark, hovered over Felonxi, while to her side, Nayu stood, bloody and unsteady. [I]No… [/I]Felonca dashed over beside Yari Ai. The cleric had already turned Felonxi over, and now Felonca could see the full extent of the damage. His chest armor had been slashed with such a powerful blow that its scales had been shredded away, leaving a deep, bloody wound. From his stomach, blood bubbled and gurgled, from where Hsiu’s katana had stabbed completely through the hengeyokai’s body. From the corner of his lips, blood dribbled onto the cobblestones below. Felonca felt tears blur her sight, but she restrained them, and reaching out, she gently wiped blood from her father’s face. [I]If father dies…he died in battle. It’s what he would have wanted…[/I] “He’s gravely wounded,” Yari Ai said hurriedly, “and unless we head back to the wall now, he’ll die,” she said bluntly. She looked up at Felonca. “There’s nothing I can do here... Hu’s people will probably be swarming over this area before I’m even partly done healing him. We have to go.” Felonca nodded, and turned to retrieve her weapons, knowing that that’s what her father would have wanted. The night felt unreal as, kneeling, she retrieved the dagger from the ashes that had been her old master. The blade glinted in the light of the fires that still burned all around. A pair of shaky hands reached around and gave her a hug from behind. She leaned back into Nayu and closed her eyes, for a moment not caring anymore about feelings, needing only the presence of someone she loved. “We need to go, Felonca…” Nayu’s voice was stronger than she thought his shaking frame could support. [I]My Emperor… [/I]Turning halfway toward him, she lifted her head and raised the dagger between them. For a moment, they stared into each other’s eyes, emotions unreadable, then Felonca sighed and lowered her eyes to stare at the dagger. “I hate this thing…” she whispered, so soft he could hardly hear. “Every time that I use it…I feel like a piece of my soul is taken away.” Nayu swallowed, not sure what to say. “Felonca…” he began, lifting his hand. What he was going to say was never finished, as from above, the sky flashed red, then orange, before the pregnant clouds let loose a torrent of droplets. Yet this rain was not one of water, but of fire... ====================================================== Hsiu, to begin with, was accosted by the injured Dian and Felonxi (being run by Felonca’s player), and the behemoth, with ease, knocked Dian aside, then hammered on Felonxi until he was down to –7 hit points (critting with the katana [i]and[/i] the greataxe will do that). He then turned, and started hunting for Felonca (after all, the prissy little human cleric and the badly wounded sorcerer didn’t look like threats). Nayu had rested for a round, and then launched a nasty lightning bolt at Hsiu, which of course got the hengeyokai’s attention. When he turned around, Felonca attacked him from behind, (sneak attack, something like 8d6) and more importantly, stabbed him with the dagger. I randomly rolled up what the dagger did... in this case, it sucked away 8 of Hsiu’s Con, dropping his hit points to the point it killed him instantly. Felonca then turned, dispatched the crippled rakshasa, only to arrive back to find her father is dying. This also marks the end of the 11th session... yes, we did end on the cliffhanger. :] [/QUOTE]
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Story Hour
The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)
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