-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
ForceUser's Vietnamese Adventures Story Hour! (finis)
- Thread starter ForceUser
- Start date
Warrior Poet
Explorer
Looking forward to an update. This story is top notch. Cheers for you and your players!
Warrior Poet
Warrior Poet
Pelosan Emperor
First Post
BUMP
A bump to this great storyhour is OK.... but how about an update?
Please?
A bump to this great storyhour is OK.... but how about an update?
Please?
ForceUser
Explorer
Session Four, Part Two
A COLD wind blew across the scrubby foothills of the valley as the party hiked back toward the lonesome temple. Phet Lo lay half a day behind them, and ahead the peaks encircling Phau Dong valley loomed. The wind carried a hint of icy mountain rain, and Mai shivered and wrapped her jacket tightly about her. Woo stared ahead impassively, lost in thought. Lei squinted toward the sky, noting the brilliant sun burning behind dark clouds. Tam and Hien spoke quietly about spiritual matters, punctuating their remarks with rapid gestures. Vinh surveyed the horizon ahead, alert for trouble.
As they ascended a narrow gorge, Woo slipped on a loose rock and fell. Lei’s arm lanced out and snatched the monk in a vice-like grip, sparing him a nasty plunge back down the slope.
“Unhand me!” said Woo as he wrenched his arm free.
“You looked like you needed help,” Lei replied.
“Like you helped Tran?” shot the monk.
Everyone stopped, shocked. Woo scowled at Lei, a challenge, yet the mercenary did not immediately respond. His face darkened, and his hand strayed toward his scimitar as he clenched and unclenched his fists and bit down angry bile. Very quietly, he spoke, “That was not my fault.”
“You were his guardian. His death is your failure,” spit the monk. Lei bristled and surged toward Woo, but Vinh interposed, placing a hand on each man’s chest and pushing them apart. “Enough,” he said, “enough.”
Exchanging hateful looks, the two broke off and continued the climb. Woo scrambled many paces ahead of the others, and remained in sight but out of earshot for the rest of the afternoon. Vinh approached Lei and began to speak, but the veteran scowled and shoved him as he moved past, “Leave me alone.”
Hien sighed. Hiraki, the eagle, screeched a mournful dirge as he circled far overhead.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
That night they camped on the southern slope of the temple mount amid waist-high grasses. The air was cold and thick with condensation and the moon and stars shone bright overhead, reflecting off the dewdrops coalescing on the broad green leaves. They had cleared a spot for a small cook fire and their bedrolls near a rocky outcropping that jutted from the slope like the bow of a ship.
Late in the night, Lei squatted atop the rock and chewed on a blade of grass. He leaned on his buckler, and his spear and scimitar lay on the stone beside him. Below him the others slept, and below them the silver rays of the moon glimmered in white mists that roiled over the mountainside. In the quiet of the moment Lei thought about the events that had led to Tran’s death.
Was he at fault? Tran had been his charge, true. But to protect him Lei had many times needed to lead and keep the aristocrat behind the wall of arms that was himself, Vinh, and Woo. Keeping the unit alive kept Tran alive. How could he have known that a terrible bloodsucking creature had lived within the fallen temple, waiting to pounce upon the weak? How could he have known?
That thought did not comfort him. Shame, suppressed until now, burned in his breast. He hung his head as his eyes watered and he took a moment to master his emotions. When his vision cleared, he looked up to see many dark forms far down the slope moving quietly through the fields toward his companions.
Crap, he thought. The forms were hard to see in the dim light, but they appeared to be men, hunched over and spread out as they used the tall grasses to mask their approach. Several of the forms moved obliquely to the party’s position, setting up a flanking ambush.
Lei made a show of stretching, then picked up his scimitar and dropped off the rock into the moist loam. He slowly walked to his pack and pretended to rummage through it. Using the scabbard of his weapon he nudged Mai, the nearest person. “Thi Mai, awake,” he whispered.
She stirred slightly, but from the darkness of her bedding he heard her whisper with perfect alertness, “Yes?”
“Enemies approach,” he said, then stood to “stretch” again.
“What is it?” whispered Woo, apparently alert. Lei told him.
The monk stood and drew his jiann. Into the darkness he cried, “I am a student of Tran Minh Long! Identify yourselves!”
In response, the unknown ambushers let loose a chorus of piggish howls and charged the camp. Lei yelled, “Enemies!” and whipped his scimitar from its scabbard before rushing to meet them. Vinh and Tam came awake quickly, Vinh reaching for his kama-do and Tam scurrying up the slope and away from camp. Hien sat up groggily before reaching for his spirit staff.
Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Vinh peered at the oncoming assailants and suppressed a wave of fear. He had never seen an orc before, but the older masters of his order had described them to all the no-sheng ascendants. The feral snouts, the hulking frames, the boar-like language of grunts, snorts, and howls, all were the mark of the night-demons. He relayed that to his comrades – “Orcs!” – before dashing across to meet the brutes.
An orc ran up to Lei. The creature towered over the little mercenary, and its girth blocked out the moonlight. It wore badly cured leather over sodden furs, and held a blowgun in one hand and a wicked knife in the other. Its skin appeared black in the darkness, and its thick mane of matted hair was tied back into long braids that cascaded down its heavy torso. A crude image of an eye, painted in white, adorned its sloping brow. The orc snarled at Lei, then crouched and fired its blowgun. An errant gust of wind sent the dart sailing harmlessly over Lei’s head, and the fighter reacted, charging it and batting away the blowgun with his buckler before slashing a viscous gouge across its ribs. The creature staggered backward, surprised by the power of Lei’s attack.
As more of the orcs entered the camp, Mai scurried backward and searched for a flanking opportunity. While doing so, she heard a distant, guttural voice chanting, and suddenly she yawned hard and felt a deep weariness settle over her. Fighting it, she stumbled into Tam, who was also yawning and shaking his head. "They have a spell caster,” he declared, but his voice was barely heard over the sound of clashing arms.
Vinh, readied, exploded into motion as two of the orc warriors tried to move within his reach. Spinning his kama-do, he gutted one with a ferocious uppercut and sliced another open from crotch to sternum. Taking stock, he moved closer to Lei to better support the fighter’s efforts against his own assailant.
Woo leapt forward, jiann in hand, and opened with a leaping, spinning roundhouse kick to the face of an incoming orc, staggering it. Sword flashing, he opened his foe’s throat from ear to ear, and the creature died choking on its own blood. A second orc bearing a blowgun fired a dart at the monk, and steel glittered as he deflected the attack with a single deft stroke.
Tam heard chanting again, an unfamiliar litany. The three orcs furthest away from the melee convulsed, and the wizard watched in horror as their brutish eyes swelled with bloody tears. Somehow invigorated, two of the remaining three charged into the fight. The last orc, smaller than the others, wielded a halfspear and shield instead of the gigantic axes of the warriors. His hands held aloft the remains of some animal as gore from the fresh kill ran down his arms and splattered on his face.
As Vinh and Lei moved to engage the newcomers, they paused in awe of the brute gaining the hill. As tall as all the orcs were, it stood head and shoulders above the rest. Its back was hunched and its malformed head sat at an odd angle upon a twisted neck. Naked but for a loincloth of rotted fur, the creature’s corded muscles rippled as it dragged a heavy axe through the grass. The leader orc hurled some foul word at the monstrosity, and it bellowed and began to twitch and foam at the mouth. With incredible speed, the orc berzerker charged the closest enemy -– Mai.
The monstrous axe swooshed through the air, cleaving the space Mai had occupied a fraction of a second earlier. Ducking and rolling, she saw Hien run to her aid, and so she tumbled around the orc’s flank and gouged her short sword through its ribs. Frothing, the berzerker swung at her again and found partial purchase, cracking bones with the haft of its axe. Mai screamed in pain and tumbled out of reach. Hien pounded on the creature with his staff as it plunged toward Mai once more, and Sca the fox and Hiraki the eagle bravely harried its flank.
Vinh finished off Lei’s opponent and blocked the blow from the greataxe wielded by yet another orc warrior. Sensing an opportunity, Lei slid behind the creature as it tried to breach Vinh’s defenses. The orc was strong but not swift, and not skilled enough to deal with two capable armsmen at once. Within seconds it fell dead from multiple slashing wounds. Across camp, Woo finished off the second blowgun wielder and began to bounce down the slope after the orc spell caster. Seeing the monk coming and his forces falling, the creature turned and fled into the night mists.
Distracted by Hien, the berzerker buried its axe in the shaman’s ribs for his trouble. He screamed and dropped to his knees, near death, but provided Mai the opportunity she needed. Braving the flailing monster, she darted inside its guard and jammed her duan jian up into its ribcage, seeking its heart. Roaring, the orc staggered forward two steps, coughed up blood, and died.
Far off in the distance, drums rumbled in the dark.
A COLD wind blew across the scrubby foothills of the valley as the party hiked back toward the lonesome temple. Phet Lo lay half a day behind them, and ahead the peaks encircling Phau Dong valley loomed. The wind carried a hint of icy mountain rain, and Mai shivered and wrapped her jacket tightly about her. Woo stared ahead impassively, lost in thought. Lei squinted toward the sky, noting the brilliant sun burning behind dark clouds. Tam and Hien spoke quietly about spiritual matters, punctuating their remarks with rapid gestures. Vinh surveyed the horizon ahead, alert for trouble.
As they ascended a narrow gorge, Woo slipped on a loose rock and fell. Lei’s arm lanced out and snatched the monk in a vice-like grip, sparing him a nasty plunge back down the slope.
“Unhand me!” said Woo as he wrenched his arm free.
“You looked like you needed help,” Lei replied.
“Like you helped Tran?” shot the monk.
Everyone stopped, shocked. Woo scowled at Lei, a challenge, yet the mercenary did not immediately respond. His face darkened, and his hand strayed toward his scimitar as he clenched and unclenched his fists and bit down angry bile. Very quietly, he spoke, “That was not my fault.”
“You were his guardian. His death is your failure,” spit the monk. Lei bristled and surged toward Woo, but Vinh interposed, placing a hand on each man’s chest and pushing them apart. “Enough,” he said, “enough.”
Exchanging hateful looks, the two broke off and continued the climb. Woo scrambled many paces ahead of the others, and remained in sight but out of earshot for the rest of the afternoon. Vinh approached Lei and began to speak, but the veteran scowled and shoved him as he moved past, “Leave me alone.”
Hien sighed. Hiraki, the eagle, screeched a mournful dirge as he circled far overhead.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
That night they camped on the southern slope of the temple mount amid waist-high grasses. The air was cold and thick with condensation and the moon and stars shone bright overhead, reflecting off the dewdrops coalescing on the broad green leaves. They had cleared a spot for a small cook fire and their bedrolls near a rocky outcropping that jutted from the slope like the bow of a ship.
Late in the night, Lei squatted atop the rock and chewed on a blade of grass. He leaned on his buckler, and his spear and scimitar lay on the stone beside him. Below him the others slept, and below them the silver rays of the moon glimmered in white mists that roiled over the mountainside. In the quiet of the moment Lei thought about the events that had led to Tran’s death.
Was he at fault? Tran had been his charge, true. But to protect him Lei had many times needed to lead and keep the aristocrat behind the wall of arms that was himself, Vinh, and Woo. Keeping the unit alive kept Tran alive. How could he have known that a terrible bloodsucking creature had lived within the fallen temple, waiting to pounce upon the weak? How could he have known?
That thought did not comfort him. Shame, suppressed until now, burned in his breast. He hung his head as his eyes watered and he took a moment to master his emotions. When his vision cleared, he looked up to see many dark forms far down the slope moving quietly through the fields toward his companions.
Crap, he thought. The forms were hard to see in the dim light, but they appeared to be men, hunched over and spread out as they used the tall grasses to mask their approach. Several of the forms moved obliquely to the party’s position, setting up a flanking ambush.
Lei made a show of stretching, then picked up his scimitar and dropped off the rock into the moist loam. He slowly walked to his pack and pretended to rummage through it. Using the scabbard of his weapon he nudged Mai, the nearest person. “Thi Mai, awake,” he whispered.
She stirred slightly, but from the darkness of her bedding he heard her whisper with perfect alertness, “Yes?”
“Enemies approach,” he said, then stood to “stretch” again.
“What is it?” whispered Woo, apparently alert. Lei told him.
The monk stood and drew his jiann. Into the darkness he cried, “I am a student of Tran Minh Long! Identify yourselves!”
In response, the unknown ambushers let loose a chorus of piggish howls and charged the camp. Lei yelled, “Enemies!” and whipped his scimitar from its scabbard before rushing to meet them. Vinh and Tam came awake quickly, Vinh reaching for his kama-do and Tam scurrying up the slope and away from camp. Hien sat up groggily before reaching for his spirit staff.
Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Vinh peered at the oncoming assailants and suppressed a wave of fear. He had never seen an orc before, but the older masters of his order had described them to all the no-sheng ascendants. The feral snouts, the hulking frames, the boar-like language of grunts, snorts, and howls, all were the mark of the night-demons. He relayed that to his comrades – “Orcs!” – before dashing across to meet the brutes.
An orc ran up to Lei. The creature towered over the little mercenary, and its girth blocked out the moonlight. It wore badly cured leather over sodden furs, and held a blowgun in one hand and a wicked knife in the other. Its skin appeared black in the darkness, and its thick mane of matted hair was tied back into long braids that cascaded down its heavy torso. A crude image of an eye, painted in white, adorned its sloping brow. The orc snarled at Lei, then crouched and fired its blowgun. An errant gust of wind sent the dart sailing harmlessly over Lei’s head, and the fighter reacted, charging it and batting away the blowgun with his buckler before slashing a viscous gouge across its ribs. The creature staggered backward, surprised by the power of Lei’s attack.
As more of the orcs entered the camp, Mai scurried backward and searched for a flanking opportunity. While doing so, she heard a distant, guttural voice chanting, and suddenly she yawned hard and felt a deep weariness settle over her. Fighting it, she stumbled into Tam, who was also yawning and shaking his head. "They have a spell caster,” he declared, but his voice was barely heard over the sound of clashing arms.
Vinh, readied, exploded into motion as two of the orc warriors tried to move within his reach. Spinning his kama-do, he gutted one with a ferocious uppercut and sliced another open from crotch to sternum. Taking stock, he moved closer to Lei to better support the fighter’s efforts against his own assailant.
Woo leapt forward, jiann in hand, and opened with a leaping, spinning roundhouse kick to the face of an incoming orc, staggering it. Sword flashing, he opened his foe’s throat from ear to ear, and the creature died choking on its own blood. A second orc bearing a blowgun fired a dart at the monk, and steel glittered as he deflected the attack with a single deft stroke.
Tam heard chanting again, an unfamiliar litany. The three orcs furthest away from the melee convulsed, and the wizard watched in horror as their brutish eyes swelled with bloody tears. Somehow invigorated, two of the remaining three charged into the fight. The last orc, smaller than the others, wielded a halfspear and shield instead of the gigantic axes of the warriors. His hands held aloft the remains of some animal as gore from the fresh kill ran down his arms and splattered on his face.
As Vinh and Lei moved to engage the newcomers, they paused in awe of the brute gaining the hill. As tall as all the orcs were, it stood head and shoulders above the rest. Its back was hunched and its malformed head sat at an odd angle upon a twisted neck. Naked but for a loincloth of rotted fur, the creature’s corded muscles rippled as it dragged a heavy axe through the grass. The leader orc hurled some foul word at the monstrosity, and it bellowed and began to twitch and foam at the mouth. With incredible speed, the orc berzerker charged the closest enemy -– Mai.
The monstrous axe swooshed through the air, cleaving the space Mai had occupied a fraction of a second earlier. Ducking and rolling, she saw Hien run to her aid, and so she tumbled around the orc’s flank and gouged her short sword through its ribs. Frothing, the berzerker swung at her again and found partial purchase, cracking bones with the haft of its axe. Mai screamed in pain and tumbled out of reach. Hien pounded on the creature with his staff as it plunged toward Mai once more, and Sca the fox and Hiraki the eagle bravely harried its flank.
Vinh finished off Lei’s opponent and blocked the blow from the greataxe wielded by yet another orc warrior. Sensing an opportunity, Lei slid behind the creature as it tried to breach Vinh’s defenses. The orc was strong but not swift, and not skilled enough to deal with two capable armsmen at once. Within seconds it fell dead from multiple slashing wounds. Across camp, Woo finished off the second blowgun wielder and began to bounce down the slope after the orc spell caster. Seeing the monk coming and his forces falling, the creature turned and fled into the night mists.
Distracted by Hien, the berzerker buried its axe in the shaman’s ribs for his trouble. He screamed and dropped to his knees, near death, but provided Mai the opportunity she needed. Braving the flailing monster, she darted inside its guard and jammed her duan jian up into its ribcage, seeking its heart. Roaring, the orc staggered forward two steps, coughed up blood, and died.
Far off in the distance, drums rumbled in the dark.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
