Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 6787888" data-attributes="member: 9546">Assault On Seinaru Heikiko27 Calistril, 4716 When the companions arrived back at Seinaru Heikiko, they found a bustling hive of activity. They were welcomed by Jiro and Hatsue, who informed them that, thanks to the efforts of the Scions, many more people had come to the fort to join Jiro's banner, such that he had the makings of an actual army. The samurai was saddened to hear about Zula's death, and troubled by the news of the ninja assassin targeting Ameiko and her cohorts. Ameiko immediately retired to her chambers and spent the next hour playing on her samisen. When she emerged at nightfall, she told the others that she had experienced another vision." 'When your enemies surround you, and your mind is distracted, you will be at your most vulnerable,' " she said. "That is the message I received. We must be vigilant at all times now."That night, Boris prepared a special feast for the fort, celebrating the fall of Sikutsu Sennaka. The folk were delighted at the exotic flavors produced by the goblin's unique culinary skills, and the mood was festive. It was then that the first explosion rocked the keep. Shortly after, the alarm bells from the wall began to sound, and a bellow of inhuman laughter came from somewhere above. A second impact sounded, and the bells went silent. The soldiers began scrambling for their weapons and heading for the doors. Jiro and Hatsue leaped from their seats and quickly followed, Miyaro and Haroldo on their heels. Outside, the fortress's main gate had been knocked down. Several guards lay motionless on the ground, and Jiro's banner had fallen down in the dirt. Hovering in mid-air above the walls of the fortress was a three-eyed, red-skinned giant, an enormous testubo clutched in its fists. Upon the crags overlooking the fort clung a quartet of two-headed giants. Each of them had one head that was bestial and brutish, while the other had three eyes and looked slightly more civilized. All were armed with elaborate, double-edged pole-arms. "Come out little mice, hiding in your hole," the red-skinned giant boomed, "or I'll take down this fortress stone by stone! Show me this Amatatsu heir I've heard so much about! I want to crunch her little bones between my teeth and drink her royal blood! Bring her to me, and I promise you all quick deaths. Keep her for yourselves, and I'll tear every one of you limb from limb and make sweet music from your screams!"With that, the creature hurled a ball of fire at the doorway where Miyaro and Haroldo stood. The kitsune leaped nimbly aside, and Haroldo managed to dodge the brunt of the blast, but he still suffered numerous burns on his exposed flesh. Sandru emerged from the hall just as the flames cleared. He saw Miyaro standing to one side, her bow singing as she fired up at one of the two-headed oni on the cliffs. "Watch out!" he shouted at her, just as the third eye on the larger oni opened and fired a scorching bolt of flame.Miyaro shrieked as the flames seared her, back peddling towards the doors. Then, an enormous explosion rocked the court yard as a roiling cloud of smoke and fire erupted in its center. The three scions found themselves in pitch darkness as the soot and debris blotted out any light, and the burning air around them scorched their lungs as they struggled to breath. Haroldo called upon his blood magic to wreath himself in a blue fire, cool to the touch, which kept most of the heat from him. It was then, however, that the smoke parted briefly, and he saw movement within the mist. His eyes grew wide as enormous, rubbery black tentacles sprouted from the ground all around him and reached hungrily towards him and his companions. ____________________________________________________Inside the main hall, it was chaos. Servants and men-at-arms ran in all directions, not certain of what exactly they should be doing. Several of the ronin began heading for the main doors, but at that moment, a wall of flames sprang up across the opening, sealing them all inside. One of them turned back towards where Ameiko stood with Lucian and Akiro."My Lady!" he shouted, walking towards the group. "What is your command?"Ameiko looked non-plussed, taken aback that people were looking to her for leadership. Lucian and Akiro turned to look at her as well, and it was then, when the oracle put his back to the ronin, that Ameiko saw the man draw a familiar pair of dragon-emblazoned nunchaku from his tunic."Lucian, no!" she cried.The oracle looked puzzled right up until the moment when the nunchaku struck him in the back of the head.________________________________________________________ Back in the courtyard, Haroldo flew out of the forest of grasping tentacles, closely followed by Miyaro. Once free, the kitsune sighted with her bow, and loosed an arrow at one of the two-headed oni, putting the shaft through one of its throats. She looked around for the other ones, only to discover that two of them had simply vanished. ________________________________________________________Lucian fell heavily to the ground, but he still lived, shaking his head in disorientation."Stop him!" Ameiko snarled, whirling and pointing at the ronin-disguised ninja. Akiro responded immediately, weaving a net of green energy around the assassin, preventing him from teleporting or otherwise dimensionally traveling. "He's not going anywhere," the wizard grinned. "Too bad for you," the ninja replied, just as a pair of two-headed giants appeared out of thin air behind him.________________________________________________________The remaining two-headed oni flew from the ramparts at Haroldo, and Miyaro. One of them struck the blood-rager savagely with its monk's spade, while the second one swatted Miyaro across the courtyard. Miyaro fired a volley of arrows at the first one, the one she'd already wounded, and this time it dropped, its heads and chest pin-cushioned by her shafts. "Got him!" the kitusune shouted in triumph.That was when the large, crimson-skinned oni appeared behind her and swung mightily with his tetsubo. It caught her solidly at the base of her skull, and she went limp, dropping slowly out of the sky as her fly spell ended, dropping her straight into the wall of flames that covered the main entrance._______________________________________________________Lucian climbed painfully to his feet, his face a mask of rage an agony. "Now it's my turn!" He hissed at the ninja as he knocked two arrows simultaneously and loosed. The shafts struck true, but the assassin spun just as they impacted and flung a handful of dust into the air. As it settled over him, he vanished from sight. Nearby, Akiro spoke a spell, and began making a series of odd clicking noises, turning his head this way and that."He's right there!" The wizard shouted, pointing to a spot just behind Lucian. Too late. The oracle screamed as a fresh burst of pain washed over him, blood flying from his nose and his mouth from the impact of an unseen nunchaku. Across the hall, Boris and Ameiko had managed to flank one of the two-headed oni. The pair of them took turns darting in and making precision strikes against the giant as it pivoted trying to smash them both. At one point, the goblin was a fraction of a second too slow, and the oni swatted him with its spade, sending a jolt of electricity through the weapon as it struck. While its attention was momentarily diverted, however, Ameiko scored a killing blow, slashing Suishen across both of its necks. Suddenly, at the far side of the hall, Sandru appeared, sprinting down a flight of stairs that led to a tower above. He had flown there hoping to take one of the two-headed giants unaware, only to have it vanish before he could reach it. He saw Lucian on his knees, bleeding profusely from his wounds. Beyond the oracle, Akiro was casting a spell, and when he'd finished, the air glittered with sparkling motes of light. As they settled to the floor, they outlined a figure crouching behind Lucian. "Kill him!" Akiro shouted to Sandru.The swashbuckler needed no further prompting. He rushed the figure, his sword slashing and whirling. The assassin grunted and darted to one side...right to where Ameiko waited."There is no escape from my justice!" She shouted as she drove Suishen through the ninja's gut. Boris somehow found himself face-to-face with the last of the two-headed oni. He feinted to one side, and then leaped to the other, but while one of the giant's heads fell for his bluff, the other did not. It swung at him as he tumbled, smashing him into a wall...hard. The goblin lay there, his eyes blinking, staring at nothing.Sandru and Ameiko rushed towards the oni before it could deliver a killing blow against Boris. They struck in unison, and the creature fell into a wide pool of its own blood. Abruptly, Ameiko was lifted from her feet and sent flying across the hall, where she struck a large support beam. Materializing in the middle of the room was the monstrous three-eyed fire yai oni, its tetsubo dripping blood. He turned on Sandru, his third eye opening wide and firing a bolt of flame at the caravan master. As Sandru backed away, the oni swung his club in a mighty arc and drove him back a dozen feet or more. Grimacing, the swashbuckler regained his balance and rushed forward, slashing at the oni viciously. As he struck, however, a fiery nimbus that surrounded the giant exploded outwards, engulfing him in flames. Sandru slumped to the ground unconscious. Akiro did not like the way things were going. All of his allies were down, or nearly so. Thinking fast, he quickly wove another spell, and a glimmering cage composed of solid force sprang up around the oni. Lucian, still conscious, but only just barely, stumbled over to where Sandru lay and placed his hands upon the dying man. A surge of energy pulsed from his palms into Sandru's chest, momentarily lifting him from the ground. A moment later, Sandru opened his eyes, and then sprang nimbly to his feet in one smooth movement. The fire yai glared balefully from within his cage."You think that your petty magics can hold me?" He bellowed. "You know nothing of the Five Storms!"He raised one hand above his head, and as he did so, a wall of flames erupted from the floor where Lucian and Akiro stood. The oracle leaped to one side of the wall, and the wizard to the other. As Akiro rolled to his feet, he hurled a ball of sizzling electricity into the cage, where it exploded into blue lightning. The fire yai bellowed in pain, but then conjured a second wall of fire, bisecting the first, catching Akiro in the conflagration once again. The wizard stumbled to one knee, but still managed to toss a second lightning ball into the cage. As the oni writhed in its tendrils, he hefted his tetsubo and smashed it into the bars of the cage. When it struck, there was a tremendous BOOM like a thunderbolt, and one whole side of the force cage collapsed. The oni charged out, smashing Lucian with one end of his mighty club, and then Sandru with the other. Just then, another form leaped through one of the walls of fire...Haroldo! The blood-rager charged at the oni, his great sword whipping down in a bone-crushing arc. The fire yai careened backwards, but when Haroldo moved after him, the oni thrust the head of his tetsubo into the man's chest, crushing his sternum and the heart beneath it. Haroldo fell in a heap. Sandru leaped over the body of his friend, knowing he was probably soon to meet his own end, but as his sword slashed, Akiro hurled a final orb of electricity, and that time, the oni did not rise again.</blockquote>

Verification