Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 564740" data-attributes="member: 79">The flames burst throughout the teahouse, bits of wood falling in flames to the ground outside.  Few survived the initial explosion of flames ands from there the fire spread quickly through the building.  Yukiyo, clad in silk kimono smoldering in places, dived through the front window to escape the flames. Outside were waiting five figures.  Three men and a woman were armored in dark blue armor with white snowflake symbols, The other was Kuroiyuki in simple, sleeveless kimono, the young man looking a bit beaten up.  Apparently the letter Volar had written was not well received.Mir spied the figures out front at the same time, but she trusted in her disguise and kept busy helping survivors from the growing flames.  Kuroiyuki also ran forward, patting down Yukiyo’s body, putting out the flames as he said “Don’t struggle, just relax, you’ll be ok!  The fire didn’t catch you badly.”  He even helped pull her away from the building, well clear of the flames.Volar had been burned badly by the initial explosion but he kept his wits about him, focusing past the pain to protect himself with a haste, then improved invisibility before he raced from the fires.  Verick, Kaz, Mindra and Toshiro chose the back door to escape the flames, rushing to the back room first, then Verick and Kaz lead the way out the door.  They were immediately confronted by more figures in the dark blue armor with the snowflake, including an imposing figure in samurai great armor and a girl Toshiro recognized, the white haired girl who had ambushed/warned him previously.Verick and Kaz had time to clear the doorway of the burning building, katanas at the ready.  Toshiro and Mindra were too late to get through the door, however.  The girl in white hair had time to cast a summoning and they found the door blocked by a fire elemental. Toshiro looked behind to the fire spreading in the room behind and wondered “Why did it have to be a fire elemental, why not water?  Some water would be nice about now…”The big ronin in great armor gestured to Kaz with his sword and yelled out “I’ll take Verick, you handle Kaz!  Remember, Toshiro is NOT to be killed!” then Fubuki-tai was upon them.  Oyuki, the man in charge, rushed in quickly and landed a hit on Verick with ease while dodging the young Lion’s return strike.  The other Fubuki-tai attacking Kaz had less success against the Crab Samurai’s heavy armor.In front of the teahouse, the four Fubuki-tai fighters there heard the battle in the back and with a overly dramatic “Fubuki-tai to the back!” they started running around the tea house to get involved in the action.  They didn’t get far, though.  Invisible and moving with blinding speed, Volar evocated two Scintillating Spheres, electricity crackling over the four warriors, killing two while staggering the others.  Then before the survivors had a chance to do anything more than run away from the blasts, a hail of magic missiles dropped the other two fighters.[DM Note:  This was really the first time Volar had stepped up and played a major, direct role in combat.  Previously he’d buffed, used illusions and generally supported.  From this point on Volar plays a much more explosive role in combats.]Still disguised, Mir was focused on saving those few in the burning tea house still alive, dragging another man out and healing him quickly before moving to help another.  Yukiyo allowed Kuroiyuki to put out where her silk was smoldering while she deviously palmed a blade.  A sudden stab to Kuroiyuki’s shoulder drew blood, clearly surprising the young man.  “Hey, stop that, I’m trying to help you!  I’m sorry about this…” he apologized before his left hand grabbed Yukiyo’s wrist to pull the knife away and opened the way for a fast elbow to the ribs, then another strike, the point of the elbow to the solar plexus, a critical strike that nearly KO’ed Yukiyo, Kuroiyuki precisely striking to subdue rather than injure.   A deft switch of the knife to a downward position allowed her to slash along Kuroiyuki’s arm but then two more lightning fast elbow strikes was enough to render Yukiyo unconscious.Back behind the burning teahouse with everyone else so busy, Verick found himself face to face, one on one with Oyuki.  For all the goofiness of certain people in Fubuki-tai, Oyuki was deadly serious and supremely focused.  The first two exchanges of strikes clashed sparks off their katana but Oyuki was the one scoring, two fast, bloody hits to Verick’s arms.  But something was wrong here, Verick was sure of it.  He’d trained as a Lion samurai and learned their special techniques for attacking foes in armor.  And it wasn’t working here.  Oyuki simply wasn’t moving like someone weighed down by the heavy Great Armor.  Verick had no time to consider this before Oyuki was attacking again with a blindingly fast series of strokes.  For Kaz the situation was starting to get serious.  The white haired spell caster had turned invisible and summoned another flame creature and sent it after him.  Mindra had summoned a dire ape inside the room with he and Toshiro, setting it to battling the fire elemental as smoke seeped into the room from the burning teahouse, fire starting to lick out around the door.His big spells mostly exhausted, Volar resorted to pelting Oyuki with two Acid Arrows then following up with a grease spell, but with deceptive agility Oyuki danced out from the grease after only being hit by one of the acid attacks.  Kaz tried to run past the Fubuki-tai fighters to get at Oyuki but he slipped in the grease and before he recovered, a Fubuki-tai katana found a weak spot in his arrow for a critical hit.  Mindra healed Toshiro as he and the Dire Ape fought the elemental but the fiery creature was somehow holding it’s own.Invisibly, the Fubuki-tai spell caster was working hard to keep the other fighters up and going while Kaz made his way to his feet, killing the fire elemental on him then wading into the others again.  Toshiro killed the fire elemental blocking the door but Oyuki made a sweeping gesture and the door slammed shut in their faces.  With the read wall of the room already on fire, the assumption was made the door was now magically locked and Mindra set the Ape to breaking through the wall.Verick took that crucial moment of distraction to get in a stroke on Oyuki, drawing blood for the first time.  But he was clearly fading, only a few more seconds before Oyuki’s precise attacks would kill him.  Then something unusual happened.  Oyuki attacked, a sweeping stroke to knock Verick’s katana out of the way, then a vicious hammering blow from the butt of the katana’s hilt staggered Verick back as Oyuki struck to subdue.And suddenly everything was clear to Verick.  Taking a fast step back and gathering himself, he looked Oyuki in the eyes…then turned around and ran as fast as he could into the night.  Oyuki just stared for a moment then took off running after him, much faster than someone weighed down by heavy armor could normally run.With this tide of battle turned.  One Toshiro and the Ape had broken through the wall they were able to help Kaz.  Mir was on the scene to heal and cast magic missiles from her wand.  Volar tried to catch Oyuki in a Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere but he avoided it with a nimble forward roll.  Then Volar summoned a Dire Wolverine to help finish off the other Fubuki-tai fighters before polymorphing himself into a Pegasus and soaring into the air to try and rescue Verick before Oyuki caught him.His pulse pounded as Verick sprinted away from the burning teahouse, his sword held out to the side.  A fast look of his shoulder revealed the silhouette of Oyuki closing on him…closing on him fast, in fact.  Verick tried to push himself even faster but Oyuki followed him relentlessly, no matter how he tried to loose the big samurai in the dark.  Verick was almost prepared for a last stand when he heard the sound of horses galloping close by.  Unicorn guards who had noticed the fire and was riding in to investigate.  Running toward them and waving his arms, Verick flagged the samurai down and started to explain what had happened.Faced with five samurai on horseback, Oyuki finally stopped.  In a booming voice he yelled back to the teahouse “Fubuki-tai Dispersion maneuver, Blood on the Snow!”  Then he gestured and smoke boiled up, obscuring him from sight.  When the smoke cleared 30 seconds later, there was no sign of him.The group mopped up the remainder of Fubuki-tai, the fighters surrounded and systematically cut down.  The white haired spell caster, still invisible, simply quit casting spells and slipped away into the darkness.  Kuroiyuki was not so lucky.  At Oyuki’s order, he looked up from bandaging Yukiyo, then he took off running as well.  He might have escaped had not Volar picked up Verick and the two of them cut the young man off, the Pegasus flying far faster then Kuroiyuki could run.  Tightly bound, he was turned over to the guards as more people arrived to help put out the fire and heal the survivors of the attack.The group gathered back together, Volar, Mir, Toshiro...most everyone in fact staring at Verick.  Verick looked around “What?  I didn’t run away, it was a tactical move!”  He protested.  “Of course it was…” Mir teased.“No, you don’t understand.”  Verick insisted, “Oyuki was all wrong.  He didn’t move like someone armored.  And you saw how he closed the door.  He’s a master of the katana but there’s more to this than that.  He was trying to capture me!  As soon as he tried that, it hit me.  I’m the target.  Mir and Toshiro were distractions so he could try and capture me!”“Why you?”  Mir asked, looking puzzled.“I’m...not sure.”  Verick admitted.  ‘I don’t have that part worked out yet.  I have the proper bloodline, though.”Toshiro frowned “How did they know to attack us there?”“They knew about the meeting!”  Mir exclaimed. “They could only have known from Buka, though.  He must have come back.”“I’ll kill him!”  Verick snarled, “You’re right.  He had to tell.  They arrived to ambush us.  So the person watching Mir is linked to the group after me.  And I strongly suspect Oyuki was the one who cut the roses.  He’s skilled enough.”“And he gave the roses to the girl?  She sounded like the same one who ambushed me before, I didn’t see her before she turned invisible though.”  Toshiro commented, frowning now.“Maybe you were getting the roses from Oyuki.”  Verick teased, “He might know illusions.”Toshiro shook his head quickly “Oh no, I’m sure it was not an illusion!”  he started firmly.Volar bit back a thought about the Alter Self spell, he was still in Pegasus form so he as just listening.  The group decided to head straight over to the Fubuki-tai dojo and catch any stragglers before they could escape.  They could question Kuroiyuki later.  They had questions and the Fubuki-tai dojo seemed the best place to start.[DM Note:  In another thread recently, PirateCat commented 'Use subdual damage, it makes the PC's sweat' (loosely paraphrased).  This is so true.  Kuroiyuki doing subdual damage was no  big deal, it made sense with his other actions and words.  But Oyuki out of the blue suddenly making the last couple of attacks on Verick subdual had people a little worried.  It was unexpected.  they didn't know exactly why he was doing that, but it couldn't be good.  Even so Verick running was a surprise to me.  Verick's player has a reputation for his characters never running from a fight.  Even if he's playing an archer in hand to hand combat with only 10 HP left, he'll still do a five foot step and keep shooting.    My PC's do manage to keep me on my toes.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />]Next!  Fubuki-tai's Last Stand!(?)  Someone is Finally Kidnapped!  And the GM Dice from Hell!</blockquote>

Verification