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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 898027" data-attributes="member: 79">Vlad went limp in Nezu and Fireblossom’s arms, the poison finally taking full effect.  He’d be no help in this fight.  In fact, Vlad was still perfectly aware of what was going on around him.  He could see, hear, feel…but he could not move his body an inch.Looking back, there were four men with bows behind them.  And in front was two more men with wickedly curved blades, and a figure dressed in a loose fitting kimono.  His hands weaved a quick pattern, casting haste upon himself, then waiting to see if Nezu and Fireblossom surrendered.Surrender?  Ha!  Fireblossom called out “You boy’s aren’t man enough for me!”  flaunting that illusionary body before casting a haste as well, then with blinding speed creating a stone wall blocking the end of the alley where the spell caster was.  Arrows flew and Nezu was struck, but the thin man snatched his weapons out in a flash, snarling as he threw himself at the arches, blades flashing as he went berserk.  Never corner a rat…Kyruko and Ming were hurrying to catch up, Kyruko having escaped Viktor’s interest by promising to meet him later.  They saw the battle starting up ahead, the spell caster and two partners running around the side of the building to join the others.Ming cast a Hold person, freezing one of the archers in place, then ran past with Kyruko, who cast the wield spell on herself before grabbing Vlad’s Kusari-gama.  But neither could keep up with Fireblossom.  Hasted, Fireblossom was running with blinding speed, for to the left, her arms waving wildly.  But no, that didn’t take her out of line of sight with the archers and the spell caster.  So she ran back to the left in a seeming panic...but that didn’t do it either, the stone wall blocking her in where the archers could still see her.  Then Fireblossom stopped and unleashed two powerful fireballs on the gang, two booms echoing through the area as flames erupted at the mouth of the alleyway.  When the two fireballs had settled there was little left but ashes and some bones where the archers and spell caster had been.  The two last remaining thugs stared for a moment then fled into the darkness.  Kyruko and Ming just stared at Fireblossom for a moment before she threw out her hands “What?  I felt threatened!”[GM Note:  A very amusing battle.  The group was trying to hide how powerful they were, but Volar gets twitchy when there are no meat shields to protect him.  Fireblossom running back and forth is artistic license.  Volar’s player was moving the figure back and forth, going “no, still in sight, how about over here...nope...here?  No.”  I translated that into the character doing it because it made an interesting image.]Just then Finafin strolled into view, his face a carefully constructed mask of concern “Excellent, you are ok!  I heard a gang was going to attack you and figured I’d check on you, to make sure nothing happened.”Or to find Vlad left helpless after the gang took care of everyone else.  Ming confirmed Vlad was poisoned, and Neutralized it.  And Vlad already knew exactly when he was poisoned.  They had gone outside to keep an eye on Nezu, leaving Finafin’s boy toy to watch the table.Fireblossom’s voice was icy as she glares to Finafin “I don’t feel like talking to you now.  Go away.”The elf was about to protest when Fireblossom cut him off “Go.  Away.”Finafin sniffed and turned away, his cloak flowing out behind him as he stalked off.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mindra identified Vlad was poisoned and neutralized it quickly.  They had little doubt Finafin must have had something to do with the ambush.  Nezu gets killed, Fireblossom taken away and there’s Vlad left drugged and helpless.  But now Fireblossom had revealed more power than the group had wanted to show so early in their visit.The group gathered back in their tent and made sure there was no one around listening before planning.  The bandit leader under Fireblossom’s control would be reporting in later that night to be teleported to Bugaisha.  The plan for the next day was very basic and to the point.  Find the rest of the gang that attacked them and make sure they would not do it again.Fireblossom remembered the bodies of the bandits who had attacked, but it was too late.  In the half hour that had passed anything of value, or even could possibly be valuable, had been stripped away, even down to melted gold teeth.  Such is life in Kuzo.Mir settled back for mediation and focused her thoughts on Viktor, watching through the chain of eyes as he exited the Shrine to Bishamon and walked to the central stronghold of Rodrigo.  Even he was stopped at the gate, though, an impatient several minutes.  Once he started to look around then stopped himself.  And finally he was cleared to walk on inside.  There was an open yard just inside the walls, and a stable off to the side for horses.  Viktor walked on inside, up a flight of stairs and to what seemed to be a map room.  Spread out on the table was a map of the area, showing where Kuzo was, as well as red pins Mir recognized as showing some of the villages to the north of Bugaisha.  It also showed a number of forces to the east of Bugaisha out in the Hordelands.  Viktor settled in there, looking over the map for a good hour before the spell winked out of existence suddenly, obvious dispelled.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The bandit leader snuck in after midnight.  His face was damp with sweat as he struggled against the control.  But he had no choice, the elf’s power was simply too strong.   Fireblossom touched him and the bandit leader felt the world twist around him.  Obediently, he followed went where he was told when Fireblossom passed him off to a couple of Unicorn samurai.  The room set aside for Volar to teleport to was very plain, not even a table.  But a guard was kneeling by the door, his katana always unsheathed and ready.  A couple of minutes later, Shinjo Jyaku-sama entered, looking tired but alert.  “Thank you for the prisoner.  We need every bit of information we can find at this point.  The bandits are raiding villages all over the place.  No doubt an attempt to divide my forces, disperse them before they attack.  The Red Wizards are behaving unusually as well.  They’ve been riding out in different directions and casting spells.  I have no idea what; it’s not something Shugenja are familiar with.  “Lord Jyaku listened to Volar’s report on how well they were doing then nodded ‘It sounds like it is going well.  Keep it up.  If you can sow some confusion, or dissention, so much the better.  But don’t endanger your cover unless it’s really worth the risk.  And I have one favor to ask.  When you go back, could you take one of my Shugenja with you?  He’ll be invisible, so it’s safe.  Once he’s there, he’ll know the location and I have a way of getting other people to Kuzo.”Volar agreed and was introduced to the black clad Shugenja who would be accompanying him.  The Shugenja invoked the power of the spirits to turn invisible then they teleported back to Kuzo.  The Shugenja silently memorized the area before a soft chanting was heard before he returned to Bugaisha.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The next morning her Thrush awakened Mir with the dawn.  Cowering in a tree just inside the walls of Kuzo, disguised as a crow, Mir’s familiar was NOT flying if he could help it.  No other birds were flying either.  Her familiar couldn’t explain why, but there was a feeling of dread it could not shake.  Vlad also found the horses were skittish, when he went to check on them.  Very curious, but there was nothing obvious that was causing it.So they went out to check around and find that gang.  The only none fried body had been provided by Nezu, and that cheap thug’s only unique marking was a large octopus tattoo over his back.  So the group started there.  Word had gotten around of Fireblossom’s impressive display of power the night before.  Between that and Vlad’s bloodthirstiness, they had little trouble finding out that there was indeed an Octopus gang in town.  They had a house they used, just toward the south, closer toward the center of town.Briefly they debated sneaking over there to see if the gang was still at home.  But Fireblossom had a better idea.  The elf’s rat familiar was freed to sneak along under the houses to the gang hangout.  Perhaps fifteen minutes later he had let Fireblossom know the layout of the house and that there were still six men inside, though half were still sleeping.  With a trace of sadness the rat finished with “I tried asking the other rats here for help.  But I just can’t talk to them anymore.  I try to warn them about traps, but all they can think is ‘cheese!’  It’s depressing.”[GM Note:  Volar’s player had started teasing a little about his familiar now having a  Int equal to a couple of party members.  Which got me to thinking about how much smarter it was than most rats.  More on rats later.]Vlad was all for simply breaking in and taking out the gang all at once, in the bloodiest fashion possible.  Kyruko and Ming were in agreement that an example should be made of the gang, but not as much with a frontal assault.  Then Fireblossom had an idea.  Months ago Volar had collected those little pots with the sleep drug from Mimura.  They were still tucked away somewhere in the Handy Haversack.With a little rodent help, the pots were positioned under the wooden house and the wicks lit.  Based on their experience from last time, they knew the vapors would take about fifteen minutes to take effect, maybe less.  Ten minutes later three men burst out through the front door of the house, swords in hand as they gasped for breath.  The battle was mercifully short, Nezu’s two swords slicing one bandit down without hesitation.  Slowly he was getting a taste for the fight again.  Ming froze another with a Hold Person, then Kyruko Charmed the final bandit.As with the night before, there was no looting.  Vlad slipped inside to slit the throats of the sleeping bandits while Kyruko started to interrogate her new ‘friend’.  Kiumaof the Octopus gang wasn’t the most impressive person, though he seemed proud to be part of the Ten Tentacles of the Octopus.  And quite impervious to any suggestion that octopus only had eight tentacles.  The ocean was over 2,000 miles away, who here would really know?  He and the others in the gang had heard quite a bit about how Fireblossom, Kyruko and the others had a lot of money.  Between that and the chance to grab an elf and sell her, the temptation was too much when they saw one of the group had been poisoned.  Kyruko had been hoping to hear that Finafin was involved, but evidently the local bandits didn’t need much encouragement when there was gold to be made.  Nezu was allowed to finish off the bandit.Vlad returned from inside the house, woozy but having managed to fight off the fumes long enough to finish up.  Then Fireblossom shut up the house securely to trap all the sleep fumes inside.One bandit was left, paralyzed by Ming’s spell.  Vlad grinned wolfishly as he drew his kusari-gama “I know just what to do with him.  We wanted to make an example…”</blockquote>

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