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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2181294" data-attributes="member: 15043">Monster long update today... took three hours to type.  Enjoy!The Battle of Xianfung, Part One“Dammit... dammit dammit dammit!” Nayu cursed as a runner streaked ahead of Yi Mang’s chariot, doubtlessly to demand that the gates be opened for his eminence, the advisor to Governor Ho.  The streets were starting to clear, as the massive column drew closer and closer.“The one day he’s not on time,” Nayu heard Selim hiss.  The sorcerer then turned, and saw Yari Ai’s eyes looking fearfully between the advancing mass of men, and the palace.Our plans are shot!  I doubt Felonca’s in position to get to the governor yet... damn damn damn!  It would only be a matter of minutes until Yi was almost under the gate, close enough to likely notice the preparations Nayu, Selim, and the Gate Captain had put together; bales of hay to be dropped into the path of Yi’s oncoming column, the boiling tar and rocks ready to be dumped on the then blocked column.What now? Nayu asked himself.  If Yi gets too close, our cover is blown.  If we stike now, the governor will likely have time to prepare the palace for a siege...  For several moments Nayu stared into the street as the runner drew closer, thinking of his friend, the people of the entire province, even his parents.  “What should we do, Master Wakabayashi?” Nayu heard the Captain of the City Watch, his voice trembling slightly as the dull whump of many feet marching in unison became audible, as did the clatter of horses and the rumble of chariot wheels.  Well, what course do we have? Nayu thought silently, his mind already rifling through his magical options.  We need an immediate, devastating attack that can take out as many of them as we can, and incapacitate HIM, the sorcerer realized.  After a few seconds, he settled on a spell he thought would do the job, then turned to the Captain of the City Watch and nodded.“The luck of our ancestors be with us,” the Captain muttered, before silently scampering away to relay the orders.  Battle it would be.Watch over me, father, Nayu thought as he felt his magic building, rising to the surface.  We have one chance at this... and if we succeed, we’ll then need to storm the palace.   As the frothing power finally reached the surface of his fingertips, he took a position just behind one of the parapets, and gave one last thought to his friend.Hold tight, Felonca...  we’ll get you out of there! he thought as a tiny ball of white flashed from his hands, straight towards the powerful chariot the imperious Yi stood in.The next second, hell came to earth in the streets of Xianfung.Nayu himself was surprised at the power of the explosion his magic unleashed (maximized fireball), set directly in the midst of Yi and his large retinue.  The blinding flash and roar shook the very walls of the city seeming to their foundations, as bodies of soldiers cartwheeled through the air, leaving trails of black smoke that the evening breeze caught and lazily swept away from the scene of destruction.  What few common people that were still on the street screamed, and dashed back towards whatever shelter they could find.“Loose!”  Nayu had been concentrating too hard to hear the creak of the bowstrings, but he felt the air around him stir slightly as a barrage of arrows from the watchmen atop the gatehouse lanced downward into the scene of ruin at any figures still moving within the smoke and murk.  Several dull thwacks and added moans spoke of men now transfixed by arrows.While the soldiers then began to stare in slightly shocked awe on the destruction belong, Nayu’s surprise at his own power waned, in favor of a unease.  That was too easy...  the explosion of flame was powerful, yes, he thought, the smoke blowing away enough that the edge of a crater was just coming into view, but I have a bad feeling about...His mind stopped in utter confusion, as the smoke moved further away.  While the remains of the horses that once pulled it were hard to identify in the mess of bodies below, to Nayu’s utter shock, the chariot itself was still unharmed, sitting in the midst of the large crater, as if nothing had happened.  Inside it, Yi Mang’s green skinned form stood confused but unharmed, as did a frightened driver and a scholar.  Now, the sounds of yelling arose from the streets, as the soldiers behind Yi finally realized they were under attack from the wall.  Swords drawn, they surged towards the stairs up the parapet, as Nayu spotted another man clad in the robes of a scholar running up to alongside the chariot, before he began reaching for a bundled book held in his sleeve.How in the...  Nayu sat in confused shock for another moment, as Yi Mang touched his chest and Nayu saw the vestiges of a protective armor spell arise around the man.  When the tall, powerful figure began to reach for the enormous sword at his hip, Nayu finally realized his intention.He’s going to lead the charge against us... and probably carve us up into little bits!  To make matters worse, it seemed as if fire didn’t work against him, or he had some kind of protection against magic.  But if he’s protected from magic, how did his driver and the chariot survive unscathed... unless his protection magic covered an area around him...Two and two became four in Nayu’s mind.Dammit! he snarled as he recognized the protective magic, and realized that unless he drew close to Yi, his lightning bolts and fireballs would be useless (Nayu just realized YI has a Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser going).  In one second, his powerful spells that had levelled a village had been rendered useless.  I need something more powerful...As Yari Ai’s voice rose in quiet prayer, calling for the aid of the ancestral spirits in guiding the arrows and blades of her allies this day, Nayu focused his magic yet again, before unleashing a bright, flashing burst of light towards Yi Mang, and the scholar beside the chariot.  Just before it lanced through them, the light burst into purple violence, lancing through both men (Prismatic Ray, Insanity).Yi merely blinked, before looking up towards the parapet directly at Nayu and snarling, his blade now drawn, dark, sinister flames now licking up and down its steel length.The scholar behind Yi reacted far differently.  His face changed from a look of concentration to one of mirth, his eyes went wide with the joy only the mad understand, and his maniacal cackles echoed above the noise of battle (we now have a mad spellcaster on the loose).  Nayu had little time to think of this, however.  A second before it struck, Nayu heard the slight woosh of an arrow in flight, and then felt something smack into his shoulder.  His mind, focused on channeling his magic and the battle at hand, dully noted the strike, almost as if he was an observer to the fight, rather than a participant.Focus... he grunted, as several archers from below continued to pepper the walls with arrow fire, Yi angrily yelling and pointing towards Nayu’s position as the soldiers below drew closer.  The screaming spellcaster then made a few arcane movements, before both he and the third unaffected scholar both disappear.What? Nayu thought, his mind confused now by the pain in his shoulder and the sudden disappearance of his foes.  Another arrow flashed close, ripping his robes, and Nayu quickly ducked behind the parapet as the pain became intense.  I need to get this arrow out, his conscious mind said rather clinically, even as his more primal sides were starting to scream with pain.“Captain!” he hissed, “Take out those archers and the guardsmen!  Then we can all focus on Yi!”  No sooner had he issued the order, than he reached over, and grasped the arrow still stuck in his body.  With a grunt, he pulled, and the pain became almost unimaginable.“Here,” he heard a voice yell as another volley of arrows lashed out from the gatehouse, and he felt saw another pair of hands grab the arrow shaft.  He looked up, to find Yari Ai looking directly at him.  “Now, this is going to hurt alot over the next few seconds, but once this is out, I can heal you.”  Nayu hissed and nodded, before her more adept hands gave a sharp tug, and he yelled.  No sooner had the arrow been removed than he felt her hands cover the wound, and just as quickly, the pain ebbed away.  Her hands then found his forehead, and he felt magic of some kind flowing from her into him.  It only took a few seconds, then he looked up at her, confused.“Yi has gone invisible, and has already killed several guardsmen with magic while I healed you,” Yari Ai said quietly.  “I have the guidance of my ancestor’s sight, but I have no means to harm him.”  She ducked low as another, far thinner, swarm of arrows clattered against the parapets.  “You, however...”“I can see an invisible person now?” Nayu asked, unsure of the magic she spoke of.  I have heard of no such spell...  (She cast true seeing upon Nayu)“Look for yourself,” she replied, then added, “before you make Yi and his two accomplices fall out of the sky.”“What are you...” Nayu started as he clambered back up, until he looked over the parapets.  There, now plain as the setting sun, hovered Yi and the healthy scholar, some fifteen feet above the chariot, magic missiles flashing from their hands and picking off watchmen along the parapet walls.  Slightly further away hovered the cackling madcap of a scholar, gibberish flowing from his mouth.“Right.”  Nayu went back into his focused mood, his mind now channeling and focusing the magical fire within his body, twisting its shape, molding it specifically for the need at hand... two blasts, one centered on Yi and the scholar next to him, the other on the aerial gibbering mouth that no one could understand.Once again, the walls and streets of Xianfung seemed to shake, as another, even more powerful blast of fire exploded above the city (Nayu spellsculpted a Burning Ray spell).  To the eyes of the soldiers, the blast seemed to happen in mid-air, the suddenly two people tumbled down from the sky, one aflame and screaming, the other merely smoldering yet cackling with madman’s delight.  Alone on the wall, save for Yari Ai, Nayu saw Yi twist his way clear of most of the blast, and somehow avoiding the fate of the others.Meanwhile, the assault upon the gatehouse by Yi’s bodyguards was collapsing.  Yet another volley of arrows from the Captain’s soldiers sliced through the air, cutting down the few soldiers still charging in the open through the wide street.  The madman spellcaster, meanwhile, arose somehow from his fall, and cackling with glee, proceeded to blast two archers from his side with magical energy.  The others, seeing the battle going against them, began to flee.You can’t escape, Yi! Nayu yelled mentally, as he waited and guided the magic rising within his blood yet again.  If Yi fled, and returned to the palace... it was a course that Nayu dreaded to fathom, with his closest friend stuck inside those terrible walls. Then, as Nayu was trying to find a spell to unleash on Yi, the spellcaster disappeared, despite even Yari Ai’s special sight.Nayu would later count himself extremely lucky.  Something within his instincts told him to duck, and just as he did, he felt immense heat and heard an enormous whoosh rumble just inches over his head.  He spun around, only to see Yi Mang’s immense, green, almost rocky form, nearly six and a half feet tall, towering over him, his flaming sword rising for yet another strike...Later Nayu would say it was a combination of sheer instinct and cold calculation that let him realize in that split second that now he was within Yi’s sphere of protection.  Whatever the motivation, Nayu raised his hands, and a powerful arc of electricity blasted the five feet between Nayu’s fingers and Yi’s chest, its thunderclap coming instantaneously as all along the wall just began to shout and react to Yi’s sudden teleportation.The unexpected blast stunned the powerful Yi, who seemed to hang momentarily in the air as an immense tree clings to the sky just before its demise and fall.  The delay was all that was needed, as in the next second no less than six arrows transfixed the advisor to Governor Ho, and Yi Mang the Green tumbled from the parapets, his body landing ignominiously in a pile of manure in the city below.It was then that the trumpets of the City Watch began to sing out, and an avalanche of people intent on the demise of Governor Ho, began rumbling towards the palace...“Is it normal for us to randomly hear trumpets and horns blaring this much?” Meiji asked quietly only a few minutes later.  Felonca herself shrugged, as she nibbled on a grape from a plate left by the overly chatty blonde harem girl.  The girl had talked incessantly for a few hours, before she had been called off for some duty or other... Felonca seriously wondered if someone found her entertaining enough to put with the doubtlessly endless chatter, questions and comments that she would continually pour forth.  She was about ask Mai Lin what she thought of the trumpet noise, before she spotted a smirking Chen approaching.  Quickly, she put on the most flirtatious look she could muster.“Madames,” Chen grinned lasciviously at Felonca, before giving mere bows of acknowledgement towards Mai Lin and Meiji, “Governor Ho wishes to see his newest acquisitions.  He demands your immediate presence!”  As the three stood and began to follow him out, Chen slowed just enough so he was by Felonca’s ear.“I held up my end of the bargain... tomorrow night will a hengeyokai do the same?” he whispered.“We shall see,” Felonca purred in response.  As in we shall see whether my warfans merely cut your throat or someplace further down first!The three were led through immaculate chambers, elaborate stairways, and past intricately carved mosaics, until finally, they emerged into the waning daylight of the setting sun.  Chen led them across the bridge crossing the small inner lake, and towards the governor’s apartments, the elegant pagodas and columns bathed in a deep red hue from the coming dusk.Almost like blood... Felonca thought quietly as the group ascended equally exquisite stairs and traversed beautiful halls until they reached a door made of chestnut with gold inlays and carvings.  From the crack beneath it, steam filtered into the hall in small wisps.“Here we are,” Chen said quietly.  “Governor Ho is inside, enjoying a bath, and he expects for you three to diligently wait on him, and attend to all his needs for the next few hours.”  He then motioned for the three to open the door.Felonca noted with approval that there were no soldiers outside the door, nor were any in the entire hallway save for Chen.  Just make sure, she told herself, before flashing him another flirtatious smile.“If I have need of you,” she purred, purposefully referencing herself, “where will you be?”“Just down the hall.  Should you need anything, I will be able to hear you call.”  His face remained normal, but Felonca read the dirty look his eyes gave at the last part, and she resisted the urge to growl.So we’ll have to make this quiet then, she thought as the door to the sauna was opened.  Instantly billows of steam greeted her with almost suffocating heat.  Gingerly she stepped inside the room, whose marble walls and billowing steam reflected the blood red of the sunlight streaming through the windows, giving everything a reddish hue.  In the center of the room sat an immense porcelain tub, from which only the back governor’s immense, fat head was visible, only thin wisps of white hair coming from his scalp.“Your Excellency, I have brought your new harem servants, as you have asked,” Chen bowed towards the immense form.  From the tub a flabby, jiggly arm emerged, and five short, stubby fingers waved him away.  Chen bowed once again, and backed out of the room.  A few seconds later, Felonca and her companions found themselves alone with their target.Alright... we need a few minutes to make sure Chen gets far enough away...The same immense hand waved again, an obvious signal.  Gingerly, shyly, as a harem girl should, the three approached the immense tub, before bowing next to it.  As she approached, Felonca grew thankful that whatever herbs and spices that had been placed into the tub had created an immense froth of bubbles, denying her any more grotesque a view of His Excellency than the quadruple rolls of skin underneath his chin.  His eyes were still closed, and he wheezed every time he breathed.“We are your humble servants, Excellency.  What does Your Excellency require of his servants?” Felonca asked, making sure her voice sounded timid, afraid.  Slowly, his dark eyes opened, and a slight smile came upon his lips at seeing Felonca and Mai Lin.  When his eyes reached Meiji, they suddenly narrowed.“You look like a cow with running makeup,” the governor’s wheezy voice hissed at Meiji, before the imperious hand slowly half-gestured towards a corner where towels were hanging.  “Fetch me a towel, I don’t want to see your ugly face.”In horror, Felonca saw that the governor was right on one account; the makeup Selim had caked that morning on Meiji’s face was starting to break and run with the immense humidity in the room.  It would not be long... maybe as short of time as an hour, before Meiji went from a badly made up woman into what appeared to be a man sporting breasts and smears all across his face.Dammit! she hissed, as Meiji quickly made himself scarce.  The governor’s gaze then returned to Felonca, and the lazy half smile started again.“You look far more beautiful than that goat.  You will feed me grapes,” he wheezily commanded.  As Felonca turned to reach for the platter of grapes, the immense hand suddenly flashed out with surprising speed, grabbing her wrist.  The smile was now big, a grin even more demeaning than Chen’s, as the governor pulled her close.“And you will let down your hair, and stay here after the others are dismissed,” he rasped.  He then let go of her arm, and motioned towards her head.“I... thank you for your attention, Excellency,” Felonca said quietly, relieved he had released her.  Now is the time... she thought, as she gingerly reached up towards the pins holding her hair in place, an ad hoc plan coming to her mind.  A truely skilled person at seduction might have called her attempts to look alluring while undoing the pins of her hair amateurish, but there was nothing amateur at all about how her right hand palmed the dangerously poisonous pins, shielding them from view even as she shook her hair loose, and it fell about her shoulders.  She gave him another shy smile.  “May this servant be permitted to kiss your Excellency?”“You will kiss me, immediately,” he wheezed as the request was transformed into a demand.  Gingerly Felonca closed with the governor’s face, his fat, bulbous lips, performing an acting job that perhaps Meiji could never have matched, half smiling and closing her eyes as if she was about to enjoy the upcoming travesty.  As she smelled his horrific breath washing over her face, she carefully opened one eye, and noted that both his eyes were closed, await her to lock with his lips.Her left hand quickly lashed out, smothering his lips.  His eyes flashed wide open, a muffled cry escaping her grasp.  Simultaneous she expertly flicked forward the pins in her right hand, moving them from a position of hiding into a position of attack.  As one of the governor’s flabby hands grabbed for her left hand, she slammed three pins, the tips of each slathered in the venom of a massive scorpion, into the governor’s neck, forcing them deep.“You expect me to want to kiss a monster like you?” Felonca hissed as another scream from the governor was muffled by her hand.  His eyes were wide in terror as his hands clawed at her, he no doubt could feel the poison coursing through his veins, a look that made Felonca snarl more. “You expect me to want you, after what they say you did to the other girls?  Use them for fun?  Kill them for fun?”  His eyes began to roll into the back of his head, as bathwater sloshed out onto the floor from the seizures wracking his body.“You are a scum of the earth,” she hissed, knowing full well he could still hear her even as his body broke down and died, “you are a lowlife!  You are no governor!”  His rapid shaking stopped, and she could feel his chest giving a series of immense heaves, desperately trying to bring in air for lungs that were already decimated, a heart that was already eaten away.  His eyes, for one last instant, looked at her, wide with terror.“You’re just a dirty old man, worth his weight in manure!” she spat as his eyes rolled back for the last time.  I hope you heard those as your last words, you bastard! her mind snarled.  After she was sure he was dead, she turned to Mai Lin and Meiji.“Mai Lin, I want you to dump some of those grapes in the bathwater, and dump some on the floor.  Make it look like the grapes were spilled.”  She then turned to her cousin.  “Meiji, I remember you used to be able to impersonate Uncle Feng’s voice really well.  Can you still do that?”“Why would I want to impersonate Uncle Feng?” Meiji hissed in reply.  “He’s got nothing to do with the governor, and we need to figure out a way to get out of here!”“Uncle Feng’s voice was raspy!” Felonca snapped in quiet reply, as she pulled the pins from the governor’s throat and started washing them in the tub water.  “He wheezed because of that throat wound!  If you yell like him, you could sound like the governor!”“Oh...” Meiji finally understood.Quickly, Felonca closed the governor’s wide open eyes, and closed the mouth that was wide in terror.  Then, she pushed hard on his body, until the marks left by the pins disappeared below the bubbly surface of the water.  Then, she turned back towards Meiji.  “I want you to yell that I was incompetent, spilled grapes into the tumb, you want us removed, and that you want Madame Yu to take our place to soothe your anger after this mess!”Chen and Yu seem to be the ones in charge of the harem... if we can get them both busy simultaneously, we can have a better chance of slipping away...A few raspy, angry yells later, and Chen opened the door.  Quickly, he hustled the three into the hallway, tsking Felonca for “ruining her golden chance” to ingratiate herself with the governor.“You will still owe me, regardless,” the guard hissed as he closed the door.  “Heaven knows, if he is really angry with you, I may have to do some serious persuading to keep you alive long enough for me to collect,” he snapped.  “What a mess... first we get strange reports from the city, and have to dispatch a palace regiment to quell some kind of chaos, and now you anger the governor!  Bah!”Chaos in the streets?  Does that mean...  Felonca’s heart jumped slightly, as Chen led them onward, still ranting.  They passed through all of the corridors and halls in reverse, finally crossing the bridge back into the harem.  As they walked about, Felonca noticed almost all of the guards were gone...Nayu must’ve done something in the city... maybe Yi has already been struck down...  she hoped.  Finally, the group met Madame Yu on the ground floor of the harem, and Felonca endured another short lecture on not angering the governor, before Chen escorted Yu out of the building and towards the governor’s apartments.“So... he expects us to go back up to the harem floors by ourselves?” Meiji commented once Chen and Yu were far enough away.  “What an idiot.”“He’s preoccupied,” Felonca replied.  “The governor is angry, and many of his men in the palace have been pulled out.  He thinks we’re cowed and we’ll do as we’re told, hoping to live.  Speaking of which,” she started towards the door of the harem, “I think we should think about escape... now.”We might not have guards inside the harem to contend with, but if Nayu’s done what I think happened, we’ll have guards on top of the walls we must scale already... and even more once Yu figures out the governor is more than ‘just sleeping...’= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = And thus ended the lives of Governor Ho and his advisor Yi Mang.  Now all that remains of this session are the dual lines of Felonca’s escape from the palace, and Nayu’s attempts to storm the same...Yi Mang was a Green Star Adept, a PrC found in the Complete Arcane, if I remember correctly.  Eating large amounts of the residue of a green meteor (the green metal people referred to) gave him bonuses to his constitution, immunities to poison and paralysis, and a natural armor bonus.  On top of this, he had exotic weapon profiency with a bastard sword.  His tactics would be to usually buff himself magically, then wade into battle with his +2 flaming bastard sword... a plan that a meddling sorcerer and members of the City Watch managed to foil... <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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