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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2187594" data-attributes="member: 15043">That was a mistake in my last post... it should've read Nayu did a few things Felonca called "crazy."  With that note, here's the next section...=========================================The Battle of Xianfun Part 2“Why can’t they make dresses for climbing?” Meiji hissed a few minutes later, as alarm drums rolled from somewhere outside the palace.  As the hengeyokai’s claws gripped into cracks within the tall, smooth inner wall, there was yet another rip, as even more of his haphazard dress tore.  On the ground below lay two enormous leather wineskins, the remains of Meiji’s false bosom.“A question I have asked many times,” Mai Lin replied, before clambering the last few inches towards the top of the wall.  Like the rogue, Felonca was having no problems clambering up the wall... other than being rather eye-catching, the silk outfit was too skimpy to get in the way. For the first time, Felonca was thankful for the clothing, frills or none.“Mai Lin, can you see anything?” Felonca hissed as her head bumped the rogue’s foot.  Her own eyes scanned the courtyard below... the waters in the lake around the were still placid, and there were no soldiers in view.  True, it’d only been around two minutes since they’d snuck out of the harem house, but she knew that at any moment, the alarm was likely going to arise from the Governor’s Apartments.As if on cue, the noise of a scream came from one of the upper-most windows.Ah... that must be where the sauna is, Felonca thought sourly, before calling up to Mai Lin again.  “Hey, we’re on a limited time budget here!  What do you see?”“There’s literally hundreds of soldiers on the western side of this wall,” Mai Lin called back.  “But...”“Well?”“They’re all looking that way!  As if something’s got their attent-“Felonca didn’t need to hear the rest of the call, as a familiar thunderclap rumbled over the palace walls.“Then let’s get over this wall while they’re busy!”“Good gods!”Nayu gave a fierce grin at the awestruck look of the guildmaster of the thieves in Xianfung as the smoke from his latest magical endeavor rose from the midst of the palace plaza.  Around the dark column lay the bodies of tens of red turbaned guards, their spears shattered and broken as the survivors ran back towards the outer walls of the palace itself.  The sorcerer then ducked behind the same barrel where the guildmaster was hiding as the shouts and roars of the City Watch surrounding the palace overwhelmed the evening air.“Can your expert bowmen keep the City Watch covered?”  Nayu asked, as the first barrage of arrows from the palace defends clattered onto the plaza below. Felonca is a very good shot with a bow, I should think these thieves would be decent at least.“Do I look like a soldier?  Did the other thieves look like soldiers!” the guildmaster shot back, dull thwacks of arrows slamming into their shelter.  “We are not heroes with bows!  We sneak about, and your series of booms and crashes at the South Gate ruined any chance of that!”“Fine, whatever.  Can you cover me?” Nayu snapped.  The guildmaster held up his shortbow in frustration.“Does it look like I have a repeating crossbow?”  More arrows clattering onto the plaza.  “No, I don’t!  Besides, just place another one of those... fire thingies you do right on the gatehouse!  That’ll shut them up!”“Right,” Nayu said, before suddenly another figure shoved its way between them, knocking Nayu over.  With one hand Yari Ai helped him back up, while with the other she pulled herself up to peek over the barrel.“How’s the City Watch doing?” Nayu asked, hoping to hear they had secured a breakthrough somewhere else.  When Yari Ai turned and gave a little wince, Nayu groaned.“Those archers on the wall are very very good... just look at my tunic,” she gestured, and Nayu noticed three new holes in her left sleeve.  “The ones in the gatehouse have the Watch pinned down, and more are going up onto the west wall!”“Dammit.”  How the hell are we going to get into the palace and get to Felonca?  More arrows clattered into the plaza, but the noise seemed further away, as if the palace guards had shifted their aim elsewhere, towards more imminent threats than three people hiding behind a barrel.It was a mistake they soon regretted.Felonca looked up towards the wall above, easily spotting the shadows of soldiers running towards the west, the gate, and Felonca’s picked exit from the chaos of the palace.  The shouts and screams after the second great explosion were dying down, as the three dashed along the outside of the inner wall.  In the distance, the sounds of steel clanging was audible.“Is some monster attacking the palace gates?” Mai Lin asked fearfully as she desperately tried to keep up with the two panther hengeyokai, who dashed amongst the lengthening shadows with speed and grace their rogue companion could only dream of matching.“No, that’s my friend Nayu.  He occasionally blows things up,” Felonca called back, laughing, confident they couldn’t be heard over the drums calling the alarm, and the shouts of soldiers and commanders alike.  Good thing he’s there... that’s keeping these people dis...Holy hell?Felonca et al skidded to a halt as they reached the southwest corner of the inner wall, mere feet from the place they planned to cross the moat from.  The small garden islands were still intact, as were the airy bridges connecting them.  What caught Felonca’s attention was what was going on towards the north.Namely the flames gutting the gatehouse.And the hordes of burnt guard’s bodies lying about.“Merciful Heaven!” Mai Lin cried, as Felonca shoved everyone back into the wall as the smoke pall from the ruined gatehouse billowed into the night sky.  “What in the Nine Hells caused...”“Nayu,” Felonca replied, a grin growing on her face.  Nice placement, my friend!  “Those guards will surely be busy trying to hold that gate!”  After a quick glance upward to confirm all eyes were on the massive fire and not the three small forms belond, the now exuberant panther dragged her cousin and companion towards the garden islands, and after a short leap across the moat, towards freedom.True to her expectations, the chaos at the gate drew the attention of the remaining guards away from the southwest corner, and with little fuss, the three clambered up the much shorter outer wall, and onto its parapets.  As they hustled, and hurried to start clambering down the other side, Felonca stopped at what she saw.“What the hell are you doing?!” she snapped, before giving a quick look about.  The guards were still busy attempting to put out the flames, and hold of the City Watch, which had made an impromptu battering ram out of a large wagon filled with bricks.  Quickly, she reached a hand down.“I’ve asked him the same question five times!” Yari Ai shouted from below as Felonca hauled the huffing and puffing Nayu onto the parapet.“Are you nuts!  What are you doing on the battlements!  Why aren’t you behind some cover!  Didn’t you think the guards would shoot you!  What is the matter with...”  The barrage of questions tumbled from Felonca’s mouth for several seconds, as her military training screamed at all the basics of battle he had broken.  Breaking cover during a barrage of arrows, running about with no armor, climbing up a wall alone, with no training, no ladder!?!For his part, the sorcerer caught his breath, and as Felonca’s tirade continued, he rather casually slipped past her, closer to the guards further down the wall.  Once his aim was unobstructed, he let loose a thunderous lightning bolt directly down the length of the wall, decimating the last of the defenders before the City Watch.  He turned back to his friend and smirked.“That’s what I was doing, rescuing you.”  He then looked her up and down, and the smirk became larger.  “Nice dress.”“I was almost out!  We didn’t need rescuing!” Felonca replied in a slight huff, not realizing how humorous she looked when angry and clad in a silk dancer’s outfit.  “You, on the other hand, climbed up a battlement, with no one to protect you...”“I tried to stop him!” Yari Ai called from below.  “He was bull-headed!”“...and you aren’t even good at climbing!  What if you fell?”  You could’ve seriously hurt yourself, Nayu!  Or even been killed!  Climbing up that wall made you a sitting duck!  It’s amazing no one picked you off with a few spare arrows!Nayu shrugged.  “I would’ve gotten up?” The smirk changed to a slight scowl.  “Seriously, I was trying to get the City Watch in here in case you hadn’t gotten to the governor.  Which you apparently did in stunning style, I guess?” Before Felonca could administer another soldierly growl, a loud cheer from the directions of the flames drew everyone’s attention, as the doors to the palace broke under the pressure, and the City Watch streamed inside, their armor glinting in the growing moonlight...“Welcome, Master... or should I now say... Governor Ling.”Nayu smiled and gave a bow to the old man.  While there was genuine greeting in the gesture, the smile also contained relief.  Felonca’s lecture of where spellcasters should be during a field engagement, straight from the lessons she learned from Quan-Shi long ago, was still ringing in his ear.He expected Ling to be pleased at seeing the work they’d done, but when he finished his bow and looked up, he saw the old man was staring into the palace, his eyes wide in shock as a night breeze billowed his cloak behind him.“It’s... its on fire!” he stammered.  “How?”Oh no...  I didn’t even think about the fact Ling’s going to have to live here after we were finished.Dammit... can’t lie.  He can read minds... crap.“Um... oops?” Nayu offered with a shrug, his own robes shining slightly orange in the hue of the fires now raging atop the western gatehouse and the kitchens of the governor’s palace.  I’m not sure what we could’ve done... since the roofs of this palace are wood....For a second he expected the older man to explode into a tirade about the safe use of spells.  Instead, the older man gave a far more damning sigh.  “It will take some time to fix the damage... and I hope that the multitude of documents inside, as well as the treasury, are unharmed...”“Um...” Nayu stammered for a second, before adding, “I’ll start getting a bucket brigade organized...”= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Short update this time.  Felonca’s player repeatedly called Nayu crazy for trying to climb up the wall during the midst of a battle with a paltry Climb Skill of +1.  Of her group, the rogue Mai Lin (6th level rogue) had to smallest Climb skill at +6.  So the cautionary lectures were probably warranted, though Nayu’s lightning blast directly down the line of the wall did have a rather devastating effect on the defenders. <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=":)" />.  And yes, Nayu near the end was very proud of himself. <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=":)" />That’s basically the effective end of the eighth session.  What remains makes more sense when melded with the start of the next session anyway, which should be posted sometime this weekend...  And as a teaser, next section involves the following:- Another part of Felonca's past coming back to haunt her, as well as help her.- Felonca taking the party's life into her hands... quite literally.- Nayu blowing up many many more things (It's become his favorite thing to do, it seems).- Oh... and a full scale (ie. army sized) battle!</blockquote>

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