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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2293691" data-attributes="member: 15043">A little shorter update this time.  And I'll get the photoshops up later today maybe.The Loss of a Friend, Part TwoNayu froze.  His mind screamed at him to move, to do something, but he found himself rooted in place, his friend’s sharp voice coming from in front of him, the stomps of the advancing hulk of steel coming from behind.Felonca’s eyes shone a dull red in the firelight, as her muscled tensed, coiling, preparing to launch her forward.  Just as Nayu closed his eyes, thinking he might see his father far sooner than he hoped, he heard a slight noise, above the din of the fight...“No...” a very weak voice spoke.His eyes flashed open.  Felonca stood only inches from him, her warfans raised.  Her face had changed, however.  Instead of a smirk that spoke of a fury to come, her brow was furrowed, her lips twisted in a grunt of effort.  As he watched confused, her hands that were poised to strike him down instead grasped her head, and her eyes closed with furious effort.  She sank to the ground, her voice hissing.“No...”For a moment, Nayu’s focus remained on his friend, on death nearly averted, before the thundering rumble of the charging behemoth behind him forced him to spin around.  The steel giant now towered over him, seven feet of steel plate, six blades whirling about its form, a massive steel chain whirling about its head.At first, Nayu’s feet pushed him away from the monstrous thing; he was no warrior, and while he could touch and manipulate the planes of magic, he could not wield even a sword for his life.  Yet something was amiss.  Instead of fear, he felt anger.Fury.  Rage, even.Even as his conscious mind screamed he was crazy, his hands flitted down towards his morningstar, his teeth bared in a snarl that would have frightened even Felonca’s uncle.  Part of him screamed that this was sheer idiocy, that there was no way that his thin, comparatively frail frame could stand toe to toe with the beast that towered over him.Yet he still didn’t care.He watched carefully, and just as the beast’s whirling titanic chain was about to strike, the sorcerer ducked with surprising agility, rushing forward in a blur that would have done Felonca proud.  A split second later his morningstar slammed into the steel chest of the creature, and a purple flash lit the entire parapet, and part of the camp.Nayu, ever prepared, had long ago made sure that his morningstar was special; special enough that he could place one of his spells inside its diminutive form.  The magical beast he unleashed into the towering creature before him was none other than a spell he had learned from Yu Enlai, a spell of utter randomness.  At times, it caused fire to leap from its target’s eyes.  At other times, acid ate their lungs.  The purple flash meant it had unleashed Nayu’s favorite effect; insanity.The creature stopped its assault in mid-swing, pausing, looming over the sorcerer.  Nayu’s mind broke free from the insane urge to attack, and he looked up at the creature... aside from a dent in its chest plating, it glared down at him, glowing green eyes blazing from a slit in the plating covering its head.  Then there was a whoosh, a whirl, the flash of three steel blades and the whoom of a massive chain, and Nayu felt pain.Nothing but pain.He felt himself flying backwards, his morningstar tumbling off of the parapet into the camp below.  As he tumbled, his eyes flashed skyward for a moment, long enough to see the massive whirling chain about the beast spin above its head, small red pieces of gore flying from its ends.Dumbfounded, his mind wondered for a moment how badly he was hurt, till he felt the wooden palisade meet his back with a harsh crunch.  Unable to hold it in any longer, he let out a scream, yet his ears only heard a dull groan above the pulsing of his own blood, and the strange sound of Meiji singing.He glanced down, to where his stomach should have been... instead he saw a mass of flayed robes, flesh, and blood.  Dully, his mind told him he should cover the grievous wound with a hand, while his eyes drifted upwards, towards the sight of two of the undead ghouls now fighting each other as Meiji’s voice continued.The beast’s green eyes turned towards the bard, as Nayu’s rolled back.  He could feel his strength waning, part of him wanting to just give up, the pain being far too great.  As his head leaned back, he made out a fuzzy figure rushing towards him, a tinny voice shouting at him.  Something told him to focus his eyes, and he realized who it was just as Yari Ai’s eyes flashed upwards towards the creature.Her bloodcurdling yell seemed very distant to his sinking mind...Felonca blinked.  The din of battle had before seemed distant, far away.  She couldn’t remember what had just happened, only that she’d looked into a pair of shining blue eyes, then...  nothing.  Dumbly, she looked about, before her mind suddenly realized where she was, placing the huge plate armored behemoth that was on the ground before now just feet from her on the parapet.A blur flashed by her sight, a streak of white and orange as Liu dashed by, tossing his now burning robe aside after he leapt through the burning wall.  A split second later, he was airborne, delivering a powerful kick to the enormous iron titan.“What the...” she started to speak, before her ears were assaulted with a frightening, blood-chilling scream.  She spun to see Yari Ai, her face twisted in a terrible visage, her hair seeming to float in a frightening wind, her eyes blazing white and staring directly towards the iron titan looming over Nayu’s broken form.  Immediately, Felonca tumbled backwards, as the ground itself seemed to shake and shudder.  Below in the camp she could hear the shrieks and screams of men as the ground ripped open, swallowing them whole.The walls, parapet, and Felonca all shook violently for several moments, before the rogue was able to scramble to her feet.  Her eyes caught sight of Liu, still swinging and kicking at the steel monster, Meiji, still singing, and Yari Ai, whose eyes still blazed with divine power.  Yet she saw no Nayu.“Nayu?”  She cast her eyes over the parapet, towards the inside of the camp.  Fifteen feet below, the sorcerer lay, groaning, pulling himself away with a hand.  She thought about leaping down to defend him, before another scream, this one full of terror and pain, caused her to snap back about.  She saw Meiji caught in mid spin, his body twisting in the air just before landing on the wooden parapet with a dull thud, his blood still fresh on the whirling spikes of the great iron beast.  He didn’t move, yet she could see his flayed chest rising and falling ever so slowly...“MEIJI!” she screamed, her warfans out an instant later.  Her muscles coiled and released in an instant, her form flying through the air with a desperate speed born of fear.  The beast’s great chain was still in mid-swing, its arc coming down, straight towards Meiji’s prone form.  She leapt out, her form stretched as far as it could, her warfans extended, desperately hoping to block the doom she saw for her kin.  She ignored Liu’s shout of pain as the whirling chain struck him, stretching out, stretching out...She felt a rush of air flash by her arm, and had only a moment to realize her failure.The squelch of Meiji being torn to shreds confirmed it.She unconsciously tumbled out of her leap, emerging upright, fans at the ready.  Eyes wide, she didn’t need to look behind her as her heart dropped.  She knew.  She knew.  In that instant, memories flashed before her.  Meiji and her when they were younger.  The pranks he loved to pull on anyone, even his father.  The pain and anger of the day he stormed off, and his father disowned him.  Her eyes started to well for a moment... and then she felt it.Heat burning through her chest, down into her heart, into her soul.  Grief was overwhelmed by anger, shock overcome by rage.  The reddish tint of the flames grew deeper, as she felt her muscles twitch, instinctively readying themselves.  She started towards the creature, her warfans out, ready to flash forth, spreading her own version of death...“YOU BASTARD!” she snarled, her form flashing through the air again, not towards her friends but towards a single beast she wanted to kill, gut, and flay.  She didn’t care that he towered two feet over her, or that six blades whirled and danced around him.  She didn’t care that his spiked chain was still singing through the air.  Her fans aimed at one target... the thin gap in plate where his two green eyes showed brilliantly.With surprising speed, the creature ducked his head aside, and Felonca felt her warfans slam into plate mail.  She felt sharp blades slash her arm and shoulder, as the whirling, floating blades around his form focused on her.  Her own focus was complete, however, and she merely flipped over the creature’s shoulder, landing behind it, eyes still aflame with vengeance.In front of the beast, Yari Ai let loose another scream of pain and anger, her hands stretching towards the sky, reaching towards Shenyang, calling, crying for vengeance.  Momentarily, the sky answered, as the deep, heavy rumble of thunder crackled across the heavens, before a massive pillar of flame, ten feet across, crashed onto the plated beast, engulfing him in flames.  For several seconds the flames raged, licking, burning along the parapet, setting the wood itself aflame.  Yet from the column of fire and smoke, the beast emerged, its plate glowing red with heat, the smell of burnt flesh coming from within its armor.“DIE!” Felonca screamed, leaping towards the creature’s back, not caring as one of the floating blades bit her again...“Ow,” Nayu moaned into the blackness.  He heard shouting, much closer, much louder than before, as the rhythmic thumping of his own heart seemed to subside.  With a little effort, he managed to open his eyes, and then he tried to gasp.He was looking up at the parapets, from the inside of the camp.  Above him, he watched Felonca leap into the air, her fans slashing at the gaps in the beasts armor.  To his surprise, he saw blood flash from the gaps, even as the whirling blades slashed at her, leaving her own form bloody as she landed.He blinked, his mind processing.  It was obvious the beast was off-balance by her flurry of assaults... and it was equally obvious, even to his broken form, that she wouldn’t survive long if the creature focused its attacks.  He closed his eyes, desperately hoping, feeling for the arcane power that lay within his soul...And he gave a blood-filled smile when he felt the power, resting, nestled within the recesses of his soul.  Slowly, carefully, he tried to coax it forth, as the noises of the fight above echoed in his ears.  At first, when he reached with his mind, the pain proved too distracted.  But as his mind clawed and stretched again and again, he drew closer and closer, until finally he felt the magic starting to surge in his body.“Felonca... I won’t let you die...” he mumbled to no one in particular, letting his inhibitions go, letting his emotions carry him and his magic farther than ever before.    He felt his breath grow rapid and shallow as the arcane storm built within his body, and slowly, painfully, he raised a hand, stretching out towards the great steel colossus as it finally started to raise its spiked chain yet again...Even on the other side of the camp, nearly a half mile away, the double CRACCKKOOOM was thunderous, deafening.  To Nayu, the massive pair of lightning bolts that lanced from his hand, less than a second apart, were not heard... rather felt... as if instantly all the magic in his body had lashed out, raced from his fingertips.  The sudden, powerful discharge made him gasp, a move that made pain tear anew through his stomach.  He closed his eyes and groaned again.He didn’t see the creature lurch in mid swing as the two bolts of lightning arced through its form.  He didn’t see it stumble, dropping the massive spiked chain.  He finally didn’t see Felonca’s death charge, her warfans lashing out, finding the gap in the armor from whence its eyes peered.He did heard the thunderous crash as several hundred pounds of steel-encased creature tumbled off of the parapet, crumpling to the ground below...===========================================================The creature the party just killed was a ‘ragewalker,’ (MM3) an angry fey spirit left behind from an immense battlefield.  The creature is absolutely vicious.  Firstly, it has six blades that constantly whirl about its body, slashing apart anyone that comes too close to it.  Secondly, it is armed with a massive, magical spiked chain... good for decimating anyone within 15 feet of it.   Its clad head to toe in steel plating, making it dangerously hard to harm.  And finally, it has the ability to induce a blood frenzy on those within 30 feet, causing them to charge into melee with abandon (This is why Nayu conducted his suicide charge).Felonca was under the effect of a domination spell put on her by the camp commandant, a special rakshasa (full details to be revealed later <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).  He left her with the simple instructions to kill her friends... for the most part, she resisted, except for one round where she lashed out at Zhen Ren.  It wasn’t until just before Meiji was hit that she broke free of the spell... just in time to see her cousin get slashed to death. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />  Of course she went over the edge at that point, and charged this thing that on most days would’ve killed her easy.Yari Ai... seeing Nayu go down, the Meiji, both to this one creature, went a little nuts.  The first major spell she performed was an earthquake, while the second was, of course, flamestrike.  She stopped being a nice little cleric at that point, and started going out for blood.Nayu, due to his little pinch of insanity, found himself knocked from full strength to 4 hp in one round.  He was lucky he ended up off of the parapet... otherwise he could’ve suffered Meiji’s fate (the ragewalker was taking no prisoners).  He basically laid there on the ground (Yari Ai’s earthquake had taken care of anyone that had been on the ground nearby) for a round, and then launched into action with his newest feat... quicken spell.  A quickened and regular lightning bolt later, and the ragewalker was tottering, allowing Felonca to do her coup de grace...I call things as they are, true... in previous sessions, things went the player's way.  In this session, that started working against the PCs a bit... <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />I've also been trying to write things differently, as an experiment to see if its better for me to write including the player thoughts, or write without.  Let me know what you think.</blockquote>

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