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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2631851" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>The Military Governor</strong></p><p></p><p>“NAYU!”</p><p></p><p>Nayu winced slightly, as Felonca surrounded him and squeezed the air out of his lungs. Above them, the banners of the Jade City flapped in the night wind, while below them, the Yaru River rushed by underneath the bridge. The fire from the sky had ceased... a sign Nayu took to mean that Hu’s armies were forging their way close, and that the prince did not want to injure his own soldiers.</p><p></p><p> <em>She’s so happy to see me...</em> he thought, his mind turning slightly morose, instead of joyful. In the long walk back from the gate, he’d had a long time to think, to ponder, and he’d finally realized why she’d been looking at him funny for so long, why she sometimes looked embarassed around him.</p><p></p><p><em>She was about to say, ‘I love you,’ an hour ago,</em> he realized, covering his concerns by hugging her in return as best he could. He winced again when she pulled back, her face filled with concern.</p><p></p><p>“You didn’t get him, did you?” she said quietly. “You’re worried about something.”</p><p></p><p>“No... I brought the entire gate crashing down on him,” Nayu replied, resisting the urge to sigh. <em>I’m just trying to figure out how to tell you something you decidedly don’t want to hear...</em> “There’s no way he could survive that... and if he did...” Nayu paused. “Well, I don’t think he’ll be bothering us the rest of tonight.”</p><p></p><p>“Either way,” she said, a smile coming back to her lips for a moment, before they turned stormy and she folded her arms, “That was really reckless of you back there!” </p><p></p><p><em>Here we go...</em></p><p></p><p>“...you shouldn’t have risked yourself like that! It was sheer suicide! I...” </p><p></p><p><em>She’s ranting because she loves me,</em> Nayu thought, an idea that made him only more bitter. <em>I need to find a way to tell her... a way that won’t hurt her...</em> He momentarily closed his eyes. <em>Your bold enough to try to stop an army, blessed with all the glib in the world, but when you discover your best friend’s feelings for you, you’re a tongue-tied coward?</em> He mentally kicked himself.</p><p></p><p>“...seriously, the ancestors must hover over you constantly! First climbing the wall of the Governor’s Palace in Xianfung, then running out to meet an army at Ii-suken by yourself, and now this? Please... I know you’re brave, but...”</p><p></p><p><em>She probably has all sorts of ideas pent-up, built up about you,</em> the sorcerer realized gloomily. <em>She’s been with you all these months... </em> Part of him desperately searched, looking her up and down, wanting to be wrong about how he felt. <em>I love her as a sister, as a friend, as a comrade... </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>...but not as a lover.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>That will break her heart...</em></p><p></p><p>“Nayu...” she was looking directly into his eyes, “I... I mean the Empire... I don’t know how it will stand the storm it is in without you.” She suddenly looked down, her dark face turning even darker. </p><p></p><p>He kicked himself again.</p><p></p><p><em>How do you tell someone that? Someone that you do love... just not in the same way they... bah!</em> He sheepishly looked down as well, looking at the water as it rushed by under the torchlight of this long, deadly night. <em>I need to tell her, before its too late...</em></p><p></p><p>“Nayu, please...” he felt her hand on his shoulder, and he fought two opposite urges... one that would shake it off, the other that would take hers into his own. </p><p></p><p>“Don’t risk yourself like that again...” she whispered, and he felt her head resting on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, his mind confused, worried for a moment about something far smaller than a battle, but just as significant. </p><p></p><p>He thought he heard something else, just under her breath, that made him feel miniscule, terrible.</p><p></p><p>“I love you.”</p><p></p><p><em>Nayu... dammit! Tell her!</em> For several moments, he let silence hang in the air, before finally he spoke.</p><p></p><p>“Well,” he said, shifting his shoulder to make her move, “the Military Governor has been killed off, but Hu will still be pressing onwards, and we need to prepare for his arrival. How have the scholars come on getting the tomes and the Emperor out of the city?”</p><p></p><p><em>Nayu, you coward!</em> he yelled at himself. <em>You can’t talk to her! Gah!</em></p><p></p><p>“I... I got the Emperor out of the palace,” Felonca cleared her throat, and Nayu felt guilty when he saw her desperately trying to hide the tears that had been in her eyes moments before. “Won Wei safely teleported him to Xianfung. The scholars say they’ve moved the most important tomes out of the Jade City, and they are burning the rest. We can leave when we’re ready.”</p><p></p><p><em>Not yet. There’s one more person we need to kill,</em> he thought, desperately trying to distract his mind from other thoughts that were far more depressing...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>“Are you sure this is wise?” Felonca questioned. Her military mind recognized that their objectives had been met... it was safe to retreat from the city now, and in the face of the overwhelming odds, even if the Military Governor was dead, retreat was by fare the wisest option...</p><p></p><p>“Yes,” Nayu said firmly, walking along the battlements, his eyes burning with an imperial gaze as he looked across the approach to the Jade City wall. Those eyes turned back to her, and for a moment, she saw something almost sad in their gaze. It vanished as suddenly as it came.</p><p></p><p><em>What was that?</em> She pushed the thought aside as he continued to speak.</p><p></p><p>“They’re going to have to mass there, in that plaza,” he pointed across the Yaru, towards the closest point in the Inner City. An immense flat plaza of brick and marble lay there, flanked by tall buildings on its three sides. The river and the ornate bridge across it formed the fourth. “The bridge is a bottleneck. When they come in, and they will, we’ll give them one last pounding when their stranded in the plaza. Hopefully Hu will be there... or we can lure him out.”</p><p></p><p>Felonca nodded at the plan, then looked out across the Inner City, smoldering flames drawing closer and closer. Above the buildings, she could see low humps moving... the great bebiliths she had seen earlier. Hu’s army had found a way around Nayu’s temporary obstruction... but not in time.</p><p></p><p>For a moment, an almost awkward silence hung in the air between them, before the sorcerer suddenly turned, and began to give orders.</p><p></p><p>As he barked his orders to the scholars along the city wall, she watched, partly enthralled, party worried. <em>He risked himself so easily today... I can’t bear thinking of life without him.</em> She closed her eyes, and kicked herself mentally. <em>He’ll never pick someone like you,</em> a dark, doubting part of her mind laughed, <em>You aren’t royalty! He has an Empire to tend to... not a love-lost hengeyokai...</em></p><p></p><p>Another, more jealous part of her grew riled at the idea. <em>No... its not that way!</em> She closed her eyes. <em>This is a debate for some other time! Focus, Felonca!</em> She drew her bow and re-strung it, trying to keep her mind off of the thoughts roiling through her soul.</p><p></p><p><em>What if he doesn’t love you in return?</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Felonca! Shutup! Focus!</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>He does love me in return!</em></p><p></p><p>“Dammit,” she growled to herself, as the string slipped from her grip and stung her hand. <em>Felonca... calm... focus....</em> Patiently, she tried again, immersing herself in the menial task, calming her mind.</p><p></p><p>Minutes passed by, as she absorbed herself in her work, clearing her mind, until finally the shouts of her father and uncle along the wall drew her attention. She looked up, just as the huge, spindly form of the first bebilith reached the plaza. Behind the immense demon, came the imposing metal form of a ragewalker, and further behind, all sorts of demons and other creatures, their blades sharp, glinting in the flames.</p><p></p><p>“Wait for it...” Nayu called out.</p><p></p><p>Felonca tensed, watching the bebilith and ragewalker charge towards the bridge.</p><p></p><p>“Wait for it...” </p><p></p><p>The plaza across the river seemed to rippling with the thousands of soldiers and demons swarming forward, the huge space filling up as more and more creatures rushed into the bridge below. Felonca adjusted her aim... as the doors under her feet shuddered from the force of the bebilith smashing into them, she took careful aim for a hole in its armor, just in front of its abdomen...</p><p></p><p>“Now!” Nayu finally yelled. For a moment, Felonca resisted the urge to look up, but her curiosity got the best of her. She watched, awe-struck, as a sea of tiny stars, hundreds of tiny white beads of arcane power, flashed from the scholars along the Jade City walls onto the plaza below.</p><p></p><p>For a moment, all Felonca could see was white, and she involuntarily closed her eyes. After blinking a few moments, she was able to see again... the immense plaza, as well as the thousands of creatures that had been inside of it, was now covered with an immense smoke pall, glowing orange from massive fires now burning within its murk. The triumphant roars of soldiers and demons was now replaced with the mewling cries of the wounded.</p><p></p><p>“Good gods,” Felonca breathed in softly as the macabre scene unfolded. <em>They’ve been wiped out...</em> she thought, as the smoke lazily began to clear, revealing scorched chunks of meat scattered across the plaza, the rest of the demonic army cowering further back, refusing to advance.</p><p></p><p>The rumbling shake of the gate below brought her back to her target, as the burned bebilith rushed forward again on its spindly legs. <em>Evidently bebiliths aren’t smart enough to know when to flee...</em> </p><p></p><p>“Meiji!” she pointed, drawing her bow back and shooting. With a zip, her arrow cut through the air, then the thin armor in the bebilith’s weak point, slashing through its wounded flesh and clattering off of the street below. The beast pitched back and squealed its anger... allowing Meiji to shoot his arrow into one of its immense eyes. The creature scurried back, in agony and pain, one of its legs pawing furiously at its mauled eye, so much so that it tumbled off the bridge, and into the swirling waters below, to the cheers of the remaining defenders gathered along the wall.</p><p></p><p>The ragewalker still stood as well, though it was easy to see that somewhere in its metallic depths, its eyes were looking about in fright, now that its larger demonic comrade was furiously splashing and drowning in the river. His head spun to face the party along the wall, then all the other defenders, and as if he could sense all eyes were upon him, the metallic beast began to back away from the wall... then to run.</p><p></p><p>“Ah ah ah...” Nayu said aloud, and Felonca watched him almost laugh as he raised a hand and pointed towards the fleeing creature. For a split second, fur seemed to cover the sorcerer’s hand, before suddenly flying towards the fleeing ragewalker. The patch of fur landed on the creatures back, and even as it tried to run onward, the patch grew and grew, covering the beasts back, then its legs... and as Felonca watched, the ragewalker tumbled forward, before shrieking as the fur overtook the last of its metallic armor.</p><p></p><p>“Cute,” she pronounced a few seconds later, as the new sloth slowly ambled into the burnt plaza, fleeing at a pace that could only be described as ‘pain-staking.’ She then looked out towards the gathered hordes beyond the plaza, holding back... she could sense the fear in them.</p><p></p><p><em>Now is where they need a leader...</em> she thought, <em>Someone to inspire them to enter that plaza again and try to take this gate, no matter the cost... and with the Military Governor dead... Hu will have to come play himself.</em> She notched another arrow, the tenseness slowly returning. <em>He could teleport in... he could surprise us with...</em></p><p></p><p>Her thoughts stopped. </p><p></p><p>“No...” Nayu whispered, as down below, a frighteningly familiar figure shambled into view. Felonca’s jaw dropped as well.</p><p></p><p><em>No one should’ve survived what Nayu said he went through! How...</em> she shuddered, before raising her bow and launching an arrow that slammed into the shoulder of the bone-armored Military Governor.</p><p></p><p>“How did he survive?” Nayu asked, still in shock, as the tall, haggard figure continued to shamble forward, limping, dragging his left leg behind him. As more arrows clattered around him, the ghostly form stopped in the midst of the plaza... </p><p></p><p>“What’s he doing?” Felonca yelled as the apparition below moved his hands back and forth slowly, as if in a daze. She tensed, her bow shaking slightly in her hands. At any moment, she expected some awe-inspiring terror to leap from his hands, and land in their midst...</p><p></p><p>Nayu squinted for a second, then looked at her with confusion.</p><p></p><p>“He’s putting magical armor on himself?” the sorcerer said slowly, before looking back at the Governor. “But... why?” the sorcerer raised his hands in question, magic rippling through his fingertips, “He can’t stop me with that spell...”</p><p></p><p><em>So he’s being foolish then...</em> Felonca’s shaking stopped, and she steadied her aim. As Nayu continued to blunder onward in his bewilderment,s he finally growled.</p><p></p><p>“Less talking! More shooting!” She let loose, and her arrow slammed directly into the man’s chest. Only seconds later, arrows from Meiji and her father hit him in the head, and the Military Governor swayed forwards in his death throes.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>“That... took care of him... I think.” Nayu narrowed his eyes as the corpse swayed back and forth before starting to tumble forward. <em>It shouldn’t have been that easy. He would’ve healed himself before coming here after the beating I gave him. Unless he was a complete idiot...</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Well... we should prepare to leave then...</em> </p><p></p><p>As the Governor’s dead body hit the ground, its head seemed to break into a thousand pieces, as if tiny snow white bits were scattering across the plaza...</p><p></p><p><em>Brains aren’t that color...</em> Nayu started to worry. <em>And heads don’t break apart like that... that looks like snow almost. Why would his head look like...</em></p><p></p><p>“Dammit! Simulacrum!” Nayu shouted in warning, a split second before a bright flash right next to him on the wall blinded everyone momentarily. For a moment, Nayu’s hurting eyes made out the outline of a gangly, almost emaciated man, one bony arm clutching a black, vicious looking blade, the other arm of bone stretched to the sky...</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, it felt as if every fiber in Nayu’s body began to scream. He felt parts of him stretch, shift, and pull in ways that went beyond pain, beyond agony, to unbridled, raw pain, a pain so intense that he couldn’t even scream. His body arched back, his arms spread-eagle as his muscles spasmed, contracted, and whipped themselves into loops. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse... it did.</p><p></p><p>It started when he felt something seemingly crawling along the inside of his eyeball. The crawling feeling spread, to the insides of his ears, his mouth, then under his skin all over, until it seemed that his skin was writhing, as if powerful snakes were somehow bound inside of him, thrashing their way out. As the pain reached an unthinkable crescendo, he could hear the Military Governor’s voice repeating a deadly quiet chant as his heart pounded harder and harder.</p><p></p><p>Seconds later, the skin on his arm erupted, long, reddish tentacles of blood vessels lashing out, stretching, making his soul scream as they latched onto the stone walls. His other arm erupted, then his back, his chest, his legs, even his face, all exploded into lashing tentacles, holding his now naked muscles in place within a deadly web of veins.</p><p></p><p>Somewhere, above the searing pain, he heard a voice... </p><p></p><p>“Did you think you could kill me with a mere gate?” the voice rasped and grated. “Or that I would merely walk out into the open, ready to accept your arrows killing me?” Now there was laughter, hollow, rasping, the noise of a willowy shell of a man enjoying the terror he’d just inflicted. He also heard other screams... the deep throat roars of two hengeyokai above all others. Amidst the pain, he managed to find a tiny thought of worry. <em>Felonca... please... not you too...</em></p><p></p><p>“You pitiful fools,” the wispy voice muttered again, “you think you can stand against us!” A hoarse chuckle. “You have failed against me and my pets... how could you think you could stand against Hu himself?” Nayu’s pain increased even higher, as the veins twisted tighter, stretching him further and further. “Its a pity... you won’t get to see the tarrasque destroy Xianfung, and all you’ve built there...”</p><p></p><p>Nayu caught the word, but amidst the mind-numbing pain, he couldn’t think about it, as his bloody webbing stretched tighter and tighter. </p><p></p><p>Finally, somewhere inside of that pain, Nayu heard a shriek. It was high pitched, almost the gurgling scream that comes from those who are about to enter the grave. Immediately, the tightening of the veins ceased, and instead relaxed. The sorcerer managed to force his eyes open, just enough to see the tall, haggard form of the Military Governor stumble backwards, an arrow impaled into his shoulder.</p><p></p><p>“Now!” he heard Felonca’s voice yell, and he felt something brush through the webbing, making him scream once more in pain. Something touched his back, and for a moment, the world blacked out, whispers and moans surrounding his mind in darkness. </p><p></p><p>Finally, he snapped his eyes open, the pain still intense, but nowhere near as searing as before. His ears picked up the Military Governor grunting, and the sound of an arrow breaking. He opened his eyes, only to see the dead gray eyes of the Military Governor staring at him, the taller man drawing his midnight black longsword and advancing even as the broken stub of an arrow poked out from his shoulder.</p><p></p><p><em>Kill him... or be killed,</em> realized. His entire body ached, but he vaguely felt himself again... enough that his pent-up anger and rage at this man began boiling to the surface. He closed his eyes and focused, using all the effort in his battered body to raise his hands, rage rushing through his veins as his magical powers rose to frightening new heights. He wanted to not just kill the man, but to inflict an unholy horror, to wrench the man’s soul from his body, suspend him in agony.</p><p></p><p><em>You’ll never hurt anyone again! Not like you hurt my parents! </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>My village! </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>My friends!</em> </p><p></p><p>Nayu’s hands began to glow, blue and violent streaks racing down his fingers as the power shuddered through his system. The power arcing in his grasp was far beyond his own making... he could feel seemingly tens, hundreds, even thousands of others, touching, adding their own strength to his own... the dead of Red Lotus, of Mafeng, and a hundred other towns joining him from the beyond.</p><p></p><p>“Never...” the sorcerer hissed, his hands trembling and shaking from the power crackling in their midst, “again!” Nayu’s hands suddenly blackened, darkness crossing into his magic like a black tidal wave. With a shout of a thousand dead souls, dark jets of power lashed from the sorcerer’s black hands, wrapping around the Governor’s throat, dark filaments wrapping around his body, and his eyes.</p><p></p><p>The thin, reedy laugh suddenly changed to an unholy scream, as the black filaments lashed into the Governor. His tall, thin form shook and writhed back and forth, as the screaming arcane power enveloped and engulfed him. His hands reached upwards, clawing at his face as his eyes swelled, the blackness surrounding and consuming his flesh, rising higher and higher until finally only the Governor’s face remained, upturned towards the roiling clouds above, agony on his lips. As the darkness finally enveloped him, his eyes vanished, leaving stark black sockets... vacant windows into a dying soul.</p><p></p><p>The whirling black cloud continued for only a moment longer, before seeming to spin apart, tiny tendrils vanishing into the night. From their suspended place, his bony armor, sword, and belongings clattered to the ground, thin tendrils of smoke rising from the remains.</p><p></p><p>From across the burning cityscape a great cry arose... as if one man was screaming at a sudden influx of pain. Nayu shuddered, recognizing the bone-chilling yell of the Prince of Hu in all his arcane fury. The pregnant orange skies above seemed to lower, and just before Hu’s fiery rain could begin anew, there was a flash as Nayu, the party, and all the surviving scholars teleported away...</p><p></p><p>======================================================</p><p></p><p></p><p>The Military Governor was Wizard10/PaleMaster10/Fighter1, though when he attacked the party, he was partially injured from Nayu's action before. He used a simalcrum to distract them, before teleporting in to surprise them.</p><p></p><p>The spell he used on the party was called <em>Avascular Mass</em> (from the Book of Vile Darkness). Just as described, it rips the victims blood vessels from their body, and suspends them in the webbing... quite gruesome. Felonxi and Dian were also caught in the bloody mess, while Yari Ai, Meiji and Felonca had to merely find gaps in the gap to act. Felonca shot the Governor, while Yari Ai cast <em>Heal</em> on Nayu. Once he was healed, Nayu launched a powerful <em>disintegration</em> spell on the Governor... and he failed his save. Ouch... 2d6 per level (I think somewhere above 30d6). No more Military Governor...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 2631851, member: 15043"] [b]The Military Governor[/b] “NAYU!” Nayu winced slightly, as Felonca surrounded him and squeezed the air out of his lungs. Above them, the banners of the Jade City flapped in the night wind, while below them, the Yaru River rushed by underneath the bridge. The fire from the sky had ceased... a sign Nayu took to mean that Hu’s armies were forging their way close, and that the prince did not want to injure his own soldiers. [i]She’s so happy to see me...[/i] he thought, his mind turning slightly morose, instead of joyful. In the long walk back from the gate, he’d had a long time to think, to ponder, and he’d finally realized why she’d been looking at him funny for so long, why she sometimes looked embarassed around him. [i]She was about to say, ‘I love you,’ an hour ago,[/i] he realized, covering his concerns by hugging her in return as best he could. He winced again when she pulled back, her face filled with concern. “You didn’t get him, did you?” she said quietly. “You’re worried about something.” “No... I brought the entire gate crashing down on him,” Nayu replied, resisting the urge to sigh. [i]I’m just trying to figure out how to tell you something you decidedly don’t want to hear...[/i] “There’s no way he could survive that... and if he did...” Nayu paused. “Well, I don’t think he’ll be bothering us the rest of tonight.” “Either way,” she said, a smile coming back to her lips for a moment, before they turned stormy and she folded her arms, “That was really reckless of you back there!” [i]Here we go...[/i] “...you shouldn’t have risked yourself like that! It was sheer suicide! I...” [i]She’s ranting because she loves me,[/i] Nayu thought, an idea that made him only more bitter. [i]I need to find a way to tell her... a way that won’t hurt her...[/i] He momentarily closed his eyes. [i]Your bold enough to try to stop an army, blessed with all the glib in the world, but when you discover your best friend’s feelings for you, you’re a tongue-tied coward?[/i] He mentally kicked himself. “...seriously, the ancestors must hover over you constantly! First climbing the wall of the Governor’s Palace in Xianfung, then running out to meet an army at Ii-suken by yourself, and now this? Please... I know you’re brave, but...” [i]She probably has all sorts of ideas pent-up, built up about you,[/i] the sorcerer realized gloomily. [i]She’s been with you all these months... [/i] Part of him desperately searched, looking her up and down, wanting to be wrong about how he felt. [i]I love her as a sister, as a friend, as a comrade... ...but not as a lover. That will break her heart...[/i] “Nayu...” she was looking directly into his eyes, “I... I mean the Empire... I don’t know how it will stand the storm it is in without you.” She suddenly looked down, her dark face turning even darker. He kicked himself again. [i]How do you tell someone that? Someone that you do love... just not in the same way they... bah![/i] He sheepishly looked down as well, looking at the water as it rushed by under the torchlight of this long, deadly night. [i]I need to tell her, before its too late...[/i] “Nayu, please...” he felt her hand on his shoulder, and he fought two opposite urges... one that would shake it off, the other that would take hers into his own. “Don’t risk yourself like that again...” she whispered, and he felt her head resting on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, his mind confused, worried for a moment about something far smaller than a battle, but just as significant. He thought he heard something else, just under her breath, that made him feel miniscule, terrible. “I love you.” [i]Nayu... dammit! Tell her![/i] For several moments, he let silence hang in the air, before finally he spoke. “Well,” he said, shifting his shoulder to make her move, “the Military Governor has been killed off, but Hu will still be pressing onwards, and we need to prepare for his arrival. How have the scholars come on getting the tomes and the Emperor out of the city?” [i]Nayu, you coward![/i] he yelled at himself. [i]You can’t talk to her! Gah![/i] “I... I got the Emperor out of the palace,” Felonca cleared her throat, and Nayu felt guilty when he saw her desperately trying to hide the tears that had been in her eyes moments before. “Won Wei safely teleported him to Xianfung. The scholars say they’ve moved the most important tomes out of the Jade City, and they are burning the rest. We can leave when we’re ready.” [i]Not yet. There’s one more person we need to kill,[/i] he thought, desperately trying to distract his mind from other thoughts that were far more depressing... “Are you sure this is wise?” Felonca questioned. Her military mind recognized that their objectives had been met... it was safe to retreat from the city now, and in the face of the overwhelming odds, even if the Military Governor was dead, retreat was by fare the wisest option... “Yes,” Nayu said firmly, walking along the battlements, his eyes burning with an imperial gaze as he looked across the approach to the Jade City wall. Those eyes turned back to her, and for a moment, she saw something almost sad in their gaze. It vanished as suddenly as it came. [i]What was that?[/i] She pushed the thought aside as he continued to speak. “They’re going to have to mass there, in that plaza,” he pointed across the Yaru, towards the closest point in the Inner City. An immense flat plaza of brick and marble lay there, flanked by tall buildings on its three sides. The river and the ornate bridge across it formed the fourth. “The bridge is a bottleneck. When they come in, and they will, we’ll give them one last pounding when their stranded in the plaza. Hopefully Hu will be there... or we can lure him out.” Felonca nodded at the plan, then looked out across the Inner City, smoldering flames drawing closer and closer. Above the buildings, she could see low humps moving... the great bebiliths she had seen earlier. Hu’s army had found a way around Nayu’s temporary obstruction... but not in time. For a moment, an almost awkward silence hung in the air between them, before the sorcerer suddenly turned, and began to give orders. As he barked his orders to the scholars along the city wall, she watched, partly enthralled, party worried. [i]He risked himself so easily today... I can’t bear thinking of life without him.[/i] She closed her eyes, and kicked herself mentally. [i]He’ll never pick someone like you,[/i] a dark, doubting part of her mind laughed, [i]You aren’t royalty! He has an Empire to tend to... not a love-lost hengeyokai...[/i] Another, more jealous part of her grew riled at the idea. [i]No... its not that way![/i] She closed her eyes. [i]This is a debate for some other time! Focus, Felonca![/i] She drew her bow and re-strung it, trying to keep her mind off of the thoughts roiling through her soul. [i]What if he doesn’t love you in return? Felonca! Shutup! Focus! He does love me in return![/i] “Dammit,” she growled to herself, as the string slipped from her grip and stung her hand. [i]Felonca... calm... focus....[/i] Patiently, she tried again, immersing herself in the menial task, calming her mind. Minutes passed by, as she absorbed herself in her work, clearing her mind, until finally the shouts of her father and uncle along the wall drew her attention. She looked up, just as the huge, spindly form of the first bebilith reached the plaza. Behind the immense demon, came the imposing metal form of a ragewalker, and further behind, all sorts of demons and other creatures, their blades sharp, glinting in the flames. “Wait for it...” Nayu called out. Felonca tensed, watching the bebilith and ragewalker charge towards the bridge. “Wait for it...” The plaza across the river seemed to rippling with the thousands of soldiers and demons swarming forward, the huge space filling up as more and more creatures rushed into the bridge below. Felonca adjusted her aim... as the doors under her feet shuddered from the force of the bebilith smashing into them, she took careful aim for a hole in its armor, just in front of its abdomen... “Now!” Nayu finally yelled. For a moment, Felonca resisted the urge to look up, but her curiosity got the best of her. She watched, awe-struck, as a sea of tiny stars, hundreds of tiny white beads of arcane power, flashed from the scholars along the Jade City walls onto the plaza below. For a moment, all Felonca could see was white, and she involuntarily closed her eyes. After blinking a few moments, she was able to see again... the immense plaza, as well as the thousands of creatures that had been inside of it, was now covered with an immense smoke pall, glowing orange from massive fires now burning within its murk. The triumphant roars of soldiers and demons was now replaced with the mewling cries of the wounded. “Good gods,” Felonca breathed in softly as the macabre scene unfolded. [i]They’ve been wiped out...[/i] she thought, as the smoke lazily began to clear, revealing scorched chunks of meat scattered across the plaza, the rest of the demonic army cowering further back, refusing to advance. The rumbling shake of the gate below brought her back to her target, as the burned bebilith rushed forward again on its spindly legs. [i]Evidently bebiliths aren’t smart enough to know when to flee...[/i] “Meiji!” she pointed, drawing her bow back and shooting. With a zip, her arrow cut through the air, then the thin armor in the bebilith’s weak point, slashing through its wounded flesh and clattering off of the street below. The beast pitched back and squealed its anger... allowing Meiji to shoot his arrow into one of its immense eyes. The creature scurried back, in agony and pain, one of its legs pawing furiously at its mauled eye, so much so that it tumbled off the bridge, and into the swirling waters below, to the cheers of the remaining defenders gathered along the wall. The ragewalker still stood as well, though it was easy to see that somewhere in its metallic depths, its eyes were looking about in fright, now that its larger demonic comrade was furiously splashing and drowning in the river. His head spun to face the party along the wall, then all the other defenders, and as if he could sense all eyes were upon him, the metallic beast began to back away from the wall... then to run. “Ah ah ah...” Nayu said aloud, and Felonca watched him almost laugh as he raised a hand and pointed towards the fleeing creature. For a split second, fur seemed to cover the sorcerer’s hand, before suddenly flying towards the fleeing ragewalker. The patch of fur landed on the creatures back, and even as it tried to run onward, the patch grew and grew, covering the beasts back, then its legs... and as Felonca watched, the ragewalker tumbled forward, before shrieking as the fur overtook the last of its metallic armor. “Cute,” she pronounced a few seconds later, as the new sloth slowly ambled into the burnt plaza, fleeing at a pace that could only be described as ‘pain-staking.’ She then looked out towards the gathered hordes beyond the plaza, holding back... she could sense the fear in them. [i]Now is where they need a leader...[/i] she thought, [i]Someone to inspire them to enter that plaza again and try to take this gate, no matter the cost... and with the Military Governor dead... Hu will have to come play himself.[/i] She notched another arrow, the tenseness slowly returning. [i]He could teleport in... he could surprise us with...[/i] Her thoughts stopped. “No...” Nayu whispered, as down below, a frighteningly familiar figure shambled into view. Felonca’s jaw dropped as well. [i]No one should’ve survived what Nayu said he went through! How...[/i] she shuddered, before raising her bow and launching an arrow that slammed into the shoulder of the bone-armored Military Governor. “How did he survive?” Nayu asked, still in shock, as the tall, haggard figure continued to shamble forward, limping, dragging his left leg behind him. As more arrows clattered around him, the ghostly form stopped in the midst of the plaza... “What’s he doing?” Felonca yelled as the apparition below moved his hands back and forth slowly, as if in a daze. She tensed, her bow shaking slightly in her hands. At any moment, she expected some awe-inspiring terror to leap from his hands, and land in their midst... Nayu squinted for a second, then looked at her with confusion. “He’s putting magical armor on himself?” the sorcerer said slowly, before looking back at the Governor. “But... why?” the sorcerer raised his hands in question, magic rippling through his fingertips, “He can’t stop me with that spell...” [i]So he’s being foolish then...[/i] Felonca’s shaking stopped, and she steadied her aim. As Nayu continued to blunder onward in his bewilderment,s he finally growled. “Less talking! More shooting!” She let loose, and her arrow slammed directly into the man’s chest. Only seconds later, arrows from Meiji and her father hit him in the head, and the Military Governor swayed forwards in his death throes. “That... took care of him... I think.” Nayu narrowed his eyes as the corpse swayed back and forth before starting to tumble forward. [i]It shouldn’t have been that easy. He would’ve healed himself before coming here after the beating I gave him. Unless he was a complete idiot... Well... we should prepare to leave then...[/i] As the Governor’s dead body hit the ground, its head seemed to break into a thousand pieces, as if tiny snow white bits were scattering across the plaza... [i]Brains aren’t that color...[/i] Nayu started to worry. [i]And heads don’t break apart like that... that looks like snow almost. Why would his head look like...[/i] “Dammit! Simulacrum!” Nayu shouted in warning, a split second before a bright flash right next to him on the wall blinded everyone momentarily. For a moment, Nayu’s hurting eyes made out the outline of a gangly, almost emaciated man, one bony arm clutching a black, vicious looking blade, the other arm of bone stretched to the sky... Suddenly, it felt as if every fiber in Nayu’s body began to scream. He felt parts of him stretch, shift, and pull in ways that went beyond pain, beyond agony, to unbridled, raw pain, a pain so intense that he couldn’t even scream. His body arched back, his arms spread-eagle as his muscles spasmed, contracted, and whipped themselves into loops. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse... it did. It started when he felt something seemingly crawling along the inside of his eyeball. The crawling feeling spread, to the insides of his ears, his mouth, then under his skin all over, until it seemed that his skin was writhing, as if powerful snakes were somehow bound inside of him, thrashing their way out. As the pain reached an unthinkable crescendo, he could hear the Military Governor’s voice repeating a deadly quiet chant as his heart pounded harder and harder. Seconds later, the skin on his arm erupted, long, reddish tentacles of blood vessels lashing out, stretching, making his soul scream as they latched onto the stone walls. His other arm erupted, then his back, his chest, his legs, even his face, all exploded into lashing tentacles, holding his now naked muscles in place within a deadly web of veins. Somewhere, above the searing pain, he heard a voice... “Did you think you could kill me with a mere gate?” the voice rasped and grated. “Or that I would merely walk out into the open, ready to accept your arrows killing me?” Now there was laughter, hollow, rasping, the noise of a willowy shell of a man enjoying the terror he’d just inflicted. He also heard other screams... the deep throat roars of two hengeyokai above all others. Amidst the pain, he managed to find a tiny thought of worry. [i]Felonca... please... not you too...[/i] “You pitiful fools,” the wispy voice muttered again, “you think you can stand against us!” A hoarse chuckle. “You have failed against me and my pets... how could you think you could stand against Hu himself?” Nayu’s pain increased even higher, as the veins twisted tighter, stretching him further and further. “Its a pity... you won’t get to see the tarrasque destroy Xianfung, and all you’ve built there...” Nayu caught the word, but amidst the mind-numbing pain, he couldn’t think about it, as his bloody webbing stretched tighter and tighter. Finally, somewhere inside of that pain, Nayu heard a shriek. It was high pitched, almost the gurgling scream that comes from those who are about to enter the grave. Immediately, the tightening of the veins ceased, and instead relaxed. The sorcerer managed to force his eyes open, just enough to see the tall, haggard form of the Military Governor stumble backwards, an arrow impaled into his shoulder. “Now!” he heard Felonca’s voice yell, and he felt something brush through the webbing, making him scream once more in pain. Something touched his back, and for a moment, the world blacked out, whispers and moans surrounding his mind in darkness. Finally, he snapped his eyes open, the pain still intense, but nowhere near as searing as before. His ears picked up the Military Governor grunting, and the sound of an arrow breaking. He opened his eyes, only to see the dead gray eyes of the Military Governor staring at him, the taller man drawing his midnight black longsword and advancing even as the broken stub of an arrow poked out from his shoulder. [i]Kill him... or be killed,[/i] realized. His entire body ached, but he vaguely felt himself again... enough that his pent-up anger and rage at this man began boiling to the surface. He closed his eyes and focused, using all the effort in his battered body to raise his hands, rage rushing through his veins as his magical powers rose to frightening new heights. He wanted to not just kill the man, but to inflict an unholy horror, to wrench the man’s soul from his body, suspend him in agony. [i]You’ll never hurt anyone again! Not like you hurt my parents! My village! My friends![/i] Nayu’s hands began to glow, blue and violent streaks racing down his fingers as the power shuddered through his system. The power arcing in his grasp was far beyond his own making... he could feel seemingly tens, hundreds, even thousands of others, touching, adding their own strength to his own... the dead of Red Lotus, of Mafeng, and a hundred other towns joining him from the beyond. “Never...” the sorcerer hissed, his hands trembling and shaking from the power crackling in their midst, “again!” Nayu’s hands suddenly blackened, darkness crossing into his magic like a black tidal wave. With a shout of a thousand dead souls, dark jets of power lashed from the sorcerer’s black hands, wrapping around the Governor’s throat, dark filaments wrapping around his body, and his eyes. The thin, reedy laugh suddenly changed to an unholy scream, as the black filaments lashed into the Governor. His tall, thin form shook and writhed back and forth, as the screaming arcane power enveloped and engulfed him. His hands reached upwards, clawing at his face as his eyes swelled, the blackness surrounding and consuming his flesh, rising higher and higher until finally only the Governor’s face remained, upturned towards the roiling clouds above, agony on his lips. As the darkness finally enveloped him, his eyes vanished, leaving stark black sockets... vacant windows into a dying soul. The whirling black cloud continued for only a moment longer, before seeming to spin apart, tiny tendrils vanishing into the night. From their suspended place, his bony armor, sword, and belongings clattered to the ground, thin tendrils of smoke rising from the remains. From across the burning cityscape a great cry arose... as if one man was screaming at a sudden influx of pain. Nayu shuddered, recognizing the bone-chilling yell of the Prince of Hu in all his arcane fury. The pregnant orange skies above seemed to lower, and just before Hu’s fiery rain could begin anew, there was a flash as Nayu, the party, and all the surviving scholars teleported away... ====================================================== The Military Governor was Wizard10/PaleMaster10/Fighter1, though when he attacked the party, he was partially injured from Nayu's action before. He used a simalcrum to distract them, before teleporting in to surprise them. The spell he used on the party was called [i]Avascular Mass[/i] (from the Book of Vile Darkness). Just as described, it rips the victims blood vessels from their body, and suspends them in the webbing... quite gruesome. Felonxi and Dian were also caught in the bloody mess, while Yari Ai, Meiji and Felonca had to merely find gaps in the gap to act. Felonca shot the Governor, while Yari Ai cast [i]Heal[/i] on Nayu. Once he was healed, Nayu launched a powerful [i]disintegration[/i] spell on the Governor... and he failed his save. Ouch... 2d6 per level (I think somewhere above 30d6). No more Military Governor... [/QUOTE]
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The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)
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