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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rolzup" data-source="post: 2822982" data-attributes="member: 10105">Enter: The Yu-Tang Clan!By this time, after the way in which we had so handily dispatched the Room Rouge Players, we had made something of a name for ourselves.THAT NAME BEING "THOSE FOUR CRAZY BASTARDS".Not everyone had learned to properly fear us, however.  Not yet.  And King Daikon was experiencing trouble from some of these ignorant fools.Naturally, he came to me for help.  Who else could he approach?KENJI.  WHICH IS WHO HE DID SPEAK TO.This particular band of criminals, who called themselves the "Yellow Lotus Society", were apparently the masters of Little Azikhan’s docks.  Ruthless criminals, they were taking advantage of Xian’s absence to try and add Daikon’s neighborhood to their sad little empire.Nor was the Yellow Lotus Association the only such gang.  The Room Rouge Players had been sniffing about before we so handily crushed them, as well as some individuals calling themselves Troupe Blue d'Homme.  A colorful bunch of criminals indeed, eh?HA.  HA.  HA.In any case, the Yellow Lotus Association had begun negotiations with one "Master Yu", the owner of a 'do-jo’ across the street from the monastery, a place called "The Cobra in Repose".  Apparently, they were hoping to hire Yu and his students, the so-called "Yu-Tang Clan", as cheap muscle.We agreed to meet with Yu, and to explain the situation to him.  And by "explain", I mean "threaten".As it happened, Yu was in negations with a representative of the Yellow Lotus Association even as we arrived upon his doorstep; a fellow who styled himself "Ghost-Talking Ping Ming."  He was dressed even more outlandishly than most foreigners, wearing nothing more than a grass skirt and crude sandals.We made our position known to Yu, and to this Ping-Ming fellow.  Kenji implied, in his inimitable way, that we were in the employ of yet another crime lord, one far too powerful for the Yellow Lotus Association to defy.  Kenji did this, I should add, entirely through implication.  At no point did he actually lie, per se, but even so managed to spin an impressive web of half-truths.Ping-Ming, wisely, chose to withdraw.  Yu did not take this well, and offered us threats.As history has shown, this is never a good idea.Unworried, we left the do-jo.  But, while Kenji and I were about other matters, the madman decided to take matters into his own grubby hands.  He entered the alley behind the building, and begin digging through a convenient trash-heap.I’ve no idea what he hoped to learn.  Perhaps he was just hungry.  In any event, Yu proved oddly possessive of his trash, and attacked the madman, using a curious sort of sword.  It was an application of the Art that unlike any I’ve ever seen.  The blade would grow to some 30 feet in length, twisting and writhing like a thing alive, apparently responding to Yu’s will.  Fascinating, really, and it’s a shame we had to kill him.I should emphasize at this point that I did not in fact witness precisely what happened in the alley, and was forced to piece matters together from what scraps of information Rackhir was later willing to divulge.Nevertheless, I believe that I can reconstruct the events in exacting detail.The madman was, as I have said, digging through a pile of garbage when Yu struck, using his "Yu Sword" to first bind and then somehow poison the madman.  Rackhir, who had for reasons of his own been following the madman then stepped from the shadows and announced himself.  He told Yu to release the madman, lest he incur the wrath of Burne.Yu, strangely, was unmoved.  He told Rackhir that he would allow the archer to remain free if he went to Kenji and told him that he had taken the madman prisoner.  Why Kenji?  I cannot imagine.  Perhaps he didn’t feel worthy of addressing me directly.I LIVE WITH THIS.  I AM COMPELLED TO OBEY HIM.  DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY PAIN?Whatever Yu’s reasoning, Rackhir defied him, telling him -- correctly, I might add -- that Burne would pay no ransom.  He then launched an attack, firing a hail of arrows at his foe.  To no avail.  Yu handily disarmed him.Rackhir then ran.  To no avail.  Yu handily tripped him up, entangled him, and then rendered him unconscious as well. The two of them awakened in a small room, bound hand and foot.  Even their untrained minds could make the proper deduction, and conclude that they had been imprisoned in the do-jo.  Well, Rackhir’s mind at the least.  The madman?  Who can say?To their credit, they instantly attempted to escape.  Rackhir succeeded, but the madman was recaptured before he could leave the building.  Rackhir, wisely, came straight to me to beg my help.Which, graciously, I granted.  As did Kenji, superfluous though he was.  He did lend Rackhir a bow, however, and so the three of us assembled outside the monastery gates girded for war.And there was Yu, with his clan assembled around him, unprepared for the hellstorm that was about to erupt.  Rackhir, filled with righteous rage, stood well back and fired arrows through the open door of the building.  The rest of us charged into the thick of it.I had used the Engine to spray metallic particles into the air around me, which my Art then fixed into place as a protective shield -- the famed 'Burne’s Indomitable Bulwark’.  Safeguarded in such a fashion, the Yu-Tang Clan was unable to breach my defenses, enabling me to strike them down with impunity.  The 'Incandescent Arc’ saw use once again, as did the 'Corrosive Sphere’  and the 'Immolative Aura’.Kenji, meanwhile, was engaging in his usual crude form of combat, flailing about with his Erisian broadsword.  He was facing Yu himself, and having a difficult time of it, so I took it upon myself to work my Art upon our foe.He responded by using his bizarre flexible sword to entangle me, but to no avail -- I employed the Engine yet again, to invoke 'Burne’s Inevitable and Infernal Sphere’ and send it rolling in his direction.  Thus distracted, he released me upon the instant.At approximately this juncture, the madman kicked open a door and emerged from the depths of the building.  He crashed into the Yu-Tang clan members from behind, and threw a pot of coffee into the eyes of one of them.  His fearsome appearance was nearly enough to break their morale entirely, but to top matters off he worked his own Art for the first time I can remember.Connected as he was to the primal soul of CITY itself, he was able to call upon it for aid.  Which manifested as a CITY guardsman, who burst in through the front door of the do-jo, prepared to aid us in our assault.He died only a heartbeat later, without having struck a single blow, but I was nevertheless impressed.  I think that I sent a few coppers to his widow, but am not entirely certain.HE DIDN’T.The building was afire by this point, incidentally.  Not badly so, more smoldering than anything else, but such a fuss from my companions!  You would have thought that there was some kind of danger.Once again, the firelight was reflected in the madman’s eyes, putting a rather impressive scare into the superstitious members of the Yu-Tang clan.It’s been some weeks now since the madman went missing, and as I dictate these memoirs I find myself missing him more and more.  Why, oh why, didn’t I dissect him while I still had the opportunity?  Just think of the things that I could have done with his eyes!Ah, well.  Missed opportunities abound.We slew Yu, eventually.  I don’t remember who struck the fatal blow, but it was probably myself.  The surviving Clan members surrendered at this point, weeping abjectly.I allowed the others to put the fire out, after a time.</blockquote>

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