Wild Stewardess Action! - And Madness Followed COMPLETE!
- Thread starter barsoomcore
- Start date
Desdichado
Hero
Couldn't we all, Thornir. Couldn't we all.Thornir Alekeg said:
So, if this one is done (for good?) are we ever going to see how this connects to the main Barsoom campaign in time and place?
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Dunno for sure -- I'd LIKE to run another, but it starts to smack of railroadiness since I ALREADY know how all this turns out, sort of. And just saying, "Okay, alternate universe" just isn't all that much fun, really.
But we'll see. There is room for stuff to happen, for sure. And I really love these characters. And writing this Story Hour, not to mention.
But assuming I EVER get Barsoom Season Two off the ground, that will clear up the connections, I think.
But we'll see. There is room for stuff to happen, for sure. And I really love these characters. And writing this Story Hour, not to mention.
But assuming I EVER get Barsoom Season Two off the ground, that will clear up the connections, I think.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Hey stewardess fans!
Fret not! Rather rejoice! For further adventures are soon to be posted!
All-new hi-jinks with Li Fa, Tong Shan, Muen Wei-Yong and Zheng Ming-Wa as they square off against giant worms, deformed monstrosities and cute actors! Will Wei-Yong ever find a guy tall enough? Will Ming-Wa ever loosen up enough to enjoy life? Will Li Fa's hideous sorcery eventually destroy all that she loves? Will Shan ever find enough to eat?
Tune in -- same time, same butt-kicking channel!
Fret not! Rather rejoice! For further adventures are soon to be posted!
All-new hi-jinks with Li Fa, Tong Shan, Muen Wei-Yong and Zheng Ming-Wa as they square off against giant worms, deformed monstrosities and cute actors! Will Wei-Yong ever find a guy tall enough? Will Ming-Wa ever loosen up enough to enjoy life? Will Li Fa's hideous sorcery eventually destroy all that she loves? Will Shan ever find enough to eat?
Tune in -- same time, same butt-kicking channel!
rbingham2000
Explorer
*puts on the shades and kicks back to enjoy the show*
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
And here begins the next adventure of our fair heroines! Thrill to the chills of And Madness Followed!
CHAPTER ONE
Four figures paused on the road, looking up between the straggling mountain pines at the cluster of houses and shops that formed the remote village of Hu-shih-tai. On all sides tall peaks rose into the clear sky, as disinterested as stone idols of some forgotten religion. Thin trails of smoke rose from a couple of houses, evidence of habitation, but otherwise there was no sign of life.
The tallest of the four, lanky Muen Wei-Yong in her hunter's furs, shook her head. A lean, nervous wolf pushed its muzzle against her hip
"I don't like this. That's a quiet village."
The shortest among them, Zheng Ming-Wa, pulled the furred collar of her modest robe tight around her throat and set her small mouth in a stern expression.
"Maybe they're praying to the Goddess."
Tong Shan snorted. She was a broad-shouldered, heavy-set woman wearing battle-beaten armour with intense dark eyes set deeply in a good-humoured face. Her sword leapt into her hands.
"Or maybe they've been eaten by some horrible demon monster that's going to jump out at us any second."
Wei-Yong grinned, unfazed by her friend's suggestion.
"You're just in a bad mood because you're hung over. And that boy in Leng-tzu-po liked me better than you."
"He did not. Shut up. I say monsters."
"Yeah, probably monsters."
The fourth woman, who hadn't yet spoken, turned her grave face to her friends. This was Li Fa, whose simple grey robe belied her status as the leader of the group. She gestured up the road.
"Whatever has happened, it is our duty to investigate. Wan-Chen, the merchant, may be here somewhere, and without his information, we will not know our next move against Sung Li-Ling."
Shan sulked.
"Let Wei-Yong go first, she's so popular."
Slowly, still four abreast, the women moved up the road into the village. As they passed the outlying houses, evidence of trouble began to appear: doors torn off their hinges, bloodstains and furniture thrown into the streets. It appeared as though a battle had been fought here, but there were no bodies lying strewn about, no wailing injured or dazed survivors. The village lay empty.
Ming-Wa stepped delicately around a drying pool of gore.
"Where are we supposed to meet Wan-Chen?"
Fa pointed to a wide, two-story establishment with latticed windows all around, open on the ground floor and set with tables and chairs.
"The teahouse there."
She frowned.
"I think I see people in there."
Wei-Yong had been studying some tracks and stood at Fa's comment, turning to peer at the teahouse several blocks up the street.
"You're right. It's packed in there."
Shan whirled her sword a few times.
"Anyone alive or are they all dead already?"
"Well, they're moving."
"That doesn't tell us much."
Ming-Wa started up the street.
"I could use a cup of tea. Maybe we can sit on the verandah and see if this Wan-Chen is around."
All four women started when a voice suddenly called out to them, honeyed and smirking.
"Come join us, friends. Come. Join us."
Ming-Wa stopped and looked back at her friends. Shan nodded at her.
"Monsters. I don't think you're going to get any tea."
"Come and join us..."
Without further words the women lined up once again and began their slow way up the street, the early morning sun casting long shadows ahead of them. Shan made a few more passes with her sword. Wei-Yong laid an arrow across her bow, another long shaft gripped between the fingers of her drawing hand, ready to leap onto the string once the first had flown. Ming-Wa touched the tiny amulet she wore, praying to the Goddess in a constant whispering stream. Fa stalked in silence, observing the village around her as they walked up the low rise towards the teahouse.
Fa spoke quietly, her heavy voice confident and assured.
"Shan, Wei-Yong, be ready for their assault. Ming-Wa and I will keep an eye out for the ringleaders."
Shan observed the figures within the dark confines of the teahouse shift and rise, and slid her gaze sideways to Wei-Yong.
"He only gave you that bracelet because he thought you were starving. You're too skinny, you know. Boys don't like that bony look."
"Focus, Shan. Monsters, remember?"
The big woman grumbled but turned her attention back to the teahouse. Just in time, it turned out, for just at that moment the building suddenly exploded in activity. Half-a-dozen figures leapt out at them, some over tables on the verandah, some crashing through the lattices above and plunging down to the street, all laughing with confident bloodthirsty glee.
Shan shrugged. She heard Wei-Yong's bow buzz once, twice, three times, and three of the figures leaping from above crashed limply to the street and lay still. The swordswoman, unsurprised by this display of her friend's skill and speed, simply rumbled into the midst of the attackers still approaching.
Fa drew back at the sight of their assailants. They were terrible to behold, foul twisted figures with strangely gnarled limbs, their skin blistered and pocked, their eyes rolling yellow and wild in their heads. Teeth like ill-fitted tusks and greasy hair in thick ropes completed their unnatural appearance, and yet they wore tatters of tunics and robes like ordinary villagers.
Four circled Shan and leapt at her, grinning madly.
Shan struck once, then twice. Each arc of her sword cut brutal slashing tears across two of her opponents, and they all fell backwards in gurgling sprays of blood. Fa, seeing the situation here well in hand, rushed forwards into the teahouse to see who remained.
She stopped in the high-ceilinged building, looking up at the balcony overhead. Figures crowded the rails, and yet more emerged from the gloom of the teahouse's depths, surrounding her.
"Oh."
Her retreat blocked, Fa whirled, but before she could take action, one of the figures around her charged forward and caught her arm with the tines of a pitchfork. Fa yelled in pain and tried to pull away, but another grabbed her and she felt weight closing in on her from all sides. Every time she tried to concentrate to begin a spell, a fist would land on her or a booted foot would kick her and she'd stumble aside, throwing aside tables and chairs as she reeled, desperate to avoid reaching hands, and now, she saw, claws and talons as voices chittered and rose up high, too high and savage for human throats. Fa felt panic burgeoning in her heart and cried out, flailing.
Then came an all-too-human series of oaths and the weight fell back from her, blood splashing on her face and a familiar bulky shape pushing up beside her.
"...crush you under Her Round Little Behind, you worthless freaks!"
Shan grabbed Fa and shook her once.
"That's what you get with your fancy magic. No need for that here."
Fa, still shaking with panic, tore herself free.
"That's enough, Shan. I know what I'm doing."
She felt Shadow's dark kiss begin to rise up in her, and forced herself to calm down. Sorcery provided a constant temptation to rage and violence, and she knew that if she did not maintain control of her temper, she might easily slay her friends in her black fury. And things weren't that bad here; Shan and Wei-Yong could easily deal with the blood-crazed but apparently ineffectual creatures that had taken over the teahouse. There was no need to get worried.
She looked up at a sudden movement overhead; and then a giant worm ate her.
CHAPTER ONE
Four figures paused on the road, looking up between the straggling mountain pines at the cluster of houses and shops that formed the remote village of Hu-shih-tai. On all sides tall peaks rose into the clear sky, as disinterested as stone idols of some forgotten religion. Thin trails of smoke rose from a couple of houses, evidence of habitation, but otherwise there was no sign of life.
The tallest of the four, lanky Muen Wei-Yong in her hunter's furs, shook her head. A lean, nervous wolf pushed its muzzle against her hip
"I don't like this. That's a quiet village."
The shortest among them, Zheng Ming-Wa, pulled the furred collar of her modest robe tight around her throat and set her small mouth in a stern expression.
"Maybe they're praying to the Goddess."
Tong Shan snorted. She was a broad-shouldered, heavy-set woman wearing battle-beaten armour with intense dark eyes set deeply in a good-humoured face. Her sword leapt into her hands.
"Or maybe they've been eaten by some horrible demon monster that's going to jump out at us any second."
Wei-Yong grinned, unfazed by her friend's suggestion.
"You're just in a bad mood because you're hung over. And that boy in Leng-tzu-po liked me better than you."
"He did not. Shut up. I say monsters."
"Yeah, probably monsters."
The fourth woman, who hadn't yet spoken, turned her grave face to her friends. This was Li Fa, whose simple grey robe belied her status as the leader of the group. She gestured up the road.
"Whatever has happened, it is our duty to investigate. Wan-Chen, the merchant, may be here somewhere, and without his information, we will not know our next move against Sung Li-Ling."
Shan sulked.
"Let Wei-Yong go first, she's so popular."
Slowly, still four abreast, the women moved up the road into the village. As they passed the outlying houses, evidence of trouble began to appear: doors torn off their hinges, bloodstains and furniture thrown into the streets. It appeared as though a battle had been fought here, but there were no bodies lying strewn about, no wailing injured or dazed survivors. The village lay empty.
Ming-Wa stepped delicately around a drying pool of gore.
"Where are we supposed to meet Wan-Chen?"
Fa pointed to a wide, two-story establishment with latticed windows all around, open on the ground floor and set with tables and chairs.
"The teahouse there."
She frowned.
"I think I see people in there."
Wei-Yong had been studying some tracks and stood at Fa's comment, turning to peer at the teahouse several blocks up the street.
"You're right. It's packed in there."
Shan whirled her sword a few times.
"Anyone alive or are they all dead already?"
"Well, they're moving."
"That doesn't tell us much."
Ming-Wa started up the street.
"I could use a cup of tea. Maybe we can sit on the verandah and see if this Wan-Chen is around."
All four women started when a voice suddenly called out to them, honeyed and smirking.
"Come join us, friends. Come. Join us."
Ming-Wa stopped and looked back at her friends. Shan nodded at her.
"Monsters. I don't think you're going to get any tea."
"Come and join us..."
Without further words the women lined up once again and began their slow way up the street, the early morning sun casting long shadows ahead of them. Shan made a few more passes with her sword. Wei-Yong laid an arrow across her bow, another long shaft gripped between the fingers of her drawing hand, ready to leap onto the string once the first had flown. Ming-Wa touched the tiny amulet she wore, praying to the Goddess in a constant whispering stream. Fa stalked in silence, observing the village around her as they walked up the low rise towards the teahouse.
Fa spoke quietly, her heavy voice confident and assured.
"Shan, Wei-Yong, be ready for their assault. Ming-Wa and I will keep an eye out for the ringleaders."
Shan observed the figures within the dark confines of the teahouse shift and rise, and slid her gaze sideways to Wei-Yong.
"He only gave you that bracelet because he thought you were starving. You're too skinny, you know. Boys don't like that bony look."
"Focus, Shan. Monsters, remember?"
The big woman grumbled but turned her attention back to the teahouse. Just in time, it turned out, for just at that moment the building suddenly exploded in activity. Half-a-dozen figures leapt out at them, some over tables on the verandah, some crashing through the lattices above and plunging down to the street, all laughing with confident bloodthirsty glee.
Shan shrugged. She heard Wei-Yong's bow buzz once, twice, three times, and three of the figures leaping from above crashed limply to the street and lay still. The swordswoman, unsurprised by this display of her friend's skill and speed, simply rumbled into the midst of the attackers still approaching.
Fa drew back at the sight of their assailants. They were terrible to behold, foul twisted figures with strangely gnarled limbs, their skin blistered and pocked, their eyes rolling yellow and wild in their heads. Teeth like ill-fitted tusks and greasy hair in thick ropes completed their unnatural appearance, and yet they wore tatters of tunics and robes like ordinary villagers.
Four circled Shan and leapt at her, grinning madly.
Shan struck once, then twice. Each arc of her sword cut brutal slashing tears across two of her opponents, and they all fell backwards in gurgling sprays of blood. Fa, seeing the situation here well in hand, rushed forwards into the teahouse to see who remained.
She stopped in the high-ceilinged building, looking up at the balcony overhead. Figures crowded the rails, and yet more emerged from the gloom of the teahouse's depths, surrounding her.
"Oh."
Her retreat blocked, Fa whirled, but before she could take action, one of the figures around her charged forward and caught her arm with the tines of a pitchfork. Fa yelled in pain and tried to pull away, but another grabbed her and she felt weight closing in on her from all sides. Every time she tried to concentrate to begin a spell, a fist would land on her or a booted foot would kick her and she'd stumble aside, throwing aside tables and chairs as she reeled, desperate to avoid reaching hands, and now, she saw, claws and talons as voices chittered and rose up high, too high and savage for human throats. Fa felt panic burgeoning in her heart and cried out, flailing.
Then came an all-too-human series of oaths and the weight fell back from her, blood splashing on her face and a familiar bulky shape pushing up beside her.
"...crush you under Her Round Little Behind, you worthless freaks!"
Shan grabbed Fa and shook her once.
"That's what you get with your fancy magic. No need for that here."
Fa, still shaking with panic, tore herself free.
"That's enough, Shan. I know what I'm doing."
She felt Shadow's dark kiss begin to rise up in her, and forced herself to calm down. Sorcery provided a constant temptation to rage and violence, and she knew that if she did not maintain control of her temper, she might easily slay her friends in her black fury. And things weren't that bad here; Shan and Wei-Yong could easily deal with the blood-crazed but apparently ineffectual creatures that had taken over the teahouse. There was no need to get worried.
She looked up at a sudden movement overhead; and then a giant worm ate her.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
CHAPTER TWO
*****
From Shan's point of view, it was as though a great wriggling pillar of flesh had suddenly descended upon her friend, consuming her entirely even as it spilled into the teahouse, knocking aside tables and splintering railings as its great obscene bulk writhed and coiled in horrible twists and undulations.
The thing oozed slime and stank horribly of fetid corruption. Shan coughed and shook her head, then swung her blade at it.
Ordinarily a stroke from Shan's sword was enough to make just about anything reconsider its actions, but in this case her foot planted on a slippery portion of one of her late foes, and as she tried to recover her balance her blade went wide.
Shan crashed down to the floorboards with a spectacular explosion of noise and clattering armour. Her curses rose in volume and invention.
Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa, still out in the street, stared in shock at the abrupt appearance of a gigantic worm. The taller woman recovered first, seeing a sudden movement behind Shan in the teahouse. She drew back an arrow and let fly, the shaft buzzing just past Shan's head to strike the disfigured attacker directly between its bloodshot eyes. It pitched backward and disappeared as Shan looked over curiously.
Ming-Wa reached out with one hand.
"I just wanted a cup of tea."
She sent her mind questing forward, found a sort of psychic handle on the worm's simple mind, and wrenched it. HUNGER. RAGE. She hung on in the face of its unthinking need and hunger. The disgusting thing heaved and rippled and Fa shot out of its maw, crashing into tables and covered in thick slime.
Fa had experienced a bad few seconds inside the worm's gullet. Crushing, stifling, slick muscles pressing against her, the rank stench of the thing and its gruesome fluid gushing all over her, burning like acid and as foul as liquid manure, she flailed frantic and terrified until suddenly the world pitched and squeezed and she was free, stumbling around the jumbled furniture and limp bodies that lay scattered about.
"I don't feel good."
Shan glared at her dazed friend.
"I'm going to give you such
."
Fa was about to reply when the great worm reared up and lunged at Shan. Its buzzsaw mouth closed on the big woman's arm, nearly wrenching it off with a sudden writhing heave. Shan bellowed and cut at it again, wielding her sword one-handed. Vaguely she heard Ming-Wa crying out from the street.
"We had a plan!"
Shan grunted as she slashed again, deep cuts opening in the creature's side. It still had a hold of her arm and now yanked her back and forth through the already-disordered furntiure, table legs splintering and chairs flying as her armoured bulk plowed helplessly from side to side.
"Yeah, and now it's time for the big girls to go to work."
Ming-Wa, looking for a way in that didn't involve trying to pass thrashing coils of angry giant worm, raced around to the back of the teahouse. An untouched back door beckoned and she started forward. Wei-Yong's head turned back and forth, alternating between aiming shots at the worm and keeping an eye on the frail young woman going off by herself.
The worm, bristling now with Wei-Yong's arrows and so chopped up by Shan's sword that it resembled a sausage sliced for roasting, at last released its hold on the woman's arm and sank down in a limp mass. Shan stared, catching her breath, and then stumbled backwards as it burst open, spraying foulness in all directions. The slime plastered her, oozing into her armour and dripping down her face, all over her burning and searing. She retched and tried to wipe her eyes clear.
Something struck her from the side and she whirled, only to find Fa, eyes blazing, lunging at her.
"This is all your fault! You moron!"
Shan frowned, then pushed Fa in the face. Hard.
"Sit down."
She looked up at the sound of movement above.
"And stay here."
Her armour clattered as she charged up the stairs to the balcony. Fa picked up a chair and smashed it, incoherent in her panic- and sorcery-edged rage.
Ming-Wa approached the door. She could hear yelling and crashing from inside still, so she knew the battle wasn't over. Pausing, she reached forth cautiously with her mental senses, seeking any minds that might reveal hiding foes.
HUNGER. RAGE.
Startled, Ming-Wa reeled backwards just as the second worm came spilling out through the door, rippling and flailing towards her.
"Oh, no."
Shan came to a halt at the top of the stairs, facing another crowd of weirdly-deformed figures, lurching towards her with chuckling glee. Behind them stood one figure whose clothing seemed finer, rich merchant's robes.
"VWan-Chen?"
"No longer! Now we welcome the Dreaming City! Join us! Join us in our dreams! Join the Emperor of Dreams! His touch shall free you from Her deadly embrace! Li Ling has opened the way for us all!"
Weary, one arm nearly dislocated from the worm's frenzy, dripping with acidic ichor, Shan raised her voice to carry outside.
"The big girl could use a little help, folks. If nobody's too busy."
Wei-Yong didn't hear her friend's request; she was too busy firing arrow after arrow at the immense worm flopping and wriggling after Ming-Wa. Shan didn't wait in any event; rolling her big shoulders, the swordswoman plowed into her foes, her sword flipping about her quick snapping arcs. Hideously deformed figures shrieked as the razor-sharp edge slashed terrible wounds across bellies and faces and throats, and bodies fell back on all sides.
One figure was nimble enough to avoid the blade but not to avoid Shan's booted foot, which lashed out and slammed the creature backwards, through a railing to plunge down to the ground floor, where, before it could recover, Fa bludgeoned it repeatedly over the head with her staff, still swearing in her anger.
The worm outside, now prickly with feathered shafts, reared up and hurled itself forward in an effort to reach Ming-Wa, but the slender young woman leapt back just in time. The foul thing crashed to the street and lolled helplessly, collapsing on itself like a spent waterskin. Recalling how the one inside had reacted to death, Wei-Yong yanked her friend back just as the corpse exploded in a grayish-green eruption of reeking foulness.
Upstairs, Shan fended off chair legs, kitchen knives and other improvised weapons as the thing that wore the robes of Kong Wan-Chen urged its misshapen bodyguard forward, all the while chuckling and raving. Shan's left arm hung uselessly and she still wielded her long curved sword one-handed, slashing bloody arcs on all sides as she swore in frustration.
Sneering mouths hissed and snarled, clawlike hands scrabbled against her armour or fell twitching, severed from their parent arms. Shan planted her feet on the bloodslick planks and with a last desperate effort swept the remaining guards from before the gibbering, prancing thing.
"The Dreaming City comes! Revel in its glory!"
Shan glowered and then ripped her sword upwards in a blurring angle, catching the shrieking creature in its groin and tearing it open upwards. With flailing limbs the thing fell backwards and crashed through the lattice window behind it.
Wei-Yong, who had been pressing forward to investigate the stinking, dissolving corpse of the worm, jerked back in alarm as the still-convulsing Wan-Chen plunged into the morass of acid and bile. The torn creature wailed and hissed and at last expired. Wei-Yong looked up and nodded at her friend.
Shan stomped downstairs in exhausted numbness, looking up as Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa came around to the front of the teahouse. Fa squatted on the floor, investigating some board painted with black characters.
"You feeling a little less angry now?"
Fa shrugged.
"Sorry."
"It's okay. You're cute when you're angry."
Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa joined them.
"What is it, Fa?"
The sorceress stood up, straightening her dark robes.
"It's Dream Worlds writing. Symbols to attract and compel spirits." She looked around the gory interior of the now-destroyed teahouse. "Someone has channeled enough Dream Worlds energy here to twist every resident of this town into... those things."
Ming-Wa inhaled sharply. Her bright eyes flickered with worry.
"But to do so... such a ritual... the whole town would have had to participate."
Fa nodded. She held a scrap of cloth towards her friend.
"If these were the villagers, this cloak might hold some memories. Can you see what you find?"
Ming-Wa nodded and took the cloak, then led the others outside where the stink of death was not so overpowering. She knelt on the street with the cloak spread out before her, placing her hands spread wide upon the cloth.
The town before her wavered, then vanished in a sickening twist of vision and a sense of rushing forward. She saw a stage, richly decorated, with bright yellow curtains where capering figures spun and leapt as in the traditional style of Tianese theatre.
But something was wrong, horribly wrong. The audience watched in silence, without a single cough or whispered remark. Even the children in the crowd were motionless and utterly rapt. The performers recited lines of bizarre madness, but each senseless utterance deepened Ming-Wa's foreboding sense of horror.
The quality of the memory she explored was mercifully muddy, but she slowly felt a narrowing of focus within the unfortunate villager's mind, a drawing-down of mental veils until only the figures on the stage existed, only their words (or not even; they had descended to animal barks and hissing yowls) remained to be heard.
And then Ming-Wa witnessed a terrible unveiling, as though for a moment the stage become a rippling gateway out of which rolled a wave of hideous possibility, and as it flooded forward she saw the assembled villagers suddenly writhing and bulging in horrid transformations. Once every audience member had been consumed by the foul wave, she felt the energy suddenly go out of the performance and the gateway snapped shut. The narrow view of memory shuddered closed a heartbeat as all sentient thought dropped away.
Ming-Wa swayed back from the cloak and into the waiting arms of her friends. Unsteadily she got to her feet, looking around the village in wonder.
"Something happened here..."
Wei-Yong bit back a sarcastic response. Ming-Wa recovered herself and met Fa's stern gaze.
"I think Li Ling is trying to destroy the world. Goddess preserve us."
The other women nodded.
"Goddess preserve us."
*****
From Shan's point of view, it was as though a great wriggling pillar of flesh had suddenly descended upon her friend, consuming her entirely even as it spilled into the teahouse, knocking aside tables and splintering railings as its great obscene bulk writhed and coiled in horrible twists and undulations.
The thing oozed slime and stank horribly of fetid corruption. Shan coughed and shook her head, then swung her blade at it.
Ordinarily a stroke from Shan's sword was enough to make just about anything reconsider its actions, but in this case her foot planted on a slippery portion of one of her late foes, and as she tried to recover her balance her blade went wide.
Shan crashed down to the floorboards with a spectacular explosion of noise and clattering armour. Her curses rose in volume and invention.
Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa, still out in the street, stared in shock at the abrupt appearance of a gigantic worm. The taller woman recovered first, seeing a sudden movement behind Shan in the teahouse. She drew back an arrow and let fly, the shaft buzzing just past Shan's head to strike the disfigured attacker directly between its bloodshot eyes. It pitched backward and disappeared as Shan looked over curiously.
Ming-Wa reached out with one hand.
"I just wanted a cup of tea."
She sent her mind questing forward, found a sort of psychic handle on the worm's simple mind, and wrenched it. HUNGER. RAGE. She hung on in the face of its unthinking need and hunger. The disgusting thing heaved and rippled and Fa shot out of its maw, crashing into tables and covered in thick slime.
Fa had experienced a bad few seconds inside the worm's gullet. Crushing, stifling, slick muscles pressing against her, the rank stench of the thing and its gruesome fluid gushing all over her, burning like acid and as foul as liquid manure, she flailed frantic and terrified until suddenly the world pitched and squeezed and she was free, stumbling around the jumbled furniture and limp bodies that lay scattered about.
"I don't feel good."
Shan glared at her dazed friend.
"I'm going to give you such
."Fa was about to reply when the great worm reared up and lunged at Shan. Its buzzsaw mouth closed on the big woman's arm, nearly wrenching it off with a sudden writhing heave. Shan bellowed and cut at it again, wielding her sword one-handed. Vaguely she heard Ming-Wa crying out from the street.
"We had a plan!"
Shan grunted as she slashed again, deep cuts opening in the creature's side. It still had a hold of her arm and now yanked her back and forth through the already-disordered furntiure, table legs splintering and chairs flying as her armoured bulk plowed helplessly from side to side.
"Yeah, and now it's time for the big girls to go to work."
Ming-Wa, looking for a way in that didn't involve trying to pass thrashing coils of angry giant worm, raced around to the back of the teahouse. An untouched back door beckoned and she started forward. Wei-Yong's head turned back and forth, alternating between aiming shots at the worm and keeping an eye on the frail young woman going off by herself.
The worm, bristling now with Wei-Yong's arrows and so chopped up by Shan's sword that it resembled a sausage sliced for roasting, at last released its hold on the woman's arm and sank down in a limp mass. Shan stared, catching her breath, and then stumbled backwards as it burst open, spraying foulness in all directions. The slime plastered her, oozing into her armour and dripping down her face, all over her burning and searing. She retched and tried to wipe her eyes clear.
Something struck her from the side and she whirled, only to find Fa, eyes blazing, lunging at her.
"This is all your fault! You moron!"
Shan frowned, then pushed Fa in the face. Hard.
"Sit down."
She looked up at the sound of movement above.
"And stay here."
Her armour clattered as she charged up the stairs to the balcony. Fa picked up a chair and smashed it, incoherent in her panic- and sorcery-edged rage.
Ming-Wa approached the door. She could hear yelling and crashing from inside still, so she knew the battle wasn't over. Pausing, she reached forth cautiously with her mental senses, seeking any minds that might reveal hiding foes.
HUNGER. RAGE.
Startled, Ming-Wa reeled backwards just as the second worm came spilling out through the door, rippling and flailing towards her.
"Oh, no."
Shan came to a halt at the top of the stairs, facing another crowd of weirdly-deformed figures, lurching towards her with chuckling glee. Behind them stood one figure whose clothing seemed finer, rich merchant's robes.
"VWan-Chen?"
"No longer! Now we welcome the Dreaming City! Join us! Join us in our dreams! Join the Emperor of Dreams! His touch shall free you from Her deadly embrace! Li Ling has opened the way for us all!"
Weary, one arm nearly dislocated from the worm's frenzy, dripping with acidic ichor, Shan raised her voice to carry outside.
"The big girl could use a little help, folks. If nobody's too busy."
Wei-Yong didn't hear her friend's request; she was too busy firing arrow after arrow at the immense worm flopping and wriggling after Ming-Wa. Shan didn't wait in any event; rolling her big shoulders, the swordswoman plowed into her foes, her sword flipping about her quick snapping arcs. Hideously deformed figures shrieked as the razor-sharp edge slashed terrible wounds across bellies and faces and throats, and bodies fell back on all sides.
One figure was nimble enough to avoid the blade but not to avoid Shan's booted foot, which lashed out and slammed the creature backwards, through a railing to plunge down to the ground floor, where, before it could recover, Fa bludgeoned it repeatedly over the head with her staff, still swearing in her anger.
The worm outside, now prickly with feathered shafts, reared up and hurled itself forward in an effort to reach Ming-Wa, but the slender young woman leapt back just in time. The foul thing crashed to the street and lolled helplessly, collapsing on itself like a spent waterskin. Recalling how the one inside had reacted to death, Wei-Yong yanked her friend back just as the corpse exploded in a grayish-green eruption of reeking foulness.
Upstairs, Shan fended off chair legs, kitchen knives and other improvised weapons as the thing that wore the robes of Kong Wan-Chen urged its misshapen bodyguard forward, all the while chuckling and raving. Shan's left arm hung uselessly and she still wielded her long curved sword one-handed, slashing bloody arcs on all sides as she swore in frustration.
Sneering mouths hissed and snarled, clawlike hands scrabbled against her armour or fell twitching, severed from their parent arms. Shan planted her feet on the bloodslick planks and with a last desperate effort swept the remaining guards from before the gibbering, prancing thing.
"The Dreaming City comes! Revel in its glory!"
Shan glowered and then ripped her sword upwards in a blurring angle, catching the shrieking creature in its groin and tearing it open upwards. With flailing limbs the thing fell backwards and crashed through the lattice window behind it.
Wei-Yong, who had been pressing forward to investigate the stinking, dissolving corpse of the worm, jerked back in alarm as the still-convulsing Wan-Chen plunged into the morass of acid and bile. The torn creature wailed and hissed and at last expired. Wei-Yong looked up and nodded at her friend.
Shan stomped downstairs in exhausted numbness, looking up as Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa came around to the front of the teahouse. Fa squatted on the floor, investigating some board painted with black characters.
"You feeling a little less angry now?"
Fa shrugged.
"Sorry."
"It's okay. You're cute when you're angry."
Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa joined them.
"What is it, Fa?"
The sorceress stood up, straightening her dark robes.
"It's Dream Worlds writing. Symbols to attract and compel spirits." She looked around the gory interior of the now-destroyed teahouse. "Someone has channeled enough Dream Worlds energy here to twist every resident of this town into... those things."
Ming-Wa inhaled sharply. Her bright eyes flickered with worry.
"But to do so... such a ritual... the whole town would have had to participate."
Fa nodded. She held a scrap of cloth towards her friend.
"If these were the villagers, this cloak might hold some memories. Can you see what you find?"
Ming-Wa nodded and took the cloak, then led the others outside where the stink of death was not so overpowering. She knelt on the street with the cloak spread out before her, placing her hands spread wide upon the cloth.
The town before her wavered, then vanished in a sickening twist of vision and a sense of rushing forward. She saw a stage, richly decorated, with bright yellow curtains where capering figures spun and leapt as in the traditional style of Tianese theatre.
But something was wrong, horribly wrong. The audience watched in silence, without a single cough or whispered remark. Even the children in the crowd were motionless and utterly rapt. The performers recited lines of bizarre madness, but each senseless utterance deepened Ming-Wa's foreboding sense of horror.
The quality of the memory she explored was mercifully muddy, but she slowly felt a narrowing of focus within the unfortunate villager's mind, a drawing-down of mental veils until only the figures on the stage existed, only their words (or not even; they had descended to animal barks and hissing yowls) remained to be heard.
And then Ming-Wa witnessed a terrible unveiling, as though for a moment the stage become a rippling gateway out of which rolled a wave of hideous possibility, and as it flooded forward she saw the assembled villagers suddenly writhing and bulging in horrid transformations. Once every audience member had been consumed by the foul wave, she felt the energy suddenly go out of the performance and the gateway snapped shut. The narrow view of memory shuddered closed a heartbeat as all sentient thought dropped away.
Ming-Wa swayed back from the cloak and into the waiting arms of her friends. Unsteadily she got to her feet, looking around the village in wonder.
"Something happened here..."
Wei-Yong bit back a sarcastic response. Ming-Wa recovered herself and met Fa's stern gaze.
"I think Li Ling is trying to destroy the world. Goddess preserve us."
The other women nodded.
"Goddess preserve us."
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