[LP] The Way of the Tiger. (Complete)

[Omegonthesane]

Give him 10gp. He's a fisherman from buttfuck nowhere and probably doesn't know what to do with 20 - and besides, 20 makes him a more attractive muggery target.

[angelfromanotherpin]

'What!' he exclaims. 'Why, I'll take you though the very Jaws of Forgetfulness themselves for that, sir,' and he smiles broadly, although you notice some of the crew making the warding sign against misfortune caused by the mention of the jaws.

You say, 'Yes, that would be fine, thank you.'

He stares at you for a moment: 'Well, at least as far as the Haven of Tor,' he adds.

You will have to find a boat of your own there. In truth, you know you cannot expect simple fishermen to risk the Fangs, and you smile your agreement. A few hours later, you are scudding across a deep blue sea in perfect weather, a fair wind behind you and perilous adventure ahead. Your spirits soar and you send a prayer of joy and faith to Kwon.

Two days pass and you may restore another 2 points of lost Endurance. On the third day the Captain, who has ignored you up till now, says 'We shall arrive at the island tomorrow.'

• Ask him where you could find an amulet of Nullaq?
• Thank him and say nothing?

Avenger I, Overlord of Irsmuncast-nigh-Edge
Modifiers: Punch -1
Inner Force: 3/5
Endurance: 9/20
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail, ShinRen.
Shuriken: *****-*****-*****-*
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish.
Special Items: Opal Ring, Pouch with 34 Gold Pieces, Locket with Saint's Hair, Silver Shuriken, Statuette of Dama, Coronation Day Coin, Ruby Circlet, Scorpion Ring, several gems, Healing Potion (+5 Endurance).

[Omegonthesane]

Couldn't hurt to get exposition - we're not asking him to give it to us.

[Corsair114]

Yep, let's grill him for info.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Ask.

[angelfromanotherpin]

His jaws open for a moment and he stutters in fear, 'On the Isle of Thieves – there is a Temple there to Nullaq, the Supreme Queen of Malice, whose touch is poison; many of her followers gain fortune and power... but you don't look like a reverencer of Nullaq – surely you know the ceremonies an initiate must go through! Surely you are no thinking of joining that vile, er, blessed cult!'

'No, I am not,' you say curtly. 'Thank you for the information.' He nods in relief, eyeing you oddly. However, he still backs away from you and avoids you for the rest of the trip.

An island looms ahead. A huge galley – a trireme with a single sail and triple rows of oars – comes past. Men dressed in bronze breastplates with greaves and crested helmets with cheek guards stand on deck, their round shields painted in many colours. 'A pirate ship from the island's fleet,' one of the fishermen mutters. However, it ignores your tiny fishing vessel. You decide to enter the port of the Isle of Thieves to try and steal an Amulet from the worshippers of Nullaq.


The fishing sloop glides into the harbour of the Isle of Thieves. Scores of galleys – triremes and biremes – line the lengthy wood wharves. Bustle and activity surround you everywhere. Groups of ships, armed for piracy, arrow outward through the waves. A ship, heavy with booty and screed by battle, limps inward.

The wharves are lined with a milling crowd of sailors, cut-throats, villains, and townsfolk – it is evident that the island's main trade is piracy. Your tiny boat is virtually ignored and you leap onto the quayside. Instantly, the fishing boat turns and leaves, without a by-your-leave, its Captain eager to be away from this place. You decide to explore the port, to see what you can learn. After a visit to a small clothing store, you enter the port itself looking for all the world like a typical one-eyed pirate on leave; at least the missing eye will be convincing enough, you think wryly to yourself.

You have been wandering about for a half hour or so when you cut through a narrow alley-way. You emerge to find yourself face to face with a large temple of ebon stone, its spider-like turrets and spires reaching heavenward in a seemingly random pattern. The enormous doors of lacquered red enamel are adorned with the symbol of a stylized spider, and priestesses dressed in red and black pass through it. Some of the buttresses are joined to the main building by arching strands of web, giving the impression that the whole place is but the abode of some great spider. You revognise a Temple to Nullaq, 'She who rules in malicious envy.'

As you stare at it, wondering how mankind could fall to worshipping such evil gods and goddesses, a commotion behind you causes you to turn. It is a priestess of Nullaq, obviously of high rank for she has a bodyguard of two eunuchs, both naked to the waist. They are tall and heavily muscled, the muscle also covered with much fat. They wield enormous scimitars.

The little entourage emerge from the alley-way and continue on their way, past the common folk towards the temple. The priestess, in red and black, wears a strange head-dress of boiled leather, fashioned to look like the bloated body of a spider, a rather revolting sight. Your eye travels down the complicated array of robes to fix on that which hangs on a gold chain around her neck. It is a pendant of onyx, gilded with diamonds, shaped like a squid, an Amulet of Nullaq. It is too open for you to attack them now, and they pass into the temple.

You need the Amulet.
• Hide on the rooftops of the alley in the hope another priestess will pas by, so you can ambush her?
• Try to break into the temple to steal one?
• Wait until a ceremony is under way before breaking into the temple?

[Darth Rabbitt]

If a ceremony is underway, there will be shitloads of priestesses there. Probably too many shitloads for us to handle. And even if another priestess passes us by she will probably have just as many eunuch bodyguards. I suggest we try to break into the temple now and hopefully we'll be able to kill these fools in one-on-one combat.

[Omegonthesane]

IIRC it was more that we can't beat the two eunuchs, the priestess, and whatever guards will bitch-slap us for causing a public disturbance. If we can't search further afield to job her in an alley, then follow her into the temple.

[rampaging-poet]

Given how awful running into enemy bases has been since Avenger, I also suggest entering the temple now while it's less likely to be chock-full of enemy spellcasters.

[Corsair114]

If we wait until everyone is busy, there's less likely to be guards on patrol. Maybe we'll be able to find her quarters and lay in wait for her while avoiding her guards.

I vote for waiting until the ceremony is underway.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You circle the temple, examining it for the best way to enter. In a little-frequented sidestreet at the rear of the temple lies a servant's entrance – for food, tradesmen, and so on. Night falls and the port is plunged into darkness. But it seems to become even more lively than in the day and the streets are thronged with revellers, hawkers, villains, and thieves.

• Try to gain entry at the side door?
• If you have the skill of Climbing, scale the rooftops and then onto the temple spires?

[Korgan0]

climbing

[Corsair114]

Spider-ninja, Spider-ninja, does whatever a Spider-ninja does....

(Climb)

[Darth Rabbitt]

Climb.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You ascend a warehouse roof with ease. Opposite you, an ebon tower rises high. Fastening on your Cat's Claws to feet and hands, you swing the grappling hook out. It fastens to a hideous gargoyle high above. After testing the anchorage, you fasten the rope to your waist and swing out, to hang below the tower's top. Slowly and silently you crawl up the spire, like a fly, using your Cat's Claws and rope.

Eventually, you are sitting on the head of the gargoyle, high above the port on the Isle of Thieves. The streets are alive with activity and the sounds of a lawless city are wafted to you on a night breeze, laden with the stink of the dregs of humanity. You climb on up, until you come to an open window at the top of a single turret. A shaft of moonlight reveals a web of thin strands woven across the inside. You know each strand, if touched, will set off an alarm. But you have dealt with such traps before.

You roll into a handstand so that your vision is low to the ground, enabling you to pick out the strands strung across the floor, and you carefully walk on your hands across the room, avoiding contact with every gossamer-thin thread. It is painstakingly slow, but at length you reach the door opposite. You listen at the door, but all is quiet.

(Avenger has the skill of Detecting Traps)



Your one good eyepicks out a slight hairline crack in the door jamb. Investigating it, you find that a small panel comes away to reveal a mechanism that will propel a Poisoned Needle into the doorway if it is opened. Deftly, you disarm it and step through.

Then you freeze, every sense alert. You stand stock-still and look down. Your foot rests upon a thin wire stretched across the doorway. It is taut, pinned under your foot. Straight ahead of you, a panel in the opposite wall has opened, revealing a small crossbow bolt, ready to launch itself at your chest. You know that the slightest movement will set it off. You have no choice but to dive to the right, into the corridor ahead and try to avoid the bolt. Without hesitating, you hurl yourself forward in a somersault.

Make a Fate Roll. (9, Fate smiles.)

The bolt slams into the door as you roll to the ground. You have avoided it. You come to your feet in a corridor that leads to a stairway going down. Before it, on the left, is another door. Alert for the slightest hint of a trap, you approach it. Your keen ears can detect no sound beyond.

You push the door open and dart to the left, back to the wall, but there is no trap. Looking in, you see an empty store room, full of robes of the priestesses of Nullaq. Then you see something that causes your heart to leap with joy.

On a rack hang no less than five of the Amulets of Nullaq! You take one off the rack. The instant you touch it, your very soul is seared by a blast of ethereal energy. The pendant is utterly evil and you, as a bearer of an Amulet of Nullaq, have been tainted by its black sorcery.

Lose 1 point of Inner Force, permanently; you can never have more than 4 points of Inner Force until you find redemption. You turn and leave the room, cursing your ill fortune. You feel unclean.

Your return journey down the temple's tower is uneventful, and you find lodging in an old stable for the night. You rise with the dawn and go down to the harbour. It is almost deserted. You notice a small, untended, single sailed boat. Bold as brass, you board it as if you owned it and cast off for the open seas. You leave the harbour unmolested and sail east toward the rising sun and the Fangs of Nadir.


The islands of the Inner Sea lie like emerald jewels in a flat plain of aquamarine. They are well-populated; the people fish and trade olive oil, Murex shells for purple dye, and strong red wine for other necessities. The sea is so clear that you can often see shoals of silver and red fishes trailing in the boat's wake until they are chased away by the porpoises which leap clear of the water for the sheer joy of living.


A stretch of coastline appears to the south-east. You can see a storm brewing on the horizon, but there is little you can do about it, in your little boat. Quickly, you furl the sail. A few hours later, you are beset by buffeting winds and crashing waves, and your boat is tossed about willy-nilly. Day has turned to night, as heavy black clouds blot out the sun and torrential rain begins to fill your boat faster than you can bail it out.

Finally, the little boat is thrown up by a huge wave and you are hurled into the raging sea. It is all you can do to keep your head above water and you struggle on for many hours. Only your powers of Endurance save you from drowning. Exhausted and half-conscious, you are eventually washed up on a sandy beach. You lie there for an interminable period of time, too tired to move.

When you have regained some strength, you look up to see a thick wall of vegetation stretching away to either side, a dense forest. Taking out your sodden map, you guess it to be the Forest of Fables. If you head north-east, you should come out on the shore of the Elemental Sea, and thus avoid the Fangs of Nadir completely, although even your heart quails at the thought of swimming across the Elemental Sea, for it is said to be impossibly perilous, even without a Kraken inhabiting its depths. But you will have to cross that bridge when you come to it. Picking yourself up, you enter the dense forest.


The forest is murky and dark, musty with the smell of ages. After a few hours' travel, you encounter a stream and decide to follow it. Beams of sunlight penetrate the darkness ahead, and moments later you are standing at the edge of a clearing through which the stream runs. A fabulous beast of great beauty and presence is drinking gracefully from the stream and you stand awe-struck for a time.

It is a Unicorn. Its silvery flanks almost seem to gleam like armour and its golden horn spirals delicately upward. Great are the powers of the Unicorn's horn, and most fortunate is he who can master the Unicorn as his steed.

Will you:
• Run forward and try to leap onto the Unicorn's back?
• Stay where you are and do nothing?

Avenger I, Overlord of Irsmuncast-nigh-Edge
Modifiers: Punch -1
Inner Force: 2/4
Endurance: 9/20
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail, ShinRen.
Shuriken: *****-*****-*****-*
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish.
Special Items: Opal Ring, Pouch with 34 Gold Pieces, Locket with Saint's Hair, Silver Shuriken, Statuette of Dama, Coronation Day Coin, Ruby Circlet, Scorpion Ring, several gems, Healing Potion (+5 Endurance).

[Ancient History]

This is like Dr. McNinja and Sparklelord all over again. Let's stand still and hope it doesn't gore us in the crotch.

[Corsair114]

I, too, am familiar with ways of the Doctor-Ninja. Lets take a moment to watch patiently.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The Unicorn finishes drinking and canters away into the forest, a vision of grace and beauty. Then a figure steps out from behind a tree, dressed in oak-leaf green, an ash bow in one hand. It is a Wood-Elf, with chestnut-brown hair and amber eyes.

He speaks in a rich and melodious voice, 'Welcome, stranger, to the Forest of Fables.I am glad you did not try to harm our brother, the Unicorn. My name is Galanwiel, and I am the lord of the Elves of the forest.' Several more elves, dressed as he, step out as if from nowhere. They have obviously been following you – not even your heightened sense of woodcraft was able to detect their presence.

(Avenger is not an Elf-friend.)
(Avenger was not given a ring by Paladin of Haven of Tor.)

'What brings you to the Forest of Fables, Mortal?' Feeling that you can trust this Elf, you tell him who you are, of the city of Irsmuncast, and how you need the Orb and Sceptre to prevail against the forces of evil that threaten the lands of men in the north. You tell him of your need to pass the Fangs of Nadir, and on impulse you ask him for aid.

'The affairs of men are not really the concerns of elvenkind, Avenger. Why should we aid you?'

• Offer the Elf-Lord all the gold and gems in your possession?
• Say that a Devil-beast guards the Orb and Sceptre on the island and you will slay it?
• Say that Galanwiel and all his kin shall forever be welcome in the City of Irsmuncast if he aids you?

[Korgan0]

WE WILL KILL THE DEVIL-BEAST

[Ancient History]

Sure, let's promise to kill the elven abomination. That's gotta earn us some magic brownie points.

[Omegonthesane]

Offer to kill the thing that elves hate.

[rampaging-poet]

Kill the devil-beast! It's not like we were going to avoid fighting it anyway.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I say we kill the beast!

[Corsair114]

We've got the number of the beast, so we'll run to the hills and send it to purgatory.

[angelfromanotherpin]

His face is grim: 'A Devil-Beast, foul spawn of the Dark Elves. We never knew one defiled the earth so close to us. You are a mortal of great courage and resource, Avenger – that much is evident. We were born when the world was young and we have seen mankind grow up out of the mire of creation. We know of your kind, the Ninja; perhaps it is fated that you should succeed in your quest.

'We will aid you, for if you lay to rest a Devil-Beast you will be doing us a great service. But to pass the Fangs of Nadir into the Elemental Sea is a perilous task. Follow me, Avenger.'

You follow him deep into the forest until you come to an area where the trees are less dense, but much taller. Each tree is the home of an elvan family, living on tiered tree houses. You are led to the bank of a rushing river where several boats are moored. They are of white wood, with beautifully carved swan prows.

'These are enchanted elvan boats, Mortal, and they respond to spoken commands. All you need do is tell the boat the direction you wish to travel it, and it shall bear you there. With one of these you should be able to survive even the Fangs of Nadir.' The Elf-Lord wishes you well, saying that this, the river Greenfen, runs to the Inner Sea. 'Head north, and then east to reach the Fangs,' he finishes.

You climb into one of the boats and an Elf casts you off. You command the boat forward and it sails sedately away.


The elvan boat takes you down a meandering river, through lush greenery, and woodland filled with myriad flowers and monkeys of many colours. Soon you come out of the Forest of Fables, and the river empties into the Inner Sea. You command the boat to follow the coastline north. Soon, it turns east and at last the Fangs of Nadir lie before you. They are incredible to behold.

A thin strait passes between two rocky headlands that almost meet. But they crash together continually, driven by some enchantment, or perhaps the very rocks themselves are alive. The force of their meeting sends a great booming roar into the skies, and the water around the rocks heaves and surges in turmoil. You are thankful that you are not trying to pass through in an ordinary sailing boat, for you would stand no chance. You will have to time it perfectly so that the rocks are surging apart when you try to race through.

• Will you pass nearest to the left-hand mass of rock?
• Or to the right?