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

[hogarth]

Bucharest. Er, I mean Serakub.

[Omegonthesane]

Repeating my vote for Greydawn.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Solstice is in this book what Greystaff was in the last, it seems: someone you should never turn for advice to.

Well, Greydawn sounds like it's the closest, so let's try heading there and hope that the beastmen are noble savages, or at least are as open to negotiations as much as our mercenary buddy thinks they are.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The announcement of your imminent departure from Irsmuncast causes panic, but when you explain that you are going to find an ally who will help to protect the city, calm is restored. You declare a state of martial law and leave Force-Lady Gwyneth in charge, cautioning her to watch Lackland carefully but not to force any confrontation with the reverencers of Nemesis. To Lackland you say before you leave that you will fight for all the citizens and that the supporters of Nemesis will not suffer under your rule. After all, his forces outnumber Gwyneth's almost two to one. Antocidas is having a hard time stopping his mercenaries deserting, since there is precious little gold with which to pay them. In the interests of secrecy and quick movement, you decide to travel to Greydawn alone.


Using as a staff your Sceptre, which you have come to realise, just by wishing to, you can use to influence people, you stride out.

(We missed any explanation of this, but there is some. It didn't work on the orcs because it doesn't work on the already hostile.)

The first leg of your journey takes you obliquely past the southern tip of the Rift, the Bowels of Orb, that great chasm like a rotting seam on the fruit that is Orb. In the caverns and catacombs that riddle its cliffs and descend to the centre of Orb dwells so much evil that the minds of men cannot even begin to comprehend. Somewhere far from the light of day lurk the cities of the Old Ones and others from the age before the coming of man.

You decide to give the chasm a wide berth, but your eagle eyes notice a minute black speck circling far above you in the clear sky. It is joined by a mate, and you can guess from the patterns that they are carrion crows, as like as not sent to spy on you by Dark Elves from the Rift. You press on, anxious not to waste time.

(Avenger has a green emerald Orb in place of his lost left eye.)

As night approaches, one of the carrion crows caws faintly and then lets itself be borne away by the wind in the direction of the Rift. Long before the last light has gone, your acute sense of smell alerts you to something unnatural. All is peculiarly still, the wind has changed and the taint on the air is coming from the direction of the Rift.

The world goes a glassy green. For some reason your brain is concentrating on the vision it receives from the emerald Orb. You recoil in shock.

Just a few paces away from you is a creature from your worst nightmares. Its body is like that of a six-legged mammoth from which the flesh has wasted away. It has three heads, each totally different and each overloaded with a fearsome array of tusks, fangs, and horns. Its shape shifts as if it moved by floating, its feet not quite in contact with the bare earth. You can see nothing through your natural eye; the creature is invisible to normal men. Three misshapen serrated tongues slaver and saw at grotequely calloused lips.

Its intention – to kill you – cannot be mistaken. It towers high above you.

• Forked Lightning Strike kick?
• Cobra Strike punch?
• Winged Horse kick?

Avenger I, Overlord of Irsmuncast-nigh-Edge, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Kick +1, Throw +1, Fortune +1
Inner Force: 5/5
Endurance: 11/20
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, Amulet of Nullaq, the Orb (in eye), the Sceptre.

(I'm a little concerned that we didn't get any healz. On the one hand, I can understand that multiple hot irons to the innards could take a while to get over, but on the other hand, Avenger's healed from worse with less rest, and has a buddy who knows Hands of Excellent Health.)

[Ancient History]

Let's go for the winged-horse kick on the three-headed mammoth abomination. Because seriously, when Cthulhu's little brother comes calling, a karate chop is just not going to cut it.

[Korgan0]

What a wanker.

I'm thinking Serakub.

[angelfromanotherpin]

There is little point in using finesse against the monster. The Winged Horse kick will do as well as any other, you guess, as you drive your heel at the nearest snapping head with bone-crushing force.

THE SPAWN OF THE RIFT
Defence: 4
Endurance: 24
Damage: 2 Dice +3

There is no way that you can block the attacks of all three slashing, goring, snapping heads at once. Your Defence as you leap back and try to dodge is 6.

(Mother of mercy, that's... very bad. With the low defence and high endurance, it looks like it's supposed to leech the Inner Force out of us. And it's going to succeed at least once.)
(Inner Force Kick! 7+1 is a hit, for [4+2]x2=12 damage. Its 10 is an unblockable hit for 6+3=9 damage. Avenger can't take another one of those.)
(Inner Force Kick! 7+1 is a hit, for [6+2]x2=16 damage. Booyah!)

The grey skin bulges where the three necks meet, high up on the beast's body, as if there were an important nerve centre buried just beneath it. Your Cobra Strike punch hits home and your fingers sink into a surprisingly soft flap of skin. The monster convulses and collapses to the ground at your feet. Though invisible, its pulse can be felt and it weakens gradually and then stops altogether. You decide to leave the corpse for the ants that will detect it by smell alone and continue on your way. This unnatural creature is a creature of the darkness, most likely a pet of the Old Ones, you surmise.


You have not gone much further when a new threat presents itself. Three giant crows, each large enough to bear a man, carry three figures towards you. Your excellent vision, not of the green world of the planes as seen through the Orb, for these are natural beings, allows you to tell at a distance that they are Dark Elves, probably spellcasters, for they carry only short stabbing swords and wear no armour. You decide to take a stand between a gaunt tree that has been struck by lightning, and a pier of naked rock.

The crows glide clumsily to the ground and the Elf riders dismount at three corners of a triangle of which you form the centre. Each wears a strange purple headdress with a bloated green spider perched on top. They are instantly recognisable as worshippers of Nullaq, the Supreme Queen that rules in Malicious Envy. Each places a small purple executioner spider on the ground before them. The spiders are no bigger than a man's thumbnail, yet their bite kills a horse in seconds. Each casts a spell upon the spiders and then all three chant musically in unison your name, Avenger. You have been named as the one the spiders must attack.

All around the rock and the tree is bare burnt earth. The spiders can scuttle quickly across the ground, and it is unlikely that you can escape from the triangle for you will be bitten.

• Try to kill the spiders at a distance with your Throwing Stars?
• Hurl a Shuriken at one of the Dark Elves?
• Climb the tree?
• Feign death behind the pier of rock?
• Advance towards one of the spiders, keeping the rock and the tree between you and the other two?
• Or, if you have Immunity to Poisons, ...?

Avenger I, Overlord of Irsmuncast-nigh-Edge, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Kick +1, Throw +1, Fortune +1
Inner Force: 3/5
Endurance: 2/20
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, Amulet of Nullaq, the Orb (in eye), the Sceptre.

[Omegonthesane]

I find it worrying that we didn't get to shuriken them while they were setting up their spider appreciation club. Shuriken one of them now, their spell might not have ontological inertia.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Shuriken those elves, we can take care of their pets later.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Your Shuriken flashes through the air, but your target breathes a spell of transmutation and the Throwing Star becomes a feather that flutters harmlessly to the ground. With a shock you realise you have lost sight of the positions of two of the spiders.

You look around warily, but one of them crawls under a stone nearby and, as you step back towards it, rushes out and sinks tiny fangs in your heel. The poison courses through your veins and death is swift. Now Honoric and the forces from the Rift will carve up the fate of Irsmuncast.



(This book is bizarrely uneven – the awesome is very awesome, but there seems to be quite a bit more bullshit. This seems like a natural place to have a suboptimal choice be a setback or endurance loss instead of an insta-kill. Not that we'd have survived an end loss.)

<rewind noise.>

• Try to kill the spiders at a distance with your Throwing Stars?
• Hurl a Shuriken at one of the Dark Elves?
• Climb the tree?
• Feign death behind the pier of rock?
• Advance towards one of the spiders, keeping the rock and the tree between you and the other two?

[Corsair114]

Let's try the shurikens against the spiders.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'm kind of concerned that the Dark Elves will just cast the same spell to save their spiders, but maybe they won't be able to see the spiders get ganked in time.

Let's try it anyways, because we have enough shuriken to take out Honoric's entire army at this point.

Out of curiosity, would having Immunity to Poison just make us win this encounter?

[angelfromanotherpin]

Out of curiosity, would having Immunity to Poison just make us win this encounter?

(No. It reminds you that your training with this spider's poison only let you take a very small amount. If you get bit only once you lose 8 Endurance and if you live through that it's a win. But coming in at End 2, it's no help at all.)


The spiders scuttle quickly across the burnt earth towards you, zig-zagging and darting wildly. They seem to gravitate towards cracks in the ground and stones automatically as if in search of safety. Note how many Throwing Stars you have and then roll a single die to see how good your marksmanship is. Add the die score to the number of Shuriken you have left.

(3+15=18)

The speed and accuracy with which you cast your Throwing Stars is a dream to behold. The spiders' remains are smeared across the bare earth. You encircle them, watching the Dark Elf sorcerors, but each mounts his flying mount and they flap away into the growing dusk that seems to well up out of the Rift.


You carry on into the night, not resting until mid-morning the next day. When you awake a few hours later, the crows are wheeling far above your head once more.

(The journeys to Greydawn and Serakub follow this same path so far, but now they diverge. Korgan0's late vote for Serakub brings the choice of destination to a draw, so I'm reopening voting on that decision.)

• Continue south for Greydawn?
• Turn east for Serakub?

[Korgan0]

I'll change mine to Greydawn.

[angelfromanotherpin]

From the barren expanse of bare earth that surrounds the Rift, you pass into a land of wooded hills and then on into the deepest forest you have ever seen. The tall trees are so close together that they block out almost all the sun's rays, so that you can hardly tell the difference bwtween day and night. There are the Forests of Passing, and it is said that those who enter them pass from this world into a twilight realm of dreams and are never seen again.

After two – or is it three? – days you come to a clearing where a shaft of sunlight bathes a gaunt figure in a grey robe. You step forwards to ask the way, but the sun passes behind a cloud and when it reappears he is gone and all you can hear is the solemn hooting of an owl. At last, however, you come to the banks of a beautiful green river. It is the youthful River Greybones, and if you follow its windings it will lead you to the fabled City of Greydawn.


You have rounded the Mountains of Horn, the southern boundary of the Manmarch, while inside the forest, and now you have entered the Lands of Beasts. Men too live here, but their rule is not undisputed. You have little idea what to expect here as you turn a bend in the river and spy a neat patchwork of fields laid out around a city part shrouded in mist. As the day waxes, the mist lifts to reveal proud gaunt walls built in the style of the ancient Emperors of the Blue Seal: Greydawn is ancient indeed.

To your surprise, some of the fields are tilled by slaves tied together in rows. Other peasants are obviously serfs, toiling together on the land of their masters. Many are driven on to labour harder by great hog-headed beastmen, naked to the waist and revealing hugely powerful torsos, their blue-black skin rippling on taut sinews. They pay you scant attention as you approach the city gates.


As you are approaching the iron-bound gates they are swung open and an impressive figure rides out at the head of a retinue of lackeys and manservants. He rides a magnificently caparisoned black charger. His hair is braided with cloth of gold and he wears solid gold vambraces studded with diamonds. But the strangest thing is that he is one of the fierce wolfen, two metres tall and covered in steely grey hairs, while his servants and lackeys are all human.

He reins in beside you and gives you a chilling stare. You remind yourself how remarkable you yourself must look in your black costume, albeit tattered from the journey, with your glowing green gem of an eye. He speaks words in a barbaric tongue you haven't a chance of understanding.

• Try to talk to him in the common tongue?
• Ignore him and walk on into the city?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Let's at least try to make an attempt to communicate with him.

[Corsair114]

Sure, let's try common.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Omegonthesane]

Herp derp at him in common, he might understand us. Or one of his lackeys might be a translator.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You tell the wolfen that you are Avenger, Overlord of the City of Irsmuncast nigh Edge in the eastern Manmarch. To your surprise, the wolfen seems to understand. He replies that he is Ogg Red-Hand, Lord of the mighty Cavalry of Resplendent Empire. His language is the common tongue of a millennium past, all but unrecognisable. You are able to convey to him the reason for your visit to Greydawn, and he says that he will take you to meet the rulers of the city. He seems to believe your improbable story. You cannot tell whether he is cunning or plain stupid, but he looks unpleasantly dangerous.


Ogg escorts you throught the streets and squares of Greydawn, each of which boasts an equestrian statue of Moraine, the God of Empire, majestic and arrogant. Ogg tells you that some of the statues are three thousand or more years old. As you pass a blackstone temple that is built in the shape of the Whirlpool of Nemesis, the Supreme Principle of Evil, Ogg Red-Hand makes obeisance, describing the shape of a whirlpool on his forehead. The sight of the wolfen doing this seems strangely bizarre, and it makes your flesh creep.

At last you stand before the most magnificent temple you have ever seen. Great columns rise up in row after row towards mosaic roofs of lapis lazuli and gold-leaf somehow inured to the weather. Another shining golden statue to the God of Empire stands astride the enormous stairway that leads to the city gates. Inside you meet two whom Ogg says are the rulers of this strange city.


The two rulers to whom Ogg introduces you could not be less alike. One is a great ox of a man with a ruddy complexion and the tan and callouses of a man used to sword practice in the sun. The other has the olive-green pallor of one who shuns the sun. He is tall and almost unnaturally thin, as though he suffered from a wasting disease. Strangest of all, however, is the fact that seven spherical gems of different colours hover above his head and move with his movements as if attached to him with invisible wires. Both are dressed in the gold and azure finery of Moraine.

When you talk of war you can see their interest. Nobody would ever attack them in this backwater region. Their nearest neighbour is the fleshless king of the City of the Runes of Doom. They have nowhere to use their military might. Yet Peistratus, the thin one, says that there will be no reward for their defeating your enemies.

Remembering the words of Antocidas, you offer them a large tract of land between the River of Beasts and the Rift, which you refer to as Barren Lands. They fall in with your plan surprisingly quickly and invite you to review their troops. You can hardly believe how well things are going.

(Avenger has the skill of ShinRen)

Using your skills of ShinRen, you can tell that Peistratus and Herris Alchmeonid are not to be trusted. Certainly you judge that when they find out that the lands you have offered border the Rift they will not be useful allies. Ogg Red-hand the wolfen is far too dangerous to trust. Accordingly, you decide to make Serakub your ally instead, but you will have to run all the way to arrive in time.


Your stealth and such woodcraft as you have, in particular your skill as a tracker, are put to good use as you turn eastwards through the wilderness. Several times you almost run into warbands of Orcs returning from raiding across the plain of the Inner Sea. Evidently Irsmuncast is not the only city that suffers at the hands of the Spawn of the Rift. You are still two days out of Serakub, skirting the deeping woods, when a party of twenty riders emerges from the forest and gallops towards you. You are relieved to see that they carry the familiar lozenge-shaped shields of followers of Dama. It is a patrol from the city of Serakub.


You decide to tell them no more than that you are travelling to Serakub and they lend you a reserve mount. Many are curious about your glowing green Orb of an eye, but they suppress their curiosity when you pretend that you are sensitive about it.

You learn much on the journey. There is no one ruler of Serakub; it is a republic. A hundred Prodromese, each chosen by the vote of the populace, sit in a council called the Boule where decisions of state are made. The followers of Beatan hold a few votes more than either Dama or the nature god's followers. It seems you will have to make a speech in the Boule.



The City of Serakub lies on the banks of the beautiful blue waters of the Ebune river amid richly fertile fields. Everywehre flowers blossom and there are clouds of many-hued butterflies in the meadows. You are escorted through the city gates into the beautiful City of Gardens. Many of the buildings of the city have been built out of different types of stone of many colours.Most are covered in a drapery of flowering creepers, clematis, Ra's glory, red ivy, and widowfoil.

You are taken to the city hall in which is the Hall of Governance where the Boule meets. Scribes fire a number of questions at you, writing all the time with ostentatious flourishes of their quills. Their version of the common tongue is at first difficult to understand, but with practice this improves. At length you are called upon to address the Boule.



You look around at the hundred Prodromese as you nervously try to decide what to say and in what manner to say it. The Sceptre at your side lends you confidence. The people seated in the tiered pews of the oval hall could hardly look more different, one from another. Many proclaim the deity they serve through their dress.

The followers of Beatan are unmistakable; they are spread evenly throughout the hall, but all wear the badge of the five-spoked Wheel of Myriad Possibility. Seated opposite you is a body of men and women who wear the sword and lozenge-shaped shield of Dama. On their right is a group of stange-looking men clad in greens and browns, each wearing a sprig of oak in their hair. You guess them to be the followers of Ilexkuneion, the god of animals and plants.

Beyond them you are dismayed to note fifteen or so black whirlpool badges, and next to these a like number of purple and green spiders. Serakub has its share of evildoers too. Fate and Torremalku the Slayer are also represented, and there are six young priestesses bearing the symbol of a crescent moon, but the identity of their god or goddess eludes you.

They are a mixed audience indeed. There will be no secrecy here in the Boule.

(Avenger is not hideously scarred as a result of tearing the emerald Orb from his eye socket.)

• Tell them of your father and ask them to honour his memory?
• Make much of the evil of the Legion of the Sword of Doom?
• Invoke the power of the Sceptre as you describe the justice of your cause?

[Corsair114]

Use the Sceptre.

[Omegonthesane]

Wave your kingly rod.

Wait, there was an option to rip out our awesome-o-vision eye? Seriously?

[Corsair114]

Wave your kingly rod.

Wait, there was an option to rip out our awesome-o-vision eye? Seriously?

Yeah, immediately after we shoved it into our eye socket.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Soon after you begin your speech, which is an honest one summarising the difficult position you find yourself in as Overlord of Irsmuncast, and your hopes and aspirations, you invoke the friendly power of the Sceptre. Your charisma is subtly increased and your voice carries a compelling ring of truth and understanding. Looking around, you cans see that your actions have polarised the feeling of the Boule. The followers of Nemesis and Nullaq, the Spider Queen, scowl at you with ill-concealed distates. Others seem receptive to your words, but it may be that some of the Prodromese have detected your use of magic. At length your speech is done, to loud applause and some hissing.

After you have finished speaking there is an energetic debate. One of the followers of Dama says that yours is a just and noble cause and calls upon the followers of Beatan to vote with her and become your ally. The followers of Beatan appear to be divided, and the followers of the nature god indifferent. Those of Nemesis claim that to send forces to your aid would leave the city exposed to an attack by the Spawn of the Rift.

Suddenly, a priestess of Nullaq, the Supreme Queen who rules in Malicious Envy and whose touch is poison, stands up and denounces you as a trickster who uses magic to beguile the members of the Boule.

• Admit that you have used the powers of the Sceptre?
• Ignore her, saying instead that you are also in the middle of a war with the Spawn of the Rift?
• Say that you will promise under threat of a dire curse to come to their aid if they are ever attacked?

[Omegonthesane]

As Tywin Lannister would say, do not breathe life into a malicious lie by discussing it. Or reacting to it.

Even if it's totes the truth.

Which is to say, ignore the bitch for now.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Put Priestess on Ignore and tell the people about our own Rift troubles.