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

[Mr Shine]

IF kick sounds good to me.

[Dr_Noface]

Same

[angelfromanotherpin]

If Doré was a follower of Uther Lightbringer silver-handed, it would go out of control and he'd have to tear it off instead of stabbing the critter. It's a dramatic payoff completely undermined by making no particular sense: why does the hand betray him now as opposed to at any other time?

You splash through the knee-deep water, lashing out with your heel at the creature's repulsive head.

NYKUR
Defense against Winged Horse: 5
Endurance: 26 18
Damage: 1 Die + 1*

• If you have defeated the Nykur...

If not, the Nykur will stop you from retreating with the draw of its single eye-like vortex, and then lash at you with its barbed appendages. Roll a die and halve it (rounding up any fraction) – this is how many appendages attack you at this time. Your Defense is 7 against each attack and you may only attempt to block one. The asterisk is to note that if you are struck by three appendages at this time then you are dragged underwater by them and must lose another die of Endurance from drowning before you free yourself.

If you survive will you next try:
• an Iron Fist punch?
• a Teeth of the Tiger throw?
or kick again (returning to the top of this paragraph)?

I'm actually not sure how to parse the 'dragged and drowning' text. My initial read is that it has to roll max attacks and hit with all of them in the same round to trigger it, which seems like too low-probability an event to account for, and also redundant because after you've taken 3d6+3 in one round you are probably fucked anyway without making it 4d6+3. But that's the read I'm going with.

Inner Force Kick! 7+1 is a hit, for (3+2)*2=10 damage.
Enemy rolls 3 attacks: 9, 5, 4, hitting once for 3+1 damage.
Sticking with Inner Force kicking, 9+1 is a hit, for (6+2)*2 = 16 damage.

The Nykur sinks back into the water spurting rancid yellow blood from your blows, yet its maelstrom of an eye continues to pull you inexorably under the water with it by some unseen force.

(Avenger does not bear the Omega mark on his hand.)

Your Defense against this final attack is 9 and you may not block as it is a test of will. If you are unsuccessful, you lose 1 die of Endurance from drowning until pulled free by Csaky and Doré. If you still live, you leave the flooded dungeons with Csaky and Doré, although the latter is weak from his ordeals.

'That was baited as a trap for you,' Doré says. 'Only the most high-ranking priests of Nemesis can summon such an abomination. Who the devil has taken your throne?'

The Paladin is so wounded that he is forced to lean heavily on Csaky and you realize they will only hinder you from here on in. You lead them back along the quietest route you can manage to the secret hatch in the donjon, advising him to rest on the stair and promising you will come back here for them once you have reclaimed your throne. Doré curses that he is missing his sword, whilst Csaky offers to leave Doré to accompany you.

'I will proceed alone,' you say. 'I am ninja.'

You close the hatchway and seal them in, and then continue on alone, heading for the Throne Room.

You sneak pillar to pillar along the cool marble Palace corridors, evading a patrol of guards as well as creeping by the Palace servants whose whose job it is to light the lanterns as night falls. You pass through the double doors into the vestibule that leads to the Throne Room, and see a familiar armored figure there. Force-Lady Gwyneth has been pacing between the cloak rack and the row of seats, hand on the red-runed pommel of the sword at her hip which she draws as you step into the light from the wall lantern.

'You cannot fool me, charlatan,' she says evenly. 'Avenger is in the Throne Room behind me, and wears the golden rose-crown. Who are you really?'

You reply that you are the real Avenger returned from the Rift and that the throne has been taken by an imposter. Gwyneth looks on impassively, her naked sword glittering in the torchlight.

What will you say next:
• 'The real Avenger would never order troops to the Rift and leave the city vulnerable.'
• 'You had better bend the knee to the rightful Lord of Irsmuncast or, by this Sceptre, I will make you do it.'
• 'You cannot tell if I am the real Avenger or not, but nor can you tell if the person in the Throne Room is. Stand aside and let me face the imposter.'
• 'You were my Strategos and leader of my Watch. After all we have been through, you must know me.'

On an side note, I am now accepting guesses as to the nature of the imposter. Who/what do you think has replaced Avenger?

[Starmaker]

I suspect the "correct" answer is to tell her to search her feelings (except she did fall for the deception, so kinda useless, that). However, there actually was a similar situation and she was the one who could've led the army to die in the Rift, so maybe an appeal to reason would be effective.

[Avarice]

1) At one point in Overlord you have to curb an outcry for a campaign to the rift or face game-over
2) In Warbringer Gwyneth is the one that advises you to defend the city instead of marching to an open battlefield

Tell her what she wants to hear - Avenger wouldnt march the army to the rift

[Omegonthesane]

'The real Avenger would never order troops to the Rift and leave the city vulnerable.'

[Mr Shine]

Avenger is not General Kitchener.

[Avarice]

Avenger is not General Kitchener.

I honestly wouldnt know what to make of this comment.

[Mr Shine]

Avenger is not General Kitchener.

I honestly wouldnt know what to make of this comment.

General Kitchener from WWI has a reputation, (fair or not is a judgement you can make individually) for just sending waves of his men to die at the hands of German machine guns. Not being General Kitchener means not sending your own troops out to die pointlessly.

Edit: I think I should've said Haig, actually.

[SGamerz]

Yeah, the first answer makes the most sense.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Gwyneth laughs. 'Pah! The real Avenger left this city whilst the forces of the Rift beseiged us, in order to bring back an Orb and Sceptre. The real Avenger made for the Rift for the sake of just two friends. No, do not tell me the real Avenger would never order troops to the Rift, for this one would rest fate on a roll of the die and emerge the victor.'

Force-Lady Gwyneth attacks in a burst of blinding speed, her blade jabbing and slashing in a combination of maneuvers. Your Defense against this is 5. If you are struck, you must lose 1 Die +1 Endurance.

• Cobra Strike punch?
• Forked Lightning kick?
• Whirlpool Throw?

Ruh-roh.

Gwyneth's stab is a 9, and given the low odds of blocking and that we'll probably need all our attack modifier, I don't bother trying. 4+1 damage leaves us at 13.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Edit: I think I should've said Haig, actually.

DON'T ASSUME YOU KNOW BETTER THAN HAIG

Throw her.

[SGamerz]

Yeah, we don't actually want to kill her, just get her out of our way. Just throw her to one side and run.

[Mr Shine]

I'm not convinced we won't have to give her a thorough beating before she sees reason but a throw is as good a way as any to start it off.

[Avarice]

Her answer makes no sense, as it does not pertain to what we said.

Avenger is cuckoo enough to follow the whim of his tyrranical god (Kwon FORCES you to search for the sceptre and dive in the rift - in both cases you get punished if you refuse and you are made to go anyway) and out himself in unreasonable danger, true.

But thats not what we said - we said we wont risk other lives for our wacky ventures.

[Omegonthesane]

Throw on the assumption that this is even the real Gwyneth, because that response was so bullshit that now I'm not sure.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You make a grab for Gwyneth's extended sword hand, with the aim of transferring her weight over your hip to send her to the ground. Her Defense against this move is 5.

• If you succeed with your attack...

Otherwise, Gwyneth will slice in at your leg in a sweeping move. Your Defense against this is 6. If Gwyneth strikes you, you must lose 1 Die + 1 Endurance.

• Cobra Strike punch?
• Forked Lightning kick?

Thrown with an 8+1!

Gwyneth is too practiced in battle to be felled by one move, but she is knocked off-balance and backs away from you. The Force-Lady lowers her sword.

'You certainly move like Avenger,' she says. 'I have my doubts, and will not bar your way any further.' She sheaths her weapon and backs out towards the door you entered.

You order her to attend the Temple to Dama at once and stand down the army from its punitive strike on the Rift.

'I will hold the army,' she says in parting, 'until there remains only one Avenger in the Palace. When I return at dawn, I expect to have my orders.'

You enter the Throne Room, a vast and empty space illuminated in the dancing half-light of a few sparse torches. The only figure in the room sits in shadow on the carved throne in brooding silence. Despite your silent advance across the marble floor, the figure senses your approach and stands, stepping forward into the light. The figure is of your exact likeness, dressed in shimmering gold cloth and with the rose-crown of Irsmuncast resting at the brow.

'And so you made it, as I knew you would,' the imposter says in a voice that sounds identical to your own. 'You were warned after you killed the Grandmaster of Shadows in the Valley of Scorpions that we ninja would seek our revenge. I was there.'

'Reveal yourself,' you say in a low voice.

The imposter's features shift slightly to a man with a passing resemblance to you, although his countenance is perpetually distorted by a malignant scowl. He is missing his left eye; with the illusion of the emerald Orb gone there is now just a dark and empty socket.

'I was chosen for this mission for one reason alone,' he says, 'my powers of disguise, for I am neither the strongest nor the quickest of my order. I even cut out my left eye to complete the ruse, yet it was for nothing when Lackland provided a better way to impersonate you. When you killed Mandrake the assassin, the priests of Nemesis stripped his belt of illusion that helped him mimic those rare few figures beyond his personal talent. With that belt and my ninja skills, I have been able to assume your identity and your throne. Yet when rumors flew from the Rift that you had escaped, I spread a warning of an imposter coming and retrieved another item from Mandrake's corpse.'

The imposter produces a glistening swordstick inscribed with your name and the Rune of Everlasting Sleep. You realize with a sense of growing dread that a single strike from that weapon will kill you outright.

'The gods look upon us and demand an answer,' he says, his fist shaking at the heavens, 'to see if this city and indeed the destiny of the Manmarch will be in the hands of Kwon or of Nemesis.'

• Close in and engage him in combat?
• Hurl a shuriken?
• Hurl a shuriken, expending Inner Force?
• Use Poison Needles?
• Hurl flash powder at a torch and then close in to engage him in combat?

Avenger I, Overlord of Irsmuncast-nigh-Edge, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Kick +1, Throw +1, Fortune +2
Inner Force: 3/5
Endurance: 13/22
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail, ShinRen.
Shuriken: *****-*****-*****-***
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flash Powder, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish, Blood of Nil.
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, the Orb (in eye), the Sceptre, Golden Hourglass.

[Avarice]

Im torn between IF shuriken and flash powder.

Going with IF shuriken , because i dont like the flash powder ignition delay + the going close part reeks of swordstick acid spray.
Besides, IF shuriken has already proven it can cut through magic swords

[Darth Rabbitt]

So we're in a grudge match to the death with a gold-clad palette swap ninja from the Scorpion clan.

Avenger (left) and his unmasked impostor (right).

I'd flash powder him, so we can wreck his remaining eye. But I could be convinced to Inner Force shuriken him instead.

[Dr_Noface]

Hmm... no love for poison needles?

[Darth Rabbitt]

The Scorpion guy in the second book had Poison Immunity, and I'm suspecting this guy is equally immune as a callback to that.

[MisterDee]

Poison Needles probably won't work here. IF Shuriken probably will slice off some HP at least.

[Omegonthesane]

IF Shuriken.

One good bit about this being a one-hit kill for us, means we would be no worse off if we'd staggered in on 1 Endurance.

[Avarice]

The Scorpion guy in the second book had Poison Immunity, and I'm suspecting this guy is equally immune as a callback to that.

Also Yaemon also possessed poison immunity, so im pretty sure its an ongoing theme.

I didnt consider needles as an option, because i thought it was the obvious trap choice.

[Mr Shine]

IF shuriken.