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

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 2:10 pm

If we can outrun them, but the goblins know the tunnels better, then it makes more sense to keep running down this one tunnel where we have a lead than to duck into passages that they know better than we do.

Continue along the tunnel.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:28 pm

The tunnel curves around in an 'S' bend and then your way is barred by a heavy gate. Warily, you push the gate open and slip through into a dimly lit cavern. Holes in the roof allow beams of daylight into the cavern which is covered by what looks like a moving black carpet. High-pitched chirruping sounds all around you and as you walk across the cavern a pain in your leg, as you are bitten, tells you that the moving carpet is in fact a sea of black rats. Grain has been strewn underfoot, and they are preoccupied with eating.

You run across the cavern, heedless of the rats underfoot, and there is a clamour behind you. A party of goblins with short stabbing swords are chasing you. You leave the passage, pass a grain store, and realize that the goblins are farming the rats for meat. Revolted, you run along a tunnel which leads ever-deeper into the mountain.

As you run on, the tumult behind you increases. Although you have not seen a turning or side tunnel, more goblins seem to have joined in the chase. Rounding yet another corner you are faced with a fork in the passage.

• Take the left fork, which shows signs of heavy wear?
• Take the right fork, which does not?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:43 pm

The one that doesn't show wear probably has something worse than the goblins in it, but fuck that shit we're a ninja and can take on one hardcore thing easier than a bunch of weak ones, and might be able to bypass it entirely by Acrobatics or Climbing or Trapfinding.

Also, if this is anything like UK Steve Jackson/Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, right is always right.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:46 pm

Yeah, take the path less travelled.

And wow - we got hurt by something in the boxed text and didn't lose Endurance?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 6:00 pm

(Avenger is a skilled lock-pick.)

As you glide down the tunnel which bends round some outjutting blocks of hard red rock, the cries of your pursuers ring hollowly behind you. As you round one particular red-coloured boulder, your training in the detection of traps sets off a mental alarm and you pull up short. Ahead is a dark greyish ooze – some kind of quicksand.

You notice a slab of rock jutting slightly from the surface and you bound onto it, drops of grey sludge splattering your legs, and then over the ooze to the other side. You continue on your way, towards a large cavern. Before you reach it, you see a pool at the side of the tunnel.

• Hurry past it?
• Use it to wash the grey filth from your garments?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:26 pm

If the ooze is quicksand there's no need to bother and wash it off, especially since we have no idea what's in the pool.

Keep running.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:52 pm

The goblins have not dared to cross the morass of ooze, but as you lope steadily on their muffled cries tell you that they are approaching you, but in a different tunnel. The one which you are running along is now lit with crude ornamental lanterns. You run onward until, rounding a corner, you surprise the biggest goblin you have ever seen.

He has been counting out gold coins which he shoves under a cloth before picking up a long sword which is clearly not of goblin origin and which seems absurdly large for him to wield. He wears a dented copper crown and rusty ring-mail armour. You have still found no way out of the goblin caves, but there is another tunnel behind the Goblin King.

Avenger, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Fortune +1
Inner Force: 4/5
Endurance: 15/20
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail.
Shuriken: ****
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish.
Special Items: Opal Ring, Pouch with 15 Gold Pieces.

• Use a Poison Needle?
• Hurl a Shuriken?
• Run to the attack?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 2:16 pm

Spit poison at this sucker.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 8:14 pm

Yeah, Poison Needle him.

angelfromanotherpin · Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:39 pm

The Poison Needle streaks unseen towards the Goblin King but as you blow he is lifting the great sword into the air and the needle hits one of the rings in his sleeve-mail and falls harmlessly to the floor. You run to the attack.

As you prepare to flatten the Goblin King, the long sword which he was struggling to heft soars from his hands into the air and begins to fight you on its own. You dodge nimbly, but it is as if the sword is wielded by a champion at arms whom you cannot see, or kill. The blade cuts at your head: lose 2 Endurance.

Avenger, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Fortune +1
Inner Force: 4/5
Endurance: 13/20
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail.
Shuriken: ****
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish.
Special Items: Opal Ring, Pouch with 15 Gold Pieces.

• Try to snap the sword with an Iron Fist punch?
• Flee the way you came?
• Risk everything in an attack on the Goblin King?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:52 pm

We're not going to get far with a floating sword chasing us, and it's way too fucking awesome to not try and sunder a magic weapon with our fists.

Try to break his sword with Iron Fist.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:17 pm

Yeah, it's worth taking the shot at the sword, then murder the King. Ignoring the more dangerous opponent (as it's described, anyway) seems stupid.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:20 am

You manage to slam your stone-hard fist into the hilt of the Dancing Sword, but it is made of tempered steel and it merely spins away through the air before returning to slice into your arm. Lose 3 more Endurance.

• Turn and flee the way you came?
• Risk everything in an attack on the Goblin King?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:21 am

Attack the bastard, it's probably a bad idea but I want Avenger to kill something again.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:56 am

Agree on the fighting.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:07 am

The Goblin King has drawn a short sword with which he defends himself against your sudden onslaught. You will have to parry the attacks of the Dancing Sword with your iron sleeve-rods while trying to kill the Goblin King.

• Cobra Strike Punch?
• Lightning Strike Kick?
• Teeth of the Tiger Throw?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:14 am

He's wearing armor, so punching him won't be of much use, and we need our arms open to parry his magic sword, which means that setting up a throw is risky at best, so we should kick him in the face and hope he has a glass jaw.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:44 pm

Yeah, kick.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 4:49 pm

Your foot strikes twice at the Goblin King's belly and head as the Dancing Sword almost spears your chest.

GOBLIN KING
Defence: 7
Endurance: 10
Damage: 1 Die (Dancing Sword: 1 Die+2)

You are hampered by having to defend yourself against the Dancing Sword. If he survives, your Defence against him is 7 and the Dancing Sword, 6. You may only Block one attack.

(Looks like one Inner Force kick might very well do the job. Giving it a shot. 9 is a hit. Alas, the damage roll is only [1+2]x2=6 leaving the king alive. The King misses and the sword hits. This is an unfortunate position because blocking will leave us with an abominable to-hit chance for next round, but the sword's damage is kind of nasty. However, the block chance isn't great, so I'm going to suck it up – 3+2=5 – and kick again.)

(8 is a hit, and 6+2 ends the King.)

The Goblin King collapses, limbs splayed, and the Dancing Sword clatters to the floor. You pick it up as the cave is suddenly filled by maddened goblins.

Avenger, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Modifiers: Fortune +1
Inner Force: 3/5
Endurance: 5/20
Techniques: Acrobatics, Climbing, Disable Device, Poison Needles, Kwon's Flail.
Shuriken: ****
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish.
Special Items: Opal Ring, Pouch with 15 Gold Pieces, Dancing Sword.

• Run on into the next cavern?
• Try to use the Dancing Sword against them?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 4:54 pm

Let's use the damn thing we fought so hard to get. Let the goblins know that their new king has arrived by showing that we now have control of the Dancing Sword.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:01 pm

"Activate artefact we have no idea how to use" has to be more entertaining than Brave Sir Robin.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:25 pm

You point the sword at them and let it go, hoping that it will attack your foes, but it falls point-first on the floor and is grasped by one of the goblins. You decide to leave the sword to them as you cannot use it and make a break for the next cavern.

You run on once more, legs heavy with fatigue, and you have put two sharp twists of the tunnel behind you when you come to a passage-way, at the foot of some crudely carved steps on your right, which leads into darkness. You pause to take stock, but another group of goblins appears above you on the steps. Not stopping to think, other than to wish that the misshapen and spiteful goblins has never been created, you take the way that leads into darkness. It seems to turn back on itself and plunges downhill sharply, but by now you are utterly confused by the labyrinthine windings of the goblin tunnels. You have gone very deep below the mountain-side before you realise that there are no sounds of pursuit. Turning a corner your torch half lights a repellent and terrifying sight.

A goblin, missing its legs and lower body, dangles at the foot of a plaited vine which is knotted round its neck. Its head is covered by a hood of purple leather which you know from your study of folklore denotes a goblin sacrifice to one of their gods. Below it is what looks like a pool of black, bubbling lava, twenty feet across. Its edges are distended into tongue-like legs and several pale green eyes quiver in the black jelly of its body.

You are looking at a Primordial Terror: a relic from the days when every living thing on the world of Orb crept on its belly, long before the time of the Elder Gods. As you stare in stupefied fascination, one of the green, lidless eyes floats into a tongue of matter which inches towards you. The Primordial Terror uses the Eldritch power of its thoughtless mind to hold you still until it can envelop you. You can think clearly even though you are rooted to the spot.

• Try to spur yourself to action by dwelling on the grisly fate that awaits you?
• Force yourself to disbelieve the apparition before you, knowing that if it is an illusion it will disappear?
• Recite the Ninja covenant of Ninja no Chigiri?
• Call upon your god, Kwon the Redeemer, to be your salvation?

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:44 pm

Let's sing the Ninja Covenant. I doubt any of the first two options will be useful, and we might want to save Kwon's favor for later.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:53 pm

Agreed.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:06 pm

As the nameless horror threatens to engulf you, you mouth the words of the Covenent. When you reach the phrase 'I will be killed many times, yet will not die,' you are able to draw on the mental powers of your training as a Ninja, and you can move again.

• Use your torch on the amorphous mass?
• Use a Poison Needle?
• Risk a leap to swing on the plaited vine that dangles the body of a goblin above it?