Hotcha soars at the enemy and—
The blast wave flings Yog'Moi back and sends him sprawling, his humongous tummy greeting the sky above. A spherical shape prods and pokes his lower back as he comes to a halt, reminding Yog'Moi of the cask of Andoran ale he's carrying on his back. One moment it's there, the next it's gone. Frothing at the mouth with anger and ale, he continues to defy Syndara. "Good! Destroy it all! You're a crap artist! No one will remember you for your art, they'll remember your atrocities!"
Diving aside to avoid falling debris, Xin rolls up into a stand just beside Syndara and jabs at the axiomite, creating an opening for Hotcha, then stabs low, trying to slide his rapier up under Syndara's breastplate.
If critical hit: + damage and the electricity also harms up to two other targets within 10 ft.
Trigger Your Strike hits a flat-footed creature and deals damage.
The target attempts a Fortitude save at your class DC (DC 42). It then becomes temporarily immune to your Master Strike for 1 day.
.....Critical Success The target is unaffected.
.....Success The target is enfeebled 2 until the end of your next turn.
.....Failure The target is paralyzed for 4 rounds.
.....Critical Failure The target is paralyzed for 4 rounds, knocked unconscious for 2 hours, or killed (your choice).
If critical hit: + damage and the electricity also harms up to two other targets within 10 ft.
Hotcha quickly flies back up to Syndara, delivering two powerful punches. Xin misses with his initial hit, but lands a blow with his backstab! Yog passes out more healing. Esh takes a moment to heal himself some before moving back in, once more entering a rage. Syndara weakly swipes at the elf as Esh closes the distance, narrowly missing!
Syndara shrieks again as he lashes out with his many appendages, this time targeting Hotcha. He misses a couple of times thanks to her invisibility, but with two hits and a critical blow, he nearly succeeds in taking down the tough sprite!
Xin maintains his cool in the heat of combat, even seeing Hotcha harmed. Honed to a razor's edge by so many combats, his mind registers the injury to the fairy as a liability to be accounted for, only distantly does he feel the pang of concern for tiny love. He moves on, attacking and guiding his team to victory, deferring both emotion and consequences for later.
If critical hit: + damage and the electricity also harms up to two other targets within 10 ft.
Trigger Your Strike hits a flat-footed creature and deals damage.
The target attempts a Fortitude save at your class DC (DC 42). It then becomes temporarily immune to your Master Strike for 1 day.
.....Critical Success The target is unaffected.
.....Success The target is enfeebled 2 until the end of your next turn.
.....Failure The target is paralyzed for 4 rounds.
.....Critical Failure The target is paralyzed for 4 rounds, knocked unconscious for 2 hours, or killed (your choice).
If critical hit: + damage and the electricity also harms up to two other targets within 10 ft.
”You hit me. I hit back a whole lot harder!”
”Ahem. I said…!”
Barely holding together, Hotcha flits well out of reach.
Xin stabs Syndara in a vulnerable spot, then urges Esh to strike as well. The elf's blade flashes as he cuts into the monstrous foe, allowing Xin to land another backstab. Then, Hotcha delivers a mighty uppercut, rocking Syndara's entire gargantuan form! The shell of his alien form shatters in a haze of glowing dust!
When it clears, Syndara, in his humanoid form, is left standing, breathless and panting, his clothes ragged, hair tousled, and flesh badly bruised, in the center of a plain stone room. Syndara assumes a fighting stance, but his form is sloppy and exhausted. He reels, barely able to remain on his feet...
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Hotcha appears, her fine scarves in tatters, soaked in her own blood. The rainbowish wings and the golden glow do little to add finesse.
She glares at him. There is so much she has to say to him. She says it all with her fist.
The blow sends Syndara flying across the room. As he collapses, the hourglass on the pedestal next to him falls to the ground and shatters, releasing the ashes of Hao Jin. His body dissolving into crystalline dust on the wind, Syndara turns one last time to the new winners of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament.
His final words: “You’ve won.” Then, he is gone.
At the same time, the floor of the Glass Lighthouse shatters beneath you! Inexorable gravity asserts itself as you fall through a kaleidoscopic void. Each miniature world around you similarly cracks and explodes into golden crystalline dust. You continue to plummet into the unknown as the demiplane unravels...
Hotcha covers her mouth as she watches her friends fall through the crumbling floor. ”Oops! Should I not have..?”
She soars down to fly along with her falling friends!
”Whatever happens to us, the people of Goka…”
She can’t bring herself to say it. This could be the end. Xin doesn’t need to hear me thinking of Yan Fei.
Tear-stricken, she turns to Yog. ”Did you ever learn that spell that can make me big, like a human?”
Xin activates his Boots of Flying and grabs his friends, slowing their descent into... whatever it is.
"Is everyone alright?" he asks through gritted teeth. Yog'Moi could stand to lose a few pounds, he decides.
Unlike Hotcha, Yog'Moi feels no fear. Whatever is going on right now feels like a reset, a return to normal. Whether it is supposed to be seen by mortal eyes is a whole nother matter, but Yog doesn't care much for rules.
The sprite gets an answer that might not please her, but it's the one she gets. Truthfully and from the bottom of his cup, the hobgoblin pulls her in for a celebratory hug and then spits it out. "I think you mastered that spell all on your own, Hotcha. And no, I didn't. The world couldn't handle a larger, bigger, and stronger me."
”In that case…”
She slams her body against Esh’s cheek, and then Xin’s! It’s the only way a fairy can hug!
Once the last world has winked out, the Glass Lighthouse itself unravels, leaving you high in the sky of the Material Plane. All of Syndara’s island plummets toward the ocean off the Flying Mountains!
As the island plummets, Yoh brings the Solar Jian II around to its shoreline and, with a grin, catches you out of the sky. From the deck of the ship, you can see the tanuki Rikanzo, the night apparitions, and the members of Tino’s Toughest, safely escape the falling landmass on the back of the Spirit Turtle, and not a moment too soon.
Mokku, the scion of the kaiju Mogaru, also manages to leap from the sinking island, and is caught by a hulking figure whose mass and height eclipse that of the crumbling Glass Lighthouse: the Final King himself, drawn to his child by some preternatural instinct, rising from the shallows of the ocean! The two saurian monstrosities nuzzle each other affectionately before Mogaru, with a bellow that shakes the airship even as it soars overhead, opens his maw and lays fiery waste to Syndara’s crashing island demesne, wiping away the last works of the nefarious Sculptor, his employed demons, and any foul relics remaining on that ruined demiplane.
The flames of Mogaru—who, his revenge complete, returns to the ocean’s depths with Mokku in tow—burn like the sun and shine just as bright, searing into the eyes of onlookers, before they rapidly whirl toward a central point, concentrating further and further until they reach the size of a human woman. With a flash, the flames burst back outwards, not as a column, but in the shape of a great bird, blazing wings stretched out over the horizon. Amid the chaos and conflagration of this cataclysmic scene, the Ruby Phoenix is reborn, her crimson hair shining like rose madder...
Hotcha flutters over to the sorceress, he golden glow faded, looking unspectacular as ever, and to joyous to be bothered by this.
She makes a midair bow.
”Welcome back, Hao Jin! Is this how you become reborn? Fire to your ashes? I could have saved some trouble with a well-aimed Sprite’s Spark!”
Hotcha wonders if it’s too soon for a nearly-dead fairy to joke with a freshly-resurrected sorceress. But she is only good at social stuff when there isn’t a need to be uptight, and she spent the whole tournament fearing Hao Jin.
She is showing her respect by liking her.
"You've won."
My flames blaze at his words, but before I can even attempt to work through the rage and rebuke him, the world shatters around us and we begin falling. Xin grabs Yog and I, slowing our fall until the last of the demi-plane shatters and we see the real world once again, and fortunately Yoh and the airship as well. I sigh in relief as I spy the others swimming away on the Spirit Turtle.
I am satisfied by King Mogaru's complete and total destruction of the island, and even more satisfied upon Hao Jin's resurrection. Hotcha flies over to the sorceress and I feel a slight pang of jealousy. I need to invest in some method of flight. No matter how high I can jump, it's just not the same as truly flying.
Hao Jin smirks at Hotcha. "It takes a little more than that, I'm afraid. But your heart is in the right place."
Taking flight and landing aboard the deck of the Solar Jian II, Hao Jin thanks the you for stopping Syndara. With a casual wave of her hand, she tears open a rip in reality. On the far side of the portal, the lights of Goka shine invitingly, and with another flare of magic, Hao Jin moves the airship through the magical doorway. "You have defeated the Lightkeepers," Hao Jin idly notes. "I suppose that now is as good a time as any to officially name you the winners of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament."
Flowers of fire bloom in the evening sky behind you as the passengers deboard from the airship at the Icefang Aerie in Goka. Thousands of onlookers cheer from below, and the Ruby Phoenix encourages her champions to soak in their victory. “Enjoy this moment,” she says solemnly, “for it’s the last before you make what may be the most important decision of your adventuring lives.” She opens a dimension door before turning back and winking to this decade’s Ruby Phoenix Champions. “Come with me when you’re ready, winners. It’s a big vault.”
Hotcha bows to the people. She performs an air-dance, fires Sprite-Sparks as a simple pyrotechnic display. Her ki gradually builds as she pleases Shelyn!
She makes sure to scan the crowds for the yellow, blue and green auras of Raq and the boy-sprites, and of course she curtsies to Lady Qiu and her contact with Yan Fei shifts quickly from formal to familiar to friendly!
Her gravely wounded state is worn like a badge of honor. ”Our foes were strong, Yan Fei. I feared at least one of us would not return, and if it were me, I hoped you would find love…
“And now I’m to go to the vault, but before I do, I want you to know… there isn’t a treasure in there that could possibly mean more to me than what’s been developing between us.”
Yog'Moi knows. In his heart, the decision had already been made. Whatever comes next, whatever it is they pick, it must allow him to continue his travels. That, and perhaps help him aid the poor hobgoblins living under the reign of terror up north. Ha! What won't they think in Kaoling when they hear an escaped slave won the tournament? Nothing, probably, because they're bloody idiots with empty thick skulls. The thought makes him sigh.
"Look at her, Xin. There's no way Hotcha will be leaving Goka anytime soon. There's too much here for her that's worth a damn. Now, for me, ha! I already sampled most of the booze they got, and what hasn't graced my lips yet will do so tonight. No, I'm done with Goka. Too many people, too many needs. I can barely sate my own, and it feels like the older I get, the more difficult it's becoming to fill that black hole. Maybe I need to return to the simple things: sail the ocean, spend hours trying to catch a fish, and share a meager cup of brandy at the end of the day with the sods stuck with me on a ship in the middle of nowhere."
This, however, made the hobgoblin fall into a laugh he couldn't shake off. No, whatever comes next surely won't be 'that' simple. It's not how Yog'Moi rolls. It isn't how Hei Feng rolls. But for now, Yog'Moi is simply too tired to fantasize about what will be next. Too tired, too thirsty. Once the laughter dies down, Yog'Moi finds himself a drink and offers it to his companions before downing what's left himself.
Uncharacteristically, Xin joins Yog'Moi for a long drink.
"I couldn't agree more, my friend. The simple life, at least for a time. Whatever Fate has in store, I feel certain it can spare us one voyage at least with no responsibilities. I'll come with you if you like and haul those nets."
Xin reflects on the evolution of his desires. When he started the competition he wanted desperately to return to Lingshen and prove his honor to the nobility there. But now such things hold little meaning for him. He has fought kaiju and demigods. He's loved and lost and somewhere amid it all the meaning of honor shifted for him. He no longer cares how he is remembered in the land of his birth where he was, after all, merely a peasant. He carries his honor with him now.
He looks wistfully at the tiny sprite as she flies to meet the Empress. "You know, at least one of us won her heart's desire. That makes this whole thing worth it. I don't think even this city can hold Hotcha for long, but it's welcome to try. I have a feeling we'll see her again some fine day when we least expect it."
"Come on," he says, patting Yog'Moi and Esh on the shoulders. "I smell soup with dumplings. I'm starved."
After her near-fatal encounter with Syndara, Hao Jin takes a brief sabbatical to visit old friends in Axis and perhaps repair relationships with any other forgotten rivals from her storied lifetime. Lady Xhai Zhia beseeches you to share your stories with her, and afterward she produces and directs a well-received opera called Wings of the Phoenix, which recounts your exploits through the Flying Mountains and on Syndara’s Island. General Kaso Hida leads construction of new sea walls and—in partnership with his old flame Lord Aldanar Unmar—a series of enormous magical fighting machines to protect Goka against any future kaiju attacks along the city’s shoreline. Empress Nai Yan Fei, hoping you will visit often, grants you lavish permanent quarters in the Gokan Palace, available whenever your travels lead you back to her city.
After several weeks of celebrations, most of your rival fighting teams depart Goka for their respective homelands. Some of these teams vow to train harder and return for the next Ruby Phoenix Tournament, while others simply go their separate ways in the wake of this decade’s harrowing competition.
Tino’s Toughest falls into this latter category. The Toughest’s monstrous transformation in the Glass Lighthouse left Takatorra with yet more questions about purpose and sense of self, and the tengu swordmaster decides to sojourn across Tian Xia in search of ever-elusive answers. Yabin the Just languishes over his missed opportunity to come face to face with the Celestial Dragon, and so he commits to studying the ancient being at the Rao Sho Monastery until their next emergence. Ji-yook finds the stimulation of Goka too enticing to leave behind and decides to hire out her skills to the city’s highest bidders.
Finally, Tino Tung bids a personal goodbye to you and explains that he has decided to return home to Quain for awhile. He wishes to see his family again, though he promises to keep on training. He solemnly hopes to see you once again someday. Tino’s not sure if he’ll be taking part in the next Ruby Phoenix Tournament—this one has given him enough excitement for a lifetime. “I can’t explain it,” he says with a laugh as he bids goodbye at the crossroads outside Goka, “but these past few weeks have felt like a thousand years.”
And what will become of the Ruby Phoenix Champions? What does the future hold for them?
Hotcha never does go into the vault.
She and Esh had spoken of relative life spans, of him watching a loved one grow old (though the mutual love died before she did)… and Hao Jin’s reply regarding her rise from ashes implies there is a cost to cheating the reaper. The sprites said a thousand years—humans get less than a hundred.
If a treasure is taken from the vault, it will eventually become Hotcha’s… unless she is blissfully ignorant.
To the men: ”I don’t want to know what you get from the vault. I came to this tournament hoping I could be me in a world where my own kind doesn’t seem to exist. I got more than I could’ve imagined. With Yan Fei, I have everything…
“Except power.”
Hotcha drinks from a tiny vial. She starts to grow… she keeps growing to the massive height of four-foot-eleven. Oh, even at ‘human size’ I’m short. She gives each of the men warm hugs, and a kiss on the cheek for Xin.
”Maybe a little power when I officially become a princess bride!” Now that she’s roughly human-sized, she shows off an engagement bracelet* adorned with seven gems of the seven colors.**
*The jeweler could not accommodate a fairy’s finger.
**That’s Hotcha’s seven, with pink instead of indigo.
Xin embraces his companions, saying "It has been an honor knowing each of you. We shook the pillars of Heaven and no one can say more. Perhaps our paths will bring us back to Goka in ten or twenty years' time. If so, I'll meet you right here at the Dragon Gate. If not, live well!"
He looks the enlarged Hotcha up and down for a long moment before giving a wink and an appreciative "Mmm-mmm!"
Shouldering his pack, he walks off in the direction of the harbor.
There, he places the Solar Jian II in a well-guarded warehouse and continues down the dock to an old but seaworthy dhow, lateen rigged and stinking of fish. "Six barrels of beer in the cabin," he tells Yog'Moi. "These men are some of the best fishermen in Goka. They've signed on for a six month fishing voyage. The ship is yours, Captain. I'm just here to man the nets and drink beer. I still don't know if Esh is coming."
__________________________________________________________________
After a long and pleasantly uneventful voyage, Xin made his way back to Goka dressed as a wandering warrior, unrecognizable save to those who knew him well. With a glance up at the palace, he went to the warehouse in the dead of night, avoided all the guards and stole his own ship, sailing the Solar Jian II out into the Iobarian Ocean alone.
In the years since, Solar Jian II returned to Goka twice, Once, it was crewed by reptilian sailors. No captain was seen and the ship departed before dawn. Twenty years later the mysterious ship returned and a not entirely human young woman stepped down onto the quay. Coppery skinned, with hair like burnished gold, she bore a rapier and emerald armor that were once well-known in the great city.
She stopped a passerby. "Tell me, which way to the Dragon Gate? I have business there before I enter the Ruby Phoenix Tournament."
The hobgoblin's eyes bulge when Hotcha brandishes the rather expensive-looking engagement bracelet. The implications of it be damned, this is a joyous thing! "Ha! It seems you already got your pick from the vault! Smart! To drink from the cup that's given to you! Ha, one day I might learn to do that, but I much prefer the idea of making sure all of the cups end up coming my way."
Just because Yog'Moi knows what the wisest course of action is doesn't mean he'll follow up on it. Au contraire. Then comes the moment to say goodbye - the actual act of waving and walking away might come later, but this right here is the moment the four of them untangle from one another. The massive grey blob joins in on the hug and holds on for just a little longer. This will be the one to remember for Yog'Moi won't be around in Goka for much longer. "Stay true to yourself, won't cha? It's gotten you - no, it's gotten all of us this far. We've seen and done things that defy the imagination, and all four of us know that in the coming years, we'll be accused of lying when we recount our deeds. Laugh at 'em! Ha! The poor suckers aren't worth our anger, because when we were at our best, the Gods were looking."
And knowing that, the truth of it firmly lodged within Yog'soul, what else is there left to say? No, now is the time to pave the way to tomorrow and self-marinade in intoxication.
---
Clad in a sleeveless Kaoling coat that leaves most of his chest exposed, Yog'Moi is dressed for the occasion. The various clay jugs and flasks that normally adorned his figure have made way for sleek metal vials and flasks, stashed away in his coat in many a hidden pocket. Ever-flippant, he can't help himself when the stoic Xin fills him on what's what. "Only six? I guess I better start thinking about how to ration it, ha!"
The seas were oddly quiet in the voyages that followed. Perhaps like Yog, Hei Feng too needed time to recover. After all, the hobgoblin couldn't have done it dipping richly into the bastard's well of power.
And so, where the hobgoblin relied on the divine for basically everything during the tournament, the months away at sea saw him call on Hei Feng only when there was no alternative.
---
Kind winds and good weather only last so long before the next storm comes on by. For Yog'Moi, the storm wasn't so much a physical thing as it was a thing that brewed within his soul. Most journeys have a starting point, a place often referred to as home, but could he truly call Kaoling home? Like a mother who rejects her offspring, Kaoling had chewed him up and spat him out.
Still, there was a score to settle and the deeper Yog'Moi got stuck in his cups, the bigger the score seemed to become.
Perhaps only rumors managed to reach past the borders of Kaoling of what transpired that one fateful night, but the story goes that a living lightning bolt struck the Palace of the Black Daimyo - Kaoling's holiest of temples to General Susumu. As it collided with the temple's main gong, the cataclysmic noise woke up the entire city of Dhucharg. Some say that what ensued was a duel between an uncouth drunk slave and the Warlord himself. Others say that there was no fight, and the only proof of it being no ordinary crash of lightning was an impressive pool of processed liquids - tactfully deposited on Susumu's altar.
Thunder rocked the heavens in the nights that followed and it is anyone's guess what truly happened on that night and in the weeks after.
As usual for me, endings are... painful. First is the goodbye to Hotcha, and a brief reminder of our prior conversation about relationships.
I stay with Xin and Yog for a time, fishing off the end of a ship in the middle of the ocean. It is surprisingly calm, and while I don't particularly enjoy fishing, I do enjoy sleeping in the sunlight.
After the voyage, we all go our separate ways. Another ending, another pain. I visit my parents. It's nice, they're doing well. My mother slips a wand of sending into my bag as a not-so-subtle reminder to do better at staying in touch. It's incredible how parents never quite lose the ability to embarrass their children, no matter the age.
I retrace my steps from centuries ago, over the Crown of the World, then south south south until I reach one of my former homes. I visit the my wife's grave, trace her name, and the names of the children we should have had. The gravetender is new (all the people in town are new, none are left who would remember me). But he recognizes my name, and accepts my offering to make sure their grave is particularly well tended.
It takes days, and several pouches of flayleaf before I return to normal.
I wander around Avistan for a few months before getting bored and heading to the Gravelands, slaughtering any undead I find. It's... oddly soothing. I occasionally run across scouts or raiding parties from knights, and they keep me somewhat up-to-date on the world outside. Years pass, and soon enough it's time for me to leave if I want to make it to the next tournament on time.
I pass by my wife's grave again. It is well cared for. The gravetender is already visibly aged, but still remembers me.
It takes days, and several pouches of flayleaf. I recover while traveling this time.
I arrive back in Goka a month before the tournament. Hotcha, at least, is unchanged, and I take deep comfort that I have at least some friends I won't have to worry about dying of old age.
I enter the tournament solo this time. Fire dances around me eagerly as the first round starts.
And thus, the story of the 4721 AR Ruby Phoenix Tournament has come to an end. But the legend of its champions will endure for generations to come.