Search Posts
Apologies to everyone in games I'm in. I have exams at the moment, which is making me busier than normal, but I also had a mild family crisis (nothing serious thankfully!) that resulted in me needing to babysit my sister's kids while trying to juggle studying and exams and whatnot. Busy times. I'll try my best to catch up tonight and tomorrow, but please do bot me in the instance that I am (almost certainly) holding things up. After my exams are done next week things will be better. Sorry again!
Trusting that Gorn would soon be there to back her up - and that the rest of the party's enfilading fire would assist from a distance should the border guards swarm her - Hyeon-ae moves up with a determined (albeit sad) frown. To think the nation had brainwashed them so much to see themselves as nothing but pawns in Lingshen's machinations... She reaches over her shoulder, selecting yet another arrow tipped with red fletching, and lets it fly with surprising accuracy into the chest of one of the border guards. [dice=Attack vs. the "middle" one (PBS)]1d20+4+1[/dice]
Moving along the boardwalk and protectively placing herself in front of Gorn, Hyeon-ae nods along with his words of peace, although her bow remains in her hands... she would certainly be happy to let these guards go with no more harm done to them. Held Action until after Diplomacy attempt: If they seem unlikely to surrender, she will sigh, and respond with, "So be it. I wish that we did not have to do this."
"Well, then, would you care to show us this proof?" Hyeon-ae says evenly, hands twitching as she resists the urge to grab her bow immediately. "We have been attacked by bandits previously, and would not wish to make the same mistake. No offense intended--I am sure you are most serious," she offers them a tight-lipped smile, "but I am also sure you can understand our hesitation in this matter..."
Well, she's not exactly the most convincing -- perhaps the icy tone of voice gives away her irritation -- but Hyeon-ae is fairly sure she can see right through them as well.
Hyeon-ae seems to almost want to say something about the way Zephri and Gorn are talking about the local tribespeople, but seems to think better of it and remains silent on the matter. There's almost certainly a few wrinkles of consternation on her brow, however. "Yes, we might as well leave it at that. It appears the locals do not like us much at all."
Hyeon-ae bows deeply to the healer woman, murmuring a long stream of apologies in Tien before backing out of the tent. Only then does she explain to the foreigners of the medicine-woman's anger at being interrupted. "She threatened the wrath of the Sky Spirits on us. I don't think we will have much luck here." When Noorzad explains that they may be able to manufacture their own incense, the inquisitor breathes a sigh of relief. "Let us do that then, and not bother the local deities while we stay here."
"Perhaps you can tell us more of the Sky Spirits and your usual rituals to honour them?" Hyeon-ae offers gently, hoping this would spark something to diffuse Zephri's building wrath. "I have heard tell that they take to the skies above Shaguang. Perhaps a dance, or an offering, would sate their wrath this time?"
Hyeon-ae greets Ogokai with a deep and respectful bow. As they move to the shrine, her eyes are caught by the grazing horses, and she winds up lagging to the back of the group before hurrying to catch up. Everyone knew of the Tian-La's exquisite horse stock; even her companion Jin could not hold a candle to the quality borne from the keen eyes of the nomadic La peoples. When the shaman continues to explain the misfortune wrought by the Sky Spirits, she nods in understanding. Sometimes the spirits of the land were capricious indeed, although there was always a chance to sway hearts and minds. "I agree with my companion here, Ogokai-nim. We are in true need of the incense, but I would not wish to tempt the Sky Spirits' wrath. Can we help you with anything?"
After patching everyone up, Hyeon-ae joins Gorn in collecting up the horses. She calls out quietly to them and calms them down, clearly having a way with animals... rather unsurprising, really, considering her close bond with Jin. By the time she returns from belowdecks after getting the horses settled down and putting out some hay and oats for them to eat, she runs right back into Zephri and Gorn arguing about... graves, it seems. Hyeon-ae hesitates between the two men, trying to decide whether to make herself scarce or intervene... in the end, her noble heart demands she butt in, although not without some reservations. "Though I do not wish to dishonour the dead," the young Hwan speaks up awkwardly, "Zephri-ssi is right in that we owe these bandits nothing. Their honour was forfeit the moment they chose this path of theft and violence. Your concern is most respectable, though, Gorn-ssi." She nods her head to him. "... I do sincerely hope their souls can properly learn of justice and honour in their next life." Hyeon-ae clasps her hands together and closes her eyes with the quick prayer.
Hyeon-ae heaves a sigh as she hears Noorzad collapse behind her. She gives him a cursory glance before focusing her attacks on the injured horseman. She takes a deep breath, trying to centre herself before letting another feather-tipped arrow fly...
... this time, she seems to have gotten the hang of it! After seeing the rider downed by her attack, she swiftly moves backwards across the deck to block Noorzad from any further harm.
Hyeon-ae had been dozing away on the top deck in the sun, sitting atop a barrel of supplies and struggling to not nod off completely from the boredom of the trip. However, when an arrow thunks into the outer edge of the ship, she jumps up, startled. Almost instinctively, the young Hwan woman reaches for her bow, and in one swift movement she knocks a feather-tipped arrow into position before letting it fly.
As she knows well, hitting a moving target on horseback is quite difficult!
I'm aliiiive. Hyeon-ae is updated, 'cept for her history which is probably irrelevant to most of you anyway. :P She's now an Inquisitor of Iomedae (tl;dr history: she is of the opinion that Iomedae and Shizuru are the same being, just with different names. Hey, she's not a Heretic for nothin'.) She has the Chivalry inquisition which means she still has her horse. Although I suspect he'll be staying belowdecks in a pen somewhere for this trip.
A tonne of basic equipment is in the Core Rulebook (including torches, backpacks, etc.). They have been reprinted in UE, sure, but everything in Core is fine. However, spring-loaded wrist sheaths are from Adventurer's Armory, so you have to own that if you want to use them. PbP sorta functions with an honour system style of play, though. There isn't much of a way to prove you own this or that... Will update Hyeon-ae momentarily. Don't have time to re-write her backstory that the changes necessitate, however... (Uni is killing me at the moment.)
It doesn't make much of a difference, of course... I just like feeling like it's my good or bad luck that got me a boon (or made me miss out on one) rather than someone else's, y'know? If the group really does prefer rolling 'em all at once, I won't argue though. Don't mean to sound annoying about this!
No day job here. Also, Kim, remember that everyone gets to roll for a boon, too! So... I've been considering changing Hyeon-ae over to an Inquisitor (because I seriously can't settle on how I want to play her as you may have noticed!), and though I was considering waiting until parts 1-3 were over for continuity's sake, with Berosius dropping out I'm considering doing it sooner so we have someone that can drop a CLW spell from time to time. So, in advance, sorry for any strange and sudden changes in her character, I am honestly just struggling with the character concept I had in mind, both personality-wise and mechanics-wise. :P
Hyeon-ae quietens as she listens to the disciple's story, her chest tightening as his words resonate within her. A twinge of guilt rocks through her, realising she is as much a petulant child as Jiang Dan described himself as. A petulant child that could not protect that which she so dearly wished to... could be neither the child her parents dreamed of nor the warrior her heart dreamed of... She shakes her head. She would have more time for self-pity during the rest of their journey across Tian Xia. "Would you allow us to take the Braid of a Hundred Masters with us? If we could find your master and Ying Pei, we might be able to help you in your quest to understand why he took the actions he did. And then you might finally be able to leave this... strange form behind."
The warmth of Berosius' healing energies, the whispers of encouragement behind Iomedae's power, eventually gives Hyeon-ae the strength to look up. She remains silent, however, her countenance the very picture of stoic sadness. It's obvious she's taking her failure to do much at all very hard, and she glumly follows the rest deeper into the temple.
So absorbed in her self-pity, she gives only the barest glances around the place, following dumbly after Gorn and Zephri. As such, Hyeon-ae is utterly taken aback by the statue(?)'s voice in her mind, and she stares in shock at it. Perhaps more shocking is the rude manner in which her companions are treating what is obviously some kind of religious servant of Irori... Trying to shake away her blues, Hyeon-ae steps up and bows deeply to Jiang Dan. "Jiang Dan-nim," she says reverently, "I apologise for my companions' rough manner of speaking. They are from far across the sea and are unaware of local customs." She tentatively raises her head, although slouches somewhat. "May I ask if you were one of the Clouded Path Monastery monks?" "We are here in search of the Braid of a Hundred Masters. Would you know of it, Jiang Dang-nim?"
Finally, finally, Hyeon-ae manages to force herself free from the terror that had gripped her for so long with a loud shout of rage. "You! You will not harm them further!" She moves into the room, her bow trained at her target, but in her hurry to protect her allies her arrow instead flies over the yeti's shoulder and lodges into the far wall. "We need to get out into the open," she says, eyes trained warily on their powerful foe. "This beast is too strong for us, and we are at a disadvantage cooped up here!"
"... another?!" Hyeon-ae recoils in shock from the sight of the second yeti, trembling with terror. No matter how much she wills herself to lift her bow and step forward to attack, her muscles seem to be beyond her ability to control. Shang Xu's... children? she wonders, but her frozen mouth will not let her speak such words aloud.
Hyeon-ae allows herself to breathe a sigh of relief as her arrow ends Shang Xu before his reign of terror could harm her companions too badly. "I thought yeti were larger than this," she says with a frown, approaching the corpse carefully. "Perhaps there is another, somewhere in these mountains..." She goes to affix Jin to the bell structure, this time hopefully without a monster popping up in the process.
Hyeon-ae woke up with a terrible chill, her chest feeling tight as if some ethereal figure was pressing down on her diaphragm and refusing air to come in and out. More than once or twice she had awoken during the night in a fit of gasps, sure that she was choking or had stopped breathing. As they progressed further, she became aware that Jin was in a terrible state as well, his breathing more like that after a long and fast charge--not merely slowly trailing up the mountain pass. The others were succumbing around her as well; the cavalier wonders idly how people manage to live so high in these mountains... Luckily, thankfully, the monastery eventually came into vision. Not that it helped with her exhaustion, but at the very least, this meant that their quest was surely going to come to an end sooner rather than later. Hyeon-ae gently strokes Jin's mane, murmuring words of encouragement in the horse's ears; not long now until you'll feel better again... it had been quite the awful adventure for her poor mount indeed! "Sounds like a good plan, Zephri-ssi," she responds to the gunslinger's query--although, she notes silently, she wonders how he was so peppy despite the pressure of the high altitude! Drawing her bow and knocking an arrow to the string, Hyeon-ae gently nudges Jin forward, keeping an eye out for danger as they scout out around the fallen bell. If nothing immediately jumps out, she dismounts and loosely ties her horse's reins to the structure that once supported the bell.
Hyeon-ae gapes at how swiftly Dagat manages to swing her way down the cliffside, quite impressed. She decides to follow after the often-silent Tian woman, but is obviously much less experienced in the task, often nearly losing her foothold on the rough gravel and having to stabilise the swinging rope.
"Eeek..." Hyeon-ae whimpers when a gust of wind blows through the mountain peaks, clutching desperately to the swaying rope. She manages to not lose her grip, barely, but feels that was a little too close for comfort...
Hyeon-ae gasps in shock as Zephri tumbles over the side of the cliff, fearing the worst, but manages to breathe a sigh of relief when the gunslinger weakly calls out from below. "Can you still move?" she replies, hesitant to raise her voice too high in case of avalanches. "I'll get a rope down there for you!" The cavalier struggles with Jin's saddlebags on the precarious cliffside, trying to hold on to the rock wall with one hand and lean over to the far side with the other to retrieve her coil of hemp rope. She then begins to affix the rope to a nearby boulder and chucks the other end over the edge.
|
