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

[Avarice]

Dragon tail worked when he was baiting a punch with the sword scabbard and block+slam worked when he was using the kusarigama.

Techically both these choices were the correct ones for different situations

Block also worked when he jumped at avenger with a stick - the offensive option led to being struck with the blade inside the stick

[Mr Shine]

Slide under.

[Dr_Noface]

confirm for slide

[angelfromanotherpin]

You slide across the floor matting, underneath the swoosh of the quarterstaff and into the legs of the Grandmaster of Shadows. His Defense against your throw is 3. If you hit, note whether the number you rolled was even or odd. If it is odd, then your twisting legs pass straight through your opponent as if you were a ghost.

If you fail in your throw, the lightest of sounds tell you he has skipped aside and is bringing the quarterstaff down on you. Your Defense against this move is 5. If the number rolled is odd, you are too incorporeal to block the attack. His attack is always dangerous if you can block or not, and if you are struck you lose 4 from your Spirit score. If you survive, then somewhere in the dark he is already spinning the quarterstaff against you once more. You have no option but to try and block it, then catch him out with a kick.

Our throw roll is a 7 (+1), so we phase out inconveniently. His return attack is at 8, so we can try to block, even if the odds are bad, and I think it's worth it. Alas, a 6 means we're hit.

Your Defense against the quarterstaff in the darkness is 6. If you are hit you must lose 3 frm your Spirit score. Note whether the number you rolled is even or odd. If it is odd, you have become momentarily incorporeal and cannot block the attack. His attack is always dangerous whether you can block or not.

If you still live, you adjudge the Grandmaster's position in the darkness and lash out a Leaping Tiger kick. His Defense against your attack is 6. If you hit and the number you rolled was odd (after applying your Fate Modifier if any) then your blow passes straight through your opponent. If you fail with your blow, try another Leaping Tiger kick at the top of the paragraph.

If you hit and the number you rolled is even, the darkness clears again as the Grandmaster of Shadows turns to smoke. You find yourself facing a new figure, humanoid but less human.

(Avenger did not kill the demon masquerading as the samurai lord Jikkyu in the rebel encampment.)

Wait, now the miss chance is determined by the post-Modifier number? Mechanical inconsistency alert! Anyway, his attack is a 5, missing; and our counter is an 8+1. I'm not entirely certain whether last paragraph's block should count against us but it doesn't matter because we phase out again.
Round 2 sees him miss with another 5, and us whiff with a 3.
Round 3, he hits us with a 10 and we paste him with a 9+1, and then a new challenger has appeared.

The lithe figure before you is a female Dark Elf enshrouded in purple robes. This is Shadazar, the former commander of the forces of the Rift, whom you found leading her army from atop the Palace in Irsmuncast after their invasion of your city. Indeed the ever-changing walls of this hall display a vista as if you stood atop the Palace once more.

At that time you had struck her down to free your city, and now, eyes flashing in her dark-skinned face, she seems intent on revenge. Shadazar says nothing you can understand but instead casts off her robes, muttering eldritch words, and a startling transformation taking place. Her face enlarges, her nose morphing into a hooked beak, her head sprouting grey feathers. Green scaly wings erupt from her back and a long barbed tail extends.

She has become a dragon-vulture, by all logic too large to fit in the room you first entered. You leap aside as her ponderous form shifts, escaping the snapping of her beak, but her barbed tail stabs in at you. Your Defense is 8 and you may not block such a massive tail. If you are hit you must deduct 3 from your Spirit score.

If you are still alive, you drive a Leaping Tiger kick at her exposed neck. Her Defense is 5. If you hit, note whether the number you rolled (after applying your Fate Modifier, if any) is even or odd. If it is odd, then your blows pass straight through your opponent as if you were a ghost. If you fail in your kick, Shadazar turns to lash you with her tail again as detailed above.

If you succeed in your kick and the number you rolled is even, your blow connects and Shadazar roars as her entire form turns to smoke.

Her first tail swipe misses with a 7, and our first kick (sigh) ghosts through with an 8+1.
Her second swipe connects with a 9, and our second kick connects with an 11+1.

The shifting hall brings you to images of a windswept rooftop beneath three black turrets. Your heart would palpitate if only you could feel it within your chest. Yaemon, the Grandmaster of Flame, stands before you, soaked from head to toe in blood, his expression imperious. This incarnation of evil took your birth father and your foster-father from you. Though his soul has been tormented in the afterlife, he speaks with the same calm he held at the moment of death.

'How are you enjoying the Valley of Shadows?' he says, 'a nightmare of Vile created just for you? I know of punishment, Avenger: my punishment for failing to condemn your god to Inferno was a lake of boiling blood. You and I were left with unfinished business, for there is no escape from this torment. However, by the grace of my great god, I can drag you there with me.'

The focus of will you felt that stormy night comes back to you. You use every martial arts move you know one after another, and Yaemon's Defense is 7. If you hit, note whether the number you rolled (after applying your Fate Modifier if any) is even or odd. If it is odd, then your blow will pass straight through your opponent as if you were a ghost. However, your concentration allows you to exert more control over this spiritual battle: before any attack you can opt to deduct a point from your Spirit score in a similar manner to how you would use Inner Force, and doing so ensures you will actually damage him should your attack be successful, whether your roll is even or odd.

• If you have damaged Yaemon three times...

Otherwise, Yaemon attacks you with a combination of kicks and punches based on his mastery of the techniques of the Scarlet Mantis. Your Defense against this is 7. If the number rolled is odd, you are too incorporeal to block the attacks. His blows are always dangerous whether you can block or not, and you must deduct 4 from your Spirit score if he hits. If you are still alive afterward, attack again as detailed above.

• If Yaemon reduces your Spirit score to 0...

Oo, a rematch with our old nemesis with possible unique game over.
Let's see, our post-Tiger-feels Spirit was 18, and we've been clobbered by the greatest hits gallery for 10, so we're going to die in two hits even if we don't spend Spirit, so we may as well spend Spirit to negate miss chance, it's our best hope.

Round 1: Spirit spend, 10+1 is a hit. Yaemon misses with a 5.
Round 2: Spirit spend, 8+1 is a hit. Yaemon beats our butt with a 9.
Round 3: Spirit spend, 7+1 is a hit. Holy balls, victory by toothskin!

Yaemon howls in frustration as he turns to smoke, desperately clawing at you as he is pulled downward to the lake of boiling blood that awaits him in Inferno. The walls return to plain wood, and you are left standing alone on the matting under a red lantern light, although Yaemon's bloodstained footprints populate the matting.

You advance across the hall, through a door to a spiral stone stairway. You see no alternative but to ascend it.

You ascend the spiral stone stairway, your tread wary, passing by red shuttered windows that are sealed firmly shut. At the top step you reach a large stone door. The handle mechanism of the door is an iron dial with the image of four animals on it: a snake, a tiger, a pegasus, and a dragon. Note which animal you choose to turn the dial to.

Whichever you select, the door clicks and opens into a dark room illuminated only by the insipid moonlight through the window. The moon brightens as if by some celestial conspiracy, revealing a figure lying in state in an open casket :a figure identical to you. On your double's chest, marked in ash, is a copy of the animal image you selected from the door. A shadowy shape raises itself up from your double's prone form and flies in at you.

Choose a martial arts move from those of the Way of the Tiger (such as an Iron Fist punch) to counter this threat. Note it before proceeding.

Okay, so we need to choose a door animal and an attack move. Git to.

Fate Modifier: +1
Spirit: 1

[Avarice]

I like that we are too incorporeal to block a hit, but not incorporeal enough to phase the attack.
I guess our head and torso are more solid than our hands.
Thats a very unique level of matter consistency we are sporting.


Anyway - pegasus + kwon flail.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Sounds good to me.

[MisterDee]

So we have Winged Horse kicks, Dragon Throw, lots and lots of tiger attacks, and COOOOOOBBBBRRRAAAAA.

To use versus door handle of snake, tiger, pegasus and dragons.

All very useful clues, except there's still the fifty-fifty chance of guessing whether the door handle makes the chosen attack super effective or useless.

I'm guessing Leaping Tiger vs Tiger Door, but it's just a coin flip.

[Mr Shine]

I vote for Winged Horse+Pegasus.

[Avarice]

I figured it was more like dragon>pegasus>snake>tiger>dragon type of deal, hence why i opted for a neutral, as opposed using an animal themed strike, since the actual attack-to-animal logic can only be guessed at

But at 1 spirit point its probably better to try nail one of the assumed proper combinations instead of experimenting to see what works.

Changing to a themed attack Horsey kick + Flying horsey

[MisterDee]

changing to pegasus/pegasus as well.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Pegasus/Winged Horse it is.

You step in to deliver your attack against the shade moving in on you. Compare the move you chose for this combat to the animal you chose at the iron dial on the door. Do they match? The Winged Horse kick matches the pegasus symbol, the Dragon's Tail throw matches the dragon symbol, the Cobra strike matches the snake symbol, and the Leaping Tiger kick, Tiger's Paw chop, and Teeth of the Tiger throw match the tiger symbol.

(Avenger's selected move matches the chosen symbol.)

You meet the deadly shade with your chosen move, driving it back before you, and it flees out the moonlight window into the night. You may add 2 to your Spirit score. Your double awakens in its casket, sitting up and turning to stare at you. The scene around you melts as you awaken from the nightmare of Vile.

You materialize in a large circular chamber with no apparent exits, lit by a radiant orb glowing white in the ceiling. You see that any vestige of being insubstantial has now gone from you as you flex your hands. You may split your remaining Spirit score into Endurance and Inner Force, dividing them up as you see fit, but having no more than 4 in Inner Force and between 1 and 20 Endurance - if you have any spare points, they are lost. You may then cross out your Spirit score and use once more all your skills, items, and Modifiers as before you entered Fortuna's cave.

In the middle of the chamber, a large shape shimmers into your sight: a gigantic glistening brain, pulsing on the rock floor. As you look on, its ridges shift to reveal they are not connected. The brain slowly uncoils itself like a snake to a long sinuous form, its hideous head grey and spongy, having two dark slits for eyes, with no other facial features. It speaks directly to your mind.

'I was sent by the gods of evil, Avenger, to bar you from escaping through Fortuna's way. During your time in the spirit world I have acted as a conduit between your mind and the Abyss, manifesting your greatest foes in that realm. Now, though, it is you and I who must settle matters here, to play our part in the reordering of the gods.'

It twists its head as Doré and Glaivas materialize in the room, preparing to attack the creature alongside you. It seems that they too have overcome their own ordeals against this spiteful entity.

• Attack its neck with a Leaping Tiger kick?
• Hurl a shuriken (if you have any)?
• Try to get round to its tail-end whist Doré and Glaivas fight it?

So in addition to battle-strategy, you should also propose how to divide our Spirit of 3 between Inner Force and Endurance.

[Mr Shine]

1 End, 2 IF. We're close enough to death the extra 2 End is unlikely to save us if we take any damage at all, but the IF could dramatically shorten a fight.

Throw a shuriken. (It's only this thread that made me realise it's not shruiken pronounced shrew-ken)

[Dr_Noface]

1 end, 2 inner, throw

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'll agree to all that.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You hurl your shuriken which is lost as it embeds itself into the blubbery flesh of the Mind Maggot, drawing some grey blood from the pulpy mass near its head. Note that you have injured the Mind Maggot.

Doré stumbles at the injury, and you realize that he seems somehow linked with your opponent. Another Doré materializes into the room. Presumably this is the real one, as he attacks his double who seems to follow the unspoken direction of the Mind Maggot as if a mindless simulacrum.

The fiend's tail seeks to whip you. Your Defense against this is 10. If it is successful you will lose 1 Die +1 of Endurance.

If you live, you see Glaivas has struck the Mind Maggot on the side of its long body with his sword, also drawing blood. The long segmented tail of the Mind Maggot wraps around him, and squeezes.

Maggot tail attack fails with a 7.

An aperture opens up along the Mind Maggot's long body, and a much smaller version of itself squelches out in a burst of fouls-smelling liquid. It slithers towards you and then suddenly launches itself into the air. If you have the skill of Arrow Cutting, you grab it mid-flight. Otherwise your Defense is 7 and you may not block. If you are hit it will latch onto your skin and leech off 3 Endurance before you can grab it.

You must then try to twist its head off. Its Defense against your attack is 5 and none of your Modifiers apply. If you do not succeed, the Mind Maggot has bought time to assault you. For every time you fail to finish off the Mind Maggot's progeny, you must roll 1 die. If you roll from 4-6, you must either expend 1 point of Inner Force or lose 1 Die of Endurance from a psionic blast from the Mind Maggot itself.

If you survive to slay the Mind Maggot's progeny, will you:
• Hurl the Blood of Nil into the eyes of the Mind Maggot?
• Toss the Blood of Nil over to Glaivas to use?
• If you have Inner Force left, leap up to the Mind Maggot's head and drive an Iron Fist punch between its eyes?

Mini-maggot barely misses us with a 7. We fail to twist it to death with a 4. Maxi-maggot does not psi-blast us with a 3. We succeed in twisting with a 9.
Still in the game, what's our counterattack?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Toss the poison to Glaivas.

[Avarice]

I fail to see what a ranger can do with poison that a trained assassin cant, but I suppose its time for Glaivas to finally contribute to his own rescue mission.

Toss Glaivas the poison

[Mr Shine]

Yep, see what G can do that we can't.

[Dr_Noface]

maybe he can cover his blade with it?

[angelfromanotherpin]

You toss the Blood of Nil over to Glaivas (remove it from your Character Sheet) who slices it with his blade over the wounds he has caused the creature. The glass bottle shatters and there is black smoke where the poison comes into contact with the Mind Maggot's open flesh, causing the creature to quiver and thrash. The simulacrum of Doré disappears, freeing the real Doré to attack the creature with a cry of 'For Rocheval!' and cleave the head of the Mind Maggot with his sword. As he does so, you see the remainder of your party from the Rift appearing in the room, but the scene before you is already dissolving.

You stand before a gleaming archway, the Gateway to the Seven Heavens where cherubs flit to and fro, leading on to a silver path. Standing before the gate is the Guardian Angel, white and gleaming. You have been here before, for your training allows you to set your mind free of your body. Now you are no mere spirit from though, for you have your body and you are weighed down, made immovable by it.

The Guardian Angel speaks simply. 'Those with corporeal forms do not belong here. I will send you back to the place where the eyes of all the gods last fell upon you.' And then: 'Llandymion.'

You find yourself drawn back to the world in a rush of ethereal air.

You lie prone on the grass, skin tingling in the wind and with sunlight spilling over you. You stand and revel for a moment in the expanse of sky above, a welcome respite from the dark press of rocks in the Rift, and from the illusory other plane you found yourself in.

You have been sent to a hill overlooking the countryside. The scene before you is hauntingly familiar, arguably that of your greatest triumph: you stand on the Greenridge overlooking the battlefield where your army defeated the Legion of the Sword of Doom. In the distance you can see smoke rising from the chimneys of the village of Bridgebeam, and as your eyes trace the land over to Hartwig Fell's Farm you can still relive the cries of the dying and the thunder of the cavalry on the charge.

Now the land is scored by great trenches that serve as graves to the fallen, completed by the local villages since your army had to march quickly back to the city. There is nothing for you here except the ghosts of the past and yet you stay a moment longer, in contemplation.

(Avenger did not kill Honoric by pursuing his army in Book 5.)

Your sharp-eyed gaze is drawn to a lone figure sitting by the Wickerwood is a good distance away. You approach in case it is one of your companions from the Rift, but as you near you see it is someone else entirely.

It is a great bull of a man, but where once he bore armor he now wears clothes of ragged gray cloth. His eyes have turned black: he is clearly blind and seems oblivious to your presence. At his hip is a sword in a sheath, but it is not his magical blade Sorcerak.

Still, this is unmistakably Honoric; the evil general of the war god Vasch-Ro, He who sows for the Reaper; the man who rode alongside Yaemon to bind gods of good in Inferno; the Marshal who survived even the Blood of Nil and led the Legion of the Sword of Doom against your city. He is eating mushrooms he has foraged from the forest.

• Challenge him to combat, telling him there is no one to interrupt this time?
• Slip behind him and garrotte him?
• Engage him in conversation?
• Leave him be and continue on to Irsmuncast?

[Mr Shine]

At 1 Endurance we definitely can't take him in honorable combat. I'd just leave him be.

[SGamerz]

In a way, this guy is almost as bad as the GMPC Trio. In the very first book he somehow survived being poisoned by the blood of a god and a direct attack on him was a straight insta-death. Even in Book 5, after much he constantly screws with you throughout much of the series, just when you finally have the chance to actually get rid of him, you need to have followed the exact narrow "true path" to accomplish it, and you don't even get to deal the killing blow to him personally, you just find him dead after the war.

Avoiding him probably is the safest option....but I'm really intrigued that we actually have the option to talk to him. Strike up a conversation.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed. We can easily kill him if he gets hostile.

[Avarice]

I'll forego my usual attempts at trying to divine the ''correct path'' in favor of curiosity.

I believe he is the NPC you encounter the most. books 1,3,5,7 + book2 - mandrake mentions he survived , so this is way too interesting to pass up.

Lets have a chat.

[Omegonthesane]

I'd go for the garotte myself, but I say this knowing I'm outvoted.