The Gaming Den

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)?

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.'

Mr Shine wrote:Avenger is not General Kitchener.

Avarice wrote:

Mr Shine wrote:Avenger is not General Kitchener.

I honestly wouldnt know what to make of this comment.

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?

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

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?

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?

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