It has been a day since the incident that made you lose your beloved father. The house you've lived in all your life was ruined and all the precious memories you have made there - all gone, turned to charred either dust and rubble after its ransacking and looting. For now you only managed to bury your father and salvage your Deboning Vegetable Cleaver and a Native Iron Pot.

Considering the large size of your erstwhile residence, it would perhaps take a few days to look through all the crumbled remains for anything left over - and perhaps a clue as to who ther perpetrators of this vile crime are.

For now, you have returned to your secret hideout some distance from where your home was. Who would have thought that the cave which you hid your childhood trinkets would ultimately be your temporary home...?

Fortunately it has the barest of necessities - some dried nuts that would probably last a week, a small blue bamboo fibre sheet to sleep on, and a few candles to light up the otherwise dark cave.

As much as your mind might be in disarray due to the tragedy you have encountered, you find within yourself the pressing need to do what you can to continue living in peace.
You shiver slightly as a chilling wind from the north blows into your cave. You are already starting to miss the warm flames of the hearth in your old home...

It would be incredibly...  Incorrect to claim that everything was fine, and she had had worse.

Because Wei Jing--almost by definition--could not possibly be having it worse right now!  Her peaceful life was shattered, her only family slaughtered by parties unknown--and when it came to surviving.  She was...

Her stomach grumbled, and Wei Jing shifted sheepishly in her hideout.  She was hungry, and felt it would be premature to set a fire, so she couldn't even cook anything even if she could hunt something down and get it ready!  Oh sure she could try to eat it raw, but Papa always said that such savagery was fit only for beasts--she should be above such measures.

So, it was some nuts and berries, and it would remain nuts and berries for the forseeable future.  It would probably keep her up and alive and moving but...

Well, it wasn't sustainable!

She needed a Plan--chasing after the perpetrators right now...  It would maybe help her feel satisfied right now, but unless she had the power to fly...

Wei Jing squinted off into the roof of the cave, and willed herself up in the air.

Unfortunately, all that this did was trigger another grumble from her stomach.  Nope, she couldn't fly mysteriously.

So that meant that she'd be chasing after things capable of flying through the sky at great speed.  Even if that was all they could do, that was suicide.  Papa raised her better than to do such a silly thing, even to avenge him!

So, she needed some way of deciding how to move forward.  Going North was the logical move...  But that's also where the attackers came from, and walking blind into what may be enemy territory would be dangerous.

South though...  South is where the humans lived--and while Ye Fengyu was nice enough, she had to get to him first, assuming she could find him--and that walking around down in human territory didn't get her kidnapped first.

At that thought, Wei Jing brought a hand up, rubbing one of her horns.  Not really any good way of hiding those either...

So, what was she supposed to do?  Go north and hope for the best?  Go south with vague direction and hope for the best?

She Could go to Su Ren's village--in fact, that might be the best move to make in the immediate future.  But there was a chance he was attacked too--it wasn't that far away and if these were just very powerful bandits...

Wei Jing looked to the cleaver, old and beaten, sitting before her.  Chopping things down wasn't that hard...  But if she ran into something that could take a hit or two, that would be the end of it.

She needed an edge.

Fortunately.  Papa had taught her well--and taught her how to shoot.  While his crossbow was nowhere to be found, that didn't mean she couldn't put one together herself--and she'd feel a lot safer with one in hand to help even the odds if she ran into a beast.

There must be enough stuff lying around the ruins of home that she could put something together with--and it'd be an opportunity to see if the attackers had missed something in their devilry to boot.

It was a plan, and that's something far better than she had a little bit ago!  She'd try it!  Having direction would make things much better!

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 2):

Date (Y/M/D): 1000/10/08
Season: Autumn

You spent a week hauling up the layers of rubble, scooping through all the burnt and damaged stuff sometimes finding remains of some trinket that brings back the fine memories you had in the past. But it was to no avail - and there were many thoughts of giving up, but fortunately on the 3rd day, you managed to find quite miraculously a Repeating Crossbow that seems to be in working condition...! It even had fittings of Primordial Iron - which were only decorative, but quite fine nonetheless...!

Sadly - despite managing to find the crossbow, you could not find any bolts. Surely such small and fragile bolts would be the first to perish during the razing of your old home. But your persistent search rewarded you with some salvation, as you managed to find 6 Primordial Iron Bolt heads from the rubble.

On the last day, you managed to find a well sealed Primordial Iron canister the size of a man's head. Surprisingly, it is filled with sweet dried apricots that seem to be in perfect condition. From your estimates, if you ration this well, you can probably feed on this for another 2 weeks.

From the looks of it, the only a fifth of the rubble have been sorted through, and there is still a large pile of rubble remaining to be searched.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:15, Wed 14 July 2021.

Apricots were a step up from nuts and berries, Wei Jing would admit--but going a week of hard labor was not doing any favors for her stomach on that diet.  So while the idea of continuing to sift through the rubble continued roiling through her thoughts...

No, she had set a goal, and had already spent an uncomfortable amount of time here working on it.  She had a crossbow, she had some bolts to go with it.  That would--with any luck--keep her safe on the trip.

'Know when to call it a day...'  Wei Jing thought to herself, her scant possessions tied up in a satchel, with her new crossbow strapped to her back.  This would have to be enough for now--maybe she could return later to keep searching?

Either way, the decision was made.  To get on the road and hope Su Ren's village was also in good shape.  She'd...  Be able to make better plans from there--certainly.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 4):

Date (Y/M/D): 1000/10/08
Time: Early Afternoon
Season: Autumn

You spend half a day descending from your tall reaches of Qiuheng mountains where you lived, following the dirt and wood paved pathways that silther their way up the mountains likely used by decades of villagers using them to ascend the mountain to your abode.

Soon you arrive at the village which is some distance from a waterfall coming from one of the cliffs towards the south. Following the stream of water slithering from the waterfall, you eventually come to a village around which a simple wooden pallisade was constructed.

Judging from the occasional puffs of smoke emerging from the roofs of the thatched houses inside the pallisade, it would seem that the village is in quite a normal condition.

As you approach one the village gate, you notice that a two Asura men with deformed knobbed horns holding bamboo spears are standing watch outside. Judging from their expressions they look rather depressed and bear a heavy weary expression on their countenances.

Eventually when you come into their vision their eyes widen as they look at one another and look back at you with an unsettling smirk.

"Greetings young lady... welcome to our humble village... We must beg for forgiveness for such aggressive arrangements, for we have been taken the brunt repeated raids by bandits and have little choice but to protect ourselves... We are in desperate need for funds to fight back against those heartless vagrants, so we must beg of you to pay us a toll of 5 silver taels should you wish to enter the village...!" the guard on the right speaks with a wide smile, as the guard on the left rapidly nods in agreement.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:49, Thu 15 July 2021.

Oh good!  Everything was perfectly fine and good!  There was no fires, no attacks, and everything was going fine and dandy!

Except...  Well...

The revelation that there had been some kind of attacks going on, and that the village had been locked down and secured.  It might have made her feel a bit better if the guards were a bit more smartly dressed but that can't really be helped.  Could it?

"Ah..."  Wei Jing begins, pausing midway through her first syllable.  "I...  Don't have five taels?"

Why would she just carry money around?!?

"Umm...  Mister Su Ren knows my father though, could you send word to him?  It's...  Kind of important?"

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 6):

"Su Ren...?" the guard mutters for a moment and looks to his companion.

The other guard returns his gaze to his companion for a few moments and points towards the interior of the village.

After a short while, the talkative guard breaks the silence.

"Ah... yes... Su Ren... Of course...!" the guard's smirk widens as he speaks. "He is currently quite ill, so currently the village is being managed by his son Su Bing...! I am quite moved by your concern for the former... um I mean... the Village Elder, so how about this - why don't you hand over that Dao of yours, and we'll take it as a toll!"

The guard points towards the Deboning Vegetable Cleaver on your back and curls his index finger backwards repeatedly as if expecting you to hand it over.

The other guard to the looks back at you and rapidly nods in agreement.

It is clear that these two guards are being quite infuriatingly unreasonable...!

---

Make a Rage self check. 1d100. If the roll is more than your rage limit, add 1d6 rage. (Whether you pass or fail this check should influence your actions, but there will be no consequences for suppressing yourself unless Rage limit is reached)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:30, Fri 16 July 2021.

Something about these guys...

Wei Jing's blood bubbled as she squinted, leaning forward as she drunk in their behavior--their words, their behavior.  Something... her spectacles glinted softly in the light...

They were shady!

More importantly, they didn't know who the town elder was right away.

That was suspicious!

So while she was feeling insulted that they thought she was dumb enough to fall for such a petty ruse, her smile beamed out.

Were these...  Were these the Bad Guys Papa always said were out in the world, tempting innocent young ladies like herself with foul blandishments and wicked ways?

"Sure!"  She smiled, pulling the Deboning Vegetable Cleaver from where she had it lashed.  "Papa gave it to me a bit back, but if it gets the door open..."

She made a safe, gentle motion with it--harmless really--she was just passing it over a bit clumsily.

Really, Bad Guys trying to trick her like that.  She wouldn't be fooled that easily!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

OOC:  Wei Jing--amazingly--makes the Rage Control test despite her awful numbers.  As such, she determines to kill these Clear Bad Guys who didn't know who the Elder was until reminded, and let slip former there.  But doing it properly, by giving them exactly what they asked for with a skip in her step and a smile on her face.

They just never specified that she hands it to them by the Handle, such goofy villains.

Activating Gentle Touch.  How do combat rolls work in this?

Actually, feel free to do the rolls on your end if you get to this first?  I'm presently working, so my availability's going to be tight or the next week and a half or so.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:27, Fri 16 July 2021.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 8):

The smirk on the guard's face widens as he lightly chuckles as you clumsily hand him the Dao by the blade.

Clearly unaware of the deadly Cutting Qi reverberating in the Dao ever so slightly with every beat of your heart, and underestimating the sharpness of the Dao which appeared quite battered to begin with, the guard foolishly touches the Dao by its edge only to notice seconds later that the tips of his fingers are now missing.

Howling in pain, the man crumples to the ground unconscious!! Despite being quite the grown man - it seems that this guard had quite a frail constitution to begin with!

The other guard looks upon you with a clearly shocked expression on his face - but instead of shouting for help, he approaches the gate and begins to push it open!

It appears that the other guard - judging by how he was only capable to nod previously is probably a mute.

After the gate is open, he gets on all fours and kowtows towards you - clearly trying to beg for mercy.

---

For combat, I just wrote something about it a while ago. Check it out here: https://cluelessdelver.blogspo...e.html#combat-system
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:34, Sat 17 July 2021.

Huh.  He just kinda passed out?  I mean, all she did was trim his fingers a bit!  That was survivable--wasn't it?

Wei Jing leaned over, poking the twitching and unconscious body once or twice, getting no reaction.  Well, she'd call it fair punishment for the Shady Attitude, the other guy was being quite considerate by not screaming for help though!  She just had to get up, pass through him and figure out how to get the gate op..

Oh!

He just went and opened it for her!  Okay, maybe that one isn't a Bad Guy.  Maybe he was just lured by sinister blandishments?

Either way, that saved her a lot of work!  Pushing a gate this big open would be hard work!  This deserved a reward of some kind...  She flicked the blood off of her Cleaver and stepped forward, smiling brightly.  He was doing some kind of funny bow...

Well, that was nice.

She patted him on the head.  "So...  Do you know if Su Ren is okay?  He's kind of a friend of the family and if he's been kidnapped by villains, I sort of need to do something about that.  If you could just point the way..."  She grins.  "We'll call it all fair and square, see?"

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 10):

The man, without removing his forehead from the dirt packed ground points towards the northwestern direction, and continues kowtowing.

When you finally leave the man behind and enter the village, you can't help but notice that the village has not a single soul, which is strange for a village in autumn.

Based on what you've overheard from conversations between your Father and Su Ren back in the day, the village would hold an annual harvest festival and spend a few months of early autumn preparing for it.

Near each home that have each of their doors tightly shut, you notice that each farm plot seems devoid of any crops, and even some of the land seems ruined.

In the direction towards the northwest, you see a pathway that leads up a small hill to a larger house which is likely where Su Ren is at, if the mute guard's words - err... gestures were true.

Towards the north, you notice a small temple which seems to have a native iron tripodal pot filled with ash. Being able to recognise your father's craftsmanship, you immediately know at a glance that it was crafted by your father. Normally these tripodal pots would be filled with ash and have joss sticks planted upon them every morning as a sort of prayer for the protection of a local deity. But oddly, it appears that there is not a single joss sticks planted upon the ash.

As you make your way deeper into the village, you notice in one of the homes, a small girl looking out of a window at you. But eventually you see a woman appearing behind her.

"Xiao-er! I told you not to open the windows!! Get back in!" the woman hurriedly speaks, looking towards you fearfully and closing the windows quickly with two loud slams.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:04, Sun 18 July 2021.

Oh.

This was definitely the work of villains!  Evildoers!  Looting the farms and stealing the incense sticks?

Why were they stealing the incense sticks?  They weren't that valuable, were they?

Wei Jing frowned as she continued on her way--she did spare a moment to wave at the little girl who took a look, but her focus was advancing forward

Someone had been bullying the people of the village here--more than one apparently!  She didn't know who was responsible, but if those guards were any indication...

She licked her lips, hand still on Papa's cleaver.  They were something she could handle.

And what are the odds?  That mysterious beams of light fly through the sky and destroy her home, and then just barely over a week later, the nearest village is attacked by bandits?  It sounded fishy!

And she hated fish!  It was like trying to be meat but not having the courage to be savory!

Six rounds for the crossbow, and the Cleaver.  More than enough to liberate a village.

Uh, unless there's like, a ton of guys holed up in Su Ren's house waiting for her.  Or one actual expert.

She'd figure out how to make this work regardless!

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 12):

Focused on your main destination of Su Ren's home, you make your way up a gentle hill road lined with trampled mimosas. This hill path snakes up a few terraces of empty paddy fields and eventually ends at a larger plot at which a rather large wooden house sits, its thatched roof much larger than the rest of the homes that you've seen in the rest of the village.

From the top of this hill, a bird's eye view of the entire village can be perceived and alongside the entire extent of the palisade which seems to have gates to the north, west and south - the south gate being ajar where you entered from.

Glancing back at the hilltop home, you notice 5 men lazily seated on the raised platform of the home. Some are lying down, and others are seated at short distance from one another drinking from hand sized round clay pots. The faint aroma of rice wind seems to travel to your nose as a wind blows towards you from the direction of the men.

Each of the men also seem to be plainly dressed, but they each appear to be wearing thick furs and have a shoddy iron Dao by their side.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:31, Mon 19 July 2021.

Gosh, they really were just a bunch of bandits, weren't they?

Five on One was rough odds at least, she was a pretty dab hand at cutting obstacles down, but that would be...  Tricky.

Especially when she didn't see anyone who might be a chieftain in this group, and they usually have the best stuff.

And yet...

Should she even announce herself?  That...  Seemed appropriate.

Also, they weren't even really looking at her!  They were busy drinking!  Wei Jing actually felt vaguely insulted at that!

Insulted enough that she unslung the crossbow and brought it up, acquiring her targets...

Three shots, right?  Nail the ones sitting down.  Three more for later!

She licked her lips, and began depressing the mechanism.

*Fwup, Fwup, Fwup*

OOC: That's a 138 on Wei Jing's pre-emptive attack there, that's gonna leave a dent.

I don't know if you want me to roll for each shot or not, but yeesh.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 14):

The bolts fly to the each of the resting men and strike at their flesh!

With a yelp of pain they jump up, causing the rest to also leap up in utter shock!

"What the!? There's some brat there who fired at us!!" you see one of the injured men you successfully shot shout angrily as he pulls out a bloody iron bolt from his arm and throw it to the ground violently.

"Get her!!"

Four of the men all draw their Dao and begin to run towards you! But it seems that there is still some distance between you and them before they will come in the distance of combat with you. You also realise strangely that some of the men aren't actually running in a straight line - apparently some of them are quite drunk!!

You quickly also notice one of the men you injured hurriedly sliding open the door near them and entering the large house instead of entering combat with his companions.

"I dunno what your dealy is..."" Wei Jing thought, directing her crossbow at the fleeing bandit and delivering fire into him.  "But you can wait your turn mister!"

Gosh, what was even going on in this place? Bandits and scared people and problems, this was a perfectly normal peasant village!  What did they even have to gain from this aside from random murder without a cause?

She fired the last of her bolts, and set her crossbow down, grinning as her Cleaver fell into her hand.  This would be a good time, she thought, to get a little exercise in.  A bracing little challenge to properly start off the day!

Hopefully they didn't have a chieftain who was super strong or something though, that would be a problem.

Who knows, maybe they'd also be intimidating by a girl taking them down?  She'd be perfectly happy just scaring the rest of them off after all...

OOC: Wei Jing's strategy in a nutshell.

1) 101 on a Crossbow check to fire her last three bolts, she prioritizes taking down the one that's fleeing, and then the remaining wounded ones.

2) When the battle closes to melee, she'll prioritize cutting down the injured and the apparently healthy bandits over the ones who look to be drunk.  It's better to reduce the number of enemies she's fighting first.  Gentle Touch will augment attacks on unharmed bandits, but saving at least enough to use it once more.

3) Wei Jing is primarily going to focus on parrying incoming attacks over dodging them.
 She will use footwork as required to avoid anyone getting to her back though, because she may be a youth with little experience fighting actual humanoids but she's not stupid.
 
This message was last edited by the player at 08:23, Wed 21 July 2021.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 16):

The fleeing man tries to duck out of the way, sensing a bolt hurtling towards his back, but the bolt hits him in his right shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain!

The rest of the men eventually close in onto you, and 3 of them swing wildly and completely miss you - you didn't have to use footwork as their ability to judge distance seems to have been clouded by their drunkenness!

However, one man seems to be sober enough, and you notice your body standing in the trajectory of his blade swing!

Make a Parry Roll. 1d100+Parry skill. If it is more than 106, it is successful. Otherwise, take 3 damage.

"Whoops!"  Wei Jing hops back from the three poorly aimed swings, and deflects the one remaining one with a gesture.  This was...

In hindsight, this was probably a bad idea?

Yeah, this was definitely a bad idea. She made a clumsy swing back at the one attacking her and began to backpedal.  Four on one was tricky odds, when she was more used to chopping down bamboo and the like.

She had hoped the crossbow would have made the difference, but...

Hmm...

She kept her cleaver on hand, glancing from side to side, looking for an edge, keeping her distance as best as she could all the while.  If she could find some way to reduce this to a series of one on ones...  That'd be a lot better.

Maybe an alley she could maneuver towards?  She could make a run at the gate she entered from too...

Either way, getting some distance would be a good idea now!

OOC: 144 on the Parry, so no damage, but 37 on the attack, so lol.  I'm not sure if a "Find an advantangeous position to fight" requires a combat action at this point or any rolls, but Wei Jing is content to make them keep chasing her instead of surrounding her, so she's spending her movement right now to add more distance.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 18):

While there are no alleys in this very expansive open place such as a rural village, you imagine that the next best thing would to be to head into a nearby bamboo grove behind you.

As you make your move, the four men pursue, but two of them clearly too drunk smash into thick bamboo stalks and collapse to the ground!

"Those idiots!!" the sober bandit curses as he pursues alongside his slightly drunker companion who just seems to have been lucky enough to avoid walking into a stalk of bamboo.

You manage to cover more distance than the bandits are able to - and the bandits are 6m away from you. You have an action remaining.

This was much nicer!

The bamboo forest was a familiar environment!  A place where Wei Jing could comfortably flow from place to place, knowing the terrain like a native...  Which she is--kinda--that's what most of her chopping experience was aimed at anyway!

But the fact of the matter is that this was a much better position to be in than before, and this meant Wei Jing could work with this

She slunk through the brambles, swaying with the wind and flowing from place to place, a rictus grin on her face as she brandished her cleaver, languidly sweeping it through the air--a gesture timed with the sober bandit's glance back to his ailing companions.

Frankly, it looked clumsy as hell.  Maybe she wasn't quite as good at this as she was with the crossbow?

It was a mystery!

OOC: Going for a Gentle Touch on the Sober Bandit, 80 on the attack roll, if that hits, 5 damage is done because I can't have nice things :(

I dunno if you allow movement before and after an attack, but if I can, Wei Jing'll move in and then move out, which should keep the ones who tripped off her for another round