Dueling Fate

Remind us to make it more difficult to choose next time...

Something about the figure gnaws at your gut. You can't see it clearly in the dim light of the stars and the glow of the still raging fires, but it doesn't move like a dog, or a cat, or any other animal you know, and you know the movements of many beasts.

Your father always told you that your instincts are your greatest asset as a hunter. Your feet begin to move before you've decided what to do.

The chase is on.

You hurl yourself forward, those standing near you flinching away at the sudden burst of speed. You ignore their shouts of panic and swerve to side, narrowly avoiding bowling over an aspirant carrying a bucket. The sounds from the center of the town – the roars, the clang of metal, the roars of ongoing fires – they all fade as you focus on your prey.

You barely keep track of it over the next few streets, only just catching glimpses as it flits around corners. You leap over splintered wood, somehow keep your balance when your foot skids in a puddle. You manage to keep your pace and your pace is quicker than it can move. As you get closer you start to be able to make out more details about it. At first, you begin to correct your prior assumptions. That maybe it is a dog or a cat - four limbs, a low slung body, some sort of head - but it doesn't walk normally. Maybe it's wounded?

And as that gap lessens, you're finally able to get a good look at it while it scuttles across the street.

You almost lose your dinner at the sight.

It's not an animal at all. It's a hand, impossibly living and moving despite being attached to nothing.

Its skin is dark, spotted with coarse fur. It moves about on the tips of short claws, dragging itself along. With each step it leaves gouges in the earth, its nails sinking into the stone. You've seen nothing like this before, and as you get closer that feeling of nausea grows - you begin to feel dizzy, the urge to throw up grows only stronger, and your vision begins to fade in and out, buzzing in circles, unable to focus.

Black Hand Rolls Chaos Aura: 5d10:

5, 9, 6, 7, 1. 2 Successes!

Spiritual Defense + Qi 0 (Centering 0): 2d10
7, 10. 3 Successes!

It's not just the strangeness of the creature that's disturbing you. There's something more. You can't detect it, as fledgling as your spiritual senses are. You just know that its presence irks you. Tugging at strings deep inside that are more instinct than conscious thought.

There's a reason children check the cupboard for monsters after all.

You fight that instinct, and the creature slows down, briefly, orienting itself towards you.

It has no eyes, the hand unblemished, but you have the unmistakable feeling that you're being looked at, examined, and found…

You draw your bow and shoot.

Physical Prowess + Ranged Combat 0 (Bows 1): 4d10

6, 5, 1, 6. 0 Successes!

Too slow by far - the hand recovers from its examination leaping into the air with alarm before it scuttles underneath an upturned cart and out of sight. You run past the cart, it's already gone… but your eyes spot divots in the wooden fencing of the property beside it, crawling up the side and going over.

Insight + Survival 2 (Hunting 0): 5d10.

3, 4, 10, 1, 8. 3 Successes!

You scramble over it in an instant, finding yourself in an ornamental garden with a small pond, several well-tended trees and a patch of rocks spread in a pattern.

The hand is scuttling up one of the magnolia trees. You take another shot.

Physical Prowess + Ranged Combat 0 (Bows 1) 4d10
2, 6, 4, 4. 0 Successes!

The arrow whistles into the side of a tree with a clunk, and the hand turns in your direction. Instead of fleeing, it drops down the tree, and rears up on several fingers. Flaring them like a spider displaying its fangs. The nails glint, and you can almost feel their sharpness this far away.

You feel a small chill run down your spine, your legs like jelly. The same fear that you felt earlier in the day in the ring with Vijaya.

You are in the presence of a predator.

A bead of sweat runs down your brow.

You drop your bow as it shoots forward. You go for the knives in your belt, as the hand launches itself at your throat.

Black Hand Attacks: 7d10

2, 1, 7, 9, 10, 9, 8, - 5 Succeses!

Physical Defense + Close Combat 0 (Knife 1): 3d10

2, 8, 3: 1 Success! 5 Damage Taken

Lind is at 9/14 Damage Taken

You reel backwards, crashing into a terracotta pot as the vicious limb first latches itself onto your knife and then leaps for your throat, latching itself onto you. Claws dig into your flesh, drawing blood and for the second time today you see stars, struggling under its grip.

Is this how you die? Before your journey ever truly begins? You're meant to return home a champion, to hunt the beasts and monsters living high up in the mountains.

And this is what will be your end? A hand?

You hear the thrumming, vibrating notes of a guzeng fill the garden.

Even as you flail frantically the sound of the music carries through you. Why are you fighting? Wouldn't it be best to relax? To let the music take you? Your hands slip from the monster, coming to rest by your sides. Yes, you will relax. The hand rears back, if it could make a sound, you are certain it would be screaming. Each pluck of the musician's instrument racks it with shivers as it falls to the ground beside you. As the music continues it contorts in on itself with each note, its nails clawing away at its own skin, rivets of deep blue blood pouring from its own wounds. As the monster moves further away the notes begin to affect you less and less. You remember where you are, bolting to your feet. You turn to look at your saviour to see the pale aspirant from this morning, playing with complete concentration, eyes half-closed.

Whatever he is doing, it is draining him. His face strains with the effort, sweat pouring down his face. You watch as his body convulses with the sheer effort of his playing. Yet his hands remain steady, no matter how much his body quakes. You bring your knife around and attempt to stab the hand while it's distracted.

Inky black smoke seeps forth from the hand, full of hot sparks and embers that make you choke and shield your eyes in the proximity. With your eyes closed you swing where you remember it being, but your knife finds only stone.

Bai Ping rolls Shadow-Banishing Song: 9d10

2, 4, 4, 8, 10, 9, 3, 8, 8: 6 Successes

Black Hand Defends (Smoke Cloud): 9d10

1, 10, 9, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10

6 Successes.

Lind rolls Close Combat 3 + Close Combat 0 (Dagger 1) + Team-Up Bonus

3, 4, 8, 10: 2, 6, 3 Successes

Black Hand Defends (Smoke Cloud): 9d10
8, 5, 10, 1, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6. 7 Successes.

[spoilers= Author's Note. Rules for Multiple Combatants are still in alpha phase and may be rewritten next time[/spoiler]

When the smoke cloud clears, the hand is gone.

You move to look for its trail again, but you feel a hand, cool to the touch and still shaking on your shoulder.

"Leave it." The pale disciple stands next to you. "You faced a demon for the first time and lived, it would be best not to push our luck."

"I…" You struggle. The melody still washes over a part of you, a part that is coming back to you piece by piece, inner harmony washing away to be replaced by one thing. Exhaustion. Deep in your limbs from a day and night that have been more than painful. "I am Lind Tallak." You tell him. "I owe you."

"Bai Ping." The pale boy bows his head slightly. "And it is no debt at all. Merely good fortune that I decided to follow you when I saw you run away with such purpose. That and I have some skill in matters such as these."

Your scan the tree the creature was climbing before. New scratches in the bark. Unless you are disoriented, this garden is near the town wall. "I believe it was trying to escape."

"Most likely. The senior disciples would be far more than a match for it. The demon it came from probably stored enough of its essence in its limb for it to survive even if dismembered - at least in a sense."

You have many more questions, but now is not the time or place to ask them. Indeed, both of you are immediately distracted by the appearance of an elderly woman, stooped with age. What you notice most of all is the stick she waves at the both of you. "My-my garden! What have you done to my garden?"

You look at her ruined planter, the still-flickering embers, the divots in the ground left by the demonic hand. You look at city on fire behind her. You go to speak but Bai Ping pulls you into a bow alongside him. "My apologies, honored grandmother. We will of course help you with repairs." His eyes flicker to you, and you can't say no.

Relationship Established! Bai Ping 0

—

As the two of you repair the old lady's garden, a pair of senior disciples come by to check on the area. You and Bai Ping tell them the story, and they share a look. The older of the two, a fat, bald man with a small beard named Zhu Han, addresses you. "You have both done well. As with others who participated in defense of the town tonight, I am entitled to award you two contribution points. You can use them as silvers in the town market, but you may also wish to save them for use in the sect, if you are granted the privilege of joining."

"And the hand?" You ask.

The senior mops his brow with a cloth. "It is unfortunate that it escaped, but it is only a fragment. If it shows itself again, it will be destroyed."

"What of the demon it came from?" Bai Ping chimes in.

"Senior Hou Hua demonstrated her skill, and it was destroyed." He firms his stance. "Now, this has been an exciting night for us all, but you aspirants should head back to your lodgings. Destroying demons is part of a cultivator's duties and there will surely be more work tomorrow. I will give you a pill to help you rest, if you wish." With that, he and his partner depart.

What do you do?
—

[] Your senior's advice is sound. You will surely have work come tomorrow. Take the pill your senior offered, and put worries aside from now. (Bonus to rolls the next day).

[] You cannot rest when there is work to be done. Others will surely be helping wounded and repairing damage throughout the night. Put your strong back to use. (Earn silver, possible +Relationships)

[] You will rest, but you do not take the pill. That night, you dream… (???)