After a While
The Qi within you isn't a solid thing. It's moved by the bellows action of your lungs, the pumping of your blood by your heart. It flows in time with the pulse of Creation, waxing and waning with each breath.
As within, so without. Your senses are heightened, energized. Your mind runs quicker. You are more than what you were a moment ago.
You feel a pulse of frustration. If you had access to the Qi of a place like this when you were a child, how much more could you be by now? With that thought comes a sense of fear. You know if you are forced to leave the sect, you could backslide. The impurities you have cleansed will come back. You will lessen.
If you fail.
So, you will not fail.
That decided, the hour is getting late, and the sounds of the twilight birds are beginning to fill the air. It is time for you to make camp. Although much of the sect would be dangerous to explore in the dark, the Mudpots seem safe enough. You have not seen any truly terrible predators. Besides, staying here will save you hours of walking.
You start a pot of rice boiling over a fire and take out some smoked meat and rice wrapped in leaves that you brought from the village. The food disappears into you with a speed that surprises you. You eat what you allotted for the night, as well as most of what you had planned for tomorrow. Your body is no doubt using the resources to rebuild your body stronger.
The night is warm enough in your tent, and the night passes uneventfully. You wake and gobble the remains of your food - you will be hungry indeed by lunchtime, but you can live with that.
Cultivation is all well and good, but it is only part of what makes a cultivator a cultivator. You were gifted precious knowledge by Shao Suyin, the knowledge of a real Qi technique. However, practice will be required before you feel you can use the Coursing River Arrow in combat, and practice you will.
The Mudpots greet you with the smell of released gasses and the sight of scuttling animals. Today, you are not here to meditate. Stringing your bow, you sight at a mound of muddy earth, choosing a particular patch of white clay, and aim not with your eyes, but with your spiritual senses.
Breathe in the qi, then send it towards the target, along with the arrow. The qi knows the way, and so does the arrow. Again and again you let fly your arrows, collecting them when you have used them all, then letting them fly again, pulling the qi of the Mudpots to replenish your reserves in between shots.
A bird flies past you as you aim, hunting some frog or insect, and without thinking you trace its path with your spirit.
The arrow knows where to go. Your physical act of aiming it is merely making the world correct. All things are in their proper place.
The bird dies without a sound. Its meat is barely worth the act of dressing it, and you gain no cultivation from its flesh when you roast it for an afternoon snack.
But you have gained something much greater.
Spiritual Prowess 3 + Qi 0 (Cycling 3) + Prismatic Pots 2 = 8d10
2 10 4 9 4 6 10 3 = 5 Successes!
9 8 1 5 5 10 7 7 = 6 Succeses!
9 1 5 3 10 4 9 3 = 4 Successes!
8 5 3 5 8 1 5 3 = 2 Successes!
17 Successes total! Coursing River Arrow 1 Learned:
2 Qi: Supplement a Ranged Attack with +1 Accuracy, +2 Damage, Projectile Range increased one Range Band.
Coursing River Arrow II Progress: 15/20!
The next day, you decide it is time for you to make use of what you've learned. However, while the Mudpots are pleasant enough, with their pleasing colors and… aroma, they are not the place to find bountiful prey.
Instead, you set your feet on one of the many lazy, winding streams that run through the sect's grounds. Where there's water, there's life, and where there's life, there's prey.
Roll: 56!
Following it upstream, you find that its source is a wide, shallow river that wends its way across the landscape. Wading birds snap at fish as they stalk through the reeds that give the sect its name, the drone of mosquitoes and other flying insects is unceasing, and the afternoon sun is bright.
It is as a water buffalo approaches to quench its thirst that you become aware of one of the dangers of the river. At first, you thought the buffalo itself might be good prey - while it carries some qi, it doesn't appear to be a mighty spirit beast, and an arrow in the right place, combined with patience, could suffice to slay it.
But as the creature approaches to drink, a sinuous movement in the water portends a flash of scales and teeth. Reptilian jaws snap shut on one of the buffalo's legs, and the crocodile, which you can now partially see, attempts to roll its body and shake the animal or tear its leg off.
Not so easily taken, the buffalo lowers its head and gores at the crocodile, and there's a moment of confusion as teeth bite, bodies grapple and horns stab. When it's done, the crocodile sinks beneath the surface, and the buffalo runs away, wounded, but still with all four of its limbs.
Glancing at the river, you can just see the shape of the lurking crocodile, its lidded eyes appearing like innocuous bits of flotsam on the surface. Your spiritual senses scan it - no great power, but still, a dangerous predator.
This is a prize worth taking.
What do you do?
[] Write-in
As within, so without. Your senses are heightened, energized. Your mind runs quicker. You are more than what you were a moment ago.
You feel a pulse of frustration. If you had access to the Qi of a place like this when you were a child, how much more could you be by now? With that thought comes a sense of fear. You know if you are forced to leave the sect, you could backslide. The impurities you have cleansed will come back. You will lessen.
If you fail.
So, you will not fail.
That decided, the hour is getting late, and the sounds of the twilight birds are beginning to fill the air. It is time for you to make camp. Although much of the sect would be dangerous to explore in the dark, the Mudpots seem safe enough. You have not seen any truly terrible predators. Besides, staying here will save you hours of walking.
You start a pot of rice boiling over a fire and take out some smoked meat and rice wrapped in leaves that you brought from the village. The food disappears into you with a speed that surprises you. You eat what you allotted for the night, as well as most of what you had planned for tomorrow. Your body is no doubt using the resources to rebuild your body stronger.
The night is warm enough in your tent, and the night passes uneventfully. You wake and gobble the remains of your food - you will be hungry indeed by lunchtime, but you can live with that.
Cultivation is all well and good, but it is only part of what makes a cultivator a cultivator. You were gifted precious knowledge by Shao Suyin, the knowledge of a real Qi technique. However, practice will be required before you feel you can use the Coursing River Arrow in combat, and practice you will.
The Mudpots greet you with the smell of released gasses and the sight of scuttling animals. Today, you are not here to meditate. Stringing your bow, you sight at a mound of muddy earth, choosing a particular patch of white clay, and aim not with your eyes, but with your spiritual senses.
Breathe in the qi, then send it towards the target, along with the arrow. The qi knows the way, and so does the arrow. Again and again you let fly your arrows, collecting them when you have used them all, then letting them fly again, pulling the qi of the Mudpots to replenish your reserves in between shots.
A bird flies past you as you aim, hunting some frog or insect, and without thinking you trace its path with your spirit.
The arrow knows where to go. Your physical act of aiming it is merely making the world correct. All things are in their proper place.
The bird dies without a sound. Its meat is barely worth the act of dressing it, and you gain no cultivation from its flesh when you roast it for an afternoon snack.
But you have gained something much greater.
Spiritual Prowess 3 + Qi 0 (Cycling 3) + Prismatic Pots 2 = 8d10
2 10 4 9 4 6 10 3 = 5 Successes!
9 8 1 5 5 10 7 7 = 6 Succeses!
9 1 5 3 10 4 9 3 = 4 Successes!
8 5 3 5 8 1 5 3 = 2 Successes!
17 Successes total! Coursing River Arrow 1 Learned:
2 Qi: Supplement a Ranged Attack with +1 Accuracy, +2 Damage, Projectile Range increased one Range Band.
Coursing River Arrow II Progress: 15/20!
The next day, you decide it is time for you to make use of what you've learned. However, while the Mudpots are pleasant enough, with their pleasing colors and… aroma, they are not the place to find bountiful prey.
Instead, you set your feet on one of the many lazy, winding streams that run through the sect's grounds. Where there's water, there's life, and where there's life, there's prey.
Roll: 56!
Following it upstream, you find that its source is a wide, shallow river that wends its way across the landscape. Wading birds snap at fish as they stalk through the reeds that give the sect its name, the drone of mosquitoes and other flying insects is unceasing, and the afternoon sun is bright.
It is as a water buffalo approaches to quench its thirst that you become aware of one of the dangers of the river. At first, you thought the buffalo itself might be good prey - while it carries some qi, it doesn't appear to be a mighty spirit beast, and an arrow in the right place, combined with patience, could suffice to slay it.
But as the creature approaches to drink, a sinuous movement in the water portends a flash of scales and teeth. Reptilian jaws snap shut on one of the buffalo's legs, and the crocodile, which you can now partially see, attempts to roll its body and shake the animal or tear its leg off.
Not so easily taken, the buffalo lowers its head and gores at the crocodile, and there's a moment of confusion as teeth bite, bodies grapple and horns stab. When it's done, the crocodile sinks beneath the surface, and the buffalo runs away, wounded, but still with all four of its limbs.
Glancing at the river, you can just see the shape of the lurking crocodile, its lidded eyes appearing like innocuous bits of flotsam on the surface. Your spiritual senses scan it - no great power, but still, a dangerous predator.
This is a prize worth taking.
What do you do?
[] Write-in
