Glory of the Emerald Empire (Legend of the 5 Rings Quest)
- Thread starter Winged Knight
- Start date
- Fantasy
EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
[x] gman391
He can't deny this. He's not some heartless spawn of the evil realm rigth?
He can't deny this. He's not some heartless spawn of the evil realm rigth?
[x] gman391
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
Yeah, sorry about the Will Roll. I didn't feel Honor applied here, because as the book is written Honor only seems to be added to Will rolls to resist Intimidation, Temptation and Fear. This really isn't any of those effects, though, so I didn't figure it would be added.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
[X] gman391
Fair enough even if I feel intimidated
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Hoping this will be a fitting theme:
It should IC feel like he's going to die, afterall~
It should IC feel like he's going to die, afterall~
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
- Location
- Austrlia
I was mostly thinking of a single line.
"Your hands would remember their old strength more easily, if you held your sword." Swap in tetsubo.
2.135
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
[x] Gman
You know as soon as Kyosuke finishes speaking that he'll kill you all. It might not be now, it might not even be tomorrow, but you and your family are already dead. He will break you down as much as he can, and then he will slip the blade into your heart. This Tainted monster does not know the meaning of honor, will go back on any agreement. He is harsh and cruel and terrible.
You know this all too well. The scars on your body ache beneath Kyosuke's gaze. This man… This man is but a demon in human flesh, a crude seeming to hide the utter foulness that rests beneath his skin. There can be no deal made with him. You cannot agree to his terms.
But what do I do, then? you ask yourself. I'm so tired…
You cannot save them, no matter what happens both are doomed as are you. So what else is left but to go on to the next life? How many times have you broken? How many times have you just wanted it to end?
A single fire against the darkness always burns brighter.
You remember the motto of your long dead family, broken beneath hell's war machine. A single fire… Fire. The fires of battle, perhaps?
You force yourself to focus, to clear your mind of the ever-pervasive weight that despair has rested upon your shoulders. The answer comes to you then, as you will yourself into something resembling the man you once were. It is at that moment that you realize just what you need to do in order to perish with some dignity, and allow your parents to escape the fate you have suffered all these long years.
You will die, but you will do so on your own terms.
"I choose neither," you answer, making yourself stand up. Your legs are weak, but they manage to hold you. "For I know our fate well. Rather, I ask of you to grant us the boon of dying in battle against some of yours. Come now, let us put on a show for the masses and let them see the last light of the Emerald Empire die!"
The crowd roars at your words, a tumultuous applause. You've appealed to their desire for blood and violence. The idea of a combat to the death, even one so weak and broken as yourself, has riled the assembled abominations into a furor. They wish to see you die, and they wouldn't mind if you put on a show in doing so.
Kyosuke, however, doesn't seem to be pleased by your declaration. In fact, you'd almost say he appeared confused if you could see past his mask. Obviously he believed you to be so cowed that you would agree without issue to his impossible choice. By making your offer you've done something he did not expect.
The confusion bleeds away into rage, obvious in his posture as he unsheathes his sword. His eyes glow red, and a crimson energy surrounds his body like a haze of blood. You thought you might be able to appeal to his vanity with your counter-offer, but all you've done is spark the man's ire.
"I gave you a choice out of mercy," Kyosuke growled. "And you decide to bargain with me? You overstep yourself, boy! I am the one who is ruler here! You live or die by my command." He raises the sword high. "And I say it is time for you to die!"
You close your eyes as Kyosuke steps toward you. This is it, then. You have reached the end of your life. You can hear your mother screaming, trying to reach you, but your eyes remain closed. You are so, so tired. You have fought and bled for so many years now, seen the destruction of all you love.
There is only so much pain a person can take in their life. No one can continue on forever in the face of unending agony. But now is coming the long sleep, a time where your spirit can fly free of your earthly tethers and achieve peace. Death will release you from your failures, remove you from all the suffering and death you have been forced to endure.
It is time to lay down your burden.
Is this the end, then?
Your eyes start open at the voice in your head. It is a man's voice, so much like your own. But it is deeper, from someone older than you are. It is the voice you might have had, if life had gone a different path. If perhaps you had not failed so completely…
I will not die here! the voice roars from within you. I will not bow beneath the depredations of evil!
You want to rage at the voice, to squelch it down. But the voice is so strong, stronger than you would ever have thought possible. It rebuffs your attempts to silence it, and remarkably you can even feel that strength flooding into your limbs.
It is as if there is another presence within you, something that is you but also distinctly separate. This presence is giving you vitality you've not felt in almost a decade… No, it is even greater strength. You have never been so powerful as you feel now.
To lay down and die is the pinnacle of dishonor, and dishonor is worse than death! the voice bellows. My fury destroys all who would threaten the realms of men! My power breaks all foes beneath my gaze! I am unbowed and unbroken!
The world starts to warp and shift around you, as if becoming less solid. Faces begin to melt away, and the sky bleeds into the land. It is as if reality has become a dream, distorted and strange, and you are beginning to awaken. The voice in your head… is it the one doing this?
I burn like the sun! the voice cries out. Like the sun!
"Like the sun…" you whisper, and you feel the presence within you merge completely with your being. The world warps even more, shapes and colors mixing together grotesquely. "LIKE THE SUUUUUUUUUUUN!"
Reality shatters around you, the dream breaking apart beneath the force of your cry. You find yourself within an expansive cave that reeks of blood. The cavern is well lit, with hardly any shadows surviving beneath the glare of something intensely bright. You cannot tell the source of this illumination, however. It takes you a few moments to realize that it comes from yourself.
You burn.
There is something foul and unnatural here, a monster from another realm. There is a man on its back, clad in robes. He is striking the monster with his fists, trying to hurt it. A giant fights with the monster from the front, trying to strike it with a massive sword. Neither of the two seem to be having much luck against the creature, which is cutting into the giant with sharpened talons.
You burn.
You can barely comprehend any of this, though. You can barely comprehend anything. Thought is so hard to hold on to. Your mind, all that you are, is like a rock barely holding out against the flood within you. All that you know is that you burn, a power bursting inside of you with such strength that your it takes all that you have to keep from being pulled into oblivion.
You burn.
[] Kill the Oni.
[] Write in.
You know as soon as Kyosuke finishes speaking that he'll kill you all. It might not be now, it might not even be tomorrow, but you and your family are already dead. He will break you down as much as he can, and then he will slip the blade into your heart. This Tainted monster does not know the meaning of honor, will go back on any agreement. He is harsh and cruel and terrible.
You know this all too well. The scars on your body ache beneath Kyosuke's gaze. This man… This man is but a demon in human flesh, a crude seeming to hide the utter foulness that rests beneath his skin. There can be no deal made with him. You cannot agree to his terms.
But what do I do, then? you ask yourself. I'm so tired…
You cannot save them, no matter what happens both are doomed as are you. So what else is left but to go on to the next life? How many times have you broken? How many times have you just wanted it to end?
A single fire against the darkness always burns brighter.
You remember the motto of your long dead family, broken beneath hell's war machine. A single fire… Fire. The fires of battle, perhaps?
You force yourself to focus, to clear your mind of the ever-pervasive weight that despair has rested upon your shoulders. The answer comes to you then, as you will yourself into something resembling the man you once were. It is at that moment that you realize just what you need to do in order to perish with some dignity, and allow your parents to escape the fate you have suffered all these long years.
You will die, but you will do so on your own terms.
"I choose neither," you answer, making yourself stand up. Your legs are weak, but they manage to hold you. "For I know our fate well. Rather, I ask of you to grant us the boon of dying in battle against some of yours. Come now, let us put on a show for the masses and let them see the last light of the Emerald Empire die!"
The crowd roars at your words, a tumultuous applause. You've appealed to their desire for blood and violence. The idea of a combat to the death, even one so weak and broken as yourself, has riled the assembled abominations into a furor. They wish to see you die, and they wouldn't mind if you put on a show in doing so.
Kyosuke, however, doesn't seem to be pleased by your declaration. In fact, you'd almost say he appeared confused if you could see past his mask. Obviously he believed you to be so cowed that you would agree without issue to his impossible choice. By making your offer you've done something he did not expect.
The confusion bleeds away into rage, obvious in his posture as he unsheathes his sword. His eyes glow red, and a crimson energy surrounds his body like a haze of blood. You thought you might be able to appeal to his vanity with your counter-offer, but all you've done is spark the man's ire.
"I gave you a choice out of mercy," Kyosuke growled. "And you decide to bargain with me? You overstep yourself, boy! I am the one who is ruler here! You live or die by my command." He raises the sword high. "And I say it is time for you to die!"
You close your eyes as Kyosuke steps toward you. This is it, then. You have reached the end of your life. You can hear your mother screaming, trying to reach you, but your eyes remain closed. You are so, so tired. You have fought and bled for so many years now, seen the destruction of all you love.
There is only so much pain a person can take in their life. No one can continue on forever in the face of unending agony. But now is coming the long sleep, a time where your spirit can fly free of your earthly tethers and achieve peace. Death will release you from your failures, remove you from all the suffering and death you have been forced to endure.
It is time to lay down your burden.
Is this the end, then?
Your eyes start open at the voice in your head. It is a man's voice, so much like your own. But it is deeper, from someone older than you are. It is the voice you might have had, if life had gone a different path. If perhaps you had not failed so completely…
I will not die here! the voice roars from within you. I will not bow beneath the depredations of evil!
You want to rage at the voice, to squelch it down. But the voice is so strong, stronger than you would ever have thought possible. It rebuffs your attempts to silence it, and remarkably you can even feel that strength flooding into your limbs.
It is as if there is another presence within you, something that is you but also distinctly separate. This presence is giving you vitality you've not felt in almost a decade… No, it is even greater strength. You have never been so powerful as you feel now.
To lay down and die is the pinnacle of dishonor, and dishonor is worse than death! the voice bellows. My fury destroys all who would threaten the realms of men! My power breaks all foes beneath my gaze! I am unbowed and unbroken!
The world starts to warp and shift around you, as if becoming less solid. Faces begin to melt away, and the sky bleeds into the land. It is as if reality has become a dream, distorted and strange, and you are beginning to awaken. The voice in your head… is it the one doing this?
I burn like the sun! the voice cries out. Like the sun!
"Like the sun…" you whisper, and you feel the presence within you merge completely with your being. The world warps even more, shapes and colors mixing together grotesquely. "LIKE THE SUUUUUUUUUUUN!"
Reality shatters around you, the dream breaking apart beneath the force of your cry. You find yourself within an expansive cave that reeks of blood. The cavern is well lit, with hardly any shadows surviving beneath the glare of something intensely bright. You cannot tell the source of this illumination, however. It takes you a few moments to realize that it comes from yourself.
You burn.
There is something foul and unnatural here, a monster from another realm. There is a man on its back, clad in robes. He is striking the monster with his fists, trying to hurt it. A giant fights with the monster from the front, trying to strike it with a massive sword. Neither of the two seem to be having much luck against the creature, which is cutting into the giant with sharpened talons.
You burn.
You can barely comprehend any of this, though. You can barely comprehend anything. Thought is so hard to hold on to. Your mind, all that you are, is like a rock barely holding out against the flood within you. All that you know is that you burn, a power bursting inside of you with such strength that your it takes all that you have to keep from being pulled into oblivion.
You burn.
[] Kill the Oni.
[] Write in.
Last edited:
[x] Kill the Oni
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
[X] Kill the Oni.
...Is he some sort of reincarnation? Did he fucking achieve enlightenment?
...Is he some sort of reincarnation? Did he fucking achieve enlightenment?
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
As the GM has said in an IRC we frequent.
"He is burning."
[X] Kill the Oni.
This quest keep being fun to read, but even after trying to read the wiki about lot5r I still feel lost.
This quest keep being fun to read, but even after trying to read the wiki about lot5r I still feel lost.
You sure you guys want to focus on killing the Oni instead of defending our friends from the Oni?
The other option might mean we go ultra-kill without caring about friendly fire.
The other option might mean we go ultra-kill without caring about friendly fire.
EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
The two options are actually not mutually exclusive.
[x] Kill the Oni.