North Winds Fall (Xianxia - Survive the Protagonist)
- Thread starter azatol
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Michigan
The magistrate isn't part of the story anymore. I had a post where Autumn meets the magistrate but I decided to change it. In the old story, the wider world is space. This time the Emperor is the last one keeping these lands safe from basically pirate kings on the high seas. So when he goes…
Defiant Hearts: Revolution, S2 Finale Part 1
- Location
- Michigan
Previously:
[Flash to Scene with Tsu using artifact to heal Jun]
Tsu: I told you the Princess wasn't going to flip, didn't I?
Jun: What do we do with her little sister?
Tsu: Get them all away from the family before they become true believers. Xue Thu needs to pay, and the Emperor.
Jun: And Xue Lee.
Tsu: Yeah.
[Flash to Scene with Tsu running from his home after his home was attacked]
Tsu: Mom? Mom! Oh Thank you Thank you!
Mom: I'm ok. Honey, Your face-- oh--.
[Zoom to Tsu's face disfigured by burns]
[Flash to Scene with the Four, in hideout] Jun: We have to find an artifact to fix -- that.
Yako: So you can kiss him?
Tsu: We need a plan. We know there's more palaces. We have to find what the old lady told us. I can't face the Emperor until we know that.
Yako: We would plan a heist, Jun told us about the network between Palaces, once we get in, we can move quickly.
Chan: We need a big piece of paper, and snacks.
[Flash to Battle against Xue Son and Minions]
Xue Son retreats, swapping position with one of his guards.
Chun uses his counter-attack powers to cut down two attackers.
Xue Son shouts "Reorganization!"
Tsu binds the Four with vines, so the effect of mass scrambling teleportation only effects the Prince's own goons. The vines disappear at his will.
Jun cuts down two goons who are unprepared for their Prince's mass teleport.
Son: Who are you?
Tsu: The Gardener, it's weeding season.
[Flash to after battle against Xue Tuan and Xue Thu]
Tsu: You just couldn't stay still.
Jun: She's not going anywhere now.
And Now, the Season Finale!
~ ~ ~
The Garden represented well maintained life, freedom to grow, water and soil and sun. The Garden was a collection of many beautiful things, but no one flower could be allowed to dominate the garden. The Emperor and his family had consumed all of the water and soil and sun for far too long.
Tsu looked to his companions. They were still alive, he hoped.
The Emperor, fueled by so much lightning that it hurt to look in his direction, charged up another attack.
The pure power of the garden was life, waters, the hope of spring in every winter, that something might thrive again. He channeled the sheer power of Life, Water and Hope against the strike..
The strike shattered his formation, and he was thrown backwards, landing with a crunch on the Palace steps.
The Emperor began to brighten again, he was preparing another surge.
~~~
Autumn, wrote in the Book: "Are you the Spirit of the Father of the Four Brothers?"
"Yes."
"What will you do when my father gets back?"
"He won't be able to get in. I have blocked his North Tower access."
"What if I want to get out?"
"I can't. Not until you remove me from the Central Station."
"What would that do?"
"The glamour was already imperfect. Once you remove me, the Island will be visible. There have been Thirty fleets discovered and destroyed in the last year. You may have a week or two if you're lucky, before the first of them make landfall."
"I don't want to do that then."
"There's no one left to control the Tower."
~~~
The second time he tried to resist, he was blasted into the palace itself. He broke some things. And more broke than just his body. With Life, came not just Growth, but also Death. He channeled the Predator, the Plague, Poisons and Tricks and Deceit that took down the mightiest of Lions. every kind of trick devised by plant and animal.
The third time, the malice of Life consumed a portion of the Lightning strike. He still clutched his chest, but he stood, and began to walk, one step at a time, forward out of the Palace, towards the Emperor. He was reforming his technique on the fly, channeling Life's malice, and he struck back at the Emperor, and the man was powerless to defend himself from such things, and went flying.
The Air received it's Emperor, and Tsu struck again. The Emperor was not so easy a target, the man actually reacted in a few seconds, learning how to blast the very substance of life, as the tiniest plagues were vaporized as they came upon him again. But he wasn't yet able to full counter Tsu's new attack style, and went flying again.
He had just a few moments, so he focused on his friends, and after a thought, on sterilizing the area of all of the horrible life he had unleashed. Even a plague had it's purpose, and a time.
He turned to face a new threat, the First Prince. Chan, who was a precious brother to him, Chan, who rushed towards the Prince, Chan who was stopped still by the Prince's Card power.
If the Prince had something unusual and new, so too would the Emperor.
The ground began to tremble ominously.
~~~
"How can I save my sister?"
"I don't know anything outside of these towers, and what I knew when the greater soul imbued me. You can't do what your father did. You can't operate the tower. You don't have a Lightning elemental root, which is amazing, with those ancestors. The only way to save your sister is to release me. I can guide you to try to negotiate better passage."
"Can't we use the army to fight anyone who lands here? We've got whole armies of powerful people and weapons."
"Your ancestors could have. Even with all of his treasures, your father is only able to destroy those ships because of the power of this tower. Halstein imbued much of his own strength in the tower, just like his brothers in theirs. I'm not even talking about the Great Ships. Most Ocean vessels have a few Masters, dozens of Apprentices and even their Initiates are more skilled that most of your soldiers. Without the Tower, your father would be about equal to an Apprentice. And the Great Ships have Captains and Grandmasters with truly shocking power."
The book wrote more, since the Princess of Winds didn't write a response.
"...There is another way, if you don't want to negotiate. Most of my power has flowed out of the binding stone, but still, it's enough to perhaps seize a ship, a small ship mind you. Without me you will get lost a thousand times without finding land, but I know the way."
"Fine. How do I do this?"
~~~
Wei held onto Xiao tighter, as another tremendous boom shook the house. They had moved everything that could fall onto the floor, and huddled under the covers. It wasn't grown up princess behavior, but she insisted Xiaohui stay with her since Autumn was gone. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't stand anything happening to Tuan or Autumn.
"It's okay, it's o---"
She heard the rumble, and the sound of something shattering elsewhere in the house.
"It's okay, it'll be okay."
~~~
Vapour left his mouth with every breath, inhale and exhale, life and death, growth and disease, nature and cycles against the unnatural and the one.
Chan was down, he didn't know if he would make it, but Tsu had to push forward. Jun stood close to him, and Yako was there, with her staff whirling.
Across the field, the Emperor had descended onto the smoking ruins of the Palace square. The Emperor only managed to destroy his own Palace. The other houses with people in them were still okay, he thought.
The gardens and the dojo Jun had described were completely wrecked.
The Emperor was not alone. With him stood Xue Lee, and Sang Tia stood ready with Conner Kasi, the first and second princesses, with their Sang and Conner family goons. How had they appeared so quickly? But he was ready to end this.
He stared at the Emperor, heedless of the blinding light in his eyes.
"It's Over!" the Emperor yelled.
"Not If I can help it!" Tsu yelled back.
"You can't."
~~~
Somewhere else, in the next moment.
"Like that?" Autumn wrote.
The book didn't write back, instead disappearing into strange puffs of wind, and then with a great gush, burst into her eyes.
[Flash to Scene with Tsu using artifact to heal Jun]
Tsu: I told you the Princess wasn't going to flip, didn't I?
Jun: What do we do with her little sister?
Tsu: Get them all away from the family before they become true believers. Xue Thu needs to pay, and the Emperor.
Jun: And Xue Lee.
Tsu: Yeah.
[Flash to Scene with Tsu running from his home after his home was attacked]
Tsu: Mom? Mom! Oh Thank you Thank you!
Mom: I'm ok. Honey, Your face-- oh--.
[Zoom to Tsu's face disfigured by burns]
[Flash to Scene with the Four, in hideout] Jun: We have to find an artifact to fix -- that.
Yako: So you can kiss him?
Tsu: We need a plan. We know there's more palaces. We have to find what the old lady told us. I can't face the Emperor until we know that.
Yako: We would plan a heist, Jun told us about the network between Palaces, once we get in, we can move quickly.
Chan: We need a big piece of paper, and snacks.
[Flash to Battle against Xue Son and Minions]
Xue Son retreats, swapping position with one of his guards.
Chun uses his counter-attack powers to cut down two attackers.
Xue Son shouts "Reorganization!"
Tsu binds the Four with vines, so the effect of mass scrambling teleportation only effects the Prince's own goons. The vines disappear at his will.
Jun cuts down two goons who are unprepared for their Prince's mass teleport.
Son: Who are you?
Tsu: The Gardener, it's weeding season.
[Flash to after battle against Xue Tuan and Xue Thu]
Tsu: You just couldn't stay still.
Jun: She's not going anywhere now.
And Now, the Season Finale!
~ ~ ~
The Garden represented well maintained life, freedom to grow, water and soil and sun. The Garden was a collection of many beautiful things, but no one flower could be allowed to dominate the garden. The Emperor and his family had consumed all of the water and soil and sun for far too long.
Tsu looked to his companions. They were still alive, he hoped.
The Emperor, fueled by so much lightning that it hurt to look in his direction, charged up another attack.
The pure power of the garden was life, waters, the hope of spring in every winter, that something might thrive again. He channeled the sheer power of Life, Water and Hope against the strike..
The strike shattered his formation, and he was thrown backwards, landing with a crunch on the Palace steps.
The Emperor began to brighten again, he was preparing another surge.
~~~
Autumn, wrote in the Book: "Are you the Spirit of the Father of the Four Brothers?"
"Yes."
"What will you do when my father gets back?"
"He won't be able to get in. I have blocked his North Tower access."
"What if I want to get out?"
"I can't. Not until you remove me from the Central Station."
"What would that do?"
"The glamour was already imperfect. Once you remove me, the Island will be visible. There have been Thirty fleets discovered and destroyed in the last year. You may have a week or two if you're lucky, before the first of them make landfall."
"I don't want to do that then."
"There's no one left to control the Tower."
~~~
The second time he tried to resist, he was blasted into the palace itself. He broke some things. And more broke than just his body. With Life, came not just Growth, but also Death. He channeled the Predator, the Plague, Poisons and Tricks and Deceit that took down the mightiest of Lions. every kind of trick devised by plant and animal.
The third time, the malice of Life consumed a portion of the Lightning strike. He still clutched his chest, but he stood, and began to walk, one step at a time, forward out of the Palace, towards the Emperor. He was reforming his technique on the fly, channeling Life's malice, and he struck back at the Emperor, and the man was powerless to defend himself from such things, and went flying.
The Air received it's Emperor, and Tsu struck again. The Emperor was not so easy a target, the man actually reacted in a few seconds, learning how to blast the very substance of life, as the tiniest plagues were vaporized as they came upon him again. But he wasn't yet able to full counter Tsu's new attack style, and went flying again.
He had just a few moments, so he focused on his friends, and after a thought, on sterilizing the area of all of the horrible life he had unleashed. Even a plague had it's purpose, and a time.
He turned to face a new threat, the First Prince. Chan, who was a precious brother to him, Chan, who rushed towards the Prince, Chan who was stopped still by the Prince's Card power.
If the Prince had something unusual and new, so too would the Emperor.
The ground began to tremble ominously.
~~~
"How can I save my sister?"
"I don't know anything outside of these towers, and what I knew when the greater soul imbued me. You can't do what your father did. You can't operate the tower. You don't have a Lightning elemental root, which is amazing, with those ancestors. The only way to save your sister is to release me. I can guide you to try to negotiate better passage."
"Can't we use the army to fight anyone who lands here? We've got whole armies of powerful people and weapons."
"Your ancestors could have. Even with all of his treasures, your father is only able to destroy those ships because of the power of this tower. Halstein imbued much of his own strength in the tower, just like his brothers in theirs. I'm not even talking about the Great Ships. Most Ocean vessels have a few Masters, dozens of Apprentices and even their Initiates are more skilled that most of your soldiers. Without the Tower, your father would be about equal to an Apprentice. And the Great Ships have Captains and Grandmasters with truly shocking power."
The book wrote more, since the Princess of Winds didn't write a response.
"...There is another way, if you don't want to negotiate. Most of my power has flowed out of the binding stone, but still, it's enough to perhaps seize a ship, a small ship mind you. Without me you will get lost a thousand times without finding land, but I know the way."
"Fine. How do I do this?"
~~~
Wei held onto Xiao tighter, as another tremendous boom shook the house. They had moved everything that could fall onto the floor, and huddled under the covers. It wasn't grown up princess behavior, but she insisted Xiaohui stay with her since Autumn was gone. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't stand anything happening to Tuan or Autumn.
"It's okay, it's o---"
She heard the rumble, and the sound of something shattering elsewhere in the house.
"It's okay, it'll be okay."
~~~
Vapour left his mouth with every breath, inhale and exhale, life and death, growth and disease, nature and cycles against the unnatural and the one.
Chan was down, he didn't know if he would make it, but Tsu had to push forward. Jun stood close to him, and Yako was there, with her staff whirling.
Across the field, the Emperor had descended onto the smoking ruins of the Palace square. The Emperor only managed to destroy his own Palace. The other houses with people in them were still okay, he thought.
The gardens and the dojo Jun had described were completely wrecked.
The Emperor was not alone. With him stood Xue Lee, and Sang Tia stood ready with Conner Kasi, the first and second princesses, with their Sang and Conner family goons. How had they appeared so quickly? But he was ready to end this.
He stared at the Emperor, heedless of the blinding light in his eyes.
"It's Over!" the Emperor yelled.
"Not If I can help it!" Tsu yelled back.
"You can't."
~~~
Somewhere else, in the next moment.
"Like that?" Autumn wrote.
The book didn't write back, instead disappearing into strange puffs of wind, and then with a great gush, burst into her eyes.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Let me see if I got it right.
There is an Emperor who uses a Magic Book and a Magic Tower to defend his land against Sky Pirates 24/7. There is his royal family who are tasked with keeping the realm stable and resources flowing to the Magic Tower. Princes are a bunch of dipshits who ran their country into poverty, inspiring the rebellion. And now the Emperor is forced to step outside for 5 minutes and the Demon inside the Magic Book tries to become free by convincing the Princess to let it out.
Emperor's children are a bunch of idiots. Reminds me of W40k.
There is an Emperor who uses a Magic Book and a Magic Tower to defend his land against Sky Pirates 24/7. There is his royal family who are tasked with keeping the realm stable and resources flowing to the Magic Tower. Princes are a bunch of dipshits who ran their country into poverty, inspiring the rebellion. And now the Emperor is forced to step outside for 5 minutes and the Demon inside the Magic Book tries to become free by convincing the Princess to let it out.
Emperor's children are a bunch of idiots. Reminds me of W40k.
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TimEd
Meteor maker
I guess this island kingdom is doomed to destruction then. Especially if the original owner of the power in that book is angry about what his children did and was the one who kept sending the ships in this direction, since I doubt a dude with his level of power won't have a level of authority to match it.
Most likely, doing what the father did weakened him. And all this is just him working to acquire back that lost fragment of power.
Most likely, doing what the father did weakened him. And all this is just him working to acquire back that lost fragment of power.
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Defiant Hearts: Revolution S2 Finale Part 2
- Location
- Michigan
The Night Before:
"I can't shake the feeling that Xue Thu is still in control behind the scenes."
"She was a hidden obsessive. Xue Son told her to go bat her eyes at you. Believe me, the Princess is narrow, pleasing her brothers and practicing the blade were all she focused on."
"You didn't see everything Jun. I just can't shake the thought. Even if we defeat the Emperor."
"After, we can root out all of their lies."
Now
The rush of Sang and Conner family goons forced him back, he couldn't leave Jun and Yako to get overrun.
The Emperor hovered back into the air. He didn't have time to think on what the Emperor was doing, however, as a flaming arrow zipped through the air, launched from Sang Tia's bow.
He made vines to stop the arrows path, but they caught fire, and started to spread as he used his gardening to impede several guards.
Yako intercepted a strike from Conner Kasi and Jun struck the second arrow out of the air, but the Emperor was free to do anything.
His own plants were spreading the fire from Tia's arrows. They had to step back, create some space while he considered what to do.
He deflected many blows from the goons with his staff, stepping back further from what was becoming a fire. It actually gave them distance from the Sang and Conner goons.
He looked up, to see the emperor wreathed in pure actinic light. Shit!
Separated by the flames, Lin Tsu noticed Tia also looking up at the Emperor wreathed in Lightning. If he attacked with that much power, he would kill many of his own people.
~~~
Close up on the Emperor muttering. The power Lightning flashed, flickering between total brightness and contrasting dark.
"More Power. There's got to be more."
Flash to Autumn slashing at something like a wire or cord with her blade. A loud high pitched sound diminishes in intensity. A voice says, "That's the last binding to the Wind stone."
Flash to the Emperor.
"Destroy!"
His eyes suddenly show shock as the Lightning around him begins to act like Lightning does, and strikes him. The Eyes stagger under the blow of countless blasts of lightning.
~~~
The Emperor would destroy the palace and all of the homes around it if he released that much power.
Tsu had been busy dealing with all of the Emperor's minions, he didn't have a respond that could handle even the Emperor's earlier attacks.
He turned to Jun, and held her close anticipating the end.
Except.
Except that instead, Jun kissed him, and the only one dying was the Emperor himself. The sound of thunder roared again and again, but they were better than fine.
After a long pause, he turned with Jun to look.
The Emperor was no longer flying under his own power, instead the Lightning stuck him again and again, with such power that the storm current kept him afloat longer.
"Come on," he said to Jun and Yako, and they pushed their way back towards the goons.
He spotted the Emperor's firstborn. Had Xue Lee been hiding the whole time? The Prince then tried to use the same Card that hurt Chan. No, He refused to lose anyone else.
Every form of life generates heat through its action. If Fire was quite annoying to him, he had no problem with cold. He stopped the First Prince's attack, and bound him apart from his precious cards.
He drove heavy thorns into Tia's bow, and his sweetheart and Yako taught the goons how you really use a weapon His eyes never moved past the Emperor this whole time. Even as his friends pushed further forward, and turned the battle into a rout.
The last bolt of lightning struck the Emperor and his body fell, and Tsu started at the falling body.
Was it a mistake that lead to the Emperor losing control of the Lightning? Or something else. He ran towards where the Emperor fell.
~~~
"Thats it, I'm free now," the voice inside Autumn's head said. "There's still time to get your sister."
"I don't even know where we are."
"I'll show you."
It was easy to fly, it made the wrenching thoughts and motions of Blade step seem silly. She rose and flew faster than an eagle.
"It looks like one of your palaces is over there?"
~~~
Yako looked at the devastation inflicted on the Emperor. She poked at the body with her staff. Dead. Definitely dead.
"Jun, go see the Wu family. We need to get a lot of help. A lot of the Emperor's men fled, but I'll keep those we have confined.
"Yako, find the little kids. Be stern with the staff, but I want the innocent members of the Imperial family kept safe in case someone tries to vent their anger on them. If we have to host them with different families, do it.
"And there's still Xue Chi and Xue Thu unaccounted for," Tsu said.
Jun spoke up, "if we don't rally the small families, we'll just end up ruled by one of the First Families. They will be fighting now to take power. We can't let our families get sucked into becoming servants to their war."
"I didn't really expect to win," Tsu said. "Now we have to figure out how to keep on winning.
"He didn't expect us to win either," Yako said, pointing at the corpse.
~~~
Montage Scene:
Jun and the Wu family start knocking on doors. One family becomes two, and eventually neighborhoods of common folk informing each other of what has happened.
Flash to:
Snow family gathering all the extended family members.
Flash to:
Sang & Conner families gathering together. "It's not a bad thing that the Emperor died. If we take over right away.
Flash to:
Fights between registered families loyal to the First Families and those joining the Lin-Rieff-Hejl-Wu coalition.
Flash to:
Jun's grandfather slamming the door in her face. "I like the Lin family better anyway."
Epilogue Scene??
"I don't like this," Lin Tsu said, looking around.
Wu Shan accepted the position of leading their people. But there was an uneasiness, still a lot of families decided to stick with their first family patrons, or make new alliances.
Tsu despised the idea of regular people dying just to determine what first family would be in charge.
Whatever gifts the Emperors had given various families, Tsu was hopeful the regular people could live a better life. He would try to keep this momentum going.
"Finally, the Imperial family is done," he declared.
He was so busy, but he would go see Jun today, he decided. With her own family rejecting her, the Wu family had taken her in.
He was about to leave the old Imperial grounds when he caught site of something in the sky. Anger and Astonishment played out on his face.
Cut to Xue Thu landing at the ruined Imperial gardens. The wind swirls through her hair, her blade is drawn. The blade is different, a turquoise gem is set into the pommel of the blade now.
Flash to Lin Tsu's face
Flash to Xue Thu's face
Next Season on Defiant Hearts: Revolution??
"Whoever has the most Treasures wins." — Sang Tia
"Xue Chi is still out there, with his own schemes?" — Lin Tsu
"Can we trust the Snow family?" — Ho Jun
"We have to." — Wu Shan
"I'm not going to rest until I find all of my younger sisters and brothers. I am not leaving them behind." — Xue Thu
"There's no way I'm letting any child get caught in your schemes." — Lin Tsu
~~~~
Back to Autumn.
She's facing down Lin Tsu, aware that the Emperor is dead. Whatever kind of spirit or being powered the Towers that kept the island safe (even if it not longer fully worked) is inhabiting her, and the Wind power he was created from is in her blade.
Lin Tsu is a protagonist level character who believes Autumn is the big bad villain who he should definitely protect Wei, and the other young Princes and Princesses from.
The quotes in the Season 3 blurb don't have to reflect reality. But if you do want to find Wei and your other younger sisters and brothers, it won't be easy.
Also, ships from the wider world can see the island of the Four Winds now, and eventually land and pursue their own bloody aims.
It's on to Book 2: North Winds Roar: Civil War
Vote on Autumn's Main Goal (and Type of story).
[ ] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
[ ] I have to find Wei and leave before the Civil War gets us both killed. [Survival adventure, Explore the other Wind Nations with Wei dealing with mistrustful people, Pirates and other adventures. Autumn leaves the Protagonist's story, perhaps encountering him later.]
[ ] I have to find Wei, and Destroy this Spirit. We'll find a quiet place, spend more time sparring than fighting, maybe even another hobby or two. [Slice of Life & Drama. How do you get rid of a powerful spirit in you. How does Wei adjust to her new life and homesickness. Autumn leaves the Protagonist's story, perhaps encountering him later.]
"I can't shake the feeling that Xue Thu is still in control behind the scenes."
"She was a hidden obsessive. Xue Son told her to go bat her eyes at you. Believe me, the Princess is narrow, pleasing her brothers and practicing the blade were all she focused on."
"You didn't see everything Jun. I just can't shake the thought. Even if we defeat the Emperor."
"After, we can root out all of their lies."
Now
The rush of Sang and Conner family goons forced him back, he couldn't leave Jun and Yako to get overrun.
The Emperor hovered back into the air. He didn't have time to think on what the Emperor was doing, however, as a flaming arrow zipped through the air, launched from Sang Tia's bow.
He made vines to stop the arrows path, but they caught fire, and started to spread as he used his gardening to impede several guards.
Yako intercepted a strike from Conner Kasi and Jun struck the second arrow out of the air, but the Emperor was free to do anything.
His own plants were spreading the fire from Tia's arrows. They had to step back, create some space while he considered what to do.
He deflected many blows from the goons with his staff, stepping back further from what was becoming a fire. It actually gave them distance from the Sang and Conner goons.
He looked up, to see the emperor wreathed in pure actinic light. Shit!
Separated by the flames, Lin Tsu noticed Tia also looking up at the Emperor wreathed in Lightning. If he attacked with that much power, he would kill many of his own people.
~~~
Close up on the Emperor muttering. The power Lightning flashed, flickering between total brightness and contrasting dark.
"More Power. There's got to be more."
Flash to Autumn slashing at something like a wire or cord with her blade. A loud high pitched sound diminishes in intensity. A voice says, "That's the last binding to the Wind stone."
Flash to the Emperor.
"Destroy!"
His eyes suddenly show shock as the Lightning around him begins to act like Lightning does, and strikes him. The Eyes stagger under the blow of countless blasts of lightning.
~~~
The Emperor would destroy the palace and all of the homes around it if he released that much power.
Tsu had been busy dealing with all of the Emperor's minions, he didn't have a respond that could handle even the Emperor's earlier attacks.
He turned to Jun, and held her close anticipating the end.
Except.
Except that instead, Jun kissed him, and the only one dying was the Emperor himself. The sound of thunder roared again and again, but they were better than fine.
After a long pause, he turned with Jun to look.
The Emperor was no longer flying under his own power, instead the Lightning stuck him again and again, with such power that the storm current kept him afloat longer.
"Come on," he said to Jun and Yako, and they pushed their way back towards the goons.
He spotted the Emperor's firstborn. Had Xue Lee been hiding the whole time? The Prince then tried to use the same Card that hurt Chan. No, He refused to lose anyone else.
Every form of life generates heat through its action. If Fire was quite annoying to him, he had no problem with cold. He stopped the First Prince's attack, and bound him apart from his precious cards.
He drove heavy thorns into Tia's bow, and his sweetheart and Yako taught the goons how you really use a weapon His eyes never moved past the Emperor this whole time. Even as his friends pushed further forward, and turned the battle into a rout.
The last bolt of lightning struck the Emperor and his body fell, and Tsu started at the falling body.
Was it a mistake that lead to the Emperor losing control of the Lightning? Or something else. He ran towards where the Emperor fell.
~~~
"Thats it, I'm free now," the voice inside Autumn's head said. "There's still time to get your sister."
"I don't even know where we are."
"I'll show you."
It was easy to fly, it made the wrenching thoughts and motions of Blade step seem silly. She rose and flew faster than an eagle.
"It looks like one of your palaces is over there?"
~~~
Yako looked at the devastation inflicted on the Emperor. She poked at the body with her staff. Dead. Definitely dead.
"Jun, go see the Wu family. We need to get a lot of help. A lot of the Emperor's men fled, but I'll keep those we have confined.
"Yako, find the little kids. Be stern with the staff, but I want the innocent members of the Imperial family kept safe in case someone tries to vent their anger on them. If we have to host them with different families, do it.
"And there's still Xue Chi and Xue Thu unaccounted for," Tsu said.
Jun spoke up, "if we don't rally the small families, we'll just end up ruled by one of the First Families. They will be fighting now to take power. We can't let our families get sucked into becoming servants to their war."
"I didn't really expect to win," Tsu said. "Now we have to figure out how to keep on winning.
"He didn't expect us to win either," Yako said, pointing at the corpse.
~~~
Montage Scene:
Jun and the Wu family start knocking on doors. One family becomes two, and eventually neighborhoods of common folk informing each other of what has happened.
Flash to:
Snow family gathering all the extended family members.
Flash to:
Sang & Conner families gathering together. "It's not a bad thing that the Emperor died. If we take over right away.
Flash to:
Fights between registered families loyal to the First Families and those joining the Lin-Rieff-Hejl-Wu coalition.
Flash to:
Jun's grandfather slamming the door in her face. "I like the Lin family better anyway."
Epilogue Scene??
"I don't like this," Lin Tsu said, looking around.
Wu Shan accepted the position of leading their people. But there was an uneasiness, still a lot of families decided to stick with their first family patrons, or make new alliances.
Tsu despised the idea of regular people dying just to determine what first family would be in charge.
Whatever gifts the Emperors had given various families, Tsu was hopeful the regular people could live a better life. He would try to keep this momentum going.
"Finally, the Imperial family is done," he declared.
He was so busy, but he would go see Jun today, he decided. With her own family rejecting her, the Wu family had taken her in.
He was about to leave the old Imperial grounds when he caught site of something in the sky. Anger and Astonishment played out on his face.
Cut to Xue Thu landing at the ruined Imperial gardens. The wind swirls through her hair, her blade is drawn. The blade is different, a turquoise gem is set into the pommel of the blade now.
Flash to Lin Tsu's face
Flash to Xue Thu's face
Next Season on Defiant Hearts: Revolution??
"Whoever has the most Treasures wins." — Sang Tia
"Xue Chi is still out there, with his own schemes?" — Lin Tsu
"Can we trust the Snow family?" — Ho Jun
"We have to." — Wu Shan
"I'm not going to rest until I find all of my younger sisters and brothers. I am not leaving them behind." — Xue Thu
"There's no way I'm letting any child get caught in your schemes." — Lin Tsu
~~~~
Back to Autumn.
She's facing down Lin Tsu, aware that the Emperor is dead. Whatever kind of spirit or being powered the Towers that kept the island safe (even if it not longer fully worked) is inhabiting her, and the Wind power he was created from is in her blade.
Lin Tsu is a protagonist level character who believes Autumn is the big bad villain who he should definitely protect Wei, and the other young Princes and Princesses from.
The quotes in the Season 3 blurb don't have to reflect reality. But if you do want to find Wei and your other younger sisters and brothers, it won't be easy.
Also, ships from the wider world can see the island of the Four Winds now, and eventually land and pursue their own bloody aims.
It's on to Book 2: North Winds Roar: Civil War
Vote on Autumn's Main Goal (and Type of story).
[ ] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
[ ] I have to find Wei and leave before the Civil War gets us both killed. [Survival adventure, Explore the other Wind Nations with Wei dealing with mistrustful people, Pirates and other adventures. Autumn leaves the Protagonist's story, perhaps encountering him later.]
[ ] I have to find Wei, and Destroy this Spirit. We'll find a quiet place, spend more time sparring than fighting, maybe even another hobby or two. [Slice of Life & Drama. How do you get rid of a powerful spirit in you. How does Wei adjust to her new life and homesickness. Autumn leaves the Protagonist's story, perhaps encountering him later.]
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Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
[X] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
For a character that was supposed to be good at ass-kicking, Autumn turned out surprisingly inept at it. Hoping it'll get better going forwards.
E. Also, I find that misunderstanding that Autumn is a mastermind-type BBEG that was moving pieces behind the scene hilarious in a good way.
For a character that was supposed to be good at ass-kicking, Autumn turned out surprisingly inept at it. Hoping it'll get better going forwards.
E. Also, I find that misunderstanding that Autumn is a mastermind-type BBEG that was moving pieces behind the scene hilarious in a good way.
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- Location
- Aus
[X] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
- Location
- Phiadelphia P.A
[X] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
TimEd
Meteor maker
[x] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
I want nothing to do with this protagonist. If taking up the mantle of Villain is what we have to do, then so be it.
I want nothing to do with this protagonist. If taking up the mantle of Villain is what we have to do, then so be it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
It sounds like you want one of the other votes.
- Location
- Michigan
Yes, the first option will give more Lin Tsu interactions. The Second maybe some in the distant future. The Third, who knows, but probably not.
- Location
- Michigan
He wasn't really present enough from Autumn's pov to get a good knowledge of who he is.
Notionally, the "show"'s first season would have started with when he met Autumn the first time, through what he thought was her betrayal. Odd threats from the Sang family. (Always intended to be a scummy family.)
I'm going to leave the cause of Tsu's father's death vague. But he starts to recruit people against the Imperial family, finds an in with Ho Junko (who hates that name and goes by Jun among friends), and sends her to steal from the North palace after he finds out the family has been hoarding all of this treasure.
End season one with Jun's heist and Tsu discovering the Gardener artifact that would turn him into S2 Tsu.
[x] I have to find all my younger sisters and brothers so we can leave the Island together before the Pirates destroy everything. [Autumn is the "Villain" to Tsu's Protagonist. There's also the treachery of the first families. Anime-like with plenty of battles between Autumn, Lin Tsu's group, the First Families et al]
- Location
- It's a whole new world we live in
[X] I have to find Wei, and Destroy this Spirit. We'll find a quiet place, spend more time sparring than fighting, maybe even another hobby or two. [Slice of Life & Drama. How do you get rid of a powerful spirit in you. How does Wei adjust to her new life and homesickness. Autumn leaves the Protagonist's story, perhaps encountering him later.]
While I do think this is a much more logical and better following unfolding of the plot than the "mind control death battle out of nowhere" from the first iteration, I'm kinda having trouble following what their motivations are.
Junko is clear enough, but I think I kinda lost a thread or two somewhere with what exactly happened with the Lin family. Much less the other two mooks
And tbh, I'm voting for anything other than the first, because I'm not sure how much I care about Lin Tsu's... Whatever.
While I do think this is a much more logical and better following unfolding of the plot than the "mind control death battle out of nowhere" from the first iteration, I'm kinda having trouble following what their motivations are.
Junko is clear enough, but I think I kinda lost a thread or two somewhere with what exactly happened with the Lin family. Much less the other two mooks
And tbh, I'm voting for anything other than the first, because I'm not sure how much I care about Lin Tsu's... Whatever.
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- Location
- Michigan
I'm still working on getting better at this for sure. I think I needed an interlude or two to explain more.
The Lin stuff happened before the beginning of the story so that's understandable.
I think Yako was involved mostly because she was friends with Jun, and their social group.
Xue Son did a lot of bad stuff behind the scenes. Underpaid his siblings staff with promises of later payment to their families, but he also used the promise of ties to the Imperial family by having Autumn invite a potential young suitor like Lin Tsu.
For a few weeks Lin Tsu thought Autumn was his girl, and Tsu's father knew that meant connections.
Tsu's father made a significant contrIbution that indirectly ended up in Son's pockets, and then he told Autumn to keep her distance and the Sang family that they should remind the Lin family of their place.
So Lin Tsu was heartbroken, and then the Sang family applied pressure.
Autumn went through this with a number of families but Lin Tsu was the only one who couldn't accept it as the way things were.
Rieff Chan was part of Autumn's sparring club, but he was kicked out by the agreement of Bull and Mountain because his family was nameless.
2-1 Looking for a Landing
- Location
- Michigan
Prologue:
The wind rushed past her as she zipped towards the Palace, descending slowly as forest changed into plains. The weather was finally breaking, and snow was just beginning to melt.
"It won't be long before the Emperor discovers the Lightning Tower is unavailable. He knows you left you in the tower. So he will know you have something to do with it."
"If he's against me than I don't have a chance. I never learned the dao blade expecting to be powerful. It was something I enjoyed doing, and it was fun to surprise people with how good I was, but I knew my brothers were chasing the real power."
"You've got a Wind stone. You won't understand the full theory, but we all have an elemental affinity. You long to soar, you hate to feel confined or unfree. You move in the way of a Wind Warrior. Don't discount yourself. My master fought for freedom from an oppressor once. He became a Shipwright to seek the Free waves."
"What should I do?"
"These treasures you have heard about are salvage. Booty obtained from the Ships your father destroyed. I suspect your First Brother spent his days looking through and keeping what was best. If this group of criminals you speak of has pillaged this booty, we may not be able to find what we need, but I'm hopeful they didn't have eyes to see. None of you know about the Ships and their crew, which helps. Trained in every type of Power and Manipulation, Wielders of every artifice and relic they can find, and that's just the crew. The officers... And the table stakes for going out to sea makes your Emperor look like a pauper."
Autumn descended, landing a few hundred yards away from the Palace.
"I'll just play it cool, and see if I can find out if Xue Lee is here," she said to the spirit.
She approached the two men who stood by the front entrance.
"Stop! This is the Emperor's Private Grounds. We are not expecting visitors," said the first guard.
"I am Princess Xue Thu. I was wondering if my brother the Crown Prince is here?"
"You can't come in Princess. We haven't seen the First Prince, but only the Emperor and First Prince may pass.."
"Oh, uh -- Thank you."
She walked back away from the Palace, far enough that the guards stopped paying attention.
She hesitated. They needed to get into the Palace. If she had to work with the spirit and search the treasure vaults, these two were not going to cooperate. And if she just decided to take the transport network back to the main palace she still needed to get inside.
The Emperor would have arrived in time to find Lin Tsu and Ho Junko raiding the Palace, and there was no way they could escape him. The family would probably be on high alert, even before considering the loss of the Lightning Tower. But if the Emperor was against her, than what could she do?
But if the spirit was right, at least she could prepare herself to escape. But she didn't want to escape unless she had Wei with her. Her family didn't know what was coming with these Pirates. She couldn't get the horrible thought of Wei being captured by some Pirate King out of her head. And what about Wei's younger brother and sisters. Xue Tai was 9, and Siu and Suk were 7 and 5.
She had to work with this spirit for now, at least until she could learn more about the world it had come from. Hopefully the wind stone really was a marvelous powerful thing from a far off land.
"How should I get in? I don't just want to knock out my brother's guards."
She could communicate freely with the spirit, but it seemed to give her the privacy of her thoughts if she wasn't trying to communicate.
"We don't have time," the spirit said, and she dropped the wind stone as it was suddenly very hot.
At first, she had expected a massive stone from the spirit's story of it's power over the whole island. But it was actually small. She had an idea. She placed it between the ends of a hair clip, so that it was caught in her hair. As long as it didn't get hot enough to set her hair on fire, she was ok.
"We will find a better solution for the stone."
Between dropping the wind stone, and putting it in the clip, she didn't see what happened at the Palace, but when she looked again, the guards were gone.
Suspiciously, she darted towards the Palace's side door, and crept inside. She didn't see the guards. Going from the foyer, she went deeper into the Palace, finding no one.
She found a back entrance to the Palace, and looking out that side, she saw what she suspected was the warehouse where the salvage had been kept.
"I expected a small room. The Prince must have kept a lot of junk.
Going outside the Palace through the back door, she saw that the other building was three stories high, and about half as long as the main palace building itself.
An oddly blue light flickered on as she entered, revealing rows of neatly organized boxes, as well as some larger items that she couldn't even describe yet alone understand.
"You're going to have to direct me," she said.
"We open all of them."
"I don't want to waste a month on this. "
"At least enough to find what you need then."
They found that Lin Tsu's group had only opened a few boxes. How they knew which ones to open, she had no clue. She never did see any more guards. Working a few hours at a time, she opened many boxes, a few hundred perhaps. At least the palace had been lived in recently and was still stocked with some food.
It took the rest of the day and most of the next morning, but the spirit was finally satisfied with her efforts. It lead her through a series of steps to imbue the Wind stone's powers in a blade.
The spirit had rejected her old Dao blade, chosing one of a few dozen similar blades that she had found.
"This one is durable and spirit-compatible, elementally suited and actually made by an Apprentice. The rest of these were made by free craftsmen. Pah!"
The new dao blade was slightly heavier than her old one, slightly longer, but she practiced with it for an hour to familiarize herself with it's peculiarities. It would take many hours to truly internalize the differences.
After the ritual, or whatever it was, to imbue the Wind stone in the blade, she could feel the difference. The blade seemed to flow through the Wind like it was born there.
"Now this is a dao blade," she proclaimed.
There was still more to do, as the spirit armed her with various tinctures which he called "Wind amplifiers". They only lasted a short while, but it would help her get a surge in strength during a difficult battle.
She filled most of her bag with things the spirit said would be valuable if they had to negotiate with pirates.
"You should work on finding some allies and a secure place. There's a lot more I would take, but you can't carry it. I don't want to weigh you down, it's not good for Wind resonance."
So at last, they prepared to go to the main palace.
"I don't think using the Emperor's artifact is a good idea. It's completely lightning aspected, which could interfere with your powers, and you'll be inside, with barely any winds, and you don't know what or who is on the other side. You should fly there."
"That'll take forever!"
"Not if I teach you how to fly faster."
While they spent much of their time in the Treasure building, she was having lunch in the Palace while she discussed the best way home, so she heard the voices.
"... before anyone else." said a man.
"We don't even know who else is out there. They're all silent about their plans."
"They've called us Last of the First before."
First Family, here? She didn't recognize them, but she had heard the term Last of the First. The Chan family didn't have the same prestige as the other First Families. She barely knew them at all, actually. But none of them would dare enter a Palace without permission and escort from someone in the Family.
A man and a woman came into view, followed by younger boy.
"What exactly are you doing in an Imperial Palace, Chan family?" she said, projecting as much authority as she could.
"There's always someone clueless," said the lady.
"Look, I'm not going to miss an opportunity because of a Dead man's fourth daughter. If you leave now, I won't even tell anyone you were here," the man said.
Dead? That was impossible. Her brother had fought Lin Tsu to a standstill, but the Emperor was much more powerful.
She picked up her Dao blade from the counter, and faced the trio. Even without the Wind stone fueled powers, she would have faced them down.
Autumn didn't see what the Chan family lady was holding, but the spirit shouted at her, "Unleash your wind!"
The object left the other woman's hands, suddenly on fire, but with a burst of wind, it was flung right back at the woman.
She was angry at the spirit, as fire erupted around the three Chan family members "I didn't mean to do that!"
She hurriedly picked up her bag, and with her other hand, deflected an angry blow from the man's jian, she didn't want to fight either of them anymore, but she wished the man would just go away.
Her wish became true as he was thrown backwards.
She didn't want to know if he landed in the fire, instead she rushed out of the palace.
"I thought you said I can't use the winds indoors," she shouted as she took to the sky.
"I said the Winds are much weaker."
"I didn't mean to do any of that. Couldn't I have diverted that flame thing somewhere other than right back at that lady? I didn't mean to toss that guy at all, I just wanted him away from me."
"You have to learn to control yourself. With that much wind power, a mere desire can cause such things to happen. It wasn't designed to be contained in a mortal vessel. Even this apprentice sword is barely able to hold such powers. Now, let me show you how to fly quickly."
"I don't even know what palace this was, or which way to fly."
"This way," he said, directing her thoughts.
Present:
Lin Tsu's presence, and the devastated Palace grounds were strong signs that her father really was dead. The spirit had given her a few basics in controlling the Winds, and subduing her emotions. It was necessary even when flying faster, to keep any stray thoughts from buffeting her in the air.
But now the Winds were starting to whip around her again.
"DId you kill my father?" she asked. It wasn't like the Emperor was actually special to her, really. He had never been part of her life, but she would back anyone else against Lin Tsu at this point.
"He killed himself," the man said, blatantly lying.
"And the rest of my family?"
"Your older siblings will be tried for their crimes. Your younger siblings are safe. You and Xue chi are the last to see justice."
Autumn let the man's plants bind her, as they had done in the palace before. He went overboard, creating massive shrubs and trees to surround her, but when the tree branch tried to seperate her Dao blade from her hands, she released the power of the winds, and ran towards Lin Tsu.
The plant life was shredded into fine mist by the winds, and her forward progress was not stopped.
Her blade cut deep marks into the staff as he deflected her first few strikes.
The gardener tried some new form of attack.
"Don't let it hit you!"
The only controlled ability she had over the winds so far was an explosive pushing ability and her flight, so as she wished Tsu's attack to get away, it was flung back at the man, who ignored it as it splashed in his face.
"We will need to find an answer to that if this foe survives. A potent biotoxin or such an unstructured power user?"
"Tell me where Wei and the other Princesses are?" she said, approaching Tsu again with her blade.
"No," he said.
He started to form something else to use against her, and she expressed her wind powers again, but Lin Tsu surrounded himself in plants, so that he didn't go anywhere this time.
"Life thrives in the winds," he announced.
It was much harder to deal with Lin Tsu then. She had to stop each new horrific contagion from reaching her. They were resistant to winds but not unmovable.
The spirit was constantly babbling, it was impressed with Tsu's ability to come up with new lethal ways to kill her.
The biological attacks were getting more and more resistant to her wind, so she had to start getting creative. If you can't remove the attack, move yourself. This was more of her battle style anyway. She darted in and out of range, watching closely to study and understand Lin Tsu's timing.
Her pinky finger was struck with some kind of acid, when she just missed dodging his attack, but she was able to wipe it off and limit the pain.
She had to interrupt his powers when possible by relying on her bladework, but she couldn't be in range when he finally did unleash an attack.
She was carving big chunks out of his staff with each successful blade strike, and finally it snapped, and she tried to press her advantage.
"Again with the plague," she cursed as the spirit warned her, flying high into the sky to avoid it. She descended, faking out another power from Tsu, and simply flying above where he was trying to aim.
Finally, she had the opportunity, as he couldn't defend against her blade without using his active power. She approached, striking with ferocity, but also ready to get out of there at a moment's sign of his poisons and plagues.
He summoned branch after branch to block her strikes, and was unready for an explosion of wind which launched him high into the air.
He was in her domain now, but before she could subdue him and try to get him to tell her everything she wanted to know, he used one last trick. He surrounded himself with a cocoon like a butterfly, and when she cut through the cocoon with her blade, she found nothing left inside of it.
"That was impressive."
"Thanks" she said, she had to be clever facing down so many deadly threats.
"I wasn't talking about you. To come up with so many different bio-weapons. He is worthy to be a Plague Apprentice on one of the Ships. You, on the other hand. I can't look at you and not find so many amateurish mistakes. Forgive me child, but your Wind skills are still so far from where they need to be. We have work to do."
Vote: Next Moves
Autumn needs to learn more about what happened and the current situation at hand. The Spirit wants her to find new ways to deal with Lin Tsu's biological attacks. She will need friends and a place to sleep, but she doesn't know what is safe.
Choose 2
Explore Openly and Discretely are mutually exclusive.
You can make contact with 2 families by using both choices, but you can't pick multiple palaces.
[ ] Explore the Main Palace and Houses at the Palace Grounds.
[ ] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
[ ] Explore the City openly.
[ ] Make Contact with a Family. Try to establish a rapport. (DC check varies by family)
-- [ ] Sang
-- [ ] Conner
-- [ ] Park
-- [ ] Snow
-- [ ] Chan
-- [ ] Other
[ ] Fly back to one of the Palaces. Claim it as yours.
-- [ ] Western Redoubt Palace
-- [ ] North High Mountain Palace
-- [ ] Southern Redoubt Palace
The wind rushed past her as she zipped towards the Palace, descending slowly as forest changed into plains. The weather was finally breaking, and snow was just beginning to melt.
"It won't be long before the Emperor discovers the Lightning Tower is unavailable. He knows you left you in the tower. So he will know you have something to do with it."
"If he's against me than I don't have a chance. I never learned the dao blade expecting to be powerful. It was something I enjoyed doing, and it was fun to surprise people with how good I was, but I knew my brothers were chasing the real power."
"You've got a Wind stone. You won't understand the full theory, but we all have an elemental affinity. You long to soar, you hate to feel confined or unfree. You move in the way of a Wind Warrior. Don't discount yourself. My master fought for freedom from an oppressor once. He became a Shipwright to seek the Free waves."
"What should I do?"
"These treasures you have heard about are salvage. Booty obtained from the Ships your father destroyed. I suspect your First Brother spent his days looking through and keeping what was best. If this group of criminals you speak of has pillaged this booty, we may not be able to find what we need, but I'm hopeful they didn't have eyes to see. None of you know about the Ships and their crew, which helps. Trained in every type of Power and Manipulation, Wielders of every artifice and relic they can find, and that's just the crew. The officers... And the table stakes for going out to sea makes your Emperor look like a pauper."
Autumn descended, landing a few hundred yards away from the Palace.
"I'll just play it cool, and see if I can find out if Xue Lee is here," she said to the spirit.
She approached the two men who stood by the front entrance.
"Stop! This is the Emperor's Private Grounds. We are not expecting visitors," said the first guard.
"I am Princess Xue Thu. I was wondering if my brother the Crown Prince is here?"
"You can't come in Princess. We haven't seen the First Prince, but only the Emperor and First Prince may pass.."
"Oh, uh -- Thank you."
She walked back away from the Palace, far enough that the guards stopped paying attention.
She hesitated. They needed to get into the Palace. If she had to work with the spirit and search the treasure vaults, these two were not going to cooperate. And if she just decided to take the transport network back to the main palace she still needed to get inside.
The Emperor would have arrived in time to find Lin Tsu and Ho Junko raiding the Palace, and there was no way they could escape him. The family would probably be on high alert, even before considering the loss of the Lightning Tower. But if the Emperor was against her, than what could she do?
But if the spirit was right, at least she could prepare herself to escape. But she didn't want to escape unless she had Wei with her. Her family didn't know what was coming with these Pirates. She couldn't get the horrible thought of Wei being captured by some Pirate King out of her head. And what about Wei's younger brother and sisters. Xue Tai was 9, and Siu and Suk were 7 and 5.
She had to work with this spirit for now, at least until she could learn more about the world it had come from. Hopefully the wind stone really was a marvelous powerful thing from a far off land.
"How should I get in? I don't just want to knock out my brother's guards."
She could communicate freely with the spirit, but it seemed to give her the privacy of her thoughts if she wasn't trying to communicate.
"We don't have time," the spirit said, and she dropped the wind stone as it was suddenly very hot.
At first, she had expected a massive stone from the spirit's story of it's power over the whole island. But it was actually small. She had an idea. She placed it between the ends of a hair clip, so that it was caught in her hair. As long as it didn't get hot enough to set her hair on fire, she was ok.
"We will find a better solution for the stone."
Between dropping the wind stone, and putting it in the clip, she didn't see what happened at the Palace, but when she looked again, the guards were gone.
Suspiciously, she darted towards the Palace's side door, and crept inside. She didn't see the guards. Going from the foyer, she went deeper into the Palace, finding no one.
She found a back entrance to the Palace, and looking out that side, she saw what she suspected was the warehouse where the salvage had been kept.
"I expected a small room. The Prince must have kept a lot of junk.
Going outside the Palace through the back door, she saw that the other building was three stories high, and about half as long as the main palace building itself.
An oddly blue light flickered on as she entered, revealing rows of neatly organized boxes, as well as some larger items that she couldn't even describe yet alone understand.
"You're going to have to direct me," she said.
"We open all of them."
"I don't want to waste a month on this. "
"At least enough to find what you need then."
They found that Lin Tsu's group had only opened a few boxes. How they knew which ones to open, she had no clue. She never did see any more guards. Working a few hours at a time, she opened many boxes, a few hundred perhaps. At least the palace had been lived in recently and was still stocked with some food.
It took the rest of the day and most of the next morning, but the spirit was finally satisfied with her efforts. It lead her through a series of steps to imbue the Wind stone's powers in a blade.
The spirit had rejected her old Dao blade, chosing one of a few dozen similar blades that she had found.
"This one is durable and spirit-compatible, elementally suited and actually made by an Apprentice. The rest of these were made by free craftsmen. Pah!"
The new dao blade was slightly heavier than her old one, slightly longer, but she practiced with it for an hour to familiarize herself with it's peculiarities. It would take many hours to truly internalize the differences.
After the ritual, or whatever it was, to imbue the Wind stone in the blade, she could feel the difference. The blade seemed to flow through the Wind like it was born there.
"Now this is a dao blade," she proclaimed.
There was still more to do, as the spirit armed her with various tinctures which he called "Wind amplifiers". They only lasted a short while, but it would help her get a surge in strength during a difficult battle.
She filled most of her bag with things the spirit said would be valuable if they had to negotiate with pirates.
"You should work on finding some allies and a secure place. There's a lot more I would take, but you can't carry it. I don't want to weigh you down, it's not good for Wind resonance."
So at last, they prepared to go to the main palace.
"I don't think using the Emperor's artifact is a good idea. It's completely lightning aspected, which could interfere with your powers, and you'll be inside, with barely any winds, and you don't know what or who is on the other side. You should fly there."
"That'll take forever!"
"Not if I teach you how to fly faster."
While they spent much of their time in the Treasure building, she was having lunch in the Palace while she discussed the best way home, so she heard the voices.
"... before anyone else." said a man.
"We don't even know who else is out there. They're all silent about their plans."
"They've called us Last of the First before."
First Family, here? She didn't recognize them, but she had heard the term Last of the First. The Chan family didn't have the same prestige as the other First Families. She barely knew them at all, actually. But none of them would dare enter a Palace without permission and escort from someone in the Family.
A man and a woman came into view, followed by younger boy.
"What exactly are you doing in an Imperial Palace, Chan family?" she said, projecting as much authority as she could.
"There's always someone clueless," said the lady.
"Look, I'm not going to miss an opportunity because of a Dead man's fourth daughter. If you leave now, I won't even tell anyone you were here," the man said.
Dead? That was impossible. Her brother had fought Lin Tsu to a standstill, but the Emperor was much more powerful.
She picked up her Dao blade from the counter, and faced the trio. Even without the Wind stone fueled powers, she would have faced them down.
Autumn didn't see what the Chan family lady was holding, but the spirit shouted at her, "Unleash your wind!"
The object left the other woman's hands, suddenly on fire, but with a burst of wind, it was flung right back at the woman.
She was angry at the spirit, as fire erupted around the three Chan family members "I didn't mean to do that!"
She hurriedly picked up her bag, and with her other hand, deflected an angry blow from the man's jian, she didn't want to fight either of them anymore, but she wished the man would just go away.
Her wish became true as he was thrown backwards.
She didn't want to know if he landed in the fire, instead she rushed out of the palace.
"I thought you said I can't use the winds indoors," she shouted as she took to the sky.
"I said the Winds are much weaker."
"I didn't mean to do any of that. Couldn't I have diverted that flame thing somewhere other than right back at that lady? I didn't mean to toss that guy at all, I just wanted him away from me."
"You have to learn to control yourself. With that much wind power, a mere desire can cause such things to happen. It wasn't designed to be contained in a mortal vessel. Even this apprentice sword is barely able to hold such powers. Now, let me show you how to fly quickly."
"I don't even know what palace this was, or which way to fly."
"This way," he said, directing her thoughts.
Present:
Lin Tsu's presence, and the devastated Palace grounds were strong signs that her father really was dead. The spirit had given her a few basics in controlling the Winds, and subduing her emotions. It was necessary even when flying faster, to keep any stray thoughts from buffeting her in the air.
But now the Winds were starting to whip around her again.
"DId you kill my father?" she asked. It wasn't like the Emperor was actually special to her, really. He had never been part of her life, but she would back anyone else against Lin Tsu at this point.
"He killed himself," the man said, blatantly lying.
"And the rest of my family?"
"Your older siblings will be tried for their crimes. Your younger siblings are safe. You and Xue chi are the last to see justice."
Autumn let the man's plants bind her, as they had done in the palace before. He went overboard, creating massive shrubs and trees to surround her, but when the tree branch tried to seperate her Dao blade from her hands, she released the power of the winds, and ran towards Lin Tsu.
The plant life was shredded into fine mist by the winds, and her forward progress was not stopped.
Her blade cut deep marks into the staff as he deflected her first few strikes.
The gardener tried some new form of attack.
"Don't let it hit you!"
The only controlled ability she had over the winds so far was an explosive pushing ability and her flight, so as she wished Tsu's attack to get away, it was flung back at the man, who ignored it as it splashed in his face.
"We will need to find an answer to that if this foe survives. A potent biotoxin or such an unstructured power user?"
"Tell me where Wei and the other Princesses are?" she said, approaching Tsu again with her blade.
"No," he said.
He started to form something else to use against her, and she expressed her wind powers again, but Lin Tsu surrounded himself in plants, so that he didn't go anywhere this time.
"Life thrives in the winds," he announced.
It was much harder to deal with Lin Tsu then. She had to stop each new horrific contagion from reaching her. They were resistant to winds but not unmovable.
The spirit was constantly babbling, it was impressed with Tsu's ability to come up with new lethal ways to kill her.
The biological attacks were getting more and more resistant to her wind, so she had to start getting creative. If you can't remove the attack, move yourself. This was more of her battle style anyway. She darted in and out of range, watching closely to study and understand Lin Tsu's timing.
Her pinky finger was struck with some kind of acid, when she just missed dodging his attack, but she was able to wipe it off and limit the pain.
She had to interrupt his powers when possible by relying on her bladework, but she couldn't be in range when he finally did unleash an attack.
She was carving big chunks out of his staff with each successful blade strike, and finally it snapped, and she tried to press her advantage.
"Again with the plague," she cursed as the spirit warned her, flying high into the sky to avoid it. She descended, faking out another power from Tsu, and simply flying above where he was trying to aim.
Finally, she had the opportunity, as he couldn't defend against her blade without using his active power. She approached, striking with ferocity, but also ready to get out of there at a moment's sign of his poisons and plagues.
He summoned branch after branch to block her strikes, and was unready for an explosion of wind which launched him high into the air.
He was in her domain now, but before she could subdue him and try to get him to tell her everything she wanted to know, he used one last trick. He surrounded himself with a cocoon like a butterfly, and when she cut through the cocoon with her blade, she found nothing left inside of it.
"That was impressive."
"Thanks" she said, she had to be clever facing down so many deadly threats.
"I wasn't talking about you. To come up with so many different bio-weapons. He is worthy to be a Plague Apprentice on one of the Ships. You, on the other hand. I can't look at you and not find so many amateurish mistakes. Forgive me child, but your Wind skills are still so far from where they need to be. We have work to do."
Vote: Next Moves
Autumn needs to learn more about what happened and the current situation at hand. The Spirit wants her to find new ways to deal with Lin Tsu's biological attacks. She will need friends and a place to sleep, but she doesn't know what is safe.
Choose 2
Explore Openly and Discretely are mutually exclusive.
You can make contact with 2 families by using both choices, but you can't pick multiple palaces.
[ ] Explore the Main Palace and Houses at the Palace Grounds.
[ ] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
[ ] Explore the City openly.
[ ] Make Contact with a Family. Try to establish a rapport. (DC check varies by family)
-- [ ] Sang
-- [ ] Conner
-- [ ] Park
-- [ ] Snow
-- [ ] Other
[ ] Fly back to one of the Palaces. Claim it as yours.
-- [ ] Western Redoubt Palace
-- [ ] North High Mountain Palace
-- [ ] Southern Redoubt Palace
- Location
- scrabbling
[X] Fly back to one of the Palaces. Claim it as yours.
--[X] North High Mountain Palace
Feels fitting to Autumn's newfound wind powers.
[X] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
Gotta get a feel for what's up.
--[X] North High Mountain Palace
Feels fitting to Autumn's newfound wind powers.
[X] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
Gotta get a feel for what's up.
2-2 Shifting Winds
- Location
- Michigan
[X] Fly back to one of the Palaces. Claim it as yours.
--[X] North High Mountain Palace
[X] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
Rolling to Adjust Family Opinions of Lin&Wu faction, Sang&Conner faction & Autumn...
Sang family action [Sang - Conner faction]: Sway Registered Families: Yang Family (DC50 +20 (Friendly to Autumn): 39 rebuffed)
Conner family action [Sang - Conner faction]: Sway Registered Families: Wynn Family (DC50 - 10 (dislikes both Wu-Lin and Autumn): 44. Open to Further contact.
Park family action (Independent): Take over Western Redoubt Palace: Unopposed (DC 30): 40. Control established. Further actions are needed to search for treasures.
Snow family action (Independent): Take over North Mountain Palace: Contested - See Main Story for resolution.
Chan family action (Independent): Recruit more family members to support efforts at the Southern Redoubt Palace (DC 20+20 (heavy casaulties): 47. A few more members of the family showed up just in time for Mrs. Chan's burial. Mr. Chan is still recovering.
Wu-Lin Faction: Start recruiting members of supporting families to form a militia.
9 families - 69 recruits joined militia.
Ng & He families sent recruits despite not being fully part of the group yet.
Small Family / Group Actions:
Chun - Join Wu - Lin faction
Le - Join Wu - Lin faction
Lam - Join Wu - Lin faction
Tam - Join Wu - Lin faction
Hejl - Join Wu - Lin faction
Sun - Join Wu - Lin faction
Yang (rolled 100 on Opinion of Autumn): Seeking to make contact - See Story
Su (rolled 96 on Opinion of Autumn): Seeking to make contact with Autumn.
Despite these two families rolling well, overall there's not a lot of friendliness towards Autumn in the family opinion rolls.
--[X] North High Mountain Palace
[X] Explore the City discretely, find out what you can without showing your face.
Rolling to Adjust Family Opinions of Lin&Wu faction, Sang&Conner faction & Autumn...
Sang family action [Sang - Conner faction]: Sway Registered Families: Yang Family (DC50 +20 (Friendly to Autumn): 39 rebuffed)
Conner family action [Sang - Conner faction]: Sway Registered Families: Wynn Family (DC50 - 10 (dislikes both Wu-Lin and Autumn): 44. Open to Further contact.
Park family action (Independent): Take over Western Redoubt Palace: Unopposed (DC 30): 40. Control established. Further actions are needed to search for treasures.
Snow family action (Independent): Take over North Mountain Palace: Contested - See Main Story for resolution.
Chan family action (Independent): Recruit more family members to support efforts at the Southern Redoubt Palace (DC 20+20 (heavy casaulties): 47. A few more members of the family showed up just in time for Mrs. Chan's burial. Mr. Chan is still recovering.
Wu-Lin Faction: Start recruiting members of supporting families to form a militia.
9 families - 69 recruits joined militia.
Ng & He families sent recruits despite not being fully part of the group yet.
Small Family / Group Actions:
Chun - Join Wu - Lin faction
Le - Join Wu - Lin faction
Lam - Join Wu - Lin faction
Tam - Join Wu - Lin faction
Hejl - Join Wu - Lin faction
Sun - Join Wu - Lin faction
Yang (rolled 100 on Opinion of Autumn): Seeking to make contact - See Story
Su (rolled 96 on Opinion of Autumn): Seeking to make contact with Autumn.
Despite these two families rolling well, overall there's not a lot of friendliness towards Autumn in the family opinion rolls.
Rather than going straight through to the rest of the city from the Palace grounds, Autumn left the grounds, and approached from a different angle. She was not very good at sneaking around, but she tried to slowly make her way into Hightown without anyone catching sight of her face.
DC 60: 93
She had never been so sneaky in her life, but with suggestions from the spirit, she managed to discretely travel around Hightown listening and watching everything that happened there.
It seemed that no one wanted to buy anything, but everyone was trading news and gossip instead. Sang and Conner family goons were trying to act like the best friends of every family in Hightown, and most people were not impressed. While there was fear of the Sangs and Conners, there was a real lack of respect amongst the smaller families of the city.
Opinions about Lin Tsu and the Wu family were mixed. It was obvious the Wu family was trying to make itself into a major player, with Lin Tsu's backing, and they would be making a play to control the capital city soon. Some thought the Wu family was upjumped, trying to use Lin Tsu to rise to a status they didn't use. Some thought the chance for change was exciting.
There were arguments, and brawls on and off the street, even within the same family, as the younger generation preferred the Lin and Wu family's approach, while many of the older generation were skeptical. But there were families joining the Wu and Lin cause wholeheartedly, and they were another wave of people trying to convince others to join.
What surprised Autumn the most were a few murmurs of people looking for her. She heard nothing about Xue Chi, plenty about how Lee, Son and Tuan were being held by the Wu family, but there were a few people who had been looking for her or talking about her. Someone wanted to know where she was.
Could it be Xue Chi through an intermediary? She knew of a lot of people, but she wasn't sure who she had a strong connection with outside her own family. Could it be one of her friends at the club? They deliberate never shared names there, although she had some good guesses on what family a few members had come from.
Discretely, she made her way over to the Weapon shop were Bull worked. She pretended to be just another customer idling through the store until she spotted Bull without any customers.
"Bull," she whispered.
"Xue Thu," he said. He had never used her name before, but of course, he would know.
"I heard someone was looking for me?"
"To catch you, maybe. I don't recommend sticking around, the owner's a friend of the Wu's."
Yang - 78, Su - 54
There was little heard from the Park and Snow first families. The Chan family had left with their whole family according to bystanders. Autumn guessed they were headed back to whatever palace she had been attacked at. It wasn't the Northern palace, as that one she knew, but it could have been the Southern or Western Redoubt palaces.
On her way out of the city, she collided with a boy who wasn't watching where they were going. When the young boy apologized and ran off, she noticed a small note on the sidewalk.
"Dear Princess. Please come see me at the Bank. This Grandpa has important matters regarding your balance with our bank and the safety of our humble bank in the city. -- Grandpa Yang"
She relied on the Chartered Bank and the Yang family for all of her spending. She signed everything with her name and the bank's name, and they took care of it for her. That was how her whole family did most of their business.
Why would the banking family be so eager to speak with her? Were they in trouble? Nonetheless she decided to go back into town and quietly inquire at the bank. The bank looked just like another shop, but on the inside, there were comfortable chairs and a desk across from each chair for members of the Yang family individually to take care of each patron.
One of Grandpa Yang's grand-daughters welcomed her as she entered.
"How can we help you, honorable miss?"
Quietly, she answered, "I received word that there is some business of mine to look after?"
"Let me see who is available."
Before long, an Elderly gentleman stood beside a doorway, and the woman came back to Autumn. "Grandpa Yang will see you."
She remembered speaking with Grandpa Yang when she received the key to her own lock-drawer. Kasi had come with her to make her first deposit, and she stored a locket which was a gift from her brother in the lock-drawer just to say she had something in there. Over the years, she had gotten to know Grandpa fairly well.
She entered the private room which she recognized as the one with her drawer. Grandpa Yang closed the door behind her.
The room was one half full of drawers. You could slide the drawer open to put something in it without the key, but you couldn't retrieve anything unless you had the key and the person it was attuned to. She knew the drawers were some kind of artifact her father and grandfather had sold to the Yang family in exchange for a share of ownership in the venture.
She had never heard of anyone breaking into one of these.
"Please sit, Princess."
She uneasily sat down. "What is this about? The Yang family has been asking about me?"
"You know we use these lock-drawers for our own day to day funds, in fact, your grandfather had found a larger drawer, which we used to store all of the coins we receive as deposits. We used to give out keys to important families, but after we lost 7 keys from a few different families, we've kept to only your family and ours having keys.
The Wu family and Lin Tsu tried to rob us the other day. They had your brothers' keys, and they expected us to hand over our own funds. We couldn't get them into your brothers' drawers without them present, but we didn't have to tell them that. Instead, my daughter and I schemed to fool them.
Your father had two accounts, of course, one was his personal funds, one was the Emperor's funds. We gave them the funds in his personal account, and the key to his personal account. We told them they'd have to find the matching ring that he carried with him. Of course that was a lie.
While I talked to them out in the lobby, my daughter moved the rest of our bank funds and keys to other drawers into your drawer, she snuck away and hide the key to your drawer. So at that point, we could show the Wu family that we had given them everything we had in our personal drawers, and the Emperor's balance was there's.
Someday, I will get back all 700 gold pieces we had to give up, but that left us with the greater part of our deposit balances, but in your lock-drawer. We have to leave town, and soon, before the Wu family, or Sang or anyone else, grows impatient with us. So we need to reach you, so you can open your lock-drawer."
Grandpa Yang passed the key over to her, and directed her to the third drawer on the left. She turned the key and the drawer slid open.
"A primitive lock mechanism, but effective against your locals," the spirit told her.
Grandpa Wu pocketed the keys inside, and started counting out the contents of the drawer, separating Autumn's few personal possessions from coins.
"Your father was the only one who knew how to re-identify a key with a new owner, but I am willing to keep his keys and try to figure it out later.
He had amassed a substantial pile of gold and silver coins on his desk, and quickly too. He stacked them in twenties, inspecting a few of the dirty coins and placing them to the side in a separate pile
"Tell me where you guys are headed, and I'll make sure to visit. If there's anything I can do to help."
"There's a small town, south of Lake Glen a few miles. That's west of the Capital, about halfway to the border. Our Yang family is related to other Yangs there. We'll be there."
With extreme precision, Grandpa Yang removed some of the piles of 20 gold coins, placing them in a coin bag, and continued stacking more gold coins and repeatedly clearing them, until the whole bag was full except for twelve stacks of 20 gold pieces, and three stacks and a little left over of silver.
"Your balance was at 240 gold, 67 silver. We will keep on balance whatever you don't want to take today. We may be leaving this city, but we're not abandoning the trust you've placed in us."
"I'll take the silver and 30 gold coins, you can keep the rest in my account."
Bankers were formal people by nature, so she was surprised by the man's hug. "Be safe, little Xue."
"Look out for your family. When you will make it to this town?" she asked.
"We leave tomorrow morning. We have lot of work to do to get ready. I need to get those horses promised to us, so we cam load up our carriage and go."
"I'll make a point to stop there soon. If everything goes well I'll have my own place by then."
After saying her goodbyes, Autumn left 30 gold pieces heavier in her coin purse. How far would mere coin take her? If the shopkeepers fell in line with the Wu family, probably nowhere. But it would be a useful tool to have a few coins.
~~~
She had never traveled to the North Mountain Palace on the ground or in the air, but the spirit showed her the way.
Snow family preparations: 49
Autumn preparations: 16
Autumn scouting: 25
Autumn assault: 3d100: 43, 85, 93 = 221
Snow family assault: 4d50 (r1), 6d50 (r2). 8d50 (r3+): 39, 12, 48 = 149
Autumn escape (DC 50): 68
Autumn preparations: 16
Autumn scouting: 25
Autumn assault: 3d100: 43, 85, 93 = 221
Snow family assault: 4d50 (r1), 6d50 (r2). 8d50 (r3+): 39, 12, 48 = 149
Autumn escape (DC 50): 68
She was descending into the North palace, where snow was still falling even in mid spring. For once, she entered the Palace from its main entrance. Looking around the foyer, she was completely surprised by an arrow flying towards her. She barely deflected it with a puff of wind. The arrow was followed up by two young men charging at her.
She didn't know who these people were, so despite their pathetic attacks, she merely disarmed them, one with Winds, one with her sword by attacking the man's guard. With her Dao blade pointed at the second, she asked, "who are you?"
"Snow family, Xue daughter. We've seen your family's true Face."
Behind the two sons and the woman with a bow, she saw two more faces enter the room. How long had the Snow family been there, and how many fighters did they have? She would be captured if they were too numerous,
It would be a simple matter to fly back out the front entrance, and abandon the idea to making the North Palace her home. She needed allies and the Yangs seemed willing. And being outside the City would allow her to get a little breathing room.
Vote:
[] Escape, and try to find the Yang family village.
[] Try to steal treasures from the Warehouse before leaving (some risk).
[] Fight the Snow family (very risky).
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