[ We find Some Of Our Heros sitting on a small grassy hill, bored out of their minds. Seriously. ] [ It's gone beyond trying to pretend that the small country town in Rokugan is interesting and has wound up in admitting that fun has been slain in a manner most foul, today. ] [ Hopefully, Seylin and Kenji and Alci will be back before long. ] [ Session Start! ] I'm so freakin' bored. *boreds* * Tia seems to be content with chasing her tail for the moment. * WillS just nods in agreement and continues staring at the clouds above. [ The clouds all remind Will of textbooks. ] * Tia walks in circle after circle. [ Patrick falls asleep. ] * WillS shudders as all sorts of horrendous memories courses through his brain. * Tia slumps onto her haunches after a while and gives up. "Okay, I'm done!" She grins. Whatcha guys wanna do? * WillS stops staring at the sky. "Anything. As long as no textbooks are involved." Ummm. I dunno, Will. I played with some fireworks with some kids in town earlier, but they ran out. Doesn't look like there's much else to do around here. * Tia kicks at the grass a bit. I wanna go play with Sey and Kenji! Yeah. Why aren't they back yet. It's just bandits. Kenji should be done with them by now. Think we can go join 'em? I wanna play too! * Tia wags her tail hopefully. * Patrick dozes quietly. * WillS shakes his head. "I don't know where they are. Plus Kenji probably won't appreciate us going after them." We could ask someone, couldn't we? I wanted to go, but Kenji said I had to go to bed. I don't wanna sleep right now! * Tia stomps one forepaw indignantly. Oh, hey, Mr. Axe, do you remember which way Kenji and Sey went? * WillS hrmms as he tries to think up something for Tia to do. * Tia pouts. "Aw, even Mr. Axe is sleeping." He is? That makes two then. Pat fell asleep just now too. * Tia nods and sighs. * Patrick mumbles something in his sleep. * Tia folds her paws and flops down audibly onto her belly, a mopey expression on her face. Never thought I'd get bored of tail-chasing, but that's something a hatchling would do, and I'm 19! * Tia sighs again. * WillS lays down next to Tia also, trying very hard to ignore all those floating textbooks in the sky. * Tia examines her foreclaws. * Tia twiddles her thumbs. * Tia rolls onto her back and scratches it against the grass. [ Tia finds some grass very well-suited to the job. ] * Tia scratches contentedly. * Tia stops in mid-scratch and immediately rolls and jumps to her feet, Mr. Axe gripped in her hands. "What--?!" * Tia stares into the distance. [ Tia's Keen Dragon Vision sees something! ] * Patrick stretches and gets up, grinning. "Good rest for the eyes, but something's headed torwards the town. Might want to get ready." * WillS blinks and stands up also. "Tia, what's wrong?" Something headed here real fast. Dunno what it is, but it's kicking up a lot of dust. * WillS nods and goes to stand behind Tia. * A moment later, a small thunderclap sounds as somebody drops out of the sky right at the base of the little hill y'all're standing on. It's Kenji, and he's going FAST, and almost looks as though he might pass you up. * Tia yells, "Kenji!!" * Patrick pulls out his bow and gets ready. * Tia relaxes her stance and runs toward Kenji. * Kenji throws himself into a skid, and is halfway down the other side of the hill before he manages to stop. He's covered head to toe in blood, and his clothes are shredded. Kenji! What happened?! No time. There's a small army of ronin incoming, we need to go back Seylin up. W-what? Are you okay? Is Sey okay? * Patrick whispers a phrase in elven to cause his cape to transform into a pair of wings, as he flies off torwards Kenji, nodding as he gets near. "Kenji, where's Sey?" * WillS stares at Kenji before running up to him. "Let me take a look at you first, before you go off to fight those Ronins again." Everybody up and ready for battle. * Tia looks worried, but she turns back toward the direction from which Kenji came and raises her axe back into a readied stance. * Patrick draws his bow, ready to kick some ass. Couldn't have asked for me to come along, could ya? I've been bored out of my mind! * WillS lays a hand on Kenji and mutters a quick prayer. With a brief flash of light, Kenji's wounds starts to mend up quite nicely. Wake up, Mr. Axe. We gotta do some fighting! [ PAtrick is not wearing armor. Neither is Tia or Will. ] * Tia bursts into quiet giggles in spite of the situation. 'bout how far away are they? It'll take a minute, plus however long it takes to put on your armor. * Patrick nods and starts putting his armor on. Oh, my armor! Kenji, can I wear my armor now? Pleeeease? Yes, Tia. * Tia hastily lays down the axe for a moment, pulls out her adamantine breastplate from her bag, and begins putting it on. * WillS lays out all the pieces of his armor on the ground and starts to put them on with much difficulty. * Tia has all the straps tightened and snug within a minute. Ready! * WillS is still struggling with his plate leggings. * Kenji sighs at Will and starts helping him, proving quick and efficient, as always. * WillS is armored up! He takes a couple test jumps before giving Kenji a thumbs up. "Thanks Kenji!" * Patrick sighs and helps with the armor. Tia, can you carry Will, please? * WillS gives Pat a nod too. "Thanks Pat." * Tia nods. "Sure!" No prob. * Patrick vanishes after saying that. * Tia picks up Will bodily. "Um, how should I carry him?" On your back? In your arms? Whichever way is most comfortable to you is cool, Tia. * Tia glances down at Will, who is currently being carried in her arms and hanging from his armpits. "Will? You wanna be on my back or should I just carry you like this?" Let's move. As long as you don't drop me, this is good. :) Tia, bet you can't keep up with me. Ooh, race? Yep. * Tia continues to carry Will dangling from her arms, Mr. Axe still in her hand and seemingly dangerously close to Will. Okay! * Tia bunches her leg muscles in anticipation. * Kenji takes off from a dead stop, showing off magically enhanced accelleration. In an instant, he's up to top speed, leaping over obstacles with no heed for height. * Tia bounds after Kenji at a full gallop. "Whee!" * WillS tries to put his shield between him and the axe. [ Through the wilderness! Has anyone ever noticed how trips always take longer when you're hurrying? ] * Patrick has. * Tia focuses only on getting ahead of Kenji. * WillS is jingling inside his armor. We're almost there! We'd better be! * Tia redoubles her efforts. [ Y'know what one fight in The Matrix where Neo's fighting countless hundreds of Agent Smiths and cleaning house? Seylin's current fight looks a lot like that, but with more sharp things and less urban dystopia. ] [ Soon, Seylin is off to the side after sending about thirty ronin flying about for her efforts; it's time for the rest of you to join the fun! ] Sey! INCOMING! REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED. Thanks, guys! * Tia sets Will down as they arrive. * WillS steadies himself a bit and readjusts his helm so he can see. "Thanks Tia." Welcome, Will! * Kenji skids to a stop virtually in melee with one of the thugs. He whips Soramaro from its sheath and wings it out like a throwing knife, slicing through ronin heads for a good thirty feet before it returns to his hand. [ Lots of bandits die. Patrick, go! ] * Kenji whips out Yomiji, who bars the way, and drops into a defensive stance. It's not something you get to see often. [ Patrick empties a line of bandits out. ] [ Seylin, go! ] * Patrick appears about 25 feet from the bandits and fires a flight of 5 arrows, the projectiles piercing through the ronin and killing any enemies in their path, downing a total of nine ronin in one volley. [ Will, go! ] * WillS points in the general direction of the bandits, and with a quick prayer, summons forth a roaring sheet of flame to engulf them all. [ Will lets the flames do the talking, and they make a convincing argument on his behalf. ] [ Seylin promptly mops up the survivors with a dazzling display of divine destruction, leaving you guys victors on the battlefield. ] * Kenji walks over and squats down to look at a pair of the bodies, as soon as the flames clear. This makes no sense. What's wrong? * Tia trots over to join Kenji. "Huh? What's up, Kenji?" * Patrick twirls his bow and hides it in his glove. "So, 'sup?" Two of my classmates. We achieved gempukku at nearly the same time. They were honorable men. They should not have been in a bandit army. * Patrick looks over at Seylin with a grin. "You okay? They didn't rough you up or anything, did they?" These ronin are also too well-cared-for. Bandits, and ronin in general, are not so well kempt. * WillS blinks. "These were samurai?" All ronin are samurai. They merely lack a master. Ronin are samurai technically. So, um, are you saying they might not be bandits? I don't know. What I know is that something is amiss. we should track their origins. * Tia nods. * Seylin leans on her halberd. "Definitely." She smiles at Patrick. "I'm fine. Barely scratched me." Think I could find 'em? I have a pretty good nose! If you can get a good scent... perhaps. I had no idea you were half dragon AND half dog, though. * Tia giggles. * Patrick snickers. "Kenji, I could track'em no problem. Among the things I learned in my re-training was finding my prey even by scent." I see nothing to explain the presence of a pair of former Akodo, though. I'll help ya, Pat! Amazing. Two half dogs working together. I imagine it will work out to a full dog, somewhere in the equation. * Tia giggles again. * Patrick laughs. "As much as people say, I am, in fact, not the son of a bitch." * Seylin chuckles. * Kenji looks at Will. "An impressive showing. Your master would be proud." Oh no, don't bring me into this. He's saying you kicked ass. Nothin' wrong with that. Enough of this Patrick, Tia! Release the hounds! [ And so they did! Sort of. ] [ Session End. ]