HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Really truly, this year, this year will be a good one. It wont be the year Odin grants me wisdom from the magic mead made by the dwarves, taken by the giant and stolen by Odin to give to men. No, this will be a good year. It will be filled with ups and downs. It will be a year of harshness and wonders and relaxation. It will be a year filled with some bad yes, but with a lot more of the better, if my questing and trudging prove anything from the years prior.
I used to refer to a few years ago as "Ryan's dark times" and there was a certain sense of truth to that. Perhaps a bit exaggerated but there was truth. Now, now I can say with absolute certainty that 2015 was the year of hell, the year of "Ryan's second dark times." Here I stand folks, having climbed a treacherous and slippery rock wall, I am at a lip of this climb looking out at all that I've climbed above, I wish you could see with my eyes, for it is a sight to behold. Now I look up, there is more rock wall of a life to climb, but the most treacherous bits are behind me. There are more treacherous bits, but with a smidgen of more wisdom and a whole heap of more of boiled leathery like skin armor, I climb onwards faster, hungrier, with a stronger drive.
With all of this, I want to begin writing some shorts on here again. Fables, if you will, of my world, Entrathia. My groups have been amazing and I've loved how well they've meshed into my story lines and plans. So along with all else, here is a little homage to your great playability my players, my captains, my lords and ladies. I will write, and though it may be to only a few, I write as though it is for many.
A Sage of the Hidden Empire
Come here adventurers, I would share a story with you. Are you famished from your journey? Aye, I have a bit of rice porridge bubbling over this small fire. Fear not this night, the hills east and west will shield us from the cold winds. There we are, sit and warm thyselves. Now tell me about yourselves. Travelers from far off searching for hidden dungeons and catacombs in the Hidden Empire eh? Well you will find many, but you will find much more. I? I am a Sage, call me Kazuko. Kazu for short. As it is for us Sage's of the Hidden Empire we are bidden to share stories with those we meet along the road. The Atake Shozune's road is a long one. Let me tell you of the daughter of the branch family, of the Atake Shozune. She was the adoptive daughter of the branch family, an elf cast out by her true parents. Why, we may never know. But perhaps it was for the better, for it made her into one of the most legendary Ninja's in our realm, and the realm to the west, The Frozen Bronze Realm. Let me tell you about Suiren, and how she is known as the Violet Shade...
Her arm shot out and with a flick of her wrist, the Wakizashi pierced ring mail, leather and bit through flesh. Blood spurted from the side and the brigand dropped his heavy mace and clutched his side. The brigand had a wiry black beard and his eyes glazed over in pain. Blood gushed down his sides. There was a sudden sound of cracked rocks as the teeth of the man split from his clenched mouth. He doubled over and his face slammed into the dirt. Suiren brushed herself off and continued jogging back to the Yojinbukai Castle. The three bandits that were camped out nearby the road had been dealt with. Suiren smirked to herself when she thought about the faces the Shozune Guards when they looked upon the corpses of the bandits that had been harassing the farmers. Her mother would doubtless scold her, her father would also yell at her but nod his approval when her mother woudln't see.
"It is not proper for a daughter of the branch family to go off on foolish ambushes without guardsmen at your side! It will bring shame to us should you get seriously injured!" Suiren could almost recite the words her mother would squawk at her. So she was only a young woman of 19, but she was more than ready for adventure. She would bring more honor than not to her family by slaying these mongrels. Besides, the Atake Shozune cared little as long as there was someone that could keep the line going in the branch family to serve as bodyguards and backups. And Suiren did have a sister that was an actual descendant and not some adopted child.
A group of four vile looking reprobates were walking towards her. The city surrounding the castle was just ahead, it looked as though these four were leaving after a drunken excursion to the gambling dens. Suiren looked up to see the sun setting slowly to the east. The great elder brother mountain of the north took out a small triangle of sunlight. With the setting of the sun the shadows would be thicker and in greater number. Suiren showed a toothy grin as she darted behind a small shack with a tiny water wheel picking up the water of a babbling brook. Pulling up her purple scarf and pressing against the wall she melded with the dark shade of the shack.
"If that bitch hadn't been late with the Kettlecrust then my game would have been on tonight!" One of the scraggly looking men said. His robes were open at the chest with a great tangle of chest hair showing. Suiren's face scrunched in distaste as she looked on.
"Well Kei, she won't be spreadin' her legs for any fucking man anymore!" Another with lighter brown hair and a long pipe in his mouth said. The entire gang began to roar in cacophonous laughter.
"I wonder what the other lads were able to squeeze out of the lazy fucking farmers around here. Let's see what 'tax' we've collected today." The open robed man said. A sickly smile growing across his haggard face. He took a large swig from a mildewed clay pot and heaved it behind him, Kettlecrust spilling out as it shattered. Kettlecrust was the leftovers of the fine ricewines when the aristocracy didn't want any more. They would dump the backwash and spit filled cups and bottles into a vat, stir it up with some Vidder root, and serve it at the gambling dens. Suiren always have to stuff her scarf with cotton if she ever went into those districts.
Her brow drew close as her eyes narrowed on the man with the open robes. The four walked in a straight line, kicking up dust and kicking rocks as they trundled along. The man with the open robes was closest to Suiren. Then the man with the long pipe walked beside him on his left and the two others beside him. Suiren loosened the blade from her sheathe and crouched low, keeping to the shadows as they shuffled past.
Her violet scarf was all that he saw out of the corner of his eye as a sharp pain shot up from his crotch. Blood splattered to the ground and before the man with the open robes could react he felt cold steel jab through his back and poke out his sternum. A flip, a slick of metal on flesh and the violet scarf whirled about and cut a find line along the back of the neck of the man with the long pipe. His head dipped forward and his head dangled by a small sinew of flesh. Blood shot out like a geyser and coated the dirt road. Her purple and black garbs didn't get a drop of blood on them as she moved on to the other two.
By this time the other two thugs had spun about while grunting out a "Huh?!" to see a purple and black figure phase before them. The thug at the end was drawing his sword but the one closer to the almost decapitated pipe smoking brigand didn't get a chance. As his hand shot to his sword on his side Suiren flicked her right hand. Her Wakizashi sliced through flesh, muscle and bone as rice paper. The sickening sound of the severed forearm and hand thumping to the ground made the thug at the end turn a stolid pallor. The man with the severed arm's countenance turned a bloodless white but his eyes glazed over as Suiren drew a red line across his neck. Blood poured upon the ground as the man let out rasping chokes of air before falling upon the ground.
"Wait! I have lots of coin, drink and loot I could share!!!" The last man alive pleaded. A musty smelling liquid ran down his leg and dribbled on the dirt road. Suiren only smiled, her lips forming a crease in her scarf. She would be a bit later getting back to the Yojinbukai castle, but she didn't mind in the least...
TBC
Hope you all enjoyed a bit of that story. If not, well perhaps as time goes on my story and writing will get better! One can only hope :3
Keep rolling that D20!
Ryan
Visceral!
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