Kang Civil War – Part Three

We left our heroes stranded in Tarun with a very injured Abdul needing some o’ that healin’ magic… which he got (thanks to Lucas and his witchcraft). He did pick up quite a few nasty scars, though. They are allowed (at Rakshan’s insistence) to remain at the Farad’s estate (ironically, the only safe place in Tarun all of a sudden).

Rakshan completes his “business” during the next week. The party pretty much lays low and hopes no one decides to kill them after all. Week passes, and Rakshan’s right-hand-man, Kol, visits the party. He informs them that they have been hired for the remainder of the journey as (he shrugs) “guards”. He leaves.

“Journey? What journey? Where are we going? Who was that blurry guy?”
“Go back to sleep, Abdul. You’re hallucinating.”
“Oh. Okay.” 

So, in the dead of night, the party and the three Kang sneak back aboard ship. This was tricky, but they did it, so I’ll skip the drama. The Kang that Abdul embarrased (Dragonlord Ket) looks like he’s hating life. They sail away under cover of darkness (avoiding the coracles in the harbor).

So, the Far Seas. Once at sea, the party discovers their destination is Tian.

“Tian? Where’s that?”
“It’s the capital of the Quan..er, I mean Kang Empire, stupid.”
“Oh, that Tian. Yeah, Tian… good ol’ Tian…”
“Oh, shut up.” 

The Far Seas adventure really has one major event, so I’ll skip the days of uneventful water-watching (and cookie-tossing) the party had to endure. Abdul was up on deck, shmoosing with the captain (shmoosing; to shmoose: endear oneself to, make friends, be a pal, etc.), hoping to learn how to steer the ship. The Sunra captian was more than happy to teach Abdul the basics, and the Kang apparently didn’t mind their slaves doing as they pleased.
Just as an aside here, I had no idea Abdul was gonna become a sailor all of a sudden… it was important to this adventure that the elderly Sunra captain take ill, and have to go below for a while. His replacement was a completely green Sunra sailor, with no battle experience. SO, when Bad Stuff ™ started happening, he would freak out, and the ship wouldn’t have a pilot. Well, Pat read my mind or something and suddenly wanted to learn how to steer a boat. What could I do? I taught him just enough to give him false confidence and a zero in Pilot… I figured I’d let the dice decide things (worked so far).

“Lucas, what’s that tube-thing ya got?”
“It’s a spyglass… extends your vision, see?”
“Yeah, this thing is great.”
“Got it from Abdul, he said the Sunra let him borrow it.”
“I think it’s broken or something.”
“Why?”
“Well, there’s these black dots on the glass.”
“Lemme see… uh, I don’t think those are dots.”
– Flyn runs over, looking concerned –
“What is it, Flyn?”
“Is there anything wrong? I just got a funny feeling.”
“Uh-oh. Those are definitely not dots.”
“Dots.”
“Not dots. Those ships that are following us, see?”
“Yes. I’ll inform the captain.”
“He’s in bed.”
“Who’s steering this thing?”
“Uh…Abdul was…”
“Knife-boy? Knife-boy is driving the freaking boat? We’re dead.” 

Enter the Mangar Corsairs and their astonishingly fast ships. Everyone goes into action (except the Kang, who just sit in the prow and watch the water). As expected, the Sunra freaks, and it’s up to Knife-B… er, Abdul to steer. Of course, Patrick is thrilled. “I get to use my new skill!” Typical.
The Mangar get to them as they enter the Forbidden Straits. There are three Mangar pirate ships, all loaded with guys (where are the Gao when ya need’em?). This is looking bad. The party has a pow-wow (minus Crush and Abdul, who are discussing how many Mangar they’re gonna bleed) and comes up with a Great Idea. Feel free to use this one, folks:
First, Kenjok (remember him?) is gonna use his wizardry to Conjure a bunch of highly flammable oil. This will slick the sea between the Kang ship and the pirates. Then, Flyn will use his bow to light the stuff (he has an elemental flame bow… did I mention that? Got it as a reward for fighting the Ice Giants a long time ago). This should create a floating patch of badness, that the Mangar have to sail around… um, make that sail through. They’re gonna wait to do this until the Mangar are right on their tail. Tricky.

So, the plan is ready, Abdul is ready (as ready as he can be) and everyone waits. The Mangar are on their tail and begin shooting arrows at the ship (not flaming ones… they’re hoping to capture the ship intact). Everyone looks for cover and Flyn begins responding with shots of his own.
Another aside here: never give your party’s archer an elemental flame bow as a reward. It’s practically an artillery piece, for god’s sake!
SHOOM!
Flyn nails one of the ships and it stops shooting as the crew tries to put out the fire. Meanwhile, ZIM ZAM! Kenjok makes lots of oil (he got a critical success… not surprised are you?). Followed quickly by another SHOOM! Flyn ignites a small lake of oil just as baddies #1 sail into it.

“Say, wooden sailing vessels actually burn pretty good, huh?”
“Yep. I like that exotic smoky aroma.” 

Baddies #1 enter hell on the high seas as their ship is engulfed in flames. That leaves two. Well, says the party, if it worked once… ZIM ZAM! more oil… fire… you get the picture. This time, however, the pirates ain’t stupid… they try to tack out of the way and…
(don’t roll these kinds of things in front of the players. Normally I wouldn’t have, but we were all sitting around the deck plans of the ships I had drawn up, and I didn’t have my screen. So I just rolled. The Mangar pilot had a -4 to his roll since it was such a difficult maneuver, but I thought — all he needs is a partial success, right? Piece of cake!)
I roll. Do I have to tell you what it was? Okay, for the clue impaired: it was a 1. One. A freaking 1! Right there for the players to see. What could I do? The dice love this party. When you start cheating for the bad guys, you’ve gone over the edge. So…
BOOM! Another ship gets torched. Not kinda torched either. That 1 sitting there on the table said conflagration. So be it. (actually, this was a much better way of getting rid of two of the ships than I had planned. I knew the party would never survive if they had to fight all three, so I was gonna let them try and outrun the Corsairs… ya know the obligatory car chase. They would manage to outdistance all but one. Well, I don’t know about you, but I think the firey destruction of their pursuers is much more dramatic than a chase!)

So, the last ship gets within range (those pirates are brave! what would you do if you saw your fellow pirates get the ol’ flambé? I’d get the hell outta there, personally. But not these pirates. No sir, they were tough! Grrrrrr!)

They start throwing grapplling lines over the rails and steering in to board the ship. Trouble. Well, Flyn goes over to the rail to introduce the pirates to Mr. Elemental Flame Bow, when the pirate pilot gets a great roll (finally) and the ships slam together. Most everyone gets knocked off their feet (including Abdul, the wheel starts acting crazy) but not Flyn the Jaka! Nope. He stays on his feet. Not only that, he leaps onto the other vessel, climbs up the side and hurdles the rail, growling like mad. Seems Chris thought this was part of The Plan. Everyone else just watched him go.

“Why is Abdul wearing that furry suit?”
“That’s Flyn, I think.”
“Wow. Maybe we should have followed him?” 

Flyn the (suddenly lonely) Jaka stared down all the bloodthirsty Mangar pirates, who were preparing to board the ship. The pirates were not just a little surprised that a Cat-Thing was standing on their deck. Not wanting his valor to be wasted, Flyn took out his mace and did his Abdul impression.
Meanwhile, Abdul got up and yanked back the wheel, trying to control the ship. Flyn watched his vessel drift apart from the pirate ship… leaving him even more alone. But, unflappable, that’s Chris (Flyn’s player). Never flapped him yet. Flyn just put away his mace, bared his teeth, growled, and rushed headlong at the pirates (who were still a bit confused by all this). At the last second, he lept into the rigging and began climbing over to their only raised sail. Chris said, “Well, I might as well try to slow them down… can’t fight all those guys myself.” Practical. Chris is practical, too. Good plan, Chris. Kudos to you. Maybe it would have been necessary, but…

Abdul fails another pilot roll (I don’t think I even asked for one… Pat was just into sailing…). And the ships crash back together again. This time, the pirates lash the rails together real well and fire burning arrows into the sails (not their own sails, okay?). So much for a running battle. The sails are shot, and the two ships begin to slow.
Flyn realizes they’re stopping (“I guess I won’t rip the sail after all”). So, he jumps down from the rigging, hoping to land on a pirate or two. Unfortunately for Flyn, the pirates all rush over the rails at that moment to engage the other ship. Bad Timing had struck the Jaka, again.

Pirates flood over the rails –

Abdul and Crush: “YAY!”
Lucas and Kenjok: “Oh, No.”
Kang: Silence. The Kang are still sitting in the prow like it’s a fine afternoon for wave watching.

Everyone starts fighting.

There’s way too much going on here to be real complete, so I’ll just give ya the high points of the fight. Crush and Abdul lay into the pirates like it’s christmas and the Mangar are colorful packages with possibly exciting gifts inside. Lucas finally gets to do the rope-swinging and swashbuckling he’s been dying to do for ages. And Kenjok does his usual technique of get-surrounded-and-go-down-fast. It’s original, I’ll give him that.
Flyn, determined to actually do something, looks around for a target, and finds one. One of the Mangar has positioned himself near the rail and is preparing to fire his bow into the melee below. So Flyn pulls out his trademark mace and rushes him. Chris rolls abysmally and gets a partial success. He then rolls terrible for damage. Something like one point. Since his intent was to “Stop the Archer” I interpret these rolls to mean Flyn walks up and slaps the bow just as the guy shoots. Twing! — arrow shoots off into nowhere.

Now, I had to leave Flyn there in order to play out the rest of the battle, and when I got back to him… I’d kinda forgotten where things were. So, I said, “The archer prepares to shoot again… looks like he’s aiming at Crush.” So, picture this. Jaka runs up and swats the guy’s bow. The Archer just looks at him all-annoyed like, then calmly draws another arrow and prepares to shoot. Flyn attempts to pummel him again, with terrible results (the dice take their revenge!). So, Flyn slaps the bow again. Twang! — another arrow joins the sea. Same treatment… when I get back to Chris, I forget again (!) and have the guy try another shot (The archer really needs to stop Crush, who’s dismantling his ship-mates). So, basically, Flyn and this guy are just standing by the rail together, watching the fight. The guy tries to shoot, and Flyn swats it away. The guy does nothing about the Jaka standing next to him… he just pulls out another arrow. This gets repeated twice! (I hope this translates into retelling, it was hilarious when we reconstructed the battle).
Finally, I get my senses back and have the guy attack Flyn. Flyn uses Mandaquan on him (he’s gotten real good, too) and pitches the guy overboard. SPLASH!

“What was with all the arrow-slapping, Flyn?”
“I was provoking him. Mandaquan teaches us never to attack first.”
“Oh… are you sure that’s how that works?”
“Don’t make me enlighten you.” 

So the battle starts wrapping up, and the party is still in one piece (even Kenjok… no small miracle, that.) But, one of the Mangar manages to break free from the main battle and rush the prow of the ship. Abdul tries a really long knife toss to stop him, but misses (Abdul actually missed! now that’s amazing). The older Kang turns and draws a gleaming adamant sword as the pirate mounts the stairs. The Kang begins a low growl and the pirate realizes he’s outclassed badly. Too late though. Slash! the pirate and his head part company. The spouting body tumbles down the stairs. One of Dragonlords (Kol, the cool one) looks at the party like all this is their fault.
(okay, it was gratuitous bloodshed. But I really wanted to try out the 50th Level Warlord’s Combat Rating, okay? Not every day ya get to roll a 56. Ugly.)
So, after much slashing and bashing, the day is saved. Typical high-seas adventure… nothing too tricky, just a chase and a tough fight. This was one of our shorter sessions (we were up way too late already).

Kang Civil War: Part Two by John Harper

The guys find themselves at the Farad’s estate (big, big place.. this Farad is one of the key players that “borrowed” the windship arcanology from the Phantasians / Cymrilians and “loaned” it to the Rajans). They are escorted into a massive hall that is prepared for a feast of some kind. There is an awful lot of seafood on those tables… and what’s that smell? roasted land dragon? who eats dragon? Wait a minute…
I really wish you all could have seen the looks on their faces when they put 2 and 2 together. It was a priceless moment. And it was far too late. They were promptly surrounded by a zillion bowmen and ordered to drop their weapons. Just as several fat Imrians entered and took their places at the table, to watch the slow, painful death of the group (revenge for what happened to their countrymen). The Kang entered as well (the middle aged one and his two young bodyguards / aides). In my mind, the Kang were somewhat glad to see a group of honorless thieves die. Also, they were cutting a major deal with the host, so they were content to watch. Who cares about foreigners, anyway?
This was the crucial moment. Everything stemmed from the events of the next minute. Ready?
When Abdul saw the Imrians, he snapped (he had been a slave in childhood to some Imrians). The rest of the party put down their weapons and were preparing their groans of “great…” and “not again”. Everything was going according to plan. This capture was going to get the adventure back on track… or so I thought. Abdul looks at the Imrians and says “I will drink your blood and eat your hearts.” The Imrians chuckle and then everything goes straight to hell.
You see, Abdul has these little “acorn” type things. He got them many adventures ago in the Aberrant Forest. So long ago, I’d forgotten he had them. They were from a peculiar kind of tree that would fade in and out of existance (the ghost willow). When crushed in the palm, they would make you fade into a noncorporeal, “ghost” form (along with anything you were carrying) for a random amount of time. Not terribly useful (the random time thing could be a killer). Or so I thought.
Abdul reaches into his cloak to get an acorn and the bowmen react like they’re supposed to… they shoot him. The rest of the party is just looking at Patrick like, you are one dead Arimite. And he almost was. Two things saved him. None of the bowmen got a critical hit, and the last one rolled a 5 for damage instead of a 6. Abdul had 1 hit point left. The effect was, he got peppered with arrows, but none in a vital organ (normally I would have dropped him from shock, but killing Imrians was Abdul’s life-long quest… he struggled on somehow). The party almost cheered. Abdul drew his knives, crushed the acorn, and stumbled past / through the dismayed archers. He charged the banquet table shrieking at the top of his lungs (screaming ghost bristling with arrows… scary) and his acorn wore off. Thinking to protect the warlord, one of the Kang bodyguards (the youngest most foolish one, it turned out) jumped in front of Abdul. Abdul was almost berzerk at this point, and he attacked the Kang with a frenzy, in order to get past him and at the Imrians (who had stopped chuckling and were running for their little fish-lives).
Now, here’s a very important part (and why I like dice systems, they lead to funky stories). Abdul and the Kang have equal combat ratings (both 10 if I recall right) so it’s pretty much up to the dice who wins this (barring great tactics). All I have to do is hit and Abdul goes down. Six or higher on d20. No problem. The other players are beginning their “nice try, Abdul” speeches.
Patrick rolls and gets a 20! First thing. Just like that, he criticals the Kang with a viscious knife cut to his abdomen. The Kang makes his CON roll and stays up. Now he’s mad. He lunges with his falchion and… a three. I rolled a 3. Whoosh… a clean miss. Patrick says Abdul ducks under the sword (I’m expecting him to run) and cuts the Kang again, this time on his sword arm. We all look at Pat like he’s crazy. He looks back like, yes, he is crazy. He rolls. Guess what? Yep. Another 20. Slash! the Kang’s arm is cut to the bone. The Kang makes his CON roll with a partial success, so he stays conscious, but drops his weapon. The Kang goes to his knees clutching his ruined arm and Abdul (and Pat for that matter) laugh at him as he runs after the Imrians. The other characters (and their players) stare open-mouthed at the Arimite-Who-Could-Not-Die. It was one of those moments.
The Imrians were already out of sight, however, and the Farad had regained his senses enough to order his bowmen to shoot the other characters if Abdul didn’t stop and lay down his weapons. The tension in the air was very thick as Pat debated what to do. Abdul wanted those Imrians more than anything. We all knew it. We all knew that Abdul would go after them, and damn the consequences. The other players expected to die. And that’s the moment that changed Abdul forever, and changed the campaign beyond all recognition. Abdul turned around and said to the assembly:

“Your weapons cannot harm me. I am vengeance. I kill whom I wish. I do not wish the deaths of my companions, so I will not pursue the Imrian scum. But I will not surrender to you. Ever. If you want these knives… come and get them.”

For the third time in as many minutes, we all looked at Pat with open-mouthed wonder. He was the bravest thing we had ever seen. And that’s when I decided. The Farad turned and was prepared to give an order when the older Kang stood from his place at the table. His commanding presence captured everyone’s attention. He spoke in thickly accented Talislan:

“Stop.”
Everyone stopped.
“These foreigners will not be harmed.”

He sat back down. The Farad looked meekly at his bowmen, then gestured curtly. They returned to their guard positions. The other characters rushed over to Abdul as he collapsed on the intricate mosaic floor.

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Okay, some comments… I love that session. Several great things happened during it. This is to help define those events.
1. Pat recognized a turning point for his character and acted accordingly. He didn’t sacrifice his concept to save the party and he didn’t sacrifice the party to save his concept. It was a very artful (and brave) solution to the problem. He sacrificed Abdul’s life, instead. This was a real sacrifice, despite the fact that Rakshan (the Kang warlord) stopped the archers. That leads to my next point…
2. The session was so powerful for all involved, no one said “Oh great the big, nasty NPC saves our bacon. Wonderful.” No one even thought it at the time. It was Abdul that had saved the party, and every one knew it. Abdul’s fanaticism and bravery and Pat’s careful attention to his character’s motivation had saved the party… simple as that. Rakshan’s commands were just reactions to Abdul’s bravery. Without the actions of Abdul, they would have been slaughtered. Which leads to my next point…
3. A particular method of Game Mastering seems to work suprisingly well. Pat uses it often, and I used it accidently in that session. It works like this: Put the PCs in a no-win situation, and when they succeed, it will be a real success. Not a scripted victory by the GM or a “difficult” scene, but a real success. The GM puts the PCs in immediate, dire, danger, from which he has planned no escape. If they escape, they do so because of their own merits, not b2ecause of the demands of the story. It’s a big if, too. What if they don’t escape? What if they die? Well, you have several dead PCs. However, if you want “real” danger from a roleplaying scene, you have to have “real” consequences (of course, I DON’T mean “real” as in “real world”). Not just the illusion of danger, but danger. No GM safety net. This is a very iffy style of play, one I have done only three times. Pat runs all his CyberHERO games like this, however, and we have yet to loose a character. And believe me, when we succeed in CyberHERO, we feel it. It’s real success. Pat was not going to pull our butts out of the fire if we messed up. Just an aside about GMing… back to the War…
4. The reason Abdul’s actions radically changed the campaign was because Rakshan had witnessed them. The Warlord of the Kang Empire watched a crazy little Arimite survive a dozen arrow hits, stagger up to a trained Kang warrior and beat him without getting a scratch, and then jog after a pair of slavers in order to exact his vengeance. He then defied all the powers in the room and dared them to attack him. Abdul displayed more raw courage in those moments than Rakshan had seen in a long time. So, he decided Abdul was too valuable to allow him to die (even with an honorable, warrior’s death). Remember this… this attitude colors almost everything Rakshan does regarding Abdul for the rest of the story.
5. At this point, there was no civil war. All I had in mind was that there was a deep conspiracy going on in the Empire, and the Warlord was travelling abroad personally to “secure” something or other. I didn’t know what yet. The actual civil war was sparked by… you guessed it, Abdul. But that’s a ways off yet…