Probably yeah, though I still have no clue what I'm going to do about a place to sleep. Turns out making a character with zero practical life skills has come back to bite me.
Orcs certainly don't shy away from the idea of corporeal punishment.
“A fair king is a king saluted, a tyrant king is a king disputed.”
True Name: Hang Jebat Region: Malacca Sultanate/Malaysia Class: Berserker
Attribute: Man
Parameters: Strength - B Endurance - A Agility - B Mana - D Luck - C
Legend: Hang Jebat started life as a simple woodcutter, working at a shop owned by the parents of his closest companion, Hang Tuah. Even from a young age, it was obvious that the two boys had great potential as warriors both physically and spiritually and at the age of ten they were selected to learn Silat. Their teacher was Adi Putera, a renowned master who lived a hermetic life at the top of a mountain; under the guru's tutelage, Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah were taught the arts of self-defence and meditation.
Several years later Tun Perak, an important figure in the Sultanate of Malacca, was in the area near Hang Jebat’s training grounds investigating a group of bandits responsible for disturbances in the region. Tun Perak was set upon by the bandits and his guards fled, but Hang Jebat and hang Tuah witnessed the attack and intervened. Their ferocity forced the bandits to flee and Tun Perak was amazed by the courage of Hang Jebat and Hang Tuah; he rewarded them and presented them to Sultan Muzaffar Syah, whereby they entered into his service as warriors.
In service to the Sultan the two warriors committed many great deeds, but it was Hang Tuah and his absolute loyalty to the Sultan who stood out among the two. Hang Tuah became the sultan's constant aide, accompanying the king on official visits to foreign countries. It was on one such visit to Majapahit that Hang Tuah fought a duel with the famed martial arts master Taming Sari and after a brutal fight Hang Tuah emerged as winner; as a reward the ruler of Majapahit bestowed upon Hang Tuah the famed warrior’s kris, named after it’s owner; a weapon purported to be magical, empowering its owner with physical invulnerability.
This fame and renown eventually turned out to be Hang Tuah’s downfall however, as his deep loyalty to and popularity with the sultan led to rumours being circulated that Hang Tuah was having an illicit affair with one of the sultan's court stewardesses. Rumours that led to the sultan sentencing Hang Tuah to death without trial for the alleged offence.
Seeing this act as an unjust murder by the sultan he served, Hang Jebat turned against the ruler to avenge his friend’s death, now wielding the coveted Taming Sari that Hang Tuah had left to him. With the famed kris in his possession Hang Jebat was undefeatable as the only warrior who once surpassed him in the palace, the only person capable of killing him, was now dead at the sultan’s hand. Hang Jebat’s revenge became a killing spree as he rampaged through the palace in a furious rebellion, one that could not be stopped as none of the warriors in the palace dared to challenge the more ferocious and skilled Hang Jebat.
However, unbeknownst to both Hang Jebat and the Sultan, Hang Tuah had not been killed for his supposed crimes; his executioner, the chief minister, went against the sultan’s orders to save the man’s life and hid Hang Tuah far away. After learning that Hang Tuah was still alive, the sultan recalled the warrior from hiding and gave him full amnesty for his alleged crime before ordering Hang Tuah to kill Hang Jebat; still holding unquestioning loyalty towards the ruler, Hang Tuah obeyed the sultan's bidding and went on to challenge Hang Jebat.
The battle between the two raged for seven days and nights, ranging all across the palace as the more skilled Hang Tuah was unable to defeat Hang Jebat while he possessed the Taming Sari, and Hang Jebat was unable to defeat his superior opponent. Eventually Hang Tuah was able to reclaim the Taming Sari from his friend by tricking him into giving it up and used it to inflict a fatal stab wound on the man. Even fatally wounded Hang Jebat was able to escape the palace to bandage his wound, before continuing his rampage for a further three days, killing thousands more, before Hang Jebat finally retreated to Hang Tuah’s house and died in his friend’s arms.
Class Skill: Madness Enhancement (E) – Raises basic parameters besides Mana and Luck and strengthens one's physical abilities in exchange of hindering mental capacities and sense of reason, although at this level the effects are not always active.
The rage of a man rebelling against the unjust killing of his closest companion; after his friend was executed for a baseless accusation Hang Jebat went on a killing spree that lasted many days and consumed thousands of lives. Hang Jebat’s madness is only activated when confronted with what he considers to be tyranny and tyrannical leadership.
Personal Skills: Battle Continuation (A) – An ability that allows for the continuation of combat after sustaining mortal wounds. It will also reduce mortality rate from injury. This Skill represents the ability to survive and/or the mentality of one who doesn't know when to give up, consisting of one's strength of vitality in predicaments.
Even a fatal stab wound dealt by his own weapon was not enough to stop Hang Jebat’s rage, as he escaped and continued his rampage for a further three days before finally succumbing to his wound and dying in his companion’s arms as his anger finally abated.
Silat (B) – A collection of indigenous martial arts from the Nusantara and surrounding geocultural areas of Southeast Asia. Said to have been created after a warrior watched a lotus flower survive intact after being pushed underwater by a waterfall; the warrior tried throwing a rock and a stick at the lotus, even wading into the water to slash it with his sword, only for the flower swirl away unharmed. As such, Silat is a martial art that emphasises movement and overcoming the hard direct attacks of an opponent with soft movements.
Hang Jebat learned Silat from the age of ten, training in the arts of self-defence and meditation from the guru Adi Putera; a renowned master who lived a hermetic life at the top of a mountain. It was his skill and ferocity in this art that led to him being brought before the sultan and become renowned as a warrior himself.
A Tyrant Disputed (A) – An skill that grants Hang Jebat an Anti-Tyrant bonus against any entity he or his madness deems to be a tyrannical leader or a tool or supporter of tyranny. Symbolic of Hang Jebat’s rebellion against the Sultan he had sworn allegiance to and his inability to support a leader who had unjustly murdered his friend despite their loyal service; a tyrant king is a king disputed and cannot be allowed to continue to rule.
Noble Phantasm:
Name/Title:Taming Sari Flowering Shield Rank: B Type: Anti-Unit Range: 1-8 Maximum Number of Targets: 1 Description: A kris dagger named after the master martial artist who originally wielded it; crafted from 21 different types of metal and with a wooden hilt covered in gold leaf, it is said to have been so skilfully crafted that whoever wields it becomes undefeatable, though since at least one of its previous wielders was beaten in a duel this is likely an exaggeration.
The master martial artist Hang Tuah defeated Taming Sari in a duel on a visit to Majapahit, earning this weapon as his prize. The kris was handed down to Hang Jebat after Hang Tuah was executed for a crime he did not commit, before the Hang Jebat used it to go on a rampage to avenge his companion.
The Taming Sari has a passive ability which grants the wielder near invulnerability to physical attacks, greatly reducing the amount of damage he sustains from powerful weapons (Noble Phantasms) or skills and nullifying mundane attacks entirely; even while fighting his more powerful and skilled companion Hang Tuah, it was not until Hang Jebat relinquished the Taming Sari that he was eventually wounded. However, this weapon only grants protection against physical attacks (including physical projectiles like arrows) and offers no protection against magic or the abilities of Noble Phantasms.
Additionally, the Taming Sari can alert its wielder to danger, leaping from its sheathe and hovering in mid-air if they are in crisis, and can even be commanded to fly and fight of its wielders behalf. Although doing so means forfeiting the protective effects.
“A fair king is a king saluted, a tyrant king is a king disputed.”
True Name: Hang Jebat Region: Malacca Sultanate/Malaysia Class: Berserker
Attribute: Man
Parameters: Strength - B Endurance - A Agility - B Mana - D Luck - C
Legend: Hang Jebat started life as a simple woodcutter, working at a shop owned by the parents of his closest companion, Hang Tuah. Even from a young age, it was obvious that the two boys had great potential as warriors both physically and spiritually and at the age of ten they were selected to learn Silat. Their teacher was Adi Putera, a renowned master who lived a hermetic life at the top of a mountain; under the guru's tutelage, Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah were taught the arts of self-defence and meditation.
Several years later Tun Perak, an important figure in the Sultanate of Malacca, was in the area near Hang Jebat’s training grounds investigating a group of bandits responsible for disturbances in the region. Tun Perak was set upon by the bandits and his guards fled, but Hang Jebat and hang Tuah witnessed the attack and intervened. Their ferocity forced the bandits to flee and Tun Perak was amazed by the courage of Hang Jebat and Hang Tuah; he rewarded them and presented them to Sultan Muzaffar Syah, whereby they entered into his service as warriors.
In service to the Sultan the two warriors committed many great deeds, but it was Hang Tuah and his absolute loyalty to the Sultan who stood out among the two. Hang Tuah became the sultan's constant aide, accompanying the king on official visits to foreign countries. It was on one such visit to Majapahit that Hang Tuah fought a duel with the famed martial arts master Taming Sari and after a brutal fight Hang Tuah emerged as winner; as a reward the ruler of Majapahit bestowed upon Hang Tuah the famed warrior’s kris, named after it’s owner; a weapon purported to be magical, empowering its owner with physical invulnerability.
This fame and renown eventually turned out to be Hang Tuah’s downfall however, as his deep loyalty to and popularity with the sultan led to rumours being circulated that Hang Tuah was having an illicit affair with one of the sultan's court stewardesses. Rumours that led to the sultan sentencing Hang Tuah to death without trial for the alleged offence.
Seeing this act as an unjust murder by the sultan he served, Hang Jebat turned against the ruler to avenge his friend’s death, now wielding the coveted Taming Sari that Hang Tuah had left to him. With the famed kris in his possession Hang Jebat was undefeatable as the only warrior who once surpassed him in the palace, the only person capable of killing him, was now dead at the sultan’s hand. Hang Jebat’s revenge became a killing spree as he rampaged through the palace in a furious rebellion, one that could not be stopped as none of the warriors in the palace dared to challenge the more ferocious and skilled Hang Jebat.
However, unbeknownst to both Hang Jebat and the Sultan, Hang Tuah had not been killed for his supposed crimes; his executioner, the chief minister, went against the sultan’s orders to save the man’s life and hid Hang Tuah far away. After learning that Hang Tuah was still alive, the sultan recalled the warrior from hiding and gave him full amnesty for his alleged crime before ordering Hang Tuah to kill Hang Jebat; still holding unquestioning loyalty towards the ruler, Hang Tuah obeyed the sultan's bidding and went on to challenge Hang Jebat.
The battle between the two raged for seven days and nights, ranging all across the palace as the more skilled Hang Tuah was unable to defeat Hang Jebat while he possessed the Taming Sari, and Hang Jebat was unable to defeat his superior opponent. Eventually Hang Tuah was able to reclaim the Taming Sari from his friend by tricking him into giving it up and used it to inflict a fatal stab wound on the man. Even fatally wounded Hang Jebat was able to escape the palace to bandage his wound, before continuing his rampage for a further three days, killing thousands more, before Hang Jebat finally retreated to Hang Tuah’s house and died in his friend’s arms.
Class Skill: Madness Enhancement (E) – Raises basic parameters besides Mana and Luck and strengthens one's physical abilities in exchange of hindering mental capacities and sense of reason, although at this level the effects are not always active.
The rage of a man rebelling against the unjust killing of his closest companion; after his friend was executed for a baseless accusation Hang Jebat went on a killing spree that lasted many days and consumed thousands of lives. Hang Jebat’s madness is only activated when confronted with what he considers to be tyranny and tyrannical leadership.
Personal Skills: Battle Continuation (A) – An ability that allows for the continuation of combat after sustaining mortal wounds. It will also reduce mortality rate from injury. This Skill represents the ability to survive and/or the mentality of one who doesn't know when to give up, consisting of one's strength of vitality in predicaments.
Even a fatal stab wound dealt by his own weapon was not enough to stop Hang Jebat’s rage, as he escaped and continued his rampage for a further three days before finally succumbing to his wound and dying in his companion’s arms as his anger finally abated.
Silat (B) – A collection of indigenous martial arts from the Nusantara and surrounding geocultural areas of Southeast Asia. Said to have been created after a warrior watched a lotus flower survive intact after being pushed underwater by a waterfall; the warrior tried throwing a rock and a stick at the lotus, even wading into the water to slash it with his sword, only for the flower swirl away unharmed. As such, Silat is a martial art that emphasises movement and overcoming the hard direct attacks of an opponent with soft movements.
Hang Jebat learned Silat from the age of ten, training in the arts of self-defence and meditation from the guru Adi Putera; a renowned master who lived a hermetic life at the top of a mountain. It was his skill and ferocity in this art that led to him being brought before the sultan and become renowned as a warrior himself.
A Tyrant Disputed (A) – An skill that grants Hang Jebat an Anti-Tyrant bonus against any entity he or his madness deems to be a tyrannical leader or a tool or supporter of tyranny. Symbolic of Hang Jebat’s rebellion against the Sultan he had sworn allegiance to and his inability to support a leader who had unjustly murdered his friend despite their loyal service; a tyrant king is a king disputed and cannot be allowed to continue to rule.
Noble Phantasm:
Name/Title:Taming Sari Flowering Shield Rank: B Type: Anti-Unit Range: 1-8 Maximum Number of Targets: 1 Description: A kris dagger named after the master martial artist who originally wielded it; crafted from 21 different types of metal and with a wooden hilt covered in gold leaf, it is said to have been so skilfully crafted that whoever wields it becomes undefeatable, though since at least one of its previous wielders was beaten in a duel this is likely an exaggeration.
The master martial artist Hang Tuah defeated Taming Sari in a duel on a visit to Majapahit, earning this weapon as his prize. The kris was handed down to Hang Jebat after Hang Tuah was executed for a crime he did not commit, before the Hang Jebat used it to go on a rampage to avenge his companion.
The Taming Sari has a passive ability which grants the wielder near invulnerability to physical attacks, greatly reducing the amount of damage he sustains from powerful weapons (Noble Phantasms) or skills and nullifying mundane attacks entirely; even while fighting his more powerful and skilled companion Hang Tuah, it was not until Hang Jebat relinquished the Taming Sari that he was eventually wounded. However, this weapon only grants protection against physical attacks (including physical projectiles like arrows) and offers no protection against magic or the abilities of Noble Phantasms.
Additionally, the Taming Sari can alert its wielder to danger, leaping from its sheathe and hovering in mid-air if they are in crisis, and can even be commanded to fly and fight of its wielders behalf. Although doing so means forfeiting the protective effects.
I was really trying not to make a mage again after the last RP, but you can't throw out something like "do you want to learn magic?" and not expect a person to jump at it.
The old shaman was willing to entertain her question, giving Akeno enough of an answer to satisfy her curiosity and then some. Like she had thought, the role of shaman was varied and covered areas generally related to preserving knowledge and being more educated that the rest of the tribe. Yambagorn was a historian with maybe a hint of the religious added to it; she remembered the tribe’s history, passed down from past shaman through oral accounts, and its prominent members. There was probably some level of ancestor worship involved and the shaman was probably the one in charge of performing last rites, assuming the Orcs had any.
She was also an apothecary or herbalist; making things, most likely medicine, from mushrooms and plants. But it was the part about reading things that stood out to her; was reading the stars a literal thing or was it figurative? Or maybe both? Did the read the stars to navigate and lead them to a place she already knew about, or was she a fortune teller who felt that this was a good place for the tribe to settle? As for reading an Orc’s soul?
The look the shaman gave her then was too pointed not to mean something, but Akeno didn’t want to give anything away by reacting, so she didn’t. Or tried not to anyway. It was probably best to assume that Yambagorn knew about the whole resurrection thing, though what that meant for Akeno she didn’t know.
The look passed and took some of the tension out of the air with it. Yambagorn offered her information then, a taunting edge to her voice as she offered to tell Akeno where the best hunting spots were, where the Orcs enemies lived and… hell, did she really just offer to help her usurp a position of, presumably, some importance in the tribe? Or to tell her the chief’s future plans? It seemed strange that the shaman would conspire so easily and openly against her leader, assuming Akeno could actually do anything of note with that information. Which, come to think of it, was probably why; a runt like her wouldn’t be able to do anything against the chief and it would be amusing to see her try.
She was getting a clearer picture of the way Orcs thought.
Actually, more importantly than that, did Yambagorn offer to teach her magic? Akeno already knew that skills were a thing; video game like abilities that gave her a buff when she did a certain thing, or which let her conjure and throw a fireball. Was that magic? Probably not, since she wasn’t certain that non-resurrected Orcs could absorb the skills of the stuff they ate like she could and wasn’t about to tip her hand if they couldn’t. If they could, then that would be included in asking where the strongest prey was. So, no, magic was probably different or separate from skills.
Akeno turned more fully towards the shaman; any affected air of nonchalance dropped now that it was clear Yambagorn wasn’t going to fall for it. “Is there anyone in the tribe at the moment who is looking for an apprentice, or to teach their trade?”
Asking about magic was tempting and she would likely approach the shaman again in the future for that, but right now her main priority was still finding shelter, food and stability within the tribe now that she was considered something of an independent. Orcs didn’t seem to go in for family all that much and Akeno frankly lacked the knowledge to go it alone, so seeking out something like an apprenticeship to tie herself to someone in the tribe seemed like the best bet at the moment.
Claire wasn’t sure what it was she was expecting exactly, but the group that met them at the end of the path was pretty… disappointing. When she’d heard the words ‘secret society’ she had kind of thought that there would be more than just half a dozen random people standing in a clearing with nothing but trees and fog; maybe some kind of secret hideout in the graveyard that justified the weird meeting place, or some weird setup with candles and an altar. None of them were even wearing robes.
And the speech? Claire had come here because she had wanted answers for what was happening to her, to learn of some way to make the monsters go away or at least a way to let her stop running. Instead they was the ones being asked to help and it sounded like these people were in even further over their heads than she was.
So, yeah… disappointing.
The only thing she heard that gave her some hope was the fact that you could apparently fight back using your own Duel Monsters. How you could fight back with cardboard she didn’t know, but given how uneasy she felt whenever she was separated from her deck, how some part of her felt reassured just looking at her cards, she believed it. The only question was how?
When the Spirit Viewer was offered to her Clair took one, even though she had no intention of joining whatever crusade these people were on. As soon as she knew enough to be able to defend herself, she was leaving town. Again.
Before they could explain any further however, their meeting was interrupted. Claire had no idea who these newcomers were but something was clearly wrong with them and they posed some kind of threat; the panic from their hosts was contagious and Claire didn’t hesitate at all to grab one of the ‘duel boards’ that were thrown her way. Questions could come later.
Slotting her deck into the device and drew her hand. Something was beginning to emerge from the trees to surround the, but with the fog it was hard to tell exactly what. Not knowing how this worked, Claire decided to keep things simple and settled for normal summoned Metalfoes Goldriver in attack position.
Claire was quiet in the wake of Aile’s little introduction. Normally she would try and socialise with the group, liven things up and leave her mark in people’s minds, but right now she couldn’t do anything but focus in on what the younger woman had just said.
‘Esoteric’; it didn’t necessarily mean what she wanted it to mean. It was just another word for obscure, hard to understand; the esoteric aspects of Duel Monsters could just refer to, like, damage step rulings or something. It didn’t have to have anything to do with what she was running from. This society the blonde mentioned could just be really dedicated to niche rulings for all she knew.
But she knew it wasn’t.
A bunch of wannabe judges wouldn’t arrange a midnight meeting in a cemetery and set up a lantern lit path through the darkness just to invite them to discuss the deeper aspects of chain links. Claire knew what this was. Something only further confirmed when one of the other invitees mentioned ‘psychic bullshit’; for that to be the first thing they thought of when they heard the word esoteric was telling. She wasn’t the only one experiencing weird things.
Impatiently, Claire stepped after the other duellist and grabbed a lantern of her own. “Let’s not waste time then. Let’s meet this society of yours.”
Seeing her family home again after what was almost a decade of estrangement was… a hard experience to define. It was a familiar sight, she supposed, but none of the memories she associated with the manor were what Morgana would particularly call ‘happy’; there was no nostalgia, no longing to stroll through the doors and walk its halls, venture into its rooms and see if everything was the same as she had left it.
When she had left before Morgana had done so with the full intent of cutting herself off from her family forever; she had expected to never see this place again. There had been a sense of finality to it that now left her feeling detached from the sight she was seeing. It was her childhood home, and it wasn’t at the same time; she had forsaken it long ago.
Now, it was just puzzle to be solved in order for them to progress with this case.
Truth be told, once it became clear that her mother had some kind of connection to this case Morgana had given some thought to how one might go about breaching those defences. However, between the mess with the spirit and then the assault on the cultist camp and then their quick journey back to the UK and now here there hadn’t been much spare time for her to devote towards the task, meaning her progress was disappointing. She had not been privy to every enchantment and protection placed on the property, having left home when she was still in her late teens, but she had been told about some as a necessity of her own safety, had figured others out herself during her tutoring as a child and had theories about the rest.
Morgana was quite well versed in protective wards, seals and similar such magics; some of her ideas around the type of protections her mother and their descendants would employ came about as a by-product of her own knowledge rather than a conscious effort to breach her family’s manor. She knew what types of wards worked best, their advantages and disadvantages, their places of origin and so on. She knew what kinds of magic her family tended to favour and where those two areas of knowledge overlapped. She could surmise what she herself would have chosen and assume the same of those that came before her.
Knowledge of wards came with knowledge of how to penetrate said wards; what their weaknesses were and when not to use them. Or at least it should, if the one casting them had any kind of intelligence. That did not necessarily mean that she could break them, just that she theoretically knew how.
“Before anyone heads off to start poking around, I’ll give you the same warning I gave Madeleine when we approached the cultist’s camp. Any attempts to scry beyond the exterior of the building will be useless; perhaps your deities can manage something, perhaps not.” Useless, but not unsuccessful in the traditional sense. Witches had learned long ago that it was far more efficient to redirect efforts rather than try to block them; trying to scry inside the building would be successful, but show you nothing more than the surface of a reflective glass orb suspended in some unobtrusive corner of the building.
“Any defensive wards on the building will be old, powerful, malicious and reactive. Simply attempting to perceive them will trigger a response, so if you aren’t absolutely certain you can defend against or subvert a curse intended to harm or even kill, do not approach the boundary of the building itself; not even with your magic.” At the cultist camp Morgana had determined that they would not be using wards, as the kind that witches used tended to be large workings intended for long term use. A temporary base like the camp would not be worth warding, but the Faith family manor? The seat of their coven’s power for the past few centuries? The wards would have been established around the same time the foundations had been set, the magic would have sunk into the earth and taken root.
“Normally I would strongly advise against crossing any kind of threshold, but in this situation that may actually be our best bet. The wards around the entranceways can be raised to prevent anyone from crossing, even my mother, but given the invitation and the fact that mother would never deign to imprison herself, I believe the door are safe to cross.” Or perhaps not and her mother was simply hoping she would die as soon as she tried to set foot in her childhood home; Morgana would give even odds towards the wards imbued in her coat either saving her life or failing entirely should that be the case. But she had a feeling that was not what her mother had planned here. It simply wouldn’t be her style to set such a mundane and impersonal trap, even if harming her was her intent.
Morgana turned to Faye “We’re estranged. I haven’t spoken to my mother in years, though she has certainly spoken at me in that time. I don’t believe she would hurt me, yet. I can’t say the same for you.” Then again, it wasn’t like she had ever expected her mother to throw her lot in with whatever Mr X was either, so who was to say if her judgement was accurate or not? “I would suggest against trying to teleport inside the building; you won’t arrive where you are expecting to and there’s a chance you won’t be able to teleport out afterwards.” Redirect your enemies efforts, rather than attempt block them outright. “My family has never hunted or harmed the Fae to my knowledge, but unwanted guests were certainly never tolerated.”
Then she turned to Amanda. “I can’t say what my mother would do; I never expected her to be involved in this in the first place. It would depend on whether or not she intends to play coy and pretend ignorance, or if she is willing to go public with her involvement in… whatever this all is.” The former would be immensely frustrating, the latter could be deadly. “Those runes are new; they shouldn’t be visible like that, which suggests they are newly laid and haven’t been properly synched with the existing protections yet. They look like standard strengthening wards though; the manor’s defences have always been directed towards more esoteric threats, rather than those that my family would consider mundane.”
In other words… “The windows aren’t bullet proof and the doors aren’t reinforced. Those runes are meant to rectify that. They aren’t yet complete.”
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