Winston

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign Awww, shucks!

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign Nothing dark about my avatar-- It's just the Chinese character for "Dragon" written in ancient "Small Seal" script. As to Liam's sheet, I actually left it with OddHat-- cos I tend to misplace things. I thought it would be safer to leave the character with all the other game acoutrements.

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign That's interesting! Mind you, the second one I thought was just an old joke: "May God bless and keep the Czar-- far away from us!

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign Liamfada's Report, Part the Second The sorceress' name was Aisha. She was apparently known to the kitchen wench. She told us that a thousand years ago, there had been on this site, a great sorcerer who used the magic of the Red. Over time, he was subsumed by the bloodstone, and was reduced to crystal himself. But that hellstone would be about the size of a human skull and about 15kgs in weight. Such a potent magical stone would corrupt anyone of talent who even touched it. It would also be worth enough to purchase the Imperium twice over. Aisha desired us to find the stone and hand it over to her so that she could take and purge the Red from it. Apius, his vision glazed over with gold, would not consider the dangerous power of this stone. He was determined to find it and become wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. It was frightening to think on. Later, back at the villa, Emily--or Melanie (Melanie! That was it!) met us and helped us all to settle in. She was rather solicitous of me, and said she had heard that I had dispatched six foes single-handedly. I tried to correct her, that I merely assisted my master. Never mind, she said. She was sure I had been magnificent. She also had heard that I had been grievously wounded. She laid a hand on my thigh, and purred that she really ought to have a look and tend the injury herself. I smiled and told her that I had been completely healed by a mendicant sorceress. She suggested that it was still better to be sure about it. So, I suggested that she come after supper, and we could make sure that everything was in-- "proper working order." Afterward, Miyamura came to find me. It seems that Mazi Zhai was of the opinion that the Emperor of Shenzhou should rightfully hold the Great Bloodstone. I made Master Miyamoru aware of my fears. The stone would corrupt anyone who touched it, such was its power. And while I might trust the priests of Wulin or the acolytes of the Green Bat to have enough power and wisdom to handle the stone, we could never transport it in time. I neither knew nor trusted this "Aisha." And even if we did nothing, once word got out about this massive Bloodstone, armies and nations would descend upon us. Miyamoru sighed in agreement. Nonetheless, he insisted; Master Mazi would present this treasure to the August Presence of the East. What should we do? I wondered. My master shrugged. "Let us eat and drink." And so we did. In fact, we found some stores of wine, and soon became quite merry. We pressed sopme of the kitchen staff into service with kinoor and timbrel and sang as we drank. After a while, though, it began to get rather cold. We drank more wine to keep off the chill. But soon, it was apparent that the entire room was filling with a freezing white mist. And then we noticed two ghastly pale thin things, like men, but there were no "whites" to their eyes, and they had overly wide mouths festooned with long needle-like teeth. Both Master and I drew our swords. I swung at one of the beasts, but I was drunk, and my blade bounced harmlessly off its skin. I felt it sink its teeth into my throat, and a warm trickle flowing gently down the side of my neck. Miyamoru severed its head with one blow-- the head, suspended from my neck by its teeth tore my flesh a bit as it fell. And looking across the room, we could see the other one standing over a dead servant, and its fands buried in Melanie's throat. Miyamoru made short work of the second vampire as well, and we thought to go through the house to see if anyone else were in trouble. As for poor Melanie, she had lost too much blood. She would be dead soon. But as we prepared to search the rest of the house, a warm, golden mist seemed to replace the icy frost. The girl Melanie stirred, and seemed to have been healed, much as I had been that morning. Entering the room was the little kitchen wench, the highwayman, Aisha, and another shaggy fellow who looked a bit like a hedge-wizard. The young girl said that the trail of the mist was leading back to the dig we saw that morning. We gave chase. Arriving at the site of the old buried fortress, we saw a huge demon looming over the site, tendrils of white and red mist flowing into him. Miyamoru and I would have thrown ourselves into battle, but Aisha Grabbed our hands with a strength that belied her frail appearance. She cried for everyone to join hands and lend her "intention." I am not a magic-sensitive. I have not the talent. But I could lend her my intent to kill. There was a great explosion and everything went dark. When I woke, it was morning. Aisha was checking each of us to make sure we were alright. She seemed somehow different. She had always looked sickly to me. But now she also looked-- "empty" is the only way I can describe it. She said to us that she had, with our energies, depleted the great stone and then absorbed it into herself. She said she was going back to her temple where her fellow priestesses could excorcise the crystal. And then she was gone. There were only six of us-- Myself, Miyamoru, Melanie, the Little Wench, the Highwayman, and the Shaggy Hedge-Wizard. I suggested we get back to the villa to help the survivors. But we found no one left alive. Master Miyamoru wanted to committ seppuku on the spot. But I urged him, "Revenge first." Anyway, Master Mazi had apprenticed me to him. He had to first complete my training before he could indulge his own honour. The six of us made a pact to stay in touch throughout our journeys. We had a feeling that the events of the past two days were only to be the beginning of something terrifying. The Hedge-Wizard decided to take Melanie to the Fire-Lands, and he tried to convince the rest of us to go with him. But The kitchen wench and the highwayman decided to stay in the lands of the Imperium. Miyamoru and I would travel on to the Meadow-Lands, across the sea. The years ahead would prove to be interesting times....

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign Liamfada's Report, Part the First -- It was the day prior, late afternoon. I was accompanying my master Miyamoru and our employer Mazi Zhai. We were on our way from Shenzhou to the estates of Apius Ventius, an old acquaintance and business associate of Mazi's. Mazi had hired me as part of his personal guard almost three years ago, and apprenticed me to Miyamoru, his bodyguard. This was my first time travelling as one of Mazi's principal men-at-arms. INdeed, it was quite a small group that set off to visit Apius, and I was excited and a little afraid to be one of those chosen from the household to accompany Master Mazi. The journey was mostly uneventful, though we were set upon by brigands near the Apius Estates. We were travelling through a gulch, which, looking back, we should have scouted before travelling through. Anyway, I was sent ahead, and Master Miyamoru acted as the rearguard. Just as we reached the middle of the gully, we heard horsemen riding down upon us from both sides. Master quickly moved back to engage the enemy there, and I rushed ahead to face those blocking us in. There were three, one on horseback, and two footsoldiers. The footmen were armed with old halberds, but the horseman had a fearsome-looking axe. I didn't feel confident about taking them all on at once, but I could see that the real threat came from the mounted brigand. I would have to eliminate him first. I leapt forward and sunk my gladius into his horse's chest. I had hoped that the horse's throes would inflict sufficient injury on the group that I could more easily dispatch them. It almost worked. I missed the horse's heart, but it reared in pain and fear, throwing the rider to the ground, As I drew back from the beast, one of the other brigands tried to strike at me. It was an easy matter to dodge his blade, and the man actually struck his fellow a terrible blow to the shoulder. The axeman recovered his feet and swung at me, but again, it was an easy matter to avoid his attack. I tried a feint and thrust, and though I struck, did not strike very deeply. He called to his fellows to join in the attack, but neither were very good, and I was able to evade them easily. I continued trying to thrust home, but the axe caught me a glancing blow. I felt a rib crack. Just then, my master rode up. He stayed back, observing. The two halberdeers broke and ran off, but the axeman was made of sterner stuff. We crossed blades a few more times. Master Miyamoru simply watched, and then offered "You know, your blade has an edge as well as a point." And with that bit of encouragement, I was able to finish off the axeman. We continued on to the Villa of Apius. We were received cordially, and given quarters. A very friendly serving wench named Emily...or Amelia...or summat like... had offered attention to my injury. I was ashamed that I had been so hurt by common thugs. Anyway, Master Miyamoru instructed me not to bother our hosts, but that he would bind my ribs for me. We retired for the evening. Early the next morning, we set out for a part of Apius' estate not far off. As we rode, he told us that as he was having his workers prepare the area for farming, they uncovered an artifact that was apparently touched by magic. Our group was small-- Mazi, Miyamoru, and myself, and Apius, and one of Apius' kitchen slaves-- a young girl who was apparently sensitive to magic. A few retainers accompanied us. The site looked to be a huge archaeological dig. It appeared that Apius was trying to unearth a fortress. The first thing we noticed was that Apius servants working on the dig were nowhere to be seen. The party stopped at the top of the ridge over the small depression of the dig site. But Apius, oblivious to the tactical situation, continued riding down into the field, calling out loudly for his servants. I glaced quickly back to my master, who looked over to Mazi. He signalled to us, and I nudged my horse onward, and followed Apius down. I drew both my spath and my gladius. I tried to persuade him to return to the top of the hill, and then I saw him-- A black garbed knight on horseback, armed with a flail. Apius demanded of him where his servants were. Arrogant Roman fool! I put my horse between him and the knight. He said nothing, and I noticed another knight riding up to his side, similarly dressed in black armour, and armed with a flail. They made no reply to Apius, but charged. I rode forward to meet them. As I passed the first knight, I struck a firm blow to his head. Though I actually shattered his helm, he was not staggered as I thought he would be. His visage was very pale, almost sickly. He was filthy and looked as though he were starving. I noticed on the periphery that Master Miyamoru had drawn his swords and was riding down quickly-- More of the dark horsemen were appearing. The un-helmed one and his companion both charged me at once. The first blow was easily dodged-- I leapt up from my saddle, using my gladius to parry the flail, flying forward to flip over and avoid the second strike of the un-helmed knight's comapnion. But, the other knight, rather than coming down with his flail, swung upward as I was alighting from my mount. His aim was true, and the pain was even more intense than my embarrassment for being caught like an amateur. I nearly blacked out on the field, barely noticing the knights continue on to meet Miyamoru. He handily finished the knight I had already wounded, but then I passed out. And then almost immediately it seemed, I was enveloped in a soothing warmth. And lo! I was whole. I wasn't sure what had happened, but I scrambled to my feet, turned, and thrust my spath deep into the back of the knight who had un-manned me. Miyamoru almost casually slashed his arm nearly off, told me to finish him, and the gallopped back up the hill where more fighting was apparently going on. I thrust my sword the rest of the way through the dark Knight, twisting the blade as I did so. I withdrew my sword as he fell from his horse, and ran up the hill in time to see Miyamoru taking down another black knight who had cornered Apius' kitchen slave and some lanky highway-man type with a longbow. I stayed by Mazi in case any more knights should try to attack. There had been six knights in all, and with minimal help from myself, master Miyamoru slew them all. We were then presented with an apparition. A painfully thin and wan woman in filthy, tattered robes. A sorceress. Apparently, the one who saved my life on the field today. And she spoke to us a tale....

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign Going back to the idea of magically-fed immortality: I believe, Oddhat, you once said that there was an upper limit of two or three hundred years on useful immortality because the human brain can only store so much data. After sufficient time, an immortal would likely degenerate into an Alsheimer's type sickness, and yet not be able to physically die. It occurs to me that the aim of much Chan and Daoist meditation is to keep the mind tranquil and calm. And in some subsets of Chan, empty. There must be many abbots and mountain hermits of both Chan and Daoist persuasion that can keep themselves going for very many centuries by spending most of their time in deep meditation. Either they would be "Withdrawing from the World," or at least carefully erasing what bits of memory they feel they do not need on a day to day basis. This would fit in neatly with the folktales of ancient adepts, who, after going about teaching the people and bringing Enlightenment to those ready to embrace it, would decide "I've done all I can do here. It is time for me to leave my body behind now." In essence, choosing their own time of death. It also would explain why ancient heroes such as the Abbot of Green Bat would not often bestir themselves (as indeed, the Temples also rarely do), since more experience means they are using that much more memory space in their minds, and thus shortening their own effective lives. Of course, in grave circumstances when Righteousness demands, the Hero will always sally forth. But it is rare. The Buddhists would say "We do not concern ourselves with the affairs of this world." And this leads into yet another idea: If a Chan or Daoist monastary is comprised of dozens of adepts all working at emptying their minds, and attempting to "Return to the One," might not the senior monks share consciousness? By combining the available physical space of, say, eighteen brains, those individuals could become mere aspects of one group personality, and be able to hold more memory than any of them alone could do. That would increase their useful lifespan by many centuries. Eventually, it may be possible for the population of a particular monastary to be one mind with the use of many bodies. And this leads even further on to the possible abuses: Supposing an Abbot has "lost his way" and begins using the other monks as a sort of repository for his own mind? He would be like a psychic vampire, cultivating an ever-growing body of zombie-monks whose minds would be his, and whose bodies he could send out to do his bidding. Just a few thoughts. (By the way--In case anyone is interested, I am one of the people who gets to play regularly in OddHat's games. )

Re: Imperium Romanum - A fantasy campaign OddHat, it occurs to me that in Xingyi Boxing, the elements (of Chinese tradition) do not merely lead in to one another, but depending on the order in which they succeed one another are either generative or destructive. The traditional diagrams look rather like pentagrams within pentagons. Around the outside you have the Generative cycle: At the top, Metal, which gives rise to Water; Then, going clockwise, Water, which gives rise to Wood; Wood then gives rise to Fire; and Fire gives rise to Earth; and Earth completes the circuit, bringing us back to Metal. For the Destructive cycle, the pentagram is drawn from Metal to Wood, which it overcomes; Then from Wood to Earth, which it conquers; then on to Water which is overcome by Earth; and then on to Fire; and finally back to Metal. Each successive element conquering the one before it. Supposing then, a wizard, sorcerer, or priest had one of each type of Heaven Stone, and laid out the patterns properly, and marked off either the Generative or the Destructive Cycle. What could be accomplished, I wonder?