Anime Kingdom
Feb. 1st, 2004 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothToday was an anime-themed D+D game at Tom's house. We introduced characters, fought some bandits, and some ninja, and then pushed the Emerald Knight kicking and screaming towards his destiny and/or demise.
[edit: extra details added, thanks to Tom]
The sneaky cat girl Natsuki was asked to lead a blind old man (Zatoichi) to the temple to the temple to retrieve a priestess (Ariani) and her bodyguard (Despero), after which they returned to be given their mission: go to the enemy nation of Eb and retrieve the heir to the throne before the current king died!
(Lord Hikage, of the Konon Empire had falling ill, an illness that even the priests could not heal. The chancellor was concerned that if an heir was not found, that the relatives would rise up in family war to determine a new ruler. It seemed that Lord Hikage had had a secret affair with a beautiful peasant woman named Elia and since Hikage had a wife, the chancellor whisked Elia away to the Kingdom of Eb to hide her and so that her child could be born in secret. No one was ever supposed to know – however, the queen later turned out to be unable to have children and with the lords new illness – chaos could take over the long peaceful Konon Empire if the heir was not found.)
After picking up a little girl to be their guide -- she knew how to find the Emerald Knight, who supposedly knew how to find the heir -- they set out, the blind old man driving the cart while the cat girl acted as his eyes. For several days, the journey was uneventful, but then one night they heard a scream in the distance, and rushed to investigate! A naked woman told them that some bandits had stolen her clothing, so they chased down the miscreants and beat them up, then tied them by their ankles with a sign reading 'I Am a Bandit, Please Arrest Me'. The woman wanted them dead, but the party talked her out of it, since they didn't seem like especially dangerous bandits.
After several long boring days journey towards Kingdom of Eb, the party decided that they would go with the story that the Priestess was on a pilgrimage to deliver holy weed to the Temples of Mishra to pass the border guards. Since the party consisted of a 16-year old girl, an old man, a cat girl, a priestess and her body guard – the story worked really well.
A while after crossing the border, they were stopped by a pair of men blocking the road. Thinking they were ninjas, the cat girl tried to get the blind old man to run them down, but he wasn't *that* blind. Then the rest of the ninjas dropped out of the trees, surrounding the cart. "We have to fight! They're ninjas!"
"How do you know they're ninjas?" the old man asked, not wanting to start a fight.
"They're wearing black, and they're going to kill us!"
"Foolish invaders, did you think you could just walk in here and take what you want?" said the ninja master, from beyond the treeline. "Ninjas, kill them!"
"I TOLD you."
It was a hard fight. The cat girl and the old man managed to hold their own against five of the ninjas on one side of the cart, and at the other end the bodyguard ripped ninja after ninja to shreds. But the ninjas had large pointy objects, and nearly killed the old man and the priestess. The priestess fell to the ground, overcome, and the little girl they'd picked up as their guide healed him, then ran off into the woods.
A little later, a much older girl with a staff came back from a different direction and faced off against the leader, while the rest of the party finished off the ninjas. Then the leader got a call on his cell-crow, and fled for his life, claiming that something important came up like, really far away, and the mysterious staff girl flew off into the woods. Their guide reappeared a few moments later.
After a bit, they came ot the village of Eldereth or something, and stayed at an inn for the night. In the morning, they set off for the 'cave of light', along with the wimpy innkeeper's son Oshi, whom their guide insisted they take along, originally on the pretext of showing them the way to the cave.
The cave was full of traps, and rope bridges. Most of the traps involved statues chopping at the rope bridges. The blind old man recognized it as the Cave of Trials that only the Emerald Knight was supposed to be able to pass, but the first bridge was easy -- you just walked across.
The next obstacle was three rope bridges, one shiny and gold, one old and rotten, and one normal. The cat girl insisted on taking the gold bridge, but the guide wanted the innkeeper's son to choose. He refused, finally saying that the cat girl should go ahead and take the gold bridge. Which of course collapsed, dropping her into a chasm (although she just climbed back up).
The blind old man and the priest then insisted that the innkeeper's son go next, and take the rotten bridge, which was obviously the wise choice, forsaking material wealth. The innkeeper's son would have nothing of that, though, and walked across the middle, normal bridge, without incident. The rest followed. The cat girl was last, having insisted on pulling up the shiny gold rope bridge to take with her -- she managed to get herself wrapped up in it like a ball of yarn with her at the center – feet and hands sticking out of the ball. Shiiiiny.
The next bridge was a single rope, over a chasm. The cat girl leaped the chasm in a single bound, tying off another rope to the make the trip easy. The statue on the far end fought back, but the blind old man parried all its blows, until everyone was safely across.
Then, came a bunch of pillars that one had to leap over, past another statue, with swords poised to strike at one of the choke points. The cat girl and blind old man easily leaped past the danger zone, then used a grappling hook on the statue to distract it while the others jumped past more carefully.
But next came a well-labeled leap of faith, which everyone seemed to lack, even when the ninjas came up behind to pelt them with arrows from across the field of pillars. The little girl tried to convince the inkeeper's son that he should jump, but after testing for an invisible bridge and not finding one, he balked, and the priestess kept the little girl and the cat girl from physically throwing him over the edge.
At last, after much arguing and death threats on both sides, the Oshi fled for his life off the edge of the leap, and vanished in a flash of light.
The others decided that that meant he had been chosen, and decided to wait for word from him.
So he found himself alone to get past the other traps, shimmying under a corridor of sweeping blades, and finally reaching the chamber of the Emerald Knight.
last session, different game next session
Maybe after a few more games I'll remember everyone's name.
Eric and Dave were yelling at me for using 'player knowledge' that Ed's character was going to be the emerald knight and had to pass the tests. I told them that the little girl that my BOSS had told me would lead us to the Emerald Knight was pushing Ed's character to pass each test, which Eric's character knew were the tests to determine who was the Emerald Knight, so it was kinda frickin' obvious. Argh.
Overall, the game was fun, though, and did seem to have the anime style Tom was looking for.
[edit: extra details added, thanks to Tom]
The sneaky cat girl Natsuki was asked to lead a blind old man (Zatoichi) to the temple to the temple to retrieve a priestess (Ariani) and her bodyguard (Despero), after which they returned to be given their mission: go to the enemy nation of Eb and retrieve the heir to the throne before the current king died!
(Lord Hikage, of the Konon Empire had falling ill, an illness that even the priests could not heal. The chancellor was concerned that if an heir was not found, that the relatives would rise up in family war to determine a new ruler. It seemed that Lord Hikage had had a secret affair with a beautiful peasant woman named Elia and since Hikage had a wife, the chancellor whisked Elia away to the Kingdom of Eb to hide her and so that her child could be born in secret. No one was ever supposed to know – however, the queen later turned out to be unable to have children and with the lords new illness – chaos could take over the long peaceful Konon Empire if the heir was not found.)
After picking up a little girl to be their guide -- she knew how to find the Emerald Knight, who supposedly knew how to find the heir -- they set out, the blind old man driving the cart while the cat girl acted as his eyes. For several days, the journey was uneventful, but then one night they heard a scream in the distance, and rushed to investigate! A naked woman told them that some bandits had stolen her clothing, so they chased down the miscreants and beat them up, then tied them by their ankles with a sign reading 'I Am a Bandit, Please Arrest Me'. The woman wanted them dead, but the party talked her out of it, since they didn't seem like especially dangerous bandits.
After several long boring days journey towards Kingdom of Eb, the party decided that they would go with the story that the Priestess was on a pilgrimage to deliver holy weed to the Temples of Mishra to pass the border guards. Since the party consisted of a 16-year old girl, an old man, a cat girl, a priestess and her body guard – the story worked really well.
A while after crossing the border, they were stopped by a pair of men blocking the road. Thinking they were ninjas, the cat girl tried to get the blind old man to run them down, but he wasn't *that* blind. Then the rest of the ninjas dropped out of the trees, surrounding the cart. "We have to fight! They're ninjas!"
"How do you know they're ninjas?" the old man asked, not wanting to start a fight.
"They're wearing black, and they're going to kill us!"
"Foolish invaders, did you think you could just walk in here and take what you want?" said the ninja master, from beyond the treeline. "Ninjas, kill them!"
"I TOLD you."
It was a hard fight. The cat girl and the old man managed to hold their own against five of the ninjas on one side of the cart, and at the other end the bodyguard ripped ninja after ninja to shreds. But the ninjas had large pointy objects, and nearly killed the old man and the priestess. The priestess fell to the ground, overcome, and the little girl they'd picked up as their guide healed him, then ran off into the woods.
A little later, a much older girl with a staff came back from a different direction and faced off against the leader, while the rest of the party finished off the ninjas. Then the leader got a call on his cell-crow, and fled for his life, claiming that something important came up like, really far away, and the mysterious staff girl flew off into the woods. Their guide reappeared a few moments later.
After a bit, they came ot the village of Eldereth or something, and stayed at an inn for the night. In the morning, they set off for the 'cave of light', along with the wimpy innkeeper's son Oshi, whom their guide insisted they take along, originally on the pretext of showing them the way to the cave.
The cave was full of traps, and rope bridges. Most of the traps involved statues chopping at the rope bridges. The blind old man recognized it as the Cave of Trials that only the Emerald Knight was supposed to be able to pass, but the first bridge was easy -- you just walked across.
The next obstacle was three rope bridges, one shiny and gold, one old and rotten, and one normal. The cat girl insisted on taking the gold bridge, but the guide wanted the innkeeper's son to choose. He refused, finally saying that the cat girl should go ahead and take the gold bridge. Which of course collapsed, dropping her into a chasm (although she just climbed back up).
The blind old man and the priest then insisted that the innkeeper's son go next, and take the rotten bridge, which was obviously the wise choice, forsaking material wealth. The innkeeper's son would have nothing of that, though, and walked across the middle, normal bridge, without incident. The rest followed. The cat girl was last, having insisted on pulling up the shiny gold rope bridge to take with her -- she managed to get herself wrapped up in it like a ball of yarn with her at the center – feet and hands sticking out of the ball. Shiiiiny.
The next bridge was a single rope, over a chasm. The cat girl leaped the chasm in a single bound, tying off another rope to the make the trip easy. The statue on the far end fought back, but the blind old man parried all its blows, until everyone was safely across.
Then, came a bunch of pillars that one had to leap over, past another statue, with swords poised to strike at one of the choke points. The cat girl and blind old man easily leaped past the danger zone, then used a grappling hook on the statue to distract it while the others jumped past more carefully.
But next came a well-labeled leap of faith, which everyone seemed to lack, even when the ninjas came up behind to pelt them with arrows from across the field of pillars. The little girl tried to convince the inkeeper's son that he should jump, but after testing for an invisible bridge and not finding one, he balked, and the priestess kept the little girl and the cat girl from physically throwing him over the edge.
At last, after much arguing and death threats on both sides, the Oshi fled for his life off the edge of the leap, and vanished in a flash of light.
The others decided that that meant he had been chosen, and decided to wait for word from him.
So he found himself alone to get past the other traps, shimmying under a corridor of sweeping blades, and finally reaching the chamber of the Emerald Knight.
last session, different game next session
Maybe after a few more games I'll remember everyone's name.
Eric and Dave were yelling at me for using 'player knowledge' that Ed's character was going to be the emerald knight and had to pass the tests. I told them that the little girl that my BOSS had told me would lead us to the Emerald Knight was pushing Ed's character to pass each test, which Eric's character knew were the tests to determine who was the Emerald Knight, so it was kinda frickin' obvious. Argh.
Overall, the game was fun, though, and did seem to have the anime style Tom was looking for.
