Assassin! – Attempt 1, Part 1

And we’re back!

My scores basically carry over into Book 2, Assassin!, which starts in media res, with me staring down at Yaemon’s corpse.

Catching up on stats :

• My Endurance (20) and Inner Force (5) have been restored to maximum levels by Kwon.  Might have been handy if he had done that before I fought my arch-enemy that wanted to kill me and to consign Kwon to hell, but here we are.
• My modifiers are Punch (+1), Kick (+1), Throw (0) and Fate (+1).
• In the previous adventure I managed to use up my flash powder and Blood of Nil.  I did pick up an Opal Ring and 15 gold pieces (I don’t recall ever actually spending any money so far, but I guess I’ll pick up a bottle of nice scotch on my way back).
• I get to select another special skill and, knowing how I tend to get into trouble, choose Picking Locks / Detecting Traps / Disarming Traps.

As the guards (or as I call them, karate fodder) charge up the stairs, I have the options of defending the top of the staircase, using my (sadly, non-existent) skill of Climbing to clamber down the wall or taking a running jump (!!) and hoping I make it all the way over the wall into the moat (!)

Not a palatable menu for this early in the adventure.  The running jump is a bit too crazy even for me, and I imagine that a bad dice roll would probably mean I went splat on the stone castle.

Once more to the breach, dear friends!  I move to the doorway at the head of the stairwell and, having watched an action movie or two in my time, use the Dragon’s Tail throw to cast the lead guard down amongst his brethren.

Regrouping, most of the guards understandably decide discretion is the better part of valour and pause before attacking again.

To quote The Wire – “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

The ‘bailiff’s bodyguard’ mounts the stairs.  Absent a laminated name-tag, how I am able to determine that this one particular soldier is a bodyguard, and who he works for, is a mystery that is best left unsolved.  As he charges up the stairs, I utilise my bullfighting skills, stepping aside at the last second and knocking him flat on his face with a well-timed Tiger’s Paw chop.  The remaining guards, already nervous, scatter.

I sprint down the steps and see guards to the left and right of me, with a doorway straight ahead. With little option left (apart from attempting to negotiate a peaceful ceasefire) I charge straight ahead through the door.

En route, one of my pursuers fires an arrow at me and, due to an unlucky dice roll, I am ominously informed that a stone brick under my feet ‘clicks’.

Gulp.   Maybe I was the thousandth person to step on that brick, and I’ll win a car?

Maybe not.

It looks like my skill of Arrow Cutting is about to come into play.  Two more crossbow bolts are fired at me from the wall, but I chop them out of mid-air because I am the killer of Yaemon and such things barely merit my attention.  At least, that’s the sort of thing I would say if I wasn’t still in the middle of an evil castle surrounded by dozens of bloodthirsty guards who want me dead.

I sprint down the stairs, hoping to find somewhere that can, at a minimum, serve a decent steak.

Status : Endurance : 20, Punch Modifier : +1, Kick Modifier +1, Fate Modifier +1,  Throw Modifier : 0, Inner Force 5.

Awesome Names : Nothing this time around.