Monk-y Business

“So far, so good,” Sandoval thought as he stepped over the body of the dead guard. They’d managed to infiltrate the Imperial Palace without having to fight their way in, and so far they’d silently dispatched all the guards they’d encountered without raising any alarms. Now they were crowded into the ground floor of one of the Palace’s towers. Bella had already opened both doors, revealing passages leading north and east, each ending in closed doors. Marie passed Bella the coin on which she’d cast Silence and the rogue scurried off to the east. Sandoval felt his ears pop as the oppressive silence suddenly went away. He heard Nicki mutter some words, and then he vanished from sight, leaving only his two new bodyguards, the animated skeletons of two of the Typhoon Guards they’d killed upstairs. Sandoval shuddered; Nicki was getting more and more unpredictable, and Sandoval was worried that his necromantic fetish was getting out of hand.

Bella dropped the coin mid-way down the hallway, so that a sudden absence of sound wouldn’t alert anyone beyond the door. As she approached it, she pulled on her Gloves of Reconnaissance once more. She’d tried using them to peer through the castle’s wall upstairs, but the palace’s wards against scrying had thwarted them. Now she pressed them against the wooden door, and was pleased to see an image forming in her mind’s eye; apparently the stones of the palace walls were warded, but its doors were not. On the other side of the door, she could see another guardroom like the one they’d just left, with another pair of bored looking Typhoon Guards inside. She turned back to the group watching from the opposite end of the hall, and held up two fingers, pointing at the closed door.

Sawyer and Sandoval moved to provide backup, with Marie close behind; she knelt and retrieved her coin. Bella gulped a Potion of Bulls’s Strength, then did a silent countdown from three on her fingers. As her fingers formed a fist, Sawyer threw open the door and stabbed Suishen into the shocked guard on the other side. Sandoval fired an arrow into his throat, and Marie used her Dimensional Hop to teleport into the room blocking its other door – with her silenced coin in hand.

As with the other guards, these didn’t stand a chance. Bella stabbed her swords with blinding speed into the surprised oni’s kidneys, leaving him crippled with pain. Sawyer bulled his way into the room, hacking at the other guard and carving off big chunks of his flesh, while Shinjiro charged up to take his place in the doorway, kicking the crippled oni in the teeth. Zhustin, wanting to be helpful, zapped the same guard with an Acid Splash, but the spell’s acid had no effect on the oni. Sandoval dropped his bow and drew his echoblade; it bit deep into the wounded oni, but the Silence spell negated the sword’s sonic damage. However Nicki’s Magic Missiles dropped him like a stone. Marie clobbered the remaining guard with her mace, then sidestepped to give Bella flanking. The panicked guard saw an opening, and made a break for the door, but Bella cut his legs out from under him, leaving him to bleed out on the floor.

Most of the rest of the group remained in the hallway; the spellcasters didn’t want to move into the silence, and the others didn’t want to wade through the pools of blood. Bella pulled her Gloves on again, and pressed them against the closed door. The Gloves’ mystical sight revealed a large room beyond. It had probably once been a ballroom, but now a low round wooden platform filled the center of the room. On it, a group of men and women in loose-fitting clothes sparred with each other in martial arts, while around the room’s perimeter were racks containing a bewildering array of exotic weapons.

Prevented by the Silence from telling the others what she’d seen, Bella pointed at Shinjiro and held up seven fingers. While they tried to puzzle out what this might mean, Bella, grown overconfident from the ease with which they’d handled all the guards up until now, pushed open the door and strode out into the room, drawing her bow as she walked. The monks paused in their exercises to look at this strange little figure as she raised her bow, drew the string back to her ear, and fired one of her deadly arrows straight at the throat of the nearest monk. An instant before it struck, he batted the shaft away, and stared at Bella with disdain.

“Ah, so we have guests who wish to challenge us!” The voice came from Bella’s left, and she turned to see a figure that had initially been hidden from her view by one of the many decorative stone screens that separated the central ballroom from a more private perimeter area. It was a kuwa oni, with a mane of bright orange hair. He bowed mockingly to Bella. “I am Sudoshi Sento, and this is my dojo. My students strive to perfect their mastery of my Iron Tempest style, but they weary of testing themselves only against one another. Thank you for providing them with new sparring partners!” With the barest of nods from their master, the Iron Tempest Monks sprang into action.

Sandoval had followed Bella out into the room, assuming from her confident air that it must be empty. He barely had time to launch into his hoka dance before a charging monk unleashed a kick that would have broken his neck, had he not deflected part of its force with his shield. Within second, he and Bella were both surrounded by a mass of kicking, punching monks. Sudoshi Sento moved casually back to the fighting platform and folded his arms, evaluating his students’ performance.

No one back in the guardroom had heard Sento’s little speech, thanks to Marie’s Silence, but they all saw the horde of monks descend on their friends. Sawyer charged into the fray, plunging Suishen deep into a monk’s belly. Shinjiro joined him, and his Stunning Fist left an opponent reeling. Bella abandoned her bow, realizing too late that she might have been a tad cocky. Her swords flashed as she tried to fend off the hurricane of blows, and one of the monks was left badly crippled by her pinpoint thrusts.

Nicki and Zhustin saw the sudden commotion ahead, and hurried into the guardroom, but were helpless – Marie’s Silence prevented them from casting any spells. Marie realized their predicament, and rushed out into the ballroom, skirting the perimeter to avoid the battling monks. She rounded one of the screens, and threw her coin up onto the platform with Sento, hoping to neutralize any spellcasting powers he might have. Then she continued running north, where she could see open doorways leading into another large open space; she wanted to head off any possible lines of retreat.

The Iron Tempest Monks were delivering a hurricane of blows almost faster than the eye could see. Bella and Sandoval were battered mercilessly. Shinjiro’s Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier deflected one blow that would have cracked his skull, but it was immediately followed by another that left him coughing up blood. Even the normally untouchable Sawyer was surprised to find himself bleeding and bruised from multiple strikes that broke through his armor.

Sento frowned at his students’ performance, apparently displeased that they had not already finished off these foreigners. He casually bent down and picked up Marie’s coin, then flicked it into the fray where it fell among a confusion of shuffling feet. Sandoval’s inspiring song was suddenly cut off, as was any sonic damage from his Harmonizing Echoblade.

Nicki had been delighted to be able to speak again, and was just preparing to cast a spell when the Silence descended once again. Disgusted, he backed up until he was out of its range, then ordered his skeletal minions to advance along the room’s perimeter, intending to get them behind the attacking monks. Zhustin was at the back of the guardroom, and outside the Silence spell’s area. He targeted Sento with a trio of Scorching Rays and was pleased to see the fighting master flinch with pain as the bolts struck.

The party recovered from the initial shock of the monks’ furious onslaught, and began to give back as good as they received. Sawyer retaliated against the monk who’d had the gall to injure him. Suishen sliced through his gut, then opened his throat to the spine, and the monk collapsed in a spreading pool of blood. Bella stabbed the monk Shinjiro had stunned in the heart, then spun and stuck another. Shinjiro showed off his own fighting style, the Way of the Stream, learned from his grandfather years before, and left another of the Iron Tempest Monks stunned. Sandoval whirled his echoblade, slicing deep, but without its added sonic damage the effect just wasn’t the same.

Zhustin drew out a wand and fired off a Ray of Enfeeblement at Sento. The ray went wide, but the oni apparently decided not to be such a target; he suddenly vanished from sight. The monks ignored the loss of two of their numbers and continued hammering Sandoval and Bella, although one did back off and quaff a healing potion. Bella, never wanting to pass up an opportunity to take on a helpless foe, beheaded the stunned monk before turning to face the survivors.

Sawyer realized that Sento had disappeared, and activated Suishen’s Invisibility Purge. Thankfully, the Silence spell prevented him from hearing the stream of profanity as Nicki discovered he was now visible. But Marie, far across the room from any help, was shocked to see Sudoshi Sento creeping up on her. Undaunted, she bravely drew her mace and swung it at the oni, who dodged the blow easily. “Oh, so you want to dance?” he asked gleefully, then pummeled her with a blinding flurry of blows.

Sawyer growled. He could see Marie facing off against the martial arts master far across the room, but a line of Iron Tempest Monks prevented him from going to her aid. His attacks increased in ferocity, and the monk facing him was soon streaming blood. Shinjiro barely had to slap him to send him sliding across the floor, dead. Sandoval thrust his blade into the guts of the monk facing him, but then had to back away, motioning in silence for help. Ameiko saw his distress, and rushed forward, using her Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds to heal some of the damage the monks had inflicted.

Nicki’s skeletons finally clattered around the partition behind the monks surrounding Bella. The monks easily dodged their clumsy blows, but they provided the distraction Bella needed. They were so busy avoiding the skeletons, that they couldn’t hit the elusive rogue, and she used their distraction to target their most vulnerable points time and again. As she withdrew her sword from her latest victim, he staggered back right into the waiting arms of one of Nicki’s friends, who finished him off.

Marie realized she was hopelessly overmatched. From across the room, Zhustin blasted Sento with a volley of Magic Missiles, but the martial arts master ignored them, and unleashed another painful flurry of blows on the hapless cleric, toying with her. Marie turned to try to flee, but that simply opened her up to another kick in the back that almost knocked her unconscious. Sudoshi Sento smiled at her clumsy retreat, and started to move forward to finish her off. But instead, he suddenly found himself facing Shinjiro. The monk had used his Abundant Step to teleport across the room, interposing himself between Sento and his would-be victim. Recognizing a worthy opponent at last, Sento smiled, bowed slightly, and settled himself into an attack stance.

The PCs earned 3,657 XP for the two Typhoon Guards. I’ll total up all the monks once this battle is finished. This puts you at 567,548 XP, with 635,000 required for level 15. We’ll be back at Leo’s next week. Roger should be back, but Scott and Rich will be missing.