MargardKazuki/SessionTwentyFive
The students find out early on how the one-on-one competitions of the Tournament of the Scarlet Grace were arranged. The "good news" is that someone obviously thinks highly of their abilities as they have been pitted up against another, obvious combat-capable group. For the most part, the students of the College of the Fivefold Path have been pitted up against their counterparts at The Pasiap's Stair.
The first combat of the day is one that the Spiral Academy considered to be the two best combatants in the competition -- a razor-claw wielding fighter brought up against Fist of the Depths. The fight is distressingly short. Fist of the Depth lands a single blow that completely drains his opponent of Essence. Without the ability to activate Charms and other Essence-powered abilities, the bout lasts a single punch after that.
It is obvious to those experience in social-fu and tactics that though the Spiral Academy didn't expect the best fighter from the Pasiap's Stair to win, they were hoping that it would have at least taxed Fist of the Depths a bit more.
The Chiascurro team is pitted up against the House of Bells. Chiascurro's swordswoman, Mathos Darra, when faced up against her equal, whether through luck or skill, manages to come out on top, though she is injured.
Chot brought along a 'plasma rifle' type of artifact that has been replaced with a crossbow due to her weapon's lethality -- if she should tag anyone in the chest or head with it, they are considered "dead" and are taken out of the battle. She is matched up against a House of Bells swordsman, who may have had trouble parrying her plasma rifle shots, but doesn't have much trouble parrying crossbow bolts, and she is eliminated from the combat.
Azure Dust enters the fight with 3 summoned elementals -- a Thunder Bird, a Flame Duck, and an Undine. The fight between Azure Dust and the House of Bells swordsman goes to Azure Dust. He repeatedly casts a spell that summons a bird of fire that flies towards its target and explodes. It was not an easy fight and lasted a while, but the House of Bells warrior spent too much Essence with Dodge Charms; while Azure Dust burned out his Essence, he had his elementals. He lost his Undine and Flame Duck, and his Thunderbird is wounded, though he himself is unhurt.
Mizugami is able to see that there was some dissension amongst the ranks of the Spiral Academy, and those that lead the Spiral Academy had their revenge by pitting their dissenters against members of V'neef Chead's immaculate martial artists from the Cloister of Wisdom. The Cloister of Wisdom easily defeats their opponents, and the first fatality of the Tournament occurs against the Earth Style Martial Artist's Goremaul.
The top 10 members of the Spiral Academy don't even fight, as each of their opponents concedes before the combat even begins.
The Ragara Chantry fights members of the House of Bells, and each of them win their fights. The first, Bitter Orichalcum, walks in without any summoned demons. He starts by creating a Sky Chariot and taking to the air, and by summoning Shackles that take his opponent down.
Onyx Nails obviously has a summoned Decanthrope on her side as her melee opponent was entangled by the creature, allowing Onyx Nails to drive her hardened hand into his belly. This almost results in a second death, but the fight is called off before he is killed. Ranka recognizes that in addition to having a summoned Decanthrope, she also casts the Wood Dragon Claw and Skin of Indestructible Bronze armor spells.
The Vermillion Master of Wards summons a cube of force that encircles him. His opponent tries in vain to break through the shield while dodging a Flying Guillotine disk. Even though he is never hit by the spell, he eventually gives up and concedes the fight as his dozen or so attempts to break down the shield all failed.
The last fighter from the Heptagram, Ragara Kainan, is accompanied by a pair of Blood Apes that tip the fight in his favor, though he is slightly wounded in the end. He was competent with the Daiklaive, though the House of Bells fighter concentrated his offense against the Heptagram sorcerer rather than his demons.
A few other fights occur -- mostly other members of the House of Bells against the Spiral Academy. For the most part, in those pairings, the House of Bells comes out on top.
Judas versus Cynis Briot, the air-aspect sorcerer from Pasiap's Stair. Ranka versus The Arack Thanatos, a martial artist that uses a chitinous armor that seemingly melds with his skin. Kazuki versus Ladoll Yleth, a melee combatant that specializes in Daiklaive. Mizugami versus Sesus Ulee, also a daiklaive wielder, that was thrown out of the Cloister of Wisdom for promiscuity. Kira is pitted up against the other archer, V'neef Ray. Jahana is up against Nelens Mott, the throwist, and is also the last fight of the day.
Judas, like an avalanche, rushes towards his opponents and grapples Briot in a clinch. Jahanna throws out the first of her blades, which Nelens counters and sends back at J'hana; the blade is sent back and forth several times before Nelens finally lets the blade pass by harmlessly. Thanatos rushes towards Ranka with an open palm strike, but misses his attack.
Ulee charges Mizugami and springs into the air while bringing her blade down at him. Though as good as any mortal swordsman can be, she, like Mizugami, simply doesn't compare to some of the other swordsmen at the tournament. Her opening attack misses.
Kazuki and Yleth go at nearly the same time, though Kazuki is just a fraction faster, and goes all out on his offensive. With a combination of his 1st Melee Excellency and Ringing Anvil Onslaught, he throws 6 successive attacks at Yleth, forcing him to actively defend. Yleth successively parries the first 4 strikes, but the fifth injures him, allowing Kazuki to successfully knock him out with the final strike, with a little assistance with the Falling Star Maneuver.
Kira kicks up a cloud of dirt and pirouettes into the air launching an arrow at her opponent in mid-spin. Ray launches Dragonfly Finds its Mate as a counterattack to deflect Kira's arrow; though she deflects it a little, it still finds its mark, but cannot pierce her armor.
Ranka, after having dodging The Arack Thanatos' attack, she has Chitters, her Mercury Ant turns the entire field, except for a small area under Ranka's feet, into mud. Ranka's Cloud Person blows a gust of wind through the arena that knocks Thanatos down into the mud. The Flame Duck launches an attack at the prone Thanatos, and Ranka attempts to fire an elemental bolt at him, but neither attack damages him.
Ray launches her Swallows Defend the Nest attack and a swarm of five arrows flies at Kira. Kira is nicked by one arrow, but manages to dodge the rest.
Thanatos is able to use Effortlessly Rising Flame to stand back up, and he launches another palm strike at Ranka. This time, his strike connects, and, to Ranka, it feels as if his hand melds to her arm.
Jahanaa maneuvers herself to force Mott to divide his attention between her and her first blade, and she throws a second blade at him. The second blade misses, while the first blade comes in from behind, forcing him to use Vengeful Gust to redirect the attack back at J'a'h'a'n'a. She sends the blade back, and he allows it to fly past.
Mizugami swings his daiklaive in an attempt to hit Ulee, and misses.
Mott charges forward, closing the distance between him and Jhananaa and uses the air around him to attack her. The cuts through most of Jaana's defenses, and a little gets through her armor and nicks her.
Ulee swings at Mizugami and manages to bruise him.
Briot concedes the fight to Judas; he was completely helpless in a clinch.
J'haana backs away from Mott and as she throws her third blade, she warns Mott, "If you run out of Essence, you're done. If I run out of Essence, they keep attacking." Mott seems unfazed by the warning as he dodges the third blade, but another one of the blades manages to bruise him.
Ranka can feel tendrils worming their way into her body from where The Arack Thanatos' hand is melded to her arm. She fights to remain conscious, aided by Kazuki's cheers, but she is badly hurt by the tendrils.
Kira drops from the sky, using her momentum towards her attack against Ray. Ray attempts to deflect the shot but the arrow still finds its mark and injures her. Ray concedes the fight.
Mizugami, recognizing how embarassingly pitiful their fight has been thus far, offers to prove who is the better through another means. His daiklaive misses its mark as he makes the suggestion. She realizes the same and offers up Gateway as an option. They sheathe their weapons and break out a board; after about a half hour, she concedes the match to Mizugami.
Mott closes the distance on Jana again, attacking with his wind at close range. The air cuts through her defenses and wounds her.
Inferno, Ranka's Flame Duck, attacks The Arack Thanatos and her strike manages to get through his armor to hurt him.
Jhanama attempts to grab Mott to turn him towards the three blades flying about, but Mott manages to escape the clinch and the blades don't manage to do anything.
Ranka has Chitters turn the ground back solid, and the Mercury Ant turns the ground that The Arack Thanatos' feet are submerged in to stone. Bountious Alabaster Horizon, Ranka's summoned Cloud Person, clinches The Arack Thanatos, and tells Ranka that she can't hold him for long. Ranka pulls out her flame gun and shoots at the boxy breathing apparatus at his chest. The Flame Arack Thanatos retracts the tendrils in Ranka's body and considers for a moment to grapple the Cloud Person, but then concedes. Ranka frees him from the stone and helps him from the field.
Mott attempts another melee-type attack, which Jahaana tries to dodge, but she is injured once more. Jaana once again attempts to grab Mott, and successfully clinches him, turning him towards the last of the two blades and tells him, "Say it!" Sensing the inevitability of the fight, Mott concedes.
With that, the entire class from the College of the Fivefold Path make it to the next round.
That night, with half of all participants eliminated from the competition, and others dropping out due to injury, and yet others resting to heal themselves, there isn't much in the way of socialization. Mizugami speaks with with Ulee to try to find out more about what she is good at. She expects to become a logistics officer amongst her group.
Kazuki checks in on Yleth, and makes sure he's okay. Yleth is in awe of Kazuki's abilities, and Kazuki does his best to ensure that he understands that Kazuki has had a tremendous amount more real experience and regales him with a few stories.
The next day is the swimming exam. There are numbered gems scattered underwater in the ocean. These numbers determine where people start out during the team competition. Mizugami speaks with the Cloister of Wisdom to try to work out a trade deal for the gems. Jahannnna determines the best, balanced position on the map in both offense and defense, and tells her classmates to hunt for that range of numbers.
As the 46 participants move towards their starting locations in the environmental challenge, they are each accompanied by a proctor.
The party is able to find the numbers in the location that they decided upon during the tactical session and collect them with little trouble. Though the starting positions are close together, there is a little distance between each character. Kazuki is at the furthest from the group, and the team's starting plan is to gather in on Judas.
Ragara Stalwart Jade is the Dragonblooded closest to Kazuki at the start of the environmental challenge. As the proctors call for the start, he turns in Kazuki's general direction and begins walking.
As the group gathers, Kazuki tells them about Stalwart Jade. Ranka has her Mercury Ant create covered pit traps all around the group's defensive position. After about 15-20 minutes of Kazuki and Mizugami arriving at the site, Kira sees the group from the Cloister of Wisdom approaching. Kira and Kazuki go beyond the boundaries of Ranka's pit traps to meet the group. They discover that they had been going towards the group to invite them to take on Fist of the Depths.
They decide to move forward with that plan and abandoned their protective area to go get Fist of the Depths. Along the way, they discuss combat plans.
The plan is for the power bow archer, Eyeless Starfall, of the Cloister of Wisdom group, who can see invisible targets, to open up by illuminating Fist of the Depths. Once the target is revealed, Chitters would encase his legs in stone, Ranka would begin casting a spell, and 6 of the melee combatants would begin to move as a group to arrive just as Ranka's spell goes off. Kira is going to launch Judas and Kazuki into battle, with Judas wrapped in Kazuki's Awesome Flying Thingy Scarf and carrying Kazuki into combat.
The opening salvo goes off flawlessly. Eyeless Starfall finds and marks Fist of the Depths to reveal his position and Chitters encases his legs in stone. Ranka begins casting her spell as the melee combatants close in as a swarm.
Fist of the Depths, entrapped by the stone, is forced to break himself free in his first action.
Ranka's spell activates, and though it does not hit, it forces Fist of the Depths to actively dodge. That's when Kira launches Judas and Kazuki into battle. Judas attempts to grapple Fist of the Depths, but misses his attack. Kazuki goes all-out on him, and manages to barely bruise him with a single hit. All the other melee combatants then close in contribute their beatdown.
Fist of the Depths' first target is Sesus Midnight Raven. The attack touches, and his Essence is completely drained, and a ripple of power emanates from the strike that bruises everyone else within melee range.
One of Ladall Invisible Phoenix's Infinite Jade Chakram manages to get through Fist of the Depths' defenses and scores a hit.
Fist of the Depth's next attack depletes Ragara Stalwart Jade of Essence, and everyone around him takes another hit from the ripple effect. As the teams chip away at Fist of the Depth's health, he manages to completely clean Judas and one other of the Cloister completely of Essence.
Eventually, the teams' combined might manages to knock Fist of the Depth unconscious, as Kira's shot cuts cleanly through his defenses and takes him out of the fight. As Fist of the Depth falls, Eyeless Starfall concedes, and strongly suggests that those with no more Essence also concede.
Kazuki reluctantly concedes as he does realize that he has no way to defend from Lethal attacks, especially should the new Ragara Chantry attack next. Judas asks Jhaaana if he should also concede, and she agrees. He drops out of the fight.
As they leave the field, a thick mist rolls into the area. Kira and Ranka see four members of Ragara Chantry approaching from different directions, each targeting one of the remaining members of the party.
As a new combat begins, Ranka has the Cloud Person dispel the mist, and it becomes obvious to the others what is happening.
Kira calls out to Jhajana and Ranka to go through their pre-determined plans and target Ragara Kainan, the one going after Mizugami. Mizugami has disappeared into the waters of the swamp in order to lay down an ambush for Kainan.
Kira, Mizugami, and Jzkqahana all lay into Kainan and manage to damage him.
The Vermillion Master of Wards surrounds Jaaahaaanaaa with a force field and taunts her with a "How long can you hold your breath?"
Ranka is caught up with Struggling Vines and is forced to concede as her spellcasting becomes useless.
Onyx Nails, with her two Decanthrope summons, Wood Claws, and Indestructible Skin of Bronze, closes in with Kira and wounds her badly, forcing Kira to concede.
Mizugami concedes in style, doing it calmly, but maintaining his guard -- and rightly so -- as Kainan delivers a parting shot. Mizugami exchanges a few insults as he walks off the field.
Jahamamama delivers her own parting shot at Kainan before conceding.
In the end, seven members of the Spiral Academy come out on top as the winners of the tournament.
At the end, the Spiral Academy goes their separate ways as their alliance was only for the Tournament. Tepet Tian shows that she is an honorable sort, as she spends time with Kazuki during the afterparty in order to keep his nemesis at bay.
Mizugami also speaks with Tian and learns that she is being sent off as a junior senator at Lord's Crossing, though she feels she is better suited serving in a legion. Mizugami agrees to talk to The Rose Black to try to get her transferred to the North.
As the Tournament closes, Jana receives news from Cherak that everyone that lived at an outlying settlement had, to a man, completely vanished, as if they never existed. She learns that they were taken by Lumizent's hobogoblins, and her Motivation changes towards Protect the Innocent.
A year passes; Gehenna spends the time with a group of adventurers protecting outlying villages from monster threats. Kira and Kazuki head off together for mutual protection to hunt ghosts. His friends also had to talk him out of renaming to Hit People Guy.
Mizugami establishes his business interests in the South, and sponsors the team from Churrascuro to do heroic things in the region. Mizugami learns that Cynis Yorake is the leader of the All Seeing Eye in the North. He finds out where Kazuki's Ladoll nemesis is being stationed, and sends word ahead of him to smear his name. He attempts to track the new Ragara Chantry, but for the most part, they disappear from the scenes as they are still young sorcerers. He obtains a title under The Rose Black and serves as the primary liaison between her and the Satrapy of Cherak. He has no trouble getting Tian up to the North as a Lieutenant under The Rose Black. He checks in with the group from Pasiap's Stair who joins the Vermillion Legion, and Ray is assigned as a Lieutenant over her group and they are immediately put to work learning the patrol routes between Wallport and Cherak and the tricks of survival. He also checks in on Cynis Elin at Wallport, as well as the Mnemon governor. Reflections stays with Mizugami at his estate. Mizugami also searches for an Exalt that would be deserving of his extra daiklaive, and finds Ferem Easley as the ideal person.
Ranka spends time on her airship exploring the world. She invites others to join her, and suggests that the group gathers again in Cherak one year later to catch up and party. She visits all of the major cities of the Periphery, with the exception of Paragon and Thorns.
One of the Idiots, Okagura, who has always been writing to Margard Miyako learns that she has been enduring her time with the Ragara, has been unhappy. Mizugami learns of this, and he speaks with Ragara Takar and asks him to transfer her out for another from House Margard as a favor. Takar is glad to do this for Mizugami, to be owed a favor from him in the future, and Miyako is finally freed. She spends time with many of the group before heading off to spend her time with Moro.
Judas spends his time working towards taking over the Steel Hand to turn them from a group of assassins to transform them into an information network. He is molding them into collectively becoming The Wind. He tries to arrange it such that there is a member of The Wind in every one of Lookshy's holdings, inside the Palace of Len Occam, and throughout the city. Judas builds himself socially, and once everything is set up, Judas retires as The Wind, and gains connections throughout the city as a result of the new Wind. In his off time, he spends more time at the dojo where the male First Pulse students are training to begin establishing his influence with them.
During this time, Judas spends more time treating Morning Frost Willow more as a person. They travel to the Undercity and into the Shadow realm to get some equipment for her.
And with that, the year closes and the group, as planned, gathers back in Cherak for their reunion...
