Huo Li's Kingdom Roleplay Thread

[Pyro]

Su Sheng was amazed at how quickly the girl was able to formulate a plan, rather than simply giving advice. Clearly, she had much street smarts and a brilliant tactical mind. After the girl had finished, he said:

"Well then, since you like the first one, we can go with that. I would like to bring these men to in chains if I could, but I'd be naive to think that those bandits would give up without a fight. Anyway, if we're going to do this thing, we need to organize the plan of action. So, we need to head towards the barracks to plan and get troops."

"But I suppose the first order of business...."

Su Sheng got some food from the merchant he was originally talking to and handed it to the girl. The food was steamed buns with meat and locally grown vegetables inside. He wasn't sure whether the girl would like it, but when someone's hungry, almost any food taste delicious.

"These are for you, so you can satisfy your hunger for now."

Su Sheng then ordered the guards to lower the girl's arms to allow her to move freely. He watches to see if she made an escape attempt, but he was hopeful that she was at least true to her word.

When the guards let her arms go Xia rubbed them to rid herself of some of the soreness. She was very tempted to kick up some dirt then bolt for a nearby crowd but the offer of food was more than enough to change the little rogue's mind. Xia gasped happily and grabbed one of the buns, almost inhaling it instantly before starting on the second one a little more slowly but it was still clear that this was the first food she had had in days.

"Hey thanks!" She happily said after finishing. "Yer nice ya know? Anyway I'm Si Xia...Yeah I've always bin called tha' so ya can call me that too!"

The girl stepped forwards and gave a small bow but part way through she winced and clutched her bruised sides.

"Ow! Tha' still smarts!" Xia whined before looking back up to Sheng. "Okay you guys jus' follow me an' I'll show ya where we can go an' catch these bad men!"

Assuming Sheng let her, Xia stayed true to her word and began to lead him and the guards towards the warehouse which was not far from the marketplace. It was quite an unassuming building, looking like any other storehouse, perfect for those who practised illegal activities. Xia then pointed up to a hole in the roof.

"I can' reach it on my own but can one of ya lift me up? If I can get in through there I can let ya'll in there!"

[Silverwarp]

Su Sheng bows in return.

"Alright then Lady Si Xia, my name is Su Sheng. Nice to meet you."

While he said that last part out of instinct, he wasn't sure it was nice to meet her...yet. He hopes the operation will be successful first. He follows Si Xia and as they made their way the storehouse, a contingent of guards eventually met up with them. When Si Xia asked someone to lift her up, Su Sheng and one of the guards offered the help.

"Alright, good luck."

After a few moments, Si Xia is now able to reach the roof.

[Pyro]

((Sorry about the wait))

The tiny girl still had trouble reaching the roof but was able to eventually reach the roof, get a footing and pull herself up. She waved down to the others to indicate that she was fine before slipping into the hole in the roof. The hole itself was tiny but then again so was the young thief. She effortlessly slipped through the gap and dropped down into the store house.

A sudden racket erupted from inside. The voices of men furiously shouting along with loud thuds, crashes and yells from the young thief. Then it suddenly stopped.

Everything went quiet, all too quiet and the silence remained for far too long. The door then opened. A huge man with the little girl, beaten and bloodied over his shoulder filled the frame. he looked at the guards for a moment.

"Good thing yer 'ere...This one just broke in..." He said as he dumped the unconscious girl unceremoniously into the street.

The thug looked at Sheng again then to the guard. "Wait a min' you're..." The man's face dropped as he realised what Xia had done. He loudly swore at the girl and pulled out a large knife before calling back to the others inside.

"Dammit Hu! Jing!, she got the guards!" He yelled as two more men from inside scramble to the door, also holding weapons, clearly not intending to be detained easily.

((Feel free to roleplay the thugs or do whatever with them, I don't mind))

[Silverwarp]

((Sorry for the delay))

Su Sheng saw the beating Si Xia took after she got in. He was horrified and quite angry at the bandits. Out of natural instincts, he had wanted to beat these bandits black and blue, but his more civilized side was able to prevent his instincts from taking over and he then issues more civil orders to the guards to apprehend the bandits.

"Time to bring these bandits to justice! Capture them if you can, if not, injure them into submission. Use full force as a last resort."

While the guards went in, Su Sheng attended to Si Xia. She was still bleeding after the beating she took. He then asked a passerby to bring a doctor and medicinal herbs from the Plants and Flower Expo. In the meantime, he used some cloth to dress the wounds in order to stop the bleeding. While he had little medical training, he had studied closely the times he was treated for his injuries and was able to do simple medical tasks. He was distraught and it showed when he spoke to her to see how she's doing.

"Lady Si, are you alright? Speak to me! Stay with me, we'll get a medic here right away!"

____

In the meantime, the guards barged into the dilapidated warehouse. The guards armed themselves for a fight. The bandits in the meantime were amassing at the door when they saw the number of guards approaching them. They scattered through different parts of the warehouse, hoping to confuse the guards. The guards saw this and chased after them. However, the bandits were stealthy enough to avoid getting caught. The guards reassembled at the entrance and huddled up to come up with a plan.

Guard A: "Let's just burn the place down."

Guard B: "No...our lord will have our heads to cause such a ruckus."

Guard C: "C'mon, we're better trained and better armed than the pieces of garbage we have to face."

Guard D: "Then how come we can't catch them?"

Guard E: "We suck."

Guard I: "Stop that. Don't let our lord know you said that."

Guard E: "Sorry."

Guard I: "We need to come up with a proper plan of attack."

Guard O: "Oh! I have an idea. 51 Power Trip, Left Right Zoom."

The guards continue to whisper amongst themselves and after a few moments.

All Guards: "Break!"

All the guards shouting and clapping at the same time caused a shockwave which reverberated throughout the entire warehouse. The bandits were shaken and covering their ears. That lapse of concentration gave away all of the bandits location and the guards moved in quickly and captured all of them. They tied each bandit with rope and their hands behind their back to prevent them from escaping.

Guard O: "That is how you play.....Hmm....I wonder what the heck were we playing."

Guard I: "I don't know, but we did our job, so I don't care what ever we were playing is called. We can even call it football even though we don't really use our feet except for running."

Guard O rolls his eyes.

The guards then confiscate all of the bandits' weapons and starts herding them at spear point to the front of the warehouse.

[Catalyst]

It had been some time since Ling Ji had made his way into the jungles of Nan Zhong. And quite frankly, he would've been happier if it had remained that way. Having lost his horse some time ago, he had been forced to trudge his way onwards into the deep abyss known as Yun Nan, getting lost twice along the way (once ending up in the famed "poison marshes" which gave him a rather horrible rash), and finding himself three times having to wash horse dung off of his shoes ("Never had to wash horse dung off of my horse's shoes..." he muttered). But, business is business, and when he tells someone he will find their lost cat, he's gonna find their lost cat.

A few miles outside of the city of Yun Nan, he finds the hut he's looking for, and raps on the door. A young woman comes to the door quickly.

"Who're you, sir? You smell of dung and bog water. What business have you here?!"

Ling, flies gathered around him, a jacket long worn from the road, shrugs off the insults. "Pardon, my name is Ling Ji. It came to my attention that you have a missing cat?"

"OH GOODIE! The cat-man is here! Yes, my lovely kitty went missing a few weeks ago. I really can't seem to find him anywhere, not at his usual watering hole, not in his favorite grove of trees, and certainly not in the house. He's about yea high, weighs a few stones, aye, he's a big one. He's covered in beautiful orange fur, and has these nice little stripes all over, and he's got the most lovely collar on him, it's blue with a gold coin on it, so you'll know it's him. He answers to "Fluffs"."

Ling had taken out his notepad and was writing everything down, keeping track of things as he went along "... yea high... few stones... big one... collar, unimportant... Fluffs."

"Ma'am, I'm the best private investigator in all of China. If I can't find your lost kitty, then no one can."

With that, he set off... and about 10 yards later was eye to eye with a very large tiger. The tiger growled, Ling took out his notepad. "Growl" he scratched into it. And then, with a sudden, horrifying realization, he understood that this particular tiger, and many others like it, matched very well the description that the lady in the nearby hut had given him. Luckily for him, this one happened to have a lovely blue collar with a gold coin on it, so he knew it was him. And while the satisfaction at so quickly finishing a job began to well up inside of him, the crushing thought that he was about to be terribly mauled by a very large Nan Zhong tiger dampened his spirits a bit. He quickly made his peace with a few gods, and then a few devils just for safe measure, and waited for his doom, when a shout rang out.

"FLUFFS!!!! THERE YOU ARE!" The young woman had bounded out of her house at the sight of her tiger. The tiger, seeing its owner, promptly decided to take the shortest way to her (as is the custom of animals). The shortest route, however, happened to go right through Ling, and Ling found himself swiftly buried under a few hundred pounds of fur, which the proceeded to launch off of him again, much to the displeasure of his chest cavity. He managed to get up a few minutes later, to find the woman running over, tiger in tow, to thank him greatly with a large amount of... wheat.

"I'm sorry, it's all we have. But thank you so much for finding our kitty, he's been so lost and we've been worried."
":/ No problem, ma'am, but I would consider putting so large a, erm... kitty... on a leash in the future. It's a long journey from... wherever it is that I live. And next time you might not be so lucky that a wonderful investigator like myself can find your lost tiger!"

With that, he waved his farewell, and walked over to the nearest tree to sit down. He searched through his pockets, found some letters, and began reading them. A few of them were addressed from regions under the control of Li Jun, and he noted by deductive reasoning that Yun Nan was ALSO in the land of Li Jun. Making note that he should probably answer some of those, he promptly fell asleep.

[Marik]

Catalyst:

After finishing her routine checks around the Yong Chang marketplace, Conda felt the need to go out for a short vacation out of her familiar city and into the rest of the kingdom. Word had reached to the southwest corner of land that her lord Li Jun had gained control of more cities and his kingdom borders had expanded exponentially from when she last checked a map of the region. Although she did not hate the humidity of the jungle province, she felt the need to get some fresher air from the northern city of Cheng Du. It would also serve as wonderful first-time experience as well, since she had never traveled this far into the land before. Taking a shortcut through the jungle instead of the normal road, she soon came across a man sitting by a tree, with papers in his hands, right in the middle of Yun Nan's jungle.

Naturally, her reaction was to reach for her weapon at the sight of a stranger in such a hostile environment, but after she got closer to examine this person, she soon realized he did not pose much of a threat. As she got closer a smell of dung and sweat filled the air more and more, which also made her realize that this man was the source of said smells. He certainly did not seem like the type of person who went into the jungles to hide; for the people that know this area well would usually seek out or create shelter from predators such as tigers.

Once she came to be mere inches away from the person, she sheathed her weapon and knelt down to examine him more closely. The papers that were in his hands were letters, and due to Conda's strong sense of morality, she turned her eyes away from them to become unaware of what was written on them. She checked the man's heartbeat to make sure he was even alive in the first place, which effectively he was. Finally, unable to hold her curiosity back any longer, she poked at this man's shoulder to see how he would react, keeping her other hand near her weapon just in case things went wrong.

Ma Conda: Excuse me, sir. Are you alright? Do you realize it's dangerous to take a nap in the middle of the jungle?

[Catalyst]

Marik:

Ling Ji opened one eye slowly, casually, and glanced up at the woman prodding him.

"Be that as it may, recent experiences have led me to believe that being awake in the jungle is much more dangerous. Or perhaps that is just due to the people in it. Not least of which because at least some of them seem to think that a tiger qualifies as a cat, a prospect which I assure you those of us from the north find rather unsound. When I say that I am a cat-finder, I mean that in the sense that I find small animals of the feline variety which often tend to get stuck in trees and pursue even smaller rodents, and not that I go off searching for beasts twice my size and thrice my weight thank you very much."

His rant finished, he began to stand up, found that his ribs had still not quite recovered from being trampled by a quite large house-tiger, and promptly sat back down, whilst offering his hand.

"Pardon my manners, but my name is Ling Ji. I am a private investigator and holistic detective of sorts. Before I fell asleep I had been preparing to head towards Yun Nan, though I daresay that such a journey might take a bit longer at this point. I happen to have numerous letters from that district which I should likely get around to reading eventually. Might I ask your name, my dear curious lady?"

[Marik]

Catalyst:

Seeing that this person had at least shown some signs of life now that he managed to open his eyes, Conda was relieved herself. To her surprise, however, the man was not just some dehydrated stranger lying in the middle of the jungle, since it was the only explanation that would come to mind when she saw this person. Rather, he was purposely sitting there, after apparently having already encountered a tiger during his trip. The way he made things sound made her think that people to the north of the land had different way of talking and thinking than the people from the south, although she had never been to the north to confirm this. Naturally, she believed that all chinese people looked, talked and thought the same way, but apparently it was not so. An interesting discovery for her, but perhaps for another time.

After hearing the man introduce himself, she felt compelled to do the same herself.

Ma Conda: My name is Ma Conda. I serve the man who rules over Yun Nan, whom you probably would've met eventually if you continued down the path there. If you received so many letters from my fellow officers, it must mean that we're badly in need of someone of your skills. A private investigator, you said? I rarely spend time in my own city's castle, let alone Yun Nan's, to know what those crazy politicians and strategists are planning. But enough about that; are you well enough to travel? A lot of the people that lay down to rest in the jungle like you did usually do so because they're sick or dehydrated.

She had already noticed that he was not well physically, probably having something to do with the tiger he had encountered previously. She held out her hand to meet his to try and help him get up the floor is possible.

[Catalyst]

Using Conda's hand to steady himself, Ling pulled up off the floor of the jungle, swayed a bit while catching his balance, and then found himself standing rather comfortably. He felt around his ribs and chest, cringing a bit, but nothing too bad (at least, nothing that a little bit of fixing up couldn't, well, fix, later on).

"I think I'm good enough to travel, though the sooner that I'm doing less traveling and more sitting, the happier I shall be. I recently found myself pounced upon by a tiger which had evidently gone astray, and promptly found its owner once I arrived."

He began to brush himself off out of habit, then looked down, saw that he was still mostly covered in dung and other jungle growths, and decided that all in all, brushing himself off wasn't really going to help. He took out his notepad, wrote in "buy soaps for future trips to southlands", and then returned to the attention of his newfound acquaintance.

"Shall we head off to the city? I'm badly in need of a cleaning, as you can likely tell."

[Marik]

Keeping her hand sturdy as Ling was pulled up with her help, Conda watched as he dusted himself off but to no avail, as it proved effortless to take away the smell of jungle droppings. She could not help but make a devious smirk as she knew he had already realized this a bit too late. She had seen some of the crazy hermits of the Nanzhong jungle, but never met one who actually had a tiger as a pet. As nifty as it sounded, and considering tigers were one of Conda's favorite animals. she could not see herself owning one. Not to mention it was a violation of their naturally free predator-like spirit. As soon Ling made his last remark, she nodded in agreement.

Ma Conda: Indeed, you are. I was planning on doing something out of the ordinary today anyway, so I'll take you to Yun Nan. Here... there's a shortcut this way.

Taking the path she laid out for both of them, they soon arrived at the city of Yun Nan, cutting at least a few hours if they had taken the main road. With a puzzled expression on her face, she looked around the streets, then turned to Ling.

Ma Conda: I'll be honest with you, I've only been here a handful of times. And I've been nowhere around town but the lord's castle. I figured since you're an investigator and a detective, you'd make it easier for us to find an inn or someplace for you to get yourself cleaned up. Maybe get you a new coat too... it'll likely take weeks to get the smell off of it.

She examined the nearby buildings as she awaited a reply from Ling.

[Catalyst]

Seeing that his guide was just as clueless about the city as he was, Ling couldn't help but frown. But, of course, he knew his duty, and the woman was absolutely right. An investigator should be able to investigate, and he should at least be able to find an inn. So, he immediately turned to the tried and true method of simply asking random passerby. A man of about 30 who walked by looked promising, if only because he was the first person to walk by at that moment.

"Excuse me, sir. My companion and I are desperately in need of an inn. Could you please point us in the general direction of one, or at the very least, could you please bathe me rather quickly?"

The man, however, was rather overcome with the stench emanating from Ling's coat, and promptly shook his head and hustled off. Subsequent investigations lead to similar results, all of which were recorded offhand in Ling's notebook. Restudying his notes, he quickly came to a conclusion of sorts, and turned to his wayward comrade.

"Miss, erm, Conda. It has come to my brilliant attention that my coat is rather smelly, and that due to this, I am found repulsive amongst other people. Sadly, this is greatly inhibiting my ability to investigate. So, and this is hard to ask, but would you be so kind as to take my coat for a bit? If not, I fear I may have to break into someone's house and steal their soap."

[Marik]

Soon after arriving at Yun Nan, Conda watched as Ling repeatedly asked the city villagers that passed by only to receive the same results every time. Even though she already knew why those people reacted the way they did, she let the investigator do his job without interrupting him. It was probably part of his usual strategy, but she found it rather funny that he had to take note of all the refusals he received. A while after being rejected by several people, Ling had turned to Conda asking her for a favor. She chuckled lightly at his request, but in the end she held out her hand to accept his coat.

Ma Conda: Of course, no problem. Not only that, but I shall take the coat and stand -way- over there so that the smell won't be a further burden in your investigation. I trust you'll be a decent enough person to take it back once you're done? I wouldn't want to be stuck with a stranger's smelly coat for the rest of the day.

She commented sarcastically and laughed as she waited for him to hand her his coat.

[Catalyst]

Ling looked at the woman sternly while handing over his coat, flinching as he did so.

"This coat... is a part of me. Guard it with your life. It is far too important to be lost."

With that he fully handed over the coat and headed off searching for more people. He picked an elder gent out of the nearby populace, and once again, kindly asked him for directions. The old man was nice enough to point out that there was an inn roughly 3 blocks down, simply take a right and you're there. Ling nodded and thanked the man, then returned to Ma Conda.

"I'll take my jacket back if you please. I have found our inn. My sources indicate that... um..." He now realizes he forgot to write it down. "I believe he said it was 3 blocks... to the left. Yes, I'm certain of it. The left is where we shall have to head, if we are to find our inn and get me cleaned."

[Pyro]

((Sorry for the delay))

Su Sheng saw the beating Si Xia took after she got in. He was horrified and quite angry at the bandits. Out of natural instincts, he had wanted to beat these bandits black and blue, but his more civilized side was able to prevent his instincts from taking over and he then issues more civil orders to the guards to apprehend the bandits.

"Time to bring these bandits to justice! Capture them if you can, if not, injure them into submission. Use full force as a last resort."

While the guards went in, Su Sheng attended to Si Xia. She was still bleeding after the beating she took. He then asked a passerby to bring a doctor and medicinal herbs from the Plants and Flower Expo. In the meantime, he used some cloth to dress the wounds in order to stop the bleeding. While he had little medical training, he had studied closely the times he was treated for his injuries and was able to do simple medical tasks. He was distraught and it showed when he spoke to her to see how she's doing.

"Lady Si, are you alright? Speak to me! Stay with me, we'll get a medic here right away!"

____

In the meantime, the guards barged into the dilapidated warehouse. The guards armed themselves for a fight. The bandits in the meantime were amassing at the door when they saw the number of guards approaching them. They scattered through different parts of the warehouse, hoping to confuse the guards. The guards saw this and chased after them. However, the bandits were stealthy enough to avoid getting caught. The guards reassembled at the entrance and huddled up to come up with a plan.

Guard A: "Let's just burn the place down."

Guard B: "No...our lord will have our heads to cause such a ruckus."

Guard C: "C'mon, we're better trained and better armed than the pieces of garbage we have to face."

Guard D: "Then how come we can't catch them?"

Guard E: "We suck."

Guard I: "Stop that. Don't let our lord know you said that."

Guard E: "Sorry."

Guard I: "We need to come up with a proper plan of attack."

Guard O: "Oh! I have an idea. 51 Power Trip, Left Right Zoom."

The guards continue to whisper amongst themselves and after a few moments.

All Guards: "Break!"

All the guards shouting and clapping at the same time caused a shockwave which reverberated throughout the entire warehouse. The bandits were shaken and covering their ears. That lapse of concentration gave away all of the bandits location and the guards moved in quickly and captured all of them. They tied each bandit with rope and their hands behind their back to prevent them from escaping.

Guard O: "That is how you play.....Hmm....I wonder what the heck were we playing."

Guard I: "I don't know, but we did our job, so I don't care what ever we were playing is called. We can even call it football even though we don't really use our feet except for running."

Guard O rolls his eyes.

The guards then confiscate all of the bandits' weapons and starts herding them at spear point to the front of the warehouse.

((I thought I already replied to this but I must have lost the post))

The poor thief remained motionless on the floor while bleeding from a nasty blow above her eye as well as from the back of the head. She was trying to move but her body just would not let her. It was clear that she also had bruises all over her body from being caught by the bandits. She looked up to him blankly, her eyes not focusing on him or unable to as he dressed the bleeding head wounds. The girl then reaches up and grabbed onto Sheng's sleeve as she began to cry due to the pain.

"Go...Can we go?" She slurred in a pleading tone, clearly concussed and clearly wanting to leave.

The guards were able to round up a number of criminals, five in all as well as discovering quite a sum of forged coins and other things such as forged seals and documents. A great deal of smuggled items were also in the storehouses, obviously sneaked in to avoid tax.

As they were lead outside Xia let out a panicked sounding gasp and clinged on to Sheng, clearly terrified of these men after what they did to her.

[Marik]

Ling looked at the woman sternly while handing over his coat, flinching as he did so.

"This coat... is a part of me. Guard it with your life. It is far too important to be lost."

With that he fully handed over the coat and headed off searching for more people. He picked an elder gent out of the nearby populace, and once again, kindly asked him for directions. The old man was nice enough to point out that there was an inn roughly 3 blocks down, simply take a right and you're there. Ling nodded and thanked the man, then returned to Ma Conda.

"I'll take my jacket back if you please. I have found our inn. My sources indicate that... um..." He now realizes he forgot to write it down. "I believe he said it was 3 blocks... to the left. Yes, I'm certain of it. The left is where we shall have to head, if we are to find our inn and get me cleaned."

Ma Conda: Of course. I shall not let go of it, no matter how badly it reeks.

She held on to the coat with her arm extended all the way to keep the smell to a minimum. She watched from afar how Ling was able to persuade the first person he came across to give him directions. Surprising how a simple change of attire and smell could've made all the difference. She gladdened once he had finished talking to the man, and extended her arm forward to hand the coat to Ling. She noticed the puzzled expression he had put on momentarily, but decided to go along with his plan anyway.

After walking for three blocks, they turned to the left as Ling had indicated. The street slowly began to turn into a narrow alley that soon reached into a dead end. There was a building in this dead end though, but if this was the inn the man had mentioned, it would be the most unattractive piece of architecture in all of Nanzhong. As they stood gazing at the building a few feet away from the entrance, Conda saw some nefarious looking people walk in and out of the place. Among them was a man completely covered in a suspicious looking cloak, a young man missing a tooth and with dirt all over his face, and a woman wearing very little clothing. Conda turned her head and looked over to Ling.

Ma Conda: Do you want to be the first one to go in, or should I?