Kuirosan battle with a twist

[Sever]

Uplifting story...

Ecthelion blinked until his eyes cleared from the fuzziness. That was the second strange bout of deja-vu he'd experienced that morning. It had been a pleasant few days by any standard. A short battle in a mansion in the temple district. A quick jaunt through the planes and a bit of a tiff in a hidden mages' realm. Followed by a quiet sojourn out to Nalia's keep to see how things were shaping up. It was a slow week and he found himself keen to get back into some real fighting. Until this morning, that is.

The massive fighter had made his way back to the city and his faithful cohorts had followed to make sure that giggling girl at the Coronet didn't sit on him again, making him spend all their wages trying to get her off. Ecthelion surveyed his crew: Minsc - the brain damaged second in command; Jaheira - the pouty nature chick; Aerie - the lead spellcaster; Yoshimo - the faithful backstabber and of course, Nalia - the reason we got into so many black tie functions. Each one was efficient, capable and reliable at what they did and He felt that there wasn't a person or situation in all of Amn that they couldn't handle. He was, of course, wrong.

Shaking his head free from the dizziness, he opened his eyes and saw, for the third time, the people milling about the entrance to the docks. That strangely urgent sense of deja-vu was with him again and he found himself bracing for the attack he 'knew' was coming. Then he spotted them. The tightly clustered group of 7 identical kensais staring at him. His gut instincts: memories borrowed from some higher being, told him it was only one person. One person who was very likely about to cause some serious public havoc if he didn't do something about it. The kensais regarded his party for an instant then spoke to Ecthelion without ever taking their eyes from Yoshimo's katana. Ecthelion wondered if this strange warrior had sustained a crippling blow to the groin at one stage in his travels. He didn't wonder for long, though. The full weight of the request dawned on him and all he could say was 'I think not' in stark contrast to the kensai's comedic falcetto. Then it was on.

Ecthelion's first order, for Aerie to cast invisibility 10", was fouled as a green cloud exploded at their feet sending the party hither and thither in a bout of emphasemic terror. A pauper and a not-too-shabby courtesan were caught in the blast and reduced to viscous pulp before anyone in the party could intervene. "To me, comrades, to me!" Ecthelion bellowed as he sought to regain his composure. A second green glob exploded amidst the group spreading choking gas further throughout the docks. "[cough, cough, hack] spread out, comrades, spread out!" Ecthelion's deep voice had lost its edge and, seeing this, the kensai prepared to strike.

Ecthelion realed as the acid saturated blade cut through his powerful armour with astonishing force. In quick succession, two more strikes breached his defences and hit the tender flesh beneath for full damage. "This is insane", he moaned, "no-one can do that to me!" Jaheira, closest to the fray, looked on in confusion. "Do something you hippy bitch" she heard her leader shout and, after a moment's thought, she cast true sight. After all, two against one would upset the balance.

"Ooh, this isn't a good day!" The kensai taunted in his impossibly squeeky voice as the blade struck the dazed leader twice more. At that moment, Jaheira finished her spell and the mirror images dispersed to reveal the lone warrior: Kuirosan, the Acid Kensai.

Ecthelion jumped back a step and then downed a potion of heroism to make up for his humbled bravado. Before the flask was empty he was swinging his Flail of Ages and Kundane short sword in a blur of lethal steel to match even the whirlwind strokes of his adversary. A thin smile, that could only be described as sadistic, appeared on the kensai's face and he toned down his attack. Ecthelion, never one to let an opportunity slip, picked up the tempo and landed four hits. Four brutally powerful hits that did nothing whatsoever.

"Smeggin' 'ell". He mumbled half expecting to be decapitated in a blitzkrieg counter attack. But Kuirosan looked on with the slightest hint of disappointment etched into his otherwise fearsome countenance.

"He's got protection from magic weapons!" Aerie yelled and then started waving her arms in a frenzied spellcasting fury. Kuirosan immediately disregarded the leader and cast a magic missile at Aerie disrupting the breech spell. Before she knew what had happened, Kuirosan had covered the distance between them and, with two quick thrusts, left her on the ground, whining, with less than one tenth of her health. This came as no surprise to anyone in the party. Aerie seemed to spend a lot of time whining on the ground with less than one tenth of her health.

As the killing blow was being readied Nalia began to cast breech and, like some spring loaded snake, the kensai's arm flung around and fired an acidic dart, disrupting the spell. He then rained down five quick blows, killing her before she'd even removed the cork from the healing potion.

"You Bastard!" Aerie screamed and tried casting another disabling spell which once again caused the mad kensai to turn his attention towards his would-be disabler. She never stould a chance.

Ecthelion, somewhat relieved at the sudden quiet, ordered his remaining comrades behind him and embarked upon the most brilliant battle strategy he'd yet devised. He ran away. Kuirosan gave quick chase and soon cornered the leader and joyfully started carving away. Minsc, Jaheira and Yoshi let fly with a barrage of missiles but he shrugged them off saying only "Ooooh, this is not a good day!"

Finally, the intuitive voice in his head came up with an idea and Ecthelion put his Flail and sword away and retrieved Saving Grace and 'the emergency weapon' from his backpack. His emergency weapon was little more than a plain old long sword kept specifically for instances just like this. Feeling reassured by -10 armour class he downed a potion of storm giant strength and started cutting away. The first blow caught the kensai square in the chest but instead of a satisfying squeel from his adversary, he heard his own pathetic scream as a glob of acid shot forth from the blade and scorched his chest. "This is going to be a long bout" he mumbled and resumed the attack.

What followed was an [epic] twenty minute game of 'tag' that started from the west gate of the docks and finished unceremoniously at the fish stand below the Sea's Bounty. The remaining party members had devised a strategy to outlast the acid kensai's acid induced spell defences. Focus the cat's single minded attention on the mouse while the mouse runs in circles around his friends who shoot missiles at him from a not-safe-enough distance. Under the barracks walkway they circled. Down the steps they duelled. A brief stand-off at the the central balcony until shouts from an angered dwarf forced the battle further down. Out onto the cobbles outside the guildhouse. Down to the very stairway of the dockside pier and then back up to the fish stands. This is where it all went wrong.

Jaheira, who was tired of hitting Kuirosan once per turn only to have the damage healed before she could hit again, decided enoough was enough. She put aside her sling of seeking and began chanting the most powerful spell she'd yet learned: Call lightning. At the very presence of magic, Kuirosan turned and lashed out, killing her before the spell was complete. Angered by the loss, Ecthelion Struck out to, once again, gain the kensai's attention but to no avail. He'd fixed his gaze on the prize: Yoshi's celestial fury.

"Oooh, it is not a good day!" he squeeled. Yoshimo turned white and ran in circles hoping the boss and the big fella had enough ammo left to kill him. Unfortunately, Yoshi was too slow off the mark and the kensai kept hitting him on the run and eventually forced him into a niche between the fish stands. At this time, Minsc ran out of arrows and reluctantly drew Lilarcor (who, for the first time in history, wanted to be sheathed again).

It was a bleek situation. They had battled for twenty minutes, lost half of their party, were out of ammo, were nearly out of health and all they'd succeeded in doing was lowering Kuirosan's health to 'barely injured'. And now Yoshi was trapped. The insane gleem in the kensai's eye betrayed his joy at being so close to his prize. "Oooh, it is not a good day!"

"Will you shut the hell up", Yoshi screamed and reached for a healing potion on his belt. By divine intervention alone, Yoshi missed the healing potion and grabbed a potion of invisibility instead. Just as the acid katana was being raised, Yoshi dissappeared from view, and the frustrated kensai turned to face Ecthelion and Minsc who had quickly advanced to box him in.

Yoshi, who was also quick to take advantage of an opportunity no matter how hopeless, drew celestial fury and turned to face Kuirosan's back...

Throughout the docks the the cry was heard: "YOU WANT THIS? YOU CAN HAVE THE DAMN THING!" Yoshi thrust the fabled katana through the startled kensai achieving 'backstab quintuple damage'. Yoshimo punched the air. 71 damage; "Thanks for comin'!"

Kuirosan slumped to the ground and started dissolving in the mire of his own blood.

-----------------------------------

Well, that's it. That's my recent first victory over the deadly, testically challenged kensai. The 'twist' in the title refers not to the sideways movement Yoshi applied while the blade was wedged firmly in Kuirosan's back, but rather the irony of the killing stroke coming from the very blade he was seeking. This got me thinking: Is this what the designer had intended all along? It's so simple really. It could have saved me a lot of trouble. Your thoughts on this?

NPC Commentary aside, this is pretty much exactly how it happened. Right down to me pressing the wrong quick-item button and swilling a potion of invisibility by mistake. It is definately the most unexpected and thoroughly satisfying victory i've yet achieved in any BG game.

[Alson]

Encore! Encore!
Wonderful writing, Sever. Really. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Kuroisan is fun, isn't he? Wait till you'll see Improved Irenicus...

[Zarr]

Nice story Sever! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] Please keep us up to date with the rest of Ecthelion's adventures!

[SpongeBobTheDestoyer]

Excellent story. Funny too. Do some more if you get time, I'll definately read them. I'd like to read one from the bad guys perspective if you get the urge.

[Sir Exxon]

That's the best thing I've read since Memnoch stopped posting the stories about Asmodeus, Baator, etc. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Great job, Sever! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Sever]

Thanks guys. I'm not usually presented with situations that inspire me to write stories like that. Indeed, the battle was a goldmine for any ironic muse. I'll have to knuckle down.

BTW - the whole story was a round-a-bout way of asking a question: What is the relevance of Celestial Fury in the Kuirosan battle? Of course, it's the reason why the mad bastard wants to kill you, but did the designer expect more?

[Dundee Slaytern]

Excellent tale, worth the read.

[Zuvio]

"OOOOOH, this is not a good day!!"

[daan]

I do rememeber someone posting something about using Celestial Fury against him exactly like that. But that's very long ago ..

I doubt the designers tried to emphasize the use of CF against him though ...
Being magically enchanted, It'd be pretty hard to use it against him most of the time, but it does add a nice ironic flavour if you do.

P.s. !! GREAT !! story
I've been away for a while, your post was the first one I opened.. and you got me in the mood again in no time

[img]graemlins/shine.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/dance2.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1djsmile.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/dance2.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/shine.gif[/img]

[Decurion]

Man, that was an awesome telling Sever!!! Keep em coming!!