Anne Radcliffe on Nov 28, 2013 wrote:

Emma had not mistaken it - her shot had hit the ball in the staff fair and true. The ball absorbed the energy, the blue lightning of her shot being absorbed into an increasingly deep purple swirl of light, but much more than that had happened. All over the smooth surface of the ball, tiny cracks appeared, each less than the width of a hair.

Azami had not noticed. "What have you done!" she shrieked with incandescent rage. "You have destroyed my work! None of you shall escape alive!" So saying, she filled herself with all the magic her fury could bring her, and focused it through her staff, swinging it in a deep arc at her adversaries.

The ball of the staff gleamed brightly with a wicked light, increasing in greater intensity as the sorceress shouted the ending of her incantation. The ball pulsed brighter than ever --

and shattered!

Everyone save Azami - both friend and foe- instinctively dove for cover, but whatever the ball had been made of became almost entirely consumed in its explosion, leaving only a scattering of miniscule bright shards that stung nastily on contact but had no power to do any real harm. Everyone was momentarily blinded by the light of this much closer explosion, and as vision came back they saw that things had changed.

Azami was no longer the beautiful, young blonde woman of a few moments earlier. Though not ancient, her youth had slipped away, leaving her faded, her hair dull and streaked with white, and her face and form plain and unremarkable.

Azami saw a strand of her hair and took it in her hands, hands that no longer looked so smooth and lovely. "No... no!" she whispered in horror, distracted so greatly that she no longer noticed anything else. The broken staff fell unheeded to the ground. With a despairing, wild cry she fled, her movements no longer graceful and sinuous, but awkward and ungainly.

Azami's guards were momentarily immobile with shock as they witnessed this. Then one of the samoorai laid his sword on the ground.

"We will not hinder you any longer. Leave us be, and you are free to go," he offered in a cool, stern voice. The pirates looked at the other guards. They had not given up their weapons, but the guards, whether samoorai or ninja pig, nodded in assent as the pirates' gaze caught their own.

"You did it, Emma! Well done!" Anne murmured to her friend as she picked herself off the ground. "I say we take what we are offered, don't you all think?" And to the samoorai who had addressed them, she returned his words with cool, polite ones of her own. "Open the gates for us, please."

Emma found herself embracing Anne a moment later. "Yes, we succeeded," she cheered, releasing a minute later at the notice of Anne's possible discomfort. "Well," she spoke, turning to her compatriots with an almost phosphorescent smile on her face. "It's time to go. I have to say, we deserve some applause, or at the very least some tea. We just stopped another evildoer from poisoning Marleybonians to advance the Valencians in the war." The Musketeer was pretty excited. "Heh, it feels good to succeed."

"'Azami-San'," Emma began once more in a whisper to her friends, a mocking tone to her voice. "Was a real azami in our sides, huh?" She snickered at her own joke.

Highlander Fox of ... on Dec 2, 2013 wrote:

Emma found herself embracing Anne a moment later. "Yes, we succeeded," she cheered, releasing a minute later at the notice of Anne's possible discomfort. "Well," she spoke, turning to her compatriots with an almost phosphorescent smile on her face. "It's time to go. I have to say, we deserve some applause, or at the very least some tea. We just stopped another evildoer from poisoning Marleybonians to advance the Valencians in the war." The Musketeer was pretty excited. "Heh, it feels good to succeed."

"'Azami-San'," Emma began once more in a whisper to her friends, a mocking tone to her voice. "Was a real azami in our sides, huh?" She snickered at her own joke.

Anne giggled at Emma's sally, feeling very happy and lighthearted indeed. They had won! They had done something truly good! Despite being not fully recovered from Azami's attacks, Anne was wound up with exhilaration. She would have suggested a race to the cherry tree, where Jack would find his way back to his crew, but knew this would not be practical. They had to be considerate of the rescued alchemists.

With such an entourage, it was full night before they arrived. But the moon was full, shining brightly on their path, and the cherry tree's pink blossoms shimmered silver. There was plenty of light to see a lumpy pile on the ground, which upon further investigation turned out to be a pile of sacks spilling out a wealth of gold! As they looked upon this sight with astonishment, one last red fox trotted up with a sack nestled on its back, the mouth of the sack held in the fox's teeth. A short distance away a white fox watched. The red fox dumped the sack upon the bottom of the pile, and then leaped spritely away into the woods.

The white fox gazed upon the small group of humans, and dipped its head in a kingly (or perhaps, queenly?) gestured. Then it too melted into the woodland shadows as well.

"Azami apparently did quite well for herself," Anne commented, eyeing the pile of gold. "This will please my crew," she added happily. "Especially Ratbeard. He bemoans my lack of a true pirate instinct for loot, as he puts it. "I recommend we share this gold with the freed prisoners, who have truly earned it through their servitude. And Emma, since you are the one with a ship, perhaps you can take them to the ports of their homes in Mooshu before we head back?" The alchemists looked very grateful at both suggestions.

Anne looked up at the shining blossoms. It had been good to be here, but she was looking forward to meeting with Madame Vadima and being reunited with her companions and on her own ship once more. She had much to do in order to hope to defeat Kane and his evil clockworks in her own dimension.

As she looked into the tree, a blossom fell onto her hand, and onto each of them: Lizzie, Scarlet, Emma, and Jack. It didn't turn into anything, staying a flower that nonetheless seemed to shine with its own faint light. A momento of the kami's thanks, perhaps? Anne took out her needlecase from her waistcoat pocket, and opened the needlecase's envelope. She gently slid in the blossom to preserve as a keepsake, a memory of a splendid adventure.

pirate101 lover on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

Wow! this is a great roleplay! I just don't have the time to read it over pirates.

Would you like a summary Natalie? This is the first of the roleplays, invented by Highlander Fox. Like so often, necessity was the mother of invention: 'Emma' was on a family vacation and unable to play Pirate101, but she could access the message boards, so she started this story:

The story begins with Emma, frustrated because Avery has grounded her ship. Various friends come see her, sympathetic to her plight. Rebelliously, Emma decides to ignore her restrictions and take to the skies anyway. Now, it turns out that clever Avery has already figured out Emma might do just that. He had grounded her for her own good, having heard some rumors that put her potentially into the center of a dangerous plot. However, understanding the ways of high-spirited pirates like Emma, he and Vadima brought in other pirates to help her if need be. Thus they are aware of some vague threat to Emma, though no one knows exactly what it might be.

But Emma is not looking for trouble, just a pleasant voyage to Mooshu. And since Emma loves tea, this means upon arrival they all go to the local tea shop. One of Emma's smuggler contacts, a young Goat woman named Lien-Hua, offers Emma some tea she has acquired for smuggling. Her samples of the tea are very good, so Emma accepts and goes to pick up the consignment for her ship.

However, at the tea warehouse, the pirates are ambushed! After a fierce battle with samoorai and ninja pigs, the pirates get the upper hand. The commander of the ambush, Shiro Takazaki, offers information in return for allowing him and his men to leave unharmed. He obliquely tells Emma that someone powerful (and un-named) respects her but would have her eliminated to prevent her from interfering in his plans, and that she should not go to a place called the Pavilion of Eternal Serenity (not to be confused with the Temple of Eternal Serenity) which is located near the ancient ruined castle of Hirayama.

Why does this powerful, un-named person fear Emma's interference? When the pirates investigate the tea from the warehouse, Emma's highly developed tea senses detect there is something peculiar about the tea from 'New Plantation'. When the pirates bring a tea sample to the local alchemist, he confirms it is poisoned, with both natural and magical elements combined to make it debilitating and ultimately fatal. Since Lien-Hua had previously told them that this tea was intended for Marleybone export, the horrified pirates realize this is a terrible plot to decimate the Marleybonean population!

The pirates set out to prevent this despicable plot. Upon nearing Hirayama, they meet a mysterious white fox, the kami of the place, for Hirayama is an ancient and sacred place with its own guardian spirit. The kami gifts Emma with a pebble and disappears. The pirates find that the 'Pavilion of Eternal Serenity', ironically named, is a makeshift fortress set within the ruins of the old castle -- something which surely upset the kami no end...

Anne Radcliffe on Jan 8, 2014 wrote:

(plot summary continued)

The pirates split into two groups and cleverly infiltrate the fortress. Inside they discover that the person in charge is a sorceress (witchdoctor) named Azami who has kidnapped a bunch of alchemists and forced them to make poison which she then infuses with her magic to the tea that is brought to her.

The pirates wait until evening and all are gone to make their move to destroy Azami's setup, but several are caught in a latent spell set by the sorceress to trap any would-be intruders. Emma, carrying the kami's blessed pebble, is unaffected, and frees the others. They then set explosives to blow the place up (Ratbeard would be proud), and set free the imprisoned alchemists. Azami shows up to stop them, but although her magic staff is impervious to being smashed, stabbed, or slashed, it is not immune to being shot. Emma destroys the staff, Azami's power is lost, the explosion goes off, and our heroes with their rescued prisoners scamper out of the place in the confusion.

When they return to the kami's mountain, the pirates find that virtue isn't just its own reward (this time) -- the kami and its friends brought out Azami's ill-gotten gains and piled it up for the pirates, who (virtuously) shared it with the former slaves. Everyone then went home with a great story to tell!

It's probably way weird that all I can picture when Anne mentions 'kami' is Madoka Kaname...

Ciao!