Sitting atop their vantage point, Ranma and Arrow got to watch the obvious thugs get in a fight with what Arrow informed Ranma were essentially the local police. While that in and of itself was amusing, the guard seemed to be losing and Arrow wasn't confident about hitting a specific person in that brawl from so far away.
She was going to voice that concern to the defacto team leader when she realized he was gone. Again.
Back down at the brawl, she saw him land behind the thugs, and then the thugs fell down without realizing that the tide of battle had changed. After that her leader helped the guards up, spoke with them for a moment, and then managed to vanish once again.
Then just like that Ranma dropped into a sitting position beside her once again as if he'd only left for a stroll. "They had some info on that Corsone guy the bad guys are working for. Local bad guy that employs thugs like them for stuff, they told me how to contact 'em if we figure out what he's up to."
Although she hadn't known him for long, the concern on his face seemed uncharacteristic. "Are you worried about what might be happening?"
Ranma however proved to only be startled by the question. "Huh? About that? Nah, we'll handle that when it happens. More worried about you guys and what that means for training Tao, tho I'm probably gonna have to train all of you."
Arrow found more than a little confusion with his statement. "You will have to train me? I am not a monk such as yourself or Tao."
Frowning thoughtfully, Ranma considered how it'd have to work out. "Well yeah, but with what you're doing, you need to be able to move from place to place and be stealthy right? I mean look at this, perfect place to watch people and shoot arrows from, but it was way too hard for you to get up here."
Arrow blinked and considered his points and found them quite valid. It would be difficult to spot her in such a position, she had a height advantage, and most melee types would find it difficult to get at her. The tactical advantages of being able to move from position to position half as easily as Ranma were significant. "Yes, I see. What then is your concern with training us?"
Still frowning in thought, the young man answered almost absently. "Well I thought about it when I realized Tao and Karma had to go off so Zen could do his stuff to repair them. You guys might be kinda tough, but you don't heal naturally. A lot of martial art training depends on natural healing. I can teach Tao the technique, but when it comes to getting stronger, how am I supposed to do that?"
Pausing to ponder the problem herself, it took Arrow a few moments to understand the issue plaguing him. "Ah I see, it is our nature as living constructs. It is true that our bodies will remain essentially as we were created unlike a living creature's. I for instance am made with mythril and thus more heavily armored that Tao, yet less so than Karma who is made of adamantine. I am likewise designed with an emphasis on agility instead of strength or durability. That said, we are capable of all forms of magic and mysticism, and even a barbarian's rage. The living spirit that drives us and makes us alive can adapt, and through that we can become stronger. If Tao trains as you have, he can become more agile than me if I do not likewise train despite my inherent advantage."
Considering the slightly shinier of the warforged, Ranma could see her point. "Alright, I think I can handle that." Then remembering something, he pulled forth a booklet from his pack. "Almost forgot about this." Flipping through the book to get an idea of the contents, Ranma decided it might be a lengthy read. "Uhm, can you keep watch while I read this? It's kinda important."
Nodding, Arrow was already doing so. "Of course."
Reading through the booklet, Ranma got an idea of just what he was supposed to be able to do to fit into the world. Most of that was just learning how being a monk was different from being a martial artist. The rest was figuring out it was a magical booklet as it was still filling in the blanks.
For one, monks here were basically like kung fu monks in his world. They were supposed to be somewhat learned, orderly, meditative and all the other things that had been left out of his training in anything goes martial arts.
Apparently his flurry of blows was a bit faster than was supposed to be possible. Also his fists were registered weapons, specifically magical, lawful and adamantine for the purposes of doing severe damage to whatever he hit. He was immune to normal diseases, no big surprise there, along with pretty much all poisons. He could chalk the latter up to Kodachi. He was supposed to be able to heal himself through meditation, but instead had a fast healing factor. Improved ability to dodge fireballs, lightning bolts and pretty much anything else.
On the downside he was supposed to have the ability to move through solid stuff once a day, but that was missing. Seemed like a really odd ability to him. He was also supposed to have some fancy palm attacks but those were apparently replaced by his ki blast. He might also have trouble doing the Hiryu Shouten Ha here, but apparently it bled over into something called Magic Resistance and there was a possibility of him sending bad guy magic back at them.
He also apparently wasn't going to age and could understand any spoken language even though those were apparently seventeenth level abilities. Thinking about it, he figured that meant he was supposed to be a sixth degree black belt or something. Also according to the end notes, he couldn't go forward as a Monk due to some sort of incompatibility. There was a list of some 'classes' he was supposed to take instead to learn stuff, but the stuff kept graying out, rearranging and disappearing. He saw Arrow's Ranger thing a few times, but it was mostly Psion and Sorceror that kept popping up along with some 'prestige classes' that didn't seem to have a lot to do with martial arts.
Putting that aside until the book made up its mind, Ranma instead made a note of the training suggestions. Apparently among other things there were some weapons to integrate into his style, though he didn't really know what a double sword was.
Thinking about getting some training weapons lead him to another idea. "Hey, do you have anything like blunt arrows you can shoot at Tao so he can practice dodging? You and that Issandra girl can get practice shooting, and Tao and Karma can learn not to get hit so Zen doesn't have to patch them up so much."
Arrow managed a credible owlish stare at their team leader, because as odd as the idea seemed, it also made sense.
Elsewhere, Tao and Karma both had a general sense of unease. They didn't put it up to merely being spooked, but rather because Zen was playing with some strange artifact as artificers were wont to do. "So, you say your found this in what Ranma called a pile junk from his transport?"
Glancing at the translucent cube, Tao was pondering the wisdom of giving it to his team mate instead of pawning it off for relatively safe gold. "Yes, there were many strange things among the pile. I believe sensei came from a very strange land."
Luckily for Tao, Zen was not a blond clutz, but instead an artificer, and magic items were pretty much their entire specialty.
Still, when Zen had begun his initial examination of the strange object before determining it was an artifact, it had produced several strange white objects.
The idea of inflatable sheep proved to be incomprehensible to the three warforged.
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(Posted Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:04)
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