Dramatis Personae

• He Bohai aka Eleven (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
• He Donghai aka Twelve (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
• Ko Lenfan aka Four (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
• Laoshu aka Mouse aka Three (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
• Meiyou Ren aka Six (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
• Rang Baozhai aka Ten (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.

Previously . . .

Previously, the team had managed to defeat a large group of cultists and demons, causing one to collapse from fright and rescuing the daughter of the man they’d previously spoke with. They’d managed to find some documents, correspondence throughout the city from the cultists to various people and now they have to decide what to do with the last cultist alive. They think about what to ask the cultist, thinking about demon lore and how they work while Ting sits and stares, rather fearsomely, at the cultist.

The Rat’s Nest

Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Yong Residence
Seventh Month 14th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 19th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province

Sheng Yi wants to know who the leader is has been told that he’s named Abo Bo. Nongmin wants to know how many cultists are in the town and who they are but he keeps his silence. Jing Min asks where their secret bases are, but they don’t have any. They’ve been in the city for months and are everywhere. Each of the cells don’t know what the others are doing. The cell in The Rat’s Nest is already dead and scattered. Sheng Yi’s question as to how long they’ve been there is responded saying for several months, slowly infiltrating.

Sheng Yi and Jing Min want to know when they thought they might be able to take over the city, but they didn’t want to take it over and just burn it to the ground, summon demons into the city and rule it. Jian Wu asks who their handler was and he reiterates that it is Abo Bo who they don’t know where currently is. Nongmin asks how they cast the spell that interrupted the gates, but that wasn’t their job as theirs was to summon demons. That was the responsibility of other cells. What triggered them to summon demons was when the magic went screwy. While Sheng Yi starts trying to figure out some good questions with what they know of, Nongmin asks again how many cells there are, but the man still doesn’t know about other cells. Nongmin wants to know how they’re summoning the demons and who is teaching them but he says that he won’t reveal their secrets to the group.

At this point the interrogation is over and they motion to kill the cultist. Ting steps forwards and stomps down on the cultist’s throat, killing him instantly. Ting watches the man die as he wonders if they should have asked where the cultists had been living and working for the past months as they infiltrated the city. Unfortunately it’s a bit beyond that chance at this moment. Ting starts moving the bodies close to the fires for easier burning. They find a wedge of cheese that Mouse looks at forlornly for a moment before passing on the demon cheese. They haul the daughter back to the minister of sanitation. He hands them a list of people that were involved with the cultists while loading a wagon full of personal belongings.

Stars Below

Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Starlight Host Teahouse and Inn
Seventh Month 14th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 19th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province

Rang, while they were gone, was rather busy. After bringing Ting a cup of tea, where he can’t bring himself to look at her face, she hands out the information. Annotated maps of the city and sewers and says that attacks on cisterns and waterways would lead to horrible consequences for the city. She thinks that’s the second most vulnerable location, but she’s not sure what the first most vulnerable location would be. Nongmin suggests bringing in the Innkeeper, Kung Cao, in on everything as it seems he was a retired Order member. Ting keeps looking at the maps, looking for information, there were plenty of streets, annotated houses and maps. Finding an area where the sewers and names overlap and point that out to Zhizhi to point out to Rang to follow-up on.

The Minister of Affairs

Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Jie Residence
Seventh Month 14th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 22nd hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province

They move to a city official, where the guard refuses them entry so late at night. Nongmin gets annoyed and telekinetically attacks the guard to show him that he means business by lifting him up and sitting him back down. The guard, in return, breathes fire at Nongmin’s face and he fails to dodge burning Nongmin’s face. The guard tries to ring a bell to alert others to an attack but Jian Wu moves to cut the rope to the bell and takes out the pole it was on as well. Jing Min moves forwards with hands empty to show innocence while Nongmin moves to convince him that it’s a good idea to take him to their bosses by pointing out the lights being out. It’s dismissed due to being an accident from one of the universities. The guard refuses to wake the minister, but says that he’d bring the assistant out instead which is seen as being acceptable.

A few moments later, someone comes out in their night robes carrying a sword, the assistant, Jian Tien, looks to the group. Jing Min moves forwards and tries to satisfy Jian Tien with his knowledge of high society to introduce Nongmin to speak for the group. Nongmin attempts to explain that they’re from The Order and they’ve recently defeated a cell of demons and cultists and they want to inform the minister of these actions. They’re invited into the large manor to wait for the minister.

They’re brought into a rather nice library room that looks expensive. Floors are made from original wood, there’s books around which Nongmin goes to investigate while Zhizhi and Sheng Yi move to keep him from touching the books. A large amount of pop culture books of poems and others. Everyone seems to immediately move to investigate the room and stares at the contents rather openly while Ting wonders if he should have changed out of his burned robes. Jian Tien asks why they should be believed. Nongmin suggests that they should check out the location, and the assistant moves to order the guard that breathed fire at Nongmin to investigate. He swiftly disappears to investigate.

A lady appears with tea around the same time footsteps echo and a voice asks for Tien what they’re doing out there so late. The Minister of Affairs, Jie Ke, enters the room with a rather open robe and stops a moment seeing that they have guests. Aghast at Ting’s condition of burnt robe, he gets dragged from the room and forcibly dresses him in fancy robes. Nongmin explains what happened and speaks about who all is involved. When shown the list, they’re informed there’s plenty of important people on the list and there’s unlikely to be any help from the guard.

Aftermath

After Action Report (GM)

We started a bit late on this one and I had to switch to my backup internet connection because Hangouts was being a pain. That said, the PCs jumped right back into what they were doing and ran with it. So much so that I was a tad unprepared. They plan on going to the aqueduct first to look for signs of sabotage and then check out the sewers. Sometime after that they are going to look into the corrupted ministers and see how they can be neutralized. Overall, a good session. I was amused that the party “face” went for violent action/superior strength instead of using their high Diplomacy first. Also amused about the “offscreen” interaction between Zhizhi and Ting as that was done in text while the rest of the PCs were trying to figure out what to do next. Overall, good game. People enjoyed it and that’s what matters.

Other Notes

Bonus report here.

Soundtrack

None.