Ten Thousand Jade Petals B-Team: Season 1, Session 5 – The Dragon’s Quest

Dramatis Personae

  • An Rang (Played by Chris D): Genius doctor, decent artist, escaped fugitive. Tagline: “They’re still alive if they aren’t dead yet.”
  • Gushou Miren (played by Rory F.): Chains of lightning, drums like thunder, refreshing as a gentle rain, swift like the wind, bring on the Storm! Tagline: “It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hands.”
  • Shen Feng (played by Christian G.): This white haired warrior’s calm hides the fury of a thousand winds. Tagline: “The ground is your pillow and the sky your blanket.”
  • Xhai Kiyun (Played by Calvin J): Stands head and shoulders over others. Solider, horseman, Swordmaster, merchant, leader, and he very tall. Tagline: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt..”

Previously . . .

When last left off, the group had just defeated the Krocken and are standing at the shore of a lake that is said to contain a dragon. The good lady helped heal those that were injured in battle that An Rang couldn’t fully treat. An Rang, on the other hand, commemorates the battle with a wonderous painting of the moment as the others investigate the area and the giant bird.

Inside the Water Temple

An Rang, Gushou Miren, Shen Feng, Xhai Kiyun
The Water Temple
Sixth Month 20th day, 975 Zao Dynasty, 18th hour
Tengzou Province

The shrine is fairly large and they can see in the middle there is a large pool of water that is burbling like a fountain. All around the fountain is numerous tablets for ancestor spirits and as soon as they enter, a golden mist forms around their feet. They spot a beheaded, dead body inside with the head missing. The body looks like its dressed in commoner’s clothing.

While Gushou investigates the stone tablets, An Rang investigates the body. There’s tablets all around the shrine, some even towards the ceiling. Shen Feng determines the shrine holds great good chi but it has been tainted, probably with the death of the man inside. An Rang determines that he only died less than an hour ago with heavily callused hands indicating that either he was trained in martial arts or farming quite a bit. The head is found only a short bit away bouncing in the fountain’s water which Gushou retrieves. Xhai and Gushou pulls him outside for burial purposes while Shen Feng sees if Lady Yu Furen had any sort of purification ritual they could use for the shrine.

They see the water of the lake start to bubble and start rushing. Xhai watches the lake as the clouds start to gather and darken the sky. A dragon slowly rises from the lake, long and sinuous with dark blue scales, staring at the group. Lady Yu kowtows to the dragon and the rest follows suit to keep from being eaten. It stares and asks if they’re the ones that disturbed the temple and Gushou tries to explain that they were there to try to stop the action. The chi has been befouled inside the shrine and the dragon moves to investigate it, its body never leaving the lake. It tells the group that they are the ones that have to fix it and demands they vow they will. Xhai, Gushou, and Shen Feng readily agree to it while An Rang keep silent.

The dragon tells them that they need to get to the next temple which has been lost but they need to find a mountain which houses a magic compass. When asked where to find the mountain, they are told to step forwards with Gushou accepting it. The tongue lashes forward and wraps around Gushou’s arm, leaving a magical map. They’re warned that the map cannot be copied and requires a living host. A blue fire comes forth from the arm for a moment and the map animates showing footprints.

Xhai asks who the man killed was and they’re informed that it was an Immortal, a guardian of the shrine and the death of such a figure inside the shrine befouls it. Gushou asks if there’s anything else to add or any words of wisdom. The dragon explains that each shrine was linked with a specific element and if they’re all befouled, then something would happen that hadn’t happened in millennia. Accepting that they’re heading out, they determine what to do with the Krocken, An Rang getting a bit of meat from the bird that’s quite unappetizing ultimately tasting like old shoes stewed in au jus of old man. But he did manage to extract the beast core from the giant Krocken.

Aftermath

In the morning, they head out with Lady Yu staying behind with the dragon, her father. But they are given a parting gift of a bottle of wine made from water from the lake, it’s said to have healing properties. An Rang thanks them properly and sets the Krocken beast core and bottle of wine away into his wagon in one of many secret compartments before the group sets off.

After Action Report (GM)

I couldn’t get it together as a GM this session. Maybe I was tired, maybe I was just not into it. Whatever the reason I couldn’t get my GM face on and that caused everyone else to enjoy the game a little less. I got the plot in motion, but it wasn’t as cohesive as I’d like. I dropped the ball this game and I know it. Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.

Other Notes

This was a short game – about half my usual allotted time.

Soundtrack

None.

Posted in Session Recap and tagged , , .

Leave a Reply