Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

Having last left off, the group had rescued a little girl named Ling and brought her to the Shen Hua safehouse which is more like an apartment building. Hanging out in Eiji/Izumi’s apartment where they’re going through the cupboards looking to feed the child they picked up. While Izumi burns the rice, Ling manages to find a box of cookies within their cupboards. After polishing off the cookies, the girl seems to listen to something and then nods. Izumi’s questioning reveals that the girl seems to be speaking with Izumi’s mother, that she’s proud of Izumi but she should have spent more time learning to cook. With Izumi in shock, Ling recounts something that happened only with Izumi and her mother. Ling never gets any peace from the voices that she’s heard from when she was born. But the good ones protect her from the bad ones and sometimes they tell her the future.

Apparently, they told her that the group is all going to die. Soon.

Shen Hua Apartment Complex

Eiji, Houshan, Ky, Izumi, and Tavish
February, 5th, 2019, 4:00 pm
3139 Broadway New York, NY 10027

Some of the ghosts like to hang around their children and some of them aren’t allowed to. The ghost constable took away her parents after their deaths. Stating that the Tongs took her for her powers and used her, that her soul will be judged harshly after death. She’s also older than she seems, 9 years old but severely malnourished and looking like she’s 6. They finally decide to go order some food and once the phone is put down, they hear a knock from the door. Eiji looks through the peephole, spying a gentleman wearing sunglasses standing outside.

He tries to stall the man, but the door gets kicked in and the man rushes in towards Eiji punching him in the face when Eiji fails to catch his fist. Izumi shoves her swords through the door, missing him barely. The man demands the girl while Eiji invites him to sit down and enjoy some of his wife’s cooking. The man takes off his sunglasses to reveal wolfish yellow eyes while Houshan eyes the sunglasses as a target.

With the demands on the table and the first punches thrown, Eiji sizes up his target and Izumi cartwheels away from the doorway. Tavish tells Ling to get down and away from windows since it’s time for fun before he rolls backwards over the back of the couch while drawing his Tonfa to arm himself. Ky Fan draws his spear and runs along the back of the couch towards the man while Houshan misses a kick.

The intruder attacks them rapidly, three towards Eiji and two towards Houshan, Eiji makes his defenses against the blows, same as Houshan. Eiji backs off and starts to concentrate while Izumi shouts to let him into the apartment so they can fight properly. Ky steps forwards in case the man makes it past Houshan. And while Houshan misses the intruder’s legs, the intruder springs forwards into Ky’s waiting spear, barely batting away the spear aimed at the intruder’s vitals. He gets into a low stance and begins to throw punches at Eiji and Ky Fan. Eiji blinked away while Ky Fan retreats and barely defends against the intruder’s strikes taking quite a bit of damage from his punches.

Eiji blinks behind the intruder and starts to punch four times at the man’s back, defending against three of them but managing to donkey punch the intruder, knocking him unconscious. Searching his pockets, they find a wallet with a license that says John Smith, a good bit of money, and what looks like a diamond cut piece of wood that’s inlaid with precious items. While they search, the delivery man arrives with their food, Izumi quickly peels off a few bills from the man’s moneyclip and ushers the man out while Tavish waves the unconscious man’s hand at him. While Houshan, ties the man up, Izumi calls for maintenance.

The man wakes up while they discuss what to do with him, Izumi takes over the interrogation using her Tradecraft skills with Houshan backing her up with his criminal knowledge and Tavish with his intimidation. A huddle ensues and they try to figure out what to ask him, eventually deciding to ask where he was going to take the girl. He insists that he was going to take her to a monastery in Shambala, that he’s her sworn protector, but never properly sealed. A member of the Order of the Jade Lotus, which exists, protecting the Gateways for a long time. Izumi suggests getting a member of the Shen Hua down to verify his identity. Eiji and Houshan patch up their companions and the intruder. Several minutes later, a knock comes at the door and Eiji looks through the peephole.

It’s a middle-aged man in maintenance clothing, Shing Hu. He inspects the door, investigating the holes, the large footprint, and the tied-up member from Order of the White Lotus. Identifying the girl as the treasure and the man as the guardian. Hu gives some exposition about how the gods granted man a treasure able to speak with them and be a medium. The line was unbroken until two children were born with the power of the treasure, one was taken away and the other was at the monastery.  Finishing the story, the man turns to fix the door as they untie the intruder.

His plan is to get out of the place as quick as possible, but the Tongs will be looking for Ling soon enough. He was only able to find her because he had the puzzle box which feels warm to the touch when Izumi picks it up, finding that it’s mostly jade. Eiji asks if there’s some way to help the man, who says he could use some help getting the girl to her destination. Tavish offers to order an uber for the man when he clarifies that he meant getting her to the foot of Shambala. Tavish isn’t sure that his passport is up to date, not that it stopped the intruder that didn’t have a passport.

Tavish offers the man some of the rice that Izumi made causing the man to rush for the bathroom where unholy noises emerge as Eiji shops for some basic medicines at the local markets. Discussing the best ways to strike back at the Tongs operations that include the human trafficking and drug running. Izumi wanders outside into the gang territory with Eiji and Houshan following behind her.

Aftermath

They find a warehouse where nobody ever goes in and nobody ever comes out, except for the courier. They’re all dressed in three-piece suits with red handkerchiefs, no females and the warehouse is fairly well secured, looking like a chemical warehouse. It’s definitely an active business, shipping out cleaning supplies to laundromats.

They try to infiltrate the business with Houshan casting an illusion on Eiji to make him look like a man wanting to score some laundry detergent for his completely legitimate dry cleaning business. Eiji’s acting manages to fool them enough to get a discount on bulk chemicals along with brochures and business cards. He spots several men in suits with red handkerchiefs going into a back room. Leaving, Eiji lets them know that there’s suspicious men in the back room and that he can get this cleaning agent for half price. They come back to the apartment Ling demolishing Tav and Ky at boardgames, despite Tav cheating. After ordering a pizza, Eiji lays down the info he had and they make plans for attacking the warehouse.

After Action Report (GM)

The second session always tells you how a game is going to go. It was pretty great. It felt like a kung fu flick and the players seemed happy with how things turned out. I tried to involve everyone as much as possible, but some folks had had long days and I could tell because they were a bit listless. But I had players tell me they had fun after the session and that’s good enough for me.

As for the session itself I did a bit of exposition and introduced the “Brotherhood of the Jade Lotus” as a new player on the block. I also filled out the Kan Yueh Tongs a bit – just enough to whet the appetite of the players.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“St. Elmo’s Fire” by John Parr (Opening Song)
“Shimmy Shimmy Ya” by Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Combat)
“Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran (Closing song)