Dramatis Personae
- Jian Wu aka Two (played by Christian G.): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
- Jiao Ting aka Eight (Played by Chris D): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
- Liang Jing Min aka Five (Played by Randy H.): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
Nongmin Chushi aka Seven (played by Rory F.): TBA. Tagline: TBA.- Sheng Yi aka One (Played by Calvin J): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
- Zhiyu Zhige aka Nine (NPC): TBA. Tagline: TBA.
- 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 . . .
Most of the creche has spent the past three years training under Pai Mei and other teachers, learning new combat styles for the most part while Ting continued to struggle along with the Order’s signature style of Black Palm. The He Twins, Nongmin, and Zhiyu have all learned Pai Mei’s signature Eagle Claw Chin Na style, Mouse and Ren have continued to develop their weapon skills, Jian Wu has taken an exotic weapon style, Nongmin was trained in quarterstaff, Sheng Yi has kept to the bow, and Rang has learned how to use a crossbow. Pai Mei was forced to admit that Zhiyu was his most gifted student and that Ting was the strangest considering his declining of learning from other masters. With the three years over, they still have to stay up on the mountain top.
Currently they’re in the portal room in the main Order Citadel. There’s hundreds of portals around and it’s the first time they’ve been there since He Caihong’s arm had gotten cut off. Being escorted by their masters, they’re herded to a triangular gate with fish symbols on it. Zhiyu exams gates while she waits, they’re made from different materials with some of the older ones looking to be made from metal. Nongmin looks around to see if there’s any levers or buttons to activate the gates, but they aren’t activated like that. They see Pai Mei activate the gate with a crystal where it powers up. They’re ushered through where they get assaulted by sea breezes and the stench of fish.
Summertime in the City
Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
The Streets of Cheapside
Seventh Month 13th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 16th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province
Sheng Yi tries to get an idea of where they are while Mouse tells them they don’t like the place they’re in. It’s a rather bad part of town. There’s a large amount of ambush spots inside the town. Sheng Yi tries to keep an idea of where things and people are and where opponents may come from based on Mouse’s comment. Pai Mei pulls out a map and tells them that they’re in the city of Pingxian, the home of the He Twins. He pulls out a large bag of gold and tells them they need to get to the Starlight Host Teahouse and Inn within three hours. Plenty of everyone around can see what is going on and the large amount of coins. That and the fact that the creche was told they are not allowed to use any aggressive maneuvers, though defending themselves is allowed. They can bribe people and anything else they want and they can keep whatever gold is left, but they are under watch.
They discuss a plan, and have a good idea of what they need to do and where to go. Sheng Yi commands Mouse to lead them through the city stealthily, though it fails when they go through a alleyway where they’re ambushed from the front and the back. Most everyone starts up the sides of the alleyway to get to the rooftops leaving only a few down on the ground which leads to one man charging in only to get tossed back by Zhiyu. The men stare at the Order students and give up after slipping down the walls.
On the rooftops, they look at the landscape around them while Sheng Yi tries to plot out a better course, wondering if they can get to their destination via rooftop. Ting taps on Sheng’s shoulder and points towards the He brothers to remind their leader that they used to live in the city. With their aid, they get a route planned out for the Starlight Host. Everyone moving swiftly across the rooftops with Ting only having to help Rang once in a while. They managed to get to their destination without any more molestation from the street thugs. The He twins inform Sheng that they’re in a safer part of the town, one that they’ve never been in before.
Stars Above
Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Starlight Host Teahouse and Inn
Seventh Month 13th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 19th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province
They’re looking around the tea house when the bartender waves them over and introduces themselves as Kung and hands them a scroll which Sheng takes and reads. The scroll informs them that they’ve succeeded their mission and they’re allowed to spend a night off in the city as they have room reservations already made for them. There’s approximately $1000 worth of coin in the pouch and Jian Wu is already asking for sweets. Zhiyu hauls the girls out along with Ren to find a nice market. She’s got gold and she’s bribing bazaar owners to stay open as Zhiyu drags Mouse into a tailoring shop. Sheng Yi and the remainder stay in the teahouse and wait for the girls to come back.
Sheng Yi mentions that there’s something that Pai Mei must have been planning since nothing is ever that easy when it comes to it. The meal arrives around the same time that the girls come back, massive platters of delicious looking food and sweets are presented to them which most everyone dives into, enjoying it immensely while Ting sticks to his normal mealtime of rice with a small side of meat. Nongmin spends the meal tasting everything and figure out how they cooked the foods. Sheng Yi speaks with the twins to hear more about the town they’re in, if there’s anything interesting around.
They tell that it was believed to be the first landing place of their ancestors, though it was proved false. It’s a rather large port city near the Mongaram and near the entry to a major river. Sheng Yi tries to figure out where they are exactly in relation to the Order based off of what he knows. They’re almost all the way across the continent from where they had been in a city of nearly 100,000 people. Mouse is concerned about how she looks which they try to reassure her that she looks fine while Jian Wu laments that they don’t get nice clothing as well. They enjoy the rest of the meal while listening to terrible poetry. When the man is booed off the stage, Nongmin, Zhiyu,, and Ren move up onto the stage to perform. Nongmin allows a spirit to possess him to recite their song and dancing.
The owner comes over after the song and dance routine was finished and compliments them on their routine and comments that Nongmin’s singing reminded him of someone that had died awhile back, ignoring what Nongmin saying that was the singer’s spirit. He leaves them with some bottles which they sip at slightly and find that it’s plum wine and basically the equivalent of Everclear, one of which is secreted away by Zhiyu to be given to Pai Mei later before she starts to eavesdrop on conversations around them, though there’s nothing really crazy. Rang gets rather drunk and when Ting manages to get her to her room safely where she tries kiss him. Ting dodges away from Rang and silently leads her to bed instead where she dejectedly sits down when Ting leaves.
Ting tries to get Zhiyu’s attention, but she’s staring in a bottle wondering how it’s fruit juice, Ko was drunk, and Mouse was stabby. He goes with the safe option and gestures to get Mouse’s attention to go help Rang which gets Zhiyu’s attention. Apparently, all the girls they know that she was going to try to kiss Ting that night. She gets Rang to bed, dressed down with water and all else ready for the morning and listens to Rang as she rolls over and mutters Ting’s name. He’s waiting for Zhiyu to exit to make sure that Rang is fine and gesticulates wildly that nothing happened at all, managing to get his point across.
Back downstairs, they’re trying to get everyone to bed, though Ren is quite drunk and thinking that he can fly. A good command from Sheng Yi makes everyone go to bed with Sheng Yi being handed the reins to Nongmin. Jian Wu gets to enjoy a hard night on the floor thanks to the small bed while Ting finds the location too luxurious for him and sleeps on the floor as well. Sheng Yi stays awake all night believing it to be a test, just meditating while Zhiyu stays awake all night taking care of everyone and making sure no one gets vomit on her new dress.
Stars Below
Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Starlight Host Teahouse and In
Seventh Month 14th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 7th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province
They get up early and folks get a bit of head start on things. Ting checks on Rang who is fine but blushing a lot. At the Teahouse again, they find the owner speaking with a man in fancy robes. The man is asking for help, they have his daughter. There was apparently a magic wave that hit the city a few hours ago and things are going crazy but people are noticing yet. They ask about contacting the black shirt, but their portal is down. The fancy robed man leaves the teahouse when he notices that there was an audience.
Sheng Yi asks if anyone felt anything regarding magic, and Nongmin didn’t feel much of anything though Zhiyu does feel odd. And when she tries to work some magical healing, she finds it to be rather less effective than usual. Sheng Yi tries to speak with the innkeeper about man in the fancy robes but is rebuffed coldly while Nongmin takes over with a more diplomatic tone. Zhiyu alerts them that magic is going rather wonky at the moment. The innkeeper writes something down on the scrape paper and hands it to Nongmin, it looks like an address. He immediately heads out but is collared by Zhiyu and Sheng. He says there’s nothing, and it’d be good to head outside.
It’s explained that he was given an address to go help and the He twins tell them that it’s not very far away from where they currently are. The leader suggests go gathering up everyone but they’re quite hungry. This splits the creche into two, with one of the twins going with the group to guide them.
Rich People’s Houses
Jian Wu, Jiao Ting, Liang Jing Min, Nongmin Chushi, Sheng Yi, and Zhiyu Zhige
Yong Residence
Seventh Month 14th day, 1004 Zao Dynasty, 8th hour
Pingxian, Fu Dao Province
They see the fancy man arguing with a person outside the estate, they’re arguing with a painter outside the estate about the colour they’re painting the wall. Nongmin is elected to speak with the man, but Nongmin is dismissed with the man saying that he’s got no money for the poor. Nongmin’s trying to speak with the fancy man while dismissing the painter and speaking with him. He mentions coming from the teahouse which sets the man on his guard while the painter is still close. He hands the man the piece of parchment which causes the man to exclaim that his address and when Sheng Yi asks if they can help, he gets incredulous and asks what makes them think that they can help him. They show him the symbol on the scroll that Pai Mei had left them with.
The fancy man looks concerned for a moment before asking what they know about the Black Silk Rebellion before waving the group in through the gate. There’s three rebellions that have happened, the Red Silk, the White Silk, and the Black Silk. The Red Silk wants to overthrow the monarchy and install a new system, violently. The White Silk wants to do it a bit less violently. The Black Silk wants to overthrow the monarchy and install a demon king instead. Since there are no gods, the next best thing is demons to lead mankind to a new level. Sheng Yi is fine with helping out. The fancy man introduces himself as Yong Liu and takes them to his study. He tells them that he’s only going to inform them once and he’d deny it if they try to report it. He’d been working with the Black Silk, giving them small bits of information such as who was drinking what and with whom, thinking they were only going to blackmail the ministers. He’s the minister of sanitation and that he’s in charge of keeping the aquaducts and sewers and running water and his daughter was kidnapped when he tried to get out of the Black Silk. He’s now being forced to help them or his daughter would be killed. He knows that they’re planning on summoning demons soon.
Aftermath
Zhiyu asks where they normally meet, which isn’t good enough when revealed that they meet at his home. Instead, they learn he was going to hand over a final list of names. Chia Kang, Lung Bo, Chu Manchu, they’re ministers inside the government, one of them the captain of the guards. The other names are mostly minor officials which those present memorize. The He twin that accompanied the group says that the big three are fairly major players but can’t help much more. Zhiyu says that she could possibly divine the daughter’s location if she had something from her like a hairbrush. The tiles tell her to “follow the rat’s nest under”. The twin says that there was a bar named The Rat’s Nest a long time ago and they aren’t sure if the ruins are still there, so something might have been built over it. They want to save the girl, even if Zhiyu isn’t happy with the man having taken money from the Black Silk.
After Action Report (GM)
The PCs were hungry for combat so they could use their new abilities. I decided to press them in other ways instead. After a bit of recon they figured out the best way to get to where they were going. In true paranoid fashion they were unsure if they were doing the wrong thing by eating food or if it was all a test. Which is good. But hey, the Order DOES give treats to its members who work hard and the Gold Tiger team has been working the hardest of all their year-mates. I also got to introduce them to a plot that they were the only ones who could do anything about and that’s always a good confidence booster for a player.
Other Notes
Bonus report here.
Soundtrack
None.