Player Characters:
Shen Chun
Hidden Arrow
Bao Yang
Chao Feng
Wei Ruomei
Sects:
The Righteous Outlaws
Calamity Star
Ou Jinghzhu
Tea Master Houzhou
Crocodile Sect*
Player Characters (See above)
King Iron Beard
Li Sou Chao (Witch of Zhaoze Zhou)
The Golden Way
Iron God Meng
Relentless Corpse Sect
Relentless Corpse Queen
Da Mei Mei
Temple of the Jade Mercies
Abbot Wei Zhao
Abbess Bao-Yu
Weeping Lotus
Bone Breaking Sect
Destroyed and taken over by Drunken Hero Kang
The Golden Corpse Alliance
This is a unified group: Relentless Corpse Sect and the Golden Way combined their interests. Relentless Corpse Queen and Iron God Meng are joint chiefs of the sect, and below them are the player characters via Crocodile Sect.
Session
Most of the party was in the Yellow Forest, while Chao Feng remained in the Broken Lands of Yao with Blue Handed Snake.
BROKEN LANDS OF YAO
Chao Feng left the broken lands and went to Yun Hu, where he investigated a Gambling Hall called Stone Palace. He found the leader of the hall and, after spending some time at one of the gaming tables, sat down next to him. This greatly angered the man, whose was known to the men at the table as Gambling Butcher.
Chao Feng offered his services. But Gambling Butcher was insulted by his casual behavior and told him he'd consider a private audience on one condition: that he go to the Antique Guild and get the 2 million spades they owed him.
Chao Feng said he would do this, then left to find information on his allies. He stopped at a steamed bun vendor to get news from a member of the House of Paper Shadows. The man handed him a bun and said "Fearless Cat wants her son", then he told him that his companions probably went to Guan Villa. So Chao Feng headed there.
On his way to the villa, Chao Feng saw a tree with three faces up it and outstretched, branch-like, arms. It said "We will kill you father", and ran after them. Chao Feng and Blue Handed Snake ran through the forest toward the villa and evaded the creature.
YELLOW FOREST
In the Yellow Forest the rest of the party were on their way to Master Guan's Villa, which they had heard was recently abandoned. They came hoping to pillage the worldly goods Master Guan had left behind.
On their way they spotted a man hiding on a tree branch. They talked to him, learned his name was Bao and that he was the servant of an Antique Merchant from Fan. He had been sent to recover some items from the villa but ran into something terrifying in the woods and ran. He was hoping to find a group of people like the party that would allow him to tag along and maybe grab one or two minor objects to take to his master.
With considerable reluctance they allowed him to join them and they headed for the villa. There they found a crack in the western wall and went inside to explore. Ruomei and Shen Chun went first. They came upon an enclosed garden (the villa was a courtyard house) with a stagnant pond and some halls. A giant arm seemingly made up of entwined corpses thrust out from the water and reached for them. Shen Chun used his iron thread to entangle the creature, while Ruomei used her claws to slice at it. They were able to destroy it and the others soon entered after them.
Ruomei, Li Sou Chao, Golden Roc and Hidden Arrow explored the northern hall. On their way they saw blood upon a stone table, at least a month old. They came to a reception hall that was in a state of tremendous disorder. Chairs were broken in pieces on the ground.
In the hall they found a bedchamber, with a canopied bed. They flicked a piece of wood at the canopy to lower it, and a headless corpse sprang from the bed to attack. The floating head of a woman, presumably belonging to the body, attacked them from behind. A bite from the create not only wounded Hidden Arrow but drained his health (Hardiness). Ruomei used her claws, while Li Sou Chao blasted the creature in the chest with her black claw technique. As the creature attacked, Ruomei rushed to the bed and burst open the cabinet, where she found a bunch of ripped letters expressing heartache for a person named Liu. Golden Roc delivered a potent fist strike and the creature vanished.
It then immediately appeared in the courtyard where the rest of the party was and they were forced to contend with it as well. They were able to defeat it, and once again it disappeared.
After it was destroyed, they explored further and found a treasury near the northern hall. In the treasury they found millions of spades in chests, a jade statue of Hen-Shi, the Book of the Ghostly Emperor, and a crown from the Era of the Five Dragon Emperors. There was also a sword made with a diamond blade on a holder.
Bao Yang grabbed the sword and his body flooded with rage. He immediately began to attack everyone in the room, cleaving Golden Roc in the chest. Shen Chun restrained him with his iron thread and they waited for the rage to fade.
When Bao Yang came to, he threw down the sword and Golden Roc punched him in the head. They exchanged words. Bao Yang said the sword took control of him, and Golden Roc said it wouldn't have done so if he wasn't so weak-willed. They calmed down and continued their search. In the kitchen, Hidden Arrow found an unusual quantity of hellebore.
They decided to leave the place before the headless woman returned but as they were dragging the crates of spades from the courtyard they discovered a group of three men outside, and one of them leveled a bow at Bao Yang. He told them to hand over all the treasure, or he'd fire.
Bao Yang tried to talk him out of it, but one of the men opened his hand and blew a cloud of powder into his face. Whatever it was didn't have the desired effect and a battle commenced.
Bao, the servant of the antique dealer, immediately attacked Li Sou Chao the moment the melee ensued. In the end the party overwhelmed their attackers and threatened to kill them. The leader of the group said they were all brothers and called the Roaming Avengers, that Bao was one of them. He asked to be spared saying they were only stealing treasure because they needed to raise ten hundred million spades (an impossibly large sum) to see their father again. They were sparse on details but it seemed they had been kicked out of their family house and told never to return or claim to be their father's son until they made ten hundred million spades. This did little to move anyone in the group, so they then offered their services as skilled robbers if they were spared.
Hidden Arrow chose to spare them and they began calling him 'chief'.
They left for Yun Hu and met up with Chao Feng on the way. He told them that he had gone to Bone Breaking Fortress but that the current leader did not acknowledge him and that there was a fight. He told the party that during the battle they were unable to harm him and he came back days later, taking the immortal killing sword by deception. He then presented them with the blade.
When they reached Yun Hu, the group went to the Antique Merchant Guild to recover the money for stone palace. On the way they happened by a shadow play about a cat looking for her baby, and killing any creature that stood in her way. They took this to be a message from the House of Paper Shadows.
At the Antique Guild they tried to sell their stuff, and were offered a little over a million spades. Then they spoke with the chief about the two million that was owed to Stone Palace. After learning that the head of the guild controlled the Dancing Scorpions (a criminal network) they came upon an arrangement where they promised to kill Gambling Butcher for two million spades.
They took the two million, which they insisted upon upfront, and went to Gambling Butcher. They showed him the money and they gave him a private audience.
They went into a room in the back and up several flights of stairs where Gambling Butcher took a seat at a table surrounded by guard.
As they spoke, Hidden Arrow struck Gambling Butcher with a poisoned needle. Bao Yang demanded that he give them the deed to the gambling hall.
Once he realized he was going to die in moments if he didn't get an antidote, Gambling Butcher agreed.
However Bao Yang kept pressing and said he wanted him to take them to Yun Hu Bank and give them all his money.
Gambling Butcher accepted the demand, but one of his guards shouted with anger and leapt at the party with her sword.
This is where the session ended.