Posts
Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is our wuxia RPG. It is available HERE in PDF. It should be out in print in about a month.
Characters
Peng Ke-Yen: Eccentric daughter of a merchant who goes against conventions and is notable for her white and black streaked hair. From Dashen village.
Peng Pei: Daughter of two low Yen-Li priests. Also from Dashen village.
Zhendao: A former slave of a man named Zhao.
Shin Du: A performer and actor who is a perfect shot with the bow.
Song Pei: A one-armed physician.
The party traveled with Xu An (a member of Tiger Clan) to a clearing in the Yellow Forest to retrieve the body of Granny Chang. On their way to the site they were approached by a magistrate standing in the road and could discern a number of men hiding in the nearby forest. He told them that he had come to arrest Peng Pei and Peng Ke-Yen for their involvement in the murder of the monks of the Sleeping Mercy and for helping Abbot Yan steal five million spades. They were also wanted for taking the slave, Zhendao from master Zhao Yi*.
Peng Ke-Yen rejected the accusation and immediately attacked the magistrate with her Lashing Dragon technique. A fight broke out. Zhendao went to the trees on the right and found three soldiers there, on the left, the party found three more. Peng Pei used finger flick to strike a number of them.
The battle was over quickly. By the end four soldiers were on the ground, with at least one dead. Shin Du tried to avoid bloodshed by putting a dagger to the magistrates neck and telling the remaining soldiers to run away if they wanted him to live. The rest of the soldiers in the trees hurried away as commanded.
Song Pei tended to the wounds of the magistrate and the party left him unconscious on the side of the road, then continued their journey.
They found Granny Chang's body, which was burned from the pyre that Zhendao had built for her before. Ke-Yen performed the spirit keeping ritual but failed. As they carried her through the woods, Granny Chang bolted up and began attacking people as a hopping ghost. Zhendao stabbed Granny but it did her no harm. They were able to contain her with a trapping wind technique and bring her down with Peng Pei's Jade Rending Claw technique. Then they performed the ritual again. The next day they passed by some Yen-Li priests who were going to Zhun temple in Yuzhing. They agreed to help the party perform the spirit keeping ritual, provided they escorted the priests through the dangerous countryside.
When they reached Yuzhing (in the province of Hu Qin), they spoke with Xu An about their next move. Zhendao and Peng Ke-Yen wanted to kill Five Dagger Chang (the leader of Tiger Clan). Xu An was their captive and she told them that Tiger Clan was on a ship at the docks.
Zhendao went to the harbor and found a ship with a tiger stripe banner called the Vermillion Star. He approached the ship and observed it. He fell several times trying to climb aboard and was nearly detected by the crew. Later he managed his way into the crew's quarters and stole a sailor's dagger. It was notable for being of foreign make. He also saw Five Dagger Chang issuing orders on deck, protected by a man in red pearl armor (essentially Japanese Great Armor coated in some kind of mother of pearl).
Zhendao returned to the temple and the party talked about their next course of action. Xu An told them that the sailors were all from the Eastern Archipelagos. They offered to help make her leader of Tiger Clan if she worked with them to attack the ship. She agreed provided they promise not to kill Five Dagger Chang.
Shin Du prepared several divine fire rockets and positioned himself on a roof overlooking the ship from a distance. The rest of the party carried Granny Chang's body aboard the ship and Zhendao called for Five Dagger Chang, who emerged from quarters on the rear of the ship with his samurai bodyguard and descended tall steps to the deck.
As he was walking, Shin Du fired a rocket, which exploded on both Five Dagger Chang and the Samurai, catching both on fire. Xu An leapt toward Chang and knocked him out with the butt of her butterfly sword. She then announced that she was the leader of Tiger Clan now.
However Peng Ke-Yen grabbed the body and slit Chang's throat. Song Pei tried to intervene but was unable to stop the attack. Xu An then gave a surprised look, and announced to the crew that Five Dagger Chang was dead. Peng Pei used this moment to tend to the wounds of the burned samurai, who was barely alive.
As the crew began to kowtow to Xu An, Zhandao, who noticed the people aboard the ship resembled himself, asked her where he was from, if he was from the same land as them.
Frustrated she scolded him and said he wasn't the center of her world, that she didn't know where he was from, nor did she care. This sent Zhendao into a rage.
He berated her and Tiger Clan for abusing him and mistreating him, then attacked Xu An.
Xu An flew up into the crow's nest mast and as the fight was picking up again, soldiers boarded the ship. Their captain demanded to know what was going on.
Zhendao calmed the captain, saying that they had brought the body of Granny Chang aboard but she rose as a hopping ghost. Matters were under their control now. The captain accepted the story but warned the crew he was going to keep his eye on the ship.
As all this was going on Peng Pei went to search the ship's quarters. In Chang's room she found the five million spades but also found letters form Master Zhao Yi. One of them said that he should give the group the five million spades then send the ninja of the fire pearl after them. It also said that they needed Zhendao's hands, due to new information.
Back on deck, Xu An descended and told Zhendao they should refrain from fighting, that she would give them the five million spades now that she was leader of Tiger Clan.
The party took the crates and went back to the temple. Zhendao found a tattoo master and had his slave tattoo altered to look like a monkey. Peng Ke-Yen went with him and had her face and hands tattooed as well (with black designs). Getting the slave tattoo altered required a bribe of 10,000 spades.
Asking around, the party learned that there was another Temple of the Sleeping Mercy in Nansun. They decided to take the spades there and return them to the order.
They headed north on the road, careful to avoid Yun Hu. However they found wanted posters of themselves all over. As they were traveling along a canal, they spotted a body on the side of the road.
Song Pei went to the body and examined it. As he did so, a thick creamy red smoke vented from its mouth and filled the area. His eyes began to burn and he could not see. From a distance, the party saw several men in cloth masks climb from the canal into the smoke.
Zhendao charged into the smoke as well and struck whatever he could. Song Pei ducked under the body and hid. Peng Ke-Yen used trapping wind to blast the smoke away from the area. They could see clearly there were four masked men (basically ninja) attacking with shurikens. While the smoke was gone, both Zhendao and Song Pei were unable to see.
Zhendao managed to strike a few, but was dropped by a shuriken and nearly killed. Peng Pei leapt in, and killed the remaining three ninja with her kick of the swan technique.
After the battle, Zhendao meditated to heal and Song Pei inspected the body to find the cause of the smoke. In the chest he found a golden canister with small perforations on the side and some kind of cranking mechanism. Nothing he recognized. Zhendao and Shin Du took the masks and clothing from the ninjas.
They continued north and had to bribe a group of soldiers that tried to stop and arrest them (this cost them 40,000 spades). They were also attacked by bandits wearing Golden Raksha talismans. They killed several of them, knocked out some more, and the rest fled. As they ran, Shin Du shouted "Never trouble the Warriors of Shin Du again, or face my wrath." Peng Pei and Zhendao took the golden talismans and wore them.
They reached Nansun, and went to the temple of the Sleeping Mercy. When Peng Ke-Yen showed them her talisman (which Abbot Yan had given her) they took her inside and there they found Abbot Yan in hiding.
He thanked them and he gave Peng Ke-Yen a protective talisman (which she later gave to Peng Pei). He told them they should hide too, but they said it was not in their nature. He suggested they stay at the Lover's Bao, as officials wouldn't bother them there. They gave him the spades and told him that they had taken out a small portion for themselves (which he accepted as more than fair).
The party went to the Lover's Bao. Zhendao was prominently wearing the Raksha Talisman which seemed to intimidate anyone they passed by. At the Lover's Bao they were given four rooms to themselves and no one disturbed them unless they requested something.
That night they entertained the sing-song girls with stories of Shin Du's exploits. Zhendao told their tale as if its as all achieved by Shin Du alone. This delighted the crowd and helped spread Shin Du's fame.
They talked privately about what to do next. It seemed they were inclined to return to Master Zhao Yi and kill him.
This is where the session ended.
*While Zhendao was a slave and did belong to Zhao Yi, the rest of the accusation the party knew to be completely untrue.
No comments:
Post a Comment