CELESTIAL PLUME MASTERS SESSION 19

This was the Nineteenth session of my Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate wuxia sandbox campaign, the Celestial Plume Masters, using the Sons of Lady 87 book, which was just released in print. You can see the first session HERE. You can see the eighteenth session HERE.  

PLAYER CHARACTERS 

Wei Ziying: A skilled poisoner and physician, with ties to the Relentless Corpse Sect, Wei Ziying is a disciple of the Celestial Plume Masters. He also has a longstanding friendship with Kuo Qingzhao, who wishes to know more about the poisons that killed his wife (poisons Wei Ziying knows the secrets of). Grudge: Ravenous Nun Xuanji (for the murder of Red Eagle)

Wang Haoyang: A master of stealth, Wang Haoyang is one of the Celestial Plume Master disciples. He has a lifelong friendship with Pei Ye of the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, but has attracted the affection of another member of that organization, Fan Zhen'er (he does not return the affection but wishes to avoid creating friction within the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, and possibly creating enemies). Grudge: Guan Nuan (for a duel he escaped, she feels she lost face because he was weaker than her and should have been an easy victory)

Hei Ling: A one-eyed chief in the Celestial Plume Masters, Hei Ling is the father of Li Liang, whom he wishes to cease practicing her Toad Style kung fu because of the physical toll on her body. He had Li Liang with Qixia the candied fruit in his youth and since then Qixia has grown hostile. He has a working relationship with the Wu Sisters. Grudge: Qixia the Candied Fruit Vendor (of Hai'an). Grudge: Qixia (many reasons related to their pre-existing relationship)

Iron Tiger: The newest member of the party, sent by Night Thorn to help them expand. He has a longstanding friendship with Iron Beggar Sun Kang, whom he wants to leave his lap of luxury in the House of Flying Lanterns so he can train with the Nature Loving Monks and improve his Kung Fu. Iron Beggar in turn wants Iron Tiger to leave the Celestial Plume Masters. Grudge: Pei Ye (he murdered her favorite client, Golden Cobra). 

BLACK COBRA LEAVES MAI CUN 

Fan Zhen'er and her husband Wang Haoyang followed Black Cobra as she left Guan Manor and made her way through the byways of Mai Cun. They hid in the shadows*. She stepped on a small bridge. They emerged from the ebon backroads in a dancing swirl of steel**. She toppled dead down the sloping bridge, blood seeping through the perfect sable scales of her armor. They took her silver spear and armor soaked in blood. Wang Haoyang judged the emeralds she had gifted to be worth 500,000 spades.  

THE CELESTIAL MASTERS

The party deliberated in Guan Manor for some time. Hei Ling conferred with Hua Yin and promised to help her find her remaining son, asking her if there was anything else they could d. She asked if they could go with her to the Banyan when they found her other son and force his father to recognize him as his own. They agreed and Hua Yin was satisfied. 

Iron Tiger had sent his men to find and hire great masters. Hu Ba was already in their service. A man named Spinning Fist Ma Rong came and said he would gladly serve if the sect gave him good tea fields to cultivate and supplied him with fine quality tea bricks. Iron Tiger suggested they would take the tea fields in Daoxu, as they had to go there anyways, but ultimately t would be better if they could construct new fields in Tung-On, which would take time to design and plan. Spinning Fist Ma Rong agreed to temporarily being given the fields in Daoxu with promise of more in Tung-on. 

Hei Ling decided to assess the spoils of their victory. Examining Lady 87's holdings Hei Ling discovered they were quite rich indeed. It seemed wealth would no longer be concerned as she had ample stores of silk, salt, her own salt mines, collected taxes from the locals and enforced a tax on local criminals. With this new found money they decided to allow Iron Tiger 1.8 million spades to begin work on new tea fields outside of Tung-On. 

Hei Ling then worked towards creating a better information network over the next several weeks***. 

Iron Tiger spoke with Hua Yin, seeking her wisdom on a challenge to improving his kung fu. The style he had mastered came from a manual he found in a ruined temple, but he had mastered all the techniques and the principles of those techniques made it impossible to learn outside their style. He wanted to know if she knew of any possible solution. She told him it sounded like he had found Iron Tiger Temple, and that there were two other manuals lost when the sect was extinguished by Jade Phoenix Sect. However there have long been rumors that the manuals were under the protection of a lineage of secret masters in hiding. 

After some debate the party determined that they needed to change their name, and improve their reputation. They would no longer be the Celestial Plume Masters, but the Celestial Masters. 

SPINNING SWORD OF MASTER CHEN

The party went to Daoxu where Hei Ling met with his long time friend, Scholar Han. They talked and caught up with one another, then Hei Ling asked if he could persuade Scholar Han to take a post inside one of his territories (Scholar Han had just passed the imperial exams and this would be easy to arrange). But Scholar Han said he wanted to be closer to the capital, not in the backwater of Fan Xu. 

"You were once involved with Silver Chrysanthemum brother?"

"Yes," Said Scholar Han. "But that was some time ago."

Art by Jackie Musto 

"If I could arrange it so she was willing to discuss marriage with you, would you consider taking a post inside my territory."

"Well, that would certainly make things different. Yes, if you can genuinely persuade her, then I would be willing to stay and help serve you here."

Hei Ling left, promising that he would make the necessary arrangements and went with Iron Tiger to Master Chen's Spinning Dragon School.

Iron Tiger confronted Master Chen politely saying he wanted a sparring match with stakes. 

"What sort of stakes did you have in mind?"

"If I win, you give me your best student to train as my disciple, if you win, I will become your disciple."

Master Chen nodded agreement. 

"Well first you need to understand this will be a no holds barred match, you may suffer a painful injury."

"In that case please do not take offense if you leave Daoxu a crippled man," Master Chen replied. 

In the initial rounds Master Chen wounded Iron Tiger with his sword strokes, at one point using Slicing Blade of the Flying Phantoms, a technique that is extremely dangerous to counter. Despite the wounds and blood, Iron Tiger took control in the second half of the match, digging his fingers into Master Chen and breaking his arm in a debilitating compound fracture. Master Chen tried to continue but was forced to concede defeat after another serious injury. 

Though in pain, Master Chen calms brought him to a hall to introduce Iron Tiger to his top student, Left-Handed Dragon. He instructed him to go with Iron Tiger and treat him as his master, and informed Iron Tiger that he must not ask Left-Handed Dragon to violate his Dehuan principles if he took him as a student. Iron Tiger agreed and returned with his new disciple to Hei Ling. 

Before leaving, Hei Ling went to Headman Ruang Shan, whose clan controlled the tea fields. He proposed an arrangement where the headman would be granted a siszeable manor in Mai Cun, and given servants and have his needs tended to, should he leave Daoxu and give the fields to Spinning Fist Ma Rong. There was some negotiation, but it was settled and made official through the appropriate paperwork. 

THE GREEN GODDESS 

When they got back to Mai Cun, word reach them that a meeting had been arranged by Bronze Master with Bone Breaker Sect to resolve the conflict with Iron Tiger. The meeting would be held in Yu Zhing, on a porcelain merchant ship called the Green Goddess. 

They road non-stop to Hu Qin. Wang Haoyang and Fan Zhen'er snuck into the boat****. Then Hei Ling, Iron Tiger and Wei Ziying went inside where they were led to a central room below deck to meet a disciple of Bone Breaker Sect. The man told them to be seated and explained their position. 

"We do not like this Iron Tiger going around, using techniques that are rumored to have been stolen from us."

"Please," said Iron Tiger. "If you just let me explain I think you will see those rumors are false."

"The rumors also state you have said on several occasions when asked if your techniques were taught to you by Bone Breaker, that our master was a relic of the past and that you intended to crush our sect."

"Lies," Said Iron Tiger. "These were lies spread by a woman named Pe Ye, who has an inexplicable hatred for me. She seeks to sew discord and ruin my reputation."

"The rumors have been confirmed by someone reputable," Said the disciple.

"Who?"

"Bronze Master."

With that, the walls of the room crashed open. A man sprang from one, a woman another, and a strange looking crone burst forth with a cleaver in her hand. Unseen by anyone, Wang Haoyang leapt to his allies defense from the surprise. 

*Using their Stealth of the Spider Demon techniques

**Blade of the Dancing Fox 

***His information Network now has a ranking of 3d10 inside his territory

****Fan Zhen'er was seen but Wang Haoyang was not. 

Bedrock Q&A

I will be doing a Q&A on youtube and putting together a list of questions about everything related to Bedrock Games. Feel free to ask a question about any of of our games, rules, etc., using the contact page on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you! 

BIG BATTLES AND PLAYER CHARACTERS

Something I have been doing quite a bit lately, mostly in the interest of keeping everyone involved as we veer into larger and larger combats in our Celestial Plume Masters campaigns is having the players take on the the role of NPCs during big battles. I've also been doing something I blogged about a while ago, which is weaving individual character duels and small skirmishes into a much larger fight. This allows for us to have a massive city-wide conflict between multiple sects but still enables two sect leaders or two heroes to face off amid the burning rubble and destruction. It is a bit on the cinematic side, a bit of a reductive approach (it doesn't capture every detail of mass combat) but it does a good job folding it all in together. 

Today I want to discuss how I handled this in my most recent session of the Celestial Plume Masters campaign. I am a big believer in having a tool box filled with different approaches and being fairly transparent with my players about how those tools are used. This makes it easier to tailor everything to a given situation, without being forced to impose a sub-system or strict mechanic upon it (sometimes individual moments require more flexibility in my opinion). This doesn't mean core rules are ignored or cast aside, but more often that they are adapted and adjusted to the situation. Here you will see I am drawing on existing rules in the Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate rulebook and tools established in other books, but tweaking them, occasionally sidestepping and replacing them with other tools. 

The above image is my very bad rough sketch of the Guan Manor in Mai Cun, where the initial attack by the House of Paper Shadows in last session occurred. Here is a map of Mai Cun itself: 

Map by Francesca Baerald 

Importantly we didn't use the map of Mai Cun (we just went by memory because it has been such a common location). But individual ground level tactics weren't as important as politics, dialogue and individual fights, because the larger battles were abstracted into dice rolls. 

The method was a simplified version of what is in the Lady 87 book, except I eyeballed the different factions involved in the fight, assigned d10 ranks to each based on size and power, and combined them to give each side a total. Also before the session I went over the players forces with them and talked about what rank each of their factions should be (their input was important here). The result, which I felt matched the present situation in the campaign was their side, the Celestial Plume Masters, had 9d10, while the 87 Killers had 7d10 (this number would change due to events at the start of the battle). 

Combat was taken in phases. Each phase, if all the leadership on both sides commanded and didn't venture too far from their men to fight individually, maintained their side's dice pool at its present rank. If anyone decided to take on an individual foe or venture off to achieve an objective they lowered their sides dice pool by 1d10, to reflect the lack of command. 

Prior to the battle itself, was the attack on Guan Manor by the House of Paper Shadows. This gave a mole in the 87 Killers an opportunity to attack and kill Lady 87, which lowered their rank by 1d10. Had the attack resulted in the death of Guan Nuan, then it would have been lowered by 2d10 total. 

So the battle began with the celestial Plume Masters having 9d10 and the 87 Killers 6d10. But the player controlling Wang Haoyang went to assassinate Guan Nuan during the first phase, and the player controlling Iron Tiger sought out White Browed Demoness, resulting in the Celestial Plume Masters rolling 7d10 against 6d10. 

During the attack on Guan Manor by the House of Paper Shadows, because this would take roughly an hour or so of time, I allowed all the players not present (only one player character was present at the battle) to play individual NPCs on the 87 Killers side, while I controlled the House of Paper Shadows. This worked really well because it gave the 87 Killers more of a fighting chance, but also kept the players engaged. It is a bit of an odd technique because they are playing NPCs whom they are at war with, but I've found this approach to work pretty well when I want to conduct a large battle, and one every sword stroke to count, but don't want to just have the players watch me roll dice. Granted this could also be done before the session, but events in the session itself were going to affect what happened. 

The rough sketch in the first image gives my general overview of the 87 Killers forces. This is how I imagine a typical sect guarding its leader on important occasions. So she was fairly well guarded, and it was really only the presence of the traitor, Li Pu, that led to Lady 87 herself being killed. Since the battle was cut short once the House of Paper Shadows believed that Wei Ziying, their target, had been killed, this would otherwise have not impacted the battle between the players and the 87 Killers. 

I also found allowing the players to engage opponents one on one during the battles very effective. It really did create a sense of cinematic drama that didn't feel forced or out of place (the players were choosing to seek out these foes and it naturally flowed from the events around them). I quite like how this feels in practice. It also feels very wuxia to me. But importantly it doesn't ignore the larger conflict unfolding around them.  

CELESTIAL PLUME MASTERS SESSION EIGHTEEN

This was the Eighteenth session of my Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate wuxia sandbox campaign, the Celestial Plume Masters, using the Sons of Lady 87 book, which was just released in print. You can see the first session HERE. You can see the seventeenth session HERE.  

PLAYER CHARACTERS 

Wei Ziying: A skilled poisoner and physician, with ties to the Relentless Corpse Sect, Wei Ziying is a disciple of the Celestial Plume Masters. He also has a longstanding friendship with Kuo Qingzhao, who wishes to know more about the poisons that killed his wife (poisons Wei Ziying knows the secrets of). Grudge: Ravenous Nun Xuanji (for the murder of Red Eagle)

Wang Haoyang: A master of stealth, Wang Haoyang is one of the Celestial Plume Master disciples. He has a lifelong friendship with Pei Ye of the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, but has attracted the affection of another member of that organization, Fan Zhen'er (he does not return the affection but wishes to avoid creating friction within the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, and possibly creating enemies). Grudge: Guan Nuan (for a duel he escaped, she feels she lost face because he was weaker than her and should have been an easy victory)

Hei Ling: A one-eyed chief in the Celestial Plume Masters, Hei Ling is the father of Li Liang, whom he wishes to cease practicing her Toad Style kung fu because of the physical toll on her body. He had Li Liang with Qixia the candied fruit in his youth and since then Qixia has grown hostile. He has a working relationship with the Wu Sisters. Grudge: Qixia the Candied Fruit Vendor (of Hai'an). Grudge: Qixia (many reasons related to their pre-existing relationship)

Iron Tiger: The newest member of the party, sent by Night Thorn to help them expand. He has a longstanding friendship with Iron Beggar Sun Kang, whom he wants to leave his lap of luxury in the House of Flying Lanterns so he can train with the Nature Loving Monks and improve his Kung Fu. Iron Beggar in turn wants Iron Tiger to leave the Celestial Plume Masters. Grudge: Pei Ye (he murdered her favorite client, Golden Cobra). 

SHADOWS IN GUAN MANOR^ 

As leather shadow puppets danced upon the walls the people in the hall were a swirl of spinning steel. 

Upon the dais from which Lady 87 renounced the House of Paper Shadows offer, her men got into formation. Among them her daughter, Guan Nuan, Big Sister Hong Na, White Browed Demoness, Yuhuan, Li Pu, and Wei Ziying. 

Boorish Drunken Sword could not be called one of her men. He was a useless drunk soaked in wine. Boorish Drunken Sword staggered Silver Haired Beauty with his deep biting blade.

Li Pu was one of Lady 87s men. He was the cherished Brother Seventy-Seven. Li Pu eviscerated Lady 87 with his Blade of the Dancing Fox. 

Art by Jackie Musto 

Lady 87 collapsed as Wei Ziying sent his needles flying towards Silver-Haired Beauty. The moment their poison entered his blood, Silver Haired Beauty's delicate features exploded and an enormous wasp crawled from his skull as his body slid into the ground and clung to the blade held by Boorish Drunken Sword. 

Yuhuan slaughtered the wasp with a hail of daggers, leaving a spray of chitin on the floor. 

From the roof, Fan Heng, a shadow hero, materialized and leapt down upon Wei Ziying, using a most extraordinary attack design to rip his limbs from his body. But Wei Ziying used his turn of the Zhen Bird to employ a ruse. 

Taking a fresh body that resembled him, and that was dressed to look exactly as he did, Wei Ziying, in an incredible act of dexterity and cunning* he swapped positions with the corpse, allowing Fan Heng to pull out its arm as it dropped 'dead' to the floor. 

Fan Heng believed she had killed Wei Ziying. 

Yuhuan tried to stop Li Pu as he fled with Lady 87's head out the hall but her rope dart failed to land sufficiently to restrain him and he got away. 

The agents of the House of Paper Shadows dissipated, believing they killed the man they came for. 

THE BATTLE OF MAI CUN 

Word had reached Chief Hei Ling of Lady 87's death. He also heard news that Iron God Meng and his men were in the city, patrolling the alleys and streets leading to Guan Manor. The Jade Owl Bandits were there as well. Perhaps most troubling, Nature Loving Monks were very active in the area too. 

On his side were Long Ma Hall (or what remained of it). The Seven Demons (what remained of them), and the Vermillion Bird Teahouse. And he had all of the Celestial Plume Masters save one on his side as well as his own personal forces. 

A messenger arrived with a carrier pigeon and a box. 

"Greetings Chief Hei Ling. The 87th Lady of the Guan Family is dead. The new Lady 87 sends you this token. 

The box was presented to Chief Hei Ling and inside were two slips of 'paper'. One read peace. The other read 'war'.

Insulted and sensing Hua Yin's unrelenting grief for her son Night Thorn, he cut off the messengers fingers and tied them to the messenger pigeon before releasing it back towards Guan Manor. 

He sent his forces into Mai Cun under the command of his inner circle. And the battle raged in the streets as Wang Haoyang and Fan Zhen'er snuck into Guan Manor to assassinate the new leader**. 

Guan Nuan, granddaughter of Lady 87, was now in command of the 87 killers. 

Neither she nor her men saw Wang Haoyang or Fan Zhen'er creep into the reception hall. 

They did not see the blaze of steel fall from the sky, leaving Yuhuan and Guan Nuan lifeless on the ground. 

As the battle raged in the streets of Mai Cun, the forces of the Celestial Plume Masters left bodies in their wake and took captives along the way. 

In the chaos, Iron Tiger and White Browed Demoness found one another and faced off. She attempted her strangling brow but he countered and ripped her eyebrows from her forehead, then broke her leg. She attempted a hail of daggers but was in an inconvenient position, so she missed. He kicked her in the ribs and broke them then smashed her head with his heel. 

Several leaders on both sides perished in the battle***: Big Sister Hong Na, Butterfly King Yan Shimin, and Iron Beggar Sun Kang all died. Lady 87's Grandson, Guan Duan also was killed by mistake. 

The defeat of the 87 Killers was conclusive and thorough. The characters took over Guan Manor and the Vermillion Birds captured Iron God Meng. Hua Yin presented Iron God Meng to Chief Hei Ling who was deliberating how to treat his sworn brother. As his men encouraged him to kill the man, Iron God Meng bled. Some noticed, but Hei Ling did not. He finally said that Iron God Meng could leave, but as the former master of the Golden Way stepped from the hall he fell and died****

Over the next several days Chief Hei Ling consolidated his base of power in Mai Cun and distributed a fair share to those who had helped him rise. He gave Iron Tiger the Lucky Mountain Gambling Hall and their martial school in Tung-On. Hua Yin remained in Mai Cun to discuss arrangements with Hei Ling. 

Qian Xiao, leader of the sect in name only quietly retired to his plume. 

While Hei Ling was holding an audience, a person came bearing a box of nine emeralds as a gift. The person who gifted the emeralds was a woman in flexible armor that resembled snake scales and seemed uniquely designed. 

"Greetings Chief Hei Ling of the Celestial Plume Masters, I am Black Cobra of the Cobra Clan, and bring these gifts on behalf of my master, King Cobra."

"Why should I accept gifts from a man who imprisons my daughter and extorts me for the privilege of seeing her"

"He wishes for you to come to our headquarters, to bring Iron Tiger, and then you can see your daughter. He has not imprisoned her. She is his disciple and focused on her training."

"He and I will meet in due time, when I see fit."

Black Cobra turned to Iron Tiger and said "King Cobra wishes to duel with you, but a fair duel. He proposes a game of chess using a decide of his own design, which will be as lethal as any duel but account for your inferior martial abilities."

"I would prefer a straight forward duel if he does not mind," Said Iron Tiger. 

"He only makes the offer out of a sense of fairness. You can face him directly if you wish, but I promise you will be utterly destroyed. You would at least have a chance if you faced him for a more civilized match of chess."

"Tell him I am not suited to such games, that if he wants a more fair arrangement, a breaking competition would be more fitting."

"I will tell him of your request Iron Tiger," she said. 

After the meeting, Iron Tiger made arrangements through his network to contact Bronze Master and ask him to arrange a private meeting with the leader of Bone Breaking Sect. 

^Though we played the game in a very straight forward manner, I am employing a slightly dramatic session log style through these both for my own amusement and to make them more entertaining. 

*This involved a roll for the Counter as well as Eluding Viper and a Deception roll against Fan Heng. It is also something that I allowed because it felt genre appropriate, but in another setting it might be too incredible to work 

**The mass combat was determined by a dice pool roll off between Celestial Plume Masters (9d10) and the 87 Killers 6d10 due to the assassination of Lady 87 prior to the battle). Each time player characters broke from the mass combat as leaders and important heroes, they lowered the Celestial Plume Dice Pool by 1. So when Wang Haoyang went to assassinate Guan Nuan, it lowered the dice pool to 8d10, and when Iron Tiger faced off with White Browed Demoness, this lowered it to 7d10. However as soon as they finished their individual combat this once again raised the dice pool up. 

***Any result of 10 on the dice pool roll off indicated a leader had been killed. The leader was chosen randomly

****Iron God Meng had developed a new Kung Fu Technique with King Cobra Venom that caused his blood to thin so that on any Total Success he began bleeding to death. 

CELESTIAL PLUME MASTERS SESSION SEVENTEEN

This was the Seventeenth session of my Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate wuxia sandbox campaign, the Celestial Plume Masters, using the Sons of Lady 87 book, which was just released in print. You can see the first session HERE. You can see the sixteenth session HERE.  

PLAYER CHARACTERS 

Wei Ziying: A skilled poisoner and physician, with ties to the Relentless Corpse Sect, Wei Ziying is a disciple of the Celestial Plume Masters. He also has a longstanding friendship with Kuo Qingzhao, who wishes to know more about the poisons that killed his wife (poisons Wei Ziying knows the secrets of). Grudge: Ravenous Nun Xuanji (for the murder of Red Eagle)

Wang Haoyang: A master of stealth, Wang Haoyang is one of the Celestial Plume Master disciples. He has a lifelong friendship with Pei Ye of the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, but has attracted the affection of another member of that organization, Fan Zhen'er (he does not return the affection but wishes to avoid creating friction within the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, and possibly creating enemies). Grudge: Guan Nuan (for a duel he escaped, she feels she lost face because he was weaker than her and should have been an easy victory)

Hei Ling: A one-eyed chief in the Celestial Plume Masters, Hei Ling is the father of Li Liang, whom he wishes to cease practicing her Toad Style kung fu because of the physical toll on her body. He had Li Liang with Qixia the candied fruit in his youth and since then Qixia has grown hostile. He has a working relationship with the Wu Sisters. Grudge: Qixia the Candied Fruit Vendor (of Hai'an). Grudge: Qixia (many reasons related to their pre-existing relationship)

Iron Tiger: The newest member of the party, sent by Night Thorn to help them expand. He has a longstanding friendship with Iron Beggar Sun Kang, whom he wants to leave his lap of luxury in the House of Flying Lanterns so he can train with the Nature Loving Monks and improve his Kung Fu. Iron Beggar in turn wants Iron Tiger to leave the Celestial Plume Masters. Grudge: Pei Ye (he murdered her favorite client, Golden Cobra). 

THE DEEP SLEEP OF THE SEVEN DEMONS^ 

Wei Ziying sent returned continued his attacks on the Seven Demons in Long Ma Hall with Mule Head Hong, White-Browed Demoness, and Big Sister Hong Na. They followed the same pattern as before, with Big Sister Hong Na sneaking into the bed chamber and attacking the sect leader in their sleep, then the rest of the party would swarm in before an alarm could be issued. In each case White Browed Demoness would use her Strangling Brow to silence foes so they could not sound the alert*. 

Art by Jackie Musto

Their next victim was Yao Yun. Hong Na's plunged her Deep Biting Blade into his sleeping body and he awakened, only to be assailed with a storm of White Browed Demoness daggers and killed. 

Wei Ziying decided it would be best to take out Zhizhu the leader of the Seven Demons, next. She too was stabbed in her sleep by Big Sister Hong Na and rather easily dispatched by the rest of the party. 

Next they went after the Bone General. His hook sword play was known for mutilating foes, so they were cautious. Big Sister Hong Na stabbed him using her Deep Biting Blade once again. He awakened but was put back to death's slumber in a blaze of steel from Mule Head Hong's  Blade of the Dancing Fox technique. 

Only one of the Seven Demons, the weakest of them, remained: Wuzhi. The poet slept soundly and was awakened by the steel of Big Sister Hong Na's deep biting blade implanted in her chest. She clung to life enough to sound the alarm and also launched Big Sister Hong Na into the air with her hook sword**. 

Mule Head Hong rushed in with a flurry of kicks to finish off the last of the demons, and as Big Sister Hong Na soared through the air***, she attempted to imitate Wuzhi's voice**** and said to the followers they heard rushing towards the room "It is nothing, I simply had a nightmare and fell out of bed." 

Miraculously the ploy worked, they made sure Wuzhi was dead and fled back to Mai Cun. 

THE HOUSE OF PAPER SHADOWS 

It was now the 5th day of the Turtle Moon. The appointed day for Wei Ziying to hand over the Sword of Time to the House of Paper Shadows. Failure meant death by the hands of their agents. 

A corpse had been delivered to Wei Ziying's room the day before. A corpse that resembled Wei Ziying. 

As Lady 87 held court Hei Ling and Hua Yin gathered their forces around Mai Cun.

Art by Jackie Musto 

In the stillness of the hall someone announced the arrival of Zuan Yuan of the House of Paper Shadows. The man known also as Silver Haired Beauty, approached Lady Eighty Seven and spoke, "Greetings 87th Lady of the Guan House. We do not wish to disturb you at this time, but merely seek what is owed from a member of your sect, Wei Ziying."

"Silver Haired Beauty, what does he owe the Master of the House of Paper Shadows?"

"The sword of time, but he has failed, so now his life is owed to us."

Lady 87 looked to Wei Ziying and asked for an explanation, which he provided, explaining that he had inherited this debt and that he was unable to obtain the sword, but had heard rumors it was with the House of Paper Shadows themselves. 

Lady 87 thought for a moment and turned her head towards Zuan Yuan again. "I cannot," she said. "Wei Ziying is an accomplished member of this sect and deserves our loyalty. If you want him, you will have to take him from us."*****

"Be reasonable Lady, we have no fight with you and you know our reputation."

"If it is my appointed day to die, so be it. But your reputation may not be as deserved as people say."

Zuan Yuan waved his hand and the drone of a suona horn filled the chamber as black silhouettes of shadow puppets appeared upon the wall and danced in the flickering light.  

^This entry is short as it just covers a long night of killing in Long Ma Hall. Because this scenario focused on one character in the party (we knew these fights may take the whole session), I had the other three players each take on the role of the NPCs accompanying Wei Ziying to Long Ma Hall: Hei Ling's player was Mule Head Hong, Iron Tiger's Player was White Browed Demoness, and Wang Haoyang's player was Big Sister Hong Na. Note I also do not give a blow for blow account in this retelling

*This ability also enables her to make an additional Kung Fu Technique attack in the same round so it was very useful tactically in this scenario

**She used Hurling Hook to do this

***Hurling Hook keeps a character in the air for one round 

****In game terms I asked the player to make a Deception Roll (99% sure it was Deception I asked for) but told them this was only going to work on a TN 9, to which one of the other players said TN 10 seemed more appropriate, so we went with that. The player in control of Big Sister Hong Na rolled a 10. 

*****I was not certain that Wei Ziying's plan was sound and that it would work (his aim here had been to work his way into the 87 killers, earn their loyalty then turn the house of paper shadows upon them while faking his own death). I decided the method to determine whether Lady 87 would protect him, and thus cause his plan to work, would be to roll a d10 against TN 9, but deduct -1 to -2 for each successful mission he went on (the number would be based on the power of his foes). At the start of last session it was TN 5 and he brought it down to TN 3 with his success at Long Ma Hall. 

OGRE GATE AND THE OSR

I wanted to tackle a question and point I sometimes see, which is confusion over the description of Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate and whether it is an OSR system. 

SOME BACKGROUND

When me, Dan and Bill first sat down to make Ogre Gate, we thought we were making a simple RPG. We used the word simple a lot if I recall. Very quickly, certainly by the time Ryan joined in on the design, we clearly understood this wasn't the simple martial arts game we were imagining, and we felt that wasn't a bad thing. The Network system games prior to Sertorius were very simple, and the game became more crunchy as we added magic.

In hindsight, if we were to do it again, we might place the crunch in different places (there are sections of the combat rules and areas of character creation that seem less important to us after years of playing). Some of that is because our tastes have changed but some of it is because the two year design period for making a game (we always allow about two years). 

I find two years is a very good baseline for design (one year isn't enough in my opinion). But that two year period is one where you are actively engaging all the elements of the system. After about four or five years, you naturally start to drop certain things at your table and you develop a different understanding of the game. 

So were we to do a second edition or a revised edition, certain things might get streamlined. But what wouldn't change is the heart of the system, the hundreds of Kung Fu Abilities and the way character creation works around skills. And most of the crunch would remain. It would be a dense game clocking in at over 400 pages even if we streamlined some of the character creation choices. 

As I said, it is a crunchy game, so I find it is best to embrace that (even if I find my aging brain relying on people like Ryan to remind me if I forget a rule). The game is meant to reward good choices, and it is meant to emulate the full range of abilities one sees in wuxia and martial arts movies, with each one having a distinct mechanical effect. One thing we didn't want to hand wave was how distinct each martial arts technique can feel in wuxia and to achieve that we felt each ability should function similar to spells in Sertorius. It had to be robust for it to work how we wanted. 

IS OGRE GATE OSR?

In my mind two things firmly take Ogre Gate outside of the OSR: 1) Characters are built around skills and their Kung Fu Abilities; 2) It uses the Network System, not a d20 system with classes. There are other things too but these are notable because they are at the core of the game itself. Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is not an OSR game in any sense that I would recognize. 

Yet, it does often get described as an OSR game, it has been said to have "D&Disms", despite being a skill based system that uses dice pools with no classes or anything resembling a d20 retroclone. Why the confusion? 

Some of this is my own fault, because I mention the OSR frequently when I am posting about my campaign structures, and the internet being what it is, people draw assumptions from that. I am personally a fan of OSR games, when I play D&D I usually gravitate towards older editions, and I love the approach to adventure structures you find in the OSR. This last part is especially notable because it is something Ogre Gate has in common with the OSR.

ADVENTURE STRUCTURES

A lot of my sensibilities around adventure structure come from the OSR. While I play a wide range of games (including OSR games) mostly I play my own games because it only makes sense to me to play the games I make (if I don't like them, why would anyone else bother with them?). I was someone who had something of a GMing crisis in the early 2000s, where I just found the approaches I had been using and the approaches that were predominate, not clicking with me any longer. I wanted to be more surprised, for my adventures to be less scripted, and started looking into things like sandboxes and investigative adventures more. This eventually led me to OSR games, OSR gaming threads, and I had most of my GMing conversations with OSR Gamemasters and designers, even if I wasn't a strict OSR gamer. 

There is also a practical element here. I understood from years of playing RPGs and different kinds, that something about the core concepts in D&D worked for long term campaigns. There are other games that 'work' in this way. And one could debate endlessly the reasons (i.e. why is Call of Cthulhu the perfect one shot or mini-campaign system?). I knew I wanted Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate to be more of a long term campaign system (prior to Stories, we understood that our games were more niche and likely to be played in shorter campaigns). 

I had run a number of wuxia campaigns in different systems and the adventure structures I used for them in my d20 campaigns, always worked. Including things like dungeons, monsters, exploration and wandering encountered, these all kept up the longevity of the campaign. And the more I looked for these things in wuxia media, the more I realized they were often just as present (with the exception of monsters in strict wuxia films and stories) as they were in fantasy. 

WANDERING HEROES 

During playtest the "Wandering" in Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate was heavily emphasized. The playtest setting was designed as a sandbox, based on concepts I had worked in other campaigns for different systems, including an old d20 wuxia campaign I ran. The Witch of Zhaoze Zhou originates here for example, as does General Dee and many other elements. But the whole Banyan region and the empire were built from scratch with an eye for exploration, character driven feuds and sect conflicts, and drama. 

What I wanted was to be able to run a game whether you had prepped or not, by just dropping the players down and letting them set a course for themselves. So things like Grudge Tables arose around this (obviously it comes from wuxia but the need for a table became apparent after players developed a few grudges and I noticed they were easy to forget about without a prompt). The game included fairly traditional encounter tables as well, which works for the wandering character element and is obviously rooted in older school play. 

What set Ogre Gate apart in my mind was we placed special emphasis on characters and sect, and we included dramatic elements (something I think of as not very OSR). 

Also the hex maps were made Robert Conley who makes a lot of OSR material, and has a number of blog posts on how to run sandboxes (recommend these highly). The location maps, which were by Michael Prescott in the original core book, and done by Francesca Baerald in all the supplements, are often dungeons. My sense is dungeons are something people don't really expect in a wuxia game. 

Just as a side note, one of the things I kept seeing in discussions about wuxia when the concepts of Ogre Gate were brewing was how difficult many people found it to run and how intimidating it was. Part of this was setting. But a lot of it was a genre expectation that some people had a hard time imagining as easily gameable. However if you watch a long form series like Legend of Condor Heroes, it is very easy to see that as a pretty standard campaign. It has a lot of the elements, including locations I would label dungeons (and this is more the case in other stories and movies). And besides, it isn't like every fantasy dungeon features a a dungeon either, yet most fantasy settings are filled with them. They are a conceit that works, but if you watch films like Buddha Palm or House of Traps, even Dragon Swamp or Web of Death, these are quite easy to naturally fit in (and there are countless other wuxia films featuring cavern complexes, underground headquarters, and all sorts of things that could be described as dungeons. And this isn't even getting into inns (wuxia probably has far more inns than standard fantasy in my opinion, plus it has teahouses, wineshops, restaurants, and brothels). It is all quite gameable and also I think sometimes more relatable to a modern person than medieval Europe. 

So I can see how Ogre Gate confuses some people into thinking it's OSR. What I like to say is it is a robust system built around powers that does have a simple core mechanic. It isn't OSR but it has a bit of an OSR spirit and some OSR DNA in its approaches to things like adventure and campaign structures, GM tools, etc. I wanted Ogre Gate to be a game many in the OSR would enjoy, especially around how the setting and system deal with genre (I tried as much as possible to make it a natural part of the setting cosmology). 

For those looking for a more OSR take on Ogre Gate, I suggest trying Strange Tales of Songling. This is very much a B/X inspired revision of the core Ogre Gate system. It isn't a retroclone or d20, but it comes much closer to an OSR experience than the original Ogre Gate. 

DAILY TRAINING REGIMENS IN OGRE GATE

The human body and the human mind, they are not static. If I spend all month reading history books, and spending less time working out, in Ogre Gate terms, my Muscle rank goes down while my Reasoning and knowledge skills increase. But if I stop reading for a year and devote myself to physical training, then my physical skills increase and my knowledge skills go down. 

When we first made Ogre Gate, things like Martial Disciplines weren't meant to be set. But over time, we found the game functioned better if they were. And after many conversations we settled on having the Martial Discipline ranks be inherent talents. This works mechanically but it has always irked me as a person interested in real world martial arts. And the more I think about it, the more I am equally irked by having a character with static skill ranks. Sure you can increase them, but it is a little odd your Muscle rank never goes down. 

Art by Jackie Musto 

This blog entry is meant to be half an optional rule, and half a ruling, so it is very semi-official and it is a work in progress (when Ryan and Dan see it, when some of my players see it, when we start using it, then it will be revised accordingly). For now, I am playing with the idea of characters modestly adjusting their abilities through daily training regimens and these can adjust ranks in skills and martial disciplines. 

I do a lot of daily fitness and used to be very involved in martial arts. One thing I noticed was how dramatically your body and conditioning change based on the routines you are doing. And in the lead up to a competition, you would radically intensify and lengthen training which would make you a much different person on the day of competition. Some weeks or months we would train for greater speed, or power, etc. Some years I have focused on lifting heavier weights and increasing my overall muscle mass, others I have tried to maintain a lean frame at a very specific weight range. Through each of these I have felt very different. 

And this doesn't just apply to fighting or physical activities. When I worked at a fish market, I became very good at scaling and filleting fish. This is something I could probably do well again if I practiced but because I haven't done it in a number of years, I would probably, in game terms find my ranks a little lower now). When I was a history student, I could rattle off all kinds of highly specific information about the Medieval World and I describe you the historiography* of Middle East history. When I was reading about Ancient Rome every day, I could easily recall crucial details about the structure of government and society. Today I would need to refresh my memory on both those fronts. I think it is rare, again in game terms, to drop from 3 ranks in a History skill to 0 ranks, but 3 to 2 or even 3 to 1 definitely seems realistic if someone isn't keeping up with their studies. 

Therefore I think it is fair for characters to be able to shift skills and also their martial disciplines. Do keep in mind this is an optional ruling that I have not yet implemented (there have been campaigns where I have allowed something like this, but usually just in special cases). Here I am proposing a more standard method. 

Basically you can move around your skill points from one skill to another and even into other skill groups. You can also move your Martial Discipline points around too (but those can't be applied to other skill groups). Defenses may also be shuffled but only among defenses. 

Martial Disciplines you can move points around at a rate of 1 shift per month. So a character with Waijia 3, and Neigong 1, could change their disciplines to Waijia 2, Neigong 1 and Qinggong 1 after a month of effort. There is no cap on this, you can change them around as much as you want, but the total must always remain 4 points. 

Art by Jackie Musto 

Other skills 1 shift per week, to up to 5 total shifts. So a character with 3 ranks in Muscle and 2 ranks in Persuade can spend a week moving 1 rank from Muscle into Persuade, changing their totals to Muscle 2 and Persuade 3. If you hit the 5 shift cap, you can reset it by spending weeks to restore to your baseline and then start shifting again**. In some instances, such as when a character who has taken the scholar option tries to do this, you may need to impose a higher cost (2 points to raise a skill by 1). But I want to reduce overall record keeping and am on the fence about it. As this is a new ruling idea, if I were to implement it, I would probably tell my players that as these situations arise, I may impose a higher cost out of concern for fairness, balance, etc. 

For Defenses these can be shifted at the same 1 per week rate among the other defenses. So a character with Wits 8 and Evade 5 could spend a week changing their Evade to 6 and their Wits to 7 (or they could raise Wits to 9 and lower Evade to 4). However they can't put defense points into other skill categories, nor can other skill categories be put into defenses. 

*Here I mean it as the history of the history of this discipline 

**This feels a little ungainly to me, but I am trying to balance out fluidity of training with having some kind of baseline character there. This cap may be too harsh. But the basic idea is you shouldn't be able to use this process to completely transform a character. Especially since characters can still increase skills with XP. 

CELESTIAL PLUME MASTERS SESSION SIXTEEN

 This was the Sixteenth session of my Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate wuxia sandbox campaign, the Celestial Plume Masters, using the Sons of Lady 87 book, which was just released in print. You can see the first session HERE. You can see the fifteenth session HERE.  

PLAYER CHARACTERS 

Wei Ziying: A skilled poisoner and physician, with ties to the Relentless Corpse Sect, Wei Ziying is a disciple of the Celestial Plume Masters. He also has a longstanding friendship with Kuo Qingzhao, who wishes to know more about the poisons that killed his wife (poisons Wei Ziying knows the secrets of). Grudge: Ravenous Nun Xuanji (for the murder of Red Eagle)

Wang Haoyang: A master of stealth, Wang Haoyang is one of the Celestial Plume Master disciples. He has a lifelong friendship with Pei Ye of the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, but has attracted the affection of another member of that organization, Fan Zhen'er (he does not return the affection but wishes to avoid creating friction within the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, and possibly creating enemies). Grudge: Guan Nuan (for a duel he escaped, she feels she lost face because he was weaker than her and should have been an easy victory)

Hei Ling: A one-eyed chief in the Celestial Plume Masters, Hei Ling is the father of Li Liang, whom he wishes to cease practicing her Toad Style kung fu because of the physical toll on her body. He had Li Liang with Qixia the candied fruit in his youth and since then Qixia has grown hostile. He has a working relationship with the Wu Sisters. Grudge: Qixia the Candied Fruit Vendor (of Hai'an). Grudge: Qixia (many reasons related to their pre-existing relationship)

Iron Tiger: The newest member of the party, sent by Night Thorn to help them expand. He has a longstanding friendship with Iron Beggar Sun Kang, whom he wants to leave his lap of luxury in the House of Flying Lanterns so he can train with the Nature Loving Monks and improve his Kung Fu. Iron Beggar in turn wants Iron Tiger to leave the Celestial Plume Masters. Grudge: Pei Ye (he murdered her favorite client, Golden Cobra). 

HUA YIN 

Iron Tiger received word in Tung-On that Li Liang was training with the Cobra Clan on Mount Fone. He brought this news to Hei Ling, who wrote a letter to his daughter and had a messenger carry it to Cobra Clan headquarters. He then met with Iron Beggar Sun Kang, who agreed to go attack Lady 87's wealth resources in An District with his men. 

Hei Ling sent Wang Haoyang to assassinate the son of Lady 87 in Gao Cun. He then sent a secret message to the Celestial Plume Organization to meet in River Village. 

Hua Yin's Doom Finger
Art by Jackie Musto

Iron Tiger and Hei Ling then traveled to the Vermillion Bird Teahouse, and found Hua Yin in mourning sitting at a pavilion. Her Vermillion Stars were arrayed on the walkways at attention. 

"It is good that you come to pay your condolences Chief Hei Ling," she said. 

"We grieve with you and we vow to make Lady 87 pay for the death of your son."

After some silence Hua Yin said, "What do you have in mind."

Hei Ling explained that Wei Ziying was there as a spy, sending him information, and that they planned to use Wei Ziying's grudge with the House of Paper Shadows to their advantage, drawing that organizations anger upon the 87 Killers. He had an alliance of sects and they would all attack on the 5th of the Turtle Moon, when the House of Paper Shadows would return to kill Wei Ziying (and presumably also attack the 87 Killers). 

"We should ally with the House of Paper Shadows, disasteful though that may be," Said Hua Yin. 

"I wish it were that easy Madame Hua Yin but I must protect my disciple and die with him if need be not that day."

Hua Yin nodded and seemed to understand. "We will march to Mai Cun and attack with all our people on the 5th!"

ONE LESS HOOK SWORD 

Three Handed Feng took Lulu in her shattered state back with him to the House of Loma, and Wei Ziying regrouped with Mule Head Hong, Big Sister Hong Na at the Red Owl Society to formulate a plan. He reached out to Lady 87 who sent Boorish Drunken Sword, White-Browed Demoness Feiyan and Pei Guo to help him handle the remaining six of the Seven Demons*. He sent one of his men from the Red Owl Society to arrange a meeting with the Demons, on the pretext that they needed to ship goods through the area and wanted the Demons protection. 

Zhizhu, leader of the Seven Demons, agreed to meet at Long Ma Hall. Wei Ziying came, his entourage all disguised as merchants. They were brought into a well-lit audience hall where the Six of the Seven Demons greeted them, but an empty chair with a single hook sword marked the absence of their brother Qanku. He tried to form an agreement, hoping after arrangements had been made they would be invited to stay at the hall, which would allow him to pick off members of the sect during the night. However Zhizhu did not like his proposal, thanked him and told him to be on his way. 

They left, but circled back that evening and suck into the room of Ai, the most powerful of the Seven Demons. She was unfortunately awakened as Big Sister Hong Na broke into the bed chamber. Before she could cry out, Ai was beset by the party. She retaliated with a Sword Whipping Strike that wounded Boorish Drunken Sword. White Browed Demoness Feiyan used her Strangling Brow to choke and silence Ai so she could not call to her brothers and sisters, then leapt in with Blade of the Dancing Fox. 

Ai's blood sprayed like rain against the wall and she fell dead to the ground. 

THREE DEATHS IN GAO CUN 

Fan Zhen'er and Wang Haoyang made their way to Gao Cun, ordered by Hei Ling to avenge the death of Night Thorn by killing Magistrate Guan Rixin (Lady 87's eldest son). They took a boat on the canal and headed into the streets at night on their arrival. As they headed towards Guan Rixin's residence, they spotted a woman following them. Fan Zhen'er could tell the lady had once been a nun by her mannerisms. They both used Stealth of the Spider Demon** and spied on the woman from an ally. They could see she appeared sickly and not well dressed. 

In a blink Wang Haoyang and Fan Zhen'er descended, the former unleashing a deadly shower of attacks that left the lady on the cusp of death. 

She clutched an emerald in her hand and held it out for Wang Haoyang to see. "Fan Batu," She said. 

"What do you mean?"

"Take this to Fan Batu at the Swallow's Nest Inn, he is to help you on your mission."

Wang Haoyang killed her and took the emerald. They crept through the darkness into the chambers of Guan Rixin and murdered him in this sleep***. After it was done, Wang Haoyang carved the words "Night Thorn" into his flesh. 

They then went to the Swallow's Nest Inn and saw a large man there with an enormous seismometer, drinking cups of wine. 

Wang Haoyang approached and handed him the emerald.

"Excellent, my payment," He chuckled and sipped more wine. 

"You are to help me on my mission I've been told."

"Yes, but first I must complete the task this emerald exchanged," He said. 

"What task?"

"I am to kill you both," He said and laughed again. 

The three figures all assumed stances and faced off. Before Fan Batu could act, Wang Haoyang and Fan Zhen'er ran away.

He gave chase through a maze but couldn't keep up. The couple moved using their Stealth of the Spider Demon and circled back around to watch Fan Batu look around with a puzzled but slightly amused look on his face. 

On a signal, the two leapt in surprise**** at Fan Batu and fell like death from the sky. Fan Batu, a powerful master who these two were not even worthy to address, was skewered beyond recognition. They left his lifeless body behind and headed for a meeting in River Village. 

THE CELESTIAL PLUME POWER STRUGGLE 

Hei Ling, Iron Tiger, Hua Yin, Fan Zhen'er, Wang Haoyang and their retinue went to River Village. There Hei Ling held a secret meeting with the four other Celestial Plume Masters. Their leader, Qian Xiao was present but his mind was not on the task at hand. Hei Ling could see he was too steeped in the plume to offer much in the way of direction. 

While there Hei Ling received the following letter: 

My praises to Chief Hei Ling for raising such a brilliant daughter with incredible potential in Kung Fu. She is doing well, and I expect her training to be completed by the time Iron Tiger arrives to settle his debts with the sect. 

-King Cobra  

As the Celestial Plume Masters all gathered to speak, Hei Ling said "We must strike the 87 Killers with all our forces on the 5th day of the Turtle Moon. We have a powerful alliance, and that is the ideal time to attack."

Zhang Hu, one of the other Celestial Plume Masters, and Qian Xiao's right hand man disagreed. "We should go back to the Banyan. This isn't our home, with Night Thorn dead, we should go back to how we were before brothers." 

"We must avenge the death of Night Thorn, Chief Zhang," Hei Ling countered. 

Zhang Hu slammed his fists on the table. "I do not serve Night Thorn. I serve our Master, and he is ailing, I have been by his side protecting him from his enemies while you have been out there doing whatever you want."

Hua Yin silently bristled. 

Hei Ling was angered that Zhang Hu did not address him by title, seeing it as a clear sign of disrespect. "I have been out there forming alliances, murdering our enemies, doing the will of our organization, while you have hidden here like a maid doing nothing for anyone but yourself. We cannot go back to the Banyan, we have come too far, and we are so close to eliminating Lady 87 and her people. It is time for us to unite and kill."

Zhang Hu looked towards the other masters and disciples. "We have nothing here, and we have lost our way. Our Master needs our help to restore him to his former glory." 

Iron Tiger stepped forward and said "Pardon Me Chief Hei Ling and Chief Zhang but who issued the order to send Hell Burning Sword against the Bear King Master Xiong?"

"That was our Master," said Zhang Hu, pointing toward Qian Xiao. 

"What do you say Master," asked Hei Ling. "How should we resolve this.

Master Qian Xiao stared at the wall and waved his hand, "Settle this between yourselves."

"So be it," Said Hei Ling, drawing the Sword of Zikang. 

"Good!" Said Zhang Hu. "If I win, we return to the Banyan."

"And what if you lose?"

"Then I will wash my hands of the martial world and retire," Said Zhang Hu.

Hei Ling moved forward and sliced through the air with his Leg Maiming Strike. Zhang Hu stepped into an Iron Body stance to absorb the blow only to see the blade slice both his legs clean off. 

"My legs! You cut off my legs!" Zhang Hu held himself up by his hands on the floor.

"There, you can crawl back to the Banyan. I am feeling merciful so I will let you live." 

*Technically there are only six demons now but they are still called the Seven Demons

**Wang Haoyang taught Fan Zhen'er this technique recently

***All the guards failed their Detect rolls against Wang Haoyang and Fan Zhen'er, so it was very easy for them to find Guan Rixin in a vulnerable position 

****This is an ongoing tactic Wang Haoyang, and now Wang Haoyang and his wife have been using to their advantage to take out more powerful opponents. By using surprise, damage becomes open, which means every success is counted as a wound. Because it is surprise, the attack cannot be countered either. Used with a technique like Blade of the Dancing Fox, this becomes exceedingly effective.