PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSION THREE

This is a sandbox campaign for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, operating in "Condor Heroes Mode". I used a lot of the procedures described in the wuxia sandbox posts. This is a campaign with three players. Before the campaign started we spent time establishing their family connections, rolling randomly for both their mothers and fathers (normally only one parent is randomly rolled, but in this case we wanted characters with potentially scandalous backgrounds). These characters each started play with just one Kung Fu Technique. 

CHARACTERS

XIANG GUIYING: The daughter of Jade Fist of Twin Fisted Eagle sect and Pale Fox, a notorious bandit. She is seeking pelts from Pearl Tigers. She is beautiful but wears a disguise to hide this from others. 

ZHENG BAO: Short and burly, he is the son of Zhang San of Bone Breaking Sect and of Reckless Storm. However San is married to Chen and has maintained the presence that Bao is Chen's son. Unfortunately due to crucial background information, Chen knows that Bao cannot be his son so is distant. Zheng Bao's uncle, Bone Breaker, is fond of him. He is seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower to please his uncle. 

PAN JU (MOGHA): The son of the Witch of Zhaoze Zhou and Nergui Mogha, Pan Ju grew up in the Kushen Basin but has returned to the Banyan and Hai'an, where he knows his mother resides. 

PALE FOX 

The party traveled south to the Pale Hills to see Guiying's mother. As they passed through a bamboo forest they were surprised by four people in blank porcelain masks, who approached them from either side. The people did not speak, but communicated with gestures, which the party understood to be a demand for money under threat of death. 

Guiying gave them two hundred spades but said her mother, Pale Fox, would come for the interest. They continued on, and made it to the Pale Hills in time for Pale Fox's birthday on the 13th of the Turtle Moon. 

Guiying presented her mother with the Phoenix Crown and introduced her two companions. When Zheng Bao explained that he was the nephew of Bone Breaker and seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths flower as a gift for his uncle, Pale Fox praised the venture and told Guiying to learn from Zheng Bao when choosing next year's birthday present. 

In private Pale Fox instructed her daughter to demonstrate her present master of martial arts. The results were quite poor and Pale Fox was irritated by her daughter's lack of talent with a range of weapons. She gave her a Jian and Axe and instructed her in a double strike technique for dealing with two opponents at once. She also trained her in some defenses and told her to work on her conditioning*.

Pale Fox then agreed to teach Guiying's companion some minor Kung Fu as thanks for traveling with her daughter. Pan Ju prepared a meal and Pale Fox was so impressed she insisted that he return and make meals for her regularly. 

After the meal, Pale Fox spoke with Guiying in private and said she had a task for her. She wanted her to seek a man named Hero Feng. Guiying knew who this was as it was someone who had once promised to marry her mother but abandoned her at the Singing Pavilion in an act of unbelievable cowardice. 

"I want you to find Hero Feng," Pale Fox said, "and tell him you are his daughter, he will not doubt this lie."

"Yes Mother."

"Then I want you to learn his martial arts, become his student and train. When you have mastered all of his skills and feel capable, kill him."

"Yes mother, Hero Feng is a cowardly wretch who doesn't deserve to live."

"After you kill him we will find you a real sifu, someone worthy who can teach you powerful Kung Fu."

TO QING LU 

They returned north, and hunted along the way**, finding a seven foot long giant salamander. They took the meat and brought it with them to sell along the way. Guiying fashioned a good from the skin. 

In He Dong they sold the meat and learned that Hero Feng had been seen going to Qing Lu. They also noticed that most of the adult villagers had no arms and learned that one of Twin Fisted Eagles sons had gone on an appendage tearing rampage years ago. 

In Qing Lu they learned from people at The Yu Vessel Restaurant that Hero Feng was staying at a brothel called the Many Banded Krait. The women there all dressed in snake skin robes and out of a sense of propriety Guiying decided to have a message sent inside telling Hero Feng his daughter would speak with him. 

Hero Feng was initially cautious towards Guiying's upon meeting her but when she asked to learn his martial arts, he seemed pleased and acknowledged her as his daughter. He told Pan Ju and Zheng Bao that they would need to work in town to fund his daughter's training, and that he might teach them a thing or two as well for their trouble. 

*We are not using XP this campaign. If characters work towards a skill, it will go up with appropriate time and effort. Kung Fu Techniques are learned during a down time period of training. The session with Pale Fox was about two weeks or training time. 

**Instead of an abstract survival roll for hunting, I had them make an inverted Survival Roll to see if they could find game, then rolled randomly on a list of local game animals