PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSION 16

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. It 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.   

THE BOUNDLESS STONE 

The party contemplated the words "Hen-Shi's compassion is boundless and mighty as this stone". 

"What should we do with it?" Asked Guiying. 

Zheng Bao asked Feng Min what she thought of the words and how the stone came to be re-written before their eyes. 

"I think a mercy of Hen-Shi took the stone and reformed it to reflect the true teachings."

"What Hen-Shi showed us mercy?" Asked Guiying.

"No," Said Feng Min. "A Mercy, an enlightened being of of Hen-Shi appeared and reshaped the stone."

"Should we carry it with us, or put it somewhere safe?" Asked Guiying. 

"I want to build a temple around it and place it in a pagoda," Said Feng Min. "The message must be promulgated. It will counter the teachings of the sandstone sutra." 

Knowing Zheng Bao was moved by the teachings of Hen-Shi and the mystery of the stone, she suggested he shave his head on the shore and become a monk saying she could ordain him. Zheng Bao said he could not as he still had to tend to his master, but promised to carry the stone and protect it until she built her temple. 

From there the party decided to go back to Lady Yang's manor, with the aim of encouraging her to reform, but resolved to kill if they needed to. 

THE HEART OF THE BAMBOO PLUME 

They sailed back to Yang Manor and reached the dense ring of bamboo forest surrounding her estate. Pan Ju helmed the boat while Feng Min recited the words from the Boundless Stone. Zheng Bao unleashed a relentless attack on the forest, using his Iron Spear of the Timeless Master to blast it from a distance. 

When the trees exploded a plume of thick black smoke vented from the shafts and dissipated after several minutes. There was commotion and disciples of the manor began taking position to block them. 

"Clear a path, I do not wish to kill you, but am set on clearing way, step aside or you will die," Said Zheng Bao.

The disciples readied their bows and he sent another explosion of energy, clearing more forest and killing the disciples. This revealed an opening to the manor, which rested on a small island in the swamp. The ring of trees had been 300 feet thick and through them he could see a woman in red and an armed man beside her. 

"You have killed my disciples and trespassed Yang Manor," She said. 

"You will come with us Lady Yang," Said Zheng Bao, "We must bring you to justice for your crimes. Who is that man beside you?"

"This is Captain Yi and you are a hypocrite. I am only guilty of being a dutiful daughter," she said. "If you want to face your death in a dignified manner, then approach so we can face one another fairly, otherwise I will send you into the swamp from where I stand."

Guiying whispered "I will go test her skills," then leapt into action, using great stride to appear next to Lady Yang. 

Zheng Bao and Feng Min began chanting the words from the stone together, and this made Guying's hands feel more certain*.

Using Finger of Supreme Annihilation, Guiying flooded Lady Yang's body with hot energy. 

Lady Yang's hands fumed with a molten red, and she went to palm strike Guiying, who leapt away. 

Captain Yi then tried to skewer Guiying with a series of lightning fast spear strokes, but again she whirled into the air to escape the attack. 

Pan Ju piloted the boat closer to the action while Feng Min and Zheng Bao continued to chant the sutra. 

The energy pulsing through Lady Yang's body from Guiying's attack, continued to course and harm her internal organs. 

Guiying attempted to strike Lady Yang with her Finger of Supreme Disruption but Lady Yang soared into the air to evade her touch. 

Once again Lady Yang attempted to palm strike Guiying with her smoldering hands but she was able to leap away**.

Captain Yi tried to stab her where she landed, but she jumped back into the air to slip from his attack. 

Lady Yang was beginning to feel weak from Guiying's attack, her body still flowing with the overwhelming hot energy. 

Pan Ju continued to pilot the boat closer, this time reaching within fifteen feet of the shore. 

Zheng Bao stopped chanting and leapt onto the sand, then charged Lady Yang but missed. 

Guiying touched Lady Yang's Forehead, sending more hot energy into her body, with the Finger of Supreme Disruption. 

In a furious rage, Lady Yang reached for Guiying, but her opponent leapt again into the air to escape her. 

Feng Min ran up from the boat and brought both of her fists against either side of Lady Yang's head with a crash. 

Pan Ju jumped from the boat and tried to land a kick of the golden elephant, but Lady Yang whirled out of the way. 

Seconds later, Lady Yang collapsed on the ground, overwhelmed by the heat still coursing through her body she began to die. 

Pan Ju prevented her death with the Finger of Supreme Compassion, then Zheng Bao placed the Boundless Stone on top of her. 

Lady Yang's body flooded the stone with blue light and she began to heal. 

Weeping she read the words. 

"Do you understand the words meaning properly Lady Yang?" Asked Zheng Bao. 

"Yes," she said.

He removed the stone from her chest and she kowtowed to it. 

Zheng Bao offered his apologies for killing her father. 

"Our grudge is settled, there is no enmity between us any longer." She said. 

"Does that mean the contracts on us are rescinded?" Asked Guying. 

She nodded to Captain Yi. "The contracts will be rescinded."

 

*This conferred a +2d10 bonus 

**She was also getting +2d10 to her counters from the chanting 

NEW PROFOUND MASTERS OF OGRE GATE PLAYTEST NOTES

I started play testing my New Profound Masters of Ogre Gate material last night with a focus on combat with gods. This is just something I am working on that is for my present campaigns. It may become a large blog entry or perhaps a book if there is enough material. It is done in the spirit of New Dragon Inn, meaning it is a new take on the Profound Masters levels for Ogre Gate, where I can be more liberal in my interpretation of the original rules. 

In this session the players all made high level immortals (Qi rank 24). They were given one powerful Celestial Weapon and also each given two new Insights from tables I made recently. Then we had a battle between them and Xian Nu Shen, the Enlightened Goddess. 

Initially they had some difficulty. Some characters were more vulnerable than others as there are abilities that cap damage. The Enlightened Goddess has such an ability called Jade Heart, which means she can't take more than 10 wounds from an attack. But two of the Immortal Characters had a similar ability capping their damage from individual attacks at 20 (something they would need as the Enlightened Goddess' sword alone does +25 Extra Wounds. One player was able to fend off her sword attacks with his Iron Heart Reversal, making it so he only took half damage. Another player couldn't withstand her attacks and took 20 points of damage due to the cap. The third character managed to block the attack completely. 

While things were difficult for them at first, they very quickly realized a profound technique that would limit her considerably, called The Clamoring Laughter of Ancient Gray Demon, was something they all knew. Due to this and another attack, her hardiness was lowered when she moved. However she opted to continue moving so she could cut a hole in reality with her sword to suck the players through, which reduced her to 1 Hardiness. The players all made their Muscle TN 10 rolls to avoid getting obliterated from existence, and managed to reduce her Hardiness to zero with further attacks. They then threw her into the tear in the sky and the Enlightened Goddess was annihilated. 

After the battle one thing that was observed was immortal characters lacked a defining quality. They felt, at least in this battle, more like high level profound characters. After some discussion, I added this to the list of abilities all immortals get and we will see if that improves things: 

Path Power: Select one profound technique that defines your character. Your character can now use this technique even in actions not related to its usage. You can always use it freely as an action without taking imbalance points. Players should describe how they use this feature of their character freely and the GM should adjudicate it openly and creatively, applying bonuses and effects when it seems appropriate to the description of the technique.

This is just the first real combat test of this stuff. But I liked how things functioned so far. And I am hopeful about the use of this new Immortal Ability. It was an isolated test though, with the party and the Enlightened Goddess squaring off with no real context beyond location. In a normal campaign circumstances might be very different. My goal is to make these kinds of battles possible but not a cake walk. 

I am also looking at XP spending at the higher levels and considering special features players can spend XP on at the immortal levels during downtime (things like celestial geography and sect building).