PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSIONS 21-22

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. 

THE TIGERS OF HEN-SHI 

XIANG GUIYING/MERCIFUL TIGER: 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/COMPASSIONATE TIGER: 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)/PEARL TIGER: 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.   

ABBESS OF BOUNDLESS MERCY 

The party discussed how to select a new head abbess for the temple after Feng Min's death. After some deliberations they chose to ask Lady Yang and had Captain Yi send for her to ask if she was willing. They also gave Captain Yi money to procure more scriptures of Sun Mai and to go recruit female disciples as potential nuns. They also sought to find a martial expert to help protect the temple. 

Art by Jackie Musto

While they waited the group trained and studied texts on Hen-Shi and Qi Zhao. Lady of the Palace Library Ma Ping returned to the Hai'anese court but told the party she would have the Queen pay a visit when the temple was completed.

Guiying spent time interviewing Mi Bozhong to learn more about his betrayal. She used Finger of Supreme Annihilation on him and chanted sutras. He claimed he intended only to escape but never to harm them. Zheng Bao placed the boulder on him and watched him for the night while Guiying lectured the crazed abbot. 

In the morning Mi Bozhong seemed more peaceful and said "I understand now Brother."

Zheng Bao then went to Jade Swallow and recommended that they remove Mi Bozhong from his prison cell, and keep him in larger quarters. Jade Swallow disagreed saying he was still unreformed and needed at least three more months of imprisonment. Thet decided that the matter would be revisited in one month. 

Lady Yang returned to the temple and heard their proposal to make her the head abbess. 

"I would but must decline because I am not trained as a nun nor do I know anything about managing a temple."

"But Lady Yang, you have changed your ways and this would help you atone for the crimes you committed before seeing the Boundless Sutra," Zheng Bao said. 

The party continued to discuss the matter and after a while Lady Yang said, "I can accept the position if you find an abbess who can train me and educate me."

They decided to take Lady Yang to Hen-Shi temple in the Banyan to live as a nun and train for several months. Before they departed a plaque arrived, sent by the queen that read "The Tigers of Perfected Wisdom."

Guiying asked Lady Yang what she thought of the proclamation. "Is she trying to flatter us for some ulterior goal?"

"Queen Ainu probably sees you as useful," Said Lady Yang. "She is a cruel woman. I was allowed this land originally by the Queen because she intended me to perish here."

"Do you think she intends to reclaim the land back?" Asked Zheng Bao. "She seems to have taken a keen interest in the temple site."

"I find that unlikely as this is all swampland the queen considers useless," Said Lady Yang. "Most likely she will use the temple to help promote her own interests and reputation. The Queen is a competent wielder of power, even though she does not rule herself."

AN ENCOUNTER ON THE WAY TO HEN-SHI TEMPLE 

They traveled for many days, finally reaching the Banyan and then making their way towards Hen-Shi Temple. 

As they were traveling through the woods, a group of Zhaoze sect disciples passed. One of them bolted into the forest and Pan Ju gave chase, sending the disciple to the ground with a mighty kick. Zheng Bao then used fires of the merciful heart, causing the others to wail and pass out. 

They awakened the disciples and questioned them. Zheng Bao demanded to know why The Venom of Zhaoze was spreading lies about his companions. 

"Our master is a truthful man, ask your companions why he says such things," Said one of the disciples. 

"I don't believe you or your master," Said Zheng Bao. "Name a time and place so we may settle this once and for all."

The disciples said they could arrange a duel on Mount Hai'an in a month, which the party agreed to. 

The group continued to the temple and were greeted by its nuns. They arranged for a meeting with head Abbess Bing, who remembered them. She agreed to teach Lady Yang, saying it would take six months. 

"She will be ordained and have her head shaved," She said. "And I will instruct her in our ways"

The party agreed to make preparations at the temple and to await Lady Yang's return.  

IRON TEMPLE

They headed east to Iron Temple. There a group of skeletal nuns greeted them and brought them inside to speak with Supreme Abbess Li. 

Standing before the rotting flesh of the Abbess, she spoke to them. "Have you brought us the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower?"

"I am afraid this is all that remains of it," Zheng Bao held forth a charred metal petal.

Zheng Bao then told her how Mi Bozhong used his inkstone to transform the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower into a man and sent him to attack the temple. 

"The Sandstone Nun was killed. Our Abbess, Feng Min, was also killed." 

"This object was a relic of our temple," Said Supreme Abbess Li. "I demand you place this Mi Bozhong into our custody."

"Demand?" Asked Zheng Bao. "No one makes such demands of me!"

Zheng Bao held aloft the boundless boulder and meditated, causing all the skeletal nuns in the chamber to turn to dust. Supreme Abbess Li shielded her eyes and ran up to Bao, biting him on the neck and draining his life energy. 

Pan Ju leapt in with a series of sword stroke and obliterated the undead abbess. 

A deep, masculine voice filled the cave tunnels of the temple. 

"Good. Very good. You can leave and go in peace."

"Who are you?" Asked Zheng Bao. 

"I am Shang Si. The Abbess and her nuns were my murdered victims."

"Did they trap you here?" 

"I sent them here. Fate kept us all here."

"You have done me a service." The voice told them they could go and said Zheng Bao could take one of the Raksha statues when he left." 

They pulled down one of the statues and began hauling it through in their travels. They made their way to Cheng Bridge next, where they had an appointment to speak with Wind Bone. 

WIND BONE

At the bridge they waited three days, and finally Wind Bone arrived. His features were obscured by a hat and he wore simply clothes. They could see he held a flute made from bone. 

"You are the Three Tigers?"

"Yes," they said. 

"I am surprised you came, I did not expect you to keep your word. Please give me the belt of mercy as my people asked."

"We will not," Said Zheng Bao. "We simply came here to inform you that we cannot give it to you."

"Then I will be forced to be impolite," Wind Bone began playing his flute and a wind cut through the air at them. Pan Ju dodged out of the way, while Guiying countered it with her web, but Zheng Bao was impaled by a solid force of wind. 

Pan Ju leapt forward with a blaze of spinning steel and cut down Wind Bone. They left him alive, bound him, and carried him on the Raksha statue. 

DUEL ON MOUNT HAI'AN

As they made their way to Mount Hai'an to meet Venom of Zhaoze, Zheng Bao lectured Wind Bone on the compassionate teachings of Hen-Shi. 

"You mercy sounds like a prison," Said Wind Bone. "I am free like the winds of Gushan!" 

Zheng Bao countered that Wind Bone was like a caged tiger, in need of reform. But Wind Bone said he had desire for nature's beauty to be constrained. 

They continued and kept him bound, making the long journey to the wintry peak of Mount Hai'an, where they saw three figures standing on a frozen lake. A group of men were hundreds of feet away on the lake's shore. 

Zhen Bao kept Wind Bone tied to the statue and placed him in the snow with a view to the proceedings. The group then trudged across the lake to meet their opponents. 

As they approached Venom of Zhaoze and his resplendent robes came into view, he spoke "Zhaoze sect received you with hospitality and you repaid that courtesy by taking my daughter's arms and my master's life, today you cannot escape justice!"

"We did no kill Shan Lushan," Said Pan Ju. 

"Lies!"

Zheng Bao asked for clarity as he was not present during the events the Venom spoke of. 

"I have witnesses," Said Venom of Zhaoze. "I returned to the sect only to find my master dead and my daughter maimed. The cruelty of the Three Tigers truly knows no bounds!"

"Show us these witnesses," Zheng Bao demanded.

"I would not betray them to you," Said Venom of Zhaoze. 

Through all of this Venom of Zhaoze's daughter stood silently near her father, and a third figure, with a fan and scholarly robes at his other side.

Guiying lost patience and launched a sudden attack with her Throttling Web technique. Venom of Zhaoze saw the attack coming but his daughter did not. 

Pan Ju also leapt into the fray, but Venom of Zhaoze blocked his side stepped his sword strikes. He then moved forward and tried to blast Pan Ju with a powerful palm but missed. 

The unknown scholar attacked Pan Ju with his fan blades, but Pan Ju replied with the Hidden Fist of Yanshi, one of Shan Lushan's techniques. 

"You are disrespecting Shan Lushan by blaming us instead of finding his real killers," Said Pan Ju. 

"His killers will die today!"

Pan Ju used storming daggers, and Venom of Zhaoze fell to the snow in a hail of blades. 

The unknown scholar motioned for everyone to stop "Please, our sect leader is down, let's discuss rather than fight."

Zheng Bao shook his head and slammed his boulder at the scholar. The scholar then attacked Bao. 

"I must heal Venom of Zhaoze or he will die," Said Guiying. 

The combatants let Guiying heal him but continued the fight. 

Pan Ju moved towards Little Venom and attempted to kick her. She deflected it with a crescent kick and moved into a spinning heel kick that missed his head. 

"What is your name?" Zheng Bao asked the scholar as they traded blows. 

"I am Li Mengwei, Zhaoze Sect's second chief. 

With a thud, Zheng Bao knocked Li Mengwei unconscious. 

Little Venom attempted another furious kick at Pan Ju but he countered with the Hidden Fist of Yanshi, knocking her out. 

The men on the shore, disciple of Zhaoze, approached. One of them seemed nervous and said "Sirs may we tend to our master please?"

There was a discussion and Zheng Bao opposed them doing so. It ended with him using the Fires of Hen-Shi on them. This caused them to feel the flames of Hen-Shi and pass out. 

Pan Ju then asked to have a one-on-one conversation with Little Venom to settle their grudge.