STAR-CROSSED BLADES OF THE GREEN PEONY

This is the first session of our Star-Crossed Blades of the Green Peony campaign for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate. It is set in Zhang Chang prefecture (which I hope to release a blog entry for). In this campaign, every player rolled randomly to determine who their family are, how many siblings they have and whether individual family members are still alive. The players also gave very rough sketches of their background (no more than a few sentences) and I secretly added a "20-year" backstory to each one. I have implemented a special rule in this campaign that every encounter has a 3 in 10 chance of being connected to their secret backstory in some way. 

CHARACTERS

QI YUN: A roaming martial expert who has secretly learned his martial arts from two different masters (and the masters have no knowledge of one another). 

XING GE: A traveling pipa player and the son of Lu Guiying the Iron Flower. His father died when he was five, and his mother married Gongsun Yuan, the chief of Black Parrot Society. Gongsun Yuan despises Xing Ge. 

TU JIN SHI: A wandering fighter seeking to be the strongest and most upright hero in the region. His father, Tu Haitao sent his mother away when he was young, after being consumed by grief over the passing of Jin Shi's brother, Tian. Shortly after his father died consuming a lethal concoction in a misguided effort to become immortal. 

LU LI: A traveling physician. 

FIGHT AT THE CRYSTAL TEAHOUSE

The party arrived in Niaojing, a disreputable city in North East Zhang Chang prefecture. They were drawn by rumors of the Crystal Teahouse, a place known for holding fights where heroes can prove their worth and earn some taels. 

Upon entering they saw a large crowd forming a circle around a single fighter, a man singing a traditional song and dressed like a scholar. The proprietor asked if anyone would fight Singing Scholar Gao. As the man beat his chest, Xing Ge decided to step in and take a fight with him. 

Singing Scholar Gao sang lyrics describing Xing Ge as an ungainly monkey, but his words were not well chosen and his melody faltered. Xing Ge played his pipa and recited a poem in which he asserted "Singing Scholar Gao dreams to be a monkey one day". The crowd were enthused by his performance and joined in the insult. 

When the fight commenced, Xing Ge used his Cascading Phoenix technique to flood Singing Scholar Gao with cold energy. This unnerved the scholar who quit the battle in a huff and stormed from the fight circle. 

From the crowd a man said "How about a real fight" and leapt into the circle. 

The man, bare-chested and dressed in silk breeches, introduced himself as Golden Monkey. 

Xing Ge politely declined the match but Tu Jin Shi stepped in. 

Bowing to Golden Monkey he said "I accept"

Golden Monkey bowed in the style of the Singh people and motioned for Tu Jin Shi to make the first strike. 

Tu Jin Shi stepped forward to deliver his burning palm but Golden Monkey intrecepted it with his shin, then kicked Tu Jin Shi in the liver. He was hurt but still standing. However a moment later the pain reverberated inside his body and he collapsed to the ground unable to continue. 

Golden Monkey helped the party carry Tu Jin Shi to a table where they gave him tea until he came to. 

When he was alert again, Tu Jin Shi thanked Golden Monkey for the match and admitted he was the inferior fighter. 

"I would greatly appreciate another lesson in the ring. Would you agree to another match in a month's time?"

Golden Monkey laughed and said "Meet me at the Green Peony in one month." He finished his tea and continued laughing as he left. 

The proprietor of the Crystal Teahouse (someone they later learned was named Long Sleeved Scholar Gao), impressed by Xing Ge's performance on the pipa offered to let him room for free and be paid if he played at the teahouse on a regular basis. Xing Ge declined the offered but was gracious. 

They decided to room at the Green Peony, discovering it was a brothel when they arrived. However they worked out an arrangement with the proprietess, Lady Shen Guo, where Xing Ge would play pipa in the courtyard so he and his group could stay for free. Tu Jin Shi mentioned the village he came from to her. 

They decided to look for local bounties to make money and hone their skills. That evening, they met a merchant who told them he would pay 15,000 spades to anyone who killed Thundering Scorpion and his men. The merchant said he had been terrorizing caravans along the road to Li An, and that he and his men were merciless. 

They were given individual rooms, and Tu Jin Shi awoke in the middle of the night to find a manual on his chest. However it was in Sai script. He could tell from the illustrations it was related to the Golden Monkey's techniques used in the fight. He and Xing Ge decided it was time they both learned to read so went back to the Crystal Teahouse in the morning and spoke again with Long Sleeved Scholar Gao. He offered to teach them, if Xing Ge performed during the fights and did so in a way that excited the crowd to bet more and more money. 

After their first lesson, Tu Jin Shin went back to his room at the Green Peony and sat down to see if he could use any of what he learned, but realized Long Sleeve Scholar Gao had taught them to read Feishu not Sai. As he was looking at the pictures a soft voice said "You don't know how to read do you". When he turned, one of the courtesans of the brothel was looking over his shoulder at the manual*. She snatched the manual and began to recite:

"The principles of Golden Monkey style are built on a firm physical foundation, first with the shins and knees...."

Surprised she could read it, he happily accepted without question when she offered to recite the text further so he could memorize and train. After she had helped him, and promised to continue doing so, he learned her name was Jin Hua. 

That afternoon they went to the morning market to find an information broker hoping to learn more about Thundering Scorpion. Tu Jin Shin still needed to recover so they would need to spend time in town anyways. 

At a stall they saw Singing Scholar Gao painting a portrait, and Xing Ge approached and apologized to him. The next day they returned and asked about Thundering Scorpion, he agreed to give what information he had for 500 spades, and promised to research more for them if they gave him 500 more. 

He informed them that Thundering Scorpion was once a terrible bandit but had reformed his ways and was now actively hunting robbers along the road with his four men. He said he was more powerful than he or Tu Jin Shi but less powerful than Golden Monkey. He also noted that Thundering Scorpion was known to be cruel in his dealings with bandits. One bandit in particular, White Scorpion, was of special interest to him. He was seeking to kill the man for some prior wrong against his family. 

When they returned to the inn, Tu Jin Shi asked Jin Hua about the manual and wanted to know why Golden Monkey gave it to him. She told him that her master, Lady Jade of Clearwater Lake, instructed her to give him the manual. He was grateful and asked if he could become Lady Jade's student. She told him if he went to Clearwater Lake, abiding by all decorum and politeness in his approach, Lady Jade would take him as a pupil. 

They went to Clearwater Lake, but planned to go east after so Qi Yun could connect with one of his masters. When they arrived, Lady Jade wore a mask and trained with a saber over the water. She eventually agreed to take Tu Jin Shi as a disciple if he agreed to three rules: He could have no master but her, if his abilities ever exceeded her own he would agree to only learn kung fu techniques by stealing them from other masters (never taking a new master) and he would kill her biggest enemy, an immortal she was not powerful enough to contend with should his Kung Fu ever reach great heights. 

During their first training session she rebuked him for expressing a preference for open handed style and demanded he conform his approach to her tastes in weaponry. She then began teaching him to use the saber. 

This is where the session ended. 

*The player had failed a secret Detect roll to spot her sneaking into the room.