Return to the House of Lord Jourdain (Part II)

In the week following the first expedition, word spread quickly through Khanbaliq that Beatriss and Tetsukichi had lifted the curse of the foreign lord. The rumor grew with each retelling. By the time the new party set out, a small procession trailed them through the Outer City.

Outside the southern gate they found an even larger crowd—nearly two hundred people scattered across the floodplain between the new walls and the river. All eyes were fixed on the dark outline of Jourdain’s ruined compound. None dared draw too near; spectators watched from trees or from the shells of other buildings a hundred paces off. As Beatriss’s group advanced, the hangers-on melted away until only the bravest lingered at the gate.

There they met a band of a dozen armed men, self-appointed guards of the place. Their leader, Ho-Jun, and his lieutenant Chong, claimed they were keeping the city safe—nothing comes out, nothing goes in. Exceptions, of course, could be made for heroes. After a brief exchange they joined the expedition, swaggering and eager for glory.

Inside, the rooms of the ground floor were unchanged: silent, dust-coated, and now strangely mundane without the presence of Jourdain’s spirit. Ho-Jun and Chong helped force open several doors and quickly claimed the choicest bottles from the old wine cellar. The others searched for valuables with more restraint, then climbed to the upper story.

Behind one locked door they heard a woman’s voice.

“Jourdain? Please. I forgive you. Let me out.”

 When Beatriss answered, “It isn’t Jourdain,” the tone changed. The voice became a snarl, and a gray, vengeful figure stepped through the wall. Between Cair’s spells and the swords of Beatriss and Tetsukichi the spirit was banished. Behind the door they found her mortal remains—a long-dead woman, still adorned with jeweled rings. The jewels were taken, and the party withdrew. Ho-Jun and Chong gathered more liquor on the way out. Outside, the crowd greeted them as victors.

They returned the next morning, intent on a thorough survey. The opportunists had been busy: two guards now stood before the padlocked gate collecting “safety fees.” After paying, the party entered and found Ho-Jun, Chong, and several companions already inside, drinking and entertaining women from the city. Most were incapable of standing; the house reeked of spilled wine and burning opium. Still, Ho-Jun insisted on joining the explorers again, and one of the women demanded to see the upper floors. No one refused her.

The exploration was brief and disastrous. In the library, a concealed panel gave way to a hidden chamber. The instant the secret door opened, there was a muffled blast—a gout of fire and dust that killed Ho-Jun and the curious woman outright. Beyond the smoke, the survivors discovered the preserved corpse of Lord Jourdain, a cabinet of magical instruments, and within a chalk circle on the floor, a seated figure—Bayemon, the demon.

The creature raised its head and spoke with a voice that was both courteous and venomous. It asked to be released. Beatriss refused. Tetsukichi, though tempted to question it further, obeyed her word. No one was permitted to touch the corpse or the artifacts.

Bayemon smiled.

“Someone will free me in time,” he said. “I will remember those who refused.”

 

The group backed away and sealed the door. They continued through the upper floor, defeating an invisible guardian that lingered near the room of a dead magician, and carried off what treasure they could manage.

Wounded and burdened, they made for the exit. In the entry hall Chong confronted them, furious at the loss of his companion. When they admitted Ho-Jun’s death and offered ten taels in compensation, he  demanded the whole purse. The party retreated toward the gate, Chong and his men in pursuit.

At the last moment Cair raised his hands and muttered a spell; the padlock on the gate burst open with a crack. The adventurers slipped through, slamming the doors behind them. The mob outside parted in confusion as they fled across the floodplain, smoke rising once again from the house of Lord Jourdain.

Addendum – The Mirror Room of Lord Jourdain

It had happened late in the day. The party had already discovered the hidden library and sealed away the demon when they came upon another narrow corridor lined with warped mirrors. Most were cracked or filmed with dust, but one—taller and framed in tarnished bronze—still caught the light.

From within its surface pulsed a dim gold radiance, faintly rhythmic, like breath. Tetsukichi, ever curious, leaned closer to study the glass. The glow intensified, the reflection bending and twisting until the others could no longer see him clearly. Then, with a soundless flash, the light burst across the hall.

When it faded, Tetsukichi stood blinking, unharmed—but his hair had turned the color of pale straw. Afu whispered that the mirror had contained a spirit of reflection, a remnant of Jourdain’s curse, one that revealed not appearances but inner essence. Tetsukichi tried to laugh it off, but Beatriss noticed his unease—the way he avoided his reflection as they left the room.

By the time they returned to Khanbaliq that evening, he was quieter than usual. Walking through the narrow streets near the southern gate, he flinched at the sound of dogs barking in the distance. When
Beatriss asked what was wrong, he hesitated before answering:

“They’re not barking at us. They’re arguing about supper.”

She stared, unsure whether he was joking. But as they passed a cluster of caged birds outside a wine shop, his expression changed again—listening, understanding. From that day, Tetsukichi began to hear the voices of animals, not as sounds but as words: curt, emotional, alive.

Return to House of Lord Jourdain (Part I)

Since their arrival in Khanbaliq roughly six months ago, both Gwinch and Beatriss have heard rumors that there are people “like them” in the city. When they heard this in Zipang, the people “like them” turned out to be simply foreigners from Zhou-dang, or even “barbarians” from the far north of the country. But Khanbaliq is cosmopolitan city. Most of the people are native to northern Zhou-dang or have emigrated from the “Horselands,” but besides the Zipang contingent, there are representatives from most every known empire, kingdom, nation between the Sea of Zipang and the Western Mountains.

When Beatriss followed the invitation to meet someone "like her", she found the priestess waiting. Myrrha was a woman of striking presence—perhaps near Beatriss’s age, but darker of complexion, with brown curly hair, a foreigner from lands to the west, yes, but not one who had spent her childhood underground. The two woman shared an awkward laughed at the idea that they resembled each other.

Myrrha greeted her in several tongues, one of them uncannily close to Cynidicean but not quite right—like a melody she half-recognized but could not sing. When words failed, they settled into Zhou-dang, speaking carefully.

Cair, the man who had offered the invitation, was there as well, standing by the door. When Beatriss asked his purpose, he explained with measured pride that he was a descendant of Lord Jourdain himself. Their common ancestor, he said, had traveled from the west to Zhou-dang and taken two wives, one whom he left behind when he returned to his homeland with  the other. The families had long diverged, but Cair had come east to pay respects at the ruin of his ancestor’s house—and perhaps to understand why it had not rested easily.

He confessed that the welcome he had found in Khanbaliq was colder than expected; he was much a foreigner here as he had been in the land of his birth. And he wasn't sure whether he was a guest or a prisoner. He wished to see the place that bound his blood to this country, and perhaps recover a token of its history.

An understanding soon followed. Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and Hatsu would accompany Myrrha and Cair on a second expedition to the House of Jourdain. Su-Laing’s relatives in the House of Mehwa arranged the necessary permissions for Myrrha and Cair to leave the Forbidden City. They made little effort to hide their own interest in the venture: the foreigner’s sense of “filial duty” might be sincere, but if treasure remained in that haunted place, it would be better found by their allies than by strangers. Askaa and Ganbold were assigned to represent the family’s claim.

By week’s end, the new party was assembled—seven travelers bound again for the southern floodplain and the ruin where the dead had not yet learned to stay buried.

Play Report: The House of Lord Jourdain (Part IV)

After winning the keys from Jourdain’s servant, the party decided to try some of the locked doors in the basement. They discovered first an alchemy lab, and then some asphyxiating mold. Afu, somewhat panicked by the mold wanted to try to exit the compound, but as expected the gate would not open and there wasn’t even a keyhole to try one of their keys. Concluding that there must be another way out, the party ventured back into the house, checking out some of the rooms they’d missed on the first floor.

Lord Jourdain seemed to have a lot fun with is visitors, the high point for him being when Beatriss, in trying to open the door to his drinking parlor, came under the effect of a powerful hallucinogenic. White Bear raised some angry objections, and refused to roll “to hit” when I explained her friends had suddenly taken on demonic aspects and she had no choice but to fight them in deadly earnest. Lord Jourdain’s laghter increased with the party’s despair, and then at once fell silent, to be be succeeded by a flash of light and an explosion in the courtyard. In trying to grapple with the deranged Beatriss, the party lost both Qasqari and Hajip; they retreated to another room and barred the door. White Bear suggested, and I agreed, that Beatriss need not pursue them, but since she perceived them as a danger, flee in the other direction.
After poking around in the drinking parlor, the party decided to see what might have happened to Beatriss. They went back into the courtyard and saw two of Jourdain’s hounds, both standing tentatively in the arch of the now open gate, one of them holding something in its mouth. The party fired a volley of arrows and both hounds, turned and barked threateningly (the one dropping the thing in its mouth), but after being hit with a couple more arrows, ran away—out the gate.
The “thing in its mouth” turned out to be boot—chewed and charred, but still with traces of blue dye, and a couple of crushed bells attached.
The party left the compound, and found Beatriss, distraught over what she had done, but reconciled with her more customary perceptions of reality. Relieved to have escaped and with some evidence of what happened to Ikhbayar , the party decided to retrieve the bodies of Qasqari and Hajip and then returned home. Even in the ruins of the old city, carrying dead bodies invites questions. The party freely explained where they had been. And that wicked man was supposed to be rich? Maybe. They hadn’t found anything worth taking.
Back at the House of Mewha, there were questions about money. Tetsukichi gave the boot to Su-Laing and left with her the job of deciding what to tell Kei-lo.
Finally, on her way out of the forbidden city, Beatriss was approached by a shadowy man with a message. A priestess named Myrrha, who had quarters in the forbidden city would like a meeting at her convenience. The man pointed out where Myrrha could be found and then slipped away.

Play Report: The House of Lord Jourdain (part III)

Again, Lord Jourdain:

"These hounds of mine are like nothing that walks the earth—lean and muscular, large as ponies, with black mouths and black teeth. When they bark, they breathe fire. But my visitors had spirit. They killed three of the pack and drove the other two off. There is no use for a beaten dog but to butcher it for the servants, yet the pale lady, sick with pity, let those two escape.

"No matter.

"My guests wandered back to the ground floor, then climbed to the upper rooms, snooping through the bedchambers. They found many locked doors, which of course only made them more determined to enter. And who should come sashaying down the corridor but Landri—faithful Landri—shaking his great ring of keys the way he always did. Still making the same jokes to “guests” who mistook him for a servant: someone asking for a softer mattress, a glass of water, a little favor for their comfort. These newcomers were no different. They had misplaced one of their friends and imagined he must be behind one of those locked doors.

"When they saw Landri and his keys, they displayed their perfect stupidity. The priest among them puffed out his chest, lifted whatever holy trinket hung around his neck, and commanded this poor, tortured soul to return to “the place from which he came.”

"I might have told him: Excuse me, your holiness, but I haven’t given Landri a day off in nearly a hundred years. He isn’t going anywhere. And aren’t those the very keys you want?

"Completely unnecessary. Landri never did listen to sermons. And never did a fat priest lose so much weight so quickly. After one touch from Landri’s hand, the priest went pale and hid again behind the warriors. Then the pale lady drew her sword, and that was the end of poor Landri.

"Well—I told him to keep the door locked to my wine cellar."

Play Report: House of Lord Jordain (Part II)

In the words of Lord Jourdain:

"When I saw them approaching the house, I knew they were more than lost travelers or timid, second-hand curiosity seekers. They had a certain look in their eyes. A look showing ignorance of those who had entered this house beforehand and died without a sympathetic witness. No, even better, the look of those who hear all the tales, all the warnings, and come anyway. My favorite kind of company.

"The pale lady I’d seen before. And as much as I wanted to see her die when I first saw her now I wanted it even more. She pried the boards off the gate herself. Once inside the gates, she consulted with one of them. He was a foreigner, too by his arms. He wore a laced breastplate from Zipang like the one my father left for me. This one, the Zipangese warrior, he nodded in the direction of the house.
And so the pale lady walks up to the front door and opens it, without a half-step, without a cocked ear. Not like a burglar, but like someone who thinks she has a right to something. Or like a child hoping her stomping feet will scare away the ghosts before he enters a room.

"Sorry pale lady! The look on her face when the statues leapt off their pedestals will stay with me for centuries. The Zipangese man's shock when of pain when he landed a solid blow on more solid stone. But the pale lady’s sword carried ancient enchantments, and soon one of my stone guardians lay shattered across the marble floor.

The uninvited guests passed from the foyer to the dining hall, where they cut down my poor, half-starved servants. Then through the kitchen and down to the cellar they went. What did they seek? And why were they so easily defeated by a simple locked door? That gave me some amusement.

But the true sport began when my hounds caught their scent.

Play Report: Khanbaliq 1272 - The House of Lord Jourdain (Part I)

In the imperial capital of Khanbaliq, still half-built upon the ruins of an older city, Tetsukichi found himself drawn into delicate obligations. His affair with Su-Laing, daughter of the late and dishonored Lord Mehwa, had become public enough that her extended family began to speak of marriage. To them, the match was both convenient and risky — an opportunity to secure Su-Laing’s future while quietly aligning their tainted name with a foreigner who had once saved her life.

But they made no secret of one expectation: if he were to be her husband, Tetsukichi must not be poor.

So when talk turned again to the disappearance of Ikhbayar, the guardsman once in love with Su-Laing’s handmaiden Kei-Lo, Tetsukichi saw a chance to satisfy duty, curiosity, and ambition at once. Kei-Lo believed her lover had entered the ruins below the city — into the House of Lord Jourdain, once the mansion of a foreign noble said to have trafficked in dark arts — searching for treasure to buy his freedom. He had never returned.

Tetsukichi resolved to go himself: to learn the truth of Ikhbayar’s fate and, perhaps, to recover what wealth or relics the old house might still conceal.

Beatriss agreed to accompany him. The expedition also included Afu, a priest versed in purification rites; his apprentice Ju-May; four hired guards; and Hatsu, Tetsukichi’s old comrade from Zipang — nine in total.

Before they departed, Afu performed divinations and named an auspicious morning for the venture. But when that morning arrived, Beatriss was too weak to rise. Her skin was cold, her pulse faint. They delayed the expedition. As her strength returned, she resumed her Blackbird exercises, the disciplined movements she'd learned from a tengu in Zipang. During her recovery she met Kwan Wan Lo, a visiting martial artist preparing for the Imperial Tournament, who praised her technique and urged her to compete.

By then, Omesa, her guest from Jangze, had vanished. He left no farewell. 

When Beatriss was restored, the company finally rode beyond the southern walls, across the muddy floodplain where the ruins of the old city lay half-sunken and overgrown. Among the broken foundations stood two surviving structures: the Temple of the Two-Fold Path and, not far from it, the House of Lord Jourdain.

It was there, according to Kei-Lo, that Ikhbayar had gone seeking fortune — and where Tetsukichi and Beatriss would soon follow, searching not only for a lost man, but for something worth the risk of love and ruin alike.