The party return to their house in the city and enjoyed long baths for finalizing their plans to return to the Bo-Jing’s post in the lands of the Valley of the Five Fires. Bo-Jing announced that they would leave the next day, hoping that an early departure would avoid any more audiences with the Emperor. Bangqiu sent a thought message to Kafka in the Happy Valley, telling him that the monastery in Khanbaliq was suitable for reconsecration and habitation by genuine monks, although there were some problems in the way of an ant infestation and sewage system irregularities that would need to be addressed at some point.
The company set out the next afternoon. As they traveled north, Bo-Jing and Bangqiu found that increasingly their reputations preceded them. When there was no inn available, there was a snug house, and when there was no house, there was an encampment around a roaring fire, the smell of roasting meat and a crowd of smiling faces. Mainly they wanted to hear about the coin that Bo-Jing and Ganbaatar had given to the Emperor. Where did they find it, what were it’s powers, what would the Emperor do with it, would there be marriages to Imperial daughters? Some knew of the feud with Gansukh and the Nergui horde. Some had heard rumors of Bangqiu’s powers. And always there were one or two young men hoping to spar with the bright-eyed warrior maiden.
Bangqiu and Bo-Jing wanted to find another coin. And along the road, they found someone who wanted to help them, a mystic named Erke who told them he visited the Valley of the Five Fires in the dreamworld and heard rumors of the where the Northern Coin could be found. “The horse of Khagan Harad still looks for his master.” Bo-Jing invited Erke to travel with them.
As the party traveled further north, the welcomes were as warm as ever, but with an undercurrent of desperation. They were hearing strange stories about men taking on the minds of beasts, becoming maddened by the basest instincts. There were a few jokes about the barbaric ways of the Nergui horde, but most understood this was something more. Instead of tall tales, these people wanted to hear that yes Bo-Jing and Bangqiu did lead a battle against wolves, giants, and flying monsters. And yes, when the time came, they would do it again.
When the party reached Banua, they were ready to put aside thoughts about the coin. Ganbaatar was “so thankful that you decided to leave the good life in the capital and return to little old Banua.”
Based on stories of what was happening in the lands of the Nergui horde, Ganbaatar had forbidden his people from traveling in the lands west of Banua. And yet, the Master’s armies, the beastmen were likely on their way. He was especially concerned to hear stories that the shrine of Sum Sukhis had been defiled. Northeast of Banua, Ganbaatar considered this the true jewel of his lands. “A holy place for all people. No matter your faith, any one who visited there with an open heart would come away with peace and joy. Until now.”
Pilgrims had gone and not returned. Others had given up their pilgrimage, finding themselves more and more uneasy as they came in view of the stupa that marked the holy place.
Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, and Nar-Nuteng were glad to go. Erke would not. Instead, he would stay and wait for them in Banua.
The travel to the shrine took several days and while the people they met were welcoming as they got closer there were fewer and fewer people. They met a hermit who told them the strange history of the shrine, that it was built with a pool on the ground floor, an upper story, and a lower floor that was closed off to everyone, in expression of the constant necessity to resist evil. And now the shrine had been overrun by monsters, blue and purple oni who attacked pilgrims and defiled the shrine.
On the day when they finally reached the shrine, they met a pair of 10-fotot tall blue-skinned monsters, trying to knock down a tree in which an eagle was nesting. Bangqiu and Ryu used their magic to transix the monsters. They fell to the ground in a stiff slumber. The eagle flew down from the trees to peck out the monster’s eyes and feed it to her chicks. In examining the monsters bodies, Bo-Jing noticed several large, pus-filled sores and bloody boils. Ryu could talk to the eagle who explained that the monsters lived in the “quiet stone house” and had “taken the silence away” with fighting and screaming.
The party entered the shrine and found the pool as described by the hermit and a staircase leading down. At the bottom of the staircase, they found a pair of oni standing guard outside a door, their backs facing the party. Bangqiu spoke to them in his most commanding voice and in their own language, explaining that he had come from the Master and wanted a full report. The oni promised that they were doing the Master’s bidding, and guarding the place but there was something in the underground that was making everyone sick. Everyone wanted to leave but the chief said no. Bangqiu expressed the necessity of speaking to the chief at once.
The oni agreed and let the party back upstairs and to the upper floor. The other oni they met were glad to meet visitors. Using both his sword and the power of the Eastern Coin, Bo-Jing was able to convince them that he was a powerful ally. Some were violent, but not in a sustained, cohesive, or even fully serious way, and not necessarily directed at “the little folk.” On a lark and perhaps to impress the visitors, two of the onis decided to throw a third over the balcony and into the pool below. All of them were covered with the same sores that plagued the onis that had been harassing the eagles.
When they reached the chief’s quarters, they found him less cowed and more hostile, and suddenly found themselves surrounded by a dozen monsters who had already shown their capacity for easy violence. Thinking fast, Bo-Jing called on the power of the Eastern Coin and with a sharp word, the chief was struck to the ground motionless. The onis hesitated and then one sprang for the chief’s yak-skin cloak, proclaiming himself “the new chief.” He was challenged by one of the other oni and in the midst of the melee, Bangqiu made the cloak disappear.
The onis didn’t notice immediately, but when they did, they began to cry out in outrage once again threatening the visitors with violence and doing their best to deliver on their threats.
An invisible Bangqiu, stepped outside the a window and called from there, “the cloak of the chief is outside. The first one outside will claim it as the new chief.” To prove his point, the invisible Bangqiu dropped the cloak. Those oni standing near the window saw it fall to the ground. After testing they were too big to jump out the window, the oni, pushed their ways to the stairs or over the balcony. As soon as they got outside, the still invisible Bangqiu, made the cloak disappear again, only to carry it and drop it further away from the shrine.
As the rest of the party made their way out of the shrine, they met a pair of onis that had been so stricken with sores that they were barely recognizable as oni any more. Their skin had been stretched and discolored a pale violet and most of their teeth had fallen out of their mouths. And they attacked with fearless rage, seemingly relieved to be cut down by the blades of Bo-Jing and his comrades.
The party looked at each other and nodded grimly. Bo-Jing led the way back down to the door that the oni had been guarding. In their absence it had been smashed open. In the space below, they met and killed more of the diseased oni. They also found a boulder of black stone, nearly as large as the shrine itself and pulsating with a sickly purple light. Immediately, their skin began to itch and their minds were clouded with evil thoughts.
Continuing to explore, they found two rooms with writing carved on the wall. They felt peaceful here, especially when they touched the wall. They could not read it, but Bo-Jing recognized seeing something like it in the books that Bangqiu carried with him.
The party exited the shrine and camped, waiting for Bangqiu’s return. When he did return, they told him about the writing and he agreed to enter the shrine and examine it. They re-entered the shrine and indeed Bangqiu could read the writing. When he read it, their minds felt completely at peace. Returning to the room with black-purple boulder, they found it had been shielded by another gentle yellow light and that they could stand next to it without ill effect. All the same, Bangqiu announced that a wooden door and promises were insufficient to keep the shrine safe. He covered the entrance to the undercroft with a seamless wall of stone.
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