The Field of the Moon

Pleased with the valor of Golfo and Nardon, Beatriss postponed a second foray into the monastery and offered both warriors several weeks of training. Their activities attracted the attention of Al-Fitar, an unemployed caravan guard who requested to join Beatriss household and to be allowed the chance to pursue any honorable quest before him.

Full Moon, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

Instead, he went with Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and their followers to witness a brawl on The Plain of the Moon. This was Su-Laing’s idea and she accompanied them, lured by the promise that anyone who gazed on the large white dome while illuminated by the light of the full moon who be cured of any curse, evil, or other unexplained affliction. For reasons half-forgotten, the Servants of the Moon have also declared that the white dome under a Full Moon is the perfect time and place for a man to demonstrate his strength and courage by throwing down his armor and weapons to fight a dozen or so of his fellow men, using only his fists and whatever weapons nature had given him. Beatriss agreed to pay Golfo’s entry fee while resisting a 100 tael offer from a member of the Dirty Flower Association for her to ender the ring herself.

(Like the background for the Centipede races, this is all more-or-less lifted from the Referee’s Guide to Lesserton.)

The fight was just getting started when three men rode up on horseback and started killing members of the Dirty Flower Association. The crowd panicked first, and then the pugilists. Neither Beatriss nor Tetsukichi stayed around to ask questions.

Fun Town!

Night Street - Yokohama, a photo by cocoip on Flickr.

Back in Cynadecia, the Warrior Women of Madarua fortify their mycophagic diet with giant centipedes, especially during and for several months after pregnancy. Hence, when Beatriss heard that in certain quarters of Khanbaliq, giant centipede racing was a popular sport, she was intrigued. A little investigation revealed that the best-known place for pede racing was in “Fun Town,” a temporary entertainment district, built especially for the laborers who were building the city walls. On the way to Fun Town, Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and their followers, Naron and Fu Ying, were called in to prevent a potentially serious altercation. A customer at a popular noodle house was drunk and belligerent. He refused to pay for his meal and was scaring away other customers. B & T & co. seemed to effectively intimidate both the drunk and the noodle house owner. The drunk agreed to leave. The owner agreed that he wasn’t going to get paid. The drunk, who introduced himself as Golfo, followed the party to Fun Town, becomingly increasingly less drunk on the way. The party was suspicious of Golfo, but they let him pay their entrance into Fun Town. (Workers get in free on their Fun Day. Others pay on a “sliding scale.”) Beatriss and Tetsukichi did not find much fun in Fun Town. They had to change money before they could buy anything and the exchange rate of 3 Yuans for 2 Funs put them in a suspicious mood from the start. They lost money on pede races and the sticks of meat for sale were goat or sheep or something else not centipede. People gave them cryptic advice such as “Seek the Inn of the White Horse” and “Not all who lie are sleeping” that served no purpose but to annoy them. Finally, one of Tetsukichi’s followers (Fu Ying), informed his employer that he would be leaving his service as he had found a new calling, as a handler of trainer for the hundred-foot racers.

Lesserton Play Report: field trip

earth and sky, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

Strathbogie: "We allowed this Swamp Man (Mendel is his name, and he was once a carpenter in Lesserton before he got turned-on to Earth Magic) to lead us on an excursion where we walked a full day through swamp, marsh, bog, and quagmire-- and then a second day over a blasted heath but little better suited for the comfort and sanity of humans. And at the end of it all, there was a cave full of bones. Isden, with his eye for coin, found barely enough to pay for the hard-tack we've eaten on the way here and a bowl of soup at the Original when we return. But all the same, I'm intrigued by this Earth Magic, the two bowls carved into the rock of the cave, one stained, the other clean."