Gua-Sar Caves

In the aftermath of the break-up of the Slavers' Stockade, a new generation of adventurers, heroes, wanderers, and fortune-seekers found each other in Kāi'ěrwén, a rough-and-tumble market town about a day's travel from Quitokai.

The company:

Shoji, level 4 shukenja
Sukh, level 1 bushi
Bojing, level 1 samurai
Bat, level 1 barbarian
Sum-Dank, level 2 bushi and his adviser/trainer, Bi-Gon-Dang, level 1monk

Bojing and Bat, despite their very different upbringings were distantly related.  Their fathers, believing that the two could learn something from each other and grow up to be the broad-minded men that the next age would require, had conspired to send them on a vague mission to find the burial place of their common ancestor, rumored to be found in the mountains beyond the southwest edge of the empire.  Interpreting this as a license to adventure and with a budget befitting their high stations in life (minor aristocrat of the imperial court and powerful khan of the high steppes), they found themselves tumbling roughly in Kāi'ěrwén, chasing rumors that someone deserved a righteous beat-down.

Shoji and Sukh had followed a caravan out of Pasar with every intention of assisting Gwinch in overthrowing the slavers, but had somehow been left behind in the Kāi'ěrwén market.  After a few weeks of begging and odd jobs, their welcome was nearly worn out.

Sum-Dank and Bi-Gon-Dang knew there were more slavers to fight in Khanbaliq but also knew they needed back-up.

One night, Bat was on an evening stroll, and he saw a very big man threating a tearful boy.  Not an uncommon sight in Kāi'ěrwén, but no less distasteful to Bat for its banality.  The streets deserted, Bat knew it was his fate to stop it.  He punched the man.  The man drew a knife and sliced Bat.  Bat punched the man again.  The man ran away.  The boy cried even more loudly.

Bat carried him back to his inn.  The noise awakened everyone.  Bojing asked the boy where his parents were.  There was a language barrier.  Either his parents were both dead or the mother was dead and the father had just received a righteous beat-down.  Sum-Dank wanted to knw the boys name.  Bug.  Or that's what he was called.  Little bug.  Dirty bug.  Squished bug.

Shoji suggested it was time for the boy to leave Kāi'ěrwén.

And so the inhabitants of the inn came to realize they were all tired of living in an inn.  Shoji and Sukh volunteered that they knew of a much nicer town.  Good food, nice people.  Pasar.  It wasn't easy to get to, without an imperial escort.  The road was infested with bandits.  And imperial armies.  The mountain passes were high and cold.  But Shoji and Sukh knew another way, a secret way, right through the mountains.

They set out the next morning.  Bojing and Sukh had second thoughts about taking a child with them into a cave, even one paved with an attractive pattern of hexagonal stones.  But Bug had no relatives.  And Bat and Sum-Dank seemed to believe he had a special destiny that they each hoped to share.  There were arguments, a vote, more arguments, threats, tears.  Finally Bug decided.  He trusted Bat and would go with him.

The journey under the mountain was long, dreary, and often dark.  And it seemed that Sukh and Shoji did not have direct personal knowledge of the way or how long the tunnel extended.  On the long straight stretches, the party rationed their torches by marching in near darkness, their way lit by a glowing ember.

After two days, they emerged in a small clearing, surrounded by steep cliffs.  Behind a waterfall was another cave, flooded with glowing greenish-yellow water. 

Happily, there were several small boats, one of for each of them.  One of them was large enough to hold both Bat and Bug.  They paddled slowly, letting the current carry them along.  Bat thought he heard screaming.  Bojing saw hands in the water.  When they spotted a sandy beach, they landed and explored the caverns.  Unlike the underground they had followed earlier, in the days previous, this was a circuit of winding natural tunnels.  In a large, muddy cavern, everyone saw a hand reach up out of the much and grab Sukh by the ankle.  At once, 4 more, disgusting undead creatures likewise rose up to attack.  Bat and Bojing pulled Bug out of the room, leaving the others to fight the monsters.  Despite their horrifying aspect and own lack of fear, the creatures were soon destroyed. 

Bat and Bojing, in their flight had stumbled upon a tunnel that seemed to lead toward the light.  Calling out to the others, the party reunited.  This tunnel was paved in hexagonal stones.  The party followed it steadily upward for several hours until they emerged on a verdant hillside.  Climbing up into the hills to get a higher vantage point, Sukh and Shoji were able to confirm that they were almost to Pasar.  Another day of travel, this one through steamy jungle that almost made them miss the cool darkness of the caves, the party arrived in Pasar. 
 

Smashing the wolf-people's idol

Beatriss and Tetsukichi, along with their companions and guides, sailed down on the western branch of the Lam River and then up the eastern branch, as guided by Xīngqíliù.  Along the way, they passed near Quitokai and picked up Afu the Priest and Kreppu-San, a warrior from Zipang who claimed to have been travelling with Gwinch and to accompanied him in his attack on the slaver’s stockade.  Indeed as they traveled up the eastern branch of the Lam, Kreppu-San was able to point out the peaks behind which—according to him—the stockade was situated.

And, according to Xīngqíliù, they were also nearing Xitaqa.  But before he would reveal the exact location of the tower that was Golthar’s former home and the likely prison Golfo, he would demand, as he had warned them, a favor.  His demand was in fact both a request for a favor and a loyalty test.  Xitaqa was a wicked place, built by wicked people of a former age, and a beacon to their sucessors in wickedness.  And what better way for the party to prove that they were not among the wicked than to destroy an idol of wickedness?
Xīngqíliù indicated a path, faintly visible from their boat that, he explained, led to a cave inhabited by a family of wolf-people.  They had built a wolf idol for themselves and worshipped it in the cave until they were rewarded and cursed with the power to turn into wolves and to command natural wolves.  If the party would enter the cave and retrieve the idol so that he could destroy it, he would reward them with the information they sought.

Tetsukichi, Beatriss, and Kreppu-San debated Xīngqíliù’s offer.  What was their quarrel against the wolf people?  What if these were just natural wolves?  But they weren’t being asked to murder but only to steal.  And if they were natural wolves, they would have no interest in an idol.  If they were wolf-people, then they shouldn’t be eating people-people, as Xīngqíliù claimed that they did.
They made a plan to attack at night when most of the pack would be out hunting.  Neither Xīngqíliù and his brothers nor Afu would enter the wolf cave, but the priests did give the party some assistance—one glowing stone to provide them with light and a second to mask the sound of their footsteps. 

The party disembarked and followed the path up the river to the path that Xīngqíliù had pointed out.  They followed it to the cave, obviously the noisome den of a pack of wolves.   

Al-Fitar was posted outside to watch for the pack’s return while the others entered.  The short entry tunnel led to a central chamber with several smaller caves radiating off of it.  Climbing up to a ledge, they found a small alcove and inside it, the idol—a clay statuette with gemstone eyes.  While discussing (silently) how to retrieve it, the natural wolves inhabiting the lair detected their presence and began to emerge from the other rooms.  The party fought the wolves and killed them and then swiftly retrieved the idol and ran out.  Al-Fitar reported no sign of danger, but the party didn’t linger. 

They returned to the boat. Xīngqíliù congratulated them and took the idol.  His brothers guarded it while the party spent a few hours in restless sleep, awakened near dawn by the sound of piteous howling.  They pushed up from the shore and remained anchored in the middle of the river until daybreak.  When the sun was up, Xīngqíliù asked for he and himself to be put down on shore where, after a short ritual, they smashed up the idol.  (And, it seemed, pocketed the gemstone eyes.)  Xīngqíliù was well-pleased with the party and agreed not only to show them the path to Xitaqa, but to accompany them there.

Siege of Quitokai Finale

Night Safari Fire Dancers, 5 of 7, a photo by kian esquire on Flickr.

The attackers made yet another sortie; under a cloud of giant bats, warriors attacked from both sides. While the defenders rushed out to meet the Wolf Clan, several warriors from the Red Clan crossed the burning logs of the north palisade to enter the compound and began seeking entrance to the stone great house. But while the villagers suffered a couple casualties, the attackers over-extended themselves. The bats proved a momentary nuisance. After driving them away, the defenders inside the great house shot their arrows at the Red Clan leader. Once he was brought down, his followers hesitated, and after losing several more of their numbers, retreated. Meanwhile, the villagers fighting the Wolf Clan went on the offensive, and after repelling those attackers, pursued them into the jungle, likewise seeking the enemy leaders in particular. And again, once the leader was slain, the remaining attackers fled deeper into the jungle, casting aside their shields in panic.

Siege of Quitokai Part II

Untitled, a photo by Flash Parker on Flickr.

The attacking marauders lost two more wolves, four archers, and eight spearman. Meanwhile, the outnumbered defenders have lost 5 village militia/scouts. Again this was using Songs of Blades and Heroes rules to resolve a "D&D battle." In light of the high casualities for the bad guys, I'm questioning my system for converting D&D stats to SBH stats. But of course, that's usually the way things go in D&D-- all the monsters get killed and one PC gets wounded! It just takes longer.

Siege of Quitokai

A friend recently introduced me to Songs of Blades and Heroes, a fast-paced skirmish game using minis. I've had a good time playing it with kids (leaving out references to "gruesome kills" although I still use the rules.) I don't have much experience with these kinds of games, but they seem to generally combine the flexibility of an RPG with the closure of a traditional board game. For instance, I recently set up a scenario where one person was attacking "the castle" and had the objective of elininating the defenders. There were two players controlling two sets of defenders-- "the soldiers" and "the town militia." The soldiers' goal was to rebuff the attackers without any of the militia members being killed. The militia's goal was to participate actively in the defense and personally kill at least one attacker. So even though two of the players were co-operating, there was some tension in pursuing their goals.

As the title of this post suggests, I used the SBH rules to run a session in my Oriental Adventures D&D game. The PCs, while in the midst of a mission, have spent several weeks resting, planning, and training in the village of Quitokai. In the past, Quitokai has been targeted by slave-traders. The prescence of the PCs has discouraged the raiders from pursuing their previous strategies (sometimes deception, sometimes small-scale raids) not only in Quitokai, but in the general area. So they organized a larger assault on the village, attacking at a time when most PCS were out on patrol.

Rather than attack themselves, the slavers enlisted some of Quitokai's neighbors-- members of hunter-gather tribes who rarely fight openly with the agricultural people of Quitokai. Members of the Red Clan paint their faces red and they stayed in the background. Members of the Wolf Clan hunt with trained wolves and these were used in the initial attack. The wolves brought down one of the militia and frightened off many of the others. This gave the Wolf Clan warriors time to set the palisade on fire. But then the Quitokai militia re-organized, and using their bows from the safety of the watch-tower routed the Wolf warriors, the wolves themselves following close behind them. As the sun was setting, one of the PC-led groups (Gunjar, with some villagers) returned from patrol and the attackers retreated into the jungle.

(apologies to the real-world man in the photo below who is presumably peaceful)

Malaysian Native, a photo by Navin Bahl on Flickr.