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

Again, Lord Jourdain:

"These hounds are like nothing on Earth, lean and muscular, and large as ponies, they have black mouths and black teeth. When they bark, they breathe fire. But my visitors, they have spirit, they killed three of my hounds, and put the other two to flight. There’s nothing to do with a beaten dog, but butcher it for the servants, but that pale lady is sick with pity and she let those two run away.


"But no matter. My visitors decided to return the ground floor and then to the top story of the house, and snoop around in the bedrooms. They were finding lots of locked doors and this made them all the more curious to go where they obviously were not wanted. And then who should could sashaying down the corridor, but Landri, shaking his big ring of keys like he always used to do. Making those same jokes he’s always made to visitors who think he’s their servant, and they’re asking him for one thing or another. They don’t find their bed comfortable and want him to bring them a softer mattress. Or they think the food isn’t agreeing with them and they want a glass of water. Or like these visitors, they’ve lost track of one of their friends and think he might be inside this room with the locked door.




"These visitors however, when they saw Landri and the keys they wanted , exhibited their perfect stupidity by allowing the priest among them to puff out his chest and lift whatever holy doo-dad he wears on the chain around his neck, and “command” this tortured spirit from the land of the dead to “return to that place from which he came.” And, I wanted to say, “Excuse me, your holiness, but I haven’t let Landri have a day off in nearly 100 years. He’s not going anywhere. And don’t you want those keys he’s shaking and jangling?” Completely unnecessary. Landri wasn’t hearing it, and never did fat priest lose so much weight. After shivering at Landri’s touch, the priest cowered once more behind the warriors. The pale lady drew her sword and that was soon the end of 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 their eye. A look showing ignorance of those who had entered this house beforehand and died without a sympathetic witness. Or better yet, stupidity, knowing all the stories, the lies, but believing they were better. The kind of company I like.

"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. Not out of deference or submission, but something else. Pity? Strange. He was a foreigner, too by his arms. He wore a laced breastplate from Zipang like the one my father left for me. This, the Zipangnese warrior, 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 to 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. Like it, the way the wrenched his arm landing a solid blow with his sword on hard stone. And again, the look on his face. But the pale lady’s sword for such things, and soon my statue lay shattered on the floor.

"They proceeded from the foyer to the dining room where they dispatched some of my poor, malnourished servants. And then through the kitchen and straight to the cellar. What were they looking for? And why so easily defeated by a locked door? This gave me some amusement, but then the real fun began—my hounds had picked up their scent . . . "

Play Report: The House of Lord Jordain (Part I)

Beatriss and Tetsukichi have been typecast. (Or perhaps White Bear and Isa?)

Following a conversation with his future in-laws about his lack of money and with his future wife about the lingering depression of her handmaiden Kei-Lo, Tetsukichi agreed to investigate the house of Lord Jordain in hopes of finding some trace of Kei-Lo missing boyfriend. And depending on what traces they would find, recover them or perform appropriate rites.

The “priest,” whom Isa suggested should be called Afu, and who had accompanied B&T on their last body-recovery mission would go with them. As would the “guards” (Askaa and Ganbold, Hajip and Qasqari) and Afu’s assistant, Ju-May (again, Isa’s name suggestion.) Hatsu, Tetsukichi’s friend from Zipang brought the party to nine.

Afu made appropriate divinations and suggested that they undertake the planned venture in 3 days. Beatriss and Hatsu returned to Gamo’s house to prepare, while the others remained in the Forbidden City.

Omesa, Beatriss’s guest from Jangze found that the city did not agree with. He wished Beatriss well and disappeared overnight.

On the day planned for departure, Beatriss was found bed-ridden and weak, so they postponed. To get her strength back, Beatriss practiced her Blackbird exercises. She made the acquaintance of Kwan Wan Lo, a guest of Gamo’s who had come to Khanbaliq to participate in the martial arts tournament. He complimented her skills and recommended that she also participate.

And so at last it was time to visit the house of Lord Jordain. As I may have explained before, the city of Khanbaliq is built on the remains of an older city, destroyed some 50 years ago by Kam Kobra’s grandfather. These ruins are found outside the walls now being constructed around the new city, on a flood plain closer to the river. Most of the old buildings have been complete destroyed, one exception being the Temple of the Two-Fold Path, another being the house of a mysterious foreigner known as Lord Jordain. Sei-Lo believed that her boyfriend had gone into the house, looking for money.

The party of nine, as named above, went outside the walls of Khanbaliq, located the house, and entered . . .

once more against the spiders!

Beatriss had made a promise to the guards from the house of Mehwa that she would help them find the remains of their late master in the spider-infested forest— as she and the guards had planned to do in their last expedition to the Jangzy area. This time, Mehwa's son-in-law would be going, too. As would a priest, who could perform the proper rites in the general area if identifiable remains were not recovered.

The party was very much focused on their goal, with one exception. Just as they were leaving the "green zone," a local monk from the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, approached her and asked that she give him passage into the green zone and show him where he could find Gwinch. This she did, and then the party ventured out to the "Spider Forest." They passed the ruined monastery in the hills west of Khanbaliq; there was a one-sided battle going on there, but they did not stop to investigate. Shortly thereafter they encountered about half-a-dozen men on the road who seemed to fleeing from something. They made sure that something wasn't chasing them, but didn't otherwise react.

When they arrived in the forest, the priest was able to divine the location of Mehwa's body—narrowing it down to one of three "cocoons" hanging from the bottom of a large spider web about thirty feet up in the canopy. The party didn't want to get to the web, and debated whether there would be to cut down the "cocoons" from a distance. While they were discussing options, they began to hear familiar clicking sounds all around them, as well as the sounds of something very large moving through the trees above them. The party debated whether one or two especially strong warriors should approach the web—or the whole party at once.

And then a familiar voice offered his assistance—the "handsome peasant" said that he could cut the bodies down. After the climbed the tree without being attacked, Beatriss climbed up to join him, lending him her sword for the actual cutting. A spider the size of a horse attacked the party watching from the trail. The priest noticed it at the last instant and dodged it, and then the rest of the party killed it. Beatriss asked their helper to cut down all three bodies and they dragged them out of the forest before any other spiders could attack. They confirmed Mehwa's body by his armor, took some other valuable stuff from the bodies (weapons, money, a curiously intact robe) and then performed rites for all three. Omesa (the handsome peasant) asked Beatriss to take him back with her and she agreed. They made their camp in the hills on the east side of the chasm.

While enjoying their dinner meal, they were surprised by a desperate man, wearing some kind of yoke. He claimed to have imprisoned for his failure to pay his debts and had been sentenced to work in the mines. He offered to serve the party in any way if released, and said that he would rather die than be taken back Khanbaliq. They fed him and, the next morning, helped him out of his yoke. They agreed that he would serve them for one year while he looked for way to get back to his home in the Kobar valley.

Gamo welcomed Omesa as his guest and was also agreeable to having a new servant.

Gwinch's house in Khabaliq

Report: Exploring Khanbaliq

red moons
Originally uploaded by biancavanderwerf

Gwinch received several visitors one morning: Gamo (senior) had sent his son (“Little Gamo”) as a household guard; a new laundress whom Gwinch soon recognized as Kishi; Beatriss, returned from her sojourn to Jangze.
These four, plus Saisho and three of Gwinch’s sohei went to survey the burned-out remains of Gwinch’s building project. He interpreted the rumors blaming Beatriss for the sudden fire as evidence of a combination of arson and slander.
Next, the party travelled beyond the walls of Khanbaliq to explore the ruins of the old city, in particular, the local Temple of the Two-Fold Path. Gwinch is a monk attached to a Two-Fold Path in Zipang and his superiors had sent him to Khanbaliq with a package for their sister temple. Because he’d been “quested” to deliver the package to the temple, Gwinch was anxious to discharge his responsibility, but he had some concerns. In an earlier visit, he’d found a strangely unwelcoming and deadly booby-trap near a secret entrance. So the party decided to set up a camp in the ruins a couple hundred yards away.
At their encampment, they were met by a beggar with whom they shared their food. During the conversation, Saisho used various spells to determine that this beggar’s mud-encrusted boots were in fact magical, having been created by the cat people to give the wearer silence in his movement. When Gwinch showed an interest in the boots, the beggar took his leave.
About an hour later, the party was visited by a gang of about a dozen toughs, looking to collect camping fees. When they became threatening, the party responded decisively, put the gang to flight and chased down and killed all but two or three of them. This attracted the attention of some months from the temple. Their interest in the dead bodies was neither especially positive or negative, but they were intrigued to meet “one of their own”—wearing Two-Fold robes, whom they did not recognize. The party accepted their invitation to the temple.
There they met Sheevani, a woman who introduced herself as the leader of the temple. She explained that she was not of the Two Fold Path, but that her own sect, brought with her from Manicea was very similar in the major tenets, and so they had formed an alliance. She accepted the package (a metal box) and was grateful for Gwinch’s offer of help. After a meager meal, the party departed.
They explored the ruins a little and found a large, intact house, surrounded by a high wall, its gate marked with various warnings. As dusk approached, they began to hear groaning and snarling coming from inside. They decided not to enter, and after passing by the Temple once more to see what happened there after dark (just some birds) they returned to the confines of the city.
The next day, Beatriss was visited by the guards from the House of Mehwa—they had forgotten to retrieve the master’s armor! It had been their duty to retrieve it, but in the excitement of the spiders and the weird house in the deserted village, they had forgotten. And none of them knew where he had fallen. Beatriss agreed that if they could wait a couple days, she would take them there.
In the meantime, the party decided to investigate the “poem” problem. While they had laughed off the series of insulting poems about them that had been posted in the green zone, they were now moved to do something about it. They began to become suspicious of Gamo, the one who had urged them to take action. By staking out his house, they confirmed that their “mentor” was in fact behind it, apparently trying to manipulate them into a feud against another family. In the process, they observed that another samurai, was in fact searching for them with the intent of avenging the death of his master Sato. This was Uesugi Kenchu, whom Gwinch had observed at the House of Lucky Dragon.

The party accompanied Kishi on a visit to herbalist in the Outer City. In the cellar herbalist, they met members of masked group who, without identifying themselves, thanked them (with a nice sum of cash) for their past service and enlisted their support for an up-coming mission to track down two traitorous generals in Chun Yuan province.


Finally, in the midst of these intrigues, a representative of the Emperor announced an up-coming martial arts tournament. None of PCs seemed interested in participating.

memories

The New York Times reports the confiscation of D&D materials in a Wisconsin prison

My first thought was that either myself or more likely, my friends (and probably not Isa or White Bear) should go visit him, maybe even smuggle in a clone "of the original 1974 fantasy roleplaying game that started it all."

Test: what level M-U would I be in so effectively killing so many birds with one magic missle spell? evading prison rules; giving comfort to an inmate; promoting old-school play; subverting the market advantage of a corporate brand name; making contact with a fellow, human D&D player-- oh, but wait . . .

. . . I read this: "Mr. Singer, “a D&D enthusiast since childhood,” according to the court’s opinion, was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for bludgeoning and stabbing his sister’s boyfriend to death." And while I wanted to censure the reporter for such manipulative sentance construction, I remembered that in fact lots of human D&D players really are pathological shmucks, often in the face of my attempts at censure.



In-game conflicts between characters spill over into out-of-game conflicts between players. And vice-versa. (Litmus test: Which one do you find more regrettable? In the case of Mr. Singer, was Blackrazor involved? Did you let your DM date your sister? Was Blackrazor involved?)