The Woman Who Disappeared

Bangqiu dreamed.

Not the usual drifting fragments of memory and nonsense, but something sharper—deliberate. A voice, or perhaps several, repeating the same simple instruction:

“Ask Lao Ren to send you to Khanbaliq. We found something strange. Kafka needs your help.”

He listened. Lao Ren agreed. "We will keep your ship until you return."

---

Kafka, Bangqiu’s companion on many an adventure in years past, had settled down in Khanbaliq. Not settled. Prospered, in all the ways that mattered to him.

After decades of corruption, the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path had been restored, at least in principle. No longer a hiding place for slavers, gangsters, and apostate monks, the still decrepit physical structure was now home to sincere students dedicated to correct teachings.

But beneath it…

Kafka spoke carefully. There were tunnels that at first seemed to be the home of scavengers or remnants of the Black Flower gang, stealing from the monks’ meagre food stores. But beyond these crude passageways, there were older thoroughfares. Older than the monastery. Remnants of something unpleasant—an ancient cult of death worshippers. And beyond that, passages that did not behave properly. Corridors that led not just deeper underground, but… elsewhere. Even… elsewhen.

Bangqiu was glad to hear about the success of Bo-Jing and Gwinch in addressing these issues. He discussed with Bo-Jing what, if anything, they should do next, how much further they should explore. But before any decision was reached, they were interrupted by a visitor at the gate.

---

There was no fear in her bearing. Just composure—and purpose.

She did not give her name at first, but she did not need to. Everything about her suggested someone accustomed to being obeyed, or at least taken seriously.

“I intend to disappear,” she said.

Not flee. Not escape.

Disappear.

She needed a place beyond reach—of the court, of her enemies, of anyone who might try to shape her son’s future. If they could help her, she promised, they would not be forgotten when that future was decided.

“You will be the most trusted friends of the next Emperor.”

Bo-Jing joked that he was already close friends with himself.

Bangqiu, used to wandering, knew of one such place.

Beatriss’s castle. The Happy Valley.

The woman seemed surprised by the suggestion but then smiled. “Yes, take me there. Tomorrow. Just me, and my son, and my bodyguard.”

---

In the morning there was a change of plans. At the walls of Khanbaliq, the party saw the woman speaking crossly to the man who must have been her bodyguard—a doughty, mournful warrior, a cloak thrown over gleaming armor.

“It’s only the Happy Valley,” she said. “They are more than capable, and I will return in a week.”

The bodyguard looked long and hard at the party—Bangqiu, Bo-Jing, Batzorig, Ryu, and Kafka—then shrugged his shoulders, turned his horse and re-entered the city.

The woman’s son was about fifteen. Like her, he wore a dull-colored but fine-woven traveling cloak that half-obscured his face. Mother and son were quiet, taking their place in the middle of the group, speaking little, and only to each other.

In the early afternoon, they left the imperial highway and took the smaller road that wound toward the Valley. Descending a gentle winding path that ran along a steep ravine, the party noticed a shrine at a bend in the road. And three men who were desecrating it, casting the offerings of flowers and coins onto the ground.

Bo-Jing and Bangqiu shouted jokes at the men, emphasizing how little they cared about protecting roadside shrines. Somehow, the men were able to register these jokes as insults. One of them walked down from the shrine, challenging Bangqiu to a fight.

“We’ll see who has learned the superior style.”

Bangqiu slipped from his horse as if to accept the challenge. But when the man charged at him, launching a flying kick at his head, Bangqiu summoned the elemental powers of fire and water and blasted him with scalding steam. There was a scream of pain—from the man’s compatriots next to the shrine. The duelist passed through the cloud unscathed and landed a flurry of kicks.

The duel became something else—
magic and motion, arrows from Bo-Jing and Batzorig,
and Ryu summoning snakes to incapacitate them.

Throughout the battle, the damage did not fall where it should.

Blows meant for one man were taken by another, standing apart, as if the group shared a single pool of endurance. The “bystanders” suffered in place of the duelist, staggering but not falling.

The hallmarks of Dragon Claw, which Bangqiu and Bo-Jing had seen in Guibao.

The fight escalated until a wall of fire sprang up, isolating the party from their wards. Bangqiu rose into the air, sealing the flames within a dome of force. Kafka charged forward to attack the still-unscathed duelist with his frost brand. Two more figures emerged from nowhere—previously unseen, now very real—striking at Kafka from either side.

Ryu and Bangqiu employed more fearsome magic, transfixing the duelist and sending the other two fleeing in terror. The other shrine desecrators were killed by the swords of Bo-Jing and Batzorig. And lots of snakes.

---

The wall of fire died. The wall of force shimmered and vanished.

There had been no scream. No struggle.

And the woman, her son—their charges—were gone.

---

Batzorig dragged the dead bodies out of the road. Ryu sent the snakes into the ravine.

Then came a surprised half-scream from below.

The boy.

---

Certain they had been tricked, Bo-Jing demanded that Ryu call down divine punishment into the ravine. Ryu protested that although the ravine was narrow, calling a flame strike into the forest could have unpredictable consequences.

And so Bangqiu and Bo-Jing shrugged it off.

They had been part of something they did not fully understand—something with strange and dangerous components. Bangqiu had been badly wounded in the battle. Kafka began to question the wisdom of leaving his monastery without a leader.

---

They let it go, for now. They returned to Khanbaliq.

Along the way, they passed by an inn. A drunk man stumbled out and pointed at Bo-Jing.

“A man passed by this way—he was looking for you.”

They bought the man a drink and got a description.

“A sad-looking old warrior. Fine armor beneath his traveling cloak. I told him you were going east, to the port.”

Beyond the Slavepits of the Undercity

An Account of how Gwinch, Kishi, Bo-Jing, and Salt answered the call of a friend and made their descent beneath the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path in Khanbaliq

---

The Summons

Ten years after his exile—and his eventual acceptance—Gwinch had settled into something like permanence. In Pasar, he was no longer an outsider but a fixture: Abbot of the Two-Fold Path, respected, careful, and largely removed from the kinds of dangers that had once defined him.

Then the letter came.

It was from Kafka Tamura, a former student who had followed him from Zipang to Khanbaliq—earnest, observant, and marked by a seriousness that had always suggested future responsibility. Gwinch had sent him north for precisely that reason: to restore the monastery that had once been corrupted by apostate monks and slavers.

Kafka had succeeded. The Black Flower gang was gone. The monastery stood again, at least in spirit.

But not in peace.

“Master, we have discovered something beneath the monastery.
It should not exist beneath Khanbaliq.
We fear we have opened a door that was meant to remain closed.”

Gwinch read the letter, understood what it implied, and chose to go.

---

At the same time, far to the east, the Crimson Reprieve crossed the ocean under new ownership. With Acererak destroyed and Captain Hu laid to rest, Bangqiu claimed the ship. Against all odds—and with more than a little luck—the voyage ended at Jade Harbor.

There, the party rested.

Salt shed the last of her homespun garments and exchanged some of the gems from Acererak's tombs for clothes-- luxurious silk in colors that would remind her of the warm ocean on a calm day. Because it was time to return to the steppes.

 Bangqiu hosted them for a final stretch of calm before their paths diverged.

Then Lao Ren gathered the Clever Ones, traced his careful geometry, and returned them to Banua.

  

What they found was a world that had already mourned them. Bo-Jing’s wife—and much of the Naran Horde—had assumed his death. His return brought not conflict, but relief. The interim khan stepped aside, and order reformed itself around him.

In the quiet that followed, Salt and Nekhil married without ceremony.

Then Kafka’s letter arrived.

---

The Gathering

And so they came together again at the ruined monastery outside Khanbaliq:

Gwinch
Kishi.
Salt.
Bo-Jing
Nekhil.
Ryu.
Wu Jin Fen
QiGongJin

Kafka explained what he could.

At first, it had seemed mundane: missing food, unseen intruders. Then passages sealed themselves only for others to open. And finally, something deeper—evidence of a cult older than the Black Flower gang, older than the Two-Fold Path, older than Khanbaliq and perhaps any of the settlements that preceded it.

Something below had been disturbed.

---

I. The Whisper

Gwinch began with caution.

He staked out the main entrance to the buried cult complex, a stone platform along the foul canals of the city. There, amid the slow black flow, he heard it:

A whisper.

Not wind. Not water.

Something within.

Gwinch conferred with the party and together they chose the smaller entrance—through the monastery cellar—and descended.

Wu Jin Fen heard his name first.

Ahead, six ash-wights stood chained together, their forms barely holding shape. When Ryu turned them, they did not scatter. They drifted—purposefully—toward the source of the whisper.

The party followed.

They saw the idol beyond a collapsed wall: a four-armed figure of black stone.

As the wights approached, the chamber woke. Stone ground against stone.

The guardians rose.

The party withdrew—not in panic, but in discipline—taking shelter in a chamber of four sealed sarcophagi. They did not open them.

When they returned, the wights were gone.

Only chains and ash remained.

And the sense that something had noticed them.

---

II. The Invisible Man

Salt and Wu Jin Fen returned to the surface. The rest pressed on.

Gwinch and Bo-Jing led the pursuit.

The corridors narrowed and twisted. Doors opened and closed where none should exist. Always ahead: footsteps.

Measured.

Deliberate.

And beneath them—the sound of stone moving.

The unseen figure drew them forward into danger.

Three coal-black hounds emerged, their breath burning in the confined space. Kafka did not meet them head-on—he moved along the wall, over them, striking at the invisible man as he opened yet another hidden door.

Bo-Jing held the line. Gwinch finished the work.

The hounds fell.

Beyond, an ogre mage revealed itself only briefly before retreating deeper.

Ryu, spent, was escorted back to the surface.

The rest continued.

---

III. The Ogre Mages

They found the ogre mages in a chamber of strange normalcy—seated around a game, as though they belonged there.

The illusion ended quickly.

Cold filled the room in sudden, devastating bursts. Several of the young monks nearly died where they stood. But the creatures faltered when pressed.

One by one, they were forced into the open.

Their tricks failed. Their disguises failed.

Gwinch and Kafka turned the fight with patience and positioning—drawing one into the corridor, isolating another.

Only one escaped, dissolving into mist with its treasures.

Gwinch returned to the surface with a simple truth:

The dungeon was not empty.

It was defended.

---

IV. The Idol

They returned stronger.

Salt and Nekhil.
Kishi.
New initiates.

The ash-wights came again.

This time, the truth emerged: they were not evil, but bound. The magic that judged wickedness struck the new recruits instead.

Impostors.

Dragon Claw agents, hidden among them.

Kafka executed the last without hesitation.

Salt held the wights. Their chains held the rest.

They reached the sarcophagi again. Kishi confirmed their fears: a priest of the ancient cult of Duvan’Ku lay within. And the idol wanted blood.

They left it sealed.

At the idol, blood was offered.

The idol responded.

A hidden door opened.

Within: a basilisk—and a sword.

The creature died quickly.

The sword spoke.

It named itself the relic of Makurian, a hero who had failed to destroy the cult centuries before. It had waited.

It chose Gwinch.

---

V. The Destruction

The sword gave Gwinch more than purpose.

It gave him leverage.

He lifted one guardian from the ground—separating it from its twin. A monk baited the second.

The collision ended both.

The idol remained.

They removed it—not through ritual, but through effort. Out of the chamber. Into the sewers. And finally, into the daylight.

Where it was broken.

---

VI. The Door Beyond

Only then did they understand what the ogre mages had guarded.

Not the idol.

A door.

Beyond it lay something stranger than a dungeon.

A place where time itself could be crossed.

---

The monastery was reclaimed.

But not emptied.

Because beneath it still lay doors unopened—

And paths that did not lead merely downward,

But elsewhere. And elsewhen.

Slave Pits of the Undercity 01

tl;dr:

Bojing and his crew go to explore a monastery which has been transformed into a place of human trafficking. Walking in the front door, Bojing saw a woman on a bunk and Nar Nutang yelled that the woman on the bunk was a shape-changing monster and Bojing listened and killed the woman but the woman wasn't a shape-changer but a real slave.

Bojing and the crew saw some ""MONKS" and a merchant; Bojing, a powerful baghatur, stuck fear into the monks' hearts forcing them to run. The slave merchant's two powerful bodyguards remained, one with the abilty of shooting meteorites the other a powerful warrior that the mighty Bojing even struggled with but the crew defeated the bodyguards and recovered the keys to rescue the slaves.


"AKSHULLY":

When Bo-jing learned from Ryu that innocent people were being pressed into slavery in the shadow of the Kanbaliq's walls, his heart hardened against the Emperor. He promised Ryu that we would cleanse the monastery of this wickedness, free the enslaved people, and one day depose the cruel despot who misused his power in this way.

Beatriss knew about the monastery and its ugly secrets. Besides the corrupt monks who received captives from the outskirts of the empire and beyond, Beatriss warned her new protege about shape-changers and a lizard that turned people to stone. After her months-long absence from home, Beatriss herself would return to the Happy Valley. Based on these warnings, Bo-jing and Nar Nuteng both bought mirrors.

Based also on Beatriss's advice, Bo-Jing, Nar-Nuteng, plus their sometimes associate, sometimes rival Bangqiu, along with Ryu and Bo-Jing's men-at-arms, entered the monastery through a secret door and based through several halls so long ruined that their original purpose was impossible to know. They encountered a horde of undead creatures whose chilling touch caused temporary paralysis. None of the party was lost in this encounter, but Bo-Jing elected to choose another entrance to gain access to the actual monastery.

Bo-jing led the party in breaking into the stables. There, the party encountered a group of monks whom were so terrified at the sight of the fearsome baghatur that they fley in terror. A woman who had been hiding in the loft space peered down. "Who is there?" she called. "Who will save me from this place?" Something about the young woman's helplessness put Nar-Nuteng on edge and she warned Bo-Jing of the seductive shape-shifters. Bo-Jing charged up into the loft area and angrily killed the too-good-to-be-true ingenue.  She screamed and bled and died and her body did not revert to a gray, alien form.  She was not a monster but a true victim, killed by the one she thought would rescue her.

Bo-Jing was despondent and blamed Nar-Nutang.  Bangqiu rebuked him for being too emotional.  But Ryu patiently explained that he alone was responsible for his mistake and that he must accept it and learn from it and give his focus in the moment to rescuing other slaves.  

The party found their way into a series of tunnels dug under the monastery and inhabited by disgusting ant-men.  With the power of his magic coin, Bo-Jing drove away the ant-men and the party navigated the labyrinth to arrive at the lair of the resident slave lord, a greasy-looking man in leather armor.  While contending with a dozen cowardly monks and several ferocious giant weasels, the slave lord escaped.  Rifling through his belongings, they found some useful information about the work of the slavers including contacts in other cities.

The party continued to explore and discovered a series of cellblocks, where they encountered a group of monks negotiating with a merchant sought to purchase and enslave a number of the people imprisoned there.  Alarmed by the heavily-armed intruders, the monks and the merchant were put to flight while the merchant's bodyguards stayed in place to guard his retreat.  A blast of steam from Bangqiu killed one of them while Bo-Jing defeated and slew the other in trying hand-to-hand combat.  A search of the surrounding storage rooms located the keys and the party freed about a dozen prisoners.  These people, mainly young women from Southern Zhou were glad to leave the monastery but feared being left alone in a city where they would be regarded as enemies.  Bangqiu suggested that they should be taken all the way to the Happy Valley and resettled there.

Interlude: Bo-Jing in Khanbaliq

 Bo-Jing and and Ganbaatar presented the Southern Coin and enjoyed a week of congratulatory banquets and interrogatory private audiences. The Emperor granted a one-year tax holiday to Ganbaatar and his people. One of the Emperor's Ministers insinuated that Bo-Jing had not kept his possession of the Eastern Coin a secret and that the Emperor was prepared to appoint Bo-Jing was prepared to appoint him to the post recently vacated in Blue City.  Concealing his concern as to whether this was an offer or a threat or both, Bo-Jing simply restated that he looked forward to returning to his post in Banua and continuing to serve the Emperor there.

During this time, Ryu visited the local Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, located just outside the walls of Khanbaliq.  He was shocked and dismayed to find it was being used as a holding place for captives who would be sold as slaves-- many of them to the Emperor himself.

Bo-Jing made a private vow that he would rescue these slaves, restore the monastery to its intended purposes, and one day punish the Emperor.

Beatriss's Apprentice Bayan

Bayan was reassigned from her post as a lady-in-waiting to the harem because she had never mastered the careful obedience expected in court. And the Emperor, noting her strong thighs and restless poise, saw something else. He offered her to Beatriss— an apprentice to be trained as an undercover guard.

Beatriss accepted the task with calm curiosity. She began with combat: footwork, unarmed throws, and the deceptively graceful techniques of Blackbird Style. Bayan was a fast learner—eager, focused, and already proud of her physical strength. Beatriss taught her how to use it without a blade, and how to make her touch as precise as a strike.

Beatriss trained her in martial technique, with an emphasis on unarmed combat. Bayan took quickly to the movements, learning to fight from a seated or reclining position and mastering efficient kicks and throws. Beatriss also introduced her to the subtler forms of control—how to carry herself, how to observe while being observed.

Adapting to the layered expectations of palace life was more challenging. Bayan’s first summons to a party in the Emperor’s chambers was a quiet disaster—not because of scandal, but because she didn’t know how to belong. The other women moved with practiced grace, their gestures part of a ceremony she hadn’t been trained for. Bayan stayed clothed, stiff, uncertain, preoccupied with the dagger concealed under her dress, as she had been prepared to protect, not perform.

She stood apart, unable to participate, unable to act, and unable to leave.

Beatriss listened to Bayan's account of the awkward evening. In the days that followed, she began to train Bayan in Blackbird-style martial arts—a fighting style focused on balance, speed, and precision. “You shouldn’t need a weapon to be dangerous,” she told her. Bayan trained barefoot, learning how to move quietly, strike swiftly, and recover from falls with control and grace.

But Bayan wanted more. She asked Beatriss to teach her how to navigate courtly presence—the language of movement, posture, and stillness. The art of holding attention without speaking. Beatriss agreed, and their lessons became a blend of discipline and subtlety.

By the time Bayan was summoned again, she walked in with quiet confidence. “I am not shy at all,” she told Beatriss when she returned. Ironically, that was the problem. New arrivals were expected to be tentative. 

Beatriss requested an audience with the Emperor.

It was granted—but the meeting took place in the palace dungeon, not the audience hall. The Emperor waited in a stone chamber dimly lit by braziers, no guards visible, no formalities offered. A conversation, teasing and edged, questioning Beatriss about Bayan’s transformation.

Beatriss answered with performance and precision. She turned Bayan’s body toward him—presenting her balance, her poise, the latent power in her thighs. And while the Emperor watched, amused
, Beatriss scanned the shadows.

In one sudden motion, Beatriss stepped away from the light, seized a hidden man by the collar, tripped him with a sweep, and pressed her sword to his throat.

“You have many enemies, Your Imperial Majesty,” she said, cool and controlled.

The Emperor smiled, unshaken. “He’s one of mine,” he said. “Perhaps he misunderstood the dagger under the girl's dress.”

He praised Beatriss for her boldness and made his expectations clear: Bayan would continue training, in all disciplines—but if she were ever summoned again, she would play the part of a shy, silent observer.

They trained in secret, in forgotten courtyards and behind shuttered screens. Blackbird-style martial arts came first: grapples, throws, balance. Bayan learned to move with silence, to disappear into a fold of silk, to strike with her elbow while bowing.

Then came Cynadicean arts—more dangerous in their subtlety. How to breathe to draw attention, how to smile without surrender, how to beguile without being touched. Beatriss taught these reluctantly, always with a warning: “Power can be offered with a look—but never given away.”

By midyear, sword practice began. Bayan trained with both the katana and a short stabbing sword, one made for close quarters and palace walls. She practiced indoors and out, drilling until her knuckles bled, until her legs no longer trembled from the weight of her stance.

Beatriss tested her constantly. Sometimes in the middle of a ceremonial dance rehearsal—sword! Sometimes at night when Bayan thought she was alone—strike! Sometimes with whispered riddles during drills: If your master falls, who do you serve?

By late spring, Bayan could pin Beatriss in a clinch, disarm a guard without drawing blood, and speak three different meanings with a single gesture at court. Her thighs were strong, her arms lean, her back unbent.

The Emperor noticed, or seemed to. He had a new assignment.

One of the Emperor’s newest concubines, Jiaohu, purchased from the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, had come forward with a strange tale about a woman she had seen who looked like Beatriss: “The monks had another pale girl,” she whispered to the Khan. “Younger than Beatriss. Prettier. With strong thighs. They’re keeping her hidden—for someone more important than you.”

The Emperor was amused, then annoyed. He sent messengers with gold—thousands of taels—and received only a parade of forgettable girls. None of them Cynidicean.

When Beatriss was summoned, she listened without emotion as the Emperor described the monastery. Jiaohu, bold and smiling, repeated her tale. She even gave Beatriss a password—a phrase that would identify her as a friend to someone named Xing, a prisoner still within the monastery, who could lead them to the girl called Ciuciu.

The Emperor’s offer was clear: Find this girl, and I will release you. You may build your castle in the south.

Beatriss did not agree immediately. She returned to her rooms, sat with Bayan, and said nothing for a long time. Then she stood.

“Get your sword,” she said. “We may have to fight some monks.”

Beatriss and Tetsukishi return to Khanbaliq

After their victory, Beatriss and Tetsukishi left Tempat Larang and settled with their companions for several weeks in a good-sized village nearby. 

They traded a ruby for a pair of huts and hired local servants, enjoying a few weeks of rest. Plans were underway for the journey back to Pasar—chief among their concerns: how to avoid the vampire swamp.

One morning, their servants roused them with news. Imperial soldiers had arrived in the village, asking about them—and it seemed likely someone would talk.

Instead of fleeing, the company sought out the soldiers, who were still asleep when they arrived. The soldiers—only three in number—were stunned by their good fortune and tried to reassert control by summoning Tetsukichi to return to Khanbaliq and answer to the Empire. But the party’s eager reply—“Can we leave today?”—deflated their authority. After some blustering questions about Gwinch, Goyat, and Kawabi, and about needing proof of Goyat’s defeat, the soldiers admitted they had enough to justify a formal report.

The journey back was slow. The party’s maps were poor and their memories were foggy. Everything was green and there was no horizon. 

The return was slow. Their maps were vague, their memories fogged, and the endless greenery offered little sense of direction. But it was peaceful. In one village, the companions earned their keep by helping on a construction project. There, a worker pulled Beatriss aside to relay a secret: she could meet “the others” in a field beyond the swamp. He gave her careful directions and emphasized that she bring her traveling companions. Then, curiously, he challenged Tetsukichi to a no-weapons sparring match. Tetsukichi accepted—and was soundly beaten by the man’s strange techniques. The man ended the fight with a wink toward Beatriss and disappeared.

Thanks to the worker’s instructions, the party avoided the vampire, the leeches, and the deadly plague that had ravaged many soldiers. Weeks later, nearing Pasar, Beatriss suggested a detour toward the field the worker had described.

There, snakes slithered through tall grass—and led them to a hole in the earth. The party descended, encountering ghostly, translucent serpents that floated through the air. Tetsukichi hesitated. “Maybe we don’t want to meet the others,” he said. Beatriss, unsettled, agreed.

In Pasar, the soldiers filed their report. Their commanders questioned the party but seemed content—if cautious—with their story.

There, to their great surprise, Beatriss and Tetsukichi were reunited with their families, who had traveled from the Empire to meet them. It was a joyful and overwhelming reunion. Tetsukichi’s wife, Su-Laing, had demanded an escort to cross the mountains and find her long-absent husband, bringing both her own children and Betriss's.  The Sansar clan had been fored to leave their grazing lands, squeezed between lizardfolk raids and harassment from Imperial soldiers. Kreppu-san and Sukh,two brave warriors, and Shoji, a shaman had assisted them in their journey over the mountains. The journey had taken a toll: Su-Laing’s maidservant had been slain by a guardian statue, and the nurses who had cared for Beatriss’s fox-children perished in the bitter cold.

Amid the relief was growing concern. The road ahead would be long and unpredictable. And now they traveled not just as warriors, but as guardians of their families.

 

After a week of preparation, the now-expanded imperial escort—more than a hundred soldiers strong—departed Pasar with the heroes. They passed through Quitokai, now occupied by imperial forces, and Menkan, where the garrison had grown even stronger.

Weeks later, they reached Khanbaliq.

The Emperor’s ministers were skeptical, but His Imperial Majesty greeted the party with unexpected joy. He announced—without explanation—the precise date of their victory over Goyat. The party confirmed it. The ministers fell silent.

Lavish rewards were bestowed upon Tetsukichi, Golfo, and Beatriss. Tetsukichi and Golfo were told that they would be called upon again, and more honors would come to the Sansar clan. Then the Emperor turned to Beatriss.

He offered her a rare post: Supreme Guardian of the Women’s Palace. It was a sensitive and powerful role, reserved for a woman of unshakable discipline. No man was permitted in the harem, but Beatriss’s leadership and martial prowess, the Emperor noted, surpassed that of most men in his empire. When she hesitated, the Emperor did not withdraw the offer. Instead, he granted her a private apartment within the Imperial City—“so that you may think it over.”

Beatriss bowed and accepted the offer of accommodation but made no promises.

The heroes were dismissed. Tetsukichi and Golfo were given a walled compound in the Green Zone. Beatriss took up residence within the city walls, where she was introduced to Bayan—a bold, sharp-eyed former servant of a princess. The princess had labeled her impudent. Beatriss saw something else: the spirit of Madarua, wild and unshaped. She looked forward to testing her—and training her.

Khanbaliq Play Report: Final week in Khanbaliq

In the weeks following the affair of Phi Phong and the rumors surrounding Fun Town, life in Khanbaliq became increasingly unsettled. No single event drove Beatriss and Tetsukichi toward departure; rather, the city itself seemed to shift beneath them, old loyalties loosening and new dangers gathering in the spaces between ordinary life.

Phi Phong, for all her charm, finally pushed too far with her father-in-law, Anca Sansar. The khan had indulged Golfo and his beautiful wife out of affection and amusement, but he had no intention of simply granting his adopted son rank or responsibility he had not earned. In irritation, he threatened to cast both Golfo and his nephew Tetsukichi out of the household altogether so they might “go into the world and make names for themselves properly.”

Meanwhile, Afu remained convinced that Gwinch had become deeply involved in the slave raids along the southwestern frontier. Whether through corruption, enchantment, or divided loyalties, the priest believed Gwinch was no longer acting in the Empire’s interest.

At the same time, imperial scrutiny within Khanbaliq intensified. One morning guards arrived unexpectedly at Anca’s compound to conduct formal questioning. Beatriss accompanied her uncle out of family obligation and was herself questioned about her history in the city and her political associations. When asked about her engagement to Buyuk, she answered coolly that she did not know him well, and since he did not appear serious in his intentions, she considered the understanding between them finished.

Not all developments were ominous. During another excursion into Fun Town, Phi Phong demonstrated a subtler side of her peculiar talents. When an intoxicated street tough began making unwanted advances toward her, she gently redirected his attention toward a stray dog lounging nearby.

“Isn’t she more your type?”

The man immediately abandoned Phi Phong and spent the next several minutes affectionately praising the animal. Oddly enough, the incident reassured Beatriss. Whatever Phi Phong’s powers were, they did not seem wholly malicious.

Elsewhere in the city, rumors spread that members of the Zipangese diplomatic community—mostly clerks and minor officials—were quietly disappearing into imperial custody. Around the same time, the newly appointed abbot of the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path paid an unexpected visit seeking assistance with a growing infestation of monstrous ants beneath the monastery grounds.

Then came the imperial summons.

Tetsukichi was called to the Imperial City and escorted into a stark interrogation chamber where officials questioned him about his loyalties, his travels, and his intentions. During the interview he mentioned, almost casually, that he had considered leaving Khanbaliq to visit relatives in the southwestern borderlands.

The response was immediate.

“Oh? Then perhaps we have work for you.”

The Emperor himself, it seemed, had grown concerned about conditions along the frontier. Slavery was never mentioned directly. Instead, the officials spoke of governors and generals who had fallen from imperial favor after extended service in the southwest. First Governor Kawabi, then General Goyat, and now perhaps even Gwinch himself had become compromised in some way after arriving there.

Tetsukichi was ordered south to discover what was happening and to punish any traitors he found.

Anca Sansar had already begun making preparations to leave the capital himself. Within days the household became a frenzy of movement: wagons loaded, horses shod, tents packed, herds gathered. The caravan that finally assembled outside Khanbaliq was enormous—Anca and his family, warriors and retainers, wives and children, servants, monks from the Emperor’s court, and finally Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and all those who had attached themselves to their fortunes over the previous years.

Before their departure, Buyuk sent Beatriss a letter apologizing for his failures and asking her to reconsider leaving the city. She attempted one final meeting in the Imperial City, but was informed that he was unavailable. In response, she left only a brief farewell message.

And so, beneath a pale spring sky, the caravan departed Khanbaliq in a long cloud of dust, leaving behind the unfinished capital, its intrigues, and the haunted ruins beyond its walls.

Khanbaliq Play Report: Beatriss and Tetsukichi's Guide to Fun Town AND Family Life

A Scene of Lively Traditional Chinese Wedding, a photo by nba888basketball on Flickr.

Although Beatriss’s nemesis Madam Guto has finally been “dealt with,” Beatriss and Tetsukichi soon realized that not all problems could be solved with a sword. Most troublesome was one of the former sing-song girls from Guto’s establishment, a young woman named Phi Phong.

Phi Phong was beautiful, certainly, but that alone did not concern them. Khanbaliq was full of beautiful people. What disturbed them was the effect she seemed to have on others. Men who met her became unusually attached to her—protective, eager to please, almost grateful simply to be near her.

Their companion Golfo, impulsive even by his own standards, had married her after a very brief courtship. That in itself might have been dismissed as typical of a man who, having missed several opportunities to die young, had committed all the more to living fast. More unsettling was the reaction of Anca Sansar, Tetsukichi’s uncle and khan of the household. Sansar openly favored the couple, elevating the rough, low-born Golfo almost overnight. He formally adopted him as a son and seemed especially delighted by Phi Phong’s presence in the household, granting her honors far beyond what her station would ordinarily allow.

Concerned, Tetsukichi sought counsel from Afu, the sun priest who had aided them before. He hoped Afu might divine whether Phi Phong possessed some supernatural influence. But Afu had his own concerns.

First, he believed that Gwinch, the foreign sohei, had become involved in slaving operations along the southwestern frontier. Second, he suspected that Fun Town—the sprawling entertainment district outside the labor camps—served as a covert base for the mysterious Slavelords.

Beatriss and Tetsukichi agreed to investigate.

Following rumors gathered from drunken laborers, they made their way through the crowded alleys of Fun Town until they reached a tavern called The White Warrior. The food was greasy, and the patrons loud enough to discourage careful listening. But while Tetsukichi watched the room, Beatriss struck up a conversation with a monk seated nearby.

When she mentioned Phi Phong and her strange effect on people, the monk nodded with immediate interest. Yes, he said, he knew someone who might help determine the source of such powers. In fact, he was on his way there now—to the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, just outside the city walls. He would gladly guide them.

The offer came too quickly.

Beatriss politely declined. The pair finished their meal and returned home, treating the encounter as a likely attempt to lure them into an ambush.

For several days afterward, life returned to something like normality. Tetsukichi’s infant daughter, born during the winter, was formally named in a household ceremony presided over by Afu. The rites were solemn and joyful, and afterward the priest found some time speaking privately with Phi Phong, in hopes of divining the source of her strange powers.

Later, he reported his conclusions to Beatriss.

Phi Phong, he said, seemed like an exceptionally kind and delightful young woman—warm-hearted, generous, and possessed of uncommon grace. In fact, Afu added with complete sincerity, she appeared blessed by the Gun God himself.

Beatriss listened in silence.

Afterward, she resolved very firmly that Phi Phong would never be left alone with her children.

Birth of the Little Fox Gang

After Tetsukichi, Mayro, and Beatriss-- with temporary allies from the Dirty Rain Gang emerged victorious in their fight against the Black Flowers in the ground floor of the House of Jourdain, a young woman glided down the stairs and said that Madam Guto would like a word with "the new masters." Kura, the Dirty Rain gangster who had led the raid identified himself as such, half repressing a glance at Tetsukichi and Beatriss for confirmation. Beatriss didn't challenge Kura's authority, but she did question his intelligence: "Let's not walk right into an ambush."

When the "new masters" hesitated, a woman identifying herself as Madam Buto also descended the stairs. A handsome woman in her 60s, she wore plain, mannish clothes; her fingers were adorned with many rings, and otherwise wore no jewelry; she walked with a cane and a slight limp, but seemed generally strong and vigourous. She explained that she would like to negotiate for the protection of the new masters.

She went back upstairs and called on them to followe her. at the top of the stairs, hearing her voice from what had been the library, Beatriss remembered that there had been something very strange and terrible in the upstairs, specifically in the library. They entered warily.

And Beatriss remembered. A demon-- behind a secret door in the panelling. But now the panelling had been removed and the demon was clearly visible, sitting in the middle of a large bamboo cage.



Madam Guto needed guards and she would pay them to stay in her house and maintain order, especially when there were guests. Beatriss was not interested in employment, and made known her intention to leave. Madam Guto didn't argue, but suggested that Beatriss and Tetsukichi wait for her downstairs, so that "we can talk about another issue." Beatriss, against her own better judgment, agreed.

They went downstairs, and waited. The other gangsters were curious as to what had happened and Beatriss was eager to share her misgivings. Before long, Kura appeared, all smiles, and asked for his lieutenants to come up. They did. There was a brief argument, and then silence. Soon, Kura and his lieutenants came downstairs. Kura explained to the others that they had signed an agreement with Madam Guto and were breaking away from the main body of the Dirty Rain Gang. They were going to stay in the house, make good money, and run things their own way.

Beatriss and Madam Guto strolled into the courtyard so they could talk, with Tetsukichi and their followers-- um, following.

Madam Guto explained that she had signed an agreement and that she had suggested a name for the new group-- the Little Foxes. She hoped Beatriss liked the name. She hope that future relations between Beatriss and the Little Foxes would not be like the unprofitable relationship with the Black Flowers. "Let's just agree that you leave my Little Foxes alone and I leave your Little Foxes alone. That's all."

Talking was over and so Beatriss attacked. Surprisingly nimble, Madam Guto suffered only a minor wound and fled to the house; Beatriss's friends were caught off guard by their friend's sudden move. But they agreed to support Beatriss, who claimed the woman had threatened her children. The Little Fox gang met Beatriss inside the house and asked her to leave.

Al-Fitar, Tetsukichi, and Golfo were wounded and so the party decided to leave peacefully. They have since made contact with the main body of the Dirty Rain gang to discuss what to do about their new mutual enemy.

(Although Mayro was active in taking the House of Jourdain and destroying the Black Flowers, after the battle, he vanished as suddenly as he'd appeared. PCs do things like that, you know.)

Deadly Chances

Fu Ying, a former hireling of Tetsukichi until he found that his true calling was taking care of giant centipedes, appeared one morning on his former employer’s doorstep. One of the other centipede trainers, Fu Ying’s mentor and friend, a rough-hewn, but decent man whose name is best-translated as “Hardtack,” had been killed the night before. Or maybe early that morning. No one knew much, just that he had ended his shift at the Myriadome early, the cash box was later found to be missing, and that morning he was found in the ruins, dead and mangled by animals. As far as Fu Ying could tell, the management seemed genuinely upset, and not just about the missing cash box. But he and the other workers were afraid to ask too many questions, so maybe Tetsukishi and his friends, as outside agents, might be able to figure out what happened. Back to Fun Town!

Manchu Woman Front, a photo by danielle.kane on Flickr.

That evening, Tetsukichi, Beatriss, and their companions had a really good day at the races. Despite their good luck, they were popular with the crowd and the management as they spent most of their winnings on beer and meat-on-a-stick, including a few rounds for new friends. One bookie glommed onto them and kept them going with compliments and good-natured, if not especially humorous, jokes. Just as they were leaving, they exchanged a few words about “the sad thing that happened.” Neither side let much information, except that the bookie stated, that in his opinion, although Hardtack did place personal bets on the races—a discouraged practice—it was unlike him to steal. He very much valued his job and respected his fellows in the organization too much. And although the management was strict and sometime harsh, their personnel policy would prefer beating a man senseless in public as an example to others, rather than killing him in secret. But most of all, he was glad they had a good time enjoying the unique sport of centipede racing and hoped to see them again.

They went back a second night, and had another good time, this time staying until close with hopes of following the workers home to see if anyone else might get attacked. But the guards of Fun Town shooed them out. On their way out, they stopped in a small tavern catering to clerks; an old man bought them drinks and asked them to join his book group. Also on the way out, Tetsukichi, spotted, from the corner of his eye, a young woman jumping off the top of a two-story building. They searched the alley and found no trace of her.

Hatsu, R.I.P.

Statues de samouraïs - Maruyama park, a photo by Annie Guilloret on Flickr.

The stereotypes about the sentimentality of stuffed animals and those who play with them are largely true. Anyone hoping to correct this “flaw” may get nothing for their troubles but velveteen-textured bruises.

But nonetheless, most long-time players of D&D agree that character death, or more accurately, the prospect of character death is part of the game. How does a referee make a game suspenseful and meaningful without risking injury to his out-of-game person?

The answer, as always, is hirelings and henchmen. Over time my players get attached not only to their PCs, but to their PCs’ henchman. And because henchman are slightly more numerous than PCs, and slightly less cautious, odds are that when someone’s number is up, the name written next to it will be the name of an NPC. Most recently, that name was “Hatsu,” long-time henchman to Tetsukichi. (Isa Girl-Monkey (who plays Tetsukichi) argued that no, Hatsu was not really an NPC, he was Tetsukichi’s alter ego. Before trying to explain why she was wrong, I remembered the name of this blog. Never argue about who is the alter and who is the ego.)

So what happened? Again, my players get attached to their henchman and so Hatsu wasn’t checking for traps or skipping willy-nilly across the rotten floorboards. His death was not a freak accident. (But it was kinda freaky.)

During the first adventure in the monastery, the party had come upon a little cache of forgotten treasure. In the process of divvying up the bracelets and rings, stacks of coins, Hatsu let it be known that, like Tetsukichi, he would like to save up a nest egg for himself so that he might take a title. (As a DM, I generally don’t enforce training costs on poor characters when they level up. Those who don’t pay are of lower social status, and remain beholden to their teachers. When someone levels up and has the money to pay for it, they are allowed to “take a title” appropriate to that level.) Taking a title was very important to Tetsukichi as it allowed him to be adopted into a local clan and thus to marry Su-Laing. But it had put Hatsu in a strange position. Among Tetsukichi’s new cousins, he was a foreign servant. Among the people of Zipang, Hatsu was serving a foreign master. But if he could take a title himself, then Hatsu could claim a new nationality and find a wife.

Thus, there was some bitter irony for Hatsu in contributing his treasure in order to purchase freedom for temple servants. “And then just turn them loose to go who knows where?” The women were grateful for having been rescued from the monastery—was Hatsu not entitled to some “display of gratitude”? Beatriss asked whether he was looking for a wife or a concubine. Hatsu wasn’t sure—if he could choose a servant for now, he would treat her well, and then see what happened.

One of the women, whose name was Dandan, approached Tetsukichi privately and observed that Hatsu had been injured while rescuing them, and that she and the others were grateful, and that perhaps a room could be provided where she and one or two of the others would be allowed to care for him. Beatriss and Tetsukichi agreed and set aside a room for Hatsu, Dandan, and Jiao.

Perhaps two hours later, Tetsukichi was awakened by a terrible groan, followed by a women’s scream cut short, and another woman’s long piercing wail. Hatsu was “very” dead, Jiao was dead enough, and Dandan was in a state of shock pointing at the open window. Tetsukichi went out to investigate, leaving Dandan with Su-Laing . . .

Things could have turned out really ugly if Beatriss hadn’t awakened, and hearing that Su-Laing was alone with the “survivor,” ran in to check on them. She found two Su-Laings, both of whom claimed that other was an impostor who had tried to kill her. When Tetsukichi returned, he suggested that there was some type of strange power at work, something to do with the Two-Fold Path, and the esoteric teachings imparted to its Temple Servants. Something had gone wrong and causing people to do terrible things that they ordinarily wouldn’t do. One of the Su-Laings encouraged this interpretation and said that there was a terrible force beneath the Monastery that had to be destroyed. This was enough for Beatriss to identify the speaker as dangerous for knowing too much. 

She sent one of the Su-Laings to leave the room so she should ask the other some more questions.

Perhaps Beatriss's orders were confusing. She ordered the one she called an "imposter" to be removed from the room so she could hear more from the "real" Su-Laing. But this was a ruse on Beatriss's part. She wanted to protect the real Su-Laing by calling her an imposter and lull the "real imposter" into letting its guard down.

Due to some confusion about Beatriss’s orders, the interview didn’t last long. EVERYONE else left the room and, as soon as they did, the features of the remaining "Su-Laing" shifted to match Beatriss’s. Both Beatriss and her facsimile called for help. When help arrived, one Beatriss asked to be allowed to fight her double alone. The other protested, but not for long. The "Beatriss" who called for the fight was a very able fighter, and soon proved her identity by killing the “other Beatriss,” which, once dead, turned into a featureless, hairless, gray, and anthropomorphic but emaciated and sexless being. 

Once the immediate danger was removed, a somber mood fell on the household. Those who could, slept, without taking special precautions. The next morning, they sent for Afu, not to plan another sortie into the Monastery, but to lead a funeral. After the funeral, they asked Afu to confirm that there weren’t any other dangerous being hiding among the temple servants.

When the party did return to the Monastery, they found evidence that it had been visited again in their absence—the bridge over the rotten floor room had been removed. After some trial and error, the party resolved to lower themselves into the pit on a rope and then climb out the other side. But while they were in the pit, the Black Flower gang attacked in force.

The party defended strongly, using their most powerful spells, and the Black Flowers were driven away. On the other side of the pit, the party found a passage that led to the stairs descending to the pits below the Monastery. But considering the dangers that the Black Flowers might regroup for another attack, the party decided to return to the safety of the city and make a new plan before venturing further.

Gang fighting

Belgium Day II, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

Once Beatriss and Tetsukichi had Su-Laing safely home, and started seeing fires springing up around the city, they went out to investigate, honing in on a fire among a sting of shops in the outer city. Good people watched from indoors. As B&T predicted, the Black Flowers seemed to be responsible—although they were also taking charge of efforts to extinguish the blaze. One member quizzed Beatriss about what she was doing and where she lived, and in taking his leave, butted Nardon in the stomach with his spear. Beatriss and Tetsukichi decided to get out before they met more, and to save their energy for more important things.
Back to the Monastery. They entered by the now very un-secret door—it had been ripped off its hinges and burned. There was more evidence of fresh destruction throughout the halls they explored several weeks ago, before coming upon the dozing sentry. He offered them a deal—the party leaves quietly and no one’s the wiser. But the party wanted to go the other side. They pushed into the room and found the sentry’s several sleeping cousins. And the door onwards had been half covered with rubble. As the party started digging their way out, the sleepers started to awaken. They were rough men, fresh off the steppes, and they were making good money, some half a tael a day to sit there and not let anyone pass. Not such good money that they’d interfere, but good money. Who was paying them, was it the Black Flowers? Yes, funny you should mention it, here they are now.
As mean and nasty as they were, they gave up the advantage of striking first. The party killed them swiftly and forced the Tuigens’ surrender. Not just surrender, but accompany the party as they pushed further into the monastery under the agreement that they’d fight together and offer mutual protection against any other Black Flowers they met once it was time to leave.
On the other side of the wall they met - - another group of Tuigens! But these were members of a different, rival clan, and what’s more, they were commanded by a Monk of the Two-fold Path. But before they could come to blows, the party suggested that they were customers. And what’s more, showed coin. “I’ll be right back.”
And he was. The party members were good customers and the monk was a good salesman. Explaining that he was about to go on a long pilgrimage the next day and wouldn’t be back for four years, and that the other monks might be too busy to help customers, he accepted a little over 200 tael for the 10 “temple servants” that were available for re-assignment. The monk decided he would start his pilgrimage immediately and they all left together.

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.

The Monastery of the Two-Fold Path

Detail from Various Temples around Angkor Wat, Cambodia, a photo by Ganga108 (A busy life) on Flickr.

By the time the party entered the Monastery, they numbered seven:
Beatriss with Naron and Golfo, inexperienced warriors
Tetsukichi with his long-time henchman from Zipang, Hatsu
Eye-Sore
Feng Feng, a “mysterious” warrior with some magical abilities
The party located the secret door and entered the monastery. Somewhat surprisingly, the rooms they explored were badly damaged and populated not by monks and their captives, but by a pack of undead, flesh-eating monsters. The party retreated once, to allow Beatriss and Golfo, who had been temporarily incapacitated by the ghouls, a chance to recover outside the monastery. It was only during their second foray-- after once again passing through badly charred halls with rotten floors, crumbling walls, and collapsed ceiling—that they actually met some monks. These were four men dozing in a stable among the horses in a relatively better kept section of the monastery. The monks were unfriendly, but not directly hostile. They denied the party’s request for shelter for the night and pushed them out the stable door into the night.

A conversation with Afu

CHINA, a photo by BoazImages on Flickr.

Beatriss and Tetsukichi decided to re-dedicate themselves to duty, and to eradicating the slave-trade from Khanbaliq. In planning a investigative mission into the Monastery of the Two-Fold Path, they discussed the need to diversify and expand their group. They went to see Afu, priest of the Sun Temple for help. He knew all about the problems in Khanbaliq and asked B&T to accept the sad truth that their friend Gwinch was most likely behind it. Did they know why Gwinch suddenly left Khanbaliq, reportedly on a expedition to the Southwest provinces? Was he perhaps joining his fellow slavelords secret mountain citadel? Or gathering more slaves from the war-torn villages? Afu agreed that if Beatriss and Tetsukichi were unwilling to take the more obvious approach of tracking down Gwinch, they should investigate the Monastery—and “perhaps uncover some interesting information.” Afu said that he used to know a beggar who knew of a secret entrance into the monastery. “I haven’t seen him for a long time. But I did see his boots—on Gwinch’s feet.” The Wu-Jen who had some information had also disappeared recently—last seen at Gwinch’s house. Alas, Afu could offer the help only of lowly assistant, Eye-Sore-Si-Ling-I-thought-you-were-dead-Ju-May.

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.

mission from the emperor

While Gwinch was talking to his companions (including one relatively new PC, Gunjar the shaman, and one brand-new PC, Kreppu-Sen, a bushi from Zipang) about his plans for hunting down the slavers in Khanbaliq, Kishi came to him with some news. He had been "requested" by the Emperor to command a small army and go on a special mission.

Gwinch accepted. He made some attempts to do some last-minute investigation, but didn't get a good opportunity to discover anything substantive.

Kish provided little in the way of details. There was a problem in one of the Southern Provinces. First with savages, then with the Governor, then with a General sent to help to Governor. The Khan wanted the party to track down both the General and the Governor, both of whom are considered likely traitors.

Over a month, the party traveled with the army to the southwest corner of the empire, fidning increasing surly peasant along the way. As they approached the border, large parts of the army deserted, and at the border, the army's commander left the part on their own, telling them only to head south and try to pick up the trails of Kawabi and Goyat in the Kumandang Valley.

The party spent a day traveling in the forest, at first enjoying the change from being part of a large army and passing through broken farmland populated by angry farmers. That night they were attacked by a giant scorpion. Relying on the spells of Kishi and Saisho, cooked it nicely and had a nice feast.

Laying Low
Originally uploaded by Furryscaly