Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 03 (Not the coin they were looking for)

Over the next few days, the party was joined by the remnants of the Khimori herd—Npi-Nhut, Ses-Hami, and only three others. Then they were attacked by the lion-eagle creatures. These beasts were fearless and seemed driven by hunger. They targeted the party’s extra horses, swiftly killing two and carrying them off.

Salt reacted immediately. Bo-Jing had given her a magic wand, and she used it to unleash an explosive ball of fire as the creatures fled. Those not killed were forced to land. Bo-Jing and his men galloped after them, fighting with arrows and swords. The brave warriors were grappled by talons and slashed by claws, but they defended each other and killed the monsters.

The Khimori expressed their gratitude, praising the party for slaying enemies they had come close to believing were insurmountable. Ses-Hami examined the bodies and told Bo-Jing he believed six more remained—including one that was invisible except when attacking. Bo-Jing assured Ses-Hami that he and his company would remain in the valley until the threat was eliminated.

Bangqiu then suggested that while ranging over the northern end of the valley, they should search for the Northern Coin. Bo-Jing agreed. Following Erke’s earlier hints and their own knowledge of the valley, they located an enormous horse statue, which they reasoned must represent the King of the North. Bangqiu climbed it. Following the statue’s line of sight, he spotted a high cliff to the north, pockmarked with caves. From this vantage point, he also saw figures moving outside—possibly human, possibly animal, likely something in between. The company decided to rest and approach the cliffs the next day.

While resting, they kept a close eye on the figures. The next day, they climbed to the cliffs and encountered a group of beastmen, clearly agitated but held in check by a robed man—Erke, the mysterious traveler they’d met in Khanbaliq. He greeted them like old friends, apologizing for having left Banua without them.

“I didn’t know when you’d return. And as you can see—I found some new partners!”

Erke explained that, with the beastmen’s help, he’d located several tunnels, one of which surely held the Northern Coin.

“Unfortunately, these are the breeding grounds of the crimson death worm. Watch your step—or your last breath will be a cry of agony!”

Beastmen from the Clan of Worm tapped their crimson shields and laughed.

Erke added that most of the beastmen had died exploring.

“They almost never watch their step...”

Salt found the beastmen unsettling. Their musky odor was overpowering, and they stared at her with bloodshot eyes and drooling fangs, whimpering when Erke shouted at them in a harsh metallic tongue. Their glowing marks oozed blood and pus as they scratched at them.

Erke pointed out the tunnels he had explored and suggested sending in the beastmen first to draw out the worms.

“Your men can shoot them—the worms—before they shock us. And if all the beastmen die, we won’t have to pay them. Speaking of payment, I’m working for the Emperor. He expects the coin, but we’ll all be well rewarded.”

Bangqiu and Salt rejected this at once. Salt didn’t believe Erke. Bangqiu didn’t care.

“We don’t work for the Emperor,” Bangqiu said. “If we find the coin, I want it.”

As they argued, Erke lost control of the beastmen, and they attacked with fury. Erke pulled a potion from his robes. As his body sublimated into a blue-green cloud, Salt fired a ball of flame from her wand. The cloud evaporated and two beastmen were incinerated. The rest attacked.

At that moment, a screech from above heralded another assault. The lion-eagles returned. As the Khimori took to the sky, the beasts targeted the party’s horses. Bo-Jing and his soldiers outnumbered the beastmen, who fought with a death-wish. Four horses were killed before Salt and Bangqiu drove off the lion-eagles with magic, killing one.

Knowing another attack could come from any direction, the party set camp with many watchers.

After a day of rest, Bo-Jing and Salt chose to explore the tunnels. The Worm Clan refused to follow.

“The death worm is our totem,” they said. “We must warn you—if molested, it will defend itself with poison, needles, lightning... But if it spares you, so will we.”

Bo-Jing promised to avoid unnecessary violence, believing the coin could help in the war against the Master. Bangqiu chose to remain outside to guard the horses—and to keep an eye on the Worm Clan.

Bo-Jing, his men, Ryu, and Salt ventured into the tunnels. The warnings proved accurate. Gan-Yul was bitten and his leg swelled painfully, but he survived. The party cleared the path with long poles, using rocks to kill worms from a distance. Most effective, however, was Ryu’s snake staff. As a giant python, it drove out the worms, crushing and devouring them. Even when bitten repeatedly, it endured, only reverting to staff form when finally overcome.

The nest they found covered an older, human-made tunnel. After crossing a chasm, they entered a small chamber. A bronze coffer rested on a stone pedestal. Though small enough to hold, it was too heavy to lift. Bo-Jing summoned all his strength to knock it off. Something clattered inside.

From his pack, Bo-Jing retrieved a bottle of vinegar he’d found in Khanbaliq. While his men gagged, he drank it down and, with a great shout, smashed the coffer open. Inside was a dull metal disk, possibly pewter, with four doves flying in a circle—no symbols, no writing. Ryu read the accompanying scrap of paper:

“Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”

Outside, Npi-Nhut approached Bo-Jing with a plan. He believed Bo-Jing was honorable, but the lion-eagles would return. Many more horses—and people—might die. The Khimori couldn’t fight effectively while carrying riders, but Npi-Nhut was willing to make an exception. Each would carry one fighter into the aerie.

Bo-Jing agreed. Ryu volunteered. Bo-Jing chose Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren. A dilemma arose over whether to take Zhang or Gan-Yul—Salt resolved it by volunteering herself. Npi-Nhut approved, noting her uncanny timing in battle.

They flew by moonlight. Salt pressed her face into Npi-Nhut’s mane. Bo-Jing, riding behind Npi-Nhut on Ses-Hami, held tight, his legs aching. At dawn, they reached the southwest cliffs.

Npi-Nhut signaled. The Khimori circled, then dove. Two lion-eagles were visible. As Npi-Nhut feinted, the others dropped their riders. Bo-Jing landed on one, severing its wing. Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren flanked the other. Ryu landed and released his snake staff.

Salt remained airborne. The wounded lion-eagle screeched. Two more emerged—and then the invisible one struck Bo-Jing, pinning and slashing him. Salt blasted it with bolts of energy. Bo-Jing tracked it by claw marks and gusts of air, striking again and again.

Gan-Wei and Yi-Ren killed one, but struggled with the next. Ryu’s snake immobilized it long enough for Gan-Wei to finish it. Ryu healed Yi-Ren, then joined the fight with his staff. Salt hit the invisible foe with magic again.

It screeched and flew—Salt bathed it in violet light, revealing it to the archers. Struck by arrows, it dove. Ses-Hami chased it to the ground. Though wounded by its talons, he threw it off, then pounded its head with his hooves. The others arrived to find the final beast dead.

Back in the aerie, Bo-Jing found a fine sword among the bones and gave it to Gan-Wei.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 02 (Into the Valley)

The party returned to Banua and shared news of their success. Ganbaatar was thoroughly pleased and announced a small feast in their honor. The celebration was muted, however, by the growing evidence that their recent triumph, despite the symbolic importance, was of little practical importance compared to the challenge ahead of them. The population of Banua had noticeably increased in the few weeks that Bo-Jing and his company had been gone. The most obvious newcomers were members of the Bolad horde who returned to the seat of their khan as was their right. But more and more of the newcomers were refugees from the Nergui horde. They were not soldiers, but families and widows. Ganbaatar referred to them as his “long-lost people returned,” and setting a tone of generous triumph. But anxiety was growing. Clearly, Gansukh could not defend his people as well as Ganbaatar, but would “better than Gansukh” prove to be good enough?

Bo-Jing discussed the matter with Ryu and came to the one obvious conclusion. As the Emperor’s baghatur, he was not a Bolad partisan. His duty, accepted as a charge from the Emperor, was not only to collect taxes, but to defend the people. He would go to Khazu Kala, make peace with Gansukh if possible and, regardless of whether he succeeded in this, find a way to bring help to the people. If he could not organize a defense himself, he would gather information to make a compelling report to the Emperor.

The mysterious Salt had also found her way to Banua. Bo-Jing suspected that Bangqiu had found some way to contact her through the dreamworld, but regardless, he agreed that he would be glad to have the advice of another magician when confronting the armies of the “Master.” Nar-Nuteng, however, decided that she would remain in Banua.

En route to the lands of the Nergui, Bo-Jing encountered a khimori, a blue-black flying horse, who introduced himself as the son of the khimori whom Bo-Jing had met in the Valley of the Five Fires. The young khimori, who was called Ses-Hami, told Bo-Jing that the Valley had been invaded by evil creatures who defiled the cradle of humanity with wanton bloodshed, fighting each other, killing animals, and setting the grass on fire. At first, the khimori had avoided these dangers by taking flight when necessary. But more recently, the land-bound monsters had been joined by flying abominations, flying lions with the heads and razor-sharp beaks of giant eagles. These monsters had pursued the khimori, and killed several of their number. Without assistance, the entire herd would soon be eliminated. Bo-Jing promised immediately to help, then spent a sleepless night agonizing over how his promise might cost human lives. By morning, he concluded that assisting the khimori might also benefit the people of Khazu Kala; if nothing else, he would learn something about the monsters that were causing so much havoc in the area.

On their way into the Valley, the party passed through the Bolad fire camp and found it completely destroyed, with all the firewatchers dead. Venturing into the Valley itself, the party encountered a group of haggard soldiers with crimson shields. These men expressed their joy and relief in meeting other natural people, explaining that they were of the Clan of the Worm and that their lands had been overrun by beastmen. These savage murderers attacked without reason or purpose except to find someone they called the “deaf witch” and the “queen with no name.” Circumstances had become so dire that these men of the Worm Clan had entered the Valley of the Five Fires, with the plan of crossing it and warning their treaty-partners and plan for common defense. Bo-Jing thanked the men of the Worm Clan and agreed that all people should unite against the alien threat. He believed that the “deaf witch” being sought by the beastmen was Naransetseng, the wife of Gansukh, khan of the Nergui Horde. He would accompany the men to warn the Nergui that they were being targeted by the beastmen. But first, he had made a promise to the khimori. The men of the Worm Clan asked to travel with Bo-Jing, seeing that he was a true baghatur of courage and honor. Bo-Jing welcomed their help gladly. Continuing on their way, the group encountered several of the beastmen that the men of the Worm Clan had described. These men were tattooed with strange symbols and seemed to be in the midst of a painful transformation from man into beast, having developed claws and fangs. They were fearsome opponents, but Bangqiu and Salt blasted them with a cloud of scalding steam and other magic attacks; those who survived were swiftly cut down by Bo-Jing and his men. The men of the Worm Clan pledged their gratitude at having been accepted into such valiant company.

Ses-Hami approached Bo-Jing and asked to share with him some information that he had previously kept to himself. His father, Npi-Nhut, had been captured by the beastmen. The beastmen had asked him to deliver Bo-Ing to them in exchange for the life of his father. Ses-Hami had seen that Bo-Jing was not only valiant, but honorable, and he realized his father would rather die than be part of any transaction that might endanger such a good man. Ses-Hami knew where the beastmen and other monsters were lying in wait, hoping to ambush Bo-Jing, on the main path leading into the Valley. But he also knew another way, through the forest on a path even higher than the ambush point. He proposed that they attack the monsters and rescue his father.

Bo-Jing agreed to the plan. Ses-Hami led the group through the forest to the top of a steep grassy slope overlooking the path into the valley. Indeed, there was a group of beastmen plus three trolls, watching the path below. They had prepared an assortment of rubble, held in place by a pile of logs and ropes, and poised to be cast down onto the path below. Npi-Nhut was chained to a rock, guarded by three enormous wolves. Bangqiu ascended into the air and threw a ring of fire down on the would-be ambushers. The ring expanded, holding them in place. The Worm Clan rained arrows down on the entrapped beastmen. Bo-Jing ordered his men to fire their arrows at the wolves charging up the hill, while stepping forward with his sword ready to meet the attack. Salt added her own magic missiles to the volley of arrows. Only one wolf reached Bo-Jing, and he was killed by a single blow from the baghatur’s sword. Those beastmen who tried to escape their prison and were not consumed by the flames were overwhelmed by Bo-Jing and his men when they reached the top of the hill. Soon the evil monsters were dead and the company of heroes emerged victorious and unscathed. Npi-Nhut was freed, and he confirmed his son’s sad tale. He would gather the rest of the herd and, with Bo-Jing’s permission, travel with the brave heroes as they continued their campaign of justice throughout the Valley.

Defending the Lands of the Five Fires 01 (Cleansing the Shrine of Sum Sakhius)

The party return to their house in the city and enjoyed long baths for finalizing their plans to return to the Bo-Jing’s post in the lands of the Valley of the Five Fires. Bo-Jing announced that they would leave the next day, hoping that an early departure would avoid any more audiences with the Emperor. Bangqiu sent a thought message to Kafka in the Happy Valley, telling him that the monastery in Khanbaliq was suitable for reconsecration and habitation by genuine monks, although there were some problems in the way of an ant infestation and sewage system irregularities that would need to be addressed at some point.

The company set out the next afternoon. As they traveled north, Bo-Jing and Bangqiu found that increasingly their reputations preceded them. When there was no inn available, there was a snug house, and when there was no house, there was an encampment around a roaring fire, the smell of roasting meat and a crowd of smiling faces. Mainly they wanted to hear about the coin that Bo-Jing and Ganbaatar had given to the Emperor. Where did they find it, what were it’s powers, what would the Emperor do with it, would there be marriages to Imperial daughters? Some knew of the feud with Gansukh and the Nergui horde. Some had heard rumors of Bangqiu’s powers. And always there were one or two young men hoping to spar with the bright-eyed warrior maiden.

Bangqiu and Bo-Jing wanted to find another coin. And along the road, they found someone who wanted to help them, a mystic named Erke who told them he visited the Valley of the Five Fires in the dreamworld and heard rumors of the where the Northern Coin could be found. “The horse of Khagan Harad still looks for his master.” Bo-Jing invited Erke to travel with them.

As the party traveled further north, the welcomes were as warm as ever, but with an undercurrent of desperation. They were hearing strange stories about men taking on the minds of beasts, becoming maddened by the basest instincts. There were a few jokes about the barbaric ways of the Nergui horde, but most understood this was something more. Instead of tall tales, these people wanted to hear that yes Bo-Jing and Bangqiu did lead a battle against wolves, giants, and flying monsters. And yes, when the time came, they would do it again.

When the party reached Banua, they were ready to put aside thoughts about the coin. Ganbaatar was “so thankful that you decided to leave the good life in the capital and return to little old Banua.”

Based on stories of what was happening in the lands of the Nergui horde, Ganbaatar had forbidden his people from traveling in the lands west of Banua. And yet, the Master’s armies, the beastmen were likely on their way. He was especially concerned to hear stories that the shrine of Sum Sukhis had been defiled. Northeast of Banua, Ganbaatar considered this the true jewel of his lands. “A holy place for all people. No matter your faith, any one who visited there with an open heart would come away with peace and joy. Until now.”

Pilgrims had gone and not returned. Others had given up their pilgrimage, finding themselves more and more uneasy as they came in view of the stupa that marked the holy place.

Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, and Nar-Nuteng were glad to go. Erke would not. Instead, he would stay and wait for them in Banua.

The travel to the shrine took several days and while the people they met were welcoming as they got closer there were fewer and fewer people. They met a hermit who told them the strange history of the shrine, that it was built with a pool on the ground floor, an upper story, and a lower floor that was closed off to everyone, in expression of the constant necessity to resist evil. And now the shrine had been overrun by monsters, blue and purple oni who attacked pilgrims and defiled the shrine.

On the day when they finally reached the shrine, they met a pair of 10-fotot tall blue-skinned monsters, trying to knock down a tree in which an eagle was nesting. Bangqiu and Ryu used their magic to transix the monsters. They fell to the ground in a stiff slumber. The eagle flew down from the trees to peck out the monster’s eyes and feed it to her chicks. In examining the monsters bodies, Bo-Jing noticed several large, pus-filled sores and bloody boils. Ryu could talk to the eagle who explained that the monsters lived in the “quiet stone house” and had “taken the silence away” with fighting and screaming.

The party entered the shrine and found the pool as described by the hermit and a staircase leading down. At the bottom of the staircase, they found a pair of oni standing guard outside a door, their backs facing the party. Bangqiu spoke to them in his most commanding voice and in their own language, explaining that he had come from the Master and wanted a full report. The oni promised that they were doing the Master’s bidding, and guarding the place but there was something in the underground that was making everyone sick. Everyone wanted to leave but the chief said no. Bangqiu expressed the necessity of speaking to the chief at once.

The oni agreed and let the party back upstairs and to the upper floor. The other oni they met were glad to meet visitors. Using both his sword and the power of the Eastern Coin, Bo-Jing was able to convince them that he was a powerful ally. Some were violent, but not in a sustained, cohesive, or even fully serious way, and not necessarily directed at “the little folk.” On a lark and perhaps to impress the visitors, two of the onis decided to throw a third over the balcony and into the pool below. All of them were covered with the same sores that plagued the onis that had been harassing the eagles.

When they reached the chief’s quarters, they found him less cowed and more hostile, and suddenly found themselves surrounded by a dozen monsters who had already shown their capacity for easy violence. Thinking fast, Bo-Jing called on the power of the Eastern Coin and with a sharp word, the chief was struck to the ground motionless. The onis hesitated and then one sprang for the chief’s yak-skin cloak, proclaiming himself “the new chief.” He was challenged by one of the other oni and in the midst of the melee, Bangqiu made the cloak disappear.

The onis didn’t notice immediately, but when they did, they began to cry out in outrage once again threatening the visitors with violence and doing their best to deliver on their threats.

An invisible Bangqiu, stepped outside the a window and called from there, “the cloak of the chief is outside. The first one outside will claim it as the new chief.” To prove his point, the invisible Bangqiu dropped the cloak. Those oni standing near the window saw it fall to the ground. After testing they were too big to jump out the window, the oni, pushed their ways to the stairs or over the balcony. As soon as they got outside, the still invisible Bangqiu, made the cloak disappear again, only to carry it and drop it further away from the shrine.

As the rest of the party made their way out of the shrine, they met a pair of onis that had been so stricken with sores that they were barely recognizable as oni any more. Their skin had been stretched and discolored a pale violet and most of their teeth had fallen out of their mouths. And they attacked with fearless rage, seemingly relieved to be cut down by the blades of Bo-Jing and his comrades.

The party looked at each other and nodded grimly. Bo-Jing led the way back down to the door that the oni had been guarding. In their absence it had been smashed open. In the space below, they met and killed more of the diseased oni. They also found a boulder of black stone, nearly as large as the shrine itself and pulsating with a sickly purple light. Immediately, their skin began to itch and their minds were clouded with evil thoughts.

Continuing to explore, they found two rooms with writing carved on the wall. They felt peaceful here, especially when they touched the wall. They could not read it, but Bo-Jing recognized seeing something like it in the books that Bangqiu carried with him.

The party exited the shrine and camped, waiting for Bangqiu’s return. When he did return, they told him about the writing and he agreed to enter the shrine and examine it. They re-entered the shrine and indeed Bangqiu could read the writing. When he read it, their minds felt completely at peace. Returning to the room with black-purple boulder, they found it had been shielded by another gentle yellow light and that they could stand next to it without ill effect. All the same, Bangqiu announced that a wooden door and promises were insufficient to keep the shrine safe. He covered the entrance to the undercroft with a seamless wall of stone.

Slave Pits of the Undercity 03 (Finale)

While in the Happy Valley, Nar-Nuteng had trained rigorously with Beatriss; in sparring contests with Bo-Jing’s retinue, the bright-eyed girl proved she could hold her own with any of them. Bo-Jing never openly acknowledged her prowess, but his insults desisted. And when she announced that she would return with him to free the slaves, he made no objection.

Salt, meanwhile, had disappeared. She had accompanied Bo-Jing and the others to the Happy Valley but refused to enter Beatriss’s fortress. Villagers claimed to see her from time to time and Bangqiu seemed to know where she was. Truthfully, no one seemed to care and soon it was time to return to Khanbaliq.

Bo-Jing, Nar-Nuteng, and Bangqiu made the now familiar journey back to the capital. Rumors of an invasion from the western deserts circulated in the taverns and Bo-Jing and Bangqiu were often recognized as that baghatur and that sorcerer who had deflected the Master’s advance. Good food, welcoming company, and soft beds made the short trip feel way too short.

Back in Khanbaliq, the hospitality was less hospitable. Bo-Jing was invited to tea with one of the Emperor’s high-ranking ministers. In this meeting, Bo-Jing learned that the Emperor was surprised that Bo-Jing had tarried so long in Khanbaliq. Bo-Jing bumbled through a few excuses and then promised to make preparation and leave the day after tomorrow.

Bo-Jing, Bangqiu, and Nar-Nuteng agreed that they had one more day to drive the slavers out of the Monastery and free the captives within.

They party made this approach by the main gate, fully prepared to meet another ragtag group of monks and their fire-breathing machine. The courtyard was empty, the machine still in the same ruinous state that Bangqiu had put it in during the last assault. Bangqiu made himself invisible and using his magic boots, rose up over the gate to land in the courtyard. The doors to each of the winch rooms were closed and barred—from the outside. Listening at one of the doors, Bangqiu heard scratching and slavering, but smelled something far worse than rabid dogs. He knocked the bar off the door and then rose into the air. A half-dozen ghouls rushed out with wild eyes and bloody teeth. They smelled Bangqiu but couldn’t find him and clawed furiously at the air.

When Bangqiu did appear, he was only a few feet above their heads. They rushed towards him and—into a thick cloud of scalding steam that delivered their second death.

Bangqiu entered the winch room and raised the first gate to allow his friends into the gatehouse. Then he opened the second winch door and blasted its two undead occupants with a barrage of hot green bolts of light. He opened the second gate and the rest of the party entered the courtyard.

Bo-Jing led the way to the temple room in which they had fought the priestess, and warned Bangqiu and Nar-Nuteng that the priestess had been killed by the sudden descent of an enormous sword held aloft by a thirty-foot statue while trying to escape through a trapdoor at the statue’s feet. The sword was once more poised aloft, and no one wanted to open the door. Bo-Jing persuaded Ryu to eat one of the lotus pods to enter the dreamworld so that he could pass through the trapdoor without opening it. After passing through the door, returned from the world and deliberately triggered the trap door from the safety of the other side. With silent cheers, the party lit torches and went below.

The party found themselves in the narrow, fulsome tunnels of the antpeople. Wanting no quarrel of double-sword-wielding creatures whose carapaces were like steel, and whose voracious larvae lurked in huge pools of offal, the party sought and found the path of least resistance—by avoiding the sound of clicking and clanging and the smell of rotting compost, the party passed through the antpeople’s lair and into the relatively homey tunnels of the Khanbaliq sewer system. The tunnels were well-made with wide iron walkways alongside an easy-running course of garbage, waste, and storm runoff.

By accident or evil design, the iron walkway was insecure in some places and the bold Bo-Jing was dropped unceremoniously into the sewage canal. There was a circular current here and Bo-Jing found himself pulled swiftly toward the bottom. The fast-thinking Nar-Nuteng through him one end of the a rope. Bangqiu seized the other end and with the help of his magic boots, ran up the arched ceiling to hover above the canal and help Bo-Jing pull himself out of the sewage. The party continued, Bo-Jing still leading the way, but tapping the floor ahead of him with a half barge pole.

The party group found their way to the cells where the slaves had been held captive, and found that they were now occupied by a several monks, who murmured softly to each other while sharing a bowl of rice perched on a stool. One of them saw the party’s approach and caught his breath. The others turned to stare in terror, not moving until the rice bowl slid off the stool onto the floor. None of them reached for his spear or hatchet. At last one of them spoke, “You have come to kill us too?”

Bo-Jing had learned from talking to the rescued slaves, that many of the monks had come from the same southern villages. These monks were thin, one of them emaciated, shivering in his thread-bare scrap of saffron cloth. It was clear to Bo-Jing that if a lucrative slaving operation was running through the monastery, these men were seeing none of the profit. He asked them why they were there. Their answer, in Southern-accented Zhou, with references to soldiers, burning rice paddies, and promises of getting educated in the North, became completely unintelligible when Ryu asked them to name the basic precepts of the two-fold path.

Ryu shook his head and looked at Bo-Jing. “You understand the way of the two-fold path better than these men.”

Bo-Jing asked the men if they wanted to leave the monastery with him. After receiving his reassurance that he did not wish to torture or eat them and his promise that if that was his plan he would just kill them now, the monks agreed to show Bo-Jing a way out.

But it wasn’t time to go out. There was something else down there that Bo-Jing needed to deal with. The monks didn’t know if there were more slaves but there could be soon. There were two bosses and after the priestess boss disappeared, there was one boss, a disgusting man with several pet weasels.

The party wandered the sewers until they met another group of sewer-dwellers. Well-fed and well-clothed Northerners, these men did not even pretend to be monks. “This is just our home.” They were led by a sinister look shaman and maintained a fortified stretch of tunnel on both sides of the sewage canal, with no obvious way of crossing between them.

They knew the weasel man and where to find him. If the party was looking to buy slaves, they could take a message. The party waited and played dice on one side of the tunnel while runners from the other side went to find weasel man. During this time, Bangqiu found a way to cross the sewer undetected and eavesdrop on the men on the far side of the tunnel. The men expressed mild curiosity about the visitors, but said nothing that betrayed a hidden agenda beyond selling slaves. When the runners return, the conversation changed. Weasel man did not want to meet the visitors. These were the robbers who had killed all the monks and stolen so many slaves. Instead, the runners, explained, weasel-man wanted them to find out where the robbers lived so he could report them.

When the runners shared their message with Bo-Jing and Nar-Nuteng, the warriors didn’t need magical powers to know something was up. Bangqiu, invisible in the darkness of the shaman’s cave, promised him new powers if he could help him meet the weasel man.

The shaman liked the sound of this offer. The other men were confused, but when the shaman ordered boards to be placed across the canal so the rest of the party could cross over. After a brief and amicable farewell, the party were on their way, led by the shaman who school his staff and rattled his bone jewelry as he led “the voice” and “the voice’s companions” through a series of passage, at last bringing them to the circular room where Bo-Jing and Nar-Nuteng had once before encountered weasel-man.

Weasel-man wasn’t there, but the weasels were, three of them, large as wolves. Bo_Jing called on the power of the Coin of the East and the weasels, fell to the floor and curled into tight balls. Nar-Nuteng heard the sound of human footsteps running out of the room. They followed the sound back into the antpeople’s tunnel, but soon lost the trail. The monk-refugees were afraid and asked to return to their cells. Bo-Jing told them they could if they found their own way back. They decided to stay with him.

The party decided to return to the circular room, hoping to lay in wait for the weasel-man. While rummaging through his belongings, they found a store of decent food, a sack of tael coins, and business records. A group of monks arrived, unarmed, but well-fed. They greeted the visitors and promised that their master did want to meet them. But he was in the city.

Bangqiu was skeptical and tapped one of the monks on the forehead, ordering him to tell the truth. The man began blabbering. His master was hiding in the stone shed. The other monks gasped and began to run. Bangqiu and the others chased them, through the antpeople tunnels to the surface, then through a garden toward a small shed built next to the monastery wall. Bangqiu became invisible and reached the shed first. The small room was cramped with tools, cooking pots, and sleeping mats. There was an exit, a stout door built into the monastery wall. The shed appeared empty, but Bangqiu sensed the sweaty, weaselly breath of another person. Bangqiu positioned himself in front of postern door. When the monks reached the shed, they cried out to the empty room that Li-Ho had told the robbers he was there. An invisible man reached for the door and collided with the invisible Bangqiu. The two men grappled and wrestled. The other man stabbed Bangqiu with a knife and Bangqiu retaliated with a blast of magic missiles.

Both men became visible and stared at each other. Weasel-man was pudgy and round with a flat nose and large eyes. But the smell. Weasel-man retreated while commanding the monks to attack. As they grabbed tools and charged, Bo-Jing arrived. He killed the Weasel-man with one slash of his sword and ordered the monks to leave his friend alone. They joyfully threw down their weapons. “We are free!”

Slavepits of the Undercity 02

 After finding the rescued captives in the Happy Valley, Bo-Jing and his crew, along with Bangqiu returned to Khanbaliq.  Nar-Nuteng had elected to stay behind in the Happy Valley and train with Beatriss.  Although Bo-Jing had sometimes denigrated the girl's prowess in battle, he admitted that her unique way of looking at things was often useful and enhanced his own decision-making.  Finding his men too obliging and Bangqiu too selfish, Bo-Jing was glad to meet Salt, a plucky team-player with a mind of her own plus nascent magical abilities. 

The party set out early in the morning and encountered a group of imperial guards.  The guards recognized Bo-Jing's status as a baghatur and seemed embarassed when it become apparent that they were going to the same place.  While Bo-Jing and his friends were seeking to infiltrate the monastery, the imperial guards had been charged with-- guarding it. Reaching the monastery, Bo-Jing learned that their previous entry point was no longer an option.  The stables had been reduced to rubble, with broken boards, large stones, and garbage blocking the passage that had once allowed access to the lower level.  This was the point the guards were expected to patrol.  With feigned naivete they suggested that if Bo-Jing had business with the monks inside, he should present himself at the front gate.  Their solemn duty was to remain "right here directly in front of the ruined stables no matter what might be happening somewhere else such as at the front gate-- way over there on the other side of the monastery from where we couldn't possibly be expected to see or hear anything anyway."

Following the guards directions, the party found the entrance, a roofless gatehouse with two portcullises and a courtyard beyond.  The monks in the courtyard seemed welcoming, pausing in their work of lading a cart to greet the visitors, but soon showed their duplicitous nature.  The monks opened the outer portcullis and, once the party had entered dropped it closed without opening the inner portcullis.  When Bo-Jing drew his sword and threatened him, they turned the heavy cart toward him and blasted him with a stream of boiling oil.  Bo-Jing sustained little in the way of burns but his armor was damaged and all of his men sustained minor injuries from the splash.  More seriously, it seemed likely the monks had the means to cause more mayhem from behind the near-complete safety of the portcullis.

Bangqiu stepped forward and blasted the monks with hot steam.  As they ran away from their machine, he used his magic to become invisible and levitate over the inner gate.  Bangqiu found the winch room and raised the gate and allowed his comrades inside.  Then he assumed bird form and flew away.

The monks, with their poor weapons and threadbare robes showed little appetite for combat without the protection of a gate between them and Bo Jing's sword.  They fled to their ramshackle dormitory and Bo Jing led a charge toward the temple.  In the gloomy, cobwebbed sanctuary, dominated by a huge statue of a man with a sword raised above his head, they found the head priestess and her minions.  She hexed Bo Jing and his man-- Ganyul and Ganwei were transfixed, while Bo-Jing shook off the paralyzing magic and responded with a curse of his own.  Clenching the Eastern Coin in his palm, he castigated the deceptive priestess as she rose her hands to cast another spell; she froze as if his on the head, blinked and wandered away in a stupor.

And so the battle was on.  A dozen captives, in chains, turned on their captors who were cut down by Bo Jing and his men.  Ryu tended to Ganyul and Ganwei.  Salt watched from the shadows until a monk in black robes slinked up behind Bo Jing with a wicked dagger.  A bolt of blue energy from Salt struck the man in the back of the head.  He cried out in shock; Bo Jing spun on his heel and cut him down.

The panicked priestess stumbled toward the statue and bent over to open a trapdoor.  As she raised it, the statue's sword swung down and killed her.

The captives cheered.  Bo-Jing found the key to unfasten their chains and together with his friends, led the newly-freed people out of the monastery.

Like the others, they were mainly from the "Southern Empire" of Zhou Song.  They would not be safe in Khanbaliq and could not make the long trip home unaccompanied.  Most had lost their families in the war and were grateful to start a new life in the Happy Valley.

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.