Slain by Elf

Still investigating the disappearance of Left Hand we are no closer to learning anything. But we are trying. Various directions are taken to look for clues or find new leads. I head back to the dojo, discreetly following general Su Zuo who goes inside. I get close to the building and listen at the door, hoping to eavesdrop on the conversation.

‘Make a perception check’, the GM asks me. And I succeed! ‘Okay, you hear…’ Fung Xe is happy to know I am not deaf, offering me some hearty congratulations.

But the GM is only pausing to look at his notes. ‘…muffled voices’. That doesn’t seem like much help. I go inside to hear better and stop the conversation dead, which also doesn’t help. We’ll need to think of another course of action.

In a strange twist, a few of our party decide to volunteer for some hard manual labour. Guided by an imperial scholar, the group of twenty-odd volunteers are to dig for artefacts. Being told of the long hours and gruelling work ahead of them, as well as the commensurate pay, each volunteer is offered the opportunity to stay and work or leave.

Cheng Nenfa is happy to stay. ‘Maybe we’ll get to keep something.’

‘No you won’t.’

‘How do you know?’

‘This isn’t a ‘Pick Your Own Strawberries’ farm.’ We explain to Cheng how digging for priceless artefacts under the direction of an imperial scholar works, hopefully helping to prevent his getting a hand chopped off for stealing.

We have been accused of theft. This is news to us but being assaulted in the market gets our attention. We head up to the house where the master of our accuser lives.

‘You approach the house and see that the door… is open!’

‘Is that unusual?’

‘Not especially. You enter and quickly realise that the house… is silent!’

‘…is that unusual?’

‘Not really. You call out for Left Hand or his daughter but you get no reply.’

‘…’

‘That is peculiar.’

When the various levels of normality have been established we perform a rudimentary search of the building. A chest is found open, its lock clearly broken, and we realise that some books have been removed from it. At least we now know what we’ve been accused of and can work to clear our names.

A fight breaks out in the market. We are defending ourselves from the man accusing us of theft, and his henchman. Fung Xe is able to close with Tong, the leader, and trap his weapon. Tong is unable to attack when pinned like this, so chooses to ‘escape the trapped weapon by taking an action to release my weapon’.

‘Yes, that’s what I did’, says Kwai Chen Tai, ‘I chose to release my weapon when I was wrapped in the awning’. It’s curious, because at the time it rather looked like he tried to cut through the awning as two henchman enveloped Kwai in it, but fumbled his weapon and got thoroughly tangled as a result.

Other henchman are attacking me and Cheng Nenfa, with Yuen Shu-Lin sneaking around to launch a surprise attack on Tong. Three henchman engage me and although I am able to deflect most of their blows I get a knock and become bruised, luckily only superficially for now. Cheng sees the minor wound and mocks the henchmen, ‘I don’t think you can even harm me!’ That sounds like an invitation.

A pair of henchman strike at the confident spearman, feeling invulnerable in his leather armour, and find their yin and yang in harmony. A double-eight result hits Cheng’s armour with a mighty blow, one of their weapons thumping in to his side and most certainly harming him. ‘Ow. They aren’t pulling their blows.’

Indeed, even Tong is striking without fear of causing injury, whilst we are trying to be careful lest the initial misunderstanding becomes more serious. Fung Xe is hit by Tong and is wounded, putting his breath of life in to the ‘bruised’ box. ‘Now I’ll put him in to a wooden box’, he retorts.

But before we can get too serious the sound of the town guard quick-marching to the market square can be heard, scattering the henchman and leaving us to face the music.

We are mingling around the market square when a rather angry looking gentleman storms up to us and starts accusing us of stealing something from him. ‘I know you’ve taken these things from me’, he says, almost yelling in our faces, as a small gang of his followers looks on, ‘and I want them back!’

Kwai Chen Tai uses his keen perceptive abilities to sense this chap’s true motivation and intention. He succeeds in his skill check and is told that ‘you know he thinks you’ve taken things from him and that he is angry about it’.

Learning information we already know is strangely familiar. It’s good to know that skills work similarly across different gaming systems.

‘Your journey takes you to the river where you pilot a boat downstream, before crossing the pass to finally get to the village.’

‘How long did it take?’

‘A week.’

‘So, 21 days.’

‘Um, what?’

‘…since I last smoked opium. It was 14 days before we started, so now it has been 21 days. Did no one listen to my back-story?’