NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 274308" data-attributes="member: 2785">Session One, Part 10TAM MULLED over the strange symbols on the walls of the musty room. They were written haphazardly in what appeared to be dried blood. “We are not sure what these writings mean,” he admitted to Tran and Mai. “We will need time to examine them at length.” He looked around the small space. Trash, hay, and bits of cloth littered the floor, and three piles of debris slouched against the east wall. Huge rat nests. A hinged wooden door stood open in the southwest corner of the room’s west wall, and beyond it the no sheng, mercenary, and monk crouched over a hole in the floorboards, peering into the earth below. “It’s some kind of crawl space for the rat-men,” said Lei. “I don’t think there’s anything to gain by climbing down there right now,” replied Woo. The rest of the group agreed.“My power is depleted,” declared Hien, “the spirits will grant me no more healing until after next morning’s rituals.” The shaman had impressed everyone with his devotion to the spirit world, for obvious reasons – it produced powerful results. With a short invocation and a blessing on Lei, the wound he’d sustained fighting the rat-men had been undone. After a brief discussion, the party pulled out of the Golden Dragon Inn and left the grounds, headed for the Jade Unicorn hostel at the end of the street. By the time they arrived, walking at Mai’s weakened pace, the sun had begun a brilliant plummet to the horizon. The Jade Unicorn teemed with activity, just as it had at midday. As the weary adventurers entered, Hien stopped in the doorway and cast his last remaining spell for the day, trance. He left the mortal world behind for an instant, extending his consciousness into the building around him. For a moment he connected with the establishment’s guardian ancestor spirit, and then he was blinking his eyes and staring at a crowd of people, slack-jawed, who stared back at him. The expressions on their faces ranged from fear and awe to irritation and amusement. Hien, suddenly embarrassed, apologized and walked back outside. A waitress approached the others, who stood in the doorway perplexed over the young shaman’s behavior. “Hello, welcome to the Jade Unicorn Inn,” she bowed, “I am Nguyen Thi Dai, and this is my mother’s hotel.” There came a round of introductions from the party. “Thank you for coming to our place,” continued the girl, “and we are honored to serve a spirit-talker and his friends.” She dropped her voice lower and continued apologetically, “Unfortunately, can you ask the holy one not to speak to spirits in the common room? He has frightened some of the customers.” A few people were indeed leaving, and many murmured and pointed at the group. “I’ll talk to him,” offered Mai, and she slipped outside while the others saw to getting food and rooms for the night. Hien sat on the edge of the porch with his animals. “I’m sorry!” he said again, “I didn’t know that it would bother anyone! The folk in Hoa Binh saw my master and me commune with spirits every day and thought nothing of it! I’m sorry!” “It’s okay. No one’s angry. Why don’t you come have supper with us?” soothed Mai. It took a few minutes, but she convinced him to go back inside. The party ate and retired to their rooms, and the mistress of the house, one rotunda of a matron named Nguyen Thi Shu, ordered an herbal bath drawn for Mai. She forced the young woman to strip and sit in the nearly scalding water as she dumped various ground leaves and powders into the mixture. Mai began to feel lightheaded. As she dozed in and out, the woman and her daughter Dai massaged her muscles and inserted long pins into crucial places in her back, bleeding away tension and negative ch’i. When they were done, they toweled her off, dressed her in a robe, and called in young Hien. He spent some time examining their work, approved, and the three of them took Mai to her bed, where Hien burned incense and meditated to focus the flow of healing energy through the room. An hour later he turned in. He shared a room with Tam, and the older man appeared deep in study of various scrolls when he arrived. “She will heal?” the wizard asked. Hien collapsed on his cot. Sca, the fox, jumped up onto the foot of the mat and settled down to sleep. “Oh yes,” assured the shaman, “she will be fine in a day or two…”Next: Back to the Golden Dragon! Things that make you go "aahhhgghhh!" And the burning smell of dead bodies wafting across the Noble's District! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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