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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser@Home" data-source="post: 297731" data-attributes="member: 4945">Session Two, Part FourTAM PONDERED the young shaman’s story. “Interesting,” he said at last, “We have never heard of such a thing. The apparel you described was also unfamiliar to us.” The wizard sat down on a stool next to the shaman’s bed. “Well, she’s gone now. And I don’t know what it meant,” the young man sighed. The others assumed Hien had seen a vision sent by the spirits, but even so they heeded his suggestion to post guards on the shrine for most of the following day. All was quiet, however, and he hadn’t seen the strange young woman since. “I think she wanted to show me the door. Or lead me through it. Something!” He got up and paced the room. Sca darted around his feet. Except for the person on guard duty, everyone had pitched in that day to fill up the hole in the stable floor. It was painful, backbreaking labor, but they got it done, emptying all the barrels back into the pit, and filling it the rest of the way up with dirt from the back of the property. As they lay about late that morning resting from their efforts, the housekeeper had come calling. “I am Mister Ng! Let me in!” he had declared upon arriving. Bemused, Lei had opened the gates and welcomed him. Mister Ng was a crusty old geezer who stood all of four feet tall. His back was bent from a lifetime of labor, his iron-gray hair stuck out at wild angles, and he squinted like a coal miner exposed to light for the first time in days. His hands were large and strong, though, and they found out later, deft as well. He had taken one look at Lei and marched him off to market to buy fresh garlic and carrots. He had then hoisted his baggage on Woo and sent the monk along to find him suitable quarters. “Who are you again?” Woo had asked. “I am your new servant,” the old man had replied smugly. The monk wandered off to puzzle over that one while the housekeeper commandeered the kitchen. When he pitched a fit about some unfathomable discrepancy concerning the cookware, Mai decided she could use a relaxing night at the docks among the killers and thieves.  By dusk, Mister Ng had those who’d foolishly remained behind rearranging the furniture throughout the estate, “because the feng shui was hideously wrong.” That night however, he cooked them a grand feast that almost made up for the extra work. Almost. After several more days, it was decided that Mister Ng was a fine housekeeper who did his job flawlessly. He kept strange hours though, and it was generally surmised that he did not sleep in his room at the Golden Dragon very often. Curious, Mai followed the old man one night when he disappeared after dinner. He meandered through the darkened streets of the city, eventually entering an alley in a little-traveled area of the Market District. She watched as he walked to the end of the alley, exchanged money with a couple of ruffians she didn’t know, and disappeared inside a warehouse building for several hours. Later, the housekeeper exited, shared a joke with the ruffians, and continued on his way to the Garden District, where he knocked on the door of a tiny home that shared a wall with a bakery. A wizened old woman answered, and they exchanged pleasantries before she finally let him in and closed the door. Mai waited a bit, then left. The next day, a friend of Bay’s told her what the place in the market was: an illegal gambling den. Ah. Well, she was certainly no one to judge, and she let the matter drop without telling the others.Four days later, after nearly two months of complacency, Yao Ren Phai arrived on their doorstep during the evening meal, ever-present bodyguard in tow. He appeared more relaxed than usual, and even offered a twitch of his lip that could have been a smile.  To Hien, he seemed to be favoring his left side, and Mai noticed that Chung Lah’s boots were caked with crusty red mud. The sorcerer waved away an offer of dinner and got straight to the point. “It is time you continued your service to the Emperor. You will leave within three days for the city of Te Han in the south…”NEXT: THE CURSE OF THE MONKEY WOMAN!</blockquote>

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