Tianchao Wangguo Chapter 1: Calm before the storm

[Ariakor]

WHile the other villagers mutter their agreement and begin to lead the oxen to the shallow river banks in order to water them in the meantime, Arishan Tüen Li elects to stay with them just in case something should happen.

"Okay", says Kairan, "just follow me. It isn't very far."

The path he leads you on follows the course of the small river for a few dozen steps before disappearing between two huge boulders that just seem to sit at the flank of the hill, surrounded by a few low-growing bushes. Behind the boulders a narrow and in part steep set of rough-hewn stairs, their edges well-worn by wind, weather and the feet of pilgrims and travellers alike, winds its way amid old gnarled trees and bushes like a snake up the hillside. Finally, after having passed a row of paired boulders at the top of the stairs the path opens up onto a clearing on top of the hill which is surrounded by pines and trees.

Aside from your path the clearing has only one other Entrance on the north side: a large wooden gate without doors, carved and painted in formerly bright colors. From there, you can see a larger, gently downgoing pathway leading into the woods. To your left, a small pond stretches along the edge of the clearing, encircled by cherry trees in full bloom. On a small plattform made of stone, which edges into the pond and is surrounded by a ring of white water lilys, an open-walled shrine had been errected by the villagers. The building itself was small - just a roof of green tiles supported by four wooden posts and a knee-high wall, open to the clearing - and aside from the shrine itself there was not much to be seen there. But even from afar the shrine showes signs of the desecraption: the shrine itself seems to has been hacked apart by a weapon wielded with considerable strenght, the wood shows burn marks and there is a lot of blood smeared in a variety of patterns across the floor of the shrine and part of the clearing.

Kairan hesitates at the edge of the clearing, as he sees the shrine itself, disbelief plainly visible on his face.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Spirits save the spirit of the the shrine," Guchiko says, her face somber.

 

[Seeten]

Lanyu has, at this point, just begun following as though she belongs. It seems interesting enough, escorting the villagers, and if not, a bandit attack seems worthy of helping out against. She doesnt speak, however, unless directly questioned.

 

[Rhialto]

Magistrate Pan Chou

Pan Chou glance at the patterns made in blood and then at the wu-yen. "Tell me, Guchiko," he asks, gesturing at them, "do these mean anything to you?"

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"I do not know yet. I... let me see. Such terrible feelings, death, hate..." she says quietly, and begins to walk up to the shrine to examine the destruction left behind, to see if any sense can be made from it.

 

[Gez]

Lin Xu examinate the patterns, too, trying to remember whether she saw such marks before in her previous raids against Shadowlands marauders.

She then looks around, trying to guess from where the bandits could have gone when they attacked the site, establishing a mental picture of the region's geography, and pressing Kairan with questions.

She thinks aloud, her monologue being along those lines:
« The attack is too old for their tracks to be seen, but I'm not used to find my prey through tracking anyway. Rather, it's a question of logical deductions. They have been thorough in their desecration of the shrine, but haven't wasted time hacking the cherry trees. They thus didn't felt confident enough to stay any further. Which means they probably didn't pass through a path where they could have easily been seen. Village is in that direction, in this one there's too much vegetation, but they could have went through this and that and this, » she says, pointing various features of the landscape, « and stayed under the cover of the hills. Or they could have went through this path, for example, but probably not this one. »

In other words, she's using her knowledge of survival, geography, and nature, as well as her past experience, to try to get an idea of the path followed by the bandits. If several paths seems possible, it isn't much of a problem, as more enquiries and inspections of other sites will allow to recoup her guesses.

 

[Ariakor]

Slowly you are circling the clearing, inspecting the signs left behind by the attackers. While Kairan tries to be as helpful as possible, it becomes clear that he knows much of the information only from what his friend from the nearby village has told him.

Well, you know, my friend told me that he heard it from a fellow who had been up here when it was discovered. Said that all of this mus have happened sometime during the night or in the early hours of the dawn. The shrine had been tended to by an elderly monk named Mengfeng, a kind and gentle man who spent most of his time here meditating with the Spirits. I've met him myself once or twice, when i had been in the village down there to meet my friend. He was a good man, at ease with himself and the world around him and he always helped the villagers with their ceremonies. Somehow, they said, he seemed to know in advance when he was needed, like as if the Spirits sent him a sign or something. Well, anyways, they later found that poor man dead among the lilys in his own blood. Cut by a sharp blade, they said. But whoever did this didnÄt stay here for long, i was told. By the time my friend's fellow and some other villagers came here around noon to make some offerings for a good harvest, they had already disappered again."


As you go around the clearing, you notice some other, smaller details of what has been done here. While the markings in blood clearly are meant to rob the shrine and its spirit of a holy sanctuary, somebody also seemed to have taken his time to form a "pattern" in the water lilys covering the pond. Several of the white flowers are also sprinkled in blood, while some of the cherry trees also show a few carvings in their bark. All of this seems to be aimed at desecrating the shrine, but you all have a growing feeling of something not being right here. Like you are being watched from the shadows of the trees across the pond.

Guchiko:
All the patterns you find around the clearing, from the blood on the shrines floor to the carvings in the trees, indicates at this has not only been a 'simple' desecration of a holy area. Some very powerful blood magic must have been cast here, to further complete the handiwork of the attackers. The shrine itself has been smashed in two by a single powerful blow from a extremely sharp weapon, probably an axe, and its peaces are aligned from South to North within the pattern of blood on the floor, pointing towards the distant lands beyound the Spirit Wall. It seems as if someone was being extra careful to upset the natural order of things and make sure that whatever magic has been worked here was increased a little in its effects. [occ: make knowledg: arcana check for further details]

Lin Xu:
The most obvious route the bandits could have taken would have been the path down tothe village. If they had had horses, this would also have been the only path accessible to them. There are several game trails leading from the clearing, but only two of them are wide enough and not too treacherous to have been navigated by humans. One of them leads more or less straight down to the river to the bridge where your fellows wait with the ox-carts. the other one dissappears further into the woods between the surrounding hills, but also circling one of them in the general direction of the village.

 

[Ariakor]

Guchiko:
The magic that has been worked here clearly used the blood of the monk to further fuel its effects. But it seems that beside desecrating this site, something else was done here: amid the symbols smeared in blood on the floor of the shrines little building, you find a small bowl made out of polished obsidian, broken into four equal-sized parts. Among the lines etched into the bowl, drwaing faint images of the same symbols you can oalso find on the trees, is a thin layer of grey ash, like the one used in conjurations of creatures from the netherworld. The Bowl resonates with a tainted aura, that still seems to drift out among the symbols on the floor and infse them with their dark power. This ash is known as Spirit Ash and almost exclusively used by Bloodmages. You also recognize the pattern which the blood forms on the water lilys: it is known as the Sacrifice to Oblivion, an oval shaped circle which is balanced on a focus point (the shrine in this case) and in the center of which you can safely asume that the body of the monk must have been floating. All this is used to summon one or more minions of the Shadow Nether, the Part of the Shadowlands which coexists within the NEther World, to serve the summoner's bidding. From the look of it, one summoned creature is more likely than several.

 

[Gez]

« Two miles to the village... I could go there, ask questions, and be back here in about one hour. I have to know whether they had horses, and whether villagers heard them passing through, or nearby, their village the night they desecrated the shrine. Would it bother you to wait ? »

 

[Rhialto]

Magistrate Pan Chou

"Not particularly," notes Chou. "But it would bother me a great deal if you were captured by yourself. Perhaps someone should go with you..."