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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1247652" data-attributes="member: 812">"Are you sure you're up for this, Shan? Maybe somebody else should open the door."Shan turned back to grin at Ming-Wa."It's just flesh wounds, sweetie. I'm fine."The burly woman heaved with both hands and tore open the door.Beyond, the torches in the hallway cast enough light to reveal a row of low structures, like tiny houses, each coming up to Shan's waist. There were six of the odd little constructions, in a row down the length of the room, beyond which Shan could just make out another door."Any ideas?"Fa nodded."They're tombs. Probably the original founding families of the village. There should be no threat here."Shan smiled and headed down the room, followed by the others. They all came to a sudden halt as shadowy figures rose up out of the tombs to loom menacingly in the darkness."Um, Fa? No threat?""Don't worry. They won't hurt us.""Because...""Because we cleaned up those idols back in the chapel.""Hey, that's right!"Ming-Wa kept muttering prayers to the Goddess as the figures wavered and drifted in the air above them. Shan just shrugged and continued on, waiting to see if the spectres would attack, but they did nothing as she approached the far door. The others followed her, all pressed together as they tried to stay as far from the hovering figures as possible. Shan edged the door open and slipped through, and all the others followed quickly, except for Ming-Wa. The devout young woman bowed to the shades as she stood at the door and whispered, "May the Goddess avenge you.""Okay, so now where do we go?"They had passed through the door to emerge in the middle of a short hallway. A heavy stone door stood at either end, and two more were equally spaced along the long wall opposite the door they'd entered by. Shan counted her friends, and then counted the doors, and then counted her friends again."Four of us and four doors. Let's each try one."Fa shook her head."There's five of us, Shan."Shan frowned and counted twice more, then brightened as she included herself. Ming-Wa sighed and shook her head."We should stick together. One door at a time."Shan frowned."All at the same time. Come on, what's the worst that could happen? We find Jing Zhou, kick his skinny butt and get out of here before the Jasmine Witch catches up with us. One door each, come on. Don't be a baby.""I'm not a baby!""Baby."Ming-Wa roared in frustration as Wei-Yong once again fought giggles. The others trooped off to stand in front of individual doors, leaving one of the end doors for Ming-Wa. Fa stayed at the door to the ancestor tombs, keeping an eye on everyone. Ming-Wa stomped to the last door and turned around to call down the hall to Shan."If there's some big horrible monster behind this door and it squishes me while you're down there, I'm going to be very annoyed with you.""You'll be an annoyed baby, you mean?"Wei-Yong giggled again. Lin Lin bounced in front of her door, ready to yank on the handle. Shan set her feet solidly and put one hand on the handle of the door in front of her, holding her sword in the other. Ming-Wa rolled her eyes and yanked hard on the door handle facing her.All four doors opened more or less simultaneously.Shan recoiled from a room filled with torn and gnawed corpses, strange sigils scrawled on the walls.Wei-Yong looked into an empty private chapel. Mau Li sniffed.Lin Lin peered around a room identical to the one Wei-Yong looked into.Ming-Wa faced a big horrible monster and it squished her. With a yell and a sickening crack, Ming-Wa flew backwards down the hall to crash into the flagstones not far from where Fa stood. Lin Lin was the closest to her door, and all the others froze at the horrified shriek their cheerful friend let out at the sight.Inside the room a terrifying demon writhed and lurched, its insectile arms waving and a bizarre stinger swooping about on the end of a long, prehensile tail. Worst of all, on the end of a serpentine neck grinned the head of their quarry, Jing Zhou. The obscene monstrosity gibbered and howled as its claws pounded a heavy table on which lay a massive leather-bound book.Lin Lin, her eyes round and her mouth hanging open, absent-mindedly ducked aside as one of the massive armoured limbs swung at her to crash into the doorframe.Ming-Wa pushed herself up, dazed from the impact, and turned her head to watch Shan charge past."Now I'm an annoyed baby."Lin Lin heard Shan bearing down from behind her and without thinking she step-stepped up the doorframe and catapulted herself into the room, somersaulting over the demon, tucking just enough to avoid another sweep of clawed arms, pulling out at the last possible second to land on one leg, kicking backward with the other, laughing hysterically as she dodged the stinger. Her fists, her knees, the edges of her feet, even her forehead transformed in to weapons as she began to beat rhythmically against the creature's hardened exoskeleton, doing no apparent good whatsoever. Across the room she saw the familiar bulk of her friend suddenly burst in and cheered as Shan plowed into the demon from the other side. There was a loud crack as her sword bounced off the armoured plates of the monster, followed immediately by a series of whining rings as Wei-Yong sent a flurry of arrows bursting into the room.A great claw reached down and grabbed Shan around the waist and the woman hollered, hacking furiously with her blade. Lin Lin had gotten ahold of the monster's tail and clung desperately, trying to keep the glistening stinger from stabbing downwards. She could hear Fa  telling Ming-Wa to move, give her some room, and Lin Lin yelled: "Hurry it up, Fa! Whatever you're going to do, do it now!"Shan felt claws dig into her flesh and she heard with amazement a set of popping sounds as the plates of her armour began to snap. She looked up, wild-eyed, just in time to see a backhand swipe send Lin Lin slamming into the far wall. Mau Li leapt into the room but got pinned to the floor by the monster's poison stinger. Wei-Yong screamed.Fa drove all the sounds of bloodshed and her friends' suffering from her mind as she struggled to complete her spell. Everything drifted away, ceased to matter, as she followed the remorseless path of mathematics, the unstoppable logic of sorcery.Lin Lin got to her feet, her right arm aflame with agony. She could see Shan, still trapped in the thing's claw, and poor Mau Li writhing on the floor. Wei-Yong seemed to move in slow motion as she fell to her knees next to her beloved wolf. Lin Lin swayed on her feet for a second, watching in horror as yet another arm swung down and plastered Wei-Yong across the back of her head. The lanky woman plowed into the floor, blood spraying from the wound, and Lin Lin screamed, drew both her sai, and leapt on top of the hideous monster. With a terrible cry she drove both pointed weapons into the thing's body.Just as with a thunderous roar, massive chains suddenly burst from the ground on all sides, binding the creature to the floor. The air filled with rock dust and the frustrated screams of the monster. Jing Zhou's head bobbed around on the end of its long snake neck, gibbering and drooling. Lin Lin swung herself to one side as the poison stinger darted down at her, slamming her sai into the creature's carapace again and again.She looked up and saw Ming-Wa, face bleeding and robes torn, standing in the doorway."Time for you to remember, Jing Zhou."Ming-Wa was mad. She was mad at Shan, she was mad at Fa who'd shoved her away, but mostly she was mad at Jing Zhou. Her mind reached out and grabbed what was left of the fanatic's brain and drew from within it Jing Zhou's deepest, most painful memories. The unfortunate man (or rather, the demon he'd become) hissed in pain and writhed as Ming-Wa's rage burned into him, piling agony on agony. Trapped by the chains Fa had summouned, he shrieked as the three other women got shakily to their feet.Shan's face, as she turned to the creature, was dark with fury. She saw Lin Lin dodging the stinger, she saw Wei-Yong weeping for her wolf, and she put both her hands on her katana and raised it high."Time for you to forget."Shan's big shoulders flexed and she grunted with the effort of the blow as her sword cut straight through Jing Zhou's neck. Black fluid spewed from the wound as the body spasmed and twitched. The women all jumped back as the liquid hissed and melted anything it touched.Including the book.They all stood for a second, panting. Shan turned to Ming-Wa."You okay?"Ming-Wa sniffed, turned and pushed past Fa to head back past the hovering spectres. Shan shrugged to the others and they all followed.The floating forms remained where they were and made no attempt to stop the women. Still, it was creepy, and they hurried through, only to bump into Ming-Wa at the top of the stairs. She was looking down the rough passage back to where the shaft entered.Standing down there was a tall woman in tight red robes, with her head shaved and holding a black staff in one hand. Next to her stood the tall bald man they'd fought outside the inn.Shan was bleeding profusely. Wei-Yong had no more arrows left and was still shocked over the death of Mau Li. Lin Lin's arm was broken. Fa could barely stand upright after casting the last spell. Ming-Wa looked over her friends, and turned to the woman."You must be the Jasmine Witch."The stranger nodded."I am seeking Jing Zhou and the Codex of the Watery Gate."Ming-Wa drew in a long breath. Then she pointed down the hallway that led to the ancestor spirits."They're down that way."Everyone held their breath.The tall woman nodded."Thank you."She and her minion brushed past and went through the door. Ming-Wa grinned at the sudden screams."Guess the ancestors don't approve of girls who dress immodestly."*****"Barbecue makes everything feel better."Shan sighed as Kam spooned more roast meat onto her plate. Haan Shi, still mourning her beloved Chow Siu-Keung, sat with her bodyguards singing. The Angels sat together, savouring their survival.Wei-Yong swallowed and looked around at the others. "Does anyone have the slightest idea what was going on up there?"Fa nodded. "That book must have been some sort of spellbook. I've heard of spells of great power that transform the caster into a demon. Jing Zhou must have been raising an army.""For what?"Ming-Wa dabbed at one corner of her mouth before speaking."To attack the Goddess, obviously. Why else all the descration?"Fa seemed less certain. "There are other powers in this world. It could have been powerful spirits seeking to eradicate her influence here...""There are no powers equal to the Goddess!""I didn't say equal to...""None!"Shan smacked Ming-Wa."Let her finish. Baby.""I'm not a baby.""No, of course not.""I'm not.""I know. Hey, Wei-Yong, that tall guy's checking you out. Think these barbarians know how to dance?"</blockquote>

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