FLYING SWORDSMEN of THE PURPLE LAND
Posting these pre-session notes for reasons. Most importantly, I don’t own David McGrogan’s Yoon-Suin publication. I’ve been snowed in and couldn’t get any money in the bank over the past two days. That being said, I had postponed running games with my Flying Swordsmen/Oriental Adventures group, claiming I was waiting to purchase new exciting source material, with which I was hoping to expand or redirect our current campaign and its vibe. That material being Yoon-Suin. Of course, they aren’t waiting on me anymore and I gotta ref something tonight.
So, and I haven’t really been investing time into/utilizing the resource content that David posts on his blog, for free, regarding Yoon, http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/
Guess I had just really wanted to go through the whole thing, book first and then work on the campaign, sorta steadily grasping the imaginary impression of a Weird-Oriental influenced OSR book, as opposed to the primary Tiger Crouching and Dragon Hiding content that I’ve been pulling from, but you know smartly integrate them. So, I got on to David’s blog, just to see if I could render something similar to the feels that I think might be present in Yoon-Suin. Yet, of course, excited projection. And that’s what I did, took all the aforementioned resources, fan resources, etc. that I could find on this mysterious fun Asia.
Thus, as an expression of how much I am looking forward to running the full extent of that campaign-setting, the following is a collection of session notes gathered from just under an hour’s worth of prep, last evening. And maybe fifteen minutes worth of blog searching. If I liked something written, as is, then I left it, as is. If it managed to spur my thoughts in a clear and fun direction then I ran with it, made changes as the limited text I had stimulated me too. Some balance in that, of experience.
And, in my opinion, that’s the best. Right? Like, by design it just seems to be direct in its notions but fundamentally loose and laissez faire in its attitude towards how I think that David thinks it should be played. That’s maybe because the whole idea is overlayed onto a fuck-ton of cultural histories that I wasn’t going to know 1/8th’s worth of what I ought to.
Not sure how to explain that. Most of what I’m saying right now is blind musing, thinking about itself on itself. Still in trailer mode. But, I guess, what I mean is that I appreciate anything that invites you to fuck with it without having to invite you to fuck with it, as like its zeitgeist objekt of this sub-sub-culture.
Anyway, here’s some notes on an Archmage’s Tower and a job that needs doing. I tried to reference the source (in parentheses) where obvious.
Job Offering & Details:
Location:
WEIXIAO SHU (or THE CITY OF SMILING RATS)
North-Central China
Politically MING DYNASTY affiliated
Employer: (Monsters & Manuals)
An all-male/homosexual, Philosophical Society, going by the name of THE STONEHAND WIDOWERS. This particular community of wise men practice sophistry and entrance into their institution of study is highly restrictive (and costly).
Specifically, the society’s two founders, FU YING and LEE BA (Monsters & Manuals). Over the previous week, they have sent their servants to walk the streets of WEIXIAO SHU, seeking individuals to complete an urgent task.
Situation/Request:
FU YING and LEE BA want a former member, a young arch-mage who now calls himself HUANZHE XINGBEI (or PATIENT SEX), assassinated for renouncing the society’s foundational beliefs (i.e. he is no longer a practicing sophist, rumored to be recruiting students and is claimed to be openly slanderous of THE STONEHAND WIDOWERS. He is reported to have made residence in a tower, which stands roughly fifteen miles to the northeast of THE CITY OF SMILING RATS. You must bring them PATIENT’S heart and part of his tattooed scalp.
The society will also pay up, substantially, for any hallucinogens/opiates/lotus-plants acquired from the tower and/or along the journey to said tower, so as to further expand their theoretical insights.
Promised Payment: 2,000 Tael (Equivalent to Silver Pieces when doing the math), FU YING’S HAT and CLAWS of THE RAJAH of SALIPUT (Monsters & Manuals).
Notes regarding PATIENT SEX’S TOWER:
(Monsters and Manuals Yoon Suin Archmage/Tower table)
Patient will be found alone, but for an obsidian-black tortoise the size of a large man, outside of his tower. He is gardening, whispering to the tortoise and keeps looking back through the one side, of the 20 ft. arched wooden entrance doorway, which stands opened. He is also, somewhat obsessively, glancing upwards. The Tortoise will walk back into the tower as the PCs show up. The Tortoise is a person who succumbed to the Tortoise Curse (Monsters & Manuals).
Patient is handsome, bald with traditional stick-poke tattooed designs along the surface of his skull and nude but for black silk robe, left open in the front. He is trustworthy in disposition and polite when the PCs arrive but will immediately suggest that they leave the area, due to a lack of safety. He will also quickly follow this word of advice with a very serious request that if the guests are to speak then they ought to do so in rhyme. Explaining, “If you cannot speak the language of the Great Dragon-Headed Deer, I must insist that you speak in rhyme, lest it were to come visit while you were here, finding us all to be of disrespectful, vulgar-tongues. Not myself, of course. But you know what I mean.”
The Dragon-Headed Deer will never come. PATIENT simply wants the PCs to leave without being overtly rude.
The Tower’s Living/Intelligent Human-Inhabitants:
4 0-Level Pupils / 2 Eunuch Servants (Were-Koi see below)/ A Single, EXACT CLONE of PATIENT SEX (Level 4 Shaman)
Design:
A pearl, white, whorled structure, nearly one hundred feet in height. A small hole at the tip of the structure seems to be emitting a grey-pinkish smoke.
PATIENT SEX and his clone are at war within the tower, the clone having recently turned against his creator and Patient’s identity-crushing ideas on Harmony. The clone is holding three of the four pupils’ hostage on the tower’s fifth and top story, exposing them to base application of his newly realized, “Hyper-Hedonistic” worldview, according to Patient.
If the PCs say that they are there to murder Patient, he will immediately inform them of the Clone and hostages within the tower and explain that he is obviously the one that needs to die. They won’t know the difference and I will pay you by allowing you each to carry one item with you from the tower.
If the PCs just decide to hang around the foot of the tower, the black tortoise will continue coming back and forth from the tower, speaking in close whispers to Patient, who will look more and more agitated each time. In fact, he cannot enter the ground floor, as ghosts have decided to aggressively haunt the tower’s first two levels since that morning.
50/50 GROUND and/or 1stFLOOR (Monsters & Manuals Ghost generator table):
The Ground floor is littered with flower petals, incensed.
Group of Hungry Ghosts (Young, Thin, Putrescent Male-Female/Old, Thin, Putrescent Male/Mutilated Crane/Dog Chewed In Half By Large Animal/Beautiful Cypress Tree)
Two Basic Attacks for all of the Human Ghosts – Skinning (Peels victims skin by touch through grapple at d4+1 HP Damage per round) and Pestilence (Infects target through touch, successful Wood Save required or the victim incurs a random disease/infection/virus)
One Special Attack for the Young Girl – Reverse Aging, target must make a successful METAL (Transformative Magic) Save or de-age d4 x 10 years. Potential for death.
2nd FLOOR:
8 6x6, above ground, Bamboo Bathes, two of which house a single, overgrown (5-6 ft. 150-250 lbs.) WERE-KOI FISH
(Note: This grew out of my messing with David’s Were-Moray Eel.)
WERE-KOI:
HD ****
AC 8 (as KOI) 10 (as Human)
Surprises in 4-in-6 chance (as KOI)
No. of Attacks: 1 (as KOI) Were-Koi Sucker-Fuck-Bite / 2 (As Human) Unarmed Martial Combat
Special: May be reduced to zero HP and rendered unconscious for a time reasonable to the damage incurred, but may only be killed by exposure to wine or urine
KOI Attack: The Were-fish will leap, partially, out from its pool if a target is nearby (within five feet), using its Sucker Mouth to attach itself and will begin swallowing the targeted, exposed limb/object.
OBJECT: Successful attack on an object, say weapon, forces the target to make a Strength Check versus the devouring of said object and ultimately its total loss. A second Strength Check must be made on the subsequent round, following the previous failed attempt, in order to avoid the Were-Koi attaching itself to the limb formerly holding the now-digesting object. Its bite will begin to inflict d6 damage per round if this second Check is failed.
LIMB: Just remove the first STR Check and continue.
WERE-KOI LYCANTHROPY:
After the target’s flesh has been punctured by the Koi’s throat-molars, a WOOD (Poison) Save must be rolled. Failure means that the victim is now infected with the particular Lycanthropic virus belonging to the Were Koi. Lips pout to an obnoxious size. Skin begins to experience a strange form of Vitiligo, with the additional aspect of existing pigmentation beginning to sport cow-patches of bright orange/red/yellow/or black. All hair falls out. Toes web a bit. Frequent dips in water will be compulsively taken, if available. Transformation occurs at the sight of the opposite sex (or gender if third sex or just something Other if you’ve gotta do a permutation to figure it out) in the nude.
Assuming the encounter reaches the point of infection, it will of course be up to the character as to what it is they would like to do, but the limb will be gone if it is not removed within two rounds.
3rd FLOOR:
Landing leads to a white-mud lined hallway, which leads to a large entertainment/bed room. It is in disarray, and a young male pupil is engaged in an orgy with d6+4 Goblin Longtail Slaves. Their filthy, open cages line the room. The PCs will hear him exclaim, “Enlighten me! Expose the Path to Purity!”
4th FLOOR:
Landing leads to a black-mud lined hallway, smaller than 3rd floor, which leads to a dimly lit enclave, housing select shelving, a stone oven, two eternally burning candles of yellow wax and a wooden work table. Atop this table the PC’s will find refined brown lotus (1d4 grams), along with unrefined, but dried and bundled ephedra leaves (one pound). On the shelves are scrolls, documenting the chaotic scrawling script of PATIENT SEX’S recent theories. There is black ink on the floor. And a large spider on the 20 ft. high-up, black ceiling. Surprises on a 5-in-6 chance if PCs linger two rounds in the enclave.
BIG SCARY SPIDER
HD****
AC 12
Attacks: 2 (Bite/Grapple)
Special: Save versus Paralysis and Subsequent Egg incubation housing if a WOOD Save is failed. Eggs will hatch in d4 weeks. The week before the spiders are born, The PC takes d2 1st day / d4 2nd day / d6 3rdday / etc. until d20, which will determine death or not.
5th FLOOR:
Fragrant smoke can be faintly noticed on the fifth floor landing. It grows stronger if one travels to the left, where sits another hallway. Though, instead of running straight through and to one end of the tower, this hallway hugs the entire circumference of the fifth floor. PCs will notice that, upon walking the full circle of the tower’s walls, they do not return to the landing, but instead will find themselves merely continuing along a slow spinning hallway, the aroma of tobacco and flowers growing subtly more potent with each step. Once the hallway has been completely traversed for roughly the 2nd time, have the PC(s) make a WATER (Magic Item Effects) Save. Do not tell them why unless they try to turn around at this point in their exploration. If they do wish to return to the landing, let them know that they have become thoroughly disoriented. Stating that they would like to move further down the hallway, and the smoke’s source, will, in this case, cause the PC to head back towards the landing, whilst heading back towards the landing will lead the PC further along in the direction they started and ultimately towards the source. Only by mentioning either the increase or decrease in smoke-scent potency should the PCs know whether or not they are headed the right direction. Mention the difference every full go around of the hallway, like 2-4 rounds (I don’t know). Half a ways around on the 3rd trip, there will be revealed a large, wooden door. It has the only light source in the hallway and is obviously the origin of sweet smoke, as it rolls beneath the door just slightly. If any member of the party approaches the door, ask them to roll another METAL (Magic Item) Save.
The Clone will be found within this door, chain-smoking fat, sticky (Monsters & Manuals) Kojo Love Cigarettes with the three other pupils (females of differing ages – 20 to 60). All of whom are nude, sprawled out in a lavish, finely-veiled and unsettlingly mysterious kind of Opium den. A Chow-Chow sits quietly at the back of the 100x100 room. Clone-Patient Sex blows smoke into the women’s faces. He will offer the PCs a freshly rolled Lovefag and ask how they came to be here. If any PC previously failed both Metal Saves, they will agree to the gesture and begin undressing beyond their control. If only one Metal Save was failed then the PC is compelled to give truthful explanation as to why they are there.
If an explanation is willfully or unwillingly given, the Clone will charmingly attempt to convince the PCs that the gentleman they had met earlier was in fact the true clone and, because they allowed him to leave the property, he would most certainly be heading to The City of The Smiling Rats with the intention of further dragging the real Patient Sex through the mad, attributing horrible actions to his name. He will also explain that this is most likely the reason they were sent to kill him. If the PCs are suspicious, the Clone will attempt to turn rhetoric against them in argument, saying that there is no proof. If hostility is employed towards the 5th floor party then the women will “attack” the PCs at close-range with exhalations of smoke. The Clone will as well begin casting whatever Psychological Manipulations spells you’d like to load him up with.
The real Patient is still waiting outside of the Tower, too fearful of the ghosts to enter. Only this Patient Sex knows the name of his former Philosophical Society, as well as the names of its founders.
TEAHOUSE ENCOUNTER (The City of Smiling Rats) THE PUNGENT PLUMAGE:
(Monsters & Manuals)
“Tripti - Tripti is a hijra from the far North, from distant, mountainous Sughd. Like all hijra, she has the body of a man though she lives as a woman, and her strange androgynous beauty is famed throughout the city by those who are of that persuasion. She abstains from sexual matters, however, and because of her purity she is able to offer blessings to those who need it, as well as curses to those who would insult her - or to those whose enemies are willing to pay her.”
This encounter introduces the famed Hjira as the subject of insult from a group (d10 +2) of drunken, visiting QING MERCANARIES. One Mercenary is quickly feeling the result of one of her curses in the form of a rapidly-developing pregnancy. This is Tripti’s most impressive curse and she can only perform it once per week. He must have dishonored her greatly, I imagine, for his abdomen just ruptured from the navel to his anus, dropping from the enormous wound a very large, black crab. The crab is active and hostile but will simply begin to consume its recently deceased or currently deceasing “Mother.” The Mercenaries may soon descend upon Tripti, accusations of incest and vile witchcraft filling the teahouse, after the shock of the crab and their dead partner finally demands a reaction of some sort. If and when this occurs, a fight will break out between the Mercs and the Smiling Rat Locals. Anyone found defending Her honor, by means of killing, will receive a blessing thereafter.
The crab walks out the door.
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