Please dot here those that were selected. We will start in about a day or so.
The screen door opens on an unassuming house tucked in the small town of Ashima. Filling the doorway is an elderly woman of regal bearing who wears a lopsided smile. Long white hair meets her waist over colorful robes that would not be out of place in the salons of Tian Xia’s largest cities. The grandmotherly woman speaks with a deep, rich voice.
“What fates and fickle winds bring blooming lilies to our forest island.
With such winds does history ebb and flow.”
Having introduced herself with this couplet, she bows and adds, “Yes, yes you’ll do perfectly. I hope you’re fond of bears.” She grins and steps aside, raising a welcoming arm. “Quickly, come in. And off with your shoes!”
You recognize Mai Chun’s poetic couplets as a form of communication that highly educated people use in many parts of Tian Xia, particularly in regions like Shokuro that have experienced Minkaian influence. Such couplets are often meant to be complemented with an equally poetic reply.
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A female human with red-blonde hair steps in and takes off her shoes. She is comely and armed with many daggers. She bows awkwardly since the elder woman did so first.
"Did you say bears...?" she stammers out.
Then she remembers something about a local tradition to recite a short poem... like a kenning but not meant to insult.
"Greetings I've come to help.
Me and these other whelps."
and she cringes at the horridness of her attempt.
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A rough looking half-orc steps in, hesitantly taking off his shoes. Grummosh much like his name is not what you would call pretty, but his features are distinguished and he has the look of a grizzled veteran. He wears a fairly new but dirty breastplate with a massive axe strapped to his back, a fur pelt of a wolf adorns his shoulders. A tiny but quick tuatara lizard runs around his shoulders. Intricate tattoos cover his green skin and his face is almost constantly stoic. He gives some side-eye to the woman. "I am not a welp."
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The man who steps in is of vaguely Tien descent yet carries himself with a quiet nobility. His clothes a heavy yet comfortable rough spun tunic and trousers. Lithe and muscled like an acrobat, his hat gives him all the appearance of a simple farmer.
On is arms though are two bucklers with one having a produding large blade indicating that he's likey turned a simple farm tool into a rough weapon.
With a short bow to all the occupants, a light baritone from him.
"Greetings. I am Sho Mikazuki a simple forester. One at home with both cities and nature yet forever apart from either." his own attempts at hopefully giving a proper greeting.
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The next guest has profound difficulty removing his shoes.
Because he isn't wearing any.
Because he has no feet.
He has hooves.
Standing on the hooves is an unearthly-looking man: Tall and athletically-built, if rather lanky, with ungodly-pale skin, his face is long and exotically beautiful, but also somehow off-putting. His long hair is as white and diaphanous as a ghost's. His black-on-grey, cephalopod-like eyes, project an gaze one feels a certain inexplicable fear of meeting. His clothing and leather lamellar armor are practical, a little plain, and well-kept, and he gracefully holds a beautiful quarterstaff of some unfamiliar dark wood.
He pauses awkwardly for a moment before introducing himself by reciting his mantra from his training.
"All that separates life from death is loneliness, suffering...and my whirling staff."
"Ah, what splendid and varied guests we have. I am impressed you know the ways of the nobility of this land. My name is Mai Chun, a pleasure to meet you all."
Inside, Mai Chun’s house is delightfully cluttered. Papers and parchments are stacked perilously high, piles of books lean against disorderly shelves, and swords and shields are displayed on every wall. Out of place amid the chaos is an orderly circle of concentrically arranged cushions around a chalkboard. Mai Chun has converted this part of her home into a classroom.
She spares a glance at the door, then to Sho. "I'd heard one more was coming, but we can proceed for now, and you can catch them up. Please, my classroom, sit and we will be started. For this mission, I'd like you to enter the nearby Li Sho forest and explore a ruined estate. I believe that it was an old estate for military officers during the days of Imperial Lung Wa. I hope it contains relics or information about Lung Wa that Shokuro can use to enhance its reputation among the Successor States."
Although the Li Sho forest is dense, Mai Chun gives you directions to follow three noticeable landmarks within the forest: corroded lantern poles overgrown with ivy, an empty hunter’s shack, and finally an old military watchtower.
"Now," she says, "Any questions?"
A big, beefy Tien man with wild hair, grins broadly.
"An abandoned estate for military officers, from the days of the Old Imperium? That certainly sounds interesting! If they were worth their salt, I am sure that they would have had interesting defenses, like fiendish traps... It sounds like fun!"
He then looks thoughtful.
"Are there any rumors about the area that we should know about?"
Mai Chun looks thoughtfully at each Pathfinder, then proceeds to answer their questions as a teacher practiced at fielding several questions at once.
She says, "The journey to the estate is somewhat short, less than half a day through the Li Sho Forest. Likely time and the land ruined the estate. Most people have enough problems than to go looking for trouble in relics of old empires, but we're not most people, right?"
As for what you're looking for there, sadly I can’t give specifics, as I don’t know exactly what’s there. Shizuru curse any looters that may have already gotten to it. But, if anything remains, I’m looking specifically for documents. Maps, letters, scrolls, things of that sort. Other than that, any treasure could be significant. If it’s shiny and not bolted down, pick it up. If it is bolted down, I have pliers."
As for danger, the villagers I initially sent to scout the estate report seeing a dire bear prowling the courtyard. They fled, which is exactly what I would’ve wanted them to do. Who would make the harvest festival stew if Wu got his head bitten off? No one, that’s who. You lot, though? You look like you can handle a big bear if you had to.”
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"We can handle it." Before the group heads out, Grummosh will summon spirits to protect the party.
Grummosh touches a willing creature (including himself) and grants a battle ward. The next time a foe makes an attack roll against the target, the ward activates and grants a +3 deflection bonus to the warded creature’s AC. Each subsequent time she’s attacked, the defection bonus reduces by 1 (to +2 for the second time she’s attacked and +1 for the third). The ward fades when the bonus is reduced to +0 or after 24 hours, whichever comes first.
"If it’s shiny and not bolted down, pick it up. If it is bolted down, I have pliers."
Xuan grins.
"That is a sentiment I can certainly get behind. I don't have pliers, but I do have a shovel and a crowbar stowed in my backpack, so hopefully, item retrieve shouldn't be a problem."
"As for danger, the villagers I initially sent to scout the estate report seeing a dire bear prowling the courtyard. You lot, though? You look like you can handle a big bear if you had to."
He then nods.
"Yes, I think we should be able to handle ourselves."
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"A pity for the bear to be there but hopefully we can find a way to deal with it or did it appear only recently?" Sho bows as he asks his question.
Upon receiving the battle ward from Grummosh, He bows and inclines his hat towards the half orc.
"You have my thanks Honored Grummosh for such an effective ward. It'll surely come in useful in the journey ahead."
When you are ready to leave, Mai Chun sees you off with a poetic benediction: "Daylight spends like merchant’s coin, but so much slower in old Li Sho. Where old dreams have died, ours may yet grow.”
The Li Sho Forest is a surprisingly dense forest that thwarts easy travel. You follow Mai Chun’s directions and they lead to a narrow path that was once a wide road. The forest has reclaimed most of it, with only a few paving stones peeking up from the soil. The landmarks that Mai Chun mentioned are easy to spot: corroded lantern poles overgrown with ivy, an empty hunter’s shack, and finally an old military watchtower.
The top of the watchtower contains a sturdy waterproof box with a longbow, a quiver with 10 arrows, and an old letter from a child to the soldier who stood guard here decades ago.
After about six hours of travel through forest and bramble, you reach the estate. Gaps in the forest canopy allow shafts of light to fall on the ruins of a once opulent manor. The manor’s facade is covered in leafy vines, and the once-neatly manicured shrubberies of the courtyard now wildly overspill their bounds. An acrid stench assaults the senses as corpses of humanoids and beasts alike litter the grounds.
Amidst the bones, you see a large panda bear stalking toward you, uncharacteristically threatening. It looks ready to attack.
In Combat!
Bold may act.
Round 1
Xuan
Sho
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Bear
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Ekanta
Zyxtyvia
Grummosh
Aoife
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Zyxtyvia will scamper up and bring down anything found...not being able to use the longbow she offers that up to anyone else in the group.
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"Oh that bear looks so cute! How adorable! Why is it growling like that? Is that going to attack us?" she stammers out as the group sees the panda bear...
"Agreed! I need a new throw-rug!"
With a grin, Xuan howls out a battle cry, and charges forward.
Xuan rushes the panda and literally splits it in half with his greatsword, forming two neat sections where the bear once stood, now pooling into the courtyard grounds. A ghostly figure of a scowling Tian-Shu man rises up from the bear. The figure wears ceremonial armor and holds a long-bladed sword. The apparition gestures with the weapon at Xuan and the other Pathfinders, waving them away, before dissipating.
Out of Combat!
The Pathfinders move into the estate proper after their encounter with the bear. A tattered rug adorns the floor of the short, forlorn hall to the south. Pieces of a broken weapon rack lie on the floor in front of a statue of a stern Tian-Shu man wearing ceremonial armor and holding a long-bladed sword above his head. Doors lead out of this hall to the north, west, and south. The Pathfinders explore the rest of the manor and notice that the bear has largely avoided the southeastern section of the estate.
The southeastern hall is much the same as the others, however, the southern door is locked here. And when the Pathfinders step further into the hall, Grummosh notices something strange about the statue on the far side...
The statue seems to be a trap! A magical trap at that. Grummosh notices the arcane energy in the air around it. It's as if it is waiting for something to happen to spring to life.
It takes Zyxtyvia a bit, but she manages to disarm the trap. After that, unlocking the door is a cinch. In stark contrast to the decaying ruin of the rest of the manor, this combination of bedroom and office beyond the door is almost pristine save for a thick layer of dust. One wall contains shelves bearing books and scrolls, and another wall is covered with an enormous map of central Tian Xia. On the desk lay several sheets of thick paper, their script indecipherable under ages of dust.
The books on the shelves are military treatises and the scrolls are military orders detailing troop movements in the dying days of Lung Wa. The giant map of the region that became Shokuro is highly detailed. Someone with a steady hand carefully marked several remote locations in various mountain ranges. The border of the map is an intricate depiction of the Dragon Empires zodiac.
The papers on the desk seem to be the most significant items here. They are a series of one-sided correspondences in Tien from an adjutant of the last Lung Wa emperor to General Chiang Zhen. The adjutant thanks General Zhen for his visit to a recent military summit at a place called the Summer Palace.
You identify the Summer Palace as a near-legendary palace believed to have been lost when the empire fell. Though these letters are putatively written on behalf of the emperor, their tone is familiar, even intimate, and hints at a close relationship between the adjutant and the general. Details about the sunsets viewed between mountain peaks and constellations seen from the Summer Palace provide hints as to the lost Summer Palace’s location.
The fine calligraphy set on the desk is worth 100 gp. The PCs can also find gold ring worth 300 gp and 50 gp in loose coins in the desk drawers. Leaning against the desk is General Zhen’s masterwork naginata (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment 19).
Xuan shrugs.
"Mayhaps these are indeed the documents that we were sent to find..."
You take the various books, maps, and letters and head back to Ashima, and back to Mai Chun. The journey back is as uneventful as the journey there, and soon enough you are stepping through the doorway into Mai Chun's "classroom".
Her face brightens at the sight of you, and she bids you to stay while she goes over the adjutant’s letters. Soon enough, her eyes go wide with realization. She unrolls the large map across her table and traces the identified sites. Mai Chun explains that the location of the Summer Palace has been lost since the fall of Imperial Lung Wa; the treasures it contains are unknown but likely significant. Although the materials that the PCs recovered from the estate aren’t sufficient to pinpoint the Summer Palace’s location, Mai Chun believes they are a good start.
"I will research these locations and clues and send you letters of what I find, and what I need you to do. Please find a place to stay."
Tapping her fingernail on the map, she muses,
“The moon, with joy
enough to tear the heavens,
Sinks to the horizon, and suddenly,
The Spring has grown old.”
She grins wildly. "Who wants to make history?"
Sometime later, you receive three letters by messenger signed by Mai Chun...
Xuan shrugs.
"This one has no objection to going after the map first."
You follow Mai Chun's instructions and head for Xiwu, the capitol city of Lingshen. The city boasts tall, military-like towers, and the whole thing reminds one of a stronghold, with defensible positions, chokepoints, etc. You find your way without too much trouble to your destination.
The School of Affinities stands on the southern side of Xiwu, overlooking the Golden River. The school is a compound of several freestanding buildings surrounded by a stone wall. A small fountain bubbles in the space between buildings. The sliding walls of most buildings are open, allowing light to reach rows of students kneeling at their desks. Teachers walk between the desks, occasionally pausing to check work before continuing with their calligraphy lessons.
You realize that these students are all from noble families, and that for each student, there is at least one armed bodyguard standing nearby. In addition to the bodyguards, the school employs several guards who patrol the grounds, keeping an eye out for trouble. These guards wear blue and black sashes.
A young student in yellow robes walks up to you, smiling. Behind him a few steps is a large scarred man, perpetually scowling. The young man bows and says, "Hello, my name is Jianghong, this is Zheng. Who might you be?"