TingTingChat

Takanata tries to find Ting-Ting to speak to.

She's not immediately evident.

He starts by looking around the Iron Fortress and the area of the Pagodas. If that doesn't work, he'll try a gather information roll for where she often is.

Supposedly she is often in the courtyard of Lord Yu's palace, late at night, mocking Lord Yu and his folly. She can only be driven forth, not prevented from returning.

He will ask when she started making these appearances in the courtyard, and whether there was a particular "folly" that started them.

Everyone is quite clear that it started when Lord Yu gave the Red Pagoda to Master Chang.

And then he will visit the courtyard a few times late in the evening, to see if she is there. If the courtyard has any decent aesthetic at all, he will take a small desk and work on poetry, otherwise, he has a book and reads.

It's a very austere aesthetic; you find it is more suitable to writing orders or resolutions than poetry - though it is clean and cold, rather than ugly.

In that case I read.

As the sun sets, a servant brings out a couple of lamps for you to read by if you continue your work. He asks you if you'd require any tea, or the like. Before you can respond, a shrill scream tears through the night. The servant jumps startled, but then collects himself, sighs, apologizes for the interruption to your efforts and asks if there's anything else he can bring for you. He doesn't seem at all concerned by the scream now that he's no longer startled.

I thank him for his consideration, and say that tea is always welcome, but if there is none prepared, there is no need to make any. If the night is cool, I will ask for a blanket. Then I watch and wait to see if the source of the screams draws closer.

(Yoshi joins the vigil)

I don't want to interrupt, but I suspect events will conspire to permit a pause in the screeching for me to enter, bow dramatically, and say:

"Ting Ting, you were an inspiration to my friends when they needed courage, and for that you have my deepest thanks."

Indeed, at some point the screeching does come closer, in a sort of wandering around the outer wall way, until it suddenly stops, as the screecher gets close enough to notice Takanata sitting outside.

At this point, Yoshi dramatically and eye-catchingly makes his entrance, and presumably bows to the unseen person on the roof above to give her his thanks...

Takanata will trigger Eyes of the I Ching, and look through the roof to see what he can tell about the source of the screeching.

You're in the courtyard, enclosed by buildings; you're assuming she's on the roof of a building to the side. So, not *through* the roof necessarily...

But it's dark, so Eyes of the I Ching is actually useful for that.  :)

There's definitely a couple of people up on the roo... wait! That's just one person with the chi of two. Not in the very strong sense, but in the sense of you see her chi, and you see another chi signature on top of it.

Well, that's about what we expected.  :-)

I'll try using Connections II to see if can tell me anything about how that happened, while saying:

The strongest connection between the two of them is through the chi of the senshi chamber of the Red Pagoda, which is also on the roof there with them. Very disconcerting.

"If you would care to come down, Madam, I had hoped to speak with you about the Red Pagoda."

"The Red Pagoda you say? Lost it is this day! Would you restore it to it's rightful Way?" She then cackles and leaps off the building, landing gently before the two of you, though still deeply cowled and hunched over after she lands.

Takanata drops Eyes of the I Ching as she leaps.

"I would see it restored, yes. I am not certain in my ability to do so personally, I fear. But I hoped you might be able to tell me what steps need to be taken to arrange it."

"The false one cast down and the master returned. Seek the Silver Dragon and be guided."

"I fear we have not seen or heard from Brother Shan or his companions in some time. Do you know where we might find them?"

She laughs. "Even now, they wait for you. When you are ready for them, seek them at the river below the enemy's city."

"We have been avoiding that city for some time. Do you believe it is now safe for us to approach?

"Or do you mean the city in which the False Master resides?"

"Safe? Safe?"

She laughs hysterically, shading back into her high cackle.

"Of course."

Takanata shifts slightly at his desk, and then says "If I might ask, Madam, how is it that you have preserved the chi of the Red Pagoda's true senshi chamber, despite the Pagoda's violation by the False Master?"

She laughs again.

"It destroys me even now!"

(Then, she leaps back up onto the roof...)