Difference between revisions of "Let the Sun Shine In"

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	{{Logopen		{{Logopen
−	|quote=	+	|quote=Life is around you and in you
	|date=The run takes place late in the Month of the Dog in the Tenth Year of the Dog since the Third Treaty of Houses.		|date=The run takes place late in the Month of the Dog in the Tenth Year of the Dog since the Third Treaty of Houses.
	|location=The run takes place in the Shrouded Isle, Whale's Ocean, and Three Piers		|location=The run takes place in the Shrouded Isle, Whale's Ocean, and Three Piers
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	{{Q|Found the lair, need to get the mistress to safety.  Too big to fight, in the lair.		{{Q|Found the lair, need to get the mistress to safety.  Too big to fight, in the lair.
	Already lost 3/4 of team.}		Already lost 3/4 of team.}
−	{{QIs she hidden here?  Is she on the map?}}	+	{{Q|Is she hidden here?  Is she on the map?}}
	{{Q|Yes.}}		{{Q|Yes.}}
	{{Q|Waiting for end of ritual, then will attack bonfire.  End of ritual, prisoners will be sacrifice.  Waiting until prisoners brought out.  You alone?}}		{{Q|Waiting for end of ritual, then will attack bonfire.  End of ritual, prisoners will be sacrifice.  Waiting until prisoners brought out.  You alone?}}

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Revision as of 15:34, 26 December 2020

"Life is around you and in you"

The run takes place late in the Month of the Dog in the Tenth Year of the Dog since the Third Treaty of Houses. The run takes place in the Shrouded Isle, Whale's Ocean, and Three Piers Previous Run

Contents 1 Preparations 2 Third Turn 3 To the Prince 4 Fire in the Hole

Preparations

Unusually: when last we saw our heroes, they were not at Tahiti, they were making speed rolls!

Two rounds of the ritual have been finished, with one to go. In the upcoming turn, the singers will need to sing on the first two drifts, but the third is silence. The first Triad needs to continue to be scattered on each map, the second Triad needs to bring the water from the three maps to the volcano, and the third Triad has their own tasks.

Third Turn

Sei-Lin continues to be the fastest thing on the map, dashing around delivering things like the wand of healing. (Eto Tansho declares that she has to make a dramatic exit, so doesn't go with him when he offers a ride.)

At the volcano, Whale appears. Master Zhou switches to hitting the nearby water elementals with a flaming nunchaku.

On the Yamato, the tentacles are driven back, and Squiddy and Crushy are down, but the kraken head noms the ship some more. One lone junior sailor goes after the kraken head.

"You should promote that guy if he survives."

In Three Piers, jellyfish and fish swarm out of the depths.

Now that Whale is present in person, he seems to get to move on the spiritual board every action rather than every other action. There is much outcry about Cheating.

"Since you're adjusting the rules, may we?" -Xiao Fa

"Very well, name one of your allies I may slay, and you may have an extra action as well." -Whale, claiming he’s only balancing the scales for the death of Renyu

Yanyu blasts Whale with Wrath of the Phoenix, and Kiri dips her hand in the pool of water, doing... something.

In drift, a whale appears off the side of the Yamato.

Both triads succeed in their singing rolls. Mistress Litona says "Good luck to you all" and vanishes.

The sailors do their best to patch the holes in the ship, and bring it a little more under control,

At the volcano, Yanyu puts the Blessing of the Phoenix on the scene with seven karma, and an incarnation of Phoenix arrives as well.

Several water elementals converge on Xiao Fa, ready to push him into the volcano.

Master Zhou gives him a dodge pool, but Eto Tansho is less lucky, and falls to an elemental.

Over in Three Piers, one of the kids is wearing a jellyfish as a hat. The kid points at Cai Wen, telling everyone to not let him sing.

Sei-Lin also continues to be a distraction.

"Help help! The singing lady is making me steal this guy's money." -Sei-Lin

Cai Wen ponders the next unexpected tactical development - he thinks that it is that Kiri is going to start taking Blue turns, and Master Zhou is going to let her do it. Master Zhou thinks that is indeed unlikely and doesn't see why he shouldn't just punch Kiri into the volcano too.

Cai Wen tells his ferrets to deal the card game and keep the game going as long as possible, and sprints off. They look dubious about this, as do the fisherfolk who have been promised an impressive card game.

Sailors fix some of the kraken damage on the ship prow, but the whale breaks the boarding ladder off.

Master Zhou wonders if he can enter the Phoenix/Whale combat, and decides that he could, using True Kung Fu. But right now both Whale and Phoenix are contending in a way that doesn't affect mortals, and entering their fray would declassify him as a mortal.

"Phoenix - as a favor - do you need my help in your fight against Whale?" -Master Zhou

"If you wished to die and be reborn in my service, you should have done that last time I offered." -Phoenix

"Well, 'fine, then" -Master Zhou

The townsfolk do not go in 5, alas for them. Sei-Lin pickpockets the guy who he has previously identified as having some sort of Loot, and gets a small iron chest, covered in barnacles, and Cai Wen dashes outside and starts singing.

Master Zhou goes to punch Kiri, but Phoenix tells him "Leave her be - we must win this according to the rules." He notices that she's holding Whale's talisman in the pool of water.

In the second drift, all the singers successfully sing their songs.

The last round of sea monsters attacks the Yamato!

The fishers hit Cai Wen with rocks, making him have a harder time singing. Luckily, his singing is entirely a red herring.

Kuan-Xi calls lightning on the kraken head and the front tentacle.

Sei-Lin fails a will roll and spends his virtual karma ransacking the building in northwest Three Piers which also has loot. Another karma later, he finds the trap door in the floor, beneath which is a crate wrapped in blankets.

Shen-Ji shoots Whale with True Sorcery and a fire arrow, then Wrath of the Phoenix and True Sorcery.

Master Ghim throws a barrel of gunpowder at the whale, and it explodes damaging both the whale and the Yamato.

The Second Triad gathers at the edge of the volcano.

Whale stomps on Shen-Ji, but a ring of water breathing ameliorates the drowning damage, so he goes down but not fatally so.

Kiri gets flung into Xiao Fa when she renounces Whale’s plan. Master Ghim gets flung into the water. (There is a lot of knockback going on.)

The party's fire elementals immolate against Whale, and then it is time for the third drift.

Everyone sings Silence, and the Songstress vanishes.

Yanyu flips several spirit board pieces, and is knocked to the edge of the volcano, holding on for dear life.

"I'm immune to fire!" -Yanyu

"But not to falling!"

Master Zhou pulls her back.

The third Triad reappears at the edge of the volcano.

Xiao Fa wakes Shen-Ji up, and Whale promptly hits Shen-Ji again with a 400-point tail swipe. Xiao Fa stands in the way, using one of his limited "no damage from this attack" charges.

Phoenix takes advantage of Whale's focus on Shen-Ji to get in a powerful strike, and Whale is banished.

Triad Two pours their water into the volcano, and Triad Three steps over the edge into the volcano, vanishing in flames.

"Well done, children" -Phoenix

The last of the monsters are driven away from the Yamato, and Three Piers begins to fade into the mists. Cai Wen drops seven karma on Take My Marbles Home, one of his minigames shticks, to keep Three Piers for himself.

"For seven karma you can have the crappy extradimensional town where you're the big damn hero."

The spiritual battle is won by Fire,

The volcano erupts in a shower of sparks, straight up, and the fog is burned away, letting the sun shine in. The rain slackens, but the wind is harsher now.

Cai Wen shouts that it is time to get to the Prince so they can get today's mission before it expires, but Master Zhou wants to talk to Eto Tansho first.

"Do you know who you are now?" -Master Zhou

"I do. I am the new Songstress." -Eto Tansho

To the Prince

When the group arrives at the Backup Benevolent Headquarters, security seems a little thin. The Prince says that Lady Jin is not there - she departed several hours ago, taking her own household troops and those that the Prince sent with her.

Madame Song, however, is still around, and says that Jin had the prophecy "Pursue the beast to its lair" this morning on a die roll of 11. (Also, last run she rolled a 4).

The map room is still configured to list sightings of a (less-) giant flaming monster, and once the party narrows down where they should go, they set off at a fast clip, hoping that Lady Jin has been loitering enough on her own journey that they can catch up to her. Alas, they do not.

Fire in the Hole

The giant bonfire burning in a clearing is visible from some distance, so the group stays behind some trees and Sei-Lin scouts forward.

In addition to the bonfire, there are Northerners who appear to be from two different clans. Some are carrying wood to the fire, and others are chanting. He also finds the entrance to a cave in the cliffs to the west of the bonfire.

When he emerges from the cave again, Sei-Lin gets the feeling that there is something hiding in the nearby bushes, and when he gets closer, he can just make out one of the Prince's guards.

Sei-Lin thinks the guy can see him, so he waves, and shrugs as if to say "What's the plan?" They pass notes back and forth (to avoid being heard).

{{Q|Found the lair, need to get the mistress to safety. Too big to fight, in the lair. Already lost 3/4 of team.}

"Is she hidden here? Is she on the map?"

"Yes."

"Waiting for end of ritual, then will attack bonfire. End of ritual, prisoners will be sacrifice. Waiting until prisoners brought out. You alone?"

"House of Exuberant Interference, 7 guys and me. 2 big sorcerers. Wait here."

"Did you bring Master Deng?"

"We brought Shen-Ji."

"I don't get a mention." -Master Zhou, grumpily

Sei-Lin says he'll go and ask his boss for the plan, and heads back to where the party is hiding.

On the way back, he skulks by a pile of carefully cut (all the same size) firewood, apparently guarded by a bat.

The group confers. Lady Jin's plan to wait for the prisoners to be brought out isn't a bad one - maybe they should wait. In the meantime, Kuan-Xi creeps forward and looks at the fire. It looks ... like a miasma of life, but fire-flavored. Hmm.

Cai Wen sends Sei-Lin off with a sheet of duplicating paper, telling him to deliver it even if a fight breaks out, and to tell the other group that their plan is good.

Sei-Lin, spooked by the bat, starts heading around the map the long way to get back to the other group.

"I'm named after Selina Kyle. I don't like bats."

On his way around again, Sei-Lin finds another cave entrance, with guards at the bottleneck.

Then he finishes circling around, and hands off the duplicating paper.

Cai Wen thinks evacuating Lady Jin's team is good, if it can be managed.

"Can we not just run at the monster?" -Cai Wen

Master Zhou wonders if they can collapse the cave entrance after the prisoners are out.

Then, the chanting stops, and the shaman shouts in Torghut to bring out the sacrifices.

Sei Lin and Master Zhou sneak forward, and spot the prisoners.

"Mighty Agrinja, accept this sacrifice."

Speed rolls!

One of the beastmasters turns the wood-guarding bat giant, and it and the fighter (whose spear begins to glow) go after Shen-Ji.

Kuan-Xi flies above the bonfire, magically dousing the flames.

It's a very large bonfire, and magically enhanced and tied to... elsewhere..., so she can't simply put it out completely without a bit more oomph. She has the choice of:

• 7 karma will douse it as well as other flames elsewhere
• 5 karma will put it out
• 3 will bring it down to coals
• 1 will reduce it in size.

"7 karma! Bring it !" -Kuan-Xi

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!" -Agrinja, in the cave

Shen-Ji turns the spearmaster's spear handle wiggly and unusable.

The Northerners call for the battlemages to give them ranged attacks to go after the darned flying sorcerers, and the prisoners start getting hurried back into the cave.

Sei-Lin grabs a fallen guy's sword, and hands it to Orange 9.

"I can see Lady Jin!" -Sei-Lin

"STAY ON TARGET!" -Cai Wen

Master Zhou finds that he gets stuck when he attacks one of the cave guards - they seem to have prepared the terrain with a hardpoint, and he can't just hit them and run by.

Shen-Ji puts up a wall of iron, blocking most of the bad guys away from himself and Cai Wen and the prisoners' escape route.

Sei-Lin goes into the caves, and confirms that there are only nine prisoners.

Shen-ji destroys the wood pile, which makes the ritual even more ended. Kuan-Xi gets whammied with a battle magic effect: You cannot attack anything that cannot attack you. Sei-Lin tries to get the prisoners out, but realizes they're also bound somehow - they can only run when their guard is down.

Master Zhou finishes taking out the two bottleneck guards, and then collapses the entrance.

Cai Wen wonders if there are any useful hidden opportunities - is there a way to strike harder at Agrinja? The main opportunity seems to be intelligence gathering on Lady Jin's capabilities, so probably not.

Speaking of which - Lady Jin takes out a barbarian, and Master Zhou tries to figure out what she did. She ran up and.... a lady has her secrets, and he really shouldn't pry. Well, that's somewhat disconcerting, but Master Zhou turns back to his original enemy, the Cave Entrances, as well as the guards.

Sei-Lin hands out some more swords to prisoners. The non-giant bat goes after Kuan-Xi, but it's not that scary (though it is bloodsucking.)

Things seem mostly in hand - is it time to escape?

Sei-Lin checks Lady Jin for loot, and confirms that she has at least the Orb of Living Locks and the Finger-Claws of a Hundred Deaths.

"And she has recharged the finger claws!" -Sei-Lin

"Luckily, you sent Lady Jin to investigate the House of Gainful Protection..." -Mike

Alas for Sei-Lin, the sacred piles of wood are not so interesting or looty now that there is not a ritual using them - they were important as a component, but not so much in their own right.

All nine prisoners are freed, and all eight of Lady Jin's remaining strike force also survive.

"And you defeated Agrinja and Whale on the same day!" -Mike

"We should just kill the efrit now that we're on a roll." -Master Zhou

Instead, the group heads back to the Prince, where Lady Jin is congratulated, and the party is thanked for their assistance as well. People are still too pleased with themselves to grumble too much about the ordering.