The Year of the Golden Fire Pig

Happy Chinese New Year!

On February 18th, we enter the 4075th year on the Chinese Calendar, also known as the Year of the Fire Pig, or if you follow legend, the Year of the Golden Pig.

The Year of the Golden Fire Pig comes only once every 600 years and rumor has it, 2007 is this special year. It is Golden because the combination of elemental Fire, the sign Pig, and Yin/Yang components bring this year once every six centuries! It is said that children born under this sign will live in comfort as wealth and luck are always near. The Fire Pig is known to have traits of wealth, prosperity, luck and fertility.

So what are you waiting for...go out and celebrate.

The Cave – Ch. 12, part 1

Summary: The Cabal prepares to enter the last known place where the original Cabal disappeared.

Recap: The Cabal doesn’t even think. They attack the thin, emaciated being. With a wave of his hand, the being stops time around members of the Cabal and then hits each of them with bolts of energy, knocking each of them down to the ground. After laughing maniacally, the being identifies himself as Emma-O, master of Unit 731. Dr Wu is his student – a student he never would have found had not Kemosiri approached him with the Shinwa Taizen. Dr. Wu’s interest slowly became obsession and made it all that easier to convert him to his cause.

The members of the Cabal slowly get to their feet and prepare another attack. Emma-O waves his hand again and stops time in the room sending waves of paradox rippling throughout the room only to be absorbed by Emma-O. When the characters come to, they find both the human skin scrolls and the prone form of Dr. Wu, gone. The Cabal cannot find Emma-O.

As the group returns to their sanctum, Kemosiri admits to feeling remorse at inadvertently getting Dr. Wu involved in Emma-O’s cult. Dr. Wu was an innocent bystander. He feels the need to redeem his actions.

Tenzin prepares a healing ritual for each of his Cabal mates. While he is busy healing them, the rest discuss their next moves. They reach a conclusion that they don’t even know where begin searching for Unit 731. Mori surmises that the most logical place to search is where the last Cabal disappeared. Their last action was to attend a geology class at a local university. After briefly checking in with Ms. Ogawa, they disappeared.

With a bit of research, and remembering that Koya (the Yamada Taro) kept repeating “Jomon”, they find that the Kobe earthquake epicentre on an island just off the coast. On the island, the Japanese authorities had found a cave with pottery dating back to the Jomon era. That is where the Cabal decides to search for Unit 731.

But what to do with the scrolls? No one believes they are safe in their sanctum. Even with wards around the safe, Emma-O is powerful enough to break anything magical they might use. Kemosiri wants to keep them while they explore the cave, but Mori objects and argues vehemently against that option. Mori tells Kemosiri that the scrolls are having too much of an influence on him and he must divest himself of them. He points out that Tatsu and the Consilium have noticed has more than given him permission to kill Kemosiri if he gets out of control. This shocks Kemosiri and despite his lust for the scrolls, he decides letting them go and giving them to the Consilium for safekeeping is the best course of action.

Despite their misgivings, they give the Shinwa Taizen to Tatsu. They no longer suspect him as being with Unit 731. They now believe that everything they had seen in visions or video was false or designed to mislead them and throw them off track.

The Cabal travels to Osaka and ventures into Kobe. There, they are waylaid by a motorcycle gang (all Sleepers, apparently). Mori calls down lightning and strikes one of the gang members (and loses 1 wisdom for such an act as well as absorbing damage due to Paradox). The gang reluctantly lets them pass.

The Cabal reaches the boarded up entrance to the cave and break through the flimsy wooden barriers. In the gloom, they see dusty remnants of ages old pottery as well as small ceramic dolls reminiscent of dolls from the Jomon period. Under an old World War II tarp, they also find the slightly scorched remains of immaculately decorated wooden scroll cases – all empty.

Next: the Cave, part 2

That Ring's got a Grudge

J-Horror is part of what has inspired my Mage campaign, but according to this article, I'm a bit behind the times (and since the article was written in '05, really behind).

I found a comprehensive and detailed look at the history and future of the J-Horror industry that apparently peaked after the Grudge. There are a lot more J-Horror films that have been made, but I guess most of them were a bit on the schlock side. Detractors of the genre say that aside from some foreign copies, the genre is atrophying and needs to be revitalized before it dies.

So check out this very enlightening article about J-Horror, its roots and where its going. And check out the site, Midnight Eye, for the latest in Japanese cinema.

I bow the appropriate amount

At long last AEG has come up with a definitive cultural reference for the land of Rokugan. The Emerald Empire will be a hardcover companion to their Legend of the Five Rings 3rd edition RPG.

There are many who might say that L5R is about as accurate a view of Asia as Dungeons and Dragons is an accurate view of Europe, but at least this Asian-inspired game now gets a definitive political and social hierarchy and a detailed discussion of Magistrates and their role in the empire.

The Emerald Empire: The Legend of the Five Rings Companion is due in June 2007. The Samurai Edition of AEG's flagship CCG, Legend of the Five Rings is released in July, 2007.

The climb was worth it but the knife in the back is killing me

With the Internet, this must be the golden age of small, independent RPG's. They have never been easier to find and purchase. And the quality and production value of the RPG's is getting better and better.

That brings me to The Mountain Witch, an RPG/Adventure that comes to us courtesy of Timothy Kleinart of Timfire Publishing and can be ordered through Indie Press Revolution. It is a complete RPG scenario that uses a rules lite system developed especially for the adventure, and although the system could be used for other adventures, the scope of the game itself is this one role playing experience.

The players are ronin in medeival Japan. Their mission is to kill the Mountain Witch who lives in a castle at the top of Mount Fuji. The details are left deliberately vague so that the GM can personalize the experience for the players. The trick is, that the mission is not the point of the game - it is only the setup.

Character creation is less about stats and abilities and more about character background. Players choose one of six fates that will come up during the scenario and also choose their zodiac sign (based on the Asian animal signs). Choosing the zodiac will give each character a number of Trust points that can be used to help other players or hinder them (they call this last one, Betrayal).

It's all designed to give the GM the tools he needs to create conflict and tension within the party. So even as they fight a common foe, as the adventure wears on, the most likely death comes not from the Witch himself, but from the sword of another player. In the right hands, this adventure could be a most enjoyable gaming experience.

Shadows of Nanking - Ch. 11, part 4

Summary: The Cabal prepares to enter the last known place where the original Cabal disappeared.

Recap: While Kemosiri, Kontonshin and Tenzin were wandering though Kwannon’s Oneiros, Mori and Hachi-ko went back to the Sanctum and slept until morning. When they got up, they ventured to Kiyomizu-dera to speak with Tatsu about everything that was going on.

As Mori arrives, he sees an image of a young girl dressed in green that he recognizes as Isora (the little girl in the green kimono from Chapter 6, the Shadow). She tells him not to forget the crystal that she had given to him. Hachi-ko snaps him awake and asks why he was staring out into nowhere. Mori deigns not to respond and instead knocks on the door of Kiyomizu-dera.

A servant answers the call and leads them in to the main temple anti-chamber. Tatsu arrives a short time later. Mori and Tatsu have a conversation couched in riddles. Tatsu intimates to Mori that there is a cancer in their cabal that could destroy not only their cabal, but Kyoto as well. Tatsu also intimates that he feels Mori is the only person capable of cutting out that cancer. Mori agrees. Tatsu tells him to do what he must and Mori agrees. Hachi-ko looks on and is mystified with what is going on.

Mori then goes back to visit Kwannon and meets Daishi instead. He discovers that the rest of the Cabal had entered Kwannon’s Oneiros and after that arduous journey had already left. Kwannon was now resting and Daishi tells Mori that “the end is near.”

The rest of the cabal returned home. Kemosiri realizes how dangerous the knowledge he has is and with Kontonshin’s help, wards the safe against scrying. Kontonshin creates a ward and ban that is very potent – only a Master would have any chance of breaking it.

It was at this point that they find out that Akio Ogawa had still not appeared at the office – not since they had left for Hong Kong. A worried cabal go to her apartment to find out what was going on.

They find Akio Ogawa still in her bedclothes sporting blue eyes. She tells them that they are natural and are not the result of her supernatural rape that had occurred over a month earlier. The actions of Tamano-no-Mae were the final straw. She could not continue the way she was going and she has not seen anyone now for a month.

She relates to them the fact that she is of Ainu decent. She gets her blue eyes from that. She has worn brown contacts her whole life to prevent others knowing her background. Her mother, besides being an Ainu elder was also a member of a secret society – she did not know what society, or what she did and her parents’ divorced while she was very young leaving her and her sister with their father. Still, Akio was the dutiful girl and did what she was told and studied for her University entrance exams like all the other dutiful children in Japan.

After she graduated, she got a job with an oil company who shipped her off to the Middle East despite her father’s objection. While she was there, radical Muslim militants kidnapped her and held her hostage for two weeks before Japanese government interceded and got her released. During that time, she began to see things she never imagined. She later found out that she began to see magic and that she was indeed a Sleepwalker.

When she arrived in Japan, she was met with disdain from the Japanese, an invoice from the government for expenses and rejection from her father. Only her sister was there to comfort her but even she could not maintain close contact with her. She was effectively shunned.

After months of isolation, the mysterious benefactor contacted her and gave her purpose again. The loss of the first cabal struck a fierce blow to her heart, but this last supernatural incident has frightened her. She has had a lot of time to think over the month and has almost put in her resignation. But she has decided to come back to work. She is needed.

During the past few days, she had dreams which repeated each and every night. In these dreams, a young girl in a green kimono appeared and told her that to quell the darkness a beacon of light must shine. The young girl then held out a large crystal which glowed green. Then she would wake up. She tells the Cabal that something horrible is about to happen and that they must find that crystal to prevent it from happening.

The Cabal returns and regroups at their Sanctum and they compare stories. Mori shows them the crystal he obtained from his experiences in the Shadow and has determined that it is at the very least, a mana battery. It is decided that their next course of action in stopping the coming darkness is to locate the supposed leader of Unit 731, Dr. Wu. To start their search, they decide to go back to the Asylum – which they find out used to be a Unit 731 laboratory.

The Cabal sneaks in to the Psych Ward (again) at night and ends up in the basement. The last time they were here, they discovered that the ghost of the World War II soldier had been discorporated. Now they believe it may be the centre of all of the occult activity. Using various detection spells, the Cabal finds a hollow area behind the basement wall. They use ghost gates to enter the Shadow and exit right in the room. What they see horrifies them.

They find Dr. Wu studying several scrolls while meditating in a warded magic circle with a symbol painted in blood in its centre – a symbol they had seen months ago at the Kitigawa house and an abandoned warehouse (Chapter 2). Surrounding the circle are 8 more scrolls made out of human skin and written in blood. Dr. Wu quickly tries casting a spell, but Mori negates it before it could get off. Kemosiri and Kontonshin both hit Dr. Wu with offensive spells and manage to breach his wards. Dr. Wu falls to the floor unconscious. Mori thinks that this was too easy.

As the Cabal approach Dr. Wu’s prone body, a light flashes and suddenly, a gate appears in the middle of the magic circle. A seven foot tall emaciated humanoid in a tattered white robe and hood walks through the gate and faces them. Kemosiri uses his Mage Sight to discover that whoever stood in front of them, unlike Dr. Wu, was a Master of immense power.

Next: Chapter 12 - The Cave

Shadows of Nanking – Ch. 11, part 3

Summary: The Cabal enters Nanking

Recap: As the morning sun rises over the mountains in Kyoto, Kemosiri, Kontonshin and Tenzin meet with Kwannon in the main temple, a powerful Hallow. Candles are now placed in a circle around Kwannon’s bed. There are three spaces for the Cabal in the circle of candles. Daishi instructs them to sit in one of those positions. Daishi takes the position at Kwannon’s feet and tells the Cabal that they will be astrally projected into Kwannon’s Oneiros (his personal dream space). Daishi will act as an Astral Guide leading them to Kwannon’s Oneiros. From there, the Cabal will have to enter his soul.

Daishi begins a ritual and the Cabal begins to meditate. Within 3 hours, the Cabal has begun projecting into Astral Space, and by 4 hours, Daishi has led them to Kwannon’s soul. He tells them that he cannot go any further and the Cabal steps through into Kwannon’s Oneiros.

They find themselves in a forest. There is fresh, foot deep snow on the ground and only new tracks of animals mark its surface. The Cabal is altogether and see a large column of smoke in the distance. Without warning, they hear something crashing through the bushes. They turn to see a young woman stumbling through the deep snow. A shot rings out and the woman falls, blood spattering the new fallen snow.

The Cabal begins trudging toward her. Before they can get there, three Japanese soldiers break through into the clearing, and pick up the injured woman. One then uses his bayonet to stab her in the stomach several times. Blood comes pouring out and she falls to the ground once more, the snow around her body coloured deep red.

The Cabal rushes in and begin casting spells at the soldiers, felling them quickly. They barely have time to get off a shot before they too are merely bodies in the snow. Kontonshin rushes up to the woman to see if there is anything she can do. The woman’s eyes stare lifelessly at her. Kontonshin makes another grim discovery - she was pregnant.

The soldier’s uniforms are old World War II uniforms. The Cabal surmises that they must be in an area of Kwannon’s mind that remembers or dreams of World War II. They figure that they will find all the answers they need if they only approach the fire.

As they trudge toward the fire, the snow clears and roads leading to a large town or city begin to appear. At the edge of the City, they are greeted with a sign: Welcome to Nanking. Nanking: where the Japanese are said to have committed atrocities upon the Chinese people, killing hundreds of thousands of them, and have never admitted to such atrocities. Those atrocities included grotesque experiments such as amputating someone’s limbs or injecting someone with a virulent disease just to watch them die and recording the results. The bodies were then taken to huge pyres and unceremoniously burned. Although many cities and towns were victimized by the Japanese soldiers, the worst of the atrocities occurred in Nanking by a section of the government known as Unit 731.

As the Cabal ventures through Nanking, they find the city deserted. There are no signs of normal city life. The only sign that someone is close by are Japanese military vehicles that roam the city. The Cabal stays hidden from them until they get close to the centre of Nanking, where the Japanese military presence becomes much too heavy.

They are spotted by a Japanese patrol. The patrol sends up an alarm and soldiers begin piling out of the back of their APC shooting at the intruders. The Cabal duck into an abandoned building. Kemosiri wonders what would happen if he created a Ghost Gate in Kwannon’s Oneiros. He quickly conjures up the Gate (Death 4 Arcana knowledge allows for Instant casting) and all three of them enter.

What they see next surprises them. Kontonshin and Tenzin see Kwannon sitting at a table shuffling what appear to be Tarot cards. They do not see Kemosiri. Kwannon bids them to come forward and have a reading done. Kontonshin approaches and her cards come up: Nine of Swords, Seven of Cups and the Hanged Man (all right side up). Kwannon tells her that she is unhappy right now, and that if she sees through illusion, she will be reborn. Kontonshin shrugs and looks at Tenzin. Tenzin decides not to get one. Then, both find themselves back in “reality”, with Japanese soldiers near the door of the abandoned building they occupy.

Meanwhile, Kemosiri entered the Ghost Gate only to be found separated from the group. He also faces Kwannon sitting at a table shuffling a deck of Tarot cards. He bids Kemosiri to come forward and get a reading. He gets a reading as well. His cards are: Five of Cups, King of Pentacles (upside down) and Judgement. Kwannon tells him that he is feeling a lot of regret for his actions and that if he avoids the corruptive influence in him, he will be able to learn from his mistakes.

When the Judgement card turns up, Kemosiri is clearly shaken. For a while now, he has been judging himself and found himself wanting. He did not really need external confirmation, but it bothered him nonetheless. He watches in silence as Kwannon’s spirit discorporates. He hears Kwannon’s voice asking Kemosiri to follow him to the fire. Kemosiri complies.

Meanwhile, Kontonshin and Tenzin decide that they cannot face a large number of Japanese soldiers by themselves. Kontonshin uses her Fate magic to keep the soldiers from finding them and they sneak out the back way and continue to make their way to the fire in the center of the city. When they approach the fire, they see a large crowd of people (but no soldiers) – hundreds of the citizens of Nanking. They are all lined up and approaching the fire. The fire reaches high above the tallest building of Nanking and appears to be a pyre made up of thousands of bodies. On one side of the fire, they see Kwannon and other mages. The mages appear to be chanting something in a strange language. Then, to their horror, the people at the front of the line, without protest, jump into the pyre.

Kemosiri approaches the same pyre. He sees a Shadow version of what Kontonshin and Tenzin see. Instead of the citizens of Nanking, he sees thousands of spirits and souls lining up to jump into the pyre. Instead of a giant pyre, a maelstrom of souls is present. The souls entering the maelstrom are taken into a gaping maw that appears to descend into the ground. Kemosiri can feel a dark intelligent presence within the maelstrom directing it. Its insatiable hunger demands more and more souls. And with Mage Sight, Kemosiri feels a very powerful magic from the maelstrom, but no other resonance – only a powerful feeling of nothingness. Kemosiri concludes that the maelstrom leads to the Abyss and that the powerful presence within the maelstrom must be a strong Abyssal entity.

Kemosiri sees the mages reading from scrolls. The scrolls he recognizes as pieces of the Shinwa Taizen and the mages are chanting in Muvian. He begins to piece things together. The powerful spells that inhabit the Shinwa Taizen must summon something awful from the Abyss when the scroll is completed. The souls must be the price the mages have to pay for help from the Abyss.

Kemosiri tries to stop the hooded mages from taking more souls. He launches himself at them and tears the scrolls free of their hands. He gets to the last mage, who resists and keeps his portion of the scroll away from Kemosiri. During the struggle, Kemosiri tears the mages hood and sees himself staring back at him. Kemosiri pushes him to the ground and grabs the scroll. The maelstrom ends and he finds himself near the smouldering ruins of a giant fire in the middle of an abandoned Nanking. He sees Kontonshin and Tenzin nearby and finds himself holding his journal. A quick look in the journal and he finds that he has several more pages of the Shinwa Taizen scrawled in it – all in his handwriting.

The Cabal leave Astral Space and their minds return to their own bodies in Kyoto. Kwannon is still lying on his bed in the middle of his temple. He turns to the Cabal and tells them what they saw was what really happened in Nanking. The world remembers the events as medical and scientific atrocities. However, the thousands of people died not because of the atrocities of men, but of the atrocities of mages who were attempting to summon an Abyssal entity.

Kwannon turns his head weakly and tells the Cabal that what they saw was what really happened in Nanking. He begins to tell the Cabal of the secret history of the Shinwa Taizen.

Kwannon's Story

Kwannon finished his story leaving the Cabal shaken to the bone. The Kyoto mages had almost caused the end of the world by overwriting history. Kwannon leans in and tells the Cabal that it is happening again – that the Shinwa Taizen cannot be completely destroyed and that it will appear to a chosen Awakened in his or her dreams and in that way the Shinwa Taizen will come alive again. If allowed to be completed and the dark ritual recast, it will overwrite the world’s history. History as we know it will disappear and replaced with an Abyssal history replete with cannibalism and bloodshed such as the world has never seen.

It must not be allowed to happen.

Next: Shadows of Nanking – part 4