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