Our Heroes:
Evelynn, Half-Orc Bard, plays a mean fiddle
Goog, Grung Wizard, the GOAT (greasiest of all time)
Jiaming, Human Sorcerer/Paladin, chadhisattva
Lynne, Drow Rogue, just killed her dad
Shengshi, Human Rogue/Monk, wears a cool mask
Yulan, Half-Elf Fighter, pegasister
Muyang and Scramble‘s players could not make it, so they served as mission control. Also joining us was one Dante Lorenz, a name which may be familiar from the last session recap.
A new day dawns over Manzhu…
The last dynasty of Imperial Osmanthia was of Manzhu origin, and the last century of their rule saw uprisings as Heaven’s mandate faltered. Resistance fighters dug a network of tunnels beneath Manzhu, which proved very useful to the Nichiben Empire when it set its sights on conquering Osmanthia. One such tunnel led from the late General Sun’s office north to the occupation’s headquarters near Haerbin. There was an eerie quiet in the tunnels save for Sister Pingguo’s occasional humming, but we encountered no patrols, and we were able to rest without issue. Ultimately, it took us a day of travel before Sister Pingguo saw glimmers of light in the distance.
The end of the passageway was atop a hill overlooking the Nichiben Headquarters. The compound itself was squarish, with four guard towers linked by a chain fence about 7’ tall. There was a large, central structure, a single-story warehouse, longer north-south and slightly offset towards the southwest. Most of the compound was an empty courtyard with a few tents and barracks scattered about; it was likely that there were more tunnels underneath. Pingguo could only take us this far; she had to return to the Beggars with the captured intel so they could reveal the occupation’s horrors to the wider world. Jiaming bid her goodbye and good luck. Jin, Li, and Peng followed with her.
It was quickly determined that Scramble would stay atop the hill to serve as Mission Control, and Muyang would stay behind to provide backup should they be discovered. Scramble gave Jiaming a two-way radio. As this happened, sirens blared from the compound, and a great many soldiers rushed out of the main building. Just as suddenly, six people appeared (seemingly from thin air) and began fighting the soldiers. Some of their faces were familiar to Jiaming.
Riding upon the flying white horse Bai Long was Ma Yulan, brandishing a considerably fancier spear than the one she used to have. Riding on a green horse was the great diviner Goog. Evelynn Rainestorm was pulling out daggers and just as quickly throwing them into the dogs of the Empire. But some were unfamiliar: a man with long, flowing hair and a face hidden behind a peculiar mask was throwing punches; he was clearly a cultivator of some kind. There was also a ghoulish-looking old Westerner who was being repeatedly mangled but refused to go down, no matter how much he was shot or stabbed. Lynne and Jiaming take advantage of the chaos and begin rushing down to the southern wall, as this happens the other half of the party seems to take a Nichiben commander (a general) hostage and they make their way into the warehouse. Lynne quickly scales the fence, while Jiaming leaps over it upon his qilin. No one notices as we make our way into the building.
四
The interior is cavernous, dimly lit but saturated by an omnipresent red glow. A scarlet sphere like a lidless eye rests within a roughly cubic mass of pipes 20’ across, which dominates the center of the room. Upon the sphere, like a pupil, is displayed si– four. On the other side of the Crimson Sun, the autognome Jiaming saw in his vision extends its clockwork arms and pulls itself towards Shengshi. It also paralyzes Bingus (Goog’s familiar) with demonic spider qi.
Concurrent with this, Jiaming rides over on his qilin to get a better sense of what he’s dealing with. It quickly becomes apparent that this superweapon is unspeakably Evil; Jiaming can handle a lot thanks to his training atop Mount Hua, but drawing that much corrupted qi into himself would almost certainly kill him before he could succeed. A more direct approach to disabling it is the only option. Channeling his heavenly draconic qi through his moon-touched jian, he leaps off the qilin and into the air, reciting a mantra of protection so that his faith shields him.
As Jiaming takes to the air, Goog retreats with Bingus, cradling him in his little, froggy arms. Yulan counterattacks the autognome when an opening presents itself, blinding it for a moment. Lynne, meanwhile, uses her psychic gifts to establish a mental link with the Crimson Sun, or rather, the souls trapped within its core. A cacophony of psychic screams greets her back, begging to be saved. She runs, throwing a magenta blade (still flickering from the previous day’s tragedy) to cover more ground. Evelynn stabs the Nichiben general, inspiring Shengshi and Yulan to fight even harder. Shengshi strikes at the gnome, but the gnome is swift, and only his third blow makes contact. The gnome counters by releasing a cloud of poison gas in a 10′ radius, but those nearby manage to resist it.
Bingus comes to his senses, looking up into Goog’s kind eyes.
The clockwork gnome begins channeling more demonic spider qi into itself, and, with a horrible ticking, its mechanisms force themselves back into place. As this goes on, Dante commands the General to kneel, then moves up to the machine. From a wound, Dante’s blood coagulates into daggers, which he shoots at the machine.
self-defense mode activated
三
With a horrific clanging like iron beams ripping themselves apart, two giant metal fists spring from the Crimson Sun, connected to the core by thick cables that gave the impression of artificial muscles. A machine gun turret, too, unfolds from within the superweapon, resting proudly atop the cube. It puts its fists together and conjures a vortex to attack the bulk of the party. Bingus and Evelynn find the machine’s pull overpowering, and their bodies and spirits are drawn closer to it, with Goog being pulled alongside Bingus. Jiaming notices that the Jade Dragon is being pulled closer, too. The autognome attacks Yulan, Bai Long, and Shengshi before quickly dragging itself closer to the Crimson Sun to fawn over it. Unhesitatingly, Jiaming recites a mantra for great justice and gets a good strike at the machine as he flies atop the turret. He radios Scramble to request backup from him and Muyang.
As this is going on, the Crimson Sun begins to pray to the many kami of Nichiben, blessing the General with good fortune. The gnome drags itself closer to Dante and poisons him to within an inch of his life, monologuing that “You will rue the day-“
With that, Goog banished it, buying us some time.
Lynne strikes at some of the pipes with her psychic blades, and manages to sever some. The corrupted blood bursting forth smells overwhelmingly of turpentine and rust. Evelynn plays a song on her violin to keep us in the fight. With a word, Dante shifts the flow of his blood to keep it in his body and unleashes a burst of heavenly qi at the machine. Meanwhile, the General strikes at Shengshi with his katana and lands a good slash, but Shengshi isn’t downed thanks to his knowledge of cultivation. As the General’s strike lands, the machine’s prayer is interrupted as it swats at Jiaming like a horse swatting at a fly, but only smashes itself, and as such, the burst of machine gun fire it blasts at Lynne misses spectacularly.
二
Jiaming takes advantage of the machine being too strong for its own good to pierce a newly exposed pipe and flood it with heavenly qi. With an eruption like a solar flare, the top face of the cube explodes spectacularly, taking with it the turret. It screams like a broken player piano, alerting some soldiers who promptly storm inside the warehouse. As it screams, Yulan flies in on Bai Long, which breathes a cone of hot steam at it, scalding the exterior. Yulan lances it twice and smashes it again with the butt of her spear, but in response, it strikes her with its fist, shattering off a portion of her soul, which gets absorbed by it.
一
Most of Yulan is paralyzed, but still in this world. But a fragment of her experiences fire, like she’s swimming in magma alongside hundreds of thousands of people, wailing and gnashing their teeth, trying to stay afloat as the fire melts their flesh and singes their bones. But then, she hears Lynne’s voice:
“We can’t alleviate the suffering that’s been done to you, but we can prevent it from leaking to the outside world. Please help us.”
Almost as soon as she came, she had her arms and armor back. A gargantuan red eye, unblinking and hateful, descends from the moonless, starless “sky” above. The others begin to attack it as best they can.
二
Lynne rapidly climbs the cube, tossing a psychic blade over the ledge to blink alongside Jiaming. Bingus, too, makes its way into the core, drinking its fill of blood. Yulan sees lost souls disappear one by one. Dante begins siphoning blood from the General, enfeebling him. Meanwhile, the Nichiben troops open fire on the party, but the zaibatsu that made their rifles was apparently the lowest bidder because they’re unable to land any shots. With each shot, the machine begins trying to smash Bingus, Jiaming, and Lynne, but this only damages it further.
soul requisition needed
一
With the whirring of motors and the scraping of metal, the pipes within the core begin to rearrange themselves, the outer shell of the cube beginning to reform as blood of unknown origin begins making its way to the sphere. Jiaming positions himself between the largest channel of blood and the core, putting himself out of melee range. It’s all or nothing; in less than six seconds, the Crimson Sun will activate. He takes a deep breath, then exhales.
Within the sea of burning souls, Yulan sees a great and terrible long whose scales are storm clouds and whose teeth are lightning bolts descend upon the lidless eye, eclipsing it.
Lynne grabs Bingus as they blink out of the cube. As they warp to safety, there’s a blinding flash as the Crimson Sun lets out a deafening, final cry. Its arms fall to the ground, limp, cracking the concrete floor. Muyang and Scramble rush in as Yulan awakes with a loud gasp. The guns of the Nichiben soldiers are trained on the colossal heap of mangled metal bathing in blood. Slowly, gently, a small man in saffron robes rises above the wreck, sitting on air in a lotus pose. Golden lightning bolts crack like whips about him, and he burns so brilliantly that the surrounding air dims.
The dragon has swallowed the sun.
Our heroes, now 10th level, will return in Act III: The War Of Gods And Monsters…
Sierpinski Tetrahedron 