AuspiciousBeginnings DTRPG

AUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS
A Tutorial Adventure for the Wuxia Action System
Triumph of the Sword Princess

Ivy Lorete (order #2487143)
A Free Supplement for the
Auspicious Beginnings
An introductory adventure for Weapons of the Gods
Jye Nicolson Ben Leong, Brad Elliott Ben Leong Eric Brennan and crew Dylan Humphries, Lap Nguyen, Louise Zanon, Scott Vandervalk Rebecca Orth and Louise Zanon for putting up with us!
Author:
Editing: Layout:
Playtesting:
Special thanks to:
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Chapters:
Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s
1. Introduction 2. Only Two Devils 3. Wulin 4. The Contest 5. The Adventure Loresheet 6. Militant Scholarship 7. Political Aggression 8. Wisdom of the Elders 9. The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion 10. Auspicious Complications
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Additional Material:
Mountain Chung, Warrior Emerald Zilong, Warrior Tan Dong, Courtier Clever Li-Li, Scholar Black-Saber Jin, Warrior Pretty Hark, Warrior Fei Hsiao, Courtier Doctor Jang-Lu, Scholar Empty Hand Lieutenant 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
All Weapons of the Gods comics material - logos, illustrations, character concepts and story et al - are copyright 2005 Jade Dynasty Publications Ltd. The Weapons of the Gods Roleplaying Game, all text, concepts, game mechanics and presentation copyright 2005 Eos Entertainment LLC. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews and for blank character sheets and specic Lore sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. The mention or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This adventure uses fantastical and supernatural elements in its setting, for its characters, their abilities, and themes. All such elements are ction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This adventure contains mature content and reader discretion is advised. Check out Eos Press Online at http://www.eos-press.com !
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1.
Introduction
Welcome! Auspicious Beginnings is a tutorial adventure for Weapons of the Gods, designed to teach the game to new players over a single 3-4 hour session of play. Weve included pre-generated characters, handouts, an adventure Loresheet and a fast-paced adventure following the player characters through the exotic Six Devils City: everything you need for a one-shot, demo, or a pre-campaign warm up! Auspicious Beginnings is also suitable for campaign play for Rank 4 characters. You can expect players who know the Weapons of the Gods system to chew through the material presented here very quickly though, so be ready to follow and embellish any hooks that interest the players. In order to t within a single-session timeframe, the events of Auspicious Beginnings are fairly linear, with a xed series of encounters. However, the adventure introduces the concept of Loresheets in such a way as to give the players a great deal of control over the context and aesthetics of play, as well as the destiny of the PCs and NPCs alike!
rivals in the Wulin also entering the tournament, and three powerful residents of Prosperous Devil whose sponsorship for entrance is being vied for. This scene takes place in the chaotic and lawless squalor of Unruly Devil District, in contrast to the opulence of the rest of the game. After the Tournament, the players are presented with their rst Loresheet: a free Lore covering the setting and destiny of the adventure. They are given free Destiny to spend on this sheet, introducing the concept of Lores and the fun of buying plot twists through the Secrets of Destiny. While the structure of the adventure (a total of three encounters) remains static, the content is dictated by the players choices on this Loresheet. As a group, they choose which of the three sponsors takes their group into the district, dictating the second scene: a task performed for that sponsor. Individually, they choose which wondrous object they are seeking,and what their motives are for doing so. This informs why theyre working with the other players. Finally, any spare destiny can be spent on entanglements with NPCs either immediately, or saved for when its appropriate in-game. The second scene varies based on the sponsor selected by the players, but by default its a set-piece battle against inferior but numerous opponents, where the PCs non-combat objective is violently opposed by some of their rivals from the Tourney and minions of their rivals sponsor. This gives the players a chance to really ex their kung-fu for the rst time, while keeping the focus of the scene on something Scholar and Courtier characters will do well at. The big nale is in the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion the great marketplace of Prosperous Devil as the heroes attempt to seize the wonders theyve come so far for! Of course, their rivals from the Tourney are equally keen to have the treasures, and the nature of the wonders from the hyperactive Wind Monkey to the large and fragile Mirror of Ying Zheng complicate things yet further. This spectacular ght scene wraps up the adventure, and should hopefully have your players begging for more wuxia action!
1 . In t ro d u c t i o n
The Adventure
While far from the heart of Shen Zhou, Six Devils City is brimming with young members of the Martial Arts World, eager to gain fame. It is not the stark beauty of the walled city rising out of the northern deserts that draws them, nor the volatile mix of mercenaries, merchants and scholars that so often leads to opportunities for displaying kung fu. No, it is the many wonders for sale in the citys fabulous markets and back-alleys that draw the ghters of the Wulin like so many ies to honey, for it is said, If it was lost in war, go to Six Devils with a full purse to nd it! The heroes are seeking the very rarest and most spectacular of wonders, each for their own reasons, and have come to Only Six Devils looking for them. However, their purses are not full (or for their own reasons they dont care to empty them), and these magnicent wonders are behind the walls of the exclusive Prosperous Devil district. The PCs enter a contest to gain entrance to the district and its legendary markets. This opening scene acts rst and foremost as a tutorial, walking the players through the core rules concepts. It also introduces the major NPCs of the adventure: eight
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Dont be stingy with Joss. Advice for the Sage Giving Joss for cool or in-genre behaviour at a fairly Not only is this adventure written for rst-time steady rate helps players feel that trying to be cool Weapons of the Gods players, its quite likely that and in-genre is worthwhile, without making them this is your rst Weapons of the Gods game too! The feel that painful over-acting is required! You dont system isnt particularly complex, but mechanics need to award Joss for every single action or turn, such as the stacking rules and Too Many Cooks! but this adventure isnt supposed to be dicult its may be quite dierent from other games you may supposed to be fun and fast, so dont be afraid that played, so it doesnt hurt to give the players a heads youll give too much. Also, remind the players that up that youre learning just as they are. they can each give one point of Joss to another player, once per session. Read the adventure thoroughly beforehand. Its quite short, so one or two read-throughs If you have time... wont take you long. This isnt to memorise Check out the many other Weapons of the Gods the adventure, but to familiarise yourself with resources online there are plenty of combat exit so that you can condently make your own amples, rules summaries and other resources to give decisions about events in play without needing to you that extra bit of familiarity before running the refer back to the text. game. If you have any specic questions, try posting them to the Eos Press forums or the rpg.net forums Describe NPCs and locations naturally. youre sure to get plenty of advice! Weve given you handy cheat-sheets for each scene, but youll give a better atmosphere by giving descriptions in your own voice rather than reading from the text. Its OK if you miss a few details that way the events of the adventure dont require the players to forensically analyse your every word!
Dont treat the adventure as an authority. Nothing is more important than your judgement on what will make the game more fun for the players. Make changes on the y if you need to, including breaking out of the adventures threeencounter structure if thats what the players want. Its generally no fun to railroad the players into a pre-determined story if thats not what they want. However, its also fair to ask players to play along in order to meet some real world constraint. If youre running Auspicious Beginnings as a once-o, public transport, game-store closing times or the length of a convention session might make the fastest path the most satisfying. Be familiar with the adventure Loresheet. Players with spare Destiny can change the destiny of an NPC mid-session if they choose, so be prepared to deal with that. Just remember to make the consequences fun and fair for the player: 3 Destiny spent on a plot twist should be just as valuable as 3 Destiny spent on Iron Fists. If you arent condent about dealing with on-the-y plot twists, ask your players to spend all their destiny on the Loresheet straight after the tourney. Send them on a ten-minute snack run while you jot down some notes...
Uh, only two players showed up. No problem. With less than four players, just make sure you have at least one Warrior, and one Courtier or Scholar, and you should be OK. You should generally try to make sure they face fewer Ranked opponents than their own numbers in combat dont sweat numbers of Minions too much, since theyre limited in how many can attack a single target anyway. Just make sure the Minions run o if its appropriate rather than ghting to the death. actually, no, their four friends were just a little late. Help! 5-6 players will be a little tricker, mostly because we havent given you that many detailed PCs. However, we HAVE given you a whole lot of stats and descriptions for 4th rank NPCs just mix in some of the rivals as potential PCs, and you should be ne. Ask the player to ll in any gaps in personality if need be. If you end up running short of NPCs in game as a consequence of this, just re-use the stats of an existing NPC with a new description. The thing to watch out for is time extra players will make the session longer. Try to use more Minions rather than extra Ranked ghters, and try to cut short table chatter to keep everyone focused.
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I want to play my own character! You might have a player show up with their own Weapons of the Gods character ready to go. The adventure doesnt require the pre-generated characters, but there are a few things you should look out for: Too many/too few Warriors. The adventure to a lesser extent Lores) may nd themselves a has a lot of combat while its not hard, a bit disadvantaged. Players wanting Courtier or group without any warriors may nd it a bit of Scholar concepts will probably nd the prea struggle. There is also a fair bit of emphasis generated characters more successful in this on skills like Learning, Grace and Awareness a adventure. group entirely consisting of Warriors might nd Require the character to work with the others. they can beat their opponents but not complete The pre-generated characters have no real reason their objectives. not to get along, but Nan or Bei clan characters God Weapons. The adventure isnt meant to could easily feel that they are enemies of Xiaobe dicult, but a God Weapon would make it a Li Pai or Feng Guo for using their clans secret walkover. Best avoided. techniques. Its fair as the Sage to require that Secret Arts. The adventure is very short-term. the players come up with reasons why their New characters with lots of Destiny sunk into characters work together, even if it seems long-term investments like Secret Arts (and contrived.
Auspicious Beginnings, then buy Heavens Crystal from Tian. There are few places in Shen Zhou as obnoxiously justication for spending Destiny on the Wealth wealthy as Prosperous Devil. Many players will advantage. However, if a player does not do that, quite reasonably decide that their characters the wealth isnt part of their destiny, and they fritter deserve a piece of that action, and acquire valuables it away on good rice wine, courtesans, random acts or money through fair means or foul. Its not even of Kuan, good lodgings and other such things. Its particularly dicult! customary to burn joss sticks for good (or gullible) There is a dierence between scooping up customers in Shen Zhou, however, so if a player is jewellery from a merchants stall and becoming in this position, give them a few points of joss to rich, though, especially when youre trying to take the sting out of it. You might also point out convert goods to wealth in a place like Unruly that spending the wealth on transitory advantages Devil. Playing Auspicious Beginnings and making such as bribes, mercenaries or gifts is a good way to an eort to gather valuables is automatically avoid this problem!
OK, heres the plan: we play through
Tips for the Sage: Loresheets and Auspicious Beginnings

Encourage your players not to ponder the adventure loresheet too long. While they do need to decide on Sponsors up front, Splendours and Motivations can be put o until just before the nal scene, and everything else can simply be bought in play. Theres no need to spend all 5 destiny straight away, and certainly no need to spend half an hour calculating the best possible way to do so. Its OK if the players dont really care about their rivals at this point. While its preferable for them to be engaged with the people theyll be beating up, its not a disaster if theyre not especially since they can buy plot twists later if they become more interested in a given NPC. Random good luck or random bad luck alone wont win an encounter but it could easily give the opportunity to do so. Good examples in combat include upgrading a successful attack to a critical (including critical eects that the attacker doesnt have), having events cut an enemy o from his friends for a turn (leaving him alone with the PCs), lling or emptying the River of a character etc. Out of combat could be a one-time bonus (or penalty) on a roll, a minor character turning out to be an old friend from childhood, or similar benecial coincidence. If youre not condent of coming up with something on the y, just give the PC a couple of points of Joss and let them make their own luck.
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2 . On l y Tw o De v i l s
is lled with rich people and well-paid mercenaries. Who wouldnt come here if they wanted to sell An exotic and striking frontier city lled with something? wealth and savagery, Only Six Devils is an iconic Midnight narrowed her eyes and frowned at all city for Weapons of the Gods, lled with all kinds of the sand. Im smarter than you, which is why that delicious mystery. doesnt make sense to me. Its too simple its all very Youll forgive us, then, for saving a proper well once it gets going, but how did it get started? treatment of the subject for a later supplement Which mad merchant was the rst to cross the rather than this short adventure! Nevertheless, well bandit-riddled desert to buy loot from blood-crazed certainly give you more than enough material to run mercenaries? an exciting adventure, and enough hooks to come up Kai smiled, the smell of dumplings from the street with many more in the City of Six Devils. hawkers of Unruly Devil already lling his nostrils. Please note the following Lore is not the Loresheet You think too much, cousin! Only Six Devils has for the adventure its not necessary for the players been here longer than theres been a country of Xia to read it beforehand, and its primary purpose is to who would care more about how it earned its rst familiarise the Sage with the setting of the adventure. coin than how it can help you earn your next one? However, the material is presented in Loresheet The City (Discussion) format for use in further games, for experienced Only Six Devils is the capital of the country of groups likely to play the adventure, or indeed for groups not playing through Auspicious Beginnings Xia, the seat of the mysterious Iron Shadow Warlord, and the only part of his domain where outsiders at all! are allowed. Given Xias somewhat inexplicable but The Time of Chaos undeniable economic importance, theres no shortage of outsiders, meaning the business of the entire nation Six Devil City: With a full purse is compressed into this one frenetic city! Rarity acquisition in the City of Six Devils
Only Two Devils
Destiny Cost: 2 Study Diculty: Politics 20 If it was lost in war, go to Six Devils with a full purse to nd it
Hmph! Midnight grumped with an uncharacteristic lack of grace as their horses crested the rise. Only Six Devils, blue walls gleaming against the harsh mountains of Xia behind it and the expanse of the northern desert before it, was undermining her complaints about the journey by being stubbornly Only Six Devils is quite inaccessible overland, majestic. Even the great Yellow River seemed to ow requiring a trip through hard desert or harsh past only to pay its respects! Very well, so it is pretty! mountains, both of which are plagued by bandits. The But its still in the middle of nowhere why is it Yellow River is the most popular means of reaching crawling with people? the city, especially since joining Xia mercenary boats Its a plunder-based economy! Kai oered on their way home tends to discourage pirates! helpfully. Everyone knows that Xia has the best Anyone seeking complete safety on a journey to the mercenaries, so theyre hired for every war worth city is advised to look like they carry nothing of value, mentioning. Things go missing in every battle, so its or obtain a Good-health Flag via sizeable bribes to not surprising that many of those things go home the agents of Unruly Devil Districts Governor Chen, with the mercenaries. They dont bother taking who has arrangements with many of the bandit anything cheap, so the city is lled with gangs. valuables! Wealthy people come to buy the treasures, so the city
Fortunately, all the loot taken by Xias mercenaries in their many wars makes its way back to Six Devils, and the mercenaries have cultivated a taste for the most valuable and spectacular of salvage over the years. This (along with the many parties of highly varying virtue who take advantage of the unique market conditions) makes the city the single best place to nd rarities and wonders in all of Shen Zhou, as well as the most likely place for a trip to the markets to turn into a kung-fu brawl.
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Outsiders are usually told the citys colourful name refers to its six districts, all of which bear the name Devil (Unruly Devil, Prosperous Devil etc) or at least the six District Governors, who are regarded as quite devilish in practice if not in fact. Most outsiders guess that this is a conversational tactic meant to gauge their gullibility. Only the laws declared by the Iron Shadow Warlord apply to the whole city, but the Governors have (and cheerfully abuse!) similar authority within their own districts. Most laws seem to stem from Legalist philosophy: they are absolute with punishments and rewards, and quite ineable in motivation. The most important laws apply to freedom of movement: while it is widely held that Only Six Devils is the only place in Xia where you may come and go freely, in truth its just that the Warlords laws concerning personal freedom dont apply to the City the Governors themselves have varied but very strict laws on the subject. Luckily, the discerning shopper only need concern themselves with two districts and their Governors: Unruly Devil and Prosperous Devil.
Genius! exulted the hawker, turning happily to Kai. You there Ill give you ten taels if you can get me fty ducks and ve courtesans before anyone arrives from the docks! Kai blushed furiously, mouth agape, while Midnight sighed. Cousin Kai, since youve obviously gotten us killed in the desert, could you please tell me how we ended up in the Hell of Preposterous Madness?
Unruly Devil (Discussion)

Unruly Devil is the largest of the citys districts by a considerable margin, and the district through which every traveller passes. In fact, many have come and gone from the city without realising that the other ve districts were there, having mistaken Unruly Devil for the city as a whole. As a result, Only Six Devils reputation in Shen Zhou has been somewhat coloured by the districts unique nature. Cleaver Chen, the District Governor, is a most enthusiastic Legalist indeed, it is rumoured he practices Legalist Secret Arts that confound Daoist and Confucianist alike. Unlike the other governors, he has some practical constraints on the laws he can pass the districts nature as the gateway to Only Six Devils and Xia as a whole makes it dicult for him to restrict movement into or within the district. Thus, Unruly Devil is in fact the only place in Xia that anyone can enter or leave as they please Chen doesnt tell you where you can go. He just tells you where you can live. The location of every house and business in Unruly Devil is chosen by Chen or his subordinates, not by their owner. If you take in a guest, business partner or even a pet, Chen may decide to move you. By default, he arranges the district in the most staggeringly inappropriate fashion possible the eect would remind you of a normal city picked up and shued, if not for the amusing cruelty of many placements. Many enterprising merchantstake bets on the placement of newcomers, but wouldnt oer odds on a contingent of Daoist nuns, since theyre virtually guaranteed to end up between two brothels. This extraordinary urban planning technique takes up a sizeable portion of Chens time, but he seems to prot from, or at least enjoy, the resulting chaos. While many get around the problem with
Festival Day Kai had not been in the city for a minute when a ock of ducks exploded out of shanty-style shacks to his right, ying into a lavish merchant compound to his left with an old peasant woman in hot pursuit. As chaos ensued within, his attention was seized by the spectacle of a Chengan Lord in splendid silks arguing with his washerwoman neighbour about the laundrylines hanging into his property. All the while, a Zan monk and a Daoist stared impassively at each other from opposite sides of the street, enough sand and dust upon them to show that they had been there for several days at least.
Youve never actually been here before. Midnights accusation was measured, her voice quiet and terse. Kai couldnt do much but shrug. Uncle San said it was a little rowdy, but A hawker, just nishing setting up his stall slightly to the left of the Daoist, peered past the two young ghters and towards the river in the distance. Hmm... good crowd o the docks today. Well need a festival. He squinted at the screeching lord and washerwoman. Hey! Todays a festival day, right? The Lord cleared his throat irritably. How should I know? It could be Woman-Chases-Duck Festival for all I care!
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bribery, trickery, or being more frightening to their neighbours than Chen, the scheme is successful enough that the district as a whole is rigorously unpredictable, notoriously dicult to navigate, and multicultural to an extent seen nowhere else in Shen Zhou. Rich rub shoulders with poor, turning an alley can land you in a fteen-sided brawl over silk tapestries and cows, and every festival known to man is celebrated in its streets. So great is the variety of festivals and celebrations that no-one can keep up instead, most residents have grown used to throwing themselves into every opportunity to celebrate, real or fabricated, and then going back to arguing with their neighbours.
youre asking would only feed a village for a year. Why not raise your price and get two or three years of security? The whole market would laugh at me! Everyone has already seen the ute and sneered at it Emperor Hus buyer called it a forgery to my face! I fought Hell Clan to get it, and its brought me nothing but shame.
It is a forgery. The ute of legend you fought for never really existed, or if it did, Heaven has taken it for itself... however, two hundred years ago, a man named Pretty-hands Xiangyu grew so tired of hearing the legend of the Thrice Jade Flute that he made one of his own, far greater, to drown the legend with The one thing everyone in Unruly Devil agrees another. How sorrowful that his craft was so great, upon is money they want more of it, as quickly and yet his legend unknown! Double your price. as possible. The district is a fabulous place to make That will not be necessary, Governor. Emperor or lose money, with sums large and small risked Hus man waddled over swiftly, clearing his throat. in schemes on every street corner. The markets are large and numerous, lled with a dazzling variety of Ill pay triple what the boy asks for. How sad for you! interjected another. Zheng merchandise and the most determined hawkers in Shen Zhou. Anyone can nd something they want Bei will pay four times the price to have it for his there, but the true connoisseur wants only one thing daughter. to get out of Unruly Devil and into Prosperous Sapphire Miang, Governor of Prosperous Devil, Devil, whatever it takes. smiled and slipped away as the chaos began. Market Forces Prosperous Devil (Discussion) The golden statue of Nwa gazed benecently over the stately yet bustling market, but with her eyes gazing forward she could not see the man at her feet! A young warrior, tired and nursing wounds, knelt amidst the splendour. A magnicent ute of jade and silver lay at his feet. Surrounded by opulence and wealth, his air was of a man poor and dejected, his hopes fading as the luminaries of the markets turned their noses up in distaste. Youre asking too little you should at least double the price. The rst friendly voice in hours brought the warriors eyes up but surely she was mocking him! The speaker was a beautiful woman who bore her middle years nobly, her hair caught up in sapphires, a gentle smile upon her lips. Please do not mock me! I am tired and wounded; I have fought hard to get here, and for nothing! Ill get no silver for this... Ill take a ute back to my village and be cursed, for we cant eat it! Now, now, you cant eat silver either, so youll need to deal with merchants either way! And the amount Many nd it dicult to believe that Unruly Devil and Prosperous Devil share the same city, let alone that a mere gate and stretch of wall separates the two. Prosperous Devil is serene, quiet, and endlessly opulent. Where Unruly Devil is open to any, merely entering Prosperous Devil is a dicult task! Sapphire Miang, Governor of Prosperous Devil, believes that there is a level of dizzying wealth in commerce where pointedly turning away ninety-nine customers will leave the hundredth in a frenzy to have your exclusive merchandise. It is dicult to test whether this principle has any general merit, but it has succeeded awlessly in Prosperous Devil. Miang forbids any to enter Prosperous Devil unless they are the guest and responsibility of a property-owning resident, and she levies an extraordinarily punitive tax on the sale of property. As a result, only the wealthiest can aord to own property in the district, and these few realise that their control over entry to the district (through extending their hospitality) is of enormous value. Entering the district is entirely dependent on pleasing a demanding patron who understands that demand is well in excess of supply.
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Most who wish to enter simply cant. The wealthy sometimes enter with sucient bribery (tting gifts for their hosts), or conduct business in the markets through multiple layers of go-betweens. Most of the servants and guards of the residents are drawn from those willing to sell their independence in return for a place in the wondrous district. Members of the Wulin potentially have the easiest route in when enough seek entrance, a few of Prosperous Devils most prominent residents will hold a Contest in Unruly Devil (usually seen as an excuse for an impromptu festival by the residents of that district), and will welcome those they deem worthy into the district as their guests... asking little more than a favour in return. While tiny in comparison to Unruly Devil, the district feels more spacious. Its mansions and estates are widely spaced, arranged in an artfully planned pattern around the central hub of the markets. A considerable amount from the purses of Miang and the residents alike goes to greening the district, making it a splendid garden amongst the harsh landscape surrounding the city. The low population adds to the spacious feel there are fewer people in the entire district than the average block in Unruly Devil. Governor Miang likes to keep up the myth that the district is utterly serene and entirely safe, but in actual fact, violence and confrontation are extremely common. The essential problem is that only a handful of people in the district are actually independent the rest are beholden to a powerful propertyowner, keenly aware that Unruly Devil is brimming with others eager to take their place. As a result each property owner has a virtually inexhaustible pool of disposable underlings. When conicts arise between prominent citizens, they think nothing of hurling their minions against each other. This brings an unspoken tension to living in Prosperous Devil, as none of the property owners ever seem quite content with their lot: something spurs them against each other, each determined to gather just a little more wealth. Most suspect the hand of Governor Miang in this, especially since the tumults never quite seem to upset the districts reputation or the operation of the markets. Conversely, and to the surprise of many cynics, Prosperous Devils reputation as a beacon of hope is not entirely unjustied. Those in true need who struggle their way into its gates seem to have remarkably good
joss, although whether this is just Governor Miang keeping up the legend of Prosperous Devil is dicult to say. The markets themselves the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilions are the backbone of this system of monstrous wealth. Only the nest and rarest of wonders are sold here: masterworks, antiquities, and items of legend. The markets are a world away from the tents and stalls of a bazaar, instead a majestic array of permanent pavilions and pagodas built to the standard of a palace. The merchants are relatively few, but between their sta and the retinues of the buyers, it is by far the most crowded place in the district. It bustles self consciously everyone strives to be dignied, although its dicult to keep ones composure when tens of thousands of taels are on the line! Sales can be quite tense the merchants stand to make amazing prots, but are also at risk of losing a great deal, for they compensate the mercenary companies who recover the items very well indeed, and must sell quite high to break even. With virtually every item on sale a one-of-a-kind, haggling is a challenging aair and theres no real appeal to precedent or standards. The Pavilion is the most prestigious formal market in Only Six Devils but its not quite true that you can buy anything there. Between the Bei clans huge operation in Fierce Devil and the very slim chance that a mercenary captain would give up such a thing, its almost impossible to buy weapons, particularly God-Weapons. Likewise, if it is truly possible to buy souls in Only Six Devils, it is not done under Sapphire Miangs gaze.
Secrets of Destiny: With a Full Purse Only Six Devils

[Fortune] DESTINY COST: 2 Discovery: As long as it isnt known to be elsewhere, an item you are searching for is found to be for sale in Six Devil City. 2 Victory: One of the potentates of Prosperous Devil turns out to be someone you impressed earlier in your career, and they invite you into their home. 1 Victory: You obtain a Good-health Flag your journey to Only Six Devils is uneventful from the border of Xia onwards. If you werent destined
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to be attacked in the rst place, you manage to sell the ag at a modest prot.
[Secret Society] Many mercenaries of Xia never leave Six Devil City, nding ample employment within its walls. [Location] This is true even in Prosperous Devil, where there is DESTINY COST: so much of value to be guarded but one company 1 Entangled Destiny: An item from the market reigns supreme within that district, for they not that you cant aord will cross your path again. only sell their services at a premium, but they own 1 Discovery: You discover an item in the markets outright their extensive barracks, making them a is a forgery! power in Prosperous Devil. 2 Victory: You nd a buyer for a wonder that Ironhand Nan is their master, a skilled youre seeking to sell, and make a reasonable swordsman who departed his clan after the death prot on the item. This will not prevent the of Yi Nangong, rowing furiously with Hong Dong buyer seeking revenge if youve swindled them! and vowing to make his own fortune. He has 1 Fortune: A single character of your choice in taught his foremost lieutenants a style he developed Prosperous Devil has either the trivial Kuan or to cover the weaknesses of the Nan sword-arts: a Si Inspiration imposed by the district inamed technique allowing them to strike with the force of to a minor Inspiration hyperactivity or weakness their blade with st, foot or ick of the hair, even if (your choice) with Recovery 20. By default this their weapon is sheathed or taken from them! Thus condition aects Jade Breath. did the Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity 2 Fortune: A single character of your choice in Society earn its name. Prosperous Devil has either the trivial Kuan or The Sheathed-Blade is the company most Si Inspiration imposed by the district inamed trusted by Sapphire Miang and the merchants to to a major Inspiration hyperactivity or weakness guard the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion, and goods (your choice) with Recovery 30. By default this delivered to or taken from there. This responsibility condition aects Jade Breath. is so critical that Ironhand and his men have little
Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity Society
Prosperous Devil and the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion
Special Rule:
Anyone entering Prosperous Devil instantly and automatically contracts a trivial Kuan Inspiration and a trivial Si Inspiration. Both are Recovery 18, Interval 1 scene, Duration 3. If either inspiration ends, or is recovered from or cured, the character immediately re-contracts it while in this district. Its possible that someone accomplished in the Secret Arts could protect themselves from these conditions, but since theyre trivial (having literally no mechanical eect), nobody seems to bother. The inspirations immediately end if the character leaves Prosperous Devil however, if Secret Arts have modied them they may remain at the Sages option.
diculty leveraging an excuse to be wherever they wish in the district, acting as a de-facto police force. Sometimes they seem altruistic, intervening in trouble with a righteous spirit; at other times, they seem only too happy to take any excuse to stick their noses into the business of other propertyowners. This attitude extends beyond the gates of Prosperous Devil. As the Society is frequently hired to guard precious items to and from the docks, they consider the winding road through Unruly Devil to the docks to be part of their turf, and they delight in staging dry runs to lure out and slaughter bandits with more greed than sense. This behaviour has earned them the enmity of many gangs, and deeply irritated Governor Chen. Ironhand himself is no typical Nan much larger than most and uglier than almost any other, ten years of opulent surrounds have utterly failed to
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soften him. His size, heavy black armour, perpetually sheathed blade, and steel-like grey hair render him distinctive. He is gru, but far slyer than he appears: the observant will note his dry sense of humour giving him away. He is generally focused above all else upon prot and strengthening his company, but every so often, despite himself, he does something terribly noble and decidedly Nan. DESTINY COST: 1 Discovery: You discover that Ironhand and Hong Dong never truly argued Ironhand is in fact her agent in the markets, an arrangement both have proted from handsomely! 2 Fortune: Either Ironhand Nan accepts you as a student in his Empty-Hand style, or you get a good opportunity to steal his technique manual. [Secret Society] A school specically for girls is a rare thing. However, even in a time of chaos there are wealthy families who do not want their daughters underfoot, want them properly prepared for marriage, and are willing to solve the problem with silver. With a cunning grasp of economics, Red Lotus Ling has further enhanced the desirability of her school by making it as exclusive as possible it is far from the centre of Shen Zhou, in a place that one must be ludicrously wealthy to even enter. There is no greater concentration of eligible young women in all Shen Zhou than those of the Academy! Ostensibly this is all to train the girls as perfect wives, and that is exactly what the average student will end up being. The most gifted, however, are prepared for lives in court or the Wulin: to struggle for power, never be dominated, and come out of it all with perfect grace! Her habit of taking in wandering bands of heroes ts in with this agenda (as well as the specic tasks she wants accomplished) - fraternising with the heroes is strictly forbidden, hence the schools quiet reputation as the Academy of not getting caught. Red Lotus Ling is ambitious and relatively young. She wears magnicent red dresses that leave observers unsure whether she is a bride herself, or the mother of a young bride. She cheerfully encourages whichever interpretation suits her best and is happy to use her own beauty to get her way,
or to step back and use the beauty of a student if it is more suitable. Ling is exceptionally intelligent and well educated, able to give even hardened old scholars pause with her eloquence, and very obviously driven. Her ambition appears oddly altruistic however, perceptive observers might conclude that she means to gain fame by being the mentor of half the prominent women within Shen Zhou within twenty years, rather than attaining high position herself. Red Lotus is less attached to the markets themselves than most of the potentates of Prosperous Devil, but considers them a vital part of her students education. With the nest goods in the world arrayed before them, Red Lotus nds her students properly motivated to learn the nest techniques in the eld of getting what you want. Conversely, the Academy is important to the district because the girls parents are some of the few in Shen Zhou who are wealthy enough to shop in Prosperous Devil on a whim, and the school itself is training up a small legion of power-hungry potential customers. DESTINY COST: 1 Victory: You convince Red Lotus to take a young female relative as a student, either from charity or considerable compensation. You will receive an opportunity to leverage this as a connection with the parents of another student. 2 Entangled Destiny: Red Lotus hires you as a tutor at the school; no matter how brief this time is, you will nd yourself running into former students for the remainder of your career!
Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy
Guild of Gentleman Appraisers

[Secret Society] An essential problem of conducting business in the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion is the diculty of assigning a price to an item there. After all, what is the Mirror of Ying Zheng worth? Perhaps it has a place on some hierarchy of mirrors, but in practical terms it cant be compared with anything! Most people in Shen Zhou wouldnt have much sympathy for those unable to decide what atrociously huge price to ask for their antiquities, but somebody has to decide whether the mirror is worth fty thousand taels or one hundred thousand.
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Luckily, there is a society of scholars ready to DESTINY COST: help! 1 Entangled Destiny: An object in the possession of a rival draws Gongsuns greedy eye. Unfortunately, theyre a collection of cynical, corrupt and greedy old men and women, determined 2 Victory: You convince the Appraisers to make a cheap copy of a text youre seeking. to get as much as possible for the smallest eort, (-1) Youre caught by the texts owner, and have and with years of experience in doing so. The Guild to ee the district with your copy. of Gentleman Appraisers (who, despite numbering several female savants, are too conservative to consider a name change), are scholars of particular accomplishment. They are devoted to the study of physical artefacts, historical and novel alike. The Guild is generally the only third party trusted to positively identify and value the extremely varied stock carried by the markets. Their conduct in this role is reasonably corrupt that is, they are precisely as corrupt as they believe Sapphire Miang will deem reasonable. Their compound is dominated by a prodigious library, a signicant proportion of which was misappropriated in the course of their work. Even when they do not concoct means to steal, swindle or cheaply obtain the works that their insatiable scholarly appetites long for, they remain in the appraising process for as long as is necessary to study, copy or sabotage the item. Razoreyes Gongsun is the ancient, decrepit and incredibly acerbic head of the Guild. As he approaches the end of his life, his erce intelligence has not been dampened in the slightest, but his lust for new things has become voracious. He still has enough respect for his society and the district to not cause egregious damage on a whim, but he is becoming very cheerful indeed about using members of the Wulin as expendable intermediaries when he truly wants something and knows the other potentates will strive to prevent him having it. Gongsun is becoming a touch sentimental, and will occasionally commit an act of apparently random kindness on the strength of some half-forgotten association between someone he encounters and the companions of his youth.
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3.
Wulin
This chapter details the four pre-generated PCs and eight NPC Wulin rivals at the heart of the adventures conict. Statistics are presented in the handouts chapter towards the end of this document. Note that the NPCs are presented as both full Rank 4 ghters and 5th Rank disciples, depending on how you want to use them in play. The default story for the PCs joining together in their quest to reach the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion is that they shared a boat with many other passengers journeying up the Yellow River to reach Only Six Devils a boat without a Goodhealth ag. Unsurprisingly, the Devil Cloud gang attacked them, and the bandits, incensed by their initial defeat, turned the boat trip into a running battle! Over the course of multiple clashes with the Devil Clouds, the PCs grew to admire each others prowess, and the eectiveness with which they fought as a band. Soon they confessed to each other their reasons for travelling to Only Six Devils, and seeing that they aligned so closely, resolved to ght together! While mildly contrived, this background should suce for a one-shot game. If you instead plan to use Auspicious Beginnings as part of campaign play, work with your players to create sturdier conditions for the characters banding together! Pre-generated Player Characters: The following short descriptions are all youll need to keep in mind while reading the adventure, but youll want to read through the full character descriptions and statistics in the handouts section before play. The PCs are within a few Destiny points of normal starting characters. They would all be perfectly viable characters in an ordinary campaign, but dont have any traits that arent relevant to a single-session game.
Invincible Sword Princess, 4th Rank Warrior Xiao-Li is the most straightforward combat character tactically speaking, its almost impossible to do badly with her. She is the typical Invincible Sword Princess she hits often and is rarely hit herself, but is a bit fragile when she does get hit. Anyone familiar with Zhang Ziyis character from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will know what theyre in for here. In terms of personality, Xiao-Li is dened by lial piety, living her life to please the ghosts of her dead parents: a father who wanted her to be humble and virtuous and a mother who wanted to see her boldly dominate the Wulin! Honourable Fist, 4th Rank Warrior Feng has a more straightforward personality than Xiao-Li (hes the honourable, stubborn peasant hero), but mechanically he takes a little more tactical nesse. As an unarmed ghter, hell normally hit less often than his sword-wielding companion, and be hit more often. This is deceptive, however, as his kung-fu gives him excellent Critical eects and armour, so with a little care he can be devastating and endure longer than the relatively fragile Sword Princess. Wed probably hire Jet Li to play him in the movie. Fengs personality is centred around his quest to make things right with his strength, and prove his worthiness. Dashing Literati, 4th Rank Courtier Unsurprisingly for a Courtier, Liang is very socially-focused, and relies on excellent skill ratings. He does have potentially powerful ranged kung-fu, but is unlikely to be a dominant force unless in VERY tactically capable hands. However, between the numerous opportunities for him to use his skills and his easy-to-use Extraordinary Courtier Techniques, any player should do ne with him. His visual reference is Takeshi Kaneshiro (Jin from House of Flying Daggers). Liangs personality highlights the celebrated, somewhat sexy
Xiao-Li Pai
3 . Wu l i n
Feng Guo
Liang Shui
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3 . Wu l i n
It is the sad fate of many bands beginning their nature of the literati in Chinese history. Hes a devilish charmer that believes righteous hard work life in the Wulin to have names decided on by a committee hopefully in this case the name is strictly should be balanced with indulgent relaxation. temporary...
Daoist Genius, 4th Rank Scholar
Patience Meng
Mechanically, Patience is very similar to Liang Shui, only with a sorcerous bent in place of a social one. His skill ratings are excellent, he has great ability to tactically control a scene with his Extraordinary Daoist Techniques, and he has enough kung-fu to have a lot of fun in combat. Theres plenty of potential Emerald Zilong (Warrior) there for a clever player, but his abilities are generally In his gleaming green armour, and with his swift straightforward. Patiences visual reference is Tony dragon-spear, who can defy this young hero? Merry Leung (Broken Sword in Hero). at heart and bearing no grudges, he ghts valiantly, Patience is the very ideal of a wise old mountain looking ever for a Lord worthy of his service! Sadly hermit apart from the small problem that hes still for them, the young ladies of Unruly Devil have in his twenties. Hes patiently trying to experience the failed to attract his eye, for his devotion is strong and world in order to gain the wisdom needed to leave it, lies elsewhere and tries to keep the others together, as they seem to Tan Dong (Courtier) provoke auspicious (or at least lively) experiences. A splendid soldier-bureaucrat, in his middle years NPCs - Heroic Rivals hes left the army of the Jin Emperor to follow his clan Note: The descriptions of these NPCs are in the Wulin. His hair is grey, but his eyes are erce deliberately short and punchy, mostly calling and wits keen and who would not fear his spear attention to their manner and appearance. This is to skills? He ghts to reunify the land, and though the make it easy for you to remember all eight characters, battle will not be won in his lifetime, his calculated, and keep them exible enough to serve as either even ruthless moves bring things together, not tear colourful but disposable combat fodder, or allies and them apart. rivals moulded to the story needs of PCs who spend Clever Li-Li (Scholar) destiny on entangling them. Just have a good handle Li-Li was a little plain, so her village didnt pay on their visual distinctiveness so that everyone can as much attention to her as they should have. If easily tell them apart, and then use whichever of they had, they might have noticed that she always them seem to engage the players the most. seemed to know what fate held in store a talent the The Righteous Devil-Smiting Bandit- clever young girl soon realised would be wasted on a Crushing Wickedness Punishing Society* sleepy little village. Its lucky shes so clever, since her combination of naivet and ambition is a big danger (*name pending revision) in Only Six Devils, but her thick country accent cant These four erce and brave souls only met hide her brilliance from discerning eyes. yesterday at the Pearl Moon teahouse, but already theyve sworn to enter Prosperous Devil together! Their instant camaraderie is inspiring, and theyre very loyal to each other despite the short period of their acquaintance. Indeed, the only source of tension so far is over the name of their band, which they all agree needs at least six less syllables, but no compromise can be reached on which six!
Mountain Chung (Warrior) This Zan monk earns his name! Who has ever seen such a giant, and with shaved head and prayer beads, no less? Quiet as a mountain, and normally gentle, hes worse than any earthquake when enraged! His st skill is good, but his greatest asset is sheer toughness, added to the strength of his faith.
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The Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion!

A group of strident non-conformists, these bold members of the Wulin have, much like the other two bands, only very recently met, and have moreor-less fallen together out of despair of meeting anyone else who will have them. Luckily, they seem to share a common taste for mayhem, even if they do tend to phrase that desire in virtuous terms! So far theyve come together beautifully when in action, even if they spend the rest of the time bickering incessantly Black-Saber Jin (Warrior) This shaggy-haired but roughly handsome warrior looks like hed be far more at home on a horse than the streets of Unruly Devil, but in truth he knows the city far better than the other heroes. Jin was the master of the Thousand Sabers bandit gang, but his fortunes tumbled when the Hell Clan warrior Glasseye Yan moved into the area. Hes out for revenge, both on Yan and on Governor Chen, who left Jin and his men to die. Despite this melancholy fortune, Jin keeps up a cheerful appearance, his natural love for mayhem and battle keeping him joking and laughing as he ghts his way to Prosperous Devil! Fei Hsiao (Courtier) There is no shortage of dispossessed southern nobles angry at Emperor Hu, but not many of them become so enraged that they stop distinguishing between him and other questionable rulers! Fei is a beautiful woman in her thirties with stark white hair, wielding a magnicent kwan dao, and with an endlessly brilliant approach to conversation. She seems to have a contingency plan for any eventuality, prepared for anything that comes across her path a strange counterpoint to her unbridled fury at corrupt governance, and her determination to topple every corrupt regime everywhere!
Pretty Hark (Warrior) Dressing up as a boy to prove that girls are every bit as good at kung fu is a time-honoured tradition, but it helps if youre not so stunningly pretty and incredibly fervent about proving girls equality that a blind man can see what youre up to! Hark is a good person at heart, but shes carried away with proving something to people that have long since accepted it the Wulin is well aware of the deadliness of women ghters! Hark has long hair that she conceals very poorly under a cap, and a gure that resists being hidden. Doctor Jang-Lu (Scholar) This brash, yet impeccably groomed young man wears a doctors clothes, and indeed is well-versed in the arts of medicine... but seems to take a warriors tack. He likes to claim that he has coldly decided to treat the illness of the world by cauterising the wicked (killing bandits saves them from needing doctoring, and saves doctoring the injuries they cause), but he does seem to take a great deal of joy from any excuse to use his powerful kicking style and superior intellect to get the best of an opponent. Hes easily recognisable by his medicine bag and long braid. That guys awesome, why cant I play him?
Its possible that a player might prefer one of their eight rivals to the character they initially chose - not in the least because many of them are kung-fu lm archetypes. If so, you might want to let them swap at the end of the tourney scene if you feel it wont be too disruptive. Just hand the player the characters fourth-rank stats, and take back their PC. Dont do this if you feel it will skew the balance of the party too greatly instead promise the player they can create a character just like that when you start up a campaign...
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Unfurling Crimson Banner Sisterhood

The most elite of Red Lotus students, these girls are all 5th Rank Wulin already! Aged from sixteen to eighteen, each has already successfully manipulated their way out of several arranged marriages. They are by default very loyal to each other as well as Red Lotus, intending to form a Wulin society between them when they have left the school however, who can say what interaction with PCs will do to that unity?
Tiger Xi is the tallest of the sisterhood, ercer even than Ai! Tiger is not of pure Han descent, having features obviously inuenced by Indian ancestry. Between her friends social skills, her own beauty and her sword skills, however, she generally has no reason to tolerate prejudice, and will run more-orless roughshod over it. Hopefully she will have the good luck not to encounter a powerful bigot. She is a promising Warrior, studying the rudiments Ai is a pale, pretty girl with long white hair, but of Unfolding Glory alongside Ai. Trained in the shes not related to the Nan her only family is her beginnings of her clans weapon forging techniques, older sister Snow, a powerful Wulin warrior who Tiger very skilled with Crafting. enrolled her in the school several years ago and then Mei-Zhu hails from the Heaven Sword Clan, and vanished. Ai strives to emulate her sister, studying Unfolding Glory with the spear, and trying perhaps is the most serious of the girls, for the hopes of the a bit too hard to be ladylike (within the context of Eight-Way Alliance seem to rest on her shoulders. the Wulin) and rened. Ai is the loneliest of the girls, Shes at the school owing to a pooling of funds and probably the most likely to fall for one of the amongst the Alliance, part of a project to ensure the characters. On the other hand, shes also more likely Alliance owns the loyalty of the very cream of the to have unreasonable expectations, and will take crop of the next generation of Wulin. Obsessed with perceived rejection poorly. Ai is particularly skilled at becoming every bit an equal of the Great Clans, MeiZhu masters every traditional art and historical lore Tactics. she can, appropriating the culture of Shen Zhou to Lien-ying Dong is a short and slender girl, entirely give herself legitimacy. Shes always the best-dressed graceful except for her habit of nervously braiding of the girls, and though no prettier than her friends, her hair. Lien-ying is already a clever Courtier she is far more skilled at drawing attention to herself and deduced the nature of the school before arriving, and her noble cause. Though a Courtier, no-one can convinced her parents that sending her to be trained fault her skill at Learning! as a powerful member of the Wulin was a better idea than marrying her o young. Theyve since become less certain of the wisdom of this move, but are nding it increasingly dicult to control their endishly clever daughter. Lien-Ying is skilled in Politics.
Note: Each girl is noted as being procient in a particular Genius skill this is for the convenience of GMs running the Wisdom of the Elders chapter. Otherwise, the girls will generally not directly oppose the PCs and are not considered Wulin Rivals in the context of this adventure, that phrase explicitly refers to the two bands above.
Zhong Yao is the most awkward of the girls, and the least skilled in kung fu, but has the most naturally brilliant mind, and a natural, unaected prettiness. A rarity amongst the Red Lotus girls, shes actually a Scholar, and already an excellent doctor in her own right! The other girls cherish her not only for her naturally sweet personality, but her important role in patching up the after-eects of kung fu practice! Zhong wears distinctive hairpins sharp enough to work as emergency acupuncture needles, and eyeglasses depending on your taste for anachronism. Naturally, she excels at Medicine.
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4.
The Contest
The nature of the contest

The contest isnt a regular series of kung fu battles with the winner taking the prize its more in the nature of an extended audition. The hopefuls engage in a series of challenging tasks set by the sponsors, some alone, some in direct competition with a fellow contestant. Finally, a grand melee is held where the hopefuls contest against waves of mercenary troops, just to see if they can handle themselves. The contest weeds out those who havent cultivated their chi, and gives plentiful opportunities for the sponsors to judge the prowess of the contestants, after which they choose who to sponsor based on what jobs they have for Wulin ghters, rather than who apparently won. Of course, today, there are three bands of Wulin and three sponsors, so essentially the tourney is a done deal it just remains to be seen who ends up with whom! It is a requirement that the tourney and sponsorship of Wulin into Prosperous Devil be done at the level of a band of ghters Sapphire Miang, rightly or wrongly, feels this cuts down on antisocial baneful warriors making trouble. Today, as there are three sponsors, each challenger will face three challenges before the grand melee. These challenges are detailed below.
4. The Contest
OK, youve gathered your players, given them the primer sheet to read, let them choose their characters, and answered any questions they have. Time to start the game! This chapter details the rst scene a contest held in the dusty streets of Unruly Devil, with the prize being entry into the Prosperous Devil District. This scene should be a fast, exciting and fun introduction to the Weapons of the Gods system. Play up the amazing wuxia abilities of the characters, the awe of the crowd, and feel free to draw in the atmosphere of your favourite Kung Fu movies and comics. Dont waste an opportunity to hit your players with coolness from the rst moments and get them really excited about the game. Mechanically, however, this scene has a great deal in common with tutorial levels from videogames it introduces the games mechanics one by one in a structured fashion, slowly escalating to the normal gameplay experience. Feel free to explicitly tell your players such most roleplayers are familiar with videogames, so theyll understand the situation immediately. All the major NPCs for the session are in this scene specically the three potential sponsors (Ironhand Nan, Red Lotus Ling and Razoreyes Gongsun), and the eight Wulin rivals to the PCs. Introduce each character during this scene, but dont dwell on them too much. Just hit the really distinctive points of their appearance and manner and leave it at that. You wont be using all 11 NPCs, so its ne if the players dont remember them all its intended that you let the ones that dont connect well with the group drop out of the story. Make all dice rolls for this scene out in the open, and explain carefully what youre doing on each one, at least for the rst few times you do any sort of roll. Every players turn should be an opportunity for the whole table to learn the mechanics!
The Contest for the Sage on a Schedule

Unlike the rest of the game, the Contest scales in linear fashion with the number of players. Cycling through the challenges for every player adds time, and it can get rough on the Sage creating more and more challenges on the spot! If you have more than four players, or simply want to get through this part of the game as quickly as possible, try splitting up the tasks between players. Let half the PCs tackle the rst round, and the other half the second. For the third round, have half the players roll for their PCs, the other half for the NPCs opposing them. Progress with the fourth round normally. In playtesting we found as long as each challenge is demonstrated once, most people will grasp the system, so dont be afraid to cut the tutorial right back.
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Ironhand is, of course, pointing at one of the PCs, preferably a Warrior. Launch straight into round one Its best to start the game with a short, evocative without pause! description of the situation, and then leap straight into the action. In this case, thats starting with one Round One Simple Skill Roll of the PCs challenges in the rst round! Heres an Each character will be asked in turn to perform example of a narration you might use to start the an impressive-looking single task in their area of game: expertise. The task is of Moderate (20) diculty, and Gongs, recrackers and shouts ring through the should be in a skill that the character will roll 5 dice dusty streets of Unruly Devil, and people come running in that is, 3 dice + 1 specialty die + 1 talent die for from all directions as the shout goes up A contest having their skill + specialty equal or less than their is on! Like every other event of note, the people of Attribute. Count out these dice for the player each Unruly Devil take this as an excuse to celebrate, and time, so that by the time each player has their rst why not the mighty men and women of the Martial turn, theyll understand the basics of how many dice Arts world are about to struggle against amazing odds to roll! Each character gets a single attempt. to enter the fabled luxury of the Prosperous Devil These tasks should be set by an appropriate district! Soon, a thronging crowd has gathered around sponsor (Ironhand for Might and Speed skills, Red the contest eld just outside the massive jade and gold Lotus for Presence and Genius, Razoreyes for Genius gates separating the two districts. They are abuzz with and Wu-Wei), and be fairly impressive-looking, even conversation each of the ghters ready to compete has though theyre not that tough. Make sure peoples some fame in the Wulin, and those who know of their rst impression of the game is that Wulin characters deeds quickly ll in any of their ignorant neighbours. do amazing things, and when they fail, they fail Street hawkers set up stalls, performers breathe re narrowly, and because they were trying something no and tumble in a desperate eort to grab a few coins normal person could do! Dont go overboard and ask before the tourney starts, and children squeal with someone to snap Tiger Soul with a diculty of 20, but delight at the spectacle! dont put the characters in a position of potentially Raised above the Contest Field is the judges pavilion, looking like incompetents in the very rst turn! Its covered in rich blue silk canopies and crowned with OK for characters to fail, but the players should still one hundred uttering ags. By law, only the elite few feel good about their characters. land owners of Prosperous Devil district can extend If someone rolls a critical success, make sure you invitations to enter the market paradise, and three are describe their success as extra special, and tell them here today to extend their hospitality to the worthiest that its a critical success that has no mechanical warriors. Ironhand Nan, renegade member of the impact at the moment, but its a useful concept, and clan of swords and foremost mercenary of Prosperous a set of three on ve dice is worth celebrating! Devil looks down grimly, a huge and harsh-featured Clever or observant players may have already man in black armour. Red Lotus Ling, mistress of gured out things from their character sheet that the Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy for Girls, would give them bonuses on these tasks (or make smiles slyly at the assembled Wulin, a rare beauty whose them trivial, like Lightfoot). Ask them to just be a red silk dress calls ones mind instantly to weddings. little patient for those, and tell them that theyll very Though old and crooked of back, Razoreyes Gongsun, soon be hurling about minions with their full suite of master scholar of the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers, powers. lives up to his name and vocation, his gaze seeming to The following page describes some recommended take each ghter apart and reassemble them once he challenges for the pre-generated characters: has their measure! The appointed time comes. Ironhand Nan strides forth, and points at the hero who will be rst to face the challenges!
The Opening
4. The Contest
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Xiao Li Pai: Ironhand hurls down a small forest of ten-yard long spears, razor-sharp tips pointing to the sky, and challenges her to leap over them! If she fails, narrate that she has to grab one of them while vaulting over, rather than making the jump cleanly. Skill: Athletics (Leaping) Feng Guo: Ironhand throws down a four hundred pound Melon Hammer it shakes the ground! He demands Feng throw it back up to him; if he misses, narrate it bowling over a group of soldiers, so great is the force with which its hurled! Skill: Lift (Throwing) Liang Shui: Red Lotus rolls out a ten-yard long white banner, and one of her students hands Liang a great brush dripping with red ink. Hes asked to paint the character for beauty in a single motion! If he fails, he accidentally spells out what he was thinking, instead a rather racy suggestion... such terrible luck! Skill: Learning (Calligraphy) Patience Meng: Gongsun orders the young Daoist blindfolded, and hurls ve prayer strips into the air, scattering them all over the huge tourney eld! Patience must catch them with his sta before they reach the ground, by hearing alone! If he fails, it is because he gets the rst four but pauses for just a split second trying to hear the last one, and an errant duck from the crowd seizes it just before he moves. Skill: Senses (Hearing). Take the time to describe the reactions of the crowd after each roll. Even in a crazy place like Unruly Devil, you simply dont see amazing feats like this every day even the failed attempts are impressive! Therell be lots of noise, cheering, and street hawkers claiming to be selling locks of the martial artists hair! Not only should this make people feel like theyre playing important characters, but the more noise and chaos you can introduce around the edges of the tourney, the better the contrast between Unruly Devil and Prosperous Devil will be. Dont bother rolling out or describing the challenges faced by the NPCs at this stage just mention theres two bands of four, and that they move through with mixed success. Call out a few of the more distinctive ones if your players ask, but keep things moving.
Round Two: Modiers, Stacking and Complex Skill Rolls

After the rst challenge, the sponsors are condent that theyre dealing with people who have cultivated their chi time to see what theyre really made of! Each character is asked to perform a more dicult and complex task in the same vein as their rst, with a number of helpful and unhelpful circumstances attached. Specically, this is a complex skill roll consisting of a Moderate (20) and a Hard (30) task, with one +10 modier, one +5 modier, and two 5 modiers. Since only the highest positive and negative modier apply, thats a net +5 (+10 5). Explain the stacking rule to the players using the example of what theyve been asked to do, and also explain complex skill rolls, and the fact that if youre trying something dicult, theres no reason not to throw in easier ourishes to your action. Its probably worth pointing out that it handles multifaceted tasks, though, not multiple actions, so its not actually a cheap way of getting multiple attacks! Go around the table in the same turn order you used for the rst round, but go around a second time to give anyone who failed the Hard task a second roll. Remember to describe the reaction of the crowd. Example tasks for the pregenerated characters: Xiao-Li Pai: The forest of spears is still in place Ironhand challenges her to leap to the tip of the spears, then leap another ten yards up to catch a ag being trailed by an arrow that he res! This isnt two actions, but a single action with a number of complications. Reaching the spear tips is a Moderate (20) diculty, being a ten yard vertical leap. The extra ten yards push it up to Hard (30) the diculty to cover 20 yards by leaping but if she rolls between 20 and 29 she still makes the rst stage of the jump. Jumping from spears is troublesome (-5) and the arrows ight is erratic (-5), but making the jump in two stages lets her correct her course if need be (+5) and the arrow is very slow with a ag weighing it down (+10). Skill: Athletics (Leaping) Feng Guo: Ironhand tosses back the Melon Hammer, but has his mercenaries set up a thousand-pound statue of an enthroned Emperor Hu, challenging Ironhand to hurl the hammer so that it knocks down the
4. The Contest
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4. The Contest
Unrighteous Emperor! Throwing the four hundred pound hammer is Moderate (20), but putting in enough force to move a thousand pounds is Hard (30)! The hammer isnt really weighted properly for throwing (-5) and the Emperors throne is quite stable (-5), but his fat face makes a natural target (+5) and the statue is tall enough that if you hit it high, itll tip easily (+10). Skill: Lift (Throwing)
Round Three Initiative, Opposed Rolls and River

Satised that their potential guests are capable of striving towards the most endish of tasks, the sponsors try a dierent tack direct competition! The contestants are paired o with someone of similar skill, and set a task the rst to complete it wins!
There are two variants to this challenge where Initiative is rolled to get rst shot at the task, and Liang Shui: Red Lotus has one of her students hand Liang an where the roll is simply contested. exceptionally ne brush, dripping with ink, and then Challenges involving Initiative have a Hard (30) throws two handfuls of white petals into the air! She task, without bonuses or penalties, challenges him to write the character for beauty Contested challenges require a critical success on every one before they hit the ground, and ensure over the opponents roll. they together form the character for wisdom when If a characters Initiative score is poor, give them they do so. Writing beauty so many times quickly is a contested task, otherwise use Initiative! The reason Moderate (20), but guiding the fall of the petals with your writing is Hard (30)! The constant movement for this is that rolling a 30 or more on 5 dice virtually of the petals is trouble (-5), as is the sloppiness of the requires the use of the River, so a character with poor ink (-5), but the petals fall slowly (+5) and the brush Initiative wouldnt face the tough decision of owing dice or having the rst shot at the task theyd just is of magnicent quality (+10). never be able to ow dice from Initiative, and lose Skill: Learning (Calligraphy) Initiative anyway! Patience Meng: While you wont use all eight rivals in this part, Blindfolded again, Patience is surrounded by its a great place to introduce them. When one of the fty gongs in a variety of sizes, made of steel, gold and silver. The silver and gold gongs are struck NPCs strides forth to face a PC, have his companions simultaneously by Razoreyes lackeys, and Patience cheer and shout encouragement, drawing attention to is challenged to quiet the silver and not the gold themselves! Likewise, have them oer commiserations with his sta. Meanwhile, Razoreyes hurls a single or congratulations after the matter has been decided. silver tael that ricochets o ve of the steel gongs Make sure you show clearly how the NPCs use the Patience must strike those ve in the same order! River teaching the players this concept is the most To compound matters, one of the Appraisers throws important part of this round! some recrackers at his feet. Following the pattern of Roll until there is a victor for each PCs challenge the tael is Moderate (20) but quieting just the silver in turn (rolling initiative every turn for initiative gongs is Hard (30)! The recrackers are a nuisance challenges). While it would be nice to resolve the (-5) as is the irregular sizes of the gongs (-5), but the challenges via normal turn order, theyll be easier to gongs hit by the coin represent the ve elements (+5), follow if each is resolved fully before moving onto and the silver gongs are arranged in the pattern of the the next. stars of Xu, the constellation of Emptiness (+10). For contested challenges, reduce the NPCs pool Skill: Senses (Hearing) to 4 dice, and give them only one River slot. This hands an easy win to the PC, but greatly reduces the time needed to get a critical.
20
And two zeros makes 20

Introduce Joss when it comes up naturally, that is, when someone uses 0s on a roll (or has the option to). Joss makes some of the tasks here much easier (dropping a couple of corrupt joss on a rival is just nasty!), but thats OK. Examples for the pregenerated characters: Xiao-Li Pai: A lantern is hung twenty yards from the ground, and Ironhand Nan challenges you to put out its ame with your sword! But whats this? An extraordinarily pretty young girl steps forth to challenge you, wielding a viciously spiked sta nearly three yards long! She is dressed clumsily as a boy, and seems to be trying to pass herself o as one could this be Pretty Hark? A roguish desert bandit and an impeccably dressed doctor, also competitors, cheer her on! Cutting the lantern is trivial for these girls dont bother rolling. But which is quick enough? Who makes the leap (a Hard (30) Athletics roll)? Roll initiative! Feng Guo: Ironhand Nan calls you forth to challenge a mountain a huge Zan monk with gentle demeanour but massive muscles! A plain village girl with enchantingly clever eyes and a noble young warrior in green armour applaud obviously they are his companions. The task? Be the rst to shatter an ice statue of the Enchanted Demon by hurling Melon Hammers! The statue is set up far enough away that its a Hard (30) task to hurl a four hundred pound hammer that far (Medium range) with a Lift roll, but at least its fragile enough to shatter if hit. Otherwise, its a contest of speed roll initiative!
Liang Shui: A beautiful woman with long owing white hair approaches you, erce determination burning in her eyes! Shes armed with a magnicent kwan-do, but sets it aside to produce a ute how lucky, youre being serenaded! But no, shes in fact your opponent Red Lotus challenges you to each attempt to make the other weep with the beauty of your music! Waiting for their own challenges, two from her band a erce desert bandit, and a very pretty girl doing an awful job of being a boy applaud! This is an opposed Perform (Music) roll, but it takes a Critical success to make your opponent weep! Patience Meng: Razoreyes Gongsun notes shrewdly that many lackeys of the three sponsors, not to mention a few spectators, have been incidentally injured as a result of ying melon hammers, shards of broken stone, crushing by statue, random arrow-re and other accoutrements of a tourney. What an opportunity to see who has the nest medical skill! He calls upon both you, and a plain girl obviously new to the city, but with ercely brilliant eyes, to compete in giving the wisest advice for recovery. Could this girl be Clever Li-Li, the farmgirl prodigy? Giving competing advice to the wounded is an opposed Medicine (Advice) roll, though only a critical success is decisive.
4. The Contest
Too dicult?
The challenges here do give the PCs a signicant chance of failure, from 30% in the rst challenge to 50% when striving against an equal opponent. However, players may not feel that theyre playing appropriately awesome martial artists if theyre failing simple skill rolls out of the gate. As an option, reduce the diculty of each task by one step (from 20 to 18, 30 to 20 etc.), and give the NPCs only 4 dice to roll and a single slot in their river. If they later prove to have better stats than that, well, obviously the cunning foxes were holding back!
Tutorial? Wheres the skip button?

If a player can prove to you that they understand the relevant rules concept by explaining it to you correctly, they can skip a challenge. They also get to narrate their victory however they like! This is probably particularly helpful in the third round if everyones keen to keep moving.
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of opportunity to use the scenery for dramatic kung-fu coolness themselves ideally, they should Now, enough arbitrary challenges as the be doing most of the description, but of course as grand nale, Ironhand Nan graciously lets the Sage, it falls upon you to set a good example. Wulin heroes beat the stung out of some of his When enough minions have been battered soldiers with his lieutenants shouting orders from around, its time to have the three sponsors call the side. proceedings to a close... and freeze the action just This isnt particularly complex the mercenaries as theyre about to declare who theyll oer their are Gang ghters, and each lieutenant has a squad hospitality to. Time to pass around the Auspicious of 20 that he sends in from the sidelines (meaning Beginnings adventure Loresheet! they have a Rating of 5). The lieutenant doesnt participate in the ghting, but grants the benets I didnt think you could roll that of his Presence (3) and Tactics (3 dice). One low on ve dice! such minion squad will attack each Wulin band By default, we havent mentioned Critical at a time, dividing between opponents normally. Failures so far in this chapter. Essentially, its Lieutenants do not attempt to enhance the attacks up to you if you want to introduce the concept of their squads. For simplicity the lieutenants in this scene or not, but you should probably always have an Initiative of 15, which is when their make sure that if you do use it, you oer a bribe minions act. meaningful in the course of a single session game, This means that against a band of four PCs, the and interacting with concepts youve already mercenaries will divide into four groups of ve. introduced a full river is great, but its no good Each group will have a Base Value of 8 (5 minions to someone who doesnt know what the River is! + 3 Presence), rolling 5 dice + 8 for attack, and 3 dice + 8 for defence. Each PC is attacked twice per turn. Death and Auspicious Beginnings Let the PCs gloriously smash these minions, Unlike many roleplaying sessions, the PCs experimenting with their kung fu, learning about in Auspicious Beginnings dont have enemies so defences, and generally cutting loose. If the minions much as rivals. By default, no-one dies in this go down too quickly for everyone to have a decent adventure. All of the Wulin Rivals have on their go at exercising their kung fu, throw more minions sheet a point marked at which they will give up in! the ght, eeing or retreating as the situation Note: Remember that bonus damage dice from kung fu are literally bonus result dice and will take out minions accordingly. If any other rules diculties come up, rule in favour of the PCs and keep moving.
warrants. Likewise, they generally wont try to actually kill the PCs, instead exhorting them to leave if they beat them down to Staggering or Last Legs. With Minions, of course, the matter is a little more immediate, and particularly relevant in the Challenge. Explain to the players that they can choose what happens to a minion they take out whether they are killed, subdued, ee etc. Point out that killing Ironhands soldiers right in front of him is a bad idea, but otherwise let them do what they like throughout the game. The PCs rivals will react poorly to such needless ferocity, but otherwise they are just minions, so theres little other consequence to doing so.
Round Four: Combat
4. The Contest
The important thing is to keep the ght fun and exciting... one of the easiest ways to do that is remember to use the other Wulin ghters, the crowd, and the left-overs of the previous challenges (toppled statues, gongs, spears, white banners) as part of the scenery! Spice up attacks and defences by having minions go ying into things, trip over things as they try to get away, have the other Wulin challenge a PC to beat the size of their pile of unconscious minions etc. Give the players plenty
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5.
The Adventure Loresheet
The Time of Chaos: Six Devil City, Prosperous Devil District Auspicious Beginnings
[Adventure] Cost: 0
calm the monkey everyone else has to put up with its constant capering. Wind Monkey has many powers attributed to it by legend, and perhaps you are acting on behalf of someone who desperately needs those powers but for you, and the merchant trying to sell him, hes nothing but trouble! 1 Entangled Destiny: Ying Zhengs Mirror. Its hard to say whether this is truly the First Emperors mirror though its certainly old enough! Most important, however, is its marvellous property it reects an ancient palatial bedroom, lled with scrolls and classics carved into stone slabs. Of course, the script is reversed and dicult to see (its a large bedroom the texts are far away!), but it seems each one is a text lost forever during Ying Zhengs reign. The Mirror provides a +10 modier to any Learning roll, if and only if there is no other way in Shen Zhou to get a bonus to that roll. Its also extremely fragile! 1 Entangled Destiny: The Marvellously Inappropriate Censor. This remarkable incense burner never stops burning, which is miraculous in of itself, but still more amazing is that it always gives o a perfectly inappropriate scent for the occasion at hand! Any social rolls within six rounds distance suer a 5 modier, which would be much more useful if the object wasnt so blatantly obvious! A 15 modier applies to any attempt to be surreptitious or sneaky with the Censor. 2 Entangled Destiny: The Catalogues of the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion. Scrolls detailing the wonders currently gracing the Pavilion are everywhere in Prosperous Devil but they are poor copies at best. The originals are created by a blind artist-savant, who uses a magnicent Formless Technique to capture the wonders perfectly in minature with his paints. Catalogues stretching back years are kept in the market even a handful are as good as a library of legends and esoterica! The catalogues provide +5 to any Learning roll to identify an item.
5 . T h e Ad ve n t u re L o re s h e e t
Secrets of Destiny: Auspicious Beginnings

* Bonus: You gain 5 free Destiny to spend on this Lore. You may keep some or all of this to spend later in the adventure, but you may not spend this destiny on anything other than Secrets of Destiny from this Lore. This Destiny does not contribute towards the characters running total ie it is not tracked for the purpose of Rank.
The Eight Splendours of the Markets

[Treasure]
You must purchase one of the following treasures as your objective its the reason youre in Only Six Devils! The cheaper the treasure in terms of destiny, the less useful to a member of the Wulin and the more inconvenient to obtain it is; easy to obtain or useful Splendours are more expensive! Only one character can be entangled with each Splendour. A character can entangle themself with more than one Splendour, but thats generally just buying trouble! Note that these are Entangled Destinies, not Victories youll have to work to get them, and they may pass through your hands soon after...
DESTINY COST: 0 Entangled Destiny: Statue of Huang Di. The pride of an otherwise humble country was a great golden statue of the Yellow Emperor which had stood untarnished over the centuries, seeming to dispense good fortune on all who lived there. However, war blew past like a terrible wind, and with it mercenaries of Xia no shock then, that the statue would appear in the markets of Only Six Devils. The poor nation has suered terrible misfortune since the statue vanished! 0 Entangled Destiny: Wind Monkey. A strange little monkey spirit and legendary companion to Daoist immortals, Wind Monkey capers and dances with the swiftness of a storm, and is nearly as destructive. Only the most serene of souls can
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2 Entangled Destiny: The Wedding Dress of Lady Zhou. This magnicent dress is some of the nest silk-work ever known! It provides +10 to Grace rolls on your wedding day if worn, and makes a superlative gift. 3 Entangled Destiny: The Black Mandrake. This small, gnarled root is a thing of legend, one of the most powerful sources of Jade Chi in all Shen Zhou! Ingesting a sliver provides a +15 bonus to ve consecutive recovery rolls to recover from a major Sick or Dying condition inicted by poison or disease. However, so potent is the root that anyone not so aicted who comes into contact with it, even through cloth or wood, will immediately contract a major Kuan inspiration (Jade Breath, Recovery 40, Duration Five Scenes, Interval One Scene), and lose their breath in Crimson, Gold, Silver and White chi until they recover from the inspiration. 4 Entangled Destiny: The Porcelain Maid. This marvellous creation is a living girl, made of porcelain through use of ancient Secret Arts long thought lost! She longs for her freedom from the merchant who is trying to sell her, and will actively aid in any attempt to rescue her.
possession, as it ows towards you as naturally as water ows downhill. 1 Fortune: A Jade destiny! You seek the Splendour for someone whose need is greater than the merchants need for silver either selessly risking your good name for others, or putting yourself rst because you want it! At the start of the nal scene, you gain 3 points of joss (either kind), that must be spent during that scene. 2 Fortune: Your destiny is that of re. You are here not for yourself, but out of loyalty to another who desires the splendour. Their motives may be pure or corrupt, but either way your oath to recover the treasure drives you gain +10 to any rolls during the nal scene to bring it into your possession.
The Three Sponsors

[Destiny]
As a group, decide which of the three Sponsors chooses your band for admittance to Prosperous Devil District. Your Sponsor will shower you with hospitality and oer unique aid in your quest to recover one of the Splendours! However, as good guests, naturally youll complete one small task before that aid materialises...
While each Sponsor belongs to a dierent Archetype, the favour they ask will demand a wide Choose one of the following to explain why your spread of abilities. character has come to Shen Zhou and decided to steal one of the Eight Splendours! Does your righteous DESTINY COST: character see this as a just, necessary act, or does your 0 Entangled Destiny: Ironhand Nan, master of the Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity scoundrel exult in such a bold robbery? Society. This erce warrior, a renegade member of DESTINY COST: the Nan clan, is master of the foremost mercenary 0 Fortune: An Earth destiny drives you you are company in Prosperous Devil, and responsible for in Only Six Devils less to have the Splendour most of the security of the Ninefold Prosperity than to show that you can take it. What did the Pavilion. If he extends his hospitality to you, merchant do that you need to defeat them so? you can expect less armoured troops preventing 0 Fortune: Your destiny is white the Splendour you from taking away the Spendours! He is also belonged to someone who is now a ghost, and concerned about the corruption of the Guild of you grieve for them. It is your intention to send Gentleman Appraisers, and will likely ask you to the Splendour into the afterlife with them! raid their library in order to recover rare texts and return them to their rightful owners. 1 Fortune: The Splendour was taken from someone close to you unjustly, and you mean to 0 Entangled Destiny: Red Lotus Ling, rectify this by returning it through any means Headmistress of the Blossoming-Towardsnecessary. Shen Zhou itself aids this attempt Crimson Academy. This beautiful Courtier runs to restore balance during the nal one of the most exclusive educational facilities in scene, gain +5 to any roll to all of Shen Zhou: a school training the worlds bring the item into your most eligible young ladies for a life of marriage
The Five Motivations

[Destiny]
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and motherhood! Strangely, though, many of the girls seem to turn out to be erce courtiers and members of the Wulin themselves... If Red Lotus oers you her hospitality, you will be able to mingle with these clever girls, and sneak into the markets as part of the retinues of their wealthy parents. She is concerned, however, about the tendency of the Sheathed Blade mercenaries to interfere with the business of the school, and will likely ask you to petition the Governor to ban them from the grounds a move the mercenaries will resist with debate and violence. 0 Entangled Destiny: Razoreyes Gongsun, head of the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers. This wizened and acerbic old man remains a brilliant Scholar, head of a guild of similarly ancient and knowledgeable savants. They are the only party trusted to appraise and identify the wonders of the market, and thus know more about what is in the market where than any others if they sponsor you, youll have excellent information with which to develop a plan of attack! Razoreyes is also aronted by the profound risk Red Lotus is taking with the reputation of the district: shes having her students oer to appraise and identify wonders at a bargain price! Its beneath the dignity of the elderly to bandy words with the young, so youll have to prove these girls ignorant in a test of wits and likely defend yourselves from their burgeoning kung-fu abilities!
make the match, and drags her inuential parents into helping her paramour, despite their objections.
2 Fortune: One of your rivals will be using a Beiforged Quality Weapon suited to your ghting style. 1 Fortune: Random bad luck befalls a rival of your choice! 1 Fortune: Random good luck befalls you!
Rivalry, Love and Luck

[Fortune] DESTINY COST: 1 Entangled Destiny: Your destiny is linked with one of your rivals from the tourney, and you are guaranteed to encounter them again.
(+1) Fortune: They are destined to meet defeat at your hands and suer a 5 modier on any contested roll with you. (+2) Victory: Youre destined to be fast friends or lovers! You will win them as an ally.
1 Entangled Destiny: A character of your choice is romantically entangled with one of Red Lotus students. (+1) Fortune: The relationship turns out badly, causing major inconvenience. (+1) Victory: Its love! She becomes an ally of her paramour. (+2) Victory: Its love, and shes determined to
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6.
6 . Mi l i t a n t S c h o l a r s h i p
Militant Scholarship
Run the events in this chapter if your PCs choose Ironhand Nan as their sponsor. Note that this chapter and the following two are quite similar this is intentional as the three tasks set by the sponsors are structurally similar despite their aesthetic dierences.
My train leaves in 90 minutes and were only a third of the way through! At this point, you should think seriously about pacing if youre on any sort of time schedule. Ideally you want about two hours remaining by this point. If you have less, save time where you can by cutting as quickly as possible to the action in the Library. If youre really short on time (say youve only got an hour) you could jump straight to the market tell the players youre short on time, and just ask them to quickly come up with something cool their characters did while at the Library.
Even if you have plenty of time, the game is unlikely to suer from moving it along at a good pace. Dont drag players to the ght scenes if theyre having fun with whatever theyre doing, but it is a wuxia game not only are the scenes lled with kung-fu especially exciting, but theres no particular reason not to have the characters talk just as much when sts are ying as when theyre sitting down for tea.
the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers, your players may want to do some in-character chatting between themselves or with Ironhand Nan. Try to strike a balance between allowing the players to have fun playing with characterisation, and moving the action of the game along. Make sure that combat scenes are also lled with talking play up the NPCs personalities as they ght, and the players are bound to respond. Ironhand is quite direct, and dicult to hold in extended conversation. Hell be very helpful giving the PCs pretty much any information that they ask for, so long as he knows it.
Ironhand begins to walk towards the gates to Prosperous Devil, gesturing for you to follow him clearly not a man for extended ceremony. As he approaches, the ostentatious jade and gold gates of the district swing open, and a small army of servants in sapphire blue livery scuttle forward, wielding peacock feather brooms! The servants brush furiously to keep the dust, sand and trash of Unruly Devil out of Prosperous Devil, and as you pass by them, its instantly obvious why.
Prosperous Devil is beautiful. Not ten yards from the dust and cramped streets of Unruly Devil, enormous green rolling estates are bordered by perfectly laid stone roads. Healthy trees abound, goldsh idle in ponds, and lanterns hang from gold thread across the roads. There are few buildings but each is like a palace, with high walls enclosing bamboo gardens, ornamental pagodas, and sumptuous ancestor shrines. There is a serenity to it that seems strange but welcoming after the chaos outside fewer people walk the streets of Suggested opening narration: the entire district than any single alleyway outside the As the last of his soldiers crashes unconscious to the gates! ground, Ironhand Nan steps forward, scratching at Only one thing could create such a paradise his stubble. amongst desert, rugged mountains and a sprawling Quite a display, he rumbles, but a waste of time. mass of a city that only a devil could love money. The names Xiao-Li Pai, Feng Guo, Liang Shui and More silver than the legendary Perfected Abacus of Patience Meng have long been known to me. How Covetous Xi could count in ten thousand years! The could I ignore such talent? I oer them the hospitality source of that unparalleled wealth dominates the heart of our barracks in Prosperous Devil. of the district, like the axle of a wheel the Ninefold The important thing here is that Ironhand knows Prosperity Pavilions. This magnicent marketplace who the characters are, and is familiar with their treads a ne line between rened majesty and truly deeds. One of the nice things about playing an up- obnoxious displays of wealth. These markets are your and-coming hero in Shen Zhou is that people tend target, for therein are the wonders you travelled so far to know that youre up and coming. to claim, but rst, there is the matter of repaying your Between now and their host for his generous hospitality... arrival at the Library of
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The barracks of the Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity Society may be the least opulent compound in the entire district, but they are far more comfortable than any mercenary quarters you have seen before. Its walls are solid but brightly painted, giving every indication of both security and success. Inside are signs of hard training, but the spears, sabers, hook swords, wolf-tooth staves and the like on display show no signs of wear obviously they are of excellent quality, frequently replaced, or both. You are quickly settled in to a guest pavilion overlooking a bamboo grove spartan accommodation, but spacious and comfortable. The more astute soon realise, however, that you will not rest there until you have paid for your hospitality especially when Ironhand calls around with some rice wine. Please forgive me for burdening you with my troubles, he says, in a voice that makes it clear he cares little for forgiveness from anyone. There is a problem that concerns me deeply, and theres not much I can do about it myself. In the past ve years, nine of the Ten Forbidden Old Texts have passed through the market and Razoreyes Gongsun has stolen them all! Naturally, he has covered up his crimes as legitimate pursuit of his business. Id like to see that the merchants he swindled have their texts returned, that they may be then sold to reputable scholars. How else will the good name of the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion be maintained? Of course, were I to move against him openly, as a property owner I would face the Governors wrath she strives to keep the peace between residents, to avoid blood-feuds. So here I am, stuck with my rice-wine, while the texts sit not three li from here in his fabled Library. Such a tragedy, my friends...
The message should be clear, but if need be, Ironhand will become more explicit. Of course, the players bought into this task, so they should be already ready to go!
Metal Gear Wuxia
Of the three tasks asked by the sponsors, this is the most likely to provoke a group into tackling it like a paramilitary inltration team, especially if theyve played of certain popular cyberpunk games. While the default assumption is that the group will make a more overt display of their kung-fu prowess, its ne for them to take this tack. They will face a couple of problems, however:
Razoreyes Gongsun is extremely observant, and considerably smarter than Ironhand Nan. The Appraisers know that the PCs are coming, having deduced why Ironhand brought them into the district. Excessive snooping about may get the old mans attention too, though he wont make the rst move. Ironhand really wants this done as soon as possible. Wulin have a tendency to cause trouble and get thrown out by the Governor he has no objection to that, but wants to make sure his business is taken care of rst. Anyone with decent Awareness will pick up on this impatience easily this is a Simple (15) Awareness task. Most of the pre-generated characters are far from stealthy. Other than that, they have every chance of sneaking away with the texts unnoticed if they make appropriate rolls in line with their plans. If youre pressed for time, you may want to abstract a lot of the cautious set-up common to this style of play using a few Tactics rolls, giving +5 modiers for good quick rundowns of the PCs plans.
The Library of the Guild of Gentlemen Appraisers

The Guilds compound is circular, with long dragon designs and displays of calligraphy winding around its outer wall. Inside, the various homes of the Guild members ring the much larger edice of the Library, almost a microcosm of the way the district itself rings the markets. Forty mercenaries guard the compound, mostly to assure customers that their goods are will remain secure while the Appraisers do their work. The guards are competent, but not of the calibre of Ironhands men. The Library is a broad, circular fourlevel tower of wood and stone, forty yards in height and 20 yards
Ironhand Nans Motives

Ironhand Nan intends to return eight of the nine texts to the merchants they were stolen from. What he wants the ninth for is in the Sages hands.
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in diameter. Razoreyes uses this height to hang long banners bearing enormous but exquisite calligraphy extolling the virtues of knowledge, wisdom and old age advertising his Guilds learning, and reminding observers to respect their elders and betters. The interior is a single great room, with the centre dominated by grand tables where the Appraisers meet, study and practice calligraphy. Each of the three upper levels is a balcony lled with scroll racks, chests and shelves. These are the domain of the Little Brother Appraisers: men and women anywhere from fteen to sixty, judged not yet old or cynical enough to be true Appraisers! There are 10-20 Little Brothers in the Library at all times. The interior also has many banners of the type hanging outside both kinds give a +5 modier to Climb the tower. Finding one of the Nine Texts is a Moderate (20) Learning task. Critical success makes this a free action. The Texts are distributed throughout the Library: you cant repeatedly search a shelf until nine scrolls fall out, you need to move at least ten yards to a new area and renew your search after nding a text. You cannot search in an area where another character has found a Text.
Using the setting

You cant swing a st in the Library without knocking over a scroll stand, and there will always be someone just about to grab a text over the other side of the tower. Scrolls and paper should be ying everywhere. Big pots of ink should be spilling clever players or NPCs might use them to create an unbalancing slick! Lightfoot leaps up, down and across levels should be happening constantly not to mention armoured minions crashing through wooden balconies and scattering scrolls with the impact! The key is to have the NPCs make use of the scenery, and describe their actions as impacting on it every time. Its pretty clear the NPCs are weaker than the PCs, so the players should get the message that they can go even further!
Use the 5th Rank statistics provided for the two Wulin opponents. Pick a Warrior and a Scholar: the Warrior will lead the minions while the Scholar looks for texts and interferes with PCs. If the Warrior or his minions look like theyre in trouble too early, the Appraisers will reluctantly send in the rest of their mercenaries. Both Wulin opponents are convinced The Little Brothers have instructions to secure that the Appraisers have every right to the Texts, the Texts if unknown Wulin break into the Library. and that Ironhand is conducting blatant thievery a They know the Library much better than the PCs, point they debate enthusiastically. gaining a +10 modier to their Learning rolls. They Victory! each have 4 dice of Learning and no access to the If the PCs escape with ve or more texts, Ironhand River. Five will attempt to secure texts upon seeing is pleased and will assist them in their attempt to raid the PCs while the rest attempt to get help, generally the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion. Otherwise, he is ail about, or valiantly try to push scroll stacks over displeased. While he wont withdraw his hospitality, he onto the characters. If a Little Brother succeeds in oers no further assistance. However, the opposition grabbing a Text, he will run o with it at 10 yards really isnt up to the PCs calibre, and the encounter per round. By default, re-securing a Text is a Finesse will end in victory in the vast majority of cases. roll resisted by the Little Brothers two Dodge dice. However, players may come up with more creative Fire! Fire! ways to get texts away from them. Of course, the big danger in a library is re. Razoreyes has instructed two of the Wulin he Scattered, torn or even ink-splodged scrolls are just sponsored into the district to protect the library, and more work for the Little Brothers, but re will send given them 20 mercenaries to do so. Choose which everyone into a panic... generally the Little Brothers band Razoreyes gave hospitality to preferably, those will drop everything to put it out. the players seemed least interested in, saving the Setting the library ablaze, particularly likely with other band for the nale. Its also a good idea to have use of Holy Fire, will earn Razoreyes Gongsuns anyone the PCs have entangled as potential allies/ eternal enmity he will become a Hated Foe of those love interests show up as well! The Library might get responsible. Clever PCs may wish to use ammable a little crowded, but crazy ght scenes are an scrolls etc to provide Tactical Opposition to reelement of wuxia well worth indulging using foes. in...
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7.
Political Aggression
Run the events in this chapter if your players choose Red Lotus Ling to sponsor their characters.Note that the discussions on timing and characterisation time at the beginning of the last chapter are just as relevant to this one! Suggested opening narration:
A satised smile crosses Red Lotus lips as the last of Ironhand Nans soldiers crashes to the ground. Well! She exclaims, standing gracefully, languidly fanning herself against the heat of the desert city. That was certainly an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. My thanks to the honourable master Nan for his eorts in arranging this tourney. The fan clicks shut. However, I must regretfully suggest that it was for no purpose other than entertainment. As mistress of the Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy, I am trusted to bring young women to their day of wearing red in all proper virtue. The ghosts of my ancestors would be shamed were I to invite any less than the most noble of heroes to share a roof with those girls. How could I invite any other than Xiao-Li Pai, Feng Guo, Liang Shui and Patience Sima? She nods to you gracefully and moves with practiced elegance to the gates. The implication that you should follow her is unmistakeable! As she approaches, the ostentatious jade and gold gates of the district swing open, and a small army of servants in sapphire blue livery scuttle forward, wielding peacock feather brooms! The servants brush furiously to keep the dust, sand and trash of Unruly Devil out of Prosperous Devil, and as you pass by them, its instantly obvious why. Prosperous Devil is beautiful. Not ten yards from the dust and cramped streets of Unruly Devil, enormous green rolling estates are bordered by perfectly laid stone roads. Healthy trees abound, goldsh idle in ponds, and lanterns hang from gold thread across the roads. There are few buildings but each is like a palace, with high walls enclosing bamboo gardens, ornamental pagodas, and sumptuous ancestor shrines. There is a serenity to it that seems strange but welcoming after the chaos outside fewer people walk the streets of the entire district than any single alleyway outside the gates!
Only one thing could create such a paradise amongst desert, rugged mountains and a sprawling mass of a city that only a devil could love money. More silver than the legendary Perfected Abacus of Covetous Xi could count in ten thousand years! The source of that unparalleled wealth dominates the heart of the district, like the axle of a wheel the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilions. This magnicent marketplace treads a ne line between rened majesty and truly obnoxious displays of wealth. These markets are your target, for therein are the wonders you travelled so far to claim, but rst, there is the matter of repaying your host for his generous hospitality... A lavish garden of ponds and waterfalls surrounds the Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy. Beautiful red buildings sit within the garden, clearly various pieces of manor houses, temples, palaces and other places that a married noblewoman would be expected to be well at home in. Unlike most other estates in the district, the Academy is not walled, and you can see the students at within the grounds. Most of these girls seem either docile, silly or both, products of sheltered and spoiled lives. However, others watch you with sharp eyes that betray keen minds, and you catch a glimpse of at least a few training with weapons perhaps even the beginnings of the Unfolding Glory style you saw Pretty Hark use at the tourney. Red Lotus bids you farewell for a short time while you are settled into quarters. Oddly enough, while your rooms are opulent, they are attached to a kungfu training hall! The hall is in the centre of a small lake in the heart of one of the thickest peony groves on the estate, and has no bridge it is necessary to use Lightfoot to reach it! Unsurprisingly you are gures of great interest to the girls, and many nd excuses to be by the lake calligraphy practice, reading poetry and the like. Most can barely contain their giggling, but a few seem interested but not unsettled by your presence a few gazes of such calculating appraisal are directed your way that you feel like youre about to be sold in the Pavilions yourself!
Realistically, you wont actually get through that much narration. However, the above should give you plenty of details to use moving the characters along from the tourney to the Academy and hence
7 . Po l i t i c a l A g g re s s i o n
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to their task. Most likely, they will wish to interact with Red Lotus and possibly the girls of the academy, which unless youre extremely pressed for time should be encouraged. Red Lotus is a rened but somewhat playful courtier, who has no particular secrets to hide from the PCs. Shell happily explain that her most talented students receive a proper education, training them to dominate both the courts and the Wulin! She will answer any questions the PCs about the district to the best of her ability, though of the three sponsors she has the least actual knowledge of the markets themselves. If the players have shown any interest in the girls of the Academy (including but not limited to entangling themselves with them), make use of the Unfurling Crimson Banner Sisterhood detailed in the Wulin chapter. These girls might provide a retinue for Red Lotus on the way to the Academy through Prosperous Devil, or otherwise be bold enough to approach the PCs in their quarters via Lightfoot they are also the girls who can be seen practicing the beginnings of Unfolding Glory. If any entanglements are formed, some or all of the girls may insist on accompanying the PCs on their mission, acting as witnesses against the Empty Hand Society before the Governor. However, if the players are just waiting for the chance to bust out the wirework violence at the next opportunity, dont belabour the schoolgirls too much get straight to the task at hand!
Some less sophisticated members of the community take this as license to indulge in petty bullying, assuming that any escalation on the part of those so assaulted will draw the Governors displeasure. Such an unworthy dog is Ironhand Nan and his Empty Hand Society. He claims the constant presence of his followers on the borders of my Academys estate is charitable protection of the vulnerable young girls here an excuse lighter than silk and not one hundredth as strong! They are spying and bullying, frightening the girls with their leers and recording the movements of their parents when they come to visit. Naturally, as I act in the role of their mother, I have a Confucian duty to reciprocate the devotion of my girls by protecting them from such things how can I teach them lial piety if I do not respect it myself? Yet I cannot go directly to the Governor to petition her to ban the soldiers from our grounds, for then it would appear that I am the one bearing a grudge! Its especially mortifying as so many of the girls parents will be arriving this evening. I hope you can sympathise with my diculties.
Red Lotus language is owery, but her point is blunt: the PCs are to petition the Governor to keep the Empty Hand Society from the grounds of the Academy. If the players dont get this instantly, characters with decent Awareness (particularly Liang Shui or Patience Meng) will grasp it instantly, along with the implication that it must be done before the parents arrive.
After an hour or two happily drinking in the serenity and beauty of the Academy - a welcoming change after the hard journey on the Yellow River and your time in the manic Unruly Devil - your hostess comes to take tea with you. In a comfortably appointed chamber bedecked with jade decorative weapons and red ornamental scrolls, she condes in you a diculty shes facing. Anyone can see, dear guests, that you are wise people, possessing great wu-wei! Surely you will have noticed how this district seems to revolve around the markets - indeed, for all the noble appearance of our estates, we are one and all servants of the silver tael. Governor Miang is concerned rst and foremost with the maintenance of the districts prosperity; as a result, she frowns upon direct disputes between landowners, ensuring there is no soil from which grudges might ower.
The Audience Chamber of Sapphire Miang

The palaces of the District Governors of Only Six Devils tend to be quite unusual a combination of the rather unique personalities of those six worthies and the necessity of showing o their importance without looking like they are placing themselves above the Iron Shadow Warlord. Sapphire Miang has the additional agenda of demonstrating that she is not the hub of the district for all her authority, it is the silver tael that truly rules Prosperous Devil. As a result, the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion remains the heart of the district, and by far the most impressive edice. Miang instead maintains ve estates in a ring about the markets, quite eloquently declaring that she controls access to the markets, if not the markets themselves entirely.
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Today the Governor is receiving petitioners in her Water Palace, southwest of the markets. Unlike many Governors this is a restful time for her, as she has so few independent citizens that petitioners are quite rare (by contrast, Cleaver Chen would never dream of inviting petitioners without requiring massive bribes from them, just to keep the situation manageable). As a consequence, she is somewhat bored, and the characters will have little trouble getting in to see her. The Water Palace is dominated by a long, mostly ooded courtyard. Wulin are encouraged to Lightfoot across to the palace building proper, but massively overgrown blue lotus owers act as a compromise between bridges and boats for those who have not cultivated their chi. A long and broad stairway leads up to the audience chamber, lined with Miangs personal guards. Forty guards are present, although they will not involve themselves in combat unless the Governor is attacked. Inside, the hall is extremely long, with draping blue silk banners and curtains on either side of a central pool, stretching the length of the hall, in which thousands of blue candles oat and cast an eerie light. Wulin can Lightfoot easily amongst them, whereas others must gingerly wade to the Governor. Blue paper lanterns amidst the hangings add to the strange lighting. The Governor kneels upon a raised platform, practicing calligraphy in blue ink on an exceptionally long scroll that her servants move past her at the
A most auspicious argument, worthy sir. Please allow me to retort with my Thousand Scythe kick. Many players will assume that social actions and kung-fu will generally not happen in the same scene. This is your chance to disabuse them of that notion in the most enjoyable way possible by staging a rollicking kung-fu debate. The key to this will be the NPCs, who will act like discussing the ner points of customary law with someone while kicking them in the face is the most natural thing in the world. Be appropriately elastic with tactical time it doesnt seem odd in a well choreographed movie or comic that ghters always seem to have plenty of time to natter on about their love triangles or uniting all under heaven, and Weapons of the Gods games can benet from having a similar feel.
precise rate of ow of the Yellow River. Whether she was born with beauty is unknown, but in her middle years she has obtained a poise and aura of accomplishment that many nd beautiful. Her hair is greying, but the sapphires arranged artfully through it are most attering. Of course, it is her keen eyes and very sharp wit that the observant xate upon, and others overlook to their peril. True to the nature of the Water Palace, the Governor is in a mood dictated by stasis. She will receive the PCs with few words, using the smallest gestures to invite them to begin stating their case. Have each PC make a Grace roll at Everyday (18) diculty to impress her with their manners good descriptions can earn a +5 bonus. Success ensures the Governor is well-disposed to their proposals add 5 yards to the nal distance the Empty Hand mercenaries must stay from the school (see below) for each successful roll. Add 10 yards for a Critical Success. Subtract 5 yards for each failure theres no middle ground! After this roll, as the PCs begin to present their argument, have them make Everyday (18) Senses rolls with a success, they realise that shafts in the roof (more for the movement of air than light) allow access to the hall and that Ironhands soldiers are about to drop in! If they fail, they are technically Surprised as two Wulin and 40 soldiers jump down through the silk hangings (many dropping in the water and sending candles ying!). However, their foes do not attack on the rst turn as they are recovering from the drop. Choose one of the two bands to be the one Ironhand gave hospitality to preferably, make it the one the players seemed least interested in, saving the other band for the nale. However, its probably a good idea to have anyone the PCs have entangled as potential allies/love interests (including Red Lotus girls) show up in addition to these opponents. Feel free to introduce more minions and Wulin for any allies to ght, but it should act purely as background colour. Use the 5th Rank stats provided for the two Wulin chosen by Ironhand to present his case by default, this should be one Courtier and one Warrior. The soldiers are Gang ghters divided into two groups of 20, one following each Wulin, with a Rating of 5.
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As this occurs, the Governor will smile with an Victory! obviously brightened demeanour. Ah! she says. A After 5 rounds, tally the result of the debate: debate! Excellent! subtract the oppositions result dice from the PCs Her servants roll out fresh paper for her, and total, after adding any bonus from the initial Grace she places ve characters on it one for each of roll for minding their manners! Each result dice the elements. Please present an argument for each contributes 10 yards to the nal distance to which the element. I will make my decision based on how Empty Hand Society may approach the Academy. auspicious they are overall. Without hesitation, If the total is 60 yards or more, Red Lotus will Ironhands advocates attack, even as their Courtier be overjoyed and assist the PCs in their assault on begins to debate, and their Warrior demands the market. If less, she is unhappy and will not assist respectful silence! them, but does not revoke her hospitality. If somehow the total is negative, Red Lotus is furious and will Sapphire Miang not allow the PCs back on the grounds (Ironhands The Governor has excellent Kung Fu and men probably taunt them by oering to go in and get numerous guards, but its unlikely anyone will oer their gear). her violence directly. If she comes in danger from The Governor announces the total in a ringing the environment she will activate Lightfoot and tone, and proclaims it law that mercenary companies move (scroll and all) to a safer position, without may approach no closer than that to the Academy. breaking the ow of her calligraphy. She will not In the unlikely event any of Ironhands advocates are act like the combat in her audience chamber is in standing, they ee at this point, swearing revenge. any way unusual or undesirable. Each round, choose an element, and have the Governors brush hover near it. As a full action, a character can make a Persuade skill roll to present their case, gaining a +5 modier if the argument is appropriate to that element. A character can sacrice their full action to oppose this roll with an argument of their own, rolling Persuade in the same fashion: the opposition Courtier will do this on any round in which they lose initiative. Otherwise, the roll is made at Moderate (20) diculty, with a critical success making the argument a Free Action. The Governor only records the rst argument from each side each round further attempts are useless. Even if the PCs (as is likely) destroy their opposition within less than ve rounds, the Governor will expect ve total arguments to be made, so continue rolling for until all ve elements are done!
Using the environment Between the pool, candles, lanterns, silk hangings and Sapphire Miangs servants, you have no shortage of props to go ying. Make sure the NPCs actions create appropriate turbulence, have servants desperately throw themselves on candles or splashes of water that might mar the calligraphy scroll, and describe the plight of Ironhands soldiers, forced to splash about without Lightfoot.
By default, none of this will cause mechanical trouble, but it should make the scene more vivid - especially for anyone whos seen the similar (though dryer) hall in Hero, and may be leveraged by clever players for tactical opposition, or even circumstance bonuses. The key is to play up the NPCs impact on the scenery, so the players arent shy about knocking it about themselves!
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8.
Wisdom of the Elders
Run the events in this chapter if the PCs choose Razoreyes Gongsun and the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers as their sponsor. As with the previous chapter, the notes on timing and characterisation in Militant Scholarship are just as applicable to this chapter.
the chaos outside fewer people walk the streets of the entire district than any single alleyway outside the gates! Only one thing could create such a paradise amongst desert, rugged mountains and a sprawling mass of a city that only a devil could love money. More silver than the legendary Perfected Abacus of Covetous Xi could count in ten thousand years! The source of that unparalleled wealth dominates the heart of the district, like the axle of a wheel the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilions. This magnicent marketplace treads a ne line between rened majesty and truly obnoxious displays of wealth. These markets are your target, for therein are the wonders you travelled so far to claim, but rst, there is the matter of repaying your host for his generous hospitality... The compound of the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers is circular, with long dragon designs and displays of calligraphy winding around its outer wall. Inside, the various homes of the Guild members ring the much larger edice of the Library, almost a microcosm of the way the district itself rings the markets. The Library itself is a broad, circular four-level tower of wood and stone, forty yards in height and 20 yards in diameter. Long banners with enormous but exquisite calligraphy extolling the virtues of knowledge, wisdom and old age hang down its walls, yet more evidence of Razoreyes determination to make sure no-one forgets to honour their elders. You are pointedly herded away from the Library and towards rather comfortable quarters near the Guilds mercenary barracks. Your needs are well catered for, and though the furniture of your rooms is far from gaudy, it is of exquisite quality and decorated with antiques that would anywhere else be considered the pride of a collection. You suspect Razoreyes gets away with his foul humour for more than Shen Zhous respect for the elderly vast wealth speaks louder than an old mans wheeze.
As with the other scenarios, dont expect to get through all the narration presumably the players will want to interact with their surroundings or NPCs, and should be encouraged to do so. Just use the above as inspiration for your own introduction of the players to Prosperous Devil and the Guilds compound. Unlike the other scenarios, however, this one
8 . Wi s d o m o f t h e El d e r s
Suggested opening narration: As the last of the mercenaries is slammed into the dust of the tourney grounds, Razoreyes Gongsuns patience nally snaps. He rises to his feet with as much speed as his advanced years allow. Narrowing beady eyes at the assembled Wulin, he visibly shakes with rage! You impious rascals, do I look like I have long left to live? How dare you waste my time with such incompetence! I will soon be with your ancestors, and they will haunt you to your dying days when they hear how atrociously you have treated your elders. Imagine leaving a respected citizen such as myself sitting out here in the dusty hell of Unruly Devil without so much as showing me one thing worth seeing! Only Xiao-Li Pai, Feng Guo, Liang Shui and Patience Sima have merit as heroes, and I knew that the moment they stepped onto the docks! The ancient scholar begins to stalk o towards the gates. After a moment, he gazes back at the four of you with the eyes of an angry falcon. Well? Are you coming or not? We should have left hours ago... to think I missed the appraisal of the Duke of Zhous pipe to see those eight fools prance uselessly! As he approaches, the ostentatious jade and gold gates of the district swing open, and a small army of servants in sapphire blue livery scuttle forward, wielding peacock feather brooms! The servants brush furiously to keep the dust, sand and trash of Unruly Devil out of Prosperous Devil, and as you pass by them, its instantly obvious why. Prosperous Devil is beautiful. Not ten yards from the dust and cramped streets of Unruly Devil, enormous green rolling estates are bordered by perfectly laid stone roads. Healthy trees abound, goldsh idle in ponds, and lanterns hang from gold thread across the roads. There are few buildings but each is like a palace, with high walls enclosing bamboo gardens, ornamental pagodas, and sumptuous ancestor shrines. There is a serenity to it that seems strange but welcoming after
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sports a rather irascible and sour old man, who is much more dicult to engage in conversation than the straightforward Ironhand Nan or the amiable Red Lotus. The best way of handling this is to have Gongsuns lackeys Little Brothers, junior Appraisers judged not yet elderly and cynical enough by the geriarchy to be obviously pained and panicked by the old mans treatment of such powerful warriors. The Little Brothers will rephrase Razoreyes words in the most diplomatic way they can, and fall over themselves to help the mighty Wulin with any questions they may have about the District or the Guild. If the PCs ask any questions not found in this module, just make up an answer that seems appropriate (and jot it down for future reference if you plan to run more games in Only Six Devils!).
and accomplished lower ourselves to argue with little girls in the street? No, theres only one thing to be done They are holding an appraisal session in about an hour. You must go down there and demonstrate their ignorance with superior learning. Youre close to them in age, so it will be no shame for you, and no doubt it will give you an opportunity to give some of your rivals from the tourney a proper thrashing. Perform to your capabilities and Ill ensure you have an easy time of it when you seek to liberate your goals from the markets.
While its blatantly obvious that Razoreyes wants to maintain his monopoly over appraisal in the district, it is true that the market is unlikely to be helped by amateur competition. Why go all the way to Only Six Devils when the goods in the markets Eventually a sharp knock at your door heralds the are appraised by schoolgirls? You may as well stay in return of Razoreyes Gongsun. While youre not exactly Thrashing Minister City! pleased to see him, the thought of repaying your Um, were supposed to punch schoolgirls? implicit debt to him is rather appealing. He creaks his way over to a chair slowly, irritably waving away the The central message of last chapter bears repeating Little Brothers trying to assist him. here: talking and kung fu can not only share a scene, Some claim Im an irritable, mean-spirited old they enjoy considerable synergy. That said, the point of the scene is NOT to skewer man. He pauses, almost as if setting a trap of silence to catch any in his retinue who are simply toadies. schoolgirls, but to debate them. While the Unfurling Strictly speaking, thats as accurate as if Huang Di Crimson Banner Sisterhood have some kung-fu himself had said it, but thats beside the point. Youre skills, the violence will be provided by mercenary intelligent looking for a pack of Wulin ruans, so troops and the PCs Wulin rivals. Feel free to make that clear to the players as soon as necessary, though youll have surmised straight away that I wouldnt since the girls will not by default oer violence, be nearly as successful if I hadnt consistently pleased nobody should feel put into the position of having to the Governor by turning my considerable gifts to the give a teenage girl a decidedly unheroic pummelling wellbeing of the community. (well, other than Pretty Hark). So, you will grasp that I do not say this solely out of an old mans sourness: Red Lotus Ling is throwing the The Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy reputation of the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion into The appearance and grounds of the academy are the dirt! Her ignorant students give away appraisals of described at length in Political Aggression, but this goods for the markets for but a handful of silver coins, scene does not take place within the school proper. and too many gullible merchants are falling for it! The Unfurling Crimson Banner Sisterhood have set Even the few girls who have some native intelligence up a small appraisal fair at the edge of the estate, dont have the experience to tell the sword Tiger Soul amidst a bamboo grove dominated by silver statues of from an aphrodisiac. Imagine the humiliation well all the most legendary sages and scholars of Shen Zhous endure when their errors inevitably ruin the markets history. Statues of Huang Di, the youthful features reputation! of Bufon Ju, and the shrouded gure of the Wulin Of course, theres nothing I can do about it. The Sage gaze down upon the proceedings! Razoreyes Governor forbids direct conict between the Gongsun is rather pointedly absent from the august land owners of the district. Even if she metal assemblage. The Sisterhood has mercenary guards: twenty didnt, how could we a respected Gang ghters and two Wulin from the tourney. organization of the elderly
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Choose which of the two bands the Red Lotus gave hospitality to preferably, make it the one the players seemed least interested in, saving the other band for the nale. Feel free to have anyone the PCs have entangled as potential allies/love interests (including Red Lotus girls) show up as well. You can introduce more minions and Wulin for these allies to ght, but these should only be background colour, and their actions dont need to be rolled out. Use 5th Rank stats for the two Wulin assigned to guard the Crimson Banner girls preferably a Warrior and a Scholar (the Warrior leads the mercenary troops). A large number of wealthy individuals (most with their own mercenary guards) have come to have items appraised mostly friends and business contacts of the girls parents. They will act as an audience, and their troops will not intervene in the inevitable violence except to extricate their clients from immediate danger. For their part, the clients will make appreciative noises at the unfolding drama as appropriate. There are ve artefacts waiting to be appraised. If challenged in any way, the Crimson Banner girls will indignantly demand that their challengers compete with them to oer the superior appraisal, while their Wulin protectors will simultaneously attack. The PCs must meet both challenges at once! Each round, one of the girls will hold up an item for appraisal. Competitive appraising involves creating a name and short history for the item, and then making a contested roll of a skill relevant to the item. This is a full action, or a free action on a critical success. The girls roll 4 dice, and enjoy a +5 bonus for having been pre-informed of which items would be brought to them, but they have no River to use. The contested roll is made when a PC chooses to do so, on their initiative. Only one PC can do this each round, and if the round ends with no roll being made, the girl automatically wins. PCs can gain a +5 bonus for coming up with clever or entertaining ideas for the secret history of the items there is no default truth as to what they are; rather any explanation made in combination with a winning roll. The items are:
A scroll with particularly ne calligraphy. However, each character is written backwards, and the text apparently making no sense (Relevant Skill: Learning) An ossied organ of some kind, glowing with a faint red light (Relevant Skill: Medicine)
A endishly clever silver puzzle-box, wrought to resemble a tangle of thorns (Relevant Skill: Crafting) An embarrassingly explicit scroll speaking eloquently of the events of a certain court during a certain Emperors reign, but with identifying details changed to protect the guilty (Relevant Skill: Politics) An intricate clockwork Go table apparently trying to give rather specic military advice in highly obscure fashion (Relevant Skill: Tactics).
Make sure you inform the players which ability is to be rolled! While this is going on, a furious Kung Fu battle should be in progress. The Scholar opponent will do their best to rebut and ridicule the PCs appraisals this has no mechanical eect, but should keep people talking. Meanwhile, the Warrior will lecture the PCs on bullying little girls a somewhat uncharitable interpretation that the PCs will be in their rights to refute with words, sts or both! Its reasonably likely the PCs will defeat their opponents before the appraisal is over if so, the appraisal continues over the crumpled forms of their foes! If the PCs succeed on three or more of the appraisals Razoreyes will be overjoyed (perhaps going so far as to give the PCs an approving nod), and will assist them with the markets. Otherwise, he has to be convinced by the Little Brothers not to try to have them turfed back into Unruly Devil! Using the environment Bamboo groves are a staple of the kung-fu genre.Even an entirely random group of players should have a pretty good grasp of what theyre for, but dont hesitate to have the NPCs demonstrate! Bamboo should slide apart and fall in the aftermath of sword cuts, constantly rustling and bending as ghters jump about from stalk to stalk, and leaves should be falling everywhere!
Meanwhile, the silver statues are there for a single purpose to fall over, as catastrophically as possible. The Crimson Banner girls have a red silk tent from which they conduct their appraisals it should be torn up and collapse at the rst available moment. Wealthy folk should end up running about in a panic, their nery becoming stained as the dirt of the forest oor is churned up by their running. Simply put: the fact that success in this scene is determined by academic victory should not in any sense lessen its action element!
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9.
The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion
Run the events in this chapter after the PCs complete the task set them by their sponsor. Alternatively, run them at any time they decide to storm the markets in a t of Wulin impetuousness! The Home Stretch Having nished the second major scene of the adventure, you should ideally have about an hour remaining. If you have more, great luxuriate in the nal ght scene, adding whatever detail seems fun, or nish up early and spend some time discussing the game and system with the players. If you have less than an hour but more than half an hour, you should be ne as long as you pay attention to pacing and keep the scene moving at a good clip. If you have less than half an hour, realistically youre not going to get through the scene. Your best course of action is to begin it, and then use the appearance of rival Wulin looking for the same Splendours as the PCs as a clihanger (it might be best to omit the sponsors warning about their rivals from the setup for this scene). If you can arrange another session, begin with the market scene, and esh out the rest of the session with plot hooks from the next chapter. The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion is the characters objective, and forms the nal - and hopefully most exciting scene of the adventure. Ideally, this scene should take place after the players have completed their task for their sponsor. Run a short bridging scene between that encounter and this it will give the sponsors a chance to react appropriately to the PCs success (or lack thereof ), and give them impetus to head to the markets. If (as is most likely), the PCs were victorious, the sponsor will praise them (or get as close to praise as Razoreyes can manage, if they chose the Appraisers), and explain to them the assistance theyll be oering them at the market (see the callout below). If the PCs failed, theyll be lectured, but pushed towards the markets regardless of course, in this case, its because the sponsor wants to get rid of them!
Did anyone else realise Zhou Dynasty architecture was so... big? In Weapons of the Gods, you can encounter anyone from a humble rice farmer to baneful kung-fu warriors who can split mountains with their hands. So too do the locations range from rustic shacks to spectacular palaces you couldnt build today, let alone in the early fourth century! Only Six Devils is one of the best places in Shen Zhou to see this contrast, from the mad warren of mismatched buildings that is Unruly Devil, to the Cold Fortress of its master (depicted on page 60 of the main rulebook). Even in Prosperous Devil this gradient from the familiar to the fantastic is evident. The compound of the Guild of Gentleman Appraisers and the Blossoming-Towards-Crimson Academy are remarkably well-appointed, but neither would be out of place in historical China. Sapphire Miangs palaces are extraordinary, but would not be jarring in an epic kung-fu movie. The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion, however, is a rival to the Cold Fortress vast, fantastic, and far more elaborate than even the economy of Prosperous Devil can justify. It is most properly at home in the comics. By default, you should play up this escalation of locations throughout the adventure. The more spectacular the market is, the less the players are likely to feel theyre indulging in petty theft, as opposed to an act of heroic daring. If theyre fans of kung-fu comics, leaping around enormous and strange locations with Lightfoot is probably part of the appeal of the game in the rst place! However, if your players are looking for an experience more authentic to historical China or popular kung-fu epics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero, feel free to scale back the markets to be appropriate to that level of fantasy the action of the scene should function exactly the same! The sponsor will warn the PCs that while the Wulin they fought earlier will probably lay low for a little while, those guested by the third Sponsor (Red Lotus if the PCs are with Ironhand, Razoreyes if they chose Lotus, or Ironhand if they chose Razoreyes) have been most active gathering up catalogues, questioning locals on the markets, and generally watching the Pavilion from afar. Its clear theyre planning something soon!
9 . T h e Ni n e f o l d Pro s p e r i t y Pa v i l i o n
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The focus on the Wulin rivals is important apart from the complications inherent to the Splendours chosen by the PCs, their Wulin rivals are the primary challenge of the scene. Realistically, theres little a merchant (no matter how wealthy) can do to stop determined Wulin from making o with his goods normally they rely on Ironhand Nan to prevent this, but today hes either secretly backing the thieves, or determined not to get involved. You might want to conceal the groups rivals until the Splendours are almost in their hands, but by default, the players should feel the need to keep the pace up! The Pavilion The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion is one of the most spectacular structures in all of Six Devil City, only denitively eclipsed by the Cold Fortress of the Iron Shadow Warlord. However, it does not reveal its true majesty until one draws close from a distance, the markets seem a majestic series of pagodas and pavilions, but nothing particularly remarkable in scale. This is an illusion: the markets are set in a deep depression, and less than half their height is visible from outside! The walls of the depression are circular, vertical, with a vast diorama of Nwas battle against the River Lord and his minions to create humanity carved into them in bas-relief. Five stairways to the markets spiral down in a mandala pattern, waterfalls arcing out from strategic places in the bas-relief to pass over the stairs! As the walls are fty yards high (or, more correctly, deep), its quite an experience merely to walk down to the market! Of course, on the edge of the Northern Desert, having thirty waterfalls merely for decoration is not mere opulence, its obscenity beyond even the vast waste of water keeping Prosperous Devil green, exciting both desire and loathing in the inhabitants of other districts! At the bottom of the depression is a lake of clear water, in which sits a carefully manicured garden island. The pavilions and pagodas (towers, when revealed at their full height) rise from the island, linked by white stone bridges. The clever will quickly deduce the reason for the lowered position of the market it keeps such tall towers from exceeding the height of the Cold Fortress! Everything else about the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion displays staggering hubris, but its builders were not so foolish as to challenge the Iron Shadow Warlord in even the smallest way.
The central tower is the widest (they are largely equal in height), its walls apparently carved from solid sapphire. The eight other towers, mostly constructed of ne woods and white marble, are spaced equally around it, and surrounded themselves by much smaller wooden structures. All of the structures are extremely open and airy, letting light and air stream into the markets within. The market is quite crowded when compared to the rest of the district. Particularly busy is the central tower, serving as the main gathering place and social nexus of the Pavilion. Relative to the actual size of the markets, however, they are incredibly sparsely populated most merchants have an enormous amount of space to themselves, and only the bottom level of each tower is used for commerce. The market is beautiful, but its size relative to the actual requirements of its function is nothing less than appalling. The central tower is entirely hollow, and it is a rare person who remains unimpressed when standing within that vast sapphire cylinder. Dim blue paper lanterns subtly enhance the natural lighting, and bright white lanterns join them in the evening. The circular hall is dominated by a great statue of Nwa, under which gather those who have come to the market to sell a single wonder, waiting for the buyers to heed them. The buyers themselves representatives of the wealthiest and most powerful men and women in all Shen Zhou gather in groups in the centre. They whisper ercely, attempting to get the better of each other, but prevent the merchants from exploiting their rivalry. Brokers and lesser merchants scuttle up to these professional buyers, as well those visiting the market, hoping to tempt them into a lucrative deal, or sell them luxuries to ease the stresses of dealing in the market. Empty-Hand Society troops patrol the market. Many merchants keep other troops with their goods, but in general they are few in number and less erce than Ironhands soldiers. The principle merchants of the district (arguably the principle merchants of Only Six Devils, or as they would have it, Shen Zhou) occupy the surrounding structures, which the buyers typically move to and from via the sapphire hall. In this particular case, each of the Splendours is with a merchant in a dierent tower.
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Assistance from the Sponsors If the PCs succeeded on the task assigned to them by their sponsors, they receive the following assistance in their raids: Ironhand Nan: The master of the EmptyHand Society gives strict orders that the PCs are not to be interfered with. The Empty-Hand soldiers ignore the PCs, eectively halving the number of Minions the PCs need face. Red Lotus Ling: Many of the parents of the Red Lotus girls are visiting its no trouble to have the PCs integrated into their shopping trips! Hiding amongst the rich and powerful families and their retinues gives a +5 modier to Stealth rolls, but more importantly, who would dare risk hurting them and starting a feud? If a family and retinue is present, a PC can use them to tactically frustrate their rivals, allowing a Condence, Grace or Inspire roll as a Tactical Opposition Free Action. Add a +5 modier if the PC is romantically entangled with the Red Lotus girl in question, +10 if they purchased the one-point love Victory, and +15 if they purchased the twopoint version. Make sure the players are aware of this ability its not a secret for them to discover. Razoreyes Gongsun: The Guild of Gentleman Appraisers can provide exceptionally detailed information on the Splendours. Explain to the players the exact mechanics for the complications for obtaining the Splendours (as detailed below). Any time the players can relate information given to them by Gongsun to a roll to interact with a Splendour, they benet from a +5 modier. The Splendours Each of the Splendours has a degree of awkwardness associated with it, inversely proportionate to the amount of destiny spent to entangle it. As a result, acquiring the Statue of Huangti or Wind Monkey are the most dicult tasks in the adventure, while the Porcelain Maid is on the cusp of rescuing herself anyway!
Statue of Huangti: Luckily, this three yard tall, solid gold statue of the Yellow Emperor is miraculously lighter than one would expect. Sadly, the Immortal Emperor has no patience for sloth. Heaven has not made his Yellow counterpart easy to carry, just possible... it takes a Legendary (40) Lift roll to pick up the statue, after which an awkward shue will take you ve yards per round (it eectively weights about 1,500 pounds). Theres no particularly obvious or easy way to get the damn thing out of the market, but you should be receptive to any ideas the players may come up with the player hasnt bought active hindrance, just a general lack of help. Wind Monkey: This monkey is not just hyperactive, its actively mischievous. Wind Monkey unlock ed its cage several hours ago, but decided to hang around in order to make trouble. Once the PC (or a Wulin rival) arrives, the monkey will burst from its cage and bolt for it, leading them on a merry chase throughout the market and its surrounds. Wind Monkey resists all attempts to seize it with Dodge (6 dice, +10 modier), or Athletics (6 dice, +5 modier) as appropriate. It moves 20 yards a turn as its normal move, and is considered to have Lightfoot to Headlong Flying Leap, with eectively innite chi to fuel the techniques. Once caught, only a Hard (30) Awareness roll to show supreme serenity will quieten the monkey otherwise its a constant struggle! The Mirror of Ying Zheng: The key problem with the Mirror is its fragility. Whenever a character carries the mirror in combat or moves faster than 5 yards in a round, they must make an Everyday (18) Finesse roll at the end of the round. The Sage may also elect to make this roll if particularly spectacular violence occurs near the Mirror while its at rest, in which case a single die is rolled. If the roll is failed, the Mirror begins to vibrate alarmingly, on the verge of breaking. Roll again at the end of the next round (regardless of conditions during that round) if the roll succeeds, the Mirror is steadied. If it is failed, it breaks. During the round in which it vibrates, any character can attempt to steady the Mirror as a full action with an Everyday (18) Finesse roll.
Each Splendour is in a dierent merchant stall while the merchant will protest the theft of A character carrying the Mirror may always their goods, theres not much they can do beyond defend for it with their Dodge or Finesse skills. Any appealing to Ironhands troops. If the player successful attack breaks the Mirror. has concocted a history between their character and the merchant, play along!
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The Marvellously Inappropriate Censor: With the constant cloud of incense billowing out of this infernal silver burner, its tough to breathe while carrying it! Anyone carrying the Censor loses their breath in two colours of chi (their choice), though the breath is regained as soon as they set it down. Wrapping a scarf around ones mouth or taking other measures to prevent inhaling the incense directly lowers this to one colour of chi. The Catalogues and the Wedding Dress of Lady Zhou: Neither of these Splendours involves any special complications; even the blind savant painting new catalogues doesnt care about the old ones being stolen out from under his nose hes only interested in the next one! The Black Ginseng: Kept in a porcelain pot, its relatively safe to handle the Ginseng. However, if a combat value of 20 is directly applied to the pot it will break, and then theres trouble! The character does have a powerful connection with the Ginseng, though, and gets a +5 modier to any attempt to recontain it or otherwise spirit it away safely. The Porcelain Maid: This beautiful girl has porcelain skin and long hair made from extraordinarily thin and strong black glass, which she brushes while waiting for an opportunity to escape. She has chosen the name Ci Zhuan for herself, and has a literally musical voice since she cant breathe, her voice is produced by innitely complex clockwork similar to a music box. Ci Zhuan has excellent Awareness and instantly grasps the connection between herself and the PC who entangled her. She will happily go with the PC, resisting any attempts to prevent her from doing so. She rolls 5 dice for all skills. OK, you got the dress. Now for another ten exciting minutes of Feng chasing Wind Monkey! Buying the cheaper Splendours buys you trouble, NOT extra screen time. Make sure that picking a mechanically boring option like the Wedding Dress of Lady Zhou doesnt mean the scene is boring for that player. They invested the destiny in an easy ride, so they should look good doing it and get a chance to bask in the cameras gaze a bit.
Rivals, Allies and Minions Besides the inherent complications for each Splendour, the major diculty the PCs will contend with in this scene is their Wulin rivals. Now is the time to bring out anyone the players entangled as rivals, or at the least seemed to have a greater connection with, as well as anyone and everyone they spent destiny on that hasnt surfaced yet.
By default, the PCs will face two 4th Rank Wulin rivals from the band you didnt use in the second task, preferably one Warrior and one other. They will be accompanied by a number of minions, depending on which sponsor the PCs chose: Ironhand Nan: If the PCs succeeded in Ironhands task, they face one group of 20 Gang ghters hired by Red Lotus Ling. These are lead by the Warrior Wulin rival. If they failed, they also face a unit of Empty Hand Society troops 20 Gang Fighters lead by a 5th Rank disciple of Ironhand! Red Lotus Ling: The PCs face 20 Gang Fighters working for Razoreyes Gongsun, lead by the Warrior Wulin rival, as well as 20 of Ironhands men - Gang Fighters lead by a 5th Rank disciple. Razoreyes Gongsun: The PCs face two groups of 20 Gang Fighters, all Ironhands men! One group is lead by the Warrior Wulin rival, the other by a 5th Rank disciple. Regardless, the minions will divide themselves between PCs as normal, even if the PCs are scattered all over the market! Unless the players are rather clever about it, their rivals will be at the market at roughly the same time they are, leading directly to a confrontation. If the players attempt to stake out the markets and try to wait for an opportunity to spirit the treasures away with no opposition, feel free to have their rivals head straight in and leave with the Splendours! The characters will still have every opportunity to chase down or ambush their rivals to claim the prizes, but the pace of the game will be kept brisk. These foes are after the same prizes the PCs are choose which Splendour the Wulin rivals will head after rst, either based on entanglements or randomly. Obviously, this means that some of the PCs will have an easier time than others: they will be ghting through only minions, while their companions battle rivals equal to them in mastery of Kung
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Fu! This is an excellent opportunity for PCs to earn deeds of Kuan, Zhong, Hen or Si by helping or abandoning their friends. In general, their rivals will NOT ght to the death, much preferring the run o, swearing revenge approach. Before they resort to this, make sure you keep up the talking pick a motivation for the NPC to be after the Splendour, and have them debate their right to it enthusiastically! A PC might even end up agreeing a possible deed of Kuan, Xia or Yi! Remember that you chose these characters because you judged them to be more interesting to the players. Think about why you made that choice, and then use them to the hilt to make this an exciting scene involving interesting rivals, rather than a straight heist with kung-fu wielding speedbumps.
Finally, one speaks. By the nine tails of the Irrepressible Thieving Monkey, they stole those things from the markets! They must be heroes beloved of heaven! We need rice-wine, drums and recrackers, this is a moment worthy of festival! And so the adventure ends, with the characters becoming unlikely folk heroes of Unruly Devil. The markets are quite crowded? Of course they are - my players entangled half of Shen Zhou! Its almost certain that the events of your game will not turn out exactly as described above. For a start, since any destiny entanglements not completely resolved in the second scene should be dealt with here, chances are theres going to be a much bigger crowd of characters than those indicated above. While you can introduce extra enemies for any assortment of allies the PCs end up with to ght or otherwise deal with, remember that Secrets of Destiny are intended to be interesting and worthwhile, not purely aesthetic. Make sure that any allies bought with destiny do provide tangible mechanical aid to the PCs though of course that shouldnt mean overwhelming numerical advantage. Feel free to have the allies ghting o minions and other minor nuisances most of the time, and then give the PCs a hand when they need it. Allowing PCs to use their allies to provide Tactical Opposition is also an excellent way of handling the matter. As for the aesthetic element, youll have to rely on your judgement as Wulin Sage as to how to handle all these characters interacting with the PCs during their big scene. It should ow from the events so far in the game and the personalities of the PCs as expressed by your players, more so than what weve written on the character sheets. We will note, however, that its quite amusing to have a Red Lotus girl wanting to discuss marriage with a PC while theyre ghting for their life and trying desperately not to break the Mirror of Ying Zheng!
Finishing it O Once the PCs have dealt with their rivals and seized the Splendours theyre after, their most sensible course of action is to leave the markets. The Empty Hand Society will acknowledge their victory and attempt to herd them out rather than actually apprehend them (unless the PCs were allied with Ironhand, in which case theyll get explicit congratulations and a friendly suggestion that it is an auspicious time to retreat!). Outside the market the PCs will nd their sponsor waiting, along with a hefty force of their followers and troops. Even if the PCs failed their task in the second encounter, have the sponsor enthusiastically congratulate the characters they should feel the feat they just achieved was impressive, even if they did it easily (in fact, it might be worth giving everyone a deed of Ba at this point!). However, the sponsor will indicate that the Governor will NOT be pleased, and that its time to make themselves scarce. Theyve bribed the gate guards to let the PCs out of the district if they go now, theyll have a clear run. The sponsor has brought with them the PCs eects from their rooms back at the sponsors compound, and if necessary, an ox-cart to give any poor sap who chose the Statue of Huangti or the Mirror of Ying Zheng a break. If the players accept this, the gates to Unruly Devil swing open as they approach, and the small legion of peacock-feather-broom sweepers rush out to keep the dust from Prosperous Devil. As they emerge into the crowds, heat and chaos, many of Unruly Devils residents will stare at them long and hard.
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10. Auspicious Complications

This chapter presents a number of ideas for further complicating the lives of your heroes during the events of Auspicious Beginnings, or after theyve re-emerged into Unruly Devil. During the Adventure This adventure was specically designed to for one-shot games for new Weapons of the Gods players. If youre running it for experienced players or over multiple sessions, there simply might not be enough material. Here are some ideas to extend the adventure in Prosperous Devil:
Too Easy? The core factor keeping the three substantial scenes of the adventure from overwhelming the available time is that theyre actually quite easy. Despite there being many minions in each scene, in terms of real power, the PCs vastly outgun their foes. With experienced players or extra time, that doesnt necessarily have to be the case. Adding an extra Wulin rival or two will greatly extend the scenes. Running o the Rails. Weve tried to give the players lots of choices, largely because the core adventure is quite linear in order to meet the strict time goal. In the absence of that goal, feel free to remove some of the explicit structure. You have ve locations, three factions lled with mutual animosity, and (counting both versions of the rivals) stats for sixteen Wulin rivals! Thats a lot for you and your players to work with! As an interesting twist, the Governor might oer to cut a deal with the PCs getting them the Splendours they want if they can keep their rivals at each others throats. Defend your sponsor! Youll probably note that each of the tasks given by the sponsors is aggressive in nature: go somewhere else, ght two of the enemy, and achieve some objective. But where are the other two ghters from the opposing band? Making an aggressive move of their own, of course... Running a defensive scene where the PCs are on home ground could make a nice counterpoint to the second encounter. Exploring the Market. The market is extremely strange. Even the massive amount of wealth that ows through it every day couldnt pay for the water it wastes! Obviously something is going on the PCs might nd something very strange or sinister lurking beneath the pretty face of the district! More Destiny. Simply giving the players a little more bonus destiny to spend on the Adventure Loresheet will complicate the plot by its nature!
Further Complications Hopefully, by now your players are raring for more. If so, its probably best to start a campaign of your own devising, and let the players create their own characters. If you want to tide them over for a while, here are a few ideas on what to try next:
Local Heroes. The characters become something of a small phenomenon in Unruly Devil, as stealing from the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion is an impressive feat! Everybody from street peddlers to Governor Chen is keen to take advantage of this. Soon the players have their choice of a dozen or more challenges in the form of job oers, earnest pleas for charity, marriage proposals, bandit gangs looking to prove themselves against the heroes, and political machinations of powerful Unruly Devil potentates. Runaway Blossom. A girl the players recognise from the Academy approaches the characters in some distress. It seems her parents decided the school did nothing other than encourage the girls to make eyes at the Wulin and pulled their daughter out. Shes desperate to continue her training in kung fu, however, and has run away from her parents in an attempt to return to the school. If they can get the girl back into Prosperous Devil somehow, the characters will be in Red Lotus good graces. Otherwise, they can return the girl to her parents, and probably be rewarded. Shared Circumstances. The PCs Wulin rivals are also likely to be turfed, politely or otherwise, from Prosperous Devil. Having failed in their quests, they may try to induce the PCs into helping them out for example Jin might try to entice the PCs into helping him ght Glasseye Yans bandits and Governor Chen, while Fei might try to get them to travel south and depose Emperor Hu. Other NPCs may have changed circumstances Pretty Hark may have been approached by the Jade Dragon Society and become involved in the erce feud between them and Red Lotus. Mercenary War. Inevitably, the PCs were either Ironhands allies, or dealt him a stinging blow. That has earned them allies and enemies amongst the older, more traditional mercenary companies of Xia, who have very divided opinions on the renegade Nan. Wulin are often the wild card that can make or break a companys fortunes, and so the PCs may end up sucked into this erce competition, giving them the opportunity to travel Shen Zhou with the various companies, and involve themselves in conicts all across the land.
1 0 . Au s p i c i o u s C o m p l i c a t i o n s
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Wulin Rivals
No t e s o n N P C s
Note that the NPCs for this adventure have been given statistics in line with those for the PCs ie they are specically oriented for short-term play. As a result, theyre short on social advantages, Lores, Secret Arts and other traits useful for campaign play. If you intend to use them in longer-term games, you may want to redistribute their Destiny accordingly. The eight Wulin rivals of the PCs are presented in two versions a Fifth Rank version and a Fourth Rank version. The Fifth Rank is the top half of the page, the Fourth Rank the bottom we suggest after printing out the page you cut it in half, as a half-page character sheet is much more convenient to work with in play.
Assume these powerful characters roll 5-7 dice for skill rolls, have the nest quality gear, and one or more Uncommon kung-fu styles. Ironhand Nans sword, Hidden Razor, is a Class III god-weapon, while the others have an extensive complement of Secret Arts. Sapphire Miang likely has a God Weapon of her own, and possibly knows a Rare style. Likewise, there are a number of minor characters, named and unnamed, not likely to enter into direct conict with the PCs outside or their roles in the previous chapters such as the Little Brother Appraisers or the Unfurling Crimson Banner Sisterhood. These characters will more or less recognise that the PCs outclass them, and are happy to let the PCs rivals take the brunt of the ghting. Additionally, keeping such characters out of direct conict gives you a bit more exibility if one of the players becomes interested enough in a Crimson Banner girl that she becomes a major campaign xture, having her as high 5th Rank or low 4th might be better for your purposes.
All NPCs in this section use the Revised Kung-Fu Web Extra versions of kung-fu styles where relevant (see http://www.eos-press.com/downloads.html). Feel free to replace these with the standard versions of kung-fu from the main rule book, but as a downloadGenerally assume these characters roll 3-5 dice for only product, this adventure assumes you have access skill rolls (or 1 in areas theyre not interested in) and to the latest errata and web extras. have a single Common kung-fu style if they have any kung-fu at all. None of these NPCs have the skill I need! Is this a heist game or a beauty contest? Auspicious Beginnings often calls for contested skill rolls. However, you wont know who your PCs Its true that Auspicious Beginnings is not exactly are in contest with until youve played through the light on attractive characters, with attractive rst scene! As a result, you might want to use an female characters enjoying a majority due to the NPC in a situation where theyre called to make skewing eect of the Unfurling Crimson Banner skill rolls when theyve only got one die or so. Sisterhood. This isnt particularly uncommon in the genre, and helps increase the odds of a Thats okay you can either fudge the numbers romantic element to play. a bit to get them up to 4 or 5 dice if it seems reasonable (a good plan in the tutorial), or simply To the extent that the proliferation of beauty is let the contesting PC cruise in for the win. a problem, it might be worth only emphasising one or two of the Red Lotus Girls, and possibly eshing out some male NPCs, such as Ironhands By default, the other NPCs of the game will lieutenants, as being attractive. not enter into conict with the PCs, and thus no statistics are oered for them here. Sapphire Miang Regardless, you should narratively emphasise the is too powerful to be defeated by starting characters attractiveness of appropriate PCs where possible within the available timeframe. Likewise, Ironhand Quality Good Looks may be disproportionately Nan, Red Lotus Ling and Razoreyes Gongsun as common amongst these characters, but its Xiao-Li 3rd Rank characters are all vulnerable to defeat by Pai and Liang Shui that will be on the cover of the the PCs, but are powerful enough to make that comic or the movie poster the Red Lotus Girls quite time consuming. With their large supply of would be lucky to get a group shot! Even Pretty lieutenants and lackeys, they dont have much Harks Perfect Good Looks are there mostly to reason to risk direct confrontation anyway make her disguise ridiculous not to overshadow theyll almost always defer in Xiao-Li Pais sword princess role! favour of their underlings.
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Welcome to Shen Zhou!

Shen Zhou, or Land of the Gods, is an epic and fantastic vision of fourth-century China, and serves as the setting of Weapons of the Gods. You play young, up-and-coming heroes of the Wulin: the Martial Arts world. Whether Warriors, Courtiers or Scholars, your characters are already well-known for their heroic deeds, and are able to focus their chi in spectacular displays of martial-arts power. Seeking challenge, fame and power, you struggle against other martial artists, armies and even monsters in an attempt to have your name known throughout the land! Today, you are playing one of four bold young heroes who have travelled to the far edges of Shen Zhou, seeking the infamous Only Six Devils to seize some of the most famed splendours in all the land. Only Six Devils is a mighty city set between harsh mountains, the great Yellow River, and the erce Northern Desert. The personal domain of the mysterious and terrifying Iron Shadow Warlord, it has no law other than his word, and the eccentric whims of his six District Governors powerful men and women whom locals claim to be the titular Six Devils. The city is famed for two things: the ruthless professionalism of its mercenaries, and the splendour of its markets. It is said that you can buy anything within the walls of Only Six Devils. However, you have no intention of buying anything. Your motives may be as noble as righting an injustice to your homeland or as selsh as increasing your fame with the boldest of thievery, but you are here to take one of Shen Zhous greatest treasures! You have banded with other brave members of the Wulin who also seek a treasure only Six Devil City can provide, having fallen together and forged a fast bond of friendship ghting the Devil Cloud gang on your journey! However, even for such a mighty band, the markets do not give up their splendours easily. You begin in the chaotic madness of Unruly Devil District, the most densely populated place in all of Shen Zhou. The treasures that you seek lie in the exclusive serenity of Prosperous Devil District, on sale in the legendary Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion!
Sapphire Miang, Governor of Prosperous Devil, forbids any to enter her district unless invited by one of the wealthy magnates who dwell there. Luckily, those magnates often have need of brave (or foolhardy) ghters to aid them in their feuds. On this very day, three such nobles are holding a tourney to gain their favour. How lucky for you you can run on water, split stones with your sts, and count the drops of rain as they fall... how can you fail?
C h a r a c t e r Sh e e t Pr i m e r
Which of these four bold heroes will you be today? Xiao-Li Pai A loyal daughter and erce Warrior, her virtue and ambition soar to the skies, and her sword skill is higher than the clouds! Feng Guo A young Warrior who may not be wise, but is stronger than an ox with honour that knows no bounds, and sts like iron! Liang Shui A Courtier of unparalleled dedication, he breaks hearts with his smile and poetry, and breaks bones with his sound-based kung-fu! Patience Meng A brilliant Scholar, tragically too young to retire to a mountain and contemplate the Dao. His wise advice seems almost magical, his Daoist spells confound the strongest foe, and he can still crack heads with his sta! Never played Weapons of the Gods before?
Not a problem the adventure youre about to embark on serves rst and foremost as an introduction to the game. In particular, the rst scene serves explicitly as a tutorial, making sure you understand the basic rules concepts before you launch into the full frenzy of kung-fu battle!
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X i a o - L i Pa i
Invincible Sword Princess, 4th Rank Warrior
Xiao-Li Pai
Fame: Youve never heard of Xiao-Li Pai, the Orphaned Princess Blade? How embarrassing for you! Quickly, friend, let me tell you all about her her fame is growing, and you dont want to look foolish when your friends are talking about her! Her sword skill is peerless, her lial piety matchless! Every young man in Shen Zhou sees her grace and beauty and is lovestruck; every mother hears of how she avenged her slain parents against the cruel soldiers of Emperor Hu and wants her to marry their sons! Young she may be, but as she travels north her heroic deeds mount to the skies, and After a long journey, youve reached Only Six Devils in search of a fabulous treasure. Luckily along the tales of her virtue not far behind! way youve fallen in with a band of righteous heroes. Oh, youll know her if you see her she looks small, Working together youre sure to recover the treasures fragile and demure, but her eyes sparkle with you seek within the day! fearlessness! She wears her hair long, smiles often, and of course Pleasant Duty, her longsword, is nearly as tall ORIGIN: Dispossessed Noble PASSION: Obsession - Filial Piety as she is! REGION: The Jin Empire (Nan Territory) History and Heart: Daughter of a noble and virtuous ocial of royal blood in the Jin Empire, you were ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS raised amidst opulence but took your fathers lessons (All Skills have +1 die to their rating unless otherwise noted) in propriety and virtue utterly to heart. Your diculty, MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 however, was with the virtue of lial piety, because Athletics 3 [leaping 1] your parents had extremely dierent ideas of the sort Fight 3 [kicks 1] of young woman you should be! Despite your fathers Hardiness 3 [regaining chi 1] many qualities, your mother eschewed his humility and SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 5 lack of ambition, wishing for greater wealth and status. Initiative 3 Their arranged marriage had always been a burden upon Dodge 3 [projectiles 1] her, and she was determined that you would choose Finesse 3 Melee 3 [sword 1] your own path in life becoming a power in your own right. She arranged for you to be trained in the ways of PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 1 the sword by a renegade member of the Nan clan, even Condence 3 (no bonus) Grace 3 [city 1] (no bonus) learning the clans secret Heart Moves the Blade style! Conversely, your father wanted you to lead a quiet and serene life of virtue, lled with humility and acting for the slow yet steady betterment of the world. Caught between the extremes of humble ocial and ambitious wife, your dedication to lial piety was a hard road, but while they lived you managed to nd compromises that kept them both happy. However, calamity struck when your fathers humane policies irritated Emperor Hu. Now your parents are gone from this world, and theres no tricking ghosts! You properly avenged them against the Emperors soldiers with your Heart Moves the Blade, but now you have to try to live a life that would keep them both happy. Has a sixteen-year-old girl ever had such trouble?
GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 1 Learning 1 WU WEI (SILVER/METAL CHI) 4 Awareness 2 Senses 2
ambitiously show your martial might. Youre polite, gracious and cheerful, but strike at the unrighteous with uncompromising power. Try your best in every situation to please the shades of both parents by increasing your fame while showing the greatest virtue! Current members of the Nan clan may cause you diculties as they take extreme exception to your use of their style, but as a lial daughter, you cant ignore your mothers wish that you use it to rise to glory in the Martial Arts world! Luckily there are plenty of other renegades ever since Hong Dong rose to power over the Nan, so youre far from the only one in such a position.
Quality Good Looks: You have a +5 modier to skill rolls (usually Presence skills) where your good looks are a factor. Overwhelming Passion: Your dedication to the shades of your parents knows no bounds! If your Filial Piety causes you real trouble, you gain a point of Destiny. You travel Shen Zhou trying to both Possession: Pleasant Duty, Quality Longsword. humbly better society, and Speed +5, Strike +15, Damage +5
CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: 2 HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 ARMOUR: 5 points
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Lightfoot Common Any Chi Lightfoot is the ability to defy the rules of the world as you move! Every member of the Wulin has this kung-fu its so universal that you can spend any colour of chi to fuel its techniques!
1. Surefoot. Using this technique lets you run on water, climb at your running speed, cling to walls like a spider, and take no damage from falling. Cost: 1 chi of any colour. 2. Run Like a Deer. This technique lets you Cover Ground as a Free Action (i.e. you can run without losing the opportunity to attack). You also gain a +5 modier to any Dodge roll that you describe well. Cost: 2 chi of any colour. 3. Headlong Flying Leap. You can make enormous leaps as a Free Action roll Athletics at diculty 18, travelling ten yards per result die. You gain a +10 modier to Dodge skill rolls that are well described. Cost: 3 chi of any colour.
Heart Moves the Blade Uncommon Silver Chi (Artful: Swords Only) Critical: Disarm or Maim
The peerless sword skill of the Nan Clan, focusing all the passion and virtue of a warrior into an invincible movement of the blade!
1. Ambition: Soaring Blade. Apply a +10 modier to both the Strike and Damage of your sword for one attack or defence. You may draw your sword as a Free Action to make this attack or defence. Cost: 1 Silver chi 2. Brutal: Speed Blade. Activate this technique at the beginning of the round to apply a +10 modier to your swords Speed, gain a Secondary Attack, and win ties when blocking for the round. Cost: 2 Silver chi
Weapon Pleasant Duty Kick Initiative Attack/Block 4d + 5 4d + 15 5d + 15 5d Damage Result dice + 5 Result dice - 5
Ku n g Fu a n d Ex t r a o rd i n a r y Te c h n i q u e s
Dragon Saber Common Crimson Chi (Artful) Critical: Disarm or Maim A erce yet precise sword style, Dragon Saber leaves crimson echoes of your blade behind your cut!
1. Flash of Steel. Add +10 to your swords Strike for a single attack or defence. You may summon your weapon to your hand from up to 5 yards away as a Free Action to make this attack or defence. Cost: 1 Crimson chi 2. Dragon Speed. Invoke this technique at the beginning of the round to gain a +10 modier to the weapons Speed, and reduce the rst defence rolled against you this round by 1 die. Cost: 2 Crimson chi 3. Submission to the Earth. If you successfully attack with this technique, your opponent is knocked down, and you do +2d damage! Cost: 3 Crimson chi
Strategy Xiao-Li is a typical example of a sword-focused warrior. Her attacks and blocks are excellent even without spending chi, and when she uses Strike bonus techniques some opponents wont be able to cope! However, shes very vulnerable if disarmed, and is quite fragile, so be careful!
Ambition: Soaring Blade is your primary technique use it every round on your attack, supplementing it with Submission to the Earth when you really want it to hurt. Moon Covered By Clouds is a very strong defence, and you should use it whenever you can, but remember it burns Jade chi faster than you regain it. Use Brutal: Speed Blade on your rst turn to pressure your opponent, and then once more during a battle to nish an enemy o. Use Flash of Steel for defence and recovering from Disarm, or to improve your Secondary Attack from Brutal: Speed Blade.
Cloud Mastery Common Jade Chi This style focuses your jade chi to conceal your ghting spirit from your enemy!
1. Phantom of the Clouds. Add a +10 modier to your weapons Speed for the round. Cost: 1 Jade chi 2. Moon Covered by Clouds. Using this technique applies a 10 modifer to the Strike of any attacks made against you this round. Cost: 2 Jade chi
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wicked Lucky Tusks (amongst other pirates and bandits) and casting down corrupt tax-collectors. You quickly Honourable Fist, 4th Rank Warrior became a local hero, and more and more of your time Fame: Feng Guo? Of course Ive heard of him, do was taken up as word of injustices was brought to you. you take me for some sort of country bumpkin? Thats You were away when the Bei clan came for your master. exactly what Feng started out like himself a humble You left your home after burying him, determined to woodworker out in the wilds of Chenghan. Suddenly gain fame in the Wulin and prove that he was a man of everyone in the country was talking about him when he virtue, and right to teach you the way of the Iron Fist! crushed the Lucky Tusks gang single-handedly, and threw You dont seek to destroy the Bei, only force them to the wicked tax collector of the region into a pig-sty! acknowledge their error... and perhaps get revenge on Hes in Only Six Devils, is he? Oh, yes, hes easy enough his killers. Your quest to increase your fame has brought to spot. Not much to look at medium height and you to Only Six Devils, where you have fallen in with a short hair but though hes wiry, those muscles are like band of heroes all determined to recover treasures from steel and his hands are calloused all over. They say he the markets of Prosperous Devil District. You feel much used to cut down trees with his hands and carve the stronger ghting alongside such good people, so fame wood with his ngers! Usually goes bare-chested, too, should not be far away! which the girls love far more than his face. ORIGIN: Peasant Feng Guo is a virtuous young hero all right, but Ill tell PASSION: Obsession - Prove Masters Virtue you this: if he thinks youre in the wrong, swallow your REGION: Chenghan (Xi Territory) pride. Hes as stubborn as they come when he thinks its ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS a matter of honour! History and Heart: Your birth was as humble as they come your family were peasant woodworkers, spending most of their time fashioning cheap tools for those who tended the farms. You never had much of an education, but as you grew you always had an instinctive sense of right and wrong. Your mother laughed and called you her little Confucius, but in truth neither of your parents encouraged you to do much other than work. Fortune smiled upon you when your village played host to a runaway member of the Bei clan, who claimed he had ed after clashing with his lords son. The warrior defended your village from bandits, and was rewarded with a place to sleep, and such food as could be spared. He admired your natural nobility and powerful physique, and made you his student. He taught you to cultivate your chi, and eventually passed on his powerful Bei Fist technique. You have never thought yourself wise but you know right from wrong, and you cant be dissuaded when you think your strength can set something right. Youre not stupid; you know youre not ready to strike down Emperor Hu or overturn the bizarre laws of Only Six Devils, but you value your simple code above any law or standard of conduct, and you would throw away everything else to serve it if the matter was serious enough.
(All Skills have +1 die to their rating unless otherwise noted)
Feng Guo
Fe n g Gu o
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 5

Athletics 3 [smashing stu 1] Climb 3 Fight 3 [palms 1] Hardiness 3 [regain chi 1] Lift 3 [throwing 1] Initiative 3 [palms 1] Dodge 3
SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4
PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4

Condence 3 [acting honourably 1] Inspire 3 [fear 1]
GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 1

Crafting 3 [woodwork 1] (no bonus)
WU WEI (SILVER/METAL CHI) 1 CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: 2 HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 ARMOUR: 5 points Status 1 (Local Hero). Youre a long way from home, but if you can convince the Sage that an NPC is from near your village, theyll be well-disposed to you!
Iron Fists: You can block sharp weapons without suering any damage, and your sts have +5 Strike So, despite your masters wishes, as you entered rather than +0 your late teens you began to ourish your Robust: You gain 2 Health for each point of Jade Chi martial prowess: slaughtering the you spend to heal.
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1. Surefoot. Using this technique lets you run on water, climb at your running speed, cling to walls like a spider, and take no damage from falling. Cost: 1 chi of any colour. 2. Run Like a Deer. This technique lets you Cover Ground as a Free Action (i.e. you can run without losing the opportunity to attack). You also gain a +5 modier to any Dodge roll that you describe well. Cost: 2 chi of any colour.
Fist of Iron Uncommon Jade Chi Brutal (Palms Only) Critical: Disorient or Stun
The feared Bei Fist Skill, unrivalled amongst the bare-handed arts!
1. Living Weapon. Use this technique to change the statistics of your palms to Speed +15, Strike +5, Damage +10 for the round. Cost: 1 Jade chi 2. Body of Iron. Activate this technique to gain a +10 modier to your Armour for 3 rounds. Cost: 2 Jade chi 3. Rainbow Stunning Strike. Activate this technique while attacking to change the statistics of your palms to Speed +15, Strike +10, Damage +10. If this attack hits, you opponent loses their breath in a colour of chi for each result dice. You may also spend Jade chi to add damage dice on a one-for-one basis. Cost: 3 Jade chi
Weapon Palms Palms (Living Weapon) Palms (Rainbow Stunning Strike) Initiative Attack/Block 5d + 15 5d + 15 5d + 15 5d + 5 5d + 5 5d + 10 Damage Result dice - 5 Result dice + 10 Result dice + 10
Eagle Claw Common Crimon Chi Brutal (Palms Only) Critical: Disarm or Maim Eagle Claw may be a st style, but it makes your ngers slash like knives!
1. Quick Rip. Activate this technique when attacking or blocking to gain a +10 modier to the Strike of your palms. If used for an attack you also gain a +5 modier to damage, and +1d damage if your opponent hasnt acted yet. Cost: 1 Crimson chi 2. Flashing Talons. Activate this technique to get a Secondary Attack with your palms. Cost: 2 Crimson chi
Strategy
Feng is a very typical unarmed ghter: he doesnt hit as often as a swordswoman or parry so well, but when he does hit, he hits hard. He can also take quite a pounding. Fist of Iron is a technique you should be using every round not only does it greatly add to your damage, but when using it, you have access to the powerful Disorient and Stun criticals. Because it changes the statistics of your Palms rather than adding to them, you can still add modiers to those statistics, so you should use Quick Rip to enhance your attacks whenever you can. Because you cant parry as well as a sword user, you should use Body of Iron or Hardness of the Bell to boost your armour at all times. Flashing Talons is extremely useful, but be careful as you cant aord it every turn. Save enough Jade chi for Rainbow Stunning Strike, and when you have a full River, hit your opponent with a Rainbow Stunning Strike + Quick Rip to cripple them.
Golden Temple Bells Common Gold Chi This art, developed by Zan Buddhist Monks, has spread throughout Shen Zhou. What warrior would not wish to strengthen their esh with the power of their spirit?
1. Bell-Carrying Sinews. Activate this technique to gain a +10 modier to a Lift roll. Cost: 1 Gold chi 2. Hardness of the Bell. Activate this technique to gain a +10 modier to your Armour for the round. Cost: 2 Gold chi
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neither will you ever be a sorcerer, so you employ your silver tongue to keep a band of heroes around you at all Dashing Literati, 4th Rank Courtier times. The bunch youve met on your way to Only Six Fame: Whos Liang Shui? Fool! Three pretty daughters Devils all seem to be there for the same reason each to all unwed and you arent paying attention to threats to recover a dierent wonder from the markets there. their virtue? Best lock them up no, send them down Heaven has obviously blessed you with a powerful band the river no, send them downriver in a locked box! of companions, so youd be a fool to throw it away. Shui is a prominent literati, excelled on all the exams, Youre determined to keep the band together and ride but you wouldnt call him a scholar! He lives for two the wave of fame sure to arise from your heroic deeds! things: politics and fun, and he throws himself into To you, the most important eld of challenge is in the both with equal fervour! Why, just last month he interactions of human beings. This is why, despite your strode into Three Blessings Town and restored poor old impressive calligraphy and knowledge of the classics, Magistrate Kwans authority after the mess his corrupt you dont consider yourself a scholar. Your learning, sons and Shen Dong had made of the place... all in your looks, your kung fu and your music are all tools one day! It was an act worthy of the courtier-heroes of of leverage over other people. You are always on the old, yet Liang Shui decided a days hard work deserved lookout for opportunities to use them for noble ends a days hard celebration, and held a massive feast for ends that coincidentally will put you in position to himself at Kwans place - even talking Kwans daughters reap the greatest rewards! into dancing for him! ORIGIN: Hes a handsome man with clever tongue and a talent PASSION: Joy - Work and Reward for music, and his achievements are as high as the REGION: Southern Liang (Dong Territory) clouds! Youll know him anywhere for his long black hair, green eyes and ne silks, while still being t and ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS not soft in the slightest! So you see you cant trust your (All Skills have +1 die to their rating unless otherwise noted) daughters within ten thousand miles of such a man! MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 History and Heart: Your father was a noted warrior, Athletics 3 and though you never had much taste for his lifestyle, he Fight 3 [palms 1] passed onto you one indelible trait: a hatred for idleness. Hardiness 1 You dont even like sleeping! From the youngest age SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 you lled every moment of your day, whether working Dodge 3 [projectiles 1] (no bonus) studiously on your education, or playing as hard as you Finesse 1 could in your leisure time. On the same day you gained PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 5 top-marks on your all-important exams, you danced for Condence 3 [regaining chi 1] six hours with the women of your favoured tea-house! Grace 3 [city 1] So you live your life at all times. You work incredibly hard for conspicuous and exemplary success in governance, commerce, and the tasks of a courtier, and you repay yourself equally with the nest enjoyment to be had. Your works achieve virtuous ends, but it is a foolish father who leaves you with access to his daughters... You are determined to keep up the proud traditions of the literati both as political champions of just rule, and as gures of desire and delight for the women of Shen Zhou. Your chief motivation at this time is to increase your fame in the Wulin. In time, youll nd a ministry worthy of your talents, but for now, you crave the challenge oered by the Martial Arts world and strive to improve yourself as much as possible. Your Kung Fu is excellent, but you know it will never be the best and
Inspire 3 [extraordinary techniques 1] Perform 3 [music 1] Persuade 3 [big lies 1]
Liang Shui
L i a n g Sh u i
GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 4 Learning 3 [the classics 1, calligraphy 1] Politics 3 WU WEI (SILVER/METAL CHI) 1
Awareness 3 [understanding people 1] (no bonus) Investigation 3 [hidden secrets 1] (no bonus)
CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: 2 HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 ARMOUR: 5 Quality Good Looks: You get a +5 modier to skill rolls (usually Presence skills) where your good looks are a factor.
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1. Surefoot. Using this technique lets you run on water, climb at your running speed, cling to walls like a spider, and take no damage from falling. Cost: 1 chi of any colour. 2. Run Like a Deer. This technique lets you Cover Ground as a Free Action (i.e. you can run without losing the opportunity to attack). You also gain a +5 modier to any Dodge roll that you describe well. Cost: 2 chi of any colour. 3. Headlong Flying Leap. You can make enormous leaps as a Free Action roll Athletics at diculty 18, travelling ten yards per result die. You gain a +10 modier to Dodge skill rolls that are well described. Cost: 3 chi of any colour.
Extraordinary Courtier Techniques

You may use any of the following Techniques as a full action. Liang must quote or reference Confucius, Meng Tzu or some other great sage in order to use any of these techniques (it doesnt have to be a real quote, but it helps if it sounds wise). Alternately, you may spend two chi of the same colour to gain a +5 modier to your Inspire roll to activate one of these techniques.
Anger Inspiring Technique: Make a Moderate (20) Inspire roll, opposed by your opponents Condence. If you succeed, they suer a 10 modier to all actions due to blinding anger, until someone (including themselves) takes a full action to resolve the anger. Instant Inspiration Technique: Spend a Free Action in addition to a Full Action to activate this technique you use the Free Action to demonstrate your superiority through proper behaviour! Add a +5 modier to your next action. Exploitation of Sorrows Technique: Make a Moderate (20) Inspire roll, opposed by your opponents Condence. If you succeed, they suer a 10 modier to all nondefensive actions for a round in their misery! Fear Inspiring Technique: Make a Moderate (20) Inspire roll, opposed by your opponents Condence. If you succeed, they suer a 5 modier to all actions opposing you for ve turns. Note: These Techniques are not the end of Liangs Courtier abilities. In longer term games, a Courtier can apply the Secret Arts of Intrigue to manipulate the emotions of friend and foe alike, creating and twisting inspirations and passions!
Cloud Mastery Common Jade Chi This style focuses your jade chi to conceal your ghting spirit from your enemy!
1. Phantom of the Clouds. Add a +10 modier to your weapons Speed for the round. Cost: 1 Jade chi 2. Moon Covered by Clouds. Using this technique applies a 10 modifer to the Strike of any attacks made against you this round. Cost: 2 Jade chi
Music of War Common Gold Chi Critical: Disorient or Stun

1. Single Note of Pain. Activate this technique to make an attack by playing your ute (a Performance roll at 5d) at a target up to 10 yards away. Since youre not using a weapon, you gain no Speed, Strike or Damage modier, but the attack ignores armour! Cost: 1 gold chi 2. Agonising Melody. As Single Note of Pain, but up to 50 yards range, and with +1d damage. Cost: 2 gold chi 3. Threnody of Torment. As Single Note of Pain, but up to 100 yards range, +2d damage, and causes your opponent to lose their breath in their Favoured Chi for a round. Cost: 3 gold chi
Weapon Palms Initiative Attack/Block 1d + 15 5d Damage Result dice - 5
Strategy Liang doesnt look like much of a ghter, but used carefully he can be devastating. Its quite dangerous for him to be in close combat, so try staying back and using your Extraordinary Techniques to confound your foes and give your allies an easier time. When you can ll your river, hammer a vulnerable foe with Threnody of Torment! While you have more dice for Block than Dodge, youre still generally better o using Dodge and boosting it with your Lightfoot. Make sure to use Moon Covered By Clouds in any turn where you expect to be attacked by named characters, or if you have spare Chi and want to make sure Minions have no chance. Instant Inspiration Technique doesnt look like much, but its your best friend for non-combat actions where such modiers are rare.
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Patience Meng
Pa t i e n c e Me n g
Daoist Genius, 4th Rank Scholar

Fame: Ah yes, I recall Patience Meng. Young Longingfor-the-mountain, yes? One of the nest minds of all Shen Zhou, but quite literally a man before his time! If youve ever wondered what the greatest sages do before they retire to the mountains as old wise men, and actually begin their careers as great sages, well, this is it. They enter the Wulin and wait as patiently as they can for the years to turn their hair appropriately white! Hes hardly idling, though. As sad as it is for him to be a young man, and not yet a wizened old master, hes putting his genius to work in the world to learn wisdom! You cant fault his kung-fu, but its his advice that does the greatest good... why, it was his plans that won the Broken Sword Battle, that won the heart of Ice-hand Jen for Firehair Shen, and won the Foolish King Wager! Such a humble young man, too, always seeming grateful for the chance to test out his wisdom, almost like he fears it will go rusty while he waits for old age! Is that him there? Why it must be three ring sta, the best beard he can muster, an old mans clothes still too new to need patching. You couldnt mistake that earnest serenity or those sharp eyes Patience Meng has come to Unruly Devil! History and Heart: A wise child, the youngest of a large brood of minor nobles, you quickly realised that it was your destiny to be a wise old man of the mountains. Then a moment of perfect horror hit you: you were only ten, and old age was at least fty years away! You comforted yourself with the knowledge that you were not yet educated. A decade later, you had devoured every available scrap of knowledge, and your father was beginning to make noises about exams and gainful employment! Forty years of government service, you judged, would not make you wise so much as exceptionally cynical. While close, it was not exactly right for your destiny. You resolved to become a sorcerer, and set out into the wilderness to learn from the great Daoists.
you face its many challenges, and generally keep you busy while the years drag on so very slowly. You seek out challenge with an open heart, looking to nd the correct balance of wisdom and virtue to solve every problem. Where necessary, you act yourself breaking heads if they need it but you also give exceptionally good advice. Even your most obscure or strange suggestions often turn out for the best, so you try to share your wisdom when you can. You have fallen in with a band of heroes on your way to Only Six Devils, and you can sense that being with them will bring challenge to constantly youre quite grateful and will do your best to keep them together! Youre not motivated by worldly desires but you realise you must experience the world, so its valuable to be a part of this heroic band! You do your best to keep them from getting into too much trouble, of course... ORIGIN: PASSION: Obsession - Wisdom REGION: Western Yang (Xi Territory) ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
(All Skills have +1 die to their rating unless otherwise noted)

Fight 3 [kicks 1] (no bonus) Hardiness 1

Initiative 3 [advice 1] (no bonus) Dodge 2 Finesse 1 Melee 3 [sta 1] (no bonus) Condence 2 Grace 3 [advice 1] (no bonus) Learning 3 Medicine 3 [advice 1] Tactics 3 [advice 1] Awareness 3 Investigation 3 Senses 3 [hearing 1]
PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 2 GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 5
WU WEI (SILVER/METAL CHI) 5
CHI AURA: 2 Of course, they could see your destiny too. They taught RIVER: 2 you a few things, but found your quest amusing. How HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 can you leave the world if youve never been there? ARMOUR: 5 theyd say, which apparently passes for a joke of greatest Weapon Initiative Attack/Block Damage hilarity if youve been on a mountain long enough. Kick 3d + 15 4d Result dice - 5 Taking their wisdom to heart you took up a sta and entered the Wulin, hoping that the Three-Ring Sta 3d 4d + 15 Result dice + 10 tumult of the Martial Arts World will teach you wisdom while
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Lightfoot
Common Any Chi Lightfoot is the ability to defy the rules of the world as you move! Every member of the Wulin has this kung-fu its so universal that you can spend any colour of chi to fuel its techniques! 1. Surefoot. Using this technique lets you run on water, climb at your running speed, cling to walls like a spider, and take no damage from falling. Cost: 1 chi of any colour.
Terrible Rising Water Technique: Make a Moderate (20) Learning roll, opposed by your targets Awareness. If you succeed, they are unable to approach within 15 yards of someone or something of your choice for the next round. Sheltering Water Intercession: Make a Moderate (20) Learning roll. If you succeed, only those who beat your Learning roll with your Awareness can look at you to everyone else, youre invisible for the next ve rounds. Summoning the Earths Folly Technique: Make a Moderate (20) Learning roll, opposed by your targets Awareness. If you succeed, they suer chi ow loss in the colour of your choice until they commit an act of folly something plausible but stupid.
God of Wind Kick
Common White Chi Brutal (Kicks Only) Critical: Maim or Stun This erce style channels the power of your genius to kick at the most vulnerable places on a foe with the speed of the wind! 1. Earthly Spirit Kick. Activate this technique at the beginning of the round to gain a +10 modier to the Speed of your kick, +1d damage for your rst attack, and the ability to leap 20 yards as a free action to make that attack. Cost: 1 White chi 2. Heavenly Deity Kick. As Earthly Spirit kick, but with a +5 modier to Strike. The damage modier is now +2 dice, and leaping distance becomes 30 yards. Cost: 2 White chi
Secret Art of Genius
Your sheer brilliance allows you to make the nest plans! When trying to make a brilliant plan, roll a skill appropriate to the plans nature (Initiative for eective timing, Medicine for health, Tactics for military matters, Grace for social matters) at a Moderate (20) diculty. You gain a +5 modier for your particular genius for tactics. Normally this roll can only take place between scenes making a plan in a single turn applies a 10 modier. If you succeed, you may spend a point of Joss to make the plan ecacious. You may have two such plans running at once. When making the plan, choose one of the following eects to benet anyone actively following your plan: +5 modier to appropriate skill rolls 2 points of chi regeneration in an appropriate colour per round rather than one. +1 bonus to an appropriate Attribute (also raising the corresponding chi) Note: These Techniques are not the end of Patiences Scholar abilities. In longer term games, a Scholar can apply the Daoist Secret Arts to manipulate the luck and destiny of friend and foe alike, creating and changing curses and blessings!
Waves Like Water
Common Silver Chi: Artful/Brutal (Long weapons only) Critical: Disarm or Maim This style uses the length and exibility of your sta to create a blurring shield around you, snaking through your opponents defence! 1. Sliding Strike. Activate this technique at the beginning of the round to apply a -10 modier to the opponents defence when attacking.. Cost: 1 Silver chi 2. Fierce Flexible Fence. Activate this technique to gain a +10 modier your weapons Strike for all blocks for the round. You may defend against Ranged attacks without penalty. Cost: 2 Silver chi 3. Rolling Wave Attack. Activate this technique to gain a +10 modier to your weapons Strike for all attacks and blocks this round, and ignore 5 points of armour on any successful attack. Cost: 3 Silver chi
Extraordinary Daoist Spells:
You can use one of these Techniques as a Full Action. You must also spend a Free Action to use them this is the cost of the ritual nger gestures needed to work the spell! Alternately, you may instead pace the pattern of constellations and gain a +5 modier to your Learning roll this prevents you from Covering Ground this round. Great Benison of Fire: If you succeed on a Moderate (20) Learning roll, you apply a +10 modier to an allys next action.
Patience is the weakest ghter of the pre-generated characters, but by no means the least dangerous. Dont get involved in the thick of combat too lightly stay back, using your Extraordinary Techniques to confound and manipulate opponents until youve lled your River. Then leap in with a God of Wind attack, following up with a River-fuelled Rolling Wave Attack! Try to lay clever plans before going into battle dont sweat the details, as the bonuses given by the Secret Art of Genius simulate good planning. Improved Attributes and Chi Regeneration are more useful than a +5 modier in combat, but that modier can be a big deal for non-combat skills where such modiers are rarer.
Strategy
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Mountain Chung, Warrior GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Warrior This Zan monk earns his name! Who has ever seen such a giant, and with shaved head and prayer beads, no less? Quiet as a mountain, and normally gentle, hes worse than any earthquake when enraged! His st skill is good, but his greatest asset is sheer toughness, added to the strength of his faith.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
(Note: All Skills have +1 die to their rating unless otherwise noted.)

Athletics 3 [breaking things 1] Fight 3 [palms 1] Hardiness 3 [regain chi 1] Lift 3 [throwing 1] Initiative 3 Dodge 3
5th Rank
SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4 PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4
Condence 3
GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1

Learning 3 (no bonus) Awareness 2 Senses 2
WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 2
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed Golden Temple Bells: (Gold) 1: Bell-Carrying Sinews. +10 Lift 2: Hardness of the Bell. +10 Armour/round Holy Fire: (Crimson) 1: Flame Strike. +10 Strike, +1d damage 2: Seven-Fire Fist. +10 Strike, Int. 2 Burning COMBAT Iron Fists (Quality): Initiative: 4d + 15 Attack/Defence: 5d + 5 Damage: Result Dice 5 May block weapons unarmed
ARMOUR: 5 Points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
Mountain Chung, Warrior GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Warrior This Zan monk earns his name! Who has ever seen such a giant, and with shaved head and prayer beads, no less? Quiet as a mountain, and normally gentle, hes worse than any earthquake when enraged! His st skill is good, but his greatest asset is sheer toughness, added to the strength of his faith.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
4th Rank
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MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 Athletics 3 [breaking things 1] Fight 3 [palms 1] Hardiness 3 [regain chi 1] Lift 3 [throwing 1] SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4 Initiative 3 Dodge 3 PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 Inspire 1 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1 Learning 3 (no bonus) WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Awareness 3 Senses 3 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 17
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed Golden Temple Bells: (Gold) 1: Bell-Carrying Sinews. +10 Lift 2: Hardness of the Bell. +10 Armour/round Holy Fire: (Crimson) 1: Flame Strike. +10 Strike, +1d damage 2: Seven-Fire Fist. +10 Strike, Int. 2 Burning Subtle Hand (Silver, Down/Stun) 1: Feint. Attack at +10 Strike. Result dice added to next defence roll rather than doing damage 2: Pause for Thought. Attack at +10 Strike. Stun on standard success COMBAT Iron Fists (Quality): Initiative: 4d + 15, Attack/Defence: 5d + 5, Damage: Result Dice 5 May block weapons unarmed
Emerald Zilong, Warrior GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Warrior In his gleaming green armour, and with his swift dragon-spear, who can defy this young hero? Merry at heart and bearing no grudges, he ghts valiantly, looking ever for a Lord worthy of his service! Sadly for them, the young ladies of Unruly Devil have failed to attract his eye, for his devotion is strong and lies elsewhere...
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 3 Athletics 3 [leaping 1] Fight 2 Hardiness 1 Lift 2 [armour 1] SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4 Initiative 3 [spear 1] Dodge 3 Finesse 3 Melee 3 [spear 1] PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 2 Condence 2 Grace 2 [city 1] (no bonus) GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 2 Tactics 3 [small unit 1] (no bonus) WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 ARMOUR: 10 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility Dragon Saber (Crimson, Disarm/Maim) 1: Flash of Steel. +10 Strike, summon weapon from 4 yards as Free 2: Dragon Sword. +10 Speed, -1d from rst opponents defence Waves Like Water (Silver, Disarm/Maim) 1: Sliding Strike. -10 to opponents defence 2: Fierce Flexible Fence. +10 Strike for blocks, defend normally against Ranged, 1 round duration COMBAT Kick: Initiative: 4d +15, Attack/Defence: 3d Damage: Result Dice 5 Long Spear: Intiative: 5d + 10, Attack/ Defence: 5d +5, Damage: Result Dice +10 BACKGROUNDS Good Looks (Quality)
Emerald Zilong, Warrior GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Warrior In his gleaming green armour, and with his swift dragon-spear, who can defy this young hero? Merry at heart and bearing no grudges, he ghts valiantly, looking ever for a Lord worthy of his service! Sadly for them, the young ladies of Unruly Devil have failed to attract his eye, for his devotion is strong and lies elsewhere... COMBAT Kick: Initiative: 4d +15, Attack/Defence: 3d, Damage: Result Dice 5 Dragon Spear: Initiative: 5d + 10, Attack/ Defence: 5d +10, Damage: Result Dice +10
4th Rank
53
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 3 Athletics 3 [leaping 1] Fight 2 Hardiness 1 Lift 2 [armour 1] SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 5 Initiative 3 [spear 1] Dodge 3 Finesse 3 Melee 3 [spear 1] PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 2 Condence 2 Grace 2 [city 1] (no bonus) GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 2 Tactics 3 [small unit 1] (no bonus) WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 5 ARMOUR: 10 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 17
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility 3: Headlong Flying Leap. Cover Ground or Leap as Free Action. Everyday (18) Athletics to leap 10 yards per result die. +10 Mobility Dragon Saber (Crimson, Disarm/Maim) 1: Flash of Steel. +10 Strike, summon weapon from 4 yards as Free 2: Dragon Sword. +10 Speed, -1d from rst opponents defence 3: Submission to the Earth. Adds Downing. +2d damage Waves Like Water (Silver, Disarm/Maim) 1: Sliding Strike. -10 to opponents defence 2: Fierce Flexible Fence. +10 Strike for blocks, defend normally against Ranged, 1 round duration 3: Rolling Wave Attack. +10 Strike for round, ignore 5 points of armour BACKGROUNDS Good Looks (Quality)
Tan Dong, Courtier GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Courtier A splendid soldier-bureaucrat, in his middle years hes left the army of the Jin Emperor to follow his clan in the Wulin. His hair is grey, but his eyes are erce and wits keen and who would not fear his spear-skills? He ghts to reunify the land. Though the battle will not be won in his lifetime, his calculated, even ruthless moves bring things together, not tear them apart.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 Fight 2 [palms 1] Hardiness 2 Lift 2 [armour 1] SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 Dodge 1 Melee 3 [spear 1] (no bonus) PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 Inspire 3 Persuade 3 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 1 Politics 3 Tactics 3 [small unit 1] WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 2 Awareness 2 ARMOUR: 10 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed Heavens Thunder (Jade, Knockback/Down) 1: Dragon Wind. +10 Speed, double running speed. 2: Lashing Torrent. Secondary Attack EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES: Fear Inspiring Technique: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 5 to target opponents opposed actions against you for ve turns. Distracting Suggestion Technique: Moderate(20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 1 to Presence and Genius for remainder of scene. COMBAT Palms: Initiative: 1d +15, Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice 5 Long Spear: Intiative: 1d + 10, Attack/ Defence: 4d +5, Damage: Result Dice +10
Tan Dong, Courtier GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Courtier A splendid soldier-bureaucrat, in his middle years hes left the army of the Jin Emperor to follow his clan in the Wulin. His hair is grey, but his eyes are erce and wits keen and who would not fear his spear-skills? He ghts to reunify the land. Though the battle will not be won in his lifetime, his calculated, even ruthless moves bring things together, not tear them apart. COMBAT Palms/Kicks: Initiative: 1d +15, Attack/ Defence: 5d Damage: Result Dice 5 Long Spear: Intiative: 1d + 10, Attack/ Defence: 4d +5, Damage: Result Dice +10 BACKGROUNDS Status 3 (Reputable)
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi)
4th Rank
54
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 5 Athletics 2 Fight 3 [kicks 1, palms 1] Hardiness 2 Lift 2 [armour 1] SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 Dodge 3 (no bonus) Melee 3 [spear 1] (no bonus) PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 Inspire 3 Persuade 3 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 2 Politics 3 Tactics 3 [small unit 1] WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 2 Awareness 2 Senses 2 ARMOUR: 10 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 16
1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility
Heavens Thunder (Jade, Knockback/Down)

1: Dragon Wind. +10 Speed, double running speed. 2: Lashing Torrent. Secondary Attack 3: Crashing Thunder. Make Condence + 10 as 5 yard radius Area Attack. Adds Down.
Thousand Scythe Kick (Gold, Knockback/ Maim)
1: Fast Scythe Kick. +10 Speed, +10 Strike 2: Sweeping Scythe Kick. +10 Strike, Adds Down
EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES:
Lassitude, Joy and Love: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 10 on initiative until Full Action sacriced. Fear Inspiring Technique: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 5 to target opponents opposed actions against you for ve turns. Distracting Suggestion Technique: Moderate(20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 1 to Presence and Genius for remainder of scene.
Clever Li-Li, Scholar GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Scholar Li-Li was a little plain, so her village didnt pay as much attention to her as they should. If they had, they might have noticed that she always seemed to know what fate had in store for the village next... a talent the clever young girl soon realised she possessed, but felt it was wasted on a sleepy little village. Its lucky shes so clever, since her combination of naivet and ambition is a big danger in Only Six Devils, but her thick country accent cant hide her brilliance from discerning eyes.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 3 Athletics 2 Fight 3 Hardiness 1 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 3 Condence 3 Persuade 3 [advice 1] (no bonus) GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 3 Medicine 3 [advice 1] Politics 3 [advice 1] WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 Senses 3 [sight 1] ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility Blizzard Fist (Silver, Down/Stun) 1: Frost-Numbing Fist. Damage inicts test penalties of next level down 2: Frozen Moon. -5 to opponents strike for round if in personal combat Secret Art of Genius:
Legendary Genius: +5 to Politics Advice rolls.
COMBAT Palm: Initiative: 1d +15 Attack/Defence: 4d Damage: Result Dice - 5
Clever Li-Li, Scholar GROUP: The Righteous (etc.) Society RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Scholar Li-Li was a little plain, so her village didnt pay as much attention to her as they should. If they had, they might have noticed that she always seemed to know what fate had in store for the village next... a talent the clever young girl soon realised she possessed, but felt it was wasted on a sleepy little village. Its lucky shes so clever, since her combination of naivet and ambition is a big danger in Only Six Devils, but her thick country accent cant hide her brilliance from discerning eyes.
4th Rank
55
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 Athletics 2 Fight 3 Hardiness 1 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 Dodge 3 (no bonus) PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 Persuade 3 [advice 1] GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 3 Medicine 3 [advice 1] Politics 3 [advice 1] WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 Senses 3 [sight 1] ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 17
1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility 3: Headlong Flying Leap. Cover Ground or Leap as Free Action. Everyday (18) Athletics to leap 10 yards per result die. +10 Mobility
Golden Temple Bells: (Gold)
1: Bell-Carrying Sinews. +10 Lift 2: Hardness of the Bell. +10 Armour/round
Blizzard Fist (Silver, Down/Stun)
1: Frost-Numbing Fist. Damage inicts test penalties of next level down 2: Frozen Moon. -5 to opponents strike for round if in personal combat 3: Wounded By Frost. Damage inicts test penalties of next level down. +10 Strike, +2d damage
Secret Art of Genius:
Legendary Genius: +5 to Politics Advice rolls
COMBAT Iron Fist: Initiative: 1d +15 Attack/ Defence: 4d + 5 Damage: Result Dice 5 May block weapons unarmed.
Black-Saber Jin, Warrior GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Warrior This shaggy-haired but roughly handsome warrior looks like hed be far more at home on a horse than the streets of Unruly Devil, but in truth he knows the city far better than the other heroes. Jin was the master of the Thousand Sabers bandit gang, but his fortunes tumbled when the Hell Clan warrior Glasseye Yan moved into the area. Hes out for revenge, both on Yan and on Governor Chen, who left Jin and his men to die. Despite this melancholy fortune, Jin keeps up a cheerful appearance, his natural love for mayhem and battle keeping him joking and laughing as he ghts his way to Prosperous Devil!
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
BACKGROUNDS ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 Athletics 3 Fight 3 Hardiness 3 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 5 Initiative 3 [hooked sabres 1] Dodge 3 Finesse 3 [thievery 1] Melee 3 [hooked sabres 1] Ride 3 [horse 1] PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 1 Condence 1 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1 WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Senses 3 Stealth 3 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
Heart-Breaking Blade (Crimson, Disarm/ Maim)
1: Killing Spree. +5 Strike, +2d damage, Free weapon draw 2: Lightning Killing Spree. +10 Speed, +5 Strike, +2d damage, Free weapon draw 3: Killing Frenzy Spree. +10 Speed, +5 Strike, +3d damage, Free weapon draw, Area Attack 5 feet radius Good Looks (Quality) Weapon Training (Hooked Swords)
COMBAT Palm: Initiative: 4d +15, Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice -5 Paired Hook Swords: Initiative: 5d + 10, Attack/Defence: 5d +10*, Damage: Result Dice +5 *+5 only for single blade
Black-Saber Jin, Warrior GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Warrior This shaggy-haired but roughly handsome warrior looks like hed be far more at home on a horse than the streets of Unruly Devil, but in truth he knows the city far better than the other heroes. Jin was the master of the Thousand Sabers bandit gang, but his fortunes tumbled when the Hell Clan warrior Glasseye Yan moved into the area. Hes out for revenge, both on Yan and on Governor Chen, who left Jin and his men to die. Despite this melancholy fortune, Jin keeps up a cheerful appearance, his natural love for mayhem and battle keeping him joking and laughing as he ghts his way to Prosperous Devil! COMBAT Palms: Initiative: 4d +15, Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice -5 Paired Hook Swords: Initiative: 5d + 10, Attack/Defence: 5d +10*, Damage: Result Dice +5 *+5 only for single blade

Athletics 3 Fight 3 Hardiness 3

Initiative 3 [hooked sabres 1] Dodge 3 Finesse 3 [thievery 1] Melee 3 [hooked sabres 1] Ride 3 [horse 1] Condence 3 (no bonus) Inspire 3 [fear 1] (no bonus)
Heart-Breaking Blade (Crimson, Disarm/
4th Rank
PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 1 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1
Tactics 3 [small unit 1] (no bonus) Senses 3 Stealth 3
Maim) 1: Killing Spree. +5 Strike, +2d damage, Free weapon draw 2: Lightning Killing Spree. +10 Speed, +5 Strike, +2d damage, Free weapon draw 3: Killing Frenzy Spree. +10 Speed, +5 Strike, +3d damage, Free weapon draw, Area Attack 5 feet radius
Cloud Mastery (Jade)
WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
1: Phantom of the Clouds. +10 Speed 2: Moon Covered By Clouds. -10 to Strike on attacks against you for round
Yellow River (Silver, Disarm/Knockback)
1: Perilous Rapids Meditation. +10 Speed, summon weapon (5 yards) as Free Action. 2: Broken Stones Prayer. Melee attack at Short Range (10 yards). 1d from defence if they attempt to close
BACKGROUNDS
Good Looks (Quality) Weapon Training (Hooked Swords)
56
Pretty Hark, Warrior GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Warrior Dressing up as a boy to prove that girls are every bit as good at kung fu is a timehonoured tradition, but it helps if youre not so stunningly pretty and incredibly fervent about proving girls equality that a blind man can see what youre up to from three countries away! Hark is a good person at heart, but shes carried away with proving something to people that have long since accepted it the Wulin is well aware of the deadliness of women ghters! Its possible there are oppressive parents shes rebelling against... she seems to very much enjoy causing the destruction that she thinks is a natural part of being a boy. Hark has long hair that she conceals very poorly under a cap, and a gure that resists being hidden.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4 Athletics 3 [leaping 1] Fight 3 [sta 1] Hardiness 1 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 2 Initiative 2 Dodge 2 Finesse 2 PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 Grace 3 Perform 3 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1 Learning 1 Politics 1 Tactics 1 WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed Waves Like Water (Silver, Disarm/Maim) 1: Sliding Strike. -10 to opponents defence 2: Fierce Flexible Fence. +10 Strike for blocks, defend normally against Ranged, 1 round duration Universal Blow (Jade, Knockback/Down) 1: Flowers in the Fog. +10 Speed 2: Hail of Blows. Secondary Attack, Universal Blow Only COMBAT Palm: Initiative: 3d +15 Attack/Defence: 4d Damage: Result Dice 5 Wolf-Tooth Sta: Initiative: 3d, Attack/ Defence: 5d +15 Damage: Result Dice +10 BACKGROUNDS Good Looks (Quality)
Pretty Hark, Warrior GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Warrior Dressing up as a boy to prove that girls are every bit as good at kung fu is a timehonoured tradition, but it helps if youre not so stunningly pretty and incredibly fervent about proving girls equality that a blind man can see what youre up to from three countries away! Hark is a good person at heart, but shes carried away with proving something to people that have long since accepted it the Wulin is well aware of the deadliness of women ghters! Its possible there are oppressive parents shes rebelling against... she seems to very much enjoy causing the destruction that she thinks is a natural part of being a boy. Hark has long hair that she conceals very poorly under a cap, and a gure that resists being hidden. BACKGROUNDS Good Looks (Perfect)

Athletics 3 [leaping 1] Fight 3 [sta 1] Hardiness 1 Initiative 2 Dodge 2 Finesse 2
4th Rank
Condence 3 Grace 3 Inspire 2 Perform 3
Waves Like Water (Silver, Disarm/Maim)

1: Sliding Strike. -10 to opponents defence 2: Fierce Flexible Fence. +10 Strike for blocks, defend normally against Ranged, 1 round duration 1: Flowers in the Fog. +10 Speed 2: Hail of Blows. Secondary Attack, Universal Blow Only
Universal Blow (Jade, Knockback/Down)

Learning 1 Politics 1 Tactics 3 (no bonus) Awareness 3 Investigation 3
Unfolding Glory (Gold, Down/Maim)

1: How Swift Thy Weapon. +10 Speed, +1d Initiative, Free Weapon Draw. 2: Willow Stance. +10 Strike to Blocks, +10 Dodge, +1d to defences. Round duration. Channel: 2 Silver
WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
57
COMBAT Palms: Initiative: 3d +15 Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice 5 Wolf-Tooth Sta: Initiative: 3d +5, Attack/ Defence: 5d +15, Damage: Result Dice +10.
Fei Hsiao, Courtier GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Courtier There is no shortage of disposed southern nobles angry at Emperor Hu, but not many of them become so enraged that they stop distinguishing between him and other questionable rulers! Fei is a beautiful woman in her thirties with stark white hair, wielding a magnicent kwan dao, and with an endlessly brilliant approach to conversation. She seems to always have a contingency plan for any eventuality, prepared for anything that comes across her path a strange counterpoint to her unbridled fury at corrupt governance, and her determination to topple every corrupt regime everywhere!
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 1 Athletics 1 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4 Dodge 3 Finesse 3 Melee 3 [kwan dao 1] PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 [majestic surety 1] Grace 3 [city 1] Inspire 3 [love 1] Perform 3 [ute 1] Persuade 3 [clever debate 1] GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 2 Politics 3 WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 2 Awareness 2 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility Holy Fire: (Crimson) 1: Flame Strike. +10 Strike, +1d damage 2: Seven-Fire Fist. +10 Strike, Int. 2 Burning EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES: Anger Inspiring: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 10 on all actions until any character sacrices a full action to resolve anger Instant Inspiration: +5 to a mundane roll Exploitation of Sorrows: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence.10 to all non-defensive actions for one round COMBAT Palms: Initiative: 1d +15 Attack/Defence: 1d Damage: Result Dice 5 Kwan Dao: Initiative: 1d + 5, Attack/ Defence: 5d +5, Damage: Result Dice + 15
Fei Hsiao, Courtier GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion. RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Courtier There is no shortage of disposed southern nobles angry at Emperor Hu, but not many of them become so enraged that they stop distinguishing between him and other questionable rulers! Fei is a beautiful woman in her thirties with stark white hair, wielding a magnicent kwan dao, and with an endlessly brilliant approach to conversation. She seems to always have a contingency plan for any eventuality, prepared for anything that comes across her path a strange counterpoint to her unbridled fury at corrupt governance, and her determination to topple every corrupt regime everywhere!
4th Rank
58
COMBAT Palms: Initiative: 1d +15 Attack/Defence: 1d Damage: Result Dice 5 Kwan Dao: Initiative: 1d + 5, Attack/ Defence: 5d +5, Damage: Result Dice + 15
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 1 Athletics 1 SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4 Dodge 3 Finesse 3 Melee 3 [kwan dao 1] PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 [majestic surety 1] Grace 3 [city 1] Inspire 3 [love 1] Perform 3 [ute 1] Persuade 3 [clever debate 1] GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 4 Learning 3 Crafting 3 Politics 3 Tactics 3 WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 3 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 16
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility Holy Fire: (Crimson) 1: Flame Strike. +10 Strike, +1d damage 2: Seven-Fire Fist. +10 Strike, Int. 2 Burning Golden Temple Bells: (Gold) 1: Bell-Carrying Sinews. +10 Lift 2: Hardness of the Bell. +10 Armour/round EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES Anger Inspiring: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 10 on all actions until any character sacrices a full action to resolve anger. Instant Inuence Technique: +5 to a mundane roll Exploitation of Sorrows: Moderate (20) Inspire opposed by Condence. 10 to all non-defensive actions for one round. Secret Art of Genius
Doctor Jang-Lu, Scholar GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Scholar This brash yet impeccably groomed young man wears a doctors clothes, and indeed is well-versed in the arts of medicine... but seems to take a warriors tack. He likes to claim that he has coldly decided to treat the illness of the world by cauterising the wicked, but he does seem to take a great deal of joy from any excuse to use his powerful kicking style and superior intellect to get the best of an opponent. Hes easily recognisable by his medicine bag and long braid.
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
5th Rank
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 1 Fight 3 [kicks 1] (no bonus) SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 1 Dodge 3 (no bonus) Finesse 3 [ne manipulation 1] (no bonus) PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4 Condence 3 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 5 Learning 3 [calligraphy 1] Medicine 3 [injuries 1] Crafting 3 WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 4 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 [hidden secrets 1] Senses 3 [touch 1] ARMOUR: 5 Points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed Thousand Scythe Kick (Gold, Knockback/ Maim) 1: Fast Scythe Kick. +10 Speed, +10 Strike 2: Sweeping Scythe Kick. +10 Strike, Adds Down EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES Grievous Act of Metal: Moderate (20) Learning roll opposed by Awareness. Full action. 10 modier to the action of opponent. Instant Inuence Technique: +5 to a mundane roll Summoning the Earths Folly: Moderate (20) Learning opposed by Awareness. Opponent suers chi ow loss in one colour until they do something objectively foolish. COMBAT Kicks. Initiative: 1d +15, Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice -5
Doctor Jang-Lu, Scholar GROUP: Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion RANK/ARCHETYPE: 4th Rank Scholar This brash yet impeccably groomed young man wears a doctors clothes, and indeed is well-versed in the arts of medicine... but seems to take a warriors tack. He likes to claim that he has coldly decided to treat the illness of the world by cauterising the wicked, but he does seem to take a great deal of joy from any excuse to use his powerful kicking style and superior intellect to get the best of an opponent. Hes easily recognisable by his medicine bag and long braid.

Athletics 3 (no bonus) Fight 3 [kicks 1] (no bonus)
EXTRAORDINARY TECHNIQUES Grievous Act of Metal: Moderate (20) Learning roll opposed by Awareness. Full action. 10 modier to an opponents action. Instant Inuence Technique: +5 to a mundane roll Summoning the Earths Folly: Moderate (20) Learning opposed by Awareness. Opponent suers chi ow loss in one colour until they do something objectively foolish.
4th Rank
Condence 3
Dodge 3 (no bonus) Finesse 3 [ne manipulation 1] (no bonus)
Drunken Monkey (Silver)

Learning 3 [calligraphy 1] Medicine 3 [injuries 1, kung fu 1] Crafting 3 Awareness 3 Investigation 3 [hidden secrets 1] Senses 3 [touch 1]
1: Monkey Capering. +10 dodge 2: Monkey Roll. +10 Armour, escape from tight spot
Thousand Scythe Kick (Gold, Knockback/ Maim) Wisdom of the Seven Gates (White)
1: Fast Scythe Kick. +10 Speed, +10 Strike 2: Sweeping Scythe Kick. +10 Strike, Adds Down 1: Pain-Negating Method. Full action, Medicine skill roll. Each Wound level treated as a degree of diculty (Battered = 10, Injured = 15, Wounded = 18 etc). Success erases wound penalties. 2: Disturb the Jade Leaves. Medicine roll as attack. Success shuts down a single specialisation, a critical two specialisations, for 3 rounds. 3: Pruning the Jade Branches. On Attack, if Genius higher than opponents, adds Stun, and they must skip one action per two result dice.
ARMOUR: 0 CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: [ ] [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 BACKGROUNDS
Superior Specialty: +5 to Medicine kung-fu rolls
COMBAT Kicks. Initiative: 1d +15, Attack/Defence: 4d, Damage: Result Dice -5
59
Empty Hand Lieutenant RANK/ARCHETYPE: 5th Rank Warrior These bright and disciplined young men are the future of Ironhand Nans mercenary company, and theyre well aware that they carry the pride of their Society wherever they go! Use these stats whenever you need a quick character to lead Minions. ARMOUR: 5 points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] [XX] [XX] [XX] [XX] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 13
ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS

Athletics 3 Fight 2 Hardiness 1 Lift 2 [armour 1]
5th Rank
Initiative 3 [sword 1] Dodge 3 Finesse 3 Melee 3 [sword 1] Condence 2 Grace 1 [city 1]
KUNG FU STYLES Lightfoot: (Any chi) 1: Surefoot. Run across water, up walls, recover from Downed 2: Run Like a Deer. Cover Ground as Free Action. +5 Mobility Dragon Saber (Crimson, Disarm/Maim) 1: Flash of Steel. +10 Strike, summon weapon from 4 yards as Free Action 2: Dragon Sword. +10 Speed, -1d from rst opponents defence COMBAT Palm: Initiative: 4d +15 Attack/Defence: 3d Damage: Result Dice 5 Longsword: Initiative: 5d+5, Attack/ Defence: 5d+10, Damage: Result Dice +10
PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 2 GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 2

Tactics 3 [small unit 1] (no bonus)
Blank Minions sheets: use these to keep track of the groups of followers encountered in the game. An example sheet has been pre-lled for twenty Gang Fighters, led by the Empty Hand Lieutenant detailed above.
5 Followers Rating _______ Gang Fighters
Number Present Leaders Presence 1:
Example:
Followers Rating _______
Empty Hand T roops
Gang Fighters
F orce
20
OPPONENTS
Xiao-Li Pai 1: ______________ Feng Guo 2: ______________ Liang Shui 3: ______________ Patience Meng 4: ______________ 5: ______________ 6: ______________
4:
OPPONENTS
Base Value 7 (unit of 5)

2: 3:
2:
3:

4: 5:

6:
1: ______________ 2: ______________ 3: ______________ 4: ______________ 5: ______________ 6: ______________

6:
5:
Gang Fighters
F orce
OPPONENTS
Gang Fighters
F orce
OPPONENTS
2:
3:
1: ______________ 2: ______________ 3: ______________ 4: ______________ 5: ______________ 6: ______________

6: 4:
2:
3:
1: ______________ 2: ______________ 3: ______________ 4: ______________ 5: ______________ 6: ______________

6:
4:
5:
5:
60
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AuspiciousBeginnings DTRPG

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AuspiciousBeginnings DTRPG

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AUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS

A Tutorial Adventure for the Wuxia Action System

Triumph of the Sword Princess

A Free Supplement for the

Ivy Lorete (order #2487143)

Special thanks to:

OK, heres the plan: we play through

Tips for the Sage: Loresheets and Auspicious Beginnings

Only Two Devils

Unruly Devil (Discussion)

Secrets of Destiny: With a Full Purse Only Six Devils

Sheathed-Blade Empty-Hand Prosperity Society

Prosperous Devil and the Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion

Guild of Gentleman Appraisers

Daoist Genius, 4th Rank Scholar

The Four Fierce Flames of Rebellion!

Unfurling Crimson Banner Sisterhood

The nature of the contest

The Contest for the Sage on a Schedule

Round Two: Modiers, Stacking and Complex Skill Rolls

Round Three Initiative, Opposed Rolls and River

And two zeros makes 20

Tutorial? Wheres the skip button?

Round Four: Combat

The Adventure Loresheet

Secrets of Destiny: Auspicious Beginnings

The Eight Splendours of the Markets

The Three Sponsors

The Five Motivations

Rivalry, Love and Luck

Metal Gear Wuxia

The Library of the Guild of Gentlemen Appraisers

Ironhand Nans Motives

Using the setting

The Audience Chamber of Sapphire Miang

Wisdom of the Elders

The Ninefold Prosperity Pavilion

10. Auspicious Complications

Welcome to Shen Zhou!

Invincible Sword Princess, 4th Rank Warrior

CHI AURA: 2 RIVER: 2 HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15 ARMOUR: 5 points

MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 5

SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 4

PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 4

GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 1

Extraordinary Courtier Techniques

Music of War Common Gold Chi Critical: Disorient or Stun

Daoist Genius, 4th Rank Scholar

MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 1

SPEED (CRIMSON/FIRE CHI) 2

PRESENCE (GOLD/EARTH CHI) 2 GENIUS (WHITE/WATER CHI) 5

WU WEI (SILVER/METAL CHI) 5

God of Wind Kick

Secret Art of Genius

Waves Like Water

Extraordinary Daoist Spells:

ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS

MIGHT (JADE/WOOD CHI) 4

GENIUS (WHITE/METAL CHI) 1

WU WEI (SILVER/WATER CHI) 2

ARMOUR: 5 Points CHI AURA: 1 RIVER: [ ] HEALTH POINTS PER LEVEL: 15

ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS

1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:

1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:

1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: