GM Notes: Episode Guide
Contents
Episode 1: assembly
The group assembles in Buech on April 15, 803ND. Speeches are given; introduction of characters. Characters informed of the two other expeditions to the south and west. One NPCs will be included in the group: maybe Captain Yu for balance. Characters given cash to obtain supplies. Maps are provided. Presumably characters will go out to purchase stuff. Within the city they will encounter the Crag, who have active trade with Uusam and Shin by sea. The traitor, Lien Ten, would have a chance to report in.
Attitudes towards the Crag: suspicious. People tend to think that the Crag are thieves and degenerates. They smell bad. They look ugly. they stay separate from humans in Beuch. If it weren’t for the lucrative trade business with them, they would not be allowed in. they are forbidden from leaving the city; they have a limited visa for Buech only.
Sun Yung Kim will greet the characters and brief them: “Introduction and motivation for Uusam: Welcome to Beuch gentlemen….and lady. Welcome, honored guests. You know why you are assembled here today. Not in a thousand years have the 6 kingdoms been so threatened and torn by violence. The Emporer Jin has gone completely and utterly insane. You all know why you are here, the objective is if not simple, easily said. To end the reign of the mad emperor Jin. As you know, Jin has ended 800 years of peace, turning his back on the achievement of is ancestor, Jin the first, who initiated the peace at the end of the hundred years war. The borders of Jin have been closed for eight years now, and it has been a three years since the war of madness commenced. With the fall of Konn, and the treachery of the mung, Kava tribe excluded of course, we will be no match for the Shin armies if they are truly intent on overrunning Uusam. We will fight, and for a time I have no doubt that we will hold our own, but eventually their superior resources and manpower will overwhelm Uusam. In short, times are desperate. The free people call upon you to end this madness. Gentlemen, I will let you introduce yourselves, and name your particular talents. Starting with Captain Yu”
Why the mission will succeed in ending the war: Despite being cloistered in their forbidden city, the emperors of Shin have always held the country in the palm of their hands through the charisma and sway of their words. By killing the emperor, you cut out the heart of Shin. They will have no direction, no drive, they will turn inwards again to find a new leader, maybe we can convince them of the virtues of democracy. But first, this madness must be cut out by its very root. Jin the mad must die.
Three groups: Therefore, the president of Uusam commissions to end Jins miserable life. Three groups are assembled, you my friends, are one of the three. The other two groups are specialized, and where they go, you cannot, could not, follow. Your group carries diversity as its power. If you do find each other inside Shin, you will know each other by the pass phrase: “The day is dark” rejoined by “the night grows darker” and finally “but the sun rises in the east” and finally “and brings with it a new hope”. Uusam gives you sufficient funds to purchase anything you will need for the trip, Captain Yu will be in charge of the funds for now.
Recap
The characters met for the first time on April 15th 803ND in Beuch, Uusam. Their mission: assassinate the mad emporer Jin. Reward: uper loot. Time limitations: intelligence predicts the war will start in 5 months and that Uusam will fall one month later.
Because Viktor Kreikil was a no show, Capt. Yu was assigned to the group. They geared up, and took a Crag boat north to Tia Jua Ana. In Tia Jua Ana, Zhi Zhi engineered a ride west on a smuggler boat headed to Mae Dison.
Episode 2 Mae Dison to Konn or beyond
Mae Dison
Smugglers betrayed: Captain Yu greets the guards at the gate and informs them of the smugglers operations nearby. 50 troops rush out the southern gate. Viktor Kreikil: Buying horses, see Viktor’s horse. He is in jail for trying to cross illegally without a passport. Capt Yu can also find this out by asking the north gate. Sontaran at the border: After crossing the bridge. Merchant caravan being searched on entry, Grundles pay tax on egress.
On the road
Monk Wa Ren Tao and Bandits. 14 bandits (1 z 25, 2 z 20, 12 z 15).
Numerous Grundles traveling west.
Sontaran traveling party. Characters may observe the two slave races. There will be 8 Sontarans, 15 Morlanders and 4 Relbars. One of the Sontarans abuses a Morlander and the Relbars try to make an escape.
Recap
Guest staring Justin as Captain Yu. I really enjoyed Justin’s portrayal of Captain Yu, he was a total ass, which was perfect. The group set out from Mae Dison after picking up Viktor from the Uusam jail. They got their first glimpse of the Sontaran ambassador and later the Sontaran camp, complete with Relbar and Morland slaves. Viktor and Captain Yu stepped right out to chat with the Sontarans, and were about to be skewered if it were not for the positive relationship that Capt. Yu had previously built up with the Sontaran ambassador Lynx. Later they traveled on through Grundle, met Wa Ren Tao (the emporer in disguise) being waylaid by bandits. The bandits were readily dispatched.
Episode 3 Crossing the Border
Huan Fang
Pit Fight competition: Gabe’s nemesis. Sick people in the streets, bleeding, infected. Child with diptheria. Opium smuggler is out of business. Lost 2 of 4 ships over first 4 months. Someone is following the group.
Road West of Huan Fang
A Shin prison transport travels towards Konn. 20 guards on horseback or driving cart. A prisoner in a dark boxed cart reaches out his hand towards the characters. It is Lo Ten. If rescued, this will unmask Lien Ten as the traitor. Guards include 10 Ninja z15, 3 Ninja z20, 1 Ninja z25, 5 Iron silk scarf minions and 1 Iron silk scarf master
Passing the lands of Mung
Mung horseback raiders, 5 z 20, 1 z 26 Shin roaming patrols, 6 z 20, 2 z 26
Crossing the border
1) Smuggler ships across Huang Lake to either the swamp or north of Huang Rai. Complications: interception by Shin boats. Say smuggler captain has stealth 13- for boats and patrols have perception 11-. The boat trip from Huan Fang to Huang Rai direct takes 6 days on a 20 oar boat (stealth +0), 10 days on a 10 oar boat (stealth +2) or 15 days on a 6 oar boat (stealth +4). Patrols only cover part of the lake (see map). Shin patrol boats are 20 oar boats, each of 20 oarsman is a z15 grunt, plus a captain and two officers z26 each. One encounter with the patrol not checking in will increase the difficulty by 1 per day at sea due to increased patrols.
2) Crossing the Xie River. Width and depth tables. Can change every 1/8 mile by one step.
| roll | Depth | Width(ft) | Rapids |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 500 | class 0 |
| 2 | 10 | 700 | class 0 |
| 3 | 20 | 1000 | class 0 |
| 4 | 30 | 1200 | class 1 |
| 5 | 40 | 1400 | class 3 |
| 6 | 50 | 1500 | class 5 |
3) Go over the wall. This is possible. Requires a stealth roll. In the dark it is easier. The wall is designed to keep out armies, not individuals. Patrol small towers are placed every ¼ mile. Then you have to climb through the mountains. It’s slow going but not too hard. May have to go around chasms or other obstacles. Movement over the mountains is
4) Impersonate grundles through the Konn gate. This will be a disguise roll add to it any success at acting and move up the time chart for disguise. It will be hard to conceal large weapons and drums. Contested by guards perception. There will be many guards but they may be at low on their perception at certain times of the day, for example after lunch, and at the end of the day. Gates close at night.
5) Grundle secret tunnel. Grundleites who have come from Konn before may know about a secret tunnel past the Kava territory. The tunnel is 1 mile long (812 inches/mile) exits into a valley with smooth walking for 20 miles, tunnel for 0.5 miles, 50 mile walk, another 1 mile tunnel. At the minimum it is very small. Size for a human to easily walk and at times crawl through. No horses, no carts. Lien Ten the traitor is considering causing a cave in in the forbidden city tunnel. He has a huge firework and might set it off in this tunnel. In case of explosion 1) There will be a pause of 10 seconds. 2) Cave in would rumble for 12 seconds. 3) Then rocks and dust start to fall for 10 seconds. Size of rocks about 2 ft; 3 def 3 body and do 6d6 normal damage (for random rocks, 3d6-1 dice of normal damage). A rock falls every two seconds. Roll to hit the character with OCV 1; add +1 OCV on each subsequent rock fall due to more rocks falling. Characters can dive for cover or flying dodge (random direction one inch move) or dodge or use any other combat skill levels and maneuvers. The cave in will finish when all characters are out of the fall area or are unconscious. Falling rocks both forward and behind Length = 20 /(HeightxWidth), continue to roll for each next segment of cave until it does not reach the end or equals the end.
| roll | Height(in) | Width(in) | Length(in) | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Huge | Huge | 20 | smooth |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 18 | smooth |
| 4 | 2.5 | 2 | 14 | smooth |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 12 | smooth |
| 6 | 1.5 | 1 | 10 | smooth |
| 7 | 1 | 1 | 8 | smooth |
| 8 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 6 | -1 move |
| 9 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 4 | -1 move |
| 10 | 0.75 | 0.5 | 3 | -2 move |
| 11 | 0.75 | 0.5 | 2 | -3 move |
| 12 | 0.5 (1/2mv) | 0.5 | 1 | -4 move |
6) Going around to Huen Rae. This will mean repeated attacks by mung raiders.
Ambush! Shin patrol: 1 Tien, 1 z 23, 2 z 20
In Konn:
Ron:
Faceless could see his master.
Many Grundles finding work. Mining town, mines nearby. Much traffic taking ore away to Aurora and through the south gate.
Recap
Wei Feng found his countrymen trying to resettle in Grundle and having a hard time. They offloaded Wa Ren Tao (the emperor in disguise) to help out the starving farmers. He will actually teach them all sorts of farming techniques and improve their lot considerably before moving on. In Huan Fang they asked around about various ways to enter shin. On the road away from Huan Fang, they passed the Shin prison convoy, lead by the Iron Silk Scarf warriors and carrying the real Lo Ten in a prison box. Lien Ten manipulated the group into letting him be the one to approach the cart while Zhi Zhi and Wei Feng ran distraction duty. Lien Ten removed his brother’s gag and then told him essentially “I’m just here to taunt you,” to which Lo Ten yelled “Traitor! I’ll kill you!” Lien Ten then had to explain this shout, which sounded like his voice, to the group. He made up a story about a child killer in the prison convoy. Later the group crossed the river, sent captain Yu packing back to Uusam and headed on foot to Wu Han, a 2 month trek.
Episode 4: Wu Han
On the road to Wu Han
Army encampment 5 miles south of Wu Han. About 5000 men plus horses and acutrements.
Patrols on the road. Once per day a standard shin patrol 1 Tien, 1 z23, 2 z20 all in bronze.
Merchants: There will be caravans headed south with 30 carts (bronze weapons) guarded by 20 men. Other caravans will have 1 cart (star sapphires) guarded by 50 men.
In Wu Han
- 6 days imposed rest due to fatigue. –2 to physical skill rolls x 3d; -1 to skill rolls x 3 days. Then normal. Or, players can make 5 Con tests at –2, each failure is –1 x 3d then half of that for 3 d.
Kai’s master is there. He has heard rumors from the Grundle immigrants of a strange band of warriors passing from Uusam through Grundle west. One of these warriors catches his attention, his face is hidden. However, the rumors of his fighting style are reminiscent of Kai. As the master has heard rumor that Faceless is missing, he guesses that his pupil has taken the persona of faceless. He is intrigued. At the same time, a prison caravan passes through, and he investigates. He sneaks in and speaks with the prisoner, who begs to be released. The master will not release him, but gets him to tell his story. The master then heads south to Wu Han to stake out the Jing family home. When Lien Ten or Faceless or a group of unlikely travelers visits the house, he will begin to watch them. The master has Stealth, Conceal and Shadowing at 16-. To see him would be a –5 perception roll allowable once per day per character who is looking. Faceless will get a +1 bonus per time he asks to look for someone following him.
Mung Circus There is a circus in town with Mung horseman showing tricks. Karl Miasm is showing off horse archery while a Mung z26 shows off acrobatics on horseback. Two mung z20 are doing other simpler tricks. This was moved to Shin Jin.
Nemesis There is a fighting arena where El Mano may find his nemesis.
Lo Ten is held prisoner . Once per week, on Wednesday night at 1 am, Lo Ten is taken to the Jing Household for on site interrogtaiton by Tzong So Shen. Or is this too restrictive?
Sontaran prisoners Captain Yu went back to Uusam and lobbied for Sontaran entrance visas. Of course, Shin spies got word of this and reported back, actually, shin spies had reported back already and there was already a strike team to take out the sontarans on the way. Shin has no desire for the Sontarans to ally with the Uusam, as Sontara is the ultimate enemy, so they take the ambassador and his party into custody after a nasty battle. Lets say that 6 of them were killed, survivors: ambassador Linx and lieutenant Styre. Both will be imprisoned in Wu Han secret police prison or they could be sent to the Forbidden City. Sontaran weapons have been sent south to the forbidden city.
Wu Han Secret Prison
Lo Ten and the Sontarans would not be held in the normal prison. They would be in a secret police interrogation center in Wu Han. How could the players find this place? Tzong So Shen will travel between the Jing house and the secret prison once per day at random times. Often at the change of the watch. The place is guarded by it’s secret location. Night watch 1 z26 3 z23; the day watch is sleeping inside and can be roused by a bell. Day watch 3 z26, 7 z23, plus Tzong So Shen and interrogator (z20 with torture skills). What does the place look like? There are 10 cells, on interrogation room, one strategy planning room, an armory/practice room, two officers bunks, a barracks. No kitchen, they order in.
Info on secret police prison? Maybe minor in streetwise, that there are spies in town doing god knows what. Those silk scarf dudes are scary.
Jing Household
A large house fitting of a master architect and fung shui master.
Secrets require a fung shui test. Extra time does not help, but rather gives rerolls. First roll is 3 minutes and will give an area the size of the atrium, subsequent rolls take 15 minutes. Thus it will be hard to get more than one roll per room on the tour.
House is now a historic monument. Tours open daily at noon, and on weekends at 10, 12, 2 and 4. Grounds are normally open to public during daylight, but are closed for restoration currently. There are books on the house in the architectural colleges.
There are guards outside with an equal number asleep in the servants quarters at all times: 1 iron silk scarf + 5 Shin Patrol z23 in bronze. Loud cries will alert the sleepers who will emerge fully armored in 5 minutes. Day shift 8am-8pm, asleep by 11pm, wake at 7am. Night shift 8pm-8am, asleep by 10am awake by 6pm. Tzong So Shen visits once a day say at 7pm at the change of the guard for status check. She is accompanied at all times by 1 Shin z26 and 1 Shin z23 in bronze.
Grounds:
Warm pool to the south
Swimming rock to the north
Grounds surrounded by 4 foot wall with decorative windows and vines.
Grounds are immaculately groomed and have amazing plants.
Underground room. Is full of canned food and fiction books. There are scattered drawings done by a 12 year old Lo Ten while in hiding. The room is strangely warm due to a volcanic thermal vent nearby that runs into the pool and warms it.
First floor:
Entry way has tables, chairs, artwork, includes a portrait of Mai Ten Jing. There are famous paintings, sculptures, tapestries.
Dining hall large windows overlooking the lake. A large table with chairs seating for 10-15 people. Similar nice decorations
Kitchen. Secret passage to second floor which can be found by fung shui skill test to find are at +2 due to memory (successful int check). Otherwise –0
Lounge
Greenhouse. Inside are numerous plants, most obscure and hard to cultivate. Almost any herbal medicine is represented. Some are obviously in poor health, but were once magnificent. There is a trap door in the middle of the room, underneath is a secret compartment where mushrooms are growing. To find it, you have to know to look in the room. A successful Fung Shui roll at -0 will reveal the Chi flow. A successful construction or secret tunnel roll at -0 will reveal the hatch.
Center Garden. The center of the entryway has a tropical garden. Huge plants. At the center of the room is a hatch that can be found with a fung shui test at –1. This leads to the underground room.
Second Floor
Four bedrooms: two boys and two girls.
Boys bedroom: room of young teen boys rooms. One has more martial arts stuff, other has more books.
Girls room 1: late teen room, painting equipment and paintings on the walls. Also sculptures.
Girls room 2: pre teen room, say 8 year old. There are musical instruments, a violin and recorder and flute are prominently displayed.
Door to the balcony
Secret passage to kitchen. Skill tests to find are at +2 due to memory. Otherwise –1
Third floor
Master bedroom: circular closet built into wall.
Balcony
Studio: Miniatures of prior architectural achievements. The one in the center of the room is the famous Temple of Heaven that is built in Huen Rae. This is his masterpiece. It was built 50 years ago when Mai Ten was a young man. Taoist pilgrims come from all over the 6 kingdoms to the city of Huen to visit this temple and make offereings. When they visit they go into the temple, perform sacred rites, meditation and leave an offering on the temple. Fung Shui can reveal that there is a space around this model -3. However, the compartment is in the floor two feet in front of the model. A fung shui roll at –6 will reveal the compartment directly. The lever to activate the secret compartment is inside the model. The roof on the Temple is removable and pushing down on the altar will activate the lever. You can see inside the temple through the windows that it is completely decorated inside, like a little dollhouse.
Leaving Wu Han.
If faceless missed his master, he gets a sinking feeling like he forgot something.
Recap
This was a fun session for me because of the things going on in the background. The group entered Wu Han. It was clear that Zhi Zhi was suspicious of Lien Ten based on the incident last session where Lien snuck up to his imprisoned brother in the Shin prison caravan. The real Lo Ten had yelled “Traitor! I’ll kill you!” Of course, being twins, their voices sound similar and Zhi Zhi and Wei Feng had thought that Lien Ten shouted the words. He had to make up an excuse on the spot, and said that the prisoner was a notorious child killer. However, in Wu Han, Zhi Zhi immediately started asking around about the tale of the child killer. No one had heard the tale. Zhi Zhi also visited the Jing household on the first day. There she saw the same iron silk scarf warriors who were guarding Lo Ten in the prison caravan. She also used luck to make a very hard perception roll and spotted the Sith Master staking out the house and taking a keen interest in the gypsy whom he has heard rumor of over the last two months as a comrade of “Faceless,” who of course is actually the assassin Kai, the Sith Master’s student. Prior to the start of the game, Kai killed the real Faceless and has now taken his place. Zhi Zhi has a nice chat with the Master, and detects weapons concealed in the old mans disguise. The master follows Zhi Zhi back to their inn, despite her attempts to lose him. Thereafter, the Master follows “Faceless”. Whenever Zhi Zhi leaves the inn, she looks for someone tailing her, and “Faceless” trails behind her, also looking for someone shadowing Zhi Zhi. Ironically, the Master is shadowing Faceless, and not Zhi Zhi. Thus I gave them an extra penalty to detect the Master as they were looking in the wrong place. I did give Faceless an increasing bonus every time he looked for shadowers, and he was up to –1 penalty by the end of the session, I think, but he always flubbed the roll. As Faceless leaves the town at the end of the session, he gets the sinking feeling in his stomach that he missed something. His intuition knows that his Master was there and he missed him.
I was a little saddened that El Mano did not get to fight Neme, but due to their weakened state when they arrived in town this was unrealistic. There was an amusing seduction between Zhi Zhi disguised as a man with the young female tour guide. Wei Feng tracked down the gardener and learned some about the special underground medicinal mushrooms that Men Ten Jing grew. As I had not planned any specific way to get into the house, I was happy that Wei Feng made up a sleeping draught and they were able to sneak in. Interestingly, Zhi Zhi stole an iron silk scarf bundle from the sleeping warrior and later put it on and will now receive the armor benefits. The group with Lo Ten’s help found all the secret areas in the house. There was the underground mushroom growing hot room where young Lo Ten and his mother had hidden from the soldiers for a month before fleeing the country after Men Ten and the rest of the family were taken. Zhi Zhi and Wei Feng found the secret latch within the Temple of Heaven model and the forbidden palace tunnel plans were revealed. Lein Ten got a decent look a the plans, and because of the obvious distrust, he decided to make a break for it and report back. Unfortunately for him, the Master was lurking in the woods still shadowing Faceless. The master subdued Lien Ten and took him prisoner. He will interrogate him ruthlessly until Lien Ten reveals everything he knows. Thus the Master will head towards the forbidden city as well to beat Faceless to the assassination, and also to assassinate Faceless as well before the student progresses to the last step “assassinate your master and become the master”.
The group missed out on following the iron silk scarf leader back to the secret police interrogation center, where they could have found the real Lo Ten, along with two Sontaran prisoners.
Episode 5 and 6 The Forbidden City
Outside the Forbidden City
On the road south.
What goes in, what comes out? Food goes in and out the front gate
What are the guard complements? 15 per tower at all times. Equal number sleeping in barracks located in each tower. 20 guards at front gate.
The tunnel
The entrance: rocky area inside a park. There is a rock that is hollowed out and has plaster/wood backing for support. A switch hidden in a hole releases the catch on the rock and it swings out.
Passage. The first 100 ft is a tunnel man made. Then it opens up into an underground river passage and natural cave for half a mile, the last 200 ft are man made again. This would be a good place for the master to ambush. He will have killed four guards who man a guard station after a bend in the tunnel about 100 yards in. he has hidden the bodies in the larger cave in a pit.
Inside The Forbidden City
Rooms:
Tunnel Exit
Maybe the Sith master will be there waiting for the emperor.
War Room
Map of 6 Kingdoms and Sontaran Imperium occupies most of the center of the room.
Three walls of books.
Details on Sontaran economy. Lots of books of sontaran history. Many are in sontaran language. Some are in Morland or Relbar.
Several volumes are labeled the Sontaran conquest of Relba. They detail the war between Sontara and Relba. It lasted 100 years because the relba had energy weapons to the sontarans plate armor. But the sontarans had the will, numbers and resources. Gradualy the Sontarans make inroads into Relba and eventually they capture and reverse engineer their weapons. They start importing star sapphires from Konn in the 600s ND. Finally they conquer and enslave the Relba around 700ND.
Books on Relba pre conquest and post conquest. Pre conquest they had huge cities and were very prosperous, but zenophobic. They had no designs on expansion and did little trade with other countries. Mostly self sufficient, they were rich in resources. They were in early industrial age but were not warlike.
Books on Morland pre and post conquest
Timeline:
-150NZ to –20 NZ Sontaran Morland War
200ND to 700ND Sontaran Relba War
History Reports and Library
Huge room full of pull out shelves. There is a center area where large book shelves pull out. The diameter of the room is 50 feet wide. There are hundreds of pull out shelves. A card catalog is placed in the center of the room along with a single desk and a simple chair. Six book shelves are pulled out from various parts of the room; these each are for the general reports from agents in the 6 kingdoms.
Huen Rae: Those from Huen rae: most recent one is thin (last 10 years) but before that they are very thick for 25 years. Rejection of Shin aid to build fortifications at the western pass. Certain Huen Rae elder, Hue Fen, was key in this rejection. He was removed from power by subtle machinations of a key native operative.
Konn: Negotiations to stop Star Sapphire mining failed in the year 700.
Uusam: Negotiations for increased military interactions failed repeatedly over the last 200 years.
Grundle: Grundle can be bought by providing the people with good work and good pay. Invasion will not be necessary.
Mung: military domination will be required.
Behind each main bookshelf are volumes of more detailed work, all laid out alphabetically. Some will be by authors that the characters recognize, likely the best collection of books in the world. Books contain reports on economy, religion, mood/psychology of the people, governance, civil liberties, banditry, trade, health care, everything. Topics include: Medicine and acupuncture, history, arts and theater, the lands beyond (Sontara, Morland, Relba, Krag), Engineering and construction, martial arts….. anything.
Living quarters for the imperial court
Huge, but all empty. Look unused for a long time. But previously could have housed hundreds.
Martial art practice room and armory
6 Kingdoms weapons and armor
Bronze weapons and armor.
Lab
Sontaran weapons, some disassembled on a bench with a star sapphire prominently displayed in a glass case.
Throne room
Ornate, but dusty
Barracks
Out front
Decrees of the emperor room
The decrees from the last 800 years are on hanging pull outs. There are stacks of decrees for the next 4 months all printed.
Gardener’s hut
There is a gardener. It is mai ten jing. He has been here since he was taken. Maybe this is a bad idea. No, it’s not going to be him after all.
