[Exalted-China] Story Two: Episode Four : Man Chu Days

[Lev Lafayette]

=======================================
Story Two: Episode Four : Man Chu Days
=======================================

Scene One: Court of Ma Yin
--------------------------
After dealing with the trouble at Wa'an village, the Exalted made their
journey along the Xiang River towards the court of Changsha. Along the way
they stopped at Hengzhou where Hěn went to see a priest about repairing
the shrine at Wa'an village. The rest of the journey however was
uneventful, and, despite strange urges to hed to the south and west, the
Exalted made their way to bustling court-city of Changsha. There they saw
many sales of horses, silk, lacquer, and tea.

The sentinels visited Buddhist scholars, with Hěn giving sound advice to
the chief healer who made a fundamental mistake in what was a fairly basic
discussion. Hěn apologised, as the most victorious should. The wise know
that they don't know, and the wisest doubt their knowledge of everything.
Asking about the urges, the monks told them that there  was a truly
wondrous land of Kunming in the direction in which they felt the pull; Hěn
believes it might be a hint to the invisible fortress.

Nevertheless, the objective of the Exalted to was to see King Ma Yin and
give greetings from Prince Wang Shenzhi. Their audience was the
warlord-turned-king was successful, especially after they mentioned the
events of Wa'an village. Ma Yin, at sixty five years old, was solemn,
formal, and martial and reinterated his alliance with Prince Wangand
expressesed concern of southern Han barbarians.

The King invited them to a sumptuous dinner, where they were served by a
walking, talking, four-headed bronze serving goat. The four heads each
expressed goat-like personalities; grumpy, wise, hungry, and horny. Xiǎo
was particularly interested in conversation with the goat, particularly
wise, despite horny's attentions. The goat mentioned that it was
four-goat-square-zun and it was originally from the Invisible Fortress; it
would dearly like to go home, but was now the property of King Ma Yin and
was honour-bound not to leave. As Hěn suspected, the Invisible Fortress
was located in Kunming - and the goat would be able to get past the
numerous guardians.

After the dinner, the Exalted were given a second audience with Man Yin.
This time he seemed very morose, and explained that his favourite consort,
Yuan, had retreated to her mansion outside of the city, and a envoys - a
dozen in all - had never returned. He wanted to know what happened to her,
and would grant a favour with such knowledge. The Exalted offered to go to
the mansion. It was in ruins and the once great gardens were overgrown.
Entering the gardens they were attacked by wild pigs - with human faces!

Hěn for story two, episode one = 4
Qian for story two, episode one = 4
Xiǎo for story two, episode one = 4
Shí for story two, episode one = 0 (not present)



-- 
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech
Mngmnt) (Chifley)
mobile:  0432 255 208
RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
RPG Review Cooperative, Inc. http://rpgreview.net