Xianyin: Liquid Stars and Twilight Smoke

Gam Saan Mine - Xianyin(#17151RM)

	Welcome to Xianyin. The Grey Maze. The Necropolis of the Lost. Essentially, a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. This city of the dead is modeled on the Qin capital Xianyang, divided into inner and outer cities. The circumference of the inner city is 2.5 km (1.55 miles) and the outer is 6.3 km (3.9 miles). The central tomb is located in the southwest of the inner city and faces east. The main tomb chamber housing the coffin and burial artifacts of the Lost Emperor is the core of the architectural complex of the mausoleum.

	A garrison of terracotta figures stands silent sentinel at the entrance to the outer city, locked in precise military formation according to rank and duty, in eternal vigil facing east. The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses.

	Standing similarly sentinel on the periphery of the inner city is a group of other terracotta non-military figures including officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians.

	In the very center and heart of the inner city is the Lost Emperor's tomb itself, surrounded by a lifeless garden maze where two large Imperial Guardian Lions, or Shishi (a traditional Chinese architectural ornament typically made of stone), stand watch at the mouth of the maze that leads to the tomb. The lions are presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has its right front paw on a type of cloth ball carved with a geometric pattern. The female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the left paw, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female lion protects those dwelling inside (the living soul within), while the male guards the structure (the external material elements).

	*** PLACES CONFIGURED ***

	*** Nightzone ***

Obvious Exits:
  Mine Shaft <MS>

	WHEN LAST WE LEFT OUR PROTAGONISTS...they had stumbled upon a body! Well, remains, at any rate. That were crushed and pulverized into powder, but not before yielding a satchel of loot: namely, a small jug of liquid, and a pack of cigarettes! Magic, of course. Light-generating. WHich was good, because down here? IT. WAS. DARK

And now, our story continues...

	Mo reaches out for the jug, and peers at its contents while swirling it around. "Interesting. I think I might know what this is." He hands it back. "Don't drink it." A smile, "C'mon, let's head towards the sound of water?"

	The dhampyr slips the cigarette back between his lips, puffing out the smoke that hangs in the air above their heads and provides a soft twilight glow by which to navigate by. It beats darkness, and means Kokoro's goblin-flame face can take a break, if she wanted.

"Definitely didn't plan on it." The woman assured as they carried on forward, just keeping the jug idly in her left hand. For the moment she seemed content with leaving her goblin-flame on and burning, as odd a sensation as it was there was no reason to deprive them of another source of light, two was better than one. Especially if they ran into darkness that wasn't strangely magical that she'd be able to see through more easily.

	Eventually? The come to the source of the sound of water. An underground river. It blocks the path forward. There's a bridge that spans the crossing. Ropes and planks. It has seen better days.

	Mo looks to Kokoro, and motions for the jug. "Here. Lemme show you why they call it a STarlight Jug."
Kokoro was, at least, glad to finally find the source of the ominous water sounds. For one reason or another the concept of an underground river had completely escaped her as a possibility for what the sound could've been, causing her to dream up much more violent. . . and exciting things. Peering over the rope bridge the woman scowled a bit, only to soon after have her attention stolen by Mo as he requested the jug, which he received with little wait. Curiosity written on the woman's face.

	Mo grins, takes the jug, gently swirls the contents around, and then looks over the edge and down the sheer drop to the river. Then he very carefully pours out a bit of the jug's contents into the river below. For a moment? Nothing happens, but then at some point the contents of the jug hit the river and ... OH MY GOD IT'S FULL OF STARS. Except not in a Space Odyssey kind of way. No, in a the river is suddenly full of tiny stars sorta way. They turn the river into a moving light source, albeit one that moves - so they get a small sense of the expanse of the river as the glow eventually winks out in the distance.

Once more Kokoro found herself faced by something she wasn't expecting in the slightest. . . she really needed to work on that. Even she had to admit that the sight was a spectacular one, with all of the darkness around it gave the river an impression of being a little swatch of the night itself that had been cut out only to begin flowing away. If she were a poet she'd likely be inspired.

	 Instead she was just a violent brute, so she just stared with mindless amazement and then looked back over to Thomas after the lights had winked out of being, presuming she hadn't caught sight of anything that required her interest even further, anyway. "Man. . . whoever that body used to belong to they definitely had some tricks up their sleeve. . . though, how'd you know what that stuff did? Do you have one of those jugs yourself?"

	Mo grins, "Starlight Jug. I'd heard of it, but never had actually seen one, til just now. C'mon, cigarette burning down, we wanna make the most of the light, yes?" Then he plugs the jug and ... leaps up onto one of the ropes? And runs across the rickety bridge with steps that make him seem as light as a feather, a wispy trail of softly luminous smoke left behind him in his wake! Once he's across, he looks over to Kokoro, and hollers out. "Can you make it across, or do I need to be worried?" Someone? They had some command of Jade Shintai!

Kokoro nodded at the assertion that they not waste their light source. . . and then once more watched quite the sight as MoGui simply bounded across the rickety bridge with the greatest of ease. Taking it as more of a challenge than something to passively observe like the light show prior, however, she smirked. "Please. If I fall to a bridge of all things then you may as well consign me to this place." She called out before stepping up to the bridge and beginning to stride across it. She didn't do so with nearly as much speed as Mogui himself, but she didn't seem to show any real fear in the face of it either, apparently confident in her natural skill.

	The bridge? Had definitely seen better days. About halfway across, the plank that Kokoro would step on, would break from the pressure placed on the rotted wood!

	As Kokoro gets to the halfway point? She'll break one of the planks, and tempt a watery fate! Mo's eyebrows will arch in alarm! "Kokoro!"

"Shit!" Kokoro exclaims as the bridge proved to unstable to actually take her weight, one foot already slipping past the broken plank and the rest of her body soon to follow afterwards. Some quick moving hands and a bulging bicep or two later, however, and she at least has herself steadied. And if she can manage to get herself back up onto the bridge proper in full? She'd make damn sure to keep her grip on the ropes as she makes her way across in more of a squat than before. Lower centers of gravity -were- what you needed for things like this, right? "Calm down! I got this!" She demanded. . . perhaps talking to herself more than MoGui.

	Mo relaxes a little when Kokoro manages to steady herself and keep from falling to a watery demise. Or detour. Depending on her toughness and luck! He'll reach a hand out, extending it to her as she nears the other side, "Quick, take my hand!" In his worry, he'd built up a nice halo of luminescent haze up above his head from the cigarette.

Kokoro wasn't -so- proud a person that she didn't reach out to grip the offered hand when it was extended, the woman using MoGui's hopefully anchored weight to pull herself onto more solid land before releasing her perhaps tighter than needed grip and taking an instinctual breath. . . which was shortly followed by some exhilarated laughter. "Damn, that was close." She expressed with a slightly wide eye, briefly looking back over her shoulder before casting her gaze, and thus her own light, forward again. "So which way now?" She queried with. . . perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm.

	Mo's Luminal Kojo cigarette finally comes to an end. A frown as he tosses the butt onto the ground before crushing it out beneath his heel. At least a fair bit of smoke had gathered up above his head, illuminating their immediate area. Up ahead? The second wall that demarcated the inner city!

Kokoro watched their secondary light source burn away the last of its luminous magic. Well, at least it had gotten them to the river, as well as a bit beyond. Not to mention gave them notice that they were within spitting distance of starting what she presumed to be the last bit of the track to their true goal. At least from what little she'd managed to gather from their earlier talk about having already scoped out the 'outer' sanctum. "Looks like we're really getting into the meat of it now."

	Mo sighs, turning in the direction of the wall that protected the inner city from the outside world. "There are stories." He makes a fist, then looks over to Kokoro. "Stories of the guardians. But that's not what worries me. That magic is likely gone. But the magic that was here before the necropolis? That magic might still be around. Filling the void." He focuses his yang chi, and suddenly his fist sparks with electric golden chi. "Those stories, they're what worry me."

Kokoro quirked a brow at Thomas' notably changed behavior, her golden hue flitting down towards the man's fist, that golden electricity reflecting perfectly in the complimentary color of her gaze. "So you think we've got a fight coming our way in there, then?" She questioned, just to be certain she understood his meaning correctly.

	A shrug from the youth as Mo lifts his eyes to meet Kokoro's. "I can read fate. Chi. All that kind of thing!" He then turns to look in the direction of the wall. "But when I look over at the wall. And I try to look /past/?" The youth's brow furrows. "I can't see anything at all."

Kokoro nodded slowly following MoGui's assertion. He didn't know what was past the wall. . . which meant they -could- very well have a fight on their hands. Which suited her perfectly fine, especially so as she found it better to expect a fight in unknown circumstances as opposed to anything else. . . At least that normally proved the case when she was involved.

	 And it was that line of reasoning that had the woman taking in a mostly superfluous deep breath to further concentrate her mind with something familiar as she delved deep into her own soul to gain access to the most primal of powers she possessed, the power of a monster born in the depths of her very being.

	 A monster who's form began to materialize around her as she dredged up that terrible chi. A ghostly samurai's armor whose plates began to take solid shape around her shoulders and chest, ghastly faces of tortured souls seemingly pressing against the spectral metal from inside, while a weapon wreathed in violently red chi, almost reminiscent of flame, appeared in her hand. A cleaver as long as a sword gripped with intense strength that seemed to whisper words of fel intention as the woman squeezed it in her hand. Most stark, however, was the change in her one good eye, she seemed almost demonic herself, as if she'd truly given in to whatever violence she'd seemed so enthralled by the entire time.

Thankfully, when she smiled over towards MoGui it was with an obvious battle lust, yet still in her words there was control to be found. "Let's get going then, yeah?"

	MoGui raised his fist in a a wushu baoquan li, or "kung fu salute," to Kokoro. The gesture caused electric golden chi to arc around both fists, and indeed, around the youth's entire body. This is why the dhampyr was known as "Kid Levinbolt" among the namebreakers of the sunset people that he sometimes pal-ed around with here in The West. But that was a story to be shared at another time. Now? In this moment? The pair had stranger things to contend with. A wry smile from the youth, "Together, then. Into the dark." Though truth be told, his command over Storm Shintai along with hers over Ghost-Flame would light their way forward somewhat. As such? He turned to lead the way.

Kokoro followed along afterwards with a distinctly malefic grin on her scarred features, wails of battle and desolation following in her wake as demonic chi continued to bleed off of her body. "Together into the dark, to banish it with the battle flames of the endless hells.~"