THE ASTROLOGER'S TOWER 1

===> COH <===> 11/9/2019, 8:38:10 PM <===
	THE ASTROLOGER'S TOWER

And it's something quite peculiar
	Something shimmering and white
	Leads you here despite your destination
	Under the Milky Way tonight

	Under the Milky Way - The Church

	Mo had sent out GPS coordinates to the rubes he had somehow managed to con into accompanying him on this suicide mission. THAT IS TO SAY, this grand mysterious adventure! The coordinate would lead out to the Cobre Desert, where Mo would be waiting with a Jeep. He was outside the vehicle, leaning against the front and smoking a cigarette as the sun set.
Set.

Hyousuke is most likely spotted approaching the gps coordinates long before he actually arrives at the Jeep. "Am I early?" he calls out to Mogui, once he is close enough. "Or was I the only one suicidal enough to be convinced to come along?"

	Mo is listening to music on an old school walkman. The kind with orange colored foam headphones. It sounds like 80s New Wave music! An eyebrow arches as he turns around in the direction from which Hyo approaches. Mo's brow furrows, as he tries to place the arrival's face, but hey, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth! He removes the headphones. "Hey. And hopefully you won't be the only one to show up. This is bigger than a two man job." He pulls out a pack of smokes and offers one out.

Hyousuke nods, and does indeed take a cigarette, "Thanks." He offers, "So who all was you able to convince to show? And if they don't?" He takes the cigarette to his lips, and lights it, before exuding a billow of smoke in the air.

	Mo was about to pull out his Zippo and offer a light, but Hyo beats him to it. A shrug and he begins to walk away from the Jeep, motioning for Hyo to come along. They'll walk a few yards away, to a spot where Mo has assembled the makings of a campfire. He drops down into a crouch and sets the kindling ablaze, then settles down onto the ground. "Have a seat, I'll tell you what I know..."

Hyousuke watches with curiosity, as he does as he is asked to do. He kneels on the ground and sets himself on the soles of his feet, his hands placed on his lap. Quietly he looks at you, with an occasional draw of his cigarette.

	Mo takes a deep drag on his cigarette, then exhales a plume of smoke up above his head into the dusk air. "Almost a century ago, an ambitious astrologer built himself a tower to view the stars. Out here in the Cobre. He was one of the older denizens in Chinatown, even back then." A pause. "As time passed, he became obsessed with the Celestial Realms, or outer space, as the normies call it, and the want to travel there."

Hyousuke silently listens to your commentary, stoic and reserved as he listens to you. He says nothing. For now. The cigarette is brought to his lips, before sweetening the air with an exhalation of smoke. Nodding to you as an indication he understands so far, please continue.

	Mo tosses the butt of his cigarette into the campfire before continuing. "Amassing all the information he could, eventually he made contact with beings from other worlds. But not the Celestial Realms. The Yomi Wan." A sigh as he looks out into the darkness. Far off in the distance? Flashes of lightning can be scene, even though there aren't any clouds around for miles and miles.

Hyousuke glances at the lightning, while Mogui speaks. Of course, he is paying attention to both the words and the nuances around him. But there is something strange about that lightning. "Is there a way for this elder to be found?"
From afar, Angel is kind of in a crappy mood tonight, thinks it might've come from eating pizza, which he shouldn't have eaten. How's your plot

	Mo grins, "Well, that's the question of the hour innit?" He pulls out a fresh cigarette and sparks up. "As his research went on, he lost touch with reality and the people around him. The rumors say that he became abusive and, at last, murderous. His head servant, who had hoped to become an astrologer's apprentice, could finally take no more. The servant stole his masterâs charts and journals and departed."

Hyousuke nods. Once. Sagely. "And the master found him, or is this servent a useful tool for finding this elder?" He flicks an ash on the ground beside him, before dragging the cigarette again.

	Mo shrugs. "The servant was but a boy when he left. Now? Now he's an old man, and his memory's gone to shit. He's two good shits away from death's door. I, being the lucky sonuvabitch that I am, managed to run into him and win his purloined charts, journals and the story in a bet." A wry grin. "How's that for dumb luck, huh?"

	The marks that had been conned into meeting Mo for this fool's errand had been sent GPS coordinates. Said coordinates would lead the unlucky suckers into the deep of the Cobre desert. There was a black Jeep. And a few yards away, a campfire. By the campfire? Mo! And a Hyo! Smoking and talking by the flames.

Hyousuke is sitting near a campfire with Mo, calmly talking amongst themselves. aises a brow, "Luck had nothing to do with it. It was fortuitous. Especially if the end goal leads to our demise." His tone soft. He slips into silence to continuing absorbing the knowledge you choose to confer to him.

	Off in the dark distance? More lightning flashes. BALL LIGHTNING. Mo looks up and away from the flames, towards the darkness pierced by lightning. "They say that the five celestial planets took their revenge on him."

	Mo grins and shrugs, "But there's still gotta be some mad loot left, even if they did. I couldn't make heads nor tails of the charts and journals, but they looked hella interesting."

From across the dark desert, the signature churn of a dirtbike hums through the silence, gradually nearing the campfire where the two males are huddled around. He's all by himself, so he can't be a desert raider looking to mug lost people in the Cobre, right? Ken's figure can slowly be seen as he approaches until he finally stops right beside the black Jeep, his dark visors glaring at the campfire and the people around it as he dismounts from the bike.

Hyousuke takes a deep breath, before clucking his tongue in contemplation. He is about to say something in retort to Mo, but it would seem there is a really pissed off bumblebee near. It's not long before he determines its no bee, but a bike, and he watches Ken fervently as he simply takes a drag off his cigarette. Not his place to invite him over.

	Mo looks over at the sound of the noisy dirtbike, and the the rider on the (dirt)storm. A smile. "Oh hey! Now it's starting to look like a party!" He raises a hand in greeting, and waves Ken over towards the campfire.

Ken raises his head in an upward nod, face still somewhat expressionless if not with a hint of grumpiness. He kicks the bike into a stand and walks over to the campfire, raising his hand in response to the gesture. "So, what's going on? You fellas need extra manpower in... whatever the hell you're up to?" He sniffs.

Hyousuke watches Ken approach, sizing the man up in silent thought, before looking at Mo, expecting him to continue. Its all business with Hyo tonight it seems. The darkness around the sage illuminates with a tiny cherry of reddish-orange as he pulls a drag from his cigarette

	Mo nods, "Yeah, man. We're one or two short of a proper wu, but we can at least go and do the initial reconnoiter." He takes one last drag offa his ciggie and then flicks the smoke into the campfire so that he can point off into the darkness and the direction of the relentless ball lightning discharges that take place out there. "You geared up?" Mo heads for his Jeep, "Everyone in that's comin'"

Ken's head turns to the lightning discharge off in the distance, his eyes staring at it curiously for a good five seconds before he finally comes to his wits and follows along. "The hell is that thing?" He says, definitely /not/ looking geared up. "Yeah, I'm geared up all right."

Hyousuke hops up from his kneeling position with one fluid movement and begins to make his way towards the jeep. But not before flicking his cigarette in the campfire.

	Mo nods and hops into the driver's seat. Bring the Jeep to life, once everyone is inside, the vehicle roars off into the darkness and straight towards the lightning. Eventually? Maybe half an hour's drive or so later? They approach the source of the strange energy surges. A tower In the middle of nowhere. The top has observatory-esque features. As the Jeep gets within 50 meters or so, the energy surge from the tower's lightning flashes kills the engine and it rolls to a silent stop.

Hyousuke says nothing on the way to the tower. He only stares at the lightning. When the jeep dies, he lets out a soft sigh. "I hope it's not going to be a long walk back." The thought of failure or dying not entering his mind apparently.

Ken ducks his head to get a better look at the tower as curiosity gets the better of him. He lips curl into a pout as he hums, turning his attention over to MoGui. "That thing exists, out in the desert? Or are we on the otherside by now already?" And then the engine is killed and he just goes silent.

	Mo grins as the Jeep rolls to a stop. The air reeks of ozone out here. He hops out of the vehicle. "Guess this must be our stop!" He looks over a shoulder at Ken. "Oh, we're firmly on this side of the wall. There's a spell that keep traveler's from finding this place ... unless you have the map, which I do." He pulls a scroll from his back pocket and tosses it over to Ken. "See? How to get here, and some rough schematics."

1. The Tower
The tower is situated in the middle of nowhere out in the Cobre desert.

The tower itself is 80' tall. The tower is made of solid stone blocks, with no visible windows. There is a set of stairs leading from the ground level up to the double entry doors of the tower.

The top section of the tower resembles a globe, with the top half of the globe made of layered metal plates. Around the rim, where the metal top half meets the stone bottom half, is a ring of steel spikes sticking up from the stone lip.

There are four 40â tall solid steel spikes jutting from the ground around the tower, based equidistantly about 50â from the base of the tower. They all lean inward toward a point about forty feet directly over the center of the top of the tower.

From the base of the spikes to the tower itself, the land is a blasted miniature wasteland. Outside the area of the spikes, the ground is rocky and normal for a hilly region, while inside the terrain more closely resembles the surface of the moon, as the ground is colorless, loose and ashy.

The entire area behaves as a lightning rod, drawing electricity from the atmosphere even in perfect, cloudless weather. Every few seconds, the sky is alive as lightning strikes the spikes, both those coming from the ground and the top of the tower. It does not touch the dome itself, but every few minutes lightning strikes the ground around the tower.

Ken lets out a brief grunt as he slides out of the Jeep, him tugging slightly on his shirt. He scans his surroundings, taking note of the odd smell that's in the air, and the overall sensation of being on the other side of the wall. He catches the schematics mid-air and unrolls it, visors running through the plans uninterestedly before he tosses it back to MoGui. "Right. Here we go, then."

	Lightning flashes out from the top of the tower, striking the dead soil /just barely in front/ of Ken's and Mo's feet! They'll be momentarily blinded by the display, visors or no.

Hyousuke usually remains stoic, but his features are broached with intrigue, curiosity and maybe a hint of fear, as he watches the lightning and his surroundings become more and more unfamiliar. When the lightning strikes he hops out of the jeep, and approaches, "A warning perhaps?" He seems a bit jittery, "What the hell is being protected inside this tower?"

	Ken and Hyo will notice something lying in the dead, barren soil to the left of the tower entrance. Or is it someone? It doesn't move, and its covered in dust.

Ken flinches at the lightning strike as death flashes before his eyes, him letting out curses and obscenities along the way. "Motherfucker, who the fuck did that?!" He looks around and above, until he notices the thing lying on the soil. Staring at Hyo and Mo, the question soon pops up. "Should we check on him? Or it?"

	Mo shrugs, then gestures for Hyo and Ken to take the lead. "After you." They were the hired help, after all!

Hyousuke does not mention outloud that he notices the butied something newr the tower. Instead he sighs. "Let me guess, we are about to get closer. This is actually happening." he sighs more then says. "I have always wondered if lightning hurts." Before his legs begin to carry him towards the tower.

Ken just stares at Mo through the visors, his true expression blurred behind it, but he does comply and take on the lead. Approaching the 'dead' thing, he kicks it with one foot to check if the thing's still alive. "You OK?"

	2. The Corpse!
As folks approach the tower, here is an animal-eaten corpse with a host of broken bones. A rope and grapple rest next to it, the hooks of the grapple twisted and bent. The body has a backpack and a few sacks which have been torn open and are now empty. The corpse has a sword made of bone and obsidian at its belt, but it is broken in its scabbard. A wallet that has seen better days sticks out of a hole in the frayed backpack.

Inspecting the dead corpse for a few good seconds, Ken goes into one knee while he reaches for the wallet, taking notes of the rope and grapple next to the corpse. "Looks like a climber. Something apparently tore the poor bastard apart before throwing him down here. What a nice way to start our journey," Ken states while he goes through the wallet and the backpack, checking for any valuables.

Hyousuke looks for anything useful he can scavenge from the corpse, as he approaches. He does as told and leads, but isnt in a hurry to beat Ken anywhere they may push towards.

	There's a driver's license inside the wallet. A photo of a handsome young dark haired Italian man by the name of Rocco Della Passaglia. Mo narrows his eyes as he examines the wallet, peering over Ken's broad shouldered form. "Hnh. So that's what happened to Della Passaglia. That bastard's a master thief extraordinaire. But I guess luck his luck finally ran out. This dead sonuvabitch has taken down some pretty big scores in his time. Mostly overseas." A silly grin. "I guess the desert didn't agree with him?"

"Or there's just something up there that's thief-extraordinaire-proof. What does that make us, then?" His eyes peer back at Mo, slowly standing up from his feet and offering the wallet over to Mo. "Don't even know who this guy is, but he sounded like someone, and now the fucker's dead. Well, guess that's why you don't go in by your lonesome all high and mighty, desert or not."

	Mo nods and taps at his temple. "Gotta use the ol' grape!" A sigh as he looks to Hyo, then back to Ken. "We're still 2 short of a proper wu, though 3 is less unlucky than 1. So." A rueful smile as he steps over the corpse after taking the wallet from Ken, and makes his way over towards what appears to be a door into the tower. "I mean, obviously we're not gonna try and climb, right?"

Hyousuke shakes his head, "What proof is there that he acted alone?" Taking a deep breath, he looks up at the tower, "Is it safe to assume the front door is locked, if he decided to climb instead? So much for an elevator." He looks at Mo, "I am not a very good climber, I am afraid."

	3. Front Doors!
The front entrance of the tower is a set of double large iron doors. On each door are a serpent-shaped handle and a large knocker.

Ken lets out a hesitant grunt. "Let's just get this over with. Shit, I don't even know both of your names yet. Name's Ken, in case I die as soon as I step in the door. Just so you'll remember me, at least. Hopefully," he says, trailing behind as they approach the entrance.

	"That's Hyo. I'm Mo." A pause, "Mo' money, mo' problems," he adds with a laugh before eyeing the doors. He looks from the twin serpent handles to the knocker. "Well, handles or knocker?"

Hyousuke leans down, preferably when neither is looking, and grabs the broken bone, and obsidian sword. "As a serpent, i feel better grabbing the handles." He shrugs as if there was logic in that.

"Ah, fuck it," he retorts boldly, and goes for knockers first and then the handles, like a complete smartass. Ken doesn't seem to like the idea of making difficult choices, or just being in a dilemma in general. What's the worst that could happen anyway? He does stay in front, in case anything bad happens, so he can take the brunt of his consequences.

	Mo steps aside to let Hyo grab for the handles, unless Ken opts for the knocker. "By all means..."

	As Ken reaches out and takes the knocker in hand, the knocker will cause a gigantic metallic BONG to ring out, echoing through the empty desert wasteland! The doors will then open by themselves.

	Mo laughs as the knock on the door causes the door to open. "Man, Della Passaglia shoulda tried knocking for once, huh?" He brings an electric lantern to life, as the interior of the tower is dark. "Shall we?" Coordinates had been shared with all interested parties. They were 2 short of a proper wu! But 3 was less unlucky than 1, so Mo had pressed on, hoping against hope that they would get luckier as the night pressed on!

Hyousuke begins to walk towards the door, but Ken seems to have opened it. "Oh this is worse then i origionally thought. I was wrong! This is a bad omen. As i am never wrong.." A joke? Its said with a dull tone and stooc expression.

Zua comes walking around the outside of the tower just as the party is about to enter. Nothing stealthy about her arrival.

	Mo spins on a heel, bringing his lantern up to shine light into Zua's face when she comes round the corner. A smile. "Four! Four is a way luckier number than 3!" He motions her over, and then steps into the tower to light the way for the group.

Ken peers at Mo as he blurts his statement, slightly frowning at him. "Isn't 4 considered a, let's say 'unlucky' number, in Chinese culture? Not that I care much about it. My ass has been too westernized for that typa stuff. Was just wondering anyway, since you said that," Ken shrugs.

	Mo grins, "Aw man, you had to go'n say it! Now morale's gonna tank. But we've all had our brushes with death, and that poor bastard Della Passaglia back there already died, so maybe we're inna clear?" A sigh before he turns and heads on into the tower. Once past the threshold, Mo's lantern illuminates -
4. Foyer

There are two short (coffee) tables, one each against the east and west walls, each flanked by two chairs. There are two doors in the room. One is marked with the astrological symbol for Venus! The other is unmarked and looks like it could possibly lead to a closet?

Zua gives a nod to the familiar Hyosuke. She then chuckles at Ken's comment, "Four has never been unlucky for me. It would only be considered ill fortune if death was a valid concern." She glances at the dead body as she follows the group in, "If we count Rigor Morte here as part of the procedings we number five, not four."

Hyousuke is Japanese, so he has nothing to add to the conversation. He instead looks inside the newly opened doors, into the base of the tower. "There is death here?" offered to Zua with a nod of greeting. "Glad you could be here with us."

	Mo nods in agreement with Hyo. Then he looks around He'd toss the room, but. There's not much of anything in here to toss! As such, he heads for the presumed door to the closet. Opening it up? Several old moth-eaten cloaks, hats and coats are here. These are badly out of fashion, maybe being something that well-to-do people in their grandparentsâ time would wear. At least a hundred years old!

"Sure, let's all pretend that 'death' doesn't exist in here and that guy outside is just having a really nice nap." Ken emits a muttered grunt as the party reaches deeper inside into the tower where they're met by the odd room. "All right, I don't have expertise in this. Mo, you're the one with the map. You tell us what to do."

Zua gives Hyosuke a small smile, "I got a little lost along my way, but the directions I received were sound. The number four sounds very similar to the word for death in my native tongue. Many chinese consider it to be an ill omened number. Like westerners view the number thirteen.". She points a thumb out the door. The corpse definitely fills the direction of Yin. We just need to sort out Po, Hun, Yang, and Balance for a proper wu. At least for this outing."

Hyousuke smiles at Zua, "I got us covered on Yang aspect. I have that in spades." His focus is plucked from Zua to Mogui, "Well, Mo. What do we do from here?"

	Mo sighs as the "closet" holds nothing but antique clothing. Maybe they'd have value on the collector's market? "What a bust so far. But we're only on teh first floor, right?" He eyes the seal on the other door. White clay, a tiger in the center. (https://tinyurl.com/y47ewv7m). "Onwards! Who's gonna break the seal and open the door?"

	Mo hoists the lantern up, then shrugs and opens the next door ... only to have a metal spear flung at him when he does! But he catches a cloud of dust right before the door opens, and sneezes, so the spear instead heads in Ken's direction! OOPS! (DODGE or SOAK)

	The broad head of the silver spear catches Ken square in the chest with a satisfying THUNK! But its only a flesh wound! Or something?

	Mo blinks as he reaches up with his free hand to brush at his dust addled nose before looking towards Ken. "Whooops. But that looks like it might be worth something!" Really, Mo? Assessing the spear?! But then there's a loud metallic roar from within the room, and the White Tiger Wu Xing metal avatar comes barrelling out at the intruders! RAAAAAAR!!!!!!

	Mo shrieks as the metallic roar washes over him, and he drops the lantern he was holding on the floor as the Fear effect from the metal elemental tests and rattles his mettle! Things are now dark! And there's a yuuuge metal elemental tiger stalking the room. Zua and Hyo feel the Fear wash over them, but their souls manage to pass muster!

	Hyousuke looks upon the spear flung at Ken, and begins to approach as if to remove it from his chest, but it falls to the ground after a minor bruise to Ken. No time to be impressed, as the Trump tiger appears. "Uh." He isn't frozen with fear, its as if the shock of it has caused mental bankruptcy in the Fu Hsi.

	Mo is rattled by the Fear blast, so he just stands in place and does his best not to wet his pants while the rest of the group deal with the darkness and the now loose metal elemental guardian!

With the spear suddenly flung at him, Ken takes a quick step aside to try and avoid the damage, though to no avail as it finds its mark on Ken's chest. Luckily for the fella, the spear didn't go as deep as he'd think, and with his natural regeneration the spear just drops and the hole in his chest mystically reforms. Not having the chance to make a witty remark as a metal tiger quickly comes bursting out at them, Fear briefly tingling his neck but isn't too much to overcome.

	The room is pitch dark, as Mo dropped his lantern.

	The elemental metal tiger stalks the darkened room, the metal paws making softer than expected sounds on the floor. Another Fearsome roar rattles across the space! (Willpower checks vs 6)

Taking a proper stance as he prepares himself, Ken looks like he's about to gargle out a mouthful when a ball of black tainted fire fumes out of his mouthhole, illuminating the dark room for a good few seconds but missing its target in what looks to be his misfortune.

	In the wake of the flame, the metal elemental tiger can be glimpsed as it stalks the room!

A ball of golden fire light blossoms in Zua's left palm. Illuminating several yards around her in decent yellow light.

	The warm light that Zua invokes might help steady people's nerves, despite also illuminating the giant tiger guardian that stalks the room!

Hyousuke takes a step towards the metal elemental tiger, "I wish to enter into negotiations. We are here to seek to correct an injustice. It would be a favor if you would leave us be to do our work. In trade, I could craft you something useful for you?" His face is blanketed with a hopeful look. Hopeful, perhaps that those are not his last words?

	The white tiger rears up onto its hind legs and looks as if its going to literally bit Hyo's head off! But then? Hyo is talking to her? The tiger stops mid chomp. <<What will you craft?>> Her eyes go to the spearthat chunked into Ken. <<I like spears. What injustice?>>

	For now? Hyo has the elemental's attention. Mo can stop wetting his pants! Zua's warm light helps wash away the Fear effect! Ken can ... gnash and such!

Hyousuke smiles with confidence. "I could craft you a spear that might actually pierce flesh." He says almost mockingly. /Nothing/ is said in retort to the injustices inquisition from the tiger. His hands slide behind his back as he continues his back and forth.

	Hyousuke smiles with confidence. "I could craft you a spear that might actually pierce flesh." He says almost mockingly. /Nothing/ is said in retort to the injustices inquisition from the tiger. His hands slide behind his back as he continues his back and forth.

	The tiger places a clawed paw on Hyo's chest, flexing those blade like metal claws and testing the little being's flesh. <<WHAT. INJUSTICE. OR SHALL I WEIGH YOUR HEART AGAINST YOUR WORDS?>>

Hyousuke says, "Modern productivity culture emphasizes a lifestyle the Taoists would hate. Productivity culture values getting things done as a fundamental good in oneâs life, an end in and of itself. It is a perverse sort of detachment, one that cares about the motion of work for its own sake, which is under oneâs control, but rarely questions the premise of why one needs to be productive at all." A pause, "In other words, it would be an injustice to allow one's spoils of a life devoted to laboriously acquire wealth, and those fruits sit here rotting, with yourself left to guard it. I come to free you of your burdens and liberate the energies spent in a time past to return such items to a state of purpose." Gibberish, of course. But what does the tiger know? Does it seem Hyo will be the first to find out?"

	The tiger considers Hyo's words. She chuffs out a frigid metallic breath over Hyo, then smiles. <<Clever, but not half as clever as you think.>> And with that, the spirit dematerializes. (Awareness vs 6)

===> Log ended by user <===> 11/10/2019, 1:04:57 AM <===