Xian Yin - Recovered Memories

===> COH <===> 1/23/2020, 2:10:07 PM <===
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).


	RECAP:

The party relaxes at the campsite! But as soon as Mo and the party seem to relax? There's a rippling in the Wall. Lana will notice it as a sign of a spirit pushing through and coming across. Grace? She'll just get a general hacklesraise feeling.

Lana is just about to tell the tale of her Dragon when she stiffens and narrows her eyes. "Something is crossing." she hisses and pulls out her jade embedded whip, as well as starting to gather her thoughts. Spirits are her forte after all.

Mo arches an eyebrow at the commotion. "Something is crossing what?" His boomstick had been set on the ground beside him, but he doesn't move for it yet.

After a few moments, something does indeed cross through! It looks like some sort of snake-meets-man spirit! And it does not look particularly friendly! Its forked tongue will hiss out of its mouth as it tastes the air and studies the group with its red eyes.

Grace looks around and well she does notice something is happening, but what is unsure. As the snake man appears she uncoil the beads from around her wrist.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

	In a silent area like this, it's not hard to notice a commotion - even if it is just raised voices at the campsite. Thankfully, walls also make a perfect path for getting an overview and getting around - so it's probably not a surprise that, if one is attentive, they might see the shape of Xiu race along that outer wall, circling back towards the campsite, at times running upright, at times lunging on all sixes to get around an obstacle.

Lana grits her teeth as she studies the snake man, and subconsciously unstraps her whip from her hip and wraps her fingers around the handle, before she lets the rest drop to the ground to lie waiting. Moments later as magic surges into it, it starts to emit a soft eerie wailing sound as she stands there. She knows she is favourable among spirits, she also knows she is noticeable and draws their attention, yet she wont start nothing unless something starts.

	The embodied serpent spirit watches Lana and MoGui, saying nothing for now. Its draws closer, and then its tongue extends out to taste the air.

	Xiu keeps on racing along the wall, until she leaps off as she gets close to the campsite. The witch lands on all sixes, letting out a loud grunt before she slowly rises onto her feet, fingers flexing a bit - at least those of that second pair of arms, though the claws do not get unsheathed just yet. She draws closer and circles, eyeing that snake creature with slightly narrowed eyes and rounded irises.

	The serpent-spirit regards Lana and her weapon, this its slitted eyes go to MoGui. His attention then goes back to Lana, the woman possessed of a certain quality that draws it attention. "Why have you come to this place?"

Lana twists her wrist and the whip rattles and the wailing emits just a hint higher as she eyes the snake man and narrows her eyes. "Shé" she uses the simplified word for snake in chinese as she addresses the being. "I'm the voice of the Long Hao, sent to assist this emissary to retrieve what is rightfully the property of the Long Hao." she motions with her free hand towards MoGui, as she mentions the emissary.

	The serpent-spirit eyes Lana with an impassive gaze, drawing closer to taste the air around her again. "A few have come. None have left. This place has not been possessed of n auspicious air for a very long time. Have a care that you do not join those who came, and still remain."

	And with that? The embodied serpent-spirit falls to the ground in the form a tens and tens of smaller snakes of all kinds! They swarm forward, not don't attack, merely brush past the campsie to disappear into this or that crevasse in the walls or hole in the ground! But still, an altogether likely unsettling experience!

	Xiu follows up behind the snakes. Not too close! But her eyes flick left and right as she watches them disappear into all sorts of little hidey places and darkness that, even though her eyes can pierce it, certainly does not help in keeping track. She lets out a 'hrm'...and slowly straightens before she glances over her shoulder at the others. "....so.." she begins. "...who was that?"

	Mo is a little dumbfounded, and he shuts his eyes, rising up on one foot as he holds his boomstick close. Apparently? He does NOT like snakes. "UGh," he mutters, "Why'd it haveta be snakes..." Only after all the slithering is past and disappeared does he open his eyes and come down off of the one footed tiptoe stance. He looks over to Xiu sheepishly, "Sorry, I forgot about the guardian spirits."

Lana shudders, spirits are just beyond what even she can imagine at times as she stands there and grits her teeth. She moves the whip up to rest over her shoulders as she looks at MoGui and then Xiu and finaly back to MoGui and she stretches the corners of her mouth. "Auspicious adventure you've brought us to Mo." she lets out a soft chuckle and looks at Xiu. "The Shè guardians of this place. We've been warned." she then looks back at Mo and tilts her head. "What is is about male hunters of relics and snakes?"

	The primal witch on the other hand seems less disturbed by the creature's looks and acts. But there she stands, all semi-non-humanish in the first place, so perhaps it's a matter of not being hypocritical. "Hrrm. Guardians. But it seems they are not guarding against us, yes?" she wonders, and gestures whre the creature went. "It certainly simply warned us in a way that seemed more trying to be helpful than threatening." There is a pause at the comments about male hunters and snakes. "...envy? Snakes have two." She smirks.

	Mo looks to Lana, "Back when I was younger, during the great war, Captain Levinbolt took us into the Hollow Earth on his zeppelin. There was an incident where I got in a little over my head due to being an impetuous youth, involving serpents..." He trails off and apparently that's all that he has to say about that. Then he looks to Xiu, "All clear? Shall we proceed forward?"

Lana nods her head slowly and adjusts the whip over her shoulders. "We shall proceed indeed, and I agree Xiu it was a friendly to neutral warning if anything. But we can expect troubles ahead." she then motions for MoGui to lead the way.

	Mo grins puts the boomstick back in its holster slung across his back. He grabs one of the vintage WW1 era messenger bags from the abandoned campsite and nods. "And away we go, then. Before any more spirits come to pay us a visit." He pulls out his luopan (which looks like a golden compass) and then plows forward along the path, guided the the strange mystical device.

	Xiu's tail flicks a bit, the bundle of black hair at its tip waving a bit as she glances forward for a moment. Silent, listening, looking. "I sense them. The little snakes." she murmurs. "But they are all over." She tilts her head. "And still moving. It is confusing and.." she murmurs.. "...probably not the thing to focus on. The statues were not alive, so..I should not trust those senses." She exhales. "Forward it is, I guess, and flances over her shoulder again. "We need food at some point, too. Did you find something like tinned rations at the camp? Those last ages."

Lana glances at Xiu and smiles as she starts to move after along MoGui. "If it's wanted I can open my senses to view spirits moving about us and those that are tied down, if we worry about Spirit guardians lying in wait."

	Mo nods, patting his messenger bag. "My favorites too - dried beef! And some hard chocolates!" He navigates the narrow streets and corridors of the city outskirts in seemingly haphazard fashion, guided by that strange looking compass of his. The party turns a corner, and then something makes a loud noise behind them!

	Lana will pick up the sound of something akin to ... thunder? Xiu's keen senses, however, will identify it as something coming up behind them, the sound of stone rolling on stone!

	Oh god. Can it be? Can it be that cliche? Xiu hears that sound, she imagines what it could be, tries to determine the size and weight just by the amount of scraping. And then the witch simply goes for the most logical conclusion. Snakes? Try rolling boulders. "Run!" she simply says, and begins to do just exactly that. "Indiana fucking Jones boulder!"

	The old tried and true traps are sometimes the best traps! Given limited technology and resources and such, at any rate. Mo's luopan has led them down a narrow alley in the necropolis, up ahead there lies only darkness. Behind the party, the boulder comes into sight, moving at a steady and relentless pace!

Lana blinks as she notices the stone, once Xiu has pointed it out and she lets out a soft yelp and starts to run. It's quickly evident who between the three that would not outrun a zombie horde or a rumbling boulder. Soo as she starts to get winded she starts to think out a new plan, perhaps time to leave this plane of existance before she gets crushed.

	Mo churns his legs as hard and fast as he can, scampering on ahead. Only to come upon a wall! With a mural painted on the wall. Xiu will not only keep pace, but set it! Lana? Seems to be struggling with the large boulder bearing down on all of them!

	The painting on the wall depicts the fall of the Wan Kuei, with the Jade Emperor taking the sun away from his errant servants, and the fallen forced to survive on stolen chi vulgarly accessed through the blood of mortals. Mo peers down at his compass, then looks back over his shoulder at Xiu and Lana, "IT'S A DEAD END!!!"

	Really, Mo? A "dead" end? With a boulder cruising down the alley towards everybody?

Fuck. Xiu hits the brakes, and even as she does, they can see her changing. The inhuman features of hers? They disappear, and they do so in kind of a grisly fashion - it's not a smooth morph-like change. Visceral. Bones creaking and cracking, muscles rearranging under the skin with soft but sudden sounds as Xiu's anatomy breaks and rearranges. And given that her is grimacing and softly hissing, it certainly must be painful.
	Heck. If she is actually *feeling* all that in full, the pain must be immense - but it'd also mean she'd have to be screaming and howling on the floor, so...can't be, right? Even as she changes, she draws the blade from its sheath and begins to chant in a strange language - not chinese - while she begins to carve something first into her palm, then over her forearm. Quickly, but almost not hastily enough given that a boulder is rolling towards them - her now completely human eyes set on the thing. If any of them are sensitive for it, they can feel the magick gathering around her - and then, the witch suddenly points towards the boulder, the chant ending in a shout as the bloody runes on the arm sizzle, seem to evaporate leaving marks - and the boulder? Becomes water. Water that still has some momentum, but nothing that maintains it - and it ends up becoming a rush of wet around their ankles down the line.

	The stone boulder collapses into a wall of water! (Dexterity checks or be knocked down!) The water washes into, over and around the party! Some splashes onto the painting on the dead end wall up ahead.

	Mo breathes a sigh of relief as Xiu works a spell! His eyes go wide in wonderment, and not a little bit of envy. Blood magic was always impressive! The rogue manages to keep his feet under him as the water washes by. "That! Was awesome!" Atta boy, Mo - choose your moments to fanboy! "Like Captain Levinbolt used to do, but without the use of an Omni-Gun!"

Where the winded chinese was winded in fear of the boulder as the water comes rushing she is near to sidestep and through the flying crane to the sweeping tiger she manages to keep her footing and does so with grace and style. She nods her head towards Xiu but still gasps for air and can't speak right now.

	Xiu softly exhales and lightly shakes her arm. The marks of the runes are still there - like subtle burns from touching that damn hot pot by accident - but nothing that just a little time won't fix. She smacks her lips together, now standing there as her completely witch human self, softly panting from the adrenaline still..and glances over at Mo, blinking. "....what?"

	Mo gives Xiu a smile. "Captain Levinbolt's Omni-Gun. It could transmo - transmog - transmogr - " A pause as Mo frowns, "It could change things from one thing to another! Unliving things, I mean. But you did that without one!" He makes his way over to offer Xiu one of the hard chocolate bars from the rations he pilfered, "Here. Energy."

Lana having finally caught her breath once again she places her hands on her hip and stretches her back as she groans. "Yes Xiu very impressive." she takes a deep breath and then exhales. "Sadly my spiritual powers are not as helpful."

	Xiu glances towards where the boulder *was*, since it's now pretty much flown past them, and she deeply inhales before she loudly exhales again. "That was...also a gamble." she admits, before she steps towards Mo and almost greedily snatches the chocolate bar. "Thank you." she says, and unwraps it. WW1 chocolate ration. She sniffs at it quite warily, before she takes a bite and slowly chews. Given her expression, the taste isn't that great, but hey. ENERGY.

	Mo grins as Xiu chows down on his fave snack from back in the day. "I used to love those when I was younger. They're hard and keep despite heat, y'know? The Captain had me on a strict limit, 'cause he said they made me overly excitable." Mo? Overly excitable? YEESH! Then he looks back to Lana, and then to the compass in his free hand and the wall. "I don't get it - the luopan says it should be here." He shows the compass to his companions. See?

Lana glances at the painting on the wall and then back at MoGui for a moment as she then moves towards the wall to study it more in detail. "Snakes, boulders, now this." she wrinkles her nose. "I bet the answers lies within the painting."

	Xiu turns around finally as she actually takes time for...well, the first time since they stopped being chased by an angry rock. She quietly steps forward, letting her eyes wander over the mosaic, as she slightly tilts her head to the side. "The answer to...what though?" she wonders.

	Xiu and Lana will notice that the water seems to have washed part of the mosaic away, revealing more of a different sort of etching behind it in one corner.

Lana brings out a package of cigarettes from one of her back pockets and lights one up, thankfully the electric lighter did not get ruined in the water splash. "Notice that?" she motions towards the corner where the paint has gone and is revealing something new. She inhales on the cigarette and crouches down to try and peel more away. "Seems to be an etching here."

	Mo makes his way over towards Lana and arches an eyebrow. "Hnh. So it does. Go figure." He frees up both his hands so that he can help reveal whatever is beneath. EVentually? A whole other tableau is revealed! This one depicting the sundering of the hsien from the Jade Emperor's realm, with the Wall keeping them from their original heavenly duties.

	Xiu turns her head a bit, eyeing the cigarette for a moment - and actually, yeah. Yeah, it's time for a break. Or so her internal monologue must be going, as she reaches for one of her pouches held at her waist by that leather cord going diagonally over her torso. Well, thise one's less a pouch and more a really small leather satchel. She opens it up, and retrieves three pieces.
	It's not had to tell what it is, as she sticks them together. A long chinese pipe, made of wood and brass. She reaches into the same satchel and retrieves a small actual leather pouch, and begins to stuff its head with something suspiciously...green as she watches Mogui begin to remove the mosaic pieces - and arches an eyebrow at the revealed image. And judging from her expression, as she stands there and takes a slow drag from the pipe...it doesn't tell her much.
	...and that green stuff smells suspiciously sweet as she exhales.

	Mo sighs, "I wish Mr. Fu was here. I don't have sight into the yang realm." He punches at the mosaic on the wall in frustration, knocking a few more pieces loose and bloodying his knuckles as he does so. YIKES!

	As MoGui's blood trickles down the etching, some magical effect seems to be taking place! Albeit slowly!

"Didn't you say the likes such as the Kuei-Jin were vampires?" Lana murmurs as she exhales a cloud of smoke and studies the blood sinking into the etchings. "Blood sacrifice, that's Xiu's domain." she closes her eyes for a moment and then glances over at her fellow witch. "Or do you think he is a gentleman enough to take the plunge?"

	Kuei-Jin. Xiu notes that term down - it's not the first time she's heard it, but the mentioning of blood sacrifice in connection with *that* has her slightly narrow her eyes. "Are you sure that is a good idea?" she asks as she steps forward, the fall of her feet silent and the stride slow as she keeps the long, thin pipe lifted. She takes another slow drag and exhales it a couple second later, equally slowly as she eyes the mosaic, and the blood on it. Her eyes flick towards Mo and she slightly tilts her head. "Especially in combination with vampires..." Yeah, there is some waryness there.

	"Not vampires. Wan Kuei. Vampires are just dumb mongrels. The Wan Kuei, they used to maintain the celestial bureaucracy, " mutters Mo before taking a breath to steady himself. "Stand back," he asks. Then? He channels Demon Chi into his fists. The process? Is NOT seemly, the young man taking on a feral, savage look as the power courses through his body, darkening his visage. And then he unleashes a flurry of blows against the stone wall, with the intent of feeding it his blood, after a fashion. The speed and power he demonstrates is obviously inhuman, and soon, the blood from his bare knuckles runs slickly down the stone wall.

	The demon chi wracks Mo's body, bruises and welts appearing on his skin as he channels the unwholesome mystical force in an effort to feed his blood into the wall.

Lana rises up to stand, she is all too eager to see what lies beyond this and inhales deeply on her cigarette. "You could have just cut your hand I guess?" she mentions in passing as she studies MoGui slam his fist against the wall over and over. She glances at Xiu. "Oh, the Chinese mythology and the who's who..never get is straight."

	Some of the wall is reduced to rubble. The golden compass Mo had set down on the ground spins wildly. Whatever they're looking for is right here, but not in plain view! Lana will feel the Wall fade as the dhampyr's chi infused blood soaks the stone wall.

	Xiu will feel spirit magick at play!

Exhaling smoke through her nose, Lana notices the spinning of the compass and glances around. As she spots nothing she feels more and nods her head slowly as she draws a symbol in the air, it's the symbol of 'spirits' in chinese and then takes a step forth and the world seems to ripple like rings on water around her and she's gone, leaving only the footprints of her passage in the dust, and a half smoked cigarette lying on the ground that still smokes..

The ripples in her wake, vanishes as the hole in the world pattern closes behind the spirit witch.
On the other side, Lana looks around.

	There, on the Otherside, in the hole in the wall that Mo punched through and paid the chiminage for in blood and chi, are the three jade discs!

Lana picks up the discs, studies them carefully as she stands there in the spiritual version of the real world and curls her lips into a soft smile. "The dragon will be pleased." she murmurs and then, focuses her mind to step back into the real world, putting some effort into bringing the discs with her out

	Mo waits. Impatiently. He was never really any good at waiting! And then? Lana steps back onto this side of the Wall with the prizes they were searching for! "You did it!" he exclaims, triumphantly. Is he - is he actually doing a little victory dance?!

===> Log ended by user <===> 1/23/2020, 5:59:36 PM <===