The party sets off on finding an Undead for Healer Danxia, encountering things both mystical and strange while in the northern outskirts of Junyan. Back at the Eastern Shengdu Temple, Fanna puts on an inspiring performance for Donovan, finally giving his situation some rare hope.
Characters Interacted With
Liu: Helped the party hunt an Undead and ferry Healer Danxia back and forth
Master Gathering Peace: Seen exploring the outskirts of Junyan. Appears to be on some Atracidae-related mission. Has a distaste for Pourronium.
Healer Danxia: Seen interacting with some of the Junyan Guards. Inspected the captured Chimera Undead.
Michael: Took Fanna back to Shengdu.
Donovan: Brought to tears by Fanna’s playing. Seems to be a lot better for now.
Other Characters Mentioned: The Atracidae, Junyan Guards, Lauran, Guiying, Master Hua, Yao Lufei
Locations
- Outskirts of Junyan (North side)
- Junyan
- Healer Danxia’s house
- Eastern Shengdu Temple
Session Overview
Meeting Master Gathering Peace
The party started off at the North gates of Junyan, heading northeast toward where Healer Danxia informed them Undead had been seen. As they walked down the mountainside, they saw a figure looking around the valley walking along the river. They approached, and saw a peach/orange-skinned humanoid with grey eyes, long dark hair tied up, in light blue robes, and carrying a basket of flowers. He/she was surrounded by a pleasant, floral fragrance.
Both parties exchanged greetings. The party asked him if he’d seen any Undead around, and he said he had not sensed any, showing concern that Undead were in the area. He explained how he was an Atracidae member on a mission after hearing about “alarming developments” about the Tigers of Nam and Leferin, but didn’t disclose further. He also talked about sensing the presence of Pourronium in the area, something he disapproved of.
As the figure spoke, the flowers in his basket started twitching, before floating in the air towards Brooks and circling around him. Brooks looked uncomfortable, and Fanna asked the figure if he could control his flowers. The figure merely replied he does not have control over them, as they were attracted to the presence of Pourronium. Said flowers started pressing themselves against Brooks’ bag. Brooks, after some thinking, realized the potential source was Donovan’s gun whom Michael had given to him a while back for safekeeping. He informed the party of this, before taking it out.
The figure was quite surprised, and asked why Brooks possessed such a destructive weapon. Brooks explained that he keeping it safe because its owner wasn’t in a state of mind where it’d be safe for him to have it. The figure expressed sympathy and gave his condolences, and said he would pray for the person’s health. The flowers, meanwhile started pressing themselves on the gun chamber. The figure asked for permission to check the gun for Pourronium. After Brooks’ consent, the figure popped out the chamber, picked up one of the bullet cartridges, examined it, and pointed to the presence of seafoam green powder within. This was Pourronium.
The party asked for the significance of this, and the figure explained how it was an incredibly destructive chemical, sought after and abundant in Ondinia’s mountains. It left pockmarks all over the landscape, and plants no longer grew in soil that was exposed to it. The figure asked the party if they could promise to not use it, and the party said they would not. The figure was appreciative.
After giving the gun back, the figure introduced themselves, saying their name was “Master Gathering Peace” but the party could call them “Gathering Peace” or even “Peace” for short. He let the party know that if he sensed any Undead, he’ll try to let them know. He also pulled out a very special item and handed it to the party to help them on their adventures: A Dancing Sword, specifically a Changdao. In turn, he asked that if the party comes across any Pourronium, they seek him out and inform him. The party also agreed to this. Master Gathering Peace thanked them and wished the party well, before turning back to the river.
Finding an Undead
After talking to Master Gathering Peace, Fanna offered their Ring of Protection to Nyssa, who agreed to take it after some hesitation. The party stopped to short rest, and Nyssa attuned to the Dancing Sword during their rest.
After continuing onward, they caught the stench of blood in the air. Up ahead was the corpse of a goat, which looked like it was savagely gored to death, a cloud of flies hovering in and around it. Its throat and stomach were torn open, and its entrails were spilling out. Nearby were bloody footprints which faced south to the mountain. Brooks crept up carefully to the corpse, and once he confirmed it was fully dead, the rest of the party approached.
Fanna investigated the footprints, and saw blood droplets that continued going up the mountain face, which gradually petered off before stopping. A chill wind blew through, alerting the party to something amiss. Then, something barreled down the mountain cliff towards Nyssa, dealing bludgeoning damage. It continued straight ahead off the edge, but remained hovering in the air with its wings. The party saw the creature was a chimeric Undead, with the body of the horse, the head of a bull, the tail of a reptile, and the talons and wings of an eagle.
The party engaged in combat with it. Nyssa threw out her newly acquired Dancing Sword, and was able to get a critical hit on it during combat. The party gained an edge early on thanks to Fanna casting Blindness on it, confusing the creature. It lashed out several times at Nyssa, but was clearly fighting a losing battle. At one point, when Brooks went to attack, he heard the sound of something sliding on stone to his side. Just then, a small, simple cloth bag slid down the mountain face and landed at his feet. When he opened it up, inside was a small container with a latch, which contained Pourronium powder. Brooks quickly pocketed it for later. The party finished off the Chimera Undead by shooting its kneecaps, bringing it to its knees and giving the party time to quickly bind it in rope.
The party debated on how they would bring the Chimera Undead back to Healer Danxia. Liu proposed instead bringing Healer Danxia to where they were right now, and the party decided that was the best course of action. Liu and Brooks took off back to Junyan. When they landed outside of Healer Danxia’s house, two guards were outside smoking, and an older one stopped to stare at Brooks like he recognized him. Brooks quickly hurried inside, along with Liu.
Inside, a guard with bloodied bandages on his shoulders and upper chest was lying on a cot, with another one busily conversing with Healer Danxia. They explained how they caught outsiders trying to steal some of their firewood, and ended up getting into a fight with them. One guard, the one that was bandaged, managed to tear one of their clothing, and take some of their items. The guards subsequently gave Healer Danxia the items: A credit card-sized thin metal object with writing engraved on it, a dagger, and a few Pourronium bullets. She quickly put them away.
Brooks and Liu went up to her, and explained how they captured an Undead, but it was too heavy to bring back to her. After some thought, and confirming with the injured guard that he was okay, she agreed to be ferried by the two to the Undead’s location, though stressed she couldn’t be away for too long. Brooks and Liu took ahold of her and flew her back to the waiting party.
After landing, Healer Danxia took out a notepad and began examining the Chimera Undead. The beast struggled against its restraints, whining and mooing, and Nyssa stood by to make sure the beast wouldn’t escape. Healer Danxia noted how dry the animal parts were, and the presence of stitch marks where the different body parts met, meaning that it was not naturally chimeric while it was alive. She also noted how it looked like an amalgamation of both wild and domestic or farm-raised animals. She concluded that it seemed to be that the parts that were used to create the animal had been kept around for a while, or that it had been a significant amount of time since it had been “made”, and the body part integrity had dried out over time.
She thanked the party for bringing her this, and told them to burn the body before burying it. Before Nyssa dealt the killing blow, Fanna gave the creature a sympathetic kiss on the forehead. When the party pointed out how Fanna had just kissed a dry corpse, Fanna promptly started throwing up. Healer Danxia came over and held Fanna’s hair as they threw up over the edge of the mountain path, before slapping them, giving them a ginger chew, and telling them to wash their mouth with soup several times. Brooks and Liu flew her back to Junyan while Nyssa and Fanna put the corpse on a makeshift pyre and burnt it to ashes. The party then gave it a proper final burial.
The party started their trek back to Junyan. As they approached the North side gates, Brooks heard the sound of rustling paper from further up ahead around the corner. Cautiously, he snuck ahead and got a sneak peek, finding a piece of paper flapping around in the wind and pinned to the ground by a rock. He picked it up and saw it was a childish drawing of a man attacking an evil goat-looking creature. Further down the mountain was what seemed to be a makeshift camp, where a humanoid male was lying on the ground unmoving, his belongings scattered around him.
Brooks bought the drawing to the party and showed them it, along with the pointing out the camp below. After debating the homelessness status of the man and themselves, the party threw a pebble down at the man to check he was okay. When the man did not react, the concerned party immediately made their way down.
When they approached, it was immediately clear the man was dead. His clothes were full of holes from him being gored to death. One of his hands was wrapped tightly around a shoddy Peach Wood sword, a deep crack in its middle hastily bound together with rope. In his pockets was another kiddie drawing, this time of what seemed to be a girl and her two parents. He also had a detailed handwoven sash around his body, and a Potion of Healing within his bags. The party solemnly took his belongings and buried his body as well. Everyone agreed that once they were back in Junyan, they’d try and find the deceased man’s family and inform them of what happened.
An Emotional Performance
At an indeterminate time as this was happening, Fanna was summoned back to Shengdu by Michael. After fast traveling via the elements, Fanna and Michael popped out of the dirt in one of the Eastern Shengdu Temple’s courtyards. Fanna asked what they needed to do, but Michael informed them he actually called them back for something else. As Fanna and the rest of the party knew, Donovan’s current quality of life was very poor. Concerningly, he has started resisting attempts to apply medicine to his wounds. Ordinarily, the erhu music from his father Yao Lufei would placate him enough to allow Master Hua or Guiying to apply it, but that wasn’t working this time either. Michael asked Fanna if they could try their hand and soothing Donovan with music. Fanna agreed.
Michael walked Fanna to the infirmary, cautioning them to be respectful and do their usual antics of varying disrespect. He then opened the door to the infirmary, and let Fanna walk through. Inside, they saw Master Hua and Guiying standing by the counters, talking in hushed whispers. Guiying thanked Fanna for doing this, expressing how awful the situation was. Further ahead, Yao Lufei was seated in his chair, looking especially glum. Fanna walked forth and began setting up their equipment, taking out their lute.
Donovan was huddled on his cot again, tangled up in the bedsheets, continuing to look like a wounded, suffering animal. Fanna began playing a song that was significant to them. They had discovered it the very same week they ran away from Lauran, at an outside theatre that was performing a Romeo and Juliet-like musical. After one of the main character’s beloved had died, this song was performed, and it expressed the main characters love for their beloved and remorse that they missed out on a happy future that would now never be fulfilled.
At first, when Fanna performed, Donovan merely stared blankly at them, the only faint speck of emotion on his face was following Fanna’s movements with his remaining eye. As Fanna continued, however, their performance was so moving that Donovan’s eye started watering up with tears (DM’s Note: They got a crit success on this performance roll, what the fuck). As Fanna neared the end of their performance, Donovan painfully tried to sit up, which Fanna assisted with with a Mage Hand.
Donovan opened his mouth, and shakily asked what was that that Fanna was playing. Fanna, taking their time to be gentle, explained the song and its significance to them. Donovan went silent and hung his head, and Fanna saw tears fall onto the bedsheets. Donovan broke down, exclaiming how he was scared and didn’t want to die.
Fanna reminded Donovan of how strong, intelligent, and brave he was. How he was a genius who created bio-mechanical marvels, and that he had friends and family that cared for him. Things were painful now, but Fanna knew Donovan had it within him to pull through this, and everyone was working hard to make sure he’d survive.
Fanna called Donovan by his name (as far as they were aware) as they did so, and Donovan once again seemed to show aversion to being called this name. He exclaimed once again how he didn’t understand why everyone called him that, repeating how “Donovan had died at the Taochuan Fair”. Fanna, after taking this in, told Donovan a story from their past, of how one of the animal experiments them and Lauran had been working on was on the edge of its heart giving out. Thought it was reduced to a near-death state, the two worked day and night, even replacing some of its organs, and the creature lived. Fanna concluded by saying that even if Donovan, or whoever he wanted to be, had been through some changes, he could embrace the ones that were necessary and become who he wanted to be.
As Fanna told the story, Donovan seemed to already have an idea of how it ended, a symptom of him having attained Fanna’s memories. As he mulled over Fanna’s words, his mind became latched on Lauran again, and he started whispering about how Lauran could fix him, just like he had done with the creature Fanna talked about. Fanna urgently tried to shut this train of thought down, reminding Donovan of the many other memories they had of Lauran being a terrible person. This seemed to quiet Donovan, and he was left to ponder in silence.
Fanna heard the sound of people approaching, and looked up to see Master Hua and Guiying at the bedside, holding small bowls containing fresh medicinal balm. They both bowed to Fanna and thanked them. Yao Lufei, in his seat, also bowed to Fanna and expressed his earnest thanks, even if he “didn’t really understand what they were talking about.”
Fanna left the infirmary, where Michael was waiting outside. Michael asked how it went, and Fanna told him he thought it went well. Michael expressed his thanks, and asked if Donovan still seemed latched onto the idea of Lauran fixing him. Fanna said they thought they might’ve changed his mind. Michael concluded that everyone would just have to wait and see, ending the session.
Key Learnings
- Master Gathering Peace was on the lookout for Pourronium, seemingly to prevent its use, due to it being an incredibly destructive chemical.
- Donovan’s gun had two Pourronium bullets left in the chamber.
- A scuffle with the Junyan guards occurred recently, where they caught some outsiders trying to steal some of their firewood. In the fight, one guard got injured, but managed to snatch some of the outsiders belongings, including a metal card-looking object, Pourronium bullets, and a dagger. They were given to Healer Danxia for the time-being.
- The Chimera Undead was not chimeric when it was still alive, pointing it to being a manmade creation.
- The composition of the Chimera Undead was made up of what seemed like a mix of farm animal or wild animal parts, implying that whatever was producing them was drawing from multiple sources.
- The parts were also quite old, suggesting that the parts that were used to create the animal had been kept around for a while, or it had been a significant amount of time since it had been “made”.
- Donovan… maybe doesn’t want to die anymore?
Items Of Importance
- 1x Dancing Sword (Changdao/Greatsword)
- 2x Kiddie drawings
- 1x Peach Wood Sword (Heavily damaged)
- 1x Healing Potion
- 1x Decorated Sash