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treave

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Codex 2012
Leaving Luoyang

There is a rather sizeable throng awaiting your match with Bai Jiutian. At the centre of the stage you see the man himself waiting patiently, the perfect picture of a refined gentleman. The duel had been scheduled a few hours past daybreak, but the sun was now approaching its zenith. Even the calm and composed Bai Jiutian is already sweating from standing in the heat.

A twitch of irritation passes across his face. You decide to reveal yourself – the crowd is getting restless. Standing up from your shaded vantage point on a nearby roof, you call out to your opponent. The crowd begins to murmur as all eyes are drawn to you.

“You are late, Man Tiger Pig. What are the limits of your irresponsible ways?” Bai Jiutian replies loudly, shading his eyes as he looks up at you.

“My apologies for this late arrival, Young Master Bai, but my wounds from facing down the Fire Cult have yet to heal. I spent most of the morning unable to walk.”

“Did the medicine I give you not help?” he asks suspiciously.

“About that…” You throw the pouch at him. Bai Jiutian catches it, turning it around before his eyes.

“I am not sure why you thought wormtail leaves would help my recovery,” you continue. “Those are useful for fevers and the like, but hardly suitable for injuries of the limbs.”

“Wormtail leaves?” Bai Jiutian is surprised and angered. “I gave you golden fox leaves as a mark of my goodwill!” Opening the pouch, he rummages within and picks out a shining leaf to prove it to the crowd. “There!” He seems to be slightly relieved to see the leaves he gave you for some reason.

“Oh, I am truly sorry for my ineptitude, Young Master Bai,” you say. “I am not a well-studied person. Still, you cannot blame me. Wormtail and golden fox have a similar colour when dried, and I was not expecting to see something as valuable as golden fox leaves. I did not think a Huashan disciple could have afforded to walk around with such expensive medication, let alone give it away to someone he considers a foe. My presumptuous nature has caused me to behave in an unsightly manner, it seems.” You lower your head in an apologetic manner.

“I… No matter,” grimaces Bai Jiutian. “It was not something I bought. It was a precious gift from a precious friend, and I would gladly use it to preserve the honour of Huashan, even if it would have been wasted on a scoundrel like you.”

“It is good thing that it was not wasted then,” you shrug.

“Are you going to come down and fight me, Man Tiger Pig? For that matter, why are you still appearing with that mask?” he challenges, going straight to the point.

“This?” You tap the side of the mask – tiger-striped pig’s masks have become rather popular with the roadside stalls since yesterday. It was no trouble getting one. “It’s become a habit. The mask makes me feel safe.” In truth, you only did it because you know it will irritate him further to look at that mask.

“It makes you look like a coward,” taunts Bai. “Will you come down and exchange moves with me now?”

“I would, but I won’t.”

“Truly a coward,” sneers the man. The crowd begins to jeer at you.

“You misunderstand me, Young Master Bai. I do not wish to fight you simply because I do not wish to injure you. Everyone knows that Zhang Jue’s techniques are cruel and lethal. Should I harm you by accident…”

“You will not lay even a finger on me,” he replies confidently. “The swordplay of Huashan is beyond your ability to defeat.”

“Yet I laid my hands on your junior’s sash.”

“Only because you, Man Tiger Pig, are no gentleman.” But he pauses for a while, uncertain – if you had a trick up your sleeve, there was still the chance that you could hit him. He is not so blind as to deny that possibility.

“I fear only the rare probability that a misjudged attack might wound you, Young Master Bai. I would not tempt fate. It takes only one stroke of misfortune to ruin a man’s life forever. Indeed, if you were injured, who would lead the ranks of our generation in the battle against the Fire Cult?”

The crowd murmurs their approval. It seems like they already do see him as their leader. Bai Jiutian himself seems slightly thoughtful as he considers your words. His gaze falls downward, probably calculating the risks and honour at stake.

“Even though I may be the disciple of Zhang Jue, neither of us are aligned with these cultists’ interests. They are an intruder into our way of life,” you say. “Under their rule the pugilistic world would be forever changed. Is it so hard to believe that I would not like to see their victory any more than you do?”

Bai Jiutian looks up. “There is no evidence that you are telling the truth-“ He finds himself talking to empty air, as you have slipped off while he was lost in thought. You have no time to debate him right now – you suspect that his intentions in this are not pure, and he would force you into a fight regardless of what you said should you stay there for too long.

***

You board a barge down the Grand Canal after bidding goodbye to Cao’er, Yifang and Guo Fu by the riverbank. You reminded Cao’er of your promise to pick her up at Emei, but it seems that you had no need to do so – she has been counting down the days till your probable arrival. Yifang reminds you that you owe her some time, but she says that she will not make good on that claim right now, though she does not give a reason why. Guo Fu and his wife thanked you profusely for all you have done for them – thanks that you receive with some embarrassment. Now that he is a Wudang disciple, his livelihood should be assured. You told him to convey your regards if he should meet the Grand Taoist Wang Zhengchong, and to look after his wife even while training hard in martial arts.

Qilin was not here, but that wasn’t surprising. When you woke up this morning you found a small letter addressed to you lying by your pillow. In it, she said that she was returning south to her ‘family business’ in order to get a better grasp on recent events. She also left you a sachet of Five Poisons Special Powder as a sample of her work, which she claimed to be her own modification of a bread-and-butter Wudu Cult product after doing some testing here. She describes it as a type of poison that causes the victim to go into seizures without inflicting permanent harm.

Of course, she also took some taels from your pouch while you were sleeping as compensation. Apparently it wasn’t a free sample.

***

You stop by Xuzhou on your way to Yangzhou – the barge will hold here for a day or two while they take on and unload cargo. Giving Scholar Jiang’s residence a wide berth, you head towards Luoying Manor.

As always, Lady Ji is there, a constant, unaging presence. She invites you in kindly and has her maids bring you to the inner courtyard before mysteriously disappearing off somewhere. At this time of the year the Manor does not get many visitors, but still there are a few strange scholars and wandering fighters present. You should be able to find out some things from them.

***

Formulate two questions to ask, with each question addressing a single subject of interest. You can ask anything you want, from politics to techniques, but there is no guarantee you will get an answer useful to you, or even an answer at all, depending on what question you ask. For example, general questions get you general answers that could be too vague to be useful, while specific questions might get you more details, but with a greater risk of getting no useful information if no one here knows anything about the specific thing you are asking.
 
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ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Politics. I want to know what's up with the Tujue. As much details as possible.
And what's up with Princebro's court and such.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
You'll have to structure that into a proper question.

Also, you are approaching this place as a relatively ignorant newcomer. You are basically leeching off what they know and giving nothing interesting in return. Do not expect too much acknowledgement because 2 in Artistic Skill and 2 in Scholarly Knowledge is extremely unimpressive and this is at its core still a scholar's mansion.

So, anyone trying to game this choice by going for a "lolz can all of you tell me everything you know?" or any liberal uses of 'and' in the question will get a "lol who u, noob?" response. Just a heads-up.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Yeah, I figured I'd have to frame that right. Will post in a bit once I decide on specifics.
 

Rex Feral

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We need Esquilax for this. I would rather know the internal state of affairs of the Empire and its relationships with neighbouring countries.
 

ERYFKRAD

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We need Esquilax for this. I would rather know the internal state of affairs of the Empire and its relationships with neighbouring countries.
I was more concerned about the Empra and the heir-apparent's current standing with the Court and people. But then, I guess it'd be a long shot to expect scholars to be privy to the inner workings of the court. In fact, do we have any handle on what people think of Princebro at all?
 

asxetos

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1. "What do you know about the Fire Cult and their whereabouts?"

2. "What is going on on the northern border and how is the prince involved?"

I am not so sure if we should mention the prince in q2 though.

I am a bit butthurt we didnt get to catch up to the cult directly.
 
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Well, I would like to ask something about the general political situation in the country - we did just spend a couple of years on an island with only the Maniac and tigers for company, so we are not exactly up to speed on what is happening.

As for my second question - is it possible to trade technique manuals with someone there instead? We do have a Shaolin manual that we have no further use for.
 

Esquilax

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Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rex Feral. Anyways, you're right; the questions we should ask should probably be political in nature. Since we've got two questions, we should probably only ask about techniques insofar as they relate to the conspiracy.

Formulate two questions to ask, with each question addressing a single subject of interest. You can ask anything you want, from politics to techniques, but there is no guarantee you will get an answer useful to you, or even an answer at all, depending on what question you ask. For example, general questions get you general answers that could be too vague to be useful, while specific questions might get you more details, but with a greater risk of getting no useful information if no one here knows anything about the specific thing you are asking.

First, let's narrow things down into the general topic that we want to talk about. What are the topics that are relevant to our situation?
  • Fire Temple of Gushnasp. They were neither Han nor Persian, so what are they? What are they doing here, what are their religious beliefs, etc.
  • The recent history of the Empire, since the Tujue war forty years ago and the subsequent civil war thirty years ago. What are the causes, who were the belligerents, why did it occur, etc.
  • Why has China become an increasingly lawless place over the past several years, with the government less able to protect people from bandits than it was in times past?
  • We were struck by a qi attack that was similar to the Yuhua Duqing Palm, but a different technique altogether, with a qi that Cao'er described as "crueler and more persistent" than the YDP. Any idea what it is?
I think that should about cover the topics that we're interested in. So it's either an account of a foreign religion, a lesson on the recent history of the Empire since the time of the Frathouse, an economic analysis detailing the rise of lawlessness and the decline of Tang authority in the far-flung parts of the Empire, or a medical diagnosis to determine the origin of the attack that struck us.

I was more concerned about the Empra and the heir-apparent's current standing with the Court and people. But then, I guess it'd be a long shot to expect scholars to be privy to the inner workings of the court. In fact, do we have any handle on what people think of Princebro at all?

Actually, I think that the scholars at Luoying Manor would know more about this than you think. It's a pretty :obviously: place, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they had a few Imperial scholars among them. I'm pretty sure Scholarbro Xiahou Yu is an Imperial Scholar as well.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
I am a bit butthurt we didnt get to catch up to the cult directly.

Well, the choice was clear: if you want to meet the cultists, you pick C1. If not, you are prioritizing something else, i.e. your business with Bai Jiutian. Which means they don't rate as highly on your list of things to do. It doesn't mean they aren't important to Xu Jing, just that they are something he thinks can be investigated later. Giving up the opportunity of a very certain meeting says as much.

There was no reason for the character to consider spending his time running around looking for those particular cultists if he didn't accept their initial invitation. If he missed them at Wufushan he would not been able to find them that easily - the character realizes that. He's not that lucky. Besides, if they were so easy to find, track, and infiltrate, the Beggars would have probably found out what they were planning a long time ago. That they haven't means that despite their exotic and foreign nature, they can be an extremely subtle lot. So, if he isn't making the cult his foremost priority, he isn't going to go out of his way to seek them out afterwards. There is nothing for him to do in the western regions at the moment anyway - he is already planning a trip to the area to pick up Cao'er at Emei, so why run there now when he can take this opportunity to pursue whatever business he has in the east?

As for my second question - is it possible to trade technique manuals with someone there instead? We do have a Shaolin manual that we have no further use for.

You would need to ask about techniques. There won't be that many techniques that are suitable for you here since your low artistic skill and scholarly knowledge precludes you from understanding most of the manuals, but you might find a couple of techniques that are possible for you to learn.
 
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Joined
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I would definitely like to find some kind of sword technique in that case, preferably something similar to Zhang's counter-Huashan technique. Just thinking ahead. We have our Shaolin manual, so it's not like we would be giving nothing in return. Something that allows us to use our unique qi could also be useful in case we run into someone as tough as Guo Fu again, but we can get the Yuhe finger for that from Yao when we go back for Cao'er.

And for the other question, well I don't know how to put it into a question form, but I would definitely like to know more about the current political situation in the country. It can be a more general question, even if it means getting less details.
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The Fire Cult is a pretty secretive organisation to evade the attention of the Eight Sects until now. While they are our most pressing concern, I doubt anyone here knows anything about them. The situation is similar to the one we had two years ago with our qi: we were too eager to find something - anything - to help us find a way out of the situation we were in, and learned nothing instead.

I second the vote for the history lesson. The current Emperor's rule is a not a hereditary one, as it turns out. Its legitimacy is by no means indisputable, and the ones the Emperor trampled over on his way to the throne might still be alive.

I think the third question of Esquilax ties directly to the second one. The situation in the Empire is unstable due to the relatively recent takeover.
 
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ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Sure, it's unstable, but who would most likely benefit from the collapse of the current regime?
That might take us places.
Heh, in fact I'll stick with this question, for now.
 

Smashing Axe

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Divinity: Original Sin
Edit
What are the legends of achieving immortality that haven't been disproven?
What is the significance and power of the sign/star I was born under?

I'm not sure about the first question, in regards to the second, I feel like taking a bit of a stab in the dark. I get the feeling that there's more to the Emperor keeping us around as Princebro's companion than we've been told. It'd be nice to pre-emptively know this, and if possible, find a way to change our fate.

I don't think the Manor will have much, if any information about a secretive foreign fire cult.
 
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Esquilax

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treave, did we manage to talk to Wu Jin or one of the other Wu brothers that were probably with Guo Fu?

Zero Credibility, I think we'd be far better off seeking knowledge of the world around us at this point rather than more techniques. We've expanded our Xianglong Eighteen Palms and added a new grappling style to work with our Shouwang Claws:

Style Three - Diving Eagle Grip - a series of powerful grapples that emphasize on digging your fingers into the opponents tendons and locking their limbs in place.

This sounds like a great way to make someone's sword hand useless.

ERYFKRAD, that's actually an awesome question, but the Emperor probably has a lot of enemies. I think that we need to understand things in the context of history to get a good idea of who might have a stake in taking out the royal family. In an Imperial Court with a lot of intrigue, I reckon that the same people who want to kill off the reigning Dynasty are probably the Emperor's best friends. What we do know about him, however, is that he's a superstitious recluse.

For now, here's my attempt to formulate questions in such a way that we won't get laughed at by the more savvy scholars:

What were the causes and aftermaths of the warring period between forty and thirty years ago? (Subject: War, History, Politics)
What is the significance and power of the sign/star I was born under? (Subject: Occult/Obscure)
 
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a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
I was struck by someone with a palm strike that felt like the Yuhua Duqing Palm, but with a crueller, more persistent qi; any idea what it could be? (Subject: Techniques)
What would Yuhua Hall or someone related to them gain from inciting mob against Zhang Jue and his disciple? (Subject: Politics)



EDIT: 1000!
:yeah:
:brodex:
:excellent::bravo:
 
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ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
ERYFKRAD, that's actually an awesome question, but the Emperor probably has a lot of enemies. I think that we need to understand things in the context of history to get a good idea of who might have a stake in taking out the royal family. In an Imperial Court with a lot of intrigue, I reckon that the same people who want to kill off the reigning Dynasty are probably the Emperor's best friends. What we do know about him, however, is that he's a superstitious recluse.
My question is not who is his enemy, but rather who stands to gain from the Empra's fall. There's a very fine line of distinction there. In all honesty, asking directly for enemies themselves will only get us more dead ends.
Also, anyone who stands to benefit from the Empra's fall does not necessarily need to have motivations rooted in the civil war. Someone who's investing in the Empra's fall could range anywhere from an ex-royal to an opportunistic merchant to the cultists.
The limitation of a historical context and its aftermath may not give us all the angles we need, and asking for the whole historical background seems less focussed somehow. It might require extrapolations and conclusions from Tigerbro's end that may or may not be on the money.
I do however admit that the answer to my question could limit itself to only known entities, and not (relatively) unknown elements like the cult.
And seriously, if the Empra's best friends also wanna kill him, we should drop everything right now and haul ass to Shun.
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Esquilax said:
What were the causes and aftermath of the civil war thirty years ago?
I feel that your question is a separate one entirely. What happened 30 years ago and who would benefit from a fall of the ruling dynasty now might be connected, but they touch upon different subjects. The first one will help us understand which factions might still be at play, but their agenda may have changed by now. The ones who opposed the Emperor might have found a way to profit under his rule, while the ones that helped him ascend might desire more power than he was willing to give them. That does not preclude an appearance of the third faction that was not present then, but has a vested interest in changing the status quo now.

In fact, I might end up voting both of them.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

What is the significance and power of the sign I was born under?

I'm not sure about the first question, in regards to the second, I feel like taking a bit of a stab in the dark. I get the feeling that there's more to the Emperor keeping us around as Princebro's companion than we've been told. It'd be nice to pre-emptively know this, and if possible, find a way to change our fate.
I suspect that we were chosen so our luck would act like a sort of lightning-rod to divert misfortune and harm away from Princebro.
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
ERYFKRAD said:
And seriously, if the Empra's best friends also wanna kill him, we should drop everything right now and haul ass to Shun.
I think you do not have to worry about Shun's safety from the conspirators if you can learn about their schemes from wandering scholars.
 

Baltika9

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What is the significance and power of the sign I was born under?
This question I like. We've been asking ourselves that from the beginning, "what is so special about this sign that had the Empror adopt us, specifically?" I feel like investigating our mysterious origins will be very beneficial to us, personally. That's pretty much all, definitely going with this.

As for the second one, asking for something unspecific like, "who would benefit from the Emperor's downfall" or "who would want him dead?" will lead to a huge list of names that won't mean anything to us. This is China we're talking about, in a population of millions I'm pretty sure the Empror has a lot of enemies. I'd rather we take something more specific, like "what were the causes and aftermaths of the warring period between forty and thirty years ago?" treave, will a cheating "two-in-one" question like that work?
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Yes, the war with Tujue tribes from 40 years ago interests me greatly, too. I wonder if the takeover ten years later was somehow connected to its aftermath.
 

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