The Adventures of Fu: Chasing Demons, Looking For A Good Fight

We had a new Art of Wuxia session this Monday night. It was shortish, roughly 20-1, but then I fell asleep. (The advantages of living in the same house as your GM).

So we played with Fu, my second character: the Beggar brotherhood warrior-mystic who loves fighting. He is usually moving around with Yanzi (Darting Swallow, a girl from the Beggar Clan who might have taken a liking for him), and Chen, his frenemy and one-time rival.

We were working for a Rich Benefactor (Scribe Yu, a former court poet), as beggars often do, and chasing someone who was summoning demons in the city. Said demons had tried to kill Scribe Yu, thus him contacting the Beggar Brotherhood - thus, us - to look into it was totally understandable!

After all, we sell information...

We had already determined they were trying to get an old book, also related to demons, which our benefactor and his friends had in his disposal.

(Nobody listened to Fu's suggestions to burn the damn thing...)

However, they smuggled it out of the place where it was (via a magic  spell that wasn't known in the setting so far - the Wolf is the only guy who has it), and then we had all the servants leave as well. After that, we put a trap.

We beggars were lookouts, but they still equipped us with blessed weapons (Fu got a 3-section staff) and firecrackers. We just had to fire the firecrackers after we saw demons going towards the house (where they believed the book to be).

The fact that Fu, being a mystic, can see demons, was really handy...

Of course, they had also instructed us to leave immediately after. Keep in mind, our benefactors include the #4 in the whole of Wulin, Little Minnow...as well as his two sworn brothers!

So we had good reasons to assume they'd be able to deal with the demons.

But 2 out of 3 beggar warriors wanted to fight demons! That included Fu, of course... I mean, one of the others is my ex-rival (we've been getting along)! I can't let him get the better of me, now can I? What if he thinks he's got the upper hand in our rivalry?!?

Besides, a good fight isn't something to miss!

However, Little Minnow himself stopped me. Like, he reached and grabbed me by the collar. Than we saw his sworn brother putting an ward against demons around the house.

And here's when I couldn't stomach the injustice, so I asked them:

"But why are you only preventing me? Why is he allowed to fight demons?"

"Don't tell me another one got in?!?"

"Of course he did! Are we warriors or not?!?"

Clearly, we had a case of different priorities here...

So one of them ("the wizard", as I'd nicknamed him) got in, and I was ordered to remain behind with the other two, and prevent anything from tangle with the wards.
Well, technically, that's how Fu understood it. 

What they had actually said was literally "if a demon tries to tangle, call for Little Minnow or the Scribe Yu, and keep away!"

...so of course, when I saw a demon, I shouted for them - and then promptly bashed the thing in the face with my 3-section staff!

First strike, critical success roll! I cracked its porcelain mask on its shadowy face (the thing looks like a person made of smoke...which made my sweeps not as useful as I'd have liked) and it started keeping a hand on it to prevent it from falling apart.
I kept trying to smash it in the fingers, but didn't manage to. I did hit the head, though.

It was an epic fight! Blessed 3-section staff vs demonic claws with necrotic poison on them, and the demon's attempt to dominate my will with its hypnotic gaze!

It never succeeded in either, until someone threw my rival out of the window. So I had to redouble my efforts, afraid that he might steal my kill!

The demon managed to crack some ribs, if that counts. But it didn't count for Fu! In my book, fighting means you can get hit. If you're afraid of leopards, don't go in the jungle!

So we kept fighting, until Little Minnow appeared. But then the demonic pussy tried to run.

"Stay here and fight like a man!", Fu exclaimed. He acted quickly, and tried to get a strike in...but then he missed sorely, and fell to the ground.

(I rolled maximum Inititative, and then promptly critfailed my attack roll...yes, dice are rolled in the open).

Next move, I threw my blessed 3-section staff to try and trip the thing...forgetting it can fly. It jumped over it, not stopping to run.

So I gave chase!

"Don't kill it! We need it to talk!", the older xia (who were further away) exclaimed.

In the end, the "only sensible beggar warrior" - the one who had actually left, Yanzi - hit it with blessed flying needles. Not only that, she pinned its mask - its only tangible part - to the wall. That's when Fu got it, and attacked with heavy strikes and elbows!

No, I had not stopped for the 3-section staff.

That's also when it finally managed to hit me with a claw and not a palm. So now I was poisoned...

But the far more experienced xia took it out, rolled it over and literally stuck it inside a golden ball. That's how this fight ended... 

Oh, and they gave me antidote immediately. I guess seasoned xia prepare for the enemies they know they'd meet?

Fu was dejected at not being able to take it out, and asked Little Minnow whether he should count it as winning.

"You would have won, so it counts! But you didn't kill it, so you can't count it as a kill!", was the verdict.

Fu still thought it wasn't quite fair.

"No, I didn't take it out, so it really shouldn't count! If I'd knocked it out, it would, but since Uncle rolled it, I can only claim fighting against it and not dying. But Most Senior Uncle, I want to fight another one when you have another! It was great fun!"

After that, we got to a banquet in the Golden Lotus whorehouse The Wizard owns (amusingly, he was flirting heavily with a blind elder of the Beggar Brotherhood, while she was berating him about exposing us to danger), and then to a sauna.

Admittedly, Fu knew it wasn't his place in either, but since senior people invited him, how could he refuse?

He kept well clear from the working girls, though. He figured good food is plenty of payment for the likes of him, he shouldn't expect anything more...nor did he want it. If they wanted to pay him extra, they should pay the Beggar Brotherhood instead!

They took me to another fight the next day. Capturing the wizard, however, was elementary in comparison! We waited for him in the backstreets behind his residence, the respected uncles went to raise some hue and cry in front of the front door. Luckily, he tried to run past Fu, so I hit him in the ribs with a 3-section staff.

Then I let them interrogate him, and went to help some another group of friendly xia. They were running another errand for the Little Minnow's group of elders, so I went to help the guy I liked best - a pitfighter.

Fu's reasoning: "Where this guy is, a fight is nearby!"

Alas, didn't quite work out like this. He was doing boring investigation stuff - searching for some guy with an octopus tattoo on his head/face - but lacked skill despite the fact they'd given him lots of money to pay. I talked to a bartender, paid for info, then followed the lead to another whorehouse, where they told us that not one, but four guys like these had arrived.

We reported back, took portraits of said guys from the police precinct, and started showing them to the beggars!

And that's when I fell asleep, so the session ended!

*Jing Wu-yang, nicknamed "The Wolf Wizard" or "Mr Wizard" in our campaign.