Adventures of Wang: Rooting Out Corruption, Bringing Punishment To The Wicked - part 1

Anyone who reads any of the Actual Play/After-Action Reports from our campaigns does so at his or her own damn risk. There are topics that might trigger somebody and we don't shy away from those. If you read on, have fun!

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So the session started with Wang and YSW being blindfolded and lead to the Swords* of Justice' place. Black Fox remained behind, given that him and his sister are in telepathic contact via a magic that all children of the Wolf are learning first.

 

Basically, we had one of the best kung-fu warriors in the world as unseen back-up.

 

Excuse me if Wang believed he might act a bit cocky!

We discussed with them that we very much approve what they're doing. They seemed, however, to be preparing to face the official army!
 

As in, they were training the peasants to fight...
 

Wang didn't approve of that. Instead, he told them to hold off, and that the officials can be dealt with with much less violence. They didn't seem to believe it's possible, though, because as they put it, the local officials are all connected with the important families, and corrupted.
 

He promised them that this would be resolved once the Emperor returns.
 

"He's dead, we heard. Both of them, him and his half brother".
 

"They're not", Wang blurted and immediately regretted, but it was too late. He asked them to keep silent about it, and merely prepare to acknowledge the lawful emperor when he's restored!
 

They were getting suspicious, though, so he finally relented, and told them that name of Jing - the Wolf, explaining that he's saved the emperor. When they doubted it, he pointed out that YSW's name is Jing, too, and she's Wolf's youngest daughter. 

 

(Normally he wouldn't attract attention to her. But then, back-up).
 

And, he stressed that part, when the emperor returns, the corruption would be rooted out!
 

They agreed that the plan sounds better than fighting the army, but they pointed out we had no proof of our claims. On the other hand, if we could help them solve a pressing matter...
 

What matter?
 

The local city's magistrate, some Yin guy, was visiting the district magistrate in the main city of the district and complaining about their actions. They were both taking money from the same people, if they obeyed our friends' warning, that would stop.

 

And if they didn't, they'd need to risk defying the warning of the Swords of Justice.
So they had asked for the army to be involved!
 

Thus, it was suggested that if we could prevent the army's involvement, it would establish we can deal with the authorities, and prove our mettle at the same time...
Wang liked that and actually agreed immediately!

Before going, he did ask for specific examples of the infractions that were going unpunished here, and stuff like that. In return, he got a whole chest of those, all of significant crimes: extortion, unlawful beatings, obviously unlawful decisions of the court, rape, murder.
 

Only problem is, nobody was able to deliver those! Anyone that tried, disappeared!
Wang immediately went into war mode. Meaning he grabbed a piece of paper and started writing a document accompanying one of the complaints.

 

A document he signed with the name of his adoptive father, and put his seal on! Remember, he's been adopted? (And BTW, the documents are in complete order, having been signed off by the emperor himself and deposited in the relevant yamen court!)

Another set of documents was signed off by Young She-Wolf, though of course she used her own family name. Remember the part where the emperor is actually a grandkid of the Wolf? She's literally the Emperor's Aunt!
 

And we got Black Fox to come as well, the Emperor's Uncle.
At the end we got like 20 of these, accompanied by documents stating more or less "I have personally verified the complaint and found it meritorous. The signatory is going to inquire about the actions taken in relation to it in a month after it's been deposited".
 

Thus equipped, we went to the district capital. Via the new spell, of course!

There, we found...well, pretty much the same thing we expected. We announced ourselves, they've heard of my father (I skipped the "adoptive" part, he's in a distant enough part of the world!) and we went to shop for my concubine!
 

Concubine, you ask? Yes. I'd asked Young She-Wolf to play the part, because we really want her around me, and we don't want to introduce her as "Jing"! Thus, she is the daughter of an inn-keeper, should anyone ask...

She hates the idea, but agrees it's the best one. So at least we went to shop for clothes. Her main query was whether she could move freely in them, and to discard them easily, should the need arise. (She's not into striptease...as far as I know, maybe I should ask... but then she'd rather fight in her undergarments than die in official clothes!)
 

When we arrived, we had an invitation to a party this evening. (Both of us, our GM doesn't do separate-genders parties).

There, YSW actually became the star of the evening when the women started showing their talents: singing, dancing, playing music...
 

Wang: "Well, we can't show you playing on the instrument I like you best at, anything else?"
 

She, however, danced while composing and reciting poetry. Of course, she isn't actually much of a poet! But her brother is, and she can keep dancing while he is telling her the lines...

No, we don't play fair.

I actually got some offers from well-connected men to "buy off her contract". I politely declined, stating that my family is rich enough, and I like her well enough, there's no need for this.
 

(Her comments were more along the lines of "breaking fingers and cutting off parts they don't need". Wang told her she should be flattered, people obviously estimated her highly!
 

Fun fact, she's actually the one paying for our sudden switch to luxurious life! Out of her pocket money, as far as Wang could tell. Jing family is rich!)

Either way, the important part was that we learned was the following:
 

-We were introduced to Yin, Corrupt City Magistrate.
 

-The request to send army has already been denied.
 

-The central authority was sending an investigator with special powers to investigate the matter, who had the power to ask for army involvement if she believed.
 

-The investigating magistrate was due 2 days from now, literally the day after tomorrow.
 

-There had been robberies in the district capital, too. The taxes had been stolen, and the summer villa of the governor was broken in and burglarized.

As a consequence of the above:

*Wang scandalized everyone by suggesting that the taxes were probably stolen by a rich man. "How so?!?" "Well, have you noticed someone being newly rich? If no, he was already rich before! That, or he left immediately!" People actually started considering it...

 

And Wang got an offer to join the Dark Judges, the same corrupt nobles' organization he had infiltrated before!
 

He was also told he'd be recommended to Minister Pei, the Corrupt Eunuch Official who's behind the plot to replace the Emperor.

*YSW expressed the opinion that the burglary sounds like the work of some friends of her, the Water Jade Society (rich girls fighting for the downtrodden, they're part of the setting book).

*Wang told her to go find them - and importantly, if they were behind it, to take some easily recognizable, valuable item.

 

This means she excused herself early.

*Wang remained to listen to the increasingly drunk conversations. They arrived more or less simultaneously at the inn.

 

She carried some jewels that had been stolen from the governor's house - her friends were behind that one, though not behind the "taxing the taxman" operation.

*The GM admits OOC those guys were inspired by a Russian series about a similar group, the name of the series is "Sword". I've never watched it and she knows it.