The Adventures of Fu: Still Chasing Demons & Good Fights

Here's a link to the previous adventure of Fu! Remember, OOC commentaries are in italic, like this text.

However, keep in mind: this post might contain stuff that's NSFW and/or triggering for certain people (references to violence and sexual violence, demons, and other nasty stuff). We don't shy away from anything in our games, so keep reading at your own responsibility.

The next adventure of Fu also started with us reporting for duty, indeed. Then we visited The Golden Lotus (the aforementioned whorehouse The Wizard* owns, see in the previous post. (The Wizard's name is Jing Wu-yang, he's a sworn brother of Little Minnow, #4 in the Wulin).

There, they handed us the demon summoner and paperwork, and told us to hand him over at the police precinct, and collect the bounty. I guess that was payment for the help?

We did take him there with no incidents, berating him for his mistakes along the way. He offered us a sizeable bribe when we let him talk, but Fu replied with "I'm sure the people who died because of you would want to talk with you in the Afterworld, can't make them wait!"

In short, Fu's attitude was to be summed up by, in his own words, "when you were summoning demons, you didn't cry, you really shouldn't cry now when you're to be executed for it, either!"

There were some other discussions with my rival Blue Monkey, too, who seemed to believe that wizards were good for some things. Fu, on his side, believes wizards are cheaters that avoid straight fights, and they really shouldn't be allowed around.

All the demons come because of them, if you ask Fu!

But, he admits, he really can't say that in front of The Wizard, since it would be rude to a man who is substantially older than him! And that's a no-no!

Then we went back to the Beggars Compound, and split his part of the bounty with the clan. They usually take 25% of what we get, but he gave 50% voluntarily. And he added 50% of the earlier job, where he and friends were paid by rich women to carry gifts to poor families in a poor neighbourhood (on a mass scale, so the payment was also substantial...curiously enough, there had been some robberies across the city and environs, recently! What a coincidence!)

As Fu puts it, "I was behind on my other payments anyway, but this should compensate". The Beggars' accountant (former Bowing Dragon, a.k.a. Chan/Zen monk in the Art of Wuxia setting, agreed).

Then, however, he encountered his teachers. And they outright forbade him from looking for the octopi-tattooed men, The Four Southern Winds.

It's not enough to say Fu was disappointed! He was hoping for a nice fight with one of those ruffians!

...and yet, the teachers Wu "White Snake" and Hu "Fire Jade Tiger" were adamant!
Fu got dangerously close to whining, but mostly restrained himself. He tried multiple avenues of persuasion, which made total sense to him!

To his masters, however, all of them seemed between noble-but-deluded and crazy-and-deluded. Well, I'm not the GM, can't comment.

"But Shifus, those randos the Wolf* has hired are trying to find them, and we're not! What would people think of the Beggars Clan?!?"

"You think we beggars should care about face? No! We should care about our members! These guys are incredibly ruthless and sadistic, you're all forbidden for looking for them! Besides, people respect us because we have information."

"But isn't that an argument that we should be looking for them? They could kill other people in our city! And finding them, we'd prove we know everything!"

"You're not even from this city, how is it yours?"

"How come I'm not? I brought help to the poor, I fought in tournaments, I helped capture demons here! Of course it's my city!"

"It's still too dangerous!"

"Who would suspect us beggars?"

"You think nobody suspects us, despite the fact we're selling information? You're either a moron..."

"No, Shifu!"

"...deluded..."

"Not the case, Shifu!"

"...or you think everyone else is a simpleton!"

"...you mean they ain't, Shifu?!?"

For some reason, they were still adamant. Probably didn't want for Fu to repeat the fate of the last guy the Southern Winds captured spying on them (emasculation and frying pan were mentioned in a detailed description, I'm not going to repeat it here). After all, those are  murderers, cannibals, rapists, demon summoners and the list doesn't end here. I think it ends with tax evasion or petty stealing, though.

In fact, the joke is that the only crime they didn't commit was abusing their own sister, because they ain't got one.

To give you an idea about Fu's despair (it was also relevant after) he even swore he ain't going to fight the Southern Winds, unless attacked.

The teachers were still unbending. "What happened to flexibility, Shifu used to say it's a quality of the mind, too", Fu wondered darkly...and then he asked to help with other cases where people need help.

That was granted, so at least he could be useful.

So the three of us - me, my rival  Blue Monkey (who is really someone in disguise hiding as a beggar, Fu suspects) and the beggar girl Yanzi, we all went back to the police precinct, and we looked for cases without significant traces of Southern Winds involvement. There was a murdered (and eviscerated) girl and a missing kid.

 

Fu decided immediately to look for the missing kid. "She won't become less dead if we find the culprit, but it's not the same with the kids!", as he proclaimed.

 

Soon after, we were searching. And it soon turned out it's not the only missing kid! There has been a slew of disappearances, in a small area, at the same time.

 

Coincidence? None of us believed that.
 

And, just to be on the safe side, we went to the Golden Lotus to get Illusions-Destroying Masks! Well, we really went to the owner...and he saddled me with one of his workers, too, named Zhen! She was supposed to protect us, somehow...

 

I guess he didn't want another scolding from the blind teacher? She can be nasty, maybe he ain't that stupid!

 

Well, she seems to have nice qin gong (Lightness kung-fu, but I am used to using the Chinese term), at least, and she showed us she can disguise herself. This way, we now had masks for everyone! So we went back, and her presence forced a quarrel.

 

Like, my Blue Monkey suggested that we should switch, and have him pairing up with the Golden Lotus worker. Fu was unsure what this preference is all about, and the beggar girl seemed unhappy at the request, for some reason...

 

So of course, Fu asked Zhen if she's fine with it. After she confirmed, he nodded.

 

"It's all the same to me as well! Now can we go?"

 

This, however, only worsened the things! The beggar girl bristled at us and accused us that we have become "distracted as soon as we saw some nice pair of tits"!

 

"What? I've seen no such things! It would be indecent!"

 

Surprisingly, Zhen came to my defense!

 

"Indeed, he wasn't even looking! He didn't look even when Bao and Wen offered to wash his back while you were guests of the Wolf!"

 

"Because it would be indecent! And why are we discussing tits at all? I mean, there's missing kids, can't you people prioritize what's important?!? Let's go!"

 

This, however, only made them question why I'm giving them orders. Fu decided against remind them that he has seniority in this group, actually, by virtue of being a clan member for more years than them - they're supposed to know, if they can forget it, they're worthless people, and what's the point of reminding worthless people? They won't respect what's right and proper, anyway!

 

"Fine. You can stay here and argue about tits. Measure them, for all I care. But I'm going to search for those kids, alone if need be. No, I've got no patience for such talk!"

 

Fu is remarkably focused on saving kids. Besides, he feels uneasy with intimate topics regarding girls (as I'd surmise would be perfectly normal for a Chinese teen from a small village).

 

Beggar Girl relented and came with me. We coordinated with hand and low voice signals and patrolled the roofs, looking for suspicious people: with masks, low-hanging hats, or with illusions hiding facial tattoos. Or, well, simply people approaching kids.

 

Yes, we suspect those are the Southern Winds. But then we're not looking for the Southern Winds! We just want to help those kids!

 

...three hours elapsed (timeskip, OOC). Then, after the GM rolled something (there were lots of high rolls and a 05 or something, but I don't know what she was rolling for), she announced that another Golden Lotus worker encounters us, and tells us that there had been a disturbance on the market, and at some local noble family's house! 

 

One of the Southern Winds has been spotted near the market, they're now looking for him...and he had gone out of said house, which reportedly "reeked of demons" as far as mystical senses were concerned.

 

Well, Fu remembered that he's promised - in a moment of weakness, as he puts it - to not look out for the Southern Winds! So he decided to investigate the house, hoping that they might find the kids inside. That's a search-and-save operation, and there might be no Southern Wind in the whole house, even! 

 

At the same time, looking for the one who hid in the market wouldn't help us find any kids, and would be breaking his promise outright!

 

So the choice was really easy...

Well, my rival and Zhen also came with us - we gathered them along the way - but upon seeing the house, we realized - partially due to Fu's mystic senses - that there is a lot of demonic magic at work inside!

 

So obviously this might be due to the kids being in danger. Thus, we decided to investigate it...but to ask for reinforcements.

 

The workers of the Golden Lotus concurred - in fact, they had suggested it - and they said they've sent a message, though they did nothing. What?

 

Well, I'm not complaining: less than 5 minutes later, three men appeared through a glistening portal: Little Minnow (#4 in the Wulin), and his sworn brothers, Scribe Yu and the Wolf!

 

I'm starting to suspect they might be part of the Wulin, too...

 

A suspicion which was confirmed once we entered, through the roof. Everybody has qin gong in this group!

 

...and we encountered carnage. Some of the parts we identified as belonging to the dead girl I'd mentioned. Don't ask which parts.

 

Which, Fu pointed out, was good news: it meant we have no proof the kids have been harmed!

 

However, the three girls were going visibly pale, and hanging back. Well, the three old men were taking the lead anyway, and Fu was right behind them.

 

Then we actually found those kids! They were all in a cage, set right next to a boiling cauldron...and scared shitless.

 

Admittedly, Fu didn't blame them. Neither did he blame the Wolf when he opened a new portal to the Golden Lotus, ushered the kids through it along with the girls, and told the girls to take care of them. Before they could object, he closed the portal!

 

Thus the party was all-male again (and I'm pretty sure none of the girls objected IC), and consisted of me, my rival, and the three sworn brothers. They have told us they worked a lot together, and it showed: Wolf looked out for magic traps, Scribe looked for normal traps, and Little Minnow stayed back as the kill team.

...but, despite this, when they opened a door, a ball of fire flew through it, and Wolf got singed (we were further back and had more time to duck and roll away).
"Magorast!", Fu exclaimed! Just to confirm his opinion that all wizards are up to no good, now one of them is collaborating with the Southern Winds!

Little Minnow and Scribe Yu pulled weapons, and jumped inside. A huge form, however, jumped over them, and landed next to Wolf, trying to attack him by spitting acid. I immediately attacked the back of its head, but sensed that as most demons, it was most susceptible to strikes from a blessed weapon, which I didn't have at the moment.

 

Then another demon of the same kind appeared as well, and it was all for me!
"A magorast all for me!", Fu exclaimed, dodging attacks like mad. How many attacks? Well, this thing attacked roughly four times in a round. Actually, it wasn't casting spells, so maybe the magorast was someone else...

But it managed to entangle me, on a critical roll! Then it tried to bite my head off, and to basically stick its tail in my spine!

 

(The thing I'm not going to describe in much detail, but the GM described it in short form as "I just crossed the Alien with the monster from Lover in the Ice". Well, I ran LitI for her, so it's totally fair, and we both knew what it's about!

 

If you don't know what it is, it's a great horror adventure for Delta Green. If you have any trigger warnings, stay the eff away from DG adventures. I don't have any such, as is probably obvious...but sensitive readers might want to stop reading this account).

"Don't allow it to stick its tail in your spine!", Wolf's voice said in my head. Timely warning!

 

Mostly, Fu survived on defense a couple rounds. When the thing managed to pull him to the ground, he kept rolling with his back to the ground, protecting the spine. The beast being focused on me served me well, and I even managed to slip out of the tentacle's grasp!

 

Yes, of course it had tentacles, too. And an Alien-like head. And huge balls. And did I mention it was slimy?

Meanwhile, Wolf had disemboweled the other thing with his claws and magic, and joined us. Now that he was exchanging attacks with it, I could use my three-sections staff to deal it some damage. Not much, but it helped, and made me feel useful.

 

Note to self: Wolf is actually better than me in kung-fu! Guess being the sworn brother of Little Minnow doesn't hurt!

 

Well, I guess he ain't such a bad guy, after all. At least, he is kinda a xia. Despite being a wizard! So he's fine!

Then we got in the room where the other three were fighting. My rival had hidden under a table and fending off attacks, the other two had had killed two more demons and fighting off another two.

 

So wait, there were seven of those things?

 

Oh, and there were three men we didn't know. Well, those were dead, smashed skulls - Little Minnow, I'd guess!

Long story short, we did these in, too, starting with the one attacking my rival. Fu actually assaulted the last one from behind, sticking his 3-sections staff like a club, and stabbing it under the tail...

 

"Fuck you!", he shouted in addition.

 

"What irony", Wolf commented. "It wanted to do the same to you!"

 

That's where Fu guessed that these weren't actually tails!

We had to take the sting of the creature out from Blue Monkey's spine. He had been less successful in protecting his backside... and he's now a monkey who's "got the blues"!

 

They performed a manipulation, gave him antidotes, and warned him that he isn't to have close contacts of any kind with anyone for at least a week. "During this time, you're contagious!"

Afterwards, they asked Fu whether he's hurt as well. He kept denying it, and when they asked him whether he's sure, he just disrobed.

 

Hey, my clothes were covered with the slime anyway, so...beggars have standards, too! And we were all men in the room, that means it was fine.

I also asked for a blessed weapon, when they opened a portal to bring my rival (BM) to a place of safety and healing, too.

 

They also discussed that these demons were new ones.

 

"Someone is creating them, somewhere in the 8th level of Hell!", as Wolf informed us. "They've only existed for a couple years".
 

Or, at least, that's when they were first encountered.

 

So this session edned with  all five of us having a long bath with lots of scrubbing. Fu even said that he's willing to let anyone get in the bath with him, as long as she helps him scrub the slime off!
 

I think none of the Golden Lotus workers took him on the offer, though. He was, well, just slimy and dirty!

 

Eh, what do you expect from a beggar?!?

 

 

*The Wizard's nickname is The Wolf.