TTJP Season 1 Episode 18 The Rats Nest

Casting: Tiger Team!

• Jian Wu (Two) (Christian) 14M; Our smith and all around craftsman, carries a huge sword and Master of Dragon Man Kung Fu.
• Jiao Ting (Eight) (Chris D) 14M; Reckless grappler; Black Palm
• Liang Jing Min (Five) (Randy) 14M; Noble, on the outs with family; Chinese Spear Fighting.
• Nongmin Chushi (Seven) (Rory) 14M; He talks to spirits, inquisitive and charming perhaps a wee bit too friendly to strangers. Shaman, Eagle Fist Chin Na, Quarterstaff.
• Shang Yi (One) (Calvin) 14M; Natural leader and archer. Shedao
• Zhiyu Zhige (Nine) (Laurie) 14F; Sorcerer specializing in healing. Eagle Fist Chin Na.
• He Bohi (Eleven) 14M; Twin, grew up near the docks. Eagle Fist Chin Na, focused on striking.
• He Donghai (Twelve) 14M;, Twin, Eagle Fist Chin Na, focused on grappling.
• Ko Lanfen (Four) 14F; Solid Order devotee. Tai Chi Chuan,
• Laoshu (Three aka Mouse) 15F; Quiet and deadly with a knife. Dagger Fighting
• Meiyou Ren (Six) 14M; Also good with a blade, possibly any blade.
• Rang Baozhai (Ten) 15F; Our bookworm and nerd. Eagle Fist Chin Na.

Fourteen Year Old Masterminds

After the conversation with the minister Zhige did some divination and interpreted the results as we needed to look for a rats nest. Bohi (or was it Donghai?) knew about an old inn called the Rats Nest that had burned down years ago. Sounded like a plan to us! We gathered everyone for a raid on the place, leaving Rang and Bohi at the Starlight Inn to keep researching. Yi could use his speaking whistle to reach them if they were needed.

The party arrived at the burned out inn which appeared to be converted to a grave yard. One wall had a huge hole in it you could march 3 people through side by side and there were tables made from coffins and other stuff that would make a goth person proud. Not that we knew of such things of course!

Mouse used her powers to turn into a mouse and sneak in to explore the place.  She quickly came back and gave us the layout, though we could see a lot of it ourselves.  All in all it was a good sized inn and had 10 cultists and 8 bone demons it it, plus the daughter who was tied up in a small tower like room on one side. Zhige and Chushi briefed the others on what they could expect from the demons, basically really strong and dont get stung! We opted to have Mouse sneak in through a window to rescue the daughter (as a human, not a mouse so she could attack right away) and half the group would rush in through the hole in the wall which was close to the room she was in. The other half would break in the front door as a distraction and try to split them up.

While group B snuck up towards the hole, group A went for the door, and Yi provided covering fire from behind some coffin tables. He also led off with a great Tactics roll that gave us 10 die rerolls to use. We needed them, used 9 I think.

Group A: Ting, Wu, and Chushi (He planned on gong through the hole but was too slow)

Group B: Jing Min, Zhige, Donghai, Lanfen, and Ren.

The Attack Begins!

Wu broke the door down with his sword (probably weighs more than the door) making enough racket to catch everyone's attention. He got two fireballs tossed at him for his trouble which he handily dodged then parried a demons tail. Ting then slammed a bone demon after jumping over the fire pit in the entrance and smacked it real good. Then he used Extra Attack to hit it crippling its leg. Chushi followed up by stepping onto the porch and tried to Rapid Strike with his spirit projection (TK) but missed. Used a reroll to hit and hit for 7 damage.

Group B led by Jing Min rushed in through the breech in the wall and stabbed a bone demon. Ren went and cut off the tail on another demon. Yi plinked a demon with a couple of arrows. Bohi kicked one in the head. The demons then countered, two attacking Ying Min the rest just had one each.

That was pretty much the first round f combat, lets hit the highlights.

• Ting had the shiniest moment when he took two fireballs and got set on fire. He followed that up by standing up after being knocked down (also at negative HP) and used Intimidation on a couple of cultists and a demon. A cultist actually fainted!
• Wu shattered a few skeletons and cut a cultist pretty much in two.

Afterwards

Overall we did well, the GM expected it to be a two session fight but we cleared it in one. Everyone contributed meaningfully. Zhige saved a few people with her healing plus used her fireballs to explode a demon. We also found out why she was chasing fireflies as she used a shield to protect herself. Yi was really helpful with that Tactics skill.  The GM tended to roll really well and critted several times (at least 16 times), the rerolls allowed us to use our defense rolls. The scariest moment was the first hit by a fireball - they hurt quite a bit and were a bigger threat than the demons.

Chushi just used his TK to punch as ST 12 was too low to risk a grab but probably should have tried it on the cultists. I forgot they get an effective penalty from trying to break out of a two-handed grab.

 We saved the fainting cultist for interrogation next session.

It was a fun session but pretty much all combat so was more fun playing than reading about.