TTJP Episode 21 Spiders and Bombs, Oh My

 

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 and Xiangliu's Bite (Crossbow).
• Were down one player, Randy due to eye issues :(

Behold the Sewers!

We enter a narrow short tunnel into a really nice room that must be some maintenance or smugglers bolt hole. From there is a door into the sewers proper.  Very nice map! The sewers have walk ways on each side of the narrow canal and there is a small boat nearby. We took some light crystals from the previous encounter and Chushi takes lead as he and Yi have the best vision. As he rounds a corner though he gets jumped by a giant demon spider. He immediately goes down from the massive bite and poison. The rest of the team charges to the rescue and the spider drops his limp body to defend itself. Zhige heals him, and pretty much everyone during the fight (Chushi needs to bake her some cookies) and we kill I think 8 spiders. 

• Yi suggests Chushi use his powers to levitate a light crystal to see farther down the tunnels, really good idea.  He should have led with that.
• Ting naturally takes the most damage, though this time most of it is not self inflicted! Edit: Corrected by an indignant Ting, All his damage was indeed self inflicted, spiders never laid a claw or mandible on him!
• Zhige burns a spider but is mostly our MVP through her healing.
• Ren and Wu both have trouble holding onto their swords in the damp environment (critical failures)
• Everyone kills a spider, even Chushi who uses his staff so he can parry. I think Ting got the most kills this time due to some dropped weapons.

Desperate fun was had by all.

One Out of Three?

After the fight Chushi tracks down the cultists using his phenomenal Tracking skill, aided by Discriminatory Smell and Profiling on his smell (Thank you GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses) and the group is led to the central administration building.  Guards out front but the cultists appear to be in the back.  We stealthily sneak up but find a dead guard and look inside.  Place is full of dead people and Chushi smells a burning fuze and rushes over behind some crates. Using his Spirit Hands (TK) power he pulls the fuze out of the barrel, preventing the explosion.  There is a clockwork device on top and Wu checks that out. Turns out it was the timer and so is now harmless as it cant light the fuze anymore.

We then hear a series of distant explosions. Using our memory of the map we determine two big ones (we can see the smoke) were the grainery and the library, numerous other small fires went off as well. The group splits up, Zhige leads a team to the library, Yi leads another to the grainery, and Chushi stays behind to report the status to the Minister of Affairs and get someone to take possession of the gunpowder in the administration building. After that he organizes some local city spirits and citizens to help put out fires. Once the main fires are out we all meet back at the Starlight Tea House.

We are wondering what happened to the twins and Mouse when the lanterns all flicker out and some writing appears in the air telling us they have been captured and we must meet the cultists somewhere to rescue them. We obviously haven't stopped their plans but apparently we did enough to annoy them and get their attention.

Also Chushi is disappointed in Mouse.  She is apparently not a great babysitter/protector.

Aftermath

Another fun game, though we were disappointed that we saved an empty building. Everyone there was already dead by the time we arrived and though the central meeting house is important as a symbol it was arguably less important than the central library or grainery. But the govt people will likely appreciate it, and it will help them organize recovery efforts faster.

The rescue is up next, Calvin's eye is better so we should have a full crew but they likely know our full number and something of our abilities. Hopefully we have a few surprises for them though.