Dueling Fate

The next morning probably sees a horde of your fellow initiates lining up with Jin Jiayi or Shirong Tao. Others have perhaps begun work with some of the local businesses, rising at the crack of dawn. Maybe Master Zhen has found himself another pair of hands to help him maintain the Dragon's Wing? Wu Chanying is probably garnering some deal that will play to her advantage in the near or distant future and Vijaya Paranthapa is no doubt surrounded by the small echelon of fighters she's taken under her own wing. And what about Liao Qing? Has she finally wormed her way into Lord Jiang's inner circle?

Of all the faces you've met so far everyone has been pursuing their own form of advancement, social, martial, financial even.

Now it's time for you to pursue your own.

Which is why you don't know what your fellow initiates are doing this morning, because you left the town at the crack of dawn. Tent and bedroll strapped to your back as you headed deep into the Golden Reeds Sect. Hand running over the reeds as they began to sway to and fro in the gentle morning breeze you eventually tread upon a familiar path.

The cool morning air becomes warmer as you draw close. The charmed ice on your chest struggles to keep you cool as a bead of sweat snakes down your brow. The bubbling, boiling sludge of the Prismatic Mudpots soon comes into view. Every so often it explodes, steam and mud escaping into the air sending birds and those nearby fleeing from the molten splashing.

You shrug your furs off, leaving them on the grass nearby. Your shirt, stained with the impurities of the world that have been leaking off you when you cycle is beginning to show signs of wear. You've tried to scrub them out, but the impurities of the world refuse to budge, now removed from your body and soul they've found a new home. Tears and fraying accelerated not only by the decay that eats away at the fabric, but by the rough and tumble treatment given to you through the battles you've run into the last few days.

You shrug it off as well, before lastly, taking off the pendant entrusted to you by your family. The overwhelming heat almost blasts you to the ground, you grit your teeth, forcing yourself closer to the steam. A bubble bursts, mud blasting outwards, flecks land on your shoulder and you hiss as the mud burns your skin before it forms a hardened shell. Now you can feel the Qi. The simmering flames that burn beneath the surface, the pressure of the earth as it revolves underneath you.

You sit down and embrace the bubbling cauldron of the world.

Cycling Roll – Spiritual Prowess 2 + Cycling (3) - 5d10 – 10, 3, 1, 7, 6 – Three Successes

Cycling Roll – Spiritual Prowess 2 + Cycling (3) - 5d10 – 3, 7, 8, 8, 4 – Three Successes

Cycling Roll – Spiritual Prowess 2 + Cycling (3) - 5d10 – 8, 7, 1, 4, 5 – Two Successes

Cycling Roll – Spiritual Prowess 2 + Cycling (3) - 5d10 – 6, 3, 3, 6, 8 – One Success

You remember the water of the world from when you sat with Lord Shirong, cool and gentle, like the lake it had come from. Seeping through you and gently pulling away the tendrils of the world's imperfections. The first day you had been here, the mud had been similar, flowing against your spirit in soothing fashion.

This time the heat threatens to consume you. You can feel it surge into you, scouring through your soul, trying to drag the last dregs of the mortal realm out of you. It takes an eternity, but you know that there is something still inside you, something that needs to be driven out.

A long forgotten instinct?

Maybe, or maybe you're just not satisfied… Yet. You gasp as the Qi finds purchase, deep in your chest. You can feel the impurities this time, wiggling through you, trying to burrow their way further in and hide from the raging torrent. Fire and Earth refuse to let them pass unchecked. You can almost hear their screams as they're swept up in the infernal flames, and then the earth begins to spin, gathering the remnants together, encased in a ball.

Your eyes bulge as that ball emerges, from deep in your chest to the base of your throat. You gag, nails digging into the ground as you erupt into a fit of coughs and wretches. Tendrils clawing to the back of your throat, while the Qi demands they be expelled.

You kneel on all fours, coughing and spluttering. Droplets of black leak from your mouth, splattering the dirt beneath you. With a final retch a ball of mud and darkness erupts from the back of your throat and spews forth, the Qi washing over the darkness before it can escape and as quickly as you see the darkness it's dissolved into the world. The Pots almost rumbling in satisfaction as you release your hold on them.

A ruin of sweat, and dirt you rise to your feet slowly.

As you do, a burst of pressure floods through you. You gasp, as it spears your chest. You breathe, falling back into the cycling of the Devouring Crucible as you realise that there's Qi inside you. No longer washed back out in the world.

No it's still here.

What should you do with it?

Consecration Stage 1/3 – Achieved

+1 Will

Lind Has:

Strength: 4

Insight: 3

Will: 4

Agility: 2

Empathy: 1

Qi still lurks within you, waiting to be manipulated to your will. Should you: (Pick one.)

[] Allow it to surge into your muscles, reinforcing and strengthening them anew (+1 Strength)

[] You can taste the Qi, you can smell it, you can feel it. Allow yourself to savour the power of the world (+1 Insight)

[] Bear the pain, for as long as possible, allow it to settle deep within you. (+1 Will)

[] Burn past your limitations, be faster than you ever knew possible. (+1 Agility)

[] You feel the power of earth and fire, you understand the world better than you did before. (+1 Empathy)