Dueling Fate

The ship rocks gently, and the sounds of the sailors yelling as they attend to their tasks fill your ears. Your fellow aspirant runs towards the bow, harpoon in hand… But your eyes spy something else. From your time on this ship, you have a good idea of how the sails should hang and catch the breeze… and the one nearest to you is not right.

Agility 2 + Sailing 1 = 3d10

2, 7, 9 = 2 Successes!

Qian Xia looks in astonishment as you run past her, seemingly away from danger. You jump onto the rigging near you, climbing hand-over-fist as you were taught by the sailors on your last journey, you find the two lines that have fouled each other, and untangle the mess, letting the sail unfurl.

Then you feel the rush of wind, and you turn your eyes downwards, to see the Captain, eyes glowing blue-white with power, as he breathes out a steady, massive stream of air that makes the sails ripple and shake, and the lines creak.

But the ship is picking up speed, and none too soon. "Ware above!" comes the cry, as the nature of the shape beneath the ship reveals itself.

It is not one monster, but many.

Fish - sleek things with too many teeth - are leaping up from the water and onto the deck, propelling themselves with wings of water. Qian Xia has slain several near her, and other crew are grabbing gaffes, belaying pins and other weapons. You grab your own knife and slash at one that flies towards you, mouth agape.


You manage to get your knife out and drop to the deck with a thud, and you fend off the beast as it darts in to take bites of your flesh. It's damnably quick, and you aren't able to make a scratch on it, but neither is it able to feast on you.

After its second pass, you ready yourself for another attack - only for a flash of steel to intercept the thing in front of your eyes, then withdraw.

Qian Xia stares at you, the wriggling beast impaled on the hook of her harpoon. She stares at you, then tears it off, its watery wings dissolving into seawater as it flops down on the deck. You both turn and look at the ship…

The few fish that made it on board are twitching or dead, the main school left behind by the ship's swift movements. The crew appears intact, only a few small wounds among them, and the Captain has released his breathing technique, letting the ship sail under the power of the wind alone.

Xia's eyes are cold. "I did not think a coward would apply to the Golden Reeds sect, Lind Tallak. To not only accept a handout from the dog of the Emperor, but to climb away from danger, rather than face it?"

The sailors around you grow still, pulling back.

The accusation confounds you for a moment, the insanity of it striking you like a slap across the face. Your skin tingles and stomach boils with anger, hands balling by your sides as you control your breathing. A coward? You? And insult that you have never heard thrown your way. How dare this girl judge you as she has? She knows nothing of you, nothing of your dreams and trials. You've pulled men out of ice-cold rivers, fought off beasts and demons alike, before you came to this sect and especially since you did.

A coward?

You could have taken a spear as well, you can see how your move away from the fish might be interpreted, but you had done more for the ship than her!

No, you won't accept her accusations. Your hands ball into fists by your side as you rear up ready to tell her exactly what you were doing.

Empathy 1 + Persuasion 0 = 1d10

1. Zero successes!

"The sails… I…" In the face of her judgment, your tongue twists, your mind stumbles. A combination of your own seething rage and the uncomfortable silence of the crew, watching the pair of you. You cannot find the words. If you let loose the full force of your anger, you would come to blows. Instead…

Qian Xia spits on the deck of the ship. "You should get off the ship at the next port and never come back. I will not have my home be sullied by the presence of a coward."

Relationship Established: Qian Xia: -1!

She stalks off, and there is quiet for a moment before the crew returns to their bustling. You yourself find a task at which to busy yourself, and few around you choose to meet your gaze.

Later, Captain Yang calls you to his quarters. They are simple enough, though there are a few odds and ends - a skull of a strange beast, a gleaming bowl of jade embellished with strange rooms, and an egg the size of your fist set in a stone nest. He pulls a bottle of something out of a cabinet, pours a glass, and offers it to you.

"My first mate saw what you did, Lind, even if your fellow aspirant didn't. The crew understands. I even tried to explain to the girl, but… well, you can't convince someone of something they don't want to be convinced of." He pours himself a glass, tosses it back, and you follow. The liquid is smoky and exotic, and you fight back a cough. "You have the eyes and instincts of a sailor. If the sect doesn't have you… there will be a place for you on my vessel."

It helps, some.

Relationship Established: Captain Yang: +1!

—-

The ship mostly hugs the coastline closely enough that you can see it, mostly wetlands interrupted by small fishing villages whose boats your larger ship passes by. Inspired by the flying fangfish perhaps, one of the crew decides to drop a net of their own, and comes up with a wriggling catch, prompting a meal of roast fish for lunch. It holds no appreciable qi, but it is nourishing and surprisingly tasty.

Insight 4 + Lore 0 (Wilderness Lore 1) = 5d10

7 3 5 5 7 = 2 Successes

As the sun finds its zenith and then begins to wander downwards across the sky, you notice that you've drifted farther from land than you expected. Soon after, you realize a large fogbank is approaching the ship. Sighting the rather obvious weather pattern, you slow at your task, wondering if the ship will stop to let the dangerous conditions pass.

…but they don't. In fact, the crew seems singularly unconcerned. And something seems strange about the fog as well. Firstly, it's rarer to see fog in the afternoon when the day was clear before. Secondly… the fog isn't moving.

And before much longer, the ship begins to cut through the mist, visibility dropping until you can only see a few feet in front of your face.

The crew doesn't seem concerned, though you hear some whispering. It takes you a moment to realize that the whispering isn't coming from the crew, but the fog itself. What it's whispering, you can't hear, no matter how hard you try to make it out, but you feel a sense of curiosity and also a deep sorrow.

You have no reason not to trust that the Captain knows where he's going, so all you can do is hang on.

It's probably no more than fifteen minutes, though it feels longer, before the fog begins to thin, and you see a craggy island rising from the waves. It's hard to tell the size, but you don't think it's particularly large. You spot gulls nesting on the cliff face, and some crumbling ruins are barely visible from below as the ship circles.

"Come, Lind." You hear Captain Yang's voice ring out. "Time for a little adventure."

---

The longboat holds you, the Captain, Qian, and the first mate, a dark skinned woman named Adeba. You and Qian man the oars, rowing the small boat past jagged rocks that rise out of the ocean like spears, and approach a small sea-cave that you could not see from the ship.

You travel into the cave until the stalactites of the ceiling seem ominously close to the top of your head, and the light from the mouth is all but vanished. The sounds of the waves outside are muffled, leaving the drip of water and the gentle creaking of the wood of the boat as the water gently moves it.

You are about to raise your voice to ask a question, when Captain Yang claps his hands, creating a small orb of qi-light. In the pale illumination, you can barely see carvings etched into the walls, though they are difficult to make out.

Soon enough, you are distracted by what lies below.

A cloud of lights rises from below, pooling upwards and outwards to surround your boat. Small things leap and splash around you – tiny fish or perhaps shrimp, almost invisible except for the lights they bear. You stare in wonder at the sight.

Soon enough, at some unknown signal, the swarm begins to depart downwards.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Captain Yang says with a friendly smile. "Go chase them!"

You can only respond with a stare of astonishment, but his eyes tell you he is completely serious.

Qian Jia looks dubiously down into the water.

You do not wish to let her beat you to the punch.

Lind's Roll: Strength 4 + Athletics 1 = 5d10

8, 4, 7, 10, 3. 4 Successes!

The water is almost pleasantly warm compared to the icy plunges you remember from your homeland. Your strokes are swift and sure and you follow the swarm of shrimp – for you can see them closer as you pass, and that is what they are – closely, down through a hole in the bottom of the sea-cave.

The tunnel is nearly claustrophobic given your size, but you chase the lights, revealing stone worn smooth… or has it been worked? You don't have the knowledge to tell.

After enough time that you start to worry about the return trip, you emerge in a massive chamber underwater, lit by hundreds of the glimmering creatures that wend there way in beaded strands around a rough hemisphere encrusted so thickly with multicolored coral that you cannot see the stone beneath.

The center of the chamber is dominated by a massive statue, perhaps thirty feet tall. It is old and crumbling, but the shape is reptilian and suggesting of rising coils. Perhaps a dragon or great serpent.

Around the chamber fish, turtles and other strange beasts travel among the shimmering lights. Despite the abundance of prey here, there is no predation here. Some strange aura seems to imbue the place.

You see Qian Jia beside you, too enraptured by the sight to keep darting dagger-glances at you. Behind you, you feel a tap on your shoulder as Captain Yang stands, and you realize that his mouth is open, and he appears to be breathing.

He gestures to his mouth, and mimes taking a breath.

Perhaps he has a qi technique for breathing underwater, but you do not. You shake your head. He shakes his own in response, pokes your chest, then mimes taking a breath.

Your breath is starting to get worryingly low. You have no reason to think the Captain would harm you.

Against all your instincts, you open your mouth and take a breath.

The water rushes into your lungs. It stings and the scent of salt fills you.

But there is also qi in the water. It is different than the qi of the water of the sect, and as it fills your lungs, you can feel it seeping into you.

It is keeping you alive, for now. You have heard that qi is breath, but you have never seen it so literally demonstrated.

The Captain seats himself on an outcropping of coral, legs crossed. His eyes close, and he seems to be meditating. The glowing shrimp cluster about him after a moment.

You feel the qi thickly here. It is a place of power. You feel as though cultivating would be highly beneficial.

What do you do?

-[] Attend to your cultivation base. No doubt you could cleanse yourself of further impurities here.

-[] Your abilities to fight beasts more dangerous than ducks is still lacking. Practice the Coursing River Arrow, using your knife as a throwing implement.

-[] There is much that is strange here – the shrimp and fish, the breathable water, and the statue. Perhaps if you meditated on one, you might be able to gain insight?

--[] Focus on the sea creatures

--[] Focus on the water

--[] Focus on the statue