Blood and Shadow - by Khandis PDF Print E-mail
Following the 1st son's revelations we now know that Shou Lun contributed a bloodline to the binding of the Void aspect on Orin Rakatha. Grand Master Maindo Kontorōru was his name but the archives show nothing- who was this man? Who are family Kontororu and which part of Shou Lun did they come from? Grandmaster Delta on behalf of the Master of Time is sponsoring this mission to return to Shou Lun to find the missing bloodline and return it to Orin Rakatha. Further, the Michelene's would like the valley to take the opportunity to try and re-establish contact with the Yakuza as they had knowledge of blood magic and tattooing which may be useful in the resolution of the Ison situation. However, the valley has little or no contact with Shou Lun since Toshiro's return. We know the land is being ravaged by a plague so virulent that the natives have been fleeing to Orin Rakatha. Can a safe haven be found? How will the Bloodline be found and returned? Can any further light be shed on blood magic and tattooing?

Our group was as follows:
Kyle OmPac
Drieden
Jux
Michael
Gob
Roesis
Vilk Bloodmoon
Davros Epson
Bill Jingle
Rhiannon Layonaise
Khandis Greyspider
Planar Operating Device (Pod)
Our group was assembled to use the new patch of void just north of our lands to travel to Shou-Lun and specifically to the area known as Chung-Po.
The Black Death:
We were unable to travel far on Shou-Lun because the whole place was suffering from the plague. Whole villages had been lost and no-one would travel anywhere so finding help quickly became impossible. We learned that the Black Death was no simple plague, it was caused by a powerfully mummy that was walking the land. The mummy was originally Yamaha Tokogawa, an old emperor who had died of a plague and been sealed away. The currently emperor found himself losing to the Mongols and, listening to some bad advicee, decided to release the mummy to drive the Mongols away. This worked but the current Emperor lost control of the Mummy and the disease spread freely and incurably.
Valley Hospitellers had found a cure for the disease and we were provided with a number of doses to use as required. Once it became apparent that we would have to kill the mummy to end the Black Death and proceed we journeyed out to find it. The trail of diseased and dying was easy to follow to the source. As we approached closer more powerful humans and undead began to attack us. As we were recovering from one such fight the mummy itself appeared and attacked us. The fight was brutal with only those of us who had taken the cure able to even stand close to the Mummy. In the end, we killed its minions and those who could fought it directly. Much credit here must go to High Priest Drieden who stood alone against it for a long time while the rest of us rallied from the initial attack. Once the mummy was slain those infected were curable by normal power and we were able to travel more freely and more importantly others were able to travel to us to help us track down the origins of the blood line.
His Imperial Highness the Emperor himself came to speak with us. He had previously been under the influence of Black Lotus, an addictive smoke that he had been unwilling exposed to. We spoke for some time about our actions to end the Black Deatha and his Advisor Chow, a snake of a man, who was largely responsible for the current state of Chung-Po. We gave the Emperor our remaining doses of the cure for the Black Death disease in the hopes it would aid in the effort to rebuild.

The Abyss
Part of our mission was also to aid the Heights with a strike into the abyss to try and damage some of those who supported the Fortress of Pentar and Ison. We coordinated with Sir Thomas of the Knights of Chastity to travel to the Dominion of Rats. Our task was to kill of the Dominion lieutenants while the Heights dealt with the Dominion Lord. We did not have the ability to travel into the abyss ourselves so were forced to summon and deal with the Hepath of Law previously encountered by Knight Aspirant Roesis on his last journey to the Abyss. The promise of future favours from some of the group was sufficient to secure her help in travel. We journeyed to the Dominion of Rats and killed our assigned lieutenant. As we were recovering from that fight the Dominion Lord himself attacked. He too was slain, we had no further contact with the Heights but presumably they failed and either fled or were killed by the Dominion Lord.
The Dominion of Blood
While on the Abyss we travelled also to the Dominion of Blood looking for information about the tattoos and the blood magic that the Yakuza used. We found the Duchess of Blood and a horde of vicious little leach like demons. We found that the Duchess was very well informed on all sorts of matters. She was able to remove the blood tattoos from Rhianna and offered to teach us a ritual of blood bonding in exchange for future favours and our immediate help in dealing with a void incursion in her Dominion. We performed a dry run of the ritual under her instruction and now have a very good idea of what needs to be done to bind the bloodlines to Orin Rakatha once they are all assembled.

This Ritual of Blood:
There must be a ritualist. Those who wish to be blood bound and a number of assistants. It should be noted that by the end of the ritual the person being bound had been bled till they would have died. A good or Guardian Spirit was sufficient protection to prevent death.

The Ritual is as follows:
Ritualist:
I sing the Song of Orin Rakatha
I whisper the names of the Father, the Mother and the Son
I tell the story of “old magic’s”
I speak of ties of Blood and walks in mist that cannot be undone
For times of past have great power.
All:
For times of past have great power
Ritual Bloodletting
I would summon forth the Life Sphere
From my own life blood it can be found
 Ritualist:
I would summon forth the Life Sphere
From my own life blood it can be found
From these lips I speak the name of Bha’Lexar
Of the life sphere she/he is bound
For those secret names that are given have great power
All:
For those secret names that are given have great power
Ritualist:
I would summon forth Death
From my own hand it can be found
Only in death may the veil be lifted
For I seek the secrets of beyond
For there I will find great power
All:
For there I will find great power
Ritualist:
By this ritual I swear to be bound
And so, from my lips pass these ancient words
Suro Sono Ketsueki Furo
“Let the blood flow”
All:
Of my own free will I adhere to these Tenant of Blood
Let my essence be connected to that of the Life Sphere
For I freely give the blood that bins
Until my service is done
For in our blood there is great power.

The Bloodline
We were given an amulet to draw us to the bloodline and it did so in a way that was fitting for the Master of Time. We were lodging in an old castle and while there started to suffer strange time bubble effects. Suddenly an area would pause and another accelerate, or strange creatures would emerge only to disappear again. We had visions of a time long passed of Grand Master Kontorōru preparing for a great battle. He was talking to an individual we could neither see nor hear. It became apparent that the conversation was with the Master of Time or one of the Mystics representative. The Grand Master was being convinced to travel to Orin Rakatha and help form the original bloodline. We also saw the Grand Master talking to his sister about the battle and wanting to keep her safe. We eventually learned that the Grand Master had disappeared that night, his forces lost the battle and the barbarians had stormed the castle we were in. The sister was never heard of again and assumed dead. We found some of her possessions and paraphernalia for a ritual that appeared to be causing the temporal problems. We destroyed the paraphernalia and this started a temporal disturbance that drew us back in time to the day of the battle. We were still at the Castle and there found the sister. We explained, as much as one can explain these things, that we needed her help in the future, that her brother had left and that her home would soon be destroyed. Faced with the choice of staying to die or coming with us to our time and being alone she decided that living was the better alternative. The bubble lasted some time and we had to hold of waves of the Barbarians. Eventually the bubble collapsed and we found ourselves back in the present day with the sister. No sooner was she there than we were attacked by the Fortress of Pentar. They had overwhelmed the area with Black Lotus smoke and we drew away from one another, paranoid and scared. The Fortress must have known we would be there and what we were likely to have with us. They immediately took the woman and left, covering their retreat into the Abyss. By the time we had rallied ourselves and fought past their war elementals it was too late. She had gone. Divination has indicated that she is safe and on Orin Rakatha but being held by the Fortress doubles to be used in some way against us soon.

The Kalid Tally:
This has been suspended until after the void has been dealt with. The intention of the tally has always been to unite our people against a common enemy and provide some light-hearted competition among adventuring groups. However of late it has become a problem as we have the void as our common enemy and need to work with all nations, even those that seek to undermine us.

As every if you wish more details or clarification I can be found in Darkhome

Lord Khandis Greyspider
Sector Lord of Darkhome
 
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