By Jose Garcia.
Here's a few more highlights from the Feng Shui series I run in the office.
Last episode's session ended with the PCs retaking a Feng Shui site that had been seized by the Eaters of the Lotus. The feng shui site is a house in the New Territories north of Hong Kong/Kowloon. It was owned by Sammy, a friend of the PCs and some of the PCs were attuned to it, unfortunately Sammy had been murdered in front of them in the previous session and the Lotus now controlled his home. The PCs retook the site, quickly dispatching a few mooks and the two named baddies took off when it became evident they were losing. The PCs were questioning Johhny Lo (Johnny wasn't captured he still had his gun out, it was standoff) a triad gangster. The PCs want to know what Big Brother Lao's connection is with the Lotus when Johhny says "you can ask him yourself, he's here". The PCs turn around and see a fleet of limos racing towards the house.
So the next session opens up with a huge battle, I won't go into it blow by blow. On the bad guy's side there is Big Brother Lao (actualy a renamed Big Brother Tsien) a burly Triad gangster that transforms into a 9' tall demon halfway through the fight, the twin serpents, Duke (a Russian Big Bruiser and Big Brother Lao's bodyguard), Johnny Lo, The Destroyer (a demonic martial artist) and 45 mooks. The Lotus had come to retake the site in force.
Steve, the parties mad dog who had been running along a steel cable with both guns blazing in the previous session, hadn't been there for the end of the last session but he came barrelling around the corner in his camaro just as the action started. He drove his camaro right through the front of the house, scattering mooks and furniture everywhere, while he dived through a non-existant windshield with his two Dessert Eagles blazing. Ken Shou Yung (Rob Hiensoo's transformed Dragon), Fa (the gangster who is actualy an abomination in human guise), Jeremy (a transformed Rat) and Sunny (the retired hitman with a heart of gold) duked it out with the Twin Serpents, two brothers who practic deadly snake style kung fu. The Twin Serpents have been making appearances in my Feng Shui series since last summer and they've always been the PCs dire enemies. This time the PCs prevailed against them, Ken used his newly learned Claw of the Tiger to strike one of the serpents in the kidneys while raking his face with the other hand. It proved to be a deathblow and the surviving serpent howled in rage and furiously attacked Ken.
Unfortunately the next few deathblows were dished out by the bad guys. Fa had rushed outside into the center of the fleet of limos to plant a Helix Ripper in Big Brother Lao's gut which he fired point blank. Fa did do a lot of damage and Big Brother Lao howled in pain and rage and morphed out into a huge demon. Fa then proceeded to get the snot pounded out of him by the thing that used to be Big Brother Lao along with a buttload of mooks. He keeled over dead riddled with bullet holes. Nobody was too worried at that point since everyone knew Fa had this way of bouncing back (Inevitable Comeback). And as people say "it isn't just doesn't feel right unless Fa dies during the session."
However back at the ranch things were looking pretty grim. The PCs were putting up a brave fight against overwhelming odds: Sunny dived outside and was cutting down mooks with a machine pistol blazing away in each hand. He ducked, rolled and shot up a limo's gas tank causing it to explode and flip over killing a gob of mooks. Back inside the house Steve was duking it out with this thin wiry martial artist with a demonic glint in his eye (whom they later found out is called The Destroyer) and Duke, Lao's hulk of a bodyguard. Meanwhile the mooks were peppering the house with small arms fire, all but disintegrating the front wall. Unfortunately Steve's cherished Camaro was in the crossfire and got shot to peices causing it to explode into a fireball, setting the house on fire. The demon that used to be Big Brother Lao then came charging through what is left of the house's front wall and clawed Steve horribly.
Jeremy decides that right now would be a good time to leave and he bolts out of the house, grabs Fa's body and dives into one of the limos. The rest of the PCs decide to book as well but they do so haphazardly at different times and in different directions. Sunny and Jeremy steal a limo, dragging Fa's body inside while the surviving Twin Serpent hops on the roof and fights Sunny through an open window. Ken takes off through the now non-existant back patio doors into his waiting sports car. That left Steve in the house alone with the demon, The Destroyer and Duke. Steve got killed in short order, his head ripped clean off by the Lao/Demon. Ken looked back in horror as his good friend was killed before his very eyes, wracked with guilt over leaving prematurely and leaving his friend to a grisly fate.
[GM's note, I since regret ripping Steve's head off, I should have described his death in a more dignified way. Steve deserved to go down in better style than that.]
Scott Yonan, Steve's player described Steve's final moments, his body twitching and reflexively firing his twin dessert eagles, while Rob sang a cheesy pop ballad. The PCs reflected on Steve's death and the shit they've stepped after they escaped and made their way to Shi Ho Kuai's temple (Shi Ho Kuai and his monks bandage the PCs up when they get shot up). The PCs spend the rest of the evening shell shocked and pondering they're next move. They've just had their butts handed to them and are unsure about what to do.
Meanwhile Scott has generated a new character, Quick Jim, who happens to be Steve's brother. Jim was part of a top-secret special forces team stationed in Hong Kong that has recently been mysteriously disbanded after they were ordered to perform and had completed a paticularly shady mission. Jim's old buddies have since been dying left and right in a string of suspicous accidents. So Jim goes to his brother Steve (a copy) for help only to find out that his brother has recently been killed in some triad related incident. Going through his brother's personal belongings he finds Jeremy's (one of the PCs) phone number and he hooks up with the PCs to wreak revenge on his brother's killer.
About this time Jeremy wisely confers with Kar Fai who currently happens to be staying at a safehouse in Kowloon. After hearing Jeremies account of what had happened Kar Fai told him that the Lotus have been forging an alliance with elements of the triad but that he was unaware that it had progressed so far. He reccomended attacking the Lotus's feng shui site in Kowloon, the Temple of Infinite Reflection adding that Big Brother's Lao and his men will be hesitant to go there in force because it is in Fast Eddie Lo's territory, the two gangsters are in fierce competition with one another.
The following night the PCs become involved in a drug deal, its actualy a setup to nail Fast Eddie Lo (Fa has a long standing and bitterly obsessive feud with Fast Eddie) but Fast Eddie doesn't show up in person and his lieutenants are wise to Fa's plan and try to double cross him. However the PCs had the entire dock that the deal was going down on rigged to blow so what ensues is the shortest fight in Feng Shui history, ending on shot 12. The PCs wind up blowing a dozen of Fast Eddie's mooks, one of his lieutenants and a 25m stretch of dock to kingdom come.
Fa decides to follow up with a direct assault on the Bun Festival, a nasty topless joint that serves as Fast Eddie's HQ. Most of the PCs don't have anything against Fast Eddie, he has been a thorn in their sides but all because Fa decided to start a war with him so the PCs halfheartedly accompany Fa hoping that this will be the end of it. The PCs try rigging the Bun Festival with explosives but Bri, the bartender is too smart for them (Bri isn't just a bartender as Fa discovered in a previous failed assassination attempt on Fast Eddie earlier in the series) and catches them in the act. A fight quickly ensues between Fa, Jim and Sunny versus Bri and fifteen mooks. Bri wounds the PCs horribly with a katana he had stashed behind the bar. Fa, near death (he's already used up his Inevitable comeback for the session so his next death is final) and fearing that Fast Eddie may be escaping out the back runs out to cover the back door.
And sure enough Fast Eddie, a obese triad gangster, comes rushing out swearing, chomping on a cigar, lugging a shotgun full of piss and vinegar. Fa was trying to hide an outcome of 1 on his stealth check betrays him. This was the dramatic confrontation that Fa was hoping for unfortunately he's in piss poor shape for it as he was suffering for 4 pts of impairment (2 from wounds, 2 from a neural stimulator) and he was badly wounded. After a brief fight with a caustic repartee going on between the two combatants Fast Eddie plugs Fa with his shotgun and Fa goes down. Fa got a -12 on his death check, two points within instant death, fortunately for Fa he regenerates so he wasn't in danger of dying.
The PCs now arrive on the scene and although they can easily dispatch Fast Eddie they stop and listen when Fast Eddie plants his foot on Fa's unconcious but regenerating body and offers them a deal. Fast Eddie is proud but isn't stupid, he knows the PCs can take him out easily and he also knows that they hate Big Brother Lao more than they hate him. Also with Fa dead (at least he thinks so) he can cut a deal without losing face to the rest of the triads. Fast Eddie offers them a partnership, his help in taking down Big Brother Lao and a cessation of hostilities between the PCs and himself. The PCs never really cared about taking down Fast Eddie, it had always been Fa's big goal but never there's and they want Big Brother Lao bad and they know they can't take him on head on so after discussing terms they agree, Ken and Fast Eddie shake hands and Fast Eddie walks off.
Fa comes too a few minutes later and is pissed to hear that the PCs cut a deal with Fast Eddy but Ken gives him the "you're not just a gangster anymore, we're fighting for a higher purpose now." speech while the rest of the PCs hum a song I can't quite place (its some kind of american glory/war type music) to inspire Fa's player to a nobler purpose. Fa grudginly buys it and the session draws to a close, not with a bang of an impending fight but the opening of a new chapter of the secret war in Hong Kong.
Last modified: June 4, 1996; please send comments to durrell@innocence.com.