Lo pi arrives on Sheotite’s twentieth floor as his aunt finishes a line of Mandarin across a long paper sheet. Polished wood gleams beneath the quiet lanternlight.
Rice-paper walls and sliding doors divide bedrooms from study rooms around the writing table. The gathered Oso Awa Huanuasuasua cousins leave the stairway visible, yet form a watchful ring.
His aunt, an elderly woman with a composed human face, silver hair, and layered dark-red robes, lifts her brush. A small jade clasp holds her sleeve.
Lo pi's aunt
The public floors lie below, nephew. Everyone here knows that is where your attention rests.
Ink gathers at the brush tip. Around her, the cousins shift their feet and exchange guarded glances, keeping every path toward the stairway plainly visible.
Lo pi's aunt
I will not command you to remain. But before you descend, you will tell me what you seek in Sheotite.
The aunt sets the brush across its rest and waits beside the unfinished sheet. The ring holds, and the open stairway offers no privacy.
✓ Quest Accepted
Gain permission to descend from the twentieth floor
“Theyre are extrodites and lesser, coming from mongolia and hiding in the mountains north of here. I must clear them from the caves as they are petty bandits”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -3)
Lo pi
There are extrodites and lesser ones from Mongolia hiding in the northern caves. I intend to clear those caves of petty bandits.
The words settle over the writing table. Several cousins tighten their ring, and the visible stairway becomes narrower beneath their guarded stance.
Lo pi's aunt
You name them as bandits, yet offer no witness, treaty, or mark of their trespass. Sheotite will not lend its authority to an accusation alone.
Lo pi
The cousins are blocking the only open route downward.
His aunt folds the unfinished paper once, hiding the Mandarin characters. The jade clasp flashes as she turns toward the cousins, a gathered group of young and middle-aged human men and women in layered dark travel clothes, with wary faces and varied dark hair, without rising.
Lo pi's aunt
You will not descend under my roof to begin a purge. Until their crime is established, the northern caves remain beyond your commission.
The ring does not break. Lo pi's declaration has won no passage or support, and the aunt's refusal, the elderly human woman in layered dark-red robes, with silver hair and a small jade clasp at her sleeve, leaves the accusation unconfirmed before the gathered clan.
“I pull out a red torn female silk robe piece. I say, they already harrassed the nearby small village "Hoanto Fung Mulla" and tore this womans dress, my servants here brought me the proof. I am the prince of the tribe and i respect your postion of authority aunt”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Lo pi
They already harassed the nearby village of Hoanto Fung Mulla and tore this woman's dress. My servants brought me the proof.
Lo pi draws out a torn piece of red women's silk. Its ragged edge and dust-stained fibers rest plainly against the polished wood before his aunt.
Lo pi
I am the prince of the tribe, and I respect your position of authority, aunt.
The cousins lean toward the cloth without breaking their ring. The accusation now has a village name, a physical token, and a claimed chain of custody.
Lo pi's aunt
You present this with greater substance than before, nephew. I accept it as evidence of an assault upon Hoanto Fung Mulla, not yet proof of every culprit.
She lifts the silk by one corner, studying the tear and the faint dust caught in its weave. Her expression remains composed, but the room's attention shifts.
Lo pi's aunt
Your respect is heard. Sheotite will acknowledge the village's injury, and I will authorize an inquiry into those northern caves.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish who assaulted Hoanto Fung Mulla
+ New Item Acquired
Torn red silk
“I must go alone as they have a curse apon them that quickly leaps from their bodies when killed, i have been told by one of my scout ravens”
FAILURE (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Lo pi
I must go alone. The curse leaps from their bodies when they are killed, and one of my scout ravens told me this.
Lo pi folds the torn silk, steps around the writing table, and advances toward the visible stairway. The cousins close ranks before he reaches it.
Lo pi's aunt
Alone, perhaps. Unexamined, no. If this curse is real, a careless killing could carry it beyond the caves.
The ring stops Lo pi without touching him. Behind it, the stair remains open in sight but unreachable, while the aunt studies his warning rather than dismissing it.
Lo pi's aunt
Your passage downward is denied for now. But your raven's report gives the inquiry a necessary question: what awakens the curse, and how does it leap?
She draws a narrow key from beneath her sleeve and sets it beside the jade clasp. Its teeth are blackened, and its shape matches an old service lock in the study wall.
Lo pi's aunt
Find the record room before you seek the caves. There you may learn how to pass alone without turning Hoanto Fung Mulla into another victim.
“The raven said they die and they wound erupts a smokey black fleeting leeching ghost like tendrills of a squid reaching for you”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Lo pi
The raven said they die, and the wound erupts. A smoky black ghost pours out, fleeting and leeching, with tendrils like a squid reaching for you.
The aunt’s fingers pause above the blackened key. Around the ring, the cousins fall silent, their guarded faces turned toward the warning.
Lo pi's aunt
Then the curse is not merely carried by blood or breath. It reaches outward when the body fails.
She takes the key and rises at last, her dark-red robes settling around her. The cousins part from the study wall, revealing an old service door beneath the lanterns.
Lo pi's aunt
You have given the record room its first useful testimony. I will have this manifestation written exactly, without embellishment.
She fits the blackened key into the lock. A dry click answers, and the door opens onto shelves of bound ledgers, sealed jars, and dust-muted maps of the northern caves.
Lo pi's aunt
Go, nephew. Read before you kill. If the records confirm your raven, you may leave Sheotite with my inquiry behind you.
“I respectfully follow her instructions and offer to play her favorite banhu songs when im back and calmed”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +0)
Lo pi
I will follow your instruction, aunt. When I return, and I am calmed, I will play your favorite banhu songs.
Lo pi's aunt studies Lo pi across the open doorway, then inclines her head. The cousins ease their formation, leaving the record room fully accessible.
Lo pi's aunt
Then let the music be your return marker, nephew. I will listen for those songs after the records have answered you.
She gestures toward the shelves. Bound ledgers crowd the nearest cases, while sealed jars and rolled cave maps wait beneath a veil of dust.
Lo pi's aunt
Begin with the ledgers bearing the old northern seals. Do not break a jar or unroll a map until its notation is understood.
Lo pi crosses the threshold into the record room. Behind him, the service door remains open, and lanternlight from the study falls across the first row of bindings.
Lo pi
The old northern seals distinguish the first ledgers.
“I pay key attention to the notations, reading them”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Lo pi selects the ledgers marked with old northern seals and settles beneath the study’s spill of lanternlight. He reads each notation before touching the next binding.
Lo pi
The seal marks the northern caves, their depth, and the order of the records.
The notation is compact but deliberate: crossed circles identify cave mouths, hooked strokes mark inhabited chambers, and a blackened character denotes a curse released at death.
By comparing repeated symbols across several ledgers, Lo pi understands the old system. The curse is recorded as an outward-reaching manifestation, not a sickness carried by survivors.
Lo pi's aunt
The records have answered you, nephew. Keep their order in mind, and let the maps confirm what the seals have named.
The relevant ledger lies open before Lo pi, its notation understood: northern cave entrances, inhabited depths, and the warning mark for bodies that release the smoky curse.
“I ready to leave”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +2)
Lo pi closes the old northern ledger and returns it to its place. He selects the matching cave map, checking its notation before rolling it carefully.
He gathers the map and the torn red silk, leaving the sealed jars undisturbed. Lanternlight catches his black attire and the angular planes of his vampiric face.
Lo pi's aunt
You have read what you were told to read. Carry the map, and bring the inquiry beyond Sheotite only as far as its evidence permits.
The cousins clear the service doorway without protest. Their guarded ring opens into a passage, giving Lo pi an unobstructed route back toward the twentieth floor’s stairway.
Lo pi's aunt
Return before the next lantern changing if you can. If the caves demand longer, leave a mark at the village and keep your purpose visible.
Lo pi steps out of the record room with the map secured and the ledger’s symbols fixed in memory. The study’s polished floor leads him to the open stair.
Behind him, his aunt remains beside the shelves and watchful cousins. Ahead, the stair descends through Sheotite, and Lo pi is ready to leave the castle floor.
Quest Complete
Gain permission to descend from the twentieth floor
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
Cave map