Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying - Helpful Eagle-Stylist
The Gilded Pony Saloon
Mike asked the barkeep about the old miner that'd just been thrown out, and learned that that was Willy, a former miner at the ol' Twinhorn Gold Mine west of town. The mine had collapsed years back, killing most of the miners, and the company running it had abandoned it. Willie was a bum and an alcoholic, but mostly harmless; he occasionally tried to pay for his whiskey with painted rocks he claimed were gold.
The party figured that they should head to the gold mines, and went outside to find Willie passed out across the street. Po tried shaking him awake, but it took a bucket of water to rouse him from his drunken slumber. They quickly struck a deal: Willie would lead them to the haunted mine and he would get all the gold, while they would get all the ghosts. He then asked if they wanted to use the front door, "which the ghosts knew about", or the secret way in?
Po expressed interest in the secret entrance, and Willie asked the party if they knew how to swim, and all but Po could not. Willie told them that they'd want to make sure not to fall overboard, and told them that they'd be taking his dinghy through the diamondback rapids. They headed south of town to the river and loaded into the dinghy, Po bringing it almost down to the waterline as he boarded. Willie rowed them out into the center of the river and then laid back while the current carried them along.
Diamondback Rapids
After a while of smooth sailing, the river narrowed and the dinghy picked up speed until they were hurtling through a narrow canyon while Willie fought against the rapids as best he could. The others struggled to keep their lunches down, and Willie told them to grab the old rickety dock on the right side when they saw it. The dinghy whipped left around a corner, down a 5' drop, and swerved right before the dock came into view.
Dan flipped out onto the dock, narrowly avoiding a rotten plank that fell into the speeding river below, while Po and the others grabbed onto the dock and held the dinghy in place. Willie shouted for Dan to toss them the rope on the shore; he did, and they managed to pull the dinghy into a calm inlet and onto the shore. Mike asked how Willie had used this path before, and Willie just replied "Before?".
Twinhorn Gold Mine
Up a small loose hill from the shore was a narrow tunnel into the stone, and they followed Willie as he lit a lantern and headed in. Po almost got stuck, but managed to make it by sucking in his gut. On the far side, the secret tunnel entered into a wider and taller semicircular tunnel with two lines of cart tracks on the floor, slanted slightly down to the left and up to the right. They decided to go uphill, and soon came to an opening in the ceiling, from which saw more light and heard a large group of people training.
Refusing any assistance, Dan climbed up the to the opening and poked his head up; his view was partially blocked by a large crate, but he saw that this was a fairly wide cavern, where men wearing lots of gold were guarding children who were being trained in some sort of martial arts by another man. Roberto, hearing there were children, jumped up to the opening and lifted his head above the crate to get a full view of the room, but didn't see his daughter among the children.
The party continued further uphill and shortly came to another opening, this time on the left wall. Roberto took a peek through the hole and saw rows of beds and two dozen gold-wearing men playing cards, napping, and drinking. They snuck past the opening, and found the upper end of the mine-cart tunnel, where another group of armed men stood guard just inside what must have been the entrance to the mine. In a pile nearby were a pile of white sheets, which Dan suggested was how they were disguising themselves as ghosts.
They decided to continue to explore, and headed back down the mine cart tunnel, past the secret entrance, and stopped at a short trestle bridge which led to a well-lit cavern. Not wanting to be spotted, Dan dropped down and climbed along the side of the bridge to the other side, then lifted himself up to view the cavern. It was a terraced mining pit, with a chain-gang of prisoners (roughly 50% children) swinging picks while guards wielding bamboo batons glared at them menacingly. The mine cart track ran down from the bride to the bottom of the pit, and one cart was almost full of gold nuggets.
Overlooking everything from a balcony was a laughing man wearing a ridiculous amount of gold chains. He let out a belly laugh, and Dan realized that the man's teeth were also plated in gold. Dan also spotted a handful of boxes labelled WARNING - HIGH EXPLOSIVE scattered around the top terrace, then headed back to the rest of the party. They decided to wait for the mine cart to be brought up the cart track, and hid themselves by the secret entrance in ambush.
Sure enough, the cart showed up a few minutes later, pushed by four children in tattered clothes. Mike stepped out of the shadwos to offer them help, but failed his Fast-Talk and spooked the kids, causing them to run away. The party offered Willy the cart of gold, which he happily started to empty, then realized the element of surprise was gone and charged after the children and towards the mining pit.
Rumble in the Tunnel
Po sprinted across the trestle bridge, his thundering footsteps echoing off the cavern walls, and Slammed the first guard he saw into a wall. Mike sprinted in and kicked another, while Roberto looked around for his daughter, but didn't see her. From his balcony, the boss yelled out for reinforcements, and his voice echoed throughout the mines, while the remaining goons charged at the party. Mike did a flip down to a lower level and shattered a lock with an axe kick, while Roberto examined the boss and figured he probably wasn't Trained by a Master.
Po his charge and Slammed another goon, and Dan followed behind him, taking out another with a Defensive Attack. Mike called on the prisoners to free themselves, and with a Lucked default Public Speaking roll, convinced them to start breaking their chains. Po made an All-Out Attack (Double) to Shove a goon away, followed by a parried attack from Dan. Two goons charged at Roberto, but he took out the first with his Wait, and the second missed.
The boss man tried to Intimidate the prisoners into passivity from his balcony, but crit failed, and they redoubled their efforts. A guard swung at Mike, but missed, and got his ears clapped in retaliation, while Roberto tried (but failed) to use Hypnotic Hands on another. Po made an All-Out Sweep and knocked their goon prone, and Dan followed up with a "Defensive" Attack to the prone man's neck, but missed.
Roberto took out the guy he was fighting with a 9-degree Spinning Strike, while Po picked up the prone man and held him overhead. Dan said "Toss him to me!" and took a Wait, while the held guy tried frantically to break free. Po turned and threw the man up in a gentle arc, and Dan launched his "Decapitating Wing Strike!", knocking him out with a punch to the skull. Mike took out the last goon, and the boss man ran away from his balcony and out of sight.
Dan and Po ran over to below the balcony, and Po threw Dan up and into what looked to be the boss' lavishly appointed chambers, going by all the silk and pillows (Po: "If you can throw him into the pit, the children will tear him to shreds!"). From across the chamber, the boss turned, drew two machetes, and asked why Dan had come to his mine. Dan replied that people deserved to be free, like the Eagle, and successfully Challenged him. The boss said that he would bury Dan where he could see the sky, and Evaluated, while Dan took an All-Out Defense (Parry).
Meanwhile, back in the mining pit, Po comforted the children, and Mike and Roberto took up position at the entrances, preparing to deal with the reinforcements. The boss Giant Stepped in, and tried to get Dan into an Armed Grapple with his machetes, but Dan made the parry. The boss then Feinted him for 11 degrees. Dan tried to grab back, but the boss made a Fencing Retreat and easily parried, before moving back in and landing a Deceptive Armed Grapple thanks to the prior Feint.
The boss then got Dan's right arm in an Arm Lock, and dodged Dan's retaliatory punch. With a sickening crunch, the boss snapped Dan's arm for 15 damage (Dan: "MY WING!"), stunning him, then transferred his grip to Dan's remaining arm. Hearing their comrade's cries of pain, Mike and Roberto ran over to the balcony to climb up, while Po stood in the bottom of the pit, to protect the freed prisoners if reinforcements every showed up. Before they could get up, though, the boss snapped his remaining arm, then threw him off the balcony and into the pit.
Dan gurgled out "He's... invincible!", and Roberto opined that, you know what, the boss might actually be Trained by a Master.
Notes:
More lore details!
- Japan is even more isolationist in this timeline because Commodore Perry and the US Navy (or any other colonial forces, for that matter) had enough military strength to force them to open up.
- China is fragmented due to the ongoing eternal conflicts between different martial arts schools.
- Subsaharan Africa is largely untouched because malaria kills any Europeans who try to go there.
- The US president knows Eagle-Style.
At one point, Dan's player attempted to use "Erotic Hand Strike"; he clearly mistakenly took that technique from GURPS Marital Arts.
Po's player has realized that Shove is bad. Sumo style kind of sucks, because it's not designed for "real" combat, so I'm more open to houseruling things for him. For instance, I ruled holding the guy overhead to just use the Takedown rules (guy is effectively knocked prone), followed by a throw using Throwing/DX-4.
The part in the fight where the party became completely ineffectual was due to the players trying to deliberately fail at using Techniques in order to gain XP.
As a corollary to the "Fail a Technique to gain XP" rule, you have to succeed at a cinematic Skill to get the point. Otherwise, it's way too easy to get ("Oh wow, I failed my Power Blow-10 roll, free points for me!").
2XP to Roberto for succumbing to Bloodlust in earlier sessions.
1XP to Dan for getting completely destroyed by the boss.
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