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[Liang Jieming]

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The Game
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Premise - In a small inn of a northern garrison town of the Tang dynasty at the height of power (A.D. 752)

Reigning Emperor Xuanzong who ascended the throne in A.D. 712


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Major Tang Dynasty Social Milestones
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<> Woodblock printing begins and large printing presses are constructed.
<> An astronomical clock is built at Changan.
<> Gautama Siddharta, and Indian astronomer at the Imperial observatory publishes his astrological almanac.
<> Polo becomes popular with the Tang elite.
<> Grand Canal extended to Hangzhou in the south and Changan in the north. [Info more...]
<> Ideal of the universal man - scholar, poet, painter, statesman .
A.D. 629-645 Tripitaka (Xuanzang) goes to India and brings Buddhist texts back.
A.D. 748 First printed newspaper appears in Beijing.
ca. A.D. 750 Chinese opera invented.
ca. A.D. 812 A type of bank draft is first issued, the precursor of paper money.
A.D. 868 Diamond Sutra printed.

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Rules of the Game
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> *blah blah blah* - to set the scene or to describe actions
> "blah blah blah" - to talk
> %#$@ - use these for swear words or else a mod will knock your head
> Choose a character, name and profession (eg. bandit, musician, general)
> No supernatural stuff
> Stick to historical accuracy (eg. technology, religion etc)
> No killing of other players
> Be nice and play fair
> Use English only or if you use chinese characters have a translation in brackets
> Go with the flow, use your imagination and have fun!

Wanna play?

ps. Mods, if you don't like this, go ahead and delete it. I just thought it might be fun and a change of pace. Would be interesting to see where this goes. One Mod plays GOD and steps in to moderate? (but hopefully not needed often)

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START
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*sitting on the floor with legs spread apart, my sword set menacingly on the table top next to the opened wine jar*

"So where are the music and dancing girls you promised!" I roared to the inn keeper as I took a big gulp of wine from the wine goblet.

The inn keeper bowed profusely and hurried away stammering "coming, they are coming good sir". Shouting at the top of his lungs he yelled up to the 2nd floor where a few not too bad looking girls could be seen preening and eyeing the customers, "Come down, come down you lazy, good for nothing #$@%". His cursing brought them running. "I don't clothe and feed you to stand around all day! Entertain the guests!" he screamed.

*Idly scratching my rugged beard*

I couldn't help but laugh at the red faced innkeeper as he yelled and fumed at the 3 frantic dancing girls tearing down the stairs. "Good, good, good", I roared! "And more wine!", I demanded, stressing the innkeeper even more.

[Gubook Janggoon]

I'll try it out when I have time..till then...

[MengTzu]

Gubuk Janggoon, on Dec 10 2004, 03:59 AM, said:

I'll try it out when I have time..till then...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Um okay. Character: a poor scholar who failed at the metropolitan exams many times.

Enters inn.

"Blah blah blah."

That's it for now. =)

[Liang Jieming]

As I sat there watching the twirling and dancing girls, I reflected on how much I'd seen over the last few days. Taking another gulp of wine, my thoughts wander, already feeling the effects of the wine. 3 empty jars lie on the floor to add to the half finished one on the table, testiment to the amount already in my tummy.

*eyes flicked back to the dancers*

They weren't all that good but somehow they seemed to be getting better and better... more erotic maybe. Must be the wine talking... I shut my eyes and shook my head to try and clear it. "More wine!" I roared and smiled!

"Burrrrrp!" I grinned ferally around, challenging anyone to answer that.

[caocao74]

As I approached the weather-beaten door to the inn, I could make out the usual sounds of debauchery that emitted from such dens of filth and baudiness. After some days in the saddle I just needed some sustenance, not the usual trouble found in these garrison towns as foul-mannered soldiers threw away their salaries on wine and women of dubious virtue.
I was not convinced otherwise as I eased the door open.....

[Liang Jieming]

"Ooi!" I yelled across the dance floor at the burly figure framed at the doorway.

The beginings of a smile changed to puzzlement and my hand, raised to wave him to my table, wavered in indecision. Squinting my wine blurred teary eyes, I tried to establish the newcomer's identity. For a moment the armour and silken cap had made me think it was Jiang Ke, my good friend and comrade in arms. But that thought quickly perished when I remembered he had fallen at Talas years before... or was it months before?

Coherent thought was increasingly difficult as my mind fought the muddling effects of the potent yellow water.

"Ah the hell with it!" I mumbled and grabbed a serving girl with my free hand instead, to grunts of disapproval from the innkeeper.

[caocao74]

As expected, the inn was filled with the usual crowd of the dour and merry rascals that frequented these establishments. One had decided to beckon me, perhaps a shared brotherhood of the sword he sought, but then he returned to his drink and some poor, bedraggled wench.
I made for an unoccupied table, and beckoned the innkeeper, trying to avoid others as much as they avoided me. Only that one lone warrior kept taking my eye, he certainly didn't appear to have been attached to the garrison. Surely, he couldn't be looking for the same thing as I.

[snowybeagle]

The place has not changed since my last visit.

I saw most customers are armed, one way or another, as usual.
Not that anyone really expects any trouble here. The Dragon Gate Inn had a certain reputation and any foolish newcomer who tried to assert himself just because he got a big sabre would have a surprise coming.

I continued stand near the doorway, taking care not to block the passage, and took my time to survey the tavern openly.

Such actions are usually discouraged here, but I am special. Like all similar establishments in the border regions, taverns are congregating areas for people from diverse backgrounds - soldiers, merchants, pilgrims and even brigands who are not being actively sought by authorities.

It's a great place to trade information and gossip, and many, especially the merchants, do just that. Those anxious for news of opportunities or risks usually sacrifice a few moments seeking news first instead of physical sustenance.

But those who wish to be left alone always have their privacy respected, and it would have been unacceptable for anyone but people in my line to be scrutinising the customers, table by table, face by face. Sometimes, a familiar face would look up to give an acknowledgment of some sort, but no one minded me unless they had reason to expect me.

I am a professional postman.

I had just finished a long journey of some fifteen hundred miles from Chang An.

I identified in the tavern some of the intended recepients and delivered their letters in an unobstrusive a manner only possible to experienced postman like me.

I received a few tips for my trouble - and as usual, affluence is not equivalent to generosity. The stingy subaltern grudgingly coughed up a couple of coins, just barely enough to save his face.

There were a couple of others present whose mails I did not immediately deliver. They did not pay me any heed, nor did I them. I wondered if they were expecting the mails, but it's not my job to know. It was my job to ensure the mails are delivered to them discretely, as the senders had paid for the "extra service".

Business before pleasure, I approached the innkeeper to find out more about the whereabouts of the other "normal service" receipients who were not present in the tavern.

[MengTzu]

I just realized that "blah blah blah" isn't the literal symbol for "talking" in this game. I'm so dumb =D

[Sephodwyrm]

In comes Jia Xiang Yun, a random historian of sorts.

He's 20 and he's been travelling outside China for a long time. This is, however, one of his first journey to the north (having spent most of the time beyond the southern borders). Intrigued at the living world, he keeps a careful datalog of the mysterious creatures, and seems to have an endless amount of lore (some may say BS) coming out of him.

Fortunately, years spent overseas in a harsh condition (unlike those softies that lived in the capital) has taught him some dirty fighting tricks. A great disbeliever in fate, he's out to create a new system, and hopes to create a new proposal for new agriculture systems and crops for the Emperor (if it gets through). Now he's at this northern garrison town to meet an old friend, who has, unfortunately, passed away leaving little trace except for a crumbling hut at a dried up oasis.

If the technologian and agriculturalist and archivist job is hard to find, he might even hire himself out as a sword for hire. Fixing your arbalest, rockets, poisoning your arrows, bolts...yeah, he's the guy to find...provided he can take his eyes off the half-Caucasoid that's just as badly dressed as he is...

[Liang Jieming]

The tavern was getting a little too crowded. Growling in annoyance, I knock back the last of my wine from the wine jar having abandoned the bronze goblet after an overly enthusiatic grope of the wench on my lap had sent the vessel spinning out onto the dance floor.

Standing up unsteadily I surveyed the tavern as the girl, seeing her chance, made good her escape into the safety of the kitchen.

The latest arrival, the postman was talking animately with the innkeeper. Who knows what they were talking about. Haggling over the price for information probably. I shrugged and threw my cape over my shoulder only to realise that my sword was missing!

"Aarrrrrggghhhhh!" I roared in anger, the wine adding to my bravado. "Who's taken my sword!" I glared around angrily.

To my disgust, no one even glanced my way despite the outburst. I look around quickly. Was it the... no not the soldier keeping to himself at the far corner whom I'd mistaken for a friend earlier. He never came anywhere close to my table.

Maybe it was that scholar who had come in earlier and mumbled something like "blah blah blah"? Who could figure those bookish types. Strange creatures they were. Did he take my sword? I glared my most ferocious glare at him but he seems oblivious, still mumbling to himself... something about "how dumb he was". Nah, couldn't have been him.

Stepping away from the table I heard a great "clang!".

I looked down at my feet and immediately my face, already red from the wine turned a deeper shade of red as I realised I had my sword all the time. I must have taken it off the table and leaned it against the chair.

Shaking my head I grabbed the sword and wobbly strode towards the door only to bump into an odd looking fellow in clothes more suited to the southern regions. "Ah, good sir..." I said. What news of from south?" I asked, my words slurring slightly.

[caocao74]

The drunk got drunker, groping the less-than-willing serving girl between looking for his sword and looking for the door. He was the sort that would be back soon having no doubt forgotten something he perceived in his current state to have forgotten.
Others came, and with each new arrival, the cold dry wind rushed into the inn. Such a wind made one feel alive in the northern steppe, but here it just made one feel for more pleasant company than the apparently weary travellers or overworked wenches could offer. It had been a hard journey, one that had not yet been completed.
But first one needed to obey the call of nature and venture outside in search of a pit.

[Sephodwyrm]

It's amazing how the powders made from certain moths can do "make the atmosphere more lively". Clearly, the powder is making an effect to increase the belligerence of the people. Which explains why some natives of the southern lands would mash these moths up with some mushrooms and ingest it or rubbing the powder on themselves before battles etc. This is the first time I've seen this in action. Could be very useful to break up enemy formations, but at the same time make them even more dangerous. I just hope I can perfect these skills so that the Empire would take notice.

But of course, we can't have belligerence all the time. Secretly I opened another small packet of dried powders, made from the crushed orchids from a land where people hardly wears anything but built grand Buddhist Temples anyway (Kam Pu Chea, was it?). The last time I went there was with a Tang emissary who is thoroughly offended by the lack of clothing, even asking the king to coerce his people to wear something more appropriate. In my opinion, the clothes only made it harder to travel around in the relatively dense and humid undergrowths of that kingdom.

Rubbing the powder with my fingers, I pretended to rub my nose but actually secretly exhaled over it to create an almost invisible waft of soothing scent to the drunk's face. Obviously one can't really reason with drunks. Now that his eyes are getting more focused and less wild, I told him:
"There's nothing much from the south. I have heard that the Emperor has long coveted the region, but plans has not been made yet to occupy that territory. The people there are nervous of war, and scared of us Central Plainers. I have decided to visit the north west to visit my friend who served the army for his entire life from Korea to the Silk Road, but alas he has already left the earth. I'm just hiring my skills out, hoping to get enough money so that I can return to my hometown near the capital of Chang An."

[Gubook Janggoon]

Gubook Koongil (a man from the northeast, Bohai?), walks into the bar. He doesn't have a penny. Being the youngest of the family he had received very little inheritance and had traveled west in hopes of hitting it big. Needless to say he ran into some trouble along the way. He walks in and sits down. He falls asleep.

[Sephodwyrm]

I, Jia Xiang Yun, am amused. "Well, why is this big man sleeping without even ordering a thing?"

Obviously, the inn keeper is not amused. He nodded to his men and they set to drag the sleeper out. The inn keeper than noticed that this sleeper is not like any other aimless vagabond. Soon, his men lie clutching their broken noses and collecting their teeth soaked in blood while the muscular man returns to his seat and continues his big sleep.

I took out some pieces of silver and told the innkeeper to tend to his man's wounds and get something to eat and drink for this mysterious strong man, while settling myself at the same table. The burly drunk that was shouting for his sword a moment ago also joined them.