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09:35, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Rice Run.

Posted by NarratorFor group archive 0
Narrator
GM, 6225 posts
DM says
roll for initiative!
Sun 21 Apr 2019
at 18:58
  • msg #1

Rice Run

Barley, wheat, flax, and rye grow in the vicinity of Northport, but the children of Sahud crave another grain.

South of Northport, in the barony of Veroigne, that precious crop is cultivated. To that land you travel, with catfolk teamsters and ox drawn wagons.
Chye Isuel
player, 1458 posts
Osu! Ora Chye Iseul!
Dragon descended, Youxia
Mon 22 Apr 2019
at 02:29
  • msg #2

Rice Run

22:24, Today: Chye Isuel rolled 8 using 3d6.  lute ~ 15.
22:23, Today: Chye Isuel rolled 8 using 3d6.  singing ~ 16.

Chye strikes up a tune on his lute, and begins to sing a song called:

"Song of the Wagons!
The wagons rumble and roll,
The horses whinny and neigh,
The conscripts each have bows and arrows at their waists.
Their parents, wives and children run to see them off,
So much dust's stirred up, it hides the Xianyang bridge.
They pull clothes, stamp their feet and, weeping, bar the way,
The weeping voices rise straight up and strike the clouds.
A passer-by at the roadside asks a conscript why,
The conscript answers only that drafting happens often.
"At fifteen, many were sent north to guard the river,
Even at forty, they had to till fields in the west.
When we went away, the elders bound our heads,
Returning with heads white, we're sent back off to the frontier.
At the border posts, shed blood becomes a sea,
The martial emperor's dream of expansion has no end.
Have you not seen the two hundred districts east of the mountains,
Where thorns and brambles grow in countless villages and hamlets?
Although there are strong women to grasp the hoe and the plough,
They grow some crops, but there's no order in the fields.
What's more, we soldiers of Qin withstand the bitterest fighting,
We're always driven onwards just like dogs and chickens.
Although an elder can ask me this,
How can a soldier dare to complain?
Even in this winter time,
Soldiers from west of the pass keep moving.
The magistrate is eager for taxes,
But how can we afford to pay?
We know now having boys is bad,
While having girls is for the best;
Our girls can still be married to the neighbours,
Our sons are merely buried amid the grass.
Have you not seen on the border of Qinghai,
The ancient bleached bones no man's gathered in?
The new ghosts are angered by injustice, the old ghosts weep,
Moistening rain falls from dark heaven, amid their voices..."

This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Mon 22 Apr 2019.
Miko
NPC, 20 posts
Catfolk
Tue 23 Apr 2019
at 15:14
  • msg #3

Rice Run

In reply to Chye Isuel (msg # 2):

"Wow, my friend, that is dark."
Narrator
GM, 6229 posts
DM says
roll for initiative!
Tue 23 Apr 2019
at 15:18
  • msg #4

Rice Run

In reply to Miko (msg # 3):

Your train of three wagons drawn by teams of oxen make their way from the gates of Sakemoko's compound through dockside and into the temple district before heading out the west gate.  You notice that along the road in the temple district that there are many small shrines to gods both strange and familiar. Most are gods of the empire and the southlands, but there are those of the lands to the far west from whence your ancestors came.  Iskander and Ales notice small shrines to the tripartate god, and to the gods of Shevnia.
Ales Konstantin
player, 735 posts
Spellsword
Tue 23 Apr 2019
at 16:52
  • msg #5

Rice Run

As they leave the village, Ales notices the shrines to the various deities. When he sees the shrines to the Shevnian God's and goddesses, he asks if they can stop briefly so that Ales can stop and ask his deities for safe travels.

"With all the craziness we've seen, I think it's better to err on side of caution."
Chou-Zhen Mou
player, 857 posts
Not quite right but
a mage none the less
Tue 23 Apr 2019
at 19:17
  • msg #6

Rice Run

"Oxen are slow; if you can pray quickly, you can easily catch up without having to stop the wagons."

Chou-Zhen also looks at the shrines along each side of the road.  His queue lashes once.

"I wonder why these beings have worshipers and shrines, but my father does not?"
Iskander
player, 1609 posts
Iskander Cambriel Almonte
Valdassyan Adventurer.
Wed 24 Apr 2019
at 03:44
  • msg #7

Rice Run

Iskander  makes the sign of the cross, at the sight of the cross-topped spires.
He murmurs what sounds like a prayer, in his native tongue.
"Déu, guia el nostre camí."
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