Cinq Supplices

Second-to-last book of the Cinq Supplices campaign, the fifth book holds important passages, as much for the difficulty of staging them as for their significance in the plot.

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Noticeably chunkier than its predecessors, this chapter sees the characters go from sickness and misery to triumph - a bit despite themselves - over Sayk Fong Lee. A fleeting and somewhat arbitrary victory, granted, but oh so savory nonetheless.

Forum summaries

• The Yellow Snake's Fleet
• The Portal and the Necronomicon
• The Island of Suffering
• The Siamese Queens
• The City of Shadows
• The Empire of Shadows
• The Coronation of Sayk Fong Lee

In short

After much bumbling, the fair-weather investigators manage to save the Yellow Snake from his assassin, whom they blame along the way for an assault of their own on the old man protecting the portal (after all, the dead do not talk). They thus discover the tapestry and witness the recovery of the Necronomicon by Sayk Fong Lee. On the Island of Suffering, Zhude and a few fellow unfortunates agree with Master Tang to eliminate the Siamese Queens. As the oral confrontation between the apothecary, the Queens and Agai Chen turns sour, one improvised PC steals a grenade from a Japanese soldier's belt and wipes out the whole audience, except Zhude, who promptly manages to hide behind the Queens. The latter, gravely wounded, are finished off by the Japanese officer of the Black Dragon, furious at having lost Agai Chen for his Master. The invaders take the opportunity to put the Queens' palace to fire and sword, before carrying off everything of any value. The group reunites a few days later, when the Yellow Snake reaches the Island of Suffering with the PCs who accompanied him. A boat excursion lets them discover the map of the portals and the source of the inks in the old schools. On the way back to the Island of Suffering's beach, the Shen De attack, forcing the PCs into a strategic retreat into the Empire of Shadows.

The investigators take Ran Gaar Kha aboard, despite serious doubts about his loyalty. At the pagoda, they find Guang Ying and obtain all the necessary information from the Pages of the Necronomicon. Initially, their main concern is to find Agai Chen's shadow and make sure the tattoo artist cannot help Sayk Fong Lee in any way. As identifying one shadow among the shadows promises to be arduous, the group finally prefers to concentrate on obtaining the compass and a dose of smelly grease. The latter requires entering the city of shadows: the PCs pass through it furtively, at speed, avoiding attracting attention. A most happy stroke of luck lets them discover the remains of a Gaunt Beast of the Night, shredded by Shen De. They recover the fruit of their search, steal the compass outside the city and board with the itinerant troupe. Rather quickly, the team suspects the true nature of the Master of Arts, who agrees to heal Zhude of the plague, since Ki Qua took care of recovering two lucky coins. The PCs try to negotiate with the Master of Arts: should he ever locate Agai Chen's shadow, he should do his best to neutralize it to prevent Sayk Fong Lee from realizing his plans. The Master of Arts, little inclined to talk about his own deal with the Manchu sorcerer, silently takes note of the options offered to him.

The investigators pass through the portal leading to the Manchu Lords' palace, not without collecting all the exotic portals stretched on the tanning racks present within the temple. With Ran's "help", they find Marshal Zhang Xueliang's chamber, but as they try to extract him from the palace, Sayk Fong Lee's right-hand man arranges to lure in a good twenty guards to deliver the group to his master. Somewhat disconcerted by the recent turn of events, the Manchu sorcerer has had Agai Chen's shredded remains shipped back and hopes to negotiate the tattoo artist's return - alive or in shadow form - with the Celestial Skinner, so that he grafts the supreme tattoo onto him. Likewise, the absence of the burner (left in the hands of a PC who stayed in the Empire of Shadows) prevents him from eliminating Guang Ying. On the other hand, as planned, the Shen De pass through the portal, sow trouble and allow the group to flee with Sergei and the Marshal.

Commentary

Careful, big piece. Let us try to analyze everything from the small details up to the more fundamental aspects.

First point: the Black Dragon. Since the campaign's beginning, two factions fight within the Japanese troops. The army is controlled by the Black Dragon, which rolls for Sayk Fong Lee. The navy, compromised by the Black Ocean, works for the Shen De, who oppose the Manchu sorcerer. The campaign nevertheless does nothing to illustrate these tensions and make them exploitable. Never did my players suspect the existence of two factions! To them, the Black Ocean and Sayk Fong Lee formed an alliance of circumstance, and each worked behind the scenes to bring the other down. If you embark on this campaign, add scenes that reveal the situation, notably in Bayuquan, where the two secret societies might struggle to share the lion's part. For instance, the ritual to Dagon (missed by my group) can be interrupted by men in Sayk Fong Lee's pay. Since we are talking about secret societies, the possibility of joining the beggar sect never crossed my group's mind either: did I insist too little on Qian Lan's affiliations? Possible - she incidentally only played an extremely minor role in the campaign, since the players abandoned her in Bayuquan.

Second point, Mei Fang's betrayal is... sensitive. Thanks to my group's significant victories, I judged that the potential traitress had sided for good. However, the campaign never really suggests when, nor how Mei Fang can betray the group: the text mentions it from her first appearance, but the GMs remain the sole judges of the betrayal's timing, means and consequences. And once her duplicity is revealed, the odds are slim that she stays with the group, making her dramatic death during the Coronation of Sayk Fong Lee unlikely (either he already killed her at the time of the coronation, or he is satisfied with her services and leaves her alive). My players think the ideal moment for a potential betrayal by Mei Fang would be the first passage into the Empire of Shadows, when the sorcerer flees with the Necronomicon. She could try to join his ranks, taking with her everything she could pick up within the group (the Burner, for example).

Third point: Agai Chen. Since Dairen, my players' intentions were clear. They did not want to save Agai Chen, but to put him down to make sure nobody could tattoo Sayk Fong Lee. This cold, pragmatic vision, closer to a psychopath's than a reasonable person's, can however be defended rather well knowing that the sorcerer's backup plans are few (he has a single other solution, presumably unknown to the PCs at that point). The cold-blooded murder thus passes for a good option. All the more after living through the invasion of Bayuquan, enough to slightly desensitize to violence. All the more when it becomes clear that Agai Chen intends to give himself up willingly to the sorcerer, joining the ranks of the "antagonists despite themselves". Obviously, I tried to put sticks in the players' wheels. Surrounded by a Japanese unit, under the protection of the Siamese Queens, Agai Chen has little chance of being reached by anyone. Unless... wait. Japanese soldier? Regulation equipment, probably not yet used? That thing hanging from his belt there, would that not be, like... a grenade? Beware, GMs: it only takes one good stealth roll for a PC to blow everything up. If you want to avoid railroading, you will have no other choice than to bow before the disgusting damage roll (8-9-10-7) your players will produce. Beyond these technical complications, this "alternative" motivation (killing Agai Chen) and its implementation have numerous repercussions I had to ponder for some time.

First, the empathy towards Liu Chen is reduced. As mentioned in the book 2 commentary, Guang Ying's lie proved as effective as a soup spoon at cutting a tree trunk. The reasons why the PCs chased after Sayk Fong Lee had little to do with rescuing a damsel in distress: they simply wanted to prevent a despot from granting himself divine powers. Consequently, the "great revelation" of the Coronation, when Sayk Fong Lee tells them that Liu Chen is his daughter, had a more limited impact than expected.

Next, handling Agai Chen's disappearance proves rather tricky. In fact, it is probably the only point where I struggled to adapt the campaign, so mandatory does the tattoo artist's presence seem for Sayk Fong Lee. With Agai Chen dead, the sorcerer had better move straight on to the search for the jade urn and pack his bags for the Lake of the Watchers: his long-awaited coronation cannot take place in Harbin. If you belong to the "actions and consequences" school, then go for it. Literally skip the final scene of the Coronation of Sayk Fong Lee. The plot adapts to it rather well in the end, considering the coronation must fail anyway. The PCs burst into the Palace to find it completely empty, the sorcerer having left the premises at full speed. No sooner has the group gotten its bearings (and why not, found the Marshal) than the Shen De arrive in force. Lacking minions to slaughter, they will turn more readily to your team of intrepid investigators. As for the Wandering Peddler, he will surely find another occasion to come collect his skin.

However, I belong to the "cinematic" school and I love memorable passages. Limiting the Coronation would thus have left a bitter aftertaste. A backup plan had to be invented, consisting of summoning Agai Chen's shadow, or even resurrecting him outright. This approach poses two challenges: on the one hand, not giving the players the impression that their actions were useless. On that front, well, I confess I do not know how to proceed. On the other hand, the plot's consistency takes a hit. Agai Chen has no reason left to join Sayk Fong Lee (except, perhaps, to harm his murderers), and the rules of bargaining with the Skinner are thereby flouted. Indeed, a lucky coin heals, but only the urn can push the Skinner to resurrect the dead. Could a rosary of coins convince him? Possible, but in that case, Sayk Fong Lee has no reason to look for the jade urn, since he can already afford all the miraculous physician's services. In short, it is complicated. "Fortunately", the coronation's timing means the Skinner only arrives after the Wandering Peddler and the Shen De.

That is my take. That makes for a lot of complicated passages to stage, but I believe they are worth it. Generally rather strong and so far rarely gratuitous, they probably constitute a mine of good memories for the group. Call of Cthulhu is not a system game, so the players can hardly count on their characters' progression or on strategic combat scenes to enjoy a session. Here, the plot, the cerebral investigations and the tense situations are the best vectors of "fun".

To conclude on this book: some reviewers point to other scenes for their scripted, artificial feel. Nebal, for instance, mentions the theft of the Necronomicon in the Empire of Shadows, deeming the whole scenario within the Yellow Snake's fleet useless. I cannot agree with him: the discovery of the Yellow Snake's fleet introduces one of the campaign's five major allied NPCs (the one that worked best in my group) and allows, for the length of a small journey, to forget the Japanese invasion. If we set aside my group's huge blunder with the old Keeper of the Last Sacrilege, this passage was overall appreciated. The theft of the Necronomicon does indeed suffer from a scripted side, but let us be honest: all (good) campaigns have their mandatory passages. Let us admit, however, that this passage poses you a big problem, insofar as it prevents you from starting the campaign. How to improve it? You can start by establishing three temporal alternatives:

1. Either the PCs were faster than expected and they reach the pagoda before Sayk Fong Lee.
2. Either the PCs were as fast as expected and they reach the pagoda at the same time as Sayk Fong Lee (a bit before, a bit after, no matter: they run into him).
3. Either they were slow as turtles and will only note the larceny once the tension has subsided.

What happens if, in one of the first two cases, your PCs manage to escape with the Necronomicon? Through its detailed description of the forces present, the campaign easily answers this question. First of all, the group will probably be hunted, by the Black Ocean as well as by the Black Dragon and the Manchus, or even by shadows sent by Sayk Fong Lee. The manhunt will no doubt not last long, since minutes count for the sorcerer and he has an alternative plan. Note that your PCs will probably seek to destroy the sacrilegious book. At any rate, that is what mine wanted to do, consistent with their "scorched earth" policy already applied to Agai Chen. If that is the case, the book's destruction can serve as a striking finale to the first part of the campaign. Sayk Fong Lee will then move on to his alternative plan (the Lake of the Watchers and the last Ransomer of Divine Right). Your PCs will have to find a way to discover his designs and, if possible, the various stakeholders such as the Celestial Skinner. Depending on where your group fled to protect itself from the manhunt, the research can give rise to a few interesting sessions.

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