STORY AND ART BY DION FERNANDEZ

VAMPIRE® CREATED BY MARK REIN•HAGEN

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1
THE PATH OF WIND AND WATER 3
THE PATH OF WOOD AND EARTH 15
THE PATH OF FIRE AND METAL 27

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 Introduction
J ust as they are in Europe and the Middle East,
the Dark Ages of East Asia are a time of inter-
necine intrigue, ruthless war, and meaningless
death. Across the fabled Silk Road that cuts across
the steppes, citizens of Christendom cannot even
begin to speculate on the strange grandeur that the
Middle Kingdom possesses. Here the forces of the su-
pernatural worlds weigh more heavily on the mortal
realm, and the undead have much more clout in the
affairs of those who still live. As the Fifth Age dawns,
however, a sense of trepidation has begun to grow
among Asia’s fickle shen, for even the most reliable
of oracles have little idea of what this new turning
of the wheel would bring. Kingdoms are seen sink-
ing back into the jungle, and new empires that span
the world, bringing mighty fire in the name of their
single god, would see the old ways be torn to shreds
and left to rot on the dry earth. For now, this time of
Beautiful Sadness must run its course, and the omen
bones can fall where they may.
Black Fire over Tondo details three interlinked sto-
ries of the undead who dwell in three little-known
cities in East Asia during this end-time. It’s set in
1240 Anno Domini in the reckoning of Europe’s
timekeepers, or 637 after the Prophet’s flight from
Mecca. To the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom,
however, it is simply the era of the Emperor Lizong
of the Song Dynasty, one period among many others
stretching thousands of years into the past.
To be fully immersed in this story, the 20th An-
niversary Edition of Vampire: the Dark Ages, as well as
1
Kindred of the East and its Dark Ages accessory Blood
and Silk, are required. It would be ideal for the Story-
teller who would be telling this tale to read through
it beforehand, and to also have some familiarity with
the cultures of China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Black Fire over Tondo also assumes that the characters
have had more than just a basic experience of being
either neonates or Running Monkeys; most likely
they should now know their place in the courts of
night, and it’s expected that they play the part.
Synopsis
Unlike most Storyteller supplements, Black Fire over
Tondo doesn’t follow a regular story where one chap-
ter flows into the next; rather, depending on the
wills of the Storyteller and the players, one of the
first two chapters is chosen, and the story then even-
tually leads into the final chapter.
Wind and Water. The first story path is best
suited for Wan Kuei characters who favor intrigue
and investigation. It begins in the small coastal city
of Punyu (Guangzhou in modern nomenclature),
where the characters have been invited to attend the
funeral of a revered Wan Kuei elder named Ying
Chau-Kau. Corpse Families, or wu, from all across
the Song Empire have gathered to participate in the
ceremonies, and many of them suspect that Ying was
murdered, possibly by a member of his own wu.
Things become more heated when on the sec-
ond night of the funeral, one of Ying’s followers
attends the ceremonies in a festive rather than a fu-
neral robe. Cutting through the outrage and the accu-
sations that follow his appearance, the characters may
be interested in finding out the truth behind the scan-
dalous gesture. He insists on his innocence, though
many others might not believe him and may actually
physically engage those who would defend him.
On the night of Ying’s interment, the Golden
Jade Society (the most powerful Corpse Family in the
Middle Kingdom) reveals to the characters that the
accused might actually be innocent: he gives account
of a mysterious woman from the west who he claims
murdered Ying and stole two powerful artifacts from
him. The Golden Jade Society then task the charac-
ters to prove the innocence of the accused by setting
forth across the southern sea to the island of Ma-Yi,
where they believe the woman might have fled to, and
bring back evidence of her deeds.
Wood and Earth. The second story path is more
action-oriented, and can accommodate both Wan
Kuei and Cainite characters, particularly those from
bloodlines which originate in Asia. Srivijaya’s imperi-
al capital of Palembang on the island of Sumatra is hit
by a powerful earthquake; the undead, overwhelmed
by the fury of the earth, must keep their wits together
as fire and death spread across the city. Furthermore,
Palembang’s two rival vampire rulers have succumbed
to the frenzy brought about by the massive tremor,
and characters might be needed to help restore their
faculties.
The earthquake has also unearthed a secret tem-
ple in the jungle outside the city, one dedicated to
Rawana, a mythical Hindu demon. Within the temple
lies a desiccated male corpse on a low bier, holding a
red rhinoceros statue close to his chest. Through one
of several possible means the corpse eventually reani-
mates, revealing himself to be a Cainite in torpor. He
goes on a quick killing spree before fleeing Palembang
towards the tsunami-ravaged coast; characters can be
compelled to track the awakened Cainite and his
statue to his destination, with the promise of rewards
from one of Palembang’s undead sovereigns.
Fire and Metal. Players in this path can take on
the role of aswang, unaligned Wan Kuei native to the
islands which would (in centuries hence) be known as
the Philippines. This final chapter also incorporates
either one or both of the preceding ones, and takes
place in the drought-ridden kingdom of Tondo (re-
named in the future as Manila) on the island of Ma-
2
Yi. For several nights now aswang have been bearing
witness to strange supernatural phenomena within
Tondo, and oracles have been foreseeing the arrival of
powerful vampires from across the sea. Pugad Baku-
nawa, the local name for a gigantic dragon nest found
in the kingdom, is potentially threatened by these visi-
tations, and aswang may seek to find ways to shield it
from whoever might exploit it.
Characters from Punyu use a jade boat to reach
Tondo, where they learn of the existence there of a
lesser-known mercantile Corpse Family known as the
Jasmine Sea wu. Through this wu the characters learn
of Tondo’s dragon nest, as well as hear accounts of
a strange woman wandering about and carrying an
elephant statue—the same one which Ying owned dur-
ing his Second Breath. The Corpse Family believes
that she may be an agent of the “Queen of Butuan,”
the leader of a rival Court, and they encourage the
characters to drive them out of Tondo by any means
necessary.
The boat carrying characters from Palembang is
stopped in its path by a ghost ship, manned by a crew
of aswang and a powerful penangallan who calls her-
self the Queen of Butuan. Depending on the circum-
stances she either lets them stay the course towards
Tondo or takes them to her lair on a nearby island.
The characters eventually learn of how she secretly
monitors Pugad Bakunawa’s instability, and how she
sabotages attempts by foreign shen, especially Wan
Kuei from the Middle Kingdom, to harvest its Chi
reserves. The Queen of Butuan may then direct them
to a secret cell of her followers hidden within Tondo,
who occasionally engage the Jasmine Sea wu.
The story reaches its climax when, amidst the
strange events and the conflicts between the Courts, a
gigantic swarm of blowflies invades Tondo. The char-
acters eventually find the source of the supernatural
swarm, pulsing from a small island in the middle of a
river cutting through the kingdom. There they see two
Cainites (one of whom is the vampire that either one
of the foreign coteries might be chasing) attempting
to use Pugad Bakunawa’s Chi reserves, magnified by
beast statues, to open a gateway to Hell. Vampires from
the Middle Kingdom, from Srivijaya, or even from
Tondo, must now see to it that the gateway remains
closed, even if it means turning the two Cainites to
ash. Recognition within the Courts await the charac-
ters if they succeed in this task—but the consequences
of their defeat go beyond their own personal losses.
 T H E PAT H OF
W I N D AN D
W ATE R
Y ing Chau-Kau is dead.
His rotting corpse was found just after sun-
set, not far from the entrance of his under-
ground compound, splayed face-up over a small gath-
ering of decorative rocks. Those who had discovered
Ying Chau-Kau gave neither reason for nor meaning
to his passing, but based on the position of his body,
he seemed to have had embraced the Second Death
by facing the morning sun.
Upon receipt of Ying Chau-Kau’s death, the
reclusive August Court of the Yellow Emperor in
Changan has decreed a funeral befitting his station
as a venerated ancestor. As such, Corpse Families
from all across the Song Empire have gathered in
the southern town of Punyu, by the muddy mouth
of the Pearl River, to participate in the religious cer-
emonies that would hopefully liberate his long-tor-
mented soul.
As prescribed by Imperial tradition, the funeral
ceremonies would last three nights. Though the re-
vered Ying was a practising Taoist, he was known to
be open to the tenets of Confucius and the Buddha.
Thus, though he would officially be given the rites
that he adhered to in his Second Breath, no restric-
tions would be imposed if other wu paid their re-
spects in the religious traditions that the Empire had
permitted.
In the weeks and months that would follow these
secret ceremonies, the folk of Punyu would talk in
hushed whispers of those three cold nights when
strangers clad in mourning white walked the town’s
3
winding streets. They would reckon, in part truth,
that it was as if the gates between this world and the
next had been briefly yet deliberately left ajar, upset-
ting the balance between both realms. Many would
suddenly wake up from their sleep at strange hours
of the night, jilted by disturbing dreams of long-dead
people staring back at them across the void. Herbal-
ists and acupuncturists would for a while be over-
whelmed by large numbers of ailing patients who,
for some reason, had been partially drained of their
Chi. These stories would eventually settle, and most
would be forgotten, but the memories of those nights
would never truly go away.
Punyu
Eight hundred years into the future, the bustling
metropolis of Guangzhou would, along with Hong
Kong, Shenzhen, Macau and a few others more,
form a vast and seamless urban megacluster of cities
on China’s south-eastern shores known as the Pearl
River Delta Region. But tonight, at the cusp of the
Fifth Age, Punyu (“Panyu” in Mandarin) is merely
one of many sleepy trading ports on the coastal
fringes of the Song Empire. Punyu is built on a small
semi-hilly region overlooking the wide and muddy
estuary of the Pearl River. Though the beaches are
suited for a variety of watercraft, some portions are
too uneven for berthing. Rock cliffs and islets jut out
of the river’s mouth, and a few enterprising locals
have started exploiting these formations to quarry
stone for large building projects in Punyu and else-
where.
The majority of Punyu’s inhabitants are Bud-
dhists, as evidenced by a number of small lotus parks
and shrines scattered around the town; moreover,
the octagonal 7-storey Hua Ta Flower Pagoda, said
to house one of the Buddha’s teeth, towers above
all the other buildings, almost all of which are of
traditional southern Chinese design. The Buddhist
temple of the Six Banyan Trees stands not far from
the pagoda, serving at all times of the day and night
as a quiet respite for the devout.
As a port town many kinds of daytime trade ex-
ist in Punyu, but agricultural trades such as fishing
and farming dominate the industry. Even after dusk,
when the Hungry Dead are said to roam Punyu’s
shadowy back streets, commerce does not really rest
for as long as there are profits to be made and deals
to be brokered. As evidenced by the presence of a
few merchants from India, Srivijaya and far Arabia,
Punyu is no stranger to foreign maritime trade.
How the characters arrive in Punyu to take part
in the venerable Ying Chau-Kau’s funeral is up to
the Storyteller. The easiest and most obvious moti-
vation to come to Punyu would be an “invitation”
from Changan to attend the ceremonies (which acts
more like an order in the Song Empire’s semi-rigid
and stratified society).

Ying Chau-Kau’s
Fame
The deceased’s reputation reaches far across the span
of the Middle Kingdom, even beyond the borders of
the Song. If the characters are not from Punyu, they
can roll Intelligence + Politics (Difficulty 6) and refer
below; the number of successes reveals the follow-
ing information about him (including lower success
values), plus the circumstances of his Final Death.
Characters native to Punyu, including Ying’s “Au-
tumn Dragon” wu, need not make the roll and are
treated as if they had three successes.
One success: Ying Chau-Kau is one of only a few Two successes: As a devout Taoist, Ying Chau-
Hungry Dead in the Middle Kingdom to be more Kau has researched extensively on esoteric subjects
than a thousand years old, and he has been said to such as alchemy and geomancy (feng shui), and many
be a secret advisor to a few emperors during their Wan Kuei have through the years sought his wisdom
lifetimes. Word of his Final Death is indeed a great on such matters. It is possible that his Final Death
loss, but such news isn’t surprising in these uncer- was a consequence of his dangerous research.
tain times.
4
 Three successes: Instead of staying inland, or
even in the major cities of the Empire, Ying Chau-
Kau and his wu chose the relatively quiet town of
Punyu to continue these esoteric researches so as to
have minimal distraction. Through the centuries,
though he rarely turned down any Wan Kuei who
sought his wisdom, he became more reclusive; some
have speculated that he had unlocked the secrets of
travelling across the world in the blink of an eye, and
even communing with other realities. Some have
speculated that his demise was deliberate, but at the
moment no one knows who could be an accomplice
to such a crime.
Four or more successes: Punyu was chosen by
Ying Chau-Kau because of the existence of an elu-
sive dragon nest somewhere in the vicinity of the
Pearl River’s mouth. It is highly possible that he has
discovered its whereabouts, but he might have de-
cided to keep such information to his own. Ying was
murdered most likely because someone wanted this
information from him.
The First Night
A short distance away from Punyu’s busy commer-
cial district, in an undisclosed cave network carved
into the limestone rocks of the Pearl River, Hungry
Dead have gathered to participate in Ying Chau-
Kau’s transition from this world to the next. No
more than a hundred Wan Kuei from all over the
Song, all clad in mourning white, have converged in
a large cavern illuminated by flames in ornate bronze
burners. A table, adorned with candles and covered
in white cloth, stands at the far end of the cham-
ber; on it are offerings of fruit and rice in porcelain
bowls. A large bronze brazier stands in front of the
table, upon which dozens of sandalwood incense
sticks burn and create a large bed of ash. The brittle
bones of Ying Chau-Kau himself are now encased
in a simple wooden coffin beside the table, sealed
and oiled to protect it for all time from the elements.
Beside this grim tableau stands a young man with his
head bowed. His name is Lu Su-Tou (Resplendent
Crane 2), one of Ying’s wu, keeping vigil over the
affairs of this night.
Though the ceremonies themselves continue
non-stop all day and night for the duration of the fu-
neral, a character need not stay in the funeral cham-
5
ber and perform the ceremonies for more than an
hour each night. There are no personal tributes to
be given, no stories to be told about the departed’s
vaulted wisdom—as prescribed by tradition, there
would only be chants and low whispers, so as not to
upset his passage into the next world. Only the dron-
ing of prayers from Taoist Wan Kuei priests would
break the echoing silence, not to mention the persis-
tent wails of a small coterie of professional mourners
hired by Ying’s wu.
For this first night, however, out of respect for
Ying’s second repose, most of those in attendance
have decided to linger for much longer within the
chamber. As is likely, the characters might do the
same. Most of the Corpse Families assembled would
keep to their own. Some considerably pious wu
would spend their time in Punyu in silent prayer
and contemplation; others, particularly from more
affluent northern cities such as Kaifeng and Linan,
would discreetly express varying degrees of discom-
fort in Punyu’s humid subtropical climes.
The first night of the funeral is a veritable who’s
who in the nocturnal society of the Song Empire;
a sampling of important personages follows shortly.
Though the individual members of the Corpse Fami-
lies do intermittently mingle and speak to each other
on occasion, conversations are kept to a minimum,
and in general it is considered to be of poor form if
one were to speak to another if they were of a differ-
ent social caste, more so if they were of rival wu. If he
or she chooses to, the Storyteller could set up which
and how many Corpse Families are friendly or hos-
tile to the characters. However, the Yellow Emperor
Court has declared that no hostilities should break
out within the caves claimed by the Autumn Dragon
wu (including the funeral chamber) for the duration
of the funeral; any violation of this decree would be
met with swift reprisal by the Yellow Emperor’s rep-
resentatives (see below).
Bao Xi (Resplendent Crane 7) is from Anyang
and leads the Alabaster Garden family, which, like
the Autumn Dragon, is a scholarly coterie. He had
only met Ying once, more than a hundred years ago,
when both of them were ordered by the Yellow Em-
peror to determine when the turning of the Fifth
Age would be. Though Bao is visibly distraught, he
takes solace in the notion that Ying would not expe-
rience the perils that the Fifth Age would bring.
 Naming Conventions been very likely murdered by some other person he
For purposes of this chapter, all character names knew well, even possibly by one of his own wu.
are formatted in such a way that the surnames are Tang Miao Zi (Thousand Whisper 7) is one of
mentioned first before their given names. two representatives of Changan’s prestigious Golden
Jade Society. With the countenance of a noble in
her early 50’s, she need not voice a demand for re-
Byampa Dondrup (Thrashing Dragon 5) is the
spect for the stature she possesses. Like her co-envoy
lone attendee in Ying’s funeral who belongs to a dif-
Fei, she is aware that Ying’s death was perpetrated
ferent Court. Word of Ying’s death had reached all
by someone beyond the Middle Kingdom’s borders,
the way to Lake Tianchi far out west, where he and
and that the death most likely was caused by a con-
the Court of the White Tiger reside. He wears the
flict with demonic entities; Tang mentions none of
mourning garb of a peasant, though the wooden
this before the funeral’s final night.
beads that hang from his neck betray his status as a
Wai Liu Ren (Resplendent Crane 4) hails from
devout Tantric Buddhist. Most Wan Kuei attending
Linan, and is the only envoy of that city’s renowned
the funeral give him a wide berth due to his “foreign”
Blissful Ice Daggers family, who could not make it to
status, but he doesn’t seem to mind and prefers his
Punyu due to certain concerns she would rather not
silent solitude. If any character politely asks Byampa
talk about. Like a few others from Linan she is none
about how he arrived from so far away, he would not
too happy to be here due to the comforts that Punyu
hesitate to describe the truth: a dragon nest exists by
severely lacks. However, her discomfort also stems
Lake Tianchi, and he simply used a ritual to bridge
from what her wu believes: that Ying, in his final
the distance between there and Punyu. Among all
years, had supposedly begun research on the various
the guests gathered for the funeral, he is the only one
Hell realms and started conversing with demons.
who knows where around the Pearl River Delta the
Zheng Ming He (Bone Dancer 3) has the dis-
dragon nest that Ying had kept a secret is located. He
position of a dashing young man in his late 20’s,
only reveals this latter information to any character
though he has been one among the Hungry Dead
who attempts a Charisma + Empathy roll (Difficulty
for almost a hundred years. As a member of the new-
8).
ly-registered Scholars of the Weeping Statue family
Fei San Lung (Thousand Whisper 6) is one of
of Chengdu, he admits to interests that align with
two representatives of the Yellow Emperor’s Golden
Ying’s own, though he personally has not met him.
Jade wu from Changan. He cuts a warrior-like fig-
His main concern, however, is that he has heard of
ure, moon-blade halberd always at hand, and almost
stories of the deceased’s increased relations with
never speaks to anyone. As a member of the Golden
“Hell-beings” (Zheng’s own words). If indeed Ying’s
Jade Society, Fei is given a high degree of reverence
death was due to a failed attempt at consorting
by Wan Kuei in attendance, and it is obvious that he
with demons and their ilk, then it serves him right
relishes the respect given to him. He knows but one
(though he would not declare this openly in front of
truth about Ying’s death: he was murdered by a for-
the Autumn Dragon wu).
eign barbarian, though he reveals this only after the
One member of the small Autumn Dragon wu
funeral’s second night, and only when he is spoken
is particularly absent during the first night of the fu-
to in amicable terms.
neral: Wong Tai-Kan (Resplendent Crane 3), Ying’s
Ma Huoshi (Devil-Tiger 6), the “Fire Lion” of
heir apparent. Though this breach of etiquette is
Pingyao’s Restless Winds of Spring family, has had
rather minor, it does raise questions among the other
cordial relations with Ying and, as he says it, often
wu present about what it could mean for the future
urged the old man to be more outgoing. Ma tries to
of the Autumn Dragon family. Only the wu’s other
be friendly with other wu at the funeral, though his
members have knowledge of Wong’s whereabouts:
seemingly extroverted personality results in annoyed
deeper in the cave system, in the underground com-
whispers behind his back. He believes that Ying is
pound (siheyuan) where they do their work, Wong
too smart to openly embrace the Second Death, es-
has decided to sit out the first night in his chamber.
pecially in these troubled times; when spoken to cor-
He would not speak to anyone, including his wu,
dially, he whispers in low tones that Ying could have
and any attempt to seek him out would only reveal a
6
glimpse of him sitting on a simple chair in mourning
garb, his head slightly bowed.
The Second Night
Initially, Ying Chau-Kau’s second funeral night
would be as solemn and yet filled with whispered
intrigue as the first one. As the characters enter the
funeral chamber, there would at first be no one from
Ying’s wu to watch over the offering table. It would
be ideal for the Storyteller to make sure that the
characters would be all inside the chamber when the
following scene happens.
Halfway between sunset and midnight, Wong
Tai-Kan finally emerges from his isolation and takes
watch over the offering table. His entrance, however,
brings with it a stunned silence, followed by muted
whispers of disapproval and dissent. Instead of the
traditional white mourning robes that everyone else
had worn, Wong now wears a silk robe of deep red
with black trim. He stands by his appointed spot,
head slightly bowed, ignoring the confused drones
of those who have gathered for this night. Even the
members of his Corpse Family now stare at him in
disbelief.
Characters can choose to roll Intelligence +
Etiquette (Difficulty 6) to determine what this all
means; with just one success, it’s not hard to discern
that red is the color of happiness and good fortune,
a most inappropriate and inauspicious color to wear
during a supposed period of mourning.
For three hours, Wong stands by his station
amidst a tense (yet relatively respectful) atmosphere
around him. Save for the two members of the Gold-
en Jade Society (who on occasion approach and con-
verse with him), he speaks to no one. Speculation
and intrigue grips nearly every guest gathered for the
second night after seeing Wong; a few (such as Wai
Liu Ren) would openly raise their voices and use
Wong’s wardrobe choice as proof that Ying Cha-Kau
and the Autumn Dragon wu had indeed been con-
sorting with the wicked legions of the Hells. Vocal re-
actions such as hers would get a quick and firm com-
mand from the Golden Jade Society to keep silent,
though they too are clearly flummoxed by Wong’s
behavior.
Just before midnight, Wong solemnly retreats
back into the inner chambers of the cave. His wu fol-
lows a little while later.
7
The Autumn
Dragon Siheyuan
A short distance beyond the funeral chamber lies a
much wider cavern that serves as the haven for the
Autumn Dragon wu.
In Chinese architecture, the siheyuan is a large
quadrilateral walled compound of multiple elegant
dwellings surrounding an open courtyard, usually
reserved for aristocrats to keep out noise, stenches
and other elements considered undesirable. Obvi-
ously the Autumn Dragon wu has full access to the
siheyuan at any time, but funeral guests who seek en-
try need to speak to one of the wu’s members them-
selves, and only after Wong’s scandalous appearance.
Members of the Yellow Emperor’s official entourage
need not have permission to freely enter and exit the
siheyuan.
Three stone buildings, each two stories high,
face a central courtyard where stands a finely-carved
statue of an old man riding an ox. To Wan Kuei from
the Middle Kingdom, this statue is a clear represen-
tation of Laotze, founder of the Taoist religion. The
buildings themselves are of the traditional Chinese
style, adapted to the contours of the cavern they were
constructed in. A number of white paper lanterns
hang from wooden rafters and posts, illuminating
the chamber in an eerie glow and casting strange
shadows on the cavern’s uneven rock walls and ceil-
ing. Both Wong Tai-Kan and Ying Chau-Kau (when
he still lived) each resided in one building, while the
two other members of the Autumn Dragon occupied
the third.
For observant guests, at least one success on an
Intelligence + Enigmas roll (Difficulty 7) shows that
the feng shui of the underground siheyuan is entirely
off. The locations of certain rooms found in con-
ventional siheyuan, such as the ancestral shrine and
the kitchen, are not where they’re supposed to be.
For an experienced Taoist geomancer like Ying to
have resided in such unusual geomantic placements
is totally out of character. However, three or more
successes on the same roll would reveal that the geo-
mancy isn’t necessarily unlucky; all placements in
the siheyuan that should normally have been situated
facing north instead now face southeast—as if the en-
tire cave system naturally pointed in that direction.
When asked of such a strange placement, Lu Su-
Tou knows that their haven more or less is aligned
with a dragon track that extends from the Pearl River
estuary, supposedly to a large island named Ma-Yi
across the Middle Kingdom’s south sea. Lu doesn’t
know much, but he reveals further that Ying had
traveled to that island more than once in the past,
using the Pearl River’s dragon nest whose location
he hasn’t divulged to anyone else.
Ying’s Quarters
The most imposing of the Autumn Dragon siheyu-
an’s structures belonged to Ying Chau-Kau. The
building itself remains ceremonially closed until the
third night of the funeral; however, a few hours be-
8
fore the final burial ceremonies, Wong and his wu
open the quarters up on the insistence of the Gold-
en Jade Society. Characters who have managed to
remain cordial to Fei and Tang during the first two
funeral nights would be allowed to accompany them
in Ying’s quarters.
Nothing much of import could be found in most
of the few rooms that make up the quarters, showing
Ying’s supposed adherence to Taoist austerity. His
large sleeping chambers are a different story, though:
precious objects and exquisite works of art line the
shelves and crowd the two desks that flank the head
of his bed. There are porcelain vases, ornate bronze
vessels, musical instruments, sculptures, tapestries, a
variety of mahjong tile sets, treatises on alchemy writ-
ten on paper scrolls, and strange substances stored in
lacquer boxes. The total value of everything in this
room could easily surpass the wealth of a high-rank-
ing bureaucrat in the Imperial Court.
Ying’s wu (who haven’t been inside this chamber
since their master perished) would, after a few mo-
ments of silent admiration, notice one missing relic
from this splendid collection: a finely-crafted sail-
boat carved from green jade, measuring a foot or so
in length. Wong also notices another piece missing:
an elephant carved from black marble, sized around
half that of the missing jade boat. They tell this to
the rest, including the characters, though it’s not im-
mediately clear why such relics would be missing. An
Intelligence + Occult roll (Difficulty 7) determines
that a jade boat can be used in certain rites that en-
able shen, especially Wan Kuei, to easily traverse the
often long distances between dragon nests. By this
point, if the characters are convinced that Ying was
murdered, then they can easily point to the murder-
er stealing the relics and using the jade boat to flee
Punyu.
The characters are only given one opportunity
to visit Ying’s chambers. After which, the Autumn
Dragon wu forbids any other guests (except for the
Yellow Emperor’s wu) from accessing the building
where Ying once resided.
The Third Night
On the final and most solemn night of Ying Chau-
Kau’s funeral, the venerable Wan Kuei’s remains
would now be ritually interred in a ceremonial tomb
cut out of the cave rock, to be sealed for all time with
a stone marker bearing his name.
Due to Wong’s behavior the previous night, only
about two-thirds of the guests are attending the inter-
ment. Ma Huoshi, Wai Liu Ren and Zheng Ming He
(along with their respective wu if they came along)
are not present, though they loiter elsewhere around
Punyu on this night; they still couldn’t leave town
due to the Yellow Emperor’s decree. When asked of
their absence, they claim to be convinced by Wong’s
actions of Ying’s demonic collusions (except for Ma
and his wu, who instead claim that it’s most likely
that Wong murdered Ying).
For those attending the ceremony itself, the at-
mosphere is tense. Amidst the ritual drone of the
9
Taoist monks, the cries of the professional mourn-
ers and the wafting smell of sandalwood incense,
the whispered intrigue continues. There is talk that
the Autumn Dragon wu, once spoken of highly in
various circles, would be disbanded by official decree
before the next new moon unless the circumstances
behind Ying’s mysterious death could be solved.
Though there are Wan Kuei in attendance who
now think otherwise, Wong insists on his innocence
even if he wore the wrong color last night. If the
characters are sympathetic to Wong, he reveals the
following to them on a Charisma + Empathy roll
(Difficulty 6; the rest of the Autumn Dragon wu
would eventually know all the information listed
shortly after Ying’s interment):
One success: In the year or so before his Sec-
ond Death, Ying Chau-Kau had been researching on
the transmutation of the soul. This involved delving
into the “cartography” of the Yin and Yang worlds,
including the Hell-realms, something which Wong
highly objected to. Ying’s curiosity ultimately allowed
for “an external force” to kill him (though at just one
success Wong refuses to divulge who or what this
force was, claiming that he knows nothing of it).
Two successes: Ying’s research in the past year
eventually attracted the attention of a stranger, a
woman who Wong initially thought was a Wan Kuei
pilgrim from distant Persia. Though Wong wasn’t
sure about her identity (she kept much of her tat-
tooed face hidden beneath her veil), he intuited that
her desires were more than of a benign religious
nature. She visited Ying several times, at least once
every two months; neither Wong nor the rest of the
wu were involved in their conversations, but it was
clear that she wanted something from him. Wong
believes that Ying’s refusal to give what she wanted
ultimately led her kill him in the dawn’s light, and it
was he who first found Ying’s rotting corpse outside
the cave.
Three successes: Four nights before he discov-
ered Ying’s corpse, Wong had confronted him about
his dangerous research, as well as his female guest’s
morbid fascinations. They eventually had a heated
argument about responsibility, humility and respect.
Ying sternly ordered Wong to leave the siheyuan and
not return until he had appropriately proven his de-
sire to accept his place. That was the last that Wong
ever saw Ying alive.
Four successes: Ying’s research often led him to
travel out of the Middle Kingdom, using the now-
missing jade boat to follow a dragon track to reach
the far island of Ma-Yi to the southeast; his killer
might likely have gone there as well. Wong doesn’t
know much about what lies in Ma-Yi, since he wasn’t
a party to this aspect of Ying’s research.
Five or more successes: Wong surmises that a
large yet unstable gate to the Yin and Yang worlds
could be found in Ma-Yi. In addition, when Wong
discovered Ying’s corpse, he became deeply disturbed
by it being feasted over by an unusually large swarm
of blowflies. This gruesome sight convinced him
that whoever that woman is to have dragged Ying
to his Final Death was no ordinary shen, and she
likely possessed abilities beyond even normal Wan
Kuei reasoning.
10
If for any reason the characters have neither spo-
ken to Wong nor the rest of the Autumn Dragon
wu for the duration of the funeral, then immediately
after the interment the two envoys of the Golden
Jade Society would approach them instead. Away
from the other Wan Kuei in attendance, they relate
the following: with Ying dead and murder being the
most likely cause, the Autumn Dragon wu would
very likely be disbanded, its alchemical research
deemed by Imperial decree as tainted with demonic
collusion, and Wong accused of the murder of his
most venerated master—an offense that carries with
it the punishment of execution by exposure to sun-
light. The Yellow Emperor’s envoys then charge the
characters to determine Wong’s innocence by find-
ing out who killed Ying and doing whatever needs to
be done before the next new moon to eliminate such
a threat; after all, if indeed a Hellish entity could
do this to an ancestor, it could very well do this to
other Corpse Families across the Middle Kingdom
as well.
It’s possible at this stage that the characters may
have already pieced a trail of where to go and how to
get there. Three main challenges now face the char-
acters: procuring a jade boat, finding the dragon nest
that leads to Ma-Yi, and presenting proof of Wong’s
innocence.
Getting a jade boat won’t be easy. Punyu has no
jade quarries to speak of (and thus has no jade to
carve anything with), and even its more affluent resi-
dents simply don’t have the coin to purchase such a
luxury (with the exception, perhaps, of the Tiao Jin
Jiao; see below). The Golden Jade Society currently
has one in their possession, and even know the ritu-
als to activate it, though it would take considerable
courtesies (Manipulation + Etiquette, Difficulty 8),
not to mention another two nights to decide on
such, for the two envoys to lend their valuable relic
to the characters.
Locating the dragon nest that lies not far from
Punyu is another hurdle. Only Ying seemed to pos-
sess the knowledge of its location, which he kept
from his own wu.
Finally, returning proof of Wong’s innocence
back to the Golden Jade Society may prove challeng-
ing, especially if the characters are part of a wu that
has uneasy relations with the Autumn Dragon family.
The social fabric of the Song is such that the sincer-
ity of a person of higher status takes precedence over
any evidence presented; thus, it’s highly possible
that the word of Corpse Families unfriendly
to the Autumn Dragon wu would bear more
merit if or when the time arrives.
Analytic characters, however,
would surmise that these three
problems can be solved
with just one person: By-
ampa Dondrup, the as-
cetic Wan Kuei of the
White Tiger Court.
He traversed the
great distances be-
tween Punyu and the
far western reaches of
the Middle Kingdom
11
using a jade boat, and also knows the location of the
Pearl River dragon nest. Furthermore, if the charac-
ters allow him to travel with them across the dragon
track to Ma-Yi (which he insists, if they ask to borrow
his jade boat), he can prove a sincere and reliable wit-
ness of the events that would transpire there, due to
his relatively respectable status as a monk.
The Pearl River
Dragon Nest
A night’s travel southeast from Punyu takes the char-
acters to a mountainous bay dotted with islands,
where various small fishing villages and salt-extract-
ing colonies thrive amidst the seemingly untouched
and laid-back scenery. Tonight in the Song’s official
registry this realm is named Guanfuchang; to descen-
dants hundreds of years hence it would be known as
Kowloon in Hong Kong. Characters who make a Per-
ception + Awareness roll (Difficulty 7) could deter-
mine large amounts of Chi energy roiling across the
open bay, manifesting as a thick evening fog that rolls
down from the mountains onto the coast. Three or
more successes on this same roll would reveal the ex-
istence of the small dragon nest hiding amongst the
steep foothills—a simple freshwater pool, surrounded
by an unguarded stone wall slowly crumbling into
ancient obscurity. This roll need not be attempted if
Byampa is present, who simply directs them where
to go.
(If a character is lucky enough to generate five
or more successes on the previous roll, they discover
that Guanfuchang holds not just one but eight drag-
on nests, all virtually unknown to the rest of the
Song Empire. Byampa himself knows of this,
but doesn’t reveal it to any of the characters.
A few decades hence, a ninth would
be created which would give this re-
gion the name of Kowloon, meaning
“Nine Peaks.”)
Assuming the characters
know how to conduct the rite
to reveal the dragon track, an
ethereally glowing black and
red river reveals itself to
them, flowing far beyond
Guanfuchang into the south-
eastern sea. A modest
junk with ribbed sails,
the spiritual manifestation of the jade boat, appears
on the river awaiting their embarkation. Once all the
characters and Byampa have ridden the boat, time
would barely matter at all as the night wind gently
pushes the sails toward far Ma-Yi, in the southeast.
The Tiao Jin Jiao
of Punyu
If at any time before or during the three funeral
nights the characters socially interact with the na-
tives of Punyu and make a roll using a Social Attri-
bute (Difficulty 9), the interaction would eventually
lead to the existence in town of a small enclave of
families known as Tiao Jin Jiao, “They Who Remove
the Sinew.” They aren’t considered natives of Pu-
nyu, but their patriarch, an old man named Zhang
Guo, is a well-respected bureaucrat among Punyu’s
administrative offices. Two successes on the same
roll also reveal the location of the Tiao Jin Jiao fami-
lies (their compound is somewhere among the lav-
ish homes of Punyu’s other mortal bureaucrats), but
four or more successes reveal that the Tiao Jin Jiao
practice a religion not prescribed by imperial decree.
(The Storyteller is encouraged to roleplay how these
interactions eventually segue with the Tiao Jin Jiao
presence.)
The Tiao Jin Jiao siheyuan is surrounded by a white-
washed adobe wall about fifteen feet high, which can
be scaled with a Strength + Athletics roll (Difficulty
7). Characters who take a more practical approach
and simply knock on the door of the compound’s
only entrance would be greeted after a few moments
by a young man who hesitates to welcome them in.
The Zhang, Ai and Bo families who reside within, he
states, don’t accept any visitors after sunset, except
when there are matters of considerable import. Only
if the characters can explicitly convince the young
man of their intentions to not harm the people with-
in would he welcome them into the siheyuan.
The Tiao Jin Jiao courtyard is very typically Chi-
nese. Four buildings intimately surround it, and
three of them have a second floor. The courtyard
itself has a central pool of water shaded over by three
flowering plum trees. Though the surroundings are
kept clean, a Perception + Awareness roll (Difficulty
7) by any character who wishes to observe the area
reveals a small pile of torn red paper and ash by a
corner, swept there some time during the day. These
12
are the remains of firecrackers, which seem to have
been expended only very recently. This is odd, since
firecrackers are lit only during holidays such as the
Lunar New Year, with the intention of driving away
demons.
Whether escorted by the young man or entering
on their own volition, the characters notice that only
one room of one house is illuminated tonight. If ac-
companied by the young man, the characters are led
to the room’s door and he gently knocks on it. A few
moments later, the door opens to reveal a middle-
aged man with a long beard, wearing what looks like
a gray scarf with black stripes running along the fab-
ric. Behind him are other people staring back at the
characters with the same look of concern as the old
man, seated surrounding a large dining table illumi-
nated by two candles.
The young man bows and recedes elsewhere into
the darkness of the courtyard. The old man intro-
duces himself as Zhang Guo, and he wonders why
visitors such as the characters would be so interested
with him and his family, especially after sunset on
the eve of what he calls their weekly “Day of Rest.”
When asked about such, Zhang replies that it is a
command (the Fourth, to be specific) of their god,
whose name he refuses to say out loud.
Zhang doesn’t make any pretenses to hide his
awareness of the characters’ undead natures; he
knows exactly what they are, and thus doesn’t al-
low any character within the dining room during
this seemingly sacred time. He instead allows for a
silk-wrapped lantern to be lit and hung by the court-
yard, where he and the characters could converse.
Barring any questions that he considers of little im-
port, Zhang reveals the following on a Charisma +
Empathy roll (Difficulty 6; if the characters entered
the siheyuan without the young man’s help, the Dif-
ficulty is raised to 8).
One success: The Tiao Jin Jiao families are in-
deed not from Punyu; the Zhang family migrated
from Kaifeng around twenty years ago, on orders
from those high up the Song’s Imperial bureaucracy,
to continue the civil service they have committed to.
The Bo and Ai families, also of Tiao Jin Jiao status,
followed the Zhang so as not to keep them lonely in
Punyu. (At one success, Zhang only speaks of protect-
ing the families within the siheyuan from supernatu-
ral forces in general, including the characters; hence
the spent firecrackers. Clearly, he says after taking a
deep breath, the superstition didn’t quite work.)
Two successes: The Tiao Jin Jiao religion is not
imperially recognized, though it is tolerated so long
as it conforms to the Song’s civic laws. Zhang says
that his religion originates from the distant west, in
a small strip of land chosen by his god for his people.
Zhang’s ancestors arrived in the Middle Kingdom af-
ter the fall of the Han Empire centuries ago, and
they brought their beliefs here along with them.
Three successes: In the past few weeks (to the
characters, this would be around the time before
Ying Chau-Kau’s Final Death), some of the younger
Tiao Jin Jiao had sensed “a dread feeling” settling all
across the breadth of Punyu, as if the air itself were
saturated with a profane presence. Zhang would not
believe it at first, considering that such a feeling came
from one of his daughters barely of age, but once his
wife sensed the same dread malignance he decided
to light firecrackers just before sunset on the eve of
each Day of Rest, just to be sure.
Four successes: Zhang had actually witnessed
this “dread feeling” himself. In the weeks when the
dark pall settled over Punyu, he would on occasion
see huge swarms of clustered insects flying in the
distance; it was as if the sky were undulating with
ripples of black fire. He recalls a story from the leg-
ends of his people, of a supernatural adversary who
was given dominion over the pestilent swarms that
feasted on the rotting carcasses of the dead. They
called this entity “Ba-a-li.”
Five or more successes: At this exceptional
level of success, Zhang trusts the characters enough
to mention that the presence that fell over Punyu
was no mere intrusion of any Wan Kuei; rather it’s
something worse—something straight out of the Hell
realms. Zhang asks of them to find this “Ba-a-li”
threat and eliminate it, lest it return and taint all of
the Middle Kingdom with its corrupting nature. To
aid them, he offers a small gift (if they don’t have
one already) in the form of an egg-sized jade boat.
Ying Chau-Kau
The Hermit-Scholar
of Punyu
In life Ying Chau-Kau had a different name and
worked as a high-ranking bureaucrat in the imperial
Han court, but was executed when he started openly
13
deviating from the approved Taoist tenets which pre-
vailed during that distant time. He had awakened
underneath the limestone slab that marked his grave
and, knowing of what he had become, strived to re-
fine the religious beliefs he held dear. Ying kept to
himself and his philosophies for nearly a thousand
years, becoming a hermit whose reputation spread
all across and beyond the Middle Kingdom.
Despite its small size and high turnover rate,
Ying’s wu has changed little with regards to organi-
zational structure in the past few hundred years. As
one of the elite Hundred Corpse Families approved
by Changan, the Autumn Dragon wu has always fo-
cused on research regarding the soul’s slow refine-
ment through transmigration. Only in the past three
years had Ying shifted focus on the soul’s emergent
transmutation while still in the realm of the mate-
rial—a relatively radical concept, but not completely
unheard of in elite philosophical circles of the un-
dead.
Ying’s research eventually led him to find drag-
on nests beyond the Middle Kingdom which freely
opened into other realities; the dragon nest of Ton-
do, on the island of Ma-Yi, proved to be most favor-
able, and he visited it as often as he could. Though
he did his best to keep this discovery from others
in the Middle Kingdom, even from his own wu, it
instead drew the interest of Zaparia, a Baali pilgrim
from Persia, who frequently insisted that Ying give
her the location of the Tondo nest. His abject refusal
to do so (on numerous occasions) eventually led the
Baali pilgrim to ambush Ying and force him to meet
his Second Death while facing the rising sun.
The statistics below present Ying Chau-Kau in
the final three years before his Second Death.
Hun Nature: Dabbler
P’o Nature: The Sage
Demeanor: Enigma
Balance: Balanced
Direction: East
Dharma: The Path of a Thousand Whispers 7
Second Breath: 110 CE
Apparent Age: Late 60s
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 5, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 5, Intelligence 5, Wits 3
Talents: Alertness 2, Awareness 5, Empathy 4,
Expression 3, Leadership 4, Subterfuge 2
Skills: Commerce 2, Etiquette 3, Meditation 4,
Stealth 2
Knowledges: Academics 4, Enigmas 5, Occult 5,
Medicine 3, Theology 4
Disciplines: Black Wind 1, Equilibrium 4,
Godbody of Earth 4, Godbody of the Demon 1,
Obligation 3, Tapestry 3
Backgrounds: Contacts 4, Horoscope 2, Magic
Artifact 4, Rites 3, Status 4
Virtues: Yang 4, Yin 4, Hun 5, P’o 4
Willpower: 5
14

The story assumes that Ying’s demise is absolute, and
the circumstances of his murder carry much more
gravitas than efforts to call him back from the dead.
With that said, if any player’s character with the abil-
ity to communicate with the souls of the departed
does attempt to contact Ying, he could be encoun-
tered lingering as a tormented wraith in the charcoal
alleys of the Dark Kingdom of Jade. He wouldn’t
be of much help to those still in the Skinlands, and
all he could whisper are enigmatic phrases such as:
“She serves Hell…they both serve Hell!” and “Save
the great Tao of Ma-Yi!”
 T H E PAT H
OF Wood AN D
ear t h
I t began around three hours after sunset, a slow
trembling of the muddy earth that quickly fol-
lowed the overwhelming sound of a rumbling
from deep beneath the ground. Then came the vio-
lent tremors, strong enough to knock a free-standing
person prone. For nearly a minute the earthquake
would shake the island of Sumatra from its torpid
slumber.
To modern reckoning the earthquake measures
a 7.4 on the Richter Scale, its epicenter situated a
few miles off the coast north of the medieval city of
Palembang. Tonight in the Dark Ages such precise
measurements are unknown and really don’t matter:
the earth and the waters heaved with great intensity
that it could have signaled the end of one age and
the beginning of another.
There has been no warning of this disaster, even
from the most precise of Palembang’s oracles. It
was as if the future, murky as it already was even in
prosperous times, has irrevocably muted itself from
Srivijaya, turning its back on the fading fortunes of
a once-glorious empire and leaving it to this ruinous
fate.
Palembang
In the Dark Ages, Palembang serves as the capital of
the seafaring empire of Srivijaya. Situated near the
southeast tip of the island of Sumatra, it is a com-
mercial and religious hub for the various kingdoms
that pepper the islands of Southeast Asia. Rice fields
15
and fish ponds form a marshy patchwork blanket sur-
rounding Palembang, while the wide Musi River that
cuts through the city allows for boat travel northeast
towards the sea. Most structures in the city are small
and constructed of wood, clay and thatch; rare is
any dwelling that stands even two stories high. The
relatively flat topography where Palembang stands al-
lows for these longhouses to be built in rows which
are interrupted by the occasional market, stable, gra-
nary or shrine. Only the royal palace, a wide brick-
walled compound built on slightly higher ground,
stands just slightly taller and larger than the rest of
Palembang’s manmade structures. Smaller farming
hamlets built on flimsy stilts along the Musi near
the city, called kampong, serve as stopovers and trade
buffers.
Palembang’s population is predominantly Bud-
dhist, though centuries of relative isolation from
Buddhism’s roots in India have resulted in a unique
spiritual blend with the Hindu religion which arrived
in Sumatra much earlier. Stone and clay shrines to
the Hindu gods and the Buddha, known locally as
candi (chan-dee), seem to tower with varying heights
over every street corner and dock.
Srivijaya’s golden age, however, has long gone.
Complex politics, silly little wars and the relentless
assault of nature have shrunk its territory to just the
southern part of Sumatra. From the west, India’s
mighty Chola Dynasty has long since held sway over
the empire’s culture and wealth. From the east, the
rising power of Java’s warrior-kings threatens the
last bastions of harmony and relative security that
Palembang offers to the realms that cling to Asia’s
southern seas. In the city itself the population has
shrunk by a third of its size during its prosperous
heights; many of the buildings have long since been
abandoned to the elements, allowing for the jungle
to slowly return. Even the maharajah and the royal
family, revered as they still are in the shrinking capi-
tal, are seen as no more than a collection of near-
impotent figureheads who nurture despair behind
their palace walls.
Nights in Palembang are often humid and mis-
erable, especially during the monsoon season which
lasts from May to September. The dense jungles of
Sumatra can easily hide the grim fears that mortals
try their best to avoid (and these fears are legion),
while the fecund earth never fails to be a morass
of death and decay. Even tonight, despite the grim
turning of the ages and the threat of war from across
the strait in Java, there are still plenty of undead who
roam Palembang’s narrow alleys and wade through
its muddy canals, feasting on the blood and essence
of the superstitious and unsuspecting.
The Damned
Among the Ruins
In the Dark Ages, the Clans of Europe know noth-
ing of Srivijaya’s now-subdued grandeur; besides
of course the ever-prevalent Wan Kuei, some of
the Children of Caine are nevertheless present in
Palembang. A few Ravnos, ever the wanderers, find
the city’s faded reputation as a crossroads palatable
to their cold tastes. The rival Danava and Nagara-
ja bloodlines, both from India, linger here either
as nocturnal gurus or terrifying messengers of the
Hindu gods, unliving embodiments of dharma gone
awry. A handful of Anda, though far from the north-
ern steppes, nevertheless find the city as a suitable
larder as well. The dry lands of Arabia trade with
Palembang on occasion as the monsoon winds per-
mit, though no native in the city really knows if ei-
ther the Assamites or Setites—or even the rest of the
Ashirra—dwell among them tonight.
Palembang, due perhaps to its fading prestige, is
one of a very small handful of cities on the fringes
of the Middle Kingdom where both Cainite and
Wan Kuei can dwell in the material world in relative
truce. Philosophical, metaphysical as well as martial
16
skirmishes do occasionally break out between the
two vampiric races, but for the most part their rela-
tionship is commensally neutral.
Pratam Ular (7th Generation Nagaraja) had
by vampire standards only recently arrived (around
eighty years prior to the earthquake) in Srivijaya
from the sacred town of Gangotri, the high source of
India’s sacred Ganges, and after adapting a rough Su-
matran name now fancies himself as Acarya, or men-
tor, to the city’s religious Cainites. Though the hier-
archies of the Middle Kingdom don’t match those
beyond its western fringes, Pratam is considered by
all accounts the vampire “Prince” of Palembang, and
possesses all the titles and privileges of such.
Although he would only mention this when
asked, the Acarya arrived in Palembang because
something was stolen from him in India almost two
centuries past by a powerful vampire, and he is cer-
tain that this possession is somewhere in or around
the city (see “Omens and Assemblies” below).
Agniwati Tirganggaputri (Thrashing Dragon 5)
is the chief penangallan caretaker of the Scarlet Phoe-
nix Court in Sumatra, and in principle has domin-
ion over all Hungry Dead who wander in and across
the island. Her near-monastic demeanor, however,
gives Wan Kuei in her domain a wide berth to do
as they please with little repercussions, though any
direct assault by any shen on her rule is met with
primal force.
The Hours After
The earthquake has thrown the societies of both day
and night in Palembang into upheaval. With terror
gripping the ruined city, the principle of concealing
one’s undying nature can become a near-impossibili-
ty. Much as the city’s mortals are panicked due to the
massive tremors and the fires that follow, the undead
are threatened by the unleashing of their monstrous
natures. Immediately after the earthquake, Cainites
must make a Courage roll to avoid Rötschreck, while
Wan Kuei must roll to resist the emergence of the
Wave Soul. Vampires of either kind who fail their
rolls are drawn to the panicked screams of the living
and the freshly-spilt blood of the dead.
The leaders of Palembang’s two vampire courts
fall victim to the rage generated by the earthquake.
Pratam Ular is caught up in a frenzy brought about
by the fires that have started spreading, while Agni-
wati mindlessly uses her hideous Godbody of Wood
abilities to sow more fear into the already-terrified
mortals she encounters. Player characters are free to
chase any of these two leaders around the strained
city and help control their deadly urges (while per-
haps keeping control of their own), either to neu-
tralize their frenzy or at the very least restrain them
as to maintain the Tradition of Silence; those who
succeed before the night’s end are given boons by
the leaders’ respective courts (see below).
Aftershocks rend the city even further. For
a few hours after the main quake, the ground be-
neath Palembang heaves at intervals of around a
minute, causing more buildings to collapse, fires to
burn, and mortals to perish. The areas of Palembang
closest to the Musi River sink a few feet, as the soft
earth quickly liquefies and threatens to drown large
swathes of land with it. For the entire duration of
this story, with regards to havens found within the
entirety of southern Sumatra including Palembang,
Domain dots are reduced by one for vampires who
possess that Background. The frequency of the af-
tershocks persists past sunrise; it is highly possible
that vampire lairs might have been damaged by the
tremors, and the Storyteller must put emphasis on
the urgency of the characters to find some sort of
stable refuge before dawn breaks. Two successes in a
Wits + Survival Roll (Difficulty 7) attempted in the
scene just before sunrise allows any character to find
a makeshift haven within the city that would provide
17
only the barest of protections from daylight, as well
as aftershocks that strike during the day; this could
be the toppled ruins of an empty house, a water-
logged nook beneath a sinking bamboo dock along
the Musi’s banks, or a cramped and musty corner in
a thatched rice granary. Otherwise, their last resort
would be to retreat into the thick jungle that threat-
ens to encroach on Palembang itself, perhaps risking
exposure and discovery by those who seek to hunt
down their kind.
The Hidden Candi
of Rawana
The first dusk after the quake brings about a most
unusual discovery outside Palembang’s ruined walls.
Assuming that they successfully endured strong af-
tershocks, the predators of the jungle, the light of
the sun, or even the hunters of the undead, charac-
ters who have sought refuge outside of the city are
first to witness the following scene.
Just before midnight, seven mortal men carry-
ing torches could be seen hurrying deep into an un-
settled part of the jungle, the tone of their voices
filled with a sense of urgency. Based on the armor
they wear and the weapons they carry, these men
form part of the maharajah’s elite royal guard (Intel-
ligence + Politics, Difficulty 6; 7 for characters not
from Palembang).
Any character might do either of the following
upon seeing the entourage:
Remain unnoticed and wait for the royal guards
to pass by. In such a case, three hours later a group
of three men head back to Palembang from wher-
ever in the wilderness they went to. No other mortal
would pass that same trail again for the rest of the
night. One or more characters could trail them back
to Palembang if they choose to, though the guards
would speak of nothing along the way until they
break the news of their discovery back in the city.
Shadow or confront the royal guards. Here
the characters have to engage with care, especially if
they have little to no idea of who these men are: the
guards were each specifically chosen by the royal fam-
ily for their martial skills and religious devotion to
Hindu-Buddhist tenets. Each one can be treated as a
saber-wielding “Vengeful Priest” antagonist (Vampire:
the Dark Ages 20th, p. 391).
Wary of nocturnal threats, the royal guards use
their blades to cut their way through the jungle’s
thickness until they reach a large mound of earth and
rock, partly overgrown by vines, broad-leafed plants
and trees. Nothing much can be seen by torchlight
at first, but it’s initially clear that the earthquake has
eroded part of the mound, revealing a distinct yet ir-
regularly-shaped hollow that leads into it. The royal
guards themselves assemble in front of the chasm,
gravely speaking amongst themselves in foreboding
tones and openly refusing to enter the opening.
If they choose to, any character may go closer
to the mound’s entrance, but unless they take mea-
sures to conceal themselves using their abilities this
is treated as confronting the guards, and they in turn
allow nobody in. Closer inspection reveals more de-
tails about this opening: ornate clay and stone re-
liefs, barely discernible from at least 10 yards away
and crumbling as they are, have been built flanking
the hollow. Characters who make an Intelligence +
Theology roll (Difficulty 6; 8 for characters not from
Srivijaya) can recognize the reliefs as the unmistak-
able outline of a split-gate that marks the entrance
to a candi, one previously unknown to both the liv-
ing and the dead of Palembang, and perhaps buried
beneath the mound for hundreds of years. Three or
more successes on the same roll (two for vampires of
the Ravnos Clan) further reveal a malevolent truth:
according to the faded markings and the strange
sculptures, the shrine beyond the split-gate is dedi-
cated to Rawana (“Ravana” in Hindi), a powerful
18
demon who challenged the gods in the Hindu epic
Ramayana. To have a candi devoted to a demon is
unheard of in Srivijaya.
Three guards are sent back to Palembang (char-
acters in the jungle who haven’t trailed the guards to
the mound witness this group returning to the city),
having been tasked to report the strange discovery in
the jungle to the maharajah. Travel between Palem-
bang and Rawana’s candi takes two hours of trudg-
ing through moderate jungle, with only the path the
guards have cut. The four who remain by the mound
stand watch directly in front of the split-gate; even as
they feel fatigued due to the aftershocks, they never-
theless stay awake and alert for the rest of the night.
It would take considerable effort for any of the char-
acters to cross the remaining guards and find out
what lies beyond the split-gate.
The Sleeper
in the Temple
The first time that at least one of the characters does
succeed in evading the guards and goes through the
hollow of the candi, they eventually emerge into a
circular stone chamber the size of a small court hall,
around 40 feet at the widest on any side. All across
the floor are rocks, earth and large plant roots that
have fallen from the domed ceiling, as well as crude
temple accoutrements such as ceramic jars, clay stat-
ues of the demon Rawana and bronze wares. Char-
acters who achieve two successes on a Perception +
Investigation roll (Difficulty 7) also notice a stone
mural on one of the walls, which depicts a person
offering blood from his palm to the open mouth of
another. Three successes on the roll same also reveal
the remains of long-dead winged insects on the floor
of the chamber, a few of them getting crushed be-
neath their feet.
At the center of the chamber stands a low mud-
brick bier, atop of which lies a male body whose na-
ked and desiccated corpse somehow at first seems
to have been mummified despite Sumatra’s tropical
humidity. Embraced tightly by the corpse’s arms to
his breast is a stylized rhinoceros figurine around
half a foot in length, carved from the purest of red
jasper stone.
Cainites who use Auspex 2 on the corpse, along
with Wan Kuei who use Chi’iu Muh 2, will immedi-
ately see it for what it really is: another Cainite in tor-
por. Based on the body’s desiccation it would seem
that the vampire has laid here for at least a century,
though at this point it might be impossible to de-
termine what clan or bloodline he comes from—the
hidden truth is that the sleeper is Baali. Any other
means of identification reveal that he has no blood
stored in his husk, and thus cannot rise on his own.
The characters may attempt to grab the jasper
relic on the corpse. One of them might perhaps
force some fresh blood into the corpse’s mouth at
any time, imitating the stone mural; this latter action
awakens the Cainite, who then immediately starts
attacking the characters (see “The Sleeper Awakens”
below). In contrast, the characters might even decide
to give Final Death to him in this most vulnerable
state. The Storyteller can delay or prevent any of
such actions by doing one of two things (or maybe
both):
Describe the trappings found around the bier.
The Storyteller may call for an Intelligence + Crafts
roll (Difficulty 6) to reveal that most of the artifacts
found within this candi point to a powerful and dan-
gerous entity, one who goes directly against Hindu
and Buddhist precepts. Awakening the sleeper, or
stealing his possessions, can lead to unforeseen con-
sequences for both the living and the dead, and it
might be in the best interests of the characters to
leave the corpse alone for the meantime.
Initiate a strong aftershock. This is ideal at any
time at least half the coterie is within the candi. A
sudden shockwave (the equivalent of a 6.5 on the
Richter Scale) rips the ground underneath the char-
acters’ feet, threatening to collapse the entire mound
upon them. Characters caught in this new tremor
must make the same rolls to resist Rötschreck or the
19
Wave Soul, just as they had during the initial earth-
quake the previous night.
In any case, the Baali sleeper does awaken even-
tually in the near future.
Omens and
Assemblies
As the first night after the quake falls over Palem-
bang, the stench of decay begins to waft from corps-
es crushed under the rubble, scorched by fire, or
drowned by the river’s surge. Bodies that have been
recovered are immediately piled up and cremated
in large makeshift funeral bonfires; the wail of the
living and the chants of monks reciting sutras for
the dead fill the humid evening air with unearthly,
atonal sounds that compose an eerie melody. Above
it all in the sky hangs a waning half moon, known
locally as krishnapaksa, a time of ill tidings.
Midnight finally allows Agniwati Tirganggaputri
to assemble her court within a modest wooden candi
dedicated to the fire god Agni. This shrine is tucked
away in a far corner of the city where most of the
houses have long since been abandoned to the ele-
ments, even before the earthquake struck. Wan Kuei
characters joining the assembly witness an unusual
ritual wherein the vampire queen dances to appease
her patron god so as to calm Palembang’s fires. If any
of the characters helped control her Wave Soul in
the previous night, she later acknowledges this act,
thus improving their reputation amongst the Scarlet
Phoenix Court, and likely with the other nocturnal
societies of Palembang.
Pratam Ular also holds court by a bamboo dock
somewhere on the Musi’s banks where mortals
wouldn’t bother to interfere, and where the glare of
the cremation fires are visible. Like the Scarlet Phoe-
nix queen he acknowledges any Cainite who helped
him quell his frenzy. Tonight however, despite the
desolation and the spilling of wasted blood on the
streets, the Acarya is nevertheless happy that “what
was lost would very soon be found.” When politely
inquired about such a statement (Charisma + Em-
pathy, Difficulty 7), the following can be revealed to
the characters:
One or two successes: Pratam Ular reveals the
reason for his arrival in Palembang from the far Gan-
ges. A specific “jewel of great import” was stolen from
him almost two hundred years ago, and he journeyed
all the way here because he was certain that this relic
could be found in Palembang. He surmises that it
was unearthed by the earthquake, though he isn’t
sure of its precise location.
Three or four successes: Pratam Ular describes
the general form of the stolen jewel. He explains that
it resembles “a great horned beast carved out of the
deepest of red stones, like a clump of blood harvest-
ed directly from the earth.”
Five or more successes: Pratam Ular confesses
that one of the undead, a Cainite, stole the jewel.
He couldn’t specifically remember the circumstanc-
es leading to such a theft, but he is aware that it was
stolen by someone with “great and dreadful power.”
Though the jewel by itself has no innate mystical
properties, with the proper rites it could serve to
magnify energies latent in the land. Such energies
spell disaster for those who don’t know how to use
them wisely.
The Acarya of Gangotri desires to see his lost
possession returned to him, and will give a boon to
any Cainite who could do so.
The three guards from the jungle return to
Palembang just before dawn breaks. Upon receiv-
ing news of Rawana’s candi, the mortal maharajah
instantly forbids any other of his subjects from ven-
turing there for as long as the earth remains restless.
Word travels fast from the royal palace, and both
Cainite and Wan Kuei courts quickly get wind of the
revealed shrine, though nothing is revealed about
what was found within it. At this point no restric-
tions of travel to the jungle have been imposed on
the undead, and the court leaders have no immedi-
ate reasons to pay the candi a visit.
Such an unusual discovery, however, is not
20
the only news that reaches Palembang. Characters
within the city hear disturbing stories of a massive
wave from the sea that had struck the seaside kam-
pongs by the mouth of the Musi River a few moments
after the first quake, drowning many mortals in its
wake. Word is that the Musi had slightly changed
its course—as if by the command of earth and sea its
mouth now seemed to point somewhere beyond. An
ominous sign indeed, but such are not so uncom-
mon in these uncertain and catastrophic times.
Some time deep in the night, an old mortal
could then be heard hollering about the earthquake,
of how it signals the end of the current cycle, and
how it heralds the arrival of a great personage escort-
ed by a host of swarms. The man would then walk
the open streets, threatening doom among the agi-
tated populace who in their fear of aftershocks have
decided to sleep out in the open tonight. Wan Kuei
who hear his ramblings might already know of the
coming Fifth Age, which would come as not much
of a surprise, but the “great personage” he refers to is
more enigmatic. They seem very much the ramblings
of a madman, and if the characters somehow extract
information from him of his prophetic message (two
successes on a Manipulation + Intimidation/Persua-
sion roll, Difficulty 7), he identifies himself as Ban-
gun and claims to have “seen the great black fire”
in his dreams, one that “burns in the sky over and
across the seas.” He says nothing else, and he uncere-
moniously leaves them to further spread his message
of doom. Characters at this point may seek to drain
Bangun dead of either his Chi or Vitae on the spot;
his death may affect forthcoming events, but would
only delay the inevitable.
Bangun is in truth the equivalent of a burgeon-
ing infernalist, someone who seeks to consort with
demons and the inhabitants of the illusion-saturated
Hell-realms. He doesn’t openly admit to this to any-
one, though Auspex 2 or Obligation 1 can determine
that he hides a secret he’d rather not reveal.
The Sleeper
Awakens
Eventually the torpid Baali in Rawana’s candi awak-
ens, resolute and hungry for blood. How he rises can
be from one of multiple reasons, which lead to sepa-
rate scenarios determined by previous events.
Bangun awakens the sleeper. This is the most
ideal setup, especially if Bangun’s life was spared
back in Palembang. Shortly before dusk on the sec-
ond evening after the earthquake, drawn to the for-
bidden site by rumors and his fascination with the
infernal, Bangun defies the maharajah’s order and
somehow quietly sneaks into Rawana’s candi. With
a bit of well-timed stealth he bypasses the guards sta-
tioned at its split-gate (who by this time are already
perhaps exhausted and slightly off-focus to notice
any covert attempt at intrusion). He then offers his
own blood to the Cainite, thus dispelling his torpor.
Subsequently, the Cainite proceeds to drain Bangun
of all his Vitae, in effect killing the mortal madman
where he stands.
In this scenario, the Baali then kills all the royal
guards standing watch outside the split-gate, drain-
ing them of their Vitae; he then proceeds directly
northeast to the mouth of the Musi. Characters
who venture into the candi will eventually find the
gruesome corpses of Bangun and the royal guards
swarmed by large flies, but no sign of the vampire or
the jewel relics.
The characters awaken the sleeper. If at any
time before the third evening one of the characters
forces fresh Vitae into the Baali’s mouth, he im-
mediately awakens and becomes hostile to all pres-
ent within the candi. Anyone who claims the jasper
rhinoceros is an immediate target of the awakened
vampire’s ruthlessness; though he has limited Vitae
in his body, he nevertheless is still powerful with his
physical unarmed attacks.
In this scenario, the Baali’s primary goal is not
to kill any of the characters, but to take both relics
and leave as quickly as possible, heading towards the
Musi’s mouth. On his way out he overpowers the
guards who have kept watch by the split-gate, never
bothering with their blood. One or two of them may
be killed, but in his haste he leaves survivors who
alert the maharajah back in Palembang. The Baali
uses any and all means to hide from the characters if
they choose to chase him then and there.
Another mortal awakens the sleeper. If the
other two options presented can’t apply, then one
of the bored royal guards foolishly awakens the Baali
just after dusk on the third night. He ventures into
the cave and, in imitation of the stone mural found
within, draws blood from his palm and offers it to
the sleeper’s lips. The awakened vampire then kills
the guard, as well as the other guards stationed in
21
front, and then proceeds to the mouth of the Musi.
Regardless of what scenario gets triggered, the
Baali would stop at nothing to take the jasper rhinoc-
eros with him and hasten for the coast.
Characters who witness the carnage and return
to Palembang to alert Pratam Ular of the vampire’s
awakening would subsequently be told by the Acarya
to immediately give chase and retrieve the artifact the
Cainite holds; he recognizes it as the “great horned
beast” he once lost back in India. He also reminds
the characters of the mystical dangers the vampire
could unleash using the jasper statue.
Agniwati, for her part if told of what has hap-
pened, has less concern for the sleeper but is fasci-
nated more by Rawana’s candi itself. Upon hearing
of the royal guards’ deaths in the jungle, she imme-
diately makes plans to secure the candi and annex
it as part of her domain. She regards the awakened
Cainite as more of a nuisance who would probably
return at some undisclosed time in the future to re-
claim what he had just abandoned.
Despite her apparent lack of interest for the
Cainite, Agniwati does permit an undertaking for
the characters by allowing pursuit of him (along with
his Final Death) to wherever his destination is. If
(and only if) they helped quell her Wave Soul dur-
ing the earthquake, she provides them with a writ of
passage: a rectangular copper plate the size of a foot
sandal, burnished in the Kawi script that grants per-
mission to travel within realms lorded over by other
Scarlet Phoenix queens. It would, however, take an
entire night to forge the metallic document and have
Agniwati herself etch her name on it as proof of the
writ. By the time the copper plate has cooled, the
fleeing vampire would be long gone.
By the Mouth
of the Musi
Barring aftershocks, hunters and the jungle’s other
dangers, it takes half a night’s journey on foot (half
that time further on watercraft) to travel from Palem-
bang to the northeast coast, where the muddy Musi
River drains into the sea. It is here where rumors
back in the city tell of the tsunami which has brought
destruction in its wake.
The story at this point assumes that the awak-
ened Cainite the characters had been pursuing has
had a head start. When they reach the coast, they
 witness a scene of abject desolation: wooden hous-
es, fallen trees and other detritus strewn about
as if by a godlike force; boats of different silhou-
ettes twisted and pushed dozens of meters inland;
corpses in the early stages of rot scattered like rag
dolls on the beach or floating on the crests of the
low sea waves. Survivors could be seen wander-
ing about, some gathering corpses and throwing
them into piles for later cremation, others clean-
ing up and rebuilding anew, still others in stunned
silence or in mourning for what has been lost to
them. Amidst the ruins juts a single stone watch-
tower, atop of which three Srivijayan warriors
stand guard. They discuss rumors, most likely
unfounded, of Javanese warships sighted on the
eastern horizon in the past two days or so, taking
advantage of Palembang’s devastation to mount a
seaborne attack.
Some boats do still float on the water in good
condition—they were far offshore when the tsuna-
mi struck—and a few do seem seaworthy enough
to travel long distances. Characters who use their
social skills to ask around about certain boats that
have travelled out of the coast recently (Difficulty
7) would get an affirmative reply: a single fishing
vessel left this beach not too long ago, bearing
northward following the monsoon trade winds
to spread the news of what has happened here.
Only a few know its precise destination, but fur-
ther questioning (three successes on the same roll)
would reveal that it was headed to a far land named
Tondo, a Srivijayan vassal kingdom. If the char-
acters trailed the Cainite outright from Rawana’s
candi without returning to Palembang, they could
just make out that particular ship on the northeast
horizon, barely skirting the shores of the fishing
town of Kota Kapur on nearby Bangka Island.
Another vessel is set to sail for the same des-
tination just before sunrise of the characters’ ar-
rival. Passage on this small merchant ship requires
a single dok chen (Srivijayan gold coin) per passen-
ger. Clever characters with little or no coin to pay
could simply skirt payment and hide for the entire
seven-day duration of the trip in the cargo hold be-
neath the deck, where porcelain and ceramics are
secured on wooden racks. The entire ship has no
more than fifteen mortal hands, thus blood may
22
have to be consumed and used wisely.
Marra
Characters actively searching for any shen by the
beach encounter a young woman standing alone by
the water’s edge, staring back at them through a tat-
tered and muted veil. She remains standing as the
high foam of the waves wash over her bare legs, but
if the characters don’t engage her after one minute
she eventually walks away, never to be encountered
again. Only when a character approaches and initi-
ates dialogue does the lady take off her veil and re-
veal the countenance of a Buddhist nun who seems
barely in her twenties. With or without vocal contact,
supernatural means of perception (such as Auspex or
Chi’iu Muh) reveal the woman to be undead.
Marra (10th Generation Healer Caste Salubri)
doesn’t initially disclose her pedigree; she wears a
loosely tied plain red headband beneath her veil.
When interacted with in a favorable manner, she
says that she has been expecting the characters’ arriv-
al, and they would soon face ill fortune. Charisma-
related rolls with Marra reveal the following about
herself and the vampire the characters are chasing:
One success: Marra has dwelt here by the Musi’s
mouth for decades, content in her solitude away
from the tumultuous ills of the world; blood may
not be abundant here, but it nevertheless suffices
her. She knows that the characters come from Palem-
bang, and that they most likely were chasing another
vampire who went this way. She tells them that the
person they seek has sought passage on a boat head-
ing for an island kingdom in the northeast, beyond
the current shrinking borders of Srivijaya.
Two or three successes: Marra comes from
Bamiyan, in the distant land of Khorasan to the west
of India. She began her studies under giant stone
statues of the Buddha
carved into the hard rock
faces found in that realm,
though she departed for
pilgrimage to the East fol-
lowing the footsteps of her
sire’s ancestor. She reveals
that the vampire the characters
pursue is of an obscure
but deadly bloodline
of demon-worshippers
23
named “Baali,” though she herself is unsure of why
one of them was here.
Four or more successes: Marra reveals herself
to be one of the Salubri, a dwindling clan of war-
rior-healers who wander the world in the name of
the philosopher Zao-lat. She discreetly yet openly ex-
presses her fear of the Baali she saw wandering the
Musi’s mouth. They both locked eyes when she first
saw him, and it seemed that the Baali knew her for
what she was despite her attempts at laying low. She
knew there and then that, though he didn’t engage
her that time, the motives for his presence are far
more sinister and may endanger both the living and
the dead. The distant kingdom of Tondo, where he
departed for, might perhaps be where his unknown
motives would bear deadly fruition.
Pratam Ular
Acarya of Palembang
Even during his mortal days, the man who was
once known as Pratam Prabhu had always been
ascetic. His hair, moustache and beard are matted
with ash and blood, as is his skin, and he wears the
shed scales of a giant python on his shoulders like a
cowl. He had wandered across the Gangetic Plains
of northern India as a sadhu, or holy man, seeking
the highest of wisdoms through intense, often dan-
gerous, meditative techniques. His “pilgrimages,” as
he called his travels, eventually brought him to the
pilgrim town of Gangotri at the foothills of the Hi-
malayas, where the Ganges emerges from a massive
glacier. His strange yogic abilities attracted no less
than the hidden raja of the town, who tempted him
with release from the miserable cycles of samsara. A
simple yes and an Embrace by the cold banks of the
Ganges was all it took for Pratam Prabhu to become
one of the Nagaraja.
Pratam Prabhu continued
his ascetic training in his new
existence as a flesh-eating preta,
dutifully fulfilling his
role within India’s
strict caste system. De-
spite his seeming lowly
status, he had soon gath-
ered a small following of
other ascetics both living and
dead, and in less than a century
his teachings had given him the fame of a wandering
cult figure. Offerings of flesh and blood were given
as tribute, as well as items of considerable value, even
if he never really needed the latter. Of particular in-
terest to him was a small red statuette of a rhinoceros
given as tribute by vampire merchants from faraway
Zanzibar; he knew that with extensive meditation it
could be used as a focus to access higher levels of
consciousness.
A student of his, however, had also fancied this
artifact; in a moment the student saw as advanta-
geous, he whisked it away from Pratam Prabhu dur-
ing an unguarded moment. This led the Nagaraja to
a near-fruitless search across India and Lanka, then
into the jungle realms of Angkor and finally Srivi-
jaya, where he sensed the statue’s presence. There
he claimed the moniker “Ular” as a reminder to the
natives of what he is and what he can do. Once the
stolen rhinoceros has been recovered, he plans to re-
turn to Gangotri, high in the Himalayan foothills,
though it would perhaps take him many more years
before he could once again attune himself to the
relic that was lost to him.
Sire: Savitri Dasa, Raja of Gangotri
Clan: Nagaraja
Nature: Pedagogue
Demeanor: Guru
Generation: 7th
Embrace: 830 CE
Apparent Age: Early 50s
Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 3,
Appearance 2
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 5, Wits 4
Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 3, Leadership 5,
Subterfuge 4
Skills: Animal Ken 1, Commerce 2, Melee 3,
Ride 1, Stealth 4, Survival 6
Knowledges: Medicine 5, Occult 6, Politics 3,
Theology 6
Disciplines: Auspex 2, Dominate 3, Necromancy 4
Backgrounds: Domain 5, Generation 5, Herd 3,
Status 5
Morality: Road of Kings (Path of Devaraja) 6
Willpower: 5
Blood Pool/Max per Turn: 20/4
24
Agniwati
Tirganggaputri
Scarlet Phoenix Queen
of Palembang
In life Ushasa was a chaste devotee of the Hindu god
of fire. Her long hair, fair skin and comely figure were
the envy of many her age—ideal as a worldly consort
for a similarly comely deity, and she wouldn’t have
it any other way. But familial duty demanded that
she be sold as a slave-wife at sixteen to an old man
who already had nearly a dozen wives. She endured
her maniacal husband’s advances for years, as well
as the physical and social scorn of the much older
wives, until something in her snapped and led her
one night to burn the entire household, including
herself, to death. Ushasa awoke the following night
with her body somehow regenerated, and she briefly
wondered why she neither breathed nor had a heart-
beat. It took another year of hiding and scavenging
for animal flesh before she finally accepted her fate
as a penangallan, an undead creature who feasted on
the essences of the living.
The Scarlet Phoenix Empress of neighboring
Angkor, always on the lookout for potential hand-
maidens who could expand her reign of convenience
beyond the realms of the Mekong River, eventually
got wind of Ushasa’s presence. With the Empress’s
generous help Ushasa inserted herself in the twilight
society of Srivijaya’s capital Palembang, and took the
name of her patron god when she slowly yet surely
ascended as penangallan “queen” of the city. The
newly renamed Agniwati has since then continued
her otherwise uneventful despotism despite the pres-
ence of other blood-drinkers from the west. She es-
pecially keeps close watch over a few of those who
claim submission to the will of a certain desert god
who claims the crescent moon as his symbol. Though
these “Muslims” as they call themselves are still very
few and rarely visit Sumatra, Agniwati knows that
the old ways she seeks to exalt would violently die if
their foreign religion spreads across the island.
Destiny: With the conversion of Sumatra to Is-
lam in the mid-1300s, Agniwati retreats to the dense
jungles of the northern part of the island and even-
tually establishes her Golden Court there; she would
last be seen in the late 1500s in Palembang. After-
wards, the legend of a wandering ravenous “Hell-
fire Queen” would persist to modern nights across Talents: Alertness 2, Awareness 2, Expression 5,
Southeast Asia, though no one really knows if such a Intimidation 4, Subterfuge 3
legend would refer to Agniwati herself. Skills: Archery 2, Etiquette 3, Meditation 5,
Performance 5, Stealth 3, Survival 3
Hun Nature: Celebrant Knowledges: Enigmas 3, Occult 2, Politics 4,
P’o Nature: The Fool Theology 3
Demeanor: Enigma
Balance: Yang Disciplines: Black Wind 1, Godbody of Fire 3,
Direction: East Godbody of Wood 3, Tapestry 2, Yang Prana 3
Dharma: The Dance of the Backgrounds: Contacts 5, Herd 3, Rites 2,
Thrashing Dragon 5 Status 4
Second Breath: 953 CE Virtues: Yang 4, Yin 2, Hun 3, P’o 4
Apparent Age: Early 20s Willpower: 4

Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 2

Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 4,
Appearance 5
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3

25
 T H E PAT H
OF FIRE AN D
METAL
H abagat, the god of the southwest monsoon,
has forsaken Tondo. For four years the land
has waited, and for four years no good rain
has arrived. The skies are as selfish as they are fickle,
tempting those below with large masses of clouds
that ultimately bring almost no moisture to the fal-
low fields. When the raging typhoons from the end-
less eastern sea blow over Tondo, they instead bring
with them drenching torrents that turn fields into
acrid pools of mud and filth, unfit for cultivation.
Then the sun returns and dries them once more,
turning them into cakes of useless earth.
Geomancers and soothsayers have long since
spoken of a great shift in the kingdom’s spiritual
structure, and now they see a night in the near future
when the barriers between worlds would shatter.
Even now, they say, the dead are arriving from across
the seas and between worlds, assembling in Tondo to
bear witness to this horrific event. Only a few have
heeded the prophets’ warnings, and some roll their
eyes and snort in disbelief; after all, there are more
pressing things to deal with in these hard times such
as bracing for the hunger, famine and death that is
sure to come. Indeed, many have already long since
fled Tondo due to the drought, but the warnings of
the oracles have convinced some others to flee as
well, lest they get caught in the inevitable flaming
maelstrom.
The angry sun that sets beyond Tondo’s wide
bay is veiled by massive storm clouds looming in the
distance, punctured by lightning strikes that carry
27
no thunder. Palls of twisting darkness seem to ap-
proach from two directions in the west, like onyx fire
burning in the sky. Only the anito spirits know what
hellish forces would be unleashed once the darkness
settles.
Tondo
In about three hundred years, when the empires of
Europe begin to expand their influence around the
world, the tropical city that would be known as Ma-
nila would eventually be exalted as “Pearl of the Ori-
ent,” the jewel of Spain in the Philippine Islands. To-
night in the Dark Ages there is no country named as
such, and no bustling colonial city to balance trade
across two oceans. There is only Tondo on the island
of Ma-Yi, which, despite its less-than-strategic loca-
tion away from major Asian maritime trade routes,
is one of Srivijaya’s most populous mandala, or semi-
autonomous vassal kingdoms. It sits on a low hilly
plain where the Pasig River meanders from the east
and empties into a wide western bay. At first glance
Tondo isn’t as prosperous as other cities in Srivijaya
or the Song Empire. Huts made of bamboo, clay,
wood or thatch are the most common structures
found in the city; apart from the occasional watch-
tower, stable or granary, nearly nothing stands out as
remarkable.
What Tondo lacks in wealth, it instead makes
up for people: nearly 30,000 dwell in the kingdom,
though the sprawl that often defines such large ur-
ban centers doesn’t apply here. The city can be lik-
ened more to a loose patchwork collection of dozens
of villages, or barangay, which is also the term used
for the large wooden seafaring vessels that the locals
use for the subdued maritime trade it conducts. A
feudal system that roughly mimics that of medieval
Europe does exist, and rare is the noble who doesn’t
own at least a handful of alipin, or slaves. Each baran-
gay, led by a pamgat dang or village chief, is expected
to produce a fixed quota of rice, fish, livestock or
some other agricultural good for the rajah who rules
the kingdom (though he is ultimately still a vassal of
the maharajah of Palembang). Rice is thus normally
grown in massive amounts, particularly in the wide
plains north of the kingdom’s bamboo palisade.
Tondo’s muddy soils, unfortunately, don’t fare well
for most of the spices that other realms in Srivijaya
are known for, though cinnamon and black peppers
are also cultivated here to supplement mercantile
trade.
Tondo’s religion is a strange and uneven mix of
Hinduism, Buddhism and the local tribal animistic
beliefs. The populace is overtly religious to a fault,
and in more pressing times will do practically any-
thing to placate any god, enlightened being or na-
ture spirit that would care to hear them. The visible
boundaries between day and night mean little for a
people who believe that the material and spiritual
worlds coexist and interact heavily with each other.
Old trees are seen as the habitations of fickle fae
called anito, while abandoned houses almost always
seem to be occupied by ghosts and walking corpses.
Rocks, caves, rivers, even empty rooms and decrepit
28
alleyways, are where the mortal world must tread
carefully lest they encounter the baleful dead. Even
the arrival of the great and cruel monotheistic reli-
gions of the west, hundreds of years hence, would
not take these ideas away from them.
Such beliefs make Tondo a suitable place for
Wan Kuei to lurk in, with the teeming masses serv-
ing as rich herds to harvest Chi from. Unlike most
places elsewhere in this part of Asia, Tondo’s people
have resigned themselves to the presence of the un-
dead—the aswang—among them. Though this doesn’t
necessarily mean that interactions between the living
and the dead are commonplace, in their fear mor-
tals do give vampires (as well as other supernatural
creatures) a wide berth, and thus the latter are gener-
ally left alone to their devices unless they cause un-
necessary cruelty. Even then, a mortal’s death by an
aswang’s fangs and claws would be seen at best as an
unfortunate yet avoidable incident.
The Barangay
of Night
For the most part the aswang of Tondo prefer to in-
dividually endure the Second Breath on their own.
However, a simple caste system does exist that mir-
rors what mortal barangay already use. At the top
of the hierarchy are the pamgat dang or lakan, noble
Wan Kuei who for various reasons have broad influ-
ence over politics and feeding rights. Enforcing their
dominance are the maharlika, who act as bodyguards
and keepers of tradition. Serfs, or alipin, are the low-
est caste and make up the majority of Tondo’s un-
dead. While each aswang barangay follows roughly
the same stratification, each unit is often treated as
an independent domain with its own rules of en-
gagement and enforcement.
Only a handful see themselves as part of any of
the more influential Courts that dominate the Mid-
dle Kingdom tonight; most of them have as much
clout in Tondo as any other aswang, though two
Courts are now active within. The Yellow Emperor’s
Court is the more dominant among the two, and
also the newest, as it only arrived around more or
less a century ago. Seeing opportunity beyond its
traditional borders, the distinctively Chinese court
seeks to trade as well as to expand its influence. Its
leaders forcibly replaced the older Scarlet Phoenix
Court, whose penangallan queen they drove off to
wander the waters around Tondo. A few agents of
hers remain in the city itself, subverting the new sys-
tem brought over by the Wan Kuei of the Song.
The Long Drought
Though not visible at first glance, Tondo tonight is
in the midst of a drought that has lasted for four
straight years. The southwest monsoon winds, which
normally bring with them the life-giving rains during
the middle part of the year, have been unusually dry.
The rice harvests of the northern fields have in ef-
fect produced only less than half of their expected
output, and fisherfolk have had to sail well beyond
the horizon to get substantial catches. Famine hasn’t
yet struck, though deaths due to hunger have now
been reported among the children and elderly of an
increasing number of the city’s barangay.
The looming specter of famine among the liv-
ing, however, has little to no bearing on the dead.
Essences and Chi are still plentiful despite the mor-
tal diaspora from Tondo, and only those who do
have some degree of concern are those who have
enmeshed themselves into the kingdom’s intricate
politics.
As this story continues, Wan Kuei who have
lived in Tondo for at least half a century know of
the following with an Intelligence + Occult/Theol-
ogy roll (Difficulty 6):
One success: Tondo stands on a massive dragon
nest, known by native shen as “Pugad Bakunawa.”
Both Yin and Yang Chi are easier to gather within
the nest’s expansive boundaries, which encompasses
29
the entire kingdom. Describing its existence is rather
difficult to explain: Pugad Bakunawa hasn’t always
been where it is, but it also isn’t artificial. (Mechani-
cally speaking, Pugad Bakunawa is considered a
“Grand Dragon Nest” with a Wall Rating of 1.)
Two or three successes: The dragon nest has
existed in Tondo for around two hundred years. Its
appearance was supposedly heralded by a succession
of natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes felt all across the island. Regardless if
such events did happen or not, Tondo’s fortunes in-
creased shortly after Pugad Bakunawa appeared. Ru-
mors still persist among those in the know, though,
that the dragon nest acts as a “filter” to keep the Yin
and Yang worlds from overtaking this world, as well
as to seal away more malevolent realms.
Four or more successes: Specific details for
such an astounding event are hard to come by, but
Pugad Bakunawa was supernaturally “transported”
to Tondo nearly a hundred years ago from the far-
away kingdom of Butuan, on the southern island of
Mindanao. The dragon nest’s artificial placement
means it could be unstable and potentially volatile,
and it would probably take centuries before it settles
and adapts to its new home. The current drought in
and around Tondo is perhaps one of the repercus-
sions of this placement, but even that is subject to
speculation.
Arrivals
Native aswang begin the story with unusual phenom-
ena sighted on the sea. It began around ten days ago,
when the twilight and pre-dawn horizons seemed
to pulsate with huge swarms of flies, as if the skies
around Tondo were burning with black fire. The
swarms eventually descended upon the kingdom like
a cacophonous mist. Most mortals will only see the
swarms as a nuisance at best (and they mostly dissi-
pate a night after they arrive anyway), but Wan Kuei
who use supernatural means (Difficulty 7) to discern
such a strange event would discover that the swarms
portend the arrival of dark and dangerous forces.
Unbeknownst perhaps to the aswang, the swarms
herald the simultaneous arrivals of the Baali Cainites
into Tondo from Punyu and Palembang. They have
since then deeply embedded themselves into the lo-
cal populace, hiding and feeding from the shadows.
 In the succeeding nights, aswang would soon
hear of various strange stories coming from Tondo’s
different barangay, which may or may not be re-
lated to the arrival of the swarms; some are
listed below, though the Storyteller is free to
add more. It’s possible that in their forays
within Tondo, the characters from Palem-
bang or Punyu might hear the
same. They might even be
witness to some of them
happening:
• Four people were
found dead in a hut one
morning, the limbs of
their corpses inter-
locked in a strange
position that resem-
bles a glyph which seem-
ingly has a yet-undecipherable
meaning.
• A woman in the
barangay of Sapa has just
given birth to a fully-grown cobra,
and a particularly deadly one at that. Neighbors are
terrified of visiting the mother, who has since kept
her “infant” in a small bamboo cage.
• The burial of a young girl who died of a
trampling accident was horrifically interrupted by
the corpse suddenly (yet very shortly) coming back
to life. She screamed supposedly of her condition;
witnesses clearly heard her mention “bali,” which
means “fracture” in the local language, before she
finally and truly died once more.
• A small handful of adults from different
castes have gone missing on the same day. (Though
this by itself is not unusual in a large city, characters
who show some interest and follow the trail of these
disappearances would eventually discover their col-
lective interest in what passes in Tondo as infernal-
ism.)
• Farmers awoke one morning to find dozens
of dead crows littering their fallow rice fields.
• The waterways around the barangay of Nabu-
tas suddenly ran a deep red, as if a large amount of
blood were suddenly dumped into them. The abat-
toirs in the area are functioning without anything
unusual, though a few of the large animals that were
supposed to be butchered seem to have died of un-
known causes.
30
• A large trail of what is undeniably human
blood is discovered on one of the city’s wider streets,
seemingly coming from and leading nowhere.
• The head of a large stone anito statue
inexplicably fell from its frame and shattered
on the floor as worshippers gave their nightly
offerings to it in a nearby shrine. The idol was
carved out of a single solid piece of rock, and
no one could explain how it could have bro-
ken off.
Aswang who consult
others of their kind
about these strange
events would be met
with no definite an-
swer: with the exception
of those who attempted
the roll above, none of
the other undead have any
idea if they could mean more
than what they are. Most
mortals would know
virtually nothing either, however
any aswang who interacts with them (Charisma roll;
Difficulty 6 for friendly interaction, Difficulty 8 for
Intimidation) would be directed to a babaylan, usu-
ally a mortal female witch doctor with the ability to
see that which is hidden from normal sight. These
babaylan, hedge magicians possessed of the Path of
Divination, discern two malevolent forces that have
entered Tondo, who carry with them “strange beasts
made of stone.” Though the babaylan are unsure of
what these two forces (or the beasts) actually are, they
are certain that something darkly momentous will
happen in the next few days.
Dream of
the Baali
Sometime between their departures from their re-
spective cities until their final confrontation with
the Baali in Tondo, one random character from ei-
ther Punyu or Palembang (or perhaps both, if the
Storyteller chooses to incorporate the two paths pre-
sented) would receive a visitation from one of the
demon-worshipping Cainites through a dream. It’s
up to the Storyteller to decide when this dream hap-
pens and who it manifests to.
The dream opens with the character finding
themselves standing in a desert, with a crude stone Long have I searched for a well that suits us
fortress looming above them. The rocky ground is both, and he hid that secret from me. Your kind…so
littered with corpses and caked in blood; smoke fills different from us in so many ways, and yet the sun
the air and distant screams rend the dry night air. still takes your Second Lives away.
A swirl of reddish-black mist then emerges from the
ground the character stands on, which eventually
forms into huge distorted shapes of elephants and
rhinos that loom above them. One of the Baali (the
female one for the dreamer from Punyu, the male
for those from Palembang) slowly emerges from be-
hind this psychic herd. Their eyes, bloodshot and
distinct from their grotesquely scarred and tattooed
faces, look straight at the character; their voices,
raspy and disembodied, speak to the dreamer in a
language they could understand, even if their lips
barely move. They begin to circle the character like
the mists surrounding them, appearing near and
far at the same time in the strange reasoning that
dreams exist under. Regardless of who manifests,
the Baali’s first cold utterance is a question of why
the characters are pursuing them.
Whatever the character’s reply, the questions
thrown to the Baali would matter more. The an-
swers given by either of them are both enigmatic and
straightforward, and any other questions distinc-
tively apart from those listed below will be answered
with either cold silence or an echoing laugh.
Who are you? / Where do you come from?
My name is sacred, and I refuse to share it with
you. I come from where Ashur once dwelled and
died, but that matters little now, does it not? (At
this point, though the Baali themselves won’t reveal their
names, supernatural means of determining such would re-
veal the names Zaparia for the female and Armin for the
male.)
Why are you headed to Tondo?
I know of the nest that spins and the well at its
center that keeps its wings intact. There, away from
our old masters and the prying eyes of Star, Cross
and Crescent, we will begin anew.
What is the statuette that you carry?
It is a catalyst. It is a primordial beast that
roamed these islands and died before the mortals
here built their first settlements. Because of it I can
speak to you now in your mind, and through them
both we will awaken the nest’s true potential.
Why did you kill Ying Chau-Kau? (Question for
the female Baali.)

31
 Why were you in Palembang? (Question for the
male Baali.)
I was weaker than her. I decided to venture forth
eastward ahead of her, to gather my strength and
prove my lordship over the chattel until the time ar-
rived and the nest called us. Now it does, and we
oblige.
We will stop you. / You will pay for what you
have done.
Quite a number have already tried, and yet they
all have failed to thwart us from our destined prize.
Stay away from this path we have carved…unless of
course you desire to be one of us?
After only a few questions (just enough for the
dreaming character to listen to the Baali’s motives),
the beasts around them begin to trumpet and moan.
The loud sounds eventually coalesce into a monot-
onous buzzing, and the beasts disperse into giant
swarms of flying insects, each one the size of a hu-
man skull. The Baali then reveals its blood-drenched
claws and lashes out at the character, upon which
they suddenly awaken. Neither of the Cainites will
appear in any dream henceforth, nor can they be
contacted further by any of the visiting characters,
before the final confrontation.
The Jasmine Sea
Wu
A little more than a hundred years ago, around a
dozen Wan Kuei from the Song Empire arrived in
Tondo (which they called “the capital of Ma-Yi”) and
began exploiting the abundant Chi that emerged
from Pugad Bakunawa. Ever the merchant princes
they thought of themselves, these delegates from the
Yellow Emperor’s Court were given leave to seize
this southeastern backwater city from the Scarlet
Phoenix Court and hopefully create a productive
trading colony within it. Despite their dominance
of the nocturnal trades, the Jasmine Sea wu today
is only begrudgingly tolerated by Tondo’s native as-
wang, useful only for the profits it brings from China
and beyond. As for knowledge of the wu itself, only
a handful of Wan Kuei from the Middle Kingdom
know of its existence. The Autumn Dragon wu of
Punyu is fully aware of it, though it is unlikely that
the other undead arriving from the mainland would
know of this Corpse Family.
When the characters from Punyu arrive in Ton-
32
do through the Guanfuchang dragon track, they are
immediately brought in front of the Jasmine Sea si-
heyuan. A veritable bamboo and fern tree forest sur-
rounds three crude one-storey stone buildings built
in the Chinese style, huddled together and enclosed
by a high stone wall with a single wooden gate. The
bamboos and ferns grow so thick and high as to block
the night sky altogether, allowing only a sliver of the
waning crescent moon to peep through the slender
leaves. Red lanterns hanging from various branches
illuminate the compound, while in the buildings
themselves the tediously mercantile business of the
Jasmine Sea wu goes on under the light of flames
coming from several bronze vessels.
Any character who achieves two or more suc-
cesses in a Perception + Awareness roll (Difficulty 7)
eventually feels a steady yet overwhelming inunda-
tion of Chi energy around them. This is due to the
Grand Dragon Nest of Tondo, which Ying Chau-
Kau had been secretly studying and which the Jas-
mine Sea wu has been utilizing for around a hundred
years now.
Wan Kuei from the Middle Kingdom (includ-
ing the mountainous western reaches where Byampa
Dondrup comes from) are welcome to stay within
the Jasmine Sea siheyuan for the entire duration of
their stay in Tondo. Furthermore, though it’s highly
likely that Ying’s murderer (whom characters from
Punyu are pursuing) also arrived in front of the Jas-
mine Sea siheyuan, none of the wu’s members noticed
her arrival.
Chui Tang Kiang (Resplendent Crane 5) is the
head overseer of the Yellow Emperor’s Court in
Tondo. Well-composed and similarly well-mannered,
Chui is a devoted follower of the Taoist and legalist
systems that have existed in the Middle Kingdom for
hundreds of years, and tries (with little success) to
promote such teachings in these “barbarian” jungle
islands. He knows of Ying Chau-Kau, his travels to
Tondo as well as news of his death, though Chui’s
relationship with him was purely transactional, and
he knows nothing of the mystical research that Ying
conducted. When asked politely, he too has seen the
strange “black fire” over Tondo and knows of the ar-
rival of demonic forces, and he fears of what such a
portent could do to the dragon nest.
Dao Dang (Bone Dancer 3) comes from one of
the more northern provinces of the Song Empire,
and is slightly uncomfortable with Ma-Yi’s humid-
ity (as well as the “strange taste” of the local mor-
tal Chi). His irritation often manifests in his strict
implementation of legalist doctrine, which is often
tempered by Chui’s introspection. Like Chui, Dao
is aware of the strange events that have happened in
Tondo’s various barangay, but knows little else. Ad-
ditionally, Dao knows that an “underground nest”
of rebellious Scarlet Phoenix Court aswang makes
its lair within Tondo, sabotaging trade and stealing
away goods meant for the Middle Kingdom, though
he can’t pinpoint the lair’s precise location. He has
informed the rest of the wu about this and has ex-
pressed desires to eliminate the cell, though Chui
has expressed in return (to Dao’s unexpressed frus-
tration) that there are other more pressing matters
to deal with.
Li Bei (Resplendent Crane 3), though being one
of the high bureaucrats of the Jasmine Sea wu, is of-
ten relegated to performing lesser tasks such as fetch-
ing tea, filing papers or running errands. The other
high bureaucrats of the Corpse Family see little need
to speak to her, provided she performs her functions
without question. Unlike the others, though, her
knowledge of Tondo has gained her some idea of
how the aswang live their Second Breaths. Further-
more, when spoken to in good terms beyond the
grounds of the Jasmine Sea compound (Charisma
roll, Difficulty 7), Li claims to be fully aware that the
dragon nest (which she mentions in passing as lo-
cated on a small islet on the Pasig River) is in danger
of corruption from not one but two beings with hell-
bent intentions; though she doesn’t express it openly
within the confines of the Jasmine Sea siheyuan, she
wishes to return to the Middle Kingdom if and when
such misfortune happens.
Weng Mong-Tee (Thousand Whisper 4) serves
33
as the wu’s “quality control officer,” assuring that the
wares that come from Ma-Yi to the Song Empire are
of favorable quality. Much like Chui he has a tem-
pered disposition, and he frequently goes around
the various barangay of Tondo to assess and purchase
goods. However, Weng sees little benefit in learning
about the “simplistic” cultures and practices of the
aswang beyond basic trade, and ponders little about
the extraordinary events that have been happening
recently. When persuaded to divulge more informa-
tion about his knowledge of the circumstances sur-
rounding Ying’s death (Charisma roll, Difficulty 7),
Weng does state that though he didn’t say anything
to his wu, he did catch glimpse of a strange woman
wearing a sari and carrying an elephant statuette. He
is unsure of where exactly he saw her, just that she
was lurking in an alleyway somewhere accompanied
by a strange man and they both seemed to be in a
hurry. None of this would be divulged inside the Jas-
mine Sea compound.
The Golden Sea-
Queen of Butuan
In more prosperous times there would be more than
a hundred or so seafaring vessels, from small reed
sampans to huge Chinese ribbed-sail junks, which
would have crowded the open bay that Tondo sits on.
The long drought that struck Ma-Yi has diminished
much of the cross-kingdom trade, and these nights
only a few dozen fishing rafts and poorly-manned
antiquated Srivijayan warships venture beyond sight
of the city.
One vessel still actively prowls the waters of the
bay despite the drought. Before entering the bay it-
self, arrivals by sea from Palembang would see the
black silhouette of a rotting junk approaching their
own. Its unnatural speed would be of concern to the
mortal crew, and they try their best in fear to steer
their own craft away from this predatory ghost ship
to no avail. The junk eventually halts the Srivijayan
boat’s course, and its pirate crew unceremoniously
comes on board, ordering on pain of death to divert
to a nearby small island. If any vampire reveals their
nature to the boarding crew, a voluptuous woman
with unnaturally long claws emerges from the junk.
Marikit Batumbulan (Thrashing Dragon 5) is
the ghost ship’s captain, a penangallan who introduc-
es herself as the “Queen of Butuan.” An Intelligence
+ Politics roll (Difficulty 8) would identify Marikit
as such even without her saying it herself; the roll
would additionally reveal her as a fabled “guardian”
of an elusive “great treasure” (which is actually the
Tondo dragon nest). With little else to say at this
point other than her suspicions of the visitors having
hidden motives, Marikit orders her men to take the
Palembang vampires to the island and be detained
for a night of “re-education.”
If the characters present to her the copperplate
crafted by Agniwati, she takes it, reads its contents,
and allows the vampires to enter Tondo without
further duress; she mentions nothing of her secret
cell of followers existing within the city (see below).
Without the copperplate, however, Marikit and her
crew guide the passengers of the visiting ship to the
small island and practically hold them hostage until
the next evening.
34
In about half a millennium hence, Marikit’s lair
would be known as Corregidor. In the Dark Ages,
it is an unnamed and overgrown island of rock and
earth used by mortal fishermen as shelter between
Tondo and the open sea. Deep in the island, tall
bamboo watchtowers and structures guard a small
cave system where the Queen of Butuan still gathers
her dwindling Scarlet Phoenix Court. The central
chamber of this system, where Marikit holds court,
is adorned with tantric sutras written with the Srivi-
jayan Kawi script on flattened bamboo slats hanging
from the cave ceiling. More striking are large circular
brass mirrors that give the illusion of space; obser-
vant visitors would notice that all the mirrors are po-
sitioned in such a way that wherever one looks, the
Queen’s ornate bamboo dais is always the focus and
reflected for everyone to see regardless of where one
stands in the chamber.
The vampires from Palembang would be brought
here to be interrogated by Marikit. After the penan-
gallan sits on her dais she gets straight to her point
and accuses them of acting as agents for the Yellow
Emperor Court, and they must leave Tondo and its
waters after the next sunset on pain of Second Death.
Her reflections on the metal mirrors twist and writhe
seemingly of their own accord, made even more sinis-
ter by the light and shadows cast by a single cauldron
of fire burning between her and the visitors. Char-
acters can make their case against Marikit’s clearly
baseless accusations, though the idea of eliminating
a rogue demon-worshipping Cainite has little to no
bearing for her and does nothing to strengthen
their case (assuming that the Palembang vampires
are at this point unaware of Pugad Bakunawa’s ex-
istence). Conversely, if the characters are willing
to cooperate with her to disprove her accusations,
Marikit allows them to prove their sincerity and de-
liver certain contraband “supplies” to a sleeper cell
within the kingdom itself. The “supplies” are actu-
ally a single blindfolded mortal crew member of the
ship the characters came in from, and he would be
smuggled into the kingdom as a receptacle of Chi
to be harvested from by the members of Marikit’s
secret cell. If the characters agree to deliver the crew-
man to the cell, the penangallan supplies them with
a crude map etched on a bamboo slat detailing the
cell’s location within Tondo. She furthermore in-
structs the characters to use the phrase “three moon
stones” in any sentence when communicating with
whoever receives them there.
Marikit’s map leads the characters to the noisy
and crowded barangay of May-nila, by the western
mouth of the Pasig River. A bamboo hut with a
thatched roof, whose walls are decorated with an ar-
ray of water buffalo horns, indicates the cell’s loca-
tion. Mortals see perhaps a merchant’s private quar-
ters, but see little else beyond the sturdy wooden
doors and windows. A gaunt but generally nonde-
script man sits cross-legged and acts slightly bored
by a raised wooden platform. He ignores most ad-
vances and speaks nonchalantly in matters of trade,
but once any of the characters utter Marikit’s pass
phrase to him, he nods quietly and (after making
sure no one else is watching) escorts them into the
darkened hut.
The interior of the hut is roughly similar in set-
up to Marikit’s island lair, without the large mirrors
and only a small brass brazier situated at the center
to contain a distinctively blue-tinged flame. Three
thatched hammocks, each carrying a male aswang
(who refuse to divulge their names) upside down
like bats, hang from ropes on the bamboo rafters.
The heady scent of opium wafts throughout this
small bamboo chamber.
Delivering the mortal “gift” to the three aswang
(or any adult mortal, for that matter, should the
characters consume or release Marikit’s choice be-
fore they arrive) would be acknowledged, and the
gaunt man will be told to send a note to their pen-
35
angallan queen post-haste. Characters who instead
come with no mortal gift would still be accepted
into the chamber, but Marikit (once she receives
word of such) considers this a breach of her trust
and would order the cell members to hunt down
the characters beginning the next dusk. Each as-
wang in the cell can be treated as an “Opportunist
Hunter” antagonist (Vampire: the Dark Ages 20th, p.
384), but with a Thrashing Dragon Dharma of 2
and Godbody of Wood 2.
Once the mortal has been delivered the charac-
ters are afterwards free to wander around Tondo for
as long as they want, and can visit or find shelter in
the May-nila cell at any time. Anyone can later on
extract more information about Marikit, her Court
or the Palembang sleeper from the cell’s aswang, us-
ing appropriate skills (Difficulty 6; 8 if no gift was
given):
One or two successes: Marikit was once the
Scarlet Phoenix Queen of both Tondo and a distant
city named Butuan, from where she came from. In
that city she was the tantric protector of a huge
dragon nest the locals eventually named “Pugad
Bakunawa.” She came to Tondo after the nest was
transported here, but was eventually driven away by
a small yet formidable group of Wan Kei merchants
from the Middle Kingdom who call themselves
the Jasmine Sea wu. The cell exists in part to sab-
otage that Corpse Family’s trading activities. The
cell itself knows nothing of the Palembang sleeper,
though they are aware of the strange phenomena
(such as the swarms of insects and the events emerg-
ing from the various barangay) that have been hap-
pening as of late, but have little idea of what to do
about them.
Three or more successes: Pugad Bakunawa
functions not only as a rich source of both Yin and
Yang Chi; it also serves as a funnel for the trans-
migration of souls and beings from this world to
other realms. Marikit knows of this, and despite her
exile she uses the cell to keep watch over activities
(as well as eliminate threats) concerning the dragon
nest. Both the Queen and her followers believe that
members of the Jasmine Sea wu have already ex-
ploited too much of Pugad Bakunawa’s fragile Chi
reserves, and that further unfettered exploitation
would degrade the barriers between this world and
the others; hence their sabotage activities.
Engagement
and Interaction
If the Storyteller has somehow created a narrative
involving two or more groups of characters (one each
from Punyu, Palembang or Tondo), then the possibil-
ity of interaction between them can increase signifi-
cantly as they wander the city’s cramped and winding
streets in search of the Baali. The language barrier
will likely be the first inconvenience upon contact;
though virtually all of the Middle Kingdom’s Wan
Kuei speak either Cantonese or Mandarin without
bothering to learn other “barbarian” tongues, the
majority of vampires from all across Srivijaya’s ter-
ritories (including Tondo) speak either only Malay
or Hindi.
First contact may also not necessarily be friend-
ly: both the Yellow Emperor and Scarlet Phoenix
Courts have had openly hostile engagements against
each other in the past over the rights to Tondo’s mas-
sive dragon nest. The Jasmine Sea wu and their aides
see Marikit’s Court as an antiquated group of ban-
dits and saboteurs, while the voluptuous penangal-
lan and her attendants are more than eager to drive
away these “decadent” Middle Kingdom foreigners
from their ancestral lands. Characters influenced
by either Court could see the other as nuisances at
best and formidable adversaries at worst. Caught in
between are Tondo’s indigenous aswang, who most
likely by this point see the aggressive undead visitors
as proof of an upcoming dreadful event.
Some of the ways the factions can engage each
other include the following:
• The Jasmine Sea wu, upon being queried of
Ying Chau-Kau’s murderer, might put the blame on
Marikit and her sleeper cell; she, after all, is looking
for any way to destabilize any sort of relations with
the Middle Kingdom, or so the wu assumes. They
consider Ying’s black marble elephant as property
of the August Court of the Yellow Emperor, and its
theft (who they may blame on the cell) must be recti-
fied by any means.
• Both Marikit and her cell are eager to take
back the territories they lost in Tondo, and they see
the Jasmine Sea wu as having little respect for the
land they took and the blood they sup on. The com-
ing of a demon-worshipping Cainite from Palem-
bang, though not really of that much concern to
Marikit, could nevertheless still disrupt the flow of
36
Pugad Bakunawa’s delicate Chi reserves even more.
The cell knows that at least two of the wu’s members
and their retainers occasionally step out of their si-
heyuan and conduct trade around the city. Beyond
their stronghold these Wan Kuei are vulnerable, and
the cell would very much appreciate the characters
to harass the Song vampires if they catch a glimpse
of the latter.
• Upon hearing of various portents of undead
visitors from distant lands converging in Tondo to
take part in a potentially catastrophic event in the
near future, local aswang may perhaps seek out the
vampires from either Palembang or Punyu as they
wander around the city and interrogate them on
their business here.
All these possibilities assume that each faction
views the others as somehow responsible for the ar-
rival of either of the two Baali Cainites in Tondo.
If somehow the characters from each faction can
overcome their language and ideological differences,
then confronting their true Baali foes might be easier
when the time finally arrives.
The Twelve Statues
Both the black marble elephant and the jasper rhi-
noceros are part of a set of twelve exquisite animal
figurines. The very few scholars who know of their
existence point to the interesting fact that though
the set was indeed crafted within the Middle King-
dom, the animals nevertheless don’t appear in the
traditional Chinese zodiac. The set was said to have
been crafted by a long-dead Ch’in Ta shortly after
the reign of China’s first Emperor—and it seems that
the purpose for such has been brought to the grave.
Unfortunately, many of the statues have since
been lost to time and scattered to the four direc-
tions; worse, it is believed that some have already
been destroyed—a deer figurine made of green mala-
chite, for instance, was used for a particularly po-
tent spell cast by mages in India during the Pallava
Dynasty’s reign. Students of the esoteric understand
that the animal statues themselves don’t harbor
power, though they could be used to channel poten-
tially tremendous amounts of supernatural energy.
Among the few figurines known to still survive in
the Dark Ages include: an alabaster tortoise kept in
a remote monastery in Turfan; a blue agate carp in
the keeping of the Golden Jade Society in Changan;
and a gray marble owl that graces one of the halls of
the shogun’s palace in Kamakura.
The Island
on the Pasig
With unusual inexplicable phenomena manifesting
themselves to both mortals and undead alike, and
hostilities potentially boiling over among up to three
factions of vampires, Armin and Zaparia trigger
their centuries-old plan. The Storyteller determines
at what point in the story when tensions are at their
most volatile: it could be amidst a skirmish between
rival Courts over Tondo’s thatched rooftops, in the
middle of a hunt for exotic prey that has gone com-
pletely awry, or through impending panic brought
about by the looming specter of famine.
As the point of chaos tips over, a great swarm of
blowflies invades Tondo without warning. The scent
of mortal fear grips the dry night air as the insects, in
their thousands, form a horrendous buzzing plague
that never seems to settle. With the exception of
those who live the supernatural (such as mages and
hunters), mortals flee in terror from the incompre-
hensible swarm and seek shelter indoors. By itself
the swarm does no true physical damage to the un-
dead, but it nevertheless increases the Difficulty of
all Perception rolls by 2.
The pestilence has a rhythm, though initially
it remains unnoticed due to the droning noise it
brings. Wan Kuei using Ghostsight, or Cainites us-
ing Auspex 1, will be able to see a faint and regular
pulse in the swarm’s otherwise chaotic motions, as
if it were being replenished with thousands of new
insects once every minute or so. Two or more suc-
cesses on the same roll would allow a character to im-
mediately determine the direction and source of the
pulse, which seems to come from a small island in
the middle of the nearly-dry Pasig River. Otherwise,
characters could eventually recognize the source af-
ter half an hour of exposure within the swarm.
A single large acacia tree stands over the rocky
island over the Pasig, which is now bathed in an eerie
reddish-gold light that burns like fire from a forge.
If the characters are within a mile of the Jasmine
Sea siheyuan, Marikit’s secret cell or anywhere by the
Pasig’s banks within Tondo’s territory, they could
easily reach the island within less than five minutes.
Elsewhere beyond the compound would take ap-
proximately half an hour of travel in the absence of
extraordinary means.
This delay is crucial, since it determines if one
37
of the two animal statues has been consumed by the
Baali ritual. Beyond the five-minute travel time, as-
suming no one has yet reached the island, the Sto-
ryteller rolls one die: a result of 1 to 5 means the
black marble elephant has been consumed, a 6 to 10
indicates the destruction of the jasper rhinoceros.
Due to the drought the Pasig River itself is rela-
tively traversable on foot, with its muddy waters
reaching never higher than one’s calves. Halfway
from the banks to the island, characters can clearly
see the outline of the two Baali Cainites dance na-
ked amidst the swarm to a strange and otherworldly
rhythm only they could understand.
When the characters reach the island, they are
treated to a gruesome scene: several corpses encircl-
ing the base of the acacia, their bodies bloodied and
entangled in strange positions. If the characters at-
tempted earlier to investigate certain disappearances
(as described in “Arrivals” previously), they would
recognize some of the corpses as those who were
missing. All of the dead bodies bear fatal wounds
and grotesque faces that suggest the voluntary forfei-
ture of their lives to the Baali and their devices.
The tree and the corpses are in turn ringed by a
pulsating red light akin to magma emerging from a
circular crevasse on the dry earth. On opposite sides
of the tree stand the black marble elephant and the
jasper rhinoceros (or just one of either if the char-
acters arrived beyond five minutes from their point
of departure), drenched in blood and swarmed over
by blowflies. Dried acacia leaves fall all around the
island, the tree being both an unwilling witness and
victim to whatever would transpire tonight. There is
a heady rancidity that wafts in the air, as blood, earth
and cinder mix with the droning of the pestilence.
Around all of these dance the two Baali, who ignore
the arrival of the characters. Wherever Zaparia and
Armin step, their footfalls seem to make the circular
crevasse of red light wider—as if the island was giving
way for something to emerge from beneath it.
No attempt at verbal interaction can influence
the two vampires at this point; their ultimate goal is
to use Pugad Bakunawa’s Chi reserves, through the
statues, to open a permanent crossing between the
mortal world and a hell-realm. Only when either of
the statues are handled, or when the Baali are physi-
cally attacked by the characters, do the former begin
to retaliate for the latter’s intrusion.
By engaging even just one of the Baali at the
very heart of Pugad Bakunawa, the characters might
understand that this is a daunting task that could po-
tentially lead to the Final Death. The semiprecious
stone beasts the two Cainites brought with them to
Tondo somehow channel the dragon nest’s Chi to
enhance their abilities. However, an Intelligence +
Occult roll (Difficulty 8) reveals that taking even just
one of the statues off the small island back to shore
would severely interrupt their ritual and permanently
nullify the supernatural enhancements they have re-
ceived. As such they begin to flail and scream as they
attack, almost mindless of the inevitability of their
own Final Deaths at the hands of the characters.
The window for defeating Armin and Zaparia
is small. As soon as any character engages both in
physical conflict, or attempts to whisk away the
blood-drenched beast statues from the island, they
only have a handful of minutes before one of the
statues (or the last remaining one if they arrived late)
dissolves in the blazing inferno that emerges from
below.
Outcome: The
Characters Fail
Total dissolution in hellfire of the two beast statues
brings the end that both Baali desire, and would
mean failure for the characters regardless of their
origins in Tondo, Punyu or Palembang. As soon as
the gateway to the Hell-realm opens, Armin and Za-
paria quickly become undead beings of considerable
supremacy, each possessing the power of Cainite Me-
thuselahs or Imperial Ancestors of the Wan Kuei.
After three nights, a previously unknown Yama King
would emerge from the festering wound inflicted
by the ritual, and the Baali would quickly bargain
with it to rule Tondo and expand their influence
beyond the already-chaotic city. The Jasmine Sea wu
and Marikit’s secret court would flee the kingdom
in haste and leave it to its own destructive devices;
the native aswang, scattered as they already are, have
little choice but to kneel before their new infernal
Princes, or face a number of fates worse than the
Second Death.
In the daylight world Tondo would not change
much, though the city would become a den of vice
and violence for many generations to come. The
Spaniards, who would arrive in the 16th Century
and rename the city Manila, would have a much
38
harder time quelling the restless native denizens;
the Europeans would use their own brand of gore
as retaliation. The blood that would be spilled on
Manila’s muddy streets further enhance the cycle of
violence that the Baali desire in the shadows.
For characters from Punyu, failure to bring evi-
dence of Ying’s killer brings about the dissolution of
the Autumn Dragon wu and the execution of Wong
Tai-Kan under dawn’s light. Punyu would then fall
into the control of the aggressive Blissful Ice Daggers
wu, and any shen who was once in amicable terms
with Wong or his disbanded wu would be antago-
nized wherever they tread in the Middle Kingdom.
By the time the Quincunx is formed, all traces of
Ying’s teachings and influence over China are for-
gotten.
With no jasper beast in hand, characters who
return to Palembang are chastised by the Acarya and
mocked by their peers. The characters are banished
from the city, and Pratam Ular maintains his rule.
Within around a decade, Armin returns to Palem-
bang to expand his influence and reclaim the candi
of Rawana; overwhelmed by his power, Agniwati Tir-
ganggaputri capitulates to him and initiates a noctur-
nal war against Pratam Ular that would turn nearly
all of the city’s vampires to ash. When the Javanese
invade from the east a century hence, Palembang
would virtually be emptied of undead.
Outcome: The
Characters Succeed
Conversely, Final Death for both Armin and Zaparia
would mean obvious success for the characters. The
ritual to overlap one of the Hells on this world fails,
the balance of the Ages is restored, and Tondo’s
dragon nest (though temporarily convulsed) even-
tually settles into relative calm. A full month after
the upheaval, the monsoon rains would fall on the
island of Ma-Yi for the first time in years, and the
specter of famine would dissipate in time.
The societies of Tondo’s aswang wouldn’t change
much, though they now become more wary of out-
sider shen, particularly those who claim descent from
Caine. Pugad Bakunawa’s influence would allow
shen all across Ma-Yi to arrive at an uneasy truce, see-
ing to it that the dragon nest’s Chi reserves would
not be further exploited by foreign intrusion. When
Islam arrives a few hundred years hence, bringing
with it the Ashirra, the aswang would mount a shad-
ow resistance to keep the religion from firmly being
planted, though they would eventually bow to Span-
ish Christianity.
Middle Kingdom characters returning to Punyu
would have Byampa Dondrup describe all the de-
tails to the Golden Jade Society of their foray in
Tondo. Wong would be cleared of all charges of
murder against Ying, and the return of the black
marble elephant would see the characters sharply
rise in social status within the tight ranks of the Yel-
low Emperor’s Court.
When the characters from Palembang return
to the earthquake-ravaged city carrying the jasper
rhinoceros with them, the Acarya gives them his
gratitude—and control of the city itself. Within the
year he departs Palembang and returns to Gangotri,
where the sacred Ganges begins its flow. There he
consolidates his power and declares himself the
Prince of all Cainites across the southern Himala-
yas. Pratam Ular’s departure would also give Agni-
wati a greater opportunity to broker deals with the
characters, offering them material wealth, influence,
Chi and blood in exchange for various favors, as she
herself secretly vies for sole dominion as Queen of
Palembang.
Armin and
Zaparia
Baali Wanderers
The Cainite infernalists who desired to turn Tondo
into a gateway to Hell were born more than a thou-
sand years ago in the chaotic borderlands between
the Roman and Persian Empires. Though both of
them had not known each other during their mor-
tal years, they nevertheless found themselves caught
in a spiraling and bloody conflict between Roman
legionnaires and Jewish rebels. Armin, a student
of Judaic esotericism, sympathized with the rebels,
while Zaparia was a simple slave-healer for the Ro-
man army. Both had seen the paradoxical senseless-
ness and necessity of religious wars, and both had
for whatever reason been brought to the desert for-
tress of Masada. A night before the bloodbath that
would see the Romans win, they would both be ini-
tiated into a defiant and fatal ideology by Gilzu, a
39
shadowy figure who spat on divinity and command-
ed the swarms. Armin and Zaparia would awaken in
undeath to the fiery cacophony of Masada’s fall, a
vision of hell itself.
The first century of the Baali’s Second Lives
would see them wander the eastern Roman Empire
and Persia, following Gilzu and spreading the word
of divine defiance. Gilzu would soon meet Final
Death at the hands of zealous adherents devoted
to a crucified carpenter from Palestine, leaving his
childer to fend for themselves and seek wisdom
elsewhere. With the conversion of Rome to Chris-
tianity and the rise of Islam in Arabia, both Baali
had on several occasions hence encountered other
powerful Cainites who still swore allegiance to these
monotheistic faiths—a belief that both of them saw
as hypocrisy. Armin and Zaparia were nevertheless
outnumbered and overpowered, and they both fled
east, never to return.
Asia’s openness and acceptance of hell-realms
and demons living alongside gods and heavenly
beings delighted both vampires. Here they slowly
learned of pathways to power and hellish tran-
scendence only dreamed about in the self-centered
empires of the West, and they desired to grasp one
of these powers themselves. Such a lofty ambition
proved elusive at first, their progress stunted by ob-
fuscation and opaque layers of mysticism. With what-
ever scraps of wisdom they could find, they learned
of the existence of “dragon nests” where spiritual
energies welled, as well as a fabled “Grand Dragon
Nest” located on a far island across the sea further
east. In the foothills of the Himalayas, Armin came
into possession of a rhinoceros statue made of the
purest red jasper, an artifact they both knew could
magnify the Curse of Caine. Zaparia, desiring a stat-
ue of similar power for herself, eventually decided
to part ways with Armin, convinced that they would
soon reunite when they would finally be able to un-
leash the potential of these dragon nests for their
own ends. Armin traveled south to Srivijaya, where
he cultivated a secret cult of mortal infernalists; he
would soon fall into torpor in a small temple hid-
den by the jungle, surrounded by heady trappings
worthy of future godhood. Zaparia crossed the
breadth of the Middle Kingdom, patiently building
a network of informants who would guide her (wit-
tingly or otherwise) to infernal apotheosis.
Armin Zaparia
Standing at a little bit over six feet tall, Armin cuts a Even when veiled beneath her cloak, Zaparia’s por-
noticeable figure with his lion-like mane of hair and trait still strikes an uneasy reaction from those who
lithe yet surprisingly limber stature. see her due to the Sanskrit tattoos on her face and
(All numbers in parentheses denote values given by the skin.
intact jasper rhinoceros.) (All numbers in parentheses denote values given by the
Sire: Gilzu of Mashkan-shapir intact black marble elephant.)
Clan: Baali Sire: Gilzu of Mashkan-shapir
Nature: Rebel Clan: Baali
Demeanor: Enigma Nature: Conniver
Generation: 7th Demeanor: Chameleon
Embrace: 73 CE Generation: 7th
Apparent Age: Late 30s Embrace: 73 CE
Apparent Age: Early 40s
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5
Appearance 4 Social: Charisma 5, Manipulation 3,
Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 4 Appearance 4
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 2
Talents: Alertness 3 (4), Athletics 3 (4),
Brawl 4 (5), Intimidation 3 (4) Talents: Athletics 3 (4), Awareness 3 (4),
Skills: Melee 3 (4), Stealth 4 (5), Survival 4 (5) Brawl 3 (4), Intimidation 4 (5), Subterfuge 3 (4)
Knowledges: Enigmas 2 (3), Investigation 2 (3), Skills: Commerce 4 (5), Melee 2 (3),
Occult 4 (5) Stealth 4 (5), Survival 5 (6)
Knowledges: Enigmas 4 (5), Investigation 4 (5),
Disciplines: Daimonion 4 (6), Presence 2 (4), Medicine 3 (4), Occult 3 (4), Theology 3 (4)
Obfuscate 3 (5)
Backgrounds: Allies 1, Domain 1, Generation 5 Disciplines: Daimonion 4 (6), Presence 3 (5),
Morality: Road of Sin (Path of Screams) 7 Obfuscate 2 (4)
Willpower: 6 Backgrounds: Allies 1, Generation 5,
Blood Pool/Max per Turn: 20/4 Resources 2
Morality: Road of Sin (Path of Screams) 6
Willpower: 5
Blood Pool/Max per Turn: 20/4

40
 Wind and Water
The murder of a revered Wan Kuei philosopher in Guangzhou
turns into an insidious blame game that pits Corpse Families
against each other.

Wood and Earth

A massive earthquake in the city of Palembang uncovers a
long-hidden tomb with a dangerous inhabitant.

Fire and Metal

Two seemingly unrelated events would see their confluence in the
tribal kingdom f Tondo, where a great reaping centuries in the
making would see its fulfillment.

BLACK FIRE OVER TONDO is a story of the undead that takes

place in the obscure and lirtle-known period of the Dark Ages in
East Asia. The story takes characters from the endangered Song
Dynasty of China, or the dying Srivijaya Empire of Sumatra, to the
hidden island realm of the pre-Magellanic Philippines, chasing twin
threats that can forever change the face of Asia’s nights.