Contains spoilers for an upcoming one-off
Old Ma, a regular at Fu's Inn in the northern port city of Beigang, is an affable elder (with only a touch of dementia) despite being, supposedly, well over a hundred. He loves telling stories to you kids, some of which you may even believe. He has a lot of good stories - he was a great earthbender, back in his prime, and he got a medal from the Earth King for pushing a barge back and forth to Ba Sing Se along the Great Canal ten thousand times. He'd have shown you the medal, except he lost it escaping from a rabid badgermole.
Yesterday's story was different. He had proof. Golden coins, inscribed "Tiansheng," the last Empress of the Northern Ri. There was a treasure under the old Ganjinese bathhouse, a treasure whose owners had been too afraid to spend because of its incriminating origins. They'd buried it there, and it had been forgotten... all the gold he could carry. How do you think it is that Old Ma can afford to spend all his time sitting around drinking and telling stories to kids, hm? Why did he keep on working all those years after finding this gold? Well, for his health, of course.
Notwithstanding a few gaps, this seemed like something worth checking out. So, your young adventuring party set off, supplies in hand, in a quest for wealth and glory....
Pregens to follow.
FU Meimei (扶美苺) Age: 12 Occupation: Miscellaneous chores at the Inn, studying. Family: daughter of the landlord of Fu's Inn. Knowledge: Getting a basic education at a scribal school. She is literate. Bending: She is an earthbender, but not very skilled at all (at least not yet) as she was only discovered a year ago. Physical prowess: Average. Pulls hair of enemies. Spends too much time reading Strange Stories and martial arts romances...
LI Zhipeng（李智鵬) Age: 12 Occupation: apprentice cook at Fu's Inn Family: Nephew of the landlord of Fu's Inn (Meimei's cousin), an apprentice cook. Knowledge: Of cooking, fairly good. Literacy - basic, functional (for recipes). Knows like a thousand characters for kinds of vegetables. Physical prowess: Good, for his age. A tall boy. Has borrowed a knife. Zhipeng has always had an adventurous streak...
NIU Yutong (牛雨桐) Age: 11 Occupation: Scribal student, Family: Daughter of the owner of a low-class brothel. From the Southern Earth Kingdom, mixed ethnicity. Knowledge: Literate (reads and writes, passingly familiar with the elementary classics.) Bending: None Physical prowess: Fair. Bookish. Yutong's mother has managed to mostly shield her from the family business, and is sending her to scribal school, hoping for a respectable life for her daughter. Probably would not be thrilled to find out about Yutong's participation, unless it's in answer to "where did all this gold come from?!"
ZHOU Zihao (周梓豪) Age: 11 Occupation: A bog-flax heckler for the Gim family enterprises since he was nine. Knowledge: He is not literate. Family: New Zhongzu (refugees), arrived in Beigang a few years ago. Living in the tenements nearby. Partially reliant on the Angjiao charities. Bending: None. Physical Prowess: Average. Good at fighting. Often gets into fights with other kids on the streets. Usually wins them. Stays in line during work hours.
JIANG Yichen (匠亦宸) Age: 12 Occupation: Apprentice utensil-maker / silversmith. Knowledge: He is literate. He knows something about crafting / smithing. Bending: Weak earthbender. Mostly knows craft earthbending for polishing and grinding metal, but has learned a fighting move or two. Family: Craftspeople. Established working class Old Zhongzu. Not prosperous, but stable. Yichen is the oldest son of the family. He knows the treasure, if it's real, could let his family buy tools and establish their own shop.
>>> The expedition had been going swimmingly, until the ground gave way under the hole you'd been digging and you all fell down here. You landed in a bunch of mud at the bottom of a pit, and in the dim light of your lantern - which you've managed to re-light with difficulty - you can see only that the ceiling is far above your heads. Where is this place? You can hear the sound of running water in the distance. The whole place smells musty.
The water pipe to the bathhouse has been leaking (under pressure) for a long time and hollowed out some underground spaces previously full of dirt. Kids digging at the top caved the rest in.
Six rooms: