- As the season turns to Winter, the Heke water nomads and their herds migrate from the rivers and lakes of the Northern Earth Kingdom and gather on the Western Lake to overwinter in a less frigid climate. Once the myriads of Heke people are gathered, they celebrate the Ukiuk Festival and form an ephemeral floating city on the Southern shore.
You are members of an expedition sent by the University of Ba Sing Se to document the Ukiuk Festival and learn about the culture and folkways of the Heke, as a contribution to the monumental work The Anthropology of the Earth Nations. It was hard to secure funding for the expedition - what with the war you're not allowed to publicly mention back home - but some wealthy sponsors came forward to support the cause, and you were on your way. On arriving to the Floating City, however, you soon discover that something is amiss this year. A disaster has befallen a particular Heke tribe, and rivals point fingers at each other, threatening to break out into a violent conflict, to say nothing of ruining the festival you have been sent to observe. As scholars and impartial observers, you are asked to investigate and report to the Ukiuk Council so that they can make a fair decision about how to handle the matter.
Pregens to follow.
鯺遠言 ZEI Yuanyan, 19 year old woman, and 鯺遠社 ZEI Yuanshe, 19 year old man. The children of Professor Zei, an up-and-coming junior faculty member in the department of anthropology, Yuanyan and her twin brother Yuanshe are unusually well traveled for their age. Their mother was a talented Jiangke singer who entertained their father back when he was an enthusiastic and adventurous graduate student Zei, sowing his wild oats in the Southern Earth Kingdom. On his return voyage to Ba Sing Se, the professor discovered he had become a father, and brought the twins and their mother with him. However, the social circles of Ba Sing Se's middle ring refused to accept a Jiangke, and the twins' mother left acrimoniously to return to her own people, professor Zei insisting on keeping the children with him to receive an education. Yuanyan and Yuanshe are fascinated by their father's work, but feel a deep resentment toward the Ba Sing Se society of which he is a part, for not accepting their family, and consider themselves more as world citizens. Although this expedition is their sixth in total, it is the first one in which their father is not accompanying him, as he is occupied doing research about the Si Wang desert in Omashu.
Both twins are very knowledgeable about the cultures and languages of the Earth Nations and have a good classical education. They are also familiar with the political currents active in the Earth Kingdom at this time. Neither are benders, but Yuanyan is skilled in Hwasalbujok archery, and Yuanshe is a keen swordsman.
平孝通 PING Xiaotong, a 31 year old man, a former student of of professor Zei, and now a sort of "postdoctoral fellow." He is an earthbender who spent years winning the trust of the Sandbender tribes of the Hanwang desert, and learning their bending techniques. Besides his published studies of comparative earthbending, Dr. Ping also uses his unique skills in archaeological digs, using his subtle and precise bending to carefully excavate sites without damaging fragile artifacts. He has had an adventurous life - not surprisingly for someone lived in the notoriously lawless Hanwang - and is also an excellent combat earthbender. He is the informal leader of the expedition.
鄧悌忱 DENG Tichen, a 25 year old woman, a graduate student of professor Zei, who hopes to write her anthropology thesis on the Heke people and their unique festival. She is from an upper-ring background in Ba Sing Se. The Deng family are old money who made a vast fortune in land speculation during the Earth Kingdom Civil War - an ancestor bought up the legal title to land near Ba Sing Se occupied by Qin's troops for absurdly low prices from fleeing refugees in desperate need of money, correctly predicting that Qin's rebellion would be defeated. He then rented the land back to the returning refugees when Qin was turned back, eventually amassing wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. It is said that the combined fortunes of the Deng descendants make them the richest commoners in the Earth Kingdom. Rather than becoming an upper-class wife, though, Tichen - always intensely curious - decided she wanted to be a scholar and see the wider world. Her family are not keen on her participation in the expedition, but are tolerating it as a youthful eccentricity.
For her protection, her family insisted that Tichen be trained in Qi-blocking and non-bending martial arts, as she is not a bender. She is also equipped with a crossbow, with which she is reasonably proficient.
蜑麥富 DAN Maifu, a 28-year-old woman of mixed Heke and Zhongzu descent living on the southern coast of the Western Lake, Maifu was hired by the expedition as an interpreter, as many Heke do not speak the Common Language proficiently enough to convey subtle details. Maifu is a practiced interpreter, as well as a budding lawyer; she is reading the law under the supervision of a local Hao Ting official. The yamen officially employs her as a translator for when cases involving the Heke come before the court. However, the officials felt that the expedition was sufficiently important to allow Maifu to go with them, as there are also a few other interpreters available to do her work. She has devised a phonetic writing system for the Heke language based on a simplified version of the Common characters.
Maifu is a waterbender, though she is not very practiced at it and thinks she doesn't have much native talent.
牛雨桐 NIU Yutong, 18 year old woman. The daughter of the owner of a low-class brothel in the Northern port city of Beigang, she is of mixed ethnicity and from the Southern Earth Kingdom. Despite her low origin, the adventurous girl had the benefit of a decent education, upon which her mother spent much of her profits. Yutong was determined not to squander this opportunity and was an apt student, eventually getting the notice of a visiting scholar from Ba Sing Se University, who invited her to become a student. Though not always fitting in well with the capital elites, she earned the respect of her professors for her intellectual acumen. She is a non-bender, but has cultivated the "internal martial arts" and spiritual discipline along with her academic studies. On a past expedition, she secretly visited the Fire Nation colonies - a risky mission for an Earth Kingdom subject - and learned about the new technology of photography, which she has been working to develop back at the university with the Alchemical Department (some progress is being made, but it remains far from portable.)
People are wandering around confused, demented, victims of the monster spirit - no one remembers what happened. One ring boat cluster had this happen.
---
A pair of monster spirits were trapped in an ancient air nomad device by the Lungspre Great Sage Medo III. The device passed through many hands before being sent as tribute to the Great Ri; it became part of the grave goods of the Renxian emperor before being looted by Hao Ting peasant conscripts. It found its way to the central earth kingdom, where it was traded to Heke nomads during the preparations for the Ukiuk Festival. One of them was screwing around with it and managed to activate open it for the first time since Medo III's time. Messing with the controls, one of the monster spirits was set free, promptly swallowing every villager it could find with its tube-tentacles and going to the bottom of the lake.
I, Medo, the airbending master, sealed a monster spirit Shizhi within this Strange Vessel. Do not tamper with the Strange Vessel or the spirit will be released. If this has already happened, the you must know ??? ??? sacrifice four of my important memories to seal the spirit. By adjusting the
you can recall the images of my memories and use them to pull the monster spirit back and --- very dangerous, but there is no other way. "
"These are the memories I used: " "The ruins of a great ??? of some ancient sovereign, in the hill country of the west. That day when I was enlightened as to the nature of impermanence while meditating by a small stream."
- "The fishing village ???, in the very late afternoon, just after a rainstorm. A fishing boat had capsized and a father of ??? drowned. That day I was ?????????? of suffering."
"A rustic stone shrine on the plains of the ???? of the ??? Air Temple, where I was enlightened as to the nature of ????." "Mount Hiyama, in an outlying desert of the Fire Nation - ???????????? the caprice and power of Nature." Puzzle
The monster spirit may be lured back by showing it certain images from Medo's memory.
12 17 40 115 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 "The ruins of a great palace of some ancient sovereign, in the hill country of the west. That day when I was enlightened as to the nature of impermanence while meditating by a small stream."
72 165 90 270 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "The fishing village Hongcun, in the very late afternoon, just after a rainstorm. A fishing boat had capsized and a father of six drowned. That day I was enlightened as to the nature of suffering." (note: no need to have a boat; check images for anachronistic telephone poles before presenting)
160 150 320 270 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 "A rustic stone shrine on the plains of the lands of the Western Air Temple, where I was enlightened as to the nature of moral duty." (note: any weather is acceptable, and any sun conditions except bright day)
110 0 0 90 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 "Mount Hiyama, in an outlying desert of the Fire Nation - there, I was enlightened as to the caprice and power of Nature."
One image will bring the monster to just below the lake surface - lots of luminescence. Two images will bring it up, so that images of people can be seen inside it, quescent but alive if carefully inspected, images of their memories flow out of them. Three images will make the monster attack, but be drawn slowly into the machine. Four will promptly suck it up and seal it.