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You enter through the gates of Redtown. Redtown is the highest part of town, and so is currently lost in the same low cloud that hangs over the city. You all look meaningful at each other as you step into the fog, but this mist is damp and cool, it smells of recent rain, crisp mountain air, and the sweet, subtle incense the people of Fanlu like to burn on their front porches in the morning.
The gate into Redtown is wide open, it’s still early, people are very focused, setting up their shops, or still getting ready for the day.
It does not take long at all to reach the front door of The Mensheng Mansion. It is a fine house, but not at all huge. There’s a side yard, the one that housed the statue you slept by, and you can tell there’s a much larger piece of land fenced in out back. There are signs of wear and disrepair as well. The paint on the front door is starting to peel, one of the large front steps is sagging and half rotted, needing to be replaced, and the potted plants on either side of the door are overgrown and wild. The Front door looks something like this. PS, these pictures would have been cool to use when you guys were ethereal. Don’t ya hate it when you think of something cool after the fact?!
What do you do???There’s a long pause, then a man, the housemaster (butler) opens the door, looking tired and miserable, but you look right past him at the beauty standing on the old staircase about 20ft. behind him. Her jaw drops a little as she sees you Stern, and she stares into your eyes like a deer caught in the aim of a hunter, shes’ probably 20 years at most. A green dress, a flute held in her delicate hands.
(Like this but not showing so much skin)“Meela! Get up stairs and finish with the curtains”
(Like this but all in black)The voice comes from a 3rd figure, a regal, tough looking woman in her early forties. Thin, solid, she is old but not at all frail, and has a menacing presence, like an imperious queen, only intensified by the elaborate black dress and veil she wears. The Veil covers half of her stern features.
“Meela!” She sternly shouts as she gracefully walks between the girl and the butler,out into the entry parlor, not even looking at you yet, her eyes locked on the girl as she points back upstairs. The girl backs up slowly, still looking at you stern, then seeming to remember her manners, bows slightly before shyly turning and running up the stairs in almost girlish embarrassment.
What on earth are you….the older woman is saying as she turns to face the door and sees Stern’s massive frame towering over the butler.
Her expression does not move from icy calm, tinged with annoyance, but she does raise an eyebrow, folding her arms, and regarding you Stern, as an impetuous queen might regard a failed knight.
“Please sir, state your business here at Mensheng House…” The butler manages before she interrupts him
“A little early are we not? tell me what horrid news could not wait until after breakfast…we are already a house in mourning, now you would render us a house without the morning time to itself!?…just…what is it.”
This must be Leia Mensheng.
So, the rest of you go into the parlor, you can see Stern and Leia Mensheng through the glass doors out into the garden. They speak for about an hour
Stern, she basically gives you the low down of her life, which, if it were given as a condensed version it would be more like this;
My father was killed in Shou Shan when I was a little girl. My mother and I fled the village, he stayed behind to fight, that was the last I saw of him, or any of my friends. We moved here because Evon offered to take in the refugees of Shoushan. I hated it. My mother used to spend all her time at the orphanage in Laketown vounteering, she felt like she owed it to Evon for all he did for us. One night the Orphanage received a huge donation. Some bandits got word of it. They came into town unarmed, dressed as worskipers on a pilgrimaged to the Shrine. The checked into an Inn in town, and the next night broke into the orphanage. My mother was there when it happened, and she was killed trying to stop them, killed over money. I felt like I barely saw her, and then she was gone for good.
I married a merchant of the Brotherhood. He was charming, the wedding was beautiful, but I barely saw him. He was killed by bandits out on the road south of here. I felt like I barely saw him too, and he was gone for good. His body was never recovered. He left me with 2 daughters and a son. I lost him 2 years ago. Like father like son, he joined the damn crazy merchants…he wanted to make his own way, impress his dead father…one day some fortune teller told him his father was still alive, so he went on some fools errand to find him, and was killed. I know my son is dead, I paid the keeper for a divination, and paid a finder to bring his body back. They said there were clues about how he died, but, I…I didn’t want to know….he died some place horrible and now he’s gone and done is done.
My eldest Daughter married and gave me two grand children who I dot over, but their father, my daughters wife…well, she married a brotherhood merchant as well. He rode out to fight Slags bastard raiders in Quarytown, and he didn’t come back. We now maintain the vigil of passing for him. I worry for my daughter and her children. I feel like Death haunts me, he shadows everything I love. I hated the gods, I hated the rites, they did nothing for me. I’ve doubted the otherside, I’ve openly cursed it…a week ago Chu noticed the sigils on the gate to our back yard were stolen…They are expensive to replace, and I don’t think they do any good anyways, it’s just another way for priests to make money, like that fortuneteller made money off my son and sent him to his death. I hate it all. Since the symbol was taken I haven’t got much sleep, so I started preying to my mother, I don’t know why, to pass the night I suppose…I stopped believing the dead really hear us a long time ago. As a girl I preyed but I just felt alone, and my life just got worse and worse….and then you show up at my door, and you say her name, you say you saw her. I don’t know what to say but I believe you. I must seek out atonement, forgiveness for my bitterness, peace from grief…can you perform an atonement on me Stern?
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