Returning to the history of the claw of Ba…
The great white tigers forayed into the newly founded (and destined to be short lived) Kingdom of Ye where they secured their infant King, Ba Biaobing Er. Though apparently avoiding ruinous trade rights, they instead committed, with no authority to do so, Ba Biaobing Er to marry the 12 year old daughter of this “King” Ye. But this is a story that will perhaps be told later in these annals. They also discovered a long lost brother, Huong Shun, blacksmith of Ping Shan and a Lord of Ba had just finished some private negotiations with King Pang of Ye.
Returning north, they fought their way through slavers and others who they had angered over the years and saw an opportunity to try to exact revenge. The Claws of Ba are wily and touched by Heaven and with the help of their loyal followers, fought their way through the traps and in the end had the last laugh, looting and burning Zhi the Severe’s home while he was hunting them in the hills.
Their return to the capital Zhi was met with great celebration and fanfare. Xiao Houzi was elevated to the rank of Lord and given lands seized in the west. Huong Shun was given domain of Ping Shan and its surrounding lands. An Gao’s lands were expanded to include Bai Xiong Hu’s older meager holdings and some other minor lords who bordered the southern barbarians. Bai Xiong Hu was had his father’s lands in the east restored to him. Huong Shun was also reunited with his brother, Fu Shang, who had journeyed through fire and earth to purge himself of the wrongs he had committed under the influence of Yao the unclean, was made Lord and part of the claws of Ba. The claws of Ba were given a new mandate and new charge: to wander the Kingdom dispensing the King’s Justice on Lord and commoner alike, and retrieve and reconstruct the history and geneology of Ba.
The infant child was sent to the Emperor’s court in Zhou to be raised as a true King and safely away from the influence of the lords of Ba. The Emperor had had enough of the disruption in salt supplies from Ba and took the child to ensure cooperation of the Lords regent.
They went first to Feng Du, the first city on their journey. Innocent to the games of power, or perhaps beyond their ken, they found themselves judging peasants not paying their taxes and helping merchants to smuggle salt out of the city. Huong Shun and An Gao became particularly friendly with Master Tu, who had helped them in the past. They also convinced him that it would be imprudent to submit a bill for his losses during the war. As a merchant he should have known his place is below the maggots.
Strange sorcery descended on Feng Du while the claw were there, and it had all the signs all pointed Yao the Unclean. A fire spirit was conjured by an enchanted scroll which burned several warehouses (some of them holding smuggled goods) and slew Gong Xia, the senechal of Bai Shek Zhe. Lady Qing, An Gao’s wife, was also gravely injured as she had been in the same room as Gong Xia. A day before the arrival of Bai Shek Zhe, the Claw themselves were attacked by two Jiang Shi. The P’o of Bing An and Xiao Chong angered by betrayal, violent death, and dishonorable burial were encouraged back to life by Yao and sent to wreak vengence on the Claws. The claw drove off the evil demons that night, but the Jiang Shi would return later. Wu Bing also arrived from Ping Shan Village to report that the dead walked the earth, though he had not seen it until this night.
Meanwhile, The Lords council decided to punish the merchants of Ba for profiteering during the wars and smuggling salt. Evidence was discovered of Ba salt being sold both to Chu and Shu to supply their armies and iron works. Bai Shek Zhe descended on Feng Du in a rage, determined to execute every merchant and seize every warehouse. Word of his rage reached Feng Du first and many attempted to empty their warehouses and move all down river to Kui. An Gao shut the river docks down quickly, and only Master Tu was completely successful. After consulting with the Zhou and Qin ambassadors, the council decided to order merchants to mark themselves as they must in the rest of the empire and wear at all times one white shoe and one black shoe with an accompanying conical white hat. Any merchant not garbed in such a manner would be in violation of the King’s law. Lord Bai’s rage was tempered by the words of the Claw, especially Huong Shun and Fu Shang who spoke on behalf of the merchants. What might have been a bloodletting was confined to a few executions and many confiscations.
Lord Bai requested that the claw go to the Village of Leng and look into salt smuggling. Much of the confiscated salt came from Leng according to his scribes and using the Lords council authority, ordered them to Leng. The Claw protested that they must look into the problem in Ping Shan as they had just been attacked by Jiang Shi. Lord Bai insisted that the salt smuggling was more important than investigating superstitious villagers. As Leng is on the way to Ping Shan, they decided to quickly deal with the problem in Leng and move on. Little did they know that they would again see the hand of Yao. Xiao Houzi was nowhere to be found, according to his loyal companion Ju, he went east to get someone and could be found later in Kui.
Leng, they discovered was a dark and dreary mountain village of ramshackle houses and weedy fields. They discovered the lord of Leng, Dan Lai Xiao, was old, feeble, and firmly under the control of his wife the younger Lady Xin Xin. The heir to Leng, Dan Xing Lu, had been gravely wounded in the fighting and was tended by his devoted lover, a Fox Spirit named Fu Xiao. Fu Xiao apparently revealed herself to Fu Sheng when he came to speak with the wounded Lu. Fu Xiao claimed that Xin Xin was really a powerful Demon controlling Lord Dan and was working in concert with a powerful sorcerer who she did not know.
Fu Shang deduced that the Demon’s power must be tied to the Salt mine which was under the dominion of Lord Dan and managed by a man by the name of Tu Qi. They took a decision to stay longer in Leng and investigate the mine.
