Played at Jo’s place, Kovan 7th March 2026
Everyone is present
Pre-session downtime with the touchstones He Zhen finds out that his favorite prostitute is developing a opium problem and is opting to sequester her away so that she stops Zhou Haoran sends a bully after his cousin, then comes to teach him to defend himself Moi Yan writes to her mother and talks about possibly being matchmade, she is also invited to chinese new year where she might just have to attend. Yao Li learns one of her touchstones is smoking and opts to continue to monitor via proxies.
Before the day of sacrement
Yao Li and He Zhen make a visit to the priest of taowu.
Yao li went through the basic sermon and meditations
He zhen had a chat with the Tao Wu Priest and mentioned the prophecies of Wu Lian Hua to him. There was a reaction within the priest that he was trying to hide but he zhen noticed and continued to press claiming to help.
The priest Lian Wu Xin, says that the prince came to him for help to defeat a foreign entity, a foreigner that wishes to change shanghai.
Together with, the blood mage, the priest and the prince decided to invoke an ‘other entity’ and each of them paid a price. The priest did not wished to share what he sacrificed, and says its up to Li Xuan to decide what to share. For he was not there at the conclusion of the conflict.
The priest also claimed that the foreign power was trying to manipulate the leylines of shanghai and that foreign thing was a ‘hephendus’.
He bids us to talk to lixuan.
The Day of Sacrement
Everyone except Moi Yan decides to join the temple of tao wu and goes through the initiation where each reaches within themself and struggles against the beast. (hunger frenzy check).
He Zhen’s test was about the fear of losing control
Zhou Haoran’s test was avoiding letting a child see evil
Fille’s test was about not being able to comprehend or understand
Yao Li’s test was about being forgotten
Everyone passes and the next was the initiates for the sacrement
There are many that waited outside, preparing for the result of the test. The following kindred were present:
Fille talks to sophia, and it revolved around clan politics and who is vying for prince. She says that ‘We all should support Madam Meixiu Chanel’ Zhou Haoran talks to Samuel, and asks about the departure of chen wei and whether if he will join him, he claims that there are some in the veil alliance still worth supporting. He then also tells of the rivalry between Wong Ka Ming and Farid, saying that one will leave if the other ascends as priest. Yao Li talks to Wang Yue (before leaving) and and asks her to pledge support to Madam Meixiu Chanel. Moi Yan talks to Helena Smith, helena suspects that Sophia Antonov is the one who set her up to fail. She claims that there was someone who might have ‘talked’ to her surreptitiously to influence her. Moi yan tries to steer helena away from the direction of sophia. He Zhen talks to Hong Yee and talks about politics. Finds out that the position of warlord of shanghai is being contested. General Chu is coming to take over General Lu’s shanghai. Regarding the clans in the veil alliance, he says that the Brujah (红旗 - Hóng Qí) are currently weak (with chen wei’s departure) and that Takahashi Renjiro might be king maker in this scenario. He also claims that Madam Meixiu Chanel and Zhao Li Ling are the prime candidates to contest for prince.
The Sacrement of fire Everybody was invited to witness the ritual where the priest Lian Wu Xin has placed a path of magical fire and the candidates are tasked to walk through it with composure.
Wang Yue was visably hurt from the ordeal Wong Ka Ming was visably clenching her fists through the pain Farid was composed through the fire
The priests bids everyone to return the next day for the announcement of the new priest
The following day the coterie returns to the temple to find Samuel Caldwell claiming that he saw the Prince attack the Tao Wu Priest, when we investigated, we find that the priest’s corpse is desiccated and stained with a green/black substance. Upon reading his diary, we find that he was fearful of the ‘hephendus’ and that the price he paid was blood. He also claims that his blood created ‘this’.
A rush to find the prince ensues, and the clans and the coterie push to find the prince.
We chase the trail through the streets and find he drained a body through the streets of the old city, the trail continues to a mirror shop where we find that it was already visited and there are bodies around. We interrogate a survivor to find that they were killed by men in military gear, their throats slit. Another Faction got here first. We also find that the mirrors are all broken except one, and they are marked with the sigil of the prince marked in green/black blood.
Following the trail again, we find ourselves in zhabei. Finding a boatman waiting to ferry someone across the river guarded by 4 mortal men. They were dispatched, except one who managed to escape. We find that the boatman was holding a dynasty era coin and was ‘paid’ by the prince to carry out a task. The direction of where we needed to go is across the river.
The coterie retires to sleep and escape the rising sun.