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*'''3 Technique''': ''The Music of the Saints''. If you know the Deadly Music Formless technique, any attacks made with it count as selective Area attacks, and those affected always Fear those attacks.  
 
*'''3 Technique''': ''The Music of the Saints''. If you know the Deadly Music Formless technique, any attacks made with it count as selective Area attacks, and those affected always Fear those attacks.  
 
*'''2 Technique''': You learn the ''Effortless Grace'' stance. You have been trained to use your weapon as if it is a natural extension of your very body. Your sword attacks count as being unarmed. This allows you to claim the weapon bonuses of both and to combine different types of styles. If you know multiple Secrets that improve your unarmed fighting, you can only use one at a time; choose at the start of each round which one you’ll use.
 
*'''2 Technique''': You learn the ''Effortless Grace'' stance. You have been trained to use your weapon as if it is a natural extension of your very body. Your sword attacks count as being unarmed. This allows you to claim the weapon bonuses of both and to combine different types of styles. If you know multiple Secrets that improve your unarmed fighting, you can only use one at a time; choose at the start of each round which one you’ll use.
<strike>*'''3 Technique''': You learn the level 3 formless technique ''Brush drawing clouds'', that gives +15 block.</strike>
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*'''3 Technique''': You learn the level 3 formless technique ''Brush drawing clouds'', that gives +15 block.
  
 
====Meng Zhang, The Eastern Saint Beast====
 
====Meng Zhang, The Eastern Saint Beast====
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—'''Zhou Junde''', Master of the White Jade Academy, Falling Leaves Society member, and Martial Sage.
 
—'''Zhou Junde''', Master of the White Jade Academy, Falling Leaves Society member, and Martial Sage.
  
<font face="garamond" size="3">''Ain't no cause of wonder that this place's such a mess. The 'Gates' are to the west; water predominates; a cliff bisects the walls, for heavens' sake! Even a simple initiate in Feng Shui like this one can tell you it means nothin but trouble.''</font><br>
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And who could argue with Master Zhou? Bird's Progress is barely governable, and the Magistrates sent from Jiankiang are ill-disposed to try.
—'''Sister Chun''', Daoist nun of the Bright Clean Waters Temple.
 
 
 
Whether you incline toward the political views of Master Zhou or the more mystical interpretations of Peace-among-Waves, one cannot disagree with the basic fact: Bird's Progress is barely governable. Whatever the true cause, it doesn't help that the Magistrates sent from Jiankiang are ill-disposed to try. In the portions of the city perched atop the cliffs, ''the City Above'', the law is impotent; home to the wealthy and powerful, they are well-insulated from the attentions of the law. And the portions at the foot of the cliffs, ''the City Beneath'', criminality simply does not matter unless it impacts the business interests of those who live above. It is a single city, but it is divided; for the priestly devotees of feng shui, it is the physical division that produces the disorder.
 
  
  
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:*'''3+ Fortune/Treasure''': The small group of architects (known as '''The Blue-Sky Goose Guild''') employed to build the gravity-defying homes in which the wealthy dwell are at the very forefront of their art in Shen Zhou; Daoist principles are married to the bleeding edge of Mohist mathematical studies in order to produce these marvels. You have either come to know one of these architects, or have come into possession of their valuable plans.
 
:*'''3+ Fortune/Treasure''': The small group of architects (known as '''The Blue-Sky Goose Guild''') employed to build the gravity-defying homes in which the wealthy dwell are at the very forefront of their art in Shen Zhou; Daoist principles are married to the bleeding edge of Mohist mathematical studies in order to produce these marvels. You have either come to know one of these architects, or have come into possession of their valuable plans.
  
:'''''Archer's Lament'''''<br>
+
:'''''Golden Bay Overlook'''''<br>
:While it does not quite rise to the standard of the Willow Districts in Magnificent Ink or Notably Picturesque, for sheer spectacle, Archer's Lament, the upper city's Willow District, is hard to match. Like the grand homes of Cloud Happiness, the inns and theaters of the Overlook hang over the vertiginous cliffs, but instead of looking down on the city below, they sit on a promontory over the Bohai Bay itself. At the point where the promontory reaches farthest out into the bay stands a massive statue of the legendary archer Houyi, his bow pointed up into the sky to aim at his beloved Chang'e, whom he cannot bear to shoot though it means she will float away to the moon. The tip of the arrow is in fact a giant lantern, and the statue in fact a (suitably grandiose) lighthouse.
+
:While it does not quite rise to the standard of the Willow Districts in Magnificent Ink or Notably Picturesque, for sheer spectacle, Golden Bay Overlook, the upper city's Willow District, is hard to match. Like the grand homes of Cloud Happiness, the inns and theaters of the Overlook hang over the vertiginous cliffs, but instead of looking down on the city below, they sit on a promontory over the Bohai Bay itself.  
  
 
:'''''Yang's Last Bastion'''''<br>
 
:'''''Yang's Last Bastion'''''<br>
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===The City Beneath===
 
===The City Beneath===
 
'''(2 Destiny)'''
 
'''(2 Destiny)'''
 
Far beneath the grand parties and subtle machinations of the Cloud Happiness District, beneath the graceful beauties of Archer's Lament, beneath the watchful eye of the Last Bastion, the everyday labor of Bird's Progress goes unceasingly on. Goods are moved in and out of Endless Prosperity Gates; merchants haggle over the smallest advantage in Great Open Yamen; and mean and deprived lives get lived out in Plain-Girl's Nest. If you're not well-connected or paid up with the right parties, walking the narrow streets is an exercise in constant watchfulness: pickpockets, short-con artists, and worse can be found almost anywhere—if they're any good, they're right where you're not looking.
 
*'''2+ Status''': You have a reputation in the City Beneath; maybe it stems from your life in the workaday world, or maybe in the underworld, but it will make your life in these environs easier (in proportion to the amount of Status).
 
  
 
:'''''Bixi Gardens'''''<br>
 
:'''''Bixi Gardens'''''<br>
 
:Long before Bird's Progress was a city; before Stone-Conquers-Sea fortress was built upon the cliffs; before there was even a minor fishing village to take advantage of the bay's bounty, there stood a garden of steles standing atop dragon-headed, tortoise-bodied [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi_(mythology) Bixi statues]. None know who built these steles, what they commemorate or who they propitiate or what they ward off; they are marked, but with a strange and ancient script that frustrate the attempts at translation of even the best scholars in all of Shen Zhou. Common folk treat these stele with something approaching reverence, but even the educated tread lightly around them. The district that has grown around this garden is home to many temples and shrines; it's thought that the mystical energies that collect around these monuments.
 
:Long before Bird's Progress was a city; before Stone-Conquers-Sea fortress was built upon the cliffs; before there was even a minor fishing village to take advantage of the bay's bounty, there stood a garden of steles standing atop dragon-headed, tortoise-bodied [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi_(mythology) Bixi statues]. None know who built these steles, what they commemorate or who they propitiate or what they ward off; they are marked, but with a strange and ancient script that frustrate the attempts at translation of even the best scholars in all of Shen Zhou. Common folk treat these stele with something approaching reverence, but even the educated tread lightly around them. The district that has grown around this garden is home to many temples and shrines; it's thought that the mystical energies that collect around these monuments.
  
:'''''Endless Prosperity Gates'''''<br>
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:'''''Endless Prosperity Gate'''''<br>
:If the Great Open Yamen is the city's soul, Cloud Happiness District is its face, and the Grand Docks its mouth (though the aristocrats of Virtuous Poesy might suggest a different orifice ...), Endless Prosperity Gates is its stomach. Warehouses stretch as far as the eye can see, packed to overflowing with goods of all sizes and descriptions. In daylight hours, laborers haul them hither and thither, making the district a veritable beehive; at night, there's also a great deal of activity, albeit of a more surreptitious kind. The Gate doubles as another Willow District, one that serves a meaner class of clientele and features a coarser class of companions than the beauties of Archer's Lament, but that is no less profitable for it (indeed, the opposite is likely true).  
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:If the Great Open Yamen is the city's soul, Cloud Happiness District is its face, and the Grand Docks its mouth (though the aristocrats of Virtuous Poesy might suggest a different orifice ...), Endless Prosperity Gate is its stomach. Warehouses stretch as far as the eye can see, packed to overflowing with goods of all sizes and descriptions. In daylight hours, laborers haul them hither and thither, making the district a veritable beehive; at night, there's also a great deal of activity, albeit of a more surreptitious kind. The Gate doubles as another Willow District, one that serves a meaner class of clientele and features a coarser class of companions than the beauties of Golden Bay Overlook, but that is no less profitable for it (indeed, the opposite is likely true).  
  
 
:'''''Great Open Yamen'''''<br>
 
:'''''Great Open Yamen'''''<br>
 
:Like almost all cities in Shen Zhou, at the very center of Bird's Progress is its walled Yamen, the administrative compound from which the Imperial magistrates exert the influence of the Jin Empire. But whereas every other city's Yamen is fortress of Imperial authority, held fast by power military and civil, the Bird's Progress Yamen is a glorified open air bazaar. Instead of enforcing Imperial law, its magistrates are glorified night watchmen, making sure the merchants' concerns remain secure. It is a perversion of Confucian ideals, and it is the very soul of Bird's Progress.
 
:Like almost all cities in Shen Zhou, at the very center of Bird's Progress is its walled Yamen, the administrative compound from which the Imperial magistrates exert the influence of the Jin Empire. But whereas every other city's Yamen is fortress of Imperial authority, held fast by power military and civil, the Bird's Progress Yamen is a glorified open air bazaar. Instead of enforcing Imperial law, its magistrates are glorified night watchmen, making sure the merchants' concerns remain secure. It is a perversion of Confucian ideals, and it is the very soul of Bird's Progress.
:*'''2+ Involvement''': You have crossed paths with one of the corrupt and venal magistrates of Bird's Progress. Whether they are an enemy, an ally, or an asset, the association will surely continue. Or, who knows? Perhaps you've found the one honest magistrate in Bird's Progress!
 
  
 
:'''''Plain-Girl's Nest'''''<br>
 
:'''''Plain-Girl's Nest'''''<br>
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:'''''Spear Maiden's Purchase'''''<br>
 
:'''''Spear Maiden's Purchase'''''<br>
 
:When the Xiongnu destroyed Stone-Conquers-Sea fortress, the better part of it collapsed onto the marshy ground beneath. When the small fishing village at the base of the cliffs began to grow into a city, it wasn't long before residents took advantage of the now-stable ground to expand. It wasn't long after ''that'' that entrances into the ruined-but-not-destroyed fortress were discovered; while the above-ground district provides a place to live and set up shop (mostly to those who can't abide living in Plain-Girl's Nest but can't afford to live in Virtuous Poesy or Bixi Gardens), the submerged halls beneath have become a kind of distorted mirror image of the great bazaar of Great Open Yamen, where goods and services that cannot be traded in the light of day are up for sale.
 
:When the Xiongnu destroyed Stone-Conquers-Sea fortress, the better part of it collapsed onto the marshy ground beneath. When the small fishing village at the base of the cliffs began to grow into a city, it wasn't long before residents took advantage of the now-stable ground to expand. It wasn't long after ''that'' that entrances into the ruined-but-not-destroyed fortress were discovered; while the above-ground district provides a place to live and set up shop (mostly to those who can't abide living in Plain-Girl's Nest but can't afford to live in Virtuous Poesy or Bixi Gardens), the submerged halls beneath have become a kind of distorted mirror image of the great bazaar of Great Open Yamen, where goods and services that cannot be traded in the light of day are up for sale.
:*'''2 Fortune''': Finding the Looking-Glass Bazaar is all but impossible for those who have not already been led there; you are one of the 'lucky' few who have.  
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:*'''3 Fortune''': Finding the Looking-Glass Bazaar is all but impossible for those who have not already been led there; you are one of the 'lucky' few who have.  
 
:*'''2+ Treasure/Fortune''': You have come into possession of one of the strange treasures (or contracts for service) that are traded in the Looking-Glass Bazaar. Work with your Sage to determine the details.
 
:*'''2+ Treasure/Fortune''': You have come into possession of one of the strange treasures (or contracts for service) that are traded in the Looking-Glass Bazaar. Work with your Sage to determine the details.
  
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===The Grand Docks===
 
===The Grand Docks===
 
'''(2 Destiny)'''
 
'''(2 Destiny)'''
 
Without the Grand Docks, there is no Bird's Progress—or at least no Bird's Progress worth talking about. A magnificent testament to the engineers of the Jin Empire, nowhere under heaven sees more ships, great and small, day and night, arrive and depart. And all the while, new ships are being constantly being built and old ones repaired at the attached shipyard. So while the grasp of imperial authority on the city itself is tenuous, on the docks it is vise-like. The elite Sea Turtle Marines patrol the shipping lanes, fighting a constant battle with pirates; soldiers hand-picked for their incorruptibility patrol the shipyards; and while the tax-assessors might not look too closely at the contents of cargo ships, they will not allow one copper coin of tax to go unpaid.
 

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