Chapter 5 The Trial of the Flower Liches

 The surviving members of the party have escaped with Lil'ling, who is trapped in the body of the Flower Lich, Nightshade.

Josh the monk heroically sacrificed himself in order for the party to escape. However, now they have to survive the city.

When they have run until they are more than breathless, they dash into two poets drinking wine and singing merry songs.

(The party get a good reaction throw.) The two ascetic poets look at the weird assortment of party members with happy laughs and then begin to sing a song.

"The strawberry song: The snow, soft, and low / the forest like a garden / strawberries like blood / meet me by the gate, / well met, well met, Bagicha / at the garden's dusk / on this very night / with a breadth's full of flowers, / got my hint I guess?" (Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival, page 9.)

Then these tow ascetics abruptly run away down the streets of the city.

The party is perplexed by these poets, their strange poetry, and their abrupt disappearance.

Perhaps if they had more time they would be able to interrogate the meaning of the song, however time is short. One of their own, Josh the monk, has sacrificed himself for them, and now they have Lil'ling.

Tu Wang Ping says that they must head straight to the courts.

They, at once, go to the District Judge. 

At his place, the District Judge and his servants are quite perplexed and more than a little perturbed by the appearance of a Flower Lich entering with Tu Wang Ping.

However, both Tu Wang Ping and Lil'ling herself convince the District Judge that she is in fact not Nightshade or any other Flower Lich, but instead a good and genuine-heart lady, Lil'ling, the Sound of White Jasmine herself (It takes a lot of time convincing).

When finally the District Judge is convinced, he is flabbergasted and says that something very wrong is happening here.

Tu Wang Ping replies to that, "Indeed, far more wrong than you can imagine, District Judge. I know of what has transpired and that we require the Flower Lich Trial ritual."

"The what?!" exclaims the District Judge.

"You forget our religious ritual, or superstitious ones," says Tu Wang Ping. "When we put the Flower Liches on trial, the statues and icons of the Gods must attend as well for the Gods to bear witness to what is being said."

The District Judge gulps, "Never have I heard of a City Judge judging a Flower Lich before."

"Then be honored as being the first."

With that statement, the rest of the time remaining in the full day is spent setting up the trial of the Flower Liches in the city magistrate court.

The District Judge presides.

All the temples and shrines are ordered to bring their statues and icons of their Gods, including the Horse God, happily donated by Ping Lung as a thank you to Tu Wang Ping. (For the Islamic mosques, the imams are told to come.)

Hearty and brave messengers are sent to the Temple of the First Light of Dawn to gather Datura, who is furious and contemplates killing the messengers in petty revenge, yet doesn't as she know that it won't help her case.

Messengers are also sent to the House of the Sound of White Jasmine to get Nightshade in the body of Lil'ling after the real Lil'ling and Tu Wang Ping tell about what has transpired.

Nightshade, in the body of Lil'ling, tries to act innocent and confused, yet his venomous soul is enraged by these developments and the fact that he could be destroyed.

The other Flower Liches are contacted and are ordered to make an appearance at the Magistrate court.

All of this comes together when the Magistrate court is packed with a jury of icons, Deity statues, and priests, the District Judge as the judge, the Flower Liches themselves as defendants, and Tu Wang Ping as the prosecutor.

A great crowd amasses in the Magistrate court for such a unique event draws many curious people, eager and more than a little afraid to see the trial of the Flower Liches.

The trial commences with the regular earthly formality, though the presence of the Flower Liches makes it strange and laborious.  

Eventually, after the formalities are done, Tu Wang Ping accuses that Nightshade is in Lil'ling's body and that he and Datura have plotted a birth of a demon lord, interfering with the city outside the dragonboat race thus breaking the Gods' decree that the Liches have no right to interfere with the city and the city has no right to interfere with the race.

Tu Wang Ping tells her tale of investigating the House of the Sound of White Jasmine, of how Lil'ling attacked her and threw her off a cliff, then her investigations about down the riverbed, which led her to the Gulistan of Nightshade (18ter, Curzon Street) where she and her party overheard the magic mouth replaying Nightshade plotting his evil plan.

This led them to Datura's Gulistan where they desperately saved Lil'ling in Nightshade's body, even though it caused the heroic death of Josh the monk.

The District Judge overhears her tale with great amazement. Then he asks Lil'ling, who is in Nightshade's body, if she can prove this. 

Lil'ling nods and says "Yes." She is indeed Lil'ling, only in the body of the revolting Flower Lich, Nightshade.

At this point, the true Lil'ling, the one in Nightshade's body, pleads with the Gods to provide justice in this predicament.

The District Judge is able to determine that this Lil'ling in the body of Nightshade is speaking the truth and is the real Lil'ling.

With this proof of interference done by the mortals and city authorities, Nightshade in Lil'ling's beautiful body snarls horribly and moves to strike Tu Wang Ping in a wild rage.

However, the light in the Magistrate court dims, and bizarre music begins to be played. It appears, at this point, the icons and statues are alive. People in the crowd sputter and shiver as the doors behind them open.

Out of the doors, come Rangda, Leader of the witchcraft working Leyak and the Demon Queen of Bail, who is the God's executioner in the affairs of the Flower Liches.

Datura and Nightshade howl in the newly rediscovered emotion of terror and attempt to flee.

However, Rangda takes them and drags them away to parts unknown (perhaps to live out their new afterlives in the Abyss).

The ambiance of the Magistrate court house then gradually loses its eeriness and the District Judge adjourns the case.

The other Flower Liches are not punished as they have not been found accountable in the case of Lil'ling. They slowly take their leave, to adjudicate their dragonboat race for the remaining days.

Meanwhile Lil'ling is shocked that her beautiful human body has been taken away and now she is left with the ugly, putrid body of Nightshade, the Flower Lich.

Tu Wang Ping, Terry the Terrible, and Shesha are saddened and are so sorry for Lil'ling, now trapped in her predicament.   

At first, Lil'ling is sad, just like the rest of party for her, yet when she thinks about it, she is actually happy with these turns of events. Now that she is in a Flower Lich's body, she does not need to worry about aging or food. She can develop the powers of her new state of being in the attempt to become a 'good' purely benevolent Flower Lich. She asks if Tu Wang Ping will take her as an apprentice.

Tu Wang Ping agrees.

With the apocalypse of the birth of the demon lord thwarted, all there is left to do is solve the mystery of the green leather pouch Tu Wang Ping found one time in the streets of the city during the investigations. 

Investigating the green leather pouch with a pair of black leather drawstrings adorned with tiny gold lotus flowers reveals a tiny silver button engraved with a gaping catfish, a red porcelain spoon, an official stamp of the excise office, and a black pearl. 

The party asks around the city and, believe it or not, it is actually Flower Lich, Lil'ling, who has the street-smarts to trace the items back to their sources.

The silver button belongs to the captain of a trading junk ship, the red porcelain spoon belongs to a wealthy family in town, the stamp come from the excise office, and the black pearl has been fished from a specific pool in a coastal village nearby.

After discovering these sources and returning the items to their rightful owners, except the black pearl which the party keeps, Tu Wang Ping is disappointed that none of the items revealed the trail of a greater mystery.

However, she is not too long disappointed because once the blood-soaked pouch is cleaned and she lays it flat, Tu Wang Ping discovers that there is a map embroidered on the pouch!

Asking her party members for one last adventure, they head out into the scrub-lands nearby the city following the map.

"The map leads deep into the scrub-land, the trail nigh-invisible, crossing over hillock and steep rocky slopes. In this direction from the city, far from the river and its diversions, there are neither hamlets, nor villages, just a barren land of crags and thorns.

At long last, the party comes in sight of their destination: a high barrow mound tipped with a wooden triangle candle-holder, 10 feet high.

There is a tunnel which leads inside, gaping into the darkness." (Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival page, 81).

It seems that this tomb has been ransacked from a few days before, and their is old blood splattered on the floor's dirt. 

Tu Wang Ping enters the tomb, lighting a torch and discovers inside the tomb a splintered skeleton wearing a ragged ceremonial dress, a turban, and chain armour. There are three sword stuck in the ground besides the tomb, one is a good as new casting, a slight, silvery sheen over the place, while the other two are old and rusty.

Tu Wang Ping looks over this scene, gulps and slowly starts walking away. She has known from experience not to trifle with the dead. 

She leaves to rejoin the party she has made, and they leave to get back to the city 5 miles away. 

All in all, after they have thwarted a Flower Liches' nefarious plan to birth a demon lord, they need a chance to rest from adventure without a good personal incentive to guide them. There was the new sword, but by now Tu Wang Ping knows better than to grave rob.

They return to the city in a happy ending.

This has been a great solo play through of Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival and there was a lot of stuff I wasn't able to go through.

I highly recommend Flower Liches to anyone interested.